The Inevitable Return of the Great White Dope

[El Exorcisto]

I didn't follow the scoring and we left early so I don't know where I finished. I just know that I didn't come close to placing. I just need to get a lot stronger and that's and that's what the next couple months are all about. I'm going do try to get either yoke or farmers in weekly along with some carries but strength is what failed me not my conditioning. It's time to fix that.

[El Exorcisto]

I haven't trained in two weeks and I might be getting fired sometime in the next few weeks. It was definitely time to get back out in the gym.

 

Conventional deadlift: singles at 375, 395, 405, 415

High box squat: 3 @ 225, 3x3 @ 275

 

415 matched my PR from close to a year ago that low back injuries have kept me from repeating. I was good for more but my low back was rounding a bit and getting another 5 or 10 pounds on the bar isn't going to take me anywhere. This was a milestone I wanted to hit before my contest but I kept hitting a wall at 385. It's good to have everything back where it should be moving forward into my next training cycle. 

 

I think I strained my left pec on the keg load. It's been hurting off and on since Sunday. Hopefully it gets better instead of worse. Squatting aggravated it again.

 

I thought about getting some more work done but the deadlifting had the desired effect and the squatting was just icing on the cake. I'm off again on Friday so I'll do some upper body fuckings around to see where I sit with a a few lifts.

 

I'm probably looking at some dark days on the horizon. Work is turning into a full blown shit storm that I'm having a really hard time tolerating. This is the third hospital that I've watched go from decent to suck to hell hole as corporate politics take over at the expense of patient and staff treatment. Providers' feelings are catered to more than legitimate patient safety concerns. I don't know how much longer I have in the game before I either go postal or just walk away. On the up side I'm hoping it will end up giving me a lot more time to train and to work on my houses. Time with the family is always a good thing too and the schedule I've lived for the past 2+ years has been a little rough at times.

 

Clarks' contest is August first. I won't know events until sometime at the end of May but my arbitrary goals leading into it are:

Deadlift: 465

Strict axle: 165

Log C&P: 195

Yoke: 450lbs, 50' no drops

Atlas stone: 240lb stone over 48" bar

[matty_mcfly]

Nice work on the PR.

 

And that sucks about getting possibly fired/just saying fuck it and leaving.  Though I'm really impressed by the positive and optimistic view you seem to have about it though.  I'm also sure you won't miss the commute either if things go that way.

[Rooks]

Well done on the PR.  Was wondering where'd you gone off to.  I figured you were just recovering post competition.  I need last time I did a max out day, I was pretty wasted for a good week. 

 

Like Matty said, sucks about the job.  Hopefully you find a new one quick if you do walk away.  And at least you got the iron as a stress reliever. 

[El Exorcisto]

Strict press: singles at 130, 140, 150 - all time PR

Dips: 3x10

   superset with

Bar chins: 6,6,4

 

There's 5 pounds on my strict press without training it for a single in a very long time. It's so hard to know whether I got stronger or just better at a lift until I do it for max effort after not doing it for a long time.

 

Things at work might be calming down but I won't know til Monday or Tuesday. Regardless, I have an app in at a place that would be a complete left turn from what Ive done up until now. I'd be working with kids on ventilators instead of strictly adults. I'm not sure how comfortable I am with the idea but being comfortable never really did it for me anyway. Maybe this whole fiasco will be a blessing in disguise. Time will tell.

[matty_mcfly]

More PRs! Nice shit.

And it actually sounds like you may need a deviation from what you've been doing. It might be good for you

[El Exorcisto]

My only problem is that the last time a kid died on me she looked just like my daughter and I didn't sleep right for a long time. Granted, it was a trauma and I was still pretty green but it still worries me. That manager is snail mailing me an app so I won't know if it'll pan out for a couple weeks I'm sure.

[matty_mcfly]

Well fuck...yeah no. I couldn't do that. More power to those who can, but yeah I'm generally an emotionless robot but ever since we've had the kid I get the feelz whenever kids are involved. (In hindsight that sounded creepy but I'm not editing it)

Stick with the assholes at your current job.

[El Exorcisto]

Morning weigh-in: 187.4

RE squat:

High bar pyramid: 15@45, 12@135, 12@185, 8@225, 5@255

Snatch grip SLDL: 10@155, 2x10@175

Roll-out: 3x10

 

"Fasted volume squats," I said to myself. "That sounds like a great idea!" Fuck, they were rough. Nothing remarkable except them being nasty after not really training and not squatting in a couple weeks now. Much soreness in the ass and quads fa sho. SLDLs felt good and roll-outs were roll-outs. 

 

Cutting starts today. I'm going to run it out for a month and see where I land and figure out if I want to keep going down that rabbit hole. Long term I'd like to get down around 165 and stay there so I can get into the 165s if I decide on doing a powerlifting meet. I'm going to take Wendler's tack on assistance work and do similar to the triumvirate. I've figured out what has carry over and what doesn't and a lot of extra fluff volume isn't going to do me any favors with shitty recovery. I'll be doing SLDLs and ab work for squats, dips and chins for press, high box squats and roll-outs for deadlifts, then incline, dips and ring chins on assistance day.

