Something new has been added!

“Week “

• 3 reps – Press (working max: 140#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x55
  • 1x5x70
  • 1x3x85
  • 1x3x100 (work)
  • 1x3x115
  • 1x6x130 (PR)
• Asst. #1 – Press
  • 5 x 10 x 65
• Asst. #2 – Supine shoulder-width grip lat pulldowns
  • 5 x 10 x 120
• GPP – Sprints
  • Tabata style (20 sec. sprint, 10 sec. walk)
  • 5 “reps” (8 reps is one Tabata set)
  • walked 2 “laps” to warm up, then 2 at the end for a cooldown
• DeFranco Agile 8

Today was good. I set a PR on Press. I’ve done 130 before but got 3 reps. Today I got 6. Stronger. I should have no problem hitting 135. Confidence is high, repeat, confidence is high.

One change. Because weights are getting heavier, I’m going to wear the belt more. I’ve been wearing the belt only for my work sets on squats and deadlifts, but I’m going to start wearing it for my work sets on presses and bench press too. Why? All the torso stability from the Valsalva Maneuver. Funny thing tho… because I’m not used to wearing it during pressing, today when I wore it it did me no good: I tighten my torso, I don’t press out like Valsalva requires. Of course, the pressing out lends to much better stability, so I’m just going to have to train myself to do it. I’m going to start wearing the belt for all sets of pressing and benching (warmup, work, and BBB assistance) until I retrain myself.

On the assistance work, it was a breeze because I got a lot of rest between sets. The gym was a little chattier than usual this morning, so I was chatting a little more between sets. All good, but a little more rest than I wanted. No worries tho, it happens. Rest is good.

On sprints, I opted to not start out at 100 MPH. My problem the past few times is I start running and try to just sprint right out of the block — it’s caused me some pain in my right hamstring and even today is still a little sore. So instead, start at 0 and just accelerate quickly, ease into it. That was a lot better, I found a better groove. Did 5 reps today and will continue at 5 for the next “week” of the program. My feeling is hit 6 during the work week and stay at 6 during deload week since it’s deload week.

I also started doing the DeFranco Agile 8. The hamstring pulling motivated me — I need to improve that hip area flexibility, and this is recommended to help. Good thing. I will say, I had no idea a foam roller would hurt so much. 🙂 Not sure what that indicates but wow, my muscles went “OW!”… guess they’re that sore and in need.

Blah. This sucked. 😦

“Week 1”

• 5 reps – Squat (working max: 250#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x100
  • 1x5x125
  • 1x53x150
  • 1x5x165 (work)
  • 1x5x190
  • 1x5x215
• Asst. #1 – Squat
  • 5 x 10 x 100
• Asst. #2 – Leg Curls
  • 5 x 10 x 65
• GPP – Sprints
  • Tabata style (20 sec. sprint, 10 sec. walk)
  • 4 “reps” (8 reps is one Tabata set)

Well, today sucked.

You can see on my work set that what should have been >5 reps was only 5 reps. I know why tho. You know how I’ve been having “light headed” issues when I pick up heavy weights? That happened. I’ve been trying to experiment to find ways to mitigate it, such as not doing any deep breaths before I get under the bar, deep breath, tighten up, lift bar, assume position, then breathe a couple of times to get my head back, then start reps. Well, I did that and thought things were well enough, but as each rep progressed I could feel my head hating it and things getting worse. I don’t know why. By the 5th rep I knew there was no way I’d make the 6th, so I racked it.

I’m annoyed, but I’ll live with it because it happened. Plus I have been debating backing off due to the addition of sprints. Given what happened today I am going to back off the rest of this cycle to the previous cycle’s numbers. I don’t need to exceed the numbers, at least work to meet them. Because again, I’m trying to ensure my body can adapt to the sprint workload. That’s a bit more important.

Or, I could make an excuse that I was lifting heavier today because I know I put on 5# from eating over the long Thanksgiving weekend. 😉 Yeah, I slacked on eating because I took the long week as a mental health break. It worked well, not only napping, but a bit of improvement in my sleep schedule (getting more sleep at night). The only reason I feel bummed today is 1. it’s back to the day job, 2. I didn’t get enough reps on that last set. But oh well.

