My only destinctive strength in this sport… gonna cry myself to sleep tonight.
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Update, slabbed yesterday (one more day to go here!) felt stiff and immobile from the get go, didn’t bother me much during the work, but daily deadlifts aren’t doing me much good by the look of it.
I went to a field and played football (translation for my 'murican friends - soccer) and threw a rocket ball around my back was so tight and really made it awkward to reach and catch.
Not sure where to go from here, I want to get a sports massage but the lady I go to can’t trade right now due to her insurance and the Rona, not sure if it’s just historical muscle tightness that deadlifts are highlighting or whether deadlifts are causing it. Had a thought that given my positioning during deads being reasonable in terms of lower lumbar then it’s probably not that and more likely to be poor/incorrect bracing?
Not sure whether to ditch daily deads as they’re making me tight, or carry on because if I don’t figure it out and address the issue then I’ll not get to the point where I can deadlift properly. Peeing me right off.
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ROM progression. Stop pulling off the floor so much. Dimel deads for assistance.
You reckon ROM progression with daily work or stick to less frequent work? (I’m guessing you’d suggest what you did originally something like daily work of swings and weekly ROM prog deads)
No. I think daily work with a weighted load is a bad idea.
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Did you ever go read the article regarding the Daily Dose? A stiff back is kind of a side effect of using the muscles. There will be days where you feel beat up and days where you feel great. You’re in the first week so it makes sense that you’re feeling it.
I did read it, I know it mentioned recovery and not feeling great some days, but mine isn’t that. None of the deadlifts are feeling good and I’m not sure it will end well if I persist, if I could get a massage and get any knots out I’d probably persevere and see if it caused any new problems but for the time being I’m not convinced it’s worth it.
I think a ROM progression with lower weight and higher frequency might be a better call, see if I can work myself down into a decent pull.
Definitely not giving up on conventional though, I will crack it!
I think frequency is beating the hell out of you personally. Deads aren’t ideally pulled frequently.
You reckon back to once a week? Just thinking about really getting to grip with the movement and practicing it.
Deads are a movement that I find respond better to infrequent training. Like yoke. Doing it too much burns people out.
I don’t think the issue is not knowing how to dead. You seem to have the basic mechanics down.
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I’m doing mine weekly. It’s a hell of thing. So much “fun”.
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Frequency is good for perfecting a skill. I’m not sure if that’s what you need. It seems like you’re hypersensitive to deadlifts and their impact on your body right now. You’re analyzing the crap out of it.
If you’re deadlifting with decent form and having problems, then you need to identify the problem and work on that. The solution might not be deadlifts. You might need to strengthen something in your posterior chain with a different exercise.
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Thanks for the input all, I’ll go back to once weekly with ROM progression and see how it goes.
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Been missing in action for a while but back now. How’s everything going ?
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Hey Simo, good to see you back and rebuilding, not sure when you last checked in but I had a minor training epiphany watching WSM in Feb (late catching up with it, didn’t watch it at Christmas).
Strongman was what inspired me to lift as a kid and watching it this year left me with a pang of regret that I’d not really gone down that route, so rather than waste time on regret I’ve decided to change my training (very little changes so far but there coming) bought an “axle” (scaffold pole with tape on it) getting straps for a “chain” yoke and the biggest current change is learning how to pull conventional.
Briefly tried daily dose but my lower back wasn’t keen so going back to 1 per week on deads and a ROM progression, everything else is probably going to run in a similar way to Dark Horse when I get my proverbial together - similar to you life has been chaos so training has tailed off (got 4 daily dead sessions in and that was it last week) but there’s light at the end of the tunnel this week so I’m super keen to hit it all hard again.
Loved reading that. I too grew up (back in the UK) watching and loving strongman with my dad. I will probably go to the dark side eventually but for now I have unfinished business with powerlifting.
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Haha good man, I trained for years with a powerlifting focus, but with no real desire to compete. I think I’ll try and get a comp in for strongman once I’ve got further into it.
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Strong man is where its at. Where are you based? I’m looking at comps this summer. If you are also competing in the South East (including up to Northants) there is a chance we’ll see each other.
I’m not sure what your budget is but you can pick up some SM equipment fairly cheap. I got a yoke for £230. You have an axle (which was a humbling experience for me).
Farmers walk handles can be found cheaply, or you can make your own for a few £££. I’m trying to find a 1/2 decent log - but they are all coming back at £250-£300. Which just seems excessive.
I’m southwest (Cornwall) so you’ll be well outside of my area, think I’ll aim to compete 2022, this year is just getting grips with things and starting to pick up kit.
You checked out these logs: https://celticstrength.co.uk/product/50kg-log/
(They do a cheaper 40kg or more expensive 60kg, 50kg seems like where I’d want to start diameter and weight)
@dagill2 has used one.
I’m going chain yoke for time being and I’ll use trap bar for farmers just because I’m trying to spend next to nothing for time being, I’ve got a sandbag that I can load up to 100kg, at the moment got it on 40kg just for conditioning.
Todays stuff:
Giant set pullups (alternating wgpu, chins, Ng chins), football bar bench, sandbag floor to shoulder (40kg)
Chins: 5 X 7 sets
Bench: 50, 70, 80kg X 5, 90, 100, 110, 120kg X 1
Sandbag: 3, 2, 3, 3, 3, 3
Backs not overly happy so sandbag stuff was very limited, still managed to get my heart rate up, but dropped a rep on set two due to back feeling it, then dropped a set off the end for same reason. Today was supposed to be squats but didn’t want to push it back wise. First time use ffb since DH, felt good be fun to get this moving upwards again.
Dips: 30, 25, 20
Ss dB curls 10kg normal drop to hammer: 15/10, 12/8, 10, 8
Good session.
In other news my weight has been trending in the 210/212 bracket, which would be good if it wasn’t for the fact that I only got there by moving less (measurement around naval is 34.5 inches) and eating more junk (tiredness and stress kills my desire to eat well, which is weak at the best of times). I don’t particularly want to lose weight but need to clean up the diet and increase activity levels and hopefully get some recomp/gains. I know I can do better, time to do it. This week’s still crazy until Thursday but squeezed this into a lunch break (which my normal training time as it’s least disruption to family) good to be able to get back to that.
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