I'm Getting Bettah...

Thank you, evil corporations, for NSAIDs.

I've been dosing Naproxen again and it's finally kicking in. Felt much better yesterday and this morning the pain is almost entirely gone. It's less than 5% of what it has been the last couple of days. It looks like there was just a lot of inflammation due to some minor tear in the area of the gluteus medius, minimus or involved tendon. Inflammation is down and pain is almost gone.

It's amazing how much pain affects mood. The chronic pain and sense of vastly diminished ability had dampened those feelings of well-being that the SARMs started enhancing a couple days ago. Surprise: crippling pain is a total buzzkill.

I'm starting to look forward to lifting again. I'm thinking about the possible progressions for my next cycle.

And I really, really need to keep doing myofascial release for my IT bands and quads. This isn't even an option.

I think this is the most important thing I've learned about training: do what you know works for you. No matter which loudmouth guru belittles it.

For me, this is knee wraps and rolling my IT bands with a PVC pipe. If I don't do these things, I very quickly become incapacitated by heavy squats. If I want to keep my squat progressing and to be able to use my legs between squat sessions for other stuff like walking and running, then I need to wear knee wraps starting at about 225 and I need to work the adhesions out of the quads and IT bands after and between sessions.

There are a million voices on the Internet ready to damn you for just about any training practice. I'm guilty, too. I think for the overwhelming majority of lifters the full squat, bench press, and dumbbell row are more than enough for complete strength training. But maybe some people will get more out of incline press or overhead press or chin ups or trap bar deadlifts instead. That's fine. If someone knows from experience that something works for them, I urge them to keep on keeping on with it.

Seriously, fuck anyone who isn't you trying to tell you different when you know what works for your body. If you're getting stronger and staying healthy, keep doing what you're doing.