I Suck, But Want to Be Awesome. Irony.

Training Training Logs
61

That workout reminded just how much I hate single leg training. It’s a real pain. It makes my heart and breathing rate go through the roof. At this point I don’t know which is worse. Manning up, tolerating the butt hurt like a man and sticking with the front squats or dropping front squats and suffering through the single leg training. The general consensus is that bilateral and unilateral training complement each other. I only want to do the justa singles shit that I outlined.

Maybe if I drop the slow eccentrics I’ll get through the front squats with less butt problems.

62

Just read through this whole log because I wasn’t sure if you were a troll or not (based on posts in other threads). Far from a troll. Good stuff.

You’re in college right? I’d be willing to bet your athletic department has a timer for your 40. Have you asked any of the coaches at your school? You could probably borrow it for a single test. If your school has a track team, they’ve definitely got a timer.

63

[quote]flipcollar wrote:
Just read through this whole log because I wasn’t sure if you were a troll or not (based on posts in other threads). Far from a troll. Good stuff.

You’re in college right? I’d be willing to bet your athletic department has a timer for your 40. Have you asked any of the coaches at your school? You could probably borrow it for a single test. If your school has a track team, they’ve definitely got a timer.[/quote]

yeah. I say stupid shit sometimes, but I don’t like to go out on the forums specifically looking for opportunities to say inflammatory things.

I’m not in colllege anymore.

I went to the weight room for athletes to talk to the strength coach a few times and used their vertimax and vertec a few times. I always felt like I was being a self entitled douch using the athlete’s equipment not being an athlete.

I don’t think I would have asked them to use their electronic timer though. It’s probably a pain in the ass to get out and set up even though the ones I’ve seen in perform better look simple to set up.

I wouldn’t want some coach to have to “waste” their time on getting out the electronic timer for an average joe like me.

That was a good idea though.

64

Here Steve Justa - Competitive Bodybuilding - Forums - T Nation they claim Steve Justa to be a fool. That might be the case. Some of his stuff-like endurance training using 50-60% of 1rm for 80-100 sets of 3-6 reps-sounds absolutely ridiculous.

I’ve seen the super volume training talked about before on the forums. People were calling it stupid. I’m curious about it though. It doesn’t necessarily fit in nicely with the Intensity duration inverse. Those curves don’t necessarily take into account the fact that you’re using 50% of max for 80-100 sets of 3 though.

Say you do as many sets of 3 at 50% 1rm with 1 minute rest in an hour. That’s at least 120 reps in 1 hour. I wonder what that’s like and what it does. It’s not very efficient, but you’d get good at a lift that’s for sure.

Okay. So Steve Justa might be loony.

I think the general consensus is that Dan John is a damn good strength coach. I think it’s Dan John’s opinion that Pavel Tsatsouline is a damn smart guy when it comes to strength training.

The one thing Dan John and Pavel include from Rock Iron Steel in easy strength is Justa’s singles program for one exercise.

Maybe Justa is crazy, but it looks like he got at least one thing right.

I think disregarding something Dan John and Pavel recommend would be a bad idea.

I had good results with the 40 day workout.

I don’t see why I wouldn’t have good results with the Justa singles workout even though I’ve modified it by doing two exercises at the same time.

That brings me to the topic of the justa singles program for one exercise being applied to two exercises being overkill.

I think 15 singles for an olympic lift is too much. I’ve been feeling kind of tired. I took two days off and I was able to really move the bar in the front squat. I think I have accumulated a little CNS fatigue.

I’m dropping the singles for the hang snatch down to Monday 3, tuesday 3, wednesday 3, friday 5, saturday 5, sunday 5.

I plan on cycling olympic lifts in an out until they yell at me for banging the weight around in the commercial gym. The next one I’m doing is the hang clean starting week 1 at 175.

The lower body exercise I plan on swapping the front squat with is the hex bar deadlift starting at 285. Since the hex bar deadlift is easier on the back and can be lowered in more of a squatting motion I plan on keeping the 2-3 second eccentrics. weeks 1 and 2 will be 3 second eccentric weeks. Week 3 will be a 2 second eccentric week.

