Training Sesh Triple Sesh Catch Up : 4/21, 4/23, and 4/25/14 - bench, squat, bench, deathlift, and learning lessons you already knew

Sorry for the delay in updates, been a busy busy bee lately and don't seem to be slowing down much.

Cutting to the chase, this sesh post will get you the run down on the last three sessions- a bench sesh, a squat sesh, another bench sesh with some deathlifts- with a few notes on stuff and things.

But no video. Wah wah.

We'll sing kumbaya and be buddies later.

For the bench sesh on Monday, here's what occurred:

• Bench - 2x5xbar, 5x95lbs, 5x135lbs, 5x155lbs, 5x175lbs, 3x185lbs, 3x8x135lbs
• Tbar row, paused - 4x8x55lbs
• OHP - 10xbar, 7x95lbs, 5x105lbs, 5x115lbs, 5x105lbs, 4x95lbs, 10xbar
• Face pull, cable, paused, pronated grip - 15x70lbs, 10x80lbs, 10x90lbs, 10x100lbs

Better sesh than the previous, for sure, but still not quite there. My sets went swimmingly up through the set at 175lbs, but the 185lbs got my goat. I am sure part of that was lifting without carbs, etc, but there were technical issues as well. 

I had Porter lift off and spot my last set(s) at 185lbs, and we observed a few things. The first was elbow tuck, which was observed to be excessive. Bring grip in one finger, little more flair, fixed. The second was tightness in the back and hips, just wasn't there. I think the tightness was a queueing mistake, as I can tighten my lats enough to cramp, think it was fatigue and spacing out with the bad grip, etc.

Stuff to work on.

On to squats from 4/23, the occurrence:

• Squat - 2x5xbar, 5x135lbs, 5x185lbs, 5x225lbs, 5x275lbs, 5x315lbs, 2x,then 3x355lbs
• Good mornings, little outside squat width - 10x135lbs, 10x155lbs, 10x175lbs
• Standing cable crunches, paused - 10x90lbs, 10x100lbs, 10x110lbs, 10x120lbs 

Similar issues here. I am now into the carbloaded phase of carb backloading, so I don't think that is to blame here, exclusively, though there may be a slight loss of strength due to that and what I am realizing to be a way to infrequent squat/deathlift rotation. 

Hips and depth were all good (no video, you'll just have to believe me), but I am having a shit tendency of the bar rolling down my back and mis-setting. Again, Porter spotting, observance was twofold- bar set too low so that when I slam the bottom (huh huh huh... cool...) and transfer to press up, the combination of my back settling and the bar disruption is making it slide down a little each rep. I also think that my set up is as such that my back is largely contacting the smooth areas of the bar. 

Fixes for now?

1) get a stronger back

2) use the Texas squat or Mastodon bar (broader knurling)

3) go back to the claw/drop pinky grip. 

Huh. Remember that? 

I could have sworn we learned that before.

Oh yeah.

We did.

Sometimes we need glaring reminders, no? Like a non-beard growing former team member suggesting it.

WORKING ON IT.

Mkay?

Friday, 4/25... another bench sesh with some deathlifts added in for good measure.

This (at least the title) seems appropriate...

The occurrence:

• Stretch, etc for about 10 minutes
• Bench - 2x5xbar, 5x95lbs, 5x135lbs, 5x155lbs, 5x185lbs
• Deathlifts, sumo for technique, all reset completely - 5x135lbs, 4x5x225lbs
• Bent over barbell row - 3x10x135lbs
• OHP, strict - 5xbar, 5x95lbs, strip set 5x115, 5x95;bs, 5x75lbs, 5x65lbs, 10xbar
• Fat bar triceps press down - 10x80lbs, 10x90lbs, 10x100lbs
• Cable pressdown, left arm only - 10x30lbs, 10x40lbs, 10x30lbs, 20lbs to burnout (20reps twice?)

Much better bench sesh overall, got back up to my 5x185lbs bench and probably could have gone on to 190 or 195lbs but I didn't want to push my luck. They went up fast and smooth enough. Tightness seemed to be much improved and bringing the grip in a finger seems to be serving me well so far.

