Weights, cardio and stuff log

Fab deads. I'm surprised you bothered with 240 after 235 was a solid lift, esp seeing you wanted to hit 245+. I just reckon that it might have been better to go straight to 245 from 235. Hope your back heals up fast.
Great rows. Hitting 140kg rows will be majorly cool.
Deficit deads are indeed awesome. DL'ing in O-shoes makes for the equivalent of a 1" deficit. Definitely makes breaking the same load off the floor in socks faster & easier.
I have Adidas Ironworks II weightlifting shoes. Don't think they're available any longer. Great shoes. They've taken a real hammering and are still in great shape. Think I got them about three or four years ago. There was a thread on shoes for lifting somewhere on this site back around the time I got mine.
 
Interesting re: intra-workout progression. I think you've a pretty good point, I'll try the jump next week. Was happy with the earlier triple and doubles at 210-220-225.

I can hit 140kg quite easily current, pretty sure 150kg is where my triples will max-out. Just working back into it and my with the strain, I didn't want to go crazy. These are pendlay-style (parallel to floor), I've never found value in traditional BB Rows, there's minimal ROM and the natural 'cheat'/'jerk' doesn't provide a lump-sum contribution to the target muscles (traps, lats).
 
Squats; 4 - 60kg, 4 - 80kg, 4 - 100kg (warm ups); 3 - 125kg, 3 - 130kg, 3 - 135kg, 3,3, - 140kg.

BTN; 5 - 60kg (warm ups); 4 - 80kg, 4 - 87.5kg, 2 - 92.5kg PR

Seated rows, one-arm; 5 - 50kg, 5,5 - 60kg. These felt 'ok', not awesome. Great for lats, might be too much strain to do row-variants 5-6 times p/w though.
 
Yeah, I meant 140 for sets of 5. :) Def agree re Pendlay's. I like to lower under control and for a good stretch. I see some guys just drop the bar once it's made contact with their body. I just feel it's worth making the most of the eccentric part of the movement for TUT goodness.
 
Can already, will probably do it today, in fact.

Also, Deficit Deads feel more intensive on quads than squats do ... starting to think that all of training can be broken into press-movements, and deadlift variants. Booyah.
 
Rack pulls; 3 - 70kg, 3 - 120kg, 3 - 170kg, 1 - 210kg (warm ups); 1 - 220kg, 1 - 230kg, 3 - 240kg, 3,3 - 250kg. Really good on these today, making sure my form resembles the set-up for a romanian-deadlift and not a squat.

Deficit deads; 3 - 170kg, 3 - 190kg, 3 - 200kg. Would normally do an extra cluster but going easy on the lower back. Felt good though.

Rows; 5,3,3 - 140kg. Just for Lol ;). New plan is to do these at 3-5RM range on M-W-F, and maybe let things go for back on Tu-Th-Sa. Good mornings and squats still hit it extensively.

Bench; 5 - 80kg, 4 - 100kg (warm ups); 1 - 120kg, 1 - 130kg, 1,1,1,1,1 - 132.5kg, 1,1,1,1 - 135kg.
 
Squats; 5 - 60kg, 4 - 100kg (warm ups); 3 - 125kg, 3 - 130kg, 3,3,3,3 - 140kg. Best squatting day ever.

BTN; 5 - 70kg (warm ups); 4 - 80kg, 4,3 - 90kg. Best BTN day ever.

Good mornings; 5 - 60kg (warm ups); 5 - 80kg, 5,5 - 90kg. Best good-morning day ever.
 
Yeah, that's a nice set of rows, and those BTN presses are none too shabby. Heck, none of what you are doing is shabby at all! It's only your squats that need to come up to put them on a par with everything else. And that's happening pretty quickly.
 
Squats are the hardest to get correct in terms of form, IMO. There's so many instincts that run counter to proper form (instincts that in a 'I'm a cave man in the year 5000 BC' situation make sense, but don't match up with preferable mechanics).

I figure I'll be at 150 for triples within 4-5 sessions, keep going from there.

I'm going to do regular deads on Fridays, maybe with some deficits afterwards. I want to keep that form as a repetitive motion and twice per week seems necessary for that. Probably just doubles and triples.
 
