Basebuilding Squat Model 1 is always interesting.

It’s just a lot of work in a little bit of time. You’d think 5×5 may not be much, but when you have to crank to get the work within a time limit, and push as hard as you can all the way through (C.A.T.) oh yea, it’s work.

I went ahead and opted to keep that same pace throughout: about 1 minute rest between everything. That was enough. By the time I got to lunges I could tell my work capacity had decreased some, so it’ll take me a little bit to get back up there.

For the record, I’m experimenting with lunge stride. Today I kept the stride fairly short.

Oh, and I opted to have no knee sleeves nor belt. We’ll see how that goes for me.

• Squats
  • bar x 5
  • bar x 5
  • 150 x 5
  • 175 x 4
  • 205 x 3
  • 225 x 2
  • 260 x 1
  • 185 x 5
  • 185 x 5
  • 185 x 5
  • 185 x 5
  • 185 x 5
• Leg Press
  • 225 x 10
  • 315 x 10
  • 315 x 10
  • 315 x 10
• Lunges
  • bw x 10e
  • bw x 10e
  • bw x 10e
  • bw x 10e

Opted to start with Basebuilding, because I might as well get rolling.

All in all it went about as expected. Didn’t hit 5×8, but that’s alright — so long as there’s progression over the coming weeks. It all feels like where it should be to start out.

I still remain impressed by how much side laterals, when I tilt my hands forward (like pouring out a pitcher), hits my traps.

One non-evident thing is rest periods. Given the nature of things I want more rest, but I’m going to try it across the board. So heavy sets, light sets, about 2 minutes. Strive to hit as best as possible, as heavy as possible, as many reps as appropriate. So like on the extensions, 12-20 reps, and that each set is hard within those limits. I want to see what it does for me.

Anyways, off we go.

• Bench Press
  • bar x 5
  • 120 x 5
  • 140 x 4
  • 165 x 3
  • 180 x 2
  • 205 x 1
  • 180 x 8
  • 180 x 8
  • 180 x 8
  • 180 x 4
  • 180 x 4
• Incline Press
  • 135 x 8
  • 135 x 7
  • 135 x 5
• Side Laterals
  • 20e x 10
  • 20e x 10
  • 20e x 10
  • 20e x 10
• Overhead Extensions
  • 40 x 20
  • 45 x 20
  • 45 x 12
  • 40 x 12

Just went for it, because I could. 375 is still a ways from where I want to be, but it’s better than where I’ve been recently.

Today is supposed to be “Back, Light”, but I’ve had so much fun this past week figuring out EDM’s for bench press and squat that I figured why not: let’s do deadlift.

So I did my deadlift work-up, breaking slightly from the programming. Got up to 375 and that felt sufficient — form just started to break down, but it still went up fine. I know I had more in me, if I was to go for a true 1RM, but again this isn’t determining a 1RM but an EDM that I can plug into the upcoming programming. And when I think about it, deadlift basebuilding model 1 is working up to 80% for 5×3, which would be 300#. Given how 290 for 2 and the prior weeks have felt, I think 300x5x3 will be perfect.

375 is far off from where I was, but it’s interesting to me. In all of this fat loss I’ve lost strength, but oddly my upper body strength has been mostly stagnant and arguably I’ve gained a little bit. But my lower body has lost a lot, especially my deadlift. Why? I’m not entirely sure. I did think about it today and think that part of it is due to a change in deadlift technique — trying to lift more with my legs than my back (I’ve a strong back, relative to my legs). Regardless, while it’s a ways from where I was (very far, compared to how “off” my other lifts are), it feels good — including my chronic knee issues. Hate to say it, but I believe (tho have no way to say for sure) that single-leg work has contributed to helping my knees: split squats, bulgarian split squats, lunges, etc. all bodyweight, for lots of reps, 4-5 sets. So bottom line is that I’m feeling overall better, and I’ll get to where I want to be in time. Patience. Work.

Then I just did chins and some curls to finish out the day. Chins — I was hoping for 10, but rep 9 barely got chin to bar. Still, it’s progress for me. And chins are going to continue to be part of my programming, so I’ll get there soon. 🙂 In fact, losing weight will be a big help towards achieving this!

