That is strong pulling, MCL. Nice PRs on the deads and rack pulls.
Nice liftin’ MCL. I have no doubt that you will pull 500 before the year’s end.
Nice PR mcl! I’m thinkin’ you’re way ahead of me on the deadlift. I just started the rack pulls damned if 365 didn’t feel heavy from the kneecaps.
Thanks Soldog, LittleStrick, jjackkrash.
Soldog: I seem to be quad-dominant. Not just in my legs, but my entire body. Apparently my quads and calves are the two places I was blessed with any sort of genetics. Once my back is strong enough to stay straight and tight for a given weight, it just seems to go right up.
So the rackpulls seem to come somewhat easy to me, since all I’m doing is letting the bar hang and just squatting it up, basically.
Of course, incorporating meat’s feedback to someone else about making sure I’m setting up with my shoulders no farther than directly above the bar, and starting a little bit back helped a lot too. 
Maybe next week I can get 495 up once. If not, I’ll try 475 for a double.
MCL
nice work nice pulling
I found the rack pulls- strange
If I start too low they are harder for me then pulling off the floor-
raising the pin even one hole-3inches let me do far far more- so they didnt do to much for me.
but strong pulling on your end.
Dammit, today completely sucked.
Cycle 5, Week 1, Day 3:
Warmups: the usual, plus YTWL done with 10lb dbs. And 10@bar, 10@95.
Bench: 5@135, 5@160, 5@180 (didn’t even try to rep out. My shoulder was warning me off).
Tried benching from pins for the first time today. My power rack only has 5(? might be 4, I don’t recall) pin placements, each 6" apart. I wound up using one that put the bar about 3 boards off my chest. The next lower pin placement would’ve had the bar on my chest.
Anyway, 4@225 (PR) 0@245, 1@235(PR)
BBB: 5x10@135 (full ROM). Last 2 sets were each 2x5, since my shoulder was complaining.
Tried to do 5x5 cleans @135, but my shoulder bitched so much, I only got 2 sets.
Same with the dips. Tried 5x9, only managed 1x9.
Even tried to do some deep pushups, but after 4 the pain wouldn’t let me keep my elbows in. That’s when I knew it was time to say, “Screw it!” and throw in the towel.
Hopefully it’ll heal up over the weekend. Right now it hurts to move my right arm, and I’ve got some shooting pain in my deltoid. Joy.
If it doesn’t go away, I’ll call the specialist I saw a few weeks ago and bump up my next visit, maybe get an MRI done.
Sometimes I think the bench press is a evil exercise. If my shoulder starts to act up again I may drop bench for a couple cycles and do dips. Wendler now benches with only 18 inches between his index fingers to take stress off his shoulders. I’ve been doing the same. Hope your shoulder feels better.
problem with me is that dips also aggravate my shoulder. I usually do very wide dips to hit my pecs, but I’ve recently switched to doing them close-in. Guess I’m doomed to forever be tricep-dominant.
Well, the shoulder feels better today. We’ll see how it does tomorrow.
Cycle 5, Week 1, Day 4:
Warmup: usual (YTWL done with 12lb DBs), plus 10@bar, 6@135 (because I was raring to get at the squats).
Squats: 5@220, 5@250, 7@285 (PR)
Zerchers (from pin 2, parallel): 2x5@245, 5@265(PR), 2@275(PR), 1@295(PR), 1@315(PR).
I scared myself, because the 315 went up easy. I had at LEAST another 20 pounds in the tank. Didn’t try for it though.
Leg curls: 4x5@60, 5@65. Decided to back off on these and work back up to 80, to give the hams a bit of variation and a break.
Weight: 250, but I’m not complaining, because I had a half-rack of BBQ ribs Saturday night, and a New Orleans brunch (incl. beignets) Sunday morning.
Also, I have to say that there’s nothing manlier than getting into position to push some really heavy weight, getting tight, and beginning the movement only to let rip an obnoxiously loud fart all the way up. Better yet, not giving a damn.
[quote]mcl wrote:
Well, the shoulder feels better today. We’ll see how it does tomorrow.
Cycle 5, Week 1, Day 4:
Warmup: usual (YTWL done with 12lb DBs), plus 10@bar, 6@135 (because I was raring to get at the squats).
Squats: 5@220, 5@250, 7@285 (PR)
Zerchers (from pin 2, parallel): 2x5@245, 5@265(PR), 2@275(PR), 1@295(PR), 1@315(PR).
I scared myself, because the 315 went up easy. I had at LEAST another 20 pounds in the tank. Didn’t try for it though.
Leg curls: 4x5@60, 5@65. Decided to back off on these and work back up to 80, to give the hams a bit of variation and a break.
Weight: 250, but I’m not complaining, because I had a half-rack of BBQ ribs Saturday night, and a New Orleans brunch (incl. beignets) Sunday morning.
Also, I have to say that there’s nothing manlier than getting into position to push some really heavy weight, getting tight, and beginning the movement only to let rip an obnoxiously loud fart all the way up. Better yet, not giving a damn.
[/quote]
I have at least 5 vids with good examples of some really squeaky tight farts in them.
I’m beginning to wonder how I can manage a 315 lb Zercher from parallel, but can’t push much more than that in my squat. Looking at folks like jjackkrash, their squat’s typically much heavier than their zercher.
