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

[Rob Israel]

Edited 7/13/11 for new cycle:

Height: 5'8"
Weight" 176ish
Age: 44

1 Rep maxes as of April 27th and 29th:
Squat: 340
Dead: 365
Bench: 210
Press: 152.5
Clean: 170

I will be doing the TM on the Squat and attempting to synch the end of a linear progression for the presses. Deadlift will be linear for the time being as well.

I have done a modified TM since January. However, the presses hadn't exhausted the LP and so now I am doing that.

I'll be doing an 8-week SS trainer-led program ending with 1RM tests.

Sunday: Volume
Squat 5x5, Press/Bench 3x5

Tuesday: Recovery,
Squat: 3x3, Press/Bench 3x5, Clean 3x3

Thursday: Intensity
Squat rep out to a max of 10, Press/Bench 3x5, Deads

*************
Original Info:

So I was going to try a mass gain using Dan John's Mass Made Simple, but a few things have happened that led me to ditch that idea:

1) Bought Lascek's book on the TM and want to try Swoller Trophy and stick with the TM.
2) Signed up for a CrossFit Total competition for July 9th at Hybrid Athletics in Conn.
3) Want to stick to strength gains (see #2) and think I can gain mass with TM (see #1)

Here is the program:

Squat: 8rep x 3 Volume days and 8-RM PR (or "up to 10" rep outs) on intensity day.

Presses: 5x3 linear until missed reps.

DeadLift 4-6 reps linear progression on Deadlift until I can't make 4 reps.

I do Cleans on recovery day and need to work on technique. I do chins on volume day. Using 7-10x 3 sets with a very light band.

Goal: Gain strength and PR the 3 lifts at the Hybrid. Add lean mass.

[Rob Israel]

Had to take a full 6 days off from training due to a nasty virus. Had a couple of 12-hour sleep days and basically am feeling 85-90% healthy so it was time to finally get back under the bar. Way longer layoff than I would have liked, but needed recoup.

Please note I write out reps and sets like this: Weight x Reps x Sets. (225x5x3) That way if there are not sets, it's just weight x reps (225x5).

Squat: 225x5x2
This felt way heavier than I would have liked, but the bar moved fine. I'm counting this as a "recovery" day. Will ramp up on Saturday and then hit volume on Tuesday.

Press: 112.5 x5x3
Wanted to go for my 5x3 PR (120) which was the next scheduled workout, but a coach at the gym advised me against it. Good idea. This was heavyish and just enough. I'll work up from here.

Skipped any other work in order to not overdo it. Maybe will play with Cleans on Saturday.

Overall, felt pretty good. It was hot and so humid everyone was sweating from just holding an empty bar. That's new for the season so had to account for it and for just feeling "not sick": trying to get back to 100% without setbacks. At least the heat made warmup easy. (a couple sets of pushups and some dumbbell thrusters and I was sweating bullets).

A note on programming: I haven't completely solidified my program: I'm looking for some feedback from a couple of coaches and will do a write up outlining my plans on, or by Tuesday.

Thanks for reading.

Rob

[Rob Israel]

Squat: 210x8x3
First exposure to the new 8rep scheme. Felt good, pleased with form.

Bench: 160x5x2
Shoulder didn't feel great so I skipped last set. Will ice and monitor. Bummer, because my shoulder had been feeling the best it's felt in a long time.

Deadlift: 275x5 and 275x3
Worked on form with my coach who was teaching on the platform next to me. Still don't have hip level ingrained. I had them too high due to overcompensation from SS seminar corrections. Feet too narrow to boot.

Tuesday will be volume day. I'll take a 10-pound jump on the squat and dead. Need to at least be at 2 plates for god's sake. Happy I'm having time to work on form again though, I need it. I have been tending to dip forward and down in the hole and this creates a funky loop in the bar path. Working on getting chest up.

[Rob Israel]

Had the best workout I've had in 3 weeks. Finally over the cold and ready to go. The Ramp up workouts seemed to work out well. I started my new squat program...

Squat: 225x8x3
Took a 15 pound jump from first exposure/ramp up workout Saturday. Had to have two plates. Sorry, I just couldn't stomach the idea of going below that. After the 1st set I thought I may have been too aggressive, but it got more solid each set. Very happy with squatting this much volume and being able to concentrate on form and not just completing the set.

