#drizzt

[Phedder]

But I'm not entirely converted yet, and I still reckon conventional is the more badass of the two 8)

Keep it that way! Thought you were into this high frequency high intensity stuff, give your lower back the thrashing it needs

[drizzt]

Thats one of the primary reasons it is used is because of the volume on the lower back with squatting , arched benching and then conv deadlifting. sometimes conv vs sumo the conv can be stronger but ensuring longevity in the sport and the ability to continue progress and train hard, sumo seems to be very popular.

True, didn't even think of adding benching into that mix, but it does affect things now that I think about it :think:

But definitely thinking long-term with this (possible) change :nod:

Keep it that way! Thought you were into this high frequency high intensity stuff, give your lower back the thrashing it needs

Haha, lower back doesn't seem to like that for some reason! Not only that, my lower back has been the source of probably the worst injuries I've had, so I don't wanna push it too hard, as I know it's likely to throw in the towel if I get too cheeky with it.

Also, it's just so integral to everything we do throughout the day, and it doesn't seem to recover quite as well as everything else on my body that I thrash. I think I mentioned on another page that my lower back has been pretty tight for about 6 months now :pfft: Time to pre-empt any potential issues and start thinking about long-term methinks :nod:

[Phedder]

Just giving ya some cheek, I totally understand where you're coming from :nod:

Trialed a switch to sumo myself quite a while back for the same reasons, but I never stuck it out long enough to see if it had potential for bigger weights. Have really tightened up my conventional technique since and no longer get lower back issues. Muscle ache sure, but not that horrible bone/joint wincing pain. If I started getting that again I doubt I'd think twice about trialing sumo further.

Look forward to seeing how you respond to it, may even help you hit that 300 squat

[drizzt]

Just giving ya some cheek, I totally understand where you're coming from :nod:

Trialed a switch to sumo myself quite a while back for the same reasons, but I never stuck it out long enough to see if it had potential for bigger weights. Have really tightened up my conventional technique since and no longer get lower back issues. Muscle ache sure, but not that horrible bone/joint wincing pain. If I started getting that again I doubt I'd think twice about trialing sumo further.

Look forward to seeing how you respond to it, may even help you hit that 300 squat

Ha ha yeah I know bro.

I don't quite get that pain, or any real pain I guess, it's just a constant feeling of fatigue. Makes it kinda hard-ish to sit straight, first few steps after getting up are slow as the back adjusts to the shift in weight... that sorta thing.

But yeah if I can make the switch easily enough and get to around my conventional PB pretty quick (which I'm quietly confident of doing with a bit of work on technique), I can see myself making the switch fairly permanent :nod:

[drizzt]

28.01.12 - 5 x 5, W3/D3

104.9 today, had the biggest subway of my life yesterday plus a pretty large dinner... and then fasted this morning for training. Probably the best I've felt for a couple of months today too. Might have to make it a habit

• Squats (sets x reps @ weight - RPE)
  Warmups
  bar
  1 x 8 @ 60kg
  1 x 5 @ 100kg
  1 x 3 @ 120kg
  1 x 3 @ 140kg
  1 x 1 @ 160kg
  Working
  1 x 5 @ 177.5kg - 7
  1 x 5 @ 190kg (b) - 8
  1 x 5 @ 207.5kg (b/w) - 7
  1 x 5 @ 220kg (b/w) - 7
  1 x 5 @ 235kg (b/w) - 9.5
  
• Bench
  Warmups
  bar
  1 x 8 @ 60kg
  1 x 3 @ 80kg
  1 x 2 @ 100kg
  Working
  5 x 5 @ 122.5kg - 8
  
• Barbell Rows
  1 x 5 @ 60kg - 6
  5 x 5 @ 82.5kg - 8
  
• Turkish Get-ups
  1 x 5/ps @ 20lb - 6
  1 x 5/ps @ 40lb - 8
  1 x 5/ps @ 60lb - 10
  
• Conditioning
  12km walk (roughly 2hours)

Comments

• Found my squat mojo today \:D/ Everything from the first warmups with the bar, right through the working sets up to the top set of 235 x 5 felt great.
  Was thrown off a little by how easy 220 x 5 was, and even 235 didn't quite present the challenge I thought it would. Gave 235 a 9.5 because while it looked (and felt!) hard, I reckon if I really wanted to I could've ground out another.
  Depth was ok, maybe a little shady on 1 or 2 of the top set reps, but we got some vid and you can judge for yourself.
  
• Bench was ok, didn't quite feel as snappy as it has lately, but never in danger of failing either.
  
• BB rows were good, fast. Nothing unusual.
  
