Saturday, September 30, 2017 Training
Strength Block C3W3

1. HBBS (kg):
TM124 75%x5, 80%x5, 85%x5+

95x5
100x5
105x6 [PR] {TM+2}

2. RG Bench (kg):
TM71 5x5 @80%

57.5x3
57.5x2f
52.5x5
52.5x5

(skipped deadlift 4x6)

Training time: 1:25

***

For a day with a PR, today kinda sucked. Time to deload, lol.

Benching was a bit of a wake-up call. There was no pain or discomfort, no soreness. I was just weak, terribly weak. The first set felt so heavy that I assumed I must have setup poorly so I racked it and tried again. Then I got stapled on the third rep with a weight that I should, even on a bad day, have at least 6-7 reps for.

Even the squat PR, for all its glory, didn't feel like a display of increased strength. I had to dig pretty deep to get that 6th rep (those elbows lol), and 5 would have just been a rep PR. The 100 set felt too heavy as well. Add in there that I have lower back soreness that never seems to have time to dissipate, and I think calling an audible and starting the deload immediately was the right move.

I'll deload tomorrow, Tuesday, and Wednesday, then pick up where I left off with benching 5s on Saturday. Which will put off my 125 deadlift for another week, but it can't be helped I suppose.

Week 78 Diet
Mass Phase Week 18



Weight is officially stable. I actually posted a <60kg weigh-in on the day that I hit the squat PR. I think it's time to start titrating the calories back up slightly. This is, after all, a "bulk."

The other day my Cambodian girlfriend told me I looked like someone who hadn't eaten in a year. She's been known to hyperbolize from time to time, though.

You only weigh 133 lbs? What's your height

5'5". Sedentary for 32 years before this log started, so not a lot of lbm. I am not even that lean at 133.

Oh gotcha, thought you were taller from the videos. Whats your top 3 total? too lazy to look at other posts.

squat 231x6, (sumo) deadlift 264x8, ohp 88x6, bench ~135x5. I get hurt every time I approach pr territory for bench.

edit: never done a single before so I can't give you a total.

Shoulder pain for bench? Or what

Yeah. Looks like closegrip, underhand grip, and dumbbells are the only way I can bench without pain. I'm currently doing the last two, but I'll probably incorporate CGBP again at some point soon.

That blows. I hurt my right delt back in 2014/2015 benching 275x1 at 168 lbs. so dumb, standard gym bro egging me on. Felt like a brick was constantly pressing against my rotator cuff. Since then I've been afraid to go heavy in bench.

I've had such sobering results for upper body for so long at this point that I'm super excited to add 1 kilo to my press or to even be able to train the bench reasonably hard. And the fact that I seem to be somewhat proficient at squat/dl certainly helps the outlook.

Where is the pain you are feeling?

Are you regularly doing face pulls and other upper back work?

Seems to be the anterior delt fibers nearest to the centerline of the body (where they meet the pecs). I haven't had pain in a long time since I don't prone-grip bench or do pushups anymore.

As for upper back work, I do facepulls once a week, chinups twice, rows twice, and deadlifts twice. I could always do more but I've intentionally cut out a lot of the assistance work from my program, for now, to focus on getting my numbers up.


Tuesday, October 3, 2017 Training
Strength Block C3 Deload

1. Press (kg):

36x5
39x5
36x5

2. Sumo Deadlift (kg):

105x5
105x5
105x5

3. Chin-ups (@63kg):

0x8
0x8
0x8

Training time: ?

***

I kind of phoned this one in. I have a hard time intentionally going light. I improvised the workout, with my goal to be to press something reasonably heavy for low volume/RPE while going quite light on deadlifts. I really want to give this low back thing a chance to fully dissipate before I start squatting or pulling heavy again.

Lately, when I get down to lift my bike to my shoulders to carry it up/down the stairs in my apartment building, I feel a tiny bit of pain there. Today I still had that pain. Nothing to do but to proceed with caution.

Thursday, October 5, 2017 Training
Strength Block C3 Deload

1. RG Bench (kg):
w/ Band External Rotations: #0 x16x3

52.5x5
55x5
57.5x5 @9

2. HBBS (kg):

92.5x5
92.5x5
92.5x5

3. Machine Seated Row (lb):

145x10
145x10
145x10
145x9

Training time: 1:35

***

While I had a much better showing for bench than last time, I'm still weaker than baseline. I did this weight for sets across a couple weeks ago.

