#drizzt

[M.T]

she does have bigger biceps than us so easy mistake

[HarryB]

Nice lifting and I like the turning point when you decide the pain is something to embrace and use as fuel! No point shying away!

That woman was there when I visited the house eh? She is strong!!!

[drizzt]

Thanks bro, yeah I tend to moan a bit (MT can attest to this) when the wraps are sore or something hurts :shifty: But yeah the best way I can describe what happened is the pain kinda just made me smile. I've been through so many sessions with the same, crappy pain, and moaning about it probably just made it worse (mentally). So I came to the realisation that it probably isn't gonna get easier, so I might as well suck it up and embrace it :nod:

Yeah Tasha is a strong lass! Knowledgeable too, was helping us with our powercleans when we thought we were ok (although we really weren't :pfft:)

[drizzt]

23.02.2012 - 5 x 5, W7/D2

104.5 today pretty standard.

• OH Pin Press (sets x reps @ weight - RPE)
  Warmups
  bar
  1 x 3 @ 60kg
  1 x 2 @ 80kg
  Working Sets
  1 x 3 @ 97.5kg - 10
  2 x 3 @ 97.5kg - 9 [PB]
  
• Deads
  Warmups
  bar
  1 x 5 @ 70kg
  1 x 3 @ 120kg
  1 x 2 @ 170kg
  1 x 1 @ 215kg
  Working
  1 x 3 @ 240kg (b) - 7
  2 x 3 @ 240kg (b) - 8.5

Comments

• Pin press wasn't awesome today, just couldn't find the line really. First set was a big battle. Second was a bit better, third was similar. Was gonna round up to 100 today but I'll save that for next week...
  
• Deads were pretty damned good I reckon. First set flew up like nothing, thought I must have misloaded - it was that easy. 2nd I got complacent and lazy with my tech which made things harder.
  3rd started off well, first rep was very good, but the headphones I had on (didn't agree with the music on the sound system at the time :pfft:) begun to slip, and I was conscious of trying to balance them as well as lift the 240kg in my hands which threw my rhythm out. Stupid thing to have to worry about! But got the reps and that's all that counts.

Pretty short and sharp, MT had a bit of a battler of a day but finished well. Video to follow shortly.

[drizzt]

[drizzt]

25.02.2012 - 5 x 5, W7/D3

104.6 today, bit of a carb up last night with another early morning session in mind (MT is moving house so had to get the training out of the way early). Can't wait to get back to midday-ish trainings!

This session is done completely fasted, as opposed to the ones during the week where I have one meal in me.

• Squats (sets x reps @ weight - RPE)
  Warmups
  bar
  1 x 8 @ 60kg
  1 x 1 @ 100kg (no-hander :pfft:)
  1 x 5 @ 100kg
  1 x 3 @ 140kg
  1 x 2 @ 180kg
  Working
  1 x 2 @ 210kg (b/loose wrap) - 6
  1 x 2 @ 240kg (b/w) - 8
  1 x 3 @ 260kg (b/w) - 10 *(small assist on 3rd - chest tap really) [=Comp PB]
  
• Pause Squats
  2 x 2 @ 180kg (b) [Paused PB]
  1 x 3 @ 140kg
  1 x 1 @ 100kg (no hander again for the camera :pfft:)
  1 x 5 @ 100kg
  
• Bench
  Warmups
  1 x 5 @ 60kg
  1 x 3 @ 100kg
  1 x 1 @ 120kg
  Working
  1 x 3 @ 135kg - 9
  2 x 3 @ 135kg - 8
  
