BW - 200
Pause Squats -
BarX10
95X5
135X5
155X5, 5
Deadlift -
135X5
155X5
185X3
225X2
245X1
265X1
275X1
BB Shrugs - 135X50, 50
Weighted Vest Walking - 20 minutes
Everything went fine.
With the light end of the squats, I haven't even been locking out all the way. More bodybuilder style squatting. Also, rest times are bare minimum on all the barbell movements. Set, rack, load, breathe, set.
Deads were all fast and had a lot of pop.
I was originally going to use a plate-loaded shrug machine for the 100 rep shrugs, but I had a barbell loaded with 135 right there after deads so I just used that. Kind of rough on my junk, though, so I might go ahead and use that machine from here on.
Got another 20 minutes with the vest.
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
LRB 365: 100 Reps. Week 1. Bench
BW - 200
Bench -
BarX10
85X5
95X4
115X3
125X2
135X1
145X1
155X1
Pulldowns - 1 set of 100
EZ Bar Curls - BarX70, 30
superset with
EZ Bar OH Extensions - BarX70, 30
Treadmill Intervals - 8 intervals, 20 minutes
My shoulders were literally flying up off the bench at lockout of all except the top couple of sets of bench. Light. Weight. Bay-bee.
100 pulldowns felt weird. I used the same weight I used on rows, and halfway through I thought there was no way I would make a 100, but then I did with room to spare.
EZ bar is much easier on my wrists for extensions, so I decided to superset empty bar extensions with curls to keep everything moving. Kind of surprised I didn't get to 100 with the 20 lb. bar. Nice to have something to shoot for.
Weather was horrendous, but I needed to get my conditioning in before my schedule clogs up later this week. That meant I had to make rare use of the treadmill. Treadmill is a fine tool, it just bores the hell out of me so I avoid it. Then when I have to use it I always overestimate how hard I can go. That was the case today, and I ran myself pretty much into the ground. My vision was literally doing that weird zoom effect from Vertigo when I got off.
Bench -
BarX10
85X5
95X4
115X3
125X2
135X1
145X1
155X1
Pulldowns - 1 set of 100
EZ Bar Curls - BarX70, 30
superset with
EZ Bar OH Extensions - BarX70, 30
Treadmill Intervals - 8 intervals, 20 minutes
My shoulders were literally flying up off the bench at lockout of all except the top couple of sets of bench. Light. Weight. Bay-bee.
100 pulldowns felt weird. I used the same weight I used on rows, and halfway through I thought there was no way I would make a 100, but then I did with room to spare.
EZ bar is much easier on my wrists for extensions, so I decided to superset empty bar extensions with curls to keep everything moving. Kind of surprised I didn't get to 100 with the 20 lb. bar. Nice to have something to shoot for.
Weather was horrendous, but I needed to get my conditioning in before my schedule clogs up later this week. That meant I had to make rare use of the treadmill. Treadmill is a fine tool, it just bores the hell out of me so I avoid it. Then when I have to use it I always overestimate how hard I can go. That was the case today, and I ran myself pretty much into the ground. My vision was literally doing that weird zoom effect from Vertigo when I got off.
Monday, February 25, 2013
LRB 365: 100 Reps. Week 1. Squat
BW - 201
Weighted Vest Walking - 20 minutes
Squat -
BarX12 (paused)
115X5 (paused)
135X4
165X3
185X2
195X1
205X1
215X1
Cable Rows - 1 set of 100
Lunges - BWX40, 20, 20, 20
Weighted vest looks dorky and/or like a SWAT vest, but there's no way around that so I'm gonna get used to it. I got all kinds of weird looks, and some people changed direction on the sidewalk so as not to cross my path. Whatever. I'll just stay off main roads and try not to walk at peak hours. Otherwise, a nice little walk with the added weight.
Squats were really fast and easy and had a lot of pop, as they should.
Cable rows were easy and I may add a touch more weight next time. My brachialis are actually a little sore a day or two afterwards though, so maybe not.