Afterward my last deathlift sesh and taking forever to get my technique locked in, I decided to throw more in on this sesh. The reason to throw them in here seemed fairly obvious to me- 1) a bruh needs more sumo technique work, and 2) back and posterior chain work, always back and posterior chain work. Sumo went decently well, decently consistent, and seemed to get everything pretty well locked in. Still trying to get my shoulder and upper back locked in properly after taking the bar to aid in pulling the slack out, but everything seems to be going better. Hips are slowly starting to open up and rotation is improving.

All coming along nicely.

Switched up accessory work a bit, keeping with the ideas of rows and pressing. Haven't done barbell rows in forever, so I went ahead and threw them in, moved on to the usual overhead pressing with the drop/strip set technique. This got the shoulders pretty well fatigued, but the triceps still wanted some work, so I went with the press downs with extra work for the left (injured/rehabbing) arm. Felt good to dedicate a little work to it.

And Melissa, one of the ladies at the gym, brought a bunch of Reese's peanut butter eggs to the gym.

Like a lot.

Yes.

Got out of the gym late after the late start, went over to a friend's house for a bit to say "howdy" for their birthday (after the purchase of a post workout/carb backloaded double Backyard Burger and a Dr Pepper), and hit the sack at about midnight to get up at 4:00AM to head up to Blytheville with Christian and Porter to attend the SPF meet on Saturday.

Why get up at 4:00AM to drive about an hour to a meet that starts at 8:30AM? Why, to have breakfast at IHOP, of course!

Which is totally not worth getting up at 4:00AM.

But, apparently Perkins doesn't open until 6:00AM. Meh.

Anyhoo, meet was good- Jim and I ended up judging, as expected. Good meet ran well overall (Danny and team at Riston always seem to do a good job), NBS team represented well (Austin brought back an elite total at 198), and a good time was had by all.

Except Jim, who got shitty Mexican food.

It sounds like NBS is going to be putting on the November meet again. Hmmmmmmmmmmm...

Ghost in Chattanooga in May?

Maybe.





Go forth and destroy.

Training Sesh 4/17/14: Mo sumo for the slow hip guy and sugar dreams

One of the most fun things about what is going on lately is that I am in that wonderful zone between low carb (and low calorie) and ketosis and refeeds. Not only is it giving me kind of a mental lethargy, but it is making my lifts crap as well.

As expected.

Add to that the fact that I have been tracking under 2000kcals/day the last four to five days, and things have been... slow.

BUT weight is dropping, so I guess that's good.

This training sesh was, as the last bench sesh, kinda crap. Negative progress from a numbers perspective, but at least I'm not hurt, right? At least not in the area of deathlifts. I just suck at them. I have also not had enough in them in the program to keep up the technique work, so this sesh has been a little bit like starting over when the heavy is concerned.

Good news? Well, I'm not dead and I'm not seriously injured, so the optimistic among us would say that I have more opportunity to get better.

And you know what? They're right. I got a good mobility program rolling the other day via the David (ouch but good) to work on getting the hips opened up and the back arching like it should, and I think I am going to start getting sets of sumo in as accessory on squat days.

Counts as posterior chain accessory, right?

As to this sesh, here is what occured:

• Sumo deathlift, all with reset - 5x135lbs, 5x225lbs, 5x275lbs, 5x1x315lbs (complete walk away and reset), 2x365lbs (CWAAR), 10x1x315lbs (technique work), 2x5x225lbs
• Lat pulldown w/FatGripz, paused, wide handle - 3x10x100lbs
• Reverse hyper, heels together/toes out - 3x10x100lbs

So blaming carb/glycogen depletion aside, I just didn't have my technique down. Several attempts at 365lbs didn't come off the floor (though several did) and it wasn't until I busted back down to 315lbs that I remembered what I was really supposed to be doing.

Yes, I could get the feet out wider and upper back tighter, and no, I am not "dropping my balls to the bar". I'm freaking working on it, a'ight?

