Good weekend, a sick baby, and deathlifts once more

After a long and kind of mixed week, nothing quite like heading out to a powerlifting meet. Couple of the guys on the lifting team and I headed out at about 6:00AM for coffee and the SPF meet in Blytheville, AR.

Yes, this the meet I was training for when my rib/nerve injury happened.

Yes, it was a pisser not being able to lift at the meet.

The meet ended up being fairly small, about 25 lifters altogether, and the support staff was lacking. Luckily we did come out, as the two guys I traveled with ended up being spotters and I ended up judging for the meet- side judge during squat and bench, head judge for deadlifts.

Red light... or white light?

Pretty cool experience overall, got to catch up with some of the Blytheville lifters from the last meet, witness several state records, and even witness (and judge... gulp!) a bad 67yo man pull a 700+ deadlift.

 Mr. Jim Hodges, ladies and gentlemen. He lifts.

The team fielded three lifters, with several more from the jamesnasium competing. One of our guys bombed out on squat, one PRed several lifts, and David got his Elite class at 242.

Despite my red lighting him for getting his ass off the bench. More than a little bit.

Does not lift.

Meet wrapped up early, we gathered trophies, and headed out. Think we were back at NBS by about 2:30PM or so, home by about 3:00PM.

Good times. Thanks to Jesse Rodgers with the Southern Powerlifting Federation and the crew from Riston Fitness for putting together a fun and well run meet!  

However, I returned to mama hanging out on the couch with a feverish baby. As time went on, she got up to about a 103.6° fever and an occasional deep, wet cough. Her fever responded to ibuprofen and acetaminophen, so it wasn't too awful, but there was concern. Got her into the doc on Monday, blood test revealed a random virus but, thankfully, no strep.

Sick baby typically yields two things - 1) excessive snuggle time, and 2) lots of TV on the couch. Snuggle time is awesome, but...

...this gets old after three days.

Sunday was more sick baby, a slightly frustrating but ultimately excellent Titans win (come on, Kenny Britt... really?), my younger brother's birthday dinner at my folks' house. Steaks, cake, and The Road Warrior. Not a bad evening. 

Missed the jamesnasium Monday but got into it this morning for my reacquaintance with deathlifts. As I mentioned the other day, I realized it had been a good while since I did any serious deadlifting so I dedicated the morning routine to getting some pulling reps in.

So I don't know who convinced me that not pulling for two months was a good idea, but I am going to slap that individual in a tender, genital related area. After a brief warm up and some hip and hamstring stretching, chalked up, and started tugging. Pretty quickly I was reminded of the benefits of deadlifting... strong back and grip... quick, powerful hips... increased work capacity and CNS response...

All things which have apparently been trying to dwindle away in me wee little self.

NBS lifters from our April meet in Blytheville. My 465 pull at about 4:30

I'm not a great deadlifter anyway, but this was just silly. My best meet pull was 465 and felt like I could have gone another 20-30lbs,  Today, following 5/3/1-ish protocols, worked up to a more difficult than it should have been 6x315. Dropped some weight, took off the belt and went for about 4x8x225 and called it a day. Should have gotten some video to game tape, but alas I did not.

Felt good to pull again but I gots some work to get did.

  



Crap squat workout and an interesting take on gun control from a CNN contributor

Had one of those training sessions last night where nothing felt right once I got into working sets. Last night was squats and since I am off of team programming I have started a loose 5/3/1 program. Warm ups were good, depth good, back good, hips warmed up, etc. When I got to working sets, however, everything just felt... off. Couldn't get my knees out like I wanted or get back how I wanted without feeling like I was falling out of groove. Weird. Got my working sets done, couple accessory sets to test weight, knee opening, etc, and called it a night.

Looking back, I think it was a combination of a few things.

Fatigue - Long day at work and with a lack of reps lately, I think my CNS is starting to wussify. Also realized that I haven't really done any deadlifting of note since I first buggered my shoulder up in July. Two months with maybe three not so serious sessions in. Ungood.

Hip weakness - some of this is tightness robbing the hips, some of it is weak abductor muscles. Need more accessory work here. Time to get after some band abductions, side drags, side raises, etc.

Core weakness/miscue - some of the overall "off" feeling I think had to do with breathing and not tightening the abs and low back correctly. Just out of sync. More core work, need more reps, probably should do some overload unracks to build the CNS here.

Boom. 

So I am at work yesterday, doing my thing, and my wife randomly sends me an email with a link to an opinion piece on CNN.com by LZ Granderson. If you have never read any of his pieces, one of the first I read was this piece on dressing our children. While I don't agree with everything the man says by far, I have previously found a lot of his work to be insightful, somewhat even handed, and entertaining if nothing else. Had I known who had written the piece before checking out the link I would not have been so surprised, but I was immediately intrigued by an opinion piece on CNN titled...

Wait for it...

Gun control is not the answer

I KNOW, RIGHT?!

