Texas Method Team Training. Week 5. Volume Day

BW - 224

Squat - 285X5X5

Press - 117.5X5X5

Deadlift - 225X10X2

Everything went really, really well here today.

Squats were all strong and fast.  This lift is feeling great right now.

First couple sets of Press felt a little off, but I focused on a tighter, and more aggressive unrack and that set a better tone for the last 3 sets which were all fast.

Up to 2 plates on speed Deads is nice.  No issues here, although my lats are starting to light up a bit more during the worksets, and my traps are feeling more worked the next day.  Speed is still really good, but I may be seeing signs that that a temporary ceiling for the weight on speed work is on the horizon.

Texas Method Team Training. Week 5. Intensity Day

BW - 225

Squat - 310X5

Bench - 197.5X5

Deadlift - 310X5

My back and side were tight all day, but I worked my hamstrings over really well before lifting, and everything went great!  Squats were really fast, bench took focus but nothing was a grind, and deadlifts were smooth.

Texas Method Team Training. Week 4. Volume Day

BW - 225

Squat - 280X5X5

Bench - 177.5X5X5

Deadlift -
220X5X2
225X5X2


This went really, really well.  First work set of squats is always a bit stiff, but sets 2-5 were really fast.  Bench felt really strong as well.

My teammate on DL was working up to a PR set of 5, so we split my speed pulls up into two blocks during his rests.  After the 1st block, I refused to strip the bar all the way back down to 220, and we just went with 225.  Still fast.

Texas Method Team Training. Week 4. Intensity Day

BW - 226

Squat - 305X5

Press - 125X5

Deadlift - 305X5

Everything went pretty well.  Press was a bit weak locking out the last couple of reps.

Texas Method Team Training. Week 3. Volume Day

BW - 225

Squats - 275X5X5

Press - 115X5X5

Deadlift - 215X10X2

Everything moved pretty well.  Press was probably easier than last volume press day.  That's probably getting technique better dialed-in as well:  keeping abs tight and heels planted.

Texas Method Team Training. Week 3. Intensity Day

BW - 221

Squat - 300X5

Bench - 195X5

Deadlift - 300X5

Everything went pretty well.  Bench felt heaviest.

Texas Method Team Training. Week 2. Recovery Day

BW - 223

Squats - 225X5, 5

Press - 105X5, 5, 5

Chins - BWX5, 5, 5, 4

Texas Method Team Training. Week 2. Volume Day

BW - 225

Squat - 270X5X5

Bench - 175X5X5

Deadlift - 210X10X2

Squats were a little wonky getting started but were going strong by the end.  However, I was getting some kind of forearm pain along/around my brachialis.  Was really bothering me.

When I got to bench, the forearm pain made it difficult to keep an aggressive grip on the bar.  First couple of sets were really hard as a result, but as we got further from squatting, the discomfort receded, and I was able to clamp down on the bar.

Speed deads were fine.

Texas Method Team Training. Week 2. Intensity Day

BW - 223

Squat - 295X5

Press - 122.5X5

Deadlift - 295X5

Everything went pretty well.

Texas Method Team Training. Week 1. Recovery Day

BW - 224

Squat - 225X5, 5

Pushups - BWX22, 22

Chins - BWX5, 5, 5, 3

Got challenged to a 22 pushups for 22 days thing for vets.  Didn't see the need to do press recovery in that instance.

Texas Method Team Training. Week 1. Volume Day

BW - 222

Squat - 265X5X5

Press - 110X5X5

Deadlift - 205X10X2

First regular day back following vacation, and hopefully the first regular day of many to come with no meets or extended vacations on the horizon between now and March.

Squats started off a little rough as I was still pretty sore from Tuesday.  Even though this was the same weight, it took me a couple of work sets for my body to get all the way warmed up.  Last 3 sets were fast and confident.

First time pressing on volume day in months.  Felt solid.

We jumped right back to the same weight we were using pre-meet on the speed deads.  Felt great.

Texas Method Team Training. Week 1. Post-Vacation Day

BW - 224

Squat - 265X5, 5, 5

Bench - 162.5X5, 5, 5

Deadlift - 275X5

The rest of the team was doing Intensity Day, but since I hadn't lifted in a week and a half, we just did a simple 3X5 for Squat and Bench, and a 1X5 for Deadlift.  Everything moved fast.

Texas Method Team Training. Post-Meet Week.

Thursday:
BW - 222

Squat - 255X5X5

Bench - 175X5X5

Deadlift - 185X10X2

Saturday:
BW - 221

Squat - 235X5, 5

Press - 105X5, 5, 5

Pull-downs - 5X10 (to a top-set)

Monday:
BW - 222

Squat - 275X3X3

Bench - 195X3X3

Deadlift - 315X5

This was always going to be an odd week, being post-meet and pre-Thanksgiving trip home.  Did a standard reset Volume day on Thursday, and a standard recovery day on Saturday.  I talked to my coach before yesterday's workout, and we agreed it would be wasteful to do a standard intensity day going into a 9 day break, so we did a modified volume day.  The first volume day left me feeling pretty sore and beat up, so we went with 3X3 on Squat and Deadlift to try and get a bit of a training effect without dipping to far back into recovery.

Meet Report

BW - 222

Squat -
314
336
363

Bench -
205
220

Deadlift -
314
352
380

I wasn't feeling very motivated going into the meet this week.  I didn't have my eyes on any PRs because bench hadn't gone as well as expected the last few weeks.  The result was that I took a fairly relaxed, but workman-line approach to the day.  When I weighed in around 10 lbs. lighter than the March meet, I thought, "well, getting anything around those March #'s would be solid, then."

Squat warm-ups all felt amazing.  All the abdominal and low back issues that have been troubling it seemed to have evaporated.  Took my opener.  It was fast, look it once should have been.  Okay, well the heaviest weight I lifted in the training cycle was 325, so let's go 10 lbs. over that.  Fast. Ooookay...  Well, fuck it, let's see what happens if I jump all the way to the same weight I hit at the meet in June.  Went up a little funky, but it went up.

Like I said, heavies weight I touched in training was 325.

Bench was where I had been hoping to get a PR.  205 opener went up solid, but my 2nd was an absolute grinder.

Watching that video, I don't see much of anything that I did wrong.  This was just a limit set.  Maybe the weight loss is part of it, but it definitely means I haven't gotten stronger on this lift since March.

Deadlift warm-ups felt good like the squats did.  I went out and did 314 with no pain, no discomfort, or anything.  I started contemplating a PR, but I went out and took the same 2nd attempt that I did in March.  It was very easy.  My old coach said, "Good.  Now go get a PR."  So that's what I did.  Went one over my March lift.  Felt tougher than it looks, but it looks great, and felt awesome to get.

That goofy moment at the end is because they were having trouble with the lights not always working, so I was looking around waiting for the side judges to give a thumbs up for the lift.

So losing 10 lbs. on the bench, but gaining 5 on the DL gives me a lower total than March.  Oh well. I was 10 lbs. lighter, and I did my first 5K this month, too, and that was the thrust of my training for 10 of the last 15 weeks.  That's not meant to be excuse making, but rather the path to contextualizing the results.  For sure, some of the things I tried to do to push my bench in that time DID NOT work.  I'll be continuing with the TM team training, but that will be something to keep on eye on.  For now, I ended the meet with a lifetime PR, and that ain't nuthin'.

Texas Method Team Training. Meet Week. light day

BW - 224

Squat - 135X5, 5, 5

Bench - 135X5, 5, 5

Pull-downs - 3X10 (straight-weight, light)

Texas Method Team Training. Meet Week. Openers

BW - 225

Squat - 325X1

Bench - 205X1

Deadlift - 325X1

Basically the same openers as the last meet.

Bench felt the best.

Texas Method Team Training. Week 5.

Intensity Day:
BW - 225

Squat - 325X3
Bench - 215X1, 1, 1
Deadlift - 325X3

Volume Day:
BW - 226

Squat - 265X5, 5, 5
Bench - 190X5, 5, 5
Deadlift - 205X10X2

Recovery Day:
BW - ???

Squat - 235X5, 5
Press - 105X5, 5, 5
Pull-Downs -
X10, 10, 10, 5 (to a top set)
X12 (back-off set)

Started tapering for the meet last week.  Got busy and forgot to record my impressions of the training.
Squat is feeling better.

Bench is still pretty close to limit strength, but my technique is much better.

Deadlift is feeling good.

Texas Method Team Training. Week 4. Recovery Day

BW - 224

Squats - 235X5, 5

Press - 105X5, 5, 5

Pulldowns -
X10, 10, 6 (to a top-set)
X7 (back-off set)

Texas Method Team Training. Week 4. Volume Day

BW - 224

Squats - 270X5X5

Bench - 190X5X5

Deadlift - 195X10X2

Squats moved well.

Bench moved great, and at a heavier weight than my volume days previously on TM.  Updated technique is getting more innate.

Deadlifts are fine.  Main challenge here is not taking the weight for granted and doing everything right.

Texas Method Team Training. Week 4. Intensity Day

BW - 224

Squats - 315X5

Bench -
215X1
205X2

Deadlift - 315X5

Squats were slow, but totally do-able.  Still just fighting around or through lingering strains.

Paused the first rep at 215 and missed the 2nd one just off the chest.  Hit a smooth double at 205 as a back-off.  The 205 felt cleaner this week than last week.  We'll try 215 again next week.

Deadlifts moved better this week than 305 did last week.

Texas Method Team Training. Week 3. Recovery Day and Tempo Run

BW - 224

Squats - 235X5, 5

Press - 105X5, 5, 5

Pulldowns - X10, 10, 10, 10 (to a top set)

Tempo Run - 2.5 miles, 00:27:00 (00:10:43/mile)

All good.  Except I got a stitch in my side on the run starting around minute 23.  Not sure if that's because I've slacking on getting conditioning in more than 1X a week.

Texas Method Team Training. Week 3. Volume Day

BW - 226

Squat - 265X5X5

Bench - 185X5X5

Deadlift - 190X10X2

Everything went well.  Squats are still finding the relatively pain free middle-path between the lingering low-back/left hip strain, and last week's fading ab strain.

Bench is getting further dialed in to the following new cues:
1) Get way up on my traps
2) Don't let breathing cause a loss of tightness between reps
3) Keep the elbows fairly tucked for as long as possible to lock-out
That last is much better on my shoulders.

Deadlift is finding the lowest starting hip position where they don't shoot up and knees don't get in the way.

Texas Method Team Training. Week 3. Intensity Day

BW - 225

Squat - 305X5

Bench - 205X3

Deadlift - 305X5

Squat went better than expected.  Strength is no doubt there, but I have to walk the fine line between and ab and low-back strain.  Still, the work set was better than several of the warm-up sets.

Missed my 4th rep on bench.  Coach said, "Good news!  We're going to triples now."  Haha.

Deadlift also went surprisingly well.  Early on, the low back strain was giving me a lot of trouble.  On the work set, I started the pull with my hips a little lower and was able to get my legs more involved in getting the bar to my knees.

Texas Method Team Training. Week 2. Recovery Day and Tempo Run

BW - 223

Squat - 235X5, 5

Press - 110X5, 5, 5

Pulldowns -
X10, 10, 5 (to a top set)
X8 (back-off, AMRAP set)

Tempo Run - 3 miles @ 00:34:00

Ab strain still making squatting a giant pain in the ass.

