How about a couple of days of really slow non-explosive work; not too heavy, medium load to an 8-9 rep weight range, on the following exercises:
Switch from Hang Cleans to… Slow Semi-Close Grip High Pulls with a long hold at the top; thumbs touching the chin on that hold… I did these quite a bit while on duty in Kurdistan; filled up an old issued military duffel canvas bag with dirt and pulled from the side handle which I had to restitch often.
Slow Rep Barbell/Dumbbell Floor Presses instead of the Bench Press… long hold at the bottom trying to keep the forearms steady while the elbows are just barely touching the floor. I started doing these years ago when I was working in Northern India; many of the old-timer wrestlers there were doing these by pressing old Ambassador car axles from the ground on their backs as they didn’t have access to benchs, barbells, weight plates, gyms, etc.
Standing Concentration Arnold Dumbbell Shoulder Presses… again nice and slow with a strong hold and contraction at both the top and bottoms of the movement… both Arnold and Frank Zane said they preferred these as a slow low rep concentration movement rather than an explosive quick high rep movement. I use to mess with these quite a bit but now focusing on getting my push press over 95kg so haven’t seriously done them for some time now.
Take a couple good long walks/hikes… stretch those legs out with long strides; a good trick is to use a long stick/staff that you grip/hold at about shoulder height. This tends to keep you in a longer and faster gait. Hold the stick opposite your tight hammie leg.
BTW: Adding your chains to the Barbell Floor Presses would be an interesting variation…
You’ll snap out of it soon enough just keep jugging away… good luck!
Let’s see, well I didn’t train today but I did go to a DU banquet. I ate a couple steaks and drank a 12 pack of bud light. My wife hung out with a friend while I was out. When we got home I guess she puked, took a shower, fell out of the shower on her butt, and possibly broke her toe. I heard none of this. This was around midnight my wake up call was 4am.
My last post in this log is so good I should start a new one but in the interest of not polluting cyber-space I will just continue here.
I literally did not train since September partly because of my “light” hamstring pull and partly because my nuts hurt when I lifted. The back of my right leg was black from the bleeding of my hamstring for about two months.
I’m starting to feel bucky again so I am plotting an attack plan. Probably no sprints for the foreseeable future. High reps or low, fast reps for now.
A little more background: I was a four-time collegiate all-american shotputter. I basically stopped eating and lifting before my 24th birthday, 1998. I competed in a strongman contest in that year in July after not touching a weight for a little over two months. My bw was down from 302 to 265. The week of the strongman thing I went to the gym to see if I could still bench 400 and to see if I could deadlift 635. If I could do that then I would enter the contest and try to win the $100 cash prize. I hit those weights and did the contest. I won it, and every event. I won the deadlift with a pull of 750 I could have done more but the next closest lift was 600, I know. This was a fake deadlift from just below the knee so don’t get too excited. Anyway, since then I have lifted off and on. At times I’ve gotten decently strong and at times I’ve gotten ripped, it all depended on what I was feeling. I decided this time around that I would try to approach my training as if I have never lifted and every faux pr I hit will be lightly celebrated. This is in an effort to get out of my own shadow.
I did this today so far just as a warm up. I’ve done about ten sets so far. I hope to deadlift next. Note the lack of leg involvement. And if anyone is wondering, yes, I have really long arms.
standing military press-momentary pause at the top and bottom of each rep of the 1st two sets.
8x95lbs
5x115lbs
9x135lbs
Deficit un-deadlifts
a few unremarkable warm-up sets then this:
15x315 (I had the webcam set up but there was an error in the upload so no video today)
I had two 2X8 boards under each foot plus shoes with an inch and a quarter heel. The bar was just above my shoes at the bottom. I’m not sure if it was the shoes or something else but my bad knee was not happy with this set. I’ve never done higher rep touch n’ go deficit un-deads so I guess that counts as a pr, kind of?
This felt ok. Having not done anything for too many months this was borderline a gasser. I’ll work up to thirty touch n’ go reps on this in the next couple of weeks and then move on to something else I guess. No major pain today, yay!
[quote]Raw Meat wrote:
glad to see that you’re getting back to it!
315x30 sounds rediculous, good luck getting back there!
i’m excited to see how you’ll progress[/quote]
I want to ease into it but that is always harder for me than doing the work. I’ve hit 315 for 39+ reps before so someday maybe I’ll hit 40, why?, I don’t know. I think that anyone with similar mechanical advantages could pull high reps with decent weight if they tried.
First week back and the second deadlift day in a row went like this after a warm up of
4x3 hang power snatch alternated with 4x3 hang high pulls of a greater weight.
If I feel ok later today I will go another round with the hps and high pulls.
