More Cardio

I hopped on the bike again tonight. I increased the workrate a little, but it still felt super easy. Oh well, as long as it’s going up.

I’m feeling really out of place in the rec, like I really don’t belong. I’m seeing lot’s of really rediculous shit, most of which you’re probably familiar with if you’ve ever trained in a commercial facility. I don’t feel like rehashing it, but needless to say, I’m glad I train in the Weight Club.

When I did my lap at the end of my cardio, I wound up walking behind this girl with some serious junk in the trunk. She was quite the looker in my book.

Then I did some stretching with my flex bands. You know, the ol’ over-under shoulder stretch.

 

I don’t think I need deadlifts this cycle.

Not with 3×8 Safety Squat Bar good mornings, I don’t. I moved right along tonight. It’s a welcome change to actually feel a pump during training.

SSB good morning 150×8, 200x2x8 superset with

knee raises 15x2x8, 20×8  (75 sec rest)

45° incline dumbbell press 80×8, 85x2x8 superset with

high incline bent over row 60×8, 65×8, 70×8 (75 sec rest)

barbell skull crusher 115x3x8 (75 sec rest)

standing reverse curl 75x2x15 superset with

dumbbell shrug 100×25, 145×15 (120 sec rest)

I stretched out real well tonight. I’m not sure Nenad appreciated me asking him to help push me knee down while I stretched my TFL. (tensor fascia latae, Google it). Then I used bands and stretched out my shoulders. Chad Waterbury says I should be able to touch my fingers behind my back (one arm over, one arm under), so I’ve been working on it.

I’m digging these shorter rest periods, I think they’re going to do me some good. Hopefully I’ll be able to put on some size and improve my conditioning for this next meet.

Does this make me a cardio bunny?

One of my weight club friends was training one day and got some unsolicited advice from one of our older members. Something about doing more “aerobics”. My friend told me he was thinking “Why don’t you fucking die.” Sounds about right to me.

On a side note, I like using terms like “aerobics”, “conditioning” and “speed work” rather than more avant garde terms like “energy systems work”, “GPP” and “dynamic effort method”, respectively. It’s not that I have a problem with using specific terminology, or even with progress in general, it’s just that I don’t think these terms give anything more to the average listener. Further, once these terms leave their original circle, they’re often just used to make yourself sound smarter. I’ve grown up enough that I don’t have much interest in that. If I’m talking to someone who writes programs for a living or is serious about training science, I’ll consider using more precise terminology.

I used the campus rec center rather than my normal gym for this, for precisely the reasons that I think the rec is a chump factory in the first place. The atmosphere is entirely non-aggressive, the people there are largely uninterested, and there are TV’s on the wall. Oh, and there are Hotties everywhere. I swear, when I walked in there was a girl doing the butterfly stretch on the floor with here knees touching the deck and her chest about two hands from it.

I used a stair stepped for about three minutes. Maybe it’s because I haven’t used a stair stepper since 2001, almost 80 pounds ago, or maybe it’s because I’m overestimating my conditioning, but it killed me. I hobbled off it, looked to see if there was any other interesting equipment. I’ve never bothered to actually look closely at the long line of cardio equipment, so I expected there to be a myriad of different kinds, but all I saw were two different kinds of stair steppers, a ton of ellipticals, a treadmill or something and a bike.

Regarding the elliptical, I honestly can’t believe any man would use one. Just watching the path of the akimbo limbs of users of this machine makes my knees, hips and back hurt. If I have my way I’ll never touch one.

I settled on the bike and I wound up using a pathetic work rate (about 100 watts) for 20 minutes and kept the heart rate around 160, which felt like nothing. In fact, I don’t really feel like I did anything. Then I stretched and went home.

I also did my fair share of non-lecherous people-watching. It’s the people really that make the rec, and other commercial facilities, what I call “Chump Factories”. I didn’t think I even saw a 225 bench or a single squatter. I saw more Under Armor and sleeveless t-shirts than I knew existed. I saw a guy with big, soft arms and a mp3 player or heart monitor thingy on his arm that was so tight his subcutaneous arm fat overlapped the band a full quarter inch. I saw a guy on some kind of oblique machine that made my spine hurt watching him. Of course, I only actually saw him do one set and the rest of the time he was just sitting there.

Next time I’m going to man up and try the stair stepper, I just have to realize that I’m doing 2o minutes of continuous work and try not to kill myself right away. That’s a product of my training, I give it all up front and then I’m out of juice.

“Sets Over Three are Cardio” and Dairy-Lust

God, I hate rep work. These behind the neck presses killed me, I didn’t get a single set at the rep range I wanted. I should have used an empty bar, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. I’ll eat my Wheaties next week and make my rep range.

A1: Seated Behind the neck press  95×15, 75×15, 55×15

A2: Lat pulldown 10x2x25

B1: Narrow backwards safety bar squat, heels elevated 115x2x25

B2: laying leg curl 10x2x25

In the last couple months I’ve had three training sessions that made me fight back a mighty bolus of vomit. One was the first night I pulled rep deadlifts with Phil. The second was right after we got the Safety Squat Bar and I thought it was a good idea to do EDT lunges with it. The third was tonight after squats.

