After last weeks terrible workout I decided to lower my training max by 30 lbs. Everything was much better. With the oly shoes I’m not sure theres much of a difference in my LB/HB strength anymore. I laddered down with the HB and it felt about the same. I may do both styles with my top set next week to get a more accurate feel. All I know is carrying it lower with oly shoes is definitely not comfortable. Got a hockey game tomorrow so didn’t go all out with the top set or assistance work today.
Low Bar Squat:
95 lb x 5
120 lb x 5
145 lb x 3
155 lb x 5
180 lb x 5
205 lb x 5
180 lb x 5 (High Bar)
155 lb x 5 (High Bar)
Zercher Good Morning:
115 lb x 5 x 3
Clean Grip Barbell Rear Lunge:
60 lb x 24 x 2
KB Swing:
50 lb x 10 x 3 (Went easier today since I have a hockey game tomorrow.)
[quote]Drake37 wrote:
How do you like KB swings? Do you feel a difference?[/quote]
For conditioning its definitely been great. The jury is still out to whether or not its intimately connected to my deadlift. However, I do feel like at the very least its helping with my recovery a little bit, so I guess in that way it could be helping me get stronger. I just started taking epsom salt baths too. I’m really trying to focus on getting my recovery down.
Had my first hockey game of the season today. Didn’t get any points, but I played a solid overall game, and my forecheck/backcheck was insane. Played around 22 minutes and had all kinds of energy since I’m not killing myself in the gym right now.
why do you do zercher good mornings? I just started doing good mornings so I’ll definitely give them a try. I like epsom salt baths too, they feel great on my joints and I sleep like a baby after.
I feel like they make my abs work a little harder. I was just a little bored of the regular one so thought I’d do a variation for a while. I’m thinking I may change it up every 1-2 531 cycles. I may do concentric GMs next cycle, and then go back to regular ones.
531 week and I left probably 2 in the tank on the final set. Stopped before they became grinders. All of the benches to use DBs on were taken, but yet there was a flat barbell bench available on a Monday?..who would’ve thought. So I did very light sets of 10 with my bench. Energy level was pretty good today. Left more fresh than usual, but I think tis a good thing.
Press:
50 lb x 5
65 lb x 5
75 lb x 3
95 lb x 5
107.5 lb x 3
120 lb x 3
65 lb x 12
Close-Grip Bench:
95 lb x 10 x 3
Lat Pulldown:
105 lb x 10
120 lb x 8
135 lb x 5
120 lb x 6
105 lb x 8
75 lb x 15
Not the typical 531 week. I decided to make all the work sets triples again. I’m going to continue with this for a while. I probably will keep the weight the same for the next cycle and try to be more explosive. Might even attempt pausing just off the ground and then finishing to make the same weight harder.
Deadlift:
145 lb x 5
185 lb x 5
225 lb x 3
275 lb x 3
310 lb x 3
345 lb x 3
Double Paused Front Squat:
95 lb x 5
125 lb x 3
145 lb x 2
165 lb x 2 x 6 (Double paused)
Manual Leg Curl:
5 x 4
KB Swing / Jump Rope / Ab Wheel:
45 lb x 15 x 3 / 100 x 3 / 15 x 3
Used the slingshot for the first time with bench instead of the floor press. Pretty good benching day. I was also able to do dumbbell rows without any pain in my left forearm today. Happy Single Awareness Day!!
Close-Grip Bench:
45 lb x 5
80 lb x 5
100 lb x 5
120 lb x 3
150 lb x 5
170 lb x 3
190 lb x 3
205 lb x 3 (Slingshot added)
225 lb x 3
135 lb x 25
One-Arm Dumbbell Row:
55 lb x 15 x 3
Dumbbell Flyes:
30 lb x 12 x 2
Triceps Pushdown / Face Pull:
60 lb x 15 x 3 / 40 lb x 20 x 3
My squat has me lost. I’m glad I was open minded about trying something new, but I’m not so sure this olympic shoe high bar experiment is for me anymore or not. I really don’t know what to do. All my squat variations suck right now except for fronts. I’ll be doing some serious thinking during my deload next week. I’m considering going back to 3 days a week again, perhaps even full body. One thing I do know for sure is that I won’t give up.
High Bar Squat:
45 lb x 10
95 lb x 5
120 lb x 5
145 lb x 3
180 lb x 5
205 lb x 3
225 lb x 3
225 lb x 1 (low bar without shoes. Felt absolutely awful.)
Doing an actual deload this cycle. Was gone yesterday so squeezed the press and deadlift together. I’m going to do the same with the bench and squat. That’ll give me a few extra days of rest, which I definitely need. And starting next week I’m going back to full body.
Press:
50 lb x 5
65 lb x 5
75 lb x 5
Front Squat:
95 lb x 5 x 3
Deadlift:
145 lb x 5
185 lb x 5
220 lb x 5
Manual Leg Curl on calf ext:
5 x 2
Lat Pulldown:
90 lb x 10 x 2
Hammer Dumbbell Curl:
17.5 lb x 20
KB Swing / Jump Rope / Ab Wheel:
45 lb x 10 x 3 / 100 x 3 / 15 x 3
BPAs and One Arm Face Pulls with micro mini band when I got back to apartment.
