[quote]Canada_K wrote:
[quote]FarmerBrett wrote:
And the only difference between bodybuilders and powerlifters is we don’t grow vaginas when someone tries to take away our carbs.
[/quote]
Kinda overlooking the whole body shaving and Banana hammock thing aren’t you?
[quote]Germanone wrote:
[quote]DaCharmingAlbino wrote:
[quote]Germanone wrote:
[quote]LittleStrick wrote:
[quote]FarmerBrett wrote:
Glad you all found my incompetence amusing! I mean, who can’t drop a weight?
Been mulling a few things over overnight. I’m clearly not flexible enough at the moment to drop into a full squat under the snatch so I’m going to start doing the Calstrength upper and lower body flexibility stretches 3 times a day. In fact, I just split a perfectly good pair of trousers doing them a minute ago. (note to self - do them in shorts).
And I’ve also realised I’ve wasted too many years training by not deciding exactly what I was training for. At various times I wanted to be massive but didn’t want to get fat, I wanted to be fast but still wanted to have the endurance to do long bike rides, I wanted to be a powerlifter one minute a weightlifter the next and even when I was doing the O lifts I didn’t want my bench press to suffer or my cardio to slide, any wonder I didn’t progress. I wanted to be ripped one day, have a great vertical jump the next. I NEVER EVER wanted to be a bodybuilder though! (That was for CK). So after 20 years training I’m average at everything and good at nothing. So I think it’s time I choose a goal and stick to it. And it just might be olympic lifting.
I will keep giving this thought.[/quote]
Focus is a good thing. And if it is Oly lifts, best of luck and more power to you.
Even though I, personally, find O lifts strange and scary. I read Carls’s and Tony’s logs all the time, but have no idea exactly what to comment. It just confuses me.
There does seem to be a plague of oly lifting spreading through the forum. I would blame Carl, as he was the 1st person I noticed doing them, when I started reading here. Then Tony came along and not only made them cool, but DCA cool. Next thing you know, I see variants in Harry’s log, then Steve’s, then others. Apparently it is highly contagious. But in your case, you have done them in the past. So you were already infected. Dormant?
I just don’t know!? Maybe we should quarantine you guys?
Have fun![/quote]
Kinda funny regarding the plague of oly lifts(maybe better termed oly lift variations/). I personally think things are just resurfacing again as the always do. Years ago pwerlifters did power cleans, pulls, snatches OH presses etc and then things seemed to get so focused on just the powerlifts that the oly lifts (variations) faded away, now here they are back.
Just my 2 cents.[/quote]
Yup - used to be not a gnat’s whisker of difference twixt BB, OL and PL cuz the dudes did 'em all. Now we have ‘specialists.’[/quote]
You are so right. Remember Franco Columbo, BB that was a heck of a squat and dead and even did some strongman stuff. Perfect example.[/quote]
I think that’s part of the problem you see is that things have become too Specialised. Much like Albino is saying. You don’t see allot of hybrids anymore.
Well done Bulldog, now you’ve gone and made my log look all gay with that 2nd vid.
[quote]bulldog9899 wrote:
[quote]Canada_K wrote:
[quote]FarmerBrett wrote:
And the only difference between bodybuilders and powerlifters is we don’t grow vaginas when someone tries to take away our carbs.
[/quote][/quote]
Kinda overlooking the whole body shaving and Banana hammock thing aren’t you?[/quote]
Hehe, not to mention the way over-tanning, and ghey posing in the mirror all the time.
[quote]FarmerBrett wrote:
Well done Bulldog, now you’ve gone and made my log look all gay with that 2nd vid.[/quote]
Hey Now!!! FINE! 2nd vid is removed.
Strick - I don’t think changing focus onto the O lifts would be much of a stretch for me really as the majority of my training revolves around squatting anyway. I guess I’d just start doing snatches first and squat afterwards instead of squatting first.
UN42 - I may well add that to my new repetoire of stretches.
[quote]Canada_K wrote:
[quote]FarmerBrett wrote:
I NEVER EVER wanted to be a bodybuilder though! (That was for CK). So after 20 years training I’m average at everything and good at nothing. So I think it’s time I choose a goal and stick to it. And it just might be olympic lifting.[/quote]
Lemme get this striaght. You consider where you’re at right now to be AVERAGE? Are you mental or blind? I strive to your level of average-ness. But I do agree that to be really exceptional at something you can’t walk the middle of the road. A guy has got to commit and surrender compeltely to the process. I sure can’t fault you for wanting to really focus.
[/quote]
I wasn’t trying to be modest or fishing for compliments, it’s just that I’ve been lifting over TWENTY YEARS and I keep seeing people on here reach my level of strength after just 3 or 4 years lifting! It just makes me sad that I wasted so many years bouncing from one goal to another and didn’t commit wholeheartedly to a specific one. I don’t want to spend the next 10 years doing the same. So I think I need to decide now powerlifting or weightlifting and then devote all my attention at getting better at it.
