C) Squat
340x4x1 (55%)
405x4x1 (65%)
465x4x4 (75%)
D) Dumbell Flyes
40x10x5
E) Standing GM’s
250x5x5 (40%)
I took Friday off, and relaxed all weekend, and felt great today. The first 560x1 felt a little heavy on the way up, but the second one felt perfect. My right groin is still not 100%, but these felt solid today.
The 90% Benches felt much better than expected. These are based off a false max of 395, because the last time I did Sheiko I found the %'s to be a little too low. These were closer to 95% lifts, and they felt very good. The last set was a little slower than I wanted, but my setup didn’t feel as tight either.
I wasn’t able to finish todays workout due to time constraints. I was supposed to do Elevated DL’s and DB Lunges at the end, but just plain ran out of time. I took my truck in for some new brake pads yesterday, and it turned into a major ordeal. It was supposed to be done last night, but they didn’t finish it until this afternoon, and a $250 job turned into $763. So part of my lifting time was spent mountain biking to the shop and picking up my f’in truck.
DL’s felt great during warmups, but as I got to the 495 set I had to stop for a bathroom break. Then another, then another, then another…The good news is that all the weights felt very reasonable, and that’s never the case with a 90% DL for me. The bad news is that on the last set I wasn’t able to fire my glutes or create any abdominal pressure due to fear of the turtle. The last rep at 560 is what it looks like when you don’t “push” at all.
Bench felt light and easy today.
I may try to finish this tonight after work, but realistically it’s probably not going to happen. Life happens.
I was supposed to do Leg Press today, but I don’t have one, so I’m going to have a few beers instead.[/quote]
How do the seated GM’s work out for you. SynKill says they don’t really hit his hammies, but for me it’s a direct BANG. I was wondering if it had something to do with height or maybe his back injury. Since you are “kinda” tall, I was just wondering.
I was supposed to do Leg Press today, but I don’t have one, so I’m going to have a few beers instead.
How do the seated GM’s work out for you. SynKill says they don’t really hit his hammies, but for me it’s a direct BANG. I was wondering if it had something to do with height or maybe his back injury. Since you are “kinda” tall, I was just wondering.[/quote]
The Seated GM’s are pretty much all low Back for me, unless I put my feet out in front of me. I can’t say that these are my favorite exercise. There fine for a change, but honestly, I’m just doing them because they are in the program.
I like Standing GM’s, SLDL’s and GHR’s for hammies, but I still get the best low back workout from 45 Degree Hypers. I will be doing a lot of weighted hypers in the off season.
The Seated GM’s are pretty much all low Back for me, unless I put my feet out in front of me. I can’t say that these are my favorite exercise. There fine for a change, but honestly, I’m just doing them because they are in the program.
I like Standing GM’s, SLDL’s and GHR’s for hammies, but I still get the best low back workout from 45 Degree Hypers. I will be doing a lot of weighted hypers in the off season.[/quote]
Maybe, it’s just me. Or, could it be the “extra muscle” John Madden was talking about. Or was it Jimmy “The Greek”, I can’t remember.
A) Foam Roller (x10 ea)
Quads
Right Adductor
I-T Bands
Glutes
Piriformis
Low Back
Mid Back
Lacrosse Ball - Teres/Infra area
B) Purple Band Work
BTN Pullaparts 10x2
Shoulder Dislocates 10x2
Face Pulls 10x2
Band Pushdowns x50
I usually don’t log my rehab/recovery stuff because I do it so often, but this is all I’m doing today, so I wanted it to look like I was productive.
My back and shoulder feel pretty good right now (knock on wood). My right groin has been hurting for the past 2 or 3 weeks. I slipped on a wet tile a while ago, and it doesn’t want to heal up. Since it doesn’t seem to be getting any worse, and only bothers me when I Squat, I’m just ignoring it. Nothing a little foam rolling and some stretching won’t help. I’ll take a couple of easy weeks after the meet, so it should get a chance to recover then.
I’m still trying to figure out my plan of attack for these last 5 weeks leading up to the Nationals.
I know I will be using weeks 9-12 of Dave Bates 13 week Sheiko cycle for my last 4 weeks, so I just need to decide on next week.
Sheiko #40 Week 4 looks like medium Squats and heavy Bench on Monday, medium DL and medium Bench on Wed, and heavy Squats and medium Bench on Friday.
Week 8 of the 13 week cycle looks like heavy Squats and medium Bench on Monday, heavy DL and heavy Bench on Wed. and medium Squats Light Bench on Friday.
My options are:
A) Finish Sheiko #40, but this will leave me a little burnt out because Friday is another heavy Squat day, and the following Wednesday I have Skills Eval working up to 95% of all my max lifts.
B) Drop #40 and start next week with Week 8 of Dave’s cycle. This would lead nicely into the test week, but it means that Monday’s workout will be a killer on top of yesterday’s heavy Squat day.
