Friday, April 29, 2016

The Price of Stupid

JUST WHEN things were looking up, I managed to make a stupid mistake in the gym - a stupid, rookie mistake - and it's cost me. Well, I'm not yet finished adding up what it's gonna cost me...

Irritated with the combo bench I was using, I decided to move. I decided to move the bar while
The Might Hump - grown under the Yoke
loaded, and carry it over to the next bench. I lifted the bar and took one step forward, from the raised platform to the ground. My right foot bent inwards, and then completely dislocated, hanging 90 degrees from the bottom of my shin. When I raised my leg to examine it closer, my flailing foot scraped along the ground and with a - pop! - relocated itself again. I was in shock so didn't feel much at all, other than the sensation of bone and cartilage snapping back into place.

All nearby members rushed to my aid; I cant remember now who did what, but I think Ando and Taylor removed the bar while another fella I haven't officially met yet (and possibly Troy?) grabbed an ice pack and something to keep my foot elevated. Again, just going from memory, but I think Yianni's most significant contribution was laughter and commentary with the recurrent theme "you won't do that again, huh?." *

After several minutes of elevation and ice on the ankle I decided to try standing. It was then that I noticed the top digit of my right ring finger was permanently curled over. I couldn't stretch it out, and the meat in the digit felt... odd. I assumed I'd lost a tendon.

Images from my shoulder surgery, early 2013
It wasn't much fun but I made it home, even managing to shower and hobble about the house, intermittently putting weight on the (now quite swollen) ankle, impatient for the movement to return to it. But the next morning it was a great deal worse. The whole foot was now fat, with swelling on both sides of the joint. Still not much bruising... but more painful. I found myself relying on my high school hockey stick to hop around. I made an appointment to see my GP, who (after I waited the now standard fifty five minutes) referred me to the ER of St John of God, conveniently located down the street.

Four or five hours later, I left Midland health complex with my fat foot in a moon boot, my finger splinted and a shiny new crutch under each arm. The x-ray showed two fractures in the foot - one on either side of the ankle. A doctor told me the previous night and first half of that day I'd spent attempting to walk on it was the very opposite of a good idea.

Best to remember your deadlift socks, peeps.
I also now have to shower sitting in a special highchair. For how long I couldn't tell you; I won't get the opportunity to see a specialist till May 9th, that being a consultation. The MRIs and the possibility of surgery to either my ankle or finger will happen some time after that. The ER doctor informed me that if the finger tendon has been completely severed it will require surgery and I'd need to spend 6-8 weeks with the digit completely straight. If this is the case, I think I'll just skip it. It's my stupid hand (I'm a southpaw), it doesn't hurt and I don't need that finger to be straight all the time anyway. If it's not curled around a bar of some description, a steering wheel, or a knife (on those rare occasions I don't eat with my hands) then what's it doing? Nothing, that's what.

But my ankle is a deal more serious. I need that strong, so keeping my 130-odd kilograms off of it as much as possible is the game plan for the immediate future. This unfortunately also means I won't be able to go to the Iron Maiden concert when they land in Perth in just two weeks.

Such a stupid mistake. But this wasn't something minor, like forgetting your deadlift socks or towel. This wasn't one of those many, many injuries that you could call 'par for the course' when it comes to being a strength athlete. This was a majorly stupid incident. All coz I didn’t want to spend the extra twenty seconds required to unload the fucking bar first. Now I'll be lucky if I can restart my restart of the restart to my training I started this year, in less than two months from now. The one upside I can note is that the niggling issue I've been having with my right quad is bound to sort itself out in the time I am forced to keep off of it. So, yay...
The swelling got, like, three times this big.
Meh...






















 


*apologies to Yianni if I'm wrong about this.


Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Improvisation & Specificity: the Savickas Press & Fat Gripz

Back yard gyms and improvised equipment are the origins of many a dedicated lifter, especially strongmen. This nostalgic rant is about the specificity of strongman style training and the improvisations I made in the first few years of my journey to becoming a strength athlete, when all my training was done in mine and other people's backyards.

When I discovered the sport of strongman it quickly became my passion, simultaneously presenting new challenges and great rewards. At the time I didn't own a whole lot of equipment and the stuff I did have was conventional; my bars were spin lock, not even olympic spec. But strongman athletes use fat bars, axles and monster dumbbells with much thicker handles than anything you're likely to find in an average gym, never mind my house.


