After many years of lurking, wayward drive-by comments, and multiple injuries it’s time to leave the kids table for the big table with the big boys and girls.
I’m 48 and have managed to beat my body up pretty well through the years. I’ve played football and rugby, wrestled and been of of Uncle Sam’s finest. I have old hips and beat up shoulders. Anymore, I’m an old guy with good hands.
I lifted/trained religiously until one day I found out that beer tasted better than gatorade.
That lasted through 1/17/89, some 10 years. Been a friend of Bill’s since then. I went through a minor bout of depression when my basement gym was lost in a catastrophic flood. My income has been cut in half through the last 3 years. Well, enough sniveling. I’m still on the right side of the grass.
I’ve trained with and bastardized many programs through the years. I now train at a gym that allows chalk, has round plates, squat rack, power rack, deadlift platform and has some strong people. I’ve done Wendler’s 5/3/1 and Starr’s 5x5. My current workout is a push/pull/legs that’s geared toward strength. I’m coming off a deload week and figured this is a good place to start. I may have OCD, ADD and/or ADHD.
I’m coming off 6 months of front squatting and am getting back to back squatting. I estimated squat numbers. My front squat numbers were higher but I want to ease back into it.
Legs
Back Squats
1x8 195#
1x8 215#
1x5 230#
1x5 245#
1x15 165#
These felt light and easy.
[quote]PeteS wrote:
glad to see you posting. you making it up here in March? [/quote]
Doesn’t look like it’s going to happen. Sucks too, my sister lives in Eden Prairie. The bench crew isn’t going and one of the full power guys blew his patella tendon…again. May try to get to Dubuque for a meet.
There are a couple of guys from Mason City heading up. Young, strong kids.
Dang, well, anytime you come up and want a place to train I will help you out. I snuck in on the roster, thanks to my partner Lewis pulling out due to how the bench only guys are mixed with the full, for the most part. Should be a good meet. Our area is coming back into its own for the freak show meets.
Mon 1/31
Thought about doing cardio. I heard it’s supposed to be good for me. Unfortunately, we’re got ICE and snow. Skated home, plan on staying here. Supposed to get b/t 7" -12" snow over the next 36 hours. May not lift again until Thursday. Now if you’ll excuse me I need to call my gynocolgist, I think I’m developing a mangina.
When I was much younger I’d go out in a blizzard to my load on. Thank God those days are long gone.
Tues 2/1
Normal bench night, not gonna happen. Office closed down @ 3pm in midst of blizzard. Took an hour to drive 20 miles. Tomorrow may be worse. Oh well, just need to get thru the Ides of March and into Spring.
Will shovel/clear snow with the boy and consider that cardio/GPP. Wife is staying at the hospital after her shift. She has a 12hr shift tomorrow too.
Tried out a new gym. My free membership has ended at the gym I’m currently at. Called a buddy who is now the “fitness” director at another gym. He is a competitive powerlifter (198#). Gave me a sweet deal and wrote me oput a pass. Ran into another friend in from out of town. He trains at Big Iron in Omaha. Met his friend and potential new training partner. He is doing 5/3/1. May go back to Wendler, or aleast re-evaluate program. Called my current training partner. He will head in with me next time.
Long and short of it. They have a “back room” that says Employees Only that we can use. It’s a 20’ x 40’ room with plenty of toys. Comp Bench, heavy duty power rack, makeshift platform with band attachments, ssb/yoke bar, tires, etc. There’s an alley out the back door for tire flips, sled work, etc.
New (to me) power rack had different width than what I was used to. Took extra long warmup to find proper foot placement and find happy spot.
Squats
1x8 195
1x8 215
1x5 230
1x5 245
1x3 260
Front Squats
3 x 10 135
Curls 1 x 10
Squats were free and easy. I think I have reset traning numbers too low after doing front squats as primary squat work during last training cycle.
[quote]soldog wrote:
SWEET deal! We now expect big things due to the training environment[/quote]
George it’s very humbling to be older and weaker than the young bucks. At least they’re not warming up with my maxes. I find it very motivating to be around bigger, stronger people.
[quote]PeteS wrote:
sounds like a nice set up. I like the ‘employees only’ as the barrier… [/quote]
Pete, I found the Employees Only sign to be a nice touch.
I’m trying to figure out where to work the ssb/yoke bar into my training. I rack pull 2x/mnth. I like rack pulls. Do I drop one of the rack pull sessions and do good mornings with the ssb/yoke? Or do I do accessory squat work with it, instead of front squats?
I plan to do speed pulls against the minis. I’m kinda like a kid at Christmas.
My 4 week/weekly deadlift days are:
rack pulls/accessory
speed pulls with minis/accessory
rack pulls/accessory
deadlift/accessory
The yoke bar has two places: DL day or squat day. Or as I am migrating back to, an ME movement or a speed/assistance movement. If you are going to keep your squat and dl days separate, doing say yoke bar box squats every 3 week on your dl day, to a 3 or 5 rm will help your pull. You can also use the bar on squat day if your shoulders feel like shit from benching.
Do something like:
pull from floor/ssb to high box/accessory
ssb gm/front squat for high reps/accessory
defecit pulls/speed pulls w/bands/accessory
ssb box squat to 1rm/rack pulls/blah blah
try PR from floor
