Wednesday, September 24, 2014
indefinite hiatus from strength training
Because my life is crap and my way of making money is slowly eroding away and you don't want to help me out by purchasing from my web store, I'm on indefinite hiatus from strength training and hence blog posting. Good luck with your training and thanks for nothing.
I'm on hiatus indefinitely
Because my life is crap and you don't want to help me out by purchasing from my web store, I'm on indefinite hiatus from strength training and hence blog posting.
So let me explain. I'm a cab driver in the city of Chicago. As of late, this city has made a fool out of me and disrespected the time and effort I have to expend to have the privilege to earn a living by driving people around town.
There are new quasi taxi services called rideshare services. They go by cute wisemaker names like Lyft, Uber and sidecar. They offer the same service as I do, namely picking up people and charging them money to take them to their destinations.
The problem with this is they don't have to deal with one iota of the rules, regulations, and licencing and insurance coverage requirements that I'm required to have to transport people in Chicago. Just in the last year I had to pay an extra fifty dollars a month in insurance which is an addition to the two hundred dollars a month I already shell out for commercial drivers insurance.
Also, I have to every once a year go down to a city government building and waste a day of my life to renew my license. That entails signing an affidavit that states I owe no outstanding debt to the city of Chicago. I also have to submit to a $45 drug test and physical. I also have to take $50 defensive driving classes and driver education classes on occasion. I also have to take fingerprints which are then background checked and every month the Chicago police department checks my records for any felony charges.
Every twice a year, I have to take the cab I'm driving to a city of Chicago cab inspection facility where they find fault with the smallest of things like a spot of oil on the underframe, call it a leak, and physically rip off the cab's medallion licence plate without which I can't transport people for profit because they deem the cab unfit for use. Then the inspectors issue a three hundred dollar ticket which causes me to have to take the cab to get "repaired". How do you repair a spot of oil? What a joke. Finally I have to take another day out of my time to have it reinspected.
Uber, lyft and the like don't have any of this to deal with. They don't have to worry about vehicle inspections or insurance requirements. Their drivers don't have to submit to background checks or drug tests. They're not required to pick up anybody they don't like or from which they can't make a decent sized fare unlike me where I have I am required by Chicago ordinance to pick up anybody and everybody no matter how rough they look or whether I can make any sizable profit from them. This means they have almost zero overhead costs which means they can lowball and undercut my rates for next to nothing. I can't beat cheaper.
So rather than crying like a little bitch and playing like I'm a victim, I've decided to get out of the taxi business. If the city of Chicago wants to play dumb and turn a blind eye to the serious shortcomings these rideshare services have in their lack of proper insurance coverages and driver vetting which enables them to be less costly than me, my decision is to leave.
My only
So let me explain. I'm a cab driver in the city of Chicago. As of late, this city has made a fool out of me and disrespected the time and effort I have to expend to have the privilege to earn a living by driving people around town.
There are new quasi taxi services called rideshare services. They go by cute wisemaker names like Lyft, Uber and sidecar. They offer the same service as I do, namely picking up people and charging them money to take them to their destinations.
The problem with this is they don't have to deal with one iota of the rules, regulations, and licencing and insurance coverage requirements that I'm required to have to transport people in Chicago. Just in the last year I had to pay an extra fifty dollars a month in insurance which is an addition to the two hundred dollars a month I already shell out for commercial drivers insurance.
Also, I have to every once a year go down to a city government building and waste a day of my life to renew my license. That entails signing an affidavit that states I owe no outstanding debt to the city of Chicago. I also have to submit to a $45 drug test and physical. I also have to take $50 defensive driving classes and driver education classes on occasion. I also have to take fingerprints which are then background checked and every month the Chicago police department checks my records for any felony charges.
