Allen's Journal

[Yuen Sohn]

Originally Posted by Allen Yeh

I'm debating the idea of throwing out my numbers and letting everyone take a crack at my next 6 weeks like what Steve did.

I say go for it. In addition to helping you attain your 'nice-to-have' goals, it's a great way to identify possible areas for improvement and confront them head on.

I've been debating doing this as well, though I have a feeling the overwhelming consensus will be that my back squat, uhhh, needs work

[Allen Yeh]

Originally Posted by Pierre Auge

Allen,
the muscles of the torso are too busy keeping you upright in the bottom of the squat to assist with pressing the weight overhead. Thats why its so hard to push little weights with the SOTTS press. It plain just sucks!!! Start with a hard 45 and move up in tiny little increments its the only way.

Ok thanks, because at the time I seriously thought I was doing something very wrong. I had done Sotts press with a 24 kg KB before so I figured a 95 # barbell would be easier, not even close.

[Rick Deckart]

Hi Allen, I hope you don't mind if I comment on the sotts press...

With a KB the shoulder is still in a relatively strong position, not so with a barbell, here you work the shoulders in their weakest position.
However while increasing your strict press will do next to nothing to your sotts press, increasing the latter will almost certainly increase your strict press too.

BTW if your bodyweight is close to 175# and considering you did OHS with 95# for 21 reps I would say that you could achieve BW OHS for reps (5-10) in a relatively short time span...

[Allen Yeh]

Originally Posted by Peter Puetz

Hi Allen, I hope you don't mind if I comment on the sotts press...

With a KB the shoulder is still in a relatively strong position, not so with a barbell, here you work the shoulders in their weakest position.
However while increasing your strict press will do next to nothing to your sotts press, increasing the latter will almost certainly increase your strict press too.

BTW if your bodyweight is close to 175# and considering you did OHS with 95# for 21 reps I would say that you could achieve BW OHS for reps (5-10) in a relatively short time span...

Thanks for the clarification Peter, I was just baffled that I couldn't get the 95# barbell to move at all. Espcially since my strict press is about double that.

My BW is closer to 186 so I did the 95#'s out of curiosity to see how many I could string together. I'm trying to hit BW soon though I need to get together some type of routine after this week.

[Allen Yeh]

April 12, 2007 - Testing week
Core Performance Movement Prep

Ok so I lost my notebook because I left it on top of my car when I left the gym....oops. Here is what I can recall.

pushups - 30
L-sit - 18 seconds

Bench Press - 105 x 4, 105 x 4, 160 x 3, 200 x 2, 210 x 1, 225 x 1, 240 x 1, 250 x 1
Military Press - 45 x 5, 95 x 3, 135 x 1, 145 x 1, 155 x 1, 165 x 1, 175 x 0
cable curl - 70 x 12, 70 x 12, 70 x 10
Ring dips - 17, 4, 9
ring pushups - 10, 8

Notes:
-Bench Press - Warmed up using Charles Poliquins warmup method, I don't know if I really care for it too much though. This is about 10-15's less than my latest bench PR. Then again I did take off 6 weeks of all almost all pushing. So that amount of decline isn't bad (at least for me).
military press- went back to my old way of testing PR's, 165 isn't too bad
-Ring Dips - I think I cheated myself on the first set by not getting full extension, around 10 I was thinking this seems to be way too easy, so I slowed it down a little.
-Ring pushups - ok so I should have realized my pushing ability was toast but I decided to try it anyway.

[Allen Yeh]

The kids being sick for the last 2 weeks has finally caught up with me! I thought I was fairly safe since I hadn't been throwing up or having the squirts like the 3 little ones but during the day Saturday I just progressively felt worse and worse, it went from a low-grade fever to a full blown fever. I ended up popping 2 Aleve before I drove home from the workshop on my 120 mile (3.5 hour drive) home. My body just hurt all over too, at first I was thinking it was just the gym catching up with me but then I kind of realized it was one of those total body aches you get from being sick. Once I got home I ended up popping 2 Motrin and then passed out from 6 pm to 6 am. All I had to eat Saturday was some eggs and sausage + yogurt in the morning and then had Subway on the drive home. When I got home at night I had no desire for any food.

