They may make a showing, depending on what my ROM and strength are like, but otherwise I’m most likely going to go in the opposite direction while I’m lean and just find a way to make light weight feel heavy.
Slow reps maybe?
When I get injured I just take days off until I feel good enough to train again, but band pull-aparts have saved me from dislocating a shoulder with all the pressing I’ve been doing lately.
Ya know, I never have played with rep speed as a variable, minus my recent foray into pause deadlifts. I might bring some pause squats as main work for a bit. Thanks very much for the idea!
I should definitely learn to take some days off to train again, haha.
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Man that sucks. But when it comes to handling injuries, you’re definitely up there. Glad you had the safeties on. That looked really bad
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I have taken too many days off in the past - it’s a slippery slope. No problem! I was assuming you’d considered the idea already, haha.
Tough break dude, get better. Glad to see that you’d rather force that mofo to heal than sit around and wait for it to magically heal itself.
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Damn dude, that was a dynamite bailout. Those safeties were down there haha.
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That sucks dude, I know how you love squatting.
Is flexibility at a point where single leg stuff becomes more feasible?
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TRAP Wow, read through it last two nights. Apparently, Jon is from the same area as me, based on the river.
The timing of reading that is interesting. On Memorial Day I ran Murph and afterward told my wife I hadn’t been this tired since college and I miss the feeling of dying on the baseball field. After reading that book, it’s really reminded me of how hard I used to work and I’m a complete wuss in workouts now. Planning on kicking off workout one tonight, if I have time. I justified ordering a new adjustable bench just to do the workouts. haha.
Might have missed this, but why’s that?
@whang Thanks man. I told the Mrs the other day “I’m so glad I’m good at being injured” as I was coming up with Rube Goldberg methods to squat, haha. It looked worse than it was. I’m just glad I was using the Buffalo Bar. I bent the pins on the power rack some, but the bar is more than fine.
@liftangryordie500 Always appreciate the spitballing. I feel bad, since I’m so bullheaded I tend to turn down a ton of good ideas, but often the process of thinking about something will get me somewhere I wasn’t at on my own. Must be a result of watching too much House MD, haha.
@garagerocker13 Thanks man. Movement is definitely the answer. I took a little longer to learn that lesson than I should have, but having it now is a goldmine. Definitely bounce back faster than I ever have before.
@mr.v3lv3t It was phenomenal, haha. Yeah, the safeties are right at the perfect spot for benching, and VERY rarely I tap them if I take the squats rock bottom. But when failure happens at the midway point, it’s quite a ride.
@dagill2 My heart breaks greatly over these squats, haha. Single leg stuff has always been feasible as far as body goes, but space limitations always made it sucky. I COULD do stuff in the rack, but I much prefer walking lunges. Seems to fit me better. But I’m too stubborn and won’t end up doing it unless I physically can’t bend the other leg. I’m most likely just going to keep the weight light and shoot for a rhabado PR.
@flappinit They’re on the menu for this week, haha. Was hoping for a pull off the floor, but might have to be another partial.
@dchris I went to school at the University of Portland: I’ve most likely been around your neck of the woods. I rejected an opportunity to play on the same rugby team that Jon talked about, primarily because they had gone from a team to a club by the time I got there, and were really just a drinking team with a rugby problem. I’m super excited for you to run the program. It’s absolutely a rebirthing process. Never felt more powerful and terrified at the same time, haha. I’ll make sure to follow along in your log.
Regarding strongman, I’ve just lost the excitement for the sport. It’s getting too weird for me, in the sense it’s not weird enough. Competitions are getting all standardized which means the novelty is gone for me, and I’m tired of just doing the same 5 events over and over again. If I wanted that, I’d stick with powerlifting. Between that and just what a drag it is on the family to take vacation, travel and kill a weekend, I just have a hard time bringing myself to care. I still like being big and strong, I still like how strongman event training does that for me, and if there is a comp super closeby with events I like I’d be up for it, but it’s gonna take a lot for me to set aside training specifically for an event at this point. I’m falling back in love with martial arts, and may just find a way to balance that and lifting for the interim.
PM WORKOUT
Axle bench press 296
3x10
Close grip axle bench press 256
2x10
1x9
Swiss bar incline bench 220
1x10
1x7
1x6
Dips
1x36
3x20
Pull ups between sets of benchin
10x5
1x10
Poundstone Curls
109xAxle
Notes: 3:45 between sets. This workout went well, and very much not how I expected. My hip is still pretty achy, and lying down on a bench was agony at first, but once I got down there I had no pain or issues benching. Getting OFF the bench sucked the first time, and I felt like I was legitimately stuck after my first set, but after that I figured out a system. However, incline bench, which I thought would be without issue, ended up being the toughest to deal with. Apparently, I use my hips to screw myself into the seat to keep from moving, and when that was gone, I had lost some pressing power. Good to know. Been chasing that 296 for 3x10 for a bit now, especially with the bodyweight drop, so that’s a great victory.
