Me vs Myself

Training Over 35 Lifter
101

[quote]embo622 wrote:
3/3/11

Deadlift: Deload
bar x 10,10
95x10
135x10
185x 6,6,6,6
[/quote]

I don’t mean to be critical, but I just can’t see the point to a workout like this (or a regular de-load in general). If you can dead 345 comfortably as I saw in your vid, what possible benefit can a workout this light have. I obviously understand how a weeks break can be beneficial if you are hammering at it really hard, week in week out, but what is the benefit of doing a session that hardly makes you break sweat over doing nothing at all?. I’d be inclined to just have the complete week off rather than go in and do something less taxing than my normal warm up.

As I say I’m not meaning to criticise you at all, just the principle.

Great stuff going on in here.

102

[quote]FarmerBrett wrote:

[quote]embo622 wrote:
3/3/11

Deadlift: Deload
bar x 10,10
95x10
135x10
185x 6,6,6,6
[/quote]

I don’t mean to be critical, but I just can’t see the point to a workout like this (or a regular de-load in general). If you can dead 345 comfortably as I saw in your vid, what possible benefit can a workout this light have. I obviously understand how a weeks break can be beneficial if you are hammering at it really hard, week in week out, but what is the benefit of doing a session that hardly makes you break sweat over doing nothing at all?. I’d be inclined to just have the complete week off rather than go in and do something less taxing than my normal warm up.

As I say I’m not meaning to criticise you at all, just the principle.

Great stuff going on in here.

[/quote]

Brett, your criticism is always welcome here.

I don’t feel like there was much benefit to that workout. I was warming up when my wife and daughter asked me to give them a workout so I left that weight on the bar and went over between their sets and lifted it a couple of times. I’m not sure how I feel about deload weeks, this is the first time i’ve tried it and we’ll see how it affects next weeks work. I don’t / won’t schedule them.

As far as my deadlift though…I’m having a hard time “squating” the weight off the floor. I know it’s partially lower body strength but I feel like theres some muscle-mind connection missing also. I’m trying to use lower weights to work on technique, but to be honest, I don’t know what i’m doing and nothing feels right. I can pull more than 345 but I don’t feel like that’s beneficial if I’m not pulling it correctly. Any input is appreciated…should I continue to pull to a 1rm and than a weight that I can pull with form or just keeping pulling heavy and let the form come around? Hopefully as my squat improves it will carry over for me.

103

3/7/11: Squat, back, bi

Squat:
bar x 10,10
95x10
135x8
185x3
225x2
245x1
275x1 = +20lb PR (1.41 x BW)
225x 3,3,3

Leg Press:
410x 5,5,5,5,5

LP Calf raise:
410x 10,10,10

Wide grip lat pull:
warm up
180x 10,10,10

Pull up:
BW x 6,7,7,5,5

BB Shrug:
225 x 15,15,15

Cross body hammer curl:
30 lb db x 15,12,12

I don’t know how to explain this but during my squat I had to fight for it so hard that it felt like my head was going to explode. I could actually feel the heat rush and saw pure red. I really don’t remember the lift at all. It was really cool. I want more!!!

104

275 x 1

105

This is my favorite deadlift tutorial: Deadlift Tutorial - YouTube

Hope it helps.

106

[quote]punnyguy wrote:
This is my favorite deadlift tutorial: Deadlift Tutorial - YouTube

Hope it helps.[/quote]

Thanks PG, I appreciate you taking the time to post. I think I understand a little better what position I need to get into to pull the weight off the floor. This really is a frustrating lift.

107

You’d probably be a good Oly lifter . . . the way you can squat low with your toes pointed straight ahead. Good fight on that rep.

108

Way to grind out that squat, I gotta admit I was a little worried when it look like you buckled and then you straightened it out.

I know all about form issues with Dl and my two cents tells me that you aren’t going to fix it with really light work. Form is easy to have great with light weight but its the increased weight that breaks it down. So if you are going to work on form the weight probably needs to be kind of heavy at least. Maybe 250-275 for you.

