Lifting to Live

[Mr. Bingley]

Kiss Rip for me haha!

I'd buy him a bourbon first

[Fred J]

I'd buy him a bourbon first

Maybe 2 or 3

[Bill Anders]

Good luck at the seminar. Kiss Rip for me haha!

I'd buy him a bourbon first

Hehe. I honestly didn't interact with him that much, just only on the platform and during the Q&A. There was too much other stuff going on, and at the end of the long days I didn't want to hang around. I wanted to get back to the hotel to get my own bourbon.

[Bill Anders]

As the title says, it was the Seminar at WFAC. After the four hours of classroom time Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday ran 8am-8pm and 8am-730pm, respectively. The layout was a couple of hours of discussion on the lift, then a couple of hours of platform time.

For all of the platform sessions, every lift was run in fahves. Every warmup weight was 5 reps, as was the final work set, so 3-5 warmup sets and the workset, all of which followed the empty bar learning/teaching progression set. There was always the threat of making sure that you didn't sandbag a weight at risk of being publicly called out by Rip, but the class instructions also recommended only lifting 80-90% of your 5RM. So it was a balancing act. I leaned towards the 80% weights and was still completely gassed by the end of the Seminar. And they saved the lift with the longest kinetic chain, one of my favorites, for very last when everything had caught up to me. It was rougher than it should have been for that weight.

4/13/24 - Saturday
SQ - (260-295) 275x5
DL - (315-355) 315x5
BP - (190-215) 225x5

Notes — 80-90% of my latest 5RM is in parenthesis, giving me a window to work within depending on how things felt with all of the extra warmup reps (x5 @ each weight).
SQ - Lifting: Work on "chest down" to get a bit more leaned over. Coaching: Need more time—more eyes; more clients—and practice the teaching progression.
DL - I was still sore and tired from Monday's fail at 400x5, so I was conservative here. Good thing, too, as I barely made it through, having to work through every grip but straps to get that 315x5 done. Lifting: Hips higher during the setup. Coaching: "It's the easiest lift to teach," so not much.
BP - Lifting: Focus on balance at the top. Coaching: Work on verbosity (on-going issue)

4/14/24 - Sunday
PC - (42.5-47.0kg) 55kgx5
OP - (135-150) 135x5

Notes — same as above
PC - A lot of re-work done on top of the reset and coaching that's being done in OKC. I was shooting for 42.5kg based on my last 47.0kg workout, but got things sorted out and managed 55kgx5 in front of Rip, who got my hips even higher than I had done in the past (read that as - "OMG, that setup took forever!). Lifting: Shrug/Stomp; Get Tall; Get Hips Higher Than You Want (seriously!!!!). Coaching: none.
OP - Lifting: Chest to ceiling. Coaching: none.

Note that there are "Lifting" and "Coaching" pieces for each lift. If you attend the Seminar, you will be expected to coach the lift to one of your fellow students, regardless of your goals. The teaching reinforces the learning. The added bonus is that the SSC guiding you on the platform (a different one for each lift) will step in if you start messing up. Or make the student testing for their SSC credential step in and guide you.

It's well worth it. Even after years of honing the lifts in the garage, reading through all of the material, watching all of the videos, and working the past two months at SS OKC, there were still a ton of nuggets gleaned from each classroom and platform session. Not to mention, pages of notes from the 2+ hour long Q&A with Rip at the end of the Seminar.

[Mr. Bingley]

sounds like an absolute hoot

[Bill Anders]

sounds like an absolute hoot

If you can pull it off, Mr B, do it. It's well worth the nickels.

[Bill Anders]

It's amazing how much a couple of days of sitting in classes followed by an hour or so of lifting submaximal weights can beat you up. I talked to those that have previously attended the Seminar and they all report the same thing. So this week was a bit of recovery.

