This was a great video for me. It made me realize how long it's been since I've really pushed myself in the gym. I haven't really been expecting progress, at least not at a pace worth talking about.
Since watching that, I've decided to bump my pre-workout caffeine back up from 200 to 400 mg and get after it. Even aside from progress, it just makes it more fun. I'm not planning on going to 1700 mg/day like the Bugez, but that man is insane in the best way. He makes Juji seem tame by comparison.
Deadlift wouldn't move, but I'm happy with how I approached it. For years, I've occasionally run into some type of mental block where my brain just won't let me apply force to even start the bar off the ground. I failed this, but not because I didn't try. I tried 5 times, in fact. It just wasn't there today for some reason, and I couldn't get it past mid-shin. I did just start losing a bit of weight a little over a week ago, so that probably contributes to some level, but I'm not going to let that stop me. Getting after deadlifts again on Wednesday.
In addition to pushing what I've been doing harder, I'm also trying to add some more work, including some type of "athletic" movement at the end of the workout. And I've been letting minor aches and pains hold me back on broad jumps, but I got back to it today and was able to break 30' again.
I've learned a lot about pain in the last 6 years or so (largely thanks to @Austin and Derek from Barbell Medicine), so realistically, I should be able to push harder, not have to hold back. That definitely worked today. My brain was trying to tell me my back was too sore to do stuff, so I leaned into the pain instead. Instead of avoiding movement when my back hurt, I'd make myself bend over and pick something up, or do a cartwheel. I've learned that almost all of my pain is mental, and avoiding just reinforces to my brain that it's something to worry about, making it worse.
More success, PR'd box jumps! My seated box jump PR is now higher than my standing one. It's amazing how much more I can do when I, you know, actually try. The weird number on box jump is because I used the actual height for measuring the PR instead of rounding. My platform is actually 1 5/8" tall, and my jerk block topper is 2.25", but for easy of calculation I usually treat them both as 2" flat and don't record fractions of an inch. Broad jumps went well too. Right back to >30' when I'm not subconsciously holding myself back.
Today's athletic thing was cartwheels. They worked pretty well for forcing my back to calm down. It seems paradoxical, I know, but it's how I've come to understand pain, and it works pretty well.
Squats hit RPE 10 primarily because I drank too much water between sets and was uncomfortably sloshy even after 7 minutes of rest. I really should know better by now.
This is the most excited I've been about lifting in a long time.
Still really enjoying training. Today I added in some non-lifting stuff, and I think I'll keep this in. Not particularly worried about planning anything for it. Just some form of running and moving around.
I'm getting non-terrible enough at cardio that it's starting to not suck to do it. I feel like I'm actually getting athletic again, which is cool.
Worked up to heavy singles to get a better picture of my starting maxes for this next block, because I've signed up for a meet in 7 weeks. I'm doing a Powerlifting America meet on 17 November. I'm going to be battling for second at best, because Garrett Blevins is also signed up as a 105. If I didn't want to face him, I suppose I could go up to the 120 class. Then I'd just have to face Mike Tuchscherer... Or I could do a hell of a cut and go down to 93 kg to face Bryce Lewis. So I think I'll just stay where I am and go for the best second-place performance I can get as a 105.
Excellent first session of the block, except for smashing my shin. My Dad was lifting in the rack, so I did my high-bar squats from my squat stands. I misgrooved one and had to bail, which wasn't a problem, except that I didn't watch where my leg was going, and I hit the rack foot right where I've already got a massive bruise from hitting my shin on a jerk block last week. I messed up my opening warm-up jump and hit it right on the corner.
Shin injury notwithstanding, I'm excited for this. I meant for the deadlift single to be @9 and the first set of 5 to be @8-9, but they ended up both being @10, and I'm completely fine with that. I'm getting back the mindset of pushing it, and I didn't give up on either one. I was a bit stiff this morning, but nothing severe, and after a shower and doing today's non-lifting work, I feel really good.
Since last Thursday, I've been doing some form of at least moderately intense physical activity on my off days. I probably won't be logging it, but here's today as an example.
Sprints, jumping, and stretching make up most of it, but also shot put juggling, jumps, and cartwheels. And lots of yardwork I've been putting off. Speaking of cartwheels though. I've actually been successfully using them as an anti-pain mindset tool, too. Some part of my brain wants to convince me that my back hurts for stupid reasons. So instead of giving in and sitting down, I'll go do a cartwheel instead. That sends myself the contradictory signal that my back is fine, since if it wasn't, I obviously wouldn't/couldn't be doing cartwheels, so I must be fine after all.
I'm feeling very good overall, and I'm enjoying training more and more. I'm even seeing noticeable cardio improvements. This is how training is supposed to be, and I'd forgotten how much I can enjoy pushing hard.
