Stuffed Superdud: Bumpy road to respectable lifting

[idlehands]

Your log is fun to read. Wish there was video.

[Oldman]

Your log is fun to read. Wish there was video.

Video would be too awesome! Nice work, ssd!

[stuffedsuperdud]

Video would be too awesome! Nice work, ssd!

Your log is fun to read. Wish there was video.

In the near future. Right now there's not a lot worth showing; just me lifting light weights with inconsistent technique. We're actually filming the coach constantly, trying to catch all his -isms. "That is bullshit!" "Lift like a man! Not like a little girl! My God." "American weightlifting is shit because no system!" "HIGHER! CLOSER!" "Hey! Do like me!" etc etc. We're also making a dance compilation by splicing together all his antics when correcting us. Will post it if we ever finish it.

So today was kind of lame. I did:
Clean and jerk
40kgx3x2
60x2x2

2 cleans + jerk
75kgx3

CJ:
85x1
95x1
105x1x2

On the 105, we discovered a critical problem: I am pulling unevenly off the floor, possibly due to the uneven leg strength, or perhaps a bit of undiagnosed scoliosis. It creates an uneven rack and puts a ton of strain on the right shoulder, which might explain my tendonitis problems. Working to correct it now. It's always SOMETHING. First, I was jerking the bar into my chin. Then I lost the wrist flexibility and couldn't rack a jerk correctly. Then my shoulders changed an I couldn't rack a snatch correctly. Now I cannot do the easiest of the movements? Whack-a-mole has never been so frustrating. Damn this stupid sport.

We followed with a ton of reps at 60kg to try and solve the problem. We miiiight have it under control now.

Squats:
20kg x many
60x5
100x5
120x3
140x2
150x2x2
140x5

Firmly back in the 3-plate club and with a healthy knee to boot. We might be back on the road to 200kg. (but by then Idlehands will be at like 230....heh, remember when I was actually a bit ahead and thought I'd get to 200 first? That was cute of me, huh?)

Press:
40kgx5
50x5
60x5x2
65x5
70x5,4
Just trying to reacclimate.

And then shit got too real.
I was told to do 40m x 4 on the Prowler. "You are strong enough for now, but very out of shape. Must run." I got plenty cold though from stalling for many minutes before walking up to the guys working in and out of the sled, so....this happened:
Prowler x 180lbs x AWESOME POSSUM!!!
I managed to pull my left calf about 5m into the first trip. Had to limp back while awkwardly leaving the sled in the middle of the road. I guess the good news is it's square in the middle of the muscle belly, so I'm not expecting more than a week or two before I am back to 100%. It was more embarrassing than anything else, though don't get me wrong. It was plenty painful too, as if someone had shot me with a BB. Now doing RICE. Guess I'll finally get to take my turn on the Starr protocol after all these years. Blah.

In more concerning news, the old man spent all of today tired and coughing, and said he had been going through coughing and fatigue fits these past few months. In the nearly two years since I've known him, this was the first time he came off as mortal. I've been a cancer researcher for years and on top of that, this shit has hit home a few times too many in the past few months, so it's making me awfully nervous given that in traditional Soviet Bloc weightlifter style, he's been a pack-a-day guy all his life. I insisted he get it checked out, and he revealed that his wife has been on his ass about it for a month now, so he'll finally comply. Fingers crossed; I'm tired of seeing this shit happen to people.

[stuffedsuperdud]

12/14/2014
I took a few days off to let the calf calm down. Lots of ice and compression. Was walking normally by Thursday, but squats + the classic lifts are still out. Got restless today though so I went by a globogym and did:

Press:
45x10
95x5
115x5
135x5
145x5
155x5
160x5
165x5

My wrist was annoyed and this is a far cry from the 165x5x5 that I was at before all my shit hit the fan two months ago, but the reps weren't hard either, except for the very last one, so not the end of the world. MY shoulders actually felt better than before, probably due to the recent mobility work, and the movement was a bit smoother. Here's to gains in a week or two?

Will resume proper training tomorrow, perhaps.

[stuffedsuperdud]

Kind of back in the saddle, i.e. first day back at the lifting gym since my Prowler mishap. The old man goes, "Hey, so what happened exactly?" The gym owner came out and told the story. Everyone had a good chuckle, except the coach himself, who went, "Oh my god. You suck!"...and then he joined in the laughter.

For today, since I had to take it easy:

No-feet snatch, to avoid calf stress:
20kgx many
30x3x2
40x3x2
50x3x2
60x3x2
65x3x2 (botched a few)
60x3

Hang high pull + no feet hang snatch
40kg x3x3
45x3x3

These are fun, though Rip would probably call it "pussy barbell gymnastics bullshit." The purpose is to reinforce a straight-line pull (for you, Rip!), something I continue to struggle with. Felt really crisp at the end though. "We're getting there! Just need to clean up a few bugs!"

I had a really awkward moment though. The old man was doing his own training while watching me, and was warming up his cleans with 40kg as I was doing likewise with the snatches. Well, he yelled at me to do another set, and in my haste, I wandered on his platform and put my hands on his barbell. No homo? Might has well have surprised him from behind at the urinal, right? Time to kill myself. Oh wait he'll probably spare the the trouble and do it himself.

Front squat:
60kgx5
100x4
110x3x3 Easy

Watching that calf and knee. On Day 1 here, 60kg x1 bothered the knee. Today, no issue. Progress, I guess.

