Focus your mind on each exercise. If your mind wanders you will not develop strength. Consider the laborer who works all day long. He is not as strong as the wrestler for he does not concentrate on his labor but thinks about other things.
From an article about Vyayam on the ChAoS & PAIN website (NSFW)
I don’t always do this… my mind sometimes is off on other things and I go through the motions. But when I focus intensely on each rep, that 1 focused rep is more useful than 10 unfocused.
Continuing to explore ways to press that don’t kill my shoulders….
Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 16 (mark 2), week 3
No PR today, but it is progress along the continuum. It was interesting that I found myself very mentally into each rep, really focusing on form. Somehow today I really “locked” in terms of foot placement and leg drive. No it’s not pulling my feet back towards my ears and arching into a ball… my feet are “out in front” and pressing up and back. But Rippetoe seems to advocate that and screw it…. if that’s what it takes for me to get leg drive and decent arch without lifting my butt off the bench, so be it.
In between sets I found myself looking in the mirrors, imagining myself lying on the bench and going through the motions. I’m watching my arms, where my elbows go, tucking them, where things travel, where the bar should then end on my chest, etc.. No question the greater elbow tuck is welcome to my shoulders. In fact…. someone left a Swiss Bar at the gym (I think another patron, and the gym just has it on permanent loan). It’s been there a while and today it hit me to try it. Just like the prior squat session, when I did my assistance benching I didn’t care about weight or reps all that much, rather that I wanted to treat it like a “clinic” with every rep being under scrutiny. After a couple sets and then more examination of form in the mirror, I thought screw it — try the Swiss Bar because of how it positions the hands thus the arms/elbows.
I’m glad I did.
I like it and may well keep using it for my assistance pressing, to help emphasize anterior delts and triceps, and less shoulder stress.
That said, it was a little awkward. It balances very different in the hand, but it’s managable. I will get used to it. Also, the bar is 35# instead of the 45# of traditional olympic-sized bars, and the weights used will reflect that. So 125# on the swiss bar is a 45# plate on each side.
I also thought about switching away from JM Press to Dips. but thought better of it. I need the higher reps, I need to grow my triceps, and I need more bench-based pressing to help emphasize other aspects, like the leg drive and a solid foundation. Dips won’t give me that…. at least, not until I get much stronger.
Anyways, while it wasn’t a PR day, I think it was a good day in terms of the things I learned.
But next session…. deadlift…. I can and will set a true PR.
It’s a different kind of PR.
Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 16 (mark 2), week 3
First, today was cut short because I have an early business meeting. That’s life.
Second, the PR is a PR, but different. First, I have never done 275 for 4 reps, and my max PR right now is 3 reps at 280. So today is a rep PR and calculated out to being better than the true PR. So, that’s kinda cool.
But.
The 4th rep was bowling shoe ugly (thank you Jim Ross). I’m sure in a competition it would have gotten 3 red lights. I’m pretty sure I didn’t go deep enough. But the reality is, it wasn’t about getting a 4th picture perfect technique rep.
It was about not getting crushed.
If you’ve followed my journey, I hate squatting. I have a lot less hate for it these days (I’m not ready to say I like it… but… maybe), and a lot of deep-seeded fear about it. It’s probably all from my childhood… Mom fears… “oh you’ll hurt yourself” and all that sort of shit. Fear of getting crushed… of getting pinned. I’m getting over it tho, because what’s the worst? I don’t get up… the bar hits the rails, it might make a lot of noise, but whatever. It is NOT the end of the world, it isn’t that big a deal. So that’s what it was for me — working to overcome the mental hurdles. I’m making progress here, and that’s what it was about. Rep 3 was a struggle, but I said “fuck it” and went for a fourth. Oh yes, ugly ugly ugly… but it was about “getting back up” no matter what and pushing myself further.
So to that end, that’s more important progress for me.
