zen and the art of strength training

[kopp]

Workout B

Speed Deadlifts 10x2x185
Press 140x3 3 3 2 2 115x7
Front Squat 3x5x140

Decent lift today. Wasn't feeling much pop with the deadlifts, but I got them going as fast as I could. I am planning on getting 355 on Friday, which would be awesome. The presses went well, these are comparable to the points in the past where I have plateaued. I am hoping if I stay consistent with pressing over the coming months these will continue to increase. I need to think about what I want my press goals to be for the end of the year. The front squats progressed as normal.

[kopp]

workout A

Squat 3x5x240---(july goal)these were fine. On a few I leaned over too far, as well as issues with knees coming in and becoming quad dominant. Most of them, especially the first set, were good with a solid back and upright chest. All were very deep. I squat high bar btw, which I don't think I've mentioned yet.

Bench 2x5 1x6x200---(july goal)really the highlight of the workout. These felt very strong. I must be doing something right.
Chinups 5x6xBW---about half of these I added a little kip to get all the way up and the last set was broken. My forearms and biceps were rocked after this. Progress on these has been slow, probably as a result of increased bodyweight.

Recovery since sunday has been good. I have slept well and eaten a decent amount. I am cutting back on the food a bit since I've put on over 40 pounds since mid-April. I think I can get a lot stronger at my current BW, especially since last October I had similar numbers at a bodyweight of around 180. I am taking the next two days off, I should have a great B session friday.

[kopp]

Workout B

Deadlift 1x325 DOH PR
1x5x355 (summer goal)
Press 140x 5 4 3---the 5 is an all time PR set!
105x10

Didn't do front squats because my left knee is sore from helping a friend move all day yesterday. It was 110 degrees and ridiculously exhausting, a bad day for recovery. I was going to do pullups but my shoulders and butt were cramping, this was enough anyway. Really happy with today. the deadlifts were a goal that I hadn't expected to get until the end of the summer. I may occasionally go for DOH pr rep just as a way to gauge grip strength. The presses were awesome, the first set of 5 was very solid. The drop set left my shoulders feeling like somebody had taken a baseball bat to them.

I am going to begin modifying my diet. My family staged a pseudo intervention wednesday night. I weighed myself on my scale at the house (as opposed to the gym where I usually do) and it read 204.6. This is the same scale that told me I was 159 on April 12. I had it in my brain that I would eat like this the rest of the summer, but my family and girlfriend
vetoed that decision. So... I think the only real change I need to make is milk related. Instead of 96oz of whole milk per day I am going to do about a quart of 2%, cutting out well over a thousand calories. I think I can get a whole hell of a lot stronger at my current bodyweight, though it may be a little slower from here on out. Regardless I am as big as I wanted to be anyways.

[kopp]

Thus far the summer has gone better than expected. Other than the Bench Press, all of my goals have been met as of today. I have also reached my bodyweight goal of 205 on GOMAD, up from 160 three months ago.

August---I am going to continue the current A/B rotation through August. The only change I am going to make is to reset the Squat back to 205 and move it to a 2x5 1xAMRAP routine, starting August 1. THis will be my second reset. The goal is going to be to get a lot of quality reps between 205-245, with an end of August goal of 245x 5 5 8. As stated a few posts ago, I squat high bar and go 3-4 inches below parallel.

The Presses are going to continue until I am no longer adding reps each workout. I expect it to take 2-3 workouts to make all the reps at each weight. My end of August goal is 3x150.

Deadlifts should continue with 10 pound jumps, with every other workout being either a high rep workout or a speed workout. End of August goal is 1x5x385.

Bench---My plan here is the same as with the Presses. The original summer goal of 3x5x215 hasn’t changed.

Front Squats--I should continue making 5 pound jumps on all B workouts. Goal is 3x5x170.

September-End of 2011

In September I begin my first year at the University of Michigan Law School. I am living in student housing and on a meal plan, so my food intake may not be enough to support the rapid workout to workout progress I’ve seen over the summer. Instead, I am going to settle for week to week, or even bi-weekly progress. Additionally, these current workouts take too long, I would like to keep all sessions under 45 minutes. The final thought is that I would like to begin to incorporate speed, and/or conditioning work as a regular staple of my training. I know under ideal circumstances I would not be done LP; oh well, such is life.

My current plan from September-End of 2011 is to do one lift per day, 4x per week, followed by either an accessory lift (RDL, one leg deadlifts, SLDL, Front Squats, pushpress, dips, pullups, GHD), a Dynamic effort lift, or a short conditioning workout. Whether to do a particular accessory lift or conditioning will be a game day decision.

A. Press 3-5 sets x 3-5 reps
B. Squat
C. Bench
D. Deadlift 1x5/1x3

My next set of strength goals by October 30 is Squat 3x5x270, Press 3x3x155, Deadlift 3x415, Bench 3x5x225. I will decide on year end goals mid October.

