Randy's Quest for 5/4/3/2

[Randy Scheingold]

2/9 – Week 87 - D3 (week 22 with Karl)

Squat 300x5 5 Rep PR Tie (I think)
DL 345x5 5 Rep PR!!
CoC Trainers - Later today...Hoping for 6 sets of 3 reps each hand


Squat
- First 2 reps good, 3 & 4 parallel, 5 slightly high....this is via my slow motion playback
- My question to Karl, "GIve it to me real....does this count enough to move up 5lb next week or do we need to repeat? You may need to look in slow motion My gut says move up, as I need to lift heavier to be able to do this easier."...I'll let you know what he says.

DL
- Felt good, but definitely heavy.
- Breaking off the floor no problem at all (thanks Haltings)
- Lock outs getting harder though. (do we need to throw some rack pulls in???....or just keep marching upwards)
- More Karl Questions,"Are the lockouts on Rep 4 & 5 good enough to count this as PR and move up in weight?"

[Randy Scheingold]

The ruling on the field for my DL & Squats above is....:

1) DL looks good. Just need to remember to extend my hips more fully. But a passing grade, we are moving to 350x5 next time.
2) Squats, my assessment was right. 1 & 2 good, 3 & 4...too close to call, 5 high. Karl's opinion (which I agree with fully) is that this is mental....in less kind terms...I'm basically a wuss. I have the strength to do this and just need to stop being scared of dumping the bar again (like a few months ago) and do it. I've been stuck here for ever! We are marching to 305x5 next week and will go from there.

[Randy Scheingold]

As posted directly to karl....due to laziness.

2/11 – Week 88 - D1 (week 23 with Karl)

Press 160x5 5 Rep PR!
Squat 235x5x2
Bench 185x5x3
Chins BW+10x4.75, BW+7.5x5x2

Press
- After 3 attempts (first months ago near when we started together), I got it!
- I think bar was too far ahead of me on a few reps, so needed significant layback
- This was a limit set for sure. Had to work for rep 5. Let me know how you want to treat next Press ID day. another 2.5 jump or do we go smaller?....your call.

Squat
- No problem, a bit of knee slide on set 1, so I tried to focus on knees out more

Bench
- My little arms were too short to unrack this on my own...different bench with non adjustable uprights. Got a lift of too compensate.
- With the lift off, these were EASY
- Is a lift off cheating? Should I always get a lift off...or try to unrack Light Day & VD myself?

Chins
- I was supposed to repeat 5lbx5x3...but I got greedy
- 10lb was strong for 3 reps, then by the 5th rep I knew I was about 3 inches shy of a full lockout
- 7.5lb looked good to me....you give me the verdict though

Tomorrow is official weigh in day, but as of yesterday & today I was up .5lb to 207.5lb. Could be water retention due to salty foods...not sure. Lowest I got this week at any point was 206.5 (.5 lb down). I can't check my waist....measuring tape broke...ordering a new one. But on the plus side I finally got into the 2nd hole on my belt...so that is progress I guess. I'm wondering if we need to lower carbs by 15g & fats by 5g? Or do I need to start adding some HIIT in? Minus 1 night with 50g of extra carbs, my macros have been pretty much on target. I'll post weekly averages tomorrow as well.

I feel pretty good recovery wise. Back was fatigued from PR deadlift...but no pain or soreness. I do get tired earlier in the night though...probably due to less carbs.





Chins - Set 3 (7.5lb)

[Randy Scheingold]

2/12 - Nutrition Update

- End of week 3 check in
- 1st Goal met (21 days of tracking) AND 21 days of hitting macros!!
- New goal - 8 weeks of tracking AND hitting macros (averaged over the week)
- Note: I'm trusting in the process more than the outcomes....as I want to move quicker, but Karl seems happy that I am consistently losing the weight and wants it to remain achievable + minimize muscle loss. So...goals will be around macro compliance & I'll let Karl sweat the rest of the details

Weight:
--1/20 213.5lb
--1/27 208lb
--2/5 207lb (down 1lb)
--2/11 206.2 (down .8lb)

Waist:
--1/20 37.25in
--1/27 36.5in
--2/5 36.25in (down .25in)
--2/11 TBD (accumeasure tape thingee broke...ordered new one). But I was down 1 notch on my 4in belt.

