531 - Chocolate Log

[tiramisu]

... Time for a change. Jim Wendler's 531 Template - Triumvirate version based on his book: 5/3/1: The Simplest and Most Effective Training System for Raw Strength

Other than arms I've mostly chosen movements over body parts. I ran out of room for abs and calves but I'm doing almost all my lifting standing so core should be covered and I'm one of those odd ducks who has large deformed calves naturally.

I chose push press as a movement because I need more core strength and I'm not terribly happy with my overhead lifting strength. It's been lagging compared to my other lifts.

I chose power cleans because it's the simplest quick lift I could put in. When I was doing them previously I found that including an explosive lift helped both my squat and my dead as I was better at moving explosively. I may switch back and forth with high pulls if my shoulders don't put up with the power cleans.

SLDL was selected because my mid/lower back are limiting my squat in an annoying way.

I don't think DIPS, Chins, DB Bench or Rows need any justification good solid accessory movements to my thinking.

I'm going with a 4 day split to start.

My initial 1RMs

Squat 385
Press 155
Dead 455
Bench 320

My interpretation of his template looks kinds of like this:

[tiramisu]

First workout - exercise based 90% of 1RM then calculated based on the template 40/50/60% warmup and then



Week 1 2 3 4
set 1 0.65 0.70 0.75 0.40
set 2 0.75 0.85 0.85 0.50
set 3 0.85 0.90 0.95 0.60


I'm happy I went with 90% as directed. The weight was heavy enough to leave me winded but light enough that I completed the sets and form and depth were bang on.

I was a bit too confident on the accessory work and will have to drop the arm weights a bit next week. I'm definitely not used to the volume. The back pump on the SLDL and the arm work was pretty excessive.

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I'm still up in the air on diet. I won't be jumping back to a restricted diet again soon. I simply don't have the motivation to be skinnier. I will try not to get too much fatter but I am motivated to be stronger.

I'm thinking Palumbo's off season template may be worth a try. Wendler, like Rippetoe, recommends Gomad but while I know it works and works well I don't want to be as fat as I was last christmas this christmas. 4 months of dieting to look like a human being is not my idea of a good time.

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I'd like to see 4/5/6 on my bench/squat/dead in the next year. Personally I think that's a bit of a stretch but if I don't hit it I should at least be within striking range so that's what I'm shooting for.

I'm thinking that if I can stick with the program and do some max effort work for a couple of months at the end of the year i should be close.

[faller]

Sweet!!! I'll be following this one for sure!!

[Talo]

Looks good.

Will you be changing your assistance work up weekly ?

[tiramisu]

Looks good.

Will you be changing your assistance work up weekly ?

I hadn't thought of changing that frequently. The problem I have with that is guessing the right weight to use. Could be fun though.

[tiramisu]

http://www.zshare.net/download/75720229a8a01002/ (http://www.zshare.net/download/75720229a8a01002/)

I'll be playing about with the accessory exercises over time but this is pretty much the plan for the year. (unless I break or change my mind).

[tiramisu]

I'm already seeing a problem with my selection of "arms". I'm off to the gym shortly and I'll be darned if I know how I'm gonna get my dips and chins done. My bis and tris are toasticles.

I'll probably be ditching "arms" and put in hanging leg raises or some weighted ab work. That damned Wendler, it's almost like he's tried this or something :)

[O-Train]

Good stuff. I do more accessory exercises but less sets for each. Just the way I decided to do things so I could squeeze in calves etc. 5/3/1 is a fun program.

[tiramisu]

The 5x10 on the accessory exercises is a bit humbling. I think I like it but "arms" followed by 5x10 dips 5x10 chins the following day is definitely a no go.

I don't think I hurt anything but a couple of weeks of that and my biceps tendons would go on strike.

I'm going to stick with the big basics and the 5x10 accessory work unless it doesn't work for me. I think it's going to have a positive impact if only because it is drastically different from what I've adjusted to in the last year.

My workout was obscenely short yet intense and I felt like the michelin man walking to the change room. I'm rehabbing my left rotator cuff right now so all my movements are a bit slower than I would like but it didn't interfere with the workout and I managed to lift pain free. I had to be very careful and deliberate with the dips to keep away from painful spots.

I'm pulling out the ice and the tensor bandage for the post workout treatment as it is feeling a little tender.

[tiramisu]

That wasn't bad. Definitely winded but incredibly short workout. 3 exercises on the bar, no moving about, no waiting on anyone.

I started very light with my assistance exercises, power clean and push press and did them as a pyramid 5x5. Both are new exercises and I'm babying the shoulder.

No pain and although my shoulder needed icing after the workout I'm surprised it put up with the power cleans so readily.

Deads were pretty straight forward. No straps required but it was pretty close. I think this should be a pretty good way of bring my grip up.

[Janitor Pants]

I think this should be a pretty good way of bring my grip up.

I ran 531 for about 6 months and it did amazing things for my grip. Previous to starting I had to strap in much past 250. When I started 531 I decided I wouldn't use straps and I found my grip improved fast enough for this to happen. 3 weeks ago I was goofing around and decided to try 405. My form wasn't all that shit hot, but I was able to pull it using only chalk for grip.

531 is a fun program I really enjoyed it.

[tiramisu]

I am surprisingly sore in the mid back this morning. Interestingly my scapula on my bad shoulder side is completely cooked. It could very well be I've developed a bit of an imbalance somehow. If so, this workout should unscrew that problem fairly quickly.

[tiramisu]

My abs are disappearing far too quickly. McDoubles are going to have to come off the diet and I'm going to have to start doing cardio again. Still haven't committed to a specific diet but McDonalds and no cardio are clearly not a good idea.

There is a track outside the gym so I'm thinking of working my way into sprint intervals. Will start with walk/jog as I'm pretty sure that if I tried to sprint my ankles would snap and my hamstrings would pack up and leave me. The 2 hours a day of walking should put me in a pretty good position to start jogging but the hams and ankles aren't ready for a pounding.

... I think the mid back thing is a mildly strained left rhomboid major. definitely not the trap and i'm pretty sure it's not the lat. lot's of muscles in the back by the scapula.

[tiramisu]

Bench
Incline DB Bench
Hammer Strength Rows

Shoulder kept me from managing the working weights in the Bench. I couldn't lift the prescribed weight pain free (rat farts). I'm going to back the starting bench weight all the way down so my max lift is under 200 this month and let it heal.

The shoulder is improving but it is very weak at the bottom of the bench. I need to limit my range of motion and use a lot of triceps.
I still left the gym all pumped up from the accessory movements but bench strength is going to have to wait for my shoulder to stabilize. Hopefully by next month I'm pain free. Time to go find the ice pack.

[faller]

How did you injure your shoulder? Sorry if you posted it somewhere already, but i missed it..

[tiramisu]

My rotater cuff tendon (supraspinitus) has been looking to go bad for a couple of months. I'd been lifting 90% plus every workout for a good 6 weeks when not too surprisingly I finally wiggled it on the bench press. The inflammation in the tendon is just under the AC joint (boney edge of the shoulder).

My shoulders are always a bit on the wobbly side and there's not much room for in the channel for the tendon (I've done this before) and had the MRI's a few times.

Not a major injury but until I get the tendon inflammation under control it won't heal and range of motion without pain will be limited.

Currently I'm doing my stretching, icing, tensor bandaging and rehab exercises most days. The ache is slowly receding and the range is improving.

Shoulders suck and tren is a double edged sword.


I'm done with the tren and have backed the test down to 500mg/wk like a sane person. I will likely add npp back into the mix later but for now I'm just going to stick with low dose test and heal for a bit.

[tiramisu]

Quick and intense. As prescribed. No muss, no fuss.
Time to ice the shoulder.

[Talo]

If you have never tried acupunture then you should. I swear by it and I know Faller feels the same way.

I had the same injury a few years back ( couldn't even lift my arm to drive ) and 3 treatments later it was all cleared up and has not come back.

I'm currently doing it again for my elbow . This one is worst than the shoulder , but hopefully she will work her magic again. And as always she adds in some other crazy shit for my to do , not just needles.

[faller]

Yup, i'm in the process of finding one here on the island. The trick is finding a good one.

[tiramisu]

I believe it worked for you but I can only guess that it would be because it was a nerve issue rather than an inflammation issue. (otherwise to me it just sounds like magic). In my case it is definitely an inflamed supraspinitus tendon in a narrow channel. When it's not hurt there's just enough room but even minor inflammation results in impingement. When combined with wobbly shoulders (a little loose) it's a fairly regular injury for me.

I just can't see how any mechanism of accupunture can reduce the issue. If I was a real athlete I'd probably give surgery real consideration as a little extra room would probably remove the impingement problem entirely but as it stands it's only a problem when I get excited and start powering out of the hole in the bench press with crappy form. Then spung I have a problem. I may buy a blast shirt at some point just to help with the shoulder wobble.

[faller]

Yes it was a nerve issue when i last did it..

[Talo]

As far as I was told it was inflammation ( by a medical dr and the acupuncturist ) . Of course they could be wrong. I never did get an MRI done.

It wasn't only needles that she did. She also drew out blood from my shoulder , did suction cups to help increase the blood flow , some seeds in my ear .

Now with my elbow she has done needles ( with electro pulse ) , drained blood to help lower the inflammation and now I'm lighting a herbal cigar once a day ( should be twice a day ) and letting the smoke heat up my elbow - She said in China they use it a lot for asthma ( inflammation in the lungs / air ways ) .

Before I went I tried everything and my last option was surgery , but my massage therapist recommended her. I went in not believing , but yet still open minded. I really didn't think it was going to work until I was proven wrong.

Anyways take it all as you want.

[tiramisu]

I'm obviously sceptical but I also believe you are telling me the truth so I won't discount it entirely. I've got my giant tensor bandage on at the moment and would be happy to be "cured". The bleeding thing is interesting. Did she use leeches? :) Was the accupuncture in the shoulder/tendon itself directly?

[Talo]

No leeches . For the bleeding she pricked me fast with what felt like a line of needles , maybe 4-6 needles in a line ? I didn't get a look so I'm just going off of feel. Then she used suction cups to pull the blood out ( could be the same concept as leeches :) ) , filled the cup and repeated a few times.

With my shoulder it didn't hurt after , but when it came to my elbow it hurt for the rest of the week . Some days it felt like it had a heart beat :) When I told her this she said that was good because the blood was starting to circulate back into the injury again. However she hasn't done it again and this was two weeks ago.

When it came to my shoulder she put about 4 needles in and around the spot , also one on my bicep and one in my forearm. Then you just lay down ( try to sleep ) as she sends electro pulse's in through the needles. It does not hurt at all and actually you don't even feel the needles going in.

As for my elbow it has only been about 4-5 needles in my elbow , no other connection spots. Haven't had any seeds in my ear either :D yet .

