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.

Kik - Cardio and restaurative methods

When I got in and closed the distance to the Ellipticals, I suddenly encountered heavy rash, a paralyzed left half of my face, and uncontrolled tremor. I took this as a message that my body really did not want to do cardio, so I went for a mini-cycles of random stuff that I don't really care about.

4 cycles without breaks:
20 shoulder flies, 20 lat pulls, 20 leg presses

(I took a minute break between cycle 3 and 4)

20 mins Elliptical, low intensity

- stretching
- foam rolling
- sauna
- contrast showers

Kik - 11/21/2009 - Intensity - Deads

After feeling not beat up at all by end of this week, I asked PBJ on Friday about their willingness to complete the intensity cycle with deadlifts, although we had considered earlier to drop this training session. Good enough for me; so we had another Saturday with heavy pulling. We just went in to see if we could get something done... Furthermore, I wanted to continue teaching myself in the art of thoughtless, belted deadlifts.

315x1 @8

/* belt on */

315x1 @8 felt slightly awkward due to the belt

365 FAIL !!!

Great, failing on 365 never happened before. Pulled it up to my knees, then my midsection lost all tension and back on the floor it went. Seemed to be a great start for heavy lifting.

/* belt off */

365x1 @9 this one came up ok, but still felt somewhat heavy and did certainly pop off the ground.

/* belt on, switchgrip on */

OK belt on again, now for 405 and belt training. I figured the reasons why I pulled 365 so badly

were grounded in my belt being in a shitty position, and using double overhand, since I forgot to change the grip. Somehow, I can never pull violently with double overhand. Before the 405 I tried to squat down next to the platform to "settle" the belt, and this did work.

405x1 @8

435x1 @9.5

455x1 @10 (PR by 10 lbs)

455 was a nice PR, and I was in deep spiritual harmony with the 13mm leather monster around my fat tummy. Prior 405 just flew up, as did 435 as an intermediary step thanks to the belt trying yo be cooperative instead of sabotaging my efforts. If I only could get it to be an obedient helper on squats...

Kik - 11/20/2009 - Cardio and restaurative methods

Dedicated another 35 minutes of my life to the most boring activity in the world: Elliptical. However, this time there was a hot chick with a toned back and incredibly muscular glutes and thighs. I was so close to asking her to come home with me to see my stamp collection, but then it occurred to me that I need to re-sort the stamps again, and I did not want to disappoint her with with my stamps not nicely aligned in their albums.

- Elliptical 35 mins (15 medium high intensity, 20 medium to low int.)

- Stretching

- Foam rolling

- Abs

- Sauna

- Contrast showers

Kik - 11/19/2009 - Intensity - Bench

Last day of intensity, this time it is uppar body again.

Bench (regular)
225x1 @7
225x1 @7
255x1 @8
275x1 @8
295x1 @10
315 FAIL

315 was far from possible. Too heavy, even for touch and go. Also, 295 felt heavy because I lost the groove, yet I still managed to press them up. I know that Brian would have tried 4 or 5 more attempts with 315, but could feel in my forearms that 315 took their toll. Hence, I called it quits and moved on to get a PR in closegrip presses.

Closegrip Bench (gray foam)
275x1 @8
295x1 @9
320x1 @10 (PR by 5 lbs)
325 FAIL

SOP:
135x7
155x2

Then a mix of cable rows and abs.

Kik - 11/17/2009 - Intensity - Lower

Squats, the final frontier. These are the attempts of the weakling brigade. Their six-week mission: to explore new records, to seek out new techniques and new PRs, to boldly go where no man has gone before.

In short: Failure Tuesday

Squat:

275x2 @7 very fast
315x2 @8 fast
/* belt on */
365x1 @10 felt awful, belt totally messed up this squat.

I followed Danny's and Gordon's advice and tried another belt, Gordons 13mm Inzer double prong. I can wear it loosely, and that feels better as the next sets showed:
315x1 @8 (belt test)
365x1 @9
390 FAIL (bystanders claimed I went to deep - "that's what THEY said")
390x1 @10 (PR by 5 lbs, definitely a grinder)
405 FAIL

After all, I have to ask myself if I need to buy a new belt or if it just a belt per se messing me up. As of now, I tend to believe the latter: My lever belt proved to be ok during deads and also during box squats, it just felt awkward after slapping it on for the 365 rep. I will run a volume cycle with belt, using the latter as soon as 275 are on. Att the same time, I feel bad to including "a crutch" on light weights, but I won't learn how to use a belt properly if I don't include it into my warm up sets...

I skipped rack pulls and leg presses since my lower back actually started cramping already during warm ups. This is no excuse since the squats felt fine, I just did not want to exaggerate things more than needed.