30/03/2011
Power snatch followed by drop into squat snatch position x 7 singles
Back squat @ 380 lbs x 2-2-2
CG U/H Pulldowns @ 176 lbs x 8-7
RDLs @ 336 lbs x 2-2-2
One Arm DB Row @ 124 lbs x 8-6
Leg Curls @ 100 lbs x 6-5
Ab Rollouts (off knees) x 8-8
Much better at dropping it tonight. Squats felt great after the snatches. There’s definitely something to this “priming the CNS” stuff.
I was just funnin’ with ya. O lifts are a good thing. I am afraid of them because I am afraid to lift anything off the floor in an explosive manner, given my back issue. I am not fully comfy even doing deads, but I am hardheaded and I don’t think it as violent/explosive a lift.
[quote]FarmerBrett wrote:
I wasn’t trying to be modest or fishing for compliments, it’s just that I’ve been lifting over TWENTY YEARS and I keep seeing people on here reach my level of strength after just 3 or 4 years lifting! It just makes me sad that I wasted so many years bouncing from one goal to another and didn’t commit wholeheartedly to a specific one. I don’t want to spend the next 10 years doing the same. So I think I need to decide now powerlifting or weightlifting and then devote all my attention at getting better at it.[/quote]
Look at the positive side. Yes, your down on yourself at this point. But you realize what you need to focus on. Along with that you haven’t wasted twenty years. For one in the amount of time you have developed a well rounded foundation to work from to achieve what ever goal you go after. Along with the self awareness that can only be learned by experience. So if I was you I would not be too hard on yourself.
[quote]FarmerBrett wrote:
I wasn’t trying to be modest or fishing for compliments, it’s just that I’ve been lifting over TWENTY YEARS and I keep seeing people on here reach my level of strength after just 3 or 4 years lifting! It just makes me sad that I wasted so many years bouncing from one goal to another and didn’t commit wholeheartedly to a specific one. I don’t want to spend the next 10 years doing the same. So I think I need to decide now powerlifting or weightlifting and then devote all my attention at getting better at it.[/quote]
Mr Brett. Bear in mind I’ve been pumping iron for 35 yrs and have barely made it to half your strength level. I’m watching one guy in my gym catch up to my level after only 6 months. I’m sorry that it took a while to get to your level, but as Kent pointed out, you are decidedly NOT “average”.
Brett I think Strongman is the way to go. At any contest you could be asked to do any one of fifty lifts. You have to be comfortable with them all, and strong. This means you have a high degree of functionality (Yes, I did drink the Crossfit Koolaid. But I have gone through rehab and now I’m a Strongman). I think if you specialize to much your other sports will suffer.
[quote]Canada_K wrote:
[quote]FarmerBrett wrote:
I NEVER EVER wanted to be a bodybuilder though! (That was for CK). So after 20 years training I’m average at everything and good at nothing. So I think it’s time I choose a goal and stick to it. And it just might be olympic lifting.[/quote]
Lemme get this striaght. You consider where you’re at right now to be AVERAGE? Are you mental or blind? I strive to your level of average-ness. But I do agree that to be really exceptional at something you can’t walk the middle of the road. A guy has got to commit and surrender compeltely to the process. I sure can’t fault you for wanting to really focus.
And the only difference between bodybuilders and powerlifters is we don’t grow vaginas when someone tries to take away our carbs.
[/quote]
I gotta second the objection to describing yourself as “average”. Average can barely lift a case of beer, let alone a keg…
I think it is an issue of comparing within a population of rather elite group. If I compare my lifts to: Strick’s upper body lift’s, Pete’s anything, Snap’s smoothness and strength, CK’s body comp, the great pale one’s amazing diversity of lifts… And on and on through the list of regulars here… Well, of course I come up seriously short.
I’ve been following your log awhile now and am regularly impressed by your lifts. You’re damn strong across your whole body. (There’s a LOT of light bulbs at my gym. I’m endlessly amazed by how imbalanced people can get upper/lower). Your lifts are beautifully executed. Your volume is outstanding…
Ps. love your new home set up.
Everything that is not powerlifting is crap.
Do you want to be crap?
Well do you?
Just do everything that you enjoy and to hell with the rest.
Well, there we go!
At the other site where I hang out, I watch a lot of people starting and failing. It’s just not “their time”. Physiologically speaking, making progress isn’t complicated. Psychologically it’s a nightmare.
Now I’m not saying your a basket case that needs therapy. I’m just saying that the stars have to be aligned. Life events, head space… it all has to be perfect. When it all hits the right groove, we flourish. THIS is YOUR TIME. Who cares how long it took? What’s important, in my mind, is that it f##king happened!
