Fine-Tuning the Machine & Tacking on the Vanity Plates

Training
461

Today has been a very good day. Slept like 10+ hours last night. Celebrated my 7 year old nephew’s birthday- 2 pieces of birthday cake plus ice cream. It wasn’t raining or snowing so we got to go outside and fool around on the skateboard that my brother bought him. My brother is one of those dads that always buys stuff that is fun but could lead to injury. Oh well. Took a nap for an hour or so and got ready for the gym. Took 2 servings of the humapro and headed out. Stopped for a triple espresso on the way. Ready to rock.

Lower/GVT (EDIT: strict 90 sec rest between sets)

Warmup: 3x10 wall squats (didn’t forget about my promised vid, probably put it together tomorrow), 3x10 spiderman crawls

FS @ 115: 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 8, 9, 10, 9, 10; 96 reps for 11,040 lbs total

There were some guys that did the longest seated calf raise session ever behind the squat rack that I was using (they had like 6 plates on that bitch?!), so I had an audience. Really fun and funny at the same time. Yes, I was squatting in the shorts again. I was playing up the heavy breathing and shit just for grins at the beginning. By the last couple of sets it was for real. Between the 9th and 10th sets I felt like I was gonna puke but I sucked it up and blasted out 10 reps just because. Then I laid on the floor for a few minutes before I switched over for the RDLs. Drank some water and got to it.

RDL @ 145: 10 x 10 FUCK YES!

My grip was super-duper strong and they felt pretty easy. I have a sore ass now, but I got all 100 reps so next session I will go up to 150. Rested a bit and put some clothing back on before I started over toward the roman chairs to do hanging-twisting leg raises. Ran into this dude who is actually a trainer at the other gym that I go to once in a while. He asked me if I lost weight!?! HAhaHAha. I told him that I’ve been eating like I have a hollow leg and he was amazed. Not sure what to think of that.

Hanging-twisting leg raises: 3x10, forced myself to do them and bagged the rest in the interest of going home to eat.

Watching the Phillies game and eating now. Very nice.

462

Suntory Yamazaki 18

Lagavulin 12 (if you can find it)

Caol Ila 18 (peppery, woody)

463

Alright. I finally took the time to figure out how to make a vid with my macbook. I’m sorta a tech dummie, I admit. This is my first attempt at putting something together.

These are the wall squats that I do EVERY time I squat. Mostly, I use them as a hip opener and mobility drill. During production I felt my hip pop and click a couple of times. Good stuff. I also focus on usual cues: open the hips, spread the floor, push knees out, sit, back, fire my ass up, etc. They really help me and getting loose is what makes squatting a lot more comfortable.

Here goes…

464

Wall squats, veggie-style

465

first to comment!! excellent!

those wall squats are fine in soooo many ways.

thank you very much for playing along :slight_smile:

466

Aww Veggiedip, so excited for you for the 100 reps at 145!

All the hub-bub about wall squats got me into doing them, and I gotta say, I love 'em for my hip flexibility. I added it to the long list of warm-up crap I do, mainly cuz I love warming up and getting loose… heehee, getting loose.

Anyway, interesting that you use a band, I’ma try that.
Thanks for your attire of choice, delish <3

467

Jedi Mind Tricks and veggie hitting some wall squats (with great form), awesome!

468

lol @ veg’dip’ NOT VD though…VS=better

Anyway:

  1. nice soundtrack
  2. nice hallway, it looks like a new house
  3. I like the use of band over your head as well
  4. Do you leave nippleskids on those white walls?
  5. Why are you doing GVT and not 5/3/1?

edit
6) How did you calculate your numbers for GVT?
7) I havent lifted since Thursday night and I AM STILL SORE EVERYWHERE (Sunday night) Is something wrong with me?

469

Thanks for stopping in to read everybody. I’ve had fun writing about the food and the crazy GVT hunger! Also had a great time making the wall squat vid.

