Today had the makings of a great day but was a bit “aggravated” with how many people were around the rack where I was squatting. Also not a huge fan of crowds, especially around me when I’m squatting. Had a group of 4 deadlifting about 5 feet to my right, a loud grunter slamming 225 shrugs on the rack after every set, and lots of other people behind me where the preacher curl bench sits. For this reason, I hate mirrors when squatting! Anyhoo…
370 for Squats moved very well. Knowing how many people were in the surrounding area I had planned to cap it here and then hit a couple of down sets. I decided against it due to my surroundings and hit the Oh Press. This also moved very well and pleased to hit 185 for 2x5. Cramped for time, I just hit a quick set of 10 on Pull Ups and a set of 20 for KB Swings. Hopefully this means I am leaving a lot on the table and have potential for a better day tomorrow.
Managed to set a small PR and miss a PR in the same movement. The Power Clean with 230 is a PR but I barely missed the lockout on the Press. Looking back I don’t think I was trying to push my head through as aggressively as I normally do. Did a lot of KB Swings since I was teaching an aspiring pro wrestler to perform the movement since he’s had trouble with them in the past. Also did an extra set of Get Ups since they I was moving pretty smooth. Squat racks were taken which meant no squats and the teaching of KB Swings sort of took my Deadlift time. Is what it is!
“Simple”
1 Arm KB Swings: 55 - 5x10 (each)
Turkish Get Ups: 55 - 5x1 (each)
Allergies have been acting up so decided to stay inside and do Simple and Sinister with my 55# KB. Didn’t put the timer on since I’m trying to really nail down Get Ups this go around. I’m hoping to actually stick with Get Ups for the long haul so I can eventually perform one with my 80. I have some adjustable dumbbells that go to 70 I will use so I don’t have to go from 55 to 80 without hitting weights in between. How @furo and @BCFlynn perform Get Ups with an 88 is beyond comprehension for me at this point!!
It’s a very weird one man, kind of like pistol squats in my opinion - it feels impossible until all of a sudden it’s easy lol. No real middle ground. You’ll definitely nail them soon!
That’s what I’m hoping! I was reading back through some of the Pavel books I picked up on Kindle and hoping to catch up to you on some of the movements he recommends. Namely the Get Up, 1 Arm Push Up and hopefully a Pistol in the future. When I get caught up with these movements maybe you and I can have a challenge with these down the line. Get Ups with the 88 and 1 Arm Push Ups are closer than the Pistol at this point!
HELLO 400’s!!! So happy to finally be in the 400 pound mark on Squats. This was a hard grind but was able to fight the weight all the way up to lockout. Going to the gym I had to ask myself, can I Squat 405? Nope! Can I Squat 400? Maybe. After standing up with that weight, that assessment holds true. I CAN Squat 400, but I DON’T think I have 405 yet but don’t really care at this moment. I was going to do a quick set of 3 with 315 afterwards but once I hit the hole my body sort of just stopped and had to do a paused squat. Called it a day for Squats!
Now for the rest of the day…
Oh Press moved very well and this 2x5 with 185 felt a lot easier than last week. I picked my pace up a bit for the Get Ups with the 50# kettlebell. Lately I have been pausing for a second or two in each position just to “feel” the movement better and find the strongest, proper positions. Did the 2 hand swings for speed with the 80. Looking forward to starting 1 arm swings with this weight. A quick set of Pull Ups and that’s all I had left. GREAT DAY and can rest a bit easier knowing I’m in the 400’s for Squats before my second child is born in the upcoming days!
I would have loved to been a bit more excited after but I literally racked the weight and had to rush to the bathroom to wipe my snotty nose!! Allergies have been killing me all weekend!
That would be awesome man! I imagine you are very close with one-arm push-ups - I find my bench press has a lot of carryover and there isn’t much to the technique. The pistol squat is a bit more…unique lol. I don’t find there’s much carryover with the barbell squat at all. But partly for that reason I find the pistol squat to be the single most rewarding exercise I do! Cracking a completely new movement is so much more stimulating than adding weight to a movement you can already do in my opinion. Don’t get me wrong - a deadlift PR feels amazing - but I think performing a movement that would previously leave you in a heap on the floor feels even better lol. For some people it comes quite naturally - especially if you are short or light - but for bigger taller people I think it is a real achievement. Another amazing thing with pistols is that they are one of the only lower body exercises that you can train at a high percentage of max without wiping yourself out. Grinding out a hard pistol squat will never leave you collapsed on the ground seeing stars and gasping for breath lol.