And yeah… maybe… maybe… I might be getting a little fond of squats. Tho I shouldn’t admit it yet…. 🙂
The other thing I did was put 315# on my back. All I did was put the plates on, get under the bar, unrack, walk back, stand there for about 10 seconds, then rack it. I’ve read about powerlifters doing this. I haven’t read why, but my guess is a mental thing. It’s about feeling that weight. Whatever your max weight is? Put more on your back. If 275 is the heaviest you’ve ever lifted, to your body and mind, that’s heavy. Put 315 on your back, now THAT is the threshold of “heavy”, and 275 is light by comparison, right? Also that in competition, if your third attempt is to be a PR, then when you’ve got all the pressure of competition going on, why add one more unknown to the mix? why let the first time you’ve ever felt this weight be at the competition? Let it be old-hat, at least in some regard, so it’s not a total surprise. So that’s why I tried it, on a whim. Just see what it feels like and what that might do for my mental outlook.
What did it feel like?
Heavy. When I read about guys lifting 600, 700, 800, 1000 pounds and how that weight crushes you… I can only imagine what that’s like, because the 315 felt like it was crushing me. But then, I’m sure when I was squatting 95# that 275 would have felt like it was crushing me. But there you go. It felt heavy, so hopefully 275 will feel lighter now. 🙂 Plus it was a bit of a mental thing to position myself for that goal — to have 3 wheels on the bar and how cool that’s going to be. My goal is before the end of 2013 to squat 315. Since I’m currently progressing at 5# a cycle, that’s 8 cycles… so, it’s do-able.
In other news….
Assistance squatting was light, because I wanted to. Given how ugly the last work rep was, I wanted to remind my body what a picture perfect rep should be. So just 135 on the bar, and every rep was really “doing a single” and trying to be as picture-damn-perfect as I know how to do a squat. It was again more about the mental.
And… in diet?
When I squat my belt gets hooked at the second to the last hole. I did that this morning and the belt felt loose! I went to the last hole… it was a little bit of a pull to get there, but I did and it felt right (just a hair tight, but good). So…. hey, if that means I am losing something around the middle, awesome.
I’m going to give it a week or so of seeing if it’s really the case or just was a fluke for today. But if it is the case, it will be time for me to order a new belt. And yes, I’ll order again from BestBelts.
Other than whatever happened to my upper back, it was a good session.
Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 16 (mark 2), week 2
During either the second or third warm-up set, I felt a sudden sharp pain in my upper back. I have no idea what happened — pop some fascia? I don’t know, but there’s this pain in my upper back… under the trap? rhomboid? hard to say exactly where it is from an anatomy chart perspective, but I know where the pain is. 🙂 I can still feel it, even as I write this. I did something, but it didn’t get too much in the way of the session. Still, I have to keep an eye on it.
Otherwise, the session felt good. I’m remembering to “go light” on my assistance pressing, so I can be sure to get more reps.
I am happy to be doing dips. I dunno… I like them.
Didn’t drag the sled… I just didn’t.
Diet wise… felt energized. Maybe I’m getting into the swing of CBL. Too early to tell, but at least I’m not feeling so flat any more.
So I’m doing the Carb Back-Loading thing.
I’ve only begun so it’s going to be weeks or months before I can really say much about it. But here’s what I can say right now.
Wow. There’s a lot of caffeine on this program. I’m not anti-caffeine, but I also have tried to minimize it in my life just because I haven’t had reason to ingest it. Plus if I wanted the “alertness” affects to really take hold when I need them, better in my mind to not build up a tolerance so that if I’m driving late and need a “5 hour energy shot” to get me through, it’ll work out.
So I’m just taking some caffeine pills to help out, per Kiefer’s dosing. I should note part of my (extra) reasoning for this is because I train in the morning, and caffeine becomes a necessary part of that approach. But when I dose, well.. first few days I tried the higher-end of the range, and found that as the day wore on I got really… out of whack. So now I’m trying to lower-end of his suggested ranges and we’ll see how that goes. Perhaps over time I might have to increase the dose, but I can do that then because obviously I presently don’t have the tolerance for it (thought I did, I was wrong).
BTW, I have been using some caffeine pills/tablets that I bought at Walgreens. I just put in an order with TrueNutrition.com and am getting caffeine anhydrous in 200mg capsules. The powder should work better (given what Kiefer recommends) and this is FAR cheaper — Walgreens was 100 count 200mg tablets for about $10; TN is 120 count 200mg capsules for $3.50.
Because I work out in the morning, I have to change protocol a little bit. But it seems only a slight change, which is fine. I haven’t noticed a horrible feel or change in stuff in terms of going into workouts with an empty stomach. I’ve played with this on and off for many many months, trying to generally err on an empty(er) stomach. First, too much food and I’d just feel bad. So try something light, a little sugar, maybe a pre-workout like TN’s Buzz Saw. But now, it’s nothing… well, just some caffeine. Not feeling any adverse effects, but it seems to require that I do in fact ensure a good loading the night before, which is fine.
