Old-School Iron

Ah, here we go again. Another week behind us…

Actually, it’s going surprisingly well. Obviously the Russians know something we in the West do not about training.
The first of the three workouts (Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday), involving Heavy Bench and Light Squats was intresting, to say the least.
First off, the bench pressing (6 x 4 @ 102,5kg / 225,5lbs) actually felt pretty cushiony compared to last weeks’ threes. Weird.
On the squats however, I landed the dubious honor of being to first to have to dish out a penalty charge for 1 rep of high squats (50 cents). Other than that, since going to just below parallel seems to be difficult to master, I went for the extreme approach: ass to the grass on every single rep. That ought to cover that problem. Now, if I can keep this up, I’ll have zero difficulty in breaking parallel. HA!

The second workout, involving only Deadlifts, was a bit odd. I definitely mastered the art of exploding from bottom, at least compared to last week, and the newly acquired less wide stance also worked in not punishing my already sore hipjoints any further. I seem to have reduced my stance a bit further than I needed to, though, so after seeing a clip of my good morning-deadlift combo, taken by Kris, my feet went a bit wider and also angled out a bit more. That did the trick, although it still felt a bit heavy. No back trouble though, despite the pretty extreme 60-70 degree angle in the first couple of working sets…

The third workout was a miss completely, I’m sad to report.
Partly, my nephew’s birthday-party is to blame, as well as my intense tiredness thereafter. If you’re on a peaking program that requires you to be rested come workout day, stay away from parties where there are kids. You’ve been warned. Also, this results in some massive penalties on my part by way of missed workout.
On the up side, the silver lining and all that; this gives my rather tender hipjoints some extra rest, which should result in some rather impressive gains come next tuesday. Also, I’m pretty confindent I’ll be able to squat (gulp) 6 x 5 @ 130kgs on saturday…

Kris reported that he, too, got a penalty-rated squat on saturday, so we seem to be even in that department…

I’ll try to take some clips again next week, and probably post some too…

Week 1 over and done with.

Initial impressions after first workout (Heavy bench and “Light” Squat): I may eventually have input my maxweights at a tad too high.
Then again, I’m told by Kris that this is a fairly common feeling during the first few weeks of this nice, cushiony 9-week Russian Peaking Program. Notice the sarcasm seeping through the lines here.

In actual fact, I’m afraid of looking far further down the program than next week. I did that a few times, and felt the pressure building inside my head, so I think I’ll refrain from that procedure from now on.

Right now, after having just done 6 x 3 reps @ 130kgs (286 lbs) on the Heavy Squat and Light Bench day, I can’t see how I’m supposed to do 6 x 6 with the same weight in just 3 weeks time. It seems impossible, yet Kris tells me this is also a fairly common feeling. Hmm. Kris seems to be telling me a lot about how feeling horrible is actually good… Maybe I should have a second opinion on this.

Oh yeah! One other thing: We’re going really masochistic here. We are having the other count to two on each rep of the bench press (pause ~2 sec in bottom), and also we’re contemplating having a monetary penalty for each rep of squats that’s over the legal depth by even a centimeter (a third of an inch, approximately), paid to any foundation or organization of our choosing, as long as it’s one we do NOT agree with. HA!
This’ll definitely provide us with good confidence come meet day.

Altogether, and in retrospect, this week has left me a bit sore in the hipjoints, but that was I think due to improper technique (stance too wide on both deadlifts and squats), but I’m feeling confident the problem has been solved by some experimenting. The next week will, of course again dim any hope I have of ever making it through these 9 weeks alive…

Seriously though, I feel up for next week, and that is most likely as good as it’s going to get on this program.

Yes, it’s time.

I have never yet trained powerlifting-style, but alas, Kris’ impending Virtual meet has forced me into the proverbial corner.
So, undaunted by the horror that lies ahead, I’m going to embark on a 9-week Russian peaking program designed to up one’s max on the three lifts. This should give me some time to reflect upon poor technique and perhaps even mend such as they might arise.
I think I’m safe though, because my technique actually isn’t half bad, even if I do say so myself.

