caveman goes for 5/3/1 for 300/400/500

[caveman]

During lunch today 4/17/14
Body weight 207'ish (scale read between 206 and 208)

Legs were a little rubbery for bowling on Tuesday night. Not sore, just not very springy. They were sore yesterday and today.

Overhead press 105 for 5, 120 for 5, and 135 for 8. REP PR! e1RM = 168. I believe that ties my all time e1RM record. These felt pretty solid today. Last rep wasn't even that much of a grinder compared to how my last reps usually look speedwise. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJlcg5Gphw0

Dips 10 at bodyweight, 3 sets of 10 with BW+7, 1 set of 11 with BW+7.

[caveman]

From lunch on Friday 4/18/14

Legs were still stiff/sore from squats on Tuesday. So I did some extra stretching/warming up at the very beginning of today's effort.

Deadlifts 315 for 1 DOH, 365 for 1 mixed grip, 405 for 1 (felt pretty slow, but doesn't look to bad on video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xF_lcQPCrro), 375 for 5. The first rep of the work set at 375 almost didn't come off the floor, I think it was a setup problem: hips too far back in at attempt to flatten my back. I think I'm finally starting to figure this out in my head. The next 4 weren't too too bad. Certainly not easy, but way better than the first one. However, today didn't feel like a grindy type of day so I did 5 on stopped. In the end I felt a little disappointed that I didn't push myself, so I decided to do a backoff set at 315x5 DOH grip for a little extra volume and practice setting up.

Max chins in 8 minutes = 30. Bah. Better than last week, but still not as good as the week before that. Of course I am a few pounds heavier so I guess I shouldn't complain THAT much. My buddy knocked out 36, though he only weighs 150 pounds soaked, so I've got work to do...

All in all, a very good week. A few more like that and I'll have reached some major milestones.

[caveman]

From lunch today 4/21/14
Body weight 207'ish. Not bad after all the yummy food consumed this weekend.

The goal today, besides crushing 265, was to try and tuck my elbows a bit more to avoid the pain I get with heavy weights just below (forearm side) of the elbow in each arm. Others have commented that my elbows are flared quite a bit, and video review supported those comments. The only way I could get my elbows tucked and have my forearms in the right spot was to try and bend the bar ends towards my feet.

Bench press 210 for 5, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPzsPEn5bY8
Bench press 240 for 3, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSBVCtBlIYs
Bench press 265 for 4, REP PR, e1RM = 289. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8423GJV3Evw I'm pretty sure that's an all time e1RM PR. YES! Last rep was very very slow, but for once I didn't misgroove it so I could grind grind grind away.

CGBP 185 for 6, 205 for 6 and then 7. These felt good, especially after the last rep of character building on regular grip bench.

Today might have been a breakthrough,
neither arm felt any pain throughout any of the reps. First rep of 265 was a little uncomfortable in that spot, but it did not get worse as the set progressed. Of course it could just be that misgrooving it causes the problems...
first time I felt in control of anything over 260 for reps. Granted the reps were all pretty slow, but they felt solid during the attempts.

[caveman]

From lunch today 4/22/14
Body weight 206.0

Picked up a pair of used 45 pound York plates today for $60. I was a little wary about the purchase when one of the plates was marked 46.8 and the other had no markings. This combined with the fact that this guy had a decent setup in his garage and had crap ton of plates and I was thinking that maybe these were the rejects of the bunch. In any event, I bought them, took them home and weighed them at 45.0 and 45.08 pounds. Nice!

Squats 285 for 5, 325 for 3, 360 for 3. e1RM = 381. Bah. I kept getting forward out of the hole. The bar didn't roll up my back like it sometimes does, but I could feel that when I bounced from the hole, my hips would shoot up more than my shoulders and I would rotate forwards. I probably could have ground out one more, but I definitely wasn't going to get the 5 that wanted for the magical 405 e1RM.

After watching the video, I decided I'd try and do some back off work with the heavy weight and work on bouncing "up". 365x1, Bah, I was planning to do a double, but this was slower than I expected and more of a good morning than it should have been. OK, plan A didn't work, stripped the bar down to 315. Did a triple and I would say that each rep got better as I was trying to stay more upright throughout the rep. Just didn't feel super tight in the hole today. It also seemed like the better I job I did at staying upright, the more my knees wanted to cave in on the way up.

Decided to skip any front squats as I had done some extra volume when working on the technique fixes.

Pull ups 8 at bodyweight. I could have done 9, but as I was hanging there getting a quick rest to hopefully bang out 2 more, I just lost the will to continue. Lame.

