Did my first ever front squats today. They were pretty fun. I'm going to continue doing them for a few weeks to give my elbows time to heal. My left elbow started getting a little tender on OHP, for PC's it got a little more sore, but nothing too bad. I'm pretty sure I have golfer's elbow/tendinitis, so I'm just gonna hold off on the LBBS (which aggravate them the most), and start giving them regular contrast baths.


12-28-2013

Front Squat
3x5x185
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9B6Nn5Iy5o4

Pretty easy but a good starting point. I have some things to work on. My knees got shaky on a few reps, I'm not always keeping my chest high, and I have some butt wink going on. For my first attempt at them I'm pretty happy.


Press
3x5x125

New 5RMPR for me. These were tough, and I think I'm close to totally maxing out my SS progression on these. My left patella tendon started hurting when I squeezed my glutes. I think this was probably related to shaky knees in the front squat. I foam rolled my quads/IT bands after the workout and hit a bunch of trigger points. Need to focus on foam rolling more frequently since I experience discomfort in this area frequently throughout the day.


Power Clean
5x3x177
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXtW-Oa34Qc

Still working at form but these felt okay. I have a problem where I shift my weight onto my toes when I rack it, so I need to find a better way to sit into the heels. I want to get good form before increasing my weight here but alot of my reps feel good so I'm close.

Decent workout today. My left elbow felt very slight discomfort during/after bench and got worse during deads. Still, the pain was less than 2 days ago and a helluva lot less than last week. I'm going to continue icing it and rolling the triceps/forearms with a lax ball. I don't really know what I'm doing with the lax ball, but it feels good. Any chance I could do harm?


1-30-2013

Front Squat
3x5x195
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjNne1RinpE

Lots of room for improvement here. My wrists kinda hurt and I'm not doing the greatest job of keeping my chest up. I'm probably supporting the bar with my hands somewhat. Overall, I'm happy.


Bench
3x5x175

My bench has been awful lately so I reset a bit and finally got in a solid 3x5. I think I'm starting with my right hand closer to the middle of the bar than my left. This probably explains why last bench session I noticed that my left arm was descending faster. I adjusted my right hand after the first rep and things went better.

My right lower back got a little sore during these. I have to be very careful about this since I've pulled my back during deads a couple of times. I bench with a high arch so my guess is that I'm supporting the weight with the lower back instead of the shoulders. Time to rewatch Tate's SYTYCB.


Deadlift
3x340

Couldn't get 5 reps. O well. I failed 5x335 twice so I may be in the same boat here.



My hip flexors were "sore" after squats and especially during bench. I've been stretching them daily so maybe that's a good thing and they're finally being activated correctly?

Elbow was fine until PC's. I'll rant about that later...


02-01-2013


Front Squat
3x5x203
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwT2ogOdzCM

These are getting better. Starting to feel heavy now.


Press
2x5x130
4x130

I was supposed to do 127.5 but took the wrong microloading plates with me to the gym. I could have done 127 but said **** it and went for 130. I'm very happy with this result, but I'm gonna go back to microloading again. 132.5 is next. I was soooo close to getting a clean 3x5x130. My last rep hit a sticking point around my eyes and I struggled with it there for about 5 seconds but just couldn't get it through.


Power Clean
3x177
1x177

Complete fail. Once again, I'm sticking at 177 to work on form. I ended up going on massive tilt, quit my workset, and stormed out of the gym. This is the first time I've cut an exercise short barring an injury.

My gym recently got bumper plates, but there's signs all over the place saying not to drop them, since the floors are made of wood and can't handle the weight. There's also no platforms. The lowest bumper plate they have is 5kg which makes making small increments in weights a pain since I have to go hunting in another room for iron plates to bring in. I've just found them to be an inconvenience.

So I'm pretty sure I've improved my rack tremendously on the PC. I've got to the point where I'm basically catching it on my shoulders with just my fingers resting under the bar. Problem is, it's very tough to lower these weights safely since I kinda need to drop the bar, flip my hands over, and catch it before it hits my thighs. While doing this, I caught it funny and hurt my left elbow which had been fine up until this point. ****.

