cha59's log

Knee: Nothing particularly interesting to report about my progress, aside from the bad knee slowly improving every day and still being quite a ways from being able to train hard, but I can walk ok and I can go up stairs ok. I still cant go down stairs very well, but I can do it now. Band stomps seem to be the best thing I am doing to this point.

Elbow: 1/17 will be six weeks after the elbow PRP, so I will probably start light pressing then.

1/13 - Mrs. Cha did something amazing today. She did bench only in a sanctioned XPC meet in her Mendy band shirt. This was a last second decision to do this meet. The meet was in Fargo. Knowing that some XPC meets allow band shirts, she looked at this meet last September, and it said raw & single ply only, so she did not give it another thought.

She got the band shirt in mid August last year when we visited Mendy's gym. She pressed 429 off 1 board in it there while being coached by Priest Burdette and Scot Mendleson (see post 7723 above).

After that, she did a meet in October in polyester, and had no meets on the horizon that allow band shirts, so she only trained in this shirt once last August, and she had never touched in it. Fast forward to earlier this week. My teammate Fred, who was judging at the meet today, talked to the meet director. Meet director said he would allow band shirt lifters as bench only, but he would not have a monolift, so there would be no full power multiply. Fred got all excited and told Mrs Cha that she is in the meet. We had a birthday party planned meet day, and she had not been training in this shirt at all, so we said no.

Fred talked her into seeing if she could touch and press something in this shirt Wednesday. She easily pressed 325 (touching was a bit difficult), then smoked 345 and also did 350. She signed up for the meet Thursday. I guess we are going to Fargo, lol.

Mrs Cha is 57. Before today, according to openpowerlifting.org, the biggest bench press for any woman 55-59 was 355 lbs. This includes all weight classes and all federations. https://www.openpowerlifting.org/ranking...

Mrs Cha opened with 330 and smoked it - 3 white lights.

We decided to attempt 363 next, and if she got that she would jump all the way to 402. She touched it well, and it came up off her chest fine, but she pulled the bar sideways to the right and she could not lock out the right side because of that.

363 3rd attempt- 3 white lights - woohoo!!!
https://rumble.com/v46umsx-lisa-363-lb-b...

Longer video from different angle: https://rumble.com/v46usgw-lisa-363-benc...

Awesome stuff. Glad you're still kicking around.

Thanks, I really appreciate the kind words. 😀

wow, incredible. well done Mrs Cha

what kind of training are you managing to do right now Mr Cha? (or....maybe you should be Mrs Cha's sidekick after that!)

Whoaaaaaaa. That is really impressive!!! Yay Mrs. Cha!

Thanks!!

lol, yeah.

I did coach her & write her programs for several years, then we hired Daniel Tinajero (one of, if not the best geared lifter coach in the world imo) to coach her for a couple different 4 month periods. Daniel thinks a lot like I do, but he gets deeper into everything because he does it for a living, and he is very smart. He really cares about all of his clients, so he does a fantastic job. We both learned a lot and now she programs herself rather than having me do it for her. I still coach her form though. I highly recommend Daniel to anyone who wants to compete in the sport, raw or geared.

Your timing is perfect in asking that question, as I have a few minutes, and a lot has happened the past week.

I did a lot of band stomps, some adductor & abductor machine stuff, some hamstring stuff, lots of eccentric tricep stuff (no pressing though), and a variety of little things here & there that would help my core, knee and elbow. I think band stomps have been the best thing for my knee yet.

I reread Mike Robertson's program, Bulletproof Knees and got general ideas from that. I had read it about 13 or 14 years ago.

I am always looking for ideas for rehab or prehab stuff, and I try things I think might work and get rid of anything that feels or seems bad.

I have done a lot of little things that my PT recommends, and I usually come up with my own variation of exercises based on things I learn from her, my doc (he lifts with me every Wed. - I coach him), and I get input from my chiro and my teammate who is a chiro. I am very lucky to have become friends with a lot of extremely smart and talented medical people who have a great understanding of what I do and who I am. I'm basically always either being watched by, or can make contact within hours or even minutes, with someone who knows more than me if I have questions about what I should or should not be doing.

I made a couple big progressions within the past few days.