For me to train more thoroughly and get the most out of what I had, I needed to improvise. For instance, my home gym (which I facetiously referred to as The Facility) had a veranda. I strung some heavy chains over the sturdiest beam and created my own version of a Savickas press. With some D-rings to adjust the bar height I could perform overhead press, floor press and, most importantly, front squats. For the first year and more of my training, this apparatus was the cornerstone of my lower body work, before I began deadlifting and back squatting mid-2011. I wear a chain around my neck today to remind me of these chains, where I began.


Now let's talk about training specificity. I actually blogged about Fat Gripz two years ago over at Weight Lifting Academy. Improving my grip strength and learning strongman-specific events were two challenges that Fat Gripz helped me overcome. They now come in three varieties and two sizes, though the 'Black Ops' edition Gripz are not yet available in Oz. The red 'Extremes' are my favourite because they approximate the thickness of an axle or monster dumbbell. By adding these to my equipment I could simulate strongman training methods such as the dumbbell clean-press, axle power-cleans and deadlifts. They can also be added to a variety of conventional barbell and dumbbell exercises to make your regular training a whole lot tougher. Fat Gripz will seriously strengthen your grip while you strengthen the rest of your body.

As you can see by what I had to do to my trap bar in order to deadlift a challenging amount, I'm not returning to backyard training anytime soon! The reason why I am posting all this now is because I've recently been in touch with my US contact for Fat Gripz. In 2014 Franco very generously sent me several pairs of 'Extremes' and other merchandise as prizes for the competitors of the WA Strongman qualifier held in July. He's again very generously sending me more, as the last pair I had I lent to some guy who attended my first clinic at PTC and never returned with them. Another pair was lifted from Genesis Bentley before that. I also had a pair of blue ones with my name engraved on them... I have no idea what happened to them but it's probable they were nicked, too.*

In return for Franco's generosity I'll be making a short video on how I used Fat Gripz in my training as a beginner-intermediate lifter, and provide some demonstrations of the grip strength they have helped me to build.

*Nope! I lost them, and recently found them again.

Monday, April 25, 2016

Squat Monday: Try Again

MY FIRST night back squatting and it's a mixed bag, as usual. No knee pain, but still feeling the recent quad injury. I don't believe I've done any damage tonight (I will have a better idea tomorrow morning), in any case that wasn't the reason I failed to complete my last two reps of 200. No, that happened because I, again, was too optimistic in my programming and started too heavy. Considering this was my first squat session in two months, I shouldn't be too disappointed at this effort. But I am.

So long as I can continue squatting uninhibited I am going to reset next week and again try for 200 for 8. I need to hit this before continuing with the program. I know I can.

Cardio: assault bike 5 minutes
Stretch

Squats:
25 kgs x 10
80 kgs x 8
120 kgs x 5
160 kgs x 3
180 kgs x 1
200 kgs x 6

Leg extension:
30 kgs x 3 x 10

Hamstring curls:
30 kgs x 10
40 kgs x 2 x 10

Weight Lifting Academy's Top Ten

For over two and a half years I was blogging at Weight Lifting Academy, and the posts linked below represent some of what has transpired in that time. Looking back over these entries, as well as my posts from years previous on this old blog I've resurrected, I am reminded of exactly how far I've come... and how far I have still to go in achieving my goals.

My most read posts, in order of popularity:
 

Sunday, April 24, 2016

Interview by Jasmine Lares PT

 

8 Week Return to Strength S/B/D Program

BELOW are just the money sets for each week. I have added options in the deadlift program so that if everything continues to feel good I can keep working with 1-rep maxes for the next few weeks before returning to another basic max effort template. If I'm still feeling great after the eight weeks as written, I will go on to attempt a new 1RM personal record by 5 kilos in early July. If I'm feeling taxed, I'll consider that triple of 300 to mean I'm pretty much back to full strength and commence a more ambitious program in due course.

Which brings me to the prospect of competing this year. Assuming I complete the extended DL template I'll seriously need to deload from mid-July, but I'll be primed for the Perth Cup in September for sure. I might even try for a wild card entry to the Strongman state finals if there's room in the heavyweight division (and with the green light from WA Strongman, of course), but we shall see.

If you're wondering why I'm using periodisation for bench press, I'm making an educated guess here. My left shoulder still bothers me but I expect it's more to do with the bursitis than the tendon tears, which I would hope are sufficiently healed by now. I believe the demands are more manageable compared with max effort, which would cause more stress to the shoulder. And I've been more conservative with the loadings, not attempting to finish in new territory. Instead that triple of 160 will signify I'm close enough to full strength to deload, reset and prepare.

