The Pencil Neck's Miscellany

[quote]bushidobadboy wrote:
LOL, yeah my mate had a long ponytail too, along with the goatee that it looks like you are wearing. That would have been right around 2000. Uncanny.

Bushy[/quote]

Hah! I just saw that you’re from Wales. I’ve got Welsh blood in me (along with some Danish, German and a trace American Indian). I’ve had several people tell me I look Welsh. A lot of Welshmen died in the Alamo.

weight: forgot to weigh

Squat: 135x5; 225x3; 315x1; 365x1; 395x1
Bench: 115x5; 185x3; 225x1
Supinated Pullups: 0x4; 0x4

The past couple of days have been rough. There’ve been a lot of problems at work this week. So I didn’t work out yesterday and today I could only fit in an abbreviated workout.

I concentrated on fixing the fixable things we had discussed from the video. I taped the 395# squat and I think I kept my arch a little more solid and I did a better job leading with my head. But I’ve still got to work on it.

The bench was funny. I hit my sticking point, decided I was going to fail, then said no way, inched it up, figured I was going to fail, then figured it was too late to fail now, and finally locked it out. I racked it almost as soon as I locked it out. I videod this as well but the angle is weird.

I didn’t have time for my DL’s so I just threw in a couple of sets of pullups just to do some back work.

Awsome feedabck to the vid guys! And nice squatting PN. I have the same problem I’m working on correcting. NOt so much the rounding back, but I tend to lean forward in the hole, and don’t sit back on the lift.

The Obi Wan thing is great ! LOL

weight: 195.6

Squat: 135x5; 225x5; 315x3; 385x1; 405x1
Bench: 115x5; 185x3; 220xF
Deadlift: 225x3; 295x1; 375x1
Supinated Pullups: 0x5; 0x5
DB Curls: 42.5x10
Dead Hangs: 49s

I guess I’m going to change my workouts to Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday. Work has gotten insane. I had been planning on working out yesterday (Saturday) but my wife came home and said she wanted to go see Iron Man. I’m like, I can be a good boy, stay home, work out, and possibly jeopardize my marriage or I can go out with my wife, see Iron Man, and then go out and get a steak. I chose to save my marriage. Call me crazy.

Anyway, last night I slept on my shoulder wrong. My shoulder is wrecked today.

I wasn’t concentrating on my squats and ended up doing more reps on the warmups than I had originally planned. I decided to make my last warmup 385 so that it sets me up for the heavier squats better. I was concentrating on not rounding my lower back, not sure if I was successful but it felt better. The 405 was actually kinda hard because I sank that mutha ATG and paused it a moment checking to see if it felt like my back was rounded.

The bench… well… I was thinking about cutting them totally. I was scheduled to try for 230 but I knew I wasn’t up for that. I failed because my shoulder just didn’t feel right and it shut down.

I’m thinking about making the deadlifts every other workout to help with recovery. I’m also thinking about changing the curls to incline curls with lighter weight because that was part of my old shoulder rehab workout. My elbows are hurting after this workout so it might be the curls instead of the close grip benches that were hurting them.

Nice work, PN! Take care of that shoulder.

Thanks, Geech.

weight: 197.0

Squats: 135x5; 225x3; 315x1; 385x1; 415x1
Bench: 115x5; 185x3; 205x1
Deadlift: 225x3; 295x1; 380x1
Supinated Pullup: 0x6; 0x6
Dead Hang: 46s

I’ve decided to ditch the close grip bench and the curls until my elbow feels better. My shoulder is feeling better but not perfect, yet.

Everything felt good. The DL was close to max because of my grip.

Strong lifting PN, nice work!

Nice work!

Good work PN. Don’t mess with your shoulder brother. I have good days and bad days too… just take advantage of the good ones and work around the bad ones!

