C2W1D1 - BP
115x5, 130x5, 145x10, 165x2, 185x2, 115x5x5
I decided to skip the deload once I looked at my weights for today - the brilliance of 531. Probably could have pushed the amrap more but wanted to do joker sets - hunting a BW BP.
Went to a meeting after, then met with the owner of a local gym to get started volunteering. It is a women’s owned gym, a passion project. Turns out she will let me train clients there as an Independent Contractor once I get certified - woot woot.
I am planning on testing by August 1st, so I have a deadline.
Ever got started on a series that is five or six seasons, with 12-15 episodes a season and you just watch for days on end?
My daughter calls that a show hole.
I got into a show hole on my CPT course. Feels like a video game addiction.
The course is divided into six domains that cover twenty three chapters. They suck you into it in that the first two domains only cover five chapters or so - you roll through those five chapters and finish those two domains and think, eff it, I am 33% done.
Then the third domain is six chapters and you’re exhausted - no worries, the fourth domain is a quick two chapters.
But no, now you are in for it - the fifth domain is never ending. I got sucked into it tonight. Let’s just say I am looking forward to squatting tomorrow.
I took a couple of days off and felt pretty good today. I have been having trouble stuffing my face so weight is down to 196.5 @16.5% - BF heading in the right direction so I am okay with it. I will try to eat more in the next few days.
I figured out that I need to take a day off after lower body work so I took yesterday off - just general lethargy and soreness.
I have been struggling a bit with the CPT class - a lot of information to digest. Getting into core training and musculature, muscle imbalances, Cardio respiratory training with VT1 and VT2, different zones and stuff. Not really complicated except for the jargon and theory. I am going to hunker down for a few hours today and sort it out.
Weighed 203.2 this morning at 17.4% so that is trending the way I want it to. Will do some meal prep so I can continue gaining. If I don’t meal prep, I don’t eat enough.
Always high praise. It MAY take away from the AMRAP, but a null hypothesis is that it will “turn on” your CNS and get you primed to really put out some reps. Similar to an “overwarm”: you’ll get used to the feel of heavier weight, making the AMRAP feel much lighter when it comes time to crank out reps. DoggCrapp is like that: a heavy set followed by a widowmaker.
But, if nothing else, I’ve stolen the idea from Dan John to do the things we don’t want to do FIRST so that we don’t skip them, haha.
Bing - that is the sound of the lightbulb going on.
I have been familiar with the idea of lifting heavy in a cut to maintain LBM, have noticed that the first set of 531 feels heavier than the last, the first set of FSL feels heavier than the last, so activating CNS makes sense to me.
My amraps have been relatively easy as I typically cap them at ten and am working at a relatively conservative TM. I also think my energy system for amraps is poorly trained, forget which system that is but it is anaerobic. I have always been better at long and slow stuff than fast and hard. Any squat set over ten is challenging, even with just the bar. Pretty sure I can train that, just haven’t put in the effort.
High rep squats are just a different animal, no matter the weight. In Super Squats and The Complete Keys to Progress, both authors discuss mass gaining programs where there really wasn’t a whole lot of weight on the bar for high rep breathing squats, but simply focusing on the breathing and intensity was enough to drive growth. There’s just something magical about those reps. Same way Mass Made Simple works even at the beginning, when we’re only squatting 95lbs.
And it goes the other way as well. Put a bar on my back and I’ll squat until I bleed from multiple orifices. Ask me to put up a max single and it’s not going to be much heavier than my set of 20. But also, all my reps on the set of 20 look like max singles, because I am SLOW, haha.
I am reading about the different energy pathways, etc… I would not say that I am learning necessarily.
NASM uses a proprietary training model they call Optimum Performance Training. It is nothing earth shattering or ground breaking, basic stuff that they have branded. Three phases, five stages. The three phases are stabilization, strength, power - basically CNS, hypertrophy, explosiveness. No big deal, but it does make some sense in terms of reverse engineering what I have learned in the past.
Rippetoe is a huge fan of the squat - specifically the low bar squat. I know you are aware of this, just some context. I have found that when I squat, low bar, everything gets pumped, so I think he is on to something (not just him).
Not to mention the hormonal changes from increased HGH, test, IGF, etc…
Thank you! You get it. No one understands me when I say how much I absolutely hate training. I can’t imagine the kind of masochism it would take to LIKE this stuff. But BOY are the results worth it.
It checks that everything gets pumped on a low bar squat: powerlifters use it because you can use more/bigger muscles compared to a high bar upright squat. And it makes sense to use as many of our biggest muscles as possible when the goal is to transform physically. There’s, of course, always time and place for small isolation work, but getting the most bang for our buck means the biggest movements with the most muscle lifting the heaviest weight for the longest ROM (within reason).
Same reason sumo isn’t a real deadlift (shots fired!)
I like doing deadlifts before benches as it seems to put my shoulders in a better position than if I squat before bench… which just aggravates them, and I’m stronger that way too.
I’m pretty much just a train intuitive asshole rather than a thought process. It had been a while since I benched, I struggle with getting to the gym every day, so I decided to combine days, kind of a two day a week template. Figure I will do my FAFO shit tomorrow if I bother to get to the gym.
If I do get to the gym tomorrow, it will be rows, shrugs, curls, abs.
Then, on Saturday, Squat and OHP - figure I can pump those out since my TM is low and it is threes week.
