Hard Work

Training Over 35 Lifter
261

[quote]cavalier wrote:
Thanks, Strick. And agree about spotters. I always tell them don’t touch the bar unless I can’t get it up. Really PO’s me to think I got a great PR, then finding out he was tugging it all along.

On a side note, some oddball things happening lately. Got a box with a heavy computer monitor in it, some stuff piled on top. Needed to move it, so I grabbed the handle, yanked, and the handle broke in half. WTF?? That never happened before. Then I was trimming my nails. Squeezed the clippers hard and they snapped in half. Does this sort of thing happen to you folks when you get strong?[/quote]

When I get strong, I’ll let you know.

I think bluebrasil hit on part of it. Things don’t seem to be as sturdy as they used to be. Couple that with the fact that you are getting stronger, whilst the rest of the world is getting weaker, and things happen. I think the most obvious indicator of increased strength, and/or confidence in one’s strength, is that everyday things just don’t feel as heavy.

262

[quote]cavalier wrote:
Well, no one’s commented on my squat vid, so I assume I did everthing properly.

[/quote]

I haven’t been around lately Cav, and I don’t know if the others didn’t want to add another worry, when you obviously are starting to feel better about your squats,(and BTW great depth!), but, the little dip your upper body does at the bottom doesn’t look good. Once you start piling on more weight, I think that might get you into trouble, and possible strain.

Maybe try to keep your head up, look at the ceiling or something, so that your back doesn’t round a bit in the hole, keep the arch in your back as much as possible(not forgetting the scoliosis issues).
In the EFS squat series, they mention driving your head back into the bar, to help keep your chest up, and back tight and locked in an arch. Just something to try and tweak, that I saw, don’t drop the weight you use back down, just think a bit about keeping head up and upper back tight next time you squat, maybe.

263

[quote]Ogre21793 wrote:

[quote]cavalier wrote:
Well, no one’s commented on my squat vid, so I assume I did everthing properly.

[/quote]

I haven’t been around lately Cav, and I don’t know if the others didn’t want to add another worry, when you obviously are starting to feel better about your squats,(and BTW great depth!), but, the little dip your upper body does at the bottom doesn’t look good. Once you start piling on more weight, I think that might get you into trouble, and possible strain.

Maybe try to keep your head up, look at the ceiling or something, so that your back doesn’t round a bit in the hole, keep the arch in your back as much as possible(not forgetting the scoliosis issues).
In the EFS squat series, they mention driving your head back into the bar, to help keep your chest up, and back tight and locked in an arch. Just something to try and tweak, that I saw, don’t drop the weight you use back down, just think a bit about keeping head up and upper back tight next time you squat, maybe.[/quote]

This is getting a tad frustrating.

On every rep, I am concentrating on arching my back. I am concentrating on looking ahead, slightly up, and thus keep chest up. I am concentrating on tightening back and abs. I can accept that the technique can use tweaking, but it’s really hard to believe that my form is so dreadfully disastrous that my spine is about to snap in half. Especially since I’m not getting a whisper of pain from my back.

As mentioned, the hard part is getting out of the hole, which feels damn near impossible, gotta strain with everything I’ve got. And if that’s making my form break down so absolutely completely that everyone’s gasping in horror, then it means my body is so weak and puny that I’ll never be able to squat anything at all. Which means I’ll have to spend the next 6 months trying to squat an empty bar, praying my body will somehow toughen up. And watch everyone else squats 300, 400, 500 lbs in form so perfect nobody dares criticize it.

Anyway, here’s today’s workout:

DB bicep row
30 x 18
35 x 12
40 x 8
40 x 8
40 x 8
40 x 8

I’ve been going up on these every workout, pretty amazing.

Rack bench
been so frustrated on benching, that I piled on some weight and lifted one inch at the top, just to see if I could somehow condition my body to handle the weight:
115 lbs
135
155
185 at this point, started to get balancing problems. dug in feet, tightened everything
205
205
205
205 interesting, I could feel real tension in forearms, will this stimulate bones & ligaments?

machine lat raise
40 x 20
55 x 15
70 x 10
85 x 9
85 x 9
85 x 9
85 x 9
85 x 9 better than I’ve done on this thing before

Bar row
45 x 15
95 x 11
105 x 6
105 x 6
105 x 6 better than before

264

[quote]cavalier wrote:
And watch everyone else squats 300, 400, 500 lbs in form so perfect nobody dares criticize it.[quote]

Forget about what other people’s numbers are. FORGET ABOUT IT. I admit I have not read every page of your log, but it appears that you have already made some good improvements. Even more importantly, you have not given up! Keep working on your form and you should be able to add more plates to the bar soon enough. I’m far from being a BB or competitive lifter but if you goal is to be a stronger healthier you, then you are doing it right.

