Back at the deadlifts...

But first, random non-lifting stuff.  Lets see, my sleep has been complete shit lately, the amount of crap I took last night for a little less than 4 solid hours was insane.  With that being said got a message today that was pretty good to get, relieved a lot of stress I've been having so that was nice and maybe with some of that off my mind it'll help with the sleep.  Today was my last day in the hardware department at work.  Got another promotion, second one in 6 months there.  I swear I don't know how people think I'm competent at anything, although they always do at work.  If they only knew how screwed up my actual life/mind is they'd be like "Nope!"  Well, sadly some here do, but still.  Maybe one day I'll be able to adult enough to move the work competence into non-work aspects of life but that window seems to be closing.  Okay, now lets go to the workout stuff...


So the weight is still dropping, getting more and more interested in seeing where the plateau is.  To be honest it's kinda scaring me, but I'll get past it, I think.  I'll actually post an update when I reach a new weightclass.

Tonight was dynamic effort deadlifts.  It was pretty cake, first time I've pulled from the floor since the meet.  Nothing special, 315 8x2.  Got to increase that to 350-65 week after next, I'll probably work from a deficit then.  After that followed up with lawnmowers 3x6 with 115 pounds.  It'd been so long since I've done lawnmowers because the heaviest dumbbell we have at the gym is 100 and it's just too light, but fortunately we got the build-a-dumbbell back I figured 115 would be fine.  It was a little lighter than I wanted too, need to go to 130-40 on those.  After that was going to do some lat pull downs, thought to myself, lets do a couple of pullups before.  Well, it's a huge difference since the weight drop because my 3x6 on lat pulldowns turned into 3x6 on pull-ups which was far more satisfying.  After that ended with some straight-arm pulldowns, maybe 140 pounds(cable machine is numbered instead of actual weights listed.  for 3 sets of 10.  Was a pretty good night.

Couple of days...

Sunday was squat night.  My ankle wasn't too bad but basically just bad enough to make me notice it a lot while squatting.  Nothing fancy, just 145+150chains 3x3, 195+150 chains 3x3 and 235+150 chains 2x3.  Felt okay, that was all I did.

Tonight was some speed bench.  Simple 8x2 with 275, I've got to pop that up to like 295 from now on, was just too easy so I split my sets first 4 were normal grip, last 4 were close grip.  Then did some incline bench of 135x8, 155x8, 175x8, 195x8.  Ended with some tricep work.  Nothing major but everything felt good.  The cut phase is still going, probably actually update that in a few days.

Little shrugging...

Keeping it simple this week, tonight was a fun night at the gym.  Just some shrugs and assisted pull ups.  Shrugs were relatively heavy, finally got some straps so I don't have to powergrip when I get heavy.  Final sets were 5 sets of 6-8 with 495.  I will end up with traps one day.  Okay, probably not since I'm built like an Autobot but I'll get as much trap as I can.  Those last two statements mean something entirely different on 4 chan.  Lotta good people at the gym tonight made it a pretty good night, those days can always get the shit that won't stop running through your mind off it.  Guess tonight is going to be short and sweet.  I'll just leave this here...

..gotta get back in this mindset.

Long time...

So it's been over a week since the meet, not going to say I was happy with my numbers.  Bench of 510 and deadlift of 540, which are both meet PRs but I was really hoping for more.  So in that aspect, it was a bit of a bummer.  However, it does seem like a good takeaway that I can go into a meet as banged up as I was and still finish it.  Bench went well, opened with 450 just to have a nice easy one to get on the board.  Second attempt was 510, got it without any real issue.  Third attempt was 530, it stopped just a tad before lockout so I had to have them take it.  Between bench and deadlift I got a call that I really didn't want to get.  It had me worried about someone so I don't think my head was entirely in the deadlifting.  Opener was 500, smoked it, was thinking I could end with 570, so I went for my second with 540, smoked it.  In retrospect I should have really went 550 just to get an extra 10 pounds out of it.  The 570 stopped just below my knees.  But it was a pretty good time.

Only trained twice last week, head's been in completely other places.  However, I have cut out a lot of the junk food I was using to keep me at 330ish.  In doing so I've slowly dropped some weight.  It's odd seeing my weight go down and trying not to have a freakout over it because I think I'm getting small and weak.  At any rate, I'm sub 320 right now.  In my head that seems so small.

Until April I'm not doing anything over 405 pounds except maybe shrugs.  Even my heavy days will be heavy reps instead of singles.  Tonight I tore my chest up nicely.  Did board presses with 405, sets of 4, 3, and 5.  Triceps and shoulders were pretty tore up, which isn't a bad thing since they've needed some work lately.  Then did some light incline bench for 3 sets of 8.  Ended up the night by burning out on bench press, 225 for a set of 31, that's a new rep PR for 225, so that's pretty nice. I plan on working my triceps in a bit more with my shoulders on Thursday.  We'll see how that goes.  I've rambled enough.

Couple of days...

So, the meet is Saturday and I'm hurting.  Last night was my one night at the gym this week to go through my movements.  Everything felt okay.  Screwed up part is I don't feel ready.  I've prepared hard, but I've been beat up the whole time.  I'm not really expecting to put up huge numbers but as long as they're improved numbers I won't be that disappointing.  My hip/lower back was hurting pretty bad when I got up Wednesday morning so I went to my doc.  Finally broke down and asked him about pain management clinics, he was pretty cool since he's had to go to one before.  Said they're really good about finding alternatives if you don't want pills thrown at the problem.  I'm not a fan of opiates at all, they make me sick to my stomach and I just can't function that well on them.  I think that's why I've always thought Tramadol was a good alternative.  Knocks down the pain some but I can function on them.  So anyway, got my usual shot of Toradol and a prescription of Tramadol.  Hip felt good last night while going through my deadlift movement, pulled from the bottom pins though.  Rested it pretty well today and plan on it tomorrow.  I suppose I could switch to bench only the day of if it's bothering me, but I've made the most gains in my deadlift.  One of the nice things is we talked about some of the options available the one that I thought was the most fascinating was severing the offending nerve that's causing the pain.  My doc said he had it done and it took three times before it scarred enough to not heal back but once it happened, boom, no more pain at all.  Dunno if that'd be an option with my ankle and knee but it's pretty awesome.  Anyway, I'll end up checking that out shortly I hope.  I'll have to get an MRI so I'm not looking forward to removing my Jacob's ladder, for that but it'll be okay.  Joking... or am I?