Losthog—2018 First year

I’ve definitely had my shitty days dude, I was also jumping weight because I wanted to see it go up, not because I wanted to do the work. That’s what PR day is for, can’t lose sight of that.

It’s definitely daunting to think that the intensity of this program is going to lead to nothing. But I don’t think that’s the case.

Just go in on your next day, and completely disrespect it. Make it feel bad for testing you. Kick it’s ass.

I am definitely of the mindset that all work leads to something greater, as long as your head is in it. Provided you’re not just dicking around in the gym, something is improving.

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Yeah we switch up next week. This is the last work on these variations. I’m thinking of doing block pulls next to really dial in form from that higher position. I’m not sure if sumo is the way to go.

I’m thinking of sticking with sumo next three weeks from blocks, but we will revert back to a conventional variation the last three weeks just to start dialing that form back in with heavier weights. Deficits or block pulls.

I’m feeling strong, this is the first time I’ve gone into the gym and not pulled a number I wanted. Guess it goes with the territory of advancing in weight training.

The squat took off recently and I was expecting the deadlift to show some of that too…

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Form check: I know it sucks. Pointers from you guys that pull sumo or just have some input would be helpful…

I’m a big fan of snatch grip deads. I used it on my second Deadlift day of the week to hit 5 plates for the first time.

Also, some of my best days in the gym were preceeded by a shitty one. Just look at Friday. Everything felt hard and I even strained my back and didn’t finish my squats. I come back feeling fresh 4 days later and crushed it.

I just checked my log… Last year on 5.22 I felt like 430 was a max effort Deadlift (PR was 450 at the time). A week later I hit 455. A week later I hit 495. The body is strange.

Trust your program and don’t sweat the bad days. You can’t set PRs every session!

Your ass went up way too fast on that 365. I’m just going to say sumo isn’t for us. Hell, you’re feet are more like a squat stance deadlift and there’s no room to move them any wider!

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Yes sir. Just what the doctor ordered. I’m thinking deficit deads and snatch grip now

When you’re doing sumo, the one thing that people forget to do is to drive their feet into the floor. So after you drop your hips into pulling position and you pull the slack out of the bar, while maintaining your chest position, imagine you’re in a leg press and drive your feet into the ground hard. When the bar passes your knees, drive hips through the bar.

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I’m gonna agree with Maier on this one. You’re tall, 6’3 or 6’4 if I recall correctly. The advantage of sumo goes to smaller people who are able to really extend their legs out and sink their hips. Cailer Woolam, in case you don’t know who he is, is (I believe) a world record holder for deadlift in the 198 and 220 classes. He pulls sumo and he’s 6’2, like me, but his leverages are ideal. Shorter legs, longer torso, so he’s able to sink his hips really well, while at the same time keeping his torso very upright because his arms and torso are so long.

If you’re going to keep hitting sumo every once in a while, my advice is to turn your feet out a tad bit more and sink your hips as much as possible. This will cause your weight to shift backwards; since you’re holding onto the bar, which is essentially keeping you from falling over backwards, at this point you will already be pulling the slack out of the bar. When your feet are turned out enough, you can push against the floor with the balls of your feet and not lose balance. If your feet are angled too straight forward, doing that will pull you off balance.

Pushing off the balls of your feet flexes the quads which straightens the knees (you know this). That’s important because in sumo, if your hips are low enough, and your torso is upright enough, simply using your quads to lock your knees is all there is to it. You don’t have to hinge and lock out because your torso is already straight. The initial pull off the floor is the hardest part.

That is all just in case you want to keep trying sumo. In the long run I believe your go-to should be what you’re most comfortable with and what you enjoy the most. Sounds like that’s conventional.

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Well Hog It’s been said the progress is to be stronger in the comp lifts in about 10 week or so.
You’ve pulled sumo for 3 weeks, can’t expect it to be as efficient as your comp lift. HOWEVER you’ve worked some other muscles and gotten stronger.

