This is why I love “week 3″… setting personal records is satisfying. 🙂

“Week 3”

• 5/3/1 – Bench Press (working max: 195#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x80
  • 1x5x100
  • 1x3x120
  • 1x5x150 (work)
  • 1x3x170
  • 1x6x190 (PR)
• Asst. #1 – Bench Press
  • 5 x 10 x 105
• Asst. #2 – Dumbbell Rows
  • 5 x 10 x 40
• Metcon – jump rope
  • 1 Tabata set – all single hop

It’s very satisfying to set goals then meet them. To see continued progress. To do more than you ever have before, more than you thought you ever could. Bench pressing 1x6x190 isn’t monumental (given the all time world record for a raw bench press for someone around my weight is 600 lbs. or so), but it’s good for me. It’s also kinda neat to think that in 2 cycles I’ll be breaking the 200# mark as a work weight (I could break 200 now if I wanted to, but not for work weight).

I continue to bump my bench assistance weight up by 5#, doing 105 this workout, and still that doesn’t feel like enough weight to really work me, so it’s up to 110# next week. I recently watched Dave Tate’s “So You Think You Can Bench” series again and really worked on some finer points. I’m thinking during next week’s deload week that I might fiddle with my grip width, as Dave talks about elbows going too far below the bench pad, and that a potentially wider grip could be nicer on my shoulder. I’ll experiment and see.

On the rows, last session I noticed I wasn’t caring about the negative that much, almost “dropping” the weight back down. Today I made sure to give as much thought to going down as I did going up. A cool side-effect is I found myself more focused on pulling the shoulder back, not just moving the weight…. ensuring the back muscles were doing the work, not the arm. Made a nice difference.

And what’s there to say about rope jumping… 🙂

I toy with jumping 10# for this next cycle, but I think that’s merely my ego wanting to get to 200# faster. Today’s work set of 6 reps was a hard push… on rep 4 I wasn’t sure I’d make rep 5, and on rep 5 I really wasn’t sure about making rep 6, and on rep 6 I felt like the bar in fact will be on my throat if I try for 7 so I did stop (form was failing, left arm peeding out). I perhaps could make a 10# jump, but I do think that’s driven more by ego and well… like Henry Rollins said, 200# is 200# and I don’t need her to teach me a harsh lesson. Better lesson learned to keep things in check and go for the long run.

Setting Personal Records (PR) are fun. 🙂

“Week 3” 5/3/1

• 5/3/1 – Deadlift (working max: 275#)
  • 1x5x110 (warmup)
  • 1x5x140
  • 1x3x165
  • 1x5x210 (work)
  • 1x3x235
  • 1x5x265 (PR)
• Asst. #1 – Hyperextensions
  • 5 x 10 x BW
• Asst. #2 – Hanging Knee Raises
  • 5 x 7 x BW
• Metcon – jump rope
  • 1 Tabata set – all single hop

Like I said, it’s fun to set personal records. No, 1x5x265 isn’t earth-shattering in the grand scheme of powerlifting and strongmen, but it’s more than I’ve ever done before so that’s cool. PR’s are motivating, because I can see that the program and hard work is paying off, that I’m getting stronger.

What I found particularly cool about today was the moment the 265 left the floor my brain said “wow, that’s heavy”… because I’ve never done that before, totally new sensation. But within a moment of doing that, instead of being afraid of it, instead of doubting my ability, my attitude was to say “yes, it is heavy… and you’ll lift it, then you’ll lift it again, and again, and again, and you will become stronger and better for it”. And so I did.

Around rep 4 something interesting happened. I felt myself peeding out, but it wasn’t my back or posterior chain: it was my left arm. It wasn’t just my grip, it was something in the arm itself which of course then fed into the grip. My body was just not able to go much more. I squeezed out another rep and thought about going for 6 but with the gym owner standing nearby I didn’t want to risk dropping the weight so I just stopped at 5. I’m not arguing, but it was interesting that the weak point was my left arm.

Hypers continue to really work my back. I’m not sure if I’ll continue with them next cycle or switch to stiff-legged good mornings, since those will work the hamstrings more. Not sure, but thinking about it.

On the leg raises, I’m not upping the reps but every time I do them I get a little better at doing them without any swing, so there’s certainly ab work involved. The soreness I feel the day or two afterwards tells me I am working, I’m not totally cheating. So, all is alright and progressing.

Jump rope today went a lot better than it has the past some workouts.

