Gillman's Folly of Enthusiasm

[Dwayne_KONG_Wint]

You will have fun watching the brotege's grow. Even may get a wee jealous at times. I know I did. But that's how you know this shit works, and it makes you love it even more. Alas, I only experienced this phenomenon twice--once with my buddy Brandy and once with ChadtheMeatBeast. Those times were good times and I wish I could have them all over again.

[mkgillman]

28July2015

Rack Pulls
135x10, 225x5, 315x5, 405x5, 425x5, 445x5, 425x5 - These have really made me appreciate the fact that the gym has couple of really crappy bars.

Press
45x10, 95x5, 135x3, 155x5, 170x5x3 - I managed to pretty soundly screw up my left wrist over the last couple of weeks, so I wrapped it up as tightly as I could and the discomfort was manageable. I'm going to be very curious to see how bench goes on Thursday.

SLDL
135x5, 225x3, 315x1, 315x5, 335x5 - Rack pulls really manage to fatigue my lower back, so I'm just trying to feel out the right amount of intensity on these.

No brotege sightings at the gym last night, which I'm really hoping is a good sign. I have been trying to impress upon them that a three day split is going to be more than enough for them and that it is key to always do the least amount of volume that you need to push progress on the lifts. I am intrigued by the possibility of having a few trainees to work with and, maybe in few months, a couple of lifting partners. I'm still pretty skeptical as I have already had a number of people I've worked with to start a novice LP and none got too far into it before they went back to whatever they were doing before.

[mkgillman]

30July2015

Paused Squat
45x5x3, 135x5x2, 185x2, 225x2, 275x1, 315x1, 315x4, 335x4, 345x5, 330x4 - These felt very good last night across the board. I had been feeling that my descent was a little ragged, so last night I really just focused on getting down into the hole and embracing the suck. As I was just starting my work sets a college aged bro wanders over and asks how many sets I have left. I explained that while I had just started, he was more than welcome to work in as it would be a bit. His counter was that "there was a lot more weight on the bar" than he was going to use. When I laughed and said that it comes off and I would be happy to unload it for him, he grumbled and just said that he would wait. That was fine with me and I finished up and wandered away. I normally bench in the rack because the bench station is atrocious and normally I don't trust people for a spot. Figured I would take it slow on warm ups and let the bro get his three sets of half squats done and move back to the rack. However, bro was doing all kinds of accessory work that didn't involve the rack and I was getting to my work sets. I asked if he was still going to use the rack to be greeted with, "Nah, I did chest instead."

Urge to kill rising....


Tng Bench
135x15, 185x2, 225x2, 245x2, 275x4, 300x4, 305x4, 290x4 - Even with dicking around waiting for the rack and misloading my last warm up set, I was going to hit 290 and loaded 300 instead, this was great.

CG Bench
135x5, 225x5, 245x5 - Left one set early on this because a very polite man wanted some help on deadlifting.

Chins

[mkgillman]

31July2015

No No Squats
345, 355, 370, 370, 350 x 5 - I've been thinking more and more about how this lift really can be used in my overall training template. I have been thinking back to the last few times I was running a basic TM block and I always wound up burning out from the volume. I would start off with the volume day based on 90% of the previous 5rm and go from there. The problem is that it quickly got to the point where 90% of a 5rm was just too much to handle for 5 sets across. I like how the combination of the autoregulation and forced lower intensity without the belt and sleeves seems to balance this out.

Press
160, 170, 180, 170 x 4 - Press is actually moving under more volume and, you know, doing it consistently.

Stripped Deads
355, 365, 385 x 4 - These are feeling really nice and smooth lately as well.


3Aug2015

Comp Squat
405x1, 425x1, 450x1, 430x3, 410x4x2 - 450 went real fast tonight. I was actually just going back over the video and I was surprised that it was a lot faster than I seem to recall in the gym. That also likely explains why the triple was smooth afterward. I think last cycle I was pushing the singles a little bit too hard and was really getting busted on the back off volume after. Maybe a little more restraint this time until closer to October

Comp Bench
285x1, 305x1, 320x1, 305x3, 290x4x2 - Bench continues to roll. I think there is a pretty good chance that I can run this up into pr territory in the very near future.

Arm Blasting.

[mkgillman]

4Aug2015

Halting Deadlifts
135x10, 225x5, 315x5, 385x5, 415x5, 405x5

Press
45x10, 95x5, 135x3, 155x8, 165x8, 155x8

SLDL
Nope

So yesterday was basically crap. I took the day off because the plan was to take the kids to an amusement park and have a family day out. So, I tried to hit the gym early, but realized pretty damned quickly that having about 12 hours recovery time between squats and bench the night before and trying to lift in the morning was not a recipe for success. 415 on the haltings was a good 20 lbs lighter than what I had gone in looking to pull and even that was not perfect. Hit press with what I could muster and then tried to warm up on SLDL and had nothing left. Came home and loaded the kids in the van to head off and my eldest son got sick all over the back 5 minutes from the amusement park. Cleaned up what could be cleaned with wipes and turned back to home with the other two intermittently complaining about the smell and crying because they didn't get to go to the park.

