After The Flood: JDM135 Powerlifting In Paradise

Training Logs
541

8/13/2024

Weekend Update: Saturday, surfing in the morning.
Sunday, mile walk with family to the obstacle course. Monkey bar and related training, then mile walk back. Wife pushed the stroller nearly the entire way for an extra stimulus (the route is very steep).
Sunday afternoon,roughly 2.5-mile walk+bike with family. We bring one adult bike with baby-seat attachment, one kid bike, and then the adults take turns taking the baby and one kid up ahead, then come back, rejoin the group, and swap out bikes, repeat.

Sunday night, flew to Houston overnight and barely slept.
Monday morning got off the plane and went straight to work.

Today, Tuesday, used the hotel gym. Not a ton, not going to kill myself after such a taxing trip, but did some DB BSS and DB pressing and 2 miles on the treadmill. The first mile was at 6 incline and was HARD!

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I love reading your updates. Just take a minute to pause and read that one. You are extremely fortunate and I am so happy for you.

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Thank you, Rob. I needed that.
I am fortunate indeed.

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8/15/24 Thursday

My poor body has no idea what time it is. It’s really a struggle to wake up at 5:30 Central when that’s 12:30 AM per my body clock just a couple days ago.
Slept in a little on Wednesday, didn’t train, went straight to work, and it was a long day.
This morning, 20 minute hotel gym session. They had DBs up to 45lb so I did this:

20 Minutes EMOM:
-3 squats, with two 45s in rack position
-3 snatches left
-3 snatches right

I could barely keep up! Was challenging to get through this.
Also by “snatches” I mean a floor-to-overhead one-motion, like a KB swing that goes all the way up and locks out. No “squat” like you would do to catch an actual heavy snatch.

Today’s the last full day out here, I’ll get some rest tonight and fly back home tomorrow. Spartan race in 3 days.

Edit Friday to add:
So sore from that little session!
My spinal erectors are so tender. And a bit of hamstring too.
Headed to airport now, gonna sit on a plane for around 8 hours. Wish me luck.

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8/18/2024 Sunday
Spartan Super, 10K obstacle course race (25 obstacles), Dillingham Ranch, Hawaii

I have SO MUCH to log about this, and don’t even have pictures yet, so I’ll start with just some top-line stuff:

-I ran with my wife, and that was absolutely the highlight of the event - outweighing everything else.
-She runs 3 miles per day, is a mother of 4, and has given birth without anesthetic, and homeschools all 4, so this is a badass woman who I hold up as a standard of fitness and endurance.
-She was so impressed with me, and I gotta tell you I’m SO inflated right now from all her compliments - that she got to see a whole new side of me, because she’s never really been able to see just how physically capable I am - in 14 years of being married I never got to show off like this to her. Words like “beast”, “animal”, and “energizer bunny” have been used.

-I smoked it. I mean, I am really really proud of how it went. I completed every obstacle like it was nothing (except the spear throw - that pissed me off LOL - I just couldn’t stick it. Neither could most people so I’m not going to sweat that one), and still had plenty of gas at the end - enough to tackle a max pullups challenge at the fairgrounds after the race, and got 25 pullups in one set.

-Our race time was 2:29:59. Well within the top half of participants, and I’m thinking I could go sub-2:00:00 on my own. I may try to run in the competitive category next year.

10 kilometers (they said something about an extra mile, but IDK - let’s assume it was the standard 10k/6.2mi), with 25 obstacles.

Blistering hot sun, and rough terrain: plenty of elevation change, rocky ground, roots and hummocks and divots and tall grass everywhere - 10k on this trail is not like 10k on a treadmill!

Roughly categorizing the obstacles:
-Three of them are “carry” obstacles - a bucket of rocks, a 60lb sandbag, and an atlas stone. None of those are a problem for me. They are tiring but not a problem.

-Three of them are monkey-bar-related challenges.
One was Actual monkey bars (super thick bars, with flex, and uneven spacing);
One was a Combination of rings and pipes hanging from straps;
One (I think it’s called twister) had skinny little handles that rotate around an axis, so every time you grab one, it rotates down and the next handle rotates up and away from you.

-Several are climb-over challenges. Many of these don’t merit much comment from me, but it turns out a lot of people really struggle psychologically with crossing the top of these things.

