Lava2007 Training Log

Training Training Logs
201

Your program used to be called “The Russian Cycle.”

Fred Hatfield wrote about it a little while before he wrote about CAT. You’re following the path that ends with “speed work.”

Already brainwashed!

The part about the “mini-deload” is cool. The less strenuous day is a “break” from the harder day. So you can go longer, pushing the hard day, making gains.

I really like your thought process, evaluating speed work. What am I already doing, what do lab coat scientists say, how can I use this info to make what I’m doing better? Great post!

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Enjoyed this discussion. I won’t ever waste time with speed work. It seemed like pussy work to avoid lifting heavy or hard. Glad to hear science backs up my thoughts…win

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I might try this at some point not far from now.
When you go to the more intense workouts 5x5 4x4 to you keep one day at 6x2+

It looks as if it might work very well.

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Yeah, exactly! It never occurred to me that that’s why 6x2 was being alternated with the 6x3,4,5,6 until a few days ago. Last time I ran this Russian Cycle (we always called it the Bulgarian Cycle… same difference) was 2 years ago, and I didn’t understand the concept of a deload as an 18 year old lol. All I wanted to do was lift heavy! But I appreciate it man. I felt like I had to evaluate speed work because it’s one of those weird lifting things that some people swear by, and others chastise it. I had to figure it out for myself, but after doing research and hearing both sides, I don’t think there’s much benefit to incorporating speed work into a Russian Cycle. I appreciate your input man

I’m sure it has its place in certain programs, but I agree with you.. It seems like a waste of a training session to just go light and move the weight as fast as possible. Lifting heavy (75-90%) and progressively overloading your main lifts will push us to get stronger. I don’t care if it takes me 1 second or 10 seconds, I just want to squat 500lbs. I think strictly focusing on progressive overload is the more direct route to take anyways, so it is definitely a win!

My coach told me that it can go either way, it just depends on if you want to do the 6x2s or not. It will take an extra few weeks, but if time is of little/no importance, then I would probably do the 6x2s with low to moderate assistance volume in order to achieve the mini-deload effect. For this cycle, I’m going to go straight down from 6x6, 5x5, all the way to 2x2 and a new max. Next cycle, after I have my new maxes and new percentages, I’ll try working down from 6x6 to 6x2, then 5x5, 6x2, 4x4, 6x2, etc. I’m at a point right now in my lifting career where I think I can and should be experimenting with things like this to see what works best for me. In my opinion, doing a 3x3 @ 95% with a small amount of assistance work + an extra rest day between sessions is essentially a deload anyways. I’m not sure how beneficial it would be to continue alternating the descending set/rep schemes with the baseline 6x2 @ 80%. It’s going to be a good experiment for sure!

Thank all of you guys for your input. It’s always welcome here. Critique me, congratulate me, question me. I’m always open to discussion

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15 March 2018 - Bench & Deads BW: 218
Barbell Bench 6x2 255lbs
Sumo Deadlift 6x3 365lbs
DB Bench 2x14, 1x10 80s
Standing Single Arm Rows 10x10 3 plates (45 sec rest)
Face Pulls 1x20 35lbs

Notes
I didn’t do much today, but it took me what felt like forever to do all of this. Bench felt pretty easy which is expected for the 6x2 day, 6x4 on Monday will be a bit more challenging though…

Deadlifts were kinda odd today. My 1st, 4th, and 6th sets felt super easy, but my 2nd, 3rd, and 5th sets felt off. Just heavy. I smoked my last set; it moved better than any others. All deadlifts were dead stops because doing touch n go for 3 reps seems like cheating.

The DB Bench didn’t happen until after my deadlifts which took me 30-40 minutes including warmups, so my chest was a little cold. I did a warm up set with the 45s to wake my chest up again, then I went in. I wanted to get 4x14, but I guess my body didn’t want me to, so I didn’t. My first set felt light. ~90seconds of rest between my first and second sets, and my second set felt hard. The last 4 reps moved well, but they were mental grinders. I had to focus really hard to keep them moving at a normal speed. My third set moved very slow for the last 5-6 reps and I failed after my 10th, so I called it quits. Since it was a 6x2 bench day anyways, which is supposed to function as a mini deload, I didn’t push the volume after that.