265

[quote]KersMTN wrote:

[quote]cavalier wrote:
And watch everyone else squats 300, 400, 500 lbs in form so perfect nobody dares criticize it.[/quote]

Forget about what other people’s numbers are. FORGET ABOUT IT. I admit I have not read every page of your log, but it appears that you have already made some good improvements. Even more importantly, you have not given up! Keep working on your form and you should be able to add more plates to the bar soon enough. I’m far from being a BB or competitive lifter but if you goal is to be a stronger healthier you, then you are doing it right.

[/quote]

Amen.

266

When working form issues, just pick one or two things to concentrate on. more than that is frustrating and overwhelming.

Keep working the squats and the strength will come. It takes a bit before your body adapts and your mind believes. Just keep at it.

267

[quote]cavalier wrote:

This is getting a tad frustrating.

[/quote]

Get used to it. I have found that it’s part of powerlifting. Gains and improvements are not linear in this sport. A lift that you have traditionally excelled at may suddenly deceive you. I’m experiencing this right now with my DL, which has traditionally been my bread and butter. The key is to not let your frustration take over. To keep persevering. And remember to enjoy yourself and not lose sight of your successes.

You have made great gains in your squat from your first videos. But I agree with everything Ogre said about your form. You definitely GM the bar somewhat and don’t look as tight as you should. The only thing I’m not sure I agree with is the part about not dropping the weight. If you can maintain better tightness and lead outta the hole better with your chest with lower weight, then I say drop the poundage and increase more slowly.

Hang in there.

268

[quote]cavalier wrote:

[quote]Ogre21793 wrote:

[quote]cavalier wrote:
Well, no one’s commented on my squat vid, so I assume I did everthing properly.

[/quote]

I haven’t been around lately Cav, and I don’t know if the others didn’t want to add another worry, when you obviously are starting to feel better about your squats,(and BTW great depth!), but, the little dip your upper body does at the bottom doesn’t look good. Once you start piling on more weight, I think that might get you into trouble, and possible strain.

Maybe try to keep your head up, look at the ceiling or something, so that your back doesn’t round a bit in the hole, keep the arch in your back as much as possible(not forgetting the scoliosis issues).
In the EFS squat series, they mention driving your head back into the bar, to help keep your chest up, and back tight and locked in an arch. Just something to try and tweak, that I saw, don’t drop the weight you use back down, just think a bit about keeping head up and upper back tight next time you squat, maybe.[/quote]

This is getting a tad frustrating.

On every rep, I am concentrating on arching my back. I am concentrating on looking ahead, slightly up, and thus keep chest up. I am concentrating on tightening back and abs. I can accept that the technique can use tweaking, but it’s really hard to believe that my form is so dreadfully disastrous that my spine is about to snap in half. Especially since I’m not getting a whisper of pain from my back.

As mentioned, the hard part is getting out of the hole, which feels damn near impossible, gotta strain with everything I’ve got. And if that’s making my form break down so absolutely completely that everyone’s gasping in horror, then it means my body is so weak and puny that I’ll never be able to squat anything at all. Which means I’ll have to spend the next 6 months trying to squat an empty bar, praying my body will somehow toughen up. And watch everyone else squats 300, 400, 500 lbs in form so perfect nobody dares criticize it.

[/quote]

Hey don’t throw your toys out the pram, this is really easy to fix!

I noticed I was doing the exact same thing and I’ve pretty much sorted it now. The problem is the mirror! When you squat in front of a mirror, even though you may not think you are, you are watching yourself go up and down and when you’re at the bottom in a full squat position and you look even lower at your knees to check your depth, your head drops even further. Wherever your eyes go your head goes (try it, look at the ceiling, look at the floor) this causes the weight to shift forward and creates the GMing out of the hole.

So you need to cover the mirror with a sheet or turn your back to it. Then draw a cross on the wall in chalk (for me it was about 7ft up from 10ft away) and concentrate on it hard, I mean don’t let your eyes waver from it for a split second, especially in the hole. As long as you stay focussed on that cross your head will stay up and your back will stay flat and you should be able to struggle away (I can’t guarantee it will get you up though) without putting your back at risk.

