Misc.

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Unfortunately some of you thought this was related to the Misc forums. I’m not edemucated about that, but here are a few smaller topics.

PR Friday
Remember that whole community thing from yesterday? Well, this community likes seeing how you do in training. Did you hit a lifting PR that you’ve been chasing? Are you reaching your body composition or weight gaining goal? Did you help people push their truck out of the road (something I did twice in 18 hours when in Texas — I forgot to mention it)? Tell us about it in the comments.

Chicago Workshop Weekend
I’m traveling to Chicago tomorrow to do the Workshop Weekend (Lifting on Saturday, Programming on Sunday) in Chicago. I worked on and improved the lectures on both days, so if you’re still interested in coming, there are a couple spots still open. CLICK HERE FOR INFORMATION AND PURCHASE.

When I travel I post things on the Facebook Fan Page or Twitter, so check those out. I am going to cry myself to sleep because I’ll miss a portion of the football games. I’ll just have Jacob Cloud text me drunken updates.

Conan
I’ve held an exact replica of Conan’s sword that was made by the son of the guy that made it for Arnold (in Spain, I think). This replica was sharp, heavy, and usable. It was also owned by a guy named Conan (I’m not making this shit up). It’s the same thing that Arnold used; at first they gave him some kind of lighter crap-sword, and he basically said, “Fuck that, I want the real deal.” In all of the scenes, Arnold is using a real, razor sharp sword.



Tactical Strength Challenge
Every now and then I drop the ball with something. For example, that whole trying to make several fantasy football leagues thing? Yeah, I dropped the ball there (here’s the actual league with some of the guys from the site including Cloud, Briskin, Chris, Kittensmash, and Stroup). But I didn’t realize how soon the official TSC was…it’s this weekend. Go to www.tacticalstrengthchallenge.com to see the ruling on this even that has a three attempt max deadlift, maximum pull-ups, and max kettlebell snatches in a 5:00 time period. There are varying divisions for men and women (including weighted pull-ups and a heavier KB for the men’s elite division) as well as gyms holding official events this Saturday. I scrolled through and saw various acquaintances or friends in Sacramento, Denver, and Fort Wayne. The TSC is an interesting way to test yourself.

Deficiency
As far as recovery and nutrition are concerned, what are you deficient in? This could be sleep, water, protein, carbs, fat, vitamins, minerals, mobbing, etc. What is the thing that you need to improve?

78 thoughts on “Misc.”

  1. Been sick, finally back to setting some PRs.

    Press 155lb 3×5
    Deadlift 5x350lb
    Squat 5x255lb

    Tried 20 rep squats for the first time this morning so I guess that was a PR even with a puny 175lb… they went up easy but I felt kinda nauseous for a while afterwards – that’s normal, right?

  2. Been a shitty week for training (i.e I haven’t trained this week) due to various work and kiddie related things. Gonna hit the gym (the local park) today for sure.

    Deficiencies: sleep and actually working out. I’m hoping both of these will be sorted out to some extent as the kids get older.

  6. 160kg Squat x 3
    170kg Dead Lift x 3
    100kg Bench Press x 5. ( I have these weird long arms. Not made for bench.)
    I’m never gonna take part in powerlifting or anything of that sort, so I’m wondering when to stop pushing , maybe start doing more swollertrophy stuff?
    Opinions?

    Depends on what you wanna do.

    –Justin

  7. Snatch PR – 56 kg

    I did that with Glenn and Caleb over the weekend and took two attempts at 60, one of which was decent. Then, I easily hit 55 on Wednesday and took three attempts at 60, which were all right there. I want 60 extra super amounts.

    In other news, I still can’t rack cleans or jerks due to my collarbone, which is NOT broken. Maybe a deep bone bruise, who knows? But, I’m giving it some time. Lots of clean high pulls. I’m not even racking front squats, so I am doing both HBBS and LBBS right now. Good times.

    I am entirely sleep deficient. Fixing that would be awesome.

  9. I’m back to training hard three days a week after taking time off for vacations and then injuring my knee. Squatted 280 3×5 yesterday and deadlifted 380×2. It’s coming back but man do I feel weak. I was out of the gym for a total of 25 days. I still don’t have total confidence in the knee, which definitely made deadlifting hard since that lift is all confidence.

    I’m most deficient in mobbing and sometimes sleep during the week. I can’t do anything about ths sleep issue since it’s due to working but I could defintitely quit being a fucking whiner and just do more mobility work.

