531PL Cycle 2, Press Deload

I actually haven't slept since the Dead deload.

Press:
50x5
60x5
75x5
The worrying part is that my shoulder didn't seem entirely on board with this idea.

Barbell Row:
95lbs - 5x10

Blast Strap Pushup:
9, 6, 5, 5, 5

531PL Cycle 2, Dead Deload

Deadlift -
135x5
155x5
195x5
Easy. Mild shoulder complaints; should probably get back into PT.

Slow DL Negative:
140lbs - 5x10
Very taxing on grip.

Dead Stance GM:
140lbs - 5x10
Working on keeping my knees close to locked out and following the various squat-style cues to recruit different parts of my hamstrings.

531PL Bench 1

Cut this one short; forgot the blast straps and helped some guys out with deadlift form. Don't feel particularly bad. About this. Rearranging training to reflect some new discoveries (mainly that benching the day after deads probably isn't a good idea).

Bench: 45, 95

135x5

150x3

170x3

180x1, 1

Much weaker off the chest.

Using the benches in the annex now; I've figured out the rack settings that let me perform properly.

Still need to figure out the actual dimensions of the bars at the RSF.

New Schedule (somewhat tentative pending conditioning schedule):

Sunday - Deadlift

Monday - Press

Wednesday - Squat

Thursday - Bench

I plan to add in some conditioning work after a few cycles, at which point the actual day order will probably reverse. For now I'm good, though.

Not sure if I'm keeping the heavy front squat holds; may remove them in favor of glute-hams, since I need to be fucking doing those.

531PL Cycle 2, Deadlift 1

Forcing myself to get back into it.

Working on putting together a meal plan; the rest of this month will be a bit odd because I'm already out of money. I don't know how this happened but I intend to find out and ensure it never does again, partly by developing a meal plan that puts me sufficiently in the green that I can start actually saving again.

Also got the rumble roller back, which was...surprising.

Deadlift - 135, 185
235x5
265x3
300x5
315x1, 1
Did my best to switch up the overhand grips between sets. 300 was fairly easy. I'm not entirely sure why my numbers went up after three weeks of no training and a bad (i.e. anemic) diet but I'm not complaining.

DL Negative:
140lbs - 4x10
The looks I get doing these are interesting.
Grip was giving out during the last few sets.

DL Stance Good Morning:
140lbs - 4x10
But not quite as good as the ones I get doing these.
I may start explaining the movement to people once I'm back to squatting 4 plates.

531PL Cycle 2, Press 1

I've been very bad about actually recording numbers here for the last few months; the first half because I wasn't "in the mood" to update and the second because the root cause of that got so bad that I stopped training. Back now, though, and hoping to maintain some accountability. I will be training alone late at night, as I used to - seems that if I can't train in a team, I will train in isolation (...or as close to it as I can manage).

No rolling or real warmup today - strapped for time and I left the rumble roller at the gym and haven't been able to reclaim it yet.

Press: 45x5, 70x5
95x5 (4c)
105x3 (2c)
120x5 (3c)
105x5 (2c)

DB Bench:
45lbs - 5x10
Some extra chins in here

DB Row:
45lbs - 4x10, 27

For now I'm going to handle the chins situation by doing extras on two of my off-days. I'll probably start doing conditioning on those days as well.

Meat - Sprouts

Brussels Sprouts recipes:
Prelude -
1) Cut off the base of the sprout and cut it in half to get rid of the outer leaves. You can soak and/or blanch them for a bit to handle the outer leaves, but we're going to be halving them either way and the base doesn't seem to add much.*
*Will conduct further testing

Actual Stuff:
A) Oven-Roasted
Oven heated to 375 bake.
Toss halved sprouts in a ~neutral, high-smoke point fat (e.g. Macadamia Oil or melted lard) with salt and pepper. Arrange face-down in a skillet, casserole, or other container. Bake 30 minutes. Remove from oven and lightly "dust" with strong grated cheese. Return to oven for 5-10 minutes to allow cheese to melt. Let cool for a few minutes before eating.

B) Pan-Seared
Pan preheated with oil; have only tried with bacon fat thus far.
Toss halved sprouts with the same fat used in the pan (e.g. melted bacon fat) - no salt and pepper. Put face-down in skillet, casserole, or other container. Cook at high heat until browned (2-5 minutes). Turn heat off.
Cover pan with foil, then (using appropriate heat shielding) turn upside down (i.e. sprouts now rest on the foil and are covered by the hot pan). Leave for 5-10 minutes.** Remove and briefly toss with a small amount of salt and pepper.

**This softens them up without requiring you to flip them over. You can probably leave them for longer, actually.

Log - 8/6/2012

Great day

Warmup - As usual

OHS - 45, 65. Tried 85, failed immediately.

Squat - 95, 135, 185, 225
275lbs - 5x5
Got Deng and Pete to cue me on these. Excellent results ensued. Hitting 315. It looks like I'll actually have it the day before my birthday. Sweet.

Bench - 45, 95; 135
167.5lbs - I don't remember. Something like 5, 4, 4, 5, 2
These are getting progressively less paused. That said, it seems like a lot of people are finding that TnG carries over fairly well to paused but not as much in the other direction, so maybe I should be less anal about this. Whatever.

Chins
Today's chins are brought to you by the numbers "4." 58 total, would have been 60 but I did a couple of triples. Had a weird pull in the front of my neck; deal with it by angling my eyes up a bit higher during later sets. For some reason this helped despite a total lack of conscious changes in head position.

FatGripz Rack Pull:
132.5lbs - 5x5
Volume day. Wednesday is 2x5 at 110, Friday will be working up to 1x5 at 147.5.

Front Squat Hold:
315lbs - 5x15ct
Ok, these are challenging now.
320 next time.