I took it really easy* on squats for the same reason as for the deadlifts last session. My form seems okay and I don't see any spinal flexion happening. My lower back felt fine during the sets, but that's nothing different than ever; I never feel it when squatting or deadlifting, only later after having done so.

* A little perspective. It wasn't terribly long ago that 92.5 was a working weight.

No pain lifting my bike when leaving for gym, pain lifting my bike when I got home from the gym. So it seems that squatting is definitely the cause.

On a vaguely related note, I think it might be a good idea to take a break from pause squats and do tempo squats instead. I feel a little unstable in the hole, and I think with pause squats I may be cheating that a little by pausing slightly above the hole. Tempo squats may also be somewhat friendlier to my lower back.

Saturday, October 7, 2017 Training
Strength Block C3W3

1. Tempo Squat (kg):

80x4
85x4
90x4
90x4

2. RG Bench (kg):
TM69 5x5 @80%

55x5
55x5
55x5
55x5
55x4
55x5 @8

3. Sumo Deadlift (kg):
TM147 4x6 @75%

110x6*
110x6*
110x6*
110x6*

* First 2 reps with hook grip, then straps to complete the set.

Training time: 2:18

***

I picked up exactly where I left off in week 3, with a sorta deload for the squat and repeating my 5x5 bench.

Benching went pretty well, and it damn well better had considering I took 2.5kg off the bar. The 5th set was just a botched setup. I didn't want to end benching on that note so I did a do-over and the final set went really well. Rest between sets was pretty short at 3 minutes, so all in all this was slightly too easy for a 5x5 IMO. But maybe rAvsets are the key to stupendous bench gains.

Tempo squats were fine. Got some good vids and I'm going to x post them to the form check thread if anyone feels like popping in there. Deadlifts were clumsy as hell, but I think I worked out most of the issues by the last set. I was setting up too far away from the bar for the first two sets, and I had some pretty major upper back rounding in all of the sets. I think the upper back thing is just something that I need to cue harder.

A bit of a milestone: today was the first day that hook grip didn't hurt. Which is cool considering I hadn't practiced it for over a week.

Not sure if you’ve been, but if so, any tips in Siem Reap beside the obvious?

I haven't. I'm not really a tour kinda guy. Angkor is supposed to be great though.

If you're gonna be in PP hit me up for dinner or something.

Allright. Yea me neither.

Raincheck on the dinner, i’m just around Siem Reap this time.

I stayed here: https://en.tripadvisor.com.hk/Hotel_..._Province.html

and it was pretty awesome.

Definitely suggest doing sunrise at Angkor. If you want to do sunset I'd suggest doing a second trip there, it gets exhausting doing both in the same day. Either way I'd suggest hiring a driver for the day. Be ready for a ton of Chinese tourists. Hopefully there's not a tarp over the entrance ruining your pics like there was for mine.

Be very careful on the bar street as there is a gang of children who will jump out pretending to be playful while some small kids rummage through your pockets.

The market there is a bit of a tourist trap, but there's so little to do there it might be worthwhile.

Thanks. The sunrise will be a challenge, not a morning person to say the least. Also since it’s raining season it would suck to get up that early only to have an overcast day.

Sunday, October 8, 2017 Training
Strength Block C3W3

1. Chin-ups (@63kg):

0kg x5
5kg x5
10kg x5 @10
5kg x5
5kg x5 @9

2. Press (kg):
TM48.5 4x6 @75%

36x6
36x6
36x6
36x6

3. Tempo Squat (kg):
w/ Cable Straight-back Crunch (lb): 65x18x4

92.5x4
92.5x4
92.5x4
92.5x4

Training time: 2:06

***

Decent day. Chin-ups were heavier than expected. I was hoping to get 6 reps for the PR but I kind of figured it wasn't there when the 5kg set was kind of hard. Everything else was okay. I "buried" the squats and the depth is still barely parallel. Meh.

The session went long because I spent a lot of time chatting with the powerlifting bro. I also took my time ramping up to squat, with him helping me and giving input.

My back feels a bit better; I passed the bicycle test before and after gym today so maybe it won't be an issue.

[QUOTE=Renton555;52915228]Week 79 Diet
Mass Phase Week 19



Monday and Tuesday were "titrating." I ate some junk on those days and thus decided to reel it in a little afterward. My macros weren't great this week. I just need to eat more meat ffs. I missed weigh-ins on the last three days so the average weight is surely high.