So far, so good.
I ended up reading more on fish oil, because I knew not all was created equal. I ended up learning about Meg-3. Someone said that Meg-3 is to fish oil what CreaPure is to creatine.
The fish oil we get tends to vary depending where and when Wife grocery shops. I’m going to ask her to stop and buy only on Meg-3 based brands. Not too hard, given Meg-3 sources to folks like Wal-Mart/Sams, Costco, and so on.
But hey… I contacted TrueNutrition and asked, and their fish oil is Meg-3. Again, it’s a price issue. Their fish oil softgels are 1000 count for $25, whereas anything I buy in the store is a LOT less quantity for a lot more money. I think the Sams “Simply Right” runs like $20 for 150 or so. Again, TN wins on quality AND price.
Yeah I know… this is reading like a shill for TrueNutrition. I’m not on their payroll, just 1. satisfied customer, 2. it’s simple math, folks.
Medium-Chain Triglycerides are a part of CBL, so coconut oil it is. I had no idea coconut oil was solid at room temperature. 🙂
But it tastes really nice. Like a subtle buttery coconut. It’s kinda neat.
One thing I’m doing to help consume it is to use a metal measuring spoon. Run warm water over the spoon, then scoop the oil out of the jar – the warm spoon helps to scoop oil into and release oil out of the spoon. Since I’m not putting the oil into coffee, just mixing with my water and whey, I’ll heat it up in the microwave for 10-20 seconds to melt/liquefy it, then drink up. It’s really not bad at all. I know there are liquid MCT’s out there, but this is kinda fun for now.
I’d like to look into full-fat coconut milk too. But here I’m a bit at the mercy of Wife’s grocery shopping.
I think one of the cool things about this is that it’s actually fitting into my general life better than any other plan I’ve worked with in the past. In my case, it’s a combination of just my personal life but more so my family life.
Before, anything I attempted would really impact the rest of the family. If we went out to dinner, Dad’s needs had to be taken into account. If Wife was cooking dinner, what did Dad need. When grocery shopping, what does Dad need? etc.. There was a lot of special-casing on Dad. And while I’d often tell Wife to just make whatever and I would make due since I was the exception, still, it wasn’t always enjoyable and often became difficult to manage. It’d just be another factor in the failure.
But with CBL, this looks like it could work out and blend better.
First, most of the “meals” from waking up until dinner aren’t that much of meals (at least, given my early morning workout approach). I do a lot of supplementation, whey and shakes, caffeine, simple snacks like almonds, and so on. My lunch? In a lot of respects, it’s not much different than what I’ve been taking to work already. Yeah sure, maybe not taking leftovers so much now, but it’s fairly straightforward: about 8 oz of “plain meat” and then a bunch of fibrous veggies. That’s really simple to make, to assemble when I’m trying to get out the door, and so on. In fact, one thing I can try to get better about might be something like grilling 3-4# of chicken breasts on Sunday and then I’ve got lunch meat for the week. Couple that with some bagged salads or whatever fun might come in our weekly CSA veggie box, maybe something different from time to time, but overall, there we go. Simple.
The better part comes with dinner. Now Dad doesn’t need to be special-cased so much. The other night Wife made home-made pizza (make the crust dough herself, etc.). Sure she piled on the meaty toppings special for me, but she was able to make pizza instead of me saying “no, can’t have it”. Dad can just eat with everyone else. It’s really wonderful and fits so much better into the household.
So CBL has this going for it. It isn’t so much “work” to make it go, and it fits better into the rhythm of the household. Chances are better.
I’ve got a bunch of questions about CBL. Biggest of which is the ratios. I mean, if I’m reading the “amount of carbs” to get table correctly, am I really supposed to take in 800g of carbs!?!? Holy crap that seems crazy. I hope I’m reading things wrong. There’s a forum specifically for this stuff, and I’ve registered but am still waiting on activation.
