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.
Showing posts with label carbs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label carbs. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 15, 2016
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
LRB 365: Big-15. Phase 2. Week 1. Bench and Squat
Saturday -
BW - 196
Bench -
BarX15
85X5
105X4
125X3
155X2
175X1
165X8, 5
Chins (V-Grip) -
BWX5
+15X5
+20X3, 3
+25X2
+30X1
+25X7, 3
BWX5
DB Bench -
60sX20, 8
55sX9, 7
Monday -
BW - 200
Calf Raises - 3 sets of 15
Squat -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
115X5
145X4
175X3
225X2
255X1
215X10, 5
Standing Leg Curls - X20, 20, 20, 12 (each leg; no rest between 1st and 2nd, and 3rd and 4th sets)
Single-Leg Press - 1ppsX15, 15, 15, 12 (per leg)
Back into it after a week off. I went very low carb during my down week and dropped around 5 lbs. What makes that interesting is that 165X8 on bench is a Rep PR. My previous best was 165X7 at 203. So a PR even at the leverage disadvantage.
I videoed my chins to see if I was cheating or cutting them high. I have mixed feelings about what I see in the video. On my phone it looked bad, but it looks okay on a larger screen. Think I will first try keeping my heels back towards my butt and see how that feels/looks.
My goal for the cycle on DB Bench is 65sX15. Should be close to that now, and will switch to them next session.
I'm still playing around a lot with squat form, and it was going pretty well on the first session back, but then I started having some pain at the top of my left quad. It was particularly limiting on the back-off set with 215 where the weight felt fine, but the pain limited me. Here's a vid of the 175X3 set that I took to check my form mid-way through:
Getting a bit more sit-back, and the depth is still good.
Standing single-leg curls were particularly brutal trying to go back and forth with no rest.
Left quad pain was still there for the single-leg presses, but I think pushing through them may have helped.
BW - 196
Bench -
BarX15
85X5
105X4
125X3
155X2
175X1
165X8, 5
Chins (V-Grip) -
BWX5
+15X5
+20X3, 3
+25X2
+30X1
+25X7, 3
BWX5
DB Bench -
60sX20, 8
55sX9, 7
Monday -
BW - 200
Calf Raises - 3 sets of 15
Squat -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
115X5
145X4
175X3
225X2
255X1
215X10, 5
Standing Leg Curls - X20, 20, 20, 12 (each leg; no rest between 1st and 2nd, and 3rd and 4th sets)
Single-Leg Press - 1ppsX15, 15, 15, 12 (per leg)
Back into it after a week off. I went very low carb during my down week and dropped around 5 lbs. What makes that interesting is that 165X8 on bench is a Rep PR. My previous best was 165X7 at 203. So a PR even at the leverage disadvantage.
I videoed my chins to see if I was cheating or cutting them high. I have mixed feelings about what I see in the video. On my phone it looked bad, but it looks okay on a larger screen. Think I will first try keeping my heels back towards my butt and see how that feels/looks.
My goal for the cycle on DB Bench is 65sX15. Should be close to that now, and will switch to them next session.
I'm still playing around a lot with squat form, and it was going pretty well on the first session back, but then I started having some pain at the top of my left quad. It was particularly limiting on the back-off set with 215 where the weight felt fine, but the pain limited me. Here's a vid of the 175X3 set that I took to check my form mid-way through:
Standing single-leg curls were particularly brutal trying to go back and forth with no rest.
Left quad pain was still there for the single-leg presses, but I think pushing through them may have helped.
Thursday, July 25, 2013
LRB 365: Strong-15 Short. Week 1. Bench
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.
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.
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
LRB 365: LRB Split. In Review
This will be short, as I suspect the LRB Split and the Strong-15 Short cycle go hand-in-hand in a way that will result in a more complete picture emerging at the end of that 2nd cycle.
Generally speaking, the goals for this cycle were to maintain top-end strength on the main lifts relative to where they've been during the conditioning cycle, while allowing some more carbs back into the diet in order to stimulate muscle growth by going hard with the assistance lifts.
My bodyweight started out hovering in the 192 range at the end of the conditioning cycles, and by the end of the LRB Split was hovering around 195-196.
I set the following PRs on assistance work in chronological order:
RDL:
205X8
225X9
245X10 (with straps)
DB OHP:
20sX25
25sX35
30sX28
Front Squats:
135X10
145X8
155X9
T-Bar Rows:
95X8
110X7
Barbell Rows:
145X9
Good Mornings were a new movement to me with this cycle and I progressed them as well:
135X8
145X7
145X8
145X10
Regarding Front Squats, I was doing them every week. They were the first assistance exercise following back squats on Heavy Squat days, and they were the main movement on Light Squat days. All the PRs were set on Light days, however it's worth noting that while I PR'd with 135X10 on a Light Squat day at the beginning of the cycle, by the end I was doing 135X8-10 for four sets across as assistance on my Heavy Squat days. In addition to all that, I kept my stance narrow on all the Leg Pressing, and went hard to push reps on leg extensions. Increasing quad size/strength was my primary goal for this cycle, and I feel good about the results.
