Month: September 2017

I know that the numbers I’m at are nowhere near my lifetime PRs. I have so much room to grow.

245 power clean and jerk cold at around a quarter to 1am, followed by a 295 front squat, again cold.

My lifetime PRs are 275 and 315, they must be way up to hit 245/295 cold at that time of night…fasted.

Using my ugly form I will power clean and jerk 405.

A video that inspired me back in the day:

I remember watching that in high school, stuck at the time at a 205lb power clean and jerk which would end up taking me years to break past. Yet at 16 while watching the above I said I can do that, with the jerk. The thought never went away over the years.

I know that I’ll hit that and definitely get that 3 lift old school 1000lb total. Shit despite a terrible press I was able to negative the 245 to shoulder this morning under control.

Once I hit that ugly 405 clean and jerk, and I’ll approach some coach and go “teach me”. I know the thought in my head with a 405 terrible form clean and jerk will be “500 with proper form?”, and that would open up some possibilities.

Olympic medal? Career as coach/seminars? Defect to the Arabs and train?

Call me delusional then eat a dick.

Late blooming can suck as there are no scholarships, and lower chances at elite, but you know what? Never say die, and you can overcome.

I’m meant to be a pro athlete, I’ve always taken above average to everything, and had a fucking Rockyesque drive. I will grind for years with seemingly no gains, then boom, it all starts getting much better very quickly.

Get it.

Make enough money to train full time.

Get the place of your own and have the goddamn set up in your living room (because frequency works best), or get to the elite level and defect to Qatar. “Provide me with a pension, a home gym, plenty of dead cow, gallons of milk,and a pretty blue eyed Arab girl, I’ll medal for you” while slamming your fists down on the table and becoming a modern weightlifting Varangian.

-J

 

Is It Possible To Thicken The Wrist?

One can thicken their wrist. I look at old photos of me, and see that the years of lifting have made them thicker. At around 16 I could touch my middle finger and thumb around the circumference of my wrist, now I can no longer make the connection, there’s a gap of around a centimeter.

How To Thicken The Wrist

The primary way that one thickens their wrist is to get far stronger supporting presses (any variation) in their hands.

Back at 16 my wrists would cock back on a bench press of as little as 185. I can remember that at the end of my junior year of high school hitting 3×5 with 225 hurt my wrists a decent amount.

As I aged I got used to holding weights. The pain in and cocking back of my wrists went away. A 315 bench does not cause either, and I only cock my wrists on overheads as a part of the natural movement (the catching of the clean).

Hitting the bag bare knuckle played in as well, and would fall under the support/keeping the wrist straight category.

Hell, now I can do shit like this:

The secondary way to build the thickness is with more isolation type movements.

Sledgehammer levers, dynamic/isometric lever simulation( open palm on top of fist, which can also be used to simulate wrist curls), and an old internet sensation the Glen MacCharles 50 rep wrist curl. (Google that shit, and/or read about it on the link below.)

(When I have an impressive 50 rep wrist curl I’ll video it should I remember. Years ago I hit 115×50, I’d say it won’t be long to 135×50 factoring how much stronger I am now.)

Building Forearm Size

My opinion is that you need to get massive pumps to really build the size. I think holds and hangs are great for building strength, but its reps with movement that build the size.

Do sets of the aforementioned MacCharles 50s, and open your hand for hundreds of reps (yes this is also mentioned by MacCharles). The levering is movement also, do that too.

-J

As I practice the one arm axle snatch I can’t help but think about the accounts I’ve heard of old time strongman, vaudeville shows. It’s the natural place for one’s mind to drift while doing such lifts.

I still have not hit 135 in any manner of one handed snatch be it axle or regular bar,  although it’s quite easy on a clean.

Now narcissistic extra video link aside (I want the views) back to the one arm axle snatch. I’ve written before on timed holds for extra time under tension, and am in a phase right now of where my body wants to get bigger, stronger, and leaner so I’m purposefully hitting my core hard expecting to get strongman abs.

The above link is what I was doing yesterday. Snatch into holds, and after an easy 105 with long hold (gym staff pretends they’re not staring) I ended up failing 115 twice. I want 135 short term, and actually lost sleep visualizing 205 on the one arm axle snatch.

Think about that for a second. The wrist strength to support that over head is diesel with only one arm. The squeezing grip is quite high, and the oblique strength is stupid. Never mind the fact that outside of weightlifters who even could come close to snatching that one arm or two?

I have not been training olys at all lately as the labor and tendonitis combined made it a stupid idea, but the tendonitis is gone, and so is the labor job.