I've also started to get work done for my allergies . She put one needle in my forehead and one needle on both sides of my nose , under the eyes. Then I laid on my belly and she put about 8 suction cups on my back ( from the neck down to my lower back ). But that's another issue and since there was no extra charge I thought I would give it a shot :)

[tiramisu]

Off to do the research...

So far one no from pubmed.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15609842

[tiramisu]

One yes
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19644905

apparently it's effective on canadian postal workers.

[Talo]

Interesting. I had to look up what TENS was :)

All I can do is speak for myself , as you know.

So here's a question ( could make it a new thread if this starts to take away from your journal).

Is the Placebo effect a bad thing ?
I say if it fixes a person ( even though it's done nothing ) I can't see that being a bad thing at all..... The power of the mind.

I read somewhere a study on kneed surgery . 100 men went in to have there knees worked on . 50 of them got the surgery and 50 where on cut open and stitched back up , but no one ever complained about their knees again....:)

[tiramisu]

I'll edit out the junk when I make a word document of the journal in a few months.

[tiramisu]

As prescribed. Did some rotater cuff rehab warmups at the beginning and cuff exercises at the end.

Dips are still dodgy. Slow and careful. Minor pain on the bottom and at the end of set 4/5 as I tired. I'll lighten up again next week. Target is to get all my reps pain free..

The accessory work left my shoulder area completely filled with blood at the end which is probably a good thing. I've got a minor ache post workout and am icing as I type.

The accessory work is a real change from what I'm used to. I'm fairly sure it's going to have a good impact.

[tiramisu]

Started w/ Power Clean and Press
10 sets of 5

I did a couple of aleve 2 hours before my workout and the difference was significant. I had a little ouch on my 10 set rep 4 where my form buggered up otherwise I felt almost human.

Deads were good too. No straps required and grip was just giving out at the very end.

Ice and shoulder wrapping next on the agenda. I may have to send the aleve folk a thank you letter. This shit is great. I'm still being careful and doing my rehab but it feels good not to be quite so tender.

[Talo]

Glad it's working for you. I picked some up today . It was cheaper than I thought.

Popped 2 before coming to work , but I haven't noticed anything. Just went out and did about 8 loads of gravel ( shovel and barrel ) and my hand was acking .

[tiramisu]

It's no cure but in both cases wrist and shoulder my pain is being caused by the swelling causing an impinged tendon (ac joint and whatever the tunnel just below the thumb is called). Swelling reduced = pain reduced. Nice and simple in my case and darned effective.

I doubt that the pain of an aching hand is purely being caused by inflammation or even that the cure for the hand would simply be reduction of inflammation.

Arthritis? Bashed/pulled/torn?

[Talo]

I am thinking a bit of Arthritis. It's in my right hand , ring finger knuckle .

On the bottle it says Arthritis relief . I know it's no magic cure and my pain is not so bad that I can't do anything , but it does cause a shitty grip with Deadlifting.

[tiramisu]

Prescribed dosages of naproxin for tendonitis is 500mg twice a day. Significantly more than recommended on the bottle. It seems to last a long time as well compared to the ibuprofen noticeable effect the better part of 8-10 hours later. Like aspirin this stuff will chew your stomach up and it's not nice to your liver.

Have you gone in and had your hand looked at properly? I've had the shoulder xrayed/mri'ed several times over the years and had a few decent sports doctors poke and prod me so I've got a pretty good idea of what I'm dealing with. A little bit of shoulder looseness combined with very tight tolerances for the tendon to run through at the ac joint. The ac joint is hooked in my case (which is a bit of red herring I think) and I get calcification in the tendon which disappears when the inflamation goes down but drags out the injury time.

Some days I feel like going in with the dremel and fixing the problem at the source but mostly it's manageable. I should be able to get my bench over 400 kind of thing. I don't know if they'll ever take 500 raw but at this point it's not really on my list of things to achieve.

[tiramisu]

... I hate typing in a log entry and forgetting to post.

Big news of the day. I was able to touch my chest on the working sets (some discomfort but not actually pain). Required the warmup sets and mini-band dislocates to get there.

2 Aleve a couple of hours pre-workout and I'm icing as I type.

Again the accessory work got a ton of blood into the whole shoulder, upper back, chest region which is almost certainly a good thing.

Hopefully I can start moving my bench back up to where it should be (I dropped my 1RM from 330 to 225 on the template to lift without pain).

So not a terribly exciting day but productive. I'm guessing that this program will mostly be pretty dull from a log perspective other than figuring out rehab and resets when I max out.

It's easy to follow and while it's hard work it is over quick and it's kind of fun. I like the idea of flexibility in the accessory work. While I haven't taken advantage of it yet it's freeing to think of the accessory work as important volume but not important in terms of progression or beating the log book.

[tiramisu]

I picked up a back knobber and bumpy ball today at the cripple store.

mmmmm, that felt good. 5 minutes with the hooked stick, a couple of minute with a ball with a foam roller finish and my back feels good.

I don't know that it had any therapeutic effect but the little achy spots are gone for the moment. Time to pop a couple more aleve in preparation for Squat night.

On the rehab front I'm adding face pulls and scapular depressions to my rehab/warmups. Hopefully I can bring the whole shoulder complex up to snuff.

I should have done this shit when I was young and stuck with it.

[tiramisu]

Added easy face pulls, shrugs, scapular depressions to my rotator warmup/rehab and did mini-band dislocates between workout sets with 2 mini-bands.

If I don't move my arm around and look for the pain I am essentially pain free today. I can still find a twinge if I rotate the shoulder with the arm abducted but otherwise it feels good.

The IT Bands felt good today as well. ATG squats and no aches or pains in the legs.

I did get a lower back pump from hell again from the SLDL but it's not an injury thing it's just volume. I have to sit down between sets to let the blood out.
Time for the Ice Pack

[tiramisu]

2 Aleve a couple of hours pre workout.

Warmed up with rotator work, face pulls, scapula depression and mini-band dislocates. Did more band dislocates between sets. Skipped the post workout stretching as the shoulder felt a little achy by the end.

My shoulder strength is coming back. Still weak but I did 4 reps on my last working set as it didn't hurt and I had gas in the tank.

5x10 of dips and chinups supersetted is a heck of a way to get a pump. The bottom of the dips were uncomfortable but not painful today and I had full range of motion all the way down.

My shoulder has a mild ache post workout. Not pain but there's definitely a little swelling going on.

Ice and Compression tonight.

[tiramisu]

.. general inflamation today. Achy knees, shoulders and wrists. Not quite sure what's up with that. Next week is a deload so hopefully a light week and rehab gets me back to 0.

I haven't decided whether I'm going to add weight on cycle 2 or simply increase reps in my last working set. I'll play it by ear and see how the body feels. The third alternative - do another cycle exactly the same as this one might even be a good decision. I'm hoping a week of deload is a good tonic.

[tiramisu]

... Another day at the office.

Was intending on doing clean, press, overhead squat as accessory work today but the overhead squat part was a no-go. I'm going to have to work out the technique in the rack before I start trying to put it together. Wiggling my heels around and a lack of shoulder flexibility (bar not far enough back) made my shoulders ache so I dropped that idea for another day.

Deadlifts went well, no muss, no fuss. A little back pump but nothing spectacular. Did 3 reps on my last working set. I could have pulled another 1 for sure and maybe 2 but it was a workout without pain and I didn't want to ruin the mood.

[tiramisu]

I missed my Bench workout on Saturday. Likely for the best as it gave the shoulder a couple of extra days to heal.

Deload feels like a long warmup. Worked up a decent sweat and got the joints limber and was done.

The addition of face pulls and scapular depressions to my shoulder rehab is helping. I think the scapular depressions will be a significant injury avoidance tool... This is where I really feel the shoulder laxity. If you push my elbow up from underneath my shoulder definitely has the tendency to wobble. Increase scapular strength in this area will definitely help in terms of dodging future injury. While it doesn't solve the underlying cause it should give me more support.

[tiramisu]

I almost feel good after this one.

Like on fairly long workout. Did rotator and scapula rehab exercises and stretched post exercise.

Shoulders were tight to start but loosened up a fair bit. tight on the bottom of the Press.

This whole deload concept almost makes me feel guilty. I'm not feeling the need for ice tonight but I'll toss it on anyways.

[tiramisu]

Added overhead squats with an empty bar today. My shoulder flexibility sucks but no pain at all. Wrists weren't terribly impressed either.

I'm really looking forward to the end of "deload". My aches and pains are disappearing but it's wierd lifting so little. Feels like an extended warmup.

If not for the fact that it's Wendler who set up the program and the most guys overtrain on the 4 day split I wouldn't do the deload but for now I'm just gonna stick with the program.

[tiramisu]

I messed up on my weights a little but no real harm done.
The 10 pound increase should have been to the estimated max and then percentages are calculated.

I added ten pounds to all the sets. I completed the workout with the extra volume and fixed my workout template.

Shoulder felt better again today. Did a fair whack of prehab. face pulls, int/ext rotators and scapular depressions. I've got tightness and a mild ache in there but no workout pain except a minor twinge when I was doing knee/leg raises. The scapular depressions are helping this.

[tiramisu]

The inflammation in my shoulder is finally down enough to where I can actually dig my thumb in and feel where the injury occurred.

I've massaged it pretty thouroughly yesterday and today the supraspinatus is sore to the touch but mobility is way up.

... off to the gym time.

[Talo]

Wicked !!

[tiramisu]

... Press Day

Shoulder Pressing plus 5x10 dips/pull-ups is a surprisingly good upper body workout.
So far every time I do this one I feel it for a couple of days in the lats,chest,biceps,triceps, and shoulders. 3 exercises for a full upper body workout in about 30 minutes. Obscenely efficient.

I increased the dips and pullups by 10 pounds this week. I can feel a minor ache in the bottom of the dips and a little wobble in the pullups so everything is still slow and controlled. I got the full 5x10 so I'm going to hold the weight here this month or until the ache is reduced to something that doesn't feel like an injury waiting to re-happen.

I may have to add some leg volume exercise to the accessory work yet. I'm only doing squats at the moment and it should be enough for a few cycles but I'm willing to bet a 5x10 of front squats would move things along faster. At the moment it's my mid-back and hips that limit my squat but I wouldn't be surprised to be swapping SLDL for Front Squats or GM's in 4 or 5 months.

[faller]

Sweet!!

[tiramisu]

Yesterday's workout kicked my ass. I've got DOMS everywhere today and woke up feeling like I was an 80 year old.

I am impressed. Sore but impressed.

[tiramisu]

I did my lifts at home on my platform today. My bar is a cheese grator - must wear long socks on deadlift day (oops). Doing clean & press and deads with bumpers on a platform is much more pleasant than the metal weights at the gym. I don't have to worry about upsetting anyone when I put the weight down.

