My Original Plan Was to Lift All of the Heavy Things

[thehobbes]

Huh!!! Well, if that's true, that would definitely have killed my press. I know I have a bad habit of pushing the bar towards my feet sometimes when I'm struggling about halfway up, but to my knowledge I haven't been shoving it towards my feet any earlier than that, like directly off my chest. But it's a possibility. What I do know is that I make more subconscious bar path corrections with a thicker bar, the bar tends to zigzag a bit rather than pressing up and arcing towards my head smoothly. I've never traced the hows and whys behind it though. But if I'm having alignment problems or some other issue where I'm just plain throwing the force behind my press in the wrong directions at times... maybe that's why I struggle with a thicker bar. Wow. Well, something to look into more after the meet. For the time being, it wouldn't be a bad idea to remind myself to press UP off my chest, I think even I can remember something that simple

Oh wow, that's an odd one. Those thicker bars though, probably throws off a lot of lifters. At least you know, fixing that with a constant mental note is a hell of a lot easier than that to keep happening and you don't notice that's what is going on.

Have fun with the DL tomorrow, pick dat chit up and put it down!

[itsagoodday]

I really need this meet to be over with lol, I wish it were this weekend and not next. Not even attempting to make weight and not a good time to start a diet, so I'm feeling super heavy and bloated right now, which I'm not enjoying. And I'm going absolutely crazy trying to do a more legit taper this time around, I hate going into the gym and doing so little that I feel like I've barely even started a workout and then it's time to go home. (Yeah I know, quantity over quality, but I like to feel like I'm actually, I dunno, working out when I work out.) And I'm starting to make mistakes on my lifts that I have never done before in my life. Awesome. Wahhh wahhh wahhh, I know, my apologies

Thursday 4/14 - Gym

Back Day

DEADLIFTS
5x135
3x185
3x225
3x255
1x285
1x305

The idea here was that as long as everything was moving fast and felt pretty good, I'd work up to my opener weight. Technically my opener is 320 with a deadlift bar, but with a regular old bar I figured 300-305 would do. Everything felt pretty good until I got to 305.

I have no idea what happened, really. But it felt like I dropped down to the bar to grab it and then my chest kept coming forwards until my upper body was OVER the bar like I was going to row it. Being essentially quite brilliant, I decided to carry on from this position, so my hips shot up and I did a very awkward stiff legged deadlift type of movement. Hmmm. Well, I didn't die or injure myself, so that would be the good news. And I did get the lift, so I'm sort of bemused that I can pull 305 despite experiencing pretty much 99% form and technique failure. But I've never done that before in my life and I'd like to never, ever do it again. That was my last deadlift before my meet, so I've got 8 days to recover from that fiasco and convince myself that it never happened. Sigh.

WIDE GRIP LAT PULLDOWN
8x90
6x100
4x110

ONE ARM DB ROW
6x85's
4x90's

Booooring. And that's it. Fastest back workout ever

--------------------------------------

Friday 4/15 - Gym

Legs Day

SQUATS
5x95
3x155
3x185
1x215

Add wraps
1x235

And last heavy leg day until the meet, just working up to my planned opener of 235 with wraps. My squat itself actually felt fine today, but the bar I was using was fighting me something fierce on 215 and 235. 235 did not go as well as I had hoped. I videoed it and depth wasn't what I was aiming for and it felt slow, but honestly it's done so well lately that I'm going to go ahead and chalk it up to a particularly crappy bar and stay with my 235 opener plan. Anyway, the bar had a rather extreme off-center bend, so when I tried to tighten up more for heavier weights, it was so crooked on just the one side that it was forcing my one hand, arm and elbow higher than the other. Good times. All the bars at my gym have their own character, what can I say. I've dealt with this bar before (and frankly, the bar I have at home also has an off-center bend, though not as much as this one), so I was doing a pretty good job of keeping my elbows even and in line with my body rather than the bar. It was a fight though, when I was finished the right side of my neck was really tight, my right trap was making some interesting pinging sensations and the lower part of my right lat was quite sore. No damage done though. If you're not sure if I'm lazy or stubborn, I can assure you that I am both lazy and stubborn, because yes, I really should have changed the bar when I realized which one it was. Judging by this session and my last deadlift session, it seems that I like to tempt fate and risk injury the week before my meets

ONE LEG EXTENSION
8x50
6x60
4x70

ONE LEG LYING HAMSTRING CURL
6x22.5's
4x25's
4x27.5's

Good grief, so many other things I wanted to do but couldn't lol. I'm going to go crazy next week, current plans are for no deads, one day of benching at the beginning of the week, and two days of very light squats. Although maybe this is part of the point of tapering, not just to get you quite well rested, but also to make you so absolutely stir crazy that you are going to basically explode and want to throw heavy things across the room by the time you get to the meet. Well, the one thing I will do next week is figure out what I want to do for programming next. I've got some ideas, I'll start hashing them out so I have something more productive to think about

[itsagoodday]

Oh wow, that's an odd one. Those thicker bars though, probably throws off a lot of lifters. At least you know, fixing that with a constant mental note is a hell of a lot easier than that to keep happening and you don't notice that's what is going on.

