Deadlifting

Today I came to the club with a little surprise. I assumed I would be starting my first week of squatting heavy but I was pleasantly surprised that I still had one more week of testing - Conventional DL Max effort.

Which also means I have one more max out session on upper body - SHIRT MAX - vera naaice!

Today went something like this...

132x10 398x1
198x8 418x1 PR - felt smooth
264x5 428x1 Miss - picked it up....and put it right back down
309x3
352x1

I PR'd at 418 and it felt great. It didn't FEEL heavy - my speed felt good and my lockout felt strong - I think I just need to keep smashing weight in order to get stronger.

One additional surprise is that my max out sumo-pulls was pretty much the same. I don't know how to interpret these results. I don't see it as a bad thing, good thing, just an odd thing. I thought for sure my sumo would have been stronger.

My goal for the end of this phase is going to be a lockout with 428. Like I mentioned, I got if off the floor. "So, I got that going for me."

One last tid-bit. I have recently been exposed to the documentary Food Inc., Food Matters, and The Beautiful Truth. I highly recommend these documentaries in hopes they inspire you as they did me. Besides all the little factoids and anecdotal proof/testimonials which absolutely blew me away. Watching these documentaries have shed a little light onto my perspective of the pursuit of knowledge. After viewing these peoples opinions on the topics they discuss I wouldn't say I am would just drop everything and "drink the juice." But there are it helped me see that there is so much more the world can offer us, how much we take things for granted, and that there is so much more hope for everyone if people just took the time to educate themselves. All three documentaries just had a huge underlying theme, laziness. Whether it is diet/nutrition or other forms of medicine (topics covered by these films)we just accept one's professional opinion as the end all be all truth. I say, watch the films, read up on the materials covered, investigate, seek answers on all ends. Then form your opinions.

The word of the day: Self-educate

Wake - up World, Stop be lazy, investigate, learn, analyze & assess, ... take action

If I can quote a movie(pretty much the opposite of these above mentioned documentaries) National Lampoons Van Wilder.

"Apathy is the glove in which evil slips its hand into. -- Write that down."

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.

And again... its been awhile!

Its been since August since my last post...therefore my motivation, demonstration, etc has not been the best.

So, here is my plan: I am finishing up my 10 week cycle and once its completely over I will summarize my successes and setbacks. Then I will divulge what I plan to do next and I will update that as I go.

So with that said - here's looking to the future!

Train hard

Ouch!