Back is still a little dodgy from the 650 pull last Friday. Couldn't help myself and be happy with the 618x3 PR and walk away, could I? Had to do 650 and tweak my back. #wolfsdisease
Anyway, kept it a little lighter and lower volume in the DL today.
Also brought my barbell, my old faithful B&R bar 1.0 that I bought and have used consistently since 9/2012. Love that bar. Felt good to lift with it again. What was interesting is that usually in the past, when I'd use other bars consistently, it was either shitty globo gym bars or else abused basic Rogue barbells designed for general crossfit more than heavy lifting, used heavily by a membership that drops 65 lb snatches repeatedly. This time, I had mostly been using a Rogue Ohio Power bar or Rogue Westside Power bar, so the contrast was in the other direction. If I had to do one single rep of a DL, Bench, or Press that my life depended on, I might choose the Ohio Power Bar. Maybe. But for daily training, day in and day out, I'd still choose the B&R 1.0 every time.
Bench Press
326x5, 359x5x2, 326x5
Notes: Nothing too noteworthy happened here. Solid reps.
Deadlift, 3" belt
552x1, 442x5
Notes: Felt my back (left side, feels like the same good old QL that's bothered me almost consistently since my knees forced me to dive bomb a squat in January, 2017) the whole way but nothing was making it worse so I kept going to ~550, then did just one back off set.
Chins & Pullups
Honestly I lost track. I started with a double of each, then did a ton of triples between bench and DL sets, and even a little after. My guess is I did 8-10 chin triples and 4-5 pullup triples, along with the initial double of each. At solace I kept track on the whiteboard but don't really have that option at Ignite.
HSPU
BWx3x5 - pretty good reps here, wrist flexibility coming along too.
Tricep Cable
3x12
Lateral Lat Pulldown
3x10
The same things that make the OPB more suitable for that ONE rep your life depends on. It's almost like the the B&R is a decathlete and the OPB is a 100m sprint specialist. The OPB will win by a significant margin in the sprint but the decathlete is better at the all-around. The B&R is designed as an all purpose bar, and is the best version of one that I've used - and I've used a fair amount of bars, though certainly not all. It's very good (not great) for deadlifts, squats, presses, and benches, but is also very good (not great) for cleans and snatches. And the 1.0 knurl is like nothing else I've ever felt, including the 2.0; it's soft but grippy.
So it's not the best for any one thing, but is highly suitable for all things. If you're a high level olympic lifter needing 1 rep in a clean or snatch, you want a bar that spins more freely, has a little more whip, and maybe without a center knurl. If you're going for a 1RM squat or press or slow lift, you probably want a more aggressive knurl, less spin, and something a little stiffer. But if you do a bit of everything and want a single bar with which you can do it all day in and day out, and whose knurling won't tear up your hands or back at all, the B&R 1.0 is a fantastic one.
Too bad they don't make them anymore. The 2.0 is great too, I haven't used it as much but my sense is it's very similar except on the plus side, tends to be perfectly straight where the 1.0 was off by 1-2mm pretty often, and has a better shaft fit into the sleeve. But the knurling is a little sharper and more aggressive, nothing has been reproduced that's grippy but so velvety like the B&R 1.0.
Last edited by Michael Wolf; 04-08-2019 at 10:49 PM.
Solid workout tonight with the big boyz and girlz of the PL crew at Ignite around too.
Bench - wraps only
409x2x2 @8.5-9, then 331x5
Notes: 409 moved more slowly than I expected, but my triceps did feel a little fatigued all day so maybe it was just that. Otherwise fine.
Deadlift - 3" belt
420x5, 464x5 @6.5
Notes: Moving fast, but back still feels tender.
Chins
BWx5x3
BWx6x5 = 45 (not done in that order)
HSPU
BWx4,3,4
DB 1-Arm Standing Press
55x10, 65x10x2
DB Curls
45x8, 55x8, 60x8
Straight Arm Lat PD
3x12
C2 Erg
1 min on / 1 min rest x 10: 2 warmup, 7 @~1:58, 1 @ 1:52
Gotcha, thanks. As you may recall I have the Texas Power Bar which I got for a pretty good price. I like it overall and I'm sure it'll last a lifetime. I do find it has more whip than Ohio Power Bars - I suppose because it has a slightly smaller diameter (28.5 vs 29 for the OPB) and the weights sit farther out from the center of the bar because of how the sleeve/ collars are designed on the TPB. Small little things that most folks probably wouldn't notice but I can tell a difference when I go to another gym and use a different power bar.
