Brute's Book

Training
1041

Sorry to hear your back is being goofy again. This literally just popped in my head as I was typing though: Several months back I was hitting the deadlifts hard, but the weight just kept feeling heavy. My back was mad at me more often than not and I couldn’t figure out why. Something (I forget what) made me take a look at my deadlift form again and it turned out I was pulling just up, not up and back.

So once the weight cleared my knees my low back had to sort of hold onto it until my hips got under my shoulders (if that makes sense). Once my back was good to go again I made sure to be pulling up and back; not only did the weight feel lighter (duh! :D) but my back wasn’t getting crushed. Dunno if that’s got any bearing on you or if your dairy theory is closer to the truth but I thought I’d share. GD cheese! shakes fist

I can empathize with you feeling touchy. I don’t know what’s got up my butt but I’ve been pretty aggro for the last week or so. Maybe it’s the heat finally settling in (100+ down here, hooray), who knows. Stretch, pet Nigel, and meditate on your awesomeness; that might help. :slight_smile:

Finally, from a pet perspective I think my cat might be a little dog in a cat suit. He follows me around a lot and prefers to nap in whatever room I’m in. He also likes to curl up directly on my foot. Is such a thing possible, in your professional opinion? grin

1042


It seems something has crawled up my ass too. I don’t know about ranch dressing and cheese–I’m pretty sure only good can come from those, but something tells me that my hormones are pretty wacky too.

And I can totally relate with the meet talk. I’m not particularly competitive (aside from wanting to be the baddest motherfucker around). I just want some new (legit) PRs to claim and to have a good time with friends and other like-minded individuals. Meets are exciting and getting ready for them is fun. Can’t wait to see how things go for you.

I must have missed this before…is there a lingering back issue, or past injury?

1043

Love your deadlifts and your dairy/hormone induced grumpiness made me laugh a little. I know how that feels. Sometimes I feel like I shouldn’t be allowed to make decisions near a certain time of the months…Speaking of which, I’m nearing mine too. Is is weird that we’re all getting it at the same time?

1044

Kristof–YES. You have a mutant kitty. Save his body for science. :smiley: I think you just got lucky and have a real cutie kitty. I don’t have a cat myself and have only had outdoor ones in the past. I only see them when they are psycho and pissed at the clinic :smiley: you?ve got a keeper :slight_smile:

I’m not sure about my dl?s being a prob. …I feel rather optimistic about those lately. I remembered PMPM saying how her coach when feeling back pain would do some dl?s and it?d go away. So I did light ones after the squat attempts and it did help strech it out :slight_smile:

Hey Buckeye–I wasn’t thinking of the right word before but you got them- legit PR?s. ones you film are good too but not that special icing like the meet ones have.

And yep. I have a past back injury. Nothing I’ve gone to get diagnosed or looked at professionally by anyone but a lower back prob that flares up time and again for me.

First time happened in 2008 then again in may or june of last year, and again in January of this year to until about april or may. I’m sure if I went and got whatever done to see what the problem is it’d be something --yet I feel that it pops up psychosomatically when I’m down emotionally. Totally convinced of that. January’s flare up was the worst. I quit dl?s for a month and had to start up from scratch afterwards to get them up very slowly.

All of these flare ups relate to some time in my life that I was patricianly stressed or down about something major. Or I have negative people and psychic vampires in my small inner circle biding for my vibes. MIND BODY MADNESS.

It comes and goes and I don’t want to know if its real (disk shit, nerve shit whatever) yet… My family has MS in its genes (a very young niece and a cousins) as well as other undiagnosed and misdiagnosed and changing diagnoses misc nerve, spinal, skeletal wierdness.

convinced myself that if I keep lifting I will keep strong. and see how maybe my family members might have that same psychosomatic pain which makes a diagnosis hard to pinpoint… I am a bit of a black sheep in my family full of strict hard core HARD CORE Catholics. my bazarroo magical thoughts keep me firmly convinced.

Iron cross :smiley: oh man…same thing happens at my work. Its AWFUL. I?m lucky and seem to get it over with before the other girls do…but Um. Yeah. :smiley:

1045

with the deadlifts… i wonder about training them (sometimes at least) with your hips down more. more legs (quads in particular) and less back. i read somewhere that the lower back tends to fatigue the fastest because there is relatively less muscle mass there. that is how come a lot of people find they can’t train deadlifts very much or very often before their back becomes problematic. just a thought. feel free to ignore.

when it comes around that time of the month my lower back feels very cranky. also when i’m tired / stressed. mostly tired / stressed from work, though. from long (for me) hours on my feet. wonder if it might be the same for you with your work, maybe? dunno…

i’m not sure i could go into a meet calm either. not by intentionally amping myself up. just from nervous tension about it all.

hang in there.

