RUNNING UPDATE
Unfortunately I have to correct myself on my progress. I felt great Wednesday when I ran my best times to date. Well, I ran an entire minute per mile slower today. My “awesome” workout was an average pace of 5:15 and today was 6:18. Ouch. The difference is that I had a week off between running workouts for Wednesday’s session. I also did a bit more volume on leg training Thursday and that had a lingering effect, as well.
I’m a lot further from my goals than I thought. Dang.
6.29.22 Had some time to kill yesterday so I browsed the forum for a minute and found CT’S log. It is amazing to be able to talk with such an accomplished coach! I think I had a realization about myself while reading his posts. For the first time in my life, I might need a goal. Not a thought or vague idea - an actual SMART goal.
My wife has needed a goal to fuel her training since college. I never understood that. If she signs up for a race, then she gets focused. Without a race, she doesn’t enjoy training. I’ve been able to lift for the sake of lifting most of my life. I used to enjoy the workouts. Those days are gone now.
I’m not sure when it happened, but sometime over the past couple years, I lost the joy in training. My main motivation is summed up by my log title. Perhaps the change can be traced back to the moment I adopted this log title. My motivation over the past year has been to not fall apart. I know if I completely quit, then I’ll get softer, smaller, and weaker. It would be 10 times harder to come back from that than it will be to hold on and maintain.
So, perhaps it’s time for a performance goal…or at least something more specific than the usual “get bigger, leaner, stronger, etc”. I know I mentioned a running goal, but I dislike running and I’m not making that priority number one. I need to do some thinking and come up with something…
Specific Measurable Attainable Realistic Time Bound
Nah seriously great to see you posting, the teaching thing is awesome, the tragedies that you’ve had to face in a very short period of time however are heartbreaking.
Glad to see this realisation on training, hope it’s the start of a new and fruitful season!
Going to drop this here in case I forget about when the time comes. This could be a good way to train my non-priority muscles. It looks like it would be short and to the point.
I’m going to finish my SGSS progression for squats and bench. I need to pick a weight goal for each, but I don’t really have a good baseline. Depending on the results, I might continue pursuing those two lifts as my priorities.
My best e1RM over the past two years is 333 (250 for 10 reps) on squat. My best bench e1RM is 287 (215 for 10) and it was the same week (March of 21). Sadly, I think 315 is my first goal with squats. I should hit that at the end of the SGSS progression. I’m going to be optimistic with bench and shoot for 275.
I think this is an excellent idea. If you are going to do this, also consider that you can break a longer term performance goal into smaller goals along the way. For me having a goal and then having a program that supports that goal is a must.
Hope all of you Americans had a great Independence Day! I am a blessed man! My parents bought a house on a beautiful lake and they love to share. I took my family down and met up with them for the 4th and it was beautiful. They have a nice ski boat so we all got to ski, wakeboard, tube, and float off the dock for several days. Highlights include me not getting hurt, my 9 year old daughter learning to wakeboard, and my kids having a blast all day every day.
I didn’t wear a shirt much during the trip and I have to say I’m disappointed in myself. My midsection sucks. I have an idea why so I’m going to make some changes and bring some discipline back to my life.
The trip kind of interrupted my usual training schedule so I’m going to take this opportunity to change gears (training ADD anyone?). I’ve been doing an upper/lower split like Wendler’s stuff - a day dedicated to bench, squat, OHP, and deadlift. I thought I was going to stick with that and a four day training split, but I just finished a doozy of an upper body workout and I forgot all about the pulling muscles. I guess I’ll be trying some sort of push/pull/legs split.
Today’s Training - Bench Day?
Bench Press up to a top set
2 sets to failure at 80% of the day’s e1RM
5-10-20 Method (see a few posts above for the workout)
Seated OHP x 5, High Incline Press x 10, DB Lat Raise x 20 (rest 90 seconds, 3 rounds total)
And the results of that 5-10-20 method were a massive pump and weights that went from “I started too light” to “I should’ve used less weight” real quick. I like it. I always refer back to the study that showed hypertrophy was based around failure and the number of reps didn’t really matter. I like this 5-10-20 method because it hits multiple planes of movement and doesn’t take long. I’ll do the same thing on my next upper body push day except OHP will be first and chest will get the 5-10-20 treatment.
I had one week left of my SGSS progression. I was supposed to do 280 for sets of 3. I switched to the Training Maximally option and basically maxed out.
