Hardartery - Recreational Outrage

[platypus]

That's real commitment on the second rep of 475!

Do you base your paused squat weights off of the squat weights you did right before, or do you progress them independently?

[Hardartery]

That's real commitment on the second rep of 475!

Do you base your paused squat weights off of the squat weights you did right before, or do you progress them independently?

They are not related to the normal squat weights. I mean, I'm sure they are some sort of predictable percentage but I didn't break out a calculator. The progress will be semi-independent, it will likely be fairly lock step with GM progression. I am not pushing either of them particularly hard as far as trying to add weight goes, but I am progressing them on sort of a loose mental plan. Adding reps, seconds in the whole, comfort in the lift, stuff like that. I am fighting all of my natural inclinations and leaving them as assistance with lighter intensity. The paused squats were just a weight I used in training many years ago that wasn't terribly taxing and I thought I could manage it. And plate math. 4 plates is an easy number, LOL.

[Hardartery]

Tuesday 1/23/24
Some might notice that it has been a week, and it's Tuesday so we're squatting again. Yep. Got hijacked quite badly schedule wise, ended up on a project in the North of the country for 3 days instead of 2 last week and the third day I didn't get off site until 1:30 AM. I really hate pouring hot concrete, there is one plant and it was over 2 hours in the trucks from that plant to the project. Concrete that's watered down to a wicked slump to keep it viable is not fun and I am now at an age where I don't enjoy beating a surface onto concrete for hours and hours. I think everything hurt when I finally got up Sunday after getting home in dirty clothes at 3 AM. So, this week I am too grumpy to get sidetracked into surrendering my schedule much.

Squats
225 x 5
315 x 5
405 x 3
475 x 1
495 x 1
475 x 1

Pause Squats
425 x 3 x 2 sets

GM's
325 x 5 x 2 sets

Seated Leg Extensions - Atlantis machine
240 x 12 x 2 sets

Bodyweight went from 267 last week to 274 yesterday to 270 this morning and dropping. Massive edema from working outside in the heat and I am dumping fluid at a radical rate. I have to say though, taking the calcium with some creatine is massive before the workout. No tingling, I don't feel catabolic either but I am really pushing the lifts hard.

[Hardartery]

Wednesday 1/24/24

Incline BP
135 x 5
225 x 5
295 x 2
315 x 1
295 x 2
265 x 3, 3, 2 - hard paused

DB Lateral Raises
85 x 7 x 2 sets
65 x 10, 8

Cable Stack French Press - rope handle
stack x 10, 7, 7

So, it felt like I lost a little from the missed week, but not really. It should have been 3's at 295 straight sets, but I wasn't feeling it in the tank so I hit the 315 single and the double at 295 was much easier after that than the first one was. If I wanted onto the struggle bus I would have gone for the triple and I think it was there. I have lost some on the version of French Press, but I don't think it's a strength thing at all.



***edit to add - I did everything before the paused reps with pointer on the rings instead of index. It was entirely unintentional and probably part of the problem.

[KarlM]

Nice deep squats going on here. Do you do high bar because of elbow pissiness? One of the things your squats show is that you’ve got an extremely strong back. I suppose that’s common among strong man competitors. Even when your hips pop up a bit your back doesn’t flex at all.

[Hardartery]

Nice deep squats going on here. Do you do high bar because of elbow pissiness? One of the things your squats show is that you’ve got an extremely strong back. I suppose that’s common among strong man competitors. Even when your hips pop up a bit your back doesn’t flex at all.

Bar position does have a lot do do with flexibility issues. The elbows are pissy because the shoulders don't move right anymore. With a lot of warmup and stretching I can get the bar down to the rear delts, but on top of them is as low as I can get these days. I actually prefer the top of the delts when I can get there, I never really liked getting down off of them into what everyone now considers low bar position. I feel like it used to be mid to low bar to be on the delts and high bar was on the traps, but maybe I never understood that correctly to begin with.

[KarlM]

It doesn’t look like you’re really taking much load into your elbow joints with your squat, but sometimes you just can’t see what’s actually happening in a video.

I have poor mobility in my right shoulder. I use a lowbar position but i have to break my wrists to accommodate. As long as I wrap them tightly they are fine. But I can’t lowbar squat more than once a week without elbow pissiness eventually reading its head. The SSB has been very helpful in that regard.

[Hardartery]

Monday 1/29/24

Just need to start pulling again. I didn't plan a break from it, life has just caused issues. So, this is just squeezing something in at 9:30 at night and I'll start working up over time as it is really my goal to make a big pull and everything else is just just support work. The pressing is just so that I don't embarrass myself if I can get somewhere to get a Static Monsters total.