I used a mixed grip for my last set of Deads and my bicep had enough by the 5th rep. Back felt like it was good for 1 or 2 more but I'm going to put off straps for a bit yet.

Between the reintroduction of calories and the training effect from a new program I seem to be blowing up like a balloon. Probably all fat and water but it feel like my body is responding to this program. I suppose I'll know whether that's actually true if my strength goes up :)

In the mean time I'm finding that this program requires serious food and lots of sleep. Very taxing on both the cns and the muscles.

[tiramisu]

Bench day was sucky. I hit my numbers. The shoulder was tight and didn't loosen all the way till well into my accessory work. That said the pain is localized to the muscle at this point and the tendon inflammation is pretty much gone.

So I'm still getting better but 5x180 is close to the limit for my left shoulder for the moment. Hopefully things will continue to improve this month and I'll be able to up the weight a bit more quickly back to where it should be. 55% of a 1RM isn't exactly a taxing weight.

oh well, another day at the office. I did a whack of rotator/scapula work at the end of the workout. I figure as long as I keep getting the blood in there and get the mobility up that I will heal properly. I just have to avoid getting stupid. The problem of course is that stupid is my favourite part. :)

[tiramisu]

The last 2 working sets felt heavy today. I've been squating with a fairly neutral stance and ass to ankles rather than wide and parallel. As the weight increases I may have to adjust my technique.

For now its a really good workout for the quads and lower, mid back.

Only did 3 set of SLDL @ 225. As usual I got a wicked lower back pump but my lower lats were also pumped and fried after 3 sets so I figure that I hit it just fine.

I had to use straps today for SLDL. I strained my wrist flexors on deadlift day. I don't know the name of the tendon but the bump on my pinky side by the elbow is darn tender - (FCR) Flexor Carpi Radialus maybe. I strained them on the 5x360 deadlift last week.


http://wristbuilder.com/images/anatomy1.jpg

Shoulder continues to improve. I'm going to have to work on improving mobility with the shoulder dislocates.

[tiramisu]

This is quickly becoming my favourite workout.

Did 15 disclocates with the miniband to loosen up.

8x135 on the last working set of pressing. I felt strong through the whole range no shoulder ache on the bottom (woo hoo).

Dips on the bottom had a twinge not quite an ache but still a feeling that says be careful. I was able to do the dips with a little more speed in the concentric but still not powering them out.

I used straps for the pullups today to give the wrist flexors another day to heal. With the straps I could really focus on pulling up with the back rather than the biceps.

[Talo]

I know your shoulders are getting better , but do you ever do floor pressing ? This is something I've been doing alot lately and I notice that I still get the same power ( equal to a 2 board ) and it's a bit easier on my shoulders.

[tiramisu]

I know your shoulders are getting better , but do you ever do floor pressing ? This is something I've been doing alot lately and I notice that I still get the same power ( equal to a 2 board ) and it's a bit easier on my shoulders.

This is a pretty darn good idea. Right now I'm happy with the progress I'm making in healing but once I'm back up to 3 plates and in the hunt for 4, floor pressing might be exactly what the doctor ordered every 3rd month or so to give the shoulders time to recover. I'm going to put this idea in my hip pocket for later in the summer/early fall.

[tiramisu]

Well that felt heavy.

If I keep the speed up on the clean and press I'm ok but when I slow down I can feel it in my shoulder. I've got a minor ache post workout. Ice tonight.

Deadlift felt heavy today. They all went up without a hitch though.
Taped wrists at the wrist and at the elbow to give them a bit more tendon support and didn't use straps. Alternate grip for the last 2 sets.

[tiramisu]

Shoulder was tight today. Did a few sets of dislocates but it never really loosened up. Minor ache on the bottom of the press and wide grip rowing is pretty much out for now. Too much leverage on the shoulder for now.

Bench day is always kind of disappointing but I suppose as long as I'm moving forward and the shoulder is getting stronger I've got nothing to whine about.

[tiramisu]

Squats felt very heavy today.

Although I was in control all the way down and up and mentally the 1RM @ 350 felt really heavy.

Two possibilities, 1) I just have to trust the program 2) I'm not doing adequate leg work in my accessory movements. I've been doing SLDL as an accessory movement as my lower/mid back has always been the problem to date on my max effort squats (I fold like an accordian) but that seems to be evening out and I may have to switch to a more quad/hip centric accessory movement instead.

either way another day at the office.

My elbows and shoulder are looking forward to deload week the rest of me is actually feeling pretty darn good.

[Talo]

Good Mornings, brotha ! They will give you the strength that you need to not fold.

[tiramisu]

Good idea. GM's from the bottom position are a personal favourite. Sounds like fun. I'll swap them into the accessory work next week.

[Talo]

I like switching them up from standing , sitting and even like you mentioned from bottom. The hardest for myself was using a SSB , but I don't have that anymore, but it will be an addition to my home gym once I save up some money.

[tiramisu]

Got a little bit of an ache pwo from the dips today. I don't think I tweaked anything but I definitely need to be doing more dislocates, range of motion is still limited.

Still my favourite workout. The lighter weight lets me push through more reps with less rest between sets. It makes me all puffy. I know that's not really the point but it's fun pumping up the arms, chest and back all in one workout.

... I'm still noodling about what to do with Squat day... Talo's suggestion of GM's is a good one, another thought I had was to simply do a boring but big for Squats for a month or two and just do a 5x10 squats as accessory work with a lighter weight to bring my volume up. I've been doing my squats ATG or at least hams to calves in the last 2 months and that seems to be giving my lower/mid back a pretty balanced workout with my quads. Either one will probably give me a few more months progress and both will give me a day off for pulling for my wrists.

One of the things I like about the simplicitiy of this 5/3/1 is that it's easy to focus on what's important. i.e. 10 more pounds on my squat, 5 more pounds on my press. The accessory exercises are there to facilitate the core lifts; press, bench, squat, dead. It's easy to get all caught up in the details of a lot of programs and forget why you are doing them. Wendler's program is so pared down that it's easy to remember why I'm in the gym each day.

[tiramisu]

... I've been looking at smolov/smolov junior and sheiko and thinking about my squat day accessory work.

It's 2 days past squat day, my quads are still cooked and yet I feel guilty that I'm not doing enough squatting. Yes I'm retarded.

I've been going back and forth between GM's or 5x10 squats for accessory work. GM's address my weaknesses better. Squats address my ego better. decisions decisions.

I may very well do a smolov junior for squats when my first run @ 531 maxes out.

Week 1 (SETSxREPSxWEIGHT)

Mon - 6x6x70% (4x9 in the regular Smolov)
Wed - 7x5x75% (5x7 in the regular Smolov)
Fri - 8x4x80% (7x5 in the regular Smolov)
Sat - 10x3x85% (the same as in the regular Smolov)

Week 2

The same as week 1 but all the weights are increased by 10-20 lbs.

Mon - 6x6x70%+10-20 lbs (bigger increase for bigger lift like squats)
Wed - 7x5x75%+10-20 lbs
Fri - 8x4x80%+10-20 lbs
Sat - 10x3x85%+10-20 lbs

Week 3

The same as week 2 but all the weights are increased slightly even further.

Mon - 6x6x70%+15-25 lbs
Wed - 7x5x75%+15-25 lbs
Fri - 8x4x80%+15-25 lbs
Sat - 10x3x85%+15-25 lbs

[Talo]

Are you foam rolling your quads and hams at all ?

[tiramisu]

I've been so busy fussing with my arms/shoulder that I really haven't given the legs much attention for recovery. It's mostly a healthy muscle DOMs kind of pain rather than the it bands or cranky knees but YES I should start paying more attention before it becomes the bad kind of pain.

I miss my youth.

[tiramisu]

Wow, **** me!

That was both a great and ass kicking workout.

I did my Clean & Press first as accessory work. I need to start with a couple of warmup sets first and probably switch to sets of 3. I lose too much speed @ 155 and it hurts my shoulder. I'll continue with the 5 sets of ascending but switch to 5 pound increments instead of 10.

The cool thing is that I actually felt coordinated with this lift today. It wasn't legs, then back, then shrug, then flip, then press. I was able to concentrate on pulling fast.

The next cool thing was the carry over into the deads. Todays 5/3/1 felt brutally heavy but I was able to lift it explosively and with my legs and back working together. I pulled my single of 400 with no straps and it came up really fast.

I'm absolutely cooked. Even my abs are tired. I'm pretty sure if I tried to I could crush my previous deadlift PR after my deload week next week.

It's been a while since I had a really motivating workout.

[Talo]

I've been so busy fussing with my arms/shoulder that I really haven't given the legs much attention for recovery. It's mostly a healthy muscle DOMs kind of pain rather than the it bands or cranky knees but YES I should start paying more attention before it becomes the bad kind of pain.

I miss my youth.

I hear you , I'm starting to feel the effects at 32 :shock.

The training is only a small part of our growth . It's what we do outside the gym that really helps.

[tiramisu]

As usual bench day was pretty sucky.

On the plus side some kind of adhesion in my shoulder feels like it released yesterday while I was dead lifting. It felt kind of like a little pop in my shoulder while I was dead lifting yesterday and now my mobility is significantly better. Shoulder aches a little but range of motion without pain is much improved.

Bench didn't really loosen up till the last set. Weight is still light but the shoulder limits what I can do yet.

The accessory work with high volume dumbbell rows gets the blood in there but for now bench day continues to feel more like a glorified warm up.

I've been doing my rows with a hammer strength rowing machine. The width and the fixed position are nagging my shoulder at the current weight. I'm going to switch to db rows and see if I can get a more stable position. It's a shame as the hammer strength machine really works my lats extremely well. Shoulders just aren't up to the wide lever angle though.

Next week is deload and again I need it. I need to stretch out my piriformis (bad case of tight ass). My quads need a rest. My shoulder needs an easy week of rehab. Inner elbows need a rest and my wrists aren't quite done but it wouldn't take much to finish them off.

On the plus side, Deadlifts felt like a major break through for me. The clean & press has made me feel coordinated in the dead for the very first time. Squats feel like they are moving although it's hard to tell. They feel heavy but I also feel more in control of the movement than I did before. Bench sucks but my shoulder is better this month than last month. I've been working on the thing for 7 weeks now and still not pain free but it's a little stronger and a little more useful each week so I shoulden't whine too much I suppose.

I'm getting fat fast. I love to eat far far too much. Weight gain is definitely NOT my problem. I definitely need to get my ass back on the treadmill in the next cycle. I'd actually like to start working on sprints and pulling a sled but I should probably start easy. If I tried to sprint right now my hamstrings would probably tear out of my ass. I haven't tried to sprint in about 10 years.

[tiramisu]

Like doing a warm-up twice.

Continuing with my recent mantra of omni padre hip drive I really concentrated on coordinating my ass into the exercise.

