Reply With QuoteHow do you know?
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your first rep is there (just) but your consequent reps you have a little knee slide, which means your knee drops below the level of your hips. so you'd probably feel that it's deep enough, but your knees are ruining your rep. You've gotta focus on holding your knee position in the hole. It's fucking hard. Ask me how I know.
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How do you know?
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Wednesday 15 July 2015 7pm - 50 min rapidfire workout! practically P90X up in here!
Light squats 250 x 5 x 2. The guy next to me was squatting at the exact same time, to depth too, nice to see, but with 245 lbs. So we get all set up at the same time and then...I put little 2.5 lb plates on mine. Probably thought I was being a bad word for a male body part.
Overhead press 135 x 5 x 3. Totally cheated here, the Method called for 130, but I want to use the big boy plates.
Power cleans 140 x3, x2, x2, x1,
135 x3, x3
That really beat up my wrists, elbows, and shoulders. So obviously I had to thoroughly screw them over with:
Rows 185 x 8 x 3
Arms, banged.
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Saturday 18 July 2015 9-11:40am
Quote of the day
I didn't wanna go today, felt a little under the weather, super tired, blah blah, went anyway and had a great session.Originally Posted by DirtyRed
Deadlift 330 x 5
plus 225 x 5 hook grip, my thumb joints alternately popping each time
Bench 220 x 2 x 3 PR!!!1!!!!√|! Actually 215 was a PR too, I think, but whatev
Squat 345 x 5. Easy, but my workout bro said they were a bit high. Crud, that's a lot of inch-pounds we're talking about. Well, I'm going to see Coach Schudt next week.
Hang cleans 105.... Well actually, I intended to do intervals, but a guy set up 135 next to me, and proceeded to the two-step bro clean, where you hang clean it and then dip into a half front squat, and told me to do the same because it'll help. Why does no one see that squatting or doing anything at all after you rack it does nothing to help you rack it? I don't get it. He also said I should do more weight and ya know what? They were too easy. So:
20 min session of:
Power clean 135 x 3
Hang clean 135 x 5 .... How is that even possible with how much I suck at cleans?? Also at this point the dude bro-cleaning for triples next to me felt the need to throw some five pounders on
Power 135 x 3
Hang x 4
Power x 3
Hang x 3
Power x 3
And these were supersetted with:
Strict-ish press (because I can't 2.0 for high reps) 120 x8, x8, x7
Phew.
Barbell curls 65x12, 70x8x2
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Nice PR!
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Tuesday 21 July 2015
Seeing a Starting Strength Coach might the only time you leave happy and immensely satisfied because some guy told you you're doing it all wrong. I saw Karl Schudt and we worked on my squat and deadlift.
Several problems with my squat, which is a relief:
1. Head down. Not just eyes down. Tuck my chin down, or point my beard at my shoes.
2. Epic valsalva. Huge breath. More than I've been doing. Breathe and hold, wait a split second, and then descend. I've been hurrying it, sucking in air while dropping, which is less tight.
3. Get your knees to where they need to be right away, and then keep them there. Knees stay out on the way up
4. Stay in your hips. That means after your knees bend, everything else is hip movement, hamstrings and quads. If you let your knees slide - dip further forward to achieve more depth - you're removing the hams and leaving the quads to do it alone, which will make you fail. Drive up with your butt. Explode up. But don't forget head down, elbows up, knees out.
5. Bury it. Get the bounce. People don't hit depth because they're afraid they won't get it back up, but the reality is without the bounce eventually you'll fail.
and 6. Minor issue: keep palms on the bar just a bit more than I've been doing
Considering all the form changes we were making, and, uh, this awkward moment where I tipped way forward coming out of the hole and crashed his nice Rogue bar down on some hooks that were conveniently set low...he had me do 275 lbs 3x5. I asked if I should LP up from there and he thought that was a good idea and that I really need to thoroughly embed the movement pattern before I get to limit weights.
