LRB Diet - Day 24
Incline Sprints - 20 minutes
Band Pull-aparts - 5 sets of 20
superset with
Band Biceps Curls - 5 sets of 20
Got some bad news about an old friend on this day, and just didn't feel the long walk out to the hill for hill-sprints. Went to a stretch of side-walk that's on a steady incline a couple of blocks away and ran full-out sprints for 20 minutes. Legs and feet are still sore 2 days later. Followed up with some band work before I hit the shower.
Showing posts with label incline sprints. Show all posts
Showing posts with label incline sprints. Show all posts
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Monday, June 11, 2012
Weekend Training
Friday:
Jump Squats - bodyweight; 10 sets of 3
Lunges - bodyweight; 10 sets of 3 each leg
Band RDLs - doubled band under feet; 3 sets of 20
Incline Sprints - 30 yards; 20 minutes
Saturday:
Push-up Progression -
BWX10
Doubled-BandX5
"Reverse Grip"X15
Doubled-BandX6
BWX20
super-set with
Band Pull-Aparts - 5 sets; 165 total reps
Band Medley -
Front Raises; Cross-overs, Upright Rows, Reverse Curls AMRAP
Working around my low-back strain (almost healed), and my heavy rehearsal and performance schedule. I think I'm good to get back in the gym for at least an upper-body dominant session, but I'm not rushing because I need to be 100% when my new show opens in 2 weeks. So I'm adhering very closely to the shake diet and getting in a lot of light band work and some conditioning to help make sure I don't erase my gains while I'm out of the gym.
Jump Squats - bodyweight; 10 sets of 3
Lunges - bodyweight; 10 sets of 3 each leg
Band RDLs - doubled band under feet; 3 sets of 20
Incline Sprints - 30 yards; 20 minutes
Saturday:
Push-up Progression -
BWX10
Doubled-BandX5
"Reverse Grip"X15
Doubled-BandX6
BWX20
super-set with
Band Pull-Aparts - 5 sets; 165 total reps
Band Medley -
Front Raises; Cross-overs, Upright Rows, Reverse Curls AMRAP
Working around my low-back strain (almost healed), and my heavy rehearsal and performance schedule. I think I'm good to get back in the gym for at least an upper-body dominant session, but I'm not rushing because I need to be 100% when my new show opens in 2 weeks. So I'm adhering very closely to the shake diet and getting in a lot of light band work and some conditioning to help make sure I don't erase my gains while I'm out of the gym.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
UB: Conditioning - Review
I've finished the 6-week conditioning block from Paul Carter's Ultimate Beastdom - How to get What Constitutes Strong (WCS).
This program calls for 3-4 days of hard conditioning a week, 1-2 sessions of steady-state, and only two sessions of weight lifting with the goal being to stimulate strength maintenance.
Here were my results for the 3 types of hard conditioning:
Timed Mile - 7:58; previous best was 9:12.
Hammer&Tire - 15 minutes Tabata-style (30 seconds/10seconds); previous best was 5 rounds of 40 swings with 45 second rests for 10 minutes.
30 yd. Incline Sprints - 20 sprints in 18:30; previous best was 8 sprints in 10:00.
In the gym, I didn't miss a single lift, although my last round of singles on OHP were very slow. Additionally, I actually set a 1 Rep PR in the Squat, but that's due to having missed my one previous attempt with that weight due to form issues. Still, it was nice to get the lift on the books.
Additionally, I actually set a Chin-Up PR with 12 reps at a gym BW of 205.
It took me a while to get in the correct mind-set for this cycle as I kept looking forward to my gym sessions, and leaving the conditioning as an afterthought. Once I flipped that, I started having a lot more fun with the program. Also, the 45 minute walks I did for steady-state were very nice. I wake up much earlier on the weekends than my wife, and it was nice to just go for a walk in the morning once or twice a week in that time.
The Mile was something that had been in my programming for a few weeks when I was doing Defranco stuff, but since then had only been used for an occasional steady-state finisher after a lifting session. It was really cool to come back to it for 6-weeks to try and bring it up. I was able to plot a simple mile around my neighborhood with easy 1/4 mile markers, and it was great to be able to walk out the front door, and be back home with my conditioning workout done all in less than 15 minutes. This will definitely be another tool that I try to incorporate several times a year going forward.
