Lifting to Live

[Bill Anders]

9/17/23 - Sunday

RP I @ 6'
135x4
225x2
315x1 h
365x1 h
405x1 m
460x3 s
440x3 s
415x3 s
365x5x2

Tempo SQ V @ 5'
45x5x2
135x5
185x3
225x1
265x1
295x1
320x4x3

Music — Slipknot, Sulfur; Iron Savior vs Judas Priest, Hellion/Electric Eye; Arch Enemy vs Scorpions, The Zoo; Amon Amarth vs Accept, Balls To The Wall; Gamma Ray vs Pet Shop Boys, It's A Sin; Oceans vs Radiohead, Creep; Caliban vs Type O Negative, My Girlfriend's Girlfriend; Metallica, Eye Of The Beholder.

Notes — A slight change in programming starts today, keeping a 4-Day Heavy/Light Split going, but in a 3-Day Lifting Week to facilitate more recovery; for the next few weeks, that means Su/T/Th. Andy Baker talks about it here. Last week was a perfect week for grinding out some bigger numbers across the board, which I mostly did. As far as recovery factors go, I had plenty of sleep, no stress, and plenty of calories. During the worksets I even let my inter-set recovery times loosen more than usual. But after that session on Thursday, I was cooked, with Friday's Rack Pull session looming large. I slept through my workout window Friday morning and pushed it to Saturday. Again, I slept through my workout window Saturday morning and that solidified my inclination to move back to a 3-Day Lifting Week, a concept which had been rolling around in the back of my head for a while now. I have to grudgingly accept that, at 55, I can't push this specific 4-Day program week-in and week-out without this modification for recovery. I'm not inclined right now to go back to the 4-Day Split that's outlined in BBRx, because both Phoebe and Chase were right that it was too conservative for me right now*. This modification should put be squarely between the two programs and I should be able to keep pushing hard through the end of year, when snowboarding season starts. Priorities, y'know.

- RP - Intensity Triple w/ 90% backoff triple. This was the weight that was welded to the safeties back on 8/25/23 at the end of a week where I Squatted way too much volume on Tuesday. That was poor decision-making that may have also been the tipping point leading into last week. Or it could be completely unrelated. Regardless, today's 460x3 had the same result - welded to the safeties for two separate attempts to get it moving with solid 5+ count hard pushes against the floor; I realized that I may have set up too soft for the first try, which I fixed for the second, but the result was the same. Going in to today's workout, I had considered just resetting to 440x3 considering how this lift has been going the past couple of months, which may have subconsciously sabotaged me. The reset to that weight yielded the same result, meaning that it's time for me to reset this lift. Prior to this program, I was simply alternating Haltings/Rack Pulls and both were going up smoothly; I can't wrap my brain around how simply adding actual Deadlifts into the rotation would stall these, especially since today was 9-days since those Deadlifts instead of the previously programmed 7-day rotation. But I can wrap my brain around how I felt Friday and into Saturday would negatively affect these, so I move forward. I spent a bit of time chasing a weight that I could get a little bit of Volume with, and that weight wasn't 415lbs, which was my original 90% backoff weight. So I went 80% with 365lbs, which actually moved, although the first rep of the first set sure acted like it wasn't going to go (hence the 5+ count push against the floor). I had annotated 365x3x2 above, but by the time I got to the third rep, I was pissed enough to keep going to five, which I stuck with for the second set. Overall tonnage was higher than my originally programmed lifts, but with a much lower Intensity, so I should be fine going forward.
- SQ - Tempo sets across, 3+ count down, -2 count up. All things considered (last week + RP above), including running out of time thanks to the fiddle-farting with the Rack Pull, I dropped sets.

Overall, this ends up being a recovery workout, although the Intensity of the Rack Pull attempts has strained the system. Programmed tonnage (yes, I keep track, as it's a very useful metric) going into this workout was 6,525lbs and I actually did 4,950lbs, so a 25% backoff. Ideally that will help in the week to come.

