Efforts of an Aging Ectomorph (lifting)

LPF4 (from Sherdog's strongest man) said:
Here's a start:

All at 5 reps,

LPF4............157....155/215/245....615.....206.3
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Hmm. Why didn't I see that? Oh, I know, you posted those numbers almost two weeks ago, and the front page hasn't been updated. :)

If those are all 5-rep weights, your 1RM should be a good 25% or so higher, which will put your Wilks-total way the hell ahead of mine. :)

Why the 5-rep numbers?
 
Stonebreaker said:
Hmm. Why didn't I see that? Oh, I know, you posted those numbers almost two weeks ago, and the front page hasn't been updated. :)

If those are all 5-rep weights, your 1RM should be a good 25% or so higher, which will put your Wilks-total way the hell ahead of mine. :)

Why the 5-rep numbers?
Click to expand...

25% higher? no way. My guess would be 20 lbs (5-10%) more for squat and dl and maybe 10-15 (5%) for bench.

I usually do sets of 5 instead of singles/doubles which tend to cause my old body injuries.
 
LPF4 said:
25% higher? no way. My guess would be 20 lbs (5-10%) more for squat and dl and maybe 10-15 (5%) for bench.

I usually do sets of 5 instead of singles/doubles which tend to cause my old body injuries.
Click to expand...
If you think you can do it without aggravating any injuries (or causing any new ones) go for the 1-rep max and see what you come up with, because I think you might surprise yourself. As of a month ago, I was pushing hard to do 165x5 on both squats and the bench, and my current 1RM for each is 205: pretty much 20% higher than what I can do for 5 reps.

Besides, claiming "Sherdog's Weakest Man" using a Wilks-total based on anything less than your 1-rep personal records is a bit dodgy, if not outright cheating. :)
 
Stonebreaker said:
If you think you can do it without aggravating any injuries (or causing any new ones) go for the 1-rep max and see what you come up with, because I think you might surprise yourself. As of a month ago, I was pushing hard to do 165x5 on both squats and the bench, and my current 1RM for each is 205: pretty much 20% higher than what I can do for 5 reps.

Besides, claiming "Sherdog's Weakest Man" using a Wilks-total based on anything less than your 1-rep personal records is a bit dodgy, if not outright cheating. :)
Click to expand...

Wow, that's quite a spread. I've always had a very small gap between my 10 rep and single. Probably because I don't do any singles/doubles.

Tonight I did a few doubles on the bench at 220 (all I could get) whereas last week I got 5 reps.

Guess you got me on the 5 reps wilks, thought it might make you feel better if I came in last. Actually going to post some new numbers tonight/tomorrow. We'll see where I end up at. 300 here I come.
 
03/20/2007:
Warmup: Arc Trainer for 10 minutes @ resistance 25 @ 120 strides/minute

Full Squat: 85x14, 195x2, 195x1 (fail on 2), 195x1 (not a pretty lift, serious wobbling in the middle)

OH Squat: 95x7 (fail on 5th, immediate restart), 95x4 (lost balance on 1st, immediate restart, lost balance on 5th, leaned too far forward, hit the bar on the bottom of the hooks in the power rack, called it quits)

DB Lunges: 40'sx5 (fail on 6), 40'sx4

Seated Calf Raise: 165x8, 165x6

Leg Extensions (Cable machine): 115x6, 110x5

Hanging Leg-Hip Raise (chair): 7, 6

Total lift time: 64 minutes
Cool-down: skipped
Stretch: 10 minutes basic static stretches.
Bodyweight: 200

Notes:
Not a complete failure nor an unmitigated success, but a little bit of both. I blame the failures on my giving blood eight hours earlier, and credit the successes to my iron will and refusal to give up no matter how puny my legs are feeling. :)

I have discovered that very little makes me feel quite so foolish as "failing" on a lunge. Something about being down on one knee and unable to push yourself back up just feels silly.

Misc. Gym Notes:
It has been said in many posts and in several different logs, but I feel that it bears repeating here: the world is a better place for having women's volleyball in it.
 
03/21/2007:
Recumbent bike cardio fun, now, with pushups!

24 standard, ordinary pushups
5 minute warm-up on recumbent bike
14 pushups
20 minutes on recumbent bike at moderate resistance at c. 80 rpm
15 pushups
5 minute cool down on recumbent bike
12 pushups

Did I mention that muscular endurance is something I probably need to work on?