1/17 was six weeks after the PRP elbow injections, so I had the green light from doc to start pressing light stuff. "Start low, go slow" is what he always says to me. He was there while I was trying a bunch of pressing stuff. I did:

1 arm cable presses
standing cable lifts
blast strap pushups
blast strap scapular pushups
1 arm DB press
blast strap rows
cable pulldowns
band stomps
air squats to a box
probably some other stuff I cant remember off the top of my head

My right shoulder has been shitty lately from leaning on crutches, then on a cane. Doc and chiro and PT helped me figure out I had badly jacked up right subscap, infraspinatus, teres minor and the posterior part of my serratus anterior. Chiro and PT did a whole bunch of stuff to help improve those areas of the right shoulder, and several of the above exercises worked on those things too. The cable lift is somewhat similar to a therapy exercise my PT showed me. I recorded a video and sent it to her asking if this was good for me and she loved it.

My pecs got DOMS like I had not had in a very long time after that workout, and my elbow felt great.

Oh yeah, a guy that I have been coaching was doing some DLs, and when I was explaining something to him, I bent down and picked it up to demonstrate something. It felt very good - nothing in the knee - so I did a few more. I think I did 185*3 and 235 * 1.

1/19
I did a bunch of warmup stuff and then DLs
135x1x3
225x1x3
275x1x???
315x1x4
The only thing that hurt was the skin on my shin where the knurling hit my leg.

I did a little bit of RDLs and some other very light stuff.

1/21
I warmed up good, including something I never used to do - tricep activation stuff, then I bench pressed. I had zero expectations. I was just thinking the whole time about what doc told me to pay attention to: I should stop pressing if I feel any kind of sharp pain in the left elbow/triceps tendon area.

I did all this off my chest in elbow sleeves:
55x15
105x10
145x10
185x5
225x3
275x2
No elbow/triceps pain at all - it felt the best it has since even before I fell on the elbow back in last May I think. I figured I would try some geared stuff.

F8 insert
315x3

3 boards
new used Inzer band shirt - this thing is a BEAST. Its triple ply and it weighs about 25 lbs I think (maybe exaggerating a little). A friend of mine gave it to me because he had shoulder replacement surgery and cant bench anymore. Its a really nice shirt. It fits my arms very loose, but it fits my chest well & I did not know if I could move a light weight down far in this thing, so that's why I used 3 boards.
435x3 - easy and no pain at all.

I wanted to compare that 3 ply Inzer shirt to a new/used F8 I got that has a nice thick collar, and is much tighter than the Inzer. I figured I needed more weight.
465x3 - easy, no pain

I kept the F8 on and did 505x3 to a 2 board. Still zero pain. I figured my elbows were plenty warm, so I took the sleeves off. 505x3 - still zero pain! Huge success!

I did some light pulling stuff, some chaos pushups, light triceps stuff, face pulls, and called it a day.

Elbow still feels great today. What is really great right now is I have more pain free ROM than I did prior to when I fell on the elbow. I think the tendon was already damaged quite a bit when I fell on it back ~7-8 months or so ago. It feels better than I can remember right now.

Knee continues to improve daily. I dont need the cane anymore and I can walk almost normal. Going up stairs is fine, but coming down stairs is still a bit sketchy, and I still feel like I am a long way from doing any heavy squat training. Maybe I can start training competitively for bench only or push-pull soon though.

I really dont want to compete in a lift that I cant do very well by my own standards, like have a shot at a PR or a national record or a world record or something. I'd really like to do a band shirt meet someday relatively soon, but I wont be breaking any records like my wife did. The dude who has the 55-59 unlimited (band shirts allowed) bench record pressed 1140! And this guy is my size and age too. I wont ever be able to top that, but I have an outside shot at a WR if I can do unlimited in a full meet if my knee comes back better than it was before. IPA & XPC do unlimited right now, so I will be looking at doing one of those at some point in the future. XPC nationals is in Fargo in November - I'd be happy if I can lift well by then.

Thanks!!!

I've neglected my log for too long. Lots has happened.

Some Russian woman beat Mrs Cha's 55+ ATWR by pressing 375.

My knee has improved, but isn't great.

Mrs Cha & I decided to enter a Metal Militia push-pull meet in Seward, NE on Saturday, May 25. MM allows band shirts. This was an opportunity for me to do my first band shirt meet and break some push pull records, as well as all the MM age/body weight related WRs. It was an opportunity for Mrs Cha to bench the most of any woman 55+ in a meet ever, all federations, all weight classes.

I modified my best band shirt by having the insert stitched in so that its a 3 ply shirt. In addition, I came up with the idea to stitch knee sleeves into the sleeves so that the sleeves would stay in place (they are way too big otherwise). I call it my Frankenstein shirt.

