Geezling Contracts Madcows

[bbuszard]

I've been banging away at 300 squats for a couple of resets and the workload of sets across is getting too heavy, so it's time to transition to an intermediate program. I've gone with madcows because the Monday doesn't look as overwhelming as some Texas variants. The only concern I have is in maintaining the power-cleans instead of rows. I'll have to see how they progress and play around with the volume a bit.

Anyhow, day one of the new regime follows. Unless otherwise specified, all sets are fives except power-cleans, which are threes.

squat: 135/170/205/240/275
bench: 100/130/155/180/204
power-clean: 65/85/95/110/126
back xt.: 4x15 (body weight only)
Roman chair sit-ups: 2x15 (body weight only)

[bbuszard]

Wed. 8/1

squat: 135/170/205/205
press: 80/95/110/128
deadlift: 205/245/290/330
Roman chair situps: 3x15

Wednesday workouts on Madcows look much easier than any day on linear progression. The deadlifts will still get hard, but the squats are pretty light. A good chance to work on form and recover for Friday's efforts.

[bbuszard]

Fri. 8/3

squat: 135/170/205/240/280 (3)/205 (8)
bench: 100/135/155/180/210 (3)/155 (8)
power-clean: 65/85/95/110/130 (2)/95

dips (body-weight): 8/8/8
curls (45): 8/8/8

I've started very conservatively on the arm exercises. I'm supposed to do tris as well on Friday but my EZ curl bar won't arrive until next Monday. Still, that's the first week on the program and everything is going smoothly (of course).

[bbuszard]

Monday 8/6

squat: 140/175/210/245/280
bench: 100/135/160/185/210
power-clean: 65/85/100/115/130

back-xt: 4x8 c. 5 lbs
sit-ups: 2x8 c. 5 lbs

Right shoulder is somewhat sore, but was able to push through it on the bench.

[bbuszard]

Wednesday 8/8

squat: 140/175/210/210
press: 80/95/115/130
deadlift: 210/255/300/338

Roman chair sit-ups: 3x15

Nice and easy.

[bbuszard]

Friday 8/10

squat: 140/175/210/245/288 (3)/210 (8)
bench: 100/135/160/185/214 (3)/160 (8)
pcln: 65/85/100/115/132 (2)/ 100 (5)

dips (5): 3x8
curls 50: 3x8
tris 39: 3x8 (curl bar is 19 lbs.)

[bbuszard]

Monday 8/13

squat: 145/180/215/250/288
bench: 115/135/160/190/214
pcln: 65/80/100/115/132

back xt: 4x8x10 lbs.
sit-ups: 2x8x10 lbs.

[bbuszard]

Wednesday 8/15

squat: 145/190/215/215
press 80/100/115/131
deadlift 215/260/310/346

sit-ups: 3x15

Lots of sore joints right now, but especially the right shoulder and wrist. It's probably old tennis problems flaring up under stress. I'll have to keep icing and hope things settle down.

[bbuszard]

Friday 8/17

squat: 145/190/215/250/296(3)/215(8)
bench: 115/135/160/190/220(3)/160(8)
power clean: 65/80/100/115/136(2)/100(5)

dips: 3x8x10 lbs.
curls: 3x8x55 lbs.
tris: 3x8x44 lbs.

Noticed a form error on the bench that could be the cause of my sore shoulder: I need to keep the elbows in on the heavy sets. The bridge is good and I'm touching well down on the sternum, but I'm letting my elbows flare up too much.

[RussB]

Hey bbus, where did you get your information on Madcow? Does the program call for Friday's top set to be triples, followed by an 8-rep backoff, or is that your own wrinkle?