Strength, Support, And Pinch Focus

[Starkmann]

Starkmann--

this is 'the fiance'-- the gloves look silly, (esp since he sleeps otherwise naked) but i can appreciate he wants to do his best.  as long as he didnt try to 'put the moves on' while wearing them, i dont really care what he does.  and anyway, its not the silliest thing i have ever seen him wear before.  consistantly.  (i do not pick out his clothes for him.)

←

Scott,

Hope I didn't upset "the fiance" or make life rough for you at home. She appears to be a bit like "the Wife", mine that is. I believe the old timey expression is "Moxy". You got moxy kid, I like that.

Good thing you have an understanding fiance, it makes life a whole lot better when you can keep some of your hobbies after you married. Best of luck and get healthy man.

[Scott Styles]

11-23-2005 - Workout 9 of 20 - Playing: Avril Lavigne DVD

The cold is still gnawing at me, but now it's more like one of those little dogs that always bites your ankles but doesn't do any real harm. It's screwing with my sleep and appetite though. Missing sleep and food doesn't make for great workouts, but I decided to get out the grip toys today anyway.

Warm Up: Wore my gloves for 5 minutes while setting up for the workout.

Levering: Using my 6lb sledge, number indicates inches from the head of the sledge my thumb is minus 1. Same sets and reps for both hands.

Front Lever: 5x11, 5x15, 5x15

Rear Lever: 5x20, 5x23, 2x23

Overhead Lever: 5x19, 5x23, 2x23 1x26

I had an idea that this workout was going to be a little weak, so I broke out the video camera and decided to get a look at my form. Ugh. I'm a cheating SOB. I see little bits of body english all over on my levers. I will focus on cleaning these up as I get my deads to the point where I can increase the weight. On my overhead levers I need to get my hand higher and keep my elbow locked. On my front levers I'm flexing my bicep to get the hammer all the way up, especially lefty, On the rear levers, I'm pulling my tricep in to the movement.

2" partial deads: 5x85, 5x135, 5x185, 2x185, 0x185

Unsuprisingly, these suffered. Since similar fatiuge happened on the levering, I feel like my body still had strength, but no endurance.

FBBC 2 Hand Economy Pinch Block (2"): 5x45, 2x70, 0x70, 0x70

My motivation had begun to wane here.

FBBC 2" Wrist Roller: 1x45 (alternate hands, PR), 1x70 (PR), 1x70 (PR)

Finally, PRs! I realized recently with these that some people do them by rotating the roller with one hand at a time and alternating hands. I tried that on the first set, it's a much harder form of the exercise. I misloaded the weight for repeating last workout on the roller, but it worked out ok. I need to remember to breath while doing these.

-------------------------------------------------

Bah, I hate colds! On the bright side I can feel the energy flowing through my body now. It wasn't really there before this workout. I am hoping the activity will stimulate my appetite and make me sleep more. Right now, since all I've done is lay around for a week, I don't feel like sleeping or eating much. That's going to hold my training back. I'll repeat my attempt at this workout on Saturday and expect the results to be better.

11 chances left to get stronger before the end of the year.

[Scott Styles]

11-26-2005 - Workout 10 of 20 - Playing: None

I wasn't feeling the enthusiasm I needed today. Rather than have a crappy workout and cause my cycle to start to plateau, I decided to screw around. I will "redo" the 185 week next week and expect to do well. I definitely regret working through the cold last week. If I hit my 10lb a week progression target for the next 5 weeks, I can still have my 3x5x225 on the 18" deads.

Double Underhanded Bending: Feeling this out with my FBBC stock

1x7" 3/16 round

1x6" 3/16 round

1x5" 3/16 round - Kink, finished with doubled overhand

1x7" 3/16 square - Kink

I've been hoping all the levering work will make my double underhanded bending strong. It turns out that my pinkies are the weak point here and now they hurt. I'll need to think about what sort of specialization I can do to bring the pinkies up. Once I can get the square stock reliably, volume on some timber ties may be a good option.