[caveman]

During lunch today 4/24/14
Didn't step on the scale this morning

I have the standard for me, DOMS from squatting a couple of days ago. Doesn't seem as bad as normal actually.

Overhead press 120 for 5, 135 for 3, 150 for 5. REP PR! e1RM = 169 (I think this is an all time e1RM PR, even though I've actually done 170 for a single before). This 5th rep is quite possibly my new slowest ever press rep. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuZ15zTSLXQ. Is it weird that I look forward to this battle on press day? It didn't feel like my timing was quite right for any of the reps at 150, but on the plus side the bar wasn't wandering all over the place either.

Dips 10 at BW, then with +12 pounds for 10, 10, and 9. Then 9 more at BW. I literally could not straighten my arms all the way after this.

That was a super fun workout!

[caveman]

During lunch today 4/25/14
Body weight 207.8 (so much for the downward trend? I've been reasonably good??)

I wasn't sure how today was going to play out. My lower back really seemed fatigued, even just mowing the lawn yesterday. It doesn't seem injured, just not fresh. The plan going into today was just be aware, and adjust accordingly.

Deadlifts

315x1 DOH, Super easy

365x1 mixed grip, belted, easy

405x1 overwarmup, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-h6JcJbROE, This is the easiest 405 has every felt,

My buddy lifted 275 for a new all time PR by like 30 pounds, so I was feeling the positive energy and was feeling pretty strong even though my back didn't feel 100% My current max was 440, so I decided to load up 455.

455x0, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7C_KLPn9h6E, I got it a couple of inches off the ground with pretty good speed and then it just stopped. I could definitely feel my upper back round and I think that threw me off for the quick moment I took to process that info. I'm very close to getting this.

380x5, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGowSYRj5rA, I could feel that my back was rounding a bit during this effort, but it did not feel horrible, so I pulled my 5 and then stopped.

315x5 back off work. I wanted some lighter work to build up some volume, DOH grip strength, and to finish off pulling with a flat back. check, check and check. Easy!

Max chins in 8 minutes = 35, I think that's 4 better than my max, and tied my garage's gym record. Sweet!

This was a great workout day. My buddy set some lifetime PR's. He just missed pulling 300 at 142. I may have missed 455, but that rep at 405 was really important to me. No way I can ever pull 500 when 405 seems like a PR attempt. It did not feel like that today. Plus I got to use my new to me York plates to make 405 look like a real 4 plate deadlift.

[caveman]

Messing around with Kinovea a bit. Again, analysis matches my perception. 405 this week was way easier than 405 last week. Cool!
http://youtu.be/z6Y71sfS-bE

[caveman]

From yesterday after work

Bench press 185 for 5, 215 for 5, 240 for 7. e1RM = 288, 2nd highest ever! Actually rep 7 felt pretty good so I went for 8. It didn't go, but I really felt like I had that in me. That would have provided an e1RM of 298! Knocking on 300's door. Trying to bend the bar has dramatically helped eliminate the elbow discomfort I've been feeling for a while.

CGBP 185 for 6, 205 for 8. Was rushing so only did 2 sets.

Pullups 8. Not much rest after the last CGBP set.

[caveman]

From lunch today 4/29/14
Body weight 207.4

I was feeling pretty strong today so I had a plan that I would squat 405 if warmups felt solid.

Squats 315 for 1. Felt awesome. 365 for 1. Horrible. Was way too far back, so much so that this was kind of a 2ct pause squat. However, once I get my balance back, this went up reasonable. I probably should have called it after this, but I WANT 405 so bad, that I figured I'd wait 5 minutes and then nail it. 405x0. Meh, big surprise I lost it forward after the bounce. The descent was pretty good for me, as I felt tight and in the correct position. I had a surprisingly good bounce out of the hole, but then my hips went up and back, while my chest did not and I had no choice but to set it on the pins. I didn't get this today, but it's definitely within reach. Probably won't try again until after my visit to the inlaws...

Squats, 330 for 5 (these felt pretty heavy, I was hoping to get 7 or 8, not happening after all the other nonsense above). 300 for 5 (supposed to be 295, but I lost my place on the sheet). Also fairly difficult. Then 255 for 10. Not difficult. I had more in the tank, but was definitely sucking wind on the last two reps.

So not exactly what I wanted, but a good day nonetheless.

[caveman]

Wife and kids are out of town for a couple of days. I was planning to hit the YMCA last night and use the rower for some HIIT. Instead, I ended up removing some tree roots that were out of control and then spent the remaining daylight hours weeding to fill up the yard waste bin. After all that, I wasn't going anywhere...