Every twice a year, I have to take the cab I'm driving to a city of Chicago cab inspection facility where they find fault with the smallest of things like a spot of oil on the underframe, call it a leak, and physically rip off the cab's medallion licence plate without which I can't transport people for profit because they deem the cab unfit for use. Then the inspectors issue a three hundred dollar ticket which causes me to have to take the cab to get "repaired". How do you repair a spot of oil? What a joke. Finally I have to take another day out of my time to have it reinspected.
Uber, lyft and the like don't have any of this to deal with. They don't have to worry about vehicle inspections or insurance requirements. Their drivers don't have to submit to background checks or drug tests. They're not required to pick up anybody they don't like or from which they can't make a decent sized fare unlike me where I have I am required by Chicago ordinance to pick up anybody and everybody no matter how rough they look or whether I can make any sizable profit from them. This means they have almost zero overhead costs which means they can lowball and undercut my rates for next to nothing. I can't beat cheaper.
So rather than crying like a little bitch and playing like I'm a victim, I've decided to get out of the taxi business. If the city of Chicago wants to play dumb and turn a blind eye to the serious shortcomings these rideshare services have in their lack of proper insurance coverages and driver vetting which enables them to be less costly than me, my decision is to leave.
My only
Monday, September 22, 2014
An explanation of my workouts
Gym Saturday 9/6/14 11 a.m.
Pause back squats wearing inzer strongman knee sleeves 335-2
Shoulder press seated 325-1
Freemotion bicep curl cable machine 150-2
Freemotion decline press cable machine 180-0
One legged stiff legged deadlift
Left 255-1
Right 255-1
One hand rack pull
Left 335-0
Right 335-0
Precor incline press machine 220-0, 220-1, 240-0
Romanian deadlift with straps 355-1
Gym Tuesday 4:30 p.m. 9/2/14
Dead bench press 245-1
Dead bench press legs crossed in the air 245-1
Conventional deadlift on 45 lb plates 525-1
Stiff legged deadlift on 45 lb plates 515-1
Technogym low row seated lat machine 260-1
Tricep extension rope attachment cable machine life fitness 130-1, 145-0
Technogym leg press machine wearing inzer strongman knee sleeves 440-0
Pec flyes pair of:
60's-2
These are some numbers I recorded not too long ago for my training sessions. If you want you can click here for what the numbers mean. Even this isn't a full explanation of what I do at the gym. So I'm going to break down how I exercise every lift.
Starting from the top with the pause squat, before I even put myself under the bar I stretch my groin muscles so I can spread my legs wide to help me fit my torso between my legs when I'm down in the hole with my glutes to the ground.
You stretch the groin muscles one leg at a time. With one leg on the ground, stick your foot of the other leg on something that is around the same height as your pelvis. Put one hand on the inner side of your knee joint and push down and away from your body. The other hand should be placed somewhere to steady yourself. To increase the stretch, lean your torso forward and push down harder on your knee.
To get the tension out of the groin muscle, when you feel pain stop putting pressure on your knee and stop leaning forward. Back off the stretch just a tiny amount and then slowly and gently begin the stretch again until you feel a slight painful stretch on your groin muscle and hold the position until you feel the muscle tension release. Now with a delicate touch, apply pressure again slowly until you feel another slight pain in the muscle. Keep on repeating that process until you feel satisfied you can comfortably open your legs wide enough to enable yourself to squat deep and do that for each leg.
Now for the actual squat. I only do high bar Olympic squats. First, I warm up with 135 lbs for 4-5 reps. Then I'll add 50 lbs on the bar and bang on that for a couple reps. The only purpose is to pump blood into the muscles and lubricate the joints. Then I'll start doing single rep sets. For each set, I'll increment the weight by about forty to fifty pounds until I hit a weight that equals a new personal record.
When I attempt the personal record, I'll record the quality of the lift using my five point rating system. For the squat most of the rating variance depends on how well I keep upright and use the legs and not the lower back to power up the bar to the top. If for example, I lose tension in my hamstrings and bend forward at the waist and use all lower back to power the weight back up, I'll record that as a "1". A "5" is torso perfectly straight and upright using only glute and quadriceps strength to power the bar up.
