Less weak than last week

[Bill Anders]

12 July 2021
Weight - 209
Squat - 305
Press - 117.5 (4,4,3,3,2)
Clean - 130

Much of the recent weight gain is body fat. I can see that difference. I'm at a level where I need to be mindful of it.

Squat actually went better than I thought. Even the last rep never really got grindy. One more 10 lb jump might be in the works. We'll see how things feel on Friday, as 5 lb isn't a shame either. It's just so obnoxious to load 310 on the bar.

Trying Nick Delgadillo's protocol of getting 15 reps at all cost. It was technically better than last time, but still couldn't get 5 reps in a set. Still, up to 120 on Friday.

Cleans went mostly alright, but I think I warmed up too close to the work set. I did some at 125 lb just to feel the weight. By the final set, I was really struggling and had a couple drops. I might repeat the weight on Friday. After that, I might drop to 2.5 lb jumps. I finally saw in the grey book, page 87, where it mentions 2.5 lb jumps for cleans. (Before, I had only caught on to the well-executed NLP example in the grey book, and that dude never jumped less than 5 lbs.)

Keep at it, Hooper!

I look forward to your progress using Nick's protocol. I ran out the "getting 15 reps at all costs" by the beginning of June, then switched to the 2x/week programming for both Press and Bench, just in time for a family event to stop all training for a while. I'm comfortable with the process, so I won't hesitate to jump into it again once training resumes next month.

re: Cleans & 2.5lb jumps - I think it's more conceptual, as there are many discussions throughout the books and forums about microloading, even reaching a point where 1lb jumps on the deadlift could be programmed. Microloading applies across the lifts, but we sure don't like to think about it. Heck, I can make 1/2lb jumps with my micros, but I never touch those.

[David Hooper]

Thanks, Bill!

The presses will be interesting, for sure. My biggest problem will be time, I usually work out during lunch break (still able to work from home, which makes this possible as the gym is about a mile away), and it's already a 2-hour chunk, driveway-to-driveway. If I get down to something like 3,3,2,2,2,1,1,1, then I may have to back down to a weight I can do in fewer sets and ramp it back up. I still hold a faint hope of hitting 135 by December, which would mark 90 lb in the first year.

Re: cleans - I knew they took smaller jumps and "respond more like the press and bench press", but I hadn't actually seen a typical number on it. (More accurately, I had forgotten that I had read it in the grey book.) I'll take whatever jump works for me, but it's a little more comforting if 2.5 is somewhat normal as opposed to the freakishly good progress of the well-executed novice. I suspect there are more form issues I can, er, clean up. I loathe online coaching (which is why I haven't done form check, and also why I haven't complained about it). I find that the immediate feedback fixes things far quicker. For me, a $100 hour of in-person coaching generally provides better benefit than six $25 online sessions. I'm hoping to plan another weekend soon, but it won't be imminent.

[Bill Anders]

I hear ya. I've posted only one online forum check for my squats and got good feedback, but it's nothing like when I took a SS squat camp back in late 2019. There was so much information and feedback in those few hours. Well worth it!

edit: BTW, are you shortening your rest once you get down to those triples, doubles, and singles? In other words, are you still doing your full 2x5 rest duration, e.g., 5 minutes? If so, that will make the session very long. I've seen stef mention that once you're down to singles, do them on the minute (at the longest).

[David Hooper]

Yeah, standard rest for the first three sets, regardless of total. From there, it's shortened as I go. If I think I can hit 3 on set four, I'll shorten some but not too much. If I'm down to singles I'll only do a minute or so, and I won't push my luck trying for two if I know it's not there.

[David Hooper]

16 July 2021
Weight - 208
Squat - 315
Press - 120 (3,3,4,3,3)
Power Clean - 130

I decided to get a bit greedy on squats and jump 10 lb to 315 to avoid loading 310 on the bar. The last set got grindy but that's fine. It got done and never had an 'uh-oh' moment. Definitely 5 lb jumps from here on out though.

Still doing the Nick protocol on press. After only getting three on the first set, I thought it was going to be a very long session. It went alright, though, and I ground out the fourth rep on the middle set. During a rest, I looked through Bill Anders' log to see how the Nick protocol progressed and noticed his cueing of elbows, so I really focused on driving elbows through the bar. That seemed to help quite a bit. On to 122.5.

Cleans went really well. I played with the initial bar position a bit and found I was probably behind midfoot. Setting the bar forward a smidge made everything feel much better and helped me get over the bar rather than behind it. I did notice that my footwork was lacking so I'll have to work on that. I may be starting to lean back a bit at the catch, which would explain a lot. Just for fun, I did one at 135 after finishing my sets. Got it, but was clearly tired so I stopped there.

[Bill Anders]

Great work, Hooper!

I had a laugh at your 10lb jump. Today's my last maintenance day before heading out again, and I just wrote a 10lb jump in for my deadlift to 315lbs. Why? Same reason. I didn't want to load 310. But I still have a bit of lower back DOMS from Wednesday's workout and I'm humping a heavy pack into the mountains on Sunday, so I may just have to get over myself.

re: press - isn't it funny how that extra rep will appear out of nowhere in the middle of a string of lower reps? No idea what does it, other than perhaps the body finds the groove for a moment. Glad the 'elbows' cue worked. I'll have to remember that today.

[David Hooper]

I'll definitely have to watch the elbows for a while on the press. It may be that I'm getting them too far forward of the bar during the hip bounce because I haven't been really focusing on them. I may add that as a focal point on the bench press too, at least to see if it helps.

[Bill Anders]

I've found it to help the bench, too. Especially during the really grindy ones.

Thanks for the reminder. First set sailed up (but they're also 30lbs lighter than they were in early June).

[David Hooper]

19 July 2021
Weight - 209
Squat - 235 (light)
Bench - 172.5
Deadlift - 345

Woke up really bloated today, which might be the uptick in weight. We'll see next time.

Focused on back positioning in light squats.

I tried cueing the elbows in bench and I think(?) it helped. I also took fewer breaths during the sets, which helped speed the sets up and keep everything tight.

Deadlift went well. I really focused on setting the back before starting the pull. For some reason, the 4th rep was harder than the 5th. I think I was just slow to initiate the pull and it made the rep feel grindier than it needed to be.

[David Hooper]

21 July 2021
Weight - 208
Squat - 320
Press - 122.5 (4,3,3,4,3)
Power Clean - 135 (fail)

Felt less bloated today, so perhaps Monday had a bit of water weight. Either way it's probably time I upped the food a bit, now that everything is back to increasing.

Squat felt fine. I caught myself going back on the heels a bit, so I still need to reinforce the proper balance point.

Press went better than expected. I might have been able to do 4 reps on the third set, but the first rep was mushy from the bottom and got grindier than it should have been. On the last set, the second rep was grindy so I figured I was going to fail the third. I managed to launch it hard enough to get to where I could grind it out, though, making for two tough reps to end the lift today. Fun. (Edit: the cue "tight and drive" really seemed to help with maintaining tightness and driving elbows through the bar.)

I think I just lost steam on the clean. The first three sets were difficult and not particularly great, but went up anyhow. The fourth was a disaster, so I gathered myself, tried again, and got it to work. The fifth set was just a comedy of fail. By these last attempts, I just couldn't jump hard enough to get my feet to move at all - they were basically stuck in concrete. I'll obviously try this weight again.