This is the continued story from the Results from the “Leiden Lifting Laboratory” , which I virtually blew up.
The problem was, I think, not just caused by the somewhat high volume of training, it is also the fact I have been training for a couple of years now and never get any good results. If I insist on being positive, I could interpret this like “now I at least know how it should NOT be done”, right? Just that I don’t even know what it exactly was, what I did, because: report writing? Yeah right we have to do that in the lab, and there I am also not good at it, and don’t like it either so reports about training?? No.
With the recent log, I tried it anyway, however not always completely serious, I mean, there is of course some crap in there that never belongs into a report. But I don’t think a log like this really needs to be as boring as the normalized trial report.
Now, for sake of safety rules:
WARNING!
Anything I say may be spiked with irrelevant chemical terminology, and extremely low in common sense.
Be sure to have it all extracted, filtered, columned etc. before even thinking it could be making any sense; to find out if it is, do at least LC-MS/MS and NMR.
Having said that, I can safely proceed to some more severe issues in my training approach, there is of course the fear for failure that is so bad that it leads to failure by itself, and there is the problem of goal setting. I do know how it’s done: it should be smart! Specific, measurable, acceptable, realistic, and time restricted. Yes!!
Specificity and measurements can be somewhat problematic, but acceptable and realistic at the same time, how on earth can I get that done??!!
But have the specificity first then. (Now the goal getting itself is already a goal. That is fucked up.) Even this is more problematic than I thought.
I do want to be strong, that is however already nonspecific, and it gets worse: I also want to have a good physique, and to have the nonspecificity accumulated and tell the truth I just would like to have every possible aspect of fitness; and because I know I cannot be the best at anything, it would be sufficient to be only the best when it comes to strength.
Can anyone give me please a time limit for the goal of goal setting??
In the meantime there must be some reporting, of the “Natural History” of course in absence of a plan. “Natural History” generally describes the course of a disease in absence of therapy, and the description was chosen much better than I like it to.On the other hand, sometimes the immune system defeats diseases unassisted. Sep. 30
Squat 15x20 kg 3x8x40kg
Legpress plates12x30kg 2x12x50kg 5x60kg+12x30 kg
Lunges 10x20kg 10x40 kg 8x45kg 8x50kg
StifflegDL 12x50kg 10x60kg 2x9x70kg
Legcurl 4x10x20kg
Calve raises, seated &donkey supersetted 4sets
Abs Stuff Comment
The “Needle in a nerve” feeling at squatting and legpress was still there,I felt it slightly in some of the last reps. Lunges and stiffleg DL seems to be ok, so try to get at least them a bit up again, but still more concentrating on form and feeling than weight; eh I must admit in the lunges form and feeling could maybe be better if I sticked to 40 kg or so. The calve crap gave a great pump. Oct. 2
Back extension 15x0/10x15kg/2x10x17kg
Pullup 8/6/4/3
Pullup somewhere else 5/5/5
Shrugs dumbbells 9x22kg
Highpull/powerclean 10x18kg /3x8x38kg
Pulldown , leaning back 5 sets Comment
This was a training with Mr. Espi, who btw hates to be called that.
In the pullup I learned to concentrate more on back contraction, in that way it will produce more back hypertrophy and less shoulder pains.The backward leaning pulldowns are especially hard to finish;therefore I concentrated mostly on that. It must be some weak point.
I also have this problem with BOR, but that we could not do anymore because the (@#$%^&*!!) gym closed before we were finished. Oct. 3
Benchpress 15x20kg/10x50kg/8x55kg/8x60kg/ 8x50kg
Incline Benchpress 10x30kg/8x40kg/9x40kg/8x45kg
Dumbbell flyes 15x10 kg/2x10x12kg/9x14kg
Dumbbell shoulder press 10x12kg/3x8x14kg
Side raises 12x4kg/3x10x6kg
Frontraises 12x4kg/2x10x6kg
Rope pushdown, supersetted with rope frenchpress 12x10kg/3x8x15kg
Parallel bar dip 8/6/6/7
Preacher curl 4sets
Decline bench situps 15x0/3x12x5kg
Twistcrunch 1 set , hanging leg raises 3 sets Comment
I just hate the way the BP are going atm, but maybe this is also because of doing them more “bodybuilding style” then “powerlifting style”. The preacher curl was some residual from yesterday.
