Squat PR, Lactose Intolerance, Bench Deload and Converting to Olympic Weightlifting

The biggest find of this week has been my intolerance to lactose and consequently my best friend, milk. After reading articles that a person can develop intolerance to lactose later in his life, I immediately knew the reason behind the stomach-turbulence and my need to frequently visit you-know-what. This, by no means is good news, since my diet consisted of more than a liter of milk everyday. Further, milk is one of the cheapest source that provides all the three macro-nutrients. (I despise you Arnold, for saying milk is for babies!)

So this morning, I didn't have milk for the first time in 24 years and perhaps had the most comfortable first half of the day, along with an awesome workout, which went as follows :
[All weights in lbs, obviously :) ]

Squats (155,195,235,275)x5 , 320x3  <<<<  A f***ing PR :D 
Bench (95,120,140,165)x5 , 195x3
Rows (45,90, 115, 125)x5 , 145x3

I felt really good throughout my warm-ups with squats and knew I had a PR in me today. My hip flexibility and ankle mobility has been improving rapidly with the daily stretching routine that I have been doing. Consequently, my squats are almost like an olympic ATG (ass-to-grass) squat. That is, if I go an inch or two lower, my hips will have to bounce off my calves. More on Olympic stuff later in the post.

I have been stuck at 210x2 on bench for 3 weeks and hence had to deload. Thus, 195x3 was cake today and I didn't even bother for a spot. My last 210x3 attempt (which was a failure) was with Chris spotting me, when he ended up saying - "It's bench man, who cares?". This just made my day and I swallowed my pride and deloaded happily. Same was the case with pendlay-rows, I had to deload because of form issues. I consulted few forums and considering that this is my first deload in the program, I am not too worried about it.

Lately, I have been increasingly interested in olympic weightlifting. I have been following elite weightlifter's videos. That is, the likes of Dmitry Klokov, Ilya Ilin and Mikhail Koklyaev.
Apart from this, I have also been following youtube channels of John Broz (BROZKNOWS), Clarence Kennedy (clarence0) and California Strength. All the time, after watching these videos I am just left in awe, specially by the sleekness and augustness of these lifts, be it the snatch or the clean and jerk. I used to do power cleans before my back injury, that is, when I used to pull conventional.
Another reason is the friendship with Chris, who is a passionate olympic weightlifter in the gym where I train. He had 2 back injuries in the past and he switched to olympic lifting, because it allows for a more upright torso in all the lifts. Further, the sport of olympic weightlifting is yet to be corroded by performance-enhancers like steroids etc, which futher motivates me to stay natural and still get to compete at higher levels. That being said, I am not giving up right now, and would compete in a powerlifting meet early next year. My goal is to hit 365 lbs in the squat and deadlift and 225 lbs in the bench press before then. If that happens early (which is likely), I might try to lose some weight and get lean to fit into a lower weight category.

Well, that's it then, its almost 1 in the afternoon of the long Canada-Day weekend here in Vancouver and poor me is finishing up a post. Sad? Hell no ! After all I have a party to go to, later in day and join friends for the Euro final on Sunday !

The Indian PowerMeal

This post is devoted to all my Indian friends ranting about the bland taste of clean food and hence the choice of not sticking to a healthy eating lifestyle. I got used to the western style of eating, four years ago when I was interning in the States, when for the first time I didn't have the luxury of "roti, dal and sabzee" (tortilla, lentils and vegetable-curry). Then, when I moved to Vancouver for higher studies, forgoing all that tasty and spicy Indian food was not a pain at all. In fact, I embraced the oatmeal, pasta, baked-chicken, salads, and steak. But lately, I got bored of it all, and decided to add some of the Indian recipes to my diet. "Khichdi" has been my all time favorite meal. I used to go nuts when my mother prepared it. I always ate my way into discomfort, but didn't repent a bit. The other day, I concocted a recipe of my own, similar to khichdi, and with lots of, you got it, POWER!

Ingredients (for two servings)

White Rice (100g)
Lentil (preferably Red a.k.a masoor dal) (100g)
Garam Masala
Garlic Salt
Red Chilly Powder
Plain Salt
Eggs (4)
Olive Oil(1 tbsp)
Onion (1 big)
Asafoetida (a.k.a. heeng) (a pinch)