-Spear throw. Stupid. Bent-ass spear, I feel like I threw ok but I couldn’t get it to stick in the target. Whatever. Took the penalty run.

-Rope climb. Seemed harder than last time- I think it was a skinnier rope - but no problem for me.

-Hurdles and wall climbs. The most noteworthy two:
7’ high wall, sheer smooth wall - just have to jump and grab the top with your fingertips, swing your whole body to one side and catch with a foot, then wrestle your body up and over. Not easy but a lot of fun.
“Inverted” wall - a wall that leans back toward you. Looks impossible but is not impossible. Very proud that we both cleared this.

-Crawling under 30 yards of low barbed wire at the end SUCKED.

-25 pullups to show off at the fairgrounds right after the race.

-I breezed through every obstacle and STILL HAD GAS IN THE TANK AT THE END. I’m really proud of this.

Hopefully I get share-worthy photos in a day or two. Will update.

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This was my favorite part of the write-up. There’s nothing better than being able to show off to the mate. I’m so over the moon for you about everything you’ve written, but this especially, and so awesome you got to have the time together.

You earned this elation dude. Great work!

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And you should be! Great job! I can’t wait to see the pics!

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Awesome write up of what sounds like a really fun day. Knew you would smash it, but great to hear you has so much fun and always nice to cop a few compliments from the ones we love the mist. Well done

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Quick logging updates here:
8/19 Monday, recovery day from the race, but still got up early and went to the gym. 5x5 BSS (+0, +20, +40, +60), then some BS with dumbbells and machines - nothing worth logging except that I showed up and did something.

8/21 Wednesday
Haven’t figured out what I’m going to focus on in the short term.
5x5 Front Squats with 95lb
Clean and Jerk (a full squat at the bottom of the clean): Lots of singles, all the way up to 105lb. Haven’t done these in about a year and it just felt so natural. I think I’ll do more of them. I think I can get close to my prior weights with these pretty quickly.

Snatch - did a few reps, didn’t get heavy, not very comfortable at the bottom of the overhead squat position. But a good thing to train once in a while.

Bench press - 3x5x135.

I think that was it, actually.

Good enough for today.

Spartan Race photos coming soon.

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8/23/2024 Friday
3x5 BSS: +0, +45, +65

Clean and Jerk:
This is a full clean, and a split jerk. It’s a lot of fun, I missed these! Need to rebuild my thumb callouses though.
5 at 95lb
3 at 115lb
3 at 135lb
Full clean only: 3x135
Split jerk only: 3x135

After that, did some work with a light (20lb) fixed bar, dropping to the bottom of an overhead squat and BTN pressing it. It’s very hard for me, my angles and gravity aren’t getting along correctly. But I can get there.
After that, just some feel-good BS, like leg extensions, biceps, triceps, delts, pullups.

One note - one reason I stopped O-lifting when I moved here is my gym doesn’t allow for dropping weights. Dropping weights is part of the fun of O-lifting.
It may become a limiter later but for now I’m just regarding the controlled lowering as an extra stimulus.

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Just catching up on a few logs, glad I checked in here, love the weekend updates and the Spartan race was an absolute win, well done on just winning in general!

Your comment on turning 40/aging didn’t really resonate with me, I’m less than 700 days out and I honestly don’t feel much different physically, including the fact I have worse sleep now than I’ve ever done. I wonder if being on TRT is a significant factor in that, no matter what sort of stupidity and abuse I throw at my body my test levels don’t drop they are that of an 18 year old. Sorry tangent ambling thought there.

How would you rate your surfing abilities?

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I would imagine that helps a lot. I on the other hand, not being on that, feel like there are consequences for every imperfect meal or poor night’s sleep.

It wasn’t like this in my 20s.

Thank you sir!

Terrible.
Absolutely terrible.
I think people who don’t “get it” tend to not keep coming back and trying again, again, and again like I do because when you’re bad at it, it’s a physical workout. I keep coming back in spite of that. I get the workout benefits of it on the side, due to being so inefficient in the water, LOL.
I can occasionally catch a wave and stand up on my board, but don’t stay up long enough to say I’m surfing.
But I’ll keep trying!

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This is 100% me, including the occasional stand up, I watch people who just make it look so natural and easy and every time I go in the water I think this will be the time where it clicks, it hasn’t happened yet, but I’ll keep trying too!

