Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Squats: First Time in Wraps

SO I've had a crappy week.

After a disappointing and uncomfortable squat session last monday, April 22nd, I saw a doctor for a referral for an MRI of my hip. I also visited with my physio, whose treatment called for a bunch of needles to be shoved in my glute, upper quadricep and tensor fasciae latae, and jiggled around until I stopped spasming. It was fun. They were the big ones he got in special, typically used on horses.

His assessment was that my injury was to the TFL and not the hip, and he suggested I rest the next few days and squat if things were feeling better the following Monday. Monday came, and this time scheduling (and public transport) hassles kept me out of the gym for yet another day, so my squat session was postponed to Tuesday night. And here it is.


*hip warmup*

Squats w/cambered bar
12 reps @ 30 kgs
8 reps @ 70 kgs
5 reps @ 110 kgs
3 reps @ 150 kgs
1 reps @ 190 kgs
3 reps @ 210 kgs PR

Good mornings
8 reps @ 70 kgs
5 reps @ 100 kgs
3 reps @ 120 kgs
1 reps @ 140 kgs
8 reps @ 160 kgs TPR

SEVERAL things went wrong with my M.E. squat. The single of 190 before it was totally raw, proper depth and felt strong. So I was surprised at how the belt actually seemed more constricting than helpful tonight... though I admit I didn't spend long on getting it positioned correctly.

The big guy who rushed in to assist with my last rep is Shannon. I didn't need Shannon, I was just slow in getting up there. Shannon did my wraps, and while I have absolutely no point of comparison as I've never worn proper wraps before, I can tell you he knows how to apply knee wraps tightly. I can also tell you that Shannon is a girl's name, but you would never, ever say this to his face.

I took too long to get ready once the wraps were finished, and then I rushed my setup. And then I did some shitty squats at a weight that was still a new personal record for me, but not by very much... and, considering I performed 5 reps of 200 kilos with a belt last year (with about the same fucking form), this PR is a stat, not a true accomplishment.

Afterwards, I did bust out a technical PR with the GMs, which were all solid depth. I felt I could have done another two... but didn't want to push it. So all in all a good session.

The fact that I've never used wraps before is, of course, a major reason why things didn't go according to plan tonight in the squats department. But I have a very good feeling about squatting with these Gripped wraps in the future.

I'm looking forward to OHPress tomorrow night.

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Gripped Australia: A New Name in Strength Accessories

AS LOTS of you know, I'm a straight talker. I don't talk shit, and I don't take shit from people who do. I expect the people I work and train with to be the same, when it matters. Gripped fitness accessories Australia have quickly impressed me as a no-bullshit business looking to deliver products and services that put the heavy-lifting customer first.

I have been on the lookout for some proper, heavy duty knee wraps for a while now, and when I saw Gripped had a pair selling for just $50 I jumped on the link and made it right through to getting out my Visa, when the site told me delivery inside Oz was gonna cost me another $25!!

Perturbed, I messaged their Facebook page; I made it clear I wasn't impressed with the price gouging for Australia Post's woefully shitty (and already overpriced) 'express next day delivery' service, and advised that I could get a pair from a bigger name, shipped internationally, for less.

At about half past eight on a Friday night, I got a response in two minutes. The fella who replied seemed just as pissed about it as me! He said the products had only 'gone live' a few hours ago. He said delivery for anything weighing under 3 kilos should be about $10, and the default delivery price on the site was a glitch. He also gave me a code for free shipping on the wraps... and when they arrived the following Friday (because Australia Post's 'express next day delivery' - even from one major capital city to another - is a fucking lie) they came with a free pair of 'Power Grips 2.0' - another product from the Gripped Hard Core range.

So my own experience with this company, which I hadn't heard of two weeks ago, has been exemplary. Gripped provide great customer service; the same representative who got in touch with me so quickly (and gave me free stuff) has also followed up with me to make sure I'm happy with my purchase, and even to ask that I contact him with any suggestions WA Strongman might have for making their products even better! I also know that Gripped are getting right into the promotion of Strongman in the Eastern states and are looking to make the same impact here in the West.