And sprints today…. I’ll be sticking with 4 for a bit longer, tho oddly I felt like I could have gone 5. I only didn’t because I already had quite a leg workout and don’t want to push it too hard and affect recovery. I’ll try going for 5 on Wednesday.

Realized some things today….

“Week 1”

• 5 reps – Bench Press (working max: 210#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x85
  • 1x5x105
  • 1x3x130
  • 1x5x140 (work)
  • 1x5x160
  • 1x10x180
• Asst. #1 – Bench Press
  • 5 x 10 x 120
• Asst. #2 – Dumbbell rows
  • 5 x 10 x 50
• GPP – Sprints
  • 2 “reps” of walking the course (90-ish yards each way)
  • Tabata style (20 sec. sprint, 10 sec. walk)
  • 4 “reps” (8 reps is one Tabata set)
  • 2 “reps” of walking for a cooldown
• Grip
  • 3x10xS, 2 sec. hold between reps

Today a few things hit home.

First, I’ve found myself saying “gosh, the weights felt heavy today” a lot. I think I have to come to accept something: the weights are always going to feel heavy now. I read about guys squatting 1000# and they say that it feels like you’re being crushed by all the weight. Sure I only squat a fraction of that, but the point remains: it’s just going to be heavy because it is heavy. You are going to feel all that weight upon you. So, I have to stop thinking “gosh it’s heavy” as if in some way expecting it to maybe feel light… because it won’t ever again (except maybe on deload weeks, relative to the week prior).

On that same token, I need to increase my rest periods. On the 5/3/1 exercise, warmups can rest enough to change the plates and move on. On the work sets, no more “2 min max” rest, instead go for a 3 minute minimum and more if I need it. On assistance work, at least 1 minute but no more than 2.

Both of these things come from a simple place: inexperience. Never in my life have I moved weights this heavy. I’ve never been here before. I just don’t know what to expect. Plus, all lifting I’ve ever done has always been “bodybuilder style” lifting, where you want to keep rest periods short. Now I’m about strength building (with muscle mass a secondary consideration), and that just means I will need more rest, especially as the weights get heavier. So it’s a bunch of changing my habits, changing my perceptions. The timer during my work sets isn’t to say “start lifting when the timer gets to zero or just prior”, but instead “you can’t even think about starting to lift until the timer hits zero, and take more if you need it”. Assistance work is to build some mass, so a little less rest is going to happen there, but I still want to allow myself to rest if I need it…. just not too much.

So on that….

The work sets of benching went well. Pushed out 10 reps with the 180 and felt good there.

On assistance benching, I’m going to start pausing at the bottom of the rep to give myself a little more work. Due to that, I almost didn’t make it through the sets today. 🙂

Rows felt good. Keeping my arm at about a 45º angle (instead of upper arm “pinned” to my side) and that feels like it’s hitting my back more in the way I need it. I think about moving the elbow up, not pulling the weight up. That gets more back involved, less concern about my arms.

Sprints… felt a little more comfortable with it all today, but I am still going to need time to catch my stride and feel comfortable with it. As I type this, my calves/shins are hurting… I really don’t want shin splints to happen, thus the new running shoes. But my body still needs to adapt to it all, so I’ll stick with only 4 “reps” for now until my body adjusts and adapts. On that note, I had been thinking about keeping my squat work this cycle at last cycle’s work levels because of this extra leg work. I’m not sure now, due to my change in attitude about the rest periods. I’m going to go ahead and let the next workout progress as normal (i.e. 10# jump over last cycle) and we’ll just see how it goes. If it slays me and I have recovery problems, I’ll back off. Else, press on!

I also opted to change my grip workout a bit. I’m going to do the “heavy” grip work on deadlift day since that puts a lot of grip work in with the deadlifts and the hanging leg/knee raises. But then, I’ll do the “light” grip day on bench day. I get some grip work on this day, so I think light day can happen here. This also allows more recovery time then between grip workouts instead of spreading things across every workout and risking impacting recovery in a negative way. We’ll see how it goes.

