Awesome work ActivitiesGuy! Great to see all of your hard work pay off 
Sunday 4/10
Hot Yoga Class (75 Minutes)
Summer Plans
This year holds a lot of excitement to come. My fiancee will be moving here in May, and we will be getting married on August 10. I also will be turning 30 while we’re on our wedding trip, and I have set an unofficial goal of deadlifting 500 pounds by that time, preferably without gaining any weight. This leaves me in an interesting position, training-wise…I really want to make a push to add some strength, but also need to make sure I fit into my wedding suit (and shortly, I will be living with my bride-to-be, who will likely be obsessed with looking good in her wedding dress).
I think the logical plan would be to push for as much raw strength gain as possible in the next five weeks (until my fiancee moves in). As readers of my past logs know, my fiancee is also quite dedicated to fitness and we tend to mesh our workout desires quite easily…but knowing that she will be looking for “fat loss” over all else this summer, I think the way to go is loading up on heavy deadlifts for the next five weeks to gain as much strength as possible, then just slightly tweaking the program to replace one or two of the deadlift workouts with kettlebell circuits or an extra yoga class (more aligned with my fiancee’s preferred training, and possibly more doable in a calorie deficit).
April 10-May 14
Mon: Deadlift 6 x 1 x 315
Tue: Deadlift 6 x 1 x 365
Wed: Kettlebell Circuit
Thu: Deadlift 6 x 1 x 385
Fri: Kettlebell Circuit
Sat: Deadlift 6 x 1 x 405
Sun: Hot Yoga Class
On Saturday, May 14th, I will test my deadlift max. I did a nice strong not-quite-max-effort pull with 435 yesterday, and have been consistently taking 405 for easy singles in recent workouts, so I am hoping to be at 455 by then, perhaps even a shade higher if everything goes smoothly.
May 15-July 31
Mon: Kettlebell Circuit
Tue: Deadlift 6 x 1 x 315
Wed: Kettlebell Circuit
Thu: Kettlebell Circuit
Fri: Kettlebell Circuit
Sat: Deadlift 6 x 1 x 405
Sun: Hot Yoga Class
I’d expect that most weekends, a Saturday at the gym (heavy deadlifts for me, kettlebell circuit and assorted dumbbell stuff for her) and Sunday yoga class will be the plan. Then all I need is one other medium deadlift session during the week, and I can fill in the rest with kettlebell work. I figure that during the week, a couple strong singles at 315 will serve as my speed work, with the heavy stuff on weekends when I can sleep in a little more and get a good breakfast in me before going to the gym. My fiancee will probably want to do a couple of kettlebell workouts per week with me, but on days that I have to get up extra-early for work, she may sleep in and go to a yoga class a little later instead, so we should both be able to get our optimal desired training week (my ideal is week probably something like 2 deadlift days / 4 kettlebell days / 1 yoga day, hers is probably more like 2 kettlebell days / 3 yoga days / 2 run days). This feels like a good solid plan for the summer, and might well be the general outline for training the rest of our lives.
@furo: I know that you’re getting married this summer too, and recently wrote a similar post on your training plan leading up to the wedding, so cheers!
Monday 4/11
Deadlift
5x135
5x135
1x225
1x225
1x225
1x225
1x315
1x315
1x315
1x315
1x315
1x315
6x315
Hyperextensions
1x10
Pull-ups
1x10
I haven’t consistently logged them here, but after my deadlift workouts I usually do 1 set of hyperextensions and 1 set of pull-ups. I will start logging from now on…I would also like to nudge this from 10 pull-ups closer to 20.
Tuesday 4/12
Deadlift
5x135
5x135
1x225
1x225
1x225
1x315
1x315
1x315
1x365
1x365
1x365
1x365
1x365
1x365
Hyperextensions
2x10
Pull-ups
1x10
Wednesday 4/13
KB Swing 10 x 10 x 88
DB Rack Marathon
Lat Raise 10x5’s
Front Raise 10x10’s
Curls 10x15’s
Hammer Curls 10x20’s
Press 10x25’s
Press 5x30’s
Press 5x35’s
Press 5x40’s
Press 5x45’s
Press 5x50’s
Thursday 4/14
Deadlift
5x135
5x135
1x225
1x225
1x225
1x225
1x315
1x315
1x315
1x315
1x385
1x385
1x385
1x385
1x385
1x385
1x385
Hyperextensions
1x10
Pull-ups
1x10
Friday 4/15
Deadlift
5x135
5x135
1x225
1x225
1x315
1x315
1x315
1x315
1x315
1x315
1x385
1x385
Pull-ups
1x8
1x6
1x5
Saturday 4/16
Deadlift
5x135
5x135
1x225
1x225
1x225
1x225
1x225
1x315
1x315
1x315
1x315
1x315
4x405 (rep PR)
DB Press
1x55
1x55
1x60
1x60
1x65
1x65
1x70
1x70
1x75
1x75
1x80
1x80
1x85
1x85
1x90
1x90
1x95
1x95
1x100
1x100
Pull-ups
1x8
Hey man, it’s been a while. You’ve made some impressive strength gains since last I visited your log!