Sledge hammer swings have been a mainstay of my programming for awhile, as they always made sense as a way to get some good conditioning in while giving the legs a break, they fit in well after a Bench or Press sessions, and they make me feel like a badass afterwards. However Paul's use of Tabata timing in this was very different from what I had been doing, and very kick-my-ass as well. Prior to this block, I'd treated them more like core work. By that I mean I would do sets of moderately high "reps," and then rest for 30-60 seconds before doing another "set." The 30 seconds of swinging, 10 seconds of resting protocol on this cycle was much harder conditioning wise. I do want to say, that it didn't seem to be as much of a grip workout as the longer rounds of swings however, and that is also good to know.
The sprints are something I'd been working to try and incorporate for awhile. I hadn't really gotten serious about them because what I wanted to do were the holy hill-sprints advocated so heavily by Carter, Wendler, and others. However being car-less, and living in the flat city of Chicago had made this un-feasible for realistically incorporating them into my life. Both my gym and my home have stretches of street/side-walk nearby that are at a steady incline, so I finally opted to just do 30 yard sprints there. They seemed hard enough to start out, and hard enough to progress on (I failed to make my goal on one week of this program), that I've decided they're acceptable. They will continue to be a mainstay for me.
I had a lot of fun on this program, and I learned a lot about myself. The only bummer is that I now have 3 different conditioning drills I really like, plus there's a Prowler at the gym now, and I'm going to have a hard time deciding which drills I want to include in non-conditioning cycles going forward. Probably I will go with the Prowler next time since I haven't done any programming with it yet, and want to get a baseline set. After that, it's going to be really difficult to choose!
One other thought: I still look back fondly on 531, and plan to go back to that after I finish out the final block of this programming. However, I don't see any reason that the template Paul uses here can't be used as another template for 531. Top end strength, conditioning, rep strength, right? I'm thinking it would be set up as such:
Top Strength - 4 days/week, Press, Dead, Bench, Squat. 531 sets/reps for those movements for 6 weeks with no deload, so a week of 5's, a week of 3's, 531 week, 5's, 3's, 531. Only going for rep maxes the last weeks. Assistance work would be as prescribed in the Ultimate Beastdom program.
Conditioning - 2 days of lifting a week. You would set up like Paul does, but using 531 sets/reps. So Week 1 would be 531 sets for Bench and Squats, and Week 2 would be Press and Deads with the only difference being that you would also do some light sets of Squats on Deadlift day, and no assistance on any lower body day. Or, there are a variety of 531 2-day templates out there, so you would pick one of those, and just make sure you pick one with minimal assistance, and only get the prescribed reps. Then you do the conditioning as Carter lays out in his program.
Rep Strength - This would be very similar to Boring But Big 531, 3 times per week. The difference is you only get the prescribed reps on the 531 sets, and then you do as many sets as necessary to get 30+ reps with 63% of a reasonable target 1RM for the cycle. Paul recommends your current max +5%. Also, you would have to think about what you want to do with the Press and the Deadlift. Paul only uses the Press as Bench assistance here. Also, he has changed his mind about high-rep Deadlifting since he wrote the program. I will talk more about this when I start the Rep strength phase next week, but basically you can do Deadlift just for the 531 reps, and then work on your rowing strength for high reps afterward . For the Press, a good compromise might be to switch to incline for this cycle instead of doing separate days for Bench and OHP. Of the 3 blocks, this one is that one that takes the most tweaking to use 531.
UPDATE: I forgot to include one other aspect of the program that I added. Paul once wrote a post wherein he discussed that you can bring up one, smaller muscle group on a conditioing/diet/cutting phase. I decided to do biceps for balance and fun. I did a 4 sets of high-reps on a curl variation at the end of every lifting session. I alternated between BB Curls, Reverse BB Curls, DB Hammer Curls, and Rope Curls. I don't take body measurements, but I would say my biceps definitely look larger after this program.
This program calls for 3-4 days of hard conditioning a week, 1-2 sessions of steady-state, and only two sessions of weight lifting with the goal being to stimulate strength maintenance.
Here were my results for the 3 types of hard conditioning:
Timed Mile - 7:58; previous best was 9:12.
