Lifting to Live

[Bill Anders]

you're in the trenches every day, that's great

It's not easy, that's for sure, Mr B. But I'll get it done.

Hopefully the same (actually better) for you.

[Bill Anders]

9/12/24 - Thursday
BP H @ 5' 235x3x5

Notes —
BP - Heavy Triples across, +5lbs. Smooth and steady. All good.

9/13/24 - Friday
DL H @ 7' 350x5

Notes —
DL - Heavy set, +5lbs. I was thinking that this was too conservative, but it ended up being just the right weight. A tad grindy, but manageable. Hook grip for the first rep, mixed for the remainder. The last couple of reps might have been a tad soft at lockout (maybe missing that last 2%), but all good.

9/14/24 - Saturday
OP H @ 5' 150x5x3

Notes —
OP - Heavy sets across, +5lbs. Smooth and steady. All good.

9/15/24 - Sunday
SQ H @ 5' 315x5x3

Notes —
SQ - Heavy sets across, +20lbs. I had some concerns during the warmup, as my left knee was crackly like I never heard it before. And I've abused it over the years. But I lost it in the noise in my head during the work sets, which were all good.


Note — This is the last week of big jumps for each of the lifts (especially that squat). I'll still be on one lift/day for the time being and overall I'm getting back to 90%+ of where I was in June when I was last lifting consistently with my 4-day Heavy/Light split. So I'm maintaining OK for the time being.

[Cole Gorton]

i guess i could scroll back and look, but when you were doing your H/L split, were you rotating H day rep ranges or running them out? do you prefer one to the other?

[Bill Anders]

i guess i could scroll back and look, but when you were doing your H/L split, were you rotating H day rep ranges or running them out? do you prefer one to the other?

Cole, I was following the template in Barbell Prescription, which rotated the H day rep ranges and intensities over a three week period. I don't have my copy with me right now, so I can't point you to the right page. With that template, the first week was sets of 5 across (4x5=20 reps), the second week was triples across (4x3=12 reps), and the final week was singles across (1x5=5 reps). For the presses, the 20 reps were done at a base weight (say 225lbs for the bench), then added 10lbs each following week—235x3x4, then 245x1x5—so the singles were 20lbs heavier than the first week. Squats followed the same pattern, but I could manage adding 20lbs each following week, so the singles in the third week were 40lbs heavier than the first week. The key is to really stress the intensity as the volume drops each week, a concept that I confirmed with Andy Baker.

The next three week cycle, I'd add the appropriate weight (2.5lbs for the presses, 5lbs for the squat).

Heavy pulls ran independently and I was experimenting with different recovery periods, but the simplest way was to do the standard DL/RP/HDL rotation on the heavy pull day. When I was running a 10-11 day recovery period for DL, I would have to shift the whole training week around to accommodate (e.g., first week was on Monday, following week was on Friday, no heavy pull the third week, fourth week is Monday, fifth week is Friday...). With the standard rotation, just pick which heavy pull works best with your heavy singles week for the other lifts.

I haven't tried just running reps out, except when overall stress digs me into survival mode and I want to prolong the progress before a reset. Instead of scrolling back to find the right spot, here's a link to the beginning of my good winter/spring run earlier this year. You'll see that 10-11 day recovery period for DLs there, too.


That's probably more than what you were asking. But if you have any other questions, let me know.

ETA: I'm a huge fan of that 4-day H/L split. It's very effective for me. Chase has switched up that programming a couple of times over the past couple of years, but after a couple of months of me feeling completely beat up in all aspects of life, I return to the split. It's a great balance of stress and recovery.

[Bill Anders]

9/19/24 - Thursday
BP H @ 5' 237.5x3x5

Notes —
BP - Heavy Triples across. Dropped the big jumps so this was just +2.5lbs, which was a good call. Smooth and steady, all good. Going +5lbs probably wouldn't have been so good.

9/20/24 - Friday
RP H @ 8' 415x5

Notes —
RP - Heavy set. Some odd sinus-related gastro issues during the last warmup, got that sorted out and went into a smooth, steady work set.

9/21/24 - Saturday
OP H @ 5' 155x5x3

Notes —
OP - Heavy Sets across. Programmed for a +2.5lb jump (152.5x5x3), but the warmups felt solid. I looked back at the logs, realizing that I was doing 3x5 for 170lbs+ back in June, so I went with a +5lb jump, which went fine. The first and third sets were smooth and steady, while I started rushing the second set and the last couple of reps were pretty squirrely. All good.