I ended up going for a little GVT with my rows which was rough. I hit a wall on my 10th set which tells me that I got in as much volume as I could for my lats, which is what I wanted. The 45second rest intervals were brutal, but I also caught a nastyyyyy lat pump. It was legendary. I did my obligatory face pulls and called it a day.

I didn’t do any back squats or anything to supplement my deads, because I have a 6x5 front squat session on Saturday. I want my legs to be as fresh as possible for that; I can’t afford to miss any of those reps.

I took my workout to the perfect point today. I definitely had more in the tank (for lower body) after my deadlifts, and I considered doing a few joker sets at 405 or 415, but I didn’t. It’s not easy being disciplined but whatever. I try.

In other news, I’m trying Stan Efferding’s high sodium diet. I’m going to monitor my progress. My diet is usually pretty low in sodium to begin with, but I’m starting at 3g per day for the next 5 days. I’m going to monitor my energy levels at various points throughout the day: when I wake up, in class, right before I take my midday nap, before/during/after I lift, while I’m studying, and then before I go to bed. Right now, I have most of my energy during and after my lift and the first 2 hours of my studying. After I study tonight, I’m going to make an Excel sheet to track all of this sodium nonsense. I took 3g today and I feel pretty good but that could be for any number of reasons. I got an 84% on my chemistry exam today which is pretty good for me. I was a straight A student in high school because public school is a joke, but I’m in my 4th semester of college now and I seem to be splitting pretty evenly between As and Bs so far. Hopefully I can pull off a B in chem. Pray fuh me.

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Good job on your exam man. I agree with public school being a joke, teachers don’t even teach anymore. They just give you a piece of paper and tell you to do it or just let kids get away with sitting on there phones. Lack of discipline in this generation is also to blame i think.

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Thanks Duke! I agree though. Where I live, it’s really up to the student if he/she wants to be challenged. We’re allowed to take tests to be placed in advanced level classes which are damn near impossible for a normal 16-17 year old to handle, which is why only the very smartest and most driven kids do it. I didn’t. I wanted to chill with my friends and play sports, not have a shit ton of homework. I think the main problem is that there’s an insanely large drop off when going from an advanced class to an intermediate level class. Advanced classes are impossible but intermediates are a complete joke. America’s got a lot of shit to restructure, and the education system is definitely one of them shits.

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Had to browse around @FlatsFarmer, this is what came up:

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17 March 2018 - Squats
Front Squats 6x5 270lbs
High Bar Squats 225x5, 275x5, 315x5

Notes
Wow. That was tough. Didn’t miss any reps on my front squats so I’m happy. As long as my diet is decent, I’ll be able to crush my 6x6 on Friday or Saturday. I decided to go for a few sets of high bar because I was pressed for time, and high bar is not something I normally do. My quads were already fried from front squats so all of these moved a little slow.

Called it a day after my squats because I had to go move some furniture, nothing major though. I’m pretty happy with my last two workouts. I left a decent amount in the tank compared to what I normally do, so recovery hasn’t been hard at all. I have tomorrow off, so I’ll just do a little studying and eating. Maybe a nap. We’ll see.

Monday will be deadlifts 6x2 365 + bench 6x4 255. Bench has been going very smoothly so I’m not worried about that, but I need to figure my shit out for deads. Half my sets on Thursday felt awkward and the other half felt great and it was because I don’t have my technique completely cemented in yet. I’m looking forward to my 6x5 and 6x6 for bench and deadlift because that’s when you really figure out how strong you are. Today, I realized that I’m stronger than I thought I was. 6x4 was harder than 6x5, so I’m progressing. I’m in a good spot.

I’ve also decided to over-emphasize how much of a mini deload the 6x2 session is. For my 6x2 sessions, I’m not doing any extra assistance, just stretching and glute work (which is as much a part of my warmup and stretches as anything else). I’ll do my assistance after my 6x3.4.5.6 sessions and use the 6x2 to recover and keep the intensity reasonable. I will also be including 6x2 sessions in between my 5x5, 4x4, etc for the same reason: I need that mini deload.

