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Thread: A Middle Aged Adolescent (who cannot possibly be the only one)

  1. #1
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    Default A Middle Aged Adolescent (who cannot possibly be the only one)

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    People who know me say I have the mind of a 12 year old. Comments like these make my wife spring immediately to my defense; she pegs the age at more around 14.

    Still, it's true: I'm a wiseass - though an optimist - at heart, albeit with a healthy skepticism toward the merits of behaving like a full fledged adult. So many people who do, as far as I can tell, can't be enjoying it.
    It's youthful optimism - or hope - or need - that has kept me lifting weights (or working out in one form or another) since the age of 12, in 1976. I was the skinny kid who lost a schoolyard fight that Fall, and the skinny kid who couldn't make the high school football team, who went on to build himself into a successful competitive weightlifter, triathlete, and martial artist.

    Much of that success owes to an old high school coach who had been an All-American shot-putter at Notre Dame. This kindred soul had the best possible medicine for teenage angst: linear progressions. Yes, in the Fall of 1979, I was doing 5 by 5's, adding five pounds of weight to my exercises every time I walked in the weight room door, and drinking a quart of milk every morning, long before some Texan dude named Rippetoe bought his gym or dreamed of writing any books.

    A lot of years later, I'm a Starting Strength follower. Inspired by his October 20, 2016 article, "Why Will You Not Do the Program?" I thought I should declare, to this massive global readership, that the program does indeed work. It works so well that I feel like a high schooler again. I get up and head into every workout knowing I'm going to come out a better, stronger human being. It's an absolute scam, it's so good, and an exciting time, kind of like junior and senior year, when I realized I was stronger than just about everybody on the football team. I just recently wrote Rip a little thank you note on the occasion of hitting a 500 pound deadlift for the first time ever.

    Here are my numbers, in case you're weighing whether or not to read any further: Age 51; 5'11" Male, 200 pounds
    200 pound Press
    285 bench
    415 squat
    500 deadlift
    242.5 working weight, for 3 by 3 single power cleans
    My wife has already been to the Starting Strength website to pick up the 200-300-400-500 sticker, but I don't get the friggin' thing until I hit a 300 bench.

    Details on the program are forthcoming. An aside: a few years ago, I was a 165 pound CrossFitter wearing Vibrams. A few weeks ago, a clerk in a hardware store, realizing our transaction was dragging on, remarked, "Please don't come over the counter and kill me.'
    I have lots of stories.

  2. #2
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    Here's the plan for the coming week. I'm Tom; the wife is JC.
    This is based on a Starr HLM template, rotated through 5-3-1 week to week.


    Heavy-Light-Medium
    Week of: 10/24/16 3 sets of 5 reps week
    MONDAY
    1. Squat (3x5) Tom 360 JC : 142.5
    2. Press (3x5) Tom 165 JC: 77.5
    3. Deadlift (1x5) 440
    JC 210 x 5

    4. 3 sets heavy pull ups 50 x3 sets 7’s
    5. 3 sets of 6 lying triceps extensions 25+10-5
    6. barbell curls: 3 sets of 6 117.5
    7. abs: banded pull downs

    TUESDAY - Conditioning
    12 sled sprints 35, 72.5 30-second rests or 120

    WEDNESDAY
    1. Squat (80% of Monday’s weight) x5, 2 sets Tom: 287.5 JC: 115
    2. Bench Press (3x5) Tom: 232.5 JC: 107.5
    3. Power Cleans 3x3 Tom: 240, 242.5 x2 JC: 107.5, 110, 110
    4. 4 sets of heavy shrugs 500
    5. abs: hollow rockers

    FRIDAY
    1. Squats: [90% of Monday’s weight] (3x5)
    Tom: 325 JC: 127.5
    2. Press: [90% of Monday’s weight] (3x5)
    Tom: 150 JC: 70
    3. Romanian Deadlifts - off rack - 3 sets of 5
    Tom 357.5 x3 JC 145

