Diary of a novice strongman

Charlts

Wasn't feeling it tonight, everything felt slow and heavy couldn't get my head into the game at all. I remembered that I'd had some nose tork delivered today which helped with the main set of deadlifts. Slowly got into the groove as things went on and even ventured into the dumbell area at the end of the session for curls but super setted with lateral raises.

Warm up

Barbell deadlift - 60x5, 60x10, 60x10
Axle deadlift - 75x10, 115x5, 155x1 (new pb) failed the second attempt

Deadlift 160x5 felt mega heavy had a quick breather, big lungful of nose tork and straight into 160x10, 160x10, 160x8, 100x15 as I was feeling awfully stiff.
Low row - 13 plates x 10, 14x10, 15x15
Lat pull down - 91x10 (sloppy), 84x10, 84x10
Axle Row - 65x10, 65x10, 65x10
Dumbell Bicep curl - 15x10, 15x10, 15x10
Lateral raise - 45x10, 45x10, 45x10

My buddy just sent a video of the axle deadlift I did and I reckon I know what caused the problem tonight, I'd forgotten everything I've worked on this year to sort my terrible technique out. If anybody wants a how to stiff leg deadlift, I'm available! Really disappointed in letting things slip back to basics with it next week.

sheriffwoody

i enjoy deadlift, but i think my technique for it is my worst one. i always bang my knees on the way down, or just feel like i am doing it wrong. too much leg, too much back, too much pulling with the arms etc.

Arcam_boy

Deadlift seems to be my best lift. I'm currently 'only' lifting 100kg until my new weights turn up but I can do 8 reps x 3 at this weight and feel quite comfy. Hoping I'll be able to progress with bigger lifts quite quickly where as I don't feel like that with my squats.

Not really sure if thats normal!

Charlts

I'm also very pro deadlift, last night was a blip I've worked too hard trying to improve things to slip back to old bad habits, after watching that vid I want to go and drill things again!

sheriffwoody

what sort of things have you learnt to do in the deadlift? what are you not happy about in that video?

reiteration

for me - if I use to much weight then it's harder to keep ones back straight... I dropped from 140kg down to 130kg the other night and felt as tho my form was so much better...

Charlts

Poor position to start with, hips too high, leading with my bum effectively stiff legging it, I had the bar too close to me at the start and didn't have any tension in my body at all before the movement started - You can see my lats contract.

Charlts

Following on from the deadlift chatter, I came a cross this article if anybody is interested.

How to Increase Your Deadlift | Bret Contreras

Charlts

Tonight was a rushed one, I'm working on the other side of the county now my buddy did an hour and a half of Olympic lifting before I showed up and bless him stayed to spot me on the bench. Best bench session I've had for a while, all the reps were fast apart from the last one which slowed a little, feeling confident about setting some new pressing pb's at the end of the month.

Barbell warm up C&Jx5, snatch x3
Axle - freestyle 65 x 10 3 x snatch, 3 x C&J, 3 x push press, 1 x strict. 90 x 2 strict, 85 x 2 strict, 75 x 3 C&J
Bench (2 sec pause) - 105x5, 105x5, 105x5, 105x5, 105x6
Incline fly - 12.5x15, 15x15, 15x12
Dips - Bodyweight x8, x8, x5
Rope pull down - 11x10, 11x10, 10x10

silent ninja

Is that your 5x5 bench max? Impressive you got 6 on the final set

Nice to see a strong guy like you 'only' doing 15s on flyes. Guys in my gym use silly heavy weights and end up bench pressing it most of the way. I do like flyes - tricky to get right though.

Also impressed with your chins and dips. Big guys in my gym don't do them. I don't understand why. Arnie was crazy about dips as far as I know (Vince Gironda was big on them).