[quote]mcl wrote:
Cycle 4, Week 2, Day 4:
Warmups: the usual, plus 10@bar, 10@135
Squat: 3@230, 3@260, 6@295 (PR)
Accessory:
Zerchers 5x5@205. I can probably take these to 225.
Lower back’s been acting up this week, so I skipped the GMs today.
Leg curls: 5x10@80
Weight: 247
Decided to have a cheat meal, so I swung by In-n-Out on the way home and got a double double, all the way, and a side of fries. Yum! [/quote]
yeehaaa! nice PR (damn you)
I’m loving the zerchers; they really seem to be helping with my squats. I had the same problem with them hurting my arms, but one day they just stopped hurting. Don’t know why.
Well, the gym was closed yesterday, so I’m doing week 3 back to back to back to back. Whee.
Cycle 4, Week 3, Day 1:
Warmups: the usual, plus 10@bar, 10@65
MP: 5@90, 3@105, 6@115.
BBB: 5x10@90, supersetted with:
Pullups: 2x4x2, 24x1
…and…
Dips: 10x4
Also, some front raises @10, some ultra-wide grip pulldowns at 90, some straight-arm cable pullovers @45, and some chest work at 125 (arms out to arms in. No idea what it’s called)
Shoulders feeling good, but I notice I still have a tendency to flare my right elbow on the MPs when I start to get tired. I had to force my elbows to stay in front of me on every rep, so some of them went slower than I’d like.
Had a muscle spasm in my mid back this morning. Hope it’s better for DLs tomorrow.
Weight: 248. Gained a pound from being lax on the carbs this weekend (had some salmon patties on a bun, and also broke down and went for a nice dessert at a bakery with the girlfriend Saturday night).
Cycle 4, Week 3, Day 2:
Didn’t get much food before the workout: 1 tbsp natty PB, bagel with about 10oz of peppered turkey and 6 slices of dry salami, a couple of handfuls of cashews, 2 cups of coffee. It showed.
Warmup: the usual, plus 10@135 and 5@225
Deads: 5@270, 3@315, 6@350 (PR)
Decided to do rackpulls instead of BBB today: 5x1 rackpulls from shin to lockout @ 455 (rep PR)
5x10 hanging leg raises: I’m trying to do these straight-legged as much as I can now.
Weight: 248. I haven’t been hydrating like I should. Trying to fix that today.
Nice Pulling, both deads and rack pulls. And those hanging leg raises are hard to do straight legged. I have a real tough time getting 8 slightly bent. Great job.
[quote]mcl wrote:
Cycle 4, Week 3, Day 2:
Didn’t get much food before the workout: 1 tbsp natty PB, bagel with about 10oz of peppered turkey and 6 slices of dry salami, a couple of handfuls of cashews, 2 cups of coffee. It showed.
Warmup: the usual, plus 10@135 and 5@225
Deads: 5@270, 3@315, 6@350 (PR)
Decided to do rackpulls instead of BBB today: 5x1 rackpulls from shin to lockout @ 455 (rep PR)
5x10 hanging leg raises: I’m trying to do these straight-legged as much as I can now.
Weight: 248. I haven’t been hydrating like I should. Trying to fix that today.[/quote]
Great PRs, mcl. Pulling is looking good. 500 will fall before you know it!
Nice work…
good pulling- 531 is slowly making sense.
kmc
Attempting to squeeze all 4 days of week 3 into a 4-day week with no break was, in hindsight, stupid. My lower back was trying to spasm while getting into my arch for my BBB sets today. I think I will squat on Monday rather than trying to do it tomorrow.
Cycle 4, Week 3, Day 3:
Warmup: The usual, plus 10@bar, 10@135
Bench: 5@155, 3@175, 6@195 (not a PR, I don’t think).
BBB: 5x10@155, mixing up extremely close, mid, and extra-wide grips
supersetted with…
I decided to try cleans instead of rows today, to see how they feel and what kind of impact they’d have. I went light, both in weight and reps:
accessory: cleans, 5x5@135
I need to start adding in some cross-body shoulder cable pulls, since that’s the motion that seems to tweak my shoulder. I couldn’t avoid throwing my elbows out between the rowing motion in the cleans and the top of the movement. I minimized it as much as I could, but the little bit in that transition was still enough to cause my shoulder to start complaining again.
Guess I’ve been REALLY good at protecting it up to now. 
Weight: 247. I really, really hate how stubborn my body is about letting go of fat. I could force my weight down, but it’d be at the expense of muscle mass. I’ll just be happy with one more pound this week, and a pound or so each week hereafter.