100 lunges were brutal. My legs have been sore since the session ended. It didn't set in the next day, it set in immediately.
Weighted Vest Walking - 20 minutes
Squat -
BarX12 (paused)
115X5 (paused)
135X4
165X3
185X2
195X1
205X1
215X1
Cable Rows - 1 set of 100
Lunges - BWX40, 20, 20, 20
Weighted vest looks dorky and/or like a SWAT vest, but there's no way around that so I'm gonna get used to it. I got all kinds of weird looks, and some people changed direction on the sidewalk so as not to cross my path. Whatever. I'll just stay off main roads and try not to walk at peak hours. Otherwise, a nice little walk with the added weight.
Squats were really fast and easy and had a lot of pop, as they should.
Cable rows were easy and I may add a touch more weight next time. My brachialis are actually a little sore a day or two afterwards though, so maybe not.
100 lunges were brutal. My legs have been sore since the session ended. It didn't set in the next day, it set in immediately.
Friday, February 15, 2013
LRB 365: Strong-15. In Review
The full Strong-15 run that starts Paul Carter's LRB 365 manual is complete.
The biggest difficulty and most important thing switching into this program is determining goals for the cycle. I switched from 531 to Carter's Ultimate Beastdom program last winter as well. I just don't have the experience to easily switch from a training max based approach to a goal based approach. When I did this last year, I charted my E1RM progress over the previous 531 cycles and used that to project goals for the strength phase of the UB program. This was based on the assumption of equal or better progress. It worked okay, but I had mixed results for a variety of reasons. Mostly related to poor form as I approached my goal weights. Again, inexperience.
It was a bit easier this time because Carter goes into a lot of detail around using what he calls the Every Day Max (EDM) as the baseline for the goals here. He is very much talking about feel and intuition about what you can lift, but after working in E1RM for so long, I still wasn't positive about what that should be because I was still getting 5-10 reps on all my 531 top sets. So this time I took my E1RM for each week of 531 for the prior 3 months and averaged it. I decided that my EDM should at least be in that ballpark. I then set different, modest (I thought) goals for adding to each of them. It broke down like this:
Squat - EDM (3 month 531 avg.) 275. Goal - 285 (+10 lbs.)
Bench - EDM 200. Goal - 205 (+5 lbs.)
Deadlift - EDM 360. Goal - 365 (+5 lbs.)
I should note that although I averaged ALL my 531 weeks together, it occurred to me afterwards that it might have been smarter to only have used the 3rd week of each cycle since it's the heaviest. However, when I go back and look at that, those weeks yielded the highest E1RM of each cycle across the board. So this still seems fairly conservative.
Now the good news is that I didn't miss any lifts on the program. The not so good news is that Carter wants the final singles in Week 9 to be "crushed", and they really weren't. Here are the results by the numbers:
Final Squat - 265: This was really smooth and there was no doubt I would make the lift, however it was a bit slower than I might of hoped. Still probably my favorite result of the program.
Bench - 185: This is a true EDM for me in the sense that I've hit this weight on multiple occasions, including in Week 8 of this cycle. The real news here is that I set rep PR's on my back-off sets each of the last 3 weeks of the cycle.
Deadlift - 335: This was the biggest letdown. This matches my previous best actual lift, which is okay, and it was smooth, but it was really, really slow.
With the deadlift, it could be that I overestimated my EDM, or it could be just additional stress of heavy squatting before deadlifts. Regardless, I came up with a new way to track EDM for myself, that is SUPER-conservative and still allows me to have fun playing with programming spreadsheets. I've always tracked my Rep PR's, and now I'm just averaging the E1RM of all of those together to give me a result. Again, this yields amazingly conservative numbers because some of these Rep PR's are really old. However, if I'm going to buy into Paul Carter's sub-maximal philosophy for a whole year or more, then it seems like a decent way to go.
