[quote]RozS wrote:
Deadlift Day!!! (Deadlifts are quickly outpacing squats as my favorite lift) [/quote]
Appropriate since the deadlift is the greatest of all lifts and should be enjoyed by everyone.
Just sayin’
Give it hell.
[quote]emskee wrote:
[quote]RozS wrote:
Deadlift Day!!! (Deadlifts are quickly outpacing squats as my favorite lift) [/quote]
Appropriate since the deadlift is the greatest of all lifts and should be enjoyed by everyone.
Just sayin’
Give it hell.
[/quote]
Indeed!
Looking strong! Following 
2/17- Bench/shoulders/back with my trainer
Once again, we moved through poundage too quickly for me to write them down (plus I was exhausted, it was a bad day). My trainer actually likes that I don’t get a chance to note the weights, because it keeps me from becoming a headcase (at least he thinks so).
I made some really bad food choices this weekend and didn’t get enough sleep and I paid for it today. My stabilization was almost nonexistent until about 3/4 of the way through my workout. I hate how every.little.thing. messes up my bench press. Food, sleep, supplements, body weight, hydration, what time the cats got fed, what color my shirt is. EVERYTHING! I don’t struggle like this with any other lift. It’s stupid.
Ok, rant over. On to the workout.
My (first) meet is 3-weeks from yesterday, so the focus today was, once again, my weaksauce arms, rear delts and lats.
-Floor presses in the 4-way Smith Machine, because the squat racks were taken (on a Monday, by people doing SQUATS! I was shocked!)
-Isometric floor presses in the squat rack (once it cleared). I pressed the bar from the floor to the squat catches (which were set just above my sticking point) and tried to push through them until my trainer told me to relax. It SUCKED!
-Bench press with the ‘heavy’ bands (I’d been using the ‘medium’ bands on my own), 20kg and 10kg
-Rear pec deck, stupid, painful, effective. 3 sets to failure at 60lbs.
-Isometric lat. pull-down, 99x4. My grip gave long before my back did, so my grip-strength will be getting some much needed attention soon.
I’m tired, I’m already feeling where I’m going to be sore, and I’m feeling much more prepared for my meet! YAYYYYYYY!
2/20
Crappy day at the gym. It was supposed to be my mock meet (don’t know why I decided it was a good idea 48 hours after my trainer workout, but I’m kinda dim sometimes), and it didn’t go so well.
All bench:
45x10
65x10
95x8
105x5
Opener 115- It came down, paused, went up, paused and hit the rack, but it felt horrible. It felt heavy. It didn’t feel like 115.
10-minute break
Lift #2 125- Felt terrible on the lift out, worse on the way down, wouldn’t come out of the freaking hole. It felt MUCH heavier than 125 should ever feel.
10-minute break
Lift #3 125 (again)- worse than the first time around, I had trouble bringing it down and again, couldn’t budge it from my chest.
While my darling husband was telling me my meet was over and to call it a day, I was too pissed to let it go. It’s 125! A weight I can move several times over, at the end of a workout. I wasn’t about to let it go.
Bench take 2 (to show the weights who’s in charge, dammit)
95x1- Easy, light, controlled, the way it should be.
115x1- Again, easy, controlled, a little harder than the 95, but totally lift-able.
135x1- I made my husband stay with me all the way through this one since I dropped it on myself last week (ribs are STILL swollen). Down and up with control, had to use a bit more leg drive than I wanted, but I got it and could have gone up to 140.
115x1- Missed. Failed at the bottom. Again.
I think there were several things contributing to today, fear of dropping the bar, muscle/mental fatigue, pre-meet jitters, it was a weird day.
Gonna brush this one off, rest for the remainder of the week and hit my weak spots for the last time on Monday. Mock meet again next Friday with nothing but rest in between. Yep. That’s the way it’s gonna be.
[quote]RozS wrote:
2/20
Crappy day at the gym. It was supposed to be my mock meet (don’t know why I decided it was a good idea 48 hours after my trainer workout, but I’m kinda dim sometimes), and it didn’t go so well.
All bench:
45x10
65x10
95x8
105x5
Opener 115- It came down, paused, went up, paused and hit the rack, but it felt horrible. It felt heavy. It didn’t feel like 115.
10-minute break
Lift #2 125- Felt terrible on the lift out, worse on the way down, wouldn’t come out of the freaking hole. It felt MUCH heavier than 125 should ever feel.
10-minute break
Lift #3 125 (again)- worse than the first time around, I had trouble bringing it down and again, couldn’t budge it from my chest.
While my darling husband was telling me my meet was over and to call it a day, I was too pissed to let it go. It’s 125! A weight I can move several times over, at the end of a workout. I wasn’t about to let it go.
Bench take 2 (to show the weights who’s in charge, dammit)
95x1- Easy, light, controlled, the way it should be.
115x1- Again, easy, controlled, a little harder than the 95, but totally lift-able.
135x1- I made my husband stay with me all the way through this one since I dropped it on myself last week (ribs are STILL swollen). Down and up with control, had to use a bit more leg drive than I wanted, but I got it and could have gone up to 140.
