Skidmark's Training

2008-3-10

Lower and Arms

Box Squats
135x10
195x5
255x5,5

Snatch Grip Deadlifts (index finger on power rings)
135x10
225x5 (fast!)
315x5,5

KettleGrip Swings
Right foot forward,Right arm swing
53 1x20, 1x21

Normal foot placement, left arm swing
52 2x21

Arms for later.

Today was rep day. I’m alternating max single sessions with 5-rep sessions to keep CNS fatigue at bay. May have to change rep count and lower weight, but time will tell.

Second set of Box Squats I lost my balance and had to sit down on the second rep after getting halfway up. All reps after that were challenging.

Surprisingly strong on the snatch grip deads. Up 10 lbs from last session and added two reps per set. hardest part is the grip, but I used chalk today and that fixed that. Hurts like hell on the hands, but only while you’re lifting :-). Big hamstring pump here. It’s a keeper.

KettleGrip swings feeling very strong. Right foot forward feels great on my back. I can feel the injured area getting a pump, but no pain. At most, it itches inside.

Going to work in some good mornings, but no more super heavy weight and NO BOUNCING off the pins. High rep for back endurance and hamstring strength. The lower back is designed for endurance, mainly, with high intensity activity being rare. Most of the time it’s used as a stabilizing area, rather than flexion.

2008-3-11

Abs and Arms
Upper Arms
Rolling Triceps Extensions
30’sx15
40’sx8
50’sx5,5

Crossbody DB Hammer Curls
35’sx10
57.5x5,5

Abdominals
Weighted Situps
90 2x15

Side Bends
105 2x15

Forearms
Wrist Curls
Extension
30x10,10
Flexion
65x10,10

Wrist Levers
Front
2.5ft iron bar,1" dia. 15,15
Back
2.5ft iron bar, 1" dia. 15,15

Long Walk today. Too far in the City by the Bay to find a bathroom I didn’t have to pay for the privilege of using. 14 city blocks, 8 of it uphill. Uphill is easier than downhill with this back o’ mine. Foot going numb, number, numbest. Going in for nerve testing next Monday. That’ll determine if I need surgery. Surely don’t want this to be a permanent thing…, but God knows best.

Accupuncture tomorrow in an attempt to restore nerve function to the right leg. We’ll see if I get punched accurately or not.

Rolling extensions were ugly at 50 lbs. Will clean them up as I get stronger…

Training 2008-3-13

Upper

Floor Press
135x15
185x6
205x5
225x4
245x2
255x1,1,1,1

Reverse Grip Barbell Row
135x15
185x6
205x5
225x4
245x2
255x1,1,1,1

Seated Overhead Press
95x10
125x8
155x5,5

Med Width Pronated Grip Pullups
BWx10
BW+35x6
BW+60x5,5

Overhead press was tough. Shoulder’s trying to whack out on me. More prehab work needed. Floor press was solid, though.

Closed the #2 Captains of Crush gripper in each hand today - solidly. I haven’t worked CoC’s for a month. What I HAVE been doing is plate pinches, vertical thick bar 1-hand DLs and levering as well as body weight hangs from a bar for time and rotating D-handle holds. So why did I spend 80 bucks on these things? I never got stronger on them by training with them. I guess they’re more like a calibration tool than a training tool…

2008-3-14
Abdominals and Grip

Prone Hollows
1x60 sec

Hanging L Holds
1x25 sec (PR 5 sec)
1x20 sec
1x20 sec

Side Planks
Left 1min
Right 1min

1 hand BW hangs
4x15 sec (right,left) Go for 20 seconds next time

1 hand Thick Bar Deadlift
45x5
90x5
135x5
160x1,1,1 (alternating - Could only break it from the floor, but couldn’t hold on)

4" pinch Block lift
35 2x5sec
35 1x10Sec (up to 40 and back to 5sec)

Trying to work up to a minute in the L’s and 1-hand hangs. Time to start adding weight to the prone hollows and planks. Feel good today - got all my vitamins an protein last night and a good 8 hours of snooze…

From your profile page, are you going for the 200# OHP seated or standing? You’re doing some interesting/different stuff than I’m use to seeing. What is a hanging Ls hold? Welcome.

Thanks for the welcome, Hel320. Been reading HT’s,DZ’s and Doctor PowerClean’s thread for a while and have seen your posts.

Standing press, although I work seated presses and single arm stuff too.

