I like this.
The comments you made about holding heavy weights overhead, static, without having to press it or squat it into position, sound like a really good idea if one has access to such a setup. I may try this sometime.
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I don’t know what the current mod policy is around external links (it seems to be far more forgiving than before), but here’s two particularly interesting articles on the topic.
Developing Greater Strength - John Grimek ← this is actually an excellent article in general
Stability, Pull, Lockout Power – Charles A. Smith ← his writing style is a bit harder to follow, but also good stuff; some drawings with a contraption
Another set of calculations to save. Bench press only calculations.
Sheiko 37 has an average intensity of 73.9% with 303 reps/mo (all reps >60%)
Sheiko 30 has an average intensity of 77.4% with 233 reps/mo
What I’m doing has an average intensity of about 75.3% with 290 reps/mo.
I projected out to 10 weeks and assumed I reset the cycle once it hits 89%. It’ll probably play out pretty close to that.
What is similar is the day-to-day volume variation. What isn’t similar is the week-to-week volume variation. The tonnage variation is similar however.
My recovery is not dialed in at all.
I think I’m past the illness of the last few weeks, so recent feelings of tiredness, exhaustion, lack of focus are probably related to training. I didn’t think I made a huge jump in volume from where I was. However, it could be the reintroduction of heavier pulls, or the two grindy sessions last week.
I haven’t really wrapped my head around these ideas, but the “stimulus-to-fatigue ratio” of going so close to failure may not have been the right decision. On the other hand, the amount of volume near failure potentially was a good hypertrophy stimulus. I dunno, I don’t have a PhD in Exercise Science.
Had an interesting discussion about this stuff, but no actionable takeaways:
CT on the topic:
What I do know is that I’ve been very tired.
W3D2 - Medium Volume
Press (65%): 80# x 5 x 5
17" Axle Rack Pull: 360# x 3 x 5
17" Axle Rack Pull: 360# x 1 x 2 (was an idiot and fiddled with my stance on this set)
17" Axle Rack Pull: 360# x 1 x 5
Backbend Situps: 45# x 6
H2H KB Swings: 75# x 38 (19 each hand)
Upper-back Meadows Rows: 40# x 12 (each side)
Notes:
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A session that looks like all the other sessions. Just a couple more sets, a couple more pounds.
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More muscle will let me press more. But do I need “hypertrophy” accessories or am I getting enough from this?
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Sheiko and Chinese Olympic Weightlifting templates look similar to what I’m doing, and include higher rep hypertrophy work. However, their working sets usually top out at triples. Meanwhile many programs that use 5s don’t use hypertrophy accessories.
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Either way, I don’t currently have the additional work capacity to tack anything on. Just a thing to consider for the future.
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Pulls were heavy. Have to pay attention to form and bracing and stuff. Could get away with some things before. Going to reset next session, rather than get super grindy. If I make it to 360 next time and it goes smoother, then I know that there’s no point in going into grind territory (the opposite holds true too.) At least it’s an easy thing to test.
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Pulls just below the knee are such an awful height…
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I’m starting to have this weird achy feeling in my legs. I experienced this before when I was pushing heavy squats every day. My best guess back then was that I needed more potassium, since I’d tried all the other electrolytes. Trying potassium.
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I don’t have this – nothing this severe – but this is an interesting thing.
Hypokalemic periodic paralysis (HPP) is a rare disorder which is clinically characterized by episodic muscle weakness and occasionally life‐threatening arrhythmia, frequently following strenuous physical activity.
Hypokalemic = insufficient potassium.
I will say that an hour after taking potassium supplements, almost all of the achiness feeling has gone away.
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Speaking of science projects, writing things up was always the worst part.
That’s basically my life right now. We developed this cool thing, rolled it out this week, and it works well. Just turned it on, and it’s gotten a lot of positive reception. Put a lot of work into it.
But the work required to actually announce it and write up documents describing what and how we did it… ugh. Far more draining.
In short: we built an early warning system that can detect when shit’s about to hit the fan (in a corporate software ecosystem). It takes hundreds of thousands of signals a day, and makes sense of them.
Not only does it detect that things are starting to go bad, but it mobilizes and communicates with all the relevant parties, and attempts to do some automated root cause analysis so people can find and fix the problem sooner.
Pretty happy with where we are and where we’re going with it.
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W3D3 - Low Volume
Press (69%): 85# x 3 x 5
17" Axle Rack Pull (61%): 260# x 3 x 5
Backbend Situps: 45# x 7
H2H KB Swings: 75# x 40 (20 each hand)
Upper-back Meadows Rows: 45# x 6 (each side)
Notes:
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Tired from some late nights at work, but otherwise feeling decent finally. This low volume week was welcome.
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But next week is a doozy: high volume deadlift, then medium volume, then high volume press. It’s what I signed up for. Homeostasis be damned.
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Finished out another progression with the KB swings, so get to start in on 80 pounds next week. Slow and steady progress from the initial 35 pounds.
I don’t have a good place to record this, but want to get it written before I forget it.