When I first started at this gym, I couldn't figure out why I'd randomly have good bench days, bad bench days, terrible bench days, why does my grip feel weird today, and so on. I was just used to thinking about well, a bar is a bar. One day I realized just how different all the bars we have are, started paying attention to what the differences were and how they affected me, and things started to make more sense after that. Now I usually know what's happening and why, but I sound really paranoid and nitpicky. LOL.

Hi itsagoodday, really interesting your journal building up to your meet, I can identify with plenty, trying to keep yourself going til the meets over altho you feel so beat up, just done that, peaked about a month too early. Just finished 10 day deload and still not 100%. Sucks being 42!

Hi melDorado, thanks for stopping by! Oh man yeah, definitely feeling beat up and ready for a break. It's funny because the only time I get sick and tired of doing heavy singles is right before a meet, just from constantly pushing at them. It's almost like a mental exhaustion as much as a physical one for me right now. I need a vacation lol.

Btw for bench I pretty much take the widest allowable grip, just feels better to my shoulder and I can lift most that way. I see most other folk go narrower tho. Once you know your way round a barbell, it's all about figuring what's optimal for you, right?

Oh definitely! I'm still trying to figure out what is optimal for, well, pretty much everything. I'm a little worried that's something I'll be tweaking for as long as I'm lifting though. It never ends! But I guess that's why we have to enjoy the process

That's interesting that super wide feels better on your shoulders. Wider has always tended to make my shoulders feel worse, weirdly enough. Although I will say that the "pull the bar apart" cue which I started using on wider grip just in the last few weeks has made it feel MUCH better and immediately took a ton of pressure off my shoulders. So I was probably just doing it wrong before lol. Now at least I have some hope I'll be able to play with the wider grip more without destroying anything in the process

I struggle a lot with squats, I love doing them but I'm not built for them and depth is a constant battle. I've also had a dodgy hip lately. Glad you seem to be getting over yours, those are some great numbers on your squats so you must be doing something right. I've never used wraps, how do you find them?

Ergh, yeah, my sympathies on dodgy hips, those and squats don't make for a good combination! Squats are my nemesis. On paper my bench is actually my worst lift, but squat always feels like it is. It's always seemed like it takes 999 sessions of pounding my head against a wall to get 1 session that seems like I might be getting somewhere. I made some really big changes to stance, technique and also added shoes at the beginning of the year, so I will say I think (I hope) I've finally turned a corner with them. Only took 4 years to figure out. But my bad squat days can still be pretty darned bad lol.

The wraps I adore, which surprised me because I wasn't expecting to. Only reason I tried them at all was because someone recommended them as a way to overload my (regular wrapless) squat. So I figured I'd learn how to use them, occasionally put them on for a few sets of overload work to go a little heavier than I otherwise would have been able to, but that I'd keep competing without the wraps. That plan lasted until I realized how much I liked using them. Well, once I got over the pain factor anyway lol. I'm beginning to realize that I can't squat exactly the same way with them as without them, it's another learning process and I still feel like quite a beginner with them. It's also the most fun I've had with squats, and for something that I have had such a long history of struggling with, I'm finding that's worth something in itself.

[SophieM]

I'm sure you'll be fine at the meet. Just try not to think and let your body do what it knows how to do.

[itsagoodday]

I'm sure you'll be fine at the meet. Just try not to think and let your body do what it knows how to do.

Thanks Sophie I guess the good thing with deadlifts is that I do best when I turn my brain off anyway. I need some sort of shut-off switch that I can have someone turn off for me and tape it shut so I can't turn it back on again lol

I keep going to the RPS web site to see if they've posted the roster for next week, no luck yet. They should have it up around Monday at the latest. I'm curious to see how many women will be in this meet, I suspect it might be quite a bit of them as Hercules itself has a lot of exceedingly kick-ass ladies, some of whom will be competing. And when this meet was in Rochester last April, there were a lot of women competing in that one. So if there's a lot on the roster, my chances of being bumped out of first flights are higher. Last spring there were 24 women and I think I wound up being second flight on everything which was a new experience at the time, I found it a bit harder to figure out when to start warming up though lol. I won't know actual flights until the day of the meet, but I can make a guess based on the roster.

[Big_Sky_Guy]

Hi! Late to your party. When's the meet?

[thehobbes]

Hey OP I know that feel about wanting to do a lot of work in the gym to make it feel like you really worked. Any time I do a max test day (on purpose) it feels like such a waste of a workout because the volume is gone, then it's like ok I just went heavier than ever before, I probably shouldn't push it with a bunch of other heavy sets after that! It's ok, you're gonna make it and you're gonna do awesome.

