Just. Don't. Suck. Vol. 2

Training Training Logs
562

4.29.24

Staff vs Senior Basketball Game
I’m sad to report I didn’t do anything fancy in the game, but I did go 3 for 3 for 9 points. I guess I need to be more aggressive (or as I actually view it - be a ball hog). No injuries for anyone this year, so it was a successful day. And we won, of course, because the refs cheat even when we ask them not to.

Training Update
Training ADD, instant gratification, insert whatever other excuse you can come up with… Regardless, I’ve struggled to stick with a program. I think most of the problem is my schedule. We canceled latchkey so I have to pick up my two older kids right after school. I have to pick up the youngest by 5. That doesn’t leave much room for training.

Latchkey was costing us $60 a week and they stopped doing the morning session. Sadly, money is tight thanks to my career change. Taking a $30k pay cut right as inflation explodes is a bad combination. Our mortgage payment is up 30%, auto insurance is up 40%. You get the idea.

Anyway, I’m trying to fit SGSS into my life. I completed the 5x8 leg day yesterday and it took 62 minutes. That’s the longest session, so I think I can make fit into my 45 minute window. Leg day consisted of squats with bands, hang power clean (on the 3x8 day) or hang clean pulls (5x8 day), split squats, and RDLS with bands. Upper body day is bench, push press behind the head, pull down, and wide grip cable rows. I’m experimenting with the bands. They add 25-50 lbs each on squats and I’m only using one on bench. RDLs are done with the monster minis. I plan to use these throughout the program. We’ll see how it transfers to my maxes.

Hope y’all are doing well.I haven’t been on here in a while so I’m out of the loop.

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All good down here, just quietly chipping away as always.

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Awesome to hear from you! Glad most things seem good.

Apart from this, curious (mainly because I might be making a similar decision in the not too distant future) you still happy with the decision?

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I definitely have no regrets. I could always go back to law enforcement. I have a five year window to return without losing my certification. I’m not sure what I’d have to do to restart, but I know several people who have done it. I’ve thought about it for the money, but I can’t go back. It’s a hopeless profession and I can’t ignore the injustices I’d see day in and day out. I don’t read or watch the news now that I’m out, and I’m oblivious to all the carnage in the world. And I like it that way.

Financially, there’s only one regret and that’s purchasing my wife’s car when used car prices were at their peak. We have awesome interest rates on our home and car now. We wouldn’t make any progress by downsizing, so we’re kind of stuck with our current expenses.

My wife or I may have to pick up a summer job to help get us back to where we were. We’re kind of breaking even right now. We’ll also get to keep an extra $185 a week once summer break starts in a few weeks (daycare). That’ll definitely help. It’s not so much that we’re in a bad spot; it’s just that we had plenty of extra money prior to my career change. That cushion provided a lot of comfort. I’m okay with where we’re at, but it stresses out my wife. She feels guilty for spending money. She shouldn’t, but she does. I’ve kind of changed my outlook to more of “Screw it. We’re gonna die someday anyway. Dying rich or broke doesn’t really matter for us.” I guess that leaves the kids on their own, but that’s their problem! :laughing:

I love my job; I just wish the paycheck was bigger so we were more comfortable. This decision has definitely changed the trajectory of my retirement plans. If I don’t do something on my own, I’ll have to do this for like 30 more years and then get scraps from the state teacher pension program. If I’d stayed in law enforcement, I could have retired in my early to mid 50s and probably been alright. I would’ve needed to find a part-time job, but I’d probably need that to give me purpose anyway.

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Thanks for that write up, sounds largely similar to me if I make/have the opportunity to make the call, I’ll be taking a near 40% cut so definitely changes the retirement plans.

Like you thought I think day to day it just shifts from having a comfortable cushion to having a closer to zero budget. Only difference being that my wife never seems to feel guilty spending and that could end up being a problem.

Lots to think about but really appreciate your take on that and nice to hear that there’s no regrets, it’s been a few years now right?