Hammer&Tire - 15 minutes Tabata-style (30 seconds/10seconds); previous best was 5 rounds of 40 swings with 45 second rests for 10 minutes.
30 yd. Incline Sprints - 20 sprints in 18:30; previous best was 8 sprints in 10:00.
In the gym, I didn't miss a single lift, although my last round of singles on OHP were very slow. Additionally, I actually set a 1 Rep PR in the Squat, but that's due to having missed my one previous attempt with that weight due to form issues. Still, it was nice to get the lift on the books.
Additionally, I actually set a Chin-Up PR with 12 reps at a gym BW of 205.
It took me a while to get in the correct mind-set for this cycle as I kept looking forward to my gym sessions, and leaving the conditioning as an afterthought. Once I flipped that, I started having a lot more fun with the program. Also, the 45 minute walks I did for steady-state were very nice. I wake up much earlier on the weekends than my wife, and it was nice to just go for a walk in the morning once or twice a week in that time.
The Mile was something that had been in my programming for a few weeks when I was doing Defranco stuff, but since then had only been used for an occasional steady-state finisher after a lifting session. It was really cool to come back to it for 6-weeks to try and bring it up. I was able to plot a simple mile around my neighborhood with easy 1/4 mile markers, and it was great to be able to walk out the front door, and be back home with my conditioning workout done all in less than 15 minutes. This will definitely be another tool that I try to incorporate several times a year going forward.
Sledge hammer swings have been a mainstay of my programming for awhile, as they always made sense as a way to get some good conditioning in while giving the legs a break, they fit in well after a Bench or Press sessions, and they make me feel like a badass afterwards. However Paul's use of Tabata timing in this was very different from what I had been doing, and very kick-my-ass as well. Prior to this block, I'd treated them more like core work. By that I mean I would do sets of moderately high "reps," and then rest for 30-60 seconds before doing another "set." The 30 seconds of swinging, 10 seconds of resting protocol on this cycle was much harder conditioning wise. I do want to say, that it didn't seem to be as much of a grip workout as the longer rounds of swings however, and that is also good to know.
The sprints are something I'd been working to try and incorporate for awhile. I hadn't really gotten serious about them because what I wanted to do were the holy hill-sprints advocated so heavily by Carter, Wendler, and others. However being car-less, and living in the flat city of Chicago had made this un-feasible for realistically incorporating them into my life. Both my gym and my home have stretches of street/side-walk nearby that are at a steady incline, so I finally opted to just do 30 yard sprints there. They seemed hard enough to start out, and hard enough to progress on (I failed to make my goal on one week of this program), that I've decided they're acceptable. They will continue to be a mainstay for me.
I had a lot of fun on this program, and I learned a lot about myself. The only bummer is that I now have 3 different conditioning drills I really like, plus there's a Prowler at the gym now, and I'm going to have a hard time deciding which drills I want to include in non-conditioning cycles going forward. Probably I will go with the Prowler next time since I haven't done any programming with it yet, and want to get a baseline set. After that, it's going to be really difficult to choose!
One other thought: I still look back fondly on 531, and plan to go back to that after I finish out the final block of this programming. However, I don't see any reason that the template Paul uses here can't be used as another template for 531. Top end strength, conditioning, rep strength, right? I'm thinking it would be set up as such:
Top Strength - 4 days/week, Press, Dead, Bench, Squat. 531 sets/reps for those movements for 6 weeks with no deload, so a week of 5's, a week of 3's, 531 week, 5's, 3's, 531. Only going for rep maxes the last weeks. Assistance work would be as prescribed in the Ultimate Beastdom program.
Conditioning - 2 days of lifting a week. You would set up like Paul does, but using 531 sets/reps. So Week 1 would be 531 sets for Bench and Squats, and Week 2 would be Press and Deads with the only difference being that you would also do some light sets of Squats on Deadlift day, and no assistance on any lower body day. Or, there are a variety of 531 2-day templates out there, so you would pick one of those, and just make sure you pick one with minimal assistance, and only get the prescribed reps. Then you do the conditioning as Carter lays out in his program.
