Looking forward to squats tomorrow and high rep deadlifts.
I’m planning on doing my partial pause squats up to a max and then performing a pump set of 15 deficit deadlifts. I think I can get away with 315 on a 3-inch box, but it’s gonna be a challenge.
I think that I’ve been chronically overtrained. These last few workouts are the least total volume I’ve done in about a year, not counting the time off for injury. All the little sorenesses and tightnesses are going away and I’m beginning to realize how much I used those to tell me that I was having an effect.
The real effect to pay attention to is whether I’m lifting more weight than the last time I tried that lift. Whether my muscles feel tight is not an accurate measure of how strong I will be.
I only learned that same lesson the past few months, Skidmark. It took an external time limitation on training sessions for me to figure it out: Feeling like having been beaten to exhaustion with a baseball bat through n+1 sets is not identical with a successful training session. It looks like you will have to fight strongly ingrained tendencies to accept it, but I think it will pay off big time for you in recovery and gains.
Pause squats (work sets to 5th pin, 6" abv ||)
365x4 (PR reps)
395x2
415x0
365x1 (strip the 25’s and lift from bottom)
405x1
Sumo DL
325x12
couldn’t get myself down that low anymore changed to conventional stance for last three reps
325x3
Weighted crunches
135 3x15
Weighted 1 hand hangs
BW+35 2x20sec
I just can’t count any PRs I got at LA Fitness a while back. I’m pretty sure their 45 lb plates aren’t 45 lbs. Probably 40 which would be right in line with the weights I’m currently lifting vs the number of plates I had on the bar there. How disappointing, that a whole business would lie to its patrons implicitly like that. The dumbbells and cable stacks are honest but I think the plates are faux.
I’m still coming in too tentatively on the squats during my setup. I need to dominate the weight, regardless the poundage. I’ve seen videos of a young lifter who pops that bar off the uprights almost as soon as he gets under it, irrespective of poundage. His setup is so smooth and practiced that he can pop it, step back and squat in less time than it takes to tell it. It’s served him well as he’s speeding past 500 lbs. I need to do that.
Good squats today, using more glute and hams to put the weight up but I need to pause longer on the pins. Speed deads weren’t very speedy, but I rarely do sumo squats (edit: DEADS!) and so I’ll have to burn in the technique. I don’t like them. They’re uncomfortable and work areas I’m not strong in - so, of course, I have to keep doing them. I’ll keep the weight the same for next speed/rep dead session.
[quote]j_willy3 wrote:
What an Avatar! Also sounds like upon reflection you have gained some insight. Getting self perspective is a real challenge at times.[/quote]
It’s a real challenge ALL the time for me. I don’t know about other people but I often find myself in the position of wanting something so badly, getting so caught up in pursuing it, that I won’t notice that I’m possibly hurting myself and those around me.
[quote]1Geech wrote:
I only learned that same lesson the past few months, Skidmark. It took an external time limitation on training sessions for me to figure it out: Feeling like having been beaten to exhaustion with a baseball bat through n+1 sets is not identical with a successful training session. It looks like you will have to fight strongly ingrained tendencies to accept it, but I think it will pay off big time for you in recovery and gains. [/quote]
I do believe you’re right Geech. I guess that what discipline is about. Almost 46 years old and still learning it, I guess.
For me it’s going to be a redefinition of what is “effective.” What I haven’t worked into the plan is recovery. I’ve given lip service to it, can spout the conventional wisdom about it, but I now need to actually perform (or NOT perform) the actions required to practice recovery. I’ll just have to deal with my fears and anxieties about not doing enough work to get stronger. Today’s session is a dollop of evidence that I don’t need to work as much volume as I have been to get the result I’m looking for.
However, it will require that I be totally present for each rep performed. None of them can be perfunctory and I have to push as far as I can in the sets that I have.
[quote]skidmark wrote:
it will require that I be totally present for each rep performed. None of them can be perfunctory and I have to push as far as I can in the sets that I have.[/quote]
That is it exactly. Give your few sets all you have in their ‘here and now’. Then just walk away; it is over; you’re done.
I think what it really comes down to is that most of us who are on this site just truly LOVE to lift. We don’t “find time to workout”, we schedule our day/week/the next six-months around our workouts.
A day off for us, means extra time in the gym.
Our Christmas Wish list is filled with bars, chains, belts, straps, etc…
Our hard-drives have files detailing all of our past workout programs (and maybe even some future programs).
We talk about strengthening our “posterior chain” like other people talk about their 401K.
We like that tingling sensation that you get when you are almost ready to pass out.
Moving stones in the yard is GPP and not yardwork.
We offer to chop other people’s fire wood for fun.
