You live and learn, I guess. Glad you’re OK, and able to complete your workout. And veal mmmm.
glad you dodged the bullet. i find it hard to accept offers of help in the weights room, too. especially from people i don’t know really well. i’m competent, dammit. mostly. lol.
do the risers come with some kind of reebok stepper contraption?? i’ve been known to hog 4 stacks of risers (two for each stepper) and use the actual steppers set to height with risers to rest each end of the bar on. sometimes the bar will roll around - but it is less likely to roll right off because the steppers are pretty long. not sure if this makes sense…
jealous of your lumbar arch…
Looking good! Love the vid. Also glad that you didn’t hurt yourself. I see tons of “stupidity” injuries/near misses in my work. It is amazing what some people will do (or attempt to do.) At least yours involved lifting and you learned from it.
Nikki, I agree that sometimes we are too strong willed. Trying to outsmart my stubborness is a real problem for me sometimes.
Nadia, for rack pulls its either the risers or using alexus’s suggestion of actually setting up 2 steps complete with risers on each end. There is no power rack or anything else that would work. The risers would work fine, except that I must put the weight down pretty carefully in the middle of the riser to avoid the tipping that got me into difficulties.
CBear, I continue to count my blessings on not racking up a third stupidity injury so early into 2011.
Frenchy, thanks for the arm compliment and the solidarity in stupid.
Betty, Joe and Cal – thanks for your support. It means alot.
alexus, I like your step suggestion and will try it next time. Rolling might be a problem but you are right: the steps should be long enough to prevent disaster.
Sunday’s training was the sort of day where a short-term perspective on things would depress me, so I’m taking the longer-term view of it all.
5/3/1 - Wave 1, Week 1 Military Press
45# 2 x 5
51# 1 x 7 <–money set, same as last month
The only saving grace of this non-progress is that I have no way of knowing whether the oly bar I used early last month was the light one or the regular one. At least now I know that I can get 7 reps with the real oly bar plus the tiny little weights.
Squat Rehab
to 3 risers/step
Bar 1 x 5
75# 1 x 5 <–good knees
85# 1 x 5 <–good knees
90# 1 x 4 <–first two reps OK, then the knee wiggle starts
1 x 3 <–knee wiggle/cave last two reps
85# 1 x 4 <–knees wiggly
65# 1 x 5 <–extra wide stance was unstable
1 x 5 <–narrow stance better, but too tired to continue
So here is what I’m fighting, with a squat weight that I can bench press:
The only good thing I can say about this, is that the last time I tried squat rehab I did this badly at 85 lbs and 4 risers. I will wait for my knee to feel 100% better and then perhaps rethink my approach to squatting. I’ve made no real progress on my knee cave issues in at least four months, and that’s a bit depressing. On the other hand, I’m currently most focused on my deadlifting, so perhaps I’ll let that be for awhile. We’ll see.
Pull-throughs
42.5 1 x 10
47.5# 1 x 10
52.5 1 x 10
57.5# 1 x 10
supersetted with
Neutral grip pullups
4/3/3/3
Triceps V-bar pushdowns
70# 3 x 10
Phew! Glad you didn’t hurt yourself too much with that minor DL foible…pride notwithstanding. lol!
Hmm…I don’t know what to tell you re: the MP. I don’t do them but they look mighty hard. What do you think is the reason you’ve plateaud? Is there any assistance work that can be done to soup these MPs up?
[quote]kimbakimba wrote:
So here is what I’m fighting, with a squat weight that I can bench press:
[/quote]
LOL! I quite like winter-time Kimba - such a salty little thing you are! And if what you say is truly the case, you can always finish your last wobbly squat and yell “fuck you knee cave!” before you toss the bar overhead into the rack…just a thought.
Oh, and if its any consolation, that vid was simply perfect…sigh.
Nice pullups!
The squats looked fine to me. The buns looked super-fine!
At least it’s a weight you can bench…I’m struggling with a weight I can military press (sigh).
Not sure how you’re running the 5/3/1? My suggestion to you would be to do the BBB accessory work of 5/3/1/. I can tell you that I’ve had real good progress doing it this way, on all 4 major lifts. It’s boring as shit, but you’re in & out in no time. Goes hand in hand w/my sex life.
I have the link if you need it? It’s a complete break your numbers down & tell you exactly what to lift. It’s lifting made simple.
As for your sq? Can’t help ya. I squat like I’m getting prison raped, it ain’t pretty. But your ass is looking nice & ripe.
Print: you’re funny.
Kimba: You’re hard on yourself. I get that. Whatever you need to do to enjoy and look forward to your training is what you need to do. BTW I see progress.
LOL Print - I think we need a video of that.
