A2 - hang high pull @ 95 lbs (super light, first week trying this)
A3 - 8 lunges per leg
Carry: Trap Bar Farmers walk, 5x2 @ 145
Notes:
My coworkers have nicknamed my garage gym the Devils Taint Barbell Club due to the Palm Springs heat and lack of AC… Harsh, but it keeps the joints warm
Not a terribly hard workout, this was my first time doing all of these so I was conservative with the weight selection, will increase next week to better levels.
Farmers walks kick ass, just a great movement to build “real world strength” and toughness
First, Ring Dips are awesome by themselves. Adding 25 pounds is impressive. I haven’t done them in awhile, but when I did them, I felt like my chest instantly blew up in size.
[quote]timmcbride00 wrote:
First, Ring Dips are awesome by themselves. Adding 25 pounds is impressive. I haven’t done them in awhile, but when I did them, I felt like my chest instantly blew up in size.[/quote]
I spent the last 6 weeks working with just body weight until I was doing sets of 15. I noticed that after 12-ish reps that my balance and stability was subject to degrade so I figured now was a good time to add weight and cut the reps in half.
Weird bench day. Last time I did 200 I got 5,5,4,4,4 so I was expecting the full 5x5 today. Everything else was up this week so I felt like it would be there but it was super heavy, I hit the support and everything went to shit so I dropped it to 185 and kept away from grinding reps.
Super busy lately. Will only be able to post Highlights and such for a while.
Bench went good this week coming off the shit show last week, managed to get 200x5,5,5,5,4 which is one rep over my previous. Sticking here for a while until 5x5 is a guarantee every week.
The Pwnisher gave me a hot tip on the EFS SS Yoke bar being on sale with free shipping. How could I pass it up?
Took it for a spin today and it was great. Used more weight than my front squats and got more reps because of the stability and not having to hold the bar against my neck. Great bar
Just trying to “stay level” today… Friday I started getting sick at night, started throwing up, and literally slept 36 out of the next 39 hours. Woke up feeling like a truck hit me, lower back and abs totally fried from the vomiting. Missed my Bench/Dead lift day, did some light benching 2 days later just to not fall behind, but didnt push it at all. no chance of dead lifting, even lifting the 45’s felt like a max effort.
-Today I actually did pretty good on the over head press, same weight and got an extra rep
-added 2.5lbs to my pullups,
-Squats I went 5x3 instead of 5x5 to keep it away from failure and keep my low back from fatiguing.
All in all stilling feeling the effects of the bug but this workout today felt good and shows that I’m on the mend.
Monday squats were rough… But there is some “victory in defeat” because 225 is now my “lighten it up” load instead of the load that I had to build up to. Took my Squats from 245 x 19 over 5 sets to 23… got the stomach flu and was able to get a few sets out of 245 but then did 225x5x3
Safety Squat Bar - I love this thing, its actually my new favorite lift. This may be the only way I squat going forward if my regular bar squat stalls in this next 6 week block. Just feels so much better, more natural, and there is less technique require so you can just put a ton of effort into it
Bench - Up to 205 x 5,5,4,4,4 this week. Going to stay here for a full 6 week cycle and really “milk it” … get to 5x5, Slow the negatives, pause on chest. Just really own it before I move up the weight.
Took bench @ 205 from 5,5,4,4,4 to 5,5,5,5,6 - Also hit 185x12, both of which are new PR’s
Gonna stay at this weight for the next cycle at least, the weight still feels “heavy” and the 4th and 5th reps on some sets are tough, and I don’t want to move up until they are crisp and fast.
Squat:
Hit 275, which in my current stance and bar position is a PR. Light as fuck but it is what it is, and its going up every cycle so I’m happy about it.
Having said that… I might switch all squating to SSB squats. Its just so much easier on my shoulders and the bar is healthier on my lower back too.
Split:
I think my current split is a bit too much frequency. By the end of the 6 weeks my left shoulder is beat up, my lower back is not recovered for any session on weeks 5 and 6, and the deep squatting is opening my groin up to injuries. I might just go Upper/Lower instead of a P/P/L every session… Might even do some kind of 5/3/1 type of setup with each day having a heavy lift, then assistance/accessory instead of every lift trained with the same intensity.
Thanks Alpha, I think a large part of it is the “Alpha programming” I have been using for the last several months, I absolutely love it and it is obviously working.
I am still finding out “optimal” ways to implement it, but that will come in time.
Now that I have had time to recover and reflect on the last 4-6 months or so, I think the frequency of Waterbury/Alpha style programming has really hammered down on me. I am going to do a similar program in the posted Wendler Beyond 5/3/1 posted here on T-Nation… Which is very similar to what I have been doing but training 3 days a week instead of 4. I am thinking that this will help with my joints and muscle issues I have been having for a while.
The program is 2 big exercises a day (I had been training 3 “main” exercises a day, all in the same rep scheme a la Waterbury) but one is “strength” work and one is more “volume” work in a 5x5 scheme, albeit light-ish and focused more on bar speed and technique.
Hopefully this cures a bit of the beat-up-old-man feeling I’ve accumulated over the last several training cycles.