After I the personal best record attempt, I'll lighten the weight by fifty pounds and hit it for a single rep set to figure out strength wise where I'm at. If I feel like I didn't maintain form, I'll back the weight off again by fifty pounds and hit that for a single rep set. If I feel like it's light, I'll add fifty pounds to the bar and I'll keep incrementing and doing single rep sets until I feel fatigued in my glutes and quadriceps and my form starts turning ugly.
Finally, I'll put 225 lbs on the bar and perform burnout sets. That means I'll hit four to seven reps in a set, put the bar back on the rack, catch my breath, and repeat until my quads and glutes are on fire with lactic acid inflammation and swolleness. The reason for it without any scientific proof to back it up is the inflammation helps to stretch the muscles' fascia which is the thin sheath like material that holds your muscle together. When the fascia expands, it allows the muscle to grow.
Shoulder press seated. Before any arm movement, I warm up and stretch my shoulders for ten minutes using a 10 lb plate by doing shoulder mobility work. Something like this:
Pause back squats wearing inzer strongman knee sleeves 335-2
Shoulder press seated 325-1
Freemotion bicep curl cable machine 150-2
Freemotion decline press cable machine 180-0
One legged stiff legged deadlift
Left 255-1
Right 255-1
One hand rack pull
Left 335-0
Right 335-0
Precor incline press machine 220-0, 220-1, 240-0
Romanian deadlift with straps 355-1
Gym Tuesday 4:30 p.m. 9/2/14
Dead bench press 245-1
Dead bench press legs crossed in the air 245-1
Conventional deadlift on 45 lb plates 525-1
Stiff legged deadlift on 45 lb plates 515-1
Technogym low row seated lat machine 260-1
Tricep extension rope attachment cable machine life fitness 130-1, 145-0
Technogym leg press machine wearing inzer strongman knee sleeves 440-0
Pec flyes pair of:
60's-2
These are some numbers I recorded not too long ago for my training sessions. If you want you can click here for what the numbers mean. Even this isn't a full explanation of what I do at the gym. So I'm going to break down how I exercise every lift.
Starting from the top with the pause squat, before I even put myself under the bar I stretch my groin muscles so I can spread my legs wide to help me fit my torso between my legs when I'm down in the hole with my glutes to the ground.
You stretch the groin muscles one leg at a time. With one leg on the ground, stick your foot of the other leg on something that is around the same height as your pelvis. Put one hand on the inner side of your knee joint and push down and away from your body. The other hand should be placed somewhere to steady yourself. To increase the stretch, lean your torso forward and push down harder on your knee.
To get the tension out of the groin muscle, when you feel pain stop putting pressure on your knee and stop leaning forward. Back off the stretch just a tiny amount and then slowly and gently begin the stretch again until you feel a slight painful stretch on your groin muscle and hold the position until you feel the muscle tension release. Now with a delicate touch, apply pressure again slowly until you feel another slight pain in the muscle. Keep on repeating that process until you feel satisfied you can comfortably open your legs wide enough to enable yourself to squat deep and do that for each leg.
Now for the actual squat. I only do high bar Olympic squats. First, I warm up with 135 lbs for 4-5 reps. Then I'll add 50 lbs on the bar and bang on that for a couple reps. The only purpose is to pump blood into the muscles and lubricate the joints. Then I'll start doing single rep sets. For each set, I'll increment the weight by about forty to fifty pounds until I hit a weight that equals a new personal record.
When I attempt the personal record, I'll record the quality of the lift using my five point rating system. For the squat most of the rating variance depends on how well I keep upright and use the legs and not the lower back to power up the bar to the top. If for example, I lose tension in my hamstrings and bend forward at the waist and use all lower back to power the weight back up, I'll record that as a "1". A "5" is torso perfectly straight and upright using only glute and quadriceps strength to power the bar up.
