Archives for workouts (page 9)

Monday, 17 Jan 2005: Squat/Deadlift

Tried extra hard to sit back on the box squats with some success. Then switched to deadlifts and worked up to a triple at 120 kg/265 lbs before making the decision that I better stop there this week. One step at a time. If the deadlifts weren’t close to a real max, the ultra-wide deads were. I put the collars way out on the bar, then got into an extremely wide sumo stance and pulled for hip and country. I’ve seen this on the Westside tapes, but it was the first time I tried it myself. The stance might have been a bit on the wide wild side, but the thought that I might end up in a full split did not come to pass. In my martial arts days as an ultra-flexible black belt this would not have been a problem, but now… anyway, first time, first PR at 5 @ 110 kg/243 lbs.

Wednesday, 19 Jan 2005: Bench

A big banner loudly proclaiming “World Class Gym” in the middle of an industrial area on the way from the school gym to the centre of Helsinki has been attracting the attention of a certain lifting duo. Last week, we finally pulled down from the highway to take a closer look. Turned out to be a medium sized gym part of the Swedish owned World Class franchise that has been there for some 15 years. Famed Finnish bodybuilder Jorma Räty, winner of the 1980 IFBB World Bodybuilding Championship middleweight title, also trains there three times a week (he was in when we were there the first time) - interestingly enough, Räty competed in powerlifting before becoming a bodybuilder and actually won the Nordic Championships in the below 90 kg/199 lbs class in 1969. The machines looked retro in a cool way, but the music was equally retro in a bad way. Supplement prices were several euro cheaper than at the other gyms and the atmosphere was friendly and close-knit. There was no rack to be found, but as we were promised a free try we decided to do today’s training there to conveniently allow me to do some long anticipated dumbell work.

I had to ask some guys how to orientate among the dumbells as I found no markings on them. “Either you count the plates and add 1.4 kg/3.1 lbs for the handles or then try to make sense of the hardly discernable worn-out markings on the rack”. Did a little bit of both. Worked up to a PR double with the 41.6 kg/92 lbs dumbells on the flat bench, which I am quite satisfied with given that I haven’t done these for over a year. Then continued on to dumbell floor presses and was happy to discover that I could both get into position and out of there even with the 39.2 kg/87 lbs bells that I did the last double with.

If the regular clientele wasn’t staring when I worked the dumbells on the floor, the JM presses at least got a few members to pay attention. Followed up with some chest supported rows and then tried a funky looking row machine with the stack; much like the dumbells, the machines had only minimal markings so had no idea what I was repping with. Was pretty beat at this point as I had lived on mostly liquid the whole day - not every day you drink four protein shakes…

Friday, 21 Jan 2005: Accessory

The residue of a sports massage I had at school on Tuesday was mostly gone, but felt quite stiff with humongous chest and triceps soreness from Wednesday’s dumbell session. The biceps were also a bit beat, but did the barbell curls nonetheless before moving into a superset of upper cable turns and incline sit-ups. Wrapped up with stiff-legged deadlifts off the balance board where I worked up to 6 @ 80 kg/177 lbs. By that time, the barbell was actually coming up in a fairly straight line and I no longer looked like I might eject at any time. That’s when the camera was there for this week’s video summary (3.1 MB)

Training week condensed, take 1. Will prefix all the workout summaries with the week of the year, perhaps I can fool some new visitors into thinking these are the number of weeks I have been training. Will also be posting only one video even if there is footage from several days, look for it at the end of the summary or try clicking any images from training sessions, I usually link those straight to video footage if available.

Monday, 3 Jan 2005: Squat/Deadlift

Did the usual speed squatting, this time with a newly acquired powerlifting belt. No, I’m not about to budge just yet from my beltless lifting ethos but will use it on box squats to facilitate correct midsection tightening as prescribed by Dave Tate:

First, expand your abdomen as much as possible. When you pull air into your body it should be into the diaphragm, not the chest. Expand you belly and push it out against your belt. This will stabilize and support the lower back and not elongate the spine. If you’re having a hard time trying to figure this out, then wear your weight belt one notch loose and push into it with your belly so it becomes tight.

