@EyeDentist: returning to your earlier post about kettlebell swings and their utility…a couple of disjointed thoughts:
First, I am sorry that you continue to deal with an assortment of injury issues, or perhaps I should just say dealing with old age…
Kettlebell swings are, IMO, just about the “gentlest” of the major explosive movements that I can think of. Dan John has written about this periodically - in training athletes who take a lot of “impact” on their joints (such as volleyball players and track jumpers) he likes the kettlebell swing specifically because it’s an explosive movement without an “impact” landing like a box jump or a power clean.
With that said, even a kettlebell swing has an element of “violent loading and unloading” as you described, and your body in particular seems particularly brittle for one so strong. I swear that’s meant as a compliment, not an insult…but it does confound me a little how a gentleman as muscular and developed as yourself continues to struggle with injury whenever you push for some strength gains. Perhaps it’s just a combination of your old age but young looks fooling me into thinking you’re actually younger than you are.
I laughed out loud at the word “retrospectoscope.” Well done.
I am glad that you continue to share your experiences, because as much as I want to carry on with heavy deadlifts and kettlebell swings for all eternity, I recognize that there may come a time when my training will have to adapt out of necessity, and I’ll have to get my workout in by doing sets of 100 reps, 75 reps, and 50 reps with 15 pound dumbbells or whatever it is you’re doing by now.
It’s funny: although I am heavy-deadlift enthusiast personally, I’ve also now acknowledged that’s not because I am more hardcore than isolation-lift-specializing bodybuilders, in fact it is quite the opposite. I deadlift heavy mostly because I am lazy, and I’ll find it much easier to get “up” for a workout that features a handful of heavy deadlifts than a traditional bodybuilding split routine. I just don’t have the patience, focus, and mental fortitude that it would take to spend rep after rep, set after set, day after day, completely dialed into getting a good contraction in the bicep / tricep / lower ubulus muscle / etc.
And thanks all for the kind words re my role in that ‘debate’ (which seems too generous a term, but let’s go with it anyway) taking place elsewhere on TN. It is heartening to hear there are people who find some of my comments compelling.
So honestly…this wasn’t really in the plan for today. But as I warmed up, I felt like a million bucks. 315 felt like 225, and then 405 felt like 315. So I decided a 455 pull was probably in the cards today. Nice to have this in the books as a mental hurdle cleared - since I am shooting for a 500 pull by the end of the summer, knowing that I’m already at 455 is a plus. I think the next stop will be a 475 attempt sometime in late May or early June, and once that barrier falls, then a 500 attempt by the end of July.
I’d been planning to do all of my work sets at 405 today, but after the warmups felt so breezy and the first 2 singles at 405 came up cleanly, I decided today would be a good day to slay the mental barrier of 455. Back to working sets at 315-405 for a couple more weeks, then I’ll take a whack at 475 when I feel ready for it.
I read about the daily dose deadlift program on the strongfirst site and it’s something i’d like to do after finishing my current program. It states keep endurance work to a minimum, then states that marathon or a similar high conditioning training program won’t work with the daily deadlift program. That makes sense, but in your experience doing the program do you think easy running of 10-15 miles per week would be too much?
I’m not the author, of course, and that would seem to be a pretty clear contradiction to their directions.
However, just my two cents…
I think their point is that if you’re doing the daily dose deadlift program with the expectation of significant strength gains (i.e. putting 50 pounds on your deadlift in three months), that effort will be hampered by additional of substantial endurance activity. If you’re doing it the other way around - i.e. focusing on your running performance and merely trying to maintain some strength while doing so - I think this would work reasonably well.
I would also note that 10-15 miles per week, although it constitutes “endurance activity” to the average person, is pretty low overall mileage, and as long as you’re fit, non-obese and used to doing at least some running, I can’t see why that would significantly hamper the daily dose deadlift program.
Good point. It also mentions “If you have a physical or tactical job or you are a fighter, this is a great program for you,” which indicates that this program can be done concurrently with some level of conditioning work (sports specific, work related or general). As with everything, trial and error will have to be used.
Little change up today. Figure it’ll be okay to take a mini break from heavy singles the rest of this week (traveling this weekend anyway). Also, I want to start training pull-ups with more volume, so I might make this a once or twice a week workout anyway.