I’d be interested in the carry over of the hex bar deadlift to the straight bar deadlift. Hopefully the slower eccentrics will increase my lower back strength. That’s the weak point in my straight bar deadlift.

I had the wild idea of seeing what my straight bar deadlift max was lastnight. It’s been six months since the last time I tried to max in that lift due to a bad back injury.

I was able to get 405 with reasonable form(keeping the shoulders moving at the same rate as the hips low and upper back nice and straight).

I don’t want to jump the gun, but I’d say my back is pretty much healthy again. I’m not noticing any pain from maxing last night. The key is knocking on wood, keeping that back straight, tight and keeping the hips moving at the same rate as the shoulders. If I do that and don’t try to pile on too much weight too fast I hope to stay healthy.

65

It is the 3rd week of 4.

I wanted to say what I’ve progressed on and where I’m coming up short.

Inversion isn’t the be all end all to muscle asymmetry. For me gravity boots made a big difference. I think where gravity boots come up short is remedying the muscle asymmetry. I think it got everything firing to the point that the large side will continue to grow and the small side will never catch up. I guess that’s to downside to being me. Only time will tell how things happen.

I’ve been doing a lot of kettlebell swings. My left glute is longer and a little larger than the right. I think it does more work than the right during swings. When I only contract the right glute I can get my left to tighten up a little. Werid right? When I do swings I’m only going to focus on contracting the right glute. Hopefully that will balance things out some.

The cable hip flexions have worked out well. I’ve been doing 1x20/side working my way up in weight from 90lbs to 110 for about 8 weeks now. I’ve noticed that both my rectus femoris muscles have gotten larger. I think my RF was asleep. I think the hip flexions are a good thing. To keep seeing gains from them I’m going to have to keep my glutes and hammies getting stronger. I’m adding in single leg RDL for 1x20/side and adding back in isometric hip extension against a wall.

The overhead work has paid off. Snatches have really brought about some trap development. My traps are noticeably taller. I guess that’s to be expected from the first few weeks of having an olympic lift in your programming. My delts, lats, and arms seem to have gained a little size.

So far the largest gain has been in the turkish get up. I went from using a 12kg for 5 reps a side to a 20 kg for 5 reps a side. To me that’s impressive. I guess that’s what happens when you’ve never done a lift before.

My abs have developed. I’ve been doing the TGU and inverted crunches for 50 reps everyday. If I didn’t have so much fat I think I’d have a six pack. There’s a line above the last row of nodes of rectus abdominus, but the nodes are hidden under belly fat.

My question is this: Do I need to worry about having a certain strength ratio between the adductors and abductors to keep my extensors and flexors getting larger and stronger?

66

I plan on adding sprint work in on days that the weather is decent. I’ll probably only run 40 yard dashes. For some reason repeated sprinting for conditioning rather than speed training purposes really makes my legs feel like crap. For instance I can go out, play a game of flag football and my legs will be sore for 5 days after that.

I need to increase my activity levels. It’s either that or eat less. I like to eat. Hopefully the sprinting will take a little bit of this fat I accumulated over the winter off.

67

It is the end of week 3 or the Justa hang snatch/front squat program. Those 15 singles weren’t terribly hard, but they definitely weren’t fun. Fatigue compounded from 3 weeks of training is a weird feeling. For the front squat I was moving 275 well, popping it off my shoulders at the top.

I think my hamstrings have gotten bigger. Hopefully they’ll continue to grow some more. My thighs have never had the depth in the sagital plane you see in elite athletes like sprinters or NFL skill players. I’m not saying I’m capable of that kind of size. My femurs are shorter than elite athletes so my thighs probably wont reach elite athlete depth, but I’d be pretty happy if that’s the way things turned out or if I could come close.

we all have a little body builder in us. Yeah I’d like to have big thighs, but only because that’s what you see with most of the guys that can run fast.

68

I figured out a fairly novel way to get good at the glute ham raise. Hopefully I can put some meat on my hammies or at least lower my quad to hamstring strength ratio by making my hamstrings stronger.

