This went better than I expected. It seems my knee is doing much better now. So I think I’ll be able to get fully back into squatting next week and hopefully make some progress. The squats today were good out of the hole and at the top, but I was struggling in the middle when my upper back started rounding I think.
The strider is a plate-loaded machine that works the glutes and quads mostly. I believe it’s mostly a sprint mechanics type of thing. I don’t know what else to call it. Your shoulders are against a pad and you push backwards with your leg as if you were kicking down a door behind you.
Pull-Ups (Neutral):
13, 8, 7 (This was 3xAMRAP. Really need to get this back up)
Cable Triceps Pushdown:
30, 20 @ “95”
Band Facepull:
3x20 @ Light band
Alight, here we go. I was sent a Facebook invitation for the next meet in Tuscaloosa (the same one I did last year) and it will take place on February 15th. That’s 20 weeks away, so that gives me 2 full Cube cycles to prepare and make some gains. I’m trying out the Cube Boss program laid out in Lilly’s new book “365 Strong”. It’s basically just more work on the big 3 variations. Today, I replaced close grip bench with the push-ups because I didn’t want to keep straining my pec this early on.
So, obviously there will be changes from what the program specifies, but that’s part of the point. I’m not continuing the 5/3/1 aspect on Rep days that I did last cycle because I think I need more sets than just one set of AMRAP.
Today went well. I used chains to keep the strain of the pecs and still get the heavy work at the top. All the sets were explosive at the bottom and I powered through the top no problem.
Pausing at 1" of the chest is really difficult, but I can see the advantages of doing it. I think if my pecs can handle it, it will help them get stronger/injury resistant.
This was horrible. I had to drop the percentages down a lot after the first exercise and I still couldn’t finish the prescribed reps. I basically did the bare minimum as outlined in the book for the competition stance squats and I am ruined today. My back, ass, quads, and knees are dead. Hopefully my work capacity increases quickly so that I can feel like I’m progressing.
I need to work on not letting my upper back round when I get fatigued on squats. That’s been an issue the last couple of workouts.
I think I’m remembering everything. I was really happy about the lack of pec pain during the DB bench. Can’t wait to get the 150s in my hands in a few months (probably).
I don’t know if I’ve mentioned the sternum pain on here, but I’ve been having pain in the upper portion right in the middle. It’s during bench sometimes and every time during dips, which is why I did them band assisted. I’m not sure what the pain is from, but it’s not muscular as far as I can tell.
Chain curls are tough as hell because you have to control them, but I like it a lot for dat pump.
Bench is feeling strong relative to before, so I’m happy with it even though I didn’t finish every single rep. I had to grind through several of them and I didn’t feel any pec pain. Hopefully by the end of this cycle I can explode through reps again and get my strength back up to where it was before soon after.
I pulled my lat or one of the tereses when I was doing pull-ups. It’s pretty sore right now, so hopefully it’s fine. Just seems like an annoyance.
Squat (Trying out wide stance to parallel):
Bar
2x5 @ 135
2x5 @ 225
2x3 @ 315 (Add Spud Belt)
5x2 @ 405 (Did 1 with wide stance, form broke down. Added single prong belt and brought my stance back in to get these done well)
Step-Ups (w/ Kettlebell held in front):
3x8/8 @ BW+52
Hanging Leg Raise:
4x10
I’m happy about how the wide stance squat felt on my knees and lower back. It does feel like it has the potential to be a stronger lift for me. I just need to work on my form and figuring out how far to sit back. On a couple of reps I had to take a step back while coming up with the bar as to not fall over. I decided to switch back to my normal stance after the first 405 work set because I couldn’t keep the form with wide stance. But I’ll get stronger as I practice it more often. The paused squats felt like speed work.
Also, I need to do more step-ups with weight in front of me. So much more core and lower back activation than holding weights by my sides.
Keg Row: I simply laid a keg on its side and rowed it by holding the ends. Basically looked like a wide neutral grip Pendlay row. Keg was filled with sand, so it was awkward.
I’m happy with how DB bench is feeling right now. I haven’t even handled 240 straight weight on an Olympic bar since I stopped benching several weeks ago, so I’m surprised I got this today. I was pretty explosive too.
