9/11/13

Press: 122.5x5x2, 122.5x5
Weighted Chins: BW+20 x 7, BW+12 x 6
Power Cleans @ 145# EMOM for 6 mins.
Deadlifts: 300x7
Good Mornings: 80x10x3

Burpees: 13 burpees/set for 3 sets, each set in under 39 seconds; 1 min. rest b/w sets

Today was the first time I did presses with a suicide grip. For some reason, it felt a lot better than a regular grip.

how many cleans on the minute?

Just one. Poor grammar on my part.

9/13/13

Bench Press: 182.5x5x2, 182.5x6
Pendlay Rows: 165x7, 165x6
Squats: 185x5x2, 185x8

6 min. AMRAP:
50 double unders
10 burpees

3 rds. even

Psyched to see that I should be able to push past 187.5 unlike the first go around. I may have been able to get 7 in the AMRAP set, but I didn't have a spotter.

Squats felt as it has been recently. Now, four hours after the workout, my right hip feels extremely tight. I hope being squat-free this weekend will be all the rest it needs to get back to the grind on Monday.

9/15/13

Rotator cuff exercises
Face pulls: 42.5x15x2
Ab wheel (yay no shoulder pain!) to full extension: 10, 7, 5
Burpees: 14 burpees/set, each set under 42 secs.; 1 min. rest b/w sets

9/16/13

95# power snatch EMOM for 6 minutes
Press: 125x5x2, 125x5
Weighted Chins: BW+20 x 7, BW+12 x 6
Squats: 190x5x2, 190x9
Burpees: 15 burpees/set, each set under 45 secs.; 1 min. rest b/w sets

After Friday, I need to make a decision whether to go on with squats. My right hip felt like death after the first working set. It's almost as if at the bottom of the squat, my quad is pushing into the hip socket. I don't get that feeling until I squat more than 135 lbs. I used a band to try and pull my quad away from my hip and it seemed to work the last two sets. This time if I take time off, it has to be for at least a month. I should probably be smart and start now, but I hold out hope that things will turn out okay on Friday.

9/17/13

10 min. AMRAP:
5 handstand push up-like moves off a box to get a decent range of motion, as doing HSPUs with two abmats is too easy, but one abmat is too difficult
10 KB swings @ 28 kgs
20 double unders

4 rounds + 16

9/18/13

Bench press: 185x5x2, 185x5
Dumbbell skullcrushers: 15x12, 20x12
Kroc rows: 85x20(r), 22(l)
Deadlifts: 305x6
Good mornings: 85x10x2
Kneeling crunches: 80x20, 87.5x14
Burpees: 3 sets of 16 burpees/set, each set under 48 secs.; 1 min. rest b/w sets

I'm finally coming up on where I previously stalled in my last progression for bench and deadlifts. Bench was noticeably more difficult than last week. Maybe my one day of doing a triceps exercise will get me over the 187.5 hill.

Ever since I have drilled the Rippetoe method of deadlifting into my brain, my lower back has felt a lot better. An added bonus is that I have been able to pull more weight.

3 plates on dl next week?

In two weeks. I'm still a bit nervous about stepping up to 3 plates again. Any advice on getting over the mental block senor four plates?

no reason to needlessly psych yourself out. It's just ten more pounds than last week.

Yeah, but it's three freakin plates! For some reason, it seems like so much more weight than having on two plates and a much of smaller plates. That said, I will be disappointed if I can't get five reps given my recent progress. Speaking of which...

9/20/13

Press: 127.5x5x2, 127.5x5
Weighted chins: BW+20 x 6, BW+12 x 6
Squats: 195x2

Got over that 127.5 hurdle from the last time I failed. I almost put up six reps on the AMRAP set.

I'm not sure what happened during presses, but I tweaked something in my biceps or triceps that caused a pinching feeling when I would get to the top of my chin-ups. I think it caused a rep or two less on each set. I also could not do burpees because of this pinching. When I would drop to the floor, a wave of pain shot up my arm. I wanted to do arsennalgunner's WOD from earlier this week, but that will have to wait. I'm going to take the weekend off and do my rotator cuff exercises on Monday.

I decided to stop squatting when the first two reps of my first working set resulted in too much pain. I will not squat for at least four weeks. I will continue doing cha's hip opening warmup to keep my hips moving in the meantime.

9/23/13

Bench Press: 187.5x5x2, 187.5x5
Pendlay Rows: 165x8x2
Hyperextensions: 35x15x2, 35x12
Burpees: 17 burpees in less than 51 secs.

Puzzling workout. After I warmed up with 165, I left a twinge in my left elbow. I still did the first set anyway. I was thinking of stopping and trying again on Friday, especially since the liftoff was uncomfortable. I'm a mini-meathead and did two more sets with spotters to help with the liftoff. It was a miracle that I could do 187.5x5x3 with the pain and I'm satisfied that I was able to get past that plateau.

