From Crap to Strong

I’ve decided to keep a log here to track something new that I’m about to implement in my training. This year started off really great for me in terms of progress when I decided to toss out conventional wisdom (to an extent) and listen to my body instead. Biggest thing I have implemented was counting macros, I’ve dropped from 200 to 180 since December while making small strength gains.

Some training maxes…
Squat: 405 ← this was done when I was heavier, haven’t performed heavy squat since
Deadlift: 520 ← got this 2 weeks ago.
Bench: 315 ← got it shortly after deadlift PR

At the beginning of the year, I decided to solely focus on deadlifts. I trained the hell out of it and managed to bring it from 475 @ 200bw to 520 @ 180bw in a little over 3 months. I only performed light speed squats since any time I feel fresh, I will do spend my energy on deadlifts. Now I’ve decided to give my body a break from this heavy beating and focus on heavy squats now.

Training is a little tricky for me at the moment because I am eating a caloric deficit diet. I’m trying to get to single digit bf% so I have to be cautious as to being able to recover in time from a session before the next one. What I did was ditched higher volume training and opt in for high intensity (singles) and high frequency training (I train 6x/week). So far it seems to be working and I’ll ride this wave until it stops.

Yesterday was squat day but knee was hurting. In fact it was pretty bad to the point I couldn’t even do leg extension with them. Decided not to risk it and ended up doing some presses instead

Press
5x3 @ 155

My goal is to progress from this to 5x5 @ 155

Later on the evening, my knee felt a little bit better so I decided to do some pulls instead.

Chin-ups
5x10 @ bw

Deadlift
20x1 @ 315

Rest about 30s per set

Speed was definitely slow. Not sure if it’s fatigue from earlier session (i attempted many sets of squats trying to work around knee pain) or chin-ups.

Todays curls for the gurls

Seated Hammer Curls
3x8 @ 42.5

Concentrated Curls
3x10 @ 25

3s squeeze + 3s negatives

Barbell Curl
3x10 @ 40

3s negatives

pump pump pump

Went to the track to do some sprints. 8x50m with 50m for rest. Knee feels a little bit better but I still feel some minor discomfort from it.

Bench
1x1 @ 275
4x1 @ 285

Shoulder a little bit uncomfortable but nothing I’m not used to.

Incline Bench
3x3 @ 225

BB Row
5x1 @ 265

A little bit of body english here

DB Floor Press (neutral grip)
2x20 @ 75

Partial DB Reverse Flyes
3x25 @ 50

ATG Squat
1x1 @ 345
2x1 @ 355
1x1 @ 345

Second set of 355 speed dropped tremendously so I went lighter

Deadlift
1x1 @ 455

Crap day. I think legs got fried from squats. Hips kept shooting up too fast. 455 felt heavy as hell so I decided to call it a day here.