Distractions. Time for a change.

Last night I did regular flat bench and standing overhead shoulder press.  Didn't do too well on either of them.  Plus, doing bench first really weakened my ability to press over my head.  I didn't even touch 125... and knew that I couldn't.  Here are the sets.

12/28/11 Wednesday
Bench Press - 3 sets
95x8 (warmup)
135x6 (warmup)
195x4
195x3 (barely)
175x4 (barely)

Standing OH press - 3 sets
45x8 (warmup)
85x5 (warmup)
115x3
105x7
105x6

And then I did one set of 10 bodyweight dips.  My tri's were absolutely annihilated at that point though, so I barely even count the dips.

The last time I did both presses on the same day was 11/22.  I had just barely hit 195 for 2 reps on bench and then nailed 125 for 2 reps on overhead press.  So why no improvement, over a month later?  It's strange, I even got fucking amazing sleep the night before, over 8 hours.  And there's been plenty of rest between the last time I did either of these exercises, over 8 days.  I think I have 2-3 possible reasons why I didn't do too well.

1) I've been reading Beyond Brawn, and I'm really interested in his cycling technique, specifically on these 2 lifts because they haven't been improving much.  These lifts have been stalling somewhat lately, but this was the first time I saw no improvement at all in either.  Is it because I'm actually stalling, or is it a self fulfilling prophecy from reading the book.  AKA, I want an excuse to start cycling (as prescribed in the book), so I'm subconsciously showing myself that these particular lifts are stalled.

2) I was distracted at the gym.  A couple of my friends were there, people that I've worked out with in the past but hadn't worked out with in a while.  I could have been distracted by thinking they were watching me, or watching what weight I was doing, something like that.  The one thing I can say, is that my focus was not 100% yesterday.  This could have been a part of why.

3)  Those 2 lifts have finally and actually hit a stalling point.  I need to gain weight, begin a cycle, try something new, whatever.


It's probably a combination of all 3.  Either way, something needs to change.  I think that I'm going to continue doing both exercises on the same day.  What I may do instead is just drop the weight for both, increase the reps a little bit, add in some different stuff, like 20 rep sets, dumbell presses, and slowly build myself back up to 195 and 125 for each exercise.  Hopefully I will have been able to add a few reps along the way.  Then, at least according to what I believe I'm reading, I should be able to increase the poundage and slowly move up over the next few weeks, totaling about an 8-10 week cycle.

As for the other big lifts - Deadlifts, squats and cleans.  They've been improving, so I won't mess with them.  At least not until I'm done with bench and press.

Today's an off day.  Goal is to eat lots, rest lots and prepare for Friday's session.  And what am I doing on Friday?   Definitely squatting.  And I might throw cleans in there.  Maybe even some very light RDLs?  We'll see how I'm feeling.

Deadlifts for Christmas

Hope everyone had a very merry Christmas!  In wishing happy holiday's to people, I'm reminded of this recent strip from explosm that made me lol...

My wife and I spent a lot of time with her family this year, which was great.  On Christmas day, we were able to make it back to my parent's house in time to catch dessert.  Wayyyyy too much cheesecake!  Overall though, we had a great time with both her family and mine.

This year I got a whole bunch of cool stuff too.  Starting with Skyrim for the 360, some real nice dress shirts (and ties) for work, a few books and a game for the DS.  Plus some PJ's so I can lounge around and play some of those video games I got for X-mas ;).  Really, that's just the beginning. I got some great stuff.

That being said, my favorite gift has to be the one given to me by my wife.  The book, "Beyond Brawn" by Stuart McRobert.  I've started going through it, and it's pretty much an encyclopedia of information on how to build muscle and get strong.  It's perfect for me.  Without getting into TOO much detail, one of his main philosophies is cycling your workouts to hit new PR's.  A cycle would last anywhere from 5-10 weeks, and you start by dropping the weight to about 80-85% of what you normally lift (phase I).  After you drop the weight, slowly bring yourself back up to where your last max was.  Work out at this max for a few workouts (phase II) and then begin to increase the poundage over the course of the next few weeks (phase III).  The goal is to stretch out phase III for as long as possible.  Once you begin to stall, begin the cycle all over again.

