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Thread: Less weak than last week

  1. #81
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    Default NLP Week 26

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    02 June 2021
    Weight - 209
    Squat - 255 (light day)
    Bench - 175
    Deadlift - 345

    Weight seems to have jumped a fair amount. I don't mind that but hopefully it's mostly muscle.

    Bench was super grindy. Still, it's 100 lb above my first day, so that's a nice landmark.

    Deadlift went well. I'm almost back to where I was when I hurt myself. I'm really trying hard to make sure my back is set right as I suspect I may have been soft in the lower back on the pull that tweaked things.

    After Friday's workout, I'll be on vacation for a little over two weeks and won't have access to a gym. I'll have to figure out the right re-entry plan, particularly since I've already hurt myself by being too aggressive coming off a break. I'm open to suggestions.

  2. #82
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    Quote Originally Posted by Hooper View Post
    After Friday's workout, I'll be on vacation for a little over two weeks and won't have access to a gym. I'll have to figure out the right re-entry plan, particularly since I've already hurt myself by being too aggressive coming off a break. I'm open to suggestions.
    I always refer to Rori's article on The Reset. No sense in complicating things.

    It's a good read for me, too. I'll be taking a few week+ breaks in the coming months for various reasons. Enjoy your holiday!

  3. #83
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    Thanks! It'd searched for that in the past but never ran across that article. I'm saving it as I'm sure I'll be using it a lot.

  4. #84
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    Default NLP Week 26

    4 June 2021
    Weight - 208
    Squat - 325
    Press - 117.5 (4,4,4,3)
    Clean - fail

    Thanks to a thoughtful individual who decided to knock on our door at 3:30 AM, we had an impromptu home defense drill that destroyed about 3 hours of sleep last night. Whoever it was didn't stick around by the time we were ready to check things out, so likely a drunk person had wandered through and thought our house was somebody else's. (Our house is in a good neighborhood adjacent to a sketchy one, so we sometimes get drift-through.) All went well other than loss of sleep and a bit of stress.

    Squat went well. Things felt like they were slowing down a bit more, but I don't know if that was the weight or last night's festivities. Either way, I got it and set a new PR (now with better form!).

    Press was grindy. I never really did 'feel the groove' like the past couple weeks or so. I like to think I could have gotten it with better sleep.

    The clean was trash. I was going for 140 and was doing great up to a warm-up single of 135, at which point everything just felt like mush. I got a set in at 135 and couldn't get a second set, so I dropped to 115 to practice technique. Things suddenly went terrifically up to 130, but by then I had done so many reps it wasn't worth trying worksets again, so I just kept it at 130 until I felt I was being consistent. I have no idea what happened at 135 but it had to be a technique problem. Arm pull is always a personal demon. Getting the jump right is another, as I never really can 'feel' it the way people say they do.

    Vacation for two weeks is now here. I can't train during it, so I'll have the de-training and re-starting to look forward to. I figure I'll de-load 10% on deads, squats, and bench. De-load 10 lbs on press and see how it goes. I'll just warm cleans up to the point where it's hard (with good technique) and focus on ingraining the pattern.

  5. #85
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    Well that was inconsiderate of the "thoughtful individual." Although that's a great way to find any shortcomings in your home defense plan, since no one could mentally prepare.

    re: Press - that's the beautiful thing about Nick's protocol. Next session, you aim to press 120x5x3, regardless of this week's "shortcomings."

    re: Clean - some days it just happens to be like that. My Tuesday session included cleans, but that was the day that the neighbor flooded our basement (it turned out that he had left a hose on the spigot over the winter and it froze and cracked, which wasn't apparent until he started running the hose that day). By the time we got everything settled down, my wife asked if I was going to get into the garage and finish my workout. I thought about it for a split second, then grabbed a beer. Had I opted for cleans, it would have been one of those days.

    Enjoy the vacation and don't sweat de-training too much. You know what to do and your body may just very well enjoy the break.

  6. #86
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    The night guest was an eye-opener, for sure. And you're right; it's a great opportunity for process improvement, which I always appreciate.

    Quote Originally Posted by Bill Anders View Post
    re: Press - that's the beautiful thing about Nick's protocol. Next session, you aim to press 120x5x3, regardless of this week's "shortcomings."
    Today's Weekend Archives post is this: 5 Ways to 5x5 | Andy Baker from 2014 and is about intermediate programming with 5x5. It spurred an idea related to overhead press and I'm curious about your thoughts. His 5th example is "Independent Sets" where you treat each set separately and raise their value if that particular set makes five reps.

    So a 405 squat may be:
    405 - 5,5,4,3,3

    The next time, it'd be 410 on the first two sets and 405 on the next three. Maybe:
    410 - 5,4 | 405 - 5,4,4

    The next would be set attempts of 415, 410, 410, 405, 405, etc. Eventually the final sets would rise.

    My thought is to modify that slightly for 3x5 on the press. Do that protocol on the three sets, but then add in 'make-up' sets to get to 15 total reps like Nick prescribes. So maybe:

    125 - 5,4,4,2
    127.5 - 4 | 125 - 5,4,2
    127.5 - 5,4 | 125 5,1

    The make-ups are done at the lowest weight regardless of where the misses happened. This, I think, would still allow for moving weights heavier (progressing a bit slower than Nick's protocol) and maintaining total rep volume without getting into 2-rep purgatory. I'm considering doing this the next time I get stuck but wouldn't mind thoughts.

