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Thread: Stuffed Superdud: Bumpy road to respectable lifting

  1. #411
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    Quote Originally Posted by idlehands View Post
    I need to stop reading your log. Makes me want to take a crack at weight-lifting. Problem is gym I would have to go to to get help is 30 minutes away and I don't have money for either the gym or the time to go and get back.

    Good luck at the meet!
    Ha! Glad I could be of service. The lifts are definitely fun to learn and do, even if what Rip argues is true and they don't contribute much to strength. For me they're addictive in a way that squats and pulls aren't. A heavy squat will be heavy no matter what, but when you hit a jerk or a snatch juuuuust right, even a PR feels completely effortless. This perfect lift is pretty rare though, and it's kind of fun chasing after it a few times a week.
    But note also that most of the fun is in the training environment. I've been jerking around with this stuff on and off for over three years now and for most of that time I was either injured, frustrated, or bored. It's only been at this new gym these last two months, with strong lifters and experienced, formally-trained Soviet coaches, that the whole thing has come to life a bit. If you can find a place like that, definitely go for it.

    Quote Originally Posted by Oldman View Post
    Good luck at the meet, ssd! CG's aunt sounds great.
    Heh.......her whole family is a riot (see previous posts where they made her stop lifting and gave her crap about her physique). There are literally hundreds of them, and that's just on her mother's side; her dad's side ventured out to the West to go to school, but returned to the Old World. "You have two cousins? I have 17...and that's just counting my 1st and 2nd cousins!" They're all distantly part of the royal family back home, are extremely wealthy, and full 19th century old world charm, for better or for worse; sometimes I feel like I am in an Anthony Hope novel. For example, I went over to one of their houses for Thanksgiving once and it was the the only Turkeyday party I've ever been to where the TV was left off the whole time, and indeed, they'll tell you that American football is not football, and everyone was in suit and tie and cocktail dresses. It's how they roll.


    Went to the college gym today out of boredom and did:

    Squat:
    135x8
    225x5
    275x4
    315x5
    335x5
    365x5x3 Ha!

    LOLWUT???? I squatted up to 355x5x2 on Thurday and it felt okay, not hard but not weightless either, and yesterday I front squatted up to 285, so this is 3 days in a row of squats, yet it was the easiest one by far. Actually, I was going to do 315, 335, 355, but the guy working in was doing 365 and I didn't want to waste time shuffling change plates around, so I thought I'd just do a set at 365 and call it a day, but on the 1st set of 5, I was just going up and down as if the bar were weightless. Since it was a different gym, I was left wondering if I had somehow grabbed a women's bar or something, but the other guy confirmed the weight, so I did the other 2 sets of 5. Crazy...I'll take it, I guess.

    If this wasn't a fluke, maybe I can just jump right back into where I left off with the TM, at 365x5x5.
    Last edited by stuffedsuperdud; 01-11-2015 at 04:32 AM.

  2. #412
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    Quote Originally Posted by stuffedsuperdud View Post
    I was over at Cancergirl's apt later when her aunt showed up; I hadn't seen her in several months. This happened:
    Aunt: "I wanted to ask: are you a bodybuilder?"
    Cancergirl: "No he's a weightlifter. Like what people do back home."
    Aunt: "Oh weightlifter? This?" Does a clean and jerk motion.
    Me: "Yes that."
    Aunt: "How much can you lift? Like 200lbs?"
    Me: "Eh about that. Maybe a bit more."
    Aunt: "That's what I thought! You're more muscular than the last time I saw you."
    Cancergirl: "Heh.....I think he's just getting fatter."
    Aunt: "No no. His stomach is smaller and his chest and shoulders are bigger. Hey do you use those protein shakes?"
    Cancergirl: "He does."
    Aunt: "They put steroids in those things. Stop using it!"

    Middle-aged woman thinks I am on the sauce based on my "physique?!" Awesome!


