Wolf's Log: From Cub to Direwolf

[Michael Wolf]

Back wasn't bad when I woke up yesterday but got stiffer and worse as they day went on. By the time I got home from work at night, I was worried I might have underestimated it (yet again). But it's a lot better today, and I was able to train light on it and it generally felt better during training than before, so maybe it is just a small tweak after all.

Squat
45x8x3, 95x5, 135x5x2, 185x5, 205x5, 225x5x2
Notes: Did these slow and without a bounce at the bottom, so I could really focus on and control my position. Back was a bit tight and slow to warm up, so the first couple empty bar sets were slightly high, but warmed up and was fine after that. Put on belt at 185.

Press
45x10, 75x5, 105x5, 125x5, 145x5, 165x5, 175x3
Push Press
95x2, 115x2, 135x2, 145x2, 155x2
Notes: These were fine, just wanted to stay light. Belted for 165 and 175 only. In the press, I used the light weight to try a slight variation on the Press 2.0 where I use a reach, but a smaller reach, and actively use my arms to help initiate the bounce of the bar. The goal here is to give me some pop from the bottom in a way such that I don't have to worry about my knees unlocking. It didn't feel as awkward as I thought it would, but wasn't exactly smooth, either. I may stick with it or may abandon it as I work back up, not sure yet.

Push presses were just to practice, since I'm very out of practice using that kind of leg drive. All felt fine on my back.

Deadlift
145x5
Off 1.5" Mat
145x5x2
Sumo DL off 1.5" Mat
145x5x3
Notes: DLs felt OK but I wanted to raise the plates up a little for a slightly better and more comfortable starting position for my back. Felt better after that. Did some sumo for literally the first time ever. Felt weird.

Prowler Walks - high handles
1x empty ~100 feet
1x 70lbs ~100 ft
2x 90lbs ~100 ft
1x 110lbs ~ 140 ft
1x 90lbs ~140ft

[wk105]

265 is a huge press! I'm sure 275 will fall for you soon.

back tweak

To hell with back tweaks!

Sully's comment about them here is characteristically wise:

'Here's the skinny on musculoskeletal back pain. It gets better . And eventually it comes back. And then it gets better again. Repeat until death occurs from unrelated causes. That is the natural history of most back pain. As has been said here, many times I would guess, it's better to have recurrent back pain and a strong back than recurrent back pain and a weak back. But recurrent back pain is the human condition.'

[Michael Wolf]

Sully is a smart man. And thankfully, this seems to be a normal person tweak and not a Wolf's disease tweak. It'll take some time to be back to normal, but it's getting better pretty quickly.

Squat
45x8x2, 95x5, 135x5, 185x5, 225x5, 255x5, 275x5, 305x5
Notes: All easy, back felt ok, warmed up faster than Tuesday.

Press
45x10, 95x8, 135x5, 165x5, 185x5, 205x3
Push Press
95x2, 115x2, 135x2, 155x2, 170x2, 185x2
Notes: Presses were good, felt easier than Tuesday. Push presses were fine till the 185 set. May need to tweak my grip there a bit.

Deadlift
145x5, 165x5, 185x5, 205x5
Notes: All off the floor today, felt fine. Back is still stiff, a little painful when bending over, but overall already much better. Main thing I've done (other than these lighter squats and DLs) is icing.

Chins
BWx3x2
Notes: Didn't hurt but could still feel the very slightest bit of pulling in that upper pec area. Was hoping it'd be gone by now.

[sking1001]

Gosh I know I'm really late to the game, but congrats on the press PR, and beautiful squatting. How awesome it must feel to be able to squat heavy again. I can't wait to get back to some heavy weights!

Oh, and in my feeble opinion, 5-7 minutes between attempts is not enough time.

[Michael Wolf]

Gosh I know I'm really late to the game, but congrats on the press PR, and beautiful squatting. How awesome it must feel to be able to squat heavy again. I can't wait to get back to some heavy weights!

Oh, and in my feeble opinion, 5-7 minutes between attempts is not enough time.

Thanks Steve.

[Michael Wolf]

Today was good, and even though I did something dumb, I don't think it caused any problems.

Squat
45x8x2, 135x5, 185x5, 225x5, 275x5, 315x5, 345x5, 375x5, 405x3
Notes: All fast, though I was a bit more out of breath than I expected on the later sets. Back felt ok throughout, and again felt better the more I squatted.

Bench Press
45x10, 135x5, 185x5, 225x5, 255x5, 275x5
Notes: Just testing it out. Felt heavier in my hands than I'm used to, but that's just due to not having done the lift in a few weeks. Once I started focused, the reps were fast. But, like chins yesterday, though it didn't hurt at all, I could still feel the area that was sensitive before. I usually have a very good feel for these things, but in this case can't tell whether working it will be part of the healing process or if it's not quite ready yet.

Deadlift
135x5, 185x5, 225x5x2, 275x5
Notes: Felt fine, got really squoze every rep. Overall back still a little tight and uncomfortable in deep flexion but already a lot better than 4 days ago. Should be back to normal squatting very soon and pulling a bit after.