His point is that it's difficult to do this because you have to detrain, and almost lose muscle to gain more later on.  According to the author, it takes patience, patience, and more patience, but the gains are well worth it.  It makes sense, I've been stalling on some of my lifts, especially the presses... bench and overhead.  It might be prudent for me to take a cycling approach to training those 2 specific lifts.  Either way, I'm not making any changes until I finish reading the book, and take thorough notes.  I want to design a very specific plan that I can follow.

Onto my training over the weekend.  As the title suggests, I deadlifted Christmas morning, after opening presents.  Hit a new PR of 315lbs and felt great.  Here are my sets.

12/25/11
Deadlifts - 3 sets
135x8 (warmup)
225x6 (warmup)
315x4 PR
315x2
295x5

Standing Dumbbell Bicep Curls - 3 sets
35's x 8
40's x 7
40's x 6

An interesting note, and quick story.  Ron Darling is a TV announcer for the NY Mets, and he used to pitch for them back in the 80's.  You may have heard, but he helped them win the 1986 World Series.  Not that it matters, but he's also a fantastic analyst.  But whatever.  I've heard him say about pitchers, (and I'm paraphrasing here) that if you have a shitty warmup session, that doesn't mean you'll have a shitty game.  And vice versa, if you have a great warmup session, that doesn't mean you'll have a great game.  It's one of the things that you have to be willing to accept and adapt to if you're a major league pitcher.

That saying applies to my workout on Christmas.  My warmups for the deadlifts didn't feel too great.  135 lbs was light, but I felt a tiny little kink in my back.  The 225 felt really heavy for some reason, and it crossed my mind to NOT go for the PR.  While the warmups didn't feel too good for me, they did what they were intended to do.  Warm me up.  Get the kinks out.  And as you can tell, I went for the 315 and nailed it.

And finally.  Anna took a video of me PRing that 315.  She missed the 1st rep of the set, so it only shows me doing 3 reps.

Not that many people comment here, but how's my form?

Jets vs Giants

I'm a huge Jets fan.  I like the Giants too, but I love the Jets.  All I have to say about today's game is this.

CAN'T WAIT

Some information on RDL's

I don't do RDL's often, but some research has made me aware that I do them incredibly wrong.  There are other's that can describe what an RDL (Romanian Deadlift) is much better than I can, but to oversimplify it, it's a form of deadlifts where you concentrate on using hamstring tension to lift the bar.  You don't bend your knees nearly as much as you would during a regular deadlift.  And believe me, your hammy's will get seriously sore afterwards. 

Anyway, as I was saying... I've been doing them completely wrong.  Check out this post on 70's big:

http://www.70sbig.com/blog/2011/06/the-rdl/

I highly, highly recommend you check out that post. Here are the points of emphasis that the author gives. 

Points of Emphasis

1. Start in the hang
2. Un-lock knees
3. Push hips back
4. Don’t let knees go forward
5. Keep the bar back
6. Once the back angle is arbitrarily parallel, or the hamstrings are sufficiently stretched (you’ll know), reverse the movement
7. Drive the heels through the ground
8. Continue to keep the bar back and not let the knees go forward
9. Return to the hang position

I use entirely too much weight, and I end up bending my knees way too much.  And I let the weight drop too far low. To quote the 70's big article, I end up just doing a shitty deadlift.

I plan on doing regular deadlifts this weekend, but early next week I'm going to give RDL's a try... the right way.  Tonight I'm overhead pressing.  I'll post my sets tomorrow.

If I don't see you, have a Merry Christmas everybody.  Enjoy a christmas cookie or 7.

Squats and Bench, together again

I used to squat and bench on the same day, almost every time.  My workouts were split between push and pull, and most days I did squats/bench together, and deadlift/row/pullups together.  Where shoulders fit in, sometimes on bench/squat day, sometimes I'd just kind of do them where I could.

Lately, I've been really just concentrating on main lifts, and splitting them up each day.  It's given me much more rest in between each specific workout, but I'm not sure if 10 days in between each bench, deadlift, or squat day is the best method.  I've definitely made some gains though, in all of my lifts.  Bench is solidly up to 195.  Deadlifts I'm getting up 305 for 5 reps, no problem.  And overhead press is slowly increasing too.  I'm torn, because part of me is impressed with my progress in strength, but the other part is left wondering if I'm just taking way too much time in between each lift.

The whole point is that yesterday I reverted back to squatting and bench on the same day.  It worked out pretty well.  Less rest between sets, and not much of a drop off in strength for bench.  Here are my sets.

