[quote]Dr.PowerClean wrote:
…5-8 reps for 4 sets with broomstick, 4 sets with the bar, and 4 sets with 105 lbs. Dropped some reps out front with the 105 and shook at times…sort of ridiculous but so be it.
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“First time back to the gym gonna warm up with 135 on the bench. Couldn’t lift it. Started over with the bar”, first thing I posted to you on joining TNation.
A journey of a thousand miles starts…with a trip to the john. Take it easy, get the flexibility and form back. Somewhere deep down your muscles remember what they need to do. You’ve got a bunch of shitty days to look forward to but then you’ll get to some good days. Don’t look at the desired end result yet. First goal, improve flexibility and form, no weight goal. One thing I’ve learned about oly lifting. Doesn’t matter how strong you are, without the form you ain’t gettin real far. Glad you’ve decided on a course. Jacta alea est, now get to it.
Definitely cheering for you Doc. We’re not all lifting sensibly ;o).
[quote]Dr.PowerClean wrote:
OK, I did some thinking (often a dangerous business for me.)
Time to focus. On what? The Master’s OL dream. It’s now or never on this idea. As much as I love powercleaning, it has given me no joy to powerclean the same old weights this past year. In fact I have enjoyed the powerlifting more, but even there I have just been using low rep training as my therapy for life. I actually see no crime in that, but doing periodic Olympic lifts without committment to a goal makes no sense at all at my age. In fact, it actually is dangerous, as my joints keep reminding me.
But I dont want to give up the dream just yet. I am making a commitment to OL for the next 6 months. If I can get myself competition ready by the end of that time, I will compete and keep competing until I either win that damn thing or break something trying. Once I run this thing out and get it out of my system, I can join the rest of you in sensible lifting for strength, health, vanity, whatever.
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Vanity Doc, vanity, all is vanity 
Keep us posted and we will keep cheering for you.
Well, thanks to you guys I have been doing pure OL stuff the last four days. I have a new thread, “The Now Or Never OL Competition Log” which I have started on the Olympic lifting forum. There’s no point in me posting those workouts here. But I want to keep up with you guys here. My body is in shock from workouts that even two years ago I could do without nearly as much stress to mind and body. I’m not whining, I think it’s mostly a medical issue. Lack of lifting endurance plus this damn vyvanse raises my pulse and blood pressure so much I get exhausted and red-faced, dizzy and nauseated easily. I am getting off this shit this week and I gotta find a way to overcome my lack of dopamine or whatever is wrong with me someway else. My doctors can’t help me, I have to figure this out myself (and with input from smart guys on this site).
If I can just get healthy, and more flexible, I am pretty sure I can do the lifts I need to do to compete well in Masters OL. Doc
[quote]pushharder wrote:
Doc, all this is fine and good but what are you and I going to do about a 2 - 4 Noles football team?[/quote]
Maybe this is why I am having dizzy spells and nausea, and often feel lost and confused.
Read your post over at oly lifting forum. Looks like you’ve got a plan. Should be able to get some good feedback there.
[quote]hel320 wrote:
Read your post over at oly lifting forum. Looks like you’ve got a plan. Should be able to get some good feedback there. [/quote]
I do, and I do. (I’m not proposing here, just answering you, but I do nave a man crush on you hel.) Actually you’re more like a combination of my Dad (tough as nails Vietnam vet) and and overgrown Yoda.
But I can’t give up this thread and the other old farts who are depressed, nuts, or hormonally impaired like me…just too much fun and therapy to give up. Doc
congrats on the new-found focus, Doc! I have found that life is much more tolerable (and occasionally even pleasant) when we have something to strive for. keep it up!
I echo MJ Doc. Your focus seems to add to a lot of others around here, mine included.
I echo MJ, Doc. It seems a lot of us are trying to channel your focus. I’m glad you are back again. I look forward to following your posts no matter where you put them.
I can’t walk very well today thanks to my front squats yesterday, but the double at 275 was rock bottom and promisingly strong. The refocusing on my OL dream has helped me realize many things. Hard training, even in my youth, was not all about fun. You have to put in the pain. As I got older I guess I have so much pain already (joints and life pain), that my training had become one continuous therapy session of hollering and getting an adrenaline rush from the lifts I find fun only. I convinced myself there was no crime there, which is true to a point, but I was kidding myself if I was ever going to accomplish anything other than impress a few newbies with my “PR’s” that arent really lifetime PR’s. In order for me to reach any goal of meaning to ME, I had to decide what that goal was and then devote myself to it. In OL, unfortunately, for me that means ALOT of pain. I find stretching boring and annoying. I find my lack of leg strength, in part due to my neuropathies, maddening. i find snatching very awkward and unnatural for me. And to my greatest chagrin, jerking has become very difficult. I used to jerk whatever I cleaned and to have it far behind is depressing.
Yet these very challenges and sacrifices I must make also make the goal all the more meaningful to me. It is a metaphor for my life. I had over two million dollars, now gone with the economy. I was retired and now must work until 65 or older. My marriage almost ended and I am trying to resurrect it. My pituitary doesnt work right for unknown reasons. These are the real challenges I must conquer. But I can’t focus on these all the time, every day. That’s why one must have outside goals in whatever it is that captures your heart and spirit.