    Edit: The rest of the team is going to a biggish local USAW meet in March and it looks like I'll be going too. Fun fact: I was planning on doing this meet back in 2013, hurt my knee a few days before it happened, and spent the whole day there watching my buddies lift (and not knowing just how long my recovery would end up taking...blah), so it'll definitely be a slightly emotional affair if I could show up in 8 weeks and demolish my old #s in competition. If I keep making these big strides these next two months, and go 6/6 the day of, I might end up with something like 100/130.....Excited, but let's not get too far ahead of ourselves. Consider the fire under my ass very thoroughly lit.
    "Big" clearly means steroids. Of course!

    Good luck at the meet- going 230 would be awesome! They're obviously not 1-for-1, but with a strong 365X5X3 squat like you've got, those numbers should definitely be within range.

  3. #413
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    Quote Originally Posted by CJ Gotcher View Post
    Good luck at the meet- going 230 would be awesome! They're obviously not 1-for-1, but with a strong 365X5X3 squat like you've got, those numbers should definitely be within range.
    Ha! Maaaayybe, but I am a crappy athlete and walking proof that sometimes, "Just get stronger" isnt' a cure-all. I can't really use any male lifters as a metric because they are so many miles ahead of me, but my squat and press #s are comparable to the heavier girls (I think my future wife Tima Turieva said she's good for squatting a clean 170x1 at around 65kg BW, when I can do 165x5 and and have ground out an ugly 193kgx1, but she can total 260 or so). Hell, I can definitely squat more than most of the girls up to 63kg and they've ALL got me beat. And the girls who are a little bit stronger than me, e.g. the ones at 75kg, can total into the 280s. But we will see.

    Today I suffered a bit of mental torture. I got to the gym early, giving myself some time to warm up and compose myself. The coach didn't show up though. After an hour, I figured he must have just forgotten about me, and mentally relaxed deciding to just do some squats and presses and maybe push the Prowler, and then leave. NOPE. Suddenly he charges in the door, yelling, "HEY I am here! I had an emergency sorry but it's fine now. Oh you already warm up? OKAY LET'S GO! Jerks!" So I had to mentally dial it back up to 10 in a split second. I swear this is some Hanoi Hilton shit.

    Jerks
    Bar x many
    50kgx3x2
    60kgx3xCrossFit
    70kgx3x2
    Still trying to address the asymmetry and right elbow lockout issues. Things got a bit better towards the end.

    Cleans + hands adjust
    60kgx3x2
    70x3x2
    80x3
    90x2
    Second one was sloppy and I whacked myself on the throat. D'oh.
    "Careful! Okay 100 kilo for single!"
    100kgx2
    I forgot to adjust the hands so he made me do a 2nd rep.
    110kgx1x2 Heaviest clean since starting here, and with better technique than the last time I did it, too.
    I was ALMOST pinned by rep 2 when I lost some tightness at the bottom, prompting a wry smile from the old man. Looks like we're gonna have to squat more.

    I thought I was done. No dice.
    "Okay hang snatches!"
    Hang snatch
    40kgx3x2
    50x3x2
    60x3x2
    I missed a 60 here and there, which riled him up a bit. I was saved though: he decided to push the Prowler himself during my rests, and when I was lifting, he was too winded to yell at me TOO much. He ended up doing 140lbs on the sled for 3 40m laps and then caught some nasty P-flu. Karma's a bitch, ain't it?!

    I was going to do squats, but then he went, "Hey since you did 165 for 5, how about today we do 140 from the front for 1?!"

    Front squat:
    20kgx many
    70kgx4
    100x3
    120x1
    130x1
    140x1 Easy

    Recall, PR is 145 (I think) done on fresh legs. Our gym PR is 165 for a conservative single by that dude who can do 120/155, and the unofficial max is 180 by the same guy, so that's the real brass ring. I am currently in 3rd, behind owner's 155. He's a 6'5" 260lb former pro linebacker who isn't biomechanically great at squatting, whereas at 5'9" 235, I am in a much better position (literally!), so no excuses, I guess. Looking forward to doing this in a few weeks.

