Ryaan's Novice Training Log

[Ryaan]

2017-01-16

Squat: 20 x 10; 50 x 5; 80 x 3; 100 x 5; 105 x 3; 100 x 5 x 2 (5 min rest)
Press: 20 x 5 x 3; 30 x 5; 40 x 2; 45 x 5 x 3 (5 min rest)
Deadlift: 40 x 5; 60 x 3; 80 x 3; 100 x 2; 110 x 5 (mixed grip)
Chins: bw+10 kg x 10 x 1 negatives; 5 second count on the way down

First workout back! Spent the last two weeks traveling with my family in Bangladesh, which was awesome, but I certainly wasn't tracking macros, and I had a run in with a GI infection that needed antibiotics. Lost 7 pounds of bodyweight, and I'm jetlagged as hell. Here's how today went.

Squat: I had hoped to do 110 kg x 5 x 3 today (roughly 10% deload from my last successful 3x5 at 120 kg), but I took out my last warmup at 100 kg and decided that needed to be my first workset (17% deload). Tried 105 but it was too grindy too soon: I want to be conservative about getting back, so I don't make myself cripplingly sore this week. Video looked OK. Some knee slide that I'll need to be vigilant about as I work back up. I am feeling impatient about getting back up to the weights I was handling before the layoff, but I need to make sure I don't do anything stupid. I'll try a couple of 5 kg jumps and then go back to 2.5 kg jumps.

Press: 10% deload. Went fine. 2nd set I didn't set my stance wide enough. Need to make sure that I'm solid through the trunk and that I'm extending my hips, not bending my lumbar spine. Couple of grindy reps in the 3rd set. Onwards!

Deadlift: I should have deloaded this, but I got greedy. All of the reps went up fine, but there was a touch of rounding in a couple, and my starting position wasn't great by the 5th rep. Knees needed to reset further forward. 100 kg was too heavy for the last warmup set. I will repeat this weight next session to make sure I have everything under control before moving forward.

[Ryaan]

2017-01-17

Elliptical: 5m warmup; 7 cycles of 20s on, 140 active rest; 5m cooldown

Tried some HIIT on the elliptical for the first time today. I'm adding conditioning on Tu/Th, as long as it doesn't interfere with my main workouts. I feel much better after this session than when I woke up: good to get some blood moving first thing in the morning!

I had trouble getting enough intensity fast enough on the elliptical. By the last cycle, I figured out that if I lean forward and bear my weight into the handles, I can push much harder into the machine and work at a higher intensity.

Eventually, though, I think I'm going to have to switch to something like the C2 rower or a spin bike if I actually want to get maximum benefit from my conditioning work. Don't have access to a Prowler or sled.

[Ryaan]

2017-01-18

Squat: 20 x 10; 60 x 5; 80 x 3; 105 x 5 x 2, 105 x 3 (5 min rest)
Bench: 20 x 5 x 3; 30 x 5; 40 x 3; 50 x 2; 60 x 5 x 3 (4 min rest)
Deadlift: 40 x 5; 60 x 3; 80 x 2; 110 x 5 (mixed grip)
Lat pull: 135 x 8, 5; 130 x 5; 120 x 6; 110 x 8
LTE: 10 x 8; 20 x 8; 25 x 8 x 3

Squat: Well, dammit. I guess I've lost more strength than I thought. Filmed the last two sets: not enough hip drive, too much in the knees in general. Third set, fourth rep I didn't keep my back angle set on the way up, so my back angle ended up too horizontal, and I failed the rep without even catching a groove to grind against. 102.5 kg would have been a better choice for today. I'll repeat 105 kg next session and continue up in 2.5 kg increments. BLARGH.

Bench: Fine. Moving on.

Deadlift: again some minor rounding. I'm going to reset 100 kg and build back up, as I should have in the first place after the layoff.

All-in-all, this session and the last have shown me that it's going to take a few weeks to build back what I had achieved by the end of December. It's frustrating to see form problems that I had stamped out creep back in, but at least this time around I already know how to fix them and have confidence that I can fix them.

