Lifting to Live

[Bill Anders]

Note — So much for getting back to consistency. This entry covers four workouts, which would normally been one week. Instead, these four workouts took two weeks. Life, y'know. The first week, the workload around the house getting it ready for winter destroyed any sense of recovery that I might have had, so I called the workouts after the first one. It's one of those funny ideas that if you work in a gym you have plenty of time to fit in your workouts. That's true, to some extent, but that doesn't mean a damn thing if the recovery isn't happening. Then, over the weekend, the bride and I made it a 4-day to mark our anniversary and traveled to meet dear friends who we haven't seen in almost a decade. That was good, but still not so good for the recovery.

11/11/24 - Monday
PC L @ 2' 80x3x5
DL H @ 6' 355x5
SQ L @ 5' 265x5x2

Notes —
PC - Light triples across. I started with the teaching progression, then worked my way up to the work weight. Chase realized that my arms are longer than the average bear, so he lowered my jump point to just above my knees, then we focused on me keeping my lats tight throughout the entire ROM. The bonus is that the arm pull is disappearing quickly.
DL - Heavy set. Heavier than it should have been for this weight, but I got it done.
SQ - Light sets across. Light on paper, heavy on the back. But all good.

Note — Nothing until the following Tuesday. See note above.

11/19/24 - Tuesday
PC L @ 2' 82.5x3x5
OP H @ 5' 145x5x4
BP L @ 3' 215x5x3

Notes —
PC - Light triples across. Continuing the warmup by working through the teaching progression, then working up to the work weight. Focus on bending the bar downward to keep the arms long and the elbows straight while shrugging to the ceiling. All good.
OP - Heavy sets across. I wasn't sure about these. Over the weekend, I started each day around 3am with some persistent, dull pain in my upper right arm and shoulder. It was bad enough that it woke my up each morning. My bride, the Licensed Massage Therapist, worked on it daily, only to have it return each morning. We figured that it was overuse from spending the week prior hanging gutter on the MiL's house. Anyway, the work sets went fine, although I was wobbly at times fighting to keep the bar path in the groove. The best part? The arm/shoulder pain disappeared and didn't return any morning the rest of the week.
BP - Light sets across. All good.

11/21/24 - Thursday
PC L @ 2' 85x3x5
SQ H @ 5' 305x5x4

Notes —
PC - Light triples across. Continuing the warmup by working through the teaching progression, then working up to the work weight. More focus on bending the bar and keeping the arms straight. All good.
SQ - Heavy sets across. Slow, steady reps. Heavier than this weight should be, but considering the lack of consistency, I'll take it. Especially writing this 30 hours later, there's no adductor DOMS like there usually is after a return to this lift.

11/22/24 - Friday
PC L @ 2' 40kgx3x5
BP H @ 5' 225x5x4
OP L @ 2' 125x5x3

PC - Light Triples across. I finally graduated to the 10kg plates, making this workout an even 40kg (88lbs). Still working on bending the bar away to keep the arms long and straight during the jump while shrugging to the ceiling. One thing that I have been doing during the jump phase is letting the bar drift up to it's natural apex before dropping down to the rack position. By doing that, I can tell if I've arm-pulled or not (the higher, the more force transferred to the bar). The downside is that means that I'm racking slow, which will become a problem quickly as the weight gets heavier. So Chase kept cueing me to speed up the rack and slam my elbows forward, which had me maintaining pressure on the bar through the jump to slam it back on the delts. A more decisive rack. All good.
BP - Heavy sets across. All good.
OP - Light sets across. All good.

[Cole Gorton]

thats good work for being busy and not 100% in the groove right now. none of us are always killing it

[Fred J]

Happy belated Anniversary Bill!

[Bill Anders]

Cheers, Fred. I keep wondering why she has put up with the wild ride for so long, but then I just have to look at this past year and maybe, just maybe, I get it.

[Mr. Bingley]

happy anniversary!!!

[Bill Anders]

Cheers, Mr B!

Have a great Thanksgiving surrounded by family!

