Maintenance / Rehab Block. Week 3. Day 1.

BW - 227

Press - 140X5, 5, 5

Chin-Ups - BWX8, 6, 4, 4, 4 (26 total)

Pull-Downs - X10, 10, 10 (straight-weight; same weight as previous)

BB Curls - 50X10, 10

Press still moving pretty well.  Last warm-up felt a touch heavy, but the worksets were fairly smooth.  Last set shown.

Was supposed to be Pull-Up day today, but I got it twisted.  Whatevs.  6 reps on the 2nd set would be a recent best.  Been working my way through PPST3, and was just reading the section on Dynamic Effort on TM.  It mentioned that it has worked for weighted-chins, and it got me thinking that maybe I'd been a bit "slow" in my execution of initial reps.  So I really attached these sets and tried to accelerate as fast as possible out of the bottom.  May have made a difference.

Got more reps with the same weight as last time on pull-downs.  I'll take this weight one more time going for 10-12 on each set, and then move up.

Curls felt stronger this week. 

Old Man Texas Method. Week 3. Volume Day

BW - 229

Squat - 340X5, 5, 5

Press - 127.5X5, 5, 5, 5, 5

Deadlift - 290X5, 5

Everything went pretty well tonight.  After adjusting the program to be more in line with the info that's out there about it, Squat weight is light enough that I can really focus in on technique every set.  Still not sure I'm happy with this bar path, but I'm trying to determine where the bar path "starts."  Does it start and end where I'm fully standing?  Or does it start a bit later?  Final set shown.

After the first set of Press, I was skeptical about 5X5 at this weight, but it all worked out!  Glad I had faith in the programming on this day.  Final set shown.

This weight was practically speed work for DL, but we'll see how it goes.  Technically this is a 2X5 PR, as I haven't done sets across on DL since September of '16.

Texas Method Team Training. Week 11. Volume Day

BW - 223

Squat - 315X5X5

Press - 125X5X5

Deadlift - 250X10X2

Was on my own training today as I couldn't make the team training day.  Would have liked to be with the coach, etc. for my run at 315 5X5, but it is what it is.  And what it is is pretty hard!  It's such a milestone thing to do 3 plates-per-side for 5X5 for me, that I got pretty amped up.  This had me gripping the bar too hard; a habit I've been breaking myself of.  The result was that, by the time I was stepping up for set #3, my shoulders and elbows were screaming.  I ended up taking extra long breaks in between sets to let the pain recede.  Long story short:  I got the 315X5X5, and it was hard, and my elbows really hurt afterward.

The pain in my elbows radiated down into my wrists and hands, and made the Press feel really weak.  This 5X5 was also very difficult today, but I got it as well.

By this time, Deadlifting seemed like a cake-walk and went just fine.

Also, the guy that spotted my last 3 sets of Squats, ended up working up to 700X1.  That was pretty fucking cool to watch.

Texas Method Team Training. Week 9. Volume Day

BW - 226

Squats - 305X5X5

Press -
115X5
127.5X5
122.5X3X5

Deadlift - 240X10X2

Squats went pretty well.  Technique felt a little off here and there.  Not sure if it was focus, fatigue, intensity, or other.  Didn't get a full night's sleep the night before.

Press was a shit show because we had the wrong weight written down and so the first set was too light.  Then I mis-loaded one side of the bar on the second set.  Got straightened out for the final three sets, and they were fine.

Speed deads are taking increased mental focus to do correctly as the intensity goes up.  My takeaway this day was squeezing the bar.  I'm pulling these all double-overhand, and I could feel the difference in how strong the reps felt if I bore down on my grip as hard as I could.  Something to try and carry-over to mixed-grip, high-intensity sets.

Texas Method Team Training. Week 7. Volume Day

BW - 224

Squats - 295X5X5

Press - 120X5X5

Deadlift - 225X10X2

Sick as a dog all week.  I got through this exercise on Dayquil, half-caf coffee, and will-power.  At the end, coach decided to not go up on Speed Deads, and back-off a touch to 225.  Totally fine with that.

Texas Method Team Training. Week 6. Volume Day

BW - 224

Squat - 290X5X5

Bench - 180X5X5

Deadlift - 230X10X2

Despite operating on only 5 hours of sleep, Squat and Bench went pretty well.  By the time I got to Speed Deads, I was having trouble getting focused and the initial set suffered.  I got quiet, and centered myself better between sets, and the final sets were all fast as shit.

Texas Method Team Training. Week 5. Volume Day

BW - 224

Squat - 285X5X5

Press - 117.5X5X5

Deadlift - 225X10X2

Everything went really, really well here today.

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

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

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

Texas Method Team Training. Week 2. Volume Day

BW - 221

Squats - 260X5X5

Bench - 180X5X5

Deadlift - 185X10X2

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

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

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

Texas Method Team Training. Week 1. Volume Day

BW - 225

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

Bench - 175X5X5

Deads - 180X10X2

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

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

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

Hybrid Training. Week 9. Light Lower, and LSR

Saturday:
BW - 225

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

Pause Squats - 255X2, 2, 2, 2

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

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

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

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

Pause Squats were all good, though.

Same with paused DLs.

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

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

Hybrid Training. Week 8. Light Upper

BW - 229

Warm-up - Rope Triceps/Lats Pushdowns Superset

Bench - 167.5X3, 3, 3

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

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

DB Rows - up to 80sX8, 6

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

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

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

Triples all moved nice and fast on the Speed Bench.

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

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

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

Hybrid Training. Week 7. Light Lower and LSR

Tuesday:
BW - 226

Squats - up to 260X5, 5

Pause Squats - 245X3, 3, 3

Bench-Grip DL - up to 255X3

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

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

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

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

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

Same with GHR Hypers.

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

Hybrid Training. Week 6. Light Lower

BW - 227

Squats - up to 255X5, 5, 5

Pause Squats - 235X4, 4, 4

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

Hanging Leg Raises - X8, 8, 8

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

Speed on squats and pause squats were all good.

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

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

Hybrid Training. Week 6. Tempo Run and Light Upper

Saturday:

Tempo Run - 3 miles @ 00:37:00

Sunday:

BW - 225

Bench - up to 175X2, 2

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

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

super-set with

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

BB Drag Curls - up to 70X5, 4

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

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

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

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

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

Hybrid Training. Week 5. Light Lower

BW - 229

Squats - up to 255X5, 5, 5

Pause Squats - 235X4, 4, 4

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

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

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

Hybrid Training. Week 5. Light Upper

BW - 229

Bench - up to 165X3, 3

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

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

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

Solid session.  165 moved pretty fast.

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

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

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 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 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.