Brik City's Training Log

[Briks42]

Thursday 2/23/12

Bodyweight- 197.4

Bench Press- 285x3
240x9

Deadlifts- 355x1
385x1 (PR) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bb9k...7vASPUSfU1kFPg

Standing Curls- 45s x 8
40s x 10

Well, this was a pretty fun night. I decided at some point yesterday that I was gonna go for a 1-rep max deadlift. The plan was 385, then hopefully 400. I did my bench work first and crushed it, so I was very confident going into the deads.

During the 385 set, as you can see in the video, I had crazy hamstring spasms, which made it a bitch to get up (it would've been tough regardless). It's pretty funny looking though. Im kinda taxing it. I decided not to even attempt 400 since I figured a lift that made my hammies do that had to be very close to a limit lift. Here is the explanation of what was going on with the hamstrings from a Q&A a month ago at 70sbig (2nd question down) http://www.70sbig.com/blog/2012/01/qa-14/. Of course Coys, after seeing the lift on video because he's sick and wasn't there, said I definitely woulda got 400 if I tried. He always tells me I coulda done more. I like that and hate it at the same time.

The issue for me personally is probably just that doing 1 set of 5 deads a week and no other leg work work isn't enough to prepare the hamstrings for a heavy lift like that. So my plan is to start adding Rack Pulls to my program. I'm thinking maybe Powercleans on Day 1, Deadlifts on Day 2, and Rack Pulls on Day 3 each week. In the beginning I'll probably do the powercleans on days 1 and 3 actually, but that just because I am still learning how to do them. Once I get the technique down and the weights start climbing fast, it'll affect recovery more and I'll just do them once a week. Any opinions from anyone on this plan???

All in all, even though I didn't go for the 400 lift, I was still happy with the night. I would've liked to set my back a little better on the 385 pull (I think I just got anxious to lift and didn't concentrate hard enough), but it wasn't TOO bad. And even though I couldn't accomplish it all right now, that 385 gives me a 1005 lifetime powerlifting total (300,320,385), which certainly isn't special, but it's something. I still think I'll get a 500 deadlift by the end of the year.

Some other news, notes, and opinions:

-Mom Dukes is back to crushing the weights again. Getting near her PR's in almost every lift. Shes kinda ridiculous. Her PRs are 145x5x3, 127.5x5x3, and 210x5 in the 3 powerlifts, plus I think shes pressed 75x5x3 and does like 8 chins. And yeah, she is a 5'4" 128 pound, 54 y.o. woman who only started lifting seriously about 2.5 years ago. Nuts.

-The fucking Sixers have lost 5 straight since I bought my gameplan. Makes sense. They gotta get healthy quick.

-Kanye West has to stop rapping and just make beats like he used to. His verse on the song "Niggas in Paris" is unbearable, but his god damn beats are out of control. He just needs to make the beats, and let good rappers like Justin Bieber (here over Otis) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBVXPYTzczU and Joe Budden (here over No Church in the Wild) do the rapping http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORzQbrLRfxc

[bob g]

...
-Kanye West has to stop rapping and just make beats like he used to. His verse on the song "Niggas in Paris" is unbearable, but his god damn beats are out of control. He just needs to make the beats, and let good rappers like Justin Bieber (here over Otis) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBVXPYTzczU and Joe Budden (here over No Church in the Wild) do the rapping http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORzQbrLRfxc

There must be a generational thing going on here. I can read your words but I have no idea what you are talking about. ;-)

[Briks42]

There must be a generational thing going on here. I can read your words but I have no idea what you are talking about. ;-)

Hahahaha, yeah, without a doubt. Though I bet there are a lot of people my age or younger who have trouble understanding me too.

[sking1001]

I usually make fun of Justin Bieber, but that was an incredible rap. Respect.

[Briks42]

Yeah, Biebs will win you over if you give him a chance. Although I think me or you could sound good over that beat.

[Briks42]

Saturday- 2/25/12

Bodyweight-195.8

Presses- 195x0 (fail) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOmVF...7vASPUSfU1kFPg
185x1
165x4

Weighted Chins- 75 (270.8 total) x 4
40 (235.8) x 9

Power Cleans- 135x1x2
145x1x2
155x1x2
165x1 http://startingstrength.com/resource...ad.php?t=29246

Up and down workout. I worked hard, but missed my big press attempt and struggled with powerclean form. On the press, I almost always get any rep that clears my head like that, but I let my left elbow flare out and once that happens I'm fucked. It was fucking CAB and WAB outside, which was annoying, but that doesn't change the fact that I shoulda had that lift. I weighed in at 195.8 preworkout in shorts and a t-shirt too, so that was basically a bodyweight attempt. Woulda been nice, but oh well. A year from now I'll be laughing at bodyweight presses, so in the long run its no big deal.

