Last minute call in to work yesterday resulted in me pushing the session back 24 hours. No overthinking/splitting it, the schedule now suits me better than last week.
Anyway, never mind the excruciatingly slow progress with my squats (much better on the breathing front today), I’m losing this battle at the dinner table as much as I am in my head. I’ll dig out the old classic Dave Tate story to inspire me the next two weeks, I can still salvage something from this program. Besides 3/4 of pizza and some dessert on Wednesday, I’ve been a little too “clean” with my diet. I’m supposed to be gaining, there shouldn’t be any pizza left…!
If I recall, this is about the time eating got hard for me, too. But you’re more than halfway there, so dig in and go for it!
Final thought:
Don’t sell yourself short, mate—you’ve already gained a huge amount (even if not bodyweight), and when you finish it out, I think you’ll be able to look back and see that more clearly than you can while you’re still in the thick of it.
Just keep your head down, then breathe and squat, breathe and squat—keep up the good work!
If you’re wanting some Dave Tate inspiration, with it being near the Halloween season, you can check out his article on speed eating peanut butter cups and the one on Oreos, haha. You got this dude!
Thanks Sven, you’re right, easy to be a little self critical before having the opportunity to reflect in a couple of weeks time.
I’ll take a look! When guys like Dave Tate talk/or write, I pay attention. I draw the line at drowning a slice of pizza in olive oil though, haha, a stack of peanut butter cups is more appealing!
Seated BtnP 40x10 10 9
BB Rows 80x6+2 (fair bit of body English) 70x12
Dips BWx15 +12x8 9 BWx10
BB Curls 30x10 37.5x8
Squat 100x17 80x15
Pullovers 12x20
SLDL 90x12
Pullovers 12x20
Leg raises x20 Plank (RKC style) 60secs
Tues 05/11/24 90.3kg
Seated BtnP 40x3x10
BB Rows 80x10 70x15
Swiss bar bench 65x12 10 8
BB Curls 32.5x10 12
Squat 100x20 (finally!)
Pullovers 12x20
SLDL 90x15 with straps
Pullovers 12x20
Leg raises- to be done at some point, I am/was done in.
Big turning point in the program today. Just as I was getting tired and ready to be done with it. My upper back, shoulders, chest ie anywhere above my naval has had a dull ache for about five days now. If I am lucky, I get 24 hours rest bite. However:
If I push the food, my squat eventually goes up. Funny that.
In spite of feeling poop, I feel I’m standing taller, wider, and now with a slight degree of badassery that I’ve for the first time in my life squat two plates for twenty reps. We all face our own pursuits in this sport, I’ve ran under 17minutes for 5k and pulled under 6:24 on the concept rower for 2k, which gives an indication what I naturally gravitate towards. This sort of thing is well out of my comfort zone and feels like a comparable milestone for me. So I’m going to savour this moment like an 18 year old me did squatting this for one rep sixteen years ago, ha!
Back down to Earth with a lower back compressing bang today. Some days the stars align, some days they don’t. Reverted to a back off set at 15 with a lower weight ala John McCullum so the intent of spending a lot of time taking big breaths under the bar was met.
Three sessions to go. In two minds as what to do after. I downloaded Easy Strength (a terrific read thus far) so naturally got a desire to run a template from there for six weeks before another run at Super Squats or even Mass Made Simple. Or, continue with a few weeks of 2x15/3x10 before a run at 1x20, which I’d program every five days. I’m digging the upper body work here, even if this isn’t the major focus of the program.
Yes actually, neglected to mention it amongst my busy train of thoughts! Only hesitation is I’m itching to work some conventional deadlifts. My stiff leg deadlift progress has been solid, my grip is the limiting factor. If I use straps, I anticipate it to match my 20 rep squat numbers end of next week. I’m curious to “test” if there’s been any carryover.
Without venturing too far away from the program as written, warming up with power cleans prior to one top deadlift set, once a week, sounds plausible to me?
I’m a super big fan of 1 deadlift set a week: I like using it in a ROM progression approach myself. I’m sure Randall Strossen, as a fan of Paul Anderson and Bob Peoples, would approve.
I recognise my issue, and I should’ve picked up on it sooner. I begin to “overshoot” my hips as I finish the rep, this kicks in a rep or two shy of where I finish the set. It is hard to reset once this starts, I essentially begin my rep with my lower back in a sorry hyper extended state. So it’s just darn ugly. Comparatively, in my early sessions of the program, I’d have a mad lower back pump, but my posture was good.
Something to work on and fix in my forthcoming six week block. Next session, I’ll warm up with a set or two of back extensions.
SLDL’s lit my hamstrings up in to next week. Feels good to use straps every other session and just rep them out.
Thanks, it’s definitely given me an appreciation for hard work under a barbell! I’ll be following up with the six week block laid out after 20 rep squats in the SS book. But rather than power cleaning three times a week, I’ll switch one day out for deadlifts. I don’t have dumbbells, so will just switch exercises out with barbell equivalent (I don’t really need to worry about my method of curls at this stage!). And to get back on the rower, likely in a lift/row/rest rotation.
Seated BtnP 45x8 8 6
BB Rows 80x2x10
Dips BWx15 BW+12 x3x10
BB curls 37.5x2x10
Squat 102.5x12 95x12 90x12
Pullovers 12x2x20 (paired with squats)
SLDL 100x6 no straps 100x10 with straps
Leg raises 2x15
I think that’s me wrapping SS up a session early. Just wasn’t ready for the slog today, which is odd as I’ve had two great nights sleep and got through the upper body stuff in under half hour, I felt good. But ten reps in I was done. The back off sets weren’t particularly stressful, training not testing sort of stuff. I’m taking this as a positive.
I owe myself another crack at this one day, I truly bought in to it for 5 weeks but when deep you don’t want it enough, the program will eat you alive. I’ve no shame admitting that. I probably did myself a disservice setting the main goal of 100kg for twenty. I should’ve said 120kg and see what happens…
My takeaways for future reference and my own ramblings:
I don’t need a dozen different upper body exercises to grow.
Eating a lot is easy. Eating a lot every single day, for six weeks, is not. I’m sick of eggs and peanut butter. This is why milk, by the gallon, is suggested. An 18 year old me would’ve thrived and grown like a weed on this program.
Getting this done in under an hour, including the 3-4minute squat set, the couple of mins before it, and the 3-5 warm up sets, is a good conditioning workout! I didn’t achieve this every session, 70 minutes wasn’t unusual.
Moving forward, I’m keen to get back on the rower and will follow the 5x5 routine laid out in the SS book. Coupled with my Erg sessions, I’ll likely lay this out over 8-10 days, but won’t be too prescriptive.
I want to get my 500 metre time in the 1:teens, so will be a lot of short, sharp work and heavy lifting. Power cleans, deadlifting once a week and a good dose of lower rep squats should compliment it well. If I can reach a 3 plate squat for five and 4 plate deadlift for five, I’m pretty confident I’ll see enough power transfer to reach my goal.
