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

[caveman]

Friday 11/22/19
Bodyweight 189.2 (that's a nice surprise after eating and drinking what I wanted, for the most part, this week)

Both benches were being used. So changed things up a bit today as it's just a recovery day anyways.

Incline dumbbell press - 35 for 8, 55 for 8, 8, and 8.

OHP - 75 for 5, 5, and 5. Left shoulder felt mostly OK for this. First time pressing overhead in a long time.

Inverted rows - 10

Bench - 185 for 5, 155 for 5. Meh, didn't feel great on shoulder. Decided to call it rather than to try and force the issue.

Hammer curls - 20 for 20. These also bothered my shoulder.

Tricep rope - 80 for 30. No issue.

Rotator cuff with a cable - 15 for 12 and 12. Each side.

Pushups - 30.

I'm thinking about having my shoulder looked at by a medical professional. It doesn't feel horrible, but it certainly hasn't come around like I would have hoped either.

[caveman]

Monday 11/25/19
Bodyweight 192.something (we hosted a dinner party over the weekend and I ate and drank till I was full and it was glorious!)

Squats - 315 for 5, 5, and 5. Still trying to get back into "training" mode. I did not appreciate how disruptive a peaking phase would be. I also am feeling a little bit awkward under the bar.

Front squats - 225 for 5. Lost motivation after the first set and the deadlift platform also became available

Sumo deads - 365 for 5. Felt kinda heavy actually. Didn't help that we were using the sticky bar which attaches like Velcro to my shin guards, i.e. knee sleeves. I won't let my partner talk me into doing that again.

Called it after that. Just did not feel like being in the gym any more today. I would like to do some grip stuff tonight, but I also have some garage projects that I also would like to work on and I don't have enough time to do it all...

[caveman]

Did some lifting at home over the holidays. Nothing too amazing. Just trying to build my base back up again and work around my shoulder which is getting better, but just much much slower than I was planning on.
Today 12/2/19
Bodyweight 196.05 (it was a fun 2 weeks of pretty much not being hungry for very long at all, but it is time to be a little more disciplined and start moving towards my goal of 185 pound bodyweight. I am fully expecting to have another detour around the next set of holidays, but even that will be a bit less indulgent than this go around.)

Squats - 365 for 5. Pretty hard. Form was starting to break down a little, but I felt like I had 1-2 more in the tank. Way better than how that same worked out at home over the holidays.

Sumo deads - 365 for 5 and 1. I did my normal sumo stance for all of my warmups, but then added an extra rep in afterwards with each foot being about 2 inches from the plates. Definitely a wider stance for me and for the most part it felt stronger. The first problem was that I was worried about smashing my toes. The second problem arose from the first so after the first rep I angled my toes more straight ahead and that was a much weaker position than having them angled the way that I prefer. So I pulled another rep after my workset about 60 seconds later with no belt, no straps and it was much faster than the last rep of my workset. I still consider this to be an accessory movement, but will keep fooling with it, as I would really like to be one of those guys than can deadlift 100 pounds more than he can squat.

I have appointment tomorrow so we doubled up today.
Bench - 165 for 3. Called it there. Shoulder was not feeling happy today, took a lot of time to get it stretched out for squats too. Rather than force the issue, I decided to switch over to dumbbell incline presses.

Dumbbell incline presses - 40 for 8, 50 for 10 and 12. No pain and no problem.

Hammer curls - 20 for 20
Tricep rope - 80 for 30
Inverted rows - 8
Pushups - 30

All of the accessory work felt pretty difficult. I was intentionally keeping rest times short as we were trying to get done quickly, but still...

Would like to try and do some grip work this evening. I should have done farmers walks at the gym, but it didn't work out.

[caveman]

Thursday 12/5/19
Bodyweight 194.0

My hands were a little torn up from garage shop projects, but was feeling pretty good in the gym today.

Deadlifts - 405 for 5. This might have been the easiest set of 405 for 5 I've ever done conventional.
Then did a static hang at 275 for 30 seconds. Also last warm up rep at 365 was DOH with a few second pause at the top.

