Isis and the Barbell

[isis]

Power Clean
15 x 3 x 2
25 x 3
35 x 3
45 x 3
47 x 3 x 5

Press
8 x 5
15 x 5
20 x 5
24 x 5 x 3

Front Squat
20 x 5 x 2
40 x 3
55 x 3
62 x 3 x 3

Overhead Squat
8 x 8
15 x 8
20 x 8
25 x 8 x 3

It took me a few sets to remember what I was doing last week with the power cleans. I'm happy with how the overhead squats are going. Once before I had them in my program and worked up to about 25 using 5 sets of 3 but they started feeling really hard on the shoulders and my presses were stalling so I stopped doing them. The sets of 8 I feel more in the abs than the shoulders. My goal is to work the OHS's up to the mid 40's to get them higher than my power snatch, as they should be according to Sassy Sage B.

I am feeling much less tired, slow and sore than I did on recovery day last week. Not sure why exactly but here are some possibilities that have occurred to me:
1) the difference between haltings and rack pulls
2) I only added 1 kg to the haltings instead of 2 kg
3) I drank 3 glasses of milk on Tuesday which is 3 x as much as usual. (This wasn't something I planned, I just was hungry and had no time to fix myself a snack, so I went for the milk.)
4) all of the above

[isis]

Squat
20 x 5 x 2
60 x 5
80 x 3
91 x 5

Bench Press
20 x 5
25 x 5
35 x 5
39 x 5 x 3

Power Clean
15 x 3 x 2
24 x 3
35 x 3
45 x 3
47.5 x 3 x 5

Chinups
BW + 1 kg x 5 x 3

Last week I was tired on intensity day and managed 89 x 4, so today since I was feeling good I decided to go for 91. The last rep was hard but not 1RM hard so I probably had even more in me. Then I almost hit myself in the chin with 47.5 kg doing power cleans.

Had a talk with an experienced lifter about fatigue and recovery. Doing workouts while feeling unrecovered is normal and necessary to make progress beyond a certain point, he told me, but most people don't want to do it. I knew that fatigue is normal for recovery day in the TM, but hadn't grasped that might also apply to intensity day. The reason for intensity day is to expose the nervous system to heavy weights, and to demonstrate progress. So if next week I'm tired on intensity day but can lift more than I could last week when I was also tired, then I've made progress. He told me that doubles and triples might work better than sets of 5 if I'm frequently underrecovered on intensity day.

[fnet]

Hi Isis,

I'm thinking about getting back on TM. I'm hitting the wall on all my lifts doing straight linear progression. TM seems ideal for a "mature" lifter like me. My energy levels seem to fluctuate wildly from day to day. I am not looking forward to those intensity days. It takes me like an entire afternoon to get through one and I tend to overdo it on the recovery days. I'll start out with 5's in intensity days but I may have to go to triples. Do you have any tips or pointers for success?

[isis]

When I first put my upper body lifts on the TM I picked volume weights that I now believe were too high, wasn't sure what to use for a week-to-week increment, and was trying to rotate singles, doubles and triples on intensity day, all with different weights and I didn't have any idea what increments to use there either. I think I was stuck from the beginning but there were so many variables that it took me weeks to figure out I wasn't getting anywhere.

Meanwhile my squat in which I started at a lower weight relative to my old 3x5 and used the same intensity day workout each time, a heavy set of 5, made steady progress.

So my new rules as I'm trying to get my upper body lifts back on the TM are: start low and keep it simple.

[isis]

Squat
20 x 5 x 2
40 x 5 x 2
70 x 3
83 x 5 x 5

Press
8 x 5
15 x 5
20 x 5
27.5 x 5 x 5

Rack Pull
40 x 5
75 x 5
95 x 2
103 x 5

Pullups
BW x 4 x 3

Both kneecaps were bugging me during the squat warmups, but they sorted themselves out before the work sets. It probably has to do with the massage I got yesterday which left me feeling nice and loose but apparently with leg muscles a little out of balance.

This is going to be a Texas method week for the press and I'm looking forward to trying some heavier weights on intensity day. I'll be out of town this weekend so intensity day will be a few days late.

Rack pulls were not hard today. Maybe +2 kg is too much, but +1 kg doesn't seem like enough. Loading 104.5 seems a little silly, but maybe that's what I should try next time.

[isis]

Power Clean
15 x 3 x 3
25 x 3
35 x 3
45 x 1
46 x 1
45 x 2
45 x 3 x 2

Bench Press
8 x 5
15 x 5
25 x 5
33 x 5 x 3

Front Squat
20 x 5
40 x 3
55 x 3
61 x 3 x 3

Overhead Squat
8 x 8
15 x 8
21 x 8
26 x 8 x 3

I felt pretty good this morning but it was clear to me even while warming up on the rower that my energy level was limited. Blame the rack pulls. But I adjusted the power clean and front squat weights down a little and had a good workout.

[isis]

Squat
20 x 5 x 2
60 x 5
82 x 5
92 x 5

Press
8 x 5
15 x 5
20 x 5
26 x 3
31 x 1 x 5

Power Clean
15 x 3 x 2
25 x 3
35 x 3
45 x 1
48 x 3 x 5

Chinups
BW + 1.25 kg x 5 x 3

I had an extra two days of rest from lifting but this weekend's travel left me feeling stiff and sleep deprived. The squats were heavy, my form felt like it was going wrong a different way on each rep and the last rep was very slow.

Five singles across is my new plan for press intensity day. 31 felt heavy and moved slow and I just barely got the last one, so I feel like I started with the right weight (which I got to by adding 10% to my volume day weight and rounding up).

Had lots of energy left for power cleans and they felt nice and snappy.

[TonyaB]

Still inspiring. Even when you're sleep deprived and stiff.

[isis]

Squat
20 x 5 x 2
50 x 5
70 x 3
84 x 5 x 5

Bench Press
15 x 5
20 x 5
25 x 5
35 x 3
40 x 5 x 3

Halting Deadlift
40 x 5
70 x 5
90 x 2
101 x 8

Pullups
BW x 5 x 3

The last few days have been stressful and a common pattern of mine when things are stressful is to forget to eat. I weighed myself this morning and got 146, down 3 pounds. In my life before lifting I would have been happy about that, but now it doesn't seem like such a good idea, especially on volume day.

Squats were more challenging than last week, but I rested longer between sets (10 minutes) and got them done. The bench press also felt heavy, so it's probably time to start making 0.5 kg jumps. Pullups get the advantage from a little weight loss. This is only the second time I've completed 3 sets of 5 pullups. The other time was on Christmas Eve...and stress probably had something to do with it then too.

[isis]

Power Clean
15 x 3 x 3
24 x 3
35 x 3
45 x 1
47 x 1
48.5 x 3 x 3

Press
15 x 5 x 2
24 x 5 x 3

Front Squat
24 x 5
40 x 3
55 x 3
60 x 3 x 3

Overhead Squat
8 x 8
15 x 8
20 x 8
25 x 3
27 x 8 x 3

The kids gave me their cold so I'm feeling icky and I still haven't been eating enough according to the scale. Each set of power cleans had one good rep, one OK rep, and one ugly rep. My front squat warmups felt really heavy so I decided 60 was good enough for light squat day. Sometimes I wonder how much I could actually front squat if I tried it when I wasn't tired. But the OHS's made me feel like I made some progress today, and I feel better than I did before the workout.