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Correct. I’m about to finish my 3rd year of teaching. I thought they had our schedules figured out for next year, but the final copy didn’t match what my Department Chair sent. I’m happy with what he has laid out, but now I’m nervous that the people who make it official are going to change it for the worse. If it goes the way I hope, I’ll have two freshman classes, my planning period, and then four weight lifting classes each day.

The freshman classes are going to be interesting. We currently have PE and Health crammed into one class. The students spend about 10 class periods in the classroom each quarter to do one of the health units. The state is requiring next year’s freshmen to have one semester of Health and one semester of PE. Separating the class has posed some challenges in terms of scheduling.

I’m excited for the change because I think our current Health curriculum is a joke and the kids don’t get much out of it. There are also the kids who hate being in the classroom and just want to get back to the gym. I hope that being in the classroom for the entire semester will be something they just accept like all their other classes. If they do, then I think they’ll focus better and get more out of it. I’ll also have a lot more time to cover the topics and beef up the curriculum to something that is actually useful. My wife and I are the only ones excited about the change. The other teachers in our department hate teaching the health stuff and just want to roll the ball out in the gym. We have planned units, but a couple of my coworkers have pretty much just given the kids free time since Spring Break. Luckily it hasn’t affected my classes much, so I’m still able to do structured activities.

It’s looking like I might be an umpire at the Y this summer for baseball or softball. It’s all pretty much entry level stuff, so I shouldn’t have to deal with too many crazy parents or coaches.

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5.5.24 SGSS Week 2 Day 4

This program isn’t bad except for the second leg day of the week during the first phase. Unfortunately, today was the second leg day.

SQUAT + BANDS
195 x 8 x 5 sets

RDL + BANDS
145 x 8 x 5 sets

HANG CLEAN PULL
225 x 3
245 x 3
265 x 3 x 4 sets

SPLIT SQUATS
100 x 8 x 5 sets

I managed to throw in some calf work on a leg press but that’s all for today. I hate this particular workout. I start week 3 Tuesday and have one more 5x8 leg day. I move on to phase two after that and it consists of sets of 5 which are much more tolerable.

The RDLs feel too light but the speed of the movement with bands still causes soreness. The split squats might be too light, but that’ll work itself out in later phases. I’m also just trying to finish the session by the time I get to them.

On a side note, I picked up the split squats from my visit to the local NAIA weight room I referenced in my last update. The strength coach made a good point - you don’t have to judge depth. You touch your knee to the ground (with a pad/cushion) or you don’t.

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How’s the deadlift? Still pulling heavy?

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Unfortunately, no. I’ve put deadlift on the shelf hoping for better back health. But I’m not sure it’s working. I just finished rolling around on the floor trying to pop my back or SI joint without success.

I pulled 450 a couple weeks ago just to see if I could. My body is not used to heavy loads anymore. I think it’s a CNS thing - you have to train it as much as everything else if you want to hit PRs.

I finished the worst day of SGSS today - 5x8 on squat, split squats, RDLs, and some heavy clean pulls (not sets of 8). I get to move on to sets of 5 next week and I’m considering swapping something for deadlifts since I’m not really doing any better without them.

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Going to try this. I just finished week 4 (first week of 5s) yesterday. I think I’ve settled on doing power cleans (1 from the floor + 1 from the hang) on my first lower body day and 3x5 on deadlifts on the second day. It’s supposed to be the same lift 3x5 and then 5x5, but I’m not sure my back can handle that right now. My body has adapted to the volume of this program so some things are feeling too light, but I’ll stay the course. There’s plenty of time to get heavy in the next phase.

You might think 3x8 and 5x8 (the first phase of this program) isn’t much volume, but I had let my leg training fall off the table so I had to start light to account for the incredible soreness that follows a leg day session.

Here’s yesterday’s session:

SEATED LEG CURL
3 sets to activate the hams for squats

SQUAT + BANDS
225 x 5 x 5 sets
Bands are 25-53 lbs of resistance which means I have no idea what the actual load is at the top.

