Lifting to Live

[Bill Anders]

1/29/22 - Saturday

SQ @ 5'
45x10x3
95x5
135x3 p
185x1 p
225x1 p
265x1 p
295x1 p
320x5
300x5x2 (94%)

Music — Not music, per se, but the live streaming coverage of the Cyclocross World Championships held this weekend in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Today is the Junior Women (17-18yo), "Under 23yo" or U23 race for the men, then the Pro Women. Tomorrow, the Junior Men, U23 Women, and Pro Men. Fast & Dry conditions, which isn't as entertaining as mud, but makes for some great racing.

Notes — Right before starting my warmup, I learned that a military brother, just turned 52yo, passed yesterday, leaving behind a wife and 10yo. That kept me a bit distracted during the workout, but I made sure to honor him with some crisp reps.
- SQ - for some odd reason, today I decided to annotate which warmup reps were paused. I've been doing my weighted warmups paused for quite some time, to the point that I have to remind myself to not pause on my last warmup, something I forgot today, but realized as soon as I started to drive that 295 out of the hole. The 320x5 went well, slowing but never in doubt, as did the 300x5x2's.

[Fred J]

Me too on the music today. For me it's the 24 hours of Daytona. One of my favorites.


Sorry to hear about your friend. At 52 he went way too early!

[Bill Anders]

1/30/22 - Sunday

OP
45x5x3
75x3
105x1
120x1
135x1
152x1x5 - 1, 1, M, M, M, M

BP
45x5x2
95x3
135x1 p
175x1 p
205x1
225x1x5

Music — Not music, per se, but the live streaming coverage of the Cyclocross World Championships held this weekend in Fayetteville, Arkansas. An absolutely brilliant photo finish for the Women's U23 race, where the Dutch swept the podium, icing on the cake of yesterday's 1-2 placing of the Dutch Elite Women, including Marianne Vos beating the reigning World Chamption at the line to take her 8th Cyclocross World Champion title!

Notes —
- OP - Heavy singles. The first two went nicely. Then four Misses in a row, each and every one in the groove yet stalling over my head, where they just wouldn't go, even with it back over my shoulders. Perhaps time for pin presses? Not necessarily. After I finished my bench press heavy singles, I set up 152 at the bridge of my nose and 3x it stuck in the same location over my head. Perhaps I need to set it a bit higher, as Rip mentions forehead height, or, more likely, I haven't figured out the positioning to get started. Some things to think about in the coming days. Perhaps even a reset, which isn't unreasonable considering my lack of frequency right now. More than anything, right now it's good to be able to tweak different parameters and see what happens.
- BP - Heavy singles, all good.

[Bill Anders]

2/3/22 - Thursday

OP @ 5'
45x5x3
75x3
105x1
115x1
130x1
142x5x3 3, 3
130x5x2

BP @ 5'
45x5x2
95x3
135x1 p
165x1 p
185x1 p
207x5x3
205x5x2
205x4 + 1

HDL @ 8'
65x10 RDL
135x4 DL
185x2 DL
225x1 DL
275x1
300x1
330x8 4+3 straps

Music — Top picks from Sirius XM Octane, Korn's Requiem [Korn's New Album] Radio - JD (vocalist) + Munky (guitarist), 1/28/22 - Helmet, In The Meantime (JD); Alien Weaponry, Ru Ana Te Whenua (JD); Deftones, Minerva (JD); Tool, 7empest (Munky); Health & Nine Inch Nails, Isn't Everyone (Munky); Prodigy, Breathe (Munky).

Notes — I rolled into this workout tired and sore from a few days of hard snowboarding right on the tail of last week's 4-day cycle, so really no day off since early last week. The accumulated fatigue is a good thing, reminding me that I am living, but it may factor into the plan for today (spoiler: it did).
- OP - The lats are blasted from last week's lifts + the constant abuse during long days of snowboarding. The first few warmups with an empty bar were nowhere near comfortable, but they seemed OK through the rest of the warmups. After Sunday's Intensity miss, I thought that instead of a reset or switching to pin presses that I'd re-start my chinups, which I haven't done in a while. I do know that they help with the press and that I'm losing more than gaining by not doing them, so that was the plan as I continued to load my presses. Then that first x5 set became x3 when #4 stuck at the forehead, then on the second set #3 was an interminable grind with no hope of a #4. Understanding where I was, I dropped to back-off sets for the remainder. These will be my new reset weights for next week (130 for "volume"; 142 for Intensity singles) as the maintenance slide begins for this lift.
- BP - Even going into this workout, I wasn't sure if I would work these in today (HDL is the focus today), but slipping these to Saturday would make that workout very rushed, which I'd rather not do. The lat tightness continued through the warmups and the first set was not as smooth as it should be at this weight (but it's still going up, something that may not have happened had I gone +2.5lb instead of this +1lb). Set 2 was fine, although still not smooth, and Rep 5 of set 3 stuck just above my chest. A quick rerack of the weights got me the last single to round out the 15 reps. I'll continue to +1lb these for now.
- HDL - Considering my lat tightness throughout the workout, I threw in some light RDLs, then ran the first few warmups as full ROM Deadlifts. Although not recommended for Haltings, I strapped up for the work set, as I'm more concerned about back, hip, and hamstring strength than grip strength right now (all warmups were double overhand). I realized immediately during my first rep that I had forgot to take my warmup pants off and the bar was grabbing the legs on the way up, which became quite distracting, so after the 4th rep I dropped the bar, pulled them off (another advantage of working out in my garage, even if it's frigid), and reset to continue. The next three were fine, but my hamstrings were getting quite tired. So much so that rep #8 never happened. Even a complete reset and it wouldn't go. So I called it, then tried 315 once, but it wouldn't budge. So that accumulated fatigue was a factor throughout the workout.