And no, I do not believe I will be so thrilled by this experience to give up my regular kind of training. After all, what is old-school weight training if not strength AND musclemass? I’m going to call it: Powerbuilding! Guffaw!
I expect I’ll return to regular lifting pretty much right after the meet in February 2007. Basically, I should by that time be able to bench 115kgs / 253lbs for 6-8 reps. That ought to turn a few heads at the fitness gyms… Especially since I’m not that huge sizewise. My current stats are: 178cm length (5,11?) at 96kgs / 211lbs. I haven’t the foggiest idea what my fat% is, but if I had to guess, I’d ballpark it somewhere around 20%…

If someone reading this (hello, anyone there..?) is going “what virtual meet??” at this point, might I refer you to the site of the fellow who had this bright idea in the first place: Kris.

In any case, it’ll be fun. Maybe.

As Metal Gym has, at least for now, been closed, me and Kris went to try a new aquaintance; Hot Gym.
It’s a pretty basic affair, with lots of machines and weights, the regular fitness/bodybuilding gym. I kinda liked it. It’s rather small, being located in a converted movie theater (the theater moved out in 1986), to which I remember going once with my Grandfather when I was little. Like five or something. But I digress.
The big plus this little downtown gym has over Metal is that it’s 24h with a keycard. Actually, this “little” gym is a bit bigger (roughly 400 square meters) than Metal (around 300). And, the ceiling being higher, feels a whole lot bigger. They’ve got equipment by Technogym (silver line), Kraftwerk, Normann, Cybex and David. Pretty nice, actually.
Oh yes, and color coded weight plates!

I could see myself training here, no problemo. But, I also have my Emma to consider. Would she like it..? We’ll see, have to bring her here someday too…

I trained as per my regular routine, and faced Back, rear delts and abs.

I went for regular wide-grip pull-downs, doing 4×10 with 80kgs (176lbs), and then met with a nice cable rowing station. It could be converted to do modified rows in! Which is to say you could sit at a 45 degree angle and pull that way. Much better stretch… Did 4×10 with 80kgs (176lbs) here too. Wondered what to do next, and wandered off searching for some fun, and found it in the form of a seated row lever machine (David C23). Was actually better than the row machine at Metal, with rubber non-slip handles and all… Mm the comforts of a fitness gym.

Then did my regular rear delt routine; lying rear laterals and lying l-flyes.
Nothing exciting to report there, really…

Nor in the abs department, either. Did some torso twists coupled with leg lifts in a vertical bench and cable crunches in the cross-over cable pulley.

If you thought you knew english - take a look at these words! I bet you haven’t even heard of most of them… even if you’re a native speaker of the lingo which, of course, I myself am not.

For instance, did you know or even have the faintest clue that a faucet that is bent downward is a “bibcock”?
Or that a “walla-walla” is by no means an Australian animal, but instead ‘the unintelligible sound made by many people talking at once’?
Mwahhahhaaa! I think I’ll need to incorporate some of thoese words into my day-to-day communication skills.

First off, webstore.

This idea has been brewing in my head for well over a year now, and will hopefully soon come to fruition. At least, it’s looking like it’ll happen quite soon. It’ll feature supplements and clothing mostly to begin with… I already have a supplier ready and waiting…

Second, my training.

I realize I haven’t really been blogging as much as I feel like I should’ve. But, then again, working out as I do now at Metal Gym it’s not as if I can just publish clips like I used to from our basement gym (which will soon be even further equipped with stuff from Toffe’s Gym). I will try to mend my ways and just keep everyone as posted as I can on my progress.
Some of you will know that I started training with a cyclical training method in january of this year, and I’m happy to report I’m still at it.

Oh, and another funny thing; there was talk in January about getting to see other people at the gym… Well, guess what? There have actually been two whole instances of a grand total of four people there! Two other people… whoa… We thought it’d never happen.

This is how I’ve set it up:

4-days with three days training per week. This means that during the span of a month, each musclegroup gets three targeted sessions, and one week off completely from any targeted work. I’ve found that I can maintain higher workloads this way, as I don’t have to take whole weeks off.
As a schematic, it works like this:

…and so on. It looks a bit complicated, maybe, but it really isn’t once you’ve gone through one of these microcycles.

