Continuing to smash weight

The new training phase has been going pretty well. I'm liking the splits, what I am getting done, the overall length of each training day isn't ridiculous. Things are going well. I'm still early in the progression but so far I have started out with a DL PR, a bench PR, and most recently I tied my front squat PR. I might have been able to break it but I was to anxious to hit 300#. I attempted it twice and hit the bottom both times... FAIL

BUT

Lesson learned. Even though both attempts felt good going down with the weight and I came out of the hole fast the first time I should have been more patient. I singled 275# pretty easily, tying my max, and jumped to 300. I should have tried to hit something around 285#. I would most likely be writing a different story had I done that...lesson learned. Be patient. Be smart with choosing your next attempt. Good things come in time. So next time I work up my front squat, or any lift, I'll be sure to heed that advice and hopefully I'll crush an old max weight and push a PR.

Lifting smart really does equal lifting strong

WEEK 2 DAY 1
Front Squat 10x45, 8x95, 5x135, 3x200, 235x1, 275x1, 300xFail, 300xFail

45 degree back ext 3x10 60# + straight bar sit-ups 3x15 50#

Prowler 90# x 40yds X6

Day 1 Day 2 of new cycle

Day 1 will almost always be my max effort lower body days -- that way I get the job done right off the bat. I started out with a max effort sumo pull. After some warm-ups and activation I started my pulls.

154x10
198x8
264x5
308x3
331x1
352x1
384x1
419x1 Raw PR
462xmiss- completely stapled to the floor

My assistance for that day was 3x10 GHR w/25# + some core work

To keep my work capacity up I am going to finish all my lower body days with Prowler pushes.

90# X 6

Tuesday

Upper body conditioning day/rep day

Same warm-up
3 cycles with 3 exercises per cycle 3 sets per exercise different reps
This was a great workout-I'll go into it a little more next time but it was hard, challenging, changing, and I felt great...still feel great afterwards. The push-ups were alittle humbling though.

2 days into the new cycle (12weeks) and I'm pretty much loving it. I am excited about my next two training days and even more excited about the next 2 weeks and the next 10 weeks after that. We'll see how it all goes, I've made some changes to this program from my lessons learned in the previous one --- and this new one has some difference than the last one.

Word of the day: excited

Previous Training Cycle

Okay -- So, I spent the last the last 10 weeks training 4 times a week. Mondays was a max effort upper body lift + variations of pull-ups. I always kept the total tonnage higher on the pulls than on the pressing, which led to doing quite a bit of pull/chin-ups. I mixed the grip on the pull/chin-ups in order to break the monotony and utilize different grips/different muscles etc. One thing I really liked about this is that I definitely got my absolute back-side strength higher than ever. I think my max was about 7 sets of 2 reps at 35-45#. It also helped keep my shoulders healthy, for the most part.

I was experiencing some AC pain but I tracked it down to my 5's weeks. I kept changing my press each week in order to keep lifting heavy, but every week I would do heavy sets of 5 reps I would experience pain for 3-4 days later. Most of my working sets were in the 70-77% range of my max. If I worked sets of 3's in the 80+% I would not get the pain, so I'm leaning to that fact that volume was just to high for that training weight. In my next training cycle I am going to do a lot more triples.

My second body day was more upper body work, but instead of horizontal pressing it was a variation of vertical presses - MP, DB MP, Jerk. This was also the time I did my assistance work on this day. I did some variation of db pulls, some shoulder work, and then tri's. I definitely liked this set-up. It helped keep my time down per workout and still allowed me to get the necessary training in. I am going to keep this set-up in the next training cycle. Except this time I am going to add a little more pulling on my max effort day and my second upper body day is going to be more upper body circuits in order to keep my work capacity up, still target the backside, and help somewhat with body comp.

.... As far as the upper body training goes I think I was able to learn a few things about myself, so I am gunna stick with what works, and change what needs changing...I'll report back in a few weeks.

Did I run today....response to Fbook

Nope. Was actually planning on it, but I did not have time due to some important work. I have had some good success with the first 2 weeks of my new program but I have missed my fourth workout every week, lower body conditioning day 2.

That is all I really would like to say for now.