I’m not sure I like sumo deadlifts. 🙂

Today was the second time trying them out. Last week was pure freeform experimenting, and today was about trying to actually do something. I still went light and easy, just start at 135 and go up by 25’s and 45’s doing a couple sets of 3 at each level. The goal was to try to do some actual work, but not any serious work because I’m still trying to understand it, make sure I have technique, etc..

I am allowing myself to bend forward probably more than you should, but in exchange I’m also working to get my butt down and back more — it’s purely flexibility for that position, and that will just take time.

I did find that not having the widest stance in the world is probably more suitable for me, but that too may change in time as I gain more flexibility. I also happened to play with my grip today too, finding that a slightly more narrow grip might work, but might not. It takes my hands off any knurling, and the bar felt a lot less balanced — less stable, teetered more. But it also gave me more of a straight drop to the bar. So, just more things to play with.

In other news, the past couple weeks were not focused on squatting properly according to Base Building principles — it was trying to just be very sensitive to form because of perceived imbalances favoring my right leg due to left knee issues. But today I felt I could keep that in mind, but get back to using C.A.T. with every rep. That felt good to do. Thing was? I’m not sure I really did 5 sets. I was so into things, so focused, and just ran on auto-pilot. I just remember scrolling up on my phone in the tracker app I use and was like “oh… that was the last set?” I honestly couldn’t remember if I had been properly recording stuff or what. I was that much on auto-pilot. So, it was what it was.

Plus I was a bit distracted by the eclipse! I was awake at the prime time, able to watch the whole thing. So I’d do a couple sets then step out and look at it. That may have been too much distraction.

Or mayabe it was because I was listening to the new Orange Goblin album, “Back From the Abyss” while lifting. 🙂

I also did some lunges. Again, this is a change to try to help with the knee/imbalance issue. I did just 3×10 with bodyweight only to try to see where my knee was and how it felt. It actually felt ok. There was some discomfort, part of why I only did 3×10, but overall it went OK. I think it will be a good thing for me. The fact I’ve been doing bodyweight squats every day at home I do believe has helped my knee situation. I am pretty sure there is something actually wrong or worn down/out in my knee, and it’s just a matter of time before I have to go under the knife. But until that time, I reckon the best thing I can do is work to strengthen the area. If lunges and other single-leg work will help me get there, then that’s the best thing for me to do.

Based upon Paul Carter’s Basebuilding

• Squats (model 1)
  • bar x 5
  • bar x 5
  • 150 x 5
  • 175 x 4
  • 205 x 3
  • 225 x 2
  • 260 x 1
  • 180 x 5
  • 180 x 5
  • 180 x 5
  • 180 x 5
  • 180 x 5
• Sumo Deadlift
  • 135 x 3
  • 135 x 3
  • 185 x 3
  • 185 x 3
  • 225 x 3
  • 225 x 3
  • 225 x 1
• Lunges
  • BW x 10
  • BW x 10
  • BW x 10

Certainly enjoying “Base Building model 2” on my bench press. Will it pan out for me? Time will tell.

Today was slightly different because last week was just trying out model 2 to see how it would go. Today I opted to get it back to how I was doing things before, mainly being stricter about rest between sets and got it back to 60 seconds between sets. For sure that made things tougher. I felt it during all the work sets, and the AMRAP set only got to 15 whereas last week it was 16 an I only stopped because I was bored whereas today the 15 was some work (just shy of failure). But all stands to reason given the decrease in rest.

And I am enjoying close-grips. Will keep those up.

In related news… it’s now been about 2 months of de-fatting myself. How’s it going?

Well, progress this past month was poor, technically only dropping a couple pounds (I’m officially at 248 lbs). Why? I’m not exactly sure on all fronts, no one thing I don’t think, but a combination. I think I stalled out just naturally so the diet needed to get an adjustment. I think there was too much “wait and see” time in there before the adjustment was applied, so a couple weeks were eaten up staying at weight due to just staticness of diet. I also had a snafu that I am unsure of the depth or impact; the Wife accidentally bought a 6-pack of normal sugared soda instead of diet soda. Neither of us noticed until I had consumed almost the whole 6-pack (the normal Hansens and Diet Hansens cans are visually very similar; unlike say Coke vs. Diet Coke which have very distictly different can apparance). Given how close to the dietary edge I’m skating, I’m sure it was more than enough calories to blow things out. sigh

So… that sucks. I may be up for another diet adjustment, but we’ll have to see how that goes. I got tired of reading my old dial-scale and bought a digital scale this past weekend. While the 2 scales are actually very close in reading, they aren’t 100% the same. So while I appear to be starting back on the downward trend, it’s hard to say if I actually am or not, if I’m dealing with measurement differences or not. Just hard to say; needs more time.

