A Scrawny Lifter's Redemption Song

[blowdpanis]

I had a friend who visited Argentina for like ~6 months and he said their beef was the best he's ever had in his life. Brazilian women are only a hop, skip and a jump away, too.

[Gary Gibson]

I hear Brazilian women are also a lot friendlier. The Argentines were pretty haughty. Buenos Aires and the Salta region were both amazing.

BP 225x5, x3.5, x5, x5, x5, x4
SQ 335x5x3, 315x3

Sort of a PR on BP tonight. On the second set, however, I hit the hooks on the way up when my arms went wide. Killed my drive and the bar came back down. Couldn't get it and had an embarrassing and hilarious moment of struggling until Brian came over to yank it off me.

"That's why you ask for a spot, Gary," I heard someone say before the laughter escalated.

I did indeed get Brett to spot me on the remaining sets. Arms tended to go wide on the third and fifth reps, but nothing unforgivable. The first set had felt worryingly heavy, but things got smoother until the very last set. I did a sixth set to make up for screwing up the second, but I was just out of gas and completely missed that last rep. Still, I got four good sets and I'm pretty confident I would have gotten five if I hadn't messed up the fourth rep of the second set so badly ('cause things felt increasingly better after that). It takes me considerable energy to recapture the bar path after I've lost it and I'm sure that limits the reps I can do on any particular set.

I'd popped something a bit in my right (and slightly smaller) pec before I left for Argentina. Today's pressing really aggravated it and right now it's still hurting a bit. "Why do you keep touching yourself?" asked Sam. "My pec hurts," I responded as I continued to massage my right pec tie-in. I guess it did sort of look like I was taking advantage of myself.

Squats were the kind of disappointing mess that makes me consider quitting. I'd been torn between continuing the Pins Into Pillars protocol or doing Texas Method (as I'm doing for BP). I went with TM for squats tonight. I figured 335 was a reasonable place to start. I was wrong. Barely got through the third set. It's really disconcerting. I did 365x5x5 a few weeks back and peaked at an ugly 430 with a very clean 418 raw meet squat. Now I'd be very lucky to get 365x5. Squat weights have just all felt heavy since the meet. Anyway, I'm going back to Pins Into Pillars next session. I have to start light. May as well do so and get some volume to induce some growth.

Speaking of growth: I'm only 181-182 tonight and that was after I ate a couple double cheeseburgers and drank a large Hi-C. So my weight's down a bit. I plan to remedy that this month. Going from 225x5x10 up to at least 345x5x10 on the squat. Actually, I'll push that as far as possible, not just stop arbitrarily at the fourth week. I was going to TM after my PiP, but I may just roll straight into the Daily Fives, then the RSR as a peaking routine. I'd like to think I could get through a Smolov at that point and get a 40-lb boost to my squat before the meet, but that seems like a stupid idea with little chance of success.

[PVC]

Hey Gary,

I just wanted to say that your article was great. Nice and long and informative, and your writing style has really grown as well. You sure took your sweet fucking time to post it though .

[Gary Gibson]

Thanks. And now I restart my quest to get to over 200 lbs and to squat 500.

SQ 225x5x10

A few things...

I widened my grip about two inches on each side and found keeping the wrists straight became almost automatic. There's a simple mechanical reason for this; the forearms and the hinges of the wrists now lay at a much more oblique angle against the bar than before when the were lined up so that it was very easy for the wrists to bend. This also led to the bar staying in place much better. I found looking down to come automatically with this setup, too, much more natural than looking up. Yet I managed to maintain a very good back angle; mind you, this is very light weight.

Also! I did the first set without belt or knee sleeves. Then I pulled up the knee sleeves and did the next four reps without the belt. Then I added the belt. The purpose of this little experiment was to see if it's really worth it to wear the sleeves and belt with such a low percentage of 1RM.

Conclusion: It is absolutely worth it. Torso was able to get much more solid. I didn't think it would make such a difference at such a light weight, but it did. Knee sleeves also made the knees feel a shitload better. From now on, all work sets, no matter how light, get the belt and sleeves. I'll still warm up "naked" because I'm not going anywhere near all out on a warm up set, but the last heavy-ish warm up will get the sleeves and belt.

Those of you who've been paying attention may note that I just squatted 335 for a couple awful sets of five yesterday. I wouldn't call that a real session and had no trouble restarting today with a volume focus.

I expect to be well over 190 by the time I finish the PiP protocol with 345x5x10 and a bit over 200 by the time I peak for the Raw Nationals (around which time I'll have two different events for work that will require extensive travel...so we'll see...). From 345x5x10, Texas Method starting with 365x5x5 (my best from last cycle) seems like a good start. I was hoping to get to 405x5x5 from there and then use RSR to push that resulting 485 single to over 500 lbs. But this is all speculation and frankly it would be a minor miracle for me to add all that weight to my best ever squat by summer, especially considering how weak I feel right now.

I strained my right pec a bit before I left for Argentina. I'd hoped it would heal during my forced week-long layoff, but it still bothered me during last night's session and much of today. I was suffering general pec DOMS which probably made it feel worse. As of tonight it feels much better, but I'm nervous about pushing for a new 5RM with 245 in a couple of days. 245x5 yields a 1RM around 275. I would love this weekly linear progression to take me to 285. That would be a 40-lb gain on my best bench in just under two months! I'd actually love to be able to keep making 5-lb jumps for another six weeks and end up with 315.

[mr blink]

Great Article.

You must be this Gibson character that everyone loves.

Did you get my pm?

