Because stronger is better ? Because pro total ? Cause you are above ground ?
Thanks guys. I figured it was psychological; my heart rate was up around 180 the whole time, which prevented me from holding a Valsalva or just staying tight in general. Legs felt like Jello. I thought I had had too much coffee, but then it slowed back to the resting rate immediately after I decided to cut it off for the day, so yea, probably just too much adrenaline for my own good.
I was in the car with Cancergirl later last night when I told her what had happened, and she goes, "Holy shit you did 400?" I go, "Yea but only for 1 rep instead of 5." She goes, "You do realize human bodies probably aren't supposed to go up and down with 400lbs on them, right? Why do you do this to yourself again?"
When I struggled for a coherent answer, she asked me what my ultimate goal was and accused me of doing it just to look big in front of globo-gym folks. "You only want 400 because last time you did 395 and now you have to do another show for them!"
I told her she was right that 395 yesterday means 400 today, but assured her that I didn't care what other folks thought because let's face it, this is a relatively meaningless achievement in the grand scheme of things. No one's curing cancer here, right?
"So where does it end then?! When you break?!" This is getting unnecessarily dramatic, which I attributed to her meds. I almost expected her to throw out an "Oh the humanity!" Instead, she added, "Have you considered golf? Or triathlon?" I died a little....
So there I am on the freeway trying to explain the purpose of this hobby. I managed to stave her off by telling her that I might consider calling it quits if I get to to go to Nationals, do a middling 130/160 in the B-session, and take a picture with Kendrick Farris, and in order to go 130/160 I need at least a 500 squat, and with my bad technique, maybe more like 550. That managed calm her down a bit, but it was a bullshit answer because I don't have a better one. Let's face it, right? There's no good reason for doing any of this...but here I am stressing about missing my set and later I'm going to go CJ and deadlift. Ugh.
Because stronger is better ? Because pro total ? Cause you are above ground ?
It may also help to explain to her that you didn't simply walk into a gym for the first time last week and put 400 on your back and attempt a squat. Muscles are not the only parts of your body that has responded to the incremental loading increase that you use in your training. Your bones are stronger, your ligaments and tendons are stronger. You have trained your nervous system to deal with the task of recruiting as many motor neurons as possible. Hell, even the skin on your back has adapted to carrying the load from the bar. I sometimes find that I can lose sight of the long path that has led to my current training worrying about the poor workout yesterday or the hard one tomorrow.
I don't expect anyone outside of lifting buddies to have any concept about the entire process and really don't expect my wife or friends to have any perspective at all. It isn't that I think they are unconcerned, but I don't have any interest at all in their golf swing either.
My wife has started to get pissed when she missed reps at the squat. Feeling yourself get stronger is a feedback loop. And it's awesome
because what the fuck else are you gonna do? Jog? For me it's either lifting, or sitting on the couch getting fat, like I used to do. I don't know where it ends. It peaks somewhere, then you get too old and you start to drop down slowly over time. So I guess it doesn't end.
I'd rather be the white haired, cut, 70 year old still pulling 405 for singles on a friday, than wind up like my old man - tired and pretty much useless
Heh, it's fine. She knows how LP works; she just thinks 5lb jumps every day for noobs and every week for me is too aggressive a progression, and that you should stay at a certain weight until there are no grinders in your set. This is a commonly-prescribed progression, right? I guess you might say she's more a fan of volume than intensity, or at least she would be if she knew what volume and intensity were. I don't believe in this for new trainees, but after the initial LP, there's a place for this, sure. And at the elite level, pretty sure all our gym heroes agree that grinding is for meets, not practice. That's besides the point though.
The real issue is, I think she's right in that this is not healthy; I'd say it stops being about health after you squat/DL 315 or so. Yes yes, fight muscular atrophy, etc. but after a certain point, diminishing returns and increased marginal costs get the best of you; I'm pretty sure if we all just did three plates a day every day, we'll die without ever having trouble getting off the toilet. Anything heavier is asking for trouble. Besides, there's no real point to being super strong, practically speaking. In real life, things are either light enough that most people can carry them or heavy enough that you'd get help or use a tool. Things also aren't nice and conveniently shaped like a barbell is. I sweat assembling Ikea furniture, for example. The weight is fine, but the torque is murderous.
And as far as athletic performance goes, no one gives a shit what anyone lifts, not even at meets with other lifters; it's just a room full of bored girlfriends playing 2048 on their phones. This is true whether you're me, doing a pathetic 90/110, or some guy squatting 1000+lbs.....in a high school gym on a weekend where he really should be out having a good time with his wife and friends. It's that "myself vs. myself" thing, which is great on a motivational poster, but in real life seems kind of pointless unless you play the "lessons learned in the gym are useful in life" card, which is a bit of a stretch.
So I can definitely understand when a non-lifter asks, "Uh....why do you do this again?" and I don't have a great answer because "I just love it" (which most days I don't) doesn't really explain anything. If anything, it's because being "that guy who lifts" got tied up into my narcissistic sense of self and now it's too ingrained to let go...but that sounds lame. Iono, maybe I think too much about this.
I think we've all been there and asked ourselves the same questions. I don't think I ever really answered it for myself, but I'm sure as hell not going to stop lifting.
And I can assure you, everybody pays attention when someone squats 1000+lbs.
Shit man my pops only pulls 300
And i have to say I lift probably because he lifted and we had weights starting at 6th grade.
Doing 3 plates everyday is boring. Unless there is growth or challenge in life i get bored. So chase the weight , learn one new hobby or sport a year and don't sweat explaining it.
Last edited by idlehands; 07-29-2014 at 04:17 AM.
7/29/2014
This might all be futile...but here I go again....
Push
Squat
Sn/CJ
Clean + jerk 1+2:
60kgx3x2
80kgx3x2
90kgx2
CJ:
100kg
105kg
Pulls
Eccentric clean pulls:
60kgx5
100x5
140x5
155x5
Deadlift:
175kgx1
187x5 PR
Conditioning
Cancergirl
Bench: 45x5x2, 50x5x2 No PR, oh well.
"Is it possible for me to get to 100lbs someday?" Probably...but we're going to have to work harder.
Remember how I was frustrated with Cancergirl to the point where in the heat of the moment I didn't want to help her at all? Well, it's a good thing I realized the error in that and took a step back because otherwise I would have missed out on:
Deadlift:
25kgx5
30kgx5
35kgx5 PR. Boom. That happened. This was the weight that she couldn't even do for 1 rep the last time she tried,which was what prompted her to do extra work / get hurt. I was pretty jazzed and was ready to call it a day, but then this happened:
"How much do the little reds weigh?"
"2.5kg each."
"Toss those fuckers on."
"Uh...you sure?"
"Yea let's do this."
And then:
40kgx5 PR
Well there you go then.
Last edited by stuffedsuperdud; 07-29-2014 at 10:48 AM.
8/1/2014
Food has been good but very sleepy (about 4hrs a night all week) and a bit dehydrated. Work stress high.
Push
Press: 160x5x5 Volume PR
I was supposed to do 157.5, but forgot my microplates in my bag at the other end of the gym and didn't fee like walking the 15 feet to get them, so 160 it was. Went for a bonus 6th rep on set 5 and missed, but everything else felt easy.
Squat
Sn/CJ
Pulls
Did some direct ab work too (captain's chair, crunches, etc.). I'm watching some documentaries on the indoc crap that pararescue students have to go through just to start training, and the workouts look ridiculously painful (endless flutterkicks, dips, pushups, and runs with breaks to do weighted underwater swims). Might give some of them a shot for shits and giggles.