I find it amusing how I felt awesome on the heavy day and felt like hot garbage today. My final set used the same weight as my first set yesterday…and felt harder.
Hang Power Clean
160 x 5
170 x 4
180 x 3
195 x 2
205 x 1 OHP
95 x 5
105 x 4
110 x 3
115 x 2
125 x 1 Squat
225 x 5
240 x 4
255 x 3
270 x 2
285 x 1 Pull-Down
170 x 5
180 x 4
195 x 3
205 x 2
220 x 1 Bench
170 x 5
180 x 4
195 x 3
205 x 2
220 x 1
Barbell Curl
75 x 12
80 x 10
85 x 8 Push-Down
70 x 12
80 x 10
90 x 8 Lat DB Raise
30 x 12
30 x 10
35 x 8 DB Hammer Curl
40 x 12
45 x 10
45 x 8
Right shoulder was cranky during OHP and I think the lateral raises aggravated it more. It hurt all night and kept me up. Not sure what I did, but I’m hoping it feels better tomorrow because it’s 3RM day again. I’ll be making a substitution for cleans to spare my back and knees.
I didn’t see any reason to rush progress so I just aimed to add 5 lbs on upper body and 10 lbs on squats. Everything felt good so the workouts should go well this week.
I figured out that the foam plyo boxes we have are perfect for pulling. I have the 18" on one side and the 12" and 6" on the other and that puts the bar just above my kneecap. It will be good to pull and not have to control the eccentric.
Did this at the Y (commercial gym) so I couldn’t do the full thing as written. I had to split it up.
Part 1
Hang SGHP
160 x 5 (supposed to be 150)
160 x 4
170 x 3
180 x 2
185 x 1 OHP
115 x 5
120 x 4
125 x 3
135 x 2
140 x 1 Squat
260 x 5
280 x 4
295 x 3
310 x 2
325 x 1
Part 2
Bench
200 x 5
210 x 4
225 x 3
235 x 2
245 x 1 Chin-Up
BW + 5 x 5
+20 x 4
+35 x 3
+50 x 2
+65 x 1
In a completely predictable turn of events, I’ve gained weight instead of losing it. It probably has something to do with lack of planning and absolutely no discipline. Hopefully I’ll pull myself together for a fresh start tomorrow. But today is Easter and I’m off to eat at my grandma’s house so there will be no discipline. I only get my mom’s chocolate sheet cake two or three times a year.
On a training note, I find myself wondering if B4B would be effective with some slight modifications (because I butcher everything). I’m not going to bother CT and ask if it’ll work because I’m not a newbie, but I’m curious. This training week will be a failure in terms of following the schedule of Days 1, 2, 3, off day, then days 4 and 5. I’ve already done day 1, rest day, day 2, rest day. My curiosity has me wondering if a three day plan would work…
Day 1 (Monday): heavy day (day 4 in the program)
Day 2 (Wednesday): light (day 3 in the program)
Day 3 (Friday): medium (day 2 in the program)
And then I could throw in the assistance work on days 2 and 3… and maybe even something easy on day 1. I’m not sure I need a 3RM day every week. I’ve established 3RMs and could just add 5 or 10 lbs to those each week. I’m not going to do this yet, but just thinking about it. It seems that one of my bigger hurdles these days is the number of days I get to the gym.
Thought I had the heavy day but it turned out to be the light one plus the extra work.
Hang SGHP
125 x 5
130 x 4
140 x 3
150 x 2
160 x 1 OHP
95 x 5
100 x 4
105 x 3
115 x 2
120 x 1 Squat
205 x 5 (supposed to be 215 but misread)
230 x 4
245 x 3
260 x 2
280 x 1 Chin-Up
BW x 5, 4, 3
+5 x 2
+20 x 1 Bench
160 x 5
175 x 4
185 x 3
210 x 2 (supposed to be 200 but misread again)
210 x 1
DB Incline
70 x 10
75 x 8
80 x 6 Inc. DB Row
70 x 10
75 x 8
80 x 6 RFESS
40s x 10
45s x 8
50s x 6 RDL
70s x 10
75s x 8
80s x 6 Using the same DBs on incline, incline rows, and RDL’s is convenient.
