Looking strong SteelyD. Do you shave the entire beard off or leave a goatee? Bald guys with goatees are cool. I know.
[quote]ecogenx wrote:
Looking strong SteelyD. Do you shave the entire beard off or leave a goatee? Bald guys with goatees are cool. I know.[/quote]
HA!! Just left the chin hair and semi-mohawk “high and tight”.
Back:
Cable Low Rows (close grip, neutral, low): 6 x 15-7
Cable Low Rows 2 (wide grip, overhand, low, hold): 3 x 10, 8, 5
Cable Lat Pulldown (underhand, little closer than shoulder width): 5 x 10-8
Chest support Row (neutral grip): 3 x 10
Jump/Hang x 8
Trap Bar Deads*: 135x8, 225x8, 315x5, 405x3, x2, 315x6
*I don’t know how much the bar weighs, so assumming 45.
Trap Bar deads felt good. Haven’t DL’d in ages because of back discomfort. The TB start isn’t much lower than my below-knee rack pull height. Will add these back in rotation. I really need to get that top set back to something acceptable…
Did something that approximates ‘speed bench’ tonight. Altered grip width between my ‘normal’ width, kind-of-close, and wide. Worked on exploding off chest.
Bench: w/u, 225x5, x5, x5, x3, x3, x3.
Incl. Bench (full ROM): 135x20, 225x12, 275x6, x5
Cable x-over (low-to-high): 5 x 15-10
Pec Dec: 3x10
DB Bench (lol fatigue): 100x8, 110x4
Normal food today except for about 6 nasty-ass Olive Garden breadsticks. God they are so fucking nasty, but seemed ‘right’ PWO as I walked in the door. First ‘wheat product’ I’ve had in some weeks.
Rack Pulls (below knee): w/u + 5 sets of triples, top 455 x 3 (hip tweaky)
Trap Bar Shrugs: 5 sets x 15-8
Hamstring Curls: 4 sets x 12-10
45d Incline Calves: 4 sets x 15-10
Incline leg-lifts + dragons: 5 sets
Pullups between many sets.
I fucking hate my hips/back with pulling. It’s a necessary evil. Haven’t done RP’s in awhile and I’m just happy my grip held up. I think I had either a couple more reps or a few more pounds, but hip tweaked right before the last triple.
I did my normal hang-stretches and foam, plus Advil. Here I am a few hours later all stiffed up…
Good lifting man, we have fairly similar strength levels!
[quote]Blackaggar wrote:
Good lifting man, we have fairly similar strength levels![/quote]
COOL!
Now we’ll have to coordinate outfits.
Bitchez love coordinated outfits.
Ok, I just got caught up. You’re my new go to example of eat lots, lift lots, grow lots, even after the advanced age of 35.
[quote]hel320 wrote:
Ok, I just got caught up. You’re my new go to example of eat lots, lift lots, grow lots, even after the advanced age of 35. [/quote]
HAAAA!! Thanks man!
And you continue to be my go to example for just being f’ing AWESOME all around!!!
I’m still always trying to catch up to you! 
Benchy-poo
135x10
225x10
245x5
295x5
335x6* (This might be a rep PR, have to look back a few months)
225x12
Incl DB:
110x10
120x8
120x6
65x15
Dips: 3 sets BW x reps
1-arm rev. grip triceps cable: 3 sets x 12-10
Standing cable curl: 2 sets x 20, 15
NEED FOOD.
Steely you looking pretty big nowadays man how much you weighin?
[quote]FISCHER613 wrote:
Steely you looking pretty big nowadays man how much you weighin? [/quote]
I think a fat 260.
You hold it well with that shoulder to hip ratio by your avatar picture.
Whats wrong with your hip/lower back?
[quote]FISCHER613 wrote:
You hold it well with that shoulder to hip ratio by your avatar picture.
Whats wrong with your hip/lower back?[/quote]
HA! Thanks. Thank God for wide shoulders or I’d look like a Weeble-Wobble. I certainly hit the shoulders hard to enhance the taper so I don’t look like a cube.
I carry a lot of the bad visceral fat, I know it. My abs are certainly smoothed over, but not blubbery. I have distention in my gut which I’m trying to rectify, so from the front I guess not bad, but I’m definitely thick in the middle.
