You are now my hero again, mcl!
Nice PR!
Great work on the bench. That is a fun milestone.
[quote]soldog wrote:
You are now my hero again, mcl!
Nice PR![/quote]
You know I did it just for you, soldog! 
Thanks everyone. Now maybe in a year or so I’ll be pressing something I won’t be embarassed to talk about.
Cycle 6, Week 2, Day 1:
Warmup: a bit less than usual (trying to give my shoulders a break), plus 10@bar
MP: 3@95
3@110
3@115 (didn’t try to max reps. instead…)
1@125
1@135
1@145 (push press)
1@155 (push)
1@165 (push)
1@175 (push)
0@185 (push. Got it almost locked out, but my left arm was lagging, and I had to drop it. Scared the bejeebus out of the treadmill twits when the bar hit the pins. 
Made my day! Even better, none of the trainers – who I’d assumed would’ve freaked if I dropped the bar – didn’t even blink. Nice of them. I think they trust me to know what I’m doing with the freeweights at this point.)
A month ago, I couldn’t do 135 even as a push press. Something I’m doing is /definitely/ working. I’ve been stuck at 120 for the whole year (mostly due to changing programs to 5-3-1, and having to start progression maxes much lower), so it feels damn good to finally get 135, and also to do 40 more pounds as pushes.
Accessories: 15 pullups (3x5). Some tricep pushdowns, between 65-95 lbs. My tris felt like they needed something.
I’ll do a bunch of back accessories tomorrow on my DL day, and try to get some video for Meat, too.
Weight: 249.5
EDIT: Oops. I forgot to write down my lifts before I left the house today, so I had to guess. I was supposed to do 3@90, 3@105, *@115. Oh, well. More volume for me!
Changes I’ve made in the past month that may have affected my lifts:
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went back to a VERY strict clean diet, and am watching my kcals like a hawk (and monitoring my burn rate each day so I know I’m getting enough)
-
Started evening 1-hour TRX classes 2x/week (really seriously strengthening my abs, obliques, spinal erectors, forearms, and wrists. Particularly since, except for spinal erectors, I’ve not done any work specifically targeting any of those)
-
Really focused on shoulder rehab/strengthening (and my standing overhead DB presses made me think my left arm’s weak. Today’s failure at 185 push press confirmed it)
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started grinding out 60 pullups/week consistently
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started taking my quercetin just before workouts rather than in the morning
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upped my l-dex from a conservative 15 drops/week to a more reasonable 21 drops/week.
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started foam rolling and doing poor-man’s A.R.T. with a baseball religiously
No clue which is helping, but if I had to guess, I’d go with #2 and #6, with help from #1 since I suspect I was undereating quite a bit.
Well, whatever it is, it is working. Keep it up! Great job!
You’re really on track. I can’t wait to see the results a few weeks from now.
Cycle 6, Week 2, Day 2:
Intentionally didn’t max reps today because I wanted to get video for Feedback from Meat (post is here: Forums - T Nation - The World's Trusted Community for Elite Fitness )
Warmup: usual, plus 10@135
DL 3@275, 3@310, 3@350, 1@405, 0@445. The 445/455 pull from the floor still escapes me at lockout.
Accessories: pullups 3x5
seated cable row 5x10@105
decl. db pullover 5x10@70
GHR 5x10
all supersetted. Every set (incl the main lift), I did 30 seconds of jumprope in between. I ended the session with a minute of jumprope.
Weight: 248.5. Down 4 lbs in 2 weeks. I was hoping for 1 lb/week, so that’s fine. I’m rewarding myself tonight with some Mexican from a taqueria I love, with the woman I love.
That was some good pulling, I thought. I will be curious to see what Meat has to say. Good work.
me, too, jjackkrash.
I just discovered there’s a pirvate PL gym 5 minutes from my home! Holy crap! http://www.wildirongym.com/index.html
I desperately want to go to their beginner’s weekend, so I emailed them and asked if they have any more coming up.
I won’t kid myself into thinking they’d invite me to lift there and/or help me into a meet, but you never know.
It’d be great to finally get some first-hand experience watching some folks lift heavy and proper, and tell me what the hell I’m doing wrong.
Well.
That was a surprise. The guy that runs the PL gym invited me to come check it out, and asked if I’d be interested in training with the team! It’ll mean making some adjustments (mostly weekends, since they do something similar to Westside, and their DE days are Saturday and Sunday mornings and I’m usually spending time with my girlfriend Saturday mornings. Sometimes at her place, 45 minutes away).
But, if it comes to it, I’ll just drive down, work out, and drive back up to her place.
The guy who runs it – Marcus Wild – said I’m about where he was in terms of weight and lifts when he started training for PL.