I also got some good hamstring volume in with all the RDLs and GMs in addition to the maintenance Deads. Had sore hamstrings every week.
Lots of shoulder volume on the cycle as well. In addition to the DB OHP, my regular Press was getting within 5 lbs. or so of PR territory by the end. Lots of high-rep Inclines, Upright Rows, and Rear Delt Flyes to round it out, all pun intended. Although I honestly haven't noticed very much growth in my delts. Hopefully, we'll see some of this work translate into Bench strength on the upcoming cycle.
All in all, I had a really good time through most of this cycle. Hitting PRs on Fronts and RDLs was really fun, and seeing my wheels growing as a result was really great as well. Near the end, I had a little bit of a crisis of confidence because I didn't instinctively know if my Every Day Max had improved, and was grumpy about what to set as my goals for the Strong-15 Short Cycle. In the end, re-reading the manual, and reading an inspiring post by Carter along the lines of the Patience and Belief mantra that he and Brandon Lilly have been going over helped me get my head on straight. I've decided to program lower for the Strong-15 Short than I did for the Strong-15 at the beginning of the program. My final singles for the next cycle will be right around weights I've hit a million times before. With the work I did on this cycle, and the extra back-offs I'm planning for the first few weeks of the next, I'm confident that I will be crushing the weights all the way up to the end. And isn't that what we're supposed to do?
Generally speaking, the goals for this cycle were to maintain top-end strength on the main lifts relative to where they've been during the conditioning cycle, while allowing some more carbs back into the diet in order to stimulate muscle growth by going hard with the assistance lifts.
My bodyweight started out hovering in the 192 range at the end of the conditioning cycles, and by the end of the LRB Split was hovering around 195-196.
I set the following PRs on assistance work in chronological order:
RDL:
205X8
225X9
245X10 (with straps)
DB OHP:
20sX25
25sX35
30sX28
Front Squats:
135X10
145X8
155X9
T-Bar Rows:
95X8
110X7
Barbell Rows:
145X9
Good Mornings were a new movement to me with this cycle and I progressed them as well:
135X8
145X7
145X8
145X10
Regarding Front Squats, I was doing them every week. They were the first assistance exercise following back squats on Heavy Squat days, and they were the main movement on Light Squat days. All the PRs were set on Light days, however it's worth noting that while I PR'd with 135X10 on a Light Squat day at the beginning of the cycle, by the end I was doing 135X8-10 for four sets across as assistance on my Heavy Squat days. In addition to all that, I kept my stance narrow on all the Leg Pressing, and went hard to push reps on leg extensions. Increasing quad size/strength was my primary goal for this cycle, and I feel good about the results.
I also got some good hamstring volume in with all the RDLs and GMs in addition to the maintenance Deads. Had sore hamstrings every week.
Lots of shoulder volume on the cycle as well. In addition to the DB OHP, my regular Press was getting within 5 lbs. or so of PR territory by the end. Lots of high-rep Inclines, Upright Rows, and Rear Delt Flyes to round it out, all pun intended. Although I honestly haven't noticed very much growth in my delts. Hopefully, we'll see some of this work translate into Bench strength on the upcoming cycle.
All in all, I had a really good time through most of this cycle. Hitting PRs on Fronts and RDLs was really fun, and seeing my wheels growing as a result was really great as well. Near the end, I had a little bit of a crisis of confidence because I didn't instinctively know if my Every Day Max had improved, and was grumpy about what to set as my goals for the Strong-15 Short Cycle. In the end, re-reading the manual, and reading an inspiring post by Carter along the lines of the Patience and Belief mantra that he and Brandon Lilly have been going over helped me get my head on straight. I've decided to program lower for the Strong-15 Short than I did for the Strong-15 at the beginning of the program. My final singles for the next cycle will be right around weights I've hit a million times before. With the work I did on this cycle, and the extra back-offs I'm planning for the first few weeks of the next, I'm confident that I will be crushing the weights all the way up to the end. And isn't that what we're supposed to do?
Monday, August 20, 2012
5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 3. Week 1. Hill Sprints
LRB Diet* - Day 36
BW - ???
Hill-Sprints -
Five, 5-10 minute sets on various hills
interspersed with 5-10 minute walks from hill to hill
last 1.5 sets were superset with regular push-ups; 80 reps total
last 0.5 set was finished with supersets of planche-position (or "reverse grip") push-ups; 10 reps total
1 hour 15 minutes total time; sore as hell for 2 days following
I was out of town at a wedding, and to prepare for the influx of copious calories from unpredictable sources, I followed *Paul Carter's Holiday Diet. Three days of low-to-no carbs with regular training leading up to the day(s). On the day of the feast, you train your ass-off in the morning and then go binge on carbs+. Paul calls for weight training here, preferably squatting. I had no access to a weight facility in this tiny Wisconsin resort town, BUT the town is hilly as hell so Hill-Sprints it was. We drove up that day, and I stayed protein only until we got up there. Then I basically walked all over town, and whenever I found a good hill, I'd run it for 5-10 minutes then walk around until I found another good one. The last two hills, I started doing 10 reps sets of push-ups at the bottom of the hill before sprinting back up. On my last hill, my shoulders were getting a little sore, so I reversed my hand placement and did planche-position push-ups on the last two runs. Then I walked back to the hotel, downed a protein shake, slept for an hour and a half, woke-up and pounded another protein shake, then went to dinner with the wife and destroyed cheese fondue, sauerkraut, Roesti (cheese-stuffed hash browns), assorted dry sausages, apple pie, and local beer.
