BW - 195
Bench -
BarX15
85X5
95X4
115X3
125X2
145X1, 1
155X1
115X22, 6
Incline - 85X15, 7
Dips - BWX12, 10, 9, 7, 6
Session was good/OK. The 155 on bench was curiously heavy, but 115X22 is a PR from 17 reps on up. Grain of salt there because I've only pushed reps at that weight once before, and that was at the beginning of the Strong-15 last December. But at that time, I only got 115 for 15, and noted at the time that the bar was moving slow. That was not the case with the 115X22 today. And this projects to be inside 10 lbs. of a perceived 1RM increase. Feels on target.
As I mentioned in my last squat post, I'm doing additional back-off sets per a suggestion in the manual. With Squats, the manual calls for 2 sets of 3 of Pause Squats, but I did 4 sets and when the last rep of that 4th set was slow coming up, I moved on to assistance work. Bench is different because the back-off sets are AMAP, so I'm using one of Paul Carter's favorite techniques: 50% sets. I would have liked to have gotten closer to 11 (half the reps from the first set) on my 2nd back-off set, but sometimes you're so gassed from the first 50% set, it's hard to imagine you'll get even 1 rep on the 2nd. It was like that here, and that's OK.
I've got the option as well to do more than 2 sets on Incline, but this turned out to be another 50% set, and so I let it be.
There's no prescribed number of sets/reps for the Dips. The manual just says "body x lots," and 5 sets felt about right. These were all AMAP sets where I barely got the last rep or failed when I attempted the next one.
Also, should note that as I've pulled some carbs back out of my diet again, my BW increase has dropped back off to where I was about 2 weeks ago. I'm going to try to up the protein/veggie intake and see if I can SLOWLY get it to start going up again that way. If it stalls out, I'll revisit some additional carbs, but I was starting to feel a little sloppy over the last couple weeks.
Showing posts with label Strong-15. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Strong-15. Show all posts
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Friday, June 21, 2013
LRB 365: LRB Split. Week 1. Squat - Heavy
BW - 193
Squat -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
135X5
155X4
185X3
195X2
205X1
215X1
225X1
Front Squat -
85X10
95X10
105X10
115X10
Machine Leg Press - X10, 10, 10, 14 (to a Top Set)
Alternating Lunges - BWX30, 26, 24, 22
I'd been looking forward to the first leg day of this split for a few weeks now, and I'm not disappointed.
Squats are all strong. The way I programmed the Strong-15 for this cycle was to hit the same top single, 245, at the end, that I've been hitting occasionally on the last two cycles. I want to feel like I own 245 so that when 255 and 265 come along, weights I've shakily done before, I will feel more confident than ever with them. My thought right now is to hit 275 again at the end of the upcoming strength cycle. That would be 10 lbs. more than what I hit at the beginning of this program, and match my all time 1 Rep attempt. Would love to smoke that. It will all depend on how I'm feeling at the end of this cycle, but I won't program any higher than that.
115X10 on Fronts is a Rep PR. Having trouble keeping the bar from rolling forward on the heaviest sets.
Regular leg press was mucho ocupado, so I had to settle for the machine leg press. Whatever, it's all body-building.
Lunges were pretty brutal after all of the above. I rest/paused sets 2-4. I really feel my glutes today, and I think that's because of the way I do lunges. Keeping an upright torso and shin i.e. not leaning forward or allowing my knee to travel forward very much. Something about that must shift to my glutes, because they're often sore the day after higher-rep lunges.
Squat -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
135X5
155X4
185X3
195X2
205X1
215X1
225X1
Front Squat -
85X10
95X10
105X10
115X10
Machine Leg Press - X10, 10, 10, 14 (to a Top Set)
Alternating Lunges - BWX30, 26, 24, 22
I'd been looking forward to the first leg day of this split for a few weeks now, and I'm not disappointed.
