Not going to the gym this week.

Last week I woke up questioning the need to roll to the gym. The last workout only got me through 2 sets of assistance work. Not that assistance is something to live and die by, but it’s evident I need a break.

2x/week is a nice template, and by design it doesn’t have a deload week. I don’t think I need to add in a formal deload week, but every so often I probably need one. Now is one of those times. When I start back up again next week, I’ll just start cycle 12 over.

That said tho, I did pick up something over the weekend, and if I can get to the store today to buy a few parts, I hope to start working with that this week. More later.

What was I thinking, increasing volume! 🙂

“Week 1”

• 5 reps – Deadlift (working max: 345#)
  • 1x5x140 (warmup)
  • 1x5x175
  • 1x3x210
  • 1x5x225 (work)
  • 1x5x260
  • 1x8x295

• 5 reps – Press (working max: 155#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x65
  • 1x5x80
  • 1x3x95
  • 1x5x100 (work)
  • 1x5x120
  • 1x7x135
• Asst. #1 – DB Rows
  • 2 x 10 x 80
• Asst. #2 – Pulldown Abs
  • 2 x 12 x 80
• Asst. #3 – Dips
  • 2 x 8 x BW (around 235)
• Asst. #4 – DB Hammer Curls
  • 2 x 10 x 30

I hit it pretty hard today, really went out on the deadlifts. I figure it’s a rep PR. I’ve been looking back over training logs and I see how many reps I did at X weight and I try to at least match tho prefer to exceed. I did that with deadlifts. I matched with Press. I wanted to exceed with press but it just wasn’t going to happen without blowing things out.

Then I hit assistance work and geez… after 2 sets my body said enough. I could have pushed through and done a third set, but it’s about being submaximal, about less is more, and geez… it’s assistance work. Not going to sweat it.

Going to 4 sets on assistance… what was I thinking? 🙂

Sometimes you just gotta listen to your body.

“Week 1”

• 5 reps – Squat (working max: 280#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x115
  • 1x5x140
  • 1x3x170
  • 1x5x185 (work)
  • 1x5x215
  • 1x7x240

• 5 reps – Bench Press (working max: 225#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x95
  • 1x5x115
  • 1x3x135
  • 1x5x150 (work)
  • 1x5x170
  • 1x9x195
• Asst. #1 – Lat pulldowns (pronated grip, hands just wider than shoulder-width apart)
  • 3 x 10 x 130
• Asst. #2 – Back Raises (hands behind head)
  • 3 x 15 x BW
• Asst. #3 – DB Bench Press
  • 3 x 10 x 120
• Asst. #4 – Face Pulls
  • 3 x 12 x 80/70/70

Today was pretty good. I realized that my head wasn’t in it… but it wasn’t somewhere else either. I was just “there” and that lack of too much thinking one way or the other was good. 🙂

While squatting I found myself still falling forward out of the hole. I was trying to get back to thinking about driving my head into the bar but trying not to forget about the big belly breath and pushing hard into my belt, and well… trying to do both I ended up half-assing both. I need to pick one, and I think it needs to be the belly breath since that really tightens up the torso and should have residual help with the head. But still, felt alright with how things went. I wanted to do 7 and got 7. Basically, I wanted improvement over whatever I had done before with 240, and I did that.

Bench was good too. Working on my placement of my body on the bench, for better leg drive. Wasn’t as stable today as I was last week, but I’ll keep experimenting until I find my spot. I set a goal of 8 reps with 195 and got 9, so I’m happy.

Then… I called an audible.

Whatever I did in my shoulder/upper back last week, it’s mostly gone but I can still wake up in the morning and feel something. While I’ve been working on it, it’s still there and I opted to not push it. So I decided to do lat pulldowns instead of chins. But I also opted to vary it and try pronated grip. I took a grip that was natural — drop your arms at your side, then just bend at the elbow. I find my thumbs end up spaced just on the outside of my shoulders. So that’s the grip I took. Just natural grip. I had no idea what weight to use, just picked 130, but that was good enough for my needs today.

I also had been thinking about doing 4 sets, but after the first set thought no, just stick with 3. I think it was a combination of things. First, I could feel it and knew 3 would be enough and 4 would probably be too much. Well, Wendler is about working submaximally so you can have continual gains for a longer period of time. I was also reading a bunch of DoggCrapp stuff this past weekend and you can tell Dante is about doing more with less. Granted, I’m not doing DC stuff at all, but I am seeing fair gains the past few weeks. So what if I don’t feel pumped to the max when I leave the gym? I’m apparently getting good results, so why screw with it? Why risk working myself too much, screwing up recovery, and stalling or regressing? Screw it. Stick with 3.

But I did also opt to NOT do chins while I squat. The only reason I did that was for volume since I can’t do many chins, but again, if I can keep doing what I’m doing, with the assistance work being a “circuit” and really pushing that fast and hard? eh…. the lat pulldowns will make up for it for a bit.

I am thinking after this cycle I might take a week off as as “Jack shit deload”. But we’ll see at the end of the cycle. 🙂 Yes, feeling a little bit beat up. Tossed around the idea before I left for the gym this morning, but no… now is not the time nor proper motivational reason. It should be calculated, not just because I’m dragging.

Feels so good to set personal records.

“Week 3”

• 5/3/1 – Deadlift (working max: 335#)
  • 1x5x135 (warmup)
  • 1x5x170
  • 1x3x205
  • 1x5x255 (work)
  • 1x3x290
  • 1x7x320 (PR)

• 5/3/1 – Press (working max: 150#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x60
  • 1x5x75
  • 1x3x90
  • 1x5x115 (work)
  • 1x3x130
  • 1x5x145 (PR)
• Asst. #1 – DB Rows
  • 3 x 10 x 75
• Asst. #2 – Pulldown Abs
  • 3 x 12 x 70
• Asst. #3 – Dips
  • 3 x 7 x BW
• Asst. #4 – DB Hammer Curls
  • 3 x 10/10/6 x 30

They might only be rep PR’s, but they are PR’s nonetheless. On deadlift, 320 is the most weight I’ve lifted period, but I did it for 3 reps back in cycle 8, so today’s PR is pretty good. In fact, what makes it really awesome is last week I could only muster 7 reps at 305… today 15# more and same reps, and I felt like I had a couple left in the tank. What’s the difference? I’m not really sure. I got a lot of rest yesterday (tho last night’s sleep wasn’t too good because of people shooting off fireworks until the wee hours). I’m also putting some more of Andy Bolton’s suggestions into play, the biggest of which is take that deep belly breath then push your abs like hell into your belt… really really push, not just “tighten up”. That seemed to help and the pulls felt really light. That first rep felt like air and I knew I’d be able to zoom along. I’m thrilled, and next cycle it’ll be pure PR’s.

Press was alright, and I’m happy with the performance today, but I continue to have weird issues with getting dizzy. I get under the bar, I get ready to lift it off, I inhale, lift off, step back, and then my head gets all swimmy and vision “blacks out” if you will. It goes away as soon as I stop holding my breath, but it’s scary when you have all this weight in your hands or on your back. But I started trying what I do when I squat, which is get fully ready to lift off, then breathe, quickly lift off (don’t rush, but don’t waste any time), step back, then stay tense and take another breath, then start the movement. That helps, but it’s hard to keep tight during that breath… something to work on.

On assistance work, I think 12 reps is my groove for pulldown abs. It seems to work stuff because I finally felt some ab work today, but it’s not so much that my elbows get ugly with me. I also moved my hand position to have my palms basically facing my shoulders (hands are essentially as supinated as I can get them, on the rope) and that seems to help a bit too. I also changed up the hammer curls. Until today I did them alternating: right arm up and down, then left arm up and down, etc.. Now I’ll do them simultaneously. Just takes too long the other way and breathing is always funky.

Really nice way to end this cycle.

And yes, it also confirmed my desire to go to 4 sets of assistance work because 3 just gets me there. I may regret it, but I won’t know until I try.

Geez… I’ve been doing Wendler 5/3/1 for 12 cycles now… well, about to start my 12th.

I actually will have been doing Wendler for a year come August, and I’ll look back on that year then. But right now I wanted to look at some current things.

My shoulder/upper back/neck feels better since whatever I did to it on Monday. It’s been a lot of stretching, getting Wife to walk on my back, twisting, Aleve, and every so often getting a pop and crack in my upper back or neck and that makes things a little better.

As I start this 12th cycle, I’m going to bump up the assistance volume a bit, adding a 4th set. I am taking a bit more of a bodybuilder type of approach here, dropping weight down but picking reps up and reducing rest. Yes, work for the pump. I feel like 3 sets just gets me started and stopping after the 3rd set isn’t giving me enough, so let’s try adding a 4th and see what happens. And I think dips are doing wonders for my upper body as I’ve seen an increase in upper body mass from the past few weeks. Sweet.