As for the deadlift: I get to do seven steps, and I only get those seven steps, no extra movements or the pull will be off. And, uh, I think I even remember what the seven are:
1. Approach the bar (midfoot & all that)
2. Reach down, grasp the bar
3. Drop shins to bar
4. Knees out, but keep elbows locked
5. Ehhhhhhpic valsalva
6. Chest up, but don't drop your hips
7. Pull
In WL shoes with a heel, keep my weight slightly back. That really helped keep the bar from moving forward. I think that might be why lots of big powerlifters drop their ass, but then (as we watched in slow mo in a couple videos) they always returns to the Rip-approved ass elevation before the bar actually leaves the ground, which is uncanny.
On lockout, I need to make sure my chest is up, or whatever it takes to not be slumped over. It would suck to pull to the top and get redlighted for not locking it out.
We discussed that awful, inevitable, awkward rite of passage in life, the hook grip. I was making up problems probably just to avoid it, like I can't do it for my worksets, obviously, right, but I should double overhand my practice sets to strengthen my grip so, basically, hook grip will never be a part of my life, ever, there's insurmountable problems everywhere. He's like, look, just pull this next one hooked.
I think it was 305, not sure, and I don't think I've ever hook gripped more than two plates. He's saying things like: Make sure your second finger is over your thumb, get set, then just forget about your hands and all the pain and just pull, it's gonna hurt, you're gonna hate me. So I did. And everything was illuminated and nothing hurt. It was amazing. Weirdly secure. I don't know what dumbfool way I've been hook gripping so far, but linking my middle finger over my thumb was great and, at that weight at least, didn't hurt at all. I even asked if I could do it again. I guess we'll see how bad it is when I try 335 next time, but I'm excited right now. It's like I get to secretly use straps.
It was a good night, lots of adjustments the two biggest lifts so I'm happy. Caveat, all of the above is according to my memory, which is awful, so credit any errors to me, not Karl's coaching.
Plan: LP up the squat back to normal, but with good form, and continue everything else as is. On intensity day before the meet, do a mock meet with three attempts on the squat and press, and only one attempt on the deadlift. But before that I'll go back for more coaching.
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I hear you on the hook grip. I think when I started I thought it meant you hook your thumb over your fingers. Then I was trying to do it with my short ass index finger over my thumb. Once I realised it was middle finger, and I pulled my top set like that, I realised how fucking sturdy it was.
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I truly wish there was video of that moment or at least a shot of Karl's face while it was going on.
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I think that's exactly what I was doing too. And sturdy, that's the word I was looking for.
What, the face that reflects the momentary inner debate between how much it would benefit humanity to let me get squished vs how much it might tarnish his and the whole Starting Strength method's reputation to have the first documented death during a coaching session?
Thursday 23 July 2015 7am
Went to sleep probably after 1 or 2 am, up having pleasant conversation about life with the wife and reminiscing about old times. Then up again at 4am with a raging pissed-off toddler, conversations with whom were not quite so pleasant. Those are my excuses and I'm stickin' to em.
Squat 280 x4, x5, x5. The first set was not pretty. I thought about what I needed to do, and then proceed to do none of it, as evidenced by video. At that point I realized without a coach I needed to actually focus on this meticulously to get it done. I think the second set was okay, some reps probably need adjustment - that video is below. The third set felt more in the groove, but I didn't tap the record button hard enough apparently so I don't have video.
Press...volume day, more than a bit late: 135 x5, x5, x4, x3, x3
Squat 280x5, set #2:
(It's at vimeo.com/134309253 since the video tag doesn't seem to work across all browsers)
Member
Saturday 25 July 2015 around noon, entirely too long according to the spouse
Squat 285 x 5 x 3
Corrected squats are producing exquisite soreness so something must be right. Every time I sneeze I think I'm gonna skillin my groin.
Press 150 x4, x2. These were groovy and I thought I had a fifth in me but the bar traveled forward and I couldn't get under it. Mad enough that I got another two reps out though.
Deadlift 315 x 1 hooked, 335 x 1 hooked, fail fail fail, 315 x 1 alternate. Arrrgh. I think I was toasted from squats.
Rows 175 x 8, back fried, 155 x 8 x 3
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