Yesterday
Bench - Worked up to 255 for 3 sets of 2
Overhead - not used to doing this second, took some getting used to - 135x6, 6, 8
DB Row - 105 x 10, 10, 10
Lat Pulldown - 3 x 10
Tricep Pushdown - 3 x 12
Face Pull - 3 x 15-20
4/2/13. Squat
Hands down my best squat session since the back injury. Flared my feet a bit and I felt much more stable and balanced in the hole. I hit my goal for the day with a rep in the tank to spare.
I mentioned a while back I’m dieting with the lady right now. I have lost about 15lbs from my heaviest, while getting stronger (hit all time OHP PR, could probably hit one on bench as well, squat/DL going up but still not quite at pre-injury levels). My back is fine and all is going well.
I’m not sure where I’ll stop the diet weight-wise… it’s more about getting to the look I want, whether that means 5 more lbs or 25, is irrelevant. My eventual goal is to be a lean 235ish and to get as strong as possible at that size. I’ve come a long way but still have far to go in all three areas (leanness, strength, size). I’ll never BB or care about symmetry though, so don’t worry about that.
For reference, a few years ago I was a similar leanness and weighed 180-190. Slow progress is still progress when done over long enough periods of time.
Anyway, training.
Workout
A) Squat
135 x 5
175 x 5
215 x 5
240 x 5
265 x 5
285 x 7 woop woop
B) RDL
205 x 8
255 x 8
275 x 8
285 x 10
C) Leg Press
4.5pps x 15 x 3sets
D) Ab Rope Crunch Pulldown
stack x 20 x 2
Training stuff.
I haven’t stopped training, just slowly losing the will to update. I do like having an online record of what I’ve done (so when I spill my workout drink all over my logbook, I can make a new one using the site). I’m just tired of all the typing.
Thursday
Shitty OHP day
A) Strict OHP
bar
85 x 6
120 x 5
145 x 5
165 x 4
175 x 3
185 x 1
185 x 2
190 x 1
165 x 4
B) CGBP
165 x 8
185 x 8
205 x 7
225 x 5
245 x 3
C) Smith Machine Rows
135 x 8
185 x 10, 10, 8
D) Something
Deads Friday
Awesome dead sesh. I watched this video (no sound) of a bunch of great deadlifters, then compared to my own videos from my last meet, to see what I’m doing wrong.
The most striking thing to me was that all of the deadlifters in the top video maintained the same torso angle (relative to the ground) from when the bar broke the ground up until it was at or near the knees. In my video, my torso is completely parallel to the ground at one point just after liftoff. I think this was contributing both to my back pain, and to my lack of deadlift strength progress in general.
I put an emphasis on keeping my chest up throughout the whole range of movement and found an immediate improvement in strength.
Deadlift sesh
(warmup 2 sets of hang cleans at 135)
A) Deadlift
155 x 8
225 x 5
275 x 5
315 x 5
345 x 3
380 x 2 x 3sets fast and strong
B) SSB Squat
135 x 8
175 x 8
205 x 5
225 x 5
245 x 5 weight PR
C) Shrugs
3 x 15-20
D1) Reverse Hypers
bw x 10 x 3
D2) Ab Wheel
bw x 7 x 3
Bench Monday
Bench felt pretty good. Switching main assistance from flat DB bench to higher rep OHP to try to spark some gains on my suddenly stagnant press.
A) Bench
bar x 2 sets
95 x 8
135 x 5
175 x 5
215 x 4
240 x 4 x 4
B) Strict OHP
85 x 8
115 x 8
135 x 8
135 x 8
135 x 6
C) DB Row
110 x 9, 9, 7
D) NG Pulldowns
3 sets
E1) Tricep Pushdowns
3 x 15
E2) Face Pulls
higher weight, 3 x 12-15… actually felt a good burn in the rear delts here.
–in other words, I was basically stiff-legged deadlifting the bar up to my knees, and then locking out from there. oops
Bro did you get my PM?
Edit
Also, is vid supposed to be private? can’t see shit son
[quote]ItOwesMeALiving wrote:
Bro did you get my PM?
Edit
Also, is vid supposed to be private? can’t see shit son[/quote]
I didn’t receive any PMs, sorry.
You can see what I’m talking about in the full vid which is public - deads start at 2:05, in particular the last two attempts (one of which I failed) you can see what I was talking about with my torso angle
4/11/13. Squat.
Squat is feeling great lately… it’s about time. It was lagging behind my other lifts in terms of recovering from injury. It’s all about the stance for me. I’m not very flexible so if my stance is off a tiny bit, I can’t hit depth with any tightness in my legs/back. Shoulder width, toes slightly out.
Also I need to get some more recent vids in here soon.
