[quote]Modi wrote:
undesired08 wrote:
Days like this suck, but your a good man for getting through the Squats. Get some rest and get some food back in you.
You may want to cut out any fluff from your workouts and just do what you have to do. Maybe even a day off?[/quote]
Thanks Modi. I actually slept for about 17hours, starting at 8:30 yesterday morning. I am thinking I will be ok for Sunday, but if not I will push out to Monday at the latest.
As far as cutting out fluff, I really don’t mind skipping anything that is not my Squat work. Going into this tune-up meet on the 25th of next month, squat will be the only <95% effort I will be making, so I’m not really too concerned about my other numbers progressing.
[quote]stallion wrote:
So here is your log. I asked you, now I had some time to look for it, and it was found easily. Well, I am going to visit it more now! 
Keep on working hard! 
“Oddly enough, I really didn’t want to bench after that.”
Yes, that was really odd… i neeeeeeeever get that feeling. 
j/k
BTW, in Norway, Odd is a common first name. My dad’s name is Odd. He’s going to the
USA this summer as well, and I can only imagine how much fun it is going to be when he extends his hand prepared for a hand shake and says: “Hey, I’m Odd!”
– stallion[/quote]
LOL, Odd. I think I found us a gym to get the squat session in Memphis. After that, get some bbq and maybe a cold beer. Do you drink cold beer in Norway?
I am a non-drinker of alcoholic beverages, but that is never a problem. There is always something to drink. Great that you found a gym!
[quote]stallion wrote:
I am a non-drinker of alcoholic beverages, but that is never a problem. There is always something to drink. Great that you found a gym![/quote]
Yeah. I drink an occasional beer. Actually, I drank my first one in about 4 months yesterday.
Against my wife’s opinion of my facial swelling being too bad to workout, I went to the gym anyway. My biggest priority for work was to get my rep speed up. Starting from the warmup’s, I worked on a faster recovery and I was quiet satisfied.
The first set, I took more steps and partial steps in the walkout (wasted energy). The first rep was tight, but the second and third reps were a little loose and I was getting a little doubled up. I was really happy with my speed on the ascent for all three reps.
The second set was a much better two-step walkout and a good first rep. The second rep, I lost focus and got in a good-morning for a split second (but it felt like forever). The third was better than the second, but not great.
The third set was an ok walkout. I focused more on bending the bar to stay tight and it showed in my form. And all three reps were at a pretty good pace.
Bench was bench. I hit my 3 reps on the first two sets and didn’t even attempt the third rep on the last set. My face felt like it was about to EXPLODE and I was spitting blood for about 45minutes, so I wasn’t going to push my luck and prove my wife right.
I did some medium accessory work and called it a day. Aftter todays squats, I feel really positive about next weeks 3x3 with 217.7kg(480lbs)
Squat
3x3 211kg(465lbs)
Bench
1x3 129kg(285lbs)
1x3 145kg(145lbs)
1x3 161kg(355lbs)
Squat- 5x5 Intense Phase Wk8 Day1 Squat - YouTube
Bench- 5x5 Intense Phase Wk8 Day1 Bench - YouTube
Today’s session was a wash due to my elbow swelling up. It’s quite painful and is going to make squatting very interesting Thursday. I will do some mobility test tomorrow and see how things feel. I only have 2 weeks of 5x5 left and this elbow-thing bites the big one. I have to run out and get an ice pack, since I am working all night. Hopefully, it will go down a little over night/tomorrow. Pic included to show my tennis ball elbow.
Since the swelling in my elbow has gone down a bit, I wanted to test it out and not miss my squat session today. I had to convince my wife that I would be “smart” about training today: I will only squat. I will test it and if I feel ANY discomfort, I will stop the session. Then, I had to do things to her that I am not proud of…
Anyway, I got the warmups completed and I felt nothing in my elbow (I did keep it wrapped up). The weights felt oddly heavy, even the bar, but I kept chugging along to the first work set with 179kg(395lbs). It went pretty well, but I didn’t warmup moving the bar fast. The second set with 200kg(400lbs) felt better, even though I got a little loose on the last rep and my elbow was fine. Then came the reason I didn’t want to miss the session today, 223kg (492lbs). I was in a really odd mood today because of some “racist” crap that I was dealing with, but I will get into that later. I hit all 3 reps, but my lack of bar speed is really starting to show. The last rep was tough once I got about halfway up, but I grinded her out. Next week, I HAVE to make speed the priority to finish on a positive note.
