Lofton's Log - SS in north Puget Sound

[Tim Lofton]

2/6/2010

Session 31

Weekly weigh-in: 187#

Squat: 255# x 5 x 3

Bench: 150# x 5 x 3

Pull-ups: 5-4-3

Workout at secondary gym today due to one day shift in this week's workouts. Better music at least. I'll probably never pay for satellite radio, but it is nice having a rock/metal channel with no commercials. This was a really good session overall and not what I was expecting. It's been a while since I've had squats go up like this. While not necessarily featherlike, I never felt like I was going to be stuck at the bottom or had exceedingly slow ascent speed.
Bench went well except for a bit of wobble with the left (non-dominant) arm on a few reps. Breathing and chest tightness was much better and the left arm thing was controlled by squeezing the bar tighter with that hand. The very last rep was a bit of a dig, but it went up and racked.
I'm a bit surprised that I couldn't get more out of my pull-ups than my chins. I figured I'd be good for an extra rep or two. I was definitely a bit fatigued from the bench and a spot of shoulder soreness from playing MLB 2K10 on the Wii with my son. Damn video games!
One day of recovery tomorrow watching my daughter at her swim meet, then back to the regular schedule on Monday.

tim

[Tim Lofton]

2/8/2010

Session 32

Squat: 260# x 5 x 3

Press: 115# x 5 x 3

Chin-ups: 5-3-3

Right knee caving in a bit on squats. Last set had a couple of reps that were very close to not being below parallel. Otherwise the weight was hard but doable.
Press went well with exception of some sloppy power cleans to get the weight up into press position. Good thing I'm doing PCs on Friday to get some more work in and try to clean them up a bit. Switching to breathing at the top, but still need to keep glutes tight. Weight not a tremendous problem though. 120# by the middle of next week looks realistic.
Lost a rep on chins. Tough go as the press sapped me and I probably didn't rest enough. Very close to an extra rep on the first set. Next week maybe...

tim

[Tim Lofton]

2/10/2010

Session 33

Squat: 210# x 5 x 3 (80% day)

Bench: 155# x 5 x 3

Dead: 255# x 3 x 2

Focused on knees out and hip drive with the lighter squat day.
Bench went well the first set, difficult the second, and damn near didn't make it but did for the third set. The very last rep wanted to park it about six inches or so going up from my chest but I willed it up from damn near a stopped bar. Really hoping to get to BW bench sometime this millenia; jeez is that weak.
Deadlift felt pretty good. Getting a tripod this weekend so I can video next week's deads. I really want to check that the knee and hip angles are opening in the proper sequence, among other things. Pulls are feeling good otherwise.

tim

[Tim Lofton]

2/12/2010

Session 34

Weekly weigh-in: 190# (PR!)

Squat: 265# x 5 x 3

Press: 117.5# x 5 x 3

Pwr cln: 100# x 3 x 5

Felt strong in everything today. Fueled, maybe, by the fact that some f$%!er stole my Chuck Taylors that I use for lifting out of the locker room at work. Serves me right I guess as I'm the one the left them there, although in seven years of leaving running shoes and other stuff, I have never lost anything. They'll live in my bag from now on.
Squat went well and depth was good. Press went well and good lockout at the top across all reps. Breathing at the top getting easier and makes a difference. All of a sudden the press has gotten a bit easier; can't explain, won't complain.
I reset PCs, from 110 down to 100, since I hadn't done them in almost a month. Good thing as it was a bit sloppy. Found myself donkey kicking a few times. Last set of three was a good one though and a good way to end the week.

tim

[Tim Lofton]

2/15/2010

Session 35

Squat: 270# x 5 x 3

Bench: 160# x 5 x 2, 160# x 2

Chins: 5-4-3 (varying grip)

Had today off of work, so lifting was at my secondary gym. I'm always a bit uncomfortable there for the first 30-45 minutes or so. Started first set of squats with feet too close together. I should know better by now. A bit shakey getting them up. Next two sets went much better.
Bench is getting to be a real pisser as the weight seems way too low to be having this much trouble. I knew my upper body was terribly weak, but I thought I would progress a bit better. Anyhow, will repeat 160 on Friday. I expect that will go much better, just like 150 did. I don't want to consider microloading just yet, but am keeping it on the back burner.
I mixed each set of the chins up today, so actually one set of normal grip chins, one set of pull-ups, and one set of narrow grip chins with hands turned in.

tim

[Tim Lofton]

2/17/2010

Session 36

Squat: 215# x 5 x 3 (80% day)

Press: 120# x 5 x 3

Dead: 265# x 3 x 2

Squats were squats. It was a light day.
Press was a bit wobbly today; so much so, that one rep actually had me off balance and I had to step forward a bit. Left arm is lagging the right just a bit too; same thing for the bench. I've had some slight soreness on the inside of my left scapula, so not sure if this is contributing. Press reps were a bit harder today and I missed some reps on Monday's bench, so I don't know if there is some incomplete recovery going on here or what. Sleep has been less than optimal, so contribution there? Still, I got all reps but if the next press session next Monday is this shaky, I will probably hold at the weight for another session.
Deadlift went very well. Just a slight bit of drift of the bar away from the legs at the start of a couple of reps, otherwise pulled just fine.

tim

[Tim Lofton]

2/19/2010

Session 37

Weekly weigh-in: 195# (5# gain this week)

Squat: 275# x 2, 275 x 5, 275 x 4, 270 x 5

Bench: 160# x 5 x 3

PCs: 105# x 3 x 5

I was pretty surprised to step on the scale this morning and see 195#. That's a weight PR for me. Scary, in a way, to think I could be at 200# in the next week or so. Then things kind of spiraled from there.