    It smells liek Updog in here? Do you guys do yoga? The strongest person I know is 37 and swears by yoga. He has told me I need to be doing at least an hour session a week if I want to continue lifting for the next 30 years. If so, do you have any suggestions for a yoga program for strength athletes? I don’t really enjoy yoga but I like how it makes me feel afterwards. I can’t stand the classes because the whole spiritual granola, avitartotem, Pure Moods Soundtrack nonsense is just fucking ridiculous. But a little 30-60 minute routine I could do at home would be cool.

  10. Maslow, yoga is just compound stretching (i.e. stretching multiple muscles at once) with a serving of bullshit on top. I don’t do yoga but I stretch every day, and I use yoga poses. It’s easy to learn some — just hit up Youtube. The instructors are usually easy on the eyes, which helps.

  11. No PRs for me, but I have dropped about 7-8 lbs of blubber (from 223 to 213ish).

    Strength levels haven’t changed so I’m assuming the weight loss was mostly fat.

    Now to work back up at a more reasonable pace, staying lean while getting strong.

    I am severely deficient in sleep (and sometimes protein).

  12. My PRs last week (don’t laugh, I am almost certainly the weakest male on this site, but the numbers are only going up):

    Bench 73kg x4
    Press 55kg x5

    Nobody’s laughing. Everyone is on a strength quest, we’re just at different points.

    –Justin

  15. I switched to high bar squats 2 weeks ago so set a silly PR of 135lbs there.. still trying to get over not squatting 185. Also deadlifted 195 – so close to my 200lb goal by end of year. Need a new goal.

    Deficiencies: mobility, for sure.

    Are you maintaining technique through the heavier lifts? That could be something to focus on after hitting the original weight focused PR.

    –Justin

  16. I made the switch to low bar squats about a month or so ago, and it’s finally feeling good enough to start progressing them. So, technically a PR.

    Squat: 290 5×3
    Deadlift: 355 5×1

    Deficiency: Sleep. Work+life necessitates that I train at 5 a.m., which sucks major ass.

  17. @Behemoth, you can’t take that distinction away from me, sorry.

    PR – Press 115.5# for 4,5,4

    Deficiencies – food in general, sleep, squat rack, flat bench, mob work.
    I most need to improve my time management skills to make better use of my days. I think a lot of my deficiencies would take care of themselves once I get more efficient with my time.

  18. No PRs to report, because my lifts are all sucking shit. I’m pretty sure it’s because I’m seriously deficient in the nutrition department at the moment.

    I’m under a ridiculous amount of stress at work (I’m in academia), and it’s not going to let up anytime soon. Putting up some heavy-ass weight usually helps with the stress. But I’m SO stressed right now that I’m having a really hard time getting enough calories and of the right sort. I’m pretty frustrated and not sure what to do about this. I should just suck it up and eat more, but that’s hard when you actually feel like you’re going to puke. (Yeah, yeah, eating is hard.)

    My impression is that I’m not the only academic on here. Ideas?

    Supplementation (namely protein) could help with the lack of eating. Whey protein, juice, and a handful of notes or ground nuts mixed in with the shake would work.

    –Justin

  20. @karibot my lifting mentor is a professor. He trains midday usually at the school’s fitness center. He cooks a huge amount of food once or twice a week and then packs it into containers to take with him each morning.

  21. First time posting about my progress on the site so I guess I’ll start using this as an accountability tool for myself.

    My lifts have gotten much better as of late after my greyskull reset. Only thing I’m trying to get used to again is the back squat cause i took a hiatus from back squatting and focused on body weight squats(a wide variety of them.)I felt stronger in my back squat,but was difficult getting used to heavy loads on my back again.But we’ll see what happens next week.

    But with the greykull lp,my lifts are as follows this week(in pounds):

    Shoulder press:180×7
    Deadlift:335×6
    squat:295×12
    bench:260×10
    power clean:205×1(I never practice the oly stuff,but gave it a go this week and Pr’ed by 10 pounds.)

    I am pretty deficient in two things:Nutrition and Olympic lifting.O yeah and squatting.

    The nutrition side is getting better but I’m trying to multitask with school now with my daily regimen.But at least Its better than 3 months ago.