There are numerous “shakes” that one is to take during CBL to make things go, since CBL is all about manipulation of insulin levels. So I’m working on my shopping list from TrueNutrition.com for things like leucine, hydrolysates, etc.. Right now I’m keeping it fairly simple, e.g. using whey isolate for all the protein needs. So we’ll see what difference things make once I can follow the formulas precisely.
I’ve only been doing CBL for a little while now, so the jury is still out.
So far, it’s alright. Yes, the mornings can be a little tough. I still need to experiment to see what I can do about improving on hunger. Even eating well at lunch and having some sort of afternoon snack… it’s hard to get through to evening. Every day gets a little better, but it’s still hard. I’ll get there tho. Really, this has a fair chance of success given how it does work pretty well into the lifestyle.
Time will tell.
I had the energy, but not sure I had the strength.
Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 16 (mark 2), week 2
I pretty much deprived myself of carbs all weekend, until last night. Went to a local Mexican place, ate lots of beef and chicken, onions, peppers, tomatoes, spanish rice, a little bit of refried beans (I’m not big into beans), a small basket of chips and salsa… then we went to the local frozen custard stand and I had a nice bowl of pistachio frozen custard. Yes, I enjoyed carbs. 🙂 Consequently, I felt pretty energized this morning. I didn’t feel flat at all, nor overly hyped or anything. By the end of the workout I didn’t feel drained either. I’ll take this all as a good sign.
Meantime, I’m assembling my order from TrueNutrition.com and will have a blog post of random thoughts on that later (probably tomorrow).
As for the lifting itself.
The deads were alright. I find my form is going to shit on my heaviest set, my legs straightening out more than they should before the bar even leaves the floor. But I am happy that all my lighter sets are having the stricter form. So this is alright. My current deadlift PR is 340# for 4 reps. Doing the math, 6×325 is on track to be on par with that. But I’ve done 330 for 7 reps in the not-too-distance past so… I dunno, feeling a little weak, but then so many changes in other areas of life be it diet or technique or whatever, so Daub, just deal with it. My goal is to get (at least) 5 reps at 340# — beat my PR. I will NOT let this weight crush me — I will crush this weight.
On the Good Mornings… I had to stop. My right knee has been nagging me. I don’t know what it is, but it does have me slightly concerned. Unstable? I’m not sure quite what it is, but I feel it all the time. Just simple things like walking around, up and down stairs, I think it’s “lateral” forces more than anything. On the GM’s I was feeling it, then noticed my toes pointed slightly out thus my knees went that way too. I pointed my toes straight forward and the pain went away. Pain was also only happening when I was all the way down. So…. yeah, lateral forces? I’m not sure what’s up, but I’m getting to a point where I may head to the doctor to get it looked at. I’m just afraid tho they’ll scan it, see nothing wrong, and send me home and the only thing I’ll have is a lighter wallet.
So I stopped the GM’s early and just did lighter pullthroughs and such. Everything else felt fine, if a little light. Even the sled drags weren’t as taxing as I expected them to be after all that deadlifting. *shrug* But again, I didn’t feel like overdoing it.
Carb Back-Loading is interesting, but playing games with my lifting!
Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 16, week 2
Yeah, no question… my triceps are weaker and need help. This my technique change makes evident. But, it’s weak because of the technique change. So, we roll along.
On assistance work, I really need to drop my weights down more than I think, because I need the reps. I’m picking a weight and then not getting enough reps. Not what I want. So like today, normally I might have dropped to 185, but that would have probably gotten 6 reps if I was lucky? But then, going to 135 was perhaps a little overcompensation… maybe 165 to start? But whatever, I need the reps. Just gotta think to go lighter.
And this Carb Back-Loading. I dunno. Still too early to really say. I’m hoping it’ll play out well for me, but so far it feels just weird and well.. the jury is still out. I certainly am not liking the heavy dependence upon caffeine.
Gah. That was tough.
Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 16 (mark 2), week 2
Man, that was tough.
First, the work set was really hard and I pushed like a mutha to get those 5 reps @ 260. But I was NOT going to let the weight crush me.
I did call an audible and instead of going down the ladder with the assistance squatting I just did straight sets at 50%. That was I think a better thing because I got more reps and it pushed me much further. My lower back was dying by the end of each set, wicked pump in my quads. So hey… I hope it was good.
Then on the ab work… never have I had such pain in my abs afterwards. It was really pushing things.
So I opted to not do pullthroughs given how pooped everything was, and I could only muster 6 runs with the sled… glutes and hams were dying.