• BB Rows
  1 x 5 @ 60kg
  3 x 3 @ 105kg - 8

Comments

• Ok day today, didn't feel as smooth from the outset as I've felt lately (think it might have something to do with the 8am starts :shifty:).
  Rearranged the sets a bit today. Prescribed working sets had me doing 202.5 x 3, 232.5 x 3, and 257.5 x 3... 30 & 25 kg jumps! :shock: So instead, I upped the first 2 sets a little, and dropped them to 2 reps. I thought this would give me about as much work, but would leave me a little more in the tank for the crack at 260.
  Worked out ok, used my other pair of True Blacks for the first set @ 210, felt really good actually, sort of made me realise how worn the set I usually use is getting. I get some really good rebound out of the fresher pair, could be good for comp/skills day :nod:
  Second set @ 240, I went back to the tried, and true (and worn) pair of True Blacks. Didn't feel great, but still not really that challenging.
  Third set @ 260, I begun to realise I might need to start breaking in a better pair of wraps. On the left leg, I got 6 revolutions over the top of the x on my knee... on the right, I got 4. Things felt awful, I could almost fully bend the right knee, where the left was locked in and had no give whatsoever. Still, had waited too long between sets, so needed to get a move on.
  First rep was wonky as, right leg tracked outwards (as it should), but the wrap on the left prevented that leg from doing the same amount, and made for a very uneven rep. Second rep I seemed to adjust well, and it felt so incredibly easy, way better than the preceding rep. Third rep... was horrible. The right leg seemed to have loosened the wrap enough that my knee travelled really far forward, causing me to have to rescue it a little bit. Hit a bit of a sticking point where I can usually grind through (if given a second or two :pfft:) but MT gave me a little tap on the chest to help me up. Again, probably left to my devices I would've got it, but can understand MT giving a bit of a hand, as it would've been pretty hard rescuing me and 260 by himself if I had started to go down, haha - the perils of these earlier sessions meant we had no one to lend a hand with side-spotting.
  So all in all I'm pretty happy with the squats today, I'd say the 260 was easier than 255 felt last week, just again, need to sort some better wraps
  for the top set. After taking the worn ones off after the last set, I saw what looks like one of the wraps beginning to tear :shock: :shock: For a monthish old pair of wraps, that ain't good.
  
• Backed off with some paused squats, to further make up for mucking around with the working sets :cool:
  
• Bench was ok, but at this point I started to feel a bit niggly and drained from the squats. Front delt on the left was quite sore (htf that happened, I have no clue) and back was really achey. So the first working set took me a little bit to find the groove, but second and third were sweet as, no troubles there. Nice and fast. To think we struggled a bit on 127 a few weeks ago and had to drop it to 120, so we've (both) come a fair way I reckon.
  
• BB rows to finish which aggravated the back a little but not bad.
  With the time constraints and niggles in mind, couldn't really be bothered doing the Turks.

Pretty good day overall, 6 sessions to go! Nice effort from MT getting his 190 triple after missing on the 2nd rep last week :nod:

Video to follow shortly.

[drizzt]

[runveerun]

I'm blinded by your quads :shock: both of you! Crikey! :shock:

[drizzt]

Haha sorry ma'am, I just spent an hour reading in the sun, hopefully they're browner for the next vid so your eyes won't hurt as bad :pfft:

[runveerun]

Haha sorry ma'am, I just spent an hour reading in the sun, hopefully they're browner for the next vid so your eyes won't hurt as bad :pfft:

LOL! No I didn't mean that! I meant their size :oops: :shock: I think the camera is pointing exactly at them that's how I noticed!

[drizzt]

Haha yeah I thought you might have meant that I was just muckin' around :grin:

Thanks though ma'am! :salute: Personally that's where my weight goes, hips and thighs hah.

[drizzt]

26.02.2012 - Conditioning

105.5 today, been pushing the eats lately as I know my body likes the extra cals, but may have pushed a bit far over the past couple of days haha. Ah well I can easily back off.

