5/10 log - session 10

Warmup routine for ~35 mins - really liking the posterior shoulder lacrosse ball thing Cha showed me.

Squats:
45x5x2
55x5x1
80x3x1
110x2x1
140x5x3

They never really feel "easy" on my work set but I always am able to go up even after the hitch about 20% of the way up from the bottom. My g/f watched my form on my last set to see how low I was getting and seemed I was getting a bit below parallel.

I still need to work on my ass, I think it's a big reason my knees wobble on this, my hips wobble on the Press, and I can't keep by butt down on the DL.

Press
45x5x3
55x3x1
70x2x1
85x5x1
85x4x1
85x4x1 (I can't remember if I did 3 or 4 on this one).

Well, I definitely was able to do 85 for some amount. Carl Sagan's tip about my elbows was really helpful and I (except for my last set) think I kept my elbows forward and drove the bar straight up.

My wrists were sore after doing this one and I still think that my left thumb injury is affecting how I'm gripping the bar on any sort of harder workset I'm doing. It's also why I think I didn't keep my elbows forward on the last set, the bar was digging into my thumb or something.

DL
135x5x1
135x4x1
150x3x1
210x2x1
250x4x1 (underhand grip for left hand)

I may have been able to pull the 5th rep but I felt a lot of tension in my mid back (not lower) and kind of mentally wussed out on attempting it. I know my biggest issue with this lift is not always keeping my back straight and butt down so I'm not really sure what chance I could pull something if I push super hard. Also, subconsciously I think I was looking for an excuse to go to doing DLs 1 time per week and hitting my glutes 1 day per week hard with pull throughs for a while. Besides, my DL seems relatively higher than "normal" compared to my Squats in terms of where they'll end up so I don't mind slowing down in that way either.

I'm happy with my workout but really need to bring chalk next time and set up my grip consistently on lifts to avoid putting pressure on my left thumb.

Next tips for press: Squeeze bar as hard as you can during the whole set. Squeeze your glutes and tighten your abs as tight as you can for the whole set. Profit.

DL:
- do the same weight next time. Get 5 reps next time.
- you're not advanced enough to push yourself hard on this lift yet. Its good that you stopped at 4 reps imo.

A safety tip - The thing to always think about when you do these is to keep your back flat or slightly arched. Focus on that above all else. If you start to round it forward, just drop the weight. If you got a sharp pain anywhere, you'd want to drop the weight at that point too.

As far as the tension in your mid back - that could be a good thing. You're probably starting to use heavy enough weights to activate those muscles in a way that you haven't before.

Should I keep trying the DL every workout? I'll definitely get after it on the same weight next time. I expect I will do 5 and not hurt myself.

Yup, this is what I'm thinking. Leading with my chest and keeping my back tight and straight (with my lower back "flexed" or whatever that thing is that I learned from Rippetoe).

That's what I was thinking afterwards and right now. There definitely wasn't sharp pain and my back doesn't hurt which is why in retrospect I feel I coulda pulled the 5th one.

That's up to you. If you want to keep DLing every workout for now, I think that's ok. I think you should back off soon though. One thing you could do is DL every other workout for now, rather than every third workout.

I keep seeing more stuff from smart strong people saying how good KB swings are for your hips/glutes. I think you'd do well if you got good at those and added them in to some of your workouts. Maybe on non-DLing days, do KB/DB swings and pull throughs?

Not a bad idea. I'll give DLs a shot for the next 2-3 workouts and see how it goes, then backoff maybe to every other time.

Well.....there are no kettleballs to be had at my gym. There are medicine balls with handles but they are like ~15lbs at the highest?

Unless I go to your place, KBs aren't an option afaik. As for pull-throughs I can for sure do those at my gym, I just need to review form and weight programming. I even tried 'em at a light weight last visit (just a few reps) to see if I remembered how to do them...I mean, I was doing some sort of pull-through but a real video might help. I'll go look at T-Nation I guess altho I'm not super familiar with searching there yet.

Good pull through vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgXkHRVaoUc

Use a dumbell for the swings. That is a fine substitute and one that Mike R told me was just as good as using KBs.

