Kyle's Int Log...Saying "Thanks, I'm good" to gym bros for another year.

[Kyle Martin]

Hi there, this is the start of my intermediate log, you can find my novice log here. A Jolly Fat Dude Lifts

So what's my story? Let me explain..no, there is no time, let me sum up.

NLP went Mid June - Late March
Lifts went
Squat 185 - 410
Press 75 - 152.5
Deads 235 - 425
Bench 115 - 237.5

Got a little lighter, and a little skinnier, but not enough. I'm now 39 and 5'10" and around 325 with a 50" waist.

I'm going to try out a HLM program that I pieced together myself from Practical Programming and Andy Baker videos, we'll see how it goes.

Today! Wow this was hard. My schedule is a little weird this week, and I'm traveling next week, so I'm considering this as getting my toes wet and I'll start Intermediate programming for real on the 16th.

All things are setsxreps

Heavy Squat: 1x5 @415
4x5 @ 395
Notes: These were nice until the 4th and 5th sets and now I want to cry, and die, and then cry again.

Medium Bench: 4x5 @210
Notes: This is about 90% of my novice work weight, I was going to do incline but all the incline benches were taken and I didn't feel like waiting.

Light Pull: Deadlifts 3x3 @340
Notes: These were about 80% of my working deadlift weight, I did these today instead of BB rows because I'm trying to teach myself the hook grip. On the upside this is the first time I didn't stop because they hurt too bad. On the downside I cut these to triples because my grip was too weak even with hook grip.

[Kyle Martin]

I'm back! After almost two weeks of being gone for Beer, Bourbon BBQs, a work trip to Vegas, and then a vacation it was nice to be back in the gym, and not broing it out at a hotel gym either.

Anyways, plan is to do a short LP back to where I was and move on. Today was just getting back into the saddle, weights didn't feel that heavy but work capacity suffered somewhere in the Bellagio Breakfast Buffet.

Squats 2x5 385
Press 3x5 135
Deads 1x3, 1x2 405

[Kyle Martin]

Took it easy today, moved the squat volume up a bit, but I'm going to see Emily and Diego at fivex3 for form checks on Saturday and don't want to be too burnt out for my day with the coach.

Squats 1x5 @365, 2x5 @315
Notes: Easy, wanted to go higher, probably should have

Bench 3x5 @215
Notes: These were surprisingly easy too but I got a little too loose with my arch and leg drive, need to do better

Deadlifts 2x5 @315
Notes: Did the first set double overhand and the second set switched, fun but easy.

[Kyle Martin]

Visited SSC Jay Mund today at Fivex3 in Baltimore for a form check up. Jay is great to work with and Emily and Diego are super nice and have a great family feeling in their gym. I wish I lived closer to it and could train there all the time. Anyways, Jay fixed a lot of little issues and I'm feeling much more confident and ready to kick off intermediate training for real this week.

Squat 1x5 @ 405 1x5 @375
Notes: My biggest problem here was that I needed to tighten up my upper back a bit and stand a little more "chest up"

Bench 2x5 @225
Notes: We brought my grip in a tad from ring finger on the ring to pinky on the ring. Also worked on leg drive. He gave me the cue to actually push my but off the bench and then lower it down till it's just barely touching, but I still have the tension in my legs, those benches never felt so strong.

Deads 5 singles @415, 1x4 @385
Notes: This was the hardest one, I'm trying to use switch grip, but it gets my setup all out of whack. After 30 minutes we worked on hook grip which I was doing wrong all along. I'm resolved to give hook grip another try now that I know what I'm doing.

Press 1x5 @135
Notes: My press 2.0 hip thrust is pretty good, but today I learned about maintaining that hip thrust for a moment to get some layback to help get my press past the sticking point at about my forehead. Worked like a charm.

[Kyle Martin]

Pretty good day, took off work a bit early so I could go out tonight to celebrate my 5th anniversary and eat and drink away all the good work I've done. It'll be worth it

Squats 3x5 @405
Notes: recorded these since the gym was fairly empty. About an inch too high, although I was wearing all black so kind of tough to tell for sure. I'm going to start ramping these up and next week this will be a true heavy squat day

Incline bench 4x5 @135
Notes: Never did these before, and I'm thinking I might switch to close grip for medium press day. These hurt my shoulders while at the same time feeling too light to actually stress anything. Not sure, maybe I'll give them another week

Deadlifts 2x5 @225
Notes: "light pull" day. This was really just an excuse to work on my hook grip. My thumbs are hurting now, but I need to get them some calluses.

[codger]

Great lifts, Kyle! Amazing progress.

[Kyle Martin]

Great lifts, Kyle! Amazing progress.

Thanks Codger, just got to keep on plugging, you know?

[Kyle Martin]

I'm doing something new today. Today is the first day of "Operation: Holy crap I'm a huge fat sack of lard who is going to Vegas in two months and need to at least fit into an airline seat" Operation HCIAHFSOLWISGTVITMANTALFIAAS will run side by side with Operation HLM. It may negatively impact my strength under the bar, but real talk, I'm vain and need to drop some pounds.

Today:
As much arm work as I could do: 15minutes
Eliptical: 20minutes
Sweat: A lot

[Kyle Martin]

Today was operation HLM. It was difficult.

Heavy deadlift day: 2x4 @425
Notes: Took some advice I heard in a podcast to start with deadlifts on heavy deadlift day. worked great...for the deadlifts. I used hook grip for all the warmups up to and including 365. Hooking was significantly easier than two days ago

Press day: 2x5 and 1x3 @140, then 1x2 and 1x2 @135
Notes: This is how I know I wouldn't be good at RPE. I would have sworn that my press RPE was 6...right up until the point where I hit a wall and couldn't do it. I dropped some weight to try to finish off, but was met with marginal success.

Light Squat: 2x5 @315
Notes: First time in 9 months that I did squats last. The warmup set of 135 felt almost as difficult as 405 on Tuesday. Still did the 315, and judging by the plate rattle my speed was actually ok despite the fact that it felt like death.

[Kyle Martin]

I'm ashamed to say that I didn't train Saturday because I was super hung over. Today the universe got revenge for my lack of fortitude.

You see last week I meal prepped salads with grilled chicken for lunch. On Friday I had a lunch meeting so I thought I'll just save Friday's lunch for today. It tasted a little funky, but no big deal I thought. I continued to think that until the 3rd set of squats disabused me of that notion.

Squats 1x5 @410 2x5@390
Notes: I hurled after the 3rd set. Luckily I felt it coming and made it to the bathroom. I wanted that 3rd backoff set but I bagged it.

Bench 4x5 @195
Notes: These were easy, and my stomach wasn't too bad, a lot of burps but generally benching doesn't stress my core as much as benching or...

Deadlifts: 3x5 @295
Notes: My stomach started acting up as I went through these, but I got them all in, I was glad today was light pull day. The actual lifting was easy, but limited by my grip. I hooked all the warmups and then 4,3,2 of the work reps, once I lost the hook I finished the sets double overhand.