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

[caveman]

Prep for the move has started. Garage was out of commission for a couple of days. Cleared out a spot yesterday.

Bench - 275 x 1, 295 x 2. 275 was my litmus test to decide if 315 would go for a ride, both in terms of elbow pain and bar speed. Not much pain wise, but not much bar speed either. The double at 295 was RPE 10, so that was a little disappointing.

OHP - 135 for 5 and 5. Just wasn't feeling that good today. Called it there, no accessories, nothing...

[caveman]

Bench - 225 for 13! New rep record for 225. Previous best was 11.

OHP - 135 for 11. i think that is also a rep record. Arms were already fried from bench.

Tricep rope - 50 for 30
Hammer curls - 20 for 30

Just trying to get in some work for maintenance, but with a very small chance of injury. Moving starts next week!

[caveman]

First time back since moving, vacationing, unpacking (partially...) and hosting visitors.

My new reintroduction routine is to start super duper light. then super duper light with more reps, and then repeat for a while until these old bones get with the program.

First time lifting in new garage! I'd like to say that I have more space, but that's not true. However, it is a more dedicated space.

Squats - 45, 95, 135, and 185 all for 5's. Pretty easy, though my left hip felt a little wonky here and there.

Deads - 135, 185, and 225 all for 5's. Again no issues.

Bench - 45, 95, and 135 for 5, 5, 8. These felt surprisingly awkward. So I didn't go up to my usual 185 for the first time return.

OHP - 45 and 95 for 5's. Easy.

Now we get to wait and see how sore I get. Hopefully, in 2 days I can repeat.

[caveman]

2nd time lifting

Soreness wasn't too bad, probably could have lifted on Sunday, but ended up pushing it out until Monday.

Squats 5's up to 225. Next will do this for 3 sets of 5.

Deads 5's up to 275.

Bench 5's up to 185. Felt less awkward than last time, but still need to find the groove.

OHP 45 for 5, 95 for 5, 115 for 5.

Decided to check the level of the garage floor because something just felt off both times lifting in the new garage. As I suspected the floor is sloped towards to garage door and I setup the equipment sideways to have more room to load up weights, but at the cost of having barely enough space on the platform. For my squat stance the height difference was about 1/4" of an inch, but I felt it more on deads. Cheapest and quickest solution, though maybe not the easiest was to rotate the rack 90 degrees so that it is facing towards the garage door. This was another workout in itself, but I think in the end it's going to be better. I only have 16" between the end of the bar and the wall so not alot of space to squeeze through, but just barely enough room to be able to load/unload plates. The upside is now there is way more space on the platform and so much easier to get the bench out of the way. More importantly, the side to side is level and suprisingly, the front to back was also level! Resisting the urge to work out again today to try it out because I'm definitely feeling yesterday's effort. I am looking forward to Wednesday though.

[caveman]

From last Thursday

Bench 185 for 8, 8, and 8. Last set was on the harder side, probably RPE 8'ish

OHP 95 for 8, 8, and 8. Seemed fine.

Lat pull down 120 for 12

Hammer curls 20 for 20

All in all, the new layout is better than before. All of the lifts felt "normal", much easier to get the bench out of the way, and loading weights on to the bar was fine. Definitely cramped, but fine.

[caveman]

From Friday

Squats 225 for 5, 5, and 5. I actually can't remember now if I did this for 5's or 8's. Pretty sure it was only 5's. Will try 8's next time.

Deads 255 for 8. I wanted to reduce the weight here and give body more time to acclimate to this movement. This is the that I usually tweak something when I'm getting back into it.

Speaking of that my buddy that I'm "training" tweaked his back on the first rep of his workset. Everything looked fine, his warmups felt good. But another 40 something that hasn't lifted in 3 months... not a good combination.

I did some grip work, captains of crush (from now on CoC) from the lightest gripper sets of 10 until I couldn't.

I think next week, I will move back to my preferred 4 day split and maintain keeping things light while trying to build back my endurance.

[caveman]

Skipped Monday because my shins and hips were still feeling wonky after a 5mile walk on Sunday.