Well, I thought I could take the Zerchers up to 225.
I was wrong.
…I can take them up to 245!
I love my Alpha Male. I really shouldn’t, because at this point I’ve probably set up some weird placebo effect in my mind. But everything felt light today.
Cycle 4, Week 3, Day 4:
Warmups: The usual, which now includes some cross-body cable pulls to strengthen whatever part of my shoulder reacts poorly to strain in that direction. Plus 10@bar, 10@95, 10@135
Squats: 5@245, 3@270, 5@310 (PR. I probably could have cranked out another 2 reps, but I didn’t want to chance it.)
Accessory:
Zerchers: 2x5@225 (PR), 3x5@245(PR). These really tore up my forearms. Literally. I’ve got little blood flecks all over the insides of both forearms from where the knurling dug into my flesh.
Leg curls: 5x10@80. I always seem to hit exhaustion around the latter half of the last set, so I’m going to leave these at 80 until I’m doing better. I may look at some alternative accessory for hams on squat days, just for the variety.
Weight: 249 (whiskey tango foxtrot? Over. I’ve been eating clean and consistent, so I just hate my body. Apparently the feeling’s mutual.)
At this point, I feel like I could single-rep 365, but I’m not going to try it just yet. Maybe a 400 squat isn’t completely out of the question by New Year’s Eve.
My back felt good and strong today, and while it’s a bit tight right now on my left side, the spasms of last week haven’t returned.
I’m going to skip my deload week and dive right into Cycle 5 tomorrow. I’m also going to stick with this shifted rotation (squats on Mondays) for the time being, until another interruption pushes the rotation again. I was getting sick of MPs on Mondays anyway.
Nice work! I’ll take improving my lifts over decreasing my bodyweight any day of the year. Don’t forget that you may be gaining muscle - which weighs more than fat - at the same time your losing fat. I don’t know if you measure yourself but sometimes the tape will tell you more than the scale will.
Do you do anything on your off days? Even a simple timed walk will further your losses and not take away from your strength. You can boost incrementally over time either in intensity or duration until you hit your target weight. Just sounds like you may need an extra kick to get things moving.
[quote]DaCharmingAlbino wrote:
Nice work! I’ll take improving my lifts over decreasing my bodyweight any day of the year. Don’t forget that you may be gaining muscle - which weighs more than fat - at the same time your losing fat. I don’t know if you measure yourself but sometimes the tape will tell you more than the scale will.
Do you do anything on your off days? Even a simple timed walk will further your losses and not take away from your strength. You can boost incrementally over time either in intensity or duration until you hit your target weight. Just sounds like you may need an extra kick to get things moving.[/quote]
I don’t do much on my off days. I was doing cardio immedately after my lifting, but that, at best, kept my weight stable.
I’ll find out in about 3 weeks whether I’ve gained any substantial lean body mass, since that’s when I’m scheduled to be tanked again.
My primary kvetch about my current weight is that my waist size is a couple of inches higher than it was, and it’s annoying me. I’m positive my chest, shoulders, neck, and arms have increased, but I haven’t measured them recently.
EDIT: By the way, I’m doing zerchers from the same pin height you are, DCA. I don’t see how you manage heavies as a straight set. I have to hit one, re-rack, re-setup, and hit another, sometimes catching my breath in between. Not quite singles, but certainly not speed sets to the pins and back up.
At least, not yet.
[quote]mcl wrote:
DaCharmingAlbino wrote:
Nice work! I’ll take improving my lifts over decreasing my bodyweight any day of the year. Don’t forget that you may be gaining muscle - which weighs more than fat - at the same time your losing fat. I don’t know if you measure yourself but sometimes the tape will tell you more than the scale will.
Do you do anything on your off days? Even a simple timed walk will further your losses and not take away from your strength. You can boost incrementally over time either in intensity or duration until you hit your target weight. Just sounds like you may need an extra kick to get things moving.
I don’t do much on my off days. I was doing cardio immedately after my lifting, but that, at best, kept my weight stable.
I’ll find out in about 3 weeks whether I’ve gained any substantial lean body mass, since that’s when I’m scheduled to be tanked again.
My primary kvetch about my current weight is that my waist size is a couple of inches higher than it was, and it’s annoying me. I’m positive my chest, shoulders, neck, and arms have increased, but I haven’t measured them recently.
