Lava2007 Training Log

Training Training Logs
501

30 July 2018 - OHP, Bench, and… deadlifts??? Bodyweight: 215lbs
OHP 95x5, 115x5, 140x14 (PR because everything is a PR when you haven’t done it before)
Paused Bench 3x6 225lbs
Bicep Curls 1x10 40lbs (idk)
Sumo Deadlift 225x5, 275x5, 315x5, 365x3, 415x1, 435x1, 465x1 (PR), 475x1 (PR)
1 min side plank, bird dog holds

Notes
Yup. Not the OHP day I wanted, but a 20lb deadlift phantom PR? I can work with that. I felt stronger than I’ve ever felt, so evidently the McGill big 3 has worked pretty well for me! This PR gives me confidence that I haven’t felt in months, since March when I squatted a 10lb PR and benched a 15lb PR in the same night after spending the day watching Hafthor Bjornsson and Brian Shaw compete in Columbus, Ohio. Man, that was a good day.

I’m rejuvenated. It’s fucking on. I’m hitting my goals for this year, fuck it.

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502

Hey Lava
That was awesome man congrats

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503

1 August 2018 - Squats Bodyweight: 216lbs
Back Squat 265x5, 290x5, 315x11 (5+), 335x5, 355x3
Good Mornings 195x10, 215x10, 235x5 (ouch)
Side Planks and bird-dogs to feel the burn, several rounds

Not exactly the squat day I was looking for but I’m done making excuses. I need to be better.

4 August 2018 - Bench Bodyweight: 213lbs
Felt great, so I decided to do an impromptu max. Turned out about how the pessimist in me expected it to.

Bench 45x10, 135x5, 185x5, 225x3, 245x2, 265x1, 285x1, 295x1, 305x1, 315x0
OHP 3x6 140lbs
supersetted with
DB Floor Press 80x10, 80x10, 85x8, 85x5

DB Bicep Curls 3x20 30lbs
supersetted with
Cable Tricep Extensions 1x30 42.5lbs, 1x25 50lbs, 1x20 50lbs

Notes
Both those sessions were the opposite of what I hoped for. 315x15 squats did not happen and neither did 315x1-2 for bench.

This summer has grinded me down, I can’t seem to do anything right anymore. I benched 315 in March and haven’t been able to get back there since. Working more than one job fucking sucks. I’m way too much into my own head with so many things going on in my life right now, and I’m spread so thin that I’m not able to put enough effort into things that matter the most to me anymore, like family and the gym, mainly. Being with the boys is always refreshing, but that’s rare since we all work 40+ hours a week. I feel like I’m stuck on a fucking hamster wheel right now. Just doing the same shit all day every day. The monotony is slowly killing me. I’m having a quarter-life crisis right now. My whole life is more dynamic and stressful than it’s ever been, and I’m forced to adapt to everything that’s going on whether I want to or not (I don’t).

Training has always been something I’ve loved and enjoyed and taken immense pride in. It’s time to get that back.

Now that the bitching is over, here’s the plan of action. I feel like I’m backed into a corner in most aspects of my life, but there are people who are doing better than me who have to thrive in tougher circumstances, so it’s time to nut up. I’m tired of having a little belly, but I also want to get stronger. I’ve been on a mini-cut for about 5 days now and so far it’s going fine and I plan to continue it until school starts. I’m cutting carbs big time, which works for me pretty well. It’s a mix of IMF and low carb, not because I believe either of those strategies have magical effects, but because they’re easy for me personally to incorporate into my life. I’m still getting about 200g of protein every day and training 4x/week with carbs mainly just before my workout. Seems to be working just fine.

I will be starting to deadlift after my squats and vice-versa. The plan is to continue my 4 day split, 2 upper 2 lower. I need to find my squat and OHP maxes still, because this is the new plan since I think I’ve outgrown 5/3/1 (sadly… I’ll try it again at some point, but for whatever reason it doesn’t feel the way it used to at this point in time):

RUSSIAN CYCLES!!