    Finished with the usual hang leg raise and back extension misery.
    Last edited by stuffedsuperdud; 01-12-2015 at 11:41 PM.

  4. #414
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    Get on the board man ! I keep trying to get on the board at my buddy's gym be he won't let me. Says I actually have to be a member and not just periodically show up. Personally I think he just doesn't want me to shatter his bench and knock him off the #1 spot.

  5. #415
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    Quote Originally Posted by idlehands View Post
    Personally I think he just doesn't want me to shatter his bench and knock him off the #1 spot.
    Ha! Actually, the owner was sitting on one of the benches updating he gym's Facebook page while the coach and I were scanning the leaderboard. The coach goes, "Look at him sitting there so happy on his phone. No idea we are coming for him!"

    That said his FS is the only lift I have any hope at against him, due to his disadvantageous levers. I suspect I can maybe outsquat him soon too, but they don't track that for some reason. Everything else though he owns me: his bench and DL are around 380 and 550, respectively, and he's like 9% fat with a 4.6 40 and can do a billion pull-ups. He can also power snatch about 100kg and power clean around 150, both with zero technique. If these are the guys not good enough for the NFL, what sorts of monsters have been watching every Sunday? Guess with my decidedly shitty genes, I didn't miss out on much when my mom wouldn't let me play JV football, huh.

  6. #416
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    Quote Originally Posted by stuffedsuperdud View Post
    Ha! Actually, the owner was sitting on one of the benches updating he gym's Facebook page while the coach and I were scanning the leaderboard. The coach goes, "Look at him sitting there so happy on his phone. No idea we are coming for him!"
    Classic. Your "things coach says" posts have been some of the best motivational lines I've heard in a long time. Just by your numbers, I could definitely see you taking 1st on that.

    "Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their women."
    Last edited by CJ Gotcher; 01-14-2015 at 08:56 AM. Reason: Meant to write "COULD" definitely see..." !#@% typos.

  7. #417
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    Quote Originally Posted by CJ Gotcher View Post
    ...taking 1st on that.
    I'd better. It's kind of stupid how big the gap is between my FS (143kg) and BS (193kg). Most folks are more like 140/170, or 155/190, not this terrible combo of two. My sn/cj #s are definitely more in line with the 140/170 group (that is to say, 48/53kg women....................crap), which perhaps suggests that FS is the better metric (and asst. lift?!?!) for sn/cj? I can sort of hear Rip go, "What do you think happens to your FS when your BS goes up?" and my answer is, unfortunately, "Not that much, apparently." Will have to dig through some Soviet texts to have a better idea of why this is the case.

  8. #418
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    ZOMG this just in, Cancergirl trained today!

    She wanted to look at the gym and check out this coach I've been talking about. Also she used to be into MMA and wanted to see what the fighting classes were all about. Well, as soon as she stepped through the door, the old man, whom I had alerted in advance, swooped in said to her, "Okay warm up!" She looked at him and tried a feeble "Err...no thanks I'm just here to watch." He wouldn't have any of it, and next thing I know he's evaluating her shoulder and hip flexibility and having her do some air squats and hip rotations.

    She ended up doing a snatch progression with the PVC: OHS => muscle snatch + OHS => hang power snatch + OHS => hang snatch => snatch for what seemed like billions of triples. The PVC weighs about 1lb, but she was already having trouble walking off the platform towards the end and should be enjoying the DOMS of a total body workout tomorrow....

    Here's the damn thing: she's an absolute natural at this. She's of course having some trouble coordinating the whole sequence of movements, including a hilarious missed rep where she fell on her ass and tumbled backwards Ivan Markov style, but she has the perfect levers and shoulder flexibility for perfect start and receiving positions. I always figured those short stumpy legs + big calves, glutes, lats, and traps, all without any training even, would be good for something.........shhhhh don't tell her I said any of this. Really though, I should have figured the genetics would be there, given the # of lifters in her extended family, going back to the grainy black and white split clean + press era.

