9/14/09 5/3/1 Bench (1) cycle 4
5- 210
3- 240
1- 270
weight, an enourmous 287.
Well, it looks like last week’s drinking caught up to me today. As you can see I employed the not doing jack shit accessory template.
not much to say. i will drag the sled and do some complexes tomorrow unless I am a total pussy.
Train,
john
Hey, your bench after a night of drinking is still 50-60 pounds better than what I can put up! Slow down more! 
[quote]mcl wrote:
Hey, your bench after a night of drinking is still 50-60 pounds better than what I can put up! Slow down more! :)[/quote]
Have no fear. I am about to significantly lower my training weights so that I can get more reps on the “money” set. I may also go back to only drinking one night every other month, now that I’ve had a reminder of what boozing does to my performance.
between us two, tho, i almost prefer the drinking…
just drink a 40 once a month and you should be fine, call it PW carbs.
I aint Kweer, Makers Mark and 3 cubes of ice… Thats what dreams are made of…
Damn good hangover harder training
JW
Actually JW is right I overlooked that.
that is some big ass benching.
kmc
Well, I was a pussy today. I blame my schedule. squats tomorrow. hope to get some dragging soon
9/17/09 5/3/1 Squat (1) cycle 4
5- 270
3- 305
1- 340
2a narrow split squats supersetted with pulldown abz
bwx 6/6
2b pulldown abz
130x 10/10
I had to get back to the office for a meeting, so I cut it short. Squats was a big disappointment. I hit 340, only once, to depth, but I stumbled at the top. got mad, rested 1 minute and hit it again. better at the top but couldn’t hit depth. my form was just shit, and I couldn’t control it. sad times.
I decided that unilateral work would be good for accessories. it was like a hybrid lunge, but I touched my knee to the back of my ankle, trying to work quads more than hammies. I tried a set with the bar, and smashed a finger, so I did the other 2 with just body weight. I suck on these. I am not going to do them as accessories anymore. I am going to do them every day.
at my shitty night job, my left (bad) leg ached from the knee down, and I figured I’d screwed my knee for sure. not so. my bad form had me up on my toes, using my mostly neglected soleus. it felt better today, but the knee is very achy. i am such a pussy, i don’t even deserve to have knees.
I am listening to a sort of punk band called Ministry. I love these guys. this is the album called “Land of Rape and Honey”. yes, its political, and to the left, like me.
this was of course yesterday. so now I will do another post of what I did today
crybaby harder
john
[quote]kmcnyc wrote:
Actually JW is right I overlooked that.
that is some big ass benching.
kmc[/quote]
I love you guys, but come on, I’m not even hitting my bodyweight
9/18/09 just complexes
I can’t lift at lunch on fridays, cuz I have lunch with my mom. i used to try to get up early and lift, but my sessions always suck. so, I decided to lift MWTh instead of MWF. Tues/F/Su are for dragging and complexing. Saturdays suck, cuz I work nights on Thurs and Fri, and Saturday morning. so I just get up and go to work
are you following all this? there may be a quiz.
so, getting up really early on friday to both drag and complex is tough, cuz i work thurs nite, and I have an 8am meeting on friday morning. so I decide just to do complexes today.
I did the cosgrove complex (dead, rdl, rows, hang clean, front squat, push press, back squat, GM) with the usual progression 6 reps each, 90s rest, 5 reps each, 90s rest, and so on to 1 rep. I did this with 97 lbs. i have decided that I probably shouldn’t do this the day after squatting or deadlifting. but, I dont really have a choice.
i had a short correspondence with allwyn cosgrove regarding the wisdom of doing drop sets or straight sets. he said if you can survive straight sets, you aren’t using enough weight. That’s why I jumped 30 lbs from last time. Needless to say, these kicked my ass. i finshed them at 730. i stopped sweating at 830. if these don’t help me hit my fat loss goals, nothing will. my form on front squats is pretty bad, and kind of hurts my back. so by the time I was done my form on front and back squats was real bad.
my way low back gets really achy when I do these, and when I do sprints. and lately when I squat. this wasn’t an issue until I started sprinting with the sled, so I think its just cuz I don’t do enough ab work to offset the glute/back work from sprinting. So, I will do flat or weighted situps along with close single leg squats every night…
On another issue, since I am waxing long, my 5/3/1 4th cycle deload starts monday. I may actually do them closer together than my regular schedule. But, I have made the following adjustments to my training maxes for cycle 5 in advance:
Military: 165 to 145
Deadlift: 375 to 335
Bench: 280 to 250
Squat: 355 to 325
I had an oddball way of recalculating these. I want to really concentrate on form, and hit lots of reps on the money set. so I changed my weights so that I would have a weight for the 1 rep that I had recently hit for 5 or 6. This program is designed for sub maximal weights, so I am going super sub. I think that even dieting, this should give me at least 12 straight cycles of improvement at the 5/10 lbs/cycle pace. it also gives me the chance to really work my form, especially on the squat. I am also hoping that being able to hit significant reps on the money set will help me with my work capacity.
