Optimal strength training for runners

Abide said:

That is an interesting thought about the big lifts twice a week and then the fun stuff on another day. I have 4 days left and I'll be finished with my 40 day, after I think I might do more of a play it by ear plan kind of like your idea. I really need to focus on getting in and out of the gym in 20-30 minutes a day. This might be a good way to do it.

I also looked at some thoracic extensions, and I figure I get enough of that between deadlifts and farmers walks. Actually with farmers walks you get isometric stabilization and retraction too.

I have tinkered with the plan

20 EMOM
1 or 2 reps heavy deadlift
Bench/Pullup 10 x 3 or 5 x5 superset

20 EMOM
1 or 2 reps heavy power clean
Inc Bench or Close grip/Swings/bent rows 10 x 3 or 5 x5 superset

3 x 5 squat
Press/Famers Walks 5 sets

and some ab work and maybe some pullups extra if time permits.

I don't know I kind of like the simplicity of the 40 day plan but not the routine?

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Benching twice a week?

Yah, I like the farmer's walks, just got to get better about doing them regularly. My list of assistance exercises hasn't changed much for a while, which is a sign that I've honed it down to what I consider the best or most essential ones. Still, it's good to read up on new ideas, even if most times they get tossed out the window. At this point, there's not much that's going to surprise us though. One thing I'm going to experiment with on Wednesday is db floor presses instead db bench presses. Supposed to be harder, but also would limit the shoulder stretch, which might be a good thing for me.

I don't think I could do EMOM (yet another new acronym for me--I had to look it up). I like to proceed at a more leisurely pace for the big lifts. But I do like the simplicity of your proposal. It's just that I can never do it myself. Also, at three times a week, I think I need a minimum of 30-40 minutes to get in the essential stuff.

Anyway, what I meant was doing the main pulls on Monday, and the main pushes on Wednesday, not everything on both days. I still end up doing the deadlifts and squats twice a week, along with the rows and pullups, because they're repeated on Friday. I'm keeping the bench and overhead presses to once a week for the time being. My left shoulder is feeling pretty good these days, although I think it's mostly because I've adopted a shoulder-width grip on the bench press and haven't gone for a 1RM in a month or so.

But I kinda like your interpretation. Basically do all six big lifts on Monday and also on Wednesday, and then all the assistance stuff on Friday, starting off with the plyometric lifts--the High Pull and the Power Clean.

Still, I don't know if I could do heavy deadlifts, squats, bench and overhead presses two workouts in a row. I think I need more time for recovery, or else I'd have to go lighter, which I don't want to do at this point. But I could just shift all the assistance exercises I rarely get to on Mondays and Wednesdays over to Friday, for a kind of "super assistance" day, maybe doing them EMOM, allowing for set-up time.

Something like this, where the first page is what I'm doing now, with the lifts I almost always get to in boldface, and the second page would be more of a two-days-of-big lifts-and-one-day-of-assistance weekly routine:


Or alternatively, and probably more realistically, back to the first page, and on Fridays just try to get in at least one set of any assistance lifts I miss on Monday or Wednesday. That allows for greater flexibility, which is key for me in order to maintain consistency. I gotta have a plan that will allow me to hit all six of the force/direction pairings heavy at least once a week.

New Deadlift PR: 335, up from 325 (note, though, that the initial pull is easier with an Olympic bar, as it's a few inches higher off the ground than the standard bar).

I warmed up to 315, and my doubles felt relatively easy, so I decided to slap on 20 more. Did two singles, then back down to 315, 2x2, then 285, 2x4, then 225 for one or two sets of six reps or so.

Before last Friday's workout, I had gone a few weeks without pushing the 1RM, and had also missed or reduced several of the previous Friday workouts, where I'm supposed to do light deadlifts, because of all the monkeying around modifying my new half-rack. But I did light deadlifts last Friday, along with light squats, the plyo pulls, and rows and pullups, and I think this may have primed me for today. I'm concluding that the third weekly workout is crucial for progress. Just twice a week may be enough for maintenance, but you really need to hit that third or fourth time to stimulate adaptation.

Then barbell rows and Russian twists. Abide, if you're looking for something new to do after you complete your 40-day, definitely try the Russian Twists. I think they may be more beneficial than rows even.