DEADLIFTS
5x135
3x185
3x225
3x255
1x285
1x305

The idea here was that as long as everything was moving fast and felt pretty good, I'd work up to my opener weight. Technically my opener is 320 with a deadlift bar, but with a regular old bar I figured 300-305 would do. Everything felt pretty good until I got to 305.

I have no idea what happened, really. But it felt like I dropped down to the bar to grab it and then my chest kept coming forwards until my upper body was OVER the bar like I was going to row it. Being essentially quite brilliant, I decided to carry on from this position, so my hips shot up and I did a very awkward stiff legged deadlift type of movement. Hmmm. Well, I didn't die or injure myself, so that would be the good news. And I did get the lift, so I'm sort of bemused that I can pull 305 despite experiencing pretty much 99% form and technique failure. But I've never done that before in my life and I'd like to never, ever do it again. That was my last deadlift before my meet, so I've got 8 days to recover from that fiasco and convince myself that it never happened. Sigh.

Sweet baby Christmas your OPENER is 320?! Damn, you people and your strong figgin' deadlifts, that is majorly impressive. What's your max and what would be a best scenario new max attempt at DL for you? Yeah, cool you know you got 305 in the bag, haha chit happens, you're conditioned enough to get away with a bad rep every now and then.

Thanks Sophie I guess the good thing with deadlifts is that I do best when I turn my brain off anyway. I need some sort of shut-off switch that I can have someone turn off for me and tape it shut so I can't turn it back on again lol

Haha, the only lift I can successfully turn my brain off for is bench press. And when that happens I imagine a golf course, dunno why and I hate golf but it gets me to some weird sports-fresh-grass-inner-peace thing goin' on.

[VO2Maxima]

The idea here was that as long as everything was moving fast and felt pretty good, I'd work up to my opener weight. Technically my opener is 320 with a deadlift bar, but with a regular old bar I figured 300-305 would do. Everything felt pretty good until I got to 305.

I have no idea what happened, really. But it felt like I dropped down to the bar to grab it and then my chest kept coming forwards until my upper body was OVER the bar like I was going to row it. Being essentially quite brilliant, I decided to carry on from this position, so my hips shot up and I did a very awkward stiff legged deadlift type of movement. Hmmm. Well, I didn't die or injure myself, so that would be the good news. And I did get the lift, so I'm sort of bemused that I can pull 305 despite experiencing pretty much 99% form and technique failure. But I've never done that before in my life and I'd like to never, ever do it again. That was my last deadlift before my meet, so I've got 8 days to recover from that fiasco and convince myself that it never happened. Sigh.

Only you know what works for you, and what to use as your opener, but I'm going to tell you what a few guys with a f-ton of experience told me the night before my push-pull (I modified my attempts based on them). They told me that most people have one really good pull...it's not like squat or bench, you get one really heavy-ass pull. Their advice was that while with other lifts, something I could triple would be fine for an opener, with deadlift, they had always had better luck using an easy warmup. I think I ended up opening 270 with a deadlift bar, instead of the planned 300 or whatever I had tripled on a stiff bar at that point. Jumps were bigger, but it paid off for me. Remember, it's not what you open with, it's what you end with.

[melDorado]

! Damn, you people and your strong figgin' deadlifts.

Damn, you people and your strong figgin' bench

Think I'm gonna have to try thinking about golf ... srs!

[melDorado]

When I first started at this gym, I couldn't figure out why I'd randomly have good bench days, bad bench days, terrible bench days, why does my grip feel weird today, and so on. I was just used to thinking about well, a bar is a bar. One day I realized just how different all the bars we have are, started paying attention to what the differences were and how they affected me, and things started to make more sense after that. Now I usually know what's happening and why, but I sound really paranoid and nitpicky. LOL.



Hi melDorado, thanks for stopping by! Oh man yeah, definitely feeling beat up and ready for a break. It's funny because the only time I get sick and tired of doing heavy singles is right before a meet, just from constantly pushing at them. It's almost like a mental exhaustion as much as a physical one for me right now. I need a vacation lol.



Oh definitely! I'm still trying to figure out what is optimal for, well, pretty much everything. I'm a little worried that's something I'll be tweaking for as long as I'm lifting though. It never ends! But I guess that's why we have to enjoy the process

That's interesting that super wide feels better on your shoulders. Wider has always tended to make my shoulders feel worse, weirdly enough. Although I will say that the "pull the bar apart" cue which I started using on wider grip just in the last few weeks has made it feel MUCH better and immediately took a ton of pressure off my shoulders. So I was probably just doing it wrong before lol. Now at least I have some hope I'll be able to play with the wider grip more without destroying anything in the process



Ergh, yeah, my sympathies on dodgy hips, those and squats don't make for a good combination! Squats are my nemesis. On paper my bench is actually my worst lift, but squat always feels like it is. It's always seemed like it takes 999 sessions of pounding my head against a wall to get 1 session that seems like I might be getting somewhere. I made some really big changes to stance, technique and also added shoes at the beginning of the year, so I will say I think (I hope) I've finally turned a corner with them. Only took 4 years to figure out. But my bad squat days can still be pretty darned bad lol.

