TangoDown's Vanilla HST Run

TangoDown said:
I've been thinking about saving up for a couple months and buying an Olympic barbell and 8 45s. Should run me about $400-$500 unless I go looking on Craigslist/ebay. I have no room in the apartment but I might be able to use them in the building's back yard and store 'em somewhere under a tarp (because we live on the top floor and I'm not carrying 8 45s and a barbell up and down the backstairs every workout). As for smaller plates, I already 2.5lb, 5lb, 10lb, and 25lb plates. I don't think they'll fit on an Olympic bar though.

That way I can deadlift without old people and scrawny San Francisco technies complaining about the noise to me and to gym management.

I'll keep thinking about it. If I do do it, I'd eventually want to buy a bench too so I can give up the gym completely.
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Best decision I made was buying Olympic bar & 190kgs of plates, bench and half rack and giving up the gym membership, can train whenever I want and for as long as I want and make as much noise as necessary. Do not miss waiting for the squat rack etc just need to get some more 20kg plates.
 
I'd do it in a heartbeat but I live in an apartment with no room for it so I'd have to do it in our apartment building's backyard. There's workers back there most weekdays so I'd have to either do it early as fuck in the morning or after 5. So it's not as straightforward as I'd like.
 
Nope. San Francisco is a major Crossfit city so Crossfit gyms are pretty much as hardcore as it gets here and Crossfit is always insanely expensive (plus fuck Crossfit). Otherwise, there are national chains like 24 Hour Fitness and Planet Fitness that have hex plates or ban deadlifting/chalk and a ton of hyper-expensive health clubs. There's a JCC a couple blocks from me with a great facility, for example, but membership is like $150/month. It's insane here because this is a city for yuppies, LA transplants, and Silicon Valley techies.

There are a couple of decent, independent gyms in the city that I'd consider but they're too far away from me considering my schedule atm.

It's too bad because Dan Green and Mark Bell both have their gyms in Northern California, but not in or near San Francisco.
 
Messed around with some wide grip pullups at home. I usually do them with a grip width that's a little bit wider than shoulder width.

I'm 171-172lb.

BW x 5, Belt + 40lb x 3
Belt + 65lb x 3 (clean reps), then 1 rep I couldn't quite get my chin over the bar. Not going to count it. Decent for changing up the movement pattern from what I'm used to but didn't want to do clusters with it. Problem is, the chain on my belt is too long so 65lb starts on contact with the floor. When I coil it up, the chain is too short to take 65lb. So pullups won't be possible at home.

Then I did some rest-pause at about 30 seconds rest with 40lb a couple minutes afterwards just for the hell of it:

Belt + 40lb x 5, x 4, x 2, 1-2 reps left in the tank each time. I need to get back to doing pullups at my gym. As for chins at home, pretty much up in the air at this point considering the height of my pullup bar. Maybe I can find my versa grips somewhere so I can do 'em comfortably at my gym. I need to get my dumbbell and plates back from my friend so I can maybe throw in some dumbbell rows. I've always been pretty strong at 'em and I've always felt them in my lats real well.

Anyway, off to the gym to continue to reprogram my bench and maybe squat.
 
Bench (Reprogramming):
Bar x 5, 135 x 5, 155lb x 3
185lb 2x5, 190lb x 5, 195lb x 2, 135lb x 5

Still having some trouble with this. Need to really push into the ground with my legs but I always get distracted trying to unrack the bar due to the poor bench design. Leg drive should keep my scapula in the retracted position. I just need to hammer that home. I think next session I'm just going to use 75%-80% and do a bunch of sets. Sort of just futzing around atm.

Squat (low-bar):
135lb x 5, 185lb x 3
5x2 @ 230lb

This felt real easy. Bar speed felt like nothing until the last set where it slowed down just a bit. I'll move up to 235lb next time and see if it stays that way.
 
