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Thread: Wolf's Log: From Cub to Direwolf

  1. #3951
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    Apr 2010
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    In light of my knees' good behavior and generally feeling better lately, I'm going to try a squatting experiment and see what happens. I'll shut it down right away if it's starting to interfere with my ability to pull from the floor, or if I feel myself losing control on the descent sufficient to cause more back injuries, but for now I'm going to try one low volume squat workout every other week, alternated with one leg press workout the other week. I did get a bad bout of elbow-itis after the meet that didn't flare up till Tuesday, and has reduced but not entirely gone away since. Even though I took a grip that theoretically should minimize elbow issues. This still isn't shocking given that I put 573 on my back after not squatting for two years, but it is very annoying. Since I've already mentally come to grips with the possibility of living without the squat, and anything I do now is a bonus, and since I still can do all the other lifts in a serious and even competitive way, it's not worth it to me to fuck with my elbows, so the squats will be primarily be safety bar and high bar, perhaps a very occasional low bar thrown in. Not optimal from the squatting perspective, but the best trade-off considering the whole equation.

    Safety Bar Squat
    65x5, 155x5, 245x3, 335x3x2
    Notes: I'm not sure if it's the current model, but the gym's SSB is an elite FTS yoke bar, which lists as 65 lbs on the website, so that's my assumption. At the time I was doing them, I was assuming 45. It didn't feel nearly as heavy to manipulate and get in and out of the rack as the 70 lb Rogue SSB I used back at Solace. But reals >>> feels.

    Knees felt fine at empty and one plate, felt a little at two, and felt more at three so stopped there. So not as good as on meet day, but enough to do a little work.

    Press - wraps for 275 only
    95x6, 135x4, 185x3, 225x2, 255x1, 275x1, 225x5, 185x8
    Power Clean
    45x5x2, 95x3, 135x3, 185x2, 225x1, 255x1, 275x1, 185x3
    Notes: Did these with short rest (1-1.5 mins between press and clean, then ~3 mins between clean and the next press. Except the 275 rep, which I did back to back for the gram, but - both bars were sub-par. The press bar was a little whippy, and the clean bar was bent and didn't spin well, but I didn't notice till after the 225 set and I was too lazy to try to find another bar, especially because most of the bars were occupied so there likely wasn't a better one available anyway. Anyway the lack of spin and bent-ness of the bar I was using to clean REALLY showed up at 275 and I couldn't get my elbows up and around on it, but I was still able to rack it because I'm skrong.

    DB Bench Press
    90x10, 105x10x3 @easy peasy
    Cable Row
    3x10
    Notes: Bench was easy but since I've already relaxed on my training a lot post meet, and since I'm pretty unadapted to tens, stayed at 105. The gym's heaviest DBs are 120s, which will probably still be relatively easy for me to do for sets of 10 on flat bench. Oh well.
    Last edited by Michael Wolf; 01-27-2019 at 05:58 PM.

  2. #3952
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    Planned to bench, and then do press assistance work today, but ended up actually pressing due to some top secret high level testing for the soon-to-be-released updates in the USSF rule-set.

    All lifts done with no belt or wraps today.

    Bench: 1ct pause on first and last rep
    Fives at: 135, 225, 275, 315, 345, then 365x6 by mistake because I can't count.
    Followed by 295x10, 8 - planned to do two sets of 10 but tris were fried and I didn't want to push the limit, so racked it after 8 on the second set.

    365x6 bench on IG

    Press
    225x4 press 2.0, then 165x5x5 dead stop, strict with 2 mins rest.
    Notes: I had a pretty big pump from the relatively high bench volume so that made it hard to get fully shrugged up, but otherwise not very noteworthy.

    Deadlift: 1" deficit
    405x3x3 - with straps
    Notes: To the best of my recollection, I stopped doing deficit pulls about 4 years ago because they would often bother my back. I figured it had been a long long while so I'd give em a try and they were fine today. Very light, but fine. Have to be careful with knees, even a bit of out position and they stab, but if I'm cautious I can do it.

