(page 16)

From now on, I will post weekly workout summaries instead of going workout by workout. In a worst case scenario, this might mean only one update a week unless I have some news, reviews or links to post. My main reason for doing this is that we are expecting our first child in February. As a very excited father-to-be, I want to put my priorities straight even before I’m too sleep-deprived to blog several times a week. Once I have more time on my hands I will reconsider my posting schedule, but until then I hope you will bear with me.

If you know where this blog is, carry on. If, on the other hand, you need a convenient excuse for not threading into the voluminous archives or want a frameable big picture of the Under the Bar experience 2004, this is it (no refunds).

“This continuing back pain saga is inducing a split personality”

If there is one thing that has dominated this blog for the past year it is the well-advertised good morning injury that I sustained in December 2003. Initially things looked quite bright: the swelling and bruising indicated only limited internal bleeding and the acute phase, where I was unable to sit for any length of time, passed quickly enough to allow controlled leg work two weeks later. January rolled in to the tune of fairly heavy zercher and box squats, while I did my best to repress lingering doubt from my mind and, consequently, blog. In the only heavier squat/deadlift workout of February, I still noted a cold sensation at the injury possibly indicative of bad blood flow and scar tissue. In a whim of self-delusional lunacy, perhaps caused by a feeling that “four months ought to be enough to heal whatever I got”, I did some heavy deadlifts in March. Felt some real fear doing that and consequently embarked on a more controlled comeback with lighter weights. In spite of this, things changed for the worse as the left side of the lower back went into a cramp in the middle of a squat putting even pulldowns two days later out of the question.

I finally conceded defeat and saw an osteopath who declared my vertebrae a mess and then adjusted my back. I felt great, but the next day the pain had migrated to the right side. In the midst of a Saturday stroll the pain suddenly intensified. After having limped home, Sanna, a licensed massage therapist, checked me for trigger points and found some on the gluteus and one on the right calf. We concluded that they were probably the effects of other muscles becoming overstressed trying to protect the injury while compensating for the imbalance in musculature. Aggressive trigger point massage with a tennis ball several times daily lessened the pain somewhat. At this point I received an e-mail from chiropractor and powerlifter Vince Scelfo, later a NAP world record holder. Vince, who had just suffered a good morning injury of his own, broadly supported our conclusion with some very enlightening comments about how adjusting displaced vertebrae without fixing the underlying problem would just lead to them being pulled out of alignment again. This was precisely what a second visit to the osteopath showed; everything was again out of place, but on the bright side I appeared to have regained some of the natural curvature of the spine, the adjustments were easier and I had less tense gluteus owing to the trigger point massage. He figured I would be all right and would not need to come back. His optimism was somewhat reassuring, but at the same time it was clear that I was feeling a lot worse than in January/February. Squats and deads being unthinkable, I focused on doing what I had coined the “Happy Back workout” consisting of makeshift reverse hypers and weighted ball crunches.

Sleeping in odd beds and walking a lot during a 10-day trip to Tuscany in late April/early May fried my trigger points again. In a second lunatic moment, I figured Smith squats would be safe, after all, I did them weeks after the injury without ill effects. Not so now, as some acute discomfort appeared already at 60 kg/133 lbs. I abandoned the movement for makeshift reverse hypers, but they only aggravated the pain. Catching a glimpse of myself in the dressing room mirror I noticed that the protective cramp had caused me to become all crooked with the shoulder girdle slanting heavily to the right. The further from the injury I got, the worse my condition seemed to become. In this classic moment of despair, I booked an appointment with a highly regarded back clinic for the next day.

The therapist had me bend in different directions in order to assess whether a certain movement aggravated or lessened the protective response and pain. He told me he was assessing me using the McKenzie protocol and asked me to try doing ten reps of back extensions every hour to help shift displaced fluid nucleus in the discs. I also saw a doctor at the occupational health clinic to get some sick leave; ended up with the predictable muscle relaxants, pain killers and good advice. Six days later the cramp was gone and I returned to the back clinic for exercise advice. This visit turned into a major revelation as I was introduced to the concept of core training to strengthen the deep muscles that stabilize the spinal region… suddenly I was immersed into the shaky world of stability balls and balance boards. Between May and June, the programs gradually increased in difficulty and intensity going from simple walkouts via various cable exercises to one-legged work on the balance board. Even did some all-out benching on the stability ball and tried side raises on the balance board. Just say rehab wasn’t too boring anymore…

In mid-August, after three months of core rehab and nine months after the initial injury, I felt ready to begin the slow climb towards pre-injury weights on the squat and deadlift. Began by doing box squats and deadlifts as speed work, but the back rebelled against the ridiculously fast rep speed induced by the puny 40 kg/88 lbs on the bar by again going into a nasty cramp. To make things even merrier, the adductors and calf muscles joined in making standing and benching painful. It took a full month before the leg pain cleared up and yet another month before I regained my rehab enthusiasm with a vengeance. Before I knew it, I had repped with 80 kg/177 lbs on the good morning, had become preoccupied with excruciating squat analysis and even loaded 120 kg/265 lbs on my back for kneeling squats.

Whether the push back to max effort squat/deadlift work will be successful this time is one of the big question marks for early 2005, but so far I’ve been feeling better than at any point during the past year. I also hope this little case study into a good morning back injury will help someone out there steer clear of the mistakes I made; basically, had I known what to do after the injury, not to mention before the injury (never to early to begin core training), I would not have aggravated my problem for the 6 months that followed. Still, I have no regrets as this episode turned into a very enriching learning experience. I think I also have less fear about lifting injuries now… a back injury is painful, but it is not death.

