Yeah I've always said my legs have more genetic potential for squats than any other lift. As long as I step up the volume they just seem to get strong quickly.

Def 30 pound increase on squats, I failed 325 when attempting it last month, I tested all my maxes before starting the month off.

I guess if I can maintain 5 pounds a month increase on press for months, it will be solid, but I feel like I can manage more. Maybe 7.5 I should be trying for.

I think I gained 2 or 3 pounds this month.

Most solid month ever imo

Hmm interesting. I've scanned back through my log and studied my DL progression and programming. It appears that when I have my best success and when I have my easiest time pulling a heavy 1RM is basically looked like this:

Week 1: All out DL'ing. Like 1 heavy set to failure, adding rack pulls kroc rows, etc.

Week 2: A medium DL set, like a medium set of 5.

Week 3: Nothing

Week 4: Easy 1RM test

It's kinda of like a texas method week that's spread out over a month. DL heavy the first week, all out WIM, assistance work afterward, a sort of volume day thing.

Then it's like a recovery DL workout out for the next week, a week off after that, and then when I test 1RM, the weight just goes up so easily.

Note: This was never intentionally done this way. It was usually due to an injury or lack of WIM.

HMMMMMMMMMMMM

deadlift a set of 5 every week. guaranteed 405 deadlift in 3 months.

Yeah I agree. But I'm trying to get there in 2 months. I'm greedy yo.

Either way, if I don't get 4 wheels by the end of the year I'm failface.

I'll prob try to tweak what I'm doing this month. If I can't add +15 pounds, I'll just do the DL a set of 5 every week. I'm potentially sacrificing a month of progress in the name of science.

Alright I'm waking up and getting ready to do volume day squats. I figured I would rant about something really quick. It's my log. I do what I wanna.

One of my hobbies is collecting bills. Specifically, I like old bills and bills with unique serial numbers. Although I don't have anything exceedingly valuable, I do have some cool pieces that I've come across.

As far as unique serial numbers go, the 2 main ones I have/collect are binary serial numbers (notes where the serial is something like 56656565 or 19991911, I have a few of these) and low serial numbers.

The lower the serial number, the more it's worth. Bills can start to be worth more than face value once you get to the 0000XXXX range, as long as they are in good shape. The lower the number, and the better the shape the bill is in, the more valuable it is. If it is a star note, it can drive the value up even more.

A good example here is today I looked on ebay and found a $1 bill with the low serial number 00000118. The current bid was $10, I entered my max bid of $25 and was immediately outbid. Lol.

I came across a fairly low one at work a couple nights ago (the lowest one I've come across just looking through money):



The bill is really crispy and new, and also a star note. In a good market, it could fetch double face value. I'm not looking to sell my stuff, I like having a cool collection. Here is why I'm super annoyed:



That red mark on it totally degrades almost all of the value. Its still worth a few more dollars than face value. It's just really irritating to get a nice note and have crap like that on it, not the first time it's happened to me.

RAGE

At least it wasn't the "wheresgoerge.com" garbage. Has anyone ever actually been to that site?

Oh geez, those are suuuuper tilting. I really think someone would have a legit lawsuit against them defacing all the money for a profit, at least a cease and desist order.

A while back I also found a nice 5 bill with a 66565656 (along those lines) and someone had written stupid math problems all over it. More rage.

So here are the tweaks I'm making to my squat routine this month.

Here is what it was

Week 1

Squat 80% of 1RM 5x5
Squat 65% of 1RM 2x10

Week 2
Add 5 pounds to all sets from week 1 and repeat

Week 3
Add 10 pounds to all sets from week 1 and repeat

Week 4
1RM test and back off/de-load sets

Here is what this month looks like:

Week 1
Squat 80% of 1RM 5x5
Squat 65% of 1RM 2x10
Friday squat a triple at 90% of 1RM

Week 2
Add 5 pounds to all sets, eliminate final 1x10 set
Friday squat a triple at 5 pounds more than week 1

Week 3
Add 10 pounds to week 1, eliminate both 2x10 sets
Friday squat a triple at 10 pounds more than week 1

Week 4
1RM test and back off/de-load sets

This feels pretty close to optimal, and if I don't get 365x1 at the end of the month I will be major failface.

So here is what I did today:

Squat:

275x5x5

225x2x10

Notes: I feel like this is a pretty big milestone for me. 275 for volume is pretty solid imo. I set a timer in between sets for 5 minutes to make sure I didn't rest too long. I'm glad that my de-load week didn't have a negative effect on my strength, I felt really good today. Lots of WIM. De-load week is def +EV with the template. My heart rate was ~140 after my 2x10 sets, lol cardio. The 2x10 sets @ 225 is a pretty solid milestone, too imo.

Pretty simple workout, def happy with it, I feel like the altered scheme will help me continue to crush.

Life is good, WIM

This makes me mad because I haven't been exploiting this. I'm checking all my money from now on.