• Conditioning
  10 x box jumps @ 41" box
  50 x lengths @ 70kg sled
  10 x "bear" reps @ 40kg
  5 x ring pullups
  band crunches - 3 sets of 10 reps @ green band
  band pressdowns - 3 sets of 20 reps @ yellow band
  60 mins walking

Comments

• Nice day today so I wanted to do some sort of exercise, but couldn't be bothered walking all the way into town and then bus-ing or walking back, so I drove in and parked 30mins away from the gym.
  Just conditioning style stuff, nothing really to write home about. My "bear" was powerclean->front squat->OHP->back squat->BTN press, tried to do it as one consecutive movement where possible, but lower back started to tighten so I did less than I had hoped for.
  Sleds I just wanted to bust out 50 lengths. Mixed up styles, skiing kinda thing I see the Beast do, reverse, short sprints etc... all good.
  Good sweat on. Also spotted Nick0 who, @ 78kg, was hitting 5 x reps of a 110kg bench :shock: Nice, clean, controlled movement too. Very impressive :clap:

[I Declare War]

3rd started off well, first rep was very good, but the headphones I had on (didn't agree with the music on the sound system at the time :pfft:) begun to slip, and I was conscious of trying to balance them as well as lift the 240kg in my hands which threw my rhythm out. Stupid thing to have to worry about! But got the reps and that's all that counts.

Sounds dangerous!

My headphones do the same. Bloody things. I remember you got some bluetooth ones similar to mine a while back. What I do now is always wear them under a cap on heavy sets. Keeps em stuck in place.

[drizzt]

Sounds dangerous!

My headphones do the same. Bloody things. I remember you got some bluetooth ones similar to mine a while back. What I do now is always wear them under a cap on heavy sets. Keeps em stuck in place.

Ha yeah, less dangerous just kinda distracting - I get thrown off by things as small as mats not lining up evenly - so something falling from my head is bound to throw me out! :pfft:

Good idea with the cap on the top, I have found they sit a bit better even over a cap, as the little bit popping out from the top of the hat holds them in place a little easier. Will see if they fit under the cap, cheers 8)

[I Declare War]

Sounds dangerous!

My headphones do the same. Bloody things. I remember you got some bluetooth ones similar to mine a while back. What I do now is always wear them under a cap on heavy sets. Keeps em stuck in place.

Ha yeah, less dangerous just kinda distracting - I get thrown off by things as small as mats not lining up evenly - so something falling from my head is bound to throw me out! :pfft:

Good idea with the cap on the top, I have found they sit a bit better even over a cap, as the little bit popping out from the top of the hat holds them in place a little easier. Will see if they fit under the cap, cheers 8)

No problemo. Hope it helps.

I get ya with the distracting things. I get thrown off by different colour barbell collars - how bad is that!

[Optimass]

Nice job on the charity buzz guys .... have been thinking of a similar thing over the last few weeks and bam ... beat me to it. Will be watching to see how you go -

Have made a small contribution ... welldone.

:wink:

[M.T]

Nice job on the charity buzz guys .... have been thinking of a similar thing over the last few weeks and bam ... beat me to it. Will be watching to see how you go -

Have made a small contribution ... welldone.

:wink:

THE MAN Opti! thanks for the support and post \:D/

[drizzt]

Nice job on the charity buzz guys .... have been thinking of a similar thing over the last few weeks and bam ... beat me to it. Will be watching to see how you go -

Have made a small contribution ... welldone.

:wink:

Thanks Opti, much appreciated bro, sorry to beat ya to the punch!

28.02.2012 - 5 x 5, W8/D1

104.6 today fairly standard.