Maschy, I love you! Reading your posts just makes me smile and smile. My MPs have definitely plateaued, and have been flat for a long while. I think I should be doing more DB pressing work – volume, BBB that sort of thing. Funny, but I can more readily accept this as a weak lift for me than I can accept stalling out on squats.
Cal, I do feel your pain on squats. Indeed I do. Thanks for the kind words.
print, you have succeeded in making me laugh on a day where I really needed a laugh. Thank you! I really am very curious about you, and wish you’d post a prison-rape-squat video. To answer your question, I haven’t been running the BBB assistance work. For squats, I haven’t been running 5/3/1 at all in favor of a constant push against the ceiling of my knee cave problem, which kicks in around 95 lbs. I haven’t been running 5/3/1 for deads either, in favor of the rack pulls to correct my form. Perhaps I really should run BBB for bench and MP at least. I find that I get fatigued really easily, but that just means my BBB weights have to get really low for me to complete the sets.
Nadia, bless you for seeing progress. Sometimes I need a microscope to see any of that. Despite my occasionally voiced frustration with the slow rate of my progress, progress isn’t actually the only reason that I lift. I lift to keep my body looking good and feeling well. I lift as an outlet for my nervous energy. I fully understand that at my weight and with my body type, getting stronger is a difficult road. And I’m fully OK with that. I just like to bitch sometimes.
175# 1 x 1 <–all hell broke loose here.
On my way up, I destabilized the right side risers which went crashing down. Then I put down the weight on the left risers and the barbell slid off – thankfully to the front and not on my foot. Then I re-established the risers as a boy ran over to help me. He asked me if I need help with the barbell and stupidly I told him no.
Apparently, I wasn’t thinking straight because getting 175 lbs off the floor is actually a big challenge for me. Why I thought I could just heave it back up onto the risers is BEYOND ME. But I grabbed the bar conventional (I don’t lift conv.) and managed to drag it up high enough almost to the riser when the boy thankfully grabbed the bar and helped me finish the job.
Seriously, I am very, very lucky I didn’t hurt myself pulling a 175 lb. bar off the floor while off balance and with terrible form. Everything feels pretty OK this AM, so I dodged a stupidity bullet here.
^
Oh wow what a story. I’m glad you didn’t hurt yourself. That’s exactly the three seconds you look back on, wishing you could change it.
[quote]kimbakimba wrote:
So here is what I’m fighting, with a squat weight that I can bench press:
[/quote]
Oh baby I hear you. Just keep working it.
[quote]kimbakimba wrote:
I really am very curious about you, and wish you’d post a prison-rape-squat video. [/quote]
I second this motion!
^HA! You’ve already seen it Shuga.
Unfortunately its been copyrighted. I was Madoffed. I think you can see it on late night tv, stuffed between the Suzanne Somers thigh-master & Smiling Bob Enzyte infomercials. Much like my sex life, it’s a 30sec spot. So keep your eyes peeled.
As for being curious? I ain’t nothin’ but a DirtFloorCracka. Working hard for that American dollar bill so I can get my Fri. night thrill.
EDIT- Glad I could a smile on that Picasso face.
I tried to come up with some smart advice or sassy comment on that squat but my brain just went tilt
I’ll just sit here and drool for a while.
hmmm…
are you trying to come up with your chest or your hips…they say lead with your chest and some say hip drive is where it’s at.
Have you played with either?
Spider-lady, you are right that I wanted those three seconds back! Luckily the fallout from my bad judgment was minimal.
print that video was highly entertaining. More than you know. Weaseling out , I see.
Frenchy, this is high praise coming from a connoisseur such as yourself.
Betty, I am trying to keep my chest high, elbows down.
Today’s training was an easy volume day.
Squats (free)
Bar 1 x 5
75# 2 x 10
65# 1 x 10
55# 1 x 15
all knees, all good. Thankfully.
Incline DB Press
20s 1 x 25
Kroc rows
22.5# 1 x 30 or so
Dips
BW 1 x 23
ab stuff.
Weighed in low this AM so I’m off to eat as big a lunch as I can stuff down.
Outstanding news about the knees staying out.
Holy crap, 23 BW dips?
I don’t know what the heck is up with your metabolism but I shall rip it out of you and implant it in me… that came out a lot scarier than I imagined.
Glad I could be a source of entertainment…
I’m w/Nik on those dips! That’s a hell’uva number. I don’t need to tell you whose that is, do I? I’m guessing not.
Back to the BBB of the 5/3/1. I think you should give it a go on your press & bench. You may not think that it is doing all that much, but I’ve found it really has worked for me. Even if it’s just the bar. I have complete confidence in you that you WILL bust the plateau.