The wraps I adore, which surprised me because I wasn't expecting to. Only reason I tried them at all was because someone recommended them as a way to overload my (regular wrapless) squat. So I figured I'd learn how to use them, occasionally put them on for a few sets of overload work to go a little heavier than I otherwise would have been able to, but that I'd keep competing without the wraps. That plan lasted until I realized how much I liked using them. Well, once I got over the pain factor anyway lol. I'm beginning to realize that I can't squat exactly the same way with them as without them, it's another learning process and I still feel like quite a beginner with them. It's also the most fun I've had with squats, and for something that I have had such a long history of struggling with, I'm finding that's worth something in itself.

I feel you, I still don't think I got it anywhere near right, I've spent months not adding weight and finely honing (supposedly) my form, I video every set, no matter what I do tho... I'm also convinced I've got the dreaded Celtic hip because I'm Welsh and ginger. And I've got weird short calves lol. I also get the odd day when it's all just so wonderful and easy, wtf is that about hmmmm
Anyway I'm dead curious to try some wraps, thanks for sharing your experience, altho wondering what pain is involved, I'm pretty tough (unless it involves lunges) so I guess I can handle it.
All the best for your meet x

[melDorado]

Thanks Sophie I guess the good thing with deadlifts is that I do best when I turn my brain off anyway. I need some sort of shut-off switch that I can have someone turn off for me and tape it shut so I can't turn it back on again lol

Same with deads, i pull so fast I can't have time to think. After i spend a while staring out the plates, just til they know I can kill them, I step up and get in my set up while stood up. .lats, arms locked etc, then I take a deep breath and grip and rip. I literally dive and pull it in one movement pretty much. It probably looks insane, but after my massive deadlift stall last year I just got so over thinking it that my form was going worse and worse really. I was spending ages bent over the bar setting up and stuff. When I tried to grip and rip it was like magic srs. Just felt so right and strong. I don't wanna change now but apparently there's a greater risk of injury hmmm

[itsagoodday]

Hi! Late to your party. When's the meet?

Hey BSG! Long time, no see! How've you been?

Meet is next weekend the 23rd! Actually, meet is 23rd and 24th, a couple of folks from BB.com and IS will be there. LisaSkinnoble and I are lifting Saturday morning, and then Flex and JTBNY are on Sunday morning I think. Bando will be out there heading up the support, laughs and beers crew. And VO2Maxima will be in house with her ninja chiro skillz. So it should be a lot of fun!

Hey OP I know that feel about wanting to do a lot of work in the gym to make it feel like you really worked. Any time I do a max test day (on purpose) it feels like such a waste of a workout because the volume is gone, then it's like ok I just went heavier than ever before, I probably shouldn't push it with a bunch of other heavy sets after that!

Yeah, man this tapering thing is driving me nuts more than anything else. I better seriously be rested up enough to move mountains by Saturday to make a couple of weeks where I felt like I was doing pretty much nuthin' worth it lol.

It's ok, you're gonna make it and you're gonna do awesome.

I'm gonna give you my number so you can text me this every five minutes until I'm done with my first squat attempt. I'll be fine after that Well, unless I have any problems with it. Whereupon I will be freaking the heck out.

Sweet baby Christmas your OPENER is 320?! Damn, you people and your strong figgin' deadlifts, that is majorly impressive. What's your max and what would be a best scenario new max attempt at DL for you? Yeah, cool you know you got 305 in the bag, haha chit happens, you're conditioned enough to get away with a bad rep every now and then.

If I accidentally drop my chest over the bar at the meet, I'm just going to pretend I lost a contact lens. Be like... no wait... just let me find it... I get another attempt cuz this one didn't count right?!?!

Well, gym deadlift max and meet deadlift max are two different creatures because of deadlift bar difference, so that makes the answer a little more complicated. Deadlift bars are magical, mystical things with special powers, right up there with pixie dust and unicorn snot. So as far as a deadlift bar max, I'll find that out Saturday because I haven't been able to test it since my last meet in August lol. But in August I pulled 335. So the question I want to know is, did I add 15 lbs to that in the last 8+ months? So yeah, 350 is the goal if all goes well, but I think it could be a close call. Dunno.

Haha, the only lift I can successfully turn my brain off for is bench press. And when that happens I imagine a golf course, dunno why and I hate golf but it gets me to some weird sports-fresh-grass-inner-peace thing goin' on.

That definitely wouldn't work for me. I don't know anything about golf, so I'd just be lying there in utter confusion lol.

Only you know what works for you, and what to use as your opener, but I'm going to tell you what a few guys with a f-ton of experience told me the night before my push-pull (I modified my attempts based on them). They told me that most people have one really good pull...it's not like squat or bench, you get one really heavy-ass pull. Their advice was that while with other lifts, something I could triple would be fine for an opener, with deadlift, they had always had better luck using an easy warmup. I think I ended up opening 270 with a deadlift bar, instead of the planned 300 or whatever I had tripled on a stiff bar at that point. Jumps were bigger, but it paid off for me. Remember, it's not what you open with, it's what you end with.