I took a belt that you might hang a dumbbell from while doing pullups and hooked that to the lat pull down cable. I chose a weight that felt good, stuck my head and arms through the belt and then did 2x10 assisted glute ham raises within a rep of failure while working out on my own.

225 is what I’m moving for 3 singles this week because it’s a deload week. I can move 225 like nothing.

69

I started doing the assisted glute ham raise using the lat pull down on monday. I’ve done it every day this week.

I started out doing 5 partial reps towards the bottom of the movement for one set. Then I would move on to 2x5 full reps.

I think that’s too much to do every day.

I’m going to approach this with sets of 3 full controlled reps. Tension and control are key to getting strong hamstrings with this movement. I’m trying to avoid all slop.

It’s Friday. I failed at five reps on the first set following the 5 partial reps at the bottom. That’s how I came up with the idea to do triples. I was able to get 4x3 done within a rep of failure. I rested for 1 minute for the first two sets. I started getting tired and increased the rest to 3 minutes for the last two sets.

This was week one using the assisted glute ham raise. I was using 50lbs assistance on my gyms lat pulldown. I don’t know what that will be on other gym’s lat pulldowns though.

I plan on decreasing the assistance by 5 lbs every week until I can do a full body weight glute ham raise for a few reps.

Up until last week I was suffering from some anterior knee pain. I think it was from tight hamstrings, but then again I have also cut the reps of front squat basically down to nothing. Since I started doing the glute ham raise the pain has mostly gone away. I’m also noticing a difference in the range of motion I can use in my kettlebell swings.

I think DeFranco was right when he said the glute ham raise is the ticket to bullet proof hamstrings.

70

612×792 18.2 KB

Here’s my plan for the next four weeks. I’m gonna start with 285 for the hex bar DL. I’m doing every exercise on there every day of the week.

71

I maxed out last night. The Justa layout doesn’t really work for olympic lifts. I put 185 on the bar for the snatch and made the lift. I decided I was going to be a big man and put 205 on. It felt way to heavy. I think for both the hang snatch and the front squat the weakness of the Justa singles program is that it doesn’t get you used to the feel of heavy loads. That’s probably what every experienced strength coach would tell you about it. That’s the one big red flag to me. I’d have to do a peaking phase where I did 90% singles 2 times a week if I really wanted to have a solid shot at maxing.

I don’t plan on maxing out in the olympic lifts anymore. It’s not worth the risk of injury. I’m not competing as an olympic weight lifter. I use the O-lifts as a method to train strength speed and power. I’ll add 5-10lbs to the weight I’m working with as I see fit.

I maxed at 365 in the front box squat. I don’t know if I could do that last time I maxed out or not. Last time I maxed out I did go until I failed. Last night I went from 315x2 to 365x1 to failure at 375. My jumps were too big and I probably took things too far. I got careless and my form got bad. I’m lucky I didn’t hurt myself again. I just wanted to hit 375. I think I could have gotten 370. Oh well. Next time around…maybe. If there’s any room left in my genetic potential.

72

I seem to be maintaining the level of performance I achieved when I completed maximum strength. I had been wearing minimus mt20s lately, but due to fear of stone bruise I switched back to shoes I wore on moving day which have more padding.

I’m broad jumping an inch shorter than I did on moving day. I must be at my genetic potential as far as speed strength is concerned. All I can do is maintain it. I suppose there is no getting better from here. I haven’t conventional deadlifted in awhile. That might boost my broad jump a little. I also haven’t practiced broad jumping in about 8 weeks so that could have a slight effect. Maybe if I do 5-10 reps of broad jump after every workout I’ll see a small improvement. I think I’ll have to try that.

I’m not going to mess with steroids. I’ll just try to maintain what strength and power I have for as long as my endocrine system allows me. That could be a 2 weeks or another 10 years. Only time will tell.