Surprised? I certainly was. Check it out. I found it to be a refreshing take on the matter versus the vigorous hand wringing on either side of the debate- someone actually taking the time to THINK on the matter and coming to something of a logical conclusion versus pushing an agenda and banning this and that. 

And this coming from a gay black man. 

Let that sink in for a second. The type of person your typical conservative is the quickest to disregard or denigrate has one of the most balanced opinions on the other side of the aisle. 

There may be hope for all of us yet. 

Itty bitty progress report and some asshole attacks the defenseless... again...

I had been worried that my last little bout of shoulder pain and tightness, post PT, was going to set my rehab back. After several days of deload with the recurrence of pain last week and continuing home rehab and stretching, I decided to pick up the week in the gym yesterday with bench day, to include a rep test. Glad (even a little proud) to report that I managed a set of five at 135lbs on bench yesterday.

While this is nowhere near 100%, it is progress over the nasty single for 135 I managed about five weeks ago. If you go by Wendler's calculated one rep max formula (weight x reps x 0.0333 + weight = 1RM) that puts me at about 158 for a current 1RM, or a 23lb increase in five weeks. Average that to gain 4.6lbs/week (as realistic or unrealistic as that may be) and I might be able to hit 225 again by early January. Hell, play my cards right and it may be sooner than that.

 ... and there was much rejoicing.

With some work, rest, nutrition and a little power from the mysterious unknown I should be able to hit a meet early next year with at least a token bench. Maybe someone up there can convince a dwarf to pound out a few new sinews on his anvil for me. 

And now it's time for a rant. If you're a fan of the government (regardless of your party affiliation), this is where you will probably want either stop reading or continue with an open mind.

As everyone knows by now, a coward attacked unarmed personnel at the Washington Navy Yard yesterday. I don't have much new to add to this aside from asking what I am sure many others are asking. How long does this go on? How many more mass killings do we have to endure before something is REALLY done about people like this?

There are already politicians lobbying for more gun control.

I am sure there are people crying and wondering what can be done to stop this plague of violence.

The truth is, people are violent creatures. We have laws in place to stop things like this from happening. The coward that perpetrated this crime has a history of violent behavior involving firearms and somehow still had a medium military security clearance AND was still able to pass a FEDERAL background check to legally purchase the weapons used in the attack. I forget at which source I read it now, but there was someone questioned at the Navy asking how this coward could have possibly obtained the security clearance with his known violent past. If I remember correctly, the answer was pretty simply (paraphrased), "The system didn't work with their system so we couldn't see the previous incidents."

Our own VP Biden said, not too long ago, that we just didn't have the resources to follow up on things like this, didn't have the money to spend on staffing and infrastructure to ensure that laws are followed, erroneous background checks are investigated, essentially that we couldn't enforce the laws we had in place due to lack of budget.

The coward used a shotgun as you suggested, dick.

Really?

We want to make more laws governing laws we have already written and put in place to stop incidents like this from happening? From making sure that dubiously named "gun free zones" are in fact safe areas and not places where law abiding citizens, in this case sworn defenders of our Consititution, are allowed to forcefully defend themselves and each other if need be?

Incidentally, if you look at pretty much any active shooter incident in recent memory, each of the crimes committed by these cowards against the defenseless are in so called "gun free zones". Something is foul in the state of America...

If we are going to rely on our government to protect us from ourselves, it is high time we hold them to task. If they are going to make everyone feel better by passing laws to appease the jittery sheep, then let those that are willing to be sheepdogs protect the herd.

Quit criminalizing the law abiding and start hunting down and punishing the criminals.

Start preventing incidents like these by prosecuting criminals early on to the full extent of law instead of letting them go or not starting investigation in the first place because the budget doesn't call for it.

Start enforcing the laws that are already on the books.

Put your fucking money where your mouth is.

Titans, flare ups, and melt downs.

Week two versus the Texans. This one is always a tough one- conference game, Texans almost always play well, and our beloved Titans have been hit or miss the last few years. So far a pretty good game, tied 7-7 in the second quarter and we are holding them alright so far. Locker could get a little more accurate, Joshnson needs to quit fucking around and run, and big D needs to keep the pressure up.
 

The shoulder decided it was going to flare up the other day. Don't know what did it, but had a fairly rotator and upper back intensive bench day and it seemed to flare up that night or the following morning. Another one of those "wake up hurting" kind of days. I will freely admit to freaking out a little bit, worrying that I was back to square one. I haven't benched again since, but a few days of rest, rolling, tennis ball pressure pointing, PT stretching, and ibuprofen seem to be helping. I'll be in the gym in the morning so will test it a little then.

