Log - 5/29/2012

Warmup (including Overhead Squat)

Squat - 45, 95, 135, 185; 225, 275, 315

5x5 - 235

My quads completely locked up after doing these, for some reason. Strange.

Bench - 45, 45, 95; 135, 185

5x5 - 140

Chins:

2, 2, 2, 2, 2

My shoulder tells me that the last few couple of doubles were a bad idea.

Also did 2 before the first squat work set and one before the rest (i.e. went up by 2 rather than 1 over last time).

FatGripz Rack Pulls:

5x10ct - 140lbs

Moving up, slowly but surely.

Plate External Rotations:

10x 5s, 10s, 10s

Shoulder started complaining somewhere during these.

Band Dislocates:

1x10 (Orange)

Log - 5/24/2012

In Maui.

Deadlift - 135, 185, 225; 275, 315
5x5 - 270
Attempted 365 for the warmup but it didn't break the ground. I intend to rectify this on Thursday.

Press - 45, 85
5x5 - 107.5
Nice and easy. This may have something to do with my facing a mirror for the entire set, though.
(More likely it's because I took most of a week off, obviously).

Power Shrug: 45, 135, 225, 275, 315, 365, 405
5x5 - 315
1x20 - 315
Damn these are awesome.
My traps were sore for about 4 days afterwards.

Also got a copy of The Strongest Shall Survive from the front desk of the gym (Valley Isle Fitness). Pretty decent place, all in all.

Log - 5/19/2012

Squatting with Saarni. That was fun.

Warmup - Experimenting with very close foot placement on GHRs. The effect is very noticeable.

Squat - 45, 95, 135, 185; 225, 275, 315
5x5 - 230lbs
315 was a grinder, probably because of the five second pause at the bottom. I'm guessing that I'll stop increasing the single weight after I move it to 365, but I don't really know yet.
I'm gradually refining my form and re-learning my unrack. Today's insight is that initiating the rep by pushing my hips back is fucking stupid and I should never do it ever again.*
*It results in my hips shooting up out of the hole and forcing me into a GM, even with the relatively vertical torso position.

Bench: 45, 95; 135, 185
5x5 - 135lbs
The 185 single was terrible, but everything else was fairly good. I suspect the problem is a combination of having forgotten how to bench 185 and not getting a liftoff (meaning an atrocious self-unrack), but whatever.

Chins: 1 before every work set and after squats, and then
2, 2, 2, 2, 1
Yeeeeeup.

FatGripz Rack Pull:
10ct - 135, 145, 145, 135, 135
These are a lot harder than the old-fashioned towel deads.

Log - 5/18/2012

Went in with very little time and very little food. Fucked shit up. Life is good.

Warmup

Deadlift - 135, 185, 225; 275, 335
5x5 - 265lbs
Strapped work sets. Still getting used to setting the straps up; I may get some Haulin' Hooks at some point just to cut down on the time required compared to setting my grip normally. 335 was slower than usual (possibly because I rested for a total of maybe two minutes between starting 135 and finishing the entire warmup sequence).

Press: 45, 75
5x5 - 105lbs
This is starting to take some effort; funny how that comes up on the final weight before I start using the microplates again.

Chins: 1 rep before every work set of Dead and Press
2, 2, 2, 1, 1
Total of 19 reps. Next time, we add one.

Towel Rack Pulls:
5x10ct - 205lbs
Forgot the Fatgripz again.

Rollouts:
3x5
Still getting too much tension in my shoulders from these. I'm still trying to figure out what I'll use here.

Log - 5/13/12 and 5/15/12

5/13:
Had to cut this short due to unforeseen time constraints.

Warmup

Deadlift - 135, 185, 225; 275, 315x1.5
5x5 - 260lbs
Started using chalk today. Things improved slightly, but not so much that I'll keep going completely bare on my work sets. I need to learn to use straps (or possibly buy some hooks).

5/15:
Starting to feel like the Texas Method, possibly because it was a long work day and I haven't been sleeping as much as I should.

Warmup
Squat - 45, 95, 135, 185; 225, 265, 305
5x5 - 225lbs
Fun milestone. The "Texas Method" feeling comes from the sets sucking despite being very doable and taking all of 30 seconds to recover from - this probably has something to do with the 2-minute rest periods. I plan to maintain those for a while, because fuck you.

Bench: 45, 95; 135, 155
5x5 - 130lbs
Finally closing on a weight that doesn't make me feel embarrassed to sit on the bench between sets.
These didn't feel that great, though that may be because I'm both tired and playing around with my setup. Setting my grip before my arch actually does appear to be a useful strategy.

