I have a promising geared powerlifting career ahead, IMO.


Wednesday, September 19, 2018 Training

Bench Press (kg): 54x3, 62.5x1 x2, 61.5x5 @9.5, 61.5x1 @8.5, 54x5 x3

Deadlift (kg): 114x5 [PR], 99x5

Pause Squat (kg): 86.5x4, 91.5x4 x3

Chest-Supported Row (kg): 30x12 x3, 30x8

***

I felt decent going into this one. Just some DOMS in my quads and glutes. I knew pretty early on that bench wasn't likely to go well when the 54 warmup felt unexpectedly heavy. I managed to complete the first work set but it was hard, and then I had some pain and weakness in my left triceps afterward. I just took some weight off and did what I could after that.

During deadlift warmups I had more trouble than usual assuming the correct starting position. I also had to contend with the Cambodian PT crew who were in rare form today. He had one woman moaning so loudly doing hip thrusts with the leg curl machine that it sounded like she was being DPed. It was so distracting that I moved the barbell across the room to do the 114 set after I was done warming up.

That set wasn't my prettiest, but I wasn't gonna not get a PR today after how benching went. I omitted a backoff set and did 99 instead of the planned 104 just to reduce the stress. I also didn't increase the weight for squats which ended up being a good call, I think.

Was going to comment the other day, but had to close the thread after watching the first part of the legpress fail video. That was a little worse than "major ouchies"!!!!

Pretty sure it's required by law that if a Chinabro steps in a gym he has to do cable crossovers.

Great looking squats

Thanks.

Yeah, it could be worse. The gym (you may remember) is two separate areas, one larger one with the bench press and cable crossover etc which is just a total wall-to-wall zoo 24/7, and my room with the rack. I almost never leave this room and the squat rack evidently has Chinese-person-repellent sprayed all over it, so there usually aren't as many bros in there.

Bit of a summary of the last month:

Aside from some haphazard jellydicking before that, I've only consistently trained since the 19th of August. In that time, I have managed to get to about 90% of where I was for upper-body lifts and a bit stronger than I was for lower-body:

Press - 41.5 for almost 5x3 (formerly 50x1, 45x5, 42.5x5x5)
Bench - 65x1, 60x7 (formerly 70x1, 64x7, 61x5x6, all with underhand-grip)
Squat - 116.5x1, 109x3x5 (formerly 107.5x5x3)
Deadlift - 114x5 (formerly 110x5 conventional, 120x8 sumo)

Pretty reasonable for a month's work. I am however, becoming a sloppy mess at 66kg in the morning. That's just 11kg away from my heaviest when I started the log and about 2kg heavier than when I set most of my former PRs (Though the 120x8 sumo was when I was 61, and had reps in the tank. Not sure what happened that day). I'm still not ready to cut, as my life is miserable enough right now without adding cutting to the mix, but it at least needs to stop going up. Not gonna do any actual legwork to ensure that doesn't happen, just gonna try real hard with my mind not to eat terrible food and hope the scale stops moving.

Plan is to run the LP until I get a proper stall in the press and bench, and then move on to weekly progress on all lifts and a 4 day program. Not gonna do 5 sets of 3 for bench. If I have another miss day like today, we moving on.

Congrats on the fast progress in less than a month! I can’t remember, did you stop sumo DLing because you could not get your lower back in a good position at the start of the lift?

What’s your diet look like now? Could you introduce a small good habit or eliminate a single bad one that’s easy to identify?

ETA: congrats on the progress this month. Ride that wave.

Thanks. Some time around the 120x8 set, I hurt my back. Could have been from that set, or another set, or from squats. Not sure. I definitely have way better levers for it than conventional, and my form was pretty good with little if any lumbar rounding. A month or so later, when the pain had subsided, I tried sumo again and immediately had back pain from the first 60kg warmup. I've since (been like 3 months) not tried again.

While I am on that topic, my lower back hasn't hurt at all since I started back, even with some lower back rounding in conventional.

My diet isn't a disaster, it is just not "clean." Probably the biggest thing that is missing since the fitter days of this log is the extra activity I got from riding my bicycle everywhere. In this town, that just isn't realistic. I've also been getting a bit unlucky with becoming hungry at 4AM just as I am trying to sleep and having to have an extra 500 calories just to be able to rest. Some better meal planning would fix the last thing.

