Month: August 2018

Yesterday I cleaned up to 275, then about an hour of talking later hit 255 x 5 unable to work back up to 275 in that doble session.

(It’s noteworthy that the cleaning at the gym was done 3-5 hours after a heavy uneven ground flip flop wearing heavy deadlift session which may have contained a 405 rep PR as a backoff set.)

Today it was 5×2 @ 255 then 225×10+1J

(Oddly both days I intended to bench, yet did nothing but cleans.)

I felt off slightly from that 10rm.

I think to myself “okay, I’ll head into the locker room and hauck a lugie/loogie (spelling), that usually makes me feel better”.

So I go to the bathroom and do just that. Spit in the sink, rinse it down, and wait 30 seconds. “Ok, I’m good.”

I start to walk away, and IT HITS.

A hard pivot back to… “where!” …the trashcan.

Bllrrgghh!

“That was surprisingly little. Why is it off white?”

“Oh God!”

Blarrggghhhh!

“Huh, still white. What did I eat today?”

(Homemade quesadilla. Thorough examination reveals that I was seeing tortilla bits in a lovely cheese, thoroughly masticated tortilla, and Pepsi sauce, the combination of ingredients making an off white.)

Tie up the bag, walk to the desk with the trashcan.

“Do me a favor and reline this”

I take the bag and walk round to the dumpster. Unlike so many, I clean up my own messes.

Damn, I haven’t puked from exercise since a massive sprint and middle distance repeat day during junior year wrestling season. It’s been ~7 ½ years.

(That day it was raisins and peanuts from trail mix nicely flavoring the snow. I’d ran outside to spew. )

I think I know why people like Ken Leistner are stronger than everyone.

He kept well placed puke buckets around his gym.

Pushing to that point is a different level of intensity.

Most of us rarely if ever go that far.

Honestly for a few hours after I felt feverish.

(Pushing to temporarily feeling feverish from training : another post in itself that I’ve been meaning to right.)

Hey, it felt shitty. I won’t lie, but I did take a longstanding 7-8rm to a 10rm and threw in the jerk on the last for good measure.

(Video place holder for 7-8rm)

Hell, I even got in a solid session in about 10, maybe 15 minutes of gym floor time.

The Entire Session:

1×225
5×2@255 (jerk last rep at weight)
10×225 (jerk last rep at weight)

Puke 2x, take out the trash, and then hang out sipping a bottle of water while possibly overhearing the voice of some knuckle head trash talking.

As odd as this may sound I needed that. I had to relearn a lesson in intensity.

Density train heavy olys, then rep em out a bit lighter to finish.

I hadn’t pushed that far in ~7½ years.

Olys for high reps have value, and can be a style of heavy loaded cardio.

Puking may just be an indicator that you took it to the limit on a big compound movement.

(I’m not advocating for or against, draw your own conclusions.)

Peace,

-J

From Brian Alsruhe’s YouTube channel I got the idea to “rack pull” the gym’s yoke.

(Set the yoke crossbar as low as possible.)

Ahh, from Brian’s channel a screenshot :

Here’s the video link.

I’ve done this twice now :

1. 6/22/18 :
Up to 345lb with a decent hold at lockout.

I was very pleased with this as it was nearing my regular every day overhand deadlift max of 365-385.

2. 8/15/18
Up to 425lb very clean, this could’ve been a decent hold, and 445 barely. This time I was simply pulling without long holds.

I was dumbfounded by this, and am somewhat surprised that I didn’t go mental these both having been past my overhand deadlift max of 405.

Based on this performance I got a wonderful awful idea…to try to get the axle to deadlift floor height.

Simulated SUPER fat bar deadlift :

After testing one box, on the second try I got a box that had the bar set at about an inch above normal floor height.

Close enough.

I worked back up to 385 very cleanly and hit an ugly 405 where the thumb on my right hand slipped near lockout, but I did finish the lift.

I was trying to pull this all double overhand.

Being a stupid thick bar the weight is further in front of you than a regular bar. This is why thumbless is advantageous. The thumb out of the way brings the bar in slightly closer.

Now compared to a barbell of the same thickness :

The yoke sways as the weight is out in front of you and behind you. A barbell doesn’t do this.

On the yoke the weights are not that far from your center, on a barbell the weight is a few feet to your sides.

Based on many military press reps I say these factors roughly counteract each other.

(I’ve pressed the 185lb yoke so many times over the last year+ having grown to view it as a no set up required base weight. Yes, I strict press 185+ on a super thick bar regularly…and cold. Likely an article here for another time.)

That means I pulled 405 double overhand practically from the floor on a 3″ (I believe, it the same model of yoke as in the Alsruhe video) bar.

Now here’s the conundrum.

Yes I’m stronger proportionally with a more open than closed hand caused by open hand door row and hot tub handle deadlift isometric simulations, the following axle obsession, and then the work as a mover.

But today’s performance was ridiculous.

Yeah, I was fresh after 4 arguably 5 days off.

Again too ridiculous to be just that.

I was leaving poundage in the tank and even repping 10s on a bunch of backoff sets.

(Funny note : I mathed terribly wrong, in my mind I was struggling with 10×235 dumbfounding myself only to strip 50lbs and notice it has been 10×335 a decent super fat bar perfornance. This was on the “rack pulls”.)

That aside story points out I did the “deadlifts” after a good deal of “rack pulls”.

I conclude it’s that on a thick bar I have no psychological “gym rules/gym knowledge” mental block.

No one pulls their yoke, especially not in a deadlift simulation, well unless they’re Brian Alsruhe, me, or a similar kindred lunatic soul.

Still, there is no guideline here.

(Though I don’t doubt that some late 1800s strongman has pulled something huge on a similarly thick bar. Hell, I’ve likely come across it before, but I am NOT searching for such obscure info at this time.)

It was just me with a clear mind and no preconceived notion of limits testing my hands…and LEAVING SOME WEIGHT ON THE TABLE.

No preconceived notion of limit. THEREIN lies the key.

-J

Yoke Pull Log :

1st two sessions in post.

8/17/18 “deadlifts” up to soft lockout 465, 465 mixed, doh holds 365 x 40 seconds, 405 x 32 seconds.