    4. 4 sets of rows, pull ups; 5r muscle ups; 8 rope climbs
    5. 3 sets of 6 dips 62+5 JC close grip bench T-bar, 25’s +5’s +2.5
    6. 3 sets 12 dumbbell curls
    7. abs: T-bar sit ups

    SATURDAY - Conditioning
    row, swim, sled: go long

    Notes:
    -1.25 pound plates are vital.
    -Mondays and Fridays are cut into two sections. My gym is in my garage, so I can knock out the secondary bicep and tricep work in a separate hour. The wife does only one session.
    -The pull ups are with a 50 pound kettle bell attached. Dips are with a 62 and sometimes more.
    -The LTE's are on a 35 pound football, or tricep, bar; 25-10-5 are the plates on each side. That's just my bizarre shorthand to myself.
    -If I run up my hilly driveway with the sled, it's sprinting, pulling 70 or so. If my ankles don't want to sprint, I quick-march with 120.
    -On Friday's I will row OR pull up OR do muscle ups, etc. I rotate those exercises week to week. Muscle-ups are a carryover from my CrossFit days. I can do reps with strict form. I've always had the knack for them, but I can't bench friggin' 300; the Lord Giveth, the Lord Taketh Away.
    -Every other Saturday I swim a mile. The other Saturdays alternate between pulling a sled with a 45 for two miles or so, or rowing 6000 meters.
    -In my advanced age, I find the ab work necessary to loosen up the lower back.

  3. #3
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    Mission accomplished on the numbers above; here's the plan for this week:

    Heavy-Light-Medium
    Week of: 10/31/16 3 sets of 3 reps week
    MONDAY
    1. Squat (3x3) Tom 390 JC : 162.5
    2. Press (3x3) Tom 185 JC: 87.5
    3. Deadlift: (1x3) Tom 470 JC 237.5

    4. 3 sets heavy pull ups 26 x7’s
    This is switching to pull ups, palms forward. The chin ups got heavy enough to tear up some muscles at the base of my forearm.
    5. 3 sets of 6 lying triceps extensions 25-10-5; then 2x with 1.25
    6. barbell curls: 3 sets of 6 117.5
    7. abs: banded pull downs

    TUESDAY - Conditioning
    12 sled sprints 35, 70; 30 second rests or 120

    WEDNESDAY
    1. Squat (80% of Monday’s weight) x5 reps, 2 sets Tom: 287.5 JC: 115
    2. Bench Press (3x3) Tom: 247.5 JC: 122.5
    3. Power Cleans 3x3 Tom: 242.5 JC: 110
    4. 4 sets of heavy shrugs 505
    5. abs: hollow rockers

    FRIDAY
    1. Squats: [90% of Monday’s weight] (3x3)
    Tom: 350 JC: 147.5
    2. Press: [90% of Monday’s weight] (3x3)
    Tom: 167.5 JC: 80
    3. Romanian deadlifts (off rack) 3 sets of 5 -
    Tom: 357.5, 360, 357.5 JC: 147.5

    4. 4 sets of rows, pull ups; 5r muscle ups; 8 rope climbs
    5. 3 sets of 6 dips 62+5 JC: close grip bench with T-Bar: 25’s and 5’s
    6. 3 sets 12 dumbbell curls
    7. abs: T-bar sit ups

    SATURDAY - Conditioning
    row 600 meters

  4. #4
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    The numbers for the first half of Monday are in: I hit my triples with 390 in the squat and 470 in the dead. I got 185 for one press triple but then doubled it twice, so I dropped to 175 to finish with a proper set of three.
    The 390 pound squats were wrestling matches, but it was 3-friggin’-90, limit triples, so I don’t know how much I can blame yesterday’s two hours of flag football for today’s grunting and groaning. On the 185 pound presses, I knew I was pushing my luck. Three weeks ago, 182.5 was rough. Then again, the Fives last week went very well, so any reset in three weeks, the next time triples come up, should be minor.

    It’s one thing to hang tough during a slow set of squats or deads. Heavy presses require an act of violence with each rep.

