It just got lighter…

Based upon Paul Carter’s Strong-15 (LRB365)

• Squats – cycle goal: 325
  • BW x 10
  • BW x 10
  • bar x 5
  • bar x 5
  • 135 x 5
  • 160 x 4
  • 185 x 3
  • 205 x 2
  • 245 x 1
  • 250 x 1
  • 255 x 1
• Pause Squats
  • 210 x 3
  • 210 x 3
• Deadlift
  • 190 x 5
  • 225 x 4
  • 265 x 3
  • 300 x 2
  • 330 x 1
  • 340 x 1
  • 350 x 1
• Deadlift – Back off
  • 300 x 3
  • 300 x 3
• Leg Curls
  • 40 x 20
  • 40 x 20
  • 40 x 20
  • 40 x 20

This marks week 3 of phase 1. It’s supposed to be that “very light” phase, just getting the body back in the groove. Sure enough, it’s been that. Everything has felt light; in fat, each week feels lighter than the last! I don’t know if it’s because I’m getting in the groove, or my body is really remembering all the cues and minor technique details, especially during setup. But whatever, today felt very light.

There were a couple times when during the singles I did the single, changed the weight, did the next single — no real rest between sets. I mean, the prior rep felt light enough, enough I could have certainly done more than 1 rep… so why not?

All in all, things seem to be on track. Next week begins phase 2. Looking forward to where this takes me.

Had a workout partner this morning. 🙂

Based upon Paul Carter’s Strong-15 (LRB365)

Wide, Neutral-grip Pull-ups

• BW x 3
• BW x 2
• BW x 2
• BW x 1
• BW x 1

BB Rows

• 135 x 10
• 135 x 10
• 135 x 10
• 135 x 10
• 135 x 8

Meadows Shrugs

• 65e x 12
• 65e x 12
• 65e x 12
• 65e x 12

BB Curls

• 45 x 20
• 45 x 20
• 45 x 15
• 45 x 12

Youngest joined me today.

Periodically he asks if he can come with me to the gym. I don’t say no, but it hasn’t worked out for some reason or other in the past. But he came up to me again a couple days ago, asked, and so finally it happened.

Of course, he can’t spot worth a darn. 😉 But it’s all good. It’s a lot of curiousity about what it is that I do, and what goes on in the gym. I think there’s also a bit of fascination with the gym and all the equipment.

So I just had him do the same things I did, tho of course very scaled back. A lot of focus on body mechanics, like where to bend, keeping the back straight, and other things — posture’s a big one. And just kinda “doing what Dad does”.

I’m not sure he’ll come with me on a regular basis, tho that would be fine if he did. But I did tell him how a lot of what he can do is just stuff at home. He knows how to do a push-up, so I showed him how to do a burpee. grin I told him, get where you can do that 10 in a row every day… that will be awesome, and you’ll be on the road to being awesome.

One of the better gym days I’ve had in a while… and it had nothing to do with the weight I lifted. 🙂

Bench is fine. Knees… not so much.

Based upon Paul Carter’s Strong-15 (LRB365)

• Bench Press – cycle goal: 245
  • bar x 5
  • bar x 5
  • 105 x 5
  • 120 x 4
  • 140 x 3
  • 155 x 2
  • 165 x 1
  • 180 x 1
  • 190 x 1
  • 155 x 20
• Incline Press
  • 10 x 105
  • 10 x 105
  • 9 x 105
  • 7 x 105
  • 10 x 95
• Machine Flye
  • 60 x 20
  • 60 x 20
• Pushdowns
  • 50 x 20
  • 40 x 20
  • 40 x 20
  • 40 x 20

Bench was fine. Things feel light and pretty solid. Went with ring finger on the rings and things feel much better. So I guess, generally speaking, ring finger on the rings for flat bench and pinkies just inside the rings for incline.

This first phase is supposed to feel light, and it does. So, good.

While this isn’t a “leg day”, I need to mention my left knee. I don’t know what’s wrong with it, but I start squatting down and about 1/3 of the way down there’s a sharp pain. Consistent. If there’s less weight on the knee, it’s not a problem. It rides with me about 2/3 of the way down, then dissipates. I don’t feel much of anything going up. I’m not sure what this is, and I think this is really at the heart of my prior issues that I thought was from the ankle… or maybe it was both and with the ankle doing much better now the knee comes forth.