DL - 4" blocks
135 x 5 - DOH
225 x 5
315 x 3
405 x 2 - the third felt sketchy and I can't drop on this floor
495 x 7 - straps

Stopped there and went to bed. Grip is off a little I think, the bar also seems to have a greasy film on it from sitting and I need to wipe it down. It felt heavy, but I had more than 7 reps on the top sets. Probably could have hit 10 if I wanted to push it but I have other scheduled workouts for today and tomorrow that I don't want to impact too strongly for now. I have a plan, just need to follow through. The forearm probably didn't help anything.

[Hardartery]

It doesn’t look like you’re really taking much load into your elbow joints with your squat, but sometimes you just can’t see what’s actually happening in a video.

I have poor mobility in my right shoulder. I use a lowbar position but i have to break my wrists to accommodate. As long as I wrap them tightly they are fine. But I can’t lowbar squat more than once a week without elbow pissiness eventually reading its head. The SSB has been very helpful in that regard.

I know that there are at least 2 bone spurs in the left shoulder, the information from the doc was a bit murky past that as far as how bad the actual arthritis may or may not be. I am a big fan of the SSB, and if I wasn't so cheap I would import one here, but the actual price is a little hard to actually estimate and could easily creep up to the $1k USD mark. Not a dream killer, but given that I could be escorted out of the country at any moment and I would be walking away from whatever I might have here. I could literally lose everything here, just gone and someone here gets some gifts. That holds up many ideas, but that's part of the deal to do what I'm doing.

All that whining aside, I do not feel like I am putting any real load on the elbows during squats, but I am probably torquing them because of the shoulders immobility. I won't go lower with bar position, but I would like to regain enough mobility to not bother anything at the current bar position. Stretching, K2 and glucosamine. And time.

[Hardartery]

Tuesday 1/30/24

Squats
225 x 5
315 x 5
405 x 3
475 x 1
500 x 1
485 x 1

405 x 3 - hard paused

Seated Leg Extensions - Atlantis Machine
240 x 14 x 2 sets

So, scrubbed the second set of paused squats and the GM's today, lower back was definitely fatigued and I am not interested in pushing it right now for injury avoidance and because I know Thursday and Friday will be spent forming or pouring concrete. Or both. And last week I spent a day and a half bent over cutting relief cuts and straightening out other people's less than straight cuts. I'm old so I'll try lifting smart for a change. DL's yesterday probably play a role here. But, even though 500 BARELY went, and I mean barely, the 475 felt like 2 reps would have been easy peasy. And i know I hit it hard because the world got brighter after the back off set, a clear indication I was actually pushing it. Maybe that's just me, but it seriously brightens up like the sun suddenly emerged after some serious exertion for me.

[DCR]

I actually was shaking my head watching that. I'm not sure that I've ever seen a squat so close to failure in fact go up. Deadlifts yes. A squat, no. I'd have walked right the fuck out of the gym after that and crushed a beer can on my forehead or something.

[Hardartery]

I actually was shaking my head watching that. I'm not sure that I've ever seen a squat so close to failure in fact go up. Deadlifts yes. A squat, no. I'd have walked right the fuck out of the gym after that and crushed a beer can on my forehead or something.

It was iffy, I gotta say. And I apparently still have the same sticking point that I have always had. I just decided it was going to go, god damnit.

[Hardartery]

Wednesday 1/31/24

Incline Press
135 x 5
225 x 5
295 x 3 x 3 sets
265 x 3 x 2 sets - paused

Lateral Raises
85 x 7 x 2 sets
85 x 5
65 x 10

BTN Press - strict front press to rep away BTN, from the rack
135 x 5 x 2 sets

I am relatively happy with this. I was on one of the stupid skinny bars, and the rings are wrong so I was mostly guessing on the hand spacing. Weird session. I went late, somebody died yesterday afternoon which is a weird custom here. Because I know basically ALL of that family (And there are a lot of them) I went to the cemetery to help with excavating the hole, which was mostly done by the time I could get there except deciding how to re-inter the bones that were at the bottom. Yeah, I said that. They are in a backpack and a trash bag a little lower than where they were found and under some dirt. Normal here. I was at the Vela until after midnight, which is a vigil the family does with the body in a coffin in the house and it goes on until the next day when the coffin gets carried and buried. There's a time limit to get the body in the ground legally and it has to be a certain depth and be inside some blockwork at the bottom of the hole. In spite of that I had a good session.

The BTN is purely triceps and ROM work. Stretching the shoulders and removing the chesticles from the equation.

[MailmanMuscle]

Heck of a fight on that 500 squat. Nice!

[Hardartery]

Heck of a fight on that 500 squat. Nice!

Thank you!