115x1- Missed. Failed at the bottom. Again.
I think there were several things contributing to today, fear of dropping the bar, muscle/mental fatigue, pre-meet jitters, it was a weird day.
Gonna brush this one off, rest for the remainder of the week and hit my weak spots for the last time on Monday. Mock meet again next Friday with nothing but rest in between. Yep. That’s the way it’s gonna be. [/quote]
These kinds of days are the worst. Once one starts, I find myself starting to question everything, then I’m too in my head, and my lifting suffers. Lately my benching has felt a lot like you describe. Weights feel heavier than they are. Psyching me out. Luckily it’s always a temporary slump.
It’s always two steps forward, one step back with the bench for me. Keep at it!
[quote]Mighty Matron wrote:
These kinds of days are the worst. Once one starts, I find myself starting to question everything, then I’m too in my head, and my lifting suffers. Lately my benching has felt a lot like you describe. Weights feel heavier than they are. Psyching me out. Luckily it’s always a temporary slump.
It’s always two steps forward, one step back with the bench for me. Keep at it!
[/quote]
I hope you come through your slump soon!
Bench is what I’ve been doing the longest, so these sorts of struggles completely throw me off my game, add that to the rib injury, first-meet-jitters and overall fatigue and I think it was just a recipe for disaster.
2/21 Attitude Adjustment/refocus (aka willy-nilly leg burn)
Squats
115x10- I was able to get to parallel on every rep, which is a big deal for me and gives me hope that I’ll be able to compete in this lift someday. It was only one set because I was demo’ing box squats to a lifting partner who was having stability issues and trusting the box.
Hack squat- I try to focus on depth on this to prove to my hip that it can get low
120x10
140x10
165x10 (3 sets)
I had to keep it short as everyone wanted to hack squat today (usually it sits, untouched, unless I’m using it)
Leg press- Again, I really focus on depth for my hip
140x10
230x10
280x10
300x10
320x10 (2 sets)
Apparently my legs are wicked strong as the 320 still wasn’t exhausting, but, again, people wanted the machine, so I needed to get done and move on.
Finished out the day with my favorite quad/ham drop-set burn. I usually do this at the beginning of leg day, but I wanted to mix it up
The attitude adjustment worked and it kept my mind off of my bench failures for a little while, so I’d call it a good day!
[quote]RozS wrote:
2/20
Crappy day at the gym. It was supposed to be my mock meet
All bench:
45x10
65x10
95x8
105x5
[/quote]
In my (and I’m a narcissist and by definition have no) humble opinion, a set of 5 at 90% of an opener does not build a competition worthy neuromuscular image for the parts of you which do the lifting. Sets of 8 and 5 most probably end with a rep not so competition like, this now being the last thing you remember. So you go to the platform trying to do something “new”.
Perhaps you could have gone (like)
45x10
65x5
80x1
95x1
105x1
with the singles done as if you were competing, i.e. chamber, pause then shoot.
Then hit the opener. You have already practiced 3 opener-ish movements and your body, from the reptilian brain down is like “yeah, yeah, I get it and I’m fast and I’m powerful”.
Sometimes at a contest, big delays happen and it is nice to be able to sprint back to the warm-up area and knock out another quick single at like 80 - 90% of your opener. You can do this a couple of times, keeps you warm, keeps the imagery fresh, keeps the neurotransmitters excitatory and most importantly does not wear you out.
Just offering.
Stay maniacal. (where being a “maniac” is good.)
[quote]emskee wrote:
In my (and I’m a narcissist and by definition have no) humble opinion, a set of 5 at 90% of an opener does not build a competition worthy neuromuscular image for the parts of you which do the lifting. Sets of 8 and 5 most probably end with a rep not so competition like, this now being the last thing you remember. So you go to the platform trying to do something “new”.
Perhaps you could have gone (like)
45x10
65x5
80x1
95x1
105x1
with the singles done as if you were competing, i.e. chamber, pause then shoot.
Then hit the opener. You have already practiced 3 opener-ish movements and your body, from the reptilian brain down is like “yeah, yeah, I get it and I’m fast and I’m powerful”.
Sometimes at a contest, big delays happen and it is nice to be able to sprint back to the warm-up area and knock out another quick single at like 80 - 90% of your opener. You can do this a couple of times, keeps you warm, keeps the imagery fresh, keeps the neurotransmitters excitatory and most importantly does not wear you out.
Just offering.
Stay maniacal. (where being a “maniac” is good.)[/quote]
I do my best to keep every rep clean, but yeah, by the last one I’m ready to be done and usually toss decent form out the window.
I super appreciate the advice and will test it with my final mock-meet next week! Thanks!
Right.
Remember that you are warming up for a single on a platform not warming up for a workout.
Warm up your approach, setup, breathing, listening for the signals, the whole thing.
I have judged a lot of meets and on the platform is not the place to have to go over things in your head.
