Some fortuitous travel by two clients of mine allowed today's training to happen. In addition to my regularly planned meals, I ate an extra double meat bowl at Chipotle and a pint of Ben & Jerry's half baked froyo (I know, I know...) last night. I still almost overslept for my 8am client this morning, and felt like crap. Because my usual Tuesday lunch client was away, I had time to nap from 10-11am, make lunch and eat it, nap again from 12:30-1:30, and wake up feeling much better. Not 100% but able to get to the gym feeling like I could do volume day. And because another client is traveling, I didn't start my evening set till 7pm instead of 6, leaving me time to do conditioning without hurrying it all up.
And that's how my first squat volume PR in 10.5 months happened today. I'll take it.
Squat
425x5x5 - PR for 5x5
Notes: Pretty solid for the most part, and rest wasn't excessive: went from 5 to 7 minutes over the sets. Felt pretty tired after the last set, but not totally beat down. I know I could have done this for a bit already, but I was very careful not to kill it with volume this time around, but the delayed gratification of a new volume PR (420x5x5 was late May, 2013) is still pretty nice.
I don't usually post my volume work anymore, just film it for myself, but since this is a PR after 10.5 months, here it is...
Power Clean
45x6, 95x3, 125x2, 155x2, 175x2, 195x2, 215x2, 235x1, 250x1
Clean Pull
295x2, 325x2, 345x2x2
Notes: Started cleans 10-12 minutes after squats and I was still tired. Oh well. Got 250, which is I think more than I've ever gotten at Equinox, and it was pretty fast and smooth. Clean pulls popped well today, I'll probably go to 365 next time.
C2 Erg Intervals
30s Row / 90s Rest x 9
Paces: 1:52.6, 1:42.0, 1:36.1, 1:34.9, 1:34.3, 1:34.3, 1:32.0, 1:32.0, 1:27.7
Notes: I sandbagged the first 3-4 strokes of these, till #7, so my overall pace is lower even though my main rowing was reasonably fast. I was just beat.
Thanks Will. What's your volume at now 440x5x5?
It's rather diffuse and difficult to pin-point, but is mostly on the front side with occasional rear discomfort as well. It doesn't hurt day to day anymore, but grinding and crunching still happen all the time doing ADLs. The combination of shrugging and shoulder extension seems to be the worst, so dips are definitely out.
455x5x5 PR. 460x5x5 next week hopefully. Currently 220lb, aiming at 500x5x5, 580x1x5, and 600x1 at <230lb.
I'll need a lot of work on my deadlift to get me there, though. My back is still weak from a tweak 4 months ago (haltings are only 430x8, and rack pulls are only 495x5), and squats over 500 really find it out, so your deadlift videos are inspirational.
Goddamn, that's beastly at 220. I'm at about 260 right now. Very impressive. How do you manage/manipulate your volume day increases?
How did you tweak it? As I guess you know if you read my log, I've had (maybe more than) my fair share of back tweaks. I've learned that 1) They will heal, even if they seem awful at the time and make you feel as if you'll never lift heavy again but 2) You have to give them time to do so. What was your pull at before the tweak?
Thanks, but have you seen what Jordan is squatting lately?
Still using 5lb jumps per week. I'll probably take Andy's advice soon and switch to 2lb VD and 5lb ID increase for a while until ID gets hard. But when I walk into the gym and look at 2lb, I can't bring myself to do it.
I got loose at the bottom of a 400lb squat warmup, and I think it tweaked a ligament. I was doing 531 at the time, so the sets were ramped, but my 5RM would've been about 500x5.
I have. It's just insulting those of us without superhuman DNA. It's hard to believe that a mere 10 months ago, when I posted this vid, that I was ahead of him in every lift.
He's had an incredible 10 month run, gained ~15lbs and made the most of it. I've been mostly injured. Alas.
I know what you mean. I've used 2-3lb jumps to get my press up for over a year now, but it still is hard to swallow (that's what she said). Looks like that's your own set-up (based on the 5x5 press vid you just posted), so I assume you can at least use the same weights every time, so the 2lb jumps are actually 2lbs?
Ah man, I think that's how my latest tweak happened, in September (got loose at the bottom of one of the reps in my last set of 410x5x5). Sounds like you're not too far away from being back where you were, though.
Last edited by Michael Wolf; 04-17-2014 at 07:08 PM. Reason: clarification