zen and the art of strength training

[kopp]

Tuesday February 14

Squat 1 x 5 x 250
Bench 3 x 5 x 185
Deadlift 1 x 5 x 315
Pullups 7 x 5

On squats, my left knee was irritated when I took the bar out of the rack. Not sure what the issue was. It didn't have to do with my squat form. It had to do with my un-racking the weight form. Something to watch moving forward.

Friday February 17

Squat 3 x 5 x 250

Solid, if quite challenging. I only had about 40 minutes to workout in the morning, so decided to focus on squats. I was very sore from this the next day. Also, my arms are pretty sore, not sure why. It could just be as simple as that I'm squeezing the bar and tightening my upper back, so squats are a sort of isometric arm workout.

Sunday February 19

Squat Warmup
Bench 3 x 5 x 190
Pullups 3 x 6
Deadlift 1 x 5 x 320

Ruck: 30 pounds, 30 minutes, stairs

After the lift I went to the park near my house. There's a fairly steep stairway with about 50 steps leading up from the water to an overlook, then a slight meandering sloping path back down to the water. I put on 30 pounds and did about 30 minutes of going up the steps then walking on the path back down. I think I did 6 or 7 loops, lost count. Next time I'll bump this up to 50 pounds, as this wasn't that challenging.

This was a good all around week. Everyone is feeling better after weeks of being sick. I put together 4 or 5 nights this week of 7+ hours of sleep. Quite pleased that even with all the challenges of the last few weeks, I've continued to progress.

[kopp]

Wednesday February 22

Workout Fail

Not worth writing down reps or sets. I just felt out of it, not 100%. The weight felt heavy and I felt off... Later in the day I got a sore throat, a cough, started sneezing, chills. So I must have had some sort of a virus that threw me off. I got good nights of sleep Wednesday and Thursday, and am feeling better.

Friday February 24

Squat 1 x 5 x 255; 2 x 5 x 230
Bench 3 x 5 x 195
Deadlift 1 x 5 x 325

Good lift. On the squats I decided to make a small programming adjustment. I'm going to do two drop sets at 90% instead of three sets across. I'm hoping that I can keep driving progress with this. Doing three sets across takes too much time, and leaves me too exhausted for the other lifts, which is the rationale for the switch. I can do the drop sets with less rest time and still feel good enough to bench, deadlift, etc...

Sunday morning I leave for California for a week long work trip. There's a gym near the hotel I'm staying that at least looks to have a squat rack, so hope to get 1-2 lifts in next week. Still making slow but steady progress on the lifts. Need to just keep this going for a few more weeks before I switch to focusing on rucking in preparation for the June hiking trip.

[kopp]

Saturday February 25 through Friday March 3

Off

I was traveling for work this week. There appeared to be a decent gym right across the street from my hotel, but it had moved locations. The nearest gym with a barbell was about a 20 minute uber ride away, and I didn't have time for that. So decided to just take the week off, eat a lot, get plenty of sleep. Coming back I'm going to do a reset, and then push hard moving forward. I had been pretty consistent for the past few months, so probably due for a week off.

[kopp]

Saturday March 4

Squat 2 x 5 x 230
Bench 3 x 5 x 175
Pullups 3 x 6

On the second set of squats I got a pretty bad charlie horse. I think it was just the result of not having lifted in a week.

Sunday March 5

Deadlift 1 x 5 x 295
Ruck: 3 miles, 50 pounds, easy pace

Wednesday March 8

Squat 3 x 5 x 235
Bench 3 x 5 x 180
Deadlift 1 x 5 x 305

Good lift. I spoke with one of the trainers about my squat form. The issue I have is that when I get tired my hips go up first, then the last part of the lift is basically a good morning. Going to schedule some time with him to work on form in the next week or so.

Sunday March 12

Squat 240 x 5, 3; 225 x 3,3,3

Thursday through this morning I was at a work retreat. Not great for recovery. Thursday and Friday night I got pretty drunk, smoked some cigars, stayed up very late. Saturday night our firm took us to a concert, and then I had a very early flight home this morning. On top of that, on Friday I decided to workout by walking up and down the stairs in the hotel for about 30 minutes, did around 60 flights both up and down. Then Saturday did wakeboarding for a few hours, which was also pretty tiring. So bottom line is I was pretty exhausted today, but wanted to nonetheless find some time to squat.

[kopp]

Tuesday March 14

Squat Warmup
Bench 3 x 5 x 185
Deadlift 1 x 5 x 315
Pullups 3 x 7 x BW

Friday March 17

Squat - Technique practice

I scheduled an hour with the trainer at my gym who is a powerlifter and has been giving me some tips with my squats. I bought a set of 6 more lessons, which I'm planning to use over the course of the summer to improve my technique. My main takeaways from this session were 1) I should do more warmup, including stretching out my shoulders, hips, knees; 2) I currently way overarch my lower back, instead I need to do a better job bracing; 3) I go too deep, which causes me to lose tension at the bottom and have mild butt wink, should cut it right at parallel.

Sunday March 19

Kettlebell Press 3 x (1,2,3,4,5) x 53
1 x 10 x 53

My wife and I went to NYC for her birthday, and saw a Broadway show last night. I'd hoped to get home early enough to get a lift in but our hotel was right in the path of the NYC half marathon, which severely delayed us getting out of the city. I hadn't done any overhead pressing in a few months, and I really wanted to do something. So did some presses (55 total reps with 24kg bell) while watching TV (The Last of Us).

I feel like I've been in limbo the last month. I need to not get frustrated. Frankly, given all the stuff I have going on with work, toddlers, travel, everybody getting sick, its a miracle I've been this consistent and not totally regressed back to square one.