• Turks were awesome, love this exercise. 60lb DB was such a challenge, I was so stoked to get 5 reps on each arm with that :grin:

Good session, roll on the toughest week of the program 8) Video is uploading now, will post when it's done.

[drizzt]

[Big john]

smashed the squats bro's :clap: :clap:

[drizzt]

Cheers bro!

[Dontrunwithknives]

Awesome squats man!

[drizzt]

Thanks! Today gave me the mental boost I need to attack this program hard, now I know I'm capable of it, 300 doesn't seem so far away anymore...

[Panzer]

Them little pelvic thrusts you do at the top are interesting Drizzt :shock:

[drizzt]

Haha, do you mean MT (in the first two clips of the vid)? He does have a bit of that going on!

Otherwise I notice I do it a little bit (I'm the last two clips in the vid), but that's more just sucking in the breath to the gut than any real "pelvic movement" :pfft:

[Mike Zero]

Awesome!

[drizzt]

Thanks bro!

29.01.12 - Assistance

104.1 today, fasted though so probably roughly the same as yesterday.

• Conditioning Stuff
  ~15km Walking
  3 sets of one-arm yellow band pushdowns x 50 reps/per arm
  3 sets of leg extensions @ 115kg x 12 reps
  3 sets of calf raises @ 80kg x 25 reps
  3 sets of rear db raises @ 15lb x 12 reps
  3 sets of facepulls @ full stack x 15 reps

Comments

• Felt like doing something today, so walked in, did some stretches and random assist stuff. Nothing spectacular.
  Wanted to do "the bear" but the platform was in use while I was there.
  Walked some of the return leg home, but got an offer of a ride, so took that instead of wasting another hour+!

[drizzt]

31.01.12 - 5 x 5, W4/D1

105.8 wtf! Have been walking 30+ kms per week (did another 10 yesterday that I didn't log), eats haven't necessarily increased (although aren't any tidier mind you). Confused. Maybe I should just stop fighting it and let the body grow, but I do want to stay in 105s this year :think:

• Squats (sets x reps @ weight - RPE)
  Warmups
  bar
  1 x 8 @60kg
  1 x 5 @ 100kg
  1 x 3 @ 130kg
  1 x 3 @ 150kg
  1 x 2 @ 170kg
  1 x 1 @ 190kg
  1 x 1 @ 212.5kg (b/w)
  Working
  2 x 5 @ 227.5kg (b/w) - 10
  1 x 5 @ 227.5kg (b/w) - 9
  2 x 5 @ 227.5kg (b/w) - 8
  
• Bench
  Warmups
  bar
  1 x 5 @ 60kg
  1 x 2 @ 100kg
  1 x 1 @ 120kg
  Working
  1 x 3 @ 140kg (missed 4th) - 10
  1 x 2 @ 140kg (missed 3rd) - 10
  1 x 4 @ 130kg - 10
  1 x 5 @ 120kg - 10
  1 x 5 @ 110kg - 10
  1 x 5 @ 100kg - 10
  
• Barbell rows
  bar
  1 x 2 @ 60kg
  1 x 5 @ 75kg - 6
  1 x 5 @ 80kg - 6
  1 x 5 @ 85kg - 7
  1 x 5 @ 90kg - 7
  1 x 5 @ 95kg - 8

Comments

• Soo bit of a mixed bag today!
  First of all, forgot my soft suit :doh: Which meant I had to squat in the "well fitting" shorts I was wearing. Didn't seem too troublesome in the earlier sets, but it really begun to throw me off as the weight went up.
  In the soft suit, it's pretty much like squatting nude :shifty: There is nothing to catch your legs on, you don't feel it resisting you, doesn't move around on you etc... But with shorts, none of this is true. I had just enough resistance from my (pretty small) shorts to throw my rhythm out and make it really hard to sit back.
  With that in mind, the first 2 sets were ugly. It felt like I was breaking at the knees first, putting all of the weight onto the quads and getting no ham/glute activation. Every rep out of the first 10 today were grinders. I was actually having a bit of a sulk at this point, and was ready to throw in the towel and start doing paused squats because I felt like squatting out of form like this would do more harm than good.
  BUT, I thought I'd give it one more crack with the 3rd set. Got a bit angry, smashed it out ok surprisingly. Just made a big effort to force myself to sit back (blowouts be damned!), activate the glutes and force the knees out... and it seemed to work pretty well. Easier than the first two sets.
  For the 4th and 5th sets, OB1 lent me a soft suit which made me feel a lot smoother in my movements, but having not warmed up in it I still had that tentativeness from the shorts hanging around. 5th set was better, but by this point I was having a cry about the wraps getting too sore :shifty:
  All in all, glad I finished up after wanting to quit early. and the sets didn't turn out too bad in the end.
  