The biggest difficulty and most important thing switching into this program is determining goals for the cycle. I switched from 531 to Carter's Ultimate Beastdom program last winter as well. I just don't have the experience to easily switch from a training max based approach to a goal based approach. When I did this last year, I charted my E1RM progress over the previous 531 cycles and used that to project goals for the strength phase of the UB program. This was based on the assumption of equal or better progress. It worked okay, but I had mixed results for a variety of reasons. Mostly related to poor form as I approached my goal weights. Again, inexperience.
It was a bit easier this time because Carter goes into a lot of detail around using what he calls the Every Day Max (EDM) as the baseline for the goals here. He is very much talking about feel and intuition about what you can lift, but after working in E1RM for so long, I still wasn't positive about what that should be because I was still getting 5-10 reps on all my 531 top sets. So this time I took my E1RM for each week of 531 for the prior 3 months and averaged it. I decided that my EDM should at least be in that ballpark. I then set different, modest (I thought) goals for adding to each of them. It broke down like this:
Squat - EDM (3 month 531 avg.) 275. Goal - 285 (+10 lbs.)
Bench - EDM 200. Goal - 205 (+5 lbs.)
Deadlift - EDM 360. Goal - 365 (+5 lbs.)
I should note that although I averaged ALL my 531 weeks together, it occurred to me afterwards that it might have been smarter to only have used the 3rd week of each cycle since it's the heaviest. However, when I go back and look at that, those weeks yielded the highest E1RM of each cycle across the board. So this still seems fairly conservative.
Now the good news is that I didn't miss any lifts on the program. The not so good news is that Carter wants the final singles in Week 9 to be "crushed", and they really weren't. Here are the results by the numbers:
Final Squat - 265: This was really smooth and there was no doubt I would make the lift, however it was a bit slower than I might of hoped. Still probably my favorite result of the program.
Bench - 185: This is a true EDM for me in the sense that I've hit this weight on multiple occasions, including in Week 8 of this cycle. The real news here is that I set rep PR's on my back-off sets each of the last 3 weeks of the cycle.
Deadlift - 335: This was the biggest letdown. This matches my previous best actual lift, which is okay, and it was smooth, but it was really, really slow.
With the deadlift, it could be that I overestimated my EDM, or it could be just additional stress of heavy squatting before deadlifts. Regardless, I came up with a new way to track EDM for myself, that is SUPER-conservative and still allows me to have fun playing with programming spreadsheets. I've always tracked my Rep PR's, and now I'm just averaging the E1RM of all of those together to give me a result. Again, this yields amazingly conservative numbers because some of these Rep PR's are really old. However, if I'm going to buy into Paul Carter's sub-maximal philosophy for a whole year or more, then it seems like a decent way to go.
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
LRB 365: Strong-15. Week 9. Back
BW - ?
Chins - BWX15
Pulldowns - 2 sets of 15-20
Machine Rows - 2 sets of 10
Cable Shrugs - 1 set of 20
DB Curls - 20's X20, 20
Hex Holds - 20'sX25, 20, 15 seconds
Last session of the Strong-15. Because I'm about to have a little over a week off, I decided to get some juicy reps for lats instead of just chinning. I was all, you know, squeezing hard on the contraction and controlling the negative and shit. I couldn't resist one set of chins, though.
Actually, after this my biceps seem more fried than normal, heh.
Chins - BWX15
Pulldowns - 2 sets of 15-20
Machine Rows - 2 sets of 10
Cable Shrugs - 1 set of 20
DB Curls - 20's X20, 20
Hex Holds - 20'sX25, 20, 15 seconds
Last session of the Strong-15. Because I'm about to have a little over a week off, I decided to get some juicy reps for lats instead of just chinning. I was all, you know, squeezing hard on the contraction and controlling the negative and shit. I couldn't resist one set of chins, though.
Actually, after this my biceps seem more fried than normal, heh.