Now you shift to anoter lift that you’re not familiar with, that will teach you something to.
All along you do tecnique and speed work with the comp lift. That will really prime your body to perfection.
If you feel youy DE days gets better your comp lift gets better.
.
Lastly I’ve come to the conclousion that I’ll shift lifts every 3 weeks like you do. I’ll do the first 6 weeks with “harder” lifts eg paused and deficit for the last three going in to a kind of peak phase I’ll do block/rack pulls, here I can feel the really heavy weight in my hand. Before testing.

Btw look a @littlesleeper when he pulls he puts the weight down ever so gently, really getting everything our of the exentric portion, even on the PR lifts. We could learn something there.

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Thx all! Tons of great advice. Here’s to just a bad day…

What’s your weak point on the deadlift?

Holding my form off the floor…

I think alot of that has to do with your lower back/quads being alot stronger then your hamstrings. So you butt tends to shot up first transferring alot of the load onto your lower back, because it is stronger. Doing some extra work to help strengthen your hammies and making sure they are tight before you initiate the lift will help you. Sorry if you knew all this and Im just repeating it.

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06/13/18— OH my the head Pressure

In:3
Out:5
Warmup: push-ups, battle ropes, inch worms, bear crawls, (this was all terrible )
Jumping jacks (tried to push to get myself going)

ME: 5rm ZPress:
Giant: pull-ups// Russian twist

45x10 ( headache like eyeball was popping out)
SS
65x6 (only could manage 3 pull-ups. Zero strength available. )
85x5 (1 pull-up )
105x5 (0 pull-ups). Decided to call this here. The head was about to explode.

V: 85x16, 85x10, 85x10
Swapped out lat pull downs for pull-ups. Struggled to do 100lbs.

DE: 85 bar weight +red short minis (+45)
60% around 175lbs at lockout

Accessory: when you are in a hole quit digging…

I did some tri push downs with bands and just called it a day. I slept about 3-4 hours and it was not restful. I’ve got some sort of infection trying to take root. Headache from hell. When I strain it is like my eyeballs will pop out…

I got done what I did today…

I actually felt better after the workout…

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Nope don’t apologize. And I didn’t know this. Even if I did know it a reminder is always good.

Thanks for the input!

No problem, glad I mentioned something. You’ll get the best bang for your buck outta a GHR if you have one available.

Sucks when stuff like that happens, good job pushing through though. When that shit happens to me, I’m lucky to get a set or two in before calling it, you still finished the whole workout!

There was some really good info on the sumo posted above. To add to it, I’ve seen powerlifters set up for sumo legs wide, and then their toes pointed so far out to the sides it’s a wonder they can keep themselves upright.

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So I’ve had the luxury of resting and reflecting today. Summer break for teaching is great. After the workout, my kids came in to workout and they did a great job. One of the kids that worked out with me before, graduated this year and is going to play some football in college, stayed and I worked him out. We had a blast today. It was good to hang out with a kid I’ve known coached and seeing him launch into life.

Anyway reflection on this program moving forward. I may need to set a training max of sorts on the daily lifts. Something I can reach but not run myself into the dirt day after day. This program is teaching me self regulation for sure. Having not done many if any of these exercises before it’s hard to know what I can do on them. Maybe I need to limit my top set for the day where my form breaks. Could I muscle up more…sure. Safely? So this will be a factor I consider moving forward. Watching for form breaks and either reworking the same set at the same weight to nail form or calling that the top set of the day…

Had a bomb lasagna with ceased salad we home made everything.

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The way I look at it is max effort is max effort. Most Likely, your form is gonna break down some if you are going balls to the wall. You should have perfect form on all warm up sets, volume sets, and DE work. But its alright to get a little sloppy on the last ME lift in my opinion. To some degree tho, theres a difference between a little sloppy and outright ugly.

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Agree completely. ME work is about straining.

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