05 Jan Brian Carroll -Training Bench, Squat and Deadlift stuffs

I’m back from a fantastic vacation in NC. I ate some really great food, had a full week completely checked out from work and got to spend quality time with my Wife Ria and the boys.

We left 2 weeks ago today and returned one week ago today, so even though I’ve been ‘back’ for a week, it ain’t easy coming back to reality.

The hard part was coming back and getting back into somewhat of a rhythm this week. New Year’s Day being Monday didn’t help, either. Nonetheless, I got some work done this week and got back to training.

Speaking of training, I walked the mountains a lot while on vacation and of course, I did my core work, but I didn’t train (anything to speak of aside pec/shoulder rehab) at all and came back super duper fat. I mean so bloated that my legs felt like they’d snap off.. but so worth it.

I got back to the gym Monday evening just in time for Florida to have a string of hard freezes in a row. We train in a metal building with good insulation that we added just a couple of years ago (and a drop down ceiling). Still, it’s quite cold inside the building when the temps approach the 20s.

This was the first week I tested my strained pec and it was a success. Previous training days consisted of doing push-ups, light band flyes, light DB presses and lots of overall volumes built up over the last couple of weeks. I think I ended up at 15×10 on the DB presses.

Back to Monday: first day with the barbell again on Floor press

Normal warm-up, especially these days:
Break a sweat
McGill 3
Band shoulder work/band flye
Empty bar

Floor press:
10 sets of 5, but really only 5 sets, as I added 20lbs each set starting with the bar.
Top set of 225×5

Incline DB press: 4×10
DB skulls: 6×10 with variants
Cable press-downs: 3×15
One Arm band triceps extension: 5×10
Stir the pot: 4×20 (killed me)

Felt great to press again! NO pain, no tightness. That BBC protocol is simply amazing. Do your research and be vigilant but know that it works for many, many people.

I really am looking forward to having a nice, interruption (almost) free offseason for a bit to accomplish/ work on a few things: 1 of them being my left arm has been wonky ever since a kinda/sorta botched surgery in 2008.

I had a tiny cyst removed from my triceps tendon and the process became complicated when I started to bleed out and everyone in the room got stiff and their body language suddenly changed. I knew something was badly wrong when the nurse started rubbing me on the back to keep me calm/distract me.

While they quickly patched me up, part of my elbow and lower triceps has since become numb, almost like my ulnar nerve is always turned on. It ended up being a thrombus and not just a cyst.

I also have 5 herniated discs in my neck which also negatively impacts my left arm some but not my right as much. Luckily, my big neck and being good to my body, while avoiding exercises like barbell shrugs and barbell rows has seemingly grisled up nicely. I don’t have pain, nor have I really other than my lat/rhomboid/subscap has tightened up at times which is childs play compared to what I’ve dealt with in the past.

I’m working on strengthening my triceps in this offseason quite a bit and will be updating that very soon as well as working in the SDP. More on this soon.

Wednesday was cold as well (hell) but I got in some very nice Squat/DL assistance work.

Normal warm-up

Lat pull-down: 8×10 – close and wide
DB row: 4×10 (these don’t hurt my neck)
DB shrug: 4×10
Belt squat piston squats: 4×10
One leg gm: 4×10
Stir the pot SS hammer curl/Arnold curl x a few rounds

Par for the course other than I felt slightly less fat than I did on Monday and much better condition-wise. On a random note, I don’t know why but I’m still pissed DD got to shake Arnold’s hand after a sweet pull at the 2017 XPC Finals. I really thought Arnold gave dap and associated with WINNERS. I’m not even going to share the video.

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Brian Carroll

Brian is a world-class powerlifter with over two decades of elite and pro-level powerlifting under his belt. Coming back from a devastating back injury in 2012 that broke multiple bones and that most experts said he would never recover from, he has returned to the pinnacle of world-class lifting (while 100% pain and symptom-free) and is now dedicated to helping others avoid the same mistakes that he made in the past through private and group coaching in Jacksonville, FL. Brian’s impressive recovery has given him the opportunity to teach and deliver talks to physical therapists, chiropractors, medical doctors, professional strength & conditioning coaches and experts from all facets of sport, on how to avoid injury, while building anti-fragile strength and resilience in athletes.

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