I'll probably stay at this press weight for recovery day.  Feels like it's getting a bit hard for this day.

Generally feeling weak on this day.  I was supposed to do 4 sets of pull-downs to a top-set, but only got half way through the 3rd set.

Tempo run went fine, though.

Texas Method Team Training. Week 2. Volume Day

BW - 221

Squats - 260X5X5

Bench - 180X5X5

Deadlift - 185X10X2

Coach had me working on contracting my abs harder to try and help out with the hip/low-back issue.  It worked, BUT on the 3rd rep of my 3rd set of squats, something went POP under a rib on the left side.  Nothing terrible, but made it so I couldn't keep contracting my abs that way.  All I could do was laugh.

Bench went really well.  Tightening up the technique even more.  Today the focus was on staying super tight, up on my traps, and not relaxing at all when I took a breath between reps.  It made the breathing harder, but the lifting stronger.

My hip/low-back thing was bugging me on Speed DL as well.  We tried lowering the starting position for my hips just a bit, and that helped.  We'll have to see how that handles on intensity day.

Texas Method Team Training. Week 2. Intensity Day

BW - 223

Squat - 295X5

Bench - 200X5

Deadlift - 295X5

The lingering strain in my left hip and low back is making squatting harder than it should be.  Strength is there, but everything is tentative working around the hip.

Bench was pretty heavy, but I'm making some modifications to technique that may help.

Deadlift was frustratingly heavy, but we're making some mods here as well.

Texas Method Team Training. Week 1. Recovery Day and Tempo Run

BW - 224

Squats - 230X5, 5

Press - 105X5, 5, 5

Pull-Downs - X10, 10, 10, 8 (to a top set)

Tempo Run - 2.65 miles @ 00:30:00

My intention for this program is to put Tempo Runs the day after Intensity and Volume days.  That didn't work out this week, so I tried doing it after my Recovery work-out.  Proved to be no trouble at all.  I didn't go in with a target pace.  Just wanted to hit a comfortable jog, 15 minutes out and 15 minutes back.  The cool thing is this pace ended up being a little bit faster than my last, sub-race pace runs leading up to the 5K.  And felt easy.

Texas Method Team Training. Week 1. Volume Day

BW - 225

Squats -
255X5, 5
285X5
255X5, 5

Bench - 175X5X5

Deads - 180X10X2

We forgot to swamp a teammates weight out for mine on the 3rd set of squats.  The whole set I was like, "Fuck, I guess I need to take longer rests."

Bench went really well after that same teammate pointed out that I was losing tightness between reps and kind of inching up the bench when I took a breath at the top.  Next sets, I got even tighter and really focused on kind of "getting my neck on the bench."  A lot of other issues I'd been cueing hard seemed to clear up with this one.

Speed Deads: working on starting on my heels, squeezing the chest up hard just before the start, and pushing through my heels at the start.

Texas Method Team Training. Week 1. Intensity Day

BW - 226

Squat - 285X5

Bench - 195X5

Deadlift 285X5

First "real" day training with the team, and it was the day after my 5K race.  We kind of felt it out to see what would work and give us a starting point.  We were conservative with Squats because of the race, and because there is some nagging tightness in my left hip/low-back area.  A little more aggressive with Bench, and then decided to keep Deadlift on pace with Squats.

5K Results

5K Race: 00:27:57

Beat my target time by 3 seconds.  When I rounded the bend heading for the finish line, and saw the clock was at 27:52, I just sprinted the rest of the way.

The race was hard, and I was having to push myself mentally a lot at times.  Especially the 1/4 mile after the half-way mark, when there was a long, slight incline over concrete.  Once I got into the 3rd mile it was alternating between trying to zone out but then pushing myself if I felt pace was lagging.

Training must have been on the good side as I beat my goal and never broke down along the way.  Props to Complete Human Performance and Alex Viada's programming.

Glad I did it.  Way less time than a PL meet!

Texas Method Team Training. Week 0 (Race Week Taper). Session 2

BW - 226

Squats - up to 215X3, 3, 3

Bench - up to 175X3, 3, 3

Pull-downs - 3 sets of 8

Hybrid Training. Week 11. Short Tempo Run (Race Week Taper)

Tempo Run: 1 mile; 8:53

Last, race pace run before the race.  Went short distance, and slightly above pace.

Texas Method Team Training. Week 0 (Race Week Taper). Session 1

BW - 225

Squat - up to 205X3, 3, 3

Press - up to 120X3, 3, 3

Pulldowns - 3 sets of 8 to a top set

Started a group training program that will be the Texas Method. Really light this week because of the 5K this weekend.

Hybrid Training. Week 10. Heavy Lower

BW - 226

Squat -
up to 317.5X5, 5
247.5X6, 6

Deadlift - 247.5X5, 5

Hanging Legs - BWX8, 8, 8

Not great but not terrible.  My heaviest, consecutive sets of 5 was with 325 on the Novice LP back in January, but it took me three sessions of trying to hit that before I finally did.  After that, I switched to the TM and never did multiple heavy sets of 5 again.

Obviously, I'm not stoked about being about as strong in September as I was in January.  That's not progress.  It seems pretty clear that the higher rep work I did in March, April, and May likely didn't set the table for me to recover from meet prep and roar back to be stronger than ever.  Not sure how much I want to blame the current programming as it took me a while to iron it out and land on the 5/3/1 style progression for the main lifts that I'm currently employing.

Hybrid Training. Week 10. Intervals

Intervals - 5, 1/2 mile intervals @ ~5:00

Lost count and only did 5 when I was meant for 6.  These were all pretty hard, which doesn't bode great for my race, but I could have done a 6th.

Hybrid Training. Week 10. Heavy Upper

BW - 226

Warm-up -
Rope Pushdowns - X15
Rope Stiff-arm Pushdowns - X10

Bench -
up to 187.5X5, 5
then 147.5X12, 8

CG, Reverse Cambered Bar -
165X5
175X5
185X5
195X5
205X5
215X5

WG, Pulldowns -
Straight Weight X10, 8
Drop-Set X8, 6, 5, 6

DB Rows -
80sX10, 10
Drop-Set - 70sX10, 60sX5, 50sX5

Kind of a long session, but I just seemed to have the energy for it.

Sets of 5 on bench were a bit heavier than I expected.  I've got one more heavy session before I taper lifting a bit for my 5K.  We'll see how heavy triples feel next week.

Brought back the reverse cambered bar to see how they would feel for some extra triceps volume.  The trick here, with such a short stroke, seems to be making sure the elbows don't flare as you start to overload.  Keep it in the triceps.  I'll try 'em out again next week.

Shoulders felt too achy to want to do chin-ups, so I went with pulldowns so I could get more reps in.  Decided to go to DB rows even though they've been "light" day work.

Hybrid Training. Week 9. Light Lower, and LSR

Saturday:
BW - 225

Squats - 265X2, 2, 2, 2, 2

Pause Squats - 255X2, 2, 2, 2

 Deadlift, 3 sec. pause at knee on eccentric -
245X2, 2, 2, 2, 2

GHR Hypers - BW+45X20, 18, 10*
super-set with
GHR Sit-Ups - BWX20, 18, 15

Sunday:
Long Slow "Run" - 45 minutes walking with a 15 lb. pack.

Okay session.  A lot of tightness in the back of my left hip, so I had to be more careful on the speed squats.  It was especially tender on the Unrack, Lockout, and releasing after the Rack.

Pause Squats were all good, though.

Same with paused DLs.

I've been doing the hypers with a 45 held to my chest.  After my 2nd set, a guy worked in with me that held it above (not behind) his head.  I tried that on my last set.  I knew it would be a lot harder, and I'm actually pretty happy that I got 10!  I'll keep that approach for a while.

For the LSR day, I've been having a hell of a time motivating myself to go to the gym for incline treadmill walking, so instead I pulled some of the weight packets out of my old weighted vest, threw them in a cinched-down backpack, and took a long, brisk walk down to the beach.  So much better than being on a treadmill in a basement gym.

Hybrid Training. Week 9. Light Upper

BW - 227

Warm-up:
Cable Pushdowns - X20
Cable Stiff-Arm Pushdowns - X15

Bench  - 177.5X2, 2, 2, 2

CG Bench (4/0/0) - 157.5X3, 3, 3, 3

Rolling, EZ Bar Extensions - 80X6, 6, 6

Chest-Supported Rows - 115X8, 6, 9
super-set with
Chest-Supported Retractions - 115X10, 9, 9

Reverse-Grip Preacher Curls -
50X8, 8, 8
drop-set - 50X6, 40X4, 30X3

Face-Pulls - X20, 18, 15

Good session.  Had a lot of energy for a Friday.

Bench moved pretty fast.  I got a hand-off for all my work-sets to make sure I could stay as tight as possible.  Losing that little bit of tightness unracking myself seems to make a real difference in speed.

Added 1 sec. to the eccentric on close grips.  No problem at all.

Tried switching to rolling ez bar extensions this week.  Not sure if I got much out of them.  Will try to push them a bit more next week.

Really dug chest-supported rows to near failure into the retractions.  There was a bit of controlled thoracic extension on these as well.  My upper back was achy as shit for the next two days.

Hybrid Training. Week 9. Tempo Run

Tempo Run: 3.25 miles; 37:40

I came in almost exactly 50 seconds over target here.  Most of that happened in the first half mile where I got behind by 20 seconds.  It took me a long time to settle into a pace close to target.  Finding pace continues to be the biggest challenge for the tempo runs.

I've got one more tempo run next week, shooting for 2.5 miles as race pace (so 25 min.) and then I'll taper for the race at the end of September.

Hybrid Training. Week 9. Heavy Lower

BW - 228

Squat - 265X2, 2, 2, 2, 2

Bench - 165X3, 3, 3, 3

Deadlift -
340X1, 1, 1
295X3

GHR Sit-Ups -
BWX15
+25X10, 10

I forgot to upload my updated spreadsheet to google drive, so I had to fly by the seat of my pants here.

Turns out I was supposed to Squat 275X5, 5.  Oh well.  Got good and warmed up doing these easy doubles.

Wanted to nab the Bench back-off sets I missed on Sunday.  This was the correct weightXreps.  Moved great.

I felt good about putting in some bench between squatting and DL so that I'd have a bit more lower-body recovery.  Felt pretty good going into the pulls, and just told myself to expect slow and heavy.  They were slow and heavy, but no real doubt about completing any of the reps.  Felt pretty fried after the 3rd single, so I hit a triple and called it good.

Hybrid Training. Week 9. Intervals

Intervals - 4, 1/2 mile intervals @ ~5:00

I wanted to go for 6, 1/2 mile intervals today, but I felt awful by #4.  I think it was a combination of heat, and lifestyle over the past few days.  A good friend moved to town this week, and my sleep and diet were really disrupted for a few days afterwards.  I'll get back on course this week.

Hybrid Training. Week 9. Heavy Upper

Skipped my LSR like an asshole.  Think I paid for it later.

