There is always room for improvement! šŸ’ŖšŸ¼

I've been a believer for a while that one could build and maintain good strength and condition with LCCJ alone. I don't limit myself to just this drill, of course. But I bet I wouldn't feel undertrained if I did.

I warmed up with 20 per exercise per side of Mark Wildman's "3 Exercises To Eliminate Back Pain", and 100 standing mountain climbers. Legs feel like lead weights by the end of those! Then LCCJ with my big small kettlebell. This is the heaviest I have gone with any kettlebell stuff since the snow fell. I am eager to get back outside and use the big ones in spring. I meant to do ten pers side, but it seems I lost count and cut it a rep short. Now time for some BCAAs and a late dinner.



What have you guys been up to?
 
Still trying to get back to the strength levels before the hernia surgery last August.

Progress is never as fast as Iā€™d like. Fiiiiiiiiinallly got back to 7 reps per set on pullups with the 40lb vest. Back is actually stronger than before the surgery. Doing dumbbell rows with the 125lb dumbbell, after the pullups, actually felt fairly easy.

Everything else is still behind. šŸ˜
 
That doesn't sound too bad considering. I've never had to have surgery... outside of my wisdom teeth! šŸ¤£ I have nothing but admiration for anyone who can undergo a setback like actual surgery and then get back on the horse.
 
Squat cleans, deadlifts for the first time in a couple months last night, and high density presses as well ..... just in time for "recovery day" to involve shoveling over a foot of snow on the deck and to get to the wood shed! šŸ¤£
 
David Mary said:
Squat cleans, deadlifts for the first time in a couple months last night, and high density presses as well ..... just in time for "recovery day" to involve shoveling over a foot of snow on the deck and to get to the wood shed! šŸ¤£
Click to expand...
Oof. Shoveling snow is a back workout in itself.

Been there, done that. Hard pass. Shoveled about a foot of snow from the driveway many years ago. Figured, ā€œMeh, Iā€™m in good shapeā€.

Maybe it was because I got tired of doing it, so I figured since I was strong enough, I started slinging the shovelfuls of snow 10+ feet, off the driveway. Probably 20+lbs each time.

Got it done. Woke up the next day, and MAN, was my back stiff and sore! šŸ˜‚

I think it took 3-4 days for my back to stop aching.

*** this is probably a good example of the difference between ā€˜farm strongā€™ vs ā€˜gym strongā€™.

Folks who do things like construction, or moving hay bales all day might not have the absolute strength levels of hardcore gym rats, but theyā€™re accustomed to doing those things for hours.

Two other similarly related examples:

Back in college, I wound up doing security for an event, where we did full patdowns of everyone coming in (i.e. down to the ankles. Didnā€™t have metal detectors/wands). By the end of the night, I was thinking, ā€œWhy are my legs sore and cramping up? Oh, rightā€¦ even when itā€™s only bodyweight, squatting ~400-500 times over a few hours adds up).

Also in college, a bunch of buddies hanging out on one of those Monday holidays, when I showed them how to throw chopsticks (the plastic kind), and with the right technique, theyā€™d punch deep into a cardboard box. Explained that the mechanics are similar to knife throwing.

After teaching my buddies how to do it, we taped pictures/pages ripped from magazines, to a big box as a target, and made a game out of it.

Next day, everyoneā€™s going, ā€œDANG, my arm/shoulder is soreā€. One buddy goes, ā€œYeah, me too. Didnā€™t think about it, but to get the chopstick to punch into the box, you gotta throw it hard. A pro baseball pitcher throws about 100-120 pitches in a game. We were probably somewhere in the 300+ throws each, by the end of the nightā€. ā€œOhā€¦ā€
 
Last edited:
bluemax_1 said:
ā€œDANG, my arm/shoulder is soreā€. One buddy goes, ā€œYeah, me too. Didnā€™t think about it, but to get the chopstick to punch into to box, you gotta throw it hard. A pro baseball pitcher throws about 100-120 pitches in a game. We were probably somewhere in the 300+ throws each, by the end of the nightā€. ā€œOhā€¦ā€
Click to expand...

