He who makes a beast of himself...

[jameson]

3/30/10
Squat: 45x5x1, 135x5x1, 185x5x1, 225x3x1, 270x5x3
Press: 135x5x3 (I got 4.5 on my 2nd set)
Chins: BWx5x3
Dips: BWx5x3
BB curls: 70x5x1


Since I missed a week being sick, I deloaded 15lbs on the squat and left the press the same as my last session.

Squat: Felt decent I guess, had to find my groove. It wasn't too hard, but I could tell I haven't been eating right. Took a lot out of me.

Press: Being gassed from the squats, these weren't so easy. I might just stick with this weight next time, too. Dunno.

PC: My elbows sent a quick message to my brain that no PC's were gonna be done tonight.

To (hopefully) fix my elbows, I've started doing bi's/tri's...yeah, I actually said that. I'm guessing once or twice a week; we'll see.

[jameson]

If anyone watched last night's UFC bouts, you'd have seen why it pays to be BIG and STRONG. Gleison Tibau knocked out Caol Uno and Roy Nelson knocked out Stefan Struve. Remember these guys are in weightclasses with their opponents and the winners came out on top because of their superior strength and power.

Not that skill counts for nothing. Kenny Florian defeated the legend Takanori Gomi by picking him apart with jabs until he shot and pulled Gomi into a rear naked choke. It was truly a thing of beauty.

[jameson]

4/02/10

Deadlifts: 135x5x1, 185x5x1, 225x5x1, 245x5x1, 275x5x1, 295x5x1
Stiff-Legged Deadlifts: 225x5x2
Two hands press: 135x5x3
Weighted Situps: 5x8x1, 10x8x1, 15x8x1, 20x8x1 (plate held behind the neck)

Well my gym is closed for maintenance till Sunday so I went downstairs to the "gym" we have at my office. They have a smith machine so I tried to do some squatting, but I found there is little carryover and smith machines SUCK so I gave it up. I had a good volume day deadlifting and pressing though.

Does anyone else feel like bumper plates are easier to move (i.e. pressing) than regular plates? It just felt sooo light today.

[jameson]

4/06/10
Squat: 45x5x1, 135x5x1, 185x5x1, 225x3x1, 245x1x1, 280x5x3
Bench: 135x5x1, 185x1x1, 195x5x3
DL: 225x5x1, 305x2x1
Chins: BWx5x2 (supersetted with dips)
Dips: BWx5x2

Squat: Went up easy enough after making a 10lb jump from last session.
Bench: Flared elbows a little more. Not too much elbow pain.
DL: I'm going to start deadlifting at work. The angled plates at my gym are worse than awful, and I feel like I'm going to hurt myself every time I pull.
Chins: Eh.
Dips: Elbows hurt on first descent then feel OK from there.

So there's been some discussion as to why Tate says "elbows down and forward" and Rip says "elbows up." Rip says they're saying the same thing but in a different way. I finally understand now what is meant by Tate. Try putting your arms up like you would in a squat. Tight back, elbows up, etc. Now, with minimal twist of hands on the imaginary bar, force your elbows down and to the front JUST ENOUGH TO FEEL THE "LOCK" - NOT ALL THE WAY FORWARD. Your lats, and upper and middle back should feel tighter, and your chest will rise. In effect, your elbows will stay up like Rip says, but by concentrating on them going forward and down, you should be able to maintain a tighter upper body. Jason Pegg says, "Think of trying to bend the bar around your back to touch your knees with the bar sleeves." I hope this helps some of you with your squat.

[nisora33]

Your lats, and upper and middle back should feel tighter, and your chest will rise. In effect, your elbows will stay up like Rip says, but by concentrating on them going forward and down, you should be able to maintain a tighter upper body. Jason Pegg says, "Think of trying to bend the bar around your back to touch your knees with the bar sleeves." I hope this helps some of you with your squat.

