MarkKO's Training Log

Couple of things.

  1. The longer I train, the more I think that your everyday strength is much, much more important than limit strength. Why? Because as far as I can tell your limit strength fluctuates a LOT from day to day, week to week and month to month (not even accounting for injuries). Sure, it goes up if you’re training and recovering right but being able to display it requires a lot of things to go well at the same time. The stronger you get, the more this applies.

  2. Following on from this, your everyday strength increases much, much slower than your limit strength. My max DL is 600 lbs but I’d have to say based on my experience on bad DL days these last few cycles my everyday max would be around 500 lbs, maybe a bit less. For instance, I may have just been good for a 500 lbs single today if I’d gone in intending to work up to a single at that weight and done nothing but singles leading up to it.

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So, yes, today’s DL is bugging me a bit.

I don’t know what the hell happened. The first triple felt slow, but OK. Lower back was OK, just tired. Then my head simply switched off when I tried to move 462 lbs. At a guess, my back feeling a bit off was a part of this, some kind of self preservation mechanism.

I’m thinking this is the case because as soon as I took my back out of the equation with the trap bar 517 lbs comes up fine.

Don’t worry too much about it mate, bad days come and go, just be consistent. It’s an upward trend after all.

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I don’t know if it is the same for you but deadlift is HUGELY mental for me. If I intend on putting up anything over like 365lbs comfortably I need to have my head in the right mindset or it is an uphill battle.

I was working up with sets the other day and hit 385 for 3 and it was a slow 3rd rep. I got myself fired up and feeling good and ripped 430 for 10 later in the workout! I was surprised, but this absolutely reinforced that for me I need to be in a positive, aggressive headspace for deadlifts. Bench/OHP and even squats I can kind of just force the reps out if I need to, this is not the case for the deadlift…

Just stay positive and know that it will all eventually come full circle and start getting easier when you least expect it.

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It might be mental. It’s really easy to psyche yourself out on the deadlift. It could also just be going too hard on your deadlift if you’ve been pushing it hard lately.

Did you feel as though you just couldn’t get tight, and your legs just wouldn’t ‘turn on’?

That’s about as good a description as I can think of, yes @Destrength

I must have been running on fumes for the last week or so. I slept so deeply last night I didn’t wake once - and then I had a nap for around three hours in the late morning, just after a cup of coffee.

Feel better for it. I also have a knot under/around my right scapula which has been there since Monday. I’m prone to knots there, so I’ll start attacking it aggressively from today.

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Does your back normally round when you pull heavy, or does it feel like your abs are caving (especially without a belt if you ever do beltless work)?

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Upper definitely, middle a tad and lower only on bad days. Same with abs, they work fine except on bad days where they just won’t switch on.

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Had lots of running around (pick up new car, associated errands) so didn’t train till about midday. That right lat-ish not is pissing me off.

Today’s training

Lazy warmup plus shoulders

Bench press

25 pull aparts with rotation between first three warmup sets

5x170 lbs, under 6 RPE
5x198 lbs, 6 RPE
5x220 lbs, 6-7 RPE
5x198 lbs, 6 RPE
5x170 lbs, under 6 RPE

Dips 50 total reps: 12, 10, 12, 8, 10

Kroc rows 100 lbs 30 L+R for a PR I’ve been gunning for. Next cycle I’ll move up to 105 lbs

Supersetted 100 lbs DB shrugs and 25 lbs hammer curls

Shrugs 50 total reps: 20, 15, 15

Curls 50 total reps: 13, 13, 12, 12

Enjoyed my arm pump from the curls

Stairmill 10 minutes at level six

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If it isn’t mental, then it’s probably just fatigue and core weakness then. Might be a mixture of your back being beat up lately, and you training your abs directly for the first time in a long time.

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What’d ya get? New or new to you?

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Weighted ab wheel man. Take a band, run it through the center of the plate, then put either end of the band on like a backpack.

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New and new to me, first time I’ve had a brand new car. I got me a Subaru Forester 2.5iL. It’s pretty cool, I got it through work using salary sacrifice to drop my tax and not have to worry about paying for fuel, service and registration. My old car I still had repayments on, but I figured the longer I waited the less it’d be worth so I sold it, put some of the price on the repayments to speed that up and used the rest for other stuff I needed to pay. I’ll just pay it off as I go.

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@brady888 I’m having trouble picturing that. You mean use a plate behind you like an anchor?

No sir.
Take one end of band. Run through the middle of the plate. Hold the band on either end and even out the amount of band on either side of the plate. Then put the loops over your shoulders.
I’ll take a picture when I have a chance lol

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What plate though? That’s what’s confusing me

A weight plate? Like a 45

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Now I can picture it. So a fairly heavy band, then? I’m guessing a 45 lbs to start. I’ve got abs today, so I’ll give it a go then I think.

Today’s training

Lazy warmup plus shoulders - I think I’m getting the hang of it because I felt great after

Squat, Oly shoes

12 TRX fatman pull-ups between first three warmup sets

5x308 lbs, under 6 RPE
5x357 lbs, under 6 RPE
5x407 lbs, under 6 RPE
5x451 lbs, 8 RPE maybe even 7-8 based on the bar speed. Resisted the temptation to go up.

So far I’m enjoying this little interlude. I think it’s doing me good.

RFESS 50 total reps, Oly shoes holding 50 lbs DBs: 12, 12, 10, 8, 8

Supersetted calf raises/leg raises (no sling, hung using a neutral grip)

Calf raises 100 total reps at 132 lbs: 25, 25, 25, 25

Leg raises 50 total reps: 12, 10, 10, 10, 8

Managed two shins to bar in each last two sets. These are a work in progress, but feel like they hit my and just how I need and once I get a feel for the shins to bar movement my numbers will go up fast.

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