I am getting a little weary on the diet, but it’s not bad. Just keep focused on the desired end goal, and just keep pushing through.

Based upon Paul Carter’s Basebuilding

• Bench Press (model 2)
  • bar x 5
  • bar x 5
  • 115 x 5
  • 130 x 4
  • 155 x 3
  • 170 x 2
  • 190 x 1
  • 200 x 1
  • 190 x 5
  • 190 x 5
  • 190 x 5
  • 170 x 5
  • 170 x 5
  • 170 x 5
  • 135 x 15 (AMRAP)
• Machine Flies
  • 85 x 10
  • 85 x 10
  • 85 x 10
  • 85 x 10
• Close-grip Bench Press
  • 100 x 10
  • 100 x 10
  • 100 x 10
  • 100 x 10
• Hammer Curls (by 5’s)
  • 30e x 10e
  • 30e x 10e
  • 30e x 10e
  • 30e x 9e

I was very distracted by something else in life, so I just wasn’t all there today. But in a way things worked out.

First, it actually made me move slower, and I found I then put more emphasis in moving from the shoulders and moving at a different pace, and I actually got more out of it. My back felt more worked after this session. So, something good to take from it.

Second, while due to the life stuff I really didn’t want to go to the gym, just forced myself to do so. In the end, I felt better about all things. Still not ideal yet, but better. The iron cures all, I guess.

Called an audible. Dropped shrugs in favor of upright rows. They are a favorite of mine and have always given me good results. Shrugs just don’t seem to give me the same results, so even tho I had the bar all set to start shrugging, I was walking by the rack and just grabbed a bar and started rowing. I will say, in the past I started to have shoulder issues, but I think that came from rowing too high (e.g. bringing bar to chin). Some time ago I did rows after reading some articles on variations, and started to row with a very wide grip and only to about mid-chest; that still put my upper arms just beyond parallel to the ground, so it was still productive and was much more friendly to my shoulders. What I think I may change to is to use the EZ bar with a narrow grip, but that allows me to have my hands tilted at a more natural angle, then still row to only about mid-chest so my upper arms just break parallel. I’ll see how that goes.

And the rotator cuff work feels good… it’s just a challenge to truly keep the upper arm and elbow locked in place so that all movement comes purely from rotating the shoulder. It’s just new to me. 🙂

Based upon Paul Carter’s Basebuilding

Geez. It’s already October.

Today was a day for experimentation. Sumo deadlifting.

I want to try sumo for a bit because 1. I’ve never done it, 2. my knee might appreciate it more than conventional, 3. it could be viable as assistance work (or who knows, I might be better sumo than conventional — tho I doubt it given 1. I have a strong back, 2. the way my body is built), 4. why the heck not? It’s more learning, and this is a good time to get my learn on.

After squatting I gave myself 15 minutes to do whatever I wanted rearding sumo. Didn’t track it. The key was to put 135 on the bar and just try to figure out form and technique. I did a bunch of research since last week, so I know the basics of what to do. I did 135 for singles for a while, so I had to set up each time. Given how tall I am, I started with feet as wide as I could: not quite toes-to-plates because that’s a fine way to get a plate on a toe, but about 1-2″ from the plates, at about a 45º angle. Yeah… I don’t quite have the physiology for sumo. But I did a bunch of singles that way to try to get the hang of it. I will need to work a bit on flexibility to get all the way down, so any more sumo work I do may have a slight bend forward to help me get all the way down, but I will work on that.

After some time doing singles at 135, I went to 185 to give me a little more weight and balance. I then started doing triples to see how that would go. I also played around more with my stance width and went with a width that put my shins “centered” at the rings on the bar. Oddly, that worked a lot better for me than a very wide stance.

