Weekend Update: Weasels, Explosions, and a Wedding

Monday

Pendlay Row: 230 x 123123123

Bench: 245 x 5

Tuesday

Squat: 345 x 123123123

Snatch: 143 x 2 x 5

Bulgarian Split Squat: 5x10

Thursday

Push Press: 190 x 123123123

Hang Clean: up to 198 x 5

Bench Press: 5 x 10; 125, 145, 170, 170, 145

Friday

Dead Lift: 445 x 123123123

Power Clean: 220 x 5 x 3

I definitely can’t complain about this week of training.  No weights were missed, some felt downright easy (squats for some reason) and I’m feeling ok.  My traps and upper back are all kinds of knotted up though.  I’m going to have to do some serious rolling and stretching.  But I could say that about a lot of my body parts so I guess it don’t mean much.

I successfully weaseled my way out of jury duty this week.  In the words of the immortal Homer Simpson, “Don’t discourage the boy.  Weaseling out of things is what separates us from the animals…except the weasel.”  It feels good to shirk your duty to the state.  I pay my taxes though so I don’t really care.

Me getting out of jury duty.

I’ve been reading Movement by Gray Cook recently.  It’s more or less a classic in the fitness and rehab industry.  In his chapter on squatting he makes a very interesting observation.  We learn as babies to squat from the bottom up yet we teach people to squat from the top down when the movement becomes dysfunctional.  If you ever watch a child play they have amazing mobility and, at most times, control over the positions they put themselves in.  They can squat, run, jump, and climb with relative ease whereas most of us would struggle mightily.  In the course of life we don’t continue to play like kids do and instead put ourselves through rigid exercise patterns.  I’m just as guilty as everybody.  My hips and upper back are a bit wonky because until recently I’ve rarely ventured outside my exercise box.  Cook calls it movement atrophy and he’s absolutely right.  We lose that which we don’t maintain and smooth, efficient, pain-free movement is no different.

If you don't use it you lose it.

Amy and I have the first of five weddings this summer this weekend.  I’ve definitely entered that age where every other weekend is a wedding.  My friend and co-worker Matt was telling me if a few circumstances were different he’d have around a dozen to go to this summer.  And in a few years it’ll be baby showers.  I’m not complaining a bit though as any senior citizen can tell you what gatherings come next in the natural cycle of life.  Hopefully that’s more than a few years away.

I finished the book Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand.  The story is centered around former Olympic runner and WWII bombardier Louis Zampirini.  The plane he is in goes down over the Pacific and he ends up lost at sea.  It’s a pretty amazing story of the human will to survive.  Hillenbrand is very good at laying down the facts but could add a little bit more of her own flair to the story.  You get the feeling of watching a movie instead of being in the story with the characters.  That aside, I thought it was an amazing book and an even better story.

I’m trying an experiment on my Olympic lifts and in turn my strength lifts as well.  In my article Lift Fast to be Fast I wrote about how the more efficient you are at activating the big, powerful type II muscle fibers generally the more explosive and stronger you’ll be.  Most coaches will perform fast lifts like jumps and 

Olympic lifts first and then strength lifts after.  This is done to activate the Type II fibers so they are ready to go for the strength lifts.  I’m going to do the same thing just in the opposite order.  I’ve been performing my strength work first which will get all the musculature excited and ready to go and then my Olympic lifts and jumps after. 

My thoughts are that performing the fast lifts first and then the strength lifts will improve gym performance of the strength lifts.  I want to see if performing the strength lifts and then the fast lifts improves the fast lifts and ultimately explosiveness which is the main goal of sport. 

There are a few problems I see with my approach.  The first is that I never took any baseline levels of explosiveness.  No verticle jump test, no Olympic maxes, nothing.  As much as I like to read and write about science and studies I’m pretty shitty even when it comes to simple n=1 experiments.

I want this to happen every time I jump or do Olympic lifts.

The second is that the fatigue from the strength lifts will lead to me executing, and thus reinforcing, the fast lifts with poor technique.  This is the reason that most coaches do the fast lifts first and strength second.  The fast lifts are relatively easy on the nervous system and for the most part won’t negatively affect the strength lifts.  Being fatigued could lead to poor technique and in a worst case scenario an injury.  I've got nothing going for me right now though so I’m willing to give it a shot.

That’s all I got for this week.  I hope everyone has a great weekend ahead with lots of running, jumping, climbing, dancing, grilling, boating, swimming, and fun having.  PEACE!  I’M OUTTA HERE!