Hanging L’s: Hang from a bar, stick your legs out in front of you and hold them there as long as possible without your feet dropping or your lower back arching. It’s a gymnastics conditioning exercise. I’m trying to work up to minute. Gets harder as your legs get bigger.

I’m doing a fair bit of weird stuff. I like zerchers lifts, jefferson and anderson squats, 1-hand vertical bar deadlifts, dumbbell swings and the like. I’m looking at freeing myself from my power cage and see how far I can go in full body strength and inventiveness. The standing presses and 1-arm dumbbell presses are coming off the floor and I’m trying to figure ways to do bench pressing without the bench, squats without the supports.

I think chains will be involved…

2008-3-15
Lower Body and Arms

dynamic warmup

ATG Pause Squats
135x10
225x15
285x1,1,1,1

1 legged Deadlifts
135x5
155x5
175x5,5

Close Grip Manpon Press
175x5
195x5
215x5,5

1-arm DB curl
60x5,5

KettleGrip Swings
53 3x25 (r,l,r w/rt leg forward)

Starting to feel beat up. Fortunately this is last nanocycle before deload, so I think I can get through the next upper body session and then do a couple of high rep sessions.

Could have done more weight in squats today, but I’m in no hurry and I felt close to injury today before starting. These felt just right.

Left brachioradialis is having fits on curls. might need to focus on some ART for it and work the reverse curls to bring it up.

Right shoulder is shaky on bench, which is limiting strength development on the right side. Really gotta work the prehab/rehab stuff for it.

Good day, all in all.

Time to eat!

2008-3-17
Upper

1-arm overhead DB press
55x10
75x5
(r)90x1,0,0,1,1,1
(l)90x1,1,1,1
(PR)

Medium Neutral Grip Pullups
BWx10
BWand70x5
BWand100x2,2

Dips
BWx10
BWand65x5
BWand85x5,5

1-Arm DB Rows
105x10
135x5,5

Inclined Upright DB Rows
85x7,7

Missed on the right side for overheads a couple of times. Didn’t get tight after the clean. Otherwise everything according to plan.

2008-3-19

Recovery Day - Iron Woody KettleGrip

Swings to head high
53x40

Cleans
2x10

Overhead Reverse lunges
53 2x8 (left)
53 2x8 (right)

Overhead Press
53 2x10

Rows
53 2x20

2-hand Front raises (elbows up)
53x15

Swings to arms’s length overhead
53 2x10 right/left

Pistols
2x8

Done.

edit:
OK - not done.
1-hand Rotating D-handle holds
125 2x30sec

1-hand 1" vert bar deadlift hold
50 2x1min

I have never been able to get the balance right to do pistols. I always fall over. Rock on with your bad self!

I fall over too. I just get back up.

These have become particularly challenging as I have a herniated disk which presses on the origin of the peroneal nerve. So I can’t raise my right foot very well. Definitely affects balance.

Glad to see from your thread that you’re feeling better, PencilNeck. you’ll be back to your old strength level in no time.

Hey Skidmark - I feel for you. I blew out a disc and had to have surgery in 1994. The point they decided to operate was when the doc determined that I had already lost 50% of the strength in my right leg. Fortunately the surgery was just cleaning up the part of the disc that blew out and leaving everything else alone. No fusionor other drastic measures. I made a full recovery- Don’t let things go too far into the strength loss phase as that can become permanant. Let us know how thing evolve…

Will do Soldog. I actually had an electromygraph test done on the nerves last monday. Had there been acute denervation I would be sweating an operation date. Fortunately the results say that all damage is temporary, so I’m just going to wait it out. The weakness seems mainly to be the foot and all else is almost back up to par.

Those EMG tests are hilarious. They basically sit you down, put electrodes at either end of the muscle and then shock the shit out of you. Got to where I was bouncing off the exam bench an inch or so.

Been getting some accupuncture for the affected area as well and that seems to be helping.

Good to hear Skidmark. Sounds like an injury to the nerve vs a spinal/structural issue.

2008-3-20

Abzz and Grip

Weighted Situps
95 2x15

Side Bends
115 2x15

1-arm timed BW hangs
BW 2x30sec

olympic sleeve 1 hand deadlift
90x5
125x5
160x2
150x3

2 hand Plate pinches
45’s 2x5
45’s + oly sleeve 2x3

The oly sleeve 1-hand DL has the sleeve still on the bar, so the bar is horizontal. I grab the sleeve and try to lift it. Very hard for a guy with small hands. I can’t even make my fingers touch my thumb on this lift. I can do more weight on the vertical oly sleeve DL, simply because the sleeve can’t roll.