I'm slightly concerned of the reduce volume: Before I got sick I did 260x5x5. I may add a fourth set next week and keep the poundage the same to continue to work on form, but produce enough stress for adaptation. I guess the Intensity day will tell. I am debating 270-280 for either 8 or a rep out up to 10 which is what I did January-April. I don't want to make it too easy, but would like to build up. I could do a 10 pound jump if I make 10, so maybe I'll take that route and start low (275).

Press: 115x5x3
All good. This Saturday I'll be back to where I left off, so that's great.

Chins: 10, 8 with thin blue band and then 7,8 with tiny red band.

My shoulder felt OK, but it's still a little sore. I've been doing as much lacrosse ball and foam rolling as I can fit in and using the bands ala K-Star to open up my shoulder joints and increase mobility before the press. Still have more work to do.

Still debating on where to start with Deadlifts. I think I'm not going to reset and will start where I did my last lift: 305 and try for 6. Maybe I'll do two sets of ascending triples (305/315)

[Rob Israel]

Solid workout today. Got some good work done on my Cleans.

Squat: 225x 3-2-5
I used to do 3x3 on recovery day and forgot I was going to try 5x2 for this cycle so I did a set of 3 and then remembered. Doh! I then did a set of 2 and a set of 5 fairly quickly to approximate 5x2. The last set pretty good with tight form.

Bench: 165x5x3
First set made me a little concerned, it was not very fast and the shoulder again felt a little wonky. It got better, faster and I practiced a few pauses on the last set. No problem.

Cleans: 145x3x2 and 155x3
My cleans are OK until it starts to feel heavy enough that I have to squat a little. I then start pulling early and using my arms, essentially sabotaging any chance I have to clean the weight. I have found I can work up to a weight, then on the next jump crash and burn and then if I go back down and quickly work back up and I can get over my hurdle. Today was a perfect example:

145 felt good and then tried 155 and failed twice. I went back down to 135 and did singles in 5 pound increments from 135 to 155. I then could do the triple at 155 without a problem. It's in my head. I'm going to try the same thing next week, but 5 pounds heavier. Maybe I can start progressing again with this method.

Looking forward to my first intensity day in 3 (4?) weeks. Wow.

[Rob Israel]

Finally got back to Intensity day. It's been 4 weeks....

For the squat, I decided to try to rep out, up to 10, like I did in my coaches class. I was thinking of starting at 275, but since I did 5x3 at that weight before my deload it seemed too light.

Squat:
45x8, 95x10, 135x5, 185x4, 225x3, 255x1, 265x1
280x7
At rep five things started to fall apart. 6 was ugly. 7 was such a mess I decided not to push. My knee caved and I GM-ed the shit out of it. I was not keeping it together. Slightly disappointed I didn't at least make 8, but since this is my first rep out back I'll take it and move on. No 10 pound jump though. I'll go 285 next Saturday.

Press:
45x5, 75x5, 95x5, 105x3
130x5 and 117.5 x10
OMG my bar math. I was going to do 117x5x3. I finish the first set and said, "shit, that was heavy. I don't know if I can do three sets of that!" I was pissed because before I got sick I did 117 pretty easy. Then I looked at the bar. Wait a minute-- that a 2.5# weight. Not a 1.25. I did 120. Wait a minute. There's 10's and 5's. I did 130x5 which is definitely a 5RM PR. Wow, what a moron. But cool.

Instead of packing it in there, I decided to rep out (to a maximum of 10) the Press too. At the originally planned work weight which is 5 pounds heavier than any previous rep-out. Got 10 reps. Think I earned a 5 pound jump there. Will probably take 2.5. It's good to know I have 130 work sets in my sights. It would be awesome to run this linear progression to real plates for work sets on my press. BW press this year? Maybe not out of the question.

Deadlift:
135x5, 185x5, 225x5, 275x2
305x4 and 305x2
I got so obsessed with my hip level and feet I kept forgetting to pull my shoulders back. I actually rounded the top back. Lame. Stopped and did two more reps for form.
I had a weird sensation of needing to burp and it made me almost throw up due to the internal pressure of the valsalva maneuver. All in all a very strange Deadlift session. I also have a new weight belt (Toro lever belt which is awesome for squats), but I'm not sure I'm digging it on the deadlift.