    ON CONFIDENCE

    Speaking of flag football, as well as grunting and groaning, I was the subject of a lingering, thoughtful squint from one of the other Dads yesterday. A few of the guys were talking about aches and pains (this is a Dad-run football clinic for middle schoolers over a couple of weeks. Dads coach and play.) and one of the guys chimed in, ‘Yeah, you know what happens to me? My lumbar spine tightens up. It’s brutal. My wife says I should work on my core.’
    All the guys nodded and laughed. How many times had everyone heard that from their yoga-pant wearing wives?
    I said, ‘I’ll give you a better word than ‘core.’ How about ‘structure?’ Think of yourself as a steel antenna tower. You just have to tighten up some of the guy wires. You should be lifting.’
    ‘Lifting? Can you do that at 46?’
    ‘I’m doing it at 51.’

    There’s a bit of background here. This guy, who’s running this little football program, is a big shot in the school’s parent and fundraising circles. He had heard on the grapevine that I knew a bit about strength and conditioning, so he wanted to sound me out, he had said before.
    I’d be happy to share a few ideas, I told him. In fact, he’s invited to come by my garage any time for a demonstration. (I’ve learned not expect too much from these conversations. God, if I had a nickel for every time someone said they wanted to learn about lifting . . . )
    It occurs to me that I might just find myself making a sober presentation on stress-adaptation-recovery and the merits of barbell training after all. All of the science and programming is great, I want to tell him, but there’s another huge element that plays a part in strength training. It’s something you can’t coach directly, but’s VITAL in the life of any athlete - or any human being, for that matter.
    It’s confidence. It’s the most important element in the mix, but kids have to discover it themselves, and that’s part of the joy in growing and changing.
    I want to go further than that, however. Wouldn’t he love to experience that in his own life, even at 46?
    These kinds of stories might not make it into a lot of the sober presentations we hear about athletics, but I can’t help thinking a few good yarns have their place.

    Last Fall, my daughter, entering Sixth Grade at this new school, decided she wanted to be on the tennis team. This was despite having never played the game. I was hopeful; she’d always been a reasonable athlete, as a ballerina for a while and presently as an equestrienne, so my wife and I figured she’d pick up the game well enough during the season.
    She did not. She was uncharacteristically hapless, shrugging away her lousiness and swinging half-heartedly at her shots. This was also the beginning of the self-conscious era in her life, so this problem was only going to compound itself, I realized. The season ended with her considering herself among the team’s rejects, the kids whose only defense was to laugh at their ridiculous shots going over the fence or into the next court.
    On weekends, she’d ask me to take her to a local court. She really wanted to be good, so she’d try hard when she was with me, but she had a long way to go. We offered her tennis lessons at a fancy indoor place in town, but she was embarrassed enough to turn us down.
    I was surprised and disappointed in the coaching, or lack thereof, so I was inclined to take a pretty dim view of the gym class offerings for the winter term. General gym class, which had cardio kickboxing and Zumba when they weren’t in the classroom studying drugs or health education, didn’t strike me as a decent amount of physical activity. I laid down the law: she could join a swim team, like she had before, or lift with me in the garage. She chose the lifting. Health and drug education were fine, I had to grant, but we were going to get something productive done, like the squat, press, bench press, and deadlift.
    She still wanted wanted to play tennis in the Spring again. I mentioned lacrosse, but that, or softball, didn’t hold any interest.
    Well, a parent can’t fight every battle, I thought. At least she’ll be lifting.