• Squats (sets x reps @ weight - RPE)
  Warmups
  bar
  1 x 8 @ 60kg
  1 x 5 @ 100kg
  1 x 3 @ 140kg
  1 x 2 @ 180kg
  1 x 1 @ 210kg (b)
  1 x 2 @ 230kg (b/w)
  Working
  2 x 3 @ 250kg (b/w) - 9
  1 x 2 @ 250kg (b/w) - 10 (missed 3rd)
  
• No-hand Squats
  1 x 1 @ 100kg
  1 x 1 @ 120kg [PB]
  1 x 1 @ 150kg (b) [PB]
  1 x 0 @ 180kg
  
• Bench
  Warmups
  bar
  1 x 5 @ 60kg
  1 x 2 @ 100kg
  1 x 1 @ 130kg
  Working
  1 x 1 @ 147.5kg - 10 (missed second at lockout)
  2 x 1 @ 147.5kg - 10 (didn't attempt more than singles)
  1 x 3 @ 132.5kg - 8
  1 x 6 @ 117.5kg - 7
  1 x 12 @ 100kg - 9
  
• The Bear
  2 x 1 @ 100kg [PB]

Comments

• Kiiinda disappointing day today. Wasn't mentally all there and was tired as... just felt drained all day. Carried that into the workout which was a big no-no.
  Also, wanted to blood in a couple of pairs of wraps that I'm looking at using for the comp (one pair of titaniums, one pair of TBs) - so wasn't using the pair that I usually use for top sets.
  Final warmup set in the new pair of TBs was kinda tough... but stuck with them for the first working set as well, and they held up ok.
  Thought I'd give the Titaniums a whirl for the second set, and I wasn't filled with confidence when it didn't even feel like I had wraps on after cranking em up quite well (compared to the True Blacks which are murder on the skin). But it actually turned out ok, the 2nd set wasn't bad at all (apart from the bar rolling up my neck, lazy, head not in it, tightness not there).
  So I persisted with them for the 3rd. First rep popped up ok, second was a bit harder than it should've been... bar rolled up my neck again, which worried me for the 3rd. 3rd I descended ok, but the bar went further up my neck on the way up and doubled me over a bit. I can often grind out of these situations, but not today, so had to call out for a catch from MT (who did well).
  No excuses here, wraps were fine (felt better than they have been feeling lately), strength was there, but let myself down mentally and just wasn't concentrating hard enough. Ah well, it happens! Just gotta redeem myself with the 265s on Saturday :nod:
  I'm beginning to realise with the near-failure on Saturday, and the missed rep today, that I need to think more about the reps, instead of simply dropping into them and expecting everything to fall into sequence to get me back up. I've hit a stage where just muscling the weight up will only get me so far.
  
• Bench was a bit meh too, still quite drained when we got there (umm, no hand squats and a 100kg bear didn't help :shifty:). We decided to start from the top to give us the best chance at the reps... but it didn't help ha ha. First rep wasn't too bad, but as often happens with me, I lost my tightness. 2nd rep got it up to an inch or two from lockout... and couldn't go any further. Completed my reps with a couple of sets of singles which weren't too bad, then backed off with the other prescribed sets of 132 and 117 (plus some extras :shifty:)
  
• Aaaand amongst it all, we mucked around a bit. Did some no-hand squats, 150 felt kinda cool, but I noticed as the weight got heavier, any slight sideways movement put uncontrollable torque on the bar, so you needed to be quite quick with it. 180 didn't feel too bad, but as I was descending I could feel it rotating on my back, so dumped it. I actually think this is a really good exercise and not just a party trick - you really need to keep everything tight and stable to be able to do it.
  100kg bear was quite cool! Did one of them to see if it was possible, and then did another so we had it on camera. Could be a good one to try and beat in future, reckon I might be good for a 120...
  May do an extra vid with our mucking around, as the standard vid ran quite long today so didn't want to lengthen it too much.

Video(s) to follow.

[drizzt]

[drizzt]

Aaaand here's us mucking around a little, with some no-hand squats and a bit of "bear":

[cMac]

The no hand squats look mental

[tinytraps]

Aaaand here's us mucking around a little, with some no-hand squats and a bit of "bear":

That is one heavy ass bear! :pfft: Gives me something to play with tommorow

[drizzt]

The no hand squats look mental

Lots of fun! And as I say in the description - it actually forces you to be tight otherwise the bar is gonna roll, so it is actually a decent exercise (although I reckon you'd want oly plates for it as there is potential for dropping a few bars!).

