You are right, Eco. My head has not been into the DLs in the last weeks. In my view they are physically the simplest and mentally the most demanding movement, and if you are not top fit in both respects in the approach to them they will eat you up. Well, me anyway.
I am looking forward to a break from them with this max test week concluded, and look then to spend several weeks doing precisely what you suggest.
Thursday, 26 June 2008
This brings to a close the nine weeks originally planned for the Lunch-hour Log.
I began with current 1RMs of:
Squat 130, Bench press 125, Deadlift 170, Power clean 85, Press 75.
I set goals for this program cycle of:
Squat 145, Bench press 140, Deadlift 185, Power clean 90, Press 85.
I concluded with current 1RMs of:
Squat 145, Bench press 127.5, Deadlift 170 (also 2RM), Power clean 90, Press 77.5.
Hence, I met the squat and power clean goals, and roundly missed the others, making only negligible improvements in terms of weight successfully lifted.
On the whole, however, I am moderately satisfied with not so much the results as how I am lifting now (with the exception of DLs).
I significantly improved squat technique (including the leverage advantages of lower bar position, but also increased squat depth) in all facets of the lift. My power clean became more coherent and a stronger movement (through working more reps with good form at lower weights), as did bench press after a collapse in progress about six weeks through this cycle.
I believe I can continue to make improvements in that lift, and, for that matter, in the press; it will just be a matter of patience and getting in the time under the bar. I did not recover from the DL collapse towards the end of the cycle; I need to build up ham-glute strength and rebuild overall confidence in the lift (used to be my favorite).
Bench press, press and deadlifts, I think, alike suffered from my alternating weeks of two (generally) four-rep work sets with weeks of speed sets around 55% of my max, and my insistence on regularly upping the weights for the work sets according to the calendar instead of upping the reps and only then upping the weight based on performance and recovery:
Maybe it was more my not really doing (or understanding) the speed sets correctly, maybe more the pig-headedness of following the calendar and wanting the numbers I had projected, maybe the combination. By contrast, having a heavy squat day and a speed squat day within the same week paid off in spades.
So, to look at it this way, in two-and-a-half months I made good strides in one of the big three lifts and got a bit stronger overall without really losing anything in the other two big lifts, even if I have some issues to deal with in one of them, plus no injuries along the way.
Yet I am restlessly dissatisfied with not being anywhere near as strong as I think I should be after these nine weeks, or as I want to be, or think I can still become.
But more importantly, I think, for the longer term is that I have become a bit smarter, even as I recognize how much there is for me still to learn in matters of technique and programming.
For that, I owe thanks to everyone on this site who has been offering encouragement and suggestions along the way. I have also gained a lot of inspiration and concrete tips reading your own logs – and that, too, for things that go beyond the weight room.
I still don’t know what the next gym here will be or how that might have a bearing on my training starting around the middle of August. For the next week here I will be trying out some stuff to see what I want to do in the gym for the time while we are in the States. I look forward to checking in every now and then, except during vacation between the Fourth and the middle of August.
Power up!
Geech, it’s been kind of strange for me to get used to, but West Side philosophies rarely train DL directly. I love to do deadlifts, so I’ve gone to doing them every third or fourth week, rather than every other week like I used to. Just a thought…
geech, I dont know if I can go a month without reading your blog. Where you going in the States?
Geech,
Your log is a great example of how to set a goal, develop a sound plan, adjust the plan as you go along based on performance, evaluate strengths and weaknesses, work on weaknesses, and then assess how you did. This is what the iron game is all about.
Enjoy a little time off and come back and tell us what your next program looks like.
Mining your own logs, sifting for meta-information on what works and what doesn’t is incredibly valuable in honing one’s performance over the long term. The thing people don’t have patience for is waiting to gather enough data to make cogent decisions from.
You need 2 years of log data to begin making good decisions AND to have experimented quite a bit with different routines/schemes such that they can be compared and contrasted.
In other words - you have to have screwed up a lot. 
