Bingley's Bumbling Along

[Mr. Bingley]

thanks bruddah!

[Scotch-Wegian]

5lbs from 100lb op, not bad!!

[Gumboots]

Nice job on the Overhead Press. It must have felt good to put the 25s on and press them overhead.

[Mr. Bingley]

thanks!

[Mr. Bingley]

Sunday 5/17/15
SQ 45 1x5, 135 1x5, 205 1x5, 245 3x5 PR, 205 1x8
BP 45 1x10, 95 1x5, 115 1x5, 135 1x1, 125 1x5
DL 135 1x5, 205 1x5, 255 nada, 205 1x5

ProTip to self: eating a huge porkroll, egg, and cheese on the way to the gym is just not a good idea. A damned tasty one, yes, but with the belt on on the SQ and especially the DL it was almost very, er, messy.

SQ felt pretty good, aside from the distended belly; I never really felt that I wasn't going to do the full set at 245, which is pretty neat (as ugly as my form was, which is why i really like the 1x8 cooldown set; I feel that seems light so I can concentrate on my form). On the BP I still can't quite get the BigBoy plate done; need to do a lot more pushups this week. On the DLs I just felt like I was going to hurl with the porkroll struggling mightily against the belt! I only got 255 about 3 inches off the floor and had to drop it. Oh well, live and learn! Just have to make sure to get up early enough before church on sunday to fry up some eggs.

[Bill Quick]

Mr. B, what sort of program are you doing where you do four ramped sets of five to warm up for a top set of 2x5, followed by a backoff set of eight? That's giving you 43 reps in an exercise, which seems like an enormous amount of volume for a geezer, especially on squats. It's not Starting Strength, and it's not Starr. In fact, I've actually got no idea what it is. Enlightenment?

[Mr. Bingley]

Hahaha Bill, I guess I've got no idea either! What I'm doing is basically what Adam Skillin sketched out for me after our training session in February (sure I've fudged things a bit). Am I really doing all that many more warm ups than other folks? I mean doing the empty bar at this point doesn't really count, honestly, it's just helps to get me mentally in the 'mood', and then I do what I think is a logical progression up to whatever work weight I'm aiming for: I always toss on a 45 for a set, then a 25 or 35 for a set then go up to my work set. It doesn't feel like too many reps...I'm mostly able to walk afterwards!

And then I do that 1x8 backoff because I know that when I'm grunting under my work set that my form is terrible: I'm not going deep enough, Elvis knees, slipping forward, whatever, and I've found that the 1x8 set done as a backoff at a weight that used to be tough seems easy and helps me nail my form at that weight, and that in a few weeks today's workset-with-crappy-form weight will be the new backoff-with-good-form weight. For example I know that my form on the 1x8 backoff at 205 on Sunday was much better than after doing 245 3x5 than it was at 205 1x5 on the warmup before doing the work set.

It seems to be working for me, especially given that my workouts really aren't that intense (except the heavy day) and only three times a week.

[Adam Skillin]

I think we were aiming at a pretty basic HLM set-up, but whatever modifications you've made along the way are certainly working.

You need to start a new log, you're past the point of Bumbling Along. Any desire to enter the world of competitive powerlifting?

[Mr. Bingley]

hehehe, well I am quite a long way from competition (in both ability and probably more importantly desire) and the very nice thing about my 'program' at the moment is that it is very flexible and allows me to adjust to whatever the realities of the gym I go to are on any given evening yet still gives me satisfying gains over the weeks.

[Mr. Bingley]

Tues 5/19/15 light day
SQ 135 1x5, 185 1x5, 235 3x5, 185 1x8
OHP 45 1x10, 65 1x5, 85 1x5, 105 1x3, 65 1x10

got to the squat rack and someone had already left it at 135 so I just started there. sq felt good, was able to get proper depth for the most part on the work set at 235...felt a hell of a lot easier tonight than it did just 3 weeks ago when I did it for the first time maybe this shit really works...
The OHP were meh, the 3rrd rep at 105 was really fugly and i figured i would wear the next one on my nose if I tried it so I gave it a rest.