A Free Education

I headed to Dumbarton today and tried to get my head around some new workout principles I wanted to consider. That part didn’t go so well but I still have a bountiful trip.

The plan was to hit some clean and jerks for a warmup, working up to 100K for one and then move on to some squats. Henry was there, he’s a guy about Chris Rice’s age, a life long Olympic weightlifter. He doesn’t pull what he once did but he can probably pull about as much as I can when he really settles in to work. I had it in my head to try and actually squat clean today. He basically talked me out of it.
It was fairly obvious that the weight I was pulling (60K at the time) was far too light for me to squat clean, I was practically flinging it over my head. So he got me to squat “just enough”. As I continued to move the weight up, I continued to squat “just enough”. I was pulling 100K with an ease I never had. He had a few more tweaks for me. Bring my feet closer, stop pulling with my arms, slower off the floor then explode, and make sure to suck it in at the hips rather than swing out. I dropped back to 80K so I could work on all his tips without exhausting myself. Before long, an hour had passed and I was sweating. Even after all this, I managed to clean 100K several more times as I moved onto squats.

Squats didn’t go so well. Ever since I dinged my back deadlifting a month or so ago, every time I go to squat, I get some really odd pressures in my back. It feels like a shearing force in my lumbar. At first I thought the stretching or foam roller had loosened something. Then I thought maybe it was the weight loss. Then I finally realized that is was probably just the nagging part of the back injury. Which means, I should probably limit squatting to sub 300 weight for the next month or so. That’s a shame because I have been salivating to get back on the squatting train and try to push for 500 by the end of ’08.

To actually document my workout:
Squat: 150K 3,3,1
Ring Dips: 3,3,3
Ring Pullups: 3,3,3
Military Bench: 230lbs 1,1,1
Seated Row: 150lbs 8,8,8

I didn’t get as much done as I would like but the squats left my low back hurting so I decided a wise man would live to fight another day. Tomorrow I hope to hit some 2″ Dumbell, Axle Deadlifts (475lbs) are in April’s Strongman. I believe I can train up to it.

Book Report

That is Whiteout on Moleskin, gawdy I know. That is my diet journal. I wrote down every bit of food I ate yesterday in it. I’ve done so today as well. I’m primarily just trying to use it to make myself aware of what I am eating once again, after that week of garbage. I don’t imagine I’ll keep it for more than a week. I can whip it out again whenever I need to tool again. Which brings me to my next topic, in a round about way.

I’ve been itching to read this book. I eyeballed it at the bookstore for a while but couldn’t convince myself to buy it. I looked for it at the library a couple times but it was never there. Finally, I put a reserve on it. I got the email early last week that it was in and I had 5 days to pick it up. I figured by the time I went last night it would be gone but there it was.

I only go through about half of the forward last night. If the rest of the book is as entertaining, I’m going to enjoy this a lot, but I imagine it will dry out pretty bad at times. Basically this is Stephen of Speedstudio’s approach to eating, but this book covers the basis for that approach. It’s very similar to John Berardi’s Precision Nutrition as well. So far, the basic concept is that the low starch/carb diet was in acceptance long before the low calorie/fat diet. It was effective too. It wasn’t until some bad science crept in that we went all low fat and it has been a seesaw ever since. This book is here to cheer lead for a return to the low carb/starch approach.

I’m considering trying the Good Calories/Bad Calories / Speedstudio diet in February, but no commitment yet. In that vein:

What you see here is my food for the day. Two spinach salads, some fruit, some walnuts (I have raisins and almonds already at work), a casein protein shake made with frozen berries, and a liter of water. Oh, and I said I expected to drop 2 -3 pounds the first couple days back due to water weight. I hit 235.2 this morning. I believe I will lose a little more in the next 24 – 36 hours.

Events for next year

I’m not gonna be doing all of these but I just thought it might be interesting to share. I’ll post links at the bottom so folks can look for events in their area.

March 7 – 9
Virtual Powerlifting meet
April 5
2008 Mid-Atlantic Strongman

May 16 – 18
Virtual Bench/ Virtual Military Bench meet

June 14
2008 Maryland’s Strongest Man

July 25 – 27
Virtual Powerlifting Meet

September 5 – 7
Virtual Deadlifting meet

October 3 – 5
Virtual Weightlifting Meet

November 7 – 9
Virtual Bench/ Virtual Military Meet

December 5 – 7
Virtual Powerlifting Meet

Grip Contests
Strongman Contests
Virtual Meet

Someone let me know if you know of some others in the mid Atlantic region.