I may just do abs at home on separate days. I’ve got some elitefts bands that I plan on doing some recovery work with on tuesdays/thursdays. Things like BPAs/Facepulls, pushdowns, and etc… I’ll also probably still do the cardio stuff at the end of some workouts like the KB swings and jump ropes.
Little update. Missed my workout yesterday because I am pretty sick. My temp is almost at hypothermia level and I’m aching and have trouble eating anything. I feel so weak and I’m sure I’ll have to lower my training maxes a lot. Haven’t been sick like this in years! Sucks ass! Also, this definitely takes me out of the meet I was considering doing March 23.
[quote]MightyMouse17 wrote:
Little update. Missed my workout yesterday because I am pretty sick. My temp is almost at hypothermia level and I’m aching and have trouble eating anything. I feel so weak and I’m sure I’ll have to lower my training maxes a lot. Haven’t been sick like this in years! Sucks ass! Also, this definitely takes me out of the meet I was considering doing March 23. [/quote]
OMG NOOOOOOOOO!!! I wonder if you got the same awful flu thing I got!!! That is awful to hear. I am pretty sure my lifts are down/gonna be down for weeks yet to come because of this stupid thing.
Another update. I’m still feeling a little ill, but am much better now than I was over the weekend. I had a sweatfest Tuesday night, and I’ve sweated a little more out the past few nights as well. I may have walking pneumonia. Training should resume by Monday or maybe Sunday.
Any ideas on how to get back into training after being so sick? I was thinking of more frequency for a few weeks. Instead of 2 upper/lower days, have 3 of each. That would split things up a bit to keep me more fresh and hopefully help me gain my weight/strength back a little more quickly as long as I’m eating enough. I remember last time I had a layoff it seemed to take forever to get strength back with basic 531.
Finally back after 2 weeks off thanks to walking pneumonia. Definitely weak like a little school girl, but I did a good job with my new training max. Hopefully I’ll gain my strength and weight back fast. I lost a good 5-7 lbs. I was really excited to be back and may have went a little crazy with the volume but oh well…I feel pretty good now.
Press:
45 lb x 5
60 lb x 5
70 lb x 3
80 lb x 3
92.5 lb x 3 102.5 lb x 7 (Last set, then laddered down and did AMRAP with first work set.)
92.5 lb x 3
80 lb x 8
Not a bad workout. Strength was around where I expected. Could’ve got 8 with 315, but it would’ve been an ugly rep. Conditioning definitely tanked while I was sick, but it should come back pretty fast. KB swings had me breathing pretty hard.
Deadlift:
140 lb x 5
175 lb x 5
210 lb x 3
245 lb x 3
280 lb x 3
315 lb x 7
Power Shrug:
315 lb x 10 x 2
Front Squat:
95 lb x 5
115 lb x 3
135 lb x 5 x 5
Manual Leg Curl:
5 x 4
KB Swing / Jump Rope / Ab Wheel:
50 lb x 15 x 3 / 100 x 3 / 15 x 3
Since I won’t be doing a meet for a while, I’m gonna try the floor press for at least a few cycles and see what happens. I did barbell incline as my second pressing exercise, and will try to keep that in as my main assistance after the floor press. Haven’t decided how I’ll program it yet, but I just did some light sets of 10 today with a fairly wide grip and brought it high on the chest. I’m also considering doing box squats for a few cycles.
Close-Grip Floor Press:
45 lb x 10 x 2
70 lb x 5
80 lb x 5
100 lb x 3
120 lb x 3
135 lb x 3
152.5 lb x 8
120 lb x 10 (1st work set for AMRAP)
Incline Bench:
95 lb x 10 x 3
One-Arm Dumbbell Row:
50 lb x 15 x 3
Triceps Pushdown / Face Pull:
70 lb x 10 x 3 / 50 lb x 15 x 3
Finished with some push ups and scapular push ups.
Mighty, have you tried anderson squats? I have been playing with them this training cycle and I think my sticking point a few inches above parallel/ starting strength has improved (I’ll be getting to see how my lifts are in a week) .
You put the bar in the rack, take your position for your squat, deadlift, whatever you want to improve, set it up to be a couple inches below where you lose the squat or set it where you start to lose speed, then get tight and squat extremely fucking hard and fast (however you don’t want to suddenly go 0 to 100% effort against the pins you gradually increase effort like you would a deadlift) to get it off the pins lower it at a controlled rate to the pins let it rest there and not on your shoulders, get back in position and do it again for however many reps you are going to do.
For the deadift, if you want to improve starting strength you mimic where your knee/hip angle and stance then squat. I plan to at least get a squat in the 330-350 range (a 30-50 pound PR after my squat nose diving from dropped frequency/style change) and see how my weaknesses are, a 220-230 bench (20-30 pound PR) and around a 380 deadlift (not that massive of a PR but my conventional has been a little bitchy after neglecting speed work for it)