I had only planned on doing a couple of light sets around 225x6 today, but my Bench doesn’t really feel overtrained, and the warmups felt very light. Both sets at 275 were easy, and had plenty to spare at the end. I decided to rep 225 out today. I got 23 pretty easily, and then started pausing before the next couple reps. I decided to leave a few in the tank, since this is supposed to be a recovery week.
Everything else was light and high rep, just to get blood flowing to the elbows and shoulders.
Well…this is week 3 and its looking like its starting to get difficult. Unfortunately, I stabbed myself in my left palm this morning while cooking so I dont know if I will be able to handle it. I plan on wrapping it up good and at least trying tonight.
[quote]Stronghold wrote:
Well…this is week 3 and its looking like its starting to get difficult. Unfortunately, I stabbed myself in my left palm this morning while cooking so I dont know if I will be able to handle it. I plan on wrapping it up good and at least trying tonight.[/quote]
Hey man, good luck with the hand. I know I’m a few days late here, but this would be a good time to use wrist straps if you have them. Yes, those evil straps that suck the testosterone out of your body, shrivel up your testicles and make your grip weak as a kitten.
They have their uses, and if your grip is being effected by an injury, then I’d use them until your palm is healed. Otherwise, take a week off and come back at it when you are healthy. Either way good luck.
A) Low Bar Squat
barx12
135x8
225x5
315x3
365x1
add belt…
405x1 425x5 (PR +15lbs)
405x5
315x10
B) Neutral Grip Pullups
8x3
C) Standing Rope Crunch
70x10
80x8
80x8
My Squats felt strong today, but it was hot as hell in my basement, so I was drenched by the end and couldn’t stop drinking throughout the entire session.
My left knee buckled when I unracked 425. It didn’t hurt at all, it was strange. Maybe I wasn’t focused on the set up, or maybe I was too focused on the lift itself, and took unracking it for granted. It didn’t feel heavy at all, and didn’t affect the set, but I definitely noticed it when it happened. Regardless, a solid PR, so I’m happy.
I did my abs standing with the backs of my knees against he pad of the lat pulldown machine…just like a kneeling rope crunch, but standing. Just a little variety.
B) Close Grip 5 Board Press
225x6 315x10 (baseline PR)
315x8
C) Side Plate Raise
25x8x3
D) Foam Roll Teres Major
20x3
I wasn’t sure how I’d feel today since I just did Shoulders on Sunday, but everything felt strong, although I noticed that I fatigued after the first hard set or two.
A) Deadlift
135x6
225x6
315x3
405x2
495x1
565x1
565x1
B) Pendlay Rows
225x5
275x5 300x5 (PR +25lbs) ***
C) Glute Ham Raise 7 (PR +1 rep)
7
5 (calf cramps)
D) Abs on GHR
10lbsx10
20lbsx8,8
*** not sure how to count this. I’ve done 275x5 and also 275x8, so this isn’t as big of a PR as it looks.
Thus ends the Coan/Philippi DL cycle.
The last two times I’ve tried to get 565 for a double, I couldn’t even get it past my knees. I pulled the first rep, and it went up ok, but was very slow at lockout. I decided that I did not want to flirt with failure, so I took a full 5 minutes rest and did another single.
As far as I’m concerned, I’m done with the program. Next week would be 600x2, and I can tell you right now, that it’s not there. I will go back to alternating partial range stuff with full range movements.
I’m also going to start cycling some Box Squats back into the program, because I really feel like those helped with my starting strength.
I am glad you kept this log, as there wasn’t a whole lot of experiences I could find on this program and I am not wordy enough to keep track of my workouts for 10 weeks.
I am glad you kept this log, as there wasn’t a whole lot of experiences I could find on this program and I am not wordy enough to keep track of my workouts for 10 weeks.
Thanks.[/quote]
Good luck Mahwah. I hope you pull some big PR’s in the upcoming weeks.
I think there were a few factors that hurt me during this program.
The first is that I was in the middle of a huge kitchen renovation during the first half of the program, and probably only ate maintenance calories at best. I really think you need a high intake to recover from the demands of this cycle.
The second is that I was still cranking along with my Squat training as well, and I think that should have been in maintenance mode, or at least somewhat on the back burner.
And lastly, I don’t think I handle the volume as well as I did when I was first starting out, and I think I need to pull from the floor every other week, rather than weekly.
I do expect to see some increase in my DL over the next few weeks as I fully recover. And if nothing else, I’ve learned some things.
Sorry that you didn’t get to make the PR’s. At least you learned something. So diet and recovering from your other program are to blame. That just sucks when things don’t go as planned.
I’m doing week 2 today. I noticed that on Monday’s workout, I had no energy. With two days off I thought I would be good to go. Just goes to show how much heavy lifting affects performance.
Any plans on doing this again in a couple of months with reduced activity/load all around?
[quote]TheDudeAbides wrote:
Sorry that you didn’t get to make the PR’s. At least you learned something. So diet and recovering from your other program are to blame. That just sucks when things don’t go as planned.
I’m doing week 2 today. I noticed that on Monday’s workout, I had no energy. With two days off I thought I would be good to go. Just goes to show how much heavy lifting affects performance.