One of the better pulls from the evening, still needs a lot of work:

Going back and game taping it, I am wondering if I can't get my feet out a little more, and get set back a little more on taking the slack out of the bar. That and opening hips/balls down will take care of a lot. A lot of my earlier pulls had the bar pretty far out front so I know I wasn't pulling back and getting the leverage out of the ass and legs that I needed to- just about all back.

Yeah, yeah, Red. I forgot, okay? Little things like spreading the floor and driving the weight through the heels. Little things like everything. Needs work so I will do work.

In other news, weight has been dropping at about the rate of a pound a day through this CBL preparatory phase. Good for weight loss, bad for weight lifting.

I'm sorry, lifting weights. Thor knows I wouldn't want to offend the CrossFitters and Oly lifters by accidentally referring to powerlifting as weightlifting.

Went to the grocery the other day and picked up my coveted refeed food- a box of Cinnamon Life (tee em).

Sweet, sweet refeed.

The interesting thing, though, is that it may not be quite enough, at least not carb dense enough. Granted, I will be eating much more of it than the recommended serving, but the recommended serving on it only has about 25g of sugar.

Really, processed cereal? You have to fail me on sugar content?

Looks like ice cream and/or donuts will be added to the refeed menu.

Either that or I'll just have to eat the whole box of cereal. The box is reportedly 12 servings, which would yield 300g of sugar, glycogen replenishing carb goodness.

Can you tell I've been thinking about this?

Tonight is Wayne Static at Minglewood Hall with some of the gym bros. Reports of ticket sales have not been stellar, wonder how this will go.

Loud, I'm sure.

Until next time...

Go forth and destroy.

Training Sesh 4/15/14: One bad bench day

This was not the coolest bench sesh I've ever had. I wouldn't say that it ranks quite up to the day that I realized how fucked my left side upper back/shoulder/triceps were, but it was not much fun.

As to the numbers, here's what occurred:

• Traction/foam roll - 15-20min
• Bench - 10xbar, 5x95lbs, 5x135lbs, 5x155lbs, 2x175lbs, 5x155lbs, 3x8x135lbs
• JM Press - 3x10xbar
• Cable face pull - 10x80lbs, 10x100lbs, 2x10x120lbs
• Paused behind the neck lat pull down with fat stright bar, wide grip - 10x80lbs, 2x10x100lbs, 10x120lbs

If you look at those bench numbers, you will note that they are below my working set from the other day.

Well below.

Seems that somewhere in the 135lbs set, my left biceps tendon started getting very sore. By the 155lbs set, it was lit up pretty well. By the 175lbs set, I decided to do some band work beforehand and some lacrosse ball rolling in the distal bicep, shoulder, upper back, and chest/clavicle on the left side. I could barely get the two reps out without it feeling like the elbow was collapsing at about 3-4" off from the chest.

Needless to say, I was perturbed.

Dropped another set back down to 155lbs, felt about the same as the 175lbs. More perturbation. Dropped back down to 135lbs and knocked out a few painful sets there. More rolling and band work, went about my accessory work.

Not sure yet as to the cause of said pain, but it seemed to subside by the time I went to bed that night. Could be shoulder related (tight shoulders can do evil work on nerves), could be related to the back issue, could just be a shit day. I will be monitoring going forward, obviously, and see what needs to happen. Hopefully, this won't set back to the need for more PT or anything more severe.

More updates as they come.

Crapola.

Go forth and destroy.

But not your tendons.

Training Sesh 4/13/14: GET DOWN, DAMNED SKWATZ, electroshock therapy, and goodbye to carbs for now

Back to squat day, eh, and not an awful day at all. Squatting felt pretty good, but when it all came down to the last working set, just didn't have it quite right.

For the love of Thor, I need to get 'em on down there. Being a hair high is marginally acceptable for general strength development (aside from that whole developing poor patterns of movement thing) but it really doesn't cut it for competition.

Blargh.

