Just like anyone else does it: builds up to it by training...

Thanks for taking what was meant as a compliment and making me sound ******ed

Thanks Monte! It's funny because I would say the same thing about your volume. I do a lot of "alternative" stuff as concentration warmups like OH squats and heavily paused FS for squats and FS, and just started logging them to refer back to and occasionally add some weight or reps. Not sure of the technical term, but 1-leg RDLs are the perfect example; an exercise that I can keep using the same weight and just try to keep doing it better and stricter to get more out of it and it doesn't have to hit my limits to really get my whole back-leg areas fired up. Lately I'm not getting in many accessories and circuiting through 3 lifts at a time, rather huffing and puffing the whole workout. Trying to get used to the RPE thing and part of the program I'm trying is alternating really light days sets of 2 with RPE 7 for bench/squats so I'm not going all out on both at the same time. I've essentially reset all my weights because form was deteriorating, so I don't need a full ten minutes between sets for now.

It also helps that the strongmen at my gym are usually out in the parking lot pushing sleds around or something so I can grab two of the squat racks and still have one open.

A lot of what I read in here is like reading a foreign language. I have ordered SS so hopefully that can educate me somewhat. Good job on beast mode though (even I know what that is)

Sorry, man.

That's probably just me. People say that a lot. Some terms I use here I'm just trying to get used to myself and some of the serious types know exactly what it means so, theoretically, can set me straight. For instance, "RPE" stands for Redundant Penultimate Excruciatingness and is a fish story about how many more reps you *could* have done, were you so inclined. RPE 10 means you maxed out. RPE 9 means you had one rep "in the tank". Tricky RPE 8 means you had anywhere from 2-4 reps left. Logically this means RPE 7 would have you doing 5 or more reps--and that's a problem for me because I've just been doing 5 rep sets, so RPE 7 means to not do the set at all. Now I can't help but think this is not the intent of the program, but there it is in black and white.

For SS, I basically would go all out on squats every workout plus all out on bench or OHP and all out on weighted pullups and, if I was lucky, also all out on deadlifts. This was fine until I started getting slaughtered and swingy on how much weight I could handle. Now the idea is to plan specifically when to go all out or close to it, so need to learn how to put RPE numbers on my effort. I'm more or less trying This program because it's pretty similar to SS except separate day for deadlifts (which I've been neglecting for a while) and emphasis on heavy walkouts (which will give me a change to use some of the strongman yoke-walk equipment). Lets me get a grip on RPE while varying reps.

Oh, wait, we were talking about you. What sort of things sound foreign?

Yes just some of the abbreviations etc but google is my friend.

I lol'd.

Thanks--I was pretty proud of it since it kinda makes sense.

4-26

Hot yoga


Really feeling the deadlift DOMs today (27th) and just generally like crap. A lot of times the yoga will clear that sort of thing up but it's not magical, I guess. Glad I didn't go up any more on the worksets, and perhaps stopping at 395 would have been OK. Still adjusting to 20-25 work reps instead of 5 or, way too often, none. Not exactly looking forward to squats at RPE 10 today. Actually, exactly not looking forward to it. Highly stressful night and lousy overnight with the wife may eventually talk me into pushing workout until tomorrow--and actually the program does call for that extra day (I just fit it into my usual Sun-Tue-Thur schedule, but there it is, "Day 13 DL @ RPE 10, Day 16 Squat @RPE 10"). Maybe just a good warmup will do the trick.

Wife's current problem could be labelled "being a jerk" which at a point becomes impossible for her to control or stop in the moment. "You don't want me to call you names? I thought you said you did. So you LIED to me!" We have a strategy of in general not blaming the brain tumor (can hit her as very dismissive), but...come on! It's about a 30 minute process to get her to bed, and can take slightly longer when she's so mad at me for "lying" that she can hardly see straight and seems unable to hear a word I say. Wakes up several times upset about her behavior to various degrees. By the morning she's very sorry about all the specifics, but the "feeling" of being upset persists and just finds new specifics to attach to until...it passes. In a way, it would be irresponsible of me to *not* go workout today and risk the stress piling up. I suppose that could mean another yoga or a run. We'll see.

What sort of torturous program calls for RPE 10 squats and deads on subsequent days?

Ah nvm it's not subsequent days

Yeah the program actually calls for 3 days rest after the RPE 10 squats as well. I really didn't hit RPE 10 on DL though.

