Pawn's Log

[Pawn]

August 15, 2017

Progress note: The tiny little baby booths at the local Japanese restaurant no long requires a 'suck in' to sit in. Stupid little baby booths for babies...

Squat: 345
Bench: 160
Deadlift: 390

Squats were easy. Belt position was good. I might be going a little too deep... need to record.
Bench was okay. Shoulder felt really good.
Deadlifts were questionable... but we are going to progress the weight. Rep four had a form breakdown. I took a 15 second breath (standing up and re-positioning) and had a solid 5th rep.

Post workout I'm feeling something in my right lat I think? Base of the rib cage on the right hand side. It has a 'stretching' feel when I sit here when I brace. Morning will give me more information.

[Pawn]

August 18, 2017

Weight: 386 lbs

Diet Compliance
Target Consumption - 2800 calories
Average Consumption - 2752 calories
Average Protein - 249 grams
Average Fat - 95 grams
Average Carbs - 247 grams

Notes: Soccer rained out this week... morning weigh-ins were a roller coaster... max 388.8 - min 383.4. Again reporting last three day average.

Squat: 350
OHP: 122.5
Lat Pulldown: 120 [12,12,12]
Farmer Carry: 335??x6x50'

Squats felt strong again. I lost balance a little on the last rep of the last set... major effort used to finish the rep.
OHP was solid... breath timing was good. I watched Jordan's training footage (Training Day 8/17/17 - YouTube) and tried to match pace and breathing pattern. It was far easier... that or the 'performance boost' of the cute blonde in the neighbouring rack doing its job.
Lat pulldown reminds me of the curl days of yore. I'll bump up the weight and shoot for 8 next lat day. I noticed a 'light' pinching feeling when my grip was too narrow... don't have grip too narrow.
Farmer Carry went okay... I'm not certain on the weight... I had to use a different bar with a mystery weight. I think it was ~65 lbs. 90 second rests.

*edit* the lat thing mentioned in the last entry turned out to gone by morning... I think it is belt related

[Pawn]

August 20, 2017

I felt really beat-up today... especially in the lats / triceps. (shocker) I did a bunch of yard/garden work yesterday that may have hurt my recovery somewhat... but lat pulldowns slow eccentrics definitely did their job.

Squat: 355
Bench: 165
Deadlift: 395 [4]

Squats were easy. I think I need to get my shoulders a little tighter at the top (starting to feel the weight in my forearms... and that shouldn't be the case). Oh squatting to Metallica S&M Ecstasy of Gold gives a feeling of pure epicness.
Bench felt solid, but heavy. I'm going to start using fractional plates.
Deadlifts... I think its time for a deload. I've 'green-lit' too many imperfect sets. The variance of the belt position certain adds to the difficulties. 95% of 395 is ~375... so that's what we will pull on Friday.

[Pawn]

August 22, 2017

Sleep was an issue the last couple of days. My wife started a new job where she works nights (but gets to work from home)... and I have been as supportive as I can, but at the cost of some zZzs.

Squat: 360
OHP: 125 [5,5,4]
Lat Pulldown: 135 [8,8,8]
Farmer Carry: 315x8x50'

Squats were heavy... I really didn't have energy. Form got a little sloppy (a small amount of lateral shift) and a couple felt like grinders.
Overhead press just wasn't on point. Form was maintained but 'energy' on the 5th reps of all sets was low... will be repeating the weight.
Lat pulldowns I did more as a 'strength' movement and less as a 'hypertrophy' movement. (1.0 sec concentric / 0.5 sec eccentric) vs (3.0 sec concentric / 3.0 sec eccentric) I'm hoping this will reduce the required recovery time. (last time wrecked my lats for dayz)
Farmer Carry went okay surprisingly. Form felt good. Breathing timing felt good. Next time we bump the weight... but be warned farmer carry... you are first on the chopping block if this recovery nonsense doesn't sort itself out....

