Chris - 11/18, 11/20

11/18: 5/3/1 Deload, Bench Press
Bench Press:
65x5; 85x5; 95x3
65x5; 85x5; 95x5
95x10; 95x10; 95x10

Dumbbell Rows:
40x10; 60x5; 80x20

11/20: 5/3/1 Deload, Deadlift
Deadlift:
140x5; 175x5; 210x3
140x5; 175x5; 210x5
192x10; 192x10; 192x10

Good Mornings:
45x5; 70x5; 95x5; 120x5; 135x5
145x10; 145x10; 145x10

Snatch:
55xwhatever

I think it's a bit early to tell what does or doesn't work for me for 5/3/1. Considering switching bench press/military assistance to pyramiding sets, or even doing bonus sets of bench on military press days and vice versa, just so I can get more heavy-ish work in, but we'll see. And my squat and deadlift days wipe me out enough as is, so no planned changes there.

Planned jumps for next cycle, which might have to start after Thanksgiving:
Bench: 180.5lbs -> 185.5lbs (+5)
Squat: 385.0lbs -> 390.0lbs (+5)
Deadlift: 385.0lbs -> 395.0lbs (+10)
Military Press: 127.0lbs -> 132.0lbs (+5)

For training maxes of [166.95, 351, 355, 118.8]. Let's see how it goes.

Deload Week Updates

Back by popular demand...

08/02
Squat
45x10
95x10
135x10
135x10
135x10

BP
45x10
95x10
135x10
135x10
135x10

DL
135x10
225x10
225x10
225x10

08/04
Squat
45x10
95x10
135x10
185x8
225x5
225x5
225x5

BP
45x10
95x10
135x8
185x5
185x5
185x5

DL
135x10
225x10
315x5
315x5
315x5

08/06
Prowler pushing


Took a long weekend, went home and ate and slept a lot (i.e. Danny mini-deload).

Body Comp. Notes: 178.8 @ 10% BF

Also...I can't comment here at work but Aaron...it's called dynamically warming up. Check out some of the Parisi Warmups, fire hydrants, bird-dogs, cat-camel, toy-soldiers. I keep talking about this til I'm blue in the face, maybe eventually some of you will wise-up. I'd hate to see anyone get hurt.

Chris - 7/27

TM - Volume (Deload)

Squat (unbelted):
Warmup - 45x5; 95x5; 135x4; 185x3
225x5; 225x5; 225x5; 225x5; 225x5
Tried hitting parallel instead of going completely ATG. I kept slipping down :(

Bench Press:
Warmup - 45x5; 75x5; 95x4; 115x3
135x5; 135x5; 135x5; 135x5; 135x5
Touch and go. Learned to press with the heel of my palm.

Bent-over Rows:
Warmup - 45x5; ~90x5; ~120x4
135x8; 135x8; 135x8
Easy.

At Shanker's request...
Kroc Rows:
Right hand:
60x16; 60x16; 60x16
Left hand:
60x16; 60x16; 60x16
These are pretty hard. Potential replacement for the bent-over/Pendlay rows?

Ab Roller (from knees):
10; 10; 10

I'll have a small writeup on my first TM cycle up in a little bit.

Chris - 6/5

Deload?

Squat:
Warmup: 45x5; 95x5; 135x5; 185x5
245x5
245x5
245x5

Bench Press:
Warmup: 45x5; 70x5; 95x5; 120x4
145x5
145x5
145x5

Deadlift:
Warmup: 135x5; 185x5; 225x4; 275x3
325x5

Bye bye Starting Strength... Hello Texas Method!
My first attempt at a TM-styled routine looks something along these lines:

Tuesday - Volume
Squat - 5x5 @ 90% of 5RM
Bench Press - 5x5 @ 90% of 5RM
Rows for 3x8 @ 90% of 5RM or Power Cleans for 5x3
Ab work?
Lower back work?