Chins:
3, 3, 3, 2, 1
I'm going to go back to the "do reps between sets of everything else" approach, starting with singles. I could get more reps if I didn't insist on strict back position, but since I do, we're stuck with low.

Rollouts:
5x5
Skeptical of these.

Log - 5/9/2012

Fairly successful, though training with friends results in increased rest times. I know you're reading this. Yes, you.

I need to figure out some better ab work; the pilates movements I'm doing right now are getting far too easy. I think I'll try rollouts again on Friday.

Squat - 45x5, 95x5, 135x5, 185x5, 225x3, 295x1 (5-second pause)
5x5 - 220lbs
Held the final rep for roughly ten seconds at the bottom. The ascent was...slow, to say the least. My position collapsed in the hole and gave me some mild low lumbar complaints, but that should be easily preventable in future.

Press: 45x5
5x5 - 100lbs
Side-to-side imbalances on these, probably because I've spent a great deal of time over the last few days writing and did a lot of scapular stabilization work at PT this morning. These were made harder still by the many sets of push-ups I did Monday night and early yesterday morning; I'm fairly sure that I shouldn't read into the difficulty I had in actually doing the reps.

BS Chin Holds:
5x10ct
Again, slipping from the top. I'll see how these go on Friday; if they don't display noticeable signs of improvement I'll start doing reps on the straight bar.

"Fat Bar" Rack Pull Holds:
10ct - 185, 185, 195, 195, 205
Wrapped a towel around the bar. Bolton's article on the subject suggests that this should be harder than the fatgripz, but I'm guessing he was wrapping more towels. Certainly harder, though.

Pilates:
5x5ea
As noted above, I need to find some new stuff for this.

Log - 5/5/2012

I think it's time to start chalking my deadlifts.

Warmup - As usual. My hamstring flexibility is improving - I can almost force myself into an straight-leg deadlift stance without losing lumbar position now.

Deadlift - 135x5, 185x5, 225x3, 275x1, 315x1.5, 335x1
5x5 - 255lbs
Grip is becoming a limiting factor on these. The reps themselves are very easy, though, so I guess it's time to bring out the chalk.
I'll try a 315 single with the chalk and see how it goes; if it works out, we'll keep doing those, otherwise I'll just switch to mixed grip and take the weight higher.

I'm going to start integrating Fatgripz Partials into the end-of-day circuit. I'm not sure if I'll do this exclusively on deadlift days.

Bench - 45x5, 95x5, 155x1
5x5 - 125lbs
This was bizarrely tiring.
The single was very easy, though. I'm going to take it up roughly in time with the work sets.

Blast Strap Chin Holds
5x10s
These had me in various stages of failure, though; the first hold was at the top, but the others had me gradually sliding down.

Pilates:
5x5 - "The Complete"
Marching, but with thoracic flexion and some oblique recruitment, followed by a transversus abdominis maneuver that gets more raised eyebrows than supine bridges ever have. Since I can do these 5x5 now, it's probably time to start doing them on a roller.

Overtraining and Other Bullshit

Disclaimer: I am not an accomplished lifter, a coach, or anyone else that you should actually listen to under any circumstances or for any reason.
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People talking about beginner programs (and odds are that if you're still reading blogs and taking other peoples' unpaid advice on your training, you are indeed still a beginner) love to talk about how you should only train a certain number of times per week, should only increase at a certain rate, shouldn't deadlift too frequently, and all other kinds of annoying crap that far too many people listen to. Rippetoe seems particularly guilty of this (always justifying his statements with "Because we found that less wasn't enough than more was too much," which while sound in principle is annoying as hell given that people were producing amazing results with 5x5 BEFORE he showed up and said that five sets was too much), which is part of the reason that I think he's a pussy.

Here's the deal: If you feel recovered and want to train, go train. If you prefer sticking to a schedule (which I do, to some extent), cool, but if you're a beginner and wake up the morning after a PR thinking "I could totally do more today...and I really wanna go to the gym," go do more. If you wake up the next morning thinking "...that was a bad idea," then either don't do it again or try an alternate rep scheme, or don't increase (or, further still, straight up reduce) the weight, or play around with another movement. Experiment with this shit - don't let some guy with a book dictate everything about your training to you, especially if that guy is just some random idiot on a forum.