    Quote Originally Posted by Bill Anders View Post
    Enjoy the vacation and don't sweat de-training too much. You know what to do and your body may just very well enjoy the break.
    At the very least, I won't be sitting on my butt the whole time. Lots of hiking and swimming coming up, and hoping to find places to do the chins that I often run out of time to do. (I lift during lunch breaks and prioritize between-set rests over chins.)

  7. #87
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    Quote Originally Posted by Hooper View Post
    My thought is to modify that slightly for 3x5 on the press. Do that protocol on the three sets, but then add in 'make-up' sets to get to 15 total reps like Nick prescribes. So maybe:

    125 - 5,4,4,2
    127.5 - 4 | 125 - 5,4,2
    127.5 - 5,4 | 125 5,1

    The make-ups are done at the lowest weight regardless of where the misses happened. This, I think, would still allow for moving weights heavier (progressing a bit slower than Nick's protocol) and maintaining total rep volume without getting into 2-rep purgatory. I'm considering doing this the next time I get stuck but wouldn't mind thoughts.
    I think the problem you'll run into would be that you'd become very proficient at doing one set of 127.5 while not accumulating sufficient stress to bring the rest of the sets up to 127.5, since you'll probably still be pressing 3x every 2 weeks. Andy's example works because you're still squatting 3x/week on top of having already traveled deep into an intermediate program. As a late novice, you'll do those 127.5x5s for one or two sessions, then start going backwards. And I think that's where Nick's program diverges. You're still pressing 3x every 2 weeks, but maintaining intensity as much as possible, until you can't. Then you increase frequency while modulating intensity (through HLM's L+M days or TM's Volume days) to keep driving the weight up for a little while longer.

    So I guess the answer would be, why both? Nick's programming applies to late novices transitioning into intermediate, while Andy's adjustment is for folks deep into intermediate programming. I know where I am in the grand scheme of things and I've learned enough over the years of hanging around here and reading the books, articles, forums and such that I realize that applying intermediate programming adjustments to novice programs doesn't always work well.

    Oh, and with my experience (n=1) with Nick's programming, you won't get stuck in 2-rep purgatory. At most, you'll have a few sessions where you end with a few 2's, then you might have one session of 2x7+1, but you'll roll right past it into singles (or just a few of those). Then it's time to increase the frequency.

    Regardless, don't think about it too much while you're on vacation. Enjoy!

  8. #88
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    Default NLP Week 27

    24 June 2021
    Weight - 205
    Squat - 295
    Press - 105
    Clean - 115x2, 120x2, 125

    Back from vacation. So that's what being de-trained feels like.

    I took 30 lb off my last squat set since I've been gone for nearly three weeks. Maybe I should have taken a bit more off. I got the 3x5, but we'll see if I get DOMS tomorrow. My hamstrings felt it the most, oddly, so I'm glad I didn't do deadlifts today as I could very easily overdo those.

    To my surprise, the press went well. I was a bit grindy on the final rep, but got the 3x5 pretty solidly. I think I'll see how 110 goes next time.

    The power cleans felt good at 115, so I did a couple sets there to emphasize form. I then added 5 lb to see how it went, and the next couple sets felt like they were pretty good. For the final set, I went to 125 lb. The very last rep was close to a miss and landed a bit more in the hands than it should have. Still, it racked enough for me to call it a day. Depending on how recovery goes, I'll probably start at 120 and creep up to 130 next time to try to find where my limit is.

    Really hoping I don't get DOMS so I can do deadlifts on Saturday and get back on track.

  9. #89
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    Default NLP Week 27

    26 June 2021
    Weight - 205
    Bench - 145

    I overdid the squats last time and have a healthy dose of DOMS to convince me of my error. Instead of normal NLP stuff, I spent a lot of time on the elliptical keeping the heart rate about 130-135 to get blood flow going and hopefully heal faster. Things definitely felt better afterward, but deadlifts were clearly not in the cards. I went ahead and did a light bench day to re-introduce it since the DOMS is all lower leg stuff. I toyed with the press for a bit, but the legs were limiting so I didn't go for anything too hard. I also did some light chinup work to get them going again.

    Lesson learned. I'm now going to get things ramped back up in a smarter way and accept the longer return to progress. (Hey, it's better than not lifting at all!)

  10. #90
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    Default NLP Week 28

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    28 June 2021
    Weight - 205
    Squat - 225 (light)
    Press - 110
    Deadlift - 225 (light)

    Legs are still DOMS-sore but feeling much better, so I went in to get some work done. The plan on squats was to work up to a comfortable weight and build up from there. By 225, the inner thighs were complaining a bit so I stopped there. It was about where I was going to stop either way. If I recover well, I'll just ramp up every workout day for a while rather than do the light/heavy alternation.

    Press went better than I thought. I figured the sore legs would sap strength (and perhaps they did), but I managed a 5,5,4,2. Assuming legs recover well, I feel I can go ahead and resume 2.5-lb jumps from here.

    It's been over three weeks since deadlifting so I was really cautious on this one. (I've already hurt my back once by deadlifting too aggressively after a break.) I started at a whopping 75 lb and alternated deads/cleans (i.e., a set of deads, a set of cleans at the same weight) up to 115. At that point I could tell that leg stiffness was going to hurt the cleans so I just went with deads. I felt good all the way through 225 and figured that's a good place to stop. I think I'm going to go back to deadlifts 3x/week for a short while to ramp them back up. The cleans can wait.

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