[kopp]

Monday, March 20

Squat 3 x 5 x 240
Pullups BW x 8, 8, 6

Wednesday March 22

Bench 3 x 5 x 190
Ruck: 30 minutes; 50 pounds

For the ruck, did the same loop from February 19. This felt very heavy, especially on my shoulders. I'm probably out of rucking-shape, and should lighten the load until I readjust to that activity.

Saturday March 25

Squat 3 x 5 x 245
Bench 3 x 5 x 195
Weighted Pullups 5 x 2 x 25

Solid week overall - best in a while. The squats and bench both felt a lot easier this time around than they did when I was at the same weight in February. The bench in particular felt like light weight. On the squats, consciously bracing and not overextending my back has really helped me stay tight throughout the lift.

On the recovery side, this has been a tough week. My wife was sick all week, so I've had bedtime, middle-of-the-night, and morning duty with the kids.

[kopp]

Tuesday March 28

Squat 3 x 5 x 250

This was with trainer. Squats have never felt so good.

Thursday March 30

BW: 218

Squat 3 x 3 x 225
Bench 3 x 5 x 200
Pullups BW x 8,8,6

Saturday April 1

Squat 3 x 5 x 255
Dumbbell Bench 4 x 8 x 140
Weighted Pullups 25 x 3,1

Squats felt good. This was where I was before the reset at the start of March. These felt much easier than they did then. Bench and deadlift platform were taken. Decided to do some pressing movement, go higher volume with a slightly different movement. After first set of weighted pullups, arms were extremely sore.

Sunday April 2

Ruck: 1:20 total

First hour was with 30 pounds, did a large loop (3.5-4 miles) in the park near my house. Then did another 20 minutes of a smaller loop that included a long decline and stairs, using 40 pounds. Everything felt good.

Recovery this week has been good. Family is healthy, kids are sleeping through the night, work isn't too busy.

[kopp]

Workout Programming For April and May

Primary Goal: As I noted at the beginning of the year, I'm going on a 30+ mile backcountry hiking trip in Colorado with some friends the weekend of June 10. My main goal is to be in the best possible shape for that trip, both so that I am not the weak link, and to make it more enjoyable.

In an attempt to apply the principles from Practical Programming, I've bifurcated my training. From January to present, I focused on building a baseline of usable total body strength, through basic progression with squats, deadlifts, bench press and pullups. For April and May, I plan to shift the focus by regular hikes (i.e., task specific practice) while continuing to do the barbell lifts 2x per week. This means continuing to make weekly progress on the squats, deadlifts, bench, pullups, coupled with one long hike each Sunday morning and periodically doing a shorter hike midweek that focuses on going up and down stairs/hills. I am also going to try and make more of an effort to push the prowler at least once a week.

The following is what I plan to have as a model week:

Tuesday:
Medium Squats 3 x 3
Bench 3 x 5
Deadlift 1 x 5
Pullups
Prowler

Wednesday:
Ruck <1 hour, focus on elevation

Friday/Saturday:
Squat 3 x 5
Pressing variant (DB bench, KB Press, Pushups)
Pullups

Sunday:
Ruck 4+ miles

[kopp]

Tuesday April 4

Squat warmup
Bench 3 x 5 x 205
Back assistance

This was with the trainer at the gym that I've met with a few times before, this time to go over bench press form. The main takeaway is that I've been doing a close grip benchpress for my entire life. I've always benched with my hands about the length of my thumb away from the knurl. Turns out this was about 1-2 inches too close on each side. To double check, I watched a bench press width video that Rip put out a few years ago and sure enough, I've been close grip benching this entire time. The trainer also showed me how to improve my tightness and hip drive. Should be able to continue making progress on the bench as this still felt pretty manageable.

Wednesday April 5

Ruck: 40 pounds, 1 hour

Friday April 7

Squat 3 x 5 x 260
Kettlebell Press 2 x 12 x 53
Deadlift 275 x 5, 3

Saturday April 8

Ruck: 40 pounds, 90 minutes

This was along the Appalachian Trail near my parents house. It was all up-and-down, uneven terrain, and was really tiring. I think I went about 4 miles. I learned that hiking on flat ground does not prepare you to hike up and down hills, and that I have to prioritize elevation to get ready for Colorado.

[kopp]

Monday April 10

Squat warmup (3 x 185, 205, 225, 245)
Bench 3 x 5 x 210

Bench was challenging. Will be surprised if I can make more than one more five pound jump.

Thursday April 13

Squat 265 x 5, 2, 2
Prowler 10 x 25m x 145

I was pretty exhausted going into this workout from back to back very long days at work, and spending an evening in the urgent care center with a toddler that had a high fever. But decided it was better to do some squatting than none. On the prowler, quite surprised how well these went. I struggled with 95 pounds in January, so I was pretty psyched about the progress. A trainer pointed out that a million things like humidity, wetness, temperature, and other factors can dramatically affect prowler difficulty, so shouldn't look too much into it.

Saturday April 15

Squat 5 x 265; 5 x 3 x 245
Farmers Carries 190 pounds
Pushups BW x 20, 12, 12, 12

On squats, the last two reps at 265 my hips raised faster than my chest, and then I good-morning'd through the rest of the lift. Wasn't sure what to do after that. If I couldn't get five good reps on first set, unlikely the next sets would be better. Decided to take some weight off and do five triples with perfect form. This increased volume, more reps, and let me practice with correct form. It was a little frustrating since these have been going well.

Sunday April 16

Ruck: 40 pounds, 1:08

Big loop in park near my house. Beautiful morning. This was essentially active recovery, since I wasn't pushing it. Felt great.