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Thread: Just came here to brag

  1. #251
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    • starting strength seminar april 2024
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    Thanks, Mr. Bingley! I'm probably the first person to ever use this tripod's light to record a press during a power outage. I bet most people use it to record a different type of physical activity...

    So it's boring day again, but with a twist.

    Intensity bench - 5 sets of 3 at 134 lbs (PR)

    This went very well again, even better than I expected. Watching Phil Meggers' latest video probably helped too! I'm very fond of his tutorials.

    As much as I am excited about hitting 135 lbs next week, I realized today that it is probably the most common and boring feat of strength featured on the Internet. Go on YouTube, search for "135 lbs bench", and I bet you'll get a bazillion videos. But if you were to try that with 134 instead, I doubt you'd get a single hit.

    My guess is that the 134 lbs bench press is one of the least recorded lifts ever.

    I rarely bother recording my bench, let alone share videos of it. So today I made an exception, and here you have it, a bar loaded with 89 lbs of tiny plates.

    20220326_155249.jpg

    And that's all I did today. I'm still feeling some discomfort in my lower back, which suggests I probably need to pay closer attention to my recovery. I'm going to ditch the rows anyways. My brand new coach is working on changes to my programming, and rows won't be on the menu.

  2. #252
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    Quote Originally Posted by tiny&mighty View Post
    Thanks, Mr. Bingley! I'm probably the first person to ever use this tripod's light to record a press during a power outage. I bet most people use it to record a different type of physical activity...

    So it's boring day again, but with a twist.

    Intensity bench - 5 sets of 3 at 134 lbs (PR)

    This went very well again, even better than I expected. Watching Phil Meggers' latest video probably helped too! I'm very fond of his tutorials.

    As much as I am excited about hitting 135 lbs next week, I realized today that it is probably the most common and boring feat of strength featured on the Internet. Go on YouTube, search for "135 lbs bench", and I bet you'll get a bazillion videos. But if you were to try that with 134 instead, I doubt you'd get a single hit.

    My guess is that the 134 lbs bench press is one of the least recorded lifts ever.

    I rarely bother recording my bench, let alone share videos of it. So today I made an exception, and here you have it, a bar loaded with 89 lbs of tiny plates.

    20220326_155249.jpg

    And that's all I did today. I'm still feeling some discomfort in my lower back, which suggests I probably need to pay closer attention to my recovery. I'm going to ditch the rows anyways. My brand new coach is working on changes to my programming, and rows won't be on the menu.
    You're on track for a monster EVERYLIFT - 134 w/a pause on the LAST rep?? AWESOME! Looking forward to see your "coached" gains...

  3. #253
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    Quote Originally Posted by granny View Post
    You're on track for a monster EVERYLIFT - 134 w/a pause on the LAST rep?? AWESOME! Looking forward to see your "coached" gains...
    Thanks, Granny! It's odd but pausing a bit at the bottom tends to help me during difficult reps. I've never understood why people use the paused bench press for assistance purposes. I guess I haven't been relying enough on the stretch reflex.

    In my "marching orders" to my new coach, I identified the bench as my lowest priority for the time being. Obviously I'd like to somewhat maintain what I've built so far, but I am willing to take some risk in the bench department. Not so much with the press though, since I value it more and find it more vulnerable to de-training than the bench.


    I'm (finally) starting to realize that I need to prioritize things. I've been treating this intermediate thing like a NLP and, while it worked for most lifts, my deadlift has not seen any progress since January. And even then, that progress was far from pretty.

    Though Bill said so months ago, it has now become clearer to me that all my (epic) squatting is most likely responsible for my lack of progress on the deadlift, with technique issues and other weaknesses probably contributing to the problem as well. Since my last deadlift session, my lower back has been sending me clear signals of fatigue, and the message that I cannot "have it all".

    It would be a lot easier if I didn't like the squat as much, or if I were not so good at it. Not a very humble statement, perhaps, but I clearly have good dispositions for the squat. Probably a combination of my genetics, anthropometry, overall lifting experience, and dedication to this particular lift.

    Anyhow, I was listening to Andy Baker's last podcast this morning (while cleaning the garage in preparation for our summer setup), and it's almost as if it were intended for me, today. He spoke a lot about lower back fatigue, and about his programming strategies to prevent it. It was consistent with what my coach appears to have in mind. He's coming here on Wednesday to discuss this and give my husband a deadlift lesson (I have zero talent for coaching). My deadlift looks spectacular compared to his. Last week, he easily pulled 305 for a set of 5 with the bar 4 inches in front of his legs. Imagine how heavy he'd be able to lift with half-decent technique...

    In the meantime, I might only do my volume press session tomorrow. It should give me an idea of where my lower back is at. When it's fatigued, the press annoys it during the first rep of the first work set. On the next session, most likely Tuesday or Wednesday, I'll do my intensity squat followed by the deadlift, as is most common with 4-day split programs. My squat won't go up in weight this week given the form issues I experienced last week.

  4. #254
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    As promised, I stuck with the volume press today. Almost zero squats - story to follow.

    Volume press - 5 X 5 at 86 lbs

    This went oddly well and yes, the first rep of the first set did annoy my lower back. Not a big deal, just an observation. Besides that, bar path was straight and bar speed was good. Not much grind or jiggling to report.


