After finishing up Eric Cressey’s Maximum Strength and coming off of an aggravated back injury from shoveling snow years ago and a severe injury to my thumb that set me back weeks, I’ve been persuaded by my W/O partners to do Ed Coan/Phillipi again.
I was very inexperienced and probably would have been better suited by 5x5 on my first run through, but I went from a hard 275 to an easy 345. Between the back and thumb my progress was set back a couple months and now I’m somewhere between 365 and 385.
I’m asking for 425 this time which I think is very doable. My main obstacle right now is my first meet on December 6th that will be during the 8th week of the program, but I’m going to roll with it.
I take liberties with the assistance work on Coan- I prefer RDLs over SLDLs because I need stronger glutes and not hamstrings or back, and I get better results from T-Bar Rows than Barbell. Oh, and lat pulldowns are gay so I do chinups. The end.
3x8 circuit
Romanian DL: 185
T-Bar Row: 2 plates (machine, not Ghetto)
Chinup: BW
Good Morning: 115
Took about an hour and a half, pretty typical for Coan IME. This workout was at a gym that I usually don’t go to at home, so it was different to say the least.
The bumper plates that we use at college elevate the bar by at least two inches, so going back to regular plates (I think these might even have been a bit smaller than normal) was a shock to the system. The 320 was depressingly hard. The last two speed sets were more like regular sets, but that’s pretty typical and form felt good throughout.
2x3x190 went up fairly good, but with 205 I got completely out of position on the second rep and almost got my neck (thank you whoever invented the power rack; it would have been ugly without ya). I was on break and back in my high school gym without a spotter- note to self: don’t do heavy bench routines under those circumstances.
After that, I did 3x3x135 Push Presses (first set hard, other two were very easy- weird) and I finally DB Benched without pain in my thumb.
We were doing exercise testing in lab today which involved 1RM Bench Press: I finally got 225 again. I’m officially back to where I was before the thumb got injured, makes me happy.
Ed Coan #3 (Tuesday 10/28/08)
A. Deadlift 365x2 (old 1RM for a double, awesome)
B. Speeds 6x3x300
Back Circuit (3x8)
RDL: 190
T-Bar: 2 plates
GM: 125
Chin: BW
Hard day but not that bad. Had gas left in the tank for the heavy double. Little intimidated by next week, 380 for a double. But if I can make it through that the rest of the program is mine. Looking forward to it.
Yea, I know I’m bad with updating on time. I was away on our Fall FTX all weekend, kinda hectic.
Bench: 2x5x185 (planned 18), 2x3x195, 225 (missed twice)
Incline: 3x3x145 (very difficult, staying here for a while)
Dips: 1 chain x 2x8
Actually fucked up today, was supposed to be a 195 failure test but I did the 225 instead. Bad day, and the handoffs on both attempts really forced me out of the groove for whatever reason.
No PT today, the COL wanted everyone to recover from the FTX. I was pretty beat up but felt like getting to the gym would help my mood out a bit. Bad decision.
So I fucked up on the last bench session, was supposed to be a 195 Failure test and today was supposed to be the 220 single. I didn’t feel like either unfortunately, the last double with 210 was a 3 or 4 second grinder that I’m not even sure I got without assistance.
Push Press felt the same- no power whatsoever. DBs went fine though, but I’m getting to the point where having a spotter to assist on the first rep is going to be helpful. Really want those 100s sometime in the future.
The double was my heaviest yet, and it looked the part. My legs started spasming like crazy halfway up, really wish I got a video. Relatively though it wasn’t that bad. I could have pulled 4 plates today.
Speeds on the other hand… they were nasty, something close to 80% of my current max or something. Nothing speedy about them, but I got em. Nothing notable about the assistance work, except we’re going up to 3x5 after this week.
As far as the other guys go, Alex pulled 500 flat today. Ugly but he got it. James, Ian and Kia are all coming along really well with their pulls. Strangely enough, out of everybody who trains in our group Alex and I are the only ones that pull conventional and well- sumo for everyone else.
A. Flat Bench: 2x5x185, 2x3x200, 205 Test: 3 reps
B. Incline: 3x3x145
C. Dips: +45 x 10RM, 1 chain x 2x10
Cuban Rotations, Full Contact Twists and Hanging Leg Raises.
Today was by far the most productive training session that I’ve had in a while. 185 never felt so light.
Really getting a better feel for leg drive on the Incline Press, far from my best lift but it’s very slowly improving. Dips felt fantastic. I’m going to continue with my plan of adding 10 lbs a week until I hit a 3RM. Really felt the Cuban Rotations today and it was nice to do some heavy “core” (God I hate that word) work again.
Met up with some strong guys from another school and had some great conversations. Kia is becoming a bench monster and Alex hit a 300 Flat Bench and a 225 strict press (video to come when he doubles it).
