Alpha's Work 3

Training Training Logs
1101

[quote]Alpha wrote:
But in most cases, I think sweating some of the hate out works wonders.[/quote]
I agree with that. I trained this morning with about 65% of my max, and although the weight felt heavy and moved slow when it should’ve been light and fast, I felt better as the day went on, and I attribute feeling better to simply getting up and doing something.

You post your workouts as Conditioning followed by Strength followed by Events. Is that the actual structure of your daily workout with conditioning before strength exercises? Is the emphasis there that the conditioning is a warmup before strength, or is your conditioning taking precedence over strength training right now as related to your current goals?

1102

You influenced me a lot as far as training style so that’s no surprise that you like it haha. You have no idea how much you’re inspiring me to step up the game. I’m hoping to better myself at everything-strength, endurance, muscle endurance and I guess that hypertrophy will follow but ye, that’s not my main concern.
You have no idea how excited I am, both from the journey I’m about to go through and from you supporting me so much.
I hope someday I’ll be able to shake your hand and lift with you some iron afterward.

1103

elliottcorum: Yea man, how I write the workouts is how I, and the rest of my athletes complete them. We are primarily a strongman gym and being such, you need a lot of over all strength, but also a ton of conditioning. Contrary to popular belief, doing the conditioning first doesn’t really impede the strength gains…If anything it helps to prime your muscles for the hater work they are about to do. Case in point, last night after all of those squats for the conditioning portion, we had 6 PR’s (3 Deadlift PR’s and 3 Bench press Pr’s) beat. This is not a rare thing for us at all.

I know some people have tried to do something similar to my programming with mixed results, but often what holds people back is the mental side of the game where the “believe” they are too tired to lift heavy things after a hard conditioning session. i don’t have any scientific proof of my claims, but have more real world evidence than you would believe.

Also, often times in strongman competitions, you are forced to go with max effort when you are already spent. When you are in the heat of a competition, you find a way to get it done. We just try to put ourselves in that position more often so that we know that how you “feel” about completing a lift is just that, a feeling. Nothing more. It is just your job to step up and go through the motions that you have done 100 times before. If you have built a base or a systematic approach to your lifts then the actual weight poundage or exertion matters much less. You just do you job and see where the chips fall. It works for us. I hope that answers your question, brother.

Regev: I hope for that as well man! The world is a small place, I have no doubt that it will be a reality someday.

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“Sometimes it is the people who no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine.” --Joan Clarke

TUESDAY, 27JANUARY2015 - Work For Today
Wave 4/Day 5

CONDITIONING

:30 Seconds Work / :30 Seconds Rest for 10 Rounds of Prowler Push
Rest 1 Minute
:30 Seconds Work / :30 Seconds Rest for 10 Rounds of Battle Ropes
Rest 1 Minute
:30 Seconds Work / :30 Seconds Rest for 10 Rounds of Hand Over Hand Sled Drag
Rest 1 Minute
:30 Seconds Work / :30 Seconds Rest for 10 Rounds of Double Unders

1104

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“It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.” --Leonardo da Vinci

“Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never–in nothing, great or small, large or petty–never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.” --Winston S. Churchill

WEDNESDAY, 28JANUARY2015 - Work For Today
Wave 4/Day 6

CONDITIONING
Tabata Burpee Bar Touches
:20 Seconds Work / :10 Seconds Rest for 8 Rounds

STRENGTH
1 Front Squat @ 405lbs
1:00 Minute Weighted Plank
1 Front Squat @ 425lbs
1:00 Minute Weighted Plank
1 Front Squat @ 440lbs
1:00 Minute Weighted Plank
1 Front Squat @ 450lbs
1:00 Minute Weighted Plank
1 Front Squat @ 465lbs
1:00 Minute Weighted Plank
1 Front Squat @ 485lbs…No rep, annnnddd I passed out
1:00 Minute Weighted Plank