12/20/11
Squats - 3 sets
135x8 (warmup)
185x5 (warmup)
245x5
255x4 - struggled, didn't go down all the way.
225x5 went all the way down, ass to grass

Bench Press - 3 sets
95x10 (warmup)
135x5 (warmup)
195x3
195x3
185x5

Skull Crushers - 3 sets
50x8 (warmup)
80x5
80x5
80x5

I'm happy with the progress.  Although not going down all the way on the squat really pissed me off.  It took my wife taking a video of me for me to see how I wasn't going far down at all.  I'd post it up, but quite frankly I'm too ashamed of it.  All is good though, I realized it and made the correction.

Oh.  And the battery in my car is shot.  On cold days (like the other day) the car won't even start.  Guess who's stopping at Walmart tonight to pick up a new one?

Have a good one.

Oh yes... cleans

Friday night was a dud, so cleans were put off until Saturday morning.  I did things a little differently this time.  I upped the weight to 135, and did 2 reps on the minute for 10 minutes.  It totaled 20 reps at 135, which was fantastic.  Near the end my form started getting sloppy, but that's to be expected.  I think next time I can up the weight even further.  I'll keep at it and hopefully soon I'll be getting real weight up.  My traps yesterday and today are incredibly sore.

12/17/11
Hang Cleans - 10 sets
45x10 (warmup)
95x5 (warmup)
135x2 - 10 times

And that's about it.  Afterwards I went home, got changed and had to run a few errands before heading to a surprise birthday party that evening.

I'll leave you with a great paragraph off of an old 70s big post back in April.  Took me a while to find it, but find it I did.

Never avoid doing something that’s hard. Avoiding “hard” makes you a coward, and you can never experience or learn anything by being a coward. By convincing yourself to do something that’s hard when you don’t want to, you won’t just grow physically. You display a quality of strength that correlates and resonates far beyond the barbell. By overcoming the difficult, that process sets you up for success. Your thoughts formulate your feelings, your feelings compose your emotions, your emotions are exhibited through your actions, and your actions define who you are. By structuring your thoughts to tackle difficult challenges, to strive towards success regardless of the obstacle, you formulate into a better person. You manifest into 70′s Big.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

Random Videos

I don't have much today that wouldn't sound like bitching and complaining, so here are some funny videos to keep you entertained instead.

If all goes according to schedule, the plan is some cleans tonight.

Overhead Press - Little to no progress

Man, the one area of training where I have serious trouble are my shoulders.  I just can't add weight to the bar, and any progress I make are really tiny baby steps.  It's frustrating.  Part of my problem is that I don't know what I should be doing to correct it.  I've read that doing more volume can help, I've read that doing less volume and heavier sets will help.  Right now I'm focusing on less reps for the higher weight.  Here are my sets from yesterday.

12/14/11
Standing Overhead Press - 4 sets
45x10 (warmup)
75x6 (warmup)
125x4
125x3
125x2
105x7

Preacher Curls - 3 sets
60x8 (warmup)
90x6
90x5
80x6

Looking at last week when I pressed:

12/6/11Standing Overhead Press - 3 sets45x8 (warmup)85x7 (warmup)125x4115x5105x7

It's progress.  Baby steps, but progress.  Next week the goal is 5 reps, again 3 sets.  I also added another set at 90lbs for preacher curls.

Deadlifts - Being Loud at the Gym

The gym on Monday was packed.  I can't remember it ever being that loaded with people.  It was so crowded I even considered going home, but waited it out and got on the rack where I could deadlift.  Didn't hit a PR on weight, but was able to up the reps a bit.  Here are my sets.

12/12/11
Deadlifts - 3 sets
135x8 (warmup)
235x5 (warmup)
305x5
305x4
305x4

Barbell Rows - 4 sets
135x8
155x7
165x6
165x6

Overall, I'm happy with the lifts.  Next week I'm going to attempt 315.  We'll see how 3-4 reps goes.

On a side note.  I tend to slam the weight down in between reps when deadlifting.  I don't do it on purpose.  The weight is fucking heavy, and I kind of just let it drop after I lock each rep out at the top.  It can get kind of loud, especially when it's 305 pounds hitting the floor.  I've gotten the looks from other people before, but normally I don't give a shit.  This last time one of the trainers did a "is that necessary?!" yell from across the gym when I did my last rep.  I'm loud, but I'm not THAT loud.  And I don't scream or any of that shit while I'm doing my sets.  As you can see from my reps above, the slamming only goes on for 4 or 5 reps at a time.  And only for 3 sets.  Am I in the wrong here?  Should I be gently placing my weight down in between each rep?  My gut is screaming no.

