Congrats on breaking 600! You had that press. Something tells me that putting 225 on the bar is going to give you that tiny extra bit of adrenaline you need to get that set of 5.
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Congrats on breaking 600! You had that press. Something tells me that putting 225 on the bar is going to give you that tiny extra bit of adrenaline you need to get that set of 5.
Thanks dood. Ya that was a pretty funny moment when I went back and re-watched it. Best part is I lost count because I was talking shit about Jordan's bodyweight instead of counting reps.
Thank you sir. It is a bit harder to get into good pulling position, now that I weigh more like 265 instead of 235. The bar also had a very long center knurl, so I had to widen out my Konstaninovs-esque stance I usually take, by about 1-2 inches. Not a huge difference, but made it harder.
He *would* have done three more had his training partner not lost count! Ha!
Ya, I had that press, I just didn't realize it. Jordan saw it and shouted at me, but alas, I could not capitalize. Will go for 223x5 again next pressing Intensity Day.
Thanks JP & Nick. Trying (unsuccessfully) to stay ahead of some assholes I know out on Long Island.
Hey Wolf, I just heard a podcast some guitar guy was hosting and he talked to you for like an hour. It was really insightful to hear your story and where you're coming from. Good luck with your lifting and business.
Love the WF video. Congrats on the DL pr! 605 is no joke.
Thanks for the support, Squeakyguy.
For anyone else interested, my friend Dominic, who happens to be a world-renowned classical guitarist who swears by strength training for improvements in his playing, interviewed me for his podcast few weeks ago. Anyone else who wants to can find his podcasts here: http://www.dominicfrasca.com/tigs-poadcast.html. I subsequently put him in touch with Rip, who he interviewed on the phone for the podcast last week. It's not live yet, but should be up soon.
Thanks Gillian. Your cousin Jordan doesn't make it easy to keep up with him, especially when I had already done my heavy pulling for the week on Monday, but there was NO WAY I was gonna let him make the 600 club before me and let him lift more than me!
Due to continuing nagging aches and pains in my back, knee, and hip, and travel circumstances that prevented me from lifting Monday and Tuesday, I've decided to take a light squatting and pulling week this week.
Squat
Warm-ups to 345x5, 365x5, 385x5
Notes: Felt easy, but not as easy as they should have because of this lingering knee and hip pain. Knee is SO bizarre. It came suddenly for no apparent reason; went away so it was almost gone by Friday, and completely absent Saturday through Monday. Then came back again yesterday (Tuesday) for no apparent reason again. Really weird and annoying. Hopefully it's gone again by Monday so I can fucking squat.
Also, it was cool how little these sets took out of me. Even with my nagging pain, could have done these with no rest other than changing the weights. But I took 2-3 mins cause I like to be laaaaaaazy.
Bench Press
Warm-ups to 307.5x5x3
Notes: Continuing the re-gaining previous strength LP, now switched to micoloading.
These were strong and FAST!
Will probably do some press singles on Friday.
Deadlift
185x4, 275x2, 345x1, 405x1, 455x5
Notes: Back was tweaked and uncomfortable after Friday's workout in the same place I fucked it up in December (that caused me to have to do a 2+ month de-load in squats and pulls), except much less severe. It was better by yesterday (Tues), but I was taking no chances, so went up slowly and carefully here to a top set of only 455.
It wasn't hard, and I felt nothing in that spot of my back during or after, which is good.
But I failed to get into good position and the bar was coming off my shins a bit right at the start, so I'll need to work on that off the floor as I get back to working weights going forward.
All in all a pretty good recovery day.
Another day of solid recovery. Been Advil-ing and mashing the insertion of my quads with a softball and barbell, and that all seems to have helped the knee a lot. Hoping to be back at full strength next week, and we'll just have to see where I start from as far as volume day.
Squat
Warm-up to singles: 405x1, 435x1, 455x1, 475x1, 455x1
Notes: Knee felt pretty good, about which I was very pleased. Perhaps because I rested less than usual, perhaps because I knew I wouldn't be pushing my limits at all, but these felt harder than expected. But still not very hard. I just didn't stay very tight.
Press
Warm-up to: 205x3, 215x2, 225x1, 185x5
Notes: Felt the fatigue still there from Weds bench press, so these were a little harder than normal, but nothing went slow. I need to remember to bench light on Wednesday next week. Though my bench is still not quite where it was prior to my shoulder injury, I'm basically up to a full-on TM for pressing movements, FINALLY.
Power Clean
Bar x 3, 135x3, 155x3, 175x3, 185x3, 195x3
Notes: Nice, light recovery pulling work. These actually felt good. Not good as in easy (though they were), but like my form was finally popping and on point again. Which is good because it's been a fucking while since I felt good about my cleans.
Then I carried a stupid decline ab bench across the entire gym (~250 ft?) because people always move it too close to the end of the barbell in the squat rack, and I'm tired of worrying about hitting people as they do their stupid twists.
Then DB CURLZ: 40x10, 50x8 - easy.
Feel energized and recovered, excited to get back to serious training and PRs after 3 weeks of eh.
Wolf, congrats on that PR deadlift, that video was awesome. I am also glad to see that you are getting ahead of that knee pain. Now you just need to pick out an RPS meet to do so I can return the favor on some handoffs.
Back to the grind today...mostly. A 3-day ibuprofen binge seems to have done away with the hip and knee issue, but the bag tweak I got the other Friday lifting with Jordan has come back (after being gone by last Tuesday). It's the same thing I did/had at the end of December, and which took 2 months off my deadlift training in which I could not pull heavy, except lower level. Not nearly as bad, so I'm hoping to be pulling heavy again by next Monday or the following one at the latest. Hopefully. In the meantime, I'll power clean both Monday and Friday, and then titrate up to pulls that feel good after that on Monday, without pushing the envelope.
Squat
Warm-ups to: 385x5, 395x5, 405x5, 415x5, 425x5
Notes: Volume squats have been inconsistent lately, between my various injuries, so jumping right back in to 425x5x5 would have been too much. This seemed just about right. Rest increased from 4,5,6,7 minutes between sets.
Press
Warm-ups to 195x5x5
Notes: Switching to full-on 5x5 pressing. I took the failed 5th rep at 223 as a sign to change my programming. I think I need more volume to keep driving adaptation. We'll see. These were harder than I expected, after doing 210x5x3 only two weeks ago, my last pressing week.
Power Clean - warm-up for pulls
45x3, 135x3, 160x3, 185x3, 205x3
Notes: Technique improving, felt pretty solid again. Guess I should have kept double covering my shins though, tore open a scab that I thought was no longer a scab. Fuck.
Deadlift
275x5, 365x3, 415x1, 455x1
Notes: All felt easy and good on the back, which is encouraging. Last time I had to start back at 135. Back actually felt better after this than at any previous point during the day. Now, 2 hours later, it doesn't feel quite as good as it did right after pulling, but still decent. Better than earlier in the day.
Thanks Post! I'm looking at the September meet in Newark, perhaps. That should give me enough time to get my bench back up a bit, since I'm still re-gaining pre-injury strength. Hopefully I'll have my squat and pull (with a DL bar) to 550 and 650 by then, respectively.
Glad you enjoyed it. Check the link every couple days, he's going to put up the one he did with Rip pretty soon.