200, 300, 400, 500 - A quest for greatness

Pretty decent workout tonight, and weirdly, I forgot to take caffeine beforehand.

Deadlifts, Light Squats

Deadlifts - loose belt on work sets

Form today felt a little strange. I almost felt like I wasn't maintaining the arch quite as well, but it didn't feel "hard" on my back at all. That and when I do the reverse of my normal grip, it feels like my shoulder blade on that side kind of wants to sag forward, probably exacerbating that sense of at least thoracically rounding. Not sure what that is.

Anyways, warmed up to 345 for 2 sets of 5. Form felt a little off but, effort wise, this felt okay.

Bottom Half Squats - flat shoes, no belt, band around the knees

Warmed up to 175 for 3 sets of 10 bottom half reps. Pretty grueling, but this definitely represents an all time PR in this style of squat.

If anyone is curious why the hell I do stuff like this, it's because I'm replicating the hardest aspects of squatting in a single exercise. I.e. keeping the knees out and strength out of the hole.

Seated Calf Raises

As an excuse here, I think I've mentioned this Nautilus Seated Calf Raise has an incredibly long lever arm making small weights = big weights, but anyways, a set of 45 x 15/15 (15 full, 15 half immediately afterwards) reps.

Nautilus Nitro Seated Abduction

160 x ~15.
 
Hmm, okay day.  Everything was mostly fine with the exception of the bench press, as I was forced to bench in my parent's basement (gym had closed).  This is a problem because the damn thing is unstable as ****, wobbles side to side etc. Very noticeably impact on my performance, which is why I stopped using it in the first place.

Full Body

Squats - loose belt

Warmed up to 280 for 3 sets of 5.  Maybe the hardest 3 sets of 5 ever.  All time PR.

One of the workers at the gym gave me a nice compliment, though, he asked if I liked to squat a lot, and I said sure, why was he asking.  He said that of all the people he's seen squat at the gym, I had some of the nicest form.

Bench (first reps paused)

Did this later in the night, well after the effects of the caffeine had worn off.

Warmed up to 230 for 2 sets of 5 reps.  The third set, I might have been able to get the 5th, but the spotter (my pops) grabbed the bar.  I was actually saying "I got it," but because I said anything, he immediately thought I was crying for help.  I don't normally count it when somebody touches the bar, so I guess that'd make it 4.5 reps or something.  But I think I would have had it!

Tried 5 reps again on the 4th set but struggled too hard on the third, only managed another 4.5 reps.  Fifth set I was just cooked, managed 3 reps and couldn't even get the 4th.

I will repeat this weight next week and attempt to get my 5 sets of 5 on a ferrealz setup.

Chins

I just bootlegged this as I'm not even sure where to go with it.

One set of me + 92.5 for 5 reps, one set of me + 47.5 for 11 reps.  The 47.5 for 11 would be an all time PR, I suppose.
 
<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">280 for 3 sets of 5. Maybe the hardest 3 sets of 5 ever. All time PR.</div>
Nice. Flat shoes, right? How was the hip shifting?
 
<div>
(Lol @ Feb. 16 2009,5:05)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE"> <div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">280 for 3 sets of 5. Maybe the hardest 3 sets of 5 ever.  All time PR.</div>
Nice. Flat shoes, right? How was the hip shifting?</div>
I'm not sure if I'll ever really get rid of it.  It was probably there, but it wasn't that much on my conscious radar.  It was more &quot;holy **** this is heavy&quot;
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And yah, flat shoes - I seem to be able to move a little more weight in them versus my oly shoes.
 
Man, even just doing 4 sets of exercises for 3 sets of ~10, the pumps are ridiculous.

Shoulders/Traps/Arms

Press

Warmed up to 105 for 2 sets of 10, one set of 9. Overwhelmed by pumps.

Shrugs

Hammer Seated Shrugs - 2 plates per side for 2 sets of 10.

Standing DB Shrugs - 70s for a set of 15.

I think I prefer the DB shrugs, actually...

Seated DB Curls

40s for 3 sets of 10.

