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Thread: Wolf's Log: From Cub to Direwolf

  1. #4221
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    • starting strength seminar april 2024
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    • starting strength seminar august 2024
    More progress today.

    Deadlift: 6" blocks
    up to 585x1 @6.5
    Deadlift
    315x3x2
    Notes: Started with block pulls and they felt good so went up to 585. It's now been 2.5 weeks till I've felt something heavy in my hands (645 from 6"), but this is moderately heavy enough to make some of that up. Hoping back is up to par and ready for 405 from the floor this Weds, along with 635-675 from 6" and 495 from the floor next Saturday. But it all depends how recovery goes so we'll see.

    315 from the floor felt OK. I can still feel my back there a bit, but it doesn't feel as if the pulls there are worsening anything, though 315 felt relatively close to the limit of that line today, so I did the second set there too instead of my planned 365 second set. Still, considering 135 from 8" was doable but slightly uncomfortable only 5 days ago, this is a huge amount of progress in a very short time for my normally very slow healing back tweaks.

    585 block pull and 315 DL on IG

    Leg Press
    455x6, 545x6, 585x6
    Cable Row (Medium neutral grip)
    Full Stack 225x8x3
    Notes: Leg press for the first time since back tweak, since I wasn't ready yet last Saturday and I squatted Weds. Pretty good. 585 was still pretty easy, just didn't want to push my luck.

    DB Strict Curls
    45x10x2, 40x12
    Plank
    40s x 4 sets

    Assault Bike
    20/40x7 = 52 cals
    60/75 x3 = 35 cals

  2. #4222
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    Had a solid workout today till Wolf's Disease struck true at the very end.

    Squat: 4" belt, sleeves, on a 30kg squat bar (accounting for the odd loading #s)
    456x1, 496x1 @6.5, 521x1 @8.5
    Notes: Wanted to get my squat back onto a Saturday schedule, but didn't want to wait till Saturday to squat, a full week and a half since the previous time. My thought was to work up to a heavier single again today, leg press Weds, then do a lighter squat Saturday before one last heavier squat the following Saturday, and then the meet the Saturday after that. My gym has the same kind of thick 30kg squat bar the USPA uses, so used it to get used to it.

    Generally went well, 496 was faster and easier and felt better than it did 5 days ago on Weds. Moved up to 521 for one more single and while it was a slightly greater difficulty increase than I expected it to be, it was mostly cause I had been squatting fairly naturally previously and then guarded my back more for this final rep. Still moved with gas in the tank.

    Press: 4" belt + rogue wraps
    255x1, 275x1, 285x1 @8.5
    Then 255x1 EMOM x8.
    Notes: 285 moved well considering the big 200x6x6 volume workout I did only a few days ago. While I'm not benching at all, so the overall "pressing volume" I'm doing right now is actually less than usual, I'm pressing more to make up for some of it, and I find that presses hit the triceps and delts harder than benching does, volume and weight equated. So given all that, very happy to hit 285 so solidly today.

    521 squat and 285 press on IG

    Lat Pulldown: Medium Neutral Grip
    225 (full stack) x 10, 235x10x2

    DB LTEs
    60x8x2 - tweaked the other side, the one that has been OK, of my back getting up off the bench after the second set. It *SEEMS* not too bad right now, but I've been fooled by that before, so holding up judgement till tomorrow, when I'll know more. It is also over-extension sensitive, as opposed to the side I tweaked last Weds which is flexion sensitive.

    Certainly I can speculate that Saturday's heavyish block pull and today's heavyish squat were a lot to put on a still recovering back, and maybe this side was working a little overtime to protect the still healing other side. Maybe. But even if that is the case, which it may or may not be, it's still funny that it didn't come out on the squats themselves. It didn't come out on any of the 11 presses of 255+ lbs I did today when my back is in full extension or even arched slightly more than that. Nope. It came out when getting up off the bench after a set of dumbbell freakin' LTEs. What a world.

    External Rotations and Existential Angst
    3x12 @2
    Last edited by Michael Wolf; 02-24-2020 at 11:10 PM.

  3. #4223
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    you must have pissed off a witch in your prior life.
    she's got a little mikey quepie doll, with sewing/knitting needles all throughout

  4. #4224
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    Quote Originally Posted by neilc1 View Post
    you must have pissed off a witch in your prior life.
    she's got a little mikey quepie doll, with sewing/knitting needles all throughout
    This is definitely the likeliest explanation. Cause it defies all logic and known evidence.

