Had a chat with someone between sets two and three, and probably didnt wait long enough after the last set of rows.

Learn to harness the power of scream, you will be doing 157.5 for triples in no time!

Needed something extra, for sure. Pretty lazy weekend, ribs and corned beef main elements. Plenty of rotator cuff and hip flexor prehab.

April 1: 179.8
April 9: 175.8
April 15: 175.4

It works, I just need to be diligent with it.

No gym tonight, so I did some conditioning work. Carried a 50lb bag of snow melt up 30 stairs and back six times, two on each shoulder and two held over head, with skipping rope between reps. I am in brutally bad shape. Finished with some pull ups.

I printed out some pdfs to read, the 5/3/1 ebook and Lasceks TM ebook. I also found Dinosaur training online to peruse. If i like it, i'll pick it up on Amazon.

Man i love/hate programming ADD. That 5/3/1 variant Wendler prescribed for his younger self caught my eye. Not really ideal for someone on a cut, but then neither is TM.

Im enjoying Dinosaur Training by Brooks Kubik. He is passionate about hard, heavy work, fat bars, awkward instruments. Looking forward to the rest of the book and trying to implement some of the principles into my own training.

I repeated the conditioning from yesterday, 6 rounds of flights of steps with 50lb bag and 50 skips in 15:45. Man i suck at skipping, but I really enjoy this work. I bought an army surplus washing bag and duffel to fill with stuff for more conditioning work as the bag from the ice melt won't hold up to abuse. SMR this evening whilst flicking channels between various sporting events.

April 18th: Random Day

Squat: 315x5x3
BTN Push Press: Worked up to five or so doubles of 155
Pendlay Rows: 155x5x3
Barbell Curls: 55x8x3

Squats were pretty hard, lost form due to favoring sore hamstring. Should have stopped, but squatting in the shoes is sooooooo nice. I need to work on precision foot placement when walking out, as they are super sticky and not forgiving for my shuffling habit.

Behind the neck push presses were fun. Somewhat disconcerting returning the bar to the rack position, managed to lower one too high on my neck, and one too low and put some strain on my shoulders (with lighter weights). Once i got the hang of it was neat, but would love to have bumpers so I could bail if i was bringing it down wrong when it gets heavy. Looking forward to improving my G4S total.

April 20th: Random Day

Front Squat: Worked up to 5 x 265lb singles, then some sets of five of 225
Bench Press: Three doubles of 185, then three paused sets of 5x155
Cable Rows: 180x5x3
Farmers Walk: 50s for 40yds four times.

Pretty solid workout, really need to improve my front squat form though. Even with the shoes on, I was still getting my weight on my toes.

My army surplus duffel bags arrived, off to home depot over the weekend to fill them with sand and get my dinosaur on. Something to work off the rye whiskey and home poker

Nice squats.

Looks like you are threatening to overtake Halfslant as the forum squat bro.

I appreciate the kind words, but HS is stronger at it than me, and he isn't the only one

Abs are sore from the front squats i think, definitely need to do them more. Anyone have thoughts on alternating them with back squats in a TM progression?

IIRC the OG TM program was volume squat/FS/intensity squat. The FS day would be 3x3.

Edit: Rip mentions it in the front squat platform: http://startingstrength.com/index.ph...he_front_squat
and the SS wiki has it listed: http://startingstrength.wikia.com/wiki/The_Texas_Method

Thanks for that. I have been doing them as recovery, I was thinking of alternating them as the main squat lift for the week, ie front squat volume and intensity days, instead of recovery.

Weighed in at 172.8 this morning upon waking, but after a dehydrating evening of beer, whiskey and pretzels. Will recheck tomorrow morning. Completely inactive weekend, but looking forward to the gym tomorrow.

Three weeks in:

reading your log makes me wanna lose more weight, I'm about 5'7 and 173lbs (after this weekend, probably more).

not sure if you mentioned it above but on your IF, when is your fast and workouts? 12-8 eating period? lifting from 6-7?

Usually my eating window is 12:30pm to 8:30pm, though more often than not on workout days I don't get home from the gym until 8:30pm or 9pm, so it often extends later on those days. Workout MWF from 7pm or so.

I'll reassess my caloric intake after this week, which would make a month on the diet. I may be on too much of a deficit.

those are the pics of a hungover manbody

LOL pretty much

April 20th: Volume Day

Squat: 315x5x5
Press: 125x5x5
Cable Rows: 180x5x3
Bicep Curlz: 65x6x3

Squats were fine on my hamstring, but still not quite engaging them properly out of the hole. Must do better. Press was a 5x5 PR, and requisitely difficult. Destroyed a plate of hoi sin chicken and rice.

Weighed in this morning on my normal schedule.

April 1: 179.8
April 9: 175.8
April 15: 175.4
April 23: 173.6

oh god, I haven't done 5x5x315 yet, and I'm not looking forward to it.

I definitely was taking plenty of rest, as I was working in with someone else for half of it. Probably took a good hour including warm ups.

Too lazy to browse back - do you have the TM e-book? Iirc Justin Lascek basically doesn't recommend 5x5 for squats on volume day for anyone anymore. Also has some very good ideas on tweaking TM, solid read.

And are you progressing strength-wise while losing non-irrelevant amounts of BF? If so, FU. You're obviously on drugs

I just "obtained" that ebook - anyone that wants a copy can send me a PM. Im still working through it, but his recommendations so far seem to be making sure that volume day is generating enough of a stimulus to drive improvements on intensity day. For now, 5x5 seems to be working. I only just got the book and have had one read through the tinkering section, now that my hamstring appears to be mostly fine I can get back on the program properly and do some tinkering, and see if 5x5 is excessive.



I think ive done 320 or 325x5x5 before, but I don't have my book with me at work. But yeah, press was difficult but possible, will see if it leads to a PR on friday.

KC's comment of "beware the WIM-deficient" has stuck with me a bit, as well. And some of the general badassery from C&P and Dinosaur Training (have a pdf if anyone wants a copy).

But I'm weak sometimes
but not when in the squat rack
IF for the win

edit: that's awful

What would be the symptoms of pushing your knees out too far when squatting, excessive work on the inside thigh/groin muscles? Lack of work for the posterior chain?

The "push your knees out" cue is to track the knees over the feet, and generally because people have trouble keeping them out when ascending (knee cave). Can you go to the other extreme?

Obviously i need to post vids, but if anyone has any input, i'd appreciate it.

April 25th: Volume Day

Front Squat: 245x3x3
Bench Press: 145x5x3

Did some Doug Funnies:
Superset BW chins with ab rollouts
Superset BW dips with cable rows

Four rounds of each. Feeling pretty dead today, thankful i got to load up on meat, sweet potatos and ice cream PWO.

April 27th: Intensity Day

Squat: 360x5
Press: 157.5x1, 135x3
Deadlift: 275x3

Bicep curlz and ab roller