Dips

Me + 57.5 for 2 sets of 10, one set of 9. I think I would have had the third set of 10, but decided to (inexplicably) pause the last rep of the last set, and got stuck in the sticking point.
 
Lower Body

Deadlifts - double overhand for warmup, straps + belt on work set

I've been getting some asymmetric tightness in my lower back recently from deadlifting, seems to be QL on the right side. In principle, it seems to me like deadlifting with an alternate grip is NOT the path of wisdom in terms of back health in the long run.

I decided to strap up today, and things felt alright. Weirdly, I'm not sure I felt quite as strong. But my back does not feel asymmetrically tight, which is a good sign.

Anyways, warmed up to 365 for a set of 5. I take too long between reps when I reset every time, probably took like 15-20 seconds between reps 4 and 5. I should probably cut this down, but for some reason, setting up over and over takes more out of me than just cranking them out does.

Bottom Half Squats - band around the knees

Warmed up to 180 for 2 sets of 10. These continue to go really well, all time PR here.

Leg Press

5 plates per side for 20 reps.

Calf Raises + Abduction

Calf Raises in Nautilus Nitro Leg Press - 320 x 10/15.

Nautilus Nitro Abduction - 165 x 15.
 
I'm about to go do another session, but it seems I didn't log my last one.

This workout occurred on Thursday.

Chest/Back

Bench - first reps paused

Warmed up to 200 for 2 sets of 10, 1 set of 6. Second set was basically to failure, JUST managed to squeak it out. Third set I didn't even bother pushing per se, just stopped before even slightly risking failure.

My original goal here was to get up to 200 for 3 sets of 10. ****...close!

Pulldowns - v-grip, chest up style

160 for 3 sets of 10. Pretty solid.

Nautilus Nitro Fly

65 for 3 sets of 10.

Nautilus Nitro Compound Row

155 for 3 sets of 10.
 
Full Body

Oly Squats - oly shoes + loose belt on work sets

I decided to test strength in high bar, oly squats today.  *** deep, with an emphasis on arching my back, balancing on my feet, and shoving my knees out on the way down.  I really get that &quot;squat between the legs&quot; feel that Dan John talks about.

In some ways, I honestly find this movement feels more natural to me than a low bar squat for reasons I don't entirely find clear.  I also have much less of a tendency to GM the weights up as the going gets tough.

Anyways, warmed all the way up to 275 for a single, which didn't feel bad.  I decided to rep 275 out, and managed 5.  This puts my top end strength within respectable distance of my low bar squat.

Then I decided to do a backoff set of 225.  I managed 12, and probably could have done more, but didn't want to risk form breakdown, and my arms were going numb.  This is an all time PR in terms of repping out 225 in any style of squat.

Bench

I didn't have time to do 5 sets of 5, so I decided to go for a 3 sets of 5 all time PR.  I came close.

Warmed up to 232.5 for 2 sets of 5, first reps paused.  My third set, I managed ~4.5 reps - I just could not lock the fucker out.  My best last cycle was 232.5 for 2 sets of 5, so I seem not to have improved my top end here so much.

I am considering moving this to 3's, or perhaps rotating in dips again.  Any thoughts by my readers are welcome
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Chins

Warmed up to me + 95 lbs for 5 sets of 3 reps.  Hard, but an all time PR in terms of sets across at the absolute weight (i.e. almost 270 lbs total).
 
Shoulders/Traps/Arms

Press - flat shoes, no belt

Warmed up to 110 for a set of 10, 9.5, and 7 reps. I will probably switch this to 3 sets of 8 next week.

DB Shrugs

A pair of 75s for 15, 12, and 12 reps.

Incline Skullcrushers

80 x 10, 70 x 12, 12.

Seated DB Curls

45s x 10, 8, 8.
 
Man...shitty day.  Deadlifts in particular just felt like garbage.

Lower Body

Deadlifts

Warmed all the way up to 370 for a set of 5 reps.  Just a shitty set, rep #2 was totally stiff-legged out of context (I mentally did a wtf-was-that???), and I just felt generally stiff-leg y and like I couldn't maintain my back in extension that well.

