Beyond 1400: Kyle's Road to RUM VIII

Paused Bench w/ slingshot
320x5x2
no slingshot, narrower grip
235x10x3

Notes: Yay, I can bench pain-free again. Those pesky overuse aches have cleared up and I'm feeling good again. My guess is that I might have to take another week to floor press after this cycle, but let's just see how I feel before then.

From today, I did some light SSB squatting, 260x5x3, and felt awful. The weight was easy, but I felt lightheaded as all hell. I woke up at my lightest weight this training cycle (157.4) and I just think I didn't have the fuel necessary to train at anywhere near 100%. I shut it down, got some water, and relaxed for the day. I took my calories and carbs up a bunch tonight, so tomorrow should be an OK deadlift session. The one silver lining is that my pelvis is feeling less achy all the time, and next week should help even more.

Deadlifts
405x1
455x1
480x3x3
480x6

GHRs, w/ monster-mini, three sets

Lat Pulldowns, four sets

External Rotations, three sets

Notes: Deadlifts felt as good as they have this entire cycle. This is up another 30 lbs. on the previous week, and so this is now the heaviest I've pulled since February. I was supposed to do 480 for 12-15 NBL, and I opted for 3x3 and x6 because I was feeling pretty good.

It was a tough night, and I didn't really get to sleep until a little after 9am, but I got to sleep into the afternoon and felt fine for the training. I had some extra calories and carbs--a pint of Ben & Jerry's--for dinner last night, and that helped me a bit. I think I was running on fumes, and the mini-carb load really helped.

I opted to pull with the stiff bar instead of the deadlift bar for this session because I really just haven't felt good pulling the bar up to my knees with that deadlift bar. In time, it'll be easier for me to pull with it, but right now the stiff bar actually feels a little easier; I feel like I can build more speed off the floor with it. USAPL, here I come.

Overall, this is the first session in which I feel like I've done something that could have been a legitimate training session prior to the back injury. That makes me feel like I'm pretty close to being "back," and I'm excited to see where the next few months take me.

Finally, it's very sad that I'm starting to have to say good-bye to friends and teammates as we near the end of our stay in Iowa City. It's been a great six years' worth of training; I had my first powerlifting meet while in my first year here as a grad student, and for the first time I'll be moving outside of the commercial/university gym to a private powerlifting gym. I will miss all my training partners very much.

Keosawa wrote:

I opted to pull with the stiff bar instead of the deadlift bar for this session because I really just haven't felt good pulling the bar up to my knees with that deadlift bar. In time, it'll be easier for me to pull with it, but right now the stiff bar actually feels a little easier; I feel like I can build more speed off the floor with it. USAPL, here I come.

Ahem...allow me to nerd out here for a little bit here. It's not often (pretty much never) that I get to use my physics degree to explain something useful.

When you pull with a stiff bar, almost all of the energy you exert against it is put into accelerating the bar from the moment you pull against it. When you pull with a deadlift bar, it begins to bend, so instead of being converted to energy of motion (kinetic energy), the energy you put into the bar is stored as potential energy just like when you compress a spring. Because you are exerting the same amount of force against each bar, of course the one where all of the energy is exerted into enery of motion is going to move faster. If speed with lighter weights is your primary goal, then pulling with a stiff bar is probably a better option. It seems to me that the benefit of the deadlift bar will be most realized when you are working with heavier weights that you cannot move so fast. When you get to that point with your training, the mechanical advantage of being able to bend the bar and essentially pull against less weight at the beginning of the movement when you are in the position of least advantage will likely outweigh the disadvantage of having to input energy into bending the bar rather than moving the weight.

I could elaborate a little more, but I think this is what's going on. There may be things about the human body that are differ from a text book explanation; things about how muscles respond to different types of stress, and things about the mechanics of your pulling that I don't fully understand (for example if you "snap" into your pulls, you may pull better with a stiff bar at light weights, and if you settle into the pull more you may pull better with a deadlift bar).

Anyhow, I guess the idea I'm trying to communicate here is that I think it makes sense that you are pulling faster with the stiff bar right now.

Thank you for that! With the stiff bar, I feel like I'm a bit slower to break it off the ground, but when it does break, it "jumps" off the ground much faster than with the deadlift bar; I think this correlates with what you said, though I don't really have the know-how to confirm that. And I bet you're right--I think once I start training heavier, the deadlift bar will be more beneficial than it is right now.

My apologies for my recent (lack of) updating--I've been busy making the move to Des Moines, and though I've had instances in which I could have updated my logs, I haven't really taken advantage of them. Now, I'll try to get this up to date with a (hopefully short) wall of text.

So, we're in Des Moines now, and we're training at 22nd Street Barbell. This has been an exciting--and oftentimes frustrating--week, both inside and outside of training.