Press
227x3, 238x2, 249x1, then 227x7 @9 - belt + wraps
199x5x2 - belt only
Notes: Pretty happy to get 227x7 considering all the circumstances (only been barbell pressing once a week for 10 weeks, and always mid-week, not well recovered from heavy benching).
DB Bench
105x8, 120x8x3
Notes: Heaviest DBs the gym has, didn't look like they'd been used in a while.
Leg Press
495x6x3
Cable Row
5x8 - one warm-up, four work sets
Notes: Knees cooperating reasonably well today on leg press.
Cable Tricep
3x10
Cable Reverse Fly
3x10
C2 Erg
20/80 x10: 2 warmups, 4 @1:36-1:38, 3 @1:34-1:36, then last one at 1:25.
350m / 1:30 rest x2 @1:57-1:58
Updating late for Saturday's workout at the Petrizzo Garage of Muscle in Long Island, NY (aka Lawng Oi-land). My back, which has been a little tweaky since the 650 pull a couple weeks ago, gave out on my DL warm-up. Judging the meet yesterday like that was fun, lemme tell you. Feels pretty bad so it'll probably be weeks before I'm pulling any really weight again, and my upper body workouts will probably be compromised for a bit, but it'll pass.
Bench Press
309x5, 342x5, 364x5 @7.5, 331x5
Notes: Just solid here, nothing of note.
364x5 bench on IG with Doctor Petreeeezo
Deadlift
155x5, 265x3, 375x2, 485x1 and ZINGGGGGG about halfway up something gave out and I felt a hard zing in my left lower and mid back. It wasn't too bad immediately afterwards but having dealt with so many back tweaks, I'm no longer stubborn enough to keep going with the workout so I just called the deadlifts there. Back got increasingly bad over the next 24 hours or so, and stabilized by Sunday evening as painful and restricting in flexion (i.e. putting on socks and shoes or pants, bending over to pick things up off the floor), but otherwise is irritating but not too bad.
Feels like, for me, a light to medium tweak, but we shall see. My lifting was going really well, especially for off season, so of course this would happen but I'll do whatever I can in the meantime.
Chins and Pullups
50 total, spread out over lots of small sets.
1-Arm DB Press
75x8x3
Curls
45x10x2
Assault Bike
25/60 x8 - first time doing these so hard to compare intensity. I kept it pretty consistent and hard but not all out max. Quads were burning by the last 2-3. First time getting conditioning in over vacation/travel since 1843, approximately.
Last edited by Michael Wolf; 04-15-2019 at 08:38 AM.
Back felt pretty gnarly this morning but loosened up some as I warmed up through the workout, which is a good sign. It's still quite irritating but there's a noticeable improvement from yesterday, which is a really good sign. My back tweaks don't usually get noticeably better for around a week. Putting on socks yesterday was really rough. Today much less so.
Close Grip Bench
276x5x3
Press
199x5 - naked
216x5 - belt only
232x3 @8, 249x2 @8.5 - belt + wraps
Notes: Considering my back and only one day between workouts here, pretty happy with these.
Pullups and Chins
52 total, spread over lots of small sets primarily of 3-4 reps, between bench and press (and a few between tris)
Rolling DBs
45x10x3
Assault Bike
30/75 x8 - planned to do 10 but my quads were just absolutely fried. With my back as it currently is, I probably couldn't row anyway so it's just as well, but I definitely don't do anything that specifically isolates the quads as hard as these do because they were just smoked. Even more than the conditioning itself, my quads were really burning from the 5th interval on.
Back still too tweaky for squats or pulls today, but slightly better each day. Maybe next week.
Bench
365x2, 385x2x2, 315x10
Notes: All solid here, did 25 lbs heavier for dubs last week but taking it easyish on vaca.
385x2 and 315x10 BP on IG
Press: Dead Stop, Strict
185x5x3
Ring Rows
BWx10x6
Curls
50x8x3, strictish
Assault Bike
30/45x8 @quads on fire again