Picture
Today marked the start of my new crazy program and as the strength building part of it all I am following the greatest program for becoming really freaking strong, the West Side Barbell Program.  I'll get into this one a bit later in detail (it's a pretty complicated one at first glance, but so awesome once the details are figured out) but let's just say I started off on a totally bad foot.

Today called for Max Effort box squats with a good deal of supplemental work for the posterior chain and abs.   I pushed up 365# pretty easily and then jumped to 385#, a weight I got for a really comfortable couple sets of 3 just two weeks ago, and could not get my butt off the box.  Immediately I was overwhelmed with all the basic "what the hell am I doing" thoughts; why am I squatting heavy alone with no spotter?  Why did I jump up so fast in weight?  Why did I expect to go so heavy without taking proper time to warm up?  Why did I run for 52 minutes at 6am in the 98 degree humidity?  Who the hell am I going to get out of this?

Well, thankfully box squats are a ton safer than normal squats if you get stuck, all you end up doing is sitting there with a ton of weight on your shoulders.  So I sat there for a second and then decided the best thing to do would be to just toss the weight off my back and to the ground.  Here's where my mis-judging took over: the box I was on stuck out pretty far behind me, and the weight was, well, heavy, too heavy to "toss" off my shoulders.  The bar proceeded to plummet to the edge of the box, landing squarely ON the box and then taking the massive amounts of force to both ends with all the plates loaded on there.  This led to the end of the bar.  It bent so much!  I tried to figure out a couple ways to bend it back real quick but it just did not work.  Damn.

Maybe it was the heat, maybe it was the insane the serious lack of sleep the past couple nights, maybe it was just that sometimes I AM as stupid as I think I am.  I decided to throw the bar back up there, load the weight back on the bar and give it another shot.  And in true Homer Simpson fashion, much to my surprise (NOT...), it all happened again.  Literally the same, exact, thing.  Idiot.  I guess I was just in denial that it happened the first time that I just insisted on going on...

Either way, I jumped into the most complex and serious heavy lifting program without being ready at all, and I knew I wasn't ready.  I am embarrassed by this as I know better.  So, I'll really be ready to go Wednesday and I'll turn this thing around so fast!  

In other news, I am headed out to California tomorrow morning, so my posts may be a little spuratic, but I'll probably get a couple up while there.  In terms of workouts, the entire week is posted up on the "Workouts" page, so be sure to see what's in store for the week! 

Never Stop, GET FIT.

Josh Courage
Add Comment
 
Strength Gains 12/13/2010
 
Picture
Picture
Had a good bit more progress today on the platform and am happy with how things are rolling along.  With an insane week staring me in the face, I got myself prepped for some snatch work, snatch pulls, 5x5 back squats and a pretty tiring looking metcon.  With the snatches, I was still struggling with my typical issues of spreading the feet wide on the catch, and having my knees shift forward at the bottom of the squat.  But, I was getting under the bar quickly and sticking the weight over my head very well.  I generally fall forward with the oly lifts, but today I was sitting back and was able to get 175# with hardly any issues at all.  For my second session of serious snatching, I am very happy to know that I am WAY further along then I thought I would be.  With my goal of 210# loomng all the way in March, I am feeling confident I can blow that number out of the water.

The snatch pulls felt strong, just tried to stay quick and solid throughout, worked up to 235#.  Then, I went on an increasing set of 5x5 on the squats, working up to 305# and getting those last five with ease.  Very happy with the depth and control of all those.

Finally, after a few minute break I hit the metcon (I noticed a typo of 4 rounds on "My Workout" over there to the right of the blog, that would have been brutal!).  3 rounds of: 400 meter sprint, 30 GHD sit ups, 20 KB swings (44#) and 12 pull ups.  This was not overly demanding at all, and I was able to get everything unbroken.  It was just tiring, the hips were pretty fatigued from the days session.  I finished up at 11:23 and feel like that is a decent time.  I am sure a sub-10 is possible with this one, just didn't have the amount of intensity in me I guess. 

I realized that I sometimes struggle, without even noticing it as I train, with not having someone to compete against.  Doing benchmark workouts is one way to go about making sure I am going at proper intensity, besides that, all I can do is go all out every time.  I figure that at this point, I should know what a workout should feel like afterward, and if I don;t feel that way, I didn't go heavy or fast enough.  Simple as that!

Check out the video from Saturday's Strong Man fun!
Have a double-whammy ready tomorrow, should be a good one!

Never Stop, GET FIT.

Josh Courage
Add Comment
 
UA-19993505-2