Keone 7/26

Took series 7 today (passed, thank god). Had been spending all my free time cramming for it so... 5 days off?

Bench
195x5x3 (PR!)

Squat
275x5x3
bleargh this was hard

Press
95x5x3
85x5
75x5
65x5 x10 (1 min)
going to try some volume stimulation to try to stop sucking so much

Power Clean
135x5x3, 1 min, quickly, running out of time

Eunice (7/22)

The goal was to increment.. it kind of worked. I have no immediate goals and don't feel particularly motivated to be making any gains. I've hit a wall of complacency :|

In regards to weight, I'm not entirely certain only because the bar I'm using is not the standard 45-lb. One of the guys at the front desk of the gym said that it was somewhere between 52.5 to 55-lbs inclusive. So we'll for now just refer to that as weight X.

Bench
X x5
(X+5) x5
(X+10) x5
(X+15) x5 x3

Squat (let's just assume that there's also some +X weight for the bar)
bar x5
+35 x5
+50 x5
+60 x4
+70 x3
+75 x5 x3 (belted) **

Deadlift
bar x5
+50 x5
+70 x5
+95 x5
+110 x3
+120 x5*

* tied with best of July 11
** best of July 11

There's no doubt numbers went down, but it seems like it's just something that happens during the summer transition. I'm also trying to implement different body placement, based off feedback from Keone after the seminar he attended, which also depressed some weight. I need motivation, though. I can't seem to bring myself to want to push
myself. On the bright side, I can tell my arms and legs are getting slightly more defined.

Keone 7/19

Bench
192.5x5x3 (PR!)
155x10 10 9

Squat
285x5x3

Deadlift
340x3
365x5

Dips 10 10 10
Chins 6 4 3 (...)

Keone 7/6

7/2

Eunice visited me for the fourth! We went to the gym together. (Everyone: say it with me: "awww".)

Bench
175x5x3
135x10x3

Some... woman... was doing half-squats in my usual power cage, so I was relegated to crappy (or at least unfamiliar) benches where I had trouble getting proper back/foot placement. Eventually the rack freed up and I did 185x4, but I was pretty gassed at that point from the volume sets. Dangit.

Squat
245x5x3

Deadlift
365x4, F
oh no!

Dips
12, 10, 6 (...)

Chins
6, 6, 4


7/6

Schedule got thrown off by the holiday and taking Eunice to the airport. At least that gave me a lot of rest.

Bench
187.5x5x3 (PR)
145x10 10 8

I need to stop bagging at the end. I think the last two reps are doable, it just feels like my arms are going to fall off. More rest between sets next time (currently about 2 min for the x10s; obviously this makes it harder...)

Squat
255x5x3

Press
90x5x3

Power Clean
135x5x3

Dips
12, 10, 8

Chins
6, 6, 5

ugh, slight progress.

Keone 6/29

I ended up meeting up with a friend in Lakeview today, so I only had an hour to go to the gym. Ah well. Need to get back to power cleaning and pressing.

Bench
185x5 5 4 5 (3x5 PR)
D'oh, didn't set feet/back right on third set... so, insufficient arch, and these were too hard. You know how you can kind of tell by rep 3 whether you're going to get to 5? Yeah.

So I rested a few minutes, did some warmup squats, and then came back and got it. w00t. Like I said, this has been a milestone of mine for a while. Celebrating now with a frozen pizza.

145x10 10 8


Squat
235x5x3

Keone 6/27

Bench
182.5x5x3 (PR)
185x5
145x10 10 8

Well I guess that proves I am going up to 185x5x3 next time! (Side note: this has been a milestone for me for a while).


Squat
225x5x3

Still working back up. Back/hamstrings staying tight at the bottom I think.


Overhead Press
85x5x3


Deadlift
315x5
335x2
355x5


Chins/Dips (interleaved)
Dips 12 12 8 (dot dot dot for Daniel)
Chins 6 6 4 (ditto, pretty tired from volume work + press)

Keone 5/9

Working back up. Everything is going a little better.

Squat
275x5x3

Bench
165x5x3
135x10x3

Deadlift
365x5

Dips x10
Chins x6
Dips x10
Chins x7
Dips x9
Chins x4 (...)

Keone (5/31, 6/2, 6/4)

Getting back into the swing of things.

