That's a nice thought.

Current plan is I'm gonna finish up my last cycle of 5/3/1 on deadlifts while continuing to smash my head in to a brick wall on squats, then test max squat and deadlift in the beginning of November. I'd be really happy with 385/450. From there I'm going to start getting fat and squatting a lot more, and hopefully get up to 185 or so by the end of February, at which point it'll be time to diet back down so I'm sexy come summer.

Not sure what my programming will be except that it'll probably involve squatting 3-4 days a week and no heavy barbell benching while my elbow heals.

*Looks at log title*

I'm thinking of doing SmolovJr for squats, but not stopping after 3 weeks which apparently some people have success with. When I ended my last Smolov cycle at 10x3x320 I remember thinking that I felt pretty good and could probably make 10x3x325 or even 10x3x330.

This would be a pretty badass way to ensure that I gain some muscle while I get fat:

	Tuesday	Thursday	Saturday	Sunday
Week 1	260x6x6	275x5x7	290x4x8	305x3x10
Week 2	265x6x6	280x5x7	295x4x8	310x3x10
Week 3	270x6x6	285x5x7	300x4x8	315x3x10
Week 4	275x6x6	290x5x7	305x4x8	320x3x10
Week 5	210x6x6	225x5x7	240x4x8	255x3x10
Week 6	275x6x6	290x5x7	305x4x8	320x3x10
Week 7	280x6x6	295x5x7	310x4x8	325x3x10
Week 8	285x6x6	300x5x7	315x4x8	330x3x10
Week 9	290x6x6	305x5x7	320x4x8	335x3x10

Lol would be so miserable though. Plus I'm not sure I wanna buy new pants.

Buy a couple of cheap fat pants. You'll ditch them again pretty soon since you plan on teh sexay.

Adjustable waist dress pants would be bomb. I'd probably need pleats too lol.

10-13

DB Bench- 50sx10, 65sx5, 75sx5, 80sx5, 85sx5x2
Good Mornings- 132x8, 176x8, 186x8, 196x8, 206x8
Press- 88x10, 10, 8
Barbell Shrugs- 315x8, 365x8x2, 315x15
Seated DB Shrugs Superset with Lateral Raises- 3 sets of 15
DB Flyes- 4 sets
Close Grip bench- up to 135x12

Swole.

i am not thrilled to see one of my favorite posters on H&F dedicate himself entirely to powerlifting but i guess if you are gonna go down this path... this is a pretty cool article

http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog...to-your-lifts/

also i believe i saw you write that you had scoliosis. how does this affect squats and other big lifts?

may be too similar to TM for your taste, but you could give madcow's program a try.

link

quit ****in around and squat

425 by new years

I've read that before. The program seems ok, some of the other stuff is just wrong. It's not that big a departure from the Texas Method.

I've actually been meaning to go to a chiro near my work to get assessed since I don't think a doctor has looked at it in 15 years. I think it affects my squat the most, where I find it very hard to have the weight evenly distributed on both my feet and my shoulders at the same time.

Ultimately I'd just be stealing the rep scheme/intensities, since the recommended progression is impossible for me at this stage. I do like ramping up 5x5 though, and I do it on most volume days (or ramping 3x5 when things aren't going so well).

Yeah I was away for the weekend so couldn't get a lift in, but I'm going to keep doing TM squats until I finish my 5/3/1 deadlift cycle in around 2 weeks.

I've pretty much decided that at least for November and December my programming will be:

	Tuesday	Thursday	Saturday	Sunday
Squat	6x6	7x5	8x4	10x3
Upper Body Push	4-5 exercises		2-3 exercises
Upper Body Pull		4-5 exercises		2-3 exercises

I'm going to start the squats relatively light, but I'm going to work on gradually decreasing my rest intervals. The upper body work will be almost entirely DB based, at least until my elbow/biceps stops bothering me.