73

I hit the wall yesterday. I guess I’ve entered the mediocrity of middle age. I can’t broad jump for shit anymore. All the training I’ve been doing has no effect. In fact I’m worse. Olympic lifting doesn’t do jack shit for performance gains and doing the justa singles program for front squats only makes you better at front squats. It’s all worthless. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.

whatever though. I’ll continue on. Banging my head against the wall fighting the losing battle against my endocrine system to keep muscle, strength and power.

Maybe I’m only jumping to conclusions. Last time I broad jumped I hit 9’9-10". Maybe I gained some non functional mass which led to a decrease in performance and the little bit of strength I gained if any over the last four weeks is being used to overcome that non functional mass.

I can’t say for sure what is happening. All I know is I have to eat right and keep trying to make gains where ever I can.

74

what have I not been doing over the past 6-8 months? A lot of back squatting and deadlifting.

What did I do when I saw the single greatest improvements in my broad jump? Maximum strength which has you do a lot of deadlifting and back squatting.

I think the fact that my hip flexors have gotten larger and stronger without the hip extensors becoming stronger is the root of the problem.

My biomechanics have probably changed. I went from doing a lot of hip dominant stuff(low bar back squat) to doing a lot of front squatting which is focused more on the knee extensors.

I have been doing olympic lifts. I don’t think the resistance was high enough. O lifts from the hang don’t do shit for the posterior chain anyway. At least I don’t think they do. I think O-lifts from the hang are purely quad dominant unless you’re one of those freak elite athletes.

We’ll see what happens. I’m kind of under the impression O-lifts don’t really improve sport performance unless you’re on steroids. I think getting stronger in O-lifts only makes you better at O-lifts with little carry over to jumping or sprinting.

We’ll see what happens. I have hang cleans in the mix over the next 4 weeks.

If I can manage to get through 4 weeks of deadlifting and maybe increase my max I’ll probably see a better broad jump. I’ll only see an improvement if I increase my max though.

My problems are probably a combination of T nation minions lacing everything with hormone mimicking chemicals/catabolic steroids because I say I won’t do steroids and not deadlifting or back squatting.

75

I tried going back to back squatting too soon. I had made a lot of progress. I jumped the gun and started doing back squats before my disk injury had fully healed.

Now I’m doing hex bar deadlifts starting at 315 with a 50lb band.

I’m planning on trying back squats again in october 2013.

In the meantime I guess I’m cycling front squats and hex bar deadlifts with a lot of inversion.

It’s not the best scenario but it beats not being able to do anything at all.

76

I love the feeling of waking up in the morning after a little overreaching. I usually feel tired. The fatigue is deep in my muscles and at 6:30 in the morning the warm bed in a cool house feels better than most things. It’s a ache almost, but it doesn’t really hurt. It’s a good ache unless things get pushed too far.

You know, I don’t know what my hex bar deadlift max is. Trust me there are more respected lifts out there like the deadlift and back squat, but I can’t do those. I’m stuck with lame old quad dominant multijoint exercises.

Over the last 12 weeks I’ve been following modified justa programs for front squats mostly. The last 4 weeks have been hex bar deadlift.

I’m going to come right out and tell you that 70% gets boring as hell after 8 weeks.

I saw okay results for the front squat doing the justa program and controlling the reps for 3 second eccentrics and explosive concentrics.

I followed the same format for the hex bar deadlift, but like I said I got tired of 70% which is about 315. I put a band on there and that got old because looping a stretched 50lb band over each end of the hex bar was more trouble than it was worth.

This week I decided to put 405 on the bar and see how it went. Like I said I don’t know what my hex bard DL max is, but I’d say somewhere in the 85-90 range. I can do a 3x3 with 405 no problem.

Because I recently was doing the justa program I wanted to do a 3x3@405 everyday this week and then go up 20lbs next week. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…HA. Yeah, right. I woke up this morning after doing a 3x3@405 monday and tuesday and knew that I had taken things far enough.

I’m going to take a day off from hex bar deadlift now, but will continue all my other movements.

It kind of got me thinking. The Justa program works because it keeps your body working under accumulated fatigue. The problem is you can’t use it for heavy weight.

