Road to Nationals Weeks #4 and #5

Hey all,

This post is going to be brief. I had a bunch of stuff written already, but I lost all of it somehow (thanks Google).

Two weeks ago, I tweaked my knee. It turned out to be super-minor tendinitis in my patella (that's in the medical books somewhere, I swear). As a result, I had to dial down the programming big time.

I also had a chance to see Dr. Shane McCann at South Jersey Sports Chiropractic, and he was able to set me straight with a few things I could do to get me back on track. That, coupled with some Mobility WOD tutorials, and I seem to be right as rain.

It's been an interesting two weeks, though, as I was forced to realize something very important. As you age, if you want to train, you absolutely need to take care of yourself.

Most of us get away with a lot in our early 20's. We eat whatever we want. We move however we want. We drink however we want.

And then, as we roll over into our 30's, we say, "I'm getting too old... blah blah blah."

In reality, though, most of the reason why we can't do things the right way in our 30's is a result of the poor habits we established while in our 20's. The good new is, there is hope. The bad news is that it's going to take you longer to warm up, longer to cool down, and you're going to have to pay more attention to how you sleep, when you sleep, and what you do to recover. It's the price you have to pay.

The only way you're going to be successful is if you make success a priority. It's that simple.

Training Recovery video #1 - After two weeks of light rep-work and tons of mobility/pre-hab/re-hab, I'm back up to a comfortable and confident deadlift. Here's 445 for 4. My hand slipped on the last rep, but I'm counting it because all i was concerned with was the volume. I can settle up with my grip strength later;

Training Recovery video #2 - This is something I'm really proud of. I'm back up to squatting 365 comfortably. I'd originally injured the knee squatting to begin with (the squatting wasn't what caused the injury... I'm phrasing it that way to give you an idea of WHEN it happened, not HOW). Here's HOW the injury happened: Overloaded quads and not enough rehab/mobility work. I was a time-bomb, more or less, especially because I'm a quad dominant squatter:

All in all, though, I'm happy with my progress.

Both Jess and I were able to sign up for the Winter War powerlifting meet in north Jersey on January 24th, so I'm hoping to crack into a 1200lb total by then. That would help my placement going into nationals. The goal for January is to hit at 425 in the squat, bench 275, and pull around 515. We shall see.

Here's some Kelly Starrett goodness for you all before you go:

Road to 2016 USAPL Nationals - Update #3 (Week 3)

I'm injured.

Yikes.

So... I felt like I needed to get that out into the open and use it as a driver for this week's update.

Here's what happened in a nutshell:

I was supposed to work up to a heavy set of 5 belt-less squats, and upon working up to 335 (82% of 1RM), I my knee started to feel yucky and my right quad had become insanely sore.

When I walked away from the rack, I'd found that I was having trouble walking, and any tracking at all of my knee over my toe which resulted in my shin angle to break 90 degrees sent a sharp pain into my patella.

For most of this week I nursed the knee...

Here's what I think lead to this injury...

1.) Poor sleep.
2.) Stress.
3.) Rushing of stretching / warm-ups.
4.) Attempting to fool around with low-bar while warming up and not appropriately situating back and shin angles in the squat (I think this was, ultimately, what did it...)

A few thing to talk about regarding the first 3

1.) Sleep - This is simple. I don't get enough of it. How bad can that affect your training? Check out the video below (I know it says "for Crossfit", but shut up and watch the video):

2.) Stress - Life happens, and I think I was letting all of the things that I shouldn't bother me cause me to lose sleep eat away at me bit by bit. The solution, really, is to re-evaluate my goals and prioritize accordingly. We build our own prisons, people. Here's a brief article about stress and recovery:

http://breakingmuscle.com/health-medicine/stress-shown-to-impair-recovery-from-workouts

3.) Warming up - This shouldn't come as a shock. If you don't appropriately prepare your body for the demands you will be placing on it, then you're going to set yourself up for failure. If you don't believe that, then talk to me when you're 30. At 15 or even 25, your body has a better chance at dealing with negligence. At 30+... not so much. Here's a fun video about resolving knee pain:

At the end of the day, I'm taking ownership of my injury. I'm not blaming it on coaching or programming, and I don't think I'm going to be out too long. I worked under some pretty light loads for the rest of the week, and followed my bench and deadlifting work. Though my deadlift felt a little nasty at the beginning of the week, I managed pull 80% (385) with a 2 inch deficit pretty comfortably, and as I hit this weekend looking at 2 rest days, I'm looking forward to what Monday brings.

With that being said, on Tuesday, I'll be seeing a sports chiropractor friend of mine who has never done me wrong. I recommend, if you're an athlete, you check this guy out for routine maintenance. I've sent several friends to him, and he knows his stuff.

His name is Dr. Shane McCann, and he owns South Jersey Sports Chiropractic. You can check out the website by clicking on the link below:

http://southjerseysportschiropractic.com/

In other news...

I benched 255 for 5 for a touch and go and it felt nice. Big ups to Big Steve for the spot and the great coaching on that final rep. This puts me at something like a 285 TnG bench. Let's rock and roll, people!

My voice sounds funny... I blame it on the overall excitement from the accomplishment. At the end of the day, though, Taylor Atwood (the guy who won nationals in my weight class), can smoke 335 for 3 pretty easily, so I have a ways to go.