Yeah, we’re back to that. It did some good things for my bench until I got too aggressive with increasing the percentages, same with my front squats and deadlifts. So far, I’ve got a 475lb deadlift and 305lb bench under my belt. I expect my squat to top out anywhere from 395lbs to 425lbs, and my OHP should be 175lbs to 195lbs (it really just depends on whether or not I harvested any newbie gains from finally OHPing consistently).

So a normal week would look like this:
Sunday: Squat (315lbs to 335lbs) 6x3,4,5,6 + Deadlift (380lbs) 6x2
Monday: Active Rest (walking/core/stretching)
Tuesday: Bench (245lbs) 6x3,4,5,6 + OHP (~160lbs) 6x2
Wednesday: Active Rest (walking/core/stretching)
Thursday: Deadlift (380lbs) 6x3,4,5,6 + Squat (315lbs to 335lbs) 6x2
*Friday: OHP (~160lbs) 6x3,4,5,6 + Bench (245lbs) 6x2
*Saturday: Rest/Work

*Interchangeable days. I’ll be working one of these days anywhere from 7 to 11 hours, so no lift unless it’s the only way to get a 4th session in.

5x5: 83.5% instead of 85%
4x4: 87% 90%
3x3: 91% 95%
2x2: 94% 100%
1x1: 100%+

I’ve typed way too much and I doubt anyone is reading this, but I love to plan these things out. I’d like to have some reps in reserve after working up in intensity which is why I’m cutting it a good amount lower than last time/the prescribed reps. I don’t want to go through another SI joint injury-type fiasco, OR run myself into the ground in the weeks leading up to a new max.

Deadlift: 6x6 380lbs, 5x5 395lbs, 4x4 415lbs, 3x3 430lbs, 2x2 445lbs
Bench: 6x6 245lbs, 5x5 255lbs, 4x4 265lbs, 3x3 275-280lbs, 2x2 285-290lbs
OHP: 6x6 155lbs, 5x5 165lbs, 4x4 170lbs, 3x3 175-180lbs, 2x2 185lbs
Squat 6x6 ~325lbs, 5x5 340lbs, 4x4 350-355lbs, 3x3 370lbs, 2x2 380lbs

In total, this whole cycle should take me through a good amount of first semester.
Week 1: 6x2 (80%) + 6x3
Week 2: 6x2 + 6x4
Week 3: 6x2 + 6x5
Week 4: 6x2 + 6x6
Week 5: 5x2 + 5x5 (83.5%)
Week 6: 4x2 + 4x4 (87%)
Week 7: 3x2 + 3x3 (91%)
Week 8: 2x2 + 2x2 (94%)
Week 9: 2x2 + New Max (Sometime in the first half of October)

Looks like I might be able to fit in 2 cycles of this before 2019 if I start later this week. I might not max out after this cycle and just end it after Week 8, then start the next cycle after a week off with 10-15lbs more on upper body lifts and 20-30lbs more on lower body lifts. We’ll see. This is literally the simplest program ever, and you can design it however you want. I’m making tweaks that I think will help me.

Sorry again for the insanely long post. It’s been a frustrating week and summer in general so far and I’ve always got a lot to say about it. Keep grinding boys

3 Likes
504

You thought wrong

No assistance work?

You can do this man

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505

If I give you my numbers can you set me up to do this too?

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506

@losthog Absolutely bro. Just let me know. I think it’ll be a nice change of pace for you after Dark Horse with all that conditioning and stuff. Having pre-determined sets and reps at x amount of weight makes me feel a lot better about going into the gym. I think the pressure of trying to set a PR every single workout drained me a little bit these last few weeks.

@duketheslaya thanks duke. Even just 6 hours later I’m realizing that I was being a little dramatic… yeah, 2 jobs sucks, I do the same thing every day, but that’s where I need to be at this point in my life. I need to be doing the things that I’m doing to make my future as enjoyable as possible.

