Exerbabble for 10-7-6

Ah. Deadlifts. Today’s workout:

HGM Phase III “Strong Medicine”, Workout I, Day A

High Pull:
5 @ 45 lbs
6, 6 @ 95 lbs
5, 5, 5 @ 105 lbs

Snatch-grip Deadlift:
5 @ 185 lbs
5 @ 205 lbs
5 @ 225 lbs
4 @ 225 lbs
5 @ 205 lbs

Close-grip Chin-up:
4, 2, 2, 2, 1 @ BW

Low-to-High Woodchopper:
5 @ 30 lbs
5 @ 40 lbs
5 @ 50 lbs
5, 5 @ 60 lbs

current bodyweight: 154.4 (-1.8 lbs, weekly average of 155.6 lbs)

High pulls felt a little weird. I had to keep telling myself to “explode” off the floor, and to pull to my sternum. My high pull grip was slightly inside my snatch grip for deadlifting. Given the high pull motion, I considered myself more than warmed up for deadlifting, so I didn’t bother with a warm-up.

I can’t tell you how good deadlifting felt. It’s like my CNS said, “Ah! We haven’t done this in a while! Kick ass!” I worried that the snatch grip might effect my power off the floor, but it really didn’t. Really, my confidence came down to the Grip Factor. I rotated an alternating grip each set. By the fourth set, my ass was starting to hurt. After the third rep, I had to reset for a split second on the floor to get the fourth rep.

I’m so far removed from when I started deadlifting. I used to feel a weakness in my left side, medial portion of my glutes/hamstrings. I used to feel a weakness in my lower back. I used to not quite now how low to go. I initially did like many and pretty much squatted the weight up. I went from that to stiff-legging too much. I’m somewhere in between now. I get as low as possible, but most of the drive is quite clearly from my glutes. I only feel it in my lower back now. But only slightly. Like I said, my weak point right now is just my grip. All things considered, that’s not too shabby.

Chin-ups: What the hell? How can I be weaker than I was in Phase I? I don’t know, maybe I did the negatives wrong. It’s one thing to make no progress, but it’s quite another to get weaker after a month. It’s disheartening, because pull-ups are really hard for me. Maybe I should just drop the twenty pounds I gained, surely then I’d be able to do them easier.

Woodchoppers were interesting, to say the least. I noticed that my pecs were kicking in as a stabilizer. Think about it, you’re rotating your arm outward. Your abs and obliques may be doing most of the work, but what’s keeping your arms moving? Your inside arm’s pecs will be doing more work than your outside arm’s rear deltoids and rhomboids. There’s some medial deltoid work, as your arms are moving upward, but that seems too obvious. I was just thinking of those who feel Phase III gets no chestwork, that’s all.

Doing lunges for quad and hamstring stretches, I felt my obliques scream a little. I made sure to do some rotational stretches before leaving.

My right wrist feels weird. It felt weird before deadlifting, but didn’t hurt at all during my pulls. Don’t know, feels a little tight.

It was interesting actually having rest periods. I realized, “Oh. I don’t need to rush into the set.”

Ran into Marissa. We go at different times, but every now and then, I see her at the Y. She caught me while I was deadlifting. *nods* She commented on my shoulders. Must be the wife-beater. I said I haven’t really noticed a difference. If I’ve grown an iota of traps, so be it, but my deltoids don’t really come off my arms yet. At least not when I’m standing relaxed.

Getting water between sets, I caught her on a naughty leg press.

“I wouldn’t say this to someone I didn’t know, but you’re not even doing your bodyweight.”

“Yes, I am.”

“No, you’re not.”

She pointed to the weight stack. 115 lbs. If you knew Marissa, she could convincingly be around 115 lbs. I smirked, as she had a point.

“Oh. Well, I still don’t like leg presses, you’re better off squatting.”

It’s not even a matter of sheer weight. If you’re going to work your legs, work them right. You don’t need to pile on plates. Do just the bar. Pop some dumbbells on your shoulder. Hell, squatting should be easy for her, as she doesn’t have much bodyweight to haul up. Leg presses have their place, in rehab or as a post-exhaust. But not as a primary leg movement. Well, at least I didn’t catch her on a leg extension.

I just downed two glasses of milk, and a particular english muffin that has 8 grams of fiber. Reminds me. I have some shocking news. I .. am.. switching to 1% milk. I’ve been drinking 2% for over two decades. If I wasn’t drinking a high volume per week, I could see drinking 2%, or even whole milk. But I drink three gallons of week, that little bit of saturated fat adds up. And there is the logic that reduction in fat means a reduction of zoonutrients. (As opposed to phytonutrients. Take that, vegetarians.) But, again, I drink such a high volume that the total fat adds up.

I can’t see ever switching to skim. That seems just silly. After all, look at what a high fat diet did to me. *winkwink* I’m not exactly the poster boy for fat making you fat. I’m the guy that lived off of donuts, and you could still see my ribs, as well as my penis lines. Chicks love my penis lines, it’s insane.

Adjustments: I’ll only be seeing each workout four times before the phase is over. So no dicking around. I seem to be pyramiding my weight. I kind of ran into an energy issue. I used to do five or six sets of deadlifts, but it’s been a while. I’ll start with 205 next time, and see if I can get up to 245 (my previous PR). I think I’ve gotten past the mental block of seeing two plates on each side. It’s all a matter of whether I trust my grip for five reps. I could try doing a consistent weight, but you know what, that’s too much pressure. I’d be terrified of screwing up. Peaking in the middle set lets me push myself as far as I can while staying in the rep range.

I’m sure there’ll be a mental block of doing my previous PR for 5 reps, but I’m sure I’ll get past that, too. I may end up surprising myself, as deadlifting has been kind to me so far.

Everything else.. I’ll keep my high pulls at 105 and do it for a full 5×5. No increasing until I feel good about my form. All I can do with chin-ups is try. I don’t know. Woodchoppers are fun. I noticed I was able to keep my arms straighter if I had my outside arm gripping the handle more. I know what I mean. I’ll complete 5×5 @ 60 lbs before increasing weight.