More Weight: Izzy T's Log

[Tom Narvaez]

Thanks, Steve. Good work on that 290. Looked pretty fast to me. Seems like the board work is paying off!







Morning BW: 242.2 (-1.4)
~60m of walking, wasn't on the elliptical so I donno pace and I didn't use a heart rate monitor.

[Tom Narvaez]

5/18/12

Deadlifts: 135x3, 185x5, 225x5, 255x3, 315x5, 365x3, 405x1
SSB Good Mornings: 75x10, 95x6, 105x3, 125x10x3
Ab Wheel*: BWx6,5,4
*from knees to full extension

Overall:
My plan for the day was to get a rep max at 405 and decide where I wanted to start my 1-rep LP for deadlifts. That's not how things worked out. I woke up after getting two hours of sleep last night with a throbbing pain in my trap/shoulder area. At first I thought I had managed to tear my RTC in my sleep or something. I took four advils and about an hour later the pain was gone. It turned out to be a charlie horse in my trap. I've never had anything like that before (in my traps). It felt like there was a tumor in there. Anyways, when you run around paranoid for two hours after waking up from two hours of sleep, you don't exactly go back to bed and get a great night's sleep. And I didn't. Oh well. I still ended up getting ~6 total hours of sleep.

This was more volume than I'm used to and it showed. Still, everything felt heavier than I expected. I was pretty disappointed. I can't even blame squats for this. I guess this level of detraining/poor performance is to be expected after not deadlifting anything heavy in two weeks and not squatting anything heavy in about 10 days.

Still, it is very frustrating. It's a knee jerk reaction, but I kind of wish I never did SS in the first place. I feel like I should have listened to the powerlifters who told me to get on a powerlifting-centric program from the beginning and take things slow. I got "stronger" a lot faster than most people, but now I have a year of dieting ahead of me and the only thing I have to show for it is a big squat. I really feel that I shouldn't have prioritized that lift over everything else. My other lifts are incredibly embarrassing and pathetic for someone who is 240+. Last time I dieted, I lost more than 20% from my squat. I really can't expect anything different this time, either. Low bar leverages benefit from being fat. With the reduced frequency, the lowered calories, and the conditioning, my squat is going to plummet.

Oh well, lesson learned. The strength game is mostly a matter of time, anyway. As long as I keep working hard, everything will pan out in the end. My training partners and I have already adjusted. I probably won't allow myself to get over 20% ever again and I will strongly discourage anyone else from doing so as well.

Time to get back to grit and grind. In two years, I'll probably laugh at this post.

edit: I'll put up the 405 in a second.

[Tom Narvaez]

[DV]

Don't be too hard on yourself. I'm going to predict that you will be around/below 200 lbs in 3-4 months time, with the same or stronger squat, and quite a bit better on the deads and bench.

Not that I'm saying that going on a real PL programme earlier might not have been beneficial. But don't get stuck worrying about that. I've been lifting weights on and off for 13 years. Only found out about squatting and deadlifting 8 years ago. And in the last 4-5 years my PR's almost haven't budged, due to me trying stuff out.

It's part of the game. And you are WAY ahead of the curve, squatting 400+ at 21. If you are real serious about professional PL, though, what you need to do is get a coach.

[Tom Narvaez]

Thanks, DV.

As is obvious, one of my personal difficulties has always been controlling my emotions when things don't go my way. I'm not very good at looking past little set backs and seeing the big picture. This has always worked for me as much as it has worked against me. Having to get the next set, literally making it a must in my mind, is probably why I pushed things as far as I did on LP, but that same emotion is what makes me abandon reason when I fail a set or with regards to diet or whatever else.

Right now, I just want to put in another solid 6-12 months of lifting. I think moving away from just doing ~4 movements is going to be a big help. I'm incredibly surprised at how bad I seem to suck at all the assistance stuff. My GPP is pretty low and my barbell "strength" hasn't really carried over very well. I think that's both bad and good. The bad is it what it is, but the good part is that if I improve all of that stuff, it should really help out my lifts in the end.