4/17/24 - Wednesday
OP H @ 5' - 170x5x3
BP L @ 3' - 220x5x3

Notes —
OP - Heavy sets across. A repeat of last week, where a failed deadlift PR attempt the day prior and sinus issues had me drained to the point that I couldn't even do one set of x5 at this weight. That was supposed to be a 170x5x4, which I could have repeated a day, but I suspect that the extra set in each lift has been moving me quickly towards stalling across the board, so I've dropped to 3x5's. MED, y'know.
BP - Light sets across. All good.

4/19/22 - Friday
SQ L @ 5' - 305x5x3
PC L @ 3' - 55kgx3x5

Notes —
SQ - Light sets across. Still feeling a bit drained, although that was more likely due to sinus issues that the previous weekend's activities. All good.
PC - Light Triples across. A lot of form work here. At random times, the arm pull reappears. This will continue to be a work in progress.

[Bill Anders]

4/22/24 - Monday
DL - H @ 8' 400x5 400x1
SQ - L @ 5' 300x5x2

Notes —
DL - Heavy set. Second attempt at 400x5 and it was worse than the first two weeks prior. That attempt was 400x4 and this attempt ended a few seconds into the second rep, where it just hovered off the ground for a few seconds. Both pulls were with a mixed grip, which held just fine. It wasn't a grip issue, but I grabbed the straps for another try, and the plates were welded to the floor as I pulled for several seconds. That effort was stressful enough that we quickly decided that a backoff set should not be attempted. I was still feeling beat up from the past couple of weeks, plus some pretty rough sinus issues that have me drained around the clock, so none of this a surprise. Time to modify things a bit.
SQ - Light sets across. Normally these are 3x5, but I was really feeling beat up after that DL attempt. No pain, just ground down. So I called it after two sets, knowing that these were more for the neural pathways than strength.

4/23/24 - Tuesday
OP - H @ 5' 172.5x5x3
BP - L @ 3' 222.5x5x3

Notes —
OP - Heavy sets across. The last reps of each set were pretty rough, slowly grinding to lockout. Continuing to feel beat up, I started thinking about MED, so I had cut a set from my normal 4x5. That's a mistake and that extra set will get added back in next week for a 4x5.
BP - Light sets across. All good.

4/25/24 - Thursday
SQ - H @ 5'+ 330x5x4
PC - 60kgx3x5

Notes —
SQ - Heavy sets across. These were rough, too. But I got through them. The 5' rest breaks stretched out to 7'-8', which were necessary. I started focusing too much on my hip drive, which resulted in my knees shooting back as I came out of the hole. I knew I was doing it, but kept doing it until a shout from across the room from Chase to fix it got me on the right path.
PC - The longer rest periods during the SQ pushed me later than I expected, so I ran out of time. I would have been able to get the warmups done, but would have had to stop to get ready for the next session. Once that session was done and I had an opportunity to do them, I was starving and needed to recover to get ready for the evening sessions. So these did not get done.

4/26/24 - Friday
BP - H @ 5' 235x5x4
OP - V @ 90" 162.5x2x12

Notes -
BP - Heavy sets across. The first heavy lift of the week where I did not feel like a bag of hammered sh*t going into or during. All good.
OP - Volume doubles across. These are programmed for a 2-minute rest between, but if I do that, I run into the next session. So I cut these to 90-second rests, which is about the shortest I can go with these. Even then, the noon session clients who show up early catch me as I am finishing up my last set or two. But I get them done, get changed, and am ready to coach them right on time. All good.

Note Note —
- Lots of programming talk this week. When I got to SS OKC mid-February, I told Chase that I did not want him looking at or adjusting my programming until after the mid-April Seminar. The reason for that was that I was working on a couple of n=1 theories, which did work for that short amount of time. Then the prep for the Seminar and the recovery really impacted my consistency, which really showed this week with the DL failure and the rough heavy work sets across the board (save BP). He still hasn't looked at my programming, but we talked about Heavy Pull and Pressing programming, which I will start incorporating next week. Minor changes, which are the best changes.

[Mr. Bingley]

looks like you are beating yourself up on the deads and squats my friend

[Fred J]

looks like you are beating yourself up on the deads and squats my friend

I had to slowly learn that less is more. 🤔😉