Back to the gym part 1, 2 and 3

I have not been in a gym or lifted weights for 18 months. I blew my back out from a combination of car crash and squats and had a fully herniated disk in my spine which was due for surgery

you can see the disk at the l5-s1 joint protruding out of its normal position and pressing on the nerve which then goes down to my legs causing Sciatica which is pain down your legs due to damage to your nerve higher up in the body. (the disk above also looks pretty crap and is putting some more pressure on the spinal nerve and is pretty see through meaning normal Disk Degeneration disease, yeah!)

It crippled me. Litterly. Couldn't even sit. and got slightly addicted to painkillers.

Anyway, onto the point of this blog post.
I am back. (but still without a spine)
squats and deadlifts and anything that puts load onto my spine is out of the question. So over head presses are scary and not going to happen.

So bench, and seated rows and pull downs are all go.

Firstly where was I before the injury and where am i now?

Before the injury
Bench 
managed 125kg

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2X9iPh8HHLA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

and again 124kg and 60kg  for 24reps afterwards

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LFHvXIZxKag" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Pull ups
managed to do one with a full 36kg hanging from my waist  along with 10 reps with 10kg attached
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3EqfGWM3fhU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Current condition

Bench 60kg x5
pull up - 0 Pull down 50kg x2

24 Day Squat Challenge

I can't ever claim to be someone that is afraid of too much volume nor that I fear the dreaded "OVER TRAINING"  I have managed to go to the gym up to 10 times a week for weeks on end without ever reaching this so called limit of over training.
I especially like this quote

Overtraining is real, but it is very misunderstood and grossly overstated by most people. 99% of people will never experience overtraining, and maybe only 5-10% of athletes.   http://www.doctorhartmanblog.com/2011/07/overtraining-vs-under-recovery.html

However I have, over the past year, separated my workouts day to day, by following the Wendler 531 programme which focuses on 4 main exercises (deadlift, squat, shoulder press and bench press) I have rarely ever done the same exercise back to back.  Well maybe a couple of times doing benchpress but that is easy.

Just before Christmas I managed an Ass-to-Grass 120kg (265lbs) Squat and a 105kg Front Squat, which I was most happy about - see here


And although I am very happy with that, and with my bodyweight at the time being around 84kg (185lbs) it is a happy 143%bodyweight squat.

But

I kinda think that that still sucks, and sucks real bad especially after i saw this video of this lady doing front squats with 120kg for 4!