Lifting to Live

[Bill Anders]

3/30/22 - Wednesday

OP @ 5'
45x5x3
75x3
105x1
115x1
130x5x3

BP @ 5'
45x5x2
95x3 p
135x1 p
175x1 p
195x1
208x5x3

Music — Top picks from SiriusXMs Liquid Metal, Corridor of Covers, The Replacement Singers, 3/24/22 - Dead Funeral vs Slayer, Dead Skin Mask; White Wizzard vs Iron Maiden, Flight of Icarus; Killswitch Engage vs Dio, Holy Diver; Exodus vs War, Low Rider; Dillinger Escape Plan vs Public Enemy, Fight The Power.

Notes — Return/reset after a week of snowboarding, then recovery/focusing on the bride before getting back on schedule(-ish).
- OP - Keeping in line with the recent Gillenwater/Lewis podcast on Coming Back From A Layoff, I dropped 1lb from my last Press workout, then one more to be a bit on the conservative side. That's still not even a 2% reset, but it was manageable. All good.
- BP - Similar to above, a 2lb reset (1%-ish). Not as smooth as the Presses, but still manageable. All good.

[Bill Anders]

4/1/22 - Friday

SQ - L @ 5'
45x10x3
95x5
135x3 p
185x1 p
225x1 p
255x5x3

RP @ 8'
65x5x2 PCs
135x4
185x2
225x1
275x1
315x1 hook
360x5 straps

Music — Top picks from SiriusXMs Liquid Metal, Corridor of Covers, NFL Pickem League Winner Takeover I, 3/31/22 - Hatebreed vs Slayer, Ghosts of War; Anthrax vs Trust, Antisocial; Death Angel vs Kiss, Cold Gin; Sepultura vs Motorhead, Orgasmatron.

Notes —
- SQ - Light Day. Continuing to pull my hands in another finger width from the rings (as 3/17/22 above), my left forearm was rotating through the warmup sets, leaving just the lateral pad of the palm in contact with the bar, which would be a problem during the work sets. So I reverted to just one finger width inside the ring, which kept the entire pad pressed against the bar, for the last warmup rep and the work sets. I will continue to work on this. All good, which was no surprise at this light weight.
- RP - First heavy pull in 15 days, and instead of a reset, I just repeated that last weight. All good, although I felt the bar swing away from my left knee on the last rep.

[Bill Anders]

4/2/22 - Saturday

OP I @ 1'
45x5x3
75x3
105x1
125x1
139x1x5

BP I @ 1'
45x5x2
95x3 p
135x1 p
175x1 p
205x1
225x1x5

Music — Top picks from SiriusXM - Liquid Metal's Bloody Roots, Roots of Sludge Metal, 3/26/22 [as soon as I saw this topic, I almost skipped the workout to slap on the headphones, lean back, and absorb. The album that the second song on this list was on (Black Sabbath's Master of Reality) was one of my favorite teen-era albums, so much so that I wore out several cassettes in my Walkman, and that album led me down the path of discovering most of these bands over the next few decades] - Melvins, Night Goat; Black Sabbath, Lord of This World; Celtic Frost, Procreation of the Wicked; Jim Jones and the Kool-Ade Kids, Force of Habit; Acid Bath, Toubabo Koomi.

Notes — A fair bit of hamstring DOMS after yesterday's SQ and RP workout.
- OP - Since my last Intensity session was on 3/11/22 and I missed two Intensity workouts over the past two weeks, I reset 3lbs (2+%). All good.
- BP - Same as OP, although the 3lb reset is slightly less than 2%. A bit uglier than the Presses, but all good.

[Bill Anders]

4/6/22 - Wednesday

OP @ 5'
45x5x3
75x3
105x1
115x1
131x5x3

BP @ 5'
45x5x2
95x3 p
135x1 p
175x1 p
195x1
209x5x3

Music — Top picks from SiriusXMs 1st Wave, Billyl Idol's Live Transmission, On Tour With Billy, 3/29/22 - The Cult, Love Removal Machine + She Sells Sanctuary; Sisters of Mercy, Vision Thing; Siouxsie & The Banshees, Christine.

Notes — A couple of days got away, mostly recovering from our front/center seats at the Carlos Santana concert Sunday night. It's amazing to see him (again), still wailing on the guitar, in a career spanning longer than I have been alive.
- OP - Three solid sets. All good.
- BP - Never as smooth and sure as the presses, but all good.