So since I have EDMs figured out, what now? Do I deload next week? Do I get into the basebuilding? Part of me is all excited and wants to get to basebuilding. But part of me thinks that I should deload — mostly due to work-related stress. But I think I’d rather work to manage that and just hit it next week. 🙂

• Deadlift
  • 185 x 5
  • 225 x 4
  • 255 x 3
  • 290 x 2
  • 320 x 1
  • 345 x 1
  • 375 x 1
• Chin-up
  • bw x 9
  • bw x 5
  • bw x 3
  • bw x 3
  • bw x 3
• DB Curls
  • 20e x 15
  • 25e x 15
  • 30e x 10
  • 30e x 10, then ran the rack down to the 15’s

Back over 300… happy about that.

So again, I’m trying to establish some “maxes” so I can figure out programming for the next cycle. Established program would have had me work up to 285 today, but last night before bed I figured might as well go for 300 since I’ll be so close. I want to get back over that mark.

On the way to the gym I changed my mind. Opted instead of 270/275/280 to go 275/295/305. Why not?

And it went quite well. 275 felt easy. 295 had a little slowdown midway up, but I knew it was happening and I could do 305. And the 305 had a little slowdown right at mid-point as well, but got through it without problem. It didn’t feel at all like a grind, just a bit of a sticking point. So I feel fine using 185 (60%) for my 5×5’s on basebuilding. In fact, because I’m sticking at the midpoint, one thing that helps is dealing with pushing through and really accelerating the whole way — that is what Basebuilding (and C.A.T.) directly works on, so this should be good.

And I actually felt like if I was trying to work for a true 1RM, I could have hit 315 and maybe… maybe even a bit more given how the 305 went up. But again, this wasn’t about trying to find a true 1RM, just a good “working max”.

So I’m pretty happy with this. That puts me well within reach of breaking my all-time best squat — the sort of thing where I could probably program out a proper Strong-15 cycle and beat it. That is, if I was in fact able to do that. But with the cut diet starting, again my goal is to just maintain my strength so at the end of the cycle (after a little replenishment), I can get on track for my 3/4/5 goal. I’m pretty happy with all of this, and just have to remind myself for the next few months to keep working towards that and give it my all.

Because that’s something else today (and days like today) keep telling me — especially about my squat. Any time I “get serious” because I’m doing something like going for a 1RM, I find myself getting a little more serious under the bar. Why? It’s not that I shouldn’t get serious, but more that I should be that serious every time I get under the bar. Granted, we might have up and down days, but overall I should approach the bar every time like it’s going for a 1RM, like it’s working to set a new PR. That everything shoul be totally dialed in, tight as can be, all that same intensity. I just don’t always do it for whatever reason.

But hey, today was pretty solid and I’m happy. I’m happy to be back over 300.

• Squats
  • 150 x 5
  • 175 x 4
  • 205 x 3
  • 230 x 2
  • 275 x 1
  • 295 x 1
  • 305 x 1
• Smith Machine Hacks
  • 45 x 10
  • 95 x 10
  • 115 x 10
  • 135 x 10
• Leg Press
  • 135 x 10
  • 225 x 10
  • 315 x 10
  • 365 x 10
• Split Squats
  • bw x 20
  • bw x 15
  • bw x 15
  • bw x 12

This was a good day.

So I’m coming to the 3rd and final week/iteration of the LRB template. Tomorrow I start on another cutting diet cycle, so I’ll finish out this iteration then change up. More on this below.

But with that change, I wanted to establish some EDMs for the next cycle. So that’s the order of today, and each “heavy” day remaining in this cycle.

Here on day 1-A “Press, Heavy”, I’m supposed to do overheads first, but I opted to bench first. I also opted to take a little more rest between sets (2-3 minutes instead of 1 minute). I did my normal work up, but everything felt good. Tight, explosive, good leg drive. Really, everything felt so damn good today. So while I was originally going to do the programmed work up then just keep going, I opted to just adjust the singles. I figured if I could do a crisp 240, that’d be good enough for programming.

