Calvert and Milo Barbell

Training Training Logs
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I’ve misplaced my headset, so no morning fasted cardio today. Yeah, I was that lame.

I probably walked half a mile around my house trying to find it. No luck.

I did push a 160 pound lawn roller around my yard for awhile, and spend some time trying to rake out the embedded oak leaves that smother the grass. It was some cardio.

Yesterday I videoed press sets and deadlift sets. I noticed an interesting difference. With the deadlifts I accelerate up, with a slow descent. Almost twice as long on the descent, lots of eccentric TUT.

With the presses I just barely control the descent. Not much eccentric TUT. My deadlifts are making progress… my presses aren’t. Maybe this is one of the reasons.

A number of the older writers mentioned “lower as slow as possible” on when talking about certain pressing exercises. Maybe I should. Ok, I will. Aim for something like a 2 second descent from now on out.

(This may be enough to fix some of the positioning issues too. I’d been mulling over how much of my old partial and 1-1/2 rep stuff I was going to pull in. May not need to with this.)

I hear it now: what if the slow eccentric makes me too fatigued? But I’m already doing it on deadlifts… and recovering fine from that… so that holds no water.

Anyway, I’m going to go dig for quotes to support the idea. I know Charles Smith said that in some of his articles, and I’m pretty sure Calvert did too.

Another day of zero carbs down. I might have gone over on fats a bit by accident, but they’re mostly omega-3s.

I forgot that zucchini and egg dish required both frying the zucchini, and then cooking the egg in a pool of olive oil.

And swordfish is a bit fattier, though a good amount is fish oil. (Sidenote, I just discovered the insane nutritional breakdowns at nutritionvalue.org. I’ve never seen fats broken down like that.)

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(If the greens on top look mushy, it’s because they are. Only had frozen basil, and it doesn’t look good. Tastes fine. Our parsley hasn’t grown in yet this year.)

The day before I had a bean, ultra-lean turkey and kale soup. That turkey wasn’t great. Meat paste, doesn’t crumble, tastes like cardboard.

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Yes, I cheated on the diet with the 3 carrot pieces I ate…

The day before before, Monday, I had dungeness crab and sockeye. Those were 100% diet approved.

Crab is a perfect diet food. Almost no fat, and you burn more calories trying to get the meat out than you actually get from eating it.

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I ate nearly a pound of sockeye in all.

The only other minor note is that I’ve been fairly dry mouth and thirsty. Fixed that up with a warm mug of sea salt water. I need to make sure I’m getting my salts.

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Well, I’m a bit slow on the uptake… by not being slow enough on the descent…

Straighten up, and, as you do so, lower the right arm slowly

Calvert, describing the side press

Ron Walker was great. One of the nicest guys you could wish to meet. Always ready to help out any kid who button-holed him and asked for advice. Nothing big-headed about Ron. I knew him personally, watched him train and benefitted by what he did. Ron used to use negative training. He would press a barbell and then lower the bar as slowly as he could. He was doing this decades before negative resistance training was popularized.

The Tight Tan Slacks of Dezso Ban: Letters - Charles A. Smith

Take a weight equal to your best press. Jerk it over and behind your head so that it rests on the shoulders as if you were about to perform deep knee bends. With the hands spaced one or two inches wider than shoulder width, jerk the weight to arm’s length, and then slowly fight the weight all the way down until it rests on the back of the shoulders again. Make every effort to lower the weight as slowly as humanly possible. As soon as the weight touches the shoulders jerk it overhead again and then repeat the slow fight against the weight until it rests on the shoulders once more and repeat the jerk and lowering. Commence with 4 sets of 5 reps and work up to 4 sets of 10 reps before increasing the weight by ten pounds and starting again with 4 sets of 5 reps. Again I will repeat – lower the weight as slowly as you can. This exercise was a favorite of Ron Walker and it was his opinion that not only did it increase deltoid development, it also improved jerking power. He also held that lowering a weight was twice as beneficial as jerking it there.