I skipped doing any more lifting after the deadlift yesterday.
This morning I did:
hps 4x3 with 135# alternated with 4x3 hanging high pulls using 165# then
hps 2x3 with 145# alternated with 2x3 hanging high pulls using 175#
I got a little more leg involvement in the catch, this definitely helped my balance. I felt almost snappy today. These are pretty light weights even for me, but they feelz good.
I may attempt another round of this later today.
Edit: I did more stuff - 3x3 hps @ 150# alternated with hanging high pulls @ 180# then a set to ten reps with an ohp @ 135#. The overhead is coming back ok, it usually pains my back more than anything (shoulders). We’ll see where it goes.
I am going to attempt another go at the deadlift Monday or Tuesday. I’ll try to do a better job of locking it at the top and maybe get a little more leg involvement. The body is definitely compensating during the reps.
Tomorrow I may do some moderate singles on the deficit deads to get some hip actiOWN.
I warmed up to one rep at 405# in the deadlift. I had two 2x8 boards under each foot. Nothing big here, I was just attempting to get loose and get my butt down a little. The pull itself was fine I was wearing crocs which suck alot for balance but I didn’t fall or anything so I’ll call it a win.
I am going to a wild game feed tonight so I foresee the consumption of much meat and many beers. This weekend I will simply do a few light front squats to try to get loose for my next deadlift day.
I attempted a set of deadlifts with 315# yesterday. I tried to utilize some legs and lock out at the top. The locking out wasn’t bad but I would say that at this point my legs aren’t ready to handle much work. I stopped at 23 reps, I wanted to do somewhere in the mid 30’s. I felt like I could hit around 30 but not much beyond so I saved it for another day. I drank a little beer on Sunday while watching the Vikings eat their shit so I may not have been in the proper state to perform.
A little more history on me, just to make this log somewhat readable; my freshman season as a thrower in college, 1995, I followed this training protocol up to the first week of December:
Fishing 2x per week
Hunting 3x per week
Trapping 5X per week
Drinking beer or other beverages that were bad for me maybe 3x per week
Sleeping 3 to 4 hours per night
Somehow I still threw 55’11" with the 16# shot that year, I even had major back spasms most of the outdoor season. My back felt ok at the outdoor conference meet and that is where I hit my freshman pr. At nationals I could barely get out of bed, couldn’t walk upright, etc.
But I made it there. I think I came in last.
Today so far I have done this
hps @ 135# 5x3
hhp @ 165# 5x3 sets alternated with the hps
ohp @ 135# 1x13 on the feet no leg thump, yeah I know, I can generally ohp about 50% of my bench, it’s sad.
This stuff is starting to feel better. I’m getting a little more leg involvement the snatch so the bar is moving well. Rest periods were about one minute. I am just attempting to build some capacity.
Round two went like this
hps 6x3 @ 135#
hhp 6x3 @ 165# I tried do all of this from a pause starting about mid thigh, it went ok. I’m almost starting to look like I lift weights.
I deadlifted 405# for 20 reps today, touch n’ go no stopping. I focused on locking out the top of the lift and it appears from the video that I did that. I didn’t really get the legs into it much. The other day I tried that and ran out of gas quick, so I just wanted to get reps and let nature take its course.
I watched the video once it looked good, it was set to a Waylon Jennings song. I did look kind of fat but otherwise it was acceptable. I am attempting to upload this now I think its about to time out so it may not work. No worries though, next time I do something interesting I’ll try another video.
I will wait at least a week before I do any deadlifts again, at this point I’m not sure what I will do then.
These felt fine, I will probably get some ohp later and another round of these pulls.
My body weight has gone from 244# earlier this week to 252# today. Both of these are morning weights pre-feeding. Not really what I am trying to accomplish but I do come from big people.
I finished the day with
hps 5x3 and
hhp 5x3 alternating sets. This will be the last time, for now, that I do this twice a day. Now it will be twice a week. I hope to deadlift for reps on Monday. I guess if its touch and go that means its only one deadlift followed by a bunch of cheat reps.
I failed to get 25 reps with 405# in the touch and go style dealift today. I put a video on my The Un-Deadlift thread in the powerlifting forum. I think that unless I do something more interesting than picking something up and putting something down repeatedly I will hold off on the videos.
I weighed in at 262# today, which is 18# pounds heavier than two weeks ago.
[quote]Raw Meat wrote:
Just watched the vid, that was damn close, and congrats thats still a ton of weight to move around.
I seem to have very little success with high weights/lower reps on my deadlift, any suggestions?