I kept the resistance on the bike low in hopes of not burning out my legs the day before I plan to do some heavy dead lifts. "Sprinting" on that antique at low resistance seems to be pretty much useless, so LSD work it was for last night.

If I keep at the endurance work on top of the cardio on nights like these, I'll probably throw in BW squats or some such as well depending on the night; I'll just avoid clobbering any muscles likely to be needed when I lift the next day.
 
that looks like a pretty good conditioning workout. maybe i'll do jogging instead of the bike though. i suck at running.
 
You want muscular endurance for doing pushups, do pushup ladders (i.e. do 1 push up, shadow box for 20s odd, do 2 push ups, shadow box, do 3, etc all the way up as high as you can go then work your way back down). You'll be amazed how many pushups you can do this way.
 
I'm operating under a noise restriction of sorts on the nights that I've been playing around with the recumbent bike; I'd dearly love to be doing burpees or some variant for endurance and conditioning those nights, but the sound of 200 pounds of me hitting the floor over and over again isn't going to fly. I fear the same effect may occur with quick drops to the floor for the pushup ladder, but it will almost certainly be quieter than a tuck-jump. :)
 
instead of the shadow boxing can i just sit and play video games?
 
I can't think of any video games that could be effectively played in 20 second intervals, but if you have one, then have at it.

You'll have to let me know how that works out for you. :)
 
03/22/2007:
Warm-up: Arc Trainer for 10 minutes @ resistance 25 @ c. 130 strides/minute

Deadlift: 145x14 (double overhand grip), 340x1 (fail 3/4's up on 2nd), 340x1 (barely budged attempt #2), 340x1 (reversed usual mixed grip, went up clean), 340x1 (also with reversed mixed grip)

Weighted Pullups: +25x4, +25x2 (held for as long as I could on last rep each time)

High Pull: 110x6, 110x6 (just plain worn out at this point)

BB Bent-over row: 110x5, 110x5

Straight-Backed, Straight-Leg Deadlift: 80x5, 80x5

Incline Twist Situps (@2): 25, 16

Total Lift time: 66 minutes
Cool down: skipped
Stretch: 10 minutes basic static stretches
Bodyweight: 199

Notes:
Today was supposed to be 340x2x2. It wound up being 340x1x4. I'm calling it a draw and moving on. Miraculously, I got through today without banging up my shin. Reversing my usual mixed-grip felt strange and unnatural, but using the mixed-grip that I am now perfectly comfortable with felt strange and unnatural when I first started.

Noted weak points in my deadlifts: the very bottom (Stonebreaker's puny legs unable to get the weight off the ground at all), and the very top (Stonebreaker's puny grip unable to hold on to the bar long enough). The first issue will hopefully be addressed in time by continuing to squat. The latter will need something not found in my current workout, though. Looks like a couple of CoC grippers will go on my list of things to order over the internet this weekend.

I seem to remember Lusst posting a while back about his father-in-law's idea of working out consisting of pedaling along on the recumbent bike while squeezing away at a gripper. I have the sneaking suspicion that, in a little while now, it will be me doing exactly that twice a week or so. :?

MMA Notes:
MMA Weekly's rumors section has Ivan Salaverry back in the UFC for UFC 71. One of the upsides of Zuffa buying up the competition appears to be that all the good fighters are winding up back on the same big stage. The downside appears to be that Matt Lindland is going to have to kiss and make up to Zuffa or he's going to eventually wind up fighting exclusively for KOTC. :)
 
03/23/2007:
Recumbent bike fun: 30 minutes, moderate resistance, c. 65 RPM.

No intervals, no pushups (was hoping to squeeze a benchpress day in on the 24th), not much of anything: basically just some light recovery work for my legs and a bit of a calorie burn.
 
03/25/2007:
20 minutes of me vs. the heavy bag: started with jab drill, jab/cross, rear roundhouse kick, back to jab/cross, jab/cross/hook, then just generalized violence against an innocent Everlast product for the last five minutes or so.

10 minutes of stretching.

Notes:
This weekend was screwed up from Friday morning on. I didn't get any lifting in at all, and I'm starting to think that's a good thing. I've been waking up bone-weary every morning for the last several days, and was looking at this coming week (testing 1RM's on the big 3) with little hope of setting any personal records. The new plan is to make this a "rest" week (i.e. more time for more serious cardio), then shoot for the big numbers starting on Sunday the 1st.

Ordered myself a CoC gripper and a Liftstrong band, and that might be all that I really accomplished in the strength training arena this weekend.
 
