Cam's Log

[Cam Ogle]

Hi all. Have been lurking a bit lately and wanted to start a log. So here it is. I am 36, a lifelong basketballer, hobby martial artist and athletic endeavour enthusiast. I’ll expand more below but my main reason for joining this forum is to give myself the best chance of the most productive long term training that I can afford my body. Also, I’ve been pretty slack on my mobility/flexibility work lately and am hoping this will provide a nice push and some accountability for me. This forum is kind of like a dream for me though as I see a lot of the training methods I was doing back in the day when I started kung fu coming around again and I think this is great.

Current Training:

3 weights sessions (squats, deadlifts and presses mainly), 2 track (sprint) sessions, 2 jump circuits and a game of basketball.

Main Goals:

Living pain free and able to compete and perform where and when I want to (long term health and longevity).

Establish a consistent daily routine for stretching and mobility (yet to be determined)

Big deadlift and squat numbers.  Splits- both ways. Handstands, front levers and gymnastics type moves (I look at what Roye Goldschmidt does and would love to be able do half what he can do). Jumps and sprints (I plan on being able to dunk into my 40s). Basically strong and flexible.

My current training does not line up completely with my goals but this is something I am looking to transition to over the next 6-12 months.

Other training goals:

I have a mini triathlon planned for Feb/March next year and want to get myself in the kind of shape to be able to accomplish this fairly easily (300m swim, 10k bike, 3k run). My wife is a runner and triathlete and I’ve been sucked into expanding my horizons a little.

Current Injuries:

Recovering from an impact shoulder injury and rectifying an upper back imbalance that has been undiagnosed for most of my adult life. Upper body lifting has been severely restricted the last 3 months or so.

My ankles and knees hate me sometimes and I’m also looking for ways to mitigate these issues before they become problems.

Past Injuries:

Torn hip flexors, snapping scap syndrome, upper back muscle imbalances, cuff/supraspinatus injuries, spinal cord bruising (C2-3), multiple ankle sprains and left ankle avulsion, torn meniscus right knee, patellar tracking problems, long history of lower back pain, shoulder strains, etc. I have hyper mobile joints and pretty much everything clicks, cracks and pops.

Sport History:

I played a high level of basketball up till I was 20 and have played a decent level socially since then till now where I just play with some mates from high school. Martial arts wise I have trained in kung fu (longfist), taekwondo and kickboxing for short periods of time and hapkido for an extended period of time (10 years). I will be adding BJJ in as soon as I have sorted out this shoulder problem.

On a personal note I love martial arts movies (especially the golden era of the 80s and 90s) and never get tired re-watching any of these much to my wife’s disdain.

I’m 193cm and about 92kgs btw.

[Cam Ogle]

07/11/2016- 5.30pm

BW- 93kgs

10 mins hip opening stretches and playing around in bottom of squat to relieve the knees. Worked pretty well.

Squats: bar x 10, 60 x 5, 90 x 3, 115 x 1

belted- 135 x 4, 122.5 x 7, 7

Hip Thrusts: did not do. legs had no juice after squats

Decline Leg Raise: bw x 8, 8, 8

Inverted Row: bw x 10, 8

DB OHP: 10kgs x 10, 10

Resilience work- 

Jefferson Curls- 2x5@10kg

Hanging- 1x60s

Front split rear knee taps- 1x10 each side

Legs were ridiculously tight all day. Loosened up nicely after the hip openers and some time in the bottom of the squat. Squats felt really good and had additional ROM without even trying. The sets of 7 are hard!!! It feels fantastic but I have to sit for a minute after each set to catch my breath. 

Went slowly on the upper body stuff. Stopped the rows when I felt my left scap winging and still had some pain on the DB presses. I had an ultrasound and an x-ray on Friday on my left shoulder. There's pain during some overhead movements right where the delt meets the arm and I'm certain it's related to something further up the chain. Will see if there's anything more sinister tomorrow morning when I get the results. 

I post my main lifts to my IG if you care to check it out. Please feel free to provide feedback as that's what I'm here for.

https://www.instagram.com/pretty_fly_for_a_life_guy/

[DavidGrey]

Welcome Cam! Looking forward to reading more!

5 minutes ago, Cam Ogle said:

I have to sit for a minute after each set to catch my breath. 

One of my teachers will not let us sit in class no matter how f*cked we are! We have to take a “Paleo Chair”, i.e squat more

*Edit* That is a resting squat. I am not telling you to lift more

 

 

[Cam Ogle]

11 minutes ago, DavidGrey said:

Welcome Cam! Looking forward to reading more!

