How to Upload Pictures

Well I just though of it really. It pays to host images here when we can because we get loads of traffic from image searches. I mean loads. Now that that's said..

Downloading copyrighted images to flickr and putting them up here or hosting them here is still the same..both illegal. You need to make sure to pick images that are free to re-use. That usually entails a creative commons license and they ask for an attribution. Flickr has a search option for "commons". But the easiest thing to do is to use google images like you usually do except hit advanced search. There is a usage rights option towards the bottom. Hit the free to reuse or share and you should be able to find what you're looking for. If you send me the url's before hand I can verify them for you but like I said I can also put the captions on for you etc…

It's no big deal I'm just trying to take advantage of every possible thing I can.

When you say upload them on GUS you mean via the image wizard, right?

I never use that but you can use that if that's what you've been doing.

Here's the steps. It's easy and straightforward.

1. Save the image to you computer wherever you would normally save images.

2. If the image is huge go ahead a resize it down so we don't take up needless file space or pick a smaller image version if that is an option. Not tiny but for a jpeg I've found 50kb's or under usually covers it. Usually, if you can get it down to about 550 px wide that is better. Although I have lots of storage space it's not unlimited so lots of big image files will add up.

3. A forum thread page is just a page like any other page. So at the very bottom of the forum thread page is a bunch of option buttons. One of them is "files". Hit that and it will prompt you to select a file (you can select multiple files for bulk uploading). Select the image file from your computer, hit open and then hit upload. You'll be familiar with this process. Nothing unusual.

4. Once the file is done uploading hit "refresh file list". Now there will already be a big list of files. Find your file and get the url location by either clicking on it and just copying the url from your browser or by hitting "options" and then "info" to get the url.

5. Plug that url into the image code in your post. That's it. You can force the size of images btw, like this:


That's just an example. You don't need width and height. Best to use just width and it will retain the proportions.

 Once you do one I will put in the caption and the alt attribute. Alt attributes are very important if you want people to be able to find the image.

VERY IMPORTANT:

When you are looking at the options for the forum pages one of the options is "Delete". Whatever you do NEVER EVER use the page delete in the forum or get that mixed up with deleting a post. Deleting a post is absolutely separate from deleting the page. But the page contains the forum module and if the PAGE were deleted the forum would be deleted and we'd never be able to get it back. Period. So don't mess with anything except "Files" at the bottom of the page.

If you did accidently push delete it would give you a warning but just in case I wanted to be sure you understood the difference. This delete is way at the bottom of the page, separate from the post options.

Life Lessons with Eric

You went to the Air Force. There's no way it was easy, right?

Wasn't easy but it was some of the best times I ever had. Plus…I worked 9 to 5 most of the time, lol. Sure sometimes we deployed but even that was fun. I was experiencing things that most people never get to experience. Plus, don't forget one crucial difference. I was government property! Once I signed up I had no choice except for jail. Court martial. A non-choice!

Life is complicated, E….add to that I'm still dealing with breaking up with my gf and surrounding myself with a bunch of idiots who I think I might shake off sometime soon.

Sure, Ash, life is complicated but sometimes we over-complicate it by the choices we make. Life is also short. However, that being said, this time period is one short time period in your life (hopefully) that will just be one stop on the road that takes you where you want to be. The problem is that maybe you're not sure you're on the right road. And nobody hardly ever is.

Kids my age have their whole fucking lives planned out…

Sure they think they do. Except for nine times out of ten those kids hit age 50 and realize how miserable and unhappy they've been and how "stuck" they feel. They feel regret that they've "wasted their lives" doing something that they chose too quickly. I know that you think of a lot of successful and "happy" people who have spent their lives doing the thing they love most but that is just a function of those things that stand out in our memory. It is not typical. Those kids who "have their lives planned out…" have no true advantage over you. What happens when the plan doesn't go according to plan?! Can they adapt? Can they overcome? Screw worrying about about how it is for other people. The grass is never truly greener on the other side.

-----x-----

The other idiots get happy in their 9-5 typical jobs.

You're being judgemental buddy. It's not fair to assume that everybody is "happy in their 9 to 5 jobs" and thus them being happy in something so mundane makes them an idiot. Not everybody looks at it the same way. To some people they may not be thrilled with their job but they may be comfortable and content in their job. They may even find satisfaction in it. But that may not be where they seek happiness. I, for one, am very happy working out in the sun doing something that at the end of the day I can look at it and say "I accomplished something today. I did good work and now I can look on the the results and be proud of it." That does not mean I am fulfilling my passion, necessarily, but that I can see value in it and see the advantages of it. At the same time, I might simply do something that I "like" in a regular every day job, just to be able to spend all my free time doing something I LOVE. So, from that perspective, spending ALL my time in some money-making CAREER as opposed to "just a job" would be the opposite of happy. What you are seeking is BIG TIME CAREER THAT MAKES YOU HAPPY. And that maybe why you are so doubtful.


And look at both things you said in the same pm:


I'm just another yuppie idiot.
The other idiots get happy in their 9-5 typical jobs.


Examine your thought pattern. I don't think any of this has to do with career. I think it has to do something you feel is important. Maybe important in a larger way than just important to you. I could be wrong but if your not "another yuppie idiot" and you're not "an idiot who is happy in his 9-5 job" then what kind of idiot is left? Well, there is the James Cameron style idiot who is so mighty impressed with himself because the things he does are so might damned impressive. And there is the everyday hero who quietly labors to add something to the world. Add to our sum of knowledge. Make the world better in some way. Etc and so on. I know that you want money so you can do those kinds of things. But yet you are not happy seeking a career where…you are not doing those kinds of things! Trap.


