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

  1. #41
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    10-19-10

    Weight: 221. So typical, it’s the last few pounds that are the hardest to lose.

    I did a GXP on the Concept rower today. I had a harder time getting to 85% than usual for some reason. There was more skeletal crackling than usual during the foam rolling but no lingering discomfort that I had expected from the Saturday back spasm; lucky me. Stretched and left.

    Nothing much to say about jujitsu tonight, other than some lingering lower back discomfort that evidenced itself when we were doing breakfall drills and ratcheted up gradually as the session went on.

    10-20-10

    Weight: 220

    I got a mild case of the willies again overnight from the prospect of deadlifts so I didn’t sleep too well. I did however, get my tired ass out of bed and get into the gym so as to not succumb to fear and dread.

    5 minute warmup on the bike.

    Sumo Deadlift: 230x5, 260x3, 290x3. Just like my last session at deadlifts, I figured I’d let my cycle up poundages and how they felt be my guide for how many to do on the last set which calls for a single. The back was still a bit stiff and unstable from bouncing on the mat last night, but I felt confident enough to do 2 more for a total of 3. Another minor victory; I pulled 405 in my late 30’s in regular deadlifts but I don’t intend try that again and run the attendant risk of injury.

    Claw Grip: 143x5x2 PR!

  2. #42
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    So what have I learned during the 5/3/1 cycles with my attempts at PR’s? Several very useful things. It seems that this format works pretty well for me, at least so far. I have begun to learn some of my performance parameters when it comes to max singles. Getting too close to my max attempt with a warm up is counterproductive. What is truly astounding for me is discovering that I still have some unrealized strength potential at this late remove. I had firmly believed over the last 5 years that I was just about completely tapped out and would have to content myself with trying to hold on to what I had managed to achieve from my previous decades of lifting for as long as I could. Well much to my surprise, I haven’t got to the end point just yet. Incredible!

    The last several years have had me asking myself a question that was posed by someone else on another website; “How strong is strong enough?” I can’t imagine I want a great deal more than I have achieved already, but I would like to get to a body weight overhead press and to 315 in the bench press. As for upper back strength, I have already accomplished way more than I ever anticipated with the dumbbell rows and chins. I think I may just let these coast for a while since my upper body pulls are way stronger than anything else. As for my lower body strength, if I was prepared to risk my low back, I know I could hit much bigger numbers there as well. When you wake up with a creaky complaining back in the mornings, you give this a lot of thought though. I’ll stick with the safer movements for me with the hip belt squats and build up the sumo deadlift to maybe a 350 single, but even for the latter, I’m not taking unnecessary liberties for bragging rights. The trap bar is safer for me and I may just revert back to that if I feel I need to. So far though, so good with the sumos. As much as I enjoy the challenge of lifting and finding and testing my limits, jujitsu is still my priority. I do not want to risk an injury that ends my participation in that activity.

    In a way, the timing of this is really better now rather than earlier in my life. If I had figured this stuff out in my earlier years, I know just what would have happened. I’d have gotten bit by the competition bug bad. That would have lead to worse injuries than I got in judo during my late teens and early 20’s after college. As I have described in a post elsewhere on this board, I broke every toe on both of my feet at least once, I dislocated a shoulder, wrenched a knee, was concussed twice, and broke my ankle in the second round of eliminations in the NCAA regionals. I shudder to think of what I might have attempted when trying to squat or deadlift too much and damaging something important like a knee, a quad, or my back from it. How do I know this? At my age, you have had plenty of time to get to know yourself, your compulsions, and your need to feed the rat. I have a strong competitive drive and more ego than is good for me. It seems chance and happenstance has saved the best for last.

    When I look back at my old excel spreadsheet logs, and I have 6 year’s worth of them, I realized that in the 6 months since I started trap bar deadlifts again this year, I had added nearly 2 inches to my chest now at 51”. My arms grew from just under 17” to 7 ½”, and my quads went from 26” to 27 ½”. Hell my wrist even grew from 7 ½” to nearly 7 ¾”. I know, we’re not about the suspect measuring game here, but even at my age my vanity is still strong enough to wonder about that stuff as I felt the sleeves and back on my XL polo shirts along with the legs of my size 36 Dockers getting tighter. So I got out the tape. All this happened when I cut the number of exercises in my routine in half and kept to one top work set, stopping at just under failure, with mainly low reps in the 1-5 range. I added 5 pounds to my bench press and that could have been 10 if I had not screwed up my warmup progression. I added 5 pounds to my overhead press and I am confident I could have added a couple more if I had not been as conservative as I was in microloading. I added 20 pounds to my hip belt squat, 25 pounds to my one arm dumbbell row, and 5 pounds to my pullup. The learning process continues.