109

[/quote]

As far as my deadlift though…I’m having a hard time “squating” the weight off the floor. I know it’s partially lower body strength but I feel like theres some muscle-mind connection missing also. I’m trying to use lower weights to work on technique, but to be honest, I don’t know what i’m doing and nothing feels right. I can pull more than 345 but I don’t feel like that’s beneficial if I’m not pulling it correctly. Any input is appreciated…should I continue to pull to a 1rm and than a weight that I can pull with form or just keeping pulling heavy and let the form come around? Hopefully as my squat improves it will carry over for me.[/quote]

I don’t feel qualified to give “advice”, but I will say in my experience when I’ve concentrated on just increasing the weight on the bar rather than form, when I’ve gone back to the lighter weights my form had improved immeasurably. It goes without saying if you can deadlift or squat 300+, reps on 250 are not going to trouble you. I don’t know that it works the other way round (like Joe said).

Only squatting with 400lbs trained my core to be able to handle it, lots of “pretty” reps with 300 never did. As long as your form doesn’t get so bad you’re going to injure yourself, I’d say carry on with the hard ‘n’ heavy stuff. Remember heavy lifts are always going to look a bit ugly “because” they are heavy.

Oh and excellent job on fighting through that squat. Form and depth was great. I noticed you buckled in the middle a bit, if you find a way to strengthen that bit, please let me know.

110

Snap: Thanks and good luck with the meet. Can’t wait to see the results!

Joe, Brett: I see your guys point about the light weights. I went back and watched my video a couple times and I guess while my hips shoot up, my lower back doesn’t seem to round. Tomorrow is Deadlift day and I will work on going heavier with the best form I can. Thank you both for your input.

Oh and Brett, honestly, your too modest. Your years of dedication and training more than qualify you to give advice.

3/8/11: Bench, Delt, Tri

Bench:
bar x 10,10
95 x 10
135 x 8
185 x 5
225 x 3
245 x 1
260 x 1 = + 5 lb PR (1.33 x BW)
275 x Fail - maybe a little ambitious
225 x 5,4
185 x 10

DB Incline:
80’s x 6,6,6,8

Cybex Standing cable X press:
#8 x 10,10,10

Shoulder Shocker:
35/10 - 3x10

Standing BO Rear Delt: Drop set
30’s x15 - 15’s x12 x 2

Tri rope press down W/flare:
90 x 6
70 x 10,10,10

Floor Skull crusher: EZ curl bar
80 x 12,12,15

Dip:
BW x 15,15

Bench felt strong tonight. 260 went up fast and smooth. I acually thought I had a shot at 275…then the bar touched my chest and I maybe got about 2 inches…soon though.

111

3/9/11: Play Day

BB Complex:
Squat, Oh press, DL, BO row, Rdl, push up, curl
60lb x 3 sets of 10ea

Farmers walk - 100’s x 60yd, 80yd, 60yd, with iso shrug - 40yd

Variuos 10 lb medi ball throws, slams

Decline medi ball raise - 10lb x 16,16,14

Just messin around the gym for a couple hours.

112

3/10/11: Deadlift

Deadlift:
bar x 10,10
95x10
135x10
185x8
225x5
275x3
315x1
345x1
365x1 = + 20lb PR (1.87 x BW)
400 X Fail
275x 3,4,4

RDL:
225x 10,10,10

Seated Row:
120x10
160x10
220x8
250x 6,5,5

Deadlift felt better tonight by the very smallest of amounts. In comparing my video of 345 and tonights 365 I didn’t see additional breakdown in my form. It acually might have gotten slightly better. It just doesn’t feel like i’m in a very powerfull position at the bottom. I don’t think i’m putting myself at risk of injury so slowly but surely and I will try to continue to improve.

365x1

400 x Not even close

113

[quote]embo622 wrote:
3/10/11: Deadlift

400 x Not even close

[/quote]

I would have went over and kicked the guy having a drink and smirking at you in the balls. He paused in his drink a sec and you could see the look on his face saying,“Yeah, this is gonna happen.”
It will happen, just keep pushing.

114

[quote]Ogre21793 wrote:

[quote]embo622 wrote:
3/10/11: Deadlift

400 x Not even close

[/quote]

I would have went over and kicked the guy having a drink and smirking at you in the balls. He paused in his drink a sec and you could see the look on his face saying,“Yeah, this is gonna happen.”
It will happen, just keep pushing.[/quote]

lol…he’s acually a good friend of mine, wait…your right…I probably should have. He owns the gym though and it’s only 3 minutes from my house so I must refrain.