Anyways, 15 minutes of just trying things out, pulling singles, pulling triples, and being more concerned with technique and form. It was OK. My back felt like it got zero work, but everything between my belt line and my knees, especially on the medial and posterior sides, felt like it got some work — especially my adductors. So, I could see this being some good assistance work in that area.

I’ll stick with sumos for a while and see how it goes for me.

Based upon Paul Carter’s Basebuilding

• Squats (model 1)
  • bar x 5
  • bar x 5
  • 150 x 5
  • 175 x 4
  • 205 x 3
  • 225 x 2
  • 260 x 1
  • 180 x 5
  • 180 x 5
  • 180 x 5
  • 180 x 5
  • 180 x 5
• Sumo Deadlift – no tracking, just experimenting with it. See above.
• Leg Press
  • 165 x 20
  • 165 x 20

Remember that talk about needing sleep? My body is getting there. Been napping the past few days, and this morning I slept in HARD. So I got to the gym late.

A good reminder why I like working out alone. 🙂

Nothing bad… it’s just like Gossamer from the Looney Tunes short “Hair-Raising Hare”:

🙂

Everything was what it was. I have been thinking about a deload week, but I may not. Things work-wise are shifting and I actually should be able to get some good sleep. So, I’ll just see how I feel and go from there.

The rotator cuff work will slowly ramp up… but all in all, I think it will be good for me.

Oh, and to the kid that came into the gym before I left that proceeded to put 135# on the bar and half-squat it, then put 185# and third-squatted it… dude, I’m no authority, but I do know that you’ll get more out of life if you do what works and stop feeding your ego by half-assing things.

Based upon Paul Carter’s Basebuilding

Today was… good and bad.

Generally speaking it was good. Everything went as you’d expect. I opted to drop deficit’s in favor of conventional deadlifts. I was going to do that next week anyways as long as I was switching up my bench press to model 2, but I just went ahead and did it today. But on the whole, things went as expected.

What was bad was feeling beat up. I do think part of it is still lack of rest. Since the Overkill concert last week I just haven’t slept as good as I need to, and it’s taking a toll. Before I consider other things, I do want to deal with that first and see what comes of the rest of it. But regardless, there is one thing that is of growing concern.

My knee.

I am feeling more and more beat up on my left leg, be it my knee or the ankle, or now even my hip felt a couple pops today. When I went down for the first rep on the 225 something felt odd enough that I racked the weight because I wasn’t sure I’d be actually able to do the next rep. A bit scary, but I did a couple bodyweight squats, felt ok, and went back to it. But regardless of all that, I am starting to think my knee is not some problem that will heal in time — I think I do have something wrong with it. But I fear it’s only going to be thousands of dollars for an MRI that will tell me there’s nothing else to do but either rehab it or get surgery — and if I’m going to get surgery I might as well wait until the knee blows out. sigh If I gotta go under the knife, incur the expense, the downtime, etc., might as well wait until I truly can’t live without it. Correct me if I’m wrong.

Because of this, the squat work sets focused heavily on form. I didn’t care about bar speed, I just wanted everything to be perfect. I find that yes in fact I am leaning some to my right, favoring my right leg to do more work. So whereas normally I put the blinds down so I don’t see my reflection in the windows, I’m keeping the blinds up so I precisely watch my form as I squat to ensure I’m staying level and evenly distributed. I am also finding my eye and head position matters a lot in terms of helping me keep “distributed” — haven’t nailed down precisely the spot because it kinda changes as I stand up, but I’ll nail it down eventually.

It made me think of a few changes I might consider making.

First, I thought about changing deadlifts to sumo-style. I’ve always done conventional and supposedly my body mechanics are better suited for conventional. But, I tried a very poor sumo stance today — didn’t actually pull, just got into such a stance and “air lifted”. It didn’t seem to affect my knee so much. So… not sure I will do it, but I probably will start reading a lot of articles on sumo technique, then if I do start, start with like 135 on the bar and just try to figure out the technique. We’ll see.

Second, I also thought about changing my lifting to be more bodybuilder style. Lower the intensity, up the volume, and see if that puts a little less wear and tear on me. Some day it does, others say it may not because now you use the joints more often. I’m thinking about it. I think it may also be due to the diet — I’m still lifting pretty intensely, and with the weight-loss diet it just may not be supporting it.

