Less weak than last week

[David Hooper]

The joys of a home gym. :-) When I get my own gym I'll definitely do it that way. I rather like the idea of marking sets off much like a prisoner counting the days.

[Bill Anders]

Hahahaha! Some days it feels that way.

[Bill Anders]

If you haven't yet, definitely give Robert Santana's latest podcast, Weights & Plates, a listen. There are some very good points in there, especially as you get read to go into full-on intermediate programming.

[rkjohns1]

I keep a small whiteboard on the wall behind the rack. I started doing that when I kept losing track of my sets of cleans.

I have this exact thing as well for the exact same reason. I also jot reminders/cues on the whiteboard, such as "straight arms" for the cleans and "use chalk" (added today) for the deadlift/cleans.

[David Hooper]

03 November 2021
Weight - 213
Light Squat - 275x5x2|3
Volume Bench - 172.5x5x5|5
Deadlift - 410x5|5
Elliptical - 20 minutes @ 120-130 BPM heart rate

Weight might be creeping up a bit. I think it's mostly lean as I can see a difference in arms and shoulders, but I'll keep an eye on the waist.

Volume bench is still moving smoothly.

I was much more confident and aggressive with the conversation with Jesus deadlifts today. Having that 4th plate out of my psyche is a blessing. It still got slow at the end (good!) but I felt really solid throughout. I'm a fan of the deadlifting shoes, for sure.

I got done pretty quickly so I spent a bit of time on the elliptical to encourage blood flow. I do find it helps me feel better but I haven't tried it at the end of a workout like this. Something to test.

Bill: thanks for the link! I'll give that a listen while my posterior chain is complaining this afternoon. :-)

[David Hooper]

05 November 2021
Weight - 212
Squat - 395x5, 360x5,3|7
Press - 135x3x5|5
Clean - 130x3x5|4

I didn't sleep well on Wednesday night, which is probably a partial reason why I'm still feeling the deadlifts today. The squat was just brutal, beyond the normal agony. I'm fairly certain I was high on the 2nd rep, and I did something of a squat morning on the 4th, which felt just peachy on my tired back and made the 5th rep a nightmare. I got it, but I really should repeat as things just weren't normal. During the final back-off set, I could tell I was straining in lower back, so I cut it off after the 3rd rep. I may have been trying to squat around the lower back fatigue. One option is to go Texas Method with squats and only do the one heavy set (and bump up the weight on Monday). That might also involve moving deadlifts to Friday as well. I think I'd like to wait and see how things go for one more week at least, especially if I can sleep better.

Press was slow too, likely a loss of explosion at the start due to back fatigue as well. Still, I got it all. That's officially the best press day I've ever had. Oh, I also tightened the lifting belt a notch. The normal notch felt loose, so I'm hopeful I'm slowly getting back to a normal BF%.

Cleans were still better than whatever I was doing before, although I was sluggish. I still need to really focus on jumping vertically rather than laying back, but that seems to solve a lot of my problems. I'm also still catching high, which is both good (I can do more weight!) and bad (I need to practice catch form).

Onward and upward. I'm really beginning to see the interaction between lifting days now, which relates back to the podcasts Bill mentioned earlier. (I listened, Bill. Thanks!) It's safe to say I no longer have the capacity to recover as a novice when I'm at a legitimate work weight.

[David Hooper]

06 November 2021
Cleans - practice
Elliptical - 20 min at 120-130 BPM

I intended to do bench and chins today, but soreness in the left elbow and shoulder was strong enough to suggest that rest/healing is the better idea. I'm prone to bursitis in the left elbow in particular, and issues there can cause compensation issues in the shoulder. I think that's what's going on. The soreness got worse as I was warming on on the bench. That was my cue.

Cleans, however, don't bother my joints. I worked up to 125, where it was heavy enough to force me to work on the catch. I stuck with a few doubles to avoid overworking it since I did cleans and heavy squats yesterday. After a few of those, I moseyed to the elliptical to get some blood flow and loosen up the stiffness/soreness. I'll enjoy the rest and some ibuprofen for a bit and see how I feel on Monday.

I almost decided not to post, but it's a valuable data point.

EDIT: The joys of ibuprofen. Feeling much better, so I did chins on my door-mounted pull up bar at home. I don't like the thing because the chin up grip is far too narrow and I have to flare my elbows a touch to get to the top. Still, I did a bodyweight 9,8,8 with roughly 6 minutes rest between. The inflammation and pain are mostly absent at this point, which is good news.

[David Hooper]

08 November 2021
Weight - 211
Squat - 325x5x5|5
Press - 125x5x5|5
Power Snatch - 92.5x3x5|4

Repeating the squats this week to see if I can improve on Friday. Nothing of note today.

Press went well again. Last rep was grindy. I may repeat this weight next week to keep a decent % gap between volume and intensity pressing.

Power snatch still went well. I felt a bit better on the catch but it still needs work. Slow and steady progress.

I had to skip chins and get home early for work. Unexpected events have me filling in for a higher role for a bit, which is going to vastly increase the number of meetings and administrivia I have to do. I don't know yet if that'll interfere with lifting but I'll find out soon enough. Fun times.

[David Hooper]

10 November 2021
Weight - 212
Light Squat - 285x5x2|3
Volume Bench - 175x5x5|5
Deadlift - 415x5|5
Banded Chins - (BW-30)x12,10,10|4

Added 10 lb to light squats but otherwise nothing of note.

Since I had to skip intensity bench last week, I was going to repeat 172.5 today. I didn't feel like messing with the microplates, though, so I just threw the 10s on for 175. It still went well.

I forgot to load one of the 45s on the workset weight for deadlifts (i.e, four 45s on one side, three 45s on the other). That's my most hilarious misload so far. Fixed it, gave a minute to reset, and went for it. The last rep was really slow and I might have hitched a bit. On the plus side, I'm feeling a lot more confident pulling deads now, partly since I haven't hurt myself in a while and partly from the deadlift shoes. It's easier to just attack them and enjoy the brutality.

Since I couldn't do banded chins Monday, I added them today. I didn't have my dip belt so no extra weight, but that's fine since doing chins after deads is tough enough. Since Wednesdays are my fastest days, I may add in curls as per Niki's chin up training.

[David Hooper]

12 November 2021
Weight - 212
Squat - 395x5, 365x5x2|7
Press - 137.5x3x5|5
Power Clean - 132.5x3x5|4

Squat went really well today. I didn't have the deadlift back fatigue carryover like I did last week, so I'll chalk that up to the sleep issue from before. For whatever these arbitrary marks mean, it also means my workset weights are now 1,000-lb club (415 deadlift, 395 squat, 190 bench). Not all on the same day, but I'm also not looking for a t-shirt either.

Press is officially stronger. When I reset my press programming a month ago, I could only get a double at 137.5. After running it back up, the 3x5 was solid. Gets grindy at the end, but not really in doubtful territory.

Probably the best technique day of cleans so far. I had one miss because I got in a hurry, but even then I wasn't arm pulling. Still work to do, but 2.5 lb jumps seem to be reasonable right now.