Life goes on and on and on.

[good_boy]

Yesterday was Friday.
Today is Saturday, the 30th of Oct 2021 and I did:

SQ
160kg x2 -> boo!

Press
80kg x0+0 -> boo!

Deadlift
170kg x1x4 --> meh...

Cheers,
Ray

[good_boy]

Tuesday, 14th of December 2021.

Press
67.5kg 5x5

Bench
87.5kg 5x5

LTE
Ez Curl + 10kg 3x10

Cheers,
Ray

[good_boy]

Wednesday, 15th of December 2021

Squat
140kg 5x5

Power Snatch
32.5kg 8x2

Cheers,
Raymond

[good_boy]

Friday, 17th of December 2021

Press
75kg x4

Dip
3x5

Saturday, 18th of December 2021

Squat
155kg x5

Halting Deadlift
160kg x5, x2, 0

Pin Press
80kg 5x1

Cheers,
R

[Bill Anders]

Halting Deadlift
160kg x5, x2, 0

What happened here, Raymond? I would have thought that your conservative 10kg drop from your deadlift would have been fine.

I'm curious, as I'm about to start my haltings/rack pulls regimen as I spend the winter focused on other things. I'm still trying to get a feel for where to start the haltings. The pulls seem easier to figure out, but I'll have to wait and see.

[good_boy]

Hi bill, thanks for the reply. Deadlift has been my weakest lift, and my squat and press are not strong too. anyway, for some reason, doing 5 reps heavy set of deadlift is difficult for me, i kept on letting go of the bar after each reps and i am still learning on how not to let go. i used straps for the last halting deadlift and i can do 5 reps...yeay!

[good_boy]

Tuesday, December 21st 2021

Press
67.5kg + 2x0.22kg 5x5

Bench
87.5kg + 2x0.22kg 5x5

Cheers,

Ray

[good_boy]

Wednesday, December 22nd 2021, 900AM

Squat
140kg + 2x0.88kg 5x5

Power Snatch
35kg 8x2

Cheers,
Raymond

[Bill Anders]

Hi bill, thanks for the reply. Deadlift has been my weakest lift, and my squat and press are not strong too. anyway, for some reason, doing 5 reps heavy set of deadlift is difficult for me, i kept on letting go of the bar after each reps and i am still learning on how not to let go. i used straps for the last halting deadlift and i can do 5 reps...yeay!

Raymond - we may have talked grip already (and chalk) but I don't recall, so please bear with me.

Have you moved your grip progression from: double overhand -> hook grip -> mixed grip -> straps? With chalk? Where are you right now?

- Double overhand will be your absolute weakest, meaning that it will be the first to slip, with or without chalk.
- Hook grip is uncomfortable to get used to, but will get you to incredible numbers once you get use to it.
- Mixed grip does very well too, getting you to similar numbers as the hook, but without the discomfort (but giving the possibility of other injuries if you do them incorrectly).
- Straps for when your lifts are outpacing whichever grip you are using.

I had a great in-person deadlift training session with a SSC a few months back and we talked about this. I was having issues completing worksets prior to the session, so he walked me over to a pile of straps while asking what my goals and intents were. Since I'm not focused on competition, he grabbed the straps and mentioned that we should never sacrifice hip and back strength for grip strength. I use straps now for the same approximate weights as you are working and they make a world of difference.

Not for comparison, but for illustration, I can double overhand to about 305lbs (139kg), then I switch to either hook or mixed, which gets me to about 360lbs (164kg), which is the highest I've tried that way. With straps, I just pulled 380lbs (173kg) and at no point was I concerned about my grip, although it's still getting worked like crazy. But those are singles. Last week the workset was 345x5 (157kgx5) and the same thing-at no point was the grip a concern even as the workset was tough. There are a few articles and forum posts around here that mention the same thing as the SSC mentioned - do not sacrifice overall strength for grip strength, especially if competition is not a focus for you.

One of the beauties of getting that deadlift number higher is that your squat number follows along quite nicely, since you are stressing and training the same muscles.

(of course I just typed all of that out and re-read your comment and saw "i used straps for the last halting deadlift and i can do 5 reps...yeay!". So you can ignore me, although I'll leave this here for conversation (and others).

Keep at it!

[carson]

As I lift in the gym and it was closed for a while and I've had 3 distracting surgeries over the last two years my prs have not existed for quite a while. Nevertheless, I lifted 375 before the horrendous last 2 years ib tge dead with the mixes grip. If I ever get back to 375 I will try the straps.