July 13- mixed day

Hello,

Yesterday we did a bit of a mix of things for several reasons, 1) Marmot really wanted to deadlift, and 2) Pancho's knee wasn't feeling great.  While Pancho did some push-ups, Marmot did some deadlifts, the we went to doing a somewhat regular upper body day.  What's interesting about yesterday is not just lifting more, but also failure.  I thought I would present the workout we did and then talk about what failing out of a lift means.

Videos & thoughts below the jump...


(Marmot)
Warm ups:
20 toe-touch arm-raise in-the-hole squats
20 spiderman lunges

Dead Lift, Marmot:
135lbs x 5
225lbs x 3
300lbs x 1
305lbs x 1 (!!!!!)
315s x 0

Push ups, Pancho
7 full-depth push ups
5 full-depth push ups
7 full-depth push ups
 
Bench, Marmot
70 (per hand) x 15
70 x 15
75 x 5

Bench, Pancho
40 (per hand) x 6
40 x 6
40 x 6

Pull ups, Marmot
15, 8, 5

Pull ups, Pancho
3, 2, 0

Bench row/bike crunch, Marmot
45x15/bike 100
50x12/bike 100
50x12/bike 100

Bench row/bike crunch, Pancho
30x15/bike 100
30x15/bike 100
30x12/bike 100

The moral of yesterday's story is while successful lifts are fantastic, one can learn a lot from lifts that fail.  For instance, when I was attempting to dead lift 315, I got the weight off the ground just fine, but it was transitioning from the initial lift off to the driving my hips forward that caused on of my legs to say "nope."  Along those lines, while Pancho and I were successful during our free-weight press, I was only able to do 5 reps of 75.  Looking at someone lifting, most of the time people lift in a smooth motion (if they are doing it right) which makes it look easy.  However, failure reveals all of the subtle shifts and balance that it takes to do lifts at all (let alone right).  I had to stop at 5 reps of the bench because it's enough weight were very slight movement in the weight can send my arms every which way.  It takes everything I have mentally and physically to simply control the weight along its path--but under less stress that control is invisible most of the time.  Similarly, the transition phase from as I push my hips forward  to standing straight while doing a deadlift doesn't seen like much until it's too much weight for that section of my body and my leg shakes like I'm mixing a drink with it and I drop the weight.

Pancho's pull-ups are another great example of this phenomenon.  Getting off the floor is no problem, going 3/4ths of the way up, easy, it is the last bit that activates all sorts of tiny back muscles that pushes her over the top, that is where the struggle is (and awesomeness).

A final point that I think is important here is how much these workouts demonstrate the need for full body compound exercises.  When you're doing a squat, your feet are working to keep you balanced, your calves to not buckle, your hamstrings and quads (obviously), your back to keep you up right and stable, your abs to hold everything together, your neck to keep your head level at the same point, and maybe even your arms (depending on if you're using weights).  All of this adds up to a mighty workout that is far superior to machines.  Sure I don't risk dropping the weight to the side when I'm doing a free-weight press, but I certainly don't develop the muscle control and strength necessary to control it.  I can't fail in the same ways, but I can't succeed in those ways either.

Deadlift Success, 305lbs:


Deadlift Failure, 315lbs:


Pull up, Round 1:
(Side note: this is the first time she did pull ups with a straight bar instead of the close-grip parallel bars!)


Pull up, Round 2: