I didn’t do jack, but what I did do was good.

“Week 2”

• “3 reps” – Deadlift (working max: 305#)
  • 1x5x125 (warmup)
  • 1x5x155
  • 1x3x185
  • 1x3x215 (work)
  • 1x3x245
  • 1x10x280
• GPP – Elliptical
  • Tabata style (20 sec. 120-130 strides per minute, 10 sec. 80-ish strides per minute)
  • 2 minutes slow (warmup)
  • 8 “reps” (8 reps is one Tabata set)
  • 2 minutes slow (cooldown)
• DeFranco Agile 4 – just foam rolling
• Grip
  • 3x10xT, 2 sec. hold between reps
  • 3x3x#1, 2 sec. hold between; after last set last rep, 10 sec hold

I opted to do a “ain’t doing jack shit” today. Two reasons. First, I have a busy day today and need all the added time I can get. Second, the chins I did on Wednesday? I used a narrow grip. The reason I take a slightly-wider-than-shoulder-width grip on the pulldowns is to be nicer to my shoulder. So why in the world I opted for the narrow grip here I don’t know. But between that, going to a full dead hang and relaxing my shoulder instead of at least keeping the shoulder socket tight, THEN adding in some poor posture and left-arm-resting stuff on my desk on Wednesday? My left shoulder said ‘fuck you’. It feels a LOT better this morning, but I know with the bar positioning on Good Mornings and then hanging for the HipLeg raises well, if I’m healing up I’d rather heal up than aggrevate it more. So I just cut things out today.

As for deadlifts, that went well. I can tell my grip is getting stronger because the holds were just really secure. I even thought about not doing the last set with a mixed grip but opted to keep the mixed grip because I wanted to ensure I got 10 reps and didn’t want to risk having to switch mid-way. Cranking out the 10 reps was hard, but I wasn’t going to accept anything less. My back and hips were dying, the last couple reps I paused for a couple seconds before I pulled again. But I was going to get 10! I got 10. I’m happy. Well on my way to breaking 300#.

On the elliptical today, I experimented a bit more. I set the angle at “10” and found the resistance level goes up to 20! When I cranked it to 20, whoa… you really have to push hard to move things, so that’s cool. I opted to put it on 10 today and see how it went. It was reasonable. I wasn’t huffing and puffing, but my heart rate was up and I was getting a good long work. This felt a lot more natural to me, didn’t have that “floating” feeling. I’m not sure how I’ll change things next time: up the angle, up the resistance. Probably the resistance because according to the little “computer” on the machine, greater angle stresses the glutes more and the thighs less. I want to spread the pain around and have maximum recruitment, so according to the little computer “12” is about the most angle I should go. I could also up the tempo, but I think the tempo is alright… tho don’t hold me to those tempo numbers as I realized I forgot exactly what they were by the time I got home to write this entry. Anyways, I think the elliptical may well work out, I just have to keep working to find the right settings to push me like I want.

I did the grip crushers on the way home. As you can see, I upped the workload. I see little reason to continue working with the “S” gripper, so I might put that in my gun range bag to show to students as a way to work on increasing their grip strength (since it’s not too hard to do but is more than the cheap ones you get at the sporting goods stores). Of course, the grip workout today was a little easier because I didn’t have the extra work that comes from the HipLeg raises. But I do need to get a #2 and eventually work that into the mix. Still, I can tell my grip is getting stronger because of what I did today. Back when I got them in November my left hand couldn’t fully crush #1 and my right could crush #1 if I was fresh. Now here I am today, the grip work from deadlifting, then working 3x10xT, and then still being able to do 3×3’s with the #1? Yeah, getting stronger.

Improvement, and more experiments.

