The anti-patterns training log

[hbw96734]

10/15
Squat - 5x5@355
Bench - 6@300 (can't count 7th rep), 315, 330, 345, 355, 365, 375-fail, 4x8@250
Deadlift - 3x5@375

Busier in the gym than I'm used to today. Several very strong folks that I didn't recognize - guessing people in town for USAPL Raw Nationals. Any ways...
Squat - speed and strength were good - just need to keep concentrating on keeping lower back locked in and trust that everything else will stay square.
Bench - restarting my bench program from earlier this year. Slight modification to the back-off sets - doing 8s instead of 5s. Initial AMRAP set felt good the first 6 reps. Seventh rep I racked myself without spotter touching it, but I'm not counting it because I got stuck on my right arm and so I rolled to my left to get it up higher - got the bar into the hooks but my right elbow never locked out. Even if I had, it would have been a red light for unequal lockout. Was able to go much heavier with singles than I would have guessed going in today. This is good news - I'm not far off from my PR despite not having done any heavy singles in a couple months.
Deadlift - not as fast as last week. Had several suggestions from one of the other lifters who's also a trainer. He noted that my knees collapse in a bit as I initiate the pull and that causes me to loose extension in my low back. He had me widen my grip a bit so that I could shove my knees out harder to start. A bit awkward but when I got it right it did feel like a much stronger start.

[hbw96734]

10/17
Squat - 3x5@300
Press - 5x5@167
Bench - 3x8@250

Squat - not as beat up as last week but still nice to deload
Press - solid set - not as easy as last week but still strong
Bench - matching bench deload weight and reps to Saturday backoff sets, just one fewer. No problem

[hbw96734]

10/19
Squat - 5x5@360
Bench - 5@315, 4x8@250

Squat - first set felt good, second and third were kinda rough but rested longer between sets and got it together for the last two. Pretty tired after I got through with these
Bench - fatigued and not excited about benching tonight (what?!). Hard grind to get all 5 reps at 315 which I got for 5x5 just recently. The bench giveth and the bench taketh away.

[hbw96734]

10/22
Squat - 5x5@365
Bench - 7@302, 317, 332, 347, 357, 362, 367, 372 (ties T&G PR), 5x8@252
Deadlift - 3x5@385

Squat - went reasonably well, starting to have some trouble holding low back together 5th set as fatigue set in. Pretty soon need to either decrease the weekly volume and/or start belting up again.
Bench - felt strong today. The 7th rep at 302 was a grind but I got it cleanly with even lock-out (unlike last week). Singles went well and tying my PR is a good sign. Back off sets just flew up no problem.
Deadlift - continuing the experiment with the slightly wider grip. Worked well first set but obvious lower back rounding by the middle of the 3rd set. So, not sure how to proceed - might need to repeat this weight and see if I can continue or ??? Meh, deadlift has not been my friend in quite a while.

[hbw96734]

10/24
Press - 5,5,4,5,5@170
Squat - 3x5@305
Bench - 302, 3x8@252

Press - not awesome today. First two sets were slow and then the third set was a failure. Fourth set felt like nothing and then fifth was back to a grind.
Squat - light day - nothing special
Bench - ditto

[hbw96734]

10/26
Squat - 5x5@370
Bench - 302, 4@317 (failed 5th), 3x8@252

Squat - took long rest intervals between sets. Legs are handling the weight fine but low back was all kinds of sore.
Bench - First 4 reps moved quickly but 5th rep just stopped dead half way up. Good grief.

[hbw96734]

10/30
Squat - 3x5@375
Bench - 6@305, 5x8@255

Really poor sleep Friday night plus a mountain of homework that I wasn't sure how long it was going to take me to do meant that I decided to skip on lifting Saturday. Twelve hours of homework later... Better but not great sleep Saturday night. Forced myself to go to the gym and at least try something this morning. Everything moved slow and heavy. Gave up on squats after set 3 because form was breaking down badly. Bench reps similarly slow so I didn't even try singles. Skipped deadlift entirely - hopefully will try and get those tomorrow. Probably will just muddle through this week and repeat all weights next week. Still need to do a couple more hours of homework tonight.

[hbw96734]

11/2
Squat - hahaha
Bench - 5@320, 4x8@255

Several nights of bad sleep. Low back is constant dull ache. Tried squatting but after a couple reps of 315 I just hurt too much. Wussed out. Bench was unremarkable.

[hbw96734]

11/5
Squat - 5x5@375
Bench - 7@307, 322, 337, 352, 362, 372, 377-fail, 5x8@257
Deadlift - 2x5@385

Squat - better today. Had to take long rests between sets but managed to keep lower back in control today. I think its time to just do one 5x5 day per week and find some other accessory work mid-week.
Bench - almost had a PR - pushed 377 too far back and pressed into the bottom of the hook and had to have spotter help me
Deadlift - first set went great, second was pretty darn tough to keep in extension. Probably need to switch to a single heavy set of five and back off work.

[hbw96734]

11/7
Press - 3@175 (misload), 5,4,4,2@170
Good mornings - 3x5@95
Bench - 307, 3x8@257

Press - well, this was a real mess. Went too heavy to start (should have repeated 170 since I missed last time) and then power just fell off a cliff. Shoulders were burning from the word go and had to grind each rep. Feeling a long ways away from PRs.
Good mornings - going to try reducing total weekly squat volume for a while and instead plug in something to work on low back control directly. After all, this wouldn't be the "anti-patterns" log if I didn't throw in random half baked ideas at the last minute from time to time. Felt awkward as hell since I haven't done these in forever. ROM was tricky because my hamstrings were so tight - particularly felt the stretch all the way down behind my knees.
Bench - back off day, nothing exciting