Here's what occurred:

• Squat - 2x5xbar, 3x135lbs, 3x185lbs, 3x225lbs, 5x275lbs, 5x315lbs, 5x345lbs, 5x375lbs
• Wide stance good morning - 3x10x135lbs
• Standing cable crunch - 10x80lbs, 3x10x100lbs
• Hip abductions- 3x20 w/EliteFTS Intense Onyx band

And the visual evidence of the shit show:

So yeah, high, and the last rep was crazy high but I knew I had to at least attempt the rep. Talking with ol Housetown about it (thanks for the spot, by the by), I think it is a combination of things, but mainly the effect being that I need to get my torso tighter and more upright. Looks like I may be getting the hips opened but not sitting back enough.

Yes, we can argue the need to and the degree to which one should sit back in a raw squat all day, but suffice it to say that it looks like I may need to get back a little more.

blargh.

Looks like I need to back the weight up a little bit and work on more technique. All is good, I have time. And with the upcoming carb depletion, I can almost bet that next squat session will not be as heavy. Time will tell, obviously, but it has always been my experience that training in that period between carb depletion and ketosis is a muddafucka.

Accessory work was fine, the needed stuffs. Going to continue to pound the hip abductions and my prescribed off day upper back work- trying to get my T spine arching a bit more for both my sumo deathlifts and for these hurr skqatz. I typically have the flexibility of a 2x4 anyway, and the upper back nerve issue has everything really jammed up. Trying to spend more time on foam rollers and lacrosse balls in the meantime, probably need to bust the TENS back out as well.

Think I have posted it up before, but this is the el cheapo unit I got from Amazon last year, complete with Engrish instructions.

Works well, though, simple to use, and was about $25 shipped, if I remember right. I fell in love with TENS during physical therapy last year and while this unit is obviously not as good as the one at the clinic, it'll do, pig.

Need to figure out how they do the hot pack at the clinic as well. The combination of the two will put you to sleep in about 14 seconds flat. Awesomeness.

I was also thinking the other day, and Housetown came to the same realization while we were lifting and conversating, if I can get my squat squared away and the CBL kicks in properly, I should be at a 5x405 squat soon, less than two months if progress continues in a linear pattern. That would be a calculated 470+ squat using the Wendler formula (weight x reps x .0333 + weight), which excites me in my no no place. Probably won't worry about actually testing my one rep max for a good while, like when I actually think about meet training, but that is getting back to where I need to be.

Speaking of CBL, the preparatory phase has begun. Costco (tee em) and grocery trip Friday/Saturday has yielded meats and eggs with some veggies. First day on the low carb train was today (Sunday). under 50g total carbs, 10g sugar, at about 2400 calories if we trust ol' MyFitnessPal (also tee em). It's obviously too early to tell the short term effects, but I will keep everyone updated. If for some reason anyone wants to see a food log, y'all chime in.

More updates as they come.

Go forth and destroy.

Training Sesh 4/10/14: evening bench rehab progress, gym bros and better behaved kids, and the unfattening

Per the last discussion on training schedules and a certain five year old's behavioral issues when daddy goes to the gym immediately after work, I decided to go ahead and adjust the weekday training sesh time for the next few and see how it goes. Instead of leaving work at the normal 5:30 - 6:00PM and heading straight to the gym, I left work at normal time and headed home for some hang out and dinner time, leaving the house for the jamsesnasium a little after 7:30PM. This put me getting at the gym a little after 8:00PM, getting the sesh in, and getting home around 10:30PM.

Not awful- get home in time to throw a little more food down my gullet and get to bed at a decent time, and the report was good for the small one's evening behavior. 

Even managed to get some dishes done. 

You know, because clean.

As to the sesh, here's what occurred:

• Shoulder traction, warm up - about 15min
• Bench - 10xbar, 5x95lbs, 5x135lbs, 5x155lbs, 5x175lbs, 5x185lbs
• Tbar row, paused - 4x8x55lbs
• OHP, strict - 3x8-10x95lbs with the last set being drop set - 8x95lbs, 8x65lbs, 6xbar
• Band pull aparts - 3x20 w/ EliteFTS Intense Onyx band
• Band punch downs a la Darden - 3x20/arm w/ EliteFTS Pro Light Band and Fat Grip
• Single arm external rotations - 2x25 w/ EliteFTS Intense Onyx band

Pretty decent sesh overall. Made progress in the working set, but didn't push it too hard- probably had 190-195 for a set of five, but we'll leave the progress there and keep the train rolling. Plenty of accessory was to had, and even got a tip or two from David on a few things. 