Squats are all strong. The way I programmed the Strong-15 for this cycle was to hit the same top single, 245, at the end, that I've been hitting occasionally on the last two cycles. I want to feel like I own 245 so that when 255 and 265 come along, weights I've shakily done before, I will feel more confident than ever with them. My thought right now is to hit 275 again at the end of the upcoming strength cycle. That would be 10 lbs. more than what I hit at the beginning of this program, and match my all time 1 Rep attempt. Would love to smoke that. It will all depend on how I'm feeling at the end of this cycle, but I won't program any higher than that.
115X10 on Fronts is a Rep PR. Having trouble keeping the bar from rolling forward on the heaviest sets.
Regular leg press was mucho ocupado, so I had to settle for the machine leg press. Whatever, it's all body-building.
Lunges were pretty brutal after all of the above. I rest/paused sets 2-4. I really feel my glutes today, and I think that's because of the way I do lunges. Keeping an upright torso and shin i.e. not leaning forward or allowing my knee to travel forward very much. Something about that must shift to my glutes, because they're often sore the day after higher-rep lunges.
Monday, April 8, 2013
LRB 365: Conditioning. Week 1. Bench
BW - 199
Bench -
BarX12
95X5, 5
135X3, 3
155X1, 1, 1
135X8
BW Circuit -
Dips - 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 8, 6, 4, 2
Chins (neutral grip) - 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2
Push-ups - 5, 10, 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2
Leg Raises - 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 8, 6, 4, 2
Weighted Vest - 45 minutes; walking
First session of the new phase and a big wake-up call with the BW ladders, but I'll get to that in a sec.
The barbell movement on each of these days is optional on the weight used, so just go by feel using the Strong-15 template. However, I prefer to make bigger jumps if possible, but as weak as I am that doesn't really pan out as well with the 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 1, 1 rep scheme. So what I'm doing for this phase is using 25's, 45's, and only ONE 10lb. plate per side. So the above is what my bench will likely look like through most of the phase, unless I'm feeling particularly strong and decide to hit 185 for a top single and/or back-off with 155.
Also, I got the last walking session of the previous phase in on this day.
So, the ladders. In an effort to keep this brief, I haven't done push-ups since June of 2012, and lo and behold I suck at them. This whole bodyweight session took A LOT of Rest/Pause to get through and was sheer hell, and I had to cut down the intervals for just about everything. I'm going to drop everything down to intervals of 2. If I make rapid progress on any movement, I will inch it back up to where it was supposed to be.
So, for instance, if dips start to come back strong (which I suspect they will), I will bump them back up to 3's. If sit-ups or BW Squats come back, or are good to go when I do them later this week, I will bump them to 3's, and then again to 5's if that is going well.
The point here is to try and retain my motivation by not making every lifting day a hell that I dread, to keep the reps higher-quality (strict-ish, good ROM, etc.), and to keep the pace up. Whew. See how it goes.
Bench -
BarX12
95X5, 5
135X3, 3
155X1, 1, 1
135X8
BW Circuit -
Dips - 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 8, 6, 4, 2
Chins (neutral grip) - 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2
Push-ups - 5, 10, 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2
Leg Raises - 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 8, 6, 4, 2
Weighted Vest - 45 minutes; walking
First session of the new phase and a big wake-up call with the BW ladders, but I'll get to that in a sec.
The barbell movement on each of these days is optional on the weight used, so just go by feel using the Strong-15 template. However, I prefer to make bigger jumps if possible, but as weak as I am that doesn't really pan out as well with the 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 1, 1 rep scheme. So what I'm doing for this phase is using 25's, 45's, and only ONE 10lb. plate per side. So the above is what my bench will likely look like through most of the phase, unless I'm feeling particularly strong and decide to hit 185 for a top single and/or back-off with 155.
Also, I got the last walking session of the previous phase in on this day.
So, the ladders. In an effort to keep this brief, I haven't done push-ups since June of 2012, and lo and behold I suck at them. This whole bodyweight session took A LOT of Rest/Pause to get through and was sheer hell, and I had to cut down the intervals for just about everything. I'm going to drop everything down to intervals of 2. If I make rapid progress on any movement, I will inch it back up to where it was supposed to be.
So, for instance, if dips start to come back strong (which I suspect they will), I will bump them back up to 3's. If sit-ups or BW Squats come back, or are good to go when I do them later this week, I will bump them to 3's, and then again to 5's if that is going well.
