Nice work in here, Steve.
I wish I could train OHP again. I love to train them as a Push Press, but I’m afraid of irritating my right shoulder again.
You’re making me think about doing farmer’s walks, or some version of weighted carries again. A trap bar would probably be a nice addition to your home gym. I often lurk Christian’s coaching section and he recommended weighted carries to a woman as a finisher to cut body fat. I did a lot of DB carries when I first started lifting to just try to strengthen my grip and for overall functional strength. I haven’t done carries in a long time.
[quote]Powerpuff wrote:
Nice work in here, Steve.
I wish I could train OHP again. I love to train them as a Push Press, but I’m afraid of irritating my right shoulder again.
You’re making me think about doing farmer’s walks, or some version of weighted carries again. A trap bar would probably be a nice addition to your home gym. I often lurk Christian’s coaching section and he recommended weighted carries to a woman as a finisher to cut body fat. I did a lot of DB carries when I first started lifting to just try to strengthen my grip and for overall functional strength. I haven’t done carries in a long time. [/quote]
First of all, thanks for stopping by, and congrats for landing the coveted 200th post!
Second, thanks for the kudos. I’ve reached the should-be-obvious-and-go-without-saying conclusion that the key to progress is to just be consistent and work hard. Crazy, huh?
As far as overhead work goes, the best advice I can give you is mess around with it, light weights, different hand positions, unilateral vs bilateral, see what works for you. You can check out the beginning of my log to see a small portion of the litany of injuries I’ve subjected myself to over the years, but there’s almost always something you can do to pursue that goal. My right shoulder is tricky, and my left is my better shoulder health-wise but my right one is actually stronger. The first thing I found that worked for me was to do my barbell press without my thumbs wrapped around the bar, like Jim Wendler recommends. That little tweak in shoulder position made a huge difference for me. The second thing has been lots of dumbbell pressing with lighter weights. The third thing has been lots of pulling at different angles to strengthen my shoulders all the way around. Your methods may vary, but I recommend experimenting (slowly and carefully, of course), I’ll put money that you’ll find something that works for you.
11/7/15
5/3/1 cycle 8 day 12
Warmup.
Main lift - Squat:
5x253#
3x289#
10x326.5#
Accessory work:
FSL+ squats - 3x5x273#
Good mornings 3x10x135# - superset with -
Toes to bar - 10/10/7
Hey OTHSteve, I have a bit of advice for front squats. I hate them, but found using wrist wraps as handles helps a TON with posture. Check this video out of Christian demonstrating their usage. If you’re already using wrist wraps, nevermind. Ha ha.
Also, should I buy fat gripz? I’ve seen them around awhile but I never took the plunge.
[quote]endofallclarity wrote:
Hey OTHSteve, I have a bit of advice for front squats. I hate them, but found using wrist wraps as handles helps a TON with posture. Check this video out of Christian demonstrating their usage. If you’re already using wrist wraps, nevermind. Ha ha.
Also, should I buy fat gripz? I’ve seen them around awhile but I never took the plunge.[/quote]
I read about that somewhere, but the video really drives it home. I use a normal clean grip, and it seems to be starting to work for me, but I never considered that it might be hazardous to my elbows in the long run. Being an old guy, I take a serious look at anything that can help prolong my heavy lifting life, so thanks for that video.
As far as the fat gripz, I really like them, although I don’t use them nearly as frequently as I should. Being limited in my dumbbell availability, though, it definitely takes light farmer’s walks and DB presses to a whole new level. At some point I’ll switch around my accessory exercises and do some RDL’s with fat gripz, and maybe even my backoff sets of bench or press, but the program is working so well right now that I don’t want to mess with anything. Once gains start slowing, then I’ll mix things up.
11/8/15
Conditioning: 8x200m sprint, about 1:00 walking between intervals.
11/12/15
5/3/1 cycle 8 deload
Okay, this week is supposed to be deload, but it’s been a crappy week at work, and I had to move some heavy weight to mentally reboot myself during lunch at work today, so I decided to hit some singles and see what I could do.
Press:
45x5
65x5
85x3
95x3
115x1
135x1
155x1
175x1
195x1
205xnope
Deadlift:
45x5
95x5
135x5
185x3
225x3
275x1
315x1
365x1
405x1
425x1
Accessory:
Pullups, 1 set, 20 reps
I was able to go back to work much more focused and less stressed after that. 195# was a press PR for me, and I might have been able to hit 200# but I couldn’t find any 2.5# plates in the work gym today, so tried a 10# jump, and it wasn’t happening. 425# for deadlift is also a PR, and I probably had 10-20# more in me, bit I was running out of lunch break so cut it short. I haven’t tested 1 rep in a long time, so I expected PR’s, but even so 195# for the press makes me really happy. I just wish I could have hit 200#, soooo close to a bodyweight overhead press… Also nice to see I can hit 20 reps for pullups.
11/13/2015
5/3/1 cycle 8 deload
I decided today at work that I would finish what I started yesterday, and test my 1RM on the other two lifts.
Bench:
45x5
65x5
95x5
115x3
135x3
165x3
185x1
205x1
225x1
245x1
265x1
285xnope
Squat:
45x5
95x5
135x5
185x3
225x3
275x1
315x1
365x1
385x1
405x1
Accessory:
Janae Kroc rows (per arm):
10x60#
10x75#
10x90#
Dips: 1 set of 25
So, I did learn a few things over the last 2 days:
1 - 10 or 20# jumps on a pressing movement when you’re trying to find your 1RM might be overly ambitious. I think I could have hit a little more on both of those lifts if I hadn’t overreached.