And I did that, no problem. Sure the bar speed was slow, but it wasn’t a grind. Did I have more in me? Yes. I’m sure I could have worked up to a 250-255 for a grinder, and after I got up I actually thought to myself “Man, I should (could) have gone for 2”. And I would have made it. BUT, that’s not the point of what I was trying to do. This isn’t out to establish a 1RM, it’s out to establish an EDM that I can use for the next programming cycle. 240 was solid… and doing some calculations, how I felt, etc… I do feel I got a little stronger based upon the numbers I started out with. Not huge, maybe 5#, but 5# more is 5# more. I’ll take it on this short, non-peaking, cycle.

Thing is, everything continued to move well. The BHP was programmed to be first, totally fresh, but even after benching I still hit the programming here. Granted, I took 2 minute rests, but still.

Upright rows, extensions… they were what they were. What I find cool is the 20 rep stuff. Which brings to me some assessment of this LRB template.

I don’t think the LRB template is ideal for me — at least right now. I like that I do NOT feel all that beat up, yet I still seem to be making progress, just slow progress. It’s programming that serves two masters: strength and size, and while that’s workable, you’ll never progress as fast as if you serve one master. That said, I could see using a template like this when I had no particular goals in mind other than “just keep getting bigger, just keep getting stronger”.

The template also taught me a few things, especially about higher reps. That I really need to push myself further, beyond. When my muscles and brain start to scream to stop, keep going. Maybe take 1-2 seconds to let the burn fade, but there’s still a lot of capability left in there, so keep pressing forward. When truly the muscle fails, THEN you can stop — and that point is much further along than you think. You just don’t get to this when you’re doing sub-10 reps.

I also think that while I may not normally program out to 20 reps, I think 12-20 range may be good for me. Later on in this cut cycle I will go towards more hypertrophy-oriented programming, and there I think 12-20 will do me good. But I will hit it a little different than I have been. Basically if I’m doing 5×12-20, pick a weight were first set hits 20 but second set gets maybe 18-20, and down from there — something a bit heavier. For now to get me used to and up there I’ve been doing lighter stuf and that first set doesn’t kill me: I want the first set to be hard to get 20, and downwards from there.

So what next?

Again, I start a cut cycle diet tomorrow. I’m about 212 this morning — I’m bloated after a (final) weekend of enjoying myself. Been hovering 209-212 depending how much I cheat. The goal is 190 in about 3-4 months, which should be do-able as long as I put the work in.

I’m going to finish out this LRB cycle (this week and next), then I’m going to switch to a Basebuilding model. That should be good for moderately heavy weights, higher reps, more volume — all good things for the cut, and good to start with that while I still have a reasonable food intake. The plan is to stick with that at least 6 weeks, then I’ll decide what to do next depending upon what I need to support the cut. I will stick with 3x/week for now, only going to 4x when/if I need to. I do hope to maintain strength, which should be manageable the shorter I keep the cut — the longer it goes, the more I’ll lose, which is motivation for me to bust ass and drop things quickly and steadily (2#/week would be great).

• Bench Press
  • bar x 5
  • 125 x 5
  • 145 x 4
  • 170 x 3
  • 185 x 2
  • 205 x 1
  • 225 x 1
  • 240 x 1
• Behind-the-neck Press (seated, Smith machine)
  • bar x 5
  • 65 x 5
  • 95 x 5
  • 125 x 5
  • 125 x 5
  • 125 x 5
• Upright Rows
  • 90 x 10
  • 90 x 10
  • 90 x 10
  • 90 x 10
  • 90 x 8
• Overhead Extensions
  • 40 x 20
  • 40 x 20
  • 40 x 20
  • 40 x 15
  • 40 x 15

After the “adventure” that was yesterday, today is starting off really well.

Deadlifts went well. First set felt like “oh, this is going to suck”, but second set was awesome and it just went well from there. The last pull was a little off, but not really. Thing is, I’m finding myself trying to get a better groove in my pulls — more of that “pushing the floor away from you” sort of thing. I’m finding that I’m doing a better job at being “centered” and pulling whole-body, not just with my back (which is stronger, relative to everything else). The bar path is a bit better, closer to the body, scraping my shins — it’s good. But that last pull kinda reverted to my old form, so it felt like a “bad pull”. And afterwards I realized I double-overhanded it too… which wasn’t my plan but I did and was happy with. Goes to show how much I’ve been away from deadlifting.