A lot of it is just being confident enough to let the bar go - I was telling MT that it feels exactly the same as taking your hands off the handles for the first time when you're riding a bike... you've just gotta trust your balance is ok!

(p.s. thanks for the donation! :grin:)

That is one heavy ass bear! :pfft: Gives me something to play with tommorow

Cheers, it didn't feel terribly heavy, toughest bit I thought was transition from overhead to the back, found it kinda hard to control so ended up whacking that down a bit hard. Push press is SO easy after pin-pressing for ages. But the Powerclean was ugly! I reckon I could be good for a 120... maybe I'll give it a crack on Saturday.

[cMac]

Lots of fun! And as I say in the description - it actually forces you to be tight otherwise the bar is gonna roll, so it is actually a decent exercise (although I reckon you'd want oly plates for it as there is potential for dropping a few bars!).

A lot of it is just being confident enough to let the bar go - I was telling MT that it feels exactly the same as taking your hands off the handles for the first time when you're riding a bike... you've just gotta trust your balance is ok!

(p.s. thanks for the donation! :grin:)

Once I get some Oly plates I think I'll give a go for a bit of fun.

You are very welcome.

[drizzt]

01.03.2012 - 5 x 5, W8/D2

104.3 today, lower-side of standard. Lucky the girl guides came door knocking with biscuits, so no doubt I'll creep back around the 105 mark on Saturday :grin:

• OH Pin Press (sets x reps @ weight - RPE)
  bar
  5 x 60
  2 x 80
  2 x 100 [PB] - 10
  3 x 90 - 10
  
• Deads (all sumo apart from first set)
  bar
  1 x 5 @ 70kg
  1 x 5 @ 120kg
  1 x 3 @ 170kg
  
• FacePulls
  4 x 15 @ ?

Comments

• Sooooo bit of a loss of a day today!
  All started on the weekend when I lifted the bar out for MT on bench... and pinged my lower back (his militia setup is quite far down the bench, so I have to pass it a while away from me). It gave me a little bit of grief immediately, but soon vanished so I thought nothing of it.
  Fast forward a few days to Tuesday's workout, and I failed the final squat rep - again, felt it ping. Immediate discomfort - a little worse than Saturday - but I didn't think much of it and continued to train.
  Wednesday; woke up and my lower back was throbbing like crazy! Didn't improve at all throughout the day (unfortunately, sitting down seems to worsen it, and I work in an office), so when I got home that afternoon I had a muscle soak bath and gave it about an hour's icing before bed. Provided a little bit of relief, but the neck also started to tighten up, and I begun to feel unwell also :shock:
  Today; pretty much the same as yesterday! Painful all day, stretching it out hurt, flexibility was diminished. Still wanted to battle it out and get my lifts in though, so went to the gym focused.
  Saw that the Doc was there, so got him to give me a once over and he immediately said after touching the area that the right side was well out of alignment. Gave it a crack (probably one of the biggest back cracks I've ever heard, let alone had done to me), and that loosened it up awesomely!
  So I got under the Pin press... and after a couple of reps... boom, tightened up again and started spasming. So the Doc gave it another couple of prods, and told me that it's quite swolen, I should probably take it easy. But of course, I tried another set, and again it hurt like crazy. So with a bit of encouragement from Doc, I threw in the towel there. Did some light sumo deadlifts which didn't seem to directly affect the issue, but didn't want to push it too far this close to the comp.
  Very frustrating! I hate being on the sidelines, but this couldn't have happened at a worse time, so close to the comp. I guess I've had a pretty good run though, as this is probably my only actual "injury" I've sustained through Powerlifting, and even then, it wasn't one of the powerlifting movements that hurt it.
  Anyway will continue to ice tonight and tomorrow, and reassess on Saturday.