Thing is… is this how it is? Or am I starting to feel some loss because of my tinkering with Carb Back-Loading, and I’m getting depleted here in my initial setup? Hard to say at this point.
Am I getting weaker on the Press? It feels like it… 😦
Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 16, week 1
Am I just sucking at Press? I used to be so good at it, but I feel just massive regression. Right now I’m just post-reset, and it feels horrible to only crank out 8 reps with 125. Yes, I’ve got some technique change. One thing is bringing it out of the rack, pausing for a bit to (re)set myself, then deep breath and hold, press up, come back down, reset and breathe, repeat. This may be having some effect on me because there’s energy taken up to wait and reset and hold that “down” position. But I’d like to do this instead of breathing at the top. While there’s something “natural” feeling about breathing at the top, a Press is more akin to a deadlift than a squat. It’s starting at the bottom and going up — that’s the nature of the movement. Plus doing it this way, there’s no rebound effect at the bottom, like you get from a squat. So, it may just be a technique change and I just have to live with it.
I also decided in my assistance work at the end to use dips. Any other sort of triceps exercise feels either like it’s pointless or just hurting my elbows. But dips… well, hard to argue with how awesome they are. I only did 3×5 today and didn’t kill myself, tho that was certainly taxing for me. Mostly I wanted to feel out how my shoulders would take it, especially by that point in the session after all that other heavy pressing. So to get 3×5 was acceptable. I’ll just push from there.
Sled drags got a slight intensity boost. Since today hit upper body, I decreased the rest time to 20 seconds (from 30). That certainly made things tougher. I’m also trying to ensure every stride is long and meaningful, and that I’m moving at a fast pace… not running, just keep the walking pace brisk.
In diet news….
If you read my logs, you know that diet is the hardest part for me. I struggle here. The hard part is finding a protocol I can stick to and not do for a couple weeks then regress. I’ve found some things in the past, but then for some reason the protocol doesn’t work out (e.g. too much depletion). I recently read this little tidbit from Jeremy Frey:
Wow, you want to lose weight? Eat protein with every meal, limit your carbs to around your training, make sure that on days off you back down your carbs by half, and don’t worry about fat because I’m guessing you get enough.
Calorie burn: 200-300 kcals.
I know you are trying to be super scientific with this, and I can appreciate that… but at the end of the day, follow the simple guide of higher protein, vary carbs around training and off days, and take in good fats. And, of course, EAT CLEAN!
– Jeremy Frey
I’ve been trying to follow this sort of protocol for ages, but somehow this wording just sits better and gives me a clear and simple protocol. So I’ve been trying this for the past well, almost week. I try to get about 1g protein per pound of lean bodyweight on workout days, allow myself carbs on workout days, mostly centered around my gym time (since it’s in the morning, after lunchtime I pretty much cut out the carbs), and on my non-workout days strive for no carbs but given how things eat around the house here that doesn’t get to no carbs but certainly a LOT less than normal.
It was rough over the weekend… my body started to scream at me for carbs. Funny thing is I tried having 1 beer and didn’t get through 2 sips before my body said “no thank you”. I did find another way, but kept it measured and light, and that was enough.
And now? I’ve got this horrible taste in my mouth that won’t go away, and my pee smells funny. Could this be the start of ketosis? Not sure….
But given all that, I finally opted to by Keifer’s Carb Back Loading book. I’ve been reading a lot of stuff about it for many months, and from what I can tell it’s pretty legit and works well for folks, especially doing what I’m doing — that is, lifting and living life, not just sitting in front of the computer and tv all day and night but still wants to lose weight. My problem has been that I read the basics of CBL, it talks about working out in the late afternoon, how to adapt for morning workouts has received mixed responses (even from Keifer himself, but likely that’s due to time and refinement of protocol).. and I just always got hung up on it. Well, I realize that I’ve missed a lot of the concepts because I focused on the wrong thing. So, buy the book, read it, and well… we’ll see.
Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 16, week 1
I do need to work on my posterior chain. No question it’s a weak point. So my assistance work is important here. That said, I only did what I did because I was beat — the deadlifts took a lot out of me. Plus I was bent on getting back to dragging the sled.
So all felt good. I know I’m going to be sore from this one. 🙂
Stuff From Hsoi 