So continuing in the same vein as I was talking about above, a bare minimum deadlift day today, plus some more athletic type activity. TM seems to be a good way to approach this with the deads, but skipping the backoff sets. 190 seems to be a good place to set the topset for now.
Beyond that, I finally pulled the trigger and sorta got over my strange phobia for vertical jumping (I actually know where this phobia comes from, but that is another story). Luckily the crossfit area was almost empty on a Friday afternoon, so there were only two people who where there to look foolish in front of. The boxes are a bit annoyingly sized. 20 inches, 24 or 30 depending on how you place them. The problem with that beingā¦what if you want to try a bit more than 30? I have seen a couple people put plates on top of the boxes for just that purpose, but my phobia wonāt let me do that sort of thing. I mean, what if I make it like 34 inches by putting a plate on top, and then I fail the jump and actually die? Of either shame or head trauma? Quite an issue, as you can see. Anyway, I played around with it and warmed myself up pretty good. Literally the first time I ever did box jumps as an actual component of a workout.
Barbell Deadlift
90 kg x 5 reps
105 kg x 5 reps
125 kg x 5 reps
140 kg x 3 reps
155 kg x 3 reps
170 kg x 1 reps
190 kg x 1 reps
Box Jumps
5 jumps | 24 in
5 jumps | 24 in
5 jumps | 30 in
5 jumps | 30 in
5 jumps | 30 in
10 jumps | 30 in
5 jumps | 30 in (these were jumping OVER the box)
10 jumps | 30 in
2 jumps | 40 in (PR)
As it turns out, I jump okay for a short, old, fat, out of shape bald person. I was about to leave, and the two people who were there left as well, so I figured I could put two boxes on top of each other in the 20 inch configuration to make it forty inches. I just shut my brain off and did it. I did not die, so I jumped back up immediately again and made it a double. I wonder what I could manage if I actually trained this regularly.
@dagill2 - I know you have been looking at that Wendler athleticism scale, so just wanted to sayā¦eat your heart out, sucka.
Itās not as easy to track progress or cool looking but you could use a short box (20-30 inches) and just work on landing in a more extended position. Itās safer than doubling boxes or landing in a very tucked position and youāre still technically jumping the same height.
But sounds like youāre getting past that phobia anyways
Heh, it is not the kind of phobia I am likely to ever get over, but I could tell when I stacked them that I was likely able to do the jump. That was enough. Plus they have these strange Soft Boxes which reduced my fear a bit.
As to your point about just jumping higher on a lower boxā¦yeah, that makes sense, but what I do instead is just jump over the box. I think it accomplishes more or less the same thing.
It may not be obvious in a forum where we talk about strength training all the time, but I am way more athletic than I am strong.
Edit: What I mean by that is that I am more naturally inclined towards athleticism. But it is not something I have been utilizing much over the past years.
Donāt be me. Do bare minimum while youāre feeling down but maintain your strength with TM for all your lifts.
Iām beginning to accept that my current state is my own creation. I neglected squats, bench, and OHP (at least for strength purposes) and Iām paying the price. I pushed deadlifts and I can still feel my pulling strength.
I agree. I donāt care about hip flexion. I want max height and a controlled landing. Your jumps over the box look like the best ones to me.
Watch those jumps mate. Lady at work missed and caught her shin. Didnāt think much of it at first but for 2 days it would t stop bleeding. Went to doctor and ended up in hospital and had to have a skin graph to fix it. Not good !!
Boobies. Keeping more or less to my tentative plan here to maintain some strengthā¦still sticking with TM style. Finally bumped everything up a bit, making 132.5 the topset. Feeling kinda weak today, but did a joker as well. Probably shouldnāt have, my butt came up off the bench a bit, which is way too easy to do on the decline.
Didnāt do the backoff sets for the decline, opted for a bit more work than usual on the dips. They were fine, but the damn handles were slippery as hell and that cost me a couple reps here and there as I had to stop and re-adjust. Oh well, still okay.
Decline Barbell Bench Press
65 kg x 5 reps
75 kg x 5 reps
90 kg x 5 reps
100 kg x 3 reps
115 kg x 3 reps
125 kg x 1 reps
132.5 kg x 1 reps
135 kg x 1 reps (joker)
Dips - Chest Version
5 reps
5 reps
5 reps | weighted | 11.3 kg
5 reps | weighted | 20.4 kg
5 reps | weighted | 31.8 kg
10 reps | weighted | 40.8 kg
10 reps | weighted | 20.4 kg
20 reps
I also spent 10 minutes on the treadmill alternating back and forth a bit and trying to slowly turn things up a few notches. Before you know itā¦I will still suck.
They are closing gyms down again here starting Wednesday and at least until Januay 3ā¦likely longer, if we are being honest.
So I guess that answers some questions about my future plans. I will be getting weak. Might as well use it as an opportunity to get into a bit of cardio shape, do some more volume, develop supple, gorgeous pecs and biceps, that sort of thing.
