Lifting to Live

[Bill Anders]

9/2/21 - Thursday

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

OP
45x5
75x3
100x1
122.5x5x3

DL
135x4
185x2
225x1
275x1
300x1
325x5

Music — SiriusXM Mandatory Metallica, Metallica Live in Nickelsdorf, Austria, 6/10/2012 — This was a fun one, as the bride and I saw them the weekend prior at Rock am Ring at the famous Nürburgring, Germany.

Notes — I'm watching everything closer now, as I'm starting to approach work weights for some of the lifts where I stalled this past spring before I had to take my summer break.
- SQ - My light day, just light enough to really let everything flow.
- OP - Still pressing up and not to the point where I'm concern that I'll stall and have to start following Nick's protocol. Back in May, that happened at 132.5lbs, so perhaps a few more sessions. While it may be tempting to skip his protocol of running up the NLP with lower rep counts but the same volume and go straight into 2x/week presses, I am curious to see how far I can get with his protocol this time.
- DL - All good. Taking the PC break was the right move. I still had the issue with the lower back pain just as the bar impacted the floor on rep #3, so I lowered slower on reps 4 & 5, which worked just fine.

[Bill Anders]

9/6/21 - Monday

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

BP
45x5
95x3
135x1
165x1
200x5x3

PC
65x5
90x3
115x1
130x1
145x3x5

Music — SiriusXM Ozzy's Boneyard, Top Pics from Iron Maiden's Labor Day Weekend Takeover, 9/3/21 - Iron Maiden, Senjutsu (new album, their 17th, released last week); Iron Maiden, Darkest Hour; Iron Maiden, Hallowed Be Thy Name

Notes —
- This was yesterday's planned workout, but then the bride and I looked at this week's schedule and decided to make yesterday a date day and shift my workouts one day. One potential advantage is that today's workout was ~4hrs earlier in the day than I usually do, so energy levels were higher. That could also be a function of the extra break day...
- SQ - No issues with these work sets. Slow and steady. The extra focus on locking the knees and sitting back last month are paying off.
- BP - No issues with these work sets either. No excessive bouncing off of the chest, no concerns about completing any of these sets.
- PC - Stealing Hooper's cue for these—RAMP, JUMP, UNDER—smoothed these out for me across all 5 work sets. I had been just slowly walking through the steps mentally without assigning a cue to this movement. I'm looking forward to seeing how that cue helps over the next two weeks; with my schedule, I should be hitting an all-time PC PR at the end of next week*. Looking back at the logs, 155lbs has been my max by the end of the training year for every year since 2018 (plus this year's spring cycle & 2017 was 145). Slow & steady.

*That's what I get for mentally running out my schedule. I'll hit 155 again next week, followed by a planned family reunion trip that will take me away from the weights (although hopefully I can get an in-person coaching session in while I'm there). Then a reset, then a ramp up. So any PC PR will have to be next month.

[David Hooper]

I'll be really curious how that cue works for you. I had found that I only had enough time / brainspace for three words for the whole movement, and those fit. Perhaps "DOWN" would work better than "UNDER" for the final cue since it's only one syllable, but "UNDER" describes the relationship to the bar better, so I'm not really sure.

Thanks, also, for the link to The Strength Co.'s hardware. I'll definitely keep that in mind. I had already decided that the rack was equal to the bar in terms of need for quality, so I was going to avoid the Amazon cheapos. (To me, a cheap rack is a failure just waiting to happen after a heavy squat set.) I love the design of their plates, too. It's always good to have quality options on the table.

[Bill Anders]

IIRC from today's session, JUMP/UNDER was essentially one word, quickly. The one time that I thought of both separately, I barely got under it.

The huge selling point for both my son and I on the rack is that it's not one solid piece. We've both been mobile our whole lives, so it's nice to be able to break it down. I have not had to fiddle with any of the connections in the year that I've had it, although it might be time to do a quick check of each.

[David Hooper]

That's kind of how that part of the cue works for me too. The few times I really get it smoothly, it just feels like one flowing motion.

I like that the rack doesn't have to be bolted down. Ideally I would, but it'll depend on the new house, whenever that happens. I also saw that they have a dip attachment available. That's a nice touch.

[Bill Anders]

I've had it a year now and haven't bolted it down. Every once in a while I'll notice that it's drifting sideways one way or the other and I'll just bump it back into place.

I do everything except presses inside the rack; that's the one downside, is that it's just a bit too short for me to press to lockout, which is overall not that big of a deal, except I won't be able to do pin presses inside once I get to that point. I've considered different options to raise the rack a bit so that it's not an issue, but then I have to look at bolting it down. So, in addition to another pair of 45s, I'll be getting the Spotter Safety Arms, which will also come in handy for rack pulls. I'd rather drop the bar on those than on the regular safeties.

