I wanted to start my log on this site again to track my performance and garner any wisdom anyone should provide.
I am currently in my 5th month of 531 in which I am following the base 531 template with only chins and abs as accessory work. I will move on to more advanced accessory work when I have exhausted the base template.
First training day of the New Year and it felt good. The 10 rep wasnt a PR but I didnt want to push too hard as I hadn’t squatted in a couple weeks. The 10 felt fast and relatively light. I willll push the PR rep next week.
Could not get a PR today, which was not surprising. The wrist pain had me concentrating on it most of the set and not on giving 100% effort. Also I canâ??t seem to break the double digit mark on my press no matter what weight it is. The triceps give out half way up and then once that fails the shoulders just canâ??t give it another go. This means weak shoulders and weak triceps. I thought about only doing the prescribed reps and moving on but decided to go until I couldnâ??t or the pain was too much. Thankfully the pain was manageable to get the + reps.
Iâ??m fine with this as this was a 5 week and I nearly doubled the requirement so Iâ??m still progressing. Attempted band assisted chins but the wrist was having none of it.
Another good session. The weight did not feel heavy at all and all the reps were pretty fast, which I am very happy about. The wrist was still bothering me on the pulls, but once I warmed up and wrapped it I was good to go. I also employed (unintentionally) a reverse grip where I pinched my index finger with my thumb. I am not sure if this is a hook grip or not but it very much helped with keeping my grip strong. The goal today was 11 reps, but added one more on account that I was feeling pretty good.
On another note I made the decision to try my hand at my first powerlifting meet this year. The meet I planned is the South Jersey Rumble held on May 17 and 18. This gives me a solid 5 months to prepare. My plan is to continue with the base 531 programming until March 23, in which I will start my Pre-meet training, and April 20 in which I will start the Meet Prep. Both outlines are noted in the 531 for Powerlifting book.
My goals for this meet are a 340 squat, 225 bench, and 385 deadlift. This would be a 20lb increase in the squat and deadlift (attained in the October NOV meet). The bench will be a first attempt at a single. I am not too sure if this will be feasible as the wrist injury I have may curtail this. If that is the case I will just take a token attempt at the bench so I can Squat and Deadlift.
Another good punch the clock day. I seem to like capping my sets at ten. I am ok with that as I a continually building up. I am also happy to be finally be able to get 5 sets of 10 in the sit up. I know that is fucking terrible, but think how bad I was before this. Embarrassing. Now that that rep range is out of the way I am going to progress to the 350 method on sit ups.
I seem to always have two thoughts in my head when I squat; bar position and foot position. I keep reading everywhere that a low bar position allows you to utilize more weight. However I never really never know if the bar is really in the low bar position. I kind of have the bar situated so that they are on the rear delts. I don not know for sure if that is low enough. Today I just got tired of fucking thinking about it so I just decided where I have it now is where it is going to be until someone very qualified helps me fix it. The foot position thought is the width of the stance. I naturally want to go out a bit wider than shoulder width. It just feels more stable that way. But when I do that, and thus shove my knees out, my right hip bothers the shit out of me. I have to always think about going a bit narrower. I know this is a mind thing, but its driving me crazy.
Whatever, I got the reps I needed so in all it was a good day.
The pain today was probably a 7.5 out of 10 which made pressing real hard. Once I got into the work sets the injury just made everything feel real heavy. So I decided not to be a hero and just get the Rx reps. I am ok with this because I am still progressing and that is what counts.
The problem with presses is that in order for me to use the false grip the hand has to cock back just a tad. That is what is causing the pain. I only have about 10 to 15 degrees of movement in that direction when I am 100% healthy and right now it is less and aggravated. It is what it is. My strength is still about 40 to 50%. I need to strengthen this big time so I will order the most basic COC gripper they have and will use that to get some semblance of strength back. I think once I get the ligaments strong again the pain will subside drastically.