    I re-discovered some of the old exercises that gave me the willies; the bench press and the sumo deadlift. It seems that as long as I pay very close attention to good form and not go crazy on adding weight, I can do them safely.

    Some other stuff I learned; keep it short, keep it simple, and use big basic movements. It may not work for everyone all the time but it worked for this geezer! Oh, and I lost over 10 pounds in the last 2 months despite cutting further back on my cardio. Speaking of cardio, I learned more about the interplay of cardio and lifting. On higher volume days (5’s and 5+) I get 70-75% of MHR with the attendant (although unintended) cardio benefits. On low volume PR sessions, this runs to 60-65% of MHR. Once I get my weight where I want it, I can probably reduce cardio some more. This past week I discovered my blood pressure spikes higher right after I get up in the mornings. I now have another med to take at night along with the other blood pressure one I already take and the cholesterol med. The doc says I needed to lose some more weight (!), but that will just be the next long term goal to strive for in 2011. I know I can do it with more assiduous attention to my eating and potent potables. Living longer to lift better and not have a stroke is an excellent incentive.

    I read about all this stuff years ago, thought about it a lot, but didn’t act on it because I didn’t believe it was really for me or that I was ready for it. That stuff was for the real elite, and I wasn’t one of them. Never was, never would be. It wasn’t until I found this website and the other people who comprise it that I decided to dive in after it. Kilgore’s age adjusted charts were really the driving factor, as in try it now or never. Kilgore provided me with a mental framework very similar to an old article by John McCallum called “Your Measurements” in that collection of his articles, The Keys to Progress. The passage goes like this:

    “But if he knows better, he can see that the published measurements have no bearing . . . He can accurately analyze how bad the distortion is and forget the whole thing.”


    So there it is, once you know reality, and where you sit in relationship to that reality and others in it, you have a true perspective. And that, to conclude this lengthy entry, is where I am just now.

  3. #43
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    10-20-10

    This is what happens when you get old, your mind wanders and loses focus from time to time. Of course I see that in people of all ages, but it’s us old farts that get most of the grief for it. I got so wrapped up in the lessons learned entry yesterday I forgot the entry on jujitsu for the evening. So here it is.

    My back was feeling dodgy all day, but the kids class needs all the adult supervision we can muster to herd the cats so I couldn’t in good conscience blow it off. I begged dispensation from breakfall drills from O-Sensei Bellman and he agreed. The kids were mostly well behaved except for a few boys that I suspect have ADHD, are autistic, or some of both. They don’t watch the demo’s, they don’t listen, and then they whine “This doesn’t wooork!” To which I answer, “I saw you playing with your obi, or talking to someone else when we showed this technique, so here it is.” Several of the techniques involved throws, so they get dumped in a vain attempt to focus their attention later. I understand now how only 1 little shithead in a classroom can disrupt the whole teaching and learning process.

    The adult class consisted of me working with a green belt and fine tuning his choking techniques. My neck is a little out now too from that experience because like many learning to choke, he persists in using wrenching strength to shut off the blood supply to the brain or air flow to the lungs. Oh, strength does work all right, but if the fine motor skills of wrist movement and supination are learned properly, a 10 year old can put you under in less than 10 seconds. Otherwise you get your cervical vertebrae torqued like mine are this morning, along with my lower back. It really is just a matter of explication and repetition, and he’ll get it just fine. It helps that he’s an M.D., because I can put this in anatomical and medical terms that help him get it right. He knows I have been working on a draft of a book of self defense for women and offered up his wife’s services to review it. She’s a professional technical writing reviewer and no doubt can find some organizational flaws in the draft. I am also interested in getting a woman’s perspective on my approach to the topic. I’ve had a friend who is a 6th degree in hapkido review it, and he thought it was a good way to proceed, so I’ve got that going for me. Of course I can’t even attempt to seek publication until I make black belt. Brown belts have no credibility in the publishing world.

    My back is completely and thoroughly secured in the hurt locker this morning. I’m sure it’s a reaction to the deadlifts yesterday morning followed up by the jujitsu last night and the night before. Time to see the chiro so she can get my chassis properly realigned.

