[quote]Doug Adams wrote:
8/16: Wha Ha Happen Was…
I’m tired, I’m dragging, and while I’m not happy with how today went, I know where I need to improve. Here be the results for those with ADHD:
Broad Jump: 88 inches, a 6 inch PR
Box Squat: 305, no improvement
Bench: 255, a 10 pound PR from 2 months ago
Deadlift: 365, no improvement
3 Rep Chins: BW+40lbs which is around 260ish and a PR, but I’m not sure how much.
Here’s an explanation of what I did and excuses why the numbers suck.
The magic number on the scale this morning was 217 pounds, which is about 3-5 pounds less than when I started this 4 months ago. After a nice light breakfast of 6 eggs, homemade home fries, english muffin w/ natty pb and a banana, I warmed up and did the broad jump test at home.
I went out in the backyard and layed my tape measure in the grass, still damp with morning dew. I imagine you can see where this is going. I take a couple warmup jumps and then go for my first attempt.
80 inches. Eh, not that great, but no big deal. I try again.
78 inches. What the hell? I’m not supposed to be going backwards! Next try.
75 inches, and one leg goes sliding forward causing me to almost do a split. Fuck this, time to change the venue. I go out front and lay the tape out on the front sidewalk.
88 inches. A 6 inch PR. That’s better.
I head off to the gym and call on the power of a 'Quila Lime Spike Shooter to help get me through the testing. First up was the box squat, which I really hate doing. I’m not sure why I hate it, but it may be because even though I set the safety pins in the rack, I still worry that I’ll get stapled with the weight. Anyway, I warmed up with barx10, 135xsomething, 185xa couple, 225x2, 2somethingxwhatever, then up to 285x1, and 305x1, my old PR. The 305 just didn’t feel right and I barely made it down to the bench (which FYI IS parallel for me). I wound up chickening out and did another at 305. In a way this is ok considering I haven’t squatted “heavy” in the longest time.
One thing I was happy about was that I felt no forearm pain at all during the squats. Looks like my problem was I’d stand too upright and all the weight would be on my hands. Leaning forward a tad seems to have cured it. Now the only problem is my left knee started bugging me again. Yep, fix one thing and something else breaks. Gotta love this lifting weight stuff. On to benching.
I ramped up by using barx10, 135x5ish, 175xa few, 205x1, and 235x1. Then I ask the fella benching next to me for a spot with 255. I explicitly tell him “I’m going for 1. I will tell you if I need help.” I unrack the weight, lower the bar, and while it’s slowly but surely coming up, I see a hand grab the bar. I wasn’t happy, but didn’t want to make a big deal so I just said “thanks”. He did help a little, but I know I had it so I’m counting it as a PR. If anyone objects, I simply say “blow me”. On to deadlifting.
I like deadlifts way more than squatting. They don’t bother my knee and there’s no fear of getting stapled. If I know I can’t get the weight, I drop it. No biggie. I started with 225x2, 275x1, 315x1, and 365x1, my old PR. I was feelin’ froggy so I went for 385. It went up a couple inches and stopped dead, so I let it go. I figure this can’t be too bad since I haven’t pulled heavy that much in a year except for the past two weeks.
Then we go to the chins, which were pretty much an afterthought at this point. I did BW+30x3 which was pretty easy, so then I did BW+40x3 and called it a day.
Yes the numbers blow. You know it, I know it, the american people know it. But from last August until about April this year I was admittedly training like a wuss, justifying it by thinking I was correcting imbalances. So really this 4 months got me back to where I was, albeit with cleaner form and some improvement.
So now for a week or two I’m going to do TBT with moderate weights, and then you know what, I’m starting all over again with this program with adjustments for me, such as:
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More knee flexion stuff and RDLs/Straight Leg Deads. My hamstrings are weak as hell and really holding me back.
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More Suitcase Deadlifts, as these blasted my abs and energy systems more than any other lift.
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Little less single leg work. This time could be better suited for extra reps for the above movements.
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More intensity. Yeah this should be first but I’m just now thinking of it, ok? More often than not I suffer from paralysis from analysis and question how my form is while I’m lifting. Whenever I buckle down and get aggressive, many of those form problems seem to go away. Maybe I should hire someone to follow me around with a cattle prod or something?
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More weight. This goes along with more intensity. If I want to set PRs with the big lifts, I have to train more with heavier weights in those movements.
Ok, I think that ran on a little longer than I wanted so I’ll wrap this up. So Iron, Flow, and whoever else is reading remember this:
Be aggressive. B E Aggressive!
[/quote]
Man, I think fixing imbalances is just about the hardest thing to do in training. . . I feel like a bitch when I bench press with less weight just to do it correctly, and I feel like even more of a bitch since I haven’t squatted in a good 6-7 weeks. . .
The thing is, fixing imbalances just takes time, and I think that time pays back dividends down the road when injuries are avoided. You should take the intangible benefits of ironed out imbalances and improved technique at face value. 6 inches on standing long jump isn’t something to scoff at, either.
Does Maximum Strength provide good training guidelines that can be applied to general programming, or is it mostly a set program that you adjust individual exercises to?