I'll start with low-lights. Bench has felt so-so: I hit 305x2x2 with a closer-grip bench, but I was really expected 305x3. On the following session, I was supposed to close out the cycle by working up to 340xAMAP with my slingshot, but after a mediocre 300x2 and a 315x1 that felt MUCH slower than it should have--my guess is that my present-day max for that session was 325-330 and definitely lower than a month ago--I didn't even attempt it. I took 225x10x5 with some good strict pauses and realized that it's time for me to shift away from the intensity work for a cycle or two as I run another accumulation phase. So, I'll bump up frequency (to three times per week), bring intensity way down (I think the first week will be something like 215x10x5, 230x8x5, and 245x6x5, with five-pound incremental jumps over a four-week wave), and start retooling. This phase was probably a month over-due, but at least I hit a nice 340 at about the right time.

The so-so 'lights: I got back to squatting with a straight bar after not doing much heavy squatting at all--and nothing with a straight bar--for the previous week. The first session felt good and the second session didn't. To be frank, my deadlift frequency is really determining my squat work right now; but that's fine, and I'll get to why in a second.

I cut volume this week and ran a really reduced pair of sessions for the squat; I hit 365x6 on the first, which was a post-injury PR, and 410x2 on the second, which was an overall PR. If I felt like I did on the first session, I think 410x3 or even 410x4 would be possible, but everything moved like molasses.

The silver lining's that I can handle 410 for a double on a very under-recovered day, and I can do it at a bodyweight of ~157 lbs. So, my shitty squat is getting less shitty.

Deadlift has gone fantastic. My best session was this past one, where I paused-pulled 480 for six total reps, including a 480x4. The protocol was 480 for 4-8 total bar lifts, and to do singles or doubles, but I felt so good with it that I kept going.

Tomorrow, I finally get back over 500 with 500+ for five doubles. I'm going to start at 510 and increase by ten-pound increments until it starts really becoming a struggle. That could be as early as the first set, or as late as 550ish.

TL;DR:

- Mostly successful training week despite moving. Bench needs a new accumulation phase; squat's very strong but hampered by deadlift volume; deadlift's improving by leaps and bounds every week.

Deadlifts
510x2
520x2
530x2
550x2

Thoracic Extensions w/ chains and kettlebell, three sets

Front Squat Iso Holds, up to 365, three sets

T-bar rows, three sets

Rear Delt Flys, two sets

Notes: Everything on deadlift felt like death, so I figured I'd keep going up in weight until that tactic wasn't producing adrenaline anymore. I'm very happy with the numbers, and I can excuse myself for feeling lousy--I didn't do anything wrong in recovery and was just plain beat up at this point in the training cycle. Pulling 550x2 after all the deadlifting I've been doing is an achievement. At no point did I think I would fail any of the lifts, and my lockout actually felt strong. I might just end up becoming a slower puller off the floor--but a stronger puller overall--as a result of these changes.

The good news is that I hit a very solid number after months of not touching anything too heavy, and my lockout felt real smooth. So, we must be doing something right. I'm hoping this can build into something pretty special by the fall.

I think I speak for everyone when I say this; it's good to see you back and pulling strong.

Thanks a lot, Andy. I'm going to try particularly hard not to get hurt this time, lol.

Andy Awad wrote:

I think I speak for everyone when I say this; it's good to see you back and pulling strong.

pulling conventional*

SSchwartsenator wrote:

Andy Awad wrote:

I think I speak for everyone when I say this; it's good to see you back and pulling strong.

pulling conventional*

Eh--I will go back to sumo again if it's what I have to do. I'll do whatever it takes!

Keosawa wrote:

Eh--I will go back to sumo again if it's what I have to do. I'll do whatever it takes!

Whatever it takes, he says...

Someone probably knows this better than I do but aren't all the WRs set with sumo pulls except for the really heavy guys?

Dubya wrote:

Someone probably knows this better than I do but aren't all the WRs set with sumo pulls except for the really heavy guys?

For the lightweights? I'd say the WRs are split pretty even, but the majority of the best pullers are sumo. And the WRs might just be skewed because Lamar Gant.

123 634 Lamar Gant, Conventional
132 628 Lamar Gant, Conventional
148 694 Dan Austin, Sumo
165 718 Paul Nguyen, Conventional; 716 Vashon Perryman, Sumo (honorable mention)
181 791 Ed Coan, Sumo
198 862 Andrei Belyaev, Sumo
220 901 Ed Coan, Sumo
242 891 Konstantin Pozdeev, Sumo

Eh, you can't just look at the WRs. I think that top five all time would be a better comparison. I could look at the lists but I don't know who pulled sumo and who didn't, other than a few notable names.

Chris Anderson wrote:

Eh, you can't just look at the WRs. We'll have to cherry pick our sample size to confirm the conventional DL master race bias

Fair enough.

