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.