In addition, the floor of my gym is sloped all over the place. The bar kept rolling and I couldn't find a good spot to place it so that it would stay straight. Normally I can overcome this but just didn't have the focus today. During my 2nd set, I had a bad rack and that was the last straw. This just put me on full blown tilt. I wanted to go drink with my buddies so I left.

Great workout today. Elbow was pain free for the first time in about a month!


02-04-2013


Front Squat
3x5x220

Went up a whole 13 pounds because I was feeling good and didn't feel like messing with smaller plates. These went very well. Had my chest dip on a few reps but corrected it.


Bench
3x5x181

My bench fell apart when my elbow flared up a few weeks ago, but I'm getting back on track. These felt solid as hell. I focused extra on making sure my grip width was even for both hands, and it made a difference.


Deadlift
5x340

Pretty heavy, but felt alright. I crushed my warmups today and was able to pull 308 double overhand. My grip has improved tremendously.



I read Wendler's 5/3/1 book over the weekend. I'm thinking about transitioning to 5/3/1 next week, or 2 weeks at the most.

Workout went okay today.

02-06-2013


Front Squat
4x225
2x5x225

First set went poorly since my grip slipped early. These were much heavier than I expected.


Press
2x4x132.5
1x132.5

Probably hitting a plateau again. I tried a false grip today but didn't feel much of a difference. Not sure if it helped much, but I'm pretty confident that it didn't hurt me.


Power Clean
5x3x177

These kicked my ass, literally. Smacked the bottom of my chin with the bar when I was warming up, chipping a tooth. Also cut the top of my knuckle trying to catch the bar on the descent, and cut open a sore on my shin during the first pull.

Aside from the above, these were some of my best PCs ever . I still have the problem of catching it with the weight on my toes, but they felt smooth and my elbow speed was fast.


Still debating on whether or not to switch to 5/3/1 now or try to eek out some more SS gains. There's a blizzard hitting us Friday so the gym might be closed. I was hoping to test my 1RMs Friday/Sat if I decided to transition to 5/3/1

I'll be starting 5/3/1 on Monday. Skipping the gym today due to blizzard, but I'll get a few hours of shoveling in for a decent workout.


Cycle 1:



Still need to figure out my assistance work. Probably gonna do BBB.

Press Day - C1W1. 02-11-2013
5x95
5x105
5x120


Assistance:
Press 5x10x70
Chins (5-6 sets of 1 rep, sometimes 2).


The 5x10 was harder than I expected, and chins are pretty tough for me. I'm not sure if BBB is the right assistance for me since I don't want to put on much weight, but I might just ride it out for 3 months and see what happens.

Deadlift Day - C1W1. 02-13-2013
5x235
5x270
5x308
5x10x178

The 5x10 on deadlifts absolutely smoked my grip. I had to hook grip towards the end.



Hanging Leg Raises: 7,8,7,7,4

My HLR form sucks, which is unsurprising considering this was my first attempt ever. I finally found a good hand positioning on the last 2 sets, and it felt a little better. I was aiming to get my legs parallel to the floor but only made it about half way (if that). I think I need to work on tilting my torso back so it is also parallel to the floor. Also, I found that these went better when I supported my weight with my biceps as opposed to my shoulders. Is that okay? My abs feel sore right now, so I at least got some ab work in despite the poor form.


I'm loving 5/3/1 so far . I've basically cut my gym time in half, and I'm finding 5/3/1 to be much more taxing cardio wise than SS. After my last set of 5x10 I just fell to the ground on my back and laid there for a minute or two as I recovered my breath. The upcoming weeks/months are gonna be interesting

Bench Day - C1W1. 02-14-2013
5x130
5x150
5x170
5x10x100

These were pretty easy


Kroc Rows: 13, 10, 8, 7, 7 @65 lbs

I didn't really feel this in my upper back at all. Mainly in my forearms and biceps. My form is probably poor. Again, this is the first time I've tried these. I might drop down to 50 pounds next week and aim for 15-20 reps.

Squat Day - C1W1. 02-14-2013
5x240
5x275
5x310
5x10x179

My form felt great during these, but my body did not. These felt way too heavy for C1W1. 310 was tough. Also, my hamstrings started cramping a little bit, but nothing too bad. I think my struggles can be attributed to the following:

1. Not doing LBBS in about a month
2. Getting 5-6 hours of bad sleep last night
3. Drinking last night
4. Having 0 off days after DL day and Bench day
5. Poor diet today.

