Shoulder day.
Standing Smith Machine Calf Raises: 13, 12, 10, 10 with 120
Seated Smith Machine Calf Raises: 14, 12, 11, 9 with 190
Straight Arm Hang: 1 minute
OHP:
5 with 115
5 with 125
5, 5, 5 with 135
DB Laterals: 16, 10, 10, 10 with 22.5s
Hip Huggers: 12, 12, 11, 11 with 75
DB Shrugs: 13, 13, 12, 10 with 80s
Pec Dec: 23 with 120
TRX Face Pulls: 15, 15
Abs
Leg day. (actually yesterday, but I lost internet access for a bit, so posting it today)
Box Squats:
5 with 275
5 with 315
1 with 365
Hack Squats: 13, 12, 11, 10 with 180
alternated with
Good Mornings: 15, 12, 12, 13 with 95
Step ups: 12, 10, 10, 10 with 30s
Cable Hamstring Curls: 12, 11, 10 with 30
This was really frustrating. In my last squat workout, I got 5, 5, 3 with 365. Had a deload last week and hoped to have a good session this week, but that single was at least an RPE 9. There was no way I had 4 more, and definitely not another two sets afterwards.
Looking back, though, it’s not really surprising. I’ve frequently found that if I want to increase my strength on a lift, frequency is key and I need to do it 2-3 times per week. Squats are also the worst for this and any extra time off sets me back. The first time I hit 405, I was squatting twice per week, rotating between ME, DE, and RE days. The only time I got to 425, I was using Sheiko, squatting 3 days/week.
The other thing I find with squats is that, for me, going heavy more taxing than any other exercise. I can do a 5x5 deadlift, with the last set being a 5RM and still do a full back workout after. With squats, though, the same thing wipes me out and I’m only good for 1 or 2 other exercises.
I’m seriously considering switching things up for squats by putting them later in my workout and using variations like front squats.
I tend to come out of a deload weaker, too. I haven’t found the proper way for me to deload yet. In the past, it hasn’t really been an issue because I’d change programs. I need to figure it out for 5/3/1.
For sure, which was one of the main reasons I hated taking deloads. I’ve been lucky enough, now that I think of it, that the odd vacation, long weekend, etc forced me to take deloads. The only tough thing was trying to start a program that had built in deloads and work them into my schedule, so that the programmed deload matched up with my life-scheduled deload.
Chest day.
1 Leg Standing Smith Machine Calf Raises: 12, 10, 10, 10 with bar
Straight Arm Hang: 1 minute
Bench:
5 with 185
5 with 205
5 with 215 - barely got 5, so didn’t try to force another two sets at this weight and dropped down.
5 with 185
Low Incline DB BP: 13, 10, 9 with 80s
1 Arm Cable X-Over, Low to High: 10, 9, 8, 8 with 20 and pause/squeeze at top.
Cable X-Over, High to Low: 13, 10, 10, 9 with 25
supersetted with a 30 second flex between sets
Push Ups: 10, 9, 8
Couple training plan updates:
-My weight is staying pretty steady at 219. I definitely feel better at this weight than I have in the past, and at 40 years old, I’ll take that. I still have some veins in my shoulder/arms that didn’t usually appear until I hit 215. I’ll take that as a good sign. 218 had been my weight goal before dropping down for the summer, but based on how I’m looking, I think I’ll be ok pushing it to 220/221. I’d like to take until the end of March for sure to hit that though, because I’d like to spend as little time in a deficit as possible this year. One mistake I made over the past couple of years was keeping my calories too low for too long.
-As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, I had IMS done on my quads to try to relieve some knee stiffness/pain and there were a ton of trigger points. It definitely helped, but I could probably go every week, indefinitely, so I need to try to address this on my own a bit. The plan is for a ton more SMR and mobility work. I’m also going to take some time off running. That will leave just one leg day and a couple sets of DLs on back day. With a limited time, going from a run to sitting at a desk without a proper cool down isn’t doing me any favours. The goal is to feel good by the time the snow melts and then add running back in slowly. Dropping some weight in a couple months will help as well.
-I’ve definitely been frustrated from a strength standpoint recently. Trying haphazardly to build my strength up with a muscle building priority isn’t working great right now. As I plan on doing with squats, I’m going to move bench later in my workout as well. I want to get rid of the ability to compare myself to previous strength levels.