• Bench wasn't too bad, I didn't realistically think I could get 5 reps at 140, so was kinda targeting 3-4. Got 3 ok, 3rd was a bit of a grinder, thought maybe there'll be 4 in there but stalled just off the chest. Rested for a couple of minutes and made another attempt at the remaining two reps, and got those pretty good (didn't vid the final two reps though). Failed on an attempt at a third (thought I may as well go for it!).
  Started from the top today, as I find the earlier sets ramping up gas me too much to get the top set out. So I'd rather get all of the reps at the top set and then work my way down. This went ok, just missed the 5th rep at 130, but everything else was pretty fast up until the final rep of every set which seemed tough.
  
• BB rows were all good, nothing to report.

Skipped Dips today as we had been in there too long and I was STARVING. Will do em tomorrow with Chins and Paused squats.

[drizzt]

[red machine]

owing it bro!! faarrk imagine if you didnt do all that walking ud be rollin straight beast mode!!

[drizzt]

owing it bro!! faarrk imagine if you didnt do all that walking ud be rollin straight beast mode!!

Cheers bro! Yeah I'm actually not really looking/feeling fatter or anything, just seems like the body wants to get bigger. One thing I hate about it is I can feel my cardiovascular fitness slipping, and sweating up a lot due to carrying more weight around :shifty:

I kinda want to let the body do it's thing because I reckon it'll mean bigger lifts all round, but I really want to stay in 105s, such a good class for competition (and better for my health I reckon!). For now I'm going to try and fight it and hang around this 105 mark. Worst case may need to drop a kilo on comp day which is simple as.

That, and I can't really afford to kit out a whole new bunch of +size gears right now haha.

[Big john]

squating while ACDC-Black in black is playing in the background

Ultimate boss!

[drizzt]

^Ha ha ha, I think that's present in quite a few of my vids, it's (one of) my power song(s).

That intro always makes me envision walking into the rack and just busting the weight up :rockout:

[Big john]

power tracks are awsome, although my tastes vary from time to time and depends on what im training that day too

keep up the solid squatage bro :clap:

[drizzt]

Ha definitely bro, I've got 4 or 5 songs that do the trick but Back in Black has been top of the list for a while now :nod:

Cheers bro

[drizzt]

Was feeling quite run down last week (and for a little while prior to that), so I got the Doc to run some blood tests to see if anything was amiss. Figured I haven't really had much of a break from training since stepping things up in April-May last year, so maybe the body is finally demanding I take some rest. Here are the things of interest compared to some tests done in May last year (pre-Smolov):

• Vitamin B12 is 894 pmol/L, compared to 1205 last year - bit of a drop, but still above the "upper recommended range" of 830. Folate is down a bit too, I think this reflects a drop in bread intake possibly?
  
• Testosterone is 32.8nmol/L, compared to 16.1 last year :shock: Doubled! Really didn't see this one coming, I saw my long-lasting tiredness as a sign that my T levels could be low. Obviously not! A few points above the recommended upper range of 25. Must say, even knowing that this is up there (for a natty guy) I can't say it feels like it is really making a difference to anything TSH is up .1 points to 1.2mIU/L, so nothing spectacular and no real change there. Doc and OB reckon all of the heavy lifting I'm doing is stimulating this production, whatever it is, I'll try and keep it up
  
• Platelets are up a little bit to 247 x 10*9/L, up from 237 last year (RR is 150-450) and White blood cell count is down a couple from 9.2 x 10*9/L last year to 7 now (RR is 4-11). These are the ones the Doc looks at as signs of overtraining I believe, no troubles here. Red blood cell count is up a tad.
  
• Iron & iron saturation are up a little bit, nothing really noteworthy. Ferritin is down a fair chunk from last time, but still in the healthy range. Cholesterol levels are all within healthy ranges. Creatinine is about the same as last time (healthy).
  
• Everything else is very boringly normal, so I'll spare the details. Nothing is outside of the "recommended range", it's all pretty much smack bang in the middle. I guess it goes some way to proving that training at this high intensity for an extended period isn't going to kill you

[tomleegolf]

Very interesting.

Do you plan on competing raw this year (without knee wraps)?

[drizzt]

Ahhh was thinking I might go raw for CDs to qualify for the Nats (which would qualify me for the raw nats too I believe), but if I feel I'm likely to get 300 I think I might wrap for CDs instead.

Otherwise I still intend to compete in wraps for the rest of the year, and maybe even a suit (and shirt?) depending on when I hit 300.

Raw strength is something I definitely want to continue developing though, so I may do one or two training cycles without any equipment, maybe just a belt.