MarkKO's training log

[MarkKO]

I'd been wanting to take a look back at the last cycle and note what worked and what didn't, although I've touched on that previously.

There are two ways I can sum it up:

I should have known better;

And

Greg Panora shaking his said saying, I taught you better than that.

I'll be honest, I'm really quite disappointed in myself because I did things I KNEW wouldn't work and somehow justified to myself that they might. My perspective is that I threw around six months of training down the drain.

1. Combining strongman and powerlifting. That was DUMB. The whole idea of using sandbags to build lower back strength to help my squat and DL was already questionable, and it spiralled way out of control. I could probably have left it in that first block and seen some benefit, but extending it into the second block was really fucking stupid.
2. Using the SSB and spider bar exclusively for at least half the cycle. What did I think was going to happen? Again, dumb.

Those are the two main really stupid choices I made. There are some others that aren't quite as bad, but didn't help either. Not stupid, as such, but more careless.

3. Not focusing on CAT especially on the squat. I slipped into that without realising it.
4. Not looking at bar speed compared to the previous cycle, again particularly on the squat. If I'd taken the time to look at how things moved compared to last cycle at the same loads I would have noticed a definite decrease in bar speed this last cycle.
5. Training too heavy on the main lifts. I did know I was pushing the limits a little because I hadn't reset my working maxes in around a year, but didn't feel an urgency to do so because it had been working fine. Instead of working off around 90% I was working off close to 100% and obviously that reduced my margin of error to almost nothing. No surprise bar speeds were down. I got away with a higher working max for the previous cycle and a bit, not this time.
6. Continuing to train deadlift as a secondary lift. Again, I knew I was pushing it a little given I missed my third at the last meet but I didn't realise that I'd pushed too far. Much the same as the previous point, I had gotten away with it for a cycle and a bit but my luck ran out.

There were some positives to take out of the cycle though. It might be six months down the drain but I'm not coming into this cycle totally empty handed.

1. I'm better at pullups, and can get a set of 10 almost any day I do them. This is without being lighter.
2. I can feel my back better when doing most any rowing exercise. I suspect this is linked to being better at pullups.
3. My bench has come out of the previous cycle unscathed. It might not be massively improved, but it's definitely a little better.
4. My squat and dead aren't WORSE than they were before as far as I can tell. They just haven't improved. That's an odd positive, but at least means I'm not having to catch back up. I just haven't moved forward. This is based on that week I had where I hit heavier triples on both just recently.

Then there's just the usual end of cycle bits and pieces.

- JM press reached the end of its usefulness for the moment, as has incline bench;
- T-bar rows were OK but not good enough to stay in;
- chain flys also were OK but not good enough to stay in;
- pushups are well on the way to cementing themselves as my bread and butter upper body assistance along with pullups;
- my focus on work capacity has far reaching benefits and probably will do well to be pushed slightly;
- by necessity I'm going to shift focus to my glutes and hamstrings for lower body assistance for the next cycle, and that probably is a good thing because the last two cycles have been the opposite.

That would be about it.

[MarkKO]

Went for the usual weighted vest walk, this time made a concerted effort to push the pace and got a time of 28 minutes and 11 seconds, cutting a minute and 44 seconds off yesterday's time. Not that I'm doing the walks to take less time. I do, however, want to know how fast I can do the distance without pushing the pace to the point that it's strenuous. Today was not strenuous, I was just making a concerted effort not to slow down if that makes sense. Average heart rate was significantly higher, which is to be expected BUT max heart rate stayed the same.

Definitely a good distance to be using for the moment, and it absolutely will take a while for me to be going under 27 minutes but perhaps not as long as I initially expected.

[MarkKO]

It's week three already, and I'm starting to want to squat, bench and deadlift again which is always a good sign.

Monday upper
15, 10, 10x44 lbs pushups using the cambered multigrip bar. Last set was rest/pause 5, 2, 2, 1 but the first two sets were no cakewalk either.
10, 8, 4, 4 pullups with the first set good enough I tried an eleventh rep. No dice.
15x119 lbs, 15x110 lbs, 15x100 lbs, 20x89 lbs, 36x80 lbs tricep pushdowns using the assisted dip machine. I listed the stack weights but the pulleys make it so the actual weight is about half that. Much better feeling in the muscles than regular pushdowns, and better quality reps too. So these are staying.
2x15/side x 110 lbs single arm DB rows
2x50 facepulls
4 minutes backwards treadmill walk

[MarkKO]

Finished work too late (by my standards which I explained somewhere here) to train yesterday so I trained today instead. Means I'll back up tomorrow, but that's OK because this week is still just GPP stuff.

