I am starting this log in the wake of a shitty meet performance that has made me rethink alot of the things I thought I knew about getting strong. Over the past two years, I have competed in four power meets, two at 198 and two at 220, totaling 1295, 1317, 1350, and 1383. It’s progress, but I think I can do better.
I recently picked up Brian Carroll’s training manual, and am committed to learning the system and making it work. I am very optimistic about this training. Today was my first training day in a couple weeks. It’s the longest I’ve been away from the gym in years.
I strained my TFL a little bit on my third squat at the last meet, so my chief concern was getting out of the gym without feeling worse than when I went in. This I accomplished. The hip feels ok, although this is less weight than I would have used for a deload in the past.
My work capacity is shot, but I think it will snap back quickly. This is a significant departure from how I’ve trained in the past, but I think I’m going to enjoy this approach.
This training is a pretty significant departure from what I’ve done in the past, which has been mostly the powerlifts with minimal assistance. Certain things are shockingly hard for me, like skullcrushers, on which I had no idea how much weight to use, but ended up using a lot less than I figured I’d be able to. The fact that I suck so bad at a lot of this shit makes me confident it is what I need to be doing.
The two weeks off has caused my strength to plummet pretty dramatically, but I’m not worried about that, and expect it to snap back over the next few weeks.
Still figuring out assistance work, but think I’m going to stick with the 3" block pulls for awhile, I miss just below the knee and the 3" blocks put me a couple inches under that.
TFL is still really bugging me, but doesn’t seem to be getting worse from training. Need to be more diligent with self-massage on off days to get this thing to heal a little quicker.
I don’t like extensions for the same reason, but I found a way around it.
Use an EZ-curl bar with light straight weight and then a bunch of chain. Lay on the floor so the chain deloads on the floor. Makes it a little easier on the joint and still get some heavier work through the motion.
[quote]dberg8907 wrote:
I don’t like extensions for the same reason, but I found a way around it.
Use an EZ-curl bar with light straight weight and then a bunch of chain. Lay on the floor so the chain deloads on the floor. Makes it a little easier on the joint and still get some heavier work through the motion. [/quote]
That sounds smart, I will definitely give that a shot. Appreciate it.
Pretty good day, starting to feel a little more coordinated and together on my squats. The left hip is still beat up but feels like it’s slowly improving. Going to really hold to this philosophy of taking it slow and not pushing too hard too fast in the offseason.
EZ Bar Ext with Chain
40+cc x12
60+cc x12
60+cc x12
Band Pullapart
3x25
Got some good work in. Going to do some barbell work on the second bench day which I think will get things moving a little more quickly. Thanks to dberg for the tip on adding chains to ez bar extensions.
(at this point I was wiped out, so I proceeded to do…)
Seated Row
3x10
(and called it a night).
Been a rough couple weeks at work and on the homefront, and the stress and being down on calories took its toll today. Was on the fence about going in at all, had to train at my backup gym, but got some work in. I appreciate the flexibility in this training approach, needed it today.
Very stressful week, need to focus on out of the gym factors over the next few weeks to get that under control, and need to get quality calories up a little bit. Very weak today.