“Week 2”

• “3 reps” – Press (working max: 145#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x60
  • 1x5x75
  • 1x3x90
  • 1x3x105 (work)
  • 1x3x115
  • 1x7x130
• Asst. #1 – Press
  • 4 x 10 x 70
  • 1 x 10/7/5 x 70 (rest-pause set)
  • Performed 1 chin-up after sets 1 and 2, with a slow negative. Set 3’s chin didn’t clear the bar, but still got a negative. Sets 4 and 5 just got a negative.
• Asst. #2 – Supinated Close-grip Pulldowns
  • 4 x 10 x 130
  • 1 x 10/5/4 x 130 (rest-pause set)
• GPP – Elliptical
  • Tabata style (20 sec. sprint, 10 sec. walk)
  • 2 minutes “walking”, around 100 strides per minute (warmup)
  • 5 “Tabata reps”, about 200-220 strides per minute

Much to go over.

Pressing. I generally feel strong with this movement and today was no exception. I cranked out 7 reps, which is more than I’ve done before at this weight. Not a pure PR, but most acceptable.

Assistance pressing felt much stronger too, as you can see with the rest-pause set, doing more reps this time around and with less rest. I believe last time I did 15 breaths during the pauses, only did 10 today. I’ll take that.

As I stated before, after each assistance press set I’ll do a chin-up with a nice slow negative. I wasn’t able to hit all sets with a chin, but I did get some. Huzzah! As long as I make progress, I’m happy. Another guy at the gym saw me doing this and mentioned there was a band to assist with chins. He found it for me, but I’m not sure I can use it. The band requires the use of the foot, and I’m too tall to get a full extension (I have to curl my legs behind me in order to do a full dead hang from the bar). I’ll probably play with it some and see if I can make it work. May not try this tho until next cycle.

I didn’t know how much the chins would affect the lat pulldowns, and it didn’t affect much, but towards the end I was hurting a bit more. 🙂 If I keep this routine up, I may try to make larger jumps per cycle (e.g. 10#) and allow my reps to go down to say the 5-8 range to again focus on building up the strength. I really want to be able to do chins with enough sets/reps (e.g. 5×5, then 5×10). I’ll get there. Just have to admit my wussiness and strive to grow stronger (and shed some flab, which is happening too).

As for GPP….

Sprints were killing my knees from the impact. Stationary bike? Just can’t get the resistance. But they recently got some new ellipticals. They’re heavy-duty and they can adjust the incline. Hrm. Could that simulate hill sprints? It was worth a shot. I got on the machine, fiddled with the settings and just picked “12” for an incline and “5” for resistance. I set out on a Tabata set and didn’t get far. My lower thighs and calves were killing me after about rep 5, but I wasn’t that winded. Hrm. Not sure. Plus it felt weird being on the machine. There is zero impact, which isn’t like normal walking around. Plus I felt like I was floating because there just wasn’t the same resistance you feel when you say walk up a hill or stairs. I’m going to keep trying it tho because there’s potential here towards a GPP solution that won’t kill my knees but could still give me a reasonable workout. I am going to first play with the resistance level, then the incline, and also my pace. We’ll see how it goes, I’ll keep fiddling with it.

Didn’t do the Agile 8 today. Had to scoot.

Quick note on diet.

I’m trying to work on simplifying. I’ve toyed around, up and down, this and that, and observed what it’s done to my body. My present approach? 200-250 grams of protein a day. About 100g will come from 2 whey drinks during the day (one as soon as I wake up, the other typically mid-afternoon). The other 100-150g will come via 3 regular meals with the family, about 35-50g per meal. That’ll be about a 6-8oz portion of meat, which isn’t as much as I think it is. I have to retrain my brain to say “no, you don’t need a mountain of meat, just enough”. Fats? I don’t worry about it. I’m not drinking a vat of lard, but I need some fats to work right and I’m just not sweating it much… we’re fairly low fat around here, but if I want to have that 3rd slice of thick-cut bacon I will because overall it doesn’t add up to much in my diet (due to Wife’s cooking). Carbs… fruit, veggies, grains. Strive to have at least 1 serving of fruit a day, whole fruit, not juice. All the cruciferous veggies I can handle; that CSA box from Johnson’s Backyard Garden does wonders here to fill this bill. Grains? breads, rices, beans, etc… In general I’m cutting them out of my diet, but because they are used to feed the rest of the family, and because I still enjoy a good Wife-made cookie, I can have some, just very small portion. Take my one hand, cup it, and it has to fit in that.