4-28

OHP wu4x135, 2x155, 1x175, 1x185 PR, 1x190F
Fat Bar OHP 1x190, 1x195 PR
Front Squat w pause 5x135, 2x175
Zercher Squats 5x190, 5x195
Bench press 2x175, 2x185, 2x195 RPE 7?, 5x2x180 to RPE 7
HBB box squat 2x185, 2x235, 2x275
HBB atg pause squat 4x275
HBBSquat 4x325, 4x335 RPE 10, 2x4x315 to RPE 10
Mixed grip pullups 2x4, 4x6
Rows 12x135, 2x6x185

Figured with the extra rest between sessions and it being a light bench press day it was as good a time as any to go for a 1rm on OHP. Felt largely like dog **** left shoulder or pec but that seems more and more like something that just presents pain without actually being damaging. Not a "lower stress" day but I need my exercise sometimes.

God, the fat bar feels so much better for Zercher squats it's ridiculous. Truly a lovely experience. Tried to warm up for squats while doing OHP so just concentration stuff like with the box. In the end, maybe too much warmup affected my squat numbers (had been targeting 345 for last work set), but it could be stress from the last couple of days and ultimately managing lifting days where I feel crappy is the purpose of RTS/RPE yadda, yadda, yadda.

Bench felt good, and hopefully not good in a bad way. Dropped weight another notch trying to find RPE 7.

Oops, bad link:

5-1

Actual:

Overhead Squat w 5 second descent 2x8x45
1-leg Romanian Deadlift 2x135
Sumo DL 5x225, 5x315
Deadlift 5x385, 5x395, 5x405 RPE 9, 5x1x385
1-arm Arnold Press 5x25, 5x35, 5x45, 5x55
Fat Bar OHP 5x90, 5x120, 3x165, 3x175, 3x185 RPE 10, 6x165, 4x165

45 minute session today so skipped accessories--warmup included walking dog with wife in wheelchair for about a mile and a half. Deadlift felt good and I may have gone higher if not for the rush. Still trying to start with bar an inch off straight legs and contacting shins on the way up, and trying to lift chest up to start but it looks like I may have some hip raise creeping in (possibly just due to rushing).

OHP shoulder/trap/back felt like crap, but not actually while lifting. Weird. Tried to warm up a lot looking for bark, but it never came. I think I felt a little tapped from the singles last time. No time to try suicide grip on regular bar, but I was trying to keep from overflexing my wrists today.

Here's my sumo that I've never really checked:



DLs:





Fat Bar OHP:

In "functional fitness" news, one of the coolest yoga poses my wife's been working on is dancer:



She needs to lie down and roll onto one side to do it, and when on her left side that shoulder is a little vulnerable, so I loop a towel under her torso, grap either end, and spread my legs and lift her up in a spot-on sumo deadlift stance for about 30 seconds at a time. A toast to function!

What's the reason for pausing so long at the top of your OHP?

Also Dancer sounds like a really erotic movie, I'll give it a wankwatch

I definitely started doing that more when I started trying for the stretch reflex instead of a full stop and Rippehippress at the bottom, and I used to take a breather down there instead of at the top. Also I'm trying to get a full shrug and that can take a little time, plus I want it fully balanced with all wobbling gone. Ultimately, I just found more consistency doing it this way.

5-2

Hot yoga

5-3

The program:
Actual:

Overhead squat 5 sec descent/3 sec pause 8x45, 5x95, 5x105
Zercher Squats 5x140, 5x180, 2x5x230
Bench press 5x205, 5x215, 5x225 RPE 10, 4x5x205 to RPE 9.5?
HBB atg pause squat 2x275
HBB box squat 2x285, 2x295 RPE 9 (oops), 3x2x275
Mixed grip pullups 2x5, 2x5x+45, 4x2x+80
Side-to-side (Archer) pullups 2x5

So far so good on shoulder holding up during bench press (but the real test will be first thing in the morning). Spent some time yesterday with the foam roller and lacrosse ball, which seemed to help. Worked on a different bench today and it is more narrow than what I'm used to and felt like a little slippage going on.

Squats were supposed to be easier today but I felt pretty good about the depth to hit the box and a bit of a "speed" feel. Zerchers are great except really hard to breathe. Continuing to drill overhead squat and really like it for squat warmup. Including some snatches/snatch warmups/muscle snatch stuff around the same time.

Finally felt up for and had time for some weighted pullups. Ran out of time for rows.

5-4

Running: 1 mi warmup + 3.04 miles in 35:53


Dropped car at mechanic. Traffic lights hurt me just a bit.

