FKYT compares Madcow and TM

[FKYT]

1/22 -- Recovery Day, Week 3

Squat: 255 x 2 x 5
OHP: 122.5 5/5/3, 100 x 8
Chin-Ups: 8/6/4
Back-Extension: 120 x 5 x 10
Neck Extension: 17.5 x 4 x 25 each direction

I was still feeling the effects of Volume Day squats, so the Recovery Day squats at 255 felt a little heavy. But manageable. I ran out of gas during my third OHP set. I probably could have squeezed out one more rep, but it didn't seem worth it to go to failure for 5/5/4. I did a back-off set at 100 for extra technique practice. At the end of SS, I did this weight for 4/3/3, so I guess it could be considered a rep PR for this set & rep scheme. Everything else was straightforward.

[FKYT]

At this point in my old log, Rob Is, hamburgerfan and tescott chimed in and said I was doing too much weight on Recovery Day squats, so I'll be doing these with a lighter weight in the future.

[FKYT]

1/24 -- Intensity Day, Week 3

Squat: 310 x 5
Bench: 182.5 x 5
Deadlift: 345 x 5
Curl: 70 x 3 x 8

Thank goodness the forums are back online. Your gains don't really count until you've entered them in your log.

Squats went fine this time. The weight felt nice & light on my back, but the actual squats were grinders. I'm excited to get another shot at 3 wheels next week.

Bench presses were easy. I knocked myself out of the groove on the 3rd rep (rep veered to the right on the way up), but was able to recover.

Deadlifts were easy as well. This is the first deadlift weight I stalled on in SS, so it's nice to just blow by it and feel tangible evidence that I'm stronger than before. I like to hold my deadlifts at the top of my last rep for a few seconds to help build my grip, and I got to about 10 seconds with this weight. I experienced sort of a zen moment of perfect clarity towards the end.

Barbell curls were easy.

[FKYT]

1/27 -- Volume Day, Week 4

Bodyweight: 198 lbs

Squat: 290 5/5/5/3/3, 240 x 8
Bench: 167.5 x 5 x 5
Power Clean: 150 x 5 x 3

I didn't reach failure on the squats -- I sort of wussed out because of a sore ankle I've had since yesterday. The squats themselves didn't aggravate the injury, but I didn't want to press my luck with a full 5x5. The last three reps were real grinders, though, so I'm not sure if I would have made 5x5 in any case. I did a back-off set of 8 to keep the volume high.

Bench presses felt just right.

Power cleans also went well. I considered skipping these due to the ankle, but I did my warm-ups and everything felt surprisingly fine, so I just went ahead and did my work sets.

[FKYT]

1/29 -- Recovery Day, Week 4

Squat: 225 x 2 x 5
OHP: 122.5 5/3/4
Pull-Ups: 6/5/4
Back-Extension: 125 x 5 x 10
Neck Extension: 22.5 25/15/10/10 each direction

I did my squats lighter after recommendations from this site, and they went well. My ankle feels a lot better than it has in the last few days.

Performance declined on the OHPs, and I attribute this to failure to find the proper grip width (and thus the proper groove). The first two sets were wobbly as hell. On the last set, I finally found the right hand placement, and the reps were pretty solid, which is why I did better on the 3rd set than the 2nd set. I left off the back-off sets this time.............mostly out of superstition.

Pull-ups and back extensions are pretty self-explanatory.

For the neck extensions, I use the cable machine in my gym, which only lets me go up in 5 lb jumps. I'll keep at this weight until I can get 4 x 25 in each direction. If I fail, I'll go back down to 17.5 and concentrate on upping the reps.