Its not ridiculous, it's MANLY and VIKINGESQUE!

...and easily obtainable with a hudge protein shake (70-80g worth), if you don't want to go all out on the dead animals.


ETA: imo it's time to stop DLing every workout once you start failing sets.

Meh. I'm sure other things you're doing in your life are much more manly and vikingesque than just eating a bunch of protein :P. I doubt Vikings were able to scrounge up 200g+ protein per day, that's a helluvalot of pillaged cattle or w/e, .

Yeah, this is the way I'm likely going to up my protein. I should find a good, cheap powder source, a good recipe for mixing, and then just down a couple each day. I used to have 3 protein shakes a day. They were just EAS vanilla protein powder from costco + milk + frozen blueberries/strawberries. So I know how simple this can be.

Yeah, I'm going to go to every other sesh and get some hot swings & pullthrough action going on. I'm also not going to go up in weight when I fail sets (which my lurker friend was sure to point out on my last log, lol).

Pillage(d) is my fav word.

Do you shop at Costco? They have the cheapest protein I've been able to find. 6lb bag for $36 (it was 28.99 6 months ago, fkn oil prices).

Carl,

Yup, there's a Costco ~5 mins away from my house. This one features Muscle Milk protein powder in Chocolate and Vanilla I think: http://www.amazon.com/CytoSport-Musc.../dp/B003U0E044.

I remember thinking the macronutrients were okay but calories from fat > 10% total calories which imo/ime is unnecessary for taste and ideally would be lower in a protein supplement.

They also have muscle milk shakes I think but I didn't check what was actually in those, I'd imagine they're @#$% compared to just mixing milk or water + powder but I dno.

Right now the only supplement I take are gummy vitamins. Which will switch back to a pill multivitamin when I'm out as their micronutritional content is a bit meh (but they are gummy!!!! lol).

I may want to start taking fish oil again. But I found it not making a very big difference for me once I changed my diet a couple years ago (previously I'd get way less sore from working out).

Speaking of food. It's snack time! Gonna go pillage some Greek yogurt+mixed nuts. Also, having gone to Greece a year ago, I now find anything marketed in any way "healthy" by it being "Greek" completely hilarious. That country has to be fatter than the US imo. Just ridiculous over there, .

I like Optimum Extreme Milk Chocolate the best. I get usually get 5 lbs from Bodybuilding.com for ~$45.

I like putting frozen fruit (strawberries, blueberries & pineapple imo), protein powder, creatine, glutamine and pasturized egg whites in a blender. You can substitute milk or water for the egg whites if you want. Add more protein powder if you use water imo.

5/13 log - session 11

Warmup routine for ~35 mins.

Squats:
45x5x2
55x5x1
85x3x1
115x2x1
145x5x3

The outside of my shoulders/arms were really sore on this one from pulling my elbows back and up. I may be "pushing" or something too much with my arms rather than just resting the bar on my back and keeping my shoulder blades tight. Hmmmm. I could also go with a high-bar squat but I'm thinking I just need to get used to letting the weight sit there, rather than trying to "keep" it there with my arms.

Bench
45x5x2
65x5x1
90x3x1
115x2x1
130x5x3

Not super easy but not super hard, felt I had at least 1 more in the tank. I had some trouble with my left hand doing this lift but not with the squats so that's nice, it seems to not be getting worse at least.

Pull-throughs
25x7x1
35x6x1
45x6x1
55x5x5
60x5x1
55x3x5

I'm not positive these helped my glutes all that much, my butt didn't end up sore the next day or anything. But if I went up any more weight I had a hard time pulling the rope thing forward through my legs at all, and there was a lot of pressure against my hands holding it. Maybe I just need to concentrate even more on the thrust part with my butt and hold it there or something.

Any more tips on these or programming for them?

Swings
I couldn't really figure out how to do these with dumbells so I basically didn't. The videos I looked at before going had people doing them several different ways. It seems to me the most logical way is to hold a dumbell with both hands and then swing it just like a kettleball through the legs. But I tried that and my shorts got in the way and it didn't feel like I was thrusting it up correctly. My mom was in town so I just quit to spend more time hanging out with her.

Any tips on doing these?

