Wooden Platform, Iron Men!

[dlocas7]

I just "signed up" for my own at-home meet, which will take place on December 16th --- The Yuri Vlasov Classic 2023
It will feature the three following lifts... All for a max single.

Dumbbell two-hand Clean & Press
Conventional Deadlift
Axle two-hand Deadlift

This will give me something to train for. When I don't have anything coming up, I lack the proper focus to really train.

[dlocas7]

Monday September 11th

Dumbbell Clean & Press (standing, parallel grip)
54 pounders, 3 x 3 reps
64's 2 x 3 reps
69's x 3
74's x 3
81½ 5 x 2 reps -- Good training weight; all presses were solid.

Block Pulls, 4½ inch blocks
229 lbs x 5
280 lbs x 3
340 x 3
370 x 2
410 x 2 -- Felt very, very heavy. I have gone more than a year without doing any kind of blocks pulls, so I'm certainly weaker from that height (13") than off the floor now. Coordinaton should return soon.
370 lbs 3 x 4 reps -- My last set felt the strongest; coordination has improved during the session.

Snatch Pulls off 6-inch blocks
158 x 4
188 x 4
219 x 4 -- these weights feel like feathers after handling 370+
239 x 4
259 x 4 -- now that was challenging!

Axle (2") two-hand Deadlift
200 lbs x3
230 x 3
260 x 2 x 2
280 x 2 --- I'm crushing the axle as hard as I can on each and every rep = very fatiguing!

This was a heavy and thorough full-body session that lasted two hours. I'm going to get something to eat!

[DCR]

This was a heavy and thorough full-body session that lasted two hours. I'm going to get something to eat!

Earning the post-session feast is a truly great feeling.

[dlocas7]

Wednesday September 13th

Dumbbell Clean & Press (parallel grip, standing overhead presses)
54 pounders 3 x 3 reps
64's 2 x 3
69's x 3
74's x 3
79's x 3 -- That was a hard set. Now I know my pressing muscles are fatigued from Monday's 5 doubles with 81½ per hand.

Clean High Pulls
158 lbs 2 x 3 reps
178 2 x 3
200 x 3
220 x 3 -- My back was fatigued from Monday's block pulls. Usually, doing such a light session alleviates the soreness in my lower back, but it's very important not to go too heavy and to keep the number of sets moderate. I did two triples with each sub-200 weight, but only one with 200 and 220.

Floor Press, medium grip
128 lbs x 8
158 x 8
168 x 6 -- Even at that weight, I can tell that my triceps are very fatigued. This is useful information as to the volume I'm able to handle.
178 2 sets x 3 --- That's it for tonight. There's no point in further hammering this lift. I'll come back Saturday and see what I can do after plenty of rest. My training volume and intensity went up a notch this week.

Tonnage for the week -- Press (overall)... 3,966 + 3,256* + 5,440 = 12,662 lbs (* Monday was the least volume, but it was by far the most fatiguing session with 5 heavy sets the same night, as opposed to only 2 heavy sets over the other sessions.)

Tonnage for the week -- All deadlifts at 300+ lbs ... 7,020 lbs (The double at 410 was the most taxing; I'm not even sure the 3 sets at 370 I did after were as much fatiguing even added together.)

[dlocas7]

This was a heavy and thorough full-body session that lasted two hours. I'm going to get something to eat!

Earning the post-session feast is a truly great feeling.

Thanks, DCR!

[dlocas7]

Saturday September 16th

Snatch Pulls (off the floor)
35 lbs x a bunch of warm-up pulls
85 lbs x 6 reps
128 lbs 3 sets x 3 reps
158 x 3
168 x 3
178 x 3
188 x 3
200 x 3
210 x 3 -- All reps higher than pec line up to that point
220 x 3 -- Last two reps at or slightly higher than pec line
250 x 2 sets x 2 -- Pulled up to mid-abs

Deadlift, conventional
280 lbs 3 sets x 2
300 x 3 x 2 reps
330 x 2 reps -- I'm out of shape compared to where I was 3-4 years ago. There's no point in bothering with assistance lifts. I'm going to start out with technique work using light poundages on the basic lift. The mindset is completely different from a clean deadlift, where positioning for the second pull is the key. In a deadlift, the focus is on pushing against the floor with my legs at full force while accelerating the bar from the get-go using my glutes. Done properly with 100% intent, light doubles can get surprisingly taxing even though I'm miles away from failure.

Floor Press, medium grip (starting from bottom)
128 lbs x 6
158 x 6
168 x 3
178 x 3
188 x 3
200 x 3
210 x 3
220 x 3 (similar to last week) I have a minor strain bothering me on my left wrist on dumbbell pressing and I don't want to do barbell overhead pressing on a fatigued lower back, not to mention the overuse issue in my left elbow, which may come back if I do the barbell Press again too soon. Floor pressing with a slightly wider grip than my OH press allows me to train pain free, and this is really something worth its weight in gold.

I'm actually ecstatic to be able to directly hit my shoulders and triceps without having an elbow or wrist killing me. This is also why I'm using ramp-up sets for most of my training now. Training lighter is better than being forced to stop.

