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Wow, thanks for that, all. I probably won't be nearly as entertaining as I used to be. And I'll be keeping my posting limited largely to my journal. But I hope you find it useful.
2014-05-28
DB Row
55x8
80x4
90x2
100x3x4
Chin Up @ 155 x8x3
Bench Press
45x10x2
95x6
135x3
155x2
165x2
175x2x6
Back Squat, high heels, knee sleeves
45x10
135x6
185x3
225x2
255x1
270x1
285xmiss
275x1
Today was my day to prioritize pull and go easy on push and squat. So I started with db rows and chin ups and limited volume on bench and squats while keeping them heavy. This is still a comeback fueled by muscle memory (actually increased muscle cell nuclei retention and reactivation). So I'm constantly testing new maxes and expecting 10-lb increases on squats each session.
Happy with my ability to handle 100-lb dumb bells on the rows, but sadly that's as high as this bargain chain gym goes. I need to get to bodyweight with the dumbbell rows.
Bench continues to suck. It's arguably the lift most sensitive to bodyweight and I probably just need to gain weight in my upper body. But my priority is to get my squat and deadlift way up in my weight class.
And squats are going so well! The attempt at 285 was foolishly ambitious, but 270 moved so well and explosively. Still a 20-lb improvement in two days was not in the cards. Can't cry about this 10-lb jump, however! At this rate I will get 315 again in exactly two weeks...and could weigh under 160 when I get it.
I weigh 156 all day right now. I have almost ten pounds of room into which to grow and remain in the 75-kilo class. I seem to add 8-10 lbs to my back squat with each pound of bodyweight. A belt adds 30 lbs or more to my back squat, too. So 360-370 at 165 without a belt and 400+ with a belt is realistic.
Minimal deadlift practice should channel a 400-lb back squat into a 500-lb conventional pull...though I haven't ruled out going sumo for competition. Easier to keep my back from rounding with sumo. But then low bar would serve better for getting a bigger sumo pull...
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2014-05-30
Back Squat, high heels, knee sleeves
45x10
135x5
185x3
225x2
255x1
275x1
285x1
235x2x2
Bench Press
45x10
95x5
135x3
165x2
180x1
190x1
Deadlift, conventional, low heels,
225x3
275x2
315x1
345x1
365x1
I've been getting 10 lbs for squat/dead with each session so I figured I should ride the wave and milk the potential for progress. Will add volume on Sunday. Today I just wanted to hit another squat goal and see where my bench and dead are. I worked in the sun today and didn't have the energy for volume.
I was getting the bar to pop off my shoulders which isn't safe, but it is fun. There was some hip twisting in those squat doubles. I probably shouldn't have done them.
But that last deadlift was smooooth. Slow start that built speed. No jerking. Heavy as fuck. But I was confident that I would make it. Really felt my upper torso sitting on my abs.
I am leaning toward switching to low bar/low heel competition squat in July...in gear!...for the meet and going sumo on the deadlift as well. Why give up pounds in competition. I want to play with big boy weights.
Mind, I still think the high bar is the best fuel for the low bar...and then the low bar the best fuel for sumo.
I am 156-158 right now. I still have 10 lbs of room to the top or my intended class. I think I can get to 350-400 on the unbelted high bar and then push toward 450-500 in a suit, belt, wraps and low bar.
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2014-06-01
I will never squat anything over 185 again without wraps. I don't know what I was thinking.
The wraps absorb the beating instead of my joint. Ideally the muscles absorb stress instead of the joint...but many of the genetically elite, strongest squat experts in both powerlifting and Olympic-style weightlifting use wraps on their heavy squats in training.
A lot of loud but dumb people with great joints look down on people who use wraps, belts, shoes or power racks when they squat. But they don't have my joints, lack of suitable anthropometry, injuries and such.
It is an individual matter. And a twig-jointed, injured and injury-probe insectoid grandpa like me needs to put on his wraps.
I've proven this empirically so many times. Wraps allow me to squat without my knees getting beaten up. Though I might have gone too far today...
Back Squat, high heels, light wraps (Valeo +5)
45x10x2
135x6
205x4
255x3
275x2
300x1
245x2x10
Bench Press, touch and go
45x10
95x6
135x4
155x3
165x3x6
Dumbbell Row 100x6
I thought I'd get more pop out of the Valeos...then I remembered that they add maybe 2% to my squat. The Titan blue wraps add more than 5% (consistently 20 lbs to my mid-300's high bar).
So I thought I'd be at 295 with sleeves today and at 315 with wraps. But 300 was all she wrote, with 10 lbs over last session's 285 because of the strength increase and 5 lbs for the wraps.