The Frankenstein shirt worked great. I could touch and press between 685 and 725 cleanly in the gym with it. The 725 looked really good - so good in fact, that the GOAT, Ed Coan told me it looked perfect (more on that later).

https://rumble.com/v5628mc-725-lb-bench-... - PR

I was able to pull a clean 595 conventional in the gym. Modified sumo still seems to bother the knee, but conventional doesn't. I went into the meet expecting to attempt 685/725/750 and 550/606/656. I was expected to go 6/9 or better. 1300+ total would put me at #1 McCulloch score all time, all ages at 275. 1406 would put me at #2 all time all weight classes for 55+.

The guy running the meet was super nice. He bought 60 lbs of angus ribeyes and cooked them for all participants the night of weigh ins. He is a guy who has benched over 1,000 in a meet. He understands what its like to move big weight.

I did not have my team with me to spot. I had one guy do the middle handoff, but he has to step away after the handoff, so I was at the mercy of whoever was side spotting. The meet director said guys he lifts with would do the spotting. Ok, I figured I'd be in good hands..... nope.

Warmups went fine. I did my raw stuff, then put on a loose band shirt for 505 off 2 boards & smoked it. Then I put on my Frankenstein shirt and smoked 605 off two boards.

When it came time to do my 685 opener, the side spotters from my warmups were now side judges, and he had six guys, mostly high school kids, spotting the sides - 3 on each side. I should have refused to get under the bar. The handoff was a little goofy - they pulled me up a bit and kind of dumped the bar on me. It forced my wrists to cock back a bit. Not the worst handoff I have had, but I should have stopped there. I figured at the time I would just straighten my wrists as I started to lower the bar. Bad idea.

As I straightened my wrists, the bar rolled forward and I could not stop it. It rolled over my right thumb and down my right forearm. On the left side, my fingers stayed under the bar, basically turning this into a 685 lb one arm tricep extension. That ended poorly, with my triceps ripping off the bone. The bar crashed onto the face savers. The side spotters were afraid of the weight. They watched this happen, then they picked it up off the face savers.

When I got up, the meet director asked me if I was ok. I said I didn't know. It didn't take long for me to figure that out. I reached over and felt the back on my left arm. The triceps were gone. I knew that instant what had happened. Then I tried using my right thumb. It bent sideways at the 2nd knuckle when I tried using it. The left thumb hurt too. I was done.

https://rumble.com/v56269g-bad-injuries....

Mrs Cha went 2/3 and pressed 380 for her ATWR. That saved the day. But we knew I was ****ed up. I talked to my doc friend and my daughter (she's a doc of pharmacy, but knowledgeable about medical stuff). They told me to go to the ER. The ER at some hospital in Lincoln, NE got me in quickly (that was nice) and examined me. They put sort of a hard cast brace thing on my left arm and my right thumb & prescribed some good pain meds. Then we made the ~7 hour drive home. Fun.

I went to an orthopedic urgent care the next day. They treated me like a rock star. They got me appointments for MRIs on the right thumb & left arm, and got me an appointment with their best hand surgeon a few days later. My right triceps tendon tore off the bone and it was a pretty clean tear. My right thumb UCL was also fully torn - a clean tear as well, and the joint capsule was all torn up.

They called the thumb injuries "gamekeeper's thumb". These are much worse injuries than the triceps, and they have a low percent chance (something like only 30% chance) of full recovery. Thankfully, because I got them repaired quickly by a very skilled doc, he says I should make a full recovery.

I had surgery on the right thumb and left elbow Thursday May 30, only 5 days after the injuries. Getting stuff like this repaired in under a week is optimal. The day prior to surgery, my doc friend came to my house and examined my left thumb with his portable ultrasound device. He said my left thumb UCL was also fully torn and would eventually need to be repaired. They typically don't repair both thumbs at the same time because being thumbless sucks really bad.

The left triceps & right thumb should take about 3 months or so to heal, so they're maybe halfway there now, but they both still suck now. I decided to have surgery on the left thumb last Monday, 7/1 because surgery gets more difficult if you wait much over 1 month after this kind of injury. Its still in the hard brace until Wednesday this week. The right thumb has a removable plastic brace and the left arm has an adjustable brace. My only PT right now is bending the left elbow 60 reps a day. I've been increasing the ROM 10 degrees a week.

6/15

Ed Coan seminar

Mrs Cha & I went to an Ed Coan seminar. Only about 20 people were allowed to do it. Very cool. Ed watched as everyone lifted and gave tips, then he had Q & A at the end. He's a very nice guy, very knowledgeable, down to earth and friendly.