FBBC 2" Wrist Roller

Extensors: 1x50 (alternate hands, PR), 1x75 (PR), 1x75 (PR)

Flexors: 1x50 (alternate hands, PR), 1x60 (alternate hands, PR)

Sure is easy to set wrist roller PRs without all those other dumb exercises in the way. These felt pretty good and are tough all over.

FBBC V-bar: 145 FAIL, 140 FAIL, 105, 105, 70

I need to learn the skills to do v-bar without hurting myself before I can really make any progress on it. I lack confidence because I know I'm not sure how to do it without injury. Oh yeah, and it is painful even at these light weights.

10 chances left to get stronger before the end of the year.

[priznr]

first off, the organization of your workout plan is incredible! keep up the good work.

ok about the v-bar, why not perform the v-bar every workout, light? you stopped doing the v-bar before, and seem as if you are going to stop v-bar again..

my advice is to ATTACK your v-bar issue.. trying to max on it is not going to improve your sensitization to it (if it hasn't already).. try to increase your FREQUENCY. I think frequency is the key to causing your body to adapt to anything.

for example, briefly, i have had something torn in my bicep area and a torn mcl since last august. when training for basketball, i tried to perform bodyweight pullups & bw pushups EVEY NIGHT, as well as bodyweight squats or bw hindu squats every night.. the pain sucked, but my body has adapted incredibly..

so if v-bar is one of your goals, perform light v-bar as often as possible, even if it is only when you do your workouts (i would do it every day, real light, but that's my twisted logic).. but don't stop doing it, your body will not adapt if you stop doing it!

peace, pain is just a signal that you're starting to work hard enough

[Scott Styles]

Doing v-bar more frequently to get used to it is probably a good idea, but I hate it

Seriously though, I don't have the patience to train the lift intensively until I have to. I'm a sissy when it comes to pain and even light weights hurt. Without a reason to train the lift, I will ultimately end up avoiding my entire workout just so I don't have to do it. The time will come to train v-bar with specialization for the BBB contest in October 2006. My long term plan is more or less:

1. Nov - Dec: Finish this cycle at the end of the year.

2. Jan - Feb: Determine if I'm going to do the Michigan Grip Champs, if so, specialize on the events until the contest in mid-feb. Otherwise specialize on double underhanded bending.

3. March - May: Do a dynamic exercise cycle - grip machine, formulator, dynamic thumb, maybe some block work. I don't own a formulator or grip machine, so this would give me an excuse for new toys.

4. June - August: Do a cycle with focus on what I feel are my weakest areas of grip for the BBB. Again, maybe get some new toys. A 2" solid thick bar from FBBC, perhaps.

5. Sept. - Oct: Specialize on the BBB contest events, including v-bar. Depending on the final event John settles on, I may be learning to do the ring lift. I might also be able to justify getting some scale weights. The scale weights were cool...

I may also introduce a supplementation program into my recovery factors at some point near the beginning of next year. I'm working through a nutrition correspondance course on supplements right now in an effort to get the real scoop on what works and what doesn't. My guess is I'll end up giving creatine a try, and if I can find glucosamine that aligns with my vegitarian diet, I may give that a shot. Again, still working through the course.

[Scott Styles]

11-29-2005 - Workout 11 of 20 - Playing: My fiance making fun of my levering form

Couldn't work from home yesterday, so I had to do this one at 7:30pm. I get up for work at 6:30am, so I was pretty tired when I started. I have, however, been attending to recovery well.

Warm Up: Wore my gloves for 5 minutes while setting up for the workout.

Levering: Using my 6lb sledge, number indicates inches from the head of the sledge my thumb is minus 1. Same sets and reps for both hands.

Front Lever: 5x11, 5x15, 5x13

Rear Lever: 5x19, 5x23, 5x20

Overhead Lever: 5x20, 5x23, 5x20

I had my fiance watching these. On the second set it was blatantly obvious to her that my form sucked. She ribbed me about and said I was going to hurt myself and was wasting energy and holding myself back. She was right, so I dropped the weight on the last set and focused on making things stricter. I'll use the weights from the last set next workout.