Decent workout overall. I need to get back into rowing/pull-ups much more often. So I’m going to do that after deadlift tomorrow.
I think the explosive and rep days are significantly harder than the heavy day, just because of the volume. For deadlift work sets, I’m doing over 18,000 and 22,000 pounds on explosive and rep days respectively and only about 11,600 on the heavy day. And it’s not like the CNS isn’t getting hit hard on the explosive day. This is definitely a rough program, but I have a feeling it’s going to work if I can stay healthy.
The actual lifting went pretty well. The speed pulls were fast for the most part. Block pulls didn’t feel great and deficit felt fine.
Pull-ups were hindered by some elbow pain, but I’m not too worried about it.
I had some pec pain in between sets and also during one of the lift offs of the heavier sets, so I took a long time getting through this workout. But I’m still very happy with the work sets being 335 at the top and they all moved very fast. I decided to not do heavy triples on close grip because of the pec, but the 10s were easy. Also, the paused bench was basically speed work. All easy.
Motivation: 4/4
Nutrition: 3/4 (Need to eat breakfast for more calories)
Explosiveness: 4/4
Discipline: 3/4 (Should have done more after benches)
Plank:
3x30s/30s (First 30 with 45 lbs added, second 30 just BW)
Fuckin speed days. So much squat volume kills me, but for the most part this went well. Some of the speed squats weren’t that fast, but I think that was a form/tightness issue since I’m still figuring out the wide stance. When I got the form and tightness right though, the reps were really fast and smooth.
The olympic squats were nothing special, I just got them done. Paused squats were super fast on the first set, but my form broke down on the second set about halfway through.
GHR plus a light band is a PR for that. It wasn’t fun.
Superset:
C1 | Band Lateral Raise:
3x15 @ 1 mini per side
C2 | Straight-Leg Reverse Sit-Ups:
3x15
I was hoping to get 6’s with the 140s, but I’m happy with getting the 5’s anyway. Since I was alone and I can’t even partially curl 140s, the main struggle was just getting the god damned dumbbells into position on my knees before sitting back with them. A lot of wasted energy there, I think.
The deficit push-ups felt great with the added weight. It was really difficult, but I enjoyed them.
I kept the Yates rows light because I have rep deadlift day coming 14 hours after I finished this workout. I’m not looking forward to that.
Motivation: 4/4
Nutrition: 2/4 (Ate out for every meal today accidentally. Nothing terrible for me, but not great either)
Explosiveness: 4/4
Discipline: 4/4
3" Block Deadlift:
6 @ 425 (Sumo. Straps/Belt. This felt stupidly terrible)
6 @ 425 (Convo. Straps/Belt. Still terrible, but not as bad)
2" Deficit Deadlift:
2x10 @ 335 (Belt)
Straight-Leg Reverse Sit-Ups:
3x15
Lat Pulldown (Fat Bar):
4x12 @ 120
Deadlift workset volume: 21,520 lbs.
This was very tough, but I’m happy with how the regular and deficit pulls went. The block pulls were just not good for some reason.
My PR for a single set of convo pulls at 405 is 12 reps, so I consider the 3x8 a pretty big PR as well.
There’s one wave of the Cube Boss program complete. The volume on the main lifts is more than I’ve ever done, but I think it’ll help me a lot, especially with the new squat stance.
Squat (Wide Stance):
Bar
2x5 @ 135
2x5 @ 225
5 @ 275
5 @ 315 (Add Single Prong)
2x3 @ 365 (Switch to Spud after SP screws with my hip)
2x4 @ 405 (This is technically a PR for the new stance, but sweet fuck were they shitty)
Squat (Narrow Stance):
2x2 @ 405 (My right hip flexor/top of my quad is pulled at this point)
Pause Squat (Wide Stance):
2x6 @ 315 (No belt)
GHR:
20 @ BW (This was easy, but I tried to get back on for a second set and my hamstrings started cramping just trying to get on the GHR)
Straight Leg Reverse Sit-Up:
2x15
Last two nights: Shitty sleep. Last two days: Not enough food.
Really happy this went exactly opposite to what I thought it would. I got home and laid down on the couch instead of stretching and foam rolling because it’s getting cold, and that makes me want to just sleep. But I wasn’t going to skip the workout obviously, so I went and I was surprised DB bench felt so good. Hopefully the volume continues to help my pecs get stronger again. An easy 6,000 lbs compared to tough 3,600 lbs last wave is a huge jump.
