Keosawa's Powerlifting Log

[Keosawa]

Congrats on the 575 man. Given how slow you said 505 felt all the more impressive.

Pretty sure I get to test next week. Looking forward to it.

Best of luck, man--I hope you put it all together and end up with a big pull.

The PR was odd because I felt slow working up to it, but perhaps my lockout really is just getting a lot stronger. I'm fairly certain I'll take 573 for a second attempt at my meet if it means 1400. I'm not going to waste energy working up to it. I'll likely even open light (maybe around 520) because I seem to hit my PRs when I do this rather than pull a 530-540 attempt first.

Bitchin dead lift Kyle! And sorry to hear about your team mate.

Thank you sir. Right now, I feel pretty good about benching ~305 lbs. and pulling ~570 lbs. at a meet. I think the big question mark is my squat, and I won't know where I stand with that for a while, but I'm hoping Smolov is going to take it up a notch. If I happen to regress (somehow), I'll just build off of April.

Congrats on the deadlift PR!!!

Thanks!

Sorry to hear about the loss of your friend Kyle.

Appreciate it, Sir. We had a team meeting last night--needless to say, it wasn't a comfortable experience.

Nice deadlift PR

Much appreciated; I go months between these, so it's always nice when I hit one.

Sick. Great work Keo

Thank you!

 

[calvus]

Keo - what software do you use to create your videos? I take vids with a camera or my iphone, but I'm putting them together with an old version of Adobe Premier & it takes hours...

I'm looking for a cheap & easy way to combine small videos into 1 larger one.

thanks

 

[Kinglee]

Calvus, if you have an iphone you should be able to do basic cut/editing of multiple videos on there. Failing that just upload them directly to youtube & use the editor setup there, its pretty quick, as long as you dont want to do voice over, like Keo.

 

[Keosawa]

Keo - what software do you use to create your videos? I take vids with a camera or my iphone, but I'm putting them together with an old version of Adobe Premier & it takes hours...

I'm looking for a cheap & easy way to combine small videos into 1 larger one.

thanks

I just use the trial version of PowerDirector 7.0; it came with my PC.

 

[Keosawa]

An update on my recent training:

A couple of days ago, I decided to shut down my squats for a week and a half. I simply wasn't having success getting my ribs to chill out while doing belted squats, and I didn't want to deload as far as I'd have to in order to do beltless squats without much form breakdown. It sucks, because 355 for sets of five felt really easy, but it's just time for me to get a break. I'm glad though, because I've been training every day for a while now, and the volume I've been getting in has been pretty high, and though I don't feel taxed physically, I think I was in line for a break. Hopefully I'm healed up and ready to go in about another nine or ten days.

The good news is that I think these four weeks have really developed my squat. I haven't done anything near a rep-max--or anything in wraps--in over a month, but I just feel stronger coming out of the hole. HOPEFULLY it translates into a bigger squat. I think I can put together a bench press and deadlift combination of ~880 lbs. at this next meet, but that means I'll need to squat ~520 lbs. to break 1400. That means that I'm going to need all this squatting to really pay off for me.

While I take a break from squats, I'll keep benching, and I'll do some speed pulls next week (though I'll skip heavy deadlifting on Sunday). Here's video of my last two days, with commentary to explain my situation:

 

[LegioTitan]

Yeah guys I'd like to keep squatting but I think my ribs are breaking.... Pretty legit

 

[Keosawa]

Yeah guys I'd like to keep squatting but I think my ribs are breaking.... Pretty legit

LOL. It's nothing like that; probably just some bruising. They usually only bother me when I put pressure on my rib cage, and even then, it's pretty mild until said pressure is a heavy squat.

It's all good. I was pretty beat up coming into this, and it only got worse. I felt worse at the end of week one than I did at the end of the cycle, but this was the only thing that I wasn't able to improve. So, I got a few good weeks of training in despite not being 100%, which I'm really happy about.

 

[Keosawa]

Serious question though: what do people think of taking an NSAID for my ribs?

 

[drew2143]

The PR was odd because I felt slow working up to it, but perhaps my lockout really is just getting a lot stronger. I'm fairly certain I'll take 573 for a second attempt at my meet if it means 1400. I'm not going to waste energy working up to it. I'll likely even open light (maybe around 520) because I seem to hit my PRs when I do this rather than pull a 530-540 attempt first.

I usually open very light on my first deadlift attempt. Most of the time my second attempt will be a 50-60lbs jump. I agree with you that it's a waste of energy to take smaller jumps on the deadlift. By the end of a meet I'm usually tired and I know I'll be good for 1-2 big pulls. So i kind of look at the first attempt as a warmup to my second and third.

 

[Keosawa]

I usually open very light on my first deadlift attempt. Most of the time my second attempt will be a 50-60lbs jump. I agree with you that it's a waste of energy to take smaller jumps on the deadlift. By the end of a meet I'm usually tired and I know I'll be good for 1-2 big pulls. So i kind of look at the first attempt as a warmup to my second and third.

Agreed. Last time I went 495 (in the back), 535, 556, and a miss at 573, and I felt afterwards like I could have pulled 573 had I not been so taxed. Now, I was being conservative to secure a total, but it still didn't help matters.

This time, I'll probably pull 405, then 475, then jump to 520 for an opener. After that, I'll likely go straight to 573. I've hit 575 now in training after only pulling 505 before it, so clearly I've been able to prepare for max pulls off of pulls in the low-500s.

