I caught up in there (skimming) for the first time in a bit while home sick this week, and saw that you’d resurfaced, but I did notice that it was less. I think as long as you (we) keep it in its proper place, it’s good exercise for the mind. Another kind of resistance training. Too much of it will eventually cause problems (e.g. not enough time to do more important things).
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Excactly.
Building the Momentum Week 10
Monday
Squat
1x175kg
1x190kg, RPE 7
3x180kg, 6,5
2x3x170kg
Left my sleeves at home. Had to say squatting without them made the squats feel a bit wonky. Did okay anyway.
Deficit deadlift 3x3x200kg RPE 6
Surprisingly easy.
Leg extensions 3x12x115kg
Single leg curls 2x12x35kg
Weighted plank 3x45 sek 25-30kg
Tuesday
Comp. Bench
1x110kg
1x120kg RPE 7. Very good!
3x3x107,5kg RPE 7
Tricep extensions 3x12x80kg Went to a RPE 10
Lateral raises 3x12x10-12,5kg
Cable rows 3x12x90kg
Notes
- Rest of the week I’m having a work trip to France. No training besides walking.
- Pushed the assistance this week. What’s insane that even when weights go up in main lifts/variations, my RPEs don’t. I might estimate them incorrectly, but analysing the videos the sets don’t seem to slow at all. A really good sign.
The Fallacy of Naturality
You often hear people claiming that we should live in certain way since it’s natural, and while it does have merit at times, we need to approach the consept with wider perspective.
Think about modern life. 8-16 work schedule? Living in urban areas with huge human populations instead in small groups? Raising children as nuclear families instead of communities? Goal oriented strength training? Using PEDs, or modern medicine? Having kalories all the time everywhere at hand? Looking screens for hours and hours? And the list goes on…
Most things in our lives aren’t even close to being “natural”. Sometimes it does cause problems. Like we clearly eat too much, sleep too little and work too much.
But, there’s also argument against being as primitive or natural as we can. Data suggests that communities might have been more violent and ruthless when we were hunter-gatherers. Life probably sucked anyway. Modern (post 19th century) societies have been less violent, more just and more stable than societies before. But we haven’t went towards naturality. Rather away from it. As we have moved away from natural human lifestyle for thousands of years, we have also discovered things like philosophy, arts or science. With our current progress we are already like gods compared to our ancestors.
I’ve often said that I’m not sure if I believe in higher powers, but I do like many Christian theologists and core values Christianity resembles. One Christian thinker, G.K Chesterton, wrote: “We talk of wild animals but man is the only wild animal. It is man that has broken out. All other animals are tame animals; following the rugged respectability of the tribe or type.”
We are the only species in earth that has completely broken our natural ways and chackles. And we’ve built something spectacular. Let’s embrace that. Maybe living as naturally as we can is not the solution, but keep going beyond, and seek what awaits us. Let’s be the wild animals.
PS. I wanted to make much longer and much more coherent text about this. But I’m exhausted.
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Building the Momentum Week 11
Sunday
Pause squat (light)
3x3x130kg
Deadlift
3x4x210kg RPE 7
Nice! Easiest 210 repping ever, and for multiple sets.
Single leg press
3x10x100kg (pause at bottom)
Single leg hip thrust
2x12x30kg
Weighted plank
30kg@60 sec
Monday
Comp. bench
1x110kg
1x122,5kg RPE 8
2x3x110kg RPE 7-8
2x4x95kg
It was alright. Last week bench was faster.
Tricep extensions
3x12x75kg
Lateral raises
3x10x12,5kg
Cable rows
3x10x90kg
Tuesday
Massage (legs)
Thursday
Squats
3x6x100kg (just getting blood to the sore legs)
CGBP (paused)
4x6x97,5kg RPE 7-7,5
Seated DB OHP
3x10x22,5-25kg
Tricep pushdowns with band
2x25 (burn!)
