Urgan Shows Up, Does the Thing

[Urgan]

 

7-11-2016

All about dat technique, dat technique

 

Recovery

Food!

Cals - 2,316

Protein - 130

Variance - 0/1

Now THIS is more Urgan-like performance than last week’s dismal showing. Made a rub for steak dinner and it was a lot more subtle than its extremely dark Starbuck’s expresso roast gave it credit for. I thought we were about to partake in coffee steak.

 

Mobility!

Feet - 4/12

Hips - 4/12

Neck - 4/12

A few neck pops, otherwise I got nothin’. Just trying to live around the soreness created by getting rid of heinous knots. Tiger Balm after Aikido FTW.

 

Lifting

Just Say NO to Thoracic Flexion

-

 

Aikido

S Breakfalls - 2/12

Rolls + Shikko - 1/4

Dojo Mobility - ✓

Dojo mobility win, in spite of some pretty sore adductors. Lots of yoga on the mat before warm-ups. We practiced our little ukemi undo more than usual for a brand new white belt and got a pointer or two for making the movement more efficient. Extend forward leg, don’t just rely on momentum.

 

NIKYO NIGHT!

 

I may be the only fool who actually enjoys it, especially tenkan version, but I really do. Here's irimi for the unfamiliar:

 

Note: We don't really do any pinning on the floor here, but just go straight for passing off the arm to the other hand.

 

And tenkan:

 

My partner and I worked on polishing both of these and I think we did pretty darn good. It was my first time not being under supervision at least 50% of the session and I did not feel lost after a simple refresh on what tenkan looked like, because I am a goldfish, lol. Tried to enforce agreed upon water breaks because she's the one who ran out of gas about 5-10 minutes before class was over. She might have just been having a particularly bad day two weeks ago, but either way she made it through the session and seemed no more worn out than one ought to be. Training with partners is interesting business, lol. 

[Urgan]

3 hours ago, Taddea Zhaan said:

I clearly need to make biscuits this weekend. Eggs and with biscuits that contain bacon sounds divine. 

 

It is a good thing to om nom and 100% worth it. 

[Urgan]

Saw forums were down for maintenance, got scared. 

[Urgan]

7-12-2016

NO BRAKES

 

Recovery

Food!

Cals - 2,369

Protein - 121

Variance - 0/1

Played a game called Clean the Fridge today...and made Greek-style Meatballs for dinner. They were REALLY good. Confession: used 2lbs of beef, not 1.5. C'mon now.

 

Mobility!

Feet - 4/12

Hips - 4/12

Neck - 4/12

Neck, hip, quad, shoulder, ankle, calf, hamstring, and adductor stretching/ROM work via yoga.

 

Lifting

Just Say NO to Thoracic Flexion

Squat - 45 1x5

            105 1x3

            135 1x1

            160 6x3 - belted

            120 2x5 - belted

BP -    NA

OHP - 46 6x5 - belted

DL -    160 1x3 - belted

          205 2x3 - belted

PC -   NA

Holy volume day, Batman. Those 120lb squats were ooooooutrageous. Pending results of Intensity Day, I’ll make them permanent. Since the Night of 3 Hours’ Sleep, it’s been a struggle on intensity sets, yet I’m able to do all of the volume sets, thus the backoff sets. Piling on the stress in the hopes of results on Saturday, basically. We shall see. This was the first modification I made to TM, the second being an increase in the reps per set for bench/OHP to 5. Same principle, I need more volume if the sets are so easy. The same cannot be said for deadlifts. I emphasized chest up (yet head down) and that made the first set of 205 really effective. Second set was not such a slam dunk. I had a bit of a conversation with God about whether I should even attempt that third rep--clearly, in the end, I did. It wasn’t a pretty rep, but considering all the squats done beforehand and the fact that I pulled 160 double overhand with no chalk (WTF?), one not so optimal rep isn’t so terrible when I pulled twice the total poundage today than basically ever. Total poundage for the session: 7,995. I’m going to be a cripple tomorrow, aren’t I?

 

Aikido✓

S Breakfalls - 3/12

Rolls + Shikko - 1/4

Dojo Mobility - x

-

[Jord]

Maybe only a 2nd level cripple. We shall see....

 

[Urgan]

3 hours ago, Taddea Zhaan said:

Maybe only a 2nd level cripple. We shall see....

