NLP 3: The Search for Spock (April 2021-?)

[CommanderFun]

Monday 4/26/2021

Weigh-in: 283.2

Squat 250x5x3
Bench 205x5x3
Deadlift 325x5x1

Dunno how the hell I managed to gain over four pounds in a week, it's got to be some kind of weird fluke.

Finally put on my belt for squats this time. They felt a LOT more solid after that. Much less of a struggle than last week, despite being heavier. Bench is feeling like it's gonna stop going up like it has soon. This is strange, because I was able to do significantly better last year. I wonder if it's because my home bench is farther off the ground than the ones at the gym. It felt like I got so much more solid of an arch and leg drive with a bench that was higher off the ground. The other possibility is badly calibrated plates here at home. Saw a guy hang power cleaning 225 for triples at the platform to my left while I was deadlifting. Was kinda like spotting a unicorn. Place was packed with bros today too. I don't know what the hell happened. This place suddenly got real crowded out of nowhere, and they were all bench pressing. Ended up doing things out of order with squat->deadlift->bench because I couldn't get at any of the damned things, and I figured I'd get the use out of the rack while I had it, rather than have to wait for it again later to deadlift.

[CommanderFun]

Wednesday 4/28/2021

Squat 265x5x3
Press 132.5x5x3
Power Clean 125x3x5

Welp, ran into some mask policing today. Just the thing I fucking need, having to look over my shoulder for bossy assholes while I am trying to lift. Fuck these people. I am more distant from other people when I'm lifting than when I eat at a restaurant, and no one eating at a restaurant has to wear a mask. Why? Because you can't eat with a mask on. What else can you not do with a mask on? Fucking train, that's what.

EDIT: Just realized I completely fucked up my plate math. I had 2 55 plates on each side of the bar, so I actually managed to squat 265 for 3 sets of 5 today. Derp. I'll do 260 next time anyway.

[CommanderFun]

Sunday 5/2/2021

Squat 260x5x3
Bench 210x5x3
Deadlift 445x5x1

Missed training on friday to accompany my girlfriend to her brother's birthday party. Missed it on saturday because I lost my job. Got back to it today, and going to follow tuesday/thursday/saturday in the coming week, and then back in again on monday. Made the mistake of trying out training in a "fake" mask today, made out of one ply of simple t-shirt material. The effects were not as bad as the "real" masks, but they were there and performance definitely suffered. After doing 3 sets of 5 squats in that thing I was just about done with the experiment and went back to chin mode. I felt really sapped of energy the whole time, I don't know if it was squatting in the mask, the stress of losing the job, or both, but those 260 squats felt way rougher than the 265 squats I accidentally did wednesday. Hopefully this will improve as some distance grows between me and the event.

[CommanderFun]

Tuesday 5/4/2021

Weigh-In: 280.4

Squat 265x5x3
Press 135x5x3
Power Clean 135x3x5

Weigh-in was more along my expectations this week. Probably going to start adding some more carbs in. Definitely a fruit along with lunch now at least.

Squats felt really nasty for some reason. I wonder if that accidental 15 pound jump last wednesday threw my recovery off or something. Thursday will see the introduction of the light day for squats with the 20% offset. If that doesn't alleviate the issue I may attempt a small reset to fix it. Form was super ugly today, I could feel the hip angle closing up too much out of the bottom and the bar starting to want to roll up as the sets dragged on.

Press was good! I know I've written before I was gonna start using the hip thrust but I've still been doing these pretty much strict, just trying to focus on a good bar path. They're definitely getting hard at this point, the last reps of the sets there is a noticeable slowdown but I still manage them without too much grind. At the current pace I might be able to get this thing up to at least 145.

Power cleans might have been too much of a weight jump. The prior workouts were okay with 10 pound jumps, but 125 to 135 definitely made for a very big difference in difficulty. Definitely felt like the catch was lagging a little behind at the top. Also right after catching it in the rack position my vision would start to blur for a moment. That was not something I've encountered before.