I’m pretty much doing bench + deads together all the time now, with one always being a quick 6x2 and the other one being a 6x3+. I’m going to do some platform work after my 6x2 squats, because I have a meet in about a month. I’m nervous now because I haven’t been on a platform for olympic lifts in at least a month. I did it with relatively high frequency for 4 years straight, so it’s like riding a bike for me, but at the same time, I need to perfect a few things if I want to go set some PRs at that meet. I’m trying to teach myself how to hook grip while warming up for deadlifts, and it’s fine and helpful up until 315-335. Then it gets a little uncomfortable. Some tape and chalk should help, though. Hope everybody had a good St. Patty’s Day workout!

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What program are you following as of now?

EDIT: Dumb question, man. Sorry about that. Good luck at your meet! :+1:t4: Also, nice lifts.

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No worries man, thanks for checking in on my log, I appreciate it :slight_smile:

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No problem man, I’ll tag you in my log if you wanna take a look. :grinning:

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19 March 2018 - Bench + Deadlift
Barbell Bench 6x4 255lbs
Sumo Deadlift 6x2 365lbs
DB Bench 2x15, 1x12 80lbs, 1x15 65lbs
Face Pulls 2x40 35lbs
Cable Tricep Extension 4x25 35lbs SS with
BTN DB Press SS 4x15 40lb DB
Straight Arm DB Lateral Raises 4x12 20lbs

Notes
Solid day today. I think the extra sodium has been helping with my energy while training, but I’m not sure. Could be placebo, or I could just be eating better than I think I am. Either way, something is working for me. I did my bench without a spotter again, I just didn’t really need one. I think I will for 6x6 for sure, but we’ll see for 6x5.

The deadlifts felt a lot better today actually. I was playing around with my stance width and foot angle, and I’ve decided that going about as wide as I can with my toes pointed at a 60 degree angle is my sweet spot. That’s a pretty standard sumo set up as far as I can tell. I was working hard to initiate the pull with my glutes which caused it to take an extra half second to come off the ground, but the bar speed was definitely better that way.

DB Bench was rough. Not sure why I can’t seem to progress on that, but my barbell bench is doing well and that’s really what matters. I’ll just continue to do what I can for assistance after I spend all my energy on my 6x3+ set. Triceps assistance was brutal today for some reason, which is good. I won’t do my 6x5 bench session until probably Saturday or Monday, so I’m not worried about that. My triceps have never taken longer than one day to recover so we’re all good on that front.

I decided to add some strict DB lateral raises today for the hell of it. I was wearing a cutoff and my lateral delts look a little flat, so I did a bit of volume with them. I know that lateral raises aren’t really an exercise you can progress on super quickly (maybe you can, but I’ve always had trouble with it), so I’ll probably just add reps. I’ll go up to 4x15 with the 20s, then go down to 4x10 with the 25s. By the end of the year I’d be thrilled to do 35 or 40lbs for 4x10-15. Gotta keep the shoulders healthy and strong. Front squat 6x2 275 tomorrow, just going for bar speed. I’ll follow it up with some OHP 5+ and clean & jerks. I’m excited as hell to get back on the platform now! I wonder how my new front squatting strength will translate to that.

Side note: One of my buddies from high school is on American Idol this season. We played football together from 7th grade through sophomore year of high school, when he quit to focus on music. He was a running back, and a pretty good one at that. We were pretty stacked as a sophomore team so he was on the B team, but outran most kids and he trucked the kids that could catch him. He was one of those guys that had to start shaving as a freshman in high school so everyone knew he kinda topped out early physically. Overall, he’s a great dude and I couldn’t be happier that he’s following his dreams. I haven’t talked to him in person for about a year because he’s been traveling a lot lately for music. I think at one point, he was a backup singer for Cage the Elephant or The Black Keys on one of their tours. Shit is WILD. Here’s a video of his audition in case anyone is interested:

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Awesome post man. Glad to hear the workout went well. What did you do to fry the triceps? I can’t ever seem to get to mine significantly without destroying my elbows…

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Thanks my man. I did these:

Supersetted with cable pushdowns. I like to stand kind of far away from the machine with my torso at a 45 degree angle leaning towards it to engage my core and press the cables directly down perpendicular to the floor.