This is how I’ve split the various bodyparts:

Also, found an intresting site, thanks to Kris. The United States All-Round Weightlifting Association, aka USAWA. They’ve got the Old-School mentality down real good! There’s an intresting list of exercises in the rules section… Also, I’ve put the link on my links list on the righthand side of this page.

Here you are, the recipes for august and september methinks…

Recipe 1: Tuna “salad”:

You will notice I use the term ’salad’ quite loosely here, much in the same way that a Real Greek salad (away from the tourist attractions) actually doesn’t contain a single leaf of said vegetable.

1 can tuna (in water!!)
1 tomato
1 tbsp oregano or pizzamix
1 tbsp grillmix
1 dash/to taste of Worchestershire sauce (any brand should do, we used Heinz)
1 tsp garlic powder
some peppermix
some grated cheese of your choice

Chop the tomato into bits, put everything in a bowl or large soupdish and mix. Ready. Enjoy!
Fast and - dare I say it - delicious even.

Recipe 2: Beef and noodles:

This food came about as I was going to make jerky of the beef, but then didn’t have time to put it in the oven. So, what we got was a wicked stew of extremely delicious beef strips with noodles! Try it, I dare you. No, I double dare you..!

1 kg / 2,2 lbs of lowfat beef cut into strips
3 servings of noodles

Marinade:
0,5 dl / 1/4 cup Soy sauce
0,5 dl / 1/4 cup Worchestershire sauce (any brand, but again we used Heinz..)
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp ground pepper (black, white, mix…any kind really)
+optinal seasonings to taste, such as cayenne, chili, A-1 steak sauce, dragon, whatever.

Marinade the beef strips at least overnight (we use Tupperware’s Season-server(R) container).
Fry the strips regularly in a large frying pan, as you would any beef (I used a steel pan with Ceratec lining). Cook the noodles or have them ready.
When you’ve fried all the beef, throw in the noodles and fry them too for a bit. Now, if you have any marinade left in your marinating pot/can/bowl, throw it in and let simmer for a few minutes. Done.
Enjoy!

As a last thought, I think both Tupperware and Iittala/Hackman ought to pay me for this wonderful plug on their respective products. If they don’t think so, then I’ll add this: They’re the best manufacturers of, of, of - um, kitchenware and plastic thingies ever!!

Finally..!

Some time to write about the things that’ve happened since last time.
The draught in southern Finland lasted a whole three months, during which time not a single drop of rain came. This naturally resulted in some birches looking like it was september or something, and I think we’ll see next spring how many of them actually died… :/
I can’t recall a summer like this one occurring here ever, and neither could my grandmother.

Training has been good to me, resulting in some nice increases in strength while having trained at Metal.
I’m still going on my cyclical training schedule, which combines “regular” weight-training old-school bodybuilding style with ultra-slow 60 sec sets and high-speed 20-30 reps speedwork at regular intervals. Currently, I’m working in the “regular” section with 6-10 reps as heavy as possible, the goal being to add as much power as I can before switching to the ultraslows again…

There have been some fun developments, though.

First off, I’m now training my dear little sister at the kuntotila (the basement gym we have). I’ve had her do squats, lunges and deadlifts as part of her “getting back in shape after having had two kids”-routine. And as was to be expected of my sis, she likes them because they hurt and must therefore be effective.
It seems the torturing-oneself-senselessly-with-heavy-weights-gene is hereditary.

Then, Emma (my one true love) has now also caught the lifting bug. At Metal, no less!
She likes the atmosphere there, because all the trendy people don’t train there and she can just put anything on and not worry about how she looks while training. Frankly, that’s because no one there cares. Really. We’ll see if she continues her new-found hobby of weightlifting enough to convince her to join Kris’ virtual powerlifting meet in February…

Oh yes, and I thought I’d include a pic for this month as well. This is a picture of the Moon, not the sun, although the likeness down to the color is astounding. I just had to stop the car, get out and place the camera on a piece of concrete wall and take it on timer… Wow. Really…

As promised on Kris’ site, a new feature emerged.
But I thought I’d be including some other pics as well… Enjoy!

Here you go, the ominous cloud of a storm brewing. Got this while walking on the parking lot, as I was coming home at something like 12.30 AM after a nice workout at Metal. I just had to stop and stare… Lucky I had my camera.