Keone 8/2, 8/6

I have resolved to find a new gym. Quads is too far.

8/2

Bench
175x5
185x4,F
175x5x2

Going backward after a week of inactivity.

Squat
275x5x3

Power Clean
135x5
145x5x2

Dips 10x3

8/6
Bench
175x5
197.5x3x3
135x10x3

Squat
285x5x3

Keeping lower back arched + knees out + wider stance => better stretch reflex. Happy. Next time, 290.

Overhead Press
100x5x3
75x5x10 (1" rest)

Deadlift
340x5
360x5

I was really freaked out because 340 felt really heavy, so I almost didn't go up. I've observed that when you get stronger, your previous maximums still feel really heavy, you are just capable of doing sets afterward with more weight.

Dips 10 9 9
Chins 6 5 3

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

Keone 7/19

Bench
192.5x5x3 (PR!)
155x10 10 9

Squat
285x5x3

Deadlift
340x3
365x5

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

Keone 7/14

Bench
192.5x4 ergh
185x5x2
150x10 8 8

Squat
275x5x3

Deadlift
360x5

Chins 6,6,4
Dips 10,10,10

keone 7/11

Bench
190x5x3 (PR!)

Squat
275x5x3

Press
100x5x3

Power clean
140x5x3

Dips 10x3
Chins 6x3

Not bad for 3 hours of sleep!

keone 7/8

Bench
190x3 4 3 3 ugh
150x10 9 9 9

Squat
265x5x3

Press
95x5x3

Deadlift
315x3
345x2
365x3 (...)

Dips 10x3
Chins 6 5 4

Stuff was hard today. Not that surprising though... Need to get used to working out every other day. Lazy me.

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 (6/21, 6/24)

6/21
I made the trek to Quads gym in north Chicago (Lakeview, for those familiar with the area). It is an awesome facility with two power cages, five additional squat racks and one platform for deadlifting and doing olympic lifts. (It also has a crap-ton of machines, many of them custom, and most people who train there seem to be bodybuilder types who use them for isolation, but this is okay because it means no one uses my stuff.) It also has a GHR bench which should be useful, and chains and sleds and stuff. It's also very reasonably priced ($70/month). Me gusta.

Bench
175x5x3
135x10x3

Squat
205x5x3

Deadlift
315x5
335x5
355x3

Dips/Chins (interleaved)
Dips 10x3, 6
Chins 7, 5, 4


6/24
Running short on time (had to see an apartment) so I was in/out in an hour.

Bench
180x5x3 (PR!)

Squat
215x5x3

Dips/Chins (interleaved and interleaved w/ squats)
Dips 11x3
Chins 7, 7, 5

I also bought a bike today! And I think I found a good apartment; incidentally, it is actually really close to this gym so I will have no excuses to skip out. Awesome sauce.

Keone 5/16

I went to a Starting Strength seminar in Atlanta last weekend and I learned a lot. The biggest thing I learned was that I have very little lower back strength/control (and in particular I cannot arch it on cue) so I will be resetting squat while I try to fix it. With a properly arched lower back the stretch reflex comes into play much more effectively, which explains why I squat really low and don't bounce out of the bottom. I'm also trying to set my knees out wider (parallel to foot angle, which is about 35 degrees off center) to engage the adductors more.

5/14
Squat
175x5x3

Bench
170x5x3

Deadlift
325x4 no chalk, couldn't hold on


5/16
LIfting in the wang center sucks.

Bench
175x5x3
back to pre-finals week weight. nice.

Overhead Press
95x5x3

Squat
185x5x3
Frank watched these (thanks!). Except for the odd rep, they were pretty good. The main bad reps seemed to come from trying to artificially create the bounce out of the stretch reflex, instead of just focusing on keeping the low-back arched and letting it happen.

Deadlift
275x5 ran out of time


Also, goodbye!
I left Boston yesterday and will get into Chicago on Monday. So, I guess this is it. It was a lot of fun training with you guys and I will definitely keep in touch. I've promised Frank I will keep posting here (although I will probably lump my posts together, maybe once a week, to not annoy everyone) and I want to go to a meet with you guys next year. (Boston and Chicago are not that far apart.) My next step is to figure out which gym to go to in Chicago (I'm leaning toward Quads gym, where Ed Coan trained, although it is a bit of a trek for me) but I will definitely be picking up right where i left off.

Best wishes and good luck to everyone! Chris, hope you feel better soon!

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 5/6

Bench
160x4,5,5
140x5 x12 (1:00 rests until set 8, then 1:30 rests)

Squat
255x5x3 (light day)

Power Clean
60kg x5x3

Felt a little lightheaded on a couple of reps, and almost fell down once. Weird.

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.

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).