Thursday (Wednesday) lower
50 m x 264 lbs backwards sled drags, only rest was turning the sled around every 10 metres
35, 2x25x220 lbs reverse hyper
15, 2x10 GHR
10, 2x8x198 lbs lat pulldown which were reasonably strict except for the last four reps of the last set which saw some body English. Got a really good contraction in my lats though.
3x25 facepulls

[MarkKO]

Friday upper
50 m x 264 lbs backwards sled drag, only rest was turning the sled around every 10 metres
2x25 back raises
20, 2x10 -44 lbs dips, not the biggest ROM on the 20 but pain free and got a great contraction in my chest.
5x5 pullups, played around with tempo and pauses in a couple of places.
3x10x44 lbs pushups, which were hard after the dips
2x15/side x 110 lbs DB rows and I'm going to need to push to at least 20 next time
3x40 facepulls

The sled drags felt different today, which I'm putting down to having done them yesterday. Not bad, just harder and didn't feel my quads as much. I'm hoping dips continue to leave my shoulders happy because I think I'm onto something.

[MarkKO]

It's Saturday, so easy weighted vest walk time. Faster than last Saturday though, but not as fast as the Sunday. I'll see what happens tomorrow. I need to be careful not to get caught up in prioritising increased pace as opposed to simply going and getting the walk done.

The idea to go back four days a week training cropped up again. I'm going to set it up from next week as a trial, because I really think with the new job it's eminently feasible.

I'll set it up squat on Monday, bench Tuesday, a shorter DL day on Thursday and dips on Friday. When I say shorter DL day I mean just DL and a couple of assistance exercises instead of a total of five or six.

[MarkKO]

It also occurs to me that I might start pulling sumo again, at least for a while. It might be easier on my knee, until it clears up at the very least; and my back probably won't object because it still is just that tiny bit stiff from the hamstring/glute thing or whatever it is.

Coming back from the original back injury a couple of years ago, that's what I did until I could pull conventional again and it took me back to a 600 lbs conventional pull so there's definitely something to it.

Experience dictates that my hips will tolerate it until my squats get heavier; which they won't for a while, so that works out nicely.

I'll trial it over the next two weeks while I also trial going back to four days.

[MarkKO]

Weighted vest walk again but definitely didn't push the pace. Didn't feel like that would be productive. Came in about 30 seconds slower than yesterday. Oddly, average and max heart rate was higher this time

It wasn't hard, though. I just didn't push the pace and kept it brisk yet comfortable.

I'm still unsure exactly what this is doing. I doubt it is hindering my recovery, but I have no idea if it is improving it either; or if it is doing anything for my conditioning. I'll need to do some more hunting around.

[Renascent]

Coming back from the original back injury a couple of years ago, that's what I did until I could pull conventional again...

If you don't mind me asking, what happened?

[MarkKO]

Coming back from the original back injury a couple of years ago, that's what I did until I could pull conventional again...

If you don't mind me asking, what happened?

Of course not! It'll be a bit of a story though, because context.

This is going back a while, to something like late 2020 IIRC. Last few months on Team Panora, my shoulder was already messed up but I hadn't learned it was partially torn yet. Or possibly I had. I do know I was already dieting down from the 260s, and was around 245 lbs.

Anyway, I was lighter than I'd been in a while but my shoulder was messed up. My waistline was significantly smaller than it had been in ages. This is important.

I was used to bracing to pull before I gripped the bar, because with my 260+ lbs gut I simply couldn't get tight AT the bar. I'd set my abs, pelvis and lats, take my air, brace and only THEN hinge my hips and grab the bar. This worked totally fine, let me brace very well and I pulled 650 lbs like this in February 2020 with zero ill effects.

I'd had a couple of back tweaks prior, but all of them came outside the gym doing shit like turning suddenly or putting my pants on and hadn't stopped me doing anything for more than a couple of days.