I actually think this has been something that’s been slowly creeping up on me for a long time. Not sure what nor why. But I’m going to make some further changes to my warmups and also try doing those same warm-ups every day (even off days). I’m going to go on an Aleve diet for a week or so and see what happens. Also bumping up my fish oil (usually 2 1g capsules 2x day, bumping to 3 2x), as that has helped me with joint issues in the past. Just going to take it slow and steady.

Getting used to it.

Based upon Paul Carter’s Strong-15 (LRB365)

• Squats – cycle goal: 325
  • BW x 10
  • bar x 5
  • bar x 5
  • 135 x 5
  • 160 x 4
  • 185 x 3
  • 205 x 2
  • 220 x 1
  • 245 x 1
  • 250 x 1
• Pause Squats
  • 190 x 5
  • 190 x 5
• Deadlift
  • WT x 5
  • WT x 4
  • WT x 3
  • WT x 2
  • WT x 1
  • WT x 1
  • WT x 1
• Deadlift – Back off
  • 285 x 3
  • 285 x 3
  • 285 x 3
• Leg Curls
  • 35 x 20
  • 35 x 20
  • 35 x 20
  • 35 x 20

Week 2 of Strong-15.

I am getting used to the workload of squatting and deadlifting on the same day. The weights felt fine, nothing was too taxing, and the whole day didn’t leave me feeling like I got worked over. I did feel a pleasant exhaustion by the time I left the gym, but I didn’t feel “dead” and drained.

My knees are feeling stiff… in the gym, out of the gym. I try do do some bodyweight squats whenever I think about it. I also do one-leg “step ups” whenever I have something that’s tall enough, like taking the stairs 2 at a time, or there’s a place on the back patio where the drop to the ground is large enough, so I’ll use that. I probably should try adding some quad-specific stretches in and see if that helps.

My walk to the gym was the more interesting story.

Based upon Paul Carter’s Strong-15 (LRB365)

Wide, Neutral-grip Pull-ups

• BW (around 250) x 3
• BW x 2
• BW x 2
• BW x 2
• BW x 1

BB Rows

• 135 x 10
• 135 x 10
• 135 x 10
• 135 x 7

Meadows Shrugs

• 60e x 12
• 60e x 12
• 60e x 12
• 60e x 12

BB Curls

• 45 x 20
• 45 x 14
• 35 x 20
• 35 x 20

The more interesting story was the walk to the gym.

Some wicked storms blew through Texas last night. My neighborhood was under a tornado warning. Heavy rains (nearby friend with a weather station reported a 0.5″ rain in 10 minutes!). Straight-line winds up to 70 MPH. It was a pretty precarious couple of hours. We came out relatively unscathed — tree limb down, lost a screen on a window, but really nothing much. But on the walk to the gym, I saw lots of downed limbs, and probably half-dozen down trees — some split/broken on the main trunk, a few fully uprooted. One was laying across a car (tho it didn’t seem to have any obvious major damage, but I’m sure there’s something). I’m sure chainsaws and roofers will be buzzing for the next couple weeks.

As for the lifting itself. Just fine. I’m getting used to this dedicated back day stuff. I don’t feel like it’s enough volume, but I’m not going to change it. I can look in the mirror and when I look through the layer of fat, I can see there’s a back screaming to get out. So “sub-max” work is working. Could more volume do better for me? Don’t know, but for now that’s not important — follow the template.

I did have some mental peed-outs. That 14 on the curls? I just stopped. I think I hate 20 reps. Probably wouldn’t have gotten to 20, but certainly could have done more than 14. Dropped the weight, and even on that last set I wanted to stop at 12 but knew it was all in my head and kept going.

Anyways…. so far, so good. Onwards to week 2.

That was different.