The Tight Tan Slacks of Dezso Ban: Shoulders - Charles A. Smith

A very valuable muscle movement, and one which will build up tremendous sustaining power in the entire shoulder girdle is the following: Test yourself and see what is the best poundage you can make in pressing two dumbells from the shoulders. Take this weight and jerk it overhead, and then lower the dumbells as slowly as you can resisting the bells every inch of the way. DON’T let them gain control. YOU must control the speed or pace of lowering. As soon as the dumbells arrive at the shoulder again, jerk them overhead at once and repeat the slow, CONTROLLED lowering.

The Tight Tan Slacks of Dezso Ban: The One Hand Military Press - Charles Smith

Load up the chains of your Power Bar with a poundage equal to your LIMIT press. Shorten the chains so that the bar lies across the collar bones in the pre-press position . . . squat under the bar, or jerk it to arms’ length and take a firm stance . . . contraction of the buttocks and thighs will help . . . from this position SLOWLY lower the bar, fighting it every inch of the way, until it is back across the shoulders. Jerk it overhead again, or else squat beneath it and once at arms’ length, repeat the controlled lowering. 3 sets of 3 reps, working up steadily to 3 sets of 4 reps before adding weight.

The Tight Tan Slacks of Dezso Ban: Power for the Press - Charles A. Smith

Clean a pair of dumbbells to the shoulders. Bend the legs slightly and jerk the dumbbells to top of the head level. Don’t stop here, but continue the motion of the bells to arms’ length with a press out. When you lower them, do so as slowly as possible, controlling the descent of the weights down every inch of the way. Start off with a poundage 10 pounds under your limit, using 3 sets of 3 reps, working up to 3 sets of 6 reps before adding to the weight of the dumbbells.

The Tight Tan Slacks of Dezso Ban: The Two Dumbbell Clean & Press - Charles A. Smith

In lowering the weight, lower slowly and you will receive almost as much benefit as in pressing it.

The Tight Tan Slacks of Dezso Ban: Assistance for the Press - Bob Hoffman

From a delt building perspective:

One Arm Press

For really isolating the delts this exercise is one of the West Coast favorites. Hold on to a pole or support with one hand, lean your body slightly away from the support slightly, and press in a moderately slow and strict manner with the other hand.

Leaning Incline Laterals

Technical Point: Here again the tendency will be to swing the weight upward. DON’T. And be sure to lower the dumbbell just as slowly as you raised it.

Pulley Laterals

Another excellent isolation exercise for the outer head of the delts is the Pulley Lateral. On the floor pulley, bring the handle across your body and up to shoulder level. Lower slowly (slowly enough that you continually feel the tension), and repeat.

The Tight Tan Slacks of Dezso Ban: My Favorite Delt Exercises - Don Howorth

Sigh. Ok, I knew better. I’ll fix it.

This was an interesting find though. Exactly what I’m doing.

Quite close to @T3hPwnisher’s recommendations with touch-n-go mat pulls.

The second exercise is one of the most valuable versions of the dead lift. For this style of dead lift you need two benches or boxes. In this exercise you can use about 50% more than the previous exercise. Load the bar while it is resting on the two boxes. At first you can lift with the BIG inside plates resting on the boxes. Later, as you become more powerful in this exercise, you can lower the weight until the BAR ENDS are resting on the boxes. In the first position – plates resting on boxes, you will find the bar is well above the knees and in reality you will be performing a HALF DEAD LIFT. Take your grip as described – a one palm facing forward, one palm facing back grip (reverse grip) – and flatten the back BEFORE you start your pull. Don’t try to shrug this weight. It should be heavy enough to be well nigh impossible anyway. As soon as you reach the upright position, count three and then lower the weight SO THAT YOU FEEL IT DOWN ALL THE WAY TO THE BOXES. The weight is taken OFF the boxes as RAPIDLY AS POSSIBLE, but it is lowered SLOWLY –CONTROLLED DOWN to the boxes. This is perhaps one of the finest exercises for developing all round strength. In fact one could use this exercise solely and gain quite a bit of strength and development from it. Not only are the back muscles involved, but the deltoids and even the triceps are stressed when using a great poundage. The latter muscles – the triceps, are worked mainly because the arms are pulled into a lock by the heavy weight. The lats and trapezius are also in for a great deal of work.

