OK, Let's Lift! And 1 and 2 and 1 and 2

Training Training Logs
221

[quote]LoRez wrote:

[quote]flipcollar wrote:
I did a set of lunges, with the intention to do 3-5 sets, and my legs (outer quads) cramped like crazy. I had to work on them for about 15 minutes before I could stand up. This concluded my workout.[/quote]

That sucks. No luck with the potassium or magnesium I guess?[/quote]

Still haven’t bought either. :confused: At the time we had lots of bananas at the house, so I was eating 2 of those a day. We’re out of bananas, and the cramps are back, so… guess I’ll be going to the vitamin store today.

There was something substantially different about my last workout from my usual workouts though. I didn’t drink Plazma for the first time in quite awhile. I’m dropping Plazma and brain candy for the next few months for budget reasons. The baby is due in 4 weeks, and I’d like to see how our budget actually works out post-baby before I continue to spend money on things I don’t actually need. I still have 1 jug of Plazma left, I’m just keeping it reserved for my really tough workouts (which probably should have included heavy deadlifting…). I also have an unopened jug of SWF.

222

Decided to do a not-starting-strength workout with my friend today. But first… what I did Friday.

Friday I just did Oly lift stuff. I did a bunch of cleans, some clean and jerks, and some power cleans. No real programming there. Then I tried my luck at overhead squatting with the bar. A few competent oly lifters were in the gym, so I figured I’d take advantage of that and get some pointers. By the end of the session, I had completed quite a few overhead squats, and it was getting easier. Some things of note were:

shrug my traps up while holding the bar. This helps with shoulder rotation/mobility throughout the movement.
sit back more. This seems sort of counter-intuitive to me, but it worked.
work on ankle and hip mobility. My shoulders are very close now. This was the first time I realized my ankles might also be a problem. I was given some suggestions to work on that. I also need to focus on opening up my hips more throughout the movement.

Back to today: I decided to see how my friend responds to more volume. So we worked up to 1 heavy set of 3 on bench press, then 5 sets of 10. After that, 5 sets of 10 on a hammer strength-type row machine with a pause at full contraction , 3 sets of 15 lateral raises, finished with 5 or 6 swings each set, then a bicep-tricep superset, minimal resting periods.

The reasoning behind this workout was to get a lot of work in while minimally stressing the joints. Not quite a bodybuilding-style workout, but more in that direction than we’ve gone so far. The intensity of the session allowed for us to use lighter loads. I also believe both my friend and I could benefit from incorporating some direct arm work for awhile.

223

Looks like I missed logging a couple sessions. Tuesday was a leg workout. Opted for the hack squat machine instead of free-squatting. Worked up to 5pps, 5 reps. This was reallllly heavy. Dropped to 3 pps, 2 sets of 10, then a set of 10 at 2plates and a quarter each side, then 1 plate and a quarter for my last couple sets. For these last sets of 10, I did 1 1/2 reps. Quite the burn. Finished with hamstring curls.

Last night was OHP. Worked up to 185x3 strict press. This might be a rep PR at that weight. Then 3 sets of 10 @ 115, 2 sets of 10 @ 95. My mobility work really showed today. This was the best I have EVER felt on OHP. Accessory work included pull ups for 4 sets, a burnout set of pulldowns, 3 sets of 20 rear delt flyes (machine), and a bicep-tricep superset on the cables.

Weighed in @ 191 after my workout last night.

224

1518×1769 310 KB

A picture from the other day, also posted in the July check-in…

So right now, both my elbows are giving me problems. The left one is on the outside, right is on the inside. This leads me to believe that heavy deadlifting may be exacerbating the issue, as I grip overhand with my left, and under with my right. I’m gonna cut deadlifts completely for a few weeks, and just squat twice a week. My shoulder mobility has improved to the point that I don’t think it will be much of an issue moving forward, at least in terms of elbow pain in my squat.

Squatted Sunday. Worked up to a 405 single, then dropped the weight to 315 and did a set of 6 I think, and was planning on doing more sets, but they turned off the lights at my gym! Half an hour before closing time. I spent the next 15 minutes flipping the tire, as I felt more comfortable doing that than squatting in the dark. Probably just a mental thing, not a big deal.

Bench pressing tonight, would like to set a PR if I feel good. Shoulders and pecs are about as healthy as they’ve been in awhile.

225

New bench PR.

325 for 2 singles, both TNG, but very controlled. I turned my second 325 single into sort of a drop set. After I hit the rep, I dropped the weight to 225 and immediately did 8 reps.

Accessory work included bent over barbell rows with 205 for 4 sets of 10-15, then a bicep-tricep superset on the cables, 15 reps , back and forth.

