5x5 Week 2, 1st Workout
Squat
5x5x300
Bench (recovery)
3x5x145
BB Row (5RM)
1x5x122.25
1x5x131.25
1x5x141.25
1x5x150
1x5x160
Renegade Rows
2x8x50’s
Face Pulls
1x15x125
1x13x125
Gorilla-ups
1x7
Good session. Have felt like shit the last couple of days but gutted it out and got it done. 5x5 squats were easier today than a week ago, very good sign, I think I’m adapting.
I received the first level of the Perfect Meditation program in the mail today . . . http://perfectmeditation.com . I’m extremely excited to get started with it and hope to experience some profound changes in my ability to handle stress (specifically academic), but if it improves my lifting, I’ll take that also.
I also found out there is a lifter at my new gym that is ranked near the top in the 148 class. I hope I can gain some insight from him over the next several years.
Matt:
Just getting a chance to check this log out. One immediate thought:
I understand why you are calling your midweek session a ‘recovery’ session, but if I were you I’d really pull back here. Something like 3x5 for your front squats with a weight you could easily get for 8-10. You could push it a little more with your inclines, but don’t go too hard…I really don’t see the benefit.,the idea is to groove the motor patterns, get some blood in there, and to widen your base a little with slightly different movements. I don’t think it’s a good thing to be anywhere near missing a lift here. Save it for Monday and Friday when you’re lifting the bigger stuff.
Also, maybe I’m missing something, but when are you deadlifting?
I see now where you mention you are not pulling at all. I do not agree with this decision but eight weeks is not that long, and you do have the GMs in there. Wouldn’t kill you to throw in a few sets of easy singles once a week.
Brad Gillingham does something similar. One week he will pull heavy rack pulls up to a max single, the next week, he will do light deadlifts for six singles. He alternates between the two week to week.
Something to think about if you stay with this approach…
[quote]Ramo wrote:
Matt:
Just getting a chance to check this log out. One immediate thought:
I understand why you are calling your midweek session a ‘recovery’ session, but if I were you I’d really pull back here. Something like 3x5 for your front squats with a weight you could easily get for 8-10. You could push it a little more with your inclines, but don’t go too hard…I really don’t see the benefit.,the idea is to groove the motor patterns, get some blood in there, and to widen your base a little with slightly different movements. I don’t think it’s a good thing to be anywhere near missing a lift here. Save it for Monday and Friday when you’re lifting the bigger stuff.
Also, maybe I’m missing something, but when are you deadlifting?[/quote]
When I was thinking about the first week and considering the comments Modi made I decided to do less volume on the recovery work and a lower intensity. I think things are going to start looking a little better now, thanks!
[quote]Ramo wrote:
I see now where you mention you are not pulling at all. I do not agree with this decision but eight weeks is not that long, and you do have the GMs in there. Wouldn’t kill you to throw in a few sets of easy singles once a week.
Brad Gillingham does something similar. One week he will pull heavy rack pulls up to a max single, the next week, he will do light deadlifts for six singles. He alternates between the two week to week.
Something to think about if you stay with this approach…[/quote]
Do you have his DVD?
I had decided just prior to reading your post I would pull some singles . . . kind of amusing. I think I’ll pull fairly heavy to heavy 1 week and do speed pulls on opposite weeks (Pavel says there has been research showing their effectiveness in the deadlift). Don’t worry, I won’t turn into a DE fanatic.
5x5 Week 2, 2nd Session
Front Squat
3x3x205
Bench (5x5, 5RM)
1x5x147.5
1x5x160
1x5x172.5
1x5x182.5
1x4x195
Deadlift
1x5x225
1x3x275
1x2x315
(hook grip)
singles (mixed grip)
365
385
405
420
435
Chins
5x5 +7.5 pounds
Leg Lowering
2x16 sets lasted 2:15
E Bike
light
5:00
Pissed I missed my 5RM on bench. Front squats felt fairly easy. Probably could have done 7 reps with the weight. Deadlifts I really wanted to make some form adjustments and I had my video camera with. So I made it up to 435 and the form was quite a bit better than last time I deadlifted (and videotaped). I wasn’t interested in working anywhere near failure so I called it once the weight was pretty heavy. I will work up to or nearer a 1 rep max in 2-3 weeks. Good session except for bench.
[quote]mrodock wrote:
Ramo wrote:
I see now where you mention you are not pulling at all. I do not agree with this decision but eight weeks is not that long, and you do have the GMs in there. Wouldn’t kill you to throw in a few sets of easy singles once a week.
Brad Gillingham does something similar. One week he will pull heavy rack pulls up to a max single, the next week, he will do light deadlifts for six singles. He alternates between the two week to week.
Something to think about if you stay with this approach…
Do you have his DVD?
I had decided just prior to reading your post I would pull some singles . . . kind of amusing. I think I’ll pull fairly heavy to heavy 1 week and do speed pulls on opposite weeks (Pavel says there has been research showing their effectiveness in the deadlift). Don’t worry, I won’t turn into a DE fanatic.[/quote]
I’ve got the DVD. Best overall training DVD I’ve ever seen…you see his entire training approach for squats and pulls, plus some good training footage.