Anyway, there I was with a messed up shoulder and smaller waist on a day I hadn't worked because it was a public holiday or something. I drove to the gym to deadlift. It was one of the short rest days, so the loads were super heavy at all. From memory it was something like 5x3x70% or so which at the time was around 415 lbs. I absolutely didn't want to be there but there I was, in an absolutely empty gym. I was at the end of my rope in terms of doing things Greg's way because I was hurt and tired and showing up simply because that's what I do. None of this was Greg's fault, at all. I was just too fat and had gotten my lifts to a point where I didn't have as much room for technical error as I used to and was paying for it.

So I got to my working weights and start the sets. I got the first triple, took a few breaths and got to the second rep when around mid-shin I felt a pop/crack in my right lower back. Pretty much dropped the bar and ended up on my knees for around 30 seconds wondering if I could walk. After that I carefully got up, realised I could walk unloaded the bar and went home. I could get up and sit down if I was really GD careful. For around 24 hours the lower right hand quadrant of my back felt hot and swollen. Getting up after sitting for more than around five minutes took bracing and care, but walking was fine. This lasted for around two weeks, after which things got a little better but on Greg's advice I took a break from ALL training for six weeks and just did prehab/GPP stuff.

I think it was around the end of that six weeks that I got the diagnosis on my shoulder and a couple of weeks after that slunk out of Team Panora with my tail between my legs.

Now, to this day I don't know what exactly happened with my back. I suspect it was some kind of pull, but what I am almost certain of is the cause: my waist reduction. I was still bracing while standing, because that's what I was used to doing. The problem was that with a smaller waist, it wasn't effective. I had to go back to bracing at the bar. I also had weak abs, because with a gut there was simply pressure on demand but with a smaller waist my abs needed to work.

That's when I started religiously training my abs. Pulling sumo was a stopgap measure that let me deadlift with my back around 90% while my back healed and my abs got stronger.

Ever since then that part of my back has been prone to tightening up, which it did again a few weeks ago when I pushed it a little too hard. My deadlift also hasn't been the same since that initial incident because I haven't quite figured out how to compensate for my lack of gut. I've just about managed it on the squat but not the deadlift.

So I figured I'll take another shot at sumo because it got me back to 600 lbs last time. Maybe this time I can get it to work to 650 lbs.

[Renascent]

Coming back from the original back injury a couple of years ago, that's what I did until I could pull conventional again...

If you don't mind me asking, what happened?

Of course not! It'll be a bit of a story though, because context.

This is going back a while, to something like late 2020 IIRC. Last few months on Team Panora, my shoulder was already messed up but I hadn't learned it was partially torn yet. Or possibly I had. I do know I was already dieting down from the 260s, and was around 245 lbs.

Anyway, I was lighter than I'd been in a while but my shoulder was messed up. My waistline was significantly smaller than it had been in ages. This is important.

I was used to bracing to pull before I gripped the bar, because with my 260+ lbs gut I simply couldn't get tight AT the bar. I'd set my abs, pelvis and lats, take my air, brace and only THEN hinge my hips and grab the bar. This worked totally fine, let me brace very well and I pulled 650 lbs like this in February 2020 with zero ill effects.

I'd had a couple of back tweaks prior, but all of them came outside the gym doing shit like turning suddenly or putting my pants on and hadn't stopped me doing anything for more than a couple of days.

Anyway, there I was with a messed up shoulder and smaller waist on a day I hadn't worked because it was a public holiday or something. I drove to the gym to deadlift. It was one of the short rest days, so the loads were super heavy at all. From memory it was something like 5x3x70% or so which at the time was around 415 lbs. I absolutely didn't want to be there but there I was, in an absolutely empty gym. I was at the end of my rope in terms of doing things Greg's way because I was hurt and tired and showing up simply because that's what I do. None of this was Greg's fault, at all. I was just too fat and had gotten my lifts to a point where I didn't have as much room for technical error as I used to and was paying for it.