And as for the assistance work, that’s a good catch. I didn’t really think about it since I usually just wing it. I’ll probably just do some easy stuff to get the blood moving. Maybe leg press & good mornings on S/D days and floor press & tricep work on B/OHP days. Arms when I feel like it. Something like that. I might throw some bodyweight circuits in too to spice things up, idk yet. I think the important thing is that I focus on the main lifts and make sure I have quality sessions every time. I haven’t been lifting long enough yet to be able to discern how much assistance & which assistance exercises work best for me.

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507

Yeah man. you’re doing the right thing for your future

Assistance work is important!

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508

Hey Lava
That was a good post man, it’s good to get things down on paper, when things are screwed up a bit.
Damn you, why did you mention those Russian Cycles :slight_smile:
A new and shiny object (Or old and still shiny).
I’m thinking of CT’s Simple Guaranteed Strength and Size It’s a bit like yours and then not. Working from higher reps down to single reps.

Thanks for the writeup of the program, I’ll copy paste it and see it with my numbers in it.
Thinking of doing it a bit like DH giant set style with the progressing lift, and then fixed rest time on the second lift, decreasing rest time every workout.

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509

Hahaha! Sorry mate.

Simple Guaranteed Strength is what maier is doing right now, correct? Looks pretty interesting.

Fixed rest times are a surefire way of making yourself stronger. That’s one of the 2 ways that I’m aware of to manipulate intensity of a workout, so you can’t go wrong with that.

510

You are correct. I just started round two with SGSS. It’s similar to your approach but it’s basically two workouts done twice a week - one upper and one lower.

I hit 305 for a single on bench after the last round of it. I couldn’t do 255 for 5 x 5 like you have laid out.

One thing I learned from SGSS is that you don’t have to grind to improve. I also dislike always going for a PR. Anxiety is the opposite of what I want to feel in the gym.

In the final week of SGSS (week 12) I worked up to 285 on bench. That was the planned progression and it was smooth so I went for 305 and nailed it. On Deadlift I worked up to 465 x 1. My PR from last year was 495 x 1. 465 was smooth so I went for 500. It was smooth as well. A week later I pulled 545.

I was never near failure on my bench and Deadlift sessions. I started conservative and it worked out well. I think I have my spreadsheet if you’d like to see how I progressed (sets, reps, weights).

My point is that you don’t have to bury yourself.

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511

That’s very impressive to make that significant of gains in 12 weeks. I’d actually love to see the spreadsheet if you wouldn’t mind copy & pasting or posting a screenshot of it!

The Russian Cycle kind of seemed like the opposite of that in the sense that I worked up to a 6x6 at 255 and didn’t miss any reps, although I only got one set of 5 at 270, and only 3 reps at 285. Point is, I got significantly stronger in the 6+ rep ranges (I’m assuming I could probably have done 255x9-10 reps on an amrap), but it didn’t transfer very well into a 1rm. I actually ended up with a 305lb max, which was 10lbs less than the max I had used to set up my numbers for that cycle. Doesn’t make much sense. I probably rushed the 5x5 / 4x4 / 3x3 etc and didn’t give my body enough time to adapt and prepare itself to express that strength.

It seemed to work fairly well for my deads also, so I’m interested to see how my OHP and back squat handle it.

I feel this. That’s why I’m going to err on the conservative side for these cycles…round my numbers down, not up like I did last time. I’ve never heard of anything good coming from a cycle where an athlete consistently attempts to hit numbers beyond their capabilities and it turned out well. But your example is one of several that I’ve heard now where staying conservative has turned out to be extremely beneficial. I’m looking forward to playing this russian cycle differently than I did last time.

512

I’ll use my PC to fill in the blanks on my spreadsheet. I can tell you that I picked numbers I wanted to hit and worked backwards from there.

