cmynhier's Intermediate Log

[Chad Mynhier]

Link to current programming.

Light squats:
255x5x3

I was traveling this week, so my workouts are a bit messed up. I treated this week as a deload week for squats and deadlifts.

Press ID:
137.5x3
137.5x3

No PRs this week, but if I can get 140x3 next week, that will be a PR.

Bench VD:
217.5x5
217.5x5
217.5x5
217.5x4+f
207.5x6

I gave it the old college try, but that last rep on the fourth set wasn't going to lock out. I dropped 10 pounds and did 6 reps to get some the volume in. (Andy Baker recently had a Q&A on YouTube about this, and the gist was that the volume was the important part of volume day.)

I also need to work on my leg drive. My right foot is moving around too much during these sets.

Deadlifts:
325x5

Which made for a 4-main-lift workout.

[Chad Mynhier]

Link to current programming.

Bench ID:
242.5x1 -- PR
242.5xf
242.5xf
232.5xf

I think it may have been too ambitious to expect to do ID just two days after VD instead of the normal 4 days.

I have some pain in my left arm when descending on bench press, on the side just about where the delts start. It doesn't bother me too much at lighter weights, but I just have to grit my teeth and work through it at higher weights. (And it usually only bothers me on the first rep.) You can see this in my first failure where I just give up at the bottom -- I just wasn't gritting my teeth hard enough. I gave it a second go and managed to at least grind a bit before failing. I tried dropping 10 pounds to see if I could at least get another rep, but that wasn't going, either. I'll try again next week.

But at least I snagged a PR.

Press VD:
130x4+f
130x4
130x4
130xf+2+f
125x4
125x4
125x4

I'm not sure went wrong on the first "f" of the "f+2+f". I got off-balance forward and couldn't recover. I probably could have gotten the third rep if I hadn't let the bar get forward. I dropped 5 pounds so I could get the volume in. (I was going for at least 25 reps.)

I'm going to do 130 again next week. This will get the VD weight a little farther away from the ID weight. Currently it's a 10-pound offset, which is a 7% drop from 140. Doing the math, I should probably stay at 130 until I hit 145 for ID so I can reset to a 10% drop.

BB curls:
75x10x3

I was planning on doing LTEs, too, but time was getting away from me, so I just whipped out some curls.

[Chad Mynhier]

Link to current programming.

Squats:
340x1
340x1
340xf
340x1

In the interest of full disclosure, I'll include the failure, but mostly because it's funny. I took my deep breath, squeezed, and a little bit of that air came out the other side. This is where I took the second deep breath, but I'd lost my focus at that point and just dive-bombed the rep.

SLDL:
255x8x2

I'm moving SLDL's to squats day instead of doing them just after deadlifts. This accomplishes a couple of things. First, it matches the heavy-light model a little better. Second, by moving chins to deadlifts day, it puts some separation between BB curls and chins, which is very important. This is all theoretical, though. We'll see how it plays out in practice.

DB rows:
75x20x2

I took my kid to see Adam Skillin on Saturday. In the course of conversation, I mentioned that I was doing dumbbell rows, and he suggested that I do sets of 20. So I tried it. I was planning on doing three sets, but the dry heaves after the second set convinced me not to. I might need a little more rest between sets, as I was doing just 2 minutes. (Well, 2 minutes between sides, i.e., right hand, 2 minutes rest, left hand, 2 minutes rest, etc.)

Rower:
10 minutes LISS
Avg HR: 142

After the dry heaves, I decided against HIIT.

[Adam Skillin]

Link to current programming.

Squats:
340x1
340x1
340xf
340x1

In the interest of full disclosure, I'll include the failure, but mostly because it's funny. I took my deep breath, squeezed, and a little bit of that air came out the other side. This is where I took the second deep breath, but I'd lost my focus at that point and just dive-bombed the rep.

SLDL:
255x8x2

I'm moving SLDL's to squats day instead of doing them just after deadlifts. This accomplishes a couple of things. First, it matches the heavy-light model a little better. Second, by moving chins to deadlifts day, it puts some separation between BB curls and chins, which is very important. This is all theoretical, though. We'll see how it plays out in practice.

DB rows:
75x20x2

I took my kid to see Adam Skillin on Saturday. In the course of conversation, I mentioned that I was doing dumbbell rows, and he suggested that I do sets of 20. So I tried it. I was planning on doing three sets, but the dry heaves after the second set convinced me not to. I might need a little more rest between sets, as I was doing just 2 minutes. (Well, 2 minutes between sides, i.e., right hand, 2 minutes rest, left hand, 2 minutes rest, etc.)

Rower:
10 minutes LISS
Avg HR: 142

After the dry heaves, I decided against HIIT.

Oh. Maybe back off the weight in addition to increasing the rest. Sneaky cardio programming FTW.

[Chad Mynhier]

Oh. Maybe back off the weight in addition to increasing the rest. Sneaky cardio programming FTW.

Well, I think I'll give this weight another try. My arms had another set in them, it was the rest of my body that didn't comply. But if I have a similar reaction next week, I'm definitely dropping weight.

And "sneaky". Yeah that's the word that came to mind.

Maybe I'll strap on the heart rate monitor next week and see what these are doing to me.

[Adam Skillin]

Maybe I'll strap on the heart rate monitor next week and see what these are doing to me.

and a bucket

[Chad Mynhier]

and a bucket

I guess that's the one good thing about dry heaves -- nothing to clean up afterwards.

("Always look on the bright side of life.")

[Mr. Bingley]

and a bucket

[Chad Mynhier]

Just a wafer thin mint?

[Chad Mynhier]

Link to current programming.

Press ID:
140x3 -- 3-rep PR
140x3

Bench VD:
220x5
220x5
220x4+f
210x5
210x5

I thought for a couple of seconds that the failed rep was going to make it, but no. But I did get a good 5-second isometric workout.

I dropped 10 pounds to get the volume in. Next time I'll try for 6x4 instead of 5x5.

Dips:
10-minute EMOM
4/4/4/4/4 3/3/4/3/3