The point here is to try and retain my motivation by not making every lifting day a hell that I dread, to keep the reps higher-quality (strict-ish, good ROM, etc.), and to keep the pace up. Whew. See how it goes.
Friday, February 15, 2013
LRB 365: Strong-15. In Review
The full Strong-15 run that starts Paul Carter's LRB 365 manual is complete.
The biggest difficulty and most important thing switching into this program is determining goals for the cycle. I switched from 531 to Carter's Ultimate Beastdom program last winter as well. I just don't have the experience to easily switch from a training max based approach to a goal based approach. When I did this last year, I charted my E1RM progress over the previous 531 cycles and used that to project goals for the strength phase of the UB program. This was based on the assumption of equal or better progress. It worked okay, but I had mixed results for a variety of reasons. Mostly related to poor form as I approached my goal weights. Again, inexperience.
It was a bit easier this time because Carter goes into a lot of detail around using what he calls the Every Day Max (EDM) as the baseline for the goals here. He is very much talking about feel and intuition about what you can lift, but after working in E1RM for so long, I still wasn't positive about what that should be because I was still getting 5-10 reps on all my 531 top sets. So this time I took my E1RM for each week of 531 for the prior 3 months and averaged it. I decided that my EDM should at least be in that ballpark. I then set different, modest (I thought) goals for adding to each of them. It broke down like this:
Squat - EDM (3 month 531 avg.) 275. Goal - 285 (+10 lbs.)
Bench - EDM 200. Goal - 205 (+5 lbs.)
Deadlift - EDM 360. Goal - 365 (+5 lbs.)
I should note that although I averaged ALL my 531 weeks together, it occurred to me afterwards that it might have been smarter to only have used the 3rd week of each cycle since it's the heaviest. However, when I go back and look at that, those weeks yielded the highest E1RM of each cycle across the board. So this still seems fairly conservative.
Now the good news is that I didn't miss any lifts on the program. The not so good news is that Carter wants the final singles in Week 9 to be "crushed", and they really weren't. Here are the results by the numbers:
Final Squat - 265: This was really smooth and there was no doubt I would make the lift, however it was a bit slower than I might of hoped. Still probably my favorite result of the program.
Bench - 185: This is a true EDM for me in the sense that I've hit this weight on multiple occasions, including in Week 8 of this cycle. The real news here is that I set rep PR's on my back-off sets each of the last 3 weeks of the cycle.
Deadlift - 335: This was the biggest letdown. This matches my previous best actual lift, which is okay, and it was smooth, but it was really, really slow.
With the deadlift, it could be that I overestimated my EDM, or it could be just additional stress of heavy squatting before deadlifts. Regardless, I came up with a new way to track EDM for myself, that is SUPER-conservative and still allows me to have fun playing with programming spreadsheets. I've always tracked my Rep PR's, and now I'm just averaging the E1RM of all of those together to give me a result. Again, this yields amazingly conservative numbers because some of these Rep PR's are really old. However, if I'm going to buy into Paul Carter's sub-maximal philosophy for a whole year or more, then it seems like a decent way to go.
The biggest difficulty and most important thing switching into this program is determining goals for the cycle. I switched from 531 to Carter's Ultimate Beastdom program last winter as well. I just don't have the experience to easily switch from a training max based approach to a goal based approach. When I did this last year, I charted my E1RM progress over the previous 531 cycles and used that to project goals for the strength phase of the UB program. This was based on the assumption of equal or better progress. It worked okay, but I had mixed results for a variety of reasons. Mostly related to poor form as I approached my goal weights. Again, inexperience.
It was a bit easier this time because Carter goes into a lot of detail around using what he calls the Every Day Max (EDM) as the baseline for the goals here. He is very much talking about feel and intuition about what you can lift, but after working in E1RM for so long, I still wasn't positive about what that should be because I was still getting 5-10 reps on all my 531 top sets. So this time I took my E1RM for each week of 531 for the prior 3 months and averaged it. I decided that my EDM should at least be in that ballpark. I then set different, modest (I thought) goals for adding to each of them. It broke down like this:
Squat - EDM (3 month 531 avg.) 275. Goal - 285 (+10 lbs.)
