9.28.2015/Mon-pm Olympic Squat, wraps at 345, NO BELT
45 x 12
135 x 4 paused + 4
225 x 2 paused + 2
275 x 1 paused + 2
315 x 1 paused + 1
345 x 1
365 x 3 x 2
Straight Bar Pull-up @ 190 + 40 x 4 x 2
I took my first dose of Olympus UK's Ghar1ne (MK 677) last night. Just 10 mg. Within a couple of hours my hunger spiked. I didn't experience the much-heralded sleep, however. I was up till past 2 am.
But I figured I should just go ahead and finish the bottle of LeGenD LGD 4033 I had on hand since I will be able to bulk easily with the Ghar1ne. As of this morning I am up to just under 189. This is the heaviest I've been in a while.
I'm also thinking of continuing to cruise with the SARMs. I know, I know. A break and a PCT are needed. But I'm feeling so damned good. And I don't want the gains train to stop chugging along. And more importantly, for me the benefit of these things is their lack of sides and complications. So I'm going to see how well I can do by swapping compounds and keeping the doses minimal.
I may even start adding Ostarine to see if the effects kick up a bit...use the Ostarine as a bridge between LGD and RAD 140.
Okay, I just gave my rat 15 mg of Ostarine. This is after the 4 mg of Legend this morning.
And here is today's vlog:
Squat Notes
Long pauses on those paused reps. I counted to four on the 315. I was getting a little winded. That 365 triple was hard and the second triple required rest-pause. I'm mostly happy. I'm just focused on getting a triple with 405 at this point.
I did the pull ups mainly to decompress my spine. It's still the best I've ever done on pull ups. I think this 190 is the heaviest I've ever been.
9.27.2015/Sun-am, 187 lbs Bench Press, touch and go [paused first rep of warm up sets up to 245]
45 x 10
135 x 5
185 x 4
225 x 3
245 x 2
265 x 1 275 x 1 x 2 PR
One-Arm DB Row 125 x 8LR x 2 (with a third set of sloppy reps)
Father, forgive me for these gains I just received.
That 275 was the most I've ever benched in my life. And it was so easy that I did it again.
The second single was slower, but I never stalled. I knew better than to attempt another single, however. But I know that by the end of this week, I will very likely have this weight for a double.
I felt so strong going into this morning's session. And all I've had all day (it's now 2 pm) was two cups of coffee! I almost couldn't believe how easy the paused rep with 245 felt. For the record, my two best ever paused reps were in two separate meets about a year apart and they were 242 and 253. I easily beat the 242 and I'm sure I could do as much as 260 anytime this coming week. In short, I am stronger on the bench now than I've ever been in my life, even when I was eating literally twice as much five years ago at the height of my competition days.
And these were long pauses too! Way longer than they would have been under meet conditions. I deliberately held the 245 down for time because I felt it was no threat at all. I think I got to a three or four count.
Heh. By Friday, I will be able to say that I've put 60 lbs on my bench in two and a half months. There are about 12 weeks till Christmas. My Christmas gift to myself will be a paused bench with 315. Troof.
SARM Dosing
Note: I'd stepped down the LGD dose to just one 4-mg tab per day and as of today I've stopped taking it entirely. So there may be a stall or even a dip in strength this week. I mean, I'm going to push hard, but I'm also ready to give my body a little break from SARMs.
I will begin dosing my lab rat with Ghar1ne which is the MK-677 GH secretagogue from Olympus UK. This is more healing than anabolism. But I may also pick up a bottle of RAD-140 Radar1ne to start in a couple of weeks. I think my body has gotten a little too used to the LGD. Swapping out SARMs just seems like a good idea each cycle.
I do have a bottle of Ostarine from Olympus and I've only tried less than a dozen pills. If I feel like my lifts are going down the tube, I may start dosing my lab rat with that before I spring for a bottle of RAD.
I am more than a little nervous about losing ground. And I may slip just because I expect it. Placebo could make me lift less.