So I got to my working weights and start the sets. I got the first triple, took a few breaths and got to the second rep when around mid-shin I felt a pop/crack in my right lower back. Pretty much dropped the bar and ended up on my knees for around 30 seconds wondering if I could walk. After that I carefully got up, realised I could walk unloaded the bar and went home. I could get up and sit down if I was really GD careful. For around 24 hours the lower right hand quadrant of my back felt hot and swollen. Getting up after sitting for more than around five minutes took bracing and care, but walking was fine. This lasted for around two weeks, after which things got a little better but on Greg's advice I took a break from ALL training for six weeks and just did prehab/GPP stuff.

I think it was around the end of that six weeks that I got the diagnosis on my shoulder and a couple of weeks after that slunk out of Team Panora with my tail between my legs.

Now, to this day I don't know what exactly happened with my back. I suspect it was some kind of pull, but what I am almost certain of is the cause: my waist reduction. I was still bracing while standing, because that's what I was used to doing. The problem was that with a smaller waist, it wasn't effective. I had to go back to bracing at the bar. I also had weak abs, because with a gut there was simply pressure on demand but with a smaller waist my abs needed to work.

That's when I started religiously training my abs. Pulling sumo was a stopgap measure that let me deadlift with my back around 90% while my back healed and my abs got stronger.

Ever since then that part of my back has been prone to tightening up, which it did again a few weeks ago when I pushed it a little too hard. My deadlift also hasn't been the same since that initial incident because I haven't quite figured out how to compensate for my lack of gut. I've just about managed it on the squat but not the deadlift.

So I figured I'll take another shot at sumo because it got me back to 600 lbs last time. Maybe this time I can get it to work to 650 lbs.

Thanks for the context.

Sometimes I feel like an asshole asking people about their injury stories, but I also feel like I'm coming from the standpoint of a student, so the background of others who lift more -- and more efficiently -- is important to me for a number of reasons.

With that said, I've been entertaining with the idea of dabbling with sumo again for a few weeks in some kind of bastardized block, just to see what benefits are there to be reaped. I switched to conventional years ago in response to some setback I can no longer clearly recall, and now it feels more "natural" to me, but it's hard to tell when I'm testing the waters a little too aggressively, on spite of what appears to be progress.

Anyway, I admire how snappy your pulls always look. It's a very "no-bullshit" style that I admire.

[MarkKO]

Coming back from the original back injury a couple of years ago, that's what I did until I could pull conventional again...

If you don't mind me asking, what happened?

Of course not! It'll be a bit of a story though, because context.

This is going back a while, to something like late 2020 IIRC. Last few months on Team Panora, my shoulder was already messed up but I hadn't learned it was partially torn yet. Or possibly I had. I do know I was already dieting down from the 260s, and was around 245 lbs.

Anyway, I was lighter than I'd been in a while but my shoulder was messed up. My waistline was significantly smaller than it had been in ages. This is important.

I was used to bracing to pull before I gripped the bar, because with my 260+ lbs gut I simply couldn't get tight AT the bar. I'd set my abs, pelvis and lats, take my air, brace and only THEN hinge my hips and grab the bar. This worked totally fine, let me brace very well and I pulled 650 lbs like this in February 2020 with zero ill effects.

I'd had a couple of back tweaks prior, but all of them came outside the gym doing shit like turning suddenly or putting my pants on and hadn't stopped me doing anything for more than a couple of days.

Anyway, there I was with a messed up shoulder and smaller waist on a day I hadn't worked because it was a public holiday or something. I drove to the gym to deadlift. It was one of the short rest days, so the loads were super heavy at all. From memory it was something like 5x3x70% or so which at the time was around 415 lbs. I absolutely didn't want to be there but there I was, in an absolutely empty gym. I was at the end of my rope in terms of doing things Greg's way because I was hurt and tired and showing up simply because that's what I do. None of this was Greg's fault, at all. I was just too fat and had gotten my lifts to a point where I didn't have as much room for technical error as I used to and was paying for it.

So I got to my working weights and start the sets. I got the first triple, took a few breaths and got to the second rep when around mid-shin I felt a pop/crack in my right lower back. Pretty much dropped the bar and ended up on my knees for around 30 seconds wondering if I could walk. After that I carefully got up, realised I could walk unloaded the bar and went home. I could get up and sit down if I was really GD careful. For around 24 hours the lower right hand quadrant of my back felt hot and swollen. Getting up after sitting for more than around five minutes took bracing and care, but walking was fine. This lasted for around two weeks, after which things got a little better but on Greg's advice I took a break from ALL training for six weeks and just did prehab/GPP stuff.