Rep Strength - This would be very similar to Boring But Big 531, 3 times per week. The difference is you only get the prescribed reps on the 531 sets, and then you do as many sets as necessary to get 30+ reps with 63% of a reasonable target 1RM for the cycle. Paul recommends your current max +5%. Also, you would have to think about what you want to do with the Press and the Deadlift. Paul only uses the Press as Bench assistance here. Also, he has changed his mind about high-rep Deadlifting since he wrote the program. I will talk more about this when I start the Rep strength phase next week, but basically you can do Deadlift just for the 531 reps, and then work on your rowing strength for high reps afterward . For the Press, a good compromise might be to switch to incline for this cycle instead of doing separate days for Bench and OHP. Of the 3 blocks, this one is that one that takes the most tweaking to use 531.
UPDATE: I forgot to include one other aspect of the program that I added. Paul once wrote a post wherein he discussed that you can bring up one, smaller muscle group on a conditioing/diet/cutting phase. I decided to do biceps for balance and fun. I did a 4 sets of high-reps on a curl variation at the end of every lifting session. I alternated between BB Curls, Reverse BB Curls, DB Hammer Curls, and Rope Curls. I don't take body measurements, but I would say my biceps definitely look larger after this program.
Monday, April 9, 2012
UB: Conditioning Week 6. Squat, Deads and Sprints
Defranco Mobility
Squats -
BarX10
135X5
185X3
205X5
Deadlift -
135X5
225X3
275X1
295X1X5
BB Reverse Curl -BarX10, 12, 10
BB Curl - BarX15, 12, 12
Incline Sprints (30 yds.) - 20 sprints, 18:30 minutes
Last day of the conditioning cycle. Squats were fine.
Deadlifts were still fine. No appreciable drop-off on this lift throughout the conditioning cycle.
For the sprints, I just started a stopwatch I went for 20 which I got. The most I'd done before was 14, and I still got it at a pace better than 1 per minute. Good day.
Squats -
BarX10
135X5
185X3
205X5
Deadlift -
135X5
225X3
275X1
295X1X5
BB Reverse Curl -BarX10, 12, 10
BB Curl - BarX15, 12, 12
Incline Sprints (30 yds.) - 20 sprints, 18:30 minutes
Last day of the conditioning cycle. Squats were fine.
Deadlifts were still fine. No appreciable drop-off on this lift throughout the conditioning cycle.
For the sprints, I just started a stopwatch I went for 20 which I got. The most I'd done before was 14, and I still got it at a pace better than 1 per minute. Good day.
Monday, April 2, 2012
UB: Conditioning Week 5. Squat, Deads and Sprints
Defranco Mobility
Squat -
BarX10
135X5
185X2
225X1
265X1X5
Deadlift -
135X10
225X5
Rope Curls - 4 sets of 20
Incline Sprints - 14 in 13:00
I was nervous about these Squats. I'd only tried 265 once before, at the end of the UB Strength cycle, and I got on my toes and had to dump the bar over my head. So having "failed" to do it on a strength cycle, attempting it near the end of a conditioning cycle was a little worrying. But I felt confident that the strength should be there, and that it was just a form issue. When 225 felt a lighter than usual, I started to perk up a little. I still took a lot of time to make sure my set-up was good. If I got under the bar and my hands felt wrong, or the bar felt like it was against my shoulders instead of on them, I would pull out and reset. Got all 5. They were a bit slow, but so have all the singles been on this cycle. Because I train alone, I also can't completely vouch for my depth on all 5, especially that first tentative attempt, but as a non-competitor I'm confident that they were low enough to demonstrate my ability to squat this weight. Nice feeling of calm contentment after these sets.
I mis-read my damn program log, and did last week's programmed sprints. Whatever; I got done with a minute to spare, and felt like I could have run more. I did NOT feel like that last week, so I still call this progress. In fact, I'm thinking that for the last week, instead of setting my timer for 15 minutes or what-not and trying to get X amount of sprints in that time, I might just start a stopwatch running, and see how long I can run sprints before I'm face down on the sidewalk. Might depend on how I feel that day, though.