Attempt selection is such rocket science at times lol. I'm like, I don't know, I just lift things?! Deadlift for me though seems to be the one lift where I do better pushing myself harder. It's also the only lift I can get a good adrenaline surge going at meets and put it to good use. If I got that pumped up before a squat, I'd blow through all my cues and die lol.

Fatigue on deadlift is a funny thing for me. As long as I can keep the bar moving fairly smoothly, even if it's pretty darned heavy I don't seem to get much fatigue from that on singles and I can keep going. I'll burn myself out on grinders. And I'll completely burn out all my gaskets on fails. I opened with 315 in August, I was questioning my own sanity at the time, but it wound up being a good opener weight and moved really fast. I should be safe with 320 for an opener and I'm hoping my second attempt will be in the realm of a little sticky or slow, but not a grinder. Sorta thinking 320/340/350, but eh, we'll see how it feels on the day. All plans subject to change

I feel you, I still don't think I got it anywhere near right, I've spent months not adding weight and finely honing (supposedly) my form, I video every set, no matter what I do tho... I'm also convinced I've got the dreaded Celtic hip because I'm Welsh and ginger. And I've got weird short calves lol. I also get the odd day when it's all just so wonderful and easy, wtf is that about hmmmm
Anyway I'm dead curious to try some wraps, thanks for sharing your experience, altho wondering what pain is involved, I'm pretty tough (unless it involves lunges) so I guess I can handle it.
All the best for your meet x

Squats for me are just like hey, let's try these 20,000 things and see what works. OK, those didn't work. Well great, now I know what doesn't work. Um, now what?

Not sure what Celtic hip is, but doesn't sound good. Wait, I'm 50% British, maybe that's why I have one good hip and one bad one lol.

Thanks for the well wishes, I'm hoping I'll have some fun and lift some heavy stuff

Same with deads, i pull so fast I can't have time to think. After i spend a while staring out the plates, just til they know I can kill them, I step up and get in my set up while stood up. .lats, arms locked etc, then I take a deep breath and grip and rip. I literally dive and pull it in one movement pretty much. It probably looks insane, but after my massive deadlift stall last year I just got so over thinking it that my form was going worse and worse really. I was spending ages bent over the bar setting up and stuff. When I tried to grip and rip it was like magic srs. Just felt so right and strong. I don't wanna change now but apparently there's a greater risk of injury hmmm

Sister! lol. Yeah, I divebomb too, it freaks people out sometimes. I wound up there for two reasons really. One was overthinking, big time. I'd be setting up over the bar like, wait should my hips be lower, should I put this here, what about this, blah blah blah, and before I knew it I'd forgotten how to just lift the stupid thing. The other reason I think may just be related to my build. Any time I'd drop down to the bar and set up carefully, the entire time I was in that position setting up, I could feel my hamstrings stretching out like crazy like I was purposely putting them in a deep static stretch and hold. I tried setting up faster, I tried keeping my hips in different positions while I set everything else up so my hamstrings wouldn't stretch so much, but there wasn't any position I could put them in that stopped that feeling. Problem was that as soon as those hamstrings stretched out, they didn't want to give me power anymore. (Warning: weird theory alert) I've pondered that with the divebomb they may be acting along the lines of a deadlift suit, where dropping into position puts tension on them just for a fraction of a second and they immediately want to snap out of it like rubber bands. That's just a theory though.

[thehobbes]

I'm gonna give you my number so you can text me this every five minutes until I'm done with my first squat attempt. I'll be fine after that Well, unless I have any problems with it. Whereupon I will be freaking the heck out.

Lol, you'll be ok OP, release your inner ham, the rage of 1,000 angry suns, spartan warriors, all that.

Well, gym deadlift max and meet deadlift max are two different creatures because of deadlift bar difference, so that makes the answer a little more complicated. Deadlift bars are magical, mystical things with special powers, right up there with pixie dust and unicorn snot. So as far as a deadlift bar max, I'll find that out Saturday because I haven't been able to test it since my last meet in August lol. But in August I pulled 335. So the question I want to know is, did I add 15 lbs to that in the last 8+ months? So yeah, 350 is the goal if all goes well, but I think it could be a close call. Dunno.

Oh wow, 335 is a hell of a pull. That thing should feel easy in the meet compared to the regular bars you've been working with all this time. When you get 350 it gives you license to do all the tree-fiddy jokes, so, you know what you need to do!

Pixie dust and unicorn snot is amazing on toast too, just sayin.

[itsagoodday]

Lol, you'll be ok OP, release your inner ham, the rage of 1,000 angry suns, spartan warriors, all that.

Oh wow, 335 is a hell of a pull. That thing should feel easy in the meet compared to the regular bars you've been working with all this time. When you get 350 it gives you license to do all the tree-fiddy jokes, so, you know what you need to do!

