Lifting to Live

[Bill Anders]

looks like you are beating yourself up on the deads and squats my friend

I had to slowly learn that less is more. ����

Sorry that I missed these, gentlemen.

Yep, I am beating myself up with the deads and squats. I am doing that on purpose, especially now that I can do it under the constant watchful eye of a couple of SSCs. If it gets to be too much, they're quick to jump in and tell me. That's one of the great things - we check in on each other at the start of each day to see how recovery in all aspects is going. I get to watch their on-the-fly adjustments to client's programming based on their own specific recovery issues and goals, which helps inform what my experiments.

But it's not just the deads and squats. I'm driving up volume and intensity on the presses, too, just to see where I can get with those. Everything's moving in the right direction, so I'll keep going.

Hopefully all's well with y'all!

[Fred J]

All's good here. Just beating myself up with too much outside work but glad to get things done as they are improvements to the property.

I am glad you are enjoying your situation there under some SSC supervision. It sounds like you have told yourself it's now or never so let's get it done.

[Bill Anders]

4/29/24 - Monday
RP H @ 8' 445x5 445x2 + 405x3
SQ L @ 5' 305x5x3

Notes —
RP - Heavy exploratory set. I haven't done these since last summer, but my recent experiences with 400lbs told me that it was time to mix up my heavy pulls again. I was in that in-between world of not enough stress yet not quite enough recovery time between attempts, even at 10/11 days. So for an exploratory set, I bumped up my DL weight 10%—and somehow ended up at 445lbs—to give the RPs a try. The first two reps went smoothly, the third stalled right at the knee. Chase dropped me to 405 and after a few minutes rest I finished out the five just fine. Had I gone 425, it probably would have been just fine for five. But I won't know for a few weeks, as my Monday heavy pull is now the standard DL/RP/Halting rotation. I won't go for 425lbs next time, but 415lbs and see how that goes.
SQ - Light sets across. The typical "it sure didn't feel light" exclaimer here, but they all went.

4/30/24 - Tuesday
PP H @ 5' 190x5x4
BP L @ 3' 225x5x3

Notes —
PP - Heavy sets across. I also haven't done Pin Presses since last summer. But when I did those, it was just a couple of heavy singles before my Intensity Presses from the standard height. I topped those Heavy Singles at 197.5lbs, never able to break 200lbs, but now I suspect that is easily within reach. Maybe I'll try for it. Anyway, these were introduced to give me more stress in my Presses. Tuesdays are my Volume day and Thursdays are my Intensity/Volume day, yet I was starting to show signs of stalling midway up to lockout during my Tuesday sessions. My option there was to add another Pressing day, but that would mean that I was lifting five days a week. That's too much for these aging bones. So Chase suggested alternating out my Tuesday Volume day with Volume Pin Presses, which naturally would be heavier than my standard Press.
BP - Light sets across. All good.

5/2/24 - Thursday
SQ H @ 5-7' 335x5x4
PC L @ 3' 60kgx3x3 + 60kgx3 + 45kgx3

Notes —
SQ - Heavy sets across. Smooth and steady. All good.
PC - Light sets across. I worked up to the 60kg work weight. The warmups were looking good, with no hint of the arm pull that has been plaguing my cleans for awhile. After the first triple at 60kg, it reared its head intermittently. By the third set, it was present for all three reps, so Chase had me start from the Hang position (just below the knee) for the fourth set. Normally we'd reset to a lower weight to do this, but I just went for it. Bad idea. Down to 45kg, but by then I was exhausted as this workout was running just past two hours. I'll lower the weight and work on it again.

5/3/24 - Friday
BP H @ 5' 237.5x5x4
OP V @ 90" 165x2x12

Notes —
BP - Heavy sets across. All good.
OP - Volume/Intensity Doubles. These are programmed for 2' rest, but even if I work the OP warmups in-between the BP work sets, I start running out of time before the next group of clients roll in. So I have been dropping to 90" rest, which is really wearing on me at these weights. It's a conditioning workout, too. But they all went.