 

 

So far, it appears I have been spared wheelchair life, just a bit stiff in some unusual places. Got back from massage and I sorta feel human, lol.

[Urgan]

7-13-2016

Suburi by moonlight

 

Recovery

Food!

Cals - 2,300

Protein - 122

Variance - 0/1

We made yet another new thing for dinner tonight! Gasp, yes we did. I think you'll rather appreciate this one: Grilled Chicken Salad. Bagged salad ftw. Just sayin'. Particularly useful for those times when you are totally bored of chicken.

 

Mobility!

Feet - 4/12

Hips - 5/12

Neck - 5/12

Massage day! Combined with all the stretching at the dojo, this base is so covered. I'm suspending feet from the mobility game because wow were they sore during massage and they never are that sensitive, pending next massage to see if that is indeed the cause. 3/wk may be too much. 

 

Lifting

Just Say NO to Thoracic Flexion

-

 

Aikido

S Breakfalls - 3/12

Rolls + Shikko - 2/4

Dojo Mobility - ✓

Ukemi today got my rolls practice in! W00t Buki waza practice for everyone tonight: bokken suburi 1-4 for yellow belts. I don't think these are readily available in video form, so here goes text-based explanations! Basically, the first four forms follow the pattern of a particular movement > vertical cut > cross-step > stave > pivot 180 degrees >(slide to) vertical cut. Then you repeat the sequence to end up where you started.

 

For each of the four, the first move is:

1 - forward slide

2 - cross step

3 - step back

4 - cross step back

[Dagger]

1 hour ago, Urgan said:

Suburi by moonlight

Love this image!

 

I was at the right age when they translated Sailor Moon to Swedish and showed on TV. I loved it, although Sailor Moon was only my favorite when she was quiet. XD

[Urgan]

Just now, Dagger said:

Love this image!

 

I was at the right age when they translated Sailor Moon to Swedish and showed on TV. I loved it, although Sailor Moon was only my favorite when she was quiet. XD

 

It aired here at the right time for me, too, though I was more of a Gundam Wing kinda gal.

 

Agreed, less talky more fighty. 

[Dagger]

1 minute ago, Urgan said:

It aired here at the right time for me, too, though I was more of a Gundam Wing kinda gal.

We didn't get that here, or if we did it was before or after my time.

 

1 minute ago, Urgan said:

Agreed, less talky more fighty. 

Who is your favorite? I just looked through to check the name of the one I remembered as my favorite which was Sailor Mercury, but looking at some of the descriptions I wonder if I would feel the same if I rewatched it now.

[Mistr]

Hiya! Finally caught up on your thread. I'm glad to hear that you are getting better sleep. Good job on the continued gains in lifting and better rolls in aikido!

 

I hope one of the job applications comes through for you soon.

[Urgan]

10 minutes ago, Mistr said:

Hiya! Finally caught up on your thread. I'm glad to hear that you are getting better sleep. Good job on the continued gains in lifting and better rolls in aikido!

 

Thanks! Yeah, sleep is not such a big distraction anymore, although I do feel my schedule slipping a bit. Going to have to carefully work on that. These side breakfalls I'm doing are way less stressful on the old traps, maybe because I'm falling on my SIDE and not my back?? What a concept, lol. 

 

12 minutes ago, Mistr said:

I hope one of the job applications comes through for you soon.

 

This one discourages me to no end. I am considering driving a truck or retail or something, that's how bad it is.

[Urgan]

7-14-2016

Making progress on deadlift like

 

Recovery

Food!

Cals - 2,184

Protein - 128

Variance - 0/1

We did a thing tonight in the vein of chicken soboro donburi. It’s kind of a lazy bastard’s variation  in that we took the recipe and subbed in rotisserie chicken for ground, canned peas for green beans, and poached eggs for scrambled. Eggs, plural, per serving. OM NOM, oh they turned out so good. Done by way of this method and it couldn’t be easier.

 

Mobility!

Hips - 5/12

Neck - 5/12

Mostly just rolling around on my back, a bit of a hamstring/adductor stretch, some neck popping/stretching, and that’s about it.

