Eric's Training Logs

[carson]

Sleep well, young man.

[dfreric]

I bit the bullet and purchased some garage gym equipment.

-Power Rack: Rogue RML 390F
-Bar: B&R
-Bumpers: Vulcan, 500lbs (the 45s are only 3 inches relative to Rogue's 3.25 width. I can get a full five with a spring on a B&R bar as opposed to four with the Rogues. They're also precision milled to within 1% of actual weight, and the difference was bigger with the Rogues. I'll have to pick up some straight steel with these soon as well so long as my weights keep going up, i.e., when I need a full five plates. I figure I've got a bit on that, and the bumper's are surprisingly cheaper than steel after shipping, at least if you buy the bumpers in sets. Plus you have flexibility in the bumpers to define the plates you want--I asked for 10x45 and 2x25.
-Change Plates: Precision milled Rogues.

It's a chunk of change, but with no terribly good gyms nearby, the erratic schedule of my school's gym, and a lack of good second-hand options in small-town Montana with, it's worth the money.

[dfreric]

4/2/18

Squat: 380x5x3

Bench: 292.5x3x5 (I switched to five sets of three, and it seems to have worked. I'm not sure whether it's simply given my golfer's elbow more of a chance to rest, not accumulating as much swelling at once, or whether it was time to switch to extend LP, but I'll take the success either way. If I'm at the end of LP, I'll either do a reset at some point, or I'll simply work my way down to four sets of three to three sets of three. Time will tell.)

Barbell Row: 255x5x3

Chins: Going to have to do them this evening. The workouts are starting to take so long that I run out of time.

[dfreric]

4/4/18

Squat: 385x5x3

Press: 180x5x3 (I barely made these. It's the golfer's elbow. I'm switching to five sets of three since that seems to give the elbow a chance to rest more, at least on bench.)

Deadlifts: 410x5x1 (With straps and belt. I'm frankly not tough enough to go hook grip, but I don't want to tear a bicep, which is unlikely but a real concern. I'll keep working the hook and use straps until milestones, at which point I'll use the switch grip. I was exhausted after this lift.)

Looks like i got a costal cartilage injury from my presses. If it doesn’t feel better by Friday, I’ll reduce the lifts that it hurts for a bit.

[dfreric]

4/6/18

A total body failure today. Systemic fatigue broke me down...

Squats: 390x5, 390x2 (Tweaked my back and racked the bar.)

Bench: 295x3x3 (Too tired to hit anymore)

Barbell Row: 260x5x2, 225x5 (Wore me out and back hurt)

I'm going to reset by 10% and will be in LA for a professional conference April 19. I'll be meeting with Paul Horn, CSSC. With his advice on technique, I'll rework my way up to these numbers again with better technique and see if I can push to a few goals before moving on to intermediate Programming. Alas, the honeymoon may be ending....

[carson]

Your progress and your plan to see Paul Horn, one of our most respected coaches, is fantastic. Yes, you may indeed be reaching your LP limit. But there is still fun ahead. You are getting to be quite strong already.

[dfreric]

Thanks, Carson. I’m looking forward to working with Horn. I’ve watched some of his videos and have seen his work in the form arena. A genuinely nice guy, too. I’ll talk about some intermediate programming options, but I've also picked up Andy Baker’s Garage Gym Warrior—an HlM style program. I should be able to more intentionally cut weight and pursue bjj again on it, and the latter has been my ultimate but limited purpose given how much I enjoy training.

I’ll say this, too: I really hurt my back! Nothing I haven’t experienced before but, man, walking around like you’ve gotten an alien probing gets old quickly

[dfreric]

4/9/18

The back was bad enough throughout parts of the weekend, I had to sit a lot. But I got myself up, even working a bit, to get some blood flowing to the tweak. I was able to do a light workout today, which was perfect for a couple of reasons: 1) I need a reset to extend LP for likely one last hurrah, 2) I spoke with Paul Horn prior to our in-person appointment who gave me some good squat technique pointers, and I need to practice them with lighter weights, and 3) I've rocked my body (which hasn't yielded a rocking body, mind you) pretty hard, and it's psychologically refreshing to lift in such a way that I'm not at the limit of my ability. Granted, the latter won't be here for long, but I'll take it for now.

Squat: 135x10x3 (I'm using some therapeutic numbers to drive blood and synovial fluid through my back. It felt awesome afterward! I'll titrate this weight up throughout the week, and see if I can't be back into my actual reset of 10% for squat--350lbs or so--by next Monday.

Press: 165x5x3 (I simply started my 10% reset with presses as they didn't particularly bother my back, and I'm eager to get them to the 200x5x3 marker--an unlikely goal of LP but realistic enough to try.

Deadlift: 135x5x3 (Again, I'm using therapeutic weights, and this felt great. My back is well on its way to rockin' again. I just need to force myself to give it a week.)

Chins: 4x3 (Because of my inconsistency, I've lost ground here. I'm going to begin doing them prior to barbell rows in the upcoming workouts and see if I can't really develop them.)

[dfreric]

4/11/18

Just moving my posterior chain to help my back heal. except bench, which like the press is at a 10% reset. I think I should be able to get back to 350lbs, my reset number on squat, on monday.

Squat: 225x7x3

Bench: 265x5x3

Deadlift: 225x5x1

[dfreric]

4/13/18

My back is feeling great, and I don't think it'll be a problem to get back on the train, albeit a reset train, for deads and squats next week. I've also got my garage gym setup, which is amazingly convenient (even if I need to finish sheet-rocking). This has inspired my wife to begin training. She was a D-1 soccer player (man, she sure got lucky with me!) and a good athlete, so I'm really excited to see what she can do. My guess is she'll struggle with heavier weights on squats based on her anthropometry (she was a midfielder), but should be able to kill it in deadlifts. I believe that some muscle mass has started to catch up with me on this week of rest. I look thicker without looking fatter (a rather nice side-effect), which I'm taking to mean my whole body was, indeed, in systemic fatigue. I believe that a reset was a good move even aside from the back.

Squat: 315x5x3

Press: 170x5x3

Deadlift: 315x5x3 (switch grip with belt)

Chins: (bodyweight 260) 6x3 (I've lowered my chin bar so that my feet can touch the ground between chins. I'm not sure whether that's a good thing or a bad thing but, bending my knees so that I'm in full lateral extension, I pull up above bar and finish the rep on the ground at full extension again. A chin, in other words. However, the feet touching the ground between reps takes a little off the grip strength, for better or worse, which at 260 can become a fairly large mitigating factor.)