I was already there during the workout, Fred, but I also knew that I could count on you to throw the flag. My lats sure feel it today.
Tuesday was brutal. Looking at the overall program, most days I lift right around 8,000lbs total tonnage for my worksets and Tuesday was 10,320lbs (+23%). I've already started adjusting the weeks to come to compensate, as I was down this road during my HLM days and don't want to go through that again.
Minimum Effective Dose.
When my bride got home from work last night and asked how the workout went, I started telling her and she immediately went into support mode, straddling my lap to give me a pep talk that I didn't really need. But then she shifted gears, asking me what my long-term goals are with this lifting. From that reclined position on the couch, I leaned forward and stood up with her and walked her into the kitchen so that I could get another beer. She responded as I set her down - "Alrighty then!" with a big grin.
You know how it goes, Fred. It comes and goes in waves. You're doing quite a bit of other things outside the gym lately. You'll regain that mojo as the season changes.
I wouldn’t sweat it Bill. Sometimes bad workouts just happen. Get some extra recovery in a try again is what I’ve told myself before. You’ll get it!
Thanks Eric. No sweating here. It just shined a spotlight on what I knew to be some overreaching, but I also thought that I could power through it for a week or so. By the time you had posted your comment, I had already scrubbed the next few weeks of the extra volume that, at 55, I just don't need or can apparently tolerate.
8/27/23 - Sunday
Pin OP
175x1
195x0
195x1
OP I @ 2'
45x5x3
95x5
135x3
155x1
172.5x1x5
BP V @ 5'
45x5x2
95x5
135x3
175x1
205x1
232.5x4x4
Music — DMX, Party Up; Notorious B.I.G., Hypnotize; Kris Kross, Jump; Missy Elliott, Work It; 2Pac/Dr Dre/Roger Troutman, California Love.
Notes — Shifting this week's programming one day left to accommodate the long upcoming weekend with visitors.
- Pin OP - Heavy Single after the 175lb warmup rep, which got a bit in front of me, but went up fine, otherwise. I got set up for the 195x1 and started the press, which barely budged, hence the zero rep. I quickly reviewed my setup and realized that I started pressing the bar while my shoulders were still behind the path, so I had no leverage. A quick reset got the shoulders directly under the bar, and instead of pressing, I shrugged the bar up to lockout just fine. I'm still trying to get used to the very fine positioning required to get this moving.
- OP - Intensity Singles across. All good.
- BP - Volume sets across. All good.
8/28/23 - Monday
Pause SQ I
45x10x3
135x5
185x3
225x1
275x1
315x1
360x1
Box SQ I @ 4'
350x2x2
SQ I @ 7'
370x3x3
370x3
370x2
Rows V @ 4'
65x5x2
115x5
165x1
190x3x3
Music — Generation X, Night Of The Cadillacs; Blondie, Hanging On The Telephone; 7 Seconds vs Nena, 99 Red Balloons; MC5, Kick Out The Jams; D.O.A. vs Johnny Cash, Folsom Prison Blues; Buzzcocks, Why Can't I Touch it?
Notes — After Friday's attempt at a Light Box SQ session, one of the issues was the concern, later confirmed with an empty bar, that the safeties were too low. I could not have got out from under the bar had I been pinned to the box without rolling the weight over my neck and head or really ripping a shoulder socket out to dump the bar behind in close quarters while inside the rack. So my warmups today had the safeties two holes (4") above where I've had them, and there was still plenty of clearance. So apparently I didn't need to have them so low, since I have been able to get out from under the bar those times that I've had to.
- Pause SQ - Intensity Single with 2" pause. Unracking, it felt like 315, much unlike Friday's 315 that felt like 360. Good.
- Box SQ - Intensity Doubles across at 14". Good, with the second rep of both sets getting quite grindy.
- SQ - Intensity Triples. After last week's overreaching adventure that started with these, I dropped back to triples and dropped a set to decrease the volume—2,500lbs less at a slightly higher intensity—which I may repeat next week before adding one set. Today's first set, last rep got a bit forward, out on the right toes, coming out of the hole, which made it grindier than necessary. Second set, first rep I lost tightness on the way down, resulting in a dive-bomb into the hole, which I recovered; second rep was very grindy; third rep got a few inches out of the hole and stalled, where I had nothing to push up against the bar. At that point, I called it, since I apparently did a doozy last week. More recovery from that is required. Lesson learned.
- Rows - Volume triples across. Getting the hang of these. All good.
I've never done pause squats except for 70 lbs. By doing pause squats on very heavy lifts you seem to have found great success. I must look into this,
Don't use me as an example, carson. I used to do them as my warmup squats a couple of years back, but last year I got a finger wag from an SSC about how it would affect my workset squats. So I quit doing them.
Then a visit to the same gym this year and I got them programmed for me by another SSC.
So it has only been a month, and I've found that a 2-count isn't much slower than my normal bounce off the bottom squat, since both of them have coached me in the same way on loading up my hips for that bounce which is quite effective.
Good luck, and keep at it!
When the lifts get more technical than the dead I sometimes get confused. E.g., I am approaching a PR on the Squat for the first time in five years. I expect it to happen by the end of October. I do 70 lb pause squats without a box. I get good depth. Then I get the box out, put my knees out, and butt back at least I do in my mind. But I have a tendency to lean forward. The other day I dropped to the box but inadvertently lost tightness just when I needed it the most and had to put the bar on the safeties. The problem is in my head. I haven't gotten stuck at the bottom since I was first learning the squat. Fiddle faddle.
Yep, it sounds like you need to figure out that perfect cue that works for you to keep your back angle static as you get down to that point. I wish I could think one up off the top of my head to help. But here's the mental checklist before and during my squat:
1. Balance
2. Groove (get in it/stay in it) "The Master Cue"
3. Butthole to the wall
4. Belt buckle to the ground/nipples to the floor (which stays that way until mid-way back up)
For me, the combination of 3 and 4 helps me to keep my back angle static so that I don't do a good morning or lean forward as well as loads my hips for that sweet bounce out of the hole.
Keep working at it, carson. You'll get that PR!