[Pawn]

August 25, 2017

Weight: 384 lbs
Diet Compliance
Target Consumption - 2800 Calories
Average Consumption - 2756 Calories
Average Protein - 247 grams
Average Fat - 99 grams
Average Carbs - 221 grams

Notes: The SS 3rd edition book (as was as PP 3rd) arrived from Amazon.ca. After giving it a read (I've read SS 2nd edition) I made today a 'form-focused' day.

Squat: 365
Bench: 167.5
Deadlift: 375

Squat form check: Depth was good once 200+ lbs was on the bar. Without that much weight is was an inch or two high (and require a table or rack to push 'up' against to hit proper depth on a body weight squat. Other thing I notice was my wrists were 'bent' a little more than I would like.
Weight felt pretty good. The last two reps of the 3rd set were a little grindy. (heavy grunting required)

Bench form adjustment: I threw everything that a 'professional-trainer' told me out the window. Their recommendation for shoulder pain was a 'neutral grip'... 'neutral' in this case means 'wide' or 'wider than I originally was pressing with. I pulled my hand in about an inch and boom... weight feels light - shoulder feels nothing.

Deadlift form adjustment: So I look at my training plan... and it looks like my squat will out-grow my deadlift in a week or two... consulting the forum archives it appears that people have come up with three possible scenarios...
#1. Mile high squat (nope - checked)
#2. Built Like T-Rex (don't think so - 80'' wingspan at 6'4'')
#3. Highly optimised elite lifter (lets be honest... I MIGHT know enough to be dangerous...)
I think my problem is #4... your setup and position is dog doo... I didn't think that was reasonable to do at ~400 lbs but I think that is what was happening.

So I completely readdressed the deadlift following the information in the book especially the lines "Your toes might be more pointed out than you want," on pg 104 and "A more knees-out position...This may be very important for lifters who have longer femurs" on pg. 134. What do yah know... I have really long femurs... maybe this applies to me...

The pull feels WAY different setup with my feet a little narrower and more toes pointed more out. I scrapped the shit out of my legs (good sign) and the pull felt very 'short'. I'm not certain which muscles were worked, it felt more like a brain puzzle learning the movement pattern, but the pull had minimal 'physical' effort. Maybe morning will tell me more.

[Pawn]

August 27, 2017

We had a really short workout today (80 minutes) due to Qixi (chinese valentine's day). Taking the wife out for dinner took longer than expected. Shorter rest periods, no farmer's carry, no headphones, and overly full... we got this...

Squat: 370
OHP: 125
Lat Pulldown: 135 [10,10,10]

Squats felt fairly heavy, didn't feel heavier than last time, just heavy. One rep had an 'uh-oh' feel to it... the tiny little voice going 'it might not go up... what are you going to do?' The 5th reps felt quite hard... I'm guessing shaving 3 minutes off the rest periods will do that sort of thing.
OHP felt grinder but I got through them. Again short rest periods. I'm actually somewhat surprised it went as well as it did.
Lat pulldown's had to be done in 10 minutes. I ended up with two minutes to spare. Feel the burn....

[Pawn]

August 29, 2017

Good news: There is a peck growing under that manboob! I most definitely can feel it... nobody can see it, but I know its there... Also shoulders are feeling awesome!
Bad news: New (read proper) deadlift position is going to require some reps to feel right...

Squat: 375
Bench: 170
Deadlift: 385 [3]

Squats felt heavy, but doable. I paused one rep (bad idea) I got that rep but it took alot out of me. I also got the sickest bicep pump in my right arm during the 3rd set... I didn't 'feel' anything during the set, but I suspect I had my wrist under the bar.... need to fix that or it will cause problems in the future.
Bench went well... I did wait a bit for that pump to wear down a bit though. I haven't been this confident or solid feeling on the bench in recent memory.
Deadlifts with the 'frog' stance feels like a circus trick. The first rep feels AMAZINGLY light, second feels like I would have expected, third felt odd... I obviously am not setting up correctly or losing the setup throughout the set.