And I wonder if it’s already working. I generally float between 235-240# depending on the time of day, less in the morning, more in the evening. The past few weeks I’ve hovered more towards the 240 end of things. Last night I got on the scale before bed and was at 235#. That’s odd. This morning I checked again, and was about 233 or so. Not enough data points, but I still raised an eye brow.

FWIW, supplements are running as follows: the whey (referenced above); 2 NOW Adam men’s multivitamin, the softgel versions; 6g vitamin C, spread over the day; 6g fish oil, spread over the day; 3 Citrical at lunch (for some extra calcium and D3). Any other supps I’m pretty much giving up on because it’s all a waste of money.

I like the new squat routine, but it will need some adjustment

“Week 1”

• “5 reps” – Squat (working max: 250#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x100
  • 1x5x125
  • 1x3x150
  • 1x5x165 (work)
  • 1x5x190
  • 1x6x215
• Asst. #1 – Leg Press
  • 5 x 10 x 225
• Asst. #2 – Leg Curls
  • 5 x 10 x 70
• GPP – Stationary Bike
  • Tabata style – 20 sec. fast (85-ish RPM), 10 sec. slow (60-ish RPM)
  • 2 minutes slow (warmup)
  • 8 “reps” (8 reps is one Tabata set)
  • 2 minutes slow (cooldown)
• DeFranco Agile 8

I’m seriously wanting to improve my squat. So the change up is to try leg press as an assistance exercise. This layout is right out of Wendler’s “triumvirate” template. We’ll see if it helps boost my squat — I hope so. If not, I’ll reassess the weak points and go from there.

Squat itself was good. Mentally I was nowhere, which was good. No focusing on success or possible failure, just a clear head and moving the weight. Last cycle I did 5 reps so I figured if today I got at least 6 I’d be happy. I got 6 and 7 seemed like it would have been a struggle so I left it in the tank. I wish I did get 7 or 8, but I’ll take what I can in my progress.

On leg press, I think the last time I leg pressed was in high school. I had no idea how much weight I could move, but I knew it wouldn’t be like the guys I see that put a zillion plates on the thing and move it just a few inches. I’m doing this to help my squat, so I want to mimic that as much as I can. Foot position and angle is the same, get as full range of motion as possible going to “parallel” with my thighs and so on. I do think my feet were a little low on the platform, heels almost at the bottom edge of the platform; there’s a big circle in the middle of the platform mat for a logo and next time I’ll try putting the back edge of my heels inline with the bottom edge of that circle. Push it all the way through. 225 seemed like a reasonable place to start, and my thighs were sure asking me “what the hell are you doing?” afterwards. I think next time I’ll go to 275 and see how that goes.

Curls are fine, tho I may also bump that to 75 since I’m not getting as much hamstring work with assistance 1 now being leg press instead of more squats.

As for the GPP. Today I started at “resistance 7” and while doing the warmup just jacked it up to 10 (no, this one doesn’t go to 11). In the original Tabata study they worked at a rate of 85 RPM (don’t know what the “resting” rate was) so I thought to try that: full resistance that the machine can do, 85-ish during the work part, and 60-ish during the rest/warmup/cooldown part. It didn’t feel like much of anything, even after all that leg work I did. Hrm. Part of me thinks I should do then at least 2 Tabata sets, but that seems counterproductive. So I’m not sure what I’m going to do. One thought is to try another model of bike at the gym in case that can do more resistance. However, the gym owner just bought some new treadmills and elliptical machines. The elliptical’s intrigue me because they are high-end models, they can simulate some rather steep inclines. Makes me wonder if I could simulate hill sprints! So I may give that a whirl and see how it goes.

The experimentation continues, and I need to make some changes.