Tuesday AM
Squats 225 for 8, 8, and 8. Phew, sets of 8 are hard. Lol. My left hip is still a little wonky, but it was the best its felt in a while.
Sumo 225 for 8. First time introducing these. I ordered some Titan deadlift crashpads so that I hopefully I can pull in my garage without destroying it. For whatever reason, it was crazy loud/resonating when my son was deadlifting over the weekend. I will make a custom platform possibly in removable levels so that I can set up deficits, neutral, and low block pulls. Or not, because I usually just do normal deadlifts...

Tuesday PM
At the box gym. Man that bench sucks.
Bench - 185 for 8, 8, and 8. Still a little more challenging than I would like, but the bench was very low, super slippery, and also narrow. Didn't have much time for anything else.
Tricep rope - 44 for 20
Barbell curls with a 40 lb bar on a preacher pad for 20.

[caveman]

I have been lifting, just not logging. Will summarize the highlights.

The bench at the local gym is way low and way slippery. Don't like it one bit, but willing to put up with it if working out with my son. Though he also prefers benching in the garage.

Bench - 195 for 10, 215 for 5

OHP - 115 for 8, 8, and 8

Squats - 225 for 10, but not for sets across

Deads - 255 for 10

Tried out the new Titan crashpads for pulling and they will work amazing for dampening out the noise from rapidly setting down deadlifts. They are pretty tall, 6" without any weight on them and compressing down to about 5 1/4" with a 405 lb bar on them. I've mostly finished a platform to put between the pads so that it's like pulling from the floor. It's probably over built and already weighs about 45 pounds and I still need/want to add a piece of my 1/2" exercise mat to make it just like what I've been pulling on for years. I'm worried that pulling sumo on top of plywood in socks is a recipe for disaster. The platform is capable of conventional and sumo pulling and I'm excited to give it a try maybe tomorrow. My left hip has been feeling wonky so I've pushed out this workout...

Pretty disappointed that even though I'm keeping intensity fairly low, that I'm pretty wrecked for 2-3 days after each session. Getting old...bleh

[caveman]

From today 9/26/24

Squats - 235 for 10, 5, and 5. It took my left hip quite a while to get warmed up and feeling like it was going to function properly. Also sets of 10 across just wrecks me. So I'm going to compromise with a set of 10 to start and then a set of something less. This time I went with 5, because I felt a little awkward today.

Deadlift - 275 for 1, 315 for 1, 275 for 5. First time trying out my newly made platform, deadlift wedge, and Titan crash pads. Went up to 315 because I was checking my measurements for platform height. Overall, I'm thrilled with everything. I messed up when cutting the rubber to the top, but it's a minor error and I spent a bunch of time this afternoon, minimizing the problem. The deadlift wedge I made is awesome. I'm glad I made a stopper to make sure that the plate doesn't roll out of the valley. It works great and also provide a nice handle for placing the wedge and picking it up. No need to make two as it's no problem at all to move the one around. Kind of weird to set the bar down and not hear anything. Definitely weird. Also weird is the urge to drop the bar at the top, just because I can now. Lol. Anyway, all the weights moved well and I didn't feel any wonkiness.

That took an embarrassingly long time to complete, so no grip work, or front squats, or other accessories. But next time, excluding hip issues, I will spend less time checking the setup and just lift. Although I am still figuring out where things belong to be out of the way when not in use. Getting close...

[caveman]

From Saturday

Bench 205 for 10, 5, and 5.

OHP 125 for 10, 5, and 5. 10 here is RPE 10

Lat pulldown - 120 for 15
Tricep rope - 40 for 30
Cable curls - 40 for 15 using my new rep fitness ez curl attachment. It's a nice piece.

Also just ordered some pull down attachments from Kensui fitness. They can hook over my chin up bar and allow me to do neutral grip pull ups. Easy to put on/take off and way faster then me welding on some neutral grip handles that I have and would be permanent. Pretty stoked to start easing back into pullups. They were once one of my favorite exercises and I look forward to getting able to do a set of 10 again.

I think next week I will start with my preferred 4 day split, though I will continue to keep the weight "light" on squats and deads to minimize the chance of me pulling something. I think upper body is game on now!