Lol's New HST Log

Lol said:
To get a feel for different damper settings, try this:

Set the display to Watts so you can see your power output. Aim for a stroke rate of around 28-30 and a target power output of 200 watts for each setting.

Start with the damper on 4 and row for about two minutes at a comfortable rate (spm), checking your power output on the readout—keep it at around 200 watts.

Quick breather then Damper on 1 for 2 mins.

Quick breather then Damper on 10 for 2 mins (You'll probably find that you have to drop your stroke rate when the damper is set to 10).

Quick breather then Damper back down to 5 for 2 mins.

This should give you some idea of how you feel using a range of settings. You can fine tune by doing the same experiment with settings around what you feel is most comfortable for you.

Enjoy! :)
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Thanks, Lol! Very comprehensive! I'll try your suggestion - I'm going to mess around with it just for fun a little on Thursday before my scheduled session.
 
I just did my suggested damper settings tester to make sure it was as useful as I thought. It seemed pretty good to me. :)

Then I tried upping the power output to 300 watts.

Try doing that for each setting too but for just one minute at a time. Keep stroke rate to about 30 SPM. It's very evident that you have to move much more quickly on the drive when the damper setting is low compared to when the damper is high. The faster the drive, the more time you have for recovery; don't rush back up to the catch.

Have fun on Thursday. :)
 
Tues 15/03/11

Having weights at home is a blessing and a curse: on the one hand it means I can train whenever I want, and on the other, it means I can train whenever I want! Like just now, for instance. I read an article on partials and decided to try some for my bench, just for fun. My shoulders are always problematic after I've been in the 5s for a while, so I thought I would make them problematic early this time. No, really, I'm hoping that some heavier partials (lock-outs, in this case) will do something to toughen up my joints and then I'll be able to get through the relatively light 5s with fewer issues. That's the idea anyway. Truth is, I'm older now and aspirin may be my only friend. :)

Here's what I tried:

Regular Bench
10 x 40kg - full-range warmup

Partial Bench (6" Lock-outs from rods)
5 x 80kg
5 x 110kg
5 x 120kg
5 x 130kg
10 x 140kg (308lb)

Last set was tough. Last rep of the last set was RPE 10 - although recovery enough for another rep is relatively swift compared to full-ROM benching.

I could feel my shoulders start to pop and grind a little during the 130kg and 140kg reps. Nothing bad though. Right shoulder definitely more noticeable than the left, which felt fine.

For all these reps, I'm setting up with a good strong arch, shoulder-blades adducted, feet firmly planted and with the whole of my body really tight. I am also wearing wrist straps to remove my scabby wrist issues from my mind.

Now that that's done, I actually feel as if I've been driven over by a small truck. With no bones broken, it's a good feeling. :)
 
Hey Lol -

Nice partials! There's a guy I see at the gym who always does a set of partials after heavy work, and he has a massive bench (385 for a single was the most I've seen thus far). I'm considering adding a couple sets of partials myself in an upcoming microcycle to see just how far I can push my bench numbers. I think this is a great idea for you - especially given your shoulder issues that crop up from time to time. Nice work!
 
Lol said:
I read an article on partials and decided to try some for my bench, just for fun.
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Yup, I was looking at an old Aussie strength mag and saw the article about partials. It makes me want to try some more rack pulls. I also thought I'd try to do a couple of squat walk-outs with a heavy bar to get used to having more weight on my shoulders. I gotta stop reading this stuff...!

I saw my doctor today and he gave me a shot of "goody-good" in my shoulder. I'm hoping that may help with my immediate problem. Meanwhile I'm forbidden any overhead work for two full weeks.
 
Wed 16/03/11

Three workouts today!

Workout 1: Chelsea

A CF workout, consisting of:

5 rounds for time of 5 pull-ups, 10 press-ups, and 15 air-squats.

Time 3:16.1

Didn't have to break up any reps. Pretty good speed throughout. Breathing fairly hard afterwards but felt good. Piece of cake compared to a fast 1k row.


Workout 2: Pull-ups

I spotted a CF pull-up workout recently and thought I'd like to try it:

With a continuously running clock do one pull-up the first minute, two pull-ups the second minute, three pull-ups the third minute… continuing as long as you are able. Use as many sets each minute as needed.

Completed 10 minutes plus 6 pull-ups in eleventh minute.

That's 61 total reps before the clock beat me. Frustratingly hard as the time went on. The fun started in the seventh minute.

NB. All my pull-ups were strict, ie. no kipping.


Workout 3: Heavier stuff

This was to be brief but hard.

500m row on rower for warm-up.