BW - 227

Bench - up to 205X1, 1, 1, 1, 1

Dips -
BWX5
+10X4
+20X8
+25X6

Chins, supinated - BWX7, 5, 5

Cable Rows - X10, 8, 6 (straight-weight)

I forgot to do my back-off sets on bench.  I wish I had because my shoulders and elbows felt really achy after all the heavy singles, and I would've liked a bridge to the dips.  The first rep of each dip set felt pretty awful.

Chins and Rows were fine.

Hybrid Training. Week 8. Light Lower

BW - 229

Squats - 257.5X3, 3, 3

Pause Squats - 247.5X2, 2, 2

Deadlift, 3 sec. pause at knee on eccentric -
205X3, 3
225X3, 3

GHR Hypers - BW+45X15, 15, 15
super-set with
GHR Sit-Ups - BWX15, 15, 15

Everything went pretty well here.  Squats probably still a bit slow for true speed work.

My low back was feeling a bit off, so I wanted to do a DL variation that would force me to stay light.  I decided to do these paused eccentric DLs and do them double-overhand.  At 225, the last rep was slowing down enough, and the grip was getting loose enough, that I stayed at that weight.

Hybrid Training. Week 8. Light Upper

BW - 229

Warm-up - Rope Triceps/Lats Pushdowns Superset

Bench - 167.5X3, 3, 3

CG Bench (3/0/0) - 157.5X3, 3, 3, 3

Incline, Paused Tate Press -
35sX6
40sX4, 4
giant-set with
DB Rolling Triceps -
35sX12
40sX7, 4

DB Rows - up to 80sX8, 6

Rope Face-Pull - X20, 15, 12 (straight-weight)
giant-set with
Rope Lat Pushdowns - X12, 10, 8 (straight-weight)

DB Hammer Curls - 35sX8, 7, 5 (paused on thigh)

That all looks like a lot of stuff, but it's actually just 5 things:
Barbell Bench - 7 sets
DB Triceps - 3 sets
DB Upperback - 2 sets
Cable Upperback - 3 sets
DB Biceps - 3 sets

Triples all moved nice and fast on the Speed Bench.

The 3 second eccentric with 157.5 wasn't nearly as challenging as 4 second eccentrics with 155 last week.  Kind of felt more like explosive work.

Giant-setting the Tate Press with the Rolling Triceps worked pretty well, but I was surprised how few reps I was able to get on the 2nd set.  Not sure if I should have stayed with the 35s or if I need to just start with the 40s (I'll probably do the latter).

That rope giant-set for upper back is still brutal.

Hybrid Training. Week 8. Tempo Run

Tempo Run: 2.75 miles; 31:44

Came in 18 seconds over time.  This was a brand new pace, and it was hard to get it "into my body."  So the first 1/4 mile was way too slow, and I spend the rest of the run trying to catch back up gradually.  Also, doing all the math in my head on the fly for making up a 2:51, 1/4 mile pace sucks as the fatigue builds.

Hybrid Training. Week 8. Intervals and Heavy Lower

Saturday:
Intervals - 4, 1/2 mile intervals @ ~5:00

Sunday:
BW - 225

Squat -
up to 325X2, 3
then 257.5X5, 5

Deadlift -
265X3, 3
315X1
325X1
335X1

Hanging Legs - X8, 8, 8

Jumped up to 1/2 mile intervals at target pace.  I probably could have gone for at least one more, but since I don't need to really do more than 6, there was no point in killing myself while I've still got a few weeks until the race.

On my first squat set of 325, I got over my toes on the 3rd rep and missed it.  Had no concerns about getting it on the 2nd set.  Felt pretty solid all around.  I probably could have gone for a 3rd set, but I still needed to hit back-off sets and deadlift.

For deadlift, I'd only programmed in to go up to the squat back-off weight, 257.5, but I just went to 265.  After a couple of sets, I still felt pretty good, so I did a few fatigue singles a la Paul Carter to see how things were feeling ahead of heavy deadlifts next week.  The top single felt pretty slow.  Maybe not so bad for a fatigued state.  Next week, I'm looking to pull a few singles at 342.5 fresh.  That should be do-able.

Hybrid Training. Week 8. Heavy Upper

BW - 225

Bench -
up to 195X3, 3, 3
then 152.5X6, 6, 6

JM Press - 95X5, 5, 5

CG Chins - BWX6, 5, 4

Cable Rows - X8, 7, 7 (straight-weight)

Pretty solid session.  The top sets of bench were moving a bit slow on the 2nd reps, and getting kind of dicey on the 3rds.

I'm signed up for a meet on 9/6.  It's mostly just a practice meet to get another one under my belt before doing my main meet in March.  I have to be careful about pushing the lower body lifts too hard, because I've got a 5K at the end of September, but I should be able to keep pushing the bench, and so there is a chance I could get a small, lifetime bench PR at the November meet.

Hybrid Training. Week 7. Light Lower and LSR

Tuesday:
BW - 226

Squats - up to 260X5, 5

Pause Squats - 245X3, 3, 3

Bench-Grip DL - up to 255X3

GHR Hypers - BW+45X15, 15, 15
super-set with
GHR Sit-ups - BWX15, 15, 15

Wednesday:
BW - 225
Incline Treadmill Intervals - jog 4 min./walk 2 min.; 3.6 miles; 45 minutes

Tried upping the weight on speed squats by 5 lbs., but they were slowing down a lot, so I cut it after 2 sets.  Not sure what I want to do here going forward.

Upping the weight by 10 lbs. on pause squats was fine, however.  Maybe save weight progression for the pause squats, and leave the speed squats fairly light?  Until I'm jumping off the ground?

Worked up to a top-ish triple on BG DL.  This was done double-overhand and I basically went up until grip was becoming a factor.  Movement felt pretty good on this day, and I didn't seem to have any back issues crop up in the interim.

Same with GHR Hypers.

Per the coach I consulted with from CHP, I'm going to start doing incline treadmill work for my Long Slow Run day, until my overall speed and endurance increases enough for me to do the LSR jogging outdoors.  These were boring as hell but fine.  I see my winter stretching out before me...

Hybrid Training. Week 7. Light Upper

BW - 227

Bench - up to 157.5X5, 5

CG Bench (5/0/0) - 155X4, 4, 4, 4

Incline Tate Press - up to 40sX5, 4, 3

Rolling DB Extensions - 40sX6 (immediately following last Tate Press set)

DB Rows -
60s, 70s, 80sX8
85sX5

Rope Face-Pulls - X20, 15, 12 (straight-weight)
super-set with
Rope Stiff-Arm Pushdowns - X10, 10, 10 (same weight)

Had a lot going on this last week with family in town and some other stuff.  So it has been a week since I'd been in the gym, and I'd only gotten one run in the interim.  I had A LOT of energy walking into the gym today.  Since it was a light or "speed" day, I decided to push that energy into accessories instead of the speed bench.  (which was fine)

I stayed at the same weight for the TUT close-grips as I did last time.  These were a LOT easier following speed sets of 157.5X5 then 175X2.  I threw in an extra set, because the last rep on set 3 seemed too easy.  The last rep on set 4 felt more like what I've been used to.

Tried out the Tate Press for the first time.  Probably went way to heavy.  I tried to mitigate that on the last set by taking the same DBs on jumping over to a flat bench for a set of rolling extensions.  I used an incline bench for the Tate Press, because I'd seen a video of a guy doing them that way, and thought it might hit the triceps slightly different than CG Bench.  I will either go lighter on these in the future, or do them on a flat bench and finish every set with rolling triceps.

Did some DB Rows, and they felt pretty strong.  Looking back, I've never gone over 70 on these before, so...Rep PR!

Finished off with the same rear-delt/lat superset from last week (forgot to do biceps).  Still hard as hell.

Hybrid Training. Week 7. Tempo Run

Tempo Run: 3.5 miles; 45 minutes

That's gotta be both a time and distance PR for non-stop running.  Now it's time to start progressing it.  I will reset to 2.5 miles.  I'm going to make a bigger jump than I would have expected, but based on some articles I've found on runners world, etc., it may be in range of what is recommended.  I'm going to jump from a ~00:12:50 mile pace to a ~00:11:25 miles pace.  Progress distance from 2.5 to 3.5 miles at that pace, and if that works out, I should be in range to jump to my goal of a 5K in 30 minutes.

We'll just have to see how the pace jump works for me.  For theses first weeks when progression was focused solely on distance, I forced myself to keep to about the slowest possible pace without walking.  There were often times 1/2 way through a run when I felt like I could have still increased the pace, so we'll see.

Hybrid Training. Week 7. Heavy Lower

BW - 227

Squat - up to 240X8, 8

Deadlift -
up to 310X3
then 275X3, 3
then 315X3, 3

GHR - BWX8, 7, 5
super-set with
GHR Sit-Ups - BWX12, 15, 12

Fuck deadlifts.

Hybrid Training. Week 7. Heavy Upper and Intervals

BW - 227

Bench -
up to 185X5, 5
then 155X10

JM Press - 95X5, 5, 5 (slow concentric, slight pause)

CG Pulldowns - X10, 8, 7 (straight-weight)

T-Bar Rows - 115X6, 4

Chest-Supported T-Bar Retractions - 90X15, 15

Intervals - 8, 1/4 mile intervals @ ~2:30

 Had a consult this week with a coach from Complete Human Performance, the company founded by the author of the Hybrid Training program.  Some of the new info gleaned went into this session.

I did a second top set of 5 at 185.  These were do-able but getting difficult.  I felt a 3rd set may have been overkill on this day.

I went for a rep out on one back-off set, instead of doing multiple sets for proscribed reps.

I tried JM Presses for the first time here as another heavy, triceps option.  The movement was much more difficult at much lighter weight than I expected.  Good.

I hit some pulldown and row variations.

The coach from CHP mentioned that he'd had great luck bringing up his upper back with chest-supported scapula retractions.  Never done this kind of thing before, but my upper back was really tired, and fried feeling after this.

Did intervals a couple of days later.  The coach said the important thing is to start getting the combined interval distance to match the race distance and at race pace.  So I added a couple of intervals here, and will look to add two intervals a week until I hit 12 quarter-miles, and then drop down to half-miles and work up to 6.

Hybrid Training. Week 6. Long Slow "Run"

Walking - brisk; 1 hour

Hybrid Training. Week 6. Light Lower

BW - 227

Squats - up to 255X5, 5, 5

Pause Squats - 235X4, 4, 4

Bench Grip DL -
up to 225X3, 3
then 245X3

Hanging Leg Raises - X8, 8, 8

My low back felt a bit touchy from the jump, but everything went okay.  Still feels off today.

Speed on squats and pause squats were all good.

Bench-Grip DLs were done for speed as well and felt pretty solid.  I didn't feel the need to do an explosive movement following these, as they were fairly fast.  First rep felt like it had better positioning on all sets, than subsequent reps.

Leg raises were kept super strict.  Legs straight, bringing feet down until the back of the heel touches the ground, pause, then lift back up.

Hybrid Training. Week 6. Tempo Run and Light Upper

Saturday:

Tempo Run - 3 miles @ 00:37:00

Sunday:

BW - 225

Bench - up to 175X2, 2

CG Bench, TUT (5/0/0) - 155X4, 4, 4

Rope Face-Pulls - X20, 15, 15 (straight-weight)

super-set with

Rope Stiff-Arm Pushdowns - X20, 15, 11 (straight-weight)

BB Drag Curls - up to 70X5, 4

Hit my distance on the tempo run this weekend, which is great.  Next week I'll push to 3.5 miles, and then look to reset to 2.5 miles and start increasing pace.