DEADLIFT
315 x 5 x 3 sets

RDL
225 x 5 x 2 sets

SPLIT SQUAT
115 x 5 ea x 5 sets

DB CRUNCH
80 x 15, 12, 12

I’m going to stick with my experiment and continue using bands on squats and bench for the entirety of the program. We’ll see if it works. For now, heavier weights feel HEAVY since I’m using lighter loads every session. I’ve been doing a couple reps at 275 on squat without the bands to make 225 with bands feel a bit easier. Unfortunately, 275 feels a lot closer to my max than I’d like.

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6.4.24

Wants and Needs, Needs and Wants…

Well, it’s that time again - what I want to do vs what I need to do. It really all comes down to pain and quality of life. I’ve been living with low back pain/stiffness for quite a while now. I think I started deadlifting back in 2016, so I would guess it’s been at least 5 to 7 years now. ls there a better way to live than this? Maybe.

Anyway, I finished the official halfway point of SGSS by completing my last 5x5 workout yesterday. It was legs and I finished with 245 + the elite FTS green bands (39-91 lbs) on squats and did 3x5 on deads with 325, 335, 345. I’m trying to work deads back into the mix, but I’m out of shape for that lift and even these lighter sessions leave me sore and stuck out of alignment for a few days. I will finish the program and move on to the 3s weeks now. This is where it usually gets fun, but since I’m using bands my loads are lighter than usual. I’m getting close to finding out if they have done anything for me.

I’ve seen many coaches and programs suggest to pick a squat or deadlift and just do one. I watched a video by John Meadows yesterday and he showed a workout that didn’t have each. The workout looked rather short, but it reminded me that he uses brutal effort in his training. That’s something worth considering moving forward, but not with big barbell lifts. I tried the “speed warmup” he used on leg extensions before I did squats and I’m sore! He did 6 reps on leg extensions starting light and adding a plate until he couldn’t do 6 full reps. After a brief rest, he jumped back on and did 25 total reps with that final weight using short pauses as needed. I skipped that part because I needed to be able to walk to the squat rack.

Here’s the Meadows’ Leg Workout

So here we go: Wants vs Needs:
WANTS

  • 4 plate squat
  • 5 plate deadlift
  • 275 lb power clean
  • 3 plate bench (maybe?)
  • better vertical
  • build good physique at a bodyweight of 225 lbs (might post an update about this after SGSS)

NEEDS

  • healthy knees
  • healthy back
  • pain free daily life
  • improved mobility
  • at least a little bit of cardio

So, once I finish SGSS, I will be moving on to something new that hopefully merges these lists. As with most compromises, there has to be a give and take which means some things won’t make the cut. Deadlifts probably won’t make it. Cleans can provide plenty of pulling stimulus for me. Prior to deadlifting, I hit a max power clean of 315 and was doing clean pulls with over 300 lbs regularly. I think I should call that a win if I’m able to do it regularly with a healthy back (not the case now).

As I’ve aged (and probably just become lazier), I’ve drifted into low rep territory for most lower body lifts. The 8s weeks on SGSS are no fun to me. When did sets of 8 become high reps!? I think I could survive doing the Training Maximally approach for squats which is this:

  • 40% x 3-5 reps
  • 50% x 3-5 reps
  • 60% x 3-5 reps
  • 70% x 1-3 reps
  • 80% x 1-3 reps
  • 90% x 1 rep
  • keep going if you feel good aka Jokers

I might try combining that with some John Meadows type workouts because I need my sessions to be 45-60 minutes max. I thought I’d have a wide open schedule during summer break, but I’ve picked up a part-time job as a drive for a catering company and my first week showed me that the schedule can be a bit all over the place and it can take a toll. I worked for almost 3 hours last Friday and then put in 12 on Saturday. They weren’t very clear on what to expect, so that was my learning weekend. It turns out that a 12 hour shift wears me out a lot more than it used to.