I've definitely been using too much back and not enough ass.

I should probably video some of my sets I think I'm going too low for my stance and doing a bit of a butt wink myself. It would explain why I'm always getting a serious lower back pump lately.

Nonetheless I think 6 weeks of focusing on coordinating my ass and then some speed work in my accessory work and I should be pushing 4 plates a side on my singles.

[tiramisu]

Got some blood in the muscles and went home.
Shoulder loosened up fairly well today.

[tiramisu]

I did power-snatches today as an accessory lift.

It was actually a little much for deload day. Not very heavy but moving the bar fast really takes a lot of jam. I feel pooped.

[tiramisu]

Almost restful. Tightness at the bottom of the bench and dumbbells but not quite pain.

blood in the muscles and done.

Worked out at home today rather than wander in for such a short workout.

I'll push shoulders and bench up 10 pounds next cycle rather than 5. I'm tempted to go for 15 but maybe next month.

[tiramisu]

Cycle 3 starts tomorrow, I feel mostly recovered, wrists are a little strained (inside of elbow), left shoulder doesn't hurt when not being used, minor twinge in my right quad (not quite sure what's up with that).

Am increasing bench and press 10 pounds rather than 5 this cycle. Still sucky low but maybe the shoulder will be healed by the time I hit 12 weeks of taking care of it.

I'm going to start some easy cardio this cycle. 20 minute sessions post workout to start.

Cycle 3's accessory theme contines to be "omni padre hip drive" - Getting my ass and hams fast and coordinated look like the shortest path to big gains in both my squat and deadlift right now.

[tiramisu]

The switch from SLDL's to GM's were a bit of a shock. The gym needs more air. I'm going to have to drop the weight on GM's next week to get my 5 sets across.

I had a major rest between squats and GM's to let the back pump ease up. Squating ATG really pumps up my lower back compared to squating to parallel.

Both my strength and technique are improving. I've got better control up and down and generally feeling more coordinated. A combination of bringing up my core strength and getting my ass into the lift better.

On the rehab front I felt 0 pain doing dislocates with the mini band for the very first time today. Woo hoo!!!

[tiramisu]

I wasn't careful enough with my shoulder today and have a bit of a hollow ache post workout. I didn't set my shoulders when I cleaned for my first press of the day and felt the joint wobble. Had the same problem on my second set of dips.

The shoulder is stable enough that there is 0 pain throughout the exercise at normal tempo. Still not trying to be explosive but I'm not being deliberate either. Hopefully I didn't take a step backwards.

Pressing felt light and I debated doing another couple of sets of 5 after my working sets but decided to leave it in the tank.

Dips and Chins were obscene today. Minor ache in the biceps tendons pwo. I didn't yank anything but they are a little inflamed nonethless. I'm finding that it's important to keep tension in the arms rather than allowing them to slacken in the bottom position. A loose bottom seems to put too much of a shock on the tendons in the initial pull.

I continue to be surprised at what a good overall upper body workout these 3 exercises are.

[tiramisu]

Sets of 3 on the power snatch are just about perfect for staying fast. I'm losing speed by the 5th rep. I'm really impressed with what a nice soul crushing exercise this is. I'm trying to concentrate on being as explosive as possible with this exercise.

I wrapped up like a mummy for deadlifts today. Wrist wraps and elbow sleeves /straps on the last set. I've got a touch of tendonitis in my inside elbows and I've decided I'm not going to make it worse for a change. I had really good carry over in my warm up sets from the power snatch in terms of being well coordinated. By the time I got into my working sets however my coordination started to go for a shit by the 3rd rep.

Miscellaneous cripple stuff, 0 pain in the left shoulder today doing mini-band dislocates. I could feel a localized twinge this morning with my thumb from my bad technique on press day but I couldn't feel it in the gym. Inner elbows are borderline and my wrists are very tight. I wrapped em up and again 0 pain in the gym. I had the usual, manageable back pump from hell again today. Sets of 3 on the power snatch reduce it a fair bit.

[tiramisu]

... useless aside. It was a slow day at the gym today. It's kind of funny looking up from a set and seeing nothing but elbow flexing going on. I'm panting, gruntin, farting, pouring sweat, lying on the floor between sets and all around me is 2 hours of arm curls and shoulder raises. They must think I'm out of my mind.

[tiramisu]

Bit of a shoulder twinge on the bottom but I'm moving the bar at normal speed now rather than slow speed. Still no explosive strength but I'll take what I can get. I had another 2-3 reps left in the tank. I'm definitely getting weaker in the bench. My strength is starting to match my lifts. (sucks to be me).

90's were a little too heavy for my shoulder on the dumbbell rows on accessory work. I'm discovering that stabilizing my shoulder is as much about strengthening the scapula as it is rehabbing the rotater cuff. If my scapula tires and I drop my shoulder into a weak position it hurts. I have to avoid lifting with the joint and lift with the muscle.

[tiramisu]

While Watching the Tommy Kono Lifting Presentation -
I learned something new (obvious now), that I was doing entirely wrong in my deadlift, floor pulls.

When setting up for a pull I raise my chest and get my hip and knee angle right but I almost always contract my lats and traps prior to the pull.

When Kono shows elite lifters strarting with the lats and traps flared it's obvious how much more pulling power this gives you. I've been using my erectors and making huge chunks of meat on my back completely useless in the pull.

I'm not even sure how much this will buy me in my lift but I'm pretty sure if I can coordinate my hips and hams with my lats and traps while pulling that I'll be looking at some pretty huge PR's.

It might also improve my lats and traps. :)

[faller]

You wouldn't happen to have a link would you?

Oh shit, never mind, i found your post..

[tiramisu]

http://www.youtube.com/user/Columbus...EFA86208A2A6A6 (http://www.youtube.com/user/ColumbusWtLifting#g/c/53EFA86208A2A6A6)

Six Part Presentation on the Olympic Lifts by a guy who's generally recognized as one of the most knowledgeable Olympic Lifting guys on the planet.

[Talo]

I'll have to look at this later. For some reason utube is not opening up for me right now.

[tiramisu]

Dave Tate rocks...
Yet another useful tip...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDaQo3eODrY

I concentrated on following this advice and viola, squating suddenly got easier.

I was pulling my shoulders back but I wasn't tightening the rest of my back. When I concentrated on contracting my lats, traps, and lower back the weight rested on my hips instead of feeling heavy on my back. HUUUUGE difference.

Yes I'm a moron. Completely obvious and possibly life changing. :)

[tiramisu]

Squats felt awesome.

GM's crushed me like a bug, wrung me out like a wet towel and left me whimpering on the floor like a baby. Completely sucking for air, felt light headed, soaking wet, and completely physically drained.

Awesome!!

It's really impressive how little weight you need with these. Last week I tried 225 and it was too much. Today started with 185 and backed down to 135. You can make these as crushing as you like just by increasing the angle you bend at. Heavy weight not required.

There was some lying on the ground required afterwards before I could finish off with some abs work.

My eyes feel tired.

[clicker666]

Dave Tate rocks...
Yet another useful tip...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDaQo3eODrY

I concentrated on following this advice and viola, squating suddenly got easier.

I was pulling my shoulders back but I wasn't tightening the rest of my back. When I concentrated on contracting my lats, traps, and lower back the weight rested on my hips instead of feeling heavy on my back. HUUUUGE difference.

Yes I'm a moron. Completely obvious and possibly life changing. :)

It's a good video, and as you say, quite obvious. (once you are doing it.) I wasn't. I now use a more low bar position, with it wedged about halfway down my scapula. The tightness required to hold everything in place has really helped me. I've also opened my stance up somewhat too, which seems to have helped my stability and muscle recruitment while actually reducing the ROM to ATG.

[tiramisu]

I low bar squat ala Rippetoe rather than full blown powerlifting style but that won't keep me from reading/watching anything Tate publishes. I wish there were more guys who knew how to get strong in the gyms.

[tiramisu]

Good News/Bad News kind of day.

My main lift rocked. Zero pain and felt strong throughout the range. 9 Reps in the final working set.

My chins sucked and my biceps tendon is starting to ache.

I'm either going to have to dial down my rowing/chinning to 50% for a couple of weeks or figure out how to do lats without engaging the biceps (doh!).

Looks like I'm back to sissy weight for pulls for a couple of weeks.

My shoulder is definitely on the mend however. Still not 100% but I can use it without it falling apart on me.

[tiramisu]

I'm starting to think I may have to switch from a M/T/TH/FR schedule to a M/W/F schedule with the same program and introduce extra rest days or reduce my pulling.
I'm definitely overtraining biceps and forearms on my current schedule. That said the core lifts are working just fine.

I may just need to back off on either the volume or intensity on pulling in my accessory work.

It's probably time to reread the book and faq's again.

[Talo]

How's your hand placement while doing chins ? Pronated vs. Supinated . I find pronated less stressful on the bicep.

[clicker666]

I'm starting to think I may have to switch from a M/T/TH/FR schedule to a M/W/F schedule with the same program and introduce extra rest days or reduce my pulling.
I'm definitely overtraining biceps and forearms on my current schedule. That said the core lifts are working just fine.

I may just need to back off on either the volume or intensity on pulling in my accessory work.

It's probably time to reread the book and faq's again.

Pull ups instead of chins?

[tiramisu]

Pull ups instead of chins?

When I say "pullups/chins" I rotate through 5 different grips in 5 sets and none really do the trick of removing biceps from the pull. I may try pulling to a lat bar straight down to the front with my arms straight and use some crossover cables with straight arms kind of like a reverse peck deck movement to replace rows for a cycle to let em heal.

I'm fairly addicted to my pullups/chins/rows but I'm obviously overdoing it. I'm going to have to think about how I'm programming the pulling.

currently:
M - Squats 531 // GM's 5x10 // Abs 5x10
T - Press 531 // DIPs 5x10 // Chins (multiple grips) 5x10
Th - Deads 531 // Snatch Clean 5x3
F - Bench 531 // DB Incline 5x10 // DB Rows 5x10

Once I get my tendon inflammation down. I could drop pulling from either the tuesday or friday accessory workout and the vertical and horizontal plane pulling weekly instead. OR I could alternate (horizontal/vertical) my pulling w/ biceps involvment on tuesdays and alternate (horizontal/vertical) pulling w/o biceps involvement on fridays. That way I keep the volume up with the lats but only work the biceps hard once a week instead of twice.

[clicker666]

From what I read online (don't own the book) it says in week 1 you can exceed the 5 reps in the final set if you have the energy. Do you know if that applies to week 2 or 3? (I know you aren't supposed to in the deload week though.)

