Logs and Updates

6/21/2012

Warmup

Squat - 45, 95, 135, 185; 225; 280

250lbs - 5, 5, 1

Shooting pain at the bottom of my right IT band. Nothing on first set, last few reps on second set, from the start on the third set. We'll see where this goes.

Bench - 45, 95; 135; 175

155lbs - 5x5

Having a spot helped a lot. The longer rest probably also made a difference (Saarni was responsible for both of these, though I could have prevented the second if I'd wanted to).

6/28/2012

Warmup

Deadlift - 135, 185, 225; 275; 330

295lbs - 5x5

Straps are sliding on the bar; I probably need to work on the technique for setting them up. Brian came along and offered some advice for them.

Press - 45, 75

112.5lbs - 5x5

I'm guessing rests and a training partner helped with this, but the difference between these sets and the ones I was doing before was phenomenal.

I think most of the difference came from a slower and more methodical pace. Solid rests between reps and somehow not running out of air seems to help a lot.

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Updates:

Twelve-hour workdays across two jobs (very, very voluntary - i.e. it actually sort of goes against both bosses' advice, albeit not against their wishes as long as I can stay productive) mean I'm training either early in the morning or late at night. I've gone for the mornings and moved my food intake to reflect that. Current plan (still needs a bit of refining):

Sunday - Carb breakfast; Train; Carb brunch; cheat window; carb "snacks" (i.e. PSMF but with rice)

Monday - Small breakfast; medium brunch; protein-sparing modified fast (chicken breast)

Tuesday - Small breakfast; train; large brunch; PSMF

Wednesday - Small breakfast, medium brunch; PSMF

Thursday - Carb breakfast; Train; carb brunch; PSMF

Friday - Small breakfast; large brunch; PSMF

Saturday - Small breakfast; Small brunch; PSMF

I should be fine maintaining/losing with this, and can adjust variables as needed. Large meals will probably be ribs, small will probably be chicken wings. I'm not sure on the mediums yet; steak and sausages both probably work.

I'm skipping my scheduled deload for this cycle because I've trained about 3 times in the last two weeks, and have thus already effectively deloaded. Yay.

I may restart creatine fairly soon; haven't decided.

Log - 6/19/2012

Mild upper back injury. The pain's already almost entirely gone, though some of that may be because I rubbed Capzasin across the area yesterday evening. That shit is powerful. And fun.

Warmup

Deadlift - 135, 185, 225; 275; 325
290lbs - 5x5
Decided that from now on, the singles will be set at roughly 10% over the work weight (specifically, WW/0.9 - i.e. the work sets are 90% of the singles). In the interest of facilitating recovery, I'm going to apply this to Squats and Bench as well, though squat singles with 315 aren't that challenging right now.

Press: 45, 80
112.5lbs - 5, 5, 4, 4, 3 (4F)
Tweaked my back on the failed rep. I fell back into my hold habit of shifting left for harder reps and something sort of...well, died. Went home immediately after this.

I made it to 31 chins between those sets, though, with the opening set being a full 5 reps with strict posture. I credit this improvement to my habit of doing chins whenever I'm bored, and will look into getting some manner of chin-up bar in Berkeley (though it will probably have to be a screw-free model that can fit in the front door - oh dear).

Rest period changes: Just realized that I'm edging in on relatively high weights. I've decided I'll increase the rest periods by 1 minute for every 8% off of the final goal (so 3 minutes as of about 75%, 4 no earlier than 85%, and 5 no earlier than 92% but hopefully closer to 95%).
Weights for this:
Squat: 3 minutes whenever; 4 starting no sooner than 270, and 5 no earlier than the 290-300 range
Bench: 3 minutes starting at 165; 4 no sooner than 185; 5 starting no sooner than 205-210
Deadlift: 3 minutes starting now; 4 no sooner than 310-315; 5 no sooner than 335-345
Press: 3 minutes starting now; 4 no sooner than 115; 5 no sooner than 125

I'm fairly sure I've hit somewhere in the 30-50 range for chins on off-days, too. Speaking of which, off to do more, then roll out my upper back.

Log - 6/14/2012

Warmup

Squat - 45, 95, 135, 185; 225; 275, 315
245lbs - 5x5
It's funny how easy these get if I just start insulting myself between sets. Apparently calling yourself a pussy is a great way to stop being one.
That said, I forgot to pause 315, and may have cut my depth somewhat. I'm sure they're still legal, but I don't like knowing that I'm being (mildly) inconsistent.

Bench - 45, 95; 135, 185
150lbs - 5x5
Failed the final rep; Zerchered it back into the rack and redid it. I suspect this is happening because my grip's closer and I'm forced to do my own unracks; doing a quarter-tricep extension to get it out of the rack shouldn't make a HUGE difference, but I can see it causing some fatigue.

Chins
I believe today totaled to 25.

Front Squat Holds:
305lbs - 3x15ct
Had to leave prematurely because the gym closed. I'm going in the mornings from now on.

Log - 6/12/2012

Warmup - As usual

Deadlift - 135, 185, 225; 275, 315
285lbs - 5x5
Nothing really to note here, except that straps are annoying and I really want hooks.

Press - 45, 75
110lbs - 5x5
These were something of a fight.

Chins - No idea. "A few."

FGRP Holds:
147.5lbs - 5x10s

Log - 6/7/2012

Warmup - Added Reverse Hypers, because I could. 20 reps with a single 45lb plate. This was not enough weight and I shall use more next time. I'll probably also do some extra sets at the end of each workout.

Squat - 45, 95, 135, 185; 225, 275, 315
240lbs - 5x5
2-minute rests prevented this from being fun. Good music helped to counter that.
I'm thinking I'll push up to 3-minute breaks once I'm up around 250.

