The Constant Intermediate

[broseph]

12/9/16 Medium Squats Heavy Deadlift

Squat 370x3x5

Deadlift 460x5 (PR) Fast and smooth. Gun to my head I think I could've pulled 2 more reps.

[broseph]

12/11/16 Heavy Bench

Bodyweight 224

Bench 350x2,2,4 (PR)


Chins +70, 27 reps in 10' AMRAP

Close Grip Bench 245x10,10,9

Musings: I've been aiming to gain around 2 lbs per month of bodyweight, and it seems to be enough to keep the big lifts moving up without getting too fat. I've only done 2 Powerlifting meets in my life; totaling 1200 @ 196, then 1300 @ 203. I think I'm pretty close to 1400 right now, and 1500 @ 231 would be really awesome some day; but putting another 100 lbs on my total while only gaining 7 lbs of bodyweight doesn't seem possible.

Obviously, none of those numbers really matter, as I'll never be vying for rank at even a state level, but I like to think Powerlifting is my "sport," and I like to try to be as competitive as possible, otherwise I can't call it a sport and I'm just another bro jerking off in his basement.

[Tom K]

Nice Lifting. Following along...

Light days seem to be more about practicing good form and clean reps. The "blood flow" argument seems secondary.

I'd agree with this.

[broseph]

12/12/16 Heavy Squat

Squat 440x3x2 (PR). These felt crushingly heavy. Back and groin were a little fatigued from snow handling and some light home construction work from over the weekend. I'm hoping the fatigue is what's responsible for how impossible these doubles felt, but it always seems like the slope from sets of 5 to 1 RM is very steep on my squat. For example, my Heavy 5's:Heavy 2's weight ratio for bench and squat are almost exactly the same (0.955 vs 0.957), and I was able to do a final set of 4 with bench this week, yet I would say the squat 5's felt more solid than the bench 5's last week. Hopefully this doesn't read as complete gibberish?

I haven't programmed anything heavier than 5's for a while though, and it's possible that I'm just not CNS conditioned to handling such heavy weights. Still doesn't really explain the bench/squat percentage difference, unless 440 on my back is much more disturbing to the nervous system than 350 held in my hands.

RDL 305x3x5, 5' rests

Abwheel 3x20, 90" rests

Nice Lifting. Following along...


I'd agree with this.

Light days seem to be more about practicing good form and clean reps. The "blood flow" argument seems secondary.

So you guys don't think Light Days add much "useful" tonnage for someone with consistent clean form displayed on Medium Day? I've been wanting to finally add some conditioning to my routine, and dropping Light Day seems like the only way to fit it in.

[JFick]

Hey, another MI guy. I just camped in Grand Haven last summer. Such a nice area.

Impressive lifting. Seriously, so jealous of your bench numbers.

My 2¢ with light days. Blood flow is probably a small factor, but I think for a lot of guys it's a nice mental break. If you're squatting 315 instead of 405, it's a nice little reprieve from that near death feeling a real grinder elicits.

"unless 440 on my back is much more disturbing to the nervous system than 350 held in my hands"

I think you're probably right about this. Coupled with the fact a squat involves a significantly larger amount of muscle mass, I would think that will bring systemic fatigue along much more rapidly.

[broseph]

12/14/16 Light Squats

Squat 330x3x5

My wife and I got a C2 rower for ourselves for Xmas. It was a little bit of a gamble, because I've never used one. But my wife used them when she Crossfitted and said they were awesome. I tried it after putting it together, and it is awesome.

My new weekly plan is to replace light squats with conditioning and keep 2 full rest days:
Sun: Heavy Bench
Mon: Heavy Squat
Tue: Row Intervals
Wed: off
Thur: Medium Bench/ Heavy Press
Fri: Medium Squat/ Heavy Deadlift
Sat: off

I think that should be enough to improve my conditioning from 0 to SOMETHING while still, hopefully, getting stronger.

Hey, another MI guy. I just camped in Grand Haven last summer. Such a nice area.

Impressive lifting. Seriously, so jealous of your bench numbers.

My 2¢ with light days. Blood flow is probably a small factor, but I think for a lot of guys it's a nice mental break. If you're squatting 315 instead of 405, it's a nice little reprieve from that near death feeling a real grinder elicits.

"unless 440 on my back is much more disturbing to the nervous system than 350 held in my hands"

I think you're probably right about this. Coupled with the fact a squat involves a significantly larger amount of muscle mass, I would think that will bring systemic fatigue along much more rapidly.

Hey thanks man. Yeah, some of the annoying old ladies that live around here say "Grand Heaven" /barf. Regarding 315 being reprieve from 405, what's more reprieving than 0 amiright?

[broseph]

12/15/16 Medium Bench Heavy Press

Bench 290x3x5

Press 195x 17 reps in 10' AMRAP. Piss. Poor. 5 fewer reps than what I did with 190. Maybe microloading would be wiser.

Straight Bar Curls 45x3x20 (elbow rehab)

I'm making built-in dressers for one of my kids' rooms, and it involves a lot of drilling/driving. I find drilling/driving on a horizontal surface to be especially deleterious to my elbows and shoulders. Pushing with my shoulders internally rotated as hard as possible, elbows flared and awkward... Today's lifts did not feel good.

[Tom K]

So you guys don't think Light Days add much "useful" tonnage for someone with consistent clean form displayed on Medium Day? I've been wanting to finally add some conditioning to my routine, and dropping Light Day seems like the only way to fit it in.

For light squats, I'm not convinced they really do much for tonnage or blood flow. They do help me stay in the squatting groove though. For light presses/pulls on L day, I do different variations (i.e. OHP and chins) so I do think those help for the big lifts.

[broseph]

12/16/16 Medium Squat Heavy Deadlift

Squat 370x3x5

Deadlift 465x5 (PR) I'm really surprised how far these keep going for 5RM. A long time goal has been 500x3, and I think I'm almost there. I've only been hitting PR's on all the lifts for the last 4-6 weeks, but I started back from a layoff about 3 months ago, and have been making steady progress since that time. Struggling through weights that used to be warm ups is ruff stuff, but finally making progress is very rewarding.

[broseph]

12/18/16 Heavy Bench

Bench 295x8,8,10 (PR)

Chins +80x3x5 Making good progress using density blocks for chins. Going to take Gilchrest's advice regarding the press density blocks and rotate peak sets with AMRAP's to keep from stalling out.

Close Grip Bench 290x3,3,5. 3' rests. I basically LP'ed these for sets of 10 until they stalled out, so now I'm rep-cycling them with 10/7/3.

Fat Bar Chins BWx12,9. Didn't get the usual arm and lat pump I'm accustomed to with this week's weighted chins, so I did these too. Pump achieved.