After I the personal best record attempt, I'll lighten the weight by fifty pounds and hit it for a single rep set to figure out strength wise where I'm at. If I feel like I didn't maintain form, I'll back the weight off again by fifty pounds and hit that for a single rep set. If I feel like it's light, I'll add fifty pounds to the bar and I'll keep incrementing and doing single rep sets until I feel fatigued in my glutes and quadriceps and my form starts turning ugly.
Finally, I'll put 225 lbs on the bar and perform burnout sets. That means I'll hit four to seven reps in a set, put the bar back on the rack, catch my breath, and repeat until my quads and glutes are on fire with lactic acid inflammation and swolleness. The reason for it without any scientific proof to back it up is the inflammation helps to stretch the muscles' fascia which is the thin sheath like material that holds your muscle together. When the fascia expands, it allows the muscle to grow.
Shoulder press seated. Before any arm movement, I warm up and stretch my shoulders for ten minutes using a 10 lb plate by doing shoulder mobility work. Something like this:
Thursday, September 18, 2014
Progress Report: it was bound to happen
The basic building blocks of any successful strength training program are stimulus and repair and recovery. You stimulate strength gains by lifting heavy weight and then you rest for a number of days and while you recover you eat animal protein to repair muscle fibers and joints. There's nothing more complicated than that.
How you choose to put forth those basic principles is up to you. You could for example do what I've been doing for the past eight months and do full body workouts and then take 96+ hours of rest to adequately repair yourself through sleep and animal protein intake.
There's also another option besides the full body workout and that is as you probably know the split routine.
This guy, that's all he does. Split routines. And he's strong as f*ck or SAF as he likes to put it.
So I figured hey if he can do it, so can I. I'll split my training into three days. Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday. On Tuesday, I'll be doing movements that I think can help my deadlift. On Thursday I'll be doing stuff that'll help with my bench press. On Sunday I'll be lifting according to what's good for making squat gains.
Click here for what the numbers mean.
Here's what I did on Tuesday:
Gym Tuesday 9/16/14 10 a.m.
Conventional deadlift with straps on 45 lb plates 535-0
Stiff legged deadlift with straps on 45 plates 525-0
Wide grip deadlift with straps on 45 lb plates 465-0
Life fitness seated row machine 305-1
Bicep curl free motion cable machine
Rack pull 455-1, 505-0
Romanian deadlift with straps 365-1
As you can see, it's all movements that are variations of the deadlift with a couple isolation movements. I didn't know which day to put bicep curls so I put them here for no other reason than I like having massive arms.
I've figured out long ago that the only way to improve my deadlift is to break it up into two halves. There's the lift off from the ground and then the lift is completed with a hip thrust, so the variations will revolve around that. Wide grip deadlifts and stiff legged deadlifts help with breaking the bar off the ground. Rack pulls and Romanian deadlifts help with the forward hip thrust at the midrange and top of the lift.
On Thursday which is today, I did this:
Gym Thursday 11:54 AM 09/18/2014
Shoulder press seated 345-0
Dead chest press 265-0
Dead chest press legs in the air 265-0
Leverage chest press machine handles set there is no stretch reflex on the front deltoids 315-1
Shoulder press life fitness machine 205-2
Free motion cable machine decline press 160-1
Precor incline press machine 220-0
Tricep extension rope attachment cable machine 115-1
Pec fly dumbbells pair of 60's-2
My reasoning for picking these movements is any exercise that focuses on the front deltoids and the triceps will have excellent carry over effect to my bench press, and as you can see every exercise today was focused on those muscles.
How you choose to put forth those basic principles is up to you. You could for example do what I've been doing for the past eight months and do full body workouts and then take 96+ hours of rest to adequately repair yourself through sleep and animal protein intake.
There's also another option besides the full body workout and that is as you probably know the split routine.
So I figured hey if he can do it, so can I. I'll split my training into three days. Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday. On Tuesday, I'll be doing movements that I think can help my deadlift. On Thursday I'll be doing stuff that'll help with my bench press. On Sunday I'll be lifting according to what's good for making squat gains.