Bar moved pretty well with 175 on speed bench.  Final rep was probably too slow.

Tried the TUT close-grips with an explosive concentric; similar to what I did in Columbus with Matt Wenning.  Felt good.  Final reps on each set were getting pretty hard.

Supersetting the facepulls with straight-arm pushdowns using the rope attachment for both and the same weight was interesting.  Pre-fatiguing the rear delts, I discovered I could "feel" them in the pushdowns, and with a slight alteration I could "remove" them from the movement which also made the movement more difficult.  I'll look to keep this one in the rotation and see what pans out.

I guess I did drag curls a couple of times in 2011.  That must have been when I first started and was doing the DeFranco program.  I found this a challenging movement to get down.  Focused on keeping the shoulders down so that I wasn't doing a shrug/row hybrid.  By the end, it started to feel close to right.

Hybrid Training. Week 6. Intervals

Intervals - 5, 1/4 m. intevals @ ~00:02:20/m.

Everything went fine.  Could have gone for at least one more with no trouble.  Right now, I think I'll just work towards 12 quarter-miles, and then go up to half-miles.  I'll be getting a consult on the program in the next week, so the plan may change.

Hybrid Training. Week 6. Heavy Upper

BW - 227

Warm-up -
Rope Triceps Pushdowns- X20
Rope Lat Pushdowns - X20

Bench -
up to 200X1, 1
then 170X3, 3

Dips - BWX20, 8

WG Pulldowns - X12, 9 (straight-weight)

Chest-Supported Rows - 70X9, 7, 7

Solid session.

First single @ 200 felt perfect.  So good, that I probably took the second set for granted, and it was a little too loose.

Had good results alternating weighted/BW dips every week in the past, so I'm going to do that for a bit here.  Felt like the first set may have been a bit high, so I made sure to drop pretty low on the second set.

Pulldowns and T-Bars rounded it out.

Hybrid Training. Week 5. Light Lower

BW - 229

Squats - up to 255X5, 5, 5

Pause Squats - 235X4, 4, 4

GHR Hypers- BW+25X18, 15
super-set with
GHR Sit-Ups - BWX15, 15

Solid day.  Speed Squats and Pause Squats both moved very well.  Challenging to accelerate, but not "heavy."  Focus on keeping knees-out.

Since Wenning specifically recommended weighted hypers, I'm throwing those in today.  I forgot about doing an explosive movement, and just super-setted them with sit-ups.  All went well.

Hybrid Training. Week 5. Light Upper

BW - 229

Bench - up to 165X3, 3

DB Rolling Triceps (w/controlled eccentric) - up to 55sX6, 6

Face-Pulls - 3 sets
superset with
Machine Pullovers - 3 sets

DB X-Body Hammer Curls - 30sX14, 20 (long break before 2nd set)

Solid session.  165 moved pretty fast.

Continuing to hit triceps and lats following bench per Matt Wenning.  I didn't go in with a specific plan of what I would do for them.  Since the original programming for this day had more body-builder-ish accessory work suggested, I didn't go with any barbell work, and focused a tad more on isolation work.

Left tricep was feeling a bit sore during the extensions, and has a lingering soreness that's different from DOMS.  Something to feel out on the next upper body day.

Hybrid Training. Week 5. Tempo Run

Tempo Run: - 2.5 m. @ 34:00

That went pretty well.  Although very slow, I never stopped or walked.

Similar to my last tempo run, everything sucks for the first mile or so, and then the pain in my feet goes away, and I can kind of zone out.  During the second mile, other aches and pains start to pop up (mostly around my hips), but they kind of subsided after a while.  By the end, I felt like I could have kept going, and that seems good.

My legs and hips were very sore the rest of the evening.  Not sure how much of that is the run, and how much of it is DOMS from lower body training the day before.

My plan is to hit the full 3 miles next week.  Shoot for 3.5 the week after, and then reset to 2.5 at a faster pace.

Hybrid Training. Week 5. Heavy Lower

BW - 228

Warm-up -
Walking Lunges - BWX20
Leg Curls - X20
Decline Sit-ups - X15

Deadlift -
up to 315X2
then 295X4, 4

Squat -up to 247.5X5, 5, 5, 5

GHR Sit-Ups - 3X15

Hot and humid in the gym today.  Sapped energy between sets.

Deadlifts felt okay.

Squats felt good despite being gassed.

I'd done hanging legs for a few weeks, so I decided to switch to the GHR sit-ups Wenning had us do for a while.

Hybrid Training. Week 5. Intervals

Intervals - 4, 1/4 mile runs @ 2:10 - 20

Hybrid Training. Week 5. Heavy Upper

BW - 226

Warm-up -
Rope PushdownsX20, 15
super-set with
Straight-Arm PushdownsX15, 10

Bench -
up to 190X2
then 160X6, 6

Dips -
BWX10
+10X6
+20X6, 6

Chins - BWX7, 5, 4

Lying EZ-Bar Triceps -
60X6
80X6, 5

T-Bar Rows - up to 110X6, 6, 6

Seated DB Overhead Extensions - up to a 70 lb. DBX6, 6

Straight-Arm Pushdowns - 1 set of 15

Way more volume on this day than I would normally do on this program.  Two reasons for that: A) mainly the coach that worked with me for my meet in March wanted to hear about my training with Matt Wenning, and so I was killing time till he was done with a client; and B) I wanted to start putting some of Wenning's recommendations into practice, so I was feeling out some things.

To that end, I warmed up per his recommendation by hitting some triceps and lats.  Just hit a couple of medium-high rep sets.  No big.

Bench went pretty well.  Grip is moved in per Wenning, and trying to focus on keeping elbows in through lock-out.  I was good for that one the heavy(ish) double, and the 2nd set of 6.  The first back-off set had a bit of elbow-flare about half-way up.

Then it was time to "trash the triceps and lats," per Wenning.  For the initial movements, I kept the Hybrid Training program in mind.  On heavy bench day, following the bench, the program calls for 2 hard, low-medium rep sets.  I'd been doing the Press as suggested by the manual, but Wenning's impression that I needed to get away from benching so much with my anterior delts, made me think that I should sub in a compound, heavy triceps movement.  My old favorite Dips seemed like just the ticket.  To keep the intensity higher than the volume, I went with weighted dips for the first time in a long time.  I was about 10-15 lbs. off my best for that rep range, but that's not bad as a place to start.

The program had barbell rows and then chins, but I thought I'd flop that to hit the lats first.  After that, I was bascially just going back and forth between triceps and upper back movements waiting on Bill to be done.  Tried to take everything into a range where 5-6 reps would be challenging for a couple of sets.  Trying to see what movements I might like to rotate in.  It will be dips for sure as the secondary movement for a few weeks

Training with Matt Wenning at Ludus Magnus Gym. Day 2. Speed Bench

Bigger crew today.  Some of them showed up later, and we ended up working in two separate groups.  Matt trained alongside us this time.

Warm-up -
Earthquake Bar Bench for 4 sets of 20.  Maybe a 15lb. kb on each side.
super-set with
1-arm DB rows - worked up to 90X8

Speed Bench - doubled red mini-band
6 sets of 3 up to a quarter each side
then 1 set of 3, 10 sec. rest, 1 set of 3 with 5 sec. eccentric

Skull Crushers - on the ground, long pause between reps, super slow eccentric
3-4 sets of 6-8 with 90 lbs.

Hammer Pull-downs, pulled to forehead - 3 pps.XAMAP;
2 sets, super-set with
X-Body Hammer Curls - 35sXAMAP

Bamboo bar bench was pretty fun.  They had me in at the beginning of the rotation with much lighter weights, so it never got as challenging for me as it was for some of the guys at the end of the rotation who couldn't finish their last couple of sets.

I've never done band bench before, and the first rep was an eye-opener.  The band definitely makes the bar come off your chest differently.  I was getting a ton of cue-ing from Matt and his crew on this movement.  Matt had a lot of take-homes for me on this one: "You're way anterior dominant on bench, and you're finishing with all delts.  Your grip is out to far, and your lats are weak.  Move your grip in (moved from the rings to a fingers width inside the rings), and make sure to keep your elbows in throughout the movement.  You need to warm up your lats and triceps before you bench, and completely trash them afterwards.  You need to do that for 2 years."

To his point about weak triceps, he had me start out at 110 on the floor extensions, and I couldn't get 2 reps.  Had to strip a 10 from each side, and I could continue.

Training with Matt Wenning at Ludus Magnus Gym. Day 1. Speed Lower

I was in Columbus this week for work, and I took the opportunity to arrange to go train with Matt Wenning at his gym, Ludus Magnus.  I would describe the gym as contemporary-hardcore.  A converted garage with no climate control, a ton of specialty bars, a couple of racks, a platform, a quality bench, all the dumbells, and a smattering of machines.  Only what you need, or might find useful.  Matt just had me work in with the group he was training that day, I'll detail basically what we did, but I don't remember specific weights.

Warm-up:
Sled-pull - 1/2 way down the block, and then back up (maybe 3 plates on the sled)
Lying Leg Curls - 1 set of 20
Decline Sit-Ups - 1 set of 20

Speed Squats - Safety-Bar Box Squats w/ one chain per side
I believe we did 4 sets of 2; all reps paused. Maybe a quarter and a dime on each side.

Speed Deads - different conventional stance/grip every set (1st lifter decides); all reps held at knee on eccentric for a 2 count.
We did a bunch of singles here.  Maybe worked up to 245.

Finishing Circuit - 2 rounds, AMAP
Fat Bar Shrugs w/ 1 pps.
GHR Sit-Ups
Hypers w/ 45 lb. plate

Warm-ups were all good.  Pulling a heavy-ish sled over a busted sidewalk in the the July sun was hilarious.

The speed squats with safety bar, chains, paused on a box are the kind of classic "Westside" style movement I never thought I'd actually do.  I shit ton of sit-back.  More than I think would be possible with a regular squat.  Matt's take-home for me on this was basically, "you've got to keep your knees out hard.  Looks like you've been squatting a lot into your quads, and when those are taken away, you don't have any power.  Get those knees out, and keep them out."

The speed deads paused on the way down were kind of fun.  I really started to feel the pause in my lats.

On the finishing circuit, I got around 20 reps on each movement the first circuit, and around 15 on the second.  Matt's only real send-home for me on Deads was that I should do more of the weighted hypers.

I was working in with a crew of 3 other folks.  2 guys and 1 woman.  The team training environment of stripping, loading, spotting, cheering, and coaching was pretty fucking awesome.  Matt was super-nice, he ended up giving me a ride back to my hotel, and asking me to come train bench the next day.

Hybrid Training. Week 4. Heavy Lower

BW - 225

Squat -
up to 300X3
then 247.5X8, 8

Deadlift -
up to 275X5, 5, 5

Hanging Legs - BWX10, 10, 10

Squats were fairly strong.  Deadlifts were fairly hard.  The first rep always feels good, but the subsequent reps don't.  The bar drifts away, etc.  WTF.

