All the bodybuilding extras are making my back feel massive...which is bad for summer frocks but my
bench is feeling really solid and stable (even tho the single in the video looks pretty slow). This is my fourth week of low bar back squats after training high bar all last year and they are feeling almost more hit than miss. There were moments where things felt awesome and strong and where I was able to stay tight the whole way through the movement. The pauses are helping me find a good bottom position. I'm def sore where i want to be sore the next day so I'm stoked. I don't want to talk about deadlifts.
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Just some stuff from this week so far.
First time in ages going past five reps in any lift. Also going sumo and low bar and adding a shite load of accessory lifting. So much fun to Max out on squats. What weight do you go for when you aren't really training but you want to squat? One of all of them? Looks kinda fun...for some reps. Also, start out going for 3 but change your mind a couple of reps in and go for 5 but then only do 4. Sounds like a plan. I'm looking forward to starting my new program Monday. After competing a fortnight ago, I sat down with my coach and assessed my competition performance and the training period leading up to it. We looked at all of the elements that were successful and all of the things that were not ideal. We then made a note of what we could do differently and what I’m going to address in the next training cycle. This included looking at my training program, my mindset, my recovery and my nutrition.
I’ve just been to the amazing Juggernaut Training seminar in Sydney where Chad Wesley Smith, Brandon Lilly and Dr Mike Isratel talked about and showed me lots of things I want to try out. New lifting tweaks, training ideas and dietary advice. I’ve been plugging numbers into myfitnesspal and looking at how I can shuffle around what I normally eat to closer meet the timing and macro guidelines Dr Mike from Renaissance Periodization recommended (more about that here). The biggest change for me will be upping my carbs on training days to support performance and recovery. The total amount of carbs I eat in general will come up from what I eat “normally”. Usually, I consider myself to be “eating well” when my main source of carbs are vegies and occasionally fruit… So, I’ll be adding a relative heap of carbs in many varied forms to my diet to meet altered ratios. It’s going to be really interesting to see how these tweaks affect this training cycle and I’m excited! Paying attention again to my nutrition means I’m paying attention to all kinds of food related posts on social media too. This is giving me plenty of lolz. My favourite posts are always the “healthy version” of regular meals. So much funny. So much inedible. This is the winner from this week. Yum! #notdelicious #nothanksimfull After my first competition in August, I got straight into training again on the Monday morning. I didn’t break for 4 months…and I kind of hit a wall half way through the training cycle. Partly because of that, I’m staying away from the gym this week after competing at the GPA Worlds on the weekend. Last week during the taper, I fantasized about post comp spare time and all of the fancy things, that fancy people (who don’t train) do with their spare time. Lie on the beach, walk on the beach, wear actual clothes, swim, strut around on the sand, lie on the grass, go to the movies, watch videos, go for long walks, have lunch with friends, hang-glide, make paper mache, that kind of thing. But, I’m not actually doing any of those things. Pretty much I’m sulking and eating cornflakes. I've lost my compass. Monday is not Monday without volume squats. And Thursday without bench? What the actual fuck is it? Just Thursday? I don’t want to lift again yet but I hate my life without it… I feel like I climbed a mountain and it was pretty special at the top (Brandon Lilly and Chad Wesley Smith were there…so, the views were pretty fucking epic) but now that it’s over, I’m looking at the bottom of the mountain again. I’m pretty sure things will come good soon. This break isn’t actually about expanding my repertoire of hobbies. It’s to allow my body to rest and my enthusiasm for new goals and lifting to build up again. Before I know it I’ll be back in the thick of it, chasing all of the gainz and training for The Arnolds. Hopefully this weekend I’ll muster the enthusiasm to take my cornflakes down to the beach. A fancy outing. P.S. On the weekend, I couldn't take any lifting photos on my phone because it was full. When I was going through photos to delete, I found 6 photos of Axel Foley. Six. Guess how many I deleted so that I could take lifting photos. None. It's all about priorities. Priorities and a little bit about regret. For those who train with me or within whinge-shot of me, it's no surprise that my hip has been an almost constant point of misery. Last Saturday marked the end of "heavy" lifting before the final taper to rest before GPA Worlds. Last Saturday, I also spent four hours in the car, two of them were immediately after a 3 x 1rm pr on the deadlift. My body hates my guts.