2 - Lifting does a great job of setting my mind right.
3 - I’m now capable of hitting a 1095# powerlifting total and a 1025# crossfit total.
4 - 5/3/1 still continues to work awesomely, since I hit new 1RM on all 4 lifts.
11/15/15
Conditioning:
Run 5x400m, about 2:00 walking rest between intervals.
5/3/1 cycle 9 starts tomorrow. Training maxes are as follows:
Press: 180#
Deadlift: 385#
Bench: 235#
Squat: 350#
11/16/2015
5/3/1 cycle 9 day 1
Press:
5x115#
5x135#
9x155#
Accessory:
FSL+ press - 3x5x135#
pullups - 55 total
DB press (per arm) 3x10x60# superset with
DB row 3x10x135#
11/17/2015
5/3/1 cycle 9 day 2
Warmup.
Deadlift -
5x250#
5x290#
11x325#
Accessory:
Front squat -
5x45#
5x95#
3x10x135#
Conditioning:
Farmer’s walk with trap bar -
135# x 100 ft
225# x 50 ft x2
275# x 50 ft x2
I’m loving the upgrades they’ve put into the gym at work! 2 power racks, a 5 straight bars and a trap bar, bumper plates… I might even start doing power cleans again since I can drop them. Farmer’s walks with the trap bar to just feel out what heavy weight felt like. I could have gone higher, but I haven’t ever done heavy farmer’s walks before so didn’t want to overdo it.
Edit: 5+ set was 11 reps, not 9.
Killing it in here.
Nice on your pullup reps, AND being just a hair away from BW on your Press - Really, really nice.
And a new TRAP BAR!!!
Thanks Powerpuff, I was really pleasantly surprised with my pullup set, just kept going and going and not really fatiguing much. My normal pullups consist of 1 rep after my first set of presses or bench, 2 after the second set, on up to 10 or 11, depending on # of warmup sets on the main lifts. By the time I get to 10 or 11 reps I’m pretty pre-fatigued, so it gets hard to get the reps in. I was shocked at the difference a fresh back made, and I had another rep or 2 in me.
11/19/15
5/3/1 cycle 9 day 3
Warmup.
Bench -
5x155#
5x175#
11x205#
Accessory -
FSL bench 3x5x185#
pullups - 66 total
dips 20/20/20 superset with
horizontal bodyweight rows 15/15/15
No conditioning.
5+ set was supposed to be 200#, but couldn’t find any 2.5# plates at the work gym today, so decided to go up instead of down 5#. Good workout today, bench felt strong.
11/20/2015
5/3/1 cycle 9 day 4
Warmup.
Squat -
5x233#
5x267#
12x300#
Accessory -
FSL+ squats 3x5x273#
Good mornings 3x10x135# superset with
Toes to bar 10/9/8
Squattin 12x300# was extremely hard. Also, I need to pick up my core work some more, maybe do some on deadlift day too. Toes to bar feels like it’s getting harder, not sure why.
11/21/15
Conditioning -
Run 200m, :30 walking rest, hard sprint 100m, 1:00 walking rest, repeat 5x.
Cooldown, walk .5 miles.
11/21/2015
Extra conditioning -
Cleaned out the gutters on my house, hauled 2 fallen trees across my 2.5 acre lot to my burn pile, by hand. They were small trees, but still a lot of work. I guess dragging a log over your shoulder a hundred yards or so with all the branches and leaves dragging behind you would be a good strongman event…
11/22/15
More impromptu conditioning - Moved old cast-iron claw-foot bathtub and sink (used the furniture dolly for the tub, heh), a refrigerator, and a couple dozen moving boxes to the house. Well, the tub was already here, just moved it out of the yard and staged it for repainting and installation.
Also, had a cool ‘hey, I’m kinda strong’ moment at PetSmart. My Rottweiler is getting old and starting to have joint pain, so I got help picking out a joint supplement dog food for her, and got a new bag of regular food for the other two dogs. The salesgirl started to ask if I needed any help with the bags, when I grabbed a bag with each hand and cleaned them both to my shoulders. Her eyes got big, and she said ‘Woah, I guess not!’ Not an awesome feat of strength or anything, but another step on the road from ‘pretty strong for an old guy’ to ‘strong for anyone’.
11/23/15
5/3/1 cycle 8 day 5
Warmup.
Press -
3x125#
3x145#
3x160#
Joker + sets:
3x170#
3x185#
Accessory -
FSL + press - 3x5x145#
1 arm Dumbell press 3x10x60# per arm superset with
Dumbell row 3x10x80# per arm.
11/24/15
5/3/1 cycle 9 day 6
Warmup.
Deadlift -
3x275#
3x315#
3x345#
Joker + sets:
3x375#
3x410#
Accessory -
Front squats:
5x45#
5x95#
3x10x140#
Conditioning -
Farmer’s carries w/2x80# DB’s, 2x75’ - Trap bar came open -
Trap bar farmer’s carries 295#, 3x50’
11/25/15
5/3/1 cycle 9 day 7
Warmup.
Bench -
3x165#
3x190#
3x210#
Joker + sets -
3x230#
3x250#
Accessory -
Pullups - 76 reps total, 11 reps top set, then back down to 10 for last set
Dips 25/25/25 superset with
Bodyweight rows 15/15/15