Squat -
BarX10
135X5
185X2
225X1
265X1X5
Deadlift -
135X10
225X5
Rope Curls - 4 sets of 20
Incline Sprints - 14 in 13:00
I was nervous about these Squats. I'd only tried 265 once before, at the end of the UB Strength cycle, and I got on my toes and had to dump the bar over my head. So having "failed" to do it on a strength cycle, attempting it near the end of a conditioning cycle was a little worrying. But I felt confident that the strength should be there, and that it was just a form issue. When 225 felt a lighter than usual, I started to perk up a little. I still took a lot of time to make sure my set-up was good. If I got under the bar and my hands felt wrong, or the bar felt like it was against my shoulders instead of on them, I would pull out and reset. Got all 5. They were a bit slow, but so have all the singles been on this cycle. Because I train alone, I also can't completely vouch for my depth on all 5, especially that first tentative attempt, but as a non-competitor I'm confident that they were low enough to demonstrate my ability to squat this weight. Nice feeling of calm contentment after these sets.
I mis-read my damn program log, and did last week's programmed sprints. Whatever; I got done with a minute to spare, and felt like I could have run more. I did NOT feel like that last week, so I still call this progress. In fact, I'm thinking that for the last week, instead of setting my timer for 15 minutes or what-not and trying to get X amount of sprints in that time, I might just start a stopwatch running, and see how long I can run sprints before I'm face down on the sidewalk. Might depend on how I feel that day, though.
Monday, March 26, 2012
UB: Conditioning Week 4. Squat, Deads and Sprints
Walk to Gym - 20 minutes
Defranco stuff: Rollovers, fire-hydrants, hip-flexor stretches
Squats -
BarX10
135X5
185X5
205X5
Deads -
135X5
225X2
275X1
295X1X5
BB Curls - BarX6, 65X12, 12, 12, 12, 6, 7
Incline Sprints - 14 sprints X 13 minutes
Walk home - 20 minutes
+10% day. Squats still feeling a challenge. A little nervous to see how the 265X1's go next week. I should be strong enough for those, but I've never actually squatted 265.
Deads continue to feel strong as hell. The 295 didn't fly up or anything, but there was certainly no doubt I was going to get all of them. This was my max last time I tested it back in 2011.
I made my target number of sprints with almost a minute to spare. I was just smarter early than last time. While I was still fresh, I jogged back to start between each sprint. As I got more fatigued, I'd call an audible whether to jog, walk, or 1/2 and /12. Progressing, y'all.
Defranco stuff: Rollovers, fire-hydrants, hip-flexor stretches
Squats -
BarX10
135X5
185X5
205X5
Deads -
135X5
225X2
275X1
295X1X5
BB Curls - BarX6, 65X12, 12, 12, 12, 6, 7
Incline Sprints - 14 sprints X 13 minutes
Walk home - 20 minutes
+10% day. Squats still feeling a challenge. A little nervous to see how the 265X1's go next week. I should be strong enough for those, but I've never actually squatted 265.
Deads continue to feel strong as hell. The 295 didn't fly up or anything, but there was certainly no doubt I was going to get all of them. This was my max last time I tested it back in 2011.
I made my target number of sprints with almost a minute to spare. I was just smarter early than last time. While I was still fresh, I jogged back to start between each sprint. As I got more fatigued, I'd call an audible whether to jog, walk, or 1/2 and /12. Progressing, y'all.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
UB: Conditioning Week 3.Sprints
Incline Sprints (30 yds.) - 12 sprints, 12 minutes
I programmed to do 13 sprints in 12 mintues here, and I didn't make it. I probably needed to jog back after each sprint, but I didn't realize that until too late, when I'd lost too much speed on the sprints. So by the end I just couldn't get up and back fast enough to get the 13th sprint in.
I've revised my programming accordingly (I hope). I was originally aiming to get 20 sprints in 15 minutes on the last week. I've dialed back each of the remaining weeks to end up hitting 18 in 15 for the last week. Next week I'm programmed for 14 sprints / 13 minutes. If I fail again to get more sprints than minutes, then I will assume that is my pace, and just add more time each week. So it would end up being something like 14, 16, 18+ minutes for the last three weeks.
Also, my calf strain didn't give me any problems sprinting even though it's still sore. I bought some more bananas, and I'm just not fucking with it, i.e. not constantly stretching it and massaging it through the day. It seems like when I do that with things like this it becomes compulsive, and just ends up aggravating the strain. After the initial onset, if I just leave it alone, while trying to be cognizant of not re-straining it, it gets better sooner. That was my experience with the mid-back strain I developed on my last cycle, and it seems to be working out with this calf strain as well.