Anyways, that’s that. Every day is something new.

Based upon Paul Carter’s Basebuilding

• Squats (model 1)
  • bar x 5
  • bar x 5
  • 150 x 5
  • 175 x 4
  • 205 x 3
  • 225 x 2
  • 260 x 1
  • 180 x 5
  • 180 x 5
  • 180 x 5
  • 180 x 5
  • 180 x 5
• Conventional Deadlift (model 1)
  • 315 x 3
  • 315 x 3
  • 315 x 3
  • 315 x 3
  • 315 x 3
• Leg Press
  • 165 x 20
  • 165 x 20

Yeah… I’m going to try switching up to model 2 for bench press.

I do feel like I’m treading water. Will model 2 help? Never know until I try it. It may well be because of the diet that I will in fact tread water, and I may just have to accept that (better than regressing). Nevertheless, if there is something I can do to have some sort of forward progress — even if slow — I will take it. So switching to Base Building model 2 (just for bench press) seems reasonable to try.

Based upon Paul Carter’s Basebuilding

• Bench Press (model 1)
  • bar x 5
  • bar x 5
  • 115 x 5
  • 130 x 4
  • 155 x 3
  • 170 x 2
  • 190 x 1
  • 170 x 8
  • 170 x 8
  • 170 x 8
  • 170 x 8
  • 170 x 6
• Machine Flies
  • 90 x 10
  • 90 x 10
  • 90 x 10
  • 90 x 10
• Close-grip bench press
  • 95 x 10
  • 95 x 10
  • 95 x 10
  • 95 x 10
• Hammer Curls
  • 30e x 10
  • 30e x 10
  • 30e x 10
  • 30e x 8

Today felt good. Just solid good.

I did switch up to do some rotator cuff work. Never done that before so today was a bit of stabbing to figure out what protocol to use. Certainly was interesting. I do think this will be good for me, or at least I’m going to give it 1-2 months to see how it goes. I couldn’t do that much weight on the external rotations — this is not a max-effort exercise, and I’m trying to be very strict with them, only using shoulder rotation to make things go. I may have to try an alternative like doing it with a dumbbell seated or lying. I also need to add in a couple sets of upright rotation. Point is, I want to hit all the shoulder rotations: internal, external, upright, etc. and try to help strengthen up my shoulder area, rotators, etc.. Should be good for me.

Based upon Paul Carter’s Basebuilding

Man, you go up 10 lbs and everything feels different.

So I felt that I made good progress at the prior weight in model 1, so time to bump up the weight. I bumped up the “working max” by 10 lbs. and then recalculated everything. Interesting that all the calculated weights only went up 5 lbs except for the 1 rep weight. But even just going up that small amount added a larger workload. So the 5×5 went slower. That’s how it goes.

Or it could be today was that plus just being off. I felt sluggish getting out of bed. Work’s been stressful, maybe that’s in play. Who knows. I wouldn’t chalk today up as a -10% day tho; still a good 80% day… but just not all mentally there this morning.

In related news, I keep feeling stiff in my legs. Sitting all day in front a computer, I reckon. I’m making an effort that every day I do some bodyweight squats, at least 10 reps. I do some simple stretching, like just standing up straight and reaching up to the sky, holding that for a while and just relaxing into it. It feels more yoga-like than “athletic stretching” (for lack of a better way to describe it), but it feels good and my body is feeling better doing it. Just take the dog out back in the afternoon, and while she runs about, just stand on the back patio and do these stretches and squats. Feels good.

Based upon Paul Carter’s Basebuilding

• Squats (model 1)
  • bar x 5
  • bar x 5
  • 150 x 5
  • 175 x 4
  • 205 x 3
  • 225 x 2
  • 260 x 1
  • 180 x 5
  • 180 x 5
  • 180 x 5
  • 180 x 5
  • 180 x 5
• Deficit Deadlift (model 1)
  • 275 x 3
  • 275 x 3
  • 275 x 3
  • 275 x 3
  • 275 x 3
• Leg Press
  • 165 x 20
  • 165 x 20