Hang SGHP
170 x 5
180 x 4
185 x 3
195 x 2
205 x 1 OHP
130 x 5
135 x 4
140 x 3
150 x 2
160 x miss, but did push-press Squat
295 x 5
310 x 4
325 x 3
345 x 2
360 x 1 Chin-Up
+35 x 5
+50 x 4
+65 x 3
+80 x 2
+95 x 1 Bench
225 x 5
235 x 4
245 x 3
260 x 2
270 x 1
Followed up the heavy day with a planned day off on Wednesday and then I got hit with a virus. Stayed home from work yesterday. My body felt like I had a fever - muscle tension and aches, joint aches, sweaty, but nothing official. I feel better today but I’m still not right. I broke a sweat putting slip-on shoes on my three year old this morning, so clearly something isn’t right. I think I’m calling it a week for week two and will miss the 5th workout. It’s light anyway. I’ll start fresh on Sunday with a new 3RM day. I kind of wanted to have day one of the workout land on Sundays anyway, so this is fine.
3 RM Day I like just beating the previous week. I’m progressing smoothly and haven’t had to grind anything yet. I think it’s also saving my nervous system a bit. There’s definitely a ceiling, but I think it’s a few weeks out.
3 RMs for Week 3
Hang SGHP: 195
OHP: 145
Squat: 335
Wide Grip Cable Row: 250 - replacing chin-ups this week
Bench: 250 I worked up to a 3RM on bench on Feb 12th and stalled at 235. I worked up to a 1RM on February 23rd and stopped at 250. To hit this for a good triple feels good.
Well, crap. This might be the end of this program and phase of my training life. I irritated my back during squats, kept going, and felt okay. I thought I was fortunate to have a PT appointment scheduled for right after my workout. We’ve been focusing on tissue work and manual manipulation of the spine. I thought that would help my back, but I was wrong. It made it worse. I went in there feeling a bit stiff and knew I was out of alignment. I left and can barely stand upright to walk. If I push on the area that received most of the attention (QL) then I can walk without a hitch. It’s strange.
Hang SGHP
160 x 5
170 x 4
180 x 3
190 x 2
195 x 1 OHP
120 x 5
125 x 4
135 x 3
140 x 2
145 x 1 Squat
270 x 5
285 x 4 (this is where it went wrong)
305 x 3
320 x 2
335 x 1 Wide Grip Cable Row
200 x 5
215 x 4
230 x 3
240 x 2
250 x 1 Bench Press
200 x 5
215 x 4
225 x 3
240 x 2
250 x 1
Not sure what I’m going to do from here, but rest is pretty high on the list. Might be time to head back to the Y and play on the machines for a bit.
I’ve been stubborn and trying to push through, but I need to shut some lifts down and let my back heal. I was hoping to finish four weeks of B4B but oh well. As much as I enjoy it, it’s probably not the best idea for me to push to those intensities every week. I feel like day one is a legit 3RM and day four is close to a 1RM on everything. My back doesn’t need two max outs per week.
Went to the Y to start my new structured but unstructured program. It’ll be a push/pull/legs split and I might train six days a week or I might train three. There is no set schedule.
Elliptical
20 minutes: 2 min easy, 1 min a little harder
Bench I’ve been having my students use a chart for their main lifts. The reps for week 1 is 10, 8, 6, 4, 2. If you complete all the reps, you go to the next step on the chart. I figured I’d use it, too. It’s just a more structured version of the way I trained when I was 17/18 and made my first big gains.
Machine OHP
80 x 10
90 x 8
100 x 6
110 x 4
125 x 4
Cable Lat Raise
30 x 10, 10
30 x 6 + 20 x 7
Machine Fly
170 x 15, 12
OH Rope Ext
130 x 15, 12
My back still hurts. I just left the chiro for my third visit this week. I think I’m almost over the hump and won’t need help getting things to go back into place. My diet has been crap and my stomach looks awful for any type of entry into the t-ransformation challenge.
100% this, always a shame to have to drop a program half way through due to injury. I like the look of that program, might be tempted after I get through my next 6 months of scheduling!
I think you’d like it and would fly through it based on other programs you’ve completed. I tried to keep myself in the higher conditioned group and only rest 60 seconds between sets. I’d miss that sometimes due to changing weights, but I rarely let more than 90 seconds pass before I was back at it.
I really did like the program. The sad truth is that I haven’t been able to train pain free since this post on 5.28.22. Can’t believe it’s almost been three years of this crap.