Knees felt so cozy that I poured on the total sets to a total of ten with 245 doubles. But hours later I'm feeling swollen and tired. The wraps absorb a lot of the force and reduce trauma, but they don't make me invulnerable.
I find that a good sleep heals me up fully so I'm not worried. Plus I'd upped the frequency this week with that Friday session. But now I'm calming my black ass down to just twice weekly again.
I was greedy for 315 high bar again, but it will be here by the end of next week. Ten-lb jumps again, twice per week. Probably down to five pounds soon enough. I will do 310 with light wraps on Wednesday before my ARPwave session and maybe even try for 315.
Bench was cool, no straining. Hoping to get to 5x5 or 6x6 with this weight. Just repped out with 100 on Dbr because this session had already been so long.
Weight at 160 pretty steadily last couple of days. I dream of being at 405 high bar at 165-170 in the next six weeks.
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2014-06-03
Back squat
45x10x2
135x5
205x3
245x3
275x2
Dumbbell Row, semi-supinated grip
100x4x5
Weak and hungry because work forced me to skip lunch. So what the fug did I expect? Plus I'm been overdoing frequency with a zeal I swore I'd never indulge again.
The wave I've been riding had to hit the shore sometime. I need to lay off squats a few days and let my knees recover fully. They're doing well and the fluid is down to normal in the right one that I'd aggravated by stretching. But they still need a few days of rest.
My work schedule is in flux. I am starting later and have the chance to get out earlier. But I also need to devote Wednesdays to overtime and Sundays to ARP which usually leaves me too wiped out to train seriously. So I'm not sure when I'll be lifting.
I thought maybe Tuesday and Friday evenings...which is the excuse I gave myself to go this evening. But trying to squat after having to skip lunch and not eating for nearly twelve hours...that was unforgivably stupid.
I still want to try again on Friday, but may not. I'm up to over 160 in bodyweight again and I desperately want to be able to Olympic-style squat double bodyweight now. Instead I'm stuck at 300.
Need to rest a bit more, back to twice per week with 3 or 4 days (e.g. Tue/Fri) of rest between sessions (and Sunday ARP as a "recovery day"). A Fri/Sun/Tues schedule could have volume on Friday, light day on Sunday and intensity on Tuesday.
Also never starve myself then try to squat.
At least db rows went well. Extra rep on each set and an extra set.
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I Don't Learn
I just drained 50 cc from my left knee and 35 from my right. After a year of staying away from training to let my knees calm down. Then a month of successfully managing frequency to come back quickly while avoiding having to drain my knees.
Tonight was the sum of my personal failures in judgment and will. I was supposed to decrease frequency to less than twice weekly. Instead I nearly doubled it.
I back squatted every other day for over a week. Four heavy squat sessions in eight days.
The fluid buildup was the result of my knees trying to withstand and recover from the overuse. The fluid will probably refill tonight to continue to promote the joints' recovery. I drained today because the pressure was getting to be very uncomfortable.
Prior to the internet allowing frequent training to become such a virulent meme men got very strong on the squat by training it once per week...sometimes even less.
Some of us can't squat more than once per week not because it interferes with progress but because it results in overuse of our congenitally fragile joints.
I will deadlift in a few days if I feel up to it. My greed has taken the squat off the table for me again. When I do return to squatting it will finally be once every 6-8 days.
Corrections to previous posts...
I started training again on May 4
I got buried with 300 after that ugly 275 double in my last session.
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Hi Gary. I don't want to harp on something you've obviously found out for yourself, but ...
I've had knee problems since I was a teenager and they have curtailed most of my fitness efforts, karate, running, swimming, you name it.
I'm 51 now and 10 years of lifting has made them better the way nothing else has. However, I have learned some valuable lessons.
My knees will not tolerate a lot of frequency and they will not tolerate a lot of volume. One heavy and one light session is what I have found works for me and them. I call this 1337 ![Wink](https://startingstrength.com/resources/forum/wink.gif)
On the heavy day I like to work up to one "heavyish" set. This means something similar to a Bulgarian daily max for a single, double or triple. Occasionally 5. This is "1".
Afterwards I take off about 20kg and do 3x3. This is the "33". That's the heavy day, warmups, heavy set, backoff 3x3.
On some other day of the week I do a set of 6-8 with about 20kg less than the 3x3 set. This is the "7" and mainly serves to lessen the DOMS after the heavy day and keep the squat groove.
I use a similar protocol for the deadlift.
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Your input is welcome and appreciated. Do you have small joints too?
Squatting every few days really puts my knees on the edge of their ability to recover. Progress with weekly training is clearly possible and likely optimal. I worry most about soreness. I'm afraid even of "light" squats in between heavy sessions, however.
