Deadlift
Bar x 10
65 x 5
105 x 3
Belt on
135 x 3
Back felt fine, going to kept going.
157.5 x 4 x 4 sets (347 lbs) RPE- 8, 8, 8, 9
No back pain, moved good. Feeling heavy by the end.
Squat
Bar x 10
65 x 5
85 x 5
102.5 x 5 x 3 sets (226 lbs) RPE - 5, 5, 5
Nice and smooth
Bench
Bar x 10
65 x 6
87.5 x 6 x 3 sets (193 lbs) RPE- 8, 8, 8
Nice pauses but felt a little heavy. Second set was much better. 3 sec pause on last rep of last set.
Pull ups
Max x 3 sets
30 sec rest between
10, 6, 4
Some preacher curls on the machine. Holy sh&t what a pump. As were cramping at the end.
Really good tonight. Finished feeling better than I went in. In the words of Ric Flair “Wooooooo”
The next three weeks are pretty much a repeat of the previous 3 week block (no counting the deload last week) with the weights going up slightly. Then there is 2 weeks where I will work up to a heavy single and then back off a little and do some triples. The week of the comp still has some sessions but it’s very low volume.
Spring has finally sprung in the southern hemisphere. Strangely it felt like a long winter but at the same time I sit here wondering where 9 months of this year has gone. Time has literally flown by and with the silly season approaching work and life will only get busier which will speed time up yet again. Thought I would take a few mins to reflect on this year so far. At the start of this year I had three goals, 1. to complete the transformation challenge and lose some fat, 2 to get stronger and 3 to do my first power lifting comp.
I started the year the heaviest i’ve been for a while after some serious eating at the end of last year and jumped straight into the Transformation challenge, i ran hypertrophy based blocks for the first 4 months of the year whilst cutting out most carbs and seeing what would happen. I lost almost 10kg and was pretty happy with where I ended up. The most positive thing for me was that I proved with some careful food planning and consistent effort I cans till lose fat and maintain both muscle and strength. Tick off number 1.
April was full of visitors with my mum and dad staying with us and May was holiday time with a couple of weeks in the sun in Bali. I managed to get through this time without impacting on my training and didn’t mess up my body with too much alcohol which is a real bonus.
June onwards has seen the introduction of higher intensity strength blocks and a third training day, with the decision made to compete in a novice power lifting comp in October. Strength is steadily improving and I am really enjoying the 3 day a week blocks. I am definitely stronger now that this time last year so I can already tick of number 2, but I want more and I know there is more to come before this year is done.
So that just leaves number 3, in 6 weeks I should be able to tick that one off and then it will be time to re-assess and see whats next for this ‘getting more dangerous dad’.
@painter27@dagill2@Koestrizer@mortdk thanks a lot guys, I do feel like I am making progress and slowly slowly starting to lift some more respectable weights. starting to get excited about the comp but also excited about what more is tome come in the 10 weeks after that.
With the current set up of my training I am really starting to get a better understanding of how changes in load or intensity and volume effect my body. This week is the first week of the block and whilst the load has dropped when compared to last weeks deload, because the volume of sets has increased I have considerable DOMS in my glutes today.
I am also finally seeing how working at sub maximal weights with simple linear progression that cycles back every few weeks is really starting to make me stronger. I tried to explain this to a friend who also goes to the gym but does more BB train to failure type sessions and he just couldn’t get his head around it.
I guess all those programs written by coaches who have been there before me were actually correct… who’d of thunk it !?
The trick with the long, steady linear progressions is doing them for a long time. Some of us struggle with that. 12 weeks of this. Four weeks of that. And so on.
I occassionally go back and read articles on the main site, and I rarely find any of the new ones even remotely interesting these days. Just new circus tricks or snake oil supplements.
My problem is specialization programs. I’ll see an article claiming to guarantee growth in the delts, traps, etc and I’m sold. Maybe I need to actually follow a specialization program, but the rest of my brain says I still need to train everything else. I end up smashing multiple things together and then drop it altogether.
Maybe it’s all my injuries. I really haven’t had more than 12-14 weeks of pain free training since the start of 2017.
Maybe it’s your injuries, maybe it’s your training style, program hopping, genetics etc.
Probably though it’s more complicated than that, and it’s a mix of all of the above factors and some more we don’t know about. You’re doing the right thing by dealing with the issues you can affect though
I’d probably be bigger and stronger if I would just simply stick to a program or methodology. My problem is that I’ll select different exercises for different goals. When I’m chasing strength, I get sucked into the big three or four. Off and on shoulder pain always puts a halt to bench press (might’ve fixed that with this surgery - pain was always biceps tendon related); the hip issue was new in '17 but I’m still having problems. That effectively limited squats and eventually deadlifts.
To get away from painful training, I usually switch to a bodybuilding focus and use dumbbells for pressing and switch to single leg movements for leg training. I’m jealous of people who just go in and crush the basic barbell movements over and over (like @simo74). I just can’t do it. I think the back and forth is what’s limited my training.
I think, think, I’m finally onto something with my new setup. I get to do the barbell movements but the loads will never be above 80ish % and frequency is low. I get to do the stuff that I always turn to when I’m injured. I get volume for any mythical muscle growth. And it has conditioning. It’s perfect for me. I just need to stick to it and fine tune it over time to dial in the effort and loads.
