[quote]novaeer wrote:
How’s the knee doing? Looks like you’re able to keep up the other lifts. [/quote]
It’s unobtrusive, and getting stronger all the time. We can put that down partly to the regenerative powers of youth, and partly down to doing as much as I could as soon as I could. Something like that anyway!
Yeah I’ve been pleased to see that the other lifts haven’t really been hit much at all by the injury, although I have been picking and choosing those that I suspected would suffer the least. Now that I’m back to squatting the real test begins.
Speed Box Squats:
20x2x5
(Added 2 sets of chains per side)
20x3
60x2
80x2
100x6x2
Speed Deadlifts:
60x3
100x1
120x10x1
Pikes:
BWx3x10
Reverse Hypers:
75x3x12
I’m getting back to peak condition, slowly but surely. This weight wasn’t anything special, but all of the sets felt smooth (although not particularly fast until the last couple of sets).
I need to work on my shoulder (and specifically pressing) strength to improve my bench, so I’ll be performing press variations on dynamic days after benching for the next few cycles.
Reverse Band Deadlifts:
(With green bands)
160x3
200x3
220x2
240x1
250x1
200x5
Reverse Hypers:
80x3x12
Ab Pulldowns:
120lbx3x10
Tonight was a bit of a mixed bag of a session - some positives, and some negatives. It’s good to be squatting and steadily increasing the weight on the bar, but the weights I was using tonight felt a lot heavier than they should do. I am attributing this to not being used to performing sets of multiple reps on the squat (I usually drop to singles pretty quickly on Mondays), my current lack of hamstring strength, and (of course) the related fact that I’m returning from injury.
Likewise, it was good to equal my PR on the reverse band deadlifts, but 250kg still sucks, and you will see from the comparison video below, it was an absolute crime against deadlift form. My conventional deadlift always looks nasty (a result of my long torso) but tonight I really let my back round right over. I was determined to nail 250, as a sort of personal victory, so gutted out this abortion of a rep! The fact that my lower back was fried from squatting (it may take a couple of weeks to readjust to the movement), and I still managed to pull the 250, was pleasing though.
29/03/10: 240kg (later missed 260kg) > About 1 min in
23/08/10: 250kg (Equalled PR)
A few things I noticed about these videos:
I approach the bar a lot more aggressively in the two earlier videos.
My form is considerably better with 240kg in both cases. This is understandable in the third video, because it was, by then, a submaximal load. But compare the first video with last night’s - the difference is staggering.
The bands always end up pointing slightly towards my body, which indicates that I am not pulling the bar in a straight line. Maybe I need to set up closer to the bar? Something to try in future…
Whew, call the chiropractor. That was some serious round back power on those pulls.
I also have stumpy legs and a relatively long torso (I’m only 5’8"-ish or ~173cm for you metric users); I’ve found that I don’t have to get super close to the bar, but I do need to ensure that my hips get low (enough). If not, shoulders get in front of the bar too much and it is a race to get the bar to lockout before the lower back gives out.
Thanks for the tip - I used to subscribe to the ‘shins must touch the bar when setting up your deadlift’ maxim, and found that I was much stronger when moving a little way away from the bar. I really will have to focus on getting my hips down more though.
Bench Presses (Paused):
20x2x8
(Added 2 sets of chains per side)
20x5
60x3
80x3
(All subsequent sets performed with a 2-board)
90x3
100x1
110x1
115x1
120x1 (PR)
125xF
Chin-ups:
BW 10x8x5
Close Grip Bench Presses:
80x5
90x5
100x5
115x5 (PR)
Face Pulls:
110lbx2x12
Triceps Pushdowns w/Straight Bar Attachment:
80lbx2x12
I was really looking forward to tonight’s session, and felt confident of hitting a couple of PRs. I did so, comfortably adding 2.5kg to my previous best efforts on both bench press variants.
The rest of the session was pretty standard stuff.
I don’t feel justified calling these squats ‘dynamic’. Despite not being fast, they were smooth and didn’t cause my knees too much discomfort. Deadlifts were good though.
Below is another ‘call the chiropractor’ moment - my last single with 240kg:
Ab Pulldowns:
120lbx4x10
This was the final max effort squat and deadlift session of this cycle, and it was a decent one to finish off with. The squats went well (I added knee wraps for the final sets as both of my knees have been a little sore when squatting in the last couple of weeks - nothing to worry about) and I’m confident that I’ll be back to top condition in a couple of months.
Then we moved onto rack pulls… Regular (or even irregular) followers of this log will know that I absolutely suck at rack pulls, as I have trouble breaking the bar off of the pins. This, then, was a hugely productive session, as I repeatedly beat my absolutely shocking previous best efforts from this pin height. My form even held up pretty well until the last single with 240kg, although I have no video evidence to prove it!
[quote]whup wrote:
You’re Lifting is really improving, man. You’re my British hero.[/quote]
As ever, the words are much appreciated. I’m no hero though. I may have the looks, the charisma, the aura of invincibility, the awesome roman chair sit-up skills (sadly lacking in squat, bench press or deadlift skills) but I’m just another guy really!
Triceps Pushdowns w/Straight Bar Attachment:
85lbx3x10
Face Pulls:
115lbx3x10
The single with 180kg felt fast and strong, and it equalled my best in the shirt (set on 07/07/10). Seeing as this was my first gearwhored session since the competition in late July, I was very satisfied with that. All of my assistance work is coming along nicely too - all of my lifts have increased from that same session two months ago.
Stiff-legged Good Mornings:
60x5
80x5
100x5
110x3
120x3
Here is a video of the triple with 120kg. Watch how it nearly goes very wrong on the final rep!
Glute/Ham Raises:
BWx3x12
Ab Pulldowns:
120lbx3x12
This week was scheduled to be a deload, but I will most likely be heading to Germany on business next week, so am going to work myself into the ground this week and relax whilst out there instead. This session was notable for a few things: I equalled my PR with the safety squat bar (although I was using knee wraps for the sets with 150kg and 160kg, whereas I was wrap-free when I hit 150kg a few months ago), I was able to do glute/ham raises for the first time since tearing my MCL, and I did some semi-decent good mornings. Overall, it was a pretty good session!
This was a brilliant session - we went heavy on both squats and deadlifts and I hit some satisfying numbers. We threw 90kg of chain weight onto the bar for our squats, and worked up to a couple of sets with 120kg bar weight. I only got a single first time around (the chains got caught underneath the rack) but I managed a tough double on the second set. On the deadlifts, I smashed a long-standing PR on the Jumpstretch Platform (by 10kg) - I had got myself pretty psyched up for the left and was pretty chuffed. Videos to follow.