Squats were godawful tough. The first two reps went okay, then I bent a little too far forward at the bottom of the next rep and felt an unwanted good morning coming if I didn't dump the bar forward. Okay, just a form thing; rest and go for 3x5 again.
One full set down; second set, well every rep was a bit of a fight and I just could not drive the last rep up, and I tried hard. I wanted to try for one more complete set, so I dropped back to 270 and did this. From then on I felt like somebody backed a garbage truck over me as I was really sapped.

This fatigue carried over into my bench which, despite its sucky low weight and a repeat from missed reps on Monday, took a bit of vocalizing to make all of the reps. My back was very tired from the squats and even more so now from trying to hold the arch during bench. I'm pretty envious of dudes who come in that don't look that much bigger, if at all, than myself and bench 225 like it's being lifted from above. Just get to BW and then go from there...

So, of course, power cleans were next. I felt as though any explosiveness that were in my legs was surely gone into the abyss by now. I took an extended rest, spent a bit more time than usual on the warm-up reps, and completed the PCs in reasonably better shape than I would have anticipated. It probably helped that the spin class in the adjacent room was in progress and I didn't want to look like an eff-up doing these things, so I think I regained some focus.
I'm pretty damned fatigued overall now and am really looking forward to the next two days off. Hopefully someone will have moved the garbage truck off of me by Monday.

tim

[Tim Lofton]

2/22/2010

Session 38

Squat: 275# x 5 x 3

Press: 122.5# x 5 x 3

Chins: 6-4-3

Phewww! Glad to get through that squat set. Found resting a bit more between reps helped despite standing there with the weight on my back; just a few seconds but it made a difference. A bit of twinge in the distal portion of my left hamstring, but it only makes me aware of it when going down stairs. Didn't bother me at all during squats; probably residual ache from squatting behind the plate catching my son's pitches as he prepares for baseball tryouts.
Press was hard for the first set, then the next two went much better. Had a bit of layback in later reps and needed to tighten the glutes better to prevent.
Got one more rep on the first set of chins. That's good for now. Felt strong enought to get an extra on the second set but I hung too long and couldn't get back up past about halfway.
Hungry...!!

tim

[Tim Lofton]

3/1/2010

Session 38 repeat

Session 38 was one week ago today. Everything went well, but I felt it was probably one of the hardest lifting days I'd had and felt thoroughly spent afterwards. Thirty-six hours later I'm in the grips of one of the nastier colds I've had in some time. I missed the next 2.5 days of work and two lifting days. I'm better now, but recovery is not complete as noted by the numbers below:

Squat: 275# x 5, 275 x 2, 275 x 5, 275 x 3

Press: 122.5# x 5, 122,5 x 2, 122.5 x 3

Chins: 7-5-3

Well, the positive is that I put one more rep on each of the first two sets of chin-ups. Otherwise, I'm looking at a repeat for both the squats and the press on Friday as Wednesday will be an 80% squat day plus bench and deads.
Both lifts were hit-and-miss as far as completing and there's definitely still not a full recovery in place yet. I think the severity of the cold was, in part, due to improper sleep duration. I feel pretty confident that, all else going well this week, I will get both of these full sets on Friday. A bit disappointing since I actually completed these last Monday but felt a redo was in order after a full week away with sickness. Better to be sure with the weight before moving on.

[Tim Lofton]

3/2/2010

Have been wanting to try working lightly on learning snatches. I figured the day before my light squat day would be okay, at least for now. So I only plan to do this once per week; maybe on a Saturday eventually or instead of during the week. The idea is not to do anything that approaches heavy or hard with this so as not to screw up recovery from my main work days. Practicing the partial movements will be the theme for now. So today was:

Snatch grip shoulder dislocates - 3 x 10 with a 22# bar straight bar. Didn't see a reason to do this with a barbell as the purpose isn't to do with weight. The bar I used was the only bar long enough to do with a snatch grip. Maybe I'll look for a mop handle next time. This actually felt very good to do as I progressively worked farther back. I did not go fully around to my backside, but to about 30 degrees or so past vertical. It's a nice stretch for the shoulders.

Snatch grip behind the neck press - 45# x 5 x 2, 55 x 5, 65 x 3, 85 x 2, 95 x 5; probably should have left the last set @ 95# off

OH squat - 45# x 5 x 2, 55 x 5, 65 x 3, 85 x 2

Snatch balance - barbell only - 3 x 5

The residual soreness that I had in my legs earlier today from yesterday's work day seems to have diminished to nothing now. Hopefully some advantage to facilitating an increased blood flow.