[quote]novaeer wrote:
Don’t give up on the 555 pull. The speed off the floor was damn good and I thought you had it - looks like you just hit a wall.
Your day was better than mine, believe it or not. I almost quit after 235 felt heavy on squats. It’s nice to visit family, but it always seems like getting some kind of annoying cold (or possibly worse) is one of the outcomes. I really hope this crap doesn’t get worse since I’m entering the last 4-weeks of work for this meet training cycle.[/quote]
Sorry to hear that you are ill, man. Just take it easy and drink lots of fluids.
It felt good, I just need to sit back a little bit more. My shoulders are a wee bit too far forward. Once i get my leverages down, I will become a pulling machine. I just have to find that spot about 1 to 2 inches back for that to happen. I am shooting for 570+ in May, so lots of rack pulls and RDL’s.
Last workout of the year! Even though my elbow is aching, all the pressing was smooth and felt good. 325 w/bands was a little tough getting unracked. I will have to schedule a spot next week for my pressing days.
Before I started using RTS, I asked novaeer about assistance work. I can definitely say that I can think of very little that isn’t getting beat up pretty well. And being able to push hard day in and day out really smokes my biscuits. Can’t wait to see what numbers I can hit next week.
The year in review: 1435 total, added over 100lbs to my raw squat, and didn’t suffer from any major injuries. Goal for next year is to add 250+ on my current total. Since I left about 50lbs on the platform in my last meet, it’s not as big of a jump as it looks. Here’s to a HELL of a year to come!!!
Damn, 355 for a double is a hell of a floor press. The floor press really lets me know how much I depend on leg drive and arching since there’s a pretty sizable difference between it and regular ol’ bench.
Those are mighty fine goals to shoot for this year. I’m targeting a 1500 total by years end…but first I have get past this f’ing cold!!!
[quote]novaeer wrote:
Damn, 355 for a double is a hell of a floor press. The floor press really lets me know how much I depend on leg drive and arching since there’s a pretty sizable difference between it and regular ol’ bench.
Those are mighty fine goals to shoot for this year. I’m targeting a 1500 total by years end…but first I have get past this f’ing cold!!![/quote]
That was a double with no lift-off. I tried to video it with my phone, but i ran out of room (I couldn’t delete the video of my favorite waitress opening her christmas present from me and the missus. Beaver pelt panties, if you are wondering…long story).
Today was a hard workout. I haven’t slept more than a couple of hours total since Friday due to work. So everything felt heavy. Of course, me being the stubborn jerkhole that I am, I just had to keep going even though warming up with just the bar and bands hurt. Unracking 475 was an effort, but I settled down and I think my form and depth were pretty much spot on. Next rotation, I will step up to the light bands. Which is going to be fun, but I can tell how much band work is helping me just by my pause squats.
The two most difficult things for me using bands for squats are controlling the descent and unracking the weight. Can’t wait to go thru te same thing with the lights.
Very simply, I am quite pleased with tonight’s session. I came in wanting to hit 390 with the 3count and I didn’t leave disappointed. It wasn’t fast, but it went up and it was an even lockout. I am thinking that I should be good for 410-415 by my next meet. I doubled up the bands on close grip and had the bands attached to the bench. It was a LOT harder at the top, but about the same off the chest. The result was I had to really blast off my chest to lock out. The bad part was that I couldn’t unrack 225 alone.
I have to start thinking about what I am going to change up for the next cycle, since this one ends in 2 more sessions. RTS rocks!
My lower back is pretty much to the limit of able to workout and needing rest and my hips are close behind. I went with rack pulls since I missed 555 at the knees. It felt good in my hands, but getting it moving from 3inches below the knee was a chore. But, once I got it moving, it fired straight up. Squats were bad tonight. Everything felt heavy, even 1 plate. 405 felt like it was going to bury me and 430 didn’t want to come out of the rack. When I got to 460, I kind of spaced out, so the 3 count was really fast (actually, i lost count). I knew my estimated 1rm was 492, so that was the target. I wasn’t too worried. When I unracked it, it felt like 405. Everything about that lift was good. Even with how tired my lower back is/was, I didn’t break into a good morning.