Pixie dust and unicorn snot is amazing on toast too, just sayin.

LOL! Ah a journey to the land of tree-fiddy jokes, that would indeed be epic

I'm curious how things will work out this time around since I've been working with the reverse band deads. At the last meet, I just had never touched those weights before and the weight at the top of the 335 pull was pretty much like my life was flashing before my eyes. This time I've been working with the reverse band deads, so I've had my hands on 350 a couple of times with those, actually I've worked up to 365 with them. So that's a new tool in the arsenal, and I'm really interested to see if it makes any difference. I *know* I can hold onto those weights and lock them out, that's a confidence boost I didn't have at previous meets. (Now that I've said all that, watch my arms fall off on 320 lol.)

Just remembered I had this on my youtube channel. This was 335 last August. It felt rather horrid, but didn't look as bad as it felt. Well, unless you look close enough to see all the veins in my neck bulging out and of course I was making some pretty atrocious faces the entire time lol. My goal is to make worse faces this time. Not SRS. But I will definitely be making worse faces.

[Fiction2Fitness]

Good luck at your meet. I just did my first and it was fun. Different with commands since usually don't train with anyone telling me things to do but it's not too difficult to adjust. Deadlift is the most fun. I failed 240 in training but ended up 248 at meet and might have hit more so there may be something to that magic meet deadlift stuffs. ;-) Seriously, have fun and rock it as I'm sure you'll do great.

[melDorado]

Hi me again your deadlift sister lol
Well I've read that if you grip and rip quick enough then there is like a stretch reflex which can help you with the pull, so your theory is right I think. Also you can take in more air stood up and this can help you brace better?

Here's a basic explanation of Celtic hip.
http://www.tribeaffect.com/2015/02/1...y-or-genetics/


If you are part Scottish irish or Welsh you might have it you know! I also have weirdly short lower leg compared to my femur which makes depth hard as well. But we're gonna make it!!

[itsagoodday]

Monday 4/18 - Gym

Chest Day

BENCH
5x95
3x115
1x125
1x130

Last bench day! Decided to go ahead and give these the rest of the week off completely. Used my regular old grip and the thicker bar again, and just wanted to work up to my opener @ 130. Had no problems with the weight. For the last three sets, I gave myself bench commands in my head. I also made sure to do a particularly long pause at the chest. It's a little hard to think of the commands and benching at the same time, but I guess it worked lol. Noticed I was doing something unusual, I wonder if I always do this? If I knew ahead of time that there was going to be a long pause, when I got the bar to my chest I was transferring the weight of it onto my shoulders and using them to hold it steady, which meant that the initial press off my chest was also mostly shoulders. Huh. Well, I'm going to work with what I've got at the meet. Clearly my bench has a lot of issues which is preventing it's progression, I think technique, frequency and programming wise. So pretty much I don't think I'm doing anything right with my bench currently lol. Correcting those will be a huge focus of my next training block.

DUMBBELL INCLINE PRESS
8x30's
6x32's
4x35's

DUMBBELL INCLINE FLYES
8x25's
6x27's
4x30's

DIPS - superset with push ups
(3x) 4xBW

WIDE GRIP PUSH UPS
(3x) 10xBW

And that's all she wrote. Really not enjoying this extended period of short workouts, less sets and fewer exercises. Meh. I was texting a friend my frustrations and wrote "this sucks", and my phone kept auto-correcting it to "thus ducks". I'm sure my droid knows better than I do, so hey. I was bored at the gym. Let there be ducks.

How's your meet prep going, Kelly?
I'm fine, but I'm having a slight problem with my ducks.
Um. OK.

[itsagoodday]

Good luck at your meet. I just did my first and it was fun. Different with commands since usually don't train with anyone telling me things to do but it's not too difficult to adjust. Deadlift is the most fun. I failed 240 in training but ended up 248 at meet and might have hit more so there may be something to that magic meet deadlift stuffs. ;-) Seriously, have fun and rock it as I'm sure you'll do great.

Thanks F2F! Wow, so happy you had a great time at your first meet and sounds like you killed it! And an awesome deadlift PR, congrats!!! Totally agreed, deads are the best for sure

Bench seems to be the only one I have to be more cautious about commands with. I think I'm just fighting the natural reaction of "Oh geez get it off me!!!!" when the bar is on my chest lol.

Hi me again your deadlift sister lol
Well I've read that if you grip and rip quick enough then there is like a stretch reflex which can help you with the pull, so your theory is right I think. Also you can take in more air stood up and this can help you brace better?

Interesting! My deads are so much farther ahead than anything else, I do think there's something about my build that's an advantage in there somewhere. I've been deeply suspicious that it may actually be something to do with my whoppin' hamstrings. I hadn't specifically thought of it in those terms, but now that I do, it is a stretch reflex that I'm describing. Weirdly enough, I can get a substantially better stretch out of my hamstrings by getting into a starting deadlift position than with any traditional hamstring stretch, so I think I may potentially be getting quite a lot of ooomph out of that fact.

