SmileyEH's Log

[Thremp]

Smiley,

Usually they call partials: rack pulls.

[SmileyEH]

Also since I didn't have time before going to bed last night here is a history of where I've come from strength/fitness wise and where I want to get.

Started college at 6' and ~155lbs, so pretty much weak and skinny as [censored]. I posted a picture of myself last fall from sophmore year-I weighed 165 in it and several posters were making fun of me I was so skinny, you can imagine what I looked like a year before.

Started going to the gym right away doing completely retarded [censored]: up and down the lines of machines basically doing everything. After a month or so a guy that was into bodybuilding showed me around and got me away from most of the machines (straight to the preacher curl bench lol).

Lifted for a total of 2 months maybe and I obviously thought I was (and looked like) a god. Got bored and drifted away. This essentially repeated itself for the next 2 years. I would lift hard for a few months, then do nothing for 6. About this time last year I think I hit rock bottom when it came to my physical health. I had been living in Europe for 3 months getting almost no physical activity, sleeping during the day and eating absolute [censored] for food. Just before I came back to north america I came down with a horrible intestinal infection. [censored] blood for about 2 weeks and pretty much unable to eat, by the time I got back home I was probably back to 155-160lbs.

Since then I've been pretty much dedicated to strength and fitness training. My diet is excellent compared to what it was and I'm extremely proud of the strength gains I've made. I give most of the credit to www.crossfit.com, although I don't do the workout of the day anymore its philosophy of constantly varied activity, power and olympic lifting, and gymnastics have kept me enthusiastic about going to the gym. I did my first deadlift in August of last year and struggled to get 200lbs up - 2 weeks ago I clean and jerked that same weight.

Right now I am focusing on improving my olympic lifts and deadlift. By the end of the year I would like to snatch 200lbs, C&J over 250, and deadlift 405 for reps. Also, over the summer I plan to get back on crossfit style met-con workouts and improve my times.

Here are my PRs to date, hopefully I can keep breaking them throughout the year.

Back Squat (ass to ankles): 260 (not sure)
Front Squat (a2a): 255
Overhead Squat (a2a): 175
Dead Lift: 365
Bench: 185 (not sure)
Snatch: 140
C&J: 205
Pullup: BW + 75lbs
Dip: BW + 65lbs

[skunkworks]

Smiley, I just made a connection. You were the guy in the Canadian costume with the cape that everyone was poking fun at? Awesome.

[SmileyEH]

[ QUOTE ]
Smiley, I just made a connection. You were the guy in the Canadian costume with the cape that everyone was poking fun at? Awesome.

[/ QUOTE ]

Haha yeah. I wish I had saved that picture, Halloween 2004 vs. 2006 would have made a great comparison.

[skunkworks]

[ QUOTE ]
Haha yeah. I wish I had saved that picture, Halloween 2004 vs. 2006 would have made a great comparison.

[/ QUOTE ]
Clark Kent, eh -> Superman, eh.

How many times a week are you lifting? I'm pretty ignorant about the Crossfit stuff (although kind of intrigued), so I'm just wondering what the frequency is like and the intensity as well.

[SmileyEH]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Haha yeah. I wish I had saved that picture, Halloween 2004 vs. 2006 would have made a great comparison.

[/ QUOTE ]
Clark Kent, eh -> Superman, eh.

How many times a week are you lifting? I'm pretty ignorant about the Crossfit stuff (although kind of intrigued), so I'm just wondering what the frequency is like and the intensity as well.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not doing crossfit really these days, although I do something like the crossfit or burgener warmup everytime I'm in the gym. I probably average 5 days a week although my schedule moves around a lot because I find it hard to stick to a set schedule. Intensity wise I am constantly trying to set new pr's - probably to my detriment - so it is always pretty high. My light days are usually where I work on o-lift technique or do power cleans/snatches.

[SmileyEH]

Mar. 15

Warmup:
500m row 1:46 @20
10 dips
10 pullups (kipping)
15 back extensions
15 incline situps
6 hand stand pushups
stretching
power snatches + OHS

Pullup Ladder:
Start a stopwatch, 1 pullup in 1st minute, 2 in 2nd minute, 3 in 3rd etc. until failure
made it to the 12th minute before part of my palm peeled off [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]. Could have gone for a coulpe more rounds. Total pullups (kipping): ~70

Back Squats:
8x135
3x225
3x235
3x245
3x255
2x265
3x255
3x255

Would have liked the squats to be easier although my lower back was still sore from deadlifts yesterday. Guessing my max is around 280-290.

Inlince Situps:
12 with 15lb medicine ball above head
6 more of the same

Food: Slept in until noon missing my morning class.
Breakfast: suprise! eggs bacon etc.
meal 1/pwo: tri-o-plex bar, double whey protein shake
will need to eat a lot this evening

[Thremp]

Smiley,

Why kip?

[SmileyEH]

Here's one of many discussions on the crossfit boards concerning the dead hang vs. kipping debate. Personally next time I do a ladder I will probably just do deadhang so it is not my skin blistering that limits me.

The thread begins because the video posted that day was of a guy doing max dead hang pullups to failure as quickly as possible, then resting and doing the same number kipping - he was able to do them about twice as fast so his "power" output doubled. The OP took issue.

kipping v. deadhang

[Thremp]

[ QUOTE ]
so his "power" output doubled.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, my general feeling toward it is the same. I think what most people benefit from is:

1) Increased TUT, ergo they increase their strength
2) They "buy in" to it and it has a placebo effect

I see the main con being that its similar to cheat curls, but more effective. You can use it to alter rep ranges. From what I gather I could likely be able to do 4x12 or some other range that is now unattainable by dead hangs which gives me more flexibility than dead hangs.