Should I take time off until next Saturday and test, or should I take a slight deload and then hit the next training cycle?
Hmmmm. . .
I can’t decide. I am less concerned with testing and more concerned with just keeping the ball rolling, but, at the same time, it’d be nice to squat that 315 and push press 185+. Front squatting 245+ would be cool too.
I dunno.
I’ll just have to think about it before Monday
[u][i]2-22-09[/u][/i]
AM Weight: 205.0
Back Pain: 1 out of 10
A little soreness after not remaining tight when I lifted the 100 pounder DB’s off the ground for farmer’s carries. Nothing bad. Probably shouldn’t have added a new type of circuit in this late in the cycle, but I can’t help my tendencies 
Right Pec Pain: 0 out of 10
[u][i]Conditioning[/u][/i]
Dynamic Flexibility
A1. Farmer’s Carry
100lbs/sideX50yd.X4
A2. Dumbbell Swings
60X12X4
A3. Burpees
BWX12X4
R45-60s
B. Incline walking
3.4 speed & 4.0 incline X 5minutes
C. Glute activation for a bit
Decided that I will take time off and then test.
I am not going to like taking so much rest but oh well. 6 days won’t kill me and I’ll do some light form work sessions in there.
Besides, I’m pretty wrecked right now. 6X5’s on front squats, box squats, push presses, and an extra set on all of my assistance really screwed me up this week.
Have a great one!
Here’s the plan for this week:
S Off
M Off
T Form work 15-20 reps @ 30-50% of est. 1RM and some light prehab
W Off
R Test Box Squat and Push Press
F Test Front Squat and Weighted Chin
S Off
Onward will be a 3X6 across the board introductory week, then it’s time to work on work capacity and pile on a few more lbs. with loads of sets of 6.
IF YOU’RE 555 THEN I’M 666.
Weird how that works, huh? Sets of 5, then doing sets of 6.
lollerskates
haha…nice Slipknot reference.
I don’t like taking time off either, but if you feel wrecked, sometimes you need to.
Out of curiosity, why are you testing your Front Squat the day after your Box Squat? Is that just how your week is scheduled? I would think you’d want at least a day off between those two.
Admittedly, I don’t test my lifts often though, so that’s just my thoughts.
[quote]AngryVader wrote:
haha…nice Slipknot reference.
I don’t like taking time off either, but if you feel wrecked, sometimes you need to.
Out of curiosity, why are you testing your Front Squat the day after your Box Squat? Is that just how your week is scheduled? I would think you’d want at least a day off between those two.
Admittedly, I don’t test my lifts often though, so that’s just my thoughts.[/quote]
Hmmmmmm. . .That is the dilemma I’ve been weighing over in my mind for quite some time. >_<
Firstly, I’ll list the lifts I’m testing in order of most important to least
I want to be very well recovered before I start testing anything, and that is why I am giving myself four days of nearly complete rest before I begin to test anything. I feel like that will be enough time to get some good training maxes posted. I have never planned something like this before either, so I’m using Cressey’s Art of the Deload as a guideline.
I feel like the position that you carry the bar during push pressing and front squatting makes them at least somewhat comparable in terms of stress. In fact, I did front squats before push pressing a week ago and my strength was knocked off a good 10% after heavy front squats. I don’t want that situation when I max on the lifts, so that is why I’m push pressing a day away from front squatting.
The further into the week the lift is, the more accumulated stress I will have from maxing, so, therefore, I feel like it would be a good idea to simply rank my lifts in order of
and then split them into two days so that I get the benefits of
-testing more towards the end of the week which will allow for more recovery
-allowing more recovery after the first two training 1RMs are established and before the second two lifts are tested
Although, I must admit there are cons to this approach
-If I tested everything on one day, I would have an even more consolidated stress, which would allow me to start resting earlier
-Like you said, I’m not allowing myself enough recovery to get my true max on front squats, chins, or push presses
I guess the bottom line is that I just wanted to test my 1RMs to see where I’m at given a moderate amount of recovery. If I were really prioritizing this as an opportunity to peak, I would have tapered back the volume earlier and completely omitted the high volume week I went through last week.
What do you think would be a good way to alter my approach and get a better result (namely, some PRs posted )?
Thanks for the question, Vader. That’s why I have my log posted on here!
Well, again, this really isn’t my area of expertise, since I’ve never been one to max out and I haven’t competed in a strength event.
The main thing I would suggest is simply to switch your week to a Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday split just to give yourself a little more time between your testing days.