Random observation - the late lifters seem to be solitary creatures, not a lot of team things going on. One or two pairs of guys, but for the most part individuals doing their own thing. I guess this is neither good nor bad in and of itself, per se, but it does make it kind of rough to get the feedback and peer coaching I am generally used to giving and getting with a normal sesh. Luckily, David was there and doing his thing so I could borrow him for my last set and share in some social interactions with one of my gym bros. Caught Austin and Scott for a sec as well, but they were pretty much wrapped up and gone by the time I started working.

Never underestimate the importance of gym bros. 

At any rate, here is my last working set:

Kind of odd, first time back on the competition bench in a while. I have been used to pressing in one of the racks with the safeties, adjustable EliteFTS bench, etc. Kind of odd getting back on the competition bench, but felt pretty good. Nice wide pad, better seat height, etc.

That all said, let me just take a second to thank EliteFTS for, among other things, making some of if not the best equipment in the industry, and David for having an awesome facility full of it. If, for some reason, I could not lift at NBS anymore I would be a sad old bear.

Sad, tragic ol' bear

And this song would constantly play in my heart whenever I stepped into an inferior rack, laid upon an inferior bench, etc

Sad, tragic ol' tune

But I digress.

Set up on the higher bench height felt good and I got my feet a little further in front than previous sesh. It did take a while to readjust- you can see me working my feet into position in the video- but I was able to get into a better position to drive my heels down through the press. Similarly to last sesh, I think my ass came up on the last rep of that set but the bulk of it, especially the first three reps before the pause for breath, were good.

And again, continued progress.

And progress is good.

Still about 40-50lbs off of where I was before the injury, but it is getting there.

Worked through the accessory work and added in the tricep finisher, the excellent little diddy as seen from our man Clint Darden, the tricep punchdown:

but with the added FatGripz handle.

Yay.

Good work and got a little homework from David as to a few improvements to work on.

And, as mentioned, a much better progress report from home.

As opposed to the news from home the other night

Wins all around.

And soon, negative belly gains. This weekend I shall embark on a Costco and Kroger trip and some dedicated meal planning for the upcoming Carb Backloadingness. Ten days of low carb heckfar and hopefully not too diminished gains coming up.

But then...

Good ol' fat shed and recomp and Cinnamon Life (tee em). Good times.

The trick through this whole thing is going to be keeping the calorie count up while not spending $100 a day on steak. Fatty meats, a bunch of green veggies, eggs, little dairy, maybe even some coconut oil.

About time to use that jar up that I have had in the pantry for a few months.

Eat meat. Listen to metal.

Go forth and destroy.

Training Sesh 4/8/14: More B, more sumo work, more misbehave, more metal

So, yeah. Sumo deathlifts. Starting to really get a love/hate thing going with these things.

Ever feel like you're beating your head against a wall, but it doesn't necessarily hurt so much as you wonder why you're doing it? But then, say, you start beating the back of your head against the wall and it makes more sense, like if you just keep beating the front of your head against the wall, then beating the back of your head against the wall will be awesome?

No?

That's what sumo deadlift is to me right now.

Mechanically, it seems that I would be more for sumo- short legs, long torso, short arms. Spread em, get more vertical, yank it, right?

That would be awesome if my hips weren't those of a 60 year old man.

Or just a fat, razy Amurrican.

Thank you once again, Google image search

But you know what? That's exactly why I need to do them. Recalling from the cycle leading up to my meet with the team, we VERY frequently pulled in "opposite stance", ie, my competition pull was conventional so I did most of my pulls, especially in the first to stages of the cycle, in sumo stance, and my conventional went up at least 30lbs, if not more, in the 12 weeks of meet training.

Not too shabby.