[Ryaan]

2017-01-19

C2 Rower: 5 min warmup; 20 on / 140 off x 7; 5 min cooldown

strokes / avg wattage
damper at 5: 1: 12 / 291 | 2: 13 / 350 | 3: 11 / 361 | 4: 13 / 329 | 5: ? / 310
damper at 6: 6: 13 / 350 | 7: 13 / 310

Guess what? The rower is way better for HIIT than the elliptical. Duh. I haven't rowed in ages, and I've never properly practiced rowing technique, so I'm sure my form is the first limiting factor here. This feels like something I want to get good at, so I'll seek out some coaching soon. This thread (link!) has some great info about how to use the rower effectively for conditioning. I'll try this idea next time I row:

I'd probably start with 10 max effort pulls (note that you'll need 2-3 'ramp-up' strokes before hitting a usefully maximal set of 10 strokes) with a rest period scaled to your level of fitness (I'd just rest until you feel confident you can hit another 10 strokes close to "max effort pace". Note: Even a very skilled rower won't be able to redline his anaerobic system in 15-30 seconds on the C2....so I'd disagree with Allen here. I think you need a longer interval.

[Ryaan]

2017-01-20

Squat: 20 x 5 x 3; 40 x 5; 65 x 3; 90 x 2; 105 x 5 x 3 (7, 8 min rest)
Press: 20 x 5 x 2; 30 x 5; 40 x 2; 47.5 x 5 x 3 (5 min rest)
Deadlift: 40 x 5; 70 x 3; 90 x 3; 100 x 2; 110 x 5 (mixed grip)
Chins: 10 min AMRAP: 1,1,1,0; 5-count negatives: 1,1,0
CurlzZz: 20 x 8; 17.5 x 8 x 3

This morning's session was an object lesson in not trusting your feelings. Everything felt heavy, even my last warmup sets. I thought my squats were a disaster, and after my last press warmup I was convinced I wasn't going to get all of my worksets. But video showed decent form and good bar speed, and I got all of my reps, despite each one feeling heavy and hard.

Squat: Mostly fixed knee issues from last time; stayed better in my hips. I realized during my warmup that I was fixing my gaze too close to my feet, and picking a point about 4 feet in front of me and staring at that the whole time gave me better hip drive. This also seems to have helped me maintain my back angle on the way up. I've taken a narrower grip these last two sessions, and the bar feels more stable on my back. I usually try and stay stay cool and collected during my worksets (bleep bloop, I am a lifting robot), but this session I decided to try and psych up a lot more. This helped me stay committed during the grindy reps.

Press: I focused on driving my hips forward. I have been allowing my lumbar spine to extend as part of the initial hip movement, and I think I fixed that today.

Deadlift: I got greedy and didn't deload, but this went a lot better than last time. I need to get my knees slightly further forward after the first rep: because I'm very flexible, I can put the bar down without bending enough at the knees. My (in)ability to set my back into hard extension before the pull is the limiting factor here. My coach (Carl Raghavan) suggested alternating weighted back extensions with the deadlift to build up the spinal extensors, and I'll start that next week.

Chins: chalk this up to exhaustion. Curls: wanted to do drop sets but couldn't find a 15 kg bar.

All-in-all a good first week back. Two days off now.

[Ryaan]

2017-01-23

Squat: 20 x 5 x 2; 40 x 5; 65 x 3; 90 x 2; 107.5 x 5 x 3 (6 min rest)
Bench: 20 x 5 x 2; 30 x 5; 40 x 3; 50 x 2; 62.5 x 5 x 3 (5 min rest)
Deadlift: 40 x 5; 70 x 5; 90 x 3; 115 x 5 (mixed grip)
Chins: negatives with 5 second count; bw+11.25: 1,1,1,0; bw+10: 1,0,0: bw+7.5: 1,1,1

I've been training first thing in the morning since last week. Great for my schedule but it still feels strange and (sometimes) awful. I felt like I was going to puke after most of today's squat sets thanks to the 60 g of whey and 50 g of oats sitting in my stomach. Next session, I'm going to nix the whey/oats and try going with just a rehydration formula with carbs (I've got some waxy maize kicking around), salt, baking soda, BCAAs, etc. I need to get more fluids in before starting, as I felt dehydrated the whole time.