1046

alexus–You might be on to something…i’m still not sure, I’m thinking’s I am emotional and self-sabotaging more than anything right now.

It is highly possible however that my body’s recovery time has changed since i rehab-ed my back. A bunch of factors making me just wait a bit until I feel up to speed to lift again :frowning:

1047

Brute: I could be misremembering, but didn’t your back flare up last time during meet prep? If it really is a mind/body thing, perhaps you just don’t want to compete right now. In your 6/15 post you say you’re not competitive , and then go on to explain why you’re competing.

Competition is great. It can bring focus to your training, allows you to connect with people who are in to the same thing that you are, but there is nothing wrong with keeping your training just for you–no spot-light, no records (but your own prs), no reason to train, but that it is who you are. Maybe volunteer at the meet?

My family has a shit ton of auto-immune diseases, and I know what that stress is like too. But, those diseases can often be managed quite well and manifest themselves very differently in different people. Don’t live in fear. What ever you got going on is not going to get the better of you.

1048

I’m stressing a bit about the meet myself. All new gear. None of which I can work with yet. And only five training weeks to dial it all in. May go raw.

How much weight do you have to cut to hit the 75s?

I also can relate with the whole mental shut-down after a meet. I love the rush of competing but always beat up on myself so hard afterwards that I sometimes wonder if it’s worth the angst. Wish I could get over the level of competitiveness and perfectionism.

1049

I suffereed a back injury a while back and now have no idea whether it’s completely healed or not. I’ve noticed that when people get back injuries it either prevents them from deadlifting or prevents them from back squatting, but rarely prevents them from doing both and whichever it doesn’t prevent you from doing makes your back feel better. Me, I can no longer back squat without not being able to roll over in bed for the next three days. But deadlifting, esp around my time of the month, makes it feel better. Also, front squatting is okay.

I’m a little suspicious of anyone telling others that they should avoid all heavy lifting due to back injuries. It seems like some heavy lifting, of the right sort for each person, is the difference between functioning and not.

1050

[quote]ironcross wrote:
I’m a little suspicious of anyone telling others that they should avoid all heavy lifting due to back injuries. It seems like some heavy lifting, of the right sort for each person, is the difference between functioning and not.[/quote]

x2

I’ve been dealing with a back injury for the last 5+ years. Not lifting related and x-rays show that my spine is normal and healthy. For some time last year I went to a chiro regularly but not lately. For the most part I avoid things that aggravate it or or back off when things start to get bad. This is why DL has become my nemesis.

Getting my back stronger has actually helped me. I learned how to deadlift at least partially because of the injury. Glute activation has helped too. Of course everyone is different, but I think that getting stronger overall has helped.

1051

I hurt my lower back about a year and a half ago and that was when I started concentrating on squatting (I didn’t squat for years which was largely down to starting my lifting “career” in a small gym with no squat rack. I occassionally used the Smith Machine - ugh). I realised that a lot of it was down to my shitty hip mobility. Good hip mobility goes a long way towards good back health but you’re also right about the mind-body connection.
I’d ditch the dairy for now in any case if you think it is impacting you negatively. I’m like that with wheat - if I’ve succumbed to bread or cakes my joints are pretty quick to let me know they are displeased.

1052

nadia–yep. you are correct. Also around that time I had a really bad work environment going on for the entire spring to summer. The whole reason I cut down and became obsessed with being in the 75kg class was due to the fact that i was not allowed days off of work–no extra days. I could trade and get the days off with limited people, few were willing to trade and my supervisor was a complete disaster. For the raw meet if i was in the 75kg class. And i wanted to be there so bad–and i became obsessed with cutting and cardioing like crazy…in the mix i fucked up my back.

Then come meet time i freaked out and had an anxiety attack over some other stupid family stuff the day before. But I’m sure part of it was work, nervousness for the meet, and being wacked out.{ I tried to get time off for the state meet which was a week or so later and and my then boss approved it only to tell me i had to work the night before anyways after i had already gear up to go.

I realized no body made me do anything, but I went down a dumb path. bleh.