Did well on the chins. They are moving up slowly but surely. Might try a 300 pound weighted chin single sometime soon. I think I've got that.

Powercleans are a little bit of a mess but I worked hard and at least I'm trying. I gotta just pop my hips to get the weight up instead of arm pulling. I did some light hang cleans yesterday when I was at BBC spotting my mom, and I feel like I am getting the hang of it a little.

My plan is going to be to cycle the pulling movements like this: Rack Pulls, Powercleans, Deadlifts, Powercleans, repeat. I need more than 2 days between rack pulls and deads, and since I am still using light weights on the powercleans, they should be easy enough to recover from. My knee is a little sore but nothing I can't deal with, so I think this plan will work. I will now be deadlifting every 4 workouts instead of every 3, which will slow progress, but having the rack pulls in there should allow me to get stronger faster and not stall on the deadlift for a LONG time. I'd like to move up slow and steady to at least 405x5.



Last year on Facebook (I had Facebook for exactly 1 year, June 2010 through June 2011), I did something called the Bobscars. This was my own personal award show based on any Oscar eligible movies I had seen during the year. I can't remember all the winners but I think these were some of the results.

Best Lead Actress (best boobs)- Alice Eve (She's out of my League)
Smoovest Kid that'll run up in your baby's mother (best talk game)- Matthew Goode (Leap Year)
Best Comedic Duo- The Rock and Stephen Merchant (Tooth Fairy)
Best Supporting Actress (best ass)- Amy Adams (The Fighter)

There were a few more. I'm pretty sure The Expendables won for something, and I think Dinner for Schmucks got Most Disappointing. I actually think I bitched on picking best film because I couldn't decide between Tooth Fairy and The Expendables, but now that a year has gone by, Tooth Fairy would be the easy pick.

Anyway, so this year people keep asking me if I'm doing the Bobscars on Twitter. @briks42. I told them no, for 2 reasons. 1 is that Twitter simply isn't a good outlet for them. I like to do long writeups about the choices and 140 characters ruins that. 2 is that I only saw 3 Oscar eligible movies last year and one of them was Fast 5, so it would just be a clean sweep anyway. The only categories I could see not giving to Fast 5 would be the actress ones, which would probably have gone to that babysitter from Hall Pass for lead actress, and the Australian chick from Hall Pass for supporting actress (though Ann Heche was surprisingly close for supporting actress based on the pool scene in Cedar Rapids).

So no official Bobscars this year. If social media changes and I'm on Google+ next year or something, they could be back in 2013. We will see.

[Briks42]

Tuesday 2/28/12

Bodyweight- 199.4

Presses- 157.5x5x3

Weighted Chins- 50 (249.4 total) x 5 x 3

Rack Pulls- 365x5 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMeuF...7vASPUSfU1kFPg

This was a good night. Bodyweight is steadily climbing up. I was 190.4 on December 29, so I'm up 9 pounds in almost 9 weeks. That is a perfect pace to start the year.

I had never even gotten to 157.5x5x3 on presses on LP, and tonight I did it easily as part of my "volume" day (even though its only 3 sets). With my bodyweight up, I should be stronger obviously, but its nice to see it actually working.

I posted my rack pull video in Rip's Q&A http://startingstrength.com/resource...ad.php?t=29330. He said my back is unlocking and to de-load 20 pounds so that is what I'll do. I actually thought my back looked ok, but he's the expert.

I was surprised at how tough those rack pulls were though. I figured the 8-9 fewer inches of ROM would make a huge difference, but that is offset by mostly taking the quads out of the equation. I still used more weight than I could have deadlifted, so they are a little easier, but not much. My hammies were sputtering a little again on the last 2 reps, but I see that as a good thing as it means they are being worked properly. That is the point, for them to get used to the tension so they are ready to deadlift.

Its nice to be hitting my lower body a little harder now, especially while I'm in bulking mode. Between the deadlifts, powercleans, and rack pulls, I should be able to gain some lower body strength and mass even without squatting. I am in a good groove right now all around and should be able to continue it for a while.