The next morning, I woke up and went for a 45 minute, brisk walk around various hiking trails around the town. I fasted all AM, then had a little bit of chicken and cabbage at lunch followed by another protein shake. At the wedding dinner, I expected a buffet or some other situation where the food wouldn't be that spectacular and I could pick and choose just the low carb items. That plan was torpedoed by the best goddamn wedding food I have ever encountered. Nonetheless I tried to skew hard towards fat and protein, but with all the alcohol being consumed, it probably didn't matter.
Still, the next morning came around and I looked about as trim as I did going into the weekend, AND I looked a bit fuller in my muscles. Particularly, my shoulders and traps seemed to have really benefited from the extra work I've started giving them combined with the week's diet. I didn't have access to a scale, so I have no idea where my weight was these last three days, and will have to find out what ballpark I'm in when I hit the gym this afternoon. All in all, I'm pretty happy with the results, even if it was more of a pain in the ass than I would prefer.
BW - ???
Hill-Sprints -
Five, 5-10 minute sets on various hills
interspersed with 5-10 minute walks from hill to hill
last 1.5 sets were superset with regular push-ups; 80 reps total
last 0.5 set was finished with supersets of planche-position (or "reverse grip") push-ups; 10 reps total
1 hour 15 minutes total time; sore as hell for 2 days following
I was out of town at a wedding, and to prepare for the influx of copious calories from unpredictable sources, I followed *Paul Carter's Holiday Diet. Three days of low-to-no carbs with regular training leading up to the day(s). On the day of the feast, you train your ass-off in the morning and then go binge on carbs+. Paul calls for weight training here, preferably squatting. I had no access to a weight facility in this tiny Wisconsin resort town, BUT the town is hilly as hell so Hill-Sprints it was. We drove up that day, and I stayed protein only until we got up there. Then I basically walked all over town, and whenever I found a good hill, I'd run it for 5-10 minutes then walk around until I found another good one. The last two hills, I started doing 10 reps sets of push-ups at the bottom of the hill before sprinting back up. On my last hill, my shoulders were getting a little sore, so I reversed my hand placement and did planche-position push-ups on the last two runs. Then I walked back to the hotel, downed a protein shake, slept for an hour and a half, woke-up and pounded another protein shake, then went to dinner with the wife and destroyed cheese fondue, sauerkraut, Roesti (cheese-stuffed hash browns), assorted dry sausages, apple pie, and local beer.
The next morning, I woke up and went for a 45 minute, brisk walk around various hiking trails around the town. I fasted all AM, then had a little bit of chicken and cabbage at lunch followed by another protein shake. At the wedding dinner, I expected a buffet or some other situation where the food wouldn't be that spectacular and I could pick and choose just the low carb items. That plan was torpedoed by the best goddamn wedding food I have ever encountered. Nonetheless I tried to skew hard towards fat and protein, but with all the alcohol being consumed, it probably didn't matter.
Still, the next morning came around and I looked about as trim as I did going into the weekend, AND I looked a bit fuller in my muscles. Particularly, my shoulders and traps seemed to have really benefited from the extra work I've started giving them combined with the week's diet. I didn't have access to a scale, so I have no idea where my weight was these last three days, and will have to find out what ballpark I'm in when I hit the gym this afternoon. All in all, I'm pretty happy with the results, even if it was more of a pain in the ass than I would prefer.
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 2. Week 2. Hills
LRB Diet - Day 10
Hill Sprints - 20 minutes; 15 sprint-up/walk-back; 5 sprint-up/jog back
I don't know if it was the jogging back, the lower carbs on the diet, or just a random bad day, but I was just gassed. A real bummer because the relatively easy 37 minutes I did last week are what inspired me to start jogging back this week. Just no power in the steep part of the hill during the last several sprints here. Even when I tried to "turn it on," and give my all in the last run, it felt like my feet were sinking into mud.
Hill Sprints - 20 minutes; 15 sprint-up/walk-back; 5 sprint-up/jog back
I don't know if it was the jogging back, the lower carbs on the diet, or just a random bad day, but I was just gassed. A real bummer because the relatively easy 37 minutes I did last week are what inspired me to start jogging back this week. Just no power in the steep part of the hill during the last several sprints here. Even when I tried to "turn it on," and give my all in the last run, it felt like my feet were sinking into mud.
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