Archives for workouts (page 27)

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).

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.

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).

After rejoicing over again having a power rack, it felt a little sour to find it occupied by two squatters today. I had looked forward to doing floor presses with a barbell for the first time since late May. Not having had enough food during the day I was in no mood for waiting and headed for the powersmith instead. Once there and in action it felt good, but then suddenly everything literally stopped at 90 kg/199 lbs. I was left 12.5 kg/28 lbs short of what I did in June before heading for China. I don’t know if I just happened to lower my elbows to a spot outside my groove (on the floor press this is critical, since the elbows can’t be moved once they hit the floor) or if I’ve actually lost this much strength. Let’s see what happens next week.

The dumbell presses didn’t go that much better and my cable side delt flyes were quite sloppy. On the positive side, I finally got some chalk which did make it easier to hang on to the bar when rowing.

As I anticipated back in June, Gold’s Gym Helsinki is back after originally having been shut down in December 2001 after the lease on its premises next to the Helsinki railway station expired. Instead of immediately reopening, the gym forked into a new gym chain, Wellness, with much of the original Gold’s equipment placed at the Ruoholahti branch in Helsinki. Since Wellness caters for the average health oriented person on the street, the new gym chain apparently made a conscious decision to avoid such hardcore elements as power racks and heavy dumbells (which were limited to 40 kg/88 lbs, lest the heavy Gold’s dumbells scare away customers). As a result, part of the Gold’s crowd made the switch to Wellness with many others disappearing to more hardcore gyms such as, presumably, Töölö Gym or Metal Gym.

Apparently for some the Gold’s nostalgia became too much bear. The original Gold’s equipment was pulled out of Wellness and relocated in another premise in Ruoholahti, Helsinki. There is only one gotcha. The gym was opened to the public two days ago not as Gold’s but as Mayor’s. The reason seems to be that some licensing issues still remain with the Gold’s Gym franchise headquarters. If they are resolved I believe the idea is to unveil the second coming of Gold’s in Helsinki. Logo issues aside, the equipment is the same regardless of the name so I don’t really care all that much. Have power rack and donkey calf machine, be happy. The characteristic dark dungeon atmosphere is gone, but the music is loud and the equipment sturdy. Results should follow.

Not surprisingly, good mornings in the power rack became the first exercise of the day. My adductors were still really sore, but they did not seem to hamper the stiff-legged deadlift too much.

Had so sore abdominals and legs that just getting on the bench was a chore. Serves me right for not easing into my training after a month’s layoff. Trained outside at a sunny Toffe’s gym. Not very good lifts today, but I enjoyed doing lying rear delt raises, which used to be among my favorites. I don’t know why I haven’t done these in a while.

Not much to say about this workout. I felt quite slow off the box after not doing it for over a month. I pretended to compensate for the lower weights on the box by doing a very hard three sets of kneeling cable crunches…

First workout after a month in China. Besides working the grippers once or twice per week, my workouts consisted mostly of walking, talking and climbing (including three days on Mt. Emei — where I also sneaked in some presses with a concrete weight before limping on up the never-ending staircase with my cane).

Whereas my grip improved to the point where I could very nearly close the number I Captains of Crush gripper, the question is how much I lost on my other lifts. Going for a max bench today I got an easy 80 kg/177 lbs as compared to the 85 kg/188 lbs bench I did in mid-July. My groove wasn’t so good and it was midnight, but I’m quite happy with the result. A few workouts, and I should be back on track pushing for more records.

I had only slept three hours before this workout and felt a little foggy; after good gains in the Powersmith floor press the rest of the workout was nothing to write home about (naturally, the web is another story…).

The lack of sleep is explained by a lot of things that had to be done before leaving for China tomorrow. From a lifting standpoint it is a little sad to have to cut this cycle short as I was just getting up to speed with Westside, but a sinologist has to do what a sinologist has to do. No complaints there! The grand scheme is to take this opportunity to work the grippers hard for a month to improve ye olde grip, and possibly catch a workout or two with the locals. It might take up to a month for the next installment, until then, I bid you zaijian!

Set out to improve last week’s 130 kg/287 lbs deadlift. My legs were in much better shape today and it didn’t hurt to squat down deep enough (i.e. legs slightly above parallel with the floor). Managed to pull 135 kg/298 lbs without straps to full lockout (no belt or other gear as usual). Still 15 kg/33 lbs short of my best ever dead, but I am getting there.

Like last week, I spent a little too much time fiddling with the deadlifts and ended up getting in a hurry. When I failed to produce a good setup for reverse-hypers using whatever straps I could find lying around I settled for a single set of pull-throughs. Still, 70 minutes is pushing it. No calves today either.

Now for the punch line: a nice video of Matt Smith deadlifting 825 lbs/373 kg conventional style with picture perfect form (my eyes) at the IPA Nationals in Columbus, Ohio 17 November 2001 courtesy of Monster Muscle.