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
LRB 365: Strong-15. Week 9. Bench
BW - 203
Bench -
BarX10
95X5
135X3, 3
155X2
165X1
175X1
185X1
165X7 (Rep PR)
Incline - 105X8
Kind of out of it and lost track of programmed weight/reps early on. Then I lost track of how many reps I did on the back-off set. It was either 7 or 8. I'll say 7 to keep it conservative. I almost locked out another rep, but couldn't quite get it. Got pinned under the fucking bar and had to roll it off. Abs are not happy with me about that.
Bus was due so I skipped the flyes.
Bench -
BarX10
95X5
135X3, 3
155X2
165X1
175X1
185X1
165X7 (Rep PR)
Incline - 105X8
Kind of out of it and lost track of programmed weight/reps early on. Then I lost track of how many reps I did on the back-off set. It was either 7 or 8. I'll say 7 to keep it conservative. I almost locked out another rep, but couldn't quite get it. Got pinned under the fucking bar and had to roll it off. Abs are not happy with me about that.
Bus was due so I skipped the flyes.
Sunday, February 10, 2013
LRB 365: Strong-15. Week 9. Squat/Dead
BW - 200
Squat -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
145X5
165X4
195X3
215X2
245X1
255X1
265X1
Pause Squats - 215X3
Deadlift -
185X5
225X4
255X3
285X2
315X1
325X1
335X1
285X3
Last Squat/Dead day of the cycle. Went okay.
Top set of squats was smooth, but not fast. Since I haven't had 265 on my back in almost a year, and never at this depth, I'm really quite satisfied.
Really long pause on the pause squats again. It makes the reps extra difficult and that much more awesome.
Deadlift was a real mixed bag here. On one hand 335 was real damn slow, on the other it matches my previous 1 rep PR. I would say with the extra stress of squatting beforehand should have me calling that progress. Also the 285 back-off set was solid. Nevertheless, if I do heavy squats/pulls on the same day again, I will be even more conservative with my DL target.
Oh, and I used a mixed-grip starting at 255 on up, but I switched back to double-overhand for the back-off set. This was all fine.
Squat -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
145X5
165X4
195X3
215X2
245X1
255X1
265X1
Pause Squats - 215X3
Deadlift -
185X5
225X4
255X3
285X2
315X1
325X1
335X1
285X3
Last Squat/Dead day of the cycle. Went okay.
Top set of squats was smooth, but not fast. Since I haven't had 265 on my back in almost a year, and never at this depth, I'm really quite satisfied.
Really long pause on the pause squats again. It makes the reps extra difficult and that much more awesome.
Deadlift was a real mixed bag here. On one hand 335 was real damn slow, on the other it matches my previous 1 rep PR. I would say with the extra stress of squatting beforehand should have me calling that progress. Also the 285 back-off set was solid. Nevertheless, if I do heavy squats/pulls on the same day again, I will be even more conservative with my DL target.
Oh, and I used a mixed-grip starting at 255 on up, but I switched back to double-overhand for the back-off set. This was all fine.
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
LRB 365: Strong-15. Week 8. Back
BW - ?
Chins - BWX14, 6
Machine Rows - 2 sets of 10+
Cable Shrugs - 1 set of 22
DB Curls - 20'sX20, 20
Hex-Holds - 20'sX25, 25, 15 seconds
Chins strength came back a wee tad after last week, but rowing felt much stronger.
Also got a little more grip work in ahead of the final Deadlift session.
Chins - BWX14, 6
Machine Rows - 2 sets of 10+
Cable Shrugs - 1 set of 22
DB Curls - 20'sX20, 20
Hex-Holds - 20'sX25, 25, 15 seconds
Chins strength came back a wee tad after last week, but rowing felt much stronger.
Also got a little more grip work in ahead of the final Deadlift session.
