Andrew's training log

[andrewotbc]

Haha, just realised I completely messed up the deadlift weight today. I think this is the first time I've done this so it's not all bad, but 92.5kg was not what I should have been doing at all. For some reason, when I was in the gym, I thought I had got to 90kg the last workout. Oh dear! Anyway, at least I know now why it was so heavy!

So I'll just carry on where I left off and drop down to 85 next time - what I planned to do anyway!

[andrewotbc]

Thursday 18 March 2010 Workout

Squat - 3 x 5 x 70 (PR)
Press - 3 x 5 x 32.5
Power Clean - 1 x 5 x 52.5

I did some light cardio a couple of hours before today's workout and won't be doing it again. Some friends play football (soccer) in a cage near where I live and so I went along and played in goal. Even though we play there pretty often, still when I imagined it beforehand, I imagined basically standing still and occasionally reaching my arms out. In reality, I was lobbing the ball out a long way, kicking it out, kicking it away, flinging myself towards it, running out to block shots and running after the ball outside my area. So I was slightly tired out by it and this affected my workout, although not massively. Also, a couple of saves I made bent my wrists and hurt my hands slightly. So I think I should avoid this, or if I do it, do it on an off day.

The squats were quite heavy today, but still managed them with a bit of a struggle and possibly slight loss of form. After I racked the bar after each workset, I had a bit of an ache in my left shoulder, I think from the weight of the bar.

The press wasn't great. The last rep of the 3rd set I struggled with but got there. The power clean I was happy to start with because I did quite a few warm-up sets despite my tiredness and the form was pretty good, with me managing to get the bar down onto the shoulders about a second after reaching the top position. However, on the workset I couldn't get it out of my hands. So this still needs more work. I then tried some more reps with a lower weight rather than persevering with the worksets because by this stage my wrists were hurting, partly because of the football.

I think I'll work on stretching my wrists and playing around with getting the bar into the olympic style front squat/clean position with some moderately heavy weights on in all of my workouts.

I think I'll also reduce power cleans down to once every 3 workouts, because until I get the flexibility into my wrists and the form right, I am wasting a bit of time on them. I'll bring in chins and back extensions into the spare day. I am also going to start doing some weighted abs work at the end of every workout. So my program is going to be a bit more like Onus Wunsler.

[andrewotbc]

Sunday 21 March 2010 Workout

Squat - 3 x 5 x 72.5 (PR)
Bench - 2 x 5 x 57.5, 1 x 3 x 57.5
Deadlift 1 x 5 x 85 (PR)

Squat was hard and again it hurt my shoulders. The first set was the worst, I think because I was nervous about the weight. The last set was the best, going right to the bottom on all reps. Next time, no excuses but to go right to the bottom. Although it is getting harder each time, I think I can keep the squat going for another few workouts, but I've got to watch my shoulders.

Bench was good, but unfortunately needed the spotter on the 4th and 5th reps of the 3rd set. The last rep of the 2nd set I was right on the verge of needing the spotter and as his hands were just about to touch the bar, I shouted on my exhale "No! Don't touch!" and forced the rep out. Honestly, I'd told him only to touch if I said so but I guess it's hard for them not to when it looks like you're failing. Bench was possibly slightly affected by the hurting shoulder from the squat. Next time I should be able to make the 3 x 5 x 57.5.

Deadlift was hard but no problems. Didn't do the ab work I mentioned last time because it had been a tough workout. I might wait and add it when I reset.

[andrewotbc]

Diet and Recovery for Week 4

Sleep was fine, but a couple of nights only had about 6 hours.

Food was good again. Here's the breakdown of calories. These come from about 3-4 pints of milk a day and normal diet which is moderately clean and well balanced.

Mon - 4171
Tue - 4227
Wed - 4212
Thu - 4214
Fri - 3838
Sat - 3849
Sun - 4132
Week average - 4092

Got my 3800-4300 every day. Don't really know what my weight is. I was 77.6 on Tuesday Week 5's workout but that was late in the day with shoes. I think I'm around 75kg so that's 5kg in 4 weeks with a breakdown of approx +0.5 week 1, +1.5 week 2, +2 week 3, +1 week 4. I'll keep going in the 3800-4300 range, hopefully putting on 1kg a week.

