Rathofthebeard's SS NLP Log

[JT_]

Nice lifts. You jumped right into the deep quickly! If anything gets stuck too early you can always do the slight deloads and clean the form up. It takes time and experience to put it all together like you're saying. Cleans are definitely awkward to do at first but they're well worth sticking to. Looking forward to following along with the logs.
Also, Cowboys from Hell is an amazing tune. Easily adds 5 more lbs to the bar

[rathofthebeard]

Nice lifts. You jumped right into the deep quickly! If anything gets stuck too early you can always do the slight deloads and clean the form up. It takes time and experience to put it all together like you're saying. Cleans are definitely awkward to do at first but they're well worth sticking to. Looking forward to following along with the logs.
Also, Cowboys from Hell is an amazing tune. Easily adds 5 more lbs to the bar

Thanks, Man! And yeah, basically anything Pantera easily makes your lifts stronger.

[rathofthebeard]

A good day today.

Bench:
45 x 5 x 2
95 x 5
135 x 3
185 x 2
205 x 5 x 3

Squats:
45 x 5 x 2
135 x 5
185 x 3
245 x 2
295 x 5 x 3

Deadlift:
135 x 5 x 2
185 x 3
235 x 2
315 x 4
315 x 1

Tunes: Amon Amarth: Deceiver of the Gods (album) and a few random songs by Pantera, Amon Amarth and Overkill

Notes: I widened my grip slightly on bench press. I had previously been holding my hands at about the middle of the inner knurling, now I'm lining up the outer edge of my palms with the edge of the ring between the two sets of knurling and that makes a world of difference. Not changing anything else other than really focusing on keeping my lats tight, my bench has never felt stronger. A good bench day. Squats were OK. I'm still messing a little with my grip and bar position and trying to keep my elbows out from under the bar. Still three good working sets. I'm thinking about giving it one more week and then transitioning my squats to advance novice where I only add weight on Monday and Friday and use Wednesday as a lighter recovery day. We'll see how this week plays out though. The first 3 working deadlifts were great, 4 was really really tough and I finished 5 just shy of lockout so I went back and got 5 as a single a few minutes later. I'm going to chalk this up as a fluke and still continue up to 320 on Wednesday when I deadlift again.

[rathofthebeard]

Press:
45 x 5 x 2
85 x 5
115 x 3
125 x 2
150 x 5 x 3
150 x 4

Squats:
45 x 5 x 2
135 x 5
185 x 3
245 x 2
300 x 5 x 3

Power clean:
45 x 5 x 2
95 x 3 x 5

Tunes: At the Gates: Slaughter of the Soul and At War with Reality

Notes: Really frustrated with OHP. My form is good, I just always end up failing the last rep or two when I add weight. Oh well, I guess I'll repeat 150 on Monday. Skwaats felt good. Hit 300 so there's that. Can't wait to hit 400. Power cleans.....need a lot of work. Next time I clean, I'm going to bring down the weight a bit and really try to get the timing down. I can't seem to accelerate the bar enough so that I can synchronize the catch with when my feet hit the ground as several tutorials suggested I do. Oh well, I'll figure it out eventually.

[rathofthebeard]

Pretty good day today.

Bench:
45 x 5 x 2
95 x 5
135 x 3
185 x 2
210 x 5 x 3

Squats:
45 x 5 x 2
135 x 5
185 x 3
245 x 2
305 x 5 x 3

Deadlift:
135 x 5 x 2
185 x 3
265 x 2
320 x 5

Tunes: Metallica - Ride the Lightning (their best album, hands down) and about half of Kill 'em All.

Notes: The first two sets of bench felt a little weird. There's definitely some grind going on after about rep 3 of every set but I'm still pumping them out. My elbows are really wanting to flair bit, but I just need to concentrate on keeping them in and keeping the bar path consistent. Squats sucked. I think this is definitely the last week I add weight every workout. I'm having a bit of a problem keeping a consistent back angle and I think that's because my stance width isn't totally consistent. Need to work on that a bit. I really didn't want to do deadlifts after squats but I did. The last rep was a real fight to get it locked out but I did without hitching so I'm happy.

[rathofthebeard]

Squats:
45 x 5 x 2
135 x 5
185 x 3
250 x 2
310 x 5 x 3

Press:
45 x 5 x 2
85 x 5
105 x 3
125 x 2
150 x 5
150 x 1
135 x 4
140 x 5

Power Cleans:
45 x 5 x 2
85 x 3 x 2
65 x 3 x 3

Tunes: Death - Human and Individual Thought Patterns.