Keep it up!

weight: 197.0

Squats: 135x5; 225x3; 315x1; 390x1; 420x1
Bench: 115x5; 185x3; 210x1; 220x1
Incline DB Bench: 40x10
Incline DB Curls: 20x15
Supinated Pullups: 0x13

The squats felt good but it was slow. Same with the bench. I added the incline work as prehab sort of stuff. And the supinated pullups ties a PR.

I haven’t been posting or reading recently. My work has been in-freaking-sane. They were supposed to hire someone a few months ago for me to train to take over some of my workload because they wanted me to work on a new project. They couldn’t find anyone. So now they still want me to work on the new project and cover my old workload. Not. Working.

Anyway, I want Jimmy T to know I’ve paid my fees and I’m set for the NASA meet. I’ll see you there, brutha! I’ll probably wear my #55 Houston Texans Jersey that says Pencil Neck on the back. Just to be recognizable.

PN-

Nice set!! That’s some good weight you’re moving!

I’m looking forward to meeting you.We are set to go on friday to the early weigh in.Your training looks strong.We have four competing in the meet.Teenagers-198-181-148
and me Masters2-198.Stay focused and see you in two weeks brother. Jimmy T

PN,

Looks like things are setting up well for the meet in a few weeks.

Nice combination of lower body (420 squat) and upper body (13 pullups) strength. You don’t see too many people in the gym able to do both.

Stay healthy and have a great weekend. I hope work slows down.

mday

Looks strong, gotta take care of business but glad to see you posting again.

Glad to see you posting again PN. Great squattin’!

Thanks, guys.

Still busy and still falling behind. Here’s the problem from Sunday’s workout:

weight: 197.6
squat: 135x1
Bench: 135x5; 185x3; 215x1; 225xF
Incline DB bench: 42.5x15
Incline DB curls: 22.5x15
Supinated pullups: 0x14

On Saturday, I noticed that my right knee was feeling tight. First squat, it was all wrong. Damnit.

Then to fail on the bench. Rrrrrgggg.

Today’s workout.

weight 196.2

Squat: 135x5; 225x3; 315x1
Bench: 135x5; 185x3; 205x1; 215x1
Incline DB Bench: 45x15
Incline DB Curls: 25x15
Supinated Pullups: 0x14.5

I was supposed to workout yesterday but my knee was bad and I decided to give it another day’s rest. Today, it felt better. I wanted to go heavier but I didn’t trust it. It was feeling feeling iffy with the 315.

Bench was nice and light. Inclines were good. The 15th rep in the pullups was just a partial. Couldn’t quite finish it.

But I’m scheduled for one more heavy squat workout before I scale it down the week before the meet. I really don’t want to go in without having squatted at least 425 (this week).

Rats, rats, rats.

Glad you’re finding the groove again. You obviously know your body and when not to force things.

weight: 196.4

Squat: 135x5; 225x3; 315x1; 365x1; 415x1
Bench: 115x5; 185x1; 210x1; 220x1

The 365 and 415 squats were oooogly. The 365, I got good depth but it hurt my knee to do it and I came up kinda shaky. Shakier than I should have been with 365. On the 415, I just took it down to where it felt comfortable and then when I started on the way up, things got discombobulated.

I have more than enough strength for this but it got all sorts of funky. The worst part is that it’s just not quite deep enough.

The bench was fine.

Ok, guys. I need some moral support. It’s one week before the meet. I haven’t been able to squat heavy for this past week. My knee is messed up.

Do I lift at the meet or do I pass? My wife and I were planning on driving in Friday evening, getting a room for Friday night, and then leaving after the meet. But we haven’t booked a room, yet. I’m really tempted to not go if I can’t squat very well.

A week’s rest can mean alot, especially if you are using additional means to speed the healing along. You had the weight on your back, so I think it will still ‘feel’ light at the contest, especially with the adrenaline pumping.

Afterwards, you may feel it, BUT contest time, I’d bet no pain! You have to listen to and respect your body…nobody knows it better than you…you know all the sacrifices that go into training for a contest…only you can make that call…'think with the big head, not with the little one, and GO WITH IT!!!

Best of luck,
Art