I've also pretty much given up doing pulldowns. The assisted pullups are so much better, really work the entire back more. I start out with a lighter band, and then finish with a heavier one, using all three grips--supine, neutral, and prone. For me, I starting to think pullups are the next best back exercise, after deadlifts. I used to favor rows.

Anyway, following up on yesterday's exchange, just doing a few basic exercises gave me a great workout. Most assistance exercises probably are either gimmicks, or only necessary for advanced lifters, after progress on the basic lifts starts to stall.

Abide said:

Well heavy bench and then incline and close grip are naturally less heavy as they are more difficult to max out. I'm feeling a lack of tricep work in my current plan.

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Dips! Or pullovers if you have an EZ-bar or dumbbells.

Yeah, I haven't tried a 1RM on the bench for something like a month now. 185 x 5 reps seems fine, but maybe tomorrow I'll try pushing it a bit and see what my new 1RM is with a shoulder-width grip. As I've said, numbers don't mean that much to me, so if I can't do as much with a narrower grip, it's well worth the improved shoulder health.

Abide said:

Have you tried a board press with the bench? Just curious as that is a similar ROM. I despise floor presses something about the floor hitting my triceps just bothers me for some reason.

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No, I haven't tried board presses, that would be with a barbell though, right? And a spotter?

I want to do dumbbell bench press in order to get in something with a neutral grip, hence the idea of floor presses. I can see the triceps thing bothering you though. I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow. Seems like it might be easier to get in position with heavy dumbbells if you're on the floor. I'm thinking of trying around 100 pounds in each dumbbell as my initial 1RM, but that's probably unrealistic. If it doesn't work for me, I'll just do regular dumbbell bench presses. It might not be an issue for my shoulder anyway, but if it is, I can limit the ROM easily enough. In general, I like the idea of doing both of the presses--Bench and Overhead--with both a barbell and dumbbells. Kinda like how I like to do several kinds of rows--barbell, dumbbell, seated and inverted, as well as pullups with the three different grip variations--supine, neutral, and prone. I suppose eventually I'll introduce some variation for my squats and deadlifts, but for right now at least just the basic version of those seems adequate.

Abide said:

Yeah I never do squats and DL on the same day. Its too much for me and I get mentally drained during the workout. So we are talking the same thing mostly, I just like to pair DL with a upper push and a squat with an upper pull because of grip issues. Basically the big lifts would be DL + Bench and Squats + Press, and I kind of think additional back work in the higher rep assistance range? I think doubling up on the squats and DL in one week may be negatively impacting my recovery so I am going to shift back to a 3 day plan next week I think. And throw in PC's from your recommendation.

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Yeah, I can't do heavy Deadlifts and Squats on the same day, too much for me mentally. I don't know about physically cuz I've never tried it. But doing both lite on Friday seems to work. I just did 225 for the deadlifts and 135 for the Squats, kind of a greasing the groove approach. Squats and Deadlifts have become my two most essential lifts, so I like the idea of doing them twice a week, once heavy and once lite. After those two, I also really like the idea of doing pullups twice a week. Everything else can be done once a week, but I like to get in two sessions of rows too if possible. In general, seems like there should be more back work than front--shoulder and chest--work.

So it seems to me like you need pullups in there somewhere, but otherwise, I really like the simplicity of your approach. Maybe

DL+Bench,
Squats+Press, and
PC+Pullups

for a three-day plan?

Abide said:

Maybe that would be interesting as I have been reading that a lot of lifters get 10 days off between deadlift days.

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I think for deadlift recovery, you can play it by ear. If you start to feel fried, back off on weight or take some time off. I've done deadlifts every week I can and it never seems to bother me, but I rarely get around to 1RMs more than two or three weeks in a row.

Also, we have to always translate what we read about pro-style training. Some of the stuff that applies to advanced and elite lifters or runners isn't always relevant to us intermediate or recreational folks. There's probably a huge difference in recovery between 300 + 700 pound deadlifts, for example, or running 25 and 100 miles per week.

Abide said:

I would like to focus on DL to hit the 400 by the end of the year.

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We're still on to see who can get to a 405 DL first, right?

Abide said:

So what would you consider crucial excercises, the four basics plus PC's and pull ups?

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For the four basics plus PCs and Pullups, I think you've already nailed it: Deadlifts, Squats, Bench, and Press. That's the Rippetoe approach too. But probably need db rows in there too, and like I said, I really like the Russian Twists as a way to work the obliques with relatively heavy weights. You could do them higher or medium rep in the 100-150 lb range.

