busy busy busy

Sorry for the abscense.  

Been training hard for the open strongman meet.  I was told there are going to be 8 competitors.  Events are:

Max deadlift, medley, tire flip, atlas stone, farmer's walk.  

After the completion of my squat and bench routine, my current max is Squat: 410, Bench: 255.

I need to work on depth for my squats.  Not low enough.  I am quite happy with my bench.  255 was pretty easy.

New toys

Just got my new lever 13mm powerlifting belt.  Pretty sweet in design, and putting it on and off is quick and painless.  The problem is that in order to adjust it, you need a screw driver.  I have also heard of levers breaking during squatting or deadlifting and I asked around.  The typical reasons are:

They are constantly treated badly like being thrown onto the floor etc.  
People rush to put on the lever and ends up creating a stress point.
The lever gets hit repeatedly during workout.
Rusty/dirty levers.

Anyway, if the lever do break I have a 10mm belt.  I think I might rotate my 10mm and 13mm belt.  The 13mm is really stiff and needs to be broken into.  It seems to dig right into hip which is an annoyance.

I also received a pair of RDCrain's Olympic Tube Collars.  It is made out of solid steel, and weight about 5.5 each, which is competition weight.  This thing will definately last forever.

Weird Day

Weird day today...I had a great bench day.  Finished all my sets/reps, and it all seemed easy.

So what type of analgesic do I use?  Mostly Tiger Balm and Heet.  Warning about Heet, it gets extremely hot.  How hot?  The feeling of someone pouring alcohol onto an open wound, thats how hot and painful it can get.  But it works.

I like Tiger balm because its all natural and its a tried and true analgesic.  I know there is bengay, 3585 and the such, but once I stick to one brand, I don't usually change.  

Downside to topical pain relievers are they can stain, smell, be greasy, and expensive if you use alot of it.

Last Week

Last weeks training generally went well.  I found out that I needed to take longer break between sets for my bench.  I decided to include olympic style squat (deep knee bends) on my deadlifting days.  The reason behind it is because I do not like doing lunges or leg extensions.  Those two type of lifts seems to put a lot of stress on my knees, something that which I can feel the next day...creaking, sore knees, etc...

Three more weeks till the strongman competition.  

Strongman Equipment

Last sunday I was fortunate enough to try three strongman implements: log presses (for reps), Atlas Stone, and Farmer walk.

Starting at 150 pounds, I manage to perform 7 max reps.  Log pressing to me is far more easier than military press.  To me, log pressing is like clean and jerk, where your leg and explosive strenght is important.  

Next was the farmer's walk using two 150 pound cylinders.  I only manage to hold for 1 minute and because it was indoors, I was limited to just that.

Last was the atlas stone, and probably the hardest for me to do.  The atlas stone is where technqiue is more important than strength when you first start out.  You may be able to do 200 pounds deadlift reps easy, but when dealing with the atlas stone, your grip, your body position and how explosive you lift the stone are probably more important.  Tacky and chalk is a definately a must and will give you an advantage.  

Unfortunately, I managed to hurt myself performing these lifts.  During the log press, I felt my middle back pop, and while lifting the stones, I also pop my left knee.  

Its healing but both places feel tight and sometimes it hurt.

scraped knees

I love deadlifting.  "The meet doesn't start till the bar hits the floor".  Why?  Because it is the ultimate back excersize you can perform.  Think about it.  You use your back pretty much for everything in your everyday lives, so why not strengthen it.  The issue I have with my deadlift is that I keep banging the bar on my knees while going down, and scrapping my shins at the same time.  I guess I have to buy those knee height socks.  

50 more pounds to go to max.

Another good squat day

For my squat, I decided to increase 20 pounds this week.  This is because of the strongman competition I am talking about.  I got 5 more weeks to max, and then take a week off for the competition.  

