Perpendicular to the Surface of the Earth

[ithryn]

I forgot

The gym TV keeps showing messages in gym etiquette. The latest is "So as not to distract others please avoid clanging or grunting."

Considering how the air involuntarily escaping from my glottis during squats actually sounds like a guy puking (seriously, my kids would love it)... hopefully nobody enforces this rule

[ithryn]

Labor Day 2015

Warmup bike 5 min

Deadlift 335 x 5 - my sacrum, it'll never been the same. I over-undered the fourth rep but the rest were hooked.

By the way, have you guys seen this little primer on the deadlift? Pretty accurate:



Bench press 205 x 5 x 3. Last set with a spotter and it was fast and easy, as it always is with a spotter because your caveman brain stops worrying about dying.

Light squats 245 x 5 x 2 - knees out, explode up

Db curls 40 lbs x8, x8, x4 and I'm done

So this guy comes up and tells me exuberantly that he likes my form. He can't squat that deep, either his knees or his back is preventing him. I said squat lighter weights and he said oh yeah, he only maxes out at 185. I'm thinking yeah you're probably a special broken snowflake even though you're young and in shape. I appreciated the compliment but he was wearing short black bicycle shorts and a tight mesh black tank top, that's about all the conversation I could handle.

Oh, and this one guy was deadlifting 455, rare sight at our gym. His setup was crazy - bar way out under his nose, hips bobbing up and down, gym shoes. But inevitably when he pulled the bar would roll back to midfoot and his hips would raise to the classic Rip-approved position before the plates even left the floor. It's kind of cool to see Rip Physics in action.

[cubillini]

Nice DL. PR nah brah?

[ithryn]

Ha thanks, I have physically picked up 335 before. Not for five though. I'll be happy when I pr 340 and then trudge on up to 350

[ithryn]

Thurs 10 Sept 2015 7:10-7:50am

In 'n out, had to run to work. Did:

Squats 315 x 5 x 2

Press - gah, I don't have time to do sets. Heavy rapid fire singles?
135 x3
145 x1
150 x1
155 x1 PR?
160 x1 PR
165 x1 PR!
170 x0, x0

I think with more rest and recuperation (not much sleep, got up early, didn't eat, etc, strength doesn't care bruh) 170 for a single would be mine.

Realized one more squat set would take < 30 sec, so: 315 x 5

Ran / hobbled off to work.

Gym TV says: Morning workouts are GREAT! But not if you're sacrificing SLEEP! Yeah, that.

[Merkin Weaver]

Nice press mayne.....

want that 160 for myself soon....

[ithryn]

Thanks Merk!

I assume you guys read Mark Rippetoe's newest Reddit AMA

Wow. Just wow. I felt bad because I had nothing to contribute, nothing serious to ask - everything's already laid out thoroughly in the books, the posts, the coaching you can get, right? So basically he was left to the nutcases and illiterates who occupy that cesspool that's slightly above the bottom of the internet called Reddit (the bottom being 4chan, or Youtube comment threads, or maybe something worse I don't know about).

It inspired me to make an AMA bingo which is probably also applicable anywhere plebeians get to ask Rip whatever pops into their brains (except the #AskRip sessions which are kinda cool).



Like it's 2015, who still thinks "I'm a fat-ass middle-aged sedentary guy, but Rip promotes GOMAD right?, so maybe I should GOMAD, or wait maybe I should ask Rip if I should GOMAD, or ask people if he's crazy for suggesting it" - who EVER thought that?

Anyway, aside from the usual garbage:

"Would you rather fight one Kirk Karwoski sized duck, or 100 duck sized Kirk Karwoskis?"

"Would you rather have Wolf's hair or Jordan's beard?"

"Marc [yes Marc] what are your thoughts on Vegan Gains?"

"Mark, your 200 lb cutoff for being a man is giving me a complex, any chance of lowering it to 195?"





He's a brave man.

[Chebass88]

Congrats on the Press PR. Keep going!

[ithryn]

Thanks!

Saturday 12 September 2015

So today was...kinda meh. But that's okay, because this is an intermediate log, so we don't have failure days, we have Active Recovery days!!1!

Light squat 245 x 5 x 3. My back was absolutely rekt from my last squat session, probably from wiggleworming my spine on every set. These made it all better.