Based upon Paul Carter’s Strong-15 (LRB365)

• Bench Press – cycle goal: 245
  • bar x 5
  • bar x 5
  • 105 x 5
  • 120 x 4
  • 140 x 3
  • 155 x 2
  • 165 x 1
  • 175 x 1
  • 185 x 1
  • 145 x 21
• Incline Press
  • 115 x 10
  • 115 x 10
  • 115 x 7
  • 95 x 10
  • 95 x 9
• Flat Flye
  • 40 x 20
  • 50 x 20
• Pushdowns
  • 50 x 20
  • 50 x 20
  • 50 x 15
  • 40 x 20

I haven’t flat benched in months. Felt a little weird getting back into that saddle, remembering positioning and such.

Regarding my grip width, I tried pinky on the rings. That was better on my elbows, but still something was there. I’m going to go back to ring-finger on rings next week and see how things fare. Meantime, I still kept pinkies just inside the rings on inclines, and that was fine.

The AMRAP set surprised me — 21 reps… and I basically stopped because form was breaking down, not bad, but enough to say “eh… stop here, leave a bunch in the tank”.

All in all, not bad. I didn’t know where weights would be for the assistance work, so I made reasoned guesses. I’d rather get the reps in, even if that means dropping weight on the later sets (vs. straight sets). Keep the rest periods on the assistance work short (minute).

I didn’t do flat flyes. Instead, there’s a “pec deck” type machine at the gym. I figured I would give it a try to see how it worked. Way too light of weight. I did like how it helped ensure a full range of motion and no “cheating” because elbows bend. But one thing I get out of actual supine flies is some stretching and nice upper back adjustment. So who knows… this is just assistance work, not going to sweat it too much.

Anyways, really looking forward to how this Strong-15 cycle pans out as the weeks progress.

Oh… in other news….

My iPhone blew up.

Literally.

I had an old iPhone 3GS. I hadn’t used it in a long time and I guess the battery drained (bad). I tried charging it a few days ago, it got to 50% before the plug was pulled… then overnight went down to 30% despite doing nothing. Odd. Then in the gym on Monday it shut off a few times and I could never record video. I figured maybe the full-drain was the problem. So I figured to do a full-charge before trying again.

Well, yesterday I was charging it for today… then heard this loud POP.

Seems the battery decided to expand… literally “blew up” to almost double the size! So much pressure it popped the case and basically tore the phone apart. Well, that’s the end of that! Ended up dismantling it further, tearing the flash chip apart and cutting up the SIM chip, then dropped it all off at Batteries Plus for disposal (nice service they offer).

Anyways, the point of that phone was to capture video of my lifts. But well… that won’t be happening. Sorry Deb. 😉

I can see why he calls it “the man-maker” template.

Based upon Paul Carter’s Strong-15 (LRB365)

• Squats – cycle goal: 325
  • BW x 10
  • bar x 5
  • bar x 5
  • 135 x 5
  • 160 x 4
  • 185 x 3
  • 205 x 2
  • 215 x 1
  • 230 x 1
  • 245 x 1
• Pause Squats
  • 180 x 5
  • 180 x 5
• Deadlift
  • 150 x 5
  • 190 x 4
  • 225 x 3
  • 265 x 2
  • 300 x 1
  • 320 x 1
  • 330 x 1
• Deadlift – Back off
  • 265 x 3
  • 265 x 3
  • 265 x 3
• Leg Curls
  • 30 x 20
  • 35 x 20
  • 35 x 20
  • 35 x 20

Squat and deadlift on the same day. Oof. Actually, today was not too bad. Everything was light, as to be expected at the start of a cycle. My rest breaks were short (60-90 seconds), and I just kept moving. But I can see why this is a “man-maker”… it’s going to get tougher as the weeks go by. But on the same token, my body should adapt to the workload and do alright. It wasn’t a brutal day, but I can feel it and see why it’s going to be what it is.

Bottom line tho: I’m excited to be back on a strength-building template. Looking forward to seeing how this will work out.

That went well.

• Bench Press
  • bar x 5
  • bar x 5
  • 95 x 5
  • 135 x 3
  • 165 x 1
  • 195 x 1
  • 225 x 1
  • 235 x 1

So today was about working up to determine an every day max (EDM) for my bench press.

I haven’t benched pressed in months, and it showed.

First, the incline pressing did not hurt at all. My bench PR is 240, and I know I could have blown by that today, if not for a few things which I’ll detail below.