The Tight Tan Slacks of Dezso Ban: The Dead Lifts - Charles A. Smith

(bold and italics are mine, caps are his)

A few other interesting bits from that article:

The point I want to stress is that THROUGHOUT the entire practice of the two hands dead lift, or any of its offshoots, you MUST USE A WEIGHT WHICH WILL ENABLE YOU TO MOVE QUICKLY. SPEED MUST BE THE PRE-EMINENT FACTOR. It is an essential development for the Olympic lifter, a necessity for the bodybuilder and of extreme importance to the man interested in power.

Interesting article for sure. Talks about Hise and hopper deadlifts too.

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This reminds me of a method I read about back during Covid lockdowns, for training to be able to press a kettlebell that’s currently too heavy, without buying a lighter kettlebell. It’s the same movement (jerking it and and controlling the eccentric,) with the idea being that you’d progress by eventually going from a jerk to a push press to a strict press. I was always curious how well a training cycle of that sort would work with a barbell, but never bothered to try because one can just load barbells as-needed.

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Nice reference.

This was similar to an approach recommended by John Grimek. No idea if he was the originator or just passed it on.

Press → push press → jerk → isometrics with supports

All in the same workout.

One of the problems of strength most lifters and bodybuilders have is improving their press. I’d like to use this lift as an example and show how additional strength can be acquired in this lift. Assuming you already know how to press but lack the necessary power to make a heavy lift, the following training schedule should be helpful.

Start with a weight you can just press five or six times easily . . . just as a warm up. For your next attempt increase the weight to within 75% of your best pressing poundage. Press this three times. Always rest a few minutes after each set of presses. Now, increase your next weight to about 85% of your max and press it two or three times. Continue to increase the weight in five or ten pound jumps and press only in single attempts. Repeat until your limit in this lift has been reached. This, however, does not conclude the program by any means. Increase the weight by 20 pounds beyond your best press and perform two or three push presses with it. In this exercise be sure your arms and shoulders do most of the work after the legs provide the impetus. Keep increasing the weight until you are unable to do any more without using a full dip or split position to get the weight overhead.

Upon reaching a poundage that you must jerk instead of pushing it overhead, the next exercise is to hold this weight (or more) at your chest, but instead of resting it across your shoulders make an effort as if you were going to press it. Hold it in this position for several seconds or until you are unable to sustain it any longer. Replace it back on the rack and again add more weight to the bar. Take a rest, after which you should support it again in the same manner. You shouldn’t have any trouble, once you get used to supporting more weight than you can jerk in this style. This exercise will strengthen you for the press, and when you become strong enough to support twice as much weight as your press, your press will have greatly benefitted. All supporting feats are particularly good for strengthening and thickening the tendons and ligaments, the true source power.

The Tight Tan Slacks of Dezso Ban: Developing Greater Strength - John Grimek

I did it for a session or two long ago, but never really gave it a shot.

Someday.

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W12D3 - Lower Stress

SuperGripper: [5,2] x 10

Weighted Snow Angels on Foam Roller: 2.5#
Mace Holds and Pendulums: 10#

Press (69%): 85# x 6 x 5
17" Axle Rack Pulls (88%): 400# x 3 x 5 ← PR!

Roman Column: 6x sit-to-backbend-to-sit
H2H KB Swings: 90# x 22 (11 each hand)

Upper-back Meadows Rows: 55# x 11L, 8R

(tri-delt pairs supersetted)

High Cable OH Extensions: 22.5# x 9, 9, 8 (right then left)
HB Wide-grip Upright Rows: 85# x 3 x 9

Notes:

  • press work felt great. I like reviewing between sets in that app. Motivates me to improve everything I see bad. Worked on bar path, acceleration and slowing the descent. Some progress.

  • velocity → % 1RM curve is looking very linear as it should. Glad to be getting this formula rebuilt. Expect it to be much better for judging strength.

  • exciting stuff, brand new 45s

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  • and a new 5RM. Finally pulled over 400 on a bar, from any height. And did it for 5, for 3 sets. Very happy.

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  • 2.64x bodyweight. Not that I’m actually targeting relative strength.

