Do you think I'm setting up too close to the bar?

Could be. Try setting up an inch farther back.

Sunday, October 28, 2018 Training

Press (kg): 46x1 @8, 38.5x5, 42.5x5 @9.5, 40x5 x3 @9, 9.5, 10

Tempo Squat (kg): 60x4, 75x4, 85x4, 92.5x4, 97.5x3 @8, 97.5x4 @9

Bench Press (kg): 50x8, 55x8, 60x8 @8.5, 57.5x8 @8

NG Chin-up (71kg): 0x7 x5

***

I'm not sure how it took me two years to try putting knee sleeves on over my sweats, but it's hard to imagine going back. It made them easier to put on and they get way less disgusting.

I went in still pretty sore in my legs from the pause deadlifts, and for once I didn't ***** out on any of the prescribed work, so this was a really tough day. Press is about what I was looking for. As I mentioned I'm just doing strict reps for my main press, no bounce or hip sway. Still some inefficient bar path stuff once the bar passes my head, but I'm hoping the pin presses will help correct that.

Squats were supposed to be 303 but ended up being more like 503 tempo, because the first 3 seconds down just got me to Renton Depth™, and it took 2 more to get to the actual bottom. These were brutal and way harder than pause squats. The main focus was on getting as deep as possible on the descent and keeping my knees anchored through the sticking point on the ascent. I cut the first 97.5 set at the third rep because I felt like my knees shot back and I didn't want to train that movement pattern. The video showed me that this wasn't the case and I could have finished the set.

There's really no excuse for me to not strive for this depth standard on my main work. It's also worth keeping in mind that these are in flat shoes, so depth should be even tougher than with heels. I'm going to continue squatting in flats for a while to see if I'm able to maintain mid-foot balance more easily.

Count me as another that thought knee sleeves went under pants instead of over. I’m a little skeptical, but I’ll give it a shot.

Those 3-0-3 tempo squats look like torture. Give me a three second pause in the hole any day of the week over tempo squats.

Tempo squats looked good and yeah hard.

These were very thin elastic pants. I wouldn't do this with thick sweat pants, like the ones I've been deadlifting in lately.

Tuesday, October 30, 2018 Training

Deadlift (kg): 127.5x1, 135x1 [PR] @8.5, 115x5, 125x5 [PR] @10, 110x5 x2

Pause Bench Press (kg, 180" rest): 60x4, 62.5x4, 65x4 x4 @8.5

Barbell Row (kg): 65x6 x5

Single Leg Press (kg, 90" rest): 55x10 x2 x4

***

Really solid day, especially for bench. The deadlift single and top set were harder than I'd hoped, but I'm probably adjusting to the flat shoes. I helicoptered some on the single and in general didn't do great at keeping the bar against my sweats.

Since I pushed the top set so hard, I took off quite a bit of weight for the back-off sets just to get some good quality reps in. I took a slightly narrower grip on those sets and did a better job keeping the bar close to my body. I also did more "starting strength"-style reps i.e. no leg pump thing. I'm not sure how much I get out of that to be honest, other than psychological (which matters!).

Bench was awesome. I did a bit extra volume because it was going so well. Looks like I could have comfortably paused with 67.5x4, which is pretty solid considering I tng'd 70x4 just a few days ago and it was an all-out effort. I managed to not skip the leg presses, which gave me a huge leg pump. I really like these for some reason.

Congrats on the DL PR! If the bar helicoptors, your lats should probably be tighter.

Bench looks pretty good. One thing you could do to get more leg drive is push your heels down.

Looking strong like bull.

bench look solid.

DL looks good but I see the helicoptering. Pretty rare to see that with straps, usually that's a mixed-grip issue. Don't think you need any special corrections. Just flex your lats hard.

One thing I've started doing and it makes a difference, for me at least. You and I have a similar setup before the pull, but just this past week I changed one thing (THIS ONE SMALL TRICK). Normally I'd do like you, get my grip and then straighten my legs, get my air, bend my knees, then tighten everything up (back, lats, tris, chest up) and pull.

I do basically the same thing, except when I straighten my legs to get my air, I engage my triceps and lats here. Then it's just shins to bar and pull.