Then I did the stupid thing. Some of the young bucks at the gym were doing progressively higher box jumps, and despite my usual reasonable and rational thought process, my competitive juices overtook me and I joined in.

Despite not having done a box jump in somewhere between 5-7 years, and weighing ~275 right now (a little extra chub), and having already lifted (albeit not too heavy), I managed to land a 48" box jump after a very brief warm-up of 3-4 jumps onto a 24" and one onto a 45". Not amazing but nothing to be ashamed of either; higher than all but 1 or 2 of the kids who were doing it. I guess squatting heavy works, or something.

The deep flexion position where you pull your knees up to land on a much higher box than your vertical jump would allow is exactly what irritates my back, so it was dumb as hell. But 5 hours later now, still doesn't seem to have caused any problem or back-slid my recovery.

[Michael Wolf]

Starting back on regular programming today, building up from a couple steps back. I'm going to try to run out some more progress on the 4 day TM split I've been running a variation of for about 18 months now, but feel I'm close to the end of being able to progress as quickly as week to week (already switched off weekly increases in the DL about a year ago).

Press
45x5, 95x10, 135x5, 165x5, 185x5x3, 195x5x2
Notes: Building back up volume. A little harder than expected but not really hard. Mostly probably because when I know it's a weight below capacity, I don't get quite as mentally ready or physically tight.

Also did my usual squat warm-up today with totally naked knees for the first time since ???? Maybe last fall. Knees don't feel perfectly fine, but soooooo much better than before. My right knee has also been bothering me, which I haven't mentioned because there were so many worse things happening that I was dealing with, but I suspect something has been going on in there for a while now. Regardless, felt great to squat up to 165x5 without anything on my knees and not have it be painful.

Bench Press
45x20
95x20x4
Notes: Doing a Starr-esque protocol for the pec thing, since rest alone wasn't enough to return to heavy benching (which isn't a surprise, but I kind of put bench to the side while thinking about the total and then back tweak).

Also, I hate high rep shit. For the record. "The burn" sucks, period.

Deadlift
135x10x3
Notes: Just to get some low back blood flow. Back is feeling a lot better but not 100% yet. Will probably pull 325x5 tomorrow, 135x10x3 again Thursday, and 365x5 on Friday.

BW Rows
4 sets of 8
Notes: Since both were light, did these alternating with the push presses, on fairly short rest. Since chins and pull-ups still irritate my pec (tried both), wanted to get some UB pulling in. This was an easy way to build back up. Used the barbell in the rack set at about ASIS height.

Push Press Practice
95x2, 125x2, 145x2x3
Notes: Got a slightly better feel for the grip I want to take today, but timing is still eh.

Handstand Holds
5x ~10 seconds
Notes: Just getting back into some upside down silliness.

Not really logging it anymore, but continuing to do banded TKEs with an emphasis on slower eccentric almost every workout.

[tmcnulty]

Wolf, nice lifting on Sunday; squats lookin smooth, and congrats on the press PR. I agree that you seemed to have the strength for 625 but that the lift sorta got away from you. I like how you started to draw a crowd as time went on. Good luck with the back tweak.

[John Petrizzo]

Happy to see the back tweak does not seem to be all that serious, Wolf.

[Michael Wolf]

Good day today.

Squat
45x8x2, 135x5, 225x5, 315x5, 365x5(b) @ 5.5, 405x5x3(b) @ 6,6,7
Notes: Planned on ramping to [365,385,405]x5 today, but things were popping so I did more and it was still easy. Hardest thing was the conditioning aspect. Nice when you get a day like that. I didn't push it more because I'm not really adapted to much volume yet, but this was fun and encouraging. Back felt 100% fine during squatting.

This is the 2nd set at 405:


Deadlift
135x5, 225x5, 275x5, 325x5, 225x5
Notes: All easy, back felt good. Also, used the iPhone level fairly meticulously and discovered the part of the floor I DL'd on last Sunday is ~4 degrees higher on the left than the right (acc to my limited understanding of these things, and if the thing is actually accurate) which explains why the left side came up first and I got twisted. So perhaps it wasn't a technique issue at all, just a poorly planned place to use for heavy attempts. Flooring in Manhattan is a nightmare. I have literally never seen a perfectly level entire floor anywhere here. There are places where it's level, large enough to lift on, but you have to find them. But an entire floor, never seen it. I need to do more work with the level, but I think I found a decent place to pull.

Sled Push
Bit of a mix and match today with different weights, rests, and distances due to turf availability, but they did start to irritate my back when I put more weight on and went faster so cut it short. Did 7 rounds altogether. Hopefully this will be fine by next week.

Also, might as well mention here that I am currently - get ready for this shocker - cutting. I want to make the 120kg class in USAPL, and need to lose a bit of weight to do so. I'd like to - and should - be able to do that without needing to cut water right before the meet, so I'd like to get back down to my previous normal walking around weight of about 265. I've been 260-270 basically the past 2-2.5 years, but gained some weight during my comeback from December through Feb as I ate basically anything I wanted to and went from 259-276. 259 was after 4 months of not being able to train hard, with slightly reduced eating but not too much. I was 274.4 as of this morning. Things were easier when the weight class was 275 like the other feds!