I think you’re really on the right track with your pulls. This will work much better than ignoring them.
And Gillingham does speed pulls too, which means they’re cool. Just make sure you call them ‘speed pulls’ and not ‘dynamic effort’ which is goofy.
[quote]Ramo wrote:
I’ve got the DVD. Best overall training DVD I’ve ever seen…you see his entire training approach for squats and pulls, plus some good training footage.
I think you’re really on the right track with your pulls. This will work much better than ignoring them.
And Gillingham does speed pulls too, which means they’re cool. Just make sure you call them ‘speed pulls’ and not ‘dynamic effort’ which is goofy.[/quote]
Got it, they are speed pulls.
Is this the DVD? http://www.flexcart.com/members/elitefts/default.asp?cid=274&m=PD&pid=1322. Hope so, because it is on the way.
I was thinking of a deadlift program that looks something like this:
Week 1 Singles, work up to a fairly hard single
Week 2 Two speed pulling sessions (50-60%, 7 sets of 1 rep)
Week 3 Singles, work up to a heavier single than Week 1 (~20lbs)
Week 4 Two speed pulling sessions
Week 5 Work up to a 1 rep max, but try to stay shy of failure
Week 6 Two speed pulling sessions
Week 7 Two speed pulling sessions
Start cycle over
[quote]mrodock wrote:
Ramo wrote:
I’ve got the DVD. Best overall training DVD I’ve ever seen…you see his entire training approach for squats and pulls, plus some good training footage.
I think you’re really on the right track with your pulls. This will work much better than ignoring them.
And Gillingham does speed pulls too, which means they’re cool. Just make sure you call them ‘speed pulls’ and not ‘dynamic effort’ which is goofy.
Got it, they are speed pulls.
Is this the DVD? http://www.flexcart.com/members/elitefts/default.asp?cid=274&m=PD&pid=1322. Hope so, because it is on the way.
I was thinking of a deadlift program that looks something like this:
Week 1 Singles, work up to a fairly hard single
Week 2 Two speed pulling sessions (50-60%, 7 sets of 1 rep)
Week 3 Singles, work up to a heavier single than Week 1 (~20lbs)
Week 4 Two speed pulling sessions
Week 5 Work up to a 1 rep max, but try to stay shy of failure
Week 6 Two speed pulling sessions
Week 7 Two speed pulling sessions
Start cycle over
[/quote]
have you considered the coan dl cycle? many members here, myself included have run it succesfully.
[quote]zephead4747 wrote:
have you considered the coan dl cycle? many members here, myself included have run it succesfully.[/quote]
I’ve looked it over and have read parts of logs related to it. The deadlift is presently my strongest lift and I am putting more focus on the squat and bench at present. But it is definitely a program I am interested in doing when the opportunity presents itself.
Don’t get me wrong though, I have designs on hitting 500 very soon and am pushing hard. Certainly not ignoring it.
5x5 Week 2, 3rd Session
Squat
Work up to a 5RM
1x5x242.5
1x5x262.5
1x5x280
1x5x297.5
1x5x315
Bench
5x5x185
DB Reverse Flyes
3x10x20
1x10x15
BB Row
5x5x147.5
Gorilla-ups
1x10
1x9
1x8
DB Flyes
3x7x30
Reverse Curls
3x8x60
I planned to try 320 for my 5RM on squat today but everything felt really heavy warming up. So when 262.5 felt quite heavy I decided to go a little lighter on the next 2 sets and then do 315 on the last set. It turned out 297.5 felt extremely heavy and I took 7 minutes rest before trying 315. I had to grind on the last 3 reps, but I got them.
I’m not really sure what to think for the next 2 weeks. I am getting through my 5x5 on Monday without too much trouble but Friday’s I feel really worn down.
Bench was the perfect weight, rows were hard, but the form got better on the last set.
Just a really hard session, thought without any real stress over break I would be recovering extremely quickly but it seems to always be a grind.
Could you elaborate on the modified Westside approach that you did in your first 7 months of lifting?
[quote]Mondy wrote:
Could you elaborate on the modified Westside approach that you did in your first 7 months of lifting?
[/quote]
I apologize for the confusion . . . I did a modified Westside for 2 months. So my training history looks something like this:
Month 1-3: Starting Strength (at end 960 total)
Month 4-5: Modified Westside (at end 1015 total)
Month 6: Wendler’s 5/3/1
Month 7: Singles at 90%+
If you are still interested in how I modified Westside my only real changes were that I did not do box squats, I did free squats. And for DE squats I did pin squats (below parallel).
So on ME Squat/Deadlift day I would do free squats for 2 weeks, then deadlift for 1 week. For ME Bench I would alternative narrow grip and normal grip. If I had to do it all over again I would choose movements that had more to do with my individual weaknesses.