2" partial deads: 5x85, 5x135, 5x175, 5x175, 5x175

@#$%, I just realized I misloaded the bar last night. That explains why these were highly doable and I almost fell backwards on some of the reps. I'll do 185 on Saturday and go for 195 on the following Tuesday.

Card Tearing: Raven Cards from Target

Tore 1 deck

Split the cards from each deck in half, so I had piles of 26 cards or so. Tore each of those 4 piles

Card Tearing is fun! The nice thing about my last two exercises not being a primary focus is I can switch them out as my interest varies. I did this while watching Big Steve's first DVD and trying to get my form better. I did get a cleaner tear in the center of the deck. My hands feel pretty beat up today. I really need to get my pinkies stronger for feats of strength like this and double underhanded bending.

9 chances left to get stronger before the end of the year.

[Left Side]

Did you really play Avril Laveine during your Nov 23 workout?

[Scott Styles]

Did you really play Avril Laveine during your Nov 23 workout?

←

It was almost as good as the Britney Spears DVD during the Nov 1 workout.

[bencrush]

The workouts are looking very good Scott. I love how detailed your log is.

My advice on the vertical bar is going to be a little different than the high volume approach. I would suggest watching every video you can download of big vertical bar lifters. Mikael Siversson, Dutch, Franky, David Horne, Jim Wylie, Clay Edgin, the list goes on and on.

Watch them. Mimic their form. Watch them some more. Rewind the video. Watch it again! There is some form issue that you're not getting yet...you are WAY stronger than your vertical bar numbers indicate. I guarantee it!

I know you have the tenacity to watch the videos and figure out what is holding your poundage back. I did a very similar thing with my vertical bar training.

I think I got my 1" vertical bar somewhere around June of this year. I pulled 231 pounds on it the first max attempt after warming up thoroughly.

I thought that I had the form down because in my head it was just as simple as "grab the damn bar and pull." That couldn't be farther from the truth. There are many small technique variations that the HUGE lifters use to enable them to lift big. Not cheating. Just plain old good sense lifting.

For one thing, I was just grabbing the bar and then pulling immediately. Not getting set and making sure that my hand was chalked properly. Or making sure that the bar itself was chalked liberally.

I didn't "get the slack out" of my grip. I can PM you if you want that explained. Once I started getting my body closer to the weight, kind of a humping forward motion, my strength went up too.

Point is, I thought that 231 was pretty good. I thought that maybe, just maybe, I would pull 250 sometime next year.

Well I reset my goals after some research and a lot of video watching. I spoke through PM with Chris Rice, Climber511 (who sold me the beautiful v-bar!), and he gave me some tips and even clued me in on what he considered a world class lift on the 1" v-bar. 300 pounds. So my goal was reset in my head.

Sometimes that makes all the difference in the world. Now that I had reset my goal to 300, 250 seemed like child's play. So with even more video watching and form tuning, I pulled 331 on the 19th of this month.

Did I really get 100 pounds stronger on the lift in less than 6 months? No. Not at all. Most of the strength was already there. But the technique has to be as near to perfect as possible for someone to pull around the 275 and up mark. And my technique is nowhere near perfect. But it's getting better. Yours will too with perfect practice.

So the previous advice about frequent v-bar training is not bad at all. Frequent practice is ONLY good if it's frequent CORRECT practice! Ingrain that in your head. I know you're a very smart guy, but sometimes the best of us forget that fact, myself included, and substitute frequent crap or subpar practice and think that it will lead us to our goals. But that kind of inattention to detail is about as likely to lead us to our goals as a blind and legless camel.

300 is possible the first year for most men who are healthy. That's what I think. 300 is possible for YOU!

Reset your goal to 300. Do it now. Watch a lot of videos and take from them what fits your build, style, hand size, et cetera. I don't think that hand size has a lot to do with the 1" v-bar lift though.

Try a lot of different technique variations if you think they will help you and they appear to be valid.

