Wed, 18 Mar 15
Finally, a day where I actually felt like I am making progress on fixing this idiotic lagging-left-side-activation-leading-to-twisted-sister-type deadlifting issue. I didn't do anything particularly heavy or earth-shattering, but what I did do was a lot better in terms of technique and fixing the problem that is limiting my deadlift right now. To reiterate, I am having a lag in muscle activation in my left leg and possibly the left side of my mid section as well (harder to tell with that though) that is causing me to push off my right leg onto my left since the right side is pushing harder/faster. This is then causing me to twist my right hip and shoulder forward, putting much of the stress and work of the lift all into the right side of my low back until/unless I can get the left side caught up to the right and twist back into a neutral, balanced position. It's not that the weight I am lifting feels heavy, but I am limiting my intensity right now to what I am able to do with minimal technique flaws to prevent doing something stupid(er) and adding injury to my current insult. This is all very frustrating and while it is not a new problem as i have noticed it from time to time for years, it is a much more significant and frequent problem now than it has ever been before. I think a good part of it stems from the fact that my right L5 transverse process is sacralized, meaning it is flattened and appears to be almost part of my sacrum rather than being a more oblong and separate protrusion like a normal vertebral transverse process. I really would love to spend some time with a PT or chiro who has a couple decades of experience training and competing in strength sports and treating ridiculous imbalances in athletes to determine the best path of strengthening and stretching to resolve the issue in the most timely manner possible, but until I am able to do that, I'll keep self-assessing and utilizing the professional resources for PT and chiro that I do have at my disposal.
Axle Deadlift
10x70
10x160
6x250
2x340
1x400
5x430
5x450
5x470
2x5x490
Overall, I did a much better job of lifting more evenly and getting my left side going quicker/more. My first reps were still the most twisty, but less so than recently and I noticed on the subsequent reps that I was able to correct much better. This was also the first time I have had noticeable grip fatigue from using the axle to tug with, which is sad since it is not that heavy, but also good since that is part of the point of my using the axle as my primary bar for DL right now.
Deficit Axle Deads (standing on 100#)
2x8x320
6x320
Everything was failing on these, everything being low back and grip.
SS: BB Calf Raise/Rollouts
15x275/15xBW
15x285/15xBW
15x295/15xBW
Prowler
8x60'xprowler+90
I stopped at 8 runs today on purpose since I had very little food intake all day and it was almost 5pm by this point. This was not deliberate, but rather because I had been out of town for almost a week and I was cooking up some food in the crock pot, but it wasn't done yet and I hadn't made a grocery run yet so my food intake was limited to coffee, protein, coconut oil, and heavy cream up to this point and I definitely noticed a difference in my energy levels and recovery between sets. Overall though, I am very happy with today's training.