Enter. PR. Exit.

Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 17, week 3

• Work Set – Deadlift (working max: 365#)
  • 1x5x150 (warmup)
  • 1x5x185
  • 1x3x225
  • 1x5x275 (work)
  • 1x3x315
  • 1x5x350 (PR)

I have an early meeting this morning. So I did jack shit.

That’s a nice PR. Last cycle was 5 reps at 340#, so to get 5 reps and 10# increase? Hell yes I’ll take it. Plus, I’m really beat up. My left shoulder has been bugging me as it is, and I think when I dumped/rolled the bar off my shoulders/neck on Monday’s squat session, I must have aggrevated something because my body has been unhappy with me in the shoulder/neck region ever since. It’s better, but constantly aches and is tough to even lift my arm. Won’t keep me from deadlifting. 🙂 But tomorrow’s Pressing? We’ll see how that goes.

Given that, next week is deload week and I think I’m going to do a serious deload. I might hit the gym only twice, and do like a Monday squat/bench very light and minimal, Thursday deadlift/press light and minimal. Else rest rest rest and basic recovery work, like rolling, stretching, etc..

Oh… my new belt from BestBelts came in, and I used it this morning. It’s the Athlete belt, single prong, royal blue, 36″. Of course it’s a little stiff, but today was a good way to start the break-in. 🙂

I felt like I was in a Tex Avery cartoon. *sigh*

Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 17, week 3

• Work Set – Bench Press (working max: 230#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x95
  • 1x5x115
  • 1x3x140
  • 1x5x175 (work)
  • 1x3x200
  • 1x5x220
• Assistance – Bench Press
  • 5 x 10 x 135
• Assistance – Pendlay Rows
  • 5 x 10 x 115

You ever watch those Tex Avery cartoons where you see the line of army men marching in precision? Then the camera pans down to their legs and it looks like a drunken octopus orgy? Yeah, that’s what I felt like today. 🙂

I just didn’t have my legs under me today, figuratively and literally. I thought I had figured out my leg position, but alas not. I did find myself pushing into the pad differently, mostly because I’m trying to have a good arch without lifting my butt, shoulders locked in, etc.. I thought this was foot position? Do a set… no, that wasn’t right. Tweak feet. Set. No. Tweak. Etc.. Finally on my last set, it felt like that Tex Avery cartoon with my legs not giving me anything: no stability, no drive, just flailing around on their own looking stupid.

WTF?

Back to the drawing board.

I will say I felt one thing. I have a little more external hip rotation than normal. Thus, I want to “point in” a little more to help leverages naturally negate that. Well, I think I took too narrow a stance, and in trying to point my toes forward to get better drive, I lost that natural negating and thus a bunch of stability. I may need to actually pigeon-toe myself slightly. Will have to play with this and see.

I’m not unhappy with 5 reps @ 220, but I had problems. Must do better.

A PR, a miss, and I think I learned more from missing than PR’ing.

Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 17, week 3

• Work Set – Squat (working max: 295#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x120
  • 1x5x150
  • 1x3x180
  • 1x5x225 (work)
  • 1x3x255
  • 1x2x285 (PR)
  • Hold 315 for 10 seconds
• Assistance – Squat
  • 5 x 10/10/8/8/8 x 150
• Assistance – Leg Curls
  • 4 x 12 x 60
• Foam Rolling

I PR’d. I hit 285#, for 2 reps. Never done that weight (or reps) in my life. How cool! 300# is within reach, and 315# before the end of the year looks do-able.

But I only got 2 reps.

255 felt heavy. I think it started there… in my head. Seeds of doubt sown. *sigh*

I told myself all I need is 1 rep with 285.

I put the bar on my back, deep breath, tighten everything, lift out of the rack…. shit, that’s heavy — another seed.

I go down, and stand up. It was tough, but it was there. Yes! Set a PR. Everything else is gravy.