I think it was around the end of that six weeks that I got the diagnosis on my shoulder and a couple of weeks after that slunk out of Team Panora with my tail between my legs.

Now, to this day I don't know what exactly happened with my back. I suspect it was some kind of pull, but what I am almost certain of is the cause: my waist reduction. I was still bracing while standing, because that's what I was used to doing. The problem was that with a smaller waist, it wasn't effective. I had to go back to bracing at the bar. I also had weak abs, because with a gut there was simply pressure on demand but with a smaller waist my abs needed to work.

That's when I started religiously training my abs. Pulling sumo was a stopgap measure that let me deadlift with my back around 90% while my back healed and my abs got stronger.

Ever since then that part of my back has been prone to tightening up, which it did again a few weeks ago when I pushed it a little too hard. My deadlift also hasn't been the same since that initial incident because I haven't quite figured out how to compensate for my lack of gut. I've just about managed it on the squat but not the deadlift.

So I figured I'll take another shot at sumo because it got me back to 600 lbs last time. Maybe this time I can get it to work to 650 lbs.

Thanks for the context.

Sometimes I feel like an asshole asking people about their injury stories, but I also feel like I'm coming from the standpoint of a student, so the background of others who lift more -- and more efficiently -- is important to me for a number of reasons.

With that said, I've been entertaining with the idea of dabbling with sumo again for a few weeks in some kind of bastardized block, just to see what benefits are there to be reaped. I switched to conventional years ago in response to some setback I can no longer clearly recall, and now it feels more "natural" to me, but it's hard to tell when I'm testing the waters a little too aggressively, on spite of what appears to be progress.

Anyway, I admire how snappy your pulls always look. It's a very "no-bullshit" style that I admire.

I'm glad you don't find my verbosity off-putting.

Also thank you for the compliment, I very much appreciate it. It's something Greg taught me and I've worked on, but honestly it's so much easier for me to achieve when I have a large belly.

I think it's a smart idea to find out what people did post injury precisely with the view to avoiding having that injury happen to you. It's why I like Donnie Thomson's content so much.

I don't want to pull sumo for the hell of it for sure. It's never been my stronger stance, but frustratingly on paper I'm built for it (short legs, long back, medium to short arms). Which is why it is significantly easier on my back, I suppose. It may even be the case that if I stick with it I'll be able to make it strong, provided I find a way to cajole my hips into tolerating it over the long term.

At the very least I know for sure I can switch to it for a few months without it compromising my conventional pull at all.

[MarkKO]

Week four of block one. Starting with a public holiday, so I trained not long after breakfast.

Monday bow bar squat
5x3x264 lbs with pretty much spot on 10 seconds between each set. Left knee held up pretty well, some discomfort but it didn't persist after the sets. I slowed my descent somewhat which I think helped the knee. Definitely focused on accelerating through the rep, which I need to keep doing because I got slack with that.
40 m x 264 lbs backwards sled drags with the only rest being turning the sled around every 10 metres.
3x10 GHR
3x25x220 lbs reverse hyper
10, 2x8x198 lbs close grip lat pulldown with stricter technique this time
2x40 facepulls

[MarkKO]

Left knee (and right for that matter) tolerated squats very well. Win.

Tuesday bench
5x3x165 lbs with 10 second rests just because. Seemed fine.
11, 7, 2x5 pullups and I even attempted - briefly - a twelfth rep. Reps 10 and 11 looked pretty similar.
3x10x44 lbs pushups using the cambered multigrip bar
25/side x 110 lbs DB rows, so I'm going to move up to the 132 lbs DB now.
20x110 lbs, 10x45 lbs, 30x40 lbs tricep pushdowns using the assisted dip machine and this was dead set one of the best tricep pumps I've ever had
2x50 facepulls

I don't know if I've been mentioning that at Mark's suggestion I've been walking backwards on the treadmill to rehab my knee. I have, and it has been working.

