Maybe pull your shoulders back and down before you initiate the pull.
11-24-2010: Cycle 9, Week 2 - Bench
Warmup: 35x5, 42.5x5, 50x3
Work: 60 x 3, 67.5 x 3, 75 x 3+ (made 5)
Assistance: 45 x 10 x 5
Pretty happy with this after the problems I had with bench last week.
Also dragged my DIY tire sled to the top of the hill and back twice (I estimate it to be 150 yards each way). That really gets your glutes and hamstrings going!
11-26-2010: Week 2 - Squat
Warmup: Bar x 5, 60 x 5, 75 x 5, 90 x 3
Work: 105 x 3, 120 x 3, 135 x 3+ (made 4)
Assistance: 75 x 20
Pretty good session. The last on at 135 was brutal, so my goal of 5 didn’t happen, but all in all I was happy with the effort.
Hope everybody (in the US) had a good Thanksgiving.
11-28-2010: Cycle 9, Week 3, Military Press
Warmup: 20x5, 25x5, 30x3
Work: 37.5x5, 42.5x3, 47.5x1+ (made 4)
BBB Assistance: 26.25 x 10 x 5
So, I learned two important things during today’s session, which included my 7-year-old daughter as an observer, participant, and cheerleader. First, if you have just finished 3 reps on your heavy set and start #4, expecting to fail, only to hear your daughter shout “Go Daddy! You can do it!!!” you are then obligated to finish the rep so that she can continue to think her daddy is the baddest mofo on the cul-de-sac. Excellent motivation.
Second, in the breaks between sets she decided to invent her own exercise routine to fill in the gaps. It turns out she has a much more interesting log format than do I. Since I only get one picture per posting, I’ll attach a page from my log first.
And now the log page she created as she went along.
Note that I’m the guy sitting on the bench while she does her routine. We had the “Tap, Tap, Kick” exercise, one that involved holding onto the bar in the rack, jumping up and down 5 times, followed by swinging back and forth for a count of 10 (or as close to ten as you could get before hearing “my hands hurt!”)
The final set included a 360-degree twirl/dismount that was far more flourish than I ever work in.
Bah - that didn’t work as expected. Next effort to put up the comparative log sheet.
Ahh, kids are so much fun. They teach us so much and help us keep everything in perspective.
11-29-2010: Cycle 9, Week 3, Deadlift
I tried doing these with less of the obvious shrug at the end and I think I succeeded there, but seem to have put more lower back in it because the next day I discovered I couldn’t bend at the waist without my lower left back muscles screaming at me. I seem to be somewhat better today, but clearly changing your form during the heaviest week of the cycle might not be the best idea.
Warmup: 60 x 5, 75 x 5, 90 x 3
Work: 115 x 5, 130 x 3, 145 x 1+ (made 4)
BBB Assistance: 70 x 10 x 5 (can probably go up on this next cycle)
The lifts felt good, although I wish I hadn’t tweaked my back. Still, it’s nowhere near as bad as the last time I hurt my back, as I can still walk, so I’m just going to make sure I get my planks in along with the rest of the work.
On an unrelated note, best of luck to all of you about to rock/enter meets.
Sorry to hear about the back “twinge”, I guess it goes with the territory at our age.
Did you actually feel it “go” during the DL or did you wake up with it?
Yes, I suspect it does go with the territory at this point. I didn’t feel anything go during the session (and I have had that in the past, both with my back and a hamstring pull, so I know what it’s like), but woke up with it the next day.
It’s doing better now, so hopefully that means it wasn’t much of a problem. We’ll see how it feels when I bench tonight.
Are you sure it’s an injury? it could just be overload. Soreness in the erectors. If you are in “uncharted territory” and lifting more than you’ve ever lifted before it goes without saying that you would suffer the next day in the same way as you would with your quads the day after a heavy squat session.
If you have sharp pain or spasms then ignore everything I just said as it probably is an injury.
12-1-2010: Cycle 9, Week 3, Bench
First, the good news is that my back seems to have recovered nicely from the DL day. I had back spasms the first day after that (more than simple next-day soreness), but some stretching and resting seems to have addressed it. Given that I seriously pulled my back about 9 months ago I’m a little skittish about problems in this area, but I think I’m OK.
Warmup: 35 x 5, 42.5 x 5, 50 x 3
Work: 60 x 5, 72.5 x 3, 80 x 1+ (made 2) +2.5kg weight PR
BBB Assistance: 47.5 x 10 x 5
Felt this workout more in my shoulders than usual; both triceps and chest didn’t seem to be the weak point as they usually are.
One more heavy lift and then I get to coast into a deload week. That’s clearly the winning part of the 5/3/1 program for those of us on the right side of 45.
12-3-2010: Cycle 9, Week 3, Squats
Good session - set a new weight PR, and got a video that seems to my eye to show that I’m hitting appropriate depth on these. (I realize the angle is not optimal, but that’s the best I can do given the cramped exercise space.)