Back day.
Trap Bar DL:
5 with 290
5 with 330
5, 5, 5 with 380. This last set felt like an RPE 7-8, so going up to 390 next week.
1 Arm DB Rows:
13 with 65
12, 11, 9 with 70
YWTs: 10, 10, 8 with 12.5s
CG Cable Rows: 12, 12, 10, 9 with 180
Pec Dec: 21 with 125
Abs
All in all, really happy with today’s session. Strength was up across the board. Last set of each exercise after DLs was taken to failure, but without slipping form and with the focus still on the target muscle. Hoping to ride this momentum into shoulders tomorrow.
Shoulder day.
Standing Smith Machine Calf Raises: 13, 11, 11, 10 with 130
Seated Smith Machine Calf Raises: 11, 9, 9, 8 with 200
OHP:
5 with 115
5 with 125
5, 4, 3 with 140
14 with 65
DB Laterals: 17, 13, 12, 11 with 22.5s
Hip Huggers (1 Arm Rear Delt Rows): 11, 10, 10, 8 with 80
BB Shugs: 12, 11, 11, 10 with 135
Face Pulls: 12, 12, 14 with 35
Pec Dec: 23 with 125
Leg day
A bunch of foam rolling and mobility work
TKEs: 2x20. These are gold. Legs felt awesome and all knee pain went away. I’m going to have to keep these in for awhile.
Cable Leg Curls:
15 with 30
12, 10, 9 with 35
Hammer Strength Unilateral Leg Press:
20 with 180
15 with 270
12 with 360
8 with 450
Good Mornings: 15, 10, 10, 10 with 105
Reverse Lunges: DB held in goblet squat position
12 with 20
12 with 30
12 with 35
Straight Arm Hang: 1 minute
Sort of an “easy” workout. As I mentioned a couple days ago, my goal right now is to get my hips/knees feeling good so I can add some running back in when the snow melts. TKEs, using stable exercises (leg press/hack squat), and single leg work will be the plan, on top of the SMR and mobility work.
Chest day.
I know last week I mentioned I was going to push bench to later in my workout, but felt good coming in today, so wanted to see if last week was just a bad day. Well, I basically had a repeat of last week.
Dropped my volume by about 25%. I’ll build back up to 4 sets/exercise over the next couple weeks and will then have a deload the second week of April when I’ll be heading to the mountains with the family for a couple days.
Straight Arm Hang: 1 minute
Bench:
5 with 185
5 with 205
5 with 215
6 with 185
Incl DB Press Fly: Sort of a highbred of a DB press and a fly.
8 with 60
9 with 50
9 with 45
1 Arm Cable X-Over Low to High: 12, 11, 10 with 20
Cable X-Over High to Low: 14, 11, 10 with 25
Push Ups: 12, 10, 9
1 Leg Calf Raises:
10, 8, 8 with bodyweight. Focused on pushing through the big toe, which made these a lot harder.
TRX Face Pulls: 15, 15
Abs
Back day.
Trap Bar DL:
5 with 290
5 with 330
5, 5, 5 with 390
1 Arm DB Rows: 13, 12, 11 with 70
** YWTs:** 3x12 with 10s
Close Grip Cable Rows: 12, 12, 10 with 185
Shoulder day.
OHP:
5 with 115
5 with 125
5, 5, 3 with 140
12 with 75
DB Laterals: 15, 12, 10, 10 with 25
Rear Delt Rows: 12, 12, 10 with 80
DB Shrugs: 15, 13, 12 with 85
Another easy workout. Took a ton of time between sets and reduced the volume a bit. Doing less has been tough, but I just keep reminding myself that if the rep quality is good and I’m pushing myself enough, I’m still well in the hypertrophy range and a little extra recovery is likely even more beneficial.
I missed logging leg day and arm day last week, but as it was still a deload, there was nothing really special to report. I guess the main thing is that will the extra mobility/activation work I’ve been doing, my knees and hips are feeling decent.
