Quest for 300/400/500. 2010 Edition.

[poopmonkey]

Yet another lost soul searching for the glorious 300 bench, 400 squat, 500 deadlift milestones. Once I hit those, life will be sunshine and buttercups. (probably).

Currently doing (and have been for the past 6 months) Starting Strength Advanced Novice Program with micro-loading to prolong progression as long as possible.

Without further ado, the first workout of 2010.

January 4th. Monday. BW 197.8

Squats:
340lbs x 5,5,4

Bench:
238.6 x 4,4,3

Weighted Chins:
BW + 42.5lbs = 240.3 x 5,5,5

[poopmonkey]

Typically, I will do front squats 3 x 3 on Wednesdays.

However, I recorded Monday's work sets for the back squat and noticed a tendency to let my knees bow inwards when the weight gets really heavy.

So today I did back squats, 2 sets of 5 at 80% of Monday's weight. I took an extremely wide stance to help exaggerate the "knees out" feeling. I liked the way this worked out and I feel a lot more confident about hitting the regular back squats on Friday.

January 6th. Wed. BW: 196.2

Light Back Squats with Wide Stance: 275lbs x 5,5.

Press:
161.2 x 5,5,5 (PR!)

PowerClean:
187.4 x 3,3,3,3,3,. (PR!)

[TartanEagle]

Nice job on the PR's. By the way, I chuckle every time I read your name.

[poopmonkey]

Thanks.

[poopmonkey]

Today's workout is titled: "The Good, The Bad & The Ugly."

Friday, January 8th. BW: 197.6

The Good.
Squats:

340lbs x 5,5,5.

These were brutally hard, but I managed to get all the reps. Each set felt like a 4-rep max and I'm amazed I got the 5th rep on every set. Did a much better job of keeping the knees out.

The Ugly.
Bench:
238.6 x 3,3,2.

What. The. Fuck.

Bench is actually moving backwards. Before Christmas, I got 238.6 for five reps on three sets. Now even the first rep has me questioning if I'm going to be able to get it back up.

I'm starting to think this is a mental thing. Next week I'll do the work sets inside the power rack and see if the added security helps.

The Bad.
Deadlift.
365 x 2.

Not happy about this either but I was just freakin' dead by this point in the workout. Only got 4 hours of sleep yesterday so that certainly didn't help.

All in all, a pretty crappy training session. Starting to wonder if I've stretched out the advanced novice program as far as it will go. Hope not, and looking to redeem myself on Monday.

[poopmonkey]

Monday, January 11th, 2010. BW: 197.4

Squats:

342.4 x 3,2,0
(Analysis below).

Press:

162.4 x 5,4,3

Chins:
BW + 43.7 (Total 241.5) x 5,5,5. (PR)

Analysis: So last Friday (three days ago) I did three sets of squats at 340.0 and completed all reps successfully. Today, I added just 2.4 pounds to the bar and was only able to get three reps on the first set?

This makes me think that 48 hours was simply not enough to recover from Friday's squatting session. I don't think the additional 2.4 pounds was the problem. I bet if i had loaded the bar to just 340 again I still would have failed.

Which makes me think it's time to make the jump to intermediate.
(Damn it.)

Unfortunately, I'm headed out of the country for two weeks. So the plan moving forward is as follows:

#1) Finish up this week without altering training in any way.
#2) Europe for two weeks.
#3) Upon return, drop weights 90% and continue with advanced novice program until strength returns to the pre-trip levels.
#4) Then make the jump to intermediate Texas program.

[poopmonkey]

Wed. 1.13.10. BW: 196.8

Since I'm doing light squats on Wed, I figured these do not necessarily have to be done first. Because of recent troubles with the bench press, I performed bench press first.

Bench: 238.6 x 5,3,2.

Performed the bench press in the rack today to see if the added mental security would help but no such luck. I'm officially stalled here.

Powerclean:
190 x 2,2,2,0,0. Wow, that 2.5 jump apparently made a big difference. I'll stick to 1 pound jumps on these from now on.

Squats (Light).
Just did one set of five at 225. Took ultrawide stance.

All in all, I feel like I'm burning out big time. Only one more workout and then I've got a much-needed two week break. So I'm do my damndest to hit some PR's on Friday and finish on a high note.

[Mr.City]

Those are very nice lifts. How often you been deloading?

[poopmonkey]

Bit of a long story there. Did SS for first 6 months of 2009, started stalling out and so I would deload. But I've never had any success with a deload. I would just work right back to my original sticking point and get stuck again.

So I made the jump to intermediate during the 2nd half of 2009, and for some reason I made absolutely zero gains. Perhaps I wasn't eating enough (although I was eating enough to gain weight) but for whatever reason I failed.

So I went back to advanced novice and I'm trying to get my numbers as high as possible before attempting intermediate. Long story short, I deload quite infrequently because right now I think it's better to just stick with the weight for as many sessions as it takes to break through.

Time will tell if this is correct.

[Mr.City]

It may be time to follow an intermediate method for your squats. You could make more progress with 5lbs week than 2.4 lb jumps twice a week coupled with the stalling issues.