Friday 14 December 2018 Training
BBM Heavy Light Medium W3 GPP

Airdyne Bike: 30 minutes RPE 6

Chin-up: AMRAP 7 minutes - 35 reps (+3)

Plank: AMRAP 7 minutes - 27 x 10 sec reps (+3)

***

Wasn't feeling the bike today, so I dragged ass a bit. I paced myself well on the amrap stuff and managed to get a lot more reps for it. I'm pretty happy getting 35 reps in 7 minutes considering my level of adiposity, and I'm spending almost 2/3 of the 7 minutes in a plank position.

Saturday 15 December 2018 Training
BBM Heavy Light Medium W3D3

Deadlift: 115x5 @6, 120x5 @7, 125x5 x2 sets @7.5, 9

CG Bench Press: 57.5x4, 62.5x4 @7.5, 65x4 x4 sets @ 8.5, 8, 8.5, 8.5

Beltless Squat: 102.5x4 @7, 105x4 x3 @8, 8.5, 9

***

Awful, awful day. Nocebo as ****.

Got a grip issue with deadlift. I feel that I am stronger with mixed grip than straps, providing its early in the session, but this bar smokes my hands faster than I can get through the work. So I think I need to just use straps exclusively for the first heavy sets and then do some mixed work to train my grip on the side. Not sure though. I cut off the work at two sets because I was really psyched out by how hard the second set was, and I was having weird pain in my right delt during pulls all day.

Bench was pretty tough too, but I think I at least found a decent setup for unracking close grip. Squats were very tough, with even 90x4 feeling pretty hard. Depth was a real challenge and I just kinda did what I could given the day.

shameful stuff here

I ate an astounding 1000 calories of french fries this week, and would have still gone higher on calories than last week if I had passed on them all. Diet is kind of unraveling. I might be stress eating.

Tuesday, 18 December 2018 Training
BBM Heavy Light Medium W4D1

Squat w/belt: 110x4 @6, 115x4 @7, 120x4 [rep PR] x4 sets @8, 8.5, 9, 8

Comp Bench: 57.5x4 @6, 60x4 @7, 62.5x4 x4 sets @8, 8, 8.5, 9

Block Pull: 120x4 @7, 125x4 @8, 130x3f, 125x4 @8.5, 125x4 @9

***

Really tough, really solid day.

Based on the trend of things with my squat, I had little doubt that 120x4 would happen, but I wasn't sure if I would be able to do it for sets across. The second and third sets were made more difficult by a 2nd rep misgroove grinder, but I managed to push through. Last set was a smoke show. Most reps were deeper than John Haack depth, albeit 400 fewer pounds. Last rep of last set was pretty buried by my standards. Good stuff.

I've been having some miscellaneous jank in my upper arms lately, especially the left, with enough pain that I applied tiger balm before bed last night. Bench warmups felt really snappy so I was optimistic going in. I supersetted all bench sets today with one arm cable crossover rows 40lb x 10, which I think I may do from now on as it seemed to help. Once I got to working weight, the left arm discomfort got worse and I was only able to press 62.5. So no bench gains in a month, now.

Block pulls remain brutal. I pulled 130x4 in week 1 and haven't yet made progress. I am pretty relieved to see these rotated out for pause deadlifts for the second block of HLM.

I got some vids, will post later.

I should add that I think my problem with deadlifts and block pulls may be inadequate rest between sets. It's always a dramatic dropoff in performance after my first hard set. I think I might be so out of shape that i need to rest 7-8 minutes instead of the 5 minutes that HLM calls for. That said, I'm sure I'm slowly adapting to the higher volume, and these workouts are already too long as it is.

Also, it seems like I really get substantially more speed off the floor from a dynamic setup, which is kind of unfortunate. I've been trying to be more patient off the floor and my pulls have been way harder. I'm wondering if it would be a good idea to just keep practicing the deliberate style and hope it eventually catches up.