EVENTS
Had planned on some continental clean & Presses and keg carries but after I passed out on the last set of front squats, i chose farmer’s Walk Deadlifts instead…Worked up to 750lbs, which ties my PR. Sucks because if I knew it only tied it, I would have beat it today…But my head felt funny and I wasn’t thinking completely correctly

NOTES:

  • So, 475 is my PR for front squats currently and today i was feeling pretty good. I even misgrooved hard of 455 and it still went up pretty easily…So i hit 465 and then went for 485. I am not sure if this happens to anyone else but when i front squat anything above 430, when i walk it out the world gets very weird. It is like everything has a pulse and feels like I am going to pass out. I usually can flex my butt and it subsides a little bit. Well, tonight I didn’t.

I unranked it and walked it out. The weight felt overwhelming and I was getting dizzy. My vision was so crazy in fact that I totally forgot to flex my butt. In the video I took you can see me wobbling and I was obviously on the verge of passing out.

Then it felt like I just snorted a ton of chlorinated water up my nose, every spot on my body shot with pins and needles. I tossed the bar away from me and then lost all equilibrium. I can relate it to getting rocked when fighting. I couldn’t keep me feet under me and I told myself to get on the ground before i went out. I supermaned out and put my cheek on the floor. EVERYTHING in my brain was telling me to just go to sleep. Then i realized fellow lifters would be showing up soon and I didn’t want them to find me laying on the floor looking stupid, so I forced myself to stay awake.

I could feel my heartbeat hard in my upper back and had the random thought, “did you just have a heart attack?”…I figured this was nonsense, so i moved onto a stroke…Deduced that that was a dumb thought then started feeling better. Stood up and was basely ok afterwards.

I have been knocked out, choked out and have been very badly concussed in fighting, but this is the closest I have ever come to passing out while lifting. My head was (and still is) a little bit foggy, but I was able to hit a 750 Farmer’s Handle Deadlift after, so i guess it was nothing too serious.

This feeling only ever happens to me on very heavy front squats…Has anyone else ever had this happen?

1105

How old are you Alpha?

1106

I’ve had that experience when I’ve had my breathing off on a set of squats or deadlifts. I’ve also had that happen if I get up too fast or, again, get my breathing off. Usually I’ll catch things before I actually pass out or lose control, but there’s a few occasions (not lifting-wise), where I haven’t.

The other day I was holding my breath trying everything to get rid of some bad hiccups, and, instants later, “woke up”, found myself on hands and knees on the floor with my body spasming trying to regain balance, pins and needles and completely disoriented. It’s not the most pleasant feeling.

If I understand what’s happening at all, basically the level of oxygen in the blood gets off, which changes the blood pH, and in order to fix itself, the body shuts down anything it can to make sure that the organs continue to operate properly. I’ve found that changing the way I breathe under certain circumstances will fix it. Sometimes that means not taking as deep of a breath, sometimes it means slowly and intentionally exhaling where I’d normally hold it, sometimes it means changing the rate I breathe. One of the tips I picked up for lifting is to exhale forcefully through your teeth, like a hissing sound; it lets you maintain the intrabdominal stability but let off some of the pressure… instead of just holding your breath.

Maybe that helps.

1107

That’s some scary stuff, Alpha! When you front squat, is there any chance you’re resting the bar on your Carotid?

1108

JRT6: That would be 34 my friend. Why Do you ask?

LoRez: I really appreciate you sharing your experiences and thoughts. I think you may be right. I think I am going to give some of your ideas a try and see if I can alleviate that feeling on my front squats. Thanks again brother, it means a lot!

LiftingStrumpet: I think that could be a little bit of the problem, but I have been choked unconscious by a blood choke (carotid arteries cut off) and by oxygen and this didn’t really feel like either of those…I think it is a mix of what you are saying and LoRez touched upon. I am going to mess with my breathing and bar placement and see if that helps. Thank you so much for your input!

