Lol's New HST Log

Saturday 07/07/07
Following in Quad's footsteps I decided to do a bit more rehab with some more high rep stuff:

Bodyweight Dips: 1 x 47, 1 x 25, 1 x 30 => Total 102

EZ-bar curls: 2 x 15 & 1 x 14 x 46kg (101lbs)

Lateral Raises: 3 x 35 x 5kg plate in each hand (horrid!)
 
Monday 09/07/07

I have caught a cold from a client that I had to work for last week. I contemplated doing nothing but then decided that I would do something different. So in place of my regular heavy workout I did this:

Squats (always ATG): 3 x 25 x 60kg (132lbs), 1 x 15 & 1 x 12 x 60kg.
The first three sets left me almost unable to walk. I didn't think I would make 25 on the next set so I kinda psyched myself out of it. For being such a wuss I made myself do another 12 after a short rest. 102 total reps.

Flyes: 2 x 25 x 16kg (35lbs) +10 presses each set

One-arm bent over rows: 1 x 25 & 1 x 30 x 26kg (57lbs)

Seated Press: 1 x 25, 1 x 15, 1 x 12 x 16kg (35lb)

Can't say I enjoyed this little lot. If my cold gets worse I'll have a day off work tomorrow. I fancy playing a bit of guitar. Anyone know the chords to Haitian Divorce?
 
<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Posted on: Jul. 07 2007,20:27
Saturday 08/07/07</div>

Just curious on how you did you Saturday WO on Sunday's date on Friday?
 
Well spotted Colby but, sadly, no extra Brownie points for your sleuthing abilities.
biggrin.gif


You see, over in England we put the day before the month. Now, as it happened, on that night when I posted it was past midnight so it was actually a day later according to the calendar. I just copied that date in my post rather than the correct 'before midnight' date.

I've put it right now.
 
12/07/07

Well, after that ridiculous 100 rep squat session on Monday, I am still enjoying the after effects today. So, decided to do something a bit different.

Spurred on by Tot's example I decided to do some rack pulls er, without a rack but with the weight on some blocks. Bar set just above the knee.

First I did some over-over grip holds for grip testing.

After warmups ended up doing 160kg (352lbs) for over 5 seconds but less than 10 seconds. This is a definite improvement but I had hoped to make 400lbs. Not there yet.

Then decided to do rack pulls and holds with reverse grip and see how far I could take it.

5 x 190kg (418lbs)
3 x 210kg (462lbs) PB
2 x 230kg (506lbs) PB
2 x 250kg (550lbs) PB
2 x 272.5kg (600lbs) Woohoo! PB!

Grip held out fine even at 600lbs but by this time I was only holding the load for 5 seconds or so once standing. My grip is so much stronger than it has ever been in my life but my hands were really starting to suffer by this time. The second rep at 600 felt about twice as hard as the first one so decided to call it quits. No injury as far as I can tell.

One thing I discovered early on was that with my normal reverse grip, with my left hand supinated and my right pronated, I was getting some pain in my left forearm. It went away if I pronated my left hand and supinated my right so I switched to that for the rest of the session.

I now think that heavy deadlifting has been holding up my forearm healing even though I wasn't really aware that it was the culprit. Sounds dumb but I think when you are really focussed on a heavy lift small twinges are masked by the amount of strain on your whole system.

Anyway, it was a fun experiment and I am thrilled to have lifted 600lbs (even if only for a short distance). Now I just have to lower the bar's starting position and work up to 600 again. I now believe that a 600lbs deadlift could actually be a possibility one day. Cheers Tot!  
cool.gif


600lb-rack-pull.jpg

600lbs on the bar!
 
That is awesome.

There is nothing like the feeling of holding something 600 lbs in your hands. Well, except maybe 700. Heh.
 
<div>
(Totentanz @ Jul. 12 2007,20:00)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">That is awesome.

There is nothing like the feeling of holding something 600 lbs in your hands. Well, except maybe 700. Heh.</div>

I reckon Steve Jones is part of the 700 club.

Congrats on the Rack Pulls... BTW, I love the bumper plates!
 