    40 years prior, when I was about her age, Moose Murphy was the strongest kid in school. That was the word among those of us who kept our distance and spoke of him only in hushed tones. Murphy (not his real name, though it is another common ‘M’-name) was year older than I was and sported a wild, curly mop of hair and crazy, fast eyes with which he sought victims to terrorize.
    This was as we were leaving elementary school and heading into junior high. Moose, with his big husky body, was a dominant athlete. I can remember him wearing his football jersey on game days, pushing kids around in the hall.
    In high school, I largely lost track of Moose, since I was going to a Catholic prep school a few towns away. From time to time though, he would make a nuisance of himself. Moose was the kind of bully who would swoop into the center of a pond hockey game, steal the puck and then lead everyone off on a chase, passing the puck back and forth with one of his laughing goons.
    About a year or two into high school, early in my strength apprenticeship, I was with a pair of friends at a local school field, tossing around a football. I noticed suddenly that one of them had frozen in place, his eyes looking past me. Moose Murphy and two other thugs were heading toward us. We all stopped what we were doing. Every kid who’s ever been through one of these showdowns knows that ‘trapped’ feeling one gets in the pit of their stomach.
    They were substantially bigger than we were. Nothing was said. We could only watch them approach.
    Moose picked my friend’s ball up off the ground. ‘Three on three,’ he announced. ‘Our ball.’ He was going to be QB.
    ‘Touch or tackle?’ one of my friends asked uncertainly.
    Moose just laughed.
    Not wanting to at all, my two friends lined up opposite of Moose’s pals, who were headed out as receivers, which left me in the position of rushing Moose after counting Five Mississippi.

    The world can change in an instant, it is said. Wars are decided in a single second in a single battle; lives collide and change trajectories forever.

    After five Mississippi, I went straight in at Moose, who still hadn’t thrown the ball. He tried to push himself back away from me, but I had gathered too much speed for him. I hit him in the ribs right in the right side; it’s a feeling I can recall clearly to this day. His body yielded surprisingly easily, and I landed right on top of him, without touching the ground.
    His friends, who had been running around trying to get open, came trudging back to the scrimmage line. ‘What happened?’ one of them demanded.
    ‘He got me,’ Moose said quietly. His eyes were on the ground.
    ‘Are you kidding?’ The friend didn’t know whether to be more surprised at Moose or me.
    One of my friends cut me a look as if to say, Don’t get us all killed.
    On the next play, Moose decided to run for it once I came across the line, but I turned in pursuit and rode him hard into the ground once more.
    Where before my heart had beaten a thick dread through my body, I was now standing on the line of scrimmage like Jack Lambert from the Steelers, hands on my hips, ready to play. I held Moose in a level gaze.
    ‘One blitz every four downs!’ my friend decided it was a good time to declare.
    Moose was not enthusiastic at the prospect. He had another very serious problem, I had discovered: Moose was hug-your-grandma-soft. He was flesh-popping-out-between-my-fingers-soft. The ferocious Moose Murphy, who had once been the biggest boned, most dominant athlete in junior high and parlayed that into a reign of terror over an entire neighborhood, was becoming Mousse Murphy from too much good living.
    The game did not last long. We quickly scored two or three touchdowns, the three of us being so much quicker than any of them. Moose and his friends, who anticipated pillaging like Vikings but instead found themselves being outrun, out thrown, and flattened unapologetically, surrendered the ball and left without a word.
    On our way home, we could hardly believe it. We excitedly recounted every play, tossing the ball to one another as we kicked through the leaves on the sidewalk. ‘Dude, we killed those guys!’
    Last edited by Nunedog; 10-31-2016 at 02:33 PM.

  5. #5
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    Last Spring, after the snows had gone and the sun started shining with some warmth, my daughter and I kicked away as many leaves as we could from the tennis court and started hitting the ball once more.
    This was her idea, not part of Dad’s training regimen (which, interestingly, had her squatting 95 or 100 pounds for 5’s, as well as deadlifting 125-plus for 5’s at the time.)
    We knocked a few shots back and forth, or started over when a ball hit the net, each of us trying to work away the rust. Gradually, it began to sound like a tennis game once more, with that light, little ‘Pook!’ (like ‘spook’) sound every time a racquet connected with the ball. She sent a few balls that wobbled over the net like baby birds. Then, on one of my volleys, she seemed to have bead on it all the way in. She jogged back a few steps, planted her feet, and unloaded.
    The sound was a low, solid, ‘POOK!’ (rhyming with a slow, breathy ‘book!’) and about three inches over the net and barely slanting downward came a gunshot. I could hear the ball steaming through the air as it passed by. It dropped just inside the baseline and didn’t bounce; it skidded low to the ground and smashed into the chain link fence.
    I turned and stared. ‘Where did that come from? I asked.
    We made eye contact. She was as surprised and delighted as I was - and that was the moment her entire demeanor changed. She played harder. She went after shots she used to think she couldn’t get. Her volleys came over the net far more consistently than before, and every now and then, even on the backhand, she would get off a shot that came in like a cannonball tearing through the rigging in MASTER AND COMMANDER.
    ‘Holy Cow,’ I said when we got in the car. ‘Score one for the deadlift.’
    ‘Shut up, Dad,’ she said, although she knew somebody somewhere deserved some credit.

