Birthday Squats

LRB Diet - Week 10

BW - 197

Squats -
BarX10 (long pause at the bottom to stretch)
95X5
125X4
145X3
185X2
205X1
125X35!!!

Chins - 5 sets
super-set with
Push-ups - 4 sets

Band Pull-Aparts; Medium Grip - 2 sets of 50

Fucking hell, this was the hardest damn set ever.

To recap, about a month back, inspired by Dave Tate's Halloween tradition of doing a "death-set" of 315, I decided I would aim to do a a 35 rep set for my 35th birthday.  I projected my 40RM, which is a hilarious idea especially in the middle of running 531.  I used 40 precisely because projecting a max for a rep range that's far away from the range you've been working in is a dicey proposition, so I knew I would need a margin of error.  That weight projected to be 125 lbs.

Then for the last 3 weeks I've been adding back-off sets on my heavy squat day with 135.  Again, I used a heavier weight to train for this to create "elbow room" for the 35 rep set itself.  Week 1 I did 135X10, Week 2 135X15, and Week 3 I did 135X20 and then a 50% set of 135X12.  This helped me get used to working in a higher rep range, and with a heavier weight than my "event" weight.

For the programming of the event itself, I used Paul Carter's Big-15 #'s which are designed to over warm-up to a moderately heavy single, and then back-off to some higher-rep work sets. This was perfect.  The 125 felt feather-light for the first 10 reps or so thanks to the over warm-up.  I got to 20 and everything was still OK, but around 25 reps I didn't know if I would make it.  My lower back started cramping pretty hard from holding my arch that long, and that meant that taking a rest at lock-out was really no rest at all.  It was a toss-up as to which was harder at the end, squatting or holding at lock-out.  The weight was so light that I even tried standing straight up and using my hands to hold the weight against my back, but the cramping continued.  By the time I got to 30 there was no option left but to finish, however.  Those last reps will go down as the ugliest squat reps of my life, but I got my 35.  I racked it, and collapsed onto the safety pins and just stared at the ceiling panting.

Diet-wise, I didn't eat any carbs the day before, and on the day I added some carbs back in to breakfast and lunch, and then added a 2nd lunch a couple hours before training along with a cup of coffee.  As a result, I was lean in the morning, but had plenty of energy for squatting. 

This all went pretty damn well.  If I had it all to do over again, the only thing I would change would be to add hypers at the beginning and/or end of every session leading up to this.  That low-back cramping was no joke.

After the squats, I just did some chins and push-ups to make sure I got some push-pull in before my vacation.  No point in recording the reps performed, because the numbers would be extreme outliers after that squat session.  I was just too wiped to be much good for anything.  I will say that I kept both movements strict, and with a tight pause at the bottom of each rep.

Lastly, I threw in some pull-aparts for balance because I got more push-ups than chins.

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 4. Week 3. Press/Dead

Saturday:

Band Pull-Aparts, wide-grip - 100 straight reps

Sunday:

LRB Diet - Week 10

BW - 197

Pause- Squats -
BarX5, 10
95X5, 5
135X5, 5
160, 185, 210X3

Klokovs -
BarX10
55, 65X5
75X3
85X2
95X1
100X1
105XFAIL
85X5

Deadlift -
135X5, 5
185, 225X5
250X3
280X8

Shrugs -
225, 315X10
405X5
455X3, 3, 3, 3, 3
475X2, 2, 2, 2, 5

Band Pull-Aparts; Medium-Grip - 5 sets of 25

Brutal, balls-to-the-wall session.  Spent about 2 hours in the gym.  Goddamn pause squats still feel heavy as hell over 200 lbs.  One thing that did feel good was sitting down into the first set with the empty bar for a long, long time.  It just seemed to really stretch out my hips and allow everything to open up for the pause, and felt pretty awesome as well.  Regarding how heavy the top set is feeling, I don't think I'm ready to jump up to the next % tier of the program, and will have to stay here for a while OR just go ahead and take a shot at the next tier, and see if I fail or not...

