More Weight: Izzy T's Log

[Tom Narvaez]

Shaq and Nick are college football players for a small college out here in Washington. I've known Nick since I was about four or five. I met Shaq in high school. He's probably been lifting on and off since he was 15-16 for football and what not.

6/13/12
Bench: 225x7
Power Cleans: skipped
Chins (grey band), Dips (BW) Superset: 6/8, 7/7, 6/6
Blast Strap Pushups, Pushups Superset: 5/12, 10/10
Forced Strict Curls: 65lbsx10-11 without help, 9-10 with help
Band Resisted Ab Wheel (2 pinks): BWx4
Tricep Pushdowns using shoulders/stretch reflex (continuous, no rest):
25x10, 45x10, 65x5, 85x5, 105x4, 85x4, 65x5, 45x8, 25x15

Still sick. Still can't get my usual intensity for workouts. Zero progress in the last two weeks or so. I haven't been dieting while sick because that's just retarded. I weighed in at ~237 this morning. So, I'm down 6-8lbs in 4-5 weeks or however long it is been since I started. I probably gained 1-2 back in the last 5 days or so.

Kinda wish I went for 8 on bench, but I was bouncing them off of my chest and other icky stuff.

Skipped power cleans because my lower back was still really sore from deadlifts/press workout. Thought it would do more harm than good.

Did a bunch of bro stuff with the bros because my main workout felt so lackluster and I still had a bunch of energy to do stuff. I really, really need to get my strength off the chest up. I actually have a pretty short stroke on bench. If I ever got strong in the first 3-4 inches, I'd probably be able to add a lot of weight to my bench really fast.

I'll put the video up in a bit as usual.

[Tom Narvaez]

[Tom Narvaez]

6/15/12

Squat: 405x7, 225x20
Incline DB: 50sx14
DB Row: 90sx14 each hand
Prowler:
1 x Sled+90 high handles on thick ass grass
2 x Empty sled low handles on concrete
1 x Empty sled high handles on concrete

Can't remember the last time I enjoyed myself in the gym. It is always awesome rooting on the bros, but I have made zero progress for months now (maybe even going backwards) and I'm starting to want to just fuck around and do random shit. Gonna try to think of ways to keep myself interested. Maybe I'll add a bodybuilding element to my workouts or start doing some MMA again. Maybe I'll change absolutely nothing and just sack up.

About squats: Well, uh, my form is basically shit nowadays. I think the frequency is too low. I am also starting to highly dislike using Rip's suggested grip. It just doesn't work for high rep sets. brb losing all upperback tightness. brb bar sliding further and further down my back after rep 6 or so and beyond. brb form ugly as shit. brb I seriously fucked up something in my elbow. I had to do a drop set of 20 because I didn't beat last week's #s. We all agreed to this prior to the workout. It was actually devised by my main training partner and me. The irony was that we were the only ones, save Shaq, who didn't get our goal reps or beyond.

I had NO energy in the tank after squats. I went through my DB incline workout and got like 2 reps with the 75s. So then I kinda wandered around aimlessly being pissed for 30-60m. Eventually, I just redid it with 50s. The incline was higher this week, they were all done with a big elbow flare, and I paused all of them at the bottom for a legit 2 seconds or so.

DB rows were not Kroc rows. It isn't worth the lower back fatigue IMO. Felt weak as fuuuu though. I guess this isn't that bad. I think I did like 90s or 100s for 20 when I was doing 'em Kroc style. IDK, it was probably shit because everything was shit today.

Prowler was a mess. We tried to do it on this thick tall grass and it just didn't really work... at all. Our anguses were not peppered. We thought we were in better shape than we really were, lol. Oh well. I can program them more easily next time.

Oh yeah, still sick. I'm finally going to give in and go to a motherfucking doctor. *Sigh*. Gimme a goddamn break.

Looking forward to deadlifts, though.

I'll begin editting video now and it should be up shortly. There were some truly SICK sets today. Mine was not one of them, lol.

[Tom Narvaez]

[Tom Narvaez]

so, I finally did one of these:

[skipbeat]

Let me get this straight: you're dieting, sick, and your weights have regressed a little, and you're flipping the shit? Come on mate!

So the prowler vs grass sucked or what? I imagine it was hard to get good grip with the shoes..

[Tom Narvaez]

I haven't really been that sick passed the first 3-4 days. I have an annoying stuffy nose and a cough that just won't go away 10+ days later. I haven't been dieting at all while I've been sick, either.

The prowler didn't work on the grass because it wasn't cut. The grass was several inches tall and if you didn't have cleats you couldn't do shit. Even when you did, the low handles with 45s were basically impossible.

