I have a program where I added 50 pounds in 10 days. We shoud compare notes!
You don't use the word "linear" in yours do you? Cause I may have a lawsuit for you then...
I have a program where I added 50 pounds in 10 days. We shoud compare notes!
You don't use the word "linear" in yours do you? Cause I may have a lawsuit for you then...
Squatted and pulled tonight in MY NEW FUCKING TRAINING SPACE.
It's tiny, I am paying a fortune for it, and it's not yet set up for what I hope to turn it into come 2014, but I've started using it and it's there. For all it's many imperfections, it's mine. So ya. Also, the heat in the building was out today, so it was approximately zero degrees in there tonight (outside temp about 25 plus 20mph winds), even with a baseboard heater running. Hence the extra layer of clothes.
Squat
45x5x2, 95x5, 135x5, 175x5, 205x5x2
Notes: Took a bit to warm up, but got warm eventually. Used my 3 inch belt because A) still really fucking light and B) didn't want to shlep my 4 incher from home. Felt fine, I'm really glad to be able to do this again.
Deadlift
135x5, 225x5, 315x5, 385x5
Notes: Until I get my sort-of-lame-but-it's-Manhattan-so-what-can-you-do solution in place, I have to put DLs down fairly gingerly. This takes extra work, but these felt fine. You can't see it because of the loose extra clothing layer and the angle, but I was squeezing up like a mutherfucker before each rep.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?edit=vd&v=1TO1JeKr6Ec
Woohooo! Congrats on all accounts! I'm glad things are moving forward training-wise. Squats look GOOD. And so does the training space! I don't think I should come and do my screaming deadlifts there but ya know what, it's yours! Whenever I walk into my globo I think to myself "goddammitt I can't wait to have my own gym." I actually said to john the other night..."we need to start planning." They may be getting rid of the only decent rack at my gym. I may have to approach them about buying it. It'll be the beginning of my own place. Ya gotta start somewhere! Congrats again. I hope that heat comes on soon!
Cool. What kind of rack is that? And how is your relationship with the downstairs neighbors?
Congrats Wolf? I also want to know about the rack type.
Thanks all. I have been very skimpy on details, as everything is still so early and preliminary, and I tend to get so excited about the possibilities that I overtalk things before they're certain.
In short: It's a 350 sq ft room that is all mine. It's within a space leased by a bootcamp/group-ex company, which uses the other (larger) room for their group fitness stuff. There is a changing area separate from the 350 sq ft. It's on the 4th floor of a building on 32/broadway (Korea Town, bitches). It's a bit more uptown/bordering on midtown than I'd like, but it's accessible to a lot of subway lines. It's a fairly short term lease, so if I don't like it, I'm not stuck there too long. But what it does is allow me to grow into a semi private training situation, which I have thus far been unable to do because of lack of place/space to do so in this worst of gym equipped boroughs.
The main issues were/are:
1. Deadlift noise
2. Ceiling height
Regarding issue #1, I haven't had any complaints yet, but no one has yet pulled a weight so heavy (for them) that they've had to set it down hard with all the resultant vibrations and noise that doing so creates in a 16 story building with steel beams. The plan is, once we get to where people are doing so, to start the pulls with an airex pad under the plates on each side. I tested this at a gym last week by straight out dropping 370 from several inches off the ground onto the airex pads and it was fine.
Ah, but you're wondering: isn't this both extremely lame and doesn't it also change the height of the starting position? Well, yes and yes. There's nothing I can do about the former, it's just something we have to deal with in Manhattan unless someone wants to donate a bunch of money for soundproofing. Reebok Crossfit 5th Ave supposedly just spent $500,000 soundproofing their floors so they could drop as desired. Anyone want to donate to the Wolf Fund?
I thought so. So ya, it's not cool, but it's reality. The much more pressing issue (rim shot!) is maintaining standard pulling height. I am also acquiring several 2x2 hard rubber squares, which the puller can stand on. We'll measure the deviation from standard pulling height as a result of the airex pads, and return it to normal with the 2x2 mats.
It's not the most ideal situation in the world, and I imagine the bar will be difficult to roll back into perfect pulling position on the mats vs the floor. But we will just have to get really good at putting the bar down in just the right spot, because short of having the funds of Reebok CF, this is a reality in Manhattan.
I don't think a platform would solve the problem because noise and vibration travel through hard surfaces like that. Supposedly air is the best thing to stop those, and there's just not enough room or money to do what would need to be done. If/when I get a more permanent space, that would be an option to look at. But, I am not a soundproofing expert by any means; if anyone here is well versed in that subject and has a brilliant idea, I am all ears. Really. Because I don't like the airex pad thing at all. I think it'll work, but the idea of it bugs me.
Issue #2: Ceiling height. It's an 8' ceiling. I am 6' tall with average length arms, and can press in there just fine with a 4-5 inches to spare before the plates hit the ceiling. But if you're a few inches taller and have long arms, as several of the people I coach do, it's too low. Fortunately it's a drop ceiling. For now, I just removed the two ceiling tiles in the spot where presses happen. I'm trying to get an estimate ASAP on what it would cost to raise the drop ceiling 18-24 inches (that's about all the room there is to go up), and then get it done.
The rack is a Rogue S-1. I have that, a rogue flat bench, B&R bar, and enough plates to load the bar to exactly 403.7 lbs. Plus the two heavy rubber mats on the floor. The plan is, once I get the ceiling raised, to get another full rack, big and deep (that's what she said) enough so that two people could work on it at the same time, one inside and one outside. Not literally at the same time, but so each could have their own "station" and alternate who goes. So that I could do semi private training of up to 3 people at once. I flirted with the idea of two squat stands and the double rack for a capacity of 4, but there's just not enough space. Obviously I'll also get bars, more plates, another bench, etc...so that it's a fully functional situation, whether the three people are novices all squatting less than 100, or more seasoned lifters who are squatting pretty big weights at the same time.
So that's the story as of now. Gotta go, need to call another contractor.
EDIT: And no, you don't want to know how much I am paying for this tiny space. It will make you cry, I promise.
Last edited by Michael Wolf; 11-26-2013 at 10:11 AM.
May the Schwartz be with you.