Workout
A) Squat
135 x 5
175 x 5
205 x 3
240 x 3
275 x 3
300(3+ ) x 5
B) RDL
185 x 8
255 x 10
275 x 10
295 x 10
C) Leg Press
4pps x 18 x 3
D) Rope Ab Crunch
stack x 8 x 3
Then I feasted on some home made pork chops marinated in my secret blend - Franks Red Hot, Franks Buffalo Sauce, Sriracha, and salt. Holy fucking balls this tastes good, especially with my world famous garlic rice.
Your back is rounded at the bottom of the pull, before any weight is put on your body. This is causing the stiff legging problem. You’re basically pulling the bar around your body instead of into it because you can’t get into proper position.
“The hips rise first in the deadlift because the hamstrings fail to anchor the back angle. This is discussed in BBT with illustrations that I cannot reproduce here, so refresh your memory there. We have had very good luck with more experienced lifters by just telling explaining the biomechanics of the error, and then yelling at them to keep the hamstrings tight before the bar leaves the ground. This usually works better than cueing the chest-up.” - Rippetoe
Edit
Mother fucker. I just typed 5 times as much as this and it didn’t post for some reason.
I PMed you about this thread you made a while back.
http://tnation.T-Nation.com/hub/scj119#myForums/thread/4484283/0
My labs are very similar. I was wondering if your ever found out what was wrong.
FUCK. Rest of my post never posted.
Cliff notes
- We have similar mechanics. Very long pull
- I had a hard time with deadlift. Lots of injuries.
- Work very hard on flexibility. Lots of static hamstring stretching. Foam rolling Make it uncomfortable
- Stick chest up and “flex” hamstrings before pulling
- Try starting a little but further from the bar. 1/2, 1, 2, 3 inches away.
– This will increase the length of the pull but give you a better starting position and more quad involvement - Play with stance. Narrower seems to work better for me.
My .2 cents
Thanks. I actually felt a lot better keeping my chest up last workout, so I think I have it solved. The issue was that I couldn’t figure out what my problem was… now that I know, I should be ok. Starting with my hips a bit lower also helps with keeping a more neutral spine.
No, I never figured that ish out - I feel a little better these days, but I’m still pretty and tend to have a little crash around 4-5pm every day. My doctor was out of network and I just couldn’t afford to keep going. I do want to start seeing a new primary care doc that’s in network but I’m just discouraged at how much work it takes to find a good one… I just don’t have the time. I had a couple ENT docs look at my thyroid but they didn’t see anything wrong.
pause the video at 2.32 and the bottom position your back is parallel with the floor. Maybe bring your feet just a slight bit closer together as well as starting with your hips lower. I never saw it before but yea the bottom position puts all the weight on that lower back.
4/11/13. OHP.
Rebounded a bit on OHP after some shitty performances recently.
Workout
A) Strict OHP
bar x 2 sets
85 x 5
115 x 5
135 x 5
155 x 4
170 x 4 x 4
145 x 5
B) CGBP
165 x 8
190 x 7, 6, 6
C) Smith Machine Row
135 x 8
185 x 8, 8, 8
D) Cable Row
130 x 8
115 x 10, 10
E1) Tricep Pushdown
2 x 15
E2) Leaning-away DB partial laterals
2 x 6
Wanted one more round of the superset but had to go to meet the lady for sushi.
Also, last week while overhead pressing with my belt on (unclasped though), it fell right off my waist mid rep. I am shrinking in the middle, plus VTBalla said my shoulders looked bigger so in conclusion I feel pretty.
[quote]scottkoscielniak wrote:
pause the video at 2.32 and the bottom position your back is parallel with the floor. Maybe bring your feet just a slight bit closer together as well as starting with your hips lower. I never saw it before but yea the bottom position puts all the weight on that lower back. [/quote]
Yeah that’s what I meant by saying I sorta stiff-leg-deadlift it up to my knees when I get close to failure. Back is completely parallel to floor.
I made a mental note of that last week and I felt a ton stronger keeping my chest/face facing forwards. I’ll try to get a vid today to show how I look now.
[quote]scj119 wrote:
Thanks. I actually felt a lot better keeping my chest up last workout, so I think I have it solved. The issue was that I couldn’t figure out what my problem was… now that I know, I should be ok. Starting with my hips a bit lower also helps with keeping a more neutral spine.
No, I never figured that ish out - I feel a little better these days, but I’m still pretty and tend to have a little crash around 4-5pm every day. My doctor was out of network and I just couldn’t afford to keep going. I do want to start seeing a new primary care doc that’s in network but I’m just discouraged at how much work it takes to find a good one… I just don’t have the time. I had a couple ENT docs look at my thyroid but they didn’t see anything wrong.[/quote]
Don’t drop your hips because they’ll end up coming back up before the bar leaves the ground. Unless that start position feels good for what ever reason. Standing further away will create a lower hip position without having to drop them.
