Strong is more useful than weak.

Squat

• 2x5x45 (warmup)
• 1x5x80
• 1x3x120
• 1x2x160
• 3x5x205

Wow. Broke the 200# barrier. OK sure, in the grand scheme of things it’s not some massive weight, but it’s still a barrier I have NEVER broken before. The bar is moving a little slower, but still moving at a fair pace. Sure it’s a little tougher, it requires a lot more tightness of the abs, really working that Valsalva maneuver, minding every element of form. I’ll tell you, I wasn’t a believer in warm-up sets before, but I am now because there’s no way I could just jump to that weight without moving my body through the motions and getting it ready for the stress ahead of it.

It does feel heavy, every time I put the bar on my back it feels like heavy, a new heavy. But then the second set? It feels lighter than the first set and somehow a little easier to do.

I am wondering when I’m going to hit my limit, when I’ll miss a rep and want to consider dropping down to 5# increments. But I’m not psyching myself out about it, nor am I really caring because it will happen when it happens, and either way I’ll still be progressing, so… who cares. I will say, a belt has been ordered and once it gets here I’ll start using it (see no reason not to). We’ll see how that affects my progression.

Bench Press

• 2x5x45 (warmup)
• 1x5x70
• 1x3x95
• 1x2x125
• 3x5x140

Here I felt strong. I don’t feel as near my “limit” as I do with squats. I was able to really power the 3 work sets, and didn’t even take a full 5 minutes rest before the last set. Felt no problem. I do feel I could jump up in greater than 5# increments, but there’s no real need to… it just means I’ll progress along this route longer, which is fine. Better to train well and recover and grow, than stall or overwork myself. One thing I really like about this program is how it works with ego. Oh sure, you could let your ego get greedy and jump up quickly in weights, but what does that gain you? you stall out faster. If you just to the program, be patient, you’ll get there — it has to be a long-term pursuit. You can always tell yourself that the weight numbers don’t matter… because you’ll get there, maybe not tomorrow, but you will, because that’s how the program works and the proof is in the pudding. It’s very cool.

Deadlift

• 2x5x95 (warmup)
• 1x3x105
• 1x2x150
• 1x5x180 (work)

The biggest thing I noticed here was my grip. First, I know the “right way” to grip is to acknowledge the weight is heavy, that it will hang down and end up in the “hook” of your fingers just due to gravity and the physiology of things. That also helps to avoid the pinch calluses that can form on the pads of your palms. However, I was a little too “hooky” with things and so the pads were still getting bunched up, just in another way and that didn’t let me have a full closed grip. I did a little more adjusting today so there’s still hook but the pad is a little more flat against the bar and I can get a more closed grip. This should serve me better.

This deadlift felt a little heavier, but good. I certainly felt worked here. I’ll do another 15# jump next week. I mentioned before that it bugs me that my deadlift is lagging behind my squat (since the deadlift should normally be more than the squat), but it makes sense when you consider the math (deadlift goes up 15#/week, squat is going up 30#/week). Like I said above, gotta put the ego away and just do the program. It should all even out. I’ll be more concerned, I guess, if numbers haven’t “normalized” say 2-3 months from now.

Commentary

If I total up my 3×5 work set weights, I’m doing 525# total. That’s not even 5RM or 1RM. In theory, my 1RM total would be around 600#. Kinda neat, and watching that number grow makes me keep thinking that yeah, joining the 1000# club  might be neat… just to say I can do it, because I’m only getting older, I obviously got a late start in life on strength training, and I can’t say if it’ll be something I can do at age 70 (tho, it’d be even cooler to do it then). Just one of those “hey, that’s cool” sorts of things.

Results are good. Strength goes up. Hypertrophy is up. And I’m just feeling really good in life, better than I’ve physically felt in a long time. I look forward to the gym. Heck, I just heard the gym will be closed Monday for the holiday and that news really sucked! How odd for me to feel that way… but I’ll go on Sunday instead, no big deal.

The journey of life is interesting, so long as you’re willing to make it so. 🙂