Any plans on doing this again in a couple of months with reduced activity/load all around?[/quote]
I don’t want people to think I’m making excuses. If I had planned it better, or realized how much food I was going to need, I could have found a way to get enough in. That part is my own fault, and I accept responsibility for it.
I don’t think I’m going to do the program again, at least not any time soon. For me, I think the back circuit was overkill. I don’t think I need that much volume to make progress. And I also think that time could be spent on working on other weaknesses.
Right now, my plan is to pull from the floor every other week, and work on partials on the off weeks. I also want to break down my deadlift again, and try to build it back up with good technique rather than brute strength. I think my glutes are weak compared to everything else, and is a big part of why I’m not in a good position by the time the bar gets to my knees.
[quote]mahwah wrote:
I couldn’t imagine trying to pull heavy doubles and heavier singles with weight I have never touched before at home by myself.
My training partners, IMO, add a few pounds to my lifts.[/quote]
I actually like training by myself. I’ve had training partners in the past, and only one was worthwhile. Unfortunately our schedules didn’t work very well together, and we were just far enough away that we could only train about once a week together.
In the past, I’ve just found that no one was as committed or reliable. Now I train in the middle of the day, but the time can vary by 2-3 hours, so I would be the unreliable partner.
I’ve got pretty much all the tools I need in my basement, no once complains about my use of chalk, loud music or banging weights.
I agree that if you can find a good gym and a solid training partner it’s a huge benefit and I would highly recommend it. But if you can’t get either, and you end up training in an environment that isn’t condusive to your goals, or training around a bunch of people that don’t share your goals it can be even more of a distraction.
[quote]mahwah wrote:
I couldn’t imagine trying to pull heavy doubles and heavier singles with weight I have never touched before at home by myself.
My training partners, IMO, add a few pounds to my lifts.[/quote]
I actually like training by myself. I’ve had training partners in the past, and only one was worthwhile. Unfortunately our schedules didn’t work very well together, and we were just far enough away that we could only train about once a week together.
In the past, I’ve just found that no one was as committed or reliable. Now I train in the middle of the day, but the time can vary by 2-3 hours, so I would be the unreliable partner.
I’ve got pretty much all the tools I need in my basement, no once complains about my use of chalk, loud music or banging weights.
I agree that if you can find a good gym and a solid training partner it’s a huge benefit and I would highly recommend it. But if you can’t get either, and you end up training in an environment that isn’t condusive to your goals, or training around a bunch of people that don’t share your goals it can be even more of a distraction.
Right now, my plan is to pull from the floor every other week, and work on partials on the off weeks. I also want to break down my deadlift again, and try to build it back up with good technique rather than brute strength. I think my glutes are weak compared to everything else, and is a big part of why I’m not in a good position by the time the bar gets to my knees.[/quote]
Right now, my plan is to pull from the floor every other week, and work on partials on the off weeks. I also want to break down my deadlift again, and try to build it back up with good technique rather than brute strength. I think my glutes are weak compared to everything else, and is a big part of why I’m not in a good position by the time the bar gets to my knees.
Sorry, wasn’t implying any weaknesses. [/quote]
No worries, I didn’t take it that way. I just know what I need to work on. I videoed all of my heavy pulls, and it gave me a chance to see what I was doing wrong. Now I just need to correct it.
This program really focuses on lower back strength, but that isn’t my weakness. I really need to hammer my glutes so I can be in a better position to finish the lift.
It’s been interesting watching this… everyone only ever seems to talk about the success stories of Coan/Philipi but there’s never a mention of overtraining or lack of progress. I’ve certainly learned alot from reading!!
This program really focuses on lower back strength, but that isn’t my weakness. [/quote]
This is so true. It could even be said that this program will bring out any weaknesses. My lower back (and glutes) are grossly under worked. Well, not anymore.
[quote]Hanley wrote:
It’s been interesting watching this… everyone only ever seems to talk about the success stories of Coan/Philipi but there’s never a mention of overtraining or lack of progress. I’ve certainly learned alot from reading!!
[/quote]
Yeah, uh, glad I could be of service. Any other lifts you’d like to see me fail on?
I think a lot of people that start it don’t finish it, so you don’t really hear about them. People only talk about the success stories.
I’m going to end this log here and start a new one for my next cycle.
[quote]Modi wrote:
Good luck Mahwah. I hope you pull some big PR’s in the upcoming weeks.
I think there were a few factors that hurt me during this program.
The first is that I was in the middle of a huge kitchen renovation during the first half of the program, and probably only ate maintenance calories at best. I really think you need a high intake to recover from the demands of this cycle.
The second is that I was still cranking along with my Squat training as well, and I think that should have been in maintenance mode, or at least somewhat on the back burner.
And lastly, I don’t think I handle the volume as well as I did when I was first starting out, and I think I need to pull from the floor every other week, rather than weekly.
I do expect to see some increase in my DL over the next few weeks as I fully recover. And if nothing else, I’ve learned some things.[/quote]
I just started the Coan program tonight. I think I’ll write up a training log in the forum.
I noticed you didn’t blame the accessory exercises or your bench routine as factors in your results. From your posts, it looked like you tried to improve those as well as your DL. Do you think they helped you at all, or at least didn’t prove to be a hindrance?
