Young "master" novice log.

[strongpanda]

Don't Touch My Bar - Don't
touch
my
bar Products from Vera Nahce | Teespring For your wife. Also comes in Men's. Maybe Nikki can make one that says "Don't Fix My Squat" or something like that.

[Geoff Bischoff]

Wow, I think Julie would dig that. Ha!

[Geoff Bischoff]

W13D1

A rough day in the gym.

SQUATS: 375x2; 335x3, 3

I failed my workset, and also failed my backoffs. In all circumstances I just entirely ran out of energy at the bottom of the lift and didn't even get out of the hole. Could not apply the necessary mental pressure for a volitional grind. I was well fed and rested; I suspect I'm just nearly done with LP on squats. Video at YouTube

This brought to mind Philippians 4:13; "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." This is often quoted in athletic contexts, but inappropriately. Frequently the person saying it is thinking, "I can do all things -- leap tall buildings, deadlift 800 lbs, split a sea with a staff, anything!" But in the context, if I back up and read from verse 10 onward (as one should do with any written work: gather the context to avoid twist-quoting), it means nearly the opposite of that. When Paul writes this, he is in prison, and in generally poor physical condition. When he says he can do all things, he means he can *bear any hardship* through the power of Christ. He says he knows specifically how, in any situation, to *be content.*

So today, I have failed, but I can bear it, because my value lies not in how much weight is on the barbell, but in the Spirit of Christ within me.

Nevertheless, I plan to reattempt on Friday and Lord-willing, to crush 375x5.

BENCH: 283x3x3

Got this up minimum drama, but these were heavier than expected, too.

ROWS (pronated): 225x3x3

Just for the sake of getting a lightweight pull in.

[Mike Longnecker]

Love this post, and the rare fact that you understand the context of that passage well!

375x2 at 211 is a 1.77x bw squat. That's awesome In my opinion.
I'm not saying give up on your LP, but when the time comes to switch to more advanced programming, I surely think you will be able to say without a doubt that you took it as far as it would go. Awesome work.

[Geoff Bischoff]

Brother, thanks. Your encouragement is well-timed, and I'm grateful.

Let's keep throwing iron.

[Geoff Bischoff]

W13D2

Overall: "Meh." Got the work done. Today was definitely work rather than play.

Squat (Light day): 295x5x2

Form felt really solid on these, as it should when I'm operating at 78%.

Press: 175x3x5

This is a volume PR: 5 triples at 175. Previously I stalled at 175 when doing fives; SSC told me to reset and come back up by triples, then microload. So here I am: next weight probably 177.5. But because I'm weird, I may do 177 (then 179, 181, et cetera), for reasons only a licensed counselor is likely to understand. I'm pushing bench triples by 2 lbs per from day 1, so it's likely I'll do this on press as well now. Also, I've decided, the first time I get 3x3 but fail on the 4th or 5th triple, I'm going to scale to 3x3 on the press as well to run out LP, as I've done with the bench.

DL (Light day): Not conducted to plan.

Due to time, instead of the prescribed light-DL (in place of PC, recommended for older lifters), I did a short intensity burst. 10 total reps: 135x5; 225x3; 315x1; 425x1.

The heavy single came up smoothly and I held it for a slow five count at top for grip. Then I boosted out of the gym and back to other things.

[positronbomb]

Just thought of something.
What might help is add an extra 50 to 100 lbs of your existing 5 rep PR, to the bar.
Loading the bar on your shoulders, setting safety pins/bar (whatever they're called) at a height maybe a little above your usual parallel squat.
Then do one gruelling slow negative rep till you nearly pass out.
I guarantee after performing that negative rep, the existing 5 rep PR weight will no longet be a psychological barrier.
This is all performed inside a power rack with safety pins for safety reasons.

I'm not sure you want to do intense things like that, just thought I would share with you what popped into my mind.

[Geoff Bischoff]

W13D3:

The day the LP died.

Squat: 375*0, 1

After a warm up that felt strong and technically sound, my first rep at 375 was a slow negative right into the safeties (kinda like positronbomb recommended above, but not?). I reloaded the bar, and with pure rage and adrenaline got a grindy single up, just because. But then I stripped the bar and called it a day, already wobbly

Bench: 285*3*3

These were quite difficult. Carry-over fatigue from squat? Maybe. I'll keep at these triples a bit longer.

Light pull (rows): Not conducted

Had the wobbles and the sweats ever since the squat fail and single; followed by some minor flare of biceps tendonitis after bench, so I called it done.

Sweet LP, what good times we had...

Now I need to get smarter on how to run intermediate programming on Lift A while the other lifts are in (late, tricked out) NLP.

[positronbomb]

Oh sorry to hear.
Negatives shouldn't be done before worksets. They will destroy you. Do one at the end of your worksets but maybe on your light day.
Just do one negative and never before your workset.

This is kicking me in the guts, I want to see you succeed. I'm cheering for you on the side lines.

Your body might be in a state of over training.
Maybe consider just working out twice a week for 2 weeks.
You've been pushing yourself really hard.

Best wishes mate.
I also hope the creatine helps. I have certainly noticed a difference with me.

[Geoff Bischoff]

So apparently, mobile version always deletes instead of edits...

I was joking about the negative rep, brother. The joke was basically "the bar went down and never came up." This was purely unintentional.

Don't spend a lot of time being sad for me, man. I had 13 weeks of LP, as a 40 year old dude who has spent a lot of time screwing around in the gym. I've had a better run than I deserve.

And there is zero doubt that I am overtrained on squat right now. So this weekend I'll spend time trying to figure out how to pivot into new squat programming in the short term.

Longer term I've been drafting an "Old Man Texas Method" hybrid with some SSC input for a few days now, in hopes it will be ready when I need it.

SDG!