What if you did clusters. I don’t mean clusters in the sense of sets and reps I mean clusters of days. For example I’ll do a 3x3 monday and tuesday week one take a day off and then do another 3x3 thursday. Week 2 I’ll do a 3x3 monday and tuesday then day off thursday train friday and weekend off. week three would be a 3x3 monday and tuesday then a day off wednesday train thursday day off friday train saturday. then take a week off and then test the max. add weight during the first three weeks depending on how fucked up I feel.

It’s probably already been tried and it failed. They always say “don’t try to reinvent the wheel”. It will probably get me hurt, but I’ll try to be careful. It’s hex bar deadlift so the worst that can happen is I blow some disks in my tspine.

About 3 weeks ago I started doing assisted glute ham raises on the lat pull down. I decided my goal was to be able to do at least 3 decent form body weight glute ham raises. I started with 50lbs assistance. I have worked my way down to 30. I plan on decreasing the assistance every week until there isn’t any. I don’t know if it will go like that, but I want to find out.

hex bar deadlift 3x3 on specified days
static hip flexor stretch 1minute/side
glute ham raise 3x3 monday add a set every day of the week. take the weekend off
smith machine incline press 3x3 add a set every day of the week take the weekend off
assisted pullup machine 12-15 reps/day at whatever resistance you need
two handed KB swing 2x10
Bat wing 1 set of 40-45reps

77

If you have some abnormal asymmetry in your posterior chain (one cheek is smaller than the other or one hammy is smaller than the other) look to the hip flexor on the side the posterior chain is small on. If the hip flexor is larger than the other leg you likely need to do a lot of hip flexor stretching especially on the leg the posterior chain is small on.

I have a larger hamstring/glute/spinal erector and smaller hip flexor on my left side and a smaller hamstring/glute/spinal erector and larger hip flexor on my right side. It’s an asymmetry that really get’s under my skin. It has gotten a little better from inversion. I also need to do stretches before certain movements though.

I’m not talking about an RFTL or whatever. This is kind of a modified one that takes the emphasis off the rectus femoris and puts it more on the psoas.

You need to stand next to your bed with the nonstance leg straight out behind you and the stance leg pretty much locked out. Be sure to keep the torso upright as possible. You should feel the stretch in your abdomen. That means it’s hitting the psoas.

I notice that when I do the hip flexor stretching for about 2x2minutes/side it makes my posterior chain movements better. I can tell my right hamstring worked today during glute ham raises, because it usually doesn’t feel like this.

If I was a competitive athlete in high school or something and I noticed I had the asymmetry I’m describing I would do the hip flexor stretch on my bed or training table every day and at least 1 hour if not 2 hours before competition. 30 minutes before competition I would invert for 3-5 minutes and then go through a solid explosive posterior chain warmup complete with some heavy KB swings supersetted with power skips. I don’t really like A-skips. They are for elite athletes. If you have a coach that is teaching you how to run like an elite sprinter then by all means. I had a coach that let me run how I run so I like good ol’ power skips like the huskers used to do in the 90’s.

I think inversion before competition is a good idea because it takes pressure off of nerves and lets them conduct at a higher potential. It’s the same principle as chiropractic care. With inversion it’s like you get your own personal chiropractor.

I’m not sure if inversion before contact sports would be the best idea though since it can cause some laxity in the ACL. Then again I’m not sure if a little play in the knee is a good or bad thing.

78

I’m not Forrest Gump fast. That’s hardly the case, but I like to sprint. Higher thought ceases for the duration of the sprint. Usually the only thing that gets through to me is things like form or landing on my heels from over stride. The only thing that’s going through my head is “FAAAAAAAAST”. It’s tunnel vision. I feel like someone is taking my head and squeezing it-that must be from the blood pressure spike. It’s a good time.

I love to deadlift. It really pisses me off that I didn’t learn to deadlift right until I hurt myself and can only get sessions in at random spaced out intervals.

My back injury is strange. I can sneak a DL or back squat session in every now and then, but if I try to do them on any regular basis it causes swelling. The swelling then goes on to pinch a nerve. That leads to sciatica that prevents me from being able to bend over and tie my shoes.