I wasn’t feeling good nor bad today. Just there. I didn’t feel like I could tear the weights off the floor, but I didn’t feel like crap. Just… there. I haven’t gotten enough sleep the past couple nights, so that may be playing into it. Do need more rest. But still, managed to work well, set a PR, and move along. Progress is good.

Nothing like setting a personal record to start the week off on a good note. 🙂

“Week 3” 5/3/1

• 5/3/1 – Press (working max: 120#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x50
  • 1x5x60
  • 1x3x75
  • 1x5x90 (work)
  • 1x3x105
  • 1x7x115 (PR)
• Asst. #1 – Press
  • 5 x 10 x 60
• Asst. #2 – Supinated grip pulldowns
  • 5 x 10 x 110
• Metcon – jump rope
  • 1 Tabata set – all single hop

So I set another personal record on press: 1x7x115. Never put 115# over my head, let alone for 7 reps. Felt good. Have a lot on my mind that’s really distracting me, but I did my best to keep it out of my head while I lifted… I don’t want it to get in the way, nor ruin things and consume me. One thing that helped? By chance over the gym stereo came Pantera’s “Goddamn Electric”, which is a rather inspirational song for me in numerous ways… so it was kinda cosmicly fitting and helped me feel stronger than all.

Doing 60# on the assistance press was tough… with only 1 minute of rest between sets it really wore me out. I struggled to get the last couple reps of the last couple sets, maybe needing an extra second or two before pressing. But you pound out the reps and keep going. I should stick with 60 for next week (deload week), and after that probably bump to 65 for next cycle.

On the pulldowns I accidentally realized what my shoulder needs: it’s not so much grip width as it is elbow position. I took up the usual “just wider than shoulder width” grip and felt my shoulder be unhappy but noticed how my palms were “twisting” off the bar in the down position… I opted to bring my elbows in more, as if trying to touch them together tho of course not to that extent: just keep them from flaring out. Made all the difference in the world. So, I focused on that and it really helped my shoulder. I may start to fiddle with grip width again, but for now this is fine. I’ll stay at 110 and probably go 115 next cycle. It’s important to get that full range of motion and I can feel and see it paying off.

Remember how I said if you wanted to feel uncoordinated just jump rope? Geez… what’s my problem lately? I feel like I’ve regressed in this skill. Not sure what gives. But I realized if I keep fumbling too much just “hop in place”… skip the rope and just keep moving. It’s better than losing time/effort to untangling my feet from the rope. *sigh*

Overall, good workout. Thrilled with the personal record. And I must admit, I can’t wait until I’m pressing 135 overhead for reps. In theory, I could do it for 1-2 reps right now but not going to sweat that, I’ll work up to it. But I kinda think it’ll be neat to press 45’s above my head. 🙂 Yeah, there’s still ego here, I’m human. 😉

“Week 2” 3 reps

• 5/3/1 – Squat (working max: 230#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x95
  • 1x5x115
  • 1x3x140
  • 1x3x165 (work)
  • 1x3x185
  • 1x5x210
• Asst. #1 – Squat
  • 5 x 10 x 90
• Asst. #2 – Leg Curl
  • 5 x 10 x 45
• Metcon – jump rope
  • 1 Tabata set – all single hop

Today was alright. I’ve been really focusing on trying to improve my squat form, trying to be really aware of what I’m doing, things like keeping my entire body tight, head and eye position, letting my knees go out, not letting it be a quad (only) exercise, and so on. Consequently, I don’t feel very strong, and I try to only focus on a couple cues so I don’t overwhelm myself. But, I’ve a ways to go to really get form right. I’m trying to listen to advice from powerlifters that know what they’re talking about and trying to tighten things up, but I also think that I’m going to need to video myself to really see what’s going on.

That said, it’s well possible that I may not bump my weight next cycle since I’d rather have tighter form… or maybe only bump by 5#. I’ll have to see how “week 3, 5/3/1” goes. I think that I’ve been too quad-dominant and not enough posterior chain, but in fixing form it’s bringing more of that in and correcting things, so of course that makes me “not as strong” as those weaker points get brought up, but in the long run that’s the better way to go. So, even if weight doesn’t linearly progress, if form is getting better and weak spots are getting stronger, that’s still progression, which I’m cool with.

I will say, I want to bump my assistance went to 95 next time… today was a bump to 90 and was good, 95 should be a bit better. I really try to emphasize form here, and I’d like to hope it’s paying off.

