Brian's Training Log

[Brian Goldstein]

Hi!

I'm 32 y/o, 5'9", 180 #, and have recently completed an LP to the following numbers:

Squat 260x5x3
Bench 185x5x3
Deadlift 275x5
Press 130x5x3
Power Clean 140x3x5
Chins 10

Before this last LP attempt, I've been around and trained for short bursts before, often with long layoffs, flights in to exercise stupidity, and other distractions between correct training, since I was a pole vaulter in High School.

I'm also a new dad - my son is 7 and a half weeks old - and work full time with several extra curricular things on top of that, like volunteer work and night classes.

Per some of the advice on this board from Andy Baker and others, my new training set up is a simple HLM routine:

Heavy Day
Squat 3x5
Bench 3x5
Deadlift 1x5

Light Day
Squat 3x5x80% of Heavy
Press 3x5
Chins 3xM
Back Extension 5x10

Medium Day
Squat 3x5x90%
Incline 3x5
Power Clean 5x3

I reset my squat, bench, press, and deadlift by at least 10% to build a little momentum and continue to refine technique. So, this week's training has been:

Monday:
Squat 45x5x2, 135x5, 175x3, 215x2, 240x5x3
Bench 45x5x2, 95x5, 120x3, 145x2, 165x5x3
Deadlift 135x5 (hook grip), 185x3 (hook grip), 225x2 (double overhand), 250x5 (double overhand).

Wednesday
Squat 190x5x3
Press 105x5x3
Chins 6,6,6
Back Extension 5x10

and today's medium day will be
Squat 215x5x3
Incline 135x5x3
Power Clean 145x3x5.

I'm hoping to run the HLM set up for about 8 weeks, and get to around 275x5x3 Squat, 200x5x3 Bench, 285x5 DL with a hook or double overhand, 180x3x5 Power Cleans, and 140x5x3 Press. I don't care if I put on weight, but I'm also not eating like I am 18 again either.

The DL is humbling. Using crappy form and a mixed grip I've pulled 345 before at 167 pounds for a single, but being older and non competitive, I'd rather do it right and not set myself up for pain later.

I train at a community rec center in St. Louis, so there's one bombed out rack, crappy bars, and lots of knuckleheads, plus no shortage of mirrors. I have shoes but no belt or straps yet.

[Brian Goldstein]

As a side note, I also train a friend of mine. He's a professor at a local university, so typical academic built - slight, kyphotic, and weak.

We started together last September. On our first day, he could only goblet squat a 25# dumbbell for 5, only manage 11 push ups, and pulled 175 for a shaky 1. This week, he squatted his b/w (160) for 3 sets of 5, deadlifted 195x5, and bench pressed 130 for 3 sets of 5. He's also dropped his 5k time from over 33 minutes to under 27 minutes with a goal toward under 24 in a race.

Is he strong? no. Is he stronger and better? yes. He's also been a great lesson in that you have to meet trainees where they are. I'm type A, a little linear, and like caffeine, aggressive music, and challenges. He's none of those things and loves to breathe hard. The article on this site that's made the biggest impact on training him is A Strength-Based Approach to the APFT | Ryan Whittemore
and the basic set up of two days of basic strength and a hard day of interval running is his basic training set up.

[Brian Goldstein]

Yesterday was not a good workout at all.

I actually video'd myself and did not like what I saw. It may have been an angle thing but squats didn't look smooth and on the rear view maybe an inch high. On side view they looked better.

Power cleans though were all bad. Arm Pulling everywhere and my start position was off.

I probably rushed a little bit through last night's session. I hope it was just the end of the week and a good weekend sets up Monday for success.

Last thing that was hard to see: a little bit of a belly. I'm a naturally skinny man, and going from 165 to 180 was virtually nothing, but then I look at this video and I don't look like I thought I did.

I'm not going to do anything drastic, but I *will* start to pay a little more attention to food.

My plan to "tweak" this week are: eat the same breakfast each day and add a set each to bench press and chins.