“Week 1”

• 5 reps – Bench Press (working max: 215#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x85
  • 1x5x110
  • 1x3x130
  • 1x5x140 (work)
  • 1x5x165
  • 1x10x185
• Asst. #1 – Bench Press
  • 5 x 10 x 125
• Asst. #2 – 1-Arm Dumbbell Rows
  • 5 x 10 x 55
• Grip/Forearms – Reverse EZ Bar Curls
  • 2 x 5 x 40
  • 1 x 12/7/6 x 50 (rest-pause)
• GPP – Stationary Bike
  • Tabata style – 20 sec. fast (100-120 RPM), 10 sec. slow (60-80 RPM)
  • 2 minutes, slow (warmup)
  • 1 Tabata “set”
  • 2 minutes, slow (cooldown)
• DeFranco Agile 8

Bench went alright. I looked at past performance, figured 10 reps with 185 would make me happy. Cranked out 10. Happy.

I’m still having some stability issues with my legs and heavier weights (you just don’t notice it when the weight is light). But during the 165 set I hit a sweet spot. The legs were rock solid, pushing, I was up on my traps, good back arch — it seemed to be everything that I was supposed to do! I need to find that sweet spot again. Next bench session I may focus on trying to find the spot and be systematic about it. Plus, I may even do things like unrack the bar, if it feels wrong, re-rack it and reposition and try again. I need to find that sweet spot again.

On the curls. The bar is apparently 18#, so I’ll use 20 for easy of math. I had no idea how many I could do so I just put a dime on each side and went with it. One key factor here is that I’m not trying to move weight, I’m trying to focus on the brachioradialis. I’m trying to only move the weight through flexing the brachioradialis, nothing else. I do think I can go to 45 total next time, and/or do 3×10 with the last rest-pause. But on the same token, I just didn’t feel like today was the right day to do it. The day I get the most forearm work is deadlift day, between deadlifts, the hanging hip-leg raise, and then I add in the grippers. So I think I’m going to move these to that day as well. It may wind up being too much work, but this is all part of the experimentation. At least, I think I’ll get more benefit if I do it then than trying to do it today.

I gave the bike another shot too. This time I put the resistance on “5” (settings 1-10, 10 the hardest; did 3 last time). I think that will be a good setting to stick with for a little while, until my body adapts. When I got to “rep 4” I started to think that I wouldn’t want to finish. Rep 6 and I had to convince myself to finish. Rep 7 and I knew I’d hate myself if I stopped now with only 1 more to go. After 8 and then the cooldown? Geez… had a hard time getting off the bike. I think this is a good place for me to start. I didn’t want to puke afterwards, but I sure felt worked. But I know I’ve got a long way to go to really make the intensity what it needs to be. Still, this is a good start, and my knees are happier.

The experimentation and program change-up continues.

“Week 1”

• “5 reps” – Deadlift (working max: 305#)
  • 1x5x125 (warmup)
  • 1x5x155
  • 1x3x185
  • 1x5x200 (work)
  • 1x5x230
  • 1x10x265
• Asst. #1 – Good Mornings
  • 5 x 10 x 70
• Asst. #2 – Hanging LegHip Raise
  • 5 x 7 x BW
• GPP – Stationary Bike
  • Tabata style
  • 2 minutes slow, about 60-80 RPM (warmup)
  • 8 “reps”, as fast as I can, about 110-ish RPM during the 20 sec, about 60-80 during the 10
  • 2 minutes slow (cooldown)
• DeFranco Agile 8
• Grip
  • 3x10xT, 2 sec. hold between reps
  • 2x3x1, 2 sec. hold

There’s not a lot of changeup to the deadlift days, compared to cycle 4, in terms of general program changes. But there were a few changes that were last-minute decisions, and 1 mistake. 🙂

The deadlifts went fine. I cranked out 10, figured that was enough tho I probably could have done at least 2 more. I just wanted to leave some in the tank because I was rather sore from yesterday (huzzah rest-pause). I normally don’t work out 2 days in a row but had to this week because the gym was closed Monday due to Christmas. Recovery is important to old-fart me.