115

Yea I think I might have had to beat the cup with the cup too. On your 365 dead, you went down then up almost immediately. You might want to take a few seconds at the bottom to make sure your back is straight and hips are low.

116

Hey Embo. As others have stated, good work going on in here.

On the deadlifts what helped me get my lower body really ‘into’ it was to focus on pushing my heels into the ground and squeezing my glutes right from the start. Especially as the weight went up (as in increasing the weight, not moving the weight up) those cues helped me keep my hips from shooting up early. I also concur that the only way to get it right going heavy is to go heavy. My first 405 was ugly beyond belief but the next time it went up it was decent.

Keep on keepin’ on.

117

[quote]username42 wrote:
Yea I think I might have had to beat the cup with the cup too. On your 365 dead, you went down then up almost immediately. You might want to take a few seconds at the bottom to make sure your back is straight and hips are low.[/quote]

Thanks user. I’m trying to emulate what I see in others videos. One of the things that I picked up on was that they don’t seem to pause much at the bottom. It probably would help me out to spend a bit more time making sure i’m tight and straight before I start my pull though. Thanks again, need all the help I can get.

118

[quote]Kristoph wrote:
Hey Embo. As others have stated, good work going on in here.

On the deadlifts what helped me get my lower body really ‘into’ it was to focus on pushing my heels into the ground and squeezing my glutes right from the start. Especially as the weight went up (as in increasing the weight, not moving the weight up) those cues helped me keep my hips from shooting up early. I also concur that the only way to get it right going heavy is to go heavy. My first 405 was ugly beyond belief but the next time it went up it was decent.

Keep on keepin’ on.

[/quote]

Kristoph, thanks for stopping by. Push from the heals, squeeze the glutes…got it. Those types of mental cues really help me. Appreciate you taking the time to comment.

119

First off, I need to clear the air and admit that I miss the whole deadlifting and squatting in a pinkly decorated gym thing. It was awesome!

(ok, back to deadlifting)

“Grip it and rip it” is actually an accepted technique, no worries there imo, just whatever you feel comfortable doing. Where your hips are set inititally depends on your limb lengths, which is why chest up is the “better” cue (straight out of the DL video I linked earlier). Pushing through the heels is a good cue, forces you to use your posterior chain, which is what you want. MarauderMeat has recommended practicing with your toes up with your lighter pulls.

Pulling back, not up, as the first movement is another cue I think you can add (on your 400, you definitely look like you’re pulling up first). In that split second before you pull, you should feel like if you let go of the bar, you will literally fall backwards.

Once the bar passes your knees, the cue everyone uses is to “fuck the bar”.

p.s. the gym still looks unfinished, are you sure you can’t get the owner to throw in some pink? :wink:

120

[quote]punnyguy wrote:
First off, I need to clear the air and admit that I miss the whole deadlifting and squatting in a pinkly decorated gym thing. It was awesome!

(ok, back to deadlifting)

“Grip it and rip it” is actually an accepted technique, no worries there imo, just whatever you feel comfortable doing. Where your hips are set inititally depends on your limb lengths, which is why chest up is the “better” cue (straight out of the DL video I linked earlier). Pushing through the heels is a good cue, forces you to use your posterior chain, which is what you want. MarauderMeat has recommended practicing with your toes up with your lighter pulls.

Pulling back, not up, as the first movement is another cue I think you can add (on your 400, you definitely look like you’re pulling up first). In that split second before you pull, you should feel like if you let go of the bar, you will literally fall backwards.

Once the bar passes your knees, the cue everyone uses is to “fuck the bar”.

p.s. the gym still looks unfinished, are you sure you can’t get the owner to throw in some pink? :wink:

[/quote]

Haha…We grabbed a couple pieces of the pink carpet before we left the other spot. Maybe i’ll use them to cover the deadlift platform if we ever get one.

With the Deadlift. I was trying to cue on head up, chest up and trust that feeling to set the depth of my hips. The lighter lifts, say up to 275, i felt like I did much better after watching the video you linked.

I will try to focus on staying back on my heels next time I pull…if I can take one little new idea into every session, I think it will come around.

BTW…you guys must have shins make of steel. Is it normal for my shins to be bleeding after every DL workout? Really sucks in the shower the next morning.