So what is it about a four year old that makes them turn into complete assholes after a long, pretty good day WITH the promise of a toy before bed after completion of the last night of the week's chores? We have a "responsibility chart", in which she must get an average of five out of seven magnets for each of the seven days of the week to get a toy, book, whatever from a little collection we keep for such occasions. So, we return from Tarzhay at about 8:00PM last night and have literally two things to do before bed to get our last few magnets for the toy, a freshly picked Lego set. Instead, however, the daughter decides to not do the last few responsibilities and follow me and the wife lady around the house punching us. No magnets, no toy.

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamy.

We had a talk about it afterward and talked about handling feelings, doing the simple responsibilities, etc. Logic in a four year old... (not so) surprisingly lacking.

We're working on it.

Third quarter. 14-10 Texans. Grrrrrrrrrrrr.

ETA: Titans lose, 30-24 in overtime. Defensive breakdown- we let Schaub and Hopkins roll over our secondary. Fucking boo.

But we knew this already...

Science says that metal makes you happy-

http://www.metalinjection.net/latest-news/metal-science/metal-makes-happy

Ch-ch-ch-ch-CHANGES...

Turn around and face the... strange?

I know, I know... sorry, Mr. Bowie.

We had some talk recently amongst the powerlifting team as to solidifying and tightening the team up, unifying subgroups, etc, and I realized that as much as I love the team, I would soon not be able to dedicate 100% to the team. With the end of year holidays quickly approaching, my work typically gets extremely busy and the schedule is spotty at best, so training times get harder and harder to make, etc.

I could say "fuck it" to work and walk away to something else that paid less that MIGHT have better hours more suited to team training times, but I am not really able to do that and as much as I love my team, I love my family more and ensuring food on the table, bills are paid, etc, is more of a priority to me than training with the team.

Add to that the fact that my rehab is ongoing and while I can train, I cannot compete at this level and will not be able to for the foreseeable future.

That all said, I have let the ladies and germs on the team know that I will more than likely be leaving the team as of the meet in a few weeks. I am not the happiest about it, but I think it is right and fair to the team and myself for now. I intend to continue training and rehabbing, at my gym, on a regular schedule as much as I can and remain dedicated to the pursuit of moar power. I just can't do it at the expense of my training partners. We have had guys that join the team, show up every so often, half ass it, then eventually start showing up whenever they feel like it. I'm not going to be that guy. I have way too much respect for David, the team, and the gym.

So until I get a job that does not entail being out of training for large swaths of time...

The game ain't changed, just how and with whom I play it.

Metal leads to freedom and a bad ass cat

Looks like my time with Results Physiotherapy has come to a close for now. After having the last week off and having to reschedule a Tuesday appointment, went in today for a brief warm up and band workout and a quick exam with Logan at the Germantown location. Despite not getting just a whole lot of work on the neck and back in over the trip and the weekend, all feels decent. Little stiff and still have a little tingle in the left index finger, but decent.

Got a few pointers, continuing homework, etc. but Logan is pretty sure we have gotten everything loosened up how it needs to be. Still don't know an exact ETA to 100%, but should be about there in a few months.

Even got a Thera-band out of the deal for external rotations at home. Who knew they had Thera-band "tape" the PTs could just cut you a length of and tie it into shape for you? Neato.

Of course, I am a powerlifter, so I'm sure I'll get to visit ol' Logan again. They come highly recommended if you find yourself in the Memphis area and in need of some physical therapy loving.

Also, Ilse drew a lion. Awesomeness!

Back home, back at it...

Came back in Friday night, picked up at the airport by my lovely wife and daughter.

Few things about the trip and this Labor Day weekend-

1) Working without training makes one soft. Yeah, it was only most of a week, but that time away made me feel like the ass. Too much time at work without being home and at my home gym equals a lot of sagging, dragging ass. Back in the gym Saturday for a short squat session while some of the team was in Manchester getting the work done made me feel a bit better. Hit it back up yesterday for some bench rehab work made me feel a little better still. Just goes to show you- keep the work up and it will keep you up.

2) Diet has been shit. Yeah, it was kind of like a diet vacation what with being in a new area and all, but no excuse. Shouldn't have eaten as much as I did (and what I did) for the lack of output. Sitting at about 246 this morning after a low of about 229 in the last training cycle. While bodyweight isn't necessarily the biggest worry, body composition is up there. Need to scale it back a bit, smarten the diet up and get back some of this lost progress.

3) Need to increase daily stretching/warm up. Too much desk time here and in Jersey has really gotten my hips stiff and my legs overly tight. We went to the zoo over the weekend for a members night and walked about a billion miles... in my flip flops. Normally this would not be a huge deal but my right knee was stiff and sore for a good day or two afterward. Between getting soft and letting age take advantage of me, this stuff takes its toll. I don't know that I will ever be a yoga devotee but a little stretching every day wouldn't hurt.

On the flip side, the team competed in Manchester, TN this weekend and did rather well. First place team, several elite totals (including homedawg bmac), and a best lifter award. Awesome to see the guys doing well and makes me eager to get my shit healed and get back on the platform.

Hells to the yeah.