August 8th
All lifts went fine and felt light. Everything flew up!
Squat
45 x 5
135 x 5
185 x 3
225 x 2
255 x 1
275 x 1
295 x 5 x 3
Press
45 x 5
95 x 3
115 x 1
125 x 1
127.5 x 5 x 3
Deadlift
135 x 3
225 x 3
275 x 1
320 x 5
August 4th
Squats are feeling heavy again, not surprised since I'm now getting closer to old weights. Deadlift felt very light. I'm going to start using hook grip for these, I bought some athletic tape to ease into them. I probably still aren't holding my lower back well, even though the weights feel light. The deadlift video from a while back on the first page of the log shows a slight lower back flexion during worksets. I'm going to add some pause deadlifts with 75 - 80% of last deadlift workset on my pull/chin up days from now on to help with that.
Squat
45 x 5
135 x 5
185 x 3
225 x 2
255 x 1
275 x 1
290 x 5 x 3
Bench
45 x 5
135 x 5
165 x 1
180 x 5 x 3
Deadlift
135 x 5
225 x 3
275 x 2
310 x 5
Last edited by heavyiron8; 08-05-2016 at 01:57 AM.
August 8th
All lifts went fine and felt light. Everything flew up!
Squat
45 x 5
135 x 5
185 x 3
225 x 2
255 x 1
275 x 1
295 x 5 x 3
Press
45 x 5
95 x 3
115 x 1
125 x 1
127.5 x 5 x 3
Deadlift
135 x 3
225 x 3
275 x 1
320 x 5
August 10th
Everything as expected, again. Next workout I will finally be caught up again. Also adding more volume to chin ups.
Light Squat (80% of last workout)
45 x 5
135 x 5
185 x 3
225 x 2
236 x 5 x 3
Bench
45 x 5
135 x 5
155 x 2
175 x 1
185 x 5 x 3
Chin ups
5 sets of 10
Last edited by heavyiron8; 08-11-2016 at 12:38 AM.
August 12th
I am going to go back to deadlifting once a week. Doing it every other workout combined with heavy squats are just not optimal. I couldn't complete the deadlift set today, only got 3 reps, any more and my back is going to go full flexion on me. Squats and press both went pretty well though. Video for 300 again.
I will likely need to implement more advance novice programming as suggested in PPST3 after 5 or 10 more pounds on the squat. Maybe 1 heavy set of 5, with 2 back off sets at 95%, keeping the light day in the middle of the week still. After that stalls, going to go for putting 2 rest days between each workout. So many options still available to milk out every last drop of novice gains!
Edit: I decided to add in 5 sets of pull ups since I wasn't successful with my deadlift today. Might as well get some more work in to make up for it. In hindsight, maybe it would've been better to just do a couple of back off sets for deads, oh well, pull ups are fun and satisfying too
Squat
45 x 5
135 x 5
185 x 3
225 x 2
255 x 1
275 x 1
300 x 5 x 3 (Set 3)
Press
45 x 5
95 x 3
115 x 1
125 x 1
130 x 5 x 3
Deadlift
135 x 3
225 x 2
275 x 2
330 x 3
Pull ups
5 sets of 10 @ BW
Last edited by heavyiron8; 08-13-2016 at 01:05 AM.
August 16th
305 squat felt about as hard as 300, so that's better than expected. Same goes for the press, wasn't really much harder than 130. One thing I've neglected from putting into my log is that I've still got a mild case of golfer's elbow bothering my left arm. Time to fix it. Searching the forums, Rip recommends to do 25 sets of 2 reps of chin ups with 1 - 2 minute rest in between sets, twice a week, then progress onto 25 sets of 3 reps for next week. I already do chin/pull ups, so this will just make the sets and reps switch, while keeping volume the same. Low reps, high sets. Elbow should see improvement in 2 - 3 weeks.
Squat
45 x 5
135 x 5
185 x 3
225 x 2
255 x 1
275 x 1
305 x 5 x 3 (Set 3)
Press
45 x 5
95 x 4
115 x 1
125 x 1
132.5 x 5 x 3 (Set 3)
Chin ups
25 sets of 2 @ BW
Last edited by heavyiron8; 08-16-2016 at 08:49 PM.
