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

[Mark E. Hurling]

We'll wait until you are handling your old PR for 3 reps. Shouldn't be too hard. When it looks right we'll go directly from 3's to singles. What exactly is your squat PR (3 rep and/or singles) to give me an idea of where you are working toward?

Last question first since I understand it better. Squat 1 RM is 275 now but I am sure I can get 300+ with a little work. Deadlift 1 RM is 355 and I know I can get 400 before the year is out.

Now for your first comment, I'm not clear on what you mean and how it translates to actual performance of the 3 reps. My bench 1 RM is 255. Does that mean when I cycle up to 255 at a 2.5% rate per week on heavy days that I should be able to do a set of 3? What about the remaining 4 sets on the 5 x 3 heavy day? Thanks again for your advice here.

Oh and to all and sundry, sorry for the double post to tertius. The tears in my eyes over the Bears' defeat affected me the rest of the day. (sob)

[Oldster]

Last question first since I understand it better. Squat 1 RM is 275 now but I am sure I can get 300+ with a little work. Deadlift 1 RM is 355 and I know I can get 400 before the year is out.

Now for your first comment, I'm not clear on what you mean and how it translates to actual performance of the 3 reps. My bench 1 RM is 255. Does that mean when I cycle up to 255 at a 2.5% rate per week on heavy days that I should be able to do a set of 3? What about the remaining 4 sets on the 5 x 3 heavy day? Thanks again for your advice here.

Oh and to all and sundry, sorry for the double post to tertius. The tears in my eyes over the Bears' defeat affected me the rest of the day. (sob)

I don't think you'll have any trouble either with surpassing your former squat or DL PR's. When you get to your old PR however, I fully expect you to be able to handle it for a set of 3!

I am confident you'll get to your old 255 bench PR for at least 2 or 3 reps. Past that we really don't care, though if you can do it for 2 or 3 sets of 3, that gives you impetus for bigger and better gains. Understand, that nothing is written in stone. You need to be prepared to change things up a bit, rest wise and work wise, to keep moving forward.

Don't get too greedy on new PR's. Personally *I* am satisfied with handling an old 1 rep PR for 2 reps after 10-12 weeks. That usually translates to about 20lbs extra. 5% is a great increase in strength from cycle to cycle. There shouldn't really be a problem with you meeting these gains.

[Mark E. Hurling]

OK Oldster, I printed your comment off to review in depth and for later reference like I have for all the stuff I need to make sure I understand.

Lifting this morning. (medium)

5 minute warm up on the bike.

Bench Press: 195 x 5 x 5

Hammer Row: 355 x 5 x5

Claw Grip: 160 x 5 x 2 PR! I'm a little surprised I've managed to keep making progress this long on this but I'll take it. I suppose the microloading is like the tortise with the slow and the steady.

Foam roller and stretched.

[Mark E. Hurling]

I dragged my tired rear end around all day yesterday and just couldn't muster the energy for the early evening jujitsu session so went home and kicked back. Most of 2010 I did jujitsu 3 times one week and 2 the next to get in enough recovery for my back. So far that hasn't been an issue, but it was one of those down days for whatever reason. Feeling more energetic so far today and I gotta be at jujitsu tonight to help cope with the new hordes in the kid's class.

Did a 15 minute GXP, rolled, and stretched to get the bloodstream, muscles and ligaments in some semblance of order.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Jujitsu last night with the kid's class went well until the line up at the end. All the control rods came out at once and they fell apart. It took 3 of us adults to get them in some semblance of order in a more or less straight line at the back of the mat.

The adult class was a series of in depth demonstrations of use of elliptical force to off balance someone along with inducing and using buoyancy to assist the process. One the purple belts who had been to the Tuesday night class called me all agog over this at work yesterday when Master Bellman did it there. I brought the book Aikido and the Dynamic Sphere with me to show him some illustrations of some of the things discussed. I am not keen on aikido. It looks impressive as long as the "attacker" or "uke" as they are called cooperates. It also gets neck deep in what they call moral and ethical principles of defense. As if. Legal issues, sure. I'll contemplate the futility of attack force filling the vacuum of chaos when I'm dead. I'll settle for a side step at a 45 degree angle with a trip and neck crank in the meantime.

