t0rment's TM split template

[t0rment]

September 22, 2012 - Lower Intensity
Deadlift - 1x3 - 465 - 0
Squat - 1x3 - 365 - 3
Kirk Shrugs - 3x10 - 160 - 10/10/10
Neck Harness - 28

Fucking deadlifts. What other lift will go from an easy 3 rep PR to not even one rep a week later? Got the first rep up to my shins, and that was all she wrote. Two more attempts barely got off the ground.

Squats were easy. First rep had a little knee slide at the bottom, but the next two were good. Going to do a few paused squats next volume day to remind myself what a tight bottom feels like. I realized immediately after writing that how gay it sounds. I laughed.

Did kirk shrugs with only about a minute rest between sets. Gonna stick to that.

I think you jinxed me, Oldster. Neck cramped up on the first set of neck harnesses. I feel fine now but I decided not to push it.

My sleep and diet has really been shit this week. I'm adapting pretty well to the crazy workload of University, but have not been willing to give up my free time and so I've been staying up way too late on the weekdays. Diet quality is good, but I don't think I've been eating enough. I've also been drinking on Fridays, which is a stupid ass idea when I have to lift the next day. I'm going to make Friday a homework night, and move the drinking to Saturday evening. Also going to really dial shit in this week with sleep and diet, and see how I respond. If I can't pull 465x3 again I'll have to come up with a plan for DL's.

[t0rment]

September 24, 2012 - Upper Volume
Press - 3x5 - 140 - 5/5/5
Bench - 3x5 - 177.5 - 5/5/5
CG Bench - 3x5 - 170 - 5/5/5
Neck Harness - RP - 30.5 - 65/17/13 (95)

I discovered today that I get much better hip involvement in the press when I squeeze my glutes hard right before the drive. Today's sets felt quite a bit easier as a result. Had a couple reps get forward of me as fatigue set in, but that's getting better.

Bench was ridiculously easy. Leg drive is improving every time. Need to work on evening things out though since my left side tends to go up a tad slower than the right. Visualizing the opposite (that is actively trying to make the right side go slower) seemed to help a lot.

Getting the hang of CG Bench. Didn't feel too hard.

Good neck harness performance. I'm pretty sure the last time I logged 100 reps for 30.5 was a miscount since I haven't been able to repeat that performance. Wouldn't be surprised if I only got 60 in the first set rather than 70. Once they get hard and the reps go high, it's easy to lose track. Either way, 95 reps is pretty good, and I should be at 100 soon.

All in all a good session. Gotta wake up at 6:30AM tomorrow, so I need to get myself to bed on fucking time.

[t0rment]

September 25, 2012 - Lower Volume
Squat - 3x5 - 315 - 5/5/5
RDL - 3x5 - 300 - 5/5/5
Rows - 3x5 - 185 - 5/5/5
Neck Harness - RP - 30.5 - 65/15/16 (96)

Squats looked much better than last time. Medium-hard difficulty wise.

RDLs felt good. Discovered a helpful cue by accident: I thought about "straightening" the hamstrings as I was coming up from a rep and they felt much tighter than usual.

Rows were okay, I guess. I'm doing off the floor, "Pendlay rows" as they're sometimes called. Seems like they really depend on momentum. Hard to tell how difficult they actually are at this point.

[Oldster]

September 24, 2012 - Upper Volume
Press - 3x5 - 140 - 5/5/5
Bench - 3x5 - 177.5 - 5/5/5
CG Bench - 3x5 - 170 - 5/5/5

I like that. Good pressing volume. THE key.

I discovered today that I get much better hip involvement in the press when I squeeze my glutes hard right before the drive.

My partner is a great fan of squeezing his butt cheeks when pressing overhead. For some reason, no matter how hard I try, I end up with about 1 out of 10 done right. Of course, that's why he presses about 75lbs more overhead than I do!

Need to work on evening things out though since my left side tends to go up a tad slower than the right. Visualizing the opposite (that is actively trying to make the right side go slower) seemed to help a lot.

So will benching with dumbells. Don't forget about cycling in DB's at some point during a year of lifting.

Way to tOrment me.

[t0rment]

For someone against gay marriage, I would have thought you'd be pretty good at squeezing your butt cheeks together. Joking aside, are you doing the Press as in SSBT3 with the hip drive?

Haven't done DB stuff in a while 'cause I don't have enough 1" plates. The most I could put on right now is about 30 lbs per bell. I should find some.

[Oldster]

For someone against gay marriage, I would have thought you'd be pretty good at squeezing your butt cheeks together.

I'm not against you and your buddy going civil union.

Joking aside, are you doing the Press as in SSBT3 with the hip drive?

Nope. I'm shitty at the OHP. I work at it now though where my shoulders never used to let me press overhead. Now with retirement and deep tissue massage I am able to work at it for a longer period of time than ever before in my life. I'm just trying to get better at it.

[t0rment]

I figured with your ridiculous bench, you'd be good at pressing from the get-go. Guess there's not much carryover. Makes sense since I've had my bench stagnate while my press flew up.

[t0rment]

September 27, 2012 - Upper Intensity
Press - 1x3 - 165 - 3
Bench - 1x3 - 215 - 3
Curls - RP - 60 - 13/3/2
Neck Harness - RP - 30.5 - 70/16/17 (103)

Press was easy.

Bench was supposed to be 210, but the plan was to start setting upper PR's on the fifth week, and I must have miscalculated somehow 'cause looking at my old log my last 3RM failure was at 217.5 (which I got 2 reps on). So I decided to bump things up to still make that happen. It wasn't too easy, but looking at the video it went up faster than it felt. We'll see what happens next week.

I've been a bit more aggressive loading the curls to try and get the first set into the 8-10 range, but I keep hitting the same numbers, but that's a good thing.

And finally, over 100 reps on neck harness. To 31 lbs!

[t0rment]

September 29, 2012 - Lower Intensity
Deadlift - 1x3 - 465 - 3 - PR!
Squat - 1x3 - 375 - 3
Kirk Shrugs - 165 - 3x10 - 10/10/10
Neck Harness - RP - 31 - 55/20/16 (91)

Couldn't have asked for a better training day. Ate much more this week and sleep was better, although still not optimal. Most importantly, I didn't drink last night.

Deadlift was pretty damn hard, but I fucking got it.

Squats looked great, and felt pretty easy. I don't feel like I've lost much strength on them despite not squatting heavy for a couple months. Will start making 10 pounds jumps from here and see how that goes.

Kirk shrugs felt good. Been trying out one minute rests, and I could barely hold onto the bar after the last rep.

Neck Harness was pretty awesome despite traps being fatigued from deads and kirk shrugs. Should hit 100 reps in no time.

All in all a great day. Now to spend the rest of the weekend on linear algebra. I'm so fucking behind. At least I get to pound some beers tonight when I'm done.

[Oldster]

Good Lord what a dandy deadlift, t0rment!

Congradulations on the PR.