Good mornings are fine as well. I need to remember to not try to keep my eyes level with something “out in front of me” because that doesn’t allow me to get low enough. Need to let me eyes drop a little bit, or pick something lower/further out.

Hanging leg-hip raises are ok… my right shoulder continues to give me some issues, not really sure what it is, but it sometimes makes it difficult to do these. Consequently these didn’t go as well as I would have liked.

Now sprinting… as I’ve noted, my right knee is hurting and the pounding on the pavement from sprints is really making it hurt. I do not want to risk knee problems, a blow-out, something that affects my deadlifting, my squatting, or just my ability to get around! I will probably go back to sprints someday, but I’m going to need to drop some weight first — something that’s taking a higher priority for me. I was Googling around yesterday for exercises I could do Tabata-style that would fit well into things. Well, the original Tabata study was done on a stationary bike, so why not. Involves the knee, but not the impact, so let’s try it. I did it today and well… I just did NOT feel all winded and dead afterwards, which you should. I probably need to jack up the bike’s resistance a bit more (had it on “3”), and so I’ll continue to play with that. I also will try to find the original study itself (instead of all the summaries of it) to see exactly what protocol they used and attempt to replicate that and see how it goes. The bike may not work out, but for now it’s what I’ll try.

I’m also going to try to see how I can work the Agile 8 to be a bit more Tabata-like. Not all parts of it can lend to it, like the foam rolling. But the mountain climbers? The groiners? For sure they will work you. It may not be a strict Tabata thing here, but I may try to do something like right after I get off the bike, go right to the mountain climbers, the groiners, the rollovers into V sits, fire hydrants, then do the hip flexor stretch, then the foam rolling. And do them Tabata-like, so it’s not 20 reps of climbers but 20 seconds, then rest 10 seconds, then do groiners for 20 seconds, rest 10, and so on. That might add a little more work to the mix, y’know? I know that the Agile 8 has given me a little extra work and after tough days has been hard to get through, so hey, why not just add it to the mix?

Grip work. I pulled out the “T” gripper and thought “Gee, am I just feeling weak today? Did the deadlifts and leg raises take that much out of my grip today?” But I cranked along for 2×10. Then I pulled out the other “not-1” gripper… and upon noticing how easy it was I had a “V8” moment and realized I started with the more difficult gripper. Oh well. 🙂 But it was cool, and told me to jack up my grip work. So I went ahead and did another 1×10 with the “T” (for 3×10 total). Then I did a 2×3 with the “1” and if I couldn’t get the gripper fully closed I used my other hand to close it and then had the one hand hold for 2 count before releasing. I’ll probably jack up my gripper work this way from here out, may even drop the “S” gripper at this point. Next time I need to order from EliteFTS, I’ll probably put in for the “2” gripper, maybe the “1.5”.

Anyways, a generally good workout.

Today was good. Read on, if you care.

“Week 1”

• 5 reps – Press (working max: 145#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x55
  • 1x5x70
  • 1x3x85
  • 1x5x90 (work)
  • 1x5x105
  • 1x9x120
• Asst. #1 – Press
  • 4 x 10 x 70
  • 1 x 10/5/4 x 70 (rest-pause set)
• Asst. #2 – Supinated Close-grip Pulldowns
  • 4 x 10 x 130
  • 1 x 10/4/3 x 130 (rest-pause set)
• GPP – Sprints
  • Tabata style (20 sec. sprint, 10 sec. walk)
  • 2 “laps” walking (warmup)
  • 8 “reps” (8 reps is one Tabata set)
  • 2 “laps” walking (cooldown)
• DeFranco Agile 8

Today was good! I’m glad I took all of last week off as a “deload” week. My body thanks me for it. I felt good and eager to get back to the gym.