I need to get a damn video.

PS - Hats off to my wife for nailing a PR of 185lb deadlift for 5 reps yesterday. Her strength is increasing dramatically.

Benching and Pain During Dips

I have to start this post by saying that the squats on Thursday wrecked me.  I jogged to the gym on Saturday (it's really close by) but you could barely call it a jog.  It was more limping and hopping than anything else.  I wanted to do cleans, but my legs were just too messed up.  Instead, I benched.  Felt pretty good, though I tire out quick.  Then, since they did such a good job of destroying me last time, I did skull crushers again.  And they destroyed me again.  Finally, I was going to just kind of finish out with a few sets of bodyweight dips.  I did 2 sets of 15... and by the end of the 2nd set, the inside of my chest felt so tight, like something was wrong with my breastplate.  I decided to call it quits and headed home.  For the record, a few hours later, my chest "popped" or cracked the way your knuckles would, and the pressure was released.

This had happened to me a few weeks ago, the last time I did dips.  The pressure built up during my set, and then my chest was tight for several hours afterwards.  It wasn't until the next day till I finally popped my chest while stretching, and it was a serious relief.  Doing some google researching online, I found a few possible reasons for this happening.

The most plausible explanation is that my chest is getting disproportionately stronger than my upper back.  This is pulling my sternum, especially when I lean forward to do dips.  Pressure builds up, and has to be released by "popping" my sternum back into place.  This could be true, I've been really concentrating on bench lately, and haven't been doing much back.  But... I still DO back.  It's not like I don't do rows or chinups.  I don't do rear delts often though.  I'll be adding them to my deadlifts tonight. 

The other reasons I've found were more medical problems or disorders, which I don't think I have.  I could also just be leaning forward too far during dips too.  It's something that I need to watch.

For the record, all of this "research" is just reading through posts people have made on various forums.  I don't know how true or false any of it is.  If the problem persists, I'll go to a doctor.

12/10/11

Bench Press - 3 sets

95x8 (warmup)

135x6 (warmup)

195x4

185x4

185x3

Skull Crushers! - 3ish sets

70x8

80x2

70x7

Dips - 2 sets

15 bodyweight

15 bodyweight

Tonight the plan is deadlifts.  Going for 3 sets at 305, getting at least 5 reps on one set.  That would be a good thing.  At one point my 1 rep max was 305.

Happiness is a Choice

Happiness is a choice.  My wife said that to me today while I was whining and being extremely negative (aka being a little bitch) about how my sleep has sucked lately.  Granted, my sleep HAS sucked lately.  I keep waking up at like 5ish AM, and then toss and turn and half-sleep till the alarm goes off around 7am.  In short, it blows.  Anyway, as I get less and less sleep each night, I get crankier and crankier, and I've been acting like somewhat of an asshole lately.  Talking to Anna today, she helped me realize that I'm being somewhat of a little bitch about my stupid sleep situation.  While it may suck, I need to man up and be myself, not the guy who's suffering from sleep deprivation and gets depressed and acts like a dick because of it.  I'm better than that.

Happiness is a choice.  Whatever is happening with me and this sleep bullshit, it has no impact on who I am, or how I treat others, especially the people I care about.  It shouldn't change my view of the world, or make me pessimistic.  I'm still the loving, driven and overly optimistic sonofabitch that I've always been.  And that's never gonna change.  I choose to be happy, not some depressed piece of shit that you scrape off your shoe.

Thanks Anna for reminding me of that (in not so many words).  I love you.

PS - I did squats yesterday.  Here are my sets.

12/9/11

Squats - 3 sets

135x9 (warmup)

185x6 (warmup)

245x5 

235x5

235x5

Looking back on this blog, I haven't squatted since November 10th.  Christ.  I think I may begin sacrificing weight to get more exercises in.  For example, doing cleans and bench press in the same day.  My bench would suffer (if I did cleans first) because I'd be tired, but I also wouldn't go so damn long in between each exercise.  Squats and shoulder press?  Deadlifts and rows?  I dunno, I have to plan it all out.  And I'm not the best at planning.  

Since I hadn't squatted in such a long time, after my warmups my groin and glutes were all sorts of tight and strained.  It all worked itself out in the end though.  

