Maxed back squats today: 285

Whoo Whoo. Inch or two below parallel. So that was cool.

So my current maxes:

Bench: 185 (old)
Power Clean: 200
Front Squat: 235 (low)
Deadlift: 340 (old)
Back Squat: 285

So I'm fairly near the 200/200/300/400 goal I set. I may have to come up with cooler new goals by mid-summer.

How did you get to these numbers, I remember in the summer or something we were lifting the same weight

They were low to begin with. Meaning that I knew they'd go up a lot from just taking some time to care and do the right stuff. FWIW you can blame it on taking 1 HRX each day for the last weekish amount of time.

Though I'm gonna attribute most of it to non-linear progression and cutting out most of the drinking. That and probably placebo affect from getting my training Smiley approved.

So I signed up for a new gym. Thats cool. Bit pricey, but not too much of an issue. Has some cool equipment and a lot of ghey classes.

Trainers are meh knowledgeable. Nothing really that makes me think "Wow. You're really good at what you do." But they're pretty run of the mill for whats wanted. Middle aged people wanting easy programs so they can feel good about being out of shape and overweight since they're "trying". Though there are a few people that it seems are actually training for legit stuff and have done some interesting things.

So I maxed my DB snatch at 85. Thats cool since its .5 BW. I also remaxed my front squat at 245. And managed to convince someone to preform the overtly ghey act of looking where my hips roll under in my squat. Always awesome to be like "Hey man, you mind looking at my ass."

I digress. So I'm fairly close to hitting most of my immediate strength goals. I expect to clear the squat one by the end of this next program. Then I can focus on my bench and get that over 200 which shouldn't be hard considering I could probably run up to that in 3-4 weeks of a specialization program. Then I can see whats happened in my effort to pull 400. Then what? Suggestions?

start using the metric system?

Hrm. That does seem to be interesting. But considering I'd have probably the all time DL record at my BW. I'm going to pass. Maybe work on some ghey gymnast stuff.

I'd suggest challenging jihad to a deadlift competition. I bet you could surpass him in a year.

I could give you dozens.

5 minutes of continuous jump rope.

Start playing a new sport?

lol, anathema to Thremp

I'm not raising money for heart disease.

I'm just trying to get you laid. It's not exactly like curing cancer. Close.

2 years ago I'm playing live poker at a club I normally play at. It's about 9am and we have been playing for over 24 hours. I am up significant amount and the rest of the table is stuck. The host, who doesn't play often and always keeps good spirits is also a bit sour as I spiked a king on the turn against his AA all in preflop for 100xbb.... He went to bed at 3am and recently woke up, goes outside to jump rope. Comes back in 5 minutes later and I say: "that's it? you pussy, get out there and actually work out". I barely noticed the grin over his face when he threw out the prop for $2k that I couldn't jump rope for 5 minutes. I worked it down to 3.5 minutes since I had been up for 24 hours, recently stufffed my face and had had a few beers (keep in mind at this point in my life I was about 20 lbs heavier with significantly less strength/endurance or any semblance of health). The entire table got some of his action and a few more side bets with me. I made it to about 1 minute 45 seconds before I felt like I was going to throw up and collapsed on the ground.

Okay, this is embarrassing but I will post anyway. So I'm not a great OH presser. But I assumed I could complete the whole 30 clean and presses for time. I got done with 10 in 3:02 was annoyed and disgusted and quit. In addition to being kinda gassed. My OH pressing sucks it. But I don't really know why I expected it to be any better since I have not done any since like Nov?!? Deluded IMO.

Regardless, I have full faith that I can manage to put 15 lbs on my squat and get that mark out of the way and then embark on topping out my deadlift/bench for the small amounts they go up. I'm going to assume that adding a ton of weight to my squat will help my deadlift considerably. But maybe I'm being too positive. Regardless, I imagine by mid summer I should have those marks nabbed.

Meanwhile, my efforts to lean out are working. Sadly actual life has been wearing me down and diet/etc has been poor, but I'll live. My bastardized stomach skinfold is down from 26mm to 18mm and the visual evidence is solid along with all other indicators that I'm less fat. So thats cool. I'm getting some decent recomp out of this heavy squatting (maybe supplementation?) which I totally didn't expect. Likely cause I'm noobzor. Or I'm bad at keeping records. Maybe both. Who knows.

Some of my tentative goals atm:
1) 10 free standing HSPU
2) planche
3) 1xBW OH Squat
4) muscle up
5) Sub 6:30 mile

I'll probably figure out a plan for these later on. The planche will likely be a long time in coming, but its something I've been working on and making fairly steady progress at, despite not getting at it consistently. I don't have any bumper plates which makes some workouts more annoying since lowering the weight from jerks/presses etc is way more annoying than punting them. But I'll live.

I'd sub some sort of 95# rep thing for the OHS. With no bumpers, getting the weight down from overhead is a little tricky. And are you saying "atm" is one of your tentative goals?

I'm usually not interested in people's blogs because I don't care about weights lifted or whether they've crammed an extra cupcake into their idiot hole lately, but being able to do bodyweight stuff is closer to what I think of, from a martial arts (and just outside the gym) perspective as practical and, well, maybe even interesting. I'll be curious to hear your progress on the planche and hand stand push-up, and good luck.

I envision getting a house and taking a garage space and making a gym in there for things I need, but I doubt my OHS is gonna be at that point anytime soon. I have a hitch where I can't really get any depth with my right leg parallel, I need to move it back 2-3 inches from my left. Why? Probably flexibility, but I don't know. I can't find anyone who knows enough to help me figure it out either nearby.

Ass to mouth is always a goal for anyone. I don't really feel like there will be a time in my life where I think "You know... My day wouldn't be bettered by some ass to mouth action"

Ass to mouth is always worth achieving, even as a fake-out.

FWIW, I can do 8 reps where I touch the top of my head to the floor, but cannot do a freestanding handstand. I can hold a tuck planche for ~5 secs. Needless to say these aren't going to be going down with some exponential increase in skillz.

Second.

I think it's pretty friggin awesome to try.

Sadly I have not figured out a way to workout to make me look like an athlete without looking like an athlete. Though if I could have the body I wanted with a bunch of tricep kickbacks and leg presses. So be it.

I have a lot more esoteric goals too, but I think this is enough to focus on for now.


Also, what would be a good translations for # of 95 reps to BW?

Can you do it with a PVC pipe? A bar? Are you warming up with some dislocates first?

I just feel significantly less stable. I warm up with the bar and usually do 12 reps. Perhaps I should spend some time on shoulder flexibility and see how that works out? FWIW I sucka sucka at flexibility on those dislocates.

Here is what I've felt in myself and what I think I've observed in others. The first rep or two are awkward and acquiring proper depth is a problem. The bar hasn't found the right track and this creates core stability problems. Once one finds the right spot and has a good rep under one's belt, it is easy to pump them out rapidly, with good depth.

I think the answer is a proper warm-up and better focus. In addition to taking care of those things, widen your feet a bit, point your toes out a bit more, and force your knees outward as you descend. You can also pay attention to keeping as upright a torso as possible in a body weight squat-- one drill is squatting with toes facing and only a couple inches from a wall.