***

Monthly Progress Report 18.11 - 18.12:

Press - weaker or maybe the same, i've done 41x5x3, 42.5x4

Bench - weaker but heavier bar and pausing all reps. 62.5x4x4 today, 62.5x5 in week 1. meh

Squat - 120x4x4, 117.5x5x2, 115x5x4 from 130x1, 117.5x4. Huge gains here. I think I could have done 130x1 today at a lower RPE after doing all the working sets tbh. I'm hoping for a 300 pound or maybe even 140 kilo squat to happen in before mid January.

Deadlift - 127.5x5x2, 125 for 18 working reps, from 140x1, 125x5 @10. Gains seem small but I've increased my work capacity a ton. Also doing some mixed grip. Admittedly I think 140 would still be really hard even for 1.

Bodyweight - still 68

Squats getting beastly, are your legs growing? Curious to hear if you’re seeing muscle gains there.

Thanks. I haven't formally taken measurements since last year (exactly on 18-Dec 2017 as it happens). On that day, I weighed 63 and my thigh circumference was 56cm. I just got out the tape and they're 59cm now. Pretty much 5% gains with 5kg body weight gain in 12 months, about 5 of which were spent not lifting at all.

Last time I weighed 68 was in August 2017 during my initial cut from 77 to 56. My measurements are almost the same as then, but I must be considerably leaner today.

That being said, since I've been over 65 I rarely wear jeans anymore as most of them don't fit in the legs. Mostly I wear shorts or sweats now.

Thursday 20 December 2018 Training
BBM Heavy Light Medium W4D2

Press: 38.5x4 @6, 40x4 @7, 42.5x4x4 x4 sets @7.5, 8, 8, 8.5

Leg Press: 110x8 @6, 120x8 @7, 130x8 x4 sets @8, 8, 8.5, 9

Pendlay Row: 50x8, 55x8, 57.5x8, 60x8 x4 sets

TNG Bench Press: 50x8, 52.5x8 @6, 55x8 x4 sets @7, 7.5, 7.5, 8

1:52, SRPE 7, 784 AU

***

Minor gains on press, finally. I forgot to bring the belt, not that it would help much. I'm gonna track SRPE if only so it will make me more aware of session length. I think I'm getting destroyed by these sessions that drag on to almost 3 hours.

Today I was pretty much on it with the rest intervals and setting up the next exercise during the last rest interval. Still took almost two hours for light day, but this is the highest volume week in the program.

Friday 21 December 2018 Training
BBM Heavy Light Medium W4 GPP

Elliptical: 30 minutes RPE 5

Chin-up: AMRAP 7 minutes - 36 reps (+1)

Plank: AMRAP 7 minutes - 28 x 10 sec reps (+1)

***

Today I discovered why fatties gravitate to the elliptical. It's like the airdyne bike except the resistance is negative. I was watching an hour long video and I actually considered just going an hour. That's pretty much proof that it was providing no conditioning benefits whatsoever to me.

You can make any cardio machine as hard or easy as you want. Just push harder on the elliptical.

I had some down time at work and read through some of your log. I'm really impressed by your detail to accuracy and how you didn't falter much during your cut. Are you cutting/recomping now?

Thanks. Cutting was easy because the results were extremely motivating. Now, not so easy because I'm trying to continue gaining strength so there are conflicting motivations. For the record, I am attempting and failing to slowly cut. Ideal for me would be to lose about 1kg a month.

Re: the elliptical, this one in particular was so mechanically efficient that I'd have had to frantically sprint just to get to RPE 7. I just didn't want to do the airdyne today because I was wearing my underarmour shorts.

Saturday 22 December 2018 Training
BBM Heavy Light Medium W4D3

Deadlift: 120x4 @6, 125x4 @7, 130x4 [rep PR] x4 sets @ 7.5, 8, 8, 8.5

CG Bench Press: 60x4, 63.5x4 @7.5, 66.5x4 x3 sets @ 8.5, 9.5, 9

Beltless Squat: 102.5x4 @7, 107.5x4 @8, 112.5x4 [PR] x3 sets @8.5, 9, 9

2:11, SRPE 9, 1179 AU

***

I had a hard time putting together a decent deadlift day during this program but it finally happened. Mixed grip held up really well, but instead of doing it for all sets, I just did a static hold at the top of the last rep of set 2 and strapped up for the remaining two sets. Singles @8 start being programmed next week, and it looks like I need the practice, as the first rep of all sets were absurdly hard for the intensity of the work today.