Deads:
10 x 60kg
5 x 80kg
5 x 110kg
5 x 160kg (352lb) - reverse grip
1 x 160kg - back to hook grip as a tester

Oly shoes; no belt; hook grip for all sets except 5 x 160kg. Didn't want to mess up; really wasn't sure if I was up to 5 x 160kg yet, so switched to reverse grip. Quick breather then back for a single to ensure hook-grip ok with 160kg. No problemo! Thumbs felt good so held on to bar for ~ 10 seconds. Bit shakey still on the 5th rep with 160kg but definite improvement over last week with 150kg.

Front Squats:
10 x 40kg
5 x 70kg
5 x 100kg (220lb) @ RPE 8.5

10 x push-ups to warm up shoulders.

Partial Bench (~6" Lock-outs from rods)
5 x 60kg
5 x 80kg
5 x 110kg
5 x 130kg
5 x 140kg (308lb)
10 x 150kg (330lb) @ RPE 10

10 x push-ups

Once again, last rep of the last set was tough. Took a good 4 seconds to lock it out. All reps held for at least a couple of seconds at lockout; bar lowered under control.

Good workout. Enjoyable. Shoulder is coping well so far.
 
Now that is most impressive Lol. That CF workout with the pullups every minute is a killer. And you even did another workout with pullups in it before that. Just awesome!! Very nice deads and front squats too. I noticed awhile back you did some muscle ups. Have you been practicing them or do you think that all the rowing you have been doing has helped?
 
Thanks Bax.

I think my first muscle-up came about when my bodyweight was fairly low following my last op; I tried one and almost got it so tried again with a bit more gusto and, hey-presto!, I got it! I'm sure what helped the most was being lighter.

I still don't have an ideal set-up to work on muscle-ups otherwise I would be incorporating them into my workouts more often. I intend to rectify this.
 
TunnelRat said:
Yup, I was looking at an old Aussie strength mag and saw the article about partials. It makes me want to try some more rack pulls. I also thought I'd try to do a couple of squat walk-outs with a heavy bar to get used to having more weight on my shoulders. I gotta stop reading this stuff...!

I saw my doctor today and he gave me a shot of "goody-good" in my shoulder. I'm hoping that may help with my immediate problem. Meanwhile I'm forbidden any overhead work for two full weeks.
Click to expand...

As an aside, I think doing more rack pulls would definitely be a good idea, since you've had a couple sessions where you failed halfway up. More rack pulls would definitely help. But you already know I'm a pretty big advocate of rack pulls.

I seem to remember quadancer getting some good results with squat walk-outs.
 
TR, I don't know what it is? but I could do with some of that "goody-good" in my shoulder too. Hope it's helping you.

I think I will incorporate only one kind of partial per lifting session. I think doing more than one partial movement each session could quickly add up to too much CNS fatigue. I was cooked after the bench lock-outs the other night. Rack pulls would be even more brutal. When I was getting my squat numbers up with 'the quadman', I did walkouts and some partial squats with some fairly hefty numbers (for me ~450+)). Initially I thought I would be crushed but, before long, I became accustomed to having heavier iron on my back.
 
Sat 19/03/11

I officially suck!

I decided to have a quick snooze this evening before my workout and then didn't wake up for a couple of hours!

So, rather than hit the squat rack in the wee hours of Saturday morning, with all the associated clanging and banging which would cheese off my neighbours, I decided to do a row.

Changed things up a bit by setting the damper on 1 (Drag Factor: 99). This means you have to move fast during the drive in order to keep the power output up.

2k C2 Row
Time: 7:38
Av. SPM: 31
Average split: 1:54.5 seconds/500m

First 500 split was a 1:58, which was pretty slow as I didn't bother with a warm-up. Then I picked it up to 1:55 for the next two splits and the final 500 was a 1:50.

None of that is quick, time wise, but it's much harder for me with a low damper setting. I am a bit slow and lumbering so a higher damper setting suits me better. I'd like to increase the speed of my drive so this was a good test.

7:38 is not a great time but this was by no means a max effort and it's almost 2:00 am. Lungs were fine, which is what matters to me most. I'll hit the squat rack tomorrow.
 
Sat 19/03/11

Night time w/o

Warmup row on C2

Low-bar Back Squat:
10 x 60
10 x 80kg
20 x 100kg (220lb)
15 x 100kg (220lb)

Haven't back squatted in quite a while. So, as I've been using 100kg for my front squats, I decided to stick with 100kg for my back squat work sets. Was intending to do 3 x 10 but then decided to push a little further on the first set and made it to 20 with only a quick breather after 15 reps. Second set could have been 20 reps too but I need to be able to walk tomorrow!