I'm also going to be eating a lot. I'm 162 right now, hopefully I'll be a solid 170 by year end.

yes, food! gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

I was rereading PPST on Friday and I got to the part where Rip says "avoid a caloric surplus of more than 200 to 400 daily as it will promote excessive fat storage." Which makes my plan to gain 25 lbs in 4 months quite a bit tougher.

I just want to start now, but I owe it to myself to see where my DL/Squat really are.

Rip really says that in PPST? So weird, doesn't rhyme at all with his responses on the SS board. E.g. a thread recently where he recommended 4k cals "on a strict paleo diet" to someone 5'6", 195 lbs, 26% BF worried about unnecessary fat gains on TM. Guess he decided to become ******ed later on.

Yeah I didn't remember seeing it the first time I read it and was surprised when I saw it on Friday.

My "copy" is a PDF that was stored on someone's personal website that somehow showed up in a google search, so it could be that I'm working with an altered copy. I'll post the quote and pages when I'm at home.

Cool, post the page # as well, I can check if it's the same in PPST 2 (have it in physical form).

Page 51: First Full Paragraph

It is important that the total caloric content of the diet be at least equal to, but preferably greater than, the total caloric expenditure of the training day. Matching intake to expenditure will maintain fitness and strength but will not support maximal
fitness gain. A caloric surplus is needed to drive progress. If we simply pay back the energy used during exercise and daily activities, we are not providing the extra energy required to drive homeostatic recovery and adaptation through muscle mass increase. To get stronger and more fit we need to consume somewhere around 200 to 400 calories more energy than we expend. This is a relatively small caloric excess, and much more than this should be avoided, since a huge caloric surplus can and will be stored as fat.

10-17

Squat- 45x5x2, 135x5, 185x4, 235x3, 285x2, 315x1, 345x1, 355x1, 365x1, 370x1
Deadlift- 154x3, 264x3, 314x3, 334x3, 354x6
RDL- 154x8x3
Abs

Squats were ok. Knee felt weird in the work sets but I was too lazy to do anything about it. Grip was unreal strong in deadlifts today, first rep at 354 was double overhand no hook grip, and the rest were hook gripped.

10-19

Pendlay Row- 135x5, 165x5, 185x3, 205x2, 225x2, 235x2, 185x12
Shrugs- 315x8, 385x8, 395x8, 315x15
Lat Pulldown superset with behind neck pulldowns- 3 sets
RD Flyes- 3 sets
Fat Grip 200lb farmer's walks- 3x50 feet
Curls- 8 by: 35s, 30s, 25s, 20s, 17.5s, 15s no rest

Swole yoke.

10-21

Squat- 45x5x2, 135x5, 185x4, 235x3, 275x2, 300x1, 315x5, 325x5, 335x5, 340x2, 345x2, 315x6
Good Mornings, slow paused at bottom- 132x8x5
Planks/Swiss Ball Crunches

**** you, legs.

Story checks out.

Did a few ring dips today, then some light stationary biking and rowing and about 45 minutes of mobility work. Legs feel good.

10-23

Today ****ing sucked. Any pushing motion really bothered my elbow when I got past 90 degrees of flexion, pretty much regardless of weight used. Only thing notable that I managed to accomplish:

Shrugs- 225x5, 315x5, 365x5, 405x5x2, 425x5, 405x5, 315x15
Weird plank variations- 3 sets

Do you ever roll your triceps with a lacrosse ball? Tricep adhesions used to be a huge problem for my elbows.

I've been lying on my side with my bottom arm sticking out at 90 degrees, stick the ball under the triceps and find a painful spot (I have them all over). I let the ball sink in for a bit until it feels like its loosening up, then I push my arm down into the ball with my other hand and bend the arm (the one I'm working on) at the elbow to stretch the triceps with pressure on the ball. Home made ART.

Forearm adhesions and bicep adhesions sometimes mess with your elbows too.

tricep on the barbell in the rack is pretty l33t