Lifting to Live

[Bill Anders]

12/24/22 - Saturday
Outside 17°F / Garage 34°F

BP V @ 5'
45x5x3
95x3
135x1
165x1
190x5x5

Music — Onslaught vs Motorhead, Bomber; Destruction vs Motorhead, The Hammer; Vader vs Motorhead, Overkill.

Notes — A quick session before afternoon/evening activities. We've been in a deep, deep freeze all week, we're warming up nicely, and now the freezing rain has started, although I made sure to get one extra session each for overhead and bench, instead of just this one extra for one. But it wasn't until my last BP set that I figured out a way that I could load the rack and alternate both lifts during a workout and drastically cut the time required. We'll see how it goes.
- BP - Following Grant Broggi's advice and making sure I get an extra pressing day in each week during this maintenance season. I did last year and it sure helped maintain strength/minimize loss. All good.

[Bill Anders]

12/27/22 - Tuesday
Outside 40°F / Garage 45°F

SQ @ 5'
45x10x3
95x5
135x3
185x1
225x1
275x1
320x5x3

BP @ 3'
45x5x2
95x3
135x1
185x1
210x5x3

Music — Suicidal Tendencies, Institutionalized; Cockney Rejects, Oi! Oi! Oi!; The Exploited, Punks Not Dead; Madness, One Step Beyond; X vs The Troggs, Wild Thing; World Party, Ship Of Fools.

Notes — After a couple of days of freezing rain at the tail end of our week-long arctic outbreak, we've got plenty of flooding in the area, so it's a good day to stay put and enjoy the warm garage. The plates cold soaked that entire time, so the amount of condensation on them today is impressive. I even had to peel off the hoodie after my squat 135x3 warmup set.
- SQ - Heavy day. And it was. That first set was brutal, as I was all over the place and in my head too much. I don't know why, as I did this weight as a 4x5 back on 11/22/22 before I started ramping up triples (end w/ 340x3x4 on 12/6/22) leading up to my 12/13/22 mock meet (two weeks ago, today). For the second set, I snatched back the focus that got me through all of those attempts, even as #5 slowed a fair bit. I'd like to say that focus saw a rippin' third set, but that wasn't true. It wasn't as ugly as the first set, but it was not smooth. But I finished. All good.
- BP -Heavy day. Mis-loaded 220, but caught it before my first workset. All good.

[Bill Anders]

12/29/22 - Thursday
Outside 37° / Garage 41°

OP @ 5'
45x5x3
75x3
105x1
125x1
145x5x3 3x5 PR

HDL @ 8'
65x5x3 pc
135x4
185x2
225x1
275x1
315x1 h
345x87 s

Music — Blackbraid, The River Of Time Flows Through Me; VOLA, Straight Lines; Led Zeppelin, Custard Pie; Motley Crue, Shout At The Devil; Metallica, Creeping Death.

Notes — Decreasing frequency this time of year brings increasing DOMS, as my warmup squats informed me.
- OP - Not overly heavy and certainly not light, but all three sets went smoothly. Once I got to looking at the spreadsheet, I realized that it was as 3x5 PR, breaking 142.5 set on 6/1/21 (and repeated on 11/20/22). If only they all worked like that.
- HDL - After the 3x5 power cleans, all warmup reps were full ROM deadlifts. I had intended to switch to HDLs for 275/315, but forgot. I almost forgot on my first rep, but remembered just as the bar passed the knees. It started slowing significantly from the 5th rep on, with rapidly increasing tightness in the hips and back, so much so that I just didn't even try #8. This is always the case with Haltings, where theoretically the shorter ROM should get me the extra three reps over my top x5, but that never seems to be the case, even as my most recent was 350x5. I'll reset this a bit more to find the right starting point.

[Bill Anders]

1/1/23 - Sunday
Outside 34° / Garage 46°

OP L @ 3'
45x5x3
75x3
105x1
130x5x3

BP L @ 3'
45x5x2
95x3
135x2
165x1
192.5x5x3

Music — Isaac Hayes, Theme From Shaft; Howling Giant f/ Bob Balch (Fu Manchu/Sun and Sail Club) vs Blue Oyster Cult, Godzilla; Spirit Adrift vs Pantera, Hollow.

