Finally a good night...

Wasn't hurting too bad today which is nice.  Made me think I might be ready for the meet.  Ready or not I'm going but still, I just figure if my numbers suck more than I expect I'll be pissed off for a month after.  Anyway, was worried about laying back on the bench because of my rib but it didn't hurt too bad.  My speed felt good, once I got up around 300 I was popping it off my chest so hard that my shoulders were wanting to leave the bench so I was having to stay tucked extra hard.  Did some more Spoto presses and some double bar triceps press downs.  Best way I can think to call that move.  Anyway, you hook a bar between both sides of the cable machine and use both stacks for press downs.  Sounds odd, it's hard as hell because you have to be over 300 pounds to do the stack on each side just so it doesn't lift you off the ground.  Anyway, best part was getting to help train a friend with his squats since he's decided he wants to do a meet in about 6-7 months.  It feels good seeing the stuff you're teaching click and stick with.  Long story short, for the first time of ever doing box squats he did pretty damn great.  I guess that'll do for tonight, maybe another rambling post this week.

MMmmm ribs...

Made an appointment with a chiropractor to see about getting this rib popped back into place.  It'll be next week though.  Monday should have been speed deadlift but I was hurting too bad to bend and attempt to pull, so went with several sets of seated rows which on a scale of "no pain" to "fuck" they were somewhere around "son of a bitch."  When I was done I tried to do some pull ups but yeah, that was a no-go.  The pull up was fine, the lower myself back down was up that "fuck" level.  Probably should have just pulled up, let go, then dropped.  Tomorrow night is speed bench, I'm hoping it'll go better.  I'm about 95% rid of this cold/sinus issues so feeling good and since the weather is about to turn to what winter weather should be around here the sinuses are clearing nicely.  Seriously, screw 75 degree weather in December.  I've got my weight back up to 332, so almost where I should be.  I'm thinking maybe the cold threw off my eating too.  So anyway, that's enough rambling.  Another update tomorrow night.

Rambling: BDD: OSFED: more rambling

I've had this tab opened since last night trying to put thoughts together.  I still can't think of a good way so this will probably be a lot of incoherent rambling.  First, no real training updates because I've been pretty sick, cold and sinuses because of bi-polar weather kept me out all for one shitty day last week.  Anyway, over the past week I've done a lot of reading about eating disorders.  Not really sure why, well I know the initial reason, not sure why I've continued aside from the fact I find it fascinating.  There's a ton of  types of eating disorders because really when you hear eating disorders you instantly think bulimia and anorexia.  OSFED/EDNOS are pretty broad terms used to describe several others.  I've had trouble keeping my weight where I need it to be for my next meet(which I feel horribly prepared for).  I've been using junk which while it taste good, isn't the best stuff for me, so came up with a game plan for getting an extra 1200 calories a day from chicken/blackbeans/corn, put it together today.  Tasted pretty good, now the plan is anytime I go through the kitchen to eat about 1/8th of it throughout the day and hopefully won't make me feel as crappy as candy.  I mean I'll still throw in a peanut butter Snickers, but still, not as many.  I remember when I first started lifting I was on the north side of 400 pounds, I think my waist was right around 70".  The whole reason I wanted to lift to lose weight was to wrestle.  So I started going to the gym, started doing cardio, ended up dropping 100 pounds in the first year.  Felt good, but I still had the mentality "I gotta lose weight"  By the time I started training to wrestle I was at around 240 pounds and when I had my first match I was at 224, which was probably the first time I was at 224 since middle school.  It was pretty awesome, but after looking at those pics I was like "Damn, I look like I'm on chemo and meth."  I've always had a big head/shoulders, so that combo on a body that was too small for it just didn't look right, so I went up to around 250.  That was fine, had my gall bladder out and went to around 280, I think that's about the weight I prefer for "look" and I might go back there eventually, but not soon.  Over the years I've grown to hate the phrase "I need to lose weight." or "You look like you've lost weight."  People who say the first in the gym my first thought is "Well, go walk on a treadmill an hour a day, you'll accomplish your goal, it won't be good but if that's your goal..."  The second one bugs the ever living fuck out of me when someone says it to me.  Anytime someone says "Wow, you've lost weight?"  My mind goes straight to "Oh fuck, am I getting small?"  I guess it goes to show where my mindset was to where it has come.  I'll rationalize the last time I saw them like "Well, it's been 2 months ago, I'll check some logs."  I'll then check my logs and be like "What the hell?  I was 337 two months ago, now I'm 331, has that 6 pounds made that much of a difference?"  I believe that's probably an mild case of body dysmorphia disorder since after rationalizing it in my head for a while I realize they're just stupid, but I've probably ate just in case.  At any rate, this is long as hell already so if you've stuck around for my rambling, I guess it's just that the mind can be real asshole sometimes, but maybe that's what makes some of us more awesome.