[Bill Anders]

2/5/22 - Saturday

SQ @ 5'
45x10x3
95x5
135x3 p
185x1 p
225x1 p
265x1
295x1
325x5
305x5x2

Music — Jazz Sabbath, Black Sabbath (off of Jazz Sabbath's forthcoming Vol 2). If you like jazz and you like early Black Sabbath, check out the documentary Before Black Sabbath: There Was Jazz Sabbath.

Notes — Thursday's Halting Deadlifts on top of a week of hard snowboarding put the brakes on things this week. I had a long-standing planned snowboarding meet-up for Friday that I had to back out of, as my lower back was locked up to the point that I would not be a safe partner. No tweaks, just evidence of overwork; the lifting got in the way of living. Instead, I spent Friday stretching and working things out enough that I was confident starting my squat workout today, although I didn't know where I would end up, intending on working at least singles up through the main work set weight (325lbs).
- SQ - As expected, the first few warmup reps were quite snug in the lower back, but it loosened as I continued up through the 95x5. I noticed the weight on my lower back as soon as I unracked the 135, but that x3 set went fine. Increasing discomfort (abnormal) as I unracked the 185, as well as through the paused rep. Significantly more discomfort as I unracked the 225, as well as driving up out of the hole. At that point I didn't want to exacerbate the issue, so I called the day so that I could stick to snowboarding plans for the upcoming week. If this was the warm season and I didn't have similar plans, I would have at least worked up to a 325x1, but I don't need that right now.

[Fred J]

Sux getting old eh? Just remember we are stronger than many at our age and I see that as a blessing considering some that I see.

[Cheesepuff]

Pretty sure your Thursday workout, even scaled back to my strength level, would have killed me.
Certainly the PULLS would have. Good to see that somebody can recover from that tonnage.

[Bill Anders]

Sux getting old eh? Just remember we are stronger than many at our age and I see that as a blessing considering some that I see.

Ha! I do remember exactly that daily, Fred. I have plenty of family members that I can look to as examples, unfortunately.

Pretty sure your Thursday workout, even scaled back to my strength level, would have killed me.
Certainly the PULLS would have. Good to see that somebody can recover from that tonnage.

Well, it looks like they did similar for me, good sir, as even now I'm still feeling it a bit. Overall, the work set tonnage of that specific workout wasn't very high for me (keeping in mind that I'm about 15 years younger than you), but it was the highest this snowboarding season where I am not recovering between workouts. That's a great catch, and something that I need to keep an eye on. I'm planning to do heavy rack pulls later this week, but am still dealing with a bit of that tightness.

[Bill Anders]

2/11/22 - Friday

OP @ 5'
45x5x3
75x3
105x1
115x1
130x5x3

RP @ 8'
135x4
185x2
225x1
275x1
305x1 mixed
350x1 mixed
390x5 straps

Music — Top picks from SiriusXM's Liquid Metal, Corridor of Covers, Megaforce Records/RIP Jonny Z, 2/10/22 - The Forsaken vs Metallica, Creeping Death; The Absence vs Testament, Into the Pit; Life of Agony vs SOD, March of the SOD.

Notes —
- OP - Reset after last week's Misses on both "volume" and intensity days. I just piled on too much that week, and this week isn't any different. So instead of attempting to push a bunch of misses, today is a 10% reset that I'll push up +1lbs from there. No concerns, as I was expecting this slow slip backwards during this winter season. The downside of doing these only once per week is that the groove is missing just as often than not, even at this manageable weight. There's something to be said for for the NLP frequency of 3x every 2 weeks or Nick's Intermediate pressing of 2x week. All good.
- RP - The back tightness that kicked in last week after my Halting Deadlifts has persisted this week, although at a low level. Even a couple of sessions of body work (the advantage of having a Licensed Massage Therapist in the house) helped, but it's still there a bit, especially as I spent the early part of this week throwing my body down the mountain at high rates of speed. The tightness was apparent during the warmups, but nothing that caused much concern, as I've been quite looking forward to this Rack Pull set. All good, although I think that my run of +10lbs is done. Not that I won't try in two weeks, but we'll see.

[Fred J]

Bill are you watching any of the skiing in Beijing?