zen and the art of strength training

[kopp]

Week 1: Squats

Main Lift: Squat 250x 5 5 8

Speed Deadlift 8x1x225

Chinups 3x8xBW

Lift Duration: 50 min

Today was a great morning lift. Lifted right after breakfast though it didn't seem to matter. The squats went great. My left knee was sore during the warmups, but everything went well during the lifts. The squats were awesome, I am definitely within striking distance of getting my end of October goal of 3x5x270 by the end of September. The speed deadlifts were noticeably slower than at 205. The chins were done simply because I want to do them as often as possible, as long as they don't interfere with the main lifts. I have a full day tomorrow, so I will press on friday and DL over the weekend.

[kopp]

Week 1: Press

Main Lift: Press 135x 5 5 5 3 1

Speed Bench 8x3x115
Chins BWx 7/3 5 5

Workout Duration: 40min

Today went well. The presses were a demonstrated improvement over my last time at 135 (5 5 3 2) and I really felt like the speed bench was considerably faster than at any point in the past. Especially the last half were with great bar speed. The chins are still floundering.

Today was my last day of law school orientation. Yesterday we had a community service day where we went to a rough area in the outskirts of Detroit and spent the day volunteering at a school. It was fun, mostly playing soccer and dodgeball with elementary and middle school aged children. Today my hip flexors were sore from some of the running, a reminder that occasionally I should get out and do some sprints. This morning we had an intro class which is supposed to prepare us for what classes are like. It was a civil procedure class, the professor immediately started asking questions about the cases we were supposed to have read. He had memorized everyone in the classes name (they are given names and pictures before school starts), which was astounding since there were over a hundred people in the lecture and he had never met any of us. He was young, probably under 35, had lots of energy and enthusiasm for the subject matter which is the best type of professor to learn from.

We also had our first meal in the dining hall. I think I will be well fed for the next few months. For lunch I ate several pieces of salmon, some rice with chicken, and fruit. It looks like all meals will be of similar quality, which means I am going to be eating better than at any other point in my life. So food intake isn't going to be as much of a problem as I had expected. For school work it is hard to know how much I am going to have each week, because we only have our first day assignments. Right now the fastest i can read/outline/process the casebooks are about 10-12 pgs per hour. Talking to a few upper classmen, this equates to about 30 hours per week I need to set aside just to accomplish all of the reading. Fortunately I shouldn't have a lot of other distractions.

[kopp]

week 2: Deadlift

Main Lift: Deadlift 3x5x335 (20 pound PR at this rep scheme--compare to 8-02)

Assistance Lift: Front Squat 5x3x165

Conditioning: 4x70m sprints, 60 second rest

Felt great today. I could have moved up to 395x3 1 1 on the DL, but I am trying to rotate intensity and volume, with frequent speed training. This is as much so I don't get bored as it is the basics of intermediate training (whether my DL is at intermediate level or not...). The front squats went very well, they were all quality and very deep. The sprints were just an intro to running hard; last weeks volunteer work at the school, which left my legs sore from a few short sprints, was a wake-up that something like this should occasionally be included.

In the gym today was guy who couldn't have weighed over 170pounds. He deadlifted in ramping sets up to 5x405 and then pulled 1x455, only to then do descending sets of 5 down to 315, at which point he did a bazillion reps. The entire workout must have included 50+ deadlifts, including a single at over 2.5x BW. A real strong dude.

I have gotten most of my assignments for the next week. Friday and yesterday I did about 7 hours of work, which was enough to knock most of it out. I only have one syllabus, for Civil Procedure, so I don't know how much each week will be for the other classes. That class isn't as much as i had expected, maybe 2 hours of work per class period. I may try knock out all of the following weeks (sept 12-16) today and tomorrow, just so i can attack the upcoming workload with a slight head start.

[kopp]

Week 2: Bench

Main Lift: Bench 220x 3 3 1

Chinups BWx 7 7 6
Incline DB press 60sx 13 10

Sort of an off day, I am not sure why. It may have been that I was fatigued from all the deadlifting and squatting yesterday, and that fatigue in the upper back and shoulders limited my pressing. I think the chinups were a result of tired grip and the thickness of the pullup bar at the place I workout. Depending on how I feel the rest of the week I may take next week as a deload/speed week, where I don't do anything heavy. I have been lifting hard since the beginning of august, so it may be time for a week off. I guess we will see how the rest of the week goes.