Gonna miss your posts this coming month. Have a good trip!
[quote]daddyzombie wrote:
Geech, it’s been kind of strange for me to get used to, but West Side philosophies rarely train DL directly. I love to do deadlifts, so I’ve gone to doing them every third or fourth week, rather than every other week like I used to. Just a thought… [/quote]
That’s a good thought, DZ. I just need to figure out what I can do in their place – both in terms of what substitute movements, and in terms of what is available or possible in whatever facility I end up training in. For the former I will be going through your log again.
[quote]ecogenx wrote:
Where you going in the States?[/quote]
Thanks, Eco: heading back to the lowcountry.
[quote]mday wrote:
Enjoy a little time off and come back and tell us what your next program looks like.
[/quote]
Will do, Mday, but I will put up some ideas first and would much appreciate everyone’s input. The actual time off with no training is going to be at the beginning of August.
[quote]skidmark wrote:
In other words - you have to have screwed up a lot.
[/quote]
I think I got that part down, Skidmark.
Postscript
Friday, 27 June 2008
Squat:
70 x 12 reps, 110 x 6 reps, 120 x 5 reps, 125 x 5 reps, 110 x 10 reps
Pull-through:
4 x 10-12 reps at various weights and with different handles
Lunge:
4 x BW x 10-12 reps, 1 x bar x 10 reps
I will be using the next four weeks for a change of pace: the next six days to mess around with a couple of (for me) new exercises (pull-throughs, lunges) or stuff I have not done for a while (push-ups, front squats), and keeping some other movements; and then three weeks to train on some kind of schedule while on vacation.
I’ll be looking to solidify form on some basic movements and increase glute-ham strength along with getting some new overall stimulation to my training.
When I found that the squat rack had still not been removed from the gym, as foreordained (the impetus for me to seek out a new gym starting in mid-August), I decided to do a few sets of moderate effort, felt good.
I sensed the pull-throughs more in my lower back and glutes than hams: will have to read up and look at some videos to see if I was doing them right. I also wonder what kind of handle is best; I was holding a rather thin rope with palms facing each other, which worked better than the v-shaped rowing attachment I also tried.
The scales finally fell from my eyes with lunges, as I learned to do them with a longer stride and bring the glutes directly into play on the drive back up. Where have these been all of my life? I had never paid enough attention to grasp that they could be more than a quad exercise until this forum.
I think they will be doubly valuable because one of my upper legs has remained less muscular than the other especially since my second arthroscopy a few years ago – an imbalance which has made itself known in my squatting ever since I started training again last summer and hasn’t been fully overcome yet.
With lunges, If you step forward and then stand up on the leg you stepped forward with, it’ll nail your glute like nobody’s business. Basically turns it into a 1-legged squat. Gotta keep the stride long, as you mentioned.
When I do lunges, I like to do reverse lunges, where I take a long step back instead of forward. It’s handy in places where you can’t do walking lunges.
Front-bar reverse lunges will take the back out it all together, but it’s tough to breathe…
Elite Fitness Systems makes a reverse-V handle specifically for pull-throughs, looks like a stubby arrow with the angle at the point being optimal for having your hands close together and forearms right angles to the pulling surface allowing the optimal application of force to the bar.
Geech, nice work. Have a great week trying diff exercises. I did some walking lunges and step ups along with regular lunges the other day. Wasn’t too bad. Still haven’t tried pull throughs though.
Thanks, Eco and Skid. I will try some of this stuff on Monday.
Saturday, 28 June 2008
Bench press:
60 x 12 reps, 100 x 8 reps, 112.5 x 5 reps, 112.5 x 4 reps
Face pull:
5 sets x various weights x 12-20 reps
Hanging straight leg raise:
BW x 10 reps, BW x 6 reps
Standing cable crunch:
4 sets x various weights x 15-20 reps
Weighted neck extension:
3 x 20 x 15 reps
After a ‘regular’ bench session I tried the face pulls for the first time: keeper! Really felt them in my rear delts and upper back. Took the name literally and pulled the rope attachment back until the center hit my forehead. (Or maybe that is why it felt so good when I stopped …) Had also never done (standing) cable crunches and realized in addition to the trunk stabilization required in distinction to a machine that I could get a greater ROM.