Ash, I'm a working class dude. I'm not white-collar and I've never wanted to be white-collar. Sure, I've worked those kinds of jobs here and there. But to me, there are things I love and there are jobs. One thing to never forget…all those people working the 9-5 are the people who make the world liveable for me and you! That guy working 9 to 5 to maintain the sewer system is what stands between you and dysentary or worse, lol, so never think he isn't doing great things!

----x----

Eric why would you think that way about me :-(

I'm not accusing you of anything. I'm trying to say that there is satisfaction in doing something that is valuable. It is a choice how to look at it.

And I dunno why you are grouping all 9-5 jobs as non-white-collar. You do know that Finance jobs are also 9-5, right? Sure Investment Bankers work 24x7 but the rest of them don't. I wasn't talking about 9-5 as some sort of economic differentiation group or something. I meant 9-5 as in that typical 9-5 who only wants that 9-5 and nothing more - this means nothing even on the side (read: no passion whatsoever).

I'm not, lol. However, many of those jobs you are talking about are 9-5 in words only. Is it really 9 to 5 when you take it home with you and spend the night getting ready for the next day's meeting or presentation? And there is the "white-collar" 9 to 5 where you never move up and there is reality…which says if you ONLY word 9 to 5 you go nowhere. But you are relating everything I say to something you said too much. I was telling you about myself.

I meant 9-5 as in that typical 9-5 who only wants that 9-5 and nothing more - this means nothing even on the side (read: no passion whatsoever).

I get that but so what? Not everyone needs BIG things to make them happy. Talking about myself and myself only again, you know my motto is "Don't sweat the small stuff and appreciate the little things"? I don't look for happiness because of what I DO. Talking about myself and myself only. Because looking for happiness in what I do is looking for happy with a capital H. Big happy. Big happy never happens. It's a myth. This is part of what I've been trying to get across. A lot of people, when they say "I'm happy" in a general way, they mean they are satisfied, content, comfortable, secure, etc.


Those people who only want the 9 to 5 and are happy with that, and they don't have some over-riding passion..well they may well be satisfied, content, comfortable, secure, etc. What's the difference between them and a person who is seeking BIG happy? Those people, are happy some of the time and the other guy, searching for Big happy and never finding it is always miserable. Because nobody is happy all the time…except idiots, lol. At the end of the day, life is a lot of little things that are good. Very few big things. All the littlle things and the big thing, if you appreciate them for the moment, as they come, adds up to….happiness.
I'm not trying to give you advice. I'm discussing.

Don't misunderstand me, E. I am not some snobbish elitist and I'm not saying this like those guys who have plead to not being racist coz they have one token black friend.

I don't think anything like that. It really doesn't matter what you say. I don't judge people, Ash. It's not my place to judge people. There is nothing you could say that could shock me because I've seen too many things, thought too many things.


The reason I brought up blue collar jobs was to try to equate that everyday appreciation of the little things we accomplish with a larger sense of happiness. You know, a lot of these people you are talking about, if you think about it, the difference between being happy or not happy in what you do is a function of how jaded you are. I've known guys that do a job for years and years and after a while they just hate it. The bitch and moan and complain and act like they are the only ones who have to deal with the realities of a job. They are jaded and cynical and they just get by and get a paycheck. And then there are other guys who do that same job, and never lose that sense of pride in what they do. They strive for perfection. They run their fingers over the thing they've created. They look on at a job well done and smile to themselves. Then they go home at the end of a 9 to 5 day, have a beer, hang out with their buddies. Enjoy their family. Maybe go fishing on the weekends. And ALL of it's meaningful to them. All of it counts. They live in the moment. That doesn't mean they are idiots and don't plan for the future, but that they don't look over the horizon for happiness. Instead they recognize happiness when it comes and relish it. Live in it. When they laugh the REALLY laugh. And enjoy laughing. When they hug their family and friends hello they really hug them, and never stop reflecting on how lucky they are to have them. Nothing goes unnoticed and unappreciated. Little vexations have no power over this. You can't rock a guy like that. That's the guy you want at your back and that's the guy you want in a crisis. So, a guy like that, what does he need with passion? Nothing is a big deal, everything counts. Do things because you want to do them. Because you see value in them. Don't worry about what it says about you. Your heart won't let you become a man you do not want to be.

Joe's advice on Grip Training

Saturday - DL + Static Holds

Sunday - FSQ, Back work…no grip training

Tuesday - Grip Work first (Grippers) and then the Upper Body work.

Wednesday - Squats + Crosswise Brick Exercise + Plate Pinch Deadlifts

Special note: Hand Extensions done in controlled fashion for 20 reps done for 3 sets post every grip training session.

That's good.

• Walmart Gripper - 2 sets of 5 reps; first set is slow second set is fast no setting allowed
  • • • • HG 150 Gripper - 2 sets of 2 reps; setting for the second set only
        • CoC #1 Gripper - Singles; setting allowed
        • HG 150 Gripper - 1 set of 6-8 reps; setting allowed

Go with that workout for now and see where you're at.

Right now I don't think I am very strong on this. So I was wondering if you'd like me to make any changes or if I should try this out. Let's say I am only able to do 1-2 singles with the CoC #1 (most likely scenario), is it okay if I go do 3 sets of 3-5 reps with the HG 150?

3 sets of 3-5 after the CoC#1? Yeah you could do that but I'd rather you did more singles with the No.1.

More Banded Deadlift Training..

Great job on the banded deadlifts. Awesome when a plan comes together.
I don't know how much you've explained to others about how I teach the bands.
A couple of things.

1. There are no silly calculations here concerning "how much weight at the top". This comes down to having a lot of volume under your belt and a whole lot of work under fatigue. The reason people do calculations and try to pick some predetermined based on a rule they've read is because they can't handle what the bands throw at them. They need to make sure it's not "too" heavy.
Here it doesn't matter. Ashiem did a number one mini band where he just ramped up the weihts to a struggle set. And here on this cycle he went to the red band.

2. The struggle sets. The idea here is to work up to a weight that you cannot lock out. On purpose. And then "struggle". Actually, Ashiem coined the name "struggle set". And that is exactly what it is. This is similar to "working the bottom of the deadlift" where you place the bar underneath something so it stops at about mid shin (the sticking region) and struggle against it.

Here, we do that with bands, starting out with weights we can lock out well and moving on to weights we do a couple of struggle sets with. Here Ash does 225 and then 245. Now, comes the whole purpose. After the 245 he goes back and is able to lock out the 225 which he struggled with before. That is how it is supposed to work. It is a process of facilitation.

Then after that he pulls some heavy ones.

Notice how explosive he is on the early banded sets..

All this serves another purpose. To erase all the nonsense about how you can only do so many deadlifts and how it will ruin your back. You can do what you are conditioned to do. Ashiem could not have done this in the early days. He has trained for it. His training is harder than his max lifts. That is, if we consider his PR days "contest" days, his "regular" training is much harder.
After watching Ashiem do this, BACK TO BACK, with an earlier banded deadlift cycle, complete with struggle sets, what do you think the chances are of him getting injured during a heavy PR attempt?

When Calluses Tear Off....How to Deal with

I explained to you a while ago how to take a little bit of gauze and some sports tape to tape your hands where the calluses are. Basically tape around your hand at the palm and around where the calluses are. First you put on a think layer of gauze. This is to keep the tape from sticking to your calluses. Then you lightly tape around all this. Just enough tape to provide a layer between the bar and your skin but not enough to interfere with your lifting. Some chalk helps with this as well in case the tape interferes with gripping. This does two things. It keeps calluses from getting ripped off because the friction is against the tape instead of the calluses and it is thin so it still allows pressure against the skin which develops the calluses and makes them harder. Your problem is not having calluses, it's having underdeveloped ones that rip off too easily. This doesn't happen to others as often as it happens to you.

Pec Minor Stretching advice for Devraj

To stretch the pec minor preferentially bring the arm back behind you so that the shoulder goes into extension and use a doorway or whatever to stretch that way. That will give a bit more of a stretch to the pec minor. Try to bring the scapula into retraction while you do this. I've tried doing this in a corner as well but I don't find that to work well. But you don't need to feel a really deep stretch.


The BEST way is more of a manual passive stretch for the pec minor involving a partner. This would be a typical thing a therapist would do for you. To do that you would lie on a foam roller with the foam roller vertical instead of horizontal…so that it lines up along your spine and between your shoulder blades. A therapist would probably use one of those half foam rollers for this. I use a whole roller. You can also use a rolled up towel for this…a big towel. DON'T do it with a PVC pipe! Put something under the head as well for support.


So you lie on the roller or towel that way and you bring your scapula into retraction and depression as much as you can. Your partner then pushes down, using the heel of the hand, and in the direction of retraction on the front portion at the corocoid process of the scapula. The partner should NOT be putting pressure directly on the humeral head. Using the heel of the hand on the corocoid process the partner pushes down and slightly toward the humeral head to force a stretch of the pec minor. You should feel this stretch in the chest but if the pressure from the hand hurts that is a no-no.

Here is a picture of the approximate area to push down on: Corocoid Process
And here is a picture of the strech, but without the roller or towel: Partner Pec Minor Stretch
Knock-knees are something you should check out with a professional. I wouldn't like to get involved with that. Of course it can be acquired a may have something to do with hip medial rotation. But it can also be associated with foot position and other things. And if there were a structural problem with the knee we could be poking our nose in places it doesn't belong. For simply postural corrections I can help but for this kind of thing I am not qualified.
Here is a Pec Minor Tightness, Stretching and Release video. Recognize that the table maneuver he is doing is not the stretch I have described above but an attempt to manually release the pec minor muscle itself…which is whey he is using the knuckles or finger and manipulating the arm to release tension.
You can do self work on the area with a tennis ball or a smaller bouncy ball to really hone it. Or with a theracane. You can use your thumb as well to some extent.

Deadlift 495x1x2 from The Singles Scene M25

Mesocycle 25 Week 2 The Singles Scene

Deadlifts:
455 x 2
495 x 1
495 x 1
475 x 1
475 x 1
455 x 1
Total Singles = 7
Average Weight = 472
Average Intensity = 94.4%


I was very anxious about my form because I felt it was all over the place. So I wrote to Eric asking for advice....this is his response prior to seeing the video (which I will link below):


Probably from now on out, with maximal work you'll have to expect some rounding. This is what you have been preparing for, in a way, and it is why I insisted on so much work under fatigue and so much buffering. As long as everything is "within" tolerance" as they say, I doubt I'll have a problem. You're talking 7 reps, after all. It's a very low percentage of your total volume. A tiny fraction. It's all the other stuff that prepares you for this…except for these singles of course are a tool themselves. So while others do not view maximal work as "training" but rather as just "maxing" we do and recognize that performance counts ALWAYS during training and all…


So just weigh all that with the reality of some back rounding and you'll be fine. The upper back is where you can take a lot of rounding. As long as your lower back doesn't go too far beyond "flat" you can take it. It's what you've been "training" for, after all. One thing you do need to always be aware of is the position of the lower back. If you sense it ever going beyond "safe" then dump the attempt. Otherwise you can handle a lot of flexion in the mid to upper back.


