Eric's Training Logs

[Jennifer Williams]

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.)

Hey Eric, congratulations on the garage gym set up and getting your wife on board. Exciting stuff! It will likely become your favorite room in the house. .

With regard to the chin-ups, I wanted to share my experience. It may or may not be relevant since I am less than one half of your size. . Anyhow, I started my love-hate relationship with pull-up/chin-ups years ago when I did P90X. At the time, my husband and I were doing it together. We had one bar that was for his height 5’11. So at 5’2, I had to use a stool. I would bring myself down with each rep where my feet would touch the stool. And I did everything I could not to use my feet to push off. I went through most all of P90X that way, when I finally started debating with my husband as to whether my pull-ups counted. He can be a big, mean man sometimes! Of course, his position was that they didn’t. So, I tried doing a couple of dead-hangs to prove him wrong. I could barely do a couple. It turns out that despite my belief that the feet weren’t making much of a contribution, they were and huge. So, I had to start all over from the beginning. I did the Armstrong pull-up routine and made great improvements. Anyhow, as I said, I am considerably smaller, but thought I would let you know that absolutely, the feet are a crutch. Maybe raise the bar and get some bands. I think that might be better. Start with the thick one, and graduate as you get better. .

[dfreric]

Ahh man! I think I unfortunately agree with everything you say. Except maybe the bands. I have mixed feelings as I can actually eke out 5-6 for the first on the first set and have gotten myself up to 10 in the past, but the second and third sets fail me. Maybe bands would be helpful there? I think maybe I just need to not be lazy and hit chins more consistently. At any rate, I will sadly accept my defeat here and thank you for your willingness to call me out I'm also going to check out the Armstrong pull-up routine. Rock on, Jennifer!

[Jennifer Williams]

Ahh man! I think I unfortunately agree with everything you say. Except maybe the bands. I have mixed feelings as I can actually eke out 5-6 for the first on the first set and have gotten myself up to 10 in the past, but the second and third sets fail me. Maybe bands would be helpful there? I think maybe I just need to not be lazy and hit chins more consistently. At any rate, I will sadly accept my defeat here and thank you for your willingness to call me out I'm also going to check out the Armstrong pull-up routine. Rock on, Jennifer!

You’re probably right about the bands. I never used them. The stool did give me enough experience to have a fighting chance. From there I just did singles and hung from the bar until I could string some together. I know a lot of people recommend focusing on the negatives and slowly lowering yourself down. I think if you can get one, you can work from there without the bands. Armstrong is FANTASTIC! Lots of military people use it to get their pull-ups where it needs to be.

It was pretty heartbreaking learning that all that hard work didn’t add up, so I figured I’d try to save you the same experience. Once I started getting the deadhangs, then he started picking on me for not getting my chin over the bar. So, now I waste all sorts of energy at the top of the bar (just to make sure that each one counts!!!). STUPID! Just get your chin over and get back to the bottom. Best of luck.

[dfreric]

You’re probably right about the bands. I never used them. The stool did give me enough experience to have a fighting chance. From there I just did singles and hung from the bar until I could string some together. I know a lot of people recommend focusing on the negatives and slowly lowering yourself down. I think if you can get one, you can work from there without the bands. Armstrong is FANTASTIC! Lots of military people use it to get their pull-ups where it needs to be.

It was pretty heartbreaking learning that all that hard work didn’t add up, so I figured I’d try to save you the same experience. Once I started getting the deadhangs, then he started picking on me for not getting my chin over the bar. So, now I waste all sorts of energy at the top of the bar (just to make sure that each one counts!!!). STUPID! Just get your chin over and get back to the bottom. Best of luck.

Ha! Yes. Can't overthink a chin too much! Leave that for the squat.

[dfreric]

4/16/18

Started my full workouts again--including squat and deadlift--at the reset levels.

Squat: 350x5x3 (My wife and I trained together tonight, and she noticed that I'm babying my left arm, the one with golfer's elbow. I was putting more weight on the right side of my body, which might be why I tweaked my back in the first place. I'd bet on it, in fact. I fixed it by, first, bucking up, and second putting on a compression sleeve. It seems to numb the pain a bit, and I moved the bar into the right spot. I'll need her to watch this for me.)

Bench: 272.5x5x3 (I'll likely make 5lb jumps after visiting Horn later this week, but I want to make sure I'm at a reasonable level for everything so that I get a chance to actually practice the technique he helps me put in place. It gets hard to keep and practice perfect technique at the peak of your current ability, after all.)

Deadlift: 370x5x1 (Mix grip, belt.)