The helicoptering is something that sometimes happens sometimes doesn't, regardless of effort, so that indicates to me that it's an inconsistency in technique. I'll try to push my heels down and see if that helps my bench. Thanks!



It's funny you suggest that, I just happened to be watching this video today and it suggested something similar: basically setting up like a SLDL, getting tight with straight legs, and then pulling the knees into the bar, setting the lats, pulling.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiDczs9j75E&t=4m58s

Thursday, November 1, 2018 Training

Bench Press (kg): 72.5x1 @8, 75xf*, 62.5x5, 65x5, 67.5x5 @9, 65x5 x3 @8.5

* I just lowered it onto the pins to save energy when I knew it would be an @10 if it went up at all.

Pin Press at Hairline (kg): 40x4, 42.5x4, 45x4, 47.5x3f, 45x4 x2

Chin-up (71kg): 0x5, 5x5, 7.5x5 x3

***

I woke up 5 hours early for some reason and my throat felt scratchy so I might be coming down with something. Overloaded caffeine a little bit and just felt kind of lethargic going in so this had the makings of a crap day from the start.

My left shoulder felt a little janked up and once I got above 65 it became way more difficult than usual to unrack the bar. 72.5 felt like 75 did two weeks ago, and I could barely unrack 75 at all. All things considered, I think I did a decent job of autoregulating and still managed to put solid work in.

Pin presses were a lot less awkward. I kept increasing weight because it's difficult to tell how hard these are until they're too hard.

Damn, only one day since I last trained and already on page 2 of H&F.


Friday, November 2, 2018 Training

Squat (kg): 120x1 @7.5, 100x4, 105x4, 110x4 @9, 102.5x4 x2 @8

Press (kg): 30x6, 35x6, 37.5x6 x3 @7.5

SLDL (kg): 65x6, 85x6, 95x6 x3 @<6

***



I'm pretty sure I'm finished with making weekly gains on all lifts at this point, or nearly so. Squat is in an out and out stall, press has been glacial for weeks now, bench is becoming less consistent, and deadlift was an absolute grind to set a new 5rm last week. I probably have a decent shot at setting another deadlift PR this week, but I'd kind of like to quit while ahead with that lift, so to speak.

So I'm moving on to a two-week cycle. Goal is to increase sq/b/dl 5rm's (4-rep top set @9) by 2.5 kg per two weeks, press by 1 kg/1.5 kg. And as I'm going for slower progress now, I think it's finally time to put the kibosh on this bulk. Calories will be logged starting today. Target is 2000, hopefully that results in around 2100. I will see if that stabilizes my weight and titrate down from there. I didn't step on the scale today but yesterday was 69.4 kg / 153 lb

Not gonna nit the program too hard, just gonna be a 4-day full body 2 on / 1 off / 2 on / 2 off type deal. There will be a little bit more exercise variation, like the SLDL today and I'm gonna flirt a bit with high bar and sumo, and there will be a lot more variation in intensity/rpe.


As for today, squats kind of sucked. I had some gas and the belt made me want to puke the entire time during squats. I'm pretty happy with the single and ramping sets, and pretty unhappy with the top set and backoffs. Looks like my feet are pointed out too far and I'm not getting my knees out enough.

SLDL (providing these look okay, I think they do) came pretty naturally to me, probably because I kinda stiff leg whenever I mess up on real deadlifts. One of the minor epiphanies I've had about my lower back is that I seem to be better off putting productive stress on it than doing things to avoid lower back stress at all costs. My back felt really good during these sets and also now hours later.

I havent followed your log super closely, but to me, based on the videos I have watched, you seem to be focusing on form very carefully while you kind of just go through the motions. That is fine for learning good form, but you arent lifting with any intensity. You're probably at a point where if you want to get stronger, you need to focus on giving it your all when you lift.

This is probably me not being an athlete ever, along with always training alone. Not sure what I can do to work on it, to be honest. One of those things I can't change, and the other is just impractical. I try to move the bar as fast as I can but I'm just not explosive. I definitely do not get that hyped up for sets, though.

You can do it better. Just focus on giving it everything you've got. I find there's ~100 lb difference in my DL if I just go through the motions vs getting myself psyched up.