[Bill Anders]

Note — Skip if you want — What a week for punting. I already knew that the Thanksgiving holiday fell on my normal Thursday lifting day, so I was going to slide Thursday/Friday to the right, which is no big deal, other than the shortened weekend recovery before next Monday's heavy pull. But Monday was really a Monday, with me forgetting my workout clothes (and some other stuff) for during the early morning sessions. I couldn't just workout in the clothes I wore for the coaching, since I had another noon session and a blood donation scheduled for immediately after. So that meant that Monday's session got blended into Tuesday. Then plans for the long weekend popped up, so I blended Thursday into Friday. What does that mean? Running my 4-Day Heavy/Light Split as a 2-Day Heavy Split.

11/26/24 - Tuesday

PC L @ 2' 42.5x3x5
OP I @ 5' 155x3x5
HDL I @ 6' 335x8

Notes —
PC - Light Triples across. These are starting to get heavy enough that I can't just throw it around, which means that these are becoming more decisive, especially the rack. All good.
OP - Intensity Triples across. It's been awhile since I've pressed this weight and it showed. First rep out of the rack was a fail. I rushed it, dropped the elbows and the bar floated forward, pulling me onto my toes and into the rack. A reset and talk-through of "elbows forward" and "heavy heels" and the set went fine, as did the remainder. All good.
HDL - Intensity set. Nice steady tempo run for the first six, then a slowdown for the last two, which still went fine. I know that there's a bit of talk comparing the benefits of x5 to x8 on Haltings, but for me, the money maker is reps 6-8 when I have to make sure everything is correct before each pull.

11/29/24 - Friday

BP I @ 5' 235x3x4
PC L @ 2' 44.5x3x5
SQ I @ 5' 325x3x4

Notes —
BP - Intensity Triples across. Like the OPs above, it has been awhile since I've benched this weight, so I had Chase lift-off and spot the first set for me, even though I had my safeties set correctly. But it went fine and I didn't need to interrupt his workout to watch over me after that. All good.
PC - Light Triples across. As mentioned above, the weight is getting heavy enough that each rep must be decisive, not just whipped off the floor. The focused light work has done me well, though, with Chase giving only minor feedback during the worksets.
SQ - Intensity Triples across. It has been two months since I've been at this weight (325x5x3 on 9/28/24). Focusing on balance, the groove, and keeping my hips back got me through all of the sets just fine, although I do think that I actually did 4 reps for the first set. All good.

[Bill Anders]

12/2/24 - Monday
PC L @ 2' 46kgx3x5
RP I @ 6' 415x5
SQ L @ 3' 265x5x2

Notes —
PC - Light Triples across. Focused on sharp shrug and snappy rack, which worked well. All good.
RP - Intensity set. Overall good, although Chase mentioned that I dropped my hips a bit on the last rep. All good.
SQ - Light sets. All good.

12/3/24 - Tuesday
PC L @ 2' 48kgx3x5
OP I @ 5' 165x1x5 1, 1, 1, x, 1, 1
BP L @ 3' 225x5x2

Notes —
PC - Light Triples across. Same as previous - sharp shrug, snappy rack, all good.
OP - Intensity Singles across. Manageable weight, but I dropped my elbows on the fourth rep and shoved it out too far in front. Took a moment, then finished out the singles.
BP - Light sets. All good.

12/5/24 - Thursday
PC L @ 2' 50kgx3x5
SQ I @ 5' 345x1x5

Notes —
PC - Light Triples across. Same as previous - sharp shrug, snappy rack, all good.
SQ - Intensity Singles across. Manageable weight. I probably could have gone +20lbs, but they would have been grinds. No need to get greedy as I really start to get consistent again.

12/6/24 - Friday
PC L @ 2' 52kgx3x5
BP I @ 5' 245x1x5
OP L @ 3' 130x5x2

Notes —
PC - Light Triples across. Same as previous - sharp shrug, snappy rack. Chase ID'd a couple of arm pulls, especially in the latter sets. This will likely end my 4x/week run for cleans, as these are no longer light. I'll have to figure out how to back down to 3x/week. Either that or quit making +2kg-ish jumps each day (+7.5kg since last Friday), which might be better, since the frequency is really agreeing with my technique.
BP - Intensity Singles across. All good. I could have gone +10lbs, much like Tuesday's squats. Chase agreed, but we also discussed what could happen if I did make that jump, and how that would be counterproductive to where I am in my progression right now.
OP - Light sets. All good.