Sunday I didn't actually feel all that bad and I thought "hey I'm over it, all I needed was some sleep!" NOPE! All day long I had a little bit of lunch and that along with some coffee and water was all I had all day long. After I got home it brought back the fever. Awesome!

Monday so far has sucked, luckily I'm out of here by 9 am to watch to baby and hopefully catch a nap after my wife gets home. UGH! So much for training for the next few days.

[Allen Yeh]

April 19, 2007 -
Walk/Run @ 1% on treadmill - walked 3 minutes, ran for 4 total = 0.72 miles - 7:01

Core Performance Movement Prep
Core Performance Prehab:
Swiss ball crunches - 15#x16
pillar bridge front - narrow stance - 8L/R
Pillar Bridge side - jumping jack - 8L/R
glute bridge - knee bent - 8 L/R
mini band walk - 8 L/R
Y's and T's - 5 x 8 Y's and T's

scap pushup - 15, 15

OHS - 45 x 8, 95 x 5, 115 x 5, 135 x 4, 155 x 3, 175 x 1
sotts press - 45 x 5, 45 x 5, 45 x 5
pullups - kipping - 3, 12
chinups - 6, 6, 6, 6,
push jerk - 135 x 1, 135 x 1, 135 x 2, 45 x 3

Notes:
-Just easing back into it after coming off nearly a week of being sick.
-OHS- I think 175 is a PR for me? so only 10 pounds below BW and after being sick all week.
-Push Jerk-I need work on these, not sure if it was because I was tired but I was having a hard time with just 135?

Oh on a positive note I recovered my lost notebook! Someone turned it into the Fitness Center front desk from the parking lot.

[Rick Deckart]

Originally Posted by Allen Yeh

OHS - 45 x 8, 95 x 5, 115 x 5, 135 x 4, 155 x 3, 175 x 1
sotts press - 45 x 5, 45 x 5, 45 x 5
-OHS- I think 175 is a PR for me? so only 10 pounds below BW and after being sick all week.

I would say 4--6 weeks and your doing BW for 5 reps. Perhaps start at 135 x 5 reps x 3 sets, warmup with even spaced intervals ala SS and increase 5lbs every session.

In kg that would be something like:

20.0kg x 5 reps x 2 sets
30.0kg x 5 reps
40.0kg x 3 reps
50.0kg x 2 reps
60.0kg x 5 reps x 3 sets

increase top weight 2.5kg every session if possible and adjust the warmup weights accordingly, so they are even spaced. That should do the trick...

Originally Posted by Allen Yeh

Oh on a positive note I recovered my lost notebook! Someone turned it into the Fitness Center front desk from the parking lot.

There are good people...

[Allen Yeh]

Originally Posted by Peter Puetz

I would say 4--6 weeks and your doing BW for 5 reps. Perhaps start at 135 x 5 reps x 3 sets, warmup with even spaced intervals ala SS and increase 5lbs every session.

In kg that would be something like:

20.0kg x 5 reps x 2 sets
30.0kg x 5 reps
40.0kg x 3 reps
50.0kg x 2 reps
60.0kg x 5 reps x 3 sets

increase top weight 2.5kg every session if possible and adjust the warmup weights accordingly, so they are even spaced. That should do the trick...

Would that be a once week routine?

[Rick Deckart]

Two times a week, at least two days between sessions. If I were doing it I would power snatch/snatch the weight as long as possible and pushpress behind the neck when to heavy for snatches. Also I would very probably superset the OHS worksets with either KB swings and/or Pullups. Say session one OHS, 90sec rest, 10KB swings, 90sec rest, OHS ... and session two OHS, 90sec rest, 3 Pullups, 90sec rest... that will balance things a bit out and actually may induce some sort of active recovery.