With the new routine dictating a pull every other week, I did rack pulls next. Worked up to a modest 110 kg/243 lbs from below the knees. Not that I couldn’t have done more, but this is the heaviest loads I’ve placed on the low back in a loooong time, so I’m doing the sensible thing here for once.

Wednesday, 5 Jan 2005: Bench

Ever since last week’s two-board press max effort rollercoaster, I’ve lived in suspense. The triceps got predictably mega-sore and it was questionable whether the sauna-massage-tiger balm regime would do much to make them ready for another bench session in seven days. Come Wednesday I still had some light soreness left, but having paid a steep 85 euros for a pair of weight releasers I felt ready to rumba. The primary target of the day was a new close-grip PR of 105 kg/232 lbs with an added 10 kg/22 lbs on the releasers for a 115 kg/254 lbs descent. After I, presumably, would make that weight I would ditch the releasers and feel the lightness of 107.5 kg/238 lbs. Thus, besides making my body acquainted with a bit heavier weights, the releasers would also serve a grand psychological purpose (releasers can also be used for speed work to build reversal strength).

Started adding the 10 kg/22 lbs releasers (2.5 kg plates + 5 kg releasers) at 80 kg/199 lbs. Once I hit 100 kg/221 lbs, a new PR weight on the close-grips, I first started doubting the descent as I had never lowered 110 kg/243 to my chest before and the slight swaying of the releasers could potentially take me seriously out of groove. Not surprisingly, my fears led to an overspotted first set but it served to reassure me that 110 kg/243 lbs was no problem. With no spotting hands between me and the bar this time, I went for it again. After the releasers jumped off, the bar first dipped left as I pushed up then it went right (if you look closely at the picture series above, you’ll see why). I was nowhere near my optimal groove, but got it up. Then attempted 105 kg/232 lbs with a 115 kg/254 lbs descent, but it didn’t go. Neither did 105 kg/232 lbs without releasers. Tried some board presses for the secondary movement, but shoulders were too fried so went straight into some pressdowns instead.

The initial disappointment of only making 100 kg/221 lbs was quickly replaced by contentment. After all, the suboptimal groove of the lift and the extra heavy descent made this 100 kg/221 lbs a tad special. As for the descent, I’m pretty sure I could have handled 125 kg/276 lbs to 135 kg/299 lbs (one article I found by Matt Brzycki stated that a fresh muscle can usually handle about 40% more on the eccentric lowering phase). If going for a truly max lowering, which is probably not needed and a sure shoulder killer, there should be ample safety precautions as the weight will more or less free fall down on you if you can’t handle it. Take whatever your max bench is, then add 40% more. Scared yet?

I’ve linked to it before, but for a bit more hardcore weight releaser footage than my video (4MB), see this clip of Ano squatting with bands and releasers.

Friday, 7 Jan 2005: Accessory

Had a very short night, a morning nap really, and having breakfast an hour before a 2pm workout was not optimal. To save my precious breakfast, I opted for supersets instead of the normal circuit. But before that I did standing cable curls on the balance board for the first time… a bit shaky, but easier than with free weights since the cable does provide a bit of support. These, along with Måns’s ingenious weighted spiderman rows and Wednesday’s weight releaser action, are of course on this week’s video (4MB).

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.

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.

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 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.

YABAD (Yet Another Blakley Accessory Day). I had trouble keeping my arch throughout the reps on the reverse-grip bench, which has been something of a trend on the normal bench as well. For the third set, I tried applying a liberal amount of chalk on the trap region of my T-shirt and suddenly found myself glued to the bench! Can definitively be recommended for those who have a tendency to flatten out due to slippery T-shirts. Didn’t quite succeed in whizzing past 4x6 @ 82.5 kg/182 lbs after losing the groove on the third set causing the bar to crash into the pins prematurely and coming up one rep short on the fourth set. Then humiliation struck on the seated pin press as I only got 4 @ 62.5 kg/138 lbs - mission aborted after one set.

