What you just watched was a mortal named Benedikt Magnusson deadlift 1,015 lbs with only a weight lifting belt and chalk for supportive gear. This was done on 2 April, 2011 and is by far one of, if not, the greatest lifting achievements of all time. The man just lifted a half-fucking-ton. Picked it up off the ground and held it in his hands. Fucking brutal with a capital B.
What is equally unbelievable is the amount of Catch U Next Tuesday-ness that is flying around the Interweb because of this. I've been reading some conversations on some lifting forums and some of the things being said make my blood boil. The worst, in my opinion, are from the Crossfit and Starting Strength crowd. There are some that say, "Yeah, but what will his joints feel like when he's sixty? Crossfitters are healthy and experience no adverse side effects," or, "Yeah, but he's going to have health problems carrying all that extra weight." No shit, Sherlock. Being the best at anything requires much sacrifice in the present and in the future. I forget who said it but an American Olympic javelin thrower once said, "If you've never been hurt you probably suck." The best is by far, "Yeah, but what's his Fran time." I guarantee Benedikt Magnusson does not give two shits or a fuck what his Fran time would be. I almost just typed something about my stance on Crossfit. It wasn't good. I erased it because then I would be a hypocrite. Not all Crossfitters are that way. Suffice it to say, "Yeah, but..." is the mating call of the loser-douche, not just some Crossfitters.
Then there was a very well respected strength coach that said the way he rolls the bar to him before he pulls it isn't optimal. I get it. He doesn't want a lot of young trainees emulating Benni's style if it will adversely affect them. But for fuck's sake give the guy his props. The man just lifted more off the ground than any other human being in history.
There are also people out there going, "Well, he's built to deadlift. He's fat. It would be a disappointment if he didn't do it." I get it but I don't. When it comes to something this big let it be what it is. A major fucking accomplishment. This brings me to my point-at-large.
Haters gonna hate.
I know this guy.
We've all known them. We've probably all been one at some point. Most of them are probably your family and friends. Haters are one of the biggest obstacles to progress out there. They see you trying to better yourself as an insult to them. They see your success as a way to rub their noses in their own failure. They cannot wait to see you fail. Instead of bettering themselves with you or just being happy for you they want you to share in their misery. If you've ever tried to lose weight amongst fat people they are the people that make backhanded compliments and try to get you to cheat on your diet. If you've ever tried to build yourself up through weightlifting they're the ones that say it's bad for your joints and give you snide remarks about "always going to the gym." Losers every last one of them.
At the end of the day you have to do what makes you happy. You have to make your own decisions. You have to separate the wheat from the chaff. Ferret out who matters and who doesn't. Blaze your own trail. Be your own person. Be strong and above the vitriol of losers with nothing better to do but try to bring you down. As Paul Carter says, "Spend time with the people that are going to cry at your funeral."
There are a few ways to deal with haters. You can either listen to them and believe them and never get any better. You can let them know in a not-so-nice tone that this is your new life. If they don't dig you have to cut them loose. If you don't they'll only drag you down. There is another option and this is probably the least messy. You can just not give one shit one way or the other what they think. Hopefully they get they message and keep their mouths shut. Who knows maybe they'll start coming to you for advice on how to start down the path you've already traveled.
All that is easier said than done. Whenever I hear a legitimate hater and not a buddy giving me shit I want to scream at the person for their weak mindedness. You don't like your life? Fuck you, change it. You think I somehow cheated to be where I'm at? You're cordially invited to fuck off. You want something that you don't have? Better grow the brass set it takes to get it.
In the end everyone takes some shit for the things they like to do. If you put any kind of concerted effort towards these things or experience any kind of success be prepared for a hate storm of possibly epic proportions. It's human nature. People want what they don't have but are unwilling to work for it. And if you are otherwise healthy and like to sit on the couch, eat processed, shitty foods, don't exercise, and bitch and moan about being tired all the time or say you are a "prisoner in your own body" and do nothing to change it then I've got nothing but hate for you and your lifestyle. That's just how I roll.
Decent session today. Still feeling beat up so I didn't push anything too hard. I think I'm going to take things easy for the first part of the week next week to try and get healed up. I think I may have found one of the culprits to my IT band feeling like crap. I flipped my mattress so I wasn't sleeping in a groove and it seemed to make a difference. I've had this mattress for a long time and it's looking like I may get a new one in the near future.