[dlocas7]

Monday September 18th

Floor Press (close grip, start from bottom)
128 lbs 2 sets x 6
158 x 3
168 x 3
178 x 3
188 x 3
200 x 3 -- Today was a light session

Snatch High Pulls off 6" blocks
128 x 6
158 x 5
178 x 5
200 x 2 sets x 3 -- Lower back fatigue was still high today. Light session; all weights crisp and high! To condition a lifter for pulling the bars high, it's essential to train with weights that allow high pulls.

Axle two-hand Deadlift (2" bar)
200 x 3
230 x 2
250 x 2
270 x 2
285 x 2 (PR*) *post 50th birthday (I need to look into my old training logs to see what my lifetime PB's are.) The second rep at that weight is where I start to see the difference between my left hand and my stronger right hand.
250 x 3 -- Squeezing that bar as hard as I can on each lift = very taxing! I'll do this lift once a week and see how it behaves. It's very easy to overdo it, but it deserves to be trained like a full lift.

This is what olympic weightlifting looked like in 1940... To people back then, these pulls looked natural. The barbells had to be snatched or cleaned without any sort of body contact, and there was a lot more leeway for press-outs. At 0:35, you can see a 19-year-old John Davis snatching something like 300 lbs. You see him performing a jerk at 1:20 with his famous leaning on the left. John Davis, Steve Stanko and Louis Abele were rivalling each other with three-lift totals hovering between 950 and 1,000 lbs and were the first lifters to officially snatch in excess of 300 lbs. Due to WW2, the American record in the snatch was higher than the 1938 world record.

[dlocas7]

Wednesday September 20th

Floor Press (medium grip -- start from bottom)
128 lbs 3 sets x 4
158 x 4
168 x 4
178 x 4
188 x 4
200 x 4
210 x 4
220 x 4
230 x 2 sets x 2 -- with 2-3 reps left in tank. This is the first time in more than a year that I'm moving that weight. The last session of Floor Press where I used more than that was on... January 10th 2022! On that day, I worked up to 244 lbs for eight doubles with power to spare. In 2021, I was having very good results with that lift, including a PR at 295 and a very narrow miss at 300. I became once again the culprit of stopping to do something that worked after overworking the same lift too heavy for too long! This time, I'll use this lift and the dumbbell press to slowly build back up.

Clean Pull (muscle clean up to 158 lbs)
128 x 2 sets x 3 reps
158 x 2
200 x 2
220 x 2 -- This is where the strain in left wrist comes from = when I pull very high using my Press grip.
240 x 2 -- No issue with wrist here; the weight doesn't go as high and I'm using a slightly wider grip. This means I should work mostly in this range.
260 x 2 -- Very good training weight. I'm stopping here because my lats are really sore from all the work I've been doing over the last three weeks. I'll come back fresh for new adventures on Saturday.

Deadlift, conventional (with squat-down start a la Koklaev and a shrug at the end of each second rep)
290 lbs x 3 sets x 2 -- This was a primer for Saturday.

[dlocas7]

Saturday, September 23rd

The sides of my lower back are still fried. I'm not doing any pulling until Wednesday. I'll focus on pressing and train grip on Monday.

Floor Press, medium grip, starting from bottom off blocks (with the bar an inch away from chest)
128 lbs 2 sets x 6
158 x 4
168 x 4
178 x 4
200 x 3
220 x 2
230 x 2
240 x 3 x 1 rep -- easy singles; this is my heaviest pressing in 2023. Singles and doubles are especially important in a lift with a dead start from bottom.
220 x 2 x 2 -- reached a fatigue point

***

Back in June 2016 at Louis Cyr competition in Napierreville. After a 20-ton-truck arm-over-arm pull, the second event was a Car Deadlift Hold for time. The commentator is telling the public that there's 585 lbs of weight on those handles. I liked a car deadlift for reps better, but this was still my favorite event. I did the car deadlift hold twice that year and always held on for more than a minute...

[DCR]

Dig all the videos you’ve been sharing @dlocas7, of you and others. Keep em coming!

[slowmotion]

That's great stuff!

[dlocas7]

Dig all the videos you’ve been sharing @dlocas7, of you and others. Keep em coming!

Thanks, DCR!

[dlocas7]

That's great stuff!

Thanks, slowmotion. Hope your training's going well for you too.

[dlocas7]

Monday September 26th

Floor Press, medium grip starting from bottom off blocks (bar 1 inch from chest)
128 lbs 2 sets x 6
158 x 3
168 x 3
178 x 3
188 x 3
200 x 3
210 x 3
200 x 2 x 3 reps -- Lighter session, but each and every rep was done with maximum effort on bar speed.

2-inch Axle Deadlift with two hands
200 lbs x 3
230 x 3
240 x 3
250 x 3
260 x 3 -- Very good effort. I also dominated that weight while squeezing as hard as I could. Fatigue levels get high in a hurry because I'm always squeezing with maximum tension against an uncrushable object, which is the Axle. I went down in weight from last week, but moved from doubles to triples. Next week I'll probably get 265 for a triple. For doubles, my current target is 290.