As you know I’ve been attacking partials and front squats, and it makes sense to readd olympics, both in the form of the power clean and jerk, and the one arm axle snatches. I like both, and both do good things. The jerk held aloft is hard as hell on a core unused to jerking weight, in addition to being metabolically demanding as all hell. The clean and jerk will raise your core temperature.

This all seems to have been one hell of an aside based on the title. I was thinking “Why couldn’t I get stupid good at old time odd lifts and make a career out of vaudeville performance?” I always did want to be a pro athlete. What one man can do so can another.

This was fun to write and all over the place.

Time to partial front squat and weight lift.

One last thing: I’ve heard of Glenn Pendlay at Cal Strength letting his lifters bench up to a max and stopping them at 405-455 as he didn’t want them to get hurt. Lifters that don’t train the bench. Let that sink in for a moment.

If you can clean and jerk it don’t you think you could at least bench that shit with a bounce? (Now what do you think is in my head?)

-J

I’ve finally added in partial squats this past week in the form of partial front squats. 3 times total in the last 4 or 5 days, and wouldn’t you know my front squat is set to PR, and it’s stability is far better than it was even last week. My power clean moved up overnight as well, and again it must be those front squat partials, they add horsepower overnight to your body.

My abs are getting closer and closer. Partials are easy to make progress in (be it weight,reps,or distance), and it’s not far off where the combination of my now warp speed metabolism and the thickening of the abs via partials will lead to visible strongman abs.

Partial squats are great, yet even 5 minutes of effort will show you that partial front squats are even better. Slightly more pros and far less cons.

Here’s my advise:

Go to the gym and take over a squat rack (take that bitch over, complete with flag claiming it,armed border guards,pee on it to mark it,etc). Set the pins in this rack somewhat high (go no lower than half squat), and proceed to do partial squats. Reap the rewards. Trust me your body will thank you, quite quickly in fact.

-J

 

 

I’d been saying I need to add in partial front squats and at 2am still up, I decide “fuck it I’ll be productive”, my normal write or lift if I can’t sleep policy going into effect.

On the commute I saw a women jogging, everytime I go lift a 0 dark 30 I see at least one jogger on the streets a couple minutes out from the gym. I roll into the gym somewhere between 230am and 245am.

Squat every day, today will be…more front squats, but let’s make it interesting.

Bottom position from pins.

Work up to 275, let’s film it.

Cool, upload, then run to the bathroom and shit my brains out. The fuck was that about?

Ok next…

Front squat partials from the top.

Singles using the heavy duty squat bar.

(Note: 1p = 1 plate a side, 2p= 2 plates a side, so on and so forth.)

1p,2p, 3p, “what’s the bar weigh?”

Go and check…

The bar weighs 65lbs, ok so I add 20lbs to the calculation of each rep.

4p, damn that was easy!

5p, shit! It was so easy I thought I’d done 4p again by mistake, the difference in effort being barely moderate. Think along the lines of 30% of expected change in perceived effort.

Not really thinking I jump to 6p, as I load the 2nd side I think “should I’ve loaded only 25s?” Nah, no matter as 5p was easy and I’m not moving it very far.

Nipple to lock out is what 6 maybe 8 inches? This is a quarter squat at most, it’s LOCKOUT work.

Get under it, drive…

“Holy shit the world is going red!” I start to feel myself shake, my neck is trembling. “Will I pass out?” It feels like my eyes will pop out, my head feels like it’s going to go BLAM! and explode in bad 80s special effects. Will the gym security camera see my head go Scanners because of the bar? Locked it out. Control it back to pins, get out “WHOO!”

Move with purpose, yet look and act like a dog with a nose full of pepper, “Will I pass out, am I going down”, sit,dog mode,sit,dog mode, I think I’m ok now.

~315-335  1rm full range = 605 maybe 1/4 squat from pins.

I got crazy instant soreness from it. My right calf locked up, both hamstrings became incredibly tight, and there was uncomfort in my right knee like I’d walked 10 hours in work boots.

This work will either kill you or diesel you up. I don’t get injured, so it’s  obviously the latter.

Those CnP videos became a hell of a lot more impressive, as did powerlifting in general. The pressure on giant squats must be enormous.

Early AM weird weightlifting BOOYAH! And the test boost is phenomenal, soreness gone only hours later WHOO!

-J

 

This is purely anecdotal, but when necessary leg strength can be maintained by nothing but calf raises.

Just stand there regularly and do high rep standing calf raises. There’s no need to stand on a block of some sort to allow the stretch.

I once took a year and a half off where the only leg work I did consistently was high rep calf raises.

When I got back to the gym my leg strength had maintained just fine.

What exactly had I done during the layoff? 100 calf raises a day.

