Practice was el sucko grande due to rushing to get it in before the rain :mad: I will get, as The Man put it, “superheated” for the next 6 club trials. Today was so nowhere I stood there in the rain after practice for 5 minutes just absorbing the end of my juggling “career”. I will however do the week I said I would, all practices fully heated up and ready to hit it. In a week if there isn’t a flash plus some clear signs of breaking through I will hang it up. Which I am ready to do, it’s just that I would like to have something to show for all that practice. Right now I have nothing.
Weights were interesting. I warmed up for squats, then decided to bench since that is a higher priority right now. I tried 280 PR and missed by a mile, then did 4 or 5 singles with 265, all of which went easily enough that I thought about more, but I want to try to re-introduce bar speed and improve technique. I am oddly slow in lowering, which I don’t know the cause of. I then did
OH presses
DB rows
curls
pec deck
and bagged pushdowns since there was a weenie using that and I didn’t want to deal with him. There was actually a different weenie having a summit negotiation with him about working in (while I was benching) so I decided to avoid them both entirely if possible.
Overall a productive lift. I am finding that it’s much more in the front delts than I thought, and I may in fact be strongest with the little finger on the rings.
I think I may have figured out some things with bench. If I get 290 this week I’ll arrange for a camera (still don’t have one) and pick a day next week to get 3 in the can. I’ll post a clip when I get it.
Edit: Of course I have many unanswered questions. But I think I have a handle on the right warmup and technique for me at this time and can hit 3 in a week.
Did a brief weights today. Just didn’t have the high end, so bagged it and will hit it hard Fri. or Sat. Am feeling some signs of CNS fatigue so will watch that.
Okay, back to this notion that doing a PR attempt the same as a regular rep and doing it differently are both mistakes. Let me explain the first one first.
While doing reps below say 60% one finds them so easy that a certain sloppiness creeps in. This is especially true if the reps exceed 5-6. One simply cannot take this technique to a max rep and expect to succeed. If a lifter tries it he will likely fail. To avoid this problem, reps should be done with the same technique that has been found to be optimal for performing a max rep. Of course you may have variants, but a certain amount of practice with the “PR form” is important, especially in warmups before the attempt.
A different mistake is to change things for a max rep. The lifter is now doing something different that he has not practiced. Also, there may be “bugs” with this new technique that have not been discovered. Heavy weight will reveal flaws in a hurry, possibly with bad consequences. Also, the form change that he thinks will be more efficient may actually be less so.
Bottom line: Do regular weights like they’re heavy, do heavy weights like they’re regular weight.
After reading some Dave Tate I realized that I expect and settle for far too little from my workouts. I’m going to assess some things. My goal isn’t to be so damn impressive weights-wise, but still, I can do better. I’m going to see what I can do to make this 300 happen ASAP, and then focus on the fat loss I desparately need.
I’ve almost 100% decided to hang it up in juggling. I simply can’t get there, and the energy is better spent on other things. :mad: I’m ready to be done, but damn, I would have liked to have done something The other maddening part is I just don’t understand why I can’t get anywhere with 6. It seems like it shouldn’t be that hard.
Just to clarify my previous entry: When I say that 6 clubs shouldn’t be that hard, I mean that it shouldn’t be as hard as it’s been to make any freaking progress. There is one guy in the whole state of NC who can do it, and he has a WR to his credit. So it was a lofty goal to start with. I incorrectly thought I could get there but for whatever reasons it hasn’t happened. Whether I could still do it is an open question, but a few things are true: It takes a lot of energy and time to try it, I’m limited in energy and I’m far enough away that I can’t justify making a last push since I’d likely come up empty. I thought about doing something with sticks, but 7 wouldn’t really be worth it and I’m not sure if I could flash 8 and not sure it’d be worth it if I did. 9 would be worth it, but it’s also a million miles away.
Based on my eye twitching and need for naps I will not push for the 3 this week. Instead I’ll do 2 weeks of Westside to renew bar speed and stay strong while giving myself a break from limit weights. I also feel a little sniffly so I clearly have to back off to avoid what happened last time I thought I was close, namely, staleness and getting sick.
Edit: While my bench has increased a whole 5 lbs. in the last 3 months :rolleyes: my assistance lifts have gone up steadily so there is some sign that I’m not totally wasting time. I will however reevaluate because damn, I should be getting stronger faster than this.
Eye twitching and falling asleep quickly continue. Not that falling asleep fast is bad per se; I just usually don’t. So I skipped a planned speed bench day and will take tomorrow off. I may actually do something different to train for rafting the Gauley.