[tiramisu]

According to the book In week 1-3 you can exceed your programmed reps in your final set if are able. With squats and deads I'm getting more than enough intensity simply staying within the program. With press and bench I try to go to failure-1 depending on whether the shoulder hurts or not. My percentage of 1RM programming for press/bench is significantly lower than prescribed as I'm rehabbing an injury. IF I'd started press/bench with the initial 90% recommendation I probably wouldn't be doing much in the way of extra reps. Maybe 1 or 2, here and there but likely not much and not often. The program seems to work without throwing extra workload at it. If anything I am finding that I have to reduce workload to avoid injury. My strength seems to be adapting well in the main lifts and I'm pretty confident I will be moving real PR's in the Fall. It's not a quick fix program.

One of the significant things I'm hoping for out of this program is that the PR's that I hit in the Fall will be sustainable rather than short term training peaks. I'd like to see significantly increased training weights across the board rather than hitting a few PR's, burning out and having to drastically deload.

[tiramisu]

Limited motivation tonight. Staring at my platform from the couch while I type this.... Coffee should kick in soon.

Flared the lats and moved the shoulders forward on the power snatch today. This effectively add another entire movement to the exercise. Previously with contracted lats I was essentially executing a single pull. Legs and hips fast as possible off the ground and using the speed to get it all the way up. With the lats flared there is a second pull that blends into the first pull as the bar gains momentum. It's going to take me a few weeks to get the coordination firing but I can see almost immediate improvement at warm up weight. As the weight increase my lack of coordination is reducing the bar speed so that I'm still having to muscle it up rather than powering it up so to speak. I'm looking forward to this coming together.

Deads also improved with flared lats. Taking the time to purposefully set lats,shoulders,lower back makes the 1rst rep significantly easier. Form disintegrates pretty quick when trying to do deads for reps even with a proper reset. An added benefit to taking the extra time in set up is I don't feel like I strained my elbows or wrists at all on this workout. Grip held nicely and there was no straining in any part of the movement.

[tiramisu]

Worked out in the basement again today.

Skipped DB Rows on accessory work to give the biceps tendons a full 5 days of recovery.

Bench went up and down. Little twinge on the bottom but otherwise no pain. It looks like I'll be adding 10 pounds to the weight again rather than the prescribed 5 or my hoped for 15. I'm still not feeling comfortable about powering through the weight. Hopefully soon. Some speed work would really help.

DB Bench, my home 55's are closer to 60's. not sure that it really matters.

Wave 1 is clearly the toughest of the 3 waves. While the other 2 are heavier the extra volume in wave 1 is tougher.

[tiramisu]

Sometimes reading on the internet can be extremely frustrating. Half the posts I read say things like "5/3/1 is great! My bench went up 60 pounds in 4 months". But the Program recommends 5 pound increments once a month so that's 20 pounds if you are doing the program. 1 year's improvement is about 5x12 or 60 pounds IF you don't need to reset and it's pretty hard for me to imagine very many people who are going to go 12 cycles without a reset if they start with a decent 1RM in the first place.

Personally programming for a 120 pound a year increase in my squat/dead and 60 pounds in my bench/press seems aggressive. I had to reset my 1RM on the bench down from 320 to 225 when I injured my shoulder. If I could recover and hit 380 in a year I wold be darn pleased. If I could move my squat from 380 to 500 in a year I would be dancing and with the dead from 455 to 580 would be amazing.

I'm pretty sure I won't hit anywhere near these numbers as I'll certainly need to reset the program before I get 12 cycles but it's nice to dream.

[Talo]

Some guys will increase the bench 10lbs and the squat / deadlift 15-20lbs . It all depends on where they have started and if they are trying to get strength back . I know you wont see any eleit guys putting 60lbs on their bench in a year so a month is hard to beleive to , but not impossible for guys that are "new" to the sport and this is the program they think they should be doing.

A 250lbs guy that has a bench of 200 could easily get 260 in a month , but that's not the program that did it just happens to be the program they were on while they did it.

Don't get discouraged with what you read and what "they" say they are doing. The best thing about this sport is it's a personal thing . You know where you were before you injured your shoulder so you know you will be there again and hopefully at 100% healthy you will be benching 330lbs +

**** I'm happy if I put 10lbs on my bench in half a year ( for a PR ). My jumps are 2.5lbs a crack :) I'm even thinking I should pick up some 1lb plates.

[tiramisu]

Squatted 350 ATG today for the single still more left but it's starting to feel heavy. PR ia 385 below parallel so still at least 4 cycles to go before I surpass my PR. Not sure if I'll get there without a reset but I'm pretty confident that I'll get through Cycle 4 without a reset in the squat.

Dropped the weight again with GM's and got more reps in. Back pump went all the way up into my mid back and I started feeling pretty light headed by the 3rd set of GM's.

The gym needs to stop being so damn cheap with the oxygen. I skipped my ab work this evening. I was completely cooked after GM's and staying conscious was enough of a challenge.

Wrenched my shoulder this evening. Lazy setups cost me. I have to slow down and stick with a consistent pre-squat routine and get my back properly set so that I don't start torquing my shoulders when the tension builds up from the squat. (I'm a dumb dumb).

[tiramisu]

... bleah, my shoulder hurts. I definitely wrenched it on the squats.

Press went well no pain there but the dips/chins were screwed. Hollow ache in my left shoulder. Ice and Aleve tonight. I dropped all my accessory weights down to the bare minimum got the reps in and done.
Good thing next week is a deload week I need it :(

[tiramisu]

extra recovery day. Back and Hams are still tired and the biceps are achy. GM's on leg day might have to be moved to Deadlift day. Not surprisingly that's Wendler's original recommendation.

I'll be moving my accessory work around in cycle 4 again.

[tiramisu]

In the interests of surviving another cycle I've decreased my volume in the power snatch. Still got a pretty good beating but hopefully not so much that my arms fall off.

Used a steeper progression with the snatch today on the warm ups and it worked very well in getting me to a point where I really have to concentrate on coordination and speed. Still learning the lift but me like a lot.

Deads were a mixed bag today everything went up but the single at the end felt an awful lot more like a sldl than a deadlift. The mixed grip kind of puts me off my set up. I'm pretty sure I stuck my ass up in the air just before I lifted. It seemed right before I pulled but once things started moving I ran out of leg push way too quick and then muscled it up with my back. I've still got room to muscle up more weight but it's definitely not my preferred method.

No straps required but I wrapped the wrists and used sleeves on the biceps in hopes of preventing further abuse. Shoulder has a minor twinge in it pwo but I didn't do anything funky to it today. I had a little incident with the right bicep on my second last set but I'm pretty sure I straightened my arm before I did any damage.

[tiramisu]

I took another down day again and slept like a bear yesterday.

and today actually felt good. I didn't feel weak in benching today and the shoulder didn't act up at all. No pain in the inner elbow dumbbell rowing either.

Next week is deload so I've got a full week to recover. I'm tempted to put 15 pounds on my bench for cycle 4.

I'm also going to have to rejig my accessory movements pretty drastically.
I've been overworking the pulling and screwing with my inner elbow tendons. I don't want to miss on a deadlift because I did to many chinups, rows and snatch cleans

I'm also thinking about switching to boring but big on squat day and moving my GM's to Deadlift day. The back pumps on squat day haven't been particularily productive even if I do enjoy lying on the floor.

What I'm thinking for Cycle 4 is

Core - Squat
Accessory 1 - Squat 5x10 @ 50%
Accessory 2 - Leg Curls / Poor Man's GHR 5x10

Core - Press
Accessory 1 - Asst Dips 5x10
Accessory 2 - Asst Pullups 5x10

Accessory 1 - Snatch Clean 3x3 with 3 warmup sets
Core - Deads
Accessory 2 - GM 5x10

Core - Bench
Accessory 1 - Incline Dumbbell Press 5x15
Accessory 2 - Dumbbell Row

Hopefully the decreased volume on the Snatch Clean will give my in elbows adequate recovery.

I may have to pussify the weight on the assisted pullups or switch to 3x10 or 5x5 rather than 5x10. Not really sure what will work best here but pulling a bicep tendon is probably a bad idea and they were pretty achy this month.

[tiramisu]

Cycle 4 Template - updated spreadsheet attached - simplified and updated

[tiramisu]

I've generally either gone with a high bar olympic squat or a low bar neutral stance athletic kind of sqaut over the last several years. I've never actually trained a wide stance powerlifting squat.

http://www.dieselcrew.com/articles-pdf/cleaningupthesquat.pdf

I find myself thinking that it might be fun to broaden my horizons and put some heavier weight on my back.

Not quite yet as there's still a fair bit of gas in the tank but in a few months when things are feeling a little more hopeless this could be a fun way of keeping the numbers moving northward.

[tiramisu]

Taking a full 5 days off before I start Deload week :)
Gonna let the elbows and biceps get all healed up before cycle 4.

Shoulder isn't 100% but it's at the point where I have to aggravate it to make it ache so I'm kind of hoping for 100% by the end of cycle 4 or 5.

I find taking days off harder than going in to work out but it must be done. I know what happens if I don't.

[Talo]

Good idea. You should look into getting a deep tissue massage on your days off.

[tiramisu]

Long overdue. Went to home depot and bought a big eye bolt, some nuts ,washers and some rope. stuck the eyebolt in the side of a a worn out car tire. cut the side wall out of one side with a utility knife.

Did a quick drag with 45 and 90 pounds. 90 seems a bit heavy 45 a bit light. I'm going to split the differerence and start with 70.

I'm thinking of following Iron Addict's advice and going with

Here is a quick overview of my updated sled pulling procedure. It is in response to a post on another forum, so that is why the context is in the format it is.

THIS REPLACES ALL MY PREVIOUS RECOMMENDATIONS!!

Without writing an article the basics are this:

They do HIIT with the sled. 1 minute hard and heavy. 1 minute unhooked and walking at a pace that allows them to just catch their breath, repeat.
I start them on a LOW overall time schedule. Just 3 intervals 2 x a week.
Add 1 interval every week until they get extremely beat up, then have them hold that time for 2-3 weeks until their body adapts. Once adapted, i.e. it is hard, but not killing them, we again add an interval a week.
Once they are at 20 minutes 2 x a week. We analyze what to do next.

Iron Addict

[tiramisu]

Good idea. You should look into getting a deep tissue massage on your days off.

I know I've got a fair bit of massage under the wife's plan. Going to have to start making use of it.

[tiramisu]

Well that was interesting... 2 new kinds of pain in one workout.

I tried Boring But Big in the Squats today. I managed 4x10 and the quads were burning. My form was breaking down and I was getting wierd pains in my back and scapula so I didn't go for the fifth set.

I followed up BBB with 3 - 50 yard intervals of dragging the sled around the gym parking lot @ 30 celsius. Soaking wet gasping for air.

Everything was submaximal but my legs still feel like mashed potatoes.

Me Like!

Walked on the treadmill for 30 minutes this morning sucky but it needs to be done.

[Talo]

Great idea with the sled.

Where are you dragging it ? Grass or pavement ?

