KONG's Training and Self-rehab

[Dwayne_KONG_Wint]

A helpful deadlift cue for me has been, "Tits to the wall!"

I think squeezing your chest up more would solve a lot. Just my .02

Awesome lifting as usual!

Thanks skiing! Believe me, you are not the first one to tell me that. I'm a slow learner ; )

I have this issue though that when I squeeze my chest up more, my knees tend to come forward and push the bar away from me...making the break from the floor a lot harder. I've noticed that I usually don't have a problem off the floor but generally I have a problem with lockout and...

You hit it on the head. I don't squeeze up enough. Off the floor is good because I do a decent job of not moving that bar BUT lockout is hard because my lumbar spine isn't extended enough from the get-go to put my "powerful" hips is a stronger more efficient position to lock the weight out.

That plus, I tend to be over the bar too much in general.

I have a lot of bad habits in my deadlift set up that need continuous attention and fixes. As always a work in progress.

So to tie this into tonight's workout. My training partner finally showed up. He's been keeping up with this training but just on his own, like I've been. But his schedule was much different than mine which did not allow us to train together for the past 3 weeks. He hadn't squatted, benched, or deadlifted yet for this week and he had time to meet up today. Although I pressed and did arms stuff, I am always happy to help out on a heavy day because I know what it feels like and how much easier it is when there is someone there to give you the straight up truth and a little motivation.

So, he got his reps. His bench is starting to blossom. When I met him a year and half ago, he could hardly bench 115. He will be benching 300 this year for sure.

Anyway back to deadlifts....he doesn't have the problems I have on deadlifts. His back is always really tight and his chest is squeezed up really well. He sits back on and isn't way over the bar like me. Although, he does tend to push the bar forward with his shins which sometimes makes his floor break a lot harder than it needs to be. So, what did I learn from watching him? He takes a wider stance that I do. My stance is narrowish for my height. I'm not giving myself room to do two things: 1. reach full hip extension at the top, and 2. get a really tight lumbar before pulling..aka chest up.

So next time...I'm going with a slightly wider stance. I've noticed a lot of the bigger taller lifters use a wider stance too like Koklyaev, Tuscherer, and Gillingham. So there must be something to it.

I think squeezing up will help with me being back more too I feel.

I'll get there it will just take some time. Like I said, I'm a slow learner.

[Dwayne_KONG_Wint]

Strict Standing Behind the Neck Press: bar/10 65/5 85/5 95/3 115/2, 135/2,2,2

This was a new lift in the rotation. I did not like it. I do feel it has the benefit of helping opening up the anterior shoulder area. Boy did it stretch that out for me. But the high bar spot on my neck is not happy because I don't high bar squat AND my proximal bicep tendon kept clicking as I did the lower range of motion. (I'm guessing it was my proximal bicep tendon...it could've been something else). Whatever it was, my biceps were in pain after the sets even though the presses were light. Also, my grip felt weakened. Didn't like it.

Shrugs: 135/5, 225/5, 315/5, 405/3, 495/6,6,6...I had to use straps for this due to the weakened grip. It felt like my clavicles were going to get crushed at the lower end of the range of motion. Weirdly enough, I got small pump in my chest along with my traps. Cannot explain it. These were good feeling shrugs.

Tricep Pushdowns Heavy: 6 sets of 8..My elbows liked these

Drag Curls: 3 sets of 8

Incline Curls: 3 sets of 8..I really like these

[Dwayne_KONG_Wint]

Paused SQ: 135/5, 225/5, 315/2,2,2,2,2,2,2...my left hip had to get used to holding this position..but once it did, these felt great!!
vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oW9I4I61jgM

Paused BP: 135/5, 225/3, 315/2,2,2,2,2,2,2..Got easier as the sets went on. Felt good.
vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPqj8arqPAs

DL: 225/3, 275/2, 315/1, 365/1,
415/1, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpqjHWfCFmI
470/1, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRleHBJs05A
505/1, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmqYrCpjJqc
525/1, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-SFi-IKjLM

Changed up my stance. Opened it up a little bit. I could squeeze the chest up better....and I was able to squeeze at the top instead of the weird ramp I was doing before. The reps were definitely smoother. Although this stance felt a little weird off the ground, it was definitely an overal improvement. Probably it felt weird because I was maybe a little too close to the bar which took my quads out of it too much. Good thing weird things get better with practice. It clearly wasn't a detriment to the weight I could lift. With practice this should be a more efficient pull.

[Mac Ward]

525 looked smooth, Nice.

