Strength in Interesting Places

[Justice 4 All]

It's a little-known fact that Snorlax is a massive Antony Johnson type weight-cutter who defies medical science in order to fight at the lowest possible weight class. The other fighters in my sig, like Onyx and Charizard, are Fedor-types who are two badass to cut weight, and just like to fight heavyweigts even though they are much bigger.

. Hmm, I guess it would be a bit hard to cut granite weight...

I'm assuming you played Pokemon Blue/Red? Back when we lived in Malaysia I friggin owned that game, had all 150 pokemon, even the level three ones that you had to transfer to another gameboy in order for them to evolve (eg. machamp, gengar, etc.).

Never played any after that though.

 

[JauntyAngle]

. Hmm, I guess it would be a bit hard to cut granite weight...

I'm assuming you played Pokemon Blue/Red? Back when we lived in Malaysia I friggin owned that game, had all 150 pokemon, even the level three ones that you had to transfer to another gameboy in order for them to evolve (eg. machamp, gengar, etc.).

Never played any after that though.

Actually, the first one I played was Pokemon Platinum on the DS, which is apparently a pretty straight port from one of the Gameboy titles but just with better graphics. I really enjoyed that, and put in about 120 hours, but I didn't get anywhere near as far as you did with Blue/Red. I got HeartGold, too, which is also a remake but I don't like it as much.

 

[JauntyAngle]

Squats

It pains me, but no squats. Got to give the back a chance to heal. Grrr.

Press

55kgx5, 52.5kgx5, 52.5kgx5, 52.5kgx5

Intended to do four sets across of 52.5kg, loaded the bar wrong. 55kg was hard and ragged, but I did it with full ROM (when presses are hard I am always tempted to not let the bar touch my chest). Figured out what was happening and finished my sets at 52.5kg, which was just fine. Big improvement from the last press session not just in that I got the 5 reps but that they felt better and I was much less close to failing throught. Next time I need to go to 55kg across. I'll probably miss a few reps, but I will make up the reps that I missed.

Did power cleans to get rack position, and practiced a bunch of cleans during the warmup, even a few full cleans at the lighter weights. They felt great. I think the main thing for me at the moment is to make sure that I make the throwing forward of the elbows explosive as possible- when I go slow I end up muscling the bar up a bit. My other bad tendency, which is to widen my stance after the jump instead of going into a proper (partial) squat, was much better today.

Bent-Over Rows

60kg: x5, x5, x5

Did these instead of deadlifts, as I am resting from those. I like Bent Over Rows. But still too easy. Looking forward to getting the weight up.

Ab stuff

Captain's chair- the thing that is like you're in the position for a dip, but you support your back. Then you raise your knees up to parallel. The thing for doing these had a sort of beachball thing to rest your back on. Stretched my back out nicely, and also quite a nice ab exercise.

I did 4x a bunch. Wasn't taking these too seriously.


* * * *

No cardio or other stuff today. Had to go meet my team leader for a meeting over beers.

No stifness in my back from the workout at all, which is awesome. And it feels like I am finally making progress on my pressing. So despite my forced rest from squatting, I am pretty happy.

 

[JauntyAngle]

Not a proper lifting day. Just some easy cardio and a bit of messing about.

Runnin'

Tried the newly fixed treadmill, trying to do my pyramid thing. It was calibrated a bit faster than the other ones I use, and I set it wrong so accidentally gave myself a decent incline. Also did the pyramid wrong because sometimes I am dense. Anyway, I worked up to what it says was 10 kmph on incline (pretty sure it was more) and went back down again, and it took 25 minutes. It was, as with all cardio at the moment, embarassingly tough.


Random Stuff

So it was something like

Stand pushups- 2x10 (few seconds rest between)
Ab crunch machine (+10kg)- 20 reps
Barbell bicep curl (32.5kg)- 10 reps (for awesomeness)
Captain's chair (ab exercise)- 20 reps
Stand pushups- 2x10 (few seconds rest between)
Ab crunch machine (+10kg)- 20 reps
Barbell bicep curl (32.5kg)- 10 reps (for awesomeness)
Captain's chair (ab exercise)- 20 reps

I probably need to do more of the pushups to get my muscualr endurance up, but i didn't want to do too many and interfere with benching tomorrow. The ab work was a wee bit tough towards the end of the last two sets, but the bottom line is that I was taking it really easy on myself.

Still, I am a 37-year old father with an injured back and possibly with malaria. I reckon I am allowed to take it easy.