 

Lifting

Just Say NO to Thoracic Flexion

Squat - 45 1x5

            105 1x3

            135 1x1

            160 4x3 - belted

BP -    45 1x5 - belted

           50 1x3 - belted

           60 1x1 - belted

           72 4x3 - belted

OHP - NA

DL -    160 1x3 - belted

           207.5 1x2 - belted

           207.5 1x0

  185 1x5 - belted*

PC -   NA

The good news is 160 felt way easier from the first set compared to Tuesday...bad news is I hit the wall hard on deadlifts, third rep once again. Just a wall where my form collapsed and the bar dropped from several inches up my shins. And that is the place where I decided I'd wasted the last, oh, four months or so of training time on clinging to novice level deadlift programming like an utter fool. New plan: something that involves not stressing pulling heavy so often so I can freaking recover. 8 DL days per month > 3 DL days. More PC, more chins filling in the gaps to be helpful to progress and keeping me from beating myself into the floor. The floor being 207.5lbs precisely, apparently.

 

*Edit: added the backoff set

 

Aikido✓

S Breakfalls - 4/12

Rolls + Shikko - 2/4

Dojo Mobility - x

Breakfalls are feeling better now, falling more on my actual side instead of smacking my shoulder blade so much.

[miss_marissa]

That gif though....

[Urgan]

Just now, miss_marissa said:

That gif though....

 

Such cat, much fail. 

[Jord]

And here I am worrying that I was going to an intermediate program too soon. 

 

It's not a race though, so it's not like lifting 207# deadlift was no small feat. You have still made incredible progress and will make more progress yet to come!

[Urgan]

3 minutes ago, Taddea Zhaan said:

And here I am worrying that I was going to an intermediate program too soon. 

 

A good rule of thumb is if you run up novice program to its limits three times (given your recovery is decent), probably time to advance to intermediate. I was just for some reason clinging to multi-day-a-week deadlift training--fear of PCs, perhaps? Denial? I dunno.

 

4 minutes ago, Taddea Zhaan said:

It's not a race though, so it's not like lifting 207# deadlift was no small feat. You have still made incredible progress and will make more progress yet to come!

 

I've run up against 207.5 on five occasions now (at least once was due to an epic misloading of 217.5lbs and resulting delay in recovery). It's beginning to feel like a ceiling I'm pounding against with my head. Which might explain a few things about my planning, lol. If this new approach does not get me anywhere, then I guess I'm going to break up the movement into rack pull/halting. 

[Urgan]

7-15-2016

Mandatory rest days: time to worry about tomorrow's lifts

 

Recovery

Food!

Cals - 2,496

Protein - 113

Variance - 0/1

Holy carbs, Batman. But sugar was down from average, soooo there’s that?? Just barely managed to avoid a variance, although really I should be hovering on the high range for recovery purposes, anyhow.

 

Mobility!

Hips - 6/12

Neck - 6/12

Left hip was extremely tight, I pulverized it muchly, soaked it, and applied mag lotion.

 

Lifting

Just Say NO to Thoracic Flexion

Not even a single chin or pull-up. I smacked my own hand to keep myself away from the pull-up bar. Hardcore rest day is NOW.

 

Aikido✓

S Breakfalls - 4/12

Rolls + Shikko - 2/4

Dojo Mobility - x

-

 

We used up like, all of our containers over the course of this week, so I had to do some fridge cleaning and dish cycling and hopefully that takes care of that issue before I have to make food on Sunday, lol. The glamorous side of lifting, right here. I also plan on making that funfetti cheesecake for a belated birthday thing for dad.... 

[ixaera]

2 hours ago, Urgan said:

I smacked my own hand to keep myself away from the pull-up bar.

 

Are you as bad as me about casually playing with the pull-up bar? It's in my office and I have a habit of attempting random pull-ups when I pass it

[Urgan]

27 minutes ago, ixaera said:

 

Are you as bad as me about casually playing with the pull-up bar? It's in my office and I have a habit of attempting random pull-ups when I pass it

 

I get really restless when I fail a rep. Like doing extra work will somehow compensate for how I feel. Because more utterly random stress is just what my body needs when it was already screaming at me for a break. I mean...really. 