Also, my next intensity cycle will not be a 3-week PR hunting program. I plan to have a deload/speed week after volume, and then ease into triples, doubles, and finally singles. But then again, this does not sound like fun, so I might just do stupid, nerv-wrecking singles anyway!

Kik - 11/15/2009 - upper - intensity (medium stress)

Second week of intensity, second bench session for this week. Everybody was somewhat beat up already, so this time reason needed to prevail. Consequently, we all went through a lot of singles with rather light weight and high speed, slightly below our 90 percent weights. In hindsight, my elbow feels much better, and I believe this session was a valuable contribution to improving everybody's technique.

bench (regular)

225x1 @7
225x1 @7
225x1 @7
245x1 @8
245x1 @8
265x1 @8.5

bench (medium grip, on white foam)

275x1 @8
275x1 @8
275x1 @8
275x1 @8


bench (close grip, on gray foam)

275x5 @10
275x5 @10
275x5 @10

back stuff and Russian twists for finishing up. Then sauna, where Jon was the victim of THE mid-age MIT shower voyeur. Congrats Jon, there is always a first time!

Kik - 11/14/2009 - Intensity - Lower

Today was a great day for fans of bars not coming off the ground during deadlifts or bars sinking into the safety pins during squats. For people who like to see lots of attempts going nowhere, this day must have been like birthday and Thanksgiving at once (usually I use x-mas as a reference, but I have the feeling that Danny is still an avid reader and he and Santa have some beef since Danny squeezed Santa's hands.)

Besides numerous fails from Brian, Pat, Jon, and me, today was also characterized by reversals and persistence.

Deads:

315x1 @7

/* belt on */

365x1 @8 - suddenly, the belt feels more comfortable.

405x1 @8.5

425x1 @9.5

In comparison to last week, things felt much better. The belt feels natural now, maybe not the biggest helper, but I actually like it. 425 are my old PR from way back then, and they came up without much discomfort. Given the 435 from last week, it seemed that 445 would be easily in the realm of possibilities.

Hence,

445 FAIL - WTF? Can I ever get a tiny little slice from the success cake? No? Oh wait...

445 FAIL - Ok, too heavy, usually I would go home. But not with PBJ, who failed several weights tonight, sometimes twice in a row, only to come back and finally nail their lifts.

Hence,

445x1 @10 (10 lbs PR)

Thanks to Pat, Brian, Jon, and Gordon for sticking around and making me pull this. Brian detected that during all warm ups and lifts up to 425, I would just hop onto the platform, take one breath and pull the weight. For my failed attempts with 445 however, I would slowly go onto the platform, take several deep breaths, overthink the lift, and then fail.

It was this piece of analysis that made me jump onto the platform for my last pull, getting one big breather and just pull right up without all that settling-in behavior. An interesting difference that I will try to observe in the future.

Boxsquats (6 elements and the green 10kg plate - slightly below parallel)

225x1 @7

315x1 @8

365 FAIL (there it was again, that uncomfortable feeling when one is pressed into the pins)

365 @9 - came up 'easy' considering what happened right before.

In between my squats, I did numerous excentric-only squats with 225 from the low pins; i.e. first a seated good morning on the box, then finding balance and squatting out. Thanks to Pat and Brian for parking the par on the pins...

1 set of Russian twist, no more time. Then off to Fire & Ice, where I did 3 plates once more, this time however right into my belly .

Kik - 11/12/2009 - Upper - Intensity (Doubles)

Second week of intensity, first bench session of the week.

I started my workout with shoulder dislocations, aiming at two things: Firstly, I intended to loosen up the my chest and shoulder joints, and secondly, I hoped that the stretching part of the movement would "prepare" my sore elbow tendon. This plan seemed to come to fruition as my elbow felt better and better, but the first bench movements would tell me something different: Thanks to the dislocations, I now had more pain in my elbow plus some cramping/pulling in my rotator cuffs. Good job!

Bench - regular grip
225x2 @7
245x2 @8
265x2 @0
275x2 @9.5
280x2 @10 Pseudo-PR (never doubled it before)

Board Press (grey foam) - narrow grip
225x2 @7
275x2 @8
295x2 @9.5
315x1 @10 PR

then some light overhead pressing, nothing worth to write about; same accounts for random lat pulling.

PS. Back home I prepared eggs-sunny-side-up, and 5 out of 6 had double yokes. Fricken Siamese twin eggs...

Kik - 11/11/2009 - Cardio

Elliptical 30 mins medium-low intensity.

No chicks, shitty TV program, no Ipod: mental burnout, you can't be far!

Afterward, I did around 30 shoulder dislocations for better flexibility in my chest/ shoulder area. It makes my elbow tendon feel better, so I will keep these thingies in my program.

Post workout, I was sitting in the sauna like a spider waiting for prey - but nothing happened! I also contemplated how to bump up my bench to four plates by the end of this year. Nothing came to mind, though. Can you say "boring day"?