Warmup: 60 x 5, 75 x 5, 90 x 3
Work: 110 x 5, 125 x 3, 140 x 1+ (made 3)
Assistance: 75 x 20
I had hoped to make 4 on the heavy set, but it just wasn’t going to happen. I’m still very satisfied with this, since this was the first time I’ve actually squatted 300+ pounds.
You are such a deliberate lifter. That’s the best word I can find. Your depth looks good to me. Nice tight back. And congrats getting over 300 lb! Have you ever tried squatting in a belt?
[quote]kpsnap wrote:
You are such a deliberate lifter. That’s the best word I can find. Your depth looks good to me. Nice tight back. And congrats getting over 300 lb! Have you ever tried squatting in a belt?[/quote]
Hmmm. Should I be offended, pleased, or just confused by being called “deliberate???” But seriously, what do you mean by that?
I have not tried a belt, mostly because I see such conflicting opinions about whether they are a good idea, a bad idea, or randomly work for some people and not others. Inertia leaves me lifting without a belt, although I’m always open to suggestions to the contrary.
I think its because there is no unnecessary motion in your lifts. But I want to hear Snapper’s explanation.
[quote]Carl Darby wrote:
I think its because there is no unnecessary motion in your lifts. But I want to hear Snapper’s explanation.[/quote]
^^ Definitely this. Very tight and concise. But I think you could benefit from some explosiveness at times. Not meant as a criticism; just an observation.
[quote]kpsnap wrote:
[quote]Carl Darby wrote:
I think its because there is no unnecessary motion in your lifts. But I want to hear Snapper’s explanation.[/quote]
^^ Definitely this. Very tight and concise. But I think you could benefit from some explosiveness at times. Not meant as a criticism; just an observation.[/quote]
Thanks for the observation. That is one of the primary benefits I get from posting these videos, since working out on my own deprives me of a chance to have a training partner say “WTF, dude?” when I do something unusual.
On the heavy lifts, that’s about as explosive as I get. One of the things I’m working on is not stopping for a cup of coffee at the bottom but rather turning around immediately. I find that as long as I remind myself to do that just before I start the descent I’m much better off.
Now that I’ve reached deload week, I batched up two lifts in one evening since I got a few days behind on account of family obligations:
12-7-2010: Cycle 9, Week 4, Military and Deadlift
Military: 20 x 5 x 2 sets, 25 x 5 x 2, 30 x 3 x 2
Deadlift: 60 x 5 x 2, 75 x 5 x 2, 90 x 3 x 2
Since it’s wicked cold here lately (at least for North Carolina) I did the deadlifts in the heated attic rather than the garage. Since I was doing these after my daughter had gone to sleep I found myself trying to put the weights down quietly at the end of each rep, which did absolutely nothing for my explosiveness 
[quote]kpsnap wrote:
[quote]Carl Darby wrote:
I think its because there is no unnecessary motion in your lifts. But I want to hear Snapper’s explanation.[/quote]
^^ Definitely this. Very tight and concise. But I think you could benefit from some explosiveness at times. Not meant as a criticism; just an observation.[/quote]
(I predict this will be a double post, but it appears as though the Forum Gods ate my previous attempt)
This sort of advice is the main reason I post these videos here. Not having a live training partner makes it harder to know when you’re doing something wrong, oddly, etc.
For the heavy weights this is about the limit of my explosiveness. I’m working on making sure I get back up as soon as I hit the bottom with my squat, as I have a bad habit of coming to a dead stop, looking at the scenery for a while, and then trying to get back up, with the predictable lack of success.
Deload week, and because of family obligations earlier in the week I had to bunch up two lifts yesterday.
12-7-2010: Cycle 9, Week 4, Military and Deadlift
Military: 20 x 5 x 2 sets, 25x5x2, 30x3x2
Deadlift: 60x5x2, 75x5x2, 90x3x2
I’m pleased to report that when I started this about a year ago I couldn’t even deadlift 200lbs, and now I am warming up with roughly that amount.
[quote]ag918w35 wrote:
I’m pleased to report that when I started this about a year ago I couldn’t even deadlift 200lbs, and now I am warming up with roughly that amount.
[/quote]
That’s some awesome progress. Well done.
And I would definitely take being described as “deliberate” as a compliment.
12-12-2010: Cycle 10, Week 1, Military press
This turned out to be a pretty good session; perhaps increasing the weights on the assistance work here will eventually lead to increases in the max weights. Plus, I have visible deltoid muscles now, which I never did before (although I may be the only one noticing the change).
Warmup: 20 x 5, 25 x 5, 30 x 3
Work: 32.5 x 5, 37.5 x 5, 42.5 x 5+ (made 7)
BBB: 27.5 x 10 x 5
The assistance work is up 1.25kg from last cycle, and while it was tough I made all of them, so I’m looking forward to some improvements from this cycle.