    The oly lifts and back squats are just because of the apprehension i develop when approaching the heavy weights.I hurt my back a number of times in the past due to inefficient technique so even tho I’m much stronger and better with my teachnique,the fears of my past still come back to haunt me every time when i get under the bar to squat.but it’s just something that gets easier to deal with everytime i make a new pr.

    My goal is fat loss and it has been working slowly,but pretty well considering that i’m just trying to adust to the new semester.Pants fit better now that 4 weeks ago, and When I look in the mirror now, I see someone who looks like a strong mothaf*cka in the making as opposed to 6 months ago looking like a fat sack of nothin.

    So the goal by thanksgiving is to fit into 38 pants and XL t-shirts while staying strong. It’s going to happen, because I want eat like a viking during the holidays and enjoy my food.I don’t want to spend my holidays eating with a guilty conscience.haha.Lets see how this goes

    BTW,I was flipping thru the tv channels yesterday and caught a little wrestling.Kurt Angle was wrestling and my first thought was “Damn,this dude looks sick”and not in the bro language way. He lost a massive amount of muscle/yokage and looks much weaker now than in 2009,when he looked like a brick shit house.It was a sad sight to see.

  22. Two weeks ago took a forearm in the chest playing goalie for an indoor soccer team. The next day did some deadlifts and snatches. My chest was a little sore, but nothing really hurt. I thought maybe just some bruising. The second day went to do some light C&J and felt a crunch in my sternum. Hurt like a MF’er for a week. Every movement hurt. Needless to say, I did nothing that week.

    After reading the My Body is Ready article, I took assessment of my injury and changed what I was doing. Just twice a week of lighter squats, pullups and RDL.

    I tried to HB squat 225lb for 3 sets of 10 on Monday and only got 7 on the third set. My legs were so sore I could barely walk for 2 days. Made an second attempt yesterday and knocked them out. My legs are little sore, but not like an imp stuffed in a barrel way.

    Just minor soreness in my sternum today, hopefully only another week of the above. I guess i could try for 3 sets of 15 next week.

  23. PR: Started my linear progression last night a day or two later than I wanted. Feels good man. Starting so light feels wrong in a way but I know that 5x5s are gonna get tough… has anyone here done a 5×5 LP with power cleans? I don’t know if I should go 5×5 on cleans or 3×5.

    I am deficient in mobility work (will fix by mobbing religiously on rest days) as well as cabers and braemar stones (will fix by scoping out the highland games weekend after next with an eye towards competing next year).

    I don’t like doing/recommending cleans — power or otherwise — more than three reps. I typically stick with doubles or singles.

    –Justin

  25. PRs: little to report in the actual lifting department, but slowly reaching my bodyweight goal of 200, was 193.4 yesterday.

    Deficiencies: mobbing, been real tight in my lower legs on the lateral side of my shin after squatting recently. Some days it’s fine, other days it hurts bad enough that when doing an air squat to warm up I doubled over in pain. Any ideas on this?

    First start rolling out all sides of your legs. Does this exist because of an acute injury?

    –Justin

  26. Weight cut for meet PR, down to 197
    Have my first meet next weekend over at John Welbournes place in orange county. I know, I know, don’t cut weight for your first meet, but after this meet I will be focussing in on my fight training so strength will take a hit. Plus the cut was only to get under 198 and I was walking around at 200, so figured why not.
    Squat PR of 440…will go for broke on my final attempt next week for 450

  29. mando – Justin told me the following in regards to cleans:

    Cleans are typically done for 5 sets of three reps, but this can be changed as well. I’ve had people do one power clean on the minute for fifteen minutes. This gets the same amount of volume in and lets the lifter focus on one lift at a time, since the power clean is more dependent on technique.

  30. 295×5 on lowbar while doing SS, can’t wait for 315 finally.

    I’m definitely deficient in just overall recovery right now. Being in studio from 10-7ish and then going to lift is extremely taxing. Going to switch up my days I lift so I can get some actual food in my system beforehand.

    Deficient in fridge space for milk. Going to the store twice a week for 3-4 gallons gets very annoying.

    Just so we don’t have a weird realization later — high volumes of milk are usually reserved for younger skinny folks. If this isn’t you, then reevaluate.

    –Justin

  31. Finally starting to hit some PR’s after having a baby 3 months ago

    Snatch – 88 lbs. – pathetic I know
    Press PR – 88 lbs.
    It will take at least another month or so to work back up to my squat and dl PRs

    Completely deficiet in sleep at the moment. Trying to balance two kids, working full time and training is tough.