    Oh, and weight today (drum roll please) 218! TAA-DAAA!

  4. #44
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    10-22-10

    Weight: 219. This may seem a little premature, but I’m declaring victory on this goal. I know my body pretty well at this point and once I have gotten under the mark for two days in a row, I may bounce up again a few times, but this generally means I did it. So then, it’s on to the rest of my goals.

    I did an elliptical GXP on some new equipment because the usual ones I use were down for repairs. I had to futz with the controls to get the resistance up to where I was at 85% of MHR, and finally succeeded.

    My chiro was horrified at the disarray of my lumbar and cervical vertebrae. She was even more horrified when I described the choking technique that screwed up my neck. I know I’m a source of never-ending triage methodology for her when I have to in come for something other than my routine 30 day tune ups. Thank God she’s as good at the techniques as she is. I’m feeling a great deal better this morning, although with some minor lingering kinks in the neck and a few tremors of spasm on the lower left L5. Not much discomfort, just some reminders to let me know they are not happy with my choices.

    And now, I’m off on a vacation to Illinois for a week or so to visit friends and family. Obviously, I need a little respite from bouncing off the mat and the iron.

  5. #45
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    Good stuff, Mark. Have fun in the Midwest. We've had a spectacular October so far.

  6. #46
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    Thanks bob g. We got there just in time for 60+ mph winds, rain, and tornadoes. In October of all things! Very unusual for that time of year. The rest of the color was still great.

    I did some low rent maintenance stuff like walking, clap pushups, and some pullups just to keep everything tuned up and the juices flowing. This much to the horror of my 12 years younger little sister who said over a year ago I was too old to be doing jujitsu. I taught my 7 year old nephew (her son) some basic stuff we show the kids like escapes from grabs which she thought was good. At least until I showed him how to do an armbar from a cross wrist grab. Too violent she worried. Ah well, her opinion may change if he gets thumped at school. Ole Unca Mark may be called in for trip to Massachusetts to conduct a self defense seminar at that point.

    Somehow or other I got some really bad tendinitis in my left hand and wrist that is still hurting like hell. I'm going to have to forego jujitsu and lifting until this clears up because not only is gripping painful but just supporting a bar in the space between my thumb and forefinger like doing a press hurts even worse. Oh, and I weighed in at 216 yesterday when I returned. Strangely, I usually lose weight on vacations and this one was no exception. I'll keep at the losing, but at a more gradual pace and only report major milestones, like if I hit 210. Good to be back, even with the injury. I'll just have to confine myself to cardio that does not involve the upper body for what I hope are a few more days.

  7. #47
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    After two days of cardio I couldn't stand it any more. My left hand was 90-95% so I decided to lift this morning. I jumped in to the end of 3's week on the 5/3/1.

    5 minute warmup on bike.

    Sumo Deadlifts: 225x3, 255x3, 285x3.
    Nothing to see here, move along. These are not the droids you're looking for. I broke out my wrist straps as a just in case to protect my left hand from re-injury. I probably didn't need them but why risk more down time? I also stopped at 3 with 285 even though I had several more reps in the tank. Coming back from over a week's layoff is not the time to get too ego driven. Just lifting this morning was a big enough sop to the monkey brain.

    Claw Grip: 145x5x5, PR! Right hand only.

    Foam roller and stretching.

    The last week off has really relaxed me and the back hasn't felt this good for years. Another lesson learned here I believe, schedule in regular off weeks for better recovery. What's really insidious about this feeling of well being is the temptation to stop lifting and jujitsu to feel better. Once you you start down that slippery slope it's straight to the grab rail next the toilet and a walker. I'd rather not.

  8. #48
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    I've been thinking about this all week and hesitated a while before making this observation because it may be premature. My back feels really good and I have been sleeping better than I have in some time. Years even, maybe. Now this should be no surprise having been on vacation and not taxing my lower back or getting bounced off the tatami but . . . When you stay with relatives the matress situation is catch as catch can, and except for one night at a Hoilday Inn, the matresses were small crowding my Dearly Beloved in less space than we are comfortable with and terrible in terms of support. In spite of this I slept pretty well and woke up refreshed.

    Fast forward to back at the usual grind at home (with a Sleep Number matress, thank you very much) and I am sleeping even better, my back doesn't ache in the a.m. when I get up now, and I have not felt that debilitating fatigue that overcomes me sometimes as the day goes on. This is good stuff and I hope it continues.

