Plate pinches: 3 5kg plates x4 sets x15-20seconds, 4 5kg plates x0 reps
Oly Squats: 320lbs x3 reps x3 sets
CoC: #1x5 reps, #2 x0reps x2 tries, #1 xleft hand was 3, right was 5
Pull-ups: 70lbs x3 reps x2 sets, 70lbs x2 reps
Fat bar Deficit Deads (10kg oly plates): 250lbs x5 reps, 255lbs x5 reps, 260lbs x5 reps
DB rows: 95lbs x5 reps x3 sets
rotator cuff stuff
weight: can't see any abs anymore, a week or several ago I could see the tops
Plate pinches were a bit disappointing, I didn't get 4 plates again. I have gotten them before. Well, not really disappointing, just an observation. Squats were actually kind of easy, the sticking point was not as pronounced as last time, which leads me to believe the paused squats I did last session actually helped. I'm excited to find the cause. I used exmgq's old advice that said the sticking point is actually lower than seen visually because momentum carried you further than you would have gone, which is why I thought my sticking point was actually at the bottom rather then in the middle.
I was really excited that I almost closed the CoC #2. I think I can have it next time if I warm up better and don't do plate pinches. Next time will actually be Monday though, not Friday. Its cool because my only grip work has been double overhand deadlifts since I've started deadlifting (alternating with hook when necessary) and plate pinches. Good to know they have a good initial carry over, but I still want to add CoC's for grip work in my routine. I'm positive my grip is largely responsible for this new-found strength thats taking over me.
Chins were bad, I did two negatives after the fail which I shouldn't have done, but the grip was wide and it didn't bother my shoulders, so I'm not afraid of this failure. I have no problem sticking to the same weight next time.
Deficit deads were easy. I'm going to create a bigger deficit next time. Grip was fine, I just had to reposition my hand every second rep or so. After a while, I'm going to do deficit snatch grip deads. My intensity is limited by my grip right now not the weight in the exercise. So, I want to choose an exercise so that my intensity allowed by my grip is close to the intensity allowed by the exercise. In other words, I want to make the exercise harder to justify the low weight being used thanks to the fat bar.
Rows were hard. My left side is a bit weaker than my right. I had clean form and only let the dumbbell hit the floor on the last rep of my last set. It was taxing on my grip.
New grip protocol is two heavy days corresponding to my lower body days on one week alternating with one heavy grip day corresponding to my one lower body day the other week (SBPR variant), and two really light days on that weeks upper body days.
Last note: I was reading Jason Ferruggia's stuff on cardio and his stance is similar to mine (and this boards) in that you should only be doing very high intensity cardio or very low intensity cardio. But we should be doing cardio 1-3 days a week. His idea of high intensity is not 30second sprints, but 2-5second sprints with enough rest to lower your heart rate, which might be anywhere from 1-10minutes.
Armed with new-found information and the discovery that its okay if I can only manage cardio one day a week when the alternative is nothing, I will be doing cardio on Saturdays, making me train 4 days a week. Cardio will be sprints or sled pushing (not hill sprints...no hill) or a burpee-chin up combo. I would like to do rope battling/sled combo since Ferruggia says the rope doesn't make you sore and I would like to put that to the test, but thats a bit time intensive. Yay for cardio!!!
I have to remind myself of a side goal which I can appropriately define: a strength training figher, or in better words: a fast twitch fighter.
Food for thought: he says lactic acid is the mortal enemy of fast twitch muscle fibers.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
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- "the paused squats I did last session actually helped." You have no way of knowing this. There are too many moving variables, especially in your case. To properly assess the effect of a certain exercise or methodology you need a full cycle where you keep most other variables constant, at bare minimum.
ReplyDelete- "the sticking point is actually lower than seen visually because momentum carried you further than you would have gone, which is why I thought my sticking point was actually at the bottom rather then in the middle." This seems to be a contradiction in terms.
