2004 archives (page 21)

Got out of the confines of the narrow rack and widened my stance as planned for the box squats. My first thought when sitting down with the empty bar and feet seemingly a mile apart was “now, how do I get back up?”. Going against gravity turned out to be easy enough so proceeded to several light sets to work on technique especially trying to improve the arch. I still had a tendency to get off the box by pushing off with the legs too much, but at least the quads were on complete vacation as the insides of my legs (adductors) were called in to replace them. Then pyramided up to a bit heavier weights to check technique and get a feeling for the wider stance.

While doing some sets of cable turns I got this crazy idea of going for a new PR on the close-grip floor press since Christmas Eve would make ME Bench a no-go. With only one day of rest separating me from Monday’s bench session, I knew I wasn’t fully recuperated. I figured I would have a reasonable shot at 102.5 kg/227 lbs nonetheless as I believe I am now quite a bit stronger than when I did did 100 kg/221 lbs (later attempt). Got some doubt after being surprised how little force I could produce with 97.5 kg/215 lbs even though the weight felt very light on the descent, but loaded the bar up and went for the PR. It took me a full 10 seconds to complete the rep (no joke, this is timed from the video footage), but I got it up in good form. If my bearings are correct, I should have 105 kg/232 lbs in the bag and a good chance at 107.5 kg/238 lbs when fully rested. We’ll see soon enough.

Besides the obvious stuff, today’s workout clip (2.6MB) also features Måns’s idea of a poor man’s seated calf raise involving the decline bench, a highly intelligent weight loading gadget (me) holding two 21 kg/46 lbs dumbells, and a 40 kg/88 lbs bar for a total resistance of 175 kg/387 lbs… all while having feet on top of two inherently unstable dumbell handles. Quite frankly, the mind boggles over less ingenuity than this.

I must have been a good boy this year cause Santa gave me a balance board, tiger balm liniment and Jeck’s stonelifting book off my Amazon.com wishlist in addition to various useful non-strength items. The balance board was especially welcome since I have started to skimp on the rehab stuff after leaving Toffe’s Gym and my homemade board behind. This board is a tad less shaky although being classified as “hard”, but definitively enough for my needs.

ME SQ/DL was supposed to be on today’s agenda, but since the venerable lower back has been suffering from some residue stiffness due to the sudden reintroduction of box squats, I dedicated this workout to rehab. First tried a new stability ball exercise known as walkout pikes, essentially a normal walkout followed by folding the body at the midsection (picture) - a great one for the lower abs if you ask me. Then followed up with a rehab circuit with the normal 5 minutes between iterations. Almost lost my lunch after the third one, possibly because I only had it 60 minutes earlier. Lesson learned: the only friendly hamburgers are homemade.

WALKOUT PIKE VIDEO (1 MB)

Got the Elite Fitness Systems’s Training Templates manual yesterday, which inspired me to abandon the traditional ME/DE format in favor for a single day approach combined with an accessory day. Suffice it to say, that this routine is motivated by a desire not to whack my back by doing too much too soon and a desire to experiment with benching once a week only to save the shoulders. The routine is not quite hammered into stone yet, so if anyone has any bright ideas let them shine.

First workout following my new hybrid routine and what a workout at that! Wide-grip two board benches was a suitably meek target with a modest 95 kg/210 lbs PR back from early 2004 aka the My Bench is Stuck period. Historically, excuse the grand word, my two board has always hovered around the same weights as the regular bench probably because both go below my sticking point. With a 102.5 kg/227 lbs bench and floor press in my pocket, I figured 105 kg/232 lbs would be a sure thing with 107.5 kg/238 lbs being possible. Realistically speaking.

Sweeped right up to a 100 kg/221 lbs PR with expected ease. Bagged 105 kg/232 lbs convincingly enough to go directly to 110 kg/243 lbs. The bar got a promising start after having sunk it into the nailed together 2x4 boards, but it ended up stalling… stalling… stalling… resorted to ass lift off and got it up. Dropped down to 107.5 kg/238 lbs and snapped it right up, which really made me wonder how I did not clear 110 kg/243 lbs. Sure enough, on this second attempt it came up beautifully enough to give me hopes for 112.5 kg/249 lbs. Got the descent (haha), but noticed that I had somehow forgot to tuck the elbows… made a desperate attempt to bring them in and pressed… to no avail. Reattempted the weight a few minutes later with proper elbow tucking, but had no strength left. Do I complain? Heck no!

At this point I was really fried. A 70 kg/155 lbs triple was all I had left in store for the incline bench, my chosen low-end exercise for the day, despite the weight itself feeling ridiculously light. Some JMs and lats. The grandfather of all pumps descended. The video (4MB) breaks new ground in the genre of narrative powerlifting clips…

A good stretch and a dull vanilla whey protein-maltodextrin shake later, I rubbed my shoulders and chest with the Tiger Balm muscle rub I got for Christmas from Sanna’s brother and fiancée who recently returned from a diving vacation in Thailand. My thoughts invariably wandered to Sunday’s tragic earthquake in the region and all those residents and tourists who were not so lucky to be somewhere else when the largest quake in 40 years struck… the latest from BBC has the number of dead as high as 100,000. I’m not going to get started on how happiness and sadness is a yin-yang thing, but you get the point. Next week I will hopefully have recovered enough to do a close-grip bench scheme involving weight releasers.

The results of the reader survey are long overdue (sorry), but finally found the time to sit down and format them. At the risk of sounding overly emotional, what warms my heart the most is that the vast majority of respondents would be willing to share a training session with me. Before you know it, you might find a long haired Finn waiting for you at the gym ready to max out… Anyway, thanks to all of those who participated.

December 2004 Reader Survey Results

First accessory day of the new routine. Worked fairly quickly, but since the circuits ended up taking close to 30 minutes (5+ minutes per circuit for three and 5 minutes rest in between) only 10 minutes remained for some quick Rolling Thunder work. Not that my grip needed more as 45 kg/99 lbs didn’t even leave the floor today. Unheard of, unheard of… must be the result of Wednesday’s hefty bench session that also left me with overwhelming triceps soreness. Did 100 reps of triceps extensions, 50 reps of Tate presses and 70 reps of dumbell presses yesterday (all on the ball with 2 kg/4 lbs bells), which seemed to help dissipate a bit of the soreness. Hey, I can now almost straighten my arms again!!!

Have a joyous New Year’s Eve everyone! And remember, if you see any UFOs against the fireworks illuminated sky, they are probably just friendly balance boards off into orbit.