Overhead Press and... cookies?

It's Christmas time.  This means that people are insane for the next 3 weeks.  It's just a fact of life.  I've seen it in the way people drive, the way they shop... even the way they cook.  My wife and mother both have been baking Christmas cookies like their lives depend on it.  And I'm the fool who pigs out on the piles of cookies as they're piping hot out of the oven.

mmmmm cookies

As you may or may not know, I don't usually eat flour/bread/grains.  So cookies made with flour kind of mess my stomach up, especially when I house over a dozen of them at a time.  Tuesday and Wednesday were a little intense.... I ate cookies for breakfast, brought a few with me for lunch, and ate a few after dinner.  Wednesday night left me in pain, and making massive deposits in the porcelain bank all night.  Needless to say, I'm still here today eating gingerbread cookies. As my wife would say, "what an idiot."

Despite the cookie madness, Tuesday night I trained standing shoulder press.  I'm still having some weird pain in my shoulder, so I can't do the seated barbell press.  I think I like standing better anyway.  I did not increase the weight, but I did increase (slightly) the reps.  I'm getting more comfortable with the exercise.  Here are my sets.

12/6/11
Standing Overhead Press - 3 sets
45x8 (warmup)
85x7 (warmup)
125x4
115x5
105x7

Seated Arnold Press - 3 sets
50x6
50x5
50x5

Not the best workout, but effective.  Shoulders were weary afterwards.  Next time I press I'm upping the weight.

Cleans and a little Bi's

Did some cleans on Sunday, while my wife did 5 sets of a barbell complex.  I again didn't up the weight on the cleans, but instead worked on my form, and nailed 4 sets of 5 at 125.  I also did some preacher curls as well.

12/4/11
Cleans - 4 sets
95x6 (warmup)
125x5
125x5
125x5
125x5

Preacher Curls - 2 sets
80x7
90x4

My wife started her complex with 55lbs, but dropped it to 45.  She did:

8 cleans
8 press
8 front squats
8 rows
8 deadlifts

She did this 4 or 5 times, I forget.  At the end, she was wrecked.  Especially considering she's done cleans maybe once in her life before.  Great job Anna!

Tonight is chest or shoulders, some kind of pressing.  I need to squat soon too.  Tonight?  We'll see.

Deadlifting makes me feel good

I know, I said I was going to do cleans yesterday, but my wife convinced me to do deadlifts instead.  It feels weird to write that.  My wife convinced me to do deadlifts... crazy.  We did them together.  And while I didn't hit a PR in weight, I increased the sets I could do at 305.  I have a weird mentality, I always dread the days when I'm going to deadlift, but afterwards I always feel fantastic.  Such a feeling of satisfaction.

Again, I asked if they had a weight belt and was told they would order one.  So no weighted chins this week. And finally, there was no space to do any curls, so Anna and I tried a preacher curl machine.  It was... interesting.

Here are my sets.

12/1/11
Deadlifts - 3 sets
135x8 (warmup)
225x5 (warmup)
305x4
305x3
305x3

Barbell Rows - 3 sets
155x8
165x6
165x6

Preacher Curl Machine - 3 sets
70x8
80x7
80x6

A couple of notes:  My triceps are destroyed from those skull crushers.  Seriously.  And my left quad is sore. I think it has something to do with the fact that I'm driving a stick shift temporarily.  It's like my leg isn't used to  it or something... I don't get it, but it's sore.

Next on the menu are cleans this weekend.

My Weight

I mentioned the other day that I had lost weight over the Thanksgiving break.  In the back of my mind, I felt like that couldn't be the case, but I had weighed myself, and it was true.  After Thanksgiving, I weighed about 154.  It was driving me nuts because I ate a lot, and about a week before the holiday I was weighing about 160.

Yesterday, I was weighing myself, and realized that because of the positioning of the scale, I wasn't getting 100% of my weight onto it.  It was wedged in a corner of my bathroom, and when I stepped on it, part of my body was touching the side of the bathroom counter.  It wasn't much, but it was enough to mess up my weight.  So, like any other obsessed asshole, I moved the scale, tried it again... and was a solid 162.6.  That's more in line with what I thought it should be.

Either way, I'm happy with how the weight gain is moving.  Slow and steady.  If I can consistently gain 2lbs per month, I should be a solid 170 by the start of the summer.