I also ran into an interesting phenomenon today: I think I finally have my elbows forward enough. How do I know? I kept ramming them into my thighs on the downward component of my squats!
[quote]mcl wrote:
I also ran into an interesting phenomenon today: I think I finally have my elbows forward enough. How do I know? I kept ramming them into my thighs on the downward component of my squats![/quote]
That also probably means you are hitting good depth, at least it does for me.
Awesome Zercher PRs there, mcl!
[quote]mcl wrote:
I’m beginning to wonder how I can manage a 315 lb Zercher from parallel, but can’t push much more than that in my squat. Looking at folks like jjackkrash, their squat’s typically much heavier than their zercher.[/quote]
Different leverages for different folks. I wouldn’t think too much about it, just keep nailing PR’s.
Really nice PRs, mcl! You are really making progress! Great work!
I think I am the same. I haven’t worked towards a maximal zercher, but would guess it is very close to my squat max.
Great PRs! But, now you got me wondrin whether I am good a squats or if I suck a Zerchers, proportionately speaking. :). I hit a 315 Zercher this weekend from low pins, and it damn near killed me. I thought my eyes might come out of my head. I am pretty sure I could hit 10 reps with 315 on squats (got 11 with 305 last week). I am thinking a Zercher will expose a week core, so maybe that’s my issue.
[quote]jjackkrash wrote:
Great PRs! But, now you got me wondrin whether I am good a squats or if I suck a Zerchers, proportionately speaking. :). I hit a 315 Zercher this weekend from low pins, and it damn near killed me. I thought my eyes might come out of my head. I am pretty sure I could hit 10 reps with 315 on squats (got 11 with 305 last week). I am thinking a Zercher will expose a week core, so maybe that’s my issue.
[/quote]
A weak core? I would think that all of that skiing would give you a core of steel!?
Cycle 5, Week 2, Day 1:
OW OW OW OW OW.
Well, so much for the “my shoulders feel ok” thing.
Warmup: the usual, plus 10@bar.
Military Press: 3@90, 3@100, 8@115 (PR)
Things were fine, until I decided to try a couple of Anderson squats, just to see how they go. I had a choice of my normal pin placement when I squat, which is about 3 inches below parallel, or the pin above, which is 6" higher than that, so 3" above parallel. I went with the higher pin, just to get the hang of it.
I set up by bending over, getting my back on the bar and my hands in place, and then moving my lower body forward. Perform the movement, finish, get out from under the bar. For some reason, this REALLY tweaked both my shoulders. I’ve got shooting pains on the outside and insides of both my arms from this.
Anyway,
Anderson back squats: 1@225, 1@275, 1@315, 1@365 (all PR for the Anderson, since I’ve never done them before, and the 365 is a PR in general for any squat movement I do.
After those, my shoulders were worthless. my arms were shaking, and I couldn’t move them to chest height without some deal of pain. Nonetheless…
standing 1-arm DB overhead presses: 5x5@60 (PR)
DB front lateral raise: 5x5@20
front raise: 5@20. Hurt like hell, so I switched to 2x5@15, then gave up.
side raise: same thing. 5@20, too much pain, switched to 2x5@15, and gave up.
As I’m writing this, the pain’s shooting as far down as my elbows. I really don’t want to have to make an unscheduled trip to the doctor again. 
Weight: 248.
And just to add insult to injury: This morning, while riding the motorcycle to work, I got hit in the neck and promptly stung by a bee or wasp or something while doing about 75 on the highway. Couldn’t stop or even slow down to deal with it for 40 minutes. Had to ride the whole way in gritting my teeth and putting up with the pain and praying the little bastard wasn’t still alive and somewhere trapped in my leathers.
[quote]mcl wrote:
Cycle 5, Week 2, Day 1:
OW OW OW OW OW.
Well, so much for the “my shoulders feel ok” thing.
Warmup: the usual, plus 10@bar.
Military Press: 3@90, 3@100, 8@115 (PR)
Things were fine, until I decided to try a couple of Anderson squats, just to see how they go. I had a choice of my normal pin placement when I squat, which is about 3 inches below parallel, or the pin above, which is 6" higher than that, so 3" above parallel. I went with the higher pin, just to get the hang of it.
I set up by bending over, getting my back on the bar and my hands in place, and then moving my lower body forward. Perform the movement, finish, get out from under the bar. For some reason, this REALLY tweaked both my shoulders. I’ve got shooting pains on the outside and insides of both my arms from this.
Anyway,
Anderson back squats: 1@225, 1@275, 1@315, 1@365 (all PR for the Anderson, since I’ve never done them before, and the 365 is a PR in general for any squat movement I do.
After those, my shoulders were worthless. my arms were shaking, and I couldn’t move them to chest height without some deal of pain. Nonetheless…
standing 1-arm DB overhead presses: 5x5@60 (PR)
DB front lateral raise: 5x5@20
front raise: 5@20. Hurt like hell, so I switched to 2x5@15, then gave up.
side raise: same thing. 5@20, too much pain, switched to 2x5@15, and gave up.
As I’m writing this, the pain’s shooting as far down as my elbows. I really don’t want to have to make an unscheduled trip to the doctor again.
Weight: 248.[/quote]
Okay - that’s something different from mere discomfort. You’re pounding on some nerves and maybe shouldn’t do Anderson squats anymore.