 

So I dump my energy into planning, instead. Here's some brain vomit: 

I'm reducing my deadlift days by 2, that's a lot less volume, so how should I program this new scheme? I'm wanting to train heavy and I'm not backing away that far from my sticking point, so 3 or fewer reps per set, but I clearly need a certain degree of volume to adapt above and beyond this wall. Or do I? I've backed off the sessions per month because the stress piled up and I just couldn't recover. If I were a guy, I'd do 1x5 > 1x3 > ... > 1x1 with steadily increasing weights, but my understanding is female trainees need sets across of deadlifts in order to get stronger session to session when the weight gets heavy, because relative differences in neuromuscular efficiency. And it most certainly has gotten heavy. I'm going to try 3x3 until I just can't anymore, then back down a bit (~5-10%) and lower the volume incrementally until I get the results I'm after. If that doesn't work, instead of breaking up the pull before I manage 2xBW, I'll just hammer at it with pitch-perfect form and run out TM on the other lifts to see if they'll help get the job done. A program that breaks out the lifts (a kind of TM-split hybrid...the 4 day TM, if you will) might give me a fresher day to focus on the pull and give it my all without having to contend with the increasing probability that squats are the stress I'm actually fighting here. I don't want to bail on a program that otherwise is working just fine for 3 of the 4 big lifts (don't care about PCs, they're just kinda hanging around to help deadlifts and give me a break. Oh and power is not bad, either)--also, panicking and changing everything without giving each change a hard think is not programming, it's flailing. There is a statistically significant chance that I just need a break--today will be VERY informative on that point. 

[ixaera]

Sadly too newbish to offer any help, as you know, but I definitely understand the feeling a failed rep throws at us. It seems like you've got a solid plan to deal with it, that if it doesn't work the way you want will at least point you in a direction.

 

Good luck today!

[Urgan]

6 minutes ago, ixaera said:

Sadly too newbish to offer any help, as you know, but I definitely understand the feeling a failed rep throws at us. It seems like you've got a solid plan to deal with it, that if it doesn't work the way you want will at least point you in a direction.

 

Good luck today!

 

Thanks, it's kind of a process of elimination thing. I know I'm actually stronger than the last time I attempted 207.5, because there was a field littered with the corpses of lower weight attempts leading to stalling out the last time I tried, whereas here it was all good until WHAM. Suggests recovery is the problem, which is what lead my decision to reduce the number of deadlift days.....[and now you know...the rest of the story] If nothing else, 205 should be a lot more solid by the time I'm knocking at a PR's door.

[Alanna]

15 minutes ago, Urgan said:

 

I get really restless when I fail a rep. Like doing extra work will somehow compensate for how I feel. Because more utterly random stress is just what my body needs when it was already screaming at me for a break. I mean...really. 

 

So I dump my energy into planning, instead. Here's some brain vomit: 

I'm reducing my deadlift days by 2, that's a lot less volume, so how should I program this new scheme? I'm wanting to train heavy and I'm not backing away that far from my sticking point, so 3 or fewer reps per set, but I clearly need a certain degree of volume to adapt above and beyond this wall. Or do I? I've backed off the sessions per month because the stress piled up and I just couldn't recover. If I were a guy, I'd do 1x5 > 1x3 > ... > 1x1 with steadily increasing weights, but my understanding is female trainees need sets across of deadlifts in order to get stronger session to session when the weight gets heavy, because relative differences in neuromuscular efficiency. And it most certainly has gotten heavy. I'm going to try 3x3 until I just can't anymore, then back down a bit (~5-10%) and lower the volume incrementally until I get the results I'm after. If that doesn't work, instead of breaking up the pull before I manage 2xBW, I'll just hammer at it with pitch-perfect form and run out TM on the other lifts to see if they'll help get the job done. A program that breaks out the lifts (a kind of TM-split hybrid...the 4 day TM, if you will) might give me a fresher day to focus on the pull and give it my all without having to contend with the increasing probability that squats are the stress I'm actually fighting here. I don't want to bail on a program that otherwise is working just fine for 3 of the 4 big lifts (don't care about PCs, they're just kinda hanging around to help deadlifts and give me a break. Oh and power is not bad, either)--also, panicking and changing everything without giving each change a hard think is not programming, it's flailing. There is a statistically significant chance that I just need a break--today will be VERY informative on that point. 

 

For what it's worth, I've never used sets across for training deadlifts. I say "for what it's worth" because 1) you may very well need something different, and 2) who knows, maybe I'd be much much stronger if I had XD. I've definitely stalled on this lift at times, but fairly recently I've made good progress with the pyramid scheme.