EDIT: By the way, I’m doing zerchers from the same pin height you are, DCA. I don’t see how you manage heavies as a straight set. I have to hit one, re-rack, re-setup, and hit another, sometimes catching my breath in between. Not quite singles, but certainly not speed sets to the pins and back up.
At least, not yet. :)[/quote]
As a matter of fact I usually don’t do more reps than doubles on zerchers and mainly stick to singles. I treat it like a deadlift and I actually consider it harder than one. I can do reps at a higher weighton deadlift than I can single with a zercher. I do my main singles and then switch to an assistance exercise for reps - something like good mornings or romanian deadlifts. It’s just too hard on me otherwise. I also can’t get my breath at the top, I have to load up the lungs at the bottom with a pause either on my legs or on the pins.
It’s a bitch of a lift, but it works the hell out of whatever is weak.
[quote]DaCharmingAlbino wrote:
mcl wrote:
DaCharmingAlbino wrote:
Nice work! I’ll take improving my lifts over decreasing my bodyweight any day of the year. Don’t forget that you may be gaining muscle - which weighs more than fat - at the same time your losing fat. I don’t know if you measure yourself but sometimes the tape will tell you more than the scale will.
Do you do anything on your off days? Even a simple timed walk will further your losses and not take away from your strength. You can boost incrementally over time either in intensity or duration until you hit your target weight. Just sounds like you may need an extra kick to get things moving.
I don’t do much on my off days. I was doing cardio immedately after my lifting, but that, at best, kept my weight stable.
I’ll find out in about 3 weeks whether I’ve gained any substantial lean body mass, since that’s when I’m scheduled to be tanked again.
My primary kvetch about my current weight is that my waist size is a couple of inches higher than it was, and it’s annoying me. I’m positive my chest, shoulders, neck, and arms have increased, but I haven’t measured them recently.
EDIT: By the way, I’m doing zerchers from the same pin height you are, DCA. I don’t see how you manage heavies as a straight set. I have to hit one, re-rack, re-setup, and hit another, sometimes catching my breath in between. Not quite singles, but certainly not speed sets to the pins and back up.
At least, not yet.
As a matter of fact I usually don’t do more reps than doubles on zerchers and mainly stick to singles. I treat it like a deadlift and I actually consider it harder than one. I can do reps at a higher weighton deadlift than I can single with a zercher. I do my main singles and then switch to an assistance exercise for reps - something like good mornings or romanian deadlifts. It’s just too hard on me otherwise. I also can’t get my breath at the top, I have to load up the lungs at the bottom with a pause either on my legs or on the pins.
It’s a bitch of a lift, but it works the hell out of whatever is weak.[/quote]
Oh, I agree it’s one hell of a lift. But right now it’s stressing my stabilizers more than my quads. I think my quads could do 315 easy. My back’s the weak link here.
I’m glad to hear you’re not hammering out straight sets on those! Though it shatters my illusion that I’m that much farther behind you and that I need to work extra-hard to catch up.
[quote]mcl wrote:
Well, I thought I could take the Zerchers up to 225.
I was wrong.
…I can take them up to 245!
I love my Alpha Male. I really shouldn’t, because at this point I’ve probably set up some weird placebo effect in my mind. But everything felt light today.
Cycle 4, Week 3, Day 4:
Warmups: The usual, which now includes some cross-body cable pulls to strengthen whatever part of my shoulder reacts poorly to strain in that direction. Plus 10@bar, 10@95, 10@135
Squats: 5@245, 3@270, 5@310 (PR. I probably could have cranked out another 2 reps, but I didn’t want to chance it.)
Accessory:
Zerchers: 2x5@225 (PR), 3x5@245(PR). These really tore up my forearms. Literally. I’ve got little blood flecks all over the insides of both forearms from where the knurling dug into my flesh.
Leg curls: 5x10@80. I always seem to hit exhaustion around the latter half of the last set, so I’m going to leave these at 80 until I’m doing better. I may look at some alternative accessory for hams on squat days, just for the variety.
Weight: 249 (whiskey tango foxtrot? Over. I’ve been eating clean and consistent, so I just hate my body. Apparently the feeling’s mutual.)
At this point, I feel like I could single-rep 365, but I’m not going to try it just yet. Maybe a 400 squat isn’t completely out of the question by New Year’s Eve.
My back felt good and strong today, and while it’s a bit tight right now on my left side, the spasms of last week haven’t returned.