Tue 5/31
Bench
155x5x3
135x5 x8

Squat
255x5x3

Deadlift (slight deficit, in forward platform w/ reds)
345x5


Thu 6/2
Bench
155x5x3
135x5 x9

Squat
265x5x3

Power Clean
60kg x5x3
65kg x3


Sat 6/4
Squat
275x5x3

Bench
160x5,4,4
140x5 x8 these are getting a lot harder
move bench back to front

Deadlift
355x5

Finally traded elbow sleeves with Frank. They feel awesome. One further step toward becoming a robot.

Q 5/22/11 upper body

Getting back into overhead and bench pressing.

Overhead press:
warm ups
95 x 5 x3

Chin ups:
6
+10 x6
+20 x6
+25 x 6, 6, 4
6

Bench press:
warm ups
135 x5 x3

Curls:
60 x8 x2

Dips:
10 x3

Keone (5/18)

Bench
175x5,3,3
150x5 x5
140x5 x5
Running into a lot of resistance. Perhaps with more sleep...

Squat
275x5x3
Just getting back into form. Immediately quite sore afterward.

Deadlift
345x5

Keone (5/13) - Bench

Too much work!

I promised myself I wouldn't go to the gym today until I finished a lab I have been working on all week. Well, I finally finished at 9:30 pm after a frustrating few hours and a nap, so I got to the gym at about 10. No deadlift.

Bench
165x5
140x5 x18 (45s rest)
(+1 set of 4)

Dips
BWx8,7,7

Power Cleans
40kgx5
50kgx5
55kgx5
60kgx10

Chins
BWx7

out of time!

Keone (5/10) - Bear 5

Deadlift
360x5,3,2
295x5 x17

The worst part was definitely my calluses.

Bench Press
160x5
145x5
135x5 x18
(+1x4)

Plates today. Bi-winning.

This workout took a little too long today (about 2 hours) for what it is. I think I spend slightly over half an hour on the volume work for each exercise, but working up to the heavy weight on each exercise and then resting a bit afterward also takes about half an hour (at least 20 minutes, and then I did some spotting).

Keone (5/8) - Bear 4, sort of

Only had an hour, so only bench since it seemed like I recover better at bench than at deadlift.

Bench
155x5,3,2
145x5
130x5 x15
A lot harder. Next time, doing the plates will be nice.

Power Cleans, interspersed
60kgx5x3

Keone (5/7) - Bear 3

Deadlift
355x5
355x3
355x2
290x5 x17

Bench Press
155x5
145x5
125x5 x21 (+125x4x1)

So today I discovered a new technique that worked very well for me: taking in breath before taking the bar out of the J-hooks, and holding it for all five reps. That helped me to get to 21 sets today.

An observation I've made about this program is it gives you a lot of opportunities to improve technique under stress. It's because the weight is not that heavy, but there is adversity from not getting much rest since the previous N-1 sets. I've been running sets like experiments, trying different things related to breathing, starting position, etc., and seeing which things make the sets easier.

It also seems that not training to failure is the mechanism by which I am able to come back two (or even one) day later to do the same exercises.

Deadlifts are a lot harder than bench. Part of it is starting at a more difficult weight for deadlift, but it also seems like deadlifts will always be more physically and mentally taxing. (Certainly they generate a lot more sweat.) After I run out on deadlifts, I want to collapse on the floor for a while, while after I run out on bench, I'm, you know, not able to do sets of 5 anymore, but I still feel pretty good.

Keone (5/4) - Bear 2

Deadlift
350x5
350x3
350x2
285x5x15 (sorry, that's 15 sets of 5)

Bench Press
160x3 seemed a little heavy on elbows
140x5
120x5x14 (2 sets of 4)

Some cramping on left quad... weird. Overall, more or less happy with today's results (no sleep last night, and elbows still sore from squatting).

Keone (5/2) - Pavel's Russian Bear Induction

Hey gang,

So I decided that, as I am between programs, and given that I am likely not going to any meet (unless someone else wants to go on May 14 -- still looking -- still looking) in the next little while, I would go out on a limb. I've been looking into strength vs. hypertrophy programs for a little while (Practical Programming is amazing!) and want to try hypertrophy for a bit. (I know, sacrilege, especially since this is the MIT Strength blog.)

My reasoning is that it might be interesting to switch things up a bit to bulk out and see if it helps my strengt. Larger muscles have more leverage, plus then there is more muscle to train to be strong. In sailing, when you want to sail upwind you have to keep tacking to switch between two different partially-upwind directions.