    I had blundered into an important discovery, at least for myself, that has implications for the art and science of coaching any sport. Strength comes first, because it gives rise to confidence. Confidence then frees a kid to develop their skills. Actually, that’s probably too profound as far as the kid’s concerned. They’re just free to play, try, make mistakes, seize upon successes, and learn the game - all without self consciousness, because they believe in themselves. They don’t realize this; they’re just having a generally jolly time.
    That’s what my daughter is doing now. Her transformation was far from instantaneous, but last Spring’s season ended with her bringing home the MOST IMPROVED award. This year, she’s on the travel team, winning some, losing some, but mainly messing around with her friends. I have become utterly indifferent to her tennis career, as a parent should be, but we still head out to the garage twice a week to knock through some Fives.

    Even a couple of personal yarns have practical, specific lessons for coaches and parents. Strength training can
    -erase deficits in basic athleticism
    -foster confidence and thereby skill acquisition, indirectly yet powerfully
    -propel a well established athlete to greater achievements

    More importantly, confidence creates an expectation of success in life, now matter the endeavor, provided one is willing to put in the proper time and effort. This is where weight lifting functions as a great metaphor for life; if the numbers aren’t increasing - if progress is not happening in whatever the field, then the coaches, leaders, or teachers in charge deserve a long, hard look.

    ‘Do you see how this would work for the kids?’ I would ask, were I to give this presentation. ‘Also, seriously, wouldn’t you want this to happening in your own life, at 46?’

    I call myself an adolescent. Where else are you going to find such a transformative experience at this stage of life?

  6. #6
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    All is well with the numbers. Next week is below, with one note:

    12 year old Tennis Girl worked out twice this week on her own initiative. One car was in the shop, so I had to pick the wife up at work. The kid had me write down the numbers, and she rolled up the garage door after school and took care of business.

    Heavy-Light-Medium
    Week of: 11/7/16 3 sets of 1 rep week
    MONDAY
    1. Squat (3x1) Tom 420 JC : 185
    2. Press (3x1) Tom 202.5 JC: 97.5
    3. Deadlift: Tom (1x1) 505 JC 255

    4. 3 sets heavy pull ups 26 sets 7’s
    5. 3 sets of 6 lying triceps extensions 25-10-5 - 1.25
    6. barbell curls: 3 sets of 6 117.5
    7. abs: banded pull downs

    TUESDAY - Conditioning
    12 sled sprints 35, 72.5 30 second rests! or 120 pounds quick march

    WEDNESDAY
    1. Squat (80% of the original (3x5) Monday’s weight) x5, 2 sets Tom: 287.5 JC: 115
    2. Bench Press (3x1) Tom: 285 JC: 132.5
    3. Power Cleans 3x3 Tom: 242.5, 245, 242.5 JC: 110, 112.5, 110
    4. 4 sets of heavy shrugs 515
    5. abs: hollow rockers

    FRIDAY
    1. Squats: [90% of Monday’s weight] (3x1)
    Tom: 377.5 JC: 167.5
    2. Press: [90% of Monday’s weight] (3x1)
    Tom: 182.5 JC: 87.5
    3. Romanian deadlifts (off rack) 3 sets of 5 -
    Tom: 357.5, 360 x2 JC 150

    4. 4 sets of rows, pull ups; 5r muscle ups; 8 rope climbs
    5. 3 sets of 6 dips 62+2.5 JC: close grip bench - T-Bar, 25’s and 5’s
    6. 3 sets 12 dumbbell curls
    7. abs: T-bar sit ups