    Lat Pulldown
    4x8

  3. #3953
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    Deadlift: 3" belt
    562x1, 451x5
    DB Standing Press
    65x8, 75x8x2
    Notes: DL felt a little hard but moved fine. DB presses were super easy.

    Swiss Bar Bench
    225x10x3
    KB Goblet Squat
    20x8, 28x8x3

    Cable Row
    3x8

  4. #3954
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    Today started off with a real frustrating character builder. Strained my pec unracking, not even performing, my second to last bench warm-up. That's a new one, even for me. What's also frustrating is that this was my right pec. All my half dozen or so pec strains have been left pec. So I now have one less bodypart that's unhurt, and now more susceptible to future tweaks or worse. Wolf's Disease strikes again.

    Bench
    Warming up to 365 - planned to do 365x2, 405x1, 435x1. Strained occurred unracking 365 but I thought maybe it was just an oddity, so I did the rep, and felt it, so just racked it there. Rep was easy, but the strain was definitely present. I waited 30s, shook it around, unracked it again and felt it still there so hung up my bench shirt for the day. At least I had the sense to stop there. Old me would've fought through and made it worse.

    Snatch Grip DL: 4" blocks
    420x5x3 - straps
    KB 1-A Press
    Sets of 6 at (16, 24, 28) kilos, then 4 sets at 32kg.

    Leg Press (weight is listed as if empty sled is 45)
    245x8, 335x8, 425x8x2
    Notes: Started with a 100 lb plate on each side.

    Lat Pulldown
    1x8 then stopped because it irritated the pec

    Cable Row
    2x8
    Triceps Cable
    3x12

  5. #3955
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    OK, general update first. Pec is not feeling great but no discoloration or anything so at least it really is only a strain. That's the good news. The bad news is some of my left pec strains have taken ~2 months to fully resolve despite only being strains. That said, the protocol I've used since the one this past June seems to speed it up, at least on the left side, so we'll see if this one can heal up more quickly.

    Thing 2 is weight/bodyfat. I don't know my bodyfat but I weighed out at 291.2 lbs on meet day. First time ever over 290. My waist has been bigger, so some of that is muscle, which make sense given my strength increases, but it's nearly as big as it's ever been and too big for my liking. So my off season goal was to train consistently and maintain a high % of my strength while doing more conditioning and adjusting my food intake to cut about 3 inches off my waist. Whatever my weight is at the end of that is fine with me, I suspect 265 is about where I want to end up, so that I can gain 10 lbs during my next meet prep or PR cycle, without going over the 275 weight class / weight I was more or less steady at for 3-4 years before this last meet prep + cross country move.

    As of today, I'm at 285 and have 3/4 inch off my waist. This is less than 3 weeks later, so a little rapid, but actually without any weighing, measuring, or tracking anything yet. My shorts are already sliding down a bit, so I'll have to use a belt, which I haven't for a while. Granted they're my "fat sized Wolf" shorts, and I'll just switch to the normal sized Wolf shorts as this goes on, but it's a nice indication.

    The downside is that as I cut, I may lose strength a little more rapidly than I like, but I'll just have to deal with that. I know it'll return once I stabilize and then can re-gain another 5-10 over a few months of hard training.

    Press
    280x1 @9 with belt and wraps
    200x5x4 - @6.5-7 with belt only
    Note: I was surprised and annoyed at how slow 280 moved. Could've done another rep, but not more. It might just be a bad day, might be my pec affects this a bit, but I know 3 weeks ago I could have done it for a set of 4 so blargh. Back off work was routine.

    Bench Press
    45x15x5
    Goblet Squat
    35x8, 50x8, 65x8x3
    Cable Row
    5x10

    DB Curl - Strict
    40x10x2 - strict is a game changer. IT BURNZZZ.