One of the ways buoyancy was induced was from a front lapel grab. You insert the index and middle fingers behind the jaw and under the ear. The attacker rises up on tip-toe and with a very slight direction backwards they topple like a sequoia. Some other things we did that cause the attacker's palm to turn outward trapping air in the lungs and also rendering them buoyant. Interesting stuff. I was up late again unwinding and processing what we did and so was too tired to lift this morning from sleeping in. Tomorrow will be the day for that.

[Ian Kovtunovich]

By "bouyant," do mean just ungrounded and off balance, or is this some kind of chi thing, like they're supposed to be floating?

I got to do an interesting drill similar the lapel grab thing back in kung fu. We were drilling it very slowly, but the principle seemed sound, if one was coordinated enough to execute it quickly (unlike me...). Standing to the left of the attacker, both facing each other, you grab their right wrist to control it, then put your right hand on their neck, thumb on one side, fingers on the other, and step forward with your right foot, just past their left foot. You pop your wrist up under their chin, flipping their head back quickly, then drive your right leg back and down across the back of their right leg, collapsing the leg by forcing the knee to bend. It was interesting, you could see that the leg sweep thing worked pretty well, but when you got the head pop with the wrist was when it really came together. The person just sort of looks up and back, back, back, and their body follows their head right to the mat. Seemed like in a more aggressive situation it would work quite well if you closed distance quickly and got to the neck first, pushing forward to keep them backpedaling, and simply took a quick step in close for the trip portion. Watching for the left hand was the only issue; I suppose quick execution to keep them off balance would prevent a very effective left hook from connecting, or doing much damage if they didn't have a good base to swing from.

Anyway, I always liked seeing throws and the idea of keeping your opponent off balance. Good stuff.

[Mark E. Hurling]

By buoyant I mean that the attacker's lungs are full of air and they can't empty them properly. It sounds ooky and spooky but the result is that the attacker can't "settle" properly and are much easier to send backward or upward or both and so they fall. Not really floating, but less grounded if that makes sense. Two things that induce this buoyant state is when the palm is supinated either upward or outward, or the foot or feet turn out. Sounds like something out of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon but it works. This comes from Chinese Kempo by the way, which is something Master Bellman incorporated or perhaps re-incorporated into jujitsu. I'm glad you asked about this Ian, because I just realized that both of these positions have implications for lifting. Supinate the hand for pullups and they become easier. Turn out the feet and the squat becomes easier. I know there are other kinesiological factors, but go figure.

The throw you describe is one of several variations I know from judo as a well as jujitsu. Using mushin ryu's 26 principles the hand/wrist technique you describe is primarily about body misalignment, the neck, head and spine in this case. I think of the body as a stack of blocks and when you push one or more out of line, the stack collapses. So with the body. You can accomplish the same throw with a palm heel strike directly up and under the jaw, shoving the head sideways, or shoving your right arm over their shoulder in contact with the traps. All of them work well.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Went to bed early last night to assure enough sleep to git 'r done this morning. Irregular sleep despite that for reasons unknown. Nonetheless, up and off to Gold's.

5 minute warm up on bike

Overhead Press: 160 x 5 x 3 + 115 x 10 (heavy) not too taxing

Bench Press: 155 x 8 x 3 + 1 x 10 (light)

Back Extension: 90 x 3 x 10

Foam roller and stretched. Feeling woozy and out of it for some reason.

[Ian Kovtunovich]

I bet you felt woozy and out of it due to your crappy sleep. At least, I always feel pretty damaged after sleeping poorly.

Also, old man, may I kindly say damn you and your 160lb press? That's strong work.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Thanks Ian. I battered away at the OHP for years trying to get it better. I wanted delts, not moobs.