Friday 31 May 2019 Training
Sheiko #30 W1D2

Deadlift (3'): 65x4, 85x4 x2 sets, 100x3 x2 sets, 115x3 x5 sets

Comp. Bench (2'): 40x5, 50x5, 55x4 x2 sets, 60x3 x2 sets, 65x2 x2 sets, 70x1, 72.5x1 @8.5, 65x2 x2 sets, 60x3 x2 sets, 55x4, 52.5x6, 47.5x8, 45x10, 40x12
DB Hammer Curl: 25lb x8 x7 sets

Block Deadlift (3'): 85x5, 100x4 x2 sets, 115x3 x3 sets, 122.5x2, 130x2, 130x1 @9

DB Fly (90'): 25lb x5 x4 sets
Single Leg Press: 100x10, 115x10x0 x3 sets

T=150m @8
Knee @1

***

Yeesh.

Nothing was particularly hard until the block pulls, but this was just a ton of sets. My feet are tired from driving into the floor over and over. That's a strange feeling. Deadlift felt sluggish (like a wet sponge) and bench felt quite good. 40x12 bench was no joke after all those sets.

I think the problem with block pulls is that the program considers them supramaximal. I think down the road it has me doing singles at 105% of my deadlift and stuff. Meanwhile I find block pulls to be as difficult if not moreso than pulls from the floor. So going forward I'll probably take 5kg off whatever it tells me to do.

This workout took forever and I didn't even do all of the prescribed work.

That's a lot of benching!

Yeah, Sheiko is no joke.

Wednesday 2 June 2019 Training
Sheiko #30 W1D3

Squat w/belt (3'): 65x5, 80x4 x2 sets, 95x3, 102.5x3 x2 sets, 107.5x3 x4 sets

Comp. Bench (2'): 40x5, 50x4 x2 sets, 55x3, 60x3, 65x2 x6 sets

Dip (1.5'): x6 x5 sets
Seated Calf Raise: 30x12 x5 sets

T=??? @6
Knee @3

***

Still very sore. My knees were tighter than usual and squats did not go well. I ran out of time so it was a choice between doing the second round of squats or the dips/calves, I chose the latter under the circumstances. I found a decent hack for calf raises, using lower diameter plates so it doesn't bottom out. Sometimes we have to get creative in pursuit of FULLROM.

Wednesday 5 June 2019 Training
Sheiko #30 W2D1

Squat w/belt (4'): 65x5, 80x4 x2 sets, 95x3 x2 sets, 107.5x2 x2 sets, 120 @8, 120 @8.5, 120 @8.5

Comp. Bench (2'): 40x5, 50x4, 55x3, 60x3, 65x2 x6 sets
NG Chin-up: x4 x9 sets

Squat w/belt (2.5'): 65x5, 80x4, 95x3 x2 sets, 107.5x2 x4 sets

DB Fly (1'): 25lb x10 x5 sets

Goodmorning (1.5'): 75x5, 80x5, 85x5 x3 sets
Pushup: x10 x5 sets

T=122' @7
Knee @1

***

Two minor milestones today. It's the first day in a while that I actually had the time and energy to do all of the prescribed accessory work. It's also the heaviest weight that I've squatted in over four months.

I'm fairly happy with how squatting went. Warming up felt kind of sluggish, so I was a bit worried going in. IDK if it's like this for other people but I can tell how the day is gonna go by how fast 80 and 95 move. That I could hit 90% at a conservative @8 on a day that I didn't feel that strong was, IMO, a good sign.

On the second round of squats I had a minor epiphany about how to descend better. Basically for me to hit depth I have to lean forward quite a bit, and on the last few 107.5 sets I managed to "lean forward without leaning forward" if that makes any sense. Basically closing my hip angle more while still keeping everything tight in the thoracic area. Not sure if this technique will work on heavier sets but we will see.

Another really light bench day. I taped a set because I haven't done it in a while. Looks fine to me.

edit: Might need an RPEV check on that single. During the rep it felt quite heavy, but it was fairly light to walk out. In the past my near max singles were always very shaky to walk out.

Single seemed like an 8 to me; nice job!

