Ha, I get pretty angry at the gym when people leave their weights around. I might have muttered quietly before but I tell them to put them away now.
Hope the sinuses get better. I had sinusitis with my last cold. It sucks.
Hi Alexus!
I get sinusitis too, usually from allergies. I usually use a saltwater rinse for it, I find it way better than any medication I’ve tried. What do you use?
big yeah for finding the joy 
and working on energy/attitude. this will serve you in many ways beyond the gym.
It makes me happy to hear about your walking stride and confidence.
If you were at my gym when anger fueled awesome lifts, you’ll get a PR every damn day lol
I actually don’t do anything for my sinuses (I know smoking is the main culprit). The feeling of water going down my nose is repugnant to me. I should try and get used to saline rinses, though, if they save me from the odd sinus infection it would probably be worth it.
I think it is about empowerment. Being confident enough to stand up for oneself instead of not even trying. About the weights primarily. But about other stuff, too, I guess, or why would one bother trying to lift the weights at all? I’m too much of a peacekeeper / pacifist for anger to last for very long… But I do need to figure out how to find something I can call on to use to lift the weight… Or maybe it is just about my learning that it is okay to be angry sometimes. That it can be used to non-harmful effect.
MONDAY:
usual warm-up.
SNATCH
35kg 1, 1, 1
36kg 1
37kg 1
37.5kg 0, 0, 0, 0
caught the last one but spent too long contemplating before trying to stand it up then legs failed. needed to get more aggressive / yell a bit louder to finish the pull properly, but feeling a bit self conscious with people around.
FRONT SQUAT
weights feeling heavy today so a bit of a deload. Racks were being used by squatters so front squatted from the uprights instead.
sets of 5 @
15, 20, 25, 30kg
35kg 3x5
30, 25, 20, 15kg
done.
[quote]alexus wrote:
Or maybe it is just about my learning that it is okay to be angry sometimes. That it can be used to non-harmful effect.
[/quote]
this.
anger is human and normal. it’s how you channel it that can turn you into a monster.
I think we all lose the joy at times in this sport. Whether because of getting injured, plateauing, or just sheer frustration with trying to conquer a new lift or movement. Honestly, I think this is what keeps me interested in this sport. I tend to get bored easily in life. But I can’t imagine ever getting bored with this sport because of its seemingly endless variables.
Stay the course. You’re doing great!
Well–if it were easy, there wouldn’t be much point in doing it, right?
I’m still getting caught up in here but I really enjoy your perspective on lifting and how it affects your overall mentality of life.
Glad you are having some fun with it. That’s the main thing, it really is. Hope your sinuses are on the mend. Stop with the smokin’. I’m also freakin’ tired of people leaving their 45s on everything. That’s one reason I like to get in there first thing in the morning, before all the social rejects have screwed everything up. So people will leave their pile of DBs in the middle of the floor. Not even next to the damn bench. ANGRY! CHANNEl IT, ALEXUS!!! NOW GO THROW SOME HEAVY SH*T!!!
I hate putting liquids in my nose as well.
Don’t be self-conscious about grunting and stuff around others. I love to do it, just feels hawt lol
Those are some nice front squats.
bio dictated deload time. which explains why my last squat session felt weak
functions work today (so feet and lumbar spine feeling particularly wrecked) so after a fair bit of angst… decided to take a day off and really try and get a good squat session in tomorrow.
i think… i do need to prioritize squats. even if it means my snatch progress stalls or even regresses a bit. i will try and figure a way to keep it manageable re: joy. but i need a bodyweight squat. low bar back squat to just below parallell or whatthefuckever. i need a bodyweight squat dammit. i’ll reassess my priorities once i’ve got that. i will do:
- 5x5 front squat
- 8x3 front squat
- 5x5 back squat
- try and have some fun with squat (as a volume day or a light day or a max day or whatever i feel like)
taking 1-2 days rest (as seems appropriate) between squat sessions until i’ve got my bodyweight squat. dammit. doing more front than back because front has the best carryover for Oly Lifting. doing low bar back squat because after much playing around with the bar… heavier weights (for me) just don’t seem to sit comfortably in the high bar position - and the main point of back squats is for me to get used to moving heavier weights anyway. especially since i don’t deadlift anymore…
but as for ‘have you thought about sets of 15 reps?’ the answer to that is HELL NOES!!! i’ll leave the rep-volume for other people, methinks :-/
Emotion–anger–doesn’t improve my performance or at least I have never thought to try to use it for that. It’s all breath and concentration for me.