More bench shenanigans but I finally put together a decent set with the third set of 66.5. Squats were pretty hard and depth was tough, but it might just be these pants. Overall, I'm really happy to put up a decent session at the end of the first block of HLM. This week will introduce singles and substantially decrease the volume.

Tuesday, 25 December 2018 Training
BBM Heavy Light Medium W5D1

Squat w/belt: 127.5 @7.5, 132.5 @8.5 [PR], 122.5x4 [PR] x2 sets @ 8.5, 9.5, 117.5x4 @10 (link)

Comp Bench: 70 @7.5, 72.5 @8.5, 67.5x3 @9, 67.5x4 @10, 65x3 @9 (link)

Pause Deadlift: 125 @?, 117.5x3 [PR] @8, 122.5x3 [PR] @9 (link)

***

Great day, loads to say about it but I have to run to xmas dinner. Merry Chrismas guys and gals.

PR city itt.

Merry Christmas.

+1

Great PRs, man.

Those holiday calories paying off? Nice work, man.

Thanks, bros!

Yeah.... still bulking it seems.



To be fair, if I weren't actively trying to reduce calories, I'd be up to 75kg by now probably. I've been right at 68 for a long time now. I doubt meaningful recomp is happening, though. It's time for a more deliberate approach to fat loss. One of the things I'm going to be doing going forth is not having breakfast every day as a matter of course, just having it on days that I lift instead. That should save me around 1200 calories a week alone.

***

Anyway, to pick up where I left of on my last log entry:

2:15, SRPE 8, 1080 AU


Pretty annoying, as this week is supposed to be somewhat of a deload. Given the volume, it should have taken me 90 minutes at most to do this, but I got side tracked by some work stuff and wasn't very efficient at ramping up to my working sets.

An interesting development: in true renton sperg fashion, I brought my digital scale to the gym to see if the bars there were indeed lighter than the rogue bar. They are NOT. One of the bars was dead on 20kg, the other 19.7. I kind of expected to fake PR everything for a couple of workouts, but it looks like my bench and OHP really made zero gains for the last month.

Squats went pretty well. It was at least an average day for depth, but I had a clear squat morning pattern for all hard reps. The 117.5 set was the closest I've come to failing a squat in years, with the bar falling way out of groove and me trying as hard as I could to get my knees back where they belonged.

Bench had predictably better performance due to the ability to self unrack without losing tightness, but worse performance because I decided to take the opportunity to start using the compression grip. It wasn't painful or anything, but I found it very tough to keep the bar from moving back and forth (along the axis of my head to my feet). It felt a little like what a bamboo bar must feel like. So I'm blaming the awkwardness of the grip for the fact that my reps suffered much more than my singles, which went quite well considering.

It's hard to complain too much about adding 7.5kg to my pause dl triple, but I will anyway. First of all when I was ramping up to the single, I pulled 115x1 and nearly passed out. That's never happened to me before. After I put the bar down I started to lose consciousness and I had to steady myself with the wall. Then it happened again with the 125 just not as bad.

The work sets went fantastic, but the one thing I'm not thrilled about is that I pull pause deadlifts significantly differently than normal ones. For some reason, I feel stronger looking down with my head/neck tucked until the pause is over, whereas with normal deadlifts I have to jack my neck up to pull like I like. Very weird. Also I feel like I'm pausing in a "comfortable" spot where I can lose a little tightness and kind of chill there with the weight, instead of staying super tight and pause at the hardest part of the ROM.

Great stuff in here Renton. 140 is imminent. You have come back really strong. Any thoughts about what may have contributed to your triumphant return? Mental, programming, diet, et cetera?

Thanks!

I'd say it was mostly mental. My diet isn't all that different than it ever was, and while I'm sure adding a few kilos of bodyweight at the start was an assist, my OHP is still not stronger than it was prior to my layoff. Revisiting the conventional deadlift is probably the biggest change I've made since the old days, and I'm sure it's had a bit of a positive feedback loop with my squat. I've also made some minor mobility improvements over time that allowed me to deadlift with a relatively flat back and squat to depth-ish.

