Where I Was and Where I Plan to Go

Inspired by Ben and Forney Get Fat, I’ve decided to open a blog to track my progress recovering from a major shoulder surgery in February 2010.

The History

I dislocated my shoulder early September 2009, rehabbed it myself and dislocated it again doing a handstand back tucks, a very basic gymnastic movement.  A MRI found I had a torn Labrum and I went to Richmond to get surgery from Dr. Chris Young as my shoulder instability couldn’t be fixed without surgery.

Pre-Surgery Stats

• Weight: ~140# (at 5′ 6″)
• Press: 126#
• Backsquat: 280#
• Deadlift: 319#
• Cindy: 23 Rounds
• 2K Row: 7:36
• Landon: 6:05 @ 265#
• Fran: ~5 Minutes (chest to bar)
• 800M Run: 2:38
• Max Pullups: ~25
• Clean & Jerk: 177#
• Snatch: 121# (never maxed)

Training and Status Quo

My training has been limited to box jumps, GHD work, some running, stationary cycling and a few other basic movements. I need to regain full shoulder range of motion before I can start strength training again.  I’m weigh in at a measly 133# now and can’t wait to get back into things.  It’s really frustrating to see yourself get weaker and lose capacity.

The Goals

I’ve always had strong lower body and really great aerobic capacity, but I’ve lacked relative upper body strength, especially around my shoulders.  I want to get to about 150# in weight, maintain my aerobic capacity and have more mass around my shoulders so I feel comfortable with heavier weights.

The Plan

One of my powerlifting buddies, Chris Mason, who owns AtLarge Nutrition, has offered to help me get back into the groove. While I typically eat strict paleo/primal, this won’t work for my stated goals.

Chris suggested eating “25 cals/lb of body weight (minimum) using a macro breakdown of roughly 40/35/25 (protein/carb/fat).”  That’s about 3500 calories and about 700 to 1,000 calories more than I eat per day. It’s also a lot more carbs than I prefer, but I can change after a few months of gain.

Chris also suggested to work with compounds for lower reps to build strength and then include some higher rep pumping exercises for time-under-tension and hypertrophy.  This will be an experiment into how quickly I can build back strength and regain lost mass.  It sounds not-unlike the Starting Strength program we use as a basis for CrossFit Charlottesville programming. The difference being the TUT and high-rep components. When I know the detailed program, I’ll post it and share the results.

I’ll update with weigh ins and measurements periodically.  I expect to be cleared to strength train in about 2 to 3 months.