[Briks42]

I strained my right pec a bit before I left for Argentina. I'd hoped it would heal during my forced week-long layoff, but it still bothered me during last night's session and much of today. I was suffering general pec DOMS which probably made it feel worse. As of tonight it feels much better, but I'm nervous about pushing for a new 5RM with 245 in a couple of days. 245x5 yields a 1RM around 275. I would love this weekly linear progression to take me to 285. That would be a 40-lb gain on my best bench in just under two months! I'd actually love to be able to keep making 5-lb jumps for another six weeks and end up with 315.

Gary, when you say 245x5 yields a 1rm of 275, do you mean that 245x5 touch-and-go=275x1 paused?

I'm just curious because in October I got 235x5 as my 5-rep max and then was able to get 275x1 2 sessions later, but that was all touch-and-go.

[Gary Gibson]

BP 245x3 PR
SQ 235x5x10

I'd wanted to get 245x5 on the bench today, but it wasn't to be. Quite honestly, I was feeling very fatigued in the upper body and very weak. I just had to try 245, however, because it's the most I've ever benched. I'm happy I got it for a triple, but I really wanted a quintuple! 'Cause I'm greedy! I estimate that my max is currently 265 or 270.

Not sure what I'm doing next. Do I do 225x5x5 again next Monday and attempt 240x5 next Friday? Do I jump into one of my wacky Russian protocols? A successful Smolov Jr could put me over 300 lbs! Will think about it more later.

Squats went well. Put the belt and sleeves on right away. Great form throughout. Slightly wider grip kept bar in place with wrists straight. I kept head neutral till the eighth set when I started looking up because I was getting tired and struggling a bit. No good morning action on any of these, but this is VERY light weight. Weight was so light, in fact, that I was able to complete all ten sets in the space of three radio songs. I figure it took me just over ten minutes. Rests were definitely about 30 seconds. No problem for the legs and not really for the lungs either, but I did feel tired overall.

Weighing 185 throughout the day right now.

Gary, when you say 245x5 yields a 1rm of 275, do you mean that 245x5 touch-and-go=275x1 paused?

I'm just curious because in October I got 235x5 as my 5-rep max and then was able to get 275x1 2 sessions later, but that was all touch-and-go.

I always train touch-n-go. I've found that it gets me stronger faster, just like regular squats get me stronger faster than box or pause squats. The stretch reflex isn't cheating; it's a way to get your muscles to do more work. So I train with the stretch reflex and just pause the bench in the meet. My best paused bench has consistently been 15 lbs less than my best touch-n-go. There's very little guesswork as far as that goes.

[cjangelo]

Gary, if I may be so bold as to offer advice:

Seems you have soreness in your pecs. I used to experience the same thing. I benched with my middle finger on the rings.

Then I decided to start close-grip pressing exclusively. I positioned my hands about an inch from the smooth part. I tuck my elbows and roll back my wrists a little. Obviously this is much more a triceps exercise. I found that my triceps could recover MUCH faster and get MUCH stronger than my pecs. This is something I remember Louie Simmons saying, that your triceps can handle a lot of work and can get really strong. Well, my bench went way up.

Now I bench thumbs-length from smooth. I'm not belly-benching, my pecs still get some work, but my triceps and anterior delts handle most of the load. I like it that way. I can make faster progress and don't get soreness or strains in my pecs, which apparently is a huge problem with benchers.

Not that I'm a huge bencher: I did 285lbs x4, x4, x3 recently. Highest 1rm is 325lbs. Heaviest I ever did with a real wide grip was 275lbs for a 1rm.

Conclusion: If you're benching with a wide grip and long arms, you're probably putting a lot of strain on your pecs because of the bottom position in the bench press. Try narrowing your grip, tucking your elbows, and touching lower on your chest. I know belly-benching isn't allowed in the USAPL, but a big arch might make it a sternum-touching bench press.

[Gary Gibson]

BP 215x5x3
SQ 245x5x10

Cjangelo, it's not soreness so much as I nearly sprained my right pec. It's been slightly smaller and weaker than my left pec for many years. This is the first time I've improved so quickly and so much on the bench and it just took its toll. I do touch the bar low, but when I get tired--usually on the fourth rep of a later set--I sometimes let my elbows flare a bit too much on the way up at the sticking point. I think this is where I tweaked the right pec a couple weeks ago.

Also, it looks like I've run hard into the need for a back-off weak. It's time to rev it down. The 215x5x3 was so hard tonight that I stopped there instead of trying for all five sets. I knew I would not complete another set of five. The 215 was already a step backward, but it wasn't enough. I need some reps with lighter weight...to build some connective tissue, get some blood in the area, heal up and just plain reset. I'm thinking of doing for the bench what I did for the squat: PiP. When you need volume and light weights, but don't want to waste too much time, PiP is the prescription.

Speaking of which, PiP nearly killed me tonight on the squats. I got the first five sets in under 10 minutes, but the last five took twice as long. I was resting about three minutes between the last three sets with a five-minute rest after the seventh. I thought I was going to puke. It wasn't hard on the muscles, but I just couldn't seem to get enough oxygen into my system. That's another good thing about PiP; the relentless volume and attempts to get it done fairly quickly is great conditioning work. God, I love squatting for volume!!

Honestly, however, I'm a little scared. The way 245x5x10 felt, I don't see how I'm going to get to 315x5x10. But I suppose I will.

[stronger]

gary, regarding 5x5 benching, I've found 4 reps for 6 sets to be much better for my pressing movements. I'm not sure what it is, but I feel like I could do sets of 4 all day, when you add the 5th rep in, however, fatigue and form breakdowns really start to set in.