Michael's training log

[mamackenzie]

My story

Hey guys, I'm Michael. I'm a 23 year old male from Ontario, Canada. I am currently 6'3" tall and weigh 220 lbs.

I have two main goals with training:

• Increase my base strength
• Improve my performance in ice hockey

I have absolutely no aesthetic goals with training. I am purely concerned with functional strength and it's translation to athletic performance. I truly do not give 2 shits about how it makes me look, although it is a nice side effect.

Here's some background on my foray into strength training:

After a mind-expanding trip to Iceland in June of last year, I very abruptly became very serious about strength training. I began training immediately after I returned from this trip, and did not miss any workouts due to anything other than injuries or illness for the entire duration of the program.

My initial weights (close to my 5RMs) for all the SS lifts were:

• Squat: 190 lbs
• Deadlift: 190 lbs
• Press: 95 lbs
• Bench press: 125 lbs
• Power clean: 115 lbs (for 3 reps)

I made huge progress between June and January staying on starting strength (although I programmed my squats with Texas method as they began to stall).

My final 5RMs for all lifts in January were:

• Squat: 340 lbs
• Deadlift: 345 lbs
• Press: 157.5 lbs
• Bench press: 237.5 lbs
• Power clean: 192.5 lbs (for 3 reps)

My bodyweight also jumped from 175 lbs in June to 220 lbs in January.

As my lifts began to stall on starting strength in January, I tried a new program based on the core template from "Beyond 5/3/1". I have been running this from mid-January to now (May), and have experienced very poor results.

My deadlift, bench press and press have gone up a tiny amount, but it is far too little progress for such a long time.

My squat actually went DOWN. My theory on this is that squatting once a week, and at such low volume as 5/3/1 mandates is not sufficient to stimulate growth or maintain technique. I increased the volume in the program and now my squat is pretty close to where it was when I peaked during SS/TM.

The only lift in which I experienced decent gains in was the power clean, which I also programmed in a custom way in 5/3/1.

My most recent heavy numbers I have measured are:

• Squat: 360x1
• Deadlift: 375x1
• Press: 172x1
• Bench press: 262x1
• Power clean: 206x3

Basically, I've realized a few things from trying (and, in my opinion, failing at) a new intermediate program:

• I benefit enormously from volume/intensity splits. I made huge progress on my squat by moving to Texas method from Starting Strength and could "feel" it working.
• Squats are king. I need to squat every workout. I become physically and mentally weak when I avoid this extremely taxing and important lift.
• I thrive on pre-programmed rep schemes. I am better at focusing on a goal like "I have to hit 5 reps" than a goal like "I know I can get 3 reps, let's see how many more I can get". It feels more objective that way and forces me to prepare my PR's, not just let them come when I feel up to it.

I was honestly going to go on Texas method in January for all lifts, but I couldn't find a way of programming non-squat lifts (Practical Programming for Strength Training 2nd ed. wasn't explicit about this).

I bought the 3rd edition of Practical Programming for Strength training last week and was amazed at how good their basic Texas method template was. This is the new program that I am going to adopt.

I think that with hard, consistent training, adequate rest and superhuman amounts of food, this program will serve me well.

The new program

Here's how it works:

WEEK 1

Monday (volume)
Squat: 5x5x 90% of last intensity day
Press: 5x5x 90% of last intensity day
Pendlay Row: 5x5 (should feel heavy, approximately 90% of 5RM)

Wednesday (recovery)
Squat: 5x2x 90% of volume day
Bench press: 5x3x 95% of last volume day
Power clean: 3x3x 95% of last volume day

Friday (intensity)
Squat: 1x5x last intensity day + 5 lbs
Press: 1x5x last intensity day + 2 lbs (tiny increment, but I want steady progress)
Deadlift: 1x5x last intensity day + 5 lbs

WEEK 2

Monday (volume)
Squat: 5x5x 90% of last intensity day
Bench press: 5x5x 90% of last intensity day
Power clean: 5x3x last intensity day + 3 lbs

Wednesday (recovery)
Squat: 5x2x 90% of volume day
Press: 5x3x 95% of last volume day
Pendlay row: 5x3x 95% of last volume day

Friday (intensity)
Squat: 1x5x last intensity day + 5 lbs
Bench press: 1x5x last intensity day + 3 lbs
Deadlift: 1x5x last intensity day + 5 lbs

...and the cycle continues. As lifts begin to fail, I have a couple of plans for continuing progress, but we'll deal with that when it happens.

It should be noted that this is the exact program in the newest edition of practical programming. The only change that I made was substituting power snatches for Pendlay rows as I am already doing power cleans and I think I might benefit more from the upper back and lat involvement in the rows. I might eventually use power snatches instead of rows and add chin-ups on recovery days, but we will see.

