A Stone

Picked up the box to 15" last night. Femurs roughly parallel. I read some of Eric Cressey's discussion on ankle mobility and squatting and I wonder if I fall into that category. Will keep working on it, but for now, the 15" box is going to be the workhorse for a bit with lighter front squats, OHS squats, and deep squat stretches/third world squats to work on mobility and balance. Kicking out the feet in the box squats and focusing on keeping a tight core seem to have helped quite a bit as my set felt rock solid last night.

Monday, December 29, 2008

Box Squats, 15" box

4 x 3 @ 135, 135, 155, 155
3 x 2 @ 175, 185, 195
1 x 1 @ 205

205 was hard but solid. I guess 170ish is about 80% of the 1RM. Over the next 2 months will shoot for triples in the 175 to 195 range as things improve.

Bent Rows
3 x 5 @ 135, 155, 165 (on Smith Machine).

The gym has been packed lately. They made a bonehead move (IMHO) by buying a new power rack and, instead of keeping the old one around, they got rid of it. There is always a queue for it. The smith machine only gets used by people who really want to be using a power rack and some lazy fucker who wedges a box into it (the box just fits so that it's some work to get it into there) does a few sets of calf raises, then leaves the weight racked with the box wedged into the machine. I only used it because, with my warmup sets, I'd been doing box squats for damn near half an hour and it was only prudent to share. All the characters were out last night. I put the pressure on Horrorshow to finish up his weird looking Crossfit squat complex (he was apparently running 800's and then doing some pullups or something between sets. I'm fine with that, but it equated to about 5 minutes between sets. At 8 sets total...well, you do the math).

I even managed to keep Mutant Tim Robbins at bay. He and I have crossed paths over the years. But it's typically when I'm forced to work out at the Natatorium. He is an imposing fellow. Can't tell if his background is some years ago bodybuilding or powerlifting or just some good old 'merican football but he's a large man. He was eyeing up the rack for a bit--and I knew fear--but I think in the end he decided that the box squats were a worthy lift and he let me be and went elsewhere. Either that or he just wasn't hungry for cyclist.

Regardless, I didn't dilly dally. I did 8 work sets of squats as quickly as I could.

Pull Ups

3 x 4 @ BW +30# with a wide grip. I have been alternating high volume BW with heavy low rep stuff. I like where the pull ups are going.

MTN climbers

3 x AMAP I saw some old timer doing some wicked mountain climbers so I adopted his form. It was harder than the way I'd been doing it. Was shooting for 30 reps each side. I managed it on the first set and the last one. Middle I clocked in at 25 each.

One arm DB press

3 x 5 @ 50, 60, 60

Went light on these as I had pushed it on the Bench Press 2 days prior.

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Back for a low key assistance workout. Dr. 1% even showed up and offered critique on my good mornings. Though I managed to screw up my set/rep totals tonight. I think Mutant Tim Robbins threw me off my game.

GM's

3 x 5 @ 135, 145, 155.

Pushed it as far as I could. Stuck my butt way back. Stayed on my heels. Went until I thought I'd lose my "arch" (I really don't have much of an arch, just a flat spot) if I went any deeper. MTR inquired as to how long I'd be on the rack to which I replied "One more set, sir."

He did some respectable front squats.

Bent Shrugs

3 x 5 @ 225, 245, 245 (Guesses as to what the Smith Machine weight might have been)

Again I yielded to MTR on the Power rack so I did these on the Smith.

Pull Ups

3 x 4 @ BW +30 w/ wide grip

Some fool checked out the dip belt, did his dips, and then proceeded to do his entire workout with the dip belt sitting on the floor next to whatever machine he was on. I did these with a 30# db between my feet out of hatred. Long after I had finished my pull ups, he was still clutching that dip belt between sets.

Duder, you're supposed to return that thing when you're done with it.

Renegade Rows

3 x 5 @ 25#

Push Ups

3 x 15

A nice blizzard commute complete with bitchin' snow beard and some good old metamucil topped the night off.

Christ I'm old.