Because… while I enjoy my strength going up and still wish to primarily focus on that, I think for me to go much further I need to do two things: decrease my fat mass and increase my muscle mass. Increase of muscle mass is primary.

I have been thinking about some sort of increased conditioning, especially since I’m only hitting the gym twice a week. I’d love a Prowler, but 1. the cost, 2. I think running it up and down my street will annoy my neighbors a little too much. So a sled would be cheaper, but I think still have the noise. So I’m wondering about getting a used tire and making my own sled from it, which should be less expensive and while making noise I reckon rubber on pavement will be less noise than a steel plate on pavement. I reckon if I could drag a sled a couple of times a week, keep my diet the same, that should be sufficient.

Just need to see where I can get a good tire on the cheap or free.

I have also been thinking longer term, about switching up the program entirely and trying to have a solid focus on things like purely fat loss or purely muscle mass gain. But, I don’t know. I want to get my strength numbers up higher than they are. I would love to join the 1000# club within the next year — I’m close. And I think I need to stay on that course, and just tweak my program to get me there. So fat loss really isn’t in the cards, just managing it so I don’t pack on the fat and if I perhaps shed a couple of pounds of fat a month, awesome, but that’s more residual than direct goal. But I do think adding some muscle mass will help me get there. There’s been some mass gain of course, but no question the strength-oriented program is making me stronger and not much bigger. I’ve been seeing some mass growth since I changed up to the 2x/week program, and it’s hard to say exactly what of that helped me. But… let’s just keep on the course and see where we can go with minor changes and experimentations to get me where I want to go.

You win some, you lose some.

“Week 3”

• 5/3/1 – Squat (working max: 270#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x110
  • 1x5x135
  • 1x3x165
  • 1x5x205 (work)
  • 1x3x230
  • 1x3x260

• 5/3/1 – Bench Press (working max: 220#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x95
  • 1x5x110
  • 1x3x135
  • 1x5x165 (work)
  • 1x3x190
  • 1x6x210 (PR)
• Asst. #1 – Chin-ups
  • 1 x 5 x BW
• Asst. #2 – Back Raises (hands behind head)
  • 1 x 15 x BW
• Asst. #3 – DB Bench Press
  • 1 x 10 x 110
• Asst. #4 – Face Pulls
  • 1 x 2 x 80
• Foam Rolling

Today was a mixed bag.

I’ve been reading a lot of stuff from Andy Bolton. He said some things that helped me with the need for being “tight”. So today I was really thinking about “tight” as my cue. It was really good. Every set of squats was being really tight, which was awesome.

Until the last set.

See, I don’t have technique something that’s unconscious to do; I have to think about everything, but I can only think about so much. So focusing so much on tight, and being really impressed with how it was working, paying attention to the feedback my body was giving me well…. I wasn’t able to focus on “head back” and driving my neck into the bar. Consequently on that first rep of the last set I about didn’t make it out of the hole…. it surprised me, then it all hit me, and my concentration was gone. I was able to squeeze out two more reps, but I was leaning badly and had blown all my tightness and everything. FML. Later on I realized what I should have done:

1. immediately rack the bar, rest for a couple of minutes, get my head back together, and do it again.

2. stop trying to think about too many things. It was bad form to try to change things up for PR week. I know better, but I did it because I knew it was something I was already working on so I felt this was just reinforcing, but alas, it became consuming and other things faltered.

Iron teaches you many things.

It was my goal to get 5 reps, and I’d have been happy with 4. But I’ll have to take 3 reps plus some good lessons.

Bench went really well. I have already been working on fixing my foot placement. I think foot placement is better, but now I just need to work the drive into it more, making it one smooth motion out of the hole. But this was a rep PR, so I’m happy about that. 🙂

Alas, once I moved to assistance work things went ugly. I opted to NOT work chins into my squats but instead just do it as a circuit today. I took a wider grip than usual and also tried to ensure a more complete range of motion. Well, that doomed something in my shoulder and after the 5th rep I had pain in a bad way. Kept working my way through, but it only took 2 reps on face pulls to say “no mas”. It was pain in a bad way and I figured it was better to take my PR and go home. I’m not sure what I did, but it feels like if I could just pop my upper back… a little chiropractic work, a little massage, and I’ll be alright. After a hot shower it feels better, and I’ll see how it progresses through today.

