Today's workout

DL: 355 lbs x 5; 375 lbs x 3; 395 lbs x 1 x 3
Accessories

DLs are feeling pretty good right now. Grip is feeling strong, which is usually my weakness but I have been working on that lately. These are being done with hook grip and no belt. Should be a lock to be doing 405 lbs singles next week.

This was supposed to be yesterday's workout but work things came up so I moved it today and will do the squat/press workout on Friday.

There is a slight chance of me heading home for 2-3 weeks the end of next week. I'm hoping that works out as I prefer the bar at my house over anything out here. It will give me the opportunity to video my lifts again so you guys can comment on my mistakes (I'm sure there are some as I haven't been able to video due to the setup of the HS gym here). I should be home full time starting mid-May and will probably be home until next spring when we have another large job starting up (from what I hear we won't be on site until then, but who knows).

Today's workout

Squat: 235 lbs x 5 x 4
Press: 165 lbs x 3 x 3
Accessories

Figured I should start getting some volume in on squat. Don't want to move up too quickly and either screw up my knee (which felt great today) or over tax my muscles this early into getting back to squatting. All reps felt good. I'm using a slightly lower bar position and a wider grip for these. Seems to help out with my shoulder/elbow pain as I'm not experiencing any right now. My goal is to start doing 5 x 5 for squats while upping 10 lbs per workout. Not sure if I will go to 5x5 on Sunday or wait until Thursday to up to 5x5. Either way I will up the weight.

Press felt strong. I'm pausing all reps at the bottom and the last rep at the top to get used to having some weight overhead. Not a long pause on the bottom, just trying to remove the bounce out of the lift. Going to up press 5 lbs next week. Not sure how much longer I can maintain a 5 lb increase, but should be able to do so next week, which should bring me to my home and the ability to make 2.5 lb increases if needed.

Today's workout

Squat: 245 lbs x 5 x 5
Press: 140 lbs x 5 x 5
Accessories

Just an ok workout today. Things felt heavy and I felt tired throughout. Probably a few reasons for this: worked out in the AM (been doing workouts after work), didn't have as much time off from intensity day as usual (intensity was Friday), I'm out of shape which means doing volume stuff should help with endurance, and I rushed things. Not sure why I rushed things, but didn't take as much time between sets as normal. Something I should probably start to monitor and make sure I don't rush them too much.

Today's workout

DL: 365 lbs x 5; 385 lbs x 3; 405 lbs x 1 x 3
Accessories

DLs felt a little slow tonight, not sure if it was just my inner EV poking through or not. Lifts didn't feel bad other than being slower than I would have liked. Might be a bit tired due to long days, not getting great sleep the past few nights, and allergies starting to bother me. Possible form issues as well. Should be able to figure that out next week as I will be lifting at home, should get better sleep than in the camp, and I will be able to video the lifts to see what is going on. Lifts didn't feel bad other than being slower than I would have liked.

Today's workout

Squat: 255 lbs x 5 x 5
Press: 170 lbs x 3 x 3
Accessories

Squats felt really good today. Ended up pausing the last rep of each set as it was a bit too easy - weight wise it was too easy but still getting more winded than I should. Looking forward to getting my wind back.

Presses felt fine, didn't have any issues. Paused all reps at the bottom. May look at doing the last set of these as a 3+ set, not sure yet. Probably will reevaluate after I'm back home lifting and can review videos.

Also going to try and figure out the RPE stuff when I'm home. I can usually tell when I'm at 9 or 10, but less than that I'm not so good as I tend to be able to grind out more than I thought. Figure you guys can help with that when I have consistent videos posted.

Today's workout

Squat: 265 lbs x 5 x 5; set 1, set 2, set 3, set 4, set 5
Press: 145 lbs x 5 x 5, set 1, set 2, set 3, set 4, set 5

Flew home on Friday. Should be home for 2 weeks, then 1 final week back in Dillingham. I definitely need to start buckling down on my diet as my gut is way too big.

LsRPE for squat may actually be negative; I bet you had another 10 reps at that weight. OHP might be RPE 5-6? Harder to tell with OHP, since failure seems to be much more abrupt.

Welcome back, by the way!

Monte- thanks for the input. I know the squats are going to take a while to get an accurate RPE as these are fairly low weights for me. I just like to ease back into them with my knee not feeling 100% yet and never knowing how my shoulder/elbow will feel doing them. So far everything is feeling good so I will just keep increasing by 10 lbs per session for a while. I was thinking the press was around a 6 as both press and bench tend to fail quickly on me.

Hopefully it was clear that I wasn't insinuating that you had a bad case of RPEV, just that, as you note, there's a fair bit more room for growth. I assume the short to medium term goal is, in addition to slimming down a bit, to continue the LP for a bit and then see what's what based on where you end up?

My goal is to get back to moving some non-baby weights again, with possibly competing within a year or so. I know I won't be able to continue SS/TM style linear progression for too much longer (press and DLs, I have a ways to go for squats) and need to look to new programming. I have enjoyed 5/3/1 in the past, but think that program may artificially ****** the strength gains. The things I like about SS/TM and 5/3/1 is it gives you a set workout each session and there isn't much thought involved. I figure I'm in a stage of training where I should invest more into a tailored type program instead of just bastardizing other programs.

