Strength over weakness

[oliver]

Been lurking on these forums for a while. I figure it's about time I start my own log.

Personal Stats

Sex: Male
Age: 29 (Dec 1984)
Height: 5'5" (65cm)
Weight: 203.4lbs (92kg)

Recent Lift Stats

Squat (6x3): 220lbs
Press (6x3): 65lbs
Bench Press (6x3): 100lbs
Deadlift (6x1, alt grip): 225lbs

Why I did sets of 6 last week is a story for another day.

Background

I followed the Starting Strength novice progression from about September to December 2012. The results of this progression were as follows:

Squat (5x3): 170lbs => 250lbs
Press (5x3): 55lbs => 75lbs
Bench (5x3): 105lbs => 125lbs
DL (5x1): 165lbs => 265lbs

The Squat had a head start, since I started learning it in the local community college weight room before I got a gym membership. Since I had been taking summer classes, I could use the weight room free of charge on Mondays and Wednesdays for about 45 minutes, enough for some fumbling attempts at training the squat.

I have a relatively weak upper body. But lack of progress on the Press is due to the fact that I couldn't get down the technique for crap and kept resetting like a fool.

Program fell apart in Jan 2013 after I got sick and was bedridden for about two weeks. Afterwards I had elevated levels of EXCUSES in my circulatory system.

Anyway. I'll skip of the rest of the year, which was confusing. Here we are. First session tomorrow.

[oliver]

Squat
45 x 10 x 2
105 x 5
165 x 5
195 x 5
220 x 5 x 3

Not focused. Kept going overboard with reps. Empty bar was supposed to be 5's, 165 was supposed to be 3, 195 a double.

I also finally have admitted that I actually pause my squats by default. Habit probably came from early days when I first was learning squatting and was trying to get the form--especially hip drive--perfect.

Press
45 x 5 x 3
65 x 5 x 3

Deadlift
115 x 5
170 x 5
195 x 5
225 x 5

Alt grip on work set (left over, right under).

Other Notes

Very scatterbrained today in general. Pulled it together a bit more once I got to the platform, but was at first flying into a rage and losing count of reps.

Still dealing with the damned polygonal plates. I know it is probably a back injury waiting to happen. Why am I at this gym again? It is next to my house, rarely crowded, open late. I also have a contract that keeps me here until August. I hear another nearby gym has bumper plates, but it is a lot more expensive.

One of the trainers at the current place gave me a free consultation to administer the FMS. (Late last year.) Trying to sell me coaching sessions, she billed herself as a "bit of a deadlift specialist". Claimed to know Marty Gallagher--said she lifted in his garage. I was out of it that day, didn't press her for further details. She seemed perfectly nice, but I felt ambivalent about working with her (say, over doing cheaper online coaching with someone really badass). I couldn't afford the coaching sessions, anyhow.

As a "deadlift specialist" I wonder why she hasn't complained to the owner that they need plates that you can actually deadlift properly for more than a single. Maybe she has.

Need to stay up late tonight to finish some stuff, consequence of the wreck that was earlier in the day. Recovery is going to suffer, I know. But I'm glad I got at least two things right--getting in the lifts, preparing my own meals.

Legs were trembling in the locker room, post workout. I think I did okay.

[oliver]

1. I gotta find a better gym. This polygon plate thing is BS. I've pretty much confirmed Princeton is a black hole for good strength training. Even the University gyms seem to only have 1-2 power racks, and membership is even more expensive than commercial gyms unless you're a student/staff/faculty member there.

In general I get so mad when I look at a gym's equipment list and they list all their machines and how many flat screen TVs there are, and then just say "free weights". Oh wow, you have a juice bar movie room? Fuck you.

Anyway. Apollon Gym in Edison is not too far away, about 20-30 minutes. Impression: old school bodybuilding place. Looks like Dorian Yates stops by there to teach:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxY7gynUQ6c

Website's down though. Commenter on Yelp says one week free. I guess I'll stop by soon.

There's listings for another bodybuilding place in Trenton. Looks like the owner passed away in 2011, so I wonder if it's still open.

Once I find a better gym, next step is to get the hell out of my monthly contract.

2. While Googling for gyms in my area, stumbled across this on Dan John's site. Damn.

http://danjohn.net/2009/12/archive-o...-conversation/

It would be the most amazing thing to do some of the Old-Timey strongman feats. Far away dream. My Press is miserably weak right now--reading Rip's old T-Nation article on the Press drove that home earlier.

3. Going to do a small amount of minimal "conditioning for fat people on the novice progression" tonight, as suggested by Jordan's article.

http://barbellmedicine.com/2012/07/29/584/

No Prowler where I'm at, but there are a few C2 rowing machines. This is Princeton after all.

[oliver]

C2 Rowing Machine
Warmup: 5min @ intensity 5
HIIT: 20s on / 140s off @ intensity 10

Cooldown: walk on treadmill, 5min @2mph

Total time: ~30min
Heart BPM: 155 Avg / 186 Max

[oliver]

2014-02-20 Wed

Squat
45lbs x 5 x 3
135lbs x 5
185lbs x 3
225lbs x 5 x 3

Messed up; didn't get to gym early enough. Could only get squats in.

2014-02-25 Tue

Foam Rolling Had to wait for one of the racks to get free. From now on when I do this, I'll try to get through Agile 8.

Squat
45 lb x 5 x 3
135 lb x 5
185 lb x 5
205 lb x 1
230 lb x 5 x 3

Nice and heavy for work sets.

Bench
45 lb x 5 x 3
65 lb x 5
85 lb x 5
100 lb x 5 x 3

Light. Need to figure out if grip is too wide.

Deadlift
135 lb x 5
185 lb x 5
240 lb x 5

Switched from VFFs to Taiji shoes.

[oliver]

Squat
45lbs x 5 x 3
135lbs x 5
185lbs x 3
225lbs x 1
235lbs x 5 x 5

Press
45lbs x 3 x 5
65lbs x 3
70lbs x 5 x 3

Deadlift
45lbs x 5
135lbs x 5
225lbs x 2
245lbs x 5

While my brother was doing his deadlifts, a tall man came over and kindly informed us that my brother was going to hurt his back doing deadlifts that way. Since I'm not a coach, I politely asked what he meant. He could have a valuable insight.

"The way I was taught," he said, "Is to lift as much as possible with the legs."

"But it's a back exercise," I said.

"It is a back exercise," he said, and he just stared at me for about a minute. "Here, let me see if I can demonstrate."

This tall, tall man bent over and set up over the bar. At the time I couldn't really process everything, his anthropomorphy was so different that had trouble just following what he was doing.

After he lifted the bar twice and put it back down, he looked at my brother, and politely continued, "You're pretty strong to do it the way you were doing it, but you're going to hurt yourself if you keep doing it that way."

My brother just started the novice progression and is only doing 175 for deadlift.

The man reiterated, "You have to lift as much as possible with your legs."

"Is the exercise you did a conventional deadlift?" I asked him.

"Yes," he said, though seemingly hesitantly. Does he know the different types of deadlifts? Does he think that there are "conventional" and "unconventional" deadlifts? I couldn't tell.

He went on about how the key was bending the knees more, and using more leg.

"If you can't bend your knees that much, if there's any blockage," he said, "I recommend using that." He pointed to the trap bar.

I didn't know what to say. I muttered something about it not being the deadlift that powerlifters do.

"As long as you know the risk of injury," he said, walking over to load the leg press.

I am awkward with situations where I need to tell nice people they are wrong, especially when I don't have an authoritative comeback. In this case I was just thoroughly confused.

I know my brother's deadlift looked perfect. Maybe I'm off. I couldn't tell how this other man's deadlift looked different, and if what he was trying to tell us was completely wrong, or just over-exaggerated. Well, yes, what he said was completely wrong about hurting yourself--even if my brother was doing more a stiff-legged, he was doing it just fine. No back rounding, perfect vertical bar path.

What about what the guy was trying to demonstrate? I think I remember his hips being a bit lower.

Overall, I think it's safe to ignore someone who thinks pulling 175 makes you "strong", unless it's an empty complement. Yet if I really understood pulling mechanics, I could have identified exactly what he was doing differently.

I'm getting a bit obsessive about this. I need to go back to the book. I think my own deadlift form is okay for now, but I'm a long way from being able to coach the lifts. My brother and younger cousins sometimes ask me for in-person feedback just because I'm there, and because I've been lifting and (re)reading SS slightly longer than they have. That's a good enough reason to really get the mechanics down.