Hands were kind of tired from last night.

2008-3-21

Lower and Arms (drop-in at commercial Gym)
Zercher Lift
135x8
185x5
215x5
225x5,5

Romanian Deadlift
275x5
295x5,5

Power Clean w/ Front Squat(ass to heels)
165x3,5 (cleaned each rep)
185x5 (cleaned only first rep)

EZ Bar Lying triceps extensions
80x10
100x8
120x8 (!?)
130x8 (!)
140x6,6

EZ Bar Curls
100x5
120x5
130x3
120x5

Wrist Curls
Extension
30x8,8,4

Flexion
Bailed on this

45 degree hyper-extensions
BWx15
45x12
70x10,10

Exceeded expectations in all lifts today. Zercher lift was not too hard at 85% of prev max so I bumped it up to 225 and it still wasn’t too hard. Had to add 30 lbs to RDLs to make them feel as difficult as last time I did them. Cleans were easy at a weight I usually struggle on.

LTE’s were ridiculous easy at 130 - which I struggled with last time - so those got 10 lbs added and I still did more than my scheduled reps. Only curls were right on schedule and I was able to add the extra 130 set to that.

Great training day.

Good deal! Way to go!

Here’s a nice article by Bill Starr on managing workload for uninterrupted gains.
ditillo2.blogspot.com/2008/03/understanding-workload-bill-starr.html

I’m going to start tracking workload and intensity and correlating that with how good or crappy I feel. Once I get some experience with it, I should be able to pretty much tell when I need to back off, push ahead or stick with the day’s plan.

It’s long, but worth a careful read.

Interesting article. I’ll have to read it again to really digest it. The only one I recall listing backoff sets in their lifting is BiggJames. I may have missed someone, though.

2008-3-22

Active recovery

Chopping up some nasty, knotty, twisted up Monterey pine sections.

16 lb sledge, busted wedges and a dull ax.

2 hours

Back feels great, no numbness in the toes and no electric shocks down the leg while carrying and twisting with pine sections.

They told me it would take up to 2 years to get better. I think that’s normal for inactive folks. I think I’m going to stop noticing this thing in under a year. TBTG.

An old PL friend of mine used to track his workload and incorporate those calculations into determining his loading parameters. This sounds remarkably similar to what he was doing. I thought he had gotten it from Sheiko because he did a lot of Coach Sheiko’s routines and based his workouts on his readings of Sheiko’s work.

But… he might have been using something from Starr, though.

It’s interesting - I’ve been going by feel in the way I’ve my set set up my sessions, which replicates something I did before my injury, which was working very well for me.

I take three movements for each area I wish to work and rotate through them while alternating between 4 singles and and 2 sets of 5. I think this works because it does exactly what Starr writes about.

So it looks like this:
Upper session 1
4 singles on flat bench
4 singles on BB rows
2 5’s on chinup
2 5’s on standing overhead BB press

Lower session 1
singles on zercher
2 5’s on RDL
arm crap usually 2 5’s

Upper session 2
4 singles on seated overhead press
4 singles on Med neutral grip pullups
2 5’s on Floor press
2 5’s on reverse grip BB rows

Lower session 2
2 5’s on Box Squat
2 5’s on snatch grip Deadlift
2 5’s on arms

Upper session 3
4 singles on dips
4 singles on DB row
2 5’s on med pronated grip pullups
2 5’s on 1- arm DB overhead press

Lower session 3
4 singles on Full Squats
2 5’s on 1-legged Deadlifts
2 5’s on arms

and then the next cycle reverses the singles and reps days.

Seems to incorporate a wave where the volume keeps going up, which supports the intensity which trains the CNS to be more efficient which supports increasing the volume. I’m also taking planned recovery days after 3 upper/lower sessions, which seems to have worked if the last lower workout is any indicator.

It ain’t fast, but it seems to be working. Tracking the workload and average intensity will tell me if this is true or not.

[quote]The Pencil Neck wrote:
An old PL friend of mine used to track his workload and incorporate those calculations into determining his loading parameters. This sounds remarkably similar to what he was doing. I thought he had gotten it from Sheiko because he did a lot of Coach Sheiko’s routines and based his workouts on his readings of Sheiko’s work.

But… he might have been using something from Starr, though.[/quote]

I’ve read some of the Sheiko threads on the site and it seems like a LOT of work. Perfect for keeping testosterone-laden young men out of trouble by keeping 'em busy and making them tired, but beyond my recovery capability…