Squats - 330 for 5, 5, and 5. These were easy and awful all at the same time. It appears that I still have not gotten my work capacity back yet, but at least the strength is seemingly back to normal. Eating at maintenance is probably helping, still would like to knock a few more pounds off this year to be in a good position for the next meet tentatively scheduled for March.

Did some lunges from the bench press station to my gym bag. Not bad.

Inverted rows - 12. Wow these were easy, even the 12th one I was able to pretty easily get the handles to my chest. Last week, I could barely do 8. WTF?

I feel like I am in a good position to make some good progress if I can get my shoulder to cooperate. I had some work done on Tuesday and it is feeling better, but still not 100% yet, but it is, I think, slowly getting better with time.

[caveman]

From Saturday 12/7/19 at home
Bodyweight 194'ish

As expected missed Friday because of a work commitment.

Bench - 225 for 5, 5, and 5. Shoulder felt mostly fine for this. Still not quite right and I was trying extra hard to keep my shoulders retracted at all times.

OHP - 115 for 8, 8, and 8. This did not feel quite as good as it had been at the top of the rep, but it was good enough that I thought it was OK to continue. The last rep of the last set was definitely challenging, but short of legendary grind status.

Hammer curls - 19 for 20
Tricep rope - 40 for 30
Pushups - 30

And intermixed with OHP and accessory work was Rolling Thunder grip work. I was doing sets of 5 to 8 and then 8 to 10. Lower end of the scale for my left hand and upper end of the scale for my right hand. I think my top set was 105 and then a few more sets at 90. I should start logging this, as it doesn't etch in my mind like the regular barbell exercises do and I also do these much less frequently and I would like to see progress and not just spin my wheels for months at a time.

[caveman]

Monday 12/9/19
Bodyweight 195.2 (sort of maintenance, but I would prefer to be maintaining at 190 through the holidays and not 195...)

Squats - 405 for 2. These didn't feel too bad, but they did move slowly and the last one was definitely forward which made it even slower. I decided to not go for a 3rd rep. Meh.

Sumo deads - Did all of the sets with my toes about 3 inches from the weights, which is probably almost a foot width wider on each side than I am used to. This did not magically add any weight to my pull, but it did make my knees not feel that great afterwards. So I will go back to my standard sumo stance, as I think that does provide benefit to my squats and conventional pull.

Farmer's walk with 110's. No problem. Did an extra static hold before putting them back in the rack.

Safety bar squats - 185 for 5, 225 for 5. These still feel awkward. Wonder if I should skip these and just do front squats instead.

Inverted rows - 15. No record for me. Each rep had the handles hit my chest.

[caveman]

Lifting Tuesday at home.

Bench - 245 for 6. Pretty much pain free, though the last rep was a lot slower than I thought it would be.

OHP - 135 for 6 or 7. Don't remember now. In any event, these did not feel that great, and I am almost positive that I was compensating for my shoulder throughout the movement. No good will come from that.

Didn't have much time. I think I did some tricep rope and hammer curls quickly, but nothing else.

[caveman]

Thursday 12/12/19
Didn't step on the scale today or yesterday. I think subconsciously I am avoiding it.

Deads - 435 for 2. Wasn't really feeling it today. Somehow between leaving my desk and getting to the gym, my left knee was bothering me. It felt like it needed to pop, but any attempt to do so just made it feel worse. So this wasn't too bad considering. I was looking forward to pushing a little harder today, but it wasn't in the cards.

Static hold - 315 for 20 seconds. I was shooting for 30 seconds, but I wasn't going to make it and didn't want to drop the bar.

Hack squat - 135 for 8 and 8. Didn't feel like squatting and though I would try out the hack squat machine just for giggles. It was harder than I thought it would be for such a light weight. Pretty hard to judge depth too. Meh.

Lat pull downs - 90 for 15. Just wanted to see if I could do these pain free. Mostly.