Ed gave Mrs Cha a few tips on squatting, one on benching (her bench is almost perfect), and DLing. It was mostly stuff I would not have thought of.

Since I could not lift, I showed him videos of my 725 lb bench (see above), and two of my best meet DLs. When I showed him the bench video, he said it looked perfect. 😀 He did not want to see the video of my injury.

When I showed him my meet PR DL video, he said, "I've seen you DL on video before". Then he said the DLs looked great. 😀

If you are into powerlifting at all, and if you have the opportunity to attend one of Ed's seminars, I highly recommend doing it.

Pretty brutal man! Tough video to watch. I’m surprised you didn’t have some cracked ribs as well. Hopefully you are back to lifting soon. Congrats to Mrs Cha!

That sounds terrible and a huge fail on the meet's part for failing to staff it with spotters who knew what they were doing. Wishing you a speedy recovery.

Bonkers weights and inexperienced spotters does sound ridiculous. Hope you recover quickly.

Thanks! If not for the face savers, I would have been dead. Maybe without those I would have not gotten under that bar. I will never get under a heavy bar again without having side spotters that I know and trust.

Thanks!

I agree. Lots of weird things happened to line up that made it so he had no good spotters there. I like the meet director, and I understand why what happened, did happen. But I won't be doing a meet there again. Its kind of in the middle of nowhere. Some great lifters that were going to do it pulled out, and several potential great spotters didn't make it there for a variety of reasons.

Thanks!

J F C

I'm glad it seems you are ok and will be able to recover well. That was...horrible.

Thanks man.

As Ving Rhames said in Pulp Fiction when Bruce Willis asks if he's ok: "Naw, man. I'm pretty f*cking far from ok."

But I am alive, and I am improving.

I'm posting today because I got some good news yesterday.

Between my last post and yesterday, I saw a hand therapist twice. She gave me several very time consuming exercises to do. I have been doing them. They are mostly range of motion type stuff. They have not helped much, but it is good to keep moving. She basically told me to exert no force with my left triceps and exert almost no force with my thumbs.

The two things that have helped the most so far were:
1 - seeing my regular PT who did MAT on my right thumb for an hour on July 11. Immediately after she worked on me, the range of motion in the thumb increased pretty substantially, and it has slightly improved since.
2 - I have an acupen device. I've been using it quite a bit on both hands and thumbs. This is slowly increasing strength and ROM better than the lame exercises that the hand therapist has me doing.

Yesterday, 8/7, I saw the surgeon's personal PA. Great news! He says I probably do not need any more hand therapy visits, and I probably do not need any more surgeon visits. They are basically finished with me.

He did tell me to keep doing ROM exercises, but said that I know what to do going forward, so just pay attention to my body and do whatever seems right. I asked a lot of questions about specifics, and everything he said made sense. I need to avoid jolting the triceps, and I need to avoid sideways force with both thumbs, especially the left one, as it is several weeks from being ready to be used much.

PA said I can get PRP injections in my right thumb and left triceps anytime now. He said I should wait about another month to get PRP in my left thumb. I need to talk with regenerative doc friend about scheduling that now.

PA says I can bench press if it feels good. I tried benching the bar last night for a few reps. The triceps can handle it fine. The left hand did not feel good. The area where the bar sits between the left thumb and index finger has a lot of muscular atrophy. In addition, probably since the joint isn't healed, it felt kind of bad in that area holding the bar with the left hand. I stopped.

I was able to do some light cable pressing with kind of a fat, padded handle, and pulling is going pretty well. I did rows (10 body weight blast strap rows and a bunch of lighter stuff), and some pulldowns, face pulls, tricep cable pushdowns, and probably some other stuff I'm forgetting. I also did one static hold of about 350 with the trap bar, being careful not to exert the thumbs much. That all felt pretty good.

I ordered some Fat Gripz last night. Hopefully those allow me to bench press a little more going forward. If nothing else, maybe I can use them for dumbell and cable work.

Definitely not watching that, hope your recovery goes well!

Thanks!

8/8

I was able to bench the bar for a couple sets of 10 using fat gripz.

8/9

I went to the gym with no expectations or plan. I thought I might do some trap bar DLs, but when I saw the regular DL bar loaded, I figured I'd join my teammates and see how regular DLs felt.