The only other thing I’d be concerned with is your recovery after you test your lifts. I’ve heard that sometimes you should take extra time off after true max lifting because it’s naturally more stressful.
Perhaps someone that actually competes or maxes on a consistent basis would have some true insight into this though. I could be completely talking out of my ass here.
I think I’ll just stay the course and see what happens, but I really appreciate the questioning.
In retrospect I should have posted the plan in the “strength sports” section and got a ton of opinions to start with.
Oh well.
[u][i]2-24-09[/u][/i]
AM Weight: 204.8
Back Pain: 0 out of 10
Right Pec Pain: 0 out of 10
[u][i]Form Practice[/u][/i]
Foam Rolling
Dynamic Flexibility
A. Box squat
135X3X5
B. Push Press
90X3X4
C. Front Squat
110X3X4
D. random stuff
[quote]AngryVader wrote:
Well, again, this really isn’t my area of expertise, since I’ve never been one to max out and I haven’t competed in a strength event.
The main thing I would suggest is simply to switch your week to a Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday split just to give yourself a little more time between your testing days.
The only other thing I’d be concerned with is your recovery after you test your lifts. I’ve heard that sometimes you should take extra time off after true max lifting because it’s naturally more stressful.
Perhaps someone that actually competes or maxes on a consistent basis would have some true insight into this though. I could be completely talking out of my ass here. :)[/quote]
That’s why we like you.
Flow, I tend to try my maxes all on the same day - conditioning for PL meets. I have pretty decent recovery, and try to take a week (at least) between super heavy singles. I have heavy days and light/assistance days when I’m not maxing, and it works out that there will usually be as much as a week between two heavy upper or lower workouts.
Unlike Vader, I don’t have a split dialed down to “calves/triceps, quads/glutes, etc.” I just do heavy upper, heavy lower, assist upper, assist lower.
I don’t know if I am making any sense here.
[quote]pushmepullme wrote:
AngryVader wrote:
Well, again, this really isn’t my area of expertise, since I’ve never been one to max out and I haven’t competed in a strength event.
The main thing I would suggest is simply to switch your week to a Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday split just to give yourself a little more time between your testing days.
The only other thing I’d be concerned with is your recovery after you test your lifts. I’ve heard that sometimes you should take extra time off after true max lifting because it’s naturally more stressful.
Perhaps someone that actually competes or maxes on a consistent basis would have some true insight into this though. I could be completely talking out of my ass here.
That’s why we like you.
Flow, I tend to try my maxes all on the same day - conditioning for PL meets. I have pretty decent recovery, and try to take a week (at least) between super heavy singles. I have heavy days and light/assistance days when I’m not maxing, and it works out that there will usually be as much as a week between two heavy upper or lower workouts.
Unlike Vader, I don’t have a split dialed down to “calves/triceps, quads/glutes, etc.” I just do heavy upper, heavy lower, assist upper, assist lower.
I don’t know if I am making any sense here.[/quote]
Hmmmm. . . That’s a great idea for PL conditioning purposes, but do you think, in my situation, it would be beneficial to spread testing out across two days? Do you think the extra recovery will help my performance?
Thanks for weighing in!
[quote]Flow wrote:
pushmepullme wrote:
AngryVader wrote:
Well, again, this really isn’t my area of expertise, since I’ve never been one to max out and I haven’t competed in a strength event.
The main thing I would suggest is simply to switch your week to a Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday split just to give yourself a little more time between your testing days.
The only other thing I’d be concerned with is your recovery after you test your lifts. I’ve heard that sometimes you should take extra time off after true max lifting because it’s naturally more stressful.
Perhaps someone that actually competes or maxes on a consistent basis would have some true insight into this though. I could be completely talking out of my ass here.
That’s why we like you.
Flow, I tend to try my maxes all on the same day - conditioning for PL meets. I have pretty decent recovery, and try to take a week (at least) between super heavy singles. I have heavy days and light/assistance days when I’m not maxing, and it works out that there will usually be as much as a week between two heavy upper or lower workouts.
Unlike Vader, I don’t have a split dialed down to “calves/triceps, quads/glutes, etc.” I just do heavy upper, heavy lower, assist upper, assist lower.
I don’t know if I am making any sense here.
Hmmmm. . . That’s a great idea for PL conditioning purposes, but do you think, in my situation, it would be beneficial to spread testing out across two days? Do you think the extra recovery will help my performance?