9/22/24 - Sunday
SQ H @ 5' 320x5x3

Notes —
SQ - Heavy sets across. The last few weeks have been +20lb jumps to get me back in the neighborhood of where I was last spring. That large jump ended this week with a modest +5lbs jump, which was programmed, but would have also been my game day call considering that I was awake half the night last night for some odd reason. I even considered sliding this workout to tomorrow, but know that the reasons that I'm only doing a 1-lift/day program right now won't give me much of an opportunity tomorrow. Despite the sinus-related gastro issues rearing its head again, these three sets went smooth and steady.

[Fred J]

Those darn sinus issues. I feel ya there. Great job working your way back up!

[Bill Anders]

The part that sucks, Fred, is that this side of the Rockies had always treated me well compared to the other side. Not so much anymore. Granted, it's still much better out here than anything east of Denver, but it's still creeping up on me. It's becoming a significant QoL issue again.

[Bill Anders]

9/23/24 - Monday

OP I @ 4' 165x3x5
BP L @ 3' 215x5x3

Notes — Bonus day. By late morning, I realized that today's scheduled had relaxed enough that I could throw this session in. Yes, it makes five days in a row, which is typically not a good idea, but considering my overall stress under the bar recently, it won't hurt. If anything, the increase in frequency for these two lifts will help.
OP - Intensity Triples, +10lbs over Saturday's 5x3. All good.
BP - Light sets across. All good.

Soundtrack — The Beatles, Revolver + The Doors, LA Woman

[Bill Anders]

Note — I realized about midway through my bonus Monday session that I should not have done that and instead shifted this 4-day cycle one day to the left, as I won't have time to do the normal Sunday session. So that means that I doubled up the last day to get all four lifts done this week. Not a big deal, but it has been over a month since my last 2-lift day and I have a lot of external stressors/pressers that could impact that day.

9/26/24 - Thursday
BP H @ 4' 240x3x5

Notes —
BP - Heavy Triples across. Smooth and steady. All good.

9/27/24 - Friday
HDL H @ 8' 340x8 340x5 + 340x3

Notes —
HDL - Heavy set. Going into this session, my recovery was poor, with interrupted/insufficient sleep the night prior and the ongoing sinus-related issues (specifically random dizziness, especially as I started with Setup step 1 to start the set). That dizziness increased by rep three and as soon as I put rep 5 down, I had to stand up to reach for the rack and steady myself. I took a reset of several minutes, then finished the last three reps without any issues. Could I have pushed through for all eight reps? Sure. Would it have ended fine? Perhaps. But where I am with other things in life as well as my current maintenance programming, it wasn't worth pushing it. I need not tweak my back right now.

9/28/24 - Saturday
OP H @ 5' 157.5x5x3
SQ H @ 5' 325x5x3

Notes —
OP - Heavy sets across. After using the squat to warmup to 235lbs, I reset the bar for presses. Some not-so-smooth, some not-so-steady, but all good.
SQ - Heavy sets across. I repeated the 235x1, then continued with the warmup reps (just one more after that). Overall smooth and steady. All good.

[Bill Anders]

10/2/24 - Wednesday
BP H @ 5' 242.5x3x5

Notes —
BP - Heavy Triples across. All good.

10/3/24 - Thursday
DL H @ 8' 360x5

Notes —
DL - Heavy set. Good.

10/4/24 - Friday
OP H @ 5' 160x5x3

Notes —
OP - Heavy sets across. All good.

10/5/24 - Saturday
SQ H @ 5' 330x5x3 330x5 + 265x5x2

Notes —
SQ - Heavy sets across. Programmed for 330x5x3, but there's a lot going on right now and the last thing I need to do is grind myself into the dirt, or worse yet, tweak something. So I rewrote it with 80% backoffs to get the reps in. I'll be creating sufficient stress over the next week that I'm not worried about this, even if that stress isn't squat-specific. The main 330x5 was grindy. I could have ground out two more sets, but that would be counterproductive to life right now. The backoff sets were sufficiently heavy, but not overly so. All good.

Note — I'm out for a couple of weeks. Keep at it, y'all!