Song of the Day:
“The sea - this truth must be confessed - has no generosity. No display of manly qualities - courage, hardihood, endurance, faithfulness - has ever been known to touch its irresponsible consciousness of power.” -Joseph Conrad
My right IT band and my hips in general are still all kinds of out of whack. I'm going to spend a large majority of this weekend trying to straighten them out. I'm thinking a bunch of rolling and stretching, a few ice baths, a bunch of good food and maybe a few oat sodas to relax.
Song of the Day:
"Master your ego and you own your destiny." -Henry Rollins
Feeling really beat up as of late. My right IT band and now my left patellar tendon have some minor issues going on. Patellar tendon just needs some rest. IT band needs some serious rolling out. I'm talking the kind that leaves you bruised for a few days. I might need a few Popsicle sticks to bite down on. I just need to eat some Popsicles first.
Song of the Day:
“If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself but to your own estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment." -Marcus Aurelius
Huge PR on snatches today. Since I first started doing them a few years ago this has been a big goal. 100 kilos is a lot of weight to throw over one's head. 120 kilos is my next big milestone.
Squats were ok. My depth is not where it should be but my speed out of the hole and my strength feel good. A huge part of this is my right IT band is tight as all get out. Another reason is that I think I'm going down too slow. This, I feel, is probably a product of the IT band. We'll see. I'm going to add in a night time rolling out and stretch session. Hopefully this takes care of that issue.
Presses felt decent. My elbows and shoulders didn't feel like a bomb went off inside them today. Progress.
Song of the Day:
“Our ambition should be to rule ourselves, the true kingdom for each one of us; and true progress is to know more, and be more, and to do more." -Oscar Wilde
In part one of this article I gave you all a solid dose of truth as to why lifting weights is fucking awesome to the max. This part is going to lay down some of the hows of living the awesome life. Some of you think you know, but you have no idea.
Many gym goers, male and female alike, have common misconceptions about certain exercise and their ability to cause you to enter a world of pain in a bad way. I'd be willing to wager that more than 99% of all weightlifting injuries occur due to incorrect technique and overuse. Lifting weights is like heroin in this regard. Do too much or cook it up bad and you're up shit creek without a paddle. Without further ado here are some common technique mistakes that are made while performing the more awesome/dangerous lifts.
You're entering a world of pain. The good kind though.
The Lifts
Before we jump clam deep I want to preface this section. The movements I'm going to outline are the top of the pops when it comes to getting strong. But, they are not for everyone...right away. Sometimes there are mobility and/or pathology issues that need to be worked around or taken care of before you dive in. If you have any issues feel free to contact me or get them checked out by someone who knows what they are doing. On with the show!
Squat: I will admit that the squat is my favorite of all exercises. Nothing challenges you more than having a heavy weight on your back trying with all its might to powder your vertebrae. But don't let that scare you. When performed reasonably they are safe, effective, and awesome inducing.
When placing the bar on your back the upper back musculature must be tight. To do this squeeze your shoulder blades together as hard as possible and keep them there. The bar can be placed either along the traps or across the middle of the shoulder blades. This is more a matter of preference and tolerability.
Low bar placement.
High bar placement.
When lifting the bar from the rack the feet should be parallel to each other. Never with a split stance. Take a minimum amount of steps back into the cage area of the rack. The placement of the feet is going to be determined by leg length, mobility, and strength. Most will probably find their comfort groove a few inches outside of the hips.
Before you lower the weight be sure to tighten your abdomen by pushing your belly out and arching your back. Think of arching like trying to touch your shoulders to your ass. I've heard of trainers telling trainees to pull their belly in when squatting. Bad news bears. Pushing the belly out keeps the abdomen tight which in turn keeps your back tight which in turn keeps you away from injury. When beginning the descent the first motion has to be the hips moving back. If the knees are allowed to bend first then all of your weight plus the weight of the bar will go right through them and the balls of the feet. This is how do you say, "Not so good." When the hips are moved back and the weight is kept toward the heel of the foot and the load is placed on the glutes and hamstrings. Bingo.
The bar is a little crooked, but otherwise I like it.
As you smoothly lower the weight keep pushing your hips back to keep the load on the heels and your knees behind your toes. When your thighs are parallel to the ground begin the ascent by pushing through the heels and standing up. Duh.