 

I have an interview and shadowing at the non-pediatric place on Thursday. The manager seemed really happy to be interviewing me so hopefully that means something. 

[matty_mcfly]

Didn't you just recently tell me that we are both small as fuck? Now you wanna go and drop 20lbs?

[El Exorcisto]

I have no business weighing in at 185+ and being this weak. I also got into this to look like I actually lift which means the gut and bitch tits need to go. Besides, my last contest was the last time I'm going to compete as a novice. I need to get down far enough below 175 to have room to grow and shrink. Granted my next real contest is probably a year away but the last thing I want is to have to cut through that training cycle. I might as well make some headway towards that now when I'm training for a back yard contest.

[El Exorcisto]

ME press

Viper press: singles @ 130, 140, 150

Dips: 10,10,13 - rep PR

   superset with

Bar chins: 3x6

 

I overslept so I made today quick. I'd never viper pressed anything but the naked 50lb log and wanted to see where I was with it vs my PP/jerk. There is a lot more ab involved in the viper vs. the usual presses and after yesterday's brutality they were fading faster than I wanted them to. I'm sure I have 160 in me if I were fresher. I was worried with it being inherently a lot less consistent than jerking but it seemed like every press launched off the same spot, just above my belt. I'm gonna drop dips from assistance day and swap in DE viper presses since the DE axle work every week seemed to help.

 

Doing fasted volume squats on shitty sleep after not squatting for two weeks was a terrible fucking idea. I could barely get out of bed this morning and I'm even sore after training which never happens. I wanted to get it out of the way early in the cut but FFS am I paying for it.

[Rooks]

Viper Press just means you don't stop at the shoulders right?  

 

[El Exorcisto]

Yep. You'd think it would look and feel more like a strict press but it's a totally different cat. I like it.

[matty_mcfly]

Hmmm...I wanna try this now.  Maybe use during warmup sets.

[El Exorcisto]

Hmmm...I wanna try this now.  Maybe use during warmup sets.

 

If you're going to use it then commit. It'll throw your groove off in a big way on the clean with heavier weights. You'll see what I mean when you try it.

[matty_mcfly]

I have no business weighing in at 185+ and being this weak. I also got into this to look like I actually lift which means the gut and bitch tits need to go. Besides, my last contest was the last time I'm going to compete as a novice. I need to get down far enough below 175 to have room to grow and shrink.

That makes sense. I'm taking a different route and trying to stay at 178-180.

Lol then again I also don't have "bitch tits" as you so eloquently put it. That way I'm under the 181 class and within a few lbs of LW175. I haven't seen that many comps lately with a 175 class though.

[El Exorcisto]

The LW175 was the biggest class outside of novice at mine. There were lots of Crossfitters in it, some of them strong as shit.

[matty_mcfly]

I hope more and more comps have it. If been seeing a lot of LW classes start around 220 or so? And I'm never putting on that much weight for a comp

[El Exorcisto]

It sounds like you need to take a road trip next spring, son.

[Stronkey Kong]

I only follow matty's log for EE's strongman advice and insults for matty. So i figured I'd go straight to the source.

And there's a raccoon. Excellent.

[El Exorcisto]

Morning weigh-in: 184

DE deadlift

Axle deadlift from 4" blocks: 10x1 @ 290

High box squat (DE): 3x2 @ 245, 5x3 @ 255

Roll-out partials: 3x10

 

Axle block pulls just sounded right tonight so I ran with it. I went without straps since strapping between 30 second rests is stupid. They got really fast towards the end. I put another pair of nickels on my high box speed work and they were awesome. My abs are still really painful from Monday's roll-outs so these got done for shorter ROM to get the work in.

[El Exorcisto]

Oh, the interview went awesome. He said he had a couple new grads that he promised to interview but that the job is mine. I should have an official offer in a couple weeks. The schedule is way cooler then my current one, the workload sounds more manageable, I'll be getting actual paid vacation again, and it's 15 minutes closer to home. It could turn out to be a complete shit hole too but it usually takes me a good six months to start noticing. So it looks like I can dodge the avoid the vent kid nightmares. This is good.

[El Exorcisto]

Morning weigh-in: 183.6

Assistance day

Incline bench: 15@45, 12@105, 9@135, 7@140, 4@150

Viper press: 10x1 @ 120

Ring chins: 7,7,5

 

I forgot my jumps on incline bench and ended up burning out early. I also went from 95 to 105 on the second set which didn't help. Looking back I missed a jump at 120 so I'm not beating myself up over my performance. I think I did pretty well considering. Viper presses felt awesome. I'll be moving to 8x2 next week. I was afraid of getting too gassed and going bad on the setup for the second but I doubt it'll be a problem.

[El Exorcisto]

Morning weigh-in: 183.2

DE squat

Parallel box squat: 8x2 @ 225

Snatch grip SLDL: 10 @ 155, 175, 185

Roll-out: 3x10

 

I spent the morning yesterday helping my dad drag a 350ish pound pellet stove out of someone's basement. His back was shot already so I ended up taking a real beating. I didn't slip anything but I felt like I got beat with a bat this morning. Box squats were slow and awful as a result. Much glute pump going on though. SLDLs were decent and roll-outs were roll-outs.