Curls… bump to 50 next time. Just slow increase in weight. I’ll get there.

Didn’t feel like trying the running in place rope jumping today because my legs were just too exhausted from squats and curls… wouldn’t have done well in the coordination realm. 🙂

Set another PR on bench press.

“Week 2” 3 reps

• 5/3/1 – Bench Pres (working max: 195#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x80
  • 1x5x100
  • 1x3x120
  • 1x3x140 (work)
  • 1x3x160
  • 1x8x180
• Asst. #1 – Bench Press
  • 5 x 10 x 100
• Asst. #2 – Dumbbell Row
  • 5 x 10 x 40
• Metcon – jump rope
  • 1 Tabata set – all single hop, tho I did also try running in place

To set a personal record (PR) could be a number of things. If you did more reps with the same weight, that’s “more work” and could constitute a PR. If you did more weight (tho of course slightly less reps), that could constitute a PR as well. If you did more reps and more weight, well, that’s pretty clear. 🙂

On my previous 5/3/1 cycle, the PR was 1x10x175 (with a 180# working max). On this cycle, “week 1” had me do 1x11x170, which one could argue was a PR since I’ve never moved 170 for 11 reps. Well today, I did 1x8x180, which I’ll claim as a PR because I’ve NEVER moved 180# in bench press for any reps, and then to crank out 8 reps with it? Yeah, that’s acceptable. 🙂 Of course, the question then is, am I getting stronger? I think so. Makes me still wonder if I’m under-dosed on what my bench press max really should be.

On the assistance bench, I opted to bump to 100 this workout and that still felt fine to me so… 105 next time. Slow hops.

On the rows I realized that I explode the weight up, but then kinda “drop” it down… not really drop, but there’s not much emphasis on the negative. I need to change that and have a little more work on the negative. I focused on that and the 40# of course worked me harder today. I think I’ll continue with 40 and more negative emphasis before I go up to 45. But this is working nicely.

Jumping rope… I don’t know what gives. It’s like I took a step back in coordination. Geez. But I also tried a round or two of the “running in place” type of jumping… wow, that was a big failure. 😉 So I’m not going to even consider it yet as my workload, but I will try to do a little “running in place” rope jumping every time from now on so I can work out the coordination aspect of it all and get it figured out.

Side note: I’m shopping around for life insurance and of course there’s going to be a medical exam. This should be interesting because my height/weight obviously doesn’t fit the charts, but it’s not because I’m an unhealthy lard butt. As well, what’s my pee test going to look like? For instance, the creatine supplementation. My creatine levels aren’t high because I’m unhealthy, they are because I supplement with it. I’ll probably set the medical appointment out a good week or two then just go off the extra sups, drink lots of water, and try to flush my system a bit so things don’t look too out of whack. I’m not wanting to do this for fear of how it might lower performance, but on the same token I’m looking at it that it could be revealing to see just how much of my performance is in fact coming from the supps. So, it should be an interesting thing to observe.

“Week 2” 3 reps

• 5/3/1 – Deadlift (working max: 275#)
  • 1x5x110 (warmup)
  • 1x5x140
  • 1x3x165
  • 1x3x195 (work)
  • 1x3x225
  • 1x6x250
• Asst. #1 – Hyperextensions
  • 1 x 10 x 10
  • 4 x 10 x bw
• Asst. #2 – Hanging leg raises/curls
  • 5 x 7 x WT
• Metcon – jump rope
  • 1 Tabata set – all single hop

Today was good. I felt strong on the deadlifts, really keeping my form tighter. Back more flat, no rounding/tucking of the butt at the bottom, chest up, head “straight” (not up, not down, in spinal alignment) and chin kinda pulled back and in. This is making me go a bit deeper, making me use more legs/hips at the start, but that’s all good. I felt strong, and 1x6x250 is good progression.

On the hypers, I started out holding 10# to my chest but something said drop it and just go bodyweight. I did, and glad I did. Oh, even now sitting at home I can still feel the ache in my lower back and butt. I work to go from a hang with some stretch to my lower back/hams, all the way up as far as I can, squeezing and extending myself like a “superman”. That, along with the deadlifts, seems to really make it hurt… certainly after that 10th rep I find myself shaking a bit and needing a few seconds to let my muscles recoup before I can move off the apparatus. So, bodyweight is fine for now.

