A Lifter's Iron Log...

[ghettostudmuffin]

Ya I kinda felt like I had no gusto on the 385. I did the 365 decently and then when I tried the 385 I popped it about 2 inches off the floor and knew it wasn't gonna go.

Deadlift is my heaviest lift, but proportionately I think my bench is probably the strongest followed by squat.

If I am physically active and not restricting calories I typically sit around 205-210lbs without lifting weights so I have put on 17-20lbs in the last 3 months.

I'm guessing I'll make those short term goals inside of 6-8 months from now np.

 

[ghettostudmuffin]

This is gonna be tough not going to the gym for a week.

I'm taking a week break after 3 months non-stop loading and seeing what my maxes are last Tuesday.

As of next week I'll be starting the 5-3-1 program. I REALLY like 5x5, but I think I'm going to limit it to around 8-10 week stretches. The 3x a week squatting and 2x a week benching start taking their toll on my connective tissue around the outside of the elbow and under the knee cap.

This is partially why I'm taking a week long rest too. I want to get some healing in, deload abit and then start back in fresh on the new program.

5-3-1 starting percentages, 90% of current 1 rep max

Squat 310.5
Bench 256.5
Dead 328.5
Press 157.5

 

[ghettostudmuffin]

8-30-2010

Ya buddaaay! Light weight!!! Ain't nothin, but a peanut. HRAAHHGH!

Felt good to get back into the gym after a week off.

New program 5-3-1

Squat max 345, I decided to be easy and dropped it to 325 and calculated 90% off that.

Full Squat 135x5, 165x3, work sets
65% at 190x5
75% at 220x5
85% at 250x9, I probably could have gotten 10, but I wanted to leave a smidge in the tank.

So I decided to do the assistance option Boring, But Big. This should be renamed to Boring, But Fucking Hard.

Full Squat 145x5x10 kept rest down to no more than 3 minutes a set. I was gassing bookoo hard by the end of the fifth set. For a good 15 minutes I thought I might puke.

The stuff I read wasn't bullshitting, the 50% of your max rep for 5 sets of 10 is nasty. I am definitely gonna be sore tomorrow. Feck, I'm sore right now, but it's that good soreness.

Thanks again goes to the resident main man powerlifter helping further improve my form. It's pretty much down pat now. I'm not fucking with it anymore. My knee irritation was completely gone on my heaviest set of squats and absolutely nothing on the 5 light burn sets.

My quads are going to get fucking ginormous off this squat protocol.

Bodyweight was 230lbs. Strength felt good. It was a good day in the gym.

 

[Tblock1]

nice man enjoy your new routine!

 

[ghettostudmuffin]

9-1-2010

5-3-1

Bench Press 135x10, 135x10 warmup
65% at 165x5
75% at 192x5
85% at 218x13 reps, this was my max reps, woulda hit failure on the next for sure, was very happy with this, figured I would get 12-13 reps vs. last time I did 225x9 and felt I maybe had 1 more in the tank.

135x5x10 the last 2 sets I was definitely grinding out the last 3 reps, I was repping each set pretty fast trying to maintain decent form, get a little explosive work from it too.

One Arm DB Row 60x5, 70x5, 80x5, 90x5, 100x3, 115-120x6-7 the stupid bells have the numbers missing, I wasn't paying enough attention to guess accurately which was which so coulda been either weight. Grip more than anything atm is the limiting factor, I'll definitely stay around 115-120 db until I can do a solid 12 or more reps.

That's it. Solid workout.

Bodyweight 234lbs, I think I gained a pound of muscle on my thighs just from my previous workout. I'm not bullshitting.

 

[Tblock1]

nice weight gain man your strength and weight is shooting up! Did I read that correctly 218x13 reps? How did you get it to 218? With microplates or what?

 

[ghettostudmuffin]

I have a nice microplate set ranging from .25lbs to 1lbs that I have had for several years. I have literally never had a real reason to use them until now with this program. It was kinda nice to dust them off.

I was just going to round up, but the numbers don't come out perfect from cycle to cycle and with the micro plates I can emulate the exact loading progressions the program calls for.

I have read quite a few people talk about how Wendler's recommendation to use 90% of your max would have you using too light of a weight for many lifter's and would take months to build back up, but my number say otherwise.

On week 3 before the 4th week deload my final work set will 243lbs for as many reps as I can get.

On my 5x5 I worked up to 245x3 easy so obviously repping just under that weight for a rep max in the first 3 weeks of the program has me shaking my head on people having issues with the progression rate.

In 3 months I have increased my triples weight on squats by 100, 65 on bench and 75 on deads.

