As dude says look back and analyse your recent progress and find out what’s changed. Remember gains aren’t linear, progress tends to comes in fits and starts.
Sounds like your coach is a good one and isn’t going to give up on you.
Don’t lose heart, we all have shitty days.
Guys, I know you’re trying to cheer me up. Problem is - virtually nothing has lead to any results. The gym is a laboratory where every single thing doesn’t work. Dude, Brett, I look at your logs and I see numbers I can’t hope to duplicate. You may have had bad days, but I’ve had bad decades - literally.
Saturday they were testing my one rep maxes on squat and DL. Today they tested bench. 95, easy. 135, easy. 155, got it up OK. But trainer was critisizing form - he keeps complaining I’m not getting it “out” enough, that is, towards feet. So I’m pulling it there, but he never seems happy. He loaded up another couple plates, I try it but really trying to get bar where I think he wants it. Unfamiliar movement, guess what, couldn’t get it. Got down and it nailed to my chest, wouldn’t budge. It was 165.
So here’s my official lifts: Squat 175. That’s DOWN from when I tried it a month ago. I did 205 at the other gym on my own and trainer said “You couldn’t have got it to parallel.” How often you tell someone of your lifts and they call you a liar?
Bench: 155. That’s exactly the same as 3 months ago when I started. I thought he said I did 155 for 5 on one time, but I guess he got the numbers wrong. So sure I could do 185.
Deadlift: 275. That’s exactly what I pulled in the meet 2 years ago. No progress whatsoever since. TWO. FUCKING. YEARS.
I’m tired. Fight and sweat and struggle for what? I’ve been lifting weights for almost 40 years now, and it took all that time just to get to this level. It’s not what I wanted. Tired of watching others play with weights for a few months and bench 200 and think they have it hard. Tired of people insisting everyone can DL 400 in only 2 years, and can’t believe someone can’t get past 300 after a dozen years.
At least I did the maxes and it didn’t tear anything to pieces, so suppose I can take some consolation in that.
As we’ve discussed many times, all men (and women) are not created equal as far as talent goes.
I’m sorry about your frustration. But how about just trying to find the joy in lifting regardless of the numbers?
Lift because you love it. Because you enjoy performing the motions. Because you enjoy the many variables of the sport and playing around with those variables.
x2 what she said. We can hear and see the benifits in your posts, your a gym rat. Who know where you would be if you didn’t workout. Food for thought. Take care Bro.
[quote]kpsnap wrote:
As we’ve discussed many times, all men (and women) are not created equal as far as talent goes.
I’m sorry about your frustration. But how about just trying to find the joy in lifting regardless of the numbers?
Lift because you love it. Because you enjoy performing the motions. Because you enjoy the many variables of the sport and playing around with those variables.
[/quote]
This makes great sense Cav. I really hate to say it, but you’re no spring chicken anymore.
I’m not sure it’s reasonable to expect to keep on improving indefinitely as you age, (or possible for that matter) especially when maximum strength is your only judging criteria. You’re ultimately doomed to fail. Aren’t you stronger now than you’ve ever been in your life anyway?
Maybe set yourself some other challenges like lowering body fat, lowering your resting pulse rate, increasing your 20 rep squat weight, or max press ups in a minute, whatever, the specific challenge isn’t important. The point is if you train with a wider range of goals you’ll have a better chance of achieving or making improvements in one or all of them on a consistent basis which will be much more conducive to a positive frame of mind.
And start comparing yourself to similar aged people who don’t train rather than beating yourself up for not attaining some unrealistic level of achievement you set for yourself.
Concentrate on the positives.
Paul Carter is a lifelong lifter, tons of experience, talks to a lot of the “big names”, has a great blog.
Anyway, my point is Carter writes all the time about how a period of PRs (which you had been posting about) is inevitably followed by a regression, and is perfectly normal. I’m surprised your trainer didn’t mention this. Perhaps you didn’t tell him when you were hitting PRs that they were PRs?
Today’s session gave me a flicker of hope I can make progress.
Warmup: 3 sets on the treadmill never plugged in. Wearing a 100 lb vest.
Goblet squats with 35 lb DB. Catch: pause halfway down. Pause at bottom. Pause halfway up. For 12 reps. Do for 4 sets. Got a little shaky at the end, but he was giving lots of encouragement.
Deadlift with wide snatch grip. Never did that before. Kept going up, piece of cake. Last couple of sets, needed wraps. Did 275, no problem. Tried 305, no dice. 275 is my max normally, if I can do that wide grip, I’m making a little progress.
Superset reverse hypers with band pulldown for abs. Getting a bit better at these.