Thursday - Recovery
Back Squat - 2x5 @ 75-80% of what I do on Tuesday
Military Press - 3x5 @ 75-80% 5RM
Pullups?

Saturday - Intensity
Squat - 5RM; later on try 2-3RM scaling up to 5RM as time passes
Bench Press - "
Deadlift - "
Dips?

My thoughts:
-Squat in volume day is a given, bench goes in it to build up experience and confidence.
-Recovery is recovery. Light squat, light military press.
-I'm not sure about maxing all three of my lifts on the same day, though. I think I should try to distribute it; perhaps move deadlifts to Wednesday, and add some more assistance work to Friday?
-Assistance work and its placement in general... not sure how to go about it. I have room to play with it, though.

Chris - 6/3

DELOAD WHEEE

Squat (unbelted):
Warmup: 45x5; 95x5; 135x5; 175x4; 215x3
240x5
280x5
320x5
Oof. Doable, though.

Military Press:
Warmup: 45x5; 50x5; 65x4
72x5
92x5
112x5
Doable.

Bent-over Rows:
Warmup: 45x5; 65x5; 95x5
125x5
157x5
187x5
No comment.

Pullups:
+0x8
+0x8
No comment.

Part one of my goodbye to SS.

I think the various flavors of SS (Rank novice, advanced novice, etc) are pretty aggressive, more so than I can handle at the moment; I've certainly been trying to bump up the weights and make the lifts, but they're just not happening. So I think my best option is Texas Method, and to see where routine weekly advancement takes me.

A plan will come with my next post or perhaps edited into this one, depending on when I get around to reading the relevant bit of Practical Programming.

Shanker: Deloading and such

Have joined the ranks of Frank, Nate and everyone in my office by coming down with the seasonal cold. Slept for about 16 hours on Sunday, which, now that I think about it, actually isn't out of the ordinary...

So yes, as Danny astutely observed, my deload week started about half way through my squat workout on Thursday.

03/20
BP
135x5x5

DB Row
60x20x5

Military Press
65x5x5

Core work

Walk on treadmill at 4 mph/admire reflection for 1 mile...not entirely sure which part got my heart rate up more.

Brian - Deeeeeloading

Deadlift;
133x6, 133x6, 183x6, 183x6, 183x6, 183x6

Squats;
45x6, 95x6, 135x6, 185x3, 183x3, 185x3

Stair jumps;
Standing: max 5-steps from the pole
Moving: max 6-steps

Brian - Deload Chest and Some Wrestling

Over the holiday I traveled home for a little break. I wrestled with the team I help coach. I was worried about my elbows hurting from lifting, and alas, after practice they hurt so bad that I was nearly in tears.

I'm so confused by this injury. They didn't hurt while I was wrestling but the moment I got home and cooled down it was intense pain on the inside of my arms. I put a little ice on them and after 30 minutes they were good as new. I just don't get it.

I did get to kick some ass though, so that was a nice change of pace from empty-threatening Jon's life all day. I also did a bunch of low weight, high rep, very intense exercises with the team that I don't feel like listing, but it was good to get back to those workouts for a few days.

Today I went back and did a final day of deload chest before volume squats tomorrow.

Bench w/ pause;
Warmup - 45x10, 95x5, 135x5, 160x3
Working - 185x3, 185x3, 185x3, 185x3

Close grip decline bench;
Warmup - 135x10
Working - 185x8, 185x8

Hammer Curls - 15lb(each hand)x20x3

I did these because Nathan (through Kik) mentioned that they might be good for my incredibly strange elbow injury. I went very slow on the negative. Also as a side note, absolutely zero elbow pain on bench today. Weird...

Seated rows - 70x15x1 (pause at chest)

Pushups - 20x6

Looking forward to volume squats tomorrow. I might bring a camera to post videos so that we can talk about form. That seems like a pretty effective way to evaluate technique and get useful feedback.

Oh, I also signed up for a half marathon today. Might be time to start running again soon!