    SATURDAY - Conditioning
    swim 1 mile

  7. #7
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    The 420’s and 505 are in the bag, but for the second straight week, the presses were lacking, so that will mean a reset. Truth be told, I think my technique eroded. I wasn’t clenching the old backside as hard as I should have been, I realized; I must have gotten into the habit of slipping under the bar a bit. That undermined my ability to spring bodily with a limit weight, a problem that didn’t show up on the lighter weights at the 5-rep level.
    This doesn’t present any drama, really. It’s nothing I can’t fix. My bench press numbers are a bit low because they too reflect a reset about two months back. The beauty of a reset, properly done, is that it does indeed lead to an improved performance. Sets of 5 with 230 in the bench, for example, the first time I was clawing my way upward, were tough. After the reset, they went significantly faster and more easily, which presumably - hopefully - portends climbing higher beyond 230 than before.
    That 420 squat represents a level of strength I haven’t held for a third of a century. 33 years ago, I had a 460 maximum squat (but I did not train the deadlift) and that was when I was spotted as a prospect by a coach who convinced me I should take up competitive Olympic style weightlifting. I also had a 405 pound front squat that really blew his mind.
    This was unfortunately about the time I quit lifting heavy weights.
    If that sounds insane, it was, but I can only say that in hindsight. The zeitgeist of Olympic lifting in the 80’s was that technique was everything. It was the only thing. (That’s still the case today, according to Rip’s articles. Poor idiots.) The Bulgarian lifters, as presented on ABC’s WIDE WORLD OF SPORTS, were the gold standard in those days, and amazingly we took their blinding speed in the lifts as as indications of skill. A phenomenal snatch or clean was a trick; it was like being able to do a back flip or like being a baseball pitcher who could throw a 90 mile an hour fastball. Of course it took strength, or strength of a sort: it was so highly specialized, however, the thinking went, it simply couldn’t be addressed by doing anything other than the Olympic lifts themselves. After all, how many musclemen could throw 90 mile an hour strikes?
    Then followed my remaining three years of college, in which my strength steadily decreased as my technique improved. For a while my lifts did get better despite the lesser amount of horsepower I had off the floor. In the Summer of 1985, before my senior year, I snatched 237.5 pounds while weighing about 175. That’s actually pretty good for a guy who did only the lifts but no strength training. I was greased lightning. The problem was that if I could snatch 237, I could only clean about 238.
    This seems like a terribly simple trend to spot, or a problem to correct, doesn’t it? The problem is that this process took so much time over so many years and so many reps and training sessions, that I - we - coaches and athletes - lost track of the big picture. You had to be strong to lift big weights? No, you had to deny your earthly limitations by pursuing a Zen path to Enlightenment, a hidden dimension in which you could explode with unspeakable speed and flout the laws of motion. I would frequently imagine this happening. The bar would be weightless and magically end up overhead. It just never did that in real life.
    I trained and trained. I banged my head against the wall three times a week faithfully. I had brilliant technique with light training weights, and I could remember the days when I cleaned 300 pounds recklessly, but all the precision and worry about perfection couldn’t stop 286 from smashing through my chest like a ton of bricks. By the end of senior year, I had gone insane. I moved on to other things: judo, and running and swimming.
    Well, I did what I could, I thought as I hung it up. I had no complaints. I had won a Junior Olympic gold medal, competed in the Collegiate Nationals, and even held a few teenage records for a bit. Life was moving on, and I figured I had tapped out my potential. I was burnt out, overtrained, I told myself. I had absolutely no idea I was undertrained.