Then he set up the gripper machine with modest weight. Looks easy. He tells me 100 reps. Umm . . . 100? First 30 OK, 40 tough, had to stop, keep going . . . . finally got 100. Just under 3 minutes. Forearms are pumped - those damn things NEVER pump.
Then the calf machine. Just one plate. You guessed it . . . 100 reps too. Holy Lactic Acid, Batman. Finally made it, about 3 or 4 minutes, I think.
Ever try walking without bending your feet? It’s . . . different. Took about 15 minutes before getting strong enough to drive home.
Cav, hang in there.
And screw form on PR’s.
You are pushing yourself in a maximal effort. It will be ugly.
Well, my calves have FINALLY stopped hurting. Took 5 whole days for the DOMS to stop burning. Seriously. I was hobbling around like Frankenstein’s monster. Trainer tells me muscles have now been trained, won’t get sore again.
Upper body. Warmup: empty bar bench for 25 reps, 3 sets. He tells me will work on hypertrophy. Fine with me, I need to grow.
Put chains on bar, bench as much as possible for 45 seconds. Seem to be getting form right. Wish he wouldn’t tell me how much time is left, I keep adjusting for it instead of shoving the bar. Stop at top, inhale, do another. Stop, inhale, do another. Don’t let anxiety take over. Three sets of this, got really pumped.
Pulldowns with thick bar. This time got a wrap on elbow; injury there years ago, apparently healed wrong. No problem except with pulldowns, then pain. Wrap did an amazing job keeping that down.
Supersetted with band pull aparts for 30 secs. On last set, felt good, went for 40.
Off to pulldown station. Straight arm pulldowns for lats, supersetted with tri extensions - reverse grip. He said do at least 8 reps, I got 9 or 10, yeah.
He agrees I’m staying lean around waist and thickening muscles, just can’t see it on daily basis.
Lower body.
Warmup on treadmill. Then the squat machine, the thingie with the hip belt. Don’t know how much the carriage weighs. He put on a 45 plate, do a triple. No problem. Then 45 and 25. First 2 OK, then got pinned to the bench on the third. What happened? Don’t know - maybe form problem. He told me don’t think about it, just be aggressive. Got all 3 the next set. Keep adding plates. Got 2 plates and a 25, I think. Then he takes off all but one plate and makes me go to failure. I got 25 reps - man, was I out of breath.
Deadlifts off pins in power rack. With chains. Singles. I kept getting them all, no matter how many plates he put on. Just a 25 and 10’s, but still felt like an accomplishment.
Leg curls, sit on bench, pull bands with ankles. I like those, they’re different.
Reverse hyper machine with 60 lbs of plates. Three sets of 8. Easy.
Leg extensions, 15 reps. Strong on that.
Abs. He didn’t specify, so I did crunches on decline bench. 15 or so reps.
Rested up watching the other guys do squats on the monolift, then deficit deads.
Stopped over at the regular gym for some cardio, trainer wants me to work on conditioning. Hadn’t seen Steve in a while, he’s also training at Ludus Magnus and invited me there. He’s really trimmed up, used to have big gut, now slimmed and starting to get veins on arms. Scary. He says when he benches, gets veins on chest. That I have to see. He says I look bigger, although scale weight is same. Hmmm. Well, I’ve started doing my belt one notch tighter - lose blubber and gain muscle at same time? If so, those guys are miracle workers.
Elliptical felt strange - a lot easier. Had to kick up resistance a lot to feel it.
Played around with regular bench. 135x3 for a few sets. Didn’t want to do more without spotter. Felt good, need to work on control - seemed to bounce around a little.
Did a few chins, seemed to have better control than before.
Back with regular trainer. His schedule has changed, so I’ll be coming in Thursdays and weekends. Two days in a row? Will see how it works.
Upper body. Warm up 25# DB incline bench.
Regular bench. Told him I want to work on control, so it’s plain vanilla bench. Empty bar, 95#, then 115# to failure. Got 11 reps. Seemed to feel better - pause at bottom, pause at top.
Skullcrushers with empty bar. Go for 45 seconds. Really hit tris. Three sets.
Pulldown machine with chinup grip. Superset with lat raises, 15# DBs for 8 reps.
Upper body good and fried, so what does he have me do next? 50 pushups, as fast as possible. Took 13 minutes. Ow, ow, ow, ow. Arms just simply did not want to move.
Just dropped by to see how you are doing.
Hope all is well.
[quote]big nurse wrote:
Just dropped by to see how you are doing.
Hope all is well.[/quote]
Hey Nurse, how are you? I started training at Ludus Magnus a few months ago. Small hardcore gym run by guys who used to be at Westside. Invitation only. Owned by Matt Wenning (don’t you hate name dropping?)
