Saturday, February 27, 2010

Cape Cod in February

Carlee's running a marathon in Hyannis. I'm excited. She's going to do great and I'm really proud of her. While I'm gone, here's some reading to keep you occupied.
Building Athletic Linemen
Recovery 101
Cholesterol and Heart Disease - Weston A. Price

Thursday, February 25, 2010

All Over Again

I’ve written about the importance of recovery before. True story. Seems though, that I didn’t take my own advice. My food was lacking (in quality, not quantity), my sleep was lacking (both quality and quantity) and there has been at most a minimal effort on my part for pre-hab, warm up and cool down. All of these variables on your training journey are 100% in your control. Avoiding sugar, grains and legumes is easy (I refuse to give up on dairy), warming up and cooling down can be done smart if given time and sleep can be controlled in two ways 1. Close the door so the misfit kitten isn’t a bother and 2. Go to bed a little bit earlier.

I failed at doing these things which is why, today, I am sad to say, I will be resetting my back squat back to 335. In order to aid recovery I have adopted a slightly different template* which should prolong the linear gains that helped me work up to a successful 3x5 Back Squat @ 385# (failure at 390).

It is now up to me to buckle down and focus. No more dilly-dallying after work. The schedule has to be get home (around 5), feed the cats, change and leave. I have to focus on getting my body ready (examples of warm-ups can be found here, here and here) instead of strapping on my shoes and putting a bar on my back and making sure that I leave enough time (and gas in the tank) to at the very least get 10 yards of inch-worms in. I am going to have to replace my row of Oreos with bacon and sausage (it’s the small concessions that make a difference) and some sweet potatoes for those conditioning days. I feel as though I can make those changes fairly easily.

The problem lies in the sleep (pun intended). As I’ve said, my kitten is a misfit who gets hungry at 12, 2 and 4 in the morning. Those of you with kids will sympathize, unless of course you hate animals, in which case I probably don’t like you. The other reason why sleep is hard to come by is my work schedule. I have to leave for work at 5:15 to be on time at 6. This requires, for me anyway, a 4:24 wake up time if I’m going to have enough time to fry and enjoy my bacon. This, combined with the fact that all of the good TV shows are on late at night does not support my sleep needs (8 hours nightly, just like Sesame Street told me).

For those people who are still with me, today is a brand new day. I’ve got 3x5 Back Squat at 335, a 50 pound reset. I will increase 5 pounds each squat workout in hopes of breaking well beyond the 390# barrier. Best laid plans, right?

*Monday - Squat + Press, Tuesday - Pull, Wed - Rest, Thursday - Squat + Press, Friday - Pull

Weston A. Price

Sunday, February 7, 2010

2/7

Took a hike up to CFWatertown today. It was great seeing some of my buddies. In honor of the Super Bowl they held a CFF Total. Good Times. I didn't have a belt so the squat was a little bit off where I'd like it to be, but regardless, some solid poundage.
Power Clean - 265#
Bench Press - 265#
Back Squat - 405#
Dead Lift - 505#

Saturday, February 6, 2010

2/6/10

Light Technique Day
Snatch 10x2 @ 165#
Clean + Front Squat + Jerk 5x1+2+1 @ 185#

Post Workout: Eat, eat, eat

Friday, February 5, 2010

2/5/10

Back Squat 3x5 @ 380#
Bench Press 3x5 @ 235# (repeated this weight because a. I missed two reps on Monday and b. because I didn't have a spotter.)
Dead Lift 1x5 @ 435#
Ring Dips 5x10 @ 1:30

Today was a big day. That 5 rep effort, when calculated to a 1RM thanks to Marune Muscle, is 428#, exactly 2x body weight. Now, that's far from elite levels (that would be 2.6x BW, or 556#) but still, a milestone nonetheless. Of course, actually hitting that number would be legit. What are you going to do?

Jesse Marunde's Recipe's

Thursday, February 4, 2010

2/3 + 2/4

Back Squat 3x5 @ 375
Press 3x5 @ 165 (I did this again because I'm pretty sure I cheated last Friday with some knee bend)
Power Clean 5x3 @215
Weighted Pull Ups 3x3 @ 16kg


2/4
It's been a very long time since I've done a metcon. Even longer since a "can't hardly stand, shaky pen and not even my glasses can help me see straight.
How few sets can I do 100 double unders - 6
5x10 Handstand Pushups w/ 60 sec rest
From CFFB
Tabata Sledge Hammer Hits (12#) 13, 13, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12
- Rest 1 minute -
KTE's - 12, 6, 6, 7, 6, 6, 6, 6
- Rest 1 minute -
Sledge Hammer Hits - 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12

Pretty knackered

Now, for some Marshawn Lynch

Monday, February 1, 2010

2/1/10

I had a great time at the Oly Seminar with Gary Valentine. We worked on some technique.


Back Squat 3x5 @ 370#
Bench Press 3x5 @ 235# (5,4,4)
Dead Lift 1x5 @ 425#
Ring Dips 5x10