Deadlift: The deadlift is the most basic exercise there is. A bar is laying on the ground, you pick it up, you put it down. There are a few nuances to the lift that must be adhered to otherwise it can lead to not so good things. First and foremost keep the bar close to you the entire way up. This means starting it touching your shins. If you have plans of being a shin model sometime soon then maybe this isn't for you. Your shins may get beat up. It just means you are doing it correctly. This will also put the stress of the lift through your heels, glutes and hamstrings. Right where you want it.
Secondly, your back needs to start out straight. It may round a bit during the lift but that's ok. Starting with it straight will help keep your abdominals tight and prevent as much rounding as possible.
Thirdly, your entire body needs to move as one. You want your shoulders to be the first thing to rise when performing the deadlift. This ensures a nice consistent bar path, a nice consistent high-five from me, and an excited, "YEEAAHH!" from Matt Gifford.
Press: The overhead press is the cat's pajamas when it comes to upper body utility. If you can't put something over your head you're going to have a hard time putting away dishes, hanging mirrors on a wall, and putting infants in the overhead stowaway compartments on airplanes.
When preforming the press you want your hands to start just outside your shoulders. As the bar travels aways from your shoulders tilt your chin slightly up to so the bar doesn't hit it. As the bar travels further upward push your head between your arms. At the top of the movement your biceps should be in line with your ears. This will ensure a most vertical bar path. If the bar is allowed to travel forward you run the risk of it falling forward, crashing onto the safety pins or the ground, and getting a bunch of looks from scared gym goers.
Head through the window.
Chins: Not everyone is going to be able to do chin up or pull ups right away. My freshman year of high school I couldn't pull my candy ass up to the bar if you had put a gun to my head. A lot of that was because I was carrying extra weight. A lot of it was because I was just plain weak through my lats and upper back. In either case to do a chin up you place your hands on the chin bar with your palms facing you, start at arms length and pull your chin past the bar. You can vary your grip from palms facing you, palms facing away, mixed grip, or neutral grip. Doesn't really matter. Simple. Not easy. If these are a no-go a good alternative is rack chins or inverted rows. This is where you put a barbell on the safety pins which are set at about waist height. Grab the bar and lay back so that you are parallel with the floor. Now pull your elbows down as your chest raises to the bar. Get good at these then come back to the regular chins.
The Diet
Now to touch on diet. I'm not going to lay out a plan where if you eat X food you'll achieve Y result. If you want that you need to hire a dietitian. Instead I can offer you a few guidelines that anyone who trains with weights should take into consideration.
1. Eat enough protein
When you train with weights you put your body into a stressful situation and knock it out of homeostasis (balance). When you're done training your body wants to return to homeostasis. This requires protein, specifically amino acids, to build new muscle, make hormones, and provide energy (although not that much). Plus,
2. Eat enough carbohydrates
I've been just as guilty as the next person for demonizing carbs. While I still don't feel they are essential for survival they are essential for optimal health and performance. The main fuel source for your body is and always will be carbs. On top of that carbohydrates stimulate insulin release. Insulin is the most anabolic (building) and anti-catabolic (breaking down) hormone in the entire human system. When released at the right times your optimize the time spent in the gym and grow and get stronger.
3. Fat in the mouth doesn't equal fat on the hips
In the 90's low fat diets were as popular as acid wash jeans and heroin. Oh how the times have changed. Discoveries are coming out everyday about how certain fats are the shit when it comes to health, performance, and even decreasing excess body fat. The most solid plan of attack when it comes to fats is to make sure your omega-3's and omega-6's are in balance. Omega-3 fatty acids are in things like cold water fish, almonds, grass-fed beef, and flax seeds. You can find omega-6's in most everything else that contains unsaturated fat. Other fats like CLA and ALA may be beneficial to you as well.
4. Stay away from trans-fat and high fructose corn syrup
I'm not going to get all sciency on you but staying away from those two things will go a long way in helping you achieve your goals. Among other things trans-fats and HFCS are associated with an increase in insulin resistance and abdominal obesity. Those two should be enough to keep you away.
5. Calories in, calories out
This is the most basic equation when it comes to weight management. If you want to lose weight you need to consistantly put yourself in a caloric defecit. If you want to gain muscular body weight you need to eat more than you spend. Again, simple. Not always easy.
Dieting is a lot like weight training. No two people will respond the same way to the same thing. It can take a bit of trial and error to find what works and what doesn't. But, like hiring a personal trainer, hiring an experienced dietitian can sometimes make the journey a little smoother.