[tiramisu]

Dragged it on the pavement in the parking lot. I can't believe how drained I am. I feel like a rag doll.

[Talo]

I know . It's a killer workout.

I haven't done anything like that since last summer. We use to use the gym parking lot and do 2 trips forward and 2 trips backwards . Dang , I miss that place .

[tiramisu]

There are parts of me I didn't know I had that hurt today. Even my ankles are tired. I didn't think I had ankles.

If this doesn't cause my body to adapt nothing will. I've got a general feeling of having been put through a meat grinder. My eyes feel tired. On the back side everything from ankles to mid back feels pooped. Not sore but tired, ankle, calves, hams, glutes, hips, lower back, quads, abs all pooped. Apparently I've got some muscles in my feet I didn't know existed.

I'm wasted but very excited. If it's physically possible to follow IA's recommended progression, being able to pull for 20 minutes before the snow flies would give me a level of conditioning that I've simply never imagined having.

... When combined with a program like 531 with good accessory selection and a power clean/snatch/high pull onces a week I think it covers most of my bases.

The only thing missing is some skill. When the snow flies I might have to go back to the club and practice being kicked in the stomach by small women and children.

[clicker666]

Got pics of the sled? I'm trying to picture how the weights sit on it.

[tiramisu]

Got pics of the sled? I'm trying to picture how the weights sit on it.

The opposite of complicated....

[tiramisu]

2 warmups of military press and 3x10 of not very much weight on dips and pullups. I'd feel guilty but I'm so trashed from pulling the damn sled that all I really want to do is nap.

Right wrist is a little tweaky for no apparent reason.
Right bicep tendon still a little weak. left shoulder felt generally good. Still a little weakness at the bottom of the dips.

[tiramisu]

2 days post sled drag...

My legs are still trashed. I'm sort of hoping it will be similar to the first workout after a long layoff and that my second workout tomorrow will get rid of the pain of the first one.

One of the guys at the gym asked if he could come out in the parking lot and join me. I'm looking forward to sharing the experience.

[tiramisu]

Round #2 of tire dragging today. It seems to have worked most of the pain from round #1 out. Ass hurt all the way through today. Got a little tweak in my right knee when my ass and hips stopped working properly but it seems to have settled down pretty much right away.

Deads and power snatch nothing to report.

[macka]

cool idea for the sled. What does one need to build it?

[tiramisu]

1 tire, 1 utility knife, 1 drill with a 1/2" bit, 1 - 1/2' eye bolt, 2 - 1/2" nuts, 2 -1/2" locking washers, 2 - 1/2" flat washer, 15" rope (12 would be fine), 1 dipping belt or weight belt or some 4" webbing, or just tie the rope around your waist.

Very ghetto and very cheap but it works obscenely well and it is light and portable. I could easily dump 200 pounds of plate in the tire and hurt myself but 70 pounds of bumper plates is doing more than enough damage right now.

[macka]

I like it. I'll have to build one for my son to wear him out.

[tiramisu]

Cycle 3 is finally over.

I had an annoying incident with a welter weight asshole this morning as I started my bench workout so I ended up pushing some heaviers weights to blow off steam.

On the plus side my shoulder held strong all the way up and didn't wobble till the back off sets when I started to tire. Not much of a 1RM but my brain has become pussified.

The 255 felt extremely heavy going down sat on my chest like a lump and then I muscled it up. My postioning/form was good in both directions but my mental state simply sucked I didn't get any windup at all from the negative. It was a wierd feeling. I'm used to the problem being not strong enough and having my form break down. In this case it was like my nerves weren't firing despite my holding good form and having adequate strength.

I suppose it's mostly detraining from the shoulder injury but it was an odd feeling nonetheless

[tiramisu]

First 5 parts of a Dave Tate series on how to bench properly.

My technique improves every time I watch this kind of stuff.

http://articles.elitefts.com/articles/training-articles/part-v-so-you-think-you-can-bench/

[tiramisu]

This should be fun. 1 7/8" Fence Post Axle.

I'm seriously considered throwing together a pair of farmer's walk implements to augment the sled for medleys for conditioning work.

[tiramisu]

The body is an amazing connected system.

I was just playing with an empty bar and trying to rack the bar properly for a power clean or front squat.

I notice 2 things. My wrists are too tight and I can't get my elbows up.
Well lo and behold, my triceps are tight...
My lats won't release and my pecs are tight.
... and this leads me back to the root my darn shoulders.

No mobility.

Time for another round of rehab that I didn't realize I needed:
Wrist Flexor/Extensor stretches
Knobby ball rolling for my forearms
Triceps Stretches
Lat Stretches
Pec Stretches
Broom Stick Dislocates

I'll see how a round of 3x10 seconds twice a day for a few weeks goes.

Will keep working at it until I can properly rack a bar with my elbows parallel to the ground and then flip simple maintain it with regular proper racking in the front squat and power clean.

Not looking to be a yogi but full mobility in through my shoulders/back/chest into my arms seems like it would make my cranky shoulders a bit more bullet proof.

[tiramisu]

3 Kinds of HELL

5x320 was heavy. I'm pretty sure I'm good for another 10 pounds but I had to focus on form for every rep.

Boring but Big 5x10 @ 50% NOT. After 2 sets my legs were quivering, my head was bright red, and between pants for oxygen I generally felt like I was going to pass out.

4 Pulls of the sled. I was too tired to pass out. Heart pounding in the chest eyes closed and hoping for death.

My squat day has moved to an entirely new level. If I can adjust to the workload I'm hoping that this will also move my strength and conditioning to a new level. Either that or it will snap me like a twig, leave me broken and crying like a little girl.

[tiramisu]

Post beating....
Little to no doms. Hams and butt are bit tender but my legs actually feel good today.

Shoulders et al...
The shoulder mobility work also feels surprisingly good. Rolling the forearms and the lower bicep tendons with the ball with the spikey points on it has given me instant relief. I'm going to have to be careful/patient with the mobility work and not go to far into pain. Nonetheless when I do a quick run through the wrists, biceps, triceps, chest, lats and shoulders all the little bits add up to immediate relief.

Added some dynamic stretching with the gymnastics rings to the broomstick dislocates.

.... It would be nice not to be such a weak little pussy. I watched my favourite 200 pounder at the gym work up to deadlifting 3 sets of triples of 505 with a snatch grip and high hips last week, then proceed to do back off sets. I'm still traumatized. Must get stronger.

[tiramisu]

At the end of each cycle I'm going to start testing a 1RM for 1 of the lifts to see if this is actually working. At the end of cycle 4 I'm going to give my squat a shot. My 1RM at the beginning was 380. The program has me with an estimated 1RM of 415 in cycle 4 and my PR is a weak 400 @ 250 back in december before I started dieting and after 6 weeks of heavy singles.

I'll call 400 a success and 415 a big thumbs up for the program and anything over 415 a minor miracle.

I'm not convinced max out on a lift once every 4 months will have any benefit but 5/3/1 has no peaking cycle attached to it and I kind of miss lifting for PR's.

... Something I've been wondering about is whether a peaking cycle every x months is beneficial to long term strength development or not. On one hand I think that overreaching on a lift and developing the peak strength would be beneficial and that even the simple act of program change would drive more adaption BUT on the other hand I think that peaking for 6 weeks and overreach would add significant recovery time on the tail end and either have me end up in the same place as slow and steady or potentially with less overall progress. I can rationalize either argument because I have no clue what I'm talking about.

I should probably ask someone smarter than me.

[tiramisu]

Another day at the office....

Presses went very well today. Bar went up and down.

I've deloaded fairly dramatically on the dips and pullups. Still getting a hell of a pump but the elbows and the shoulder aren't feeling any strain. I'll work my way back up slowly and play it by ear. I really like the combination of exercises in this workout but I need to be careful not to overtrain the two joints.

[tiramisu]

Lost my grip on my last set of deadlifts and had to switch to over/under for my last 2 reps.

The workout went obscenely quick today. Lot's of gas and very little rest needed between sets. Even the tire drag was completely tolerable today.

[tiramisu]

poopies...

My shoulder is achy.

I didn't do anything odd and form was decent. Wave 1 generally seems to be the worst week for shoulder ache as I tend to be straining a little on the last set.

Hopefully it will settle down again quickly.

I've been lax with my rotater cuff exercises the last couple of weeks. I probably need to get back on them and continue to strengthen the external rotaters and scapula

Otherwise business as usual..

[Talo]

Get a ( or a few :) ) deep tissue done !!! It helps big time , well worth the $50 .

[tiramisu]

.... an aside for later thunking. The less I do the stronger I get. I'm getting through 3 out of 4 of my weekly workouts in 30-40 minutes yet both strength and muscularity are increasing pretty much exactly as prescribed in the program.

Some days I miss 90 minute muscle pumping and drop sets. They don't actually work but they certainly feel good.

[tiramisu]

Damn squats are getting heavy. I may have to start pounding down some more calories. 3x340 beltless today. The weight is starting to get to the point where I'm getting a little anxious about squat day. Hopefully I can get another couple of months without a failure but this shit is getting heavy. I won't be skipping a belt on the heavy set any time again soon.

Managed 3x10 @ 50% after my strength sets today. One more set than last week. I was gasping at the end of the 3rd set but my speed of recovery is definitely improving.

Resting time between sets has also dropped dramatically. I may have to rest longer to get my strength back despite my wind coming back so quickly.

Did 5 pulls of the tire in the parking lot @ 35 celsius tonight. Again my speed of recovery between intervals is improving dramatically but that was pretty damn hard.

[tiramisu]

... since I added Boring But Big to the squats and tire dragging sleep post workout has become almost unpossible.

[tiramisu]

... another day at the office. Definitely bumping shoulder press 10 pounds next month maybe even 15.


After yesterday's squat workout Military Press doesn't even feel like a workout. I shouldn't complain though. Strength on this exercisie is definitely improving far better than under the DC program.

[macka]

I can see the shoulder workout feeling like nothing after a squat day. Your tire dragging is a bag drive.
So do you warm your shoulders up well before this? Any insight is appreciated. I am watching your journal and picking up lots of good info for when I break into powerlifting. Right now I am still in recovery row with my neck, but I am gaining strength fast and hoping in the new year I'll have my neck protected enough to get some heavier workouts in.

[tiramisu]

I can see the shoulder workout feeling like nothing after a squat day. Your tire dragging is a bag drive.
So do you warm your shoulders up well before this? Any insight is appreciated. I am watching your journal and picking up lots of good info for when I break into powerlifting. Right now I am still in recovery row with my neck, but I am gaining strength fast and hoping in the new year I'll have my neck protected enough to get some heavier workouts in.

Your post made me think about a few things.

I'm definitely not "power lifting".

What I'd describe it as is intermediate weight lifting.

