Reactive Training Systems

Ok I want to rant a bit. Yesterday i went and saw the new Indiana Jones movie. What a freaking let down. I can't really bitch too much, there was alot for it to live up too. But seriously George Lucas and Steven Spielberg could have done better, the special effects were good but the story was weak, and the aliens come on what was that all about. Bottom line the story seemed like it was written by a monkey on acid.

75% 8/27

Incline Press goal 225

185-5
225-5@8-9
235-5@9ish
245-4@9-10
225-5@9

Raw Bench 75%

275-5@8
295-5@9
270-5@8
270-5@8
270-5@9

Lying Tricep Press

225-5
225-5
225-5

-Felt awkward during todays workout. Alot had to do with training in a new gym, there is always a bit of a curve when dealing with slightly different bench heights and inclines. The floor in the recondo room is slick as hell by powerlifting standards so leg drive sufferes greatly. Not sure what to do about it, I may put some of our rubber mats in there but its not my gym so I have to get EVERYTHING approved first and its a pain in the ass. Still not real impressed with my raw bench but the groove is coming back pretty quick. Took alot of time off for my shoulder to heal, worked mostly lockoout and two boards for the last couple cycles. It shows, the weight moves slow right off my chest and flies when I reach about four or five inches off my chest. I'd like to see 315-325 for five at a 9 by the time tri-service roll around in october.

I'm just getting caught up on all the logs.

BIG ****ING CONGRATS on 1) LOS status (can you say USAFA's return to dominance?) 2) a new (better) place to train and 3) all the new equipment. Very nice, Nick!

Do you know where you will spend the money? Hit me up sometime and I can give you some suggestions if you like.

Don't do foam roll training. Me stopping the bench short of touching my chest is a bad habit. OTOH, doing "soft touches" is a good practice that accomplishes pretty much the same thing (you just barely touch your chest). Personally, I'm losing confidence in the Dynamic method entirely. If you don't see it making a difference on your bench, I'd substitute it for sub-max effort work.

yeah I'm pretty stoked about it all, but I'm learning a lesson, if you want anything to get done you have to do the crap yourself. Bates gets good ideas but they don't come to fruition unless I put some sweat into it. Normally I would be like f#ck it but I want the crap too. Oh well, this tri-service meet will be my last project for powerlifting, beyond that I'm just worrying about myself nationals.

On a seperate note I sat down and explained a very simplified version of RTS (simplified based on my simple understanding, so very simplified) to Marzo. It took a long time but I think he'll benefit greatly from it. The greatest thing most lifters like is the flexibility and ability to control recovery. Not related neccessaryly to RTS but alot of the lifters I start on this program have never considered creating a macro cycle. When they look at their training long term it helps them to see where the gains need to come from. Also plugging in the big goal at the end of the macro cycle is motivation everytime you open the file. I tell everyone, "look you have the ability to make this PR happen, you've put the thought in, now simply follow the steps and it'll happen." For the beginner to intermideate level lifters that I deal with, I am almost always right too. God this got long....

Holy f#ck, ok lets see if I can talk about this.

My back has been feeling sore and tight all week and I couldn't figure out why. Last squat workout when ok, I got a little rounded on the romanians but nothing too crazy. Anyway today ended with me limping out of the gym into the sauna with a strained spinal erector and pain shooting down my glute into my right leg.
Bottom line is I can't figure out what went wrong, I just couldn't seem to sit back into the lift, my arch was weak at besd and I couldn't keep my upper back tight. I've been getting way too much sleep at night, usually around nine hours which always seems to lead to stiffness. Oh well I'll figure it out. On the bright side, I still hit my goal even with a sore back.

Chain Squat 75% goal 300
275-3 first sign that my form was off, the set just felt awkward
275-1 did this one to try to nail down the groove, got better
300-5@8-9
300-5@8-9 felt really strong but no explosion cause of the shaky back so I didnt push it
275-5@8-9

Romanian Dd 75% goal 310

295-5
315-5@8-9
325-5@9 (felt solid but starting to round)
300-5@8-9
300-5@9

SS bar Squat

sat down between exercise and the pain started so I ditched the SS bar squats

hyperextensions for stretching and blood flow
spent about an hour doing contrasting showers and time in the sauna. I have a chiro appointment Monday and wednesday next week. I hope to god I'm better by then, otherwise I'm gonna take a full two weeks off to avoid re-injury.

Hey that sucks to hear your back is giving you issues.  I totally destroyed mine 3 weeks ago.  I had to crawl up the stairs and couldn't even get up from the ground for about 2 hours.  The only thing that got me up was I needed to use the bathroom!  I just wanted to post this to let you know that I hurt mine doing the same thing you are doing.  My back was definatley not 100% going into the workout but not bad enough to not workout either.  I did a set of RDL's, still in warm-up up weight, and on the 7th rep I rounded my back and then the misery began.   After seeing a physical therapist and chiropractor they determined my glutes just kinda quit working on me and all the weight was transfereed to my lowerback and erectors.  I have been on a stedy diet of things I used to think were gay (foam roller, activation exercises, mobilty stuff) and it has been helping me tremendously.  Here is a link to the mobiltiy drills I do http://stronglifts.com/7-dynamic-stretches-to-improve-your-hip-mobility/    I do these every day along wtih trying to sit in the full squat position on my hells for as long as possible for 3 sets.   I also bought a foam roller and I do some stuff on that as well.  Also reverse hypers off the bench if you don't have access to a reverse hyper machine got my glutes working again.  Please don't take this as me telling you what to do, there are far more qualified poeple on this board for that, but this is how I rehabed myself and how I plan to prevent this from happening to me again.  I am already more flexible than I was before the injury and even though my weights aren't back up to where they were I can feel the better leverage on the bottom.

Ok lots to say

First of all big thanks Mike P, that link you gave me is helping alot. I did finally figure out what happened. I've known for a long time that daily posture is extremly important in squat form. For a college student like me who spends alot of time in front of a desk slouching can be a problem and a sitting position can shorten hamstrings which will fight your sit out. I've fixed this problem in the bast by getting a chair that tilted far enough forward to put my knees below my hips elongating my hamstrings and putting my back in a much better postion. Well I moved to a new room for the summer and forgot my chair, the new one had a slight backward tilt with the back support being tilted forwared putting my knees ABOVE my hips. When it finally occured to me this morning I launched the chair down the hallway and went and got my other one. Dorm management is still sending me emails wondering how the chair I turned in got into three pieces. I thought about telling them that it was causing me to miss lifts and it paid the price but somehow I don't think they would consider it as worthy a cause for destruction as I do.

In short the pain has subsided to the typical soreness you feel if your form went to crap one day. I wont push it though until its 100% I'm not going back to were I was, it cost my squat 100lbs last time I got over zealous. I'm continuing the contrasting showers about twice a day along with the ROM movements Mike P suggested, I'm feeling a bit water logged but its working.

As for Marzo, it was more than difficult. He kept getting hung up on the percentages instead of just picking one rep max goals and letting the math work itself out. Time will tell if it works for him. He also wanted said he would be forced to miss workouts so I got him off the four day split and put him on the three day rotation I have. he seemed thrilled about it. I really like helping people write programs, its like having a bunch of willing volunteers in my science experiment.