Face pulls
3x12x40kg
Friday
Squat
1x165kg
1x185kg Under RPE 6
4x3x165kg Under RPE 6
Easy. Slightly lighter work today.
Deadlift (light)
3x3x172,5kg
GHR (assisted)
3x8
Sissy squats on Smith
2x12x10-20kg
Weighted ab wheel
3x10x10kg
Changed assistance a bit. Took it relatively easy.
Weeks conditioning
No cycling, but total 7000m of ergs, 2 long walks and one light jog.
Notes:
-
A long walk means over 70 mins brisk walk or a longer hike. Light jog is a mix of walking and light running for 20-30 mins.
-
Weights are feeling really good. I’m being really confident about this training. The coach focuses much more to rep quality and recovery between sessions compared to what I’ve used to, but it’s clearly working.
-
I have been relatively sore for the rest of the week, I’m having a some flu symptoms. So that and the new assistance movements are the main culprits.
-
Weight is around 114-115, but I need ti clean up my diet again. I do find it harder to eat properly when gaining weight compared to cutting.
No deep thoughts today. It’s getting below zero here now, so I need to change winter tyres to the bikes and to the car.
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Building the Momentum Week 12
Monday:
Comp. Bench 1x105kg
6x3x90kg
Tricep extensions 3x10x65kg
Lateral raises 3x10x8kg
3x10x80kg
Light bench workout.
Tuesday
Pause squat 3x3x135kg
Practically speed squats.
Deadlift
3x220kg RPE 7.
3x212kg
3x200kg
3x180kg
Easiest 220 I’ve ever pulled. The ”600lbs” pull might be soon broken.
Single leg press 3x10x100kg
Weak man dragonflags 3x12
Single lef hip thrusts 1x12
Thursday
CGBP (paused) 5x3x100kg RPE 7
Seated OHP 3x10x52,5kg
Seated ohp is slowly getting better also, but I’m not really pushing it.
Tricep pushdowns with band 2x25
Rear delts 3x12x15kg
Friday
Squat
1x175kg
1x192,5kg RPE 6,5
3x182,5kg RPE 7
2x3x172,5kg
Deadlift (light)
3x3x170kg
GHR (assisted) 3x10
I suck at these. Good reason to work on them.
Weighted ab wheel 3x10x15kg
Sissy squats on Smith 3x10x20kg
Weeks conditioning
Only 16km of cycling and one light jog.
I developed cough/flu on Wednesday. It was not paralyzing, I coukd worj and lift weights. But conditioning did not really work out. Maybe I’ll go for a walk today.
Notes:
- Bench and dead have improved clearly. With squat I’m unsure. But I asked specifically to break my bench and DL plateau and we’re doing just that.
And if 2 lifts out of 3 progress while the 3rd one is not going terribly I should be very pleased. I pushed squat hard last spring and got some PRs in. I haven’t PR my dead in over a year. It’s important to keep that in mind.
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I’m having some nagging pains here and there. I’ll try to treat them as best as I can. Might be due to the flu also.
-
I’m around 114-115kg. After I’ll get to the 116 range I’ll drop the kcals to maintenance and try to get some bloat off. Since I’m clearly getting soft. I don’t really care about visible abs so much currently that I would chase very low BF, but there’s no point getting myself actually fat.
Not much else to say now. I hate this time of year here. The combination of wetness, coldness and darkness is pretty unique.
It’s no surprise so many BM bands come from the north.
PS. Finally added some vids. Played a little with the editor too. But this shows how easy the 220kg was in the DL.
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Building the Momentum Week 13
Monday:
Comp. Bench
1x112,5kg
1x125kg RPE 9. Old PR. Could have maybe done double, but it would have been hard.
2x3x112,5kg RPE 7-8
4x95kg
Tricep extensions 3x10x7kg
Lateral raises 3x12x10kg
3x10x90kg
Wednesday
Pause squat 3x3x130kg (light)
Practically speed squats again.