Friday, September 21, 2018 Training

Press (kg): 42.5x2f, 42.5x3, 42.5x1f, 37.5x5, 37.5x4

Squat (kg): 119x1 [PR], 111.5x3 x5 [PR]

Chin-up (67kg): +0kg x7 x4
Bench Press (kg): 49x8, 54x8 x2, 54x7 @8.5

***

More hard-fought gains for my squat. I cut the single a little higher than the 116 before, but it went up pretty smoothly. The triples were all @9 or harder (the P in RPE notwithstanding) and this is the hardest I have ever pushed it in the gym. The 4th set (linked) was an absolute ten. I rested for a full six minutes before the 5th set, which luckily had a tighter unrack and ended up being a little easier.

Pressing was a disaster. Probably it is related to what happened to my left arm. I just didn't feel very stable overhead. Bench was harder than expected also, but I think that is mostly because I intentionally used a slower tempo, lowering the weight under more control to see if that arm would buckle. It didn't, and those sets went pretty well.

I think that it's somewhat clear that I am done with linear progress on the presses, and it is time to move on. I'll go 4 days a week, keeping the squat and DL programming similar except that I will be squatting only 2 days a week instead of 3, and deadlifting 2x a week instead of 1.5 (one of those days will be pause). It will be less squat volume overall, but the added DL volume should make up for it, and hopefully I can continue to add 2.5 kilos a week to the 5x3 for a little longer. I am going to bench 3x a week and press 2x a week, and not gonna do any grinder reps on those lifts for a while, just develop a base of volume with good technique.

Sunday, September 23, 2018 Training

Deadlift (kg): 111.5x1, 121.5x1 @9?, 106.5x5 @7?, 111.5x4 @8.5?

Pause Bench Press (kg): 49x4, 51.5x4, 54x4 x3 (pretty easy)

Barbell Row (kg): 39x5, 49x5, 54x5 x3
DB Lunge (kg): 10s x10 x4 (each leg)

***

I probably should have rested another day before beginning new stuff but I felt pretty good this morning and wanted to train. The plan for deadlifts was to do a somewhat heavy single, a ramping set of 5, and a top set of 5, and hopefully that set be 116.5x5. 5kg over my planned top set seemed conservative for the single, and it was way harder than I expected. I kinda figured 116.5 wasn't happening at that point so I lowered the weights a bit. I really need practice with deadlift RPEs, and I wouldn't mind some informed opinions on what these look like. In the future I will add a back off set or two but for now gonna take it slow.

I revisited BB rows. Seems like literally everybody on the internet does them differently so I decided to just do what felt reasonable. The goal is to assist my deadlift so I used the exact same setup and grip width as a deadlift with the bar over mid foot. Then I did essentially a deadlift partial to get the bar moving, and a row from that point. It felt surprisingly decent.

Lunges were just an experiment. I kinda wanted to do something squat-related on 3 days of the week, and something weird has been going on with my left glute/IT/calf/ankle, so I thought doing something unilateral would be a good idea. Used extremely light weight and they went fine, but split squats might allow me to get deeper. With these my opposite knee touches the ground before the active leg gets to parallel. Long femurs.

Tuesday, September 25, 2018 Training

Bench Press (kg): 67.5x1 @8, 59x5, 64x5 @10, 59x5 x3 @7.5

Strict* Press (kg): 34x4, 36.5x4, 37.5x4 x2 @7.5

Chin-up (68kg): 0kg x5, 7kg x5 @10, 3.5kg x5 x3 @9.5

15' Circuit:
Low Row 30kg x 12, 12, 12, 10, 10
Push-up x 12, 12, 12, 12, 12
DB Upright Row 10s x 12, 12, 12, 10, 10
(done in 13:30)

***

(*) No bounce, no hips.

Pretty decent. I planned to go conservative with bench the first day and do 62.5 but the single and my left arm felt awesome so I upped it to 64. I broke my rule of no grinder bench reps but left plenty in the tank for the work after that. The 67.5 and 64 are both PRs for prone grip. Using this slower cadence for bench is def costing me a rep or two, but it's probably a better training stimulus and easier on my left shoulder/elbow.

