Geezer's Long March Toward the Elite Sneaking Up On the Finish Line

[Mark E. Hurling]

I left work early yesterday with something or other putting the dizzies in my head and all manner of mysterious pains in my lower digestive tract. No fever, but I just had a sense of that famous Jimmah Carter word, malaise. Slept a few hours at home to try to get over it and stayed away from jusjitsu (again!) last night. Sucks. I went to bed early to see if enough rest would kick this crap out of me and it did to some degree. I woke this morning feeling a little better initially so off to the gym for lifting, but as I type this I can feel dem ole cozmic blues descending on me again.

5 minute warm up on the bike

Sumo Deadlifts:
210x5, 240x5, 275x5. My lower back was feeling a little fatigued, probably from spending so much time on it the last day or two. Thus, I didn't try for extra reps on the last set I contented myself with just showing up and doing the work.

Claw Grip:
150x5x5 PR!

Afterwards I stretched and did the foam roller. Boy, does working the IT band hurt! That must mean I am getting on top a problem before it gets too bad.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Well, for reasons you might appreciate I won't go into great detail but as the day went on yesterday, I started feeling better. I think I got hit by a glancing blow of food poisoning. I just had to let my body metabolize the bad stuff out of me.

Since my metrics OCD has kicked in again (1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3) I decided to indulge in the fitness test button I found on the new elliptical I use now. I tested out at a VO2 max of 40.8, which puts me in the excellent category for 60+ geezers. It's always useful to have another perspective for comparison. So, that was good news. Finished off with stretching.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Jujitsu this morning went well. We worked on ground techniques that stretched the attacker out when he moves in on you if you end up flat on your back. It's interesting that these drills backstop some of my premises for women's self defense that make it hard or impossible for an attacker to get the pelvic alignment he's after if he is trying to rape a victim. Later we did some more blocking drills. These worked off a block and check hand off to a counterstrike from a backfist. Very hard to stop because they come out of nowhere from the attacker's perspective.

[Mark E. Hurling]

I have glorious rainbows of bruises on my forearms again now from yesterday's blocking drills. I even have one on the back of my right hand where I didn't know it was possible to get a bruise. Yesterday's entry was late and brief because Dearly Beloved had me busy going to her IT support client's holiday parties. They were just starting to come out then and provoked a fair amount of comment from others. Of course they think I'm nuts doing this stuff at my age. Sorry asses.

Off to lift this morning.

5 minute warm up on the bike.

Bench Press:
160x5, 180x5, 205x6. I did the first 205 rep with a 3 second pause to get the feel of how hard it would be to do in a meet. It probably cost me some total reps in that set, but as Clint Eastwood said in Magnum Force, "A man's got to know his limitations."

Chins:
-45x5, -25x5, bodyweight (216)x5.

Stretched and did the foam roller. My upper back and neck are knotted up like a nest of spastic snakes this morning. No idea why.

[Oldster]

Bench Press:
160x5, 180x5, 205x6. I did the first 205 rep with a 3 second pause to get the feel of how hard it would be to do in a meet. It probably cost me some total reps in that set, but as Clint Eastwood said in Magnum Force, "A man's got to know his limitations."

Yep, "A mans gotta know his limitations". That is why you aren't ever going to catch me with bruises from blocking drills!

Something to consider when doing pause reps, perhaps a set of pause reps alone or on a set of touch and go, get to your last planned rep and pause that. 'I' believe you'll get more out of them that way. But like I said, don't get carried away with pausing too much unless your sticking point is just below your lockout.

which puts me in the excellent category for 60+ geezers.

Ummm...............aren't you in your late 50's? Ha!

[Mark E. Hurling]

Those damn drills hurt more than an arm bar or a choke. The arm bar typically gets released right as the elbow and shoulder run out of range of motion from that's just how much God meant for them to move in that direction, so we let up once we feel it on the other guy in practice. Chokes, once you learn the subtleties I wish I had known when I competed in judo many moons ago, take you under so fast you don't hurt at all. The world just gets gray or fades to black in less than 5 seconds when done correctly. Like getting hit by a medium sized wave. The blocking drills are just masochistic self abuse that teach you to focus despite pain and keep on punching on the one hand and on the other to not let yourself get spooked by a fist moving right at your face and just deal with it. Again. And again. And again.