I made bay scallops yesterday. I borrowed a curing technique I saw some sushi chef use for Edo-style salmon sashimi.
Thawed them in running water. Drained and dried them. Spread them out and coated them with some salt and sugar. About 1 part salt to 3 parts sugar. I let this sit for about 20 minutes, then rinsed it off thoroughly. Twice. Drained and dried again.
I then spread it out on paper towels and threw in the fridge for a bit. I used the fridge air to dry them off further.
When I was ready to cook them, I just did a simple sear. A bit of oil, then cooked on one side, flipped and rested a bit, flipped and rested a bit, until it got a bit of browning.
No additional seasonings or anything.
I had minced some shallots and garlic to use for this, but that ended up in a linguine aglio e olio, and the rest got cooked with some green beans.
Turned out well.
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W4D1 - High Volume - DL
17” Axle Rack Pulls (65%): 275# x 3 x 5
Press (73%): 90# x 5 x 5
17” Axle Rack Pulls: 275# x 3 x 5
Backbend Situps: 45# x 8
H2H KB Swings: 80# x 20 (10 each hand)
Upper-back Meadows Rows: 45# x 6 (each side)
Notes:
- was motivated to lift yesterday so that’s good in terms of recovery. Held off.
- pulls were light so speed, technique, CAT work.
- will need to start warming up for presses at least. First set was a bit crackly.
- presses slowed down a bit, but overall this was a lot easier session than I expected it to be.
- I added a bit of weight to the rows. Apparently adding 5 pounds to the bar is not a 2.5 pound plate when it’s unilateral…
- At least I found my mismatched 2.5 pounder.
I also switched my KB swings to use 35# plates. I hate this plate size, but it came with the set. Now I have a place to keep them out of mind. Although they’re a bit wider so I dinged my leg on a swing.
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I read through the whole “powerlifting to win” programming series over the weekend. Was helpful to get an idea about all these programs I’ve heard about but never looked at.
Per his assessments, the best programs have higher volume (especially for bench), no rows/chins or presses, and use high specificity: competition movements and frequent higher intensities. And they use some form of autoregulation, with “volume” based autoregulation (plus sets) being preferable to “intensity” based autoregulation (daily max).
On the other hand, he himself, stopped powerlifting. The analyses and opinions are interesting regardless.
One of the funnier bits though was that he thought Sheiko’s Novice program wasn’t specific enough, and then thought Sheiko’s advanced programs were overly specific. 
One thing I like about my current programming is that the lighter weights lend themselves to density and CAT work. Rest periods can get longer through the cycle but quality work can be done throughout.
At 60% just focus on density, technique and speed; as it gets heavy, just focus on getting it done with enough rest.
So far both theoretically and experientially I like what I’m doing. Whether it works is still to be seen. There’s still buttons to press, knobs to turn.
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I just made the connection last night that the “Izzy T” from Powerlifting To Win is the same as “Tom Narvaez” on the SS forums. Then just found him on YouTube last night. He looks completely different now.
Just watched a couple Q&As.
Also, I dunno, $15 seems like it might be worth it? A pound a day seems insane though.
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I did grab his Programming To Win ebook. I don’t really expect anything new (I haven’t read it though; I might be surprised), but I do feel like I got some value from his site and sending a bit of money his way was worth it.
But if you already have the source material for the diet plan – just maybe with the addition of his “medication” plan – I dunno. May not be worth it.
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I keep thinking about training on my off days and then I’m in no rush to do it on my on days. 
W4D2 - Medium Volume
Press (77%): 95# x 5 x 5
17” Axle Rack Pulls (68%): 290# x 4 x 5
Backbend Situps: 45# x 9
H2H KB Swings: 80# x 22 (11 each hand)
Upper-back Meadows Rows: 45# x 7 (each side)
Notes:
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Presses seemed heavy, so rest times went up. Hard but doable. Right shoulder’s got a thing by the AC joint I think. (I actually can’t remember at the moment.) I feel it at the bottom position, even when I un-rack.
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Starting to think I might be missing out by not doing direct shoulder and arm work. Triceps especially but biceps too. At the same time I’m not super interested in lengthening the workout. TBD.
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I don’t even know what I mean by “missing out”. Anyway, I’m not doing those things, and lots of people are. I’m not really certain whether they have benefit for me to increase my press.
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Went into this mostly fasted. Appetite is fairly low these days. I feel I did better with diet on the Calvert stuff. Not sure why.
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In the post Tokyo/San Francisco earthquake world of the early 21st century, Colin Laney is referred to agents of rock and roll megastar Rez (of the musical group Lo/Rez) for a job using his peculiar talent of sifting through vast amounts of mundane data to find “nodal points” of particular relevance. Rez has claimed to want to marry a synthetic personality named Rei Toei, the Idoru (a Japanese virtual idol) of the title, a claim stranger than usual and therefore questioned by his loyal staff, particularly by his head of security, Keith Blackwell. Blackwell believes that someone is manipulating Rez, and wants Laney to find out who. Simultaneously, the Seattle chapter of the Lo/Rez fan club is discussing exactly the same topic of the unbelievable marriage of human and AI construct.