Tomorrow: Squat
My quads are feeling better again today. I'm very nervous about squatting tomorrow, though. My squat and dead have been in the toilet because I've trained my squat way too much lately. I'm hoping the fatigue has dissipated and that I can get a few doubles with 365.
Saturday, September 26, 2015
9.26.2015/Sat
No training today. Had to help pack the truck up for the trip to the shipper in Miami, though. I am very happy to report that even after a day of high volume dumbbell rows, there is only a whisper of pain in my medial epicondyles.
We have to lift a lot of boxes and move a lot of heavy barrels. When I first got to Florida and would help my dad do this every other Saturday, my elbows would have this burning feeling as if the tissue there was being ripped apart. That's mostly gone now. I'd say that it's honestly only 10% of what it was. I'd be a liar if I were to say it's completely gone, but I'm still ecstatic over how much better I feel.
I couldn't sleep last night and ended up making myself a burger at 2 in the morning. I was able to sleep after that. After much elimination and sweating from working in this autumnal Florida heat, I weighed 188. This was a surprise. I am barely eating at all these days.
I chalk this up to the potency of the LGD 4033. I'm still getting stronger on the bench (though my squat and deadlift are currently paying the price of my training the squat too frequently).
Bad Squat Advice
My thighs are just now starting to feel normal after I ran myself into the ground with high frequency squatting again. I was using squats as a form of psychotherapy, never a healthy thing. My squats went down because -- surprise! -- squats work the body's largest muscles and all that muscle mass takes a bit longer to recover than the relatively small amount of muscles involved in the bench press (which is the squat of the upper body).
I can squat productively maybe twice per week or so. Just once a week invites soreness. But less than two days complete rest between training days: playing with fire.
Also, I've been playing around with naked knees. That's rarely a good idea either. Though it is less of a problem with paused squats because a pause means a lot less mechanical energy that the knees have to handle at the end of the descent.
Still, fuck all that noise about squatting every day and not wrapping the knees. That's just dumb. Though I won't wrap on days I do nothing but pauses! But regular squats get wraps from now on. Even on the warm ups there will be light wrapping.
Myofascial Release and Not Needing It So Much with Wraps
I believe my aggressive heavy squats with minimal wrapping led to the outbreak of trigger points or knots that I developed in both my vastus lateralis. It seems like these muscles were doing the main job of braking and reversing my descent. Their mechanical limits were apparently exceeded during my last cycle. When I wear wraps, the wraps do a lot of the braking and reversal :) Yeah, it's cheating a bit. But it spares my joints and muscles when they are most vulnerable. It may not build resilience in that bottom range. But fuck that if I'm still getting stronger thighs. I'll just be sure to compete in feds that allow wraps and leave the feds with naked knees in raw to the real men.
My multiple daily genuflexion to the PVC pipe is paying off. The knots are vastly reduced and my quads can operate smoothly and without much pain.
Squat Hopes
My squat has been suffering horribly even as my more intelligent thrice weekly approach to the bench has seen that lift progressing. My brain has been reminiscing over Smolov as a prescription to get the squat moving...but I want first to try just reducing the squat frequency to something sensible and applying the same low volume approach of singles and doubles that I use for bench (and which is adding five pounds weekly like clockwork).
I should probably alternate 5-lb jumps with 10-lb jumps each week, instead of always counting on 10-lb jumps.
MK-677 Gahr1ne
I'm startng on Ghar1ne tomorrow night. I'd been toying with the idea of taking Ostarine with it, but I think I just want to give my body a break from SARMs entirely while just letting this ghrelin mimetic / secretagogue do its thing.
Friday, September 25, 2015
9.24.2015/Thu-pm Bench Press, touch and go, first rep paused till 225
45 x 10
135 x 5
185 x 3
225 x 2
245 x 1
255 x 1
265 x 1
270 x 1 x 3 One-Arm DB Row, supinated 100 x 12L/12R x 4
I don't know why I fight this reality: my bench is best with three times per week, but my squat starts to stall if I train it more than twice per week. Maybe that will change once I get on the Ghar1ne (MK 677). But right now there is just no way I progress with this daily squatting bullshit.