Tuesday, October 10, 2017 Training
Strength Block C3W3

1. RG Bench (kg):
TM69 75%x5, 80%x5, 85%x5+

52.5x5
55x5
57.5x7 @9.5 [PR for reverse-grip] {TM+2}

2. Sumo Deadlift (kg):
TM147 5x5 @80%

105x2x2
117.5x2 @8? bleh
112.5x5
112.5xnope

did back raises: 0kg x12, 10kg x12x4

3. DB Flat Bench (kg):
w/ Band Facepull: #1 x19x4

45s x10
45s x10
45s x10
45s x10

Training time: 2:27

***

It was a pretty solid bench day and a horrendous deadlift day.

I'd have been pretty disappointed with anything less than 7 reps for bench, but it's still a dramatic improvement over the last couple of sessions. More than anything, I'm just happy to have been able to do a true @9 set without any blatant ****-ups. At least I know where I really stand.

As for deadlifts, I'm not ruling out the possibility that I simply checked out when the weight felt a little heavier than it "should've." In the 117.5x2 set, it became clear to me (whether real or perceived) that 5 sets of 5 wouldn't be feasible with that weight. I also felt like I couldn't control the eccentrics in a safe manner. The 112.5 felt a little better but still heavier than 120 felt weeks ago.

All the while my lower back felt like total ****. Soreness from when I woke up this morning, a bit of dull pain when lifting my bike to carry down the stairs and during the heavy sets. For the second 112.5 set, as I was setting up to pull the first rep, it just got into my head that I needed to cut my losses and move on.

After today's session, it sure seems that 125x5 on Saturday is a pipe dream. I guess my plan is to work up to 122.5 and whether I attempt it or not will depend on how 115x5 feels.

I been deadlifting 3x a week with zero back pain. In fact, I feel even better.

For years I went through the same lowerback soreness. It would last for a few days after a big deadlift/squat day. When I hit a 305 squat and 365 deadlift on the same day, I was sore for 7 days. I thought it was normal, part of the pain in exercising.

Now after the herniated disk I realize it was never the deadlift that got me sore. It was the backsquat. I mean there are experts that recommend sumo after back injury as rehab, yet zero squatting for a while (maybe just goblet at first). So it makes sense that the culprit is the backsquat.

Just something to keep an eye on. Seriously, if i were you I would max out on squat one day. Then a few days later on deadlift. And see how you feel. And whatever the results are, adjust your training.

You shouldn't be feeling lowerback soreness unless you blasting erector exercises. And you are not.

I think the two main possibilities for the cause are squatting and my dubious sumo eccentrics a distant second. The puzzling thing is that I've been going fairly light on squats for almost 2 weeks now so I don't understand why I remain sore.

As for maxing out, I go pretty far out of my way to manage intensity, only pushing high RPE squat and deadlift sets every 2 weeks each. Maybe I'm still doing too much work at these percentages even so. And maybe it's just not a good idea to squat or deadlift every session. I'm guessing if the programming is to blame, it's probably just a matter of lowering the percentages a tad and proceeding accordingly, or possibly reducing the squat+dl frequency to 3 days instead of 4.

Wednesday, October 11, 2017 Training
Strength Block C3W3

1. HBBS (kg):
TM124 4x6 @75%

75x3
85x2
92.5x6
92.5x4
85x4 tempo
85x4 tempo

2. Pause RG Bench (kg):
w/ Band External Rotation: #0 x17x4
TM71 4x4 @72.5%

51x4
51x4
51x4
51x4

3. Machine Seated Row (lb):
w/ Back Extensions (rounded): 0kg x12, 5kg x12x3

8 chin-ups @63kg (bros were all over the machine)
145x10
145x10
145x10

Training time: 1:58

***

Today was interesting. Warming up to squat, my back felt pretty not great and depth was a challenge as usual. I tested a hypothesis I had that, due to my proportions, I may need to approach the high bar squat more like a low bar one. In other words, I thought it was possible that my depth issues were because I was trying to stay too upright. So I tried to point my eye gaze lower and allow more forward lean and right away, depth came easier.

Unfortunately/expectedly, this made the weight seem heavier since I'm not used to squatting this way, so I cut the second set short and dropped down to some tempo sets to get more practice with the cues. I recorded all the sets but my tablet is dead so I'll link them in a separate post. The 85 sets were some of my deepest squats, and even better, my heels weren't trying to come off the floor like they were in previous sets.

My back felt pretty bad, but not enough to prevent me from squatting reasonably heavy weights. The back extensions (done with a slow tempo) felt really good, for whatever that's worth. Now, hours after the session, the area feels sore with occasional aches. Just playing it by ear from this point.