Lifting to Live

[Bill Anders]

5/19/21 - Wednesday

SQ - L
45x10x2
95x5
135x3
185x1
225x1
255x5x3

BP - LP
95x5
145x3
175x1
200x5x3, a 5x3 PR

PC - L
65x5
85x3
110x1
145x3x5

Music - Top choices from SiriusXM, Ozzy's Boneyard, Duff McKagan's Three Chords and the Truth, 5/14/21 - Another milquetoast episode, but I'll go with one song - Ozzy Osbourne's Over The Mountain. The after-show mix was better, with songs like Ted Nugent's Wango Tango and Judas Priest's Electric Eye.

Notes
SQ - A Light day that actually felt light, unlike weeks past.
BP - After Friday's fiasco at 197.5lbs, I figured that I just didn't have enough carbs going into the workout. After 10+ years of keeping things fairly Primal/Keto, thinking about grabbing a sweet potato or something is still odd. But I made sure to do it yesterday and today, and pushed a comfortable 200x5x3, a PR for my bench. I'll try to do similar for this Friday's Press session.
PC - A Light day that felt good all around.

[Bill Anders]

5/21/21 - Friday

SQ - LP
45x10x2
95x5
135x3
185x1
225x1
275x1
305x5x3

OP - LP
45x5
75x3
95x1
110x1
125x2
137.5x3x5

DL - M
225x5
275x3
315x1
340x1
315x5 (93%)

Chins - 10, 10, 10

Music - Top choices from SiriusXM, Liquid Metal's Corridor of Covers, Corridor of NEW Covers, 5/20/21 - PAIN vs Rolling Stones - Gimme Shelter; Wilderun vs Iron Maiden - Seventh Son of a Seventh Son; and Witherfall vs Boston - Foreplay/Long Time

Notes
I covered an early shift, which cut my sleep last night shorter than needed. But I got a solid nap in afterwards and felt good going into training. I've already been wondering if, by following Andy Baker's HLM example for an old guy where he just pulls a heavy single on the M day to get a feel for Monday's H workset, isn't enough volume to keep me progressing in the deadlift. After today, I'm still not sure, as there are too many variables going into Monday.
SQ - Grindy, but good. No doubts about any of them, but #5 of each set sure seemed like almost an eternity coming back up. I definitely need to video these on Monday.
OP - Programmed as 5x3, but following Nick's guidance to grind them out, it ended up being 3x5. Sets 1 & 2, the 4th press stopped right at forehead (pin press) height, set 3 it stopped right at nose height, after that, it just wasn't. I'll keep grinding these out.
DL - Even by the end of the OPs, I was getting gassed. The warmups felt heavier than I know they are. After an 8-minute rest before my single heavy pull (340), it just wouldn't break. So I did a quick calculation for a standard M day, which would be 306. I dropped down to 315 (93%) [too lazy to pull the last plate to make it 305] and pulled a comfortable 5. We'll see how Monday goes at 340x5, as recovery will be compromised this weekend as I continue to cover early shifts and have to delay sleep as I have to pick up my wife from her evening shift (which I normally work, too).

[Bill Anders]

5/24/21 - Monday

SQ - LP
45x10x2
95x5
135x3
185x1
225x1
275x1
310x5x3
310x4, 5, 5

BP -LP
95x5
145x3
175x1
202.5x5x3
202.5x5, 5, 4

DL -H
225x5
275x3
315x1
340x5
340x3

Music - MaximumRockNRoll Radio #1767, Japanese Punk, 5/23/21 - The Fadeaways (This Has Gotta Be) A Joke & Shonen Knife Party.

Notes
As expected, I'm rapidly coming to an end of this year's LP on a few lifts and it's beating me up for my deadlifts, which I've already switched over to HLM programming. It was a good weekend for sleeping and eating and I took prolonged 7-9 minute + breaks between each set today.
SQ - Heavy, but not unmanageable. I have no idea what happened on rep 5 of the first set. I dropped to depth, came up out of the hole, and then there was nothing. I didn't have anything to push up against the bar with, but I could control it down into the safeties. My wife was watching and she was thinking breath, and I think she's right. I must've dumped my vasalva, but don't recall an exhale. I'll watch the video later to see what happened. Sets 2 & 3 were good, but grindy. I'll continue to add 5lbs every other session.
BP - Heavy, but good. The 4th rep on the last set was a little grindy, but nothing concerning. The 5th rep came off the chest about 3" and sat there, no matter how much I mentally yelled "elbows up!". I'll still add 2.5lbs to the next session.
DL - Reps 1-3 were good and nothing was concerning. I must've leaned forward on the 4th rep, as the bar came up off of my shins, reached the bottom of my patella, and refused to budge any more (and I refused to hitch it). After a mental count of five while pulling, I had to acknowledge that it wasn't going. After a reset, rep 5 wouldn't budge off the floor. I may end up switching these to Wednesdays (light squat day).
Music - this was a great reminder of bar hopping in Tokyo, chasing so many great bands that just didn't get the exposure to play larger venues. Plus, I happened to receive a book in the mail today from a good friend who was a promoter for so many of those bands; he authored a book talking about his experiences as an F-15 driver leading up to and during the first Gulf War.