Are you fine with the 'longer Time Under Tension' but less weight route?
Solid...did you know I never even bothered in which phase they are. But since they are not taking so much volume now, and the entropy is indeed very low for my standards, they might really be solid
I would be much more fine with time under tension AND high weights but since I can't handle the weights and want to find out if this works for me, I try it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by stingo
I promise to ignore all irrelevant chemical terminology. Carry on.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kfisherx
Sub! Welcome to the boring old training log folder.
Oh its not so boring. I hope I can also learn from you Sometimes I also read a bit in your logs, but will not always post.
Report of today:
Oct. 4
Squat 15x20 kg/8x40kg/2x8x50kg/6x60kg
Legpress tried some, sucked, stopped it
Lunges 10x20kg 10x40 kg 8x50kg 8x55kg
StifflegDL 12x60kg 10x70kg 2x9x80kg
Legcurl , standing one legged 4x10
Leg extension 4sets
Calve raises, seated &standing supersetted 4sets
Twisted crunch, hanging leg raises 4sets Comment
Today I felt sort of having energy etc, I wonder I have overdone a bit in the eating again :P still have to calculate on that(put it in de eetmeter). But having energy is anyway a good thing. Now I had it even after training! Or “training”. Anyway, compared to the legsession before, I upped most of the weights and still had the desired form and tension. In squatting, the nerve felt not quite so bad so could do a little more but at 60 kg I felt it enough to not finish the set. At the legpress it was some worse. Maybe still hit it too hard at squatting, or because it is in another gym it is also another legpress maybe it is just this machine more aiming at the “nerve spot” than the one in Leiden. I sort of replaced the legpress by the leg extensions.
Are you going by a program that was given to you in Leiden or do you plan your exercises & the weights as you go?
Karla is an excellent role model here for someone who goes for both strength & physique.. or used to, until she's now going to be all into football (not soccer) & speed+ agility will be more important.
This is the fitness instructor's plan from Leiden, indeed.It describes the exercises only, the weights I pick myself. If I go without a plan, you will notice. That produces workouts in the gas phase, with explosive properties.
The use of the instructor's plan would also mean there is some implicit goal. I don't know exactly what it is, though. When I joined the gym, I told him my goals were strength, muscle gain and fat loss. According to their measurements, the fat loss was not really needed, so I guess the plan is based on the other two. But if I were to make a plan for strength and muscle gain, I would not put in all the isolation. On the other hand, because I never emphasized isolation much, it is perfectly possible that the easiest gains for me at the moment are right there.
If I do nothing myself, the instructor wants to make a new plan at the end of the month. I believe their programs run over 8 weeks.
Hmmm all that isolation stuff is more like an old-fashioned 'bb' program than anything else.. can't hurt but there are more useful things to do, like working on mobility & balance with more unilateral stuff.
You could always drop some isolation exercises in favour of that kind of things. Was thinking today I should do more step ups (you're supposed to ONLY push through the leading leg & leave the other leg almost literally non-working).
Hmmm all that isolation stuff is more like an old-fashioned 'bb' program than anything else.. can't hurt but there are more useful things to do, like working on mobility & balance with more unilateral stuff.
You could always drop some isolation exercises in favour of that kind of things. Was thinking today I should do more step ups (you're supposed to ONLY push through the leading leg & leave the other leg almost literally non-working).
To be honest I would also be thinking something like this, except that I would not think first of mobility/balance stuff , but more like I need more real power training, maybe again some weightlifting or otherwise explosive exercises, or just more of the heavy compounds...but that would be much like most of the things I already did. But even things I have already done, need not to be bad just because of that...maybe the only thing I screwed up was, no periodization and ignoring every sign of insufficient recovery as long as possible.
I just don't know.
But to think of a better training plan, I still need a specific goal
Now the latest report form natural history, uhm okay its not that recent, its from monday. There will be one for today later.
Comment Sneaked in the powercleans(and the back extensions,but that is really not so much), because the DL is too low-effort this way,and maybe I am just sneaking in things again, right, because I feel a bit better
But will try to keep this practice under moderation...or find a better program...