If I could go back in time to before I hurt my back I’d punch myself in the face and say “learn to deadlift right you fucking cunt. you look like a dumbass deadlifting 425 for reps with a rounded back”.

The assisted glute ham raises are helping. I can do 2 singles of body weight GHR with decent form. The assistance doesn’t do much for improving strength during the concentric phase of the movement. I’m sloooooooooooow on the concentric. I guess it’s something I’ll have to work on as I continue to lower the assistance.

I want to be able to do 3-5 perfect form body weight GHR in 6 weeks. After that I want to work my way up to 10 and then 20 reps.

79

I like how you can’t run fast if you’re not black. If that can be said then why can’t I say the obvious things? Pro sports -except for hockey- is like reparations for slavery. the governemnt couldn’t pay you all back so you get jackie robinson, jerry rice and emmit smith. there you go.

Fuckin’ a man. “You can only be a speed demon if you’re black. You can only run fast if your black because black people had to run fast in africa so they have longer femurs, better glute development and better hamstring development”. I wish my ancestors had to run fast back in Europe so I could run fast now and have long femurs and better glute/ham development.

I’m still a broke back bitch. My back is weird. I can get away with a couple days of back squats or deadlift. Then something bad happens. A whatever the problems is swells and puts pressure on a nerve. then I can’t bend over to tie my shoes.

I wish I could deadlift every day. My measly posterior chain is suffering for it. Since I can’t back squat or dead lift every day I’m going to see if I can get two deadlifting sessions in a week. one on monday and one on thursday. I don’t know how many reps will be enough. I’ll have to go by feel.

I’ll likely get one session in and the next morning (or maybe a few minutes after I finish deadlifting) realize I can’t deadlift but once every 2-4 weeks without pain.

I have been doing GHR every day of the week. I started with 50lbs of assistance. now I’m down to 30. I don’t know that I’ll be able to continue at my current rate of progress. The next 6 weeks might be less productive as far as gains in the GHR are concerned.

I can do 2 decent form single GHR body weight reps. That’s up from none. My goal is to be able to do 10 body weight reps with decent form.

I’m having some trouble with visceral fat and love handles. I take antiphsychotics. One of their side effects is that they cause fat gain. another is they cause insulin resistance. It really sucks dick. I wish I didn’t have to take them. In an ideal world I’d live out in the wilderness like a fur trapper and not have to see anyone. Then there would be no one to complain about me suffering from psychosis. If I didn’t I’d probably be 12 percent body fat by only cutting out the snacking on processed foods.

80

I just got back home from my monday workout…WHICH HAD DEADLIFT IN IT!! So far so good. There haven’t been any glaring red flags. So far I’m pain free. That doesn’t mean anything though. Chances are good that I’ll struggle to get out of bed tomorrow and hurt for the rest of the week. I’m hoping the opposite, which is pain free and then deadlift again on thursday with no pain again. Who knows. In the past my back has proved about as bullet proof as a jello jiggler. Hopefully that has changed and I can get away with some deadlifting. I’m trying to remind myself not to slouch in the chair when I type. That always makes matters worse.

I did a 10x3 of deadlift at 315. That’s about 77.77777777777777777777777777777777777778% of my good form 1rm. Not exactly heavy weight or the right amount of weight for a triple, but I’m broke back. I have to go easier than you hardcore healthy guys.

I struggled with the glute ham raise. I suggested that my gains might not be quite as impressive as the were the first four weeks. It’s funny that magically the next day I can’t finish all my reps without a little push off the floor. I got through the first set of 3 and then had to help myself through the last two sets.

I suspect I sucked at the GHR today because I had just finished doing a few sets of deadlift. I think I may be on to something.

I did not invert today after finishing my workout. I wanted to see if my back pain would flare up or not without it. I’m hoping, praying and crossing my fingers that I’m pain free for the duration of my life.

If it becomes unbearable within the next few hours-which is highly possible-I will head back to the gym and invert.