* The difference between the two 4-Day splits is that with this current one that Chase wrote, I was adding weight and hitting a PR for each lift once per week. With this modification, I will still add weight and hit a PR during each 4-Day, so about 2 PRs per two weeks, with one two-week period where one of the lifts will only be hit once. With the BBRx 4-Day, since the rep scheme rotated each week (5/3/1), I was only adding weight once every fourth week for a specific rep scheme, which is why it's too conservative for me.

[Bill Anders]

9/19/23 - Tuesday

Pin OP
180x1
200x1 (0, 1)

OP I @ 2'
45x5x3
95x5
135x3
160x1
180x1x5

BP V @ 5'
45x5x2
95x5
135x3
185x1
215x1
240x4x4

Music — Megaherz vs Falco, Rock Me Amadeus; Die Toten Hosen, Schönen Gruss, auf Wiederseh'n; Rammstein, Sonne; Metallica, To Live Is To Die.

Notes —
- Pin OP - Intensity Single. Still getting these figured out, but better. First attempt at the 200, the bar went up over the head, but I started worrying if my knuckles were going to slam into the rack's crossbar and it slammed back down. I can't Press inside my Strength Co rack, so I have to set up the squat arms outside the rack. I've been setting up midway out on the arm to give myself a bit of forward/backwards range setting the bar back down, but today I set up too close to the rack. Since I never step backwards at any time during a press, I rolled the bar out to the far end of the squat arm. From there, the 200 cruised up with no concern. Now I know. And I'll let that number for this lift sink into my brain...
- OP - Intensity Singles across. All good.
- BP - Volume Sets across. All good.

[Fred J]

Great workout and great music!

[Bill Anders]

Thanks Fred. It was a good day.

[Bill Anders]

9/21/23 - Thursday

Pause SQ
45x10x3
135x5
185x3
225x1 3
285x1
335x1
375x1

Box SQ I @ 4'
365x2x2

SQ I @ 7-9'
380x3x3
380x3
380x2
380x0

PC V @ 3'
65x5x3
115x3
135x1
155x1
170x3x3

Music — Nick Lowe, Cruel To Be Kind; The Kinks, Where Have All The Good Times Gone; Hüsker Dü, Something I Learned Today; Rocket From The Crypt, On A Rope; T.S.O.L., Code Blue; DEVO vs The Rolling Stones, (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction; Faction vs The Mamas & The Papas, California Dreamin'; Sex Pistols vs Paul Revere & The Raiders, (I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone; GBH, City Baby Attacked By Rats.

Notes — Rainy season started Tuesday night, which also makes everything wake up from the warm-months slumber. That means that my sinuses have been horrible since Wednesday morning and I have been dragging ass (nothing like waking up feeling like I downed a fifth the night before, even if it was but only one beer). I should have considered that going into today's session, although I think I knew it in the back of my mind as I was considering lowering the Squat volume even before I started, but swatted that thought away. Hmmmmmmm...
- Pause SQ - Intensity Single w/ 3-count pause. Good.
- Box SQ - Intensity Doubles at 14". All good, although the second rep of the second set was getting quite grindy to lockout.
- SQ - Intensity Triples across. First set was good, with a grindy third rep. Second set, first rep was solid, second rep was grindy, third rep got out of the hole and didn't even stall, it just did a u-turn to the safeties. I reloaded for a third set and extended my recovery break. Not that that helped. Once I got the bar out of the hooks, balanced, stabilized and I started the rep, it rode straight to the safeties. That was likely mental, not physical, but I called it.
- PC - Volume Triples across. I did drop volume on these after those SQs. My lower back was not happy and I really ran out of time thanks to the extended rest breaks and resets. And apparently I was out of energy, as the only set of three ended up being three singles.

[Bill Anders]

9/24/23 - Sunday

Pin BP I @ 3'
45x5x3
95x5
135x3
185x1
225x1
250x1 pin
272.5x1 pin
245x2x2 pin

BP I @ 5'
257.5x3x4

OP V @ 2'
45x5x2
95x3
125x1
140x1
157.5x2x12

Music — Earth, Wind & Fire, September; Unleash The Archers vs Queensrÿche, Queen Of The Reich; Blind Guardian vs Dio, Don't Talk To Strangers; Stratovarius vs The Scorpions, Blackout; Sonata Arctica vs Iron Maiden, Die With Your Boots On; Celesty vs Megadeth, Holy Wars... The Punishment Due; Limp Bizkit, Take A Look Around; Orgy vs New Order, Blue Monday.