    Years later, age and some amount of wisdom steered me to STARTING STRENGTH. I was in for quite the shock: Rippetoe’s PPST3, if you know how to paraphrase, has an algorithm for programming. It’s an algorithm for assessing athletes; it’s for ensuring continued success at any stage of training. It’s the secret to the universe. It’s the Unified Field Theory.
    ‘God damn it,’ I said aloud. If I had known this 33 years ago, as well as how to hitch strength training to a barbell sport, I would have been a champion. My mind goes to all those workouts in which I did the same thing over and over, hoping for progress but knowing nothing about stress, recovery, and adaptation.
    That’s why I’m lifting hard now. A principle is at stake: taking care unfinished business. It’s knowledge slaying the demons of failure, which I guess bothered me more than I wanted to admit at the time. I have no plans to get back into Olympic lifting. Far from it: I’ll take that 505 deadlift instead, but more importantly, I want to train productively. I want to head into workouts knowing that each one is a step toward progress. That will undo the haunting pointlessness from years ago.
    Someday, I’m going to catch that cock-strong high school senior from 1982 with the 460 squat. I’ll say, ‘Kid, you were lucky. Now you’re smart.’

  8. #8
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    I pulled an all-nighter on Election Night, so my Wednesday numbers were as disappointing as the results I had stayed up all night to see. I'll go after those bench singles during the next 3x1 week.

    Below is the plan for next week, with a 10 pound reset in the presses.
    The 8-4-6 rep scheme in the additional exercises is to counter some staleness in the 3 sets of 6 approach, which had served me very well for some months. The sets of 4 in the middle allow me to plunge ahead toward some new weights which I know I can handle, while the 8's and 6's keep the rep count high enough that I don't beat myself up with weights that are too heavy.

    Heavy-Light-Medium
    Week of: 11/14/16 3 sets of 5 reps week
    MONDAY
    1. Squat (3x5) Tom 365 JC : 145
    2. Press (3x5) Tom 155 JC: 80
    3. Deadlift (1x5) 445 JC 215

    4. 3 sets heavy pull ups REP SCHEME 8-4-6 (4 at 37.5)
    5. 3 sets of 6 lying triceps extensions (4 at 25 and two 10’s)
    6. barbell curls: 3 sets of 6 (4 at 115)
    7. abs: banded pull downs

    TUESDAY - Conditioning
    12 sled sprints 35, 72.5 30-second rests or 120

    WEDNESDAY
    1. Squat (80% of Monday’s weight) x5, 2 sets Tom: 292.5 JC: 117.5
    2. Bench Press (3x5) Tom: 235 JC: 110
    3. Power Cleans 3x3 Tom: 240, 242.5 x2 JC: 110, 112.5 x2
    4. 4 sets of heavy shrugs 515
    5. abs: hollow rockers

    FRIDAY
    1. Squats: [90% of Monday’s weight] (3x5)
    Tom: 327.5 JC: 130
    2. Press: [90% of Monday’s weight] (3x5)
    Tom: 140 JC: 72.5
    3. Romanian Deadlifts - off rack - 3 sets of 5
    Tom 360 JC 152.5

    4. 8 rope climbs
    5. 3 sets of 6 dips 62+5 8-4-6 4 at 75lbs
    6. 3 sets 12 dumbbell curls
    7. abs: T-bar sit ups

    SATURDAY - Conditioning
    sled: go long
    Last edited by Nunedog; 11-11-2016 at 09:57 AM.

  9. #9
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    Heavy-Light-Medium
    Week of: 11/21/16 3 sets of 3 reps week
    MONDAY
    1. Squat 3x3 Tom 395 JC : 165
    2. Press 3x3 Tom 175 JC: 90
    3. Deadlift: 1x3 Tom 475 JC 240

    4. 3 sets heavy pull ups 8-4-6 REP SCHEME 4 with 37.5
    5. 3 sets of 6 lying triceps extensions 4 with 25, 10-10 and 1.25
    6. barbell curls: 4 with 117.5
    7. abs: banded pull downs

    TUESDAY - Conditioning SLED PULL
    12 quick marches 120 pounds 30 second rests

    WEDNESDAY
    1. Squat (80% of Monday’s weight) x5, 2 sets Tom: 292.5 JC: 117.5
    2. Bench Press (3x3) Tom: 250 JC: 125
    3. Power Cleans 3x3 Tom: 242.5 JC: 110, 112.5 x2
    4. 4 sets of heavy shrugs 515
    5. abs: hollow rockers

