Increased 10 lbs per Wendler-spec, recalculated and off I went. Squats felt good as a result — felt worked, felt challenged.
I need to work on keeping my torso tight. I’m doing all of this without a belt (can’t remember the last time I put a belt on), and the belt just gives me so much rigidity. When I got into the hole with the 265 I fell forward. I’m not sure if I just blew technique or if it was a lack of torso tightness. I try, but I think I’m trying too much technique of pushing my stomach out — but there’s nothing to push into (belt). So, I need to rethink this.
Sumos continue to progress nicely. I feel more comfortable with the techinque after the 4 or so weeks I’ve been trying out sumo, and given last week I did 315 pretty easily I thought why not try working up a bit to see what I could do. I got to 355 and figured that was a good stopping point. It wasn’t near a max, but it was challenging. Plus, I only rest about 1 minute between each set here, so all things considered: full squat session, minimal rest, new technique (sumo)… hey, this ain’t too bad given my conventional best is 445 lbs from just a couple months ago. I think at this point I’m going to try shifting to actually work sumo now in a Base Building model 1 style. Small/light workup, then 5×3 at maybe 315 to start and see how that goes.
First, in the gym. Upped the weight. Model 2 seems to be working better for me than Model 1. I don’t recall Carter giving any guidelines about how much to up things, so I took a cue from Wendler and just went up 5 lbs. Overall felt good, and actually felt more like it’s where I should be, which tells me it was time to go up. Paul actually says on those +10% days that you can work up to your EDM if you feel like it, and I actually felt like it today but opted against it since I had enough changes for one day. Still, I have to remember to throw that in now and again when I’m feeling up for it.
I also changed how I did flies. I saw this video from Charles Polquin on “the right way to do flies”. Given he’s forgotten more than most people know, I figure there’s something to what he says. 🙂 So I gave them a try. He says to use 10% of what you can bench, so I went with what I thought was lower. While I could move that weight, my right shoulder didn’t like moving that weight through that particular plane of motion. So I dropped down the weight more to see if it was the weight or the movement. It’s the weight. I kept at it tho because while it wasn’t the happiest thing for my shoulder, it actually got better as I went along. There’s a particular way my mobility has been hindered in my shoulder, and this actually seems like it’s hitting the right stretch, the right place. I actually felt a lot better after doing it! So, I’m going to stick with the very light weight and slowly work my way up as my shoulder will let me, e.g. stick with the light weight, work up to 20 reps before upping the weight, etc.. We’ll see how it goes, but if it winds up bringing shoulder improvements, then awesome.
Second, my fat-loss has stagnated. This is to be expected. Instead of trying to make further adjustments, we’re going to take a break for a month and maintain. I got the new diet plan last night, and while I haven’t examined it in detail yet it seems to be pretty much the same plan just 1. upping the fat intake slightly, 2. dropping cardio (from 1 hour on my off days to 30 minutes). I have some questions for Nick, but the general plan is to maintain my weight (perhaps a very slight gain) for the next month and come December start on the downward trend again.
It’s a long road, but I can see the results… the end of the road is still far off in the distance, but I can see it and it looks pretty sweet. 🙂
So much crap in my head and life… and somehow that motivated me to put in ear buds, crank the music, and lift hard and aggressive.
It was good. 🙂
I modified a bit, adding a 5th set of rows, which I think makes a good difference.
On the shrugs, I realized I went too heavy then backed off. I need to get the shrugs in better form. I know, shrugs right? But it’s about watching my body “droop” instead of keeping excellent posture the whole time. I might even drop the weight down even more next week to ensure posture stays solid all the way through — I think side effects like on posture, on grip, etc. are good side-effects of this method of shrugs. So, gotta focus on that.
I hate to admit it, but I’ve held myself back a lot in life. And now, a lot of life has passed me by, but at least I’ve gotten over holding myself back. But perhaps I wouldn’t be so driven now if I hadn’t held myself back before, having the anger and regret of what I missed to motivate me to not make that same mistake again.
While Paul Carter writes about “The things that are going to hold you back in training” from an exercise/powerlifting/weightlifting/gym perspective, the issues here really apply to anything life. Even if you don’t lift (bro), you should still give the article a read because:
Information overload
Conflicting goals
Inability to embrace discomfort
Success
Confidence
Inconsistency
Listening to the wrong people
Life
… hopefully you can see those eight things apply universally as things that can and do hold people — probably yourself — back.