This is more than just an ‘Attaboy!’ visit, however. Last time I was here, I was advocating for low-weight, high-explosiveness KB swings. In that regard, I have a story to tell…Was doing my usual core-conditioning workout the other day (alternating sets of crunches with sets of KB swings). Per usual, I was using a light KB, and trying to swing it explosively. During my last set of swings, I felt a sudden pop and pain in my hamstring, such that I dropped the KB from the top of the aborted swing. My first thought was ‘Damn it, I’ve pulled a hammy.’ My second thought was ‘I’ve just done my last-ever KB swings, and that sucks, because I really like them.’
In retrospect, I’m questioning why I was employing explosive KB swings in the first place. After all, I eschew explosive movements in my training as a general rule, out of recognition that aging connective tissue doesn’t take kindly to violent loading and unloading. Given this, what made me think explosive KB swings were a good idea? As is the case with so many decision in life: When viewed through the retrospectoscope, the error of my ways is painfully (ahem) plain to see.
Don’t get me wrong–I’m not down on explosive KB swings per se. Specifically, I think young bucks such as yourself can handle and benefit from explosive training movements. But for older lifters, only the special flowers among us can get away with them without courting injury. So I’m here to downgrade my previous endorsement of explosive KB swings from ‘buy’ to ‘caveat emptor’ for the young, and to ‘get out while you still can’ for those of us who are young at heart.
Edited for clarity
Sunday 4/17
Hot Yoga Class (75 Minutes)
Monday 4/18
Deadlift
5x135
1x225
1x225
1x225
1x225
1x315
1x315
1x315
1x315
1x315
1x315
Hyperextensions
2x10
Pull-ups
3x6
Also, I decided to create a YouTube account, mostly because I figured it would be easier to upload training videos that way, as for some reason trying to load them straight from my phone has never worked right. Here’s my 4x405 deadlift from this past weekend:
Tuesday 4/19
Deadlift
5x135
5x135
1x225
1x225
1x315
1x315
6x365 (rep PR)
Pull-ups
1x8
Short time this morning so I decided to go intense and notch a rep PR. Get in, do work, get out.
Also @EyeDentist, I am not ignoring you, just have been busy…I will come back later and edit this post with a full reply!
Wednesday 4/20
Deadlift
5x135
5x135
1x225
1x225
1x225
1x225
1x225
1x315
1x315
1x315
1x315
1x315
1x405
Thursday 4/21
Deadlift
5x135
5x135
1x225
1x225
1x225
1x315
1x315
1x315
1x315
1x315
1x405
Pull-ups
5x5
Also, I wish to compliment @EyeDentist and @T3hPwnisher for being good citizens of the forum in a particular debate raging elsewhere on this website. I am sitting on the sidelines at this time, because I believe the two of you have admirably carried on the discussion with a degree of civility, decorum, and intelligence that I may not be able to maintain if I joined the fray.
For sure. I can never enter those discussions, they just wind me up, but good on you two for speaking sense.
Much appreciated. Ya know, one of the best lessons my mom ever taught me was “Kill them with kindness”. It’s pretty easy to resort to name calling from the safety of one’s keyboard on the internet, but if you want a real challenge, be nice to someone while they do that. Ultimately, they tend to give up and move on, but even if they don’t, you just get to laugh about how ridiculous it looks, haha.
That said, @EyeDentist is the real champion in that discussion. I couldn’t reasonable invest the energy he has without going crazy, but it’s been great to see. I honestly laughed out loud over the Copernicus comments. My own involvement was just to clear up a misunderstanding of an analogy, as it pains me to see people misunderstand symbolic logic.