Monday, February 4, 2013
LRB 365: Strong-15. Week 8. Bench
BW - 200
Bench -
BarX10
105X5
115X4
135X3
155X2
165X1
175X1
185X1
155X10 (Rep PR)
Incline - 105X10
DB Flyes - 1 set of 20
Hex-Head Holds - 20'sX30, 30, 20 seconds
Plate Pinch - 25'sX20, 15, 7 seconds
Another PR on the 2nd to last bench session. Can't ask for much more than that. I should note that the 185 went up smoothly as well. I'll be at that same weight for the last week.
Forgot to stop at 8 on Inclines, ha.
Had trouble with my grip on the last session of deads, so I through some grip stuff in at the end here. Also gonna try to get some additional work in during the week on that ahead of the final lower body session this coming Friday. Probably some more DB holds at the office gym, and also just pinching binder clips with one finger at a time. Something I read that Ed Coan used to recommend.
Bench -
BarX10
105X5
115X4
135X3
155X2
165X1
175X1
185X1
155X10 (Rep PR)
Incline - 105X10
DB Flyes - 1 set of 20
Hex-Head Holds - 20'sX30, 30, 20 seconds
Plate Pinch - 25'sX20, 15, 7 seconds
Another PR on the 2nd to last bench session. Can't ask for much more than that. I should note that the 185 went up smoothly as well. I'll be at that same weight for the last week.
Forgot to stop at 8 on Inclines, ha.
Had trouble with my grip on the last session of deads, so I through some grip stuff in at the end here. Also gonna try to get some additional work in during the week on that ahead of the final lower body session this coming Friday. Probably some more DB holds at the office gym, and also just pinching binder clips with one finger at a time. Something I read that Ed Coan used to recommend.
Sunday, February 3, 2013
LRB 365: Strong-15. Week 8. Squat/Dead
BW - 200
Squat -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
145X5
165X4
195X3
215X2
225X1
245X1
255X1
Pause Squat - 195X5
Deadlift -
185X5
225X4
255X3
285X2
305X1
315X1
325X1
275X3
Squats were solid. Haven't squatted 255 since April '12, and those were high. So a rep PR at full depth. Nice long pause on the pause squats to really make the set hard.
Double-overhand grip started to go on the 325 set of pulls. Barely got it locked out as a result. I held the last rep of 275 for about 15 seconds to get some grip work in. I have foolishly neglected to do that for this cycle which sucks. I may throw some plate pinches or some shit in on Bench day in the hopes of shoring it up, but I definitely think I will need to do mixed-grip for the last week and that blows.
Squat -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
145X5
165X4
195X3
215X2
225X1
245X1
255X1
Pause Squat - 195X5
Deadlift -
185X5
225X4
255X3
285X2
305X1
315X1
325X1
275X3
Squats were solid. Haven't squatted 255 since April '12, and those were high. So a rep PR at full depth. Nice long pause on the pause squats to really make the set hard.
Double-overhand grip started to go on the 325 set of pulls. Barely got it locked out as a result. I held the last rep of 275 for about 15 seconds to get some grip work in. I have foolishly neglected to do that for this cycle which sucks. I may throw some plate pinches or some shit in on Bench day in the hopes of shoring it up, but I definitely think I will need to do mixed-grip for the last week and that blows.
Friday, February 1, 2013
LRB 365: Strong-15. Week 7. Back
BW - Dunno
Chins - BWX12, 6
Machine Rows - 2 sets of 10+
Cable Shrugs - 1 set of 25
DB Curls - 2 sets of 10-20
Almost forgot to post this.
Felt weaker on chins and rows than I have the last 2 weeks. Dunno what that was about.
Program calls for sets of 10 the last 3 weeks on shrugs, but the weights at the office gym aren't heavy enough for that. This was the heaviest I could put together.
Chins - BWX12, 6
Machine Rows - 2 sets of 10+
Cable Shrugs - 1 set of 25
DB Curls - 2 sets of 10-20
Almost forgot to post this.
Felt weaker on chins and rows than I have the last 2 weeks. Dunno what that was about.
Program calls for sets of 10 the last 3 weeks on shrugs, but the weights at the office gym aren't heavy enough for that. This was the heaviest I could put together.
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