I wear wraps when I do my max squat for the week.  I know a lot of people out there don't wear knee wraps until competition but my reasons are that knee wraps give me a confidence boost.  I have been going to the same gym for almost 3 years and I have not seen anyone squated more than 315.  In short, I train by myself and I treat my knee and wrist wraps as training partners.  They are dependable, always there for me, and psychologically supportive.  

Will it limit my gains?  I don't know.  I read Rickey Dale Crain's Xtreme Squatting book, and he said to wear it regardless what kind of weight you are squatting.  Why? Because of the protection it gives is far more important than the weight you push.

As you know, knee wraps is suppose to artifically help you push your max squat up.  I have heard it gives you an extra 10 to 50 pounds, depending on individual opinion.  See the problem?  Its all individual opinion and I have not seen any scientific evidence concerning it...

So to wear or not to wear...its up to you.  There will be people out there that will say you are hampering your ability to push more weight, but will you be effected by such comments?  People might laugh at you but its your squat, and you are the person that is doing it.  Its no one, but you, the equipment and the bar.  

shrugging off a lousy bench day

Today was probably the worst bench day I had in a while.  Could even finish my reps for my first set, and it was even just 5 pounds more than last week!

But the strange thing is that it didn't effect me as much as I thought it would be.  I wasn't worried or frustrated at all.  All I thought about was "next week is a new week".  

Frankly, my weakness is "barbell" benching and I don't even like benching at all.  I like dumbell benching but in my gym, it only goes up to 100 pounds (each hand).

Never give up! Never lay off!

Squat day and tip of the day

Want to grow muscular big? Then you must eat more than you burn per day.  Want to be lean? They you must eat less than you burn per day.  

Want to grow big and lean?  Unfortunately, that is pretty hard to achieve especially if you do not have a strict diet planned out day after day after day.  

Its must easier to first grow big than trim the fat, but its up to you...

Anyway, today is squat day...made a few mistake today.  While doing my max of the week, my knees bow in while ascending.  I did it a few times but quickly corrected my form.  Then I did something to my left knee, but I don't know how to describe it...least to say that its pretty sore now.

Practice, practice, practice.  Form and technique is more important than what you can lift.  Why?  Safety, injury prevention, injury reduction, better recovery...a few I can think of.  Overtraining is just not worth it...

Training smart and training hard

A repeated theme from people who has trained for more than a few years, and that is you got to train smart.  I was told that when you are young, you can shrug off pain, but as you get older you have to be careful.  The older you get, the longer it will take to recover.  Therefore, you must train smarter as you get older.  Ask Ed Coan, a world leading powerlifter.  After training for 20 years, his training philosophy is to not push his body past the limit.

A few key points when you train:

Listen to your body.

Recovery and nutrition is essential.

The older you are, the longer it will take to recover.

Stick to a routine, don't jump weights because of ego.  Train for yourself and not for others!

If an injury do occur, treat it immediately: RICE, Heat, Massage Therapy, Physiotherapy, etc.

Get enough sleep, 7-8 hours is optimal but as you get older, you can push it to 9 or 10...

Another Bench day

I took too long of a break but with the winter storm that came in yesterday, there was nothing to be done except for the push ups/sit ups I did.

Today, was bench day and it was shakey at best.  Oh well, there is next week.

Never give up, and never lay off!

Oh yeah, I was invited to a strong man meet that is suppose to occur in March.  I guess the group is looking for new people and they are just inviting people to have some fun.  I am going to go and I am going to train for it.  This might be my opportunity to get into real competition but we shall see.

3 months to go, and I really need to work on my cardio/endurance.

Another snow storm

Well, another snow storm and this will be the fourth one in a week.

It is starting to affect my lifting schedule, but oh well, Mr. Crain always said "Never Lay off!"

Today is suppose to be bench day, but I did push up and sit ups instead.  I don't have any free weights at home due to space and financial constraint.  

Anyway, the next few days is suppose to be clear but who knows...