Anywho, deload started after deads and given how my knee was feeling, it was a great time to adhere to that plan instead of pushing it out a week.

[caveman]

Did some quick upperbody work on Saturday. Mostly deloady type of stuff. Bench was 185 for 10, I think, and OHP was 95 for 8 or 10. Did some rolling thunder work as well. A couple of sets at 100. 5reps for left arm and 8 for right arm. I need to start tracking that and also put together some sort of grip related training plan. Just winging it isn't working out that great.

Anywho, from today Monday 12/16/19
Bodyweight 196.2 (red alert zone, I gave myself permission to get up to 195 and I blew past that, so I'm going to be much stricter until I get back down to 192-193 area and plan to end the area with xmas goodies right around 195 again. In the New Year, I will be more thoughtfull and work down to 180-185 and see how I look and feel and if there is any possibility of weighing in at 163 to go after the American squat record. That's less than I weighed in grad school, so I am not too optimistic about that.

Squats - 315 for 8. Not bad. Was pretty much where I wanted to be today. Solid set of 8 with 2-3 in the tank. My left knee is still a little angry at the world, but this did not bother it at all.

Sumo deads - 335 for 8. Easy peasy. I could have cranked out 10, but I was definitely struggling to stay tight/hold my breath, near the end of the set and decided that was good enough.

Farmers walk - 110's. Walked to the deadlift platform instead of the HIIT room, it's a little farther and I misplaced my grip on my left hand so the dumbbell started tipping immediately and I was too stubborn to set it down and regrip. I made it there and back, but it was a far less than ideal effort.

Safety bar squats - 185 for 5, 225 for 5. This is one of those configurable bars, (transformer by Kabuki) and it was all jacked up when I first put it in the rack. I obviously haven't paid much attention to how it was setup previously, so the setting I had today felt much harder than the other configurations. I will be surprised if I don't feel it in my abs tomorrow. I was going to do a set of 8 for my last set, but after I got to 5, and couldn't breath I wussed out and racked the bar.

Finished up with a bunch of lunges from the squat rack to the dumbbell rack.

Decent day. Glad that my knee felt better and glad that these lighter weights actually felt light for a change.

[caveman]

Tuesday 12/17/19
Bodyweight 193.0. Out of the danger zone! So I will be less strict today, but will try not to be a glutton...

Bench - 225 for 10. Yes! Plan was only to do 8, but was prepared to go for 10 if I thought it was there. In reality, I think I could have done 11. Shoulder felt pretty good during this. Still trying to focus on keeping the shoulders retracted at all times.

OHP - 125 for 10. Minor shoulder discomfort, but not enough to stop. Last rep was a grinder, but not too bad.

Inclined dumbbell press - 55 for 12. Didn't feel great on shoulder, so I decided not to do any more sets.
Dumbbell rows - 55 for 10. Felt worse on my shoulder. Almost didn't finish the set on the left side.

Lat pull down - 135 for 8. These felt really heavy and hard today. Only a slight discomfort getting the bar into position. After that it was no problem.
Tricep rope - 90 for 30. These was also agony. Way harder than it usually is. I guess my work capacity is still coming up to speed.

Handstand pushup - 1 followed by a static hold for a while. Mostly just wanted to start doing handstands again and wasn't sure if my wrists and shoulder would be up for it. Fortunately, losing over 20 pounds made it much easier on everything, so much so that I decided to give a pushup a shot. Maybe could have done one more, but that wasn't what I wanted to work on today.

Inverted rows - 10 and then 5. Unlike last time, after the 8th rep I couldn't quite get the handle to my chest. I was going pretty fast after OHP, so meh...

Hitting 225 for 10 is pretty big milestone do-over for me. I chased that one for so long, to be able to do it again at 193 pounds bodyweight and still recovering from a shoulder issue is a good thing!

Starting to get that fire inside to hit a 200kg (440) squat, a 300 bench and 500 a deadlift in competition while staying in the 83kg class. We'll see. Not going to take anything too serious until the new year, and will only go to a meet with friends again.