Motor's madcow log

[Motorschweitz]

For CrossFit Bern we ordered the foam rollers about one year ago at http://www.perform-better.de/Produkt...am-Roller.html. They are in heavy use since then and are perfect. Rather hard, but we like it better than the soft rollers. We also use lacrosse balls (no softballs), they are in my opinion best for soft tissue work. Usually we get our ideas for mobility workouts from mobilitywod.com (Kelly Starrett). This stuff works wonders (if you take the time to actually do it..).

Cool, I actually got my foam roller by Post...this thing is amazing. I've been missing out.

Today's workout

Squat [75 95 112.5 112.5]x5
Press [47.5 57.5 65 75]x5
Dead [125 145 165]x5 190x4 (PR)
Hang Clean 20x10, 40x10, 55x5
Power Clean 55x3 65x3 75x5x2
Power Clean to Press 75x3
Chins BWx19, x11, x9
Weighted Hypers +20 x10 x3

Presses felt strong today. I DL'd without the belt, and major back rounding while hitching my last rep, so didn't count it. I have to reset my dead. The belt screwed me up and now I have trouble maintaining control of my lower back, dammit. So I need to either buy a DL belt or just go without. I did some PC stuff since I was kinda pissed, and did weighted hypers in place of LTEs.

[Motorschweitz]

Morning workout

Squat (75 95 112.5 132.5)x5 152.5x4 (PR) 112.5x8
Bench (60 72.5 87.5 100)x5 117.5x3 87.5x8
Row (52.5 65 80 92.5)x5 107.5x3 (PR) 80x8

Big problems with the squat today. I think I'm not hitting depth, and I'm losing back tightness even at weights where I had no issue before. I think it's the belt. I probably wear it too tight, and my midsection has been growing too. Could be the same thing that's affecting my deads. Anyway, I'm gonna do some cleans and assistance tonight and might squat a bit just to see if I can figure out what the deal is. Bench flew up - I think it will start getting heavy around 125-130. I dunno where to count a "PR" for the bench, the most I remember doing was 275 for a set of 5 (and 305 for a 1RM) so I'll count any set of 5 above 125 as a PR. Rows were meh, but it is a lift, so I'll count them as PRs too, I guess.

Evening workout

Hang clean 20x10 40x10 55x5
Power clean 55x3 65x3 75x3x5
Power clean to press 75x3
Chins BWx5 +25x10, x7, x5
Dips BWx10 +25x20, x15, x10
Weighted situps +20x10x2

No time for squats.

[Motorschweitz]

4.75 mile run today, 7:27 mile pace. I weighed in at 94 kilos this morning. Last time I weighed 210 lb I never could have pulled a run like this off. Squats ftw.

[Motorschweitz]

Squat (77.5 95 115 132.5 152.5)x5 (PR)
Bench(60 75 87.5 102.5 117.5)x5
Row (55 67.5 80 95 107.5)x5 (PR)

Chins BWx5 +30x10 x8 x7
Dips BWx10 +40x17 x10 x8

I am such an idiot. Geez. So I re-read the section on belts in SSBBT3 and indeed, I had my belt too tight. I was sucking in my stomach to tighten it when I should have just had it comfortably tight enough to push against. These squats flew up and felt awesome. I couldn't film myself, so I am not 100% sure that I'm hitting depth yet, but the depth felt right, unlike last Friday. Foam rolling the hell out of my hips and stretching helped a lot too. New ritual before and after workouts, even if it adds an extra 15-20 minutes to my workouts.

Bench went up really easy. Rows are stupid. It might be time to replace them this week. Probably with PC on Monday and RDL on Friday. Maybe I'll keep doing them, but programming them is dumb. I have felt a benefit, although chins are probably better.

I should also add I played pickup flag football yesterday too.