5/14 log

Did a long warmup with plenty of foam rolling and then did shooting for ~45minutes or so. I felt really smooth shooting and also threw down a bunch of weak dunks on what I can only assume was a 9' hoop. Since I can't touch the rim I doubt it was 9.5'.

I shot free throws and while I kept missing my first 2 every set of 10 I did, I hit 70%+ so I really think that game a couple weeks ago where I sent 0/6 was some weird blip.

I've eaten a ton of food this weekend and am going to do some good warmups in a bit before my game at 8pm tonight. My mom will be watching so I may get crazy and jack up some 17' open-look shots, lol.

I'll show you how to use a DB for swings next time you're here.

We'll work on pull throughs too. Until then, next time you do them, do 10+ reps per set imo.

Definitely dont try to go all out on the bench with no spotter, unless you find a rack and set the pins just right. Always leave one in the tank.

IN! will be keeping an eye on your progress.

5/15 log

My mom was in town and attended our game so she got some good pictures of our team. Which is great b/c we won and we're 5-1 on the season. Should be a good playoffs but I'm not sure we can beat the team that pummeled us last week even if we play well vs. them.

The team we played tonight was quite good with a lot of back cutters who were very athletic. One guy on their team was tall and very springy and surprisingly strong. Twice He got the ball on the other side of the hoop, came over to my side for a reverse layin and there was nothing I could do as he was so quick and strong. Several times we gave him "and 1s" so in the 2nd half I just cut off all the passing lanes to him when he was on my side of the hoop (we play a 2-3 zone and I played back wing today exclusively).

Anyway, I had a few nice assists imo considering my usage rate was probably like 10% as usual, lol. I didn't attempt a shot in the 2nd consecutive game. My stat line was likely something like: 0shots, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 0 turnovers, 1 PF.

But I disrupted a lot of offensive rebounds and our bigger guys got a bunch of them. I also got a foul called on the other team by weakly but annoyingly trying to take the ball after he rebounded it and making sure I went down when he whipped an elbow at me. Which helped as they got into foul trouble quickly and so it turned into an extra trip to the line at some point.

We played a good game and our 2nd half D adjustments just killed. Next game will be the playoffs and I feel really good about my mid-range shot, so if I ever get a play called, I'm ready, .

Awesome! It will be hard for me to go too wrong when I can workout with Cha every couple weeks, .

5/16 log - sesh 12

Warmups for ~30-40 mins. The thoracic rolling at the beginning is super easy for me now and nothing every seems sore when I do it and I can bend as far as possible. Foam rolling 4tw!

Squats
45x5x2
60x5x1
90x3x1
120x2x1
150x5x3

Not sure my form is that perfect but I feel if anything I'm getting a bit better at these. I've switched to gripping the bar with my thumb *around* the bar rather than up against it (as I read in SS) as it seems easier on my left hand thumb.

Press
45x5x3
55x3x1
70x2x1
85x5x1
85x3x1
85x4x1

Ugh. Just ugh. I feel like I'm not gripping the bar well enough, my elbows aren't out enough, I'm not moving my head back enough. I'm not setting everything tight enough before each rep. I'm going to stick with 85 for next time and just really study up, watch videos, and get after it imo.

DL
135x5x1
135x4x1
150x3x1
210x2x1
250x5x1

Brought chalk for the first time (accidentally spilled some on the floor ofc, lol @ me, but made sure to clean up well as I think chalk isn't allowed in my gym). And I went with underhand grip for my left hand on the heavy lift (and overhand with my right hand underhand for the 2 lighter lifts before that).

And I pulled the 5 reps more or less "easily" but I"m pretty sure my form isn't great. My lower back is feeling a lot of the work so I gotta make sure to keep it straight and tight.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to pulling 260 next time and keep it going up!

Also, I always have like 5 new bruises forming on Monday, lol. Apparently we have 2 more playoff games and then there isn't another season for the rest of the summer so I guess it'll be nice not worrying about having minor nicky nacky injuries all the time.

Something I consciously did last time I pressed, and I think it helped, is I squeezed the bar as tight as I could. That seems to get more muscles involved. I usually try to do that when I bench too. If you weren't already doing that, give it a shot.