Well fuck man that sucks. Your thyroid seemed strange because of the elevated TSH and kinda normal everything else. Mines the same way but I can’t find any explanations. And I’m out of money. No insurance.
If I figure anything out I will let you know. Our labs were crazy similar.
[quote]ItOwesMeALiving wrote:
[quote]scj119 wrote:
Thanks. I actually felt a lot better keeping my chest up last workout, so I think I have it solved. The issue was that I couldn’t figure out what my problem was… now that I know, I should be ok. Starting with my hips a bit lower also helps with keeping a more neutral spine.
No, I never figured that ish out - I feel a little better these days, but I’m still pretty and tend to have a little crash around 4-5pm every day. My doctor was out of network and I just couldn’t afford to keep going. I do want to start seeing a new primary care doc that’s in network but I’m just discouraged at how much work it takes to find a good one… I just don’t have the time. I had a couple ENT docs look at my thyroid but they didn’t see anything wrong.[/quote]
Don’t drop your hips because they’ll end up coming back up before the bar leaves the ground. Unless that start position feels good for what ever reason. Standing further away will create a lower hip position without having to drop them.
Well fuck man that sucks. Your thyroid seemed strange because of the elevated TSH and kinda normal everything else. Mines the same way but I can’t find any explanations. And I’m out of money. No insurance.
If I figure anything out I will let you know. Our labs were crazy similar. [/quote]
I gave up trying to figure out because my labs were so different. First blood draw had highish TSH, 2nd one was actuall pretty normal (1.7 IIRC) and the third one was high again. Two ENTs looked down my throat with a camera and saw no problems with the thyroid, I don’t have hashi’s (which is the standard response to a varying TSH), so I believe that I am in the realm of “suboptimal thyroid function but not bad enough that doctors will prescribe me anything”.
I took a vid of DLing on friday that I’ll upload at some point this week. I agree that hips down can be a bad cue, but mine were starting so high that I need to get them a bit lower to keep my chest from caving towards the floor.
Still training, just haven’t had the time/motivation to update lately.
4/12/13.
Worked up to 355x4x4 on DL. Recorded 4th set. Hit 205 for 3 sets of AMAP on SSB Squats. Prowler’d.
4/16/13.
Took last Monday off due to feeling like shit plus being sad about Boston shootings. For some reason that really got to me that day. So Tuesday I combined my main progression sets of Bench and Squat with no assistance. Hit 315x3 on squat, and 5 sets of 3 at 245 on bench.
4/18/13.
175 x 3 x 5 sets on OHP, forget what I did on close grip bench but it’s in my log book.
4/19/13.
365 x 3 x 5 on DL, hit 225x8 and 245x6 (PR) on SSB squats. It was raining so no prowler.
Went to see my mom for her 60th bday. She’s going real strong, actually started eating paleo and has lost a bunch of weight without trying.
4/22/13. Bench.
A) Bench
Worked up to 255x3 x 4sets
B) Standing OHP
95 x 8
135 x 8 x 3 sets
C) DB Row
100 x 10, 110 x 8, 8
D) Lat Pulldown
3 x 10
E1) Tricep Pushdown
3 x 15
E2) Face Pull
3 x 20
4/24/13. Squat.
Squat felt really strong. I was dealing with a very lopsided bar and crappy shoes, so the movement was slightly awkward, but the weight felt light. I stopped with a rep or two in the tank as well.
Workout
A) Squat
145 x 5
175 x 5
205 x 3
235 x 5
265 x 5
290(5+ ) x 6
B) RDL
205 x 8
255 x 8
280 x 8
300 x 10 PR
C) Leg Press
5pps x 12 x 3
D) Rope Ab Crunch
stack x 20, 10, 10
I am still training, just haven’t had the motivation to post. Training has been going fucking awesome. Highlights from the past week include DLs 385x2x3 (with much faster bar speed than 375 the week prior), OHP 185x3x2, then 175x2 and 165x4… bench 245x4x4, really engaged my lats for the first time and the bar flew up… squat 320x3, which is close to pre-injury strength level.
Switched sumo deads for leg press after squats/RDL on squat day, they work quads and don’t aggravate my knees/back like leg press does.
Doing overhead for reps on my bench day seems to be helping my strength on overhead day when I go higher weight / lower reps.
Close grip bench (main assistance on overhead day) is really weird and I can’t get consistent form/performance from week to week
Safety Bar Squats were going very well, but haven’t been able to do them in a couple weeks because my schedule has been hectic as hell and prevents me from going to the gym with the safety bar.
Bodyweight is down a couple more pounds and strength is still going up. Also I got too lean for my old belt and bought a smaller sized inzer. Apparently the belt I was using all this time was 10mm… I ordered a 13mm Inzer and it is so much thicker that it feels virtually indestructible.