[Bill Anders]

4/7/22 - Thursday

SQ @ 5'
45x10x3
95x5
135x1 p
185x1 p
225x1 p
260x5x3

RDL @ 5'
65x5x2
135x4
185x2
205x1 225x1
225x5x2 hook

Music — Top picks from SiriusXMs Whole Lotta Red Hot [Chili Peppers], Guest DJ George Clinton, 4/2/22 - RHCP vs Sly and the Family Stone, If You Want Me To Stay*; RHCP, Yertle The Turtle.

Notes — A surprising amount of DOMS from yesterday's Presses workout. I guess that means that I kept everything tight. But I clearly need to get back on a more frequent schedule, which should happen with the impending end to snowboarding season. Except that I have many other plans over the next couple of months...
- SQ - Working on the closer grip again, I didn't have the forearm rotation issue that I had last week (4/1), but it's still taking some getting used to. All good.
- RDL - Originally programmed as 365x5 Rack Pulls, the DOMS plus a physical full-day skills qualification test scheduled for tomorrow had me re-think pulling too heavy today. So I swapped in the RDLs, which I should be able to manage through tomorrow. Now only if I kept track of my warmups and did that 205x1 instead of that 225x1 before my 225x5x2, which went just fine.
- Music - *Holy cow if that isn't the funk trifecta! George Clinton discussing the original Sly and the Family Stone song, covered very well by the Peppers!!! That had me moving in the rack, that's for sure.

[Bill Anders]

4/10/22 - Sunday

OP I @ 1'
45x10
45x5
75x3
105x1
125x1
140x1x5

BP I @ 1'
45x5x2
95x3 p
135x1 p
175x1 p
205x1
226x1x5

Music — Top picks from SiriusXMs Liquid Metal, Corridor of Covers, Godfathers of Seattle Grunge, 4/7/22 - Howling Giant vs Alice In Chains, Rooster; Comeback Kid vs Nirvana, Territorial Pissings; Johnny Cash vs Soundgarden, Rusty Cage.

Notes — A crazy time. A wide open schedule over the next week quickly turned into a "where in the world will I fit in a workout?". Thankfully I could squeeze this one in today, as it's less than an hour total. I may have to focus on single lift days for the next several days.
- OP - Five smooth, strong reps. As it should be.
- BP - Same, although not quite as smooth, as is typical for my bench vs press.

[Bill Anders]

4/11/22 - Monday

RP @ 8' (am)
65x5x3 PC's
135x4
185x2
225x1
275x1
320x1
365x5

SQ @ 5' (pm)
45x10x3
95x5
135x3 p
185x1 p
225x1 p
265x5x3

Music — Top picks from SiriusXM - Liquid Metal's Bloody Roots, ROOTS OF 1982 – The Golden Year of Classic Heavy Metal, 4/9/22 — Iron Maiden, Invaders; Judas Priest, Screaming For Vengeance; Twisted Sister, Under The Blade; Michael Schenker Group, Desert Song.

Notes — Weird. I had posted the morning session Rack Pulls when I finished that session. But that post disappeared. Or I closed the tab before submitting. Regardless, it's gone. So this will be a combined entry. With the rack pulls finished this morning, we immediately started eating brunch and getting ready to head down the road to clear some fallen trees off of the local hiking trail. Then the wind started picking up, and an hour before we were all to meet to cut out the trees, with winds gusting 40+mph, we called off the work party for safety reasons. The trees fell due to high winds a week ago, and there's a good chance that more were falling this afternoon. So the bonus was that instead of one lift today, I waited a bit and was able to get in a squat workout. That gave my bride a large window of time to get out under the bar and get her workout in. It's a wonderful thing to see.
- RP - A smooth, quick tempo set, even though the first one really felt like it was going to be a grind session. But as soon as I put that first rep on the safeties, I kept everything above the waist tight, extended the knees and stood without letting go of the bar to get the hips high, then settled the legs back to the bar before immediately pulling. Rinsed/repeated. The set was over before I knew it; I could have done another 3-4 reps, or added another 15-20lbs, but that isn't the point. I just need to remember to try that again next time.
- SQ - I typically don't do heavy squats after heavy pulls, so I reverted to my "light day" progression of +5 instead of doing 290 with some back-off sets. Probably a good idea, as my glutes were gassed after that first set, likely due to those heavy pulls earlier today. But keeping everything tight throughout, I managed to get through all three sets just fine. Not a surprise at this weight, but since I didn't know how I'd feel after the rack pulls, I wasn't entirely sure.

