Background: I work at OSU as a graduate teaching associate and lift at Ludus Magnus. I am a raw lifter who competes in the 105lb weight classes, and am currently prepping for my next meet (when grad school finally gives me a weekend off) . Currently, I am in the process of trying to accomplish my lofty lifting goals,survive graduate school, and teach undergraduates about what I really love, TRAINING..

Eccentric Block Week2: The speed work days

DE UPPER-Monday

Warm up-General
1. Stepper

Warm up-specific: 3 x 15
2a. Push-up
2b.lat pulldown

Training: speed work
3. Contrast speed bench with fat bar
8 x 3 + 1

1 set:
X 3 x 100lbs x4 count eccentric
X 1 x 130-145 (increased as sets went on) x feet down and fast

Assistance Circuit x 3 trips
SA DB row x 5 x 4 count eccentric
Curls x 15
DB Seated shoulder press with 4 count eccentric x 5

DE Lower-WED

Warm up-General
1.Stepper

Warm up-Specific
2a. Squat to stand x 5
2b. Squat x 5
2c. Lunge forward x 5each leg
2d. Lunge backward x 5each leg
2e. Lunge sideways x 5each leg
2f. Squat to stand x 5

Neural prep
3. Kneeling Jumps
3x3

Training
4. Contrast eccentric speed squats, high bar
9 x 2+ 1

1 set:
X 3 x 135 x 4 count eccentric
X 1 x (165 for sets 1-3, 185 for sets 4-6, 205 for sets 7-9) x fast as possible no eccentric

5a. Eccentric clean
5 x 1+1

1 set:
Bring bar up to stand then lower weight with 4 count eccentric (shoulders over bar, this is a clean!) then clean it with full catch

5b. Eccentric BW squat to box jump
5 x 3+3

1 set:
4 count eccentric squat down (BW) then at bottom of squat explode up and jump and box

After you miss that first heavy weight, the way you approach a lift is never really the same

Cortes recently published an article about trust.  https://www.elitefts.com/education/value-trust-and-gratitude/

While these days I don't read much (due to time constants and mental bandwidth limitations) outside of scientific journals and the occasional "improve your writing blog", I stumbled on it this morning and couldn't help but feel like he had been sitting at dinner with Alycia and me yesterday.

We were talking about trust as well.  We were talking about how the first time you loose trust in someone, it makes everything else moving  forward different.  How,  even if you decide
to trust that person/situation/etc again, it is never the same.

You see, once trust is broken, you are always kind of holding your breath.  You have this thought in the back of your head, like a movie reel, reminding you to stay alert. It's really a protective mechanism and most likely the reason why things hurt the first time more than the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc....

To put it into training context: having trust broken is similar to the first time you miss a really heavy weight and just avoid really getting hurt.  Until that moment where you experience your first big miss, you have unshaken confidence that you can just squat a weight.  You don't think twice about things, you just lift.

But then that day comes where you find a barbell smashing you down and the spotter just barely saving your behind.  And then comes the day after where you find yourself a bit more hesitant before you hit that same weight.  And while time passes, and you get comfortable under the weights again, that thought of the near fatal miss still creeps through your mind like fog trespassing through the early morning.  Except it's not trespassing, it's a protective mechanism, and partially responsible for why your relationship with a max lift is never the same as it once was.

But here is the thing I wonder about:  if someone had told you how bad a weight could crush you from day one, would that distrust still occur? Similar with human to human trust, if people just led with truth off the bat would we loose faith in them the same way we do when we are blindsighted or lied too?

I'm not sure, but I think if we knew that weight could crush us day one, or knew about that ugly truth in the beginning, we would be okay with whatever the consequence was.  And why?  Because there is a beautiful level of trust that gets built when you know the ugly truth right away.  Only something that you share mutual respect for/with  will tell you the ugly truth when there is a chance to potentially bury it.  For example,  when you know the weight is heavy from day one, you respect that the weight can/will crush you.  Similarly you respect the person risked it all to be forthcoming.  Nothing builds trust quite like respect.