The other thing with last week, is I went on a really slight deficit, aiming for about 2900 cal/day. My weight had been sitting around 219-220 and I got the thought I might do a mini cut and drop about 5lbs. By the end of the week, I realized my heart wasn’t into it. My training’s been going too good recently and I’m still a couple months out of summer, so I wasn’t prepared to hit pause, at least not in a formal, tracking way. What I’m going to do instead is use more of a intuitive/mindful eating strategy. I’ll cut out most of the junk and work more off hunger signals to determine how much I’m eating. I’m hoping this will help adjust for heavy training days vs day offs, etc. It should also be easier with the family, because measuring food or being selective of what I eat tends to result in my wife asking what’s wrong with me 
For today:
Chest day.
Incline DB Press/Fly:
12 with 60
8 with 70
9 with 65
8 with 60
Decline BP:
9 with 165
10, 9, 8 with 155
Incline Cable Flys:
12, 10, 9, 8 with 20
Cable X-Overs:
10, 8 with 30
10 with 25
Run: 2.68 miles at an average pace of 9:05 min/miles.
I’ve taken the last couple of weeks off to work on my hips and knees and came out today and ran the fastest time I’ve done since last September, which was a total surprise. Probably had as much to do with the lack of snow and only having to wear a t-shirt and track jacket than anything else.
Now for some good/bad news. I’ll be switching positions at work at the end of May, which means moving to another building. At first, I was worried it wouldn’t have a gym, like my current location, but figured it was only a 5 minute drive away. Then, I found out they would be putting in a gym, at was pumped. Then today I found out what they’re likely putting in - a treadmill, stationary bike, chin/dip station, DBs up to around 60 lbs, and a adjustable bench. There would also be a 3 person capacity. I tried to talk them into getting rid of the treadmill and bike, but that was a non-starter. I was told even if they did, there wouldn’t be enough room for a squat rack. Well, I guess I’ll be getting good at single leg work and high rep DB pressing. DLs will also be out, unless I sneak some extra time to go to my old building to train.
Don’t get me wrong, that equipment, plus my TRX, bands, and sandbags are plenty to get a decent workout. I’m just complaining for the sake of it…
I haven’t posted here in a while, because I wasn’t sure what direction I wanted to take this. I already keep a written log, so putting sets/reps/weight here seemed redundant. I was going through my old written logs this mornings and what I’m going to try is to post more my general training plan/goals, PRs along the way, and other things that I find interesting. It should make it a lot easier to go back and see what I was doing and when. If I need to go back to the written log for more detail, it will be easier to find. The oldest written log I have is from 2000, so my time before that is really vague.
1993: 12/13 years old. Started training in my basement with an old 3x per week York Barbell program and some cement filled weights
1998: Got a Navy SEAL workout book, which consisted of various types of pull ups, push ups, and sit ups. Graduated high school this year at 6’1", 172 lbs. By the fall I was up to 185 lbs, still really lean.
1999: Got back into the gym sometime this year. Not much info.
2000: The start of my logs. Doing workouts out of Arnold’s The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding.
***Important to note, I have no idea my form on the squats. They may (most likely) have been 1/4 squats 
2002: Moved to a body part split.
2003/2004: From Feb - July, I was in training class for work, so the workouts were whatever we were told to do. After that, it was a push/pull/legs split.
2005: Started the year off doing a program from John Berardi that I found in a Men’s Health Magazine. Not really the best place to find a great program, but it worked. Also trained for and completed a 10 mile race. I think I ended up averaging 10 min miles
2006: Got into HIT. Read up on Arthur Jones and got a couple of Dr. Darden’s books.
2007: Missing the logs for the first 3/4 of the year. In the fall, I had gone back to the Navy SEAL workout book I did back in high school. I generally did this every year when I needed to get ready for my fitness test at work.
2008/2009 Full body 3x per week.
Most of 2010: Full body, but higher paced, density style workouts approximately 3x per week, with running mixed in as well. I was training for a competition at work, which would consist of 2 days of events, mostly endurance and strength endurance based.
End of 2010: Used Defranco’s WSFSB to transfer back to more strength based training.
