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Thread: Wolf's Log: From Cub to Direwolf

  1. #4211
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    • starting strength seminar april 2024
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    Quote Originally Posted by Soule View Post
    As a small token of appreciation for the form check, please feel free to visit lifetime downtown on my guest pass. It’s not exactly a lifters gym at the moment, but a change of scenery is nice every once in a while.

    We currently have an awful setup with those stupid flat edge plates, but we’re renovating and will have 5 of the latest generation of eleiko platforms with bumper plates, hammer strength racks, eleiko bars etc. renovation finishes by the end of march.
    You're in Austin? Cool, didn't know that.

  2. #4212
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    Realized I forgot to log Wednesday. A classic Wolf story if ever there was one. Had a fantastic workout Wednesday morning, feeling great, healed up, and ready to really rev it up into the home stretch...and then tweaked my back doing a silly tandem DL competition for fun at the gym Wednesday night. The day after finally signing up (and paying $165! to do so) for the meet I've been talking about for months. Why wait so long to sign up? Why, in case I got injured and couldn't do it. So of course that happens the day after I sign up. I swear my body has a deeply ironic sense of humor.

    Anyway.

    Deadlift - straps
    455x3
    495x3, 525x3 @6.5 - 3" belt
    Notes: 525 moved really easy and fast, and even more importantly, my back felt solid and great throughout. I was stoked to pull 600 from the floor and 665 from 6" blocks on Saturday.

    Leg Press
    495x8, 545x8, 495x8
    DB Standing Press
    85x8, 95x8x2 - PR
    Notes: Leg press felt fine on hammy and moved fast, but just easing back up into them instead of trying to immediately go back to 635x8 or whatever. 95x8 is a PR for standing DB press; I've done 100x8 seated but seated are obviously much easier. Not that I've ever pushed the limit on these, I never do them to max, but it's cool when you get a PR despite leaving lots of gas in the tank.

    525x3 DL and 95x8 DB Press on IG

    Cable Row (Medium Neutral Grip)
    210x8, 225x8x2
    Notes: Was able to do these bilaterally again with normal grip AND normal weight. Still kept em easy only doing sets of 8, but happy to be back to normal here.

    DB Curls
    50x9, 60x9x2

    Assault Bike
    25/50 x6 = 53 cals

    An excellent workout overall. Then I was stupid and tweaked it later that night on the 1108 tandem pull. I previously wrote a longer piece on what happened but have deleted it because in the past it's just led people who have started following more recently, to ask questions I've answered many times before. In short, I tweaked it on an 1108 tandem DL, it presented as pretty bad at first but is improving at a much faster rate - so far - than any tweak that started off this bad ever has, so maybe it'll allow me to resume squat and DL training quicker than I at first anticipated. We shall see. And yes, I am familiar with the biopsychosocial pain model, thank you for asking.
    Last edited by Michael Wolf; 02-15-2020 at 02:11 PM.

  3. #4213
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    Quote Originally Posted by Michael Wolf View Post
    You're in Austin? Cool, didn't know that.
    Yessah, 8 years now. I work at lifetime downtown and I’m aspiring to become a certified SSC later this year. I’ll probably continue to work at this corporate gym for a while since its a cool spot, they treat me well and I am busy with great clients.

    I was talking to a lifter i met here and he mentioned he ran into you at starbucks. I recognized your name from some very well written articles that you’ve done. That brought me here to your training log and i like the way you lift!

    Seriously though send me a PM if you ever want a change of scenery. I’d wait until after the renovation though — end of march.

  4. #4214
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    Quote Originally Posted by Soule View Post
    Yessah, 8 years now. I work at lifetime downtown and I’m aspiring to become a certified SSC later this year. I’ll probably continue to work at this corporate gym for a while since its a cool spot, they treat me well and I am busy with great clients.

    I was talking to a lifter i met here and he mentioned he ran into you at starbucks. I recognized your name from some very well written articles that you’ve done. That brought me here to your training log and i like the way you lift!

    Seriously though send me a PM if you ever want a change of scenery. I’d wait until after the renovation though — end of march.
    Hmmm I've only been to a Starbucks in town once that I can recall, within my first few months here - not that I'm one of those "anti Starbucks" coffee snobs, it's just not something I normally do, I'm a home-brewer. Anyway, I don't recall running into anyone there. Maybe he meant Torchy's, I went there a lot my first few months in town and still go now and then, and recall running into someone who recognized me there once or twice so maybe? Anyway, appreciate the offer man. I love Ignite, but if I ever want a change of pace I'll slide in your DMs.