So we stay the course. Progress is continual, so we continue progressing. Simple as that.

Here's what occurred:

• Foam roll, stretch, warm up- 15min
• Deathlift sumoness (all reps reset)- 5x135lbs,  5x185lbs, 5x225lbs, 5x275lbs, 5x315lbs, 3x1x365lbs
• Late pulldown, wide handle, paused- 3x10x110lbs
• Reverse hyper- 3x10x90lbs

I honestly wasn't sure I was going to get those last few- trying to recall if I had ever previously pulled 365 sumo- but they came up.  

See?

They were all pretty much like this one. Overall the pulls felt decent, if not slow, but game taping it revealed a few things, as it always does. 

• I was actually a little surprised at the speed off the floor. Came off the floor faster than I thought, but you can see where I hit the brick wall of almost complete leg extension early and my back takes over until the hips and knees lock out.
• To that point, while I did not lock my legs out prematurely, per se, they were on the way there early. Looks like it was (a) slack out with legs (b) pull with legs/back (c) transfer to back (d) lock legs/hips/back. 
• Set up looked decent, but probably needed to set hips back/chest up a little more on set up/slack pull. This is evident when the bar comes completely free from the ground and I transition to the "back pull", the bar floats out front for a split second before I adjust and get more vertical.

Looks like what needs to happen, from set up, is

1. Set up as shown, but with hips set a little more back and chest higher
2. Slack out of bar more by pulling chest up / pull shoulders back back / sit back. This should help to
3. Drive through heels and extend hips with a more vertical back
4. Back staying decently flat, lock out is good

Got a good bit of mental reinforcement with this as I pulled it once, took a breather, set back up to pull again, and couldn't budge it- I knew from the get go on that pull that I was out of position and did not attempt the pull. Stepped back, reassessed, set back up and pulled again.

Work to do, work to do.

While the above didn't happen last night after the training sesh, that's what happened after the training sesh. SOMEONE has started getting uppity if daddy is out at the gym too late. Long story short, she got in troooooooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuble.

She got one of these from me for an awkward amount of time.

But I think we got it sorted out. To help combat this, I may be changing up the lifting schedule a little bit- probably coming home first, hanging out and doing dinner, then going to the jamesnasium a little later.

We shall see.

And this is coming soon.  Some of the gym bros and I are going to check out the ol' Wayne Static on tour. Should be fun times.

Assuming SOMEONE can behave.

Porter.

Go forth and destroy.

Training Sesh 4/6/14: boring ol' bench progress and rumors of carb backloading

Well, the revised training program seems to be working well so far, at least for bench. We'll see when it comes to the next deathlift and squat days, but this and the last bench days have felt pretty good.

AND some progress. Again, not crazy by any means, but I'll take it for now. Numbers keep on creeping up and the reps themselves are feeling better. I shall bask in the glory of progress and I'm looking forward to getting back into decent bench numbers.

Or at least not shitty, shitty, sad bench numbers.

I even think there is little bit of mass returning to the left triceps. It's still a sad, soft little guy, but it's trying.

Here's what occurred:

• Bench - 10xbar, 5x135lbs, 5x165lbs, 5x180lbs
• Tbar row, paused - 4x8x55lbs
• OHP, strict - 3x8x95lbs
• Band pull apart - 3x15 w/ EliteFTS Intense (maybe the Modest?) Onyx band
• Four way rotator cable series - 10 reps each movement w/ 20lbs

Even managed to get an elusive bench video, despite the fact that it looks like there was an attempted remix in the middle of the set somewhere. Thanks a lot, technology. 

Behold that arch.

Behold that belly.

Behold the shortness of bar path.

Behold the ass pop up on reps four and five. 

One through three were actually good, four and five I think my ass actually left the bench. Possible I might have actually had my feet too far back- you can see when I initiate leg drive that I can't drive my heels down. 

At any rate, I will again, take it, for now as those were easier than a lot of other "heavy" reps in this rehab process have been.

The wider grip may also be helping this out, used my wide "competition" grip (index fingers on rings) for all of these sets. Might as well, eh?

