Alpha dude! That sled row was bada$$, after watching that I wanted to rush out to try it! Also congratz on the axle deadlift pr!
On a side note, I took a page out of your book and did my push presses bare footed, man it made a huge positive difference, I felt more stable on lockout , more explosive on the ankle extension and felt like I got better quality leg drive thereby.
FarmerOwen: That is awesome brother! I like being barefoot over anything else. Even weightlifting shoes. I may not be using them correctly, but I feel 100% more stable without shoes. Glad to hear it worked out for you!
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āGreat spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.ā --Albert Einstein
āYou were born with potential.
You were born with greatness.
You were born with wings. You are not meant for crawling, so donāt.
You have wings. Learn to use them and fly.ā --Rumi
WEDNESDAY, 25FEBRUARY2015 - Work For Today
Wave 4/Day 3
STRENGTH GIANT SET:
Farmerās Handle Deadlifts: 410x3, 510x3, 590x3, 690x1, 730x1, 780x1 (PR vid)
Pull-Ups: 25, 20, 18, 16, 14, 12
Log Clean & Press: 205x3, 225x3, 245x3, 265x2, 295x1 (easy), 315xNo
Double Unders: 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50
Windshield Wipers: 8 (Each Side), 8, 8, 8, 8, 8
NOTES:
- Was running pretty short on time today so I tried to collapse a lot of different things into one giant set.
- Hit a Farmerās Handle deadlift PR of 780lbs (390lbs in each hand) so that was good. and hit a really easy rep of Log clean & press of 295 but failed at the 315ā¦I have no doubt in my mind that my shoulders are stronger than they have ever been in my life but it is just not translating over to my Log Pressā¦It has to be a technique thing.
- Everything else went well and was easy enough.
Iām seeing 800 farmers pull in the next few weeks!
Hey man, do you have any tips for dealing with some medial elbow-bicep pain/discomfort during and after squat? Iām dealing with this during my last few squat sessions.
How close are your hands to your shoulders regev?
[quote]MattyG35 wrote:
How close are your hands to your shoulders regev?
[/quote]
Close, thumb away from the shoulders but Iāve never had any issues with it, even with heavier weights. Perhaps itās the whole giant set of squat, military press and T BOR which caused it? Maybe my shoulders arenāt warm enough and too tight? I have neglected a bit the shoulders and rotator cuff warm-upā¦
I had a tight subscapularis, within a week it got better, this was one of the movements
Youāll know if youāre tight trying the first movement, if itās only one shoulder, see what range you get with your good side, and then check your bad side
[quote]MattyG35 wrote:
I had a tight subscapularis, within a week it got better, this was one of the movements
Youāll know if youāre tight trying the first movement, if itās only one shoulder, see what range you get with your good side, and then check your bad side[/quote]
Nope, Iām all good. I have good shoulder mobility, I guess itās that giant set (you can check it in my log if you want) with the OHP that tighten my shoulder girdle or maybe my palm position isnāt right. I donāt knowā¦
Nice Z Press. Iāve definitely lost my balance a few times with it. I think thatās one of the stronger points of it, since it literally forces you into a good bar bath.
For your log press, are you bringing it to your shoulders and then pressing, or are you using the more continuous āviper pressā/Poundstone style?
First few reps of this video:
Regev: I have the same issue sometimes, but mine shows up when I have my hands too close during squatting. When I I lighten up the load some and bring my hands out a little bit, it usually goes away. There was also an article on the main page of this site that talks about elbow pain. It could also be an issue with your grip. I would give it a read and see if it helps you out.
LoRez: Thanks man, I would have totally had the 245 Z Press if my leg didnāt cramp up. There is always next time! And I am pretty good at the viper press but i have never tried it with really heavy weights. I will give it a shot. Good call!
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āI was never afraid of failure; for I would sooner fail than not be among the greatest.ā --John Keats
THURSDAY, 25FEBRUARY2015 - Work For Today
Wave 4/Day 4
STRENGTH
Walked up on my squats todayā¦It ended well for me.