C1: DB hammer curl 40x3x10

C2: Safety Squat Bar Hise shrug 150×10, 200x2x10

Sometime during the curls and shrugs I started fantasizing about what I was going to eat after training. Somehow I settled on chocolate milk and the rest of the night I was jonesing for post-workout chocolatey dairy goodness. Then, to make matters worse, one of my powerlifting teammates, a 165 pounder, was talking about hitting a chinese buffet at our next powerlifting meet. You know, the kind of shitty midwestern buffet where everything is covered in sauce and tastes essentially the same. I’m even getting hungry writing it.

external rotations, pushup plus, wrist extensions 3×10

hip abduction and adduction, 45# dumbbell push, 3×9

If there’s something I hate as much as reps, it’s all this minor accessory work. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure it’s important and it helps keep you healthy and I don’t need to do it every single training cycle. The fact remains that it’s shitty and boring and nothing about it is satisfying in the least.

To make matters worse, there weren’t even any Hotties about, as there was a guys intramural basketball tournament. Nobody wants to see a bunch of skinny, scraggly dudes running around high-fiving each other. At least one of them fell down when I was watching, which was pretty hilarious.

I’m actually psyched about using the stair stepper tomorrow.

How Much Is Enough?

Does anyone know how many and what kind of calibrated plates you should buy to put on your own powerlifting meets? Our club is looking to buy some, and I was thinking about getting a total of 427.5 kilos, made up of

• 2 x 1.25 kg
• 2 x 2.5 kg
• 2 x 5 kg
• 2 x 10 kg
• 2 x 20kg
• 2 x 25kg
• 8 x 50 kg

Anyone have any constructive input?

Regularly Scheduled Programming

I think a lot of programs from magazines and stuff are pretty stupid. I also think they’re so popular because people are by and large clueless. That being said, I think Chad Waterbury is really spot on, and his programs were the first ones I ever used instead of my own. Now I think I’m actually strong enough to benefit from my favorite program of his, Quattro Dynamo.

I did make some substitutions, so I can’t say I’m following it to the letter. I made the 5×3 squat a medium stance box squat with the safety bar, and I’ll be using the safety squat bar for the rep-squat, good morning and lunge as well. I’ll just alternate between using it forward and backward. As long as I’m doing a four day a week training schedule I thought “What the Hell?” and added Waterbury’s Perfect 10 for biceps and traps.

medium stance box squat w/SSB 240×3, 260×3, 270×3, 280×3, 290×3, 6o  sec rest

GHR four sets level, one set with back elevated six inches 60 sec rest

barbell bench 225×3, 245×3, 265×3, 285×3, 295×3

seated cable row 200x5x3

one arm reverse grip pressdown 3x5x3

ez bar curl 125x5x3

barbell shrug 225×3, 275x4x3

external rotations, pushup plus,  wrist extensions

hip abduction, pushing a dumbbell sideways across the floor, 60lb

hip adduction with bands

I actually got out of the gym in good time because I actually timed these rest periods. I don’t think short rest periods are beneficial for normal max effort training, but I just ot done with a meet and I’ve got quite a bit of time before the next one, so I figured this was a good way to work on my conditioning and just turn my brain off and go with it.

Back into training

I eased back into training tonight, with medium stance safety bar box squats onto a parallelish box.

SSB box squat 150×5, 240×3, 290×2, 310×2, 330×1

Then I went home and watched Terminator II.

Conditioning

I want to sort of ease back into training and do some good ol’ fashioned conditioning work. Now, given the amount of walking I do to and from class, I don’t think I’m in that bad of shape for a 275 pound powerlifter. Then again, that isn’t saying very much.

I walked stairs on campus for 20 minutes. I walked four flights up, then rode the elevator down. Riding the elevator wasn’t just laziness, I did it because it eliminates most of the eccentric, increasing recovery and potentially limiting post-eccentric glucose intolerence, and makes the drill more like sled-pulling, which also lacks a loaded eccentric. At any rate, I’m sure it looked ridiculous.

By the end I felt pretty shitty, and my quads were burning. I definitely could have gone a little but harder and hurled all over, probably a testament to how bad my condition really is.

I’m going to improve my conditioning and come in stronger and leaner for my next meet.

Meet Footage

I’m the good lookin’ guy squatting in the red singlet. I weighed in at a svelte 264 and change.

YouTube 

My First Full Meet

I’m still awake, after driving through some pretty nasty weather and running on some [awesome] gas-station coffee, so I thought I’d share my first meet results.

I wound up going eight for nine, the only lift I missed all day was my third attempt bench press, which was just an overenthusiastic attempt.

I wound up going 435 (197.5)-335(152.5)-546(247.5) for a 1317(597.5) total at 264 and change, supporting a first place standing for our team.

It went pretty well and I’m particularly pleased that I made all my squats. My nerves were pretty bad going into it, and I feel like my squat is poised to improve greatly with this new infusion of confidence. My bench was uneventful, and I feel like training it has taken a back seat to squat and deadlift lately. On my deadlift I did something stupid and tweaked something in my groin during warmups. I can’t complain because I went on to pull a 30 pound PR, but it just goes to show that you shouldn’t change things at the meet.

There were some really big lifts and very good lifters. There were also a large number of high school lifters, which is surprising and encouraging.

I’ll post some more info and pictures later.