I think this will be much easier for you to fix than the depth issue and you might be able to do it without lowering the weight which I’m sure will make you feel better.

Get rid of the mirror, it is not your friend.

Credit where it’s due, I learnt this from the ‘how to squat videos’, so if it works for you, thank them.

269

^^^ What he said. I once got into a heated exchange wit a personal trainee ( who didn’t know his ass long less how to squat) that a person can only learn how to squat properly by using internal cues and not external such as a mirror.

270

slow and steady wins the race Cav, I enjoy reading all your posts. One thing I have observed is you definitly are steady. You will get there.

271

(Deep breath.)

OK, one thing I’m not is a quitter. After all, I’ve kept training for decades, even when things didn’t work out. I’m going to keep squatting, I want to get strong so badly, and I do want to listen to advice.

Brett, that sounds like a good first step. I’ve been trying to focus on spots on the mirror, but of course that only goes so far. The gym has mirrors all around, hmm, what to do… One thought is to stick some masking tape up there and stare at that, easy enough to remove when I’m done. Think I can something to cover up much of the mirror.

And I’m going to drop weight. I appreciate everyone telling me that may not be necessary, and perhaps isn’t, but I just damn well can’t let form get away from me.

Latest workout:

Matty, I asked my friend about the bands, he got them at EliteFTS. Standard stuff.

OH - check this out, everyone. He brought in a COC gripper, the number 1. He let me try it. Now I’ve worked those things for years, but never got anywhere. At very best, I could almost close the Trainer, which is nearly 100#. The 1 is 150#. So discouraged, haven’t done anything with them for a long time. So I warned him I couldn’t do much with it. So I squeezed it - and damn near closed it!!! Tried left hand, and got really close. I couldn’t believe it! Really weird to see him struggle with the thing, he’s bigger and way stronger than me, while I’m just crunching away on it. Maybe the deadlifts have done things to my grip.

Speakin of deadlifts, that’s what I did:
135 x 10
205 x 6
245 x 3
265 x 2
285 x 1 … PR … PR … PR
285 x 1

didn’t even tear my spine out or anything, just some DOMS. Hurray!

272

On a lighter note, I drove up to Saegertown and watched Old Navy do his thing at the bodybuilding meet. I do admire that level of confidence, he knew exactly what he was doing.

We chatted quite a bit. He said, “You’re in pretty good shape.”
“Hey, thanks.”
“All you need to do is lose about 10 pounds.”
“Uhhh…”
“I can show you how to do it, step by step.”
“Uhhh, uhhh…”
“I’ll send you some information…”

273

Congrats on the PR. Nice!

274

Nice PR, that’s +10lbs over you meet lift isn’t it?

275

Thanks, Strick.

Good memory, dday, that’s technically true, however, the 275 at the meet was easy enough that I’m pretty sure I could have got the 285.

276

[quote]cavalier wrote:
Thanks, Strick.

Good memory, dday, that’s technically true, however, the 275 at the meet was easy enough that I’m pretty sure I could have got the 285.[/quote]

a lifetime pr at your age must put you in a very very select group of people. well done.
clearly the same applies to a lot of the folks here but maybe some of them arent as strong as they were in years gone by.

its good going anyway you look at it

277

[quote]bluebrasil wrote:

[quote]cavalier wrote:
Thanks, Strick.

Good memory, dday, that’s technically true, however, the 275 at the meet was easy enough that I’m pretty sure I could have got the 285.[/quote]

a lifetime pr at your age must put you in a very very select group of people. well done.
clearly the same applies to a lot of the folks here but maybe some of them arent as strong as they were in years gone by.

its good going anyway you look at it [/quote]

It is rather odd, Brasil. (Should it bother you that if I drop the “r”, I start thinking Fawlty Towers?) Sometimes I think I’m some sort of Benjamin Button, whose life is completely out of whack with everyone else. I’m thrilled to be making progress, just wish it hadn’t taken so long in life. Feels weird to realize I started training before the other guys in the gym were even born. They say “Good things come to he who waits”, but trust me, waiting sucks.

Enough Dr Phil. Did some rack benches, just push out the weight at the top 2 inches.
115#
135#
165#
185#
215#
215#
215#
215#

Don’t know if this will help my bench, but have to do something to make a breakthrough. Hoping to get my body used to heavy weight at the end of the arms. Interesting: seems my legs are so long that trying to plant them for balance doesn’t help all that much. Or am I missing something? Never benched so much before that balancing becomes an issue.