135x3
225x3
275x3
315x2
365x1
405x1

Everything felt good up until the 405. I had to grip the bar harder on the 405, so I felt a similar sensation between my left thumb and index finger to holding the bar when I bench. Its fine.

safety bar box squats vs bands - I jumped in with another teammate who was doing these.
150x2
200x2
240x2
270x2
290x2x3
350x1
350x2

plate loaded front squat machine (plate weight shown)
360x10
540x10
720x10

8/11

elevated pushups on bar using fat gripz

a bunch of bench sets of bar x 10 with fat gripz.

some band pulling

A teammate was doing a core exercise. She had a PVC pipe in a rack with plates hanging by bands on both sides. We picked up the bar zercher style and walked about 120' one way and then walked back to the rack. Seems like a decent exercise.

machine pulls with a machine that is between a row and a pulldown

plate loaded machine rows (plate weight shown)
90x15 or 20
180x12
270x10 with a long hold on the contraction of the last rep - I felt muscles working that I hadn't in a long time.

very light tricep cable pushdowns - 50 reps

face pulls

light curls

8/13

Marrs bar squats to an 18" box up to 330x3x4

leg press machine
about a zillion light reps

hack squat machine
2 plates was feeling fine until it didnt on my lower right leg / knee, so I stopped

RDLs
185x8x3

8/14

some bench pressing with the bar and other stuff

8/16
skipped the gym to hang out with Mrs Cha, who lifted in the trap bar WDC championships the next day.

8/17
Mrs Cha set a WR and PR with a 450 lb trap bar DL, going 4/4. Her form was perfect. My friend who is a beast pulled 900 and barely missed 950 in what he says will be his last competition. The 950 got a tiny bit out in front of him.

8/18
bench press
45x10x7
65x10x3

Lots of pulling stuff

8/20 - 8/25, we went to Vegas. I took 15th out of 133 in a tourney at Wynn for a small cash on Thursday.

8/23
We lifted with a friend/former teammate who lives out in Vegas now at Lifetime. It was actually a great gym. My friend keeps some of his specialty bars there, and they allow chalk.

SSB squats up to 365 x 2

DLs up to 455 x 1

GHRs

8/24
We drove out to the LA area to lift with my friend/former coach Priest at Mendy's gym.

Mrs Cha got coached up again (like last year) by two of the best bench pressers/coaches in the world, Priest & Mendy. Their main cue was to get her to do something I've been trying to get her to do - tuck her feet and use her legs & hips. :p She set a new 1 board PR again. Last year she pressed 429 out there. This time she pressed 441, and she attempted 463, but missed it near the top because her form was just a hair off from being perfect.

Mendy asked me to be the IPA chair for MN. Mendy runs IPA meets from his gym, and he has a lot of influence in the organization. Apparently they want more of a presence in the midwest part of the country. I have never run a meet, but I know a lot of people who can help me with that, so I am considering doing it. Mendy says he will come to MN if I do it, and so will his sister Shawna, who is one of the top women lifters in the world - her meet PRs are 725, 565 & 510 in the 181 lb class.

I just did minimal pressing and some pulling while we were there. It was fun to hang out with those guys. Priest pressed 903 off a 2 board like it was 2 plates @ ~230 body weight. He's incredible.

8/27
DLs up to 405
RDLs up to 370 x 5 x 2
GHRs
I put 20 lb ankle weights on each leg and went up & down 160 stairs.
100 light tricep cable pushdowns
Some light pulling

Well done Mrs Cha!!!

Checked in for the first time in years, found your thread again, and... Holy **** what a rollercoaster in the last year! No way I was watching the bad vids. But you and Mrs Cha are friggin BAD ASS! This little dude has been getting into fitness over the last 3 years and am currently trying to improve my strength so this was a very cool read.

Thanks!!

Thanks Mike! Great to see you here! I hope all is well with you & your family.

Good luck and let me know if you have any questions or want suggestions. My general suggestion is to just keep moving - that is what keeps us feeling younger (you probably know this) - and resistance exercise is fantastic (which you also probably know). I can help with form advice if you want any.

8/28

some very light pushing and medium pulling

8/30
Marrs bar squats to high box
up to 565 minus red bands (assisting bands) x 2 in briefs

front squat machine
up to 8 plates on each side x 10

9/1
bench press (no fat gripz)
up to 145 x 5
I did some lighter sets of 10 after

light tricep cable pushdowns - 200 reps

face pulls

machine rows
up to 4 plates on each side x 10 x 2

cable pulldowns

I've been doing a lot of hand/thumb exercises daily. I've also been doing some light, high rep tricep cable pushdowns any time I go downstairs in my house (maybe every other day or so). My PT suggested lots of very light 200 rep sets of triceps work to get blood to the tendon.