Milestones are great, minor or not!

Thanks, bros.

Friday 7 June 2019 Training
Sheiko #30 W2D2

Deadlift to Knees (3'): 65x4, 85x4 x2 sets, 100x3 x2 sets, 110x3 x4 sets

Comp. Bench (2'): 40x5, 50x5, 55x4 x2 sets, 60x3 x2 sets, 65x2, 70x2 @8.5, 60x3 x2 sets, 55x5 x2 sets, 50x7, 40x9

Deadlift (3'): 65x4, 85x4, 100x3 x2 sets, 115x3 x5 sets

T=??? @7
Knee @1

***

I went in still extremely sore in the groin and hams area from Wednesday's squats (edit: or goodmornings, perhaps) . Deadlifts felt super gross given how light this weight is.

Bench felt super good in comparison, and the 70x2 was just me seeing how good 70x2 felt. The program called for another 65x2. I think I'm still not quite where I got to on bench with the sheiko 5 day routine. I was doing 67.5x3x7 and stuff at the end of that program and I think that would be pretty hard for me to do right now.

Sunday 9 June 2019 Training
Sheiko #30 W2D3

Squat w/belt (3'): 65x5, 80x5 x2 sets, 95x5 x5 sets

Comp. Bench (2'): 40x5, 50x4 x2 sets, 55x3, 60x3, 65x2 x5 sets, 60x2 x5 sets
NG Chin-up: x5 x5 sets
DB Hammer Curl: 25lb x9 x3 sets, 25lb x8 x2 sets

Dip (1.5'): x8 x5 sets
Single Leg Press: 100lb x10, 115lb x10 x4 sets

Seated Calf Raise (1'): 32.5x12 x3 sets, 32.5x10

T=109' @6
Knee @0

***

Good day of relatively light work. I'm still pretty sore and fatigued so it was nice to get some active recovery in.

Wednesday 12 June 2019 Training
Sheiko #30 W3D1

Squat w/belt (3'): 65x5, 80x4 x2 sets, 95x3 x2 sets, 107.5x3 x5 sets

Comp. Bench (2'): 40x5, 50x4, 55x3, 60x3, 65x3 x5 sets
NG Chin-up: x5 x5 sets

Squat w/belt (2.5'): 65x6, 80x6, 87.5x6 x4 sets

Comp. Bench (2'): 45x5, 52.5x5 x2 sets, 60x4 x4 sets
BB Curl: 18.5x10 x4 sets

Goodmorning (1.5'): 75x5 x5 sets
DB Fly: 25lb x10 x5 sets

T=125' @7
Knee @1

***

Pretty crazy amount of volume today, but I had enough energy to get through it without issue. Squats were pretty snappy. Bench was strong. May be in PR territory for bench, actually.

I kept the goodmornings light since they wrecked my **** pretty bad last week.

What is your diet like at the moment? Bulk/cut/maintenance/whatever?

I'm under insane amounts of stress right now so the one thing I allow myself is diet. I'm eating whatever I want whenever I want. But not necessarily a lot of food. So yeah a completely suboptimal diet and I'm very slowly gaining weight. Scale ranges between 66 and 67.


I wanted to make a separate post assessing the current state of my knee.

The good news:

- steady, predictable improvement in my knee pain and range of motion with each training week

- better rom and less pain now than maybe ever in training. In other words, my knee feels better during squats now than it did two years ago.


The bad news:

- the original not-during-training symptoms are still lingering. I still have tingling in my left foot and minor pain in my left calf when standing for extended periods. It's improved somewhat, but not enough.

- something new. Originally when I had this weird calf/foot thing, it was only during standing and not during walking. Now I have it during walking for extended periods (i.e. walking more than 2-3 blocks my foot starts to tingle). I especially have it whenever I walk somewhere after having been sitting for many hours, or after having just woken up.


So it seems like I need to start implementing some scheduled walks. Maybe two 10 minute walks per day and escalate slowly. I think the fact that my knee is in a resting bent state like 23 hours per day is not doing me any favors wrt recovery. It might also help if I just lock out my knee actively (i.e. contract the quads at lockout for a solid 5 count) for some sets of 20 every day.

