Wednesday, August 31, 2016

08.31.2016
Bench Press, touch and go, paused first rep till 225
45 x 12
135 x 6
185 x 3
225 x 2
245 x 2
255 x 6, 6, 5
Dumbbell Row, supinated, right and left 120 x 12 x 2

Painful lower back pump, but best benches ever

Saturday, August 27, 2016

08.27.2016
Back Squat, paused, light knee wraps, no belt (warm ups were mostly non-paused till 225)
45 x 12
135 x 6
225 x 2
45 x 16
135 x 8
225 x 4
275 x 2
295 x 1
315 x 1
325 x 1
335 x 1





I was feeling oddly weak and just off today. I had to restart my warm ups. And my back felt pumped and tired by 225. Then I realized that I was still not recovered from the deadlifts that I did after squats last week! Plus my left knee was feeling full and tight. It felt way better after I restarted the warm ups, however.


Friday, August 26, 2016

08.26.2016
Bench Press, touch and go, paused first till 225
45 x 12
135 x 6
185 x 4
225 x 2
245 x 5 x 4
Dumbbell Row, supinated, right then left 120 x 12

Long, long pause with the first 225. Felt easy-ish. My best ever bench with 245 was many months ago, late in 2015 before my thyroid problem started. I got 245 for six of six. Only four of five today. I'm very eager to push beyond this. If I add 5 lbs per week, I'll be getting sets of five with 275 in just over a month.

Wednesday, August 24, 2016

With my recent strides in mind I've been revisiting the extremely low frequency training plans of some of the very strongest men ever to live: Mark Chaillet and Doug Furnas.

Granted these guys were likely on a ton of gear. But so are the greats who use every other training modality: high volume/high variety (bodybuilding), high frequency/low variety (Olympic weightlifting), and so on. 

But after years of destroying my knees and quads with attempting too much frequency, it's refreshing to accept the realities of lower frequency. 

Chaillet and Furnas both bench and squatted but once per week. Chaillet also deadlifted once per week a few days after the day on which he benched and squatted; Furnas squatted a few days after he benched, then deadlifted on his squat day only if he felt he was recovered enough.

I bench and squat over a 48-hour period. :) Bench on Saturday and squat on Sunday. Rotating DB Row, Deadlift and Pull Up. One week I pull up after squat, then row after bench, then deadlift after squat.

I got up to 200 lbs a couple nights ago. I've been hovering around 196-199, mostly 196.






Sunday, August 21, 2016

08.21.2016
Back Squat, no belt, paused first rep till 275, light wraps at 315
45 x 12
135 x 6
225 x 3
275 x 2
295 x 1
315 x 4
325 x 4
335 x 4
345 x 4

Deadlift, conventional, hook grip, no belt 2 x 405, 425, 435, 445, 455
Straight Bar Pull Up @194 x 8,8,8,6

Obviously a long-awaited huge bump in squat strength today. Knees and quads have been feeling better than they have in years. And I believe my numbers on the Big Three are as high as they were at the lifetime peak I attained by January right before my thyroid went hyper.

My best back squat session was fall last year with 325 x 6 x 6. Today I was able to get fours with 315, 325, 335, and 345. That is almost as good. Plus this is a huge jump from last week's very difficult triples with 275 that began this cycle after a layoff. So I feel like I'm primed for the best gains of my life.

The very last rep of the deadlift was bad. My back started to round because my legs were done. (This is an important point. The lower back doesn't give out on hard deadlifts; the lower back rounds for the same reason it does on the last rep of squats: the hip/knee extensors can't move the weight so the rounding back is the body's way of reducing the moment arm (absolute horizontal distance of the bar from the fulcrum)).

Also, since I had lots of time to kill, I made it a point to stretch my quads and hips pretty thouroughly as I rested for the pull ups. I'm hoping this will mean I don't have to roll much or at all.

I feel if I can get to a solid set of 365 x 5 on the squat without big pauses (like when my set of 355 x 5 was actually 355 x 3 + 1 + 1), then I'll be ready for that 405 x 1 with very loose wraps and no belt.

Also, I'm finding that even with my supplementation, I am better off training just ONCE per week for each lift. Day 1 = Bench and Row, Day 2 = Squat and Pull (Pull Up or Deadlift). I have been training way too frequently most of my life. I'm as strong as I was at my peak without all the quad and knee trouble this time around.

Saturday, August 20, 2016

08.20.2016 
Bench Press, touch and go, paused first rep till 225 (very slight pause on 225)
45 x 12 x 2
135 x 6
185 x 3
225 x 2
235 x 6 x 5
Dumbbell Row, supinated left and right 120 x 10 x 3

Starting to move up again. I only got TWO sets of six with this weight at the end of last cycle, then three sets of five with this weight last week. That's total volume of 12, then 15, and now today 30 reps.

Improvement on rows, too. Normally I can only one set of 10; today it was three and that was with minimal rest since I was pissed and trying to get out of the gym at that point.

My quads and knees also feel amazing. I'm revisiting the notion that I really only need to bench and squat once per week for maximal rate of improvement with minimal injury and joint distress. I had been a little worried and annoyed because I couldn't find time to bench this week. Yet here I am a full week between bench sessions with a doubling in total volume at the same bar weight

I weighed almost 195 lbs this morning.


Sunday, August 14, 2016

08.14.2016
Back Squat, very loose wraps, no belt, paused first rep till 225
45 x 12
135 x 6
225 x 3
275 x 3 x 6
Straight Bar Pull Up @192 x 11 to failure

Those squat triples got really tough at set five.

Saturday, August 13, 2016

08.13.2016
Bench Press, touch and go, paused first of warm ups till 185
45 x 12 x 2
135 x 6
185 x 3
225 x 2
235 x 5 x 3
Dumbbell Row, semi-supinated, right/ left 120 x 9 x 3
Straight Bar Arm Curl 100 x 3 x 2

Took a back off week, partly because all the moving was taking a toll on me. My knees are feeling completely better. I need to back off more regularly on squats.

My bench is recovered. I got 235 x 6 x 2 before it fell apart 10 days ago. Today I stayed with fives and got three sets. They were progressively harder, but I do believe I could have gotten another set. I wanted to save some energy for rows. And I got a bunch of sets of nines there. Followed up with a couple joke sets of curls with 100.

Last week I failed to get past 295 for a single in the squat, which convinced me to take a true back off week. But I then got three sets of of 9 in the pull up! And the first couple of sets were bar to nipples. The last set was progressively lower with each rep, but still got my chin over the bar (or I wouldn't have counted the rep).

Wednesday, August 3, 2016

08.03.2016
Bench Press, touch and go, paused first rep till 185
45 x 12
135 x 6
185 x 3
225 x 2
235 x 1
245 x 3
Dumbbell Row 120 x 8, 8, 5

Felt really weak.

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