Abide said:

So I'm trying to come up with a very simple lifting plan with minimal excercises and bar changes. Which is kind of a pain.

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I agree, it's nice to minimize equipment changes. That's partly why I seem to have stopped doing pulldowns. Now that I have to load the bars with the twice the weight I'm actually doing, it's just easier to whip out the bands for assisted pullups. And without the pulldowns, I'm only using the cables consistently for seated rows, which are kind of a luxury. So really, I could just get by with a power rack and bench, some kind of dip station, and a chin-up bar as my basic set-up (plus the bars and plates off course), and forgo cables altogether. But now that I have it, I'll keep the Stamina rack for as long as it lasts. It's nice to have cables for some of the lighter things, like face pulls and pushdowns, and recently my wife has shown some interest in doing pulldowns. It would be great if she could get hooked on exercise too.

Abide said:

I like the EMOM routine cause it forces me to do certain amount of reps and get them done in a specific amount of time. Sometimes I get sidetracked in the garage between sets, tinkering with the bikes, sweeping the floor etc... This forces me to focus on the task at hand.

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I use the rest intervals to clean up a bit in the garage too, as it's my domain but everyone else feels free to leave their shit laying around. But I seem able to stay on line with the weights. Especially with the heavy lifts, I appreciate having an excuse to take longish rests.

Abide said:

Anyways I am really looking into doing a couple off-road tri's so I need to figure out how to have a little more time to swim? Or row a kayak as some races have that.

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It's cool people like you can just casually enter competitions. It would make me all hyper.

Here are some age-graded strength standards, to make us feel better.

http://lonkilgore.com/freebies/freebies.html

Hey, all of a sudden I'm close to advanced on the deadlift!

Abide said:

Congrats on the DL progress, and yes we are still on. I need to figure out international shipping rates so I can get you a decent case of beer.

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I wouldn't worry about shipping rates. My sense is that the contest is yours to lose. Still, I'm enjoying the extra incentive. I don't normally like feeling competitive, but this will help push me a bit, but not enough that I'll rush things and risk injury. I'm thinking I should be able to add 10 pounds a month, but it's hard to say. Could go faster, if I can stick to the twice-a-week plan, but also slower, if I hit an unforeseen plateau somewhere. Should be interesting. I know it will happen one way or the other though, and it'll be great to see those four plates lined up on either side. Monday was a big confidence booster. It had been a while since I had felt that bump-up, when a set starts to feel lighter than usual, like 315 did. I think that's the first time anything over 300 felt relatively easy, and it was with doubles.

Abide said:

Yeah maybe your right its like running twice a week for maintenance at least 3-4 for improvement.

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Yah, for me, it might just be longstanding habit, but the running/lifting alternation, three times a week each with one day off, is golden. I always get results, and never overtrain. Yesterday I ran about six miles between tempo and aerobic pace, so the running fitness is starting to return quickly now. I'm over that initial hump of getting back into shape I think, when everything seems kinda hard.

Abide said:

So big lifts with at least 3 times a week, maybe one max day a week and then back down to 80% for the others? Or maybe only max deadlifts?

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Seems like you could do one max lift per workout. More than one max deadlift per week would be difficult for me though. Right now my big lifts are deadlift on Monday, Squat on Wednesday, then Power Clean and/or High Pull on Friday, which isn't a max lift, but then I go heavy on the bentover dumbbell rows and push the pullups a fair bit. So really just true max lifts on Monday and Wednesday. Even then, it's hard to do the Squats as a max lift just two days after my max deadlift, and one day after a good run. Once again, best to just go by feel, and in any case, lately I've been doing the Squats at a reduced weight, between 135-225, so that I can work on getting the form exactly right before pushing it again. A good excuse anyway.

So the only thing I really have programmed right now, effort-wise, is the max deadlift on Monday--I'm trying to hit that as best as possible. Everything else just depends on energy levels. Perhaps as a general rule, it's hard to push more than one or two lifts at a time. Still, I'm still progressing in the other lifts, relying simply on consistency to keep things moving along. And hopefully soon I'll start pushing the squats again. It would be nice to see 305 before the year is out.

