Still figuring out recovery… Think I did something smart today, or was forced to anyway
Squats continue to be the bane of my existence. Today was just suppose to be light 2x5 but in the hole my inner thigh had that “bad hurt” feeling that I knew meant bad news, so I just skipped them in hopes to recover by Wed for my actual squats.
This makes me change my program a bit to squat “heavy” every other workout , dead lift on the days I squat light , milk that out if it works, then switch to the Texas Method.
Mil press: 25Method, got it done in one less set today! Woot
Dead lift to 290x5 pretty solid.
Aside from the squats this was a great session. Had to go at 8pm and the gym was packed full of people… Not training is about the nicest way to put it. Some guy was box jumping in the squat rack and super setting with unloaded bar rows… To be young again.
C - Rows did something a little different and did 3x8 with a 2 second squeeze and slow negative with ~ 105lbs
D - Arms/Abs 4x6
Notes - Squat performance continues to decline… Frustrating to say the least. Going to reset here down to 205 and see what I can do ramping back up, following the advanced novice progression (Monday and Friday increases, light Wednesday)
I do try and accelerate the deads as fast as I can. I havent ever put much work into deads, so the weight I’m using started off quite low, but when I hit 315x5 that will be a great improvement for me. I’m thinking I may start doing every-other-session Cleans to get some explosive work in, which might help with the deads
Stronglifts week 11 day 1: Reset this week, dropped off 10% and will start the climb again. Will take 2 weeks to get back to previous numbers
Warm up: Rowing for 5 minutes in various grips/positions
A1 - Squat 3x5 @ 205
A2 - Bench 25 method @ 195
B1 - Rows 4x6 with 2 second hold, 2 sec eccentric
B2 - Arms/Abs
Notes: As you can see I reset. Totally forgot about this option until I read about it again, so consider this reset number 1… You are suppose to do this 3 times before moving on to Intermediate style training.
Squats felt a bit heavier than I remember 205 feeling… Not HEAVY but just “heavy” considering I was using 225+ the last several weeks for sets of 5 no problem, I wonder if its just from the burnout of trying to chase weights that were too heavy for a few weeks.
Bench was par for the course, basically the same as last time. Might drop 10 pounds and start implementing pause reps
I felt my form on the Pendlay style rows was getting sloppy (As Paul Carter calls it… it started looking like A monkey humping a football) so I dropped the weight pretty severely and worked on form and really squeezing the back muscles like Meadows talks about
stronglifts week 12 day 3: Somethings gotta change
A1 - Squat 2x5 @ 210… Couldnt get 3rd set, legs hurt, weight felt crushing
A2 - Pull ups 8x5
B - DB Shoulder Press 5x10
C Deadlift 295x5
Man… I dont know what the heck is going on but the squats just aren’t happening for me. This obviously is not the right road to travel down here as weights are now dropping, reps are getting missed, and my legs are sore and feel like snapping in the bottom of the lift. I know its only a hobby and its not anything important in the grand scheme of the world, but man it feels like shit to put so much into something that I love and just keep regressing like this.
Gonna take the weekend to reformulate, wont train legs friday… I dont know if its the Frequency combined with the Intensity or what, but Its obvious something is too much to recover from.
I have done every program I am think of and I allllwaaaayyyyss seem to stall right about where I am at now, super frustrating. I almost wish I could just forget about the numbers and just train, thats always what I loved about BBing training… It was more about the effort and giving it your all on that day, that set, that rep, instead of “Did I hit my numbers today?” being the marker of a “good” workout
[quote]Lonnie123 wrote:
I almost wish I could just forget about the numbers and just train, thats always what I loved about BBing training… It was more about the effort and giving it your all on that day, that set, that rep, instead of “Did I hit my numbers today?” being the marker of a “good” workout
[/quote]
I know I joke about curling in the squat rack and doing arms and shoulders everyday, but when I finally stopped trying to follow programs and just started lifting intuitively, things really fell into place for me. Following your log, it seems like an approach you should at least try out … I think it would be a great match for you!