Chins were awesome. I got 8 on my first set — I’ve never done that. 10 is within reach.

Good mornings still feel awkward to me, but I might be starting to get it. Going to 165 felt too heavy, but in doing so I got a better feel for perhaps how things should be going. Plus you really do appreciate that there’s a LOT of abs involved here. I’m semi-tempted to keep doing GM’s, just to try to get better at them and see what they can do for me.

So, really a good day. More reps all around, more weight. Geez, I can’t complain.

AND… I start my cut on Tuesday. I’m looking forward to it in terms of the recomp, but not in terms of the forthcoming 3-4 months of perpetual hunger. But I know it’s for a short time, it’ll be awesome at the end, and then at the end I’ll get to start on a bigger path — about which I’m very excited.

• Deadlift
• 185 x 5
• 225 x 4
• 255 x 3
• 290 x 2
• 315 x 1
• 320 x 1
• 340 x 1
• Chin Up
• bw x 8
• bw x 5
• bw x 3
• bw x 3
• bw x 3
• Good Mornings
• 95 x 5
• 135 x 5
• 165 x 5
• BB Curls
• 45 x 20
• 45 x 20
• 45 x 15
• 45 x 12
• 45 x 12

I do like pause squats.

Gah — did I just say I like squatting? I guess the day was coming. 🙂

Simple enough. Did my thing. Pause squats went well — and I really find they help me drill in form and technique more than regular squatting. A hint for myself I guess.

Very high rep sets are killer… painful.

No lunges. Yesterday I started having some foot pains, cramping. Between that and the lack of sleep I’ve been getting, I figured to not dig my recovery hole any deeper and just skipped them.

• Pause Squats
  • 135 x 5
  • 165 x 4
  • 185 x 3
  • 205 x 3
  • 215 x 3
• Leg Extensions
  • 60 x 30
  • 60 x 26
  • 60 x 20
  • 60 x 17
  • 60 x 16
• Leg Curls
  • 25 x 20
  • 25 x 20
  • 25 x 17
  • 25 x 16

Like it or not, I’m learning something.

So this LRB template is alright, but I don’t think it’s an ideal setup for me. There’s a lot of good I’m getting from it. For example, that crazy trap pump? The lateral raises — never did them for 20 reps, and really pushed hard to get those reps. Never thought lat raises would hit the traps so well either.

I’m finding that isolation stuff up to 20 reps is working well, and that I need to push harder. That I’ll feel a point where my body wants to stop, and I should stop — just for 1-2 seconds — then keep going. If I do that, it’s still good progress and gets by that burn, and I can see there’s still more gas in the tank. There certainly comes a point where I truly cannot move the weight any more and THEN I can stop. I just don’t always care for super-high-rep sets, so yeah, I’m learning something.

Another thing is that perhaps longer rest periods have their place, even if I’m trying for hypertrophy. Traditionally the notion is about 1 minute max of rest between sets. Well, when I was doing Inception, Paul would have 2-3 minutes sometimes even between higher-rep sets. There was something to that. Today, a few of the sets wound up being like 50% sets — I pushed to failure on 1 set, then the next set I only got 50% after only 1 minute of rest. It’s kinda akin to the 350 method approach. So, some interesting insight, that sometimes with the higher stuff, to get that level of volume in, a little more rest would be OK.

But I’m also finding this specific template layout isn’t for me. I’ve said before that I get a lot of “push” work but not a lot of chest work.

Anyways, it’s been good for what it is, and I think I can take something from the theory and structure.

