I had this a few times during the weeks and had some workouts where I stopped before 20 and then came back to do more reps after. Linked below a comment I made at the time about coping after a discussion with @T3hPwnisher.
Thanks for that link. I took a read of your log, having previously seen your write up. I felt like I was reliving the battle for you. Granted, you’ve a lot more weight on your back, but effort is relative. The thought of doing this with 100kg on my back next week scares and excites me…
On a side note, it has to be steak over salmon…!
Then you’re right where you should be!
And you’ve got this. Just remember: Breathe, and don’t rush. The squats are in there—you just gotta find 'em.
18/10/24
Quick blast on the Erg, repeated last week’s session aiming for 0.5 secs split quicker. I knew this would be comfortably hard, as typically I’d be looking to go 1:30 pace on a session like this, but that’s not the focus right now:
1k warm up
600m 1:33.7/500m
2:30 rest
550m 1:33.6/500m
2:30 rest
500 1:32.3/500m
2:30 rest
Total work time 5:07
10 sets:
10x push ups on stands
superset with
15x band pull parts
Sore going in to this, felt good after. Full rest day tomorrow ready to attack week 3 on Sunday.
20/10/24 Week 3 Session 1 89.7kg
Seated behind the neck press 30x10 35x8 8+2
BB Rows 75x2x10
Bench 65x12 12 9+3
Curls 30x3x10
Squat 95x20
Pullovers 12x10
SLDL 75x15
Pullovers 12x20
Leg raises x25
- Switched out seated press for behind the neck seated press. Noticed if I’m not set back enough, I’m catching the J hooks thus re-racking was asking for my front delts to go pop. I used to typically do these on a smith machine, so wasn’t an issue. Behind the neck seems to alleviate this issue (so far). Paired with band pull aparts, these felt great.
- Two days off did wonders for my bench press
- Squats were truly hard, spoke a bit soon saying the last five is the home straight!
20/10/24
P:M sprints on the Erg, 350m 300m 250m all sub 1:24 pace.
21/10/24
Complete rest day at work, sore all over, especially upper back and shoulders. Glad I did conditioning the night before to allow for a “softening up” day.
22/10/24 Week 3 Session 2 89.9kg
A:M
Behind the neck press 35x10 40x2x7
Pull ups bwx3x10
DB Bench 30x10 9 8
DB Curls 15’sx2x12
P:M
Squat 97.5x17+6
Pull overs 12x20
SLDL 80x2x8
Pullovers 12x20
Leg raises 2x20
- Took advantage of the work gym and split today’s session. My day is 04:00 - 18:00 from door to door, knowing I “only” had to do the squats and stuff to do when I got home was an opportunity I couldn’t turn down. So a slight change in exercises, which I’ll repeat there next Tuesday.
- I tried. Damn I tried. But I was in trouble at rep 16 and once my legs trembled ascending the 17th rep that was me. 45-60 seconds later and I got to work to grind six more. Coupled with SLDL’s (grip going), I don’t think I’ve seen a harder ten minutes in a gym! Disappointed, but happy that the six reps tells me I can do it on Thursday.
23/10/24
Turning in to a typical weekly Erg session, this:
1k w/u
600m 1:33.0/500m
2:30 rest
550m 1:32.6/500m
2:30m
500 1:30.0
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Averaging low to mid 30’s stroke rate. End of Super Squats I’d like to see how a 500m time trial looks, I am relying on added mass to go sub 1:22 for this.
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Everywhere hurts today, though I couldn’t help but notice my wrist give a resting heart rate reading of 46bpm… Anyway, chest, upper back, shoulders, abs, quads… this is how I imagine being struck with a sledgehammer feels like. When in reality, it’s the result of a barbell on my back for over three minutes yesterday. Though, I love how jacked my upper body feels after behind the neck presses, and I’ve not even started progressing them yet.
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If the tone of my post above isn’t reflective of my mood today, I’m in a much better place following yesterday’s disappointment. Ready to get at it in 24 hours time. Just a 12 hour night shift to get through first! Have a load of batch “boiled” eggs in the air fryer to get through, food prep at its simplest (I’m presuming they’re okay anyway!).
Love seeing this. It’s probably one of the biggest benefits of this program: how it affects your psychology.
24/10/24 Week 3 Day 3
Seated btnp 30x10 35x12 10
BB rows 75x2x11 with straps
Bench press 65x12 12 9+4
BB curls 30x3x12
Squat 97.5x17+8
Pullovers 12x20
SLDL 80x15 with straps
Leg raises x25
- Paid the price for yesterday’s conditioning piece. The lower back pump took over and my form was just going to become downright awkward. Short rest and I was good to go, another eight (solid) reps suggested as much. The rowing pieces, whilst being a fantastic tool for conditioning and something I’m pretty handy on, are resulting in my lower back doing a lot of work and bracing, whether it’s on the Erg or my lifting. I can’t serve two masters. I’ll maybe keep one day a week in, the first of my two days off. That way I’m getting 24 hours in between sessions. @SvenG @T3hPwnisher @simo74 @tlgains if you’ve other suggestions I am all ears. I’m not adverse to a “leave no stone unturned” approach for the final three weeks.
- One thing that is continuing to go in the right direction is the upper body work, big fan of behind the neck presses.
I’d definitely take a page from the book: “Don’t stand if you can sit, don’t sit of you can lie down”, etc etc. Rowing is most likely just too much demand. If you absolutely must do some conditioning, I’d go with a brisk walk.
I think @T3hPwnisher has hit it on the head. If you wan’t to get the maximum out of the next 3 weeks then maybe it’s time to drop the conditioning work.