Go again… but this was much harder to get up. It was a struggle. But I got up. Stood there, got my wind. Fuck it… let’s try for 3, what’s the worst that can happen? I don’t come up.

And sure enough, I go down, and I didn’t come up. I tried, instant-fail. Couldn’t get out of the hole.

The only thing that caught me? How to get this off my back? Roll down my back or over my head? Well, gravity and the physics of my position dictated over my head. So I dropped down as much as I could, curled myself into a ball and let the bar roll over my head onto the rails.

And I didn’t care.

In fact, one thing I’m starting to do, at least at the end of my 5/3/1 work sets, is to put a larger weight on the bar and then just hold it. Just put it on my shoulders, unrack, walk out, hold it for like 10 seconds, then rack it. Just feel that weight, and realize that the weight you just did was lighter, and the weight you’ll do next is also lighter.

And I made sure I still did this. Still get up. Still get back under the bar. Keep moving forward.

It’s interesting to me because squats have been my least favorite movement. I still can’t say I love them, but I cannot deny I’ve spent the past few days looking forward to today’s effort. There’s been a lot of baggage to overcome, fears, stupid shit in my head… of getting hurt, of failure, of whatever. But some months ago I started to realize it didn’t matter because the worst thing is that you miss… and so what? And that’s exactly how it happened today. I missed, so what. It was truly no big deal. I didn’t quit, I didn’t give up, the bar was just too heavy, it didn’t happen.

Oh sure, I think I wasn’t quite in the mental groove, but even then I’m sure I would have only gotten 3, maybe 4 if I really was on fire. And that mental is something that will take nothing but time under the bar to improve upon.

But today’s miss was my first squat miss — ever. I never allowed myself to miss in the past, for whatever reason…. fear of failure, fear of injury, fear of pushing myself that hard, fear of the opinions of others, whatever reason. But today? I missed, and it didn’t matter. All it means is for cycle 18 I’ll stay at this work weight and work towards rep PR’s. No big deal.

OK… there is one big deal. My ribs hurt, from when I got bent over so much and my belt dug into me. It might be a 2-Advil kind of day. 🙂 and yes, I really would love it if the gym would buy a proper power rack and not what it has… could have set the catch-pins at a proper height (for me). Oh well, I won’t complain too much.

Otherwise, just continuing my “regression” back to a pure BBB template and enjoying that.

Already starting to plan out cycle 18.

Less continues to be more.

Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 17, week 2

• Work Set – Press (working max: 150#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x60
  • 1x5x75
  • 1x3x90
  • 1x3x105 (work)
  • 1x3x120
  • 1x8x135
• Assistance – Press
  • 5 x 10 x 75
• Assistance – Pull-ups (band assisted)
  • 5 x 7 x BW

Less is more. Continuing the pullback to a strictly BBB approach. I like it… tho I still cranked out just a single high-rep set of the shoulder pulls and tricep pushdowns at the end… like 20+ reps, just to get some blood in there. But otherwise, pull back to BBB strictnesss.

So with that, I felt fun about getting the 8×135. Last week I did the same, tho I was only supposed to do 130. But these reps were better.. a little less “body english” on the last couple reps, and I just felt technique and form locking in place here. Full body, all tight, all pushing… my form is starting to come together here.

So all is good. Just enjoyed the workout today.

I am looking forward to next week… PR time!

More simplification

Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 17, week 2

• Work Set – Deadlift (working max: 365#)
  • 1x5x150 (warmup)
  • 1x5x185
  • 1x3x225
  • 1x3x260 (work)
  • 1x3x295
  • 1x6x335
• Assistance – Deadlifts
  • 5 x 5 x 185
• Assistance – Hanging Knee Raises
  • 3 x 5 x BW

I don’t know what to make of it, but I feel so damn strong when I lift. My lifts are just going up up up… if you compare them against last cycle and cycles before, there’s just big improvements in both weight lifted and reps lifted. Like last cycle, one month ago on “cycle 16-2, week 2” I did 325 for 6… now I did 335 for 6. I don’t know what to attribute it to, but I’m kinda leaning on Carb Back-loading. Having enough energy from the evening’s load, then in the morning it’s a fasted workout: just some water and 200mg of caffeine. Huzzah.