During my first boxing lesson, some 20 years ago now, I still remember the coach incessantly telling us to pull our jabs back faster. And a good ten or twenty minutes of the class was standing there doing jabs, with him walking around checking everyone's technique. My biceps were at least as sore from that boxing class as they'd ever been doing dumbell curls.
 
The two at the top in the first pic are a pair of no name Captains of Crush clones, 300 and 250. But strangely, the one marked 250 is easier to close than the 300. šŸ¤£ Can't close either of them fully, and both are stiffer than the 350 lb Heavy Grips. They were a gift from a friend who didn't really use them. I don't really use them either, but I have been crushing on the Heavy Grips again lately. Had them for a couple decades. A few years ago I filed inside the handles on the ones I can close for reps so that I have to close them a little further. The sound of the handles touching and grinding together got annoying so I also put some hockey tape on them to silence it. I have closed the 300 HG before, but never the 350. Currently not quite closing the 300 HG any more either.

IMG_1526.jpeg
image.jpg
image.jpg
image.jpg
 
Mom came over for dinner last night. I told her how my wrist had been sore lately, and she said "How is it that you're getting older, and I'm not".

So I said, come with me... we went into my barbell room where the barbell was still sitting on the floor loaded to 185 lb. I deadlifted it cold, and then single handed deadlifted it once with each hand. Then I did a bottoms up clean and hold on each hand with the 60 lb kettlebell. I said your turn. She said, okay you've made your point. šŸ¤£
 
David Mary said:
Mom came over for dinner last night. I told her how my wrist had been sore lately, and she said "How is it that you're getting older, and I'm not".

So I said, come with me... we went into my barbell room where the barbell was still sitting on the floor loaded to 185 lb. I deadlifted it cold, and then single handed deadlifted it once with each hand. Then I did a bottoms up clean and hold on each hand with the 60 lb kettlebell. I said your turn. She said, okay you've made your point. šŸ¤£
Click to expand...
Lucky your mom isnā€™t a smartass, unlike some of us here, who wouldā€™ve just told you to maybe switch to using the other hand once in a while
šŸ˜œ
 
David Mary said:
Mom came over for dinner last night. I told her how my wrist had been sore lately, and she said "How is it that you're getting older, and I'm not".

So I said, come with me... we went into my barbell room where the barbell was still sitting on the floor loaded to 185 lb. I deadlifted it cold, and then single handed deadlifted it once with each hand. Then I did a bottoms up clean and hold on each hand with the 60 lb kettlebell. I said your turn. She said, okay you've made your point. šŸ¤£
Click to expand...
Oh, and props to working up to doing those cold.

For entertainment and inspiration for whatā€™s possible, I present Anatoly

 
I'm recovering from tearing my patella tendon on my left knee on December 1st. 12 years ago I did the same thing on my right knee so apparently I have really bad patella tendons.

I also have spondylolisthesis with my L4 and L5.

I've been working with a personal trainer for about 4 years now and was really starting to make some good gains with my squats using a belt hooked to kettlebells. That kept all the weight off my L4 and L5 and I was able to start lifting heavy stuff again. I've been back to the gym for a few weeks now doing upper body only. I have another 10 weeks or so of physical therapy for the knee and it seems to be progressing well.

I'm 56 years old, so I want to keep up my strength and mobility to be able to actually enjoy retirement in a few years.
 
Richard338 said:
Anatoly's best deadlift is listed as 290kg, at 78kg, 3.7 times BW. That's excellent but not outrageous. His squat is surprisingly low comparatively. I do enjoy some of his videos.
Click to expand...
While 3.7x may not be a power to weight record, anyone doing 3x or more is in rarified territory.

2.5x bodyweight is Elite territory.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top