I’m not totally happy with today’s results, but there were lessons learned and so I’ll take those and move on. The journey is an interesting one.

Today felt really good.

“Week 3”

• 3 reps – Deadlift (working max: 335#)
  • 1x5x135 (warmup)
  • 1x5x170
  • 1x3x205
  • 1x3x235 (work)
  • 1x3x270
  • 1x7x305

• 3 Reps – Press (working max: 150#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x60
  • 1x5x75
  • 1x3x90
  • 1x3x105 (work)
  • 1x3x120
  • 1x7x135
• Asst. #1 – DB Rows
  • 3 x 10 x 75
• Asst. #2 – Pulldown Abs
  • 3 x 15 x 60
• Asst. #3 – Dips
  • 3 x 7 x BW
• Asst. #4 – DB Hammer Curls
  • 3 x 10 x 30’s

Today just felt damn good. Got a decent night’s sleep. I think my new diet plan is working out. Just felt good.

The deadlifts went well. I again tried reversing my grip, left pronated and right supinated. Felt less weird, but I forgot to do it on all sets, just did it on the last set (since I’m used to double-overhand for all other sets). But it seemed to work well enough, tho again it still feels weaker than the other way. Nevertheless, I was happy with 7 reps @ 305.

Press felt good too. Wearing a very tight belt really helps with things. Helps me get more out of the Valsalva maneuver (natch), which makes my torso a lot more solid and stable. All good.

On assistance work, I opted to start the 1-handed exercises with my left. It’s the weaker side, so let it set the pace. Pulldown abs still are weird, but more reps seems good, tho 15 might be too much because the rope positioning really gets to you. So I’ll try something like 3x12x70 next workout and see how that goes.

Still doing all assistance work as a circuit, maybe 10 seconds of rest between exercises to let my elbows become happy again, and 90 seconds between runs. I swear I’m seeing a little more mass growth from all of this… I blame dips. 🙂

Onward to PR week!

What matters more? progress on paper, or progress under the bar?

“Week 2”

• 3 reps – Squat (working max: 270#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x110
  • 1x5x135
  • 1x3x165
  • 1x3x190 (work)
  • 1x3x220
  • 1x5x245
• Asst. #1 – Chin-ups (supersetted with Squats)
  • 6 x 5/4/4/4/3.5/3 x BW

• 3 reps – Bench Press (working max: 220#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x95
  • 1x5x110
  • 1x3x135
  • 1x3x155(work)
  • 1x3x180
  • 1x8x200
• Asst. #2 – Back Raises (hands behind head)
  • 3 x 15/15/12 x BW
• Asst. #3 – DB Bench Press
  • 3 x 10 x 110
• Asst. #4 – Face Pulls
  • 3 x 12 x 80

I’m really working on my squat technique. Reading things from Andy Bolton and Dave Tate. Big cue? Driving my head back into the bar. Makes a huge difference in technique, tho certainly my weight/reps are going down because I’m not just muscling the weight up by any means necessary. So I only got 5 reps today. But they were solid fucking reps and I’m happy with that.

Bench was solid too. Cue here? Tight. I opted to change my foot positioning because that sort of extreme curl a lot of powerlifters use just does not work for me. They have the feet pulled so far back their heels are touching the back of their head, and then you’re to drive the heels into the platform. I just can’t do that. If I’m driving my heels, I need to be able to drive my heels and having my heels off the ground is not conducive to that, for me. So I dinked around a bit and got some better foot position and hip drive. I really liked that I got 8 reps with 200 whereas just last week it was 8 reps with 190 and I struggled to get that out. These 8 felt solid and I only stopped because I matched the rep count and wanted to leave a couple in the tank.

Assistance work got cranked up a bit. Moved my weights up and they feel about where they should be. Still doing all assistance work as a “circuit” with about 90 seconds of rest before I do it again. It’s working nicely for me and I’ll keep this up.

It wasn’t all roses tho. On my squats I am forgetting arm drive. I have positioned my arms closer in, which helps when I actually do drive, but I forget to drive out of the hole, remembering half-way up. I just have too many things to remember to do, it’s not “natural” for me yet. But I can deal with this for now. Driving my head back into the bar is a more important cue and technique point for me to focus on right now.

So my progress on paper doesn’t look as good, if you just look at my numbers, my weights, my reps. But under the bar? The progress is undeniable.