Log the weights that you are capable of lifting with the slightly different styles. This is where your excellent attention to detail will make you king. With a lot of perfect practice, and an iron will, with a great attention to even minute technique and form details, you will hit 300 on the 1" v-bar. Then you will say goodbye to 300 on your way to 400!

Do it man.

[Starkmann]

That's one hell of a reply Ben. You have done all of us a service with that one.

[Mikael Siversson]

Your work load seems a bit low in the v-bar.

I do it every 9 days as I feel quality is of utmost importance in this lift and it takes more than a week for my skin to feel good after a v-bar workout.

I can give you the weights of my last workout as an example of what I consider a decent volume in this lift. All set singles only and all weights in pounds.

R 88

L 88

R 132

L 132

R 176

L 176

R 220

L 220

R 264

L 237

R 286

L 253

R 303

L 270

R 319

L 286

R 330

L 297

R 341 fail

L 308 fail

R 341

L 308 fail

R 352

L 308 fail

R 358

L 308 fail

R 363 fail

L 308 fail

R 363 fail

L 308

R 363 fail

L 319 fail

Done.

[Scott Styles]

When you lay out what to do like that, it makes the path to learning the v-bar seem clear. I understand the lift has skill involved in it, but had no idea it has so much involved. I will at the very least stop doing lame attempts where I just grab and pull. I want to learn to do the lift well and would appreciate any help I can get. I have done some seasoning on the v-bar.

Here's my number one barrier to training the lift - it hurts. It doesn't feel like a good hurt either. As much as I joke about being a sissy when it comes to pain, I have no problem doing workout after workout where I do things like

- Hit severe negatives with grippers until I can barely close my hands and the skin is raw

- Keep pinching plates after they've split my thumb webbing open and it's bleeding

- Bend nails until I've got a nickel sized spot on my thumbs turns bright red and feels bruised for days.

To me, those things are part of an average grip workout. V-bar is different. It feels like I'm going to cause serious, permanent damage to the skin on my hands. Maybe this has to do with what you mentioned about getting the slack out of my hands, but I'm afraid I'm going to tear the skin right off. After doing the lift, there is an intense burning on underneath the skin on my hands for hours.

I would love to be able to do the volume Mikael listed. I don't mind working hard or putting in the effort. It is entirely a pain issue. I'll spend some time this weekend getting ahold of the v-bar videos and reviewing the skill, then plan on hitting v-bar as my optional exercise in Tuesday's workout. Any ideas on how to reduce the pain would be really useful to me.

[climber511]

About the only thing I can say is that the pain doesn't seem to get much worse as the weights go up. As has already been said - learning to "set" your hand is key to not only bigger lifts but less painful ones. I tried an experiment with a 3/4" Vbar to see if it might enable a sort of "over crush" effect. Do a couple workouts of those, they'll put a little OUCH in your hand. BTW, it didn't help at all.

[Scott Styles]

I think I've managed to hunt down the pertinent material. Now it's a matter of studying it. I'll get the videos together on my hard drive at some point this weekend and synthesize everything I can gather into a single article on v-bar technique. Gripfaq.com is due for an update anyway. You guys can tell me what I have right or wrong, then I'll work from that.

Here's what I've found, any videos or good threads you think I've missed, let me know. And Mikael, aussiestrength.com says you are going to post v-bar videos...