I would say that looking beyond just the WRs would confirm the opposite--that most of the best lightweight deadlifters pull sumo, and that it's the WRs that skew that fact. That, at least, has been my experience just from watching lifters.

It's complicated though, because a lot of the good lightweights from overseas compete single-ply and raw, and so they train their sumo for single-ply. Sumo benefits much more from equipment than conventional, and that skews the stats further; it's also why a lot of the graduate of the single-ply scene continue to pull sumo (because that's what they've trained for years and years).

I am proud to be one of the few lightweights who has logged a really solid conventional deadlift number in competition without possessing mutant deadlift leverages (though I do have good proportions for pulling).

Paused Bench Press w/ narrower grip (pinkies on the rings)
215x10x5

Incline Bench Press
155x12x2

Tricep Pushdowns w/ band, four sets

Pull-ups
BWx15
BWx5x3

Face Pulls, four sets

Rear Delt Flys, two sets

Notes: After struggling to hit my projected numbers for the last two or three weeks--and after struggling with overuse aches and pains--I decided that it was time to reduce training intensity by a lot for a four-week mesocycle and run another accumulation phase. After this phase, I will make further changes and should hopefully be in a position to run another intense block leading up to a 350 max attempt. This meso is very simple; there are three weekly sessions, all set at the following:

Week one: 215x10x5 / 235x8x5 / 255x6x5
Week two: 220x10x5 / 240x8x5 / 260x6x5
Week three: 225x10x5 / 245x8x5 / 265x6x5
Week four: 230x10x5 / 250x8x5 / 270x6x5

I have it set up so that the exertion level waves over those three weeks, making the first session pretty easy, but the last session pretty tough. I think 265x6x5 would definitely be an overall volume PR, and so by the end of week three I should have my hands full.

Finally, I'm doing all of these with my narrower grip; I'm going to give wide-grip a break for a full four weeks. That will mean a bit of re-conditioning will be in order for the next phase, but I think it'll be the best thing possible for my development. If I have to, I'll switch to wide grip for that third session, but otherwise, I'll be sticking with this.

Anyway, 215x10x5 was easy (as it should be) and I just focused on accumulating quality reps and producing bar-speed. Some reps were slightly better than others, and I worked on keeping my shoulders socketed and not getting too careless with light pauses. The inclines are just a secondary movement I'll be doing twice a week, simply because I am so terrible at them. The programming is extremely simple and my guess is that just doing some light incline work will have a positive effect on my bench.

Finally (for real, this time), I was sent a good article from Mike T. about what to do when your training hits a rut--the article reinforces the need to make small, positive changes from one session to another, and to re-enforce good habits along the way. This is something I occasionally lose sight of when I try to push a good training cycle too far. I've ridden a lot of good momentum on my bench training coming off this last meet, but it'd be a shame if I benched 340 at RUM next year, because that would mean that ALL of my progress came in the first four months' of training. So, I will take one small step back to build for another bench increase before year's end.

Paused Bench Press w/ narrower grip (pinkies on rings)
235x8x5

Squat
365x2

Notes: Paused bench went OK; not quite as fast or as smooth as last time, but I handled all the sets pretty well. I am definitely much stronger than pre-RUM, as this would have been a hard training session and now it's just introductory volume work. Still, I expect the bar-speed will increase on these as the weeks go on. I'm split between going wide for session C and using this grip, but I have a couple of days before that decision has to be made. Regardless, I don't think there's too much at stake.

For my paused bench, I focused more on initiating leg drive, which helped--to an extent. I need to push my abdominals out to meet the bar a bit better; that's something I've gotten lazy with, and it needs to be reinforced. I will make it more of a priority in upcoming sessions as I try to clean up my technique and reinforce good habits.

For squats, I could tell from the last few warm-ups that it wasn't going to go well, and 365x2 just had no speed to it whatsoever. Pelvis is still achy, as usual. I'm not hurt (at least I don't think I am!) but I am getting into chronically overtrained territory. I had a couple good squat sessions last week, but I haven't felt GREAT for a squat session in close to a month, which suggests I'm doing something wrong here. Time to give myself a break from the back squatting until I'm ready for it again. My thinking is that I'll actually try a couple weeks' worth of box squats; doing something like a box or a high pin squat will probably relieve some of the discomfort I'm feeling dropping into the hole, and I think it's achy enough at this point that even light SSB or high-bar squats won't be great options. I will experiment with it in a couple of days and if it's a no-go, I'll just look into smaller movements for a while.

I am still trying to synchronize my training now that I'm operating at close to 100%, and it will take me a little while to get it right. But even though today was a bad day, 365x2 would have been impossible two months ago if I wasn't feeling great. I would rather detrain slightly and have a few sessions while feeling GREAT than continuing to manage my training and prolong this recovery time.