Bench done (and pleased with, I must say), went on to accessory work. Added 10lbs to the paused Tbar rows, did my overhead pressing, band pull aparts (still unsure of exactly which band I was using- I used the smaller of the two 1/2" black bands), and since all of the gym's micro bands have apparently met their demise, I ran through a short cable circuit for the ol' shoulder rotators. 

Got these from a youtube video several years ago- I forget the team and coach, but these were from a routine that a coach of one of the MLB teams used with his team. I forget now all of the movements, but I did a "hammer position" (arms at side, arm bent so that it forms a 90° angle) rotation, internally and externally for each arm, then straight arm rotation (arm straight out perpendicular to the body, parallel to ground through the reps) internally and externally for each arm. There's at least one other set of movements I have forgotten in that series, but it's decent work. 

Clear as mud, right? 

Right. 

Speaking of mud, here's a pic I took over the weekend on an excursion to Beale Street Landing for some friends' kid's birthday party. 

Roll on, Big Muddy

No filter, surprisingly. 

At any rate, looks like a loose confederacy of us from the jamesnasium are going to start up on DH Kiefer's Carb Back Loading soon. One of the other guys and I have used it in the past with some good results and one of the ladies is at least familiar with, if not having done it in the past. Several other guys at the gym are doing it currently, as well, with good results. A Costco trip and some menu planning should handle it from my end, which should happen by this weekend at the latest, so it looks like it's almost preparation time. 

Oh, dreaded preparation time.

For those unfamiliar with the program, the long and short of is that you are essentially carb cycling in correspondence with your lift days (MUST LIFT) so that most of the time you are eating low to zero carbs with an exception- if you lift in the evening, you eat large amounts of carbs immediately following your lifting session up until bed, and if you lift in the mornings, you eat your carbs the night before your lifting session from dinner to bed. This is all preceded by a 10 day preparation period, during which you eat extremely low to zero carb for the purposes of depleting carbs, boosting insulin sensitivity, and getting into ketogenesis. 

There is more to it, obviously (get the book) and the protocol works well if you are smart about it, but that preparation period sucks.

It sucks bit butts, and I cannot lie. 

But, like my buddy Taylor said

Let's dew this.

Go forth and destroy.

Training Sesh 4/4/14: First revised "A" sesh... the squats go up, I need to go down. Further.

Rolling along with the tradition of running late to deadline (self imposed... like this is under deadline... pssh), let's take a peak at what the skwat sesh was like on Friday. Pretty good sesh overall, really. Another one of those that seemed to take a long time despite not being a crazy volume session.

Too much talky and resty, not enough lifty.

Or was it... ?

Here's what occurred:

• Squat - 2x5xbar, 5x145lbs, 5x195lbs, 5x235lbs, 5x285lbs, 5x325lbs, 5x365lbs
• Squat stance good morning - 3x10x145lbs
• Standing cable crunch - 3x12x80lbs
• Band hip abductions - 3x15 w/ EliteFTS Intense Onyx band

Even managed to get you a video of the last set, complete with the tender, nurturing words of ol' David Allen.

But he's right.

That first one was painfully high, the rest only a hair high. One or two of them might have been at parallel, but not convincingly. Had to go to the video several times and pause them at the bottom to convince myself they weren't all total shit. And as Austin said, those shorts don't seem to help much.

Cue Jim with a low animal growl. Rooooooooooooowwwr.

But seriously, still need to work on getting the hips opened up and getting that last inch or two down. Looks like I may need to try to sit back a little more as well. Yeah, I'm wearing Oly shoes, but that forward knee travel could be problematic. Elbows flaring back a little on the ascent. Back looks pretty decent, could be a little more vertical, but doesn't appear to be rounding in the thoracic or lumbar. 

Without overthinking it and not being on a meet cycle, I'll take it for strength work. Definitely a rep PR set for me- previously squatted more weight, but not for those reps- and everything seems to be flowing in the right direction, despite the lower overall squatting volume in the current program. Depending on how the next deathlift sesh goes, I may start adding in some low weight, higher rep squat sets as accessory to work the hips some more.