I can't really squeeze as tight as I'd like with my left hand, as I can't really do that without squeezing my thumb tight, and that doesn't really seem necessarily good for it (some squeezing yes, but not as hard as I can squeezing).

But I will try keeping this in mind on bench and press next week as I think a lot of it is mental and not using an efficient technique.

yeah thats right, I forgot about your hand. Dont mess your hand up more just for the sake of pressing a little more. Let it heal first.

Yeah, that's one reason I'm "babying" my grip by using chalk and underhand even though the weight isn't really too too heavy grip-wise.

I've sprained my fingers a TON throughout my life and this ofc will be fine. I "rehurt" it more in my last bball game way more than I am lifting as I'm being v careful. But it still will likely take a few weeks (my guess is 3-6) to have 100% mobility again and be pain free when gripping. It was a decently bad sprain.

Also, my right ankle is obv still tweaked from a bad sprain a couple months ago, so I just don't have the mobility in it as my left ankle. I don't think this affects my squats or anything too much but it definitely gets sore from bball and squatting.

And then of course I have many bruises and things which I sometimes accidentally foam roll or use the lacrosse ball on more than is helpful as I forget they're probably not a muscle adhesions.

We go pretty hard in our league even though it's the C division and in some ways it may be more taxing as the refs often call inconsistently which leads to plenty of hacking, pushing, pulling, hooking, etc. None of which I'm good at, lol, I can only play "straight up." At least I'm getting good at selling all the stuff done to me!

Yugo,

Do you watch the NBA playoffs? If so, watch OKC games and don't keep your eye of Nick Collison while he plays. He is the master of doing everything up to but not fouling. Really makes the game hard to officiate, but he is pretty much the gold standard of hustle players in the league. If you talk to anyone from Jeff Van Gundy to a stat nerd, they'll tell you what a +++ player he is.

GKA,

Yeah I've been catching a small amount of the playoffs. I haven't spent as much time as I could watching basketball as then I just do nothing else in my life, lol. To be honest I've watched less OKC than I should (spent more time watching the old guard get toppled) and mainly watch Westbrook and Durant when I do (ldo).

I haven't paid as much attention to Collison as I should. I thought his contract earlier in the year was ridiculous but recently he's been getting a lot of nods via +/- stats and from coaches as you say about how he's just a super valuable player even though his box score stats are always somewhat nonexistent.

Hopefully I'm this type of player, . It would really help me to adopt a more singular identity on the court of someone I can watch and study. Now I wish I kept my DVRed recordings of OKC from the last round. Oh well, gonna tape everything else from here on our and make it my mission to study him. Good excuse to watch more NBA!

(This also means I'll get to see even more Peja which is a bonus - it's where my college (and 2p2) nickname comes from as we look alike.)

I didn't exercise yesterday but I did watch every minute of the Dallas/OKC game. While Collison only played 17 minutes I really tried to pay attention to what he was doing when he was playing. I rewound a bunch of times and after studying his game, I'd have to say that to a large extent, he does exactly what I try to do for my team currently.

I'd say I am relatively undersized though while he isn't really for a PF, but I have better relative passing ability than he does. I loved that his line was like 5 offensive rebounds but 0 defensively. Instead, he was boxing out Chandler on a ton of them and creating space to let other defenders get them. Exactly what I do most of the time on defense and it never would show up in a box score.

He's also much better relatively at anticipating when to slide over to help on dribble penetration than I am and getting into position to take a charge. I've taken a couple during a game but generally speaking, I feel my help defense is lacking. Of course, we play zone so it's not just about help defense and more about knowing which side of my zone to be on and whether I need to just follow 1 guy around a bit outside of my zone if he's particularly good at shooting or offensively talented or w/e.

I didn't learn or notice too many tips for "fouling" but not having it get called. The one thing he did a ton was essentially shove Chandler with his forearms on every defensive rebound before turning around and boxing out - which I assume really helps against much taller opponents who can also potentially move you while the shot is in the air.

I was paying more attention to him too. He looks like a winner - the kind of guy you love to have on your team despite having limited talent. He seems like he's always in the right place at the right time doing all the little things.