    She followed up by squatting a bunch of triples, starting with the 15lb bar. Unlike me she's not afraid of the old man and was fighting with him every step of the way to please not add more weight. He's got a good eye for what we can lift though, and managed to sneak some 5's onto the bar between sets all the way up to about 50lbsx3.

    Then press for 25lbsx3xmany. Fun fact: He lets me do SS Press 1.0 the way I am used to because it's just an assistance exercise after all, but I saw that he teaches them to rack it the way they would a clean, and press from there. Interesting...

    Afterthought, aka my own lifting:

    Below-knee hang snatch:
    40kgx3x2
    50x3
    60x3
    65x3x2
    60xmiss "What??! You cannot miss. Easy weight!"
    60x3 whew

    Power clean + jerk
    60kgx3
    70x3x2
    80x3x2 (so that I don't let SS noobs get past me!)
    70x3
    I asked why power instead of full, and he replied that power is more of a back exercise whereas full is more leg and overall speed + coordination. "Should do mostly full clean, but you need a strong pull too."

    Squat:
    My knee threw me some serious tendonitis during the power cleans, which screwed up my squats. I did:
    60kgx5
    110kgx5x3 and stopped. I was rushed too, which didn't help. "Hey, CG is very hungry and tired so you should probably go faster. (is she your girlfriend by the way? No? Too bad!)" "Hey, CG, SuperSlow over here just said he'll pay for dinner!"

    I'm not sure how excited CG is about this; right now with her stress levels and schedule, training is a lower priority, but hopefully she catches the bug because she could be so damn good at this, and can easily make a run for the AO in a year tops. It was unfortunate that only one other girl was there today and it wasn't one of the girly ones; it was the brickhouse college soccer player. She is a fine specimen of how awesome a human can become through barbells, but not the best example for a tentative old world princess.... It continues to frustrate me just how ingrained these weird body image issues can be, but I'm not going to bother getting upset over things I can't control, I guess. She had fun today and agrees that the coach is awesome, so we shall see. I will keep you all posted.

  9. #419
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    Whoops. Site ate my post so now you guys get the TL;DR.

    I'm feeling kind of beat up.
    Things that hurt (i.e. whines):
    Left knee: Same sad song.
    Left shoulder: Feels like rotator cuff inflammation. Worst when I wake up and gets better over the course of the day. Training makes it better, but then the next morning we repeat.
    Right hip flexor: This showed up after squatting 365x5x3 the other day. No idea what is going on. Coach thinks it might have originated from the decline situps, but we don't know for sure.
    Traps: I think this is just regular fatigue, fortunately, but it does cause a nice tension headache.

    Cruisin' for a bruisin', right? So I took a spa day, or whatever the lifter equivalent of it is:
    0. Mother of foam roll sessions with the hard roller and then the PVC roller. My back's a minefield of trigger points, and the left IT band is, as Starrett puts it, hot and junky.
    1. Press: 50kgx5x2
    2. Rotator cuff circuit with 2.5kg plates in each hand, Lu Xiaojun style.

    After this, the shoulder immediately felt much better.

    3. BW squats x many
    4. Decline situps for fun
    5. Prowler!
    The gym is 20m long, so a 40m round trip counts as one lap. I did 4 laps, low handles there and high handles back, with 180lbs of weight onboard. 20s rest at the turnaround, 1:30 at the start/finish line. I was surprisingly not winded by this and failed to catch a nice bout of the P-flu. Maybe the conditioning is finally coming around? Next time I'll cut the 20s break and maybe knock the rest period down to 1:00 even and see how it feels.

