5/3/1 Big but Boring. Muppet prep for July 18th ScotNational

[Talyn]

Are you planning to start deadlifting without the hooks? Or is this just temporary while you recover?

[Lordmuppet]

Are you planning to start deadlifting without the hooks? Or is this just temporary while you recover?

hooks are temporary is the short answer

Am working back up the mixed grip weight with holds (that's the deadlift wrist stretch). I have it at 90kg for 2x5 5 second holds now and adding 5kg a week. I can deadlift 100kg double pronated for a few reps. I do a lot of the warm up double pronated.

Seems pretty much totally recovered today and yesterday but it is sometimes a case of three steps, forward two back if the weather is really cold so want to phase it back in rather than try to hold the hook weight straight away.

[Talyn]

That's fair enough.

Static holds is not a bad idea. You could progress that to rack lockouts with the pins set really high, so you're only moving the bar a wee bit at the top. Then aim to gradually increase the ROM until you're starting from the floor.

[Lordmuppet]

That's fair enough.

Static holds is not a bad idea. You could progress that to rack lockouts with the pins set really high, so you're only moving the bar a wee bit at the top. Then aim to gradually increase the ROM until you're starting from the floor.

yeah rack lockouts is what I am doing it. Just didn't call it that because i'm barely lifting it. All about the hold. The wrists are doing really well so I anticipate being able to just switch back eventually and in the meantime lifting with the hooks will keep the rest of me strong.

[Lordmuppet]

Sports Massage at the start of the week. Dude says back looks better than it did last time he saw me and agrees with physio that upper back injury really isn't serious.

TEXAS 1A, 11 Jan, 2012

Squat belt 5x5 90kg
Wide Pull ups 11,7,8
Assisted WPUs 10 @ 41kg resist
Dead con belt with hooks 5x1 152kg
Bench 60kg 5,5,5,4,4 fail 1
Dead mixed hand stretch 90kg 2x5
bike 12 mins @ Level 4, 4.50km

some pain in left forearm after deadlift has remained during the week but doesn't really get in the way of anything.

TEXAS 1B 13 jan 2012

Squat no belt 72kg 3x5
Neutral Chins 14,7,6
Assisted Neutral Chins 10 @ 41kg assist
OHP 32kg 3x5

TEXAS 1C 15 Jan 2012

Squat belt 129kg 1x1
Bench 77kg 1x1 fail 1 completed the lift but the bar was far from horizontal. Would not be legit in comp. Need more high volume warm up for bench attempts I think.
Wide Pull ups 13,6,6
Bike 12 mins @ L4 4km

edited to add: also got blood test back. Started a thread on that. Short version is I have low white cell count and doc thinks the stomach is IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome). Nice that it isn't anything worse.

[Lordmuppet]

17 Jan 2012
TX 2A
Squat belt: 5x5x92kg
Neutral Chins: 13,10,8 volume PR
Assisted Chins: 10 @ 36kg
Dead con belt with hooks: 5x1x154kg
Dead lockout for 5s: 2x5x100kg
OHP: 5x5x42kg 5x5 PR
bike 13 mins @ L4 4.75km

19 Jan 2012
TX 2B
Squat 3x5x74kg
Wide Pull ups: 2,10,8,6
Bench 3x5x48kg
bike 13 mins @ L4, 4.75km
notes: "stomach very badly upset. I feel like shit. everything felt hard"

21 Jan 2012
TX 2C
Squat 1x2x114kg
Neutral Chins: 14,7,8
Assisted Chins 6 @ 32kg
OHP 1x2x49kg 2RM PR
bike 14 mins @ L4 4.89

edited to add: starting an elimination diet today for four weeks to try to figure what keeps messing up my stomach. So for four weeks

no caffeine
no gluten
no soy
no avenin (stuff in oats)
no alcohol

[Talyn]

no caffeine
no gluten
no soy
no avenin (stuff in oats)
no alcohol

Sounds like fun. Hope you like beans & rice.

[Lordmuppet]

no caffeine
no gluten
no soy
no avenin (stuff in oats)
no alcohol

Sounds like fun. Hope you like beans & rice.

ha! yeah had some shit to deal with and went for (one) drink. Also friend's 30th is on the 11th so going to take alcohol off that list. Drink had gluten in it so will restart tomorrow *sigh* Won't be fun but worth it in the long term.

Chronic stress is likely the problem. Some serious stress to deal with today. Thought I was fine then was suddenly doubled over with a stabbing pain in my right side (very rare)

[Rach]

Good luck with the elimination diet and good to hear the physio's opininon on back injury. Hope the stressors can be sorted

[Lordmuppet]

Jan 24th 2012
TX 3A
Squat belt 5x5x94kg
Wide Pull ups 13,8,7 volume PR
Assisted Wide Pull ups 7@36kg
Deadlift with hooks 5x1x156kg
paused Bench 5x5x60kg 5x5PR
5 second Deadlift hold 2x5x110kg
Bike 15 mins @ L4 4.60km

notes: some pain in left shoulder on deadlift. Chest up!