Notes: Thank God that's overwith. Today was a struggle. Felt really really worn out and just exhausted. I've been under a lot of stress at work and putting in a lot of overtime which means I haven't been sleeping like I should. I started with squats first because I was really dreading them knowing full well I wasn't totally recovered from Wednesday's workout. I honestly have no idea how I managed to unrack the bar and grind out 5 reps for three separate sets at 310 but I did somehow. OHP suffered terribly. The first set went OK, but I had to grind so much on the first rep of the second set there was no way I was getting any more at that weight. So I took it down to 135, rested a bit, did 4 and then added 5 lbs and finished with a pretty decent set of 5. I came within inches of skipping power cleans entirely but I'm glad I didn't. My form still strongly resembles a dog turd wrapped in a tortilla but I think I finally have a handle on how the jump works and where my hips need to be to get the bar properly accelerated. It's definitely improving.

[rathofthebeard]

Bench:

45 x 5 x 2
95 x 5
135 x 3
185 x 2
215 x 4
215 x 1
215 x 5
215 x 4

Squat:

45 x 5 x 2
135 x 5
185 x 3
255 x 2
315 x 5 x 3

Deadlift:
135 x 5 x 2
185 x 3
265 x 2
325 x 4
325 x 1

Not bad today. I didn't stay tight through my first set of bench, so I'm fairly certain the missed rep there was due to form. The second set saw me really really grinding through the last rep but I managed to lock it out and the final set saw me getting pinned and having to ask for help from a nearby trainer. Oops. Oh well, guess I'm repeating that weight and probably adding a little more rest time in between working sets (I've been doing 4-5 minutes. Squats were good, hit three plates for the first time and every rep felt pretty damn solid. I had to hurry through deadlifts because I spent too much time resting (a.k.a. dicking around trying to get a good video to upload to instagram) between sets. I'm going to repeat 325 for deadlifts on Friday.

[rathofthebeard]

Pretty crappy today.

Squats:
45 x 5 x 2
135 x 5
185 x 3
225 x 2
255 x 5 x 3

Press:
45 x 5 x 2
85 x 5
105 x 3
125 x 2
145 x 5
145 x 1
45 x 5 x 2

Power Clean:
45 x 1

Barbell Rows:
135 x 8 x 3

Squats were a light recovery. It was nice to have that chance to really focus on my form and deal with a weight that feels heavy but doesn't require the kind of grind that really heavy squats do. 255 x 5 x 3 felt really heavy just a couple months ago so it was pretty cool to notice the difference between then and now. A testament to the program, I suppose. I was dealing with really awful tendinitis in my left elbow, which cut my press and cleans short for the day. I'm pretty sure I strained my elbow a little during Monday's squat session when I improperly racked (translated: almost dropped because it wasn't racked when I thought it was) the right side of the bar with 3 plates on it. It hurt a little yesterday but it really flared up today. Made even thinking about power cleans painful so I decided that as long as I was NDTFP, I'd do a few sets of rows so I could at least feel like the morning wasn't a total wash. My elbow felt a little better afterward and much much better after I ran hot water on it for a few minutes in the shower. I'm hoping that it'll be pain free when I bench and squat heavy again on Friday.

On another note, I'm thinking that I might have to move to an intermediate program very shortly for the presses. I'm currently reevaluating my press form and going to bring the weight down to a manageable 135 for my working sets next time I press and see if I can't take my LP back up to 160 with better form. But I think I'm going to have to start adding some volume very shortly on both press and bench to continue to move forward.

[rathofthebeard]

Skwaats:
45 x 5 x 2
135 x 5
225 x 3
275 x 2
320 x 5 x 3

Bench:
45 x 5 x 2
95 x 5
135 x 3
185 x 2
215 x 2
135 x 3
135 x 5 x 2

Deadlift:
135 x 5 x 2
225 x 3
275 x 2
330 x 5

Squats went well, heavy, grindy and hard but I got all the reps so I'm happy. Bench was going OK until I got to my working set and my elbow started hurting too much to continue. Oh well. Guess I'll repeat 215 again. I'll get it one of these days. Deadlifts felt better than they've felt in a while. Nice and clean. Heavy but quite manageable.

[rathofthebeard]

Pretty good day.

Squats:
45 x 5 x 2
135 x 5
225 x 3
275 x 2
325 x 5 x 3

Press:
45 x 5 x 2
85 x 5
105 x 3
125 x 2
135 x 5 x 3

Chins:
3 x 3 on the assisted machine with -70 lbs

Tunes: Lamb of God - Ashes of the Wake and HOD - Book of the Worm (great blackened death metal band from San Antonio, if anyone's interested).

Squats felt the best they have since hitting 3 plates last week. Definitely some grinding but made it through OK. Form was consistent and I'm getting more comfortable working with heavier weights. I've noticed a tendency for my arms to slide outward from my initial grip position towards the plates on the end of the barbell, but I don't think it's a big deal as long as I pay attention and don't crush my fingers when I rack the bar. De-loaded press to 135 and nailed all of the reps with emphasis on form. It felt really solid with minimal grinding so that was good. Took about 4 minutes between each set, will probably up that to 5 when I add weight again on Friday. First time with chins. I almost made one rep without any assistance, but not quite. I'm not 100% sure how to program chins so I probably should have done more reps but I was running low on time and needed to get out of the gym in a hurry. I'll do some double-checking before I do chins again next week.