Yeah I would say it's a way to come up for free, but since I collect them (and buy them) I'm only adding to my collection, not trying to turn a profit.

I did the math one time on the odds of encountering a bill with a binary (only 2 dif digits) and I think it was somewhere between 1 in 8000-10000. The true odds are slightly skewed due to them stopping most series around 996xxxxx.

Unique serial number + great condition note can end up being worth thousands.

Another one that's realllly rare but extremely valuable is when the serial numbers are mismatched. Couple the fact that it so rate happens with the fact they are extremely hard to spot makes these suuuuuper valuable.

I wish I had one, I watched a $1 bill with mismatched serial on eBay go for about 400 a couple weeks ago. I was tempted (it's worth more IMO) but didn't feeling like ponying up whatever it would have ended up costing.

Oh, and I see quite a bit of money (hundreds of bills) every night at work and so so so rarely find anything cool.

It would be insanely lucky to just find one in your wallet. Worth checking tho.

brb, getting my wallet

I got a sweet one yesterday. A 20 Bill, serial number 00000728 it's probably at least MS65 so basically mint. Worth at least double face value. Ballin'.

I also worked out today. Here is what it looked like:

Bench:

175x5x5

140x2x10

Notes: Low WIM today, so tired. My sleep has been awful the last week and the last 2 days have been reallly bad. Oh well, hopefully ghana sleep 12 hours tonight. I have time to, the issue will be staying asleep.

And I did

Chins 1x3

Cut it short since my energy level is so low.

Hopefully I get a solid recharge on my batteries tonight.

I slept pretty good last night, but not as long as I would have like to. Whatevs, I'll try again tonight, hopefully the benadryl+melatonin combo will do the trick.

Here is what I did today:

FS: 160x3x3 (warm up for the powercleaners)

Powercleaners: 160x5x3

Notes: My legs have pretty bad DOMS (not as bad as last month, still bad) and even though they are super tight, I went ahead with my workout. FS seemed to help a little bit. It started to rain when I was doing my PCs, too much WIM to stop. Probably not as safe to have everything wet and slippery, but I just made sure to use chalk and when ahead with it. Felt pretty badass tbh.

Then I did some

Hangcleaners: 145x3x5

And I did some plyostuff:


Rim Jumps: 1x20

3 steps + jump for height (double legged variety): 1x20

Lateral cone or obstacle jumps (15") 1x20 (while holding a 45 pound plate)

Low box depth jumps (15") 1x20 (holding 45 pound plate)

Low side to side box jump (15") 1x20 (+45# plate)

Rhythmic alternating lunge jumps: 1x20 (+45# plate)


Now I'm off to the gym to shoot hoops then go swimming then hot tub it up before going to gorge myself on all you can eat shrimp.

Hey noob, do you foam roll/lacrosse ball at all?

F no

I know I should but just have never got around to it.

Come on broham

I lurve foamrolling/lacrosse ballz. Yesterday during my bench marathon my left tricept/shoulder was feeling kinda funny and had a shooting pain in my left hand. Broke out the lax ball and rolled my tri/shoulder and all was well.

brb examining moneys

I just don't see the big deal in it. Aside from my first couple days back after de-load week, I'm not ever sore. So I guess I could just foam roll the first couple days of the new month after volume day.

I dunno. And it's not like I get debilitating soreness, either. Yesterday was my sorest day of the week, but it didn't prevent me from doing FS, PCs, Plyo work, extremely intense basketball, or swimming.

I just haven't been convinced enough to start doing it.

CS- I can check for valuable serial numbers faster than most people can count money.

Give me 100 bills and I can quickly scan for any special serial numbers lightening fast.

I agree it's not the biggest deal in the world, but if you do some daily mobbing, you'll find you have better ROM and function. However, I don't think foam rolling really achieves this unless you work to find some problem areas.

So far I find two things helpful:
1. Pounding the hip flexors as well as a couch stretching them. Helps squatting a lot.
2. Lacrosse ball to pecs. Awesome prior to bench and press. Seems weird, but it greatly helps my overhead position.

Well I mean, doing it couldn't hurt, right?

Besides the fact that doing it actually hurts.

Maybe it will be my new years resolution.

Not like it's a huge sacrifice or anything, and you definitely don't need to have debilitating soreness to get a good recovery effect either. You can keep going without it of course, but it's more injury-preventive, comfortable (less soreness is good amirite) and improves recovery.

ETA: agree with kc that concentrating on the sore spots/problem areas is most important. Lacross balling (new verb) your pecs and shoulders are awesome.

Well out of all the reasons to sell me on it, injury prevention would be the best.

That reminds of something I totally forgot about.

Couple weeks ago my gf was playing video games and was complaining about her shoulder. I went and found a racquetball and rolled it on her shoulder for a bit. She hasn't had any issues since then.

By raquetball you mean your boner