On the leg raises, I noticed that especially on my first set, there was little swing and I was certainly curling myself up. So, strength here is increasing, which is good. Still a ways to go before I can do 5x15xbw strict, but so long as there’s progress, that’s good.

Oddly on the jump rope today, while I was doing fast hops (about 2 single hops per second), my legs/feet didn’t feel as exhausted afterwards. Not sure why that was. It was an overall hard set, but somehow I didn’t feel as much “burn” in the muscles of my feet. *shrug* Interesting to note.

All in all, a good workout.

Set a PR today. Woot!

“Week 2” 3 reps

• 5/3/1 – Press (working max: 120#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x50
  • 1x5x60
  • 1x3x75
  • 1x3x85 (work)
  • 1x3x95
  • 1x7x110
• Asst. #1 – Press
  • 5 x 10 x 55
• Asst. #2 – Wider-grip supinated pulldowns
  • 1x10x100
  • 4x10x110
• Metcon – jump rope
  • 1 Tabata set – all single hop

A good day, mostly.

I set a PR on Press, doing 1x7x110. Never put that much weight over my head, and never for that many reps. So, that was pretty cool. I just felt strong today.

Assistance pressing was alright. I think it’s time to bump that to 60#.

On the pulldowns, I’ve been struggling with my shoulders here, finding a grip and position that works. Today, I went back to supinated grip with the hands just slightly wider than shoulder width apart. I noticed if I kept my hands supinated and didn’t let them start to rotate to neutral at the top of the motion, my shoulders were happier. So, there we go. I did one set at 100 trying to back off to be nice, but after noticing that little tweak I bumped to 110 to see how it would go and it felt alright so I kept going. Of course, the real key is ensuring at the top of the motion I do let my shoulders move up/forward and at the bottom of the motion that they’re down and back (feel those shoulder blades pinch) and the bar comes to touch my chest… chest is up, facing towards the ceiling, eyes looking back/up… just like a good chin-up should be.

You know how they say that pain is just weakness leaving the body? Well, jumping rope is just coordination leaving the body… or at least, that’s how it felt today. Just tripping up all over the place. Ugh.

Nevertheless, things felt good. I feel like I’m pushing myself a little harder, certainly striving for more and always trying to increase and do better than before.

The only way to get good at the things you hate is to keep doing them until you don’t hate them any more. So with that, today was squat day. 🙂

“Week 1” 5 reps

• 5/3/1 – Squats (working max: 230#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x95
  • 1x5x115
  • 1x5x140
  • 1x5x150 (work)
  • 1x5x175
  • 1x7x200
• Asst. #1 – Squats
  • 5 x 10 x 85
• Asst. #2 – Leg Curls
  • 5 x 10 x 40
• Metcon – jump rope
  • 1 Tabata set – all single hop

I don’t look forward to squat days, but I’m always appreciative of them when I’m done. Certainly of the 4 big lifts, it’s my least favorite, but I know it’s the #1 at making you overall bigger and stronger. So, you do it.

I’m happy I was able to crank out 7 with 200#, since that’s 1 more than the last time I did 200#, which would have been on “week 2” of the previous cycle. So, that’s alright. Form continues to improve, giving myself the cues of “chest up” and “torso tight”. Unfortunately I then realize I lose shoulder tightness, so I have to work on that. I also have been working more on keeping my eyes at a “higher plane”. The issue is, most of the equipment in the gym is up against walls so trying to look at a spot on the ground 6′-8′ in front of you doesn’t really happen, so I’ve been looking further down than I should. When I pick a spot on the wall that’s not as far down, my head still stays down but not as much, and that appears to be helping. Helps with the “chest up”.

I get a good burn (I hate that term) on my assistance squats, and while 85 is pushing me I think it’s time to bump that up. I’ll likely go to 90 next workout. 1 minute in between sets here really gets my heart pumping.

I’m also glad I made the on-the-spot choice to take leg curls up to 40# because that worked me nicely. I do think 45# next time, along with the squat assistance weight bump, should leave my hamstrings good and sore. 😉

On the jump rope… I realized, I don’t need to add a second set. I need to make my 1 set more intense. I worked to jump faster today, averaging about 2 hops per second, which was hard to do after killing my legs on the squats and curls. But that’s what I need. I also think that perhaps I should start to change technique from hops to “running in place”, which will likely require me to back off while I learn the skill, but that’s alright because I reckon that’ll be a better workout in the long run. I may try starting on that next workout.