Squats-
1x3 179kg(395lbs)
1x3 200kg(440lbs)
1x3 223kg(492lbs)
Squat- 5x5 Intense Phase Wk8 Day3 Squat - YouTube
Now onto my odd mood. I needed to work between sets, but the gyms wireless went down. I knew people in the townhouses across the parking lot had wireless, so I scanned to see if any were unsecured. One was and the ID on it was I.lynch.ners.4.fun. Of course, this is like an open invitation to me :-D. I noticed that they had the default ip on the router so I figured I would see how secure they made this access point to their personal life. Apparently, they were “smart” enough to write a properly spelled SSID, but they didn’t think about changing the password to the router. Me being the gentle soul I am, changed their SSID to some.ners.are.smarter.than.u, changed the password to the router and secured it with WEP and kept the code.
I wonder how long it will take them to figure out how to reset it, since they can no longer access their system. The odd mood was caused by hysterical laughter. I found it difficult to get into the mindset of squatting.
[quote]undesired08 wrote:
Now onto my odd mood. I needed to work between sets, but the gyms wireless went down. I knew people in the townhouses across the parking lot had wireless, so I scanned to see if any were unsecured. One was and the ID on it was I.lynch.ners.4.fun. Of course, this is like an open invitation to me :-D. I noticed that they had the default ip on the router so I figured I would see how secure they made this access point to their personal life. Apparently, they were “smart” enough to write a properly spelled SSID, but they didn’t think about changing the password to the router. Me being the gentle soul I am, changed their SSID to some.ners.are.smarter.than.u, changed the password to the router and secured it with WEP and kept the code.
I wonder how long it will take them to figure out how to reset it, since they can no longer access their system. The odd mood was caused by hysterical laughter. I found it difficult to get into the mindset of squatting.[/quote]
You are beyond awesome, oh, and nice squatting!
[quote]mrodock wrote:
undesired08 wrote:
You are beyond awesome, oh, and nice squatting![/quote]
Haha. Thanks, man. Btw, what opening numbers are you looking at this weekend?
[quote]undesired08 wrote:
mrodock wrote:
undesired08 wrote:
You are beyond awesome, oh, and nice squatting!
Haha. Thanks, man. Btw, what opening numbers are you looking at this weekend?
[/quote]
Squat: 207.5kg
Bench: 102.5kg
Deadlift: 205kg
Squat and bench single ply, deadlift raw. Really conservative opener on bench.
165’s right? You will do well, I’m sure.
[quote]undesired08 wrote:
165’s right? You will do well, I’m sure. [/quote]
181’s and after this competition I’ll be heading to the 198’s. At 5’9" I figured I might as well put some meat on my bones.
I envy all the guys that can got to many weight classes. I could possibly drop to compete in 259’s in SPF, but that wouldn’t be fun. It’s either 275, 308’s, or SHW for me. I am going to stay in the 275’s until it is physically impossible for me to do so.
Starting the last week of 5x5. Since my arm is still tender, I was planning on just doing squats again. But, after hitting my reps on squats(3x3 215kg/475lbs), I wanted to see how well my arm felt. I worked up to a triple with 145kg(320lbs) w/no spotter and I started to feel pressure in my elbow. At that point, I decided not to go for 161kg(355lbs) for a triple.
I still want to hit this meet in July, so I will just have to adjust my numbers to compensate for my elbow and not putting any unnecessary stress there. The biggest question mark right now is my deadlift. I don’t know how my arm will handle deads at all. I will probably do some doubles Tuesday with 60-70% and see if it swells up again Wednesday.
Squats
3x3 215kg(475lbs)
Bench
1x3 133kg(295lbs)
1x3 145kg(320lbs)
Bent-Over Rows
1x8 61kg(135lbs)
1x8 61kg(135lbs)
1x8 61kb(135lbs)
Squat- 5x5 Intense Phase Wk9 Day1 Squat - YouTube
I wanted to see how my arm felt after dl’s today, so I worked up to a double with 183kg(405lbs). My arm felt ok, but I did not feel comfortable pulling. I had trouble getting my weight on my heels, but I will be working on it. That’s to be expected when I have done deads 3 times in almost a year. I think it will just take a few sessions to hit my groove again, since I’m not that strong of a deadlifter. I performed 2 sets of “speed” deads with 142kg(315lbs), just to work on dropping my hips better than I did on the previous double. I could have done more volume, but I have a big squat day on Thursday and I don’t want to mess that up by over-taxing my lower back with deads.
Deadlift- DL's - YouTube
Today was the last day of this 5x5 cycle. While at work, my elbow started to swell again, but not as bad as before. It was hard to sleep this morning, cause the task of squatting my 1RM for a triple was starting to psych me out before I even when to the gym. I finally got about 3 hours of sleep and started getting ready to hit the gym. I wanted to make some breakfast before I went, but I was running short on time and decided to the a sonic burger with mustard only.
