Squat sesh - 11/05

Short one today, woke up a little late so I only had about 45min after a brief warm up. Still weak as crap compared to even six months ago, but I think it is getting better and I got a little work in.

• Squat to parallel box - 5xbar, 5x95lbs, 5x135lbs, 3x185lbs, 3x225lbs, 3x275lbs, 3x295lbs, 2x315lbs
• Wide stance good mornings - 5x10x135lbs
• Not really of note, but played with a few sets of front squats with just the bar. Technique feels good there. 

So essentially it looks like my max has suffered about 50-75lbs over the last few months of low frequency sessions (best squat before was 410 in wraps in the gym). If you use Wendler's 1RM calculator based on that set at 315, it would make it 335, though I probably could have gotten another rep or two out which would bring my 1RM up to more like 350. Still horse crap, either way. C'est la vie, we keep working and getting better, no?

As you may recall, I also owe you a few grip pictures from last squat sesh. Note that I said "sesh" because I am hip and shit. No time for full words and haters here.

The discussed grip is a false grip on the bar with the pinkies dropped under the bar. Idea behind this grip is that it allows the hands to go far enough out to take a little stress off of the shoulders but still helps you crank your lats in to tighten up the upper back, critical to big squatting. I am, of course, not squatting "big" yet, but I can definitely tell a difference in my upper percentage sets.

Grip the bar as normal, but with the pinky dropped under the bar. Hard to tell from this pic, but my index finger is lined up just about at the first marker line.

Go on and throw that thumb over the top, bruh. 

I have played with the grip both standard and false, ie, thumb wrapped around the bar and thumb over the bar, as in the pic above. False grip feels a little more stable, like I am getting the bar torqued down a bit better. This also takes some stress off the wrist as the extra torque can put the wrist at angles you are not used to. If you remember, I mentioned that last time I tried the grip out that I ended up wrapping both wrists but this time around seemed to be much better. 

Also still working on the wider stance- hip activation is definitely better but my right knee feels like it wants to start caving. More band work, more hip work. 

Would like to have gotten more quad work in, but brudda's gotta work. 

Next time, we front squat a few sets with weight. 

In the meantime, enjoy some Norma Jean...

Portland, part 2 - getting high, getting fat, not going to jail...

Behold the second installment in my two part series on my journey to a strange and distant land, Portlandia of Oregonshire!

The first installment in my two part series on my journey to a strange and distant land, Portlandia of Oregonshire, can be found here.

The second installment in my two part series on my journey to a strange and distant land, Portlandia of Oregonshire, can be found here.

Without further ado...

SATURDAY

Another morning in Oregon, another pleasant earlyish waking. I seemed to wake up at 7:00 - 7:30AM by myself, pleasantly and with little grogginess, etc. I found myself more refreshed upon waking than I normally do back in Memphis with the same amount of sleep.

What could it all mean?

After morning rituals, several cups of coffee, and a baby feeding and nap or two, we packed up and headed out to the Portland Aerial Tram.

It's spelled, "portland aerial tram"

It was a short, slightly precarious trip to the top of the "hill", surrounded on most sides by gorgeous Oregon fall scenery. A few minutes of dangling from a wire hundreds of feet in the air in a metal and plexiglass bubble never hurt anyone.

I had no idea the names that mankind had given to what I saw from up there, but it was lovely.

Gotcha.

Again, not having what one would normally refer to as "seasons" in Memphis, these were cool sights to behold. 

Having seen what we could see, we packed back up and decided to go grab lunch. 

Luckily, just the day before Lyndsay and I were talking to our good friend, chef, restaurateur, and Super Saiyan hair and convertible owner, Guy Fieri, about foodie places in Portland. Or more accurately, I've never met Guy Fieri and the TV was on and we happened to catch a segment of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives on Portland and witnessed the heralding of a little shop called Bunk Sandwiches. They're basically a "high end" or foodie kind of sandwich shop, locally owned by a couple of experienced chefs and they make awesome, handmade sammiches for your masticating pleasure. 

They have two shops in Portlandia, we went to the one on SE Morrison. 

Click to zoom in on that lovely menu board.



More of the shop, and Brian. Not a huge place at all.

Our spread

Gaze upon my meat. y sandwich. 

Pretty flipping good sammiches. Lyndsay and Brian both got the pulled pork sandwiches, one of the kids got the grilled cheese, I got the roast beef sandwich. I will admit that we, especially I took it a bit safe on the menu selection, but they were damn good sandwiches. The roast beef came with sharp cheddar, caramelized onions, horsey sauce, and dijon mustard on a poppy seed roll. Flipping awesome. Pretty sure everything was either house made (and well made, at that) or locally sourced, all proportions in balance, all done right. The potato salad was awesome, mustard potato salad with bacon and egg, and accompanied with a (no shit) Mexican Coke. I tried some of Lyndsay's pulled pork and being from Memphis (we are the kings of pulled pork, and we will let you know), I didn't fall in love with it, but it was definitely good- applewood smoked, maybe? The boy didn't want all of his grilled cheese, so I stole some of that, too- vurry tasty with the Tillamook cheese. Could have used a bit more char, in my opinion.

Maybe should have been more adventurous and gotten the pork belly Cubano, but it was a damn near a perfect lunch.

And here's a box cutter. 

The mean streets... er... sidewalks... of Portland.

So from there we went to the only scheduled stop of the whole weekend. Well, maybe not scheduled, but the only thing I knew I wanted to do. 

Besides throw rocks at hippies, but society apparently frowns on that. 

On to Voodoo Doughnut.

Stay tuned for the spine tingling conclusion of...

THE PORTLAND VACATION WEEKEND!

Bench and rehab - 10/30

Got back into the jamesnasium early this morning. I was supposed to be benching with buddy and former team mate Porter, as it sounded like he was going to have trouble making the team time at 5:00PM today, but he texted last night saying he was going to make team time. Whatever, Mr. Responsible.

Anyhoo, in typical bench day fashion, seems like I got more volume than I should have in for the day- this was spread out over the course of only about an hour or so.

• Bench - 2x10xbar, 5x95lbs, 5x115lbs, 5x135lbs
• Superset x5- Lat pull down 10x100lbs, hip abduction w/ EliteFTS red mini band x 20
• Klokov press - 10xbar, 3x10x65lbs, 8x65lbs, 6x65lbs (left shoulder fatiguing)
• Band pull apart series (see below) x2
• Unilateral incline dumbell press - 5x10x20lbs/arm
• W external rotations w/ EliteFTS orange micro mini band- 5x15

Da shoulder series. It works.

Not awful for not getting much work in over the last two weeks. The shoulder seems to have held decently strengthwise for the lack of work, but I could definitely tell it was getting fatigued.

Onward and upward!