[Rob Israel]

I've been analyzing the volume I'm doing, concerned I'm not doing enough on squat volume days. Basically I'm a good 1,000 pounds less than when I was doing 5x5. It finally occurred to me why Lascek recommends 10x3 for hypertrophy using TM. The tonnage is going end up being about the same. You do 5 more reps, but because they are lighter weights, it comes out the same. Since I'm doing 8x3, and actually 1 rep less, I've doing a fair bit less. (~1,000 pounds or 15%)

Over the weekend I looked at different ways of addressing this. I decided to just add a 4th set of only 4 reps at a heavier weight at end. I could do 8x4, but then it may be too much volume. I felt that when I was doing 260x5x5 (6,500 pounds) that was a reasonable volume to 'inspire' adaptation and still recover. Today I did 6,540. Plus, this allows me to feel the heavier weight and not be shocked on Intensity day. All in all I liked it. So here's what I did:

Squats: 230x8x3 and 255x4
I increased the weight from last week by 5 pounds on the 8-rep sets. Will do that 1 more time and then stay put until I switch to 5-rep sets as the meet approaches.

The first two sets really sucked. They were hard. What the hell? Then on the 3rd set, all of sudden I was just popping up. It was kind of weird. The heavier set of 4 felt good and tight. Knees out, chest up-- no GM-ing and solid. I like this this rep scheme actually. It's weird, but I liked it.

Bench: 170x5x3
Felt good, like two weeks ago. I'm getting annoyed that this is the 3rd time I've been in this territory. Really looking forward to blowing by my previous 3x5 PR. (172.5) The thing is, none of the resets have been due to missing reps, just circumstance.

Chins: 8,7 as part of my warm up and then 7,8 after workout. I'm using a super light band. It's taking off 5, maybe 10 pounds at the bottom and basically nothing at the top. I use the band because it helps support my shoulder when in full extension at the bottom. It has a tendency to tweak-out and just feel shitty otherwise. Hope to get 10's across soon. I did a fair bit of auxiliary chin work since last week. Did not see any improvement today though. Maybe next week.

Hitting whey protein before (~10 gram protein) and after (about 25 grams) all my workouts now. Adding about 3 grams BCAA into whey.

I've gain about 3 pounds in the last 2 weeks, so, so far, so good.

[Rob Israel]

Flew to Boulder, CO for a wedding. A cool thing about CrossFit affiliation is you can find gyms set up for real weightlifting that will allow one-time drop-in sessions.

Hit flatiron CF which is also hosting a Flatiron weightlifting club. Arrived to find two guys lifting really heavy stones, cool.

Squat: 225x5x2
Felt good, even after my hip tightened up on plane. Glad I got this in.

Press: 120x5x3
Checked the bar math and officially got my best 5x3 on the press. Got better as I went.

Cleans: 150x3 and 155x3x2
My host is a weight lifting coach and watched throughout my session, mildly encouraging and stating his approval. Then I hit his wheelhouse, the clean, and he got involved. I basically ended up with a free personal training session. He gave me a couple of good new cues. Shit, I didn't even get his last name. Will do so Saturday. The guy was super nice and really helpful.

Fun times all around. Hope I'm not hungover for Intensity day! Wedding tomorrow.

[Rob Israel]

Intensity Day, or the day of sixes
Another nice workout at Flatiron CrossFit in Boulder. One downside-- no benches! WTF?!?! Apparently the owner hates bench pressing. Major points loss.

Randy opened the gym for his Weightlifting class and my wife and I set up some squat rack next to their platforms. The garage doors were opened and it was a beautiful 68 degrees. I sweated like a madman anyway.

Squat: 285x6
Can't say I'm thrilled. I did 285x10 6 weeks ago or so. I knew it was going to be tough. 245 felt heavy. I was really hoping to make a 10 pound jump to 295 next week, but this does not warrant it. I'm 5 pounds behind on my program now with only 3 intensity days left until CrossFit Total at Hybrid.

DeadLift: 315x6
This is a 5RM PR. And a 6rm PR.

Press: 130x6
Since there was no bench and I did a 3x5 press workout on Thursday I decided to do a low volume intensity day on press. Felt strong, sixth rep was a grind, but it didn't stop.

All in all two solid workouts while in Boulder. The altitude is a killer. The weights are definitely not lighter up here-- I'm just my light-headed.

[Michele Knaub]

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