Deadlift
3x170kg
2x190kg
2x210kg
2x230kg RPE 7
Easiest 230 I’ve ever pulled. The DL is peaking really well.
Single leg press 3x10x105kg
Weak man dragonflags 3x12
Single leg hip thrusts 1x12
Friday
CGBP (paused) 5x3x102,5kg RPE 7
CGBP is getting stronger too.
Seated OHP 3x10x53,5kg
Pushed this now. Kinda PR.
Tricep pushdowns with band 3x25 PUMP!
Rear delts 3x12x15kg
Sunday
Squat
1x180kg
1x195kg RPE 6,5-7
3x3x170kg easy.
Deadlift (light)
2x3x160kg
GHR (assisted) 3x10
Getting better. They really work my hams.
Weighted ab wheel 3x10x15kg
Sissy squats on Smith 3x10x25kg
Weeks conditioning
Total 32km of cycling, 2 long walks.
Notes:
- Bench was peaked this week. We back of from it now. DL will be peaked in 2 weeks and squat maybe in 3. Interesting to see lift progressions going separately this way, more about it below.
- My shoulders and knees have reminded about themselves, but that’s normal when you go towards heavier weights.
- Flu was over, so got back to normal conditioning routines. I’m soaked after every cycling “session”, since it’s mostly raining every day now. Hope it will turn to snow soon, I already did put winter tyres to my bike.
Analysing the programming
So, I’m 3 months in training with the coach and at the end of first “block”. So I decided shortly analyze few things about this programming. I’ve said many of these things before, but this is kinda summary of these notes.
Progression has been straightforward and classical. From high reps lower weights gradually to lower reps and higher weights. I like simplicity so this fits for me. What has been interesting was the differences between every lift. The progression with bench, squat and DL have been separate, and all lifts have progressed at their own pace.
For example, next week will be new start for bench, light week for DL (before testing it), and moderately heavy squat week. This kinda makes sense, but I’ve never trained this way. Good thing is that I rarely have completely “off/light” weeks, since they’re boring. Hahah.
One thing which has surprised me is the light intensity on the main lifts/variations. We’ve worked mostly in RPE 5-7 range in squat and DL, maybe in 6-8 range in BP. This is something I’ve not done for a while. But again, it’s very logical. Build efficient rep with good form and force projection in big lifts = gains with less fatigue.
Then push the assistance a bit more, to build muscle that way. Not to say some of the main lift workouts would not have hypertrophy element in them, but the smaller movements clearly have the main role in fatiguing the muscles. Again very logical approach.
I did Wendler’s programs when I started lifting and he often had similar approach how he programmed. Main lifts are mostly done submaximally and hypertrophy is pushed via assistance.
Third surprise has been the conservatism and patience. Two things I’ve clearly lacked. It seems pretty clear I’ve gotten stronger during these 13 weeks, but we haven’t done a single PR (and will not do PRs yet). But the old PRs are moving easy and my working weights have gone up, at least in BP and DL.
I personally haven’t had the patience not to PR if I’m feeling stronger. I’ve wanted the reaffirmation that I’m progressing. The coach sees that I’m progressing and he does not want to do the unnecessary “grinding of PRs” too often. That’s kinda smart.
Also if you add the fact that volume and frequency are pretty moderate, it’s clear he’s playing the long game. And that’s exactly what I need. Probably one reason my bench and DL have been stuck for a while now is that I was thinking in 3 month cycles. I wanted rewards too often. So we keep going with the coach and after some months I expect great things, if we keep our current pace and direction. Patience and consistency always wins.
Some vids from this week:
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Well, I just spent an exorbitant amount of time reading your entire log. I very much enjoy it. I look forward to continuing on.
I’m almost done with this book. I have very much enjoyed it so far. Hopefully I will enjoy it to the end.
Thank you! I do appreciate when somebody happens to read my ramblings.
I kinda quessed the ending in CoT. But I liked the idea, the world building and writing style so much that it did not bother me much.
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