Fair enough. I would just make sure you get enough protein since you had a tendency to have a few below 100g days IIRC. I'm currently eating what I want, when I want as well, but weighing myself every few days and making sure I get my protein. You can't go terribly wrong doing that.

So I just went for a late night walk to get some food. Had the familiar symptoms on the way there (I'd been sitting for hours beforehand). After the meal I walked around the block for about 20 minutes and had no symptoms whatsoever.

Now I'm kind of feeling like if I just continue doing mostly submax squatting and add in some walks that I'll have this thing knocked out pretty soon.

That actually is pretty optimal imo for us normies

As long as you’re getting decent protein

Some days I don't get enough. Most days I'm okay though.


Friday 14 June 2019 Training
Sheiko #30 W3D2

Deadlift w/Mixed (3-4'): 70x5, 85x4, 100x3 x2 sets, 115x3 x3 sets, 122.5x2 x3 sets

Comp. Bench (1-2'): 40x6, 50x5, 55x4 x2 sets, 60x3 x2 sets, 65x2 x2 sets, 70x1 x2 sets @7, 65x2 x2 sets, 60x3 x2 sets, 55x5, 52.5x7, 50x9, 45x11, 40x13

DB Fly (1'): 20lb x10 x5 sets

Deadlift from Blocks w/Straps (3-4'): 90x5, 105x5 x2 sets, 115x4 x4 sets

Single Leg Press (1.5'): 100x10 x5 sets

T=137' @8
Knee @0

***

My groin was super tight from the goodmornings, same as last week. Its kind of annoying to have a hard time touching your toes and then being expected to pull relatively heavy weights from that position.

I went strapless for deadlifts, which I prefer, just haven't been doing it as much when grip has been the limiting factor. Grip held up fine today. I took some weight off of the block pulls and was better off for it. Those are just brutally hard for me for some reason.

Today was another sperg pyramid of submax bench sets. Everything felt great/easy but I think it's supposed to? The higher rep backoffs didn't feel as nasty this time.

I find this to be good during breathing, provided that you maintain knee/foot alignment throughout the squat, including at the top. If you lose the tension on the outside of the thigh that keeps the knees aligned with the feet, the knees would cave inward towards each other. I've noticed that the next squat suffers if I don't maintain this tension through the breath and into the next squat. Ideally, the knees would be aligned with the feet throughout the set, but this requires a lot of attention to detail which isn't necessarily easy when you're reaching for the guts to squat the weight.

Just to clarify, I was referring to knee lockout in daily life, not necessarily during the squat. Whatever is wrong with my left knee, it doesn't like being fully locked out.

As for how to train the squat in order to better rehab my knee, most of the stuff I've read suggests it would respond well to eccentric loading, i.e. going down with a slow tempo. Other articles suggest doing unilateral work like lunges or split squats. I'm currently doing slow tempo single leg press once per week for high reps and it seems to help. Also, calf raises may be having an effect.

my mistake. I dislocated my knee at 22 years old and I remember being unable to establish full knee extension. Still bothers me sometimes.

Yeah, it's a strange case. I can extend fully, it's just that when I do so for a long time while bearing a load i.e. standing, I get strange neuropathy. I actually can't flex my knee all the way, never have been able to.

Sunday 16 June 2019 Training
Sheiko #30 W3D3

Comp. Bench (2'): 40x5, 50x4, 55x3, 60x3, 65x3 x6 sets, LS @7

Squat w/belt (3-4'): 65x5, 80x4, 95x3 x2 sets, 107.5x3 x2 sets, 115x2 x3 sets @ 7, 7.5, 8, 107.5x3 x3 sets

Comp. Bench (2'): 50x5 x2 sets, 55x5 x5 sets
NG Chin-up: x5 x3 sets, x4 x2 sets (I was tired!)

Seated Calf Raise (1.5'): 30x12 x5 sets
DB Fly: 25lb x10 x5 sets

T=120' @7
Knee @0

***

It seems like I am finally getting some training momentum. I went in on only 4 hours of sleep and still smashed everything. It was a good bit of squat volume and this is the heaviest weight I've doubled in quite a while. Knee felt great. Depth was kind of tricky cause my back and glutes were still really tight and sore from Friday.

