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

  1. #121
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    • starting strength seminar april 2024
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    I get confused on that as well- particularly with Rips response to the recent poster fat guy squatting- his bar position in vids was low bar (spine of scapula) but Rip called it high bar squat- I think because his head was up and his movement seemed to engage the quads more.
    For me, when my gaze is directed downards I feel the hip drive alot differently- that seems to work best as 'the cue'

  2. #122
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    You and tertius have convinced me now; I have to get Starting Strength. It may get me past my old problems with how my lower back get taxed by squats. I think that I mostly do a sit back movement, but as I have given this some thought overnight I realized that like you tertius, I almost certainly alternate between that and dropping down between my legs. I do know that given some advice I read long ago I never look down. That part always made sense to me because there's an old adage in judo I learned when I was 18 and it certainly true in every other martial art I have ever done. The received wisdom from the East says "Where the head goes the body follows." I'm pretty sure it was something I read in Strossen's book Super Squats. He said looking down can cause you to round your lower back. Having said all this, I just need to buy Rip's other book and read it.

  3. #123
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    Exercise today consisted of a walk along the ocean. It was 50 degrees here this morning and so considered pretty cold for SoCal especially this close to the Pacific. Having grown up in IL though my blood has never thinned out much so did this in shorts and a T shirt. I heat up very easily so this was no big deal, although the other very few people out there clearly thought I was nuts since they were bundled up. Interestingly I saw something very unusual on the sand. There were a flock of gulls sitting around doing whatever gulls do on the sand, but mixed in with them were several brown pelicans. Never seen or even heard of that before.

  4. #124
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    Off to the gym, with the usual Sunday morning suspects there. By next week the News Years resolutions crowd will start showing up to clutter things for about 2-3 weeks and then disappear like they always have in every other gym I have ever been in.

    5 minute warm up on the bike.

    Overhead Press:
    130x5, 145x3, 165x6. This is 3's week but I lost lock on my focus for some reason and did a couple of warm up sets with 5 and then the 1st work set. I finished of with 6 reps on the last because Wendler says do as many as you can but short of failure. Pretty pleased with the last set because there's another set of strength standards by a guy named Dave Maurice who was part of McRoberts' cadre of contributors. His standards square up pretty closely with Rip's elite standards and for the press the standard is 75% of body weight for 6 reps. At 216 lbs. this morning, that works out to 162 lbs. as a benchmark for 6. Life is good.

    Hammer Row:
    290x3, 330x3, 370x5. My pulls have always been good if my lower back didn't sabotage me.

    Thick Bar Hold:
    210 lbs. for 26 seconds.

    Saw a guy in the gym who is older than me for the first time in months. We always exchange some greeting since we're always the oldest coots in the place. I told him I had made the cut for Team Geezer this September. He just laughed and said "I turned 83 two weeks ago." There's only one good response for that and I said, "I bow to the master." Then off to get the rest of today underway.

  5. #125
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    Did a GXP today to keep the bloodstream moving and break loose the plaque on the artery walls. Finished out with the foam roller and stretching.

    I've been giving a lot of thought to the gaze directed downward. I looked again at the schematics on the SS book and noticed that the head and neck are in a neutral position in the squat which by necessity means you would be looking down and bent at the waist the head would be oriented downward as well. It would have to be that way. Now here's the "startling" revelation for me anyway. One of the 22 main principles we learn in mushin ryu is body misalignment. A lot of the techniques rely on breaking down a properly aligned body to weaken it for a takedown or throw. There's a particular technique called spinal compression where we slip the left hand behind the neck and the right on the forehead and pull in toward yourself with the left and push the forehead back. They fold up like a cheap card table and collapse.

    The neck in this technique ends up in the same position it would be in if you were squatting and looking up or even straight ahead of you at the bottom position. This alone could explain the persistent back miseries squats visited on me. I'm still getting the book, but thanks for getting the old dog to try some new tricks.

  6. #126
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mark E. Hurling View Post
    .... and for the press the standard is 75% of body weight for 6 reps. At 216 lbs. this morning, that works out to 162 lbs. as a benchmark for 6. Life is good.
    Life IS good.

    Very good lifting. Are you holding in the 216 area or still trying to drop more?