What has almost always worked for me (when I was fresh enough at the start of the program) is Smolov.
But I get ahead of myself. I think for a while I really need to dial back my squat frequency to just twice weekly. The glutes and the quadriceps power the squat and deadlift, and those two muscle groups represent the biggest, strongest muscles in the body. So it stands to reason that they would need a bit more recovery time than the pecs, delts, and triceps.
I mean, I'm looking at my quads right now. They are these huge slabs of muscle covering two feet of my thickest bones. I don't think my pecs, delts, and tris combined are as massive as my quads. And my glutes are bigger still. I estimate that there is 2-3 times as much muscle mass that needs recovery after the squat than after the bench press.
Furthermore, the squat also taxes the lower back. Not nearly as bad as the deadlift does, but it still fatigues it.
Bench Notes
Anywho...I got a bug up my butt today about getting my bench over 315 ASAP. So I had the goal of getting 270 for a double...even though I just got 265 for a double a couple days ago and 270 for a double really shouldn't be expect till the middle of next week..
So that 270 x 2 just wasn't happening. I got two singles and after a long, long rest (10 minutes) I got another single. I thought about going for one more, but I unracked it and realized that I just didn't have any more energy for pressing. I'm sure the 270 for a double will be there next week, though.
I am weighing a hair over 186 this evening.
Thursday, September 24, 2015
9.24.2015/Thu-pm
Olympic-style Squat, no belt, wraps at 345, paused first rep till 345
45 x 12
135 x 6
225 x 4
315 x 2
345 x 1
355 x 1 Negative and hold 405
Conventional Deadlift, no belt
405 x 3
445 x 2
475 x 1
495 x X
Failure to progress. Stupid to squat every day like this. All progress these last couple weeks have been in the bench press and overhead press. Because androgens have more places to plug in on the upper body.
It may be time to unsheath my oldest, most reliable squat prescription...
9.23.15/Wed Bench Press, touch and go
45 x 10
135 x 5
185 x 3
225 x 2
245 x 1
255 x 1 265 x 2 PR
Paused Olympic Squat, NO belt/sleeves
45 x 12
135 x 6
225 x 3
275 x 2
315 x 1 325 x 1 PR
Straight Bar Pull-up @186 + 35 x 3, 3
So I've been feeling a little off all day because my v. lateralis had been feeling tender around the knots that I roll continually. But I watched Jason Blaha's vids on training frequency and got it into my head that I should go train again.
Glad I went. PRs abounded. I am closing in on that three-wheel bench so quickly...I just can't believe my progress is still moving at the rate of 5 lbs/week!
I didn't feel like squatting too heavy tonight and I also didn't feel like wrapping up for anything. I'd also forgotten my knee sleeves at home. So I decided to use paused squats so I could go completely knee-naked without worrying about tearing up my knees with the bounce at the bottom. Got a big paused PR with 325:
In before someone points out that my ass could have been lower. I use modified elevated heels on the already high heels of my Ristos. My torso is really short in relation to my femurs. The higher heels effectively lengthen my shins and allow me to stay amazingly upright even though my spine is so relatively short. The tradeoff of this is that even at acute knee flexion I'm only a couple inches below parallel.
The lower the heel, the more below parallel I get, but without any extra benefit to the actual range of motion. And I have to lean forward more with my natural heel closer to the ground.
Simply, with my proportions, higher heels (artificially longer shins) and a higher bar placement (artificially longer spine) are the only way to stay fairly upright in the squat.
Recomping, Lower Dosing, Happy Testicles
I'm shifting plans a bit. I got a hint of testicular pain a couple nights ago. Just a hint. Nothing like I had when I'd upped the dosage of LGD 4033 to 12 mg a day for my lab rat. So since I only have 14 or so tablets left, I decided to go down to just one per day (4 mg) and extend the cycle out to two weeks. This gives me more time bring my squat up instead of trying to cram 40 lbs of improvement into seven days.