This begins my fifth cycle on the Wendler 5/3/1 program. I’m making some changes to the program, as I refine my goals and see what needs additional help and work. I’m moving away from the “Boring But Big” template and more to the “Triumvirate”. I’m still wanting to build strength (and muscle mass), but seeing where things need some help and trying to work to address those issues. Because of this, this cycle may not be “straight productive” as there will be some experimenting and changing around. But that’s all good. Need to continue to find what works for me and what I need. I’ll talk about the changes for each day as I go through “week 1” here. But know that in general I’m trying to address shortcomings and weaknesses, and trying to just work to be awesome. 🙂

On Press. First thing I realized is that I screwed up on weights. In my Excel spreadsheet where I do my calculations and tracking, I forgot to bump the “work max” from last cycle so I used the same “week 1” weights as the prior cycle. Oh well, I still cranked out 9 reps with 120, which is more than I did last time. Plus I did it with a LOT less rest between sets. So yeah, strength went up. I’m fine with that. I fixed the spreadsheet and will resume proper weights next workout.

One thing that happened while pressing? The weight is of course getting heavier, and I found at one point while working to get it overhead I clenched my butt and that helped to get the weight up. I didn’t plan on it, just happened, but I remembered reading somewhere recently that yes, you should be explicitly clenching your butt and using the whole body in the press. So I’m going to be working to ensure I get more full-body involvement like that on all my press sets.

I’m still doing pressing as the first assistance exercise, because it’s just good towards helping me get stronger and building some mass, some volume for my shoulders and triceps. All good. I did properly bump the weight here to 70 (from 65 last cycle). You can see tho that I added a modification at the end of the set: “rest pause”. What is rest-pause? Rest-pause is something from DoggCrapp Training. Here’s an explanation from Wendler’s 5/3/1 book, second edition:

A lifter will perform a movement, let’s use the press as an example, and perform an all-out set at a given weight. After this all out set, he will take 10-15 breaths and perform the press again with the same weight, obviously for less reps, to failure. He will rack the bar, take another 10-15 breaths and do another set to failure. So a rest/pause set would look like this:

Press – 155×10 reps, 10-15 breaths, 4 reps, 10-15 breaths, 2 reps

To make it easy: do one set for as many reps as you can, take short break, do the same weight to failure, take another rest and do one more set to failure. After the first set, your reps will diminish greatly so don’t be alarmed. You may only get 2-3 reps on the final set.

I’m curious to try it. DoggCrapp has a lot of good things about it, and I’m curious to try rest-pause to see what it might do for me. Note that I’m not doing DC-style training, merely taking the notion of rest-pause and applying it to the last set of my assistance work. So… why?

Well, when I was thinking about how to plan out this cycle, I realized that yes, I’d like to get some more attention to my arms. I didn’t really want to do curls and pressdowns and the like. Frankly, I think my triceps get a lot of work from all the pressing I do (13 sets of press, 13 sets of bench press, 26 sets in a week). But my biceps get about 10 sets from back work. And in fact, I don’t think I’m getting enough back work either, but I don’t think that’s truly a problem given the exercises I’m doing. And honestly, my arms are fine compared to the rest of my body… I just felt like I wanted to stress them a little more. But I didn’t really want to do curls for them.

Furthermore, I am wanting to move away from pulldowns and do chin/pull-ups. Why am I not doing them? Because I can’t do them. I’ve been working all this time towards building the strength I need to be able to do them. I’m not strong enough, I weigh too much, and put it together and it doesn’t happen. But I want to do them, I’d prefer to do them, they are more awesome than pulldowns. All the work I have been doing has been towards building up the strength to do them. But of course, if I end up doing them, at least for now, will I get enough back volume? Probably not, since I can’t crank out a large number of them.

So it’s my thinking to try rest-pause as a way to jack up the intensity some and see what it can do for me.

