Training Update and Some Musings

Monday

Fat Bar Bench: 250x3

Wednesday

Hang Clean and Press: 198x1, 220x1, 225x1, 230x1x3

Cannons (Arms)

Friday

Dead Lift: 506x1, 440x5, 352x8

Front Squat

Shrugs

This was a pretty decent week of training.  No real gems but none of the sessions were total failures either.  My current progression three more weeks and then I’m going to switch things up a bit.  This twelve weeks has been about getting decent amount of volume in to get a solid base of strength while still keeping weights moving fast for the most part.  In this twelve weeks there should have been no missed weights.  It didn’t work out that way due in part to me not choosing correct weights to use but also because there are a few things that I’m going to change for the future.

The next six weeks is going to be all about upping the maximal strength.   I’m going back to a program that I've used in the past and got some good results on.  It’s a basic ladder progression and I’ll lay it out sometime in the coming weeks.

One thing that I’m going to try is to replace the Bench Press with Pendlay Rows as a main lift.  I’ll still do bench, but only as an assistance lift.  I think I just need more volume at lower weights to really hone in on my bench technique.  Benching heavy also makes my shoulders feel wonky for a day or two afterwards.  This is probably brought on by my less than stellar technique.

I’m still getting used to dead lifting sans belt.  It’s a strange feeling when you stand up with 500 pounds in your hands and you can feel your intestines shift and your abdominal wall literally unfold itself.  After the 506 I loaded another 20 pounds on the bar and gave it tug but someone must have glued it to the ground because it didn’t budge.  That’s a lie, I think my rectus abdominus had had enough and was about to turn towards Herniaville if I pushed it any harder.  Hence the dropping back down and getting some volume in.  My spinal erectors afterwards were all like, “Bro!  The hell, bro?”  And I’m all like, “Sorry fellas.  Abs needs a rest.”  True story.

One of the random things that pops into my head about strength is how some guys can maintain an almost elite level of strength without doing much dedicated training.  One such man is Kirk Karwowski.  KK is arguably the best squatter of all time and definitely an elite all around lifter.  He competed back in the early days of using gear such as squat suits and bench shirts.  These suits basically amounted to a very tight, very thick pair of jean shorts.  With this rudimentary equipment the man squatted over a thousand pounds.  In 2005, ten years after he’d last competed, he entered a totally raw (no support equipment) contest and squatted 826 at a lower body weight than when he competed regularly. 

13% of his strength comes from his nipple rings.

So this brings me back to the question of how do you maintain that strength?  Actually, I don’t think it’s a “how” question, but more of a “why”.  Here is my theory in two parts.

Part 1; In order to achieve the level of strength necessary to squat over a thousand pounds one must first be able to squat 500, 600, 700, etc.  And if one can squat a thousand pounds then one probably squats the lighter weight with regularity.  It’s the same if you squat 300 fairly well.  You squat 100 and 200 on a regular basis and they are no big deal.  Take a break from training, like say a year, and if you haven’t completely ruined your body it’s not going to take a whole lot to get you back to being able to handle 200 pounds.  No matter what your max is you are still capable of handling the lighter percentages whether you max is 300 or 1000.

Part 2; Many would say that he probably did a good job of maintaining muscle mass.  That he did but that’s only half the equation.  In continually placing a large amount of stress on the body the body will build bigger and stronger muscles, but also bigger and stronger bones, tendons and ligaments.  This I think is probably more important than actual muscle belly size.  The body is very good at protecting itself.  If it doesn’t have the required tendon and ligament strength to support or move a load the muscles won’t contract and you’ll likely fail the lift.  Obviously this isn’t always what happens as people tear muscles and tendons everyday but for the most part the body is going to save itself to fight another day. 

So, back to tendon and ligament strength.  I consulted Google University and couldn’t find much on tendon and ligament atrophy so I think there is something to that.  If the tendons (what connects muscles to bones) and ligaments (connect bone to bone) don’t atrophy and are at least maintained with some minimal movement I think the potential to handle what you’ve previously been capable of is, for the most part, still there.  In either case, however, it requires a huge training age to build the tendon and ligament strength necessary.  So don’t think that if you get up to a 400 pounds squat in your first year or two of training it’s going to stay with you for life.  Squat 400 for a few decades and then maybe you’ve got something.

Alright, it St. Patty’s Day and I’ve done enough thinking for today.  Be safe, drink some green beer, eat a ton of corned beef and have a great weekend.

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