One of my teachers will not let us sit in class no matter how f*cked we are! We have to take a “Paleo Chair”, i.e squat more

*Edit* That is a resting squat. I am not telling you to lift more

 

 

Cheers. Thanks David. 

Haha. That's a good point. More time spent down there can't be a bad thing. 

[Nathan]

11 hours ago, Cam Ogle said:

Resilience work

I like that

I see you have your own espresso machine? You're going to fit in just fine here... 

Also, curious... what's the app you use to track your sprints?

[Cam Ogle]

11 minutes ago, Nathan said:

I like that

I see you have your own espresso machine? You're going to fit in just fine here... 

Also, curious... what's the app you use to track your sprints?

Haha. Two machines at home and one at work lol. I see you're in Japan. How do you go with coffee over there?

It's just the basic Garmin watch software. The tracking can be a bit off sometimes but at least I can gauge my progress from the speeds I reach on each sprint. 

[Nathan]

I mostly buy my own beans and do pour over. Visited Australia for a workshop with Kit last year around this time - had some excellent espresso there. Lots of bright acidity, very fruity. Haven't been able to find anything comparable here in Japan. Espresso all tends to be very dark and bitter. (I tend to prefer lighter roasts.)

Garmin! I see... my Withings pedometer hit the dust recently. I think I'm done with pedometers, but I still use my iPhone to track occasional sprints. Would be nice to have a watch or something so that I could leave the phone at home. Not sure I can justify spending much since sprints are not really a focus, though!

[Cam Ogle]

16 hours ago, Nathan said:

I mostly buy my own beans and do pour over. Visited Australia for a workshop with Kit last year around this time - had some excellent espresso there. Lots of bright acidity, very fruity. Haven't been able to find anything comparable here in Japan. Espresso all tends to be very dark and bitter. (I tend to prefer lighter roasts.)

Garmin! I see... my Withings pedometer hit the dust recently. I think I'm done with pedometers, but I still use my iPhone to track occasional sprints. Would be nice to have a watch or something so that I could leave the phone at home. Not sure I can justify spending much since sprints are not really a focus, though!

Nice. I like the idea of the pour over but I'm much more efficient with a manual machine.  I love the new wave of coffee roasters and we're blessed in Melbourne with the variety. It's almost like a wine tasting when you go to cafes these days. On the regular I drink the dark and bitter stuff though. It's a legacy from my old man. 

 

I used to use the phone too. I still do actually for video feedback which is cool and demoralising at the same time. The only reason I have a watch is that my wife bought one and decided it wouldn't do what she wanted so offered it up to me. It's nice to track but realistically for sprints a stopwatch is probably more useful anyway. I've looked at getting a better watch but like you, just can't justify the cost. 

[Cam Ogle]

08/11/16

Shoulder rehab work which includes: band PUs, ext & int rotations, banded wall slides and some SMR

Spent 5 minutes working on the pancake or the straddle as my son calls it. Had some nice progress but my left hip ended up cramping up at the end which stayed with me all night. 

Sat in a squat for 2 mins. 

Trying to get at least 5 minutes of pancake work each night. I will take some pictures this week for a starting point of the splits (both ways) and pancake. 

[Cam Ogle]

09/11/16- 2pm
bw- 92.7

3 x strides
SL Supine Bridge  x 10 
Knee to Elbow WL x 10 
Knee to rear foot WL x10 
Walking Spiderman x 10 
Reverse WL with posterolateral Reach x10 
Straight Leg skip 
Rudiment Hops (all legs) 
DL hops (3x10) 
L/R leg bounds (2x5) 
Alternating leg bounds (2x10) 
Speed Bounds 
5x20m sprint   
3x40m sprint   
3xflying 30m sprint 
2x60m sprint 
2x2x150m 2x150
1x300 TT sprint/stride- 43 seconds for about 270m. Was completely buggered. 
 

Some lower back/hip tightness following sprints. Have also had some decent knee pain right below the knee cap this week. Both knees but worse on left. Need to get some work on the legs and lats in tonight. 

[Cam Ogle]

Have had some serious lower back tightness this week which I have not experience for some years. Interesting though reading through some other posts where Kit mentions doing pancake work on the floor can be felt more through the lower back and this is exactly what I was doing on Monday and Tuesday nights this week. Suggested modification was to sit on a block to elevate the hips and get a better stretch in the right places. I'm going to give this a try as a remedy for the situation. 

[Nathan]

Particularly true if you're having trouble getting the movement from the pelvis since it's so easy to compensate by bending the back instead. You can even do your pancake work from a standing position, and this may be enough depending on your current level of flexibility. I still like to start in a standing position often as a nice active "warm up" before moving to the floor.