Should be interesting! I’m swinging by to check it out Thursday night.
[quote]mcl wrote:
Well.
That was a surprise. The guy that runs the PL gym invited me to come check it out, and asked if I’d be interested in training with the team! It’ll mean making some adjustments (mostly weekends, since they do something similar to Westside, and their DE days are Saturday and Sunday mornings and I’m usually spending time with my girlfriend Saturday mornings. Sometimes at her place, 45 minutes away).
But, if it comes to it, I’ll just drive down, work out, and drive back up to her place.
The guy who runs it – Marcus Wild – said I’m about where he was in terms of weight and lifts when he started training for PL.
Should be interesting! I’m swinging by to check it out Thursday night. [/quote]
Dayum! jump on that bidness, lad!
That sounds exciting! Let us know how it works out.
Until I know whether or not I’ll be training at Marcus’ gym with his team…
Cycle 6 Week 2, Day 3:
Waarmup: usual, plus 20@bar, 10@135
Bench: 3@150
3@175
6@195 (rep PR at this weight)
BBB: 3x10@150
Glute bridge decline floor press: 3x10@150
Pullups: 3x5. Had to work around a gaggle (literally, like 5 guys, two girls) hogging the station, mostly just standing around talking in-between sets of assisted pullups and light tricep pushdowns. God, I hate my gym. We have ONE neutral-grip pullup station, and it’s on the same machine as the cable t-bar and cable y-rope.
Weight: 247.5. I’m hoping I’m not losing weight too fast, but I’m very meticulous about coming in almost exactly 500 kcals below my daily burn as reported, so hopefully this is just the initial loss spurt, and I’ll be down down 1 lb/week soon. If not, I’ll try eating 250 kcals below my reported burn. I’m jealously guarding my muscle at this point, because I’ve made up my mind to get myself up above 200 lbs LBM next year, while staying around the low 240s.
If I’m going to compete in a meet, I want to hit 242 total weight, not compete in the 275 class. I doubt I’d ever compete at 220, because at that point I’d be 10% BF, and my body just isn’t happy at that composition. So I’ll keep packing on the muscle and staying close enough to 242 that I can drop weight a month before a meet if necessary. (See? I’m gettin’ the hang of this already!)
TRX kicked my ass tonight, because he threw in about 3 minutes of jumping jacks, 10 minutes of jumprope, and both burpees and hillclimbers completely unsupported. And because I did it right after my 5-3-1 session.
MCl wow lots of great work in here,
first nice Bench PR,
second Nice pulling
third great score on finding a local gym-
can you say coaching/verbal cues/huge motivation
realy nice work!!!
MCL great work going on here. I will be anxious to see how it goes with Wild Iron. You have a good base now to start pushing seriously with a westside set up.
You skinny fucker. Great work…247 is awesome. If the pullup station is full throw a bar in the power rack and do chinups. Not quite the same as neutral grip but no waiting.
Cycle 6, Week 2, Day 4:
Warmup: usual, plus 10@bar, 5@135, 5@185
squat: 3@240
3@275
3+3@310
zerchers: 5x5@240
pullups: 3x5
That’s it. Interestingly, I’ve stopped feeling the zerchers at the quads near my knee attachment, and instead now feel them in my inner thigh. All that quad work in TRX is paying off.
Decided today I need to ditch these wal-mart gloves and buy some proper wrist wraps. I really need them for squats, because I have no problem letting the bar get down my back. But I do have a cyst in my right wrist that hurts like hell when my wrists get bent back at a 90-degree angle. The wraps on the gloves help me get the bar down my back while keeping my wrists a bit straighter.
Y’know - from your videos I would have to say you don’t look terribly overweight. You just look solidly built (“He’s big-boned…”). I think you’re going to change body composition more on 5/3/1 rather than lose weight. And get stronger. Not a bad thing.
I have to agree with DCA. I saw your vids over on Meat’s thread and you look stout. If you want to see excess baggage, rewatch some of my vids…
Also, you look nothing like I envisioned. Not a bad thing, just an observation. I had developed a picture in my head, based solely on your log. Definitely not the same guy…lol.
[quote]LittleStrick wrote:
I have to agree with DCA. I saw your vids over on Meat’s thread and you look stout. If you want to see excess baggage, rewatch some of my vids…
Also, you look nothing like I envisioned. Not a bad thing, just an observation. I had developed a picture in my head, based solely on your log. Definitely not the same guy…lol.[/quote]
i don’t know why… but i just had a vision in my head of all of us in a line up in some police department. we would ALL look guilty. it’s amazing what the iron does to a person. Not once since i’ve been over in the over 35 thread have i thought “what a pussy that guy must be” after watching someone’s video.