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

[caveman]

Thursday 12/19/19
Bodyweight 193.5'ish

Deads - 375 for 8. Kind of an off day today. Didn't feel good for any of the warmups, until 315. Definitely felt like I had 2 more in the tank, but after this set was done I was wiped. Completely. I even felt a little bit nauseous and almost went to lie down on the mats. Not sure if I pulled a muscle in my back or somewhere else, but I never felt right after that set.

Squats - gingerly warmed up to 275 for 1 on squats and decided that I was done for the day. I can't tell you what in particular is wrong, just that something isn't quite right. I will take some Advil with lunch and hope for the best.

My buddy wanted to double up with bench today, but he couldn't because he was still sore from Tuesday. I didn't even both because I'm also still sore. I don't think I did anything abnormal, but damn, I've been sore since then.

We both just left to go back to work. If I feel OK, I might try and get volume squats in tomorrow with bench or throw an extra day in on Saturday. Will see...

[caveman]

Basically took the holidays off. Not totally intentional, but that's they way it went down...

Tuesday 1/7/20
Bodyweight 195.something

A few notes. Been pretty lacking in motivation for a while. Was supposed to go to the gym yesterday but just ended up skipping, again.
Heaviest I weighed over the break was 197.5. New mid-term goal is to weigh 185 for spring break (i.e. mid March). About a pound per week should get me there and put me in a better position for whenever the next meet is. Standard protocol (to me, apparently) of less snacking, portion control, less drinking, etc. etc... It's gotten mildly annoying at times for people to ask me what I did to lose weight for the comp, tell them, and then listen to why that won't work for them or what I should have done instead. WTF? I didn't say it was easy or fun, but if you want to weigh less, you need to consume less calories and yes, you will probably be hungry!

Anywho, this week is mostly for just trying to get back into a routine without too much care for what the numbers are. Unfortunately, my shoulder is still not quite right and so I might break down and have a doctor look at it and see if there is anything that he or a PT might recommend to do in particular that isn't dumb.

Squats - 315 for 5. Fortunately, these felt easy, but definitely felt like my form wasn't locked in.

Sumo - 335 for 5. 315 felt heavy, but these moved easily. Should have done 365, but I definitely did not feel like being anywhere near grindy today, so it was the right call for the situation.

Bench - 185 for 5. Had some shoulder discomfort for these as well as every warmup set. Decided to stop there and not hit 225 like I wanted, also decided to stop at 5 and not do 10. Maybe I will do some pushups at home after work tonight.

OHP - 115 for 5. Mostly pain free, and mostly easy.

Hammer curls - 20 for 20
Tricep rope - 80 for 30
Lat pull down - 112.5 for 10
Inverted rows - 9

Had a decent little pump going after all of that. Hopefully I won't be too sore, that can be super unpleasant...

[caveman]

Friday 1/10/20
bodyweight 198. Yeah, I know, yesterday there was a complete breakdown of choosing appropriate foods and quantities...

Was too sore to lift yesterday.

Deadlifts - 405 for 5. Was planning to stop at 365 but that felt surprisingly easy, so I decided to go up. I had a bit of the deathshakes for reps 3, 4, and 5 and I am pretty sure I broke some blood vessels in my face because I could feel the pressure rising up to my head. But even with all that, these moved pretty well I thought.

Squats - 135 for 5, 2. Felt a weird tweak in my left glute. Took a break and felt it again even after narrowing my stance a smidge. Decided to shut it down and try again later.

Bench - 185 for 5 and 12. The first set of 5 did not feel that good on my shoulder. The 2nd set had no pain so I kept pushing. Still had a few more reps in the tank, but I was happy to get 12.

Incline dumbbell press - 50 for 15. These didn't feel that great, so I just did one set and did not want to raise the weight.

Hammer curls - 20 for 20
Tricep rope - 90 for 20
pushups - 20

Arms were pretty pumped after all of this.

I am hoping that next week will be a "normal" training week. There is already a work commitment scheduled for Monday lunch time, which I might try and pull in to Sunday given my lack of squatting today.

[caveman]

Monday 1/13/20
Bodyweight 196.3 (mini goal is to get back to sub 195 ASAP!)

Squats - 315 for 5. Was going to do 8, but the right side of my low back just didn't feel right. On the bright side, my left glute felt totally normal. On the downer side, I had to go one hole bigger on my belt.

Sumo deads - 315 for 8. All DOH. Must have finally gotten warmed up for my work set, because all of the warmups didn't feel good at all. In fact, I almost stopped after my last warmup to call it a day and live to fight again. These felt easy and I was even able to add in a bit of static hold after the last rep.

Farmer's walk - 110's to the HIIT room and back. Grip was definitely fatigued going into this. Fortunately, the dumbbell handles have a pretty small diameter.

Knee raises in the Roman chair - 20. I want to start working my hip flexors a bit more.

Workout wasn't that great, but the big win was going and then eating a brown bag lunch instead of restaurant food. Those things have to happen more often than not if I'm going to get down to my bodyweight goal!

[caveman]

Did lift on Tuesday, briefly at home. Benched 225 for 6 and decided to stop there because my shoulder was starting to bother me again. The first few reps were fine but as I got tired, it got worse.

Today Thursday 1/16/20
Bodyweight 198.0 doh

Squats - 315 for 5, 5, and 5. The lower right part of my back is still not feeling normal. Decided to keep it on the light side and just try to feel things out. Felt like I had decent control of the bar path today.

Deads - 350 for 5. All DOH grip. Wanted to keep things light, especially since I did not feel like I was getting into a good starting position during warmups. Got better as I warmed up and switched over to pulling barefoot. These were easy, but still didn't feel all that great...