That I can put up a showing like this at the end of a training week when I didn't even sleep well makes me want to increase the bench/squat numbers a mite going forward.

Wednesday 19 June 2019 Training
Sheiko #30 W4D1

Squat w/belt (3-4'): 65x5, 80x4, 95x3 x2 sets, 110x3 x2 sets, 115x2 x2 sets, 122.5 @8, 122.5 @8, 110x2 x4 sets

Comp. Bench (2'): 40x5, 50x4, 55x3, 60x3, 67.5x3 x2 sets @8.5, 70x2 x2 sets @9, 65x3 x2 sets @8

Dip (1.5'): x8 x5 sets
Goodmorning: 65x5 x5 sets

T=125' @8
Knee @0

***

I dragged ass today because I was in an awful mood. Squats were an interesting predicament because while I knew I had no desire to squat heavy ass weight, I also objectively knew that I was very strong today. My knee felt really loose, and squats grooved quite well. Benching was pretty mediocre.

I've decided that since this day is generally so stacked that I never feel like doing the goodmornings that I'll just do really light ones and treat it more like a loaded stretch than a strength building movement.

Friday 21 June 2019 Training
Sheiko #30 W4D2

Deadlift (3'): 65x4, 80x4, 100x3 x2 sets, 115x3 x2 sets, 120x2, 125x2 x2 sets

Comp. Bench (2-3'): 40x5, 50x4, 55x3, 60x3, 65x3, 67.5x3, 70x2 x3 sets, LS @9, 55x5, 60x4 x4 sets
NG Chin: x4 x7 sets
DB Hammer Curl : 25lb x7 x4 sets

T=82' @8
Knee @0

***

I made it a short one today. Been having a rough time outside the gym and it's a lot that I even showed up. Weirdly it was bench that took it out of me today. Deadlifts were pretty decent.

Session RPEs have been on the high side lately, but next session is a bench deload day and squatting is only moderately heavy. Then that concludes the high volume block so things will pull back beginning next week.

Wednesday 26 June 2019 Training
Impromptu Test Maxes

Squat w/belt: 120 @7, 130 @9, 135 [PR] @10

Comp. Bench: 75 @8.5, 80 @ a soft 10, 82.5f

Deadlift: 130 @6.5, 140 @8.5, 147.5f

Knee @0

***

I skipped the last day of the #30 block. Ordinarily I'd go right into the #31, but I've got an inconsistent week of training ahead of me so I thought it was a decent time to test. Will do a general GPP type of day on Friday and then a few days off before starting into #31.

I went into this expecting to be slightly weaker than my PRs on all three lifts. I've had some training momentum but still haven't been handling weights that I handled in the days that I set my PRs originally. I'd have guessed 127.5 squat, 77.5 bench, and 140 deadlift but I literally had no idea how it would go.

Squat was a pleasant surprise. That's my first 2x bodyweight rep. The 130 rep was kind of hairy and not deep enough, so it was really a shot in the dark going for 135. I got slightly deeper with 135 but it's still borderline. I'm sure loco will watch the video at 25% speed to make sure the bar didn't go down after going up, but it looks to me like a quality grinder under the circumstances.

Bench was surprisingly strong too. I could possibly have tripled 75, which is pretty sick considering my PR double is 72.5. 80 matches my PR at about the same RPE, so I think it's safe to say that I'm at least as strong as I've ever been on bench.

I had the lowest expectations for deadlift based on how training has been going. 140 was 2.5 shy of my PR and that's the easiest 140 has ever been. 147.5 was a pretty ambitious jump but I didn't want to only increase my max by 2.5 . I thought based on how clean 140 was that I could pull an ugly 147.5. Maybe not my smartest decision. It barely left the floor.



I had to leave the intro in to prove that it's really 135. I can't imagine who among you would call into question how much is on the bar, but better safe than sorry.

You've got a nice log that details actual physical transformations and the written word trumps video any day!

Nice work!

Nicely done! Your squat is relatively really, really strong.