Edit: The further your elbows and hands are from your body, the harder it will be to isolate the movement. In my experience though, if you DO manage to isolate them, it works great.

Try playing around with how close you are to the machine as well as what angle your elbows are at. I like to flare my elbows outwards a little bit for an added challenge. I’m pretty sure that the farther out your elbows are, the more difficult the movement becomes, but that could just be me. I really prefer light weight for sets of 15-45. The first 10-20 might feel easy, but it’s the second half of the set that has all the money. If you choose a weight that you could do for 25 reps, do like 5 sets of 15. By the end, you’ll need to focus extremely hard to push with your triceps and not lean into it with your body, but you should get a great pump. Also, there’s nothing wrong with doing a few warm up sets just to get your elbows used to hitting the full ROM. Whenever my elbows are cold (like when I do deadlifts after bench), I do a couple warm up sets before I start working. My elbows can get pretty cranky sometimes, but I read somewhere that light cable tricep extensions are one of the safest movements for your elbows. That same article warned against completing a full lockout, although I don’t know how valid that is. I usually extend about 90-95% without completely locking my elbows, and I haven’t had any problems

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20 March 2018 - Squats
Front Squat 6x2 275lbs
Power Cleans up to 115kg x 1 (sucked ass)
OHP 125x17 (5+)
DB Hammer Curls 1x8 55lbs, 2x8 45lbs, 2x15 35lbs

Notes
Kind of a wild day for me in the gym today. I fucking MURDERED my front squats and I only took about 2 minutes between sets. I’m going to credit the extra sodium. I got like 6-7 hours of sleep last night and only had Cheez-Its after class before I hit the gym. That being said, my cleans were awful. I smashed 100kg, 110kg, but then I got to 115kg and failed. I didn’t have any chalk and the pull from the floor felt super loose and slow. Whatever. I tried it again and got it, but the weirdest thing happened. After I failed 115kg, this tidal wave of anger poured over me and I was really fucking pissed for the next hour. I think it helped with my OHP which was a PR of 17 reps, but I don’t like being angry. I’m not an angry person. I’ve never gotten angry from failing a rep before, because I understand that it happens sometimes and it’s not really a big deal. I think a lot of has to do with the fact that I was riding a mental high after crushing my front squats, and then I couldn’t even clean 115kg. Idk. I got it in the end and that’s what matters.

The hammer curls were fine. I think I’ll just be sticking with the 45s for a while and rep those out. I don’t like struggling with the 55s, and I don’t think biceps are very responsive to progressive overload. They’re too small to grow that quickly I think.

I measured myself today. 220lbs BW, 34 inch quads, 16.5 inch arms, 16 inch calves (lol), 34 inch waist, and 42 inch ass. My reason for pulling out the tape measure today is because I rarely ever do it, and I want to have some point of reference for the future. I’m going to be going hard on the 25 rep squats after this front squat cycle is over for a month or so, and I wanna see how much my legs grow.

Anyways, I gotta study now. Active rest day tomorrow, with some walking, stretching, and maybe some box jumps for fun, just like 3x5 or something with a low box. Deadlifts 6x4 365 on Thursday with some rack pulls and rows, with some light hamstring and glute work. 6x2 255 bench on Friday (boring) with another OHP day and possibly a little more back work. Saturday is my grand finale of 6x6 front squats at 270lbs. It’s going to be hard, and it’s going to suck ass, but I’m going to kill it. This is also why I’m not going to destroy my hamstrings and glutes after deadlifts on Thursday… I need to be fresh for Saturday. Peace out y’all

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21 March 2018 - Active Rest Day
Wide Grip Pullups 1x8, 1x6
Band Pull Aparts
Band Walks
Shoulder, Pec, Lat, Quad, Glute, Hip, and Hamstring Stretches for ~20 minutes

Notes
A much needed rest day today. My quads feel sorta tired every day now, so I need to start eating more. I got around 9.5 hours of sleep last night which was absolutely fantastic; I went to bed at 10pm on the dot and woke up at 6:40, went to the bathroom, then slept until 7:30. Somehow I still ran out of energy by noon, so I threw down some chicken, pasta, and mashed potatoes, then took a crazy good nap for about an hour. I know it was good because I had a weird dream that makes no sense and I woke up all discombobulated. I just took my 3g of sodium and I’ll be pounding water hard for the next 4 hours or so.