Kik - 11/08/2009 - Bench

Bench, second session this week. Since I went away from any experimental bench (boards, bands, chains) to the classic movement, bench with the same grip happens twice a week. After last Tuesday, I certainly wanted to reduce weights a bit in order to not repeat max effort singles within a few days. Hence, I opted for working up to several sets of doubles, always leaving 1 or more reps in the tank.

I also should note that my elbow seems to be healing up. I don't feel any pain during bench; but there is some slight amount of pain when I grab things or lift my arm to adjust my hair or put on face lotion or eye liner.

Bench (classic)
225x2 @8
245x2 @8
255x2 @9
265x2 @9
265x2 @8.5 (relatively fast, I got a little bit riled up seeing the spine-wrecker crew doing their rituals in the squat rack)
265x2 @9

Bench on white foam, medium grip

225x2 @8
245x2 @8
255x2 @9
265x2 @9
275x2 @9

Bench narrow on gray foam (3 board)

235x12
245x8
245x7

Back stuff: Seated pully rows, did not count in detail.

Bench went fine, and I believe it was good to not go full throttle.

Kik - 10/04/09 - Intensity - Squats

First week of my intensity cycle. I was originally planning to set up these 3 weeks by implementing first triples, then doubles, then singles; yet felt a need to focus more on intramuscular coordination and decided to work up to singles in week one, reduced weight doubles in week 2, and back to singles in week 3.

Since I target every exercise or variation of the latter twice a week, I also plan on different stress/ intensity levels within a week.

Squats:

*/ belt on/*
315x1 @8
355x1 @9
375x1 @9.5 (felt heavy, but not too slow)
405x1 FAIL
405x1 FAIL

I decided to take these 405 fails as a primer for the challenges to come. Both attempts were far from execution, but I also went below the depth needed. Priming will continue on Saturday with box squats; while next week will introduce doubles with 375. At this point, 405 are just not there yet.

Rack Pulls (below the knee):

315x1 @8
365x1 @8
*/ switch grip on*/
405x1 @9
425x1 FAIL (lower back fried)

Skipped third exercise for the first time in months; I felt the stimuli of the day were intesive enough.

Kik - Sept 15 - Squat - Intensity

During the last 3 weeks, I did volume, always sets of fours. My last 2 squat sessions consisted of 6 sets x 4 with 315 @9-10, and rack pulls of 5 sets x4 with 405 @8-9.

I am back on intensity now, with doing max triples this week, i.e. working up to a max triple and moving to another exercise.

Squat:
275x2 @8
315x1 @8
365x3 @10 PR

Rack Pulls:
315x3 @8
365x1 @8 pseudp-pr (grip) thanks to double overhand
405x1 fail (double overhand gave in)
455x1 @9 felt somewhat heavy off the pins
500 fail - came up 1 inch then dropped back, felt awkward
500 x2 @10 FAIL, could not get the third one.

Leg Press, 4-5 sets, never really know where work sets start and warm-ups end.

Kik - Aug20 - Bench - Volume

After reading in the RTS manual once more, I had to learn that Tuchscherer does not suggest sets of 6 reps. Looks like my mind was a little too creative here, but I figured I will go with 6 reps this week and keep he weights low. This will be good for my tendons, joints, and ligaments. On top of that, I will eat like a madman and harvest bigger muscles due to hypertrophy.

Bench (wide grip, ring fingers on rings):

221x6 @9
221x6 @8
221x6 @8
221x6 @8.5

This was easy, yet awful. Doing more than 3 reps on bench kills my arch. Besides rebuilding the latter after every other rep, the set takes so long and makes my mind wander around.

Board Press (white foam roller)

221x6 @9
221x6 @8
221x3 @9
221x6 @8.5

I cut set #3 short, feeling totally drained. It seems that the extra short break between sets was too much to handle. Set #4 was ok again thanks to somewhat more rest.


SOP:

115x8x3 @8-9 I took it easy on my shoulders, giving some rest. They will be striking back during intensity in 4 weeks.

Back stuff...

Good training, I will see tomorrow how I feel after this.

Kik -Aug19 - Cardio

Elliptical, 20 min medium/ high, then 10 mins low intensity.

Stretching, foam roller, sauna, legs tired.

Kik - Aug18 - Squat - Volume

I realized today that I will probably not manage to make the meet next Sat. However, I don't count myself out yet, and Nate convinced me that I can still fit things. We will see. If anything, the meet prep has make me more focused and stronger.

Anyway, I started a new meso-cycle with RTS, my third. Next 3-4 weeks will be volume work. I stayed very conservative with RPEs of 8 tonight, never being on RPE 9 territory.

