HLM Week 5 (5/07/17-5/13/17)
Wednesday:
Press:
192.5x5 (PR)
192.5x4,4
Squat:
340x5x2
Incline DB Press:
80x8,7,7
Weighted Chins:
15x5x3
Skipping the accessory days this week. First set of press was a PR but it got ugly at the end. I have a bad tendency to twist and shift my hips to one side when grinding out the last rep. Only got 4 reps on the subsequent sets. Figured I'd take 5lb jumps on the weighted chins since I'm losing weight each week (hopefully). Worked out this time at least.
Press:
This is what I am tentatively planning to start next week.
Each main lift has a heavy day and a medium/volume day. For bench and press I'll switch the 1x5 top set to a 2x3 when needed. The 90% is relative to my top set weight.
I put the incline db bench on tuesday and added CGBP on Friday to increase benching frequency and volume. Also gives me a buffer so I'm not going straight from squats to deadlifts or vice versa. I kept these in the 8-10 range so I'm not going heavy two days in a row. First time experimenting with that sort of thing so I'm not entirely sure how it will go. I kind of want to try dips as well, maybe alternate them with the incline db press. Haven't done them in 7 years though so I don't know if I'd be able to get 8 reps or more like 2, lol.
The arm/shoulder stuff at the end is kind of optional. I'll plan on doing it as written but if I'm feeling beat up or just want to get out of the gym on a particular day I'll skip it. I can also do it at home later in the day if I want.
No assistance movements for squat/deadlift to start with. I might add some RDL's on Tuesday at some point. Maybe some leg press or even front squats for quad work. I do think that relatively weak quads are part of the problem with my goodmorning tendencies on the squat.
I think I will try to run out the 2x3 top sets (hopefully I can get a month or so out of that) and then see where my 1RM's are at that point.
I see you also screenshot from excel to imgur to post tables. That's the only way I could figure out how to do it. I wonder if there's a better way?
Also, such bench volume! My only advice is to listen to your shoulders and elbows. I think the muscles can handle it, but the joints might complain. This, of course, is coming my own jaded relationship with bench/press volume. You'll probably do fine and end up super jacked.
I would also keep an eye on Monday's bench performance. I wouldn't be afraid of dropping the upper body assistance from Friday when Monday's progress starts to stall. Hopefully I'm not out of line with this advice. Seems like there's some real smart folks around here and I'm just blind squirrel stumbling upon nuts.
I'm planning to add some bike rides/airdyne in as needed depending on how the fat loss goes. I kind of want to see how far I can get just lifting before that becomes necessary.
Google doc but yeah. I got the idea from you, it's a lot easier to read at a glance than any sort of in-post formatting.
Yeah, it's pretty high volume and I will definitely back off if my elbows or shoulders are feeling too beat up. I'm hoping that keeping the incline and close grip stuff lighter will help. I've never benched with this much frequency or volume though so it should be an interesting experiment.
Do you mean the arm/shoulder stuff or the close grip work? Or both?
The close grips and pressdowns are what jumped out at me. But you do have 2 days off going into Monday. The lateral raises really triggered me, though. Every so often I incorporate them, and probably do them wrong, and they destroy my AC joints. So mostly I'm just jealous of your lateral raises, and therefore don't want you to do them.
Yeah, two days off and the pressdowns are pretty high rep/light weight on Friday. I'll definitely be wary of recovery issues though and adjust as needed.
I've heard about lateral raises causing problems for people (and upright rows which I haven't tried yet) but they don't seem to bother me so far. Do they hurt when you're doing them or does the pain surface after the fact? I haven't had either personally.
In the future when I have massive "caps", try not to hate me too much, bro.
Weight/Measurements (Week 5 - 5/12/17)
BW: 270 (-3.2lbs)
Avg Weight: 272.4 (-1.2lbs)
Waist: 44.25" (no change)
Total Change since 4/14 (4 weeks):
BW: -6.8lbs
Waist: -1.25"
Average calories for the week were right at 2700 and I didn't do any cardio. If I was just going by the scale weight each Friday it would look like I was losing very fast, possibly too fast, but the average weight tells a different story. This coming week I'm going to plan on staying at the same intake but adding two cardio sessions. Probably a couple of bike rides, hopefully outdoors but maybe on the airdyne if that doesn't happen. Should be able to lose 2 lbs/week without too much muscle loss at my BF%.
Good news is that I'm actually consistently losing fat on a 2700 calorie diet. I've lost significant amounts of weight at several points in my life before now and every time I was doing it on 2000 cal/day. It worked and it worked relatively quickly but eventually I would hit a plateau and not have anywhere left to go because if I cut calories beyond that I would have been miserable. It was also too low to maintain and I ended up regaining the weight eventually every time. Trying to do it smarter this time and it seems to be working so far.