Thanks for weighing in! :)[/quote]
I definitely would NOT do it all in one day if you aren’t training for a PL meet. I’d spread it out as much as possible.
Funny compliment today.
Somehow the subject of Chippendale’s dancers came up in conversation with these two chicks. I was told that I should consider errr… dancing as a back-up career. They said I have big arms and one of them had seen my recent progress photos during an ermmm picture exchange. She said my back was ‘disgusting’ and ‘too muscley’.
That made me happy.
Cheers to getting more ‘disgusting’.
I guess I have been making good progress lately, because I had the same guy do a 3-site test on me for body fat (hella error, btw) and it came out to 17% in my last lab class something like ~6 months ago. I weighed ~190 at that time.
Well, two weeks ago I was tested again at ~203 lbs. bodyweight by the same guy and using the same test. I came out at 12% body fat.
I know there is error associated, but at least his measurements didn’t go up.
[quote]Flow wrote:
…during an ermmm picture exchange. She said my back was ‘disgusting’ and ‘too muscley’.
…[/quote]
I’ll need proof of your disgustingness.
Good compliment!
[quote]Flow wrote:
Cheers to getting more ‘disgusting’.
[/quote]
I like this. We should start using it around the forums and see if we can get it to catch on.
[quote]AngryVader wrote:
Flow wrote:
Cheers to getting more ‘disgusting’.
I like this. We should start using it around the forums and see if we can get it to catch on.[/quote]
Lol, that could be very funny for the first few days/weeks.
I like the new avatar, didn’t recognize you at first.
haha, Pushmepullme what kind of proof can I offer?
Speaking of proof, I tested today. I brought my camera, recorded an easy 265 or 285 (I forget which one), and for my 300 set the camera cut out at 2 seconds in. NO BATTERIES.
Yes, so I can just say scout’s honor, and imagine me telling you the following with body language indicative of the the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
[u][i]2-26-09[/u][/i]
AM Weight: 203.0
Back Pain: 1 out of 10
Tightness after box squats.
Right Pec Pain: 0 out of 10
[u][i]TESTING DAY 1[/u][/i]
Dynamic Flexibility
SPIKE
A. Box Squat
45X10
95X5
135X3
155X2
205X1
240X1
265X1 PR
285X1 PR
300X1 PR
[i][b]315X1 PR![/i][/b]
B. Push Press
65X5
85X3
95X2
135X1
155X1
165X1
185X1 PR
190XFail
I said I’d box squat 315 and push press 185 today.
I did!
I’ll post another video of 315 box squats except for sets of 5 in short time.
Cheers to getting more ‘disgusting’. HAHAHAHAAA
Thanks a lot for stopping by everyone. Makes keeping this log worthwhile!
Nice job on the PR’s man.
Thanks, Blacklabel!
[u][i]2-27-09[/u][/i]
AM Weight: 202.6
Back Pain: 0 out of 10
Right Pec Pain: 0 out of 10
[u][i]TESTING DAY 2[/u][/i]
Dynamic Flexibility
SPIKE
A. Front Squat
45X10
95X5
110X3
120X2
135X1
185X1
205X1
235X1 PR
245X1 PR
255X1
250X1 PR
B. Weight Pull-Up (that’s pronated grip)
BWX2
+25X1 PR
+35X1 PR
+45X1 PR
+55X1 PR
+60X1 PR
+65X1 PR (205 BW+65= 270 lbs. PR)
So I destroyed my expectations.
Honestly, I pussed out on 255 front squat. I had that shit. I should have grinded it out but I just ditched it for some fuckall reason.
I had 3 of the biggest dudes in my gym watching me and giving me pointers. That was just awesome to have. One of them has 18" bis in <5% bf levels on a 5’10" frame year round. He just keeps growing too.
In my own log I wrote that I wanted:
Box squat: 315
Push press: 185
Front squat: 245
Weighted chin: +60lbs.
I surpassed two of those and matched the others.
Just wanted to say thanks to T-Nation and everyone that posts in my log or has given me advice about this stuff.
I really appreciate it.
Good fucking job man! Nice detailed, well-thought out log you have going here… it’s awesome to see the progression over time - especially taking into account your old log.
It’s a good feeling taking a look back and seeing how far you’ve come, but it’s also worth saying that you should just keep looking forward and not think about being satisfied even in the least.
Keep it up dude! What are your next goals?
Always nice to hit your goals!
What’s the plan of attack now?