I got mad and decided to try the weight again, this time without straps and my usual grip, and did another set of 5 reps.  Technically, 2 sets of 5 reps would be an all time PR for sets across, but the second set felt pretty shitty, too, the last rep in particular was definitely stiff-leg-y + roundbacked.

For reasons unknown, my groove and strength just did not feel right tonight.  Maybe my legs were zapped by going bonkers in high bar squats the other day?  Maybe my nervous system is confused with the switch to strapped deadlifting?

I need to harden the **** up.

Bottom Squats

185 for a kind of shaky set of 10.  Groove felt weird (and a lot less natural) after having done high bar squats the other day.  Still technically an all time PR.

Leg Press

Did these in oly shoes for some reason.  5 plates + 5 lbs per side for a set of 20 reps.

Calf Raises in Nautilus Nitro Leg Press

325 x 10/15.
 
Dammit...today actually went really well, but I JUST failed to hit my bench goal for this cycle...again!

Chest/Back

Bench

I used a little bit closer grip today and, despite my triceps being sore, I felt strong.

I warmed up to 200 where I did 2 sets of 10, first reps paused, and then 9.5 reps, with the first rep paused.  Yes, I missed lockout by a couple of inches, and just could not get the fucker.  I couldn't believe it...I just wanted my 200 for 3 sets of 10, dammit!

Still technically an all time PR across sets, but I WANT 3 SETS OF 10 @ 200 &gt;
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Chins

Despite being really pissed about bench, I managed a nice PR here with 3 sets of 10 across with me + 45 lbs.  Definitely an all time PR.

For the second half of the workout, I wanted to try out stopping all sets short of grinding, and aiming for a certain total # of reps. Basically Waterbury's rule where one rep is noticeably slower than the previous, and/or some spontaneous change in form has occurred.

Dips

Me + 60 x 9, 7, 7, 7.

Pullups (wide grip, chest up style)

Me + 10 lbs x 8, 6, 6, 5, 5.
 
I tried out a method of training today similar to what I did in dips and pullups on my chest/back day last. I'll expand more upon why I like this idea in a subsequent post (late for a family party), but suffice it to say that my initial impressions are very favorable.

The idea goes like this:

* Perform a prescribed number of reps at a prescribed load in very careful, good form, attempting to &quot;feel&quot; the exercise the whole time. I.e. try to really be mindful of every rep.

* Terminate the set when one of the following happens: a noticeable decrease in rep speed from one to the next (i.e. you start to noticeably grind), some spontaneous change in form you can't control (GMing the weight up in squats, knees collapsing in during squats, roundbacking a deadlift, etc).

And that's it. In my case, I started my lifts at ~80% of 1 RM, which is right around a sweet spot for dose/response, and performed as many sets using the above criteria as possible until I hit 15 total reps (the optimal total in Prilepin's table for ~80-90% 1 RM).

The main interesting thing is that, at least perceptually, I grinded MUCH sooner in squats than upper body lifts.

Full Body

Oly squats - oly shoes + loose belt on work sets

Warmed up to 255 for 15 total reps. The sets went 4, 3, 3, 3, 2. It's worth pointing out here that the final set will often be dictated by the total # of reps, rather than the above criteria, i.e. you will stop short of a high effort just by virtue of hitting your rep target.

Now, obviously, I've gone as high as 280 for 3 sets of 5 in low bar squats, but I am weaker in high bar squats, particularly as I disallowed myself to GM the weights at all.

Bench

Warmed up to 220 for sets of 6, 5, and 4 reps, first reps paused. This felt oddly easy (i.e. doing 6 reps on the first set before I noticeably started to grind, I probably could have done 220 for at least 7 reps, which is pretty wild).

Chins

Me + 80 lbs for 5, 5, 4, and 1. Yah, I could have forced a 5th rep on the 3rd set, but that's not the point, so I held myself back.

Hip Abduction + Hip Adduction

Hip Abduction - 100 x 12.

Hip Adduction - stack (190) x 12.

