Truckin’

So, after some entertaining yoga with a local friend, and helping her test her OHP, Bench, and Deadlift out, as well as show her some kettlebell basics, I wanted to do some strength work of my own. I had hoped to have my new plan in hand today, but it’s the holiday weekend and I only got my 1RM info to my coach the day before yesterday; I should have it soon and will begin attacking it presently.

The safety dance

Since I am perennially a man without a hat, I can make that joke in conjunction with taking delivery of my new EFTS safety squat bar.

Did some empty bar reps in the living room to get a feel for it after I attached the handles. I think it’ll work out well.

Now, if I can dispel the tightness, soreness, and swelling from my right ankle/calf/knee so I can try and squat heavy to explore my approximate 1RM tomorrow, that would be lovely. I’ll be thrilled with 405#, and not dissatisfied with anything over 365. Deadlifts are similarly mentally anticipated to have lost about 10% from my PR last year, so 455#+ is really what I’m looking for with a conventional pull.

Benching was a surprisingly non-deprecated 245# (only lost 20# off my PR despite the months and months of injured discomfort and bullshit) and my overhead press was a nearly complete shock – a 15# PR of 180# (I was really hoping for a 1xBW rep @ 190#, but 185# wasn’t getting up more than halfway).

This is the new shit

Currently crafting a new lifting routine. The two naming candidates are “BSOD” and “666.” Number of surprised people: 0.

As previously noted, fucking off time is over. My plan right now is to go to six days a week, three lifts a day. This is informed by an amalgamation and distillation of my own experience (independently, as well as my tenure under Josh Bryant’s guidance) combined with a recent exposure to and curiosity about the so-called “Bulgarian” school, tempered by a cursory review of Jason Ferruggia’s program[1].

So, here’s how it looks…

Squats need work

Gimme some sugar, baby.

I can’t in good conscience make any kind of self-aggrandizing remarks about being the “king” – especially with around. :-) However, at ‘s urging, I did try to do some “King” deadlifts. These are basically a one-legged variant, where the non-working leg kind of waves around behind you as if in an unsupported lunge; my form is, in a word, abysmal, but will hopefully suck less with practice and stretching.

I began with bodyweight, then +45 pounds, and finally +95 pounds. Obviously, my balance needs work and my hip flexibility is lacking, but I think they’re going to be interesting. Video here. (On a side note, I’m both pleased and kind of freaked out that my camera’s audio was good enough to catch the stereo’s music well enough for Youtube to identify and flag it.)

Following that, I moved on to conventional ones, and, for a taste of cinema verite, here’s the unedited entirety (note: this hardly makes for thrilling theater, and is currently being gnawed on processed by YouTube after uploading, if it doesn’t show up just yet) of that portion of my workout (doing heavy triples and doubles up to a 2RM, which was, gratifyingly, within 5% of where I was before I broke my hand in August).

Weekend Workouts

15/9/3: Overhead Press (Friday) | Deadlifts (Sunday)

It’s also “weigh and measure weekend,” though I don’t know if I’ll snap some progress pictures to share or not. Feeling a little squidgy after entirely too much coffee and some much-needed beer.

OHP Friday frankly kind of sucked.  Deadlifting on Sunday went better.

[WotD] Saturday, September 25

This is much, much more legible than my handwritten log. (Image by skyfaller on Flickr)

15/9/3 – Deadlift & Bench Press

A slightly different take than the “Dead Man Benching” routine from earlier in the week; rather than ramping up both exercises, the bench remained at a moderate load (~50% 1RM) for several high-rep sets.

Warmup:

Deadlift: 1×15 @ 135 / 1×10 @ 185 / 1×5 @ 225 / 1×5 @ 265

Bench Press: 2×15 @ 45 / 1×10 @ 95

Work Sets:

Deadlift: 3×5 @ 295 / 2×5 @ 315 / 3×3+3 @ 355 (PR)

Bench Press: 7×10 @ 125

Over and Under

I’m just going to assume the over/under on every Bills game this season is 9 points above whatever the opposing team’s average points per game is, since I think the boys in blue have a chance at coming in under 150 points scored this season unless they decide to play without a quarterback at all.

That bitching aside…

Lunchtime saw me working on my dips. I hate dips. Haaaaate. 2×10 sandwiched a 1×20, which sucked a lot. So did medicine-ball rolling my traps, rhomboids, delts and quads – interesting popping and crunching sensations ensue.

Wait, I know what this is…

… it’s that “weightlifting” thing I used to do. Five weeks since the break, and, other than needing to stretch my wrist, and not move the pinkie & thumb in certain (read: painful) ways, things are more or less back to where they should be, so I can resume my reset after the rep-calculating work just prior.

15/9/3 – Overhead Press & Squat

Warmup:

Overhead Press: 2×10 @ 45 / 1×10 @ 65

Squat: 1×15 @ 45 / 1×10 @ 135

Work Sets:

Overhead Press: 3×5 @ 85 / 3×5+3 @ 95

Squat: 3×5 @ 175 / 3×5+5 @ 195

I curtailed both before the heaviest set in the interest of not overdoing it. I will probably revisit these same weights, just adding the 105 / 215 (or 225) top end sets next session.

Pressing

I skipped recapping a few workouts in all the “excitement,” but really, running two miles or doing a mile and a third of Fartleks isn’t really all that thrilling.  I did, prior to my mishap, do a couple of upper body workouts, which I have been able to modify somewhat to facilitate the current gimp status.

One-armed “suitcase” deadlifts are challenging and relatively evil, even at 110-160 pounds. Walking the bench down from fully vertical to fully horizontal in seven steps, ten reps of the Arnold press is a relatively unpleasant experience. So is walking up the stack on the leg extension (20# steps from 140 to 280) and leg curl (120-200) for five reps per set.