[Motorschweitz]

Squat [77.5 95 115 115]x5
Press [47.5 57.5 67.5 77.5 (PR)]x5
Dead [115 140 162.5 185]x5

Press 45x10x5
Chin BWx16 x10 x7

So, reset my dead and still had back rounding on the last set. But I think the problem is just being cashed out from the ramping sets. So from now on I will make jumps of 2.5 and pull one big set of 5 (with singles and doubles for warmups). My press was harder than last week, so instead of LTEs I did the BBB assistance for the press. Last reps were harder than hell, especially after deads, and I even got a little pump from it.

[Motorschweitz]

Squat (77.5 95 115 132.5)x5 155x3 (PR) 115x9
Bench (60 72.5 87.5 102.5)x5 120x3 87.5x8
Row (55 67.5 80 95)x5 110x3 (PR) 80x8

Chins BWx20, x10, x10

Great day today. Didn't wear my belt too tight, so squats felt fine. Filmed most of my sets, and I am hitting proper depth - it's tough to see my hip crease due to black shorts, but trust me, I'm there (though borderline in a couple cases...and my knees slide forward on those too). New PR felt great, even if the middle rep was borderline high. Another form problem is my tendency to look up (stupid mirror) but I wear the hat and focus on my foam roller now, so I do it inadvertently 50% of the time now.

Bench flew up and happy to do my last set of programmed rows. Next week is special, as it is the week before a relay race where I have a 13k section. I'll take it somewhat easy during the week, with a mild reset...because my shoes came in today! Adi PP2. So I'll reset my squat for the shoes, do a more or less screw around week (maybe test 1RM for some lifts) and then either continue madcow the following week or a TM or TM split. I've made decent progress with madcow, but honestly I hate chasing tiny ass plates around the gym. Plus, I'm susceptible to form creep, which doesn't show up in a big way until the final set, which is the important one. 5 heavy-ish sets will be better for my concentration and to hammer down form, I think. The madcow ramping sets on the dead are killer too, I prefer the heavy deads on squat intensity day of TM. I do have to say that using madcow to get back to my previous bench strength has been useful. I should also add that I'll be doing cleans/RDLs in lieu of rows. Rows are all right, and I have felt a benefit, but I think programming them is dumb - maybe I'll keep them as assistance on days where I really wanna hog the rack.

[Motorschweitz]

Squat 140x5x5
Press 70x5x5
Hang Clean 55x5
Power Clean 75x3x4
Power Clean to Press 75x3
Chins BWx20, x13, x9
Dips BWx25x3

First workout in new shoes. Kinda pitching forward but I think I figured it out. Not bad at all. Did a 5x5 at 3 plates to prep myself for volume with TM, which I think I'll start with next week. Also did volume pressing and worked a bit on cleans.

Completely smashed from last weekend. I played 4 softball games on Sat and 5 in a row on Sun - tourney in Germany. I pulled my left hammy slightly but squats helped it a lot. My forearms are pretty beat now though.

[Motorschweitz]

Squat 115x5x2
Bench 100x5x3
Dead 145x15 speed deads, 30 second clock

Chins BWx15x3

Pseudo TM light day, but with deads. My hammy is tweaked so I went light and did speed deads, which was probably not a good idea since I tweaked it again on the final rep. Not sure when I'll do my deads - I liked having deads on my light squat day with madcow, but it probably makes more sense to do it on intensity day. Anyway, I played softball for a couple of hours yesterday too and I'm feeling pretty beat up.

[Motorschweitz]

Squat 155x5 (PR)
Press 85x1, 95x0, 95x0

Did Intensity day early so I could have an extra day of recovery - I have to run 13k on Saturday. Skipped any pulls - my forearms are overtrained. Still recovering from softball - weird.

Got greedy and went for a PR on 95kg instead of just repping out 85. Probably could have squeezed 3 or 4 reps of 85, but felt awesome since the squats went up so easily. Oh well. I was pissed, but I'll get it another time.

[Motorschweitz]

Bench 137.5x3 (PR)
Pull up BWx20

Was pissed about missing my press yesterday and wanted a PR today, so I tested my bench 1RM. 303 lb for a surprisingly easy triple, and I had 1 or 2 more reps in me, but I didn't trust my spotter. Pretty pumped about this. Just did a few pullups before heading out. Gotta run a race tomorrow.