Nope.
Not gonna write about that.
It’s been done to death.
Instead, I am writing about my own training. I haven’t written much about it lately mostly because it’s not that interesting and I took 19 days off during the move.
If you aren’t interested in my training, stop here, or read a little more. There’s some chopper stuff in this too.
Anyway.
I took 19 days off while we were moving since I didn’t have a gym, had 30,000 square feet of stuff to move and a million other reasons. These are not excuses, sometimes life gets in the way of training.
I never take this much time off, unless I rip something that requires surgery which is not too frequent these days.
I’ve been back to training for two weeks and things have been going pretty well.
I have been following the same program for the last few months as the TPS Method for Powerlifting group but not currently.
Why?
Mainly because I just don’t want to.
The 19 days off allowed a lot of nagging things to heal up and I feel pretty good. My hip is almost normal, just a little pain most of the time. I can actually walk without the Gangsta Shuffle too.
I decided that if I jump back into a program with amount of volume that the group is doing it would bring back the injuries so I am going a by feel.
Last week I decided to Box Squat with the Safety Squat Bar. I used a box that was about 2” over comp depth and a pair of REALLY loose Ace Briefs.
I am down to about 260 and none of my gear fits right, but loose briefs were ok since if they were tight I’d do something stupid. Everything was feeling good after the warmup and I decided to do singles.
I love singles.
I feel they have a place in training especially if you don’t abuse them and do a max single all the time.
They allow you to really focus on form and speed.
Surprisingly I hit an easy 430 on the Box Squat last week. No, it’s not a lot of weight but my hip was no worse after, even the next day.
This week I used the same box height but not the Safety Squat bar. It was straight bar.
Notice I didn’t say Back Squats?
I hate that.
They were squats until a few years ago. Why the name changed to Back Squats is beyond me.
I added a pair of 46 Ace briefs that I borrowed from Russ.
I borrowed this guys briefs!
Yes I know this is gross as the Chief pointed out.
I worked to a speedy 455 in them. Russ advised shutting it down and since he never says that I heeded his advice. I followed this up with 3 sets of 8 on the Snatch Grip Deadlift off 7” Blocks.
I love these. Your upper back and traps get smoked if you do them right.
After that, high reps on the 45 degree back raise super-setted with marching in the belt squat for 60 seconds.
Marching in the belt squat builds strength in under used muscles and always makes my hip feel better. Why I don’t do these all the time I do not know.
I’ve been doing the same thing with bench.
Singles.
I have been trying to use more hip drive the past few weeks to see how that works and to my surprise, Kevin (one of my training partners) says they were moving really good.
I’ll be adding in Farmer’s Walks and Yoke Walks next week very light to build ankle/knee and torso stability too.
I have an idea on how to add farmers in without making things worse.
I will be experimenting with the following:
- Week 1: 1 plate per side (100 per hand) for sets of 50 feet
- Week 2: 1 plate plus a 10 per side (120 per hand) same distance
- Week 3: 1 plate plus 2 10’s per side (140 per hand) same distance and so on
These weights are minimal and a far cry from the 300 per hand I used to do back in the day but should be a cakewalk and the limited progression will be virtually unnoticeable.
I’ll do the same with the Yoke.
It’s 200 empty so I’ll use that Week 1 and add 25’s cross corner over the weeks.
EG:
- Week 2: 250
- Week 3: 300
- Week 4: 350
Again, really light and the addition of these two events will carryover especially since I will not be using a belt.
I’ll let you know how it goes.
On another note, if you live in the Boston area and like bikes, go to the Larz Anderson Museum in Brookline. They are having an exhibit for the next few weeks called Beauty of the Beast and it is a ton of old bikes.
My two best friends and my son went with me Sunday and we had a great time. We saw some really cool bikes. There were bikes there that were over 100 years old going up to the 80’s.
I am not a fan of bikes from countries other than the USA but one of the most interesting bikes I ever saw was there.
It was a BMW pictured below. We spent quite a while looking at the engineering that went into it.
Duffin would be amazed.
Take your kid to a bike or car show. It’s a cheap way to spend the day and it’s as cool as it gets.
They’ll remember it when they get older.
Ask me a question-Be sure and Type to Murph in the header
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#bostonsstrongest
Vincere vel mori