<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Well spotted Colby but, sadly, no extra Brownie points for your sleuthing abilities.
biggrin.gif
</div>

I'm hungry for some brownies. This cut sucks; I need to slow bulk instead!
 
Friday 13/07/07

Legs still sore from Monday so decided to do some front squats instead of back squats as haven't done them for a while.

Front Squats: 1 x 5 x 60kg, 1 x 5 x 90kg, 2 x 5 x 100kg, 1 x 5 x 105kg (231lbs) PB

Chins: 1 x 5 x bw, 1 x 5 x bw+25kg, 1 x 5 x bw+30kg, 1 x 4 x bw+30kg, 1 x 3 x bw+30kg, 5 singles bw+30kg max-stim style

Flyes: 3 x 15 x 18.5kg - More shoulder rehab - right shoulder very 'clicky'

Seated db Shoulder Press: 1 x 15 x 18.5kg, 2 x 15 x 21kg - Bit of extra rehab work
 
That is a nice front squat number. Considering it is around what many guy's back squat is at... pretty impressive.
 
Thanks Tot. It wasn't that long ago that I could only manage 2 reps with 100kg. 5 x 105kg was hard but I had one, or maybe two, left in the tank. I want to try to hit 250lbs (~113kg) for 5 reps before this cycle is done.
 
16/07/07

Front Squats: 1 x 3 x 110kg (242lbs), 1 x 2 x 115kg (253lbs) PB Woohoo! Hard but comfortable. Now I just need to get 5 reps.

Back Squats: 3 x 3 x 140kg (308lbs), 1 x 10 x 115kg (253lbs) These were hard! I'm hoping because of my front squat effort.

Pendlay Rows: 3 x 5 x 100kg (220lbs) then tried a supinated grip: 2 x 5 x 100kg. Think I've badgered my left forearm a bit much again. It still doesn't like Pendlays (or any rows for that matter) at the moment.

Flyes: 1 x 10 x 16kg (35lbs), 2 x 10 x 26kgs (57lbs) + 5 presses - Tried a very slight decline for the flyes and it seemed to help. Right AC joint doing its usual annoying thing during presses.

Standing db Shoulder Press: 1 x 9 x 26kgs, 2 x 10 x 26kg (57lbs)

Left shoulder packed up on 10th rep, 1st set. It seems to be holding out OK but still off compared to normal.

DB Curls: 3 x 5 x 26kg (57lbs) Seeing that the dbs were made up and because my forearm had already had a hiding from the rows, decided to do some curls for a change. Weirdly, left arm felt stronger than right! Actually did 6 reps on the last set. I hardly ever do db curls so can't remember if this is a PB or not. Anyroadup, it weren't half bad considrin'.
biggrin.gif
 
nice front squat.

I was messing around w/ those today and came to appreciate how much different the lift becomes with the bar in front.
 
<div>
(Lol @ Jul. 13 2007,00:38)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">12/07/07

Well, after that ridiculous 100 rep squat session on Monday, I am still enjoying the after effects today. So, decided to do something a bit different.

Spurred on by Tot's example I decided to do some rack pulls er, without a rack but with the weight on some blocks. Bar set just above the knee.

First I did some over-over grip holds for grip testing.

After warmups ended up doing 160kg (352lbs) for over 5 seconds but less than 10 seconds. This is a definite improvement but I had hoped to make 400lbs. Not there yet.

Then decided to do rack pulls and holds with reverse grip and see how far I could take it.

5 x 190kg (418lbs)
3 x 210kg (462lbs) PB
2 x 230kg (506lbs) PB
2 x 250kg (550lbs) PB
2 x 272.5kg (600lbs) Woohoo! PB!

Grip held out fine even at 600lbs but by this time I was only holding the load for 5 seconds or so once standing. My grip is so much stronger than it has ever been in my life but my hands were really starting to suffer by this time. The second rep at 600 felt about twice as hard as the first one so decided to call it quits. No injury as far as I can tell.

One thing I discovered early on was that with my normal reverse grip, with my left hand supinated and my right pronated, I was getting some pain in my left forearm. It went away if I pronated my left hand and supinated my right so I switched to that for the rest of the session.