    I've written about this before but it's scattered throughout 8+ years of logging: What's funny is this frequent injury thing isn't new to me since I began serious lifting; I've always been this way, since I was a kid. In little league sports, I was one of the better players, but got hurt more often than anyone else I knew without any acute contact/force-on-force events. Just like, in the normal course of playing. In high school I was captain of the basketball team and first team all conference (we weren't playing in a conference full of future D1 ballers or anything, but IIRC from 20 years ago, we played against 1 guy who came off the bench at D1 and a handful who played D2 and 3 - so not like state level competition but not the beer league either), but got hurt so often that the standing joke among my friends was not to expect me in school the day after a game. Lifting? Well, the same thing has stayed true. I'm not the best out there, but am significantly above average, yet also significantly above average injury prone.

    I've taught the lifts to thousands and thousands of people, and have probably taken nearly 1000 through an LP, and at least a few hundred on past into intermediate and beyond - none of them have ever had anything even close to the injury issues I've had. Nor have any of the many lifters I'm friends or acquaintances with. I've spoken to doctors, physical therapists, massage therapists, other SSCs, other strength and powerlifting and olympic lifting coaches who aren't SSCs, and on and on and haven't been able to come up with an explanation that fits all the facts*.

    What's funny is that the vast majority of people are super supportive when they hear about this, or even if they don't but just hear about one specific injury or issue. But every now and then, here or on IG, I get a midwit who has read like one or two articles with some scientific references about injury and the biopsychosocial pain model, assumes lots of things about my training and programming as well as that I'm completely unfamiliar with those concepts myself, and then tells me or implies that I'm an idiot and horrible coach for not being able to see the INCREDIBLY OBVIOUS reason for these issues. Dunning Kruger is a helluva drug. I admit to having had it myself about some things to some degree, but that doesn't make it less annoying when you see other people have it.

    *In some specific cases there are some things you can point to for a local explanation, like my recent pec tweaks were probably doing too much volume and intensity in too short a time (ie what the cool kids have taken to calling "fatigue management,") which was a risk I knowingly took on in order to try to make up some ground from the 4 weeks I was sick. But globally, explaining the whole pattern of what I deal with, has defied explanation thus far unless you have Dunning Kruger.

    OK, I'm done now.
    Last edited by Michael Wolf; 02-27-2020 at 01:36 PM.

  5. #4225
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    Mar 2019
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    Weird question, but are you of scottish descent?

    Is the wider than shoulder width stance something you adopted for competition or is it related to anthropometry?

  6. #4226
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    Apr 2010
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    1. Nope.
    2. I've moved it out as I've gotten bigger and needed more space to squat between due to both larger thighs and belly. The former being good and the latter not so good, but me generally not being motivated enough to do much about it. But even now, given how broad I am, my stance isn't very wide. Only slightly wider than the "textbook SS" stance for someone my size, and as a coach, within the "normal range" of what you'd expect to see. At the wider end of that, but within range.

    Look at my stance from nearly 8 years ago when I probably weighed about 240-245. I'd guess it's probably about 1.5-2.5 inches wider now, give or take.

  7. #4227
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    Skipped yesterday to give my back another day before doing anything strenuous and just to feel it out. This one feels like a fairly conventional erector strain, unlike the left side which is just an endless mystery to me. So it's not too bad but is definitely a little sensitive to certain movements and isn't ready to be put under a lot of stress yet, so felt some things out today.

    Bench Press
    45x12x2, 135x5, 185x5, 225x5, 275x5x2
    Notes: Pec felt fine, which was a big relief and bright spot among the recent series of foibles. Only 275, but after almost 4 weeks, I'll freakin take it. Could feel my newer back tweak when arching -it's more extension sensitive, the other side is flexion sensitive - but I didn't arch hard and also felt it less as I warmed up.

    Leg Press
    Sets of 8 @: 135, 225, 315, 405, 495, 585
    Notes: Worked up slowly a plate at a time just to be sure my back could handle it - no issues there, so got a little work in.

    Cable High Row
    210x10x3
    Notes: Didn't want to deal with the pull vector of the low row being directly antagonistic to me low back, so used the high to low row. "210" pulled my butt up off the bench (there's nothing to secure you down like there is on the pulldowns.

    Assault Bike
    15/45 x8 = 56 cals
    45/60 x3 - 30 cals

    DB Strict Curls
    35x15, 40x12x2
    Plank
    50s x3

    Was happy to get a half decent workout in at all at this point.

