#drizzt

[drizzt]

Could've used that Zimmer there GR, today was a toughy!

28.05.2012 - Assist

100.7 today.

• Muck around (sets x reps @ weight)
  Bench - 4 x 10 @ 60kg
  Sumo Deads - 2 x lots @ 50kg
  Sleds - 1 x 16 lengths @ 50kg
  Ham curls - 4 x 10 @ ?
  Leg ext - 4 x 10 @ ?
  Seated rows - 4 x 10 @ ?
  Pulldowns - 4 x 10 @ ?
  Walking - 2 hours @ slow-moderate pace

Comments

• Attempted to squat again as I had planned for today, but the body wasn't having a bar of it. Much easier to say than do, haha. Everything was far too tight from yesterday, so gave up on that idea and just turned it into an assistance session. All weights were still light, just activating the muscles again, getting them used to working.
  While I'm easing my way back into it, I'm taking the time to reinforce technique and stuff, so making sure everything is tight on bench, and looking toward a switch to sumo by going over technique on that too. Because I'm fresh into things again, I'm finding I have to think about the movement a bit more - as opposed to before, where I'd just step in and automatically do something. This is good for technique reinforcement I think. One good side to the time off possibly.
  Hopefully recovered enough to squat tomorrow, we shall see how that goes.

[drizzt]

30.05.2012 - Squats

100.3

• Squats (sets x reps @ weight - RPE)
  bar
  1 x 10 @ 60kg
  1 x 6 @ 100kg
  1 x 5 @ 120kg
  1 x 5 @ 140kg (b) - 8
  1 x 3 @ 160kg (b) - 9
  1 x 1 @ 140kg (b) - 10
  
• Bench
  bar
  1 x 10 @ 60kg
  1 x 5 @ 70kg
  1 x 5 @ 80kg - 6
  1 x 5 @ 90kg - 7
  1 x 5 @ 100kg - 8
  1 x 2 @ 140kg (2brd) - 8
  
• Tri Pushdowns
  4 x 15 @ stack -3

Comments

• Legs were still in a world of hurt today, but I was determined to get some squats out, and felt immediately better once I did.
  However, once I got a bit deeper into the sets, my old friends the adductors decided to pipe up and complain. Got worse as each set went on, which screwed with my descent as it made it hard to force the knees outward. This is nothing new, these guys kick up a fuss whenever I take a bit of a break from squatting.
  Power on the way up felt fine, but I had no real control of the negative portion. As a result, I burnt a lot of energy on the way down dropping slower than I like to, which made the positive portion of the rep a heck of a lot harder than it should've been having spent heaps of energy already.
  Was kinda hoping for 180 again, and had it racked up, but the longer I waited after the 160 set, the worse the adductors got (just standing there), so dropped to 140. That felt terrible, and the emphasis was beginning to shift a little to the lower back because the legs weren't doing as much work, so I called it there.
  Usually I have one session like this, and then it's all go again, so will probably have another crack at them on Saturday.
  
• Bench was ok, tagged along with my little bro on a session and he was just climbing up in 10kg increments until he couldn't do it anymore. 100 was easy as but my brother hit the wall there, so I decided to muck around with some boards. Wanted to feel 140 in my hands again, and the double was pretty easy to a (paused) 2-board, but I don't believe I could get a full rep right now. Give me a couple of weeks though and I reckon I"ll have it again.
  Just some casual tris to finish them off.

Beginning to lean towards not competing next weekend, and just spotter/loading. No real gain to be had by putting myself in a max effort kinda situation with very little training behind me, it'll probably only end in injury, so will take the safe route and just support the boys/girls instead.

Had until Tuesday next week off work, but as I'm not getting paid for it, aaand I'm sitting around home doing not much at all, I decided to head back early, so I'll be back to the grind starting tomorrow. Never thought I'd voluntarily start work earlier than required, but there ya go.

[Phedder]

Good to see you jumping straight back into it mate. With your tenacity you'll soon be back where you left off. But for now I shall enjoy possibly the only time I'll ever be able to look at your numbers and think, "Yeah, I could do that."

