A New Animal: JDM135 for 1-2-3-4 plates

Training Training Logs
881

6/6 evening

10 rounds EMOM 95lbs
-1 power clean
-3 front squats
Light, easy, therapy. Sore EVERYWHERE so maybe this will help.

10 rounds, every 40 secs, 120lbs
-1 strict press
That’s the RX for tomorrow morning before bench press. Knocked it out to reduce time tomorrow. Shoulder still hurts but it didn’t stop me.

6 rounds EMOM 165lb
-10 Hise shrugs
The back of my neck is bruised from the switch to high bar squats. This hurt, bad, but some dude on YouTube says it will help build a muscle pad up there. Paleo therapy.

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882

Ive got a callous from where the bar presses on the base of my neck. I saw a picture of @bulldog9899’s son, he had the same but also horizontal lines on his traps where the bar must sit. Made me realise I’m not pulling my shoulders back and really driving my traps into the bar. Once I started doing this, the callous pad on neck stopped being painful and my squat has gone up.

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883

Thanks @boyce79 and I appreciate you checking in!
I need to figure out how to do this, because right now it’s near bar-on-bone and that’s no good.
Are you flexing the traps before contacting the bar?

884

I imagine trying to pitch something between my shoulder blades, so back as opposed to up.

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885

Keeping your grip as narrow as is comfortable helps with this.

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886

7/7 Wednesday
10 rounds, every 3 MOM
-bench press
-10 pullaparts
-2 pullups

Bench was:
95x10, 135x5, 155x5, 175x3,
195x6 - happy with that topset
Then BBB @ fsl was a bit of a reach:
155x 10,10,10,10,9-and-dump-the-bar.

No safeties, nice loud predawn crashing sound in the garage.

That was a bit aggressive for 5x10 but I’m glad I did it. Set 4 was such a grind, rep 10 barely came. But I added an extra minute to the rest for the final set and really hoped I’d get it.

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887

Good work dude.

Although your missus might not thank you

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888

BBB is where the money is, good stuff.

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889

July 8, Thursday

4 rounds HTFU in 5:58 - surprise PR!!
I did this WOD a lot before I had a barbell at home and was thrilled to get to 6:06, now I haven’t practiced in a long time and I’m even faster. I knew I was making progress, its nice to find hard evidence of that fact.

Juarez Valley Front squats+burpees to hang with @alex_uk
135lb: 8,1,7,2,6,3,5,4 front squats and 8 sets of 5 six-count burpees, doing a set after every set of FS. Time: 12:28.
Yeah Alex I can’t match your time, but at this weight 8, 7, and 6 front squats are strength, not conditioning, for me. Those sets took some time!

Feeling like a warrior.

Checkin photo:

20210708_063702
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890

Good to see JV catching on. You killed it dude

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891

Holy cow dude that check in photo, there is just a world of difference between that and what 6 months ago?! You look like a different person (and I suspect you are, mentally!)

Looking like one!

Haha I wouldn’t worry about that, @T3hPwnisher is beating us both with significantly more weight on the bar, always someone to chase and that’s the important bit - keeping on moving forward!

Did you do those two back to back as well? If so massive kudos, and to state the obvious that’ll affect your time.

Your log certainly isn’t boring, it’s inspiring!

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892

Looking seriously solid dude. I’ve got some catching up to do.

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893

July 9 2021, Friday
10 rounds:
-Press 95lb x 5
-2 pullups
This was done in under 20 minutes, despite the shoulder nag the weight has become light.
Feeling good so:
Press 115x1, 135x1 - PR tie! Bit of a grind, but I’d say it was easier than it was a few weeks ago.

SQUAT:
Needed to practice high bar, so I worked up to 225, did 10 total reps. Focused on driving my traps into the bar during setup and keeping grip narrow, thanks @boyce79 that helped a lot.

Then a widowmaker, 31 reps at 135lbs!
Video here:

@alex_uk thanks for the kind words my friend, you are right - I am a different person physically and mentally. My whole mindset has changed.
(Also HTFU+Juarez were about 4 minutes apart, so, yes?)

So embracing that fact I’m changing the log title today to “A New Animal” because I am one.
I will get 1-2-3-4 plates, I will stay conditioned. I will be able to keep up with my kids and be strong. They will learn from my example that it is worth doing things that are hard, because it makes you stronger.