But you are right, I’m am so two sided on it I really wonder what i really want. :frowning: Its hard…the rush is there but the hangover is awful. I’m just going to play it by ear. I have until the day off to decide–and i’m not going to make the same mistake paying for a meet and then not doing it for lame reasons :{

Snap–I’m really not sure. My weigth changes alot. Just stepped off the scale and I’m 173 today. Meet wise, I’d be happy with a happy back and a good 20 pounds added to my total. SO far I have to get my dl up a bit, and make my squat more predictable, who knows about bench. I could probably water depleted down to get in to the 75 kg class, or pretty close to it. Honestly though, I feel like doing a big cut again and coming back after it. I just might…again, waiting until the day to decide.

Hey ironcross-- You have it right for me at least. when my back was funky before, i could squat sorta ok.

buckeye–i agree. My problem has always been not reigning it in. Doing things right goes a lonnnng way. I also need to work on my general back–upper body strength as a whole.

Cal- i agree too…I’m going to flush out the dairy…we shall see

1053

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1054

Do you have a diet currently? What does that normally look like for you?

1055

hey iron cross-- oh boy my diet is a mess. its usually much better but I’m…not…motivated enough. My body runs best on low carb but I’ve been too emotionally attached to regular food since decemeber.:{

my drive is really missing…but whatever, i’m fine :smiley:

did some dl’s yesterday but they didn’t post. so i type again
warm up
bar, 135, 185, 225, 255, 275, 300x7 might be a pr…i think it is, and then 295 x 9 singles. singles are hard :{

1056

Brutiful!! I’m sorry you’re going through stuff right now. Sounds heavy.

There was an eclipse on the 15th that caused strife, but was very “revealing” - any revelations? There’s going to be another on July 1. You (we) should all lay low that day, a lot of conflict. In fact, you might even find out more about any possible health issues that day, so keep your eyes and ears open. :slight_smile:

That mumbo jumbo aside (whatever, its the truth!), to me it does sound like your going through some sort mind/body connection issues, like what Nadia said. And it looks kinda like a chain reaction - you feel some work stress or something that tightens up your body, then you get stuck in your head, then you start reacting to people “out of character”, and on and on. Maybe your back tightening up is your bodies first line of defense, its warning sign?

Anyways, definitely try to keep healthy while you navigate through all of this - eat, sleep and train smart. Maybe you need to get your rabbit ears antennae adjusted, so to speak. A lot athletes before they go into competition go through some sort of ritual where they re-focus mentally after having trained so long physically (remember Michael Phelps didn’t swim for an entire month prior to the Olympics!). I think that sort of thing isn’t just for pro atheletes, its for everyone - especially those with psychic inclinations who tend to soak up a lot of the world around them, Ms. Brute.

You live in Colorado, don’t they have some sort of granola eaters that clean chakras or something? lol! Or just get your self a smudge stick. Sounds crazy, i know. I should probably do a cleansing myself. I’ve been mentally “unwell” ever since I busted my knee…

Anyways, sorry for the ramblings! You don’t seem like the type to vent out in the open, or to vent at all really. But you got our ear if you need a space to get stuff off your mind and chest. In the meantime, good vibes are being sent!! <<---------->>

Also, really, Brute? a 300 Dl for 7? You’re a beast!! You can do this!!

1057

:smiley:

thank you Maschy–you have such a wonderfully positive vibe machine :smiley: I COLLECT ALL of your goodness–I will use it well i promise!! :slight_smile:

And I also want to let you know that you are probably a magical person…just saying:)

No MORE bad sad vibes allowed in my log!!! I have bouts of depression through out my life. sometimes it lasts a few months or multiple years. I usually am lost for a while before excepting that yes, I am depressed not hurt or sick.

BUT i do know it always does pass. it helps me to think of it as a medical thing vs a touchy feel deep seated emotional baloney that flares up because i haven’t found the courage to address it. Medical cond/chemicalimbalances can be treated or run their course and this one shall! Nothing to do but look up and over, it’ll end! Its not allowed in my workouts!

Did some bend over rows and push ups yesterday and got my arm tattoo fixed a lil bit :slight_smile: WORD

bent over rows 100x8x5 sets misc pushups. I AM going to squat today and see where I am. I will have a empty house and be nervous as all get out while Nigel gets his neuter/pexy’d.

I am quite excited to have those balls off :smiley:

1058

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hard to tell…but i fixed my unicorn. looks more Brommy…and deep and dark like i like my unicrons :slight_smile:

1059

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my big boys big mouth

1060

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…and his big balls