Navy Method
-1/20 25% BF, 159.5 LBM
-2/5 23% BF, 159.3 LBM (2% BF loss...although this is no where near that accurate I'm sure...)
-2/11 skipped due to no waist

No change to macros goals
P - 240
C - 190
F - 81
Calories: +-3% of 2449 (hitting protein & calories is priority #1...I sometimes mix up P & C a bit depending on food choices through out the week/Volume Days/etc)

Macro compliance
- 1/27 P - 241, C - 206, F - 78 - Calories 2555 (within 4.5% of target)
- 2/5 P - 242, C - 189, F - 83 - Calories 2492 (within 2% of target)
- 2/11 P - 243, C - 204, F - 75 - Calories 2485 (within 2% of target)

Other Info
- Keeping up with BCAAs
- sleep still good
- set another 5RM DL PR (3rd in a row) and a Press 5RM PR. tied my Squat 5RM PR

Lessons
- Ordered up a ton of my True Nutrition protein & my BCAAs to make sure I don't run out
- Careful with bulk cooking higher fat proteins like Beef (10%) and Pork...limit to 1.5lb which I can knock out in 1 or 1.5 days...anymore and it gets icky before I can eat it
- Go to the USDA site to get more accurate macros for meat you cook at home. Great tip from the SSOC forums

No update on dexascan...I may wait until I get to 15lb of weight loss and then go as a reward/more accurate gauge of how much more I need to lose.

[chromoly]

Wow your compliance is good. Within 2%! I have no doubt that sticking with it will get you the results.

[Randy Scheingold]

Wow your compliance is good. Within 2%! I have no doubt that sticking with it will get you the results.

Thanks! I've tried this multiple times. 2 years ago I lost 40 lbs (via macro tracking and lots of cardio). I put a lot back on...although hopefully at least 1/3 of that was muscle. I've finally found my groove again.

[Randy Scheingold]

2/14 – Week 88 - D2 (week 23 with Karl)

Squat 270x5x4
Press 155x5,5,4 + 135x1 (about 20 seconds later)
Rack Pulls - 350x5 (PR!....and first time ever...so anything would have been a PR)

Squats
- Felt good, weight actually felt LIGHT!!!
- I did get fairly fatigued by sets 3 & 4 though...I think this was due to low carbs...mistimed my meals (on the road for work again....about to dig into a double chicken chipotle burrito bowl)
- I feel good about depth & knees slide, head popped up a little bit
- But overall, heavyish squats haven't felt this good in a while

Press
- These were hard, mostly due to exhaustion, following the squats
- Wasn't able to get that 15th rep, so I stripped off the 10lb plates and did a very hard single at 135 immediately after

Rack Pulls
- First time ever! These were fun.
- They felt great going up
- Very hard going down, but I did a slow eccentric motion as I didn't want to fuck up the bar...I couldn't find a beater bar at this gym...B&W has them, so that will make this easier...they also have blocks I could use.

Overall, I'm very happy with my work tonight & progress lately. I do feel TIRED AS HELL. My back, abs, and shoulders are all in pain now....not really pain...but I can tell I worked the hell out of them.

I may move my Thursday workout to Friday and shift Saturday back 1 day as well. We'll see how I feel.

Sorry for shitty lighting on videos.

Set 4 - most tired here


Set 1 - least tired here




For Karl from my SSOC log, but anyone can answer : How do my first rack pulls look?? I thought they looked pretty good...but what do I know.

[Randy Scheingold]

2/14 – Week 88 - D3 (week 23 with Karl)

Squat 240x5x2
Bench 210x5x5
CGBP 200x6x3
Chins 10lbx5,5ish,4

Squats
- Felt a little heavy, but bar speed fine. Good depth. good head position

Bench
- Felt heavy for sets 1 to 3, set 4 felt better - no lift off
- Lift off on set 5...made it feel a TON lighter

CGBP
- lift off on all sets
- felt fine...only mildly challenging on last reps of each set

Chins
- I did 10x5, and 7.5x5x2 last time, so jacked it up to 10x5x3
- First set good, 2nd set cut ROM last rep, 3rd set only got 4

Ton of benching volume today This has to be a Bench tonnage PR for me





chins - Set 2 where I cut ROM on last rep




Nutrition still on point. weigh in on Sunday again

[Randy Scheingold]

2/19 – Week 89 - D1 (week 24 with Karl)

Squat 305x2
DL 350x2

Squats
- had that weird shimmy on my last warm up single. Freaked me out a bit.
- first two felt slow, but looked good. 2nd rep was high....mental issues.