The Awesome Females
This section is just going to be a bunch of pictures and youtube videos. I think they will speak for themselves.
IFBB Figure Pro Erin Stern
Canadian Olympic Weightlifter Marilou Dozios-Prevost
Spanish Weightlifter Lidia Valentin (no joke, she could out lift me any day of the week)
There you have it ladies. Remember, the enjoyment is in the journey, not necessarily the destination. Always work to be better than yesterday. Now, go kick some ass.
Axel Clean and Strict Press: 132x5, 152x3, 176x1, 196x1, 206x1 (PR on Strict Press)
Inverted Row: 3x15
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Glute Ham: 3x10
My quads felt like piano strings today. They were so tight it was hard to sit back into my squats. I'm sure one or two were high because of my inability to deal with it. Just another disappointment. The clean and presses went really well. My previous PR on strict press was 205 on a regular bar. Jake made a snide comment about my training template today and I informed him that the strict press was a PR. His response was that he was watching and it wasn't strict enough. My response was simply, "Haters gonna hate!" More on that later.
This Halloween some friends and I are going to go as these guys.
Song of the Day:
"It is only through labor and painful effort, by grim effort and resolute courage, that we move on to better things." -Theodore Roosevelt
That's all I had time and the energy for today. Cleans had my shoulders and elbows feeling kind of gnarly so I didn't push bench too hard. I had a tough time getting my technique right on cleans. The bar kept floating out in front of me. I know how to fix it, just a matter of doing it.
Song of the Day:
“I have always adhered to two principles. The first one is to train hard and get in the best possible physical condition. The second is to forget all about the other fellow until you face him in the ring and the bell sounds for the fight." -Rocky Marciano
Single Arm Db Press: 60x5, 70x4, 80x3, 90x2, 100x1, 80x5, 60x10
So-so session. Snatches felt slow but no problems getting them up. My hips and thighs were super tight so some of my squats were high. Other than that it was nothing spectacular.
On another note I had to break into my house this morning when I locked myself out. I didn't have to break any glass so that was a good thing. I did have to manhandle a storm window though. It only took about five minutes of quick thinking and being a man. Hopefully it'll just screw back in. Time for food.
Song of the Day:
"Courage is to feel the daily daggers of relentless steel and keep on living." -Douglas Malloch
Fat Bar Bench: 225x1, 265x1, 285x1, 305x1 (PR), 250x5, 260x5
Leg Curls: 3x12
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Single Arm Row: 2x12
Sledgehammer Work: 120 total hits per side
You'd think that I'd be in an elated mood about today's session considering I got two PRs on two big lifts. I'm not. It kind of started with my set of 274 on cleans. My plan was to keep doing doubles up to 274 or 284. On both those sets I got the first one but missed the second. By now I was pissed at myself so I said, "Fudge it," and threw on a PR weight. This is where it gets kind of sour. I got the first attempt to my shoulders at the bottom of the hole. Without hesitating I GAVE UP and dropped it to the platform. Words cannot describe how disgusted I was with myself. If there had been a Ming Dynasty vase around that fucker would've been in a million pieces. As I walked away I restrained myself from hitting anything or releasing the rage that was building in any other way, I walked back to the bar, cleaned it, stood up with it, threw it to the platform and walked away still furious with myself. I had just cleaned a PR but I couldn't let go of the anger that I was feeling. I think this is a good sign. To me it means that my competitive fires still burn within. I've always felt that I hated losing more than I liked winning. And giving up on myself is worse than trying my best and failing. Truth be told I probably would've literally exploded if I hadn't gotten it though.
I was still pretty red hot while I was benching. I think this helped. I'd only done 300 once before so it felt good to get it after heavy squats and presses yesterday and cleans today. Hopefully it keeps moving in this direction.
Song of the Day:
"Losers talk about trying their best. Winner's go home and fuck the prom queen." -Sean Connery
Snatch: Doubles from 60 kilos to 90 kilos adding 5 kilos each set.
Squat: 405x1, 455x1, 500x1, 525x1, 405x5, 425x5
BTNPP: 175x5, 195x3, 205x3
Shrugs: 2x20, 2x10
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Glute Ham: 3x10
Real good session today. I kind of threw the snatches in on a whim and ended up doing really well with them. Squats felt really good. Nothing hurt but right now my IT band is a-hollerin'. I'll be rolling the shit out of that later. I was happy with the 525. The back off sets were hard but I was able to get through them. Cleans tomorrow.
