Sgsolberg: Boring But Big

[Sgsolberg]

BW: 219
This weight feels more natural for me. Last week was weird, but I can't figure out why. Additionally, I'm really making sure to get 250+ grams of protein right now. I'll see if this focus helps.

Warmup: 5 minutes walking on treadmill. 3* incline, 3.5 miles per hour.

Bench:
135x5x2 (warmup)
160x5 (this was supposed to be 3, but I fucked up)
180x3
205x5, 3

Assistance Work:
Bench 115x10x5.
This was much easier than the lighter work last week.

Kroc Rows 90x10x5.
Once again, this felt fine. I will probably stick with this weight for a while.

Dips BWx5x5.

[Mr.City]

I picked up the book. 5/3/1 seems like great stuff.

[Sgsolberg]

I like it. Of course, I recognize that it is not the fastest way for me to increase my lifts. On the plus side, today's workout only took 75 mins. That's lightning compared to the last week or so of Starting Strength (at least for me it was about 105 mins).

[Sgsolberg]

Well, today was sucktastic, and it carried through into my workout.

BW: 217.5 lbs

Warmup: Walk 5 mins (3* incline, 3.5 mph).

Squat:
135x5x2 (warmup)
225x5 (warmup)
275x3
315x3
355x6
This felt goddamned weak.

Assistance Work:
Squat 185x10x5.
This was good, but I kept the rest times at about 3 mins.

Leg Press +230x10x5.

[Sgsolberg]

Conditioning Day:
Hill Sprints. My wifey's altimeter thingy (used for skiing normally) had the hill as about 95 feet of elevation from the base.

Sprint to the top, pause for a moment, walk down, repeat for a total of 10 times up the hill.

This was definitely tough. I know I need to work on a bit more conditioning and flexibility as part of my gpp. I'll try to log 1 or 2 more days of conditioning this week or this weekend.

Other Notes:
I am feeling fairly tired. Not sure if this is a general fatigue or nutritional thing. I'm trying to do a light body recomp right now, and that is probably a factor.
I am slightly regretting not taking the 10% reduction in maxes for calculating my lifts. I am going to continue with my current mesocycle, but am considering the option to not increase my weights for my next mesocycle.

Anyone who reads, feel free to respond to my musings or to tell me I'm full of crap and to man up.

[Mr.City]

Oh man, I think that 10% is gonna whup your ass. Good luck though. Btw, I noticed you finish off your sets of 3 with a set of 6. I think I might be missing part of the program, but isn't it 3 sets of 3?

[Sgsolberg]

Wendler counts the two sets of 3 before that as work sets. I find it helpful to think of this like some of ramped 5x5 programs. Each ramped set is a work set. In this week's case sets of 3 for 70%, 80%, and 3+ for 90%.

It's not that I've been trying to get 6 reps on these sets... it's just where I ended up. This week, 6 reps at 355 was fucking tough (though I tend to puss out a bit).

[Sgsolberg]

I am not a terribly big fan of C.S. Lewis, but I ran across this quote today: “We all want progress, but if you're on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.”

In my case, I think this may mean adjusting my weights to reflect a 10% drop in 1RM. There are several reasons to do this in my case:
1. I do not wish to be a hypocrite. I can’t count the times I’ve told someone (or merely thought) “Just do the damned program without messing with it.” In this case, I should do the program as designed.
2. By lowering the training weights I can ensure that I will be able to work on the program for some time before needing a reset.
3. By using a lighter weight I will be hitting higher reps. This will be a nice change from 5’s, and may increase hypertrophy somewhat.
4. Higher reps will tax my conditioning in a different way, especially pushing into time ranges that I want to improve (1-2 minutes).

As an additional note, I will be deadlifting tonight and pressing tomorrow. I am doing this since I am travelling tomorrow night and I find it much more comfortable to drive long distances after pressing than after deadlifting.

[Sgsolberg]

BW: 218 lbs.

Warmup:
Snatch: (in kgs) 40x3, 50x3, 60x1x10.

Deadlift:
135x5 (warmup)
225x3 (warmup)
280x3
320x3
360x7
-All sets before the 360 were beltless and with a double overhand grip. I probably could have gotten an 8th rep at 360, but I decided to leave one in the tank. I could feel my lumbar region really starting to struggle to keep extension.

Assistance work:
Deadlift 225x10, 190x10x4.
The volume assistance work is surprisingly difficult, even at such light weights. I made sure to take every rep seriously.

Leg Press +410x8x3.
A note on this: Since I have no idea how I should count the sled portion of the leg press, I write it as +lbs. This is so that I do not misrepresent the weights.

Weighted Situps +25x12x3.
If I do situps I like to do them on the decline bench, and so I do.

[Mr.City]

Did you factor the reduced 1RM with these deadlifts?