[Cam Ogle]

27 minutes ago, Nathan said:

Particularly true if you're having trouble getting the movement from the pelvis since it's so easy to compensate by bending the back instead. You can even do your pancake work from a standing position, and this may be enough depending on your current level of flexibility. I still like to start in a standing position often as a nice active "warm up" before moving to the floor.

Yes that pretty much sounds exactly like what I'm doing. Probably trying to do too much too soon as well.

That sounds like a good way to go though. I'll give it a try starting from standing and moving to the ground and see how I go.

Cheers.. 

[Cam Ogle]

13/11/16

Had a corporate golf day this morning. Walked a beautiful golf course in 24 degree sunshine. Just glorious. Ended up being just over 12km walk all up. 

The week had partially gotten away from me but still needed to squat or something Friday night. 

Squats- bar x 10, 60 x 5, 100 x 5, belted- 125 x 3, 145 x 1

Front Squat- belted- 130 x 1

Didn't have time for anything else post back squats so decided to give front squats a go. Last time I front squatted was December or January for 125 without a belt so I was kinda confident in 130. It was struggle street but I got there...eventually. 

 

Weekly Summary- 

Didn't have the most complete week. I have been squatting 3 times a week and will drop that back to two from here on out. Just finding it too hard on the body to recover. I like the idea of adding in purposeful stretching days so will look into adding in one or two in the next couple of weeks.  

Have also been thinking on my flexibility goals and front and side splits are definitely the top two. Thinking of purchasing the master the pancake videos as I would assume a full pancake would translate to the side splits but probably not the other way. Also, with a few weeks of consistent training I'm never far away from a front split so don't think this is where I'll get the most resistance. 

[Nathan]

A full pancake won't give you side splits, but it will definitely help. It will probably come more quickly than full side splits too, so there's that. A full side splits will allow you to roll forward and fake a pancake  Either way, Master the Pancake has some side splits stretching in there, so you can't really go wrong with that. Olivia has relevant programs (Slow-Flow and some front splits prep. stretches) on the Vimeo feed too.

[Cam Ogle]

49 minutes ago, Nathan said:

A full pancake won't give you side splits, but it will definitely help. It will probably come more quickly than full side splits too, so there's that. A full side splits will allow you to roll forward and fake a pancake  Either way, Master the Pancake has some side splits stretching in there, so you can't really go wrong with that. Olivia has relevant programs (Slow-Flow and some front splits prep. stretches) on the Vimeo feed too.

That's what I was hoping. Thanks for that. 

Yes I saw the front splits prep videos so that's probably the next step if I'm not lucky enough to get it simultaneously. 

[Cam Ogle]

14/11/16- 6pm

Banded ankle dorsiflexion, banded hip flexor, pigeon stretch

Squats- bar x 10, 60 x 5, 100 x 3, 115 x 1

belted- 137.5 x 4, 125 x 7, 7- these are all time PRs for me so getting into good territory right now

DB SL DL to Press- 10kg x 10, 10

Decline Leg Raise- bw x 5 centre, 5 left, 5 right

DB Incline Bench- 15kg x 15, 10

Ring Chins- bw x 5, 4

Interesting training session. I thought the squats were going to be harder that what they were. This is starting to feel pretty good when the sets of 7 are becoming easier. Breathing during squats is getting much easier too. End year goal is 160 and it frightens the shit out of me to be doing sets of 7 @ 135 (85%). It's only another 10kgs though so hey, why not. 

DB incline bench felt great. Chins...well I haven't really been doing them so I'll take it. The shoulder is still taking some work to get right and I really need to up the rehab on it. Have been slacking. 
 

[Cam Ogle]

15/11/2016

 

Shoulder Rehab-

banded pull aparts 4x10

banded low row 4x10

external rotation 3x10

internal rotation 3x10

banded wall slides 3x10

iso hold with extension 2.5kg x 10s x 8

 

pec golf ball work, lacrosse ball in upper back/shoulder, foam rolled lats

 

Daily mob work-  

Wall HipFlexor Mobilization 2x10

Scapular Wallslides 2x10

Quadruped Extension Rotation 2x10

Knee Break Ankle Mobilization and Dorsiflexion 2x10

Cossack Squat 2x10

Shrimp Squat 2x10

 

Spent some decent time stretching the hip flexors too (my definition of decent may be lacking at this time though ). Body felt pretty great after all this. Decided to do some flexibility tests. Front splits both sides, pancake and pike. All felt ok but when I went to the instant replay they were pretty ordinary.  At least I've got a starting point to work from.