Song of the Day:
"You're not beat until you can't take a beating." -Henry Rollins
On occasion I can come off as somewhat of a chauvinist and misogynist. Most of the time it is for the sake of a joke. Many times it's because I believe a double standard between men and women is at play and I want to point out the hypocrisy of women who want to vote and drive but don't want to open their own doors or get a few callouses on their hands or some such other nonsense. See what I did there? Totally a joke but it gets my point across. With that said, I truly care about the women that I train and women's health in general. This article's mission is to dispel a lot of the myths regarding strength training that women have. Many articles like this exist, but it's something that has been on my mind and something that can't be overstated. So here we go.
Fun fact for you; women have ten to twenty times less testosterone than men. Testosterone is the male sex hormone responsible for facial hair, deeper voices, external genitals, muscle growth, and building society (that's a totally different topic all together). This means that women will not put on muscle mass at anywhere near the same rate as men. For every ten pounds of muscle that a man gains a similar women will only gain two to three, if any. Women get bulky when they use/abuse exogenous androgens, i.e. anabolic steroids. In fact, many women have less muscle than they actually think. It's the fat on top that makes them look bulky. Let's say the average woman weighs 140 pounds. That women will carry anywhere from 17%-25% of that weight as adipose tissue (fat). This mean that she really only has 101 to 117 pounds of lean body mass, which also includes bone, mineral deposits, and water on top of muscle. Needless to say, you gals could stand a little more muscle tissue.
Maybe too much muscle?
For many women trainees goal numero uno is weight loss. More specifically fat loss. When on a fat loss plan scale weight is secondary to the results you get in the mirror or with the skinfold calipers (body fat measuring device). One of the best ways to enhance your fat loss efforts is to perform training sessions that increase your post exercise calorie burn. known as EPOC (Excess post-exercise oxygen consumption). What's the best way to increase your EPOC? You can bet your bottom dollar it's medium- to high-intensity resistance training. In fact, low intensity steady state exercise is right next to useless if you want to keep your metabolism elevated post exercise. The reason being is that resistance training really knocks your body out of homeostasis (balance). You break down tissue, release certain hormones, and use large amounts of fuel during resistance training. In order for your body to return to balance your body needs to burn energy. So while the cross trainer says you burned 450 calories in an hour (this is usually inaccurate anyways) that's all your going to burn. Throw some iron around for an hour and you burn a lot more than that. Not to mention put on some much needed muscle, which brings me to my next fat loss point.
The more muscle you carry the higher your metabolism. Muscle is what is known as "metabolically active tissue". Fat is not. Muscle goes for walks, does push ups in its spare time, and thinks critically about the important issues of the day. Fat sits on the couch, takes frequent cat naps, and never has an original thought. Carry around a few extra pounds of muscle and you've got yourself a fat burning furnace that requires calories 24-fucking-7.
On top of strength training's muscle tissue enhancing effects it also plays a major role in building and maintaining bone density. In fact, a number of studies have shown that aerobic exercise is also right next to useless in maintaining bone density. Take that runners. Secondary to bone health is the fact that resistance training also increases one's balance and proprioception (knowing where you are in space). So when you're 80 and you step down from a curb you will be less likely to break a hip and fall (more common) and less likely to just fall and then break an arm or hip or whatever.
Am I going to hell for laughing at this?
Now let's move into the arena of female athletics. Anatomically there is very little difference between men and women. The biggest difference and most important revolve around the hips. If you've ever given birth you are thankful that you and your like evolved wider hips to pass the head of the baby through. This creates, however, some interesting angles when it comes to the femur and the knee. Since the hips are wider apart there is more of a tendency for a woman's knees to fall inward in what is called valgus knee angle.
On top of that women have a higher tendency to be quad dominant. This takes the hamstring out of movement patterns that require deceleration, stopping, and changing direction. Couple quad dominance and a valgus knee/hip angle and you've gotten a recipe for ACL tears. A study done at Marquette University looked at the effects of a six-week lower body training schedule that prioritized hamstring development. In the end the study subjects had a better quad to hamstring strength ratio. The authors concluded that hamstring prioritization may help increase knee stability and reduce injury rates in women. You hear that female athletes? I few well spent hours in the weight room and you can avoid nine months of post-ACL rehab. But what's the best way to go about it?