I programmed to do 13 sprints in 12 mintues here, and I didn't make it. I probably needed to jog back after each sprint, but I didn't realize that until too late, when I'd lost too much speed on the sprints. So by the end I just couldn't get up and back fast enough to get the 13th sprint in.
I've revised my programming accordingly (I hope). I was originally aiming to get 20 sprints in 15 minutes on the last week. I've dialed back each of the remaining weeks to end up hitting 18 in 15 for the last week. Next week I'm programmed for 14 sprints / 13 minutes. If I fail again to get more sprints than minutes, then I will assume that is my pace, and just add more time each week. So it would end up being something like 14, 16, 18+ minutes for the last three weeks.
Also, my calf strain didn't give me any problems sprinting even though it's still sore. I bought some more bananas, and I'm just not fucking with it, i.e. not constantly stretching it and massaging it through the day. It seems like when I do that with things like this it becomes compulsive, and just ends up aggravating the strain. After the initial onset, if I just leave it alone, while trying to be cognizant of not re-straining it, it gets better sooner. That was my experience with the mid-back strain I developed on my last cycle, and it seems to be working out with this calf strain as well.
Monday, March 19, 2012
UB: Conditioning Week 3. Squat, Deads and Steady State
Defranco mobility
Squats -
BarX12
135X5
185X2
225X2
255X2X3
Deadlift -
135X10
225X5
Rope Hammer Curls - 4 sets of 20-25
45-minute walk
Stayed out a little too late and had a little too much to drink again on a Saturday night. Squats were okay though. The 255 moved kind of slow, but not straining if that makes sense.
Deads were fast and easy. This is definitely my lift.
I've had bad cramping in my calf that started during the 1-mile run the day before this. I decided to push sprints back a day, eat some bananas, and see if it eases up enough for me to run sprints on Monday.
Squats -
BarX12
135X5
185X2
225X2
255X2X3
Deadlift -
135X10
225X5
Rope Hammer Curls - 4 sets of 20-25
45-minute walk
Stayed out a little too late and had a little too much to drink again on a Saturday night. Squats were okay though. The 255 moved kind of slow, but not straining if that makes sense.
Deads were fast and easy. This is definitely my lift.
I've had bad cramping in my calf that started during the 1-mile run the day before this. I decided to push sprints back a day, eat some bananas, and see if it eases up enough for me to run sprints on Monday.
Monday, March 12, 2012
UB: Conditioning Week 2. Squat, Deads and Sprints
Defranco mobility work
Squats -
BarX20
135X5
185X5
205X5
Deadlift -
135X5
225X2
275X2X3
BB Reverse Curls - BarX20, 35X15X2, BarX20
Incline Sprints - 10 sprints, 11 mintues
New addition to the gym, and I walked by, like, 5 times today before I noticed it:
A monolift, for God's sake! I doubt I will ever use this unless all the squat stands and power racks are occupied.
Speaking of which Squats felt okay today.
Deads, however, felt awesome. I know 135 is light, but it never felt as light as today. It felt like nothing at all, and I'm wondering if that's partially due to the squatting beforehand. It felt so light, that's why I decided to jump straight to 225 for just one more warm-up set. That felt fast as well. Then the first work-set felt heavy, and all the others felt pretty easy. Not light, exactly, but I was still able to focus on speed and form because I had full confidence in my ability to pull the weight. This is different from how my heavy sets of the other 3 movements have felt, but it could just have been a good day. We'll see how it goes next time.
Sprints were interesting. I got the programmed amount in, but it took a little more effort than I expected. The idea is that the first week or two are relatively easy, and I hope I haven't programmed my jumps to big. On the other hand, it was spring forward, and I was on less than 6 hours of sleep. We'll just have to see how it goes next week.
Squats -
BarX20
135X5
185X5
205X5
Deadlift -
135X5
225X2
275X2X3
BB Reverse Curls - BarX20, 35X15X2, BarX20
Incline Sprints - 10 sprints, 11 mintues
New addition to the gym, and I walked by, like, 5 times today before I noticed it:
A monolift, for God's sake! I doubt I will ever use this unless all the squat stands and power racks are occupied.