And the last time my testicles hurt (and were shrinking), just bringing down the dose made things right again.
Is it smart to step down to 4 mg after going at 8 mg? Who knows?
I'm not looking for increased performance so much at this point. I just want to step down gently instead of jumping off the cliff to zero LGD intake. I'll be coasting. These gains are supposed to very keepable. So I should be able to continue to make some progress over the next few days before it peters out.
Either way, I'd like to see some of this fat around my middle start to go away. I've been avoiding the necessary caloric deficit, but now I feel I'm ready. I'm reducing my lab rat's LGD 4033 dosage and the next SARM I'll be feeding him is MK 2877 in small amounts to keep on some muscle while in caloric deficit.
Persistent Vastus Lateralis Pain
Rolling my quads over the PVC pipe is definitely forcing out the knots in both my thighs. I am rolling several times per day. But the pain persists and is limiting my ability to pour effort into the squat. They are getting better (as evidenced by my ability to put up a PR on the paused squat last night), but it is slow going.
Funny, though...it's only on back squats. Front squats don't have the same stress on my quads.
Back Squats Are Better Than Front Squats For Lower Body Power
There was a time I thought that front squats could and should hold the esteem the back squat does. Experience has taught me that the back squat really is the king of lower body development. Front squats are a bit of a sideshow.
Front squats are kind of like overhead presses. They look cool and almost nobody ever does them outside of specialists like Olympic-style weightlifters. But while they are a special application of strength, the actual general strength in the involved musculature is far better built by back squats (in the case of the front squat) and bench presses (in the case of the standing press).
The full squat version of the clean is much more a strength move than the full squat version of the snatch. Leg strength won't limit a lifter out of the bottom of a snatch...but leg strength could indeed limit a lifter out of the bottom of the clean! So I get it now. Lifters don't need to work on overhead squats to make sure they have enough standing strength in the snatch; they DO need to get comfortable with standing up with heavy weight in the front squat position to help the clean.
Weight This Morning
As of 10 am September 24, 2015, I am down to 186 1/2 lbs. I want to get up over 200 lbs, of course, but I am happy to see that weight come slowly while my lifts go up more quickly. If I only weigh 185 when I squat over 400 and pull over 500, both without a belt, that's just fine by me. That would mean I was cutting fat as I got more muscular. And I really could stand to drop pound or three of fat right now to get rid of that his tiny, tiny spare tire I have.
My projected touch and go max is 280 right now based on the 265 x 2 I got last night (and they were solid as fuck). I am tempted to believe that I could get a touch and go of 300 this very cycle now that I'm extending things out a couple more weeks.
[9.22.2015/Tue-pm, 187 lbs] Olympic Squat, True Black wraps @ 345
45 x 12
135 x 6
225 x 4
275 x 3
315 x 2
345 x 1
355 x 2
365 x 2 Standing Press 155, 165, 170, 170 PRs Front Squat, True Black wraps 315
I really had no business back in the gym tonight. But I needed to manage stress. Squat was as shitty as expected with quad knots complaining. I rolled on 30-lb curl bar to keep them at bay.
I was all over the place and just called it quits when I didn't feel like either volume or intensity. When I don't have the energy to back squat, I like to wrap up with singles testing on presses and front squats.
Personal records on press. I messed up recording of 170 the first time so I had to do another single which was a bit more of a grinder. I think I'm good for 175...which would put me at 40 lbs over my 135 max in June.
What's funny is that I don't train the standing press at all. I just test it every week or so while getting all my pressing strength from the bench volume.
Similarly I don't train the front squat or deadlift; I just test them while the back squat actually drives them up.
If there is one thing I'd like to drive home and prove to the training world, it's that only three movements are necessary and oprimal for 95-98% of total body strength and muscular development goals: Olympic-style squat, bench press, and dumbbell row.
Here is my second single with 170. Not as pretty as the first single.
And here is my front squat with loose wraps. I've done this weight before a couple of times and will aim for more when rested.