I feel well on track for a nice PR next week.

As for assistance work… again, because I called that audible and am trying 4x week, I’m reverting back to a more BBB-stricter template. My deads today? For some reason I just opted to do them explosively.. like I was trying to jump. That made a big difference. I felt it a lot in my posterior chain (my glutes felt things I haven’t felt before), and my posture and form was kinda cool. I think it’s the cue… instead of “pick this thing up off the floor”, I’m thinking more about jumping and trying to touch the ceiling. It’s different cues, different body positions and body response. I kinda like how things went and am going to explore this more. Probably read some more about Westside, deadlifting, and dynamic effort to try to refine this a bit. Not that I’m trying to do Westside or ME/DE, just maybe to help find some cues, find what weight I should use for optimum results, etc..

I also tried Hanging Leg/Knee Raises again… I referred to the Wendler book. And I knew that wasn’t a wise choice, what with my shoulder issues. I did a few, stopped before my shoulder hated me too much. I need to find something else.

I can’t wait for next week. I will set a true PR, and very much looking forward to that. I hope I’ll have my new BestBelt as well!

The more I do, the less I do.

Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 17, week 2

• Work Set – Bench Press (working max: 230#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x95
  • 1x5x115
  • 1x3x140
  • 1x3x165 (work)
  • 1x3x185
  • 1x6x210
• Assistance – Bench Press
  • 5 x 10 x 135
• Assistance – Pendlay Row
  • 5 x 12/12/10/10/10 x 115
• Assistance – Stuff
  • JM Press
  • Hammer Curls
  • 1 set, light weight, as many reps as I could muster (didn’t count, but somewhere in the teens I’m sure)

As I’m doing this 4x week thing, I’m finding myself wanting to pare back my sessions from what I was doing 3x week. Things are taking on a more true “BBB” template style.

I felt really good with my benching today, despite my head being elsewhere.. but at least this elsewhere was good stuff and exciting stuff. No, it wasn’t a PR, but looking at past numbers both before and after my technique change and this was good.

In terms of back work then, I figured rows would be the right thing. Keep things in the same plane as bench press. But I’m kinda tired of dumbbell rows so why not a barbell instead. And not just any flavor of rowing, but Pendlay. Why that version? Mostly because of the straight and flat back approach to things, and because of the “from a dead stop on the floor” approach. The gym happens to have a set of 10# bumper plates, so I used those to give me good spacing off the floor. Added then a 25# on each side, there’s the 115#, and away I went. Boy, I could feel it in my lats… which is a big reason for this flavor of row. I’m sold.

I couldn’t not do a little arm pumping tho. 🙂 But I just picked 1 exercise, light-ish weight, and just cranked out as many reps as I could… didn’t really care what, just a lot (tho not like a 5# weight and I did 100 reps and gave up cause I was bored… no, I probably got somewhere in the 15-25 range somewhere… didn’t count, didn’t really care).

It’s always nice to keep it simple.

Oopf… some days you just don’t set yourself up for success, but things mostly work out. 🙂

Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 17, week 2

• Work Set – Squat (working max: 295#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x120
  • 1x5x150
  • 1x3x180
  • 1x3x210 (work)
  • 1x3x240
  • 1x4x270 (PR??)

Yesterday, the family went to the local Renaissance Faire. While not physically exhausting by any means, walking around all day, throwing axes, embarassing myself on the high striker, and well… when you structure your energy levels a certain way then do something different and expend what little reserves you already have (hadn’t had any real carbs since Friday morning) well…. that just set me up for being drained. I did have a funnel cake before we left, and ate some Buc-Ee’s Nug-Ee’s on the drive home… but that wasn’t enough. I also ended up crashing out on the couch for I don’t know how long, woke up and shuffled into the bed and proceeded to sleep 8 hours (maybe 10 hours total?). Didn’t eat a proper dinner, or pre-bedtime shake or anything because I was zonked. So uh…. yeah, not setting myself up for success. :-\

Thus today was a “jack shit” day because it was all I could muster. I probably could have done more squats and ab work, but I really didn’t feel like draining myself more than I already was.