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6.21.24

Update to all the updates :laughing:

The internal struggle between good and evil - I mean needs and wants - continues. I made appointments with my physical therapist back in late April or May. The initial appointment was to address tennis elbow in my right arm that likes to come and go. The tennis elbow is doing good at the moment, but it’ll return. It’s been doing that for over a year. I recently started to notice one of my thoracic vertebrae is protruding from my back more than the others and it hurts to touch. I think it’s T7. My spine is more important to me than my elbow, so I decided to have her look at that instead of my elbow. Lucky for me, she’s awesome and is looking at my spine (top to bottom) and my elbow!

I really like my PT and trust what she says. I asked her if there are certain things I need to stop doing at the gym (while telling her about my needs and wants struggles) and she said yes. I asked which ones and she just laughed and smiled. I know the answer to that question.

I should be starting week eight of SGSS this week. I didn’t quite finish week seven. I had the 5x3 day for legs remaining and decided to move to the next phase of the program. I was tempted to abandon it altogether, but I want to see if I’ve made any progress this time around (even though I’m supposed to go for two more weeks). So I decided to do the 5/4/3/2/1 week this week.

THE RESULTS
Well, lower body is yet to be determined. I worked up to 335 on squat and while it wasn’t a max, it wasn’t far :slightly_frowning_face:. I worked up to 195 on split squat and hit an ugly 265 power clean prior to that. The 265 clean is the heaviest of the year and I did it from the floor and hang. I’d like to get back to 275 at least, but we’ll see.

I hit upper body yesterday and the results were pretty good. I’ve been doing all banded bench press just to see what it would do. Well, it helped. I’m slower off the chest than I’d like, but I hit 280 and I’m pretty happy with that. 245 felt like 97% prior to this round of SGSS (guess it could have been a bad day?). The rep was like any max effort single - I hit the sticking point and got worried. Once I got to the top of the sticking point, the bar accelerated again and I finished the rep strong. I think that’s where the banded bench came into play. That’s about where the band tension would hit me. I maxed out the 260 lb weight stack on lat pull downs and rows for three reps on each. And I hit a 205 BTN push press. I think my best all time push press is 235 or 240 and to be honest, I don’t think I’ll ever hit that again. If I want my overhead strength to go up, I need to gain weight and I think I’m done with that for awhile.

So all-in-all, another successful run of SGSS even though I cut it short. I’m not sure if the banded squats did anything for squats. I’m going to give leg day another run or two on the 5/4/3/2/1. I didn’t go for broke the first time around. I knew I could hit 335; I’ve even hit 345 as an over warm-up not too long ago. I don’t think I’m anywhere near my 380 squat from last year, but we’ll see. I’d probably be happy with 350 at this point in my life.

Moving forward, I’ll be using inspiration from coaches who tend to write more hypertrophy programs and focusing on multi-rep strength for a bit. I’m also going to take advantage of machines more like the Meadows video I posted on June 4th. In terms of needs vs wants, squats and deads are out. I think I’m going to try to hold on to cleans and I’ll give 20" box squats a go. I’ll use a high bar approach and that’s never led to back problems. I think low bar is taxing my lower back similar to deadlifts.

So here’s to a more mature me… hopefully :laughing:

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6.22.24

Tried the leg day again and it was a success…sort of. I hoped to hit 350 on squat and 225 on split squat. 350 moved really well. So well that I thought I might have another 25-30 lbs in me. I got 380 last year and I don’t like repeating PRs so I loaded 385. Nope. Tried again. Nope. I’m probably good for about 370, but I didn’t bother trying after that. Hit 225 for 3 on split squats after clean pulls.

Squats hurt my hips. Yes, both. It’s time to move on and train smarter.