All of these should be fixed by next week, so I'm not too worried. The good news is that my elbow felt great! I focused on driving my elbows under the bar. Also, front squats definitely helped my form with LBBS.


Lunges: 45x10 for each leg.

My form for these was lolbad, as expected. My quads/hammies were cramping a little bit during these so I just opted for one set and focused on the 5x10 of BBB squats instead.

Press Day - C1W2. 02-18-2013

Warmup (This is my standard but I haven't posted it before)
~10min brisk walk to gym.
Cressey Foam Roll series (roller & lax ball)
~50 skips on the jump rope. These are hard for me but it's something I want to improve on. I'm aiming for 100 skips followed by 50 one-legged skips for each leg. I could have got the 100 today but was just lazy.

Press
3x100
3x115
3x130
5x10x70

Left hamstring got a little bit crampy during these. I'm not sure whats going on since I've never cramped before until last Friday. Could be related to the jump rope as I introduced those last Friday as well.


Chins
12x1xbw

I alternated my grip between supinated-close (hands touching), supinated-wide, supinated-normal, and neutral grip. The first 8 reps were pretty good, but my final 4 were a struggle and I didn't get high enough. I focused on lowering myself very slowly. It's probably going to take some time before I get good at chins. 1x10 seems a long ways off.

Pretty sure krocs are higher rep range than that. 15-20 sounds like a good start. I definitely feel them a lot more in my forearms than anything else too but banging out 25 reps on a heavy DB should be very taxing on your grip.

Yeah, I didn't know what the best weight for me was so I probably went too heavy.

Deadlift Day - C1W2. 02-19-2013
3x250
3x290
3x325
5x10x179

Deadlift day is the ****. These sets were fairly easy and again the 5x10 smoked my grip. I love that feeling of barely being able to hold my glass of PWO chocolate milk because my grip has been so taxed. I need to remember to not use the hook grip on the 5x10 until absolutely necessary. I also focused on the eccentric movement today and lowered the bar slowly and in control (but not too slow). I've seen people discourage against this but I don't see a reason as long as I'm doing it with good form.

I noticed a possible issue with my deads where it felt like my right shoulder was slightly more far back than my left shoulder on lockout. It wasn't that easy to correct either. Maybe it could be caused by my grip width compared to the center of the bar? I might take vids next week.

Hanging Leg Raises
8, 8, 7, 7, 7

I'm still weak at these, but hey - better than last week

I thought my form sucked at HLRs but I took a video of my last set and they didn't look all that bad. I'm still incapable of getting my legs above parallel. Any critiques?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Erq9txIwD5o

Bench Day - C1W2. 02-21-2013

Warmup
Foam roll quads, hip flexor, IT band, shoulders, upper back, pecs, sarratus anterior.
Lax ball glutes, calves, under scapula. Found some nice adhesions under the scapula.

Bench
3x140
3x160
3x180
5x10x100

Pretty easy again. Bench is probably my easiest lift right now for 5/3/1. Also my weakest


Kroc Rows
50lbs

My reps for both arms went something like: 20, 20, 12, 15, 18.

These felt alot better than last week and my form improved throughout my sets. I'll probably stick at 50 pounds for next week, not sure if it's worth dropping down to 45. I think I need to focus on locking my wrist instead of doing a mini-wrist curl at the top. That activates my back more.

I'm a little confused by Wendler's writing. He stresses doing assistance work very light and states that your body can't tell the difference between heavy and light assistance work. However for Kroc rows, he says go as heavy as possible. I'd like to find out what makes Krocs special.

I was thinking about doing some curls today, but supersetting the 5x10 and Kroc's wiped my ass out.

My left hamstring felt tight during the cold walk home. This is the same hammy that I've felt some discomfort in lately. I need to figure out how to do SMR on the hams.

kroc rows are usually as heavy as possible for one set of twenty. maybe wendler suggests more sets, but then its just regular db rows.

re: kroc rows
what Aidan said. with kroc rows you might warm up with a set or 2 of 10 with like 45, then go all out for a set of 20+ with 90. here's an article on them:

http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_.../kroc_rows_101

like they say in the article, at the end you should be gasping for air. they should take a lot out of you when done right.

re: hanging leg raises, here is a video that helped me out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEAsq84bKGc

Squat Day - C1W2. 02-22-2013
No warmup

Squat
3x255
3x290
3x335
5x10x181

God damn, these are ****ing hell. The 5x10 is so grueling. I think I overestimated my 1RM, but there's no turning back now. Form is feeling better and no elbow pain which is nice.


