oh no! hope it gets better…how wide was your stance?
[quote]mom-in-MD wrote:
oh no! hope it gets better…how wide was your stance? [/quote]
Toes on the plates. I have the flexibility and leg strength to lift that wide, I just don’t have the form when I’m that open. If my shins are at too significant of an angle (like when my toes are on the plates) then I can’t drive through my heels when I pull. If I try to get in a position where I feel like I can push through my heels when I’m super wide like that I do this stupid plie thing that opens my hips and puts them in a weird pre-stretch. I’m finding that, although wider is stronger to a point, I start to lose power after a certain width. About an inch from the plates with my toes seems to be my happy place. Now, I just need to remember that next week when I deadlift again. 
repeats to self, “Increase weight lifted by getting stronger. Quit F’ing with your form.”
[quote]Frzn_Arctc wrote:
[quote]mom-in-MD wrote:
oh no! hope it gets better…how wide was your stance? [/quote]
Toes on the plates. I have the flexibility and leg strength to lift that wide, I just don’t have the form when I’m that open. If my shins are at too significant of an angle (like when my toes are on the plates) then I can’t drive through my heels when I pull. If I try to get in a position where I feel like I can push through my heels when I’m super wide like that I do this stupid plie thing that opens my hips and puts them in a weird pre-stretch. I’m finding that, although wider is stronger to a point, I start to lose power after a certain width. About an inch from the plates with my toes seems to be my happy place. Now, I just need to remember that next week when I deadlift again.
repeats to self, “Increase weight lifted by getting stronger. Quit F’ing with your form.”[/quote]
Good log, I am enjoying it, we are the same in raw strength and about the same size, although you are a lot leaner.
And if you need to buy a vowel or 2 let me know, I got lots.
Toes on the plates? Do you mean “to” the plates? I can get my toes to the plates as well but definitely don’t have the strength or form or whatever to pull decent weight.
[quote]kpsnap wrote:
Toes on the plates? Do you mean “to” the plates? I can get my toes to the plates as well but definitely don’t have the strength or form or whatever to pull decent weight. [/quote]
lol. good and valid point. I was centering up by putting my toes actually “on” the plates and then turning my feet in (such that my toes weren’t holding the plates down and then getting squished on the descent). So yes, lifting with toes “to” the plates, not on… That will teach me to post immediately after a workout. 
Today was a much better workout. No injury’s to report AND I managed not to significantly re-aggravate my hip. I feel like I did something momentous simply by not doing anything stupid.
Bench day
Warm-ups: 5 rep’s per set at 55, 60, 70, 75, 80
Work Sets:
95x4 (forgot to stop at 3)
100x3
110x3
115x3
120x7 (was doing great on this and then lost the tightness in my arch toward the last two rep’s. Just can’t seem to hold the arch that tight for more than ~5 reps)
Auxiliary Work
Kroc Rows, per arm: 30x20 for 2 sets, 35x17, 40x15
Seated shoulder press with DB’s: 25x13, 30x13, 35x10
Wide grip seated cable row: 60x12, 65x15, 75x12
super-setted with Straight Arm Pull-downs: 40x15, 55x15, 65x10
Fly’s: 20x12, for 2 sets
[quote]dianab wrote:
[quote]Frzn_Arctc wrote:
[quote]mom-in-MD wrote:
oh no! hope it gets better…how wide was your stance? [/quote]
Toes on the plates. I have the flexibility and leg strength to lift that wide, I just don’t have the form when I’m that open. If my shins are at too significant of an angle (like when my toes are on the plates) then I can’t drive through my heels when I pull. If I try to get in a position where I feel like I can push through my heels when I’m super wide like that I do this stupid plie thing that opens my hips and puts them in a weird pre-stretch. I’m finding that, although wider is stronger to a point, I start to lose power after a certain width. About an inch from the plates with my toes seems to be my happy place. Now, I just need to remember that next week when I deadlift again.
repeats to self, “Increase weight lifted by getting stronger. Quit F’ing with your form.”[/quote]
Good log, I am enjoying it, we are the same in raw strength and about the same size, although you are a lot leaner.
And if you need to buy a vowel or 2 let me know, I got lots.[/quote]
Yes, I would like to buy a “u” for the above, and then I think I’d like to solve the puzzle.
[quote]Frzn_Arctc wrote:
And as soon as the deadline at work passes, I’m promising myself a full night of sleep for weeks. (we’ll see how that goes…)[/quote]
HA! Yeah…I feel ya on this.
Great work on the DLs. Interesting on the Sumo stance. I could never get my stance that wide without hurting myself. Would love to see a vid…no pressure of course
ah… work is ridiculous. I didn’t get in my arm workout on Monday. Didn’t have time to post my squat workout yesterday, and didn’t fit in my auxiliary work yesterday either (which is probably a good thing, as if forced me to be easy on my hip). I can’t take credit for the brilliance of leaving out extra work that would have aggravated it… I was angry that I was so tired i couldn’t do the extra work, but afterwords I realized that I could claim I didn’t do more work because I was being smart… but that wasn’t the case, no point in lying.