SQUAT
Worked up to 320 x 1 - best 1RM or e1RM in over a year
FRONT SQUAT
215 x 2 x 2
185 x 6
The plan was to use 80% of my top set and do two sets to failure. I wanted to do front squats so I looked at CT’s old “Know Your Ratios…” article and found that my front squat is supposed to be 85% of my back squat. Well 80% of that comes out to 68% of my top set. It turns out that I’m out of balance because 68% of my squat was a near maximal effort.
RFESS
100 x 8 x 2
RDL
185 x 8
Added a wall sit to burn up my quads. Wakeboarding this past week has shown me that my muscular endurance is crap.
SEATED OHP Worked up to 150 x 1 and failed miserably with 170. Seated presses allow me to start in the locked out position and use some stretch reflex to move the weight.
SEATED OHP
120 x 10, 6
5-10-20 METHOD
Bench 185 x 5, 5, 5
DB Incline 55 x 10, 8, 45 x 10
Pec Dec 100 x 20, 12, 80 x 16
@Cyrrex 120 for 10 was a phenomenal set for me but it was a 10RM. As you can see, I only managed 6 on the subsequent set. I’m jealous of your pressing strength.
I dunno, objectively speaking that looks like pretty good work to me. Comparing apples and oranges, though, because mine were behind-the-neck presses….might be you can do even more with those, the ROM tends to be shorter.
Speaking of ROM. I just saw @TrainForPain’s front squats and it reminded me of a T-Nation article I saw yesterday. How much should your front squat? The answer was 1.7 times BW which is 391 lbs for me. I can’t even back squat that!
I don’t have a great vertical, but it’s probably pretty good for Average Joe. I wonder what I’ve done to maintain my ability to dunk at the age of 37… and not just barely dunk. I had a pretty nasty putback playing my students during the last week of school.
Maybe I could jump even higher if I could front squat more than my BW.
7.10.22
Started the day by finishing my homework that was due at noon. Two more weeks of this summer class.
FARTLEK RUNS - 4 ROUNDS
1st round was the warm-up
Run 30 sec
Walk 30 sec
Run 20 sec
Walk 20 sec
Run 10 sec
Rest 2 minutes
I figured it up and I ran a 6:07 pace and covered 0.49 miles in 3 minutes. Not great. Not terrible. I haven’t run in a week and a half.
Those ratios are pure silliness. Like you point out, there’s too many variables in how you’re built. That’s like saying how high should I touch when I jump, as if that’s a test of my vertical, but ignoring my height
I think the most reasonable standard I’ve heard is the 1-2-3-4 plate goal. And the evidence is in how many people pursue and achieve it.
It was funny seeing a front squat “standard” right after my experience with recommended ratios (see Thursday’s workout). I think my best front squat is 265 or 275 and that was right after I ran SGSS the first time. Big surprise - all my PRs followed that program, but I was also 240-250 lbs.
You’d think I’d get this training thing squared away after 20+ years. My loose goals are still conflicting and quite possibly not worth pursuing. Leaner, stronger, leaner, stronger… beer or water… be a bottomless pit or restrict myself… so many conflicting desires.
I totally get the conflicts here, i get pulled in a different direction everytime i read a log on here. The way i try to navigate it is “how does this improve the rest of my life”. And if i can’t answer that, i try not to get pulled in that direction.
For me, training is the part of my life where I have what I consider “full control”. That doesn’t mean I achieve everything I want, because it is, in fact, only part of my life. Unless you can dedicate your whole life to it, it cannot by definition be perfect.
It’s all trade-offs. I am usually doing and feeling my best with my training when I remember why I am even doing it in the first place. The highs from achieving any actual results tend to be fleeting, but feeling good about yourself for putting in the work tends to stay around.
Legit, the only standard I care about these days is effort. This morning, I squatted 475 for a top single. It was a grind. In a past life, I hit 525 for 5. This 475 for a single was the weight I NEEDED to lift this morning, I lifted it, and I feel awesome for having done so, because I poured my soul into it, and the obliterated the rest of me with a bunch of hard work.
And I look, feel and perform WAY better now than I did when I hit that 525 for 5, because my effort has been MUCH higher.
Standards are goofy. Other peoples’ standards for YOU are even goofier. Worrying about those standards is the goofiest. Go hard and it’ll show.
I know the feeling. About a year ago, I read somewhere that my dip should be x% of my pulllup. My pullup was way ahead of my dip (long arms), but I decided to try and meet The Standard anyway. Screwed up my rotator cuff for months - just now getting over it.