I am toying with the idea of alternating a squat session one week with a light squat/heavy deadlift session and even a deadlift-only session:
Sunday: Squat
Sunday: Light Squat/Heavy Deadlift
Sunday: Squat
Sunday: Deadlift
So only two heavy squat sessions in a month with one light one.
Last edited by Gary Gibson; 06-06-2014 at 09:04 PM.
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My knees didn't refill..! But my ARPwave therapist yelled at me for having loaded the squat at all. He doesn't want me doing any barbell squatting till I can do an overhead squat with no heel rise at all and my feet close together while holding up my arches.
I told him that I get into a lot of expensive and potentially life-wrecking trouble when i don't squat. It will take me months to get to that overhead squat he wants...if I ever even make it! So I just won't tell him about my meet training.
And I will watch my frequency and volume. Squat and/or deadlift just once every 5-7 days. I said I wouldn't squat today, but it's been five days since my last session and my knees feel much better and haven't refilled.
I have decided to reintroduce a belt to my training, but not so much for the poundage increase as for the ability to maintain a more upright torso. The Valeo belt I am currently using is a far cry from a powerlifting belt and boosts my squat by maybe 5 lbs. I have Valeo wraps, too, but prefer my Altus wraps which are a bit softer. I don't think they add even 2% to my lifts, but they make my knees feel a helluva lot better. I added the wraps at 205 and the warm ups without wraps or sleeves made it clear that my knees always need support at their current level of health.
2014-06-08
Back Squat, higher heels, light wraps (Altus), light belt (Valeo)
45x10x3
135x5
(Light wraps)
205x5
255x3
(Light wraps + light belt)
285x2
305x1
315xmiss
Bench Press, touch and go
45x10
95x5
135x3
165x2
170x4x2
Deadlift, lower heels, light belt (Valeo)
275x3
315x2
345x1
375x1
(Light belt)
395x1.........(super easy)
405x1.........(still moving fast)
410x0.........(incher)
Weighing 156-157. Missed lunch with a long workday yesterday. Dropped 4 lbs of water. I could have used that water weight on the squat today.
Pissed at missing 315. It was a technical miss more than a strength one. Lost it at the sticking point because I didn't come out of the hole aggressively enough. Though my quads were the distressed party when I did fail. So at least I didn't drop into a good morning.
Still fuming that I a) missed the squat puberty weight of 315 and b) that I also missed double bodyweight at this sub-160 lbs weight.
But I pulled the shit out of 405. It went so fast too. No stalling or hitching. Just felt so strong on these today. I even have an accurate comparison to last week since I pulled a new 10-lb max -- strong 375 up from a hard 365 -- before I put on my tiny belt.
I'm starting to believe I may hit 500+ with sumo and a PL belt by the time I'm 165 on meet day. Wish I could be as confident about a 400+ squat.
Weird that my deadlift is taking off without my squat. I suspect I may have the heavy db rows to thank. Stronger lats help keep the lower back arched and help keep the bar in the groove in the pull.
Knees feeling tired now. Hope 5 days is enough recovery time. That would give me 15 more squat and/or deadlift sessions before the meet. I may be down to 5-lb jumps on the squat from here on. So here's hoping a PL belt lets me add 30-50 lbs in the sessions leading up to the meet...
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2014-06-11
Dumbbell Row, semi-supinated 100x5x5
Brunch break
Bench Press
45x10x2
95x10
135x4
155x3
165x2
175x2
185x2
195x1
205x1
215x1
175x5x2
Coffee break
Chin Up, semi-supinated (@156+25)x5x4
Break
Back Squat, higher heels, loose wraps (Titan Titanium)
45x15x2
135x5
205x3
(Loose knee wraps)
255x2
285x1
310x1
315x1
320xmiss
245x4x2
I am absolutely convinced that db rows have profoundly increased my lat and mid back strength in a way that made my deadlift shoot up ahead faster than my squat.
The deadlift is a meld of squatting and upper body pulling strength...a quarter squat done simultaneously with a straight arm lat pull.
First time in a year I've benched over 200 lbs. 205 was fast, 215 was slow. 175x5x3 was 30 lbs over the couple of hard sets I did when I started a month ago. Max is up probably 35-40 lbs. Far from my squat/deadlift progress (100 and 110), but at least it's moving up. 225 in a couple of weeks. Surely 255 @ 165 by meet time and 245 paused.
Finally got over the 315 hurdle on my loosely wrapped high bar squat. Lightest I've ever had a double bodyweight squat. I swear I will finally reduce frequency now: thrice in two weeks. Will be getting my PL belt back soon. Will probably compete raw, but will play with suit/briefs. Probably be getting the SBD sleeves for comp.
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Glad to see you back, Gary. Why'd you switch to hi bar when your knees are so jacked up? I just ask because I know they beat the hell out of my knees, and low bar helps them.
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