Only one session left in this cycle and I am quite pleased so far. Tomorrow is benching with bands and hopefully, I will have a good spotter, cause I want to go big.
Thursday afternoon, I slipped on the ice and banged my right elbow pretty good. I went into the gym and worked up to what was about 85% of my 1rm on bench w/bands and got pinned. My right arm was throbbing and I didn’t pay attention to my RPE’s. I just thought it was from sheer exhaustion of max’ing out all week long, so I moved on to floor presses where the same thing happened. At that point, I could barely feel my right arm and called it a night. The first rotation completed in rather disastrous fashion.
Some things I feel I can improve: 1) Since I will not be deloading between cycles, I am adding week to the Volume phase. During this first week, I will be performing RPE’s of 7-8. The purpose is to knock off the rust of maximal lifting the week before and to establish a “rough” base of what I will start for my RPE’s of 8-9 for the main movements. 2) I felt the strongest during week 2 and just maintained during week three, so it was a shallow peak. I think adding another week to the peaking will help get me sharper and raise my max a small percentage. I have used 4 week peaking phases with good results. 3-weeks just feel like I am not getting all that I could possibly get out of myself. 3) I must follow the RPE’s. During the max week, the RPE’s were giving me 1 rep max’s that were pretty friggin accurate, within 5lbs +/-.
Today was the first day of the new cycle. I had some joints that needed to pop so that I could feel more comfortable. And it took the warmup sets and 3 work sets for my lower back to pop. When it did, it was a lot easier to unrack the weight and squat deep. The light bands feel a lot different than super-mini’s. Next week I will be doing squats with bands and chains, which I am looking forward to doing. My deadlift assistance exercise was elevated pulls (slightly below where I do rack pulls). I tossed in some single-leg leg presses, which I am hoping will help my hips. Once I got thru the day, I felt a lot better than going in.
[quote]mrodock wrote:
Hope that right elbow heals quick, that sure sucks.[/quote]
Thanks man. I was 1 of several people to take a tumble. Some of them tore ligaments, so I consider myself lucky. I will be benching lightly tomorrow, so that will give me a good estimate on where I stand.
Man, my shoulders are killing me from last weeks sessions, but bench was going ok. I’m looking forward to touch and go benching for the next 8 weeks. During military presses, I had a pinch in my shoulder. I gotta get some minor stuff worked out physically. V-grip rows felt good. I used the 35lb to get a deep pull in, and it worked. I can’t wait to get back to 90% and thump out some good sessions next week.
Today was a express session. I finished up, stretching and all, within 1 hour. It was great. I had to share the gym with 6-7 women listening to disco. I tried to explain to them that disco was invented by the nazi’s (Joseph Goebbels to be exact) as a form of torture AND if they continued to listen to it in the gym, they will be supporting the suppression of Jews. They looked at me and started giggling, then started talking hair care yet again. Oh, what a night…
My elbow was very tender. I think it was from the fall last week. It really effected my benching. When I started doing the single-arm pushdowns, it was very uncomfortable. I switched over to tate presses and it felt a LOT better. I am still feeling a little sluggish, but I think in a couple of weeks everything will be on track.
I think I will have a better guess next week. It feels more structural and my mom…I mean wife told me that I was complaining about my elbow before the fall, so it could be more than just the fall. I don’t think it’s going to be “gotta go to the hospital” bad, but it could be “take a break from heavy pressing” bad.
Where’s the pain exactly? If it’s more toward the inside of the elbow close to the body, could be golfer’s elbow. Outside of the elbow, more likely to be tendonitis in the forearm.
It’s actually the top of the elbow, directly in the middle. It’s similar to the possible bursitis flare I had in my left elbow late last year. The difference is that my left elbow swelled up pretty bad 1 week after the initial pain. It’s been almost a week now and there has not been much change in the right elbow.
Now, that’s what I call a workout. By far, the most exhausting and fulfilling workout during RTS to date. Unlike the last cycle, I was able to contain my enthusiasm and stay within the 8-9 RPE range. If I can maintain this pace and intensity, I will see awesome results in May. The only question marks will be how my elbow will feel tomorrow and how I will recover from this lower body workout.