V-bar Videos

Jim Wylie attempts 400lb v-bar

http://www.gripboard.com/index.php?act=mod...cmd=si&img=3491

Jim Wylie 172.9kg v-bar

http://www.gripboard.com/index.php?act=mod...cmd=si&img=3490

Dave Thorton 360lb plus v-bar

http://www.gripboard.com/index.php?act=mod...cmd=si&img=2861

Johan's huge v-bar lift

http://www.gripboard.com/index.php?act=mod...cmd=si&img=2191

Johan 330lbs left, 319lbs right

http://www.software-henritzi.de/Videos/EC/VB_Johan.wmv

Kalle 319lbs

http://www.software-henritzi.de/Videos/EC/VB_Kalle145.wmv

Benny 297lbs

http://www.software-henritzi.de/Videos/EC/VB_Benny135.wmv

Liz 248lbs

http://www.software-henritzi.de/Videos/EC/VB_Liz112.5.wmv

V-bar Technique Threads

http://www.gripboard.com/index.php?showtopic=14640&hl=v-bar

http://www.gripboard.com/index.php?showtopic=14869&hl=v-bar

http://www.gripboard.com/index.php?showtopic=14736&hl=v-bar

http://www.gripboard.com/index.php?showtopic=10310&hl=v-bar

http://www.gripboard.com/index.php?showtopic=14571&hl=v-bar

http://www.gripboard.com/index.php?showtopic=11354&hl=v-bar

http://www.gripboard.com/index.php?showtopic=10817&hl=v-bar

http://www.gripboard.com/index.php?showtopic=15034&hl=v-bar

[Scott Styles]

12-03-2005 - Workout 12 of 20 - Playing: Big Steve Grip DVD 1

Spent too much time screwing around on the internet and not enough time recovering since the last workout. On the bright side, I think most of the damage from being sick is about over.

Warm Up: Wore my gloves for 5 minutes while setting up for the workout.

Levering: Using my 6lb sledge, number indicates inches from the head of the sledge my thumb is minus 1. Same sets and reps for both hands.

Front Lever: 5x10, 5x13, 5x13

Rear Lever: 5x17, 5x20, 5x20

Overhead Lever: 5x17, 5x20, 5x20

I really focused on making these stricter. I am trying to lock my elbow on the front and rear levers. On the overhead levers, I am resting my forearm on a power rack pin that puts my wrist around head height. It is significantly harder. I will stick with these weights for at least another week

2" partial deads: 5x85, 5x135, 5x185, 4x185, 1x185

I tried for the last rep on my second set about 5 times before giving up. That ruined my chances of getting the last set. 185 is proving to be an elusive beast for me and I will repeat it next week.

Card Tearing: Raven Cards from Target

Tore 1 deck

Split the cards from each deck in half, so I had piles of 26 cards or so. Tore each of those 4 piles

I still cannot do it in one clean motion, but the rip was much, much smoother this time. I got about half way through the deck on the first attempt. The quartering of the 26 card halves is pretty easy and more to practice skill than strengthen the hands

FBBC V-bar

1x70, 1x115, 1x115, 1x125, 1x135, approximately 5 failed attempts at 140.

Inspired by Ben, I've spent a lot of time learning about this lift in the past few days. I have 14 videos of the greats doing massive weights. I have 6 pages of notes gathered from the v-bar threads on the gripboard over the last 2 years. It's working. My hands only hurt slightly from the v-bar work today. Definitely a bearable pain. Form refinement is possible for me now. I will do this lift again next Saturday.

I video taped myself doing the lift as well. On Saturday, I want to pay attention to:

1. Getting the slack out of my hand when setting up to lift. I think I can get more friction with less pain. This involves placing my fingers, then twisting my hand as I close my grip.

2. Lining my arm up so that my forearm rests on my thigh. My core is weak. I need to support part of the weight of the bar on my thigh. Right now my forearm touches nothing. I may need to take a wider stance.

3. Fighting rotation of the v-bar as I pick it up. Mikael says this is important. I trust him.

As far as I can tell, these are my 3 biggest problems right now. I've also figured out Mikael is by far the most prolific and well articulated poster on the nuances of reaching a big v-bar lift. He replies to just about every thread on v-bar. Thank you for posting all the tricks Mikael.

New Equipment

I made it to Target today. They had cards. More than I could even justify buying. So, I settled on $35 worth, or 70 packs. I have a lot of cards to tear now. By the time they are gone, I will be good at getting a clean rip on a cheap deck. The 2 girls that were with my fiance and I really wanted to know what all the decks of cards were for. I said it was a secret.

I might be able to get a real solid 2" CRS axle from FBBC. They are $165+shipping. I have an extra $100 from a calculator and some grippers I sold online over vacation. This means the effective price to me is $65 plus shipping. I have a request to John to figure out shipping costs and lead times.