All of these are over 20lbs a month gain and there's no fuckin way in hell I will be able to maintain that rate of progress for the next 3 months. The body is just not that linear in development.

On this 5-3-1 program I could definitely believe in 12 months increasing my reps by another 50-60 pounds on bench and press and 90-100 on squats and deads with consistent training and everything else more or less inline.

Enough babbling from me.

 

[Tblock1]

I have a nice microplate set ranging from .25lbs to 1lbs that I have had for several years. I have literally never had a real reason to use them until now with this program. It was kinda nice to dust them off.

I was just going to round up, but the numbers don't come out perfect from cycle to cycle and with the micro plates I can emulate the exact loading progressions the program calls for.

I have read quite a few people talk about how Wendler's recommendation to use 90% of your max would have you using too light of a weight for many lifter's and would take months to build back up, but my number say otherwise.

On week 3 before the 4th week deload my final work set will 243lbs for as many reps as I can get.

On my 5x5 I worked up to 245x3 easy so obviously repping just under that weight for a rep max in the first 3 weeks of the program has me shaking my head on people having issues with the progression rate.

In 3 months I have increased my triples weight on squats by 100, 65 on bench and 75 on deads.

All of these are over 20lbs a month gain and there's no fuckin way in hell I will be able to maintain that rate of progress for the next 3 months. The body is just not that linear in development.

On this 5-3-1 program I could definitely believe in 12 months increasing my reps by another 50-60 pounds on bench and press and 90-100 on squats and deads with consistent training and everything else more or less inline.

Enough babbling from me.

Well great progress man I am jealous I just haven't had the time for lifting and my focus has been elsewhere. However my cardio is going great I figured out the whole problem I was having with pushups was I was using way too wide a grip I moved it in and it is much easier. My blood pressure was also down a lot when I was at the doctor's

 

[ghettostudmuffin]

Ya honestly man trying to achieve x amount of strength while also achieving x cardio/calisthenics goals is not easy. It can be done, but likely will take longer to reach both together than either specific one.

There is definitely technique to pushups. I typically used a hands shoulder width placement. It helps if you spread your fingers wide. Feet shoulder width or heels touching works good. I prefer'd heels together back in the day, but I wouldn't use that stance with like one arm pushups obviously.

I think as your cardio continues to improve you will see your blood pressure and heart rate drop even more.

At meps they tested my bp at 100/56 if I remember right and my resting heart rate was 46 bpm which has surprised me.

That's one great thing about cardio. You may or may not be strong when you have sick cardio, but you tend to feel good because your lungs and heart are so strong. At least that's how I felt. Not that I feel bad now, but being able to run 10 miles np has it's own enjoyment and rewards. Right now I would dread having to run a mile for best time. Back then I woulda been like easy cheesy let's do this lol.

 

[Tblock1]

Ya honestly man trying to achieve x amount of strength while also achieving x cardio/calisthenics goals is not easy. It can be done, but likely will take longer to reach both together than either specific one.

There is definitely technique to pushups. I typically used a hands shoulder width placement. It helps if you spread your fingers wide. Feet shoulder width or heels touching works good. I prefer'd heels together back in the day, but I wouldn't use that stance with like one arm pushups obviously.

I think as your cardio continues to improve you will see your blood pressure and heart rate drop even more.

At meps they tested my bp at 100/56 if I remember right and my resting heart rate was 46 bpm which has surprised me.

That's one great thing about cardio. You may or may not be strong when you have sick cardio, but you tend to feel good because your lungs and heart are so strong. At least that's how I felt. Not that I feel bad now, but being able to run 10 miles np has it's own enjoyment and rewards. Right now I would dread having to run a mile for best time. Back then I woulda been like easy cheesy let's do this lol.

Yeah oddly enough I'm pretty healthy but my blood pressure seemed to be really high for my age a while back, I figured out it was white coat syndrome though. Every time I went into the office I got really nervous and it would shoot WAY up, like almost above 140 in the top number. The bottom number always stayed low though. Then when I did my rotc physical I just relaxed for a few minutes and my blood pressure was like 110/60 or something like that. In my opinion the healthiest exercise is a good combo of lifting and lots of cardio. Before I lifted my hands would get cold all the time, same with my feet and I was way skinnier and less healthy for sure. At the same time though with lifting no cardio is no good too. Stay strong and get your goals man!!!!!!!!!!!!! Side note: The one thing I'm gonna love about all this cardio is when I go on another backpacking trip with my friend (we are very competitve with each other and always making fun of each other) I'm gonna absolutely destroy him. I'm gonna start off the pace and go like 5 mph lol and when he complains I'll be all over him (Oh what's the matter pussy can't handle this? Oh are you feeling alright we can take a long rest break if you need it)