Wolf's Log: From Cub to Direwolf

[sking1001]

I get a lot of comments about the electric blue color. Eye catching, it would seem. I do pull in them. Always. Have done so for about 3 years now.

There have been a billion threads here about pulling in lifting shoes vs barefoot vs chucks vs vibrams vs whatever other minimalist shoe you want to mention. Some people really like their flat shoes, but I've felt, from the first time I pulled in them, that I got a greater advantage from the incompressible sole that articulates fully and evenly with the floor, than any disadvantage from having to pull the bar 3/4" higher. I pulled in minimalist shoes for ~2years but after my first workout in the lifting shoes, I never went back.

I totally agree. Mine are grey, and I like pulling in them too. I did a short cycle in socks just to see the difference. Thanks for giving your perspective.

[Michael Wolf]

Easy recovery lift today. I could have waited till tomorrow and gone heavy, but that would have thrown my entire weekly lifting schedule off for yet another week. This organization will work better to get me back on a normal schedule.

Squats
45x5x2, 125x5, 225x5, 315x5x2
Easy, but my legs were still a big stiff and sore from Wednesday's lift, primarily the haltings. Felt better after the squats than before, a decent indication I chose a good weight.

Power Cleans
135x3, 155x3, 175x3, 195x3, 205x3, 215x3x2
Went conservative here, since I'll be squatting heavy and doing rack pulls on Monday.

Rowed four 200m/1m rest intervals at a very conservative pace.

[Michael Wolf]

Well. It happened today. As I posted on facebook: "I knew the day would come when linear progress on squats would no longer cooperate. And each time I trained, I said "not today" like Syrio Forel taught Arya Stark to say to the god of death. Well kids, today the bar was stronger than my words. And legs. And back."

However, there are some circumstances that may mean it was just a bad day and not the end of LP:
1. I lifted at 9am, instead of my usual afternoon workout, and I am NOT a morning person.
2. I only ate once before lifting, and I usually eat 3x. And what I ate wasn't ideal: 6 eggs and a small packet of cashews. So could have been low energy.
3. I felt "off" today from the get-go. Even my 295x2 warmup felt bad, and 365x1 didn't feel good either. None of my reps felt crisp or "right." I didn't have anyone watching me, but I felt like something was off today.
4. Only 5+ hours sleep last night.
5. The place I'm now lifting as of last week doesn't have a uniform, hard floor platform. It has those 2x2 rubber tiles, and the rack is position exactly so that when I squat, my feet are on the cracks of the tiles and not articulating flush on with the solid floor.
6. I've only had 5 days, not 7, to recover from my last heavy pulling workout, which was also the first time in months I've done Haltings, so body may need extra time to adjust.

Now, all of those things could also just be excuses and it could be I'm just too weak to do 415x5x3. So I will attempt it again Friday. If it goes, great. If not, probably time to change to programming.

Squats
45x5x2; 135x5; 225x3; 295x2; 365x1; 415x5,4; 435x2
Everything felt heavy starting with 295. The first 415x5 set was much tougher than I expected. I rested a long time, and 2nd set was still hard. Rep #4 was such an absolute all-out grind, there was no point in even going down for a 5th. I barely got 4. I was pissed, and also knew no way a 3rd set of 5 was even close to happening. So I did a double at 435 (only 5lbs off my 1-rep PR). 1st rep was pretty easy/smooth, 2nd was hard but not too bad.

Bench
45x5, 135x5, 195x3, 245x2, 295x5x3
Slowing down a bit, hard, but got them all. May go 297.5 next time.

Rack Pulls - from just below kneecap
185x4, 305x2, 425x1, 515x5
Easier than I expected, though I wouldn't say "easy." Will go up 10-15lbs next time.

[Michele Knaub]

yeah, circumstances making me doubt you're done.

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

Just a thought, besides the obvious "issues" leading to today's miss.....

You think there's any benefit to changing programming BEFORE a stall occurs? Because by definition, failed reps constitute a supreme challenge to your system thereby requiring significant recovery time and thus, a reset might take a while until actual strength increase occurs. I go back and forth on this stuff sometimes in my own stupid head.

[Mac Ward]

So, doctor, what will you do? What the book calls for, or will we forge ahead on our own?

[Rob Israel]

Sorry to hear about your miss-- you had a nice run!

My two cents is that number 5 caused number 4 and maybe number 6 played a role. The rest of them I wouldn't fret that much over unless you did some crazy cardio the day before. (i.e. your food intake)

I agree about trying it again. As per Jordan's comment-- after reading Andy Baker say it over and over, I would vote don't reset, just move on. Sure, repeat this weight, but from there just keep going up one way or another, whether it be the continuation of the LP or an intermediate program.

I'll be happy to program your TM squat layout for you ;-)

[bob g]

...
Not old Bob, cool. Damn cool. You saw Butkus and Sayers in their prime!!! Dick freakin' Butkus, arguably the greatest linebacker of all time! Probably Ernie Banks too, for the Cubs? Damn. Besides, my Dad's got a good 7 years on you, and no way I'm ready to admit HE'S old yet!