Squats - Max Effort:
April 25th - 200 kgs x 8
May 2nd - 210 kgs x 8
May 9th - 220 kgs x 6
May 16th - 230 kgs x 5
May 23rd - 240 kgs x 4
May 30th - 250 kgs x 3 - PR for reps
June 7th - 260 kgs x 2 - PR for reps
June 14th - 270 kgs x 1 - 1RM PR

Bench press - Periodisation:
April 27th - 125 kgs x 3 x 5
May 4th -  130 kgs x 3 x 4
May 11th -  135 kgs x 3 x 4
May 18th -  140 kgs x 3 x 3
May 25th -  145 kgs x 3 x 3
June 1st -  150 kgs x 2 x 3
June 8th -  155 kgs x 2 x 2
June 15th - 160 kgs x 3

Deadlift - Improvisational:
April 28th - 300 kgs x 1
May 5th - 310 kgs x 1 -or- 180 kgs x 15
May 12th - 320 kgs x 1 -or- 200 kgs x 12
May 19th -  220 kgs x 10
May 26th - 240 kgs x 8
June 3rd - 260 kgs x 6
June 10th - 280 kgs x 4
June 17th - 300 kgs x 3
-optional-
June 24th - 315 kgs x 2
July 1st - 330 kgs x 1
July 8th - 345 kgs x 1 - new personal record

Events Saturday: Trial By Fire

JUST TWO weeks from the WA Strongman qualifiers. This doesn't pose a problem for me as I'm not strong or uninjured enough to consider entering. My guys, however, have been getting stronger and more confident in their abilities as game day draws closer. For Alex it's still a hard sell, but at least he's assured me he'll be at the event on the day, so he can see just what his competition in the under 105s can do.



Today it was Alex, Kong and the aloof Mathew also graced us with his presence, which is currently in high demand. As a new father he's needed almost constantly for feeding, being screamed at, throwing up and pooping on. Despite his absenteeism today he pulled his previous 1RM (barbell) deadlift for a triple, with the axle. And I make my trainees axle deadlift from the same height as a standard bar, so this was a significant strength increase for Mat. And this was after he'd fairly impressed under the yoke and almost, I think, hit a new personal record with the log. It's been a while so I'm not sure anymore what his previous best was.

Kong had an issue early in the day. A complete newbie to the sport, it was his first time under the yoke. Fortunately, PTCs yoke is made by Awesome As, so it's studier than most and designed to comfortably fit oversized humans like him. I had him work up from just the yoke (130 kgs unladen), to 170 kgs and then 210 kgs. Kong lumbered along under these loadings, quickly learning how the yoke encourages the spine to move in new and interesting ways. Then, while walking a 250, he got just a couple of meters before putting it down. He complained of hearing/feeling a crunch or pop, like knuckles cracking, in his lower thoracic area. I'm not a doctor but for me that spells no more training for Kong till he sees someone who is.

He was advised to sit out the rest of the session and was smart enough to listen. It's a real bummer as he's FIFO and is flying out before the WASM qualifiers. But now he's got to spend his last week and a bit here getting treated instead of getting stronger. I had hoped to see him log press something ridiculous for a person on their second strongman training session ever. But all in good time. For now I just hope he's not done something serious to his back.

Alex asked me what he should be doing on yoke, given that this was our first session with it in some time and his previous best was 310 kilograms for 15 meters. Well, I said, the loading for your division on May 7th is 325 for 15 meters... so let's round up to 330 and walk it for 20. So we did, and he did. I was most impressed. And this guy says he doesn't want to compete in a fortnight.

On to axle deadlifts. With Kong assisting loading, the unbroken two followed their respective routines. I've mentioned Mat's unexpected new triple of 140, but after him Alex worked up to a max effort set of 190 kgs for 11 reps. Later he told me he's been doing the same max effort programming, and pretty much exactly the same loading, each Thursday for the last six to eight weeks. I think I must have done a double-take. He followed this by mentioning that he was beginning to feel burned out, to which I replied 'No shit!'.

We stopped what we were doing and I had a brief huddle with the three of them at this point. I used the occasion to discuss with them what (in my experience) constitutes an unreasonable program for an un-enhanced lifter. Take-home points were:
* Max effort programming of compound lifts more than once a week is either unnecessary, injurious, or both - especially the deadlift.
* The exception that kinda proves the rule would be the press. This is because there are plenty of variations of press which require different aptitudes and will hit a broader range of muscles to varying degrees, so an intermediate lifter can train maximal loadings of different press variations in the one week with low risk of overtraining.

