BigA's Log

[BigA]

Press (no belt): 175 x 5, 5, 4, 4, 4
Weighted Chin-ups: 72.5 x 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 10 (lbs) x 7, 6
Incline Bench Press: 205 x 3, 175 x 6
Barbell Curls: 95 x 5, 3, 3

[BigA]

HBBS (no belt + no wraps/sleeves): 405 x 5, 375 x 5, 5

I need to be careful about going too deep. I did that on the 3rd rep of the rep set and not only did it make it significantly harder, but I felt my lower back relax and it did not feel good at all.

I am going to experiment with a frog stance for deadlifting. My legs always feel like they don't really have enough room in between my arms. I tried the stance today and I felt like it was easier to keep a good back position and that my knees had enough room. Basically, it felt like I could get everything tighter.

[BigA]

Deadlift (no belt + mixed grip): 420 x 5 LO RS

So, I experimented further with the frog stance and I find it much more comfortable and powerful than my previous medium stance. I could narrow my grip a little bit and "let" my knees push out against my arms. I was also able to have a very solid back position, even as the set went on. Finally, for the first time ever deadlifting, I truly felt my quads working. The first 2 reps were initiated with more of a hip extension but then I got into the groove and it made a WORLD of difference. The bar was very close to me and I could feel my quads working as if I was doing a partial squat.

My left spinal erector is still hurting but it's getting better. It needs to stop having a spasm whenever I consciously contract it. Anyways, for now, it looks like I can train productively so I will take it. I will add 10 pounds next time and the subsequent time and then start adding 5 pounds at 440.

[BigA]

Press (no belt): 197.5 x fail across the board
Weighted Chin-ups: 30 x 5, 4, 3, 3, 3

I ran out of time today. I will just repeat the workout next time. I need to be patient for the press, as the incline gets heavier and heavier, it will move the press again.

[BigA]

HBBS (no belt + no wraps/sleeves): 410 x 3

Doing the deadlifts a few days ago set me back a bit in regards to my back. It was not having it today and I failed the squat even though my legs could lift it no problem. I will increase the traction time on the back revolution to 10-11 minutes.

Still, I am not frustrated by this. It's still WAY better than last time. I will repeat 405 x 5, 375 x 5, 5 on the HBBS next squat session if my back feels up to it. I think it's worthy to note that my back did not feel 100% going in to the workout. It felt better and better up until the last warm-up set when it began to feel worse again.

I decided on a lifetime strengthlifting total goal w/no belt/no sleeves at 275 lbs or less BW (and drug free of course, not that anyone on youtube believes you if you are even a little stronger than average). I will keep it to myself. I have thought about the end game in the past in regards to lifting but I never could really decide on specific numbers. Having a total as a goal w/ no regards to ratios really simplifies it. This will be the only time that I mention this. Anyways, it's waaaaay in the future. I only mentioned it because I personally enjoy reading about people's personal mindsets.

In this case, my mindset is: The ratios of the lifts don't matter to me anymore, I just want to accomplish this total and then I am DONE with serious lifting. With the exception of very severe injuries, I will keep lifting seriously until I reach it. These little setbacks like I am experiencing now are just a bump in the road. The goal is finite so there is no more wondering of "when will it end?". It will end when I successfully accomplish the task that I have set for myself and then I can walk into the lifter's sunset, knowing that I accomplished something that is really quite difficult.

As a side note, for myself to read back upon this post someday, I will also mention that I have made similar, concrete goals for other aspects of my life as well. I won't mention those here of course. But, I feel like I finally REALLY know EXACTLY what I want to work towards both professionally and personally. It took me up to 25 years of age (just recently hit my quarter life crisis haha) to figure this out and I should be very grateful that it didn't take longer. You gentlemen on this board in your 40s and beyond are probably chuckling at that last sentence. I suppose I will see what life has in store for me.

So, as I said before, this long term stuff won't be mentioned again. I will try to keep my posts shorter. They tend to be longer only if I mention personal stuff but that's not really necessary here unless personal stuff impacts your lifting.

[BigA]

Deadlift (no belt + mixed grip): 430 x 1

My back was not able to tolerate anymore reps. It's only been one day since I have increased the traction time so it's understandable. It's actually a testament to effectiveness of the traction so far since I failed squats only yesterday. I will increase the traction time again, this time to 15 minutes because why not. I will repeat this weight next time and I will squat 395 in order to start the program at the originally planned weights (HBBS 400 x 5, DL 440 x 5).

The frog stance is working super well and despite it being painful to set up for the deadlift, I can set my back pretty well. When my back is 100%, it should be excellent.

[BigA]

Press (no belt): 197.5 x 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0,
Weighted Chin-ups: 30 x 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, BW Chin-up: 8
Incline Bench Press: 195 x 5, 5
Barbell Curls: 70 x 10, 10, 10

[BigA]

HBBS (no belt + no wraps/sleeves): 395 x 5, 365 x 5, 5

[BigA]

Deadlift (no belt + mixed grip): 430 x 2

This was all my back could tolerate. It's an improvement from last time. I was hoping to get all 5 but oh well. I can't really complain, I am working within 90% and higher of my PR's (in the same target rep range) so even though I am not setting PR's right now, I don't feel like I am wasting away. This weight felt easy. If I didn't have some slight trepidation concerning my back, it would fly up.

I decided to use the same left hand supination for the mixed grip from now on. I gave alternating hands a try and the left one supinated definitely feels more comfortable. I might as well adapt completely to supinating the left side for when the weight gets objectively heavy.

The goal is to start the program with HBBS 400 x 5 and DL 440 x 5. I may hold back a bit on the HBBS to give my back a little break for the deadlift.

[BigA]

It's my rest day but I wanted to type up some future changes to my programming now rather than a workout day so that its a shorter post. I will keep it concise.

This whole RPE debate had me thinking about it and how it relates to my own experiences. Particularly the question, is 435 x 3 actually stronger than 415 x 5? I don't think it is. I "ran it out" twice in my life so far and I did not progress my 5s very much past the point at which I switched over to 3s. I essentially changed the goalpost and made it easier. By doing so, I also ended grinding a lot of reps and that was not a good place to be in, both physically and mentally. It culminated in a back tweak both times (the first one of which was handled TERRIBLY which set me back a lot). I'm not so sure that it's sustainable long term. So, I will adjust to lower body programming to being RPE based. It will still be pretty simple though. No accessory exercises at this point.

2 days per week of HBBS and Deadlift.

HBBS: 1 single @8, 4 x 5 @8 (on the last set)
Deadlift: 1 single @8, 3 x 5 @8 (on last set)

The idea will be to increase the single at the same RPE by manipulating the volume up or down. Pretty straightforward. I will still continue with beltless training.

Before I start this program, I will make sure that I can do 400 x 5, 370 x 5, 5 HBBS and 440 x 5 DL without any pain.

The last change will be that I will do some LISS and reduce my rest times for lower body (once I start the program) to 5 minutes. My work capacity is shit and it needs to be better.

I am not changing the upper body programming because I am confident thus far that the addition of the incline bench will start to drive my press up. The same style of programming is working very well for chins and I see no reason why it wouldn't for the incline bench press and the press. Jordan has said that upper body lifts need to be trained at a higher overall intensity than lower body. So far, absolutely nothing bad has happened from failing upper body reps. Literally nothing. I have failed so many press and chin sets and I have never overtrained. This is probably due to not doing any bodybuilding style work on top of it.

This little back tweak might take a few workouts to fully resolve. It's ok though, I'm not sweating it. Upper body is moving and I am still handing decent weights.