I will have a write-up on this gear in the coming weeks, once I've used them all properly.

Saturday Events Training: Back to the Brink

Sled drag
12 meters @ 300 kgs
12 meters @ 330 kgs
12 meters @ 410 kgs - rope assisted TPR

Keg toss
5 @ 13 kgs

Sack carry
10 meters @ 140 kgs
10 meters @ 140 kgs - faster!
20 meters @ 140 kgs PR
10 meters @ 140 kgs

THAT sack has previously been a real challenge for me just to lap. But today - for a brief period, at least - I felt pretty strong... and then I tanked. My back quit on me when I was attempting a second successive pickup and run back (10 meters each way). It quit, but it doesn't actually feel broken right now. Happy about this, and about the PR.

The sled drag was a bit more challenging as it was partially in the wet (hence the shortened distance), and this exposed the fact that my shoes are not ideal. I'm losing grip and wasting effort. I need some rock climbing shoes.

The keg toss felt much better than last week... after the first one, which my shoulder I guess just wasn't expecting, so it complained a little bit. But after successive tosses and some instruction on gripping and angling the keg, it felt much more comfortable. Not doing my shoulder warmup before keg toss = another stupid mistake.

For a variety of reasons, I'm going with easing off the weight on squats this week. I'm seeing a doctor on friday to get the diagnosis process underway, and in the mean time I don't want to aggravate it. But then, I say this now. If I feel good on the day, I will probably use my new Gripped Hard Core knee wraps and try for a new PR. IF I don't wake up tomorrow and discover my back is proper fried! This past week of serious training has been punishing. And it's only going to get tougher.

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Deadlift Thursday: Only My Ears Hurt

Deadlifts
10 reps @ 60 kgs
8 reps @ 100 kgs
5 reps @ 140 kgs
3 reps @ 180 kgs
11 reps @ 200 kgs PR

Kroc rows
left 10 reps @ 55 kgs
right 10 reps @ 55 kgs
left 8 reps @ 65 kgs
right 5 reps @ 65 kgs TPR
left 7 reps @ 80 kgs
right 10 reps @ 50 kgs

Pinwheelz
12 reps @ 15 kgs
10 reps @ 20 kgs
8 reps @ 17.5 kgs
10 reps @ 15 kgs

ONE REP less, but 20 kilos heavier than last week. Pretty happy with this effort, and very, very glad nothing hurt... apart from my ears. Very strange music selection tonight. I felt like I should be pilling, waving glow sticks about and wearing oversized clothes with most of my underwear showing. Not lifting heavy shit. But anyway, this means I can keep deadlifting, which (pardon the pun) is a major weight off my shoulders. Too few things are going right, right now, but at least I have the deadlift back.

My right arm is just pissweak. Pissweak - like it was when I started curling with it in 2010. Only then I was a little stronger... and quite a bit more flexible. I will have to get a referral for an angiogram on my right hip, at some point in the near future. And I really don't know if I should continue squatting heavy while I'm in this condition.

In fact I've been advised that my problem is developmental. My connective tissue et cetera is weak because I didn't do enough resistance training or similar when I was younger, and this is the truth. The way to remedy this is (FML) 20-30 reps sets of a weight I can do only 20-30 reps of. Monday nights are gonna be anguishing. But hopefully, with this approach, it won't make my hip any worse in the meantime.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Pressed Off Wednesday

shoulder warmup

DB OHP (strict)
left 8 reps @ 20 kgs
right 8 reps @ 20 kgs
left 5 reps @ 35 kgs
right 5 reps @ 25 kgs
left 1 reps @ 45 kgs
right 10 reps @ 15 kgs
left 6 reps @ 50 kgs :( 1 less than best effort
right 15 reps @ 15 kgs

Bench press w/thick swiss (incline)
10 reps @ 35 kgs
5 reps @ 55 kgs
3 reps @ 75 kgs
7 reps @ 85 kgs TPR

OHP w/thick swiss (strict)
5 reps @ 35 kgs
5 reps @ 40 kgs
5 reps @ 45 kgs
5 reps @ 50 kgs

Tri-pushdowns
20 reps @ 90 lbs TPR
11 reps @ 95 lbs
8 reps @ 100 lbs

NOBODY cares about pushdowns.