Bench - EDM 200. Goal - 205 (+5 lbs.)
Deadlift - EDM 360. Goal - 365 (+5 lbs.)
I should note that although I averaged ALL my 531 weeks together, it occurred to me afterwards that it might have been smarter to only have used the 3rd week of each cycle since it's the heaviest. However, when I go back and look at that, those weeks yielded the highest E1RM of each cycle across the board. So this still seems fairly conservative.
Now the good news is that I didn't miss any lifts on the program. The not so good news is that Carter wants the final singles in Week 9 to be "crushed", and they really weren't. Here are the results by the numbers:
Final Squat - 265: This was really smooth and there was no doubt I would make the lift, however it was a bit slower than I might of hoped. Still probably my favorite result of the program.
Bench - 185: This is a true EDM for me in the sense that I've hit this weight on multiple occasions, including in Week 8 of this cycle. The real news here is that I set rep PR's on my back-off sets each of the last 3 weeks of the cycle.
Deadlift - 335: This was the biggest letdown. This matches my previous best actual lift, which is okay, and it was smooth, but it was really, really slow.
With the deadlift, it could be that I overestimated my EDM, or it could be just additional stress of heavy squatting before deadlifts. Regardless, I came up with a new way to track EDM for myself, that is SUPER-conservative and still allows me to have fun playing with programming spreadsheets. I've always tracked my Rep PR's, and now I'm just averaging the E1RM of all of those together to give me a result. Again, this yields amazingly conservative numbers because some of these Rep PR's are really old. However, if I'm going to buy into Paul Carter's sub-maximal philosophy for a whole year or more, then it seems like a decent way to go.
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
LRB 365: Strong-15. Week 9. Back
BW - ?
Chins - BWX15
Pulldowns - 2 sets of 15-20
Machine Rows - 2 sets of 10
Cable Shrugs - 1 set of 20
DB Curls - 20's X20, 20
Hex Holds - 20'sX25, 20, 15 seconds
Last session of the Strong-15. Because I'm about to have a little over a week off, I decided to get some juicy reps for lats instead of just chinning. I was all, you know, squeezing hard on the contraction and controlling the negative and shit. I couldn't resist one set of chins, though.
Actually, after this my biceps seem more fried than normal, heh.
Chins - BWX15
Pulldowns - 2 sets of 15-20
Machine Rows - 2 sets of 10
Cable Shrugs - 1 set of 20
DB Curls - 20's X20, 20
Hex Holds - 20'sX25, 20, 15 seconds
Last session of the Strong-15. Because I'm about to have a little over a week off, I decided to get some juicy reps for lats instead of just chinning. I was all, you know, squeezing hard on the contraction and controlling the negative and shit. I couldn't resist one set of chins, though.
Actually, after this my biceps seem more fried than normal, heh.
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
LRB 365: Strong-15. Week 9. Bench
BW - 203
Bench -
BarX10
95X5
135X3, 3
155X2
165X1
175X1
185X1
165X7 (Rep PR)
Incline - 105X8
Kind of out of it and lost track of programmed weight/reps early on. Then I lost track of how many reps I did on the back-off set. It was either 7 or 8. I'll say 7 to keep it conservative. I almost locked out another rep, but couldn't quite get it. Got pinned under the fucking bar and had to roll it off. Abs are not happy with me about that.
Bus was due so I skipped the flyes.
Bench -
BarX10
95X5
135X3, 3
155X2
165X1
175X1
185X1
165X7 (Rep PR)
Incline - 105X8
Kind of out of it and lost track of programmed weight/reps early on. Then I lost track of how many reps I did on the back-off set. It was either 7 or 8. I'll say 7 to keep it conservative. I almost locked out another rep, but couldn't quite get it. Got pinned under the fucking bar and had to roll it off. Abs are not happy with me about that.
Bus was due so I skipped the flyes.
