Brooklyn to Texas: Rob's 6-week prep for a meet

[Rob Israel]

no benches is weird. i suppose you could rig something up with boxes, but nevertheless. wack.

Yeah, the coach said they use boxes but it's not comfortable. I was paranoid to do something weird and I didn't want to hurt my shoulder due to inadequate equipment, so I took a pass. I'll bench twice this week, so it's all good.

[Rob Israel]

Squat: 235x8x3 and 260x4
Added a 5 pound increase from last week. All in all felt better.

Bench: 175x5x3
Finally new territory! Felt OK, but arms were a bit shaky. Last rep or two from each set wasn't that fast. Will have to go 2.5 pound jumps from here. Really want to get to 185.

Chins: 6 with ~5# assistance band and 8, 8 with ~10# assistance band.
Overall sucky. I can't make progress. Maybe I've gained weight, but I regressed from last week. I had been doing these twice a week, until this last week. I need to do more I guess.

Mobility
Three new additions this week: a standing desk, a "rumble roller" and a new ART/Chiropractor:

No more sitting all day. My feet hurt a bit and my legs are tired after work, but it's better than the tight hammie I've been enduring and the ever-shortening hip flexors. Monday I immediately went to 90% standing and it's been good. Hamstring is already better. Ordered floor mat to help feet.

Rumble roller pretty cool. Worked on IT band and glute a couple times since getting it last night and it's good. Definitely some extra umpf from a flat roller.

Chiro: I've had a nasty neck kink on and off for a few months. Today was my first ART session and I dug it. When he finally cracked my neck, it was nice and gentle. I liked that he approached it from a soft tissue combined with skeletal alignment perspective. So many body workers just do one or the other.... Good stuff.

Good news is that shoulders are doing fine. This is huge since shoulder pain has been a major limiting factor for my press gains since I started SS in August. Finally able to just go. Now if only my lower back, mid-back, hamstring, foot, and neck pain would go away! :-)

Nutrition:
Ate a good 300 grams of protein today. Drank whey first thing in the morning (then had eggs and ground beef for breakfast) and also a little before workout and a good hit after workout. I need more raw milk though. That shit felt like magic two weeks ago. Need to get some Saturday for post-workout boost.

Will start up creatine load Thursday. It seems to help. Hope to rep out big time at 290 pounds on the squat this Saturday!

[Rob Israel]

Had another neck adjustment today, so that's coming along... Getting better, but lower half still ain't great... Did some foam rolling, a little static stetching and PNF to get the left hammy less tight.

Squat: 225x5x2
This was OK, but I was having a hard time finding the bottom. Sometime I went too deep, sometimes i was too slow, sometimes I just didn't bounce. It wasn't great. Warm up was solid, so I'm not sure what the problem here was, but got paranoid about my knees and quads were sore afterwards. Quads were more sore after Volume day than I can remember. Think the volume is getting up there....

Press: 122.5 x5x3
Happy to be continuing into new territory. I smell a 1RM PR coming.

Cleans: 155x3 and lighter work
This went pretty well, but I started to pull with my arms at 155 again. I got underneath pretty fast, but was starting to anticipate and pull early once I reached 155. Went down to 135 and worked up and down twice more with singles, but I was gassed by the 25 rep or so. Called it a day.

Started Creatine load today.

[Rob Israel]

Workout from Saturday 6/19: Intensity Day....

Squats: 290x7
Wanted 10 or at least 8. I did 290x5 before I got sick but had more (was only going for a 5RM that time, not a rep-out), so maybe I'm back to where I was a month ago.

DeadLift: 325x6
Lost my back on the last rep, but all in all, a solid set. This is new territory. Happy to be be making 6 reps. Looking at 335 next week. Happy to be over 3 plates on something.

Had to rush through and drive upstate for my aunt's birthday party so skipped the press. Intended to do it Sunday morning but that was nixed by the need to sleep and Father's Day breakfast engagement.

For the Squat, I'm not sure if I will do another 5 pound jump and go for another rep-out-up-to-10, so if I'll do a bigger jump and go for a 3RM. (I've never attempted a 3RM before). Or maybe look for a 5RM? Two more Intensity day until the CF Total event...

[Rob Israel]

Volume day disaster....

All I can say is, "at least I have my health."

---

Squat: 260x5x5 NOT
The first set had 2-3 almost fails in it. A complete shit-show. I mean, it was ugly and nasty. Luckily the coach was around spotted me and talked me through it.

The second set was better in that I wasn't going to have to bail or I wasn't going to tip over and fall on my face (with bar on back), but it was still ugly. A grind. Slow. Not pretty.