[quote]skidmark wrote:
Elite Fitness Systems makes a reverse-V handle specifically for pull-throughs, looks like a stubby arrow with the angle at the point being optimal for having your hands close together and forearms right angles to the pulling surface allowing the optimal application of force to the bar.[/quote]
I saw that and tried to order last weekend but the system would not take non-US credit cards/billing address for US delivery (mods: like Biotest, by the way). I will call this week to see if they will take that kind of order over the telephone.
[quote]1Geech wrote:
skidmark wrote:
Elite Fitness Systems makes a reverse-V handle specifically for pull-throughs, looks like a stubby arrow with the angle at the point being optimal for having your hands close together and forearms right angles to the pulling surface allowing the optimal application of force to the bar.
I saw that and tried to order last weekend but the system would not take non-US credit cards/billing address for US delivery (mods: like Biotest, by the way). I will call this week to see if they will take that kind of order over the telephone.[/quote]
Yeah - they were having the same problem with Wendler’s new book as well. As I understand it, they are trying to fix it. on the site, but calling probably is your best bet right now.
[quote]1Geech wrote:
After a ‘regular’ bench session I tried the face pulls for the first time: keeper! Really felt them in my rear delts and upper back. Took the name literally and pulled the rope attachment back until the center hit my forehead. (Or maybe that is why it felt so good when I stopped …) [/quote]
Geech, when you’re doing these do you pull from the high pully? My Front delts are really over developed compared to my rear (all the pressing) and I’m just not getting enough out of the rear delt raises. Gonna give these a try.
Yes, Hel, I used the high pully, and pulled with a neutral grip as in the example given here: http://www.T-Nation.com/readArticle.do?id=1426252
As I said, my first time doing these, but I never got into my rear delts on raises back when (but was maybe doing them wrong then) like with this movement.
Sunday, 29 June 2008
Power clean:
50 x 5 reps, 60 x 3 reps, 2 x 70 x 3 reps, 60 x 3 reps, 50 x 3 reps
Dips / Chins:
BW x 54 dip reps, BW x 50 chin reps (alternating sets; dips in 5 sets after 16 minutes, chins in 11 sets after 37 minutes)
Wrist roller:
4 x 12.5 (pronate grip only)
Right now I am pretty weary – no rest day since last weekend --, and looking forward to getting on the plane on Friday and then having the weekend off. Trying out some different stuff will keep me motivated until then, and I will back off on the weights on ‘regular’ movements.
This afternoon I went to a different branch of my gym chain, as mine is closed on Sunday. I like it warm when training, but this approximated an airless greenhouse devoid of the green. Seemed to be filled with models and dancers (m / f), several of whom thought nothing of walking right in front of me, or just to the side, while I was doing PCs.
Half wanted to clock one between the earphones with a flying barbell, but sensed that I would be defined as the guilty party doing an exercise so odd. Couldn’t really concentrate as a result, and was rather tired from the start anyway.
Hats off to the fellows who do high-rep dips and chins. The station where I did them was really too shallow for me to work in comfortably since I was not using the weight assistance platter, or whatever it is called; but no excuses: These were tough for me.
Frankly, I did not much like them, either, and can still feel them in an unpleasant way in one shoulder and my elbows. Still, it was an eye-opener for me to see how much room for improvement there is with my chins.
[quote]1Geech wrote:
Yes, Hel, I used the high pully, and pulled with a neutral grip as in the example given here:
http://www.T-Nation.com/readArticle.do?id=1426252
As I said, my first time doing these, but I never got into my rear delts on raises back when (but was maybe doing them wrong then) like with this movement.[/quote]
Thanks Geech, some good exercises there. Guess I should start reading some of the articles on this site. Never to old to learn.