Some acute elbow strain on the reverse-grip bench and the fact that my seated pin press has really gone nowhere, made me question whether it makes sense to continue doing them as accessories. The last thing I want now is a strained elbow - don’t want one major injury a year if I can avoid it. Some minor ones should suffice.

Come to think of it, it might be time to take a break off the whole Blakley program for a while despite some early signs of renewed progress after overtraining on a modified version of the program (that program is in itself probably great, just couldn’t recuperate from the increased volume). I’ve reached the goal I set when I embarked on it back in August, i.e. I’ve raised my repping weight from 77.5 kg/171 lbs to 85 kg/188 lbs (a 7.5 kg/17 lbs gain), and also broke the 100 kg/221 lbs barrier in the bench. The program put some life back in my stale bench and I’ve got nothing but praise for it, but I could use some variation to keep motivation running high. I might go back to Westside benching for a while to break some of my old records, but am also considering a host of other possibilities including Korte’s 3x3 program a reader raved about, a USSR squat routine adapted for the bench and a simple Mendelson inspired bench single-2 board press routine I got from Mike as a solution to my overtraining problem. Suggestions warmly welcome as usual.

In the meantime, here’s a breakdown, or index if you will, of the Blakley experience. Based on my experience with it, I can highly recommend the program for anyone whose max is stuck/sticky (might even be a good program to cycle back to back with Westside). Blakley will be back, I promise you that!

PROGRESS ON BLAKLEY 4x6 BENCH PROGRAM, 2 AUG-15 DEC 2004

ME SQ/DL. Unaccustomed as my back is to squatting, it felt like a good idea to do something a little less lower back strenuous today. The kneeling squat popped first into my head, probably because I was reminded of its existence while rewatching the Westside Squat Workout tapes earlier in the week. Worked up to a decently heavy 5 reps at 120 kg/265 lbs; it was no max effort, but enough to give the hip flexors some stimulation. My best pre-injury result on the exercise was 10 @ 135 kg/298 lbs.

Next did incline cable sit-ups with a puny 5 kg/11 lbs of resistance. Got three reps, then continued on with bodyweight reps. I much prefer the cable to holding a plate, because a) cheating is out of the question (the plate can be moved a bit forward to make it easier) and b) the resistance is the same no matter what angle you happen to be in. I’m going to work hard on getting the weights up on this one. Some more ab work, walkouts for core stability and curtains.

VIDEO (2.2MB)

Today was swimming day for the whole school and I spent the day supervising in the swimming stadium (I’m a teacher if you missed that). With no time for lunch, I was feeding on protein-carb shakes all day long. Felt like I was also coming down with something to boot. No surprise then, that I sympathized with the plight of the armless feller who stood guard outside the men’s dressing room - all in line with my recent abnormal interest in signs.

Once I got to the gym I did surprisingly well managing to post a new PR series on the bench although I did have a bit of ass lift-off on the last rep of the first set. So shoot me. I’ve decided to do circuits on ME day for both the bench and the squat/deadlift after the max lift, but feeling like I did I thought it best to not flaunt my luck.

I trust my back is now stable enough to throttle back to ordinary Westside training. Screams from beyond the grave… DE Squat/Deadlift is back! The need for speed is indeed great, but I hope the near weekly (will follow the three-day rotating Westside split) box squatting sessions can also help rectify my horrendous squat technique. To this effect, I will start out with the Rookie Cycle, intended for this very purpose, out of the Elite Fitness System’s Dynamic Squat manual. Clap your hands, for it goes like this:

ROOKIE CYCLE
Week 1: 35% for 15 sets of 2 reps
Week 2: 40% for 18 sets of 2 reps
Week 3: 45% for 20 sets of 2 reps
Percentages adapted for a raw lifter, deduct 10% if calculated off an equipped max.