10 x push-ups

Bench:
10 x 60kg
10 x 80kg
10 x 90kg @ RPE 10
9 x 90kg @ RPE 9.5
7 x 90kg @ RPE 9

Chins:
10 x bw
9 x bw+55lb @ RPE 10, 5 x bw (immediately after)
5 x bw+55lb @ RPE 10

Hook-grip Static Holds/Short Range Rack Pulls:
5 x 140kg (308lb)
5 x 160kg (352lb)
5 x 180kg (396lb)

Thumbs pretty beaten up after that. They need to toughen up again.
 
Mon 21/03/11

Legs still completely fried from Saturday's squat session. I've been hobbling about like a geriatric. Should have left it at one set of 20!

To try to ease things up a bit and to give my lungs something to do I did a rowing session.

C2 Rower
Warmup then:
1 x 500m @ 1:38/500m
1 x 500m @ 2:05/500m
1 x 500m @ 1:55/500m
1 x 500m @ 1:45/500m

Damper on 3. Still attempting to get my speed up on the slide. Breathing quite hard after 1st interval but recovered during the second easier interval. Then knocked off 10 seconds for the next two consecutive intervals. Short breathers between intervals.
 
Lol said:
Legs still completely fried from Saturday's squat session. I've been hobbling about like a geriatric. Should have left it at one set of 20!
Click to expand...
Yeah, when I saw your Saturday night workout, I figured you'd be limping for a few days. There's a price to be paid for all of our victories...
 
Looks like your strength levels are coming back very nicely, Lol. I can tell based on the amount of pure jealousy I feel right now from your last 2 posts....
 
Tue 22/03/11

Pure unadulterated jealousy! Haha, Tim!

Well, nothing much to report tonight. Been really busy so not much time to train. My legs are still suffering and I have to deadlift tomorrow night.

Warmup:
500m row ~1:45 pace
Dips: 35 x bw
Chins: 22, 20 x bw - not 100% strict; just for warmups

Bench Lock-outs (from pin 6)
5 x 90kg
5 x 110kg
4+1 x 130kg (286lb)
0 x 140kg (308lb)
1 x 140kg (308lb) @ RPE 10 + 10 second static hold
1 x 140kg (308lb) @ RPE 10 + 10 second static hold
0 x 140kg (308lb) - messed up in my head.
1 x 140kg (308lb) @ RPE 10 + 20 second static hold

Pin 6 gives me about 9" of press range. If I had a bigger chest that would almost be max ROM! Haha! Gotta work on my arch. ;)
Failed first set with 140kg. Didn't get my mind right. The next two sets were tough. Messed up the fourth one too. On the last one, I pushed the static hold until I was quite shaky; at 20 seconds I had just enough gas to lower to rods under a semblance of control. I took a good few minutes rest between sets with 140kg.

Left feeling pretty fried after this. It'll be interesting to see how my CNS deals with regular partials. I may have to be careful not to do too many all-out reps. Because I'm working in the strong range of motion there's no real sticking point, as such; if I can develop enough force to start the bar moving it'll keep going to lock-out.

Really pleased that my right shoulder hasn't gone all to pieces. It doesn't feel quite as solid as the left one when lifting but it's not hurting afterwards or keeping me awake at night like it used to. So far, so good.

Deads tomorrow.
 
Good luck with the deads. Do you have a planned load to work up to or are you just going to see how it goes?

How do your joints feel after doing those bench lockouts? Does it feel comfortable?
 
Totentanz said:
Good luck with the deads. Do you have a planned load to work up to or are you just going to see how it goes?

How do your joints feel after doing those bench lockouts? Does it feel comfortable?
Click to expand...

I want to get back to 180kg for 5 ASAP. Not sure it's going to happen as quickly as I would like. I want to try to keep a flat back as far as poss. I can lift safely with a bit of round-backing but I find my low-back suffers the next day if I do. I'd like to try to work the load up but stay tight. I'm also mindful that my right groin is as yet un-herniated. I'd prefer it to stay that way so I'm going to be careful not to push too hard too soon and probably lift without a belt.

Shoulders feel a little beaten up but nothing that won't sort itself with a good night's sleep—pity I rarely get one of those! Ha! I'm enjoying adding partials. They really make you focus. Concentration makes the difference between lift and no lift. Good training me thinks.
 
Right shoulder (specifically, my right AC joint) is definitely sore today; raising my arms overhead or shrugging is fine with my left arm but uncomfortable with my right. This is the same old problem that I always get. If my set-up is not absolutely bang on I get this issue. I'm going to continue with partials and see how it behaves over the next week; if it doesn't cheer up (or gets worse) I will return to regular bench and see if it sorts itself out. This is why I can never get my benching (or dipping) really solid. Heigh ho.
 
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