[Bill Anders]

12/9/24 - Monday
PC @ 2' 53kgx3x5
DL H @ 7' 360x5
SQ L @ 5' 270x5x2

Notes —
PC - Triples across. Focused on little bit of arm pull, slowed it down, worked on Chase's cue of "push out of the pool" to keep the arms straight. All good.
DL - Heavy set. All good, although a touch of hip drop on the last rep.
SQ - Light sets. Rushed these since the next session's clients started showing up about 10 minutes early. All good.


12/10/24- Tuesday
PC @ 2' 54kgx3x5
OP H @ 5' 147.5x5x4
BP L @ 3' 215x5x2

Notes —
PC - Triples across. Continued focusing on slow, controlled pull with straight arms. All good.
OP - Heavy sets across. Slowed these down, too. Focused on hip drive and throwing it behind the ears. All good.
BP - Light sets. All good.

12/12/24 - Thursday
PC @ 2' 55kgx3x5
SQ H @ 315x5x4

Notes —
PC - Triples across. Repeat day, just 1kg heavier. Slow, controlled pull with sharp shrugs. All good.
SQ - Heavy sets across. These felt heavier than 315lbs should, but they went well. All good.

12/13/24 - Friday
PC 56kgx3x5
BP H @ 5' 230x5x4
OP L @ 3' 127.5x5x2

Notes —
PC - Triples across. The slow work this week worked well enough that Chase gave me the green light to start speeding things up. Naturally the first rep had a few arm pulls, but that was fixed the following sets. All good.
BP - Heavy sets across. All good.
OP - Light sets across. Not done, as I ran out of time before the clients showed up for the next session.

[Bill Anders]

12/16/24 - Monday
PC @ 2' 57kgx3x5
HDL H @ 6' 345x8
SQ L @ 5' 270x5x2

Notes —
PC - Triples across. Focus on more thoracic extension, less lats + sharp shrug/squeeze thru the doorway, all good.
HDL - Heavy set. Something distracted me on the first rep, and at the top of the third rep I realized that I was doing full ROM deadlifts, which threw me completely out of the headspace as I did my first halting on #4. Stopped for moment, then completed the required reps.
SQ - Light sets. All good.

12/17/24 - Tuesday
PC @ 2' 58kgx3x5
OP H @ 5' 157.5x3x4
BP L @ 3' 215x5x2

Notes —
PC - Triples across. Focus same as Monday. All good.
OP - Heavy Triples across. Focused on getting very tight right from the start. All good.
BP - Light sets. All good.

12/19/24 - Thursday
PC @ 2' 59kgx3x5
SQ H @ 5' 335x3x4

Notes —
PC - Triples across. Focus same as Monday. Combo of 4x/week frequency and +1kg/day means that the 2' rest period isn't quite enough. Going to 3'. All good.
SQ - Heavy Triples across. All good. I felt like I could have gone +20lbs, but I know better. No need to be greedy. All good.

12/20/24 - Friday
PC @ 3' 60kgx3x5
BP H @ 5' 240x3x4
OP L @ 3' 127.5x5x2

Notes —
PC - Triples across. Monday's focus, which has carried me well this week. Arm pull started leaking in on the latter reps of the sets, so focus switched to pushing down on the bar through the jump, throwing my shoulders back like doing a gainer off a diving board. Even with the 3' rest period, these are starting to beat me up due to the frequency and weight increases. After discussing options with Chase, I'll start alternating between the clean and the snatch, since the snatch is the next lift in the coaching progression. I'll have to start coaching them in a few weeks, so I might as well get used to them.
BP - Heavy Triples across. All good, although a couple of reps my feet slipped out.
OP - Light sets. All good.

PS - Merry Christmas, y'all.