I think part of what I'm after is expanding my work capacity or whatever so that I can remain productive in the weight room for longer. Unfortunately I don't really know how to do this, so I'm basically just trying to gradually increase my weekly workload, then if I ever decided to dial back on the cardio hopefully I'd find an increased effectiveness in my strength workouts.

This is interesting, I'll have to consider this. I was also thinking about gradually spacing out the workouts as needed, so maybe eventually being on an 8 or 9 day "week."

I really should just pick up a copy of Practical Programming.

5-3

10 hard minutes on the recumbent bike to get warm.
25 minutes of stretching and foam rolling.

My PC feels decent today. Tonight I'll probably try 5x265 LBBS, some bench singles between 215 and 225, and maybe a DL triple @330. I haven't DLed in a while so I'll get video.

Have you considered an upper/lower split? Here's a sample from the back of the 2nd edition.

Split Routine Example: (Mr. Woojos Geeshman)

Monday:
Bench Press - 5x5 across
Press - 10x3 Dynamic Effort
Weighted Chins - 3xfailure

Tuesday:
Squat - 5x5 across
Power Cleans - 6x3 across
Back Extensions - 5x10
Reverse Hypers - 3x15

Thursday:
Press - 5x5 across
Bench Press - 10x3 Dynamic Effort
Pullups (doesn't specify, use your imagination)

Friday:
Squat - 10x2 Dynamic Effort
Rack Pull - 1x5 / Halting DL 1x8 (I don't see why you couldn't do both each week as someone who isn't advanced as Mr. Woojos Geeshman is). Or just do regular old DL's.

I think you could stand to add some rows on either M, Th, or F as well.

TBH the splitting of the volume day into 2 separate days is much more appealing to me than an upper/lower split. I've tried WS4SB and done upper/lower push/pull programs before and I just don't make gains in the bench and the squat without a huge caloric surplus. Hell I have a hard enough time making gains in the bench as is even with it being my highest priority.

5-4

Bench- 45x5x2, 135x3, 155x3, 175x2, 185x1, 195x1, 205x1, 215x1, 220x1, 225x1x3
LBBS- 45x5x2, 154x5, 198x3, 220x3, 242x2, 262x5
Deadlift- 242x3, 286x3, 308x1, 333x2*
*30 second reset between reps so I don't think this really counts as a double, but at least they were both double overhand.

Total Poundage: 820 (195 short of 1015 goal)

Had a really good spotter in the bench. He benches low 400s and gave me a couple tips about staying tight off the rack. He said overall my form was really solid, which is actually kind of disappointing because I was hoping I had some glaring error I could fix to gain 10 lbs. Squats were kind of tough. Stance too wide, knees not out enough, weight felt heavy on my back. But I haven't done that much weight in awhile, so hopefully I'll adapt quickly. I'll get some vids up at some point today.

Bench 175x2
Squat 262x5
DL 286x3
DL 333x2

The guy in the background of the DL videos is an olympic bobsledder.

Forgot to add that I did 3 sets of weight swiss ball situps yesterday as well.

5-5

10 minutes on the recumbent bike.

3 Sets of incline hammer curls
3 sets of calf raises
2 sets of wrist curls, both flexors and extensors

My upper back is trashed from the deadlifts. I had wanted to do some 500m repeats on the rower tonight, but I might just stay home and do some goblet squats and knee rehab stuff.

this video is protected

Fixed

5-6

1p goblet squats 3x15
1p overhead squats 10r, 10l

knee rehab exercises

Hopefully I can find some time to row on Saturday.

5-7
Didn't sleep real well last night and didn't crush carbs as hard as I should've but workout wasn't too bad.

