A Fresh Start

[MazdaMatt]

Thanks. I rather enjoyed crushing 255 and looking forward to tomorrow's workout which will be 260 or 265 depending on tonight's sleep. (Its 10:45, i need to get to bed very soon).

Yes I was MazdaMatt on the Stronglifts forum. It was a great place for me to start and led me to come here and step up my game a bit.

Yes, I used to autocross and do Solosprints and now have a racecar sitting cold and lonely in my garage waiting for me to get it on track. It was supposed to stretch its legs out next monday, but my parts supplyer and some truck repairs didn't agree with that time line. I also post as MazdaMatt on the CASC forums, so that may be where you saw me. You race?

Back on topic: I have gone for all-you can eat buffet twice this weekend. Sushi on Friday (a big plate of raw fish goes down like a glass of water, its awesome. Sashimi is easy calories/protein/fat but things slow down when I get into the sushi and the maki because of the rice.) and "Chinese" today (not real chinese, american chinese with lots of deepfry. I ate two plates of nothing but meat followed by icecream )

[gamedog]

OH MAN! You've had some great fuel over the weekend, hopefully you got your ZZZzzzZZZzzz's and you're totally gonna crush that 265 today! Make it happen homie, keep pushing with those heels!!!

Yeah bro, IT is where it's at. I'm a sysadmin for Linux servers, I also do Perl programming (and some C++) and a bunch of other shit. Right now I'm "exploring my options" LOL ... just to hearken back to our other conversation.

But anyway, eat eat eat and then go smoke the shit out of 265 YOU CAN DO IT!!!

[MazdaMatt]

Oh, you're of the IT dark-side, I see. My experience with Linux has been like recurring alcoholism. I keep thinking I can do it and keep it under control, but then I wake up under a cop car with no pants on. Embedded Linux is a dream for me, but my company is too fucking cheap to send me to training events when they are available. Unfortunately most Embedded Linux training is for Linux guys who want to learn embedded, not for embedded programmers that want to learn Linux. The latter is generally rare and expensive.

Thanks for the pump. I will do it and it will be easy. And I will then call it my bitch and tell it go make me a sammich.

I am fucking hungry. I'm going to destroy my entire day's supply of food at lunch and go get a burger on afternoon break. For some reason eating a banana on morning break makes me want to eat a kindergarten class.

Sleep was OKAY. If there is such a thing as "too much napping" I did that yesterday and it made my night's sleep a bit sketchy. I feel rested, but I'm concerned. No worries, I will win tonight.

[MazdaMatt]

Today:

Squat 265 - what the hell was so hard about 265... NEXT! Okay, reality check. I lost my back angle on a couple reps. Happened on rep 5 of two sets. I also noticed that I have the ability to go much lower than parallel and that seems to be what I have to do to get hammie bounce. I only did it on a couple reps cuz it increases the rom to god damn far below parallel. Maybe I need a wider stance? I was definitely all "heels" this time. That felt good. Even when I got bent over.
Press 107.5 - I feel kinda funny adding washers to the bar. They are so dinky. Whatever. The bar went up uneventfuly. Seemed easier than 105.
Powercleans 135 - 3,3,3,2,2 this was just wrong. Set 2 I whacked my knee on the way up but landed it. Set 3 I whacked my fucking cock on the way up (the twins remained unharmed) and I landed it. Set 4 I just stood there on my heels like a retard and couldn't get the bar up (rep 1) and the same happened on set 5 rep 2. I'm repeating this.

I feel like I can't eat when I get home after a hard workout. I guess this was a hard workout cuz i could only bring myself to eat ice cream and milk. I'm eating dinner now (9:40pm)

[MazdaMatt]

Oh yeah. Since I have stalled at 225 and 265 and I have now worked my way up to my second stall weight, I'm starting light squats on wednesday. 2x5@70%=185lb. That sounds like a walk in the park. In fact, I think i could take a walk in the park with 185 on my back.

[JStrong]

Hello MM,

How many/heavy are your warmup sets? When I got smacked at that weight, I reduced my warmup volume at the heavier weights (BW+) and also made sure I wasn't doing 5 reps each from 45 to 95 to 135 to 185, etc.

Also, you paid for the damn washers, why not just add 2.5lbs to your squat?!

Good luck with it.

[MazdaMatt]

I'll address the washers quesiton first... I believe that I would benefit greatly from light wednesdays and think that they will allow me to continue at 5lbs per mon/fri giving me 10lbs per week. The alternative is to squat heavy 3x per week using washers and only go up 7.5lbs/week. More rest, more weight I think this is the combo that I need to keep going.

Warmups for squat generally go like this:
rowing machine till i burn 20 calories. This is usually just shy of 1.5 minutes
10 ohs at 45lbs
5 ohs at 95lbs (up till now this is just warming up my body and getting me breathing)
4 squats at 135
3 squats at 185
2 squats at 225

Now that I'm over 250 I like to do a single at 10-15lbs under my work weight, but I skipped this yesterday because 225 felt light. If it feels heavy I do the single to acclimatize to the heavier weight.

This entire warmup happens at as fast a pace as I can load the plates, chalk my hands and get it done (not rushing, but no waiting). After the warmup I take about 4-5 minutes rest to let my breathing come down and focus on the work weight.

Thanks for the input!

[MazdaMatt]

I am a sad, sad, lousy excuse for man. I am so sorry. A failure. This morning I saw my top abs in the mirror. I panicked and I ran for the scale. I've lost 3 pounds in 2 weeks. *sob*

So I added an extra pint of milk with protein, a piece of pie and a quarter pound of bacon to my lunch and I added a quarter pound of bacon to my breakfast.

I will make up for it, I promise. Don't shun me, please. My own sorrow is punishment enough.

[gamedog]

LOL ... It happens. You're lifting heavier and heavier and that shit takes calories! We take it for granted sometimes, because "it's just what we do" but seriously, you burn a shitload of calories in the gym and then you continue to burn a shitload of calories recovering.

The good news, here, is that you probably didn't burn off any of that hard-earned muscle. Your body is smart, and it "knows" you routinely lift heavier and heavier shit. And it also "knows," by your hormone balance which is predominately anabolic now, that you routinely feed it good food. So it burned a little fat off to help recovery, no big deal. Just keep eating good, eat your pie and your extra protein shake, keep lifting and you'll be fine!

Good workout by the way. It made me happy to see that you annihilated 265! Right the fuck on!

BTW ... I am glad you're adding in Light Wednesdays, too. Microloading squats is a waste of time according to most, and I think you've got it in you to progress 10 pounds weekly for a long, long time! Right on!

[Briks42]

Mazda,

Great job on the squat and press. For the power cleans, a key cue for me is to make the first pull slow. Obviously you are not trying to pull slow, but it helps keeping me from jerking the weight up in anticipation of the 2nd pull. When I get anxious and make the first pull too hard, I am all over the place, which sounds like your experience yesterday (hitting the knee, hitting your balls, etc.) There is a paragraph or 2 about this in the powerclean chapter of SS if you want to look for it. Basically, I just think of the lift being a light deadlift until the weight is at the mid-thigh, at which point i initiate as hard of a 2nd pull as I can and rotate my elbows up as fast as I can. This seems to be much easier when I make sure not to try to pull too fast from the floor.

Also, what height and weight are you?