[drizzt]

Cheers Phed! Ha by the time I get back to my "old" weights I'm sure you'll be there waiting

31.05.2012

101

• Leg Press (sets x reps @ weight - RPE)
  1 x 15 @ 85kg
  1 x 10 @ 125kg
  1 x 10 @ 165kg
  1 x 10 @ 205kg - 7
  1 x 10 @ 245kg - 8
  2 x 8 @ 285kg - 9.5 [PB]
  
• SSB Good Mornings
  4 x 10 @ 60kg
  
• RHE
  3 x 10 @ 20kg
  
• Standing Calf Raise
  3 x 20 @ 80kg
  
• Misc stuff
  Box jumps
  Sleds
  Crunches

Comments

• Didn't want to squat as I wanted to save that for Saturday - although the legs were feeling much better today - so I went to another leg movement and pulled out some Leg Press.
  Tbh, I've never really been much of a leg presser, just never really "clicked" with it, as I always preferred to squat on leg days. In the past, I kinda viewed it (rightly or wrongly) as something guys did for a bit of an ego boost without having to squat - half-press/bounce around some big numbers to say they worked their legs hard - and as a result, I mainly avoided it where possible so that I didn't lump myself into that category (aka too cool for it :pfft:).
  So today was just about finding out what I'm capable of. I jumped up 1 plate per side for each set and aimed for 10 reps, went as far down as I could go and gave a short pause at the bottom of the movement so as not to bounce it up.
  285 was relatively difficult, maaaaybe 10 reps were there for each set, but I would've had to have had a good pause at the top of the movement to have a crack at it, and I wasn't that hell bent on it that I'd risk failure so I cut it at 8, and decided to do a second set of it. Made 285 my PB as I'm pretty sure I've never done it before, but either way it is a marker for me to beat. Maybe go for 300 next time.
  All in all relatively happy with how it went, maybe it is something I can throw into a program down the line as I'm thinking it can only be good for the squat to load the legs up with that sort of poundage.
  
• The rest of the day was a bit of a muck around. RHEs HURT the lower back at first, but got better as it went on. Think I need to do these more often as they target a weak point in my back.
  Was also good to know I can still hit the box jump with relative ease \:D/

[drizzt]

02.06.2012 - Squats & Deads

101

• Squats (sets x reps @ weight - RPE)
  bar
  1 x 10 @ 60kg
  1 x 5 @ 100kg
  1 x 3 @ 140kg (b)
  1 x 1 @ 180kg (b) - 8
  1 x 1 @ 190kg (b) - 9
  1 x 3 @ 170kg (b) - 9
  1 x 5 @ 150kg (b) - 8
  
• Deads
  1 x 5 @ 110kg
  1 x 3 @ 150kg
  1 x 3 @ 190kg - 8
  1 x 1 @ 220kg (b) - 8
  1 x 1 @ 230kg (b) - 9
  
• DB Bench
  1 x 10 @ 50lb/ps
  1 x 10 @ 70lb/ps
  1 x 10 @ 80lb/ps - 9

Comments

• Glutes were pretty tender from the pounding leg press gave them on Thursday night, so I wasn't sure how squats would go, but they weren't too bad.
  As is the plan, worked up toward a 9-RPE single. Thought it might be 180 again today, but that felt more like an 8, so I decided to push on to 190 where that felt a bit more like a 9. Probably a 200 in the tank today - and I actually loaded it up - but commonsense prevailed over my ego and I dropped it down to 170 for a triple.
  170 was relatively tough, 150 was easy. Finding (as I discussed with Tutua a bit later on) that it isn't so much the strength that has diminished, but the technique is a wee bit out of line which is making the body work harder for the reps. That was clearly evident on the set of 170, where each rep looked tough, but I wasn't ever really in danger of failing. I could feel the strength there, just didn't feel like all of the muscles were firing like they used to do.
  Also (after reviewing the footage), I'm probably dropping a bit deep on some of the reps, so I just need to find that range again.
  
• Right when I finished my squats Tutua started to set up some deads on the platform, and although I hadn't planned to do any, the temptation was too strong, so I asked if I could jump in on them to which he kindly obliged.
  This was the first time deadlifting since the comp in March, so it's actually close to 80 days since I've done any deadlifting :shock: (not counting the low weights I was stretching out with earlier in the week)
  With that in mind, it didn't go too bad, just again, was out of practice a bit, and the speed off the floor didn't feel as good as it used to. Relatively happy with the 230, might have been able to go higher but it would've been a struggle, so I was fine leaving it there.
  