When I go to hell I'm going to be forced to be the guy on the ball.
There is no such thing as a "guy's" exercise. That's fear of failure and intimidation that's telling you to keep to the hip adductor and leg extension machine. There is also no such thing as a totally safe exercise (There are exercises that are complete bullshit. If you are otherwise healthy and are doing things on bosu balls or balance boards; bullshit. Leg extensions, hip abductor and adductor are a few others.). Squats, deadlifts, presses, rows, chin ups, and dips are all completely safe as long as you are doing them in a safe manner. Most importantly those exercises are going to get you the strongest, help you lose the most weight, and target the muscles in the classic "female trouble areas".
Squats and deadlifts work your ass, hips, thighs, hamstrings, and abdomen like no other exercises can. Presses, rows, and chin ups build strong and lean upper bodies. These exercises have been around since forever and will never go out of style. Just do them. You'll thank me.
These exercises should be performed with a relatively moderate to heavy weight for low to moderate reps. The key word there is "relatively". There is no X amount of weight that a women should be able to move on any given lift. Again, heavy weights don't equal bulky physiques. In a study done on women only, researchers had women perform high rep/low weight bicep curls on one arm and low rep/heavy weight bicep curls on the other. There was no significant difference in muscle size at the end of the study. There was, however, a significant increase in maximal strength on the side that performed the low rep/high weight exercise. Also, women who can move heavy weights and do a chin up are far more awesome and much more prepared to pass on favorable genetic traits than women who don't. Fact.
Fact.
So what have we learned today? A few bullet points.
Women will only get bulky with the aid of anabolic steroids or a shitty diet and no exercise.
Strength training is much better for fat loss than cardio.
Strength training is far better at maintaining bone density than aerobic exercise.
If you are an athlete you have to train your hamstrings and hips.
Women can and should do all the exercises men do with weights that are relatively heavy for them.
If you don't train with weights you will either be fat, frumpy, skinny-fat, or Skeletor skinny. None of these are good.
The next part of this series will touch on exercise performance, diet, and women who I want to breed super children with.
Sources:
Layne JE, Nelson ME. The effects of progressive resistance training on bone density: a review. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 1999 Jan;31(1):25-30.
Guadalupe-Grau A, Fuentes T, Guerra B, Calbet JA. Exercise and bone mass in adults. Sports Med. 2009;39(6):439-68.
Børsheim E, Bahr R. Effect of exercise intensity, duration and mode on post-exercise oxygen consumption.
Boring sessions get boring posts. I'm so sorry. But, if you are a member of the fairer sex or know someone who is then I've got a post devoted just to you coming down your eye holes tomorrow. Stay tuned.
Song of the Day:
"I ain't interested in your fuckin' muscles." -Bud Kilmer
This one had all the makings of a bad 10%er. I was feeling stiff and a bit beat up going in. On my first single of cleans I misloaded the bar so one side was heavier than the other. Instead of being smart and dropping it I muscled through it and caught it shittily. The left side was heavy and when I caught it my left patellar tendon gave me a little twinge. I reloaded the bar, walked away, refocused, and came back to finish the session in the 80% range. It's about 6 pm as I type this and I feel better now than I did six hours ago. So I got that going for me. Which is nice.
Song of the Day:
“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.” -Bruce Lee
No belt, no knee sleeves, no hands. I felt like mixing it up a bit today and doing something I'd never done before. I could be douchy and say that I got a PR, but that's like winning an election when you ran unopposed. You win, but who gives a fuck. Here's a vid of the 315.
Regular Squats: 315x3x3, 365x2x3, 405x1
Fat Gripz Single Arm DB Press: 80x3x3
Face Pulls: 4x20
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45` Back Extension: 3x12
And now a story from yesterday. 366 days ago yesterday my client, Matt Cerra, tore his ACL. He's progressed like a champ in that time. His all time goal has been to squat 405. Four wheels per side. Big goal considering he's under 200 lbs. Anyways he and Joe Flick worked on a roof all day yesterday and then got to the gym at about 6 pm. They warmed up the way they always do. They are creatures of habit when it comes to training. We all are. Since they were kind of late I had them skip part of their extended warm-up and got them in the squat racks. I had it in my head to progress them up and then give them each three chances to hit a top single. Matt's first was at 365 and Joe's was at 385. Smoke show for both of them. Matt went to 385 and Joe went to 405. Joe was great, Matt's was "heavy". Now came decision time.