Click here for what the numbers mean.
Here's what I did on Tuesday:
Gym Tuesday 9/16/14 10 a.m.
Conventional deadlift with straps on 45 lb plates 535-0
Stiff legged deadlift with straps on 45 plates 525-0
Wide grip deadlift with straps on 45 lb plates 465-0
Life fitness seated row machine 305-1
Bicep curl free motion cable machine
Rack pull 455-1, 505-0
Romanian deadlift with straps 365-1
As you can see, it's all movements that are variations of the deadlift with a couple isolation movements. I didn't know which day to put bicep curls so I put them here for no other reason than I like having massive arms.
I've figured out long ago that the only way to improve my deadlift is to break it up into two halves. There's the lift off from the ground and then the lift is completed with a hip thrust, so the variations will revolve around that. Wide grip deadlifts and stiff legged deadlifts help with breaking the bar off the ground. Rack pulls and Romanian deadlifts help with the forward hip thrust at the midrange and top of the lift.
On Thursday which is today, I did this:
Gym Thursday 11:54 AM 09/18/2014
Shoulder press seated 345-0
Dead chest press 265-0
Dead chest press legs in the air 265-0
Leverage chest press machine handles set there is no stretch reflex on the front deltoids 315-1
Shoulder press life fitness machine 205-2
Free motion cable machine decline press 160-1
Precor incline press machine 220-0
Tricep extension rope attachment cable machine 115-1
Pec fly dumbbells pair of 60's-2
My reasoning for picking these movements is any exercise that focuses on the front deltoids and the triceps will have excellent carry over effect to my bench press, and as you can see every exercise today was focused on those muscles.
On Sunday, I'll do legs. Squats, pause squats, lunges, and kickstand squats. Any exercise that hinges the knees down and brings the glutes to the ground will transfer over to the squat.
How will it go you ask? I don't know, but the fact that I only have muscle soreness contained on the front of my torso and a slight lingering pain soreness on my backside feels great compared to the total body soreness I would get from a full body workout. The full body workout good as they are for making gains also lead to overall body aching and that kind of pain can demoralize you and unmotivate you to train.
Another thing about the split routine is I don't feel I have to eat as much to recover and repair compared to the full body workout. Even right now after having trained only arms and chest today I don't feel famished and weak and my hunger is only slightly noticeable. If I had done a full body workout today I can almost guarantee the only thought in my head would be to stuff my gut with steak.
Will I make any gains? That remains to be seen. I'll be getting seven days of rest in between for each body part exercised and that extended rest may lead to strength gains or losses. As a matter of fact, if you compare my last progress report's numbers and these ones you'll see I didn't make many gains and I lost a little strength on almost half my lifts. I'm going to blame that on the fact there wasn't enough stimulation for adequate muscle growth because I didn't do enough accessory movements.
I have a theory on muscle growth and rest periods. It's that the heavier weight that needs to be lifted, the more the amount of time that needs to be extended to adequately recover for proper muscle growth and central nervous system recovery as well.
The second part of the theory is that in order to get into the bigger ranges of weights like the five hundreds and up, the more accessory movements have to be performed in order for that lift to go up.
Will the theory hold true in the real world? That remains to be seen as well, and I'll post my workout numbers next week to see if the split routine is worth anything as far as strength training goes.
Monday, September 15, 2014
Friday, September 12, 2014
Progress Report: The Problem with my Programming
I admit it. My style of training is brutal. Doing 150% of your one rep max week after week tends to burn out the central nervous system quickly. This leads to achiness and soreness in the joints and muscles.
I was thinking that if I took 96+ hours of rest between workouts, I would heal my joints and muscles nicely and have them ready to attack the weights. But instead as soon as I tried to push up a dead chest press for my latest workout, my front deltoids were in severe throbbing inflammation. Well, I thought to myself, this is going to be a slow and long painful workout.
