Bye-bye BBing BS: Journal of my 5x5 a la madcow2

[Madcow2]

Kick ass. Great work.

 

[Guinness5.0]

Week 9

FRIDAY

Ok... today was a little screwy. I'll explain

DL: 225x?, 315x3, 365x2, 405x1, 435x1, failed @455
Standing military 3x3: 200
DL 2x3: 405
Pullups: bw x5,x4

Comments:

-I felt invincible warimg up so I figured that rather than burning a week deloading then trying for a 1rm session on the big 3, I'd just use today to pull a 1rm on dead (which is honestly the only lift on which I was dying to test my 1rm). I was SURE I'd get 455 but I think my subconcious (or perhaps my CNS) talked me out of it right as it broke the floor . I really think I should have gotten it. Kinda bummed

-I am very happy to have hit 2 bills on military. This was TOUGH.

-I figured that since I'm deloading next week then I should probably load up to make it worthwhile, so I hammered some more deads. Plus I just didn't get my fill from doing the singles. Seriously I would deadlift three times a week if it was possible to make progress from it.

-Although I've still got one more workout, I kind of consider this the last one as it's the last one with dl's. Don't get me wrong- I'm still excited to try for a triple at 425 on squat, but it's not the same...

 

[Jim Ouini]

Whoa I'm a long way from 200 on military. I can barely push press 155. Nice.

How did 455 feel? Broke the floor but couldn't lock it out? I've been kinda scared to fail on a dead. I keep having these visions of my spine shooting across the room or something.

 

[Guinness5.0]

Whoa I'm a long way from 200 on military. I can barely push press 155. Nice.

How did 455 feel? Broke the floor but couldn't lock it out? I've been kinda scared to fail on a dead. I keep having these visions of my spine shooting across the room or something.

It was wierd. When I put it down I was like "WTF?!?! That shoudln't have stopped!!". My back feels fine- i didn't break form at all. When I say broke the floor I mean it went about two inches, not that I got it to my knees or anything. I want to try a rack pull just to see how big my strength discrepency is b/t pulling from the floor and pulling from knee-level. I bet it's HUGE. Seriously, 435 was EASY!!

 

[Jim Ouini]

It was wierd. When I put it down I was like "WTF?!?! That shoudln't have stopped!!". My back feels fine- i didn't break form at all. When I say broke the floor I mean it went about two inches, not that I got it to my knees or anything. I want to try a rack pull just to see how big my strength discrepency is b/t pulling from the floor and pulling from knee-level. I bet it's HUGE. Seriously, 435 was EASY!!

Now I HAVE to get 435 next week

 

[BlondBomber]

It was wierd. When I put it down I was like "WTF?!?! That shoudln't have stopped!!". My back feels fine- i didn't break form at all. When I say broke the floor I mean it went about two inches, not that I got it to my knees or anything. I want to try a rack pull just to see how big my strength discrepency is b/t pulling from the floor and pulling from knee-level. I bet it's HUGE. Seriously, 435 was EASY!!

Wouldn't this mean that your back is preventing you from pulling 455?
Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't the very bottom of the deadlift mostly glutes/hams?

 

[Guinness5.0]

Wouldn't this mean that your back is preventing you from pulling 455?
Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't the very bottom of the deadlift mostly glutes/hams?

I definitely think I have 455 in me- I don't know how to explain it, but I was holding the bar steady for a split second, then dropped it. I didn't just tug it and it fell-there was a pause. Could that mean anything? I think I'm overanalyzing at this point . But to anser your question: yes I think that if my low back was stronger it would have gone up all the way.

Maybe I need to have my Oly lifter buddy take another look at my form. I hope I haven't backslid into my old habits.

 

[blut wump]

I had exactly the same when I went for 425. The bar went about two inches and then something just said 'no'. From my discussion with the guy who said that I had 'crap technique' and what blondbomber has just said I think there's a lot to dl technique I'm missing. I just pull until I'm upright.

You mentioned deadlifting 3x per week. There's a program offering just that which madcow has mentioned from time to time. The Korte 3x3 is in the top-right corner and Wade Hanna, just beneath, has a couple of articles on his experiences of it. Super_Rice also started a thread on his run.
http://www.deepsquatter.com/strength/archives/

I'm thinking of giving this a whirl even if only for the DL practice.

Congrats on your new PRs.

 

[Guinness5.0]

It's funny- for my next run I was thinking of doing a 5x5 WITHOUT dl's to improve them (with power cleans/high pulls instead of rows/dl's probably) or the korte 3x3 so I can dl 3x per week. I'm GUESSING that some improvement in explosive strength would go a long way toward helping me with my sticking point. Wanna chime in here MC? The rep calculators have my projected 1rm in the 460's based on a triple w/ 425, so this sticking point needs to be dealt with.

 

[Jim Ouini]

I had exactly the same when I went for 425. The bar went about two inches and then something just said 'no'. From my discussion with the guy who said that I had 'crap technique' and what blondbomber has just said I think there's a lot to dl technique I'm missing. I just pull until I'm upright.

Hey Blut you should definitely check out Rippetoe's book. Among a ton of other things, he describes knee angle (femur and tibia) and torso angle (to the floor) during different parts of the lift. (I'm paraphrasing from memory, here)

He describes how initial pulling off the floor your knee angle will increase as your quads extend your knee, while torso angle stays basically the same. Then as the bar hits the knees your torso angle will increase as your glutes/hams extend your hip until lockout.

Funny thing is, that's how I taught myself to dead - everytime I tried to dead I'd smack my knee and my back wasn't quite right

Finally I thought 'I've done tons of RDL's just fine without hitting my knee on the way up, why so many deadlift problems?' So I mentally broke the lift into 2 segments - bring the bar up off the floor into 'RDL bottom position', then do a RDL (of course as the weight gets heavier it all goes out the window )

Since you have at least (I think I read a while back) a 495 rack pull, it may be that a slight tweak would send your dead into orbit.

Just a thought