135xsome
225xsome
315xsome
405x3
455x2
500x1
550x1
570x1
585x1 (In video)
620x1 (In video)
650x1 (PR) it may have been a touch high but I am counting it!
CONDITIONING
20, 15, 10, 5 Reps of
Good Mornings with 225
Wide Grip Pull-Ups
Ring Dips
NOTES:
- Part of the reason why I decided to go heavy on squats today was to see what my groin issue would do. Feels a little bit funny right now but I will know more come tomorrow morning.
- Really happy to have gotten the 650PR squat. I was trying to be more aggressive on my walkout today to try and trick my brain into thinking that it could easily handle the weights. Maybe it worked, maybe it didnāt.
- The 650 may have been just a touch high or it could have been the camera angle. One of my friends was watching from the side and said that it would have passed in his book. That was good to hear.
- Did the conditioning stuff just as an extra thing. All of that went smoothly despite right elbow pain (that is why it is wrapped in the videos)
Here are my 585, 620 and 650 PR sets
Alpha,
I donāt remember if you ever wrote about it before but what tips/advice do you have for testing 1 RM? Once you are at a 3 RM or so do you just keep adding weight and keep hitting singles?
Maybe try getting some ART therapy on the groin if it continues, expensive but can really work wonders
Itās pretty funny that when I need something in regards to training, nutrition or injuries there will be an article published about in a day maximum. Itās always happening.
Iām thinking that itās caused by the palm angle in relations to the forearm. Iāll film the next squat season.
[quote]Regev19978 wrote:
Itās pretty funny that when I need something in regards to training, nutrition or injuries there will be an article published about in a day maximum. Itās always happening.
Iām thinking that itās caused by the palm angle in relations to the forearm. Iāll film the next squat season.[/quote]
Maybe youāre a pre-cognizant hypochondriac!
[quote]MattyG35 wrote:
[quote]Regev19978 wrote:
Itās pretty funny that when I need something in regards to training, nutrition or injuries there will be an article published about in a day maximum. Itās always happening.
Iām thinking that itās caused by the palm angle in relations to the forearm. Iāll film the next squat season.[/quote]
Maybe youāre a pre-cognizant hypochondriac![/quote]
Maybe!
AnimalMother: No man, if you find a true 3RM in a given workout, (in my opinion) that would be just about the worst time to go looking for a 1RM. You want to have wasted as little energy as possible on your previous sets if you are going for a PR.
For the most part, I will know going into a workout that I am looking for a 1RM for that day. If I am feeling bad and weights are moving slowly then I will switch it up. But Iād say that 99% of the time, I have the intention prior to my first lift.
I am a big fan of having a set-up for each main movement I perform and will try to replicate the intensity, approach and mindset for every single set, no matter what weight is on the bar. I also believe that if you are going for a 1-3RM then most of your warm-up sets should be no more than 3 reps. Start training your muscles and mind immediately from the first rep. That means that if I am squatting 100lbs or 650lbs? I go through the exact same routine. And I mean everything. The way I chalk up, how I put my belt on, visualizing, breathing, bracing?It is all the exact same. This way no matter what weight is on the bar, it does not feel like a bigger deal than it should. All I have to do is walk up to the bar and do my job. Often times, when weights get heavier, most people (Myself included) will approach the lift completely different than their earlier sets. That is a stupid way to do it. Build a routine and practice it on every single set. Then the only thing that changes on a PR set is the bar speed. Just do your job to the best of your ability and let the chips fall.
Yesterday, I wanted to see how heavy I could push up my squats, So this is how I approach it.