So pretty much, this week has been a battle in pain management. Rolling in bed is an activity involving mass caution. Getting out of the car requires that I use my arms. I'm like an angry bear who wants to hide in a cupboard, eat icecream and pretend like I don't need to be at my best in little over a week. I've also taken to dressing and shuffling around like an old man who's escaped from a mental institution. Some people comfort eat. I comfort dress. All day with the tracksuit, everyday with the tracksuit #doublegrey I decided to up my massage game. Last week, in a full hour, she didn't really get past trying to release my glutes...yesterday, she did some work with the cups and I've got bruises all over my posterior chain. Today, I had dry needles in my glutes. My arse has had so much attention I'm feeling like Kim Kardashian (except for the #doublegrey)...Things are looking up. Today we hit my bench opener for three singles with commands and I'm starting to get very excited! 3 x 1 @77.5kg I started my taper today by reducing the overall volume from 5 x 5 to 3 x 5.
I'm pretty much following the taper as recommended by Justin Lascek via 70s big. If you're interested, you can find the details here So, it was 3 x 5 @ 80kg squat and 3 x 5 @ 60kg on the bench. I'm actually feeling a little flogged so I'm looking forward to reducing volume and hopefully feeling less flogged. I'm also looking forward to going for some heavy squats later this week. yes. I am. These three remaining weeks i really want to pay attention to my nutrition, to my mobility and to really recovering well. sleeping as much as possible. That's it. Last Sunday I mucked around - for the first time - with sumo stance when I trained with the lovely Ms Jamie Crawford of Dominance MMA's S&C in Melbourne.
Back at home, we used it this week in my volume with good results in term of hip and hamstring pain (which I didn't get) but mixed in term of form which has a way to go... I had intensity day for deads today and decided to stick with it. I warmed up wanting to get up to a heavy set of three. The form felt shoddy and I kind of chickened out so I lowered the weight and switched back to conventional stance. Immediately my hips and hamstrings screamed at me which reminded me why we were exploring sumo to begin with. I started to climb again, no pain and it felt good. I ended with a PB of 1 x 3 @ 132.5kg. This lift has been driving me nuts. The last time I got a heavy three it was 130kg and that was about 6 weeks ago. A 2.5kg PB, I'll take that. Damn straight I will :) I know these reps aren't form perfect, don't worry yourself. I'm back deadlifting light on Tuesday, so am keen to get more practice and help from all of the people better at this lift than me. 1. I spent another week beating my head against the wall
2. I am definitely not peaking early 3. I need a ridiculous amount of sleep 4. I need to keep mobility tools on my person 5. I don't like to look at a blank wall when I'm squatting 6. Something has got to give Bench 1 x 4 @ 75kgs, 1 x 3 @ 75kgs, 3 x 3 fast as hell at 67.5kgs Squat 2 x 4 @ 105kgs Deadlift 1 x 5 @ 125kgs I generally get a bit overexcited on intensity days and was kind of freaking out a bit this morning. So, I did some breathing excersizes at home before the gym. A good guided one about positive visualisation which left me with calm happy vibes.
Squat - I got 4 reps out at 105kg. I went forward on the last rep and ugly as it was, I did get it up. Nothing in the tank for more reps in that set though. So that I didn't just spend the weekend replaying ugly, ugly squats in slow motion, I took another set of three. The form redeemer. Wipe that shit right outta there. Three good solid reps at 105kg. The deads felt good all the way up to my working weight. Much better, less over-thunk start position meant no pain and felt strong off the ground. I moved the rep weight up 2.5kg from last week and took 7 at 122.5kg which is a PB. It felt totally awesome to grind through hard reps with solid form. Magic. I love it when you know you're working but you can kind of enjoy the grind and get surprised when the reps keep coming. Then I vacuumed the floor, laid on the floor and ate all of the sausages. A good day. Really happy. |
AuthorAnna Brown is an average though super keen Archives
January 2018
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