Devyn's Training Log

[Devyn Stewart]

You already know how to squat. You don't present the same technique problems when you're not fatigued.
That indicates a weak link in the chain. To me it looks like your quad strength is breaking down first.
Your hips look strong and your lower back movement looks strong.
Either you can focus on increasing your quad strength (or other offending muscle group) with an accessory exercise or just be patient waiting for the offending muscle group to naturally catch up, while perforning the basic exercises.

Either way you're doing great. Enjoy your youth.

Thanks! I guess I'm just looking at what I need to do to maintain my form a bit better under load. I think the eye gaze idea will help me out some soon.

[Devyn Stewart]

01/14/2019

Squat: 305x5x3 (first, second, third)
Bench: 202.5x5x3 (Tied PR)
Power Clean: 185x3x5 (PR!)

Notes:

Squat kinda sucked as usual, but I think I might have figured something out. I don't think my gaze is the biggest issue. On the third set of squats, I decided to really, really focus on keeping the bar over mid-foot for the entire rep. I think I relax at the bottom pretty often to reach depth, and that throws off my balance. I noticed today on the 2nd set that my weight went onto my toes and that I could feel it every time out of the hole. It was really hard to do, but I just tried to fight that and stay over mid-foot. I don't think I completely succeeded, but I'm fairly confident that the third set was the best of the day. More on this on Wednesday.

Bench was very encouraging. It's great because of how poorly squat is going atm. Anyway, I'm one 2.5 pound jump from a PR over the last try at LP, and I'm about 99.87% sure I can get it, given how solid the last set of 202.5 was.

Power clean was a PR, I guess.

Post edit: Elbow tendinitis is getting better, and so is the shoulder day-to-day. The knee issues are pretty much completely gone. For some odd reason, power clean really annoyed my elbow last night. Not sure what did it, but I’ll be keeping my eye out for it in the future.

[Devyn Stewart]

01/16/2019

Squat: 310x5x3
Press: 135x4,3,3,2,1
Deadlift: 365x2

Notes:

Alright, everyone, I've got a whole lot to say today.

Squat: This was the feel good lift of the day. Caitlin doesn't lift on Wednesdays, so she couldn't record my sets like she normally does. It's tough to record on my own since I go to a globo with racks very close to one another, and I can't exactly set up a makeshift tripod, or even a real tripod for that matter. So, y'all are going to have to believe me on this one, but I think I've made a breakthrough. I really, really focused on keeping the weight over mid-foot for the entire movement. I made everything else take a back seat. I squatted slower, and I did it even though I thought it was a weaker position. By the time I got up to 310, the reps were much more consistent. It feels much better, and I think my squat form will be improved significantly. I am awaiting a video taken with 315 on Saturday.

Press: This was horrible. I need to start recording these way more often, like probably every single set until I figure it out, because it feels like an abomination. I am also pretty sure that this is the actual culprit for my elbow tendinitis. It makes sense, since I often allow the bar to tip in the frontal plane when it gets very heavy/grindy. I also noticed that my shoulder and elbow situation was great after squats, but my elbow was like 75% angry after press. The layback also feels unnatural and stupid. I'm going to record my next set of press and hopefully figure something out because this is frankly terrible. I should also mention that I am planning on switching to five sets of three since my performance is getting worse. I got 4,4,4 last time at this weight, and after 4,3 this time, I called an audible and decided to go for 5x3. I, of course, failed it, but I feel as though I will get a better training effect from 5x3 on both upper body lifts since my upper body genetics as poverty as that of a slightly hypogonadal 5'4" man-child.

Deadlift: On this I just don't know. I got 2 when I previously got 5. I just don't understand. I didn't go for a third, but I think anyone with half a mind watching would know I wasn't getting 3, not even with significant grind. I took a video, and I'll go ahead and attach it, but the angle is crap since I had to set up some plates within the platform bounds for a makeshift tripod.. So, there are 3 possibilities in my mind since the form felt alright for the lift.
1) I have not recovered from the last session of deadlifts/power cleans on Saturday/Monday.
2) My workout today before the deadlifts was significantly harder and caused me to be more fatigued going into the deadlift.
3) I am detraining between deadlift sessions.
I think I can safely through out #3, as this schedule has been working for a good number of increases, indicating that I wasn't detraining before. Not sure why I all of a sudden would. I think 2 is possible, as squats were heavier, but I also wasn't losing balance forward. My lower back should theoretically be more fresh due to this fact, but I could be overlooking something. I definitely felt more discouraged than on Saturday since I failed my press and felt pretty useless. However, I think #1 is the most likely, especially due to the fact that school just started again, and I am a bit stressed out. I'm not getting as much sleep as I normally do (getting ~7-7.5 even though I do my damnest to get 8. Life sucks, ya know?), and I'm sure my cortisol levels are up from running around and trying to keep up all day. I'm going to wait and see if Monday is any better. If I can't get 365x5 clean then, I might have to make a programming change.

I don't want to believe it, but I'm pretty sure the end is nigh, my friends. I'm beginning to fail more lifts per day than I get. I'm going to push hard and squeeze out every pound that I can, especially on lifts like squat, bench, and power clean, where I think I have a bit more potential. That being said, I think I'm going to have to start switching some lifts to intermediate programming. Now, let's all forget about this workout, shall we?

[Devyn Stewart]

01/19/2019

Squat: 315x5x3 (first, second, third)
Bench: 205x5x3 (PR!)
Power Clean: 190x3x5 (PR!)