  • elbows and shoulders continue to feel pretty good. Not perfect but much better.

Diet notes:

  • 1/2 tsp psyllium seed powder per shake seems to work for hunger. Not sure about inulin yet. A bit nauseous today so could be that.

  • weight going down steadily. RFL works, but it’s a hard hard deficit. Rereading the book to make sure I don’t mess anything up, and so I come off it properly.

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congrats on your PR. nice work.

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“You’re… cooking broccoli? At 10 in the morning?”
“Yeah, roasting it”
“… why?”
“I’m hungry”

Some people are drug seeking, some people are carb seeking, right now I’m fiber seeking.

We went to a korean bbq place last night, which would have been great, but it’s very hard to go low-fat there. I ate a whole flounder, and then a kimchee and cabbage soup, with some on-bone shortrib in it. But mostly I wanted that cabbage to offset the hunger.

I’ve been a bit hungry.

This is my interpretation of these diet ideas:

  • Velocity Diet: 4-5 shakes a day + 3-4 grams fish oil + curcumin + 1 balanced meal (vegetables, meat, maybe some carbs); no calorie counting

  • Rapid Fat Loss Diet (for leaner people): 3-6 no-carb no-fat meals a day + unlimited non-sugary vegetables + 6-10 grams fish oil + carb refeed every 1-2 weeks; some calorie counting

  • Keto: nearly zero carbs

  • Carb Cycling: some days are higher carb, some are lower carb. Higher carbs on workout days.

There’s a billion nuances and variations.

What I had been doing:

  • No fat, no carbs during the day. Vegetables, fat and small amount of carbs in daily family meals.
  • Fast-absorbing protein in the morning with PeptoPro + Leucine.
  • Weekdays: 3-4 casein/whey/fiber shakes, but sometimes subbed with lean meat and vegetables.
  • Surge before/during training.
  • Carbs with lunch and/or dinner on training days.
  • As-keto-as-possible on weekends.
  • No calorie counting.

What I’m doing now:

  • No fat, no carbs.
  • Fast-absorbing protein every morning with PeptoPro + Leucine.
  • 3-4 casein/egg/whey/fiber shakes during the day, or lean meat and vegetables.
  • Solid lean meat + veggies with the family.
  • Surge before/during training.
  • Choose a bit of fat over carbs when there’s no better options.

The dropping of all fat and all carbs has been hard, but effective.

Weight went from 155.1 on May 18, to 151 on May 25. 4.1 pounds in 7 days. Caliper measure has dropped around 3 mm. New areas of definition on a daily basis.

I’d be less hungry if I hadn’t run out of the whey/egg/casein shakes, and I sorted out the fiber stuff earlier.

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This is the fastest rep from the other day. I was a little surprised, because it doesn’t look like what I’ve thought was the best technique.

But, it was objectively the fastest (strongest) by quite a bit.

And then I saw @creative_name’s recent PR single, and the technique is very very similar.

Interesting.

In the YouTube app, the video loops.

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Of all the major movements I do, the press is probably the one where I feel I have my technique most dialed-in. Learning to (ab)use the stretch reflex and layback (that in particular is where I think you’re seeing the similarity) have been big in that regard.

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Yeah.

Well, what I actually noticed was the head movement. It looks like I drop my head down and dip it under. Looking closer, that’s how it moves, but it’s driven by the hips.

The sequence looks something like this:

  • start by pushing the bar straight up
  • immediately after it begins moving, the hips shift forward, head shifts backwards
  • around the “sticking point”/forehead/crown, when the triceps begin to kick in, the hips start moving backwards
  • something of a wave like motion from the hips up to the head, bringing it under the bar

That list was more about noticing contrasts.

Some people start with the hips forward. Some people use no layback. Some people maintain the position the whole rep. Some people never get their head and shoulders through.

Comparing across my own videos, it’s that slight layback + “wave” that made my faster reps faster. Too much layback was bad, too little was slow.

Seems like the right pattern to ingrain (for now).

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With Memorial Day weekend, I decided to go for a true carb refeed, with a little bit of wiggle room for fats. That was a weird experience.