Bar x2 (just to see how loose my hips were feeling from the previous dayās farmer deadlifts)
135 x2 (Normal Squat set-up and technique that I have talked about on here and my site before)
Did 1-2 minutes of mobility drills to loosen up my hips
225 x2 (Normal Squat Set-Up)
315 x2 (Normal Squat Set-up)
405 x3 (Normal Squat Set-Up and did 3reps to work on my bracing)
455 x2 (Normal Squat Set-Up) (on this set and all of the previous ones, I am trying to move the bar as quickly as possible on the concentric. I put the same force into 455 that I do 650?again, the only thing that changes is the bar speed)
500 x1 (this is the weight where I can really tell how I am feeling for the day. Everything below 500 is too light for me to really identify where I am at. So at 500lbs I decide what kind of weight jumps I plan on making. If I was feeling bad, I would start my rep working sets here)
550 x1 (This flew up and actually felt lighter than the 500b set so I knew I could take a decent jump). (Also used the exact same set-Up as previous sets but added chalk to my shoulders)
570 x1 (Normal squat set up with chalking shoulders)
585 x1 (This is another kind of marker for how I am feeling) I know that I do not have a lot of heavy reps left in the tank so, judging by how this set goes, I have to start implementing a strategy for the rest of the day.
This rep did not feel terribly oppressive and moved quickly, so I decided to take a larger jump and went with 620.
620 x1 Same exact set-up as all of my previous sets. On this rep, when I was lowering the weight, I almost ditched it forward. I misgrooved on the way down, but because of the bracing, I was able to hold on and fight the weight back. because of this, I expected the concentric to be really slow, but it wasnāt. I knew that if I was going to make a move that the was probably the time.
At this point, I was debating on 645 or 650. I loaded the bar to 645 because it would be a 5lb PR but I liked the sound of 650 better. I literally put the 2.5s on?then took them off?.then put them on?then asked a buddy what he thought. He gave me nothing so I figured, āhell with it, if I drop it, I drop it.ā and went for it.
650 x1 PR ?I did nothing differently on this set than I did the previous ones. If anything, all I did was focus on my cues and staying tight even more. When things get extremely heavy, I find that intensely focusing on the basics can help take you mind off the heaviness. To be honest he weight felt very oppressive and as I was lowering it, and I did not think it was coming back up with it on my back. Then I reversed the bar and hit a wall. I almost gave up on it, but decided to keep pushing and see how the set would play out and I got the rep.
So to recap:
Do as few reps as you feel you can on your way up to a PR attempt
Build a routine for ever set and do not break it, no matter what weight it is
Find a moderately heavy weight and create a strategy for your next few jumps
Self regulate as you go along
I hope that helps you out some brother.
Rampantbadger: Yea man, I just think it is more of a hernia thing. But I do have a friend who is going though ART right now and it is the ONLY thing that has helped him out. Definitely seems to be worth the money.
Regev: Yea man, if it was just that one workout, i wouldnāt stress too much about it. There is not a day that I wake up that I swear something is broke?Just for it to be fine a week later.
MattyG & Regev: That made me laugh!
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No pain in my nut/lower abdominal region. This is a good sign.
Alpha, sorry if you already addressed this and I missed itā¦but can you help me understand your sets/rep scheme while running your 4x8, 5x5, 10x3 programming for 5 weeks? Is the same weight used for each set or is it increased each set? Or does it back down over any sets? Then each week we should try to increase weight on each set, is that right?
You mentioned missing reps are like ghosts so I was curious about your sets/reps/poundages while programming like this.
Thanks Alpha, very cool stuff!
Hey Alpha,
how many times a week do you train grappling? I am pretty lean,190cm, 83-85 kg, doing BJJ 3 times a week and am trying to gain more functional mass. I was thinking about some simple Push/Pull/Legs 3-4 times a week with basic compound movements but am worrying about my recovery. What type of training would you suggest for gaining mass and strenght while doing BJJ? I am sorry for my English.