Now I didn’t start off doing it in one set, it’s smarter to start with multiple sets of 20 or 25, but the benefit lies in the higher reps 50 a set minimum, but 75+ per set really giving the feeling I’m about to describe.

When you get to 75+ reps per set you’ll feel a pump running up your posterior chain.

You’d think this is an isolation exercise, but in the higher reps it isn’t.

The pump will run up your calves into your hamstrings and then into your glutes.

Somehow your body is firing muscles in a pattern similar to a weightlifting triple extension.

Why this is I’m unsure of, but I know it’s the sensation I feel, and the experience I’ve had.

Maybe it’s because of the insertions in your legs, or maybe it’s due to the body’s inclination to fire muscles in a natural pattern during calisthenics. Whatever the reason it works.

-J

The 1000lb club was originally a weightlifting accomplishment. Sure it’s from the through 1972 3 lift era (press,jerk, and snatch), and sure world records are stronger now than they were back then, but it’s still impressive and strong to be able to do.

Note its also been done in only two lifts (jerk, and snatch) by at least the following:

• Yury Zakharevich 455kg/1001lb at 110kg in 1988.
• Leonid Taranenko 475kg/1045lb @ +110kg in 1988.
• Andrey Chemerkin 462.5kg/1017.5lb @+108kg in 1997.
• Lasha Talakhadze 474kg/1040.6lb @+105kg in 2016.

Also note in Powerlifting:

• Ray Williams has squatted 1052lb raw without wraps, in 2017.
• Benedikt Magnusson has deadlifted it raw hitting 1015lb back in 2011.

So that club has been hit by at least those two men on one lift alone.

(I had this among other lifting videos on my iPod for amp up back in the day.)

Back to weightlifting; What could i total using my lifetime Olympic PRs?

• 205 press
• 275 jerk
• 205 or 215 snatch. I’ll call it 205.

This would only represent a 685lb total. About 2/3 of the way there.

1000 pounds on a powerlifting total is nothing. It’s just a low end goal for starting high schoolers to hit. (And damn using high school PRs I only barely passed it with a 1035lb total using my senior year PRs. )

Besides isn’t 1200lbs, a roughly 300/400/500 total the better one to push for? (Though I’d argue 1215, 3 plate, 4plate, 5 plate is the better metric, and are numbers that I have hit cold for what it’s worth.)

It’s no where near elite by powerlifting standards, but 1200 isn’t a weak male either. He’ll be stronger (sadly) than most everyone on the street he meets.

I want to point out:

1. There is more to strength than your total, just because your total is shitty compared to elite powerlifting doesn’t make you weak.
2. If you do however care about your total use higher metrics.

That is all. Go train now.

-J

The worst thing you can do when sore is nothing.

An object in rest stays at rest, and an object in motion stays in motion.
Newton’s first law applies to human performance as well.

My quads are crazy sore right now, the most soreness I’ve had in them in years. Combine the super slow bodyweight squats, a high rep squat session, and a jump squat session. It makes sense.

Oh I want to stay in bed all day, eat some meat and drink some milk, and read the day away.

Guess what though, squat every day still has at least 3 weeks left.
I still have to PT as well, and that involves Hindu squats.

It’s often called counterintuitive, but doing more of what made you sore will help alleviate the soreness.

(You can also do pump work for the same musculature.)

Today may very well be like the time I did 75 sets of 5 with 135 to loosen up and gain the ability to squat meaningfully.
That day it was hip tightness/soreness, today it’s quad.

I don’t care how stiff/sore/tired/whatever you are, get up and go do something. You’ll build work capacity and function better for it.

-J

Having read this article I immediately decided to try it’s principles on a rep of my daily pushups and Hindu squats.

I simply do the quasi-isometric rep aka super slow rep as the last rep of the set.

At this point I lower for roughly a 15 count, and raise for around a 25 count.

I find that I’m far better at slowing down the positive, and on the positive I can REALLY feel the muscles working.

On the pushups once my elbows are back at the 45/135° angle (top portion, quarter rep) my triceps are working like nothing else.

Yeah I like JM presses which seem the best for my triceps as far as overload and at the top, but this style of calisthenic rep hits them more thoroughly. I can only describe it as hitting the “deep” fibers, in the past I’ve seen this described as working the muscle from the inside out.

Having covered the pushups time for the Hindu squats:

This has given me the greatest quad pump in years if not in my life.

I swear I see quad growth, and I’ve only been doing this for the last week at most.

The Hindu squat works with this even better than the pushup.

You can raise it so slowly that it’s almost as if you’re not moving. Your legs about half way back up will shake like you’re in a wall sit, but there’s upward motion.

Give it a try, it’s another trick you can use to make an otherwise easy movement more challenging just like visualizing big weights during a light calisthenic.

-J