Swoz Gives it a Red Hot Go

[swoz]

First meet at the local power sports club:

Squat: 75kg, 77.5kg, 80kg Meet 1 Squat 3 - YouTube
Bench: 45kg, 52.75kg, 60kg
Deadlift: 85kg, 92.5kg, 100kg

Great time! Much more fun than I'd anticipated. Great to be able to participate to the same extent as the really experienced people, to have everyone cheering each other on, celebrations of personal bests, and a nice cadence of performing between periods of resting and socializing. The whole sport is starting to make much more sense to me.

I took it easy and focused on going "nine for nine." I think I needed that to follow the cues correctly. The judges were kind and gave me the first deadlift despite reservations about the lock-out. It sounded like I generally had better form on the heavier lifts than the lighter ones.

Got some very encouraging comments on my form given how recently I started in the sport. I pass those on to you guys with thanks for your work in helping me improve!

[Bill Anders]

Outstanding! The community around those events is almost always very welcoming, no matter the experience or age of the competitor.

I've only done one, before the pandemic, that was for new lifters only (meaning that they had never competed in a registered event). We were attached to an experienced competitor, who walked us through everything and even helped with weight selections if we wanted. I liked it, but I don't need it, as I am self-motivated and run my own personal meet at year-end to see how I've progressed. You might find that you really like them.

Keep at it!

[swoz]

Squat 87.5x5x3 (192lb)
Bench 62.5 x4, x1, x2, x3, x2, x2, x1 (137lb)
Deadlift 110x5x1 (242lb)

I worked out at the power sports club gym. Gear to borrow, magnesium, no mirrors on the racks.

Squat felt heavy but controlled. I used a belt for the first time and that seemed to help but I didn't get a video to check.

Bench press was a grind. Just couldn't get the bar up and several times needed to roll out from under the safety position. I hope to improve my form and be able to continue with 2.5kg increments. Going to need videos.

Deadlift felt good. No problem when using alternating grip and magnesium. Took a short pause (~30sec) before the last rep (didn't think I could get it but soon changed my mind.) Got friendly coaching from one of the judges from yesterday's meet who was the only other person there today. He gently ribbed me for doing 110x5 today but only daring 85-100 at the meet.

[Bill Anders]

Don't be surprised or discouraged by your bench today. It should be no surprise, since you had your competition yesterday. There's a good reason why we don't do the Presses on back-to-back days. If anything, you should have done your overhead press and left your bench until Wednesday's session.

You got away with it on the squat and deadlift because those both use all of the large muscles in the body.

Keep at it!

[adm]

I'm glad you have enjoyed the competition. It is great to see you are doing well.

In case of bench like Bill has said. I would add my 3 cents as well. When you miss a rep and end up on safties, it is a lot of stress for your body. In practice it meas you should be careful with your recovery after that. I would also suggest not to be super concerned about progressing 2.5kg each workout. It is not possible to add as much in linear progression for a long time. 10kg in 2-3 weeks is a lot but 10kg in 5 weeks is great as well. For me and as far as I know for many others missed reps are a mental challenge. What I mean is that 1.25 or 1kg progression is a bit smoother and it has no meaning long term anyway.

Great job and all the best to you!

[swoz]

"Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement."

Hopefully in the future I'll know whether recovery was adequate or not: does the bar move or doesn't it?

Motivation is a huge topic. Disorganized thoughts...

Just right now I'm happy to keep at the NLP. It's very addictive to add 2.5kg to my squat three times per week. I can imagine trying to keep this up throughout the summer.

Having said that, I'm also looking forward to taking a break from all the eating, and to losing some fat to see the new muscle. I have a belly again now which is demotivating after recently spending most of a year on a caloric deficit and going from 80kg to 65kg.

(Earlier this year I've alternated between a 1500 "cutting" diet and a 2500 kcal "bulking" diet. I saw about 0.5kg per week of weight difference on those while doing light workouts with dumbbells. I'm conflicted about eating this ~4000 kcal SS/NLP/~GOMAD diet and I wonder if it's excessive.)

Over the long term I like the idea of being able to build up strength and take it forward with me through life, including while losing weight and prioritizing other activities at various points in time, and being able to return to SS programming at various times to raise my baseline. I hope that really works! I think it's supposed to based on Rip's comments but I don't know what expectations or programming a "cutting" or "maintaining" cycle to complement NLP would look like.

End of disordered thoughts.

[swoz]

I'm glad you have enjoyed the competition. It is great to see you are doing well.
I would also suggest not to be super concerned about progressing 2.5kg each workout. It is not possible to add as much in linear progression for a long time.

Thanks. I will think about this.

That's really the main question on my mind: is 1kg or 2.5kg increments on the presses more appropriate over the coming (say) couple of months?

I do find the 2.5kg increments very challenging. I am hopeful that with better technique, a lifting belt, appropriate diet, a bit of general manning-up, that it might be the right level though.

I am willing to drop to 1kg increments if that's the right thing to do. What's holding me back is the concern that doing so might be a crutch to cover up lousy technique.

Once I do settle on a rate of increase, whatever that might be, then I'm really looking forward to tuning my diet to match. I'm probably eating more than I need to at the moment, and gaining more fat than necessary, but that's worth it for now because this would all be much more complex if I were also worried that I was eating too little and limiting my recovery that way.

[RichK]

I’m new and learning as I go but I have picked up “The Barbell Prescription”. It’s a great book geared towards people over the age of 40. I think it could give you more guidance on weight increments. It’s certainly put things into perspective for me

[swoz]

I’m new and learning as I go but I have picked up “The Barbell Prescription”. It’s a great book geared towards people over the age of 40. I think it could give you more guidance on weight increments. It’s certainly put things into perspective for me

Maybe I will. I am curious about that book.

I'm 44 but I seem to be doing okay with training like a 30 year old so far. I understand from the podcast that many over-40 people can train that way but I shouldn't take it for granted that I'm one of them.

I have "Practical Programming" and in that book Rip seems to say that novice increases on the presses will level out somewhere in the range of 1-2.5kg (2-5lb) depending on the person. Compare that to the squat which he says increments in 2.5kg/5lb (not a range) for men.

Maybe I will split the difference and shoot for a 1.5kg increase on the presses. Then back off to 1kg if I'm not recovering or increase to 2.5kg if that feels comfortable as my technique improves. I have picked up some 0.5/1/2kg plates that I can bring to the gym with me.

I am also going to try Rip's tip to warm up with a few minutes on a rowing machine. Last workout my warmup was to ride my bike 15 minutes to the gym on a warm summers day. The first exercise of the day, the squats, felt by far the hardest and most taxing, much more "I can't wait to have this done and behind me" than the broken bench press sets. Maaaybe a better warmup would have made it something more enjoyable. (More likely I just need to keep acquiring the taste for doing hard things.)

[swoz]

I'll update this post during the day as I track my eating.

05:00 600kcal (18g): Musli (150g) with whole milk (200g)
08:30 600kcal (25g): 8 eggs with hot sauce
08:30 200kcal (12g): 400ml whole milk drink
10:20 600kcal (18g): Musli (150g) with whole milk (200g)
11:30 480kcal (54g): Pork 300g
11:30 100kcal (6g): 200ml whole milk drink
15:00 180kcal (2g): Banan x2
17:00 600kcal (18g): Musli (150g) with whole milk (200g)
19:30 750kcal (61g): Pork and salad in tortillas

total: 4400kcal and 214g protein (including 1200ml milk)

Quite a bit!