Next week should be my last week on @dagill2 's leg-and-press program, after that I’ll focus my training more directly toward getting 2-3-4 on bench-squat-dead.

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894

Gee, I wish high bar squats suited me. But regardless of squat style, that was an awesome set! And nice pressing.

Yeah, looking forward to see you achieve these goals!

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895

Some serious work here dude. Almost ready for Mass Made Simple

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896

Wow man @jdm135 top work fella

Looking stacked and jacked💪🏻

Superb my man. Looks like the vasectomy didn’t kill your T levels kid

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897

July 9, Saturday.
Was going to do JV-FS+Burpees again and try to beat somebody’s time, then do rows and power cleans. But life had other plans, I pinched a nerve in my neck on front squat number 6, finished the set and did the burpees, and just could not continue. So now I’ll ice my neck and begin to put my thoughts in order.

Goals:

Press 135 - met already. While pressing is awesome and I must improve, it has to become a relatively lower priority while I work on the others.
Bench press 225 - I’m pretty close, and I don’t see any reason that 5/3/1 BBB can’t take me there. I got 6 reps at 195; Wendler’s equation puts my 1RM above 225 already. And this week I hit failure on a BBB set and had to dump the bar; I have no safeties and god knows no spotters, so this has always been a great fear, but no harm done so I think this will help me overcome the mental challenge that bench has always posed for me.

Squat 315 This will be my main focus. I need to choose programming that will really challenge me. I could use some advice here, but I alone know the balance I have to strike between my own ambitions/willingness to suffer and what I’m willing to put my family through vis-a-vis eating and being miserable. Super squats and deep water are not on the table for me at this time, though both would probably do the job. I don’t have time for the cooking, eating, and cleaning that would be required, given my choice to prioritize family time over personal time. That’s not an excuse, just a statement of my choice.

At this moment I’m thinking 5/3/1, maybe with jokers, and maybe with a widowmaker at FSL. Undecided about AMRAPing the last set or AHAPing the jokers, maybe alternate weekly.

Deadlift 405 Maybe this is dumb, but while focusing on squats I think I’ll avoid deadlifting for a few weeks/months. I’m hoping squatting, rowing, power cleans prepare me so by the time I hit the squat goal, the deadlift goal will be next in line. TBH I’m not sure how far off I am anyway at this point.

Some programming notes
Squat, Front Squat, BSS, Leg Press
Press, Bench Press, BTN, Push Press, BPA
Deadlift, RDL/SLDL, Block Pull, Rows, Power cleans
Pullups

I think all of these should make an appearance in my programming at some point. And not much else. Today I’m not doing BTNs, DLs, block pulls, or BSS.

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898

You’re already stronger than I was when I first got 220 then. Maybe practice moving heavier weights is all you need? How often do you lift over 200lbs?

Try the Kroc deadlift program. Very minimal investment of time or energy and it consistently and reliably increases my deadlift without adding any extra work. It’s anywhere between 3 and 5 sets a week, that’s it. I’ve even run once every 10 days and made progress. It just works and can be done in about 15mins a week.

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900

I’d personally recommend vanilla 5/3/1 for squats but start stupidly far back and make every weeks top set a set a of 10 (pretty sure I’m repeating myself here, but I can’t remember if it was here or elsewhere so I’ll say it again!) - when I hit 4 plates I think I started off at like 130/140 as the 1s for the cycle and just hit it for 10, so next month was 145 and again for 10 (10 every week) I think I finally stalled out at 165 for 8 and 160 for 10? Then ran dark horse which helped me hit 190, (hadn’t tested 180 before dark horse but pretty sure it was there just form 531 and continuously battering 10s every week until I dropped).

I capped it at 10, just because I know I’m stubborn and if I was just allowed to go unlimited on it then I’d try every week to get more and end up using bad form/injuries etc.

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901

FWIW, original (vanilla) 5/3/1 did wonders for my squat. I don’t remember the details now—it was awhile back and I didn’t keep great notes—but I hit 300 easily and only just missed 315 when I did the PR test after just a few months with that programming.

I’m also on the 1/2/3/4 plate quest. Just started a few weeks ago, so it’ll be fun to watch your progress as we both proceed.

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