Notes:

Squats were weird. I'm focusing a lot on 1: keeping my weight over mid foot and 2: hitting depth convincingly. It seems as though atm I can have one, the other, or half-ass both. Set #1 I kept the weight over mid foot great, at least I thought, but depth was questionable. Second set, depth was great, but balance was horrible. Third set, both were alright at different times. I definitely need some practice.

Bench was easy. Glad I took a video from this angle because I noticed some serious asymmetry in the frontal plane. I'll be working on this in the future.

[Devyn Stewart]

Update:

I am sick today. I'm scheduled to train tomorrow. I'm not sure how I'll be feeling by then, as I don't feel like I could deadlift 135 today, let alone 365. I have no idea what I'm going to do, but this is potentially a time to lose a lot of progress. I'm really hoping that's not how it happens. We'll see tomorrow.

[Devyn Stewart]

01/23/2019

Squat: 320x5x3
Press: 135x3,2,3,3,3
Deadlift: 350x4 Pretty sure I rounded every one of these.

Notes:

I am very frustrated today. I am still sick.

Squat went well, but I'm not even sure if I can call it a PR for two reasons.
1) I've already hit 320, but I'm pretty sure they were an inch high.
2) I don't even know for sure that these weren't high, even though they sure didn't feel high.

I am tired of press 2.0. I'm sure it's because I suck at it, but I can't even press more with it than without it. I failed the second set w/press 2.0 and then easily got 3 more after reverting back to a strict press. Don't think I'm going to do it anymore because the reasoning for it seems dumb anyway.

I could have gotten a 5th, but I couldn't stop rounding no matter how hard I tried. I think it's a form issue having to do with the fact that I haven't deadlifted in a week and was sick and temporarily lost a good amount of motor control. I felt like I was relearning the movements today. Must have not done as well w/deadlifts.

[positronbomb]

I am tired of press 2.0. I'm sure it's because I suck at it, but I can't even press more with it than without it. I failed the second set w/press 2.0 and then easily got 3 more after reverting back to a strict press. Don't think I'm going to do it anymore because the reasoning for it seems dumb anyway.

Your sentiments with this, mirror mine.
I gave up on it, after seriously hurting my back trying it.
I only care that my strength is increasing, trying to implement methods that might improve your 1 rep max in competition, don't particularly interest me.

[Geoff Bischoff]

Press 2.0 is tough. I'm not good at it. My best presses are still a lot stricter than they have to be. My rec: Practice 2.0 on the first rep of each set, in hopes of maybe finding the sweet spot at some point? Then complete sets with 1.5 or strict. This is what I do.

Side note: Still haven't found that sweet spot ... :/

Hope you get better soon, man.

[Devyn Stewart]

Press 2.0 is tough. I'm not good at it. My best presses are still a lot stricter than they have to be. My rec: Practice 2.0 on the first rep of each set, in hopes of maybe finding the sweet spot at some point? Then complete sets with 1.5 or strict. This is what I do.

Side note: Still haven't found that sweet spot ... :/

Hope you get better soon, man.

You seem to have found a good amount of success anyway. Perhaps proper coaching makes the difference, but while I don't have access to that, I guess press 1.0 it is. And thanks for the well-wishes. I sure hope so too!

Your sentiments with this, mirror mine.
I gave up on it, after seriously hurting my back trying it.
I only care that my strength is increasing, trying to implement methods that might improve your 1 rep max in competition, don't particularly interest me.

I haven't hurt my back, but my shoulder often has some weird popping feelings when I lose my balance forward, which nearly always happens with press 2.0. Shoulders feel much better after attempting the strict press. I am interested in increasing 1RM for potential competitions, but 1) I'd probably choose powerlifting over strengthlifting and 2) at least atm and while I still don't care to learn it, I'm stronger with out it!

[Devyn Stewart]

01/26/2019

Squat: 325x5 (PR!), 305x5x2
Bench: 207.5x5x3 (PR!)
Chin-ups: 3,3,3 (probably ~240 with clothes and such)

Notes:

The end is night, my friends. Decided to switch to top set of 5 with two back-offs for squat, and it sure felt like a good idea. First set was tough, and my lower back rounded a bit, but the balance felt better. Bit of knee slide on the last one, but it's getting better. I fully intend on finishing LP this Wednesday, whether I can hit 330 or not. If I can, that'll be the icing on the cake.
(Also, this and the previous squat were PRs because the previous ones were nullified due to depth.)

Bench was a little crooked, but not too much to report. I think I'll be switching to 5x3 next session and run out another week or two of LP before I switch fully to HLM and lose some weight. Speaking of which...

I was pleasantly surprised by chins. Somehow my fat ass can still do 3 strict chin-ups. Decided that since power cleans won't be featured in my subsequent programming, I won't be needing them anymore, but chins are quicker and provide some therapeutic effect on my elbows. Plus I like them.

I found out recently that I'm not eating the 4600 calories I thought I was. I was miscounting, and I was actually eating closer to 5100 calories a day. This makes me feel better, since I was ~210 when I was eating 4000 over the summer. I was sad because I thought I was going to have to cut significantly lower than that 4000 to get back to ~215, but I think slowly reducing calories to ~4000 will get me back to ~215-220 (from ~235), and I might have some calories to spare. I had a bad experience cutting when I first did it before I was all about strength training, but I was cutting from ~195->~185, so I think I can preserve/gain strength a lot better this time.

As for my plans, I'll be switching to HLM here soon on the lower body lifts, and soon after on the uppers. I'll detail everything in my intermediate log. I'll make a new one since the last one sucked. Excited to finish up LP here soon!