Not sure that's what's actually going on:
http://startingstrength.com/resource...3&postcount=30

[jameson]

Not sure that's what's actually going on:
http://startingstrength.com/resource...3&postcount=30

Perhaps not. I just noticed that when I did the aforementioned exercise, I was able to "settle" deeper into a tight back if that makes sense. In other words, I was able to flex my back even harder. I guess it's a good thing you're gonna be doing some free coaching this weekend whether you like it or not.

Everyone, read Nisora's post against mine and try it for yourself. I'll post an update after this weekend with my findings.

[jameson]

4/08/10
Squat: 45x5x1, 135x5x1, 185x5x1, 225x3x1, 245x3x1, 290x5x1, 285x5x2
Press: 140x4x1, 140x3x2, 140x1x1
Chins: BWx5x2
Dips: BWx5x2

This was a mess...

Squat: I forgot what my weight should be so I did 290 the first time. Obviously, it was a bit difficult and made my other sets hard, too.
Press: I blame this on my elbows. 135 is way too easy so 140 shouldn't have been a problem. After my sets I noticed how stiff my elbows were.

No cleans because of elbows...very irritating.

I mentioned this in another thread, but it needs to be repeated. It may not always be necessary to lower the weight if you NEED a reset. You might just try pushing out 3-5 sets of 3 and add a rep until you're back to 3 sets of 5 and progress from there. This helps your confidence as you're still getting stronger, keeps the weight heavy, and, in my experience, breaks through the plateau faster. I tend to keep my same sticking point if, say, I drop from 275 to 265 and then a few sessions later, 275 is still hard. I prefer to stay at 275 for less reps. Just my 2 pennies. It works for me but may not for everybody.

As a caveat, you might still want to reduce the poundage if you've made jumps that are just too big. In that case, you would benefit from allowing your body a longer progression.

[jameson]

4/10/10
Low Bar Squat: 45x8x1, 135x5x1, 185x5x1, 225x3x1
High Bar Squat: 225x3x1, 245x5x3
Bench: 45x5x1, 95x5x1, 135x5x1 maybe?
Press: 45x5x1, 95x5x3 maybe?

To be honest, I lost track of the weight/sets/reps/etc.

Today was a form day I'm told (a euphemism for a sucky day). On low bar, Stacey had me widen my grip, raise my elbows more, and shrug (the last two things I hadn't really ever done - it was very tiring) though my elbows still hurt. He then suggested a high-bar position until my elbow pain went away. We think the pain is a result of having too narrow a grip on low bar and tucking way too hard on my bench press. The bottom position on my bench was also way too low on my chest (upper abs would be more precise). The high-bar squat really did feel better in terms of form and my elbow pain; I think I could've squatted more, but I was spent by all the other tweaks I'd made on low bar. I couldn't imagine benching 200+ pounds so we worked on overhead pressing form. We made some tweaks on chest position and he told me to squeeze my glutes and muscles around my knees - two more things I'd never really addressed. I just pushed the weight over my head without really thinking about it...

So, today sucked in terms of weight lifted, but I learned a lot. I may start having Stacey coach me for a few weeks/months since he'll be just down the road.

And for the good/better news...I should have my own squat rack within the next couple weeks! There's some old racks that aren't being used, and my father-in-law (Stacey's dad) will be welding them up to standard for me. My dad has a shop (about 2000+ SqFt or so) that will house all my equipment. Very excited.

I'll stick with the high-bar position for a few weeks to a month or until I work out my elbow issue, and I'll definitely improve my form on the bench press.

Stacey/Nisora is a good coach guys...as much as it irritates me to pay him a compliment. Thanks, Stace.

[nisora33]

Thanks for the kind words, Jameson...



-S.

[jameson]

http://www.oldtimestrongman.com/blog...Strongman.html

Another few reasons to love Tennessee... The Milo guy had his bull trained pretty well. Bob Peoples - nuff said.