Oct 26 - no more whinging

BN
2x5x147.5
1x6x147.5
2x10x105

I think I was bringing my feet too far back which feels tighter but just generates less force

SQ
3x5x200

Am I hitting depth?



pull-ups 5/5/4/2/3

Ab wheel 3x5

Depth looks money , and otherwise looking good too

squats looking better.

I would give at least 4 good ones on that first set,I wouldnt argue with 5.
Didnt look hard at the 2nd

Cool, thanks for the feedback. It felt more difficult then it looked in hindsight.

Oct 28

OHP + LP 3x10x120
2x5x97.5
1x6x97.5
2x10x70

Tried to do a bit more of a SS type press on the first ones, went for the AMRAP using my standard form



DL
1x8x295
2x3x295
1x10x155 P

Finally belted up for DL and obv it helped Glad to be back on track



Curls 10x70/60/60/50/50
Calf Raise 5x10x150
Lat raise/hanging leg raise

Oct 29

Db rows 3x12x30
One-arm DB shoulder press 1x7x40/35/35
Shrugs 3x15x90
Db incline press 3x12x70
Cable rope pull down 3x12x39
facepulls 3x12x27.5

quickie

Oct 31

BN
2x4x150

Failed on the 5th rep twice, was sure I had it

On the second fail my shoulder must have taken too much of the wait, was hurting so I gave up on bench. Did a couple sets of pull-ups while waiting for a squat rack to open up and it aggravated my shoulder more, so I quit the session. Will take a couple days off and hopefully get back to 100%.

Current maxes:
295 (DL) + 200 (SQ) + 147.5 (BN) + 105 (OHP) = 747.5
So close, thought I would pass 750 today

R&R is done, although I had to bootstrap myself to get back to the gym. Being keeping active with non-lifting stuff, played football today prior to lifting

November 5

Swapping bench and OHP. I think it makes more sense to OHP on squat day so that I can just hog the rack.

OHP
2x5x100
1x6x100
70x10/9

Squat
3x5x205

A bunch of those reps were almost fails. A bit of a mixed bag here. On one hand have to be happy about crossing 750 total, hitting a rep PR, all after playing sports and with 1.5 weeks since my last squat. On the other hand it was a huge struggle, no progress on OHP, and weak motivation/heart.

Not really thrilled about my body recomp coming up on 6 months of lifting but trying not to overthink it and just keep grinding. I'm not going as hard as a lot of people so things go slowly.

Nov 8

BN
2x5x135
1x8x135

DL
1x7x300
2x3x300
1x10x155 P

curls 10x 70/60/60/50/50
calves 5x10x150

Nov 11

OHP
1x115
Fx125
105x5/3/4

The singles didn't feel particularly fatiguing, but maybe they impacted the next lifts. Will try same weight again next time

SQ
3x5x205

Pretty exhausting, I think I might be able to 210 but feels pretty close to my limit

Pull-ups 5/5/5/5/3

Basketball

Do you typically squat with such a slow tempo? Getting aggressive with the lift -- get your upper body/lats really tight, deep breath, aggressively into the last quarter of the descent into the hole, explode out of the bottom -- might help. It seems possible that your tentative eccentric is causing you to leak a lot of power on the way down.

Seemed like a bit too much layback on those OHP reps. I know that feel. Slightly wider stance, tight glutes (think avoiding Norwegian sewer rape), elbows either under the bar or slightly forward, head aggressively through immediately after the bar passes your forehead. I think a thumbless grip feels better for OHP, but that's probably just a preference issue. How wide is your grip?

I haven't nailed it quite yet, but I'm starting to dig looking up at a 45 degree angle (head tilted up as well) during most of the eccentric and the start of the concentric for press. It might help you get your head out of the way of the bar without excessive layback. And yeah get your head through. In almost every press grinder I have on video, I'm not even grinding my shoulders and elbows to lockout, I'm grinding my head and torso forward under the bar, and once it reaches a certain point, the lift locks out easily.

Yeah that is my usual pace. I'll try upping the pace next time. There's so many cues to keep in mind, I'm always worried about getting sloppy.

OHP is tough, I do feel like I lean too far back. My grip is as narrow as possible while still on the knurling. I've successfully avoided Norwegian sewer rape for my whole life so far so must be doing something right.

My sticking point is around the forehead. I think if I get it past that I'm locking out regardless of how fast I get my head through. I'll try the angle.

Got to play basketball with some retired NBA players which was fun.

Nov 15

DL
1x7x305
2x3x305
1x10x155 P

Maybe partly because of increased strength and partially with the extra rest over the past couple weeks, but lift felt pretty easy. Belt snapped open on rep 7, got in my head a bit but was thinking I might hit 9.



BN
2x5x137.5
1x8x137.5

Maybe a bit weird but when I'm pushing my shoulders back into the bench I find improved tightness if I push back until my shirt is slightly digging into my neck.