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6.28.24 Update

I’m three workouts into my Wants Vs Needs program. I have two upper and two lower body workouts planned. I’ll train every other day at least, but will probably have some back to back days here and there. Here are the first three workouts:

Upper 1 (6/24)
BENCH
135 x 10
165 x 8
195 x 6
225 x 3
255 x 1 (felt like a max :frowning: )
155 x 15, 5, 4 double rest/pause style

WIDE CABLE ROW
160 x 10
180 x 8
200 x 6
220 x 4
220 x 3
straight into
CABLE ROW (25 total reps as fast as possible)
220 x 5, 4, 3 (too heavy)
200 x 5, 4, 4

DB INCLINE
65 x 15, 5, 4, double rest/pause

LATERAL DB RAISE
30 x 12, 8, 9 double rest pause
lol this was like a set of 3/4 reps, 1/2 reps, then 1/4 reps

OH CABLE EXTENSION
125 x 12, 9, 4
102 x 7
88 x 8
yeah, strange weight increments on this cable setup

MACHINE CRUNCH
150 x 12, 10

LOWER 1 (6/24)
HANG CLEAN PULLS
225 x 5, 3
245 x 3
HANG POWER CLEAN
185 x 3
210 x 3 x 4 sets

LEG EXTENSION
70 x 6
90 x 6
110 x 6
130 x 6
150 x 6
170 x 4
20 total reps with 170 now
170 x 6, 4, 4, 4, 3

LEG PRESS
478 x 5 (4 plates per side plus weight of machine)
568 x 5 (5 plates)
658 (6 plates) for 25 total reps
658 x 14, 5, 3, 3
ow

supposed to do some lunges or single-leg stuff, but I had to use the hand rail to get down the stairs after this, so I cut it out.

LYING LEG CURL
140 x 10, 10
125 x 10

UPPER 2 (6/28)
SEATED DB OHP
50 x 10
55 x 8
60 x 6
65 x 4
70 x 4
now 25 reps AFAP
45 x 10, 3, 4, 4, 4

PULL UP
wide neutral grip which was a cool change
BW x 8, 7, 6, 4, 4, 3

MACHINE BENCH
85 x 10
100 x 10
115 x 10
130 x 10, 6, 4, 4, 3 rest/pause

UNDERHAND PULL-DOWN
160 x 10
180 x 8
200 x 6
220 x 3 pretty much all partials

CABLE Y RAISE DROP SET
35 x 10
30 x 8
25 x 10
20 x 10
15 x 10

EZ BAR CURL
90 x 10, 10
70 x 20 ugly

Combining a bit of my first ever serious training program (10, 8, 6, 4, 2+) with some of John Meadows stuff. I’m not too sore from legs which surprised me. Guess I can suck it up and do that single-leg work after all. Lower Day 2 coming Sunday.

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6.30.24

I don’t know how John Meadows did it. I can’t keep up with the volume. I completed workout number 4 today and it sucked! I tried something different - working backwards so I didn’t have to use much weight on box squats or leg press (undecided entering the workout).

STANDING CALF RAISE MACHINE
6 reps, next plate, 6 reps til I couldn’t do 6 reps, then 25 total reps

SEATED LEG CURL
same as above

LEG EXTENSION
same except I only made it to 20 reps

RDL
185 x 8

Holy crap. All aboard the struggle bus here.

CLEAN PULL FROM RACK
5 x 2 with 245

SPLIT SQUAT
135 x 8 ea
Move to Smith Machine
155 x 5 ea x 3 sets

I couldn’t do any more. I had to take the elevator down so I didn’t face plant. In addition to the Jell-O legs, I wanted to puke. All those rest/pause sets whooped me. I was supposed to do leg press or some sort of machine squat prior to the single leg work. I didn’t have it in me. Maybe some day I’ll grow a pair…

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9.23.24

If you know me then you know I have trouble sticking to one program. I guess some of it is boredom, lack of discipline, or something else. But some of it is also how my body feels at the time. I haven’t been squatting much lately to spare my back some unnecessary agony. I’ve decided to give Best Damn another run and it’s percentage-based. How am I supposed to do 85% of my Max if I don’t know what that is? Therefore, I worked up to a one rep max and then did 85% for ax reps today. Oh, and my max was a PR.

