Training Week of November 26, 2012

Monday November 26

Squat (HB)

up to 190/1- PR, 192.5/0

Push Press

up to 105/1, 110/0

In a rush, so quick n dirty but no complaints about a PR. Breaking new ground now.

Tuesday November 27

Snatch Pull

85/3x5

Squat (HB)

up to 170/1

Pause 1st- 132.5/3x3, 137.5/3x2

Press

up to 80/1

60/3, 62/3, 64/3, 66/3, 68/3

Chinups

Plank

Wednesday November 28

Front Squat

up to 160/1, 165/0

115/4, 120/4x2

s/s with Ab Wheel Rollout

Bench Press 

up to 130/1

97.5/5, 100/4x2, 100/3, 70/9

s/s with Chinups- Bw/6 x5

Deadlift 

165/1 x2, 165/2 x6

Db Flye

Incline Db Curl

45 degree Back Raise

Thursday November 29

Clean Pull (mid shin)

100/3 x5

Squat (HB)

up to 170/1

132.5/3, 137.5/3, 142.5/3, 147.5/3

Push Press

up to 92.5/1, 97.5/0

75/3, 77.5/3, 80/3, 82.5/3

Rear Delt Machine

Plank

Friday November 30

Deadlift

up to 215/1- DOHG, 235/1 straps

Blocks, DOHG 1st- 170/3, 175/3, 180/3, 185/3

s/s with "Rocky" Leg Raise 

(technically, I believe these are known as dragon flags but I don't think I have enough tribal tattoos to use that name. And I was first introduced to them as Rocky's)

Bench Press

up to 125/1 (Pause), 140/1 (touch and go)- PR

97.3/3, 100/3, 102.5/3, 105/3 x2 (Pause 1st)

s/s with Chinups: Bw/5 x8

Front Squat

120/3 x4

Klokov Press

Bb Pullover

45 degree Back Raise

Nice way to end the week off, PR on bench and within spitting distance of one on Deads. Been a good week. 

No training Saturday- I spent the day volunteering at the UAPA Powersurge Powerlifting meet. Good times all around and some big lifting. A friend of mine was lifting in her first meet and took some very solid lifts, along with a win in the 72k juniors and a couple National records to boot. No complaints.

However 5-6 hours spotting/loading and another 4ish coaching/running numbers left me somewhat less than enthused to train, so I didn't. 

Training, week of Nov 18, 2012

November 18, 2012

- Messed around with a 60k bar on squats, and some pressing with an empty bar. Nothing too cereal but still got the blood flowing

Monday November 19

Power Clean
up to 100/1

Squat (HB)
up to 180/1

Push Press
up to 105/1- PR, 110/0

Easy peasy. Decided to run the deload this week after all, still feeling pretty tired.

Tuesday November 20

Squat (HB)
up to 182.5/1

Press 
up to 80/1

Quick n dirty. Cold in Edmonton, loosening up after being in a cold car for a half hour kinda sucks.

Wednesday November 21

Front Squat
up to 152.5/1

Bench Press
up to 125/1

Thursday November 22 

Squat (HB)
up to 175/1, 185/0

Push Press 
up to 102.5/1

Friday November 23

Squat (HB)
up to 175/1

Press 
up to 80/1

Stretching

Saturday November 24

Front Squat
up to 155/1

Bench Press
up to 125/1 (Pause), 130/1 (t+g)

Delicious, delicious stew.

This is an expansion off of an email conversation I had with a friend of mine. The issue in question was my opinion on video review for athletes (comp or rec), general population, etc. He  followed up the question with a challenge to not be a pussy and just give a canned response. So I went ahead and gave one anyway. Come at me, bro.

(You'll have to forgive the prodigious use of Bro in this one. It was that kind of day.)

Bro, do I even lift? Nah, not really. I mean I get under some weight once in a while, sit down and stand up a bit. But it's more like, thinking. Meditation if you will. Only with a barbell, and I guess there's some plates involved there too. So, barbe-plati-tation. Trust me bro, shit's going to take off in the next year. It's going to be the new Yoga, only instead of Namaste it'll be "Dat Ass." 

And really now, why all the hate on preservation? Harvest is long done bro, this time of year it's the only way to get the good stuff. Why try and pick it before it's ready and hope it'll be ripe and taste good by the time it hits market? Nah bro, leave that shit on the vine as long as you can. Get it good and ripe and full of all those little bits of goodness that the smart people in white coats tell us we need. Leave it till the last moment, then eat what you can and tuck the rest away for when you need it. Gotta be the freezer though, too much sodium in them cans. 

Then you wait till wintertime, when it's cold and dark and everybody is getting good and hungry for something tasty, and then you bust it out. Maybe it got a bit soggy in the freezer, but that's ok. You get yourself a big ol' pot, grab some roots from the pantry, your meats from the freezer. Season that shit up and get your herbs in, and now you've got yourself a hearty ass stew. And stew ain't fancy but it sure is tasty and it sure puts a good heavy brick into your belly after a long day in the cold. 