Speaking of which Squats felt okay today.
Deads, however, felt awesome. I know 135 is light, but it never felt as light as today. It felt like nothing at all, and I'm wondering if that's partially due to the squatting beforehand. It felt so light, that's why I decided to jump straight to 225 for just one more warm-up set. That felt fast as well. Then the first work-set felt heavy, and all the others felt pretty easy. Not light, exactly, but I was still able to focus on speed and form because I had full confidence in my ability to pull the weight. This is different from how my heavy sets of the other 3 movements have felt, but it could just have been a good day. We'll see how it goes next time.
Sprints were interesting. I got the programmed amount in, but it took a little more effort than I expected. The idea is that the first week or two are relatively easy, and I hope I haven't programmed my jumps to big. On the other hand, it was spring forward, and I was on less than 6 hours of sleep. We'll just have to see how it goes next week.
Monday, March 5, 2012
UB: Conditioning Week 1. Squat, Deads and Sprints
Defranco Mobility
Squats -
BarX10
135X5
185X5
225X2
255X2X3
Deadlift -
135X5
185X5
225X5
Incline Sprints - 30 yardsX8, 10 minutes
Couldn't get to my gym during their Sunday hours today, so I went back up to my old gym (formerly B@llys, now L@ Fitness) and weasled a free session.
Squats felt heavy. I think. I don't know. My hips feel sore around my pelvic bone all the time lately, plus I might have the yips a little bit from dumping 265 over my head last week. In fact my first rep of 255 almost went that way as I got to far forward on my feet coming out of the hole. So I've got a mental war to fight with Squats to get them back on track. I've mentioned this before, but I'm gonna see how much they guy that runs my gym wants to charge to form-doctor my lifts; squat in particular. Anyway, after the first set the next two were hard but fine. Similar to the bench doubles on Friday, plus the mental issue I have with these.
The main reason I left this gym was because pulling was such a chore. There's no area for it, so you have to take a bar from somewhere else. Since no one was in a hurry to squat (they rarely are at this place), I took the bar out of the rack and set up next to it. Also, their plates aren't round, so you often have to reset between reps as the bar shifts all over the place. Happened really bad on my 185 set. Anyway, all these felt fast and easy, and I felt like a little bit of a bad-ass doing these in this gym. I resisted the temptation to keep adding weight/sets to freak out the squares, though. Zero point in trying to show that you're stronger than anybody that works out in a place like that.
Later that afternoon, I went to the stretch of side-walk by my house I use for incline sprints (there's another area by my gym I use sometimes). I shot for 70% effort and a steady walk back. 8 sprints in 10 minutes is at least 2-3 short of my better showings in this distance, and that's probably where I want to be to start. I think a good target for the last week would be 20 sprints in 15 minutes, or about 4 sprints every 3 minutes. That would mean adding 1 minute, and 2-3 sprints per week. I'll aim for that pace, and adjust as necessary.
Squats -
BarX10
135X5
185X5
225X2
255X2X3
Deadlift -
135X5
185X5
225X5
Incline Sprints - 30 yardsX8, 10 minutes
Couldn't get to my gym during their Sunday hours today, so I went back up to my old gym (formerly B@llys, now L@ Fitness) and weasled a free session.
Squats felt heavy. I think. I don't know. My hips feel sore around my pelvic bone all the time lately, plus I might have the yips a little bit from dumping 265 over my head last week. In fact my first rep of 255 almost went that way as I got to far forward on my feet coming out of the hole. So I've got a mental war to fight with Squats to get them back on track. I've mentioned this before, but I'm gonna see how much they guy that runs my gym wants to charge to form-doctor my lifts; squat in particular. Anyway, after the first set the next two were hard but fine. Similar to the bench doubles on Friday, plus the mental issue I have with these.
The main reason I left this gym was because pulling was such a chore. There's no area for it, so you have to take a bar from somewhere else. Since no one was in a hurry to squat (they rarely are at this place), I took the bar out of the rack and set up next to it. Also, their plates aren't round, so you often have to reset between reps as the bar shifts all over the place. Happened really bad on my 185 set. Anyway, all these felt fast and easy, and I felt like a little bit of a bad-ass doing these in this gym. I resisted the temptation to keep adding weight/sets to freak out the squares, though. Zero point in trying to show that you're stronger than anybody that works out in a place like that.