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“The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack in will.” --Vince Lombardi

“You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore.” --William Faulkner

THURSDAY, 29JANUARY2015- Work For Today
Wave 4/Day 7

EVENTS & CONDITIONING - 5 Rounds

Atlas Stone Shuttle Run: Line up 5 Atlas Stones of increasing weights. Pick Up the lightest Stone, run 50 Feet and place it at the foot of a 54? Platform. Sprint back 50 feet to the remaining 4 Atlas Stones at the starting line. Pick up the next heaviest stone and run it down to the platform. Continue to perform this shuttle until all 5 Stones are at the base of the platform. Now load each one onto the 54? platform. You time stops when all the Atlas Stones are loaded. Try to beat your time each round.

1109

Alpha, your log is truly inspirational. The work ethic and capacity at which you push yourself is incredible. Many lifters (beginners to advanced) can gain a lot from your experience, as well as learn “a few tricks of the trade”. Regarding your front squat/passing out episode, that is some scary stuff. Hopefully it isn’t anything serious, that is a serious amount of weight you are moving around. Even the most conditioned athletes would be wobbly after some of your workouts.

It could be a heart related issue, not directly but from the heavy bar weighing down on some artery. Seeing as it is a large amount of weight that is being supported anteriorly in your shoulder cleft. I could see the bar maybe cutting off some circulation, considering there are quite a few major arteries/veins that supply blood to the brain. Only a guess though, stay strong brother!

1110

[quote]Alpha wrote:

“It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.” --Leonardo da Vinci

“Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never–in nothing, great or small, large or petty–never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.” --Winston S. Churchill

WEDNESDAY, 28JANUARY2015 - Work For Today
Wave 4/Day 6

CONDITIONING
Tabata Burpee Bar Touches
:20 Seconds Work / :10 Seconds Rest for 8 Rounds

STRENGTH
1 Front Squat @ 405lbs
1:00 Minute Weighted Plank
1 Front Squat @ 425lbs
1:00 Minute Weighted Plank
1 Front Squat @ 440lbs
1:00 Minute Weighted Plank
1 Front Squat @ 450lbs
1:00 Minute Weighted Plank
1 Front Squat @ 465lbs
1:00 Minute Weighted Plank
1 Front Squat @ 485lbs…No rep, annnnddd I passed out
1:00 Minute Weighted Plank

EVENTS
Had planned on some continental clean & Presses and keg carries but after I passed out on the last set of front squats, i chose farmer’s Walk Deadlifts instead…Worked up to 750lbs, which ties my PR. Sucks because if I knew it only tied it, I would have beat it today…But my head felt funny and I wasn’t thinking completely correctly

NOTES:

  • So, 475 is my PR for front squats currently and today i was feeling pretty good. I even misgrooved hard of 455 and it still went up pretty easily…So i hit 465 and then went for 485. I am not sure if this happens to anyone else but when i front squat anything above 430, when i walk it out the world gets very weird. It is like everything has a pulse and feels like I am going to pass out. I usually can flex my butt and it subsides a little bit. Well, tonight I didn’t.

I unranked it and walked it out. The weight felt overwhelming and I was getting dizzy. My vision was so crazy in fact that I totally forgot to flex my butt. In the video I took you can see me wobbling and I was obviously on the verge of passing out.

Then it felt like I just snorted a ton of chlorinated water up my nose, every spot on my body shot with pins and needles. I tossed the bar away from me and then lost all equilibrium. I can relate it to getting rocked when fighting. I couldn’t keep me feet under me and I told myself to get on the ground before i went out. I supermaned out and put my cheek on the floor. EVERYTHING in my brain was telling me to just go to sleep. Then i realized fellow lifters would be showing up soon and I didn’t want them to find me laying on the floor looking stupid, so I forced myself to stay awake.

I could feel my heartbeat hard in my upper back and had the random thought, “did you just have a heart attack?”…I figured this was nonsense, so i moved onto a stroke…Deduced that that was a dumb thought then started feeling better. Stood up and was basely ok afterwards.