Now if I could just figure out how to get some stretch reflex action at the bottom of my squats, but I get almost none there

Here's a basic explanation of Celtic hip.
http://www.tribeaffect.com/2015/02/1...y-or-genetics/

If you are part Scottish irish or Welsh you might have it you know! I also have weirdly short lower leg compared to my femur which makes depth hard as well. But we're gonna make it!!

Ooooh, it's the opposite of what I was thinking. Deep hip sockets! I think my bad hip may actually have a really shallow socket on that side, just based on how it acts and moves around. But that's purely a guess on my part, maybe it is the other way around. I have no idea lol.

[VO2Maxima]

And that's all she wrote. Really not enjoying this extended period of short workouts, less sets and fewer exercises. Meh. I was texting a friend my frustrations and wrote "this sucks", and my phone kept auto-correcting it to "thus ducks". I'm sure my droid knows better than I do, so hey. I was bored at the gym. Let there be ducks.

How's your meet prep going, Kelly?
I'm fine, but I'm having a slight problem with my ducks.
Um. OK.

[itsagoodday]

^^^ roflmao

Well, they posted the roster! 28 chicks. Not many that I know personally, but I'm recognizing the names of some crazy strong chicks from Hercules. So I have no freaking idea where that would put me in the flights. Guess I'll find out Saturday

http://meets.revolutionpowerlifting....ing-supremacy/

Officially submitted openers as 235/130/320. Noticed on the roster that they have not yet changed me from Raw Classic to Raw Modern, though I submitted a request by email a few weeks ago. Hopefully that won't be an issue to change at weigh in. They'll have to change my weight class anyway, and I know they're OK doing that at weigh ins

[itsagoodday]

Tuesday 4/19 - Gym

Legs Day

SQUATS
5x95
3x (5x135)

add wraps
5x135

ONE LEG EXTENSION
8x30
6x40
4x50

ONE LEG LYING HAMSTRING CURL
8x15's
6x17.5's

The goal of today was to go light and just keep my joints moving. Squatting keeps me in the best shape for squatting. If I'd taken an entire week off of these, my mobility would have gone to crap and I would have pretty much fallen over with the bar on my back Saturday lol. I'll be doing this kind of thing again Thursday, but nothing else until meet day.

I added the one wrapped set not because I wanted to squat light with wraps, but just to practice the wrapping itself. I asked myself if I'd feel sillier by wrapping and then just taking them off again, or wrapping and squatting light. I went with doing a light set. Pretty funny though, I've been adding those at 225+ so they were some serious overkill at 135. I mean I pretty much could have just sat down and thrown the wraps at the bar and been like "you got this!", because there wasn't much effort being expended on my part lol.

I cleared up the thing with the Raw Classic / Raw Modern category, and confirmed it won't be an issue for me to change to Raw Modern (only difference being whether you can use the wraps or not). Someone gave me a different email to contact the person in charge of the roster and they got back to me right away.

Nuthin' to do at the gym tomorrow, so I'll probably start pounding out what I want to do for programming next, to keep myself from going crazy

[VO2Maxima]

^^^ roflmao

Well, they posted the roster! 28 chicks. Not many that I know personally, but I'm recognizing the names of some crazy strong chicks from Hercules. So I have no freaking idea where that would put me in the flights. Guess I'll find out Saturday

http://meets.revolutionpowerlifting....ing-supremacy/

Officially submitted openers as 235/130/320. Noticed on the roster that they have not yet changed me from Raw Classic to Raw Modern, though I submitted a request by email a few weeks ago. Hopefully that won't be an issue to change at weigh in. They'll have to change my weight class anyway, and I know they're OK doing that at weigh ins

Herculadies gonna bring it. Couple of them sitting out since this falls right after the Arnold and the Women's Pro/Am, but still sending a bunch of strong people.
But seriously, should be a good meet. Going to be some big numbers going up. I'm just going to sit back and watch all the strong kids play. Should be fun. Good luck!

[itsagoodday]

Herculadies gonna bring it. Couple of them sitting out since this falls right after the Arnold and the Women's Pro/Am, but still sending a bunch of strong people.
But seriously, should be a good meet. Going to be some big numbers going up. I'm just going to sit back and watch all the strong kids play. Should be fun. Good luck!

Thanks! I'll be getting my butt kicked from several dozen different directions, but it should be a ton of fun. Yeah, I've seen some of those ladies through the Hercules ******** feed, I seriously hope that I'll be in a good position to watch them lift because they'll be putting up crazy weights. I'm such a fangirl at meets lol. One of the meets I did a while back we had a petite girl deadlifting 455+ raw, and I was just standing there with my jaw hanging open. Pretty much somewhere between "I am SO inspired" and "well, I quit." lol

[VO2Maxima]

Pretty much somewhere between "I am SO inspired" and "well, I quit." lol

Yeah I say that every day lol.

