TRAINING LOG: James Murdock

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   I've enjoyed some good developments over the past month. 
My good buddy decided to come start training with me. He's a little guy and has never lifted seriously before, but he's gotten into it. No man can resist the allure of the deadlift--he went from being skeptical about the whole thing to walking around with bloody shins and 3 plates on the bar in just one month. He's made good gains and it helps me to have a spotter and a partner waiting to show up 4x/week. Perhaps the first guy to hit the gym four days a week as a beginner without doing a set of curls.

Lots of PRs have fallen. Squat up to 420x1 with good form (for me), benched 320 easily, inclined 215x3 (never done more than 205), DL 445 for a triple...lots of decent work going on. 

I threw the shot last night for a while out on the frozen--but nearly snow-free--back lawn. The whole yard shook and it drove the neighborhood dogs crazy; the shot rolled like a flat drive hitting a wet green. Registrations for spring games are coming up soon and I'm excited to get out and embarass myself.

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MensreaJim Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Groupie Joined: 12/03/10 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 91	Post Options Post Reply Quote MensreaJim Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 2/08/12 at 9:29am
	I've enjoyed some good developments over the past month. My good buddy decided to come start training with me. He's a little guy and has never lifted seriously before, but he's gotten into it. No man can resist the allure of the deadlift--he went from being skeptical about the whole thing to walking around with bloody shins and 3 plates on the bar in just one month. He's made good gains and it helps me to have a spotter and a partner waiting to show up 4x/week. Perhaps the first guy to hit the gym four days a week as a beginner without doing a set of curls. Lots of PRs have fallen. Squat up to 420x1 with good form (for me), benched 320 easily, inclined 215x3 (never done more than 205), DL 445 for a triple...lots of decent work going on. I threw the shot last night for a while out on the frozen--but nearly snow-free--back lawn. The whole yard shook and it drove the neighborhood dogs crazy; the shot rolled like a flat drive hitting a wet green. Registrations for spring games are coming up soon and I'm excited to get out and embarass myself.

MensreaJim Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Groupie Joined: 12/03/10 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 91	Post Options Post Reply Quote MensreaJim Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 3/09/12 at 10:54am
	I need to spend more time on the forums, I love catching up with everyone's progress. My buddy is still around and getting the hang of things. He's put on some weight and is quickly improving to respectability. Some PRs over the last month: 11 pull ups; 21 dips; Strict press up to 185x3, 190x1, previous PR was 170, I was hoping to get to 200, but couldn't get anything going; squatted 365x3 last week and 405x1 last night off of an 11" box; Incline 235x2. I also had some stupid/fun moments from my beloved unusual exercises. A few weeks ago the chin up bars were all semi occupied, so I grabbed an exposed steel beam and proceeded to loudly and gorily hit my head on the light fixture. Like I say, all quality training draws blood and stares. Last week I was messing around with short bands in the squat rack (up to 315+orange off the 11" box) and decided to try using the thick black EFS bands. EFS lists them at 280lbs around where I estimate my DL lockout, but they really feel 450+, so maybe I'm just much taller than I imagine. Anyway, I put them under the pins in the squat rack and go to front squat it. This is heavy as hell, but I manage to stand up with it eventually. When I try to rack the bar, it seems like the rack is moving away from me. After a quarter second of confusion, I realized that the band tension had exceeded the weight of the rack and I was carrying the rack right into the wall. ACE! We are heading into a new phase of training/testing, so I'll be going back to squat/bench 5/3/1 maxes this month. Exciting and scary. My partner will be hitting 30-80 lb improvements in the past 2 months, so my (hoped fo) 5-10lb PRs won't look so impressive.

MensreaJim Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Groupie Joined: 12/03/10 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 91	Post Options Post Reply Quote MensreaJim Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 3/10/12 at 8:18am
	March 9th--I drank too much milk and sat around sick for a couple of hours. March 10th--Bench up to 285x5. Good PR for me, last phase in January I only got 280x4, previous 5RM was like 265 months ago. Everything felt really heavy and I had to grind out both of the last 2 reps. Pull ups, triceps. A kid came up to me during a triceps extension set and said, "Aren't you that guy..." At this point I always assume I put the guy in jail, but it was, "...who lifts lots of weights with rubber bands?" And my friend started laughing and said that I was him. I told him that I got that strong from drinking lots of milk and not talking during my sets. Next week 5RM in squat and 3RM in bench. And it is a glorious 55 outside, so I will toss a hammer at some point next week--into grass, not ice.

MensreaJim Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Groupie Joined: 12/03/10 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 91	Post Options Post Reply Quote MensreaJim Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 3/21/12 at 10:05am
	Mixed results last week. We gad a fun day of messing around with bench and dips on Monday, I did 225x18 (hurt my draft stock) and a PR for 1-chain dips, then did some really poor snatches the next day. Thursday I got a small PR of 300x3 in bench and then Saturday I had a very poor day at squats. I took 375 out, shooting for a 10# 5RM, but barely got 3 before I had to rack it. Everything felt wrong, so I called it from there on my PR efforts, but went on to grind out some bad work sets and dinged my back. So a bad day, obviously. My partner, however, blew up his prior PRs and had 3(!) successful 5RM sets. Monday of this week we rushed some speed bench and pull ups and then I went to make a last-minue bid on a house (no word, still). Last night I just did some light reverse hypers and super-light squats. My back did not feel good. Set for 1RM bench tomorrow and 3RM squat Friday or Saturday. I will almost certainly skip the 3RM in squats. Throws practice starts up in Pocatello next week.

MensreaJim Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Groupie Joined: 12/03/10 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 91	Post Options Post Reply Quote MensreaJim Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 7/18/12 at 1:50am
	I've missed you beautiful people too much. I had a great Spring--up to about 250, PRs constantly. Then we bought a house and I hurt myself, here, there, there, and here and work got in the way of being heavier. Anyhow, excuses and all that. I don't know how much pressing I've got in my immediate future due to a very weak right shoulder, so I will return my attention to the its proper place: the unholy altar of the deadlift. Today was my 33rd birthday, so I have set 2 goals for next birthday: 600# pull (very optimistic, since that's about an 80# jump) and a 260 dunk (never got a 360 and that ship has sailed, so how about any dunk at 260?). The latter shouldn't be too bad. Anyway, I did get a PR today--DL up to 445x5. Not what I wanted, but still painful and more than I've done 5RM before. Those heavy sets of dead reps are just awful. My buddy is still going strong, and of course making huge jumps from month to month. I have more room to throw in the new backyard, and we are now a couple of blocks from a high school with a nice little throwing area, big enough to accommodate my dinky hammers.

Duncan McCallum Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Postaholic Joined: 12/07/07 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 7442	Post Options Post Reply Quote Duncan McCallum Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 7/18/12 at 2:13am
	Good on ya! Welcome back!
	The man in the arena.