Tonight was a bit of a disappointment. I guess we all have bad training sessions, for a variety of reasons. This was one of them. I put some green in there just to make the session look more important that it actually was. But this is just me being too hard on myself, really. I forget I'm still injured, and when I'm not actually holding a bar, I keep thinking like a guy who is 100% capable, when I'm really not. I also have to prepare for the possibility of another surgery in the not too distant future, and this time it's 100% my own stupid fault.

In the early days of my post-surgery training I was going too hard too soon, with my arm in a sling, a bunch of pain killers in my system and a cambered bar balanced on my back. The day I decided it would be a good idea to squat 170 kilos for reps in that position I over-compensated on my right side, and something in my hip went funny.

Since then, things have slowly gotten worse. It hurts to extend and rotate my leg from a seated or standing position. I can perform up-and-down movements ok so far (climbing stairs, squatting and deadlifting don't seem to be a big problem) but everyday getting around is a little painful at times. It's possible that my physiological weak spot - and everybody has at least of the fuckers - is my labrum (cartilage); I ripped it in my right shoulder... and now I may have done my right hip, too. But here's hoping it's nothing that serious.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

3 Years in Review & My Gambit for ASM 2014*

March 29th 2010 was the day I performed a proper ‘workout’ for the first time in nearly a decade. I’d quit smoking at the start of that year. I weighed over 150 kilograms / 330 pounds and was an alcoholic. I was on a journey to change my life. And, then just like now, I felt compelled to write about what I was doing. It added significance, and a measure of accountability. My first log was on a body building forum called MuscleandStrength, and can be found here

By the start of 2011 I’d managed to piss off the secretive and childish site owner and was banned, but I was still determined to log my training somewhere, and so started another one on a very similar forum, called MuscleandBrawn. I was still me, so still got into arguments with people, and took particular exception to the promotion of an idiot called Big Mo.
One of the moderators of this forum was actively promoting Big Mo. Despite the fact that he’s a ridiculous synthol freak, his ‘training methods’ are totally phoney and he purveys some of the lowest, shittiest aspects of the ‘aesthetics’ obsessed H&F industry, this mod was making a freaking documentary on the guy, and had a couple of threads open for people to ask Big Mo questions.

So, I asked a few obvious questions and got completely shut down, which irked me no end but for the mere fact that this mod had specifically invited questions, but was now being selective in the content he allowed to be posted. I got the impression that MAB was going way, way downhill by permitting such a biased presentation of a figure who should be rightly criticised and exposed as a fraud. This was of genuine concern to me because, unlike M&S, I really appreciated this site, it's forum of veteran lifters, and the administrator behind it. In fact, some of the training and nutrition advice I received from MAB has been invaluable to me, and I still refer to it today.

But in my typical hot-headed defiance, I responded to this buffoonery by spamming a bunch of Youtube videos from brazil (you know the ones) and so was banned from there, too. My training continued unabated. I set up this blog to keep track of what I was doing and to keep myself honest.
The halfway point in my 3 three year journey – and what you could call a real turning point in my life – came in June of 2011, when I met and began training with Strongman Western Australia. It was just on weekends at first, while I followed my home routine Monday to Friday. I was still pretty goddamn fat and I was still drinking too much and too often. But that changed after a few months, as I became more committed to Strongman, more serious about my nutrition, and began setting myself greater goals than simply losing weight and getting fit. Now I wanted to be properly strong. I had developed a taste for the pain, challenges and rewards of Strongman. I realised that I had gone my whole life without ever testing how strong I could be. I felt compelled to change this.

In early 2012 I entered my first ever Powerlifting meet - a deadlift comp at the newly opened PTC Perth. Later I competed in the two qualifier ‘Strength Quest’ rounds as pre-requisite for entry into the Australian Amateur National Championships. I ranked eleven of nineteen amateur heavyweights in the country, including Dan, Mike the H Bomb (the current champion), and Marc Wells. I entered Am Nats with an injury, which was seriously aggravated on the first day of competition, in the first event; a 405 kilo yoke walk. My placing suffered as a result of not being able to compete in some of the events, but the experience itself made it all worthwhile.

It took a butt load of money and a bunch of time off work to get my injury properly diagnosed, shop around for the right surgeon, and eventually get it sorted. And now, two and a half months later, I feel like I’m finally back on the road to being a competitive strongman. 

My injury had me stalled for a while, and a number of goals have eluded me in that time. For instance, I nearly had an elite level deadlift last year (273 kgs at 125 kilos body weight). Now I’m so sure of that 1RM, I’m looking at 300 before the end of this year. And I reckon I’m going to be in good enough condition to enter the Strongman national qualifier rounds and compete in Australia’s Strongest Man 2014.

Last year I had a mission statement. I wanted to do a bunch of things. Now I have done those things, and I don’t even care anymore what they were. Those goals are gone. I got an invite to ASM last year, and I couldn’t compete. That hurt me, turning down that invite.

Not this fucking year.

*'Australia's Strongest Man 2013' ended up being postponed until March of the following year, so it could be held at the 2014 Melbourne Fitness Expo... which became the Arnolds Australia in 2015.

Monday, April 15, 2013

Squat Monday: Just Average

Squats w/cambered bar
10 reps @ 30 kgs
8 reps @ 70 kgs
5 reps @ 110 kgs
3 reps @ 150 kgs
1 reps @ 170 kgs
5 reps @ 180 kgs

Good mornings
8 reps @ 50 kgs
8 reps @ 90 kgs
5 reps @ 110 kgs
5 reps @ 130 kgs

Hammer curls
15 reps @ 15 kgs
6 reps @ 20 kgs
15 reps @ 15 kgs

NO BELT, no wraps, but I can't call this a legit new squat PR. I wanted more, but eh, next week. I'm feeling the fatigue of a solid week of training. I'm sore and stiff all over. It's fucking glorious. Rest tomorrow night, then a new DB strict OHP Wednesday.

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Events Training Saturday: 3 Courses of WIN

Yoke
25 meters @ 135 kgs
25 meters @ 135 kgs
15 meters @ 215 kgs
15 meters @ 255 kgs
15 meters @ 275 kgs
25 meters @ 215 kgs

Farmers
25 meters @ 60 kgs p/h
25 meters @ 70 kgs p/h
25 meters @ 70 kgs p/h
25 meters @ 80 kgs p/h

Atlas stone 'front squats'
3 singles of 117 kgs
3 reps of 117 kgs
3 reps of 117 kgs
3 reps of 117 kgs

TODAY was my first full events training session in what feels like a year. Nothing was exceptionally heavy because it was intended to be a cube training 'light' session with a focus on technique and speed. I was all gung-ho and went too heavy with the yoke to begin with. I wasn't supposed to go heavier than 50% of my max, which now specifically (and pretty much all the time anyhow) is way less than 275. Right now it would be likely no more than 150, especially if we're talking the full 25 meter distance.

The Farmers walk I also didn't want to go too heavy on, being the first time in a long time. If I'm going to tax my arm doing anything in the near future, it's gonna be deadlifts next thursday.

The Atlas stone front squat explained: 
Pick and lap the stone, adjusting your hold in preparation to then stand. Lift the stone as high as possible. Instead of placing it on the platform, return to the lapped position, adjust your hold and stand again. Repeat till it gets hard.