The 235 went up pretty well, and all things considered, I think it will make a fair EDM. So for the upcoming Strong-15 cycle well… if Wendler did 15# in 3 cycles, I think it’d be fair for me to aim for 245# at the end of the Strong-15 cycle. That will be a 5# PR, and I know I can make it a solid PR.

So what went wrong today?

First, I hate benching like this. When I max out alone, I use the gym’s half-rack/pyramid thing and just put a flat bench in it. At least the catch rails are high enough (low enough?) that if I do fail and have to set things down (or if things came crashing down) it wouldn’t kill me and I do have enough room to wiggle out. But the pegs… one set is too low, I’d be almost half-repping it just to get in position. The other set is maybe an inch too high. I can get things in and out if I roll my shoulders forward, but that really sucks because I can’t start in a tight position — I have to unrack, then settle in, way in, and if I can’t get it right, it sucks.

Second, my grip. When I started doing inclines, I pulled my grip in. I used to bench with my ring finger on the rings. When I started inclines, I set my pinky just inside the rings (so inner edge of ring touches outer edge of pinky). That worked awesome for inclines. Well today I took that same grip, but found as the weight got heavier, my arms in the bicep and elbow region especially, were hurting like crazy. It got to a point where it was almost a struggle to lift a cup of water to my mouth to drink!! That’s not good. Well, upon reflection, it’s the grip. The closer grip, tucking the elbows in, the bar coming lower on the chest… all these things ended up making a more acute angle at the elbow. Now put 200# of pressure on it, and it was like my bicep was a walnut in a nut cracker. Even now as I type this up, they are still hurting. So this took something away. I was mentally distracted, and it was causing enough pain that I think my body was saying “uh… hey stupid! pain! means stop!”. I felt in terms of the lift itself, things were strong and I could have done more… but the pain was too great.

So… I’ll chalk it up as a -10% day. And if EDM is about what you can do even on those bad days, well here we are. Thus why I’m being conservative and only aiming for 245 at the end of the cycle.

Anyways, going to take Friday off and hit it hard on Monday.

305/430 – almost back where I was.

• Squat
  • BW x 10
  • bar x 5
  • 135 x 5
  • 185 x 3
  • 225 x 1
  • 265 x 1
  • 295 x 1
  • 305 x 1
• Deadlift
  • 135 x 3
  • 225 x 2
  • 315 x 1
  • 365 x 1
  • 405 x 1
  • 430 x 1

I’m about to embark on a full-cycle of Strong-15, so I wanted to establish more appropriate maxes. I think I also wanted to see how close I was to recovering the strength I lost this first half of 2014. At the end of 2013, I did lifetime PR’s of 315 in the squat and 440 in the deadlift. So with that in mind….

A few weeks ago I squatted 295 and felt that was good for an Every Day Max (EDM). Worked the past few weeks based on that. So today, I knew I could hit that, and I figured I should be able to do more given I’ve been working. The goal was a quick work up, hit 295, and see how things go. The 295 was solid, so I went 305. The 305 was good. I actually felt I had 315 in me, but to have done that would have been ego. Still, I figure that would have been a 1RM for sure, not really an EDM. So I just stopped at 305 — that’s good enough for figuring. I wanted to leave something in the tank for deadlifting.

I haven’t deadlifted in I guess 5-6 months. I didn’t do much warmup given the squats got me there, but I did some light stuff just to remember the groove. Things went up easily, not feeling it until 365. 405 was fine but certainly I was slowing down. I was actually going to go for 425, but something just grabbed 2 nickels off the rack and threw them on. The 430 went up and was probably close to a real 1RM. Looking back, I’m not sure it’s something I could hit on a bad day. Maybe.

