Day: December 25, 2021

Airing of Grievances: Trap bar deadlifts

Today: some rehab, 30:30 on the bike after some deadlifts:

10 x 134, 10 x 184, 10 x 224 (safely called a warm up these days)

Working set: 5 sets of 3 x 270 low, taking care of my back (big breath at the bottom); right at the knife edge of stiffening up toward the end.

That was enough for today.

Progress: well, it was 2 years ago that 240-245 was my tough one rep max; now 240 goes up 10 times…easily, and I’ve gotten 314 low handle (ok, after my working sets; dumb idea).

Best sets as of now: 10 x 240, 5 x 274, 1 x 314. Can I improve some more? I think so, IF I keep improving technique and give my body a lot of time to adjust. Today, I was limited by not wanting to aggravate that back tweak from 3 weeks ago. Each rep was, well, sort of easy.

And yes, I score an 84 on the Army’s trap bar deadlift contest. I want to improve.

Now about the exercise itself. Yes, other athletes use it. This is Quenton Nelson, all pro guard for the Colts. He might be a bit stronger than I am.

This exercise has its detractors:

It has its defenders too:

For me: it is a concession to age. It allows me to pick “sort of” heavy stuff off of the ground and not hurt myself in the process, and I enjoy doing that.

Christmas eve

Yesterday: slept in, did some rehab/yoga on my own, and had a somewhat slow (17:30) painful 2 mile campus walk with stretch stops ever .5 miles. That walk was, well, not very good.

The day was too nice to not get out.

I have backslid since that extra week two weeks ago; part of it is that I slacked just a bit on the PT and did too much walking on that week. And part of it: I added one legged stands and OUCH..those are tough. But some of the ache is on the side rather than in the meaty part of the glute. I am chasing the trigger point around.

Today: I got to skip B’s family gathering (in return for her mentally challenged nephew staying with us for a few days); I did spend a bit of time with Tracy and her cat.

I had a leisurely workout as well:

pull ups: 5, 5, 10, 10 chins, 5 wide, 5 wide, 10 chins, 7 pull ups, 5 (62 total)

push ups: 30 sissy, 30 feet elevated, 20 deficit, 20 regular.

rehab: included hip hikes, one legged stands, banded walks

curs: 3 sets of 10, rows: 3 sets of 10 each arm.

shoulder presses: 10 x 88, 5 x 103, 5 x 103, 5 x 108

32 minutes bike.

Glute: as I said: sort of sore.