    Then I experimented a bit with the new lifts that are going to be on my program. The first one is pretty straightforward: the snatch-grip deadlift. Sounds pretty cool to me; hopefully this is indeed the cure I have been looking for. Today I basically dusted off my Bella bar to see how wide of a grip I would need to use.

    The other lift is a different story. Granny and gentlemen, please welcome the... front squat. Expect pathetic videos for your entertainment in the near future. I had not done any since way back in 2006-2007, when I first started lifting weights.

    *** Storytime ***

    After quitting smoking in August 2006, I joined a gym where the membership included a "program" every 6 weeks. My first "program" was a typical machine-based circuit, followed by 20-30 minutes of "cardio".

    One of the gym's "trainers" took notice of my consistency and got excited about having a dedicated, compliant "trainee". For my second "program", he asked whether I'd be willing to try "free weights".

    Since it sounded very athletic, I enthusiastically agreed to giving this a shot. He had me do some squats and good mornings with fixed barbells (there was no rack), some pressing with dumbbells, and cable stuff. My favorites moooves were those with the fixed barbells, but in the absence of a rack, my squat got stuck at 40 or 50 lbs, the heaviest weight I could dangerously push-press overhead to get the bar on my back.

    Six weeks later, he was all excited to ask me if I'd be willing to try "supersets", switched me to front squats to address the lack-of-rack issue, added some RDLs, etc.

    That was the last time I did front squats, using light weights, and a California grip.

    *** End of story ***

    So last week, when the coach asked whether I'd be willing to include some front squats, I thought: "Sure! Front squats are fun!" Silly me.

    Today I saw what weight he's suggesting I front squat on my first session. 140 lbs! I thought: can I even rack this?

    Hence the experimentation. After the press, I kept the bar loaded and tried. Sooo awkward, but I could take more. I then loaded the bar to 115 lbs... Still awkward, but completing a set of 5 appeared *possible*. Just for shits and giggles, I added another 20 lbs to the bar and lost the bar at the bottom. Too much weight to learn this new, awkward lift. But to paraphrase Andy Baker, there's my new project for the next little while.

    Let's just say that my coach is very optimistic about what he thinks I can do. But as he said, it's difficult to gage a brand new client. I suspect it's even harder with female clients since there are so few of us out there.

  5. #255
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    if I had the space in my garage i would do snatch grips. They are brutal on building your grip and shoulders, and your warm up weights for your regular deads will really be a challenge snatch grip. A good one, but a challenge.

  6. #256
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    So I just looked back and found that I was doing snatch grips after my regular deads and I got them to about 60% of that weight. Tough tough but fun

  7. #257
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    I know I can front squat 135, 140 easy but probably only once or twice bc - my back/rack has really lost strength / flexibility since I stopped Olympic weightlifting exclusively; and back then my legs were weaker. Front squats, keeping elbows up - my upper back always is sore after. Snatch grip deads are good, I like them-I should add them back in.
    Good luck with it.

  8. #258
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    Thanks to you both! That is very encouraging.

    He's having me start the snatch-grip deadlift at 145 lbs, so this should be... fun? At the very least, it's going to be funny!

    I'm not too concerned about the front squat. I was expecting to be sore from yesterday's experiment. Not really. My hips flexors are a bit tender, but it could be from the pistol squat demo I was asked to do at work (my only Ninja skill). Before lunch today, I did a few front squat reps with the empty bar and it was already more fluid. Once I have the movement pattern figured out and gotten over the awkwardness, I should be able to make good progress on this lift.

    I also like that I get to go low! Before SS, I was a high-bar, ATG kind of squatter. I sometimes miss hitting that kind of the depth. Front squats should be good prep for reintegrating the clean too. Maybe my rack will improve enough that I will stop smashing my clavicles with the bar?

    It looks like my new program is intended to increase my back strength. It's always been a weak spot of mine, so that totally makes sense.

  9. #259
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    Quote Originally Posted by tiny&mighty View Post
    Maybe my rack will improve enough that I will stop smashing my clavicles with the bar?

    It looks like my new program is intended to increase my back strength. It's always been a weak spot of mine, so that totally makes sense.
    That's what my emphasis is right now, back (and legs.)

    Smashing clavicles, you mean the bar crashing on you? It's usually timing with the turnover - you want to rack as high as the bar is as quick as possible (instead of not meeting the bar, then getting under it so quickly that you're separated from it and it crashes on you);
    Could also be not turning elbows quick enough/high enough, or a light weight that's just pulled too high (me - I forget not to pull it above my chin and clock myself in the chin/throat at least once during my warmup/climb ).
    Bar Crashing | Weightlifting Problems | JTSstrength.com - YouTube
    Fix Bar Crashing in the Clean - YouTube
    Meeting The Bar In The Clean: Avoid Crashing In The Turnover - Olympic Weightlifting & Instructional Video - Catalyst Athletics
    Stay Connected to the Bar: Snatch & Clean Turnover by Greg Everett - Olympic Weightlifting Technique - Catalyst Athletics - Olympic Weightlifting

  10. #260
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    starting strength coach development program
    Well, I didn't know that bar crashing was a thing, but now that you bring this up, there is definitely some of that going on. Very helpful stuff, thank you!

    Also I think my rack position sucked. I was not raising my elbows enough, so the delts were not fully bunched up to receive the bar and spare my clavicles.

    I suspect another factor was that I didn't have a whole lot of delts to bunch up in the first place. I have gained a few more pounds ever since, so I'll have more "material" to work with!

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