[David Hooper]

I do light squats on deadlift day and think it helps out. I'm like you in that my squats are closer in weight to my deadlifts than the typical NLP lifter, so I think the squats can interfere by fatiguing the lower back. (I'm not strictly NLP on this: I still deadlift every other day so I have light squats every other day rather than just Wednesdays.)

[Bill Anders]

Thanks, Hooper.

A month ago when I started this LP/HLM, I had a 55lb difference between squat and deads (at the end of December 2020 when I paused my last LP, I had a 100lb difference between the two, as the squats were lighter). But as the squats get heavier, they are definitely impacting my deads, which have stalled. I have a few technique issues with the squat that I need to address, so I'll probably reset a bit. At the same time I will switch my heavy deads to my light squat day.

[Bill Anders]

5/27/21 - Thursday

SQ - L
45x10x2
95x5
135x3
185x1
225x1
260x5x3

OP - LP
45x5
75x3
100x1
125x1
140x5x3 (2, 2, 3, 2, 3, 3)

PC -L
65x5
85x3
115x1
135x1
150x3x5

Music - Top choices from SirusXM, 1st Wave Billy Idol's Live Transmission, Billy's Favorite Live Shows, 5/25/21 - Lou Reed, Intro/Sweet Jane (live) & Misfits, Hybrid Moments

Notes
A bit of transition here, since the volume and frequency, along with life stuff, is beating me up. Instead of doing back-off sets or dropping a work set, I'm trying a "1-on, 2-off" cycle. I wouldn't have been able to do a Wednesday workout anyway, since Tuesday afternoon we did a fast, steep hike up a local mountain in order to bushwhack our way downhill, flagging the route for a soon-to-be clearing for a multi-use (hike, bike, equestrian) trail. We discussed as we were trying to keep on track with GPS while fighting the undergrowth that the area could use a good controlled burn. But the state won't do that.
- SQ - Light day, with a lot of focus on form. I took video of Monday's 310x5x3 and sought feedback on technique for my last set. Knee-slide was creeping back in, and on my last rep I really wanted out from under the bar, so I lifted my chest, which made it even harder. Today's video shows intermittent knee slide through all of the work sets, but no chest lift. So there is that.
- OP - I was aiming for at least 3s across, but that didn't happen. For my third set I remembered the "elbows" queue, which did get me that 3rd. But it didn't on my 4th set, when I realized that my hip drive was slacking. So the combo of "elbows" and "hips" mentally got me those last two 3s. I'll keep driving these using Nick's protocol.
- PC - These were a lot more problematic than they usually are. I'm not sure why. But a few were caught low and a few were caught forward.

[David Hooper]

I'm really interested to see how Nick's press protocol treats you.

[Bill Anders]

I'm really interested to see how Nick's press protocol treats you.

Me too. The weight is still going up, so that's the bonus. And if I had programmed that session at 140x3x5, then it would have been a fail with the 2s, which would have led to another 140x3x5 next press session and progress would have stalled/regressed. Had I programmed it at 150x2x7, then I wouldn't have pushed for the 3s. So really it's an AMRAP session.

[Bill Anders]

5/29/21 - Saturday

SQ - H
45x10x2
95x5
135x3
185x1
225x1
275x1
315x5x3

BP - LP
45x5
95x5
145x3
175x1
195x1
205x5x3

Chins - L
10, 10, 10

Music SiriusXM 1st Wave Extended Memorial Day Weekend (80's extended club mixes) - Tom Tom Club, Wordy Rappinghood; Bomb the Bass, Beat Dis; Front 242, Welcome to Paradise. Some fun club memories in this stream.

Notes
I'm still mulling over options for extending my LP on several lifts while keeping my deadlift from stalling on HLM, as I'm pretty thrashed by the time I get to pulling.
- SQ - solid workset, which ties my all-time PR for this 315x5x3, last done in October 2019.
- BP - This would be my all-time PR 205x5x3, but I had a hilarious (to me) mis-groove in the second set. During my second rep, I realized that my gaze had drifted towards my feet since there really isn't anything to focus on on the bare ceiling. So during the drop for my third rep, I shifted my gaze upward, and naturally the third press followed suit. I caught it as it got over my throat, tried to recover, then set it down on the safeties to crawl out, then reset and immediately did the remainder of the set(s) with no issues. I'll still add 2.5lbs for the next session.
- Chins - Looking at an example in BBRx, I'm using these (for now) as my light pulling day, as they have been keeping pace with the 30lbs+ that I've put on since re-starting my post-COVID lockdown LP last October. Plus, today I had limited time before heading to work.

[Barry Charles]

Found you! Solid work!