You have a long way to go to get to SHW.
I’m not very good at deadlifting and I’m just not built well for it, if you keep at it long enough then I wouldn’t doubt you can beat me. I think I have more potential for squatting and deadlifting.
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Saturday, February 29 - 2nd bench day
Comp bench up to 395x1 - smooth but could be faster, ass stayed on the bench
I would have only gone up to 355 and then put on the slingshot but it was moving well
Slingshot bench
445x2 - failed 3rd, I brought it down too fast and lost tightness but maybe it wasn’t going to happen anyway. I need to stop failing on bench
405x5 - not bad, except my ass just barely lost contact on the last rep. Not a huge deal, but something I need to pay attention to.
JM press
280x7, 6
Neutral DB pushups
light+super mini bands x10, 5 - I really had to fight for that set of 10, nothing left after
Overall this kind of feels like it wasn’t a very good week for benching. Squat and deadlift went well at least, and I did set a new bench 5rm but that was something I should already be able to do anyway. Monday is an easy squat session so I should have some extra energy for Wednesday’s benching.
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Monday, March 2 - Squat day - eay session
Squat in wraps
525x2 - not bad, first rep was borderline depth, that seems to be the only issue with my squat technique lately. 2nd rep looked OK.
The other issue I’m having is that sometimes it’s a struggle to tie off my wraps, today I did two sets in wraps (495x1 warmup before top set) and both times one wrap was giving me a hard time. It takes a lot of energy to fight with them, wrapping and tying off was harder than the single with 495 for sure, plus in a meet you have limited time to get to the bar. I have been using a shoelace to pull the end of the wrap through but these wraps are thicker and sometimes the wrap gets caught and just bunches up instead of pulling under. I used a short pair of needle nose pliers before and it wasn’t better than the shoelace, but maybe I should get a long pair of pliers. I don’t want to miss an attempt because I’m fucking around with my wraps.
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Hey Chris, not sure what your views are on Alan Thrall but I thought you might be interested in this. It’s not medical advice. I remember you wanting to get experience from other lifters too, so thought I’d drop this here
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His hernia was a lot worse than mine because his hurt and I don’t even feel a thing. I know now I have nothing to worry about, I was just worried at first because I was reading stuff about intestine entrapment and such but that’s not about to happen.
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Nice work on some recent rep PRs.
I’m looking forward to finally hitting some top singles at the end of March to start up my peak for the meet. I honestly have no idea where my squat and deadlift are right now and I’m a tad worried. I think my squat should be OK (tied a recent 10RM PR on Saturday), but I’ve been exclusively doing technique/speed work with deadlift for over 4 months (as per 5th set protocols). Interested to see how this will translate into max strength. Bench is actually the only one that I’m confident in at the moment, which was also the lift that needed to improve the most.
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Only one way to find out. I’m going to start doing singles regularly in a couple weeks, not max attempts but 90%+. I find that’s a good way to peak and also a good way to accurately gauge what I’m capable of because I’m not too good at rep work.
I’m trying to find a hotel in Kingston that will take a Visa debit card, Ambassador won’t take one. I don’t have a regular card and I really don’t want one, why pay to spend my own money? Looks like I might not have a choice though.
I look at it the other way, they pay me to use my own money. I never carry a balance over month-to-month, so I’m just getting the 1.5-3% cash back on all my purchases and paying it off each month. Debit gets me nothing, so I rarely use debit.
Sucks though that they wouldn’t take a Visa debit.
Apparently Motel 6 takes Visa debit. Is that a decent place? At least it’s a chain so it can’t be that sketchy. Around here there are a bunch of cheap motels where you can rent rooms by the hour and it’s mostly junkies and hookers around, I just don’t want to end up in a place like that.
If you never had a credit card before they usually want you to give them something like $500-1000 deposit which becomes your credit limit and you still have to pay monthly fees and stuff like that. The only credit card I ever had was a prepaid one from Money Mart before I got the Visa debit card, I just used it for online shopping and a couple times I stayed in hotels but now most of them say they won’t take that either. I don’t really need a normal credit card but if it’s going to be a problem otherwise I will look into it.
I think I’ve stayed in a Motel 6 before when traveling for hockey tournaments as a kid, but it has been awhile. I can’t comment on the one in Kingston, but I agree that you would think it would be a lower risk being that it is a chain.
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Are Visas not common in Canada? Over here they’re the total standard; I’d say over 90% of people use Visa debit.
Yeah I think most of the major banks give you a visa debit card these days. I thought it would be accepted everywhere but I ordered some stuff from the US and had to pay customs duties and UPS wouldn’t take it, I had to get a money order which is ridiculous. I was wondering how it would go booking a hotel and a lot of them have a policy not to take Visa or Mastercard debit cards or prepaid credit cards.
Where are you, the US?
Motel 6s can be hit or miss in the US, stayed in one in San Diego about a decade ago that had hookers everywhere and pretty apparent drug usage. Other have been fine. I don’t have any idea how credit works in Canada (or the US really) but if you have a decent credit score here you can get a credit line of a few thousand to start out with and won’t pay a dime (or loonie or whatever) if you pay it off every month.
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I’m going to look into credit cards, i just don’t want to have to pay a deposit or monthly fees because I really don’t need it for anything except this one time.
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Ireland.
Sorry for the derail it’s just odd to see. A hotel that didn’t take Visa or Mastercard debit cards would be swiftly out of business here! That probably covers 99% of cards used day-to-day in this part of the world.
Makes me wonder why they can’t do that here. Weird.
Wednesday, March 4 - Main bench day
Bench press
395x1 - I knew I shouldn’t have gone for this but my goal was to double 395. It went up alright and my ass stayed on the bench too, but I wasn’t sure about a double so that was it. Maybe another 20lbs would go up, which I already did previously.
380x2 - Good, maybe could have tripled it but again not wanting to risk failing
355x4 - Might have lost contact with the bench on the last rep, can’t say for sure, but I did that damn foot shuffle thing again. Anyway, it looks like I have pretty much sorted out that problem. The minor adjustments to my technique feel normal now, strength is still there, just no PRs today but nothing to complain about.
Floor pause DB flys
75’s x13, 10
Front raise
65x13, 10
superset with:
Side raise
30’s x12, 10
W external rotation
super mini band x3 sets
What do u make of the schools of training thought that emphasise failing lifts as little as possible?
I agree, failing lifts does you no good and can damage confidence. I find that pushing pretty close to failure is good for building strength and muscle, but you have to be careful not to go too far and end up failing. If you fail a rep PR attempt or something like that once in a while it’s not a big deal, but if it starts happening regularly it’s a problem. That’s why I only did a single with 395 today.
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Somehow I slept 12 hours last night. The schools are on strike today and I’m not working or training so I had no reason to get up early, I went to bed at about 10pm and woke up after 10:30.
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