I’m going to skip my deload week and dive right into Cycle 5 tomorrow. I’m also going to stick with this shifted rotation (squats on Mondays) for the time being, until another interruption pushes the rotation again. I was getting sick of MPs on Mondays anyway. :)[/quote]
Nice PRs! This looks like solid work and continued progress. Can I ask why are you going to skip the deload week?
I always come off deloads feeling weak, and it feels like I spend most of my time building back to baseline strength rather than progressing in reps.
Out of curiosity, I took some measurements today. I couldn’t find anything more recent than 13 months ago, so here they are:
neck 17.3" 19"
shoulders N/A 20"
chest 46.8" 50"
bicep, cold 14.5" 16.5"
waist 39" 42"
hips/butt 41.3" 45"
thigh 25" 27.5"
calf N/A 17.5"
Looks like I gained 2-3" pretty much everywhere, so my proportions didn’t change much.
do not skip the deload. Don’t take the week off, do the deload percentages specified in the program, and up the intensity a little on the accessories. I usually do 5x5 instead of 5x10 on the accessories, but increase the weights on the accessories, so you go “heavy” on the accessories (think 5RM) instead of the main lifts. Try it once, thank me later.
Heh. Didn’t see your post until after my workout, mjnewland. I’ll take a deload week after this cycle.
Cycle 5, Week 1, Day 1: I’m going to rearrange things a bit for my MP days to do more concentrated shoulder work. The dips and pullups and pulldowns are moving to my bench day (but I’ll keep the cleans on that day as well.)
Warmup: the usual, plus 10@bar, 10@65
MP: 5@85, 5@95, 8@105
Accessory:
Seated overhead press from pins. The Hoist power rack we’ve got only has 4 pin heights, and I wasn’t about to use the Smith machine, so I wound up sitting with my ass on the floor and no back support in order to get eyebrow height from the pins. I tried cross-legged, but I couldn’t get leverage, so I left my legs out in front of me, bent (not pressing against anything, sadly):
5@115, 5@120, 5@125 (PR for any overhead pressing movement for me) Tried to do 5@130, but I only got it a couple of inches off the pins.
Kept as narrow a grip as possible (all the way to the smooth inner part of the bar) to protect my shoulder. Still ended up wrenching it pulling myself off the floor, though. I’m an idiot!
Seated 1-arm DB overhead presses: 5@60, 5@40.
DB front lateral raises: 5x5@20, supersetted with:
DB front raises: 5x5@20 (palms inward going up, palms outward going down)
DB side raises: 5x5@10. I have real trouble with my torso twisting and my left shoulder coming up on these when I’m fatigued, which is why I didn’t go heavier. Even though it’s my right shoulder that I managed to tweak my rotator cuff on, my left shoulder seems to be the weaker of the two when my right’s not acting up.
Various cross-body cable pulls to work the various parts of my rotator cuff: some x some.
Definitely feeling it in my shoulders for a change, and my arms, chest, and back won’t be wasted when I bench, like they have been for the past month.
Weight: 248. I just can’t seem to hydrate enough, if urine color’s any indication. I may have to look at 2 gallons of water a day.
for what its worth, i think i get nearly 2 gallons per day. not including coffee and whiskey
MCL, I don’t drink enough water either. But my pee is very pretty. Your training is looking great. If you do the one arm shld press standing you get the added work on the abs. Thats why I do all my pressing standing.
Cycle 5, week 1, day 2
Weight: 245. Finally going down a bit.
Warmups: the usual, plus 10@135.
Deads: 5@245, 5@285, 8@325 (PR)
Rackpulls: 1@405, 1@455, 1@475 (PR), 0@500 (fail). Bottom pin, start from below knees.
Pullups: 5x9
GHRs: 1x10, 4x10@25.
I think that’s quite enough for today. I don’t know how, but something’s making my shoulder act up. I must’ve flared my elbows on a pullup or three, and didn’t notice.
I actually found the GHR equipment in the gym; someone hid it in a dark, obscure corner not in the weight room. Bastards.
I also discovered that we actually have enough 45 plates to load a bar to 585, but no further. Which makes sense, I suppose, since after that there’s no room left on the bar for any more plates and still have room for the collar. So my goal of 600 by the end of next year may require chains.
I’m thinking I should be able to do a 455 sumo dead now, but I’m stopping the whole “let’s try a max every dead day” thing. I’ll just keep pounding away on the accessories and take a max in a month or so. I definitely want to deadlift 500 by the end of the year, and it’s looking like a strong possibility.
I also have to say that the heavy Zerchers seem to be really helping both my deads and squats, and I’m in love with them.