When I ran SS, I did do some conditioning but by week 3 I had to reduce it to very easy sessions, and if I did this again I would reduce it to sitting on the couch
There are a few other things that you can also look at to help.
- Food, if you think you are eating enough then you probably need more, its time to really embrace the food part of this program and eat to recover and grow. Make sure you are drinking enough too.
- Recovery - hot baths with some epsom salts are great, rest and sleep is good, light movement is good, Pwn suggested a walk I will second that. Also some light bodyweight squats on the rest day to push some blood through the legs is good. Don’t go made here just a couple of sets of 20-30 reps.
- Take the time to be ready. After your last warm up set of squats, take an extra minute or two to prepare. Take some deep breaths, calm yourself, visualise the set.
- Time to up your mental game. When we are doing SS, we know the set is going to hurt, we know our back is going to hate us, we know the second half of the set will just plain suck. But now we know that we don’t really have to worry about it any more, we just have to Endure. You just did 25 reps with this weight and the last 5 were not that hard. You know you have 20 reps. Visualise how you are going to break the set down, visualise how you are going to feel at each part of the set from the initial unrack to finishing. Think of that feeling after rep 15 where your back is pumped and just wants to stop, now visualise yourself pausing for an extra breath or two. Just that simple pause and breath to give you back control. The pain no longer matters, we know that is going to happen, we can’t stop that, we have to embrace it. Now just do one more rep, as you come up and your brain yells at you to put the bar back, just tell it to shut up, you know you are doing 20 reps. Do your breaths, take that pause and go again.
Totally agree with @T3hPwnisher and @simo74 here:
More rest + more food = more squats.
You’ve got this!
Absolutely need something to get some blood flow through the legs, this sounds like just the ticket.
Definitely recognising this now and I had that intention during weeks 1-2 to give myself a platform to up the calories from.
I like this snippet from your mental game summary as it’s nailed on, appreciate the lengthy response.
Finish my shift in 3 hours ready for 3 days off and the Mrs is away so a little walking aside, I should have plenty of opportunity for this:
I’m coming off quite a high volume block of endurance work over the summer, so the battle is to accept the need to rest up and not train, but it takes me back to my point a couple weeks back of not self sabotaging!
27/10/24 Week 4 Day 1 88.8kg
Seated BtnP 40x8 8 10
BB Rows 75x2x12
Bench 65x12 12 9+4+2
Curls 35x10
Squat 97.5x20
Pulloversx did some
SLDL 85x15 with straps
Pullovers 12x20
Leg raises 2x20
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Bodyweight is definitely an anomaly. The Mrs is away and following the Golden Era of Bodybuilding eating video @T3hPwnisher had posted elsewhere, I thought this was a good opportunity to put it to trial myself for a couple of days. I did however eat a bowl of oats alongside my morning omelette. As the session suggests, it certainly did me no harm.
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I realised the program only curls for one set of curls, so up the weight and drop the sets. This was good.
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Bench is garbage, something I want to work on next training block/program.
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I trained without music today, Spotify issues. If anything, this helped me really focus on the task ahead with the squats. And because I train in my garage, it didn’t feel awkward!
There it is! Well done.
Thanks, felt more like as much as a relief as it did an achievement after the last week! Definitely my longest session yet, needed a good five minutes after the set.
29/10/24 Week 4 Day 2 89.7kg
A:M work gym
A1) Standing BtNP Barx20 30x8 40x10 10 9
A2) Pull ups wide grip x5 7 9 9 9
B1) DB Bench 30x10 10 9
B2) DB Curls 17x3x8
Deadhang 1:02
P:M
Squat 100x18+3
Pullovers 12x20
SLDL 90x2x8
Pullovers 12x20
Leg raises x20 15 10
Repeat of last week, splitting the workout in to a slight variant on the upper body at work, then home in the evening for the meat of the program.
The reps are there, no excuses, when things got ugly as opposed to downright hard, that voice in my head won it’s battle. Interestingly enough, my lower back felt okay, it was my upper body wanting to “fold” under the bar. I’m high bar squatting, whether that’s of any relevance, I’m never holding a low bar squat position for 3 minutes+… I don’t know if 12 hours after frying my shoulders with behind the neck presses had any consequence, plenty of time for fatigue to set in. Pairing these with pull ups was great.
No straps today, feel like I’m cheating…
A note for future reference, I’m really liking the 3 day a week all body lifting set up, but invariably that means one “leg day” (because every day is leg day) ends up being after work. It sucks and I get (almost) everyone has to do it, but I can avoid this problem by programing an 8 day week, as I only work two ‘day shifts’. I’m too deep in to this program to play with that idea now, though.
In fairness, the book totally allows dropping down to 2x a week, and another popular option was 3x every 2 weeks (Mon and Fri of week 1, Wed of week 2, repeat). These old school programs were all about getting in adequate rest and LESS frequency. Stuart McRobert had some really creative approaches.
Regarding the upper back folding, when you are doing the breathing, are you breathing into your chest or into your belly? I actually try to make the bar raise up with my breathing into my chest. It might provide some upper back relief.
This, for sure.
In fact, I remember watching videos when @hillbillyk ran Super Squats (long before I did), and was totally impressed by just how much the bar visibly moved as he was heaving the air into his chest between reps. I tried to mimic that as best I could, and I swear it helped.
I noted this in the book, some big dudes ‘only’ lifting twice a week.
Honestly, it’s subconscious to me and something I will pay more attention to tomorrow. I like to think I’m breathing in to my chest, but them last few reps are typically a blur…
I’ll do my best to follow suit tomorrow, I can certainly appreciate how this approach can benefit us.