But not to worry... I'm not doing curls or dinky little machines or things. Instead, I am doing this crazy thing called the Russian Bear program by Pavel T. (It's discussed in the book "Power to the People", which is decent although someone annoying in the sense that he tries to over-Russian things with lots of mentions of "comrade" and stuff like that.)

Basically it's a three week cycle (so, short experiment) where you do the same two lifts every time--Pavel suggests deadlift and side press, although I will be doing deadlift and bench press.

For each lift, first you do 5 reps at a weight you could normally do 7 reps (so an easy 5). Then rest a few minutes and multiply by 90% and do another set of 5. Rest a few minutes more and multiply by 90%... but at this point, instead of doing a single set, you do 10-25 sets of 5 with about 45-60 seconds of rest in between, continuing until you can't maintain form.

Then rest 10-15 minutes (necessary... gassed) and do the other lift. On subsequent visits, increment 5 lbs (deadlift) or 2.5 lbs (BP).

I know it's a lot of volume, and that recovery (especially from deadlift, which usually gets >1 week recovery) will be hard. Also, the usual caveats apply... listen to your body, don't let form break down (just stop when it gets close), high volume deadlifts are dangerous, etc. But it also seems kind of interesting in the sense that I feel my deadlift and bench need to go up, volume work might stimulate progress (especially for bench... this program is somewhat reminiscent of Sheng's program discussed a little earlier), and it's also only three weeks. I will be careful.

On to the logs:

Deadlift
345x5
310x5
280x5x15

Bench
155x5
135x5
115x5x17 (did 2 more sets of 4 reps, not counting them though)
[I decided to drop a little faster on bench as my elbows were sore from squatting. They loosened up nicely. This also gives me a bit of mileage to increment, although admittedly not much--these will get hard fast.]


Next time: deadlift increment by 5, BP increment by 5. Damn, I need to find my fractional plates...

Keone (4/27, 4/30)

Wed 4/27
Overhead Press
104x5
104x2 (!)
100x5x2

Power Clean
67.5kgx3
65kgx5x3

Squat
275x5x3


Sat 4/30
Bench
170x5x3
135x11, 6 (sigh), 10

Squat
315x5x3 (PR!)

Deadlift
315x5
345x3
365x2,F
315x5

Chins
BWx6,5,4

Dips
BWx8,8

Chris (4/16): Wave C, Bench Press

Bench Press:
45x5x2; 80x5; 100x5; 125x3
155x5
175x3
195x5
Surprisingly easy.

195x3 (belted)
175x5x2 (not belted)

Squat (paused):
45x5; 95x5; 155x5; 185x5; 210x3
240x5
275x5
315x3x3

Dumbbell Rows:
35x5; 80x5; 100x20

Cable Crunches:
Stackx8; Stackx10; Stackx16

Chinups (unweighted):
8x5; 5x4

Chris (4/9): Wave B, Bench Press

Bench Press:
45x5; 80x5; 100x5; 120x3
145x3
165x3
185x6
Suck it, tendonitis.

185x3
175x3x2 (paused)
175x5

Squat (paused, 2-ct):
45x5; 95x5; 150x5; 185x5; 225x3
240x5
275x5
315x3x3
I wore Keone's squat shoes for this. They felt different; not easier, not necessarily harder, but different. I was having more trouble coming out of the hole than usual, especially when I paused the last squat for three-ish seconds, but I think like with belts, I need to get used to these before I can accurately evaluate whether I need these in my training... also I walk funny with them on, heh.

Dumbbell rows (left and right):
30x5; 80x5; 100x25

Prowler (30 yd sprints):
+0x3; +50x3; +90x4

Cable Crunches:
(Stack)x8x3; (Stack)x16x1

Chris (4/2) : Wave A, Bench Press

Bench Press:
45x5; 80x5; 100x5; 125x3
135x5
155x5
175x8
I feel like I should have been able to get one or two more, but my elbows were hurtin'.

160x5
160x5
I tried to pause these, but couldn't do it across all sets.

Squat (belted):
45x5; 95x5; 150x5; 185x5; 220x3;
240x5
275x5
315x3x3 (2 ct pause)
Easy, though I apparently can't count when I'm under the bar.

Dumbbell Rows (left and right): 100x20
My wrists couldn't take another set, and yeah, elbows.

Chinups: +0x8x4

Super Burrito: 1

Pounds of pork from free food events: ~0.5