For bench I used 275. My PR was 300-305 but I knew I wasn’t there when I started.

For Deadlift I used 450 because I knew that should be my “any day of the week” weight and I was coming off hip surgery. This actually prevented me from pushing too hard too soon.

For squat I used 350 which was my goal. I hadn’t squatted in awhile so I did a test session to see what I could handle for a fairly easy workout of 5 x 8 (same reason as Deadlifts). Knowing my goal and my starting point helped me choose my progression which turned out to be 10 lbs per week and 20 lbs between phases (when I dropped the reps).

I’ll jump on my PC now so I can copy the parts of the spreadsheet in which you’re interested. Be back soon…ish.

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513

Here’s my progression. This shows the first day of the week which was 3 sets of 8, 5, 3, and then a straight pyramid of 5/4/3/2/1. I did this same workout later in the week with 5 sets of the same reps. I did legs Friday/Monday and upper body Saturday/Wednesday.

Friday Week 1 Week 2 Week 3
Exercise Reps Weight Reps Weight Reps Weight
Squat 3 x 8 205 3 x 8 215 3 x 8 225
Deadlift 3 x 8 255 3 x 8 265 3 x 8 275
Friday Week 4 Week 5 Week 6
Exercise Reps Weight Reps Weight Reps Weight
Squat 3 x 5 245 3 x 5 255 3 x 5 265
Deadlift 3 x 5 295 3 x 5 305 3 x 5 315
Friday Week 7 Week 8 Week 9
Exercise Reps Weight Reps Weight Reps Weight
Squat 3 x 3 275 3 x 3 285 3 x 3 295
Deadlift 3 x 3 335 3 x 3 345 3 x 3 355
Friday Week 10 Week 11 Week 12
Squat 5/4/3/2/1 345 5/4/3/2/1 355 5/4/3/2/1 365
Deadlift 5/4/3/2/1 445 5/4/3/2/1 455 5/4/3/2/1 465
Saturday Week 1 Week 2 Week 3
Exercise Reps Weight Reps Weight Reps Weight
Bench 3 x 8 205 3 x 8 210 3 x 8 215
Overhead Press 3 x 8 95 3 x 8 100 3 x 8 105
Saturday Week 4 Week 5 Week 6
Exercise Reps Weight Reps Weight Reps Weight
Bench 3 x 5 225 3 x 5 230 3 x 5 235
Overhead Press 3 x 5 115 3 x 5 120 3 x 5 125
Saturday Week 7 Week 8 Week 9
Exercise Reps Weight Reps Weight Reps Weight
Bench 3 x 3 245 3 x 3 250 3 x 3 255
Overhead Press 3 x 3 135 3 x 3 140 3 x 3 145
Saturday Week 10 Week 11 Week 12
Exercise Reps Weight Reps Weight Reps Weight
Bench 5/4/3/2/1 275 5/4/3/2/1 280 5/4/3/2/1 285
Overhead Press 5/4/3/2/1 165 5/4/3/2/1 170 5/4/3/2/1 175

Hopefully that all shows up in some sort of readable manner.

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Nordic Blood: Climbing And Lifting / Lifting And Climbing
514

So:
3 week phases, dropping 3 reps each phase. 8, 5, 3. Got that part, that makes sense. How did you determine how much weight to go up by? Was it percentage based, or did you estimate? And for the 5/4/3/2/1 pyramids: Did you pyramid up to the weight for one rep (445x1, then 465x1 in the second workout) for your top set? Was it something like 315x5, 345x4, 385x3, 415x2, 445x1?

I’m a fan of the slow progression stuff. Going up 5lb/week for bench seems like a good route to go

515

5 August 2018
Had a moving job this morning. 4 hours of lifting and wheeling heavy shit around with one of my buddies for some quick cash. I broke a pretty damn good sweat (today was the first day above 90 in weeks, so it hit me hard) but I feel good right now.

