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Thread: Stuffed Superdud: Bumpy road to respectable lifting

  1. #541
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    • starting strength seminar april 2024
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    Re: the metabolism specifically, for most my life I was chubby and just assumed that I had a slow metabolism. Then I went to college and saw that I was eating maybe three times as many calories anyone else. Oh, and more recently, the other day, my roommate, who has been trying to lose weight on a reduced-carb diet, confronted me with, “So, I saw from the garbage that you cleaned out an entire quart of ice cream last night, yet you’re still dropping weight? You bitch. You sonuva bitch.” So I’m probably slightly advantaged in how much slop I can get away with in my diet. Though I doubt this consolation prize makes up for my fragility and crappy explosiveness.

    That said, I think it’s less diet/BMR and more just the volume and pacing of training. Last year, when I was training on my own and doing basically a powerlifting template, I was resting a lot between sets and doing only 1-3 exercises per session. Now it’s more like 3-5 exercises, for maybe 2x as many reps each, and a snatch or snatch variant is for me much more taxing than, say, 5x5 press. Also, I am down to 1:30-2:00 rest between sets, and my anaerobic capacity has improvedly markedly. I know it’s tempting to take a lot of rest when chasing big singles and doubles, but maybe for lower weights, keep those rest periods down.

    And of course, the dreaded Prowler comes into play much more now than before. That thing is a religious experience sometimes.
    I have been tracking my macros, even weighing food and all. It is interesting how much we think we eat and how much we actually eat. For me, the issue is not food or will power regarding diet. It is my enjoyment of bourbon, beer, and wine.

    The pace of training issue is also a real one for me, but primarily in terms of how much rest I need due to my advanced years...I am working on increasing my ability to recover from volume. Next will be added frequency: often the job makes it tough to workout as often as I'd like.

  2. #542
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    Quote Originally Posted by RugbySmartarse View Post
    This. I get so stupidly competitive at yoga, for no good reason. I think that everyone in the group stares at me, being the gym's resident "fat guy lifting heavy things" and i figure i need to prove extreme flexibility.


    Also, I read all your coach's quotes in the voice of Lugash. "Is cat now"
    Ok.. So .. I say don't let the ego get to you. But really if you are strong, have decent proprioception and can deal with discomfort and actually listen, you'll do great at bikram. I spent a few weeks in Atlanta for work several years back. I ended up going to a yoga place after work cause it was there. Crazy russian woman owned the place. Felt like she was a drill sergeant. Mind you I went to 2-3 classes over the course of a couple weeks. Big thing they usually have in bikram, if you are new, you get to be in the back of the class cause you suck. You don't get to move forward in the room until you prove yourself.
    After a couple classes I got to move up, happy dance ego was satisfied. Even better after class was talking to one of the guy students that was getting yelled at a bunch for sucking or not listening. He was talking up how much he liked the class, and how challenging it was etc etc. Then he's like how long you been going? I told him, like a week. Ended the conversation.

    Bikram is easy, just pay attention! And sit down if you are dizzy. Lol

  3. #543
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    Quote Originally Posted by Oldman View Post
    I have been tracking my macros, even weighing food and all. It is interesting how much we think we eat and how much we actually eat. For me, the issue is not food or will power regarding diet. It is my enjoyment of bourbon, beer, and wine.

    The pace of training issue is also a real one for me, but primarily in terms of how much rest I need due to my advanced years...I am working on increasing my ability to recover from volume. Next will be added frequency: often the job makes it tough to workout as often as I'd like.
    A lot of this resonates with me. I also love alcohol. I often find that restricting it over time creates a positive feedback loop. I've been cutting back over the last months and have now come to the point where I can honestly take it or leave it on a Saturday night. Even at work related events where there's sometimes some VERY good stuff on offer, I find myself being quite moderate (which has several advantages...).

    As for work capacity those damn wingate sprints Jordan likes have really worked for me, however much I hate them. I think the prowling SSD does has something of the same effect.

  4. #544
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    Yoga people: First, this is how I imagine all of you.