Volume/Accessory Day
DB Bench- 45sx8, 65sx5, 75sx3, 85sx2, 90sx5x3
HBBS- 45x5x2, 154x5, 198x3, 220x2, 240x1, 245x5x3 (vid tomorrow)
Skull Crushers- 82.5x5x2, 20lb DBsx12
L Chinups- 10,10,9
Chest Supported RD Flyes- 3x12

Triceps tendon was bothering me with the skull crushers so I switched to DBs. Squats weren't bad, I tried cutting them off just below parallel which made them easier. Also I remembered that you need to be tight and flexed before you unrack the weight, because once the weight is on your back and you're relaxed you'll never get that same tightness back.

Tomorrow: 500m repeats on the rower, prolly some curls (for the girls)

5-8
Damn gym closed early again. Stayed home and did:

1p overhead squats, 2 sets of 10 w/each hand
1p squats with kettlebell held at arm's length in front of me, 2 sets of 10

5-9
Shoulders were bothering me. Perhaps I should do less KB overhead squats.

Dynamic Effort Bench- 140x3x6 on the minute
LB Box squat below parallel- 185x3x6 (will video next time, my form has been feeling 100% better on these)
DB shrugs- 3 sets to failure.

Then did 3x500m on the C2, 4 minutes rest between sets.
1:52.6
1:50.1
1:51.3
These just about killed me. I need to do more intense cardio.

Here's my 4th set of high bar squats at 245 from Friday.

I would really think about getting/using a belt. I think it will help your squats a ton by keeping you more stable on the way up.

seems like you're trying to do a low bar squat.

watched the low bar video, too. stance is too wide imo. i imagine the high bar stance needs to be narrowed as well.

Jaysick,

Yeah I should get a belt. I've tried the ones that my gym has and I didn't like them so I've been putting it off, but lower back stability on the way up is a major problem for me.

Miles,

Part of that is definitely my body anthropometry. I've got really long femurs and a short torso, so my back will never be as vertical as most other peoples'. I think that's why I widen my stance; if I use a wide stance and push my knees out I can keep my butt under me more and thus keep a more vertical torso.

I'll video my low bar squats on Tuesday and try to get the stance narrower though.

it's mainly limiting your knees from tracking over your feet that's causing that amount of forward lean imo.

Took Monday off because I was feeling a bit run down and wanted to have a good Max effort Day on Tuesday.

5-11
Max Effort Day

Bench- 135x3, 155x3, 175x3, 185x2, 195x2, 205x1, 215x1, 225x1x2, 225xf
LBBS- 45x5x2, 154x5, 198x3, 220x2, 242x1, 269x5
Chinups- bwx5, +25x5, +50x4x3

My right shoulder still feels pretty crappy. Bench was disappointing. I narrowed my stance in squats as per MD's recommendations. Videos to come.

269x5 (sorry I didn't rotate or shorten them)
242x1

I narrowed my feet about 1 to 2 inches, but stance still seems a bit wide.

5-13

25 mins on the recumbent bike.
15 mins stretching.
3 circuits through some shoulder rehab exercises.

my high bar squats id guess looks similar to yours but i have no vids yet. i need to start doing weighted chins. have you tried seeing how many you can do unweighted?

5-14
Forgot to take caffeine preworkout. That + bruins 2nd period while warming up = no WIM

DB Bench- 6x55s, 4x65s, 3x75s, 2x85s, 5x90s, 4x90s - tweaked shoulder and stopped
HBBS- 45x5x2, 154x5, 198x3, 220x2, 242x1, 247x5x4
DB Skullcrushers- 30sx10x3
8 L chinups, 10 seconds rest 8 kipping
6 L chinups, 10 seconds rest 6 kipping
6 L chinups, 10 seconds rest 6 kipping
BB Shrugs- 220x6x3
Lat pulldowns- 3x10

Bleh. Hopefully this week will entail creatine + sleep + caffeine + awesome lifts.