Jan 26th 2012
TX 3B
Squat no belt 3x5x75kg
Neutral Chins 14,10,9 volume PR
Assisted Chins 7@32kg
OHP 3x5x34kg
felt sick so no bike

Jan 28th 2012
TX 3C
Squat belt 1x3x110kg
Wide Pull ups 13,9,7 volume PR
Assisted Wide Pull ups 7@36kg
Paused Bench 1x3x70kg 3RM PR
bike L4 @ 15 mins 4.94km

[Linnéa76]

Sorry about your stomach problems and stressful stuff. At least pull ups are going well!

[Lordmuppet]

Due to stress delayed the start of elimination diet. Used start of February as a good place to start so only been on it 5 days at time of writing. Isn't that bad and should be able to see out the four weeks easily. Will post a menu after doing it so to save others some time.

Jan 31sh 2012
TX 4A
Squat belt 5x5x96kg
Neutral Chin ups 14,10,10 volume PR
Deadlift with hooks 5x1x158kg
OHP 5x5x44kg 5x5 PR
5 second Deadlift hold 2x5x120kg
Bike 15 mins @ L4 4.40km
notes: lots of gas, retching

Feb 2nd 2012
TX 4B
Squat no belt 3x5x76kg
Wide Pull ups 10,9,11 volume PR
Bench 3x5x48kg
Bike 15 mins @ L4 4.37km
notes:PUs felt very hard till last set when psyched up. Stomach wee bit bloated.

Feb 03rd 2012

2 hours of jiu jitsu. Did a 'grinder' at the end where 20 people run at you one after the other and you have to throw them. Was a bit slowed down for me but still I was happy that my body seems to remember the throws even if my mind does not!

Feb 04th 2012
TX 4C
Squat belt 1x1x130kg
OHP 1x1x51kg fail
OHP 1x1x50kg (just ... lots of layback)
Neutral Chin ups 7,8,7
Assisted Chin ups 8@32kg
bike 15 mins @ L4 4.77km
notes: NCUs done after OHP so very hard! Next time will keep doing them in between squats so easier to measure progress. Going to start going up in 1kg increments on OHP rather than 2kg. Wrists were wee bit sore after ton of typing jiu jitsu so grip even weaker than normal.

Don't worry about wrists though! Are basically fixed now. Just need to be strengthened.

[Talyn]

Do you squat low or high-bar?

Low bar squats and/or front squats with proper clean grip will do wonders for your wrists (start light & get some wrist wraps though).

[Lordmuppet]

Do you squat low or high-bar?

Low bar squats and/or front squats with proper clean grip will do wonders for your wrists (start light & get some wrist wraps though).

So I had VeganJosh have a look at my squat the day we trained together in NYC. Amongst other comments he noted that I seem to hold the bar halfway between highbar and lowbar (right behind the little knob that stands up on my shoulder). He didn't see much reason to change it insofar as it seemed to work for me. My current plan is to get some grippers and follow this program for grip.

http://www.t-nation.com/testosterone-magazine-640?s=indexTitle#building-the-death-grip

Front squats might be something for me to look into though! Been on Texas Method for a year for probably time for a change.

[Lordmuppet]

Left log at gym so entering the exact sessions will be delayed. In short ..

Tuesday went okay I think but then on Thursday was so so tired almost felt like napping on the floor (I picked the wrong month to go caffeine free) on Friday was unbelievably exhausted and only really able to sip tea and watch tv all day. Felt as exhausted the next day and so made an educated decision to skip the third workout of the week. Gradually recovered over the weekend but decided to make the next week an active rest week. So no powerlifting but two jiu jitsu sessions and some light sledgehammer work/plate carries etc probably.

Anyway going to plan future training this week. Some hypertrophy work is probably on the cards simply because I'm getting a bit tired of looking average and normal despite being far stronger than a normal person and working really hard in the gym for three years.

Breaking out of a judo hold last night using strength (and then practically picking the guy up) led to the comment 'where do you hide the muscle?' about which I have mixed feelings

Another motivation is to have a bunch of muscle going into old age so that, in a worst (inevitable?) case scenario, I can lose some muscle but still be independent and able bodied. Course the neural adaptions probably help for old age too.

On the flip side I have to think about my commitment (or not) to powerlifting and implications of hypertrophy for that. What I'm thinking is to try to put on 10kg or so of weight and then switch back to 'normal' training where i just seem to increase neural efficiency of the existing muscle. If the hypertrophy happens through high rep compound lifts (especially powerlifts) then presumably the muscle fibers can eventually contribute fully to powerlifting.

Any thoughts on this very welcome!

Elimination diet is going okay. Slipped up and had two wheat based beers (i was tired and they were vegan so i forgot) but otherwise sticking to things well. About two weeks to go!