Yesterday, Squatz:
Warm-ups: 5 reps per set of - bar, 75, 85, 90, 100, 110
Work sets:
130x3
140x3
150x3
155x3
165x3 (normally would have pushed for more here, but was so tired I was proud of myself for just doing it)
And then in bed by 10:45. WooHoo! And thanks to that 6 hours of sleep, I felt much better today, and had a great workout this afternoon.
Today, Board Press’s:
Warm-ups (full range): bar x 10, 5 reps per set of - 65, 70, 80, 85, 95
Work sets (one board, i.e foam yoga block):
110x3
120x3
125x3
135x3
140x10 (I don’t think I’ve ever held 140 in my hands, let alone pressed it in any fashion, so this was a major PR for me, even if it was board presses and not the full range bench.)
Auxiliary work:
Wide grip pull-ups, body weight x6, x6, x5, x5 (same as last week. was a little shaky after my bench)
Super Wide pull-downs (on cable machine), 90lbs x 10 reps x 2 sets
Fly’s, 15x12, 20x10
And I cut out early from work tonight and am planning on another six hour night of sleep (which is much better than the 4 that’s been the MO for the past six weeks), so I should be getting arms in tomorrow, and then week three of this month of 5-3-1 starts Saturday. Unfortunately, my gym is going to be closed on the 4th of July, and that’s my bench day… so some shuffling of workouts will have to be done (who closes the gym on 4th of July anyways?!)
And on a side note, one of the women that was judging at the powerlifting comp I participated in back in April works out at my gym and holds one of the American Women’s Records in the USAPL for her bench. She talked to me in the locker room, told me I have amazing form, and offered to do a bench workout with me sometime after her upcoming national competition! What an opportunity! I feel like a kid at Christmas. 
I like your training and you are such a lucky duck.
Nice! And nice work on the board presses too.
Excellent pressing! And so jealous of your WG pullups! Would love to get just one…
So you’re doing ten reps of raw bench at more than bodyweight? Shit. You are amazingly strong. Love the workouts.
[quote]kpsnap wrote:
So you’re doing ten reps of raw bench at more than bodyweight? Shit. You are amazingly strong. Love the workouts.[/quote]
It was just to the yoga block though (which I guestimate to be around 2.5 to 3 inches) so it’s not as strong as the numbers look. But I’m still pretty happy with it. And doing the board presses is making my bench numbers jump dramatically just from getting used to holding the weight in my hands and on my arch. It’s definitely been a great way to mix up the 5-3-1 program for me.
The second day with six full hours of sleep helped. I also had training for the past two days, during which time I ate entirely too many peanut M&M’s… which apparently re-carbed me… I now weigh 130 and feel like I have all this energy in the weight room.
Today’s work out - Arms
DB Curls (per arm): 20x10, 25x10, 27.5x6 (woohoo, PR - on curls, but still exciting), 25x10, 25x8, 22.5x10
Tricep Cable Press-down: 30lbs x 10 x 6 sets
Incline DB curls (per arm): 17.5x10, 20x10, 20x9
Overhead Cable Tricep Press: 60x12, 70x10, 80x10 (gonna have to figure something else out for the second tricep exercise, 'cause I can barely hold this down with my body weight and abs now)
And to wrap it up, three sets of scarecrows as pre-hab on the ole shoulders.
And tomorrow we’re going to bench (as the gym is closed on our normal bench day, Sunday) and then we’ll move our deadlift to Sunday (rather than Saturday). We have a great gym in our garage, but no bench, so the bench press and board press days are the two workouts I really HAVE to be at the gym for.
And tomorrow’s the UFC fight, so we’ll be going to the sports bar and eating amazing wings… so I better bench big numbers to earn that food.
bench and wings - I heavenly combo. Love your numbers Arctc - still kickin it. And PR on curls are totally acceptable. As an official sistard I approve whole heartedly.
Peanut MnMs are like magic candies that improve all your lifts and general happiness dramatically. If I feel a bit tired before training, I bring a big bag to the gym and eat them between sets. My spotter eats those tuna snack packs with crackers or graham cookies. And getting a bench spot from a guy with tuna breath helps your overall strength too.
People hate us.
[quote]dianab wrote:
Peanut MnMs are like magic candies that improve all your lifts and general happiness dramatically. If I feel a bit tired before training, I bring a big bag to the gym and eat them between sets. My spotter eats those tuna snack packs with crackers or graham cookies. And getting a bench spot from a guy with tuna breath helps your overall strength too.
People hate us. [/quote]
lol! I may insist my spotter start eating tuna during the workout rather than drinking Surge… “for me, honey”…
Frozen, great training in here! For a second triceps exercise, I heartily endorse weighted dips. I love those nasty things.