Merkley's guide to pretend lifting

[Merkley]

^^ that's good! Any simple (but not easy) tweaks to form that improves the mechanics is worth the time to learn!

 Totally, my bar path has been horrific and I'm sure one of the reasons my deadlifts suck the bag. With these adjustments I should be seating back, driving more with my heels, and creating a far better bar path.

 Hopefully these adjustments work out in my favour.

[ShawnJ]

Sounds like you are in the right track with the deads Merk! Looking forward to the progress!

[Merkley]

Squats

5 min rowing
lots of stretching!
Barx10 (last 4 were paused for 3 seconds)
95x10 (last 4 were paused for 3 seconds)
145x6 (last 3 were paused for 3 seconds)
235x2 (last one was paused for 3 seconds)
325x6
235x6
235x6
 ~Fin~

 Slowly my strength returns. The 325 for 6 sucked to be honest. But I managed which made me happy because it was done pain free and I believe I'm only 10 lbs from my personal best of 335 for 6 for squats.

 The paused squats were more for dynamic stretching, just in case you were wondering.

[Merkley]

Sunday METCON

 10 Min Rowing
 20 Tire Flips
 10 Incline DB raises
 30 sec Box Jumps (I decided to graduate to the bigger boxes to jump on today)
 10 Standing DB Press
 30 sec Battle Rope (managed 70 in 30 sec, compared to 40 when I first started)
 20 Burpees (I still hate them, just not as much as I did)
 30 sec Farmers walks (Instead of the trap dead bar I decided to use the 100 DB's...I prefer the trap dead bar)
 10 Min Rowing

 4 rounds done in just shy of an hour. During that time I was helping shoot videos and dodge children (not a common occurrence, hopefully the last).

 Cresting into week 8 of cutting. This is where things start to get tough. The next 4 weeks I'm going to be pushing hard to get into the 190's as I drop food and increase energy expenditure. I've been considering walking to the gym once a week (4.1 km one way). As the weeks move on I will increase the days I walk to the gym. Of course this is just an idea, Mrs. M may not like the idea of me being away so much.

 I'll figure it out as I go along.

 Right now I'm 207 (this is after having a cheat meal on Friday night).

 Happy Sunday!

[ShawnJ]

Great looks looking squats and metcon Merk! Scale is looking good after a cheat and in good shape to push it to the 190's! Had me a sweet cheat lastnight as well, so good!

[Merkley]

Benchies!

Facepulls x 20
Band Chest Press x 15
Reverse Band Chest Press x 15
Barx10
135x5
185x3
235x1
255x1
275x1
255x3
255x5
255x3

Push ups 110 (50,40,20)

~Fin~

 The last time I did a 3x3 was in late April if not May, I don't recall exactly but I do know I was only pushing 245 and I was close to 230 lbs. So I'm rather content with the 10 lbs improvement for my 3x3 and that I'm doing this at 205-207 lbs. Of course as I lighten the load my push ups are getting much easier. When I starting doing push ups after bench I was doing the prescribed 100...but in sets of 10 since that was all I could muster and they took fucking forever since I needed so much rest time in between. Now on the other hand, I'm able to do sets of 50 (as you can see above) and have over 100 done in just a few minutes.

 What started out as a shitty workout ended on a real high note.

 I hope the rest of you had awesome workouts.

 

[ShawnJ]

Strong benching! Awesome progress on the push-ups as well, all while dropping weight! Solid work!

[piperdown]

I love those days where it's rough starting out and you end up walking out the gym going "woot woot!".

You have every right to feel good about the bench...bb weight up, bw down...that's killer!

[Merkley]

Strong benching! Awesome progress on the push-ups as well, all while dropping weight! Solid work!

Thanks, I'm tossing around the idea of doing push ups on a more regular basis, let's say starting with 100 daily and work up to....a short term goal of 400 daily. Increased energy expenditure, and it will help strengthen things up. I'll have to make sure to increase back work to compensate. I don't need to start looking like an all exclusive bench queen, with the rounded shoulders and hunch forward.

[Merkley]

I love those days where it's rough starting out and you end up walking out the gym going "woot woot!".

You have every right to feel good about the bench...bb weight up, bw down...that's killer!

 Damned rights I feel good about it. When I started training at Primal I realized how badly out of shape and weak I was. My ego/pride really took a shit kicking, a very humbling experience indeed. Hell I even considering giving up....aaaaand then I decided to stop being a bitch about things and put on my big boy pants. Over these past couple of months I've dropped weight, creeping up on PR's, and increased overall conditioning and athleticism.

 It was the day I squatted 385 that I felt there was a massive turn around

 As far as I am concerned this is just the beginning.

 


 

[John]

Strong benching! Awesome progress on the push-ups as well, all while dropping weight! Solid work!

Thanks, I'm tossing around the idea of doing push ups on a more regular basis, let's say starting with 100 daily and work up to....a short term goal of 400 daily. Increased energy expenditure, and it will help strengthen things up. I'll have to make sure to increase back work to compensate. I don't need to start looking like an all exclusive bench queen, with the rounded shoulders and hunch forward.

Ive tried this in the past and it always leads me to shoulder issues. Never got to 400 a day but I would easily hit 200+ a day 3-4 times a week. I also don't think it carried over to my bench but I did get better at push-ups (until the shoulders acted up - each and every time  )

[Merkley]

Strong benching! Awesome progress on the push-ups as well, all while dropping weight! Solid work!

Thanks, I'm tossing around the idea of doing push ups on a more regular basis, let's say starting with 100 daily and work up to....a short term goal of 400 daily. Increased energy expenditure, and it will help strengthen things up. I'll have to make sure to increase back work to compensate. I don't need to start looking like an all exclusive bench queen, with the rounded shoulders and hunch forward.

Ive tried this in the past and it always leads me to shoulder issues. Never got to 400 a day but I would easily hit 200+ a day 3-4 times a week. I also don't think it carried over to my bench but I did get better at push-ups (until the shoulders acted up - each and every time  )

 All in all I was just hoping for nicer boobies! and thicker triceps 

[Merkley]

Deads

 Today I was working on sumo deads. I have only worked with sumo half a dozen times so I'm still rather new and trying to get myself sorted.

 Warm up
 5 min rowing 2:30min/500m pace
 20 Tire flips
 20 box jumps

 Deads
 Barx10
 95x5
 165x3
 235x3
 345x3
 415xFAIL
 415xFAIL
 345x3
 345x3

~FIN~

 Once I started to get into the 4's I noticed a form shift both times I tried. I dumped the bar when I would feel this "shift". It's hard to explain other than things weren't what they were supposed to be and personally I would rather dump the bar than try and complete the lift and potentially injury myself. I'm sure you all understand. So I went back down to a weight where everything felt proper.


 

 

[ShawnJ]

Nice sumo work! I was messing around with sumo a bit after the meet but just couldn't get the conventional out of the sumo. My right hip hurt like hell too so axed it early. Would have loved to master it but faak it haha

[Merkley]

Nice sumo work! I was messing around with sumo a bit after the meet but just couldn't get the conventional out of the sumo. My right hip hurt like hell too so axed it early. Would have loved to master it but faak it haha

Yeah sumo is....different. It's one of those movements that will take time to get used to that's for sure. I look forward to the challenge!