[Bill Anders]

9/8/21 - Wednesday

SQ - L
45x10x2
95x5
135x3
185x1
225x1
255x5x3

OP
45x5
75x3
100x1
110x1
125x5x3

DL
135x4
185x2
225x1
275x1
300x1
330x5 330x3+330x2

Music — SiriusXM, Billy Idol's Live Transmission, Songs About the Music Industry, 8/31/21 — Nick Lowe, I Love My Label; Dead Kennedys, Pull My Strings; Cypress Hill, (Rock) Superstar.

Notes —
- SQ - all good, which is good, since it's a "light" day.
- OP - Overall, good. The brain wandered off the cues during the first set and #5 would have been red-lit in a competition, as it stalled and probably dropped right at the top of my head, but I stuck it out. Sets 2&3 went just fine.
- DL - I've always held a tight trip on the bar all the way down. Lately, the bounce of the steel plates against the platform would send a jolt up the lower back. It's never a pull, just jarring discomfort that is very distracting. So today, on the heavier warmups, I loosened the grip on the bar about an inch or so off the platform, which worked fine. For the first two reps at 330lbs, I did the same and all was good. For #3, I was slow on the release, which sent the jolt up the back as I released the bar and reflexively I started to stand up; I caught myself, then apparently rushed through the setup for #4, which never got more than mid-shin. So I called my bride into the garage and asked her to do 5-second countdowns on my pulls, re-chalked, re-set, and pulled them just fine. I'll progress to 335 next Monday.

[David Hooper]

I haven't been annotating it explicitly in my log, but I've found that I can do only 2 sets of light squats and be just fine for the next heavy day. I did that a few times when I was on a short clock #CommercialGymProblems. I never had an issue afterwards.

So far as lowering the deadlift - once the bar is back below the knees, I just gravity do its thing while squeezing only my back and my grip. That makes my arms like the 'ropes' in a power clean so they can take the bounce of the bar without transmitting it to the back. It tends to drop me lower a little bit more than the start position, but I have to redo steps 3-5 anyhow, so it's not that big of a deal. If you let the bar accelerate close to gravity at that last bit, then you're not really holding any weight anymore, so you can freely relax the elbows and shoulders.

Then again, I had to switch to straps anyhow, so tifwiw.

[Bill Anders]

re: squats — I was mulling over the same yesterday with dropping to 2 sets. I don't need the volume, nor is it driving up my heavy work weight. Although those last 5 reps are 5 more reps for me to keep focused on technique without being near a limit, which is nice, but not necessary; that's what the warmups are for.

re: deadlift — I do need to video the lift and see what's going on. I may just be keeping my arms locked on the drop, which certainly will transmit that shock through my frame. It's just odd that it's a recent development, so something has changed.

Programming-wise, it's nice to be confident in sticking it out with my "I'll progress to 335 next Monday." Since I started this training cycle using basic NLP programming, I should have realized that I would progress through the phases faster than a true novice. Using Sully's naming conventions in BBRx, I did 2 weeks in "Program 1A: Rank Novice" and am now in week 2 of "Program 1B: Early Novice" (alternating Deadlift and Power Clean on A/B days). I really should progress now into "Program 1C: Novice Program" and alternate Deadlifts and Power cleans on my A day, which would mean that my next heavy deadlift day would be next Friday. That actually gives more recovery between heavy Deadlifts than HLM programming, which I've typically gone into instead of 1C. But after next Friday's workout, I'm away for almost 2 weeks, although I will get a coaching session in midway through that trip. So I know that I will get a long recovery phase soon (other than some long days in the car), followed by a slight reset before continuing. So I go straight into thinking that I should just maintain 1B until then, which will get me two more heavy Deadlifts before that break, but also puts me right in the weights where I stalled this past spring and right before I had to take my summer break from training.

All interesting things to mull over. It's all a learning process.

No worries on the straps. I've been considering them too, as I really don't have any plans on entering a competition anytime soon. I did one back in 2019, which was fun, but not something that I feel I need to pursue. On the other hand, I'm still using double overhand up to 300lbs, where I used have to progress from that to hook to mixed between 200-300lbs and I'm not feeling like I'm losing grip on my work sets yet, so...

[David Hooper]

The joys of trying to program around upcoming interruptions. :-)

The one huge downside I've found to straps is that grip work goes to zero. (300 lb double overhand is seriously good, btw.) The warmups just aren't enough to do anything for grip. That's one reason (of many!) I've tried to get very intentional about chins; it's my only true grip work right now.