2014-01-07 Everything

Warmup

Incline Bench -
45x5
60x5
75x5
90x5
105x3
120x1
130x5x3
I honestly didn't find this that hard. It felt the way benching sometimes does (and the way Incline always did back when I used it on Westside): slow and sort of weird, with any failure happening really abruptly halfway up. That said, I'm controlling my form more effectively now; I can keep my shoulder blades locked down, and don't swing the bar out away from me as much as I used to.

Deadlift -
135x5
160x5
195x5
225x5
255x5
285x5x3
I screwed up and repeated Sunday's. I did this for Press as well, so I'm going to do a Dead and Press catchup workout on Saturday before resuming as normal.
I tried keeping some tension in the bar on the last work set (much the way I do for my warmups). I'm not sure if I was just mentally more dialed in (either naturally or from staying tense) or if staying tense actually helped physically, but I think I'll keep doing it.

Press -
45x5
60x5
75x5
95x3
115x5x3
I did the third set less than a minute after the second. I'm counting it as a full set, but I actually failed on the 5th and then push pressed it. This is the first time since I reset that I've actually felt like a set fully destroyed me; that last push press totally ruined my delts.

Squat -
115x5
160x5
195x5
225x5
255x5x3
I'm seeing my technique decline more here; my hips shoot out backwards and I really have to emphasize driving my head back. I think it's a pretty strong sign of quad weakness; for now I'm just going to keep back squatting, but I'll switch to front squats some time after the meet (and probably after doing some mobes to ensure I can actually get in position for them).

Pull-Ups -
3, 2x13, 1
I'm really noticing the lack of scapular control now that I'm going stricter and focusing on depression before I engage my lats.

Face Pulls -
10x15x3
With some pausing.

Cardio -
1hr on the elliptical, 1 incline/9 resistance
It looks like my lactate threshold varies a bit from squatting (not surprising). I toughed it out for this one; whether or not I do in future depends on how my lifts feel on Thursday.

I've also got my diet pretty well planned out. 5-egg omelet with salami for breakfast, 1 beef short rib with a salad (1 grazed brazil nut, 40g cabbage, 40g broccoli, 40g cauliflower, 50g spinach, 3g mint) and balsamic vinaigrette, 1 full fish filet with salad and balsamic vinaigrette, then a pork chop and a half to full cup of rice after training. Possibly add an apple in the evening. Prep-wise I'm just going to sous vide everything from frozen to totally eliminate risk of spoilage. I'll vary things around that plan somewhat, but...yeah. Cutting doesn't have to be fun. Including butter and fish oil (and beer...and whiskey, potentially) this puts me around 3,000kcal/day, which considering the 4,000kcal of cardio each week honestly sounds like a pretty good recipe for loss. I'll track weight in excel again and add more food if I feel like I'm losing too fast (don't want much more than 1lb per week; goal is 160-165 by one week out).