if your working on form and strength high volume reps aren’t the key. I know my form on squat goes very shitty after 5 reps.
hmm. what about single legged stuff? Maybe making the squats more exotic will help? Bulgarians with a barbell?
gasp…i hate typing this but maybe zerchers? :{but i guess not if you’re just wanting to be more comfortable having wt on you back. You can try walk outs, no pressure, just having wt on the bar and walking out with it, reloading it.
I find after a few max effort attempts or even a fail or two jumping down to much lower wt–but still a decent amount like 70%- afterwards feels almost too easy. kinda like a tricky way to fool myself that its not that heavy compared to the last try.
but don’t stress out or be too hard on yourself over them…then it might turn into a monster of a lift that you absolutely loathe. then its much harder to get anywhere on it. do the reps you feel work for you,takes breaks, train them when you are ready and know you are not alone! we all have enemy lifts :{ saying this i know that;s no real condolence but alas…
Yes, sometimes you definitely need the rest.
And what Frenchie says is right. High reps are OK for certain things but on lifts where poor form can translate into a back injury, I’d advise against it. Endurance isn’t what you’re going for.
[quote]alexus wrote:
I actually don’t do anything for my sinuses (I know smoking is the main culprit). The feeling of water going down my nose is repugnant to me. I should try and get used to saline rinses, though, if they save me from the odd sinus infection it would probably be worth it.
[/quote]
I use a bottle with a side plunger that squirts it up into my nose, so I don’t have to snort it up, and I bend over the sink, so it does not go down my throat. The first time I had to do it I had to get up the courage but after that it’s nothing.
However you could just try a saline nasal spray(just a mist), if it has no decongestant in it and is just saline you can use it as much as you want. I’ve even found some with screw tops so you can mix your own saline solution. If I don’t use the saline I have to get a steroidal nasal spray which is way more expensive and not always as effective.
It’s funny you mentioned smoking, my allergies didn’t show up until after I quit. lol
[quote]nlmain wrote:
if your working on form and strength high volume reps aren’t the key. I know my form on squat goes very shitty after 5 reps. [/quote]
Me too.
This is my gymnastics background talking, but in my experience form and technique work requires a volume approach to create the movement pattern that you want. Of course, when you’re trying to create a new movement pattern you must adopt a strict no shitty reps philosophy.
This often requires taking a step back. Whether these principles translate over to strength moves, I’m not sure. But, I’m doing a shit ton of BW squats right now with the goal of making that movement intuitive for lack of a better word. I don’t want to think when I get under the bar.
[quote]Nadia Comeandeat wrote:
Emotion–anger–doesn’t improve my performance or at least I have never thought to try to use it for that. It’s all breath and concentration for me. [/quote]
Same here. Anger is an inward emotion for me - I just can’t translate it to performance, not in the weight room and not on the field. But I may just be a freak.
Lex, I think your new squatting regime makes complete sense, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with cycling your training (I think i’ve said this before, i’m such a broken record FFS).
My coach just said this to me the other day:
It takes 5 years to learn to snatch, it takes another 5 years to find out how much weight you can snatch.
In other words, this is a long fucking process, which requires a lot of different kinds of training - high volume, low volume, stalling on one thing to improve another, then taking your improvements to overhaul something else…I think that’s just the nature of the game!
And I actually agree with Nadia and Mainy, the high volume is probably a great way to learn technique and bar path, the low volume is great for putting up big weight. And I’ll add that in my opinion, throwing in a set of high volume squats at a low weight at the end of a session is a great way to build muscle. I dread it, but my coach makes me do it - 10-12 rep squats, then some quarter squats…I’ll have to ask him what the purpose is for that…
That BW squat is coming your way!! You’ll see.
in terms of volume I’d rather hit 10 sets of 5 reps over 5 sets of 10 reps. The breather between sets reminds me to reset my cues, something I don’t do if I’m just churning them out.