• Some random DB press to finish the trifecta.

Good to catch up with a couple more of the boys, and winding down on DB Bench with "I Ain't Mad at 'cha" was pretty awesome :grin: Cheers to Tutua for the playlist and letting me work in on his deads - haven't heard a round of applause in training after a deadlift for a while! Nice work :clap:

Might be back in tomorrow. Here's a vid of some of the lifts today:

[Phedder]

1 x 1 @ 190kg (b) - 9

Damn...Back to saying "I wish I could do that." :pfft: You weren't kidding about the depth either, rock bottom :nod:

Do you have any tips for bringing up the hook grip? Or is it pretty much just keep going with it until you pussy out I played around with it a bit today and got up to 170kg without much trouble, hurt like a mofo but felt strong, and felt like my upper back was more engaged too.

[drizzt]

Ha dunno about rock bottom, but a bit too far for my liking here and there. Better deep than shallow though I guess.

As for the hook, best way is to just do it bro. I think I started by introducing it on all warmups, and then going back to alternate on the heaviest weights, then eventually started to creep it in on 1-2 reps in the working sets. Before long, I was doing it for everything. Pain never really goes away But it becomes more bearable.

Have lost ALL of my calluses while I was away, so I think I'm in for a hard road back to hook gripping! Although it didn't feel too bad yesterday I guess.

[drizzt]

04.06.2012

102 flat, weight starting to creep up. Still not eating the greatest selection of food but slowly getting into better habits I think.

• Bench (sets x reps @ weight - RPE)
  bar
  1 x 5 @ 60kg
  1 x 3 @ 100kg
  1 x 2 @ 120kg - 9
  1 x 3 @ 110kg - 8
  1 x 5 @ 100kg - 8
  1 x 10 @ 60kg
  
• DB Flyes superset with DB Side Raises
  4 x 10 @ 25lb & 10 @ 20lb
  
• The Bear
  4 x 5 @ 50kg
  
• RHE superset with Russian Side Twists
  4 x 10 @ 20kg & 10/ps @ 5kg

Comments

• Nice little hitout, nothing to write home about. Will squat tomorrow, wasn't really feeling it today, hip was a bit tender.

[HarryB]

Getting back into it ...

Good work considering the heaviest thing you've lifted in the last wee while has been a beer glass! LOL...

[drizzt]

Thanks big guy, nowhere near where I left off but getting back there slowly! Speaking of heavy beer glasses, the Stein I brought back from Munich is currently serving as a nice water "cup" to drink from, a litre at a time, can be sure I get in the right amount daily! And bonus guns work every time I lift the heavy bastard! :grin:

05.06.2012 - Squats

102 flat.

• Squats (sets x reps @ weight - RPE)
  bar
  1 x 10 @ 60kg
  1 x 5 @ 100kg
  1 x 3 @ 140kg
  1 x 1 @ 160kg (b) - 7
  1 x 1 @ 180kg (b) - 8.5
  1 x 1 @ 180kg (b) - 9
  1 x 3 @ 160kg (b) - 9
  1 x 5 @ 140kg - 8
  1 x 10 @ 100kg
  
• GHR
  3 x 10 @ bw - 1200000000
  
• CG Bench superset with Chins
  3 x 10 @ 60kg & 5 @ bw
  
• DB Hammer Curls superset with Overhead Tri Ext (single arm)
  3 x 10/ps @ 25lb & 10/ps @ 25lb

Comments

• Wee bit average today, felt good mentally, but the body didn't want to follow me in. Wasn't quite sure how to rate the first rep of 180 I did... 185 might have been a more accurate 9 RPE, but I did another 180 to be sure, and that was definitely a bit harder. So I left it there and backed off.
  Both reps were harder than the 190 I did the other day, so just wasn't my day for squatting today. Ah well, happens, I expect 1-2 days like this a week where the weight won't surpass (or even match) the previous sessions(s), all part of the game, that's fine.
  
• GHRs were killer, hence the ludicrously high RPE rating. Blasted some quick guns out to finish.

[Gym rat]

what's the bear?