I now think that heavy deadlifting has been holding up my forearm healing even though I wasn't really aware that it was the culprit. Sounds dumb but I think when you are really focussed on a heavy lift small twinges are masked by the amount of strain on your whole system.

Anyway, it was a fun experiment and I am thrilled to have lifted 600lbs (even if only for a short distance). Now I just have to lower the bar's starting position and work up to 600 again. I now believe that a 600lbs deadlift could actually be a possibility one day. Cheers Tot!  
cool.gif


600lb-rack-pull.jpg

600lbs on the bar!</div>
well done mate
smile.gif

but thinking about lifting 600lbs from the floor,why not lower the blocks every wk by say 2ins,untill you reach the floor
rock.gif
biggrin.gif
 
I've had to make the decision to stop all upper body work at the moment. My left forearm issue is just getting to be too much of a problem away from the gym. It's even hurting to type now! This is the most annoying and persistent injury that I've had so far. I've tried just working through it but it won't go away. I've tried high rep work for some extra lactic acid build up; no good either.

Exercises that make it worse:

Cleans
Deads
Dips
BB Rows
Chins
Presses
Bench
EZ-bar Curls
Tri-extensions (these hurt most when I try to lower the bar back down but even the top extended position is painful, although using an EZ-bar helps a bit).

So, I'm going to SD my upper body but continue with my squats for a bit. I'd like to continue with deads but even with my reverse grip reversed(!) my forearm still takes a beating so I think I'll have to stop them too. After a few weeks I'll take a full SD for another week or so. If my forearm has improved by then I'll ease it back in gradually by using even lighter loads for my upper body than usual.

Any more advice gratefully received.
 
Friday 20/07/07

In view of my previous post, just some squats.

4 x 10 x 110kg, 2 x 5 x 110kg (242lbs) =&gt; Total 50 reps

I attempted to take a small movie with my stills camera for my fourth set of 10 to see if it was up to the job. Lighting was poor so it's a bit dark. It did work though, which is good news.

I've just bunged this on my server as an mpeg4 file. It's about 3.2MB. It's nothing exciting and hardly worth bothering with unless you want to see my form start to suck after a few reps. I was pretty fatigued by this point having already done 3 sets. It's good for me to see this as it's hard to tell how much you start to lean forward when you get tired. I knew I was doing it, just didn't know how much. Now I do.

110kg (242lb) Squat
 
Whilst on the healing road I'm going to be doing the following for the next few weeks:

Front Squats: Mon
Good Mornings: Mon, Wed
ATG Back Squats: Wed
Bench/Partial Squats: Fri (heavy)
Calf Raises: Mon, Wed &amp; Fri

CoC Grippers for grip strength (no rack pulls): Tues, Thurs, Sat.

Possibly some ab work: Mon, Wed &amp; Fri

I will also try to get around to building my Quad rack and sort out some parallel grip handles for chins, rows, presses etc.

Any other suggestions welcome.
 
That sucks about the injury. Hopefully resting it completely like that will get rid of it.

Nice video. Your form looked fine to me, only the last few reps seemed to suffer any. After that many reps, my squats would probably look like a train wreck.
I like your squat rack setup. Heh.

Have you considered going in to see about your forearm? Nothing worse than an injury to halt your progress.
 
Your form seemed perfectly fine on the video. As Totentanz pointed out, during the last few reps, your shoulders were not parallel with your feet for a split second when going up. IMO, that is to be expected at the end of a WO and it's nothing to be worried about. Great squats!

Do you get worried that the cinder blocks are going to crack and/or fall?

Good luck with your left forearm injury.
 
Thanks for checking the squat form guys. Legs are fried today. I'm going to be doing a bit more volume for them over the next few weeks to see how they fare. I really want to get my squat 1RM up to around the 400lbs mark this year and I am not on target yet.

I am planning on sorting the blocks.
biggrin.gif
They are pretty strong though. I did some partial squats with 510lbs the other night and they held up just fine and I used them for the 600lb 'rack' pulls. The biggest pain is adding more weights as you can't just slide them on, so a rack I must build...

If I find the forearm hasn't improved after a few weeks of rest I will get a pro opinion.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top