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The time is ripe to begin the climb back up to some real squat/deadlift workouts. Since I will be making the return very gradually, starting with ridiculously small weights, it feels natural to do both the box squats and the deadlifts as speed work on DE Squat/Dead day.

An empty bar felt needlessly light, so worked with a safe sounding 40 kg/88 lbs on both exercises. My master plan is to increase the weight on the box squat and the deadlift with 2.5 kg/6 lbs per week. This scheme would have me increase the weight by 10 kg/22 lbs a month meaning I would be up to some meaningful speed box squat poundages by the end of the year. This timetable corresponds fairly well with my back therapist’s assessment regarding my discs being back in shape by the end of the year. I might speed things up a bit later if there are no complications, especially for the deadlift, but for now I start with this conservative base plan.

I don’t plan to do much supplementary work on DE SQ/DL day save for some ab work, but will continue doing a heavy dose of rehab work. The action will be on ME SQ/DL day where I will continue doing exercises that I can go to failure with for reps, i.e. GHRs, makeshift reverse hypers and such. Once the weights start to climb on DE day, I will slowly start to do light pin pulls etc. as supplementary work. Squats without a box will also start to figure in this context a bit later once I’ve made sure that my back can handle the reversal without locking up.

No complaints from the back today, but noticed that it had tightened up a bit when I did hanging leg raises following the box squat and deadlift. Deep down I still fear that I might have something structurally broken in my back, but at this point I cannot do much more than go on with the plan and if I get into trouble head for a magnetic scan. For now, I am glad to be back squatting and deadlifting even if it is with puny weights.

We have gotten away from doing a lot of ME GM’s [maximum effort good mornings] and are now using them as heavy supplemental work. While GM’s are a great exercise, if you perform them incorrectly then you may get injured and your training will take a giant leap backwards.
Jim Wendler responding to a question over at elitefts.com

It’s been another demanding week as you can probably tell from the somewhat irregular posting schedule. A cold Adrenalyn stack (still wondering about the name) helped me remain standing for long enough to break some more records, or more specifically adding four or five reps on the Bradford press (lost count on the last set) and four reps on the JM press. Finished with some grip work highlighted by the Rolling Thunder and then went home to pass out in peace.

 

GHRs, compound stiff-legged dumbell deadlifts… a very regular workout save for some unexpected coordination problems on the walk-outs.

After the workout I showed my newly acquired Rolling Thunder to the guy who recently embarked on a Westside program. I told him how little most people can pull with it upon which he wanted to try it himself. He pyramided up to a successful 50 kg/111 lbs lift. He defiantly gave 65 kg/144 lbs a go after I told him that he wouldn’t get it up. He had to agree that it doesn’t seem to matter that he can deadlift some 250 kg/552 lbs without straps.

While on my way back to the locker I ran into another power oriented guy I know. Couldn’t resist again unveiling the Rolling Thunder with the provocative question: “how much do you think you’d pull with this handle?”. “At least 90 kg (199 lbs)”, he responded and headed for the lifting platform. After a confident first lift at 50 kg/111 lbs he added another 20 kg/44 lbs plate. It budged, if ever so slightly. He did get 60 kg/133 lbs off the ground, but not high enough to lock it out.

Based on a survey of four male lifters (the two above, Måns’s 50 kg/111 lbs and my 47.5 kg/105 lbs) I conclude that the average lifter without thick bar training experience will probably fail at around the 55 kg/122 lbs mark give or take 5 kg/11 lbs.

Edit: This entry had corrupted comments, the problem is now fixed.

I postponed yesterday’s bench workout until today to clear up some lingering tricep soreness following Friday’s JM presses and Bradford presses. It was a wise move as the extra day of rest patched me up for another 3 rep improvement on the bench press sets. Incidentally, this was also the day I dragged yet another piece of strange equipment into the gym.

My Ironmind’s Rolling Thunder with loading pin has been waiting at the customs office since Thursday, but only now did I have time for the extensive walking required to take the declaration of the package from the mail terminal to the customs office for clearance and back. I got a good laugh at the customs when I heard that they had classified the package as ‘golf equipment’.

As I prepared to determine my Rolling Thunder max, I already knew that this is one deceptive piece of pipe. The current official world record for a single-handed deadlift using this handle plus the Ironmind 15″ loading pin is a “mere” 267 lbs/121 kg set by Estonian strongman Andrus Murumets in 2003 (here’s a picture of squat king Brent Mikesell going at it; a 192 lbs/87 kg lift gave him second place in the 2003 Northwest Rolling Thunder competition). The current women’s WR of 142 lbs/64 kg is held by none other than Becca Swanson. The sheer thickness of this handle, plus the fact that it revolves, makes this a lift a pure test of grip strength. I pyramided up in jumps of 10 kg/22 lbs and managed to get 50 kg/111 lbs off the ground with the right hand, but I had to drop down to 47.5 kg/105 lbs (VIDEO 0.5MB) to get a clean lift with both hands. Finished with some holds for time with 40 kg/88 lbs, which really drove the point home as to why a revolving handle makes this lift so much harder. Simply put, it wants to roll right out of your hand unless you hang on to it like a madman.

Spent the weekend up at the summer cottage on Project Power rack. The rack itself had not been welded yet, but I had my hands full unearthing rocks of all sizes to make room for the lifting platform. The Ice Age seems to have left the soil of this particular patch of Ostrobothnian forest about 60% rock, while not neglecting to dump a big one right where I want my rack.

