2004 archives (page 7)

The circle closes. It’s been a full year since I started this blog on May 14th, 2003. 169 entries. Not counting the month I spent in China, this makes for an average of one post every other day. Let me tell you, this is a lot of work. If it weren’t for the fact that the number of regular readers is steadily increasing and several of you have been very supportive via e-mail, this would be a good opportunity to lay down the pen. God knows, I could use some more sleep. It’s not like I don’t have zillions of other things to do either.

To me, this project still appears meaningful, valuable even, as a lasting contemplative record of the powerlifting experience of a genetically average drug-free lifter. Potentially, this blog could have turned out to be either totally dry or soaked in monotony. “Today I did 5 sets of X, 3 sets of Y and failed on one set of P. Felt good.” Repeat 169 times. Sleepy yet? In order to be interesting, a blog of this kind needs to look outside the immediate workout, to touch on larger issues that are relevant to a larger readership. It is at this intersection between theory and practice that the strength of this genre lies. Analysing sticking points against tangible data is very different from just complaining about them in general, as is trying different forms of therapy (trigger points, adjustments and stability training) on a real world injury instead of just discussing what can go wrong in the back and what can be done to fix it. The diary format also makes the process very transparent for the reader (charts help though). Hype doesn’t last long in this kind of writing.

I don’t profess to be a master of this genre, but quite honestly, I think this blog has of late actually become borderline readable. It might have something to do with me maturing as a web writer and becoming more willing to reveal a life behind the mere technicalities of the sets and reps. Or perhaps, it is because just writing down sets and reps now appears boring even to myself…

With the level of continuous effort needed to keep up writing month after month, I would not continue doing this if there weren’t anything in it for me. As I started this journey, I wrote that

[a]lthough I hope someone out there will find this an interesting read, I am doing this as much for myself. I’m new to blogging, but I have this stubborn idea that this is an effective way of self-reflection, more so than simply scribbling in the training diary.

I am researching things more thoroughly than I would if I were not trying to explain things to others and am thus learning a great deal in the process. I am leaving behind a gold mine of information on my training and my thoughts that would otherwise soon be forgotten and thus rendered useless. I am receiving very valuable feedback from some of you readers, that has proven invaluable in removing some of the blinders that I erect around myself and has prompted me to explore new avenues.

I think I better stop here before I end up debating the existence of God or something equally metaphysical. I guess I just wanted to express my amazement that there are actually people out there who seem to enjoy reading my blurbs, some of which I have had the great pleasure of getting to know via e-mail. Thanks to you I am willing to continue this project for the time being (no warranties though).

But before I go, here is a quick list of things I am planning to do during the next few months: diet, incorporate stability training on a more thorough scale, try chains, start to do GPP and renovate Toffe’s Gym to make it more suitable for powerlifting training. I hope you will enjoy participating in the ride as much as I am eager to find out what this next year has in store for me.

NOTE: I am back blogging this to the correct date. The two workouts that I have done since will appear after I get back from a short two-day trip. The short of it is that the rehab is going great!

After the Prilepin bench program interlude, it is time to add speed benching back into the mix. This time around, I am going to deviate from the standard Westside style of speed work and try the form of speed work JM Blakley recommends on his XTM Bench video in an effort to achieve better bar path consistency.

Sadly, I am unable to consult Blakley’s video because it has mysteriously disappeared. I’ve literally searched for it for hours, and as my desperation deepened Sanna joined the search. No, it’s not in the video machine or under the fridge. At this point, the most likely scenario is that someone broke into our apartment via the toilet pipe, snatched the tape from under the mess on my desk and then base jumped down the balcony. I have now reluctantly come to accept that it has gone to bench press video heaven. I guess it is as good a grade as any, that I am now seriously considering buying another copy, if only for the great footage of the JM press.

I do recall the gist: start out with a slow rep, then a little faster rep, then a little faster… then BOOM!, BOOM!, BOOM! bang out reps as fast as you can. I am pretty sure it was 7 reps in total, but don’t remember if it was 3 or 4 all out reps. The formula I am going to follow is one slow rep, one normal speed rep, one rep faster than normal, and then three all-out BOOM! reps. This is basically normal Westside speed benching (three bench reps with as light a weight needed to complete them within 3 seconds, usually 50-60% of current max), but with three introductory reps. I think Blakley’s rationale was that the introductory reps would teach the body what is really fast. My main appeal with this stems from the simple observation that it is quite difficult to throttle the bar up at maximum velocity while retaining a consistent bar path unless you are an experienced bencher. Granted, I’ve gotten a lot better at it, but as chalking the middle of the bar has revealed, my consistency varies a lot from set to set. What I am thinking is that the introductory reps will give me a chance to practice perfect groove with increasing speed until exploding as fast as I can. If it helps my body understand what real speed is, then all the better.

Did eight sets of Blakley speed benching with a conservative 50 kg/111 lbs. The first set produced a perfect line, but the others left a lot to be desired. Guess Blakley speed benching cannot immediately solve rustiness from not having done any speed benching since February (that long?!). Also dared to do some swiss ball dumbell benching being careful to lift the dumbells on a bench one by one before grabbing them for the next set and having my training partner rerack them for me.

After no heavy chest work for a couple of weeks, this workout felt great! Nearly every set pulled me out of alignment, but a couple of end range extensions put me straight again. Decided that I would stop the workout immediately if this failed. It didn’t. Then did the rehab program again, minus the muscle activation and the neural mobilization, both of which I think made me hurt last time around. I was leaning to the right as usual when I was walking home, but on the whole this workout exceeded my expectations.

Was really sore after the DE bench workout on Friday. Convinced myself that this did not matter and set up to incline bench for triples. Ended up leaving 80 kg/177 lbs on the chest. Burst that bubble.

Tried some pulldowns, but the back was not ready for these quite yet. Back to assisted pull-ups. A new record on the walk-outs saved the day.

Had to drag my behind to the gym today. Once there, the music (AC/DC, imagine that) combined with a bottle of Andrenalyn stack transformed me into a well-oiled training machine. The Blakley speed benches, which I now did in classic Westside style for nine sets with three sets for each grip width, went a lot more smoothly than last week. Most things felt great today, even did some one-handed rows in a ultra-strict slowmo fashion on the Kraftwerk one-handed row machine.

Also decided that from now on, I will start to do more bicep work. After starting to powerlift, I have usually done something like zero to three sets of direct bicep work a week. This might be enough for powerlifting, but the fact that I used to curl with 24 kg/53 lbs dumbells easily during my bodybuilding days but am now struggling with 18 kg/40 lbs gives some reason for thought. Could also use a little more volume on the front of my arms to balance the growing triceps. I have almost forgotten how fun training the biceps is.

As usual, I did my rehab work at the end of the workout. Finally adjusted the training day counter in the sidebar (this way –>) so that it now shows the correct workout on the correct day. As you might have noticed, I am doing the standard Westside four day split, but with benching on Monday and Friday. The reason for this is that my training partner is usually training on those days, so assistance is readily available for benching if need be. Since I have gotten into the habit of doing rehab after every workout, the Sunday DE squat day is in practice a rest day until I can box squat again.

My back is doing a lot better now. I seem to be straight and I can move normally at last. Like McKenzie suggests in his book, I have cut back on the frequency of back extending, but am still doing them several times a day or as needed. For the first time, I could also do assisted hamstring stretching for both legs without the back complaining. A week ago I could stretch the right leg, but could not even get a mild stretch in the left before it started hurting like h*ll in the back. The sweet taste of progress. On Tuesday, it is back to the back clinic for what will probably be the last consultation before I am on my own.

Same melody as last week: still very sore from DE bench day. I could go in and do some delts and rehab, but since I also have an appointment at the back clinic tomorrow I figure it is more sensible to stay fresh for that. Instead I take you over to the news room for the latest links.

Remember the video clip of Marko Patteri squatting hands free? Here’s pictures of two guys doing a tandem squat using a single belt courtesy of Ålands Kraftsportklubb, Finland.

Was also reading Scott Bird’s fitness blog and found a tidbit about Bruce Lee’s back injury, like mine, stemming from a good morning. Apparently it was done with his bodyweight of 135 lbs without a warm-up. One site went so far as to draw a direct causal chain between this injury and his early departure.

This was the cause of the back injury, led to his constant use of painkillers & eventually contributed to his death by drug overdose.

Don’t know why it has been hiding from me for so long, but finally discovered Jan Baggerud Larsen’s Laserdonut Swiss Ball & Powerlifting Lunacy site. Watch Inzerman save the day, read words of wisdom from JM Blakley on weight gain or discover an experiment that attempts to combine plyometric depth jumps with the use of the Swiss ball to see if the instability of the ball will increase the sympathetic neuromotoric synergism between the two lumbomechanical modalities. Be forewarned, there is a lot of other wacky stuff there as well, some of which may be little over the top depending on your taste.

Finally, redefining the meaning of raw, here is a picture of weightlifter Pisarenko squatting courtesy of Tom Goegebuer. Another pic here.

Two weeks have passed since I got my initial stability routine. During this time span I have gone from having a protective cramp pulling me out of alignment and having a hard time moving normally to regaining normal mobility and posture. And best of all, this change took place during fairly strenuous core muscle training that I would not have dared to do if it weren’t for the fact that they were prescribed to me. The first workout made me hurt more, but after that it has been all downhill.