Another thing is that I've probably got some psychological inhibition to pushing it 100% because of my history of back tweaks. In any case, I'll try to address it, thanks.


SON OF CUT - Day 1

Cafe Mocha - 187 cal, 43c/1f/1p
KK Original Glazed - 190 cal, 22c/11f/3p
KK Chocolate Cake - 250 cal, 38c/10f/3p
<---------- to be fair, this was the precise point in time that I decided to stop bulking

Burger King Chicken Sandwich 660 cal, 48c/40f/28p
1/3 Burger King Double Cheeseburger 155 cal, 9c /8f/9p

Chicken Shawarma Wrap 535 cal, 60c/15f/40p

1.5 scoop whey protein 180 cal, 4.5c/1.5f/36p

Total 2,157 cal, 225c/87f/120p


It can only improve from here, I suppose. I feel like I can't just post that burger king without an explanation. We've already established that I've developed a minor penchant for getting Kremed before squat day, so no shock there.

Was at gym, wife calls says she's gonna cook. I'm like great sounds good. I get home and there's a sack of burger king on my desk and no food cooking. One of my wife's employees has a second job at BK and brought some comp food for me so I ate it of course, to be polite. I hadn't had fast food in over a year. The chicken sandwich was edible, the burger was not.

It's almost bedtime and I'm a bit peckish, but since I want to lose weight more than I want to not feel slightly uncomfortable, I'm going to have a whey shake and walk it off. #wim

(not gonna do a food journal every day, just a few to get it back started)

Meh, people get intense in their own way to varying degrees. You'll never see me get too fired up before a lift.

Also hard to get too fired up when your training consists of more than work up to a top set then go home.

My programming is based around a top set that I attempt to make linear progress on, so it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to get hyped up just for that set at least.

Subscribed, GL. Inspired by you, I am going to post form videos in my thread and hopefully get some useful feedback!

I dealt with this when I was rehabbing my back injury and I still have to focus on keeping my core super tight every time I DL and squat. Just get used to doing the same thing every rep with regards to form.

Yeah but it's hard to be deliberate about that stuff while going ham as possible on a set.

Cool, thanks!






SON OF CUT - Day 2

Uncountable Fried Noodles with Pork 653 cal 40c/37f/36p
100g pork 252 cal 14f/29p
1.5 tbsp oil 180 cal 20f
1 cup cooked egg noodles 221 cal 40c/3f/7p

Trash fire dinner 1137 cal 113c/50f/58p
1 reuben sandwich 750 cal 70c/34f/41p
1 large bbq wing 102 cal 7c/6f/5p
1 small slice pepperoni and sausage pizza 285 cal 36c/10f/12p

Can chili - 520 cal 66c/14f/32p

Total 2310 cal 219c/74f/126p


I swear my normal days aren't like this. The day's okay if I pass on the pizza my friends were sharing but it looked so good that I had to have a slice. No regrets. I had that dinner a little too early in the day to be all gangster and have a protein shake before bed.

Sunday, November 4, 2018 Training

Deadlift (kg): 120x1, 120x1, 130x1 @8.5

Pause Deadlift (kg): 100x3, 105x3, 110x3 x3

Pause Bench (kg): 60x5, 65x5 @9, 62.5x5 x2 @8

Beltless HBBS (kg): 20x8, 40x8, 60x8, 65x8, 70x8

Facepulls, Side Planks

***

Unremarkable day. I tried the Duffin-style deadlift setup, getting tight in the SLDL position and then pulling knees to the bar. It felt awkward as hell. I went back to my normal setup for the pause sets which went a lot better. 110 felt easier than 107.5 did last week, FWIW.

I'm throwing in some high bar once every two weeks just for variation's sake. Just a little extra volume without causing any fatigue and hopefully it helps develop my mobility in the hole.

Do paused hbbs, imo

Um, those were HOMEMADE pork fried noodles and looked to die for, and most certainly worth 650 kcals. FWIW those weren’t egg noodles imo.

Also, since you’re playing the role of MLYLT, let’s see how close you were to 653 cals.

Is Renton on target? Below is pic of food.