Although I could make it through bench with the elbow discomfort, I could not make it through the second set of burpees. There was a burst of pain after the second burpee so I stopped for the day. Not sure if this pain is connected to the pain I left last Friday. I will ask my PT on Wednesday if this is something I should worry about.

9/25/13

Press: 130x5x2, 130x5
Weighted Chins: BW+10 x 8, BW+10 x 7
Deadlifts: 310x6
Facepulls: 50x15x3

AMRAP x 10 mins:
10 KB swings @ 50#
10 Box jumps @ 24"
20 Double unders

5 rounds + 15

I have never been one to grind on presses, but the last rep of the AMRAP set was a doozy. I'm pretty sure it took > 10 secs to lock out the fifth rep. I think it is due to weak triceps. I would be astonished if I can get past 132.5x5x3 next Monday.

I did a mini-reset for weighted chins since my progress has plateaued recently. I am assigning my poor performance to all of the energy I expended in OHP.

Next Wednesday: 3 plated deadlifts FTW.

How's the elbow? I've had some kind of medial tendinitis in it in the past and it was sometimes uncomfortable when pressing. Great job on the press. You've made some nice progress there.

The elbow is weird. I asked my PT about it and did some mobility stuff and said there nothing major wrong. Right after I left the PT, I stretched my left arm and had some soreness/pain in my triceps. I was able to chin ups today with no pain, but after my workout, the area at the bottom of my biceps was sore.

Thanks for the compliment. I am pretty sure all the weight I have been doing for OHPs are PRs, but I have no idea what my 5RM is. With all the progress I have been making, I really want to find out my 1RM for OHP, bench, and deadlift so I can compare it to what is used to be. That's what I am jealous of your workout; when doing oly lifts, you do 1RMs more often. After I reset my lifts again and plateau, which I am sure will happen by the end of the year, I think I will figure out those 1RMs.

imo, theres nothing wrong with taking a day at anytime during programming and doing 1rms of whatever you want. You can still just jump right back with your programming after. IMO, testing 1rms is the most fun thing to do.

where do you practice/live? I saw in POW's your a tax lawyer? I'm about to graduate in the spring

Hmm, I would be more cautious than this, especially if you want the 1RM to be representative of a true max. Tapering your training for a bit is necessary, and also not jumping back in to full training straight afterwards. Guess it depends on the individual.

yea obviously you have to be sensible about it; i wouldnt do like 90% DL for 3 and then the next day do a DL 1rm or something. but imo i think its fine if you're feeling good and maybe rest a bit after before just jumping back into heavy loads. I may have different idea about it tho; like he said Oly programming maxes out alot more often.

I think it does depend on the individual tho too. The thing I think that sucks about waiting for a long time is it can be discouraging if you don't get as much as you hoped for after a super long linear progression

Agree with AG here as it relates to oly. You can max out snatch/c&j weekly and many coaches have their lifters do so, at least when they're not coming close to a meet, where they taper I think. I think freddbird does something along those lines?

Obviously doing this on a frequent basis with the DL/squat seems far from optimal. I personally wouldn't want to try to pull a true 1RM on deads more than a handful of times a year. Same for squats.

It doesnt relate to oly, which is perhaps your confusion - we're talking powerlifts. And we're not talking about testing 1RM on a "frequent basis", we're talking about an end of cycle state of the play. I think its best to program this properly, and not just take a day off in the middle of a program to test.

Fair enough. I wasn't opining on testing the power lifts and now see that wasn't really what you two were discussing. I am curious how often you test/how you program testing, but I don't want to clog up op's log.

I practice in DC and live in the DC area (Arlington, VA). I work for the United States government, aka IRS. I am not an IRS agent; I help publish public guidance, such as regulations and revenue procedures. What area of law are you looking to get into?

I am running a program that has 3 six week training blocks, deloading for a week and then testing (so every ~5months). The deload week consists of hitting 75% of training max for a single, then taking a couple of gym days to do light stuff + prehab + accessory, then testing the following week. I play the warmups on the day by feel, aiming for a PR and then adjusting the next attempts depending on how that went. After doing it a couple of times you get a feel for whether you need more or less warmups at higher intensity, but there is a Wendler sheet i believe that has a good guideline.

9/27/13

Bench Press: 190x5x2, 190x4
Dumbbell Skullcrushers: 20x12, 20x10
Kroc Rows: 85x23(l), 21(r)
Good Mornings: 90x10x3
Ab Roller: 10, 10, 4 (ha!)

I can now tell that my triceps are tweaked in some way. I could definitely feel it at the top of the motion for the skullcrushers. Anyway, the AMRAP set for bench was inconclusive. I told my spotter to only help me up if I can't finish the rep. Instead, he helped way too early, before I could grind. I think I will play it by ear on whether I try 190 again or reset down to 170 on the next bench day.