Cortisol Screws Your Lifting

I had an issue at work this week, incredibly stressful which triggered a flight or fight response at one point. The whole event was (after the drama passed) illustrative of how detrimental cortisol and stress can be to training.

During the unfolding issue I went from high alert then a sudden massive level of exhaustion. I can't quite articulate how the tiredness overwhelmed me. These events are very rare professionally for me but it did remind me how much training, let alone health can be affected by serious stress.

Thankfully it occurred on my off day from training so I managed to pull it together today and train bench though I could feel I was a little underdone.

Overall my training is still on track however I need to manage load and really work on my recovery. I suspect I need more calories than I am getting.

I haven't missed a rep thus far but it is starting to feel really challenging, though I wouldn't yet say I am grinding reps.

Time to eat, chill out and start again!

Stay Strong

Thomo

Sunday Squats

Today was squat's and I was hoping for a big session given how well last weeks session went.  In terms of preparation I had a great week, plenty of good food, rest (3 yr old not withstanding!) and a good deadlift session first up. In the scheme of things I was pretty confident.

Straight up the first set felt like I had a Mack truck on my back. After plenty of rest the game face is on and I manage to get the required 5's on the last two sets. I love how this game brings you back to earth. Last week I am feeling like Ed Coan this week I'm more like the Cohen brothers. 

After reviewing the video the squats actually looked pretty good though as it go hard on the last few reps I tended to fall forward a fraction on the final rep. I need to consider my programming given I had a very heavy deadlift session two days before I was probably a little under recovered.  I should have followed my gut and slipped an additional day of rest in before squatting, lesson learned.

I finished off with pause squats, chins and rear delts and have spent the rest of the day feeding like a zombie.

The priority this week is to ramp up recovery ready for deadlifts next week. Not too many tweaks to make to the routine. Though I will likely repeat the squat and deadlift weights for this week. I want to ensure I am 'owning' the weight before incrementing. 

Stay Strong

Thomo

Friday Night Deadlifts

Three working sets of 5 reps at 85% of 1RM. On the face of it feels like a simple prescription in my workout journal but damn it felt heavy tonight.

I mentioned this last month but deadlifts have a weird vibe this cycle. I am lifting more weight with greater volume than last year. My lifting videos look solid and team mates are casting a critical eye over my form and giving it the thumbs up. Now the effort required feels very challenging but I just keep hitting rep targets even when I feel there is no chance I will get the reps on the last set. Regardless my new mantra is not to over think the details so I am just getting on with it.

I backed up the work sets with 5 sets of double pause deads and finished off with paused volume benches. It felt like a long session tonight anf given I started training at 6:30 after starting work at 5:30 am no wonder I am stuffed now though I am currently enjoying post Friday work-out bliss with a belly full of Chinese food.

Tomorrow PTC Perth are holding a PA power lifting comp so get down and support the lifters.

Stay Strong

Thomo

Concepts for Beginner Powerlifters - 2 Tightness and Recruitment

Watching experienced lifters on the platform is a sobering experience. The intensity top lifters impart on the bar during lifts is master class for newbies like myself. On the face of it intensity appears to be an easy concept, grab the bar and pull/push/squat like crazy. However it's not that simple in practice.

Talking a long hard look at my approach prior to this latest cycle it was apparent I really didn't understand the concept of intensity. To improve I have focused on two related concepts, tightness and recruitment. What I found was that in an intense squat I would be focusing very hard on one aspect of the lift but at some point would be conscious of the fact another aspect of my lift was looser than it should be. 

This underlines my beginner status: I am consciously competent at the lifts but my whole body is not engaged in the lifts To move to the next stage requires becoming unconsciously competent i.e. technique is refined such that I don't have to think through every aspect of a lift.

To train this aspect I am working my ass of ensuring everything is tight and I recruit every damn fibre during a lift. For example in the squat every part of me is engaged in the lift...calves are tight, core is tight back is tight, quads are tight. 

Initially it felt counter intuitive but to become unconsciously competent I needed initially to be hyper aware of every part of me during the lifts. Each session I feel more engaged and its starting to become second nature to be fully engaged in the lift.

For the beginner the best way to switch this intensity on is to focus on ensuring everything is phenomenally tight and engaged prior to the lift. Use imagery, imagine yourself as a coiled spring or a solid bar of iron, whatever works for you. Though especially for a beginner its important not to confuse the intensity with semantic ranting and psyche ups that you see far too often.

Remember to keep watching the experienced lifters putting up big numbers on the platform. Watch how they switch it on with every fiber straining to lock out. 

Now many of you reading this will go what the F%^%ck just lift it. But it was eye opening for me to realise how little intensity I was really bringing to the bar. I believe its going to take a number of cycles of training to truly embed these new cues but I am excited for Nationals in June.

Stay Strong

Thomo

Squat Session Sunday

Today was squat day, the second session of the weeks planned training. I deadlifted well on Friday night, pushing 3 nice fast sets of 5. Following these work sets with paused sets has been a great move. After the heavy sets dropping back 30kgs and performing 2 second double paused sets makes the weight feel light.

Two days later I backed up for squats. Thankfully it was Sunday which I find a much more conducive atmosphere for hitting the big (relatively!) numbers. As per the deads I needed to hit 3 sets of 5 works sets followed by a de-load in weight and 3 second pause in the hole squats.

The weight felt heavy on the back but the video of my final set, pleasingly, showed my form to be good and the depth also on target. Given I will drop through much harder with wraps I am feeling good about squats. I am also noticeably tighter during the squat, something I have been very focused on developing.  

Overall the session felt strong and I finished up with leg press for high reps super-setted with Pendlay rows. 

It's nice to feel the team aspect again as big Carl also popped in and provided some good coaching on my squats.

A day off now with light recovery before my final session of the week with bench.

This week particularly has taught me a lot about attitude and aggression which feels like it is paying off in my numbers. I will post more about this this week.

Stay Strong

Thomo

Concepts for Beginning Powerlifters 1 - Focus on small change

One of the challenges being new in this sport is the amount of information  that you need to contextualise and  apply to your training. I have learned over the last year that it's important to just stick to 2 or 3 key things per movement and seek mastery in those before moving on.

For example my squat has been all over the place this last year as I experimented with many different aspects of technique. As a consequence each session felt like I was starting over as I hadn't really embedded and mastered the technique change I had been working on.

Now I have focused on picking just 1 or two aspects, in my case hip and ankle mobility as I believed this would give me a much stronger position out of the hole and help me stay a little more 'chest up'. Importantly this also removed lots of confusion and dissonance each session as I only had to focus on the one aspect.

It's been 2 months and my squat is looking much better. In fact I videoed my session today and it was pleasing to see my positioning looking far more consistent. Importantly the bar path is staying straight, constantly tracking over the mid-foot allowing me to drive strongly from the bottom.

The key going forward is to keep applying the same cues so that this movement pattern becomes second nature. I have now added work to improve my T-spine mobility but I am concious to reinforce my previous technique gains so I don't regress in these areas.

There are no guarentees in this sport but I am looking forward to Nationals, in fact I am booking flights tonight so it is locked and loaded!

Stay Strong

Thomo