Still trying to lift more at the shore

[Agilic]

Lifting More at the Shore

See above link for SS log.

Brief breakdown: 27/m/6'0"/208 lb (up from 193)

Started lifting in June 2015 @ 95 sq, 65 pr, 105 bench, and 175 DL

Currently @ 250x3x5 squat (255x3), 117.5x5 pr (127.5x2), 200x3 bench, and 340x2 DL

I have a young son and work late so am pretty recovery compromised sleepwise. I'm somewhat happy with where I'm at as I've busted my butt for it, but would still like to slowly and surely get significantly stronger over time. I figured I would move on down to this section of the forum as all my lifts have been on intermediate programming other than the squat which I am now switching over too.

I've been doing a 2x per week template for a while, but this week am switching to a 4 day template that looks like this:

Weds: Int bench + Vol press + weighted chins
Thurs: heavy squat + SGDL (have never done these before)
Sat: Int press + Vol bench
Sun: medium squat + deadlift + chins

I lift out of my garage so shorter sessions while my son naps will be more convenient than the 90m-2h sessions I was previously doing. Thanks to all who choose to follow along and provide feedback/encouragement/critique/etc.

[Agilic]

Here's what I did today to kick off the new template:

Bench (I)
200x3
It took about 8 seconds to hold off the 3rd rep from crashing down and finally lock it out.

Press (V)
107.5x5x5

Chins
+5 lbs 3x5

[peez]

So you made it to the other side! Good luck with your new program!

[Agilic]

Thank you sir. I'm already loving the shorter sessions and getting my lifting done early on in the day, which is much preferable for me.

Squat (H)
245x7, 225x7 Squat 245x7 - YouTube
I didn't want to deload too much at the moment, but also wanted to give myself a shot at a set of 8. Working off of Andy Baker's article that Peez linked me, I'm going to keep increasing weight with an AMRAP set until I hit a heavy triple then reset and work back up and keep cycling that way for a while. Thinking of probably trying that for bench and press as well. I'm definitely going to need to adjust to higher rep work, got pretty lightheaded and just downright exhausted. Rested 8-9m and the back off was just as difficult. Psychologically, knowing I'm only going "heavy" once per week, I was able to put in a bigger effort than usual. I took a video to give you intermediate folk an idea of how I squat, I link them next to the worksets.

SGDL
135x5, 165x5, 195x5, 225x5 SGDL 225x5 - YouTube
First time doing these so I didn't want to go crazy. I want to give my body a chance to adapt to these and the added weekly pulling volume before adding a 2nd or 3rd top set so I'll just do ascending 5's for now. These were easy and I'll keep adding 5 lbs at a time for now. Hopefully they prove to be beneficial for my conventional!


Feedback on technique, programming, etc. is always much appreciated, I don't get offended by anything.

[Agilic]

Conditioning work:

2.2 mile walk with 30 lb backpack aka my son.

I always forget to log them, but I generally do about 2-4 walks like this a week, depending on weather. They're usually in the 1.5-2 mile range. Given I'm likely going to be playing in a basketball league in March, I'm going to try to up the pace/distance of the walks when possible. I'm hoping that + squats above the 5+ rep range gets me to at least a somewhat capable level on the court. Maybe my next investment will be an airdyne bike.

[Agilic]

Press (I)
+2.5 120x5
5th rep tough with a little layback, no attempt at 6.

Bench (V)
150x3x8
I need my Sat. sessions as short as possible so I'm experimenting with 3x8 instead of 5x5. Probably a good change up anyway. This was probably a good choice of starting weight, as the 8th reps required some effort and punch.

Done in 27m. Nice.

[Agilic]

Deadlift
+5 345x5x1, 275x1x5
First time pulling singles going to see how high I can take them before resetting back to 5s. Really thought I'd have a great DL session given: a few days extra rest from last heavy pulls + first time ever pulling before squats. These were all very, very hard. Back off set I managed 2 DOH before going mixed, and then the reps were very easy. I bought a 3" matching GLC belt to try for deadlifts that will hopefully be in here time for my 350 pulls and help some .

Squat (M)
220x3x5
Took some effort.

A few hours later...

Chins
9x3, 1x4

[Agilic]

2.5 mile walk with 30 lb backpack in 50 min. My son fell asleep 10m into it so I just kept walking until he woke up.

[foothills_g]

Hi Agilic, I saw your post in the programming section and I'll be following along with your progress. I am interested to see how things go when you start basketball, and with a baby on the way I'm doing as much recon as I can on Dad Style programming I ended LP with similar numbers to yours, Always wondered why my squat wasn't higher despite knowing I gave it my all. Ultimately I realized I just didn't have a lifestyle that allowed for enough rest/preparation as my body needed for the squat (but doesn't seem to require for anything else) so I stopped worrying about it as much. Anyway, just my experience FWIW. Best of luck in your training and everything else!

[lou t]

solid squats