[drizzt]

Just a little bit of a barbell complex GR, most people have different variations of it. Personally I do:

Power Clean to the chest, Front Squat it from the clean position, Overhead Press and rest the bar across the traps, Back Squat it (hi-bar), Behind Neck Press to the chest, and then put the bar back on the floor. That's 1 rep.

It's a bit of a conditioning exercise, more than any kind of muscle/strength building. I'm using it just to wake the body up a bit after my holiday.

[drizzt]

Here's a video of MT and myself doing the Bear a few months back (after the no-hand squats, 1.36 into the video)

[red machine]

getting back into the swing of things nicely bro!!

hay tell me, i remember maybe early last year or something, you where a kg or so over weight at weigh in time, then you re weighed and got under?

did you say you walked around sucking something and spitting alot? i kinder remember something to that affect?

just look for all the trick i can get as im gunna be very very border line

[drizzt]

getting back into the swing of things nicely bro!!

hay tell me, i remember maybe early last year or something, you where a kg or so over weight at weigh in time, then you re weighed and got under?

did you say you walked around sucking something and spitting alot? i kinder remember something to that affect?

just look for all the trick i can get as im gunna be very very border line

Hey bro, yeah I think I initially weighed in at 94.5 going for the 93s.

What I did (credit to OB for telling me about it) was walk around the block a couple of times, nice and slow, sucking on a pebble and spitting out the saliva when it had gathered. Kinda a bit gross spitting everywhere, I know, you can be cleaner if you like and do it into a bucket or something, but I wanted to walk around and stretch out at the same time (spat into gardens/grass where possible). Plus it took a while, so sitting there spitting into a bucket was boring (not to mention off putting for anybody fool enough to try striking up a conversation :lol:). I guess you can carry around a mug or something to spit into if you're concerned about hygiene.

Make sure you weigh in nice and early in the first instance to give yourself plenty of time if need be, but if it's only a few hundred grams we're talking about you'll be fine without too much trouble.

Apparently gum works just as good as (maybe better than?) a pebble, just don't drink any water during the process obviously, and weigh in as often as possible to check the weight so you don't overdo the no-water thing (something I got wrong at the last comp!)

After all of that, I remember weighing in at 92.9 haha, so it was a close call, but 1.6kg down from the initial one wasn't too shabby.

[steak]

Viking Power just texted me Red...hes got a couple of pebbles you can suck on bro :pfft:

[drizzt]

Viking Power just texted me Red...hes got a couple of pebbles you can suck on bro :pfft:

:pfft: :pfft:

07.06.2012 - Squats

103.4 oooooh. Not hugely surprising, have been loading creatine for 3 days now, water intake has been up drastically as a result, and had a rather large lunch which is unusual for a training day pre-workout. Feeling good though, and if anything have lost a wee bit of fat since being back, I think the muscles might be "waking up" :pray:

Either way, after the raw milk I got off OB1 today is done, I expect to see the weight up further :grin:

• Squats (sets x reps @ weight - RPE)
  bar
  1 x 8 @ 60kg
  1 x 5 @ 100kg
  1 x 3 @ 140kg
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Incline Bench
  3 x 10 @ 60kg

Comments

• Just really wanted to squat today due to not being able to squat on Saturday (comp day at the House). Opposite of the other day, mentally I wasn't feeling great, but the body was keen so I followed it into battle.
  180 was pretty easy, so I decided to up it. Was tossing up between 190 or 195 for the final set. Seeing as I wanted to beat last week's 190, and because I won't be squatting Saturday I decided to head above 190, but just to 192.5, as I felt 195 could be straying into "10" territory.
  Felt a wee bit slow, and felt high also, but looks to have scraped depth going by the vid. Fairly tough rep, a hard 9 to be fair, although the vid didn't look terrible really. 200 is definitely there for the taking, but not at a 9RPE as of yet, maybe in a week or two.
  Wanted a bit more substance to my back off sets, so I'm not just doing a couple of sets of <=5 reps, so I made the final weight 5 x 5 instead of the usual 1 x 5. Decided to do it beltless as well just to add a bit more work to it. Was pretty tough in the end, left glute and right forearm started cramping from set 3 onward, but got through it, and the 5th set was probably the best.
  