Weight: 171lb-172lb @ 5'8"

Bench Press:
Bar x 5, 135lb x 5, 155lb x 5, 185lb x 2
205lb x 5 (PR + 5lb)

Sumo Deadlift:
135lb x 5, 225lb x 3, 275lb x 1, 320lb x 1
365lb x 1, 385lb x 1, 405lb x 1 (PR + 20lb)

Weighted Pullups (Clustered w/ about 2 minutes between):
BW x 5, Belt + 45lb x 3
Belt + 65lb x 5, x 2
___________________________________

Reprogramming my bench paid off. I still don't think I'm nearly as tight as I like but I definitely felt more stable. I think I could have even punched out another rep. I'll either start back on my rest-pause work or try 210lb x 5 next session.

Huge PR on Sumo DL. I don't know how good form was. I need to film it. Guy who saw some of my heavier warmup sets said it was fine but how can I trust anybody who lifts at my gym? Lol. So I'll try to bring my other phone to film next time so I can still listen to music. But 405lb did not feel like a max. I think I could have put another 10lb-15lb on the bar and gotten it but I need to confirm that my form was acceptable first. So I might repeat next session if I can get my second phone to work.
 
Congrats man.

PR form is irrelevant for the deadlift, frankly. It's either up and locked or it isn't.

I'm confident that is not your max, not by a damn sight. Let's call it a training max at best.

I would not try to up it again next session. Just increase your 90% and 85% by 5-10lbs and keep going. Try again in a month maybe. Time to consolidate.
 
Thanks brotha.

I'd like to retest bench though. If I had 205lb x 6 in me then I should have 210lb x 5. I'll heed your advice on DL and increase my 90% and 85% to 365lb and 345lb, respectively. You think I should keep doing the increased volume (doubles with 90%, triples with 85lb) or go back down to singles and doubles? I only increased the volume last week.
 
BW: Somewhere around 171lb-172lb @ 5'8"

Was not into my workout day. Stress + overslept and needed some more caffeine + achy joints + showed up to the gym late. So I didn't really finish out anything:

Bench: Warmup sets, then 210lb x 3, 210lb x 1

The long unrack really took away some of my power and stability. I was going to try for 5 but the bar got caught on the right rung because of its design. So I need to step back and determine how to unrack without this shit happening. Really focusing on unracking with the lats still doesn't seem to help.

So back to regular workout here. Either going to continue with rest-pause at 210lb or do doubles/cluster w/e. I'll be thinking about it over the next few days.

Sumo DL: Warmup sets, then 365lb x 2, 365 x 1

Know I could have at least gotten 3 doubles here but I just wasn't into it...

The rest of the workout was also abbreviated.
 
173lb @ 5'8"

Squat (Low-Bar):
135lb x 5, 185lb x 3, 210lb x 2
5x2 @ 240lb

Fairly easy. Will move up another 10lb next time. Considering squatting twice a week but will see how I do with just once a week. Expecting my 1RM to be somewhere around 300lb, which is half-decent for never squatting lol. Should increase rather quickly.

Bench:
135lb x 3, 160lb x 3, 185lb x 2,
210lb x 2, x 2

Terrible. Joints hurt and felt weak. First double, asked for a lift off and of course the guy pulls me out of position. I think I'm going to back off and do some pause work for the next month or so. My chest is the weak link, not my triceps. I know this because bar speed is generally not an issue, my triceps are pretty developed relative to my chest, and I always fail bench on to a couple of inches off my chest. Pause-work should help off the chest and should get me to focus more on stability and leg drive as opposed to "HNNG GET DIS WEIGHT UP." Should force a more controlled eccentric too, which should lead to better stability.

I was thinking doing triples at 80-85% paused. 4 sets. Twice to three times a week. Pause would be 1 or 2 seconds.

Weighted Pullups (Clustered @ 2 minutes b/w):
BW x 3, Belt + 45lb x 3
Belt + 65lb x 4, x 2, x 2, x 2

Weight kept slamming into my fucking shins while maneuvering around with it. Hate wearing shorts for that reason. Anyway, I'm guessing my 5RM for these will be Belt + 60-62.5lb once I hit 175lb. If so, that's a 10lb-12lb PR from precut weight last year in December. Doesn't seem like a ton but weighted pullups are always hard to increase after a point. If I play my cards right I'll be repping out 90lb at this body weight in a couple of years.
 