So, I uploaded the video and sent it to Eric:





Eric's Response:



These HD videos take me 20 minutes to watch. It looks ok. I think that you got lazy on your setup for many of the reps in that you didn't really have your shoulders well squared from the beginning. But nothing was grossly out of place and you were definitely in the safety zone. For the lighter sets in the future just concentrate more than ever on keeping the quality up. I think you may be losing a bit of mobility in the mid and upper back. You should work on thoracic extension a lot. Do thoracic extensions on the foam roller and also do the other oec minor stretch "stretch" with the foam roller down the center of your back. I had talked about that recently on a post…I'll dig it up.


Do a lot of tissue work on your chest and do pec and pec minor stretches in general after your workouts. I seem to be seeing a posture change. Some of it is just muscle growth but I don't think all of it is. I want to see those shoulder back more in general.

Methods vs. Results

Yeah…what I was saying has nothing really do do with methods. It's not that we're "discounting" methods it's that I view them as nothing more than a simple tool.

Let's come at it a different way. I always compare it to woodworking or carpentry in my head.

I'll tell you a story. My plumber was installing something and we found that the cabinets in the kitchen needed to be moved which opened a whole can of worms at first because we didn't know how difficult it would be to nudge a cabinet over because most kitchen cabinets just sit on the ground but sometimes they are bolted. Anyway turns out mine was no problem.

But in order to move the cabinet I had to remove a tiny piece of baseboard between a cabinet and a door frame and we were in a hurry. So I went and found this brand new thin wood chisel because it was the only thing I had small enough to pry off the base board. After I used the chisel I looked at it and said, damn, don't like to treat a brand new chisel like that (they aren't meant for prying!).

He said, "do you actually use them for woodworking?" I said, no, no, they are for getting into cracks and removing paint from hard to reach areas…I used them as a scraper. And I said, "I know what you're thinking, that I'm precious about the tools. Not at all I just always hate to see that new chisel edge go, lol. But I don't really care."

See my plumber is the same way. Tools are just tools. Whatever it takes to get the job done. But both of us no plenty of people that are more into their tools than they are the work they do!. These guys will be fancy computer driven equipment and then refuse to use it for certain things because they don't want to "mess it up". LOL. In reality you can do the same work with hand tools or fancy power tools and the results are the same. And there are some who are "purists" right, who refuse to use anything but "primitive" tools…yet, again, it's only the final results that matter.

Say you are joining two pieces of wood in a piece of furniture. A real join will give you much better results than just butting two pieces together with screws are something. It doesn't matter what tools you use to make the joins only the joins themselves.

But THAT is the why. When you say, I want to produce this sort of join, you have a choice of tools, but you have narrowed down those choices considerably. It ain't a hammer, or a wrench, or a saw you need, after all.

When it comes to training most people pick methods and then post facto decide what they are using them for! I'm not kidding you. This is how most coaches and trainers think and pretty much all amateur trainees. I decide what it is that needs to be accomplished and then try to pick an efficient tool. Sometimes the same tool that worked one time may not work this time or even ever again. So being results oriented means looking at what it is that needs to be done and THEN analysing and choosing the path to get their. Not the other way around.

As you say, for me a driving need is to build up work tolerance at a certain work range before moving on and that makes that next jump in absolute strength possible and safer.

Front Box Squats - Critique of Kanishk

Sir you said I shouldn't be squatting so heavy,Sir then what should I be doing for box squats.

Last time (at least the last time I'm aware of) you stayed on the box a minimum amount of time. 


Then this time you didn't really sit down at all. So, the weight you did is a reflection of that. With box squats you really are "sitting" on the box. It's a controlled sitting but it's still sitting. You said they were hard…well they should have been "harder" in terms of moving the weight which means…less weight. Consistency counts. The reason I said there is no way you should be using that much weight is because….you made it easier this time. Get it?


This happens often and it is a never-ending source of frustration to me. I give someone a new exercise variation to do and they go immedieatly into the mind set of busting out PR's on it. It's not about that. You have to look at the PURPOSE. If your "purose" is to bust out PR's then that means other "purposes", perhaps more important ones, will be sacrifised. The box squats are meant to be a learning too as well as a training tool.


1. I want to see you at least sit down to parallel


2. I want to see you pause on the box for about a two count (for discipline's sake) so count 1-Mississippi 2-Mississippi and STAY tight. Don't relax and drift back too much


Once you go through a warm up properly doing it this way the bar will let you know how much weight is appropriate. If that still turns about to be just as heavy than fine…but I doubt it because you were bouncing off a high bench and that is easier than regular front squats. Your box squats should usually be somewhat behind your regular squats but it's not a rule.

I think I was too worried about not sitting back

Yeah. Never "worry" about NOT doing something. Before you begin the session, repeat to yourself what you SHOULD do, not what you SHOULD NOT do. See yourself going trhough the motions. Run this through your mind well in advance of actually getting under the bar. And then just do it.

Deadlifting in the upper 400s

Managed to do:
465 x 1
435 x 4
475 x 1
445 x 4
475 x 1
Log: M24 W2 Deadlift Training

Plan for the following week:
465 x 1
445 x 4
475 x 1
455 x 3-4
485 x ?

Eric's take:


If this were more maximal than it is than maybe we'd want to go easy on week three, yada yada and that is how a lot of people would always do it. And it's a mistake.


This is an example of what I talked about in one of my recent posts. Compare this to the so called advanced 5x5 or any "volume loading protocol". There is wisdom in the 'build up' there is just no sense in the method which is stupid. So what you're doing is an example of working on work tolerance and performing in a fatigued state, etc. but in a much more sensible and controlled way. So it is always going to be a bit risky but it's a calculated risk. Whereas with the volume loading there is not risk benefit analysis at all.


