Yeah the fact that he doesn't respond makes it so much more dramatic

haha

This. We'll goad him into a whatever is between beta and alpha eventually.

Well this was anticlimactic

Weight this morning: 189.0. Ate all the protein yeterday (~290 g) and managed to keep it to a shade under 3k total calories.

Looking forward to intensity day tomorrow; hopefully by the end of the year my squat and DL numbers will be slightly less embarrassing.

5rm on squats and deads? What numbers are you shooting for tomorrow?

I'm not really sure on squats; I'll probably start out kind of low (maybe 225-235?) so I have some room to add weight relatively comfortably over the next few weeks. I haven't DL'd in the last few weeks, but something in the 285-295 range seems about right, for the same reasons. Plan is to add 5 lbs/week to my intensity squat and 10 lbs/week to my DL for as long as possible, while holding my volume squat relatively constant for a while. Might do some speed DLs every once in a while to groove in form (maybe every 3rd week?) once adding weight gets more difficult.

Weight this morning: 188.6; hit the nomzies a bit last night but nothing serious, probably around 3250 calories total (just only about ~210 protein). Had some pre-workout Mexican food to fuel the fire for intensity day:

9/21

Squat
10x45, 2x5x95, 5x135, 5x175, 3x195, 2x215
5x235

Deadlift
10x135, 5x185, 5x225, 3x255
5x285

Pull-ups
5x5xbw+25

Hypers
3x15xbw+45

Calf Raise on Leg Press
4x12x200

Squats were tough; last few reps might have been a slightly good morning-y, but I tried to pack my neck, keep my upper back tight, chest up, and knees out, and managed to push through it. I'll probably try to increase by 5 pounds next week and keep the volume sets constant for a while.

Deadlift was pretty easy; I didn't rechalk before my workset and my grip went after the fifth rep or I would have done more. I feel pretty confident I can add 10 pounds per week for the next few weeks at least. Pullups were pretty easy, the last rep in the 4th and 5th set were slightly grindy, but easily completed; probably will bump this up to 30 or 35 next weekend.

Pull ups looking good. Muscle ups on the way.

No real place to do a muscle up; the pullup station I use is one of those ones that has two neutral grips coming off of a universal weight machine -- I have to wedge a lat pulldown bar up there to do regular pullups and chinups. I think the top of the structure would interfere with a full muscle up, so I might have to go out to a playground or something to see if I could do them if I were so inclined (which I'm not particularly right now).

I totally understand. A flat pullup bar like what you find at running stations or playgrounds is best. There's a pullup/dip rack at my gym that's not bolted to the floor. I tried doing a muscle up on it and almost flipped the rack. You've got plenty of regular pull up progress to make meanwhile, anyway, though with the amount you can pull, I'm guessing a muscle up for you would only be a matter of coordination.

Weight this morning: 190; that's what a weekend of nomzie-ing it up will do (6500-7000 calories total, with a fair bit of booze included). With all the talking about proper bench form, I rewatched "So You Think You Can Bench" and tried incorporating a bunch of cues, mainly to get my knees lower than my hips so I could prevent my butt from rising. I tucked my feet way more than usual, tried to get super tight, and generally felt the lift more in my lower body and lower back.

9/23

Bench (Volume)
10x45, 10x95, 10x135, 5x175, 3x205
3x5x225

Press (Intensity)
10x45, 10x75, 8x95, 5x125
3x145

Dips
3x6xbw+45

Chins
4x5xbw+45, 1x4xbw+45

DB Pullovers
2x12x65

DB Curl (standing)
10x35, 7x40

I think this was the first time I truly understood what leg drive on the bench press felt like; I really drove my heels down during the last few reps of each set and the bar flew up. I was a little unsteady with the bar path, since the ROM ended up being shorter due to a bigger arch, but overall I liked how it felt. Hopefully I can ride this to a 315 bench by the time I have to cut again.

Press was an abortion; I'm not really sure what happened with it, but the 3rd rep barely got up so there was no chance for a 4th. Something to work on I guess.

Dips were pretty smooth, but challenging; I'll start adding weight more slowly next week. I considered adding sets, but this is already a lot of upper body volume. I was so close to 5x5 on chins with a plate, but couldn't get past eye level with the bar on the last rep; pretty stoked to be so close though. I saw lolco doing 5x5 chins with +50 and vowed to surpass him in the next month or so.

Pretty good day all in all.

Wow, so close to doing 5x5 pull-ups with a third of your BW -- that is impressive.

On a different note, do you low bar or high bar squats? I'm assuming low bar if there was good morning action. In any event, nice intensity on squats. Leaving BR behind in the dust. : thumb:

I think everybody is about to leave me in the dust. Not even my leanness is worth note any more. Everybody's squat is better than mine. Soon everybody will have equal or better bench. No hate from me. I love to see my H&F brothers getting strong.

Good to see Monte's bench climbing more steadily than his squat. I'd hate to lose my fellow upper body bro.

No worries, you'll always have muscle ups, BR.

This is why getting lean is stupid.

JKJK I can't wait to cut.

Well for one, hitting intensity press immediately after volume bench is probably not an ideal way to realize strength gains.

FakeB - my bench won't catch up to you for years.

So there's that.

C-

Thanks. I switched to HBBS a while back, and just got to the point where I feel comfortable with the form. LBBS was much too easy for me to good morning reps, although a general lack of upper and lower back strength surely contributed as well.

I'm not sure getting back to previous levels can technically be called a climb, but yeah, whatever I'm doing will hopefully keep working for a while. Ideally I'd like to get my intensity bench back to 5x275 within the next few months and maybe inch my volume bench up a bit depending on how things go.

That he will.

Do it!

Well, yeah, obviously there's that, but I did 3x5x135 last week on press after the same volume bench sets, so I thought 4 or 5 at 145 was possibly doable. There's nowhere else for me to really put press at this point while I'm working on bench; I may revisit that if I get back to a 3 plate bench and want to work towards some press goals.

Normally I'd troll you here, but you are doing strong work hitting bench PRs so I'll lay off. Just because fakebusto has decided to artificially lower his lower body mass to make his bench more impressive proportionally doesn't mean you need to sweat it.

You're a high grader imo.

Monte,

Let that be a lesson to you. Press is a punishing exercise. Intensity rep weight is always disturbingly close to volume weight.

I graded on a curve to spare your feels.

Of course I'm aware of that, but it was more disturbingly close this time. My intensity press probably isn't going to increase much, if at all, but I'm kind of treating press as a tangential lift at this point, so whatever.

Anecdotal, but I don't think my intensity press has ever been "disturbingly close" to volume weight.

Monte,
I looked at your schedule. I don't get why you can't press on your alternate days. Like two (calendar) days ago, I mean. Seems way better than putting it after bench. And if you say you don't have time and can't get rid of some jerkoff exercise like calf raise, I might just have to fire a few scud missiles off to the southeast. Not that you'd be able to tell where they hit.

(ETA Indiana praise)

So press once a week, and just do it after intensity squat and deadlift? Interesting, I never even thought of doing it that way, but it would probably work out better than doing it today did.

I'll give that a shot this weekend, thanks.

Nah, plenty of time; it's the weekend, I'm cool with spending an hour and a half in the gym; I go when the minicores are asleep, anyway, so no big deal.