Lifting to Live

11/24/21 - Thursday - Thanksgiving Eve

SQ - V
45x10x2
95x5
135x3
185x1
225x1
270x1
297.5x5x4 @ 5'

BP - V
45x5
95x4
135x1
170x1
197.5x5x4 @ 5'
180x5

PC - L
65x5
95x3
115x1
125x1
135x3x5 @ 3'

Music — Top Picks from SiriusXM's Liquid Metal, Bloody Roots, Roots of Early 2000s Metalcore, 11/20/21 - Shadows Fall, Thoughts Without Words; Every Time I Die, Godspeed Us to Sea.

Notes — This was to be Monday's workout, which would have set me up for a recovery day on Tuesday for a planned trail clearing session. Instead, late Monday morning I received a phone call that our delivery of fire logs (think wood stove pellets, except 8lbs/ea) was to be that afternoon. So instead of training, I took 4 hours to unload 4,000lbs of logs from a pickup truck into the garage, then move the logs from the garage to different stacks throughout the house. Each load in the house was only 16lbs total, but up and down stairs, around corners, etc. By the time I was done, it was time for a beer. Tuesday's trail work was expected, cutting and clearing logs off of local hiking trail before the holiday weekend. Deadlifts and squats come in very handy on these days.
- SQ - Volume/Heavy Day. Recently I've started noticing a bit of pain in my right elbow. Not during any lifting sessions, but throughout the day. It seems that carrying 250 8lb logs individually set it off a bit more than usual, with the pain even waking me up overnight as I was straightening that arm. That was enough to prod me to seek out solutions. A bit of reading here and I realized that I was setting my elbows a bit too far back and not quite lifting my chest to lock the bar in place. So I started doing that today. We'll see how it goes, but I didn't have any issues during these sets.
- BP - Volume Day. Focused on elbow path to keep the bar in the groove. All good.
- PC - Light Day. Man, I do love this lift. Not because it's light, but because it's dynamic. The accelerating jump movement is also handy for the upcoming snowboard season. All good.

11/26/21 - Friday

SQ - L
45x10x2
95x5
135x3
185x1
225x1
265x5x2 @ 5'

OP - V
45x5
75x4
105x1
125x1
135x5x5 135x5, [1, 3], 4; 125x5x2 @ 5'

DL
135x4
185x2
225x1
275x1
305x1
335x5 @ 8'

Music — Top Picks from SirusXM's U2 X-Radio, Adam Clayton's Playlist, Funk, 2/22/21 - Parliament, Give Up The Funk (Tear the Roof Off the Sucker); Sly & The Family Stone, Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin); then Part II on 3/22/21 - Betty Davis, Anti Love Song (just in time for the deadlift workset).

Notes —
- SQ - Light Day. Nothing special, just focusing on elbow position and keeping chest proud (see Wednesday's entry above). All good.
- OP - Volume Day. Instead of a proper reset, having not done any volume since 132.5x5x5 on 11/04/21 (3 weeks ago), I decided to add 2.5lbs and act like I should have done just that because my Intensity singles were continuing to go up. It might have worked, if it wasn't for my brain getting engaged on my second set. I didn't step far enough back from the rack and I hit the J-hook on the second rep, enough to force me to re-rack and reset, but still could only get 3 more for that "set." Then just 4, which frustrated me even though I knew what was going on. So I'll blame hitting the J-hook, although the reality is that I just got greedy. Instead of pressing sets 4 & 5 @ 135, I dropped to where I should have reset to (125) and finished out with those sets.
- DL - Overhand for warmups, except after the Press fiasco I went with hook on the 305x1 to keep my mind right, then straps for the workset. Reps 1-4 cruised quickly, not bouncing off the floor, but not lollygagging either (I wasn't sure if I actually took a breath between the first two reps). I didn't want to rush into rep 5, so I paused for an extra second or two at the bottom to make sure everything was in place and it went smoothly.

That darned elbow! My other cue during squat setup is to bring my elbows in toward my ribs a bit. It's really a shoulder cue, but helps much like your proud chest cue.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by David Hooper

That darned elbow! My other cue during squat setup is to bring my elbows in toward my ribs a bit. It's really a shoulder cue, but helps much like your proud chest cue.

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Great cue, Hooper. I've used it the last two sessions and it certainly helps lock the bar in more than before. Hopefully the elbow issue settles. It's not a bit deal, just something that I am aware of.

11/29/21 - Monday

SQ - H
45x10x2
95x5
135x3
185x1
225x1
265x1
295x5x5 @ 5'

BP - V
45x5
95x3
135x1
170x1
200x5x5 @ 5'

PC - L
65x5
95x3
115x1
125x1
140x3x5 @ 3'

Music — Henry Rollins' KCRW Broadcast 661, 11/27/21 - Hawkwind, Motorhead. Plus, top picks from SiriusXM's U2 X-Radio, Adam Clayton's Playlist, Glitter & Glam, 6/28/21 - Iggy and the Stooges, Raw Power; New York Dolls, Jet Boy; & Adam's Pre-Punk show, 7/27/21 - The Velvet Underground, Rock and Roll; The Stooges, I Wanna Be Your Dog; Suzi Quatro, Glycerine Queen.

