Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Single side swings and a shoulder milestone.




Very interesting day. Had an hour and half break and I spent it doing lots of Rifga poses as well as working on my right shoulder ROM with windmill stretches,arm bars and stick work. The real reason I quit powerlifting entirely 2 years ago was that I could no longer get a squat bar to sit on my back; my tweaked right shoulder would not allow it. That was the final straw. I havent even tried in all that time as I new my kinematics still weren't there.I couldnt figure out the 'fix' but I havent given up,either.

Today I got the bar( stick) to sit on my back correctly with both shoulders symmetrical under it and it felt amazing! As with the upwards shrug movement from Bill Hartmans article I also had to shrug up to stabilize the shoulder.Just like in the stick press I could really feel my serratus engage and the scapula worked and felt better almost immediately!

I held the bar on my back for 1.5-2 min at a time, just letting the tight muscles unwind( TONS of tension in the radialbrachialis(sp) and forearms, suprisingly.Releasing that made it much easier to hold the bar.Very exciting stuff

One sided swings
36x10/10x2

53x10 r
53x10 l 30 sec rest/arms
200 reps
10,600 lbs

did this for 10 sets with pretty strict 30 sec rest. this was GREAT! Took an idea from Kenneth Jays' SSST post about doing each arm separately. really focused on speed and power and short break was all I needed.Fun too.

Box squats with bar
( just had to play around with this, of course!) 10 min

Bench press
I also had to see whether I could touch the bar to my chest without pain( which I havent been able to do in a long time) and I could!Havent been in the this groove in eons

rolling db tri extenison- 50 reps with 15 lbs; ah this brought back memories.

Snatch Holds
16 kgx 1 min each arm 5 sets
these were decent.

Rack walks with 24 kg
100 feet per arm
1000 feet total

man this was tough! that 24 is a lot different than the 16, lol!

bw 161.4
bf 9.2%
water 60.5%

this is the first time in the 9's in some time.didnt eat enough yesterday.

datsit! gotta stretch.

5 comments:

Royce said...

NICE! I bet that's a hell of a good feeling!!
Congratulations man.

Chris said...

you'll de deadlifting soon!

Mark Reifkind said...

royce,
yes sir, it sure is. thanks

chris,

naw, I like walking and being in less pain way too much lately,lol.

Franz Snideman said...

Nice Rif!

Not eating enough, huh? I told you to ditch the warrior diet and start eating like a real warrior.

Just kidding! Every body need a couple of higher calorie days once or twice a week, would you agree?

Mark Reifkind said...

just had a down day franz.believe me I get plenty of high calorie days,lol! just because I only eat once doestn mean I dont eat a lot!
if you are trying to get lighter or leaner once aweek over maintenance cals is good. ifyou are trying to maintain than perhaps twice.

More press mistakes from today

 1) Gotta engage the rhomboids when setting the low rack position.Lock in 2) Elbows up is crucial 3) 'Straight  up' on the unracking...