As promised, here are some tracks to jam out to:

Have Mercy - Howl

Trash Boat - Perspective (click link below... for some reason the viewer isn't loading)...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eV4mTlJ2lHM

Close Your Eyes - Digging Graves (click link below... for some reason the viewer isn't loading)...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ksUQwzA_2A


As for the podcast - be sure to give that Barbell Shrugged video up above some of your time.

See you all on the other side.

Be well,
C

Road to 2016 USAPL Nationals - Update #2

Road to 2016 USAPL Nationals - Update #2

What's good people! 

Welcome to week 2 of the 2016 R2N update...

First, let's talk about Mr. Ido Portal ( I'm aware that that guy pictured above is NOT Ido Portal...)

For those of you who did not see my last blog, I highly suggest you give it a whirl. Moreover, at the bottom of it, I feature one of the people whom I've become obsessed with over the last year or so of training, and I only recently found out that Ido has been training THE NOTORIOUSSSSSSS (Insert Bruce Buffer voice) Conor McGregor...

Check the video here:

Movement matters.

And just for kicks, Conor also took a few shots at The Mountain:

DISCLAIMER: If Conor gets smoked by Aldo on December 12th, it's totally not my fault. 

... #Ido2016 ya'll. 

Next - Week 1 of training. 

So, earlier this week Kev, (My sweet pop-punk soul mate and current coach), sent me more RPE programming, and so far it's feeling pretty great. For those of you who don't know what RPE is, the programming is a little different from what most of you may be accustomed to. 

Here's a quick example:

Back Squat x 6 (-1)

^^ What that means is that, for this lift, I will be working up to a heavy set of 6 until I reach a point where I feel like I only have 1 more rep in the tank after hitting my 6th rep. 

There's a science behind this whole thing, and I have no idea what he's thinking when he sends me the programming each week. I just do what I'm told. (I am also not smart enough to figure it out... which is why I pray to Kev each week for him to send me down the programming from the mountain tops #GloryBe). 

Typically I'm hitting 3 movements a day. If you looked at my programming, you'd see something like:

Deadlift x 4(-1).

Floor Press x 3 (-1)

Front Squat x 4 (-1)

And then I may or may not have some accessory work to do. It will either be some carrying or some bodybuilding movements. 

As promised, here's another very short training clip. Here I'm weighting around 165# and hitting 235# for a set of 6. All indicators, even now, are pointing me towards a 280 bench, at the least, so we'll see how it all shakes out. I won't be happy until I can comfortably hit 315, but you know how it goes. My grip here is NOT competition width. The goal was to work somewhere in between close grip and my competition grip. I feel like I should have paused longer on the reps but #YOLO!

The man you can't seem to take your eyes off of is John. He is my spirit animal and gives the world's greatest high-fives.

With all of that being said, let's talk a little about recovery, shall we?

RECOVERY PART 1

Take it seriously, people. Especially if you're fading off into your older years (... like if you're 30). 

When I was in my early 20's, I could live off of donuts and Tequila and still manage to head into the gym on a Sunday morning and knock out a pretty nasty workout. I can't do that anymore.

This last Monday, over the course of 4 hours, I drank a almost bottle of wine (3 glasses? I don't know). (Never mind the fact that when I was 22, I wouldn't be drinking wine to begin with... ). What's important to note is that I was't drunk by the 5th hour when I was laying in bed for the night. In my mind, I thought all was well, especially since I'd trained earlier that day. I figured, well, I got the workout in so what does it matter... right?

Wrong.

The following morning, I was destroyed. But here's the interesting part - I wasn't hung over. 

I was just terribly terribly terribly sore... more sore than I'd ever been before.

And then the light bulb went off. Oh yeah... alcohol affects the body's ability to record. And then there I was. And here I am. And now I'm an idiot. 

Long story short - I will not be consuming a drop of alcohol for the better part of 2016. To be honest, I don't know how the rest of 2015 will fare either. Ultimately, if I have to pick between an additional 10kg on my total at nationals next year or 10kg less for the sake of a few nights of boozing, I think I'm taking the 10kg and a few more places up the standings. 

Everyone can get drunk, and that's why everyone does it. I'm trying to build a world for myself, not tear one down. 

RECOVERY PART 2

Carbs. Eat them. Eat a lot of them.

I'm a huge fan of Mike Israetel, and after reading his book on The Renaissance Diet , though I don't follow it to the letter, I've come to realize that only consuming carbs before/during/after a workout is easily what works best for my body. I will eat sushi until the cows come home after a hard workout, and there's a good chance that, come the following morning, I'll feel pretty great.

NOTE: I still have a cheat meal once (twice...) a week.

I'm not going to tell you that it's the end/all be/all, but it's a way to look at nutrition that makes the most sense in my head, and I can apply it pretty easily on any given day.

PODCAST!:

Need a new Podcast!? How about we stick with some London Real BUT we check out Mr. Kelly Starrett? This interview is like music, people. It's like music.

And finally... some tunes for all dat cardio you gotta do this weekend...

Trophy Eyes - White Curtains

Alkaline Trio - Warbrain 

A Day To Remember - City Of Ocala

Be well, warrior poets. Be well. 

All Best,
C