Any conditioning work is going to be short. Possibly sprints in the form of suicides (touching each sideline on the basketball court 3 times), or a tabata sprint. I have a 20 kg kettlebell which I may use for swings (10x10 on the minute, focusing on explosive hip extension) or snatches.

example of a standard week:
Monday-Press weight x 5 5 3 3
Assistance: Pullups 5x max reps
conditioning-sprint tabata

wednesday Squat 2x5 1x max rep
DE--Speed Deadifts 16x1x185 every 30 seconds

Friday-Bench 2x5 1xmax rep
Dips 5xmax reps

Saturday-DL 5RM
Conditioning Front Squat tabata

[kopp]

Squats 2x5 1x10x185

I felt sick all weekend, nauseated and shitty. Didn't eat much at all. today I still felt somewhat bad but wanted to squat something, since I didn't want to go a full 12 days without squatting. I had planned this to be my deload week, so it's not a huge deal. I leave for Boston tomorrow, and will get the next lift in on Sunday. Hopefully I will get some good sleep and food between now and then.

These went fine, they weren't hard, but like I said, I wasn't feeling great.

Actually next month may start with the first 3 workouts being lighter and involving both squats and DL, just to get back into the swing of things from this little layoff.

[kopp]

Not only was i sick saturday through monday, but wednesday night got food poisoning which caused me to shit out my brains wednesday and thursday while eating nothing but banana and toast. So much for a recovery week. Because of this and the fact that I haven't had a real lift since last friday, I decided to deload all of the lifts and start on the 2x5 1x max rep schedule. I am probably going to have to move the timeline back for the end of august goals.

Today's Lift---Workout A

Bench 175x 5 5 10
Squat 205x 5 5 12

Surprising how well this went. I didn't have the balls to do the pullups, my back was already really sore and I was very fatigued. In general though this was a great first day back. I liked doing the max reps last year and I think they are a good addition to the program. This week I am going to lift Tuesday-Friday-Sunday

[kopp]

Workout B

Deadlift 3x5x315
Press 3x5x125
Front Squat 3x5x150

Today was a good, bad and average day. The deadlifts went great. The 315 is a 40 pound increase over my previous best at this rep scheme, I should be well prepared for 5x365 on sunday. The presses were weak. I really hoped to get 7-9 on the last set but struggled through 3 sets of 5. I don't know if this is because I was worn out from the DL, hadn't fully recovered from the Benching, or if it was because I hadn't done the movement in a week and a half, but these were sub-par. The Front Squats were average, normal progression through what is still medium difficulty weight. I will say that my heart felt like it was going to pop on the last two sets of front squats. My recovery has been on par. I have been sleeping really well, and getting 3-4 good sized meals per day. I have been taking it easy with the milk under the assumption that I had gained as much weight as I planned, switching to 2% and cutting down to about a quart a day.

BW-196---this is an 8 pound drop in two weeks. I blame this entirely on being sick for a week, not eating at all wednesday or thursday, and having epic diarrhea. I may restart GOMAD for a week or two until it is back up around 205. This may be to blame for decreased pressing strength.

Edit-Actually the F.S. were a 10 pound jump, so these were better than I had originally thought.

[kopp]

workout A

Squat 215x 5 5 13
Bench 185x 5 5 9
Pullups 3x5

Last few days have been weird. Didn't get enough sleep last two nights and probably not enough food, no milk. Today my girlfriend had her thyroid removed so I was up at 6. Did manage a nap from 3-5 and then a lift around 6. Felt surprisingly good. The squats went well, and the last set of Bench was the easiest. I failed on my tenth rep. The pullups were tough, probably because I am fat and was already fatigued from the previous barbell movements. Really happy with progress on both of these. I am hoping for a big deadlift on Sunday. I am really happy with the max rep sets on bench and squats, they definitely add a new dimension to training and I hope will pay off over time. I am going to take another 10 pound jump on both, then slow it down to 5 on bench. I work all day tomorrow but should get plenty to eat.

[kopp]

Workout B

Deadlift 1x335 DOH PR
365x 3 1 1
Press 135x 5 5 3 2
Front Squat 3x5x155

Had a rough weekend. I worked all day saturday and sunday morning. My girlfriend came home from the hospital saturday after her thyroid removed. Saturday night we stayed up late because she was having a reaction to the medecine and was very sick. For these reasons I was too tired to lift sunday. I am going to lift wednesday and friday this week. Food intake has been good

On the deadlifts, the limiting factor was my grip. My right hand is burned pretty bad from the grease at the restaraunt where I worked, and I think this affected my grip. The presses were limited by my tricep strength. My triceps are extremely sore, and I am worried this will affect my benching on wednesday. The Front squats were exhausting, as usual i was afraid my heart was going to pop. These are an underrated exercise, especially for the upper back and abs. All in all a decent day. Friday I may do mostly speed work, something I haven't been getting much of the last few weeks. Friday I will probably knock the weight on the front squats back a little in order to do some form work, maybe 5x5x135 or something similar. I should have 4 more AB rotations before the end of the month, which is enough to reach most of my August goals.

[kopp]

workout A

Squat 225x 5 5 11
Bench 195x 5 5 5(8)---on the last set the spotter touched the last few reps, I don't know why, I felt like i could have gotten at least 7 by myself
Weighted Pullups 4x3x25
Speed Bench 8x3x115---on the minute. Don't know how much of a training effect these had, I was pretty tired by the time I got to these. Pushed as hard as I could. First 4 sets were closer grip than my normal bench grip.

All in all a good lift. Squats went really well, I was pretty tired. Bench went well other than the spotter touching the last few reps. The pullups weren't that great, I feel like I am actually getting weaker on these.