On that note then… pulldowns. So I am wanting to get away from pulldowns and work on doing chins. To that end, I opted to go from 5x10x120 to something like 5x8x130 with the last set being rest-pause (dropping to 120 if I needed to in order to get a good rest-pause set out). The intent is to focus on strength so I can do chins… kinda working my way down to perhaps a 5×5 set, with again the last set being rest-pause (using less weight if needed to get more volume). Well, get this….

I admit my ego here… I don’t feel like struggling to fail to do one chin-up, so I haven’t tried one in a while — too many eyes. I know they won’t care, but it’s just in my head. Sue me for being human. Well, today the gym was dead save for me and the gym owner. As I got towards the end of my pressing assistance work, he walked off the floor. I said why not. I grabbed the chin-up bar, put myself in a dead hang (tho knees bent, feet behind me because there’s just not enough clearance otherwise), and pulled up. Holy shit! I did one! Well, almost. I had to reach my chin up to clear the bar, but I did it! I personally want to say “1 chin up” is pulling myself above the bar, no chin-reaching, bar is even with my clavicles. So I’m not quite there, but I’m further than I was before! Huzzah! In fact, after I did my last set of presses, I did another chin. Same results. Whee!

Then when I hit the pulldowns, the 130 felt well… good. So I ended up doing 5×10 across with the last set rest-pause. If I really wanted 8 reps I probably would need to use 140. But, I’m not going to mess with it. Here’s what I’m going to do. Wendler recommends you do chin-ups between every pressing set. And so, I’m going to try that. I will start off doing it only between my assistance pressing sets (not the 5/3/1 sets). I will do a set of presses, then I will do 1 chin-up, getting up as high as I can and then doing a slow negative. Just 1, enough for now. If I get to a point where I can’t get high enough on the chin, then I’ll jump up and slow-negative it. Just 1 between each assistance pressing set. Then do pulldowns as normal. Once things are working well here, move to 2 reps, and so on. Let’s see where this takes me!

And the thing is, doing that will add more work for my back and arms, which is what I’m wanting. And so, everything is working out. I’m thrilled.

Next came sprints.

I’ve been trying to work myself up… 4 reps, 5 reps, and this was supposed to be 6 reps. But you know what? I find that when I get to 4 reps, that’s when I start to feel worked… by 5, that’s good and starting to kick in. So I’ve been feeling that gee, I really need to just buckle down and crank out the whole 8 reps. Another benefit? If in fact this is going to help my fat loss (coupled with more work to my diet) then well… the lighter I get, the more chinups I can do, right? 🙂 Yes, I’m going to use it as a motivator for chins. Why not?

Trouble is, sprinting is growing hard on me. Perhaps in part because of my weight, probably because I’m running on concrete (despite having some really good running shoes). But my right knee is hating me and I’m honestly afraid of what may happen.

So I’m going to have to look into what else I can do for GPP, Tabata style, that isn’t going to be so killer to my knee. I don’t want to risk a knee injury that could screw me for life, or even set me back in my deadlifting and squatting, y’know? It’s not worth it.

But still… went ahead for all 8 reps today and boy, it hurt. 🙂 Good hurt tho. Had to really convince myself to keep going because after rep 6 I wanted to stop and after rep 7 I said to myself “the faster you run, the faster it’ll be over”. I did not want to do it, but I know… you have to. It’s the only way to get better, to push yourself, to push beyond your limits, to do what is uncomfortable.

Today would start the “deload” week of my cycle, but I’m going to take an alternate deload — I’m doing nothing this week.

Not just with Christmas on the way and things to do, but my body is feeling pretty beat up. Friday’s session is still ringing on me… I have had a hard time all weekend getting around on my right knee, my left ankle is unhappy, and my legs are still pretty sore. Just a whole lot of “not good”. So why beat up my body more? Just take the ultimate deload and take the week off and rest.

Looking back on cycle 4, I’m generally pleased with my progress. I hit significant milestones in terms of my press (going to 45# plates), my bench press (broke 200# as a work weight), breaking through my squat barrier, and my deadlift continues to be strong and progress towards 300#. I’m pleased with how things are going.

