I want to pull 500 and squat 405 before I turn 41 (mid-Jan)

[Anthony King]

I’ve noticed I enjoy the “goal” logs and wanted to set myself some targets. Title says it all.
Male 40, 6’0” 210 pounds. Previous intermediate log is here.

I’ve been training on and off for about 2 1/2 years with several major interruptions because of injury and serious illness in the family. I’ve effectively been a single father of two for a significant portion of this time. Training has suffered, but I'm on a consistent run right now.

Previous bests are Squat 385x2 and Deadlift 447x3. But . . . that was at 230lbs, and I’m now 210. I’ve worked my bench and press back up close to where they were when I was 230, so I think the strength is there. 210-215 seems to be were my bodyweight settles when I’m eating pretty big, but not worried too much about eating a ton. 230 was a job to maintain, so anyone reading who is saying “Gain weight and you’ll lift more!”--I’ll concede that you’re almost certainly correct, but I’m gonna keep going with my current diet.

The plan on Squat and Deadlift is pretty simple—my heavy day is Wednesday and I’m going to taper from 5rm’s to singles in the next ten weeks while adding weight to hit my goals. I'm running an HLM-ish program with no lower body work on the light day. I hate light squats, I feel like I just get into bad habits with them and they make the light session longer.

"Heavy" Day
Squat 330x5 (300x5x2)
Press 161.5x3x2 (143x5)
Deadlift 423.5x3 (Yikes) *

* Not worrying about this too much, but damn. Pulled 415x5 last week and pushed my 5rm on the squat today. Sunday and Monday I bucked up and loaded about a cord and half of firewood into the tractor bucket. Didn't feel it during squats but my last deadlift warmup (375) did NOT feel good. I think my lower back waved the white flag. I jettisoned my usual backoff set of 5 on deads. As long as the squat goes up the deadlift should get pulled along. I have to do firewood work when the weather is good, I'll just have to be smart about it.

[paterfamilias]

Back of napkin: when you get to around 350x5 and 455x3 you should be ready, depending on how accurate 1RM calculators are for you. Looks like you were pretty much there before.

Good luck!

[Anthony King]

Well sheeit. Feeling a little busted up. Something in my right lower back is a tiny bit strained. I feel as certain as I can be that this is due to running the chainsaw/moving wood rather than lifting, but it is screwing with my deadlift.

Thursday
Chins BW+35x5x3
My left shoulder is nagging me. I'm not sure if benching or the weighted chins is doing the damage. But these weighted chins didn't help it.

Saturday
Squat 288x5x4
Dropped the weight slightly because my back is still feeling under-recovered and I need to cut firewood later today. The squats actually made the back feel great. Added a set because I cut today's RDL's.

Bench: nothing. Did a few reps with the bar and the left shoulder just isn't right. Hopefully I can press on Monday. No chins or bench for a bit.

[Anthony King]

I'm not entirely sure if I need to add in extra work, but I'm not doing anything upper body because of my shoulder. So it's anti-bro programming for a little while. Just squats and deadlifts.

Squat 335x4. Got called away right before my work set and was distracted--wanted to try again so I rested ten minutes, and . . . 335x5. Okay, better.

Deadlift 432x4
Got the fifth rep above my knees but couldn't lock it out. This makes me fairly certain last week's 423x3 was definitely due to the firewood work.

[Anthony King]

Was feeling pretty spry today, and I figured since I'm not doing any upper body work at all bc of the shoulder, I'll try to add 10lbs to my squat 5rm this week.

So far so good.

Squat 340x5 (293x5x3)

[Anthony King]

I think my shoulder will be good for pressing next week. Not sure about bench.

Crashed and burned today.

Squat 345x4 (300x5)
Fourth rep was super grindy and I didn't try the fifth.

Deadlift 441 x 0. Got it two inches off the ground.

Sleep hasn't been great and I didn't feel stellar heading into the gym, but I deadlifting 432x4 last week. This happened to me some during my original LP, would completely bomb on the deadlift every once in a while. Will have to think about proceeding.