But re: the mental side, this has just been a really hard year for me personally and professionally and I think I channeled that into lifting. Kind of like bros who go to prison and come out jacked. There was a period of months when I was literally working 12-14 hours a day 7 days a week in a failing business and couldn't easily train, so I was really anxious to get back to it with a vengeance once I had more free time.

Nice work!

Thanks!


So, today brings front squats, an exercise that I haven't done in maybe a year. I figured since I seemed to have better mobility the second time around for conventional deadlifts, maybe the same would happen for front squats. I found this really cool video that is maybe the first time I've ever benefited from a mobility drill in my life. By the end of it, I was doing this:



The sotts press feels impossible for me to do with the bar over mid foot. The video said the overhead squat would be even harder, but I found it easier because at least I could hold the bar directly over my center of gravity unlike with the sotts. So yeah, I can overhead squat below parallel now and do a full hands-around-bar front rack. No biggie.


Thursday 27 December 2018 Training
BBM Heavy Light Medium W5D2

Press: 47.5 @8.5, 43.5x4 x3 sets @8, 8.5, 8.5

Front Squat: 40x6, 50x6, 60x6, 70, 80, 87.5, 72.5x3, 65x3

Pendlay Row: 60x6, 62.5x6, 65x6

TNG Bench Press: 52.5x6, 57.5x6, 60x6 @7, 62.5x6 @8.5

1:50, SRPE 8, 880 AU

***

Minor gains on press, which I'll gladly take at this point. I departed from script for front squats because I was curious how much more I could front squat with a caving chest than with staying upright. Turns out, a lot. I hesitate to rate RPE on anything, but the bar speed on the 87.5 looks like a 5RM at least, and I think I'd dump the bar on the pins long before I get to that 5th rep. The plan after that was just more sets of 6 but my upper back was smoked. Next time I'm going to be more conservative and do the ramping 6s as planned, but rate RPE based on chest cave amount. It may result in me having a working weight as low as 60 until my thoracic extension can catch up a little bit to my legs.

Session RPE is tough to rate. In terms of the amount of work and the intensity it's probably a 6, but my upper back fatigue was so bad and my wrists so trashed that I didn't even finish the prescribed work.

Nice work on the front squat mobility - I really need to get on that, and I watch Telander's channel and saw that video, so no real excuse other than laziness. The recent squats look really nice, too; as others have said, great work.

Looks good. SOTTS press is hard at first but gets easier relatively quickly with practice. Even Fredd-bird had some momentary frustrations with it, before moving on to impossible weights. I have to kind of visualize pulling back against bands from the shoulders.

Thanks. The only thing is that it all might be leading me down a rabbit hole that could take a lot of time and effort. I'm start to think that thoracic weakness is the throughline that has caused problems for my squat, press, and deadlift since the beginning. And yeah I hear you saying upper back work all day but I am starting to think that it will take more than rows to fix this. Probably more specificity is needed like doing all squats with strict thoracic extension or heavy snatch grip rdls and more front squats.

This stuff is so weird though. Today I did a few more overhead squats, and my elbows unlocked while I was hitting parallel. It's nuts that limitations in hip and upper back mobility cause that.

Friday 28 December 2018 Training
BBM Heavy Light Medium W5 GPP 1

Front Squat Drills: 10 minutes

Spin Bike: 30s @9, 90s @6 for 18 minutes

Chin-up: AMRAP 7 minutes - 37 reps (+1)

***

First time doing intervals ever, and got rekd. I'm pretty surprised to get another volume pr for chins considering how trashed my upper back was. I bitched out on the planks, but this week has two gpp sessions so I'll get some of them in on Sunday.

Add in 3 - 5 sets (15 - 20 reps per set, a few reps short of failure) of strict form face pulls at least twice a week.

All squats should be done with strict thoracic extension.

Heavy RDLs, normal or snatch grip, and FSs are fine too.