Sunday, February 10, 2013
LRB 365: Strong-15. Week 9. Squat/Dead
BW - 200
Squat -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
145X5
165X4
195X3
215X2
245X1
255X1
265X1
Pause Squats - 215X3
Deadlift -
185X5
225X4
255X3
285X2
315X1
325X1
335X1
285X3
Last Squat/Dead day of the cycle. Went okay.
Top set of squats was smooth, but not fast. Since I haven't had 265 on my back in almost a year, and never at this depth, I'm really quite satisfied.
Really long pause on the pause squats again. It makes the reps extra difficult and that much more awesome.
Deadlift was a real mixed bag here. On one hand 335 was real damn slow, on the other it matches my previous 1 rep PR. I would say with the extra stress of squatting beforehand should have me calling that progress. Also the 285 back-off set was solid. Nevertheless, if I do heavy squats/pulls on the same day again, I will be even more conservative with my DL target.
Oh, and I used a mixed-grip starting at 255 on up, but I switched back to double-overhand for the back-off set. This was all fine.
Squat -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
145X5
165X4
195X3
215X2
245X1
255X1
265X1
Pause Squats - 215X3
Deadlift -
185X5
225X4
255X3
285X2
315X1
325X1
335X1
285X3
Last Squat/Dead day of the cycle. Went okay.
Top set of squats was smooth, but not fast. Since I haven't had 265 on my back in almost a year, and never at this depth, I'm really quite satisfied.
Really long pause on the pause squats again. It makes the reps extra difficult and that much more awesome.
Deadlift was a real mixed bag here. On one hand 335 was real damn slow, on the other it matches my previous 1 rep PR. I would say with the extra stress of squatting beforehand should have me calling that progress. Also the 285 back-off set was solid. Nevertheless, if I do heavy squats/pulls on the same day again, I will be even more conservative with my DL target.
Oh, and I used a mixed-grip starting at 255 on up, but I switched back to double-overhand for the back-off set. This was all fine.
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
LRB 365: Strong-15. Week 8. Back
BW - ?
Chins - BWX14, 6
Machine Rows - 2 sets of 10+
Cable Shrugs - 1 set of 22
DB Curls - 20'sX20, 20
Hex-Holds - 20'sX25, 25, 15 seconds
Chins strength came back a wee tad after last week, but rowing felt much stronger.
Also got a little more grip work in ahead of the final Deadlift session.
Chins - BWX14, 6
Machine Rows - 2 sets of 10+
Cable Shrugs - 1 set of 22
DB Curls - 20'sX20, 20
Hex-Holds - 20'sX25, 25, 15 seconds
Chins strength came back a wee tad after last week, but rowing felt much stronger.
Also got a little more grip work in ahead of the final Deadlift session.
Monday, February 4, 2013
LRB 365: Strong-15. Week 8. Bench
BW - 200
Bench -
BarX10
105X5
115X4
135X3
155X2
165X1
175X1
185X1
155X10 (Rep PR)
Incline - 105X10
DB Flyes - 1 set of 20
Hex-Head Holds - 20'sX30, 30, 20 seconds
Plate Pinch - 25'sX20, 15, 7 seconds
Another PR on the 2nd to last bench session. Can't ask for much more than that. I should note that the 185 went up smoothly as well. I'll be at that same weight for the last week.
Forgot to stop at 8 on Inclines, ha.
Had trouble with my grip on the last session of deads, so I through some grip stuff in at the end here. Also gonna try to get some additional work in during the week on that ahead of the final lower body session this coming Friday. Probably some more DB holds at the office gym, and also just pinching binder clips with one finger at a time. Something I read that Ed Coan used to recommend.
Bench -
BarX10
105X5
115X4
135X3
155X2
165X1
175X1
185X1
155X10 (Rep PR)
Incline - 105X10
DB Flyes - 1 set of 20
Hex-Head Holds - 20'sX30, 30, 20 seconds
Plate Pinch - 25'sX20, 15, 7 seconds
Another PR on the 2nd to last bench session. Can't ask for much more than that. I should note that the 185 went up smoothly as well. I'll be at that same weight for the last week.
