09 October 2014

T3 - Transmutation Week 3: Let's Go Ahead And Call It


o yeah, let's go ahead and call it.

November meet is off.

Transmutation Week 3 is in the books, and it has been very mixed. As we spoke about previously, there have been numerous issues with this training cycle, culminating in what I would like to call "let's forfeit this battle and work toward winning the war".

We'll get into some analysis of issues and the responses after the sesh report.

But first, everybody just calm down and let's all just sludge metal for a second...







And now is the time on Hanselopolis when we log...


T3A - ME Squat, 9/24/2014:


Short session, was up at work late and took FOREVER to get in and get going, so I only hit my working reps. Switched up to competition lift for double + revers grey bands, as such:

  • 2x445lbs + reverse grey EliteFTS average Pro bands, 1x465lbs

Viddy this:




Looking back, I probably had another rep at 465 on that last set, felt a lot worse than it looked. Got a little tilted forward, transferred to the quads, and shot my ass back. Also, squatting in my Chucks, so my parallel is not exactly where I want it to be. Check out the Romaleo action coming up, the wave of the future...



T3B - ME Bench, 9/27/2014:


Much better sesh for time, if not performance. Like the squat, with this sesh we moved a little more from the NCL (non competition lift) to the CL (competition lift) with a reverse band close grip bench.
  • Reverse band close grip bench - 2x275lbs, fail 285 @ rep 2 
  • Close grip bench- 3x185, 5x175, 5x165, 7x155, 10x135  
  • Bench grip bent over barbell rows - 5x5x175 
  • Klokov press - 3x8x85lbs 
  • External rotation  - 3x20/arm with doubled over orange band

So this is basically 10lbs under where I was prepping for the meet last year. That, obviously, sucks with curse words and descriptive phrase involving livestock, but I need to remind myself that this is still better than where I was last August.

Imagine if I had kept my rehab up and taken care of my shoulder, then this video




could have been taken six months ago instead of just a few days ago.

That, incidentally, is the first time I have been able to bench 225lbs since my injury last July.

Progress.

That said, it's not where I want to be. More work, more recovery, more rehab. We gon' make it a'righ', chil'.

Didn't get video of the programmed work sets, but c'est la vie. Actually got video of my failed set but the file was somehow corrupted by the time it came to upload to the ewe tubes.






Or is that yew tubes.






Whatever.

Wah.



T3C - DE Squat, 9/29/2014:


Another slight change up in movements - as opposed to the bar weight + chain, this sesh started in on bar weight + bands.





Ah, band tension when squatting. That shizzle is a mudder humper getting back into it- it's not necessarily that it is impossible to complete reps, it's just that shock of tension at lock out that is always surprising if you haven't squatted against bands in a while. It's dynamic work, so the bar weight is obviously much lighter than on heavy work, but you go from "YAAAAAAAAAAAY!!! WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!" at the descent and in the hole to "OH MY GOD WHAT THE CRAP JUST HAPPENED ON ME?!" about a quarter of the way from lock out.

So many good times.

I didn't get video of all sets, but here is the first "test" set after throwing the bands on, checking depth, etc. I was pretty happy overall with the work.





That's more like where my depth needs to be.

Note to self: Squat in Romaleos.

Done.

Other part of the fun of this sesh was starting to actually be able to begin comprehending a technique from good ol' Chris Duffin.

No, I didn't get it directly from him and we don't hang out on weekends, but sometimes I feel like I do have direct access to some of the greatest minds in powerlifting because of elitefts.com. Seriously. If you have a question on just about anything powerlifting, bodybuilding, or even just general sports preparedness, Elite can get you sorted out 99.9% of the time. And it's freaking free.

Free fifty.

Gratis.

No charge, sirs and madames.

Free.