Abide said:

Squats *
Goblet Squats
TBDL *

Deadlift *
Power Cleans *
Famers Walks
KB Swings

Bench *
Press *
Close Grip Bench
Incline Bench
Ring Dips
Ring Push ups

Pull ups
KB Rows
Lat Rows

Roll outs
Russian Twists
Leg Raises
Suitcase/Waiters Walks

Am I missing any? The asteriks are the heavy lifts, the others would be circuit like lifts or super sets?

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That seems like pretty good coverage. Any comment now would just be nitpicking. I'm not sure what you mean by Lat Rows though.

Abide said:

DL+Bench --> KB Rows + Incline -- Roll Outs
Squats+Pullups --> CG Bench + Swings -- Suit case walks
PC+Press --> Farmers Walks + Ring Dips -- Russian Twists

I think pull downs are the best excercise personally, not really necessary, but I always enjoy them for some reason. I can see why your wife likes them. But yeah I would feel differently too if there wasnt a dedicated weight stack. Being able to do face pulls would be nice too.

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Does "-->" mean optional? Or just indicating that you're moving on from the EMOM to the circuit or super sets? In any case, those look like good workouts. I guess my only concern is that it looks like you're hitting the chest and triceps pretty much every workout. But you're used to hitting each body area each workout with the 40-day, so you'll probably be fine. Speaking of which, will you be summarizing your experience with the 40-day at some point?

Interesting you like the pulldowns. I guess they do isolate the upper back better. With pullups my lower back, stabilizers, and even biceps seem to be brought much more into play. From a holistic/natural point of view, that's good, but isolating them has its advantages too. Anyway, I have to load pretty much all my bigger plates to get above 300 pounds, and I run out of room on the cable's load bar, so at this point, I'd have to use the Olympic plates if I want to do pulldowns. Still, good for face pulls, cable rows, straight-arm pulldowns, rope pushdowns and crunches, and so on, as we've mentioned.

Abide said:

I'm still contemplating the Tri. I'll have to get a wet suit and not sure I want to pull the trigger on that yet? Why would you get hyper, you mean fixated? I have only done on road tri, but have been wanting to do a MTB tri for a while. There is a short version I think I may do 500m swim, 25K road bike, 13k MTB and 5k run. I'm gonna run up to the local tri store and try on a wet suit, I won't do it unless I can get in 4-5 open water swims in the local lake. Which should be cold but doable. The open water swimming freaked me out last time and it's tough in AZ to find any safe open water swimming option, here its easy to find but freezing cold.

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Yah, if I had a competition, it would affect my training. Not necessarily a bad thing, but I really enjoy just letting the gains come to me, without any real preconception of rate of progress or ultimate goals. The goals we discussed, like the 405 deadlift or the 24-minute 5K, are just guidelines, nothing I'm too worried about. But if I were to enter a race, it wouldn't be just to finish. I would want to do well I think. Even though I'm getting to be an old fart, I have enough memory of my prime that it would be painful just to trot along. Luckily I'm a horseshit swimmer so at least there's no chance of entering a Tri. I think the hardest thing for me would be a bicycle race, because after two years of traveling by bicycle, I have powerful memories of what it's like to be in really good shape, and it would be hard not to feel that again.

Here's the Onion's take on fitness trends. Note no mockery of running or home gyms. We're OK.
http://www.theonion.com/articles/most-popular-fitness-trends,36374/

Abide said:

I meant those horizantal rows with rings and your feet on a bench, I forgot what you called them. I did them today and they also hit your glutes a bit while you are holding them tight.

No the --> would be mandatory but fast circuits or super sets like 5 x 5 or 10 x 3 or something like that, just to get some work in but get it done quick. Today when I was benching I think the lack of assistance work was having a plateauing impact on my bench. I am wondering if assistance for upper body work has a better impact than lower body work. Which would kind of make sense as running and biking is kind of the lower work and I am practically doing nothing for the upper body other than lifting? That was my idea behind hitting back and chest in all the workouts.

Yeah I still have a couple of days to go, I am hoping to get it wrapped up by this weekend and then I might try to get a close to real max deadlift to see what kind of progress I made. I didn't test a max but I am pretty sure I woul dhave been able to hit 295, but not quite 315. Now I can do 315 for reps so I should have made a decent jump.

BTW I tried the EMOM with 140kg deadlifts yesterday and I think I either knocked a rib out of place or strained an ab? It's feeling a little better today, but I thought that was a very odd tweak? Maybe caused by my belt? I stopped at 12 to make sure I didn't irritate it more. Anyways I moved my feet in a little and I liked the way it felt, it seemed like more tension than with my feet a little wider.

