Deadlift
Bar x 10
70x 5
110 x 3
140 x 2 - doh no belt - this is right at the limit of my grip
160 x 2 - a little slow, weight got out in front a little
180 x 2 - slow but ok
140 x 3 dropped the weight and hit a faster tripple
Knees were cranky. Lots of tendon pain.
Leg ext -
2 sets of 20
Lying leg curls -
2 sets of 15
Pull ups -
3 sets of 5
Abs
Curls
First deadlifts in over 8 weeks and they didn’t feel too bad. Looking forward to deadlifting weekly again.
It may be over 8 weeks later, but you didn’t miss a beat with those deadlifts. Nice work!
(I’ll admit I was confused at first because the bar wasn’t on your back and you were standing upright once each of the lifts was over, SuperSimo! Haha.)
Lol yes it kind of is. It’s not like hunger as in I really want or need to eat. It is more like I am thinking about my next meal before it is time rather than seeing the time and dreading it.
So this week is a de-load week after finishing or I should say smashing (thankyou @T3hPwnisher) six weeks of super squats. I didn’t have any planned sessions for this week, just wanted to go to the gym 3 times and work through some soreness. Decided after talking with @wiseman83 to work up to a heavy ish double on deadlift last night, just to get back into the groove, as I haven’t deadlifted for over 8 weeks. Also going to try heavy-ish bench on Friday to feel out the pause and see where I am at.
Not having a plan this week is physically the best thing for me. I still have some joint soreness in the knees that I am working through and some upper body tightness in the pecs and shoulders. Just doing some light work is the right thing to do and will set me up for the next wave of training to come.
Mentally not having a program is driving me insane. Going into a gym without a goal or a specific purpose to the training session is quite simply the most boring 45 mins I have had in a long time. That even includes those work meetings that you dial into and turn your camera off, because you are not even sure why you were invited.
I honestly don’t know how anyone can train just by having a general idea of what they are doing or by just choosing exercises off the cuff.
The one really positive thing I have noticed after running super squats, is that I am hungry and I mean real hungry. I’m not talking about salivating over the donut your colleague just bought from the shop, although that does look very tasty. I am talking about hungry for progress, hungry to get stronger, hungry to become more dangerous and more scary than I have ever been. No idea what this means in terms of training going forward other than, I am ready for whatever stands in the way.
Cue most people in the gym mate. They’re often on their phones and curling in the squat rack too… lolz.
Focused training session as opposed to ‘working out’ puts you in the top say 5% or more of gym goers, add in the hunger and now you’re likely in the top 0.5% now!?
But who cares what others are doing. You’re smashing it and focusing on improving you. I’ve enjoyed reading your SS journey. Bring on the next chapter. (I enjoy internal giggles seeing what others are doing at my local between sets… it boggles the mind…)
Got in some more burpees last night. Same interval session as Tuesday. 37 sec on, 10 sec rest, 7 burpees per round, 15 rounds. Total 105 burpees. Felt better than Tuesday, still sweating and breathing hard by the end, but wasn’t dying in the last few rounds.
Picked up a new training toy for my strongman Saturday sessions. It is a 55 Litre plastic barrel, basically similar in size to a beer keg. The plan is to add some sand to the desired weight and use it for what ever torturous things I can think of. If I was to fully fill it with Sand it will weight approx. 90kg or 200lbs. I am going to start with 40kg of sand in the barrel and use it for floor to overhead work. Hopefully @T3hPwnisher and @carlbm will have some other horrible suggestions later on when I run out of ideas.
Bench - @wiseman83 said i could work up to a heavy double / single paused.
Bar x 10
70 x 5
90 x 3
Pause bench
100 x 2
110 x 2
115 x 2
120 x 2 (264 lbs) - rep PR with really solid pauses
125 x 1 (275 lbs) - miss grooved it a little bit still a solid pause and moved well.
I haven’t done any pause bench for more than 8 weeks and the bar was flying up today. Quality
Picked up a couple of bags of sand to put in the barrel today. Added both bags - so 40kg (approx 90lb) of sand. Tried to pick it up and it is damn hard. This is slippery as hell and has very few places to hold it. Managed to do a couple of overheads with it but it was not easy. This thing will either get me stronger or kill me.
Ok so the deload week is pretty much over so it is time to get back into some proper training. Been talking it through with @wiseman83 throughout the week and he has put together the next training block ready for Monday.
The next block will be a 5 week strength block (4 week plus deload). The progression and reps will be similar to my previous strength work. Weights progressing over the 4 weeks followed by a deload. For this new block we have switched the days round.
Monday will be deadlift, Wednesday Bench and Friday will be Squat day. There will obviously be supplemental and accessory work each day like my previous blocs. I won’t lay it all out here as you will see the sessions in my log as I do them.
The one big change for this block is that Wisey has decided it is time to add a layer of auto regulation to the template. For me this is like graduating primary school. For all my other strength work I have stuck to the reps in the template and progressed as per the template. It didn’t matter how easy lifts were I just did the reps and slowly moved forward.
In this new block the last set is going to be an amrap type set. I will push the last set to as many reps up to an RPE of 8. So this means it’s not an all out amrap but pushing beyond the programmed reps until I feel I only have a couple left.
The template is set up so if I get more than a set number of reps in the amrap set then the following weeks weights will increase more. If I get less then the increase will be less.
So for example on Monday deadlift is 4 sets of 4. With the last set being 4+ (amrap to RPE 8). This means I can pull more reps on the last set based on how I feel. If I get less than 8 reps on the last set, the following week the weights go up by 5kg, if I get more than 8 reps then the weights go up by 10kg.
This continues through the 4 week block. Which if I am feeling strong and push hard means I can increase by 40kg across the block rather than 20kg.
My focus for the next block is going to be deadlift. We have switched it to Monday and this will be the first time for me deadlifting before doing squats in the week. I am interested to see how my back feels pulling without sore legs.
Hey Simo, do you think running super squats has altered your perception at all about what RPE8 or RPE9 etc actually is (with squats specifically, but also generally speaking)?
Just wondering after all of this work close to failure that you’ve been doing