Armed myself with print-outs of Dave Tate’s Squatting from Head to Toe and Rob Wagner’s Powerlifting Technique Part I and headed for the gym. First loaded the bar to 90 kg/199 lbs to practice setting up properly. In the past, I’ve just put the bar on my back and then stepped back into my stance in whatever way caught my fancy (you get the picture). Now, I focused on creating a stable base by pulling the bar down hard over the shoulders while pinching the shoulder blades tightly together. Then drove the elbows in under the bar while wishing I had a buffalo bar, unracked and practiced stepping into my stance with two elegant steps. Next time, I think I will try doing it the Mikesell way via three steps as the plates had a tendency to sway out a bit (ok, so I am setting up too far from the rack, admitted). Rack! Repeat for 10 sets or so. Ritual isn’t built in one set.

Next moved into the actual work sets of 15x2 @ 35 kg/77 lbs. Kept the speed purposively a bit slow since the bar can move a little too fast for my well-being when weights are this light. My main concern was to eliminate the usual forward dip on ascent while lessening needless rocking after sitting down on the box… a tall order! I was after as vertically straight a bar path as possible with Wendler’s “picture yourself in a Smith machine” advice ringing in my ears. If the bar is not allowed to deviate from this path, it follows that the sitting back phase is nothing more than arching hard to push the hips and glutes (your colloquial butt) back. To quote Wendler again, “this is a very uncomfortable position and it should be noted that squatting is not a comfortable exercise”. In retrospect, I probably was a bit too comfortable still as I should sit back further still. Mental note to self: shoulder and back discomfort are essential to good squatting technique.

Secondarily, I also did my best to spread the knees to better open up the hips on descent while pushing the feet out sideways (aka “spreading the floor”). Not very intuitive, but we all begin somewhere.

After the 15 light sets, I pyramided up to a couple of sets with 80 kg/177 lbs to see whether I could keep form up with a bit heavier weights. After concluding that this is about where form begins to break down, I moved on to some accessory work before heading home to compare today’s squat footage with other squats filmed from the same angle, i.e. straight from the side. I ended up dissecting Mikesell’s 229 kg/505 lbs raw squat from the Brent’s Hardcore Powerlifting video and Tommy Fannon’s 319 kg/705 lbs box squat with briefs alongside my best rep at 35 kg/77 lbs and the final 80 kg/177 lbs single (VIDEO 1MB). First created a complete breakdown of the lifts with a central axis running from the middle of the foot for comparison purposes (note, this is not necessarily where the bar should be at all times), then used this information to map the bar path for both descent and ascent. The result shows Mikesell and my light set being very close to perfectly straight, while Fannon’s hefty box squats shows a bit of forward dipping although not quite as severe as on my heavier set. When doing this kind of work, layers are your friend whether in Photoshop or The Gimp.

Bar path of Mikesell’s raw squat, Fannon’s box squat and today’s light and heavier box squat. Yellow dots are mapped bar position during descent, red dots bar positions on ascent.

CONCLUSIONS

One thing that strikes me looking at these comparisons is how long my bar path is compared to the other lifters. I am fairly tall at 183 cm/6 feet and could probably gain quite a lot by moving my stance out a bit more. In fact, at Westside a very wide stance is usually used on box work to effectively overload the hip region with the competition stance being more narrow. In my case, widening the stance would probably force me out of the rack, in case of which a spotter would become paramount (ok, perhaps not on DE work). Will experiment.

Secondly, I am quite content with the bar path on my lighter sets, but still think I need to arch harder. The 80 kg/177 lbs set shown on the video was probably a bit better than my usual form when working around 100 kg/221 lbs, but the root of all evil still forces me to take a dip before driving up. What seems to happen is the common mistake of driving off the box too much with the legs instead of driving from the hips, which forces the bar to dip as the head is not driven back early enough. I think I have the same mistake on my light set as well, it’s just that extremely light weights provide good camouflage. Technique wise I need to drive back against the bar more aggressively, strength wise I need to strengthen my lower back at this angle (short range arched back good mornings spring to mind). More work to follow.