I gotta say we have a lot of the same goals (bodycomp as well as 1,000+ total at 165) and I'm definitely intrigued by all of this. So far TM has done zilch for my BP/Press over 2 months and I'm thinking of just focusing on the bench like you appear to be doing here. Heavier pressing has been wrecking my lower back lately anyways making it tough to recover for 5rm squats by intensity day. Basically your bench programming is

Volume: 3x5 DBs
Recovery: DE 3x6-8 -- I don't know enough about Dynamic Effort stuff, these are speed reps where you're attempting to move the weight as quickly as possible?
Intensity: working up to three heavy singles -- What was the reasoning behind doing 225 on both the 4th and 11th?

Thanks

Volume: 3x5 DBs
Recovery: DE 3x6-8 -- I don't know enough about Dynamic Effort stuff, these are speed reps where you're attempting to move the weight as quickly as possible?
Intensity: working up to three heavy singles -- What was the reasoning behind doing 225 on both the 4th and 11th?
Thanks[/QUOTE]

For volume bench I choose a bench accessory that I hope will help with whatever part of the bench that's troubling me. Right now it's the 3-6 inch off my chest area, so first I did BB floor presses for about a month, and now I've been doing DB bench. Next I might try paused bench if I think my shoulders can take it. Generally I'm shooting for 5x5, but recently my shoulders have prevented that from happening.

For the DE stuff I just take 55% to 60% of my 1rm and do triples as fast as I can. The downside to this is you can wind up using the same weight for a lot of weeks in a row.

For max effort the goal is 5 heavy singles but that just hasn't happened recently. My bench has been really stuck for quite awhile. I did 5 singles at 225 like 5 months ago, and 1 rep at 230, although I was 15 lbs heavier then. I'm hoping that benching first will be enough prioritization to make gains but so far I'm not too encouraged at the prospects of getting back past 230.

I wouldn't take my progress over the last month as an indication that any of this programming is good or whatever. I saw Shane88888 at the gym on Friday and he asked me if I was still doing "that fancy programming." I've basically crammed a westside template into a texas method template.

MY PRs were bench 230, squat 329, DL 402, so I'm just working to get back to those weights and stay in the 160 to 165 lb range, so I won't be excited about any progress until I'm hitting new PRs at this weight.

5-15

500m repeats on the C2: all times between 1:49 and 1:51, felt much easier than last time.
preacher curls- 3 sets
DB lateral raises- 3 sets
DB curls- 3 sets
Rickshaw shrugs- 3 sets

Today seemed to be biceps and shoulders day in the weightroom so I joined in.

Honestly, completely deadhang with chin over the bar each rep I could do maybe 12. With a little bounce at the bottom and some body english I could get probably 20-25. Hence why I don't do a lot of chinning unless I'm already tired.

5-16
Recovery Day

Dynamic Effort Bench- 140x3x8 on the minute
Low Bar box squats below parallel- 135x5, 165x3, 185x3, 205x2x6
Cable Row- 3 sets to failure

The box squats felt very good. I think my form is good enough to start adding weight on a weekly basis with these. I'll try to remember to video next week.

5-18
Max Effort Day

Actually biked for a couple minutes to warmup.

Bench- 45x10x2, 135x3, 155x3, 175x2, 185x2, 195x1, 205x1, 215x1, 225x1x3, 230x1, 235xf
LBBS- 45x5x2, 154x5, 198x3, 242x2, 267x1, 286x1, 273x5
DL- 242x3, 286x1, 353x1

Total Poundage: 869 (146 short of 1015 goal)

Had a really rushed workout. Benched and squatted with a sweatshirt on which helped a lot. On bench I was ******edly close to making 235 which would've been a new PR, I prolly just needed a bit more rest. I think for the time being with my squats I'm going to work up to a relatively heavy single, then back off for my set of 5. 286 was really easy but 273x5 was pretty rough. Had about 3 minutes to deadlift which sucked because I was feeling good enough to pull around 400 but whatever, I'll get some volume in in the 353 to 375 pound range when I DL again in 2 weeks. I think if I really went for 3 maxes I'd be around 950 right now.