Decided to do another "testing" day for the Klokovs using the Strong-15 #'s.  That 100X1 was maybe the hardest grind-out of a rep I've ever done.  The first few inches of this lift are just brutal, as even once you've broken the bar off your neck it still moves SLOOOOOOW for the next little bit.  I ground just as hard on that 105, but it would not break.  I upped the weight a bit for the back-off set to make it a bit more challenging.

280X8 on Deads is a Rep PR, and a tiny, tiny increase to my projected 1RM.  I was mainly focused on keeping my hips high, because my shins and knees have been taking a beating lately, and I think it's because I'm starting with my hips too low.

Did the 475 for double on shrugs, because I think I can move up to that for the triples, but I didn't want to jump straight in.

Had a few minutes till the bus would come, so I hit some band pull-aparts.

This was my last regular session before I go on vacation.  I'll hit the gym once more to try my "birthday squats" idea, and I may also get in one more conditioning session once the squats are done.

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 4. Week 3. Bench

LRB Diet - Week 9

BW - 199

Pause Squats -
BarX10, 10
95X5, 5
135X5, 5
160, 185, 210X3

Bench -
BarX10, 10
95X5, 5
125X5
145X3
160X7
95X15
super-set with
Pull-Ups - BW from a dead-hang; 6 sets of 1

Chin-Ups; Neutral Grip; Dead-hang on every rep -
BWX5, 5, 5, 3, 3

Hypers - 3 sets of 15

Nice session.  160X7 is a huge all-around Bench PR with close-grip, and pausing every rep on my chest.  This puts me in spitting distance of my previous best on wide-grip touch-and-go.  There's always a chance this was an above average day, and that I'll see a little bit of a drop-off, but then again maybe not.  I'm going on vacation, and probably won't bench while I'm away, so it'll have to wait till I get back.  My bench started to really take off here around September, 9.  I'm going to go back into my log, and try to really make sure I know what I did in the month or so leading up to this.

I'm resetting all my pull/chin-ups to a "dead-hang."  This isn't totally accurate.  What I'm doing is extending my arms almost fully at the bottom and pausing.  The reason it's "almost fully" and not a true dead-hang, is because I'm keeping enough tension to keep my scapula retracted.  My reps feel higher quality this way, and my chest comes more naturally to the bar, rather than just my chin.  Regardless, this is a significantly more difficult approach, and feels more "legitimate."

Had some time till the bus would come, so I kicked out some hypers real quick.

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 4. Week 3. Timed Mile

LRB Diet - Week 9

Timed Mile - 8:20

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 4. Week 3. Squat

LRB Diet - Week 9

BW - 197

Squat -
BarX10, 10
95X5, 5
135X5, 5
180X5
205X3
225X7
135X20, 12

Pendlays -
BarX15
120X3
155X3
140X15

Dips (paused at bottom) -
BWX5, 5, 5, 5, 3

Hoo-boy.  I did not get very much sleep the night before, and this session was mentally and physically exhausting.

225X7 is in line with the top-sets of my last two sessions, but no weight PRs.  That's fine and good, but the real story is then in the back-off sets.  Jefit says this a volume PR for me, even over the 195X20 session I did back in May when I was cutting my squats much higher.  I'd thought about form in the days between my last session and this, and theorized that if I kept my butt pushed back a bit at lock-out, I would be able to take a breath or two between reps without losing my arch as much.  This worked out very well and holding the weight with locked knees felt much safer for my back.  Also, being able to keep my arch tighter resulted in an almost painful low-back pump.

My goal for the back-offs was to hit 20 reps with 135 (5 more reps than last session), and then do a 50% set.  I was nervous going into the 20 because I felt a bit wiped from the top-set, but the new lock-out positioning helped me get it very solidly.  I then rested ONLY 60 seconds (this is how 50% sets work after all), and went back for another set.  I thought I would be lucky to get 10 as tired as I felt, but I ended up getting 12!  I probably could have gotten 15 with an all-out-maybe-dump-the-last-rep set, but I'd beat my goal, and called it good.

So that's my last regular squat session of the cycle.  I have two more pause-squat sessions, and then it's on to the "Birthday Squats."  I'll be using my current, projected 40RM of 125, and working up and then backing-off to it using Paul Carter's "Big-15" progression.  That will look like this:
BarX45
95X5
120X4
145X3
180X2
205X1
125X35
Gotta make sure I get more sleep the night before, and eat up a bit.