Mini cut isn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I’m not sure that I’m even doing it right, but I’m trying to adhere to the basics. Protein for/with every meal, with one less meal than normal. I’ve never been a calorie tracker and I don’t think I will be for some time. I think cutting a meal out is a surefire way to drop a few pounds. I looked the leanest I’ve looked in a good while this morning, which is a good sign.

Today I had an apple when I woke up before the job around 10, then nothing until 5. When I had food though, I went hard. A double cheeseburger with bacon and tomato and ketchup, baked beans, and broccoli salad. A piece of some homemade Oreo cake, and a root beer. That’s all I’ve eaten in the last 24 hours and I feel fine. If I had to estimate calories, I’d say somewhere between 1100 and 1500. Definitely lower than maintenance for sure. I’ll have a protein shake with some milk before bed which will add another ~400 calories, but largely from protein. Should be about 65g protein, 15g carbs, 3g fat. Not too bad.

Tomorrow, I’m testing my back squat. That’s all. It’s going to be a fairly extensive warmup, including bird-dogs and side planks, band walks and band clams, etc. All the good stuff. Some hip and groin stretches, T-spine mobility, and shoulder mobility. Literally everything I can think of. I’m not necessarily attempting to set a PR–that’s why I said “testing,” and not “maxing.” A slight distinction to be made there. I expect to get somewhere between 385 and 415, and definitely nothing over 415. Unless the stars align and something magical happens, there won’t be a PR for me tomorrow. No worries. I just need to know what my max is currently so I can plug numbers in for the Russian cycle. OHP testing will be either Tuesday or Wednesday. That’s all I got. I feel like I normally just max out with no warning, which I do, but the squat and OHP maxes are premeditated. I’m really looking forward to getting started on the Russians. Hopefully there are some gains to be had yet in 2018 :slight_smile:

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516

¨The simple guaranteed strength and size program is at CT’s own homepage Thibarmy.
Try to google it, it’s easier then finding your way around his site.

I just popped in my numbers in your russian cycles and played a bit around with it.

I could do the main 6 sets giant set style ala Dark Horse and a emomish aproach on the 6x2.
Do you do any assistance exercises ?
I’m really torn between several programs.

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517

I forgot to explain the part.

The program calls for percentages but I used that as a guide for week 1 only. You’re supposed to start with 72-77% of your 1RM for phase 1, 80-85% at the start of phase 2, and 87-92% for phase 3.

I did a test day and picked weights I knew I could hit. If you start too heavy on week 1 then you’ll miss reps in week 3. I increased my weights by 5 lbs on upper body lifts and 10 lbs on lower body lifts week to week. I doubled that even I changed phases and the reps dropped (10 & 20 lbs).

For the pyramid phase I started week 1 of the phase by using my weigh from the previous week as the 3 rep set.

For Deadlift I hit 405 x 3 in week 9 (it appears that I forgot to update my spreadsheet when I increased my deadlift weights). In week 10 I used that for my 3rd set and I think I did 20 lb jumps so the whole day was:

365 x 5
385 x 4
405 x 3
425 x 2
445 x 1

After the first week of that phase I went back to my 10 lb jumps from week to week using the weight I did for a single. I also increased my weight increases for each set because I wanted to hit that single and 10 lb jumps were causing too much fatigue. During the final week I did:

345 x 5
375 x 4
405 x 3
435 x 2
465 x 1

I didn’t include the whole spreadsheet because they other exercises were assistance work but each day had four main lifts that followed the same set and rep scheme. I also had a fifth exercise of each day that had a slightly different rep scheme.

My upper body days were OHP, weighted pull ups, bench, and pendlay rows. The extra exercise was reverse fly’s and I did those for higher reps.

Lower body days were squat, Deadlift, walking DB lunges, and RDLs. The extra exercise was a loaded carry.