I've wanted a 2" solid axle for a long time. The prospect of an 80lb, 2" diameter, 7' bar just appeals to me. Not to mention the hard lifting surface with consistent friction (vs. PVC). I even priced the steel for such a bar at metal super markets a few months ago. It was $100. I figure another $25 for the collars and welding. That means to have FBBC make it for me, I am paying an extra $40 + shipping. Very tempting assuming shipping isn't killer...

Goals for 2006

A thread came up on goals for 2006, I put:

1. Bend a 60 penny nail

2. Cleanly tear a deck of cards

3. Work up to a 3x5x225 deadlift workout on a 2" solid barbell

4. Consistently lift my 35lb blob

5. Strictly overhead lever my 8lb sledge

I think these are all highly doable for me in a years time. Some in much less.

8 chances left to get stronger before the end of the year.

[Scott Styles]

Attending to Recovery - Workouts 9-12 (Microcycle 3) Results: 82% compliance

Ok, I changed that number up above to something I can have excel calculate for me. I'm giving equal weight to the % for each recovery factor. Meaning that the gloves, internet, and yoga problems I have hurt my compliance...no suprise my lifts haven't been going up.

Environment

1. Keep the humidifiers at home and work full: 14/14 - 100%

2. Wear gloves to bed: 1/14 - 7%

3. Wear gloves when outside: 14/14 - 100%

4. Grip message boards max of once per day: 0/14 - 0%

5. Get 7.5 hours of sleep: 100/105 - 95%; Average of 7.15 hours / night

I got my new soap. 15 bars of it. The skin on my hands is now doing much better. I managed to get ahold of some mittens last night and will be using them from here on out. I think this is going to be key to keeping my hands strong.

The internet is totally holding me back again. I got in the habit of playing online a lot while sick and on vacation. It's been a serious problem for me in the last week, especially at work and while trying to get to bed. I'm going to up the limit for the grip message boards to 2x a day. Problem is I post something, then want to follow up on it. Then when I do, I already lost my "point", so I do it as much as I want.

Still working out the sleep issue. I had 2 6 hour nights, one due to being sick, one due to playing on the internet. I also only seem to be sleeping 7 hours per night on the weekends. I stay up too late.

Active Recovery

1. Do finger extensions: 13/14 - 93%

2. Play with dexterity balls: 13/14 - 93%

3. Do ROM exercises with my shoulders: 12/14 - 86%

4. Do contrast baths the 2 days following a grip workout: 2/8 - 25%

5. Do yoga the day following my grip workout: 0/4 - 0%

First 4 are all being held back by the internet. I'm regularly choosing it over my contrast baths.

I just don't like the arbitrary goal of "yoga". I need to select a series of 10 stretches or movement series that I do instead. Changing it to that. Now I just need to follow up on it.

Diet

1. Eat each of the following per day

1.1 Flax Cereal: 12/14 - 86%

1.2 Beans: 12/14 - 86%

1.3 Yogurt or Cottage Cheese: 12/14 - 86%

1.4 Seed Mix of Pumpkin Seeds, Sunflower Seeds, and Brazil Nuts: 10/14 - 71%

1.5 Lettuce: 12/14 - 86%

1.6 Celery and Carrots: 10/14 - 71%

1.7 Fruit, 1 or 2 servings: 13/14 - 93%

1.8 NEW 1 Serving of Soy - 8/8 - 100%

2. Drink iced tea in place of soda where practical: 14/14 - 100%

5 weeks since any soda. w00t. Overall I'm pleased here. Most of the missed foods were from the early part of the cycle while I was sick. Part way through the cycle, I added in a serving of soy per day in response to the nutrition course I am reading. Most soy foods are supplemented with vitamins and minerals I need to seek out as a vegitarian. This is a stop gap solution while I continue reading the course.

In Summary

This microcycle was ok, but I've got 2 serious problems I need to resolve over the next 2 weeks:

1. The freaking internet. I love the internet, I'd probably marry it if I could. That needs to stop. Part of my problem is getting involved in "tastes great, less filling" debates online. To help that, I'm going to take the Heath Sexton approach to posting and only comment on training.