2011 - 1/2 of 2014: 5/3/1 for about 9 months, before trying out conjugate for a bit. I didn’t enjoy conjugate at all. I trained solo and didn’t have enough confidence to pick out what exercises would work the best for my weakness and this led to frustration. I went back to a upper/lower split, but more focused around the actual squat/bench/DL/OHP, and eventually back to 5/3/1. Around this time, my max bench was around 300, squat around 400 (actually good depth), OHP around 175
Second 1/2 of 2014: Switched to Sheiko and saw my best gains in a long time. I got pretty beat up, though, probably due to the volume and not adequate recovery after 6 months, decided to move on.
2015/2016: Upper/lower splits. Tried out Brian Schwab’s program this year, which is based on progressive ROMS, then went back to 5/3/1. Maxes all stayed consistent.
2017: Push/pull with legs everyday, alternating between quads and hams. I think this is around where I realized I had been trying to increase my strength for the previous 5-6 years, but I wasn’t much, if any, stronger than when I was in my early 20’s and only cared about building muscle. This was sort of a bridge year, where I think I was still holding out hope for my strength, but transitioning back to more bodybuilding.
2018 - present: My focus has been on just trying to keep an base acceptable level of strength, but focusing more on muscle and feeling good.
Ok, that was really general, but hopefully now when I want to look back, I don’t have to bring out a dozen notepads and try to decipher my chicken scratch. The one depressing this is that my strength basically peaked in my early 20s and has been static since. I did hit higher numbers later on in the squat and deadlift, but that was also with a lot more knowledge on technique. I actually hit my highest bench at 24 when I’d never even heard the terms “bracing” or “leg drive.” I’m also around the same weight I’ve been since my early 20s. I guess on the bright side, there’s probably not a lot of 40 year olds that can say they could compete with their 20 year old self 
On another positive note, my last two runs were 2.68 miles at sub 9 min/mile paces and I’m still sitting around 216 lbs.
I’m in the same boat. Deadlift is close to my best now but I didn’t do it in my early 20s. I’m basically trying to regain lost strength all thy time. Life makes training like a yo-yo. I fall back a step or two and then fight to regain it only to start the process again.
I’ve started to accept that age is a beast. It seems like I spend all my time training to stay the same year after year. I guess that’s not terrible as each year passes.
This is also the reason why I’ve decreased my training volume. If I’m in this for maintenance then I might as well spend as little time in the gym as possible.
Man, f**k that.
I’m good with where I’m at in life with my lifting. I’ve finally turned the corner and taken training out of the number one spot on my priority list. It needs to be something that supplements my life - not dominate it. The way I’m approaching it now is achieving that.
What’s really sad is how much I used to stress out for such mediocre results.
Nothing wrong with shifting priorities: it just doesn’t have to be age that’s the beast that does that.
I think I actually feel better this year at age 36 than I have the past three years.
@T3hPwnisher @Frank_C I find I resonate with both of your training and thoughts on things, which is why I follow your logs. I appreciate you jumping in here.
The age thing is something I’ve been conscious of and purposefully deny. I can definitely say my training slowed at around 35 and plateaued at around 36/37. One of the main reasons I switched back to more of a bodybuilding style of training is that it allowed me to not focus on the numbers. Unlike in my 20s, when I could do almost anything and my strength or conditioning went up, after my mid 30’s, like @Frank_C, I found myself fighting to maintain numbers. This led to the point where I’d be pissed off if I had to miss a workout for any reason. Not a great place to be with a family, especially one who has little to no interest in training. With my current training, things are a lot more flexible.
What happened after 36? Maybe it was age, but I try not to go there. I’m more inclined to attribute it to my lack of desire to push my bodyweight more in either direction. In past strength phases, I’d generally get up close to 230 and if I was more focused on conditioning, I’d cut down to around 195-200. In one, I was verging on too fat and the other, to small. Now, staying between 208 and 218 is a good spot for me, physique-wise (I’m 6’). I think if I was willing to push my weight up closer to 240 and focus on strength, I’d see increases again. The main problem with that is that as you get older, there are more health issues with being heavy, plus I don’t think skin bounces back when you cut like it does when you’re younger and I’m trying to avoid being the old guy with a bunch of loose skin for as long as I can.
Or maybe that’s just me trying to justify being mediocre…
This might be due to experience but it just happens to coincide with age. Perhaps we’ve done enough tinkering, bulking, and cutting to know what we do and don’t like. At this point, we’re kind of tired of all that and just want to stay consistent with something.