11/8-11/9

Rest Days

Ugh. Tuesday planned, Wednesday not planned.

11/7/11

5:00pm - Powerlifting, at Elite Performance Center

Grr. 2nd Monday in a row of migraines. I think it’s because I let myself have sugar on the weekends - various gluten-free treats, basically. So, cutting down on the starchy carbs from now on, ‘cause it just ain’t worth it.

Went to powerlifting anyway and did some squats.

First I did regular squats - worked up to my 3RM I found the other week - 185# and it felt awesome and like I could do more…although I’m not sure I could and I’m trying not to do too many sets. I actually did a lot better tonight about taking bigger jumps in weights and doing fewer sets.

So, then I did a set of 5 reps of 185# ‘cause the 3RM felt great—and five SUCKED.  So after that they had me work on box squats, since I still am finding proper depth - not too high and not Olympic lifting low.

Worked my way up to 135# x 5 on the box squats.

No assistance work ‘cause I was cranky and hungry.

11/6/11

Rest Day

So NOT a rest day - LOL - spent about 5.5 hours cleaning Winslow’s house ,moving furniture, etc. Holy crud.

11/5/11

8:00am - Powerlifting, at Elite Performance Center

Deadlift day! Chris had us working on band-assisted deadlifts again, working on our 5 rep max. That means at the bottom the bands help, but by the time you stand up they are no help at all.

I worked my way up to 245# like I did last week and did a few sets at that weight.  It did NOT feel as good as last week, which I attribute to yesterdays kettlebells. No more kettlebells on Fridays.

3 sets -
5 x 245# plus green band

For assistance work:

3 sets of 5 reps of band assisted bench press - hold for 5 seconds each rep
This is where the bands hold the barbell suspended above you and you pull down and hold it touching your chest for 5 seconds each rep. You have to have a partner hold your shoulders down or you pop right off the bench. I used the purple band. Works the lats like crazy!

3 sets of palm out deadhang pull ups - max effort
I used the orange band for this. Did 11 the first round, after that I was down around 6. So I went to failure and then Winslow would assist me for 2 beyond failure.

11/4/11

2:30pm - Kettlebell workout, at the office gym

Did a kettlebell workout with my coworker Jessica today at the office gym. One of us rowed while the other did 20 k-bell swings, 20 goblet squats, 20 windmills, and 20 clean and presses. I used anywhere between 10-16kg for the various exercises. It came out to about 6-10 minutes of rowing each round. We did it twice through. Not super fast, but got us both moving and sweating. It was the first time in many many months that I’d done a pressing straight overhead movement. Lots of clunking in my neck and just feeling like my movement pattern in my right shoulder is not right. Really not cool, but workout was great otherwise.

5:00-6:30pm - Olympic Weightlifting, at PDX Weightlifting

I was concerned about my shoulder after the kettlbells this afternoon, so I asked my coach, Nick, if I could work on power clean instead of snatch. I haven’t cleaned in forever! I worked my way up to a 118# power clean—and by that I mean, full on powerclean, almost zero knee bend. Nick thinks we actually got me to squat that we could add 20kg onto my clean. W00t!

11/3/11

Rest Day

11/2/11

5:00pm - Powerlifting, at Elite Performance Center

Couldn’t stay for the whole practice today, so just did the primary lift (Weds is bench press day) and skipped the assistance work.  Did sets of 3. Last week I did 1x105#, this week I did 2, then got it about 2 inches off my chest and failed. GRRR! Will get it next week!

10/30-11/1

Rest Days

Did not mean to take three rest days in a row. Rested Sunday on purpose. Got a migraine yesterday. Then today…well, I just really love my job and I accidentally worked through my lunch and now it’s time to go home. lol

10/29/11

8:00am - Powerlifting, at Elite Performance Center

Saturday mornings means deadlifts! Chris (my coach) had me warm up with regular lifts then moved to band assisted deadlifts. My problem, we’ve decided, is the beginning of the lift. Once I get part way into the lift I have a ton of strength. And when I do sets of 3-5, it’s only my first lift I have a problem with. So, we hooked some rings up to the ceiling, hooked rubber bands to those and then attached them to my bar. So at the bottom of my deadlift there was assistance, so I could play with my positioning, but by the time I stood up the rubber bands were totally slack, so there was no help at all.  This way I could overload past my current 1RM, also, and get my body stronger for heavier weights.

Last week I did 205# x 3, but couldn’t get 225# off the ground once. Today I warmed up to 205# before the rubberbands, then worked my way up to my work sets on the rubberband.