Probably could have done more press sets but I was running out of time. The circuit was the first time that I have done that sort of thing, and went pretty well. I was toasted and out of time after the 5th round so I called it there.

from one bench newb to another: I think you're over-tucking your elbows and your elbows are too far in front. Hard to tell with the camera angle. Maybe record from the side next time.

Also important to note... if 67.5x1 is a true @8, the RPE chart would suggest your x5 @10 would be 63! So 64x5 @10 is no shock to me.

Thanks, I'll look into it. It's impossible to get a direct side view of the squat rack so I'll do my pause bench in the crossfit racks (which have have no pins) on Sunday and get a better angle.

I'm still pretty bad at singles and consistently under-perform compared to benching for reps, but I'm getting better. Maybe 62.5 would have been a more appropriate choice for the top set but I got a bit greedy.

Wednesday, September 26, 2018 Training

Squat (kg): 111.5x1, 119x1, 101.5x5, 109x6 [PR] @8.5, 101.5x5x2 @7.5

Pause Deadlift (kg): 59x4, 79x4, 89x4, 94x4, 94x4, 94x4

Dumbbell Row (kg): 22.5s x10 x4

***

My plan for the squat today was to repeat the 119 single from last time, hopefully smoke it and get it deeper. Then my target weight be 109, something I felt that I could conservatively hit for 5 and leave some room to add 2.5 kg to my 5RM weekly for as long as possible. The single was disappointingly tough and still too shallow for my liking, albeit deeper than last time I did it. Even 101.5 felt pretty heavy but I had a surprisingly good top set. I knew that 5 reps wouldn't really be a PR, as I did 107.5 3x5 long ago and 111.5 for 5 triples last week, so I was really going for six reps there. I am certain I had one more.

Not all is well though. Depth continues to be a struggle and I got way too comfortable being hunched more and more as that 109 set dragged on. I at least need to make sure to stay tight and use stricter form on the back off sets and paused sets on Friday.

Pause deadlifts were okay. I already learned a lot about what's wrong with my set up just from these light weights.

119 and 109 were RPE 7 at most -- depth seemed relatively normal-ish for you too. That said, cuing upper back tightness and/or driving your back into the bar out of the hole can't really be a bad thing if you feel like you're being bent over towards the end of the set. Hard to tell for sure from that angle, but knee positioning looked good, and there was minimal if any knee slide towards the end of that set.

RPEs were from my feeling after the sets and watching the video on my tablet. I agree with all this and it looks like I was just having a little trouble with sets of five.

Really good news if I can hit a PR with so much in reserve. I may have a 2x body weight squat in me.

I'm guessing you have been exposed to this or similar before, but just curious if you have tested for how deep you "should" be going or the foot placement to get there? I'm way behind you on squat mechanics and weight as well, but this helped me feel more comfortable going to depth even though I still have other issues like buttwink.

https://www.t-nation.com/training/sq...e-final-answer

Thanks for the link, but I don't know if I have the heart to do what's suggested in that article. I think if I lay on my back and get out my tape measure and do all that stuff it's just gonna cause me to sperg overload, second guess everything, and stagnate my progress. I've experimented with a lot of stance widths and toe angles in order to achieve the paltry depth I'm currently capable of.

I think the best you're gonna get from me is that I'm gonna squat as deep as possible every day and try real hard with my mind not to round my back too much.

This post can be my spine's epitaph though when I visit snap city trying to squat three plates.

Fair enough. I did not go all out and measure with a partner, but I did try the movements shown and it made it very clear that for whatever reason (meaning it may be a mobility issue that would be worthy of attention to improve or it may be a structural issue that is not), I was much more comfortable with a narrower stance and more angled foot placement. Not setting up the way I had been previously with a wider stance and straighter feet had an immediate effect on my comfort at depth that day 1 (in regards to my hips). That said, I am not confident that it was therefore a guaranteed improvement to my optimal mechanics for the exercise and I am far from a textbook example of proper form.