Lyle calls for 2-3 days after a 10-11 day diet. I did about 36 hours, after weeks of low-carb low-fat, and 7 days of very strict no-carb very-low-fat.

Apparently I was supposed to target between 400-700 grams of carbs a day. I didn’t realize how insane that was until actually attempting it.

Turns out that finding high-carb, very-low-fat food is also quite hard. Seemed like it shouldn’t be, but almost all junk food is 2:1 or 3:1 when it comes to carbs:fats. Both sweet and savory.

Sunday night started with a burger with bun and some onion rings. Later I opened that silly package of Peeps that was labeled “gluten free, fat free”. I got some nice heavy heartbeats (though still a normal heartrate), and then it knocked me out hard. Couldn’t stay awake.

Monday was… sugar sugar sugar + vinegared sweetened sushi rice + more rice + more sugar. Something like that.

I learned that a 20oz bottle of Mountain Dew LiveWire has 77g of sugar. From a carb standpoint, that was the best gas-station beverage find. I used to drink those fairly regularly in my 20s and early 30s.

I did get my protein in too. Burger, sashimi, ribeye, and shakes.

And vegetables.

I weighed 151 on Saturday morning, 156.5 Monday night, and 155.1 this morning. 5 pounds of glycogen-held water weight.

(Monday)

W13D1 - Medium Stress

Weighted Snow Angels on Foam Roller: 2.5#
Mace Holds and Pendulums: 10#

Press (73%): 90# x 7 x 5
17" Axle Rack Pulls (65%): 300# x 4 x 5

Notes:

  • It was Memorial Day, with limited time. I took my daughter to a bike-riding playdate in the morning, then met friends and family for lunch at a sushi place, then spent the afternoon grilling steaks and veggies, and taught my kids how to play croquet in the evening. Training time wasn’t exactly a priority.

  • But, I did get the main lifts in.

  • The days of 3 or 5 press sets are over. Seems like 6+ sets from now on out.

  • Carbs are amazing. Lifting was so much easier; night and day difference. Surge is amazing compared to not having it, but all the carb loading was far far better.

Based on reading, a couple days after carb-up people seem to look their best. That’s what I’m hoping for, for t-ransformation photos.

But I had a realization that makes more sense than “I want to be lean for vacation”.

I’m still not as lean as those pictures of Sig Klein, or Charles McMahon, or Owen Carr, etc. Once I go back to gaining, I’m probably not going to get leaner. Now is the time to get to that level of leanness I want for the rest of the year. Then vacation. Then back to strength/size.

So, I’ll run RFL until I get there and be done. Hopefully less than 14 days. Hopefully less than 10. Depends on if I have to lose all this glycogen-water first before the fat loss begins again.

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Yesterday (Tuesday) I just did the stuff I skipped on Monday.

What do we call this, W13D1 - B? Part 2? 1.5?

Roman Column: 7x sit-to-backbend-to-sit
H2H KB Swings: 90# x 24 (12 each hand)

Upper-back Meadows Rows: 55# x 9 (R then L)

(tri-delt pairs supersetted)

High Cable OH Extensions: 22.5# x 5 x 9 (R then L)
HB Wide-grip Upright Rows: 85# x 5 x 9

Notes:

  • Felt like I still needed to get this work in. Split over 2 days is better than skipped. Not yet sure how I’ll do these the rest of the week.

  • Progression keeps progressing.

  • I’ve had a thing where it’s been painful to straighten my legs fully sometimes when fully bent. I think it may be due to the straps I’m using for the roman column, and how they put pressure on the outer knee tendons. May need to tweak something there.

  • The actual hardest thing about the roman column stuff is being upside down. I get lots of sinus drainage that messes with me. Maybe this will ultimately make me healthier though with less head colds.

  • Both elbows now have issues! The “good” elbow has both inner and outer pressure-like pain, the “bad” elbow is just being itself. One is probably hurting from the extensions; the other is probably hurting from my training sword practice stuff.

  • I have a set of 2 lb Indian Clubs arriving today. Lots of people report amazing results with elbow and shoulder rehab using them.

