After typing that title, I have to laugh. After training for 36 years it occurred to me that getting HYUGE has been my goal for 36 years and at 50 years old, I'm never going to get there. However, I will go to my grave with the same physique goal.
I was put through a physical assessment by Dr. Fragiskakis (does it get any more Greek than that??) last Friday. He concluded that I have zero weakness and no imbalances from my left side to my right side. The only thing he could find was a slight regression external rotation of my hip that was only 5-10 degrees. After not stretching for the last few months, I am not at all surprised by this and it can be rectified within a couple of weeks.
How apropos that this assessment comes less than a week before Masters Nationals. On the one hand, I was excited to get the news. On the other, I was reminded that I should be on stage in less than a week. The situation is what it is and I have no control over it, so I have no choice but to focus on the positive and move forward.
My wife and I leave for Colorado to see the kids in about 4 weeks. I plan to step on the gas when I get back from Colorado, and I will be slowly breaking back into squatting and leg pressing over the next 4 weeks before I leave. When I get back, my primary focus for the next year will be to build these legs as much and as fast as I possibly can.
I have had plenty of time to put together a game-plan for my leg training and have settled on a training rotation that allows me to train legs every 5 days for 6 weeks at a time. I will then deload/cruise for a week with total rest and go back at it for another 6 weeks. I will do this until my legs no longer allow me to close my car door OR until the end of December 2021 -- whichever comes first.
I reflected back on my past training years and noticed that some of my best gains for my legs were acquired doing higher reps to failure. It was brutal and I really wanted my data to be wrong but it wasn't. Training to failure doing high reps is horrible but it works well for me, so that is the plan at least to start.
I am in the process of slowly increasing my calories right now so that I don't put on too much weight, too quickly. I am holding quite a bit of strength and outside of my hip issue the last few months, I have no other nagging issues either major or minor. My training is going very well and overall I feel great. I likely will not train in Colorado so that I can have a full week of rest before returning to training, and my focus will be on spending time with my kids, anyway, so this works out great.
I was flattered by the outpouring of support while dealing with this partial rupture. I appreciate every message I received, so if you messaged me, just know that I appreciated it. If you didn't message me, fuck you.
I don't know about any of you, but I can't wait to put 2020 in my rearview mirror.
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