Exerbabble for 2-8-7

Today’s Workout:

Deficit Deadlift (Off 6 inch platform):
4 @ 135 lbs
6×4 @ 185 lbs

BB Front Squat:
4 @ 95 lbs
4, 3 @ 155 lbs
4×4 @ 145 lbs

Grip Superset
Rack Pull:
3, 3, 2 @ 275 lbs
Farmer’s Walks:
@ 50 lbs
Uh, see annotations

current bodyweight: 158.6 lbs (-.6 lb; weekly average of 158.9 lbs)

I’m eating right now, I swear.

I remember the trouble I had with snatch-grip deadlifts. The point of those are to get you closer to the floor. The side-effect is that it throws off my grip. I end up feeling rather awkward.

Anyway, my problem is off the floor. Or so it feels. If it isn’t, well, no harm in working the floor. Range of motion equals good. I was puzzled at first what to use as a platform. The little platforms they have around are all about a foot tall. That places the bar below the floor for me. That’s too much depth. I considered using 45 plates, but they weren’t stable enough. Then I remembered the little.. I don’t know what to call them. Those little platforms people use for dinky cardio workouts? Yeah. That placed the height at around 6 and a half inches. I didn’t have a ruler on me, I just marked off where it was on my arm, so I could later measure it. I’m smart like that. That placed the bar above my toes

One thing I wanted to make sure I didn’t do was bounce the weight. I considered standing up after each rep, but that just threw off my rhythm, and my grip. So I just paused for a second at the bottom of each rep. Not even a second. Just long enough that there was no bounce.

I could have done more weight, but I wanted to make sure I was pulling with good form. Well, relatively good form. I felt it in my quads during the initial few inches. Given that I’ve never really done high-set, low-rep training, I think patience is important. As opposed to fearlessly putting on as much weight as I can for a ruple and risking a drop in form. I also declined to try a single at the end.

By the middle of my front squats, I was tired. Which kind of motivated me, because it meant I had to keep pushing. I dropped the weight after the second set, because my form was faltering. I don’t want my chest to drop.

I’ve never done rack pulls before. I had the bars just below my knees. I picked 275 lbs, because I’ve done RDLs with it. My grip was fine – I was just surprised at how hard it was to get that initial pull. That’s a lot of energy from a dead-stop! I’m thinking, given my goals, maybe I shouldn’t be doing it for multiple reps. Since I’m doing it for grip-strength, I COULD just pick up the bar and stand with it.

Also, no matter how gently you try, lowering the bar down to those damn safeties in the squat cage always makes a loud crashing noise. Something else. During the lift portion of the rack pull, I felt like my lats were contracting like crazy.

I picked 50 lbs for farmer’s walks, because I recalled how hard lungeing with 50 lbs was. I thought I’d just measure it by laps, but there was a spin class. Uh. I tried walking halfway and walking back. My forearms burned earlier during the second set. And the third set, I had to put it down before getting back to the cage. I could just grab the dumbbells by the rack, stand there and watch the nearby clock, and put the back down. Which is sure to get me even more odd looks than I normally get.

Including the time it took me to figure out how to make a platform, I ran over 70 minutes. Maybe 75, I can’t remember. While I know 60 minutes isn’t some magical number when cortisol levels rise, I’d prefer to keep my workouts shorter and intense. If I run over too long next time, too, then I’ll drop back my front squat sets or something. Or maybe my rest periods were too long. I don’t have a stopwatch. Short rest periods require me to just haul ass, but longer rest periods are harder to pull off – as in avoiding resting TOO long. I don’t need three minute rest periods, I’ll see if I can keep it to around two minutes. Oh hell, I’ll just try to track the more next time.

On a side note, my rep choice. People do 5 reps (5×5), and people do triples (8×3 or 10×3), but I rarely see anybody do ruples. (Or is it quads? As in, quadruple.) I didn’t want to do 5×5, and I wanted to save triples for a later point. Between triples and 5 reps is the ruple. So there I am. That, and I thought 8 sets would be too exhausting right now. If I did 8×3 or 10×3, I probably wouldn’t do much else. I wanted to be focused each set.

Oh. And. My chest and my lats are sore as hell. Those dips didn’t phase my triceps at all. Overhead stretches feel soooo good right now.

Adjustments: Deficit Deadlifts move to 195 lbs. I’ll try the front squats again at 155 lbs.