Nice lifting. I either didn't realize or forgot that you lift at home. Looks like you only have 1 pair of 45s left to spare? My goal is to get strong enough to have to buy another pair!
August 19th
Reping 1 plate on press does feel good . I backed off on deadlift once again. I do notice I have a slight flexion on reps 4 and 5 of my deadlift. Need to set up better for the last couple of reps and squeeze tighter. 300 is light, but gotta get that form corrected. Video for press and deadlifts.
Light Squat (80% of last workout)
45 x 5
135 x 5
185 x 3
225 x 2
245 x 5 x 3
Press
45 x 5
95 x 4
115 x 1
127.5 x 1
135 x 5 x 3 (Set 2, Set 3)
Deadlift
135 x 3
225 x 2
275 x 2
300 x 5 (Set)
August 22nd
Squats went fine, although it's feeling harder a little bit more, hopefully I can hit 3 wheels for 3x5. I actually filmed set 3 of my squats as well, but my boxer was a little low and it showed my ass crack, so not uploading that. The form on set 3 was better than set 2 too. Press failed on 5th rep of 2nd set. I backed off 5% to complete set 3. Continuing Chin up "therapy" for elbow. The chins are definitely hard in the end, 78 total reps.
Oh, I have not updated my bodyweight for a while. I weighed in at 181 after lunch, so 180ish in the morning.
Squat
45 x 5
135 x 5
185 x 3
225 x 2
265 x 1
285 x 1
310 x 5 x 3 (Set 2)
Press
45 x 5
95 x 3
120 x 1
130 x 1
137.5 x 5, 137.5 x 4 (failed on 5th rep), 130 x 5
Chin Ups
26 sets of 3
Last edited by heavyiron8; 08-22-2016 at 11:30 PM.
August 26th
Wow, what a workout. Finally hit triple plates squat, form on the last reps were kinda poor. It felt pretty hard, the end of my novice LP is in sight. I was thinking to myself that I shouldn't add 5 pounds and try 320 next workout because of how difficult this squat workout was. Good thing Rip posted this quote today right as I was done with my workout.
I remember the day when I first set foot in a gym, struggling to squat 105 lbs. I look over at the squat rack next to me to see a guy squatting 315 for reps. I wondered if I'll ever be THAT strong, if so when? Looking back, 315 lbs for a workout isn't really that much compared to what's possible.You embrace the fear. You love it when it feels heavy. You hate variety. You think people who make up bullshit excuses to justify their desire to do something easier are just scared, and you are not one of them. You are a lifter, and you lift heavy things. When you walk into the gym, you look around at all the bros doing arm work and five different chest exercises, and you smile because you know they don't know what you know. Or, maybe they do, but they don't have the balls to stay the course, put more weight on the bar and squat something they're afraid they can't squat. But you do that. You do that three days a week. You face your fear over and over and over. And sometimes you fail. Sometimes you can't get another rep. But you show up for your next session, and you try again. You stick to your plan. You learn how to fail. You learn how to try again. You learn that it won't kill you. And because you learned that, when life kicks you in the nuts, when your dog dies or your girlfriend dumps you or boss fires you, you can handle it. You can face it and feel it and know that you will get past it. And that, my friend, is more important than how much weight is on the bar. It's supposed to feel heavy. You're supposed to be scared. If you're not, you're not living.
- Paul Horn
Each rep was a nut buster on the squat. Press wasn't too easy either. As for the deadlift... I think I really need to add in some paused deadlifts for this lower back issue. Either that, or a bigger deload and working my way slowly back with 5 pound increments. We'll see.
Squat
45 x 5
135 x 5
185 x 3
225 x 2
265 x 1
295 x 1
315 x 5 x 3 (Set 1, Set 2, Set 3)
Press
45 x 5
95 x 3
115 x 1
130 x 1
137.5 x 5 x 3 (Set 2, Set 3)
Deadlift
135 x 3
225 x 2
275 x 1
305 x 5 (Set)
Last edited by heavyiron8; 08-26-2016 at 09:53 PM.