The one that speaks most to me these days is “inability to embrace discomfort”.
I had to embrace something I wasn’t really comfortable doing in order to get to where I needed to be.
And THAT is what lifting and life is going to be about sometimes. I could machine gun off a million cliche’s about that right now but I will spare you. The point is, nothing that is worth attaining will come easy. If it does, good for you. However 99.99% of the time getting to a place you desire to be will mean spending a lot of time embracing discomfort.
[…]
Great things generally just don’t fall on our doorstep via UPS. If you want to find your own personal greatness, then get comfortable with being uncomfortable. The amount of discomfort you are willing to submit yourself to is generally in parallel with the amount of greatness you’re trying to attain.
Lifting weights has taught me much in life. While I’ve lifted on and off since I was a teenager, never has it been as profound in my life as the past 3.5 years. If I wanted to get stronger, I had to embrace the discomfort of heavy weights on my back, the fear of getting pinned or injury. Or just the simple hard work that has to come, because getting stronger isn’t easy. But I’ve learned to embrace it, and I’m getting stronger as a result.
Or more immediate is my fat-loss effort. I’m down 20 lbs. in just under 3 months. It’s not been easy, and just about every day contains some level of discomfort. Lord it’d be so much easier right now to eat a tub of ice cream, but that ice cream is what created my tub. I have to go through this discomfort. I know there are many more months ahead of this discomfort (probably at least 6 more), but I will never achieve my goals if I don’t go through this discomfort. And yes, what makes it easier to manage is to embrace it instead of fighting it. No it doesn’t make it any more enjoyable, but when you know the pain will bring your greatness, the pain is easier to bear.
I think about my recent career change to having my own business, basically going indie/freelancer making my own products and taking on contract work. I put it off for too many years because I didn’t want the discomfort for myself or my family. But the discomfort of not doing it became greater, and so here I am. And yes, the startup of it all has been quite a struggle, filled with daily discomfort that I never imagined. But that’s what keeps it exciting, and that’s what causes me to learn and grow. It’s like the scene in the movie Parenthood when Steve Martin’s character finally learns to embrace the rollercoaster.
That’s not the ending scene, but it’s the seed for the allusion. And grandma’s right:
You know, it was just so interesting to me that a ride could make me so frightened, so scared, so sick, so excited, and so thrilled all together! Some didn’t like it. They went on the merry-go-round. That just goes around. Nothing. I like the roller coaster. You get more out of it.
Pretty evident I was distracted today. I’m pressing and it felt really light, really good… then I realized I had been only doing 5 reps instead of 8. sigh So I just cranked out a few more sets of 8. groan
Just got a lot on my mind from work and life and whatever. So today was just in there, do the work, and go. But I am liking getting back to some direct shoulder work, and it does feel good to press again. I keep wondering if I should go back to 5/3/1, but I honestly think I get about the same results from Base Building and Strong-15, but I don’t feel as beat-up. So same results and less downside? Yeah, I’m just going to keep on with Paul’s programming until I truly see reason to stop.
In other news, my fat loss seems to have stagnated, so after 20 lbs and 3 months I’m guessing Nick’s going to want to put me on maintenance for a month. We’ll see how that phase goes because diet will still be programmed; I’m curious to see how it will be.
Squats feel strong. I will bump up the weight next session.
Sumo’s feel better each week. For sure, I’m better built for conventional, but this continues to be an interesting experiment. I do think sumos may play well as an assistance exercise for me, but needs more time to know. Today tho I opted to work up a little further, and the 315 went up very easy. Next week I think I’ll try to do a further workup until I miss to see really where a good working weight is for me, then do a more formal programming around that.
I do think model 2 is working better for me, along with some adjusted assistance work (like the “350 method” stuff). I’m going to bump up the weight next week.
Note to self: keep squeezing the bar like you’re trying to crush it — helps alleviate pain in the wrist, as well as makes it easier to press. SRSLY. I get a good grip on the bar, but I often forget to crush it. My wrist started hurting right out of the gate, so I kept on crushing the bar with my grip — gotta remember to do that.