[Bill Anders]

4/12/22 - Tuesday

OP @ 5'
45x10x1
45x5x1
75x3
105x1
120x1
132x5x3

BP @ 5'
45x5x2
95x3 p
135x1 p
175x1 p
195x1 p
210x5x3

Music — Top picks from SirusXM's U2-X Radio, Boy: The 40th Anniversary Special, 11/26/20 — U2, An Cat Dubh/Into The Heart; U2, Stories For Boys; U2, 11 O'Clock Tick Tock; U2, I Will Follow.

Notes —
- OP - Three smooth, solid sets.
- BP - Three sets, not as smooth as the Press, as always. Even a stall on the very last rep of the last set, but a slow push to lockout.

[Bill Anders]

4/15/22 - Friday

SQ @ 5'
45x10x3
95x5
135x3 p
185x1 p
225x1 p
245x1
270x5x3

OP I @ 1'
45x5x2
75x3
105x1
125x1
141x1x5

RDL M @ 5'
65x5x2 PCs
135x4
185x2
205x1
230x5x3 hook

Music — Top picks from SiriusXMs Liquid Metal, Corridor of Covers, Metal Tour of the Year, 4/14/22 — Trivium vs Type O Negative, I Don't Wanna Be Me; Trivium vs Iron Maiden, Iron Maiden; Jasta vs Megadeth, Holy Wars...The Punishment Due.

Notes — Resuming after a 2-day break, although Wednesday was a full day of building a new local trail, a day consisting of "farming", moving, and placing rocks weighing hundreds of pounds in order to build up and retain a steep slope. Then the seasonal crud hit the house yesterday, with lingering effects still being felt today, enough to cancel activities outside the house that would bring us in contact with people, but not bad enough to not work out.
- SQ - Continuing my +5lb LP for 5x3's, these were nice and smooth. My 2022 heaviest was a 320x5 + 300x5x2 back on 1/29/22, then a slow slide backwards as the winter progressed. I had initially programmed a 290x5 + 265x5x2 for this week, but then looked back and realized that I had been running an straight LP. So instead of "volume" and "intensity"-style programming for the squats (without the volume), I decided to keep that run going as I keep running up my heavy pulls, since I noticed whenever the heavy squat and pull get too close, my lower back just won't tolerate it. So we'll see how this goes for through the spring. All good.
- OP - This was the first juggle of lifts—instead of a 3x5, today was Intensity (for press only, not bench)—to keep my overall workout tonnage for this week fairly even, instead of >2,500lb tonnage variations between workouts. That's for later this season once I can get back into a consistent HLM program. All singles were good.
- RDL - Medium Pull (although closer to a light-medium day. All good with hook grip.

[Bill Anders]

4/17/22 - Sunday

SQ @ 5'
45x10x3
95x5 p
135x3 p
185x1 p
225x1 p
245x1 p
275x5x3

BP I @ 1'
45x5x2
95x3 p
135x1 p
175x1 p
205x1
227x1x5

PC @ 3'
65x5x2
85x3
105x1
120x1
135x3x5

Music — Top picks from SiriusXM - Liquid Metal's Bloody Roots, Roots of Folk Metal, 4/16/22 — Tengger Cavalry (Mongolia), Cavalry In Thousands; Cemican (Mexico), Guerreros De Cemican; Yomi (Japan), Eight-Forked Serpent; Heilung (Germany, Denmark, Norway), Krigsgaldr; Chthonic (Taiwan), Millenia's Faith Undone.

Notes — Feeling really fuzzy today and kept coming up with excuses not to do this. Fuzzy due to a late night watching the live streams from the Coachella Music Festival (outstanding sets by both Danny Elfman and Billie Eilish), then an early morning watching my favorite cycling race of the year, Paris-Roubaix.
- SQ - Running LP on these, so +5lb over Friday. All good.
- BP - Intensity. All good.
- PC - Light Pull day. Other than 65x5x2's to warm up for my heavier pull days, I haven't done work sets of Cleans in a while (the log says 150x3x5 on 12/13/21), so this was an experiment to see where I am with these. Hook grip with these, which was a first. All went well. I probably could have added another 5-10lbs to this, although that 10lbs might have been messy. I do enjoy this lift.