"Joe let's add either a ten or a ten and a five to each side," I instructed.
"Go big or go bigger," he said.
Done. Bar loaded. 435 awaited.
Now came Matt.
"Matt, you just spent all day on a roof. Maybe under better conditions you could hit 405 but I don't think today is the day. I don't want you to overtrain."
"You know, Troy, I'm all out of give-a-fuck. And I've about had it with your pansy-assed excuses. Put that shit on the bar."
What could I do? I'll tell you what I did, I tucked my tail and loaded the bar to what I knew was 408. Matt didn't really know the actual weight of the bar so he thought it was only 400. There's nothing else to say other than Matt smoked the shit out of it. Made it his bitch. I couldn't have been more proud of his determination and effort and commitment in the last eight months culminating in a milestone he's had his sights on forever.
Now it was Joe's turn. He unracked it fine. He went down, I think he freaked a bit, cut it about two inches short and knew it. We watched the video and it confirmed what we thought. "Well," he said in his best Scottish accent, "I didn't get all dressed up fer nuttin'. I'm going again." Unracked it, bent it over, smacked the shit out of it, made it say uncle, new PR.
Great job guys.
Song of the Day:
“Without passion man is a mere latent force and possibility, like the flint which awaits the shock of the iron before it can give forth its spark." -Henri Frederic Ameil
Axle Clean and Jerk: 198x2, 220x2 singles, 242x1, 264x1 (PR)
Pendlay Rows: 3x10
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RDLs: 3x10
Barefoot Sprints: 40 yards x 10
Today's training session would be filed under the good 10%. Two PRs in one session might be a PR tie in and of itself. I didn't walk in feeling like it was going to go this way, but sometimes the stars align and shit goes right. I'm feeling good but I need to keep it in perspective. I've got a ways to go to get to where I want to be. Nose to the grind stone.
Missing the 203 snatch twice then getting was a great exercise in mental focus and rage. I need to thank all the shitty people I've ever known for contributing to that PR effort. I concentrated all my rage onto the bar and got it up. I couldn't have done it without them and their rage inducing effects. I doubt any of them actually read this blog. They are mostly made up of reality TV personalities, shitty musicians, and people I haven't interacted with in years. Mostly.
The axle c&j felt really good. I think I could have done more. The clean is the tough part. I do what is called a continental clean. I pull the bar up to the upper part of my belly, then "clean" it to my shoulders. Either way PRs feel good.
Now it's time for metal. And food. And a shower.
Song of the Day:
"Adversity causes some men to break; others to break records." -William Arthur Ward (Fuck yes, Mr. Ward.)
Squats felt pretty decent. I tried not wearing a belt and I felt fine. My right IT band is tight as hell right now though. That fucker felt like it was going to pop at any second. Bench felt ok. I could never really find a good groove so the last three sets felt harder than they probably should have.
Song of the Day:
"My legs felt so fucked I didn't trust them to stand That's my religion, power through pain." -Henry Rollins
I walked into the gym this morning all set to dead lift. When I got there I got a surprise that put all that on hold. My Shake Weight had finally come in. Actually my Shake Weights had come in. I ordered two for twice the workout. I quickly removed them from their packaging and got rolled out. I started out with a medium resistance and went for two minutes. By the end my arms were burning. My triceps felt like they were going to fall off, my deltoids felt twice their size and because I was standing on a bosu ball my abs felt rock hard. I toweled off and put the resistance all the way up. After five thirty second all out bursts I was done. My brow was sweaty, my palms were course, and my mouth was dry. I COULDN'T BELIEVE THE WORKOUT THIS THING GAVE ME!! I may never pick up another free weight again. To think I've been slaving away at this weightlifting stuff for hours a day is beyond ridiculous. My Shake Weights gave me three times the workout in only a tenth of the time! Fuck lifting weights. I'm totally going to get my Shake Weight Certification.
Sign me up.
I also bought these new pills that are going to add slabs of muscle and incinerate my fat at the same time. I've been taking them for about a week now and honest to goodness, I think I might be close to being able to fly. I'll keep you posted. Have a great weekend!
Song of the Day:
"You couldn't fool your own mother on the foolingest day of your life even if you had an electrified fooling machine." -Homer Simpson
