sking's log

[sking1001]

Jeez, I almost forget that I get to eat my way to 198 in 2 weeks!

[sking1001]

Deadlift
135x5
225x4
315x2
405x1
475x1
515x1
495x2
I'm sticking with slippers through the meet...promise.

Speed Squat
135x5
225x3
275x2
325x2x6 in 9:15

Accessory
Bulgarian Split Squats/Planks Superset: 10 each leg/:45 x 3

Back felt horrible this morning. It felt better after icing it first thing when I got to work. Felt good for all deadlifts. Starting to ache a little on the last few sets of squats. Felt great during accessory work. My back feels better now after lifting than it has all week. Explain that. It's pretty strange that it seems to be worse the day after I DON'T lift. The only thing I did yesterday was a few pullups followed by some stretching, walking on the treadmill for 20 minutes, half on an incline, followed by some more stretching and walking lunges. I'm also beginning to see that squatting heavy puts the most stress on it.

**Okay, I also have a theory, but I'm not sure if I'm just full of it. For the last few deadlift sessions, I have been rounding my thoracic spine intentionally. The intention is not to round my lumbar, although that happens on heavy sets, especially with the slippers. Maybe it's just me, but flexing my thoracic, pulling my head down, tends to pull on my spine (for lack of a better word), and it it makes my back feel really good when deadlifting. In fact, my theory is that this is why my back has felt so good after deadlifting these past few sessions. On the contrary, squatting seems to compact my spine more. I dunno, maybe you scientific guys could corroborate or debunk this theory...I would love to hear from you.

Deadlifts w/turtle power (not exactly on purpose):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SQ4P99N-2o

Squats. If you watch them all, let me know which set you thought was the best. Thanks!

[PackMule]

My pc sucks so I'm not gonna try to watch the video now, but do you do any mobility/stretching stuff for your hips/back?

I've been doing the agile 8/limber 11 stretching routine for a few weeks and its helping. Makes stuff feel good. Absolutely hated doing it the first first couple weeks (Boring) but now I kind of enjoy it.

[Dwayne_KONG_Wint]

Got better towards the end. Less knee cave.

Hypothesizing/Experimenting:

What angle are your feetsies turned out from straight ahead?

Might be turned out a little too much. Tell me how it feels if you bring the angle in like 5 degreezzz.

[PackMule]

ez with ze zs brahz

[Dwayne_KONG_Wint]

dat z life tho

[sking1001]

My pc sucks so I'm not gonna try to watch the video now, but do you do any mobility/stretching stuff for your hips/back?

I've been doing the agile 8/limber 11 stretching routine for a few weeks and its helping. Makes stuff feel good. Absolutely hated doing it the first first couple weeks (Boring) but now I kind of enjoy it.

I've been doing the limber 11, or a good part of it as time allows, for quite a while. A guy told me about it in my Wordpress blog, and turns out he's "BamFTW" on here. I went back in my log to look when I started doing it and found an entry on 3/22/14. There I mentioned my back feeling much better since I've been doing the limber 11. Holy crap, I didn't know I had been dealing with this for THAT long!

My back feels really good this morning. In fact, I could stand and pee with almost no sciatic pain. I really think I'm on the upswing here. Looking forward to squatting Monday.

Got better towards the end. Less knee cave.

Hypothesizing/Experimenting:

What angle are your feetsies turned out from straight ahead?

Might be turned out a little too much. Tell me how it feels if you bring the angle in like 5 degreezzz.

Good point, Dwayne. I'm definitely going to turn them in a little on Monday. I've been watching Lilliebridge videos and thinking about that. It always seems like my knees go out too much on the way down, and that can't be sustained on the way up. Turning the feet in some would seem more natural. Man, I usually get my feet in the video, but I wasn't filming back far enough. I made a mental note to be sure to get my feet on Monday. I'm going to do more filming from the front so I can keep an eye on my kneezzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

[Rob Israel]

I agree with Kong, better towards the end with less knee cave. 2nd to last set the best.

[sking1001]

I agree with Kong, better towards the end with less knee cave. 2nd to last set the best.

Thanks for looking, Rob! Interesting thing...the 2nd to last set is the only set where I put my thumbs around the bar : )

[sking1001]

Can you believe it was 57 degrees outside today!

Competition Bench
135x5
185x4
225x3
275x2
295x1
315x1x2
275x3x2

I was having a terrible time with my feet slipping all over the place. I probably spent 20 minutes changing shoes, getting rid of the mat under my feet, putting the mat back, etc, and I still couldn't get a good grip. Finally I sprayed the mat down and dried it, took a wire brush to the bottom of my shoes and mat, and it was not nearly as bad. It must be the cool weather, because I haven't had this problem before.

With that and a bunch of other stuff going on at lunch, I decided to just finish my benching with a couple of extra drop sets and do my supplemental and accessory work tonight...

Forehead Press Lockouts
135x5
155x3
185x2
Work Singles
195, 205, 215, 220, 225, 230, 235 grind
235 easier, 240 miss
Bar starting at forehead height. Harder than the last 6" of lockout like I've been doing. Figured this was more of my sticking point. Around 90 seconds rest between sets...some went a little bit long.

Accessory
Inverted Rows 3x12
Hammer Curls 3x10
Face Pulls 3x12