Overreaching here is a side-effect. I don't believe in all the "planned-overreaching" shit. I plan to progress and to succeed not to "over-reach" lol.


It is perfectly fine to go for it. Just don't get "comfortable or cocky". You know that, I don't have to tell you but I think that people who would look at this and shout "too much" fail to realize that a lot of the problems that occur don't occur because of the "method" itself but because there is no "out" in the method. That is, if you don't get a pre-arranged certain thing done you have "failed". That causes people to do sloppy things because they are afraid of failing. A little stepping back from it and you can have success be a wider range of results..which is what we do. It's called "taking your time" lol.

Career Advice

Hey, I got back yesterday evening.

You know how many people I've heard say "I'm not meant for 9 to 5"? If I had a nickel for every one, etc. so on…

Very few people really "love" the daily grind. Some people are lucky enough to have their job coincide with their passion and some aren't. Some people find that when their "passion" becomes their "job" the pleasure is sucked out of it! It's possible to feel utilysed and even fullfilled by your "9 to 5" but you have been assuming that you would just fall into this perfect blend of paycheck and passion and it probably ain't gonna happen like that. You know what I always say..it all comes down to expectations. Humans are the only animals who can for sure be said to "expect" things. Therefore we can rarely "make the best of things"! We have a hard time deriving value from those things that don't meet our expectations.

Given that…your current work situation sounds crappy with a capital C. I say start looking NOW for something better. Maybe it's not finance. Maybe the pay isn't even that great but do you want good pay or less misery right now? The reason I think you should get out of this situation as soon as possible is not about training and scheduling. The hours are ridiculous but the biggest reason is because such an environment, the longer you stay in it, the more it gets under your skin. You don't want it to get inside you. It will affect your attitude when you move on. Either you will have adapted to the situation, to your detriment, or you will build up so much anger that you will carry that anger with you to each new job…expecting the worse and having the attitude that shows it.

People rarely stay with their first job out of college for long. It's a stepping stone and a learning process. Obviously it will not matter how much you put into it or how seriously you take it given such a work environment. With a situation like that if you try to "excell" you know what will happen? You will be ostracised for trying to make the slackers "look bad". There is no room for growth in a place like that. There is nothing that you can do but to try to do the tasks you are given to do without trying to overcome an untenable situation. Bide your time and find something new as soon as you can. The culture is the culture…it is out of your control you can pretty much guarantee.

Eric's comments on Deadlifts

Ok, so here are the guidelines. They will get you roundabout into the best position with a little wiggle required to hone it in to your comfort zone. I think first I will go over some mistakes that people make. Some of this I mentioned in the "hips to high" article.

One of the most important things in motor learning is your frame of reference. That is what you you as a benchmark from which your movement is relative. Obviously that may change as a movement progresses but in general, as with anything, a STATIONARY benchmark is best to start with.

One of the most frequent cues you hear in deadlifting is "get your butt higher" or "get your butt lower". To me, one of the WORST ways to cue a deadlift. Let's assume for our purposes that "hips" and "butt" is the same thing, btw, for now. When you tell someone just to move their butt up and down you are having them focus on a MOBILE benchmark and then telling them to move it around! You'll have to have someone tell you where to put your hips about a thousand times before it finally sinks in.

So we want to start with something that is not moving and maintain our setup relative to THAT.
Another big miscue, in my opinion is focusing on the feet or the floor for closed chain movements like this. What you hear is things like "drive your heels into the floor" and "try to push down on the floor". It seems like a good idea but the problem is that focusing on the feet and the floor makes your body want to move down. You are NOT pushing down the floor. You are pulling UP the bar. Although it will require a lot of pushing into the floor, lol, the action that really results in the bar being pulled up is a very powerful hip extension.

Deadlifts are a "hip dominant" movement, not a "knee dominant" movement.

To illustrate this to yourself there is a very simple but very powerful test which is similar to doing a jump. Do this right now as your reading this.

1. Stand up and get yourself into a sort of deadlifting postion. Bring your hips back and place your weight onto your heels.

2. Now VERY SLIGHTLY "push" your heels into the floor. You weight should be on your heels and your hips should be flexed so that your torso is slightly inclined. Basically you should be able to jump forward from this position. So push your heels into the ground just enough so that you feel your glutes and hamstrings engage. You may actually feel as if you can "tense" these muscles a whole lot without actually extending your knees or hips at all.

3. NOW, do something different. Get into the same position as step two. Weight on the heels. But DON'T push your heels into the floor. Instead concentrate on driving your hips and butt forward very slightly and easily. In other words just try to slightly extend (straighten) your hips.

4. If you do this right you should notice a very marvelous thing. In step two, you will probably be able to generate a lot of muscular tension in your legs and really feel as if you are pushing that floor but without actually generating any movement. Yet, in step three you should find it pretty much impossible to try to extend the hips and not end up standing straight up! If your degree of effort is pretty much the same for both things that should tell you something about the relative efficiency of both movements!

The reality is..both efforts SHOULD result in the same thing. But the first method is able to generate a whole lot of muscle tension with no movement whereas the second method results in powerful and fluid movement without a lot of static muscle tension.

With that being said, there MAY be something to say for first driving the heels and then performing a violent hip extension…which is what most people do. Because you generate that tension in the extensors and then your "let it rip". I've never really found it to be more efficient, personally. Albeit with a heavy dead lift you generate a lot of muscular tension, lol, so what I mean is that I don't find it more efficient to use "high tension techniques". If I could guess as to why this is so I'd say that generating the excessive and unneeded tension limits efficient joint movement. In that vane you may notice that step two, if you allow movement, causes a more herky jerky movement, whereas step three, as I said before, causes a fluid movement, and what's more you can hardly avoid this movement occuring with only the slightest application of effort.