Holy crap RE the curls. Now that seems extreme. I did not do that many curls even when I was training for a show. The rest of the program is similar to my bbing/strength program. I have the flexibility in my plan to pick unilateral exercises though. You do really need to keep them around especially if you are going for strength.
BTW: My new goal is to do strength training WHILE playing football. I don't really have a specific performance goal wrt football. I just want to be strong. Problem for me in these first weeks is that I am not conditioned enough to lift as hard as I want to after the 3 hour practices.
__________________
The BIGGER I get the smaller you look
Neat insertion when it comes to doing the power cleans.. those are SOLID! 4 reps @ 50kg = very good!
Karla is right about your curl volume : it's crazy . Just counted your curls and came to 12 sets!
Bodybuilding routine to the max = hit everything at every possible angle.
Unilateral movements help with muscular imbalances in strength .. mobility work can also help overcome limiting factors in strength when it comes to increasing the ROM of a movement (range of movement, right?) . If you become more flexible & can increase a ROM or get into the utmost position of a movement more easily, that generally leads to more strength, unless you're into hypermobility range when it can be dangerous.
For example: when I get up in the morning, I can barely go into a quarter squat.. too stiff.. once I get going , parallel is possible. But the dynamic warmup with stretching helps me to go all the way down.. you're a young spring chicken so perhaps not so much in need of all that 'flexibility' stuff.. but just wait until you are at our age
Yeah, just wait until that so for now I don't need it
Work both sides equally would be important for me as well, though. The curls are hard to complete with the left hand, but easy for the right side. Except with the preacher curl they are trained seperately. When using dumbbells,it is always so. I do lunges for legs now, which I never did seriously before and they are good.
Oct. 7
Comment The benchpess keeps killing my ego. It is very hard to continue after that. I managed it again, but I really hope it will get better because it is not so nice like this and I also suspect that a training performed in this state of mind, is less productive. It may not be only the BP,though. At the moment I also hate the fact there are mirrors around everywhere. When trying to be objective, I don't think I really look worse then before, but thats more like, I can't understand how I managed to look at it before, than, it is not so bad.
Last edited by Miss Deadlift : 10-07-2009 at 02:51 PM.
Self-Analysis by Dissection
I wonder,if slices of my brain were made(but that will obviously have to wait until I finished the maze run), if there would be anything weird to see...
Honestly, my comment after the last training (for example...) does not look healthy to me. I see the other people here, most of them are proud of their results and see things at least more or less positive most of the time. The only way to get positive to me is attacking an electrophile. However comparing myself to most of the others would normally not lead to such a negative result, I fear I might even be indirectly insulting them when talking so bad about myself. Maybe I was also “infected” by others who where highly critisizing themselves as I could see they were still much better than me, and so got thinking, well if they are ashamed of themselves, what should I be? Of course I was highly sensitive to such an infection, but I may not be the only one. I am not here to sell antivirals! I should find a cure for myself, and hope I won’t infect anyone in the meantime!
Well, you do seem to have it worse than anyone else (who is as gifted as you are) than I've ever met.
One cure I would like to dole out but can't : go make a longer trip to the USA. If you could you should meet Karla. The Usonians (Americans ) and to a lesser extent Canadians have this remarkable gift of being positive & cheerful at all times, even when they aren't.
Maybe because their income depends so much on it = not as safe as in Europe, but whatever the reason, it is contagious to be around cheerful & optimistic people. At first I thought they are crazy .. but hey, it works. So even if you aren't cheerful "fake it until you make it (true) ".
Obviously I don't know the entire context of your situation. So, I can't say why you're down on yourself right now. But, it seems to me like you're accomplished something that very few people ever will. Perhaps you should spend more time out in the general population to realize just how far you've come, and just how few people have what you have.
Your volume is insane. A high volume day for me is about 24-28 sets. Again, to be able to consistently do that kind of work takes a special degree of conditioning and athleticism that very, very few people have. Even amongst those who lift and call themselves in shape, you represent the superlative.
One thing I do know: I sure wished I could beat up all those kids who were nasty to you in school. When someone is extremely talented, it seems to be a kneejerk reaction of others with less talent, to put that person down instead of cheering them on to even better results.