Hybrid Training. Week 4. Heavy Upper & Intervals

BW - 227

Bench -
up to 180X3
then 150X8, 8

Press - up to 110X8, 8

Rows - 150X6, 6, 6

Chins - BWX9, 6, 5, 5

Intervals - 4 two-block intervals

Everything moved well.  Hardest set of the day was probably the 2nd set of Presses, but I don't think they were as hard as the 105X8 sets 3 weeks ago.  Could have just been circumstances, or it could be progress.

Intervals went very well also.  These are only about 1/8 mile intervals, and I ultimately need to be doing 1/4 - 1/2 mile intervals, but I felt like I could have kept going.  That's something at least.

Hybrid Training. Week 3. Long Slow "Run"

Walking - brisk; 60 minutes

Hybrid Training. Week 3. Light Lower

BW - 229.4

Speed Squats - up to 255X5, 5, 5

Pause Squats -
225X4
245X4
235X4

"Bench" Grip DL - 225X5, 5, 5

Hang-Cleans - 133X3, 3, 3, 3

Hanging Leg Raises - X8, 8, 8

Finally.  Four weeks I've been on this program, and this is the first time I've been able to run this day the way I'm supposed to.  Low back trouble feels 95% recovered now, and isn't bothering my lifting at all.

It was humid as hell in the gym today, so the Speed Squats weren't as "speedy" as I'd have liked.  Also, I try to avoid max acceleration for the last 1/4 of the lift.  I sometimes find that "popping" up at the top bothers my back.

Haven't done Pause Squats in quite a long time, so I wasn't sure where the weight should be.  I Goldilocks'd that shit, and 235 was juuuuust right.

The program suggest Snatch Grip DL, but I've had trouble with deficit DLs aggravating my low back, so I didn't want to go that wide.  I went with my bench grip which is out to the rings.  I've wondered for some time about getting similar effects to deficit deads by just moving the grip out wider.  I started off a little too low on the first couple of reps (I could tell because I was scraping my shins suddenly).  I think I found the sweet spot, and these went pretty well.  My hamstrings and traps are fairly sore today, and the hamstring soreness at least is from these.

The program also calls for jump squats, but I've never felt comfortable with those.  I thought about doing DB or KB jump squats, but I thought I'd try hang-cleans instead.  I've never done these, and it took awhile to find how low to come down so that I could accelerate into the jump.  My left shoulder wasn't loving these, so we'll see.

Hybrid Training. Week 3. Light Upper

BW - 227.4

Bench - up to 175X2, 2

TUT (5/0/4) CG Bench - 145X5, 5, 5

DB Laterals - 35sX6, 6, 6

BB Curls - up to 65X12, 5

Speed bench moved pretty well.

I increased the eccentric on the TUT bench by 1 second.  Last rep of the last set was dicey.

Upped weight on laterals.  Normally I don't care too much about weight on this sort of movement, however these are being done very strict: seated, with a full stop at the bottom of the rep, and no body english to get them started.  Progressing in that manner is satisfying.

Was totally out of gas on the 2nd set of curls.  5 reps looks bad, considering I got 2X10 last week, however another way to look at it is that I only came up 3 reps short.

Hybrid Training. Week 3. Tempo Run

Tempo Run - 1.75 miles @ ~24:40

I don't have the stopwatch handy.  It was 24:something.  Was still going strong at this shuffling pace when I reached the end, and I didn't have any issues with the left adductor.

Hybrid Training. Week 3. Heavy Lower

BW - 226

Deadlift -
up to 322.5X1
then 305X3, 3

Squat - up to 255X3, 3, 3, 3

Hanging Legs - BWX10, 10, 10

Deadlift felt pretty good.  Form felt solid, bar against legs the whole time with chest up, etc., and no low back issues.

Squatting after DL, which I haven't done in who knows how long, took a lot of focus.  Definitely more of a focus/will effort than a strength effort.

I think it's going to take some time to dial-in what the weights/reps should be week over week as I alternate Squat/DL as Main/Accessory.  My instinct right now is that the %'s and Reps shouldn't be interchangeable on them.  I feel like I can handle more reps on Squat at Accessory %'s than on DL.  I'm thinking slightly higher % and lower reps for DL as accessory, and the opposite for Squats as accessory.

Trying to keep my knees completely locked through-out the leg raises.  I've been diligent about working on lengthening my hamstrings, and I want to see that carry through to execution of this simple movement.

Hybrid Training. Week 3. Heavy Upper & Intervals

BW - 229

Bench -
up to 195X1, 1
then 165X3, 3

Press - up to 117.5X3, 3

Rows - 170X2, 2, 2

Chins - BWX7, 5, 4

Intervals - alternated jogging/walking the trip home in 2 block intervals.

195 felt too heavy to be an over warm-up, but not heavy enough to generate adaptation, so I did 2 singles.

Everything else but the chins felt strong, and the reps weren't too taxing.  Felt solid for the first "heavy day."

Intervals were technically weighted, as I had my laptop case stuffed down in my backpack.  Just cinched the thing down so it was tight against my upper back, and didn't bounce too much at all.

Hybrid Training. Week 2. Long Slow "Run"

Walking - brisk; 60 minutes

Hybrid Training. Week 2. Light Lower

BW - 230

Lying Leg Curls - warm-up set

GHR - BWX4, 4

Cable Pull-Throughs - X8, 8 (straight-weight)

Standing Single-Leg Curl - X6, 7 (straight-weight)

Hanging Leg Raises - X8, 8, 8

My left adductor was badly strained for a few days following my tempo run on Wednesday, so I didn't do any squatting on this day.  Instead I did a lot of hamstring work.

I've never done pull-through's before.  They were more challenging to jump into that I expected.  The cable kept trying to tip me over backwards.

I had some mild sore-ness in my erectors the day after this, which is something I haven't felt in a while.  Seemed productive.

Hybrid Training. Week 2. Light Upper

BW - 228

Bench - up to 165X3, 3

TUT (4/0/4) CG Bench - 145X5, 5, 5

DB Laterals - 30sX6, 6, 6

BB Curls - up to 65X10, 10

I'm trying out a little waving on the light day as well.  Gonna do 5s, 3s, and 2s and see how that goes on the speed bench.

For the TUT close-grips, I'm leaving the weight the same but waving the tempo inversely to the reps.  So last week was 6X3/0/3, this week was 5X4/0/4, and next week I'm going to try staying at 5 reps, but going 5/0/4 on the tempo.  This tempo work is really interesting.  So far, the first set feels like cake, and the last set feels like it's near-failure.

Hybrid Training. Week 2. Tempo Run

Tempo Run - 1.5 miles @ 19:48

Target here was 19:00 even. Not sure what happened.  I was on pace all the way through, and didn't slow, but I seemed to lose time in the 5th 1/4 mile.

Hybrid Training. Week 2. Heavy Lower

BW - 227

Squat -
up to 305X2
then 255X6, 6

Deadlift - up to 255X3, 3, 3

Hanging Leg Raise - 3X10

Squats went very well.  No issue with the low back.

Deadlifts were supposed to be sets of 5, but something on the 3rd rep of the 1st set said "Whoa," so I whoa-ed.

Got 10 all 3 sets of hanging legs.  These actually didn't feel great on my back.

Hybrid Training. Week 2. Intervals

Hill Sprints - 10

A buddy from the gym wanted to check out my hill, so I went out and did some sprints with him instead of the longer, slower, flat sprints called for in the program.

June was pretty full of travel, and social activities that made it a challenge to fit in training consistently.  I'm hoping July will be better, HOWEVER, I found out last week that I have to travel for a week in July to conduct training.  I'll look around for a gym and try to figure something out for that week.

Hybrid Training. Week 2. Heavy Upper

BW - 228

Bench -
up to 185X2
then 155X6, 6

Press - up to 110X5, 5

Rows - up to 165X3, 3, 3

Chins - BWX8, 6, 5, 5

Solid day.  Everything moved really well.

Chin strength was really high on this day. 8 reps @ 228 is the most reps I've done in a set since last September when I did 10 @ 213.  Hope that's a sign of things to come and not just a random strong day.

Hybrid Training. Week 1. Long Slow "Run"

Walking - brisk; 60 minutes

Hybrid Training. Week 1. Light Upper

BW - 228

Bench - up to 155X5, 5

TUT (3/0/3) CG Bench - 145X6, 6, 6

DB Laterals - 30sX6, 6, 6

BB Curls - up to 65X8, 10

Solid session.  Upped the weight by 5 lbs. on the TUT close-grips, and the last set was pretty tough.  The tempo work is interesting, and I'm curious to see how it pays off.

Hybrid Training. Week 1. Tempo Run

Tempo Run - 1.25 miles @ 15:45

Tried using an app last time to track my run live, but the results were shit.  I pre-planned the route this time, and used my trusty digital watch to establish this new base line to progress from.

Hybrid Training. Week 1. Heavy Lower

BW - 228

Deadlift -
up to 285X3
back off sets - 265X6, 6

Front Squats - up to 145X5, 5

Hanging Leg Raises - bent kneesX10, 10, 5

Was very nervous coming in today because my low back had gotten so aggravated late last week.  My back still didn't feel 100%, but I wanted to see what was what.

I approached every set with laser focus on form.  This resulted in both slower reps and rapid "mental" fatigue.  However, I worked up to 285X3 with no issues at all.  On the back-off sets, I had programmed for sets of 8, but on the 6th rep of the first back-off set, it was becoming more difficult to keep the bar against my legs, etc., so I decided to stay at 6 reps.  No other apparent issues here.

Moved on to Front Squats, and was feeling really burnt, mentally.  Programmed for sets of 5 here as well, but again I felt form starting to break down at rep 5, so I stopped it there.  The reps were moving even slower as I focused everything I had on keeping good spinal position.  After the first set, my back was feeling a bit "off."  I did another set, and I could feel it starting to "pulse," so I stopped.

Went with slightly bent knees for all the ab work.  These were all paused at the bottom, and my abs were starting to cramp half way through the final set.

All in all, while I may have slightly re-aggravated my low back issue, I'm glad I was able to get through most of the workout.

Hybrid Training. Week 1. Heavy Upper and Intervals

BW - 226

Bench -
up to 175X3
back-off 145X8, 8

Press - up to 105X8, 8

BB Rows - up to 145X8, 8, 8

Chins - BWX5X5

Intervals - Jog 2 blocks, walk 3 on the way home from the gym.

Pretty solid session.

175X3 was pretty easy as it should be, but I felt the volume on the back-off sets a bit.  Then the Press sets were pretty challenging to get that many reps after the bench volume.  Basically, I'm saying something that looked fairly easy on paper, was a bit more challenging put together, and I'm happy about that.

Rows were no big deal, but 5X5 on chins is an improvement.  Still no shoulder issues with them.

Lengthened the intervals and  bit.

Hybrid Training. Week 0. Light Lower and Long Slow "Run"

BW - 227

Tuesday:
Squats - Up to 255X5

Wednesday:
Fast Walking - 60 min.

Back felt like shit beginning with 135 on my 2nd warm-up set.  By the time I got to 255X5, I had to call over a spotter just in case.  I re-set to the empty bar and tried to work back up.  I got to 255X1, and shut it down.  Super frustrating.  All I can think right now is the weird pulsing I felt during the heavy RDLs on Friday were a sign of something that then got aggravated.  I keep swearing off RDLs for this very reason, but they were in the program so fuck it.  If things feel okay by my next heavy lower day, I will try subbing in light deadlifts.

