@Cyrrex oh, I absolutely know I can squat more than 100kg x 5. I’d estimate my max to be not far off the 140kg I set at Christmas, especially if I belted up etc. There’s a time and place for that though and in my back garden in my work gear, with no safeties, having knocked off 15000 steps and less than 400kcal isn’t it.
I’ve only found 531 effective for press when I pile in the assistance, which makes me think the assistance is doing all the hard work there. I am realistic enough to know that I’m unlikely to actually add 15kg to my press overnight, especially in a deficit, but I’m excited to see what I can actually do.
I weigh 203lbs of flubbery crap as of last night, but I ate a salad earlier so I’m fully expecting to see the 180s on Saturday.
@aldebaran I did a, singular, kettlebell bottoms up press with 16kg, just to see if I could. And because I couldn’t let @mattjp do one without copying.
@Frank_C I’ve come to not hate squats, but maybe that’s because I’ve not done anything remotely heavy since Christmas or challenging since finishing MMS. If I had to pick deadlift day or squat day, I’d always go for squat day and not just because squat day is usually also bench day for me.
This inspired me to share what I was reading about Roger Estep’s bench training, he’d work up to his top single Monday and then again Friday. Sometimes even Wednesday. Really strikes me as an intuitive trainer. If he didn’t tangent his Monday performance on Friday or improve he’d assume he was overtraining and dial back on the other stuff. The other stuff was seemingly unplanned and just playing with weights.
How did that treat you? I think, as I read about it, one key feature seems to be the bar speed. He’s doing a top single but his reps seem to focus on a slow, controlled decent and (surprisingly) a slow ascent focusing on ensuring that the bar is travelling in a path where he’s strong rather than just exploding up. That’d reduce the poundage and maybe be easier to recover from than a true max effort lift.
Will progress these to 5 x 6 next time for a week. I also intend to start SGSS progression twice a week for press and row only. 2 sessions a week planned, starting at 70% as suggested by @Frank_C. As I get more used to the new normal, I may add in more structure and other goals but this press goal is sticking well right now.
Weigh in: weight hasn’t budged at a very soft 203lbs. Pretty disappointed with that to be honest, I thought I’d been pretty strict with diet and a fairly decent deficit. I was fully expecting to have to increase calories by a bit.
Work for today:
About an hour of “fartlek” training. Which is a fancy way of saying I pissed about on a hill for a bit. Running/sprinting/walking up and down a hill for a while, enjoying the sun.
Then:
Bottoms up kettlebell press: 3 x 10 @ 9kg ss 20 x band pull aparts
Press: 2 x 8 @ 45kg, 1 x 8 @ 40kg
Then 5 rounds of:
15 x barbell rows (40kg)
10 push ups (incline, on handles, 16kg weight vest)
10 walking lunges (16kg weight vest)
Notes:
I suck at running and conditioning
First session of press “program”. I thought I’d started off conservative at 70% but had to drop the weight again already. Going to chalk it up to a bad day today, and see how the weights feel on Tuesday. Could easily have been that hour of fucking about in the sun earlier.
Used the basic template from Krypteia redux for this one. Kinda liked it, kinda hated it because it was far, far harder than it should have been on paper. Stick with it for a while, see what happens.
I’m not sure whether I just knackered myself out first or I’ll need to carry on from 40kg, we’ll find out tomorrow I guess.
@jshaving I reckon I had about a 50/50 split, plus some “sprinting” thrown in too. Just tried to keep my breathing difficult for about an hour really and try to not hate running.
Conditioning to be added as and when, to include plenty of hip hinges (read swings). I feel like I “should” deadlift in there as well, I just really don’t want to.