Tried something else for sprints today…. ouch. 🙂

“Week 1”

• 5 reps – Deadlifts (working max: 295#)
  • 1x5x120 (warmup)
  • 1x5x150
  • 1x3x180
  • 1x5x195 (work)
  • 1x5x225
  • 1x8x255
• Asst. #1 – Good Mornings
  • 5 x 10 x 65
• Asst. #2 – Hanging Knee Raises
  • 5 x 6 x BW
• Metcon – Sprints
  • 1/2 a Tabata set, 20 seconds sprint, 10 seconds walk
• Grip
  • 2x10xS, 2 sec hold between each rep
  • 3x5xT, 2 sec hold between each rep
  • 1 10 sec hold, No. 1

Today was OK. Weight felt kinda heavy and looking back well, my deadlift PR was 1x8x275 so why I only cranked out 8 with 255 today I’m not sure. I did feel like I could do more but said “leave some in the tank”. So maybe it was just being conservative. I’m also a bit concerned about my rest levels… sleep has been an issue for me (some problems) and I just may not be recovering like I need to. Hrm. Still, they felt like strong reps, just like I didn’t want to do a whole lot.

I supersetted the good mornings and the knee raises. My knee raises are doing well, working to touch my knees to my shoulders on every rep, so I’m getting a good curl with my body, working more than just hip flexors. I did notice my left hand grip starting to slip on the last couple reps of the last couple sets, but I just hung on and kept going. The superset works things a little harder, but I’m good with that due to time and a little more intensity.

Sprints. First thing…. I bought myself a good pair of running shoes because Chucks just won’t cut it with all the impact involved, so that means more gear to haul to the gym: lift in Chucks, run in the New Balances. I then paced off 90 yards. The plan is to use the Tabata method: sprint 20 seconds, walk 10 seconds, that’s “1 rep”. If I can pull 1 good set of those (8 “reps”) that should be a good start. But of course, there’s no way I’m doing 8 right now. I only did 4 (so “half” a set). I want to get my body used to things: the running, the impact, the whole motion. 4 didn’t quite tax me today, I was sucking wind but didn’t feel exhausted or like I was going to throw up, but it was good enough. My lower legs are a bit tight and achy from the past couple sprint trials, just because it’s a new motion. Plus today’s deadlifting put a lot of work into my hamstrings and on the first sprint I guess I had a little too much stride and my right hamstring isn’t too happy with me right now. I don’t want to have this long gazelle stride where my heel lands way out in front of me and then my hams “pull” my body forward, rather I want to just keep having my body being “pushed forward” by my stride; so it won’t be this long stride, but knees high, arms pumping, and going as hard as I can. Again, kinda like tire running or well, what you’d do if you were pushing a Prowler. Of course, by round 3 I felt like I was sprinting for my life but I’m sure I looked like I was barely jogging. 🙂 All good. I’ll work my way up. At least this felt like a lot more work and intensity than rope jumping.

And grip, I bumped up to a 3×5 for the “work”. Left hand is of course a little weaker and I’ll keep things at a level until my left catches up with my right. My always think to involve the pinky: that’s so key

Speaking of grip stuff… I tried that “Liquid Chalk” stuff today. Seemed alright. Not sure how much it actually helped, but I don’t think it hurt.

I think I may take a nap today.

Starting cycle 4 of the Wendler 5/3/1 program.

“Week 1”

• 5 reps – Press (working max: 140#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x55
  • 1x5x70
  • 1x3x85
  • 1x5x90 (work)
  • 1x5x105
  • 1x7x120
• Asst. #1 – Press
  • 5 x 10 x 65
• Asst. #2 – Supinated, shoulder-width grip lat pulldowns
  • 5 x 10 x 120
• Metcon – sprints
  • 40 yards
  • walk twice
  • jog twice
  • 5 x 1 walk, 1 jog, 1 sprint
  • walk… I dunno… 100 yards, twice, cooldown

And so, starting cycle 4 on Wendler 5/3/1.