In related news, my fat loss is starting to stall — it’s a natural consequence. The plan is to keep going week-to-week and see how things progress. When it looks like a good solid stall, we’ll go maintenance for a month. I’m dabbling with the idea during that time about changing up my lifting as well. Maybe a Strong-15 short cycle, maybe more a mass-building phase. I don’t know. It’d only be for 4 weeks, so I even debate if I should bother (instead, use the added fuel to just smash things). Just a thought rolling in my head.
From the top of my shoulder down the back of my arm to my elbow… oh… 🙂 But that’s what happened yesterday.
And today? Somewhat the same. I expect the weekend will be interesting and full of many stretching sessions.
I do think I need to up the volume a bit on my back work. Paul’s templates put it at 4 sets but by 4 it just feels like I was warmed up. So I’ll think about it, but either it means 5 sets, or maybe I’ll do a few lighter warm-up sets and work up, at least on the rows.
Man, this was different. I haven’t pressed in many moons, and it felt strange. 🙂 But it came back to me pretty naturally. I did still feel awkward and unsure of best grip placement — didn’t remember where I did it before, so I just played around but mostly was at a “natural” location for where my arms/hands end up being in a “clean” position. Meh. It’ll all come back over the coming weeks.
A lot of today, being a first day doing this, was just finding out where weights go and what to do. I haven’t had a “shoulder” day in ages, so it felt foreign but good. I did enjoy it. Well… picking out the 5# dumbbells felt silly.
On the bent laterals, I’m opting to do it off a bench. So the 45º bench, lay on my stomach, but allow my torso to be parallel to the ground. Then keep my long-arms straight and work to just contract the posterior deltoids and other back muscles to raise my arms up (only the smallest bend of the elbows, just to keep them unlocked to avoid stress on them) keeping arms at a 90º angle to the body. Doing it off the bench will help me maintain better posture and strictness… and boy, it feels silly to only use 5# DB’s, but when you gotta do 100 reps well… yeah, it was appropriate. I know how weak that musculature is on me, so it is what it is. I figure once a month I’ll try John Meadows’ rear delt destroyer approach.
All in all tho, fun day. We’ll see how this 4x/week plus the minor dietary adjustment does for keeping me on the fat-loss train.
So this is different… this 4x/week thing will take a little getting used to.
I felt a little bushed going into it. In part because I did wake up a little early (other agenda items for today), but also my body wasn’t used to 2 big days in a row. I’ll get used to it tho, no big deal.
Squats did move a little slow. After last week I did get to thinking I might be bumping up the weight after another 1-2 weeks, but after today? Well, given the shift in diet and thus training I reckon I may stay at the weight a little longer. We shall see how it goes. So long as bar speed keeps generally increasing, I’ll be on a good track.
Sumos are starting to feel a little more normal now, which is cool. I thought I’d also take this opportunity (i.e. using light weights) to try out hook grip!
That is… different. I can totally see how it works now, because it’s far more mechanical grip than pure strength. I did eventually stop because my thumbs were getting annoyed, but if I know what’s good for me I’ll probably try to throw in some hook grip work now and again just to see how it goes. One thing I can say that I’m not sure about is that I’ve got a small “bone growth” (calcium deposit? protrusion?) dunno what to call it, but basically it’s a small (but significant enough) bump on one of the bones inside my palm. I have noticed it a problem with full grips, like when I’m shooting a handgun. It’s not been a problem in the gym for the most part — because either my grip sucks or maybe I’m subconsciously always keeping a little open grip due to it… but with the hook, it closes up the grip so much that I am noticing the bump — yes, it hurts, a lot, far more than the thumb/hook does. So, I’ll keep playing with it, but THAT may be a limiting factor for me. But hey, if the alternative is just to get a stronger grip, then I’m ok with that. 🙂
But as for sumo itself, I’m going to stick with what I’m doing right now. I’m actually feeling a bit more comfortable with it, and feeling more “work” happening. I may start to take the 275’s to triples and/or start to find other ways to increase the weight to a good working weight. After I do that and maybe find where a good working max really is, I may start doing sumos more in “model 1” style. We’ll see. So far, enjoying the excursion.
Stuff From Hsoi 