Farmers walks - 85's to the deadlift platform and back. Took some lighter weights because I just burned up my grip on deads.
Roman chair - 10 leg lifts, followed by 10 knee lifts
Back extension - 10 (trying to encourage blood flow)
Inverted rows - 12

I might have to get serious about seeing a PT or my chiro again. My shoulder and back are taking most of the fun out of this...

[caveman]

Friday 1/17/20
Bodyweight 196.5'ish. Don't remember exactly, just that it was 196.something and that made me happy. Still some work to do in regards to making the best food decisions consistently, but I think I am slowly getting with the program.

Had to OHP first because both benches were being used. Irritating at the time, but I think it was actually helpful to get my shoulders more warmed up.

OHP - 115 for 5, too easy, 125 for 5 and 5. No belt, and good controlled strict reps. A little tightness at each end of the range of motion but not really a pain. That's encouraging. Might be OHP first for a while and see if I can finally check off the bodyweight press box...

Bench - 225 for 5, 5, and 5. No issues here. It was a breath of fresh air to be able to bench essentially pain free. Was careful to avoid overdoing it and did not AMRAP the last set.

Here is where it gets more interesting.
Hammer curls - 25 for 20. 20's were missing and used the 25's instead. Only a smidge harder than the 20's.
Tricep rope - 90 for 40! The last 3 were hard, but until then I was the freakin' energizer bunny. That was fun.
Lat pull downs - 120 for 12
Barbell bicep curl - 40 for 8, just fooling.
Tricep rope - 100 for 1, 110 for 1, 120 for 1, 130 for 1, 140 for 1 and then 150 for 1. Buddy wanted to see where our maxes were, and I stopped once I thought my form was getting questionable. For any readers following along, these numbers needed to be halfed because of the pulleys.
Handstand pushups - 2. Nice!
Pushups - 25

Definitely alot more fun, when I can just do the movements without wincing in pain. Yeah buddy!

[caveman]

Last week was a train wreck in regards to training and eating properly. After giving it some thought, I believe that the root cause of my issues is that my left shoulder is still bothering me. It's uncomfortable to squat and I think it is causing lower back pain on my right side as I try to compensate for the lack of flexibility in that shoulder. Bench is hit or miss if it feels good or not. I can't hang from bar without wincing so chins and grip work are out. OHP is mostly pain free, but deads don't feel good with the back thing that I have going on. So I have an appointment with the doc on Wednesday and the goal is to get the referral to see the PT so that I can get some idea of what I can do to speed up the healing process. I have a friend of a friend that is an orthopedic surgeon for shoulders and I will consult with him afterwards for a second opinion. He is generally busy, and I haven't been able to see him yet.

Lifted both weekend days at home, super quickly, mostly just to say that I lifted. Squats were 275 for 5 I think. Skipped deads.
OHP was 115 for 10 and bench was 185 for 10. Meh.

Today Monday 1/27/20
Bodyweight 199.2 (I know, just pathetic...)

Safety bar squats - Beltless 275 for 5, 5, and 5. I am going to hit these harder for a while. My idea is that the safety bar takes my bum shoulder out of the equation which should allow my back problems to get better so that I can start to squat and pull with some more intensity. I also believe that there should be pretty good carryover of the SSB to back squats.

Paused sumo deads - 275 for 5. Pulled on a deadlift bar, which is always dicey using the knee sleeves as shin protectors. Kinda acts like velcro...

Farmers walks - 120's from the deadlift platform to the universal and back. Kind of irritating how people think it's OK to walk in front of the guy carrying 120lb dumbbells in each hand. Even if they didn't see me coming, you definitely could hear my heavy breathing.

Inverted rows - 12.

Meh. Still not feeling it, but am happy that I went to the gym and felt like I got some work done.

[caveman]

Tuesday 1/28/20
Bodyweight 197.8

Well, my shoulder is still bothering me, but I feel like I am in a better state of mind to deal with that. Honestly, just making it to the gym seemed like a victory. Kind of sad to realize that, but I got to restart somewhere!

OHP - 135 for 5, 5, and 5. That was a pleasant surprise. My legs are definitely sore from SSB squats yesterday and honestly my arms felt tired today, though I'm not sure why...

Bench - 225 for 5, 5, and 5. Another pleasant surprise. Wasn't sure where I should land with these. I might repeat this weight a few more times and see if I can work back up to 8's across. Really depends on how the shoulder is feeling.

Hammer curls - 25 for 20
Tricep rope - 90 for 30
Lat pull downs - 127.5 for 12
Back extensions - 15
Handstand pushup - 1
Static handstand hold - for as long as it felt decent

[caveman]

Thursday 1/30/20
Bodyweight 199.2 Diet has been pretty much on point this week, so disappointing that Tuesday's number was the anomaly.

Pushing harder on Tuesday definitely caused the shoulder to flare up yesterday and today. However, I did get a referral to the sports medicine group yesterday and had an X-ray of my shoulder today. So at least I can say that I am making an effort to resolve this...

SSB squats - 285 for 5, 5, and 5. Beltless. Still feels very awkward on the way up. I might need to supplement these with heavy hack squats or something because the squats are easy, keeping in position is difficult. I don't want my squat to detrain to this level...

Axles deads - 275 for 1, 315 for 0 and 0, 275 for 1. I was able to break the floor with 315, but didn't get it too far before it started rolling out of my hand. It was fun to screw around with though. I did pull 1 more rep with mix grip because I was curious how much of a difference it would make. It makes a significant difference!

Inverted rows - 14, 12 were solid the last 2 were questionable...

Just trying to minimize detraining at this point, while continuing to reinforce the habit of going to the gym, which I somehow easily fell out of...

[stuffedsuperdud]

Hey hey how's it going? Decided to do a round of messaging my old peeps. Is it not possible to PM anymore?