2. I need to do my contrast baths and wear my gloves at night. I think these are the 2 biggest keys to big gains from active recovery, and I'm just not doing them. I have the mittens and soap now, so that should be solved. Hopefully cutting down on the internet should help the time for contrast baths.

I also communicated to my boss that I am not working any more overtime after the year is over. I am aggressively shifting duties and protecting my time by limiting my tasks to that which will be doable in a 40 hour week. He's trying to get another big push for a product go-live in the next 2 weeks. I'm going to work hard, but if I start getting sick, I'm out. No more working through it. I still have a cough from doing that 2 weeks ago.

[Starkmann]

how's are the hands healing from the break out you had? Did you get your lotion in yet?

[Scott Styles]

Hands are much better. I used to get this soap from whole foods:

http://www.drugstore.com/products/prod.asp...BUY-PLST-0-SRCH

But I ran out and had some scented crap from Walgreens. I've had my normal soap now for about a week and everything is fine.

[Scott Styles]

12-06-2005 - Workout 13 of 20 - Playing: Big Steve Grip DVD 2

I've been recovering well, but today's workout was only average. I'm not sure why, so I'll blame the v-bar work from the last workout.

Warm Up: Wore my gloves for 5 minutes while setting up for the workout.

Levering: Using my 6lb sledge, number indicates inches from the head of the sledge my thumb is minus 1. Same sets and reps for both hands.

Front Lever: 5x10, 5x13, 5x13

Rear Lever: 5x17, 5x20, 5x20

Overhead Lever: 5x17, 5x20, 5x20

Did these pretty strict, but on the front levers with my left hand I end up flexing my bicep a little bit. I don't like that, but I also don't like doing different weights with my left and right hand. Might drop to 12 with both hands next week, not sure. I'll probably add 1 to the others next week as well, but sticking with the same weights on Saturday.

2" partial deads: 5x85, 5x135, 5x185, 3x185, 3x185

I didn't freak out on the second set trying to get my reps. It left some in the tank to do 3 reps on my 3rd set. I will try 185 again on Saturday. At that point I will determine if I should grind at the weight for another week or drop down to 180 and build back up. Another option may be to switch the order of the deads and the levering in my workout...

EDIT - Looking back, this is the best I've done since getting sick last month. Stupid cold.

Card Tearing: Raven Cards from Target

Fail at tearing one deck. Split the cards up and tear them a lot, making a big mess.

Odd. The deck just wouldn't go tonight. Go figure. I've let these distract me from my pinch work long enough. Back to the pinch block next workout.

FBBC 2" Wrist Roller

1x50lbs (alternate hands, PR), 1x80lbs (PR), 1x80lbs (PR)

I am approaching my limit on these and the pump in my forearms is awesome. It felt like the skin was going to be blown wide open. V-bar will be in this slot on Saturday.

New Equipment

I ordered my 2" solid steel barbell from FBBC yesterday I am very excited to get it. It will be awesome if I have it before the new year and can do my last few deadlift workouts on it.

7 chances left to get stronger before the end of the year.

[Scott Styles]

12-10-2005 - Workout 14 of 20 - Playing: Ozzy's Tribute Album to Rhandy Rhoads

I've been recovering well. I spent the whole morning waking up and lazing around, thinking about my workout. Conditions really couldn't have been any more optimal. BUT THERE WAS NO STRENGTH TODAY!!!

I don't like this. I think I'm giving my thumbs more stress than they are capable of handling and getting weaker is the result. Time to switch things up a little for next time.

Warm Up: Wore my gloves for 5 minutes while setting up for the workout.

Levering: Using my 6lb sledge, number indicates inches from the head of the sledge my thumb is minus 1. Same sets and reps for both hands.

Front Lever: 5x10, 5x13, 5x13

Rear Lever: 5x17, 5x20, 5x20

Overhead Lever: 5x17, 5x20, 5x20

I was strict enough here, but my hand between my pointer finger and thumb was aching. I think that's one of my problems. Between the Rear and Overhead levers, I have six sets that are as stressful on my thumbs as they are on my wrists. I'm going to change that.