Day 6 on the program is supposed to be an LSR (long-slow run) starting off very sub-pace and at race distance and increasing to 60-90 minutes.  Because my Tempo Run was the slowest I could possibly run, I just did a 60 minute brisk walk.  My back felt great afterwards.

Hybrid Training. Week 0. Light Upper

BW - 228

Bench - up to 155X5, 5

TUT (3/0/3) CG Bench - 140X6, 6, 6

DB Laterals - 25sX6, 6, 6

BB Curls - up to 65X8, 8

Light and easy as expected.

I did learn on the CG Bench that it's more comfortable for me if I use more of a "medium" grip (one hand-width in from competition grip), and don't tuck my elbows as hard.  My right shoulder is still bothering me a bit from something that happened over vacation.  I went in and tried to do CG bench the way I used to do them, when that was the only way I benched.  And I found that having my hands at "press grip," that is, touching the smooth, and keeping my upper arm parallel to my torso through the movement made the shoulder hurt like hell.  It reminded me a lot of the feeling I got when I injured my shoulder benching in 2014.  Makes me wonder it that technique was really the underlying issue somehow.  Moving out the grip and letting the elbows angle out a bit completely eliminated any discomfort in the injured area.  And the movement just felt more "right" somehow.

Only thing that felt heavy today were the curls.

Hybrid Training. Week 0. Heavy Lower and Tempo Run

Friday:
BW - 229

Squats -
up to 305X2
then 255X6, 6

RDL - up to 225X5, 5, 5

Hanging Legs -
BicyleX10
Knee RaiseX10
Bent Leg RaiseX10

Sunday:
Tempo Run - 1.3 miles @ 20 min.

Squats all moved well.

I was very, very careful with the RDLs as I've aggravated my low back issues being too aggressive with them in the past.  I walked them out instead of picking them up, and I was facing a mirror so I could keep an eye on my chest position.  After the 2nd set, I felt a kind of pulsing feeling around where I've had issues, so I did one more set and quit while I was ahead.  No lingering back issues afterwards.

In the past, I've tried to jump right into full, straight-leg hanging leg raises and been frustrated.  So I'm going to do a bit more of a progression here and try to work up to a quality straight-leg raise.

The tempo runs are supposed to be "slightly sub-pace," and varying between under- and over-distance.  I haven't done any running besides intervals since June of 2014, and until this week, I hadn't even done intervals since August of '15.  So I don't know what my pace is, and under-distance is my max without walking.  I decided to get in the water "a toe at a time," and just did a loop around the park with the slowest possible gait that wasn't walking.  Frankly, that I did it without having to stop and walk seems like an achievement.

My plan for this day right now is to alternate increasing the distance with increasing the speed.  The "race pace" I will likely shoot for is a basic 10 min. mile.  My best ever 1 mile time is 7:58.  That was in 2012 @ ~205 BW.  So I will work first on getting to 2 miles at a non-stop shuffle alternated with getting my mile pace closer to 10.  Then I will put those together, and when I can get 2 miles in 21-25 minutes, I will start on increasing distance at that pace.

Hybrid Training. Week 0. Heavy Upper and Intervals

BW - 228.8

Bench -
up to 185X2
then 155X6, 6

Press - up to 110X5, 5

Rows - up to 162.5X3, 3, 3

Chins - BWX5, 5, 5, 4, 4

Intervals - alternated jogging and walking every block from gym to home

Starting to get the feel for the Powerlifting + 5K program from Alex Vida's Hybrid Athlete manual.  I took a nasty fall while on vacation and my shoulder has been bothering me, and so I wasn't sure how this would go.  Between that and having company this weekend, I knew I wouldn't be able to jump fully into the programming, thus "Week 0" of getting acclimated to it as time allows.  Also, I need to read the full manual in depth to understand progression.

Despite the shoulder injury, I had no issues on any of the lifts here.  Everything moved nice and easy.  It's a percentage based program, and I used what I call my "Lifetime" Every Day Max (LEDM) as the basis.  This is a bit different from  Paul Carter's EDM concept where the # is sort of instinctual.  I've always kept track of my lifetime rep maxes from 1-20.  I average those out and take 90% for my LEDM.  For example, on Bench, my best single is 231, and my best set of 20 is 135.  Together with all the other rep records from 1-20, that averages out to a projected max of 225-30, and 90% of that is 205.  So when I need a good starting point for something on bench, I take 205 as my LEDM.

The program calls for 3X10 on pull-ups.  As I've been coming back from the previous shoulder injury that impaired my vertical pulling, 5 reps have been about max, so I just did 5 sets of 4-5 here.

Intervals felt good.  Although it's been since August '15 since I did any running, and my gait felt a bit awkward being out of practice and carrying an extra 20-25 pounds.

Small Session. Arms

Hammer Curls - 20'sX8, 8 (warm-up sets)

super-set with

DB Overhead Extensions - 40X10, 9

Chins - BWX5, 5, 5

super-set with

Dips - BWX8, 8, 8

DB Curls - 30sX8, 6,

drop sets - 30sX6, 25sX2, 20sX3 (no super-setting on the drop sets)

super-set with

Lying DB Extensions - 30sX8, 6

drop sets - 30sX7, 25sX4, 20sX4 (no super-setting on the drop sets)

Went a little further than harder than normal since I won't have another barbell session until after the holiday weekend.

No shoulder pain with either Chins or Dips!

Full-Body. Week 6. Press

BW - 227

Squats - up to 225X5, 5

Press -
BarX5
70X3
95X2
120X1
135X6, 4, 4

Deadlift - up to 265X3, 3, 3

135X6 is a Rep PR on overheads.  RPE 9.5, hahaha.  The two sets of 4 to get my volume goal felt good, though.

I got to aggressive on my first set of speed deads and aggravated my low back.  I calmed down and slowed down a bit on the next two sets with no additional problems, but my back is really achy today.  I'm about to go to visit family over the holiday weekend, and I've got a history of fucking up my back deadlifting before or during those trips.  I'll be fine by the time we leave, but I feel it's prudent not to do the heavy deadlift session programmed for the day before we take-off.  I'll hit two small sessions and call it good.

The weather is becoming steadily nice and even warm here, so I'll probably be looking to get outside for some conditioning soon.  Not 100% on how I'm going to change my programming.  Part of me wants to try and modify the current programming to accommodate the conditioning workout on the principle of not making huge changes and because I love full body strength training.  The other part of me wants to switch to a program designed specifically for mixing strength training with assertive conditioning.  I'll probably go with the latter, because it's something I just know less about.

Small Session. Shoulders

BW - 230

Delt-Raise Giant Set with: 25s
Rear-Delts - 8, 8, 8
Sides - 6, 6, 6
Fronts - 6, 6, 6

Small Session. Arms

DB Hammer Curls - 30sX8, 8, 7
super-set with
Rope Extensions - X10, 10, 10 (straight-weight)

Machine Curls - X8, 8, 8 (straight-weight)
super-set with
Dips - BWX10, 8, 8

DB Curls - 30sX6, 6, 6
super-set with
Lying DB Extensions - 30sX6, 6, 6

Tried to make sure I was going all the way down on Dips, but also went a bit slower to make sure my elbows didn't flare out.  Had to shave a couple reps off the last two sets to maintain.

Full-Body. Week 5. Squats

BW - 229

Squats -
BarX5
165X5
215X4
255X3
305X1
345X1
305X7, 4, 3

Incline - up to 175X2, 2, 2, 2

BB Rows - up to 175X5, 5, 5

305X7 is a Rep PR.  I didn't realize that I'd gone up to 345 until afterwards.  I don't know where my head was at.  I knew I was adding 30 lbs. on top of the 25 and 45 lb plates all the way up, but somehow I maybe thought I was doing a top single at 325?  Anyway.  Heaviest single since the meet in March.  Seemed a little slow, but I didn't know how much it was while I was lifting it.

Reduced the reps per set on Inclines now that their getting heavier.  I tried adding an extra set to keep volume in the same ballpark as previous.  The 8th rep was really ugly and out-of-groove, so that was probably unnecessary.  Will just stick to 3 sets going forward.

Rows are getting pretty heavy for strict form.  When it's time to move up to 185, if I feel like I can't get clean sets of 3, I may drop the weight down on these and do higher rep sets.

Full-Body. Week 5. RDL

BW - 229

Squats - up to 225X5, 5, 5

Bench - up to 175X3, 3, 3

RDL - up to 165X20

Relatively light day all around with no PR opportunities planned.

One thing, I will be keeping an eye on these sort of "extra volume" bench sessions where I use my work-set weight from Bench day for sets of 3-5.  The PR range for those weights is moving into single-digit territory.  While the above sets felt good, at some point I expect I should back these down to doubles, and then probably singles.  And I've been doing the same weightXreps for Inclines.  I may want to back those down first and/or eventually drop the weight back down on those and do 1-2 higher rep sets.

Small Session. Arms

Chin-ups - BW*X5, 5, 5

Machine Curls -
3 sets of 8 (straight-weight)
drop sets X2, 2, 4 (one plate/set)

Hammer Curls -
30sX8, 8, 6
drop set 25sX3, 15sX5

Did chins on back to back days with no pain even though I upped the reps on day 2.  *Don't trust the scale at the office gym, so don't know what BW was on this day.

Last workout of the week, so I through in some more drop sets.  Just biceps anyway.

Full-Body. Week 4. Bench

BW - 228

Squat -
BarX5
135X5
205X4
245X3
295X3, 3, 3

Bench -
BarX5
115X4
145X3
175X2
195X1
175X12, 6

Chins - BWX3, 3, 3

Deadlift -
135X3
225X3
265X3, 3, 3

I had an unplanned day of rest before this day, and while I wasn't motivated to get in the gym, things felt great once I got going.

295 felt easier this day than the previous 3X3 day on squats.

175X12 is a Rep PR on bench.  This was probably an RPE 9.  I didn't use a spotter, so light enough to get out of the rack on my own and still get a PR, but I wouldn't have gone for another rep without someone there.

3X3 on chins pain free!  My P.T. does good work.

Deadlifts moved really fast.  Ultimately, I don't know how I want to program this day, because I want chins back in the weekly rotation if I can do them, but I'm finding a lot of value in the technique reinforcement of the "speed" deads.  Maybe put chins on Small Session days like I did with Dips?  That's a thought...

Small Session. Legs

Seated Leg Curls -
4 X8 (straight weight)
10 forced reps (same weight)
4X4 drop sets

super-set with

Leg Extensions - 4X20 (straight weight)

Full-Body. Week 4. Front Squats

BW - 226

Front Squats -
BarX5
95X5
115X4
135X3
165X2
190X1
165X10, 7

Incline - up to 165X3, 3, 3

BB Rows - up to 165X5, 5, 5

165X10 is a Rep PR on Fronts.  Low hanging fruit.  Reps are relatively slow to focus on technique over explosiveness and max weight/reps.

Inclines and rows were fine.