I just need someone to convince me to start carb backloading again and start getting rid of some belly. Say what you will, shit works, b.

On to accessories, more of the good stuff. I do have to throw one thing in, though - I heart me some EliteFTS, but the Onyx Band series gets a little confusing to tell which band is which. They're all black. Sure, the difference between the Intense and the Ruthless are easy enough to tell, but I swear the Modest and the Intense are the same width, just different thicknesses. Those hip abductions and pull aparts get a bit rough with heavier bands, and you can pretty much forget external shoulder rotations.

Still, we do what we do when we do because we have to. 

And EliteFTS gear and the NBS facility and peeps make the do all the better.

Go forth and destroy.

Training Sesh 4/2/2014: C sesh quickie post

I guess better late than never, eh? Just a quick write up on the sesh, and my apologies for being late "to press" with it- sometimes you get busy, eh. Squatted last night, write up to follow. This was the second dedicated bench sesh in the rotation, feeling pretty good about it so far.

I did think of one potential drawback in current rotation - with doing a rotation of A/C/B/C, that's a lot of time between squat seshes and deathlift seshes. May have to switch it up to a straight up A/B/C rotation to shorten the cycle time between individual lift seshes. I'll stick with what I have for now but may switch up if the squat or deathlift numbers start creeping down.

Less overthinking, more doing.

But I digress. As to the bench sesh, here is what occurred:

• Bench - 3x5xbar, 5x95lbs, 5x135lbs, 5x155lbs, 5x170lbs, 5x175lbs
• Tbar row, paused - 4x8x45lbs
• OHP, strict - 10xbar, 3x8x95lbs
• Band pull apart - 3x12 w/ EliteFTS Intense Onyx band, narrower grip than last sesh for a little more tension

Little shorter sesh than last C session, but das okay, mah. Anudda quaalude, she be mine again.

Got into the jamesnasium late from a longer day at work, got in and did a little more warm up and stretch than normal. Some of the stuff we forget about sometimes, some more rotation, more stretching, more shoulder band traction. Goodly stuffs.

Getting into the bench, it felt pretty good. At some point previously, I decided to bring my hands in a finger (middle finger on the ring) to bench. Don't even really remember why I did it, get more triceps recruitment or something, I'm sure. This sesh, maybe in the 135 set, I decided to take it back out to my old grip, index on the ring, just for shits and giggles. Ended up feeling pretty good so I did the rest of the sesh this way. Hit the 155, the 170 felt good (and was my previous best since injury/starting rehab), and went on to 175. I lost my shoulder tightness on rep four of that set, got it, reset, and ground out rep five. Ugly, but got it.

Yay.

Don't know if the wider grip or a little added accessory work was responsible for the attainment of increase (that's the problem when you change multiple variables- can't pinpoint any one as directly responsible), but there you have it, back to progress.

I was a little bummed out, as it appears all the micro mini bands have bitten the dust at the ol' NBS, so I did not hit my external rotations in the sesh. Luckily I have one at home, so they were done yesterday. The rest of accessories went pretty well. They're accessories, after all.

Not a ton else to report. Messed with Porter during his training video whilst he put in some work.

Sweet song, by the way.

And one of the team's guys apparently took too many preworkouts before his bench session, got all hyped up, and passed out at the bottom of a heavy single. Of course, pretty much everyone in the gym - especially the team - always work with safeties and/or spotters during heavy work, but this reinforces the need for them. I can't say that it was the three different preworkouts he took that made him pass out, but I wouldn't doubt that the extra stimulants plus the natural blood pressure spike caused from holding the breath and lifting (as is the norm for heavy singles) probably just flipped his breaker for a second.

He even said he came to not knowing what happened, thought he completed the lift, and told them to throw ten more pounds on.

Needless to say, that didn't happen. Lolly lol.

Thankfully, as mentioned, it was at the bottom of the bench, so the bar didn't fall on him. Spotters reacted quick enough and got the bar off of him before any damage was caused. And, as they say, he lived to fight another day.

Good team times.

Go forth and destroy.