Get home (again) and just tell the wife to take the other two kids to the park. Give the sick one a bath and set him up in front of the tv, then address the back of the van. The only positive thing I have to say is that we have a carpet cleaner that has an attachment that is obviously designed to suck nastiness from cracks. I could have wept for joy if I wasn't trying not to gag. Contact work to let them know that I won't be in do to 24 hour lockdown and spend the next hour trying to deal with issues that have cropped up at work via phone and text. Wife and healthy kids didn't get home until pretty late, so I couldn't even sneak in a quick bonus ride.

Yesterday sucked.

[Dwayne_KONG_Wint]

Sorry about the vomit man! I'm glad I haven't had any throw ups in the house since the school year ended (knock on wood). There is nothing worse than throw up in the car....not even 2 a.m. throw ups are as bad as car vomit. Glad you kept it together and didn't lose your lunch.

[mkgillman]

6Aug2015

Paused Squat
45x5x3, 135x5x2, 185x2, 225x2, 275x1, 315x1, 315x5, 335x5, 350x5, 335x5 - I had the best session with these that I have ever had. Paused squats always kind of annoyed my knees, but last night I found that if I focused on leading out of the hole with my hips the problem immediately went away. I really locked into that and was nailing the reps with 350 being a solid PR, not that anyone really tracks paused squat prs....

TnG Bench
135x15, 185x2, 225x2, 245x2, 275x5, 295x5, 305x5, 285x5 - The last rep on 305 was a flat out grind @10, but kept everything locked down and got a clean rep on it. e1rm is still trending upward.

CG Bench
135x5, 225x8, 235x8 - Not much left for these

Chins

[mkgillman]

7Aug2015

No No Squats
325x8, 345x8, 365x8, 345x8 - The good feels on squats carried over from paused on Thursday to my Friday lift. 365 was a miserable, hard thing, but it got done.

Press
165x5, 175x5, 180x5, 170x5 - The last rep of 180 was a complete grind, but this is the first time I've hit 180x5, so I am stoked

Stripped Deads
365x5, 405x5 - No fatigue sets, but everything felt really good and the bar was moving nice and easy.



9Aug2015

Comp Squats with Wraps
45x5x3, 135x5x2, 185x2, 225x2, 275x1, 315x1, 345x1, 405x1, 435x1 - And all of the good from Friday turned into garbage yesterday. My wife is out of town all week and, after going on a long mountain bike ride Saturday, I tried to get volume in yesterday. I got to the gym feeling unmotivated and beat up and that only got worse as I tried to force it. I am 11 full weeks, 10 training weeks, out of the next meet, so I wanted to add wraps in at this point. I had forgotten what a hassle they are to get on and that I have a hard time getting set under the bar with them. After 435 my left shoulder and elbow were getting cranky and I just didn't have it in me to push through.

Comp Bench
135x15, 185x2, 225x2, 245x2, 295x1, 310x1 - Same deal here. Everything felt terrible and motivation was 0.

Take away: I needed more time to recover and I am going to stick with sleeves, screw the wraps.

[mkgillman]

11Aug2015

Press
45x10, 95x5x2, 135x3, 165x3, 175x3, 190x3 (PR), 185x3, 175x5x2 - I ran into the garage while the kids were having a little bit of television last night and hammered out some press. Even with the PR it felt a little less snappy than it has in the past few weeks, but I got the work in.

Rack Pull
135x10, 225x5, 315x5, 405x5, 455x3 - After the kids went to bed I headed back out to try and get some more work in before I fell asleep. I neglected to change into workout shorts and was pulling in a pair normal khaki type things. Unfortunately, something between the belt and the shorts started pinching my lower abs and I left it after the third rep on 455. It wasn't as much as I wanted, but it worked out for some volume at least.

[mkgillman]

17Aug2015

Comp Squat
45x5x3, 135x5x2, 225x4, 275x1, 315x1, 345x1, 385x4, 405x4, 435x3 - So after a largely bust in training last week, I tried to get back into the groove last night. Everything was moving very well until the 3rd rep with 435 when I felt a sharp pull on the left vastus medialis toward the distal attachment. I got the rep and even briefly contemplated going for my planned fourth, but racked it instead. After some contemplation I skipped all the fatigue work and left squats alone for the remainder of the session. I don't think that anything bad wound up happening as there is no swelling, discoloration, or pain this morning, so I'm hopeful it was just "one of those things." I don't like "those things."

Comp Bench
135x15, 185x2, 225x2, 245x2, 275x4, 295x4, 305x4, 290x4x2 - One of the nice things about not doing much volume with squats is there is a lot more left in the tank for bench, right?

Arm Stuff