Notes — A fair bit of full-body tiredness after a week of poor sleep, then a 4-mile round trip snowshoe trip with 1,200' of elevation gain/loss through deep snow yesterday to close out the year. It was a good chance to avoid the crowds on the slopes while scouting a new backcountry snowboarding line for future use. A fantastic line, hidden in plain sight, barely touched by anyone looking to take advantage of gravity through the trees.
- OP - Light day, although they didn't necessarily feel that way, especially the first set (see above). All good.
- BP - Light day. I now have 2 sets of J-hooks, so I started doing my BP warmup during my OP work sets. Instead of stripping weights off the OP bar, I skipped the 95s and doubled the 135, which worked fine, with no impact to the OPs, nor to the BP worksets. I didn't take note of when I started, but this workout took about 40 minutes, when it usually takes about 60 minutes non-rushed. So there's definitely an advantage to the second set of J-hooks, even though I am rarely pressed for time. All good.

[Fred J]

See if you like this version by fu manchu....Fu Manchu - Godzilla - YouTube

[Bill Anders]

Excellent, Fred! I am always open for some good stoner/fuzz rock, although this is a typical of the style and a bit slow for a workout. After the workout? Turn it up!

[Bill Anders]

1/3/23 - Tuesday
Outside 31° / Garage 41°

SQ @ 5'
45x10x3
95x5
135x3
185x1
225x1
285x1
325x5
295x5x2

BP @ 5'
45x5x2
95x3
135x1
185x1
212.5x5x3

Music — Municipal Waste, The Art Of Partying; Graveyard BBQ vs ZZ Top, Beer Drinkers & Hell Raisers; Onkel Tom, Bier Bier Bier; Murphy's Law, Attack Of The Killer Beers; Korpiklaani, Vodka; Six Feet Under vs AC/DC, Have A Drink On Me.

Notes —
- SQ - Heavy w/ 91% backoff sets. The 325 felt heavy as hell as I unracked it, but no concerns with any of the reps. And that made the 295's feel quite light. All good.
- BP - Heavy. Ties 3x5 PR set on 8/18/22. All good.

[Bill Anders]

1/6/23 - Friday
Outside 39° / Garage 43°

OP @ 5'
45x5x3
75x3
105x1
130x1
147.5x5x3 3x5 PR

RP @ 8'
65x5x2 pc
135x4 dl
225x2
275x1
315x1 h
345x1 s
385x5 s

Music — Dismember, To The Bone; Body Count vs Slayer, Raining Blood/Postmortem; Oceanhoarse vs Anthrax, Only; Fu Manchu vs Van Halen, D.O.A.; August Burns Red vs System Of A Down, Chop Suey!; Behemoth vs Danzig, Until You Call On The Dark.

Notes —
- OP - Heavy day. The last one was a bit ugly, with the left side slowing on the way up, but all good. Broke the 3x5 PR set on 6/1/21 and tied on 12/29/22.
- RP - Heavy day. Smooth and steady, all good.

[Bill Anders]

1/8/23 - Sunday
Outside 37° / Garage 45°

OP L @ 3'
45x5x3
75x3
105x1
120x1
132.5x5x3

BP L @ 3'
45x5x2
135x3
165x1
195x5x3

Music — Duran Duran, Hungry Like The Wolf; Adam & The Ants, Dog Eat Dog; George Clinton, Atomic Dog.

Notes — Yep, I am liking having two bars and hooks for this workout, which only takes 40 minutes since I start warming up the bench while doing my press work sets.
- OP - Light day. All good.
- BP - Light day. All good.

[Bill Anders]

1/12/23 - Thursday
Outside 38° / 43°

SQ @ 5'
45x10x3
95x5
135x3
185x1
225x1
280x1
330x5
300x5x2

BP @ 5'
45x5x2
95x3
135x1
185x1
215x5x3 PR

Music — mr. Gnome, Three Red Birds; Sepultura, Agony Of Defeat; Testament, Children Of The Next Level; Nevermore, Inside Four Walls.

Notes —
- SQ - x5 w/ 2x 91% backoffs. Surprisingly, after a couple of days of snowboarding this week, the main work set didn't completely crush me. But there were little tweaks in odd spots that I never have, like my left achilles (trailing foot while snowboarding). All good.
- BP - Heavy, but all good. Beats 8/18/22 and 1/3/23 212.5x5x3 PR.