OK, my Wrigley Field baseball story:
I don’t remember the year but it was ’65 or ’66 and my grandfather had a day off from the steel mill. He was a foreman at USS and did shift work in the blast furnace. He had a day off in the middle of the week and drove the length of the city from the East Side to our place on the far north side to take me to a ball game. We took the Clark Street bus down to the ball park and found some seats on the third base side. I remember that it was a cool, sunny day and there was hardly anyone in the stands which was typical in those years. The Cubs played the Giants (San Francisco not New York, I’m not that old) who had a fantastic lineup of future Hall of Famers. And way out there in center field was Willie Mays. The only thing I recall of what happened on the field that day was that Mays made an error – a big one. He moved up on a routine base hit and the ball went through his legs and all the way to the wall. I think somebody scored for the Cubbies. I don’t know who won the game but I do remember sitting with Grandpa, with my ball glove and having the time of my life.

[Michael Wolf]

Just a thought, besides the obvious "issues" leading to today's miss.....

You think there's any benefit to changing programming BEFORE a stall occurs? Because by definition, failed reps constitute a supreme challenge to your system thereby requiring significant recovery time and thus, a reset might take a while until actual strength increase occurs. I go back and forth on this stuff sometimes in my own stupid head.

Ha, your stupid head. There's modesty, Jordan, and then there's just lying. You smart little fucker! This is a good question and I'm not sure; I could make an argument both ways. My inclination is that changing programming before a stall is both more likely to be well timed and more likely to make a positive difference in a more advanced lifter. A missed rep for a Novice is probably not that great a 'supreme challenge' to the system, being that that rep, while difficult for the Novice at that time, is still far away from his ultimate capability. I'd also expect a more advanced lifter to have a better idea of his limits in terms of making progress and coming to the end of where a certain program will continue to spur progress. A Novice, even an experienced one like me, doesn't have much in the way of experiencing that aspect of adaptation in his own body. As a coach, I can see some of those signs in lifters I have trained for a long time and make a good decision to change the program before failed reps happen; for myself, since I haven't experienced it yet in my own body, it's harder for me to identify the signs and know.

Or, at the very least, it's harder for me to be objective about them. Dan John says "The trainer who trains himself has a fool for client" or something like that. While it may be overstating the case a bit, there's some good truth there. I think it's very difficult for us to be objective about our own progress. The same brain that's capable of cold, rational analysis when it comes
to coaching others is often tied up in knots thinking of ways that we ourselves are somehow better or the rules don't apply to us or we can somehow "push through." This is all stupid, and we know it. But sometimes still fall prey.

A longer way of saying "I'm really not sure, but I suspect it depends."

So, doctor, what will you do? What the book calls for, or will we forge ahead on our own?

Good Q. If I miss on Friday and there's no clear local reason why that would happen (less sleep etc...), I am tempted to try to continue LP twice/week for a bit longer using ramping sets up to a top new 5RM, and then back-off sets so I'm still used to the volume, and don't waste/lose all my gains when I switch to the TM after a couple weeks (which is probably the longest I can expect to squeeze out of linear ramping sets).

Sorry to hear about your miss-- you had a nice run!

My two cents is that number 5 caused number 4 and maybe number 6 played a role. The rest of them I wouldn't fret that much over unless you did some crazy cardio the day before. (i.e. your food intake)

I agree about trying it again. As per Jordan's comment-- after reading Andy Baker say it over and over, I would vote don't reset, just move on. Sure, repeat this weight, but from there just keep going up one way or another, whether it be the continuation of the LP or an intermediate program.

I'll be happy to program your TM squat layout for you ;-)

I like the way you think, Mr Is. Baker is wise in these matters, and whether I try to squeeze a bit more LP out of this via ramping sets, or go right to TM, I'm not going to re-set.

[Mac Ward]

Dan John says "The trainer who trains himself has a fool for client" or something like that. While it may be overstating the case a bit, there's some good truth there. I think it's very difficult for us to be objective about our own progress. The same brain that's capable of cold, rational analysis when it comes to coaching others is often tied up in knots thinking of ways that we ourselves are somehow better or the rules don't apply to us or we can somehow "push through." This is all stupid, and we know it. But sometimes still fall prey.

This is exactly how I feel, I did not know that Dan John said this, but I know it in my heart, regardless. Further, I don't want to train Gillian or have her train me. We have too many other facets of our lives together to muddy it up with that. Far more worth it to find someone we know and trust and run with it.

Good Q. If I miss on Friday and there's no clear local reason why that would happen (less sleep etc...), I am tempted to try to continue LP twice/week for a bit longer using ramping sets up to a top new 5RM, and then back-off sets so I'm still used to the volume, and don't waste/lose all my gains when I switch to the TM after a couple weeks (which is probably the longest I can expect to squeeze out of linear ramping sets).

It doesn't sound like you are going to move to Advanced Novice then. I am interested to see what Friday brings. I think this is a tempest in a teapot, personally. You will hit it Friday and we'll move on.