This is a lot of fun. Hard as crap, I wasn't aiming for that many RPE 10s, but I feel really good after. I'm proud of my grind on that top squat single, even if it's rather lighter than I was hoping for. But it matters what it is in seven weeks, not what it is now.
Continuing to push hard and have fun. I've either lifted or done some other type of training on 13 of the last 14 days, and the day I missed was because I had to take Buddy to the vet. I'm carrying more fatigue than I was before, but I'm not sore, I'm not in pain, and overall my energy levels are higher than they've been in years.
Surprise, I'm back! I competed in the middle of November:
And I've basically been dicking around since. I've been working hard, and my frequency has mostly been 6-7 times per week, but I haven't been following any type of program, and my overall volume has been pretty low despite the frequency. I did do two weeks of EvolveAI, but it wasn't for me. Part of that was a mismatch of training styles, and part was that the app is still fairly buggy.
Now I'm back to following actual programming. Still coaching myself, but setting and enforcing a real plan. Day one is in the books.
The goal is to follow this for 6 weeks and then decide where to go from there. If I'm stalling out, I'll test my maxes. If I'm still making progress, I'll just keep going. I'll put in deloads as/if needed, but I'm starting light enough that it shouldn't be an issue in the near future.
Oh, hey, I haven't posted here in... oh, only 2.5 months. I honestly thought it was longer than that.
I've also started writing. I've got two articles up so far at https://herbison.ghost.io/. More are coming more or less soon. If you've got any topics you'd like me to cover, and I've got a reasonable amount of knowledge about it, let me know.
DCR wrote: ↑Wed Apr 05, 2023 5:25 pm
Read your piece and followed the link to dude’s Time piece. Sufficiently more terrified than I was before, which is saying something.
I don't know if the current approach involving training on large language models will get us to full superintelligent general AI, but I also don't know that it won't, and that should indeed be scary. Not that fact that I don't know, per se, but the fact that no one knows. Even if it doesn't, we're almost certainly going to get there eventually with a future approach.
I'd love to say the most likely thing that happens if this approach doesn't pan out is that we look back at it and think "Holy crap, that was close. We'd better go all-in on being prepared for the next shot at it." But I think the more likely response in that case would be "See? You guys were all doom and gloom last time, and it turned out fine. There's nothing to worry about."
Exciting stuff to come. For me, I mean. I'm excited to get strong again. For the rest of you, probably meh. Lifting logs are seldom very entertaining. Kind of like spectating powerlifting. But that's why there are cats.
Same workout as Thursday, with very minor variations. I'm doing the same A/B three times before starting to move the weight up. I want to see if/how much the difficulty changes based on where it is in the week and what else I'm doing.
This one felt fantastic. Something clicked, and I remembered how to get deep and use the stretch reflex for squatting. I don't know when I stopped doing that, but it's awesome.
SeanHerbison wrote: ↑Mon May 29, 2023 4:32 pm
Exciting stuff to come. For me, I mean. I'm excited to get strong again. For the rest of you, probably meh. Lifting logs are seldom very entertaining. Kind of like spectating powerlifting. But that's why there are cats.
I for one will be following along with great interest, and am sure that I won’t be alone.
I'm remembering how to move weights fast, with focus and intent, and it feels great. There's a bit of a trade-off with deadlifts, but I do want to strengthen my grip, so I'm doing some of them DOH and some with hook grip. Right now 331*5 is about the limit for DOH; the left hand starts opening on the last two reps.
I'd apparently also forgotten how to do a thorough warm-up, and fixing that has been helping a lot.
I won't lie, I enjoy following the progress and seeing the lifting of a strong and thoughtful dude who once caught 405 mid-air after a zercher squat and somehow actually retains information while listening to podcasts/videos at 3x speed, but the cats are a big part of the reason I click.
cgeorg wrote: ↑Wed May 31, 2023 5:11 amI won't lie, I enjoy following the progress and seeing the lifting of a strong and thoughtful dude who once caught 405 mid-air after a zercher squat and somehow actually retains information while listening to podcasts/videos at 3x speed, but the cats are a big part of the reason I click.
Once upon a time, I accidentally did my most impressive lifting feat to date. Nowadays, I just listen fast and post cats.
Nothing exciting here. Just getting the last of the baseline workouts in. Next workout the weights start going up. Gotta get back to that 405 catch somehow.
Done with the baseline workouts, now I'm starting to add weight. I'm starting with:
- Squat: 2.5 kg/session
- OHP: 1
- Power Clean: 1.5
- Deadlift: 3
- Bench: 1
- Front Squat: 2
So double that for my progression per week. Warm-up and accessory stuff doesn't have a specific plan. They'll go up sporadically, based on how I'm feeling and how many reps I get.
I haven't quite decided, but I'll probably be doing this meet in November. My dad's competing, and it's far enough out that my strength should be decent by then.