At any rate, Capitan Duffin, if anything, is a technician. He is brutally strong, and in addition his technique is spot on and you can tell he has thought about it on more than one occasion. He did a video series on T spine stabilization and the squat, part one of which is below




One of the things he talks about is properly utilizing your core muscles in order to help brace and align the T spine in the squat. Conceptually, I think this is rather simple, but once working weights are on the shoulders, I have found it difficult to activate properly. Whenever I unrack and go to tighten the core, it feels like the only way to properly do it is to contract the abs in such a manner as to cause some anterior pelvic tilt, which seems to fly in the face of most squat technique. HOWEVER, it seems that when done properly and NOT overly exaggerated, it's just freaking fine.

Also note that if you have not attempted this technique before then please, for the love of Odin, watch the entire video series, maybe get with a coach, practice with light weights, etc, before you start trying to throw 2x your max on the bar and start tucking your pelvis. Again, this is not the most difficult technique in the world to grasp, but if you don't know what you're doing, don't just tuck your pelvis and blame me when you blow a disc.

Ya big dummy.


T3D - DE Bench, 10/1/2014:


Again with the change up, this somewhat uneventful sesh was brought you by the letter "Y".

As in, Y do I happen to be one of only three or four people in the gym available to spot or board for the geared benchers or squatters whenever I am in my DE sets? Seems like whenever I am actually on a good roll, my DE sets always get interrupted by spot requests.

And while I don't want anyone at the gym dropping a bar on their throats or destroying a monolift, I gots work to do do, main.

This was also one of those days where you wait a half hour on a rack. This is not necessarily the worst thing in the world, but once you've popped a scoop and a half of Magnum Serum washed down with the full power of Mountain Dew (tee em), you pretty quickly want to go ahead and get to work.

Or you get extremely chatty while absentmindedly doing band pull aparts, either way.




Again with the no video, but the sesh felt pretty good, despite the interruption every few sets. Band tension was about right to slow the press down just a little to force the speed on follow through, but not so wicked as to make them all grinders. Good times.

/End sesh report.

...

Alright, so back to what you have all been chomping at the bit to delve back into, issues with the training cycle, the planned fixes, and plans going forward.

Let's recap a tetch:

1) The (less than) Almighty Shoulder Injury - this has been a rehab and rebuilding point since last year, and it has not gotten the attention it deserves. Mea culpa, completely.




There has been some progress made, but it still feels comparatively unstable and it has been reacting more adversely to strain than it needs to.

2) Squat technique - this was an area I didn't really expect to have issues with going into the training cycle. Part of this is mobility - along with the shoulder issues, my throacic spine has been pretty well locked up, and as always, my hips are generally shit. I have been going back and forth with Oly shoes and flats for squatting, and have had some work done by ol' Doc Martinez, so it is getting better, but again, not where it needs to be. I shouldn't have questions as to FREAKING SQUAT TECHNIQUE a few weeks out from a meet.





3) Missed and short training days - while this will tend to happen what with, you know, life, this certainly doesn't help matters. I need to get a little more consistent overall, and get more consistent with what happens on off days, as well.





So what the crap are we going to do to remedy all of these issues, you ask?

Long and short of it is that I need to get more consistent overall, but especially with regard to the rehab on the shoulder, and keep building a better strength base. I have numerous programs from which to pull and the means to do it, it's just all about consistency. I have kept up with some rehab/prehab over the last week or so, but a week a new shoulder does not make.

Next training sesh or two will probably be max tests for squat and deadlift, since I know where I stand on bench and I have had about a week of deload at this point. In the meantime I am going to be analyzing a few different programs and I have some reading material to get in and digested, so I am as of yet undecided as to exactly the method of training coming up.

Also need to determine a length of time for building the base up and check out meets on the horizon to determine the next training timeline or set of timelines.  This will determine how quickly I need to get back into a meet prep cycle but, as of right now, I don't think I am looking at anything before April or May of 2015.

Sounds like a long time out but as the saying goes, "it's a marathon, not a sprint". Better to take care of some needed business in the near term and get healthier for meet training and performance down the road.

Go forth and don't jack up your rotator cuffs.




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