2003 archives (page 5)

Didn’t realize how sore my hams still were before I sprinted to catch a bus in the morning. Did a couple of feeler sets at the gym to see how the box felt and then decided to go for it as the reps felt snappy and good. Went for a lower than normal box (step board without extra plates) and lowered the weights with 10 kg/22 lbs to ensure that I would retain the speed. Worked well, and made me feel like training harder. Since my hams were sore, I held myself back from pin pulls in the rack and was content with going a little heavier on the speed deads. Ditto for the kneeling cable crunches where I dropped the reps from last workout’s 3x20 to 3x8.

Since the workout felt very easy and the sun was shining in through the window I cranked out two sets of calves. It would probably be wise to move the calf training to DE SQ/DL instead of the current ME SQ/DL (when I’m usually to wiped out to care much about calves, not to mention the fact that clocking in before the 60 min mark is already tough enough whereas DE SQ/DL is a shortish workout).

Yup, got a runny nose and a rising fever. ME Squat/Dead tomorrow is out of the question; with some luck I will be benching on Wednesday.

The runny nose turned out to be of the persistent kind. Today I decided to rebel against the lingering cough by grabbing the cold iron. As I’m still not a 100%, I cut down the volume and stopped well short of failure.

Felt the call of the Box and placed a low step board in the power rack. Measuring 26 cm/10 inches, this is the same board I used last DE Squat/Dead workout. The rack was not quite wide enough for my normal stance, so a medium stance had to do (at least I won’t have trouble remembering where to put my feet as they were touching the lower beams). Pyramided up as usual and decided to stop after 90 kg/199 lbs came up with some straining. Probably not quite my max. Overall, the result is much the same as the previous time I did max box singles in May, the difference being that the box I used then was higher at 33 cm/13 inches. Another pretty good baseline to improve on.

Capped off the workout with three light sets of Romanian deadlifts (15 kg lighter than what I’ve used recently) and some standard ab work. Hopefully I will continue to get better allowing me to continue my adventures next Wednesday.

Tried to improve the Powersmith I did two weeks ago before coming down with a serious flu. That max came up easily, but I had to do a butt lift-off to get 10 kg more off the ground. Definitively going in the right direction. Experimented with doing Incline Dumbell Benches with palms facing each other, like Tate recommends for flat benching, but my groove was all over the place (perhaps in Paris).

Fairly typical stuff, except that I made an effort to expand my torso training horizons by doing one-handed deadlifts (aka suitcase lifts, or one-sided squats). The idea is to do a conventional dumbell deadlift with only one dumbell at the side while maintaining a completely straight posture, which works the opposite side of the torso statically. If holding the dumbell with the right hand, it remains on the right side of the body at all times. Another variation is to lift the weight from between the legs, but that is quite another beast. Apparently that is how “probably the world’s greatest deadlifter prior to World War II” Hermann Goerner one-hand deadlifted 727 1/2 lbs./330 kgs in 1920.

My trusty 13″ box from Toffe’s Gym now has a new home. As my current gym does not have a proper box, and placing a step-up board on top of stacked plates is no fun, the staff graciously let me add my box to the inventory (it probably looks hardcore enough…). It’s going to be interesting to see how many other box squatters will come out of hiding; I’ve seen one guy do them off a bench in Westside fashion (shins past vertical, sitting on the box), but can’t recall having seen anyone else hitting the box.

As for the workout, I think I’m going to be content with just mentioning that I did close-grip floor presses for the first time (free weight, not the powersmith I have used of late for floor presses). That’s it. No really.

When I did my first max off the 13″ (33 cm) box in late May I squatted 95 kg/210 pounds. As I did 90 kg/199 lbs off the 10″ box last week the time seemed ripe for a three digit (kilograms) squat this time. 100 kg/221 lbs went up easy enough, 105 kg/232 lbs with some effort. As I doubted I would have enough in me for a higher result I stopped there. As usual, I squatted totally raw (no belt or wraps) and sat down on the box and relaxed my legs before blasting the iron up. Still pretty much a beginner’s result, but I’m happy with it. The results are going were they should - up.

Also did rack pulls (aka pin pulls) for the first time. Or actually, did them in the rack for the first time. Back in late June, I pulled a double at 130 kg/287 lbs off two benches at just above knee level. Went for a triple max today starting with the bar at kneecap height and got up to a hard triple at 140 kg/309 lbs. Yes, yes, good, good considering that I had a month’s layoff in between.

Beginning today, I am also pretty much ditching the reverse hypers and replacing them with pull-throughs (and perhaps weighted hypers). As I don’t have access to a proper reverse hyper machine, it seems pretty unproductive to continue raising the reps above 30 without weights off a normal hyper bench.