Take a look at my numbers.
Gym Saturday 9/6/14 11 a.m.
Pause back squat wearing inzer strongman knee sleeves 335-2
Shoulder press seated 325-1
Freemotion bicep curl cable machine 150-2
Freemotion decline press cable machine 180-0
One legged stiff legged deadlift
Left 255-1
Right 255-1
One hand rack pull
Left 335-0
Right 335-0
Precor incline press machine 220-0, 220-1, 240-0
Romanian deadlift with straps 355-1
Home 9/10/14 Wednesday 12:38 PM
Dead chest press 255-1, 265-0
Dead chest press legs crossed in the air 255-1
Conventional deadlift with straps no belt 535-0
Stiff legged deadlift with straps no belt
525--0
Pause back squat wearing inzer strongman knee sleeves no belt 345-0
On 9/6, I did ten exercises and got through it all right. On 9/10, I could barely get through five exercises because of joint and muscle inflammation and overall body aching.
My point is yeah I admit that my workouts are brutal and they do lead to early burnout of the central nervous system, but if I take a break and rest up for a week or two I'll lose the hard earned strength gains I have made. So to avoid that I'm still going to do the main lifts and their respective variations, but I'm going to stop for a week or two the hypertrophy training I do for smaller muscles.
For triceps as an example I'll get on a cable machine and work up to 200% of my one rep max and try and lift the weight so there is at least an inch gap between the plates in the stack. Then I'll go down about forty pounds and try and hit that for a couple reps until failure. Then I'll go down again another thirty pounds and bang on that until failure, and I'll keep doing that until I'm lifting ten or twenty pounds for thirty or so reps or whatever number it takes to make my triceps feel like they're on fire. I'll do four or five cycles of that and my triceps are rock hard for the next couple days from all the inflammation and the blood engorged within them.
The problem with this is my body can only take about a month and half of that kind of training until I get inflamed and sore, so I'm going to just concentrate on the main lifts in the low rep range and not worry so much about trying to achieve that burn that is brought on by ultra high reps.
Here's me in a dreadfully burnt out state attempting some lifts.
This is a 255 lb dead chest press attempt for a rating of "1".
This is a conventional deadlift attempt with straps of 535 lbs for a "0" rating.
As a side note, I don't know if you like kefir but I find it fills the stomach quite nicely and provides some decent anabolic stimulus to the muscles. Just make sure to get the unflavored kind to avoid any insulin spikes caused by the sugary flavored kefir varieties.
Also I had some complications with my Romanian deadlift. It seems that my spine doesn't like first deadlifting the weight up and then letting go of my breath and lowering the weight down for the Romanian deadlift phase of the lift.
Look at this guy to see what I'm talking about:
You see, as can be gleaned from the video, the guy has to let go of his breath at the top of the lift to set up for the Romanian deadlift. The problem with that is when you let go of your breath, the heavy weight you're holding compresses the spine because you lose tightness in the low back when not maintaining the air held in your lungs. So when you go down to begin the Romanian deadlift, the spine loses its alignment which when pulling up on a heavy weight for a one rep max can lead to spinal injuries.
To remedy this, I'm going to eliminate the deadlift part of the lift and either walk the bar out from a squat or power rack with a held breath or I'll pull the bar from a dead position using a power rack or 45 lb plates set at the proper height.
I was thinking that if I took 96+ hours of rest between workouts, I would heal my joints and muscles nicely and have them ready to attack the weights. But instead as soon as I tried to push up a dead chest press for my latest workout, my front deltoids were in severe throbbing inflammation. Well, I thought to myself, this is going to be a slow and long painful workout.
Take a look at my numbers.
Gym Saturday 9/6/14 11 a.m.