  7. #127
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    Thank you, Oldster. Yeah, I'm hanging right around 216 +/- from time to time. I figure once the holidays are over and I get back to my normal routine (I've been off from 12-23 to 1-4) I'll make another run to drop a few more pounds and be happy at 210. Which is not to say I'm not pretty content right where I am now. I'll just see what the new year brings.

    Raining (again!) here in SoCal this morning. Even the ardent Water Management nuts have thrown in the towel about the drought now. Off to the gym.

    5 minute warm up on the bike.

    Sumo Deadlift:
    225x3, 260x3, 290x5. The last set was easy but I figured just a little extra was fine. I'll save up the big pull for a few more weeks at the next 5/3/1 week when I try for another 10 lbs. on top of my last good DL.

    Claw Grip:
    152x5x5. PR! My other grip work has kind of plateaued and I guess it has been because I was making jumps that were to big. Not here though, since I only did a 2 lb. increment.

    Foam roller and stretch and then home through the puddles.
    Last edited by Mark E. Hurling; 12-29-2010 at 11:10 AM. Reason: Forgot to gloat

  8. #128
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    I did a rowing GXP this morning on the C2 rower. Felt good although I had to work to get the heart rate up to 85% by the 5 minute mark. I've noticed that when I get up from finishing these I have a little trouble straightening fully upright. It feels like my illiopsoas likes the flexed position from the rowing and doesn't want to get stretched but prefers the contracted state.

    I did the foam roller and stretched giving some extra attention to the illiopsoas. I have also noticed some discomfort on the outside of my left thigh right about at the point of the greater trochanter where several of the quads attach. It feels like there's a "catch" there when I walk up steps. When I get up from a seated position using both legs at the same time, nothing; it feels fine. I think this may have resulted from the IT band rolling I have been doing, so I'm dropping that for now to see what happens with the left leg.

  9. #129
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    Not a particularly auspicious start to 2011. I got out of bed this morning feeling like the Tin Man before Dorothy found the oil can. Lots of good life lessons in the Wizard of Oz. My neck has been accumulating some cricks that just got really unpleasant last night along with my lower back. Can't attribute any of this to celebration of any significant sort. Add to that the catch in my left quad along with something that bites me every now and again a stiff and sore ankle. It seems to make the steps even more difficult because it's on the right side. So there I was creaking along on a bad left quad and a stiff right ankle. Damn miracle I didn't fall and break my hip or some such geriatric nonsense.

    No jujitsu until next week and a good thing too, I felt as though I might shatter like cheap glass if I took any falls this morning. I went to the gym to do some low intensity cardio to get some synovial fluid circulating and then do a lot of the foam roll and stretching. In between the two I set up the squat rack and brought in one of my bungee cords to hardwire in my squat depth. Nothing like using your ass as a cane for the blind to feel where deep enough on the squat really is. I also experimented with keeping my neck in the neutral position rather than looking up as I had done previously since before some of you were born. It felt pretty good and as indicated by JM3 it did change the feel in my hips for the drive back upward. Thank you, sir. It also relieved some of the neck miseries that are still making me feel like a robot when I turn or try to move too suddenly. I have my 30 day tune up scheduled for this coming Thursday, but may try to get it moved up if this doesn't ease up on me.

    So in spite of all that Happy New Year!

  10. #130
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    Things felt a little better in the quad and ankle this morning, but the neck and lower back were very stiff and sore. If it weren't for the fact that I'm working the upper half today, I'd have skipped lifting, BUT, that path leads to decay.

    5 minute warm up on the bike.

    Bench Press:
    170x3, 195x3, 220x3. I did the first rep with 220 at a 3 second pause on the chest and then eked out 2 more. I probably had one more, but I tamed my ego here and stuck with short of failure. This is good territory to explore for opening and limit weights at a match. Looks like 225 will be a good start. Limits determination will follow some weeks and the next cycle on from here.

    Chin Ups:
    -35x3, -10x3, bodyweight +9x3. My neck just gave me hell over this while tipping my head back to clear my chin at the bar. For that matter the neck made miserable while benching too. The lower back was a constant bass back beat every time I arched for either movement.

    Lots of stretching and rolling today. No doubt about it, I'm going to see my chiro if I can tomorrow and see if she can give me some respite from this misery. I've said it before and I'll say it again; getting old is hell but it beats the alternative. Add to that, you kids have no idea what is waiting for you down the road. That's one of the reasons I put this whining, pissing, and moaning in my log. It doesn't make me feel any better, but I think of it as a kind of public service announcement.

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