Balance can be an issue with stones, especially performing reps in this way, so it's good to have the appropriate footwear, which in this case is Olympic lifting shoes. This is because they have a high sole which pivots you ever so slightly forward, allowing you to push forward while driving from the heels.

Consequently, this also means Olympic shoes can offer a challenge to your balance themselves, at least to begin with. This is why I performed the first few as singles, and why the first time I tried to do three in a row I leaned too far forward coming up after the second repetition and had to drop it, reset and go again.

While I'm looking forward to more stones next week, I'm also looking forward to getting some proper leather gauntlets to wear while doing them. The bruises are cool and all, but as the stones get heavier I will need to be able to maximise my purchase without worrying about ripping my skin clean off.

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Deadlift Thursday: Not Heavy Enough!!

Deadlifts
10 reps @ 60 kgs
8 reps @ 100 kgs
5 reps @ 120 kgs
3 reps @ 140 kgs
1 reps @ 160 kgs
12 reps @ 180 kgs* PR

Kroc rows
left 8 reps @ 50 kgs
right 8 reps @ 50 kgs

left 8 reps @ 60 kgs
right 8 reps @ 50 kgs
left 11 reps @ 70 kgs TPR
right 8 reps @ 50 kgs


Lat pulldowns
10 reps @ plate 11
10 reps @ plate 12
10 reps @ plate 13

Tri-pushdowns
15 reps @ 70 lbs
15 reps @ 80 lbs
15 reps @ 90 lbs

THAT'S another all-time personal record broken. I believe my previous max reps at 180 kilos is 8... it may have been 10, even. But this is deffo new ground. I'll be aiming for double figures of 200 next week, as this really didn't feel heavy enough to be a challenge. The reps got to me, though (I gagged a little at the end but didn't spew) and that's something I'll have to watch out for next time... maybe not wear my belt so tight.

*Yeah, I used my belt for the money set. I'm conflicted as to whether this was the best idea, considering I've been working on developing strength in other areas by deliberately not using a belt. But on the other hand, lifting that weight again for the first time in quite a while belt-free may have put me in contention for a lumbar strain.

Either way, this was a good session and I'm already hungry for more. The proper strong number has eluded me long enough. From tonight, the hunt is back on for a 300 kilo 1RM dead.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Press Wednesday: Increasingly Capable

DB OHP (strict)
left 10 reps @ 20 kgs
right 10 reps @ 20 kgs
left 6 reps @ 35 kgs
right 8 reps @ 20 kgs
left 1 reps @ 45 kgs
right 8 reps @ 20 kgs
left 7 reps @ 50 kgs PR
right 8 reps @ 20 kgs

Swiss bar OHP
10 reps @ 15 kgs
10 reps @ 35 kgs
8 reps @ 45 kgs
3 reps @ 55 kgs TPR

Bench press (flat)
10 reps @ 20 kgs
8 reps @ 40 kgs
6 reps @ 50 kgs

Pinwheelz (4thaladeez)
10 reps @ 15 kgs
10 reps @ 15 kgs
10 reps @ 15 kgs

STARTING to involve more two-handed pressing movements, and it's really exposing how weak my right side has become. The bench press still feels like it's causing some strain when moving anything heavier than 40 kilos (not good) but my overhead press with the swiss bar was solid. No twinges or discomfort... just weaksauce numbers.

'Cept for the old left, which didn't disappoint tonight. At first I pulled out the 55 kilo DB with the intention of going for a 4th rep, but I put it back pretty quickly when I realised that I was, again, training to fail.

When I got strong enough to press the 50 just once, I stubbornly refused to try any other weight for my money set. Consequently, it took me several weeks to get to a triple of that weight, and at that point I pretty much stalled, until my coaches gave me this piece of advice - and it's advice all too often ignored by most lifters;

Always performing heavy singles, double or triples of your max will NOT build strength.