We have a deload/transition week, which means doing some volume without killing us on it. We will also replace the second exercise by some fun movement in order to reduce stress.

275x4 @8
275x4 @8
295x4 @9
295x4 @9
295x4 @9
295x4 @9

Stair jumps: numerous

Good mornings:
135x8
135x8
185x6
185x6
135x8

Some abs, then sauna.


There was a long debate tonight about squat depth.

Basically, strict voices from Gordon considered this one _at_ parallel; I see it as slightly below (note that the pic is shot from slightly above, which we should correct in the future):




In comparison, the IPF/USAPL rule:


or in words:

"Upon receiving the Chief Referees signal, the lifter must bend the knees and lower the body until the top surface of the legs at the hip joint are lower than the top of the knees."

I suggest to the interested among us to spent a few minutes here:

http://www.usapowerlifting.com/newsletter/06/novice/novice.html

This will be the standard that I want to use as a basis for my squats. Feel free to chime in with suggestion as to where to place the red lines, also feel encouraged to post your own pics.

Shanker: Deload Week DL's and Things of That Nature

Warmup:
Jog 1/2 mile
Cat/Camel 16
Cult yoga prayer doohickey 16
Fire Hydrants 16

Working Sets:
Deadlift (From negative of 1 of those plyo steps w/o shoes) 133x10; 199x10; 243x10; 310x8
Very happy with these...as everything came up very easily. My hips are still shooting up, which Danny diagnoses as an inner thigh weakness, hence the following sets of leg presses. I'm inclined to think hes right, as my lower back feels (and looks) as strong as its ever been. I thought DL'ing from a negative would help me, but apparently it didn't. One more thing of note...my back didn't really arch and was pretty straight the entire time. I think this is a good thing as my my hips have a natural anterior tilt. Keeping my hips square with my body prevents impulse on my spine and hence the inflammation caused along L4 and L5 that gave me so much trouble from February to May.

Leg Press (Feet, knees in to hit inner thigh) 3 platesx12; 4 platesx12; 5 platesx8; 6 platesx6; 6 platesx3 (Fail)
So...yesterday Gordon identified a slight clicking noise in my right knee as my knee bend breaks 90. Needless to say during legpresses this was extremely disconcerting...definitely need to get this checked out, as I'm pretty sure this is a fairly new occurrence.

Russian Barbell Twist 25x17; 50x12
Hanging Knee Raise BWx24

Dick around/flash abs at mirror/harass Gordon/complain about horrific 80's music/generally make ass of self x25x8
Hey, it's a deload week. I was particularly pleased my dancing today to said horrific 80's music. Michael can attest I took a bad thing and made it 10 time worse.

Shanker: Deload Week Continues

08/21
Running Green Building
1)2:50
2)3:20
3)3:15
4)3:15

08/22
Warmup:
Jog 1/2 Mile
Cat/Camel 16
Weird Prayer Yoga Thingy 16
Fire Hydrants 16
Squat 45x10

Working Sets:
Squat 135x20; 185x20; 225x8x2

Shanker: Deload Week Chest 08/20

Warmup:
Jog 1 mile
Chest Jumping Jacks
Flat DB Chest Press 45x12

Working Sets:
Flat DB Chest Press 65x12x3
Standing Military Press 45x12; 65x12; 95x8x2; 95x9
Incline DB Fly 40x12x3
Hanging WSW BWx12; BW+5x8
Kneeling Cable Crunch 190x18

Shanker: Deload Week Back/Bi 08/19

Warmup:
Jog 1 mile

Working Sets:
DB Preacher Curl 35x12x3
DB Hammer Curl 20x24x3
V-Bar Row 2 platesx24x3
Pullup BWx12x3
Decline Russian Twist 1/2 platex17 (5/9 of a plate, really)
Floor DB Russian Twist 20x17
Leg Raise+Reverse Crunch BWx24

Post workout:
Sauna + H/C Showers
Static Stretching of Hams, Low Back, Glutes in Sauna