Press:
135x4
145x4
150x4x2
155x4x2
I found out that when I rack my press, it's uneven too, just like when I rack a clean! We're trying to diagnose the issue now; it could be anything from just a bad habit to a fatal asymmetry.

Character development:
45lb back extensions + 5lb decline situps meh

[Matt Bickford]

You are a resilient SOB, sir. Props to you.

[Oldman]

Nice comeback, ssd! I'm also hoping that the coach's cough checks out OK...

[Músculo-Tonto]

and in my haste, I wandered on his platform and put my hands on his barbell. No homo? Might has well have surprised him from behind at the urinal, right?

You would have been better off actually being homo. That would have been forgivable.
---

Time to kill myself. Oh wait he'll probably spare the the trouble and do it himself.

Tell him to call me if he wants some assistance.

Character development:

Re-learning gym etiquette; the price for touching someone else's bar.

M-T

[stuffedsuperdud]

Could not train these past few days due to work craziness. Got some lifting in today. Only a little bit though, as I had to go to an ugly sweater party soon after.

Recall last time I was diagnosed with an asymmetric clean and jerk. We spent all of today debugging. It appears that the clean itself comes off the floor a bit asymmetric, due either to the lingering strength imbalance from the knee injury or an undiagnosed scoliosis. It then racks itself evenly. However, when I stand up and adjust my hands, it becomes uneven again, with the bar shifting to my right. The weight rests pretty solidy on my left shoulder, but separates from the shoulder at the right and the weight all falls onto my hand, which introduces weird wrist/shoulder stress as well as a dramatic power leak. This could be a back, shoulder, or wrist problem. Weeeiird.

We discovered a potential fix though: if when I stand up I do not adjust my hands, and keep the open-handed position, the bar rests squarely on both shoulders. I just have to get used to "catching" the bar as it rises during the jerk.

With this I CJ'ed my way up to 80kg easy. Might keep it going forward, though the asymmetry will still have to be better understood / corrected for. Bleh.

ALSO: my elbow lockout sucks, esp my right side, so I was forced to do press 20kgx10x5 with the empty bar, and really fire the triceps hard at the top. Caught a sick pump. To my left, the Cuban coach was curling the bar for fun...so I guess 45lb curls are back on the menu, boys!

Then off to a bad Christmas party. Hooray.

EDIT: The coach was diagnosed with a nasty lung infection and is now on the same antibiotics I was on last week. Even though he had been suffering for months, whereas my case showed up after I started training with him, he spent all of today telling everyone that he had caught it from me, that he was so dedicated to coaching that when his lifters suffer, he gets sympathetic illnesses.

He also told us how much fun it is to lift drunk, so let's keep that idea on the table, eh? His training camp back in the 1970s was on a Soviet-run army base, so of course everyone was shithoused all the time. (Thank goodness none of these assholes ever impulsively pushed the big red button, huh?) Well, apparently, the gym was between the bar and the dorm, so these guys would get hammered and then on the way back someone would suggest a clean and jerk contest. No warmups, of course, and the bar would start a 100kg for the little guys. "So much fun! Now I have to warm up to clean 40kg. SUCKS!"

Good times.

[stuffedsuperdud]

Since I had to cut it short yesterday, I stopped by the gym to do:

Squat:
45lb x10x2
135x5
225x5
315x5
325x5
335x5
345x5
350x5

All felt easy and the symmetry is good, which I take it to mean that the left knee is closing in on 100% (about damn time!).

I've been watching The Fall, that BBC show starring Gillian Anderson (I was in love with her all through the late 1990s "I want to believe!" and she might very well be even hotter now than she was then) and it's been.....hard to watch, for reasons the crew did not intend. Briefly, Gillian Anderson and her team at the Police Service of Northern Ireland are tracking a strangler attacking young women in Belfast.

This is the strangler:


Basically a DYEL failure who doesn't know how to fight, yet all his kills involve him easily overpowering his victims in their homes with his bare hands, and I can't help but think, "Huh..maybe if she trained, she wouldn't die such a preventable death." I got confused by how pathetic this looked and even asked some of my lady friends if these scenes seemed realistic, and they all agreed that they probably would die if that happened to them. I asked if they wanted to learn to fight/lift (my new gym has Krav Maga and MMA and it's super fun! I've been playing around with those guys, by can't hang for more than a few minutes on account of shitty conditioning...so nothing with logging yet, I am afraid :P), and they all agreed again that that didn't sound like fun and that they would rather just take their chances with the creepers. Sounds good.

I don't know where I am going with this. I guess my point is, it's a lot of fun being big and strong and useful, and scary and nervewracking being weak?

EDIT: Speaking of the ladiezzz, in case anyone is wondering what happened to Cancergirl, she was overwhelmed by some completely avoidable BS at work and couldn't summon the energy to train, and then there was the period where I was out of town for a month with my own nonsense, and she didn't want to train alone. She misses it though, esp. when she struggles to lift what should not have been heavy things, like a 50lb sack of kitty litter the other week. She thought she was finally going to get a reprieve from work and was excited to lift again, but then found out that that LOL her entire department has been cut from the unsustainable budget and that she was suddenly out of a job. Bleh. So the joke is that now she has all day to train, but the way she was dumped and the job searching is definitely taking a toll on her. I'm hoping that training can be what puts her back in a more positive state of mind, but that hasn't happened yet.

On a more positive note, clean CT scan and mammogram though, so there's that. Surviving the C-monster really puts things in perspective.