Squat: HIPS, CHEST, STARE. Good sets, mostly. Last rep was ugly, though: tons of knee slide, lost balance, nearly twisted a bit. Lost focus and tightness due to fatigue.

Deadlift: form is starting to be more consistent. Back ext next time.

Chin negatives: I woke up 2.25 kg heavier today than a week ago, so maybe I shouldn't have moved the weight up on these? 0 = didn't manage to keep the eccentric going for the whole count to 5.

[Ryaan]

2017-01-24

C2 Rower: 10 max effort strokes / 140 off x 7
avg wattages (when I actually managed to measure): 352, 335, 330

Starting to get the hang of this. Sorta.

Set the C2 at 30 on / 140 off. Tried to get a good racing start, pull my 10 max effort strokes as soon as the interval starts, and then read off the avg wattage as soon as I finish the last stroke. Only managed to do this correctly on three intervals, but at least I have a system for quantifying my progress now.

First goal: 350+ avg wattage on all intervals (= 1:40 500 meter split)

[Ryaan]

2017-01-25

Squat: 20 x 5 x 2; 40 x 5; 65 x 3; 90 x 2; 110 x 3, 5, 5 (6 min rest)
Press: 20 x 5 x 2; 30 x 5; 40 x 3; 50 x 5 x 3 (5 min rest)
Back ext: bw x 8; bw+10 x 8; bw+15 x 12 x 3

Better pre-workout nutrition: orange squash + 1/2 tsp salt + 25 g waxy maize.

Squat: I didn't film the first set, in which I failed the fourth rep, but it must have been due to some dumb technical error. I think I lost tightness and dropped too hard into the hole. Not sure. Anyway, next two sets were fine, if a grind, so I'm going to keep increasing the weights.

Press: fine, except last rep of first set I let the bar drift forward as it came down and basically dropped it into the pins. Don't do this again!

Back ext: Ouch. I was toast after my third set holding 15 kg. As in, had to lie down for a while because my low back was on fire, decided not to do my accessory work for the day (lat pulls and LTEs), and sort of limped home. I guess I'm completely unadapted to work in this rep range, and my low back has no endurance whatsoever. Main cue: CHEST UP at the top, so I get the full range of motion.

[Ryaan]

2017-01-26

C2 Rower: 10 max effort strokes / 140s rest x 7
avg wattages: 343, 369, 362, 360, 360, 403, 366
mean across intervals: 366 (= 1:39 500 meter split)

Watched some useful videos from Concept2 on how to row properly before my workout:
Correct technique
Common errors

I warmed up with the top down approach shown in that first video: first working the arm pull, then incorporating the hip bend, then breaking at the knees, and then finally the full stroke. Basically the same approach as the SS method of teaching the power clean (and it seems to me that the power clean and the rowing stroke have a lot in common).

I got a better racing start by doing easy pulls for about 30 seconds before starting each interval and then doing 2-3 max effort pulls before the first pull that I'm counting. 6th interval I managed to catch a much better groove re: timing the arm pull and managed to put out a lot more power. Don't rush the recovery!

I more-or-less hit my last goal, so...

Next goal: 370+ avg wattage on all intervals (= 1:37 500 meter split)

[Ryaan]

2017-01-27

Squat: 20 kg x 10; 50 x 5; 65 x 3; 90 x 2; 112.5 x 4, 5, 3 (6 min rest)
Bench: 20 kg x 5 x 2; 30 x 5; 40 x 3; 50 x 2; 65 x 5 x 3 (5 min rest)
Deadlift: 50 kg x 5; 70 x 5; 95 x 2; 120 x 5 (mixed grip)
Lat pull: 145 lb x 8; 130 x 7; 115 x 7; 110 x 8
LTE: 10 kg x 8; 15 x 8; 20 x 6; 27.5 x 8 x 3

Tight/sore hamstrings, presumably from back extensions.

Squat: first set 5th rep, I let my chest collapse. Last set 4th rep, I dive bombed into the bottom position with knees forward; didn't even catch a bounce, just dropped the bar on the pins. Second set okay. I should have been able to get 3x5 at this weight, but I made a couple of big technical mistakes. Might be time to get another session of squat coaching, as my form doesn't feel dialed in at all. Repeating this weight next time.