It just won't.* Dropping back a bit and working on reps, however, will build strength, and so I instead picked up the 50 and produced 2 more reps than my previous best at that weight. Next wednesday I will be picking up the 50 again, and aiming for 10 reps. Once I get to 10, it will be time to test out the 55 once more. And one day soon, when I'm repping that 55 for double digits, or near enough, it will be time to test out the 60 kilo DB.

Fuck yeah. I may even make it to the 70 before the end of this year. Strict overhead-pressing the dumbbell I could only clean at Am Nats last year will be a sweet personal victory for me.

*I'm told I should clarify something here when it comes to performing heavy triples. Three rep sets will promote a training response - and if you can increase the weight each week and still perform a heavy triple, you're progressing and progression is key (duh!), so you don't have an issue.

Monday, April 8, 2013

Squat Monday: Stronger!

Squats w/cambered bar
10 reps @ 20 kgs*
8 reps @ 50 kgs
5 reps @ 90 kgs
3 reps @ 130 kgs
1 reps @ 150 kgs
8 reps @ 170 kgs PR

Good mornings
8 reps @ 50 kgs
8 reps @ 90 kgs
8 reps @ 120 kgs
3 reps @ 150 kgs

Hammer curls
10 reps @ 15 kgs
10 reps @ 15 kgs
10 reps @ 15 kgs

AS IT turns out, that ME set of squats wasn't a 'technical' personal best. It was an all-time personal best - and that's with no wraps, no belt, and (according to the coach watching) very good depth. The last couple of reps I was pivoting forward coming out of the hole, but nothing you could call a cheat rep. It's got a lot to do with the narrower foot placement I've adopted to reduce the pain in my right hip, which is still there but is getting easier to deal with every week. Crisis averted... I hope.

*Actually performed my warmup squat set with a standard barbell. It was pretty damn uncomfortable, and due to my wingspan I don't really work with standard bars anyway. But it was good for me to start re-familiarising myself with a straight bar.

Already looking forward to Wednesday night, and a new strict DB OHP record. Not to mention I'll be incorporating more two-handed movements again, to get that atrophied right arm back up to snuff.

Saturday, April 6, 2013

1st Events Training Saturday for 2013

Sled drag
20 meters @ 200 kgs
20 meters @ 200 kgs
15 meters @ 265 kgs
10 meters @ 350 kgs

Bench press
10 reps @ 20 kgs
10 reps @ 40 kgs
5 reps @ 60 kgs
10 reps @ 45 kgs

Keg toss
13 kilo keg (2 handed)
16 kilo KB (1 handed)

Sack carry
140 kilo
narrow hold - pickup and 5 meter walk
wide hold - pickup only

Seated rows
15 reps @ plate 10
15 reps @ plate 12
15 reps @ plate 14
15 reps @ plate 16

I LIKE not having to type '1-arm' bench and '1-arm' seated rows anymore... I don't the tiny little weights I'm moving, but I've gotta start somewhere. To be truthful, the 60 kilo bench press was too much today. The weight itself wasn't the problem, of course, but the tightness in my shoulder at the bottom of the movement was an indicator that I needed to scale it back.

The Keg toss was also not smart. I wasn't going to attempt it at all, until I felt the weight and realised it was even lighter than the kettlebell I'd brought outside to perform a 1-armed toss. So I gave it a shot, and got a twinge at the top of the movement just before the release... but nothing serious. Just a reminder things aren't quite there yet.

And for good measure, I tried the sack carry. Sucked at it, but I picked it ok and there was no pain. Good news. I may even try Farmers walk next weekend, if my deadlifts on thursday are just as strong as last week.

