Creatively Titled HLM Log

[Tim K]

BACKGROUND

My lifting background consists of a few 5-6 month runs of poorly organized training, once in 2005 and again in 2010. In 2010 I hit these PR's while cutting from about 275lb to 195lb (5'11"):

Squat: 315x5
Deadlift: 455x5
Bench: 210x5
Press: 135x5

Stalled out due to combination of low calories, inadequate (3 minute) rest periods, and jumping around to different movements instead of microloading. Moved for a new job, stopped lifting, slowly got fat again.


CURRENT PROGRESS

Nov. 2015: Began SS linear progression after 5 years of not lifting. From 11/3/2015 - 3/28/2015, here's what happened to my lifts (3x5 weights, 1x5 for deadlift):

Squat: 165 -> 365
Deadlift: 235 -> 525
Bench: 140 -> 235
Press: 75 -> 170
Chins: BWx2 -> 27.5lb for 3x5

BW: 252.6 -> 237.4 @ 5'11"
Waist: 44.75" -> 40"

My weight went from 252.6 on 11/2/15 to 237.4 on 2/8/16 (15.2 lbs in 14 weeks) and my waist measurement went from 44.75 to 40.5 in the same time (4.25 inches). From 2/8 to 4/3 my weight has just fluctuated right around that same level (on 4/3 it was 237.4 again) while my waist has dropped another half inch down to 40" even. So very little progress with losing fat but my lifts continued to go up during that time so I've been happy with that.

Squats have stalled and been rest a couple of times. I was on Advanced Novice w/ the light squat day for the last couple of months and then started doing HLM squats a couple of weeks ago. Deadlifts were getting pretty tough and form was breaking down on reps 4 and 5 with back rounding and some blatant ramping going on. Decided to make the transition to a full HLM routine now instead of waiting for my Press and Bench to start stalling as well, which seemed imminent.

FYI, I'm squatting high bar currently. My shoulder flexibility sucks and have long forearms. I need to do a bunch of stretching and warmup stuff just to get into high bar position. Haven't been able to force myself into lowbar yet. Also I don't power clean because I can't get into the rack position. Finally, and perhaps most egregiously, I deadlift with straps. Mixed grip hurts my shoulder and I can pull 405 for reps double overhand so it's not like my grip is pathetically weak or anything. I might experiment with hook grip on my medium deadlift day but the heavy day is for my back, not my grip.

MY HLM SETUP

My plan is to do the following:

Monday (Heavy):
Squats 3x5 Heavy
Bench 3x5
Deadlift 1x5

Wednesday (Light):
Squats 3x5 Light (80% of Monday)
Press 3x5
Weighted Chins 3x5

Friday (Medium):
Squats 3x5 Medium - 90%
Incline Bench 3x5
Deadlift 3x5 Medium - 90%

I'm also going to try adding this bro-work to the end of Light Day, because I want bigger gunz:

Lateral Raises - 3x10
BB Curls - 3x10
LTE - 3x10

And also this to Medium Day:

Dumbell Rows - 3x8


I'll see how this extra stuff goes and then decide whether to keep doing it or not.

GOALS
Goals are to keep gaining strength while cutting fat and building some extra muscle mass. Yeah, pretty unrealistic, so I will probably be calibrating my expectations/direction moving forward based on results.

Strength goals:

Squat: 405x5x3
Deadlift: 540x5x1
Bench: 255x5x3
Press: 190x5x3

If things go according to plan I will hit these on May 23/25. That's 7 weeks of steady progress with no stalls, 5lbs on squat each week, 2.5 on bench and press, and a couple of 10lb jumps back up to 515 and then 5lb each week from there on DL. A tall order but gives me something to shoot for anyway. Main goal though is the 405 squat. Not sure if the press can keep going at this rate without dropping down to smaller jumps.

[Tim K]

WEEK 1 (3/28/16 - 4/1/16)

So this week is a little different because I didn't really decide to switch to HLM until after Monday's workout. So that's why I deadlifted heavy on Weds., pressed instead of benched on Monday, etc.

BW: 246 Monday morning after a weekend with lots of eating and drinking while visiting a friend in a different city
Waist: I was afraid to measure, lol.

Monday:

Squats: 365x5x3 - PR
Press: 170x5x3 - PR
Chin Up: 9, 7, 6 (BW, kept rest periods to 5 min)

Wednesday:

Squats: 290x5x3
Bench: 235x5x3 - PR
Deadlift: 525x5x1 - was a PR, been at this weight for 3 weeks now, going to deload a bit

Friday:

Squats 330x5x3
Incline Bench 185x5x3 - 1st time ever doing this, worked up to 185 and it seemed like a good 3x5 weight to start with
Deadlift 475x5x3 - I'm doing medium deadlifts because I think the extra practice will help my form

[foothills_g]

Solid LP! I'm inspired by your pressing progress and will be following along. Bets of luck on HLM, sounds like a good plan.

[Agilic]

Very nice lifts and progress. Welcome to the intermediate section.

[Tim K]

Solid LP! I'm inspired by your pressing progress and will be following along. Bets of luck on HLM, sounds like a good plan.