Someone with common sense might ask me what the heck I’ve been doing and why I have let this go on. Well, the answer is simple: I’m stubborn. I don’t want to stop training. I may not want to train for hours on end, but I also don’t want to be sedentary. I’ve tried dropping things, modifying things, physical therapy. Nothing has worked 100% so I’ve gone back to training like normal. If modifying things or avoiding squats/deads doesn’t fix the issue, then why not just keep lifting like normal? It’s looking like I’m going to have to endure a complete shutdown of certain things and I don’t like that. I also don’t know what that means for me. I can’t do nothing. Will it be enough to do leg extensions, leg curls, and all the other leg machines without any big movements? Leg press can still aggravate my back so that’s something with which I have to be careful. I’ve spent a lot of money at the chiro and getting tissue work done at PT and for what?
I don’t really know what I’m going to do. But while I try to figure it out, I’ll keep lifting however I can while limiting stress on my lower back. Chest supported everything for pulling movements, seated overhead pressing to limit arching, and whatever leg work I can figure out. Bodyweight lunges and rear foot elevated split squats can provide some stimulus, but I’ll have to do high reps (why not make one of the worst exercises suck even more?).
I think I’ve convinced myself that’s on the list for the end of the year, God willing!
That’s proper crap, sorry to hear this.
I think your plan of just doing stuff that doesn’t hurt/irritate is a solid one, but I can empathise with your position. I’m like you stubborn, often with the only reason being, I want to. Of course you can get 95% of the benefits of lifting (looking awesome, being fit, healthy and strong) without using squats and deads, but I keep doing them despite the odd injury, and I don’t even compete, but man I do want to squat and deadlift! (I may eventually sign up for a strongman comp).
Haha for sure, I’ve just brought Bulgarian’s back in to my training, but the reps are low, I really should add some torture in and high rep them at some point
The more single leg work I do, the more I want to squat and deadlift. I’m actually at a point where I can let go of deadlifts. But they would be replaced with clean pull variations. I’m not happy with my current ability to jump. I need to do better. I think that’s part of the problem. My back hurts but throw in an age related performance deficit and it’s like doubling down on being stubborn.
If I could train pain free, I’d take squats and clean pulls. I don’t need to pull 400+ lbs on a regular basis. I can perform at a high level by moving 250 -350 lbs fast.
On a different but related note, I worked my part-time police job today. My back hurt getting in and out of the car. The faster I moved, the more it hurt. But I realized that it seems to be settling into my QL muscle. I feel like I have a strained muscle and it’s causing the misalignment everywhere else. Maybe I’m just a couple weeks away from being back to where I started - which still includes back dysfunction.
I would like to officially declare and commit to the following:
I will not squat until June even if I feel better
I will not deadlift until June
I will not do any Olympic style pulls until June
I’m hopeful I’ll feel mostly normal in another week. I’m still in a lot of pain and still get that stabbing pain that takes your breath away and nearly makes you fall down, but it’s better.
I plan to train legs today. I think that’s going to mean leg extensions, leg curls, seated calf raises, and possibly a bodyweight lunge, split squat, or RFESS. Depending on time and motivation, I might look up a CF type workout that has a lot of Assault Bike and use that for my lungs and legs.
I trained my pulling muscles Sunday at work. It consisted of lat pull downs with no body english, incline DB rows, a couple sets of Wendler Rows (cable low, standing, shrug and row slightly to target traps), and single arm reverse fly’s on the cables. My rear delts are still smoked so all is well in the world.
They Y has a “sled” but it’s not quite like a prowler. It’s on wheels and has adjustable resistance. If memory serves me correctly, they used to have a sled. I’ll have to look around for it.
It’s timely that you mention that because I was thinking about trying it for my next phase of training (once the back agrees). I looked at Krypteia and then Krypteia Redux and think I like it. I’m an Excel nerd, so I pulled up my template from 5/3/1 Strength & Conditioning and low and behold, it had prowler/sled work at the end of each workout for conditioning, but I never did it. I kept it on the template for Krypteia. I’m hoping to start that in June, but we’ll see. My back is showing symptoms similar to when I first injured it in 2014 and that ended up being a long road to recovery. I injured it, went to the chiro a couple times and felt good to go. I was even squatting with minor stiffness two weeks post-oops. And then the disc that I bulged swelled and started pinching nerves and I lost feeling in my shin and the ability to contract/use my medial quad on my right leg. My recovery included doing negatives on single-leg leg extensions with the lightest load possible. That’s how bad it got. I’m hoping I’m not headed down that road again. It crept up on me slowly.
It wasn’t so much that I felt like crap or the performance was bad; I’m just so limited in terms of pain free movements. I feel discomfort on the leg press and I quit the RFESS because I could feel it in my back. I guess that just shows how tight everything is right now.