Ok, so the other mistake that people make is to take the word "pulling" to literally. This is another reason why focusing on hip drive is so important. What people do is they simply attempt to "pull" the bar off the floor with their shoulders. So it's sort of like they are dong the movement from the top down. Which results in the extreme cases in the "scared cat deadlift" that we see SO often. That's not the only thing that results in it but it's one action that can lead to it.
That's at least a few of the mistakes…

1. Stand with your shins about an inch from the bar with about a hip width stance or slightly wider depending on what works best for you.

2. Look down at the barbell and imagine that there is a vertical line coming up through it so that the line of the barbell is part of an imaginary plane. The barbell and this imaginary line is your reference point or benchmark. You will use this to orient your body to. Remember this if for visualization purposes only.

3. After you grab the bar you will bring your shoulders in front of the bar so that the imaginary line intersects you scapula. In other words, the bar is in line with your scapula. Keeping your shoulders forward of the bar in this postion bring your chest up and shoulders back and locked. Scapula retracted.

4. Hips/Butt: Now that your feet are in the right place and your shoulders are in the right place the trick is to get your hips as close to this imaginary LINE as possible while maintaining your shoulder position. You are NOT bring your hips down toward the bar..you are bringing them forward toward the line coming up through the bar. WITHOUT moving your shoulders back.

All the while the chest must stay OUT and the shoulders back. The lower back must remain in it's tightly set natural arch.

Really, once you hit step three and you are maintaining a good deadlifting position with your lumbar set..you are pretty much there. Step 4 is a very subtle adjustment. If you move your hips down..the shoulders drift behind the bar. If you move your hips too far up the shoulder sink. So "just right" is in between. Correct, as has been said before, means your butt is below your shoulders but above your knees . That may seem really smart aleck but since you see people try to deadlift with their butt below their knees in the "deadlift as squat" position OR with their butt pretty much level with their shoulders…it needs to be said, apparently.

Kanishk's Progress on Deadlifts

I wish you wouldn't have stuck with the too heavy bar. That was a mess and you could have gotten hurt and it I think it defeated the purpose of the session.
That's OK but let's have a do over.


You need more than 30 seconds rest between the speed sets. You can't expect to lift "explosively" while resting like a bodybuilder. Keep the heavy sets to singles. That is, I'd rather you do the same amount in singles rather than in doubles.


Start with more reps for the speed. You should be able to do 8 or so. You can cut down the reps as the intensity is increased.


Let's call this session practice, OK and forget what I said before because I think we are going to have to nail down the weight ranges. If Anuj can guide you through it I'd like you to work up to a relative max next time. I don't think that will end up being any more than 385 or so. You will warm up carefully and build up carefully to your BEST max for the day…and do that once. That's it. This should be done ala "single scene" but just one max and then no singles. QUALITY.
After this we will base the speed deads progression on this relative max you established. It's just a benchmark. We don't need it to be like rocket science.


So the next workout should be a repeat attempt at this last workout, like so:


1. Warm up to quality relative max (I'm guessing 285 or so)


2. Calculate 55 percent of that max and use this weight for you speed sets (I'm guessing 155 to 160)


3. Go for a total of about 9 total speed lifts. They can be done as singles OR as doubles depending on how explosive you can be. If for instance you can maintain pretty much the same speed for a second rep or even do a little better, do two reps. If you can't do that then stick with one rep at a time. Adjust the sets to make 9 or even 10 total reps accordingly.


We'll cover the next session after that once we see what happens.


You through any semblance of your setup out the window for every deadlift you did. You back was rounded, etc. I would have rather you skipped the front squats than sleep walk through these deadlifts.

Breaking through 455x3 on Deadlifts

What I was saying is as simple as this. You want to beat 455x3. Why then, does 455 need to be done for more than one set in a workout? You see?

Before, when you sent me a pm you said you have never lifted more than 2 or 3 reps with 455. So to my thinking you had beating 3 reps with 455 as a goal. YET when you went in to lift you did not really look for ways to beat 455x3, you looked for ways to beat what you did previously, which is not necessarily the same thing.

This is why I said not to get too caught up with SDT progression. To my mind there is nothing wrong with having as a goal to beat 455x3. Maybe the way you do that does not mean you do single, double, or triple progression. Maybe it does. Or maybe it means you at least keep the same workload and average intensity.

The POINT is that using SDT in this case has nothing really to do with beating that 455x3 mark per se. You have put these two things together but they are really two separate things. SDT is just a way of looking at progression. Beating 455x3 is a SPECIFIC goal.

In any case, go ahead with the plan as outlined. This is all just philisophical.

Kanishk's Front Box Squats

Pretty good but you are not controlling the descent to the last possible second. That's ok, it's normal. But if you watch closely you see that instead of sitting straight down onto the box you slightly relax before meeting it and slide backwards onto it. We want the same mechanics as with a regular front squat.


Try getting the box a bit more between the legs so you are not worrying about missing it. And go straight down without losing tightness. Try to eliminate that slight drop onto the box and the very slight drift backwards. I don't know exactly what weights were used since I was watching the technique but lighten the weight if necessary.


Once you get better at that height lower it a bit somehow.

KISS = Best Approach = ?

But I agree with the KISS thing. As you guys know. It's not about simple versus complicated, though, it's about simple-minded and shortsighted versus well-thought and with a view to the future. I do NOT agree with the statement about "finding where you "fit" since that says pretty much nothing. You can't go the simple route but you are supposed to find THE fit and then what…stick with that even when that stops working? It's the same thing…picking a box or trying to put yourself in a box and then refusing to climb out of it in the face of continuing failure. The one rule of strength training is that nothing always keeps working. There is no fit. You always have to keep adapting.