During the next days, I will have to figure out my exercise rotation. In terms of reps, I will do an easy week of 6 reps for around 4-5 sets, depending on fatigue. As for squat day, I will stay with regular squats and rackpulls, both have helped me so far:


Squat:

275x6 @8
275x6 @8
275x6 @8
275x6 @8

Rackpulls (1st pin, as always)

315x3 @7
365x6 @8
365x6 @8
365x6 @8
365x6 @8

Abs...

Kik - Aug13 - Bench - Intensity - Triples

This was my last training in the current mesocycle's intensity block. After my last bench on Sunday, I felt beat up, with slight pain in forearms, elbow, lower back. Today, things felt much better, maybe because I did not deadlift the day before. In the future, I will examine more closely if pulling affects my bench on the next day.

However, maybe I just felt well because Danny felt bad - we tend to take turns, performing better when the other one has an off day. So after max-triples turned to max-doubles last Tuesday, today's triples shone in their brightest lights.


Bench (medium grip):

221x2 @7
242x1 @8
265x3 @10 PR

The third rep got stuck in some gravity hole, yet not for long. After Danny's reminder to press "UUUP!!!!!!!", I was one PR and one hearing damage richer.


Board Press (Close grip)

221x1 @7
265X3 @10 PR

This was a nice PR. I certainly made progress on the triceps side of things - hopefully this will translate into a bigger bench one day.


SOP:
135x8 @9.5
135x8 @10

Presses get better to. A few month ago, 8 reps were barely possible even when I was still fresh on my first exercise. Reducing these to once a week seems to pay back...

Kik - Aug11 - Squat - Intensity - Max Triples

In order to not wear me out any further, I decided for max-triples this week. Basically, the plan was working up to the very one work set, then moving on to the next exercise. Quick and painless!

To reveal the end result right in the beginning, I did not triple any weight that was larger than 225...

Squat:

315x1 @8
365x2 @10 (failed on the triple)


Rack Pull

315x2 @7
405x1 @8
455x1 @8
495x2' @9.5

Abs, Foam Roller, Sauna.

First of all, I am happy with the doubled squat. The first one was very fast (for that weight, anyway), the second one was still ok, though my form was a little bit off. I went down for a number three believing it was in the realm of possibilities, but it turned out that it was not. Still, the first one made me confident that my squat has improved a little bit. I doubled 365 two months ago, but back then the second rep was a struggle. Still, I owe myself a better indicator of improvement over the last 5 weeks.

After I failed the triple squat, I decided it would be doubles week. Flexibility is king in my training. Actually, Tuchscherer suggests to decide for the week's set structure not before the beginning of a week. There we go...

Rack pulls went very well. I was still contemplating a triple at 455, but since I doubled that comfortably last week, doubling 495 seemed to be a better feat - and would also be more in line with my squat double. I think I rounded my back on the first a little bit, the second one came up "easy" without any form issues felt. Clearly, my CNS needs to get used to those weights.

This Thursday I will do doubles on presses, then take the weekend off to heal a little bit more. Next week will be the start of another volume cycle, then the meet.

Kik - Aug08 - Bench - Intensity - Doubles

Bench (normal grip):

221x2 @8
265x2 @9.5
265x2 @9.0
265x2 @9.5
265x2 @9.5
265x2 @10

went so-so, more below...

Floor Presses (normal grip)

221x2 @8
265x2 @9.0
265x2 @9.0
265x2 @9.0
265x2 @9.0

Didn't kill myself on these, always being aware of not overdoing things.

Chin-ups:

BWx10x4

Before this training, I was willing to try 275 for a double, but now chance. Pinching the bar on the way down on 265 put already so much stress on my forearms, that anything heavier was out of the picture. This feeling - stress on forearms and elbows - repeats itself every Sunday, and it started after the second session with reverse bands. In retrospective, I went too hard during my volume weeks, squeezing out 4 reps over and over without leaving anything in the tank. I also remember now that this was the only exercise where I went to failure since I started RTS (besides my squat failures).

I will make it a priority to be easier on myself during volume weeks. I will stop intensity after this week and have a transition block of 2 weeks that will have a focus on reps, techniques and pauses. In my next volume block, I will also reduce pauses in between sets.

Assessing current damages: Sensitive forearms, tight spots in lower back (right side), cramping hip flexor (right side). I need some rest, probably next weekend.

Kik - Aug08 - DLs - Intensity - Doubles

Nate, please invite Chuck (vogelpohlp@gmail.com) and Louis (simmons@westside.com) to come down and train my deadlift.

Deads (conventional)

315x2 @8
365x2 @9
365x2 @9
365x2 @9
365x2 @9
365x2 @9

Box Squat (High Box, 7 elements)

225x2 @8
315x2 @8
345x2 @9
345x2 @9

My form on deads still suck. Thanks to pointers from Frank and Gordon, I got in one good set with minimal rounding.