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I think "inverted rows" is the most descriptively adequate, but I guess "horizontal pullups" could work too. "Lat row", for me, could mean anything. Besides hitting your glutes more, how did you like them compared to other rows? Are they a worthy addition, or just a variation for variation's sake?

I like that idea of doing two main lifts and then quickly getting through a bunch of others, but for the time being, I'm doing well giving more or less equal attention to a bottom, middle, and top lift in each workout.

Yesterday I took the squat up to 225 again, but I'm still having a little trouble adopting Rippetoe's recommended grip, and looking around on the interweb, very few photos of squats have this grip. Most have the thumb under the bar, which for me, is more stable. Looking again at his video (around minute 10: ), I think part of the problem is that I need to narrow the grip a bit more so that the traps bunch up more and provided a better platform for the bar. On the other hand, Rippetoe's whole rational for the grip is to prevent the arm from compressing as it takes on part of the load. But he works with powerliftings doing 600-800+ lbs. I wonder if this is really a concern for someone like me whose goal is to do half of that. Might be another case of needing to translate pro- or elite-level protocols into an intermediate or recreational program. Until I can feel that the bar is completely stable, I won't have the confidence to push the weight, and it would be nice to start pushing it again, get back up to 265 or better 275 as my 1RM. They say squats help deadlifts, so maybe I'm mistaken to focus so much on the latter.

Speaking of which, it'll be interesting to hear what your max deadlift is. Still, since you're a sample of one, it'll be hard to know how much your deadlift would've improved anyway doing something besides the 40-day, right? Or were you feeling like it had plateaued prior to starting this program?

Bummer about the rib irritation. Probably just the belt, but make sure it's not something serious. Rib injuries can set you back for a long time, and are pretty painful, breathing-wise.

Did shoulder-width bench presses yesterday, and this morning my leftt shoulder feels pretty good, so hopefully I got the problem licked. Then, feeling confident, instead of the dumbbell floor presses I did full ROM dumbbell bench presses, and those felt fine too. I could only manage 50 pounds in each hand, however, whereas several months ago I was doing 60, so I've fallen off a bit during this time of babying my left shoulder. I'll have to start building things up again now that I seem to have the problem solved.

For leg assistance work, like you, I figure running is enough. In fact, in Chicago I didn't even do squats because I figured (wrongly) that running covered that. I need to bike more too, but it's hard to find the time, and I don't like mixing it up with cars, so I don't bike-commute. I've also read that unless you're a bodybuilder, most leg assistance work is pretty unnatural, as it isolates muscles, like the hammies or quads, that are meant to work together, as they do in squats and deadlifts. So there's little carrying over to athletic performance or even basic strength. Just useless mass. Not sure if that's a hundred percent correct, but I don't need a lot of convincing to drop the leg extensions and curls. I rather just do more squats and deadlifts or assistance stuff like squat and deadlift variations, or hinge swings, good mornings, tipping bird, and other exercises that closely mimic natural body movements.

Still, even for upper body, I'm not sure how much assistance really helps, but I think you may be onto something. Certainly, the upper body is capable of moving in many more planes and angles than the lower body, right? So maybe the main lifts don't hit all the angles sufficiently? Something to think about, thanks.

Thats it inverted rows, I like them. To me its kind of the horizontal pull up. You definitley have to use your core like in a regular pullup but its more like a bird dog than ab work. I'll keep doing them.

Yeah, it's interesting how the same basic movement can vary with different positionings, kind of like how pullups and pulldowns can be different. I guess that's why I like 2-4 variations for each of my upper body pushes and pulls. Sometimes something like a dumbbell overhead press versus a barbell overhead press can feel like a completely different exercise, or between standing and seated overhead presses, and so on.

Yeah I still tinker with my form on all the lifts and I change things also depending on the weight. I also think unless you are taking a very wide stance and setting the bar low you will probably want to hold your hands in closer to get the traps bunched. Its painful to have it rest on your spine. But I think the stance and the angle you squat down dictates more about the placement on your back than the hand placement.