I really like my programming right now. I just expect more from myself than what I've produced so far.

[Les Hahn]

Tom, didn't you just start the new program though? Give it a little more time, and i think your DL will progress. Like you said, mixing it up a little, and adding some quality assistance lifts, is really going to help you.

Don't beat yourself up too much, everyone has their setbacks. Just keep plowing forward, and you will get there! :-)

[Tom Narvaez]

5/19/12

Press: 45x5x2, 70x5, 95x5, 105x3, 135x5, 152.5x3, 170x1



Dips: 245x10, 245x7, 245x6 /w 1 orange band, 245x5 /w 1 grey band, 245x6 /w 1 orange band
Chinups: 245x5 /w 1 grey band, 245x6 /w 2 orange bands, 245x7 /w two orange bands, 245x6 /w two orange bands, 245x1, 245x1

The main press workout was not really worth writing about. It was super easy as expected. I'll find out more in the coming weeks. 170 is something I could have done for 3, and probably 4, before I started cutting.

I had to feel my way through dips and chins. I always do better warmed up on those types of movements. I went straight to body weight dips after press and promptly got zero. I didn't struggle or anything I just fell almost straight down during the concentric, lol. Then I warmed up a bit with bands and was able to get a set of 10 at body weight at just over 245. I burned out really quickly on these. I think next time I may just start off with bands for the work sets, but I don't know. For dips, I may do all body weight and try to get around 30 reps until I can do 3x10.

Chins sucked really bad. I probably am going to switch my squat and deadlift days when I get the chance. I might squat 2x next week or just wait till I stall on a lift or something. Pressing right after squats won't be perfect, but it is better than doing it after deadlifts when my lower back, lats, and abs are pretty much destroyed from ab wheel, good morning, and pulling heavy from the floor.

Not much to say here. I'm kind of scared of squats on Monday. If 455 is easy as pie, I'm going to feel really good about how I'm going about things on this cut. I really don't expect that to be the case though. I haven't squatted heavy since 5/9. My next workout will be after about two solid weeks of detraining and on a calorie deficit. I think I'd be happy just to get 455x1 at this point. Kind of sad considering I think I could have done that for 4 rather easily only three weeks ago. My one secret weapon is a fat cheat meal on Sundays. I'll probably do that every week just knowing that my squat is so sensitive to a calorie deficit.

I guess I'll find out my fate on Monday.

[skipbeat]

Hey tom, the assistance stuff gets pretty easy if you just do it consistently (coming from me lol). If you really want to add something, just do it. I'm a homo and I want abs, so I do ab work.. but I think assistance exercises are -smart- and not lame. I've been much happier since I started doing more stuff overall, even if my training isn't as dedicated as it should be

also, fuck stop beating yourself up, that's my job. dick

[Tom Narvaez]

Thanks, skip. I already have all the assistance stuff I want to do laid out (it's a few posts back if you're interested). I'm just going to progress into it slowly. The only thing I'm really considering right now is whether or not I want to buy a Prowler. I have a badass hill right next to me and I already have two 50lbs vests. I may just try to make the hills work for me.

[skipbeat]

Thanks, skip. I already have all the assistance stuff I want to do laid out (it's a few posts back if you're interested). I'm just going to progress into it slowly. The only thing I'm really considering right now is whether or not I want to buy a Prowler. I have a badass hill right next to me and I already have two 50lbs vests. I may just try to make the hills work for me.

Today for the very, very first time I saw a bunch of dudes that obviously did our type of training using the prowler. They were all bald and jacked as shit. Saw them on the bus as I was leaving the beach. Get a prowler man, I was in awe and my friends thought I was gay. I was about to jump off the bus and go train with them, ditching my friends for a better cause, hah. Get one!