2/24 Bench with trainer, again
Warm up
45x10
45x8 (had to move the rack, stupid tall people with their long arms always adjusting stuff)
3-board presses
95x5
105x5
115x4
125x7
130x4
I’m told that ‘normal’ people can go higher than their 1RM off of boards, but it’s never worked that way for me. Just a few weeks ago I couldn’t get 125 to move from 2-boards, let alone 3, so getting it 7 times then coming back and getting 130 after was a HUGE confidence boost. Now I don’t feel so nervous about reaching for higher weights, because I’m obviously getting MUCH stronger.
Isometric floor presses
65x failure
55x 4 holds with added resistance from my trainer (I had a few choice words for him)
Explosive floor press
55x 10 My wrists started to protest the workout, so we switched to dumbells
Dumbell floor press
25x10 (4 sets)
And done. That’s it. Friday I’m going to hit my opener and second lift. I don’t get to go for my third lift until the meet because my trainer is worried I’ll miss it in the gym and go into the meet already feeling defeated.
So, my first meet is basically here and I’m trying to not be a basket case about it! EEEEK!
Also, I think I know what was causing my super crappy day on the bench last week. I’ve been benching so much that I let myself start to hate it, so I was just trying to get it over with instead of pushing myself through and working for it. The only lift I truly wanted to make was the 135, which I got. It almost happened again today until my trainer got in my face and told me to get out of my head and get silly and be myself. Then everything was amazing!
Had my first encounter with a hater today in the weightroom and it has me all sorts of fired up. Packing that rage away to use as motivation for my meet in 11 days.
My husband had 315 on the bench and I was ready to spot him, then this lovely interaction occurred:
Jerkface- You’re not going to lift that, are you?
Me- Not today, give me a couple years and I’ll get there.
Jerkface- I doubt that, I’ve never heard of a woman putting up that much.
Me- Well, I’m gonna put up 200+ in August for the state fair.
Jerkface- You do that and I’ll quit lifting, no point anymore. What do you bench now?
Me- I’m going to reach for 145 at my meet
Jerkface- You better just stay there, that’s a lot of weight, for a girl.
Me- I’m gonna get 200+
Jerkface- (laughing) I don’t think so
Husband- Oh, I’m pretty sure she’ll get it.
Jerkface rolls his eyes and walks away, husband asks for my permission to beat Jerkface’s face in.
Background on Jerkface, he’s a 64 year old lifter that, until today was always kind and encouraging to me. Apparently he’s starting feel threatened, though. Also, I have a female coworker that puts up 300+ regularly, so I’d love to see this guy tell her that women can’t lift heavy shit.
What I want to know is what my gender has to do with my benching abilities. Jerkface.
Mock meet: take 2 was almost as bad as the first one. Nothing to report other than being angry. My trainer grounded me until my meet, so that’s how that goes, I guess.
The wife and I went to the gym yesterday to hit her opener.
I had her do a slow pyramid to make sure she was nice and warm:
45 (bar) x 10
55 x 10
65 x 5
75 x 5
85 x 5
95 x 2
115 (opener) x 3 (I told her to go for a double, she growled and said, “Don’t touch the bar!” when I started to grab and pull it into the rack it at the end of her 2nd rep. She then did another rep with very little effort.
Most likely it’s too slow of a progression in weight for the meet, but for that session her opener was the goal.
Her bodyweight was 176 and change this morning (competing in the 181 class) so it looks like everything is falling into place.
In case anyone was wondering, her singlet looks much better on her than me!
[quote]The_Jed wrote:
The wife and I went to the gym yesterday to hit her opener.
I had her do a slow pyramid to make sure she was nice and warm:
45 (bar) x 10
55 x 10
65 x 5
75 x 5
85 x 5
95 x 2
115 (opener) x 3 (I told her to go for a double, she growled and said, “Don’t touch the bar!” when I started to grab and pull it into the rack it at the end of her 2nd rep. She then did another rep with very little effort.
Most likely it’s too slow of a progression in weight for the meet, but for that session her opener was the goal.
Her bodyweight was 176 and change this morning (competing in the 181 class) so it looks like everything is falling into place.
In case anyone was wondering, her singlet looks much better on her than me![/quote]
Thanks for updating for me
I believe my exact words were “Don’t effing TOUCH IT!”, though, but I was hoisting 115lbs off my chest at the time, so I could be wrong
I’m now grounded from lifting until Sunday, which has me a little worried since I’ve been missing 135 lately, but that’s likely due to cutting weight. Once I weigh in and can eat (oh how I’m looking forward to FOOOOOOD), I should be good to go
5 days out, and I think I’m getting sick and my ribs are in that annoying ‘constant nerve spasm’ phase of healing. This meet is going to be so much fun…
Needed to get the negative out of my head so I can focus on the meet in a positive way
3 days out, feeling run-down even though I’ve been taking it easy this week. My muscles are still tired from Friday/Saturday, which is bothersome. I’m also retaining water for some reason, so I’m back to stressing over weigh-ins.
So much fun for a first meet.
Oh, and my ribs hurt like hell.
Sending positive waves.