Yeah, I spent 30-40 minutes on meathead forums just now and there's no consensus on full versus thumbless grip. Most powerlifters seem to have a full grip but the bar isn't too low. I'll do a little more experimenting tomorrow, but I think the full grip with the bar position that Rippetoe recommends might work best for me: http://powerliftingacademy.com/the-squat-exercise-guide/

No not plateaued I just hadn't lifted in a while due to the move and not having a gym. So yes it will be hard to compare progress. I do think it has progressed faster than using 5/3/1 mainly due to the frequency and flexibility with loads. One of my favorite parts of this plan is being able to judge what kind of weight you want to add to the bar that day vs. having a specified weight.

Yah, I think that's a good idea in general. Really strict training protocols don't appeal to me at all. In running too, I'm adopting more of a fartlek approach, varying paces within the run, but also from run to run, depending on energy levels and motivation.

Thanks, its getting better and didn't bother me at all this morning while lifting. Just deep breaths seem to irritate it. I actually tried ring dips today and it was the same result as you no shoulder soreness. Although they also kicked my ass I could barely get five. Do you think dips are that much better than close grip bench?

I've never tried close grip bench presses, but they must be similar to how I do pullovers, which is with a close grip, but with less weight because the EZ-bar goes back behind my head, almost touching the floor below the bench. Those are great for the tris and also give your chest a good stretch. So I can't really compare CG bench to dips, but for me, dips are really in a category of their own. They work the chest and tris in a way no other exercise does. Really, almost interchangeble with the bench press in terms of benefit, although I like to do the bench presses first. Yesterday, in fact, I did the dips after both the bench and the overhead presses. It's such a great finishing exercise. That's great you can do the ring dips. I haven't had the courage to try them yet. I want to get my regular dips up more and have at least a month of left shoulder relief before I attempt them. Seems like they'd be great for working the stabilizers (see how good I've gotten at avoiding the term 'core').

Abide said:

Dang my ab/rib is still bothering me with regular DL's but fine for the trap bar deadlift?

Anyway I decided to finish up the 40 day this weekend. The last 4 workouts were hodge podge but I did do a 155kg pull that went up very easy so I am 30 kilos away from the 400.

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Ha, like I said, I think the contest is yours to lose. Still, might have to try 345 today if everything is feeling good, just to keep up.

Bummer about the rib. But I guess I can see how the trap bar might alleviate some of the stress because you start in more of an upright position, right? I found the trap bar deadlifts made my knees sore once, and haven't tried them since, but I've tried a few jumps with them at low weight, and it's a good plyometric exercise.

I had a great third workout on Saturday (took Friday off of course). I'm settling into a 3 x 5 protocol for this "light" or "plyo" day, starting with Deadlifts @ 225, then High Pulls @185, Power Cleans @135, Squats @225, Dumbbell Rows @ 90-100, and assisted Pullups, all three grips. Also did one-arm cable rows (lawnmowers), and they're good for the obliques, kind of a lighter-weight version of the Russian Twists I do on Monday. Didn't get around to the hip thrusts or the trap bar jumps, cuz I'm still messing around with getting a good set up for my new equipment, and I was also pretty pooped after all the other lifts. I think I have a pretty good layout now, and will be able to move between exercises a lot quicker. On hindsight, the Olympic plates were unnecessary, but the price was right, and it's good motivation to think in Olympic increments. Will try to take some better pics soon. It's a nice, compact home gym.

I may have settled on a squat technique that works for me. I used Rippetoe's narrower, thumbless grip, but at a high-bar position. This seems really stable and works the quads a bit more than the low-bar position, so it's more of a complement to the deadlifts. I feel like I can get better force coming up with the high-bar position than with the low-bar position, which had a tendency to make me fall forward a bit on the ascent. My stance is somewhere between wide and narrow.

Wondering if my "light" deadlifts on the third workout could be a bit heavier, like 3x5x275. Then 1RM and back-off sets on the first workout. Everyone warns about overdoing the deadlifts, but I dunno, until my body tells me otherwise, I think I'll keep pushing it. Really want to see those four plates on either side of the bar. Plus I'm curious about what kind of beer you'd send if I won.

Also, for the High Pulls, I seem to be settling into an armpit-height pull. I found it helps to keep looking down throughout the lift, rather than bringing my head up as with the Power Cleans. With the Power Cleans I'm not worrying about racking it with the proper technique for a while. I end up with a full grip. I'm just focusing on the phases prior to the final rack, getting that jump and shrug right, and making sure the bar stays as vertical as possible, with minimal 'moment arm.'

