Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Meet Bob, An Unexpected Kindred Spirit in Strength

Weight: 181 lbs

Wow, one day of 100% compliance and I lose three pounds! .. I'll take it! Of course this is just all the salty and sugary crap I ate over the Labor Day weekend leaching out.

Morning:

Z-Health: Neural Warmup Level 2

Afternoon:

I walked into Anytime Fitness then setup for a 225 dead-lift when I see this guy about my height and size doing pistols with a very light dumpbell for counter balance. I have NEVER seen anyone in this area at any gym ever do them so I went over introduced myself and congratulated my new friend, Bob Thurston, on his great form.

It turns out that, Bob, a former rock climber, has been reading the DD forum for years although never needing to post. (He was always able to find an answer to his questions using the search function). He then proceeded to bang out multiple sets of five of weighted pull ups with a 45 pound plate. He topped this off with a monster session of multiple sets of dumbbell military presses all the way up to a sets of triples with a 70 lb-er for each arm .. strong stuff!

Also, a PtP-er, he was kind enough to critique my form for my two conventional DL singles .. I was pleased when he gave me the thumbs up for both. I lent him my 32kg bell and he performed five sets of twenty reps of very strong two handed swings. I then gave him an impromptu snatch lesson where he did reasonably well with the 24kg having never snatched at all! The next time we get together I will make sure I have a 16kg bell with me to make it a little easier to tweak his form.

We both laughed a bit when we each relayed that we both get weird looks from the usual crowd here when doing our non-traditional training.

Conventional Deadlift:
225 x 1 x 1
255 x 1 x 1

Part of the TSC training as recommended by the Dane of Pain was two weeks prior to the TSC, perform a few singles up to 85% of 1RM. I used an affirmation type wishful thinking of 300 for my 1RM when in actuality it is 285.

24kg MaxVO2 Snatch Protocol @ :15/:15, 8 reps/set
Total: 16 (PR) , 4, 4, 4, 2

I was supposed to also do 80% of my tactical pull-up RM but the right elbow issue has me avoiding all pull ups. So instead I went straight to a MaxVO2 snatch and added four sets to my previous single session total. I then finished up with three sessions of four and one session of two for a total of thirty sets.

32kg x 1 x 10 Two-hand swings on the top of the minute

Normally I finish with Dead-hang snatches but the MaxVO2 sucked the last snatch right out of me. Instead a fairly easy finish with heavy two-hand swings left me feeling pumped and satisfied with today's training.

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Caloric Intake Log:

Another decent day with 95% Precision Nutrition compliance (5% non compliant items: a half glass of wine and sliver of zucchini bread)

Breakfast:
1 Small bowl of Kitchari
1 Small bowl of Brussel sprouts

Late Morning:
4 oz Canned Salmon
2 Celery Sticks
2 Carrots
1 small portion of Waldorf Salad

Lunch:
1 Medium bowl of ground turkey with mixed veggies
1 handful of raw almonds
1 Small helping of Waldorf Salad

Mid Afternoon:
1 small helping of carrot sticks
1 small helping of celery
4 oz Canned Salmon
1 Small helping of Waldorf Salad
1 small handful of raw almonds

Dinner:
1 medium helping of mapo doufu, and ground turkey with mixed veggies
2 handfuls of mixed cashews and almonds
1 small bowl of Waldorf salad
1/2 glass of red wine
1 sliver of zucchini bread

4 comments:

Gabi said...

Wow, this is a great story and big cheers to Bob! :) Man, I so wish I bumped into somebody like-minded, too... The weird looks are funny, sure, but being treated all the time like I was an UFO can get depressing, too.

Jason Marshall said...

Looks like you might've found yourself a training partner, Franklin!

Franz Snideman said...

Nice job in working with Bob Franklin!

You are quite a coach and one hell of a motivator! Only highly strong people come out of your Boston School of Strength!

You are doing something right my friend!!!!!!

Franklin said...

Gabi,

Thanks, this experience has made me much less jaded towards the gym crowd.

Jason,

It would be great to train with Bob a few days a week .. we see how it turns out.

Also I read a Jack Reape post on DD about a informal contest on IGX as to who could dead-lift 3 wheels (315) the most times in 30 minutes. I think the winner did 115. I'm sure you would have been very competitive in that event.

franz,

Thanks! I really enjoy sharing knowledge and Bob was more than open-minded in learning more about KBs so it was a no-brainer. Also I'm sure I can learn a thing or two from him as well!