But yeah, I agree with you in that I don't have more than two near-max pulls in me, even if my deadlift does feel better than it does in training.

 

[miaou]

Serious question though: what do people think of taking an NSAID for my ribs?

Not knowing the exact condition of your ribs (do you have an exact diagnosis, or at least a fair estimate of one?), I wouldn't be able to offer a confident opinion.

If it is something like a cracked rib, and since you did decide to allow 7-9 days for it to heal, I'd suggest not getting any NSAIDs, as it could potentially interfere with the healing process. Again, not a confident opinion, but, as a general rule of thumb, you want to take NSAIDs for issues involving chronic inflammation and not for issues involving acute injury.

 

[Keosawa]

Not knowing the exact condition of your ribs (do you have an exact diagnosis, or at least a fair estimate of one?), I wouldn't be able to offer a confident opinion.

If it is something like a cracked rib, and since you did decide to allow 7-9 days for it to heal, I'd suggest not getting any NSAIDs, as it could potentially interfere with the healing process. Again, not a confident opinion, but, as a general rule of thumb, you want to take NSAIDs for issues involving chronic inflammation and not for issues involving acute injury.

I have no diagnosis, but I would guess it's just bruising/inflammation; I don't know what a cracked rib feels like, but I would imagine it'd be considerably more painful than this. I'm going to err on the side of caution and take your advice--thanks for the help, miaou.

 

[Jake Pudenz]

As someone who takes their training as seriously as you do, I won't offer any advice as to whether or not you should take NSAIDS for you rib but I will say, I take them before nearly every session.

In the past it has been because of my knees but now it is mostly because of my left wrist. It is either take them and be able to train or don't take them and not be able to train. While I know it isn't good for me, it is necessary. That is all. Also, did you get Dermody's email address from me? I think I sent it to you.

 

[Keosawa]

Shoulder Warm-Up Stuff

Smolov Jr. D4W2

Paused Bench Press
Barx20
95x5
135x5
185x3
225x3
255x2
270x2
270x2
270x2
270x2
270x2
270x2
270x2
270x2
270x2
270x2
Touch and Go
135x50

 

[LegioTitan]

As someone who takes their training as seriously as you do, I won't offer any advice as to whether or not you should take NSAIDS for you rib but I will say, I take them before nearly every session.

In the past it has been because of my knees but now it is mostly because of my left wrist. It is either take them and be able to train or don't take them and not be able to train. While I know it isn't good for me, it is necessary. That is all. Also, did you get Dermody's email address from me? I think I sent it to you.

Just throwing this out there man but I was doing that exact same thing last year. NSAIDs every day I trained well below a 1200mg total. I ignored the gut pain but eventually I had to go to the hospital. Turns out I was forming an ulcer. Put me on the couch for a minute recovering. It sucked.


EDIT: Really sorry to hear about the rib getting in the way of training. I sustained some kind of rib bruise/sprain/whatever grappling a couple of years ago and it was intense but recovery was quick when I started resting it. Hope yours is nothing serious.

I was really curious to see how the squat volume was going to turn out.

 

[hatchoo]

Thanks for the tip about the bench setup (especially the tightening of the glutes). I'll keep repeating those in my head while i setup for my bench work.

 

[Keosawa]

As someone who takes their training as seriously as you do, I won't offer any advice as to whether or not you should take NSAIDS for you rib but I will say, I take them before nearly every session.

In the past it has been because of my knees but now it is mostly because of my left wrist. It is either take them and be able to train or don't take them and not be able to train. While I know it isn't good for me, it is necessary. That is all. Also, did you get Dermody's email address from me? I think I sent it to you.

I got it, thanks! I haven't heard back yet, but I'm sure I'll get in touch.

And your words are wise; I guess I'm just looking for the "best" approach, whatever that means.

Just throwing this out there man but I was doing that exact same thing last year. NSAIDs every day I trained well below a 1200mg total. I ignored the gut pain but eventually I had to go to the hospital. Turns out I was forming an ulcer. Put me on the couch for a minute recovering. It sucked.


EDIT: Really sorry to hear about the rib getting in the way of training. I sustained some kind of rib bruise/sprain/whatever grappling a couple of years ago and it was intense but recovery was quick when I started resting it. Hope yours is nothing serious.

I was really curious to see how the squat volume was going to turn out.

I don't think it's too serious, and my squat really has improved. When you watch me squat 340x5 and 365x3 on the first week, then do 360x5, and 370x3 on the third week, the difference was night and day. I'm excited to show it off--I think I'm going to see my wrapped PR benefit from this--but I'm going to try to accumulate a lot of training before I go and test. Regardless, I'll finish out this cycle, then possibly get back in my wraps for one week and assess where I stand.

Thanks for the tip about the bench setup (especially the tightening of the glutes). I'll keep repeating those in my head while i setup for my bench work.

No problem--it's something I've had to reinforce for myself recently.

 

[Keosawa]

Just in case you don't follow my page, here's a vlog I did recently.

Also, doing a 3xBW for reps deadlift challenge today.

That is all.

 

[KnuckleSangwich]

We haven't communicated in a while.

Training's going well. Lookin' good.

 

[Denoginizer]

Thanks for the tip about the bench setup (especially the tightening of the glutes). I'll keep repeating those in my head while i setup for my bench work.

I noticed that this point about the glutes and weight-bearing points have been in a few of your recent videos Kyle. I tried to focus on that today during my bench session, definitely helped with the upper-back pressure and maintaining my arch. Both are things I have trouble with. Also hit a nice 3 rep PR.