Anyway, if you've got a pretty girl in the kitchen cooking you up a stew don't go complaining about that shit. Sit down, grab your spoon and don't bitch about how she puts the dishes away. Maybe it's your stew and she just brought over some of the little things, the bay leaves, basil, maybe a tasty beer to make up the gravy. That's cool to, no complaints there. If all goes well, she's as easy on the eyes as her stew is on the belly. Nothing quite like a pretty girl cooking up a big pot of tasty. If not though, maybe her stew is a thing of beauty but she's not so much? Or maybe she's easy on the eyes but hopeless in the kitchen. Well then it's all up to how much you need that big hearty bowl of delicious. Big appetites will deal with a little less scenery to get the meal, small ones might choke down a sub par stew in favour of the view. But sometimes all you need is a pretty girl in the room to get you in there too figuring out how to cook all on your own, and then you get the best of both. 

Heck if she's pretty enough she might draw a crowd- might as well teach em how while they're in there gawking anyway. And if they're just sitting there masturbating well, whatever keeps em coming back to the kitchen. They'll get hungry sooner or later. 

One way or the other though, the stew's gotta happen. If she keeps spending all your money on groceries and despite the rumbles in your belly there's still no stew in that pot well then, I think it's time you found yourself a new pretty lady to hold hands with and take home to the folks. But you gotta work the hunger up first. Come to the kitchen just looking for a little salad, and a pretty girl cooking up a big pot of stew won't be so appealing, but then there's that hole in your middle that needs filling you do what you gotta do. But heck, maybe once you have all that salad and you decide you want yourself a little more to eat. Try a couple bites and see where it takes you. A man can hope, try as I might I won't be able to eat it all right now, and a good stew reheats just fine. 

Maybe she comes in and tells you that's all well and good, but she's got a different way to put the stew together. That's alright, just try it out and see how it tastes. The store was out of stew meat? Good, it's time to get further up the chain. You can't use a big stew roast right out of the package, everybody knows that. Get out your trusty knife and cutting board and break that puppy down until you've got it into a size you can handle. Don't toss out the bones and the fat though, there's goodness in there. Just toss it in your stock pot and it'll find it's way into your stew once it's ready. 

The Lance Armstrong Rant

Sigh, so here goes. The requisite Lance Armstrong Rant.


I'm going to preface this by stating that the debate about whether drug legislation is ethical or not is well outside the scope of this blog post. So I'm just using the traditional definition of  "You did something that was against the rules" cheating. 
You should not be surprised by the revelation of evidence that Lance Armstrong cheated/used WADA banned substances. No, really you shouldn't. For the uninitiated, we have things called PEDs, Performance Enhancing Drugs. They work well. Really damn well. In fact, they're so good that we went ahead and banned them from use in competitive sport to keep it "fair". Many elite athletes go ahead and use them anyway, because (like I mentioned) they work really damn well. 
Lance Armstrong competed in Cycling- a sport notorious for drug use as it is, and he dominated for 7 goddamn years. Quite frankly, I'd be more surprised if he was clean. Once again, HE WON THE TOUR DE FRANCE 7 GODDAMN TIMES. I don't care what chemical regimen you're under, that is fucking impressive. 



Done. 
Fin. 
End of story. All the dumbasses going on about "oh, we now know it was the drugs that won the tours! Woe is me!" can kindly sit down, shut up and pay attention. 
No, Lance Armstrong won the tours. The drugs enabled him to train at a level necessary to do so, just as they probably enabled the rest of the top 10 to train at that level as well. This does not diminish their accomplishments, but simply means we need to keep them in context. You, the critic could shoot as much testosterone and EPO into your system as your little body could handle, and you would still not even approach that level of performance. Not without all of the other dozens of factors that go into the making of an elite athlete- not least of which is the testicular fortitude (LAWL!) and dedication necessary. 

                                                    Pictured: Something you can't do.


So it should go without saying at this point that I'm opposed to the way this has been handled in the media. However, I also don't think we should totally ignore this either, or maybe I am? But actions have consequences, and this is the risk you take when you decide to dope. But the sensationalism surrounding this whole thing irks me. Black and white issues make for great sound bites. After all, people are either perfect, incorruptible heroes or dirty, dirty cheaters (don'tcha know?)  but human people making complicated decisions for complicated reasons gets closer to the actual truth of things. 
Now, what really appalls me about the whole affair is not the drug use in cycling. That was pretty much a given. Rather, it's the USADA. Or more specifically, the self righteous "WE GOT HIM!" attitude that I'm getting from the whole affair. Good job USADA, you... torpedoed endurance sport in the USA. You tore down a role model that inspired countless people to start exercising. Good work. 

                                                 Solid effort, now what about this? 