This round of GVT is off to a great start. I switched it up a bit from last time. Hitting each split every 5 days instead of every 7. So far, so good on that. I feel recovered and I’ve done 2 of the splits twice and improved from session to session. Also, I am being hard-nosed about the rest periods: 60 seconds for most lifts, 90 seconds on the squats, DLs. NO VARIATION FROM THAT. I don’t time the rest periods on accessory work, if I even do it. Going by feel on that. If my body says yes, I do it. If not, tomorrow is another day.

To address a couple of direct questions/comments:

The band/tubing overhead is straight from the strength coach. He is a PLer that I met through my boss’s wife. When he had me do them in his gym as a warm up, he told me that they had really made a difference for a hip flexor issue that he’d been dealing with for a while. His track & field background left him with some unilateral over-use/strain similar to some of the stuff that I’ve dealt with as a result of gymnastics & tumbling. I am SO THANKFUL that he turned me on to them. They make a huge difference.

Bre: No skidmarks on the walls, condo is actually 16+ years old but well maintained, I <3 JMT and lift to their shit all the time.

Honestly, I don’t know that much about 5/3/1. Maybe I’ll give it a go sometime in the future. I like GVT for many reasons, but one of the big ones is the truly brutal nature of the program. Short rest periods + moderately heavy loads = fucking hard! I freely admit that this is not a PURE GVT program, but the principles are present.

I calculate the numbers on this program by taking ~70% of a known or reasonably projected 1RM. That said, I adjust them to round numbers and some are like 68% and others are 72% or whatever. I’m pretty tuned into my body, so I know to a fairly certain degree how much I can lift for upwards of 100 reps with the timed rest periods. And I’ve done it before, so I can rely on previous experience too.

Again, Bre, if you are still sore there could be several things going on… maybe you didn’t eat enough to recover, maybe you’ve not gotten enough rest to recover (tango time?) or maybe you just need a “deload.” I’ll be honest, I’ve never really specifically, consciously deloaded. I’m an intuitive by my very nature and If I need to reel myself in I do it and don’t really think about it. Maybe you need some body work, or dare I say, a good fuck! Hope no offense is taken regarding that comment, but it usually makes me feel better :wink:

470

Veggie, oh. my. god. I had to watch the video through twice to focus on the form of the squats and not the form of the veggie.

I cannot get low enough on those to save my life. Tomorrow I start doing these in earnest.

471

This song came up during the pullup/dip supersets and just kept me going. One of these years, I’m going to make playlists of these songs that just inspire me to dig a little deeper, you know?!

Back/arms GVT

Warmup was pretty informal; Some stretching using a piece of wall in the doorway to the spinning room, some jumping around, etc.

BB bent over row @ 90: 10, 10, 10, 10, 9, 10, 8, 10, 8, 10; 95 reps for 8,550 total lifted.

CGBP with thumbs touching @ 70: 10, 10, 10, 8, 9, 6, 7, 8*, 8, 7; 83 reps for 5,810 total lifted, 7th set felt some neural rebound going on, nice.

Accessory work:

SS, CG pullups/dips: 5/5, 3/5, 5/5, 4/5, 5/5

Farmers’ walks with 75 lb DBs: 2 x ~50 ft, grip was fried. Took humapro, left and went to grocery store.

Note to self: Don’t go to the grocery after doing one of these sweaty, draining GVT sessions. I bought more salty stuff than I care to relay. Oh well, my work schedule is going to be very crazy over the coming weeks due to the illness of a staff member. At least I made it to the store, even if I did buy some ridiculous stuff like cannolis, smoked almonds, and 6 different kinds of cheese. Will have to report back on what I actually consume.

472


Wall Squats…nom nom nom

473

You may say that. BUT ONLY CUZ IT’S TRUE!! Thanks for answering all the questions. V. interesting. Maybe it IS in fact food related. Hmmm…

474

Please post more mobility stuff. I need to nail that shit consistently; used to do soft tissue work 3-4x a week but I’ve been slacking.