    Gym owner: "Really man? You dread coming to training? 'Oh look I'm SuperBitch: I have the privilege of lifting with a Soviet-era athlete/coach and I'm afraid it'll be too hard! 1st World problem, man."
    Me: "Uh....isn't being afraid that your CCCP coach will kill you technically a 2nd World problem?"
    Owner: "Really? Really now? Just lift!"
    I know, I know...


    ^This is harder than lifting weights a few times a week for fun.

    Actually, jokes aside, every time I catch myself being a sad sack of shit in any way, I ask myself, "What would someone from Omaha Beach that morning say if he saw this? Or one of the airborne guys who jumped into a France crawling with armed and very desperate Germans, lost his weapon and unit on the way down, and still managed to rally a hodgepodge team armed with naught but pistols and knives and wreck some Nazi ass? What would he say to this?" Sounds super lame, I know, but hey, whatever works.

    "Crap...........I can't move!"
    -Cancergirl

    Looks like the PVC snatches wore her out baaaaad, and then the squats finished her off. She's a whiny daddy's girl princess sometimes, but when the shit hits the fan, she's a lot tougher than I am, I'll give her that. I am super upset I didn't get any photos or video yesterday; she was so tired at the end of the snatches that she every muscle was twitching as she isometrically held each position while the coach adjusted her, but refused to stop and ask for mercy. We'll see how this goes going forward; tomorrow though she couldn't train even if she wanted to. Being able to put on pants and walk down a flight of stairs has top priority.
    Last edited by stuffedsuperdud; 01-16-2015 at 02:24 AM.

  10. #420
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    starting strength coach development program
    Was pretty tired prior to getting into the gym but gave it that schoolboy try.

    Snatch balance:
    20kgx3
    30x3
    40x3
    50x3
    60x3x2
    65x3x2

    The elbow wasn't always as tight as we'd like and there was a risk of pressout, but overall, not bad. I heard the coach whisper to one of the other lifters, "Hey interesting. This is going much better than I thought!" I'll take it.

    Snatch (PR test, unbeknownst to me: he just yelled, "Okay snatches, warm up with 60 for a single!" and I went, "Derp derp okay."):
    60x1x2
    65x1
    70x1
    75x1
    80x1x2
    86x1 Heaviest weight since I started training here.
    90x0x2 Got both overhead. First one, my right knee caved (it's always the right side) and I had to dump it in front. Second one, I threw over my head. I let out a big, "AAAUGH" right when the weight crashed to the floor. The gym owner later said, "I had my back turned. Thought you'd died. Scared the shit out of me." Heh.

    Snatch push press + OHS 1+1
    40kgx3x2
    50x3x2
    60x3x2

    Ab nonsense.

    As I was changing out of my shoes, the coach goes, "Hey do me a favor." I thought he wanted me to help him re-rack some plates or something, but instead, he points to the Prowler. "Give me 2 laps."

    140lb load x 40m x 2, low handles there, high handles back. No break at the turnaround, 1 minute between laps. He worked in with me. So fun.

    Coach sez:
    "Hey, she clean and jerked a lifetime 2kg PR today and I didn't film it!"
    "Why not?"
    "Some stupid fucker texted me right when she was starting and she didn't stop for me!"
    "Was it important?"
    "Fuck no! Just some other guy telling me, 'Hey I had a good workout today.' Fuck!"

    One of the BJJ guys had just gotten done training with a new girl and was joking about how she should arm-wrestle him. Without saying a word, the coach sidestepped her, walked over to a jerk box, put his arm on it, and looked him in the eye. The BJJ guy asked, with a stupid grin on his face, "Uh.......what's happening?" The coach just looked some more and wagged his arm a bit. The BJJ guy went, "Ooooh, I see," and walked over. I'm thinking, "Oh crap, Coach is gonna break his humerus," and was already looking for the landline to call 9-1-1. While I panicked, the girl went, "3...2..1..go!" and the 60-year-old, 130lb coach easily pinned the 25-year-old, 180lb BJJ guy with one smooth motion. Maximum honeybadger, guys.

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