I am sure that you all can add additional comments.
mday
I think what it really comes down to is that most of us who are on this site just truly LOVE to lift. We don’t “find time to workout”, we schedule our day/week/the next six-months around our workouts.
A day off for us, means extra time in the gym.
Our Christmas Wish list is filled with bars, chains, belts, straps, etc…
Our hard-drives have files detailing all of our past workout programs (and maybe even some future programs).
We talk about strengthening our “posterior chain” like other people talk about their 401K.
We like that tingling sensation that you get when you are almost ready to pass out.
Moving stones in the yard is GPP and not yardwork.
We offer to chop other people’s fire wood for fun.
I am sure that you all can add additional comments.
mday
[/quote]
Yes, certainly.
My comments were written only to be applied to myself. I do, for whatever reason, enjoy lifting. I enjoy succeeding at lifting more, though. My enjoyment of lifting is inhibiting my success at lifting currently and so I need to change my perspective and my actions in that area.
I expect many of us here are Type A personalities. Don’t even know if the term is still used. Point is, we can’t just jog. We have to see how fast we can run. We can’t just lift weights, we have to see how much we can lift. Look at the threads here. Even those who started with the purpose of loosing some weight and looking better nekked are looking for gains in the amount they lift.
We also feed of each others enthusiam. One persons PR motivates us to push harder ourself. I think this is great but it isn’t conducive to backing off. Sometimes we just have to remember recuperation is part of the process. At least for you old guys, that is.
Chins with 95 pounds strapped to your ass… FEH! One handed grip hangs with added weight… double FEH FEH!!
And Hel320 hit the nail on the head…
Skid, you are one strong individual! Both physically and mentally. Being able to look inside yourself and dissect what you are doing, how you are doing it and why… and being honest and open with yourself is awesome.
Your self narrative really causes me to take stock of myself… thanks.
[quote]skidmark wrote:
Thinking about doing an old farts meet in August or October. Couple of meets hap’nin’ near here and I may go contribute some old farts…
I was thinking of competing while wearing a bag on my head with a photo of one of my avatars on it.
Suggestions?[/quote]
Use the 2 legged horse avatar, if you can work the animation. Although, the guy in the pink thing or the Michael Jackson look-alike might be a better strategy. Your competition might be puking too much to lift.
Pause squats (work sets to 5th pin, 6" abv ||)
365x4 (PR reps)
395x2
415x0
365x1 (strip the 25’s and lift from bottom)
405x1
Sumo DL
325x12
couldn’t get myself down that low anymore changed to conventional stance for last three reps
325x3
Weighted crunches
135 3x15
Weighted 1 hand hangs
BW+35 2x20sec
I just can’t count any PRs I got at LA Fitness a while back. I’m pretty sure their 45 lb plates aren’t 45 lbs.
[/quote]
Maybe that, maybe you were pumped being at a different gym (usually the opposite happens to me, and I am more tentative), maybe the pin heights varied more than you thought. In any event, you are pretty darned strong in my book.
Like when I have gotten annoyed when the train, metro or the bus comes two minutes late here: Compared to public transport in some places in the world, that is complaining at a pretty high level!
Could be - I always get a boost in training when I work out around other people. Just not a 50 lb boost. And I usually bring that result back into my home gym. My dumbbell lifts had that result, but all barbell exercises took only the normal uptick as if I had been doing the same weights all along.
I set the pins according to markers on my body so the pin heights were effectively the same though the cages differed between home and LAF.
As you allude to, it’s not that big a deal for me, I only had a week or two of mis-apprehension. And now I know what the weights to use next time I go to that facility - as I probably will. My wife likes to see her mother fairly frequently. It’s a good facility other than the light plates.
My leg adductors are telling me their problems and I have a serious ass-flexibility issue today. Those sumos are a keeper. If my squat hasn’t taken a jump from them I will be greatly surprised. Next lower session is rack pulls and pumper squats. I’m going to try triples after the max single.
Good work Skidder… at least with your misload you didn’t do like I did about 2 weeks ago (squat)… 3 plates on on one side and 2 on the other.
I was too busy watching a little college co-ed do her yoga thing… unracked the weight, almost blew out a testicle, then reracked it. Nobody noticed… I think.
Got that kick in the head feeling again - so I stopped. Didn’t have anything left for tri’s.
Went for a walk with the wife on the beach after. Stepped wrong and now the disk is yammering if I don’t step carefully.
[/quote]
It will probably take a bit of time to right yourself after your recent training intensity. (By the way, when was the last time you took a week off? Got one planned soon?) The beach sounds like it was a good prescription, even with that misstep. Hope your back is better now.