I may get there yet Serge… I’m gonna stick with the progression methods a little bit longer to see if I can figure out my recovery time a little better and how much volume I need and can tolerate…
But man it would be nice to just train for fun again instead of worrying about hitting certain numbers. This is more CT style I suppose where you just ramp to your daily limit and then drop and do some volume. I may go back to something similar, effort based, if I cant get this strength stuff figured out in a reasonable amount of time. I dont just want to hang in the towel after 12 weeks though, I might be on the verge of breaking through for all I know
I feel your pain Lonnie. I bombed out on several percentage based programs and now prefer just to ramp up for the day and then back off for volume like you mentioned.
Just did some circuit style rep stuff today, pushed the upper body and just got blood to the legs for recovery
A1 - leg press x 10
A2 - DB bench press x 10
A3 - DB row x 10
Ramped all to a hard 10, leg press was stopped one set early of a really hard set. Probably 5-6 sets total for each
B1-b3 - bi/tri/abs 3x10 on each
Overall felt good to not worry about getting a certain weight for reps, breathing hard throughout due to the circuit nature. My legs are still sore and lack flexibility so I opted to get some blood flow.
Just finished reading Rips “Practical Programming” novice section and think I have a good plan to move forward… I believe I see the mistakes in made will work to fix them next week. Keep the weight high(er) and the volume low(er) to help offload some of the total fatigue, but still stay neurally adapted. Will start at a single, top set of 5 and increase that over the coarse of 3 workouts a week until I reach 225, at which point I hope to be recovered and ready to progress again.
Gonna bash my head against this wall for a little longer and then move on to something else if it isnt working. Maybe 4-8 more weeks depending on how things are going
Strength Training Week 12 Day 1: In which Lonnie gets Mad Cow
Squat, 5 rep sets ramp to 215x5 @ 7RPE (see notes)
OHP: Suppose to be 3x5@140 but I messed up and only loaded a 2.5 on one side… duhhh. Was easy enough though, I’ll get 140 next time
Dead: To 300x3 @9 RPE
Pull ups to 55lbx3 @9RPE
Notes: My thinking on the squats is that while its obvious I didnt lose strength in 1-2 weeks time while continuing to weight train, fatigue kept me from being able to display that strength and actually “regress” a bit. So instead of 3x5 three times a week, I’m going to run some Mad Cow (Ramp to a triple on Friday, ramp to that same weight for 5 on Monday, then 5lbs heavier for the triple on friday… repeat) to keep the weights up but the fatigue low.
The RPE scale is just for note taking purposes at this point, basically 10=no more reps possible, 9=1 more rep possible, 8=2 more reps possible, etc… This is just in an effort to see how my body handles certain exertion levels
Madcow Squats/ Strarting Strength Bench Week 1 Day 2
A - Squat 2x3 @ 165
B - Bench 3x5 @ 200, @8,@8,@10 on the RPE
C - Rows 3x10 with an 80lb db, really focusing on squeeze and using the back muscle, no body english
D - Arm/Abs
Good session, Squats were just the work the legs, not get detrained and get some technique work in… the bench felt solid for the first 2 sets, only the last rep was “hard” as noted by the @10 on the RPE scale … I’m thinking of using the “heavy duty” collars we have at the gym to do a poor-mans-microloading next time instead of jumping up the full 5 pounds. I can put 4 collars on and it weighs 3 pounds.
[quote]timmcbride00 wrote:
I like the poor mans microloading.[/quote]
I’m actually glad it occurred to me because pretty soon 5lb jumps for reps on the military press are going to be very hard to come by, so the microloading will at least let me continue with that.
A1 - Squats to 220x5, solid as sears, really happy here
A2 - Bench 3x3 @ 205 - I didnt think I had 205 for 3x5 in me as the 200 was really Hard on the last rep on Wed… But this felt really easy today, definitely reps in the tank on every set. Good confidence builder, gonna drop back to 200 and hit 25 reps this Friday, which I believe will set me up nicely to hit 3x5 @ 205 next Wed.
B1 - 1 arm Cable rows, 3x10 with harrrd squeeze
B2 - Biceps 2x12
Doing a 6 week Bicep high frequency Waterbury thing, trying to hit them at least 4 times a week with varying rep schemes that add up to 24 reps a session (2x12, 1x24, 4x6, 12x2, 3x8) and a different exercise every time (Hammers, regular, preacher, machine, bar, reverse grip, EZ Curl). Dropped Tricep work for the time being as they get plenty of work from all the pressing.