Going forward tho… I’ve only got about a week left before starting the cut diet again. I’ll finish out this template for the remaining 2 weeks (after this week), and after that I don’t know. I’m flip-flopping between doing a Basebuilding approach or just going right into a mass building type of program. What hit me is that I’ve been doing a lot of pre-set programs, which has been good because it forces me to try things I may not normally try and thus I learn from it. So it’s all good. But I know that after I finish this cut, I want to stop all the boy recomp and work towards my 3/4/5 goal — and that is likely to be nothing but pre-set programs (I’m strongly considering going back to 5/3/1). So part of me is thinking that I’d like to have some free-form fun — just know that today I’m working X and just do whatever. Yeah there’ll be some structure of course, but I’d like to just fully create my own things. Not sure.. still tossing around the notions. I’ve got a couple weeks yet to figure it out.

• Seated DB Press
  • 15e x 20
  • 20e x 20
  • 25e x 20
  • 30e x 20
  • 30e x 12
  • 30e x 9
• Incline Bench
  • 75 x 20
  • 75 x 10
  • 65 x 10
• DB Lat Raises
  • 10e x 20
  • 10e x 20
  • 10e x 20
  • 10e x 20
  • 10e x 16
• Pushdowns
  • 40 x 20
  • 40 x 20
  • 40 x 20
  • 40 x 16
  • 40 x 12

A “light back/pull” day it was.

So the RDL’s I went light on, trying to just make sure I’m getting form right. Am I? Well, I believe I’m doing it like everyone says to, but I just don’t “feel” it. I feel like I want to or should go lower, but then it starts to get into stiff-leg territory, tho I know that’s a different movement — that’s more back hinge than a hip thrust. Still….

Otherwise, things are what they are. Lots and lots of reps….

I’m not 100% sure how well it all goes for me here. I do appreciate this template because while I do get mighty sore, I’m not feeling as beat-up. Is that so much the template? or that I only hit the gym now 3x and keeping the sessions to about an hour (but working hard for that hour). Dunno.

But anyways… 209 this morning. Weight is holding steady as it should. The cut starts again soon….

• Romanian Deadlifts
  • 135 x 5
  • 135 x 5
  • 185 x 5
  • 185 x 5
  • 225 x 5
  • 225 x 5
• Cable Rows
  • 70 x 20
  • 80 x 20
  • 90 x 20
  • 100 x 13
  • 100 x 11
• Hyperextensions
  • bw x 15
  • bw x 12
  • bw x 10
  • bw x 10
• DB Curls
  • 20e x ??? (I was distracted blew my count, so I just kept going until I couldn’t)
  • 25e x 15
  • 30x x 10

You know, it’s all good until the split squats. Those just suck. 🙂

That groove-finding with my squat, in terms of speed, is coming along. Not too slow, not too fast. Finding what’s right for me in terms of how fast I go down so that the hole and direction change still gets some stretch-reflex but isn’t some massive momentum change. I’m also finding myself being a little more upright and my quads are getting more into it than hip drive — and certainly, I can find myself making a conscious effort to drive from hips or quads, it’s kinda cool.

The smith hacks continue to be interesting… not really sure if they’re getting me anything.

But split squats… these are a motherfucker. I hate ’em. But they are very good for me; I can’t deny that.

In other news, it looks like just a couple more weeks of enjoyment, then it’s back on the cut diet. I’m hovering in the 210 range right now, and we’re going to work down to the 190 range, so probably 3-4 months. Personally I want it closer to 3 as 4 starts to sacrifice other things. So, this times out pretty decent with the template I’m on. I’ll finish out the full 6-week cycle of LRB here but what to do after that I’ve only started to think about. I certainly want to stay on 3x/week as that’s providing me better recovery — and with the stress at work right now, I need all the recovery and sleep I can get. I thought I might try 4-6 weeks of a Base Building type approach, of moderate weights and higher reps, especially while I still have a decent food intake. Then shift to whatever diet dicates later on.

We’ll see.

Ah food… you were fun while you lasted. 😉

• Squats
  • 150 x 5
  • 175 x 4
  • 205 x 3
  • 230 x 2
  • 245 x 1
  • 270 x 1
  • 275 x 1
• Smith Machine Hack Squats
  • bar x 10
  • 95 x 10
  • 115 x 10
  • 135 x 10
• Leg Press
  • 135 x 10
  • 225 x 10
  • 275 x 10
  • 315 x 10
• Split Squats
  • bw x 20
  • bw x 20
  • bw x 12
  • bw x 12