2012 in Review

I've been putting off writing this review partly because it is time consuming, and partly because I needed a break from daily blogging.  It started to feel like a chore, and I've learned that if something is no longer enjoyable, more often than not, simply taking a break is the best decision.  If Gabe can do it, I can do it too.  Time to get back to it!

2012 was a great year.  There were ups and downs, but I look back at the 12 months as a success.  I'm going to keep this post mostly training related.  But as an aside, I will say that I saw a lot of growth in my personal and professional life as well.  I was able to get a job offer at my summer firm, but more importantly, my time as the SEC in the fall revealed important things about myself.  Standard lawyering is great, but I think I'm made for more investigative type work.  I love it, and seem to be really good at it.  I now understand a path I truly want to pursue.

Training wise, I basically had three phases:  1) The Backloading/RTS Phase from Jan to May; 2) The DC Yellow Light/Mass Phase from June to August; 3) and the I'm Really Fucked up/Corrective Phase from October to December.

Backloading/RTS Phase
The huge success of the year was dropping from 259 to 229 in about 4.5 months.  I said I was going to do it, and I did it.  I also managed to set some legit PR's during that time.  Nothing groundbreaking, and no Big 3 one rep maxes, but it made me happy I was able to lose so much weight and still manage to progress in training.

It is difficult to describe how much I learned about diet, and about what works for me.  Essentially however, I implemented a modified carb backloading approach.  I started off with one tiny backload per week, and slowly moved to two huge 400-500 gram carb-ups.  By the end, my body was a fucking furnace. It was awesome to go to DC and wear tailored suits  and feel proud about how I looked.  Looking back, its easy to say "yep, I did it" but it took a ton of willpower to be that strict.   I was literally going weeks without 1 single fuckup.  Like not even a bite sized piece of candy.  I dropped alcohol completely for 40 days, which was an important  exercise in willpower for me.

PR's I set during this period (numbers in paranthesis denote all time 1RM):

Squat: 455x3 (512.5)

Bench: 300x5 (340)

Deadlift: 515x2, 455x8, 315x20 (570)

Chins: 100x3, 90x4, 75x5

Dips: 90x5

Bent Row: 305x3 (straps/belt), 275x6 (raw)

Press: 185x5

Front Squat:  225x5

Close Grip Incline: 275x1

1.01.12 Before:

4.21.12 After:

Don't be jealous of my perfect living room lighting in the second pic.

DC Yellowlight/Mass Phase

When I got to DC, dieting and training took a backseat to my life.  That was kind of the point.  There isn't a ton to say about this period.  Basically I was doing 2x a week strength sessions, maybe 2x a week conditioning sessions.  Just staying in shape.

I moved into a brief mass phase and made significant progress and re-calibrated my thinking on strength training.  Getting big is the easiest way to get stronger.  I utilized high and ultra high reps with very low rest periods.  I think at one point I deadlift 315x10 for 5 sets with like 60 seconds rest.  This was also incredibly fucking stupid and I literally started falling apart.  I will certainly do high reps again, but I will never deadlift in that fashion again.  Never.

PR's set during the mass phase:

Bench:

225x18

135x30

Curls:

Bar x 100

135x5

If I were a random person on the internet I'd accuse me of doing steroids, but this is a picture of me pumped to all hell after one of these huge sessions.  Part of it is I just happened to have a good angle/lighting in the locker room.

Nonethless, I discovered the power of ultra high reps.  My only disappoint was because of my hip injury (which is why I was doing high rep deadlifts 2x a week), I never got to translate this new mass into true strength training.  I would have loved to immediately transition into very high frequency barbell lifting, ala the 40 day program to see what I could have done. I have no doubt I would have set an awesome bench PR.

I'm Fucked Up/Corrective Phase

I'm not going to write much here since I'm still balls deep in this phase.  Over the years I developed a femoral hip impingement due to poor form and spine alignment.  Essentially, I setup poorly, executed lifts incorrectly, and developed pretty bad anterior pelvic tilt, lordosis, kyphosis, and a bunch of other shit not worth mentioning.  These postural imbalances in turn really fucked up my hip.  The load of the barbell was transferred to my joints - bone.  Looking back, it makes me sick to my stomach imagining the likely permanent damage I did to my hip. 

Lucky for me I have a great friend that has been an invaluable resource during this time.  Gabe trains at iFast, which is in my opinion the foremost postural correction training facility in the world. I'm sure Cressey Performance is bad ass too, but I'm going to go with my Indiana boys on this one.  Mike Boyle looks frail and hate back squats - ding.  (and I actually met  a guy that was a college strength coach over break and he said in person, Boyle is an arrogant prick).  Every picture I see of Charlie Weingroff he isn't wearing shoes - ding.  Also, his writing is unclear - ding.

Without the advice from Gabe and the free content put out by Robertson, I would probably never have squatted again.  I really want to go to iFast at some point for an actual assessment.  Partly because as time goes on tweaking the little shit is beyond my ability, and partly because I actually want to pay the people that have put so much stuff out there to help people - all for free.  If funds allow for it, I'm going to do that sometime in the next 4-5 months while I'm still in the Midwest.

Wrap-up

The PR's and pictures speak for themselves.  Training wise, I made measurable progress in 2012.  I made very solid improvements in my physique and nutritional knowledge.

I'll point out that I know I don't have a picture from the corrective phase.  I don't want to post one. Right now I'm soft, weak and have put on a considerable amount of fat.  On one hand I'm disappointed with myself because I worked so hard on the diet and trained my balls off most of the year. On the other hand, who gives a fuck.  I'm looking forward to all of the room I have for improvement.  Onward and upward mother fuckers.