As I am driving down the road unwrapping my pre-workout treat, I see lettuce, tomato, pickles and onions on the sandwich and felt this was a bad omen for the day. After scraping all the crap off, I downed it in 3 bites and started stretching. I knew I had to get my speed up to hit my reps, so I worked on it during my warm-ups.
When I got to my first working set with 183kg(405lbs), I was accelerating well out of the hole. The same with 204kg(450lbs), I fired thru all 3 reps and felt ready to move on. Now 226kg(500lbs), I felt so amped up, I didn’t think about speed and the first rep almost turned into a full-fledge grinder. The second and third reps came up a lot quicker (probably cause I cut the 3rd rep a little high).
My legs felt solid enough to get a fourth rep, but I was having issues keeping the bar in place and decided to re-rack. I didn’t do any more work, so that I could spend some time with my wife and kids before I had to go back to the office. But after hitting my weight today, I don’t feel too bad about that :-D.
Next week, I will start a periodization-style peaking workout that I threw together for my Squat and Bench. For DL’s I am just going to add 10-15kg each week for doubles until the meet. And after that, I am going to do the “extended russian power” routine in preparation for the meet in October.
Squat- 5x5 Intense Phase Last Day Squat - YouTube
Haha. Today was a very painful lesson. I went into the gym with a “deload mentality”, even though the squats I had planned were 2sets of doubles in the 215kg range. After my last warmup set at 183kg(405lbs), I felt really really sluggish and my hands hurt like hell. I made a straight jump from 183 to 215kg, and I didn’t feel too bad unracking and walking the weight out, but once I hit the hole I knew that my body was trying to tell me something. I could not get ANY speed on the two reps and I almost missed the second. I dropped weight down to 206kg(455lbs) and I could only manage a grinding single there. I really wasn’t disappointed, cause I knew I was really busting ass and was feeling the ill-effects from Thursdays awesome set. I do have to say, my form was pretty satisfactory (6.8 out of 10).
I started re-racking my weights, and my arm started throbbing. The pain was so bad, part of my chest was going numb. At that point, I knew it would be best to just call it a day and try to recover well enough to, at the very least, deadlift for a few sets on Tuesday. I have less than a month till the meet, so I want to keep from doing anything REALLY stupid. Slightly stupid is ok, though.
So, today was another deadlift day. I am still trying to find my groove here. It’s not coming easy. I have to get back on my heels more during the pull and get my shoulders a little more behind the bar when breaking off the floor. I only have two more pulling sessions before the meet. Luckily, I am not planning for a BIG pull in July, cause I don’t think that will happen
1x2 w/192kg(425lbs)
4x3 w/156kg(345lbs)
DL- DL#2 - YouTube
[quote]yusef wrote:
Excellent detailed log and lifts man. And I LOVED stronglifts.
Can I ask a few questions:
1: Deadlift - you said you didn’t want too many deads so you reduced them, but the stronglifts routine has only 1x5 deadlifts, you seem to be doing it 5x5 most of the time.
2: Do you actually weigh 275lb?
3: Not sure if you’re maxing out but your vertical and horizontal pulling strength seems to be lagging - injury?[/quote]
For the actual stronglifts 5x5, I changed the type of pulling I was doing. I did some deficit pulls and rack pulls. But, my focus for this training cycle was to increase my squat. When I was “running” my attempts for this meet, I realized that I had not pulled from the floor enough lately to make the numbers I may need to hit. At that point, I started this 4 week “blitz”.
My bodyweight is between 270 and 280. Lately, it’s been around the 270 mark, since I am dropping fat.
I have never been a strong puller, due to injury. But, I plan on turning the corner over the next year. Since I have been squatting multiple days a week, I actually feel more healthy now than ever before.
I’m not sure if you meant I look smaller than 275. But here is a recent pic with other people around me.
I have lower back issues that don’t manifest itself until it’s too late and I can’t do ANY work at all (except bench), so I have to change the way I work.
When I’m in meetings, it kind of shocks people when I stand up. No one really realizes my size until they actually look, me included. In my mind, I am still 24 and 220lbs.
I was doing front squats on the second day of 5x5’s. The reason is it helps my core and my squat. I don’t do a lot of core work since I squat so many days a week, so I have to do things that will benefit my erectors and ab’s (front and zercher squats mainly). I don’t think I would be able to walk at all if it wasn’t for my foam roller and doing decompressions.
The blitz will last for the next 2 weeks. I will know if it works out on July 25th. Sunday will be a big day for me. It will tell me if 245kg is in the cards for the 25th.