C) Do the first two days of #40 next week, and then finish the week with the last day of Week #8 from Dave Bates. This would mean no really heavy Squats all week, and seems a bit too easy. Decisions, decisions…
I’ve decided to switch to Week #8 of the 13 week cycle and finish from there. Really the only reason I didn’t want to do this is because Friday was a heavy Squat day, and I didn’t want to repeat it today if I didn’t feel up to it physically.
Luckily Wk 4 of #40 and Wk 8 of the 13 week cycle start with the same first 5 working sets, so once I hit 495 for the first set, I knew I was good to go.
A) Squat
315x5x1 (50%)
370x4x1 (60%)
435x3x2 (70%)
495x3x2 (80%)
525x2x3 (85%)
…
At this point I was supposed to Bench and then come back to Squats later in the workout, but I just haven’t had the time to get in these 2.5-3hr workouts, so I decided to do the heaviest sets from the second half of the workout right after the 525 set.
495x8 (PR +3 reps)
495 felt like 135 on my shoulders, and after the first rep, I was thinking that I would do 2 sets of 4 instead of 4 sets of 2. By the sixth rep I decided I would do all 8 in a row. After the 7th rep, I realized that was not such a good idea. After the 8 rep I nearly died. Somewhere after the 5th rep, it hit me like a wall. The last 3 were probably a little high, but effort’s gotta count for something.
B) Bench
200x5x1 (50%)
235x4x1 (60%)
275x3x2 (70%)
315x3x5 (80%)
C1) DB Flyes
45x10x5
C2) Rope Pushdowns
80x8x5
I skipped the GM’s at the end because I’m DL’ing resonably heavy on Wed and wanted to be somewhat fresh for it.
Very happy with the PR. You don’t get many of those during Sheiko, it’s usually only at the end of the cycle.
My head has been in a fog since Monday’s Squat PR. 495x8 was a hard set and it took it’s toll. I definitely was not recovered for DL’ing today.
Benching felt moderate, but not too bad. But even the first set at 435 on DL’s felt way harder than it should have. 495 felt way too hard, but I still pulled cleanly. When I moved up to 525, it felt like 585 to me. I got the first set of two, but it was ugly as shit. I debated doing the last two sets, and decided against it. I’m not sure I could have done them, and the form would have looked like a max effort. 2nd round of benching felt fine. I finished up with Lunges, but my legs just wouldn’t loosen up. I just did some BW lunges, Front, Stationary and Reverse to get the blood flowing.
Hitting the PR on Monday was fun, but it screwed up my lift today. I probably should have just stuck with 4 doubles on Monday rather than a single set of 8. Ah well, live and learn. The next two workouts are pretty easy because I have a Skills Evaluation a week from today. I will simulate a meet, and work up to 95% on all of my lifts. This should give me an idea of where I am going into the final few weeks before my meet.
A) Squat
315x5x1 (50%)
370x4x1 (60%)
435x3x2 (70%)
495x3x6 (80%)
B) Bench
200x5x1 (50%)
235x5x1 (60%)
275x5x5 (70%)
C1) DB Flyes
45x10x5
C2) Rope Pushdowns
70x8x5
D) GM’s
250x5x5
Squats felt pretty good today. My right groin is always achy on Squats, and didn’t really loosen up today. Just learning to live with it. But the weight felt easy enough.
Bench was very light. I will be testing my 95% lifts next week, and Monday’s workout is even lighter in preparation for Wednesdays test day. I may push this out to Thursday because I will be gone for the long weekend, and will miss Friday’s workout anyways. I will probably be shifting to a Tu/Th/Sa split for the last 4 weeks of the cycle leading up to the Nationals, and this will transition well into that.
495 felt like 135 on my shoulders, and after the first rep, I was thinking that I would do 2 sets of 4 instead of 4 sets of 2. By the sixth rep I decided I would do all 8 in a row. After the 7th rep, I realized that was not such a good idea. After the 8 rep I nearly died. Somewhere after the 5th rep, it hit me like a wall. The last 3 were probably a little high, but effort’s gotta count for something.
A) Squat
315x3x1 (50%)
370x3x1 (60%)
435x3x2 (70%)
465x2x3 (75%)
B) Bench
200x3x1 (50%)
235x3x1 (60%)
275x3x2 (70%)
295x2x3 (75%)
Squats felt harder than they should have today. I was a little dehydrated going into the session, and go almost no sleep last night, so I’m not surprised. My right groin is really becoming a nuissance lately. I think I am going to take a few more warmup sets from now on, maybe 2 or 3 sets of 12 with the bar, 2 or 3 sets of 8 with 135, and then work up from there. I’ve tried foam rolling it, but it’s a tough spot to hit.
Thursday I work up to my 95%'s, so I need to put it out of my head and just Squat. I can’t be worrying about it when I’ve got close to 600 on my back.
I’m going to do some mobility stuff later today, and some more tomorrow, and then take Wed. off completely. Last time I tested my 95%'s at this point, they felt very hard, so I’m not expecting anything different this time. At least I’ll know where I stand.