Pistol Squat Density Training

Being that you got 25 reps on pistol squats why not see if you have better luck with density training. That is if you think you got them down well enough.


I think 20 minutes is much too long. Try 12 to 15 at the most. And simply do as many reps in that period as you can. Rest as needed. Escalating Density style I guess (I'm almost choking on the words, lol). That probably will be useful for about three workouts. And then you can go to straight sets and see where you are. But really you don't need so many reps before you can start adding weight so the idea here should also be to become more efficient and skilled at them.

500 Deadlift

After this, 3 weeks of Quality Volume Training starting at 85% i.e. 425 lbs.


Eric's Message:



Work up to an intitial starting weight of around 85% of your max. After that you can do anywhere between 1 and 3 reps depending on your perception of how good the previous set went, etc…


You can go as heavy as you like and maintain quality. For this, the amount of lumbar flexion you had on the 500 is not allowed even though it was GREAT quality for such a PR. You don't have to be crazy strict about it but try to maintain the best quality you can.


Repeat weights if you feel it's heavier than it should be. Cut sets short for the same reason. Take you time and just do it by "feel". (Sleeper is my trainer now).


Do it the same way you've always done quality volume. There are not many rules. Long rests.

Another miserable fucking workout

Eric,


I am so fucking angry right now. Today's Deadlift workout was a DISASTER.


I did


455 x 1
475 x 1
495 x FAIL «— I failed at the knees. Fuck me…this should've gone up smoothly.
455 x FAIL
455 x FAIL


After that 495 attempt everything just went to shit. Fuck me. I hate this. Really.


Ashiem


ps: I am beginning the singles training 4 week cycle come next week. This workout was such a disaster I cannot count it as the first week. What a disappointing performance. This is the 3rd miserable deadlift workout in a row. How can anyone's body fail at lifting this many number of times. It must be some kind of a record to be this epically disappointing.


Ashiem you have been pushing the hell out of the deads. You probably just need some recoup time. But how many times have you ever done 495 that you should expect it to automatically go up smoothly. If you treat the singles workouts like this you will be beating your head against the wall.


I understand you being upset about the 455 failing after the 495 but it probably took more out of you than you thought. You did get 475. I've been pushing you really hard but you have to let go of "should" and "could" and all of that. You know this.


You are not an amalgem of every lift you've done in the past. You simply are what you are right now. You may have built on what came before but that does not mean what came before defines what happens now. What you are now defines that. So let what is BE. You've already forgotten when 400 pounds felt like a dream that would never happen!


Once you hit the 475 and failed at the 495 then 475 became your relative max. YOU could have went ALL THE WAY DOWN to 430 and you would have been perfectly fine and well within your goals for a singles workout. Instead you attempted to go right to ~96 percent of your relative just after a big attempt and fail. These are WORKOUTS. Not contests.


Next time go down lighter when these things happen. Take your time and build back up IF POSSIBLE. If not keep it low but just over 90%.

How many singles should I do?

Pick a range rather than exact numbers.


So like


Week 1: 6-8 Singles
Week 2: 4-6 Singles
Week 3: 7-10 Singles
Week 4: 2-3 Singles

Arguing about Deadlifts

Ok so ignoring the widowmaker thing…

It seems to me as if you were doing you're thing and his progress is fine and they stepped in and make a claim or statement about only doing 1x5 on deadlifts. If that is what happened then it is not up to YOU to prove anything. It is up to them to prove that one cannot do 1x5 regardless of circumstances. And I'm sure they are stupid enough to say regardless of circumstances.

AND they need to do it without, as Hale would say, an appeal to authority.

Just saying "deadlifts are really hard" or "they take a lot out of you" is not going to cut it. You putting the burden of proof on yourself is actually empowering them. That is nothing more than a dogmatic beleif with no basis in objective fact. I'd say it's grounded in one of these assumptions, depending on who says it:

1. Deadlifts, by virtue of the weight you lift and the amount of large muscle groups that come to play, "deplete the CNS" and thus must be kept to one set.

So, where's the proof that deadlifts do something like that? But wait, first you must DEFINE what it means to deplete the CNS or cause neural fatigue. (There are proposed definitions but nothing based on a direct observance of what it is..in other words the defintions are not really descriptive of the underlying physical process).

2. The deadlifts murder the lower back and thus you can't do more than one set.

Based on NOTHING but anecdotal evidence and circular thinking. Deadlifts seem no tougher on the lower back than squats to me, and to many others, but then again, I know how to fucking deadlift. This is a case of "speak for yourself", I think.

3. Deadlifts just "take a lot out of you".

I dont know how to argue against such and unscientific and imprecise statement except to point out that it is unscientific and imprecise.

Deadlifts are a demanding exercise but they are still part of the whole interchange with overal stress and recovery. Deadlifts have become the bad guy by people who don't even have a decent fucking deadlift (relatively speaking). There are only a handful of really big deadlifters who do that whole "no deadlift" deadlift training. Most people with big deadlifts get there by pulling their ass off.

For some reason, the deadlift is the crook even though it's programmed as part of either high volume or moderate volume with aggressive loading. Why is this?

Because the people who trumpet the one set of deadlifts bullshit think that the back squat is MAGIC and that you always must prioritize it and hit it like it's a fucking congo and that it will just give give give because it, apparently is handed down from the God's.

Logically, as long as one is not willing to program the squat, and others, any other way, deadlift may be seen as the "bad guy" in the equation, lol. Frankly, you have people obsessed with squatting, thinking it will make you super strong, super big, and super athletic ad infinitum who DON'T EVEN GIVE A SHIT ABOUT THE DEADLIFT because they believe whatever the bullshitter like Rippetoe or whoever tell them. If you're so ate up about squatting and never compromise on it what the fuck do you know about programming any ONE lift, including the deadlift? Nothing.

