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05-12-2019, 03:31 PM
#131
5/11/19
Bench 242.5xF 225x2 205x5 185x8
Press 135x5x3
Well, I'm back! As you can see, it's been two weeks since my last workout, and I spent a fair portion of it sick as hell and unable to eat much of anything. Dropped almost 10 lbs, and not in a good way. Today was kind of a feeling out process. Attempted what would have been my scheduled bench double, just to see. Predictably, it was an abject failure. Then, I experimented with weights for 8/5/2, and these were all difficult but manageable. Problem is they're 10-15 lbs lighter than they were before I was sick. Decided just to do 3x5 on the press. Again, this felt like what I was capable of today. I'm pissed, because I was just getting back to PRs on the upper body lifts. I expect similar setbacks in my lower body lifts. My plan is to put myself back on LP for a bit to work my way back up. Should be the quickest way to get myself back to where I was, and who knows! Maybe I'll even take it further. Going to start a log for it down below.
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08-14-2019, 03:34 PM
#132
8/14/19 Light Day
Light squats 290x5x2
Press 140x5x5
Deadlift 405x3x2
I'm rejoining the ranks of the intermediate lifters! My recent re-run of LP took me a lot further than I dared hope for, and I hit a bunch of new PRs. Did a little mini run out to hit a 405 squat before going on vacation, and now that I'm back I'm going to try out an HLM program. Since it's Wednesday, and I've been away from the gym for about a week, starting off with the light day seemed like a decent way to ease back into things. I felt a little shaky during squats, but they were easy enough. Been in Nashville, so I was probably just suffering from a bit of hot chicken and whiskey withdrawal. Decided to start my 5x5 presses at 140, which seemed to be about right. Once I get right back into the swing of things, I'll deadlift heavy on Wednesday. I wasn't the most consistent before I went on vacation, so figured I probably shouldn't go for a new 5 rep PR, but ego wouldn't let me put less than 405 on the bar now that I've broken that barrier. Decided I'd hit a couple of triples which worked out just fine. Technically more tonnage than my PR of 410x5!
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08-16-2019, 05:58 PM
#133
8/16/19 Medium Day
Squats 330x5x3
Press 170x1,1,F 165x1,F 160x2
Deadlift 325x5x2
Incline bench 185x5x3
So this was my first medium day of my attempt at HLM. Decided to start off with 3x5 on squats and a bench variant, 2x5 deadlifts, and trying out Delgadillo's 5x5/5-7x1 press programming. Squats and deads were fine. The press singles didn't go quite as planned. Figured I'd start at 170, but failed after the first couple. Dropped to 165, got one and failed again. Dropped to 160 and got the last two. Was planning on doing seven singles, but decided to count the failures as reps because I definitely ground hard enough for them to count as a stress event. Seeing as how my last press workout I hit a triple at 165, this was somewhat frustrating, but with my vacation both detraining and suboptimal recovery are possible culprits. Hell, in his article Delgadillo says you probably only need a few minutes rest between singles, so I was taking shorter rest than I might have otherwise. Lots of possible explanations. I'll try again next week. I'm going to work on CGBP and incline as my medium bench lift. I'll try to prioritize CGBP because I think it's the more helpful of the two from a strength perspective, but the gym was busy today and an incline bench was the only one free.
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08-27-2019, 06:04 PM
#134
8/27/19
Dips +40x5x3
KB Clean & Press 55x5x2
KB Press 55x10x1
KB Rows 55x12x3
Well my triumphant return to intermediate status has been a gigantic bust so far. A summer cold, and unpredictable work and family schedules have conspired to keep me out of the gym for a long ass time. I've definitely detrained, which would normally call for a bit of a run of LP. However, I'm also back to work now and don't have time for the long workouts. In fact, I'm already pulling the plug on HLM. When I initially planned on trying it out, I thought it would be during the summer when I was the master of my own schedule. My re-run of LP went so long, that now that I'm back to work, guaranteeing consistent days of the week to train is impossible. The 4 day split will be the plan, although I'm still thinking about how I want to run it. Work kept me from getting to the gym again today with a last minute schedule change, so I decided to use my home gym stuff that's been collecting dust for a year and a half or so. Felt weird to do stuff I used to do all the time after so long, but better than nothing! Unfortunately the rest of this week is a gong show too, but I'm going to do the best I can. Next week should be better for getting back down to biz!