After I removed the soil around the huge boulder, a task made tedious by the unfortunate amount of surface roots, I realized that only about a fourth of it had been visible above ground (see the far left of the picture in this entry). After I did some futile preliminaries with an iron bar as a lever, my dad suggested we try get it up of the hole with our small winch fastened to a nearby tree. The benching chains came in handy here, but it took several attempts before we found a rope that would not snap as soon as we got the boulder going. Up it came at last. I opted to leave it quite close to the future rack as it will make a great table for my training notes and whatnot. Besides, it goes well with the general spirit of this outdoor gym.

There is a bunch of new articles up at EliteFTS.com. I found Aaron DiPrima’s article Floor Press and its Applications particularly interesting. He talks about how he began using the floor press after a pec tear to de-emphasize the reversal at the bottom of the lift (cf. suspended good mornings) and goes on to suggest that anyone could benefit from cutting back on dynamic benching.

I feel the plyometric like speed work in the touch and go style can beat up some lifters, especially those with larger pecs and longer arms. That hard ballistic bench is not a requirement for a big bench press. If you look at some of today’s top Squatters many of them do mainly box squats, which, like the floor press is a dynamic overcoming static state. If Chuck V. and Mike Ruggeria can squat over a grand not doing any ballistic squatting then why is it necessary for us to do this hard reversal on the bench press when the shoulder girdle is not nearly as stable as the hips? [..] I believe someone could develop a good bench press doing minimal bench presses as long as they do some heavy full range rep stuff after their dynamic effort and once a month on max effort.

The interview with Chuck Vogelpohl was also a great read. His thoughts on who should be using bands gave me new zeal in resisting looping my bands around a barbell sleeve.

At least be at master level of the sport and your technique needs to be dead on. Get the most out of just using bar weight and milk it; you should be able to hit some big numbers with them and chains. The bands won’t make you squat big; check between your legs before you change anything. It takes more than a band to make you squat.

A great place to be if you want to get notified about new articles is the EliteFTS.com mailing list. Of course, there will also be frequent e-mails about specials and new products, which might be annoying if you’re not a frequent customer like some of us.

It’s amazing how hectic the start of a new school year can be. If I wasn’t so excited about seeing what kind of gains would come my way on the bradford and JM press, I would have been more than happy to call it a weekend.

Progress prevailed over tiredness and Friday 13th with an excellent start on the heavier weights for both exercises. My depleted energy stores would not last a full workout, so just capped off with some rotator cuff and bicep work. Then off to the summer cottage to enjoy August.

Summer vacation came to an abrupt end for many an elementary school student here in Finland today. It was my first day in the fifth grade… as a teacher. This will be my main occupation this year, but paychecks will also continue to drop in via my freelance activities including lecturing at the university and doing odd translation jobs more often than not related to city planning. The fun thing about teaching fifth graders is that you get to do the whole deal ranging from physical education to chemistry. Powerlifting is not an option in gym class, but the school does have a small gym that I will probably use now and then. Today I steered towards the regular gym.

Did mini-band assisted GHRs as the main exercise, but did not forget to honor my dual pledge to give the midsection and calves some more time in the limelight.

Also got some inspiration from Måns’s copy of Bill Pearl’s hefty tome Keys to the Inner Universe, probably the most extensive collection of exercises there is although it gets away with only two versions of the good morning (everybody knows there are in fact 360 variations…). Compound stiff-legged dumbell deadlifts are basically a normal stiff-legged deadlift, but you don’t just bend straight down but also alternately twist down with the dumbells toward the right and left foot. Going down once to the right, middle and left counts as one rep. First tried them directly following the GHRs, but had to abort quickly as I could not bend very far to the right before pain materialized on the left side. Once the back had been warmed up by some more work they felt fine. Bending down sideways with nearly straight legs is one of the more demanding things one can subject a low back to. I figure that if I can get to a point where these are pain-free I’m pretty much good to go. In the meantime, I will start to phase deadlifts and squats back in as going straight down no longer seems to hurt.

Second bench day of the Blakley program. Added a set to the singles for 3x1 @ 90 kg/199 lbs. On the actual work sets, I again setup too close to the uprights forcing me to readjust in the middle of the set without racking the bar. It is anybody’s guess why I would first setup correctly workout after workout and set after set, only to end up too close when benching for reps. “No need to dig in Balcony Bob, we are going for reps here”? Barely failed to lockout the sixth rep, but saved the day by gaining two reps on the last two sets. Increased the weight on many of the assistance exercises and rounded off with a pinch of forearm and grip work.

Speaking of repping, it is interesting to note just how much better my body has become at singles. Embarking on Westside over a year ago, I did 5x5 @ 70 kg/155 lbs, but could only muster a 75 kg/166 lbs single. Now I can only do about 4x5 @ 77.5 kg/171 lbs paused, but my max has jumped to 97.5 kg/216 lbs. The difference between my max and 5RM for sets has grown from 5 kg/11 lbs to 20 kg/44 lbs. That if anything is a real world example of a key difference between bodybuilders (good at reps, bad at max) and powerlifters (bad at reps, good at max). In an ironic twist, I now find myself trying to bridge the huge gap I’ve built between my rep max and my 1RM in an effort to get my max going again. In a perverted sort of way it might just work or, as they say, so far so good.