Pause back squat wearing inzer strongman knee sleeves 335-2
Shoulder press seated 325-1
Freemotion bicep curl cable machine 150-2
Freemotion decline press cable machine 180-0
One legged stiff legged deadlift
Left 255-1
Right 255-1
One hand rack pull
Left 335-0
Right 335-0
Precor incline press machine 220-0, 220-1, 240-0
Romanian deadlift with straps 355-1
Home 9/10/14 Wednesday 12:38 PM
Dead chest press 255-1, 265-0
Dead chest press legs crossed in the air 255-1
Conventional deadlift with straps no belt 535-0
Stiff legged deadlift with straps no belt
525--0
Pause back squat wearing inzer strongman knee sleeves no belt 345-0
On 9/6, I did ten exercises and got through it all right. On 9/10, I could barely get through five exercises because of joint and muscle inflammation and overall body aching.
My point is yeah I admit that my workouts are brutal and they do lead to early burnout of the central nervous system, but if I take a break and rest up for a week or two I'll lose the hard earned strength gains I have made. So to avoid that I'm still going to do the main lifts and their respective variations, but I'm going to stop for a week or two the hypertrophy training I do for smaller muscles.
For triceps as an example I'll get on a cable machine and work up to 200% of my one rep max and try and lift the weight so there is at least an inch gap between the plates in the stack. Then I'll go down about forty pounds and try and hit that for a couple reps until failure. Then I'll go down again another thirty pounds and bang on that until failure, and I'll keep doing that until I'm lifting ten or twenty pounds for thirty or so reps or whatever number it takes to make my triceps feel like they're on fire. I'll do four or five cycles of that and my triceps are rock hard for the next couple days from all the inflammation and the blood engorged within them.
The problem with this is my body can only take about a month and half of that kind of training until I get inflamed and sore, so I'm going to just concentrate on the main lifts in the low rep range and not worry so much about trying to achieve that burn that is brought on by ultra high reps.
Here's me in a dreadfully burnt out state attempting some lifts.
This is a conventional deadlift attempt with straps of 535 lbs for a "0" rating.
As a side note, I don't know if you like kefir but I find it fills the stomach quite nicely and provides some decent anabolic stimulus to the muscles. Just make sure to get the unflavored kind to avoid any insulin spikes caused by the sugary flavored kefir varieties.
Also I had some complications with my Romanian deadlift. It seems that my spine doesn't like first deadlifting the weight up and then letting go of my breath and lowering the weight down for the Romanian deadlift phase of the lift.
Look at this guy to see what I'm talking about:
To remedy this, I'm going to eliminate the deadlift part of the lift and either walk the bar out from a squat or power rack with a held breath or I'll pull the bar from a dead position using a power rack or 45 lb plates set at the proper height.
Thursday, September 4, 2014
Teeth care for strength training
You can't get strong without eating animal protein, but how will you get strong without having proper teeth to chew those tough pieces of flesh?
Gargle with hydrogen peroxide. Go down to your local drug or grocery store and pick up a large size bottle of it for approximately two dollars which by the way is much cheaper than mouthwash. Now take the bottle and fill your mouth half full with it and swish vigorously for thirty seconds to one minute. Do this two or three times. Be careful not to swallow it though, and if you feel like you're going to swallow it go ahead and spit it out of your mouth and refill your mouth.
I find the first rinsing foams up pretty quick which makes the peroxide diluted and weak, so I spit it out and refill.
The frequency of rinsing should be about two or three times a week.
Also allow yourself at least thirty minutes after swishing to spit out the remaining microparticles trapped underneath the gumline.
Gargle with hydrogen peroxide. Go down to your local drug or grocery store and pick up a large size bottle of it for approximately two dollars which by the way is much cheaper than mouthwash. Now take the bottle and fill your mouth half full with it and swish vigorously for thirty seconds to one minute. Do this two or three times. Be careful not to swallow it though, and if you feel like you're going to swallow it go ahead and spit it out of your mouth and refill your mouth.
I find the first rinsing foams up pretty quick which makes the peroxide diluted and weak, so I spit it out and refill.