[dfreric]

4/18/18

I trained alone, so I put an Ipad in front of me to see if I was keeping my arms in the proper position for squats or if I was babying my left. I had to struggle, but I got them in place. The difficult part was making sure to look back down away from the beauty of myself in the ipad as I actually began my squats. A modicum of self-control goes a ways, here.

Squat: 360x5x3 (I got out over mid-foot on one squat and almost had to let it go. The thought of having to unload my weights and reload those SOBs made me struggle through into what was essentially a good-morning squat. I luckily didn't hurt my back and was quite happy not to have to reload my weights.)

Press: 172.5x5x3

Barbell rows: 225x5x3

[dfreric]

I met with Paul Horn today. Here's a summation of what I need to work on based on our training:

Squat: I'm not bending enough at the waist and I'm not bringing my knees out soon enough. I need to work doing both at the same time. I also stay on my heels too much, and I need to get mid-foot, which feels like the toes to me. I've always know that my grip is too wide, so I need to continue in my flexibility, but he also suggested a thumbed grip for a time to help with the tendonitis. That way, I don't pul the bar down on heavy weights. The final thing on squat pertains to the head. I have a tendency to pull my head up while in the hole. I need to keep the chin tucked because pulling the head can, under heavy loads, lead to a rounded upper back. Not good.

Bench: Pull the feet back further than I'd think and press the heels down hard, tighten the scapulas between each rep without shrugging. On bench days, I may put bench first until the tendonitis has subsided.

Press: I need to work on keeping my arms in front of me, resting on my lats. This is actually pretty difficult for my inflexible shoulder girdle, but it made a difference in terms of bar speed. My grip was also a little off still, creating a moment arm in my wrists. More then anything, stay tight. He suggested trying to figure out the double hip drive for when my press begins to stall

Deadlift: narrower stance,and don't lean back into my heels so much. For all lifts, be as much on the front as the back of your feet, which merely means mid-foot but in a way that one can palpably make sense of the idea. I need to get my belly better between my legs, which means more squat-like legs at the bottom. I also tighten my back as I get up in the air, which we figured out gets fixed when I pull the bar hard into my shins as a counterweight, obviously after I've touched my shins already.

I'm likely going to drop all my weight again to work the technique, even though I'm starting to get heavy again. I'll use conservative increases and add a light squat day when that starts to grind again. We're going to see if we can keep this gravy train rolling for a another month or two.

[dfreric]

4/23/18

Whew! Finally back into the swing of things after being in LA for the conference. The wife and I trained together tonight, pretty much getting as cliche' as possible by listening to AC/DC and Zepplin while working out in our garage. It could have only been worse if we both merely benched while sporting mullets. My wife did deadlifts to Thunderstruck while I squatted to Kashmir. We should really be ashamed, but, man, it was pretty enjoyable. I need to get myself an AC/DC muscle shirt. It will be cropped.

Bench: 275x5x3 (We started with bench on account of the golfer's elbow. This was Horn's suggestion, and it was the right move. I moved 275 very easily, and I should be able to keep my bench going up for a bit.)

Squat: 330x5x3 (I took a step back to really work on technique. I'm eager to get to 405x5x3, which I'm pretty sure will happen. But since I'm reworking technique, I'm likely strengthening muscles that haven't been as proportionately strengthened thus far. I'm not sure if I'll jump only by 5lbs or by 10lbs for a couple of sessions.)

Barbell Rows: 235x5x3 (Screwed this one up by not looking at my log. I was supposed to deadlift. I'll drop the deadlift back down a bit or, more likely, keep it the same to compensate for my shenanigans.)

Chins: (bodyweight 267) 5, 5, 4 (these were dead-hangs, which isn't bad after 4 days of eating pasta and drinking whiskey, packing on the weight. I'm going to whizz like a friggin' racehorse, likely starting tonight or tomorrow, as I expunge the massive amounts of water necessary for digesting a lot of carbs. Maybe I'll stave off the quarter-hour piss-fest by drinking some beer to add some back in? Yeah.... I'm guessing I'll be around 263-262 after my bouts with the bathroom.)

[SLOUGHPUMPER]

Good progress and solid log man, subscribed. We're close to the same age and bodyweight (I'm 37, 6'1 240ish), got a log on here too.

Had the same grip issues you described limiting deadlifts and elbow soreness from squats. Chins tend to help my elbows and I switched to 3x2 for deads to help my grip strength catch up a lil.

Jealous of your squat #'s, pretty solid.

[dfreric]

Thanks sloughpumper. I'm checking out your log, too. Good to know on the deads. I may do the same, although I'll give it a couple more sessions probably. I'd like to work back up to 410x5 and then likely switch to the 3x2.