[CommanderFun]

Thursday 5/6/2021

Squat 210x5x3
Bench 212.5x5x3
Deadlift 345x5x1

Amazing how much a little offload affects women more than men. Take 15 pounds off the bar and my girlfriend's squats become pretty easy. Take 55 pounds off mine and it still feels rough. Went down to 2.5s on my bench because I felt a fail coming if I kept pushing 5s. Don't know why the hell my bench is underperforming so much this time around. 235 for an intensity set of 5 is the best I've ever done, but I was doing 210 for an intensity type weight at the end of a 3 month weight cut. It's just weird.

[CommanderFun]

Saturday 5/8/2021

Squat 270x5x3
Press 137.5x5x2 + x4x1

Race against the clock today. Had to get out of there before the gym closed at 7, so I missed out on power cleans today. Also had to rush through the press sets, I am positive I would've gotten that last set had I rested the full three minutes. Next time. Squats are starting to feel like a nightmare and turning my face pink, so I probably have a little more mileage left. Definitely time to look into getting more food in.

[CommanderFun]

Monday 5/10/2021

Weigh-In: 282.6

Squat 275x5x3
Bench 215x5x3
Deadlift 355x5x1

Weigh in supports prior guess that I probably need more food. My scale is kind of finnicky, 282.6 was the highest weight I got out of it. I'd really like my squat work sets to surpass my body weight though. Christ, why am I so goddamn heavy? I'm not a fat guy, and I'm not a super muscular guy. Starting to wonder if I have some weird increased bone density, or if long limbs and a short torso just weigh more than short limbs with a long torso. I don't fucking know. Anyway, squats were rough. If scheduling were normal it wouldn't have been only one day of rest before getting into a new local squat PR, but I wanted to get back on M/W/F. Felt pretty nasty, must have looked it too, a guy actually came up and complimented me for going so hard and deep while squatting. Bench and deadlift were fine. Probably bringing the increments down to 5s for the deadlifts now though, they are starting to get hard.

[CommanderFun]

Wednesday 5/12/2021

Squat 215x5x3
Press 137.5x5x3
Power Clean 135x3x5

Repeated the last clean weight since I missed the last clean session. Got the 137.5 press this time, I knew it was just the abbreviated rest that threw me off that last set. I've started doing the hip thrust for the first rep, and then just using the normal stretch reflex for the subsequent reps of a set. That seems optimal. Still amazing how 20% sliced off my work weight still feels brutal to me while 10% sliced off my girlfriend's seems like she's just fine. It's one thing to read about it but it's another thing to actually see it.

[Bill Anders]

Still amazing how 20% sliced off my work weight still feels brutal to me while 10% sliced off my girlfriend's seems like she's just fine. It's one thing to read about it but it's another thing to actually see it.

Truth! These light days sure don't seem light (to put it nicely). But that means they're working. Could you comfortably add 5lbs to your Monday, then repeat on Friday, just like the early days of NLP? I know I couldn't. But to watch my wife just crank through a small offset like it's no big deal is just impressive. That's when she breaks out the "what do you mean? You can't do that?" with a big grin on her face.

Keep at it!

[CommanderFun]

Truth! These light days sure don't seem light (to put it nicely). But that means they're working. Could you comfortably add 5lbs to your Monday, then repeat on Friday, just like the early days of NLP? I know I couldn't. But to watch my wife just crank through a small offset like it's no big deal is just impressive. That's when she breaks out the "what do you mean? You can't do that?" with a big grin on her face.

Keep at it!

Comfortably? No. Today was evidence enough of that. But I pulled it off. It's just so amazing to see how even a really grindy last rep for them they seem to come off it so much more energetic. I come off a grindy last rep and I feel like I could fall over. Anyway...

Friday 5/14/2021

Squat 280x5x3
Bench 217.5x5x3

Got a late start today, and I mistook the closing time, thought it was 10pm, but it was 9pm. No deadlifting, despite my having punched two new holes in my 3 incher belt and had it ready to start being used again. Last set of squats almost ended in disaster, the hip angle closed up out of the bottom again. Had to pull that bar down tight onto the shoulders while I pushed through it. I think it might be time to bump up the rest interval on my squats. I think I may end up deadlifting tomorrow in an isolated session. It shouldn't be too much of a recovery issue since I'm alternating the power cleans. I just really want to deadlift.