[Tom Narvaez]

6/18/12

Deadlift: 365x6
SSB Squat: 255x5, 305x1
DB Row: 100x12, 100x8, 90x12
Lat Pulldowns: 185x8, 155x8, 135x12
Prowler: Sled + 25s, high handles x4

I probably should have gone for 7 at 365, but, hey, this is a big time improvement over 345x7. I've noviced that I'm only capable of improving my pull every other week. Next week, if the pattern repeats, I'll have a really tough week and everything will feel "off" and heavy". I always regret not going to failure on deadlift.

SSB squat is sooo different than low bar. Man, I really suck at hitting that hard bounce with this style. I almost fell forward and ate shit at 305. Everyone tested these for a rep max today so that we could program them Wendler style next time (531 2nd edition). I know I can do more, but these are just weird. I'll work my way into the form.

I probably could have pushed my second set of DB rows harder. I will probably do 110,105,100 next time. I was going for 3x8-12. These weren't Kroc rows, but they weren't strict either. I was just trying to focus on using as little lower back as possible while still moving as much weight as possible.

Lat pulls were humbling. I could only get 185 below my chin. I got 155 to my chest 5-6 times, I think. At 135, I got all 12 to my chest. I'll probably try 145 next time. I was going for 3x8-12.

I did, by far, the worst of the group on the prowler. We were supposed to do three each way, but I collapsed and puked after two. Embarrassing as fuck. Cardio can break even the toughest man. Nothing compares to the pain you can force yourself to endure doing cardio. Heavy lifting doesn't require a tenth of the toughness that intense conditioning does.

All this said, it has been amazing watching this group of lifters just fucking dominate. The progress has been exponentially, no, infinitely, better than what I saw on SS. I now know for a fact that I needlessly gained a bunch of weight and fat fucked myself. I love the SS teaching method for all the lifts, but I honestly just can't really get behind the idea of linear progression anymore. In the first couple of months, you can get 90-95% of the gains you'd get on linear progression just by busting your fucking ass and doing AMRAP. Here's just a few examples of things we've seen in just about a month of training with our novices:

Deadlift improvements:
315x4 ---> 405x3(345x11)
295x5 ---> 300x8
300x4 ---> 315x7
420x6 ---> 500x6
345x8 ---> 420x6
225x30 ---> 365x4 (easy, terminated set because of no belt, he's only done two deadlift workouts, how long would it have taken to do this on SS?)
275x10+ ---> Very first workout, he'll be doing 315 for reps within the month and it is his first month of working out in three years.

Bench:
160x5x3 ---> 165x10
205x5x3 ---> 235x9
175x5x3 ---> 200x9
145x5x3 ---> 150x9/140x14
170x5x3 ---> 165x9

Squat:
295x5x3 ---> 300x10
295x5x3 ---> 300x11 (295x5x3 was best PR of all time, but he did 275x2 only four weeks ago)
185x5 ---> 260x8 (had never squatted to depth before and honestly the 8 were easy)
265x5x3 ---> 315x10

Press:
120x5x3 ---> 170x8
120x5x3 ---> 135x7
115x5x3 ---> 115x11
117.5x5x3 ---> 110x10
110x8 ---> First workout
105x5x3 ---> 147.5x7

And all of these guys are doing this without gaining 100lbs and becoming athletically impotent fatties. Most are recomping and some are even losing weight. I honestly cannot even express to you how frustrating it is to watch EVERYONE surpass what took me the better part of a year. I am ecstatic for these guys. How could I not be? Most of these guys are literally my best friends and my family. It just sucks to know that I bought into a lie and did everything wrong. I should have trusted the clarification article. I should have just eaten paleo at 2500-3000kcal and I likely would have made all the exact same gains without having to do stints on RFL and now this potentially year long recomp/cut. It fucking sucks so fucking bad. This is my life. Really. This is what I planned to get paid doing. And I've been a fucking failure so far. I can't tell you how motivating the rage is.

Today was a good day. I got back to making progress. As I look back on things, it is interesting just how much your perspective can change over a year.

I'll likely move/close this log as I don't expect to be doing a meet anytime soon. I'm not even sure that I want to be "a powerlifter" anymore. At this point in time, being an all-around badass with aesthetics seems a lot better than what I've done.

Oh yeah, finally going to the doctor tomorrow. This weird as cold just won't fucking go away.

/dear diary
/sob story

I'll throw up the video in a bit.

[Tom Narvaez]

Decided to keep my log here. Talked to a few of the crew members and we are all gonna do the USAPL state championships in February.

[Briks42]

If you move the log, thats fine. But definitely don't close it. This is definitely my favorite log to read and a real motivator (I am competing against you on the deadlift even if you don't know it).

I love the way you've set up 5/3/1. I have often been a hater on that program, but the way you're doing it gets rid of all the problems I have with it (slow progress if any at all mainly).