    Next, am I the only one here NOT doing it? Oy vey this site has evolved quite a ways from those crazy "Squat and leave! YNDTP, pussy! Yoga is 90's small!" days, huh, when Rip was still wearing those awful cargo shorts and the dairy industry made a killing off of us. Geez, well, guess I'd better get to it, huh. I'm kind of with what Rugby said: I don't feel obligated to be great at a highly practice-dependent activity like golf or long distance running or glass blowing, for example, but something with relatively low technical requirements (i.e. can be overcome by brute force), especially if its target demo = detrained MILFs? You bet your ass I'll die trying to be the best in the room. NB: "Hey! I am a pre-cougar, not a MILF." -Cancergirl

    Mr. Rogers: Yea the equipment thing was surprising, but I think it was a sound financial decision. The gym owner's a pretty clever small business guy and is great at cutting costs, e.g. all the equipment in the room he either found at swap meets or built himself. He gets a small cut of every trainer's income, so I guess he figured he didn't need the good equipment for himself and that it'd take years before he got positive return on the investment from us sn/cj folks. It's a new gym, and I'm guessing being -$1000 in the hole for equipment that only a few people use is a big deal at this stage.
    I'm sure if we had 2-3x as many lifters, he'd be more enthusiastic about springing for some of the stuff we'd like to have.

    Speaking of which, yea, right now, the coach has his personal FB page, but nothing else of his own. He is part of the gym's main page, and I'm guessing he doesn't want to step on any toes to look like he's breaking off on his own. I talked to the owner and he said he's definitely down with setting up separate pages for the Olympic stuff, the MMA stuff, the stuff for high-level athletes, etc. etc. because that would mean more income for him ("My biggest fantasy is to just own the facility and make free $$$ off of other trainers' work."), but right now the whole thing is a one-man operation and he's kind of overwhelmed. I'm trying to help him out a little, but I'm not exactly an expert at how to whore oneself on social media, so we're kind of learning together.

    Oldman: Hey, regardless of BMR, training schedule, etc., you're easily the toughest dude here, sir. Wife-and-four-kids, stressful job, and the health issues, and you're still easily one of the strongest 50-year-olds on Earth? Not bad at all. How's your lung capacity these days, by the way?


    Today:
    I had a protein shake for breakfast but then forgot to eat for the rest of the day. I got to the gym with the BCAA drink I had in my bag and nothing else, and was starving. Not a great start. I chugged the entire drink (total calories: 200, if I'm lucky) and went at it.

    Clean + jerk 1 + 3
    40kgx1x3
    60x1
    70x1
    80x1

    CJ
    90x1
    100x1
    110x0 Clean felt heavy and I botched the jerk

    CrossFit
    Power clean + jerk 1+3
    40kgx1x....50?

    Girl 2 came in and was going to clean for the first time ever, and Coach didn't need me around cockblocking, so he banished me to the very back gym to jerk 40kg over and over again in front of the bathroom mirror (we don't have any other ones).

    I discovered that my right elbow is indeed terrible at locking out, BUT, if I lower and widen my elbows a bit after standing up with the bar, the problem goes away magically and the barbell flies up evenly. Crazy.

    "Why didn't you tell me this earlier?" (Heh, had to try.)
    "I DID!! Oh no. No no no. Do not put this on me! I telling you every day! But you don't get it till now. We need more mirrors!" And then he went to berate the owner for not buying any.

    Clean pulls:
    110kgx4x2
    120x4x2
    70x3x2 extra high pull to neck level
    Strength is dooooowwn. 110 today felt like what 140 felt like 4 months ago. Here's hoping that muscle memory will let me get it back in a short period.

    Squats:
    I got the tension on the wraps just right and it was the first time in two years that I was able to do a full eccentric contraction on the bad leg without shifting my weight at all to the good. Weightlifting makes us appreciate the little things, huh.

    I did:
    70kgx5
    110x4
    140x3
    150x3
    155x3
    140x6
    All were done extra slowly with zero bounce. For 140x6, I paused rep 5 to see if I could stand up with it and coach yelled at me for being lazy and unaggressive out of the bottom. Heh.

    Bad-girl exercise:
    Coach had me sit and tied my knees closed with an elastic band. I did leg-openers for 4x10. Abductors fried.