Pressing went nicely. Felt good. Weights are feeling heavier, but that’s ok…. just keep pressing! Went up only 5# but remember, last cycle I goofed and went up due to mis-reading my charts and so I’m just continuing up, so it’s a bit of a big jump, but I know I’ll be alright.

On the assistance pressing, a 5# jump but boy it felt harder. I normally take 1 min of rest between sets but I needed a little more here (90 to 120 seconds, never let myself do more than 2 minutes but mostly it was as “ok, do I feel rested enough?” feeling). So my goal during the cycle will be to get my rest periods down.

Pulldowns went well, feeling hard those last few reps of the last few sets. I have wondered if I might want to go up another 5# and let my rest periods here increase too. I’ve been (re)reading more Wendler stuff, including his 5/3/1 Powerlifting book and well… the reason I kept my rest periods during assistance work to 1 minute was to get and keep my heart rate up to add to conditioning. But, if I’m moving into doing prowler and sprints? Do I really want/need that? Better to perhaps lift a big heavier, a bit more intensive on the assistance work, go for 1-2 minutes of rest. Let it be a bit more for mass building, y’know?

Went outside and sprinted. I have those 40-50 yards measured off. I walked it twice, jogged it twice, then did 5 “reps” of walk it, then jog it, then sprint it. That felt enough for today. I also timed it. Now remember, when I jog and sprint I’m doing it with high knees, kinda like I’m tire running but moving forward faster than a tire run would allow. In timing it, it took about 30 seconds to walk it, 20-ish to jog, and 10 to sprint. Hrm. Not exactly the work intervals you want; HIIT wants about a 2:1 ratio of work to rest, but for now, this is alright to help my body adapt and get used to things. But still… I think that perhaps I’ll go with a Tabata format and measure of maybe 90 yards or so, figuring that 80 yards of that sort of sprinting would be about 20 seconds of work, and 10 yards of walking would be about 10 seconds or rest. So, 90 yards, I can go up and back at least 4 and up to 8 times. On Wednesday I may measure that out and see how it goes.

I also thought, again after reading more Wendler yesterday, that I might back off my squat numbers and repeat the same squat numbers from last cycle. Why? Because I’m adding in some intensive leg work and my body needs time to adapt… could take 3-4 weeks for my body to get there, and my squat will suffer for it. But like Wendler says, it’s about long term goals, years, not weeks or even months. You’ll never get weaker by going lighter. I’ll see how I feel tho come next week since the first squat won’t be for another week.

With today’s workout I finished my 3rd cycle of the Wendler 5/3/1 method, following a general “boring but big” template 3x a week with a little metcon/GPP. Started to also experiment with working on grip, and changing around my metcon/GPP.

I’m still very pleased with this workout program. It’s slow progress, but there’s progress and my body generally feels happy for it. This is all good. I’m happy with the direction, the results, and where things are going. I see little reason to change the basic program, but I do see some tweaks coming.

First, as has been mentioned in my logs, I’m changing up my GPP. Jumping rope just isn’t going to cut it any more. When the guy with the Prowler shows up, I’m going to do that because it r00l3z. But since it may not always happen, I’m going to sprint instead. I need to come up with a reasonable routine for the sprinting, but my hope is that will work. My desired goal here isn’t just to increase my conditioning, but also to see about accelerating some fat loss. I don’t want to do some sort of “cutting” cycle where I cut back on calories, cut back on the strength work, all in an effort to just drop fat… because as far as I can see, you can do things wisely and drop some fat, maybe slowly, but that’s fine. For this 4th cycle I’m not going to directly change much other than what I do for GPP, but I have thought that perhaps during the 5th cycle I might try changing the diet up for the 6 weeks of the cycle, leaving my strength weights alone (i.e. do 4th cycle weights again), and see if I can drop 10# of fat. But we’ll see… I’ll figure that out in about 6 weeks.