Anyways, today was alright. Need more red meat tho. 🙂

I know some people are going to give me flack for this, but whatever. 🙂

If you get into the world of weightlifting, without a doubt you’ll be hit with the avalanche of supplementation. All sorts of promises to help you get bigger, stronger, faster, and shed fat, be sexy, feared and envied by men, and women will swoon at your rippling pecs… if you just take our product.

And of course, most of it is hype and bullshit. I mean, not just the marketing, but the products too.

On the whole, you don’t NEED supplements because they are just that: supplements. They are not and should not be the core of your intake. Eating right, eating a lot (in my case, to gain muscle and strength), is really the core of it. Nevertheless, there are some things one can and should do, if you can, to help that out.

A multivitamin is good, just to ensure there’s no shortage of anything. Plus, you likely need extra to help do all you do.

Fish oil is well recommended for numerous reasons. In this realm, it’s especially recommended due to the anti-inflamatory properties, which is helpful for your joints. I used to take just one or two 1000 mg capsules a day, but once I jumped up to 6000 mg (which gives you a little over 1g of the EPA and DHA), I did notice a marked improvement in how my joints felt. I’ve been experimenting with amounts and taking 3 capsules in the morning and 3 in the evening seems to work for me.

Whey protein. Because it digests fast, so it’s good pre- and post- workout to get some stuff in me. I use it mostly for that, tho sometimes if I’m crunched for time I might just swig some down because it is fast.

Creatine monohydrate. CreaPure stuff. Because there’s enough research out there to say there’s little reason not to do it if you can.

Those really are about the core for one to take. Beyond that, it all gets gray.

I thought about trying some other things, like glutamine or BCAA’s, but reading things like this and some other things well… I’m not sure if there’s much benefit beyond the copious amounts of protein I’m taking in as it is, both from whey and from beef, chicken, pork, venison, fish, etc..

And really… I have to admit that after a couple of decades of being inundated by the more esoteric stuff well… damnit, I think I’m just going to satisfy some curiosity after all these years. Yeah, I reckon most of it is crap because there’s minimal science, a lot of promise and hype, and it’s mostly bro-science. But I’d like to try, and I’m willing to be semi-experimental and semi-scientific in it. I say semi because it won’t be strict, I only have me so there’s only so much “control” and comparison here. But hey, why the hell not. Life’s short and I finally wish to scratch this itch after all these years. It’s the 16-year-old in me, I guess. 🙂  I’ll be honest: if something can improve performance, why not? I don’t want to do anything harmful, but as humans we’re always looking for an edge. I will say there’s a difference between “edge” and “shortcut” and I know there are no shortcuts: you still have to eat well and lift heavy. But if something can help, we humans are always looking for an edge.

After much poking around I figured hey… let’s try a pre-workout supplement, like Jack3d. I do figure a lot will be bunk, but why not.

I’ve been taking it slowly. Start at 1 scoop, see how I feel. Then go up 1/2 scoop at a time and see how it goes. I’ve even been taking it on non-workout days just to see how it makes me feel. I’m certainly not overdoing it, but I am curious to watch and feel the effects and if it’s doing anything for me.

I’ve only been using it a couple of weeks now and well…. I’m not sure I’m sold on it, tho I think it’ll take a few more weeks and maybe a second tub before I’ll feel I have enough personal data. Today I tried 2.5 scoops and well, I think that’s why I felt “odd” during my workout. I did feel like I could move mountains, but then, I put the bar in my hands and felt like I had no idea what I was doing. I was there, but I was out to lunch. It’s hard to describe, but 2.5 scoops put me in a realm that seems like “too much”. But as well, I’ve been a bit off, slept a lot over this past weekend, so maybe I’m just out of it otherwise? It’s hard to say, need more data.

I certainly don’t feel the marketing hype, which I expected. I would have been surprised to get those “sick pumps” where it felt like my muscles were ready to rip out of my skin. Frankly I’m getting good pumps, but it doesn’t feel any more or less than without the stuff. Could I be moving more weight? That’s still to be determined, once I go off the stuff. The jury is still out, but data so far is… interesting, mostly in terms of how it makes my head feel.

Who knows. I am probably a fool parting with my money, but that’s ok. Life’s short and I’m curious. Once I’m done with this stuff, I do plan to try some other things because well… I’m curious. What? I don’t know. Figure that out when I get there.