[quote]FarmerBrett wrote:
I’m clearly not flexible enough at the moment to drop into a full squat under the snatch
[/quote]
I find this hard to believe.
[quote]FarmerBrett wrote:
So after 20 years training I’m average at everything and good at nothing.
[/quote]
Not true. You are way talented. I think your form is impeccable. Not many people can say that.
[quote]FarmerBrett wrote:
So I think it’s time I choose a goal and stick to it. And it just might be olympic lifting.
[/quote]
I totally agree that it’s hard to please two (or more) masters at once. Oly lifting will keep your interest for a long time, I imagine, if you so choose to focus on it.
Thanks very much for the “pep talk” and encouragement everyone. I’m not really having a “downer”, I was just reflecting in a kind of “I wonder where I’d be now if I’d taken that job overseas fifteen years ago?” type way. I was just thinking how strong I’d be now if I’d trained for strength the whole time and hadn’t spent 5 years or so cycling to work and back (a 20 mile round trip), while playing basketball 3 times a week, and still lifting. Obviously my lifts didn’t go up much during that time. But hey, no regrets, it was what I wanted at the time.
Still may consider focussing on weightlifting, how successful the mobility and flexibility stuff I’m doing now is will have a big bearing on that.
31/03/2011
Bike ride - Top of mountain and back - 6.5 miles in 37 minutes.
Made good time on the way up because the wind was favourable but lost it all on the way down. Maxed out at 27 mph on the way down, can normally break 40.
Ha, I have periods consistantly where I feel mediocre or average. I am not a top lifter, but I still haven’t kept the possiblity of getting there out of the realm of possiliblity.
Once, many years ago, in my early twenties, this really stupid person that I was married to for a short time asked me to stop going to the gym.
“Why can’t you just run around the neighborhood like normal people do for excersise?”
“Because normal is the last thing I ever want to be.”
Thank god divorce is legal.
01/04/2011
30 minutes Snatch practice - overhead squats, hang snatches, squat snatches + flexibility stuff. Bar only. (I was completely knackered by the end of this)
Back squat @ 402 lbs x 1-1-1
Bench Press @ 264 lbs x 3!! (shoulders felt really weak and strange from all the mobility work I’ve been doing so I thought it wise to quit)
RDLs @ 358 lbs x 1-1-1
Face pulls @ 88 lbs x 10-10
GHR @ bw x 5-5
CG U/H Pulldowns @ 176 lbs x 9-7
Pushdowns @ 115 lbs x 9-8-8
Ab rollouts (off knees) x 8-8
Vid of some stuff from tonight. With some questions which hopefully Carl or DCA will be kind enough to answer for me.
1 I noticed my heels are coming off the ground. Is this something I have to keep working on or would lifting shoes sort this out?
2 Where should I be aiming to hold the bar? directly overhead or as far back (behind the head) as possible?
3 Lastly, from the video, where do you think I need the most work flexibility wise? am I right in thinking shoulders and ankles?
Thanks in advance.
[quote]PeteS wrote:
Ha, I have periods consistantly where I feel mediocre or average. I am not a top lifter, but I still haven’t kept the possiblity of getting there out of the realm of possiliblity.
Once, many years ago, in my early twenties, this really stupid person that I was married to for a short time asked me to stop going to the gym.
“Why can’t you just run around the neighborhood like normal people do for excersise?”
“Because normal is the last thing I ever want to be.”
Thank god divorce is legal. [/quote]
Well if I’m being told I’m not average, then you DEFINITELY are not average Pete.
People often tell me they can’t believe how great my willpower must be to “force” myself to go to the gym constantly. They just can’t understand that I might actually enjoy it and find it far harder to force myself to have a day off.
They’ll never understand us. Which is fine, maybe we don’t want to be understood by them.
[quote]FarmerBrett wrote:
[quote]PeteS wrote:
Ha, I have periods consistantly where I feel mediocre or average. I am not a top lifter, but I still haven’t kept the possiblity of getting there out of the realm of possiliblity.
Once, many years ago, in my early twenties, this really stupid person that I was married to for a short time asked me to stop going to the gym.
“Why can’t you just run around the neighborhood like normal people do for excersise?”
“Because normal is the last thing I ever want to be.”
Thank god divorce is legal. [/quote]
Well if I’m being told I’m not average, then you DEFINITELY are not average Pete.
People often tell me they can’t believe how great my willpower must be to “force” myself to go to the gym constantly. They just can’t understand that I might actually enjoy it and find it far harder to force myself to have a day off.
They’ll never understand us. Which is fine, maybe we don’t want to be understood by them.[/quote]
Exactly. Coworkers always make comments about not understanding why I am do it, my dear Mom who is 72 keeps asking me when I am going to stop lifting such heavy stuff, lol.
Every now and then you see on some of the message boards pl’er talking about making the sport mainstream. Now why the fuck would you want to do that?