This is not something that can be easily undone, though it does help to surround you with optimistic people. Americans on a whole do tend to be optimistic & genuinely admire folks that are gifted, rather than put them down like the Dutch seem to do.
There's even a proverb for this "do not put your head up above the 'mowing level' = even when you are better (performance etc) than others, do not even think you are better, as we will just mow you down...
This is a result of such reproachful behaviour among less gifted & utterly jealous children, I can't think of anything else.
Maybe not everyone is like that.... or the pessimistic & envious/jealous people just keep their mouths shut .. if that's what you mean?
Come over here and experience the difference.
I meant that and probably much more (which I don't wish to elaborate on in Miss Deadlift's Log). My point was more about romanticizing a culture when you have an issue with the one where you live.
I've been to the Netherlands and had a fabulous time. But of course I was a tourist, so I'm sure the natives I encountered couldn't give me a view of the "real" culture in that short a time.
__________________ Just because your mother thinks you're special doesn't mean I do
The dutch mentality has the name of cutting everything that is above the mowing height, that is true. But if I should really blame some children jerking around when I skipped the year they doubled at, that would be really weak! Come on, no recovery from that in 20 years time? There must be more than that! And of course there is!
America as the promised land? Well I did see some movies from America, don't know if they are repesentative But very often there is enough of jerking around,taking advantage of people, etc. in those movies, so America must know the phenomenon too. In my impression there you may not be cut when above the fields, but you are expected to live the american dream! So if you DON'T come above the "mowing level",you are a failure and treated like that. It does not make much difference to me,I think I would be cut either way.Obviously you can't be both above and under the critical level, but maybe it is not even about the "level".
Today I had my workout in the morning, so better make the report of that now.
Oct. 8
Squat 15x20 kg/8x40kg/8x50kg/8x60kg/6x60kg
Legpress 3x12x30kg/12x50kg
Lunges 10x30kg 3x8x50kg
StifflegDL 2x10x60kg 2x8x70kg
Legcurl 4x10x20kg
Calve raises, seated &donkey supersetted 4x(12x50kg+12x20kg)
crunch bench 15x0/15x5kg/2x12x10kg
leglift 4x12
Comment
Still issues with the "nerve". I did not try to force it lately but it still won't go away.
After a few excersises there was also a generalized tremor(which I also noticed yesterday at the later part of my training session), not very bad but it was there,and because a hypoglycemic condition was highly unlikely(considered the amount of carbohydrates consumed),I managed again to do some lifting and thinking about neuronal transmission at the same time; made up the following hypothesis: There is a link between the ability to get strong (achieve maximum neuronal stimulation to the muscle motor units) and certain nervous system disorders: in some conditions, inhibitory transmission is enhanced,which will generally make it harder to get strong, in some other the inhibitory transmission is lowered which will make it easier.
Apart from this, it was quite ok even when not feeling very strong, it was hard to complete the lunges and for the right feeling in SLDL I also could not use the amount of weight I wanted.
Nutrition data, estimated means
sept 24-30
kcal 2869
pro 225 carb 233 fat 110 alc 7
oct 1-7
kcal 2859
pro 243 carb 220 fat 105 alc 9
weight listings
sept-24 73.2 kg
sept-29 71.8 kg
sept-30 71.0 kg
oct-6 70.9 kg
oct-8 70.9 kg
Comment on this later. I will have to go to the other end of our country now, (Groningen) and took already longer for this report writing than I expected!
I've been to the Netherlands and had a fabulous time. But of course I was a tourist, so I'm sure the natives I encountered couldn't give me a view of the "real" culture in that short a time.
it's often very hard to even get a good impression after having lived somewhere for a few months, especially when you are in an international community. Where I live myself, there's a very large amount of international students who generally don't mingle very much with Dutch students & certainly don't mingle with the locals, who are 'a world apart'... this also is true for me, who's lived among students for like 4ever and got quite a shock when moving into a street that's full of 'poor locals that never saw a school inside after age 15 or so'.
Quote:
In my impression there you may not be cut when above the fields, but you are expected to live the american dream! So if you DON'T come above the "mowing level",you are a failure and treated like that.
This is a very interesting observation ... you may be onto something.