I haven’t lifted since the last entry due to CNS fryage but will tomorrow since the layoff is getting to me. I’m feeling the onset on Winter depression in a major way. Actually the solstice I felt I was going crazy. I actually felt myself shutting off for the Winter. Those who read this last year know that I crumble bad in Winter, and I may not make it through this one.
I need some things to change quickly in a big way. I’m thinking hard on that, but lifting has to be both a part of my routine and not an energy or attention drain like juggling was. I can probably make that happen with smart goals.
One problem with getting overloaded is that when you take time off to recover you lose fitness. Today I aggravated my left knee a little since I was out of synch on squats, and didn’t have the energy for a hard lift overall. I did one single w/ 265 in BP, but then decided to bag it and hit it hard Sat. since I didn’t have a good one in me today, so we’ll see about today’s being a tune-up for Sat.
The diesel weasel dude with the wack lifting videos is now damn strong. There is hope for me after all.
It’s funny how we limit ourselves. Today I wasn’t feeling strong and was feeling sluggish so I picked up 45 lb. DBs to do presses with to get warmed up(after squats). I forgot what exercise I was doing and started curling them. I thought, “damn, why am I so weak?” when I was struggling to do cheat reps. Then I realized my mistake and started doing presses, but this is more than I’ve been curling. On a day when I wasn’t strong I was still doing more because I forgot what I couldn’t do and just did it. I suspect I hold myself back a lot that way. As do we all.
It’s hard to say how much of today’s lack of pop in the weightroom has to do with mental stuff, since I was feeling like there’s no point to anything and I tried to get focused for it but just had no desire, no will, and no intensitiy. Everything in my life is a failure, and doing a few more pounds in some lift won’t change that. I know it’s just for health and wellbeing, blah blah, but I just don’t want to keep working if I’m getting nothing for it. That applies to everything in my life, actually lifting isn’t going that bad, there’s some progress, but I just suck overall so why freaking bother. The answer is, because I’m even worse if I don’t lift, so I will, but I just have no thought that there is any point in anything.
After reading popequique’s journal I realized that I have built a Peak to Nowhere. That I made the push for 300 too soon, and having missed, my ego or whatever hasn’t let me go back down. No more. I’m a-goin back to the basics, no more city slicker fancy programs, just good ol 5x5. I’m gonna sneak up on it real easy-like.
I’m doing a little juggling purely for outdoor exercise while it’s still warm. If I’m going to juggle at all I might as well throw 6, but I am not getting torqued over it. Just throw and if something good happens, great. If not, I’m done throwing for the Winter.
Crappy lift today. Tweaked my knee AGAIN so no squats beyond warmup. Did deads instead, which I will likely incorporate more, especially after it gets too cold to juggle outside. I’m still not sure what my lifting schedule should be. Since today was so easy, I’ll bench tomorrow but I like to have a rest day between usually.
I may also try to flash 7 clubs and just see if it’s possible. That’s all.
Did an easy one today since I have to be up earlyish for work tomorrow. Just 225 for 5, 2 sets but actually only did 4 on the second due to bar slowage. It feels like the capacity for strength is there, but I haven’t learned how to express it. I realized, reminded by something I read at Power & Bulk, that I haven’t been including easy days in my routine. I’m going to work with this some.
I’m going to write out what I will do for the next month or so. Once I think that through I have to mostly stick to the plan. Instinctive training is fine, but lately I’ve been all over the place and I’m not training for anything. I do better when I write things out beforehand, so lifting is now included in my list of things to do – I mean lifting itself was already, but now I’ll be more specific and clear.
I think I have the capacity for a 300+ bench. I “just” have to practice the skills of expressing it. For sure I can squat much more – still monkeying around with the right form. But then, that will continue forever; I just have to make sure my groove is safe before loading it on up.
I’m going to switch to a different split, sort of inspired by Metal Militia. Details later, but for now I’ll leave you with this little nugget from their site –
Have been coughing for a week so no lifting, but I’m going to tomorrow because I’m turning into Jell-O. I’m going to change the workout in a possibly important way, details later.
I think the reason I haven’t hit 3 yet is because 3 is the goal. I was close enough that I thought I could just push a little harder/longer and get there. If my goal were to bench 350, I’d have realized I needed changes and would have done 3 by now.
The other maddening part is I just don’t understand why I can’t get anywhere with 6. It seems like it shouldn’t be that hard.