Small Session. Legs

Leg Curls -
warm-up X15
work-sets - X8, 8, 8, 8 (straight-weight), then drop sets, 1 plate-per-set X2, 2, 4, 5
super-set with
Leg Extensions - X20, 20, 20, 20 (straight-weight), then drop sets, 1 plate-per-set X4, 6, 8

Couldn't get in for a barbell session today at the regular gym, so did some legs at the office gym.

Small Session. Shoulders

Delt-Raise Giant Set with: 25s
Rear-Delts - 8, 8, 8
Sides - 5, 5, 5
Fronts - 5, 5, 5

Full-Body. Week 3. Deadlift

BW - 230

Squat -
BarX5
135X5
205X4
245X3
295X3, 3, 3

Bench -
BarX5
95X3
135X2
165X3, 3, 3

Deadlift -
135X3
225X3
285X2
325X4, 4

Switched back to regular grip bench for this day.  Since I'm able to do dips on small-session days at the office gym, I thought it would be better to get more practice on the regular grip than work to get the form down on a variation (which was proving trickier than I expected).

Deadlifts were heavy, but moved pretty well.  Technique didn't feel very dialed in, though.

Small Session. Arms

DB Hammer Curls - 30sX10, 10, 6
super-set with
Rope Extensions - X10, 10, 10 (straight-weight)

Machine Curls - X8, 8, 8 (straight-weight)
super-set with
Dips - BWX10, 10, 10

DB Supinated Curls - 30sX8, 6, 6
super-set with
DB Lying Extensions - 30sX8, 6, 6

Quick session at the office gym.  Dips felt good.  No shoulder pain at all.

Full-Body. Week 3. Press

BW - 227

Squat -
BarX5
135X5
185X3
225X5, 5, 5

Press -
BarX5
85X3
115X2
135X1
125X8, 6, 3

Chin-ups - BWX1, 2, 4, 4

Deadlift -
135X3
225X3
265X3, 3, 3

125X8 is a Rep PR on Press.  Second set felt strong enough that I think I'll go up on weight next time.

OMG I did some chin-ups mostly pain-free!  One trip to the P.T., and a week of doing the rehab/prehab he prescribed and I'm at lest 50% of the way back.  I was grinning like an idiot after the 2nd set.

Throws a little bit of a wrench into the programming though, because I'd gotten pretty into the idea of the additional deadlift workouts for keeping technique dialed-in.  Don't want the Bench/Press days to become forever long, so I'll have to toy with it.

Full-Body. Week 3. Back Squats

BW - 225

Squat -
BarX5
135X5
185X4
225X3
275X2
315X1
295X8, 7

Incline - up to 165X3, 3, 3

BB Rows - up to 165X5, 5, 5

295X8 is a Rep PR.  I think I will do one more week at this weight.  Would like to get 10+ before moving up again.  2nd set felt as strong as the first, but I didn't need more than 15 reps at this point.  That 2nd set being strong is a phenomenon I experience a lot on the Starting Strength programs, and something I need to keep lodged in the back of my mind as I keep toying with higher-rep sets and total volume.

Bumped up weight on Incline and Rows to match my last workset on flat bench.

Small Session. Shoulders

Delt-Raise Giant Set with: 25s
Rear-Delts - 8, 8, 8
Sides - 5, 5, 5
Fronts - 5, 5, 5

Full-Body. Week 2. RDL

BW - 227

Squat - up to 225X5, 5, 5

CG Bench - up to 165X3, 3, 3

RDL - up to 155X20

Fairly easy day.  Focused on speed under control on both Squat and Bench.  Focused on chest up and arms loose on RDL.  Been almost a year since I did RDL and I did 175X30 on that day, so safe to say this isn't  PR, but gotta start somewhere.

Small Session. Arms

Machine Curls - X6, 6, 6 (straight-weight)

super-set with

Machine Triceps - X8, 8, 8 (straight-weight)

DB Hammer Curls - 25sX6, 6, 6

super-set with

DB Incline Curls - 25sX6, 6, 6

Full-Body. Week 2. Bench

BW - 226

Squat -
BarX5
135X5
185X4
245X3
290*X3, 3, 3

Bench -
BarX5
95X5
115X4
135X3
165X2
185X1
165X14, 5

Deadlift -
135X3
185X3
225X3, 3, 3

*misloaded the bar with a 5 on one side and a 10 on the other.  Should have been 285.

165X14 is a Rep PR on bench.  I'd been banging my head against the wall for a couple of weeks attempting to get 155X20 and stalling out at 17.  I've decided to ramp up a little bit accepting some Rep PRs at higher weights even if they fall short of my original targets.  For instance, my target for 165 would have been 17, but 12 is my previous best, so why not be happy with beating that by 2?  My hope was to "earn" a new over warm-up of 225, but it seems like that may be further out than I'd hoped.  So I'll work up hitting Rep PRs and see what number makes sense instead of fixating so hard on adding another full plate to the bar.  Maybe I'll go until I start failing to hit lower rep PRs, say if I fail for a couple weeks attempting 205X6, and then I'll make that weight my new over warm-up and reset from there.

Substituting speed deads for chin-ups until I get my shoulder issues worked out.

Small Session. Biceps

Biceps DB Curls Giant-Set: 25s
Hammer - X6, 5, 5, 10
Incline - X4, 5, 5
Drag - X5, 5, 5

On these small sessions, I want to do one session or arms a week, and also avoid having to go to the gym on the weekends.  My schedule got thrown off by illness last week, so I've got heavy bench tomorrow.  That meant only biceps today.  I just made up this giant-set on the spot.  Hammer curls to warm-up the joint and get the brachialis going, incline fully supinated curls to really work the biceps through a full stretch, and then drag curls to overload the biceps after their fatigued from inclines.

I finished off with one burn-out set of hammer curls because it felt like they were getting short-changed a bit at this weight.

Full-Body. Week 2. Front Squats

BW - 225

Front Squat -
BarX5
95X5
115X4
135X3
155X2
185X1
155X10, 10

Incline -
BarX5
95X5
115X3
135X2
155X5, 5, 5

BB Rows -
BarX10
95X5
135X3
155X5, 5, 5

First time front squatting since June '15.  155X10 is a Rep PR, hahahaa.  Ended up with a bit wider stance.  Since I lift in Chucks, it makes it easier to keep my heels down.  Also used a very controlled eccentric to make sure I stayed tight and didn't lose form hitting the hole and rebounding.  I've actually tweaked my back on this lift a few times in the past and want to err on the side of not repeating that.

Inclines were also a deliberate, controlled eccentric but really focusing on being both explosive AND controlled on the press.

Rows are rows.

Small Session. Shoulders

Delt-Raise Giant Set with: 25s
Rear-Delts - 8, 8, 8
Sides - 7, 5, 4
Fronts - 6, 4, 4

Started the giant-sets out with rear delts to make sure they got the most work.  I was surprised, though, how much easier it was to raise the 35s from the rear than from the front or side.  Makes me wondering if I'm doing really shitty rear-raises that are pulling in a lot of the surrounding musculature.  They don't feel any sloppier than the other two planes, but something to think about.

And at the same time, my rear delts are sore as shit the next day, so....

Full-Body. Week 1. Deadlift

Squat -

BarX5

135X5

185X4

245X3

285X3, 3, 3

CG Bench -

BarX5

95X4

115X3

135X2

155X3, 3, 3

Deadlift -

135X5

225X3

275X2

315X4, 4, 2

Was working on 3 hours sleep, but ended up having a solid session.

Squat was focused on executing technique under moderate load.

Bench was focused on speed and control.

Deadlift felt pretty good.

Full-Body. Week 1. Press

BW - 227

Squat -
BarX5
135X5
185X3
225X3, 3, 3

Press -
BarX5
65X5
85X4
105X3
125X2
135X1
115X8, 6, 4

Chins - BWX0

Chest-Supported, Neutral Grip T-Bar Rows -
45X3
70X5
80X5, 5, 5

Sick as a dog for a few days.  Didn't go to work, but did go to the gym.  Probably not a great idea.

Everything felt awful, but by the time I got warmed up on these light squats they felt good.

I didn't have any rep strength for the Press, however.  Just got in the total volume and didn't worry about it.

Tried my first chin-up in a couple months, and pain shot out from my shoulder and down to my elbow.  Guess it's time to get this looked at.

Went and did chest supported rows instead.  They were fine.

Small Session. Arms.

Hammer Curls - 30sX12, 12, 9
super-set with
Rope Push-Downs - X10, 12, 10 (to a top set)

Machine Preacher Curls - X9, 7, 6 (straight-weight)
super-set with
Cable One-Arm Side Push-Downs - X10, 10 (to a top set)

Dips - BWX10

DB Bicep Curls - 30sX8, 6, 5
super-set with
DB Lying Extensions - 30sX10, 7, 7

I'm moving my big compound lifts to Full Body, 3X/week, and I'm adding in a couple of smaller sessions at the gym in my office building in between.  This was the first of those.

I forgot there was a chin/dip station at this gym and so I programmed in these weird side push-downs to try and get a similar plane of motion.  They actually felt alright, but if I can do real dips, I'd prefer that for now.

Full-Body. Week 1. Low Bar Squats

BW - 228

Squats -
BarX5
135X5
185X4
225X3
275X2
315X1
285X12, 3

Incline - up to 155X3, 3, 3

BB Rows - up to 155X3, 5, 5

Done with the 100 reps accessory work I used to help my body recover from meet training.  Moving back into a full-body type program.

285X12 is a Rep PR.  Since I added a rep, I only hit the minimum volume goal with the 2nd set.

Haven't done Inclines in quite some time so it took a while to get back into the swing.  I'm starting by moving my grip in just a thumb's-width from my flat bench grip.  By the end I realized I was pressing a bit out of control and things felt better if I used a more deliberate eccentric and concentric with a pause at the top and bottom.

Also haven't done rows in a while.  I'm not sure if these will need higher reps or not, but my initial aim in this program is to limit worksets on compound accessories to 3-5 reps.

Reps and Volume. Week 4. Press

BW - 228

Press -
BarX5
65X5
85X4
105X3
125X2
135X1
115X12, 7

Face-Pulls - 5 sets of 20

Hammer Curls - 35sX10, 8, 6, 6

I wasn't in a good place to work out on this day.  I'd spent an hour and a half at the bank and then eaten a huge breakfast right before hand.  The breakfast in particular was dumb.  All I wanted to do was take a nap afterwards.

Couldn't get a PR on the first set of Presses, so I went for max reps on the 2nd.

The idea of doing 100 rep sets was loathsome to me on this day, so I upped the weight and did several sets.  This was going to be the last day of the 100 rep phase anyhow.

Reps and Volume. Week 4. Deadlift

BW - 227

Squat -
BarX5
135X5
185X5
225X5, 5

Deadlift -
135X5
185X4
225X3
275X2
315X1
305X4, 4, 3

Pull-downs - X40, 21 (same weight as last time)

Knees felt great on squats.

Deadlift felt stronger than the last few weeks.

Pull-downs felt like crap, and I just didn't want to do them anymore.  May have pushed the weight up faster than I needed to.