What's mildly interesting to me was that my hip abduction strength seemed lower than usual after high bar squatting. Is it possible that high bar squats actually work my glutes more than low bar? This would be a plus.

This workout actually felt very good. Tiring, but in a good way, I feel a lot more refreshed than I normally do after grinding my *** off for my strength work.
 
Cool idea, Mike. How do you feel 3 hours later? I love that you put such a strong emphasis on form.
 
<div>
(_tim @ Mar. 02 2009,9:40)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Cool idea, Mike.  How do you feel 3 hours later?  I love that you put such a strong emphasis on form.</div>
Feel great, honestly, I'm going to use this method for all of my exercises for a while.

It's worth pointing out here that this is the same idea Waterbury has written about the past couple of years, but that some of us labcoats (e.g. Blade and others) were writing about the general concepts ~6-7 years ago in relation to achieving a certain total volume of a given exercise in our HST routines without overtaxing the CNS.

I dunno, I really like this idea, I find it so easy to get caught up in attempting to set PR's that I lose the mindfulness of each and every rep.  I'd rather train like this in general and occasionally test limit strength than constantly test limit strength and occasionally train like this.

It's worth pointing out, however, that this strategy, more of a &quot;slow cooking&quot; approach (which is what attracted me to it, I saw the parallels with systems prescribed by people like Hepburn and Justa), is probably more useful once you're at/near PR levels. If you're coming off of a layoff, or any temporary decrease in performance/conditioning, a more &quot;traditional&quot; style of linear increments will probably get you towards your limit strength faster. E.g. the &quot;SST&quot; logic I described in my initial posts.
 
I continued today's training in the same style as above.

Shoulders/Traps/Arms

Press

Warmed up to 110 for 8, 6, 6, 5, 5. Felt good.

Trap Bar Shrugs

Wow, this feels much better than shrugging with dumbbells. Or even a normal barbell. I think it's the lack of friction of your own arms against your body.

Anyways, up to 160 for 15/10/5, shoulders to ears style (i.e. very much full ROM).

Straight Bar Curls

95 x 8, 6, 6, 5, 5.

Dips

Me + 62.5 x 8, 6, 6, 5, 5.


One interesting thing to me is that at ~10 RM, my pattern of reps in most lifts is pretty similar using the slowed speed/altered movement criteria.
 
Hmm.  Weird day.  Experimented a lot with form on deadlifts, I had my physical therapist friend watch me and indicate when I was losing lordosis.

Lower Body

Deadlifts - oly shoes

I initially warmed up to sets of 315 and 335 with a double overhand grip, no belt.  I was losing it at lockout on 335, but that's as high as I've ever gone without an alternate grip or straps, so my grip appears to be improving by practicing double overhand.

I then did a couple of singles of 365 and 385.   In both, Vince indicated I was losing lordosis.  I asked him how bad, objectively, my back position was, and he said it was still &quot;fair,&quot; but that I had lost some of my arch as I initiated the pull.

Which begs the question - how much do I care?  It doesn't feel dangerous to me, and I can lift monstrously more weight by allowing a little flexion.  It isn't that I'm not trying to arch, it's just that I'm losing a little arch, particularly as I initiate the pull.

Anyways, backed down to 315 for a set of 2 to practice with a lighter weight, then a set of 5, without a belt but with straps.  Focusing super intently on both arching my back and keeping the bar in contact with me the whole time, the set of 5 at 315 was actually surprisingly challenging.

So, I'm not really sure what to do here.  I think I need some video of me pulling at different weights to see what **** looks like, and what I deem acceptable.

Bottom Squats (low bar) + Leg Press

Bottom Squats - Warmed up to 185 x 7, 6, and 2 in my &quot;new&quot; style.

Leg Press - 5 plates + 25 lbs per side for sets of 9 and 6.

Nautilus Nitro Lower Back Machine

120 for a set of 12.  I was surprised how fatigued my back was, particularly at lockout, from the super strict deadlifts.  Apparently arching as hard as you can throughout the duration of your pull fatigues your back.   Go figure.

Seated Calf Raises

5 x 9, 7, 6, 5, 2.
 
