Wolf's Log: From Cub to Direwolf

[Michael Wolf]

I asked the super and all he knew is that it's wood with "some metal beams underneath." No details, how thick they are, how far apart, etc...he doesn't know. For several reasons that are a combination of too long & annoying to type out and that I can't share in a public forum, I can't put down a platform there squatting and pulling heavy there isn't an option.

[Michael Wolf]

Rough day today. My back was a bit fatigued going in, and although the plates at this new gym are quality Ivanko bumpers, they're still thicker than iron. At 2 and even 3 plates, I didn't notice but with 4 plates on there was noticeably more bar bend/whippiness/oscillation than I'm used to. Threw me off some. But at least I did get to use the same type of bar I'm used to (B&R) and also lift on a decent platform, which I didn't get to do regularly before.

Note: The gym has mostly kilo plates, but one set each of small plates in lbs (2.5 and 1.25). For convenience and ease of comparison, I am going to keep listing weights in pounds, counting the bar as 45lbs, as I have been doing.

Squat
446x5,5,5,4
Notes: A spot of a few inches long on my right spinal erector (the hyperactive side) was just fried so I didn't go down for the last rep of the last set. Maybe I should have, but I didn't have spotters and I hadn't really tested the spotter arms on this rack I was squatting in for the first time, to make sure they were high enough. I think this was enough work for the day to have the intended effect, but it does suck not making a planned rep. Rest started at 7 min and was at 10 mins before the last two sets. Perhaps another minute or two would've been helpful for the last set, but I didn't know it at the time. Needed 15 min before I could start cleaning.

Power Clean
45x6, 89x2, 133x2, 177x2, 204x2, 226x2, 248x1
Clean Pull
298x2, 342x2, 375x2, 397x2
Notes: Cleans weren't snappy, but were better than I expected after being so destroyed from the squats. I started splitting a bit at 226, so just did one more at 248 and switched. They weren't fast today, but I got enough speed to get up on my toes and shrug at 397, which is a PR.

Sled Push
Sled + 35kg x 7 round trips, 90s rest
Notes: Kind of lame because the entire distance to push is only about 50ft, and the sled is about 5ft, so one way is only about 40ft of actual pushing. So a round trip is ~80 ft including the turn-around. The sled itself has a carpet of some type attached to the bottom because it was ruining the wood floor when they first got it, so there's a lot of friction. I might need to lighten to 30kg and reduce rest to 60s to get the intended effect here. There is no C2 Rower in the place, so that's not an option. I could versa climb, but that tends to fry my legs too. We'll see.

[medwards]

Could you rent a storage unit and make it into a personal gym?

[Michael Wolf]

Could you rent a storage unit and make it into a personal gym?

I suppose I could look into the legality of this, everything is so regulated here that I wouldn't be surprised if there's a city ordinance against it, or if the storage companies themselves have an issue with it.

However, even if I could, I'm not sure it's practical. These places tend to be far out on the edges of the city, making travel time an issue. And they actually cost quite a bit here. I could deal with the 8' ceiling height they all seem to have, but a quick bit of google and link clicking says we're talking about ~$450-$650/month for a 100-150 sq ft storage unit space, which is about what I'd need for a personal gym. I feel that much money is better used saving up for opening an eventual real space, or moving and doing so.

[Dwayne_KONG_Wint]

How far are you from Jason manenkoff's Iron Arena in Hoboken?

[Michael Wolf]

How far are you from Jason manenkoff's Iron Arena in Hoboken?

As the bird flies, it's probably only 2 miles away from me. But I've gotta cross the Hudson. It's a ~35 minute trip assuming you catch the train as soon as you enter the station, but the train only runs every 35 minutes at that time of day, so it's basically an hour+ each way. The ridiculousness of the situation is hard to describe.