Today I got some sense of the proportion of the hill. The back therapist told me that I can expect my discs to be fully recovered within another six months, provided I don’t do anything stupid. By that time, I will also have much strengthened core muscles that will go a long way in preventing this from happening again. The mind-set I have know is one of conditioning as opposed to brutal bar bending singles. Squats, like other main squat/dead lifts, will start figuring in my routine in this context, as will an emphasis on GPP (don’t worry if you don’t what that means, I will get back to that when I start sled dragging sometime this summer). Although I should be able to train my upper body much as normal, some of this new thinking will no doubt rub off on that as well; can’t wait to try JM presses on the swiss ball…

Today’s consultation was focused on helping me build my arsenal of stability exercises. First up was bodyweight squats on a balance board; hard at first, doable in the end. She then took me through various cable movements, including some twisting exercises. She assessed my degree of muscle activation in these by holding her hands on my lower back, concluding that my left side is working at full capacity, while the right does not get fully activated (a neurological problem I will address in a later post). Then she tried another neural mobilization exercise on me, but as that mainly stretched my inflexible calves she dropped that one. I was also asked to show her all the exercises from the previous rehab program, some of which she modified to make a little harder. “It is obvious you have done these quite a lot”. Small ego boost there.

Regarding the McKenzie extension protocol, she said that it would probably be enough if I continued doing them lying down before hitting the bed every night. But I should continue the habit of bending backwards standing now and then, especially following prolonged sitting, driving and such.

We agreed that I would come in for a follow-up visit on 20 July, which would allow her to assess whether my muscles have regained their balance or not, and help us talk about how to proceed vis-à-vis squatting and such. Tomorrow then, I take my rehab downstairs from the stretching area into the heart of the gym.

Broke the routine and did my ME bench workout today as my two latest attempts were foiled by too much soreness from the previous DE bench workout. With a ticket to Metallica’s concert in Helsinki on Friday, I am somewhat likely to skip Friday’s DE bench workout anyhow.

Forgot my latest rehab workout instructions at home, so took the ball thingy to its extreme and did the whole bench workout on it (VIDEO, 4.5M). My training partner Måns came up with the idea of taking the ball to the rack for benching. Pin presses were suitably unstable and more difficult than on a normal bench, JM presses might actually have been a little easier on the ball in spite of the bouncy ride. Also tried doing side raises kneeling on the ball, which was a little easier than I had thought. Still, I did have to adjust my balance continuously lest I throw the dumbells through the roof. Finished off with dumbell curls sitting on the ball. A great workout. I wonder if benching on a stable bench will not feel a lot easier if I keep this up…

If you try this, make sure you have a burst proof ball (will not explode, but deflates slowly if it breaks), have the pins set so the bar cannot implode your chest even if you drop the bar and see that the ball is certified as being able to handle the load.

For the last day or so, my pages have been slow to load. Downloading my training clips also takes forever and a day. This has to do with my web host loosing one of their main connections. You will have to bear with this for another two days or so until the host has their new line operational.

Edit 1 June: The hosting company now has their new line up and running, meaning speed should be mostly back up. If you tried to download the ball benching clip from the previous workout earlier but gave up after facing a torturous 1 KB/s download, the coast should now be clear.

Down with a flu again, the kind where you feel like you have a temperature, only you don’t. The kind you don’t want to train with. The kind you get after sitting for 5½ hours listening to The Lostprophets, Slipknot and Metallica on an exceptionally chilly May evening in Helsinki.

The first two bands weren’t worth another short training break. Not that they are not good bands but their music, especially Slipknot’s act with three frantic drummers on stage, warped into a mess of sounds echoing over each other. Metallica was another story. Their powerful riffs and Hetfield’s strong vocals sounded great even in the unmerciful acoustic environment provided by the Olympic Stadium. After seeing them pound away at Master of Puppets my appreciation for their skill level went through the roof. Having 50,000 guys and girls in black around you, one percent of Finland’s population, go wild also helps. Although my hair style might lead you to believe otherwise, I am not much of a headbanger. Too bad, it would have kept me warmer than the limited stomping and twitching I did.

Weird flu I got. Still not the energy bunny reincarnated, but with the lower back starting to subtly remind me of its existence again… it was time. Didn’t try to nail my balls to the walls, but worked up to a decent triple with 36 kg/80 lbs on the dumbell press and stopped there. Then did some stability ball stuff and finished with my surprisingly challenging new rehab program. Will try to get it on tape sometime this week.

Oh boy. June 2nd passed during my flu, so the bench guessing competition is now officially over with the same 97.5 kg/215 lbs still standing. Today I sent the $15 Amazon gift certificate to none other than my fiancée, who having put in the most conservative guess of 112.5 kg/249 lbs, won the competition. All in all, I am pleased with the gain as I was benching a measly 75 kg/166 lbs a year ago, but enough of this dry season already. Time to draw up a concrete battle plan. There will be triples. Perhaps chains? Hmmm…

And in case you wondered, there will be another competition announced in the near future.