Stuffed Superdud: Bumpy road to respectable lifting

[stuffedsuperdud]

6/10/2014
It was my hip!!!!....I think! I noticed some tightness at the top of my IT band other day and have spent the last few days diligently grinding it out with the 4" PVC roller. I woke up today and the patellofemoral pain was the best it had been since my injury. This is confounded though by the extra work I did two days ago....guess I will experiment and see what made me better.

Push

Squat
Intensity day:
Squat: 370x5 5RM PR @RPE = 00000, baby! Seriously walking the bar out, it felt like a warmup and I actually doublechecked at the end to make sure I had the right weight on.
I started bullshitting with some other guy in the gym at this point, one of about two others (well, the gym only has about twelve members anyway, so....) who actually does barbell training. We got to talking programming, and ten minutes later, I realized I had forgotten to take the weight apart. I was feeling kind of reckless, and we were both pumped because he had just set a 5RM DL PR himself, I got under the bar again:
Squat: 370x5 Boom. That happened. (Recent) boldness PR...RPE, uh, not zero. More like.....9.5?
Then I quickly took apart the bar before I could go for a 3rd set and ruin tomorrow's session.

Sn/CJ

Pulls
I rewarded myself for that bonus squat set with no pulls. Because I a lazy cowardly bitch after all. Think Major William "Tom Cruise" Cage during his first several attempts at Omaha Beach. Only he's prettier. Ugh....

[Oldman]

Wow! Awesome PR, ssd! Great work--it'll help you crush it again next week.

[stuffedsuperdud]

I botched it! I woke up today nice and stiff and sore after yesterday's optimistic deviation from the program and it only grew worse over the course of a day spent sitting at a computer. I then followed it up with a 3 mile conditioning hike in the irrational hope that it would get my legs a bit looser. Nope. I went to the gym anyway and figured, maybe I could snatch, since that's the lightest form of pulling. 40kg and 50kg warmups flew up nice and snappy, which made me thing it was going to be okay, but then I hit at wall at 60....freaking....kilograms, or 65%, whichever sounds more pathetic. Morale crushed, I pulled a Mac Ward and quit right then and there. Heck, I even thought of just walking away and leaving the loaded barbell on the floor.....but I didn't because I may be an awful lifter but my parents didn't raise a douche.

Who knew an extra set of five squats at a pathetic 167kg (or 1.5BW........blergh) could ruin my life like that?! Now desperately resting and hoping to supercompensate in time for tomorrow.

[stuffedsuperdud]

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=...type=3&theater

Anyone else see this little gem? Ageless 56/62kg weightlifter and perennial EWC medalist Tom Goegebuer, probably the world's strongest Belgian since Serge Reding, competing the other day in raw PL for fun and ending with a 400+ Wilks. The damn thing is, after these last few months of slow lifting, I am actually stronger than him on an absolute scale (it helps that I am 2x his size.....), but his sn/cj total is much much higher than mine. Guess it's time to get the speed and technique work going...booooo....

[stuffedsuperdud]

.

[stuffedsuperdud]

6/12/2014
Went to the gym very under-recovered and hungry. A pint of chocolate milk halfway through helped a bit, but not a whole lot. Definitely not feeling great the way I did on Tuesday.

Push

Squat
Volume
Squat: 335x5x5
Didn't see any need to up the poundage given the ease of the last intensity day. Due to the hunger and pre-exhaust from the snatches, this became a battle of wills anyway towards the end. It took nearly an hour, but I ground it out. Thought about quitting after set 3 and again after set 4, but then I remembered my enemies are getting stronger, so I must do so as well. Knee complained a bit in between but seemed to settle down for sets 4 and 5.

Sn/CJ
Ehhhh....I snatched my way up 70kg. My hips are getting ahead of me a bit (technique degradation) and I banged the bar over my head a few times, but at least no misses in front, which would suggest more of a strength issue.

Pulls

Conditioning

[Oldman]

Even though you didn't feel recovered fully, it seems like you felt better than you did a couple of days ago. Nice squattin'!

[stuffedsuperdud]

6/14/2014
Push
N/A See below

Squat
N/A See below

Sn/CJ
C&J
50kgx3
60kgx3
70kgx3
80kgx3
90kgx2
100kgx1 Jerk technique really clicked for this one and it felt weightless. Now if only I could do that on every rep!
110kgx1 2kg PR. Well there you go then. Combined with my 90kg snatch, I am exactly 50% of the way to elite lifting. Wheeeeeeeee.
115kgx0x3
Cleaned the first one but got dizzy and had to dump it. Couldn't even clean the next two. On the second miss, I hyperextended my left wrist a bit. Looks like nothing serious now, several hours later, but it was pretty uncomfortable at the moment so I abandoned the volume pressing and front squats.

Pulls

Conditioning

[stuffedsuperdud]

6/16/2014
My knee is feeling the best it's been in over a year, since the injury 15 months ago, but my wrist is still sore from last Saturday's missed clean. Ergh. Just my luck. In the interest of training smart, for the next few days I think all I will be able to do is squat. Not the worst situation, I guess, and certainly better than this time last year when I could do everything BUT squat.

Push

Squat
Since I was feeling good today, wrist aside, I counted the cleans from Saturday as recovery and proceeded to intensity day.
Squat: 375x5 5RM PR RPE = eyes turned bright red on the last rep. No SPF-style bloody eyes, but that last rep was an absolute grinder so no bonus sets like last week. Going to have to dial up VD a notch, I guess.

EDIT: I went back through my old log and realized that 375 was my old 1RM, done a few weeks before I hurt my knee last March and started on this yearlong trek to get back in the game. Most days I hate my hobby, but not going to lie, turning a 1RM into a 5RM feels pretty good.

Sn/CJ

Pulls

Conditioning

[stuffedsuperdud]

Read Prof. Hartman's book on Olympic lifting. It's basically just an eight-week program with some fluff added at the front to provide an ever so brief primer on exercise physiology and bit of context as to why the program is structured the way it is. It's here; it's not a lot of material but for only like $8, it's a great deal considering significantly less intelligent/experienced "strength coaches" tend to charge upwards of $30 for inferior information.

Currently on The Science and Practice of Strength Training, which is proving much more of a meaty doozy than anything else I've ever read since the book from a muscle physiology course I took during my first year of grad school; added bonus: this is strength training specific. Time to set some learning PRs.

6/19/2014
Got to the gym too late for Olympic lifts so just squats. Knee picked today to flare up a bit...fantastic.

Push

Squat
Oh look it's volume day again.....ugh. I am starting to see why folks dread this day after awhile. I'm guessing the day I do 405x5x5 will be the day the stamp my man card.

Squat: 340x5x5
Added 5lbs since last time to compensate for the slight difficulty last intensity day and blargh it turned into a bit of a battle. Because of the knee trouble, I had a bit of asymmetry and could feel my right (good) leg doing most of the eccentric work on a few reps. Lame. But I got through all 25, the last set being a bit of an emotional scuffle, and hopefully the knee settles down tomorrow. Now, ice.

"Oh your knee is sore? How about you put some Vagisil on it and do that last damn set? Ain't nobody ever heard of no FOUR sets of five!"
-CT Fletcher clone who just joined my gym. Looking forward to this bromance.

Sn/CJ

Pulls

Conditioning