BigA's Log

[BigA]

Sunday Night

Cardio (Bike): 3:45 minutes @200+ Watts (at highest resistance)

When I do cardio the bike, I am not doing intervals, I am just doing a constant effort. I am curious to see how far I can push it.

[BigA]

Late night session:

Press (no belt): 190 x 2, 172.5 x 5, 4, 4, 4, 4
Weighted Chin-ups: 10 x 6, 7.5 x 6, 5 x 6, 10 x 5, 10 x 3
Incline Bench Press (no arch): 200 x 3, 3, 150 x 10

[BigA]

HBBS (no belt + no wraps/sleeves): 335 x 5, 5, 5 (rehab)

It's worth noting that this ties my "rehab PR" for a top set + exceeds my 2 back off sets before the retweak using a true high bar position. I slipped the bar a little lower before but I am digging this high bar position now. I will use the designation "rehab" until I set a PR in both HBBS and SLDL. I'm not 100% sure on my depth. I can feel that it's variable but I'm not positive that the deeper reps that I do are deeper than necessary as opposed to just right. I am tending to go up on my toes a little bit. When I focus on keeping the weight centered over my midfoot, the rep is a bit harder.

One final tweak to my future programming: On my intensity days, I will only do 1 set. I just straight up am not willing to spend another whole 2 and a half hours doing an intensity day when the weight gets to heavy singles. In lieu of this, I might add a back-off set to my volume day to make up for the 4 reps missed.

Honestly, I am not even sure that heavy singles do me much good. Although I am not an advanced lifter, I have lifted long enough to know that I am definitely a "slow" lifter. I can grind through reps really well but my bar speed in general is slower than others. Volume, on the other hand, has been the only panacea to all of my programming woes in the past. Literally every single plateau that I have had on every single lift has been broken through with volume manipulation. Usually, I need more volume and a few times, I needed just a little bit less.

So, there we go, every thing is pretty much set up for the next few years (if Andy's alternating rung method works as he says he does, which I am sure that it will).

The longer I do this, the more I become more focused only on strength. I don't have enough experience under my belt to be "burned out" and want to try crossfit or some other endeavor but I am not sure If i ever will be interested in any other athletic pursuit other than strength. The 5 big lifts (I include chin's here and incline bench for me) are pretty satisfying to progress.

[BigA]

SLDL (no belt + mixed grip): 395 x 5 (rehab) LS RO

Cardio (bike): 4 minutes x 200+ Watts (at highest resistance) *

I wasn't able to sustain the 200+ Watts pace for the entire time. I will repeat the time and try to sustain that pace next time.

[BigA]

Saturday

Press (no belt): 175 x 1
Weighted Chin-ups: 35 x 3

Sunday: HBBS (no belt + no wraps): 315 x 1

Well, I got sick the past few days so I went easy on the training. I tried to follow Andy's advice to other's and keep the intensity higher instead of more volume. I will do an easier SLDL workout tomorrow as well and then just repeat the weights that I did last workout next time.

Interestingly, I found that being sick doesn't really affect the concentric part of a lift at all but my eccentric bar path was all over the place for both the press and the squat.

[BigA]

SLDL (no belt + mixed grip): 380 x 1 LO RS

Super easy rep. Since I planned to do a single anyways, I briefly considered going over 400 and nearly maxing out. Luckily, I came to my senses and didn't do something stupid like that.

[BigA]

Press (no belt): 190 x 0, 172.5 x 4, 5, 4, 4, 3
Weighted Chin-ups: 55 x 2, 50 x 2, 45 x 2, BW Chin-ups: 8, 8
Incline Bench Press (no arch): 200 x 3, 3, 150 x 10

I thought I had detrained but after doing 2 sets on the press, my force production got closer to where it was 1 week ago. I guess I basically needed a longer warm-up easing back into it. I will lower the HBBS by 5 pounds tomorrow.

[BigA]

HBBS (no belt + no wraps): 330 x 5, 5, 5 (rehab)

The squat was easier than I thought that it would be. Doing the single was a really good idea (thanks Andy!). I guess I learned something new about my body's response to a specific situation.

[BigA]

SLDL (no belt + mixed grip): 390 x 5 (rehab) LS RO

Cardio (Bike): 3 min 30 seconds @ 200+ Watts (at highest resistance)

I couldn't sustain 200+ watts all the through, I will repeat it again next time. Honestly, I know that my cardio could be programmed better but I just don't really care. My primary goal in doing it is just to "breathe hard" or at least harder than during barbell exercises and just get the health benefits from it. If I can get the health benefits spending 20 minutes or less doing it, then I will do that. I can't predict the future but I am almost 100% certain that I will never, ever do a cardio sport so I don't care about pushing myself that hard with it. I just "get in my cardio" on my final lifting day and be done with it.

[BigA]

The gym was closed today on account of hurricane Harvey. I am so fortunate to not live in a flood zone area in Houston. If you guys look up pictures of downtown and other parts of Houston, the water is almost up to the freeway signs and we are only about halfway through. It's been raining almost non-stop for the past 2 days. Schools are closed for the entirety of next week and the gym will probably be closed the next few days. So, it looks I might have a forced lay-off for a few days.

My heart goes out to the other people in Houston, I hope they get through this as unscathed as possible.