* * * *

Random stuff. There were two Sudanese guys in the gym, doing every single exercise in the world wrong. Benching with underhand grip and a massive curving bar path, overhead pressing with underhand grip and really small ROM, barbell curling with really short ROM and massive rocking of body & not supporting elbows. They were also doing punches with dumbels, not the tight, controlled type you normally see people do with dumbells, but massive haymakers, the kind that people usually launch from way out and then kind of run in with. I was worried that they were going to lose control of the dumbells and smash some mirror. They were very nice and friendly though.

After they were gone, I tried to teach the Indian lady how to deadlift. I saw her doing yoga, so I was able to explain the Valsava maneuver (as you do it on yoga, but it is called 'mullah bandra') and also the straightening out of the back prior to lifting (as you do it during all forward bends). She ended up doing much better deadlifts. Maybe I will be an elite strength coach (to middle-aged Indian women who work in development in Southern Sudan) after all.

 

[MIDMOBOX]

What beer can you get in Sudan?

 

[JauntyAngle]

What beer can you get in Sudan?

In (Northern) Sudan, nothing. It's a Muslim country and it's dry. Not a drop outside of Embassies, even if you look really hard. Southern Sudan is christian majority and is full of boozed and good times. Most of the beers are from Kenya or Uganda, althugh SAB has just opened a plant here in Juba. I'm drinking a Kenyan beer called Tusker- it's very good.

I've only tried one of the other ones.

 

[MIDMOBOX]

fake or real?

 

[JauntyAngle]

Squats

Resisted the temptation to do warmup sets or front squats. That's an achievement.

Still feel like a meathead not doing squats or deadlifts.


Bench

82.5kg: x5, x5, x5, x5, x5

I didn't feel super strong today but they were a bit less ragged than last time. Think I kept my chest up a lot better and I found myself using a lot of leg drive. Maybe the last one or two of sets 4 and 5 I missed my chest my a fraction of an inch. Never done 5x5 of anything, let alone bench, so this was good. Next week I will put the weight up to 85kg, which will lead to a lot of failures to make 5 uninterrupted reps in a set. But there are no micro-plates, so I have to go to that weight.


Barbell Row

62.5kg: x5, x5, x5

Wanted to do five sets, but felt some discomfort in my ribs. Hopefully this is not my rib injury returning.

The weight felt good. More challenging. It will probably get hard after a few more increases.


Ab Work

Did about 4 sets of weighted ab crunches with the machine (+15kg) and 3 sets of the captain's chair, twisting the legs to work the lateral abdominals more. Actually did them in the rests between the benching as I didn't have so much time for my workout.


Bike

30 mins on the bike, hill setting, level 7. I realized that I could programme it to do something like sprints- put it on the setting where it alternates between flat/min resistance and steep/max resistance, go slow on the flat, fast on the steep. Might try that once my basic cardio is better.

Can't do cardio without music, and the music must be trance. Today (as with many days) it was

 

[JauntyAngle]

fake or real?

I am going to guess... fake. But it does raise an interesting issue. I read somewhere that Japanese plastic surgeons use a slightly different approach to doing breast enhancement from surgeons in the US and Europe. Somehow, the results of their work are more fleshy and less like someone had sewn a pair of basketballs inside the girl's breasts.

 

[JauntyAngle]

Random philosophizing

Oooh, ooh, ooh! Finally took a look at the Madcow Version of the Bill Starr 5x5. It looks awesome. When the time comes for me to do an intermediate programme, this might be it. For my avid readers (yeah, right) who don't know it, it's

Monday: Squat, Bench, BOR (or power clean)
Wednesday: Squat, Press, Deadlift
Friday: Squat, Bench, BOR (or power clean)

The rep scheme and progression is fancy: ramped 5x5 on Monday (10-15% increases up to your max for the week); ramped 4x5 on Wednesday, but the 4th set you keep at the weight of the 3rd (so it is a sort of recovery day); Friday you do 4x5 (ramped), then one heavy triple, then 1x8 at the weight of the third set. The heavy triple should be 2.5% more than the max weight for Monday. Then the next Monday, that will be your weight for the final set of the 5X5.

Giving an example, say I was doing squat with 120kg, then it would be

Monday: 82x5, 90x5, 100x5, 110x5, 120x5
Wednesday: 82x5, 90x5, 100x5, 100x5
Friday: 82x5, 90x5, 100x5, 110x5, 123x3, 100x8

In comparison to the Texas Method, Monday would ke quite a lot easier. Wednesday is similar ballpark- an extra set but you are ramping up from a low weight. Friday is harder because there is tonnes of extra volume. The set of exercises is tight, though- just three each time.

 

[Justice 4 All]

Somehow, the results of their work are more fleshy and less like someone had sewn a pair of basketballs inside the girl's breasts.

Man knows his honkers.

 

[JauntyAngle]

Man knows his honkers.

Years of careful study, my friend. Probably my only regret in life now is that I when I was actively researching this field, I was not able to examine more specimens.