As fried as I was, 140X15 is an all-around PR in Pendlays.

For Dips, I'd been saying I was going to work up to +45 by 5, and then re-set my form to full depth and with a pause at the bottom.  I got to thinking about this, and realized it's the same bullshit I used to tell myself with Squat and Bench.  "Yeah, I'm gonna reset my bench form to close-grip and pausing every rep at the bottom, but I just want to hit 225 with my hands past the rings and a lot of bounce of the chest first."  Why?  All that does is delay me hitting the target with the harder form.  So I said fuck it, 45X5+ will feel so much sweeter when I hit it deep and with a pause at the bottom than it will cutting high.  And how shitty would I have felt about myself if I'd done +45X5 today, and then discovered next session that I can't get much more than 5 BW reps with a deep pause?  Not lying to myself is a good thing.

Honestly, I almost skipped dips altogether because I was so tired, and that meant ab wheel was just not going to happen.

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 4. Week 2. Press/Dead

LRB Diet - Week 9

BW - 198

Pause Squats -
BarX10, 10
95X5, 5
135X5, 5
160, 185, 215X3

Klokovs -
BarX10, 10
60, 70X3
80X12

Deadlift -
135, 135X5
205, 235X3
265X10

BB Shrugs -
225, 315X10
405X7
455X3, 3, 3, 3, 5
405X12

Ab Wheel - 3 sets of 5-10

Pause Squats still feeling heavy.

Klokovs were pretty solid today, and 80X12 is a Rep PR.

Deadlift felt great, and 265X10 is an all-around PR.  My 3rd of the year.  Started with 285X5 in February, then 335X1 in May.  Maybe I'll hit another before the year's out!

Bumped up to 455 for the triples on shrugs.  Felt tired as hell by the time I got here, and my grip was rough even with straps, so I did a back-off set of 405 instead of progressing to singles.  405X12 is an all-around PR.

Got 3 sets of nothin' on the ab wheel before I called it and went home.  Pretty good session, but I was beat down by the end.

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 4. Week 2. Carries

Sunday:

LRB Diet - Week 9

BW - ???

AM:
Steady-state - 20 minutes

PM:
Wife Carries - 1/4 mileX2

When I started lifting, my wife would sometimes ask me what my goal was, and I would joke that I thought a man should be able to carry his woman for 2 miles over un-even terrain.  I even did a cycle of farmer's carries once with that in mind, but that fell away as I tried to stay focused on the basics. 

Recently, she asked me how far I thought I could carry her now, and partially inspired by a recent CNP article on Tom Hardy, I decided to try some piggy-backs.  I have a 1-mile route in my neighborhood I often use for conditioning, and I thought I would go for a 1/2 mile carry.  Luckily, the route is easily broken down into 1/4 miles, because that's all I could manage.  We then walked another 1/4 mile until I felt recovered, and I did another 1/4 mile carry.

The good news/bad news is that no one part of my body felt much more fatigued than any other.  This was a whole body effort, and pretty much everything was giving out at once rather than having one "weak link."  That both reinforces my confidence that I'm keeping my training well-balanced, and that I still have loads of room for improvement in every area.  With that said, it's now a day later, and my biceps are more sore than they've been in a long time, so this obviously provides a different type/degree of stress than all the rowing and chinning I do.

If the wife is willing, I may start alternating this with hill-sprints as regular conditioning.  It's also pretty fun and pretty funny.  There is a bar right where we stopped yesterday, and I collapsed onto a bar stool and treated myself to a giant ice-water, and a gin-and-tonic for my troubles.

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 4. Week 2. Bench

Saturday:

LRB Diet - Week 8

BW - 197

Pause Squats -
BarX10, 10
95X5
135X3, 3
160, 185, 215X3

Bench -
BarX10, 10
95X5, 5
120, 135X3
150X7
95X10

Pull-ups - BWX1,2,3,1,2,3,1,2,3

Chins (neutral grip) - BWX5, 5, 5, 5, 8

Hypers - 3 sets of 15

Okay, pause squats felt a little heavy on the last two sets.  Really hoping I catch up to these weights over the next two weeks.