Thanks man
jlutz3: Sure man. Well, I do my warm-up sets separately then the actual working sets of 4x8, 5x5, 10x3 will begin in the 70-80% range. After each set I will access how it went, what my RPE level was and then manipulate the weights appropriately. If all goes well, I will ramp up weight every set to a top heavy set, which usually falls around the middle of the prescribed sets. Then i will back the weight off a little bit for my following sets. So on a 10x3 workout, my sets may look something like this:
100x3, 110x3, 120x3, 125x3, 130x3, 125x3, 120x3, 120x3, 115x3, 115x3
As you can see, I would just work up to a top set, then manipulate the weights each set thereafter to move as much weight as possible in each given workout. However, I make sure that I NEVER grind a rep out. The bar can slow dow considerably, but I always try to leave 1-2 reps in the tank. This keeps me from tapping out my CNS, makes recovery easier and allows for the full 5 weeks of linear progression. This is what I am talking about with missing reps. If you are always keeping 1-2 reps in the tank then you should never leave a rep on the table.
If everything went well with the previous weekās sets and my top set was around an RPE of 8-8.5 then this weekās weights would look something like this:
105x3, 115x3, 125x3, 130x3, 135x3, 130x3, 125x3, 125x3, 120x3, 120x3. --And so on for the entirety of the 5 weeks.
It is also important to note that on my 4x8 cycles, my last set will always be my top set. There is no pyramiding back down on those weeks. And there may or may not be back-off sets on the 5x5 wave. But most of the time I would try to make that last set my top set as well.
I hope that clears it up some for you, brother. Let me know if you need more clarification. Thanks for asking!
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āThe more improbable the situation and the greater the demands, the more sweetly the blood flows later in the release of all that tension. The possibility of danger serves merely to sharpen your awareness and control. And perhaps this is the rationale of all risky sports: You deliberately raise the ante of effort and concentration in order, as it were, to clear your mind of trivialities. Itās a small scale model for living, but with a difference: Unlike your routine life, where mistakes can usually be recouped and patched up? your actions, for however brief a second, are deadly serious.ā --A. Alverez
SUNDAY, 01MARCH2015 - Work For Today
Wave 4/Day 7
CONDITONING
:30 Seconds Kettlebell Swings (88lb KB)
:30 Seconds Goblet Squats (88lb KB)
:30 Seconds Push-Ups
:30 Seconds Mountain Climbers
:30 Seconds Single Arm Kettle Bell Lunges (88lb KB)
:30 Seconds ManMakers
1:00 Minute Rest
:30 Seconds Kettlebell Swings (88lb KB)
:30 Seconds Jumping Squats
:30 Seconds Kettlebell Sit-Ups (88lb KB)
:30 Seconds Plank
:30 Seconds Jumping Lunges
:30 Seconds Burpees
1:00 Minute Rest
Start back at the top and go all of the way through againā¦
STRENGTH GIANT SET
6 Second Pause (in the hole) Front Squats: 225x3, 275x3, 315x3, 335x3, 365x3
150 Foot Farmerās Walk: 245 (Each Hand), 245, 245, 245, 245
Toes To Bar: 10, 10, 10, 10, 10
NOTES:
- My legs are still pretty jacked up from the heavy squats the other day so today was a lot about getting blood into them before deadlifts tomorrow. Hopefully that goes well.
- Soaked in an epsom salt bath when I got home. I have only done this a few times for recovery and I have honestly never felt a difference, but I figured it it worth a try.
- Today officially starts the weight cut for my strongman comp on the 28th.
[quote]Alpha wrote:
- Soaked in an epsom salt bath when I got home. I have only done this a few times for recovery and I have honestly never felt a difference, but I figured it it worth a try./quote]
Try doing an ice bath (or just very cold water) for 15-20 minutes, and then doing a hot epsom salt bath. Just epsom baths donāt do much for me either, until i started doing the above.
I continue to keep you and your girl in my prayers my friend. That brain tumor picked the wrong person to try to defeat.
āStrength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.ā
Arnold Schwarzenegger
-Coach
Ice/cold water itself makes a huge difference. Contrast showers are good too, but if the water is cold enough I just need the cold water. Really, itās the least talked about yet very useful technique for recovery. I find that cold showers are even great immediately before working out. Seems to wake up my body and amplifies the usefulness of any warming up.
Good luck with the weight cut!