I'm alarmed at the sheer volume of resources that went into this single case. How many millions did they spend putting together their "overwhelming evidence"? How many other things had to get the shaft so that this one case could make the front page? I know you've had a chub on to bust Lance for years but did this really strike you as the best use of your (all too limited) budget? In a country where the number one health problem can be cured with a little thing we call "Exercise", was it really the best idea to take the man who totally re popularized one of the easiest and lowest impact forms of exercise we know of and smear his name through the mud? The guy who raised countless millions for cancer research and provided a much needed face for male cancer survivors, was that really the place to go balls deep and destroy his reputation? Would it not perhaps have been a better idea to take some of that money and put it towards youth sport? Maybe some drug education for young athletes? As someone who was a youth athlete not very long ago I'll be honest and let you know that the compulsory 10 minute "DON'T DO THEM, YOU'LL DIE!" speech we get from the coach after practice does a nice little combination of "shit" and "all" towards preventing drug use. 
People need heroes, and when all you're known for is knocking them down then it's only a matter of time before people either block you out, or mail it in and go home altogether. While it may appeal to the hard line "100% perfect clean sport OR NO SPORT AT ALL!!!", the world is never going to work that way. People lie, they cheat, they do all kinds of shit. It's part of being human. And if you actually do want to see a country of clean athletes, both competitive and recreational you need to learn how to play the game. Sometimes it's better to let the lesser evil ride off into the sunset in order to get the next generation off on the right foot. 
(This began life as a Facebook post of mine, revised and expanded a bit before going up here.) 

Training week of Nov 12- Pt II

Thursday November 15, 2012

Snatch Grip High Pulls
up to 85/3 x5

Squat (HB)
up to 180/1
Pause 1st- 130/3, 135/3, 140/3, 145/3
s/s with Planks

Push Press
up to 97.5/1, 105/0
72.5/3, 75/3, 77.5/3, 80/3
Band Pullaparts

All in all, a solid session. Things are stabilizing nicely.

Friday November 16, 2012

Deadlift
up to 215/ - DOHG, up to 240/1- PR
Deficit- 170/3 x3

Press 
up to 85/1, 87.5/0
59/5, 61/5, 63/4 x2
s/s with Chinups Bw/6 x8

Squat (HB)
130/3 x5

Saturday November 17, 2012

Clean 
up to 100/1, 110/0

Front Squat 
up to 155/1, 160/0
Pause 1st- 115/3, 120/3, 125/3, 130/3

Bench Press (MG)
up to 125/1- Pause /  130/1, 135/0
Pause 1st- 97.5/3, 100/3, 102.5/3, 105/3, 107.5/5, 110/3

Tired. Having a bar that had seized and wasn't spinning properly didn't help, but still feeling like I need some rest. Just going to muck around today (sunday) and stretch, and see how I'm lifting on Monday. If the weights are still down, will run a deload. If not I'll push on for another week. Saturday was hard but it's been a good week of lifting otherwise.

Training: Week of November 12- Part uno.

Monday November 12, 2012

Cleans
up to 100/1

Squat (HB)
up to 180/1
130/5, 135/5, 140/4
s/s with Ab wheel Rollouts

Push Press
up to 100/1

Rushed session, but can't complain. Squat and PP are stabilizing nicely, should see some more weight soon I hope.

Tuesday November 13, 2012

High Pull (Snatch Grip)
85/3 x5

Squat (HB)
up to 170/1
130/3, 135/3, 140/3, 145/3 x2

Press
up to 85/1
60/3, 62/3, 64/3, 66/3, 68/3
s/s with Chinups Bw/3 x10

V sit Hold some. Not much.

I should note that while I work in kg's, I train altogether too much in public gyms with "normal" plates. So weights are usually rounded to the nearest useful increment.
Quick session. Squats probably had 175-180 for me but had to rush if I wanted to get it all in.

Wednesday November 14, 2012

Front Squat
up to 165/1- PR
Pause 1st rep- 115/5, 120/4 x2, 120/3
s/s with Ab Wheel Rollouts

Bench Press (MG)
up to 125/1 Pause, 135/1 touch and go
Pause 1st rep- 97.5/5, 100/5, 102.5/4x2
s/s with Dumbbell Rows

Stiff Leg Deadlift (Mid shin)
up to 165/3x4

Tricep Extension
Overhead Shrug
TRX Leg Curl

Strong session. Nice PR on FS and what might have been a PR on bench had I had a competent spot. For the record, saying "I barely helped on that" is the same as saying "Well Officer, she's almost 18". If I want you to take it, I will say "take it".
/End rant.

Training November 10+11

Saturday November 10, 2012

Front Squat
up to 157.5/1

Bench Press (MG)
up to 125/1 (Pause), 135/1 (Touch and go), 140/0

Stiff Leg Deadlift (from Mid Shin)
165/3x4

Face Pull
V Sit hold

Initially I was a little disappointed for missing 140, but then I had to remind myself that getting within 5% of all time PR's the day after a ton of volume work... isn't exactly complaint worthy. I might be a little spoiled.
With that in mind, a good solid "light day" session.
I should note- everything is beltless and full ROM unless otherwise indicated. Deads are usually hook grip or strapped up, rarely if ever mix grip.

Sunday November 11, 2012

BTN Split Jerk
Up to 120/1- PR? Does it count?

Bottoms up Squat
Up to 145/1

Easy session, really more to get the body loosened up than anything else. Just a dicking around troll workout:
Walk into public gym, see what people are lifting, add 40kg more and lift it, then leave. All good fun.