The frequency of rinsing should be about two or three times a week.
Also allow yourself at least thirty minutes after swishing to spit out the remaining microparticles trapped underneath the gumline.
Wednesday, September 3, 2014
Progress Report: More microgains
Here are my numbers.
8/29/14 gym 10:55 a.m. Friday
Seated shoulder press dead 315-1
Stiff legged one legged deadlift
Left 245-1
Right 245-1
seated bicep curl cable machine free motion 150-1
Romanian deadlift with straps 345-1, 355-0
One hand rack pull
Left 325-0
Right 325-1
Precor incline press machine 220-0
Pause squat wearing inzer strongman knee sleeves 325-2
Free motion decline press cable machine 170-1
Gym Tuesday 4:30 p.m. 9/2/14
Dead bench press 245-1
Dead bench press legs crossed in the air 245-1
Conventional deadlift on 45 lb plates with straps 525-1
Stiff legged deadlift on 45 lb plates with straps 515-1
Technogym low row seated lat machine 260-1
Tricep extension rope attachment cable machine life fitness 130-1, 145-0
Technogym leg press machine wearing inzer strongman knee sleeves 440-0
Pec flyes pair of:
60's-2
Here I am attempting a 245 lb. dead bench press with my legs crossed in the air. I got it off the crossbars for maybe an inch. It seemed like I held it up for longer than what's actually shown in the video. It's weird how your perception gets screwed up when you put yourself under training stress.
Here I am attempting a 525 lb conventional deadlift on 45 lb plates with wrist straps. I cleared it off the ground for maybe half an inch.
Workout notes: As you can see on 8/29 I did deadlift variations but with weights not even coming close to 500+ lbs. The only lift I did that was similar to the conventional deadlift in how it's performed was the Romanian deadlift and that was only for 345 lbs at "1". I also cycled back into my routine the pause back squat which I got up with much ugliness. The point is that I think doing these things helped me to clear the 525 lb conventional deadlift off the floor for an inch. Last time I tried it I couldn't even budge it.
The bench press microgain of 245 lbs. at a "1" was due mostly to the fact that I make sure that every pressing variation I do whether it's on a machine or underneath a bar that there is absolutely no scapular retraction or stretch reflex on my front deltoids so I can get the purest expression of my chest pressing strength.
8/29/14 gym 10:55 a.m. Friday
Seated shoulder press dead 315-1
Stiff legged one legged deadlift
Left 245-1
Right 245-1
seated bicep curl cable machine free motion 150-1
Romanian deadlift with straps 345-1, 355-0
One hand rack pull
Left 325-0
Right 325-1
Precor incline press machine 220-0
Pause squat wearing inzer strongman knee sleeves 325-2
Free motion decline press cable machine 170-1
Gym Tuesday 4:30 p.m. 9/2/14
Dead bench press 245-1
Dead bench press legs crossed in the air 245-1
Conventional deadlift on 45 lb plates with straps 525-1
Stiff legged deadlift on 45 lb plates with straps 515-1
Technogym low row seated lat machine 260-1
Tricep extension rope attachment cable machine life fitness 130-1, 145-0
Technogym leg press machine wearing inzer strongman knee sleeves 440-0
Pec flyes pair of:
60's-2
Workout notes: As you can see on 8/29 I did deadlift variations but with weights not even coming close to 500+ lbs. The only lift I did that was similar to the conventional deadlift in how it's performed was the Romanian deadlift and that was only for 345 lbs at "1". I also cycled back into my routine the pause back squat which I got up with much ugliness. The point is that I think doing these things helped me to clear the 525 lb conventional deadlift off the floor for an inch. Last time I tried it I couldn't even budge it.
The bench press microgain of 245 lbs. at a "1" was due mostly to the fact that I make sure that every pressing variation I do whether it's on a machine or underneath a bar that there is absolutely no scapular retraction or stretch reflex on my front deltoids so I can get the purest expression of my chest pressing strength.
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