On top of all my dumb injuries, the middle finger tip on my left hand is massively swollen because my dog bit it when I went to trim his nails. My dog is a pug, so it’s a small bite, but it made gripping things suck.
Now that ab wheel is on press day, I can do back work on my bench day, which I’ve really missed in my training. Always seemed like a good balance. Glad it worked out this way too, because I’m pretty sure, if I tried to do an ab wheel right at this moment, I would spontaneously combust.
Still doing that trick where I alternate sets of close grip with sets of incline. Started with close grip today.
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TKD lesson 45-ish minutes
Just focused on forms/hyungs today. Warmed up with Chon Ji and then got all the way through Dan Gun. The latter is still pretty sloppy, but we’re getting a lot out of it.
Introduced the TKD high block today. It looks like this
That is, of course, stupidly elaborate, but you get the gist of it.
I brought up the idea of using it against an axe kick, but I’m still leaning against the idea of “block” and more about transition stances, parries, grabs, etc. Realistically, about the only blocking I’m gonna train is shelling up or checking kicks, but otherwise, these TKD/hard style blocks can have some use if the understanding is changed. So even in discussions about the axe kick, I trained my kid to understand that, with that high block, we’re stepping forward with it and using it to jam up our opponent. On an axe kick, you’re stepping into the kick and getting under the leg before it can come down, so now you can throw the competitor down, sweep out the other leg, and, if nothing else, you’ve go them off balance. Otherwise, we’re teaching this like a cram: effective on a taller opponent which, given I’m teaching a kid, is going to be just about everyone. Get under their chin and shove their head up, then follow up with a liver punch. Gets them off balanced. On a more equal sized opponent, you can use it like a crossface in wrestling, just with the outside forearm instead of the inside.
This might all be reaching about the utility of a high block, but I still think it’s about a billion times better than a real high block, haha. And my kid keeps showing me that they “get” infighting. They understand how they’re most likely going to need to stuff and jam their opponent to take away their power. However, we were training in front of the Mrs this time and my kiddo hits me with a “Yeah, if I’m ever in a fight, I’m going to have to get in close so that they can’t use their reach on me”, I see the big eyes from the wife and go with “Right, but, of course, we’re always going to try to avoid fights, and you wanna make space WHEN you can with a push kick or a shove, but if you HAVE to fight, you’re gonna have to take it inside”.
I gotta admit: I was proud.
I actually got my wrestling mats in today. It’s a little smaller than I woulda liked, but will answer the mail for now. WAS going to teach the kiddo how to sprawl out of a takedown attempt, because even though my grappling is poor I still have some takedown defense in me that I used to avoid grappling as much as possible, so maybe I can pass that on. Besides, a good sprawl is never a bad thing to have. However, with the state of my hip right now, that lesson will have to be on another day.
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I approve. Traditional high and low blocks drive me nuts, because a leg is gonna beat your arm. The best way to mitigate that is meeting the kick before or after the peak point of force by, as you said, stuffing it or passing it.
Also this. If you know nothing about grappling, at least learn to sprawl REALLY well. Someone with a good sprawl and the ability to make themselves heavy on top of you is a nightmare.
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Good to get the nod from you there dude. I wanna teach my kid all the traditional forms, but I also don’t wanna be like “just move your arms like this because it’s what some old dudes said to do a few decades ago”. Calling them “blocks” just makes it so stupid, haha.
And absolute concur on the sprawl. I had the Chuck Liddell school of fighting in my very brief stint of MMA. I didn’t like being on the ground, so I got good at staying away from there. Frustrated a lot of good jiu-jitsu dudes by just not being where they wanted me to be, and rewarding them for their effort with a bunch of strikes, haha.
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One of the things I love about the Silat style, cimande, that I learned was that almost all of their blocks are strikes. Up, down, in, out — doesn’t matter the direction, your always striking with your hammerfist, forearm or elbow on the “block”. This also transfers to when your holding a stick, sword or knife: exact same movement applied to a variety of tools; you’re always making your opponent suffer for attacking you.
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I remember seeing Mark Hatmaker talk a bit about that in his book “Savage Strikes”. I know TKD talks about the same idea, but they implementation always needs work. You try to strike a kick with your hand and you just hurt your hand. You check a kick and you hurt the kick, but the TKD ruleset just bans lowkicks to make that discussion moot.
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Damn Pwn that was something different from you, glad to hear the bar survived.
Hope you’ll get a speedy recovery, but it seems you just recover in no time.
531 Training maximally could be another option for squat.
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I like doing what my coach and I call “0 acceleration reps” not necessarily a tempo, just not accelerating through the lift, just a slow constant pace rise. Really blow my legs up for squats with barely any load at all.
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Sorry to hear about the groin. Not easy seeing a machine like you get nicked by the iron snake 
Heal smart brother.
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