[mamackenzie]

Monday, May 12 (volume)

Squat: 5x5x284
This felt really great. I love doing heavy-but-definitely-achievable 5x5s on squat. Very pleasant change from 5/3/1 programming.

Press: 5x5x140
These also felt good and not too difficult.

Pendlay row: 5x5x175
Pretty low weight (probably?) given my other numbers, but I had never done these consistently and wanted to make sure form was strict.

I don't really like Pendlay rows as I feel that there is a huge amount of wiggle room with form. I am contemplating doing my proposed swap with power snatches and adding chin-ups on recovery days, but I'll give it a month or so to decide.

All in all this was a great workout. Can't wait to see how this affects my Friday heavy 1x5's.

[mamackenzie]

Wednesday, May 14 (recovery)

Squat: 5x2x256
Easy. Focused on bar speed and it looked good.

Bench press: 5x3x201
Also easy, felt good.

Power clean: 3x3x196
These felt really good. The slightly lower weight helped me focus on technique (my last 5x3 was at 206 lbs).

Here's a video of my last set of power cleans: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcMMRyeYoV0

[mamackenzie]

Friday, May 16 (intensity)

Squat: 1x5x320
This is probably pretty close to my 5RM but form was pretty clean. This is the most I've squatted for 5 reps in quite a while.

Press: 1x5x157
Came really close to failing on the last rep but managed to get them all. The most I've ever pressed for 5 reps is 160 lbs, so I'm getting close to hitting new PRs.

Deadlift: 1x5x350
This was a 5 rep PR. It actually wasn't that bad - probably could have done 360 for 5 but this leaves me optimistic for sustained progress.

After a week on this program I couldn't be happier. I am looking forward to next week.

[mamackenzie]

Monday, May 19 (volume)

Squat: 5x5x288
No problem.

Bench press: 5x5x212
Not bad at all. Didn't need a spotter and got them done pretty quickly.

Power clean: 5x3x209
Form for first the 2 reps of each set was good, but it got a bit sloppy on the last rep each time. This was a PR.

[mamackenzie]

Wednesday, May 21 (recovery)

Squat: 5x2x259

Press: 5x3x135

Pendlay row: 5x3x166

Today was exactly what it was supposed to be: a recovery day. Weights felt light and I was done really quickly. I tried doing power snatches today just for fun and had no problem with a couple of sets of doubles at 135 lbs.

[Eric Larousse]

Are you going to attempt to play hockey and do the texas method offseason strength building phase?

[mamackenzie]

Are you going to attempt to play hockey and do the texas method offseason strength building phase?

Starting the first week of June, I'm going to be playing in 2 hockey leagues (1 game per week each) and doing 2 hour-long weekly on-ice hockey training camps. This gives me a total of roughly 4 hours of ice time per week. I'm going to continue doing the program I outlined in the initial post and just program it in such a way that hockey does not directly interfere with strength training. Starting next week I'm going to document my hockey training (which would qualify as conditioning work) alongside the strength training.

I think I will be able to do both at the same time if I am very careful with my programming and very disciplined in my recovery routine. My motivation has certainly never been higher.

[mamackenzie]

Friday, May 23 (intensity)

Squat: 1x5x325
These went up really smoothly. Feels like I'm on track to beat my old 5-rep PR of 340 in 4 weeks.

Bench press: 1x5x238
This was a tie for a 5-rep PR. It felt a LOT easier than the last time I did it though, so I'm happy.

Deadlift: 1x5x355
This was a 5-rep PR. Felt no more difficult than last week. I think this has a lot of room to keep going up.

I felt like my form was good on all lifts this workout, and I hit 2 PR's. Now I just have to eat my face off this weekend and get some solid hours of sleep.

[mamackenzie]

Monday, May 26 (volume)

Squat: 5x5x293
Went very well as expected.

Press: 5x5x141
These were good. I tried to keep my form extremely strict since the weight on volume day is quite manageable. Made things a bit harder.

Pendlay row: 5x5x180
Still not a huge fan of these, but I think my form was OK. It was a little bit of a struggle to get all of the reps without cheating.

Today was a good volume day. I re-read the chapter on the press from starting strength the other day. To hit my Friday weights, I very much rely on the elastic stretch at the bottom of the lift. When I press, I first clean the weight up to my shoulders, where I get a bit of a stretch (from my shoulders, not my legs) to make the first rep like the others. I take in my breath at the top of the lift and exhale as I lift it. If I were to take the weight dead from the rack and start with no stretch at the bottom on the first rep, I probably wouldn't be able to make my sets of 5. I might try this technique until I fail on a set of 5 and then reset the weight a bit and try to perform my reps from the rack.