    Girl 2 kicked some ass today, snatching 20kgx3 and then did some beautiful first-time cleans with 30kg. She dinged up her delts a bit catching the bar, but that just made her angry. "Dammit. I need to get more jacked!" Then she banished herself to the other rack to press and push press. Awesome.

    Related: You can tell that the gym is a bunch of meatheads from how no one cared about how hot she is (answer: very), but several people were going gaga over her hip mobility. She's oblivious to how naturally talented she is and just looked confused and asked, "Uh...why's everyone looking at me?"



    Fun aside: I met some Greek guy who works with with Cancergirl and for some reason we got to talking weightlifting. Mostly he was surprised that normal people did the lifts; he thought it was reserved for crazy folks.

    Greek guy: "We have some good lifters in Greece too."
    Me: "Oh, right, of course. Do you know-"
    Both: "Pyrros Dimas?!"
    Both: "Yes!"
    Me: "And Akakios-
    Both: "Kakiasvilis?!"
    Both: "Yes!"
    Me: "So you know snatch and clean and jerk?"
    Greek guy: "Everyone in Greece knows what weightlifting is."

    Might have to add public awareness to USAW's to-do list.
    Last edited by stuffedsuperdud; 03-14-2015 at 02:26 AM.

  5. #545
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    I think Cowboy Bebop is up to 110/140 now. And your coach is a brave soul for using classified ads. I co-owned an unsuccessful CF gym/barbell club despite my mediocre lifts, and the other guy used a newspaper ad for a month, with not even a single phone call. Internet whoring is the way to go.

  6. #546
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    Missed training this weekend because I was at a local meet as a spectator, and then went to see the Cinderella remake.

    The meet was about as expected, that is, it took place in a dank fieldhouse at the local college, everything ran several hours behind schedule, and much time was spent watching -105kg guys snatching in the 80kg range (my people!). A comically jacked black guy with long arms, huge traps, and zero technique, all at around 9% BF and bearing a huge resemblance to the Doctore guy on Spartacus, ended up winning the -105s with something like 125/145. Perhaps more impressively, a kid (maybe 14 years old) did 100/110 at around 100kg BW, with beautiful technique. Coach was in attendance and thinks that with his existing good habits, it's only a matter of getting super strong and he'll punch his own ticket to youth worlds. Apparently, he has no coach and is entirely YouTube-taught, so I'm hoping he'll decide to turn up at our gym and get to 140/180 before he finishes high school.

    Cinderella, now THAT was a good time. I was hoping it'd be about the evil stepmom and get into her motivations, e.g. how a woman must be ruthless and cynical to survive in a medieval Germanic kingdom, or perhaps about Prince Charming and his motivations and the trials and tribulations facing a young ruler of a backwater provincial state, but NOOOOPE. They did it entirely by the book: evil stepmom and stepsisters are evil because..women, right??!, Prince Charming (played 100% straight-faced by the very hunky Richard Madden AKA Robb Stark, the King in the North) is 100% kind and chiseled and dedicated to his people, and Cinderella can absolutely do no wrong.

    This SHOULD have been ridiculous to me because:
    1. Not sure why some people are good just because, while others are evil...again just because.

    2. Ella's dad is shown to go from youthful and energetic to needing a cane to walk over a period of a few years, between his wife's death and Ella's coming of age. He also sits down with his daughter to talk about how he wants to marry Cate Blanchett in his one last shot at love. The whole time, the dude looks like he's about 37 and bears a striking resemblance to the guy on the Just For Men and Viagra commercials. He's also supposed to be a great guy, and rich too.....so.....quit being so dramatic while wasting time with bitter widows and just go get laid, man! All my lady friends would absolutely love a guy like you. Confidence! You neeedz some!

    3. They are apparently the smallest weakest kingdom in the land, and Prince Charming is under orders to marry Princess Chelina in order to gain the the support of Zaragosa's armed forces. Hey check this out, douchebag: thousands of your people are counting on you to get their backs, and if that means you marry the exotic princess from what appears to be a vaguely Central Asian kingdom, you do that. Alexander himself married a Bactrician and apparently it was good times! Come on, guy, get your shit together.