• Feel weird just doing one exercise (even if if it squats), so threw in some token incline bench.

Bit of a vid for today (just the first set of 140s included):

[red machine]

getting back into the swing of things nicely bro!!

hay tell me, i remember maybe early last year or something, you where a kg or so over weight at weigh in time, then you re weighed and got under?

did you say you walked around sucking something and spitting alot? i kinder remember something to that affect?

just look for all the trick i can get as im gunna be very very border line

Hey bro, yeah I think I initially weighed in at 94.5 going for the 93s.

What I did (credit to OB for telling me about it) was walk around the block a couple of times, nice and slow, sucking on a pebble and spitting out the saliva when it had gathered. Kinda a bit gross spitting everywhere, I know, you can be cleaner if you like and do it into a bucket or something, but I wanted to walk around and stretch out at the same time (spat into gardens/grass where possible). Plus it took a while, so sitting there spitting into a bucket was boring (not to mention off putting for anybody fool enough to try striking up a conversation :lol:). I guess you can carry around a mug or something to spit into if you're concerned about hygiene.

Make sure you weigh in nice and early in the first instance to give yourself plenty of time if need be, but if it's only a few hundred grams we're talking about you'll be fine without too much trouble.

Apparently gum works just as good as (maybe better than?) a pebble, just don't drink any water during the process obviously, and weigh in as often as possible to check the weight so you don't overdo the no-water thing (something I got wrong at the last comp!)

After all of that, I remember weighing in at 92.9 haha, so it was a close call, but 1.6kg down from the initial one wasn't too shabby.

cheers for that, pebble and spit bucket preped :pfft:

steak wrote:

Viking Power just texted me Red...hes got a couple of pebbles you can suck on bro

get out of town

[drizzt]

10.06.2012 - Church

Didn't weigh myself today, was scared after the amount of food I put back after spotter/loading yesterday :pfft: Spotting yesterday was all good, wee bit tough as there was only 3 of us (TFB, Mighty Quinn and Myself) compared to the usual 5-6. Usually you'd have a couple each side to load weights/switch rack heights/side spot, and a centre spotter/weight caller. As it was, we had to condense those roles into just the 3 of us, so I centre spotted while Quinn and TFB battled it out on the sides, and I frantically ran under the bar/to the sides to help them out where I could. Made for quite a good GPP kinda workout. Thankfully not too many failures so I didn't have to rescue too many people on the squat, good day all around!

Diet-wise.... fair to say that since I've been back and exercising, the appetite has shot up. Still adhering to my fasting intervals pretty diligently, but food/macro content isn't controlled or monitored whatsoever, so it's pretty much anything goes in that space. I want to say it's because I'm letting my body grow while I "re-learn" my strength, but it really is because I'm lazy and cbf'd dieting right now :pfft: When I've settled back into a routine (and I'm not so broke) I can plan my eating better. For now though, it's whatever I can eat/afford goes :grin:

Without further ado, today's church session.

• Squats (sets x reps @ weight - RPE)
  bar
  1 x 8 @ 60kg
  1 x 5 @ 100kg
  1 x 3 @ 140kg
  
  
  
  
  1 x 1 @ 180kg (b) - 9
  1 x 5 @ 140kg (b) - 7
  
  
  
• OH Pin Press (mid-neck height)
  bar
  4 x 5 @ 60kg
  1 x 10 @ 60kg
  
• Bent BB Rows
  3 x 10 @ 60kg

Comments

• Not a bad session, today squats felt a bit better, still haven't quite found the right line, and I got a bit lazy with my breathing, losing tightness as a result which gave me some wonky lines on the way down (you'll see this on the 200 single in the vid).
  Nice to knock the 200 off 2 weeks after being back. Hope to add 5-7.5kg to my top squat weekly, until I'm back up around 240. Them's the plan anyway, who knows how well that's gonna go! The body seems to be accepting the frequency of the squatting a bit better now, so I'm gonna try go in tomorrow and Tuesday for squats. See how the body handles it.
  The 140 x 5 was far too easy, didn't want to up the weight though, thought I'd go for higher reps instead, so knocked it up to 10. Was quite interesting, as the first 5 reps were fine, but as soon as I went for the 6th rep, I could feel the body thinking; "WTF is this? More than 5 reps? Since when?!". Strength was fine throughout, technique still a bit wonky, but lungs were hating it. The gut is a bit bigger than before so I'm keen on lessening that by hitting some higher reps here and there. Maybe 5 x 5 some days, 3 or 4 x 10+ on others.
  