Notes —
- Pin BP - Intensity single w/ 90% backoff doubles at 2-count pause. Apparently last week I mis-calculated something somewhere and did 95% backoff sets (I went +12.5lbs instead of +2.5lbs over the previous workout, although I dropped to 2x2 from 3x2, so it might have been a considered modification). It worked, but impacted my standard BP triples across, so instead of running that up, I fixed it today. Heavy single was smooth and appropriately heavy. The first backoff set went well enough, considering the second rep I anticipated the safeties and relaxed a tad, for some reason, which made it a bit tougher to get it off the safeties and to lockout. The second backoff set was much tighter throughout, thus much smoother. All good.
- BP - Intensity Triples across. The last rep of the first two sets stalled about halfway up to lockout, but I wasn't putting up with that BS. The last two sets, I focused on exploding off the chest and those went just fine. Overall, I am quite pleased with this session. Some of you might recall my Mock Meet last December, where I had set my current 1RMs for each of the lifts. For my Bench Press, that 1RM was 255lbs. Today I broke that record, not once, but in sets across for a total of 12 reps. Yep, this was a good session.
- OP - Volume Doubles across. All good. I had a fantastic surge of energy for sets 4-7-ish, but that faded quickly. Those last few sets were slow, but done.

[Fred J]

Cool PR's. Do you have goals for this years Mock Meet?

[Bill Anders]

Right now, the goal is to have one. These next few months are filling in fast, with several stretches where I may not get to lift. So that's the main goal.

After that, it's whatever happens. No specific numbers, other than higher than last year, hopefully.

[Fred J]

Right now, the goal is to have one. These next few months are filling in fast, with several stretches where I may not get to lift. So that's the main goal.

After that, it's whatever happens. No specific numbers, other than higher than last year, hopefully.

You might consider a pre-meet test ahead of when you see for sure that you will be missing too many lift days. Just reduce the load a few days before the test. You have gotten your rep sets up and this might be the time to cash them in before you get diverted. Just a thought.

[Fred J]

9/17/23 - Sunday

Notes — A slight change in programming starts today, keeping a 4-Day Heavy/Light Split going, but in a 3-Day Lifting Week to facilitate more recovery; for the next few weeks, that means Su/T/Th. Andy Baker talks about it here. Last week was a perfect week for grinding out some bigger numbers across the board, which I mostly did. As far as recovery factors go, I had plenty of sleep, no stress, and plenty of calories. During the worksets I even let my inter-set recovery times loosen more than usual. But after that session on Thursday, I was cooked, with Friday's Rack Pull session looming large. I slept through my workout window Friday morning and pushed it to Saturday. Again, I slept through my workout window Saturday morning and that solidified my inclination to move back to a 3-Day Lifting Week, a concept which had been rolling around in the back of my head for a while now. I have to grudgingly accept that, at 55, I can't push this specific 4-Day program week-in and week-out without this modification for recovery. I'm not inclined right now to go back to the 4-Day Split that's outlined in BBRx, because both Phoebe and Chase were right that it was too conservative for me right now*. This modification should put be squarely between the two programs and I should be able to keep pushing hard through the end of year, when snowboarding season starts. Priorities, y'know.

* The difference between the two 4-Day splits is that with this current one that Chase wrote, I was adding weight and hitting a PR for each lift once per week. With this modification, I will still add weight and hit a PR during each 4-Day, so about 2 PRs per two weeks, with one two-week period where one of the lifts will only be hit once. With the BBRx 4-Day, since the rep scheme rotated each week (5/3/1), I was only adding weight once every fourth week for a specific rep scheme, which is why it's too conservative for me.

This makes sense to me as it is always a balancing act. Sometimes less is more. Good luck with it.