Quest For Strength

6/19/2018 Tuesday @Work

Squat 5RG30 225(8,8,7,7,5-35) Next week 5 pounds will be added to the bar. I added a set to make it 5X5 because I needed more volume to reestablish progress. The weight was dropped to 225lbs. in order to figure out where to start for 5 sets across. At the last minute I changed my mind and set a rep goal of 30 for 5 sets. When I add weight the sets will probably drop to about 5X5 then the following week I will add reps instead of weight. This will slow the progression down to every 2 weeks instead of every week. Adaptation for us old guy's occurs at a slower rate and I am ok with slowing the pace down a little bit. Intensity squat day will have a rotating rep range of 5's and 3's so that new pr's are established weekly but weight increases in each range are bi-weekly. We'll see how it goes. If the added volume allows me to still make weekly 5 pound jumps I will, but the plan is in place in case that no longer works.

Dumbbell Row 3RG25 75(13,10,10-33) I need to bring a plate loadable dumbbell to work so that I can incrementally load the db row. Again I had a pair of "pink" weights hanging off of a 70lb Kettlebell. It's not enough and the weight needs to be increased.

Paused Deadlifts 135X5X2 Used a light weight to learn the movement.

6/21/2018 Thursday @Work BW 224.8

When I woke up Wednesday morning DOMS had set it. On Tuesday I increased worksets on the squat to 5. Right after the workout I spent 2 hours helping a friend move. This was followed by mowing the 1 acre lawn at our new house, with a push mower. I live in the mountains so nothing here is flat. To make matters worse I have a Massey Ferguson tractor with a 5' finish mower at my old house, but it will not fit on my trailer! Thankfully there was a thunderstorm and I only got half of the lawn done. By the time I quit my quads and calves were starting to knot up. Everything combined added up to be a lot of stress. Today I am much better but still sore, should be good enough to squat/deadlift tomorrow with a thorough warmup.

Today was a good workout. I hit a new lifetime PR on the bench press. In fact, all the lifts today felt lighter than expected!


Bench 265X1, 250X2 I was only planning on doing a single at 250 but it felt easy so I went for the double and got it!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIRNNKZ3HfM


Incline Bench 150X12 Since bumping bench up to 5 sets on volume day I decided to move inclines to intensity day as a back off set.

Press 137.5X5

Laying Triceps Extension 100X10X2

6/22/2018 Friday @Home

I was still to sore to squat and deadlift. I tried a few light warm up sets and the hip adductors said no! Maybe tomorrow I will be able to at least get in a light day of squats/deads to help with recovery for next Tuesday's volume workout. Intensity will resume next Friday. Anytime changes are made to the set/rep scheme my adductors usually get sore the first workout and are fine after that. Tuesday was worse because of all the other activity on top of lifting. Guess that's what happens when you get old! Since it was only my legs that were thrashed I went ahead and did chins.

Squat/Deadlift Skipped but will try a light day tomorrow.

Chinups Body Weight+15lbs 6,7,7 ,Body Weight 14 This is the most I have done since my college days in the 80's. My personal record was 32 pullups in my senior year of high school at a weight of 150 pounds, now I am 225-230. Adding weight is helping because chins were stalling out with just body weight alone. I could not believe the difference between weighted and unweighted chins. When I dropped the weight for the last set it felt like I was about to throw myself through the ceiling.

6/22/2018 Friday @Home Continued

I got home around 11pm and the adductors felt much better. I wanted to finish today's workout if possible. After a few warm up sets my legs felt good. I love the flexibility of having a home gym setup in my basement.

Squat 250X5 I Felt good tonight. This morning there was no way that these were gonna happen.

Deadlift 320X5, 255X5X2

6/25/2018 Monday @Home

I finally figured out the best way to deal with the discrepancy between the weight at home verses at work. Monday and Friday will be done at home. Tuesday and Thursday will be done at work. This way the weights can progress independently and the dependency will not matter.


Bench Press 220X5X5 (5,5,5,5,5) Add 2.5lbs next week.

Press 122.5X5X5 (5,5,5,5,7) The press felt easy today. Next week will be 125X5X5. Last week I did 127.5 but that was at work. 122.5 at home is about a pound heavier then 127.5 at work.

Curls 85(8,9)

6/26/2018 Tuesday @Work

Squat 5RG30 230(8,8,7,6,5-34) Add 5lb next week

BB Rows 190X5X3 Easy but my right forearm has been hurting for a couple of weeks, maybe tendenitus? Pendlay rows (overhand grip) are what irritates it. DB rows, chins, and curls are fine. I am going to drop pendlay's and just do 1 arm dumbbell rows for a while and see if it clears up. I have a pair of Olympic dumbbell handles on the way. I'll keep one at home and one at work for 1 arm db rows.

Paused Deadlift 155X5X3 Extremely easy. Last week was my first time adding these as a light 2nd pulling day to increase volume. I will continue 20lb jumps until a working weight is reached.

6/28/2018 Thursday @Work


Bench 230X5 PR!

Incline Bench 155X12 A variation for a backoff set. I like a little extra volume on intensity day.

Press 140X5 This is also a new PR!

Laying Triceps Extention 105(10,8) I didn't take enough rest between sets, even still these were much harder today. I will repeat 105 next week and add reps, then switch to 2.5lb jumps.

Chins 1X13 Just cause I felt like it.

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Originally Posted by Ken_L

6/28/2018 Thursday @Work


Bench 230X5 PR!

Incline Bench 155X12 A variation for a backoff set. I like a little extra volume on intensity day.

Press 140X5 This is also a new PR!

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Rejoice! I'm impressed you manage to do both volume and intensity bench & press on the same day. I noticed pretty quickly in my intermediate programming that I needed to do them on different days.

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Originally Posted by Ken_L

Bench 230X5 PR!

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Congrats!

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Originally Posted by Espen Lund

Rejoice! I'm impressed you manage to do both volume and intensity bench & press on the same day. I noticed pretty quickly in my intermediate programming that I needed to do them on different days.

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Thanks, The key for me was to use a 4 day split instead of 3 full body workouts each week. Squats and Deads suck up all my energy and leave very little in the tank for upper body work. Even in the split I do the upper body day before the lower. I am able to put more into each exercise this way. Of course age, or is it old age has something to do with it!