[MarkKO]

Thursday deadlift on stiff bar
5x3x308 lbs, with my shins midway between the smooth and the rings when standing. That's as narrow as I can go and be able to have my whole hand on the knurling. Very light, but it felt promising especially since my lower back was tight all day at work. There was also absolutely zero discomfort in my knees.
40 m x 264 lbs backwards sled drags with the only rest turning the sled around every 10 metres
2x25 back raises
10, 2x8x198 lbs close grip lat pulldowns
3x25 facepulls

[MarkKO]

Friday secondary upper
2x15, 1x10 -44 lbs dips. I'm all over quite fatigued (from work, I think. Seriously, fuck wardrobes. Carrying them, at any rate) so I didn't think trying to beat last week's 20 was a good idea. Turns out the second set felt and looked better than the first. So far my shoulders seem to be tolerating these fine
10, 9, 8 pullups with somewhat longer rest than usual between sets. The last reps on set one and two were *just* passable
3x10x44 lbs pushups
10/side x 132 lbs, 15/side x 132 lbs DB rows, second set with straps. I won't be moving past this weight for a while.
2x50 facepulls

[MarkKO]

Didn't go for a weighted vest walk yesterday but today (Sunday) I kicked myself out there before it got too hot. Middling time, max heart rate a little higher but average was right around normal.

Tuned in to the live stream for the meet I pulled out of and caught the tail end of men's squat. Looks like I'd have most likely won the squat, quite possibly on my second attempt. So really while that would have set me up nicely to take a podium position for best lifter, without casting needless aspersions on the other guys that wouldn't really be much of an achievement. I'll check bench and deadlift out as well.

The diet is proceeding, Carbon still hasn't changed my calories. It's the start of week five now and I'm down around 4.4 pounds so far based on weekly checkin weight, and if anything my rate of loss is accelerating slightly which is correlating with increased hunger in the evenings. I will be delighted if I can sit on these calories for the duration.

I anticipate that if everything keeps going as it is my weekly average weight will reach the provisional goal weight of 205 lbs in seven or eight weeks from now. At that point I'll decide whether I want to push down to 198 lbs or stop there but whichever way I go my mind is starting to settle on capping the diet at another 10 weeks at most.

That would give me a feasible run at the September meet, as I would have a clear 10 or so weeks to settle into maintenance. A lot depends on how quickly I stop losing weight once I go back to maintenance calories, of course. Last time if I recall it took me some four to eight weeks, and I was struggling to not lose weight during peak. It would also depend on how well I perform in the gym over the entire cycle, which I think is going to depend mostly on whether I can keep going with my current calories or whether I end up needing to decrease them.

[MarkKO]

Week five of block one is here. Almost back to normal training.

Monday squat
5x3x308 lbs which I decided to do with 10 second rests because it was just too light otherwise. I'm pretty happy with the bar speed, I just need to keep remembering CAT. Belt is noticeably looser, but not quite at the point I need to move the lever. Yet.
50 m x 264 lbs backwards sled drags, only rest was turning the sled around every 10 metres
15, 2x10 GHR
3x25x220 lbs reverse hyper
10, 2x8x198 lbs close grip lat pulldown
3x25 facepulls

[MarkKO]

Tuesday bench
5x3x187 lbs, decided on 10 second rests again because reasons
11, 9, 6 pullups and that was probably my best 11 yet. Still no way I could get the twelfth I tried though.
3x10x44 lbs pushups on the cambered multigrip bar
10/side x 132 lbs, 15/side x 132 lbs DB rows, second set with straps
24x119 lbs, 21x100 lbs, 25x88 lbs tricep pushdowns using the assisted dip machine, again weight stack weight listed. Actual weight is half that.
2x50 facepulls

Some tightness in my upper left trap today, so I'll be watching that, although it came on some time yesterday which makes me think it has nothing to do with lifting weights. Nonethless, I shall be observant.

[DanCR]

That's when I started religiously training my abs.

Any tips / thoughts on how to do so specifically for purposes of strengthening the abs to relieve the lower back? Asking because every few months (including as I write this) my lower back decides to be a pos to the point where I need to really back off. There are a few reasons for that I think, but I’m conscious of the fact that I don’t do a damn thing for my abs and have very noticeable anterior pelvic tilt (as in, at all times, unless I actively flex my abs and glutes and pull everything into neutral).