Training 5/21/10

Lack of recent training posting due to an interruption in my training. Work had this retarded mandatory 5k thing that I was making a vague attempt at training for, and this naturally disrupted my lifting. Ended up being all for naught though considering that me and my co-workers were complete assholes about the 5k itself, but fuck it. We weren't paid to be there, it was an early morning after a long night, and the boss, who's been having this huge hard on for the event for so fucking long didn't even participate.

But in the end, maybe it wasn't so bad, as it gave me time to re-examine my training. Namely, I felt I needed something different but I couldn't settle on just how and what, but I seemed to have stumbled upon it. Again, Brooks Kubik's work proves to be an utter inspiration to me in my darkest training hours.

Started things off with Squats off the rack, with the pins set such that I start around parallel (which is about the hardest point in the squat) and push the bar up off the pins. This is grueling work and can't be done with my full squat poundage, but even with lighter weights, its absolutely PUNISHING. I worked up to about 265 for 3 on my 3rd set, and I didn't realize just how big of a drain that was on my physically because when I went back in for my 4th set, I literally couldn't lift the bar more than an inch or so, which was a stinging blow to me. So I took it down to 255 and even then, I had to push as though I was fighting for dear life and even then I only managed one proper rep that felt like absolute hell. I've had some hard fought reps before, but that REALLY sucked. Can't wait until I've put in more time into this kind of training so I'm yet mightier at it.

Next was Snatch Grip Deadlift, which is a really weird case for me. My primary deadlift muscles are strong enough to handle pretty decent poundages, but holding on to the bar with the wide grip really screws with the mechanics of the lift because all of a sudden my upper back has to do way more work (and the bar rests uncomfortably against me when I try to lock it out, but discomfort isn't really out of place in my training anyway). However, I feel that my upper back is kind of a weak point in my deadlift so despite the fact that I'm working with lower poundages, I feel this is doing good for me. I worked this one up to about 285 which i feel is pretty good having just started with it, and not being accustomed to the grip. Brooks recommended using a hook grip on this but as of yet I can't manage it at the poundages I'm pulling as it REALLY fucks with my thumbs. I probably should man up to it though.

Next up was one arm dumbbell cleans and presses, which I feel went reasonably well. I worked up to pressing a 70 for about 3 clean reps and 1 rep with help from the legs, which is an improvement already. I am TRYING so hard to get my pressing power up and for some reason I am having trouble doing this with a barbell, yet I seem to be able to do it more readily with a single dumbbell. Shouldn't question it so much, I AM increasing my pressing power, even if its not in the form I'd have preferred.

Next was Axle Curls. These used to cause intense pain to run down the length of my forearm, but for some reason lately that hasn't really been happening so much, even when I push to 108 pounds (which I did). This is a huge relief because I can hopefully push into heavier weights.

Last was Eagle Claw holds. I was supporting about 50-55 pounds (50 in plates, plus however much the rig weighs) from my finger tips, first starting off with all four then going down to just my primary two fingers. Once I got down to just two, the weight proved to be quite excruciating and I could only hold on to it for a little over 10 seconds, but thats probably because its been a while since I've really used the loops. Felt good in the end.

Decent training day though I can definately tell that these alternative lifts are messing with me as I really had to fight tooth and nail the whole time today. Nothing was easy, I felt outright defeated by one of the sets of squats, yet I perservered. I need to find a way of maintaining my deadlifting power though while I am doing this alternative training though, but otherwise I'm excited.