Good luck in Groningen! It's a great university town.. too bad it's so far from everywhere else.
Still some motivational trouble,there are at least 2 issues(apart from not having a goal): 1. I should not have my self esteem dependent on my training results, or even study results. There should be something else. Right. But what would it be
2. May be solved with 1. , I might be only stable with negative charge or at best neutral. Like chloride,and most of the time the best leaving group as well. Positive charge is as good as impossible.
Meaning, in non-chemical description, I noticed a certain aversion against positive attitude! I feel like its kind of fake most of the time. I don't want that, even if I sometimes feel too negative and don't want that either. Meaning, in chemical description, I am also not stable with a double negative charge. I will have to seek a position where I can be neutral...
Now, you can all safely turn off again your crap detector because it will be about training now.
This morning, I went to the gym and it was not open! It was ALMOST open however when I pulled at the door
Still don't know why it was closed.Hope they don't do that again. Anyway, decided later to do some at my parents' place,I do have a barbell and some weights there, it should be back/biceps according to my surrogate program, and I had that in mind but otherwise I did just what I felt like.
No deadlifting because of the "nerve", I noticed I can also feel it when not training, I suspect there might be an inflammation involved. I strongly think about going to the doctor with it next week even when I don't like at all going to the doctor.
Oct. 10
Power clean from hang above knees 2x10x20kg / 8x30kg / 2x6x40kg / 4x50kg / 2x55kg / 1x60kg / 5x50kg / 3x55kg
BOR 15x20kg / 15x30kg / 15x40 kg / 8x50 kg / 9x45 kg / 12x40 kg / 4x60 kg
Goodmorning 15x20 kg / 3x10x40 kg /10x60 kg / 8x70 kg
barbellcurl 15x20 kg / 5x30 kg / 9x25kg
Pullup 2x8xbw / 6xbw+5kg / 5.5xbw+10kg / 5xbw+10kg
Comment Powercleaning is nice. I noticed the plates tended to slide off especially to the right, meaning I am not performing it perfectly symmetrical. After the 60 kg I had the plates fixed, this feels different because the plates can't rotate anymore around the bar, which makes the movement some less smooth,but at least the plates cannot slide.
Some more warmup like sets than normally needed in BOR and GM, just seeking for the right feeling.
In fact I don't like curls so much, so don't do so much of them when training "at will".
Pullups were from a ladder to the first floor, which is somewhat different but I think it is also good.
The workout was indeed much better than I would have expected. I am still a bit afraid for heavier cleans, but you have seen worse episodes of that.
I don't think I can get positive by faking. I did enough self-analysis to know that. But if you have the real stuff, faking is just not needed.
At least I am the active pharmaceutical ingredient. It may not been shown yet, if I am a good drug or a bad drug but you are sure you don't get the placebo
BTW, as I told you, I think you have a pinched nerve, but maybe add that to your new thread about it.. & propose accupuncture as a proposed method to solve it?
*Subscribed*
Not going to comment on the American Dream, as I think it's a myth. Crap, that was a comment, wasn't it?
Anywhoozle, a few things:
Acupuncture worked wonders for my nerve issues.
Is that you in your avatar?
and, most of my heavy, non-knocked up bench workouts ended in tears, so in my opinion you're ahead of the game!
I'm walking 60 miles for a breast cancer cure, September 11-13, 2009! Please support my walk and help me raise funds for cancer research by donating to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer 3-Day: http://www.the3day.org/site/TR/Walk/...nal&fr_id=1300
Accupuncture...
well, it already feels like a needle is inserted sometimes but that doesn't mean I look forward to have a real needle inserted in it
On the other hand you never know if the "normal" doctor may do something involving a needle in it as well. As long as it works, I would not object. ( and to know if it works , you must do it first).
I will make an appointment with the doctor first. If she won't do anything about it, I may as well proceed to the accupuncture.
And yes, it is me in the avatar.
About the benching, I have been thinking what I actually did was gradually changing my technique from powerlifting style benchpress to purist bodybuilding style with no arch and no legdrive. When I started with the BB version I was still more used to the PL style and did still some arching, just not so much. In the meantime I started reading how you should benchpress according to Mark Rippetoe, did not read the whole stuff yet but it already made me more occupied with the exact position of joints etc. I was never able to lift strong when so much occupied with the exact form of the movement, so it is really no wonder that my BP weights are sucking harder each time I do the exercise. However I hope the bottom was at least reached today, if it gets worse than this, no doubt about it I will cry.
