Couple of days post...

My last heavy deadlift day was Thursday.  Missed 575, after watching the video it was easy to see what I did wrong.  Should be easy to fix, pulled it easy, just once it went past my knees I tried to continue pulling with my back when I should have just sat back.  Here's the vid...

So that was a bit of a pisser, but 2 weeks until the meet.  Have a dynamic effort deadlift and bench day this upcoming week, so those will be good.  Then a deload/off week the week of the meet.  Then yay, we get to see how weak I am.

Tonight was good, once I go over the 250 range on squats they're killing my ankle and knee so I'm still keeping them at 235 for sets of 6.  Did that and some hamstring work.  Ended with some curls.  For fun tonight I found out I can curl 165 for a set of 10.  Tonight was pretty fun at the gym, good people and way too much ballbusting, well not too much because that's where the fun came from.  Here's hoping I feel that good the next few nights.

Bench Monday...

Lets see, moved my bench day to well, International Benchpress day.  So that's Monday.  Anyway, think I'll feel better not doing my deadlifts on the night I do most of my bending/moving around at work.  Benching today felt pretty good.  Good people around so that added to it.  Last heavy night in my shirt before the meet and I was kind of dreading it, but tonight was nice and smooth.  Didn't feel that great going in just because for some reason my bench has suffered so much lately because of the jacked up rib, tonight was surprising.  Went 505 and got it without any real difficultly.  Then decided I'd give one more a go at 515.  Had a friend video it so I could see how it went, made me realize I didn't miss it because of strength, just technique.  My elbows flared a bit about midway through so that's what caused the miss, but just required a light touch by my spotter to complete the lift.  One more speed day and then a deload week before the meet.  So actually looking forward to it now.  I'll deadlift heavy on Thursday.  Then start thinking about my openers, second, and final attempts at the meet.

Sunday Squatday

So, my weight is at 320 right now.  Got exactly 3 weeks to put on 15 pounds.  Doesn't sound like it should be hard but for some reason it has.  Anyway... a little something different at the start.  Had a pretty amazing last three days that weren't gym related at all.  Been spending some time with someone who's pretty special and it's been pretty nice to feel good about something that's not just the gym.  Anyway, squats... so I'm having to change my days up a bit, should end up being better over all since I won't do deadlifts after one of my longer days at work with more walking/bending. This means squats are now on Sunday.  Tonight I go in, felt pretty okay, no knee pain, back pain.  Do my warmups with the bar, feels fine.  Then I go to 145 and dropping down felt fine, coming up felt really wonky on my left knee.  Like it wasn't stable.  Quick fix of "Hey, lets put on the Rehbands" fixed that right up.  Went to 235 for a few sets of 6.  They all felt good till the last set then the knee felt a bit unstable on rep 3, finished out the 6 but decided to call it there.  Decided to avoid the leg curls and do them after deadlifts this week instead.  So I did the unthinkable and worked some biceps.  One day I'll get large arms.  Tomorrow night will be a heavy bench night, so I gotta figure out how to put on at least 10 pounds over night.  Maybe I'll sleep with a few sticks of butter on my chest and hope it absorbs.  It's so crazy it just has to work!  We'll see how it goes.  A bit more of something in depth/insightful coming this week.

Cupcakes...

So, thanks to the oblique pull I took Sunday night off, I think my shoulders might be thankful for the rest.  Monday night was speed deadlifts so wasn't sure how that'd go but it went surprisingly well.  315 for 8 sets of doubles off 3 3/4" deficit.  I really feel good about my deadlift going into this meet.  My bench though is what's worrying me.  I might make Saturday another bench day just to get some extra work in my shirt.  I need to wash it to tighten it up some as well.  Also gotta figure out what I'm eating or not eating that's causing my weight to get that 10 pound flux.  I know it's normal for your weight to flux but one day I'll be 325 and stay there for a week trying to eat more.  The all of a sudden, no gradual movement and boom, 335 so really need to figure out what's bloating me so much and eat extra.  At any rate, maybe I just need to go on a cupcake regimen, that does sound pretty awesome.

Hurting...

Louie Simmons once said something to the effect of 'if you go into a meet without being hurt you didn't train hard enough.' I have never been more prepared for anything in my life.

That's exactly how I feel right now.  Lower back is tight, feels like it should be pulled but just not.  Hard to describe I suppose.  Rib out of place that's still bugging me, didn't realize how much the bench shirt would make that suck.  Woke up this morning with a pulled abdominal muscle.  Dunno how I did that, really hoping I wasn't sleeping that violent, my dog didn't seem traumatized this morning so must not have.  Then tonight while doing squats I learned that the vastus medialis head of the quadriceps goes into my knee has a pull. Oh, and while it's not hurting, I've got odd bruising around the ankle that always hurts from the squat incident.  Not painful to the touch, just oddly bruised, but it's not hurting anymore than normal so I'll just overlook that.  That's probably enough bitching for the night.  Just need to start packing myself with ice and see how that goes.  

Bench night I guess...

So tonight was a heavy bench night.  505 kicked my ass.  I think my shirt might have worked me instead of me working it.  The meet got pushed back a week which is nice.  I've got to figure out what was going on.  Going to do my speed work in my shirt for the next couple of weeks too.  With the Rage X I have to kind of do a bodybuilding bench to get the bar into my chest, then tuck my elbows, then press it.  So I'm thinking tonight I didn't bring my arms down like I should have.  Aside from that, it was a pretty good night at the gym.  So looks like more triceps hammering and I'm thinking less overhead press work on my shoulder days.  This one apparently is going to be pretty short it looks like.  Have fun peeps.

Deadlift test

So, tonight was a max effort night.  I'll have one more before now and the meet so I wanted to get a light gauge of where I'm at.  at 500 pounds I pulled it off the floor great, but I lost my grip with my left hand.  Knew it wasn't a weight issue so I went and pulled again.  Once again, popped off the floor nice but I lost it with my left hand.  So, was pissed off at this point.  Chalked up hard, grabbed the bar as tight as I could and popped it off the ground and locked it out easy.  Then I went to 550.  Asked a friend to watch and see how fast it comes off the floor.  Told him there's no way I'm going to lock it out after those 3 pulls before I could hang on to 500.  He watched, popped it off the floor, once it hit my knees I was like "Yeah, I've got this."  Finished it.  Was pleased.  One more test day 3 weeks out I'll shoot for 575-580 on that test.  Just try to figure out what happened with my grip tonight.  At any rate, a little more grip work is on the table.  Wednesday we get to test the bench.  So that will be pretty fun.  My back is feeling pretty good from tonight so hopefully that'll hold up.  Anyway, no rants/tangents tonight, not sure how I'm feeling.