My left shoulder wasn’t happy with the dumbell L-flyes I did last DE Bench on top of a preacher bench. Although I did feel at the time that the exercise wasn’t good for me, it took a few heavy sets of military presses today before it really sunk in. It is likely to be an irritated rotator cuff, nothing that has stretched or popped. Have to take it easy with the shoulder lest it turn worse and kills me.

My shoulder didn’t complain at all doing lockouts in the rack. Did the presses off the pins, that is beginning from a dead stop. The challenge is to get lift-off, after which locking it out isn’t all that hard. It is a fairly stupid feeling to lay down with 125 kg/276 lbs, press like a madman and… nothing. After some seconds have passed the effort seems futile and there is nothing to do but get off the bench and conclude that 120 kg/265 lbs was the max of the day. Where was the spectacular descent? The fair failure?

A nice exercise all the same, that is important for getting me used to holding heavier iron.

A new personal record off the 13″ box means higher weights on the speed box. As noted before, I am using 65-85% of box max as the indicator of weights to use for the speed box, which means that my current bracket is 68-89 kg/150-197 lbs. Being a relatively non-explosive beginner, I went for the lower range today. As I feel things are going pretty well, I will shortly start cycling the weight on my speed box squats. More on that later.

Somewhat reluctantly I did some incline sit-ups today. For years, I have prided myself on knowing how to focus the strain on the abdominals by taking the hip flexors (psoas) out of the movement as much as possible. The rational behind the no-psoas school basically boils down to variations of two main points: 1) training the psoas is a waste of time (after all, as abs are the six-pack one would better focus all the stress straight on the abs) and 2) many psoas movements can be dangerous for the lower back. This is the basis for the “golden rule of ab training”: don’t do any exercises which cause you to raise your shoulders more than roughly 30 degrees (lest you activate your psoas or wear out your lower back). The flip side of the golden rule is the golden ab movement: the crunch (or more recently, the Janda sit-up).

For a classic exposition of this position see The Good News About Sit-Ups: Don’t Do Them! from the Legendary abs manual by Health For Life.

Typical of life on Earth, there are other colors besides black and white. There are those that have challenged the whole idea of the psoas tugging into the lower back, among those the venerable Dr Mel C. Siff (RIP):

The very act of raising the head and shoulders during the early stages of sitting up activates the abdominal musculature so strongly and increases the psoas angle to such an extent that the ability of psoas to increase the lumbar concavity is minimal. [..] Does the body not automatically act to minimize the risks of any high levels of stress as soon as the head and shoulders are raised during the early stages of any supine sit-ups or ‘crunches’?

Although I could point to other sources of psoas/ab controversy, I will leave that issue behind and raise another closer to home: what if one actually wants to train the psoas? Like…um… to make it stronger? Citing Tate’s article on Westside ab training:

As you can see we like those movements that work the hip flexors and abdominal at the same time because this is how they work under the barbell. Now some of you may not be able to do some of these movements without back discomfort. In this case you need to make your back stronger! Stick with those movements that don’t hurt you back and concentrate on strengthening your lower back. If you have a strong back none of these movements will hurt you. There is no such thing as an unsafe exercise, just unsafe application. You must know your limitations and fix them; otherwise you will be limiting yourself on the platform.

Tate goes on to recommend Zercher squats, Hyper sit-ups (Roman chair sit-ups), Strapped-in abs (a Westside variation of standing cable crunches), and Spread eagle sit-ups… some of these are the crunching fellow’s worst nightmare!

Who am I to argue with the Simmons crowd consisting of some of the strongest powerlifters on earth? They are famed for knowing what to do to get stronger. In theory, there is nothing that says that psoas movements couldn’t be dangerous and essential for maximum strength at the same time. I for one do have some personal issues with upright rows, generally regarded as harmful for the rotator cuff, being listed in the Elite Fitness exercise index. Still, if Westside hails psoas ab movements I will just have to repress my anti-psoasism and see what happens. The fact is, I can cable crunch decent amounts of weight, only to get killed by incline sit-ups. That’s no fun.

Skipped DE Bench on Sunday to give my shoulder some extra rest. It’s feeling better, but is not yet up for heavy action.

Added 5 kg/11 lbs to my max deadlift today. As 140 kg/309 lbs came off the ground relatively easy (emphasis on relatively) I trust my best ever max, 150 kg/332 lbs, is not far around the corner. This time, it’s going to be a true strapless and beltless max.

As I write this, the archives page tells me that I have completed roughly 10 total training weeks on Westside.