3 x 245#
1 x 255#
5 x 245#
5 x 245#
5 x 245#

I only did 1 at 255 and it didn’t look great, so Chris had me drop back down and do sets of 5 at 245#. The first set felt really hard. My neck started cramping up halfway through and it was hard to stand up straight. The 2nd set felt much better and by the time I did the third set I felt like I could have done 10. Needless to say I think my system and technique were adapting!

After deadlifts, Chris said we’d done too much work to do our normal circuit training of assistance work, so we just did:

Kettlebell Facepulls:
3 x 16 (16kg)

D-bell Rows:
We were supposed to do one set of 20 on each side, but I had to stop at 12 on each side due to my hands feeling shredded. So I did 12 and 8 on each side with a 50# d-bell.

Prowler Push
Pushed the prowler 100 feet - started as a sprint…got a little slower as we went along.   Started with 100#, then worked up to 145#. Did the runway three times total.

——

11:00am - Restorative Yoga, at Inner Elements

Decided to go to yoga so I didn’t just go home from lifting, curl up in a ball, and never move again. I definitely think it helped. Restorative yoga is super slow paced and mellow, but got me stretched out and mobilized and I think helped my lifting recovery a lot.

10/29/11

Rest Day

10/27/11

5:00pm - Olympic Lifting, at PDX Weightlifting

Spent an hour working on power snatch. I’ve decided that my body is apparently fine tuned for lifting 65#. 65# feels literally effortless, but as soon as I add 10# it all goes to hell. Like…instantly. That’s what I get for not bothering to do heavy snatches or cleans in so long. So I spent most of the hour working on 65-75#, 2-3 reps at a time.

Technique is getting better though - getting better at keeping it really close to my body. Nick, my coach, told me to hurt myself with the bar. He said he didn’t care if I didn’t get it overhead, but he wanted me to leave bruises. lol!

10/26/11

5:00pm - Powerlifting, at Elite Performance Center

Wednesday is bench press day at EPC. This was my first time doing bench press with them and it was quite a bit different from what I’m used to. Worked on getting my back as arched as possible and finding the right width and elbow angle for me. Adrian is the coach that worked with me and we tried a few different things until we found what we thought might work best for me.

I did a half dozen sets starting with 5 reps on the lighter ones, then 3, then the last couple were just 1 rep.

Started at 45# and made it up to 105# successfully. Failed at 115#.

Considering I haven’t benched in a verrrrrrry long time and I spent the last year doing very little pressing movement (between my surgery last fall and then all the rowing training for competition), I was actually pretty pleased with this number. I expect with regular training and perfecting the technique it will go up quite a bit.

10/25/11

Rest Day

10/24/11

5:00pm - Powerlifting, at Elite Performance Center

Monday is squat day at EPC! Today we worked with the safety squat bar….ummm, the what? Had never seen or used one of these before. It makes the back squat a little more weighted like a front squat, forces you to be more upright, but still push your hips back, and works your back muscles. If you insist on bending over, it totally punishes you. Also, the bar alone weighs 85#.

Squats, with Safety Bar
5 x 135#
5 x 145#
5 x 155#
5 x 165#
3 x 175# (not so great)
3 x 175#
3 x 180#

Coaches Chris and Joaquin came over and told us we were doing too many sets at this point. Need to get okay mentally with fewer sets and bigger jumps so I don’t burn out on working my way up.

Assistance work was FUN tonight - pretty much Winslow, Chris, and I rotating and getting all crazy with the exercises.

Band Hamstring Curl - we attached a rubberband to the mono (the squat rack contraption), laid on the floor, put our ankles in the band and then curled (or tried to) our ankles to our butts against the resistance. I did the orange band at first and it was too easy. I switched to the green and had to weight myself down with a plate so I didn’t get sucked off the floor. These got HARD as we were doing sets of 20. Did 4 sets altogether.

Sled Pull Through - OMG the sled is too much fun. Worked my way up to 145# on the sled. Kind of like a strange kettlebell swing. You stand with the sled behind you, ropes between your legs, bend way over and then stand up hard and lean forward and it yanks the sled forward. Did this like 5x down the runway which is like 100 feet.

10/23/11

2:00pm - Neahkahnie Mountain Hike

Went on a mini-weekend-vacation to the coast. Stopped at Neahkahnie Mountain on the way back and hiked to the top. 6 miles round trip. Parts of the ascent were pretty steep and rooty. The climb was 900ft in elevation all together and put us at 1600ft at the top with an amazing ocean view. This is apparently where the Spaniards first touched ground in Oregon.