    3a. Princess Chelina was fine as hell and clearly into him. Instead he leaves her hanging to go run after a nobody?

    3b. SPOILER: The movie ends with now-King Charming and his "just be kind!" wife in charge. They are still the weakest kingdom in the land. If I were the Emperor of Stropon next door and saw this political development, you can bet your ass I'm invading that shit YESTERDAY.

    3c. Robb Stark again marries for love over advantage. My money's on the spurned Princess Chelina throwing down the gauntlet at Red Wedding 2.

    4. Prince Charming and all his aides were dressed like Cap'n Crunch, plus ginormous codpieces for everyone!

    All that said, instead of being grouchy or cynical about the whole thing, I had a GREAT time. Awesome costumes, fun actors, and the unrealistic optimism was actually a breath of fresh air. I am pretty sure I wasn't the target audience though: the room was 100% full of either little girls, many of whom were dressed in their princess costumes, and drunk MILFs reliving their childhood fantasies. Oh, and Cancergirl, who's kind of a weird combination of the two, with a dash of Princess Chelina mixed in (she actually is real life royalty from a distant little aristocratic house in a now irrelevant kingdom!).

    "You know how girls want to be princesses? I actually lived this shit...and now I'm here watching the movie version with you? FML how did this happen?"



    AHEM okay so I trained today...for once:

    I knew during snatch warmups that i was feeling surprisingly spry, so...it's go time.

    Snatch:
    20kg x many
    40x3x2
    The 40s felt so light that I almost had to pull on them DOWN to keep them from flying out of my hands. Coach was like, "Oh! OH! Yes you are doing the beeeg pull?!? Finally this is happen??? What, did you think about this all weekend or something?"

    50x3x2
    55x3x2
    63x3
    72x3x2
    80x1
    87x0,0
    I missed both backwards. Coach was like, "You had it!! It is up and over and then you just lose it behind? Coooome on! When you have the weight over your head, that is gold!! Do not drop your gold!!"
    87x1

    "What is your PR again?"
    "Uh...91, sort of. I don't know if it would have been white-lighted-"
    "92! Let's go!"

    92x1 Easy PR

    "See? SEE? That was a big pull, and PR! You stupid fucker, see this is what happens when you listen to me! Okay want to try 95?"

    95 missed badly in front twice. According to the video, the pull was there, but I hesitated going down.

    "You are just afraid! Okay don't be pussy. Finito for today!"

    Muscle snatch + OHS 2+2

    20kgx1
    40x fail
    Tore a callus. I tried to tape it up, but coach ended me here.

    Pause squat:
    20kgx10
    60x5
    100x5
    125x5
    140x3x2

    Thanks to the Russian wraps, I was able to do all my reps in super slow motion to really get my eccentric on. I'm back, baby!

    Snatch press:
    40kgx4
    50x4
    55x4
    60x4
    "Must get stronger shoulders. So weak right now! Wasting all your gold!"
    Last edited by stuffedsuperdud; 03-16-2015 at 11:58 PM.

  7. #547
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    Congratulations on a big PR.

  8. #548
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    Congrats on the PR man!
    Cinderella? Man I had to see what was playing these days. I think only thing I would actually pay to see is kingsman or chappie. And then only a matinee.

  9. #549
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    Huge congrats on the snatch PR SSD! Guess I need to work on a big pull and over head strength. Figure if I can get that sorted, getting from the ground to overhead might be a little easier haha

    I saw a preview for Cinderella when I saw Kingsmen. I thought it looked good enough, maybe not theatre viewing good, but good. Kingsmen was fantastic idlehands.

  10. #550
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    starting strength coach development program
    Quote Originally Posted by Mr_Rogers View Post
    Huge congrats on the snatch PR SSD! Guess I need to work on a big pull and over head strength. Figure if I can get that sorted, getting from the ground to overhead might be a little easier haha

    I saw a preview for Cinderella when I saw Kingsmen. I thought it looked good enough, maybe not theatre viewing good, but good. Kingsmen was fantastic idlehands.
    Here's hoping a region 5 of kingsman comes out soon then.

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