Motivation: 1/4 before; 4/4 during
Nutrition: 2/4 (Need more food)
Explosiveness: 4/4
Discipline: 3/4
Hello there, I see you train with the cube (similar to how I train, except I just have the traditional two ME’s, two DE’s each). I’ve been following your log for awhile, but I just really haven’t said anything.
May I ask you about your training, what lifts you like to use to bring up your competition lifts, DE cycles, whether you have used more of a traditional westside method for your training, ect? Also that is pretty cool you are going wide, it is just going to suck until you get your glutes/abductors/adductors up to par.
I personally don’t squat as wide as I used to, but that is merely because I couldn’t keep my hips cooperating (which I finally figured out how to do). Sometime I want to bring my stance out to a two-three inches outside of shoulder width per side stance instead of the inch outside that I use right now. And get a box squat box to allow myself to squat wide multiple times a week without my hips wanting to commit suicide (and to get really strong out of the hole), and to get really damn strong with full/ultra wide sumo deadlifts.
I ran a the 2 ME’s and 2 DE’s a week for about 4 years and I made pretty decent progress doing that. I’ve been running the Cube since after my meet this past February. While I was doing the conjugate method, I wasn’t paying much attention to the percentages of 1RM or anything, so I wasn’t getting as much out of it as I could. I ended up just going for a triple, double, or [usually] single on my ME days instead of rotating rep schemes and choosing several different lifts. I think this Cube Boss method I’ve been doing is going to work much better for me since it’s basically using the slightly altered main lifts as supplementals instead of just finishing the main lift and being done with it for the day. Practicing those lifts and just actually following a program consistently is the most important thing you can do, IMO.
When it comes to DE work, I think it helps me keep the pop out of the hole/off the floor/chest, and if I don’t use it, I get slower. I think without DE bench, my pecs get hurt more easily. As for cycling, I think the basic 55%, 60%, 65% for 8x3’s for the 3 weeks work just fine. Although the Cube calls for different set and rep schemes after the first wave. Also, since my pecs have been hurt and I moved to a new gym, I have found that I love using chains for bench speed work. 275 is too heavy with straight weight, but 185-225 w/ 50-90 in chains feels great at the bottom.
As for the squat, I’m definitely feeling the weakness right now with the wide stance. I think I should bring it back in somewhere in between because pulling that hip flexor the other day completely fucked me. Probably that 2-3 inches outside you were talking about would be good for me.
Thanks for writing. Ask me anything else if you want to know something specifically.
Deadlift:
Bar
2x5 @ 135
2x5 @ 225
2x3 @ 315
3 @ 365 (Add Spud belt)
2 @ 425
3x2 @ 480 (These felt great)
(Instead of block and deficits, I decided to keep it on the floor)
2 @ 505 2 @ 525 (10 lb. PR for Conventional)
2 @ 535 (10 lb. all time PR!)
SSB Good Morning:
Bar (Assuming 55 lb)
8 @ 145
3x5 @ 225
Wheel Barrow Walks (Gym owner had this made out of railroad tie metal. No idea how much it weights, but it’s heavy):
5x25/25 yards @ WB+90 (Did the first 25 yards as fast as possible forward, and then the second 25 was as fast as possible backwards)
I’m always very happy about getting an all time deadlift PR, especially after completing the prescribed worksets. Everything moved really quickly and my form held up no problem. Obviously it’s time for my deadlift to progress, so I need to take advantage of it.
The SSB good mornings were terrible. I don’t think I can do those anymore because it makes my neck numb when I rack the weight and step back. I’m not going to fuck up my neck for that lift. I’ll stick with regular and maybe I’ll try cambered bar next time.
I’m happy with my performance tonight. My pecs were a little sore between sets, but there was no pain during them. I was also really explosive off the chest and throughout the ROM. My triceps were pretty fried from the 3x5 considering it’s about 335 at the top, but the 2x2 @ 265+90 was low enough volume to be somewhat easy. A few weeks ago 275 with a Slight Shot was hurting my pecs, so I’m very happy that I’m getting more than that now.