These stories were crazy and before their time.
Rei is introduced as the title character in Gibson’s 1995 novel Idoru, as an artificial intelligence, an embodied agent simulating a human female idol singer. A personality construct which adapts and learns from her interaction with humans, she irresistibly attracts data analyst protagonist Colin Laney.
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that’s where the LoRez name comes from. It’s not spanish.
Some random thoughts, before I get to training:
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I’ve been thinking about my accessories comment last time. I said “I’m not really certain whether they have benefit for me to increase my press”.
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But that’s not quite right; I’m more concerned that training the accessories will negatively impact the main lifts. If I do a bunch of tricep stuff, that it will make my next pressing session go worse.
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However, lots of people say that arms and shoulders can be trained every session with no negative effects. Maybe they’re right, but I don’t have the experience to know. Seems like I should get that experience.
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There’s a few patterns to train them. There’s 5x10 or 6x12. There’s single-set-to-failure. There’s some evidence to say that multiple-set-to-failure is a bad idea from a recovery standpoint. There’s “just get a pump”. There’s obviously also the single-set double-progression stuff I’ve been doing (that I know works for me).
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I watched a silly Bugenhagen video, but he said something like “the main lifts are to get you stronger, the accessories are just to shuttle the nutrients to the right places”
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I also looked at some of my older physique inspiration stuff. Certain statues. They all have large shoulders and arms, proportionally to their bodies. (Translated, I would need to directly train my arms at least, if not also my shoulders.)
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And then last night, I spent a few minutes looking around and piecing equipment together. My older staple of wide-grip upright-rows seems like it’s still a good side delt exercise. I can do leaning cable overhead extensions, and I guess it’s good for the “long head”. And pushdowns for the other two heads. (Says the internet.)
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I also tried some other things, but my right shoulder/elbow doesn’t like traditional overhead extensions, nor any sort of curling. If I fully straighten my right arm, I can’t curl it back up at all. If I go 7/8ths extended, I can. Pretty f-ing annoying.
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Anyway, if I have time/energy/motivation, I’ll probably do some arm/shoulder stuff at the end of these sessions. If it doesn’t affect the pressing next session, so much the better.
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Also, it’s not like I’d be losing anything, other than time and energy…
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There are two statues that are particularly inspirational.
One thing that stood out in contrast to modern standards is the “thick waist”. No V taper, but instead massively built abs and obliques (and serratus and intercostals etc.)
The most influential: Laocoon and His Sons. Rome, 1st century BC.
And even less achievable (but he’s literally a demigod…) the Farnese Hercules. Greek, possibly 2nd century AD, possibly much earlier.
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W4D3 - High Volume - Press
Fueled by Surge™ (and Java Monster)
Press (81%): 100# x 4 x 5
17” Axle Rack Pulls (72%): 305# x 4 x 5
Press: 100# x 4 x 5
Backbend Situps: 45# x 10 ← notable PR
H2H KB Swings: 80# x 24 (12 each hand)
Upper-back Meadows Rows: 45# x 8 (each side)
Leaning Cable Overhead Extensions: 15# x 6 (right then left)
Pushdowns: 15# x 8 (right then left)
Wide-grip Upright Rows: #100 x 2 x 5
Notes:
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Been having some right forearm issues. My typical post-elbow-surgery weirdness. I acupunctured a couple spots last night and it’s helped (Small Intestine channel… flexor carpi ulnaris?) Lots of really bound up muscle fibers in there.
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Wrist wrap on right wrist helps while pressing. Helps at the wrist, forearm and elbow. Actually helps a lot. Lets my focus shift back onto the pressing itself.
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Well this was heavy. Reps went up, but slowly. Not sure if I’m getting stronger. Putting in the work though. Seems like it’ll be a grind all the way.
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Moving onto 50# with those situps! My body doesn’t think it’s crazy but my mind still does.
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Accessories were new. Kind of fun I guess. I have a starting point to progress from. I’ll probably just do these all double progression. 5-10 or 6-12. Right arm is notably weaker than the left, but that’s fine. I’ll get it up to par.
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well done.
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Ok, 4 weeks in.
This was a high volume week, but I think went ok because 1) I’m adapting to the volume, and 2) I’m not sick (probably the real reason).
I have charts, but they’ll be more interesting at like 6 or 8 weeks. But the basic plan looks like this. This is 10 weeks of sessions. Will probably play out similar to this.
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My sister and nephew came to visit this weekend. They haven’t been here for a few years. My nephew is 13, and was all about flexing shirtless in the mirror, lol. Zero shame while doing it.
He wants to train shotput with track so that he has weightroom access. Wants to lift in a gym rather than alone. I thought about showing him some stuff in the home gym, but decided I’ll wait until next visit. All he has at home (and is likely to have for awhile) are some light kettlebells and dumbbells. I feel better letting the school gym introduce him to stuff for now.
We also all went on a hike. My body is definitely no longer adapted to mountainous hikes. My glute activation while lifting is pretty good these days, which means they were the first thing to go while climbing up on the hike. Painful first half mile.
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