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

[caveman]

Hey man!

Actually thought of you the other day as I was bringing my suit pants to let the hem out a smidge so that it doesn't look like I'm wearing high water mid walking stride.

Where are you at these days?

[caveman]

Tuesday 2/4/2020
Bodyweight 199.2

Still lacking motivation. Skipped yesterday, wasn't able to bench or OHP without pain.

Did SSB squats though I think the transformer bar was transformed to a different angle that made it dig into my neck. Didn't feel great.
SSB - 315 for 3 and 3. Used a belt this time.

Then a bunch of screwing around to burn time while my gym buddy benched and pressed. Meh.

[stuffedsuperdud]

Hey man!

Actually thought of you the other day as I was bringing my suit pants to let the hem out a smidge so that it doesn't look like I'm wearing high water mid walking stride.

Where are you at these days?

Hey hey! About two years ago, the grant supporting my research was closer to its end than beginning (it wasn't my grant, just something I was attached to when my predecessor left for a tenure-track position at a major research university), and I had to be brutally honest with myself re: whether or not I wanted to be a lab guy the rest of my career. I ended up switching to a startup that makes tissue engineering instrumentation, ostensibly on their applications team but since we're a small operation, we all wear many hats. I travel in a sales capacity sometimes, on top of traveling to support our users, so that's been hampering training a bit, but it could be worse. This also meant a relocation to Boston, since that's where all things biotech are centered, but since I'm doing the no-wife-no-kids thing for now it wasn't a big deal, except I had to trade in a really energetic gym for one that's decidedly slower.

What are you up to?

[caveman]

I'm like the antithesis of your life right now. Married with kids who are now almost teenagers and seemingly needing more attention then ever. Boston is a great place. I have never lived there, but I have been a few times when I had a friend that was living there. I prefer it over DC, but I think each place has its own merits.

As for me, I have decided to turn down my professional ambitions and let my wife run wild with hers. But i've taken that extra time to focus on the kids and projects and not lifting. I tweaked my shoulder when preparing for a meet in November and it still isn't quite right, so I've finally started focusing on fixing that problem because it was interfering with almost everything in the gym. I think some friends are doing another meet this summer, so I still have some time to get my shit back together and put up some PR's then. Though I set the bar pretty high for myself at the last meet. In the 83kg class, I squatted 430, benched 281, and pulled 485. I would like to squat 440 (200kg club!), bench 3 bills and pull 500 in a competition setting. I am lacking some motivation at the moment, but I think once my shoulder starts feeling better I will be able to get back in to it pretty quickly. A little warmer/dryer weather will help boost my outlook too.

Glad to hear from you, and hope that you stay in touch!

[caveman]

Things went to hell and a hand basket pretty quickly after that last post. It's almost exactly 8 months after that post and quite alot has changed.

My globo-gym closed its doors permanently. I quit my job so that I could focus on helping my kids through school, which so far has been entirely at home. I took several, maybe more than that, months off of lifting because of lack of interest, opportunity, and any other excuse that you would like to insert. About a month ago, I started lifting again in my garage gym, which had been over taken by a couple of woodworking projects. Somehow, I tweaked my back, which made it impossible to deadlift or front squat without feeling like I was going to hurt myself. Stretching only made it worse, but I think I have finally trained around that problem and was able to deadlift 185 and front squat 185 without any noticeable discomfort.

Now that I have some momentum built up, I am going to go back to the 4day split that I was doing before and saw great results with. Hopefully, the 2nd run is just as amazing.

This is where I'm currently at
Bodyweight 220 (yikes, not super happy about this, but we all have to start somewhere...)
Bench - 250 for 5, 5, and 5
OHP - 150 for 5, 5, and 5
Squats - 315 for 5, 5, and 5
Deads - unknown
Sumo 0- unknown

I am also going to try and bump the RPE's down from 9 to 8 in general, to try to minimize burnout/injury/etc... I'm not getting any younger and restarting the lifting after such a long time off was difficult to say the least.

I don't currently have any meaningful goals, which is kind of a problem. Honestly, I think if I could lift what I'm lifting now and be 20 pounds lighter, I would be pretty happy. Probably need to cut back on the after dinner drinks, but I'm not ready to do so...

[caveman]

Wow, on a lark I decided to see if the forums/site were still up and sure enough they are AND I remembered by userid and password! Well 3 and 1/2 years later and alot has happened and alot has stayed the same too. I took several years off from pretty much any organized physical activity and in the meantime managed to get older too. Not the best combination. I tried a couple of times to start lifting in my garage gym again and two or three times the runs ended fairly early due to back tweaks from squats or deads. Each time they were minor, but recovery was slow and then it would happen again, even though I was still far away from maximal loading. This last time, which I think started in October of 2023 I took alot of weight off the bar. Worked on sets of 10-12 and limited my weight increases week over week even if I was feeling it. My theory was that my muscles were capable, but the supporting structures were not up to the challenge and/or my mobility was not allowing me to get or stay into good positions. After a few months of that, 10's started getting pretty difficult, then had a month off for winter break and have been back at it. I have just recently, 1 month ago, started back up my 4-day split with changing target reps/weights week over week that are updated every 4 weeks.