Deads; 5 - 70kg, 3 - 120kg, 3 - 17y0kg (warm ups); 3 - 210kg, 3,3 - 220kg, 2 - 225kg. Aggravated the same pull on lower back attempting 230kg. I think I'll stick to 220 and 225 triples for moment. I'm kind of missing the SLDL right now, maybe it comes back in somewhere.

Bench; 5 - 80kg, 4 - 100kg (warm ups); pause; 2,2,2,2 - 120kg. Lower back tightness was a bit restrictive here.

Good mornings; 5 - 60kg (warm ups); 5 - 80kg, 5 - 90kg. I think I should do these on deadlift days and keep lower back-hamstrings on one day. Squats will use each of those plenty, where as M-W-F won't get upset as easily due to frequency being too high.

Might try to fit in rows a bit later.
 
Squats; 5 - 60kg, 3 - 80kg, 3 - 100kg (warm ups); 3 - 125kg, 3 - 130kg, 3,3 - 140kg, 3,3 - 145.

BTN; 5 - 70kg (warm ups); 4 - 80kg, 4,4 - 85kg.

Lying supported rows; 5 - 60kg (warm ups); 3,3,3 - 100kg, 3,3,3 - 110kg. Feeling better about these. I will aim to keep them in the Tu-Th-Sa sessions. Nothing involved below the waist, which is good, great for lats and anything around the shoulder blades.

Whether that means I continue to // also do Pendlays on M-W-F remains to be seen, but I think it's viable. Pendlays would be lighter and more explosive, these heavier and aimed around pure strength. I think doing heavy Pendlays possibly contributes to a more vulnerable lower lumbar. It's inevitable that cheating happens.


The priority remains deadlifts, so strengthening up the lower back using an exercise that involves ROM rather than just static contraction will matter. That leaves extensions (not hyper, just correct-extensions) or SLDLs.

I've also noticed I need to get everything properly involved. My glutes are insane, but I know sometimes they're not 100% activated/involved. Upper back (by that I am referencing anything that isn't the very lowest point connecting to hips etc.) is great, hamstrings are a relative weakness. Good Mornings on M-W-F in evening should help. I think I will back deficits back to 1x O-plate height, as a) they're working my quads too much and squats will suffer at this rate and b) the form is a bit too different from normal deads, and I need to keep the motor patterns locked in. Haven't made up my mind on that yet though.

Friday will probably be Rack Pulls + regular deads for some triples (already warmed up) and then bench.
 
Jester said:
Squats are the hardest to get correct in terms of form, IMO. There's so many instincts that run counter to proper form (instincts that in a 'I'm a cave man in the year 5000 BC' situation make sense, but don't match up with preferable mechanics).
Click to expand...

100% agree, especially high-bar squats. Low-bar squats, provided you have no issues getting the bar into proper position, seem to be a tad easier mechanically.
 
I think squats are tough because there's no one right way to perform them and there are so many variations. Efficient bar path has to be a factor but anthropometry plays an important part too.
I had no idea how bad my shoulder flexibility was until I started to LBBS. But once that was sorted it was relatively easy to get good positions. Olympic-style HBBS is a whole other animal and is a work-in-progress for me. My hip mobility is the limiting factor for my ROM. As it has improved, I've been able to drop deeper in the hole. My adductor & hamstring flexibility has improved too so that I can now maintain solid lower-back extension irrespective of how deep I go.
Maintaining a knees-out position was another issue for me but then I went too far with that and started getting knee issues again. I've pulled them back in a bit and now my knees are happier, although I'm still not 100% happy with them on every rep. As I said, it's a work-in-progress.
 
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I think the lateral position re: knees is one of the things that is 'more' easily worked on, and yep, everything about squat form is hit with a constant 'work-in-progress' tag.
 
I definitely need to increase my glute-hamstring flexibility (where they meet).

Ab-strength and work could use some attention, and I'm planning to use planks for those (at first).
 
Deads; 5 - 70kg, 4 - 120kg, 3 - 170kg (warm ups); 3 - 210kg, 2 - 220kg. During 2nd 220 rep I could feel lower back issue recurring, so stopped it then. I'm going to drop pulling for a week, just do squats and supported rows for anything back related and on Monday I'll see how it feels. Will go back to single reps, as the first rep is never an issue and I think it's the cumulative stress built up during a set that is preventing recovery. 170kg went up like a rocket, I was entirely surprised.

