Sweet PR for an "old guy!" Yeah I'm just jealous said this real old guy!
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Sweet PR for an "old guy!" Yeah I'm just jealous said this real old guy!
Thanks Fred!
I'm sneaking up on a proper two-plate 3x5, which theoretically would be achieved four weeks from now. But as this is maintenance season, that may just have to wait until much later in the year (hopefully).
Just keep doing what you're doing, young man. You're working through a lot, and still setting a fine, fine example for all of the kids around here.
ETA: Just a little while ago, I wished my high school sweetheart a happy birthday for tomorrow. Her response was "didn't we just graduate?" Uh, no dear. That was quite a while ago. But we are still kids at heart, so that counts for a lot!
I started to say here comes two plates.
Thanks for the comment! I know things could be worse so I use that to motivate myself.
It sounds like you and your sweetheart keep each other young. That's awesome!
1/14/23 - Saturday
Outside 36° / Garage 45°
OP @ 5'
45x5x3
75x3
105x1
135x1
150x5x3 3x5 PR
HDL @ 8'
65x5x2 pc
135x4
185x12
225x1
275x1
305x1
335x8 4
Music — Dimmu Borgir vs Twisted Sister, Burn In Hell; Marduk vs Misfits, Earth A.D.; Graveworm vs Pet Shop Boys, It's A Sin; Gojira, Stranded.
Notes —
- OP - Heavy, appropriately so for this 3x5 PR. All good.
- HDL - 10lb reset after two weeks ago (12/29/22), when increasing lower back pain through the set led me to leave rep 8 on the floor so I wouldn't sabotage planned activities in the following days. I don't have any such activities planned the rest of this weekend, so I could probably try it again, but I'll start a bit more conservatively with these and hopefully get them moving through this maintenance season. But apparently not conservatively enough. The first two went fine, the third was a grind, as was the fourth when my lower back seized when the bar passed the knees. There was no five+ as I was stuck hunched over for a while until I could lean up to grab the rack to slowly stand upright. These really shouldn't be too heavy, as I was doing 350x5 and 370x3's just a month ago, with heavy pulls between. I know that these are in my head, but I should still be able to pull them.
1/16/23 - Monday
Outside 38° / Garage 46°
OP L @ 3'
45x5x3
75x3
105x1
135x5x3
BP L @ 3'
45x5x2
135x3
165x1
197.5x5x3
PC Exploratory @ 5'
65x5x3
95x3
115x1
135x5x3
Music — Hammered Hulls, Sounding; Jesus And Mary Chain, Just Like Honey; New Order, Temptation; Pixies, Where Is My Mind?; Siouxsie & The Banshees, Spellbound; The Clash, Radio Clash.
Notes — Warming up the next lift during work sets for the previous worked well, as this took all of 75 minutes from start to finish.
- OP - Light day. All good.
- BP - Light day. All good.
- PC - Reintroducing Cleans, so this is an exploratory day. After Saturday's fiasco with Haltings, I spent quite a bit of time reviewing issues and realized that I am not getting enough volume pulling off the floor. The last time that I worked Cleans was mid-June of 2022, at the tail end of last year's maintenance programming. Once I started my training in earnest again, I followed the 4-Day Heavy/Light Split programming described in BBRx to a T, which did not included cleans for a light pull. That programming went well, since I was pulling heavy off the floor every week, modulating the volume and intensity and using Cleans as my initial warmup sets to get ready for those heavy pulls. But once I started this year's maintenance programming, alternating Haltings and Rack Pulls, I was only pulling heavy off the floor every other week, with a goal of eight reps. Following this program, that would have given me 16 reps off the floor since 12/17/22, yet I only completed 11 in the two programmed sessions. That's 11 pulls off the floor for the month, where during the 4-Day Split, I would get 34 during a similar timeframe. Eleven reps is insufficient, as my lower back told me the last two sessions of Haltings. So while the light pressing workout day has been nice and quick, I'm making it longer again by adding these Cleans. Time will tell how that translates to my Haltings. Climbing up through the warmups, 135 seemed to be a good spot to settle for these work sets. All good, even with a couple of rushed, off-kilter reps.
1/18/23 - Wednesday
Outside 42° / Garage 49°
SQ @ 5'
45x10x3
95x5
135x3
185x1
225x1
275x1
305x1
335x5
305x5x2
BP @ 5'
45x5x2
135x3
185x1
217.5x5x3 3x5 PR
Music — Beastie Boys, She's Crafty; King's X, Black Flag; Black Sabbath, Children Of The Sea; Van Halen, Romeo Delight; The Cult, Wild Flower; AC/DC, She's Got The Jack; U.F.O., Too Hot To Handle.
Notes —
- SQ - Heavy with 91% backoff sets. Going into the first work set, I was wondering how it would work out. That last 305 warmup rep felt like a ton. But the workset went fine, although the last two reps seemed slower and less balanced. The backoffs went fine.
- BP - Heavy sets across. All good.
1/21/23 - Saturday
Outside 26° / Garage 38°
OP @ 5'
45x5x3
75x3
105x1
135x1
152.5x5x3 3x5 PR
RP @ 8'
135x4
185x2
225x1
275x1
315x1 doh
350x1 h
390x5 s
Music — Man Must Die vs Stormtroopers Of Death, Milk; Oppressor vs Motley Crue, Looks That Kill; The Faceless vs Depeche Mode, Shake The Disease.
Notes — I'm still beat from living life Thursday. Splitboarding one of the local mountains, about six hours moving over 6.8 miles horizontally, 2,850' vertically, including plowing through chest-deep powder in spots (getting out of tree well hell). But that's what I do this for the rest of the year. So I'm still tired, but will work through this.
- OP - Heavy sets across. And they were heavy, as the lats and traps are tired from Thursday. Then the internet connection dropped, so no music, which was fine; except it reconnected mid-way through the second set and distracted me, making the rest of the set a grind. All good.
- RP - Heavy. Typically I switch to Hook grip above 300 then strapped the last warmup rep, but decided to test things out. The 315 went fine with double overhand, as did the 350 with the hook grip. The work set was a smooth, quick, tempo set. I probably could have gone 2-3 more. But I know better.
That's a lot of bench and overhead press PRs you've been getting!
Two thoughts here. First, because upper body stuff is less fatiguing, you can probably keep pushing these up even though you are in-season. Second, you might consider how to prolong the PR train. Some possibilities are 1-pound incremental loading, getting an upper body exercise in either 5 or 6 days a week, and running out triples, doubles and singles. Those things have allowed me to continue setting PRs in bench and OP ever since last July when I broke the previous year's 3x5 overhead press PR. I'm tapped out on 3x5 PRs at the moment, but I did a (much lower) 5x5 press PR on Thursday and should be able to PR tomorrow on press triples--that's almost six months of bumping things up!
Thanks J.
I am enjoying them while they are happening and will basically follow Nick's Upper Body progression with triples/doubles/singles as they start to stall (soon, I suspect). The cycling of volume and intensity during the 4-day Heavy/Light split really helped get me get here and will help me decide how I want to run these once they stall during this maintenance season. Bottom line - it's fun while they're going, but they aren't a priority for the next few months. There just too many other things going on that are a higher priority. Squandering opportunity? Perhaps. But a learning process just the same.
Keep at it!