[thehobbes]

^^^ roflmao

Well, they posted the roster! 28 chicks. Not many that I know personally, but I'm recognizing the names of some crazy strong chicks from Hercules. So I have no freaking idea where that would put me in the flights. Guess I'll find out Saturday

http://meets.revolutionpowerlifting....ing-supremacy/

Officially submitted openers as 235/130/320. Noticed on the roster that they have not yet changed me from Raw Classic to Raw Modern, though I submitted a request by email a few weeks ago. Hopefully that won't be an issue to change at weigh in. They'll have to change my weight class anyway, and I know they're OK doing that at weigh ins

You're gonna rock it OP! Better load the "BOOM - PRs everywhere!" cannon. Don't drive yourself too nuts with the lighter gym days up until then.

Always wondered why squats feel so much worse if they're not done really frequently. You'd think DL would mess people up more due it to being the highest amount of wt being moved, but that, meh, I can go a few weeks of no DL and am usually ok on it. With squats if I don't do it for 6 days I actually get DOMS when I get back to it. Evil evil mysterious squats.

[itsagoodday]

You're gonna rock it OP! Better load the "BOOM - PRs everywhere!" cannon. Don't drive yourself too nuts with the lighter gym days up until then.

LOL thanks, will try!

Always wondered why squats feel so much worse if they're not done really frequently. You'd think DL would mess people up more due it to being the highest amount of wt being moved, but that, meh, I can go a few weeks of no DL and am usually ok on it. With squats if I don't do it for 6 days I actually get DOMS when I get back to it. Evil evil mysterious squats.

Given vacation time, deadlifts like to kick up their heels on a beach in the Pacific somewhere, soak up the sun and drink fruity things with little umbrellas. They come back from vacation very mellow and agreeable. When you give squats a vacation, they slink into the nearest sewer, fight with rats over the bones of dead things and plot your demise. Totally different.

[thehobbes]

LOL! Ah a journey to the land of tree-fiddy jokes, that would indeed be epic

I'm curious how things will work out this time around since I've been working with the reverse band deads. At the last meet, I just had never touched those weights before and the weight at the top of the 335 pull was pretty much like my life was flashing before my eyes. This time I've been working with the reverse band deads, so I've had my hands on 350 a couple of times with those, actually I've worked up to 365 with them. So that's a new tool in the arsenal, and I'm really interested to see if it makes any difference. I *know* I can hold onto those weights and lock them out, that's a confidence boost I didn't have at previous meets. (Now that I've said all that, watch my arms fall off on 320 lol.)

Just remembered I had this on my youtube channel. This was 335 last August. It felt rather horrid, but didn't look as bad as it felt. Well, unless you look close enough to see all the veins in my neck bulging out and of course I was making some pretty atrocious faces the entire time lol. My goal is to make worse faces this time. Not SRS. But I will definitely be making worse faces.

How'd I miss this post! That looked like it went up quick but I bet it felt like an eternity lol. Yeah with every lift there's a point where simply holding onto X amount, not even lifting it, but holding it or having it on you is like WHOA. I'm on Versa Grips island with DLs, mind=blown that even with mixed grip the hand that is over doesn't seem to have issue holding on when people are doing heavy ass stuff like this. (Is that guy a spotter in case somebody passes out?)

[itsagoodday]

How'd I miss this post! That looked like it went up quick but I bet it felt like an eternity lol. Yeah with every lift there's a point where simply holding onto X amount, not even lifting it, but holding it or having it on you is like WHOA. I'm on Versa Grips island with DLs, mind=blown that even with mixed grip the hand that is over doesn't seem to have issue holding on when people are doing heavy ass stuff like this. (Is that guy a spotter in case somebody passes out?)

Another beautiful thing about deadlift bars is that they are really thin, so they're much easier to hold on to. Also really useful for people who hook grip on deads, not that I do.

I remember distinctly feeling like I was going to pass out about 2/3 of the way up on that lift, you can see me take a HUGE breath when I lockout. Probably just a blood pressure thing, but I felt like I had no oxygen left in my entire body lol. Yeah, the guy behind me is a deadlift spotter. That's an actual thing and a really useful one at that. Deadlifts always seem to be the lift where people are most likely to pass out (though I did see a guy pass out at the bottom of a squat once, too). I've seen the deadlift spotter grab people to keep them from hitting the floor on several occasions. He'll also put a hand out to keep them from going over backwards lol.

[SophieM]

I can't wait to read about the meet this weekend! I see Layla is lifting. I find her to be inspiring. One day soon she'll be out squatting me. And she's like 10 or something LOL. I really need to work on my squat.

[itsagoodday]

I can't wait to read about the meet this weekend! I see Layla is lifting. I find her to be inspiring. One day soon she'll be out squatting me. And she's like 10 or something LOL. I really need to work on my squat.

I actually didn't know about her before, but a day or so ago saw her dad post a video of her prepping for the meet on ********. That's gonna be cool to see her lift, she looks super strong. I can't even imagine how astronomically good she could get if she started that young and stuck with it for a lifetime