Bench - 45, 95; 135, 185
145lbs - 5x5
Intermission here for a brief rant.
There aren't a whole lot of things a barbell needs to do to feel "complete" in life - it needs to be long enough to hold the plates it's supposed to support, sturdy enough that it doesn't bend under the weight of those plates, and "sharp" enough that people can get a good grip on it. As with a lot of other gyms I've been to, World Gym has an excellent selection of barbells (SSB, 8ft Squat Bar, Deadlift Bar, Cambered Bar...), but outside of the specialty ones almost none of them have a significant knurl or competition ring spacing. Say what you will about the Cal RSF, but the bars there are at least grippable. And competition standard (as far as I can tell), which is also important. The last set of these was actually a 2+3 because getting my grip set was such a pain in the ass that my forearms gave out.
Rant over.
I started off using one of the regular benches, but since nobody was there to spot and I had an excellent cage ten feet away I moved back to the rack and pressed in there.

Chins:
4, 1, 3, 2, 2
3, 2, 2, 1, 1
2, 2, 2, 2, 2
32 total.
Some of this is probably due to excessive rest around the bench setup (took about half an hour before I started the work sets), but yay. I also may have "accidentally" yanked my shoulder in a weirdly therapeutic fashion on one of these.
Doing these is actually kind of odd for me - World's uses straight bars whereas the RSF has the middle set at an angle, and my chins have gotten a LOT better very quickly now that I'm using the former rather than the latter. Maybe I'll start doing these off of a barbell or something when I get back to Cal.

Front Squat Holds:
295lbs - 5x15
Fair bit harder than last time. I'll hit 305 next time; no need to rush to 315.

Log - 6/5/2012

Deadlift deload day. First time training at World Gym in San Diego; I like some stuff about it, dislike others. Overall I'd rather have my own stuff, but whatever.

Deadlift - 135, 185, 225
280lbs - 5x3
I spent most of these paying almost no attention to my back position, and paid for it with some unpleasant aches over the following day. Warming up seems to help.

Press - 45, 75
110lbs - 5x3
No real trouble here.

Chins:
3, 2, 2, 2, 1
2, 2, 2, 2, 2
2, 2, 2, 1, 1
Total of 28

FatGripz Rack Pulls:
145lbs - 5x10s
The bars are World are a bit thinner than the ones at the RSF, so this was a lot easier than it would have been back home.

Log - 6/2/2012

First deload since I switched back to LP. This gave me a chance to notice some nagging flaws in my technique.

Warmup

Squat - 45, 95, 135, 185

235lbs - 5x3

Still working on my unrack here, mostly. The unrack makes the rep, so flaws in the walkout are a very significant problem.

Bench - 45, 95

140lbs - 5x3

Somewhat better here, though still not where I'd like it to be. I suspect a lot of the problem is the upper back complaints I've been getting since I increased my chinning volume (see below).

Chins: 2, 1, 1, 1, 2 (I think)

I totaled somewhere between 25 and 30 for the entire workout; I got something like 3, 2, 1, 2, 2 during the squats, and that's where most of the increase is from.

I'm not changing the progression, though; the goal is still one extra rep per workout starting Thursday. My minimum for next time is 27, not today+1. I may change that if I'm consistently going up by more (which isn't all that improbable given that I'm dropping weight and doing a LOT of chins), but for now I'm not looking for too much. Maintaining +3/week gets me over fifty by the end of the summer, and that point I can probably start working on consolidating them into 5x8 or something. THEN adding weight (and probably subbing out the Dead day chins for dumbbell rows).

Front Squat Holds:

275lbs - 5x15ct

Weight's going up next time. I've done these before at 295 but wasn't sure what to expect this time; clearly the pilates got my abs stronger, though, because this was even less difficult than it was when I weighed 20lbs more.

Face Pulls:

15lbs - 5x10

With 3ct holds.

The increase in chinning volume seems to have caused one of the upper back/shoulder muscles on my right side to tighten up very significantly. As a result, after I finish a set, the back of my shoulder feels like it's tearing apart. I'm confident that this is a muscular problem and not further labral tearing because rolling some musculature in that area (I suspect it's the rear delt, but I'm not sure) for a minute or so alleviates it and keeps it from coming back. Unfortunately, the amount of pressure required in the rolling is pretty extreme, so actually doing it is a pain in the ass. From the looks of things, the solution to all of my problems is massage (hardly unusual).

Log - 5/31/2012

Warmup

Deadlift: 135, 185, 225; 275, 315, [365 - Again, didn't budge. Not retrying]
275lbs - 5x5
That was fun.
Unfortunately, my right side isn't activating properly, so some of these were fairly unpleasant.

Press: 45, 75
110lbs - 5, 5, 4, 4, 5
Funny how this happens right before I start adding in scheduled deloads.

Chins:
2, 2, 2, 2, 1
Total of 25 today. 3 before the first deadlift work set, then singles and doubles before the others. The "trick" here is to keep tension in the lats and not go to a dead hang after each rep - most of the doubles would have been singles on Tuesday.

FatGripz Rack Pull:
145lbs - 10ct, 10ct, 10ct, 10ct, 7ct
These are now exclusively for Deadlift days. Ab work will go in their place on Squat days for the time being (I'm tempted to do shrugs instead, but neglecting core strength seems foolish); I'm going to start just using Front Squat Holds again.

Pilates - Random crap for the first two runs

Face Pulls:
20lbs - 10
15lbs - 2x10 with 3ct hold
Turns out you can stop the 20lb and 10lb bricks from sticking to each other by slamming the weights back into the stack. Who knew?

Deload on the next two training sessions.