As for the work I did do… is 4 reps of 270 a PR? Sorta. It wasn’t but cycle 15 when 270 was a PR and I got 3. Today I got 4 (5 was not going to happen). And I wasn’t even fully into it because of the physical factors, and I wasn’t very focused because I wasn’t able to unwind from yesterday and waking up barely in time to get to the gym (slept late!), I wasn’t able to get my brain ready for today either. So you know… hey… 4 reps and I wasn’t really there? Well, not ideal on paper, but in the greater context of it all, fine.

Next week… 285… that will be a true PR. That should kick ass. 🙂

Less is more?

Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 17, week 1

• Work Set – Press (working max: 150#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x60
  • 1x5x75
  • 1x3x90
  • 1x5x100 (work)
  • 1x5x115
  • 1x8x135
• Assistance – Press
  • 5 x 10/10/10/10/8 x 75
• Assistance – Stuff
  • Upright rows
  • Hammer Curls

So at the last minute I decided to try 4x week. I kinda like it… if nothing else, getting into the gym 4x a week is damn fun. More weights, that’s great!

And I just felt damn strong this morning. The 115 went up so easily. I think in part because I’m paying more attention to my Press form and especially breathing, and so I’m finding my groove better and so things are just moving. Heck, I was actually supposed to do 130 but I HATE 130… so many plates to fiddle with, and it’s just not as awesome as 135… I like the big wheels. 🙂 So fuck it, I felt good, I put 135 on the bar, and cranked out 8 reps. Looking back over my logs, I’m not sure if this really counts as a rep PR, but there’s no question my performance is improving compared to the past few cycles. So, awesome!

But with that, I started doing less.

I think it’s a combination of things.

First, if I am going 4x week, I think more volume and more work doesn’t serve me well. That’s more stress, more breakdown, more to recover from, and the frequency doesn’t lend to that, y’know? Second, my shoulder joints have been bugging me, and while I don’t think chins or anything like that caused it, I think they may not be lending to things healing up. So today I didn’t do chins, I didn’t do dips. Third, I’m finding that my assistance work and even my work sets are just more intense… maybe in part from CBL, maybe in part because I’m getting more mentally there into every rep that I squeeze more out, more intense, whatever. But it just feels like less is more. I only cranked out a couple sets of the rows/curls and didn’t really care much.

I might be falling back to a more strict BBB template.

I also think that I will not do chins on both pressing days. I’ll probably do chins on Press day and DB rows on Bench Press days. Kinda winging how this cycle evolves as I deal with my shoulder, CBL, and 4x week. As long as I’m seeing good progress on the main lift, that’s the key thing.

Meh….

Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 17, week 1

• Work Set – Deadlift (working max: 365#)
  • 1x5x150 (warmup)
  • 1x5x185
  • 1x3x225
  • 1x5x240 (work)
  • 1x5x275
  • 1x7x315
• Assistance – Deadlifts
  • 3 x 5 x 185
• Assistance – Pulldown Abs (kneeling)
  • 3 x 15 x 120 (1 second hold on each rep)

Today just didn’t do well. I had a lot of crap on my mind, totally distracted. I did my best to put it out my head, but I couldn’t… it was stuff I needed to think through and work through, so it just had to happen. Thus I wasn’t with it.

But it was what it was… and frankly getting 7×315 with a crappy workout is pretty good… imagine how it would have been if I was properly focused. 🙂

So it was what it was.

I also feel a need to scale back my work. If I’m doing this 4x week, I just feel I shouldn’t knock myself out with heavier and more volumous work, y’know?