Forgot to stop at 8 on Inclines, ha.
Had trouble with my grip on the last session of deads, so I through some grip stuff in at the end here. Also gonna try to get some additional work in during the week on that ahead of the final lower body session this coming Friday. Probably some more DB holds at the office gym, and also just pinching binder clips with one finger at a time. Something I read that Ed Coan used to recommend.
Sunday, February 3, 2013
LRB 365: Strong-15. Week 8. Squat/Dead
BW - 200
Squat -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
145X5
165X4
195X3
215X2
225X1
245X1
255X1
Pause Squat - 195X5
Deadlift -
185X5
225X4
255X3
285X2
305X1
315X1
325X1
275X3
Squats were solid. Haven't squatted 255 since April '12, and those were high. So a rep PR at full depth. Nice long pause on the pause squats to really make the set hard.
Double-overhand grip started to go on the 325 set of pulls. Barely got it locked out as a result. I held the last rep of 275 for about 15 seconds to get some grip work in. I have foolishly neglected to do that for this cycle which sucks. I may throw some plate pinches or some shit in on Bench day in the hopes of shoring it up, but I definitely think I will need to do mixed-grip for the last week and that blows.
Squat -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
145X5
165X4
195X3
215X2
225X1
245X1
255X1
Pause Squat - 195X5
Deadlift -
185X5
225X4
255X3
285X2
305X1
315X1
325X1
275X3
Squats were solid. Haven't squatted 255 since April '12, and those were high. So a rep PR at full depth. Nice long pause on the pause squats to really make the set hard.
Double-overhand grip started to go on the 325 set of pulls. Barely got it locked out as a result. I held the last rep of 275 for about 15 seconds to get some grip work in. I have foolishly neglected to do that for this cycle which sucks. I may throw some plate pinches or some shit in on Bench day in the hopes of shoring it up, but I definitely think I will need to do mixed-grip for the last week and that blows.
Friday, February 1, 2013
LRB 365: Strong-15. Week 7. Back
BW - Dunno
Chins - BWX12, 6
Machine Rows - 2 sets of 10+
Cable Shrugs - 1 set of 25
DB Curls - 2 sets of 10-20
Almost forgot to post this.
Felt weaker on chins and rows than I have the last 2 weeks. Dunno what that was about.
Program calls for sets of 10 the last 3 weeks on shrugs, but the weights at the office gym aren't heavy enough for that. This was the heaviest I could put together.
Chins - BWX12, 6
Machine Rows - 2 sets of 10+
Cable Shrugs - 1 set of 25
DB Curls - 2 sets of 10-20
Almost forgot to post this.
Felt weaker on chins and rows than I have the last 2 weeks. Dunno what that was about.
Program calls for sets of 10 the last 3 weeks on shrugs, but the weights at the office gym aren't heavy enough for that. This was the heaviest I could put together.
Monday, January 28, 2013
LRB 365: Strong-15. Week 7. Bench
BW - 200
Bench -
BarX10
105X5
115X4
135X3
155X2, 1
165X1
175X1
145X12 (Rep PR)
Incline - 105X8
DB Flyes - 1 set of 20
Nice, solid session, with a Rep PR on the back-offs. 175 was a tad slow, but no doubts about 185 for the top single the next two weeks.
Even with walking to the gym, when I got home my wife said "That was fast." Indeed.
Bench -
BarX10
105X5
115X4
135X3
155X2, 1
165X1
175X1
145X12 (Rep PR)
Incline - 105X8
DB Flyes - 1 set of 20
Nice, solid session, with a Rep PR on the back-offs. 175 was a tad slow, but no doubts about 185 for the top single the next two weeks.
Even with walking to the gym, when I got home my wife said "That was fast." Indeed.
Sunday, January 27, 2013
LRB 365: Strong-15. Week 7. Squat/Dead
BW - 200
Squat -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
145X5
165X4
195X3
215X2
225X1
235X1
245X1
Pause Squats -
185X5
Deadlift -
135X5
145X5
185X4
225X3
255X2
285X1
305X1
315X1
255X3
Best session of the program, especially for the heavier portion.