Anyways, there I stopped. So I started to think about how those numbers play, and what to plug in to Paul Carter’s Strong-15 template. What you do is pick a reasonable/realistic goal to hit at the end of the cycle and work back from there. So given that, my goal is 325 squat and 445 deadlift. Both will allow PR’s, and I think they are conservative given what I hit today and then should be able to work over the course of 9 weeks. Part of me thinks I could do a little more given 1. in 5/3/1 land, 9 weeks of work is 3 cycles is 30# jump, 2. what I actually lifted today. But I don’t know Paul’s routine, it may not progress as fast as 5/3/1 or Cube, and I think I can still work things out quite well. If slightly lighter weights mean slightly better technique, I’ll just get stronger in the hole and all those good things. I’d rather underestimate than over, and ultimately whatever… it’ll be a PR, right? Take it, adjust from there, and move on. If I determine I could have taken larger jumps, I’ll know that in the future.

Also, I opted to do today like this because that’s how the template will be: “man-maker”, squatting and deadlifting in the same day. Honestly, I expected my deadlift to have suffered more, but really I just felt warmed up, not worked out. But we’ll see how it goes after actual work days. 😉

All in all tho, I’m happy with how today went, and am excited to get cranking on Strong-15.

Yes, I’m itching to move on.

Based upon Paul Carter’s Base Building – Mass cycle

Neutral-grip pull-ups

• BW x 2
• BW x 2
• BW x 2
• BW x 1
• BW x 1

BB Rows

• 135 x 8
• 135 x 8
• 135 x 8
• 135 x 8
• 135 x 8

Meadows Shrugs

• 55e x 12
• 55e x 12
• 55e x 12
• 55e x 12

Wide, Neutral-grip Pulldowns

• 100 x 12
• 100 x 12
• 100 x 12
• 100 x 12
• 100 x 12

BB Curls

• 60 x 8
• 60 x 8
• 60 x 8/3/3 (RP)

I know I shouldn’t be doing pull-ups given my past shoulder issues. But I’ve been wondering if alternative grips might help. The gym has a place where you can do neutral-grip pullups… can’t vary the width, but it’s OK for me, slightly wider than my shoulder with. Sometimes I will do one pull-up there just to see (as a part of my warm-up), but today I just kept going. Nothing major, but to me the larger accomplishment is 1. no shoulder pain, 2. no band-assistance. So sure, I only got a handful of reps, but at least it was all me.

Anyways, since I did that on a whim, I adjusted the rest of the session accordingly.

But what really distracted me was thinking about what’s next.

I’m wanting to try Paul’s Strong-15, the full 9-week program. I know at this stage it’s best to do things “as written”. Of course, across Paul’s eBooks, there are 3 “as-written” for the Strong-15, and even then there are more variations. But the main 3 I look at is the one in LRB365, and then the 2 3-day templates in Lift-Run-Bang (“traditional” and “man-maker”).

I like the 2 man-maker approaches because I think it’ll be novel to try squat and deadlift on the same day. But I have to admit, the past some weeks of having a “back day” doesn’t always thrill me — I like the dedication to the back, but I really like having one main lift each day (out of squat, bench, deadlift, press), and that doesn’t happen with a “back” day. So I like the man-maker approach, but one thing I see in that is something I’ve been thinking about for a while: frequency, and the whole adaptation/super-compensation curve stuff. When I was doing 5/3/1, that’s a program designed around 4-days, but you can do it on a 2 or 3 days/week setup, just means that every Monday isn’t bench press day (it will rotate). No problems, really. I tried 4-days/week and that was too much for me (tho today, with my potential ability for more rest, maybe it could work). 2-days did not work at all, and 3-days worked out well. And even tho I only did a particular movement every 9-10 days, I was working that part of the body every 4-5 days. That seemed to work out well for me for making progress.

So back to Paul’s programs. Most of it has things worked once a week, which feels too spread apart for me. But I could do something like the “traditional” layout, with his optional 4th day of light pressing, make it a 3xWeek thing, and could that get similar results?

I have been doing Paul’s stuff for a while now, and I do feel it’s working OK… but I haven’t been doing it on a strength-building cycle. So, I don’t know.

While I am so prone to think too much about stuff… I think what will be best is to just shut up and follow the program as written. I know this. I just can’t help but think about things. Try it out, get more familiar with the way Paul does things, and see how it works for me. It may not work, and it’s better to know that, than to always fall back to the same old thing because who knows — it may work out better!

I will probably follow the LRB365 setup.

So next week, I’m going to adjust my routine to figure out working maxes.