Currently sitting in the library at school waiting for my friends to show up to study with me. I did pretty well on my midterms. I got an 87% in history, 86% in humanities, and 82% in chemistry (although I think it should’ve been an 84% based on my calculations… I’ll have to have a chat with him later. Every point counts.) I got a 43% on my first chemistry exam which sucks, but I was also spending 4-5 nights a week with my ex and I was barely studying at all. Blowjobs feel a lot better than letting my soul seep out into a chem textbook, so can you blame me? I have a quiz in chemistry once or twice every week, and I have one tomorrow. The good thing about it is that my professor is insanely chill, and he gives us 5-6 problems to study in the textbook, and one of them will be on the quiz (it’s a one question, 10 point quiz). By the end of the semester, the quizzes add up to 1.5 exams worth of points, so acing these for the rest of the semester would be huge. We have a weekly lab, and I think I’ve been doing pretty well in those, and labs are worth 15-25% of our grade so I’m happy. I just really wish I hadn’t fucked up so badly on my first exam. She was not worth it. She pulled the classic “come over and study,” and I fell for it. Twice. Except for the second time I knew what I was getting into, so that one is my fault. But as soon as I saw that 43%, I knew something had to change, and now I’m single. That was probably the right decision on my part, so I’m not mad about it.

6x4 365 deadlifts tomorrow. My goal for the end of this cycle is to pull 475lbs, which would get me 20lbs closer to my 500lb deadlift. I was thinking about it the other day, and I think I set my goals too low for this year. Originally, when I realized how strong I was getting, I set my goals at a 475lb squat, 500lb deadlift, and 345lb bench. I took a step back and thought “wow, that means I’d have to increase my squat by 70lbs in a year, increase my deadlift ~80lbs in a year, and increase my bench 45lbs in a year. I don’t know how realistic that is.” So I changed my goals to 455/335/495. My back squat is probably still around 415, so I still have a lot of work to do for that, but I think if I’m able to front squat 365, I should be able to back squat significantly more than 415 after another month or two of back squatting. If I can bench 315 for 2x2, I should be able to bench 325x1 or 330x1 fairly easily. If I can improve my deadlift by 20lbs in 8 weeks (which is the current goal and timeframe), I can most definitely reach 500+ by the summer, which leaves me with another 6 months of straight money time. If I’m at 445/335/495 sometime in the summer, I’ve already essentially destroyed my goals. Squatting is really just a matter of staying mobile and eating enough at this point (two of the easier aspects of training IMO).

My rep goals are probably more ambitious than my 1rm goals. I want 385x8/275x8/405x8. It’ll come in due time. I think I’m doing the right thing by addressing my weaknesses (hamstrings and back) and taking rest days when I need to. This a marathon, not a sprint. If I can become as strong as the goals I’ve set sometime this year, I’ll be in a great spot to compete sometime in the next 2-3 years. God bless y’all. I know I already said it, but 6x4 365 deads tomorrow. We’ll figure out some assistance work that doesn’t interfere with 6x6 front squats on Saturday. Keep grinding boys

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I missed a degree the first time in school due to blow jobs over books. It was worth it. I ended up dropping out and opened a contracting company. Grossed my first million at 32 years old. Worked for another two years before sellin the business to go back to school to get a degree. Took a huge pay cut and was unemployed for 2.5 years. Now I work for less than the guys I had employees with a student debut. College ain’t for everyone. And blow jobs may cost you…

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damn dude…

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Damn dude… I didn’t realize you’d been through all that. What’d you end up getting your degree in? And do you have any tips for starting a business? Me and one of my friends have been talking about starting a gym eventually. It seems like kind of a pipe dream at the moment, but I’ve been reading a little bit about the financial aspects of it. But yeah what are your thoughts on starting a business in general now that you’ve had a successful one?