stupid meatsuit tricks

[digitaldiscipline]

That was probably the most arduous fitness thing I've done since attempting the ultramarathon. Four hours in the gym, and I'm pretty confident that I sweated on everything except the ceiling. (failed to set a PR deadlifting, and came away with fairly copious notes on how to improve my setup and execution for pretty much everything I do with a barbell in my hands, because i have a lot of room to get better. there's no better way than to have one of the best lifters in the world say, "try this" and help figure out how to get it right)

my workout notes for my coach in the aftermath:

So, Jenn completely kicked my ass, and I loved it. Heh. I have been completely useless since getting home five and a half hours ago; maybe it's Stockhom Syndrome, or maybe it's Maybelline. Whatever it was, I want to bottle it.

NOVEL INCOMING

tl;dr - i have a lot of work to do on my setup for all three lifts, but Jenn gave me a ton of valuable feedback, that I was, with varying degrees of accuracy, able to put into practice for real-time feedback.

squat cues: get narrow, get tight, bull the bar, hips through
dead cues: head back but straight, fall back to pull, hips through
bench cues: unrack at eyes, lockout lower, traps tight, load the lats, drive the heels

in a nutshell: i am way too lacking in tightness pretty much everywhere when i first get engaged with the bar on everything. *laugh*

Deadlifts: Tore my callouses off going for 525; probably had the strength (even doing these after squats), but the bar twisted on me and I helicoptered. so, a bit of a disappointment there, but it's what i had today.

DL keys: JR recommended a narrower overall approach to the bar, both feet and hands, and to stop fucking around while bent over with my hands on the bar, so we decided to go with a more SLDL-style setup - breathe, grab the bar, take out the slack, drop the ass, fall back, and get after it. did some moderate weight pause work (bottom of the knee sleeves) and a bunch of singles to try and groove this; some reps were better than others.

Squats: to combat my lawn chair / squat-morning tendencies, i need a lot more upper thoracic tightness, from more assertive bar grip all the way to lat engagement along the whole chain. on the upside, working up to 315 with a conventional bar caused no notable strain on my shoulders or elbows, though i still break my wrists backwards (somewhat mitigated by employing a false grip, but i was able to bring my hands in a lot narrower than i had previously, which was a nice surprise). again, she recommended bringing my feet a lot closer together when i am unracking the weight and using leg extension rather than hip hinge to do so to keep the weight back where it should be. i was less sloppy in the hole than i was afraid i was going to be, but bar control on the descent is going to require some attention so i don't dive-bomb them. out of the hole, i still have a tendency to go ass-first, so driving my shoulders back is going to require practice and attention.

benching was a struggle due to fatigue and electrolyte depletion - my hips, hamstrings, and even my rhomboids wanted to cramp by the time we got to these, but working on better leg drive mechanics and trap tightness and taking a better position under the bar definitely helped. i suspect part of my happy feet when i lift at home is because my bench is higher than the competition ones at her facility - i didn't have to reach for the floor to get (what passes for) solid contact, so i will be laying those pavers alongside my bench in my garage to try and bring that into a more normal alignment.

overall, i have a lot of notes and things to work on, and some plans of attack that the two of us discussed (you'll probably be getting her take on things as well), and it was definitely one of the most informative and educational and valuable gym sessions i think i've ever had.

we even finished the day with some comic relief yoga. :-)

other things i learned: it's possible to SWEAT COMPLETELY THROUGH TPS SLEEVES WTF (ballpark estimate, i dropped ten pounds of fluids in four hours; weighed in at 189.9 out of bed, 24oz pre-workout drink, approximately 100oz of fluids during the workout (50oz mercury blend, 50oz plain water), weighed in at home at 187.5 before downing a recovery shake. EVERYTHING WANTS TO CRAMP NOW. BRB, GOING TO SHOVE MY FACE IN A HALF GALLON OF MERCURY AND CHOCOLATE MILK AND A STEAK.

Comments

[silentq.livejournal.com]

Hrm, I've been wanting to get a bench for my home set up, I always feel off kilter on the gym ones I used due to being so short. Adding pavers underneath may be something that will help, thanks for the tip!

[etcet.livejournal.com]

I am always surprised at just how low to the ground competition benches are - like, 12 or 14 inches, and my home one is, i think, 16 or 18. I'll measure mine tonight or tomorrow, since i use 2" pavers and it's not quite the same feel.

[silentq.livejournal.com]

Huh, my ground to knee distance is about 16 inches, I could see standard benches being 18 as I'm rarely flat footed on them.

[angledge.livejournal.com]

....mercury?

[etcet.livejournal.com]

Electrolyte / BCAA drink - https://www.chaosandpain.com/mercury-extended-energy-bcaa-complex/

[etcet.livejournal.com]

I have a repurposed car subwoofer that i use for box squats to just below parallel, and i think it's 13" (though i lift barefoot or in lifting shoes with maybe a quarter inch of lift at the heel)

[laurenthemself]

The deadlifts paragraph sounds frankly terrifying for a number of reasons.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

In all honestly, it was mostly irritating and disappointing. The callouses themselves were pretty small and, relatively speaking, thin - the biggest might have been 6x6mm, and the other two were 4x4 at the most.

Being grip-compromised due to being super-sweaty, even with a lot of chalk, was my undoing there. I felt the bar start to rotate in my hand, and tried to compensate by pulling harder with that shoulder to get the bar up before I lost it, and that caused that side to twist around and my pec muscle to cramp, at which point, I just abandoned the lift. (this is going to be discussed more in a subsequent post, probably later today, and has been touched on in my most recent tumblr video post, if you're on that platform)

I had the weight, even though it was ten pounds more than I had planned to pull after my previous lift.

Me: I'm thinking 515.
Jenn: Go for 525.
Me: Yes, ma'am.

*laugh*

[laurenthemself]

I'm sure between you and Jenn you know what you're capable of, but please don't end up with a video of 'hey, here's how I ripped my arm off at the shoulder!'.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I have partially torn/strained muscles (left tricep) and squished things (low back) and torn ligaments (MCL, playing hockey) and and and and... but no actual dismemberment a'la that SNL skit. i've seen videos of folks have serious injuries lifting and it gives me the heebie-jeebies. the only semi-scary thing i have had happen while lifting was needing to bail under a bench press and rolling it down my stomach (and dumping another one on the bench so hard the bar bent) and, once, fainting after doing squats after re-racking the weight.