Top sets on squats all felt strong and smooth. Really long pause on the 185X5 and still came up strong and easy.
Deadlifts were about the same. My hips came up a little to fast on the 315 so the lockout slowed as I had to finish with just my back, but it was still all good.
Squat -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
145X5
165X4
195X3
215X2
225X1
235X1
245X1
Pause Squats -
185X5
Deadlift -
135X5
145X5
185X4
225X3
255X2
285X1
305X1
315X1
255X3
Best session of the program, especially for the heavier portion.
Top sets on squats all felt strong and smooth. Really long pause on the 185X5 and still came up strong and easy.
Deadlifts were about the same. My hips came up a little to fast on the 315 so the lockout slowed as I had to finish with just my back, but it was still all good.
Monday, January 21, 2013
LRB 365: Strong-15. Week 6. Bench
BW - 198
Bench -
BarX10
95X5
105X4
125X3
145X2
155X1
165X1
175X1
155X8
Incline - 95X10, 10, 10
DB Flyes - 1 set of 20
Rope Pushdowns - 2 sets of 20+
Bench all felt pretty smooth. 155X8 is one rep off of my best with that weight.
I've been leaving Inclines pretty much at the same weight per Paul Carter. Usually I've been pretty gassed by the time I got to these and was glad I wasn't trying to increase the weight. Today they felt light as could be, and I ended up doing them a bit more body-builder style without locking them out at the top.
Bench -
BarX10
95X5
105X4
125X3
145X2
155X1
165X1
175X1
155X8
Incline - 95X10, 10, 10
DB Flyes - 1 set of 20
Rope Pushdowns - 2 sets of 20+
Bench all felt pretty smooth. 155X8 is one rep off of my best with that weight.
I've been leaving Inclines pretty much at the same weight per Paul Carter. Usually I've been pretty gassed by the time I got to these and was glad I wasn't trying to increase the weight. Today they felt light as could be, and I ended up doing them a bit more body-builder style without locking them out at the top.
LRB 365: Strong-15. Week 6. Squat/Dead
BW - 198
Squat -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
135X5
155X4
175X3
195X2
235X1
245X1, 1
Pause Squats -
195X3
Deadlift -
135X5
165X5
205X4
235X3
265X2
295X1
305X1
315X1
265X3
Leg Curls - 2 sets of 20+
Squats were a little slow, but Deads were very smooth.
Squat -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
135X5
155X4
175X3
195X2
235X1
245X1, 1
Pause Squats -
195X3
Deadlift -
135X5
165X5
205X4
235X3
265X2
295X1
305X1
315X1
265X3
Leg Curls - 2 sets of 20+
Squats were a little slow, but Deads were very smooth.
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
LRB 365: Strong-15. Week 5. Back
BW - Unreliable gym scale; guessing around 200
Chins - BWX14, 7, 6, 5
Machine Rows - 2 sets of 10+
Cable Shrugs - 2 sets of 20+
DB Curls -
20'sX10
30'sX5
40'sX2
30'sX15
Hump-week on the Strong-15 is in the books. Chins were uncommonly strong this session, but that just seems to happen sometimes. Everything else was fine.
Chins - BWX14, 7, 6, 5
Machine Rows - 2 sets of 10+
Cable Shrugs - 2 sets of 20+
DB Curls -
20'sX10
30'sX5
40'sX2
30'sX15
Hump-week on the Strong-15 is in the books. Chins were uncommonly strong this session, but that just seems to happen sometimes. Everything else was fine.
Monday, January 14, 2013
LRB 365: Strong-15. Week 5. Bench
BW - 200
Bench - (all reps paused)
BarX10
95X5
105X5
125X3
145X2
155X1, 1
165X1
145X11
Incline -
95X10, 10, 10
DB Flyes - 1 set of 20
Rope Pushdowns - 2 sets of 20+
Had a birthday blow-out for the wife on the night before, so I was pretty gassed on this day. One symptom of that, was that the unrack on most of the bench sets felt awkward and unstable. Nevertheless, the weight went up fine and 145X11 is a Rep PR, and a nice, tiny uptick in E1RM over the other weeks on the program.