Curls 10x70/60/60/60/50
Calves 5x10x150
Abs

Nerd alert

Estimated 1RM over 6 months of training

Awesome man well done

Nov 17

OHP
Fx105
3x5x100

Not sure whats going wrong here, seems like I'm getting worse at this lift.

SQ
3x5x210

Felt surprisingly easy, almost thought I had a 35lb bar if it wasn't for just failing on OHP. Was more aggressive, a bit of a sloppy bar path though.



pullups 5x5
ab wheel 5x5
treadwall

I doubt that the inconsistent programming is helping. Press is a fatigue monster and you're probably not doing yourself any favors by gassing yourself beforehand with singles and super-setting it with other exercises. My hunch is that you're not resting long enough between press sets either.

Re: form, in the 102.5 set that you filmed it looks like you might be losing some tightness at the bottom of each rep. Try to stay tight and use more of a stretch-reflex than a bounce, or just perform them strict with each rep from a dead stop. And IMO, start the first rep sooner after you unrack.

I just recently started pressing from the pins(safety bars). Big help I believe because I dont have to walk out the heavier weights and can just start lifting.

Kinda like using a monolift for squats(which I have never done)

Your squat is concerning. Your bar position is high-bar but you are squatting as if it was low bar.
High bar requires a more vertical back angle to keep the bar over mid-foot.
The other issue you have is likely going to be fixed by going low-bar, but you are lifting your hips out of the bottom way faster than you are lifting your chest. The result is that you are displacing the weight even further towards your toes.

Try to pause the video just a touch after you start your upward motion. Notice that the bar is over your toes instead of mid-foot. Now imagine if the bar were a few inches lower on your back.

Programming might be a factor, but only due to the lack of volume. I've only done singles ones, haven't supersetted it in a long time but that is when I was actually seeing gains.

I rest a really long time. It takes me ~1hr to do 6 worksets.

Could you explain the difference between a stretch reflex and a bounce? Agree I could be tighter.

Yeah I've done that a few times and it is a little bit easier.

If you look at other squat videos I think the bar path is good. I was being more aggressive to try out montes advice which resulted in a bit of a form breakdown.

I do sometimes overdo the hip drahv when grinding the last few reps. It gets me through the sticking point but probably will suck with heavier weights.

I've been doing this for a few months and have coincidentally made my best press gains ever during this time. However, there is a contingent of H&Fers that believes it is cheating, so ymmv there.

I don't think it's bad programming as much as a lack of programming. Just do GSLP or SS, rest adequately between sets*, and as long as you're doing okay nutritionally you should make gains, or stall in less-unpredictable ways. Going from 105x5x3 on 19.10 to not even being able to do it for a single a month later is concerning. Skimming the log I didn't see whether you were cutting weight or not. How's your protein intake?

I had the hunch about your resting because of a couple of cases like on 24.10 when you missed the first set of press after getting 3x5 in the previous session and on 11.11 when you got 5,3,4. It's much more typical to stall on 3x5 by going from 5,5,5 to 5,5,4 or 5,4,4, so it looks like you ran into some problems summoning WIM, had some major technical breakdown, or the recovery wasn't there.

(*) If you get 5 in the first set and probably couldn't have got 6, you will most likely fail to get 5 reps in the second set unless you rest minimum 5 minutes.

?!?! I've been doing GSLP exactly for the past 6 months

I rest ~5 minutes between tough sets
I didn't fail on a single, I failed after 3 reps twice, just didn't bother posting the exact reps on the fail. My 1rep is still around 120ish.
I don't measure exactly but I think its reasonably high and I have a protein shake
Why would that be a rest thing if I'm failing on the first set?
in this case I lost my balance on the second set, probably would have been 5,5,4 or 5,4,4

Watched 4 other sets. They are less exaggerated, but that's expected because they are lighter weight.
You are 1000% using high-bar but squatting low-bar style. You have an issue every set of hips rising before chest and it's only going to get worse as the weights go up. If you put yourself under maximal weight there is a really good chance you would topple over forwards with the form you're using now.

All you have to do is slide the bar down to the top of your scapula. Or you can just keep a more vertical back and squat high-bar.

What I meant was to do GSLP but with lots of rest between sets and not to bother with the singles and supersets, which to be fair, you only did in a couple of workouts, but to be unfair again, those were sessions when you had just stalled so probably not great timing on your part to change things up like that.

I think my post was larger and I edited it down and that comment got messed up in the process. On that day you got 4 for your first set, then 2 for the second. You probably just had a really bad day that day, but 1) it just doesn't make a ton of sense for you to miss getting 1x5 on a weight that is only 2.5 pounds more than your last 3x5, and 2) you lost two more reps going into the second set, so it appeared that you didn't rest enough there. I think you might have flubbed the form a little on the first set and got psyched out a bit for the second one. It happens, but I don't think it was necessarily a stall.