Still enjoying the run-walk tempo running. Basically I run the pace where my form and stride feel really smooth. When I can't maintain it, I stop to walk for however long I feel like. Sometimes I run even a little faster for a semi-sprint. I think the underlying principle is 'specificity', that your body adapts to whatever it's asked to do. It's so easy for me to get into an easy-pace rut, I want to retrain my body to feel comfortable at a slightly faster, smoother pace. Hopefully by the end of the summer the 8-9mm paced segments will have gotten a lot longer and the walking breaks a lot shorter. I'm wondering if three, one-hour tempo runs per week might be the way to go, with some hills and intervals thrown in. Then just once or twice a month do the long run.

Yesterday 315 felt heavy. So I just did four singles at that weight. My wife and son came home in the middle of it, and watched the last two. It was nice to have a little recognition of my meager accomplishment. With three big Olympic grip plates on either side, the bar looked good. I was going to do back-off sets, but my right knee felt a little bit sore on the last single--probably because my audience was throwing off my technique a bit--so I called it a day and moved onto the Lat Blaster Rows, Russian Twists, and Chinups. Seems like two days since my last workout wasn't enough recovery time. The first and third workouts work the same areas--basically the entire posterior chain--so I really need three or four days in between for recovery. Mondays and Fridays work best.

By the time I got to the Russian Twists though, I had gotten a second wind, but kept the weight at 100 pounds and did them with a fuller range of motion. Wow, that was great. Instead of an arc from waist height to waist height, I began and ended down close to my bent knees, with my arms close to fully extended. With the greater arc, I got a really great pump for the whole back. I can't believe Russian Twists aren't considered more of a mainstream exercise. Took me a while to discover them.

Today I'm pretty sore so I'm putting off the run till later in the day. Gotta stretch things out first.

I went ahead and pulled the trigger on some 18" dumbbell bars with star locks, so that I can do heavier bentover rows. Now instead of being limited to 80-90 pounds, I should be able to go up to 140-160 pounds. Right now my dumbbell row is hovering between 90-100, but I've decided that dumbbell rows will be the row I'll really focus on for a while, and try to get the weight up another 10-20 pounds at least. I probably should've just made some dumbbell bars out of plumber's pipe and some old collars I have laying around, but the star locks are convenient and someday maybe I'll be strong enough to want to use both dumbbells for things like presses and swings, so it'll be nice if they're easily adjustable.

I'm also about to order a custom cable. I figure the best solution to my cable set-up is to have two separate cables directly hooked up to the load, so that the load is the true weight and not double it. I've come close to avoiding cable exercises these last few weeks because it's such a hassle to load up all those plates for all but the lightest exercises. So I'll remove the hanging pulley that connects the cables to the load and have one high cable for pulldowns, face pulls, push downs, etc., and one low cable for rows. The cable that's not in use will either hang in slack, or I can secure it off to the side with a small bungee cord or something.

I'm becoming such a gear fetishist, but I guess I'm still pretty minimalistic with just one central station off of which I do all my exercises. Now I'm trying to figure out a way to affix pulleys to my rack for cross-over flies . . . might need one more custom cable and another trip to Menards.

Power Cleans are tricky. Last Saturday mine felt good, but it was the first time in a while. The Olympic bar really helps, with its swivel ends, but I think also not worrying about the grip helped too. Rippetoe describes how it's good to practice letting the bar fall while holding it, from the top or rack position down to the floor, to get a feel for the vertical trajectory it's supposed to follow on its way up. Basically, you want to keep the bar as close to your body as possible. I still have a long ways to go before my jump and shrug are good, so I'm keeping it at 135 for the time being. For me, that's enough resistance to get a good feel for the exercise, but not so much that I can't devote most of my mental effort to learning the right technique, if that makes sense. So basically, I have two exercises--the squat and power clean--that require a fair amount of concentration on technique. Most of the other exercises are pretty basic, technique-wise.

Still, as we've discussed and was talked about in some links I posted a week or two ago, the floor high pull comes close to working the same muscles as the Power Clean, at heavier weights, so if you're doing those, you already got a good plyometric-type lift and the Power Cleans are just frosting. That said, I really like the progression of declining weight from Deadlifts to High Pulls to Power Cleans. Each lift primes the next as you work progressively up in height. If I had a higher garage ceiling, I would probably finish the whole thing off with a power snatch, to complete the progression of lifting the bar off the floor in different height/weight increments, or movement phases.

