the way i see heavy singles, its >80%. doesnt have to be finding a new 1rm every month.
and something jason told me about unracking the bar- if you push up into the bar and bring it into bench position, you’ll lose the tightness in your back that you need to bench properly, and its difficult or impossible to reset your back while you’re holding weight above your face.
rather, pull the bar apart to unrack it. this will be one more cue to keep your back tight, and the bar will float up seemingly on its own. freaked me out a lil the first time i tried it.
i still prefer a handoff whenever possible, though. bc im a lazy powerlifter.
Cal: I tried to do a dragonfly last night. Here’s my attempt. I can do the negative I guess, but I’ve got a death grip on the bench trying to stabilize myself. I can’t get my feet up without piking. I assume you’re not supposed to pike?
Alexus: I don’t think it’s a bad mindset to have. You have to be up to do whatever job you have to when it is time to do it–and that time is not always in your control.
Thanks frenchie. No doubt. 5-3-1 works. I just need to do a better job sticking to the program.
Cbear: I need to go back and see how and if Wendler defines “heavy single.” He probably figures it is obvious. Unracking is proving to be tricky for me as the weight gets heavier. And my rack is not ideal–the pins are pretty widely spaced. But, I’ll try Jason’s cue for sure, I hope it helps. I’d take a hand off, but I don’t do well with my husband standing over me when I’m trying to bench. My concentration sucks.
That’s a great start with your dragon flags - I didn’t doubt you’d have the core strength to do well. Here’s one of the many YouTube videos showing positive and negative phases.
And love that you have your kids doing sleg drags and prowler pushes. You’re creating some good athletes there!
Cal: Thanks for the video. I think dragonflys might go the way of the muscle up for me. As in I tried it, but didn’t like it. It kind of hurt my elbows because I was squeezing that bench so damn tight. The reward isn’t worth the risk.
Thanks kimba. I felt strong even in the miss–so I had to show off the guns.
Mim: We tried to teach the kids to do a bw box squat. That was hilarious. They couldn’t do it at all. We’re lucky with the set up that we have. The course is short, but we can push the prowler in the privacy of our back yard.
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Heavy single defined: Did my HW, went back to 5-3-1 for powerlifting, and learned that by heavy single Wendler generally means “no more than 95% or predicted max” p. 59.
He also says, “You don’t have to do a single every week, and you don’t have to go to heavy. Just push/pull a weight that is fairly heavy and move on. * * * Every once in awhile or when you feel really strong, try for a new max, but here are two big warnings: 1. Don’t short-change your last set every week to work up * * *.”
You’ll have to buy the book if you want to know what the second warning is. Now I know. I know a lot of people do 5-3-1 without reading the book, but I find myself always going back to it and rereading it when I get off track.
Mim: Not it with respect to being the body builder. I can’t hack the dieting. Although I have still stuck with mine…
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5-3-1 Squats
Warm up
102.5x5
115x3
130x10 (ground em out like a meat processing plant. Getting strong isn’t pretty.).
Heavy singles: Showed a little bit of restraint, but not much. Still trying to put that bad DL day out of my mind–I went for 175, which is the most I have ever squatted and a number I have only squatted once before. GOt it! That means my bench and squat numbers have held since the diet, which means it is not very likely that my dl has tanked 20lbs. Feeling better.
175x1
BBB Fuck me. 105x10x5.
Thinking about what it will feel like to do 25 pullups: HLR: 1 set of 30 ; 1 set of 25. It’s going to hurt. These hurt. Endurance work is excellent for teaching you to ignore the first distress signals your body sends out. When you think you’re tired and that you can’t go on or hold on any longer–you can.
To my pullup bar, quoting Muhammad Ali, “I’m going to show you how great I am.”
Some front squats. Still trying to feel them. And my legs.
4 mile run. Tired legs at the start. Stayed patient. Ran with my upper body. Drive the elbow back and sha-bam the knee comes up. Found my feet about a mile in, and shit if I didn’t start to feel good. Pushed the pace. Why the fuck not? And felt better when I finished than when I started.
Dinner. Stretching, foam rolling, and handstands. Real quick. But it adds up.
Gymnastics. I love going there because it reminds me of how much room I have to improve. Tired legs left me working the upper body. Lots of drop kips, most of them just attempts. My first one is good–arms stay straight, and I’m able to drop right into the next one. The rest are misses or bent armed and muscled up. We used to condition with sets of 10 of these. And I used to love them. They rhythm of rocking on the bar… I’m going to get these back. I wish I could practice them at home.
SO many good videos here, I love it! I will live through you for the majority of them as I vowed never to do a HLR as long as I am allowed to make the choices. And the dragonflies? Ugh, all those ever did for me was make me queefe. Ha!
Great work on the squats, and that whole marathon day of workouts in general. Phew. Very impressive.
attorney, huh? i would be thrown in a dark, deep hole in fed prison after throwing shit at people (table, chair, myself) with the stupidity that happens. i hate stupidity. how do you keep sane? lol
