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

[caveman]

During lunch today 5/15/14
Body weight 205.4

Overhead press 95 for 5, 115 for 5, and 135 for 5. These were all pretty fast and not terribly difficult.

I haven't decided on how I want to deads tomorrow. Maybe I'll overwarmup with 405 and then do a 1x5 or 2x3 or 375? I don't want it to be very hard, but I would like to pull something on the heavy'ish side.

Home inspection went well yesterday, looks like middle/end of June will be moving time. The goal is to try and squat 405 and bench 300 by the move date. And going from an oversized 3 car garage to an oversized 2 car garage is going to blow chunks just a little. Though the new place has a ton of land to build a hyuge shop / fitness facility, though I won't have the greenbacks or spousal approval to fund that project for a while...

[caveman]

From Saturday night 5/17/14

Lifting on Friday just didn't work out for a variety of reasons. So I guilted myself into doing some deads tonight after the kiddos went to bed.

Deadlifts 315 for 1, 365 for 1, 405 for 1, 425 for 1, 365 for 2x2 DOH grip. Well, 405 wasn't super easy, but it was fast enough that I was pretty sure 425 would go up. It did, but not quite as fast as I would have hoped. I'd guess my max is somewhere around 435. I was pretty happy with pulling 365 for two doubles with an overhand grip. that's 15 pounds more than I've ever done with that grip and that was only for a single and I could feel the bar falling out of my hands at the top.

chin ups at bodyweight - 10. Nothing left on that effort.

Not a horrible reacquaintance week. I'm hoping for this next week to generate some momentum in the correct direction. The plan is to repeat the last 5/5/5+ week, though in reverse order and with pauses for the last set.

[caveman]

During lunch 5/19/14
Body weight 205.4

Bench 205 for 1, 240 for 7, 215 for 5, 185 paused for 5. e1RM = 288. Not bad, mentally I wasn't quite ready to see 240 as my top set for 5's week. But, the sheet showed that I had nailed this for 7 last time and then I remembered I went for 8 and just missed it. So that got me in the right frame of mind. Bar path didn't feel that good from the top to midway. From midway down it seemed solid. I am not sure I could have paused another rep at 185. That worked out nicely.

CGBP 185 for 6, 205 for 6. Last rep at 205 was a bit of a grinder.

I definitely felt a little more fatigued by the end doing the sets in reverse order. I think that's a good thing. I'll give it a month before making my mind up.

[caveman]

During lunch today 5/20/14
Body weight 205.6

Squats 245 for 1, 295 for 1, 330 for 6, 295 for 5, 255 paused for 5. e1RM = 383. I won't lie I was planning on getting 7 and hoping that 8 would some how magically happen. However, it was 6, which isn't bad considering the week off, the reduced squat session last week, and some added stress regarding moving and what not.

I didn't realize how sore my chest was until I tried to get under the bar. Dang. Also, doing the sets in reverse order definitely seems to make the workouts seem harder. I'm not sure if they are or not, but now every work set is a ball buster, instead of just the last one. I didn't much care for the paused squats, which means they are probably doing something good. In any event, changing the order has freshened up things a bit so I think I'm good to finish the month and re-evaluate.

[caveman]

During lunch today, 5/21/14

Decided to try out the rower. I did a 3 minute warm-up with a stroke rate of about 30/min. This is probably a tad high as I didn't feel like I would make it the full 5 minutes I had intended. Then, 20 sec on / 100 sec "rest" for 5 cycles. My pace was beween 1:36 and 1:38 with one at 1:40 because my butt lifted off the seat. Not bad for a first go.

I was hoping that this was going to help mitigate the DOMS from squatting yesterday. So far that doesn't seem to be the case. Bummer.

[caveman]

Missed pressing during lunch. I am planning to get this done sometime this evening. Damn, my legs are sore!

[caveman]

After dinner last night 5/22/14
Body weight 208.0 (though I had a big late dinner the night before so I'm sure this is artificially elevated)

Overhead press 95 for 1, 115 for 1, 140 for 7, 125 for 5, 105 for 9. e1RM = 168. Went through this as quickly as I could. I'm happy getting 7, I wasn't sure I was going to even get 5 with how heavy the warm ups felt. Last rep wasn't even super grindy, though I'm 90% sure and 8th rep would not have gone.

No dips, no time.

Did I mention how sore my legs are... Damn!

[caveman]

During lunch today 5/23/14
Body weight 206'ish

Deadlifts 315 for 1, 365 for 1, 405 for 1, 380 for 5, 285 paused for 6. Legs were only a little sore today, but it was relatively warm and muggy in the garage. Kind of unpleasant actually. Decided to go conservative and repeat the week before vacation's poundages. Between being sore, a little unmotivated, it seemed like the right call and I think it was appropriate. I could have done 1-2 more reps at 380 and 405 was relatively difficult yet pretty fast. Perfect. Paused deadlifts are still on the light side. I'll continue adding 10 pounds per week until it gets to the "right" amount of weight.

Chin ups in 8 minutes = 36 (+1) PR! I didn't see that coming. In fact, if my buddy wasn't lifting with me, I would have done one set of 9-10 and went inside.

My friend pulled a deadlift PR at 280 pounds relatively easily. And also tried the mix grip for his worksets at 250. He couldn't believe how much easier it was to hold on to the bar. He also mentioned after the fact that he started incorporating some of my bench press tips I gave him and he feels much stronger when benching now.

Good day. Hopefully some rowing tomorrow.

[caveman]

Before lunch yesterday, 5/26/14
Body weight 207'ish

Bench press 225 for 1, 270 for 3, 225 for 5, 215 paused for 5. e1RM = 286. I went for 4 at 270 but it wasn't that close. The video shows the touch point was a little lower than the rest on the rep, probably due to fatigue. 225 was supposed to 240 for the 2nd set, but when I stripped the bar to 225 to walk it back up the racks I forgot to add the change. A little surprised that I could pause these reps at 215 more easily than I could last weeks set at 185.

CGBP 215 for 5, I wanted 6 but I don't think it was going to go. 205 for 6, nothing left in the tank.

I'm not really looking forward to squatting today...

[caveman]

During lunch today, 5/27/14
Body weight 207.8

Squats 280 for 1, 320 for 1, 370 for 2, 335 for 4, 295 paused for 5. e1RM = 380-something. This was hard, and unfortunately, during the 2nd rep it felt like there was a better than average chance of pooping myself. I'd like to say that I would have knocked 3 out if that hadn't happened, but in reality I'm not confident about that. I did an extra rep at 335 just because I could. Paused reps at 295 felt good.

It's funny how the difference between 1 rep changes the workout from good to great or good to no-so-great.

I've been avoiding doing extra volume because of how sore I get from what I'm currently doing. If I continue to be super sore, than I might as well do the extra work and try and get some more gainzz.