mattciupak's SS log: wrestling with bears

[mattciupak]

Friday, June 08, 2012

walk to gym

squat: 310x5x2, 310x4
press: 130x4x3
+chins: 185x7, 6; 110x12-->8
+DB rows: 40x20
+back decompression

walk home

ok. I did it. I failed my last set. could have been avoided. my fault for going to the park and playing football yesterday and then not eating enough and not doing my homework earlier in the day. didn't have much energy at all today. 5th rep of each set was good morning'd. basically my chest dropped, bar rolled up into high bar position, and I did a rounded back good morning. it was pretty bad first set, got worse the second and I still have no idea how I got that rep, and the third I just failed the rep because the bar kept moving forward. I was anticipating putting 3 plates on the bar on Monday, but that'll have to wait. it's alright, I have time.

if I got my technique right from the start I would have had 5 reps all sets on the press. wasn't staying tight enough, abs and lower back were pumped as fuck from the squats so the hip extension/drive/whatever the fuck it's called wasn't too good. need to remember to keep the bar close to my face next time as well.

[Mr.City]

Maybe you shouldn't do things that eat into your recovery.

[mattciupak]

Maybe you shouldn't do things that eat into your recovery.

I know I shouldn't, especially now. i'll be home all weekend recovering for Monday.

videos from yesterday.

[mattciupak]

Monday, June 11, 2012

walk to gym

squat: 310x5x3
bench: 175x5x2, 175x4
PC: 57.5x3x2 (kg)

walk home

knees coming in during squat. ugly reps. was rushing these for some reason.

my bench press is going backwards...

[mattciupak]

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

walk to gym

squat: 245x5x2
press: 130x5x3
deadlift: 280x5

walk home

squats were horrible. nothing was right.

press was ok.

i'm giving up on the deadlift. thousands of people have been "gripping it and ripping it" for years with flexed lumbars and have somehow managed to stay injury free, but not me. I get injured deadlifting 280 fucking pounds. fantastic.



i'm gonna stop using the belt, stop taking such large jumps, and deload by a lot, probably to less than 225. at this point I really couldn't give any less a shit about the deadlift. it hasn't gotten me any stronger and it's only causing me problems. if I keep doing it the way i'm doing it now i'll probably sustain a much more serious injury.

by the way, bodyweight has jumped all the way up to 199. that's after taking a shit. I haven't changed my diet at all.

[mattciupak]

Friday, June 15, 2012

squat: 315x5, 315x4, 315x0
bench: 175x5x3
RDL: 45x20x2, 95x20x2
+lat pulldown chins: 185x6x2, 185x3
+cable row: 90x20

walk home

played football earlier today. horrible idea. I drank nearly a gallon of milk before and after to try and make up for it. fucked up my middle finger playing. feels broken, I hope it's not. gripping the bar was pretty hard.

first set of squats was nice. knees forward in the hole due to lack of tightness, most likely due to belt being not as tight as it was on Monday/Wednesday, but whatever. I didn't GM the last rep as much as I did with 310. I rested like 7 or 8 minutes and only ended up getting 4 reps. I think I could have gotten the 5th but I just gave up. I don't remember what was going through my head at the time. third set I may have rested too long. didn't even get one rep. failed the first rep. i'll blame it on the football. and maybe my back.

bench was alright but squeezing the bar was hard because of my fucking finger.

didn't want to pull off the floor because my back is still bothering me from Wednesday so I did RDL's instead. concentrating on keeping my abs tight as fuck and using my lats to keep the bar close. I think i've been forgetting about my abs completely when i'm deadlifting with a belt. i don't get a good enough valsalva when I deadlift now that I think about it, maybe that's my problem. I focus entirely on getting my back set but I think it's actually causing me to push my abs out instead of contract them.

[mattciupak]

Monday, June 18, 2012

walk to gym

squat: 315x5x3
press: 132.5x5x3
RDL: 95x20

walk home

it was alright.

I need to remember to take bigger breaths on every exercise. it's something I haven't been emphasizing enough lately.

back still hurts. not sure if deadlifts on Wednesday.

squats:

[mattciupak]

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

walk to gym

squat: 250x5x3
bench: 177.5x5x3
deadlift: 135x5, 185x3, 225x5, 135x5, 135x5

it was alright

i'm finally done with school. that means I can stop dicking around and start recovering properly.

squats were ok. knees moved around a little too much.

bench was ok. spot/spot/no spot. leg drive was pretty solid.

back doesn't hurt anymore (knock on wood). after deadlifting last week I couldn't even bend over without letting out a grunt of pain. decided to take it easy anyway. no more belt for now. I never learned how to deadlift properly and I just put on the belt like it would fix everything. i'm not gonna use the belt until I actually know how to deadlift.
I tried to mimic Vince Urbank's deadlift because it seems like we have similar-ish anthropometry, despite him being like 8 inches taller than me. my hamstrings were a bit tight, probably from the squats on Monday and the RDLing i've been doing lately. need to stretch them for next week so I could get into a better start position. I was mainly thinking about keeping my chest up, valsalvaing really hard, and keeping weight on heels in start position. I think it worked pretty well, but this was all light weight.

[hamburgerfan]

Have you thought about doing a Bill Starr routine or something similar if you're having trouble recovering?

[mattciupak]

Have you thought about doing a Bill Starr routine or something similar if you're having trouble recovering?

nope. now that I can sleep for as long as I need and eat more meat I think I should be fine. I don't think I should be having trouble at all right now, considering how low my lifts are.