 

I like the idea of a 4-day TM split so you're not deadlifting after heavy squats... that's rough. Another approach you might want to consider -- adding some accessory lifts or deadlift variations based on your sticking point... things like speed pulls (also referred to dynamic effort deadlifts), deficit deadlifts, RDLs, etc. I'm still figuring out that approach myself (esp. what accessories are best to address my weaknesses), but perhaps it could give your body the recovery it needs (by working at a lighter weight) while encouraging progress by addressing your weaknesses?

[Urgan]

11 minutes ago, Alanna said:

For what it's worth, I've never used sets across for training deadlifts. I say "for what it's worth" because 1) you may very well need something different, and 2) who knows, maybe I'd be much much stronger if I had XD. I've definitely stalled on this lift at times, but fairly recently I've made good progress with the pyramid scheme.

 

This is a fair point and at first I was on the side of 1x5 (or 1x3), because I'd been doing 2x3 up until taking a deour to failville...but with 2 fewer sessions, that a LOT less volume. I'm putting MOAR VOLUME to the test because squats appear to be following a similar trajectory--beginning with The Night of Three Hours' Sleep.... * coughs * This failure to recover beginning a decline in adaptation is not lost on me. A pyramid scheme suggests you too need greater volume to make progress, it's just organized differently~ 

 

15 minutes ago, Alanna said:

I like the idea of a 4-day TM split so you're not deadlifting after heavy squats... that's rough. Another approach you might want to consider -- adding some accessory lifts or deadlift variations based on your sticking point... things like speed pulls (also referred to dynamic effort deadlifts), deficit deadlifts, RDLs, etc. I'm still figuring out that approach myself (esp. what accessories are best to address my weaknesses), but perhaps it could give your body the recovery it needs (by working at a lighter weight) while encouraging progress by addressing your weaknesses?

 

It's hard, but I'll keep at it until I determine there's no amount of hard work that will overcome insufficient recovery. In fact, if squats and deadlifts are indeed blocking one another, I won't try to ride it out anymore but begin transitioning to a program that keeps squats and pulls apart. Discussions of how far to ride these programs out mostly relays relative strength in poundages suitable for men but for women I have a series of principles and facts and little else to guide me. Who wants to cling to a program where no reasonable progress is being made yet I've only just begun to PR on TM--possible reason for this is a really protracted advanced novice progression, but then who's upset for making a 1.5xBW squat on a novice program?? I'd like to view this as inefficiently optimized programming transition from novice to intermediate and not say my time as a novice was FUBAR. Also, you can't put a price on taking command of weights on an intermediate program that I struggled with as a novice--that counts as strength gains, too. 

 

 Again, fair points and I can't say I've COMPLETELY eliminated the idea of something like a deficit deadlift or halting, because failure always occurs at the shins and it would indeed be a way to moderate deadlift-created stress (subbed in on volume day, no doubt...). That would be a midway point between what I have now and bailing for 4DTM that would indeed call for some accessory work here and there. 

[ChrisWithaStick]

On 7/12/2016 at 11:17 AM, Urgan said:

Saw forums were down for maintenance, got scared. 

If nothing else, it means I get posts from the threads I follow again, which is nice.  There were a few weeks where no updates.  Since I'm only reading about once a week during the summer of slack, that means a LOT of catching up to do. 

 

Regarding working - if it's wearing on you to not be doing so, then yeah, get something P/T and get out of the house.  Retail - pros could be lots of practice dealing with people, both good and bad, minimal to no heavy lifting to interfere with your training, and depending on the store, discounts on stuff you might want - when I worked at Restoration Hardware, we had people get part time jobs just for that, and they were often good workers since they had a goal. I worked stock room, which was fun - occasionally got to work with customers, and otherwise kept moving in the day. Cons - you get to deal with unhappy customers some days, and you're on your feet on concrete (usually) most of the shift.

 

Trucks - if delivering, you'd be doing lots of small, and some heavy lifts in the day, so not sure how that'd impact your training.   However, I've not noticed very many out of shape drivers - usually the opposite, so might be a good fit. 

 

Either way - it's amazing what getting out of the house, and adding some income to either bank or help with the bills can do for your mental state, and sometimes just-doing-something can help un-stick other job search endeavors.