I’ve learned that percentage based loading is a guide. We’re all different and some of us can hit more reps than others at a given percentage even when we have the same max.

I recommend having a trial day to feel out the weights for the start of the program. I did 95 x 8 for 3 sets of rear foot elevated split squats on my test day last week but I was getting close to grinding on the 3rd set. I’ll be hitting that weight in week 3. I started with 85 and I’ll be doing 90 this week (5 lb jumps for single leg work).

I could have started with 95 lbs and worked up to 105 but I think I would’ve struggled and started doing weird stuff to compensate for weakness.

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518

Yes, that’s a viable option. I might opt for that. The program calls for 80% for every working rep of every working set until you work up to 5x5 and beyond. However, working at 80% that frequently can (and did) beat me up last time I think. I’ll most likely opt for 70-75% for the “deload” days (any day where all I have for that lift is 6x2) to be a little easier on myself.

I understand the principle of keeping the weight similar. You want as much exposure as possible with that specific weight. It makes sense, but we live lives where we have a lot going on, and it isn’t always feasible to be doing 80%. I believe doing 70-75% instead of 80% would make EMOM a more viable option for the 6x2 days. That’s a good idea, one that I’ll probably use myself! Nice thinking mort.

That being said, that only applies to the mini deload days. The actual working days (6x3, 6x4, etc) should definitely still be 80%. And if you’re truly torn between programs, dissect the ones you really like and combine all the best aspects and see if it’s reasonable. If it is, try running it!!

@Frank_C that makes sense. Now that you say that, I think I recall you saying this somewhere in your log or Hog’s log:

These are all quality exercises. Did you pick them based on weak points, or was it to just balance everything out?

That’s very true. Just today I was thinking how different my own squat and OHP are in terms of being able to rep out certain percentages. Last time I checked, my OHP was ~170lbs but about 2 weeks ago I hit 150 (88%) for 10 reps. A few weeks ago, I squatted 355x5 and today I hit 425 for a rough single. That’s 5 reps at 83.5% of my 1rm. I hadn’t really thought about it until you brought it up a few days (a few weeks?) ago in your log. Very interesting.

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519

I just followed CT’s lead. He gave some options but I veered off course with lunges. I wanted to get some single leg work in there to help with the stabilizing muscles. Pendlay rows were a new exercise and I really like how it takes the stress off my lower back. I can hinge at the hips enough that my hamstrings are doing the work or my abdomen is resting on my quads so there’s no lower back strain.

Reverse fly’s are a favorite of mine. I’ve always done them to balance chest work.

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520

6 August 2018 - Squat Testing Bodyweight: 214lbs
Side Planks, Bird Dogs
135x5 (ouch)
225x5 (I almost just stopped after this set, my hips and back were dying)
275x3 (feeling slightly better, but that’s not saying much. Still extremely uncomfortable)
315x2 (feeling better than before, but now the weight is starting to feel kinda heavy)
355x1 (surprisingly smooth and painless. What the heck)
375x1 (looked like a 315lb squat on the video. Confidence is rising)
395x1 (looked like a 365lb squat. Something good is coming)
410x1 (5lbs under my PR. Setting myself up to surpass my old PR, but fatigue is starting to set in)
425x1

Not a bad day. 425 was sort of a bad squat technically speaking. I was way out on my toes. I think if I had focused on sitting more on the heels I could’ve blown through my sticking point a little easier. My quads are the weak link, and getting on the toes puts more stress on the quads, so that didn’t help. I moved the weight though, so it counts. This puts my 80% for the Russian cycles at 340lbs. That’s going to be an absolute bitch on 6x6 day, but as long as it makes me stronger I’m down with it. Plenty of room to grow. I think I could’ve gotten 435 (possibly) tonight if I tried, but I’ll save that for another day.

OHP testing tomorrow. I have no idea at all what to expect. Last tested max was 170, but I hit 150x10 in training. We’ll try to get north of 200lbs I guess

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