Thanks. The big jump in my press numbers are partly due to starting a little bit low to learn the movement and also because I started off doing a strict press and only switched to the 2.0 technique after it seemed like it was close to stalling. I also switched to 2.5lb jumps before really stalling out completely on the 5lb jumps which helped the progress to continue smoothly (if not as fast).

[Tim K]

NUTRITION

I started in November aiming for 2000 calories a day and that's what I was doing for the first two months when I had the most fat loss. Beginning in January I upped my calorie target to about 2300, mainly because my squats stalled for the first time and I wanted to keep making progress. From the start I've been keeping protein around 220-250g a day, not really tracking carbs or fat. Most days I guess I end up under 150g of carbs.

I've been aiming for 2300 a day since then. Sounds low for my size (240ish at 5'11") but I am a self-employed and work from home so in reality I spend almost all my time outside of the gym sitting at my computer desk, and my daily expenditure is a lot lower than it would be if I had a normal job. On top of that I haven't been very strict with the 2300 calorie a day goal. I was in a bowling league for 9 weeks which was pretty much an excuse to drink with friends, so between that and other socialization and just plain lack of commitment I've probably averaged a couple of days of going way over 2300 calories, and couple more days of 100-300 calories over each week for the last few months. So with hitting my goal only 3-4 days a week it's no real wonder that my weight loss stopped, but again my lifts were going up so that was an acceptable consolation prize.

I'm looking to get more strict with my calorie intake to hopefully try to get the fat loss started again. Andy Baker suggested doing a cheat meal Sunday night, before the heavy day, which I tried this week. It seemed to work well so I'm going to keep doing it. I ate a large thin-crust meat lovers pizza which was about 2280 calories, and had three pints of Guinness (155 cal each, my go-to cutting beer) while watching the finale of The Walking Dead with the most bullshit cliffhanger ever. Total around 5000 calories for Sunday. PR'd my squat and bench on Monday so mission accomplished. My weight also jumped up 7 lb overnight but obviously that's mostly water. I'm weighing myself each day this week to see how fast it drops back down. Weekly weigh in will now be Sunday morning.

Anyway if I can keep the big cheat day to Sunday and stick to 2300 the rest of the week I'm hoping that I can continue getting stronger and get the fat loss started again. Of course I already fucked up this week because Monday night I got an unexpected invitation to hang out with some friends at a brewery and ended up with another 5000 calorie day (sigh). We'll see what happens.

[Tim K]

WEEK 2 (4/3/16 - 4/9/16)

237.4 on Sunday, 4/3. Cheat meal Sunday night. 244.4 on Monday 4/4.

Monday:

Squats: 370x5x3 - PR - 1st set felt easier than expected, next two tougher but not too extreme
Bench: 237.5x5x3 - PR - last rep of last set was a real grinder but I got it
Deadlift: 495x5x1 - Dropped this down since it's going after heavy squats and my form was deteriorating at 525 on the last few reps. Felt good.


Wednesday:

Squats: 295x5x3
Press: 172.5x5x3 - PR - 4th rep of last set was rough, bar went up uneven and strong cramp in spinal erector on right side (low side of bar) Got rep 5 to lockout but it was UGLY.
Chins: 27.5x5x3 - didn't do these last week so went back to my previous weight

LTE: 75x10x3 - first time doing these, probably could have done 80 or 85
BB Curls: 70x10x3 - first set fine, second set cheated a little on the last two, third set cheated a lot on the last 3
Lateral Raises: 20x10x3 - first time doing these too, might try 25lb dumbbells next time.

^^^this stuff was done with 2 min rest periods. Got a sick pump, bro!

I think I might start pressing first before the light squats. The squats aggravate my elbows and shoulders and I feel like it has some impact on my pressing. Not sure about Mondays, seems like I should keep the heavy squats first...

[Tim K]

Friday:

Squats: 330x5x3
Incline Bench: 190x5x3
Deadlift: 445x5x3 - lower this week because I'm doing 90% of Monday's deadlift. Easy, so I did them fast with minimal time between reps.
DB Row: 70x8, 75x8, 80x8 - Probably try 85 next time.

[Tim K]

WEEK 2 (4/10/16 - 4/16/16)

I was down to 239 on Saturday Morning, but alas I had forgotten about a friend's "baby shower" that I had been invited to, which involved much pulled pork, cake, and beer pong... So I was around 243 on Sunday morning and up to 248.4 Monday morning after Sunday night's cheat meal. Going to stay to a strict 2300ish calories per day until next Sunday and see where I'm at.

Monday:

Bench: 240x5x3 - PR - Some guy grabbed the power rack literally the moment I started walking over to it, so I benched first. First set was easy, didn't even need a spotter for the next two.
Squats: 375x5x3 - PR - Might have been six reps on the last set... I got to five and it felt easier than the last set and I wondered if I had miscounted, so I said fuck it and did another one.
Deadlift: 505x5x1 - Sucked deadlifting immediately after heavy squats. My lower back was fried and I had to take a 5 min rest before doing my 315x5 warmup set. Again, not sure on the counting, might have only done 4 reps, but I think it was five. I need to learn to count apparently. This was definitely harder without the 30+ min of rest while benching between squats and deads. I think doing it in the normal order I should be good for one more 10lb jump next week.

[cutlet#]

525x5 DL on SS? Holy shit, nice job.