Best Damn

SQUAT
worked up to 385x1 which is the new PR
325 x 4 slow reps (hopefully that was from fatigue because they were supposed to be clean)

LEG PRESS MACHINE (rest/pause)
400 x 8, 4, 3
This is the most weight I can put on the machine version of this, but it’s still better than loading 20 plates on the leg press.

DB BENCH (rest/pause)
60 x 8
80 x 11, 2, 2

OH CABLE EXT (myo reps)
130 x 9, 3, 3, 2
Not going to lie, I think I like to rest/pause better.

LAT DB RAISE (myo reps)
35 x 8, 3, 3, 3, 2
25 x 10
Same as triceps. Myo reps missing the mark on these particular exercises.

ELLIPTICAL
10 minutes, 1.03 miles

I feel good leaving the gym today and it’s been awhile since I could say that. I’ve come back to this program because each day is short and to the point. I started a full body routine last week and I just couldn’t stand it. 4x10 one day, 5x8 on day 2, and 3x12 on the last day. It just felt like a lot of junk volume.

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Oh, boy. Two days in and I already don’t like some things. Myo reps don’t always work. They seem to be exercise dependent, but rest/pause always works. The same can be said for the mTor reps. 5 sec eccentrics plus a 2 sec hold in the stretched position doesn’t work on RDLs. In fact, I don’t think there is much that will work with RDLs other than traditional reps. I tried the mTor set tonight and my grip and lats bailed before anything else. It was disappointing. I tried to do double rest/pause instead. I hit 275 for 8 and then hit another 4 before I was approached by gym staff. The gym was packed with no racks or platforms so I just found some space for Pendlay rows and RDLs. Apparently I was in an area not built for deadlifts and could have damaged the pipes and other infrastructure. I didn’t even respond to the employee. I could tell there was no reason to point out I was doing RDLs and set the weight down nice and soft. I was 10 feet away from a guy who pulled 455. I can’t see how my area would hurt the building, but whatever. I gave up on the double rest/pause set and just moved on.

Anyway, the point of this post was to announce that myo reps and mTor sets may be replaced by double rest/pause.

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Having caught up on your journal and musing around deads/squats, I now revoke my 45 masters recommendation! It’s a great program but each day is based on squat, bench, deads, ohp, or carries and whilst it’s good managing volume and loads are always self selecting (work up to a top set for the day at X number of reps then do X number of reps at X% for 10 mins EMOM) it still features squats and deads each week.

If you were interested you could change the variations, maybe front squat or split squat and RDL or TBDL, they’d be fine - if they left you less beat up?

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I’m still undecided on squats and deads. I kind of scratch the itch for deads with power cleans. I think I’m going to try squatting again. Heck, I’m only 20 lbs away from my goal of 4 plates. Maybe there’s still a chance!?

Is 45 Masters anything like Dark Horse or any of those types of programs. I think I tried a workout or two from that genre and I just couldn’t keep up. Space and equipment can be limited if I go to the Y. I can probably have the place to myself if I stay at my school to lift.

I’m not sure if there’s life for me without a tight/sore back. The cost to get that is to drop just about everything other than machines for lower body. It’s been about a year and a half since I hit my deadlift PR of 555. I was rotating through 1, 3, and 5 RM days. I’m sure my back was sore most of the time (muscle tightness that pulls things out of alignment), but I felt great. Feeling strong negates a lot of minor things. It was nice being able to pick up well over 400 lbs in class without a warm-up.

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No, not giant setted this one, it generally goes: build to a top set for the day on s/b/d/ohp (superset with ab work), then 10 volume sets of % of top set EMOM with ab work optional (I rarely do that because I’m too busy trying to breath), then a 10 min assistance finisher EMOM.

It’s neat, quick and not particularly equipment demanding.

I’m sure you could replace deads in the program for power cleans and might gain that last 20lbs on the squat!

And I feel you completely on the back pain/tightness, I think for guys with long backs it’s an occupational hazard of wanting to be able to pick up heavy things!

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