Sorry if this sounds too melodramatic but I know there are many on this forum with similar challenges and perhaps we can all rub off on each other to find our way. My pursuit of an OL dream that really has no value or meaning to anyone but me is just my way of saying “I don’t care how high the odds are against me, I’m gonna give my best shot anyway.” Doc
Good luck to you. We all have our crap to deal with. Over 50 it takes so fucking long to get to where we want to go. The gains are there but they come in months, sometimes 12 of them. There’s no way my 455 zercher was possible 6 months ago. But I will go over 5 in about 90 days. I don’t let shitty workouts affect me like I used to. The last time I restarted from scratch I was so embarrassed of how weak I had become. I pray I will never have to go through that again. As you know, the wake doesn’t propel the boat. Don’t let what you lifted yesterday interfere with the joys that are to come with training. Fucking hard training. Enough of my crap, have a great weekend.
Your friend,
The Missouri Mule
sometimes its the only thing that keeps me sane
Barry, you are one of the folks that help inspire me…I remember a couple of years ago you could just about only do partial deads in the rack and you focused mainly on scaring the children with your cable rows. Now I see you pulling big numbers from the floor and doing Zerchers like a madman. It’s great, and you have a humble but persistently positive attitude. BTW, one of my goals is to catch you in bodyweight, I hit 262 today…where are you at? If I’m gonna lift super, I might as well BE a super.
mj, ditto. Lately three things keep me sane...some positive moments at work when I can help a young kid in distress, the dwindling but still precious moments shared with my now 17 year old son, and of course the workouts and sharing the iron life with you guys.
I pulled 405 for 5 today after sets of high clean pulls, and I could've done 2-3 more reps. The OL emphasis on deep squats, flexibility, speed etc made for a big jump here. I showed some unusual discipline for me in leaving it alone and not jumping up to 500 or more for ego. I am not a powerlifter. (at least not until my OL dream is done...but who knows what lies ahead after that!!) Doc
I’m hovering between 275-280 depending on consumption of red meat.BTW that’s a fucked up goal. I seldom hit the scales, that’s certainly is a negative. I know one day I will have to drop about 30 but i’m a clothes horse and can’t afford the recloth thing. My DL form is still a problem. Jimmy T and I will always have a 600 pipedream for me. Getting this old fat body tight down low is the issue, off 4" blocks 6 is easy. Some mental, mainly mechanics. Ankle flexibility from an old basketball blown achilleles. My sights right now are set on one of 2 powersport meets in Feb either in Texas or Missouri. In Texas i’d be with Jimmy T which is probably worth at least 50 lbs. The best to you and the family.
[quote]barryjenkins00 wrote:
I’m hovering between 275-280 depending on consumption of red meat.BTW that’s a fucked up goal. [/quote]
Not as fucked up as it sounds. For me stay fairly lean at around 230 like two years ago, I have to eat like a girl and avoid anything that resembles real food. Just eating lots of protein and healthy carbs and fats and my weight starts moving up fairly easily. The question is how solid…if I am training hard the added weight is at least half solid. That being said, the added solid weight helps my lifts, and that’s what I’m focusing on.
I did this in college and 300 was the weight at which any more eating would result in fat. I figure due to age, 275 would be about the most my body could hold. So its not really “your weight” that I want, my friend, just messing around as usual. Gotta keep my forum cred as “nuts,” right? Doc
if i wuz you, bein’ a doc an’ all, i’d write myself a big fat description fer test! That’ll keep the wait gain lean. 'Sides, at our age, who cares if our nuts shrivel up?
Slipped to page 2, I’m slacking or everyone’s bored with me. Trying not to whine, but I was in court five hours yesterday for a mediation to pay a big hunk of cash to the second mortgage on the house that I no longer have. It was either make a settlement or go bankrupt…so I made one which makes me an indentured servant (slave) to them for the next ten years. Plus this kinda shit drives my wife even crazier than me, although I will say she didnt totally flip last night, just gave me shit about the new weightlifting shoes that just arrived. Guess I’m gonna have to give up trying all sorts of fancy supplements or gear from now on and just stick with good protein.
It's tough but once again I have to remember at least half of America is really struggling.
Since I use this forum to vent, I will say shit like this temporarily kills my spirit to lift, and then when the anger comes all I want to do is bench and deadlift. What are you gonna do with me guys?
I aint giving up the OL dream...I told everyone six months of committment and I'm sticking to it, just want you guys to know what I'm dealing with. Nobody gives a shit about my lifting except you guys, seriously, so that's either great that I have this forum or sort of a pathetic thing. I do wonder...am I just supposed to be a provider and work my ass off until I die or have a stroke, like my father?
This is what I was taught is the role of a man, and this is what my old school wife expects. Does anybody else feel like this? Sometimes I wonder if we are all a bit too self-indulgent on this forum trying to reach these meaningless lifting/bodybuilding goals and trying to maintain the sex life of a twenty year old.
Sorry for the sour philosophic commentary but that’s what you get from an old shrink lifter. Doc