Weighed 184 at the end of my session.
I usually weigh with shoes on and shorts. This time was just underwear. I wore sweatpants and heavy t shirt to lift, so I sweated like crazy as well. And I skipped lunch. I feel like these factors account for my huge weight fluctuation from my last weigh in. It’s nice to see my lifts going up without increasing my bodyweight though. Right now, weighing in at 181 for a PL meet would be a breeze. Based on my current gym numbers, I think I should be able to hit close to 1300 pretty soon. I feel pretty confident I could get 1250 right now.

I’m also getting knee sleeves that are legal for most raw competition, so that has the potential to boost my squat number slightly. We’ll see…

226

Tried, and failed, a 425 squat last night. Just couldn’t get it done. Pretty close though. I also shot a video of a few reps at 365. I may post it. Finished with a few sets at 315, then 225 for 10, then 225 for 15.

227

Here’s the video. Advice is welcome. I don’t think the squat looks great, so I’m gonna start a thread for it as well…

228

Have you seen this?

I thought it was fairly instructive, and a little closer to the squat style you used in your video.

229

Very cool video, I hadn’t seen that. I like all the camera angles. That’s such an efficient-looking squat.

230

On the elbow issues (golfer’s elbow is what it’s called), I’ve dealt with them, and two things fixed them up REALLY quickly. One ‘fixed’ it, the other has kept it from happening.

  1. Idk if you know about Voodoo floss or whatever, but basically it’s big in the MobilitWOD/K-star community. I just cut an old bike tube and made a DIY version, but here’s the video of what to do. If you don’t have a partner, exaggerated ROM OH extensions with a light DB was effective in kind of getting the area. Like grabbing a 15 lb DB and just doing sets of 20 in the stretched ROM and stuff with the floss around the elbow.
  1. this is from Paul Carter, but just grabbing BB and doing 100-rep set curls. I just rest-pause, usually like 40-25-20-15 or something. The first little bit I’ll get some elbow pain maybe, but by the end the elbows feel great.

Usually paused pressing and lots of pull-ups/chins makes my elbows flare up after a few weeks, every time like clock work. Since adding in the high rep curls it’s basically been a non-issue. It’s not like I’ve neglected bicep work in the past, it just seems to be something about the higher reps (maybe just a lot of extra blood flow to the area?)

Hope any of this helps. This worked for me, and helped another friend with some crappy ‘tennis’ elbow stuff on 5/3/1.

231

Thanks Spidey! I’ve actually got tennis elbow in the right arm and golfers elbow in the left right now. Initially it was golfers on both sides. I think I’ll go ahead and get one of those voodoo floss bands, that looks pretty legit.

The Paul Carter thing is interesting too. I may try that tonight. I’ll let you know how it goes.

232

[quote]flipcollar wrote:
Thanks Spidey! I’ve actually got tennis elbow in the right arm and golfers elbow in the left right now. Initially it was golfers on both sides. I think I’ll go ahead and get one of those voodoo floss bands, that looks pretty legit.

The Paul Carter thing is interesting too. I may try that tonight. I’ll let you know how it goes.[/quote]

Yeah man I hope it helps. And I know the voodoo bands are a bit pricey, I made mine out of some old bicycle inner tube, was like way cheaper. I’ve also seen people use thicker ACE bandages like you buy from Wal-Mart in a similar fashion, so you could always try that if you don’t want to spend the money or wait on shipping and all.

233

Worked out on Saturday… twice.

Crossfit in the morning: partner workout, 5 burpees, 7 med ball situps (20 lbs), 9 American KB swings (44 lbs). Rest while partner goes, 10 minutes, AMRAP. I performed very well on this. I wasn’t gassed at any point, was still flying through this at the end of 10 minutes. No fatigue at all.

OHP session later that day. Worked up to a 185x4 strict press, and a 205 push press. Then 4 or 5 sets of 8-10 wide grip standing behind the neck presses. A little push on each rep. Worked at 95 for most of the sets, 115 on the last. Pullups for accessory work, and face pulls.

I also did the 100 rep curls in this session. It seems to have made a huge difference in my right elbow. The left elbow (the tennis elbow) was not helped. I followed this up with 100 tricep lying extensions.

234

[quote]LoRez wrote:
Have you seen this?

I thought it was fairly instructive, and a little closer to the squat style you used in your video.[/quote]

This video taught me that even the cleaning ladies in China are Mexican… You’ve got a solid lookin’ squat, bud. That 365 looked pretty damn smooth.

235

SBD knee sleeves came in today. Just in time for squats!

session went well. Fortunately, the sleeves were the right size. I noticed a difference from the very first warmup set. I ended up working up to 345x6, followed by 345x3, then 315x3, 275x5, then 225 for 4 sets of 12. The 345x6 may be a rep PR, I’ll have to scan my logs to see if that’s the case. All my sets today were beltless as well, so definitely a beltless PR.

I felt the biggest difference on my rep work though. A few days ago, 225 x 10 and 225 x 15 felt awful, and I had to pause several times to get through the set of 15. I knocked out each of my sets of 12 today with no pauses, and had plenty more in the tank at the end of each set. I felt like a piston, it was awesome. I should have taken a video. Will do that next session.