Starting next workout I will treat each of the levering movements as their own exercise. I will do 3 sets of front levers. Then I will do 3 sets of either rear levers or overhead levers. That's it. I will do rear levers on Tuesday, overhead levers on Saturday.

2" partial deads: 5x85, 5x135, 1x185

This was telling. I set the deads up so I would be listening to Crazy Train on my first set at 185. I've conditioned myself so that when that song plays, my fight or flight response kicks in. I cranked it. I could only get one rep up with the 185. My thumbs are key in this lift and they just felt gone. I'm pretty sure that wrist roller PR last workout didn't help. It also destroyed my thumbs. I am going to scale down to 180lbs on Tuesday.

FBBC V-bar

1x70, 1x105, 1x140 fail, 1x135 fail, 1x115 fail

Not real burny, but weak. I reviewed the technique notes I have and all that. My hand strength just isn't there right now. Definite indicator of a downward trend from doing too much. I do have a video of my setup trying to pull 140, 135, and 115 that shows how I am doing the lift. It's in quicktime and 24 megs, but whatever, I've got bandwidth and quicktime is free:

http://www.gripfaq.com/gb/20051210v-bar.mov

New Equipment

I sold my hard #3, which means I've offset more of the cost of my 2" solid axle. Now I can look at the cost as $88, 4 grippers, and a scientific calculator. Down to 8 grippers at this point, it is getting easier and easier to justify purchase of a grip machine early next year. I'm also pretty close to getting the strongman super series dvd from Ironmind now, but I want to wait until I get this progression issue with my workouts figured out.

Recovery Factors

I'm adding in a 12oz glass of milk per day to my recovery factors. I am also only about 50 pages away from finishing my supplement course. So far it looks like I may be searching out a multi-vitamin that buffers some of the deficiencies I create being vegetarian, possibly some creatine, and if I can find it, glucosamine from non-animal sources. Most glucosamine comes from shellfish, so this may not be an option.

Here's to hoping that reducing my workload now that intensity is high is the solution...

6 chances left to get stronger before the end of the year.

[Starkmann]

I hate to ask but, whay exactly are you a veggie?

Is it a moral thing? A health thing?

The only reason I ask is because you seem to realize you need more protein and animal type sources in your diet but won't.

I'm not trying to change your mind, I commend your commitment. I'm just curious.

[Left Side]

Scott I like the way you set up you goals, very nice.

[Justin Reagan]

I need to get working on my 2" DL, which I haven't done in a while. Soon you'll surpass me.

Keep up the good work,

Justin Reagan

[Scott Styles]

Thanks for the support guys. My thumbs ache a little this morning, even after the short workout yesterday, so I think I'm on the right track reducing their work load.

Starkmann, the vegetarian thing comes down to lifestyle, health and economics. My fiance has been veg for 12 years, me for 4. It's just what we do. It's very important to her, largely for ethical reasons. I look at it as an investment in my health. The things I ate when eating meat were not healthy. Cheeseburgers, chicken nuggets, lean pockets, etc. Much worse than getting my B12, Iron, and Zinc from a multi-vitamin or some soy milk.

When orginally deciding, I asked myself this question - "If I had to kill the animal myself before eating it, would I?" For me at least, the answer is no. I wouldn't have the heart to do it just so I could add some meat to my plate. Knowing that, I think it would be hypocritical of me to pay someone else to do the killing.

Ironically, as a result I have more respect for the person that hunts than I do for the person that gets grossed out at the sight of a little blood in their burger or chicken breast. If someone wants to eat animals, that's fine. But don't outsource the killing then freak out when confronted with the reality that there is part of a dead animal on the plate.

[Scott Styles]

Got the v-bar video up in a 6.5 meg windows media player format:

http://www.gripfaq.com/gb/20051210v-bar.wmv

I also made it brighter so the detail comes out better. Feedback is very welcome and highly encouraged.