    FRIDAY
    1. Squats: [90% of Monday’s weight] (3x3)
    Tom: 355 JC: 150
    2. Press: [90% of Monday’s weight] (3x3)
    Tom: 157.5 JC: 80
    3. Romanian deadlifts (off rack) 3 sets of 5 -
    Tom: 360, 362.5, 360 JC: 155

    4. 4 sets of rows - horizontal, wearing weight vest
    5. 3 sets of 6 dips 4 at 77.5 JC: close grip bench with T-Bar: 25’s and 5’s
    6. 3 sets 12 dumbbell curls
    7. abs: T-bar sit ups

    SATURDAY - Conditioning
    swim 1 mile

  10. #10
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    Dec 2015
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    starting strength coach development program
    Some Observations

    That 475 for a triple deadlift the other day was a little dicey. I pulled One and Two well enough, but Three stopped below my knees. Rather, I stopped it, knowing something was wrong. I stood up, loosened my belt a bit, unzipped my sweatshirt a few inches, and then bent over and nailed Three.

    I had to get longer and taller, I realized. I had hunched up my abs and torso like a clenched fist, so to get the lift I had to cool out, even relax a little, to stay in the right position.

    Chilling out in the face of fiendishly heavy weights is one of those tricks you learn along the way. Everyone’s done it: on a set of five squats, when rep number one is horrible and slow, you find yourself realizing, Holy Moly, I have to marshal my energy if I’m going to make it all the way through.

    That’s definitely the case when the power cleans get rough. You’re pulling with your arms or ditching the extension - the touch and jump - too soon and finding yourself in horrible positions with a heavy weight. That’s when you have to cop exactly the opposite attitude and become a gunslinger. Loosen the belt, slow things down, and get casual. You have more time than you think you do, I remind myself.

    Each lift has its tricks or traits. I wouldn’t claim to know them all, but I thought I’d record a few observations so I’d have a working list to which I can add over time.

    I think the bench press is a high-stress lift for the central nervous system, much like the deadlift. In both lifts, the body is holding itself in a solid position with one set of muscles and motor units and moving the weight with another. (This presumes you know comprehensive lists of techniques and leverages in each evolution.)
    However, what I think they really share in common is that their loads come at right angles to the spinal column, which makes for all the greater stress - even though the bench presser’s torso is supported from underneath.
    As with the deadlift, the bench press much be trained sparingly.

    I know that this has been argued at length on the Forum, but I think the Russian Olympic lifters know full well that a weight is not lifted off the floor until one’s rear end is comparatively high, the legs extended a fair bit, and the hamstrings doing the work. They would not argue with Rippetoe or the numerous videos that show lifters crouching low in their starts but the weight not leaving the ground until the hips rise and the hamstrings engage.
    However, I think they drop their hips at their starts because they want a ‘running start’ at the bar. A Russian lifter engages the weight with his legs moving so his hamstrings can add to the momentum already in his center of mass, the way a baseball pitcher gets his center of gravity moving by raising his front leg to start a long lunge forward. Watch Mike Tyson throw an uppercut. When he sets it up, he always steps outward with one foot - so that he can step inward with the other as he punches, with his center of mass moving.

    A raging cold is the sign of under-recovery, specifically inadequate protein intake. That one sneaks up on you; most people know, by contrast, when they’re behind on sleep.
    I had to point this out to the wife: hitting some decent squats and deads does not mean you sip a glass of cabernet with dinner. You slam a milk full of whey if you’re going to demand performance of your body.

    Bill Starr - I think - said something to this effect: that one of the hidden keys to upper body strength and, consequently, manhood, is weighted dips. I concur. To that I would add Romanian deadlifts.

    I reset my presses a week or two ago and discovered that I had to do a better job clenching my backside. In fact, I don't think you really can crank your quads and abs for the lift unless your rear end is clenched.
    Last edited by Nunedog; 11-25-2016 at 03:53 PM.

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