Rob's Brooklyn Block (periodization) Party

[Rob Israel]

Drove straight from DC to the gym... Late.

Squat: worked up to 305x6@ RPE 8
Knee hurting pretty good from Sat. Not enough TKE's! (only two rounds since the meet). Icing tonight. Definitely favoring my left side.
More importantly I tried thumbs around the bar for the first time and was not thrilled. When it got over 225 it worked my hands and then my wrist hurt after the last set. (with wrist wraps). Bar slide down my back on last set as well. Definitely needs work and will probably try stiffer wraps. I wasn't crazy about the feeling of finding my shelf on my back and having to roll the bar (and bend my wrists) to find the right spot on my back. Going to be a challenge and my arms hurt after squatting to boot.

Bench: worked up to 205x6@ RPE 9 (whoops)
This is pretty decent, but went a little heavy for what was prescribed.

Gonna try to get some video and meet recap together tomorrow. Literally have been non-stop w/ no computer time while in DC. Excellent times with the Starting Strength crew! Big shout out to Jordan, Rori, Nick D'Ag, Chad-da-meat-beast, Lexi-D and Kong. Also got to meet some more Barbell Med trainees which was super.

[Rob Israel]

GPP week 1, Day 2

Deadlift: 365x6@8
This was harder than I expected, was thinking I'd do 385, but this was definitely RPE 8, but fine.

CG Bench: 135x10, 155x10, 165x10@8ish
Many reps. Hard to tell.

ERG intervals: 7 intervals of :20/1:40
Jordan has assigned me 15. Haha. I'll need to work up to that. Not recovering enough after about 4.

[Rob Israel]

Meet Recap

Drove down to DC Friday with my wife for the USAPL American Open. Got there late due to some family drama, but we got to catch Team Barbell Medicine's (Jordan's trainees) women go for 2nd attempts of the bench and all their pulls. Rori and Lexi kicked some serious ass. We were short handlers so i jumped in and assisted. I felt bad I couldn't be there on time and really manage 1 or 2 of the lifters for the entirety, but it was out my control.

Friday night I had to fast (even though I was already down to 82.3) and watched my friend Laurent and Bina (my wife) eat. We got to bed pretty early as I had all week. Could not sleep. Took forever to fall asleep and woke up an hour later. This kept happening. I was going to get up at about 6, but woke at 5, and finally just got out of bed at 5:30. No solid sleep!

I actually felt OK after the shower, got some espresso and waited for weigh in. They organized it by lots and lo and behold I was third (of about 40)! I got weighed in and chugged a gatorade. Got some food down and hit the BCAA's. Feeling pretty good and was very happy not to be rushed. I weighed in at 179.

Jordan had arrived the night before and was there to handle me. He was awesome.

Squat:
380: This was super solid and smooth, so I knew we'd go with "Plan A."
407: Smooth. I'm thinking we're definitely going plan A and 424. I don't want to know the attempts now. I tell myself, whatever they put on the bar I can lift it. I got pretty emotional was pretty pumped up (internally). I was ready.
429: I get on the platform and announcer says, "Robert Israel, 430 pounds!" I'm like, "shit, I didn't expect Jordan to go that high! I put that out of mind and remember that I'm going to make the lift no matter what the load. I unrack the bar. I hit the rack with my left side and it totally fucks up my walkout which I have down to a science. I have to take an extra step, take them out of order and adjust a lot more than normal. With 430 on my back.

I put that out of mind. Two cues: "Get tight" and "straight bar path." I wait for the judge's command, "Squat!" It slows way down but I'm not giving up on this shit and grind it out. RPE 10 and 3 white lights! That made all the stress, fear, pain and crap I've been thru during the last month totally worth it.

Bench
226: Too light. This was like a warmup.
242: Maybe I got out of the groove, but my set up was messed (too far back) and I didn't get tight. Total mess or a rep and much harder than it should have been. We lower expectations.
247.5: Much smoother than 242. Good for a meet PR. Definitely left some on the platform. Unfortunately don't have video. Happy to make all 3 and add to my total.

Deadlift
429: Smooth. Let's go for it.
451: A little harder, but very smooth.
473: Miss! Dammit, same thing that happened at the meet in August but all 5kg heavier. Could have pulled 462 for sure (the weight I missed in August) but 451 was so smooth why not do the 10kg jump?

Unless I can demonstrate something else this next cycle (in terms of moving my single farther up from my best triple) we are going to have to start going more conservative with my 3rd attempts.
__________

So I went 8/9 and totalled 1,127.5 which was 27.5 up from August. Almost as much progress as I made in the entire year prior. Definitely very solid and excellent training cycles there.

Thanks to Jordan for handling me, the coaching and the program. And to Lexi, Rori and Nick for being there and cheering for me. I could hear them screaming during that squat and it was awesome. It's amazing to have your friends there and feel their support in reaching your goals and potential.

I was also really happy that Laurent had a great first meet. He sort of did this on a whim but he PR'ed everything and I think went 9 for 9 and got 2nd place. Oh, yea, I won the gold! Rori handled him and did an awesome job. She totally took over and just really made him comfortable. There is so much shit to get use to at a meet and having someone there to guide you is huge. And having someone do your attempts rules-- and Rori just jumped in and handled it like a pro. Big props and thank you Rori!

Onward and upward!

Here's a video:

[sking1001]

That 3rd squat gave me a really big smile! Nice, NICE work Rob!!

Cool story bro...really : )

[Randeep Khaund]

Rob, congratulations on a great meet! Great performance! Also, American Open seems like a big event. In hindsight, I could have planned to compete in that. I have read couple of other accounts on the forum and it seems like a big Starting Strength crew was out there. I have followed your log for a little bit, as there are a lot of similarities in our programming. I've been working with Dr. GainzZz for about a few months now.

I'll be dropping by more often here. Stay strong!

n.b.: I think the total that you have posted on the video is off by a 100lbs. I added up your numbers, more so because your video total seemed awfully close to my last meet total, but your lifts were definitely bigger. Almost made me question my own total

[Rob Israel]

Hi Randeep,
Thank you for following my log and pointing out my math problem!

[Nick Klemetson]

Awesome meet recap, Rob. Inspiring stuff.

[Austin Baraki]

Awesome job, Rob! It was great to meet you last weekend.

-Austin

[Rob Israel]

Thank you guys, I very much appreciate the feedback, thanks for following...

[Rob Israel]

GPP Week 1, Day 3-- recovery week

Paused squat (no belt): 255x6 and 275x6@~8.5
255 was too easy so I moved the weight up, even though I didn't really want to. This is decent enough for me. I hate anything more 5 reps. Next week is 8!

OH Press: 95x10, 105x10@8, 125x6@9
It's been at least 6 months, if not more since I OH Pressed with a barbell. I added the last set since what's the point of just doing sets of 10? C'mon Jordan. This is an OK started place but 20 pounds below my best set of 6. I hope I can stick with this and press 185 before I move into competition mode and stop pressing again.

Intervals: 10 of :20/1:40 on the ERG. I took an extra 2 minutes rest after 5. My arms are fatiguing badly, no pull left on the 3-4. Glad I got 10. Hopefully in a week I can get up to 15 as prescribed.

Good little workout. The top sets were hard, but it's good it's all light. Knee felt ok for the squats but a little sore afterwards. I played with widening my grip. I may stick with that for awhile. Narrower seems to put pressure on my hands. I don't think I'm going to be able to do the thumbs around thing. Maybe i'll try it again though.