It was really hard to drop my maxes, but I don’t see how else to do it. My true 1RM in Bench for Feb’09 was 305, so 250 is still 82% of my max back then. squat/dl are close to that as well, so its not far off what Phil Wylie and his guys use (85%), and those guys are usually getting major reppage on the money set.
wish me luck. deloading now.
9/21/09 5/3/1 Military deload, cycle 4
5x 70/85/100
2a accessory military supersetted with pulldowns
95x 8/8/8/8/8
2b pulldowns
9/9/9/9/9
45 degree back raise
bwx 5/5/5/5
One of the guys on the 5/3/1 thread suggesting going 80% on accessories during the deload. so I tried that. today went well.
The back raises were for rehab purposes only, and they did make me feel better. All in all, nice little pump without a big sweat or getting really tired. maybe this is the right way to do the deload. I’ll certainly get it right eventually.
I got in a big argument with my wife saturday. couple that with the fact that I had been experimenting with a lower dose of prozac for the last 2 weeks. Result = bad. I am back on the full dose. I got unbelievably angry about something unbelievably meaningless. didn’t hurt anyone or break anything, but couldn’t make the anger go away. so I took the night off. had an extra 80mg prozac and 8 oz rye whiskey, and went to the movies. about halfway through Star Trek (dollar movies, you know I’m a tight-ass), the anger went away.
So, the lesson for you folks (like me) that are on a Selective Seratonin Reuptake Inhibitor like prozac: if it interferes with your diet, tough shit, your doctor put you on that dose for a reason.
Learn Harder,
john
MJ, who can stay angry watching Spock? I hate it when I get that angry and it won’t go away.
For me situps would make my back feel worse. I’ve been using planks,ab rollouts and sidebends. I find doing planks between sets also helps with my back pain. Hope this helps.
[quote]ecogenx wrote:
MJ, who can stay angry watching Spock? I hate it when I get that angry and it won’t go away.
For me situps would make my back feel worse. I’ve been using planks,ab rollouts and sidebends. I find doing planks between sets also helps with my back pain. Hope this helps.[/quote]
Thanks, Eco, I’ll try to add in some planks. instead of sidebends i am going to add in suitcase carries.
Hey Guys, guess what? Old Dumbass hurt himself again.
There I was, sprinting with my sled at lunchtime, looking forward to some complexes after. I haven’t done complexes for a week now. So, I am on my 3rd sprint, and I remember an article on sprinting from EliteFTS a couple weeks ago. so, by 20 yards into a 40 yard sprint, “Pop” goes the left calf. same place I tore 3 years ago. at least I think it was torn, cuz fat old dumbass didn’t go see a doctor about it.
I am going to go and see a sports med dr about all this shit going wrong with me.
I hate being old. and fat. and stupid. I only want to be stupid.
You can solve 2 of those problems on your own. Old you’re stuck with. Stop being so hard on yourself, that’s our job.
Sorry to hear about the calf, but you may have just saved mine. I was thinking about doing something stupid like 40s, but now I think I’ll figure out other ways to torture myself.
yeah, now I have to come up with a new way to get gpp, jack. maybe speed walking with a pink headband.
thanks hel.
i asked chris clark over at elite about rehabbing my little injury. he suggested ice among others. when i first tore my calf in 2005, i didn’t do anything and I was out of the gym for weeks. I iced the shit out of my calf last night, and again this morning. It took 2 weeks last time to feel this good. I should be back in the gym in a week, if I keep icing and other stuff.
i still feel like a dumbass, but at least I’m healing
[quote]mjnewland wrote:
yeah, now I have to come up with a new way to get gpp, jack. maybe speed walking with a pink headband.
thanks hel.
i asked chris clark over at elite about rehabbing my little injury. he suggested ice among others. when i first tore my calf in 2005, i didn’t do anything and I was out of the gym for weeks. I iced the shit out of my calf last night, and again this morning. It took 2 weeks last time to feel this good. I should be back in the gym in a week, if I keep icing and other stuff.
i still feel like a dumbass, but at least I’m healing[/quote]
Complexes. Burpees with no jump. Insulting the wife and quickly hopping away…
Great thread John, bout time I got around to it. I can see why you read mine…we both are half insane and enjoy calling ourselves dumbasses regularly for doing shit that we shouldnt do. I think I got you beat on this one, however, because instead of following a nice, well established program like you are doing, I am still going on the late Joe Weider’s “Instinctive Training Principle” which he made up to explain whenever Arnold, Draper, or Franco would do something in training other than his other “principles.” (This may actually be even before your time!, and even if it isnt, who cares about bodybuilder routines anyway.)
The injuries, yeah we will try anything short of dung beetle extract to alleviate joint pain (I got my order in for Curcumin, but I have had some luck with Hyaluronic acid for my knees lately at least. Cissus is for Sissies.)
Fatness…I officially gave up worrying about my waist measurement this year, or my bodyfat percentage once and for all and have never looked back. Didnt get laid more often when I was lean so what the hell is the point in starving yourself?
Keep up the good work. Doc
You can do allot of gpp with crutches… Nothing a 40 oz cant cure.
John dont be so hard on yourself- your doing allot-
I am going to prescribe- some alcohol a cheat meal.
a few days off- and R.I.C.E.