Quest for Fire

[Erok]

Sun., 2/09. I love Sundays at the gym. relatively quiet and sparsely populated. I get to take my time & really put the slow, smooth moves on. Aww, yeah.

217.25#. Lots of bread & beer last night. Tha's ok. I need mah levrigiz.

Squat: 105 x 5, 150 x 5, 210 x 5, 240 x 5,5. light & sweet. Can almost make the plates rattle at the top.

Deadlift: 225 x 5, 315 x 3, 405 x well, here's the deal. First rep got 2 inches off the floor and stayed there until my back started to round - about 5 seconds. belt up and rest, extra chalk, try again. second rep did not leave the floor. But it wanted to. It really wanted to. But it didn't. Because Iron is brutally honest. All this isometric work is exhausting.

OHP: 120 x 2,2,2,2,2,2. not so bad, actually.

Punishment: Rows@ 115 x 8,8,8, SLDL@ 165 x 8,8,8, reverse grip BB curls @ 45 x 8,8,8, reverse grip lat pulldowns @90 x 8,8,8.

I get to watch a very tall, stately gentleman deadlift a righteous 500 for 3. Holy shit. I got a ways to go.

[Erok]

Wed. 2/12. 217.25# Busy time. Loads of boxers in the boxing area, and the usual contingent of olympians swarming the platforms. I take the lonely, beat-up power rack again.

Squats: 155 x 5, 225 x 5, 245 x 5, 275 x 5,5,5. I cleaned up my elbow/shoulder/wrist form, and made it through without any pain. Lats!

OHP: 120 x 5,5,5,5,5,5. Yeah! I DID that! Wasn't too bad. pretty smooth. Saw a rather large male specimen squat 445 for what seemed to be 3 sets of 3. Damn.

Chins: 2, .95, .95, 1, .92 getting there. One of the boxers saw my first set and complimented me on doing full range of motion. Cool.

Power Cleans: 40kg x 2, 50 x 2, 59 x 2,2,2,2,2,3. One of these lands on my throat, another I catch no-handed. I could feel eyes on me, and I think that increased my spunkamine levels. I could be ready for an increase in weight (or, since we're metric here - an increase in mass).

BB curls & KB grips to end it.

Enchilada pie!

[Erok]

Fri., 2/14. 217#. I must be at a maintenance level of some kind.

Squats. This is why I'm here. 135 x 7, 225 x 5, 245 x 5, 275 x 5, 305 x 5,5,5. goddamn, that was hard. Long breaks between sets, 5-8 minutes. Elbow pain is back a little bit.

OHP: 120 x 2,2,2,2,2,2

Chins: 1, 0.95

grips, curls, done. Liver pate, chicken.

[Erok]

Mon., 2/18. Wife is horribly sick with a head cold. I can't just leave her there while I go to the gym. How would dinner ever get made? Seriously, though; she's as pathetic as I was when I had the same thing last week.

To the Batcave! Man, this set is getting dusty. I actually do have to sell it. My new gym is a temple of awesome, we need the space for a drum kit, and I've simply outgrown this set. Damn, that's so cool to say; "Yeah, man, so I bought this weight set with over three hundred pounds of iron, and It's just too light for me now, y'know? I need something heavier."

And, I had a birthday last week. Let's see, a year ago at this time, I was:
BW: 199.5#
SQ: 239, 1x5
DL: 283, 4x1
OHP: 100, 5x5
BP: 135, 5x5
These are all warmup weights now, especially the bodyweight.

Alright - less chat, more splat. Let's crank the tunes and get to it.

Squat: 120 x 10, 170 x 5, 220 x 5, 245 x 5. Light weight. Smashin' it.

OHP: 120 x 6,6,6,6,3,3,5,1 faahhk. I dunno, I got the reps, right? Actually, that last rep was a push press. A really sloppy push press, but hey. The belt helps.

Deadlifts - a good opportunity to check out the Phillipi/Coan. 395 current max, 455 desired. ok, go! 175 x 1, 225 x 3, 275 x 1, 340 x 2. speed sets: 275 x 3,3,3,3,whoah! that's enough. eight threes of that? maybe next time.

Not really set up for all the assistance circuits down here, so:

SLDL @ 125 x 8,8,8
Rows @ 125 x 8, @90 x 8,8
I try a chinup - no. But, it feels good just to hang from the bar.

Jeezuz, whose idea was this? My back is hella swole. Done.

Supper is Cowatouille, which sounds fancy, but is just Ratatouille made with beef instead of rodent.

[Erok]

Wed., 2/19. 217#.

Squats: 95 x 5, 135 x 5, 225 x 5, 255 x 5, 280 x 5,5. taking longer rests, then cranking them out. feels good.

OHP: 120 x 2,2,2,2,2,2. huh. that felt super easy. guess I'm volumized now. The next three weeks will introduce higher intensity.

Bench: why not? It's been awhile. 45 x 15, 95 x 10, 135 x 5, 155 x 5, 175 x 1, 185 x 1, 195 x 1, 205 x 1. My neighbor happens to be benching at the same time, so we chat like a couple of grumpy old men between sets. I'm weakest off the chest, but once I grind it into the tricep zone, all these reps shoot up easily.

Chins: x 1, nevermind. too late in the game to really work these.

Power Cleans: 50 x 2, 55 x 2. oh, man, these are terrible. then I realize it's probably cuz they're not heavy enough. 59 x 2,2,2,2,2,2. These are much smoother.

The leftover cowatouille becomes a putanesca over rice with bacon. Fishsticks with wasabi mayo are also involved.

[Lakshmi Meadows]

Are your wrists bending or are they straight when you squat? My right wrist would always bend back slightly which is NBD until the weights starts to get heavy. I get nasty elbow tendonitis if I don't mentally check my wrists every set up.
Just a thought but you might be all over it.
Nice pressing lately...tonz of volume!

[Erok]

Yes, that was totally it. I'd been letting the bottom of the palms come down to help support the weight, and the wrists bent. It was driving me crazy for a bit, because I broke the tip of that elbow something like twelve years ago, and I thought it was over with! We all carry our scars, I guess. Some visible, some not.

[Erok]

It's the end of an era.

http://madison.craigslist.org/spo/4345471567.html

[Erok]

Mon., 2/24. Home improvement events have kept me from the gym. Kitchen tiling is now an olympic sport.

220#. Ahh, I have had cheeseburgers.

OHP: 45 x 15, 95 x 5, 130 x 5,5,5,5,5. Got those out of the way. They were ok.

Squats: 135 x 5, 225 x 5, 275 x 3, 310 x 5. probably the hardest set of five I've ever done. Vision dissolves into a red haze, hamstrings burn, head swells, erector spinae locked tight. After re-racking, I lie down in the rack and take off the belt, and breathe, breathe.... Dropsets, if you can call them that: 225 x 5,5. I've been away too long.

Bench: 45 x 20, 95 x 5, 135 x 5,5,5. going for a wiiide grip. pump those man-boobs.

Pullovers: I try them. Not bad, but a bit tight in the shoulders.

Chins: 0.95, 0.95, 0.6 Yeeah, I'm not so fresh right now.

Prowler: 180# for 8 runs. These actually get easier as I go along.

8# sledge for mace swings. I'm actually able to do these one-handed now. cool.

Steak, leftover KFC, sauerkraut, and three episodes of Homeland with milk.

[Erok]

Double post!

http://www.bakerstrengthcoaching.com/