[Hardartery]

Monday 2/5/24
Off schedule again. Border run tomorrow to renew my visa so it is unlikely that I will have time for the gym. I spent yesterday mostly working a shovel in the heat and I really wasn't re-hydrated from Thursday and Friday yet so I wasn't expecting a good time today.

Incline Press
135 x 5
225 x 5
295 x 2 - missed the third
315 x 1 - gas to spare on this one
295 x 2

265 x 3 x 2 sets - paused

Lateral Raises
85 x 7 x 2 sets
65 x 10 x 2 sets

JM Press
135 x 10 x 2 sets
135 x 9

Session notes:
The 1 RM strength was there but not the reps today, no big deal just switched to a heavy top single and next week I'll see how many x 4 I can get. Press is all a triceps problem for me, the bar comes off the chest like a rocket and stalls at the transition so ideally I probably need to do so pin presses or board presses to fix the weak link. But I don't have a setup for pin presses anywhere and I don't have boards so I guess maybe I make some boards and do them as an extra triceps on an off day at home. I can use the Floor Press setup to do Board Presses.

I forgot the elbow sleeve that the PT wants me to use for now, so I stayed light on the JM Presses to rehab things a little until that issues goes away. I noted in the other thread that I am diagnosed with an issue in the triceps muscle and that it is not actually Golfer's Elbow, Dr. Google and I were incorrect. The raises felt good, I am really feeling the muscles pulling through and getting good activation. Side notes, people kept touching my shoulders last week and other people were commenting on how they just wanted to touch them. Weird. I also discovered that part of the no one talking to me at the gym seems to be that they are unaware that I speak Spanish somehow. It elicits genuine shock when I speak to them. They still get all wide eyed and weird when I coach them on something - adolescent boys are really odd. They act like they are scared to death of me but pay pretty close attention to what I tell them. I showed three of them how to set up for the Bench, it will take then a while to really get it but not for lack of trying. No sense letting them struggle on the biggest Bro lift if they can fix a lot of it by learning what to do with the lats and rhomboids.

[hector]

Monday 2/5/24
Off schedule again. Border run tomorrow to renew my visa so it is unlikely that I will have time for the gym. I spent yesterday mostly working a shovel in the heat and I really wasn't re-hydrated from Thursday and Friday yet so I wasn't expecting a good time today.

Incline Press
135 x 5
225 x 5
295 x 2 - missed the third
315 x 1 - gas to spare on this one
295 x 2

265 x 3 x 2 sets - paused

Lateral Raises
85 x 7 x 2 sets
65 x 10 x 2 sets

JM Press
135 x 10 x 2 sets
135 x 9

Session notes:
The 1 RM strength was there but not the reps today, no big deal just switched to a heavy top single and next week I'll see how many x 4 I can get. Press is all a triceps problem for me, the bar comes off the chest like a rocket and stalls at the transition so ideally I probably need to do so pin presses or board presses to fix the weak link. But I don't have a setup for pin presses anywhere and I don't have boards so I guess maybe I make some boards and do them as an extra triceps on an off day at home. I can use the Floor Press setup to do Board Presses.

I forgot the elbow sleeve that the PT wants me to use for now, so I stayed light on the JM Presses to rehab things a little until that issues goes away. I noted in the other thread that I am diagnosed with an issue in the triceps muscle and that it is not actually Golfer's Elbow, Dr. Google and I were incorrect. The raises felt good, I am really feeling the muscles pulling through and getting good activation. Side notes, people kept touching my shoulders last week and other people were commenting on how they just wanted to touch them. Weird. I also discovered that part of the no one talking to me at the gym seems to be that they are unaware that I speak Spanish somehow. It elicits genuine shock when I speak to them. They still get all wide eyed and weird when I coach them on something - adolescent boys are really odd. They act like they are scared to death of me but pay pretty close attention to what I tell them. I showed three of them how to set up for the Bench, it will take then a while to really get it but not for lack of trying. No sense letting them struggle on the biggest Bro lift if they can fix a lot of it by learning what to do with the lats and rhomboids.

That’s awesome that you’re coaching some natives! I’m guessing coaching from a top tier strongman is a rarity over there.

[Skid]

That’s awesome that you’re coaching some natives! I’m guessing coaching from a top tier strongman is a rarity over there.

@hector I think that is a rarity anywhere!

[hector]

That’s awesome that you’re coaching some natives! I’m guessing coaching from a top tier strongman is a rarity over there.

@hector I think that is a rarity anywhere!

Agreed!

[platypus]

Side notes, people kept touching my shoulders last week and other people were commenting on how they just wanted to touch them. Weird.

It's strange that you mention this, because last week a bunch of people greeted me by grabbing my shoulder, and this is not something that happens to me normally. Worldwide phenomenon, or odd coincidence?

Also, good on you for defying the monolingual American stereotype!