Preparation

There are many ways to prepare khichdi. I tend to settle for the one that takes minimal time. Hence, I always choose the pressure-cooker, unless I have loads of time, in which case I'll pick a saucepan. Mix all the ingredients, except the eggs, olive-oil and onion in the cooker with about 250-300 ml of water. Place it on the oven, with heat turned to somewhere in between medium and maximum. On a separate oven, heat olive-oil on a non-stick pan. Make sure to keep the heat between low to medium (olive oil is not suited for high temperature cooking). Break the eggs, add onions (and other spices if you wish), mix and keep it ready. Fry them and at the same time monitor the number of whistles you hear form the cooker. All pressure cookers are built different, hence it will take some getting used to from your end, to accurately tell if it is done. In my case, 3-4 whistles are enough, and at that point I turn off the heat and keep it aside (the cooking still continues). Once the eggs (and the stuff in the cooker) are done, mix them together and EAT ! Pat yourself on the back, for you just ate, perhaps, the most nutritious (and powerful) of Indian meals known to mankind :)

Training Update: 18th June, 2012

Week - 13, Workout-1 (Volume Day) of Madcow 5x5 Intermediate 

The main sets I did today were :

Squats: 310x4 (missed 1 rep)
Bench: 205x3 (missed 2 reps)
Rows : 155x5

Squats are going good, I must say. I am happy that even though I couldn't get 5 reps, I could do 4 instead of 3, the last time I squatted 310. However, bench press appears to be stuck at 205-210. But, there is some progress nonetheless because the 3rd rep with 205 today was easier !

I rarely update my overhead press/Deadlift workouts. I will be going for 170 lbs with overhead press in my next training session. I got 5 (very difficult) reps with 165 lbs last week. I also hit 4 reps with 310 lbs in Sumo Deadlifts.

305x5 and the ensuing sore throat

I have so many reasons to be happy today ! I got two 5 RM (rep max) personal records (PR) today. The first one, as the title says was in squats and the second one, with the bench press. I got 5 reps with 200 lbs in the latter. I have been stuck with 3-4 reps for the past 4 weeks !

The other reason is that, today I learnt yet another lesson on how mind is an immensely powerful entity that can drive the body way beyond its limits. What limits you ask?  Well, many, but the most obvious one is the limit that your brain a.k.a. common sense tells you. I just hiked for more than two hours yesterday till past mid-day. Hikes usually tax your cardiovascular system (and to some extent your muscles) when you are hiking up. However, on your way down it's mainly your leg muscles (to pe specific, the quadriceps) that take the toll. My legs were almost shaking when I got back from the hike yesterday and almost gave up the thought of training the next day (i.e. today). I got up this morning feeling fine, with little to no soreness in my legs, which might be due to the eating marathon that I forced myself to, before sleeping (all clean food mind you, no junk at all!).

Anyways, fast forward to the gym, I see chris (a serious olympic lifter) warming up as usual, we exchange our hi/hellos and then get to work. My warmups with squats were:

150x5, 185x5, 225x5, 265x5

The last set was in particular difficult than usual and that is when my brain started talking to me, that I should give up on my plan of going for a PR today. At this point, I was considering the idea, but my mind said otherwise - "put up 305, go for it and see how many you can get!".

As I stacked the weights, shit scared, staring at Chris, He said "wow, 305 eh? impressive". (Chris witnessed my 300x5 last week, so he knew I was going for a PR)

I retorted, "dude, I just hiked for like 2.5 hours yesterday and I don't think I can even get 2 with 305"

Then He replied " Dude, don't let that silly  a** hike scare off your mind, you can do it!"

This comment of his, changed me in someway, and at this point I knew no matter what I was gonna give it my all. The first 2 reps were fairly easy. I wobbled on my way up in the third. But the last two were with good form and with immense screaming which is the reason behind the title of this post :)

As I struggled up on my way on the fifth rep, I immediately knew how powerful human mind is. Who knows if I could tap fully into my mind's potential, I could have gotten 6 or 8 or even 10 reps.

The boost from the squats carried over to bench and I got 5 reps with 200 (with 4 heavy warmups before, obviously). I went and shared a high-5 with Chris and thanked him for his encouragement.

This perhaps is the longest training update I have ever written, but it is worth it ! 2 PRs in a single day ? damn !

Stay Strong !  

It took 3 weeks to get that 1 rep

The law of diminishing returns is a bitch. I say it because sometimes progress can be really slow, to a point that you start loosing hope and begin to get disappointed. I was almost hopeless and full of negativity as I entered the gym to train today. I have been trying to get 5 reps with 300 lbs on squats. I got 300x4 in my first attempt (week-1), 300x3 (week-2) and finally got it (i.e. 300x5) today. I did however get 305x3 and 310x2 during the span, but getting those 5 reps was like a mental block for me. What worked today? I am not sure. May be I was able to channelize the negativity into pure strength against the weights. May be I was more concerned about getting the reps in today than the previous attempts before. Whatever it is, I taught my mind an important lesson today.