    Now why is this happening? I think I might have an idea. I have lost 16 pounds since I started this log, and I doubt I could have achieved this if I didn't dread the prospect of having to report failure in a public forum. As Samuel Johnson once said "Fear of the noose concentrates the mind wonderfully." So thank you all for viewing this and keeping my motivation high. I think losing this excess ballast has relieved some lower back strain and that I may have been experiencing some sleep apnea from this ballast as well. As I look back over a few years I realized that my more frequent back problems started to crop up when I got to 225 and stayed there for a while. So did the fatigue. So, maybe I need to be at a lighter weight. My lifting hasn't seemed to suffer from it. If these are valid observations, some of you might consider these ramifications yourselves as you get older. Hell, I'm playing this older thing by ear myself day to day.

    My back still feels good today despite sumos yesterday and I got less sleep than usual last night and still feel energized. Next week will give me a better perspective on this, but I won't know until I get there.

  9. #49
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    OK, I got another good night's sleep and woke up with the back feeling good. Wrist was mainly OK, and although the tendonitis demon was still loitering in a low grade way; oh screw it. I looked in to the drawer holding my decades old collection of braces and wraps and got a out a good metal reinforced wrist brace. I got there a little late thanks to the vagaries of CalTrans closing some transition ramps to the 105 and ended up getting paired up with the big blue belt again. BIG strong guy at 6'2" and what I thought was a weight of 245 turned out to be a weight of 275 when I asked him. Daaang! He outweighs me by nearly 60 pounds now.

    We worked on (among many other techniques) a really great rear take down that would work very well in the aisle of economy class when Muhammed, or Iqbal, or Ahmed makes his move toward the cockpit. Walk up behind him, drive your knee forward and slightly upward into the hamstring while grabbing the collar and pulling down and back. The blue belt I was working with toppled like a sequoia. His feet sailed out from underneath him and boom! Of course so did mine he went after me, but when you can make that work on someone so much bigger than you, it really gives you confidence on how effective the techniques are. I knew a technique similar to this as a cop, but in one disastrous engagement, the guy I was taking out landed on his face instead of his back. His nose got broken and so did two front teeth. I just wanted him down on the ground so I could finish handcuffing him, not completely fucked up. Sad to say, shit happens on dark sidewalks in front of dirt bag biker bars sometimes. Unfortunately it triggered a street disturbance that had 40 oz. bottles Miller arcing in like mortar rounds for a while. It took the rest of the P.D. to put down the festivities. It was a good object lesson in making sure you know you are doing and how you execute it. He needed arresting but not that kind of damage. I wish I knew then what I know now, I wouldn't have hurt some people like I did. Time to head to the confessional.

    Later we bashed the daylights out of the Bob human striking bag which was a good exercise although my wrist didn't like it much after about 50 hits or so.

    Later in the day I did 40 minutes of low intensity cardio and stretching. Normally by this time after those two sessions I am dragging my lower parts in the mud, but I'm still doing good this afternoon with the back strong and a reserve of energy. I feel at least 10 years younger right now and have increasing hopes things will keep on like this.

  10. #50
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    starting strength coach development program
    A little disoriented from the time change, but hi ho, hi ho, it's off to lift I go.

    5 minute warmup on the bike.

    Bench Press: 170x3, 195x3, 220x3.

    Chins: -65x3, -40x3, -20x7.

    Rolled and stretched and feel great. The back is not developing lingering soreness from yesterday's kinetic shocks on the mat, so even better. The wrist, well that's another story. It felt fine until I had to support the bar benching, and then it started to give me some shit. I'm pretty sure that's why I could barely manage 3 reps on the last set instead of more. Either that or it was just one of those days, OR maybe the weight loss is catching up with me after all. At any rate, I've got to get this wrist back up to snuff because next week I have 5/3/1 weeks with attempts at PR's. I'll tape my wrist to hell and gone if I have to for those efforts.

    I could not get my heart rate up during the warmup today, and since I was wearing my HR monitor I kept closer track than usual on my HR during lifting and stretching. I only spiked to anything above 65% MHR twice and even then just for less than a minute. My resting HR is down too, from the low 70's pre weight loss to the low 60's now. It ranged in the mid 50's when I was in my 40's and went up and up and up during my mid 50's. Right when my weight did too. I'll be keeping an eye on this to see if today was a one off or indicative a trend. Hope the latter.

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