Week 5 (22-28 March 2010)

Tuesday 23 March 2010 Workout

Squat - 3 x 5 x 75 (PR)
Press - 2 x 5 x 35, 1 x 4 x 35
Power Clean - 5 x 3 x 50 (PR)

This was probably my best workout so far. Squats were very deep and tight all the way through, except the last couple of reps in the 3rd set when I think I loosened my back a bit and the bar rolled a little down my back. Still, they were very satisfying and am very happy with my form now, overall, but still a bit of work to do. Shoulder ache was less bad this time.

Press was excellent, very pleased to almost make the new PR. I got the last set spotted as I suspected a fail and needed the spotter on the 5th rep. Next Workout B, I should be able to make the 35.

I've finally realised that power cleans are supposed to be 5 x 3 not 3 x 5 which helped a lot because my form previously was tending to tail off on the last couple of reps. The 5 sets had very good form I think. At the top, I got the weight quickly and properly into position on my shoulders. Please ignore what I said about reducing these down to once every 3 workoust. I'm going to do them every other workout with linear progression now I think I've got the form right.

I reduced the volume in my warm-up by doing only 4 warm-up sets on squat (2 of these were just the bar) and 2 on the press (1 was just the bar), as opposed to 5 and 3 normally. This seemed to help so I'll try this for a while.

I did 1 set of weighted decline situps (10kg) for 12 reps, then ran out of time. I'll go for 3 sets of 6 reps next time on linear progression every workout.

[andrewotbc]

Thursday 25 March 2010 Workout

Squat - 3 x 5 x 77.5 (PR)
Bench - 3 x 5 x 57.5 (PR)
Deadlift - 1 x 5 x 87.5 (PR)

I was quite tired from a few busy days without the 7-9 hours sleep so was very pleased to get through all the sets for the first time in a fortnight.

The squat was tough and form might have suffered a bit coming out of the hole. Bench and deadlift were fine.

I did weighted situps 3 x 6 x 15kg on a steeper decline than last time. These were tough but really felt the abs the next couple of days so look forward to keeping these up.

[andrewotbc]

Sunday 28 March 2010 Workout

Squat - 3 x 5 x 80 (PR)
Press - 3 x 5 x 35 (PR)
Power Clean - 5 x 3 x 52.5 (PR)

This was a very gruelling workout because the squats and press were very tough. The squats were hard work because I didn't get great bounce so getting out of the hole was hard. On the 5th rep of the 2nd set I got to the hole and considered dumping the bar but didn't and forced it up. I took at least 5 minutes between worksets.

The press was also tough - it always feels such a horrible movement standing there not able to use your knees and having to do most of it with shoulders. The 5th rep of the 3rd set was very slow but apart from that was good and glad to finally make the 35.

Power cleans were cool. Form was good except for a couple of the reps where I didn't shrug it round quite as well as I'd have wanted but overall it didn't feel any harder than last week so I'm looking forward to a linear progression for a few weeks on this.

I went to a different gym today without a decline bench with pads to secure your feet so I did 2 x 8 x 20kg weighted situps on the floor. This was a bit pointless really. I'll only do weighted situps on the decline bench in future.

[andrewotbc]

Diet and Recovery for Week 5

I was very busy last week so I didn't always get the 7-9 hours sleep and also stopped tracking my calories on some of the days.

Mon - 4031
Tue - 4597
Wed - ??? (around 3500)
Thu - ??? (around 4000)
Fri - ??? (around 3500)
Sat - 4177
Sun - 4075
Week average - around 3980

So I still basically did OK with the eating (my definiton of OK). I weighed myself on Wednesday week 6's workout, end of day, pre-workout with clothes and shoes and was 78.1kg (78.6kg with my fucking coat on, then realised and took it off!). So a week's gain of around 0.5kg which is on target.