So where am I at you ask?
Bodyweight 235'ish. I don't step on the scale often, but when I do it's between 235 and 238 usually. Not great and I am starting to change some habits to bring this down to something more desirable. Mid term goal is to be around 200.

My last heavy doubles week went like
squats 305 for 3 with more in the tank but still being conservative as my low back sometimes is twingy and sometimes feels perfect.
deads 365 for 3 with a shitty rep in the tank (back was feeling good this day)
Bench 285 for 3, RPE 10. Pretty excited to be around a 300lb bench presser again.
OHP 157.5 for 6! First time pressing as the priority for the session and I absolutely crushed this. Was not expecting that, especially with how heavy 135 felt on the last warmup.

Just started adding in front squats, and sumo squats for accessory movements, so those are nowhere near the limit as of yet.

What are my goals? Well, I'd like to trim down a bunch over time. Deep down I would like to try and get back to the strength levels that I was at, but I am prioritizing health and wellness over how much weight is on the bar. It really was a difficult road to make it back this far. Something I thought was going to be relatively easy. But it seems that being in your early 40's or being in your late 40's are not interchangeable.

I did squat 405 for the first time ever on my 40th birthday and someone back then suggested squatting 500 on my 50th. I have to say that seems unlikely, but I'm not saying I haven't given it some thought. Hell, I'll be tickled if I can squat 405 on my 50th birthday. I'm pretty sure I could squat 365 if my life depended on it, right now.

I might start logging more often. It definitely helped in organizing my thoughts and was useful to take a moment and evaluate each training session.

[caveman]

Not doing a good job of logging, but i have been training. I skipped Monday because my low back was not ready for squatting.
Highlights for the week,
Squats 285 for 5. Felt pretty easy actually.
Sumo 255 for 10. 2nd time doing sumo since my comeback. Felt great, alot more in the tank.
Front squats 205 for 5. Starting to get more challenging. Still working on wrist/shoulder flexibility to get the proper rack position.

Bench 265 for 6! 265 is personal for me because 265 for 5 was indicator for a 300lb bench and I failed this so many times back in the day. Was only supposed to do 5, but there was no elbow pain and I knew I had a 6th. e1RM of 308. Not too shabby.
Late last week I did OHP of 157.5 for 6, which I was not expecting at all. Upper body movements are near all time PR's. Still a long way to go on deads and squats, but things seem to be going well and I'm not in a rush.

Bodyweight has held steady, so I will begrudgingly be a little more strict with the diet and cut back on alcohol. Boo...

[caveman]

Worked out with my son today.

Deadlifts - 340 for 7 with grips. I was shocked at how easy this was. My low back has not been feeling that great lately because of a lot of standing around and a lack of stretching. I spent some time before heading into the garage to stretch out my problem areas and was feeling fairly good when we started.

Volume squats was 255 for 5, 5, and 5. No problem here, definitely lost motivation by the 3rd set but otherwise this was pretty easy. Still sandbagging on squats a bits.

Have to say I am pretty happy about most likely being able to pull 4-something, squat 3-something and bench 3-something. Of course I would be happier doing so at a bodyweight closer to 200 pounds but for now I'm happy to focus on getting stronger and being more active. I feel like the bodyweight will take care of itself if I stick being more active and eating reasonably. I have to think that because I'm maintaining my weight now but getting significantly stronger that I am in fact recomping even though my scale and belt don't seem to be noticing much yet.

[caveman]

OHP 150 for 8. Probably should not have went for the 8th rep, but that is a new all time e1RM PR. Pretty psyched to go for 185 soon. Pretty sure my all time PR is 175. I could have got 180 but kept trying and failing 185.

Bench 230 for 5, 5, 5. Left elbow wasn't too keen on this. Pain at the bottom of the rep, especially the first rep. Kind of got better as the sets progressed, but will need to keep an eye on this.

EZ barbell curl, 10's on each side (don't know how much the bar weighs) for 20 and 20.

Skipped all other accessory work because I didn't want to piss my elbow off more than it was.

[caveman]

Squats - 315 for 5. Sheet called for a double, but I smashed that. Still sandbagging on squats, but they are finally starting to feel good. Maybe squat 405 on 49th birthday, LOL.

Sumo deads - 285 for 10. These flew up. I guess remedial sumo is over now. I'll add a bunch of weight to these in the next block.

Skipped all other accessory work. Partly because this a testing and volume deload week and partly because I have a muscle over my left shoulderblade that isn't happy and during one of my big breaths on squats I made it worse. Fortunately, it wasn't much of an issue, but I was definitely feeling it when racking weights and what not. Might impact benching and or pressing. Though I might just delay those test days until it's feeling better. May also try some ibuprofen before lifting to see if that helps.

Strength has definitely taken a tick up in the last couple of weeks!