I have been eating a sleeping a lot, so I don't think that was the issue today.

[kopp]

Week 2: Squats

Main Lift: Back Squat 255x5 5 8

Assistance: Front Squat 8x1x175

Today lift was over my lunch break. The last two reps of the back squat were a serious grind. I may stop grinding out 8 and instead do 6 at 260 and 265. I think, barring something unexpected, my goal of 3x5x270 by the end of October is a gimme. The only goal for the front squats was to get a decent number of quality reps in at a weight that was fairly high, not too much logic to it other than that. I only took a minute or less between reps on the FS. School is going well. I did the whole first weeks reading before our first day so it hasn't been too busy. Getting plenty of sleep and lots of food. I should be able to knock out all of next weeks reading before monday, it looks like it will be about 20-22 hours worth of reading, shouldn't be terrible if I spread it out over the next few days.

In other news, Michigan weather has hit with a vengeance. Last week was a little surreal with the beautiful warm days and no classes. This week is lots of class and cold rainy misery.

[kopp]

Week 2: Press

Main Lift: Press 140x 5 5 3 3 ---really happy with these. First set of five was pretty easy

Speed Bench 8x3x125 -- good bar speed

Assistance:
Pullups BWx 12 8 6 -the 12 is a PR since last october
Dumbbell incline press 60s x 15 8 -didn't take long enough rest between sets

I think Sunday I am going to have a light day. I have really been pounding away at this since the start of august and could use a little active recovery. I will start week 3 with deadlifts on wednesday. I think monday's bad benching session had to do with being tired from sunday's deadlifts. Today showed pretty well that my upper body is getting stronger, and I predict next week I will get 3x5x220 on bench.
I have been eating pretty well, lunch and dinner are huge with oatmeal and peanutbutter as snacks and breakfast. Not enough food to gain weight (though I am already at my goal weight so this is good), but it seems to be enough to recover. I have been sleeping well, though last night I went out for drinks and had to get up at 7:30, so maybe 6 hours of sleep. I feel surprisingly good today.

[kopp]

Light Day

Squat 3x5x185
Incline Bench 3x5x135

I have been going hard for the past 6 weeks and felt I needed a little break. Today was just enough to get the blood going and keep the motion patterns down, a little active recovery. I am going to take tomorrow and tuesday totally off, then start week 3 with deadlifts on wednesday.

School is going well. I should finish all of this week's reading this afternoon. My plan is to get a jump start on next week's reading as well. It is a lot of dense material, but I am wading through it fine so far.

Last nights Michigan victory over Notre Dame was one of the best 4th quarter's I have ever seen. Ann Arbor was total chaos afterwards, with 100,000+ people swarming the streets, setting off fireworks and honking their horns until early in the morning.

[kopp]

week 3 : Deadlifts

Main Lift: Deadlift DOH 1x315 345
395x3 1 1

Speed Deadlifts 10x1x225 30-45s rest--- bar speed on these was better than the last time. A few of them toward the end I really got the bar moving

Decided not to wait until tomorrow to lift again for a couple reasons: 1) I am feeling great and didn't think I would get anything out of another day of rest and more importantly 2) I have put in an enormous of work over the last 4 days reading and doing school work and really needed to pick up something heavy to clear my mind.

Food intake has been really good. I am eating enormous lunches and dinners especially at our buffet style cafeteria. I felt very strong today, the deadlifts went up great, I think I still have a lot more in the tank.

[Bronan the Barbarian]

395x3 1 1

Beast.

[kopp]

week 3: Bench

Main Lift: Bench 220x 3 2 (fail on third rep)

Assistance:
Pullups BWx 12 9 6
Press 105x 10 10 5

I am going to reset the bench back to 195, and do 2x5, 1x max reps. If I add 5 pounds per week, I should get 225 on November 2. Not quite 'end of October' to hit my goal, but close enough. The pullups and presses went well.