[Dwayne_KONG_Wint]

Thanks Mac! Ding dong the hitch is dead!...Now I just have to learn not to stiff-leg the darn thing, and I have to stop being over the bar so much. Its time for a UPenn adjustment. I personally liked how 415 looked and I wish all my deadlifts looked like that. 415 looked like 545 looked a couple weeks before my meet in April...except 415 was smoother and faster. The good news is that I don't think I will be getting called for "hitching" anymore.
____________________

Press:bar/5, 95/5, 135/3, 165/2, 185/2, 205/3,3,3,3,3,5 ..... I had to get 20 total reps today (any way I wanted) and went in with triples since I was getting foggy in the head after the third reps for some reason. But by the end all of that cleared and I just finished it all up with a quintuplet.

Shrugs: 315/5, 405/2, 515/6,6,6,6,6 .... Fogginess set in again with these. Steel said go heavy enough to need to strap in. I did strap in. These were heavy enough to put me in a fog after each set. So I think I picked a good weight.

Triceps pushdowns: HEAVY 3X8...whole stack today.
Bicep incline curls: 3X8

Taking this weekend off from training to do some planned events (non-training related). Steel granted me the time off. It will be weird to not train but I will be busy.

[djl236]

Thanks Mac! Ding dong the hitch is dead!...Now I just have to learn not to stiff-leg the darn thing, and I have to stop being over the bar so much. Its time for a UPenn adjustment. I personally liked how 415 looked and I wish all my deadlifts looked like that. 415 looked like 545 looked a couple weeks before my meet in April...except 415 was smoother and faster. The good news is that I don't think I will be getting called for "hitching" anymore.
____________________

Press:bar/5, 95/5, 135/3, 165/2, 185/2, 205/3,3,3,3,3,5 ..... I had to get 20 total reps today (any way I wanted) and went in with triples since I was getting foggy in the head after the third reps for some reason. But by the end all of that cleared and I just finished it all up with a quintuplet.

Shrugs: 315/5, 405/2, 515/6,6,6,6,6 .... Fogginess set in again with these. Steel said go heavy enough to need to strap in. I did strap in. These were heavy enough to put me in a fog after each set. So I think I picked a good weight.

Triceps pushdowns: HEAVY 3X8...whole stack today.
Bicep incline curls: 3X8

Taking this weekend off from training to do some planned events (non-training related). Steel granted me the time off. It will be weird to not train but I will be busy.

Nice job dude.


Steel made some form adjustments to my deads when I was down at Penn last Sunday. I feel way more explosive and solid through the entire pull now...he had me doing 415x12x1 on Sunday to grease the groove on the new form, they were pretty easy.

[Mac Ward]

Triceps pushdowns: HEAVY 3X8...whole stack today.

This is awesome, and for some reason made me laugh. You manhandled the machine.

[Dwayne_KONG_Wint]

LOL Mac! Man v. Machine...Man - W, Machine - L

Back at it...

Presses: bar/5, 95/5, 135/4, 165/3, 185/1, 225/1,1,1,1,1,1,1. Happy that I can pretty much press 225 on a whim...even as my bodyweight decreases.
Shrugs (in rack): 315/3, 405/3, 500/6,6,6,6,6...did not get foggy today ; )
Tricep pushdowns/Incline curl superset: 5 sets of 10...no rest between sets. Arms were huge.

[Dwayne_KONG_Wint]

SQ:
warm ups:
bar/5
135/5

Work Assigned:
225/8...easy
275/8...easy but breathing hard
315/6...easy but breathing a little harder
365/6...good but bit fatiguing
395/5...okay but last rep felt heavy (on video)
405/3...This is the heaviest 405 has felt to me in a while. My head was in a fog that did not stop after this. (on video)
405/3...Deeper into the fog..deeper into the fatigue.
405/2...I was supposed to do 3 here but I had to stop it at 2. I could not keep steady. I decided I should finish out the remaining 4 reps with doubles.
405/1...The doubles were not going to happen. That was the slowest 405 rep in history. It sucked. Decided to stop squats right there.

So what happened today with squats? I think three things:
1. The assignment of weights and reps had way more volume than I usually use to work up to sets of 405. I mean I did 33 reps prior to hitting 405...17 of them were 315 or above. I usually only do 2-3 with 315 and 1-2 with 365 before hitting 405 sets. So that put some fatigue on me.
2. Weather changing. I was pretty sinusy today...which did not help my cause out.
3. Diet. I usually eat a ton the day before my big three day. I didn't yesterday. I had gotten into my new book (Purposeful Primitive) and put off eating my regular stuff in lieu of downing shakes. The substitution obviously did not work.

Anyway, bench went better but I was slow on the reps:

Bench:
warm ups:
135/5
225/5
315/1
work:
365/4,4,4

I was dead tired come deadlift-time:
Deads:
warm ups:
315/1,
405/1,
work:
455/1,1,1,1,1,1,1 (a couple of these on video with different angles)

On deadlifts, I wanted to see different angles of my pull so I could pick apart things that could possibly be making me suck more. One thing I see off the bat is that my arms are friggin short. Can't fix that. I'll be analyzing all week.

[Michele Knaub]

i love the sound of plates clanging.