  5. #4215
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    Today was a mixed bag. Some bad, some good, and some ho-hum. First the good: My back continues to feel better, and did so even more as I warmed up at the gym. To the point where I almost didn't notice it at all, and it certainly didn't impede my upper body workout in any way, shape, or form. Some of my prior back tweaks have not effected press and bench, and some have quite a bit; not only did this one not, but it really warmed up to where even bending over to pick up plates felt OK, which was an extremely nice surprise. In the past that's never happened this quickly after a tweak that presented so badly the day after.

    I was able to do some empty bar cocaine DLs, and some bodyweight squats - both full ROM - and no issues at all. That is quite a bit better than usual only 3 days out of one of these things. So that was very encouraging.

    Bench Press
    45x12x2, 135x8, 225x5, 315x3, 365x2 - all felt 100% fine and solid in the pecs.
    Then 405x1 - moved fast like a warmup, but once again felt the shooting pain, this time in my right pec only, and called it a day there on bench.
    Notes: As background, I don't think I mentioned before that I worked up to an easy and pain-free 350x3 in another neubie session on Tuesday, and it felt good. So I thought 405 today, after another 3-4 full days rest, would be reasonable to shoot for. Not to force, but to shoot for.

    As I worked up, I was pretty slow and cautious, paying attention each weight of each rep, but everything felt great without a single sign of issue. Then it just came zipping back at 405. Evaluating it now about 6 hours later, it doesn't feel like it set things back as badly as the initial incident 15 days ago, but it does feel like it set it back a bit. I guess we'll find out in the coming days. Pretty frustrating though, regardless.

    Press: 4" belt
    225x5x3 (middle set strict).
    Notes: These were pretty easy. Lots in the tank here. Even in the strict set, the bar speed barely slowed and it felt like I could do several more reps without trouble. That was at least a nice mental boost after being a little down after bench.

    225x5 strict press on IG

    Lat Pulldown: Wide grip supinated
    200x8, 215x8, 230x8 - chose a grip again that didn't irritate pec

    Strict DB Curls
    35x15, 40x12
    Cable Tricep Straight Bar Pushdowns
    150+10 x12x2

  6. #4216
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    Quote Originally Posted by Michael Wolf View Post
    Hmmm I've only been to a Starbucks in town once that I can recall, within my first few months here - not that I'm one of those "anti Starbucks" coffee snobs, it's just not something I normally do, I'm a home-brewer. Anyway, I don't recall running into anyone there. Maybe he meant Torchy's, I went there a lot my first few months in town and still go now and then, and recall running into someone who recognized me there once or twice so maybe? Anyway, appreciate the offer man. I love Ignite, but if I ever want a change of pace I'll slide in your DMs.
    Maybe he said torchy’s. Those tacos are amazing, especially the trailer park (trashy). Ignite does look pretty sweet — never been there, but i hear good things!

  7. #4217
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    I do love me some Torchy's - that was probably it. I probably went twice a week my first few months here, and maybe once or twice a month since, and remember at least one time where someone came up to me who recognized me. Whereas, while I like Starbucks coffee just fine, I think I've been to one just once since moving here. And ya, Ignite is really awesome - set up as well as anywhere you'll find for lifting, but kept super clean and with 25ft high ceilings and 10 ft tall windows, has a really nice, open, airy feel. I really like it. Some good peeps too. The guy just brought on to be head trainer has the 3rd best all time raw PL total at 198, and is a good, smart guy from what I gather from our chats over the past few weeks.

  8. #4218
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    A slightly encouraging day today.