As a novice progress is nice and simple; squat 3 times a week, bench, press, alternate power clean and deads onces a week and play with miscellaneous stuff for fun.

You can add a little weight pretty much every workout and spend most of your time learning the lifts and getting to "not weak"

As an advanced novice you start hitting little road bumps where you need to reduce your volume a bit and improve your technique but can still generally muddle along increasing your weights on the big lifts most workouts.

As a beginning intermediate shit starts to hurt some. You are now strong enough to overtrain your cns and your tendons. The exercises don't change but you back off to weekly increases in weight and start managing the workload to avoid injury. You also stat to identify what your weaknesses are both physically and in terms of technique.

As an intermediate you start programming on purpose, still the same lifts but

Now you're also saying stuff like; my shoulder gives me problems - why? because it's loosish, So what do you do. Strengthen the little muscles holding everything together. Did that work? ... sort of but when I lose form I still wobble... what to do? .. Strengthen the upper back muscles and scapula?... Did that work... Much better but when I'm on the bottom of a dip/bench I still feel like there's a bad stretch... what to do? Hm, wrists, triceps, biceps, chest and lats are all tight like a spring and when stretched all the force goes to the weak shoulders. Time to start doing some stretching and mobility work...

You also start to lift on purpose... Power snatch... What am I doing? Be Fast, develop power. Deadlift... Max Effort... Rest up extra between sets lift with strength. Tire Drag... Endurance Doesn't need to be heavy not the point. am I sucking air? 5x10 Squats... Hypertrophy does it burn? Don't wait too long between sets.


Powerlifting like Bodybuilding in my mind is an advanced or elite lifters domain. An intermediate lifter has the luxury of being able to get Stronger, Bigger, Faster, and develop more Endurance within the same program. Now that I'm finally starting to figure it out it's seriously fun. The improvements are as dramatic in their own way as they were as a Novice.

As an Advanced Intermediate or Beginning Advanced lifter I think the critical addition is resolving the question of "What are you training for?' According to the reading I've been doing of Verkhoshansky and Zatsiorksy at this level of physical training it becomes necessary to select a maximum of 2 strength characteristics at a time. Annual programming starts to become a necessity.

... and truthfully I have no understanding of the progression to Elite strength levels. I've read some of the articles around the Bulgarian System for weight training and looked at Doug Hepburns work where auxiliary work is essentially dropped and the core lift are essentially worked at no less than 95% 1-3 reps 10 or more times a week and freely admit I'm not there and don't really understand it.

... and the same can be said on the hypertrophy side. I know how to get bigger than I am but the surreal freakiness of the national level amateurs and up is beyond my understanding and while it's easy to point at drugs, effective programming at that level is as critical an element as it is in Olympic Weightlifting, Powerlifting, Football or Hockey.

[tiramisu]

This is now my favourite workout. Shoulder Day has gone from 1rst place to 3rd place since I reorganized my auxiliary work.

Power Snatch for Speed
Deadlift for Strength
Tire Drag for Endurance

I doubt it's optimal programming but it's so much better than my previous mindset that I can feel myself improving every workout.

[tiramisu]

I can see the shoulder workout feeling like nothing after a squat day. Your tire dragging is a bag drive.
So do you warm your shoulders up well before this? Any insight is appreciated. I am watching your journal and picking up lots of good info for when I break into powerlifting. Right now I am still in recovery row with my neck, but I am gaining strength fast and hoping in the new year I'll have my neck protected enough to get some heavier workouts in.

... on the shoulder warm up question. Post injury, for the first 6-8 weeks I would do rotator and band work carefully before any bench or shoulder work and end with light stretching if there was no pain. I also avoided any weight that caused any pain. I didn't drop any exercises but I reduced the workload and focused on gettong through the full range of motion pain free.

I also iced after working out, before bed and after massage. I self massaged every second day. Took aleve as necessary. Strapped my shoulder with a tensor lightly at night. Moved the shoulder through it's full range of motion with pain but NO weight daily then iced again.

So
Rest - 10 days off
Ice - 3 time a day
Compression - light tensor
Elevation - don't sleep on the f'er

THEN

Mobility - work shoulder through full range of motion with NO weight an some discomfor.

Exercise -normal training exercise with weight that induces NO pain
as normally programmed PLUS specific rehab - rotator cuff work, scapular depressions, face pulls

Analgesics - ice ice ice, ruba535 and some aleve

Therapy - self massage - myofacial - rolling pin, tennis ball, cross friction/ with the grain - stick your thumb in there and give the tendons a good rub. Trigger Point - Find the spot where it hurts stick a thumb or a stick in there and give a good circular loosening. ART'ish - Find where it's tight or hurts and stick a good grip on it and move your joint through a full range till you can get some leverage on the tissure and loosen up scar tissue/attachments/muscle fibers.


So RICE, MEAT and figure out what caused the damn problem so you don't simply reinjure yourself?

Flexibility? Mobiility? Strength? Technique? Faulty Body Parts? It can take a fair bit of muddling to figure out why you keep hurting yourself BUT there are some freaky strong people out there doing the exact same stuff without hurting themselves so there is an extremely good chance that you can fix the problem rather than simply accepting it as your own personal boat anchor.

[tiramisu]

Surprising improvement in the bench today. Not exactly sure where it came from but suddenly it felt good. Almost a 20 pound jump in my imaginary 1RM

[tiramisu]

Reviewed My log tonight. I laughed. I Cried....

* I need to continue working on upper back/scapular strength to support my shoulders effectively.
* I've been dodging a structured diet for 4 months. I'm eating clean and 5-6 meals of good food a day and getting the protein in but a measured approach would provide me with the ability to figure out what's working/not working better.
* I'm back to overtraining my grip again. I've muddled on this one and a have a tough time giving up pulling in all planes. I probably need to use my straps more frequently. My back strength/workload is simply higher than my grip.

* GM's need to sneak back in on Deadlift day in cycle 5
* Plyometrics/Shock Training would interesting for squat day in cycle 6 or 7 - Box Jumps or Depth Jumps

* Push Press should probably replace Military Press when it finally stalls - could be waiting a while.
* Squats are interesting, I keep noting how heavy they feel yet they keep grinding upward. I won't be shocked when I fail but it seems like the legs are getting stronger
* Bench is finally improving, there's tons of accessory tweaks but at this point I have no idea what my weakness is going to be so it's steady on with this for a while yet.
* Deadlifts are also cooperating. As my coordination and form have improved I'm able to put more force into the lift. It will probably be a few months yet before I have to tweak anything significant,

[tiramisu]

New Olympic lifting straps.... I had a look around for straps for the quick lifts and saw these guys from ironmind http://ironmind-store.com/Short-Sweet-Lifting-Straps/productinfo/1234/

A quick trip to Fabric Land and I find that 1" cotton webbing is $1.75 a metre and 1.5" of polyester webbing is $3.60 a metre.

I bought 2 metres of each :) a strap is 18" so I have enough for 4 pairs for $10.

... 18" is too short. 22" is way better. A little awkward to set up but I'm sure it will improve with practice and I don't have to worry about what could happen if I need to bail out with the straps on an overhead lift this way.

[tiramisu]

... after much searching, I found a copy of SuperTraining by Siff & Verkhoshansky. So far this is the best texbtbook on strength I have ever read. A must have. I'll be buying a copy and writing in the margins for the next 20 years.

Amazing. It's a shame I have neither the youth nor the genetics to take advantage of all these great resources. It's also a shame that there don't seem to be a lot of good university level textbooks in the last 10 years or so. I can't find much in the way of science on the current chinese methods.

[Talo]

Got a link to the book ?

[tiramisu]

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=PZTG1L2P

[tiramisu]

My technique was horrid today. I had a bad case of tight underwear. Used a pair of cargo shorts and they started binding whenever I got into the hole so I kept leaning forward.

Ground out my numbers but ended up feeling like I had done some serious GM''s. Big time back pump. I'm pretty confident I won't have to reset again next month. Despite it feeling heavy I was able to push through with terrible form and still knock off 2 reps on the final work set.

My 5x10 was only 2x10 and a 7. Back pump in one side was feeling a bit too much like an injury waiting to happen to muddle through.

Dragged the tire sled for 6 pulls today. I didn't quite throw up. I had a moment of coughing/burping at the end where it was close but it passed. I'm reaching the point where I can feel all kinds of little imbalances in my hamstrings and hips working themselves out. Had to shorten my pace at the end and stride carefully to make sure I didn't pull anything. Left Hamstring and right Hip are weak points.

As always I'm looking forward to my deload week. Nothings full blown sore but there's half a dozen minor aches that could use a rest; elbows - inner and outer, left shoulder as always, left ham, right hip, right quad, right wrist.

[tiramisu]

Muddle of the day... Can an intermediate strength trainee efficiently train multiple specific strength characteristics simultaneously?

Much of what I'm reading about advanced/elite athletes recommends no more than to specific characteristis be programmed for simultaneously. But an intermediate is neither advance nor elite..

Limit Strength, GPP, Hypertrophy, Speed-Power can you have train it all concurrently?

[tiramisu]

Another day at the office.

Biceps and left shoulder feel a little tender but not quite bad. My press is actually starting to feel pretty solid. I'm fairly sure this is the first time I've been able to knock off 8 reps of 155. DC didn't move my military press very effectively.

[tiramisu]

... I'm starting to have a vague sense of a plan. not quite mission,vision,goals,objectives but more like a process and a continuum.

Prioritize limit-strength, increase work capacity, continue hypertrophy and power as accessory work.

Work capacity is #2 simply because I have none and could easily drop back down to 4rth once it is adequate to the tasks at hand.

When I put a box around each of the specific strength characteristics I want to improve it seems a lot more manageable to think about how to train them and integrate them into my programming.

It's also getting easier to see a program as a point in time snapshot rather than a end of itself. I still have no idea how program efficiently but at least I'm starting to understand how to do it on purpose.

[tiramisu]

There's nothing quite as satisfying as a heavy deadlift.

The weights went up and down. Still good for another 10 pound increase next month.

Tire dragging wasn't even crushing today.

[tiramisu]

Low energy today. I should have grabbed a coffee and more importantly it's time to start getting serious about eating more. Between adding the extra squatting volume and the tire dragging instead of gaining weight too fast now I'm losing weight. Down to 225 from an oh shit of 230 when I decided I better start pulling that damn tire.

Recovery is up, strength is up, injury is almost healed but I'm willing to bet if I don't get my calories up I'll be stalling in the next 8 weeks. The big heat wave put me off my feed and I really need to get my ass back to the dinner table.

Very minor quiet ache in the shoulder towards the end. Still not 100% but definitely well into the 90's. I'm starting to bench with a bit of power now. I am sorely tempted to add 15 pounds next month but I'm going to hold back with 10 again.