Being tired and dehydrated, I dropped the weight back a bit on incline. This was the right choice.
Flyes and Pushdowns.
Bench - (all reps paused)
BarX10
95X5
105X5
125X3
145X2
155X1, 1
165X1
145X11
Incline -
95X10, 10, 10
DB Flyes - 1 set of 20
Rope Pushdowns - 2 sets of 20+
Had a birthday blow-out for the wife on the night before, so I was pretty gassed on this day. One symptom of that, was that the unrack on most of the bench sets felt awkward and unstable. Nevertheless, the weight went up fine and 145X11 is a Rep PR, and a nice, tiny uptick in E1RM over the other weeks on the program.
Being tired and dehydrated, I dropped the weight back a bit on incline. This was the right choice.
Flyes and Pushdowns.
Saturday, January 12, 2013
LRB 365: Strong-15. Week 5. Squat/Dead
BW - 202
Squat -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
125X5
145X4
175X3
195X2
205X1
225X1
235X1
Pause Squats -
175X3, 3
Deadlift -
135X5
165X5
195X4
235X3
265X2
285X1
295X1, 1
245X3, 3
Leg Curls - 2 sets of 25
Everything felt smooth. Top singles on Deadlift still aren't feeling as snappy as I expect with these weights, but I'm gonna ride it out. Deadlift has never been my problem, and I'm not gonna start thinking it is as this point.
Squat -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
125X5
145X4
175X3
195X2
205X1
225X1
235X1
Pause Squats -
175X3, 3
Deadlift -
135X5
165X5
195X4
235X3
265X2
285X1
295X1, 1
245X3, 3
Leg Curls - 2 sets of 25
Everything felt smooth. Top singles on Deadlift still aren't feeling as snappy as I expect with these weights, but I'm gonna ride it out. Deadlift has never been my problem, and I'm not gonna start thinking it is as this point.
Monday, January 7, 2013
LRB 365: Strong-15. Week 4. Bench
BW - 200
Bench -
BarX10
95X5
105X4
125X3
145X2
145X1
155X1
165X1
135X13
Incline -
105X10, 10
95X10
DB Flyes - 1 set of 20
Rope Pushdowns - 2 sets of 20+
I got 135X16 last time at a big commercial gym. I'm always suspect of the weights at that gym and suspected the X16 was maybe an illusion. Then I come in to my regular gym and only get X13. So was I right about the commercial gym, or did I psych myself out with a self-fulfilling prophesy?
Everything else was fine.
Bench -
BarX10
95X5
105X4
125X3
145X2
145X1
155X1
165X1
135X13
Incline -
105X10, 10
95X10
DB Flyes - 1 set of 20
Rope Pushdowns - 2 sets of 20+
I got 135X16 last time at a big commercial gym. I'm always suspect of the weights at that gym and suspected the X16 was maybe an illusion. Then I come in to my regular gym and only get X13. So was I right about the commercial gym, or did I psych myself out with a self-fulfilling prophesy?
Everything else was fine.
Sunday, January 6, 2013
LRB 365: Strong-15. Week 4. Squat/Dead
BW - 200
Squats -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
135X5
155X4
185X3
195X2
205X1
225X1
235X1
Pause Squats -
175X3, 3, 3
Deadlift -
135X5
175X4
205X3
245X2
285X1
295X1
305X1
245X3, 3
Leg Curls - 2 sets of 20+
Squats all felt smooth.
Deadlifts did as well, but after all the squatting these weights are still feeling heavier than they would have on their own day. I'm leaving it on the table to back the goal off in the next few weeks.
Squats -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
135X5
155X4
185X3
195X2
205X1
225X1
235X1
Pause Squats -
175X3, 3, 3
Deadlift -
135X5
175X4
205X3
245X2
285X1
295X1
305X1
245X3, 3
Leg Curls - 2 sets of 20+
Squats all felt smooth.
Deadlifts did as well, but after all the squatting these weights are still feeling heavier than they would have on their own day. I'm leaving it on the table to back the goal off in the next few weeks.
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