  8. #4228
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    Roger that — i’m experimenting with a wider stance. Balance feels better and I have pretty long adductors so I think this may help!

  9. #4229
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    I know I've made passing comments about a meet but I can't remember if I mentioned that about 3 weeks ago, I did officially sign up for the USPA Texas State meet on March 14. The very next day was the day I tweaked my back doing the tandem DL thing. Meanwhile, since then, my pecs have failed to come back to even near normal, I tweaked the other side of my back a week ago while getting up from the bench AFTER a set, and the tandem DL tweaked side has improved faster than usual but is still not 100%.

    At this point it's 12 days out and I'm seriously considering not doing the meet, and since there may be some speculation about that if I don't do it, I want to explain why.

    tl;dr: With my current training and health status, and competitive nature, it is too likely for my comfort that I will try to lift more than my body is ready for, incurring reinjury and lengthening the recovery process even further, wasting even more time than needed to recover back to normal training status for a future meet.

    Longer version: While I am not good enough to be competitive on the national stage, I'm very competitive internally and have a hard time holding back when in a competitive atmosphere with something I'm decently good at and care about. So I could go to a ping pong tourney and do it purely 100% for fun, but not a lifting meet. I'm too competitive to just chill and have fun and hold back significantly.

    Now, I'm not such a competitive psycho that I can't hold back at all - I did this at the USSF meet last fall when I pressed 275 and pulled 595, both of which moved like somewhere between last warmups and easy openers. But they were both numbers that while submax, I considered respectable and could live with.

    So originally, it was looking like I had an 1800 total on a normal day (600/475/725), with a solid shot at upper 1800s (620/500/750) if I hit my stretch goals in all 3 lifts. But even a somewhat sub-par day would've yielded something like 1740 (585/455/700). My mistake was training for the 1870 as a main goal, instead of 1800 and hitting 1870 if I was having a great day. Anyway, after the hammy strain and then pec strain, I figured that 1800-1870 was out of the cards, but 1700-1800 still doable. OK.

    Then the tandem DL tweak happened and my pecs still weren't healed enough to resume normal benching after a couple weeks, so I was mentally lowering my expectations to the 1600-1700 range. Not ideal, but I could still consider these numbers respectable, if not ideal, for my current strength level (something like 535-565/415-435/650-675) and do the meet.

    Then I had the other side back tweak a week ago - and the pec still not healed - and now it looks like I'd need to keep my total to around 1400-1450 to keep my risk of re-injury low enough to be comfortable with. And I'm just too competitive to hold back that much. Oh, I can go to the meet with a plan to just do 500/350/600 all I want, but I know when I get there seeing guys squat 600 and 700, bench 5, pull 700-800, I won't be able to hold back, knowing that I was "supposed" to be going for 600-620, 475-500, and 715-750.

    And I think the chances of re-tweaking something before it's healed are just too great if I do that. So it seems smarter to not go at all, instead of trying to unsuccessfully resist a temptation that is likely to cause another setback.

    So I haven't decided for certain yet, but I'm leaning against it. If I knew I could go and just have fun, I'd do it. But, like the tandem DL meet, I will see people lifting big weights and get pumped up to do more, before my body is recovered and ready. So I'm thinking better to stay home, and plan better next time.

    While the hamstring strain was inexplicable by anything other than bad luck, the pec strain and back strains in this case were probably avoidable if I'd trained for the 1800 and hoped for a good day with 1870, instead of training for the 1870.

    So that's my lesson for next time - train for the probable, and be open on meet day for the higher possible. Instead of training for the high possible, but improbable, outcome.
    Last edited by Michael Wolf; 03-02-2020 at 11:19 PM.

  10. #4230
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    starting strength coach development program
    Super light day today.

    Bench
    135x5, 185x5, 225x5, 275x5, 315x3, 335x1
    Notes: Felt left pec very slightly at 315 but more at 335 so racked it after 1 rep and stopped there. It's been 31 days since the tweak, definitely longer than I thought this would take. But just gotta roll with it.

    Deadlift: 2" block
    135x5, 225x5, 315x3
    Notes: These felt OK, just no need to push it. Will go for 365 on Friday.

    Press: Strict
    95x5, 135x5, 165x5
    Notes: Just keeping up with a little pressing.

    Lat Pulldown: Wide Chinup grip
    180x8, 195x8, 210x8
    Plank
    45s x3

    And that was it for today. Kept it easy, mostly just avoiding detraining more than anything else, as will be the theme of the week.

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