Love this thread--come for the oly trip reports, stay for the awful poker puns.

Damn, nice work.

Have you ever squatted four plates before?

Sounds like we both win. Must have been a split pot!

Thanks!

I have, once. About 8mo ago, hurt my knee split jerking a lil bit later and then didn't squat for 4 months. Based on this volume today I think I'd definitely be good for 405 again but you never know until the weights on your back. It's definitely heavy

7/21:

Barbell club

kg

Snatch work. 3 waves

50, 60, 70, 80, 90%
55, 65, 75, 85, 95%
60, 70, 80, 90, 100%

Well, I was working off an estimated 1RM of 75kg which ended up being a lil high.

I hit a bunch at 70kg pretty easily but couldn't hit 72 for the life of me and then I was getting tired. I never get under the bar, and just power everything. It's so bad and I should feel so bad.

HBBS:

Work up to a 1RM. Well...I hit 350lbsx5 2 days ago so I wasn't too thrilled about this prospect, but whatever, I'll go for it.

70x3
100x3
120x2
150x1
170x1
175x1
180x1 At this point I was like eh, might as well just go for it. Prev PR was 182 and this 180 felt easy
184x1 PR Vidya below. Went up fast and felt easy enough
188x1 PR Vidya below. More of a grinder but still pretty good! Definitely more in the tank. 190 incoming soon I hope!

Man those sleeves seem to be working. PR's everywhere.

Lotsa speed on that squat still, so you're def good for more. They're not beauties though. I feel like you may be rushing your squat. I mean, I'm all for the idea of not wasting any time/energy once you unrack the bar - but a little bit of a setup routine is also a good thing imo. Do you even take a breathe at all? Also quite a narrow stance you got there.

Nevermind me, just thinking out loud. You strong.

Was this like a "crossfit style" group workout? As in 1 coach assisting people and a bunch of guys going for 1RM's? How much time did they give you for that? Sounds like the GOAT kind of training deal if it is in fact like that. Jelly.

Sleeves definitely helping. Stretching probably helping more though. My legs have never felt this strong in my life. I really feel it on the heavy reps when I can feel my hamstrings and glutes firing, something that I never felt before during heavy reps.

I do rush it...I take a big breath before I unrack the weight and don't breath out until the rep is over with. I dunno, maybe I have a week core bc I find that if I step back, breath out and then breath back in, then I don't get a very big new breath. I feel my shoulders slouch forward and it makes it really hard to get a good new breath. Hope that makes sense but I feel like if I take that one big breath before liftoff then I get way more benefit out of it than if I step back and breathe.

But yeah, not the pretties squat ever. Rounded back. A little goodmorningy. Lots to work on.

This is my barbell club dude. I literally log every workout so you can see what it's like. Most of the other members of our barbell club also do crossfit at this gym so they get a lot more time with the coach, but the only thing the coach really cares about is the club bc he's a weightlifting fiend. He lives and breathes it constantly.

We did the snatch waves in about an hour and then the squats in about 30 mins. Everyone was different though. Nothing was mandatory. Some people didn't squat and just worked on my snatch work.

And yeah, it's pretty GOATish. I'm loving it.

Training in a club where you get other people to work on your snatch work sounds pretty GOAT indeed.

Neither rep looks super deep.

What's your lower body stretching routine?

True. But I have long femurs so reps are never going to look super deep compared to people that have longer tibias. Physically I can get lower, though I'm not sure that's necessary

Before squatting I mainly just do the one where I put my knee in the corner of the wall and it stretches my quads/hips. I do it until I basically can get here:



Butt + shoulders against the wall.

I also do some seated hamstring stretches with a band to just help me get deeper and deeper until I can touch my toes. It's progress, because I used to not be able to touch my toes! Hopefully soon I'll be able to easily hold onto my feet.

At home I also sit on the floor (no rug, it's carpeted) with a lax ball under my hamstring and I just move my legs around a little until I hit a gnarly spot in my hams and then I work it out for a while.

I'm telling you, 4x10 goodmornings at whatever lowish weight without any knee bend and you can hold your toes after

Never seen that stretch before. Wonder if it has a name.

I think I would call it..... couch stretch.... or something silly like that

Congrats on PR.

Better depth might help for standing up with heavy cleans. And just generally being stronger. How does it look when you go deeper?

Had a lol.

Yeah actually, I'm glad you brought that up bc I tried those the other day with just the bar and I found myself using my hamstrings a lot but what I really want is a stretch....which you shouldn't be using your hamstrings to do, right? Engaging a muscle is bad if you're trying to stretch it, right?

Hmm, maybe, but I don't see a couch there so it seems a bit confusing. Maybe the "knee on ugly blanket while on a floating wooden platform" stretch? Seems a lot more helpful in terms of conveying the instructive image.

Can't wait til we see Evo's heavy squats. I thought you had #2 sweetest highbars locked up, but nah I think Evo might be there. Facking freddbirds 440 looks almost like his 135.

Obviously goes without saying, that dt growls just a little from the graveyard. RIP gentle giant.

Dancing. Beamer in the garage. Sweet form. Everything. It was a good life and then it was taken away.

But there is a moral here somewhere. He has a 420x5 squat somewhere. The sickest grind and form deterioration I have ever seen. Guy had too much heart and big balls. Lead to his downfall.

Let's learn from him. Keep all the squats with tight form or reset to 40kg.

I would like a red shirt, small of course. Would prefer 60kg instead of 40kg. We are not ants.

Not sure if this is what you are talking about but 5x452 is ridiculous. He was on his way to becoming a monster. RIP

I approve of the posting my old lifting vids in BTM's log on his birthday.

These were tough:
Linear progress to 441x5x3 @~280 iirc. BTM, gain 80lbs!

Arms seem almost too big in the 162 vid. Good thing he covered up those disgusting tree trunks with the XXXL sweatshirts in the other vids.

Definitely jealous of those plates. Where are they now Mr. Town?

F'real though, those squats are both sick and nasty. Something to aspire towards. I'm thinking 165x5 is the near term goal. That's pretty good at 89kg bw. Eventually, 2xbw for 5 reps the main goal though. That's gotta be like elite-status, right?

Here it is





One of my favorite movies as a little kid growing up in East Los, is about these Chicano gangsters (American Me).

"You got a lot of heart carnal, maybe too much."

Then the dude was stabbed to death.


Shiet I don't even know what my point is, KC has never even hit a grinder in his life and he still all busted up.

But still nice to relive the history of downtown. Tear was shed. RIP.

JFC. DT gets too bored with squats so he has to walk up a step before he starts squatting. That walkout was scarier than the last rep