[2014-11-11
Bench Press,touch and go
45 x* 20
135 x 5
175 x 2
185 x 3 x 5
Back Squat, sleeves, no belt or wraps
45 x 20
185 x 5
225 x 3
255 x 2
275 x 2 x 5
Chin Up @160+45 x 4 x 3
Farmers Walk w/100-lb DBs x 150 ft. (50% longer than last first walk)
I know. I know. The very next day. But I ended up taking another much needed day off from work and just laid in bed all day again. A new Broscience Life episode came out today so apparently the universe rewarded me for a good decision.
Point is that I am a hell of a lot more recovered these days than I usually am. So I was bursting with energy for another session. I really wanted to get under a 185 bar for bench and 275 bar for squat. It was totally the right call.
The bench was a little hard since I just did the light session yesterday...a deliberate upping of frequency that I won't do again anytime soon, especially since my little sabbatical is coming to an end.
Squat, however, was very gratifying. First double with 275 was effortless. It got hard on the third set, but I could have done a sixth or seventh set of doubles. Felt like I could have gotten at least 275 x 5, definitely more if I had done squats first.
I have gotten into the habit of wearing (loose) jeans over my sweat pants at the gym. Mostly because I hate the way I look in either gym shorts or sweats. The jeans are far from tight, but they probably have a bit of a squat suit and wraps effect as they hug my hips and sleeved knees at the bottom. Mainly my legs are very toasty.
You might have noticed my lifts congealing into a pattern. Squats and benches, one low volume and one higher, alternating and followed by a back movement: db row, chin up, or deadlift...and then a "real life" finisher: sprint, jump, farmers walk.
There is a reason for this. Back squat is the best lift for the lower body, bench the best for the upper body push. No question. But I can't decide between db row and weighted chin for upper body pull.
The db row mirrors the bench...but the chin has better endpoints. The chin locks at the top. But the row can't be held very long at the top with decent weight and it invites looser form. But the chin is hard on the medial epicondyles.
Though I am now finding that just stretching my forearm muscles by mimicking a reverse wrist curl motion with my fingers extended helps a lot. Just like stretching my quads seems to help my knee health. I think constantly adding weight without a stretch to counteract all the loaded contracting results in a chronic low level contraction that results in pain and dysfunction.
So stretching after a session is VERY important to prevent the muscles constantly pulling slightly on the joint and jacking the lifter up. In my case, especially the quads pulling on my knees and my forearm/finger flexors yanking on the medial part of my elbow.
But for some reason the farmers walks seem to help that elbow pain, too. Maybe they strengthen a grip strength deficiency that led to an improper compensatory activation. I tell ya, these walks are very corrective.
I've decided that adding more than a couple pounds of bodyweight per month would mean I'm getting fatter faster than I'm getting muscular. So I will add just a quarter gallon of milk or its equivalent per day to my caloric intake.
Oh, and my third pull is the sumo deadlift, which I agree is the best way to pull for the reasons Tom of Powerlifting To Win enumerated in his excellent article on the subject. The deadlift is redundant and less effective than the squat. Making the deadlift more like the squat with the trap bar (especially for tall/long-femured lifters ill-suited to squats) or with sumo (for competitive powerlifters) is smart. Spare the lower back rounding and work the legs more.
In other words, sumo pull for training and competition...higher bar squat for training, lower bar for competition (and the training leading up to competition).
I will make sumo deadlift the pull on the days I squat first for high volume. The low volume bench in between will serve as a little respite.
I'm confident that I'll hit my x5x5 goal with 275 on the squat. A little less confident about benching 185x5x5. I did manage to bench 190x5 followed by triples then doubles. So if I can do that on a good day now, I should be able to get to 185x5x5 by December.
My overriding goal is to best my old best on high bar squat with just sleeves: 365 @ 182. First I want to hit 365 while I'm under 170. Then I want to hit 405 while I'm under 180. All high bar, no belt or wraps. In truth, I expect 8-10 lbs on squat per pound of bodyweight. At least for a bit longer. So I really want that 405 while I'm under 170. I'm good for 315-320 @160 now. So I'm not asking for the impossible here. Just 315x5 @ 165 yields 365 at that bodyweight.
Thanks for reading my rambling about my longing to beat my younger self as my test levels continue to decline.