I need more reps deadlifting this way... my current solution to this problem will be doing an 80% [5,5,5] volume day in place of the lat pull and farmer carries.

[Pawn]

September 1, 2017

Weight: 382 lbs
Diet Compliance
Target Consumption - 2800 Calories
Average Consumption - 2806 Calories
Average Protein - 248 grams
Average Fat - 78 grams
Average Carbs - 242 grams

Notes: Felt like shit on Thursday so I skipped soccer and grabbed a bunch of sleep. Workout today felt good. Volume deadlifts really had good 'mental' feedback.

Squat: 380
OHP: 127.5 [5, 4, 2]
Deadlift: 315 [5 beltless, 5 high-belt, 5 beltless, 5 low-belt, 5 beltless-shoeless]

Squats felt good again. I focused on getting my arm / wrist out from under the bar. I am going to do a light squat day on Sunday as per advanced novice (mainly to give more attention to my deadlift). *As a side note the personal trainers have started bringing clients around while I'm squatting to show technique...*

OHP sucked today, people curling in the squat racks meant I needed to use the power rack and my gym has all sorts of shit attached to the top of the power racks -- combined with me being very tall results in a 2 yard walkout into the middle of the freakin room. On my third set I didn't walk out far enough and seriously jammed my wrist... (tapped on the first near lockout and it felt weird, didn't notice) I pushed hard on the 2nd rep and really jammed it. So salty.

Deadlifting 315 (a true 2 rep max 3 months ago) for a 5x5 with minimal rest and wildly varying form really was a demonstration of strength increase.
Beltless - setup felt good, resetting felt good, bar path is nice and tight to shins.
Highbelt - really couldn't setup... lifts felt hard... definitely 'back' focused. Bar only clipped knees on the way up.
Lowbelt - setup was a okay, resetting was a little harder. It was difficult to find right grip (it needed to be further out)... pulls felt somewhat similar to beltless.
Shoeless/beltless - setup was really easy to get into... as the pull started it felt 'loose?' and I had to force my body under the bar. I think this is how skinny people lift?

Beltless felt the best.

[Pawn]

September 3, 2017

Squat: 315 [5,5,5,5,5]
Bench: 172.5
Deadlift: 385

Squatting at 80% feels a little different. It still feels heavy, but doesn't take nearly as much out of me. Reduced rest periods by 50%. (5 minutes as opposed to 10) I tried to get the tempo up a bit... (my normal worksets take about 2 minutes to complete) so, squat -> 1 big breathe -> squat and so on. Multiple breaths were needed for some reps.

Bench felt good again. As long as it keeps going up I'm a happy man.

Deadlifts were completed without a belt. I asked my wife to film the set... I ended up with 4 stills and two 5 seconds video clips... My lumber is good and tight, my upper thoracic is still rounded. No grinders, good bar speed. I'm going to focus on form with light deadlifts on Tuesday, focus on the upper back.

[Pawn]

September 5, 2017

Note: 4 hours of sleep and hopped up on caffeine...

Squat: 385
OHP: 127.5
Deadlift: 390

Squatting felt heavy, but a do-able kinda heavy. It is shocking how 'similar' 315 with 4 minutes of rest 'feels' like 385 with 8 minutes. Oh, for bonus points the 4th rep of my 3rd set was red-lit (I got off balance and cut the depth short by a few inches) by my wife (as I taught her how to do previously)... which she preceded to heckle me mid-set. Oh me oh my.

OHP first set was grindy as shite. The second and third sets felt much better. Technique I think. Breathing timing is still an issue.

Deadlifts were done without a belt or shoes. (I skipped the light deadlifts because last time they really didn't feel hard at all.) I am under the impression that I get setup better this way.... I'm going to need a video to know for sure. They definitely feel easier and the bar is closer to my shins for the entire set. I'm going to deadlift every session until they get 'hard' again.