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8/26/2024
Not-exciting weekend update:
Saturday, went surfing, and after a brief session my entire left arm was shot. Shoulder and elbow both just felt dead - I noticed I was hanging it limp by my side on the drive home.
Weird. I think it’s related to O-lifting.
Monday
-BSS-
10x0, 5x45, 5x65, 5x85, 10x45.

-Snatch-
Warm up with a few light snatches.

-Clean and Jerk-
Within the first few sets my left elbow was KILLING me. It’s hard to define exactly what movement or muscle is getting it. Regardless:
Decent rep at 135, then went for 155! I got it, and got it on video, but it was about the worst rep of C&J ever performed. Really a power clean followed by a front squat, followed by a spaz move that ended with a strict press in a split stance LOL.
But with practice I’ll get back where I was, and then put those videos side by side or something - little victories.

-EMOM burpees and pullups-
20 minutes of:
-3 doublepump burpees
-3 pullups
This is the “deload” version of my favorite EMOM. Add pullups, add burpees, add weight, add a twist to the burpee jump, whatever - but 3/3 is a nice light load that isn’t too taxing. But of course the elbow made it suck today.

Regarding the elbow: I think it’s actually the clean, and the negative-clean of lowering the weight, that’s getting me. It’s on the top of my forearm (the meaty hairy part) right where it meets the elbow joint.
And there’s something up with the shoulder too, per my surfing experience, probably just due to it not being used to heavy overhead loads.

I think Wednesday I’m going to force myself to go light, crazy reps (20+) and just pump blood into elbows and shoulders with BB style movements.
And rotator stuff too maybe.

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8/28/2024 Wednesday

BSS
10x0, 5x30, 5x50, 5x70, 10x0
BTN:
12x30, 12x50, 6x70.
Tons and tons and tons of high-rep stuff for my elbows and shoulders. Biceps triceps delts and lats, but also weird rotaty things. Can’t describe or list them all. Mostly felt good.
But:
Plate Halos
Discovered that in one direction, this is fluid, and in another direction, my right shoulder goes nuts. IDK who to ask about weird shit like this @T3hPwnisher any suggestions?

Couple sets of 20-rep leg press with 135lb, keeping knees together (which I’m discovering is a whole different thing the way my hips are built).

Some bar hangs and pullups too.

All in all, felt really good, glad I took a break from whatever was hurting my elbow.

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@FlatsFarmer is the man when it comes to this sorta stuff.

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Climbers often come up against elbow issues caused by (i think) tendom damage from loading the forearms too quickly. I would definitely imagine trying to do a negative clean could have the same effect.

@FlatsFarmer might be the man to shed some light on it.

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Thanks guys!
@FlatsFarmer sounds like you’re the man to ask, per consensus.

So i was using a 15-lb bumper plate, rotating it around my head; no issues going one direction, several reps. But then I reversed direction, and when my right arm was reaching across the top of my head, so the plate was on my left side, it was like my right shoulder was getting “stuck” and burned.
Other portions of the movement felt fine.
I haven’t experienced any right shoulder problems in a few months but that doesn’t mean its healthy haha.
Any thoughts on what this means?

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If you can go right but not left, it sounds like the Internal Rotation is limited on that right side. This is really common, and could be caused by something really simple, like your rear delt being a little tight. Or over exaggerated good posture, like you’re sticking your chest out a little too far.

A simple internal rotation move is to lay on your back, with your arm out to the side, and then rotate your upper arm.

Try to get as much of your back as flat on the floor as possible. If you’ve got some posture issue, it will be tough to get flat on the floor. If that’s what’s up, you might be able to fix it by relaxing and deep breathing on the floor until your back relaxes.

As your arm is moving, your palm going up, over, then towards the floor is internal rotation. If the back of your shoulder is tight your arm will get “hung up” or stuck before your palm hits the floor. If that’s the case, just going through this motion and hanging out near the end of your ROM might be enough to stretch out what’s tight back there.

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Thanks for responding.
My shoulders get “stuck” way before my palms reach the floor. My forearms are about 30degrees (left arm) and 45 degrees (right arm) off the floor when they stop.
(Meaning less ROM on my right arm)
And if I try to force them down, my shoulders curl off the floor, and/or my elbows try to slide down toward my sides.
How bad is that? Targeted exercises, movements, or stretches to improve it?

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