Notes — This was to be yesterday's workout, but the bride found some local events that looked interesting, so we took advantage of the nice weather. That led to a reset to M/W/F for the next few weeks, at least until the holiday break, also helped by the very warm weather that we are experiencing. A couple of the local ski resorts were able to have a limited open for Black Friday, but all of that snow is now gone. That's a 10"+ blanket to mud in just a few days. That will push back the openings a bit. But honestly, any day we can get before the New Year is a gift.
- SQ - Heavy Day. These are starting to get back up into the territory of "noisy head." But all went well. Even though they are starting to get noisy again, I can't help but think back to the first time I got into this territory and how much of a struggle a simple 3x5 work set went, especially with that horrible form. Now these 5x5's are going just fine.
- BP - Volume Day. Mis-calculated warmups, so that 170-200 was too big of a jump. The first set went fine, but it was messy for a minute, even though I managed to keep the same breath for the first two reps. Otherwise, the rest of the sets went just fine.
- PC - Always fun. Had I done this workout yesterday, I would have done RDL's, but since I reset to the M/W/F routine, these were the lift of choice leading into heavy deadlifts on Wednesday.

Great lifts and good music selection.

Thanks Cheesepuff. Music has always been such a bit part of my life and I'm working on making the lifts the same; I hope to look back on these posts in a decade or three and have it spark some inspiration before I head back into the garage, much like I look to yours and many others today.

12/1/21 - Wednesday

SQ - L
45x10x2
95x5
135x3
185x1
225x1
245x1
270x5x2 @ 5'

OP - V
45x5
75x3
100x1
115x1
127.5x5x5 @ 5'

DL
135x4
185x2
225x1
275x1
305x1
340x5 @ 8'

Music — Top Picks from SiriusXM's Liquid Metal, Corridor of Covers, Rarities Collection Vol II, 11/25/21 (A repeat from 6/3/21, I realized almost all the way through, but at least I picked different faves this time*) - Thy Will Be Done vs N.I.N., March of the Pigs; Botch vs B-52's, Rock Lobster.

Notes — I wasn't sure how this workout was going to go. We got word yesterday that while the work clearing trees on the trail was appreciated over the holiday weekend, there were more down. On our loop trail, two large trees were at complete opposites of the loop, so I headed out this morning with a small crew (including my wife) to clear the one on the far end of the loop so we could focus on the larger, more difficult one, this coming Friday. The ranger had told us it was about 1 mile from the trailhead, when in fact it was about 2.6 miles (should have known based on where she put the circle on the trail map). So that was an unexpected 5+ miles of hiking with a little bit of elevation, plus an hour+ of sawing (think shoulder work). I tossed together different ideas on how to approach or rearrange today's planned workout, but decided to just go with what was scheduled and see how it went.
- SQ - Light Day. All good.
- OP - Volume Day. These were the lifts that I expected some issues thanks to the saw work. I was definitely more tired than I would have been, but with this slight reset after last week's volume day fiasco (above), they went fine
- DL - This was my second lift that I had some thoughts about. Some of the positions that I had to get into to saw the tree, coupled with Monday's heavy volume squats, let me know that my hips and lower back were a bit beat. But even by the 305x1 hook grip warmup, I knew I had it. It was a bit of a grind on #5, but it went just fine.

* That link to my 6/5/21 workout log was a fun read, going back to when I was stalling hard on my deadlift, my squats were catching up that that stuck deadlift, and I felt like a broken old man every time I got out of a chair.

12/3/21 - Friday

SQ - M
45x10x2
95x5
135x3
185x1
225x1
250x1
280x5x3

OP - I
45x5
75x3
105x1
125x1
140x1x5

BP - I
45x5
75x3
95x3
135x1
165x1
195x1
210x5

RDL - M
135x4
185x2
205x1
225x8x3

Music — Top Picks from SiriusXMs U2 X-Radio, Adam Clayton's Playlist, UK Punk, 10/26/21 - The Jam, In the City; Gang of Four, Damaged Goods; Generation X, Dancing with Myself; Public Image Ltd, Public Image Ltd.

Notes — Another morning of trail work, clearing a 60' Ponderosa that was kind enough to land lengthwise down the trail, in an area where we didn't have much room to clear the cut pieces. So, like painting, the majority of the work was the prep work, the Strongman-style work flipping 200lb cut sections end over end until we could roll them out of the way. Regardless, training progresses.
- SQ - Volume work here + trail work this week had my lower back starting to feel tight throughout the days, but this Medium session went well.
- OP - Intensity Day, all good.
- BP - Intensity Day, all good.
- RDL - First time back with these in a month (11/02/21). Similar issues with the lower back had me thinking that I should swap these out with Power Cleans, but I stuck with my program. But I didn't stick with my notebook and did my warmups on auto-pilot, so I skipped right over the ~90% single (205), making the last warmup jump ~20%; I caught it right as I finished loading my 225 and thought about unloading it to 205, but just for a minute before thinking "Ah well, what can happen?" Another strike against me. But I locked in my hook grip and realized through my first set that I was only taking a breath every 2-3 reps and they were going just fine. All good.

If your elbows continue to bother you, you might throw in some straight bar curls (for reps *30/40).

I found that by using an empty bar and repping out for three sets, with a minutes rest, the blood gets flowing onto the arms, and it seems to help with achy elbows...ymmv.