Plus I got a big fat squatter’s ass
I’ve had SI issues for ever. They get locked up. Mostly the right side, a little in the left side. Chiro every 3 weeks helps that.
Aside from disc degeneration in several discs (mostly Lumbar), I had a nasty blow out about 5 years ago, maybe 4. Spondylolisthesis (sp?) in S1-L5. I was down for months with that. Couldn’t walk for weeks. Basically started over-- I think I logged this in my first log here in O35 or maybe in another thread. I went from couldn’t walk, to BW exercises, to pink dumbbells, to squatting back in the 5’s. My deads suck.
I deal with it daily. Deadlifts kill me. I’m careful how often I load my back. Squats don’t bother me much-- just the angle with DL’s, Rack work and BB Rows.
I sit all day which doesn’t help my hips, so I try to move a lot. I have a stand up workstation desk but I haven’t set it up yet.
I hadn’t realized, but I’m coming up on 4 years of gaining weight (May 08)
Here’s a post of mine from the “Lumbar Stability Thread”. Not too much has changed since 08:
You and your doc, PT, etc. must evaluate what load you can place on your body.
I went 3 months before I squatted a 10# dumbbell. I started with BW squats (sloow), BW lunges, BW stepups, BW 1-leg deadlifts, suitcase DB deadlifts (1 and 2 arm), lots of walking, and lots of mobility drills. Then, I progressed to holding a stability ball in front of me and/or over my head and squatting. Then medicine ball. etc.
I can only speak to my personal experience and my condition, but given the angle of the injury (ie posterior compression > anterior compression), the leverage of front and side loaded (ie with dumbbells) loaded squats were more comfortable than backloaded squats. At about 10 months post-recovery, my front squat was greater than my back squat-- perhaps that was more ‘mental’ than ‘phyiscal’, but I’m better for it with a stronger core.
I was very clear with my chiro what my goals were for recovery, and that “You’ll never squat again” was not an option. I’ve posted this several times here: Don’t be afraid to ‘interview’ your doctors to find one that understands your healing goals. I talked to several until I found my current one. She was a collegiate and current athelete, and holds a CSCS. She’s not thrilled that I want to go as heavy as I do, but she understands and supports the goal.
Some days I wake up and frankly my back feels like shit all day some days not. I’ve re-trained myself to do things differently: I squat down to tie my shoes and pick things up (like kids do naturally). I lower DBs to the floor like a suitcase DL and pick them up the same. Etc. Sounds like overkill, but my squats have never been deeper and my form never so good.
Sorry for the long post, but it’s hard to explain without giving some context because all of our conditions are unique, so there really is no one answer-- you MUST listen to your body.
Here’s another example: I started a thread in the “Strength Sports” section asking about how to progress from DB rows because I maxed out the weight at my gym. A lot of the answers were “BO BB Rows”, which I already do, but probably not as heavy as I could. It just happens that at that angle, I really feel the shear in my back, especially keeping good form.
It’s hard to convey the whole history why there’s such a disparity between the two rows, but I’ve accepted for myself that that exercise will increase slower than others-- because my body dictates it.
You will heal. But don’t rush it-- the patience will pay off. It’s been over a year, and still continuing for me-- your situation may be different.
Squats
135x10
225x12
315x8
405x5, x5
Front Squats
135x10
225x7
315x5, x5
Leg Press
3 sets x 10
Leg Ext
5 sets x 12-8
Seated Calves
4 sets x 12-10
Bad-ass squatting SD. That’s also a great post on recovery goals. Thanks for the insight.
I was just informed I have the Spondylolisthesis.
…Dirty, dirty word that is.
I’ve been feeling bummed about it and worried about my future back health, and really appreciate you posting about it. Somehow it makes me feel better to know it doesn’t need to put an end to the pursuit of being beastly strong.
[quote]cholulalula wrote:
I was just informed I have the Spondylolisthesis.
…Dirty, dirty word that is.
I’ve been feeling bummed about it and worried about my future back health, and really appreciate you posting about it. Somehow it makes me feel better to know it doesn’t need to put an end to the pursuit of being beastly strong. [/quote]
Did you just have some xrays done? MD? Chiro? DO?
How does your back feel? Did you just injure it or has it been chronic?