[dlocas7]

Wednesday September 27th

Dumbbell Press (parallel grip, overhead)
54 pounders 3 sets x 3
64's 2 x 3 reps
69's x 1
74's x 1
79's x 1
84's x 1 -- easier than anticipated
84's x 4 @ RPE 8.5 -- I'm getting my usual carryover from floor presses.

Dumbbell Muscle Clean (both bells cleaned together without knee rebending)
84 pounders 3 x 2 reps

Stiff-leg Deaflift (from the floor)
138 lbs x 5
229 x 5 -- fun fact = I used the straps starting as low as this weight because I was starting to get some inflammation in my fingers tendons, from holding the dumbbells on the previous lift and most of all, from Monday's Axle grip work. This is how punishing a session of thick-bar deadlifting can be! Those tendons still got five days to recover.
280 x 3
320 x 3
350 x 3 -- Starting smooth and accelerating the bar once it's moving; no jerking the bar from bottom!
370 x 3 @ RPE 7 -- Very important to get used again to those sorts of bar speeds = smooth and much slower that olympic pulls.

Dumbbell Row, one arm (same load each arm)
104 lbs x 5
124 x 5
144 x 7

[DCR]

Dumbbell Row, one arm (same load each arm)
104 lbs x 5
124 x 5
144 x 7

One of the fun things about reading the logs is seeing a number on a random lift that makes me think, “…damn.”

[dlocas7]

One of the fun things about reading the logs is seeing a number on a random lift that makes me think, “…damn.”

Thanks, DCR!
I'm a bit surprised myself since I had not done this lift in a couple of years. This is a fun lift that will work my upper body strength differently after so much time doing olympic weightlifting-type pulls.

[dlocas7]

Saturday September 30th

Today is my heaviest deadlift day. This is week 1 of a twelve-week training cycle that will culminate on December 16th with maxing out in the two-hand Dumbbell Clean & Press, the Conventional Deadlift and the two-hand Axle Deadlift, all three lifts done on the same day in that order.

Deadlift, conventional
130 lbs a bunch of reps as warm-up and technique work
180 lbs a bunch of singles, doubles or triples as warm-up and technique work

Farmer's Handle Deadlift (partial deadlift to get me used again to heavy iron)
220 lbs (110 per hand) 3 sets x 4
360 lbs x 4
400 x 4
420 x 4 -- I used a belt and straps starting at that weight as I want to spare my grip for Monday's Axle work.
440 lbs x 2 x 4 reps --- I can take a lot more now. The top weight will go up each week in 20-lb increments and I'll do 5 reps per set next week.

Snatch-grip Deadlift (each hand about 4 inches outside the power ring, no belt)
280 lbs x 4 (felt like a toy after handling 440 even though this is a long range of motion that feels like lifting a stone)
310 x 4
340 lbs x 2 x 4 reps --- easy sets. The weight is going up 10 lbs next week and reps per set also go up by one, so I'll be doing 350 for 5's. The low start position really feels like lifting a heavy stone off the floor. No belt on any sets as I also want to train my core muscles. When I'm using farmer handles as my heaviest work, it is essential to also have a hip hinge using a barbell with a much fuller range of motion.

Dumbbell Press (standing, parallel grip)
54 pounders, 3 sets x 8 reps -- this was only to get blood and flush the muscles to help with recovery. And at that point, I was too tired to do any sort of heavy work anyway.

I learned something important over the last two months about the relationship between olympic pulls and heavy deadlifts. They just don't go all that well together. If I do a bunch of sets of high pulls and heavier pulls and then add weight to do some heavy deadlifting, the muscles in my back are already tired by the time I start the deadlifting, leaving me with sub-par sessions and a sore lower back.

Tonight, the work with farmer's handles went very well, and I did it right at the start when I was fresh. My core felt stable and solid and I could really push those weights. So, Saturday will be my heavy hip-hinge day since I don't work and have a lot more time and energy to work this. Wednesday will be my lighter hip-hinge day. Monday will be my heaviest day for pressing and also the grip-work day.

[dlocas7]

Monday October 2nd

Floor Press (medium grip, start from bottom)
128 lbs 2 x 6 reps
158 lbs 2 x 3 reps
178 x 3
200 x 2
220 x 1
240 x 1
250 x 3 -- PR for 2023, very hard set
230 x 3 x 4 reps -- that went well

Barbell Row
128 x 6
158 x 5
200 x 4
220 x 4
240 x 3 x 4 reps -- this was easy. Next week, the rep ceiling goes up to 5 and my weights are going up too.

Two-hand Axle Deadlift
200 x 3
230 x 1
250 x 1
270 x 1
285 x 1
300 x 1, hold for 10 sec.
290 x 1, hold for 12 sec.

[DCR]

Floor Press (medium grip, start from bottom)
…
250 x 3 -- PR for 2023, very hard set
230 x 3 x 4 reps -- that went well

Well done! Still three more months to go too. I’m sure that we’ll be seeing more.