For argument's sake let's change focus to Powerlifting and the bench press. For an intermediate, un-enhanced lifter, maximal effort, flat, barbell bench press twice a week is going to increase the likelihood of overtraining the movement. But if so desired, a split with a second press day involving heavy incline bench, overhead press, shoulder press or even cable flys will further work stabilisers and other muscles which indirectly assist your bench while causing less overall stress on the muscles you utilise most for conventional bench press. Think 'tri-dominant' / 'pec-dominant' / 'delt-dominant' pressers. Once fatigued a lifter should look at another press variation that relies on the favoured muscle group as little as possible if they intend on doing maximal effort both sessions.

I'm not suggesting that this is a great way of programming the press - for a Powerlifter it really isn't. For someone attempting to train for both PL and SM, however, different templates for bench press and overhead press is a very good idea. Ultimately the PLer is far better off devoting one weekly session to the press and hitting the competition lift first and thoroughly, followed by as many complimentary accessories as you have the capacity for. If you have to, intuitively alter your loadings depending on how hard you've been hitting each lift and what your current goals are.  No, I didn't say change it up every week on a whim so there's no possible way to gauge progress. Jesus.

I also didn't say nobody should ever squat or deadlift at maximal loadings more than once a week. Don't be stupid. What I am saying is that, with a basic template of Squats on Monday, Press Wednesday, Pull Thursday, and a couple hours of Strongman events on Saturday, my trainees will quickly find themselves bombing out if they expect to hit new numbers every session of every week.



But anyway, back to my point. In six weeks Alex is scheduled to pull 250 at least once. My money is on him repping it, but even if it's just the single that's still a 40 kilo increase in the time I've been training him... about 6 months I believe. He's only on track to do this IF he drops max-effort, mid-week deadlifts immediately. If we hadn't had this chat, Alex would have gone on to pull a 197.5 kilogram barbell for as many reps as possible next Thursday, and then tried to do the same thing with a 200 kilo axle at my clinic, two frigging days later! I bemusedly had to tell him that he was liable to ruin himself before the next six weeks are through. So I guess, to use broad strokes, the moral of the story is: talk to your coach more. Alex.

Finally, above you will see Kong's 105 kilo log clean press from last week. His first ever lesson. It's really quite exciting to contemplate what he'll be able to do in just 6-12 months from now...








Thursday, April 21, 2016

Pull Thursday: Back to Black

I'VE ALWAYS felt more at home in dark corners. Welcome to my first blog.

Strongman Amateur National Championships 2012
Dusty and abandoned though it is, I've come back here partly because I have been meaning to for some time now (the design layout is far easier to play with and I think it gets more international traffic), but mostly because for some reason my current blog at weightlifting academy is loading a blank screen. So I might as well make the move back here official.

Tonight's pulling was another exploration and assessment of my most recent injury, which I'm happy to say appears to be healing thanks to the incisive treatment meted out by Dan Rucci and his quiver of nasty pins. Last week I stopped at a single of 250; tonight it was 275. The first several sets were performed very slowly, with focus on the injured leg to make sure I wasn't favouring it during the lift. Everything felt good, so I pulled 200 x 3 quick, and continued pulling quick from there. 275 went up fast enough but I wore my Inzer belt a little too high in an attempt to pack Quaid in better and made the lift pretty uncomfortable.

If things continue to feel good next week I'll pull 300. From there, depending how strong that pull feels, I may keep going with 1RM testing but drop to smaller increments. 310, then 320. The important thing when doing this is to recognise that 1. I'm not going to build new strength pulling singles all the time and 2. at some point soon I'll have to quit this and begin another, proper, 8-12 week routine. I'm going to work on it this weekend (along with a new banner and media for this blog) and saturday's clinic promises to be a lot of fun! I'm looking forward to recording it all here.

Cardio:
Assault bike (coasting while writing tonight's routine): 6 mins @ 40 rpm, 45 sec @ 80-85 rpm

Stretch
DB super-set supine curls & rotators: 4 kgs x 2 x 10

Deadlifts:
75 kgs x 8
The PTC Perth Open day 2012
125 kgs x 5
175 kgs x 3
200 kgs x 3
225 kgs x 3
250 kgs x 1
275 kgs x 1

Bent-over BB rows (underhand):
105 kgs x 10
115 kgs x 10
125 kgs x 5

Seated rows:
140 kgs x 8
160 kgs x 8 PR