Rob's Brooklyn Block (periodization) Party

[Dwayne_KONG_Wint]

Now that you see how well you have been doing, GET BACK TO WORK! (and I don't mean your cushy desk job either). : )

[Rob Israel]

Now that you see how well you have been doing, GET BACK TO WORK! (and I don't mean your cushy desk job either). : )

Moar work...

Transformation Week 3, Day 2

Got back home to CFSBK, "A Starting Strength Gym" (It says it right on the door). Great to be back and use a B&R bar and real plates.

Deadlift: 405x1, 425x1@8, 435x1@9 then 420x3@9 and 395x3@done
A little redemption after last week. I'm 10 pounds off my PR for both my triple and single, so this is definitely acceptable pre-peak. Definitely coming out of the hole, but 16 more days left!

I'm not sure what the woman in red behind me is thinking:


TnG bench (no belt except top set): 225x3, 230x3@9.5 (w/ belt), 220x3
Pretty dense there. Arms achy again, but this was decent.

Interesting schedule this week: Sun-Wed-Sat giving me two days rest between each day. This will lead to a short turnaround, but I imagine I'll eat my way thru the recovery....

[Rob Israel]

Transmutation Week 3, Day 3 (thankfully this is coming to a close!)

Back at weakness land (Equinox) and the place infected me with poor squat form and my first missed squat rep in about a year. I've had more misses in the last 10 days than practically the last 10 months.

Squat: 395x1@8.5, 405x1@10, 385x1+F,
Whew, what a mess. Things felt really good until I got to 395 which wasn't terrible but got a little stuck. 405 would have gotten red lit as the bar descended briefly when I got stuck. I almost bailed it but ground it out. Then the real adventure began. Since 405 was worse than last week I decided today was a "B or C type day" at best, so dropped to 385: on the first rep I came forward and then on the second I totally collapsed in the hole shifted to my left and had to put the bar on the safeties.

Jordan said to start over at 315 and work up to a 9 so I did 315x3 (wow that felt light), 345@7, 365@8.5, 375x3@9
I was going to call it at 365 (it felt like a 9 at the time, but the video didn't lie-- it moved too well) so I did 375 and was proud I gutted this all out. Rough, rough, rough.

Bench (comp pause w/ belt):
215x1, 235x1@8.5, 242.5x1@10 then 230x3@9.5 and 220x3x2@8
I got a terrible spot on 242 and that very much distracted me. It was a total grind and the idiot touched the bar. All-in-all lame, but I probably shouldn't have been so optimistic after all that squatting and grinding out reps. I wanted to a do a little more than Monday, but should have known better when 235 wasn't quite as smooth as Monday.

So 3 hours later, I was freaking starving so I skit-doodled... Lots of video, I'll post later or tomorrow...

Weight Note: The last two days I weighed in a 82.4 (181.25) and would have made weight. If accurate I've lost about .75-1kg over the last 10 days which really probably hasn't helped my situation. I've been eating out too much and I think over-estimating my macros. I've also had a tendency to under-eat fat recently too frequently. I'm high-carbing today (and going out for dinner again) but starting tomorrow I'm going to try to dial in the macros and make sure I'm getting enough calories. I want to hit my weights solidly this week and go into the meet-week with more confidence.

2 Weeks out!

[Rob Israel]

"Sports Form" Day 1

Squat No Belt: worked up to 335x3@ 8.5 (No fatigue on supp lifts this week)
Squat felt pretty good but my arms started to ache a lot in the middle the workout and by the end they really, really hurt. Like it was hard to pull of my knee sleeves. Totally weird. 5 minutes later I could barely get the plates off the bar without wincing so I called it a night. WTF.

Resting today and will lift tomorrow afternoon at Sara "Pretty Strong" C's Equinox in mid-town as I have a work even tomorrow night.

[Dwayne_KONG_Wint]

Sorry that the arm cancer infected you. Hope you feel better and enjoy your next training session at Sara C's gym.

[Rob Israel]

Sorry that the arm cancer infected you. Hope you feel better and enjoy your next training session at Sara C's gym.

I was wondering if that's what I got! What the hell is this shit? I'm baffled. Is there a medical explanation? Am I just overtrained?

[Dwayne_KONG_Wint]

I only know the symptoms. I don't actually know the cause or what the real name of the condition is. I just call it arm cancer and it happened to me when I thumbless gripped my squats. Sometimes it didn't happen but sometimes it did. It hurts and makes your arms feel useless. It can ruin a good training week. No one likes it. It should be illegal.

[Rob Israel]

Got distracted by work, didn't copy my post before clicking Post and it got ate. I'll do it again later... Decent enough DL workout.

[Rob Israel]

Sports Form, Day 2

Deadlift: 405x1, 425x1, 435x1, 425x2, 405x2
These were solid and smooth. Looking at the video I didn't go hard enough though, now of these really looked like 9's in retrospect even though at the time it seemed like it.... I don't know what's up with me and my DL these month, but at least it was much better than 2 and 3 weeks ago.

3 count bench (no belt): 205x3, 210x3
This was OK-- 4 pounds off my PR from a couple of weeks ago. My arms still don't feel that great from Monday-- very stiff and uncomfortable on the descent. Yes, Dwayne it should be illegal!

[John Petrizzo]

I only know the symptoms. I don't actually know the cause or what the real name of the condition is. I just call it arm cancer and it happened to me when I thumbless gripped my squats. Sometimes it didn't happen but sometimes it did. It hurts and makes your arms feel useless. It can ruin a good training week. No one likes it. It should be illegal.

Hi Rob, sorry to hear your shoulders are bothering you. Like Dwayne said, try wrapping your thumb around the bar and bring your elbows down a little bit. This grip will put more stress on your wrist, but it should help take some of the pressure off of your shoulders.