Later that afternoon, I went to the stretch of side-walk by my house I use for incline sprints (there's another area by my gym I use sometimes). I shot for 70% effort and a steady walk back. 8 sprints in 10 minutes is at least 2-3 short of my better showings in this distance, and that's probably where I want to be to start. I think a good target for the last week would be 20 sprints in 15 minutes, or about 4 sprints every 3 minutes. That would mean adding 1 minute, and 2-3 sprints per week. I'll aim for that pace, and adjust as necessary.
Monday, February 27, 2012
UB: Strong Week 6. Squat
Defranco Mobility
Squat -
BarX15
135X5
165X5
205X5
235X5
265XFail
Incline Sprints - 10 minutes
As soon as I crossed 200 lbs. today everything felt heavy. This happens with me with Squats and Pulls, so I didn't worry about it until I did the 235 set. That felt really heavy, and I got concerned. I tried to tell myself I was psyching myself out. That I did 255X5 last week, and that I would at least get 3 reps with 265. I think I got to far forward on the descent, though, and I had to dump the bar over my head onto the pins. Prudently, I had decided to use the power rack today.
I looked at that bar sitting on the pins, and I just knew I was done for the day. I already set a big PR last week so I called that good, and hung it up and went to run some sprints. I went about 70-80% on these. Nice and easy, and just got some work in. I'll do a separate write up of my impressions from this program.
Squat -
BarX15
135X5
165X5
205X5
235X5
265XFail
Incline Sprints - 10 minutes
As soon as I crossed 200 lbs. today everything felt heavy. This happens with me with Squats and Pulls, so I didn't worry about it until I did the 235 set. That felt really heavy, and I got concerned. I tried to tell myself I was psyching myself out. That I did 255X5 last week, and that I would at least get 3 reps with 265. I think I got to far forward on the descent, though, and I had to dump the bar over my head onto the pins. Prudently, I had decided to use the power rack today.
I looked at that bar sitting on the pins, and I just knew I was done for the day. I already set a big PR last week so I called that good, and hung it up and went to run some sprints. I went about 70-80% on these. Nice and easy, and just got some work in. I'll do a separate write up of my impressions from this program.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
UB: Strong Week 2. Squat
Defranco Mobility
Standing Calf Raises - 245X15, 305X15, 345X15
Squat -
135X5
155X5
175X5
205X5
215X5
Front Squats - 125X10, 5
RDL - 135X10, 145X9
Inline Sprints - 30 yard sprints X 9 minutes
Weird day at the gym cuz there was a PL meet happening.
Moving up the stack on the raises FWIW. I think it tops out at 405.
Squats felt pretty good. Not sure about my depth, though.
Standing Calf Raises - 245X15, 305X15, 345X15
Squat -
135X5
155X5
175X5
205X5
215X5
Front Squats - 125X10, 5
RDL - 135X10, 145X9
Inline Sprints - 30 yard sprints X 9 minutes
Weird day at the gym cuz there was a PL meet happening.
Moving up the stack on the raises FWIW. I think it tops out at 405.
Squats felt pretty good. Not sure about my depth, though.
Monday, November 21, 2011
5/3/1 Log: Cycle 1. Week 3. Squat
Defranco's Agile-8
Squat -
BarX10
135X7
175X5
195X3
225X5
Split Front Squats - 55X10X3
Front Squats - 95X8X2, 105X8
Defranco's BLAB Core Circuit #2 - X1
100 yard incline sprints - 10 minutes
Really successful squat session. 225 is a 5 Rep PR, and possibly projects to an increased 1RM as well. Really focused this session on keeping upper body tight, and keeping my knees out on the way up.
Squat -
BarX10
135X7
175X5
195X3
225X5
Split Front Squats - 55X10X3
Front Squats - 95X8X2, 105X8
Defranco's BLAB Core Circuit #2 - X1
100 yard incline sprints - 10 minutes
Really successful squat session. 225 is a 5 Rep PR, and possibly projects to an increased 1RM as well. Really focused this session on keeping upper body tight, and keeping my knees out on the way up.
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