[andrewotbc]

Week 6 (29 March - 4 April 2010)

Wednesday 31 March 2010 Workout

Squat - 3 x 5 x 82.5 (PR)
Bench - 3 x 5 x 60 (PR)
Deadlift - 1 x 5 x 90 (PR)

I had to take another 3 day gap between workouts due to being busy on Monday and Tuesday, but I think the added recovery helped, with another 3 PRs today. I could feel my back for the next couple of days after Sunday's workout so it was good to have the extra rest.

Squats were better than last time but still very hard. I did every rep quite well but with a lot of concentration. Bench was probably easier than last time, so very pleased to see a noticeable gain there, and it's good to be using 20kg plates now. Deadlift was fairly easy (as deadlifts go), so I think I'll increase to 95kg next time to ensure it keeps ahead of the squat.

I didn't do the weighted abs work because I was again in the gym without the right bench, but it's not very important really, although I will try to do it if I can.

Annoyingly the 2 gyms that I use shut for a week from today. I am hopefully going to use a couple or 3 day passes at other gyms to see my workouts through for this week. Apart from that, I have a bit more time for the next few weeks so shouldn't be a problem sticking to the program fully. BTW, in case you're wondering, I'm a member of 1 gym but pay the day rate at another on Sundays because the other one is shut then, and that same one wasn't open today either.

[andrewotbc]

Friday 2 April 2010 Workout

Squat - 3 x 5 x 85 (PR)
Press - 1 x 3 x 37.5, 1 x 4 x 37.5, 1 x 5 x 37.5
Power Clean - 5 x 3 x 55 (PR)

Another very good workout, mainly because I was working out with a good friend and the one who introduced me to SS in the first place. He said that my form was good for the first few reps of the squats sets but for the last couple of reps, my lower back was rounding and my back was rising faster than my shoulders, so this is something to work on. I am still going to continue with the linear progression for as long as possible, even if I cannot avoid this loss of form for a couple of the reps.

Press was tough as expected, but I actually improved set-by-set. This is the first time I've been able to do more reps in a later set than in an earlier one on any exercise. I was spotted by my friend for a 4th rep in the 1st set and 5th rep in the 2nd.

With the power cleans, the 1st reps were generally good but the 2nd and 3rd reps I was generally not racking high enough and then doing another movement to get the bar into the rack position, so my form deteoriated a bit this workout. My friend pointed out that this is probably because after the first rep I was resetting my hand position wider for each of the next 2 reps. So this is something to focus on next time.

I didn't do any weighted ab work but had a go at a couple of assisted pull-up sets just to see where I am at with these. I had to use 12kg of assistance to get 4 reps, but I don't think I could ever do more than 1 pull-up unassisted anyway and that was before putting on these 6-7kg.

[andrewotbc]

Sunday 4 April 2010 Workout

Squat - 3 x 3 x 87.5
Bench - 1 x 2 x 62.5, 1 x 3 x 60, 1 x 2 x 60
Deadlift - 1 x 5 x 92.5 (PR)

This was a bad workout and my first one for a while. The squat was really tough and didn't fancy a 4th rep in any of the sets. The bench likewise, needed the spotter early on in the first set so reduced the weight for the next 2 and still couldn't make the reps.

When it came to the deadlift, I presumed I would struggle as much on this so didn't go for the 95kg I had intended, and the 92.5 was fine, so this was a bit of a pity.

The workout was at the 4th different gym in the past 5 workouts and I had quite a bit of trouble with the bar. On the squat I am used to having a mirror there which I think helps when it comes to setting the bar on my back. I didn't have a mirror at this gym and the bar felt precarious on each of the sets and was moving about a bit which made the sets harder. Also, I had a bit of trouble gripping the bar, particularly on the bench where my hands were moving a bit on the bar. Chalk might be a good idea, but I'll see how I get on back at a familiar gym next time.

I also didn't get a great recovery after the last workout. I did a lot of moving about and not an ideal amount of eating the day of and the day after the workout. Also, last workout I did pullups. So I think some/all of these things might have contributed today's failures but maybe it was just a bad day at the office. I'll eat well the next couple of days and hopefully get back on track!