So I would use illegal wide grip bench press as an ME movement every 5 weeks and work up to 2 heavy sets of 5. I would also do regular bench press 2 weeks on, and then floor presses for 2 weeks (then illegal wides on week 5).
Any other questions let me know.
960 in three months? That is amazing, that is unbelievable. Were you involved in any heavy lifting such as farm work or miner or something?
[quote]Mondy wrote:
960 in three months? That is amazing, that is unbelievable. Were you involved in any heavy lifting such as farm work or miner or something?[/quote]
No, nothing of the sort. Nothing that would have suggested that I could acquire some strength quickly.
I was extremely aggressive on Starting Strength, I saw where he said some big guys would be able to add 20 pounds a workout on squats and I would keep ramping up my sets until I could barely get it in. So I started squatting at 3x5x135 the first day and 16 days later I was doing 3x5x255.
Not surprisingly I stalled out relatively quickly, but I think I pushing really hard started training the nervous system from the beginning. I never bought the add 5 pounds a workout for squats for a beginner, it doesn’t seem to train the nervous system adequately (provided their body is up to the challenge). We can only know if we try. Before any beginners get any really stupid ideas to increase their squats by 50 pounds each workout, I would do ramp up sets by 10-15 pounds each set until I found my work set weight and I used the safety bars so I could bail if I needed to (which I very seldom did).
As for bench press on the Starting Strength program I started too heavy and never recovered. Military press I started at an easier weight for me and progressed quite well.
5x5 Week 3, 1st Session
Squat
5x5x310
Bench (recovery)
3x5x150
BB Row (5RM)
1x5x125
1x5x135
1x5x145
1x5x155
1x5x165
Dragon Flags
3x18
Exercise Bike
10:00
medium intensity
Last 2 sets on Barbell Rows weren’t the best so I cut face pulls to give my back a little less volume (hoping to speed recovery).
This session was scheduled for Monday but I pushed it to today to give myself a little more recovery time. I was at my fiancee’s parents over the weekend and they had really shitty food. I brought quite a bit of stuff with me but still wasn’t able to eat right, also didn’t get as much sleep as I needed, and I was REALLY dragging ass in Friday’s session. So I think it was probably for the best.
Squats were the single toughest thing I have done in the weightroom to date. Today 310 felt like my 5 rep max, but I managed the 5 sets, wasn’t fun but now it’s done. I may do 315 next Tuesday for 5x5 instead of the 5x5 that was previously scheduled. I will see how 5RM testing goes on Saturday.
Today I saw a flyer for a powerlifting “meet” at the gym I recently joined. It is designed for people that have never competed and will have judging based on USAPL rules. It is on February 28 so I will be finishing this program between February 18-22. Not exactly sure how my workouts will look leading up to the meet, and what exactly my attempts will look like but I’m starting to think about it.
So this thing is free and no travel so it will be a good opportunity to get a feel for a lot of things with no investment. I was going to test my 1 rep maxes right around that day anyways so this will be great.
If you liked Starting Strength, you’d probably also like Rippetoe’s other book, Strong Enough.
Regarding your experience on SS, could you explain the following :
I took it to mean that you did three “heavy” sets after your warm-up sets, ramping the weight each set, so if you had hit 175x5 in the last session, you would do something like:
(warmup)
185x5
195x5
205x5
[quote]tom8658 wrote:
If you liked Starting Strength, you’d probably also like Rippetoe’s other book, Strong Enough.
Regarding your experience on SS, could you explain the following :
…I would do ramp up sets by 10-15 pounds each set until I found my work set weight…
I took it to mean that you did three “heavy” sets after your warm-up sets, ramping the weight each set, so if you had hit 175x5 in the last session, you would do something like:
(warmup)
185x5
195x5
205x5
[/quote]
I have yet to read Strong Enough, thanks for the recommendation.
Here are my first few workouts for squats
Fri. 5/30
1x5x115
2x5x135
1x4x145
Sun. 6/1
1x5x155
2x5x160
Wed. 6/4
1x5x185
1x5x195
1x5x200
Fri 6/6
lost
Sun. 6/8
lost
Wed. 6/11
3x5x235
Fri. 6/13
3x5x245
Sun. 6/15
3x5x255
Then I started having trouble adding 10 pounds per workout so I dropped the weight down to 240 and started adding 5 pounds a workout while doing front squats once a week.
Now I don’t think what I did was ideal, but the only point I wanted to make was that starting at 3x5x135 and adding 5 pounds a workout would have been a much slower process, I think a person would do well to be aggressive while remaining careful they aren’t missing a bunch of reps.
One interseting point though is that I hit 2x5x300 on 8/24. I didn’t do the last set because the first 2 were extremely tough and I was testing my squat max a few days later. Anyways, I did the math and if I would have started at 3x5x135 on 5/31 and added 5 pounds every single workout I would have gotten to 3x5x300 exactly on 8/24. Pretty interesting. Certainly I wouldn’t have increased my front squat to 3x5x215 had I only hit my back squat every workout. Now I’m not entirely sure what to think about all of this, haha.