    Press
    255x5, 275x4 - PR, 235x8 - PR (I didn't really have an 8RM so I didn't "beat" a previous PR to do this, but it is technically the most I've ever done for 8)
    Notes: I actually thought the 255x5 set was loaded to 275 and was amazed at how fast it went up. When I realized that, in my between-sets conversational distraction, I forgot to change the plates from 255x1 last warmup to 275 work-set, I was really annoyed at myself. On normal training days, it's hard to really mentally get myself UP for more than 1 big set per lift (that's one reason meets are exhausting for more advanced lifters). So I'd already used up my big dose of UP for the set that was misloaded at only 255. I took out 275 anyway, knowing even 275x3 would be a PR and worth it, still got 4 reps, so hit a new 3 and 4 rep PR in the same set. I know I'm good for 275x5 on a good day, but alas today was not that day. 235x10 was the backoff goal and I would've had it had I not done an extra set. But my delts and tris were out of gas so I only got 8.

    275x4 press on IG

    Close Grip Pin Bench Press
    45x5, 95x3, 135x3, 185x3, 225x3x3, 135x10
    DL/CDL from 8" blocks
    135x5x5
    Notes: This was my first attempt at finding some bench alternative I could do without exacerbating my issue, and it worked OK so I stuck with it. I set the pins up about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way down into the ROM. But since Pin Bench isn't a regular part of my programming, it felt like I was only doing 1/4 reps instead of the 2/3 to 3/4 reps I was actually doing.

    For DL, I started with cocaine DLs but that was actually increasing my low back discomfort by holding in position just below kneecap. So after 2 sets, I switched to regular DLs from the 8" blocks (about 2-3 inches below the bottom of my kneecap) and those were fine. The rate of improvement has slowed, but this is still MUCH better 5 days out from a bad tweak than I ever remember being, so happy about that.

    Lat Pulldown: Medium Neutral Grip
    225x10x3 (full stack)
    Notes: By trial and error I discovered that the severity and nature of the current pec tweakage is such that I can resume my regular grip and weights here, so I did. Felt good.

    DB LTEs
    40x10, 50x10x2
    Notes: Ditto for DB LTEs instead of cable pushdowns, so did these too except here I did moderate the weights a little. IIRC I was doing 60x12 before, I didn't want to risk a re-tweak for DB LTEs, so started a little easier and will build up,
    Last edited by Michael Wolf; 02-17-2020 at 08:56 PM.

  9. #4219
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    Today was extremely positive. I was able to squat up to a reasonably heavy single, lower the height of my pulls and add weight, and set a small albeit fun accessory lift PR. Back is not 100% yet but is feeling better faster than it ever has before after a tweak like this, and pecs feel slightly better too. Overall, I'm in a totally different physical and mental space than I was just a few days ago.

    Squat: 4" belt +sleeves
    465x1, 495x1 @7.5
    Notes: I wasn't sure I'd be able to squat but was determined to try. Starting from the empty bar, at each subsequent weight my back felt totally fine - or rather, no different than it did not squatting - so I kept going up until 495, which moved pretty fast. I did feel my back just the slightest bit at 495, not pain but just the slightest reminder it's not at full capacity. Since 495 is as heavy as I'd have done on Saturday anyway even had I felt fine, I stopped there, extremely satisfied.

    495x1 squat on IG

    Deadlift: 4" blocks
    135x5, 185x5, 225x5x2
    DB Standing Press
    100x8x2 -PR, 85x10x2
    Notes: DL isn't much, but it's a BIG improvement over 135x5 from 8" Monday and not being able to do anything at all Friday. I did 100x8 seated DB press a year or so ago, but standing is a decent amount harder so was fun getting this little accessory PR.

    Cable Row: Prone Grip
    150x10, 165x10x2

    DB Curls
    65x7, then 65x7, 45x4, 30x4 - was pressed for time so instead of 3 sets of 7, did 2 sets and drop set on the second and skedaddled.

  10. #4220
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    starting strength coach development program
    Bench Tester
    45x10x2, 95x5, 135x5, 185x5, 225x3
    275x3 pin bench
    Notes: Pecs feeling better but not quite there yet. But full ROM at 225 is better than Monday.

    Press: Alternating 2.0 and dead stop strict
    200x6x6
    Notes: Did these on 3 mins rest, no belt or wrist wraps. So while bar speed didn't slow much, I had a nice burn and pump in the delts and tris. Video collage of all six sets on IG here.

    Lat Pulldown: Wide grip neutral
    Full Stack + 10 x6, +20 x6, +35 x6x2

    Cable Tricep Straight Bar Pushdown
    Full Stack + 15 x12x2

    Workouts without benching go much quicker. That is all for today. Will try deadlifts from the floor tomorrow.

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