Motor's madcow log

[Motorschweitz]

Good luck with madcow. I did it myself about 18 months ago when I was in the "I'm intermediate now after 3 months of 5x5 training" stage. Didn't have too good results of course. Subscribing to your log.
P.S. that's a crapload of assistance work you're doing there. Hope it doesn't mess up your recovery.

Yeah, how is the assistance is going? I'm doing Madcow, but the only assistance is alternating chins and rows.

Thanks - no issues with assistance now, though the morning after can sometimes feel brutal. By the next workout I feel fine though - at least I'm eating correctly, and my sleep hasn't been terrible. Haven't weighed myself in a couple weeks and found out I put on a couple kilos, which I'm actually pretty pleased about. Last time I weighed 205 I looked pudgy, and I actually look a lot better now.

I'm definitely cutting down on assistance, probably starting next week. I'm in the midst of a stressful period at work, so I think I'm overdoing the assistance because of that. I'll start scaling it back, limited to 2 assistance exercises per workout. Stick mainly with chins, dips, LTEs, occasional RDL. The real issue for me is the whole PC vs. row thing. I honestly feel like rows are more of an assistance exercise, and I think I'll eventually replace them with PC. But I'll keep up the programming for a few weeks and see if I benefit at all from it. At the moment though, trying to do both is a little problematic - keeping PC as a pseudo-assistance exercise could turn out to be my undoing.

[Motorschweitz]

Took it easy today, 3.5 mile run @ 8:30 pace.

[Motorschweitz]

Today's workout

Squat [70 87.5 105 122.5]x5 142.5x3 105x8
Bench [52.5 65 80 92.5]x5 107.5 3 80x8
Row [47.5 60 72.5 82.5]x5 97.5x4 72.5x8
PC 55x5 65x3 75x3x5
Chins BW x5 +22.5 x8, x7, x7
Dips BW x10 +25 x10 x3

Today's workout was fine. No problems with any of my 3 programmed lifts - squats felt very strong. I just felt like doing an extra rep of the heavy triple for the row for some reason. Still unhappy with PC form. Only 2 assistance exercises (well, besides PC work). I like weighted chins, it feels pretty badass to do them instead of curlz. I'm gonna see if I can get up to two plates on the belt.

[Motorschweitz]

4.5 mile run today, 7:55 pace. Decided against running the half marathon trail run with my pals - I'm sure it would have interfered with recovery. I'll be playing a little pickup flag football for a couple hours tomorrow too.

[Motorschweitz]

Squat [72.5 90 107.5 125 142.5]x5
Bench [55 67.5 80 95 107.5]x5
Row [50 70 72.5 85 97.5]x5

Hang clean 20 x5 35 x5 55 x5
PC 55 x5 80 x3 x5

Pullup BW x5, +20 x5 x2, x6
Dips BW x10, +25 x10 x3
Weighted situps +20 x10 x3

Running Saturday then 2.5 hrs of flag football Sunday took their toll. Squats felt heavy, then I got the belt on for the last two sets and they just flew up. Really makes a difference. Last set of rows felt heavy - might start wearing a belt for >100. PC were meh. (edit - miscalculated on the PC worksets)

[Motorschweitz]

Skipped running yesterday. Some bug's been going around these parts, might've picked it up. Couldn't work out in the morning since I felt like crap but ate a lot for breakfast and lunch and felt better, so got it in this afternoon.

Squat [72.5 90 107.5 107.5]x5
Press [42.5 50 60 67.5]x5
Dead [110 132.5 152.5]x5 175x2 (double overhand) 175x5 (mixed)

Pullup x19, wide grip pullup x7, parallel grip pullup x10, chin x7
LTE 45 x10 x3

Not much to speak of except for failing on my 3rd rep of my top DL workset. I decided to pull 5 more mixed grip. Bummer, I guess 4 plates and above will all be mixed grip.

So, in order to avoid running tomorrow, I went running tonight. 4.9 miles, 8:07/mile pace. Yippee, I can rest tomorrow, which is good, since it's gonna be a busy work day.

[Motorschweitz]

Morning workout

Squat [72.5 90 107.5 125]x5 145x3 107.5x8
Bench [55 67.5 80 95]x5 110x3 80x8
Row [50 60 72.5 85]x5 100x3 72.5x8

Pullup x10, Parallel grip pullup x10, Chin up x10

Workout went well, though a little rushed so didn't rest much between sets. No issues really, though I didn't really feel warm with the squats until the second workset - needed more preliminary mobility work. My shorts split in the middle rep of the heavy squat triple too, but I soldiered on. Pressed for time in this workout so skipped most assistance. Probably won't do any more assistance or PCs anyway in the near future, as I have to recover by Sunday - with Easter holidays approaching my gym is closed next Friday and I have to switch to a Sun-Tue-Thur week, then a Tue-Thur-Sat week. It'll be a bit tough so the assistance has to go, though I can do a little bit of bodyweight stuff and running during the holidays.

[Motorschweitz]

Easter holidays screwing up my workout schedule. Only one day of rest before this one.

Squat [72.5 90 110 127.5 145]x5
Bench [55 67.5 82.5 97.5]x5 110x8
Row [50 60 75 87.5]x5 100x6

Hang clean [20 35 45]x10 55x5
Power clean 55x5 70 x3 x6

Chins BW x5, +25 x5 x3
Dips BW x10, +30 x10 x3
Cable crunch x15 x3

Hill sprints (30 seconds) x5

One day of rest hurt, but still ground out the squats. Misread my spreadsheet for the bench and rows, so added some reps on the final set to add volume. I think I actually did a few good power cleans too. I guess I felt pretty good since I still did a bunch of assistance and some conditioning.

[Motorschweitz]

Squat [72.5 90 110 110] x5
Press [42.5 52.5 62.5 70] x5
Dead [112.5 135 157.5 185 (PR)] x5

Chins BW x15, x12, x10
LTE 45 x10 x3

Recovery squats were fine. Press felt heavy on the last set. Was supposed to pull only 180 on the dead, ended up with a PR on accident. Nice. Probably just jump 2.5 kg next week, since it felt kinda heavy.

Playing softball this evening too, but that shouldn't really count as a sport or conditioning now, should it?

[Motorschweitz]

First of all, yesterday I had an entire chicken for dinner, along with my typical 2 liters of milk during the day. It was awesome. I need to do this more often. I weighed myself this morning and still hanging out around 92 kg.

Morning workout

Squat [70 92.5 110 127.5]x5 147.5x3 110x8
Bench [70 70 82.5 97.5]x5 112.5x3 82.5x8
Row [50 62.5 75 87.5]x5 102.5x3 75x8

Squats felt great, but lower back didn't feel so hot afterward. I need to incorporate some foam rolling as I think I was too tight round the hips despite stretching and my usual warmup (shoulder dislocations, mountain climbers, burpees, pushups, and deep bodyweight squats). Bench was alright, the last dropset felt a little heavy. Rows were meh, I'm seriously considering ditching them. For sure when I'm done with this madcow cycle, and maybe earlier. Anyway, gonna do a shitload of assistance tonight along with cleans.

Never mind. Gym closed early for Easter. Dammit. Do some hill sprints and bodyweight stuff tomorrow, and there's another gym with a platform where I can practice some cleans on Saturday or Sunday.