5-5

Program:
Actual:

Wide-grip pullups: 2x8, 2x6x+30, 2x4x+60, 8x+30
Snatch 3x75, 2x3x95
Split Snatch 4x3x75, 3x3x95
Overhead squat 3x5x75, 3x3x95
Front squat 3x260, 2x270 (F3)
1-arm Arnold Press 5x25, 5x35, 5x45
Fat Bar OHP 5x90, 5x140, 3x170, 3x180, 3x190
OHP 5x135, 3x155, 2x3x165
1-leg dumbell RDLs 2x5x140
Deadlift 5x365, 10x1x405
1-arm Kettlebell swing EMOM 5x15x45

It's funny because the second rep of front squats 270 didn't really feel like RPE 10 at all. Meant to just do a light snatch warmup but started having fun. Tried pullups with the big chains--tough to lock out with two on there. OHP felt pretty gnarly in my upper pec area once the weight got heavy, but still went up for my 3rd straight 5 pound jump. Tried the regular bar with suicide grip but hard to tell the effect while tired. Wound up short on time so just did 10 Deadlift singles and closed out with some kettlebell swings. I do like the continuity of repeating the same initiating pull from the floor instead of full sets.

5-8

The program:
Actual:

Chinups ladder 1->10->1 (100 total)
Overhead squat 5 sec descent/3 sec pause 6x45, 5x105
Zercher Squats 5x160, 3x210
HBB squat 2x275, 5x315, 5x325, 5x335 (RPE 10), 5x315
HBB box squat 2x5x245 (RPE 9)
Bench press 2x185, 2x195, 2x205 RPE 7, 3x2x190 (RPE 7)
Yoke walk 2x150x20 seconds, 4x330x16 seconds, 4x430x20 seconds

Made up my mind today another shoulder tweak would mean shutting it down, and it never came. Been a while since I've done a full ladder (or any regular chinups) and was kind of surprised to make it to ten since I've been shying away from any endurance stuff.

Squats I tried to go a little lighter than usual on the warmups/preliminaries to at least make my target weight today. Felt great, like a real high bar squat with drive. Until the drop set, which just felt a bit tapped out and indecisive so I switched to a box squat where it's pretty much impossible to be indecisive.

Bench press gets less easily controlled right around 195. First time I've tried the cue of trying to snap the bar on the way down without feeling like I was popping my shoulder out of its socket. No feelings of shoulder strain today, at all.

Yoke walk times represent the length of the parking lot for the unweighted (150) time, and half the parking lot for the other two (I'm not sure how far it is). It is at least a much fatter surface than the regular bar for walkouts, and reversible so I don't actually have to turn it around. If I had to describe the experience, it would be "that sucked" but I would say it got better as I went along and got a bit used to it, in particular the goddamned swinging. Expect to do it again.

"Skipped" power cleans and rows today but really wanted to try the yoke walk and had to set it up. Really felt the chins in my lats anyway, and then got a cue to really engage lats and pull the beams together for creating surface area and keeping the swinging in check. I'm quite pooped.

5-9

Hot Yoga

5-10

Easy Run 30 minutes ~2.5 miles (no GPS)

Still quite sore from the yoke walk. Abs, core, and upper legs.

Unable to get out to the gym for a few "low sleep" days so just going to chuck today out as a random and probably re-do "Day 26" next workout.

5-13

Pullups: 2x5, 5x+30
1-arm Arnold Press 5x25, 5x35, 5x45, 5x55, 5x65
OHP 6x115, 5x135, 5x155
Fat Bar OHP 4x175, 4x185
1-leg dumbell RDLs 2x6x140
Trap Bar Deadlift 12x135, 8x205, 2x6x275
Deadlift 5x340, 5x410, 3x1x420
Triple Shoulder Extensions 8x15, 8x20

Felt like utter dog****. TIL my gym has weighed each "45lb" plate and written the actual poundage on it in marker which is up to 47 lbs. No idea if this is normal.

First time doing trap bar deadlift since high school, and it felt pretty weird. Finally got straps working on regular deadlift. Actual lift felt terribly hard today and went up slowly.

FB OHP just didn't want to strain at top weight of 195 and would have had to rush into a last set anyway. Hadn't really pushed weight in Arnold press for a while and regular OHP was really just a bridge/warmup.

Pullups presented discomfort in elbows through warmups and settled down by the 5 rep sets but didn't really feel like pushing them today. Probably from doing the 100 reps of chinup position last workout, when I haven't done anything in that position for months, lol.

Looks like I'm going to have to take a break--wife's run into a bit of a nasty sequence culminating in one of my least favorite symptoms; waking up every 30 minutes overnight (which means I wake up and "do something" every 30 minutes). I counted 19 times overnight but I'm pretty sure at least one of them was a dream. She's been running some acid reflux and a rash for a couple of days, although thankfully it appears to at least not be getting any worse. So just generally not going to be able to leave her alone and can't lift with this level of sleep deprivation/disturbance. May get to yoga while the caretaker comes over today, then again may sleep instead.