Syn - great work. That is great. Maybe KC can stop by and chop a cig in his mouth for good measure.

Lmfao
Well done sir

lol amazing work Syn

Weighed in at 199.6 after 10 days of eating salty food and drinking a massive amount of alcohol, so all in all I think that's a win.

First time squatting in over two weeks; the thrill of my new Romaleos overcame my natural inclination to be a giant gash so I did somewhat respectable (for me) worksets. The shoes were as advertised; I remember when a bunch of people got them a year ago they mentioned feeling like your feet were stuck to the floor, and I definitely felt that too. It felt like I wasn't going as deep as normal so I video'd my second set, but I think it looks alright.

6/10

Squat
10x45, 5x95, 5x135, 3x175, 2x205, 1x225
3x5x235

DL (speed)
10x135, 5x185, 3x235
5x3x255

Single Leg Press
3x12x110

Standing Calf Raise
3x12x160

Here's the second squat set; can't see the shoes, but the wifeacore (who picked the color) got me the red ones.



I'm going on vacation again in a little under four weeks, so I'm going to try to do a quick cut down to the 192 range or so and see how that works out. Managed to squeeze into the same hole in the lifting belt today, so maybe it won't be too hard to accomplish.

Squats plenty deep. Looked easy. Bet you're good for at least a 225 max single.

Nice squats Monte.

Next time you film them can you film them from around a 45 degree angle from the back?

Really don't even need to go so low, your back does round a bit after parallel.

Squats look really solid though. Not sure wtf this thing is about how you can't squat b/c of blah blah blah. Maybe I should start claiming my knees coming in is a feature of the way my body is built and I should quit squatting.

Thanks guys.

fakebusto,

Quite possibly, but my hopes have been dashed many times before, so I won't allow myself to dream the impossible until it actually happens.

weasel,

Will do. Pretty sure there's a little knee cave but not a ton; might be useful to film a set from the rear as well.

Yugo,

Sounds like a plan

Damn... Romaleos and WIM?!?!?!

Gonna catch up to my squats soon... oh, wait- long femurs.

Just kidding, Monte. I hope you squat three plates someday.

Whoa whoa whoa.

it's been a lil while since I stopped in but what is this? Monte is squatting? W/ Romaleos? at those squats too. Liking this new monte!

syndrome: wow. Amazing pics. Gold Star for you.

BTM,

Time to move me up in the priority in your subscription list, I guess.

6/11

Bench
10x45, 10x95, 5x135, 3x175, 2x205, 1x225
3x5x235
10x185

Facepulls
8x15x52.5

DB Row
3x10x100

DB Shoulder Press
2x10x50

DB Curl
2x6x45, 15x30

Cable Lateral Raise
3x12x12.5

Cable Row (Closegrip)
3x15x100

Standard bench day for me, except my right bicep (I think?) area was kind of tight, and it made seated shoulder press uncomfortable because my right arm hurt a bit and felt weak. I was feeling it a little before vacation, so I'm not really sure what the deal is. Probably need to do more nightly stretching/prehab/rolling type stuff.

Bench was fine, probably had 3x6 without too much trouble, but just keeping it light because of the week and a half off.

Monte,

I give you grief for unnecessary Squat resets, so I feel it is appropriate to give you an E Thumbs-Up for taking a week off and coming back at a (relatively) highish workset weight.

Sincerely,

Quick_Ben

Thank you, sir.

6/12

45 min cardio @ 4.8 = 3.6 miles

The wifeacore surprised me with a birthday dinner out with a bunch of friends last night (my birthday was nine days ago, when we were on vacation, so it was indeed a surprise). We were supposed to go to a foodie type place where I could have just been unobtrusive and ordered the fish and an extra side of veggies, but it ended up being booked for a private gig, so we went to a hipster Mexican place instead. Burrito stuff with all the meat was probably alright, but I had more chips and guac then planned. Oh well, que sera.

Had my yearly physical today and the doc goes arm deep in me on Wednesday. Lol OLDS.

Lol fish and veggies on your birfday. I'm very proud you went alpha and had chips and guac. Besides, based on how you expect your physical to go, may be your last chance to enjoy something before the arms deep mode of your life arrives.

6/13

Deadlift
10x135, 5x185, 3x225, 3x255, 2x285, 1x305
2x3x325
3x5x225

Front Squat
10x45, 5x95, 5x115, 3x135, 2x160
5x3x175

Both were harder than they should have been, but ok-ish. I videoed the first DL set, and the first rep looked terrible, second kind of ok, and the third one a bit better. I think I wasn't back quite far enough on the first few reps, meh. Being off for a week and now being on a deficit might be impeding me a bit; who knows.

5x3 FS sets were fine-ish, but still kind of hard. Hopefully next week will be a bit better.

Wow, yeah. That first rep you don't get your back set properly at all. Kind of impressive the 2nd and 3rd look that good. I guess I reset after every rep but I imagine if my first rep was that off, they'd just stay as bad or get worse from there, not get better.

A top down approach could potentially help since you seem to go into good position from standing.

Damn, Monte's lifting some weight!

I agree that the first rep is kinda ugly. The others looked fine. Obv tighten up before the first pull. Cues that might help are: contract the lats and push scapulae down. Maybe the top-down approach that Yugo suggested would straighten things out.

My first rep in usually my worst, for whatever reason; I'm always in a better position when I put the bar down, maybe because I have to really tighten up to keep my back in a good position.

It's obviously impossible to do a top down set-up with straps, and I'm not really a fan of doing mixed grip so I think I'll just stick with what I'm doing and try to get better at it. I'll probably redo these weights next week, or maybe do 2x2x335 or something.

Sick stuff going on itt. Monte DLing 4 plates. Squats and Benches 3. Impressive headnod.

Hopefully when I get up to 355 worksets or so my warmup progression will be something like 135->185->225->275->315, but I don't really feel like there's much point to the hassle of putting on a third 45 just for my two worksets, even if it looks really lame with quarters on the side. Motivation to keep increasing, I guess.

And I haven't benched 3 plates in quite a while, and getting back there seems unlikely if I maintain this bodyweight.

235 bench = 45 + 45 + 5 = 3 plates.

FYP. I still have great faith in your bench Monte. Former bench monkey can still bench monkey imo.

New goal for this year 325x3

Yugo,

Possibly, but the OLDS are creeping in. Maybe I'll get a slingshot effect if my lower body lifts increase, but 3 wheels is a buttload of weight when you've lost 30 pounds. Maybe I'll do Smolov or something over the winter; who knows.

DT,

Thanks, right in the feels buddy.

I'm doing a mini-cut now, but long term the plan is to do a fakeb style slow bulk this fall/winter, and not the out of control gorging that I did this past winter. I think ultimately if I get my lower body lifts to where I want to, I can end up being around 195-200, but much more tight/solid/etc than I am now. Ideally I'd like to be 205 ~12-13%, but at this point that seems as much of a longshot as EV's 8% at 180 goal, so I'm just keeping that in mind for when I break down and get on the Cenegenics program a la cha when I turn 45.

Yeah, I know what you meant; I've just benched (more than) three actual plates before, so it's not quite the burn that you intended.