Bench; 5 - 60kg, 4 - 100kg (warm ups); pause; 3,3,3,2 - 120kg.

Lying supported rows; 5 - 60kg (warm ups); 3 - 100kg, 3,3 - 110kg, 3,3,3,3 - 120kg. Booyah.

I have a 4-day break for work and related-travel (Thurs-Sun next week), so hopefully in two weeks from today it will be resolved. I think I'll have to revisit the pulling and drop it/scale it back on Wednesdays. I don't think viable progress will be made on once-per-week, and form will certainly suffer, so maybe just Monday-Friday with Monday being load-focused and Friday being volume focused.

Squatting 3x a week will continue to assist strength gains, I hope.

Foam rolling, stretching, ibuprofen and heat ...

Fuc|<ing pissed.
 
Squats; 5 - 60kg, 3 - 80kg, 3 - 100kg (warm ups); 3 - 125kg, 3 - 130kg, 3,3 - 140kg, 3 - 145kg, 2 - 150kg PR. Had more in me at 150 but the back was sore/tired and didn't want to push it, especially w/a low bar squat being a lot less easy to throw the bar from shoulders.

OHP - strict; 5 - 60kg (warm ups); 4 - 70kg, 3,3,3 - 75kg. Plenty of gas in the tank for these. Just felt like testing my strength a bit, I think I can manage 85 or so without the 'push'.

Back extensions; 10 - BW, 4,4,4 - 20kg. I want to strengthen my hamstrings significantly, and keep my glutes being thoroughly worked, practice thoracic extension and tight lower back etc. That means these, stiff-legged deads, wide stance leg press etc. and a few other things. I think I do stiff-legged deads in a power rack, and then do these later on, at a lighter weight, as they let me train the erectors dynamically and SLDL's are just a bit much to allow that.
 
Deads - belted; 5 - 70kg, 3 - 120kg, 3 - 170kg (warm ups); 1,1,1 - 200kg, 1,1,1,1,2,2,2 - 210kg. First time ever using a belt. Felt great and definitely allowed me to lift without re-injuring the lower back. Still felt tight and on the danger-point of being painful but was very careful. Going to get a belt of my own next week. Any recommendations for style/type? Just for deads, possibly squats in the future but not for now.

Bench; 5 - 60kg, 3 - 80kg, 3 - 100kg (warm ups); 1 - 120kg, 1 - 130kg, 1,1,1,1 - 132.5kg, 1,1,1,1,1 - 135kg. Really strong. Load is going up on these by 2.5 across the board.
 
Deads - belted; 5 - 70kg, 3 - 120kg, 3 - 170kg (warm ups); 1,1,1 - 200kg, 1,1,1,1,2,2,2 - 210kg. First time ever using a belt. Felt great and definitely allowed me to lift without re-injuring the lower back. Still felt tight and on the danger-point of being painful but was very careful. Going to get a belt of my own next week. Any recommendations for style/type? Just for deads, possibly squats in the future but not for now.

Bench; 5 - 60kg, 3 - 80kg, 3 - 100kg (warm ups); 1 - 120kg, 1 - 130kg, 1,1,1,1 - 132.5kg, 1,1,1,1,1 - 135kg. Really strong. Load is going up on these by 2.5 across the board.

Lying supported rows; 3 - 60kg, 3 - 80kg (warm ups); 3 - 100kg, 3,3,3,3,3 - 120kg.

Back extensions, 45 degrees; 10 - BW, 6,6 - 10kg.
 
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Squats; 3 - 60kg, 3 - 80kg, 3 - 100kg (warm ups); 3 - 125kg, 3 - 130kg, 3 - 140kg, 3 - 145kg, 1 - 150kg, 1 - 155kg, 1 - 160kg PR, 1 - 165kg PR. Booyah.

BTN; 5 - 60kg (warm ups); 4 - 80kg, 4,4 - 85kg.

Squat form was tiiiiiiiiiiiiight.
 
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