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

[Oldster]

Bench Press: I got 3 singles with 270. A 4th felt possible and Coach and the Old Man were giving me Hell for not going for it, but my right shoulder felt funny right from the empty bar warmup and I decided to keep one in reserve. ....But got 'em all even so.

Excellent. Now you have a minor decision to make. Do you stay with the same weight next week and try to get the 4th rep or do you go up 10 and attempt your reps?

You and I both know where I come down on that.

..actually loaded up the bar with 395 for one more single. I took a stance and gripped the bar, sucked down a huge gulp of air and . . . Decided to let it go and stand up. No point in risking that last potential tweak of the L5 because I got impatient for that run at 405 in a few more weeks.

Beautiful.

[jwt708]

So I amped it up some more with Also Sprach Zarathustra on the way in to the gym.

Nietzsche before the gym?

[Jonathon Sullivan]

Strauss.

Tone poem.

Think it got used in a movie once.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Excellent. Now you have a minor decision to make. Do you stay with the same weight next week and try to get the 4th rep or do you go up 10 and attempt your reps?

You and I both know where I come down on that.

Yup, one more run for a 4th rep next week. That's my plan. I think maybe a 5 lb. jump though once I get that at as a confidence booster for the next increment.

Nietzsche before the gym?

What Sully said. I leave the German philosophers to him. I can actually read and speak German and Kant's circularity of language put me off philosophy for good.

But that resonating organ note at the end of one of the Strauss family masterpieces is very inspiring.

[Oldster]

Yup, one more run for a 4th rep next week. That's my plan. I think maybe a 5 lb. jump though once I get that at as a confidence booster for the next increment.

Excellent.

[Mark E. Hurling]

My butt was dragging the last two days from poor sleep and all I wanted to do was come home and crash. But our daughter wanted to lift and is getting progressively more serious about it. She even changed into some better shoes, a sweat shirt and pants. Her squat form is good, her bench press was a little scary for her because she thought it might be too much. But she ground out all her reps in all her sets even when I asked in the intervals if she thought it was too much. "It's challenging Dad, but I'll try it." This is just music to my ears. I never expected her to push herself like this and as I have said I have myself throttled back hard on this so as not to overreach. Her deadlift was so easy for her she said she wants to try a bigger jump next time. Priceless.

[Jonathon Sullivan]

This is awesome, Mark, and it sounds like you're handling it just right.

[jwt708]

Thanks Sully and Mark for clearing that up.

I thought it weird that someone would get amped up reading or maybe listening to Nietzsche. I also hope to try out your GXP tomorrow.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 242

Tough week in terms of sleep and fatigue. I slept in midweek and so missed medium day.

5 minutes warmup on the bike. (Light Day)

Bench Press: 175 for 6 sets of 2. The right shoulder feeling it a little. Strange too, out of nowhere.

Squats: 135 for 3 sets of 6.

Power Snatch: 105 for 3 sets of 3. Getting smoother now that I am remembering to rotate my elbows out.

Finished with a GXP.

The new longer standard plate exercise bar arrived yesterday and our daughter came home from being oot and aboot with a friend was thrilled. So thrilled in fact, she shouldered it in the living room and ground out some sets and reps to try it out. Then did some overhead presses. Progress by increments.

Oldster, I've been wondering. Do singles generate greater overall fatigue and hunger? Because my rear end is dragging just now and I find I've had a ferocious appetite the last week or so.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 240

Another inauspicious run up to this morning's lifting. My right inside knee and foot started hurting yesterday. No idea why. The knee got worse as Saturday went on and I had to resort to pillows under my leg to sleep it was so uncomfortable. I hoped it would clear up by the next morning and while my foot did, not so the knee. So I pulled out the armored metal brace I got after the meniscus tear got diagnosed and wore it to the gym limping all the way. This was after using topical anti-inflammatories along with Aleve. Bending the leg hurt (a lot!) especially when I'd do something like cross my right ankle over my left knee so I figured squats were a non-starter. BUT! I had those 4 singles with 270 to try.

5 minutes warmup on the bike. (Heavy Day) Even the bike made my knee hurt.

Bench Press: Reps of 8-45-95-135, reps of 5-185, reps of 2-225, single-250. There was no one to spot me so I figured I was good for the first shot at 270. Nope. Thank God for catch bars. Well this thoroughly pissed me off so I tried again. Also nope. Halfway was all I could do. Why, I wonder even now as I type this? Two possibilities. The first is that the cumulative fatigue I mentioned last week did me in. Maybe. Then there was the guy doing curls while taking the bar from the uprights on the bench I use. Never seen that before, so I used another bench. But since not all 45 plates are created equal it is possible that I have been using light plates from that bench/rack or heavier ones from the one I used this morning.

Pull-Ups: Bodyweight for 5 sets of 3.

I grumped my way out of the gym. All I could think of was that sequence in Patton during the Battle of the Bulge where he orders up a weather prayer from the Chaplain. I'm no fan of the man himself, but that was the most moving part of the film what with the narration of the prayer and men getting burned up by flamethrowers while you hear the words "As we proceed from strength to strength". Then you see the soldier fall face first alone in the snow after having been shot. Very inspiring when you need to make Dearly Beloved happy for Mother's Day. So with that image hanging like some foul smoke in my brain I did what I could to make this a good day for her.

We go together in the afternoon for her workout and some easy cardio for me. But I had to get that damn iron monkey off my back. I figured I might be able to do some deadlifts even if they weren't full out. But how to pull this off when she has seen me limping all day? Trust me on this, you don't want to listen to or argue about the hazards you put yourself in harm's way of. Even though she has seen me come home reeling, or scabbed, or crawling from some misadventure or other for over 36 years of dating and marriage. So I waited until she got in another part of Golds and got my shoes and belt and positioned myself so she couldn't see me doing deadlifts. Better to ask forgiveness.

Deadlifts: Sets of 3-135-225, singles with belt 315-365-395! Not a PR but nice to pull off. I lost form just slightly and it came out just below my knees. My low back started to complain but I hauled it back in and straightened up with it with the knurling scraping my quads. And so I did it and didn't get caught at it. Then I did a GXP to camouflage my illicit guilty pleasure.

But she found me out when she saw me taking off my weightlfting shoes and stashing my belt. "Why are you changing your shoes?" So I fessed up. Quite an oddment of a day altogether.