I have been knocked out, choked out and have been very badly concussed in fighting, but this is the closest I have ever come to passing out while lifting. My head was (and still is) a little bit foggy, but I was able to hit a 750 Farmer’s Handle Deadlift after, so i guess it was nothing too serious.

This feeling only ever happens to me on very heavy front squats…Has anyone else ever had this happen?[/quote]

Based on your front squat grip it may be that you are pinching your carotid artery, cutting off blood flow to your brain.

1111

I’m 44. I have spun my wheels trying to lift bigger and perform better in short races. I’ve given up and now separate the priorties.

1112

Alpha Dude! Dude you almost passed out then went and DL’ed 750lb? You are Alpha! Hope your feeling okay today and just to throw in my 2 cents. Granted im not doing full FS but when I started heavy partial FS I almost had that happen to me a couple of times, when I would take a breath to brace I would feel like all the pressure was in my face and not my diaphragm, also I would feel really short on oxygen. So to fix that I would take a couple of quick short breaths really focusing on sucking in and pushing out with my diaphragm before the big breath, that fixed my problem :confused: Thats my 2 cents hope that helps dude!

1113

Man I get the light headed / dizzy feeling after setting up for heavy front squats quite often. Sometimes I’ll have to stand with the weight for a good 5 seconds until it subsides and I can start my set. I should probably play it safe and re rack the bar in case I pass out but you know how it is…if anyone could explain more about the carotid artery and how to avoid pinching it I wouldn’t mind hearing.

Might be a stupid question Alpha but could you explain what a burpee bar touch is? Thanks man.

1114

Hi Alpha just read your log about when you almost passed. I hope it’s nothing related to your brain tumor issue . Your log is always inspirational and always hope the best for you.

1115

That’s why I call them choke squats. Seriously, glad you are well.

The most inspirational part of this is how you nonchalantly just keep going. With 700lbs nonetheless.

1116

[quote]Joe_89 wrote:
if anyone could explain more about the carotid artery and how to avoid pinching it I wouldn’t mind hearing.
[/quote]

If you take a look at where the carotid crosses the clavicle (just Google “carotid clavicle” for a bunch of images), you’ll see how people who front squat with the bar really pushing up against the throat could press on that artery. This isn’t a big deal for for lighter weights, but when you’re talking hundreds of pounds and a setup that takes a few seconds, I can definitely understand why people would get light headed or even faint.

1117

[quote]LiftingStrumpet wrote:

[quote]Joe_89 wrote:
if anyone could explain more about the carotid artery and how to avoid pinching it I wouldn’t mind hearing.
[/quote]

If you take a look at where the carotid crosses the clavicle (just Google “carotid clavicle” for a bunch of images), you’ll see how people who front squat with the bar really pushing up against the throat could press on that artery. This isn’t a big deal for for lighter weights, but when you’re talking hundreds of pounds and a setup that takes a few seconds, I can definitely understand why people would get light headed or even faint.
[/quote]

Thanks man, I’ll check it out.

1118

jzy50309: Firstly, thank you so much for your kind words, they really do mean a lot. Secondly, I think you are right. What you and others have said about it cutting off blood flow to my brain I think is right on. I think i am going to try different bar placements to see if it makes a difference. I am really hoping for a 500lb front squat soon, so hopefully the change will help out with that. Thanks again brother!

xXSeraphimXx: Yea, i think you are right man. I place the bar as far back as possible in an attempt to keep as much weight over my spine as I can. It doesn’t bother me when weights are lighter, so I think it is time to change things up. Thanks for the input!

JRT6: I am sorry to hear that man. i hope you don’t give it all up. Hopefully you can steal a few ideas out of here that may give you some better results. I wish you luck brother!

FarmerOwen: Thanks man, i am trying to do my best. And i will definitely try what you outlined to see if it helps! Thanks so much for the suggestion!

joe_89: Yea man, I would try flexing your butt hard after you walk it out, that seems to help me to an extent. And Burpee Bar touches are where you set up under a pull-up bar that is at least a foot above your extended vertical reach. You perform a burpee and then rather than just leaving the ground at the top of the movement, you perform a vertical jump and touch the bar. Rinse and repeat! Thanks for asking boss!