I’m not pleased with myself regarding how I keep tinkering with diet. I read Wendler’s 2nd edition of his 5/3/1 book and started on his “lean but slow” gains diet approach and it’s not working for me… I already see it’s too much caloric intake and my body is reacting as such. I’m going to go back to what I was doing as it, along with the sprints, was helping. I’m also seriously considering that after this upcoming 5th cycle I may take an even more radical shift towards pure weight loss, even at the expense of the strength work I’ve done so far. We shall see. I was enjoying the slow shedding, where I could obviously see muscle mass gains but weight was staying static so I reckon that meant fat loss.

As for what up with the next cycle… I’m changing it to start addressing what I’m seeing as issues. So this moves away from “Boring But Big” assistance work and more towards “Triumvirate” thinking. Some days, however, won’t have just 3 exercises. I’m not 100% sure where things will lie, the cycle will have some new things so I have to find where they will sit and if they actually will do what I’m wanting, and that will just take time to see and learn. If nothing else, it’ll keep things interesting. No real need to discuss all that here; each day will get discussed during week 1. But otherwise, progression remains: bumping 5# on press and bench press, bumping 10# on deadlift and squat. I am so tempted to bump 15# on the deadlift so I can break 300# sooner, but that’s not the wise way to do things.

Still, so far so good. This is an enjoyable way to get myself out of the office, and certainly been one of the better weightlifting experiences of my life so far. Better than the old “bodybuilder-style” lifting I always did in years past.

Finally, breaking through the squat barrier.

“Week 3”

• 5/3/1 – Squat (working max: 240#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x95
  • 1x5x120
  • 1x3x145
  • 1x5x180 (work)
  • 1x3x205
  • 1x6x230 (PR)
• Asst. #1 – Squat
  • 5 x 10 x 100
• Asst. #2 – Leg Curl
  • 5 x 10 x 65
• GPP – Sprints
  • Tabata style (20 sec. sprint, 10 sec. walk)
  • 2 “laps” walking (warmup)
  • 5 “reps” (8 reps is one Tabata set)
  • 2 “laps” walking (cooldown)
• DeFranco Agile 8

Huzzah. 6 with 230#. That helps me break through my squat barrier. I’ve had so many setbacks around the 230 mark: got up there, was doing really sloppy form on the PPNP program, reset to improve my from but didn’t get back up to it before switching to Wendler 5/3/1 which of course takes a longer time to get up there. Then I got there last cycle but opted to repeat it due to starting sprinting. And so finally I get to break through. I told myself last night that I have to get at least 6 since before I got 5. I could have gotten 7 but I felt unstable.

See, that problem with all the “light-headedness”? I wonder… could that have been the Jack3d? Maybe. I finished the tub a few workouts ago and have no desire to go back on it (I think it’s a waste). I wonder if it’s involved because since I’ve been off it, no issues. Or it could be improving how I deal with breathing and breath-holding. I dunno. Hard to say, but I didn’t really have that problem today. But I did feel kinda wobbly for some reason. Right knee didn’t feel all that hot today, felt worse after sprinting (the impact), and then to make things worse, as I was getting up off the floor after repacking my gym back before leaving, I wobbled and my left ankle feels miserable now. *sigh*

Oh well.

Everything else was about normal. Nothing exciting to report, just did it all.

Looking back on the week, I’m really happy. Set PR’s and significant ones at that. I broke the 45# plate barrier with pressing, I broke the 200# barrier with bench pressing, my deadlifts continue to be strong and get close to the 300# mark. And now my squat feels good enough to continue along and add another 10#. A good week of PR’s.

I’m thinking about how to evolve my training for the next cycle. Nothing firm yet, but it’s almost solidified. It’ll of course stay generally on the 5/3/1 method, but assistance looks to move away from “Boring But Big” and is evolving more into the “Triumvirate” as I’m starting to think more about addressing weak points. I also think I may be moving beyond just 3 exercises, tho not a lot of additional work. We’ll see how it goes.