However, bench was a tiny all-around PR close-grip and pausing every rep.  Bench is finally moving a little bit these last couple week, and that feels nice.

Pull-ups felt a bit more challenging this week on the 2 and 3 rep sets, but neutral grip chins felt awesome, and that 8 rep set is my highest rep set in a little over a month.

Light back day, so finished with some hypers.

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 4. Week 2. Squat

LRB Diet - Week 8

BW - 197

Squats -
BarX10, 10
95X5, 5
135X3, 3
165, 190X3
215X9
135X15

Pendlays -
BarX15
110, 145X5
130X17

SL High-Pulls -
130, 145, 165, 165, 170X5

Dips -
BWX5, 5
+35X8, 6, 4

Chiro Crunches - 1 set of 40

Ab Wheel - 2 sets of 6

80+% session.  I won't say +10%, because RPE was pretty high on everything, but lots of little PR's today.

215X9 is an all-time Rep PR, and projects to an all-around PR with my deeper form.  Added 5 reps to my back-off set weight.  Will try for 20 with 135 next time.  It looks like the weight for my 35 birthday squats is going to be at 125, so 135 for 20 should be a good prep for that attempt.  Might want to add a 2 sets of 10 to follow it though.  40 total reps with 135 might be even better prep.

I also added additonal sets to my squat warm-ups based on a recent article by Paul Carter.  I will say that the 2nd set of each warm-up weight felt better than the first.  Hard to say if it helped my top sets any.  I'll try to keep this up with Squating and Benching and see if I think it's having an impact.

130X17 is a small all-around PR on the dead-stop rows.  The last few reps had one or two breaths between each, though.

16X5 was my previous best on the High-Pulls.  They still felt like they were right at the top end, but I suddenly remembered 2.5 lb. weights!  So I was able to bump up to 170 and get 5 for a small all-around PR on this move as well.

8 reps with 35 lbs. was my goal for dips this session and I got it.  Next session, I will go for 5 with a 45.  After I get back from vacation, I'm going to reset to BW dips for a little bit, and start pausing my reps at the bottom.  I'm worried that I've started cutting reps high, and pausing is the best way I know to fix that for any movement.  Looking forward to feeling humbled.

Started to do the swiss-ball crunches per normal, but I'm getting really bored with them.  I've noticed that an Ab Wheel has been able to stay at the gym for a while without being stolen, so I'm going to switch to that for awhile. 

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 4. Week 1. Press/Dead

LRB Diet - Week 8

BW - 197

Pause Squats -
BarX8
95, 135X5
160, 185, 210X3

Klokovs -
BarX10
55, 65X5
75X15

Deadlift -
135X5, 5
190, 220X5
250X11

Shrugs -
225, 315X10
405X5
425X3, 3, 3, 3, 3
455X1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 5

Chiro Crunches - 5 sets of 40

Pretty satisfying session, and looking leaner than I've been in over a year.  That 210X3 still felt pretty heavy though.  Probably an 8 or 9 out of 10 on the ol' RPE scale.

Klokovs felt a bit back on track.  I approached them somewhat differently, in that on the first 3 sets I paused every rep on my back so that I would have to take them from a dead-stop.  Then on the top set, I paused every 5 reps for breath.  The hardest part of this lift is breaking it off the neck, and that's why I "trained" the pause/break on all the up-sets so that I would be prepared for the top-set.  As the weight increases on this lift, I'm going to try and incorporate more pausing.  The difference between attempting this lift from a pause vs. with the stretch reflex is pretty drastic.

250X11 is right in the strength range for my last session, is a Rep PR for the 9-11 rep range, and everything felt pretty good.  So that's a good session.

So with shrugs I really hemmed-and-hawed and decided to go up to 455 for singles, and then when I decided to do max reps on the last set, I got 5 which is hilarious.  So next time, I'll do 455 for my triples I guess, and do 475 for singles and see how many reps I get at the end with that.

Heavy, heavy back day so I did crunches for my core work.