- There is ONE meaningful way to measure grip in a powerlifting context. Is it the limiting factor in your deadlift? I can tell you that Frank's grip won't fail for a 625+ deadlift and I can tell you that I can DB Row over 150 for reps with nothing but chalk. Neither of us does grip work. So the question you should be asking yourself is, "is this worth the time?" Or more importantly, "is coming up with variations on normal lifts in an effort to improve grip(such as deficit fat bar deads) worth the progress that you will inevitably sacrifice by not just doing the competition lifts in standard fashion?"
Hi Aaron -- I'm not exactly sure where the fascination with grip strength comes from. As Shanker mentioned, in PL the main gripping ability that matters is support strength, though a good crushing strength may also help in BP. Other than that, grip strength doesn't matter in real-life (for us). I can close CoC #3, yet this seems like a useless skill, unless you are interested in crushing people's hands, which is not that assuming for the other side.
ReplyDeleteI think Aaron is interested in grip strength for his MMA training. I'm inferring that only from reading posts on here. Grip strength is pretty important in the wrestling/MMA world.
ReplyDeleteI should admit that I giggled when I pictured someone sprinting for 2 seconds and resting for 10 minutes.
what I meant about the sticking point thing was I recognized my true sticking point at the bottom rather than the false one where it was observed.
ReplyDeleteAs far as doing light weight deficit, I purposefully want to limit my intensity in order not to overtrain. I'm trying to find the right balance with that, which is why I added variations of big lifts and doing relatively low reps for assistance (5), but also limit intensity through deficits and grip limits.
I think grip can help me strength wise. I have some speculations at the moment. I'm not referring to CoC's as grip strength though. I've never trained with the CoCs. The only grip work I've done is double overhand deads and plate pinches, and even those were just to help my double overhand deads.
I am also doing this for my future MMA training. I'm not so much trying to be a good powerlifter as I am trying to be a strong guy. That is why my main lift right now is the oly lift, and why I'm doing an overhead day instead of another bench day. I still like powerlifting, but I'm not limiting myself to it, which is why I'm dabbling in the oly world and grip world. Anything that makes me stronger I will use.
You guys will notice though my routine is still pretty much a powerlifting focus with some focus on grip, just enough so I don't have to over-under my deads.
by oly lift I meant oly squat
ReplyDeleteI agree with the others that grip work isn't strictly necessary for powerlifting, but if you're still interested in MMA, then I can see the point.
ReplyDeleteHowever, in my opinion, if you really care about grip, it's probably best to train your core lifts and your grip separately. That is, train your deadlift using whatever grip allows you to deadlift the most, then train your grip afterwards with CoC, plate pinches, farmer's walks, deadlift holds, or whatever. Limiting your deadlifting training deliberately because of your grip just seems backwards. You're just training both your grip and your deadlift suboptimally.
And let's hear these speculations of yours :). Sometimes, the best way to figure out if something makes sense is to write it down.
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ReplyDeleteAlso, is all this grip work working? Functional grip strength, regardless of sport or goal is simply what you can pull. DL's, towel pullups, rows, rope pulls, etc, etc...but its all pulling. Given what you can pull (take your pick of exercise), do you think it's working?
ReplyDeleteI'm only limiting my deadlift assistance, not my actual main deadlift on dead day. I feel like grip training is actually making me stronger. I can transfer power better to the bar by squeezing harder since my lower arm strength isn't that week anymore. My lifts have been going up dramatically, granted I'm still somewhat of a beginner, but I'm still hitting PRs.
ReplyDeleteI pulled my 495 with a hook grip, and I can double overhand about half of my 390lb 3x5, and I hook grip the rest. Given that, I'm positive its working. I have no trouble pinch gripping the oly plates with one hand, where as others need two.
It doesn't hurt to do grip work, and I haven't had wrist problems which I attribute to it. Another thing is I don't want to be limited when I pick up odd objects just because I can't grip it.
However, like Shanker noted, the real testimony will be 6-12 months down the road when things are supposed to slow down and not many PRs are happening.