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

[Mark E. Hurling]

Finally! I can move again without feeling like my eyeballs are going to pop out like a Tex Avery cartoon character. My back has been so trashed I haven't slept well most of the week. Yesterday I woke up with my right shoulder and left leg hurting too, so I got my chiro to fit me in for some major rehab at 12:30. She agreed my back was all messed up and when I pointed at my left leg she probed a little and came to the conclusion it was the illiopsoas that was tight. It was tender as all get out when she started tracing it from mid femur to the pelvis and abdominal area so I believe her. Must stretch this even more I guess and avoid the C2 which seems to cause the psoas to tighten up when I pull myself forward on the recovery from the stroke. I thought it was hamstrings doing the work but I do recall I was tight as hell and it was hard to stand upright immediately the last time I was on the C2.

Lifted today, should have been yesterday but I was too hurt and tired from lack of sleep to try it.

5 minute warm up on the bike

Overhead Press: 150 x 5 x 3 (heavy)

Bench Press: 155 x 8 x 3 + 10 (light)

Back Extension: 90 3 x 6 (light)

My miseries were caused by doing too many work sets in the squat, not one top set. Lesson learned there. If this happens again I'll have to re-evaluate my ambitions to compete in a PL match. As much as I want to do that, I won't sacrifice my ability to do jujitsu which too many squats cost me this week. I haven't hurt my back this much since I started this log and I DO NOT want a repeat of it anytime soon.

All that said, I feel pretty good this morning despite the lingering haze from lack of sleep this week. While this was a short term setback, I have no good reasons to complain. My weight has stayed at 216 +/-1 and the Tanita scale's bodyfat measurement parameters have narrowed a tick for me to 13% - 14%. Given that the lower numbers of these figures are contingent on good hydration and the diuretics I am taking for my blood pressure, this seems to indicate marginal improvement on my body composition.

Getting old is not for sissies, and I had another sampling at the geriatric buffett this week. Lucky for me I could manage to push myself away from the table this time with a little help.

[Oldster]

My miseries were caused by doing too many work sets in the squat, not one top set.

Mark, I think we have a bit of miscommunication here. To my way of thinking and expressing myself, 'work sets' ARE your top set(s). So if you are going to work up to a 400x5 squat, that would be one top set, one single 'work set'. If you work up to 400 for 5 sets of 3, you are doing 5 top sets, 5 'work sets'.

For instance:
135x5
225x5
315x5
400x5
This would be 3 warmup sets followed by 1 top set, the 1 'work set'.

Or:
135x5
225x3
315x3
400x5x3
This would be 3 warmup sets followed by 5 tops sets, 5 'work sets'.

I'm happy you are feeling better but bummed that you ended up hurting so badly over perhaps miscommunication. As soon as I saw you had handled 5 sets of 3 for your 'work sets', I was instantly worried about your recovery.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Thanks for the further explanation, but I think I got that after your last post. Hey, misunderstandings are common over a medium like this. No harm done now that the chiro fixed me. It's amazing, the catch in my left quad is completely gone now. I think I must have had something lurking in the psoas for over a month that it took a follow up adjustment to fix. While I got smoked by the sudden increase in total work load, I now think the real culprit had been lying in wait for me like a mugger in an alley.

[Oldster]

Thanks for the further explanation, but I think I got that after your last post.

Whew! I was afraid you would hunt me down and put a grapplin' something or another on me that would have my heel up around my ear and maybe my head in the area of my rectum.

Remember, I'm a bleeder.....!

And a whiner.....

[Mark E. Hurling]

Nah. Nothing like that. Only unskilled thugs have to resort to techniques that would draw blood. Thanks again for all your advice.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Woke with a mixed bag of good and bad. The back and left quad continue to get better but my left ankle was sore. No doubt a result of all the off kilter walking and such I'd been doing for a week or so. Off to jujitsu.

I was granted absolution for my faux pas last week of showing up for a black belt class. We spent the session learning some new 2 person drills that help reference when you are stepping and blocking correctly relative to another person in the mix. It showed up positioning flaws like a spot light for the feet and if the blocking hand(s) are not in the right spot to stop or deflect an incoming strike. I got paired up with a 12 year who weighed about 100 lbs. and is 5' 3". This gets done to give the smaller kids confidence in their technique and to better understand what they could contend with in a real attack by an adult. He struggled, because I was so much bigger than him he had trouble gripping my wrist or reaching around my arm for a figure 4 control and take down throw from it. Some the black belts worked with him to get him to move to make it all work. He made some progress as the class went on.

I figured a few things out today on the inherently greater strength and impact of pulls and their effect on an adversary's body as compared to a push or strike. A strike can be resisted or moved away from or blocked. The force brought to bear is relatively limited to the strength of the extensors in the arms and legs with a little help from the back up mass of the rest of the body. With a pull the flexors come in to play too, but the back up mass of the body along with steps backward, to the side, or elsewhere really haul someone along and it is much harder to resist. Gravity comes into play too since once you bend your knees during a pull your body weight becomes part of the force. All you have to do is hold on. Good stuff. I limped off the mat well satisfied.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Watching the Bears play in the snow at Soldier Field as I make this entry. Football the way God meant for it to be played, real turf, exposed to the elements for real men! I know that until Green Bay goes first with a dome the Bears will never have one. They just remodeled Soldier Field and didn't do it then which just indicates what a point of pride it is.

My ankle is still stiff and sore but better.

5 minute warm up on the bike.

Bench Press: 205 x 5 x 3. Did a 3 second pause on the first rep of the last set. If there's one thing I've learned from jujitsu, the repetition of wax on wax off really works wiring in the nervous and muscle systems. Got to get used to the pause for a match.

Deadlifts: Worked up to 285 x 3 top set. This felt good even though my lower back is still just a little tired.

I went straight to an 11 minute GXP. My heart rate was hauling along at 124 after the DL's and I hit the 80%-85% of MHR in about 30 seconds of the warm up.

Lots of rolling and stretching to finish out.

[Oldster]

Just about perfect.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Old dogs, new tricks. Aaaaoooo!

[Mark E. Hurling]

It was hard to get up because I was sooo comfortable under the covers, but it was worth it to see a huge orange full moon over the Pacific on the way to Gold's. Fit in nicely with my last howling post. I was running late because I overslept so I shortened things up a little.

5 minute warm up on the bike. Medium day.

Bench Press: 190x5x5

Hammer Row: 345x5x5

Pinch Grip: 127 for 35 seconds PR!

Rolled and a shortened course of stretches focused on keeping Mr. Low Back in good form.

For the sake of brevity, I did the Benches and Rows back to back with no rest in between. I haven't done sets like this since I started the log here, but I spent several years working out this way with a lower body move in a 3 part mix, and then another 3part mix after that. Felt good to do this again, and it got my heart rate cooking along at 85%+ of MHR for the 23 minutes it took to do the lifting. The whole workout was completed in 37 minutes with my average at 85% of MHR for the duration. A good doubled up cardio and lifting session.