173, 5'8"

Paused Bench Press (~2 second pause):
Bar x 5, 135lb x 3, 160lb x 3
195lb x 3, x 3, x 2.5

Spotter decided to help me on the last rep despite my instructions to not touch the bar unless I told him to. I'm friendly with the guy though and he's actually one of the few people in my gym who cares about form and is on a legitimate program so I can't fault him too much.

These definitely felt harder than a touch-and-go set which is to be expected. I think I could have felt a bit stronger had I set up a bit farther away from the bench rack and thus not had to be as conscious about bar path to avoid slamming into the rack. I'll have to play around with optimal distance which is hard because my gym's bench is shit.

Anyway, I expect these to get stronger. I'm aiming for 4 sets. Dunno if I should do these 2 days or 3 days a week for now.

Sumo DL:
135lb x 5, 225lb x 3, 275lb x 2, 315lb x 1
345lb x 3, x 3, x 2

Form felt a little iffy today. I know I am strong enough to get 4 sets of this. I think the combination of my bulky headphones being in the way and not getting back enough onto the heels didn't help. Will repeat weight next triples session.

Weighted Pullups:
*cricket noise*

Paused Squats (~2 second pause):
135lb x 5, 185lb x 5
220lb x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3

I threw these in because I want to start progressing on squat again and I felt like once a week won't be enough to do so. I do think these are going to help assist my sumo deadlift because I'm a very PC/back dominate deadlifter and a low-bar back squat is primarily PC dominate, though I think I go deep enough that quads are definitely getting hit to a great extent too. I definitely think I'm almost ATG with these.

Anyway, they felt pretty good. I'm not going to try and make these too grindy since they're right after heavy deadlifts, so I'm thinking of doing these these around 80% of my 1RM. I'll move these up by 5lb a week and see how they feel.
 
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5'8", slightly west of 175lb

Paused Bench:
Bar x 5, 135lb x 5, 155lb x 3, 175lb x 2,
195lb x 3, x 3, x 3, x 2

Sumo Deadlift:
...little note about this. Worked up to 365lb x 2, got 2 doubles and one single, felt real awkward, bar rolling everywhere. Mucho not safe, some back pain. And then I realized why this shit was happening. My grip width is FAR too wide. No real lat involvement to keep it close, thus bar shifts etc, etc. After I did weighted pullups, I went back and brought my grip in to about shoulder width...even maybe slightly less, and worked back up to 365 and did a double. Absolutely no problems. Pretty uniform bar speed. No bar movement before coming off the ground. So now I know my problem here. It felt sort of weird having hands much farther in because now they're digging into my quads at the top, but I should get used to that. Also now I have only a tiny portion of my pinky on the gnarling so it makes the bar harder to grip, but I'll get over it.

Weighted Pullups:
BW x 3, Belt + 45lb x 3
Belt + 65lb x 3, x 3, x 2
 
Another night of waking up every 1.5-2 hours. Really been bad lately.

I dread to wonder how much my sleep issues have affected and do affect muscle/CNS recovery. And yes, already had a sleep study. No apnea despite swearing that I only slept around 2 hours of the 9 hour period I was hooked up.
 
Paused Bench: warmup sets, 195lb x 3, x 3, x 3, 170lb x 2, 135lb x 4

Still having a lot of trouble keeping scapulas retracted during the entire set. Worked on driving as I can into the floor and thus my traps into the bench but I think I'm slipping out of position. Frustrating. Still, I could probably move work weight up to 200lb but I'm not satisfied until I iron out this shit.

Squat: warmup sets, 250lb x 2, x 2, x 2, x 2

Need to work on an even unracking as I'm still fairly new to squatting again. Reps felt a lot harder than last week's 240lb which was surprising but I did sleep very poorly last night. I'll repeat this again next week and see how they feel. In the mean time I'll move paused squat up to 225lb.

DB Rows: Tried these out. Worked up to 100lb DBs (limit in my gym). Far too easy. Felt like, grip withstanding, I could get 20 reps. Looks like I can't do these.
 
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Too bad those 100lb DBs are too light for rows. My upper traps are DOMS city today. That's what I get for never doing a rowing movement lol.

Maybe I'll just do it like Kroc and rep out 20+ reps every other session. Then the traps will get some love.
 
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