Blackiebluewings: Thanks so much for what you said man, and I hadn’t even thought of my brain tumor being in the equation. I don’t think that is the problem but is definitely something to take into consideration. I am feeling fine after the incident, and really appreciate you asking!

Captain Needa: Yea man, it was funny because my brain felt pretty fuzzy afterward but I had time to kill before I had to run the next workout. I knew continental clean & presses were probably a bad idea, so vacillated back and fourth about trying Farmer’s walk deadlifts. I actually got the bars out, put them back, then got them out again and told myself that I would just do a few light sets…A few sets later I had 750 loaded and pulled it. Probably not the smartest move, but like they saying goes, “if you’re gonna be dumb, you gotta be tough.” I’m an idiot and wouldn’t recommend anyone else try it, but it worked out for me that time. Thanks for checking in brother!

LiftingStrumpet: I googled what you were talking about and I think you hit the nail on the head. I am going to keep playing around with different things to see if I can work around it. I really don’t want a replay of that incident! Thanks so much for your input and help with this!

joe_89: The avatar is confusing but LiftingStrumpet is actually … A WOMAN! one of the few that keeps a log here on T-Nation. She is a killer, so i wouldn’t make that mistake again! just kidding brother, she is beyond cool.

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“I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.” --Edward Everett Hale

“The thing about a hero, is even when it doesn’t look like there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, he’s going to keep digging, he’s going to keep trying to do right and make up for what’s gone before, just because that’s who he is.” --Joss Whedon

FRIDAY, 30JANUARY2015 - Work For Today
Wave 4/Day 8

CONDITIONING - 10, 8, 6, 4, 2 Reps Of
Squats @ 500lbs
Kettlebell Turkish Get-Ups @ 88lbs

STRENGTH
1 Deadlift @ 560lbs
1 Deadlift @ 585lbs
1 Deadlift @ 605lbs
1 Deadlift @ 625lbs
1 Deadlift @ 635lbs
1 Deadlift @ 635lbs

EVENTS - 5 Rounds
Ghetto Car Deadlift: As Many Reps As Possible in :60 Seconds. Used 650lbs

NOTES:

  • I had to break up my set of 10 squats into 2 sets, but then hit all reps as posted from that point on.
  • Feel like my deadlift is finally starting to come back around
  • The ghetto car deadlift is always a beast.
  • Was a TON of work early this morning, but I got through it and am definitely taking tomorrow off with how I feel right now. I think I would feel better if a truck ran over me 12 times…

***So the log hit over 100,000 views. That is a pretty big deal for me and I’d really like to extend my gratitude to all of you who have posted and have kept me motivated throughout this one. I plan on starting another and this one should be getting locked in a few posts. I really, really cannot say how much all of your kind words, helpful tips and great questions have helped keep me motivated to continue to keep this log going. I truly do appreciate it, it means more than all of you know.

1119

when i was 17 i was clean and strict pressing outside in very hot conditions with 175lbs and passed out with the bar above my head as the bar came down i was aware enough to try to push it away from me. i fell down and my Dad by chance happened to come outside and found me unconscious. i had a slight bang on my head but was fine.

have felt light headed many times when pressing but nothing similar has happened since. sometimes when i walk away from the bar i can feel slightly dizzy/hard to stay on my feet. occasionally get that deadlifting too. fuck this all sounds quite bad typing it out lol but it doesnt happen often.

id say its most dangerous pressing or squatting so always have safety bars in place if available.

1120

also regarding the 100k views you’re posts are genuinely inspirational and i by no means say that lightly.

when i first read your log 5 years ago or whenever it was i went from thinking i was bringing intensity to my training to thinking i was a complete pussy and increasing my volume and frequency and attitude pretty much instantly.

keep it up and i wish you all the best in training and life.