A day late...

So, dynamic effort bench night was pretty damn good.  8x2 First 2 was with 315, moved well enough that I jumped to 325 for the next 6, finally 335 for the final 2.  All moved really well so I was pleased.  After that went to Spoto press for singles, kinda rapid fire between me and the guy I train with, did a total of 8, with about a 2 second pause, the final three I did without a re-rack just because my partner couldn't get more than 5 but he still did better than I thought, oh yeah, 315 on those.  Started doing weighted dips again.  Went to 50 pounds of plates dangling between my dangledoos.  That put me at a robust 385 and managed to do 3 sets of 6-8.  That felt pretty good and my tris were screaming after so naturally I did some high rep press downs and ended with some curls.  Friend and I were speaking about how doing a pull motion after a push motion seems to help with some of the inflammation in the elbows.  It did seem to help, so I'm pretty pleased with that.  Anyhoo, I'll post up some more stuff in a day or so.

Back to boring...

Damn, should post shit with more depth more often.  Had a lot more views than I would have thought.  Anyway, this one will be getting back to the boring.  So anyway, I had to go train Saturday morning before work.  I hate training in the morning.  Some speed shoulder work, 8x3, then hit the triceps hard again.  Really gotta hit them hard right now.  Monday night was speed deadlifts, 315 for 8x2 off the 3" deficit block, definitely have to increase that a bit.  They all moved really well and I was happy with them.  However, going in that night I knew it wasn't going to be a great night.  Thanks to a lot of work and stuff that kept me from sleeping there was a lot of mental and physical exhaustion.  All day at work Monday I felt beat up like even getting to the gym might be out of the equation.  I forced myself to go and I'm glad, but I was so further exhausted after the deadlifting that I called it a night and didn't do any accessories.  Feeling good right now, everything seems to be not be as sore and tight.  Got some almost decent sleep last night and had some time to get shit off my mind so really looking forward to speed bench on Wednesday.

It gets in your blood...

This post popped up in my 'on this day' and I wanted to repost it, I noticed that I misspelled my friend's name so corrected it and this might show up as a new post. I still remember how I felt writing it out. Was an interesting one to write.

A friend once said that to me, this was about six months after he had a full knee and a partial shoulder replacement.  It was also about a three months before he set a world record in the deadlift for his age and weight class by pulling 840 pounds raw.  I started lifting weights so I could get in shape to wrestle.  I got injured doing that to the point my knee was pretty bad so I knew I wouldn't be able to do it anymore.  I kept lifting and started getting into powerlifting more and more.  Me mum bought me one of those magnetic bracelets with the two balls on each end because she knew what I was going to be doing was going to hurt and she didn't want me to hurt.  It was sweet.  17 years later and I still wear it, a friend Christy dubbed it my "old man bracelet" and I've called it that since.  People ask if it works, my reply is always "Not sure, but I like it."  I know that started with some rambling but this morning at the gym me and a couple of guys were talking about training while hurt.  Another guy chimed in, with an injury he had that kept him out of the gym for a year.  I couldn't imagine that.  Second week of training for wrestling had what we'll refer to as a minor accident and I compressed my spine and bruised my spinal erectors.  I was back six weeks later doing it again.  Nervous, but I was there.  Had my gal bladder removed in 2000(2001?), took about 4 weeks till I was back to wrestling and lifting.  After wrestling my knee took about three months to heal to the point I could do squats again.  I've had way more injuries than I'd like to have had over the years.  Really my worst was in 2009, fell/got pinned under a 625 pound squat lockout.  Couldn't walk at all for four weeks.  Then I moved to two knee braces, a boot, and crutches for 2 weeks before I ditched the crutches for a cane.  So at the six week mark while in the braces, boot, and cane I was like "Well, I can train bench"  And I did.  If it's something you love you will learn how to work around injures, push the pain out of your mind and do what you can, or drag yourself to the gym even on days you feel completely beat up.  Anytime I go to the doctor for something that's hurting they always ask the whole "On a scale of 1 to 10..."  I find that scale funny since I don't remember the last time I was lower than a 3/4.  I think most people who do any kind of physically demanding activity, sport, or job probably would find that funny.  You learn what to do to heal faster, what works to alleviate the pain, or to recover faster.  If you really want to do something you'll do it, you just suck up the pain and go push yourself to it.  Some days are a lot easier, some are a lot harder.  Today was a hard/painful day.  I guess that's why I rambled but I guess it does get in your blood, probably like a disease.  Sorry for not making paragraphs, just felt like rambling.