Comment No more comment on the BP. Db benchpress should be also a good exercise and I actually think its better than the machine proposed by the program, so I wanted to do it and did so.I noticed once again the difference in how much you can do when you rest longer (= have a talk)between sets is significant. I should have done the talking before the 24 kg db BP set instead of after it
In general it was a nice training.
Accupuncture...
well, it already feels like a needle is inserted sometimes but that doesn't mean I look forward to have a real needle inserted in it
On the other hand you never know if the "normal" doctor may do something involving a needle in it as well. As long as it works, I would not object. ( and to know if it works , you must do it first).
I will make an appointment with the doctor first. If she won't do anything about it, I may as well proceed to the accupuncture.
And yes, it is me in the avatar.
About the benching, I have been thinking what I actually did was gradually changing my technique from powerlifting style benchpress to purist bodybuilding style with no arch and no legdrive. When I started with the BB version I was still more used to the PL style and did still some arching, just not so much. In the meantime I started reading how you should benchpress according to Mark Rippetoe, did not read the whole stuff yet but it already made me more occupied with the exact position of joints etc. I was never able to lift strong when so much occupied with the exact form of the movement, so it is really no wonder that my BP weights are sucking harder each time I do the exercise. However I hope the bottom was at least reached today, if it gets worse than this, no doubt about it I will cry.
The acupuncture definitely worked for me! Can't hurt to try.
Re: the bench press. I only started lifting "heavy" when DH began teaching me the leg-drive-arched-back style. It was great to see the numbers go up so quickly, but I eventually stalled out after such a steep learning curve.
I'm walking 60 miles for a breast cancer cure, September 11-13, 2009! Please support my walk and help me raise funds for cancer research by donating to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer 3-Day: http://www.the3day.org/site/TR/Walk/...nal&fr_id=1300
So the form in BP does make that much difference...
Yesterday in training I did not have so much trouble with the nerve! Not that it is entirly gone, but it was not so bad and could do some effort at squatting without the feeling of getting an intraneuronal injection. THis is of course because I made an appointment with the doctor! If you do that, it will be gone! At least temporary!
Because it was not gone entirely, and I don't really trust it anyway, I still went. I did get a prescription. For what?? Not for this, of course. She started asking if my training programming had been smart enough, no overloading etc. Well...ok maybe I did some overloading, but not after this started, and it was at sept. 17th so I would expect it to be gone by now if its just that...
For her it was all done by the confession of maybe some overloading. I hope she's right.
The prescription is venlafaxine ( a serotonine/noradrenaline reuptake inhibitor). It was not hard to get it, I don't even know if I really want it, but there will be some drug testing after all Oct. 12
Squat 12x20kg / 8x50kg / 3x8x70kg
Legpress plates 12x50kg / 12x60kg / 12x70kg / 12x80kg
Lunges 10x30kg / 8x50kg / 2x8x55kg
Stiffleg DL 10x60kg / 2x8x80kg / 8x85kg
Legcurl 4sets
Seated calf raise&donkey calf raise suppersetted 4 sets
Abs machine 3 sets, twisted crunches 4sets
Comment Squat stance was some narrower this time, maybe also because of that less trouble with the nerve. But also legpresses were some better, and I don't know if you can change the form of that. I think I actually did divide the tension different over the muscles than I normally do, but can't really say how.
This time there was some stitching at the heavier lunges, I think the distribution of tension does matter for it and in the lunges there is quite some room to change this. In later repetitions I tried to avoid the exact form that does the stitching, and it worked.
Still can't really say,if it is really improved or just less apparent because the motor system is adjusting to it now.
Anyway, it was quite nice training and if my doctor is right I should not worry too much because of this nerve. Its just that I know when a nerve cell is lost, you can't get it back, and innervation is important for a muscle to function or even to be maintained! But most likely it is not even damaged so nothing to worry...
Missdeadlift in the Mouse Maze
Linear Mode