This is fantastic man! Huge congratulations! You’ve now got a bench in the 300s, a squat in the 400s and a deadlift in the 500s, that’s really cool. Strong dude!
As of yesterday I can do a solid rep with my right arm on the 1 Arm Push Up so I am definitely going to build upon that with the Grease the Groove but do it on a slight elevation just so I can accumulate volume. The Pistol Squat will definitely be my biggest challenge with my leverages but I have no excuse, you and I have a similar build. I just need to really practice and not give up so easily. The air born lunge and pistol to a box will be good assistance exercises to get my confidence up. I’m excited to learn these new bodyweight movements as well as improve my Get Up strength over the next several months.
As far as the 400 Squat, that was a bit of a relief to have FINALLY accomplished. I knew I was close and if it wasn’t going to happen this week, it probably would have been several months down the road and I didn’t want to have to sit on 385 for that long. At least now I know I’m in the 2-3-4-5 category for the Oh Press-Bench-Squat-Deadlift which was my goal when I started strength training 4 years ago. Now I can focus on the other qualities that Pavel has laid out that I’ve either avoided or neglected the past 2 years!
Goal for the day was to Squat, Bench Press and practice Get Ups. There were a lot of people doing other things in the area where I normally do Get Ups so I had to pass on those. I went with Pause Squats since my hips and legs were a bit beat up from yesterday. No real issues here. 285 for sets of 3 on Bench moved very well. At one point I considered using 290 on Bench Press but I didn’t want to make myself feel bad about Bench Pressing my Squat weights for the day! Solid day and was happy there was no real let down after yesterday’s PR on Squats.
Fantastic! Yeah the pistol to a box is really useful, especially if you focus on doing them as slow and controlled as possible. Also doing the pistol standing on the box (so your non-working leg can hang down) is really helpful, because initially controlling the non-working leg is quite hard too.
That is very cool, I didn’t realise you’d only been strength training for 4 years! Awesome stuff
3/14/17 (PM at home)
Not a workout, but posting it here for my records
Get Ups: 35 - 5x1 (each) (mostly for stretching and mobility)
1 Arm Push Ups: 1x2 (Right) 1xMiss (Left)
Left elbow was pissy from Benching yesterday so the 1 Arm Push Up with my left wasn’t so much a strength issue but more of a stability issue but did PR with 2 reps with my right arm! Haha! This was mostly to show my wife I could indeed do a 1 Arm Push Up. First rep was very fast and the second moved pretty crisp as well. Even got a “go daddy go” from my 4 year old son!
Would it make sense to do 1-2 reps with my right arm each hour of the day and do the same with my left arm but elevated to work on stability? I think the strength is there but with my elbow flare ups the past few weeks I still want to train the left appropriately with GTG. Appreciate any thoughts!
1 Arm Push Ups (Right arm): 21 Total (included a PR of 5 consecutive reps)
Also totaled 21 reps with my left arm but on an elevated surface.
Performed a lot of doubles and triples of full 1 Arm Push Ups with my right arm. Rep counts throughout the day were: 2, 3, 4, 5, 3, 2, 2. Still can’t perform one with my left arm so I had to prop it up on my desk at work.That way I’m not leaving the left arm out completely. My arm propped up on the desk is a bit too easy but that’s about the most stable surface I have to work with at the moment. Most of these were performed in my office at work but the last 2 doubles were done at home. Propped my left arm on the couch and that was a bit weird mostly due to stability. Not a real “sexy” thing to log at this point but It’s easier to log this here as opposed to my spreadsheet.