 

[MIDMOBOX]

Juba was on my new feed today. Something about it being in africa and the people not wanting to hang out with some other people there.

Life and Seperation apprecation Pics

 

[JauntyAngle]

Not actually a weights day, but I didn't feel like doing cardio and abs and stuff. So I decided just to do some cleans. Quite a lot of cleans.

Cleans

In what follows, 'full clean' means with a full squat, 'power clean' with a quarter squat.

Front squats: 20kgx5
Hang cleans: 20kgx5
Full cleans: 20kgx5, 30kg x3, 35kgx3, 40kg x5
Power clean: 45kgx5, 50kgx5, 52.5kgx5, 55kgx5, 57.5kgx5, 60kgx3, 62.5kgx3, 65kgx1, 67.5kgx1, 70kgx1, 72.5kgx0 (failed three times), 60kgx5

There was some method in my madness. Not a lot, but some. Did some warmups at 20, went through 30 and 35 really easily, then tried to do 5s from 40 upto 60 or so. I stoped doing full cleans early on because I didn't want to be too tired. Managed do do 5s and then eased up at 60kg as that was the highest I've ever cleaned. Once it got to 62.5kg I decided that this was becoming an opportunity to test my1RM. Hence the singles.

It was fun. It was feeling heavy, but not stupidly so, and they were going alright. Then at 72.5kg they were suddenly nowhere near going up. Not even close. In retrospect, it was the cumulative fatigue. My technique was so ragged, I wasn't getting it close to the hang position, I was trying to do it from some bizarre made up position about 16 miles in front of my knees. And my legs were just like "Dude, we don't jump when we're carrying something way out in front like that. Are you crazy?". What can I say. I was really beat. It was a lot of cleans. I reckon if I was fresh and concentrating I'd have got a bit more weight up, certainly 72.5kg, probably the next one too. Anyway... did a last set at 60kg because I didn't want to finish with failure. They absolutely flew up, but I am pretty sure I was muscling them up like crazy. I was really tired...

Technique was okay. The racking on the shoulders was better. Still a slight tendency to widen my stance a little on the landing which needs to be eliminated. Need to drop a little deeper when doing the quarter squat.

 

[klonger]

I have the same problems with cleans etc. I don't even bother to log them because I am so poor at them.

Just feels to awkward to do.

PS been catching up with your log, pretty awesome that you find time to lift when working abroad.

 

[JauntyAngle]

I have the same problems with cleans etc. I don't even bother to log them because I am so poor at them.

Just feels to awkward to do.

PS been catching up with your log, pretty awesome that you find time to lift when working abroad.

Thanks!

It's not so much the time as the place. I've been lucky as the places I've been working the last year or so have been suitable for beginners' lifting (and I've only been doing this five months). I don't work crazy hours, so the day is often done at 5pm or 5.30pm. No family, not so many friends, what are you going to do? Plus, you are staying in places that often have a gym. Just requires some discipline, deciding your are going to use your spare time to work out. And a bit of firmness. E.g. there was some talk of us moving to a new hotel, but the one people were looking at didn't have proper weights- a crappy 1" thick bar and about 50kg of weights. So I just said 'no'.

Re: cleans, I don't suck at them completely, but I don't quite practice enough at them to get a whole lot better. I'm thinking about doing a bunch of them on my off days, then doing a form check video when I get back to Thailand and have reliable upload.

 

[JauntyAngle]

Juba was on my new feed today. Something about it being in africa and the people not wanting to hang out with some other people there.

Life and Seperationapprecation Pics

Juba is alive with nationalism and patriotic fervour:

People here see the referendum and declaration of indepedence as the final end to 30 years of fighting and armed conflict:

 

[JauntyAngle]

Random Philosopholizing

I am in injury denial. If I was totally honest with myself there would be no squats of any kind, no deadlifts, no BORs, no cleans for at least a week. Exercises that don't involve a lot of weight might come back after a week (like cleans maybe), and which don't involve bending over,(like front squats). But giving myself the benefit of the doubt would involve longer rest for all exercises. Here in Juba that would leave only Bench and Press. Plus Cardio. Laying off for a few weeks is the logical thing to do, because if I do do those I am just frustrated by the low weights. I want to get back to 110/112.5kg squat, and 140kg deadlift, and then continue well past them. That's never going to happen as long as as I am on-and-off and babying my back.

Never been in this situation before- usually got at resting if I have an injury. Funny that it takes more willpower to not work out than it does to work out.

 

[JauntyAngle]

Made this for a thread in the main forum. Chart of weight gain over time. Thought I would keep it here too, as I kind of like it:

Oh, alright. I really like it.

 

[MIDMOBOX]

For some reason I want to move to Brasil for some reason.