Reverse-Band Box Squats (75 lbs. at bottom, nothing at top)
355x3
375x3
395x3
415x3
435x3

"DE Reverse-Band Box Squats"
225x3x6

Banded Hip Abductors, three sets

Thoracic Extensions, three sets

Notes: My back still feels achy doing any sort of free squat, so I switched back to my old friend the box as a possible variation. Getting out from under it after squatting doesn't feel great, but the actual squats can be done pain-free, which is really all I'm looking for right now. Squatting on a box allows me to stay more upright, and it also allows me to engage my external rotators a bit better on the eccentric, which seems to help my back considerably. This makes me realize that it's probably time for me to start doing some special movements for abduction on the squat, even if it's not something I'm going to utilize while squatting with my narrow stance; I've got some ideas and I'll try something out next session.

Considering how tough deadlifting will be this cycle, I will probably run this variation for a couple of weeks. The goal for this session was just to utilize "Thompson-style progression," which is just something I took from some Mark Bell videos a few years ago when he talked about Donnie Thompson's method of progression--covering 20-25% over the span of five sets, increasing at even intervals. I like using this for recovery because the slow progression of low-exertion work sets allows me to work slowly into the training and prefatigue enough to keep me from going nuts on a top set.

I projected to finish up at around a RPE@8 top set, and that's about what I hit here (it was probably lighter than that, actually, but protecting my back meant that I really had to stay tight and upright coming off the box, which cost me some speed). I originally figured the bands would be ~115 lbs. at the bottom, but they ended up measuring out to 75 lbs., so the top set was 435 at the top, 360 at the bottom.

Anyway, this is about as good as a squat session could go right now--really happy with how this one turned out.

Is that how Donnie Thompson trains? Seems very closely aligned with rts to be honest. I've noticed you wander that way for some time, maybe unknowingly

KevinAlvy wrote:

Is that how Donnie Thompson trains? Seems very closely aligned with rts to be honest. I've noticed you wander that way for some time, maybe unknowingly

That's probably not the only way his trains, but it was a method he employed a few years ago when he was still actively competing. And I finally got the RTS manual a while back and have tried to apply aspects of it to my training when I can. Using different approaches in the past seems to help me nowadays, because I can go back to something I did a while ago and apply it to a certain situation.

Paused Bench Press
Comp. grip
255x6x4
255x10 PR

Pull-ups, 50 reps total

Band Pushdowns, three sets

Notes: Wide-grip bench felt as good as it has in a few weeks, so I pushed the last set for an easy 10-rep PR. I'm glad I'm still training this once a week though, because if there is a weakness, it's right off my chest--my lockout felt good by comparison.

Good first week of bench training--I got in ~125 bar-lifts and felt very strong doing it. This is just under what smolov jr. had me averaging pre-RUM, but the exertion on these is much higher (215x10x5, 235x8x5, and 255x6x5 (now) versus 215x6x6, 230x5x7, 245x4x8, and 260x3x10 (then), respectively; using rep x set here).

I have been a busy bee at work this week, so my log's going to be a bit short here as I catch up. On Monday and Tuesday, I did the following:

Monday
Reverse-Band Box Squat (75 lbs. at bottom)
375x3
395x3
415x3
435x3
455x3
275x3x7
no bands; monster mini around knees, wider stance, five-second eccentric
135x5x3

Tuesday
Paused Bench Press w/ pinkies on rings
220x10x5

Notes: Monday's squats felt great, and my pelvic achiness is going down thanks to the box squats. There's still work to be done, but I'm getting better. I think I will opt for depth progression (taking the box down a bit) now, and I'll continue working with a similar band setup and rep progression. I might continue to expand the RPE cap, depending upon how I feel.

Tuesday's bench felt like crap, for whatever reason. I'm just going to shake it off and try to kill the next one.

Today:

Deadlifts
565x1x2
565x0 (grip!)
565x1 (w/ straps)

Band GHR Crunches, three sets

Face Pulls, three sets

Band Pull-Aparts, two sets

Notes: The deadlifts weren't bad to start. Warm-ups felt better than last week, and 515 moved OK (not great, but OK). The first single at 565 felt pretty solid; I was supposed to choose three singles at a 9.5 RPE, all at the same weight. I knew that if I chose correctly, it'd get tough by the third rep. The second single felt fine, but I was losing my grip at the top. On my third single attempt, I didn't even break it, because I knew my grip wouldn't hold. I grabbed straps and pulled it a couple minutes later--it was the slowest of the three, but the straps make it so that I can afford to take more time with my pull without having to worry about my grip.

Overall, an OK day. 565 is three pounds heavier than what I pulled at RUM, though none of these were as fast as that 562. At worst, I am in the ballpark of where I was in Feb. At best, I'm very slightly ahead.

Finally, out of necessity, I pulled with a deadlift bar today. I am bad at it and it's killing my bar-speed off the floor, but I probably need to start getting used to it.