    C2 Erg
    35/65 x10: first 2 and last 2 @ ~2:00, middle 6 @ ~1:50.
    Notes: Interesting thing here. My abs started cramping during the second set, and by the 4th set it was getting bad, and I wouldn't have been able to continue. I was annoyed because while I experienced this before it was always while rowing short intervals for fast max speed, so abs were engaging like crazy. At a relatively slow speed that I could cruise at, I was just annoyed. But I didn't want to give up. I intuited during the 5th interval that the issue wasn't my body, but the erg design. They're simply not designed for 291...no, even 285 lb guys with giant asses and thighs and also some belly. Kind of like the active hip 2.0 article, the very narrow foot pedal placement was causing me to be in a very unnatural and impinged position at the bottom.

    Problem is, unlike a squat, foot position on the erg is fixed, you can't widen it. So I resorted to something a little unconventional and took a chance and it worked out fine. I started rowing using the Kelly Starrett squat style: feet narrow and pointed straight, but knees way out - so I wasn't impinged at the hip at the catch part of the stroke.

    It was an instant game changer. I was able to finish the 10 intervals and row faster paces - but abs were fine because I took away the problematic position. The problem wasn't that they're prone to cramping, it's that they were being asked to work in a body position they shouldn't be in.

    The drawback is this creates some torsion at the knee, which is one reason we don't squat this way. But I'm not axially loaded, and I bring my knees back in immediately upon initiating the drive. They're really only being pushed out for the recovery and at the catch, during which there is very little force at the knee. The initiation of the drive has them under some torsion, but I straighten them out quickly so I think it'll be ok. Certainly no negative effects during or in the few hours after.
    Last edited by Michael Wolf; 02-06-2019 at 05:48 PM.

  6. #3956
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    Dec 2014
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    Supple Wolf

  7. #3957
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ryan Arnold View Post
    Supple Wolf
    Texas was so good to me! Until it wasn't.

  8. #3958
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    Didn't feel great yesterday so pushed this to today.

    Press: dead stop, strict
    95x5, 135x5, 155x5, 175x5x2 @easy

    Bench Rehab
    45x15, 65x12, 85x10, 105x10, 125x10x3, 95x15
    Deadlift
    455x2x2 @6

    Lat Pulldown
    4x10 - kept it lighter for pec, felt OK
    Tricep Rope
    3x10

    C2 Erg
    40/60 x10: first two @2:00-2:10, next seven @1:55-1:58, last one @1:45

  9. #3959
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    Apr 2010
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    Had a very disturbing and mysterious achilles tendon ailment this week, whose onset was extremely rapid and symptoms severe. I went from totally normal and symptom free to not being able to weight bear on one foot within about 8 hours, with no specific event or trauma to cause it. Wolf's Disease. Anyway, I missed training Mon and Wed because of this. It's not fully back to normal yet but close enough that I lifted today, though I skipped rowing to give it a few more days to heal up.

    Press: belt, wraps except the first set
    225x3,3,3, 5 @8 on the plus set.
    Notes: In addition to missing some workouts, my BW is also down from 291 to 280 so it's reducing more rapidly than I thought it would. I'm not even tracking and still eating a lot, just not as much as before. So was happy to get a pretty routine 225x5 despite some non-ideal circumstances here.

    225x5 on IG

    Bench Rehab
    45x15, 85x12, 115x10, 135x10, 155x10, 175x10, 185x10
    Deadlift
    405x5x2
    Notes: The biggest concern was that in missing those workouts, I set myself back with regards to my pec rehab. But it looks like I got the first few workouts in early enough that it did the job of not scarring down so it was improved today through normal daily life use. Worked up to 185 and all was fine, just want to go gradually just in case.
    Pulls were easy.

    Lat Pulldown
    3x10
    Tricep Rope
    3x10

  10. #3960
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    Apr 2010
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    starting strength coach development program
    Achilles and pec feeling much better, but still easing back in. No reason to rush anything right now.

    Bench Rehab
    45x15, 95x10, 135x10, 165x10, 185x10, 205x10, 215x10, 155x10 with wider grip
    Cable Row
    5x8

    DB Seated Press
    50x8, 60x8x2
    Leg Press
    135x8, 225x8, 315x8x2

    DB Curls
    40x8, 45x8

    C2 Erg
    45/60 x8 @ ~2:00-2:05

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