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 4. Week 1. Timed Mile

LRB Diet - Week 8

Yesterday:
Timed Mile - 9 minutes

Today I woke up looking as lean as I have on the entire diet.  Never got around to buying a scale, so I still can't say where my "true" weight has been, and my gym weight has been hovering steady in the 197-199 range.

At this point, I'm shooting for the LRB food template, but falling back to the LRB Shake Diet in a pinch.  This is mainly on work-day mornings, when I will have a Met-RX MRS instead of taking the time to cook real food.

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 4. Week 1. Bench

LRB Diet - Week 8

BW - 199

Hypers - 5 sets of 15

Pause Squats -
Bar, 95, 135X5
160, 185, 210X3

Bench -
BarX10
95, 110, 125X5
145X8

Press -
65, 85X8
75X8, 6, 5
super-set with
Wide-grip Pull-Ups - BWX1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3

Chin-ups - BWX5, 5, 5, 5, 6

Another decent session.  I guess this kind of thing can happen when you're only working one job, heh.

Pause Squat weight creeps up a little bit more for the next few weeks.  Getting gradually closer to PR range. 

Best bench session in a long while.  This is an all-around PR with close-grip and pausing every rep on the chest.  I really wanted this today, and I got it.  I'm thinking about dropping some or all of the overhead work in my program after I get back from vacation at the end of the month to try and get some real, steady progress on this lift by incorporating Incline Presses instead.  But I'm going to be patient, and finish out the shoulder volume programming I've implemented until vacation.

Speaking of Press, I had to remind myself to stop after a few sets here.  I'm only really supposed to be doing 4 work-sets, and I got 4-5 here and was about to start another before I snapped to my senses.  My Klokov's sucked ass last week, and I don't want that to happen again.

Pull-ups on a straight bar this time, whcih was a little harder than the bent bar.  Still got all my rungs done.  And then chins felt strong even though I ultimately could only get 6 on my all out set.

Not a lot of low-back work on this session, so I opened it with hypers for my core work.

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 4. Week 1. Hill Sprints

LRB Diet - Day 49

AM Steady State - 25 minutes

PM Hill-Sprints - 20 minutes; sprint up, walk back

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 4. Week 1. Squat

LRB Diet - Day 48

BW - 198

Squat -
BarX10
95, 135, 155, 180X5
205X10
135X10

Pendlays -
BarX15
105X10
145X8
120X15

SL High-Pulls -
120, 145, 155, 155, 155X5

Dip -
BW, BWX5
+25X10, 6, 5

Chiro Crunches - 3 sets of 40

Nice session.  205X10 is an all-time Rep PR, and an all-around PR at full depth.  My birthday is coming up at the end of the month, and I'm going to institute a new tradition of picking a weight and squatting it for as many reps as I am years old.  This was inspired by Dave Tate's Halloween tradition of doing "Death Squats."  However, I don't want to go straight from working in the 5-10 range to trying for a 35 rep set, so I'm adding back-off sets on Squat day in the weeks leading up to try and build my work capacity.  Next week, I'll shoot for 15-20 with the 135, then 20-30 in the week after that.  On my birthday week, I'll make sure I have a couple days off and then work up to a mild single before backing-off to attempt a 35 rep set.

Was feeling a little gassed after the two, 10 rep sets of squats, and so the Rows and High-Pulls were a little on the weaker side today.

But I rallied for dips, and a 25 lb. plate for 10 reps at 198 is a weighted dip PR. 

Since there was so much back work today, just crunches for the core work.

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 3. Week 3. Press/Dead

LRB Diet - Day 46

BW - 198

Pause Squats -
Bar, 95, 135X5
155, 180, 205X3

Klokovs -
BarX5
60X5 uh...heavy
70X3 heavy, da fug
80X6 WTF?!

Deadlift -
135X5, 5
215X5
240X3
270X8

BB Shrugs -
225, 315X10
405X3, 3, 3, 3, 3
425X2, 1
445X1, 1, 1, 3

Chiro Crunches - 5 sets of 40-45

Pause Squats felt a little heavy today, but not as heavy as...