Did some shoulder work on a machine, then CG pushups and DB bicep row, as prescribed by the T-Nation article. Desparate to get some strength in these thin arms. Actually getting better in these every time I try them. Pushups are getting deeper and more of them. I can handle heavier DBs everytime I do the rows. Are my arms finally growing, dare I hope?

278

Hope harder.
Nice work.

I know for allot of people here- steelyD coming to mind what goes on in the kitchen
accelerates what goes on in the gym.

279

[quote]cavalier wrote:

[quote]bluebrasil wrote:

[quote]cavalier wrote:
Thanks, Strick.

Good memory, dday, that’s technically true, however, the 275 at the meet was easy enough that I’m pretty sure I could have got the 285.[/quote]

a lifetime pr at your age must put you in a very very select group of people. well done.
clearly the same applies to a lot of the folks here but maybe some of them arent as strong as they were in years gone by.

its good going anyway you look at it [/quote]

It is rather odd, Brasil. (Should it bother you that if I drop the “r”, I start thinking Fawlty Towers?) Sometimes I think I’m some sort of Benjamin Button, whose life is completely out of whack with everyone else. I’m thrilled to be making progress, just wish it hadn’t taken so long in life. Feels weird to realize I started training before the other guys in the gym were even born. They say “Good things come to he who waits”, but trust me, waiting sucks.

Enough Dr Phil. Did some rack benches, just push out the weight at the top 2 inches.
115#
135#
165#
185#
215#
215#
215#
215#

Don’t know if this will help my bench, but have to do something to make a breakthrough. Hoping to get my body used to heavy weight at the end of the arms. Interesting: seems my legs are so long that trying to plant them for balance doesn’t help all that much. Or am I missing something? Never benched so much before that balancing becomes an issue.

Did some shoulder work on a machine, then CG pushups and DB bicep row, as prescribed by the T-Nation article. Desparate to get some strength in these thin arms. Actually getting better in these every time I try them. Pushups are getting deeper and more of them. I can handle heavier DBs everytime I do the rows. Are my arms finally growing, dare I hope?
[/quote]

Hi Cav,

Basil is fine, so is Manuel, just not Polly or Sybil thanks.

Your name reminds me of a Vauxhall (General Motors) car I had in the 90’s. It was never the same after I crashed into another car

280

[quote]bluebrasil wrote:

[quote]cavalier wrote:

[quote]bluebrasil wrote:

[quote]cavalier wrote:
Thanks, Strick.

Good memory, dday, that’s technically true, however, the 275 at the meet was easy enough that I’m pretty sure I could have got the 285.[/quote]

a lifetime pr at your age must put you in a very very select group of people. well done.
clearly the same applies to a lot of the folks here but maybe some of them arent as strong as they were in years gone by.

its good going anyway you look at it [/quote]

It is rather odd, Brasil. (Should it bother you that if I drop the “r”, I start thinking Fawlty Towers?) Sometimes I think I’m some sort of Benjamin Button, whose life is completely out of whack with everyone else. I’m thrilled to be making progress, just wish it hadn’t taken so long in life. Feels weird to realize I started training before the other guys in the gym were even born. They say “Good things come to he who waits”, but trust me, waiting sucks.

Enough Dr Phil. Did some rack benches, just push out the weight at the top 2 inches.
115#
135#
165#
185#
215#
215#
215#
215#

Don’t know if this will help my bench, but have to do something to make a breakthrough. Hoping to get my body used to heavy weight at the end of the arms. Interesting: seems my legs are so long that trying to plant them for balance doesn’t help all that much. Or am I missing something? Never benched so much before that balancing becomes an issue.

Did some shoulder work on a machine, then CG pushups and DB bicep row, as prescribed by the T-Nation article. Desparate to get some strength in these thin arms. Actually getting better in these every time I try them. Pushups are getting deeper and more of them. I can handle heavier DBs everytime I do the rows. Are my arms finally growing, dare I hope?
[/quote]

Hi Cav,

Basil is fine, so is Manuel, just not Polly or Sybil thanks.

Your name reminds me of a Vauxhall (General Motors) car I had in the 90’s. It was never the same after I crashed into another car [/quote]

Vauxhall Cavalier was the name of the car, and very nice it was too. Right up until the point an old old man pulled out in front of me in his Honda while I was doing 60mph. Much twisting of metal and swearing and we all survived with cuts and bruises. The car, once fixed, had a permanent wobble of the chassis at 70mph thereafter.

It was your name that reminded me of the car, I’m not saying you have a permanent wobble : )