Test Day
Hmmmmm, what to write about today. Glute medius function and how it relates to anterior knee pain? Naw. Why I think guys who do ballistic barbell shrugs with 1/8 of an inch ROM (what’s the point? ) should perform a vasectomy with a Power Ranger action figure? Nope, not today. However, I’ll definitely hit on that one soon. In short, behind leg curls, I think barbell shrugs are pretty worthless.
I know! How about the fact that I may very well shit my own spine out today as Eric and I test our one rep maxes on the deadlift? Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. We have a winner. For those that are out of the loop, Eric and I have been doing this deadlift specialization program- a hybrid of some Russian squat specialization program that one of our powerlifting clients, Dan Toledano, has been following recently- and today marks test day.
For the past three weeks both of us have been, well, deadlifting- to the tune of four times per week. Yes, that’s a lot of deadlifting. Yes, we bitched and moaned the entire time. And no, we didn’t overtrain. I’m often amazed at how often that term is thrown out there, given that you really have to go out of your way to overtrain. The technical term to use here is overreaching, but that’s a whole different blog post. However, suffice it to say, we were both pretty happy to deload this past week. Heck, I watched season 1 of Fringe on Blu-Ray and made an omelette, it was awesome.
The last day of the program was this past Thursday, and while I did a very light training session on Saturday and went to a local BSC on Sunday to move around a bit, I haven’t touched a weight since.
Nevertheless, in roughly two hours, it’s on like Donkey Kong. I believe several of our athletes/clients are coming in early to watch the festivities, and I’m pretty sure Fox News will be broadcasting live. Who cares about health care reform when there’s heavy stuff to be lifted? Updates to follow………….
UPDATE: Hit 550, which is a 15 lb conventional deadlift PR. Went something like this:
135×5
225×3
315×1
405×1
455×1
495×1
550×1
585 (which was a longshot) x fail
570 (which is what I should have done after the 550) x fail
560 (WTF) x fail. I was spent by this point.
While I’m at it:
Taking my recycling out x fail
Following the speed limit on the way to work this morning x fail
Not peeing on my girlfriend’s toilet seat last night X EPIC fail
Video of the 550 to follow later on tonight.