These people know nothing about lifting. Period. They are bodybuilders trying to ride a strength training donkey.

Of course on a 5x5 you're going to do only one or two sets of deadlifts if squats always have to be on fucking Monday.

Why the hell do we have to deal with stupid dogmatic shit like this? You want to do more deadlifts then do less of other things. Or, work up your tolerance slowly and do more of everything…to a degree of course.

Upper Heavy Pulling High Volume

It's just for the pullups, haha.


Actually here's something. Today was a big upper body day what with all the pullups and the OH squat. I also did dumbell lunge presses, lat pulldown and pushups.


You know that I do a lot of volume on pulling in general, not that today was really high volume.


Anyway on upper body days sometimes stretching the pecs out helps and especially before rows. Sometimes with really heavy days what I want is to keep the shoulders back and down rather than really stretch the chest. This helps keep the back feeling right and it helps the trap soreness I get which is an ache.
So in between sets what I will do is take a stretch band, grab it in the middle about shoulder width or so apart and bring it around behind me so that it is wrapped around my upper back. This forces my arms and hands back so that I am in a position like the bottom position of a pushup, except with a bit more stretch due to the band. The scapula are forced into passive retraction. I just let the band hold me that way and I also keep the shoulders depressed and get a bit of stretch in the neck. Then I just walk around that way between the set. Feels great and makes everything feel just so again.

More on Density

Yes that increases density and that is good but it drops the total volume, which may in this case be appropriate but I think it may be too heavy.

Well the reason it's confusing is because you are using stepped sets (or at least different weights). If it had been all the same weight sets then it would be very clear.

volume is reps x sets

workload is reps x sets x weight

Simple enough right.

Here is why you are confused. You are looking at individual weights. You are thinking 450 versus 455 versus 435 and all of that. What you have to realize is that when you are increasing density and volume, you are really only concerned with the average intensity.

The difference between 435 and 455 is about 4 percent. The difference between 450 and 455 is negligible. That means for the purposes of these workouts, whether you hit 455 versus 450 really doesn't matter. And if you were to choose all sorts of weights between 435 and 455 it still wouldn't matter if you were able to keep the average instensity on par.

Get the average intensity:

Take the workload: 6585

And divide it be the total sets: 15

439 is the average

So that is your median weight.

So think about that as all you HAVE to do on average in terms of weight. Then think about the top weights 450 or 455 as what you'd LIKE to do.

Now I don't know what you are able to put on the bar. But say you did 440 x 4 x 4. That would increase density while keeping the intensity within the proper range.

But since you looking to 'blitz' it for a short time period, you would LIKE to go heavier.

So any thing heavier than that 440 for sets of 4 would do it. And you'd need at least 4 sets. Preferably at least one of those sets at 450 or 455 but it is not completely necessary at all.

Your plan increases the density of the sets but it lowers the volume so that within the time frame of the workout the total density is lower.

Look at density as the amount of work you do in a certain time frame. Well there are different time frames within a workout, right?

One timeframe is the time from the beginning of one rest period to the end of the next, for instance. The beginning and end can be any point of reference, really.

Say the rest period is 5 minutes, then a set, then another 5 minute rest periods. The time it takes you to do the reps is negligible. That is, assuming you are doing one after another as quick as you can safely, the time it would take to add another rep or two doesn't add time to your frame.

So assuming all that, you add reps to any set you increase the density in that way.

But there is also the timeframe of the entire session. If you take the individual sets and increase them all by one you've added maybe, what, 10 seconds or so to each of your time-frames. As far as your body is concerned the work has increased a LOT per unit of time.

Just increasing work per unit of time, in itself is increasig density. If you decrease the overall volume so that you are asking your body to do less overall work it's like you've traded work per unit of time for volume of work, see? So you want to try and at least match the overall volume..reps x sets.

And within that you think about workload. If you can match or beat the workload that would be great but workload is what throws us under the bus. Instead, think about the average intensity like I explained above and then think about maybe hitting your upper weight limits for at least one of your sets. And that set doesn't even have to be more dense.

Now, I know we don't time our workout precisely. This is not 'density' training. We are assuming that our rest periods are reasonably similar and our rep cadense is fairly constant. So your workout is separated into several timeframes that contain a set, and those timeframes make up the total time which is the session.

As long as you increase work in some, most, or all of those timeframes and don't do less overal volume or take more overall time..you've increased density.

It's hard to spell this out in a precise way. It's quite intuitive.

Workload vs. Volume

Just so you know, for the future..the total pounds are 'work'. Commonly referred to as workload. That is NOT the same as volume which is just reps x sets with no thought as to how heavy. You can have a very high volume and a very low workload being the weights are light.

When I say volume I simply mean weights x reps. The point was that you could have increased density by just doing the same stuff in less sets. So what took you 4 sets of 2 say it takes you 3sets of 3 (+ 1 rep). That's not considering the workload as such.

So why would you consider the workload in that situation? Because it gives you an indication of the relative intensity of the workout. I.E say you did the 3 x 3 so that's 9 reps. You'd want you workload to hopefully be the same as the doubles and you know you've maintained the relative intensity.

What you did was consider workload as the same as volume causing you to try a BEAT the previous workload. Meaning you might have thrown yourself under a bus. It's nice to beat the workload but all you needed to do was more or less maintain intensity while increasing density and maybe increasing volume a little bit. That would have at least matched or beat the workload a little bit.
Right now it's hard to say what to do next because you kind of jumped the gun so we'll need to go by how you feel.

Given all that is sounds like you had a good session and you're happy so that is good.

Just never mix up volume and workload again.