I think I’m going to need to invest in a good pair of running shoes. The Chucks are great for most of my working out, but the running? It’s going to hurt.

I’ve also had some thoughts about adding a little more work to my workout sessions. Yes, a little more “bodybuilding” type stuff (see Wender on a bb template), because yes I’d like to put on a little more muscle mass in some areas. But I don’t know yet. I think I’d rather focus on some of the fat shedding, but we’ll see. Much to think about. Won’t be happening this 4th cycle.

Another thing is working on my grip, and for now that’s just going to be those CoC grippers as I outlined in some past workout logs. We’ll see how it pans out.

So as for the 4th cycle itself, I think what I’m most excited about is hitting some milestones. I’ll be using 135# for my pressing, which is cool to move into the 45# plates.  Bench press is going to break 200#. Deadlift is nearing 300. And my squats are going to go into true PR territory finally. So it’s going to be a rather cool cycle. I need to ensure I get a lot of rest. 🙂  I’ve wondered about how these work-weights translate into a 1RM, just because one gets curious. I’m not going to sweat it too much. But I do think about it… I’m human.

Wife comments on how my body is looking, is improving. So hey… life’s good. 🙂

Tried something different today.

“Week 4”

• Deload – Squats (working max: 240#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 2x5x95
  • 2x5x120
  • 2x5x145
• Asst. #1 – Squats
  • 5 x 10 x 95
• Asst. #2 – Leg curls
  • 5 x 10 x 60
• Metcon
  • Sprints – read below
• Grip
  • 3x10xS – 2 second hold for each rep

Deloading, so nothing to write home about… but a few things of note.

With squats, I really worked to keep my torso tight, pushing outward with my abdominals. Boy that makes such a difference… not to just be tight, but to explicitly push out. Keeps the torso more upright, causes the posterior chain to be more involved, even felt it more in my adductors, and you just get more push overall. I dug it. I have been working on this, and today was very productive in this area.

The other big change? I opted to sprint.

Jumping rope isn’t bad, and it was a good way to start, but I feel I’ve adapted and plateaued… it’s not pushing me any more. So to increase it, I wanted to do the “running in place” and while that’s helping, I can’t keep it up — either coordination gives, or the muscles are too tired already to keep going, and thus I trip up on the rope and so what’s the point? I can’t get enough jumps to make the effort work out.

But that Prowler? Boy that works. The trouble there is the equipment belongs to someone else, and so it requires him to be there and to be there when I’m there. Generally possible, but not always (e.g. he was out of town the past week).

So looking at all of this, plus that a general suggestion for things like this is hill sprints well…. there aren’t any hills around, but I can at least sprint. There’s a long driveway right next to my gym, more than enough distance. So, if I can Prowler, I’ll do that. If I can’t, I’m going to sprint.

I only just considered it this morning before I left for the gym, so I only got a little bit of reading done. I want it to be HIIT style. But what would that be? Well, I’ll work on it. Here’s what I came up with for today:

• Found two markers on the ground, paced off the distance at about 45 paces (so somewhere between 40 and 50 yards)
• Walk from one end to the other.
• Turn around. Jog back.
• Turn around. Sprint back.
• That constitutes “1 rep”.
• When jogging or sprinting, it isn’t about trying to cover the distance as quickly as possible, but rather trying to put as much effort in as possible. I’m working to pull my knees up at least so my thighs are parallel to the ground, my impact is on the balls of my feet (not trying to heel-toe it), arms pumping through a full range of motion, and sure I’m still trying to get from here to there, but it’s more about effort. Perhaps more akin to running tires than pure distance sprinting.
• Today, I did 4 “reps”. I’ll work my way up in reps, probably landing at 10 or 12 reps. We’ll see where things go from there. In fact, as I do more reading about good sprint HIIT programs, I may change things entirely.

So I’ll see what comes of this. I am wanting to not just increase my conditioning, but accellerate my fat burning. HIIT is the way to do it, and while the Prowler will be my first choice, when it’s not available I want to do something that’s “up there” so…. here we go. We’ll see what happens.