Edit: Beyond just lower weight/high reps, i was wondering whats worked for you in the past, week to week progressions if you had that… thanks! [/quote]
To be clear the most I have ever deadlifted was 590# for 9 reps. I think some girls have done more than that. My feet had about 2-3 inches between them, I was going for a long pull. I would pull for max 5-8 reps, usually, on a bi-weekly basis. This was alternated with a type of heavy box squat to an 18" box, my descent was extremely slow and I would reverse “fast” when my butt touched the bench. A side note: 16" has me below parallel. I would lift four weeks and take week five off from lifting. I would still do plyos, games, etc during the off week. Typically I would drop all extra activity duting week four. Many times I would lift only two to three days per week, two upper one lower + throws jumps sprints etc. I also ate too much. Most of my gains occurred in a three year span from 20 to 23. I wasted a lot of effort before that time and then lost interest afterwards.
You are much stronger than I was at 19 years old. Just keep at it and you will get stronger and stronger. If I can tell you one thing it is that recovery is very important. I took a week of whether I wanted to or not.
I did not start to pull much for singles until the last five or six years, but I also haven’t lifted much in this time frame, but, occasion go at singles seems to jack up my skillz when I go back to reps, cheat curls, or whatever.
[quote]Raw Meat wrote:
Just watched the vid, that was damn close, and congrats thats still a ton of weight to move around.
I seem to have very little success with high weights/lower reps on my deadlift, any suggestions?
Edit: Beyond just lower weight/high reps, i was wondering whats worked for you in the past, week to week progressions if you had that… thanks! [/quote]
To be clear the most I have ever deadlifted was 590# for 9 reps. I think some girls have done more than that. My feet had about 2-3 inches between them, I was going for a long pull. I would pull for max 5-8 reps, usually, on a bi-weekly basis. This was alternated with a type of heavy box squat to an 18" box, my descent was extremely slow and I would reverse “fast” when my butt touched the bench. A side note: 16" has me below parallel. I would lift four weeks and take week five off from lifting. I would still do plyos, games, etc during the off week. Typically I would drop all extra activity duting week four. Many times I would lift only two to three days per week, two upper one lower + throws jumps sprints etc. I also ate too much. Most of my gains occurred in a three year span from 20 to 23. I wasted a lot of effort before that time and then lost interest afterwards.
You are much stronger than I was at 19 years old. Just keep at it and you will get stronger and stronger. If I can tell you one thing it is that recovery is very important. I took a week of whether I wanted to or not.
I did not start to pull much for singles until the last five or six years, but I also haven’t lifted much in this time frame, but, occasion go at singles seems to jack up my skillz when I go back to reps, cheat curls, or whatever.[/quote]
Thanks for the advice, i’m thinking it is time for one of those weeks off. i need to start incorperating plyos, and for the ground to thaw so i can get out there and throw haha
I attemped to open up a can of whoop ass in the deadlift with 315#, I didn’t do much in the last week that would indicate that progress would occur. I was thinking forty reps, I hit thirty five and the wall hit me. I pulled one more for thirty six reps. My mind failed me on this one. In the video I really didn’t slow the pace I just stopped. suck.
I’ve had some shoulder pains the last week and a half so I’ve rested them and feel ready to start again with that stuff. Maybe today.
Because I am using the deadlift for cardio, I tried to rep out a little with 405lbs today. The first rep felt heavy so I stopped at fifteen. It was just kind of a struggle and never felt comfortable. I tried the texas push ups thing twice but sucked much ass, twice. This was a good indicator of how far out of aerobic shape I am. I will probably deadlift for reps again next wednesday, hopefully something interesting will happen. I have not decided if I will go for 315# or 405# I leaning toward the former.
I might resume some ohp tomorrow if I feel manly enough. Really though the shoulders feel fine so I will probably give a few reps a go.
I did some hps work today more for fitness or capacity than anything else:
5x125#
3x130#
1x135#
5x130#
3x135#
1x140#
5x135#
3x140#
1x145#
I took a minute or less for rest for most of these sets. I may have stretched it out on the last few. It felt good. The weight is pretty light so I was able to work a little bit on getting deeper on the catch. Deeper for me would be getting a little knee bend, ha ha. I hope to get into at least a half squat position on the catch eventually. I need to work on cardio! Tonight I am going to do a little ohp nothing fancy and probably not worth mentioning but I’ll shoot for fourteen reps with 135#. Should be fun.
The plan on the hps going forward is to do the same workout with the same weight twice this week then do the same thing next weight but add five pounds to my starting weight and so on.
This style can be found in the Timmerman on Shotput transcript that is floating around the web. It contains greater detail if anyone is curious.
Edit: I want to swear alot to share how I feel about tendonitis in my shoulders. But I won’t. I took a couple of weeks off to recoup, but I already feel the crap in my left shoulder, suck again.