Just today during warm ups I was goofing around with stance width to see if any of them felt more viable than the one I've been using. It seems like in theory I should be going wider than I do because my femurs are so long but my adductors just feel super tight and there's some pinching at the bottom. Moderate width just seems to be the lesser of all evils. My foot angle snaps into place immediately when I do the first rep. It really doesn't matter what I tell them to do, they correct themselves instinctively and you can see it in some of my videos. If that aspect needs to change then that would take a lot of work.

The one thing I'm not doing that I perhaps should be doing is a stretching routine. Not pre-workout as I've never had any results with that and it just seems like a waste of time, but just a static stretching routine to do at the end or the beginning of the day to develop my hip, knee, shoulder, ankle, and thoracic spinal range of motion over time. It's such a long term commitment though and would likely have zero carryover to my lifts on time spans that are meaningful to my reward mechanisms. I suck.

I was pretty good about dynamic warm-ups and some stretching post workout on leg days for a long time, and as you said, it is hard to recognize any reward other than being a good boy who is doing something good. I have stopped doing the static stuff because my new program is so long now, which is bad.

Now I am really curious what you find out if you followed those videos to see what it told you. FWIW they seem to be talking about addressing hip socket structure more than lever length. Not going to lie, your attention to detail is partly what wants me to see what you come up with from it so I can selfishly draft on your discovery.

Friday, September 28, 2018 Training

Press (kg): 44x1 @9.5 (meh), 37.5x5, 40x4 @9.5 (bleh), 37.5x5x2 @7 (wtf its only 2.5 kilos different)

Pause Squat (kg): 89x4, 94x4, 94x4, 94x4

CG Bench (kg): 39x8, 44x8, 49x8, 51.5x8, 51.5x8 @7

Chin-up (68kg): 6, 8, 7, 7, 7


***

I didn't want to repeat the mistake I made with deadlifts and actually thought I was choosing conservative weights for the first press day based on how easy 37.5 was on Tuesday performing totally strict reps. It must be technical. Just seems like I have balance issues during lockout. Next time I will press in flat shoes just to test a hypothesis (On Tuesday I wore flats).

Squats were almost easy today. Makes sense considering I previously did these sets after deadlifting. Lots of room to add weight from here and I am pretty happy with my form and depth.

This is the first time I have done close-grip bench in over a year, so I started off nice and light. Theres a direct side view in case kidcolin wants to check the elbows. This seems ideal as a way to get supplemental volume considering how much longer the range of motion is.

Sunday, September 30, 2018 Training

Deadlift (kg): 109x1, 119x1, 124x1 [PR] @8.5, 109x5, 114x5 @8, 109x5 @7.5

Pause Bench Press (kg): 54x4, 57.5x4x4 @8

Barbell Row (kg): 59x5 x5

***

This was a surprisingly good day under the circumstances. Slept fine last night but not at all the previous day, and had a headache during this whole session. Also had to wait half an hour because china bros #1 and #2 were using every plate above 5kg on quarter squats and 1/8th leg presses.

I decided to pull with a more cranked head from the start, as thats where it goes anyway when the weight is heavy and it looks slightly less stupid than jerking up. Something something tighter kinetic chain, also I spent less time between reps being a weak *****, which prob helped a bit.

RPEs are listed for my own practice, grain of salt served separately. 114 feels like a PR considering how much better it looks than my 114x5 from two weeks ago, not to mention it's lower RPE and that I did the 109x5 prior this time around. Still some windmilling on the right side in the 124 and the backoff 109, but luckily very little in the top set.

Bench was k. Side view below for kidcolin, front view linked above. DB lunges felt the full brunt of my nopeness. Was tired and there for far too long already.

compare the bar position at the start of the rep of rep 1 vs rep 4.

Could you be a little less cryptic? By the start do you mean the top or the pause? First rep for me is always more awkward than the rest.

the top, since that's the start.

First two reps you're holding the bar out over your sternum which is wrong. It's less efficient and compromises your later reps.

Third is pretty close to over the shoulder, hard to tell.

Fourth is perfect and definitely your best rep.

Overall everything looks pretty smooth. Cleaning up the form a bit would have that set feeling @7.