  • But the real reason is Indian Clubs were a training method used by the British for their saber training, so I’m hoping these end up as a useful training tool. My practice swords are 500g (1.1 lb), and the metal sword I’m planning on buying is 800g (1.75 lb). Should have some transferability. Either way, they’re light enough for the kids.

  • With Indian Clubs, the new croquet set, and all my lawn work, I’m now becoming a proper Victorian apparently.

image

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W13D2 - Lower Stress

Snow Angels and Ws on Foam Roller: 2.5#
Mace Pendulums: 10#

Press (77%): 95# x 6 x 4
17" Axle Rack Pulls (67%): 315# x 4 x 5

SuperGripper: [5,3] x 5

Notes:

  • For whatever reason, I’m having the hardest time remembering to lower the press reps slower. Got a little better in the later sets, but definitely a challenge.

  • I realized I was getting sloppy on the gripper reps – because I support it with the opposite hand, I was using that hand to get a bit of leverage and “cheating”. So, backing up the progression a bit to correct it.

  • Indian Clubs arrived today. I have a few old manuals and a few youtube clips. Not yet sure what I’m going to do yet.

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image

It’s been officially 1 year since I started lifting again.

My first reference photo was taken June 9th, so I could track some progress. I’ll do a comparison when it’s been a year.

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In the meanwhile, t-ransformation photos. Pretty happy. I’d like to be bigger, leaner, and stronger… but 2024’s only halfway over.

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excellent progress, you should be proud.

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Thanks. I definitely feel like I have a lot better handle on things than I did a decade ago. I certainly have a much better perspective.

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Well done!

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Thank you.

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Indian Clubs.

So they’re interesting.

For something that supposedly took Europe and America by storm, there’s a lot less written information than I expected. Gyms used to have Indian Club classes the way we now have yoga and “spinning”.

To set some context: British tea has about as much resemblance to Chinese/Japanese tea, as Indian Clubs do with the way India/Iran trained with clubs. That’s to say, not much.

There are a few prolific youtubers: Mark Wildman and The Flying Dutchman. They’re producing content, though it doesn’t seem to be particularly historically informed. More like “here’s these things, let’s see what we can do with them”. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

There’s also hints in forum discussions, here and elsewhere, but nothing that’s landed on solid information.

The historical stuff is a bit interesting. Several manuals put an emphasis on how it looks rather than what it does: more of a dance. In fact, one manual actually has a musical score, with lyrics, to go with all the various gymnastics exercise. Strange stuff.

What I haven’t been able to dig up is much information about the military training routines, specifically the original British ones. That’s been a bit frustrating, since I’ve found plenty of Victorian writings on nearly every other topic.

I did try out things from different manuals, and there’s some useful stuff. Forearms, wrists, elbows, and shoulders get worked in ways I haven’t experienced with any other tool.

My initial impressions are that there’s massive carryover with handing my synthetic training sword. The clubs work strength and control in a pretty large range of motion; some weaknesses I’d noticed when trying certain sword techniques.

I don’t know if “joint opening” is actually a thing, but it does seem to help push the mobility of the wrist, elbow, shoulder joints. Slow movements can help with passive stretching and control; swinging/spinning movements can traction the joints. It can definitely help you “feel” looser. Not sure if you actually are though.

They support a whole catalog of basic body movements. Circles and swings, especially, but also straight lines. Tight circles, wide circles, spiraling between them. Rotations at the wrist, elbow, shoulder, in many planes: side of the body, above the body, in front, diagonally.

Then with the offset weight, you can use gravity and leverage to work on different things. You can relax and use the natural singing momentum of the club, or you can resist it. You can adjust the speed and it pulls differently.

It also has some value as a warmup “get the blood moving” and to get synovial fluid pumped through the joints. So could be used for recovery and healing purposes.

It does NOT seem to be a good conditioning tool though. Not even remotely comparable to, say, 90 pound kettlebell swings.

So it’s a neat tool, but a bit overwhelming at the moment.

In terms of results (after two days), elbows and shoulders are feeling a bit better. And the sword stuff is definitely better. Been a far better tool for that than anything else I’ve tried.

(This was a long enough intro/overview.)

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