Han Shot First

[Aaron Montgomery]

Congrats on your deadlift PR. Keep pushing ahead!

+1, Deadlifts Rule!!

Thanks! Hopefully I hit 400 before the year's out.

[Chris McCarthy]

Congrats Man.

[Aaron Montgomery]

HLM Week 5 H

5/23/17
198.2lb
4200 cals/day

Bench - 190x5/2 (5 rep PR); 180 2x5; 170x5 (5 min rest)
Inc db curls - 12x12/10/9 (60s rest)
Squat - 305x3 (PR); 290 3x3; 275x3 (5 min rest)
Superset (60s between sets):
- db flyes 12x15/15/15
- db front raises 12x12/12/10
Deadlift - 275 3x5 (volume PR, 4 min rest)

Bench - 190 felt a lot heavier than it should have. Got stuck halfway up on the third rep of the second set. If I didn't know any better I'd say my anterior deltoids gave out. Back off sets felt uber heavy too today. I may need to change some things up with my bench programming. I managed 185 3x5 two weeks ago (barely), but now I can't hit 190 2x5.
Squat - I hate squats, I really do. That is all.
Deadlift - Hit a volume PR since I don't recall ever doing 3x5 on deadlifts before. We'll see how my lower back feels tomorrow.

EDIT - tweaks to HLM Bench program in this new thread http://startingstrength.com/resource...h-program.html

[Aaron Montgomery]

HLM Week 5 L

5/25/17
198.2lb (time to up calories soon, bleh)
Waist measurement - blob of fat

OHP - 110 3x5 (RPE's 9, 9.5, 9.5); 100 2x5 (4 min rest)
Superset (60s rest):
- db front raise 12x13/10
- db lateral raise 12x12/10
Chinups - x5/5/5/5/4 (24 total)
Squat - 245 3x5 (80% of H day)
Baker BB Rows - 95 3x12 (90s rest)

OHP - Bleh. Barely managed 110 3x5 when I hit 115 3x5 on SSLP. Oh well, bench is the focus right now, not OHP. Shoulders felt really fatigued today.
Chinups - Glad I was able to manage sets of 5 since I wasn't able to do any last week due to my swollen finger.
Squat - 80% of H day sure feels heavy. Decent bar speed though.
BB Rows - Too tired to do more chinups, so did a few sets of light BB rows.

[Aaron Montgomery]

Woke up at 1:30am with intense lower back pain. Moving to the couch didn't help much. Guessing it has something to do with helping a friend move a bunch of stuff out of his second story apartment Thursday night. Popped motrin and sat on a tennis ball for a while this morning. Lower back is feeling a little better now, but definitely can't train today. I can barely bend over to tie my shoes my lower back hurts so much. Did some light gardening today, and will continue to use a tennis ball and foam roller to try to get my range of motion back.

Sure hope my lower back is better tomorrow, I hate not lifting on schedule.

EDIT - did a bunch of stretching today, full range of motion is back, but I'm still experiencing a lot of lower back pain. I think it's mainly from tension/trigger points in my glutes. Sitting on tennis balls is helping, but not getting rid of the tension. If I go through the motions of an RDL without a BB, my lower back feels a lot of pain (regional, not a specific point) the first 1/3 of the movement.

[Aaron Montgomery]

I couldn't bear not lifting today, so I decided to see what I could get away with tonight before my lower back hurt too much.

5/27/17
198lb (4300 cals/day now)

CGBP - 167.5 5x5 (PR for CGBP)
Squat - warmed up to a 225 single

CGBP - Good bar speed, but definitely feeling the 7.5lb increase. Next week my CGBP 5x5 will be 90% of my Heavy day bench. Hopefully this setup will keep the bench fahves moving.
Squat - Lower back felt fine after benching, so I decided to try squatting. The 225 single warmup was a grinder with a good bit of lower back pain, so I called it a night.

If my lower back is 90% or better tomorrow I'll squat and deadlift. Otherwise, not sure what I should do. I plan to keep on foam rolling and sitting on tennis balls for the next few days to see if that keeps the tension in my glutes down.

[Mr. Bingley]

restart light and easy

[Aaron Montgomery]

restart light and easy

Can't compute the above statement I'm scheduled to hit a 315lb squat triple in 2 weeks. I can't reset now! I'll take the next couple days off, and see what happens Tuesday. Maybe I can sneak a 310 triple in, even though I skipped medium day. Probably wishful thinking though...

[BenM]

Hah you sound like me. Lower back pain sucks but not training sucks even more!

[Aaron Montgomery]

Got bit by the program-hopping bug since I skipped medium day last week due to lower back pain. Going to do a bit of experimenting over the summer with lifting 6 days a week with a decent bit of adding accessory volume. New program is a mix of HLM and advice from an article by Greg Nuckols: Powerlifters Should Train More Like Bodybuilders ? Stronger by Science . TLDR; "Train your main lifts like a powerlifter, and your accessories like a bodybuilder." This seems to be Dan Green's mentality as well.

Tentative summer program while school is out:

Monday - Bench (HLM H) + upper accessories
Tuesday - Squat (HLM H) + DL (HLM M)
Wednesday - OHP + shoulder accessories + chinups
Thursday - Squat (HLM L)
Friday - CGBP (HLM M) + upper accessories
Saturday - DL (HLM H) + Squat (HLM M)

Wednesday and Thursday are rather light/recovery days, so I'm only lifting "heavy" 4 days out of the week. All accessories are on a 3-4 week progression plan. 3x8-12, then 4x8-12, then 5x8-12; same weight. Fourth week weight can be increased, or do a light week of 1x8-12 if I'm feeling beat up. New schedule should help keep workout session 90 minutes or less. Been getting sick of these 2 hour+ sessions.

I'm gonna keep a log of all measurements over the summer, to see if there's any significant growth in muscle size with the added volume.