I rested, sweated (humidity was around 100% today), lamented and wondered what had happened in the last 3 days. 290 wasn't great, but hell, I got 7 reps. Now at 260, which a week ago felt solid (for one set at least) was a complete mess. What gives? I went back to work...

The third set was, well, a real set. It had form, technique, solidity and was tight. Not great, but it was a solid set and I wasn't on the verge of failure. Hope prevails!

I rested too long? Got distracted and lost focus?

The fourth set: I went down on rep 1 and did not come back up.

The ironic thing is that I was using iron on the platform. Normally I have bumper plates and in this instance would have just ditched the bar, but I went down and sat there since I didn't want to mess up the platform. I used iron because there was no way I wouldn't be able to make sets of five at 260. Give me a break.

I got there late. My shoulder hurt. I called it a day.

I have been doing this about about 10 months now and can say I have had the absolute worst workout in my short lifting career.

At least I didn't injure myself and can go back at it Thursday.

The bourbon helped me process this abject failure of a workout.

[Carlos Daniel]

Heat can fuck up one's training. I would consider the possibility of the metal plates not weighting the same as the bumpers, plates can be inaccurate.

[Rob Israel]

Thanks for the bolstering Carlos. I'm going to chalk this one up to a bad day and hope that I bounce back with a strong intensity day on Saturday.
Cheers!

[Carlos Daniel]

Thanks for the bolstering Carlos. I'm going to chalk this one up to a bad day and hope that I bounce back with a strong intensity day on Saturday.
Cheers!

And sometimes shit just happens for no good reason. I'll check your log on Saturday to see how it went, good luck.

[Rob Israel]

Good bounce-back day after Tuesday's disaster. While only a easy recovery day on the squat, at least it felt normal and like 225. That certainly was not the case on Tuesday.

Squat: 225x3x3
WU: 45x10, 95x5, 135x5, 185x5, 205x4
Switched back to the rep scheme my coach uses since I'm back in his class. I like it better that 2x5 really. Form was decent and tight, I found the bottom well and bounced. I think Intensity day should be normal and that Tuesday was just a really bad day.

Bench: 177.5 x 5x3
WU: 45x5, 95x5, 115x5, 135x5, 165x2
Pretty solid. The last two reps on all three sets weren't that fast, but not a total grind. I have 185 in my sights. I'm sure I'm ready to PR a 1RM, but that will have to wait.

Cleans: 160x3x3
77x4, then doubles at 95, 117, 135, and then singles: 145, 150, 155
Finally broke through and got a heavier set across. Best previous was 155x2x3. i was really happy with this and these mostly felt very solid. I had two missed attempts at 160 but got all the reps in. Most were pulled high and caught high, with a couple squats.

This new warm-up scheme is really what I needed. First, I'd been doing too many reps and wearing myself out. Secondly, it really helps me to do singles up to my work weight. Each rep feels like a small, incremental increase so it's almost like a set across. I can keep my form better and since I'm less tired, I'm less likely to try to pull with my arms or start the 2nd pull early anticipating that it's getting heavy.

Make sense? Well, it's definitely working for me and I'm really happy to break new ground in my work sets. I'd been stuck in the 150's for over 2 months now.

[Rob Israel]

Good workout today. Instead of trying to find a heavy triple or 5RM, I continued with the rep out scheme my coach favors and added 5 pounds to the squat from last week. The volume day fiasco Tuesday has been proven to have been just a really bad day: that's a relief.

Squat: 295x7
I attempted 8 but couldn't stand up. I couldn't get enough breath into my gut to get tight and when I hit the bottom I softened up, didn't get a strong bounce, and that was that. I think my lack of conditioning at this point is actually interfering with my rep outs. I definitely had 8-9 in me today, but gassed out. That's my theory anyway. I'll start working some short met-cons again after the meet.

295 is a 5RM for me, so I'm happy about that and I got 7. It was good to get the same reps as 290 and 280.

Press: 125x5x3
All good. The bar is moving about the same as at 120, so I'm very pleased. Is there a 3x5 with a wheel in my not-so-distant future? I certainly hope so.

Deadlift: 335x4
I planned a 4-rep set in order to not overdo it.
3 was tough. 4 was a bear. It moved fairly well though and was not a total grind. I've never done reps this heavy, so again, I'm in new territory and pretty happy. Next week I think I'll do a triple.

My coach is out of town Saturday and I would prefer to work with him on Intensity day, so I think I'm going to skip the light workout this week as part of my taper. No harm in taking some extra rest at this point (and at my age). I'll hit volume Tuesday and Intensity Friday. The other option would be to do split workouts, but I'll end up at the gym every night next week and it may just make things too hectic. I'll see how things go Tuesday and make a final decision.