03/27/2007:
"Rest Week" Cardio Fun:

Arc Trainer, "Interval" setting at level 5, 20 minutes. Level 5 is a warm-up, then 60-seconds at low-ish (25) resistance and 30 seconds at higher (45) resistance. I stared out at about 110 strides/minute for the rest periods, and as fast as I could get my little legs to go (c. 180 s/m) for the intervals. Those numbers had fallen to about 90 and 150, respectively, by about the 15-minute mark. I'd been aiming at 30 minutes of that hell, but opted to stop when my lungs felt like they were on fire and the stitch in my side started to throb.

Arc Trainer, flat 25 resistance, plodding 90 strides/minute, 10 minutes. I'd call this a cool down, but it's about all I was actually pushing myself to do it for a little while there.

10 minutes of basic stretching.

Notes:
Not much to note. Even though I haven't tried the dynamic stretching that Smashius so thoughtfully linked me to, my flexibility has been improving a bit. Not by leaps and bounds, or neccessarily in the areas that I'd like it to (i.e. high roundhouse goal), but I can lean forward and put my palms flat on the ground and keep them there, which is more than I could do a few months back.

I'm willing to accept slow progress, as long as it's progressing. :)
 
03/29/2007:
More "Rest Week" fun:

Last night was my first attempt at the "pushup ladder" that Smashius recommended. I was, in fact, "amazed" at how many pushups that I could do, just not in a good way. As I was working out at home tonight, I figured "why not replace the recommended shadow boxing with actual heavy-bag work, and just do the pushups on my knuckles?" The evening went like this:

5 minute warm up on the heavy bag.

Pushup ladder begins. Intervals between pushups spent on the patented Randy Couture "Sylvia-killer" combo: inside leg kick, overhand right, left cross. Final pushup ladder height: 8. 8!?! 36 pushups total. Failed about three pushups in to my 9th set.

c. 30 seconds of tall, lanky man alternating between laughter and tears while lying prone on the mat.

10 minutes of heavy-bag work. No drills, just basic strikes and combinations. Was throwing a lot of gut-level front kicks for some reason. Apparently, I'm planning on annoying someone into submitting someday.

10 minutes stretch.

Done.

Notes:
Usual observations of my own weakness and lack of endurance. Very annoying. Plan is for more cardio Friday night, probably nothing at all on Saturday, and then max squat attempts on Sunday. Or, in other words, going back to my more usual ways of being annoyed at myself. :)
 
Wait didnt u fail on your 2nd rep of 1st set 3/4 with 340 of the way up? that means your lockout is poor...so in that case you may want to consider heavy lockouts from just above the knee....perhaps also some heavy hypers/GHRs will help also...

Grippers will help your grip but only to extent....best carryover to support grip from crushing grip is closing a tough gripper and then holding it shut or almost shut for time....however watch your grip I find that I can do either one or the other....I struggle to close moderately difficult grippers after heavy pull work without straps...

The best gripper workouts would be much too difficult to do while cycling on a stationary bike....singles, forced closes+time holds/negatives....with perhaps higher reps for recovery...use chalk on as it will significantly improve your results...

Good job with the training/log. The show of true character is perserverence inspite of great challenges and at times failures. With patience and time you will become much stronger.
 
DEVILsSON said:
Wait didnt u fail on your 2nd rep of 1st set 3/4 with 340 of the way up? that means your lockout is poor...so in that case you may want to consider heavy lockouts from just above the knee....perhaps also some heavy hypers/GHRs will help also...
Click to expand...

I guess it depends on how broadly we're defining the "lockout" portion of the deadlift. When lifting for singles, I've never had much trouble in straightening up and getting my shoulders back: if I can get it up off the ground at all, it's going all the way up. The failure I'm hitting on multiple reps is a grip problem; I bailed out of the 2nd 340 at 3/4's the way up because I felt my left hand going and figured it would be better to set the bar down rather than risk dropping it. If a weak grip and hand fatigure are part of the lockout, then yes, I most certainly do have poor lockout.

I've had heavy grippers, thick-bar work, towel pullups and heavy lockouts reccomended to me to try to shore up my grip weakness; I figured that I'd try one at a time in an effort to isolate which works (will work?) best for me. My plan for the CoC #2 was timed holds and negatives, and trying to do them while plodding along on a recumbent bike was mostly a joke. Will see about getting some chalk to aid with the gripper work, and I'll also be keeping the grip-work days well away from DL days.

Stay tuned for results.... :)
 
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