Body was a bit sluggish today. Still can’t shake this cold but I think I’m coming towards the end of it. Squats felt pretty good. First 2 sets were a bit difficult because I wasn’t as aggressive on the descent. Last 3 sets I finally got in the groove. Happy with 190 for a set of 5 on Oh Press but was actually planning on 2 sets. Shoulders were kind of dead so I stopped at 1 set. Get Ups with a dumbbell are weird. I’ve only done these with kettlebells so the dumbbell took some getting used to. Cut these at 3 sets since I realized I needed to get back to work. On my way out I cranked out a set of Pull Ups just to get a pull motion. Solid day!
Sorry about the late reply, I’ve been really thinking about the best way to approach this! I personally would do something like that - with your left arm elevated or alternatively by doing eccentric only. I’d keep the volume on your right arm low though, especially as you are prone to elbow issues. When I was working on building my pistol squats back up I would just do the minimum to keep my good leg ticking over - I’d only ever do singles with my good leg. My rationale was that I didn’t want to eat into my recovery on a strong point when I had such a deficit to build up in my other leg. Especially as pistol squats are potentially not great for knee pain etc if not done perfectly. However, I know @T3hPwnisher has a very different approach and feels you should become as strong as you can and not be limited by a weaker limb.
In terms of GTG overall I quite like it…but as with any routine based purely around practice rather than gaining strength I find any gains very transient. I think it’s a good way to learn a movement, but not to make lasting progress once you can perform it. If that makes sense?
So in summary I think you’re approaching this the best way. If I were you I’d GTG with the left and do the minimum with your right (it will improve regardless). I’d also consider dropping the volume on your other pressing exercises because it’s easy to think that bodyweight stuff is harmless but I’d be careful with your elbow. Then as soon as you can do a few reps with your left arm I’d switch from GTG to straight sets. But all with the disclaimer that I really don’t know what I’m talking about!
At times my log has just been session after session of stuff that I think most people wouldn’t even consider a warm-up lol, definitely don’t be shy about posting up a bodyweight workout!
Thanks for the extensive right up!! I agree with keeping the minimum with my right just to make sure I keep the technique and doing what I can to build the left. Doing negatives with the left I think will be the best way to go for me. Doing reps with my hand propped up feels weird and don’t think I’m really building good technique. While I wasn’t super sore from the 1 arm push ups, I could feel they had been worked yesterday when doing overhead pressing at the gym. Sort of took me by surprise as you mentioned.
My 2nd child will definitely be born on Monday. I will use next week as a bit of a deload and hopefully the week after that I can get into the gym once or twice and fill in with what I can with Simple & Sinister at home if the energy and desire is there. Also it will give me a chance to apply some of the things you mentioned for building up my push ups. I’m doing eccentics only with pistols right now every time I sit down in a chair so I’m getting a little practice there. Long way from a pistol at this point but at least the effort is there!!
1 Arm KB Swings: 80 - 5x10 (each)
Get Ups: 60 - 5x1 (each)
Solid S&S session today. The warm up was a big necessity since I was a bit achey in all the wrong places. Swings felt good considering I don’t think I’ve done single arm swings with my 80. With that said I have snatched that bell many times so it wasn’t too much of a big deal. Get Ups went well. I have a pair of Powerblock DBs that go up to 70. 60 pounds will be my working weight for a while. I didn’t have any issues with this weight but I could certainly clean up my technique at this weight.
On a side note I actually went to the gym yesterday but my head and body just wasn’t feeling it. Worked up to 295 on Bench Press for a single and my elbow just did not like me at all. Moved onto Deadlift and hit 455 for a single. It moved well but my elbow and runny nose just kind of got on my nerves a bit so I just shut it down for the day. Did manage to come home and work on Pistol Squats. I was able to do a couple of Box Pistol Squats with each leg which is VERY encouraging. After that I just did lots of negatives to the box/chair I was using. This sits right around parallel so this is definitely a depth improvement.
As of this past Monday (3/20) I am now a father of 2 boys! It’s been an adjustment getting used to a newborn again but he is a pretty good sleeper at this point. Averaging about 3 hours between feedings so at least I’m getting around 6 hours of sleep total in the night. Sleeping for 3 days in the hospital had my back and shoulders super stiff but being home and moving around more has me back to square one.
Anyway did a quick bodyweight workout yesterday that took about 20 minutes. Nothing strenuous but it was some movement.