[Brian Goldstein]

Left my god damned shoes at the office.

course correction: light day, only lighter and reps move up from 5 to 8.

Squat 45x5x2, 95x5, 135x3, 165x2, 185x8x3
Work sets super setted with Chins 7x3

Press 45x5x2, 60x3, 75x2, 85x8x3

Back Extension 3 sets x 10 reps superset Lying Leg Raises 3 sets x 10 reps.

Went as quickly as I could and was done inside of 30 minutes.

On the plus side, the mental break from 5's is nice. On the other hand, it's amazing how a few more reps can have you breathing a lot heavier!

I don't plan on making a habit out of this, but the variation in load and reps felt good tonight and I'm glad I did *something* productive.

[Brian Goldstein]

I just want to see what going to five sets of triples for squats and bench will feel like on heavy day and 2 sets of triples for deads.

Likewise, I'm going to see what six sets of doubles feels like for power cleans.

[Brian Goldstein]

long story short: YNDTP.

Yesterday:
SQ: 185x5x3
Press 95x5x3
DL 225x5

Tomorrow:
SQ: 190x5x3
BP: 135x5x3
PC: 115x3x5

[Brian Goldstein]

have been sick and lost desire to get out of bed, let alone train. between stress and sick I dropped 6 pounds over the last week. Which was bad, but, finally got appetite and sleep back to ok over the weekend and trained this AM:

SQ: 195x5x3
Press: 100x5x3
DL 235x5

Really focused on squeezing up my chest harder and feeling heavy in my hands before the bar begins to move - definitely helped with setting the correct extension on the DLs. Presses have oddly become my best lift recently - I hit 145x1 at the end of the last cycle. Drilled these presses today. Squats felt... alright. I'm going to review valsava technique because it didn't quite feel right today - not enough to interfere but not as it should be.

Today was tough mostly because of how quickly I moved through it and how little physical activity I've done in the last week-10 days. An additional minor headache is the place I train at. issue after issue after issue, with a very low barbell literacy. There's a new-ish black iron gym near by that I will have to inquire about. Problem is every dollar and spare minute matters to my family right now, so I probably will make due with what's available for now.

I have a bad case of arm pulling on the power clean, so I'll try to spend a few extra minutes just drilling the jump with the triceps cue on Wednesday.

I'm certain that previous attempts at NLP have been derailed by operator error - starting too high, not doing the lifts correctly, and not addressing the first 3 questions. I'm going to give it one more attempt the best I can and then move on to early intermediate programming. I quite enjoyed GGW, and am fairly certain that the first 9 weeks were very productive. Where things went off the rails for me was in the last two or three weeks, when the volume drops. I take that to mean that at my current stage of advancement that I lost training effect. Then, compound that with stress and sickness. so - NLP. Because of the illness we'll just consider today the "start".

[ud2o]

long story short: YNDTP.

You're not alone.

[Brian Goldstein]

Missed Wednesday. Baby life.

Little by slowly:

SQ: 200x5x3
BP: 140x5x3
ran out of time this morning, but managed to sneak in some chins 4x3.

Not that I'm surprised SQ is going well - this is a lot lighter than before, but it does feel good to know I'm not completely incompetent at it. BP went fine because its just not that heavy, but I'm going to have to get my arch/tuck right. Baby life struck again this AM and I ran out of time before I got to set up for cleans. I'm just glad I got my ass there.

[Brian Goldstein]

this morning:

SQ: 205x5x3 - very good
Press 105x5x3 - very good
DL 245x2 - 3rd rep - miss off the floor. did another 3 single attempts. first single attempt - fine, but back not set. second single - best single except for the very first rep. Third single - rolled out of my fingers at the top, which is just annoying. Not even sure what happened here. I am guessing I ran out of steam because I train early AM and frequently don't eat right before. Got 7.5 hours sleep and rested 5 minutes before this attempt, which is not close to the best single I've pulled recently, or even the best 5. I'm having a little trouble getting my back set, so that's something to work on. I'm not going to freak out, I'm just going to take this weight again on Friday.