  32. snatch pull + snatch 100kg off high blocks last saturday

    then did 2 sets of the same at 90kg tues, and clean pull + clean + front squat 110kg yesterday.

    deficient in mobbing and being strong enough, probably deficient in protein and sleep occasionally.

  33. Best gym accomplishments this week — 6 consecutive chin-ups and a deadlift double at 182.5 (unfortunately, that’s pounds, not kilos). Like so many others, I am deficient in sleep (I hear ya on that balance thang, kpow1979). Also deficient in good books, though that is (1) easier to fix than the sleep problem and (2) not likely to help the sleep problem.

  34. Deficient in a goal. I think i want to get into oly lifting but i want to get at least some coaching before i get serious. I’m happy building my base of strength for now until i can find somewhere good. Also deficient in mobbing, i enjoy it when i do it but i just need to set up a routine.

    P.R.’s in KG
    Squat 120x3x5 and 122.5x3x3
    Dead 137.5x1x5 also hit the 6 plate for a single for the ego.
    Benching for swoleness cus im going back to uni and the ladies love a big chest…come at me bro
    Shrugging to look like Wendler, took it up to 140 for some power shrugs.

  35. It’s been a while since I’ve posted. Mainly been doing some olympic stuff while building back strength from a back injury almost a year ago.

    C&J PR (without pressing out the jerk): 115 kg. If I get my form down I feel like I should be able to hit 120 relatively soon. My tendency is to dip too quickly in the jerk and separating the bar from my rack position.

  39. Cant lift cause me heads all silly, but i can do sprints so i guess ill be in hella good shape…

    Started reading ASOFAI on Tuesday, thanks for the rec. Justin and everyone else

  40. @Behemoth, if I count as a male (i’m 15), then i’m probably the weakest on the site.

    this week:
    bench: 152.5×6
    squat: 215×5, attempting 220 in an hour or two.
    deadlift: 255×5

    that’s in pounds…

    Deficiencies: Sleep, food, and water for sure.

  44. Halfway through our month of high volume work (eg 3’s on clean and jerk). No real pr’s – getting really fatigued now.

    Deficiencies: sleep. I want to be one of those guys who goes to bed and is asleep within ten minutes and wakes up when the alarm goes off or otherwise late.

  45. PR’s:
    Squat 350# x 5
    Bench 265# x 5
    Deadlift 415# x 3

    Deficiency: Condioning. My blood pressure is high and I’m easily winded- working on improving these. Also, I just re-watched the Conan movies a little while ago- still awesome.

  46. weirdest intensity day ever…

    it all starts with no pre workout coffee… uh oh. Then I warm up squats. get 375×4 and realize the bar I am using is NOT rotating AFTER i warm up to 405×1 so it was keeping my on my toes and throwing me forward and making my pull all weird. Then my I swap out for a good bar and when I go to pull my hip is just aching and I fucking pull 425×1 and say screw this and leave. CSB… CSB.

  47. squat385x4
    dead 420×4 (not really pr, i pulled 415 for 5 which i consider stronger, but never dead lifted after squatting before so that was interesting)
    bench 225×10 (not an intensity, but rep pr)

  49. Got all kinds of PRs this week. Overall PRs, Rep PRs, post injuries PRs (broken ankle, broken toe, sprained back, torn labrum, sprained the ankle I broke 6 months later, all these occurred separately).

    Been running the greyskull LP
    Press 135 2×5, 1×7 (overall PR)
    Bench 162.5 2×5, 1×12 (post tear PR/ possible rep PR)
    Squat 220 2×5, 1×10 ( definitely rep PR, also post injury PR for weight)
    Trap Bar Dead 280 x10

    Obviously all these are in pounds or I’d be famous.

    Also, I feel like today was a form PR as well. I started squatting with a belt (been using shoes for a few months) and started really concentrating on some ques I gave myself and the work sets were as easy as they have been since I started the GSLP.

    Question: does anyone on here have any opinion on the trap bar. I started using it when I read in dinosaur training that it is a better safer way to train deadlifts. Basically my question is is there anything wrong with this statement? I switched to the trap bar due to not having a training partner or coach and being worried about form. I have no intentions to compete anytime soon, right now I am just focused on getting jacked and getting a job. Once I get a job I plan on joining some Oly gym and getting coached and competing in that. Is there anything horrendously wrong with this plan?

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