"B-b-b-b-b-but I might overtrain," I hear you think - and I call bullshit. "Overtraining" gets bandied around as this insatiable boogeyman who's just outside, hiding in the shadows and waiting for you to train ever-so-slightly-too-hard so he can jump out and steal your nervous system, and this is absolute crap. The whole "There's no such thing as overtraining, just undereating and undersleeping" mantra is just as stupid in many ways, but for beginners, it's a hell of a lot more relevant - you are just starting out, your brain is only just now realizing that it can do things like synchronize signals to motor units to make muscles contract harder, and you are recovering so quickly that "1-rep max"-based programs are completely irrelevant because your max increases fast enough that the percentages change completely after every session. Very few people will ever reach a state of actual overtraining even ten years after they start lifting seriously, and overreaching (essentially overtraining-"lite") is relatively rare among those who "listen" to their bodies and back off when they have to.

The most important benefit of getting in the habit of trying extra sessions per week - even if you don't increase the weight in line with whatever linear progression you're following, if that is your situation - is that, if you pay attention, you should get plenty of information with which to figure out what works, what doesn't, and where your limits are. Just assuming that your program is "good enough" will get you a reasonable distance, but if you ever want to become actually strong, you're going to need to get a little crazier than that. Starting early and getting in the habit of experimenting can't realistically hurt you (given that you can progress so fast that one poor choice will set you back by at most about two or three days), and will do you a lot more good in the long run than just sitting around talking about "recovery." You're a newbie. Recovery isn't something you need to worry about. Shut the fuck up and lift.

Log - 5/2/2012

Trained with Saarni today. Need to make a point of lining this up more in the future (easy enough).

Warmup - As usual, including Overhead Squats

Squat: 45x5, 95x5, 135x5, 185x5; 235x1, 285x1 (long pause in hole)
5x5 - 215lbs
Paused the final rep of the final set for 5 seconds. I was tempted to go for ten, but got bored.
These were largely effortless, which is always nice.

Press: 45x5, 95x1
5x5 - 95lbs
Forgot that I'm not doing singles on these anymore.

BS Chin Holds:
10s, 10s, 5s, 8s, 8s

Pilates:
Assorted. Doing the oblique/upper/march component as a single movement for 5 each leg (ideally), then doing the TVA movement for 5. Probably switching to doing these on the roller after next time. Alternated these with the chin holds.

Mild Diet Revision

One thing I didn't realize about intermittent fasting is that after a while, you simply stop feeling hungry. The 4-hour window dictated by the Warrior Diet might sound like a terrible limitation, but I can say from my experience yesterday that after not eating for an extended period of time - especially overnight - you (or at least, I) basically have one low-carb meal and I'm done. Yesterday was this week's lower-calorie day - I got through my probably-larger-than-it-should-have-been "lunch" (T-Bone steak and roughly a pound of lamb sirloin) and was then essentially unable to eat anything until I went to sleep. Duly noted - limiting myself to a pound of meat for that lunch. Possibly less, if it's on the fattier side.

However, in light of the discovery that I can realistically eat nothing for 36 hours and then only manage one low-carb meal, I'm going to attempt an alternative arrangement:

Sunday - Medium Dinner
Monday - Small "lunch" and massive dinner. (8-hour window) (TRAIN)
Tuesday - Massive dinner
Wednesday - Small "lunch" and massive dinner. (8-hour window) (TRAIN)
Thursday - Massive dinner
Friday - Full-day fast
Saturday -  Textbook Rampage day (TRAIN)

The inconvenience of Friday will (in theory) be offset by my eating carbs fairly constantly on Saturday. I'll give the current setup another week and limit myself with Monday's lunch, but...yeah.

Also, Rampage Day will be shifted forward next week - apparently boyfriends are included in Mother's Day celebrations, so I get to go to an extremely fancy buffet, at which I will gorge as I have never gorged before (...or, rather, in recent memory. I'm sure I've gorged more heavily at some point in the past, but that remains to be seen).

Log - 4/30/2012

Time constraints.

Deadlift - 135x5, 185x5, 225x1, 275x1, 315x1.5 (double overhand to knees, down, mixed to lockout)
5x5 - 250lbs
Having to reset for the last two reps now.

Bench - 45x5, 95x1, 145x1
5x5 - 120lbs
Most of these were fairly bad, but the last was actually well-executed. This is all technique-wise, of course. Weight-wise it was a walk in the park ("Yeah, no shit?").

Chin Holds:
5s, 10s, 5s, 5s, 10s
No blast straps today

Full-day fast yesterday went fairly well, though I think I'll need to include a small meal at the end. I also need to be more moderate with my "lunch" on Mondays; I ate enough a few hours ago that I don't have any urge to eat right now, which is a problem.