I have heard a lot of good things on training based on RPE (in this forum and IRL) so I figured I should start looking at that sooner rather than later. If I can figure out how to gauge RPE (which I will try to start putting in my log) then using an RPE based program would be a bit easier than trying to figure it out throughout the program. I think I usually gauge an RPE 9 fairly well, but anything lower than that I'm not good at.

ETA: Strength is definitely my primary goal, I will be half-assing trying to lose weight going forward. Just plan on stop eating as much crap as I did when I was out of town, workout more regularly, and get outside more now that the weather is nice.

Skipping DL workout this week. Ended up cutting my thumb pretty good early in the day yesterday. The cut is right by the nail and hook grip causes a bit of pain where it is at. Figured I would take the week off from DL and hit it again next week. Should squat and press again tomorrow.

Today's workout

Squat: 275 lbs x 5 x 5; set 1, set 2, set 3, set 4, set 5
Press: 175 lbs x 3 x 3; set 1, set 2, set 3

Was tired throughout the whole session. I think that it is mostly due to allergies. Squats felt fine. Not sure about RPE on these, probably had 5+ left but not sure.

My right elbow was bothering me today (never have issues with my right elbow). If you hold your hand up, with the elbow bent at a 90 the pain is at the bottom of the bone. Not sure what is going on with that. This made the press session fairly hard. I think each set was at a 9 or 9.5 for this session.

Have been trying to think about why the press felt heavier than I thought it would. Might have to do with the collars. Dillingham had the spring collars which don’t really weigh anything. The collars I have at home are bigger and may be around 2.5 lbs each (never weighed them). I don’t count the collars at home, but the added weight of them may have added to my issues tonight.

Work and life have been fairly busy the past few months, but I think I am getting back into a normal routine. Planning on starting to lift again on Monday, probably will go with a 5 (reps) x 3 (sets) format for awhile, doing 2 main lifts and some accessories 3x per week. Nothing really exciting or out of the ordinary for me, at least for a few months.

I have been able to get out and fish after work and on weekends, which has been fun. There is a pond about 3 miles away from work that is stocked for rainbows so I tend to go there after work. There is a creek about 25 miles away from work that I went and caught some arctic grayling (first time catching those). Probably won't go there too often though as they weren't that fun to catch - they just kind of gave up and didn't fight. They are also fairly small in that creek. I have been told that they tend to be area specific - some areas they fight a lot while others they don't. I may try to find another spot that has some and see if there are any differences.

Picture time:

Mile 285 Rainbows:

Pond



Small rainbow from Saturday


Largest rainbow that I have caught so far, kept and ate it (from Saturday)



Caught this one last night. I think it is me in fish form - short, fat, and fairly strong as he was a fighter.


Big fish from last night, let him go though.


Bear Creek Arctic Graylings, these are from Sunday:

Creek




Arctic Grayling (caught 8 that day, all fairly small)

Today’s workout:

Press: 135 lbs x 5 x 3
DL: 315 lbs x 5
Accessories

Fairly straight forward session other than being winded - combination of having to wear a mask and just being out of shape. Weights were a good starting point and didn’t cause any issues.

Today’s workout

Squat: 225 lbs x 5 x 3
Bench: 185 lbs x 5 x 3
Accessories

Knee felt good during squats, which is promising. Weights are a good starting point for me. Probably do another week like this (adding weights each session) and then start doing the last set as a 5+ set.

Great pics!

I could take or leave the fishing, but looks like a great spot to unwind

Thanks guys.

Yes, both places are great to unwind. I tend to go to the rainbow trout pond after work on Tuesdays and Thursdays now that I'm lifting M/W/F. I can be fishing within 15 minutes of getting into the car at that place, so it is a good after work spot. Not sure where I will go tomorrow after work or on Sunday. Sundays I like to try new places out as I have the whole day off. It is nice to get off base and relax in some fairly quiet places.

Today’s workout

Press: 140 lbs x 5 x 3
DL: 325 lbs x 5
Accessories

Pretty straight forward session. Had minor DOMS from squats and bench but didn’t cause any issues.

Today’s workout

Squat: 235 lbs x 5 x 3
Bench: 190 lbs x 5 x 3
Accessories

Squat felt really good. 235 is definitely low but don’t want to push too quickly and screw up my knee so I plan on 10 lb increments for awhile. My wrists felt weak on bench. Sadly I may need to use wraps next session. Will increase 5 lbs, do the first set, and reassess after that.

Last night I fished a pond "on base" - I put this in quotes as it is on military grounds but not the gated area. I had known about this pond for a while and confirmed yesterday that we could actually fish there. The pond appears to be man made. They have stocked it with rainbow trout in the past, but have not for many years. There were a lot of fish around, but weren't many biting. Seemed to be a lot of smaller fish, at least the portion I was fishing. Ended up catching (and releasing) 2 fish.

The Pond:




First fish I caught. Had really good markings, IMO:





Second fish I caught, was the first one's baby sibling:

Today’s workout

Press: 145 lbs x 5 x 3
DL: 335 lbs x 5
Accessories

Very straight forward session tonight. All lifts felt good. Next week I may try a final set of 5+ or just add another set of 5. Probably will make that decision during the workout. Also going to add more accessory work as my body seems to be doing well with the work so far. Just didn’t want to go too hard too fast and injure/reinjure something as it takes awhile to rehab as I’m getting old.

Dude, you've got maybe 4 grey hairs in your beard. You ain't old.

Tell that to my body and my kids! Thanks though. I’m 42 right now but have abused my body playing sports through college so my body takes a bit to recover lately.