I think I'm back on track. Got back into lifting and did some squats. Took one dog out for a walk/jog to warm up. Worked up a nice progression with some warmups reps, first. All good.

I chatted with someone who was a physical therpist. We figured out that I had probably irritated a facet joint in my back, when I was standing up from the squat, and started rotating halfway up, to set the dumbbells on the rack off to the side.

I'm definitely going to be more careful about proper form!

Abide said:

An interesting article about pull ups. I kind of like that gtg plan from Pavel he has on there.

http://www.t-nation.com/workouts/how-to-increase-your-pull-up-power

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Thanks, I'll have to try that idea of mixing in the ab wheel with the pullups. Since the pullups are done at or towards the end of my pull workout, it's a nice segue into ab work. I could also get in hanging leg raises. More and more I'm thinking of moving my office workout stuff to the garage and doing the plyo/mobility/stability stuff at the end of the st workouts. We'll see. I like the idea of doing quick plyo/mobility/stability workouts in my office on my non-st days, but that's also my running day, and after a morning run, or getting psyched for an afternoon run, I rarely feel like doing anything in the middle of the day.

I like the spirit of Pavel's plan, but it's too complicated for me to follow by the letter. What I've been doing is using the heaviest of the bands in my office's door-frame pullup bar, on my non-st days. So it's pretty easy -- still greasing the neuromuscular groove but avoiding overtraining with harder effort outside of the two pull workouts per week.

Abide said:

Haha if I knew I was staying somewhere a little more permanently I think I would also pick up a few different pieces of equipment too. Minimalism is cool but its nice to have options too.
Now I am becoming a tri gear whore, which I promised myself at one time I wouldn't do it, but I caved. Just picked up a wet suit and some lame-ass tri shorts. I'm still gonna throw on some baggy shorts and a t shirt over it as I don't want to offend anyone. I'm not a big fan of dudes in tights, personal preference I guess.

Alright maybe I will just stick with high pulls, your right the stimulus is virtually the same. I really think I should invest in another barbell? I also tried adding the twists in but I don't have a free corner in the gym. Maybe I look at one of those land mine attachments for the squat rack. Sigh your wearing off on me now.

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Yah, I was missing the cross-over flies. I used to do them in Chicago. Since I only do chest and shoulders once a week, mis' well go all out. I just bought supplies at Menards. Should be pretty easy to rig. Then I'll measure for the cables. Hopefully it won't take too long for the custom cables to be delivered and I can finally shoot some pics of the complete set-up.

Yep, men in tights, not my thing. Especially older men in tights.

The landmine attachments aren't too expensive. I got mine on Amazon. Yukon Fitness also has some gear options but I'm not sure about those. Yukon is where I'm getting the cables made. You've been a big influence on my approach to st so it's only right that I can reciprocate the favor, so suck it up. Interested in hearing how you like the Russian Twists.

Well, somehow I aggravated my left MCL. I did some 'speed' work down on the track yesterday afternoon. Then I was called in for wife-repeats and somehow while maneuvering around I tweaked my knee. Funny. It must have been fatigued from the sprints and maybe the deadlifts from the day before. Today it's pretty stiff and often painful but hopefully it'll be OK in a day or two. I guess that means no squats today. I think the main problem was sprinting on the grassy field. I should've stayed on the sandy gravel track, where I had done a few miles of tempo work. I tend to heel strike once in a while on the grass, but it's kinda hard to go full-out on the gravel; even though it's pretty fine-grained, there's still lots of regular-sized gravel mixed in. Or maybe I just need to stretch out my hammies more. I've been bad about it since getting back into running.

Sid said:

I think I'm back on track. Got back into lifting and did some squats. Took one dog out for a walk/jog to warm up. Worked up a nice progression with some warmups reps, first. All good.

I chatted with someone who was a physical therpist. We figured out that I had probably irritated a facet joint in my back, when I was standing up from the squat, and started rotating halfway up, to set the dumbbells on the rack off to the side.

I'm definitely going to be more careful about proper form!

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Good news Sid! Funny though, all three of us are in various phases of injury recovery. Gettin' old . . .

Yep, men in tights, not my thing. Especially older men in tights.

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Hey, hey I resent that remark - besides I used to live near Sherwood Forest!

DNEchris said:

Hey, hey I resent that remark - besides I used to live near Sherwood Forest!

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Opps, I'd better watch what I say!