EDIT: I would personally be more than happy to travel an hour or more each way for a place to train that meets the standard of an aspiring nationally competitive lifter (aka me). No problem. The issue is that I don't have that much time to spare and still make it back in time for my full schedule of evening training clients, who are mostly pretty serious about their training, but still regular folks, not competitive lifters for whom the little things make as big a difference. Which is why they can lift in the places we use, no problem, but the limitations for me are an issue. However, not so big of an issue that it's unusable. Though the changes as a result of squatting with bumpers today threw me off a bit, it's more than adequate enough that I'll make it work for now, until and unless I find something better that I can use.

[Dwayne_KONG_Wint]

Go on Intensity Day and make intensity day your day off from training trainees. Do you have a day off from work?

[medwards]

I suppose I could look into the legality of this, everything is so regulated here that I wouldn't be surprised if there's a city ordinance against it, or if the storage companies themselves have an issue with it.

However, even if I could, I'm not sure it's practical. These places tend to be far out on the edges of the city, making travel time an issue. And they actually cost quite a bit here. I could deal with the 8' ceiling height they all seem to have, but a quick bit of google and link clicking says we're talking about ~$450-$650/month for a 100-150 sq ft storage unit space, which is about what I'd need for a personal gym. I feel that much money is better used saving up for opening an eventual real space, or moving and doing so.

I know nothing of your fair city except what I've seen on cop shows. Seems their always finding stuff hidden in storage units, and they seem huge on the shows. TV has let me down again.

[idlehands]

And for a good chunk of those two years I had issues that prevented me from training the DL either hard for PRs, or at all. Really consistent hard work does pay off. Even though this 445x5 was clearly sub-maximal, if you had told me that two years later I'd hit 575x5, I'd have been thrilled.

Man. How tall are you ? Cause if you went from 235 to 265 and your dead went from 445+ to 575 i may need to rethink my diet ! Cause my 5rm dead is under 500 and I'm 240ish now. Your log is always helpful man !

[Michael Wolf]

Go on Intensity Day and make intensity day your day off from training trainees. Do you have a day off from work?

I train people in the morning, lunch, and evening Mon-Thurs; and morning and lunch Friday. I've had a Friday evening client for a while now, but was able to switch her to Wednesday nights recently, so that's now free. I take the afternoon hours for my own training. Then on Saturday I see people from 10-3. Currently take Sundays off. Usually. Though seminars are on weekends and I will also be doing a once monthly either camp or small group session on Sundays now to accommodate the increasing amount of SS requests I've been getting, so I'll probably end up working like 3/8 Sundays anyway. Probably not consistent enough to make it part of my training schedule.

Although since I now currently have no clients after lunch on Fridays, so if I can manage to say no to enough people, I can keep that open and perhaps go Friday for squat intensity and heavy pulling. That might work. It'll a schlep to walk a mile each way to and from the train station to his gym with two belts, shoes, etc...but maaaaaaybe worth it.

It's ironic that there is probably the most demand in the country for regular people wanting to learn and do SS Style training here, yet the same place has the least decent options in which to do it. That's one of the main reasons I'm still here. Despite my understanding the inherent logic in the fact that I could open a gym much sooner and more easily if I were elsewhere, the fact is that without doing any advertising, I've gotten about 30 emails in the past 7 weeks inquiring about getting coaching from me for Starting Strength. People who are ready to come in and do it, don't need to be convinced of it or sold on it. Some might balk at 1-on-1 PT Prices in Manhattan, but most do not. For an individual operator without a facility, that's a ridiculously huge amount of "hot" leads for a 7 week period. It's been steadily rising since I came on board 2+ years ago.

The demand is so strong here, it's hard to throw that away. A lot of the people who contact me skim through my site and don't read it carefully, so are disappointed when I tell them I don't have a gym, nor do I have a strong recommendation on places nearby to train. I tell them the few local places I know where they can get by better than the average, or if they have the time to go out further, the several better options that exist in Brooklyn or Hoboken etc... But most are Manhattan-centric and are looking for a place here. You'd think with this many inquiries, someone with both the interest and financial resources would have stumbled upon me by now, but that hasn't happened yet.