“Time to face it. My bench is stuck.”

By the end of 2003, I had increased my bench with 22.5 kg/50 lbs over the seven months that had elapsed since I converted from bodybuilding to powerlifting (that with a month off for a trip to China). In a sudden twist, gains ground to a halt and the quest for a 100 kg/221 lbs bench became the other defining theme of 2004. I managed to break that barrier in January on both close and wide grip floor presses, but that was it. After even Patrick Nyman’s well-respected bench routine failed to increase the max, I finally faced the facts in early May. After a brief Westside benching interlude, where I experimented with speed work both JM Blakley style and with chains, I declared the hunting season open and embarked on Blakley’s 4x6 bench program figuring that if I can’t get my max up then perhaps I could try to increase the repping weights instead and then go for a new max. I had some issues with both my back and overtraining on a modified version of the program, but by mid-December my 6 rep max had jumped from 77.5 kg/171 lbs to a solid 85 kg/188 lbs. And best of all, I had benched 102.5 kg/227 lbs on 1 November. Seldom has anybody been so happy about gaining 2.5 kg/6 lbs over ten months! By the end of the year, I had decided to embark on a hybrid Westside routine and began the cycle by blasting up 110 kg/243 lbs off two-boards, a 15 kg/33 lbs gain compared to what I mustered in February 2003. As I have usually benched as much off my chest as off the two-boards, this bodes well for my next bench max attempt in early 2005.

The year 2004 was not a great benching year, partially attributable to the aforementioned back problems and perhaps a mental barrier at benching two plates, but at least it had a happy ending (I’ve heard of people getting stuck for years). I also need to thank Mike and Scott for helping me improve benching form, which will serve me well as the weights continue their climb in 2005.

“I got a good laugh at the customs when I heard that they had classified the package as ‘golf equipment’.”

From the blog’s standpoint, the most enriching purchase of 2004 was definitively the Canon Powershot A80 digital camera we bought in January; the year saw a whopping 56 video clips and countless pictures being posted. Also got, or made, some stuff for Toffe’s Gym: all-weather Balance board, stability ball, pair of 1/2″/13 mm chains and 30 kg of rubber coated Olympic plates. My training arsenal was strengthened with the following: Thumbsaver massage tool (for my sore shoulders), a pair of Jumpstretch mini-bands (for makeshift glute ham raises), Rolling Thunder with loading pin , wooden pinch grip block, board serving as back rest for pin presses, Casall balance board, powerlifting belt, Captains of Crush No. 2 gripper, and weight releasers (the last few items were bought in December and have not seen much action yet). Got a number of books, magazines and videos as well, the most notable being Blakley’s XTM bench video, Westside Squat workout tapes, The Kennelly method benching book, Bench press by Dr. Judd Biasiotto, Brent Mikesell’s Hardcore powerlifting video, a bunch of EliteFTS manuals, Jeck’s stonelifting book and, best of all, a subscription to MILO. Whoa, that’s a lot of stuff!

“Training blogs seem to be sprouting left and right.”

When I began this blog in May 2003 it was a lonely existence. If there were any other powerlifting blogs out there at this time, I sure couldn’t find them. Imagine my joy when I discovered one by Chris McClinch from October; two months later it had, unfortunately, turned belly up. In 2004, things were much different and I gradually found myself in the company of other powerlifting bloggers. In May, I discovered Scott Bird’s fitness blog; started in January with a general fitness orientation, Scott began lifting in late March and gradually shifted focus towards pure powerlifting Westside style under the name Straight to the Bar. In August, Westside Barbell surprised by putting up its own group blog, which consists almost exclusively of posted workouts without commentary. In September, reader Marie Rochat, later a WABDL world record holder in the deadlift, dedicated a blog to her training under the name Barz-a-Bending. At the end of the year, I suddenly found myself reading a bunch of new blogs including Jamie Jamieson (started 13 November), Skinny Bastard Training Log dedicated to Olympic lifting (started 1 August), Lift n’ learn (started 30 November), Stinn’s Workout Blog (started 10 December) and Chris Green’s Training Log (started February 26). That’s a total of eight blogs right there, if you don’t count Chris McClinch’s new blog, The Thinking Lifter, that hasn’t seen any updates since it was born in November. It feels good to be a part of this small spiderweb of PL blogs that hopefully will not be decimated by the high mortality rates of blogs.

“The only friendly hamburgers are homemade.”

Nutrition. Now here’s topic that received very little coverage in 2004! Behind the headlines the munching went on much as usual. Continued with my totally sugar free lifestyle, made sure I got 30-50 grams of protein at all major meals, took my multiminerals as a good boy and shook my postworkout shake like a crazed monkey after every workout. Ate plenty of omega 3 for much of the year and also tried creatine pyruvate (didn’t work for me). My new interest in red wine, that ripened into full fruition during our trip to Tuscany, was probably the most drastic nutritional change of 2004. I’m still a very moderate drinker with a glass or two a week.

“The patient ones among you will be rewarded. Eventually.”

…aka the things I said I would do but didn’t (complete with excuses expansion kit): diet (no need to as I dropped my weight from around 97 kg to a current 93 kg/206 lbs by doing nothing else than walking around at work), sled dragging (back dead), work with squat king Brent Mikesell on my squat technique (back deader than dead), write more reviews (just blogging workouts eats all my time), build a power rack for Toffe’s Gym (not my fault, the welder didn’t show up despite me buying all the hardware and unearthing huge rocks at Toffe’s Gym). Out of these, I vow to do a bit of everything listed in 2005 except for the diet bit. That’s a maybe.

AND THAT’S ALL I’M GOING TO SAY ABOUT 2004.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.