I don't really have much to comment on outside of my workout today, so I'll just leave you with some tips for any potential actors out there..... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyoWmkhRyp8

[Briks42]

Thursday 3/1/12

Bodyweight- 199.2

Bench Press- 290x3
245x8

Hang Cleans- 75x3
95x2

Powercleans- 135x1
145x1x2
155x1x2
165x0 (F)
165x1x2
175x0 (F)
175x1x2 http://startingstrength.com/resource...ad.php?t=29378

Standing Curls- 9x45's
10x40s

Did well on the bench press. I have been making 5 pound jumps on the first set and have gotten 3 now from 280 up to 290, which I am happy about. And 245x8 on the backoff set is solid too. My right shoulder has been feeling a little weird, so I used a liftoff for these worksets which seemed to help. The sets themselves weren't bothering my shoulder as much as unracking the weight was.

Powercleans are another issue. If you look at the trainwreck from the link above, you will see how much of a disaster they are. But I'm now convinced that one (of many) reason for this is simply that my knee is not ready for these. I tried just doing simple jumps in my basement with no bar after my workout last night, and landing in a crouched position was very painful and my body was fighting hard against it. This (among other things) tells me I simply shouldn't be doing the lift yet. So I am putting them off for a while until my knee heals up. I haven't been pain-free in my knee in a long time and I would like to remember how that feels.

So my new plan is just to deadlift every other workout and do nothing else for the lower body. I'll be hitting the deads 3x per 2 weeks that way, which should get my hamstrings and low back enough work without being too hard on recovery considering I'm not doing anything else to wear out my lower body in between. The deadlifts don't really hurt my knee so hopefully they won't slow the healing process.

There are supposed to be T-storms all day tomorrow which could fuck up my press workout. We will see. I might just dealift and chin tomorrow and do the presses first thing Sunday morning if thats the case. We will see. I dont mind pressing in a little rain, but T-storms isn't happening for obvious reasons. The Sunday morning plan would make my Monday night press workout a little tough, but thats "volume" day anyway, which tends to be easier and I'm sure I could get through it on short rest.

I think I am gonna go to Pietros for dinner tonight. Its a coal-oven pizza joint and their shit is straight flames. I haven't been there in a while either. I'm pretty excited about that.

Also, March Madness day at Chickie's (AKA National Fight your Friends Day AKA "Enough is enough!" day) is officially 2 weeks away. Its probably the best day of the year. Last year Coys was fucking with some dude we didn't know's sister for a while, and eventually the dude just snapped and yelled "Enough is enough" and slammed an entire Chickie's pizza on Coys lap. It was probably the coolest thing that ever happened. Chickie's pizza is saucy as balls, so that shit was all over him. He tried to fight the dude, but we wouldn't let him. I hope that dude comes again this year, that would be a comeup on his part.

This is probably my favorite scene in The Wire. Avon is the fuckin man.

[Briks42]

Saturday 3/3/12

Bodyweight- 198.6

Presses- 195x1 (PR) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-WpA...7vASPUSfU1kFPg
175x3
155x7

Weighted Chins- 75 (273.6 total) x 4
40 (238.6 total) x 9

Deadlifts- 340x5

This was a great workout. Hit the PR press that I had failed last week. Not quite bodyweight because I weight in a few pounds higher, but I'm getting real close. I am going to attempt 200 in two weeks on that Friday morning. Since it will be a morning weigh-in, that is likely to be a bodyweight lift when I hit it. In November, I pressed 180 for a PR at a bodyweight of 192.4. 3.5 months later, I have added 15 pounds to my press while gaining 6.2 pounds of bodyweight. That is a great ratio and its great progress from a pure strength view too. Its a pace of almost 50 pounds on my press in 12 months. If my bodyweight gets to where I want by the end of 2012 (215 AT LEAST), I think a 225-235 press is definitely possible.

Deadlifts were real good too. I was in a good groove for this set and the weight exploded up. I tend to feel stronger when I feel I am over the bar a little more. I know most people try to feel like their weight is back for this lift, but for whatever reason that doesn't work for me. I have to feel a bit forward and out over the bar to get the proper leverage. The bar still stays right over my midfoot and drags right up my legs when I do this, so its definitely the way to go for me. This Wednesday I will be matching my 5 rep PR of 345 and starting next week, it'll be all new PR's going forward. I'm excited about that.

Sheaffer has requested me and Coys be on his next Strengthvillain podcast. Think I am gonna have to take him up on that. Fuck that cigar shit though. Thats nasty. I'll just bring a bunch of Bud bottles and get to the heart of a lot of important matters, like which is the best Saved by the Bell episode (tough choice).

Here's an important scene for you to think about. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bflYjF90t7c

Maybe Jessie wouldn't have had that problem if she considered the life lessons learned in this classic ep. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KO73-WlOHhM

[Staci Rudnitsky]

Nice work on that PR!

I wish you all the best in deciding upon the best Saved by the Bell episode - I'd be hard pressed to pick just one.