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

The Last Push/Pull Wednesday

shoulder warmup


1-arm DB OHP
left
8 reps @ 20 kgs
5 reps @ 35 kgs
1 reps @ 45 kgs
3 reps @ 55 kgs PR
right
10 reps @ 10 kgs
10 reps @ 10 kgs
10 reps @ 10 kgs
5 reps @ 20 kgs

Deadlifts
5 reps @ 60 kgs
5 reps @ 60 kgs
10 reps @ 80 kgs
10 reps @ 100 kgs
10 reps @ 120 kgs
10 reps @ 140 kgs

Tri-pushdowns
left 10 reps @ 60 lbs
right 10 reps @ 30 lbs
left 10 reps @ 60 lbs
right 10 reps @ 30 lbs

FANTASTIC training session tonight! That strict 55 kilo DB for 3 was even better than I had hoped, and while it felt like I wouldn't have made a fourth, it was sorely tempting to try for it.

And the deadlifts were near-effortless, but then that's to be expected... this isn't heavy, and it won't be for a little while yet.

But I'm on the way back.

Fuck yeah.

Deadlifting Is Back On The Menu

THERE'S a new lifter at my gym; young fella, long and wiry. He was deadlifting last weekend and, by the looks of things, he was planning on having a lower back injury in his near future; his starting position was way too high - practically stiff-legged - and his spine was convex. Not cool.

He had maybe 130 on the bar when I walked past him and saw this going on, and I tried to give him some advice. He told me he could already lift 170 pretty well, and I replied that he was going to have to stop thinking about the big numbers, get his starting position much lower and concentrate on developing his form.

I stood back and watched his next set, and again he was starting way too high. I tried to describe for him the position, but he just didn't seem to be able to bend deep enough at the knees. He asked me to show him, so I walked up to the bar, placed my feet and dropped down nice and low (very low - perhaps even a little too low - but hyperbole works in situations like this; people are never as low down as they think they are). I asked him to check my depth and try it out himself.

So then the new kid asks me to lift it so he could watch. I was not supposed to do that, but I did it anyway. And it felt strong as hell. No twinges or instability. Like I could have put another hundred on there and repped it out.

On the road to recovery and back to (relative) strength, it was this moment I decided deadlifts were finally back on the menu. My strongest lift - and something I have been unable to do since about September last year - I can finally do again. Pretty happy.

Monday, April 1, 2013

Squat Monday: Nobody's In a Wheelchair... Yet

Squats w/cambered bar
10 reps @ 30 kgs
8 reps @ 50 kgs
5 reps @ 70 kgs
5 reps @ 100 kgs
3 reps @ 130 kgs
10 reps @ 150 kgs TPR

Good mornings
10 reps @ 50 kgs
8 reps @ 70 kgs
5 reps @ 90 kgs
3 reps @ 110 kgs
3 reps @ 130 kgs
3 reps @ 150 kgs TPR

1-arm seated rows
left
10 reps @ plate 12
8 reps @ plate 15

1-arm triceps pushdowns
right
12 reps @ 15 lbs
12 reps @ 20 lbs
12 reps @ 30 lbs
12 reps @ 35 lbs
8 reps @ 40 lbs

BRINGING some more two-handed movements - including deadlifting - to my routines as of now.

Today felt strong as fuck, and I reckon I had at least another 2 reps in me of that 150 squat. My hip gave me schtick on the first rep but I made a change to my squat form (and slowed down) which seemed to fix it well enough.

I completely fucked up the main lift of one of my trainers tonight. I thought he was building to a single of 272 kilos and put the rack down on the monolift when he came back up. It turned out he was going for at least a double of that immense squat. The rack hit the bar, destabilising him and fucking his second rep. And it could have been a whole lot worse.

The guys I train with, and have been coached by, we see each other every other day. We joke around and have fun in between lifts, but that's paused once someone's holding the bar. It's a sign of respect. Not putting your coach in a wheelchair, that's a sign of respect, too.

I have to get more experience with this kind of assistance, because it can mean someone's spine if I make a mistake this grievous again. What we do is dangerous shit. And I'm just glad that the people I train with have a higher tolerance for incompetence than I have at times.