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09-07-2019, 04:17 PM
#135
9/7/19
Montana Method W1D1
Squats 270x5x5 2 mins rest
Bench 165x5x7 2 mins rest
Chins 10 min EMOM 5,3,3,3,3,3,3,2,2,2
Getting back into regular training after entirely too long. It would ordinarily call for a run of LP, but I don't have time for that these days. In fact, even HLM or a 4 day split would make for workouts that are too long for me to hit consistently. I know it's somewhat heretical in these parts, but after looking at the Montana Method and it's prescribed rest times for volume days, it seemed like something that can fit my schedule. It's definitely more complicated than any intermediate program in PPST, but I've never run a percentage based program before, and I think at this point I have halfway decent estimates of my 1RMs to start with. It'll be a fun experiment at least. Most days the average intensity is lower than an SS program, but that's what allows for less rest between sets, which is the real killer with fitting in my workouts. I solemnly swear to completely disregard all hints of prescriptive RPE and bar speed, and attempt to linearly progress every 2 week cycle.
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09-08-2019, 09:44 AM
#136
9/8/19
Montana Method W1D2
Press 165x1 7 min Density Block 135x3,3,3,3,3,3,3,1 = 22 reps
BB Curls myo reps 60x10,5,3,3,3,3
DB incline curls 15x12,10,10
Today was all about the pressing. Program just called for a heavy single and then a 7 minute density block at 80% of whatever that turned out to be. Was quite happy to hit a smooth 165 after my little hiatus, and then did the density block with 135. I've never done density stuff on barbell lifts, but I think this worked out well. Hit failure on the last rep I attempted, with 5 seconds left in the block. Then I fucked around with some curls because I had plenty of time left. Tomorrow will be more strength focused, working up to some heavyish singles on squats, bench and deads.
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09-09-2019, 05:56 PM
#137
9/9/19
Montana Method W1D3
Squats 230x3 270x2 300x1x2 315x1 345x1
Bench 140x3 165x2 185x1x2 200x1 215x1
CGBP 155x8x2
Deadlift 405x1 335x4x3
Today was weird. I gather that the purpose of this "power" day is to just move some heavyish singles as fast as possible, but having what were once easy warmups prescribed as if they're work sets didn't sit super well with me. However, being out of the gym in less than 90 minutes was pretty cool, and was the whole point of this experiment in the first place. The only part of the workout that was remotely challenging was deadlifts, and that was mostly just a function of trying to do this much volume on shorter rest than I'm used to after a layoff. It actually called for a couple more backoff sets, but I said fuck it. I was already saddled with serious DOMS from my first workout back, so decided discretion was the better part of valour. Next day is "strength" day with a bunch of stuff in the 80% range and some snatch grip deads. "Easy" strength gains and avoiding grinding is the point of this program, but it feels weird to single shit I hit for fahves across little more than a month ago. Shorter workouts are dope though. Still, my inner skeptic already has a plan for how I'll switch it up if I decide to abandon this experiment.
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09-11-2019, 06:51 PM
#138
9/11/19
Montana Method W1D4
Squats 305x3x5
Bench 187.5x3 TnG+1 pause x4
SGDL 245x5x4
So today was "strength" day, which meant a bunch of triples at 80%. Felt fine. Squats were smooth, and didn't require 10+ minutes of rest like grinding out heavy fahves. Bench prescription is a little weird. Three touch and go, rest ~30s, then a paused single. I've never paused a bench rep in my life, so that was cool. I've also always liked snatch grip deads, so I like that they're part of the program. This is the first week in the books, and while it's way too early to say if I'm getting any stronger or heaven forbid weaker, I can at least say the workouts are fun and pretty quick. Today was just a little more than an hour, so definitely ticks that box.
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09-14-2019, 02:16 PM
#139
9/14/19
Montana Method W2D1
Squats 290x4x3 290x3x3 2 mins rest
Bench 177.5x4x3 177.5x3x4 2 mins rest
Man, even with much lower intensity, squatting on 2 mins rest kinda sucks! Was in and out of the gym in less than an hour though, so there's that.
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09-21-2019, 02:43 PM
#140
9/21/19
Bench 225x1 205x5x3
Light press 115x5x3
Chins BWx7,7,6
Curls 60x8,3,3,3 rest pause
Incline curls 15x12,10,7,6 60s rest
Low cable flyes 5x8x3
Aborted the whole Montana Method experiment. It was fine, but I wasn't loving it. Just to foreign to what has worked well for me so far. I also realized I just can't keep a consistent 3 day/week schedule. A 4 day upper lower split just works best for me. I can workout on back to back days if that's how my schedule works out, which it often does. I'm still figuring out how I'm going to work it and keep workouts to ~60 mins, but it'll basically be a heavy/light split. Today's heavy was bench, so I just hit one smooth but heavyish single and some backoff fahves. Did some light pressing super setted with chins, and then some bro shit just because I had the time and big arms and chesticles are cool.
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