Thoughts about life, crap, training, and stuff

Offseason training and my broke'd ass -

Well I strained my adductor earlier in the week doing fronts, and Saturday I totally jacked up my lower back doing, well, basically nothing as I was benching and merely bent over to pick up a 25 pound plate when I felt all my shit get locked up.  A little better this morning as I have been doing all the mobility work I can do all weekend, however I feel it's just going to be one of those things that takes time.  Which sucks, because I had already planned out my entire offseason and meet prep.  This doesn't totally detail it, or at all really, but it's just disheartening to have the flu, then have two injuries in the same week.

Speaking of offseason training, what you are going to see is my normal over warm up stuff, plus a higher load of volume work, of course, at a lower intensity.  This will rotate a little bit, mainly based on feel.  Again, this is still a rough work in progress however to give you an idea, I will have a couple of different intensity workouts I rotate through.

For example on bench it will be 315x3x8 all reps paused or it will be 365x5x3 all reps paused.  All depending on feel.  Once those are all too easy I will either just up the number of sets, or I will go to 335x3x8 and 385x5x3.  That simple.  Before the meet I'd ideally like to be at 405x5x3, but that's not really required in order to hit what I want to hit for the meet.  I'd also like to hit 365x10 all reps paused, and I think that one might be more of a requirement.  However if I'm knocking out 385x5x3 that should be easily doable.  See how that works?

For front squats I have a few workouts to rotate through.  Namely, 225x5x8, 275x5x5, and 315x5x3.  Again, WELL under what I am capable of.  I'm sure I could go in and bang out a rough set of 405x5 however I want to stay away from grinding and max effort style work.  My back squat will follow this up with 50-90 pounds more than front squat work.  So as the fronts get easier and easier the squat will move up similarly.

I also need to reiterate to people that you cannot just get your reps in like this.  You have to explode the concentric portion of the reps as violently as possible.  A good way to remind yourself of this is to either do your negatives slow, or pause all of your benches.  Which is a good idea anyway because touch n go reps on bench are pretty worthless IMO for powerlifting transfer.  I have stopped touch n go all together because well, no one gets to touch n go at a meet unless it's at a shall we say, at a meet run by a less than reputable fed.  So for squat, lower slowly and under control then EXPLODE against the weights.  When you can move 60-70% of your 1RM as violently as possibly on every rep for 5-8 sets, you will be stronger, or at minimum you will be primed to start peaking for strength.

Same for deadlifts, probably lots of triples with nothing more than 515 for a while even though I can knock out a set of 12 with that.  Over the next few months, that'll end up being 550 for lots of triples, then 565.  I will end up working up to my second attempt (660) before the meet, but that's as heavy as I will pull.  I'm also going to move good mornings back into the rotation, but yes, light.  My guess is 185-225 for lots of sets of 8.  The other movement that is going to get a lot of work is Yates rows.  I had been doing Pendlay's for a while, however for nothing more than a nice change I'm going to attack the Yates traditional underhand row using the 350 method for a while.  My goal there will be 365 I think.  On these I am more upright however, as usual, no hip or knee movement.  So once I get locked into place I don't do that bouncing shit.  Speaking of rows.........

More row controversy.....because I want to create it

Ever noticed a row can't just be a row anymore?  It has to be named after someone?  Kroc rows, Yates rows, Pendlay rows.........maybe this is why people fight over rows so much.  Naming rights.  Oh and can we at least get it straight that a Kroc row is a HIGH REP db row, and not just a db row?  The whole reason that movement got recognition is because Kroc did a set of like 38 with the 175 pounder.  Not 10 reps.  10 reps is not a god damn Kroc row.  That's a db row.  Also, it's not sloppy or cheated either.  Go back and watch the original video.  Nevermind, I will embed it..........



Matt is pretty strict here.  Not sloppy and certainly not shortening his ROM.  He gets a good stretch on the negative, and pulls the plates into his chest.  I'm not sure where "a kroc row is a sloppy db row" came from, but I don't see that happening here.  Just a lot of reps, which helps build grip, and upperback strumpf.  So if you're going to do a Kroc row, I think it's 20+ reps.  I don't know, but it can't be 10.  Even if Kroc is doing them.

We also can't keep moving the goalposts on row naming rights.  Whatever it is, it has to be that.  So if Pendlay says a row is strict with no knee or hip movement, he can't back track later and say "well, some is allowed."  Well which fucking one is it?  Make up your god damn mind.

Chaos and Bang your earballs returns - 

Jamie and I will be doing a podcast tomorrow FINALLY, now that he is over Ebola, Mutaba, and cancer of the AIDS.  It's possible we will also have a really really awesome fucking guest on.  Not promising anything yet, but it'd be epic.  So I won't be doing a Q&A for this podcast in case this happens, so don't start asking.

USSF - Listen to IronRadio on the 19th

Phil Stevens and I have launched a new powerlifting fed.  I will be on IronRadio on the 19th to talk more about it.

I know, I know "just what we need another fed..." but hold your fucking horses, Lone Ranger.

This fed will be quite different.

First off, only two divisions.  Junior, and open.  None of this god damn "Masters Open Police and Fire" shit or "Open "I never had any parents that loved me" Bastard" division, shit.  Juniors....and open.  If you're 20 you're going up against 44 year old elite level lifters.  Deal with it.

The only person getting a trophy or cash prize will be whoever wins their weight class.  That's it.  First place will mean something again.  Enough of this "everyone's a winner!" bullshit.  No, not everyone is.  The Redskins aren't playing again next week are they?  Nope.  And you don't get a fucking trophy for taking 4th in the "Masters Super Heavyweight" where only 2 people competed.  Fuck that.

The other thing that we will be doing is recognizing world records.  Phil and I both hate people talking about their "national level lifting" and "world records".  If you want the 220 deadlift record, you will need to out pull Coan.  That means better than 901.  So if you have a "world record" in the USSF, it will be a REAL world record.

The other great thing about this fed?  Full meets only.  No more of this gay ass "bench only" bullshit.  Or "push pull" nonsense.

There is nothing worse, than being at a meet and having squats go smooth, then have 47 bench only fags show up and it takes 8 hours to bench before you can get your first pull in.  I hate that shit with a passion.  We will NOT do bench only, nor push pull.  FULL MEETS.   You know, POWERLIFTING??!?!?!

All squats will be walked out.  Yes, we will have a monolift, however it's only for height purposes.  Makes it easier.  Guys, Capt. Kirk and Coan walked out 1,000+ pound squat virtually raw.  You can walk out your squat.  Stop being a baby.

If it were up to me, because I'm a zealot and an asshole, there wouldn't even be hand offs on the bench or sumo deadlifts.  If you can't take it off the racks to bench it, you probably have no business trying to bench it.  I can tell you that you will never see a soft handoff or that spotter will get foot broke off in ass.  Phil also wanted to nix sumo pulling however there was no way to acknowledge the records top to bottom and not take it into account.  I do think however, that we will distinguish the difference on whether a deadlift was done conventional or sumo however.  Now whether you like it or not, it doesn't matter but I can tell you for a fact that a conventional pull is always given more respect across powerlifting than sumo deads.  If you like pulling sumo that's cool.  Just don't expect it to be held as in as high a regard as conventional pulls.  Just the way it is.

This fed also has the backing of my good buddy Wendler, and there are some other "names" that are getting on board with it as well.  Stay tuned.

That's it for a Monday.  I think.............