Author Archives: james koopmann

Not much has changed as far as my routine goes. Although I have been using some heavier weights and actually tried some semi-heavy singles on my bench. There is still too much instability in my shoulder area, but pain is slowly, very slowly, going away. Hopefully I can concentrate on some different stretching and rehab movements this next 2 weeks.

Back and knee issues are almost gone, found a couple stretching and message techniques that seem to be working. I’m pretty confident deadlifts and squats will be back to normal come January. The best news this week was that I was able to do some fairly heavy deadlifts and box squats for reps and these numbers were very close to normal.

Monday
Deadlifts – 8 sets
Romainian deadlifts – 4 sets
dumbell rows – 5 sets
Hanging leg raises – 4 sets
Wrist curls – 3 sets

Tuesday
side/front/rear lateral raises – 6 sets
Bench – 10 sets
Dips – 5 sets
Military press – 3 sets
Reverse wrist curls - 3 sets

Thursday
Box squat – 8 sets
Barbell curls - 5 sets
Planks - 3 sets
Glute ham raises – 2 sets

Monday
Deadlifts – 8 sets
Romainian deadlifts – 6 sets
dumbell rows – 5 sets
Deadlift static holds – 2 sets

Wednesday
side/front/rear lateral raises – 4 sets
Bench – 7 sets
Dips – 5 sets
Military press – 5 sets
Barbell curls - 5 sets
Reverse wrist curls - 3 sets

Thursday
Box squat – 6 sets
Step-ups – 3 sets
Barbell curls - 5 sets
Planks - 3 sets
Glute ham raises – 2 sets

Friday
front/side/rear lateral raises – 6 sets
Upright rows – 4 sets
Close grip bench press – 5 sets

Body seems to be about at 80%. Shoulder is still giving me issues but is slowly getting stronger without too much pain. I still need to make sure I don’t over do it on the amount of weight I use. Bench is coming up in weight but anything overhead still puts a sharp pain in my left shoulder. Knee is doing better as well, went fairly heavy on the box squats (for high reps) and peraforma issues are subsiding nicely.

I’m getting very anxious to get back into some heavy lifting but am full aware that I can not rush things here or else I’ll be back at stage zero, that would surely zap a lot of my mental strength at this point in the game.

Monday
Deadlifts – 7 sets
barbell rows – 5 sets
deadlift static holds – 4 sets
standing calf raises – 5 sets
barbell curls – 5 sets
planks – 3 sets

Wednesday
side/front/rear lateral raises – 4 sets
Bench – 7 sets
Dips – 5 sets
Military dumbell press – 5 sets

Thursday
Box squat – 7 sets
Anderson good mornings – 5 sets
Hanging leg raises – 5 sets
Barbell curls – 4 sets

Friday
front/side/rear lateral raises – 4 sets
Bench – 6 sets
Dumbell bench press – 5 sets
Dips – 4 sets
Barbell military press – 4 sets

Mostly because rehab is semi-boring, I’ve decided to post just once for last week’s training. I’m thinking I just might keep this format as well, or at least update a single posting throughout the week.

For the most part this week was very good. My shoulder is getting stronger and my knee is showing signs of improvement as well. Lower back is still very tight but peraforma issues have subsided and I’m about 80% in that area. I’m thinking I’ll be doing rehab type work the full month of December still but am getting quite itchy to lift heavy again. Gonna have to control myself and not be premature in bumping up the weight.

Focus has still been on form and mobility in the major lifts, using about 60% of max. Assistance movements on the other hand are a day-to-day decision as to whether to go heavy. My major concern is just to get a full body workout and not neglect any specific area.

Monday
Deadlifts – 5 sets
Pull-ups – 4 sets
RDL – 4 sets
Pull-ups (static holds) – 2 sets
Standing calf raises – 4 sets
DL static holds – 3 sets
Dumbell rows – 3 sets
Barbell curls – 4 sets

Thursday
Side,front,rear lateral raises – 7 sets
Bench – 6 sets
Dumbell bench – 4 sets
Dips – 5 sets

Friday
Box squats – 7 sets
Anderson good mornings – 5 sets
Barbell curls – 4 sets
Hanging leg raises – 4 sets
Wrist curls – 3 sets

Had a bit of pain still in the shoulder. Getting very anxious to lift some heavy weight again. I’m still thinking that it will be another 3 or 4 weeks before I can switch out of rehab mode. Oh well.

I am still concentrating on form while trying to just stay under the number of reps and sets that bring pain back in the shoulder area. For the most part this is somewhere around 4 to 5 reps on bench, 8 on close grip, and nearly non-existent for other work. All these movements are with very low weight, somewhere around 30-40% of max.

As far as exercises, here is what I did:
Front, Side, & Rear lateral raises – 3 sets each
Bench Press (pinky on ring) – 6 sets
Close grip bench – 4 sets
Dips – 5 sets
Barbell Military Press – 5 sets
Front, Side, & Rear lateral raises – 3 sets each

Today was a good day. Thanks to my new Titan knee sleeves I was able to keep my knees warm and actually do some light box squants. Really wouldn’t have been able to do the box squats without them. That being said my knees are not 100% yet but are clearly on the mend. I used about 60% of max and would assume the knees will be back to near full strength by the end of next week.

The box squats were great for working on form, keeping back on my heals, and keeping pressure off my knees. For good mornings I also switched things up a bit and varied my stance (narrow & wide), was happy with how different this effected my posterior.

Well, here is what I ended up doing today:
Box squat – 5 sets
Pull-ups – 5 sets
Anderson good mornings – 6 sets
Barbell curls – 5 sets
Dumbell rows – 5 sets

For warm-ups I did tons of lateral raises and, while people don’t advise this, some stretching, for my shoulders. Had no real pain to speak of during warm-ups and stretching felt real good. All in all today was a good day. I didn’t push any heavy weights yet but the shoulder is getting stronger. Instead, I focused on form and ensuring that both arms were working together and pushing at the same rate of speed, something I’ve never worried about before. My left arm has always lagged behind. When my shoulder does get back to normal I want to be certain that they are working in unison.

As far as exercises, here is what I did:
Bench Press (pinky on ring) – 6 sets
Close grip bench – 4 sets
Dips – 4 sets
Barbell Military Press – 5 sets
Front, Side, & Rear lateral raises – 3 sets each

As mentioned in a previous post, and because of a couple injuries, I’ll be spending some time ~rehabbing. While rehabbing might not be the exact term to use here, I am surely staying away from a squating and deadlifting until my knee bounces back. My focus for the next month or two will be to concentrate on higher rep work and hit neglected areas, slowly bringing up some weak links.

Today was more of a test day, checking out a few things and just getting into a routine of working more areas with more sets. So no posting of poundage or reps. I still haven’t quite decided how many days I’ll be training but am leaning towards a 2-day split and lifting 4 days a week. Going to sleep on that and see just how my body feels tomorrow.

So here is what I did today, was happy I was able to do some good mornings, so at least I’ll be able to keep some leg strength up. I did take it easy on the weight (about 40% of maxes) to make sure my knee didn’t act up. If it doesn’t feel worse tonight or tomorrow I’ll start increasing weights a bit. Also worked in the 10-12 rep range.

Pull-ups – 5 sets
Calf raises – 5 sets
Pull-ups (Static holds) – 2 sets
Barbell rows – 5 sets
Anderson good mornings – 5 sets
Barbell curls – 5 sets
Handing leg raises – 4 sets
Barbell wrist curls – 3 sets