[Cam Ogle]

So here's my starting point from the other night. I know I'm not that inflexible but always thought I had more flexibility when I wonder if it was always just a really good ability to round my upper back. At least I know where I stand and can work on it from here. Will be getting the pancake system over the weekend and will get cracking on that. 

http://imgur.com/5zRkxma

http://imgur.com/CI24r5P

http://imgur.com/xIqDdOd

http://imgur.com/hIrUiYe

And yes that's my son watching Kubo and the Two Strings in the background. Beautiful movie. 

[Nathan]

4 hours ago, Cam Ogle said:

Kubo and the Two Strings

Cool, hadn't heard of that one. Lots of movies that don't make their way over here. This one probably has a 50/50 chance.

Not a bad starting point! Definitely a lot of the forward bending coming from the back, but that's pretty standard for most. Getting the movement from the pelvis isn't very intuitive for most, but it will completely change the stretches.

[Cam Ogle]

2 hours ago, Nathan said:

Cool, hadn't heard of that one. Lots of movies that don't make their way over here. This one probably has a 50/50 chance.

Not a bad starting point! Definitely a lot of the forward bending coming from the back, but that's pretty standard for most. Getting the movement from the pelvis isn't very intuitive for most, but it will completely change the stretches.

Hopefully it does. It did not do well at the box office though so you have to find it online.   

Thanks for the feedback. I believe I know the feeling of moving from the pelvis and also believe I haven't done it in the past as it makes the stretches much more difficult. 

[Nathan]

1 hour ago, Cam Ogle said:

it makes the stretches much more difficult. 

Or you could say more potent...

It's really pretty much the same as lifting with proper/improper form. It's not that improper form is inherently bad, but it's not training what you want to train and since it is placing the stress on different structures (without the intent to train those structures) it's much easier to cause injuries. If you do want to train those different structures, there are usually much better (more efficient) ways than using improper form with a movement meant to target something else. So proper form is really about getting the most out of your training. And yes, a higher level of perceived difficulty is unfortunately a common side effect 

(I'm sure you know all of this, so I'm not sure who that was for really... a reminder for myself maybe )

[Cam Ogle]

5 hours ago, Nathan said:

Or you could say more potent...

It's really pretty much the same as lifting with proper/improper form. It's not that improper form is inherently bad, but it's not training what you want to train and since it is placing the stress on different structures (without the intent to train those structures) it's much easier to cause injuries. If you do want to train those different structures, there are usually much better (more efficient) ways than using improper form with a movement meant to target something else. So proper form is really about getting the most out of your training. And yes, a higher level of perceived difficulty is unfortunately a common side effect 

(I'm sure you know all of this, so I'm not sure who that was for really... a reminder for myself maybe )

No mate this is absolutely spot on and something that I never really picked up with regards to stretching. It was a no brainer for me with lifting form but stretching seemed to miss the mark.  I remember doing wushu back in the day and always getting told to put my chin and not my forehead on my toe but it never really clicked. Language barrier perhaps. 

It's actually a good wake up call/reminder for me as, if I want to improve, then I require the more "potent" version . Just need to remind myself that although it may look like it's a step backwards I'm actually moving forward. 

[Cam Ogle]

17/11/16- 6.30pm

Super quick warm up (like 4 mins)

 

Squats- bar x 10, 60 x 5, 100 x 5

belted- 125 x 3, 147.5 x 1  PR!!!

 

DB Incline Press- 15 x 10, 10, 10

Incline Row- bw x 10, 10, 10

 

Resilience Training

Red band tricep pushdown x 20, 20

BB Curl- bar x 20, 20

Hanging- 30s x 2

 

Official all time PR on squats. Felt solid but hard. Would normally have another day of rest after ball but work is full on tomorrow and I have no time Sat so today was the day. Was almost tempted to go for 150 but there's no rush. Next week will do.

[Cam Ogle]

Getting some serious knee soreness in my left knee. It’s kind of snuck up on me the last two weeks or so and happens at full extension, hyper extension in my situation, but still hangs around for longer than I’d like it to. Even though 150 was in line for this week. I’m going to park the ego and deload. I think that’s the smartest long term move.

 

Will spend the week making sure the quads, HFs and hams are all nice and loose, do some single leg work and maybe squat later in the week depending on feel. It’s been 8-10 weeks of squatting 2-3 times per week so no doubt due for a bit of a break.

 

Also, I’ve been figjamming over my squat progress so much that I’ve put any real shoulder rehab work on the back burner. Time to bring that back into focus and get this body moving well again.