236

My workout buddy has also hit some pretty big milestones that I haven’t logged. These have included: 205 deadlift for 4 reps today, a 135 power clean (also today), 135 bench press, and I believe 155 squat for 5 reps. Something like that. Huge difference from when he started a couple months ago. I looked through my logs, and saw where he was deadlifting 115x5. I’m particularly impressed with the power clean. He’s weighing 160.

237

Bench press last night. worked up to 295x4, then dropped to 185 for 2 sets of 15-20. Then 3 sets of 15ish dips. 3 sets of DB rows @ 100 lbs, then lateral raises with 25’s and 30’s. Not a real interesting session, although I was pretty satisfied with the bench press set at 295. I felt like shit before I even got to the gym though. Achy all over.

Feeling much better today, but I might take a week or 2 off from the gym to heal up and prepare for the baby to come, which could be any day now. Our ‘due date’ is 2 weeks from now, but that’s obviously not an exact science… Could be sooner, could be later.

238

Decided to hit the gym today. I just can’t make myself stay away.

Deadlifted and squatted. There’s a shortage of reasonably sized plates in the room where I deadlift right now, so the most I could have possibly had on the bar was 465. So I decided this would be a good day to do some sumo deadlifting. I learned that I’m not very good at this. I basically just did a bunch of singles at 415. Some of the singles were pretty easy, some were shaky the whole way up. Didn’t miss any though, probably ended up doing about 10. So my technique was very clearly inconsistent. The biggest issue I had that seemed to happen almost every lift was that I had trouble with friction against my legs as I got close to lockout. I haven’t ever worked on sumo much, so I need to refresh my memory on how it should be done. Basically my legs were getting in the way.
After my sumo deadlifting, I did a set of 5 conventionally at 415. Then I did a couple sets of squats. 115 for 30 with no pauses during the set, then 115 for 20.

239

I rarely comment on the articles here, and while this may not be the most useful comment in the world…

Today’s article was garbage. I read every article every day, and I have read a large percentage of the archives from the years before I was familiar with this site. I have to say that I can’t think of a single article that struck me as so utterly useless, pompous, humorless, arbitrary and divisive. Controversy is great, and a good example of that is basically everything Bret Contreras puts out. I can’t think of any advice I’ve ever actually implemented from hi. Whenever I see a Contreras article come up, I roll my eyes and think, “Oh great, more glute bridges.” But he’s got a distinct perspective, and he’s pushing what he believes in, and I will always read what he has to say. Whether or not I incorporate that into my own training is irrelevant. I can at least respect what he’s doing. He’s put a ton of work/research into strength training, and anyone should be commended for that. And as a side note, he happens to be stronger and more accomplished than most members here want to give him credit for.

Aside from the fact that I flat-out disagree with what Blewett has to say here, there is nothing that anyone can actually ‘use’ in this article. It’s more or less a click-bait piece of fluff that’s sure to attract arguments on both side, arguments which have been rehashed to death on forums like these. And it’s not even an interesting perspective.

A good article, in my opinion, should do at least 1 of 3 things.

  1. Provide training information/perspective, whether it be related to a specific sport, or simply strength-training in general.

  2. Offer some sort of galvanizing thought for the community of T Nation. Something to bring brothers in iron together. Something with the potential to be unifying or inspirational.

  3. Provide a controversial talking point that can further our endeavors, potentially to make us better people, better competitors, better gym rats. Whatever it is we do.

None of that is present here. The take home points from this article came down to: if your sport doesn’t have fans, and if you can’t make money at it, you’re not an athlete. COOL STORY BRAH.

Bullshit. Making money full time while playing a sport has more to do with marketability of an athlete in many instances than it does actual athletic prowess, particularly in fringe sports. Many, many Olympic athletes have to retain jobs to support their training.

Beyond this, native country isn’t taken into account. A high level sprinter from a first world country may very well be taken care of financially, and not have to worry about income. A sprinter capable of running exactly the same times as said first world athlete may have to work 10 hours a day in a field to support his family. Does this make one runner an athlete and one not? I’ll leave it at that.

Side note: I know several amateur baseball players/former college baseball players (somewhere between 10 and 20). For whatever reason, these guys (all of them) are some of the most conceited people I know, and they all take very similar attitudes to what is presented here. Just an observation.

240

Good points.

I wanted to throw up when I read that article this morning. Clicked over to FB and wasn’t surprised to see that it already had 200 comments or something. I wasn’t surprised - seemed like the only point of this one was to generate clicks.

On a totally unrelated note, I saw your updated pics in RMP - awesome job, I didn’t realize you had made that much progress over the last few years.

Other than lighting, which I know a thing or two about, what do you think has helped improve that vascularity so much - especially in the upper chest/front delt area? Just consistent training and growth and being lean, or have you seen a connection between any certain supplement or supplement category and increased vascularity?

Thanks man.