I’ve been going through the standard manic-depressive routine. Thrilled to train with world class people. Humiliated to be beaten on crunches by little girls. Happy to lift max weights with no pain or injury. Frustrated that max weights don’t seem to change. Happy that trainer is focused on progress. Disturbed when trainer says he’s “frustrated” with me not lifting what he expects. (Yes, he really said it.)
Kicked up carbs a bit, seems to help.
Trainer had me work in with the weekend crowd, about a half dozen guys, intermediate level. I think they’re Matt’s group. On second thought, Matt seems to reserve the young, pretty girls to train personally. I’m sure it’s just coincidence.
Warmup: lots of back stuff. Stiff arm pulldowns. T-bar rows.
Bench: regular bar, no plates, add another pair of chains each set. Singles. Kept up with the youngsters, finally failed on all but 2 chains. Pretty good for an old fart. Matt tells me that was 300 lbs at the top - wow.
Incline bench. Kettlebells . . . hanging on elastic bands. Push to failure. Think I did over 20 or something, just kept going. He got bigger kettles, and I hit about 8 reps. Shoulders REALLY felt that one.
Thick rope tri extension to failure. Ow. Ow. OWWW!! Talk about burn.
Pec dec, lo weight, loads of reps.
Take kettlebell. Run thick rope through handle. Grab rope and do arm curls. To failure. Knocked out a ton of reps, so he replaces with bigger bell and I do it again. Gaggg.
Grip machine. I put on a couple more small plates, and still do more reps than last time. Yeah.
Upper body. Warmup with 25 lb DB presses.
Regular bench. A couple small plates. 8 reps. A couple more. Another 8. A couple more. 6 reps. A couple more. 3 reps, fail on fourth.
It was 150 lbs for a triple. A month ago 155 was my one rep max. Trainer estimates 175 max now. Is that sweet or what?
Lat raises, 10 lb DBs to failure. Superset with:
Hammer curls, 30 lb DBs to failure. Superset with:
Kettlebells for pec flies to failure. Superset with:
Pulldowns to failure.
Lather, rinse, repeat one more time.
Trainer finally seems happy with my progress.
[quote]cavalier wrote:
It was 150 lbs for a triple. A month ago 155 was my one rep max. Trainer estimates 175 max now. Is that sweet or what?
Trainer finally seems happy with my progress. [/quote]
The new trainer/gym sounds like the place to be.
Thanks, Techno. Sometimes I wonder about the trainer - if I have a bad day, he thinks I’m just not pushing hard enough when I’m actually struggling harder than anyone. The other trainer just yells “Be aggresive!!” when you’re struggling with heavy weight. Matt actually seems understanding, remarkable for someone who’s never been weak in his life. Today was struggling w heavy kettlebell swings and he said “It just takes time”. Now if I wasn’t working hard, he’d be saying something different . . .
Looks like another PR today. Squats. With weird bent safety bar. Hook on kettlebells with bands. Use in monolift, but put bar in the chains and start down at the bottom. I have long legs . . . help. Five reps. Did empty bar. Then 25 lb bells. 35 lb. 50 lb. 50 lb plus 25, I think. Had to strain, they were yelling, somehow got 3 or 4 up. Then I dropped to the floor and they literally had to pull me up. I think it was over 200, last time I did 200 was regular squats for 2. So definitely PR somehow.
Then 50 lb kettlebell swings. Don’t ask - it wasn’t pretty.
Leg curls to failure.
Leg extensions to failure.
Gripper machine! Put on 90 lb of plates. Do 100 reps. It took a while, but did it. A few weeks back, did 100 reps with much less weight. Another PR. Yay.
Lots of warmup, DB presses.
Trainer had me work in with the other guys for bench. Regular bar, but close grip. For volume.
85 x 10
95 x 10
100 x 10
105 x 10
110 x 10
I think those were the weights, he doesn’t want me to see it and freak out. Last one a bit tough, but got them all up.
Then everyone did a single, also close grip.
140 x 1 ** PR **
Could have done a 145, maybe 150, wasn’t that hard. I actually did better than one of the other guys, so I wasn’t the weakest one there. Yay.
Standing rows with the thick rope on the pulldown. Four sets of 25. Actually got them all.
Tri extensions with same thick rope. Three sets.
Trainer outlined some goals for me. He expects me to bench bodyweight (210) by end of the year. I can’t wait.
Nice work above, I have been away. My recent dedication to worship at the throne of the porcelain god even impressed me. You have been busy. It all sounds up beat, keep it up.