Lunges
3x10x40 (dumbbells)

These felt better than last week. I think this workout puts too much focus into my quads, so I'm probably going to swap lunges for leg curls next cycle. BTW - I have been supersetting my assistance work with the 5x10 set.


Got 1.7 pounds of marinated steak tips waiting for me as a reward for today. Yum.

Press Day - C1W3. 02-22-2013
No Warmup

Press
5x105
3x120
1x135
5x10x71

Overall these went well. My right side ascended faster than the left on my 1x135 attempt, so I need to work on getting more balanced.


Chins: 16x1
I again alternated between 4 grips. 12 of these were clean, solid reps. The final 4 were very close, but I'd call them a fail. This is a whole 4 chinups better than last week! Next week I'm going to try sets of 2 and see how many I can do.


Curls: 10x45
Busted out some curls since I didn't get a whole lot of chin volume in. These were my first curls in 6 years.

Deadlift Day - C1W3. 02-26-2013

Warmup
Foam roll quads, hip flexor, IT band, upper back
Lax ball glutes, calves
Meant to roll pecs, shoulders, scapula but just completely forgot

Jump Rope: 100 normal, 50 right leg, 50 left leg.
My form for these has quickly gotten better. I was gassed and sweating like a pig after these. I'd like to hit ~200 more reps.


Deadlift
5x270
3x308
1x340
5x10x178

Went 3 pounds heavier than I should have for my 3x308 set. These lifts went up very easy, but they didn't feel all that great. My shoulders often felt weird at lockout - like they weren't far enough back or something. I sometimes felt like I was shrugging my shoulders back. I think it could be related to a posture issue (kyphosis). I did all of these reps double overhand except for 3x308 and 1x340, where I hook gripped.


Hanging Leg Raises
Did 6 sets of like 5 reps. These are just so hard for me. My grip starts failing me real quick, which is annoying since I can double overhand a decent amount of weight when I DL. Aside form the grip my form is still poor and I can't get my legs very high. I'm still trying to figure out how much I'm allowed to bend my knee. I started feeling these in my abs for the final few reps but my grip was too smoked by then.

Re: Patella Knee Pain

My knee pain has been pretty manageable/non-existant since I started this log, but today was a different story. My left knee, the worse of the two, has felt pretty stiff and walking has felt akward. If I squeeze my quads really tight my left knee starts hurting on the front of the knee cap towards the bottom.

I've been foam rolling the quads and calves but haven't felt any adhesions (just minor uncomfortableness). Anything else I can do?

did you get the front bit of your calf next to your shin? IT band and glutes might be worth digging into. i dunno man, i struggle with similar pain and have yet to really solve it

Bench Day - C1W3. 02-28-2013

Warmup
Foam Roll - hip flexors, quads, IT band, inside of thigh, upper back, shoulders, lats, pecs
Lax Ball - glutes, calves, rotator cuff
Jump Rope - 100 normal, 50 right leg, 50 left leg, 50 high knees. I'm very quickly getting good at jumping rope. Felt way less gassed compared to two days ago.

Bench
5x150
3x170
1x190
5x10x100

These went alright. I was getting tired at the end and had some trouble keeping focus on my BBB set. I could have put up 5+ reps at 190.


Kroc Rows
5x20x50

These felt awesome, in a "holy **** when will this end" way. I may jump up to 55 pounds next cycle, but probably not as my form started deteriorating towards the end (back rising / using momentum etc.)

Aidan, thanks once more for the spot-on and wonderful advice. I think this could be my problem. I started digging into the front side of my calf with a lax ball and the knee pain has so far subsided.

The lax ball is getting awfully close to touching my shin and I'm worried about possibly forming a bone bruise. Is that possible? The outside of my shin area definitely felt a little sore some time after rolling.

How many jumps with the rope can you get on average before messing up? I've been trying to improve recently as well, but I'm horrible and usually get tripped up every 10 or so...

Why did you stop at 1 rep on the 1 set?