SKWAT

So, there's really not much I can say about my squat days since all I'm doing is box squats for speed with like 235-255.  8-10 sets of doubles.  Finished up with some single leg leg curls, 4 sets of 8 each leg with the stack on that machine, I'm thinking it's 100 or 110.  Nothing fancy.  Since I just do push/pull I'm not worrying too much about my squat going up.  Just hoping the speed box squats help with some carryover to my deadlifts.  Those past couple of shitty days got a lot better today which is nice.  Hopefully it keeps up.  Went back and checked my weight from the results of the last meet and I was at 335, so I won't bench in my shirt again until Jan 6th so I've got plenty of time to bloat myself up, and fortunately I also have a Krispy Kreme that doesn't require a 30 mile drive now.  Mmmm taste like... diabetes.  I did have a really oddly placed bruise form where my biceps connects to my deltoid today, that has disturbed me because I don't remember hitting anything in that area and that's not an area you want to see a bruise in after bench night.  I'm hoping it's just from where my shirt was sitting there and it bruised me it never has before.  Anyhoo, I think that's enough rambling or I'll keep going.

Bench shirt bruises...

Anyway, this will go one of two ways... it'll be short or I'll ramble.  Shitty day/night/day translated to a so-so night at the gym, sometimes that therapy isn't enough to get you out of a funk.  Anyway, enough about that.  So, woke up this morning at around 325, which is about 10 pounds lighter than I like to be for my gear to fit me right so getting into my shirt was pretty easy which isn't a good thing.  405 for a single went up fast and it touched.  I knew that was a bad sign, never been able to get 405 to touch in my shirt so that means I'm going to have to bloat myself up a bit.  455 flew up.  505 I had a minor sticking point at about 6" off my chest.  Video of that will be below.  It wasn't too bad and I had to video it to make sure I saw where my sticking point was.  Going to have to end up hammering my triceps a lot harder over the next 8 weeks also increasing the weight on my speed work.  It's irritating seeing my bench stay at this damn plateau lately while my pulling has gone up.  I'm still looking like I'm on pace to put up better numbers than the last time and that's the important thing, but right now I have that on my mind with a fuckton of a lot of other things.  Anyhoo, here's that video...

So I didn't blog a day...

That doesn't mean I didn't go.  Was just an easy shoulder day.  Was kind of on a good mood type thing plus had to get up earlier than normal this morning so that's why I didn't post the shoulder day.  But it was pretty basic, Overhead dumbbell presses, 80s for 5 sets of 8, some Bradford presses, some Klokov presses, some javelin presses, and some bicep work.  But anyway, to the important stuff that made me feel good.  So today, I just felt off.  Like, all day at work, things were just going wrong and had me dreading tonight.  Get to the gym, doing rack pulls from the 2nd pin off a 3 3/4" deficit block.  Last time I did them didn't have the 3/4 plywood and went to 605 and it wasn't easy but I got it.  Tonight, it was harder because of the deficit being higher and I decided to attempt 610.  Honestly didn't think I'd have it at all, but I moved it well, had a small stutter at near lockout but it was one of those things that I felt but not sure if it was noticeable.  Was really pleased.  However, I was beat so I just finished with a lot of one armed rows and called it a night.  Felt really great and helped boost my confidence a bit more going into Jan.

Squats, yes, I went there.

Back felt pretty good, ankle felt pretty good, my mood was pretty good, so tonight did squats.  Nothing amazing, box squats, worked my way up from 145 for a few reps to doubles with 165, 185, 205, then 235 for 8 sets of 2.  All of them felt good, didn't require knee sleeves so that was nice.  Did the reps for speed, I was pretty smooth and speedy on all of them.  Couple of them even had to re-position the bar because it left my shoulders.  All the leg extensions and leg curls I've done lately out of necessity had poorly prepared me for doing squats again.  After that my legs were kind of throbbing.  So naturally I did the dumbest thing I could think of and dropped to 145 and did mid-range squats for 4 sets of 15.  The portions of my quad just above my knee were throbbing and on fire at this point.  Considered doing some more accessory work but I came to my senses since I do need to be able to walk at work tomorrow.  As I was leaving the gym a friend sent a text telling me after his leg day he was walking like Lt. Dan.  I too knew his pain at that moment.

Beat up

So, tonight was one of those nights where I went into the gym pretty beat up.  Managed to get my primary work done and a couple of accessory lifts.  I just felt bad/run down tonight, I've had congestion and a cough for over a week now and it's aggravating, I don't think it'd bother me so much if I had a symptom other than the congestion and cough.  But anyway, enough of that, speed banded bench tonight, worked up to 295 + purple bands, so around 400 at the top, they all went up smooth quickly.  Felt a bit easier than the last time even though I did feel a bad so that was a positive.  Thankfully the rain is supposed to end over night so maybe once I stop getting rained on every time I walk outside I might get rid of the congestion.  Gonna cut this one short and attempt to get some sleep tonight.