I'd be interested to see what happens if you try the same thing in flat shoes. Probably wouldn't make much of a difference to your back extension but you never know. I think a little rounding is inevitable if you are pulling some heavy loads and I don't think it's bad.

I find that if I consciously tighten my lower back during the first part of the pull, I can maintain a natural extension much better, although it still goes a bit once the load is high enough. If I forget to focus on it and lose extension early on, it's a pig to try to get it back. That's what happened during the 440 I pulled the other day and why I didn't try going any heavier that night. What you describe as &quot;...losing a little arch&quot; sounds perfectly fine to me.

If you watch Konstantinovs deadlifting you'll see he allows his upper-back to round quite a bit in order to get his shoulders lower at the start of the pull but his lower-back seems pretty stable the whole time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6NTk8-Cu1I

And Mark Felix tends to lose extension a bit during this heavy set of 5, but not by much. (It's always difficult to really see what's happening because of clothing and belts.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXZ0ZqBIYDo

<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">...the set of 5 at 315 was actually surprisingly challenging.</div>Yes, that is surprising!
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Interesting you mention oly shoes. I was just doing some form gay analysis with a digital camera using a pretty high res video, and I think I know part of what was going on.

Contrary to my expectations, and something I think I observed once before, lifting in a heeled oly shoe does the exact opposite of what I thought, initially, it'd do to hip height/quad drive. It makes you start with the hips a bit higher than a flat shoe or barefoot.

As such, lifting in oly shoes using Rip's criteria is going to be MORE of a challenge to maintain lordosis than the thin soled, flat shoes I normally wear, or going barefoot. That heel is acting like a mild deficit. I noticed this exact same thing, actually, in watching the Starting Strength DVD - most people's hips start pretty high, the girl who was just wearing flat shoes seemed to get into a hips lower, &quot;better&quot; starting position.

Oly shoes ftl? Either way, I've determined I'm a little stronger in flat shoes anyways so I'm pretty sure I'm kicking the oly shoes to the curb for deadlifts for the time being.
 
Interesting day. Systemic fatigue doesn't seem too high, but my actual muscles feel pretty zapped. When I demonstrated dips to somebody at the gym earlier (I'm a personal trainer), I knew I might be in trouble for my chest/back session as my arms were shaking with just bodyweight :-x

The plus side to this style, like max-stim, is that you still hit your prescribed load for your prescribed total reps, even if you have a shitty day. It just takes more total sets.

Chest/Back

Bench

200 x 7, 6, 5, 5, 5, 2.

Supersetted with:

Lat Pulldowns (v-handle)

165 x 8, 6, 6, 5, 5.

Nautilus Nitro Fly Machine

70 x 10, 9, 8, 3.

Supersetted with:

Nautilus Nitro Compound Row

160 x 9, 8, 7, 6.
 
Two pretty interesting observations today...

1) The submaximal style I was doing is hurting my top end performance.  I think this is because I'm not practicing speed/RFD as much when trying to &quot;feel every rep,&quot; and it seems to have had a noticeable impact in all of 2 weeks.  Doh. This method might work better for hypertrophy-specific work.

2) I tried low bar squats again today, and they felt ******* awful at my top sets.  The contrast between low bar and high bar was pretty interesting and apparent.   Maintaining good back position and not GMing the weights is considerably harder for me in low bar, as I imagine it is for most people.  As a consequence of this, I &quot;feel&quot; low bar a lot in my back, in terms of back fatigue.

Conversely, high bar squats I don't feel nearly as much in my back, and the fatigue itself seems limited to the legs.  As a consequence of this, I seem to recover more quickly between sets of high bar.

Doubly weirdly, I'm not even sure how much stronger I am in low bar versus high bar.

I also benched today, and while it felt &quot;okay&quot; doing a set of 5 with 225, it wasn't quite as easy as it should have been.

Combined with feeling a little run down, I think I'm going to deload this week by only lifting a couple of days this week.  Heavy, low volume, but submaximal (in terms of effort, i.e. not pushing failure).
 
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