[FKYT]

1/31 -- Intensity Day, Week 4

Squat: 315 x 5
Bench: 185 x 5
Deadlift: 350 x 5
Curl: 75 x 3 x 8

Squats felt okay. I'm glad to have a 3-plate squat once more. :-)

Bench presses went well, but they were sort of wobbly and the last rep was a grind. Afterwards, I did a few reps on the chest press machine. I like to do this after my main workout once every few months or so and compare my performance what I could do in the pre-SS days. Pre-SS, back when I was doing a machines-only routine, I could do 190x1, and after my bench press work-out today I did 215x1, 230x1, and 250x1. It's nice to get these objective reminders of how far you've come every now and then. I should try the OHP machine sometime -- I think I maxed out at 70 lbs, and now I can do almost 2x that with free weights.

Deadlifts also went okay, but the last rep was a grind and I could only hold it at the top for a couple of seconds.

Oddly enough, the grind-iest, most Herculean effort today was my very last curl rep. But I got all the reps in.

Next week should be interesting since I'll be doing 187.5 on bench and 355 on deadlift, which are my previous 5RMs on Madcow. Hopefully I'll get those and push into new territory in a couple of weeks.

[Rob Israel]

Congrats on the 3 wheel squat! Awesome!

Squat: 290 5/5/5/3/3

I should mention that I think this is a bit heavy compared to your intensity. I started a long thread about it in the programming forum, but the short of it is that the Volume Day and Intensity day should spread out a bit as you go. For instance, I just did 275 for volume and will be doing 330 on ID this week which is about 83% compare to your 92% (290/315). I may have a much bigger spread than you should use since I've been doing the TM for awhile, but you may want to stay pat on the your volume day and increase your Intensity for a couple of weeks. In his TM book Lascek suggest 3 weeks...

[FKYT]

Congrats on the 3 wheel squat! Awesome!

I should mention that I think this is a bit heavy compared to your intensity. I started a long thread about it in the programming forum, but the short of it is that the Volume Day and Intensity day should spread out a bit as you go. For instance, I just did 275 for volume and will be doing 330 on ID this week which is about 83% compare to your 92% (290/315). I may have a much bigger spread than you should use since I've been doing the TM for awhile, but you may want to stay pat on the your volume day and increase your Intensity for a couple of weeks. In his TM book Lascek suggest 3 weeks...

Thanks!

I started out with about a 90% VD/ID percentage based on one of Rip's articles. I actually do have Lascek's TM book, and I have seen the VD thread. I suspect that what will happen is that the VD/ID percentage will decrease naturally as you continue to push up the ID numbers and miss your VD reps every now and then. In addition, I've been using the chart in Justin's e-book about how VD and ID feel to help adjust the percentages. The 285 x 5 x 5 workout felt pretty easy, so I decided to just bump it up for the next work-out. I'll keep it at 290 for my next VD, and I may adjust it up or down depending on how well that work-out goes.

[Rob Israel]

I've been using the chart in Justin's e-book about how VD and ID feel to help adjust the percentages.

good move. hope things keep moving along!

[FKYT]

2/3 -- Volume Day, Week 5

Bodyweight: 197 lbs

Squat: 290 5/5/5/4/5
Bench: 170 x 5 x 5
Power Clean: 155 x 5 x 3

The first three sets of squats went okay. The 4th set was rather grind-y, and after the 4th rep I stood there for a few seconds and thought "There's no way in fuckin' hell that I'll be able to get out a 5th rep", so I racked it. I rested a little bit longer that I normally would before the 5th set (I waited around 7 minutes, and usually I wait around 5 at this point). When I took the bar out for the 5th set, I was expecting to get only 3 reps, but surprisingly the first three reps felt strong, so I tried a fourth rep, got it, and figured I may as well go for a 5th rep since I was going to have to strip the bar anyway. It was a battle, but I got it up. No back-off sets today. Considering this week's and last week's performance, I think it would pay off to remove some weight from the bar for the next VD session.

Bench presses felt great.

My 155 x 5 x 3 power clean work-out matches my best performance while on SS, so next week I'll be heading into PR territory.

I finished up with some band pull-aparts and called it a day.