• Pin press was good, explosive strength is beginning to slowly creep back, made this easier than I expected.

In tomorrow. Here's the vid:

[M.T]

200 looked easy good fast progress wouldn't expect anything less.

[drizzt]

Che bo, yeah was an "easy" 9 to be fair, thinking maybe a 10 RPE would be about 210-215 right now. Hope to hit 207.5-210 on Saturday for a 9 RPE but we'll see what the weights say on the day.

[drizzt]

11.06.2012 - Max Monday

104 flat woooo boy! Completely fasted until 4pm, too. Definitely not as lean as a couple months back when I was 104, but familiar weight ground so I'm happy enough. Expecting the weight to hold pretty steady between 102-105 in the leadup to nats. Will stay on creatine unless the weight creeps too far above 105, too close to nats to be mucking around with the weight.

(p.s. "Max" Monday only in name, didn't actually max. I just enjoy alliteration)

• Squats (sets x reps @ weight - RPE)
  bar
  1 x 8 @ 60kg
  1 x 5 @ 100kg
  1 x 2 @ 140kg
  
  
  
  
  
  
  1 x 5 @ 150kg (b) - 9
  
• Hamstring Curls superset with Leg Extensions
  1 x 10 @ 50 & 1 x 10 @ 4 from bottom of the stack (?)
  1 x 10 @ 65 @ 1 x 12 @ 1 from bottom of the stack
  1 x 10 @ 55 @ 1 x 12 @ 1 from bottom of the stack
  1 x 10 @ 55 & 1 x 12 @ full stack

Comments

• Pretty cruisey workout to be honest. No pain whatsoever from yesterdays squats.
  Worked up to 180 as usual, but felt easy enough that I decided to triple it. Then walked away and thought 3 x 3 would be a nice way to do the session, instead of going any higher.
  Worked out ok, 2nd set was probably the worst, 1st and 3rd were pretty good. Depth was thereabouts, some deeper than others but I don't think any were high
  After the 3rd set, intended to head to 12-15 @ 150, but gas-bagged so long with the PH crew that the muscles got cold, and the 5 reps I did end up doing were pretty tough! So threw the towel in there and went for some hammy/quad work.

Vid:

Also booked my flights to Dunedin for the nationals today... before I realised how ridiculously little time I have to train for it! :pfft: :pfft:

Ah well, it is what it is. I would ideally have liked to have done a 10-12 week template in the leadup to the nats, but that's not gonna happen! As it is, we're 8 weeks out (including this week) from the comp, and if you take the week before nats off as a deload, I've got 7 weeks (including this week!) to work some sort of training cycle in there.

So I'm tossing up whether or not to finish this week off, squatting every day, and starting a 6-week buildup to the nats, auto-regging all the way through to the nats Bulgarian-style, or, starting a template tomorrow.

I suppose I'd better think of something quick, huh :pfft: There is an alternate option, just hit the Bronze qualifying standard of 635kg (I think that's all I need to do?), and target the Oceanias in Sydney, December this year instead. If I went that route, I'd probably look to start getting into equipment to up my total some, and be a bit more competitive, and I'd have 18 weeks to train this way following the Nationals.

See how it goes anyway, I'll sleep on it, then have all day tomorrow to mull it over. Will probably end up deciding on the walk to the gym :grin:

The only thing that is certain, is I will be in Dunedin for the Nationals. Also, I'll need to start wrapping the legs again. Dammit.

[Gym rat]

It might be a good idea to bring extra warm clothes with you when you come down to Dunedin.It can get bloody cold in early August that's if there is a cold blast coming up from the South pole.

[drizzt]

Good looking out GR, thanks for the heads up! Might see you down there mate

[Viking Power]

Good looking out GR, thanks for the heads up! Might see you down there mate

I was also thinking this drizzt, cheers GR might have to go buy a few jerseys..

training's looking good mate, the mighty drizzt... keep smashing it buddy.