[tiramisu]

This month's plan is:

1) Add 10 pounds to all the core lifts.
2) Increase work capacity through dragging the sled - max out with 10 intervals and getting my accessory squats up to a full 5x10.
3) Reintroduce GM's on Deadlift day - again to increase work capacity but also to continue to work on my mid-back, lower back which have consistently been a weak spot in my deadlift and squat.

[tiramisu]

Good thing it's deload week. Pretty much everything is feeling stiff and old this morning. I need the recovery week again.

[tiramisu]

Quick and Easy. I tried to focus on really good form and crisp movement today. Fast down, pause, fast up following the same bar path up and down.

Knees are feeling a little achy and I had to be gentle with the tire today as things felt generally tight.

Spent about 15 minutes in the hot tub pwo and I took some aleve tonight. I should probably get the ice out and wrap them. They are not actually bad but a little babying would probably help them along.

[tiramisu]

Shoulder felt very smooth during the workout so I decided to do some prehab.

Rotator cuff, face pulls, scapular depressions. My shoulders were actually a little crunchy. A little discomfort in the left shoulder still on the rotator work and some soft clicking in both shoulders.

Not quite sure what's up with rice crispy shoulders but it didn't feel uncomfortable just odd.

....

The 3 common factors of shoulder click are;
a. thickened bursa, b. loose bodies, c. glenoid labral tear.

My current best guess is a) swollen acromion bursa with maybe a little bit of b) calcification caused by the tendonitis in the ac joint.
Treatment is to continue rehabbing the shoulder.

[tiramisu]

Been doing just an obscene amount of reading on strength training this week. Not ready to make any dramatic changes to a productive program but I'm going to add a couple of minor investments to deadlift day.

Before the power snatch I'm going to add some really light ala empty bar, hang cleans, high pulls and push presses. Focus will be on technique and explosive speed.


Once my shoulder is 100% I'd like to be prepared to move heavy push press into my pressing day and I really don't have the hang of the technique.

Once my power snatching runs out of steam, I'd like to play with power cleans again but my racking is severely limited. This should also help my racking for the front squat which I'd like to use for my 5x10 on leg day.

This should also move me slowly closer to being able to do full cleans and snatches to better train for explosive power within the program.

My skill level is limiting my ability to properly develop bar speed. Hopefully in a few months this will give me more programming alternatives for developing speed/power and simultaneously help me with inter-muscular coordination. Yes, I am a clutz.

On a semi-positive note... My arms are getting thicker. They aren't really getting bigger in maximum circumference but rather the upper arm seems to be filling out in general. At a guess my triceps are probably picking up the slack.

[tiramisu]

urp....

Well I added about 20 minutes of quick lifts with the empty bar to start.
No set numbers just sets of 3 and a focus on technique and being explosive as possible.

High Pulls, Hang Cleans, Hang Snatch, Push Press, Overhead Squat (fugly - my shoulder flexibility sux)

I also attempted to be as explosive as possible in all my movements today.

.... My mid-back and traps are fried. My brain is cooked. There is something fundamentally mentally taxing about moving the bar explosively.

I can't say I like it but I'm willing to bet that it will be quite productive.

[tiramisu]

I spent the last week doing manual labour on a wildlife preserve so I took a few extra recovery days. I was starting to worry I'd get weaker but not surprisingly the extra recovery days left me feeling stronger.

I skipped the 5x10 squats this week and just did my working sets and sled dragging. Felt strong, had a little knee wobble on the second last rep of the last set but it was mostly just poor concentration.

Did 7 pulls of the tire today and I felt like the little engine that could. Breathing seems to recover faster than heart rate at this point and I'm breathing like a freight train while I'm pulling but it doesn't feel laboured.

I'm thinking I should be able to reintroduce a hamstring exercise next month. I wish the stupid #$@'er's hadn't sold the ghr. SLDL's are probably what I'll go with unless the back pump is unbearable and then I'm likely stuck with leg curls. leg curls are gay.

[tiramisu]

Only managed 7 reps on the press on my final working set today.
I'm starting to sneak up on my weight. I hope I can add in another 10 pounds next month but it looks like 5 pound increments are coming soon on the press.

Did 3x10 of pullups and dips today. Bicep tendons are a little dodgy. Not full blown strained but there's an ache in there. With all the volume arms are getting with the pressing and pulling it would be nice if they would get big. They've definitely gotten thicker but the circumference on the tape doesn't really seem to be moving.

I suppose I shouldn't worry about big biceps but vanity thy name is tiramisu.

[tiramisu]

I am the ultimate quick lift spaz. I tried to do a proper clean today. Darn near ripped one arm off at the elbow and the other at the wrist.

power clean/snatch, high pull, push press ... check check

overhead squat, clean jesus pleezus what a nightmare.

Wrist doesn't hurt but my elbow feels strained.

Deads went pretty much business as usual. I went with mixed grip on my final work set as I didn't feel like I had 380x5 with a double overhand in me today after my clean fiasco.

The addition of 5x10 GM's felt good. No crazy lower back pumps.

I got a late start today so I'm leaving tire dragging for tomorrow.

[tiramisu]

... Another day at the office.

I cranked my left elbow yesterday so I used straps for the rows. Absolutely no pain in the bench today. Drug the tire and went home. Bench is definitely going up another 10 pounds maybe 15 next month.

[tiramisu]

It's official.. I have Mono-Ab. 15 weeks of serious eating left and I'm actually looking forward to being on a diet again.

Still floating around 230 but I won't be surprised to see 245 by Christmas. Hopefully, the spring will see me back @ 210 but under 10% with another 10 pounds of real muscle on the frame.

Strength is doing well and I should finally be seeing 2/3/4/500 on the military press/bench press/squat/deadlift in my working sets by christmas. Not actually strong but at least I will be able to claim that I'm "Not weak" anymore.

[tiramisu]

Pendlay has some good video's on how to learn the clean and the snatch on his web site blog:
http://calstrengthacademy.com/?page_id=1493

Seeing as I am a spaz I'm going to take his advice rather than continuing to flail about like a headless monkey.

[Talo]

230's not bad. How tall are you ?

Step up the cardio if you don't want it to get too out of control :)

[tiramisu]

5' 9" or 10" depending on my mood (somewhere between the two). I'm dragging the tire twice a week and have just started a 50 hour a week heavy construction job so I'll probably get enough cardio for the next few months. :)

I don't want to get sloppy but Strength and Muscle are the priority till Christmas. I'd like to put up a solid 1200 gym total this year before I spend 3-4 months starving myself.

[tiramisu]

Squats were heavy but manageable. Did my 5x10 boring but big and 8 pulls and didn't even feel like someone kicked my ass.

I seem to be adjusting to the increased work load. My limit strength isn't exploding but my overall conditioning has improved massively.

[Talo]

If you can keep your workouts improving the way you want them AND do a heavy construction job then I don't think you'll be on the slob side of heavy for long :)
Keep the meals as healthy as possible while at work and save your craving meals ( or snacks ) for home.

[tiramisu]

I'm almost certainly going to have to up the calories to keep my workouts moving. I may also have to back off on the tire pulling and possibly even the accessory work. - tbd

The tire pulling has had a remarkable effect on my ability to workout. My rest times between sets has been reduced dramatically. My recovery is generally better. I can't say enough good things about tire dragging.

Now if someone could tell me the secret to eternal youth and an 800 pound raw squat I would be entirely grateful.

[tiramisu]

11 hours in the mud today, 4 of them climbing a 20 foot hill with boots covered in 10 pounds of mud carrying lumber, 4 with a crowbar and 3 more with a hammer.

I feel like a bag of mashed potatoes.

I'm supposed to do shoulders but I think I'm just going to lie here and moan quietly. It's a good thing I've been working on my conditioning otherwise I'd probably be dead.

[tiramisu]

Well 50 hours a week has turned into 68 hours a week of concrete work building a fertilizer plant.

My hands feel like claws and my feet hoofs. The whole length of my posterior chain is toast.
I have no skills so I am the heavy lifter on the crew and there is a hell of a lot of lifting.

Jaque Manuel. Jaque no name, jack job.

3 more weeks of 66 hour weeks on are the books so it looks like I'll be taking a 1 month vacation from lifting. If my body stops hurting I'll try to sneak in for some working sets of my current weight for maintenance but in the interim it looks like I'm going to do a short cycle of extreme conditioning work.

I need to buy a bigger hammer for my tool belt this afternoon.

[Talo]

Hope your making lots of money :)

[tiramisu]

No but the mortgage must be paid.

[tiramisu]

Weighed myself this afternoon. 214 and change down from 229 with a full stomach 4 weeks ago. 68 hours a week of heavy construction is more effective than ketogenic dieting for weight loss (If you aren't concerned about what you are losing).

This is like sort of like working on a prison road gang only shittier. I need to get a real job soon.

[tiramisu]

Thanksgiving weekend. Hands, wrists and elbows are all marginal from drilling 1000+ holes in concrete 11 hours a day for the last week. I'm hoping the weekend will buy me some recovery. Ice, Compression and Aleve are keeping me going and I'm taping my fingers and wrists when I drill.

Truly a brutal work experience. Posterior chain feels pretty decent although my mid back and shoulders get pretty tired at this point.

Overall I would have to rate this a better conditioning exercise than sled dragging but it's really lacking in max effort work. The occasional 250 pound piece of concrete or equipment lift just doesn't make up for squats and deadlift.

Weighed in at 212 this morning and sadly it's not nearly as good a 212 as when I was on my keto diet.

[tiramisu]

It's been a full 6 week lay-off at this point. My hands and wrists are getting trashed pretty badly and I've been taping my wrists and elbow to relieve the tendons at worl but the rest of me had adapted to the new work load.

I'm seriously considering going with the "5/3/1 - I'm not doing Jack Shit" program. About the only thing that I feel that it's missing is chinups. I don't think I've got adequate recovey to manage Boring but Big with my current job but by dropping the accessory work I'm hoping I can continue to increase strength/muscle.

I'm going to back the weight off by the month previous to when I started my layoff and hopefully that will be enough.

[tiramisu]

Good News, Bad News...

Looks like I'll be back in the gym on monday.. Woo hoo!!
I got fired today...

.... Or maybe that's good news, good news.

Last regular workout was Sept 13 so that's a full 13 weeks of 65 hour weeks of heavy labour.

I've probably lost some max strength but my endurance and general toughness is just about maxed out.
Kind of like a 3 month boot camp from hell.

I have to think about whether I'm going to reset with 531, go back to DC or go with 5x5 or Texas Method. I don't have to start a four month cut in the new year for a change so I can focus on either max strength or hypertrophy rather than preparing for the keto diet from hell.

Weight has dropped all the way down to about 205 @ ~13% down from 230 @ 17% which sounds like about 12 pounds of lean weight but that includes dropping water from coming off 500 mg of testosterone for the last 3 months. The testosterone puffy look has been replaced by a much harder look at the same weight.