And I promise to post more Scotch recs, you unappreciative, JMT-lovin herbivore :slight_smile:

EDIT: There’s a great vid of some old dude sitting down with legs straight out and opened like a V, using a thick band wrapped around his ankle and doing mobility stuff. I can’t find it, but it looked like something invaluable.

Any vids you can post of ankle mobility drills? All I can find are stuff where someone leans into a wall with the foot planted; I am trying to find the dirlls I saw long ago but can’t…not sure if that rings a bell or if you even do that stuff.

475

[quote]ThePerfectDrug wrote:
You may say that. BUT ONLY CUZ IT’S TRUE!! Thanks for answering all the questions. V. interesting. Maybe it IS in fact food related. Hmmm…[/quote]

Veggie, I think I’d enjoy taking you on as a training partner any day in the gym. Especially with the GVT. Like you, I’ve bastardized my routine to suit me. I was considering taking it “easy” these last two weeks I’m out here, however, I’m more inclined to get back to GVT in earnest. As for the truth that has just been uncovered, hoping to rectify this in 18 days.

And watching that vid of yours was like watching really good porn.

476

[quote]PonceDeLeon wrote:
Please post more mobility stuff. I need to nail that shit consistently; used to do soft tissue work 3-4x a week but I’ve been slacking.

And I promise to post more Scotch recs, you unappreciative, JMT-lovin herbivore :slight_smile:

EDIT: There’s a great vid of some old dude sitting down with legs straight out and opened like a V, using a thick band wrapped around his ankle and doing mobility stuff. I can’t find it, but it looked like something invaluable.

Any vids you can post of ankle mobility drills? All I can find are stuff where someone leans into a wall with the foot planted; I am trying to find the dirlls I saw long ago but can’t…not sure if that rings a bell or if you even do that stuff.[/quote]

Ankle mobility work request seconded.

477

thats so much for taking the time to vid your wall squats :slight_smile: this site inspired me to figure out how to use my i-sight and i-movie and upload stuff to youtube. had no idea how any of that worked before people started up with requests for vids.

you don’t even look like you are trying not to fall over backwards. and your arms / shoulders are well back. damn. wish i could borrow your legs for my squats.

ankle mobility work x3. would love to hear suggestions for that, too.

you are looking great as always.

478

10 hours sleep, 100 RDLs, Ice Cream, sounds pretty awesome to me. Those wall squats were great in so many ways. Your really inspiring me to try this GVT, great stuff!

479


Good morning all! I’ll work on some ankle and other mobility stuff soon and put up the vids.

Just got back from a follow-up with my gyno. Looking good. Nurse weighed me and took my bp. 139 and 110/60. Happy. Not sure about what exactly I weigh because for the sake of consistency, I got on the digital here at home when I woke up. 135.2, same scale as last week. That would be + 2 lbs since last Mon. I am inclined to believe this to be true based on the amount of food that I have managed to consume and the hard-core GVT over the past 7 days.

Here is a pic of part of my breakfast. 4 eggs + gorgonzola cheese, bowl of wilted kale x2, also had a banana and several stuffed and oil-cured olives while I was cooking.

EDIT: Ponce I do appreciate your suggestions regarding scotch. I was finishing a 1/2 bottle of a Cali pinot that my roomie/gran brought home from dinner while I was posting last night and got distracted by all of Bre’s questions. And I was thinking of you while I was drinking the wine Frenchie. I like wine too, just go through phases with stuff.

480

I’m going to have to do back and actually read your log, lots of good stuff in here. So, sorry if you’ve answered these already, but how far apart are your feet for the wall squats? I feel like mine are ridiculously far apart, but I’m starting to think it’s a function of ankle mobility. Which I guess means I’m also putting in a request for your ankle mobility program.

Also, kale? Do you like the bitter or is there some magic way you’re cooking them? Greens in general have always baffled me. Do you have any recipes that don’t involve a pound of butter?