Kinda downhill from there:

Press 150 x3, x3, x3 what is this? Two easy reps, a formless chaotic third rep that I could muscle up with layback, then nothing. Maybe it's the heavy singles two days ago. Maybe it's maybelline.

Bench 210....heh, uh, I don't even know what I did, actually. I was there with another SS bro and we were talking. Maybe one set of five and one set of four?

Power cleans just weren't power cleaning. I racked 145 a few times but using my wrists and my feet didn't leave the ground. I'll need to do this first in a workout and/or eat more breakfast first. Well, there's a 145 lb bar on the floor:

Supine grip rows 145 x 8 x 3 - too easy

The funny thing about having someone to talk to at the gym is sometimes it's not until you're leaving that you realize you didn't exactly achieve anything worthwhile (except if we're counting the aforementioned active recovery)

Camping tonight in the chill and wet, to build character. Just one night though.

[ithryn]

Tuesday 15 September 2015

Another coaching session with Karl Schudt. I threw a ham in the oven before leaving and my wife messaged me asking what temperature it would be done at. I didn't see it until I was leaving and she also messaged "Thanks, I had to ask google." My answer of "Sorry babe, was busy cooking these hams" wasn't super enthusiastically received.

Squat 320 x 5 x 3 - stand up straight at the end. I'm perhaps keeping my knees too far wide; just put them out far enough. I'm fastest out of the bottom and then slow down midway through, so drive up fast out of the bottom to maximize that inertia to get through the sticking point.

Press 150 x ....I dunno, couldn't complete sets of five, so back to Texas we go. More hip kick! I've been holding back on that for fear of push pressing it. Strong wrists, radius and ulna right under the bar; tight chest up; tight abs, almost like I'm pulling my abs and pelvis together; tight quads. This'll give a few more inches of bounce to the bar. Like with the squat, I'm fastest coming out of the bottom, so drive that up as fast and hard as possible to cruise through the sticking point at about the level of my forehead. Then get right under it, pushing my torso down a tad will help the moment arm of the humerus going up or something something anatomy something, I'm up too late and sleepless from my pre-workout caffeine dose

Deadlift 340 x 5, hooked, PR. First real deadlift PR in ages. Karl asked if I wanted music and put on AC/DC. I did three reps (which I think later he said were kind of squirrelly but okay) and then had to catch my breath; and Karl says in an almost kind reassuring voice, "C'mon Chris, you can do this, two more" (or something like that, I was dying) and all I could think was wow, he should be screaming at me, I need every last bit of adrenaline, but it worked, I pulled the two up. Pretty pleased to have broken through this wall. He said they were the best reps with the straightest bar path. I think at that point anything less than max efficiency would've just plain killed me. But he'd also had me watching Tuscherer while I was resting: talking about lifting without theatrics or histrionics, just getting the work done, while he (in the video) deadlifts like 580 for 5 sets of 5 like it's just business as usual, so maybe all that sunk in a little.

They were all hooked grip, and the grip was great. I mean it was awful, I think all the blood was crushed out of my fingers, but that made it sturdier, like I was a stone gargoyle. I think when I let go of the bar that kills it, the blood returns and my hands swell a bit; just maintain the lock on the bar.

Have to remember to stand up straight and push my hips forward, and make it obvious that I'm locking it out. I'm a slouch.


Regarding the squat especially, but everything in general, this conundrum drives me nuts:

1. It's really hard to lift with perfect form, to marshal every part of your central nervous system, every peripheral nerve, every muscle fiber, every bit of your courage and resolve to be disciplined enough to lift correctly, BUT,

2. If you lift with perfect form, each rep will be a lot frickin easier.

My only explanation (probably the explanation) is that just because a position is more efficient and powerful doesn't mean it's customary to you. You cave your knees in a heavy squat, even though the adductors will help you get the bar up - why? Because you live in the First World and never squat and rarely do anything with your knees out. Your hip abductors are not used to working. So when your hindbrain realizes you could actually die under this weight, you forgot high level textbook concepts like knees out and stop controlling the small abducting musculature while you just try to muscle it up for survival. Hence the insistence on perfect form until it's mindless.

Postworkout: tons of ham, and a Hevelius Kaper, named after (I'd like to think made according to the recipe of) master astronomer Johannes Hevelius, the father of lunar topography, who was called back by his family just before meeting up Galileo in Italy to come back and be a master brewer for the family brewery in Gdansk.

Enough logorrhea, I should be in bed.