Motor's madcow log

[Motorschweitz]

Squat 140x1, 160x1, 170x1, 182.5x1 (PR)

YES! Major psychological milestone and New Year's Resolution met. I started out this year looking for a 1RM of 400lb on the squat, and today I decided to test it since I didn't have much time in the gym anyway. Boom!

I nearly got stuck coming out of the hole, but I fought through it. Might have been able to get a second rep too, but no pins means no huge risks taken. Pretty stoked about this, because honestly, TM is killing me since I've got a lot of other extra stuff I do during the week and weekends (softball, football). I'm gonna be a lazy bastard and switch to 5/3/1. Madcow/TM were excellent in adding over 150 lbs to my squat, but they required giving up a lot of stuff I don't wanna give up. The only thing I'll train twice a week is the deadlift, since I wanna boost that to a 500lb 1RM.

[Motorschweitz]

Deadlift 200x1, 215x1, 227.5x1 (PR)

Never mind, got that 500 lb deadlift today - pretty pumped about it. No squats beforehand, I just wanted to test my 1RM without being tired. No issues at all, really, but 500 did go up much slower compared to my warmup sets and even 215 (473lb). In all honesty I wanted to join the 2/3/4/5 club, which was a specific goal of mine, so I could switch everything to 5/3/1 like a lazy bastard. My bodyweight has gone from about 190 to 210 lbs in this time, and I'm gonna see if I can cut the fat too.

The program will be 5/3/1 four days a week for the main lifts (press, bench, squat, dead) and an extra day (skippable) to do front squats/power cleans/squat cleans/jerks/snatch type stuff. Assistance limited. Conditioning 3-4 times a week consisting of primarily hill sprints, and I'll also be playing softball and football on the regular.

[Tin_Tin]

Am I correct to assume that you've done TM in the past? How does it compare to Madcow?

I did TM for 10weeks or so and while the gain is good, the volume was killing me. I decide to take a break and run Smolov just for the hell of it.

I'm still debating whether or not I should resume TM after I finished my Smolov Jr, or switch Madcow.

[Motorschweitz]

Basically, I did the basic SS LP for a couple of months, as I already had a decent strength base in the past but had lost it due to marathon training. My plan was to run the LP until recovery became an issue and then switch to TM. However, I had to train for another race and run about 15-20 km per week, so I chose to do Madcow until my race, and then jump to TM. The reason I chose Madcow with running was the volume was slightly less.

I then switched to TM after my race. I've only been running TM for about 6 weeks but the gains have been good, I've got a good feel for the volume-intensity relationship. My specific goal was to hit 300/400/500 for at least a 1RM, so I had a convenient chance to test them last week and found it was good. I think if I ran TM for a few more months I could probably add another 15 lbs to the bench, and 30-50 on the squat and dead. But I don't care to gain the weight necessary and I have too many other things interfering with recovery, so I'm happy with the results now and would prefer the slower progress of 5/3/1.

Both TM and Madcow are good programs in my opinion, but I felt my gains were better with TM. The backoff set on the heavy day of Madcow was also really good at driving my squat up, however. Plus the volume of deadlifting in Madcow is more, actually, and I think that drove my deadlift up later. Personally I prefer TM, because it is really annoying in Madcow to chase a bunch of tiny plates around the gym and always calculate the weight on the bar for the ramping sets. Also there is a bit more flexibility in TM compared to Madcow, but you have to get a good feel for the volume-intensity relationship and your own recovery capabilities.

[Motorschweitz]

5 3 1 C1 W1 bench

92x5, 107x5, 122x7
82x10x5 (missed very last rep)

bench 531, BBB assistance, had to bench on a shitty bench with a shitty bar that weighs 12 kg with plastic sleeves - I need my gym to reopen. This bench is really low so my ass actually goes off the bench when I try to arch properly.

Oh and yesterday ran 4.5 miles, about 8:30 pace.

BTW, I'm gonna make a new training log since 5 3 1 is a long term thing, and the title of my log is misleading. Start tomorrow or Wed.