DL
- Ran out of juice after 2 reps...I don't think it was mental.

recovery
- I don't feel horrible at all, but...rack pulls took a lot out of me and the. 8 heavy sets of bench had me sore for the past 2 days.
- I don't think we need to change anything here, just an observation

questions for Karl
- how do we get over my fear of heavier squats? 270x5x4 felt great...add 35lb and I turn into a coward....
- do we do my next ID in person?
- do we focus on singles and doubles for a while to build up confidence?
- I don't think another reset it needed. I've been stuck at 305 since August! And have done multiple resets.

More thoughts after an afternoon of reflection.... I have been doing too much negative talk lately. Even in my blog here...."I'm a coward, I'm a pussy, etc." This is 100% a mental block and I need to get over that. The advice of just do it...hasn't helped. So I am going to look into Iron Mind (the book) and try some of the ideas in there. And I am going to make a point to cut out the negative self-talk. Am I as strong as I want to be....fuck no. But....I go to a ton of gyms throughout the control and frankly, aside from my home gym (B&W in Chicago...there are a bunch of strong mofos there...)....no one else is doing 4x5 Squats with 270 to 280lb...TOO DEPTH. No one else is pressing at all...let along pressing 160 for reps. And while a few people have decent DLs....they all have completely rounded backs. And...none of those folks are 40+ years old, working a real job with travel, and balancing a family with that. So...I need to stop making excuses...look at how far I've come and realize I am strong enough to plow my 300x5 PR Squat up to 365x5 Squat THIS YEAR.

shimmy warm ups
http://youtube.com/watch?v=xvVcCv7z1w4

http://youtube.com/watch?v=jZNvoTUUJEU

http://youtube.com/watch?v=1ZwftuIhPqs

[Randy Scheingold]

2/12 - Nutrition Update

- End of week 4check in
- 28 days or tracking & hitting macros
- Next goal - 8 weeks (50% of the way there)

Weight:
--1/20 213.5lb
--1/27 208lb
--2/5 207lb (down 1lb)
--2/11 206.2 (down .8lb)
--2/19 203.1 (down 2.1)

Waist:
--1/20 37.25in
--1/27 36.5in
--2/5 36.25in (down .25in)
--2/11 TBD (accumeasure tape thingee broke...ordered new one). But I was down 1 notch on my 4in belt.
--2/17 36.75in (new tapemeasure \ new baseline. I think I was cheating the old one a bit, can't cheat the new one as its one of those circumference measuring things)

Navy Method
-1/20 25% BF, 159.5 LBM
-2/5 23% BF, 159.3 LBM (2% BF loss...although this is no where near that accurate I'm sure...)
-2/11 skipped due to no waist
-2/17 23.92%, 155.52 LBM

No change to macros goals
P - 240
C - 190
F - 81
Calories: +-3% of 2449 (hitting protein & calories is priority #1...I sometimes mix up P & C a bit depending on food choices through out the week/Volume Days/etc)

Macro compliance
- 1/27 P - 241, C - 206, F - 78 - Calories 2555 (within 4.5% of target)
- 2/5 P - 242, C - 189, F - 83 - Calories 2492 (within 2% of target)
- 2/11 P - 243, C - 204, F - 75 - Calories 2485 (within 2% of target)
- 2/17 P - 249, C - 200, F - 77Calories 2489 (within 2% of target)

Other Info
- Keeping up with BCAAs
- sleep still good
- Saw my first PR failures in 3 weeks today

Lessons
- nothing new

No update on dexascan...I may wait until I get to 15lb of weight loss and then go as a reward/more accurate gauge of how much more I need to lose.