...Klokovs.  As you can see from the notes above, I was completely baffled and caught off guard here.  I even "got up" for the top set because I was concerned by how heavy the other work sets felt.  3 weeks ago, I hit 75 for 15, and 2 weeks ago I hit 70 for 20.  It's inconceivable to me that a 5-10 lb. jump can cut my rep range down from the high-teens to the mid-single digits.  I'm gonna chalk this up to fucking astrology or fatigue from Bench Day or something, and I expect to rebound next time.

Deadlifts went really well however.  270X8 projects to a # 2 all time 1RM, and is a Rep PR.  What's more, the set was more about focus than straining, and I didn't walk away feeling gassed, nor do I feel wrecked today.  All good signs that my favorite lift is in pretty good shape at the moment.

Wanted to start flirting with increased weights on the shrugs so instead of hitting a back off set in the 300's after my triples, I started adding 10's and doing singles.  My form/ROM felt a little shitty, but I was able to get 3 on my last, all-out set.  Next time I may go with 425 for the triples, and bump up to 455 for the singles.

Skipped hypers at the top of the session to make sure my back was super fresh for Deadlifting, and so finally made myself get some ab work in the session.  I think that since I added in the additional shoulder work, the sessions just feel to damn long with both hypers AND crunches, so I'll have to start alternating.  I'll probably settle on crunches on Squat and Deadlift day since they've got heavier low-back movements, and do hypers on Bench day.

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 3. Week 3. Bench

Labor Day Training

LRB Diet - Day 44

BW - 198

Hypers - 5 sets of 20

Pause Squats -
BarX10
95, 135X5
155, 180, 205X3

Bench -
BarX10
95, 125X5
140, 155X3

Press -
BarX10
85X5, 8, 5
75X8, 5, 5, 6

Pull-Ups -
BWX2, 1, 2, 3, 2, 1, 2, 3, 2, 1

Chin-Ups -
BWX5, 5, 5, 5, 6

Shitty bench session, so I broke my ass on OHP and Vertical Pulling to make up for it.  Was looking for just 4 reps on the bench, but my arms were shaky as hell, and the work sets all felt heavy.  At some point, I may just have to bite the bullet and dedicate a month or two to trying to improve this lift.  It's either that or drop it all together in favor of the stuff I really like to do, but that seems like the cowardly way out.

Decided to start doing ladders of wide-grip pull-ups to see if improving that movement will provide more volume and intensity to help maintain/improve my chins.  So I'll probably do this low-medium rep pull-ups followed by medium+ reps chins progression for awhile.  It also helps balance pulling against the additional pressing I've added on this day.

The gym was closing in 5 minutes, and I let that be my excuse to skip abs again. 

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 3. Week 3. Hill Sprints

Sunday Training

AM Fasted Steady State - 20 minutes

LRB Diet - Day 43

BW - ???

Hill- Sprints - 20 minutes; sprint up, walk down

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 3. Week 3. Squat

Friday Training

Band 2-arm biceps curls - 5 sets of 10
super-set with
Band Pull-aparts - 5 sets of 20

Saturday Training

AM Fasted Stready State - 20 minutes

LRB Diet - Day 42

BW - 198

Hypers - 5 sets of 15

Squat -
BarX10
95X8
135, 170X5
195X3
220X6

Pendlay Rows -
BarX15
110X3
150X3
135X15

SL High-Pulls -
135, 145, 155, 165, 165X5

Dips -
BW, BW, +25, +25, +35, +35X5

Not a bad session.  220X6 on squats is a PR with my new, deeper form.  Felt like it, too.  A little worried that all the Pause Squatting is now making regular squatting feel awkward.  That would suck, because pause squatting is what got me comfortable with full depth on regular squats to begin with, but regular squats just feel strange with the quick turnaround at the bottom now.

135X15 is an all-around PR on Pendlays

High-pulls felt a little heavier today with the same weight as last session.  Hitting PR's on the previous 2 movements may have contributed, lol.

Getting re-acclimated to doing dips weighted.  Next session, I should try to bang out 10 reps with 25, and then at least 8 with 35.  If I do that, I should be able to quickly move to just using a full 45 plate for sets of 5.

Skipped abs again because I suck.