Reps and Volume. Week 4. Bench

BW - 230

Bench -
BarX5
95X5
115X4
135X3
155X2
185X1
155X17, 7

Cable Rows - X75, 25 (same weight as last time)

Straight-Bar Push-Downs - X65, 35 (same weight as last time)

Ran out of strength again after Rep 17.  This week I decided to push the reps on the 2nd set closer to failure instead of getting the prescribed amount for the volume goals.  This makes sense to me.  Stick with the volume goal as long as progress is being made, but push the volume sets past the goal to try and break a plateau.  We'll see if that works.

Kept the weight the same on accessories, but managed to get them both done in 2 sets where it took 3 sets last week.

I believe the 100 rep accessories may be coming to an end after this week.  It should be enough to have moved a lot of blood through  my joints to help recover from the meet, and also to have bumped up my overall work capacity a bit.

I'm a bit torn on what the next phase is going to be.  My original plans had revolved around some specific diet goals, but I have failed to consistently meet those.  If I'm going to abandon those goals, then I feel like the options are:  1) Continue with my main lift programming, but push the accessories into bigger movements with higher intensities; i.e. strength work; or 2) I've been looking at Alex Viada's manual for awhile and I've laid out his P.L.+5K program.

If I do the latter, I believe I will need to pick a 5K to run in order to stick to that 7-day-a-week program.  Because I enjoyed the P.L. meet so much, I'm leaning towards this even though it looks much more difficult than the other option.

Reps and Volume. Week 4. Squat

BW - 229

Squat -
BarX5
135X5
185X4
225X3
275X2
315X1
285X11, 3

Pull-downs - X60, 40 (upped weight from last time)

Lunges - BWX15, 15, 15, 15

285X11 is a Rep PR.  It's possible I could have gotten to my target of 14 here, but I got over my toes on rep #10 and felt shaky as hell on #11.  No reason to push for it on my first try, so I'll hit it again next week.

Upped weight on pull-downs and added a rep-per-set to lunges.  Right shoulder still feels an uncomfortable pinch on pull-downs even at these low weights.  Just gonna keep monitoring it.

Reps and Volume. Week 3. Press

BW - 227

Press -
BarX5
65X5
85X4
105X3
125X2
135X1
115X12, 5

Face-Pulls - 50, 35, 30 (increase weight from last week)

Cross-Body Hammer Curls - 12sX50 each arm

115X12 is a Rep PR for the Press.  Still 5 fucking reps away from my goal.  Seems like a million miles for as hard as the last couple of reps are.  Just gonna bust ass and try to get at least 13 next week.

Reps and Volume. Week 3. Deadlift

BW - 228

Squats -
BarX5
135X5
185X5
225X5, 5

Deadlift -
135X5
185X4
225X3
275X2
315X1
295X4, 4, 4

Pull-downs - X100

Deadlifts moved fairly well.  I felt like my hips might be a bit low, but we'll see.

Reps and Volume. Week 3. Bench

BW - 227

Bench -
BarX5
95X5
115X4
135X3
155X2
185X1
155X17, 3

Cable Rows - X60, 25, 15 (upped weight)

Straight-Bar Pushdowns - X50, 30, 20 (same weight as last week)

155X17 ties a Rep PR.  18th rep failed off the chest.

Was able to get total reps on Pushdowns in fewer sets with same weight as last week.

Reps and Volume. Week 3. Squat

BW - 227

Squat -
BarX5
135X5
185X4
225X3
275X2
315X1
275X16

Pull-downs - X60, 40 (upped weight)

Lunges - 4X14 (56 total)

275X16 is an all-around PR and my goal for this weight.  Start going for 285X14 next week.  The last 2 reps were awful, but there was no way I could see myself pulling up short this week.

I upped the weight on pulldowns from my last time.  Was feeling a hangover from the squats pretty hard, but I managed to get this in two sets.

After all the squatting and the ultra-high-rep lat work, I was gassed and a had to sit down for a long time until my head cleared a bit.  I seriously considered just going home, but I didn't do the lunges last week and didn't want to skip them again.  I made myself a deal that I would just go for around 50 reps and keep the reps-per-set low.  This was the right move, and gives me a better mark to build out from.  Or not.  As long as I'm getting in some single leg work, I'm fine with it.

Reps and Volume. Week 2. Press

BW - 227

Press -
BarX5
65X4
85X3
105X2
125X2
135X1
115X11, 6

Face-Pulls - X100 (upped weight from last week)

Cross-Body Hammer Curls - 12sX2X25, each arm

115X11 is a Rep PR and a 2 rep improvement over last week.  These reps are non-stop unless I need to take a breath.  Last week, stopping to breath felt like it took a lot out of me in regards to tightness and energy.  This week, I took a breath between every warm-up rep to drill in staying tight and focused.  It seemed to rally help on the worksets.  17 reps still seems a long way off, but we'll see.

Reps and Volume. Week 2. Deadlift

BW - 230

Squat -
BarX5
135X5
185X5
225X5, 5

Deadlift -
135X5
185X4
225X3
275X2
315X1
285X4, 4, 4, 2

Pull-downs - X50, 30, 20 (upped weight from last week)

My meet coach was pulling on the platform next to me.  I was having trouble last week keeping the bar against my legs.  He gave me the helpful cue to bring my knees further forward at the start and that seemed to do the trick.

Reps and Volume. Week 2. Bench

BW - 229

Bench -
BarX5
95X4
115X4
135X3
155X2
185X1
155X15, 5

Cable Rows - X100

Triceps Pushdowns - X35, 25, 25, 20

Dialed in technique a little harder on bench.  It felt much better for the first 10-12 reps, but then the bottom fell out.  Still got a couple more reps than last week.  Still a ways off from a Rep PR.

Upped the weight on rows and got all 100.  Upped the weight on pushdowns and did not.

Reps and Volume. Week 2. Squat

BW - Away Gym; Didn't see a scale

Squat -
BarX5
135X5
185X4
225X3
275X2
315X1
275X13, 3

Wide-Grip Pull-downs - X100

275X13 is a Rep PR.  Similar to last week, the strength is there for more, but the athleticism isn't.  My knees are shaking and I have no wind, but the actual squat is fine

Got all the way to 100 this time on pull-downs.  Immediately after, I had intense, burning pain in all the involved muscles.  Never had soreness that intense come on that quickly after a movement.  It lasted for about 3 minutes before dissipating.

I was pressed for time so I had to drop the lunges today.

Reps and Volume. Week 1. Press

BW - 228

Press -
BarX5
65X4
85X3
105X2
125X1
135X1
115X9, 6, 3

Face-Pulls - X100

Cross-Body Hammer Curls - 5X10, each arm

115X9 is a Rep PR on the Press.  I didn't even realize that at the time.  My goal here is 17, hahahahha!  We'll just have to see what happens with that or if it's not helpful.  Going for such high reps, I was really unsure about pausing, and if so, at the top or bottom.  My technique got overhauled during meet training, and now I'm figuring out how the new technique gets applied to higher reps.

Reps and Volume. Week 1. Deadlift

BW - 228

Squat -
BarX5
135X4
185X3
225X5, 5

Deadlift -
135X5
225X3
275X2
315X1
275X4, 4, 4, 4

Pulldowns - X75, 25

Deadlifts were a little awkward.  Not sure if it was the warped platform, but on the 3rd and 4th reps of each workset the bar kept getting away from my legs.  Gonna go up to 285 next week and try a different platform, but if I have the same issues I'll have to stay there until I can get clean reps all the way through on most of the work-sets.

Reps and Volume. Week 1. Bench

BW - 227

Bench -
BarX5
95X5
135X3
155X2
185X1
155X13, 7

Cable Rows - X100

Straight-Bar Pushdowns - X100

My goal is 155X20.  My best with this weight is 17; set on 9/15 last year, after coming back from injury.  I'm pausing the first and last reps on all sets.  Don't know when or if I was pausing previously.  It will be interesting to see if these shoot up as conditioning/work-capacity increase, or if I've really 'lost' something during the meet training.

The important thing is that there's no shoulder pain associated with this workout.

Light weights on the 100 rep sets, and I got all the way through.

Reps and Volume. Week 1. Squat

BW - 227 (lowest since 12/8/15)

Squat -
BarX5
135X5
185X4
225X3
275X2
315X1
275X12, 4

Pull-downs - X82, 17

Lunges - BWX30, 24, 20, 26

275X12 is a Rep PR.  I thought it tied a PR and that's why I stopped there.  I didn't want to push too hard my first week back.  My goal is 16.

Using the Phase-II protocol from LRB 365 for a little meet recovery.  Basically just means single sets of 100 reps on one or two movements following the main lift.  Didn't quite get there on pull-downs, and knew I wouldn't get there on lunges.  100 reps of lunges have always been a some'bitch.

BW down to a 3 month low after one week.  Shooting for a very slow, but steady decrease to try and shed fat while maintaining as much muscle as possible.  I've always done high-fat/low-carb in the past.  Reversing that this time to see if it's more manageable (meaning I can still drink beer).

Good start to the post-meet work.

Meet Report

BW - 229 (in jeans and shoes)

Squat -

324.5X1

346X1

363X1

Bench -

203.5X1

220X1

231X1

Deadlift -

324.5X1

352X1

374X1

Total - 968

Wow, what a long day!  Got to the gym for weigh-in at 8:00 AM, and final trophies were around 7:00 PM.  

Quite tired today, but happy to have hit most of my goals.  In order: Do the meet, don't get re-injured, go 9-for-9, lifetime PR(s) on the platform, 1000 lb. total.

I let my coach put in my attempts for me, and I didn't ask what they were.  With the kilo plates, I couldn't tell by looking.  I trusted that he'd pick well, and all I had to do was execute.  363 ties my lifetime training PR in the Squat.  231 Bench and 374 Deadlift are both lifetime PRs.

I maybe had a little room to go up on the Squat, however the USAPL judges (one in particular) were calling the squat extremely strict.  When I'd done the 363 in training with commands, the gym owner (who was also a judge at this meet) thought depth was borderline.  That's why my coach stayed there for my 3rd.  I got three whites, but I believe that was a good call.

My final Bench attempt was felt like the single hardest rep I've ever successfully completed.  Looks a lot faster in video than it felt.  The bar got half way up and seemed to come to a complete stop.  From there, it was pure willpower and execution.  Keeping the pressure on, and slightly angling the bar back got it moving just enough to lock-out.  Props to my coach for his cue-ing, and to the judges and spotters for letting me finish it.

I don't know what was going on with the Deadlift, but I was significantly stronger on the platform than I'd been at any point in training.  As a result, my coach and I were both in unknown territory.  After my 2nd, he asked me how it felt.  "Great," I said.  "Easy?," he asked.  And I wasn't sure what to say, it did feel easy, but I wasn't sure how easy to call it.  He'd asked me earlier what my lifetime PR on the lift was (365X2), and he ultimately played it safe by just calling for a PR.  The way it felt, I probably  left at least 10 lbs. on the platform with that one.  That's, oddly, a good feeling.

Depending on what goes on in the coming year, I'd be happy to do another meet if it's reasonably convenient.  I would probably go more directly after numbers for that one.  I plan to drop a lot of the fat I put on for this one, so I'd love to get the 1000 lb. total one weight class lower in the 205s.  But I'll have to get well under that, so I can train back up to it, and the timing would have to be right, so we'll see.

Overall, I had a great time.  Hung out with some interesting folks, and got to see some valiant lifts.  My wife came out, and several friends did as well.  I feel very thankful for that.