As for the pause advice, I've taken your counsel on this to heart because I don't know a lot about them other than I recognize my ignorance of the technique. This last time around, I did just that one for an opener of my last open ended set to avoid overuse of them. Wendler recommends as many reps as you can do short of failure on the last set, and I probably would have gotten out 1-2 more. I'll try your other methods too, and thanks.

Well if was in my late 50's I'd have an even higher bar to clear (or total to lift) in a match. Actuarial realities being what they are, the right end of the Bell Curve drops significantly about now. Of course I have the great good fortune of living in CA where that old freak Gordon Santee resides, and his lifts are still just crazy.

[Mark E. Hurling]

It's been raining here so much the last several days it has had a soporific effect on me in the mornings. I overslept and had to really hustle through things at the gym because I had my annual review scheduled for 0800 Pacific Standard Time.

I jammed through a GXP on my new best friend the replacement elliptical machine. Then I did an abbreviated stretching session with foam rolling concentrating on my tied up neck and traps. These are gradually releasing their knotted-upness to the point that I can turn my head while driving without too strong of a wince now. The lower back was a little cranky yesterday and seems OK now which is good, because tomorrow I start pushing to determine what my envelope with squats at a legal depth are. I'm planning on at least 275 and maybe some more depending on how it all feels as I cycle up to my singles. My lower back was always the limiting factor with squats. The quads never seemed to want to fail.

[tertius]

It's been raining here so much the last several days it has had a soporific effect on me in the mornings. I overslept and had to really hustle through things at the gym because I had my annual review scheduled for 0800 Pacific Standard Time.

I jammed through a GXP on my new best friend the replacement elliptical machine. Then I did an abbreviated stretching session with foam rolling concentrating on my tied up neck and traps. These are gradually releasing their knotted-upness to the point that I can turn my head while driving without too strong of a wince now. The lower back was a little cranky yesterday and seems OK now which is good, because tomorrow I start pushing to determine what my envelope with squats at a legal depth are. I'm planning on at least 275 and maybe some more depending on how it all feels as I cycle up to my singles. My lower back was always the limiting factor with squats. The quads never seemed to want to fail.

I've thought about foam rolling my neck, but it just never seemed like the best idea, somehow. If it's working for you, groovy.

[Mark E. Hurling]

You might try this then, because although it doesn't hit the cervical vertebrae part of the neck that well, it feels like it contributes to loosening the upper traps that can have an indirect and sometimes more direct effect on the neck:

The first is to position the roller at a 90 degree angle to your body. Bridge up on your toes like you were doing a wrestler's bridge and push your body up and across the roller as high as you can. Then use your hamstrings to pull/roll yourself back down to about your mid-back below your scapulae. In this exercise the roller is oriented North/South and your body is oriented East/West.

The second is to lie on top of the roller lengthways so that the back of your head is supported by the roller and the roller is slightly to the right side of your spine. Roll from right to left out past your scapula to maybe your posterior deltoid. Then position yourself on the roller so that it is left of your spine and repeat. In this exercise both your body and the roller are oriented North/South.

When all is well with my upper back and neck I do 10 of the first exercise and 10 on each side on the second exercise. If things are not well, I do as many as it might take to feel like some kind a release is happening in the muscles. I recommend a really firm roller, because a soft one just mashes flat under my own fat ass. It hurts a little more as you're getting used to it but I think it helps cause a release better. JM3 might take issue with me on this since he does some bodywork for a living, but much of what I have learned about getting these kind of kinks out talks about stressing the affected muscle to the point that it releases it's tension in self-defense because the roller (or thumbs, or elbow, etc.) induces enough additional stress that the fascia involved just surrender and loosen up.

Finally remember this, the trapezius attaches at the back of the skull on both sides behind the ears. There are a lot of other muscles in the neck that can give you grief on the front, the sides, and underneath the traps, but getting some tension out of the traps often causes a positive avalanche effect that might ease up the rest of your neck.

[tertius]

I do the first one from time to time, and it's usually pretty helpful. In fact, I think I'm going to go do that now.

I bought a stubby roller (18"), though, so I'm not sure I can do the second. I don't think it would be anywhere near long enough.
There's downsides to easy stowing, and cheaper shipping, it appears. Thanks for the description, regardless.