Gillman's Folly of Enthusiasm

[mkgillman]

This is why having a set up at home (even if not ideal) is good.

Never let perfect be the enemy of good right?

[Dwayne_KONG_Wint]

exactly

[mkgillman]

12dec2014

Squat
45x5x3, 135x5x2, 185x2, 225x2, 315x1, 345x1, 395x1, 440x1 - this was supposed to be for reps but it wasn't there. It was a clean rep, but rpe 9 and that wasn't in the cards. So, after a week of suboptimal training, I reaped what I had sown.

Deadlift
135x5, 225x3, 315x1, 405x1, 455x2 - my grip is feeling off to me and once I start thinking during deadlifts all is lost.

[mkgillman]

15dec2014

Bench
275x5x5 - good night on the bench tonight. Hardest set was the last one and they was, at worst, rpe 8.5. Everything was feeling solid tonight and looking forward to 300 this week.

Incline bench
205x5x3 - still really not sold on this lift. Always takes a while to find the proper groove and then I almost immediately lose it.

Row
255x5x3

Curlz
115x5x3

Tri pulldowns
205x15x3

Lalanes
2x5

[mkgillman]

16dec2014

Squat
395x5x5 - was interested to see how this would go after what amounted to a week off last week. Turns out that a bit of a rest can be a decent thing. No drama and actually had a good time squatting.

Shrugs
510x5, 515x5x2 - best part of these was the junior bro doing shrugs in the smith next to me struggling with 120 loaded on the bar.

[mkgillman]

18Dec2014

Bench
45xlots, 135x5x2, 185x2, 225x2, 245x1, 275x1, 300x3+0 pr, 280x5 - Bench didn't go quite as well as I wanted; I had been hoping for 4 reps. Got stuck on the fourth and had to lift the butt to get it on the pins. Going in I was under the impression I had gotten a triple the last time I was going after 300, but seems it was only a double, so progress.

Press
45x5, 95x3, 135x2, 155x2, 180x3 pr, 170x5 - Again was hoping for 4, but still a solid triple. I suspect that I CAN do four reps with this weight if I get my head right and keep the bar close.

Chins
3x10

Should have done more volume in general, but was expected at the office Christmas party. I didn't want to show up with out anything so I brought everyone a righteous pump.

[mkgillman]

I can sum up last week with basically one day of training:

26Dec2014
Squat
460x1 PR, 470x0

Deadlift
465x1

I did a half assed attempt at bench and some higher rep squats earlier in the week, but the entire week was taken over by construction on my vacation shop and various Christmas activities. I am not terribly disappointed the way the week worked out; I got a ton of construction work done. I've also been getting frustrated with training lately as I feel like I'm running into the same ceiling that I hit in the previous cycle. While I can't complain too hard about a new 1RM, it was only 5 lbs over three months or so.

I have decided that I need a new approach to my training to try and get some additional volume along with more exposure to heavier weights. The general template that I have come up with will use rpe to determine the weight for the day, but is based pretty closely on the TM template. The outline as of now is:

Monday
Competition Bench 5@9
3 Count Paused Bench 4@9
Beltless Squat 6@9

Tuesday
Competition Squat 5@9
Floor Press 4@9
SLDL 6@9

Wednesday
Prowl
Chins

Thursday
TnG Bench 4@9-10
CG Bench 6@9
Power Shrugs 5@9

Friday
Comp Squat 5/3/1@10 or Squat with wraps @10
Press 6@9
Deadlift 5@9

I'm planning on starting off with load drops for the initial four week period to keep volume high and then moving to rep repeats and eventually rep drops to increase intensity as the cycle goes on. I'm also planning on playing around with rep ranges and fatigue percentages to try and build intensity or manage fatigue. We will see how it goes. I don't know that I fully understand all the concepts of autoregulation, but I want to spend more time focusing on competition lifts and direct variants, especially to help add additional volume.

29Dec2014

Competition Bench
45xlots, 135x5x2, 185x2, 225x2, 245x5, 260x5@8, 275x5@8.5, 280x5@9.5, 260x5@8.5, 260x5@9 - I'm fairly certain that 275 and 280x5 are prs for all paused reps.

3 Count Bench
135x5, 225x4@8, 245x4@9, 230x4@9

Beltless Squat
135x5x2, 185x2, 225x2, 255x1, 275x6, 295x6@8, 315x6@8, 335x6@9 - No fatigue sets for this week as I was just trying to figure out a good working weight.

The first day felt pretty good, but it is coming off basically a layoff last week. I feel like I had a pretty good idea of where the weight was going to be coming into it today, so that worked well. The 3 count bench and beltless squats feel really odd, but it is interesting doing something different for a change.

[mkgillman]

30Dec2014

Squat w/Belt and Sleeves
45x5x3, 135x5x2, 185x2, 225x2, 275x1, 315x1, 345x1, 375x5, 395x5@8, 405x5@9, 380x4@7.5, 380x5@8, 380x5@9 - Still trying to get a feel for the new program as it is going to require a lot more thinking than just showing up, hitting warm ups, and dreading the next set. Watching the video my eccentric was consistently too fast tonight which was causing me to get too deep and resulted in not optimal position coming out of the hole. However, I didn't have any volume on squats last week and it has been kind of spotty over the last month, so overall not dreadful.

Floor Press
135x5, 225x3, 245x5, 260x5@7.5, 265x5@8, 275x5@9, 260x5@9 - First time I've tried these so I was taking it moderately easy trying to figure things out.

SLDL
135x5, 225x3, 245x6@7, 275x6@8, 295x6@9 - Didn't do any fatigue sets tonight as it is the first time in a very long time I have done these and I suspect my hamstrings are going to be killing me in a couple of days. I can really see that these have the potential to really be a useful assistance.

[mkgillman]

1Jan2015

TnG Bench
45xlots, 135x5x2, 185x2, 225x2, 245x1, 265x5, 280x5@8.5, 290x4+0@10, 275x4@9 - Got too carried away loading after the set at 280. Wasn't a fully miss on the last rep of the 290, but I didn't get full lock out, so count it as a zero. My entire upper body is feeling pretty fatigued from the sharp increase in volume this week and was hoping for more on the bench, but it really wasn't too bad.

CG Bench
135x5, 225x4, 235x4@8 - Walked away from these early tonight. I had to lift in my very cold garage because the stupid freaking gym was not open today. The actual sets of these felt fine, but getting the bar on and off the hooks felt uncomfortable around the back of my shoulders due to the way I set up on my home bench. Didn't want to do anything stupid for a couple more sets of an assistance lift.

SG Deads
135x5, 225x3, 255x4, 275x4@7.5 - My back was starting to lock up, probably not being helped by sitting around in the garage in between sets. I had originally had power shrugs slotted in here, but wanted to give this lift a try. Feels better than deficit pulls for me and I can see this helping off the floor. I think I will give them a try for a few weeks and see how it goes.

[mkgillman]

Squat with wraps
385x3, 405x3@8, 415x3@8.5, 395x3@8.5 - first time using wraps and, man, are those things odd. I couldn't focus on anything with the reps aside from how strange the wraps felt hence keeping the weights light. Got the hang of wrapping more as I went along. Not sure if this is something I am a huge fan of, but it seems like it could be a useful tool for managing intensity/fatigue

Press
155x5, 165x5@8.5, 160x5@8.5

Deadlift
385x5, 405x5@8, 420x5@9.5, 395x5@8.5 - definitely had more left for deadlifts today. Grip had been giving me a problem over the last several weeks and while it wasn't bullet proof today, the weight was light enough i could work with it and try to experiment a bit.