Holiday Heaves

Deadlift 440x4 and 450x4

Bench press 340x4, SlingShot 335x8

Squat 465x3, paused 370x3

Back was hurting pretty badly after the most recent deadlift workout, and my left foot was going numb too. Thankfully my back is fine, but I did find massive trigger points in my piriformis and IT band. I've been using a foam roller and everything feels much better now. Added some stretching/yoga poses into my morning warmup routine too.

Other than that I think I could have pulled about 5 pounds more and should have gone with 345 on the bench press, but I was trying to hit more back-off sets (which I did, 2x4 with 320).

I'm currently reading Now and On Earth by Jim Thompson, which Coach sort of reviewed a while ago. It's okay, but nothing like the other books I've read by the same author. Thompson was infinitely better at noir-type stuff and I don't quite know what to call this book. I guess in the 1940s this sort of writing passed for "edgy", from a modern perspective it just seems unnecessarily disjointed.

Volumization

Lifts in the past week (volume focused):

Deadlift 425x5 (no belt)

Bench press 335x4, SlingShot 345x5

Squat 445x5, paused 365x4

Press behind neck standing 155 x 2 sets x 5, seated 195x3, 175x5

Looking back, 2017 has been one of my best years strength-wise. Training has been haphazard and I wasn't able to follow a regular program, but I retained a decent amount of strength and posted some good numbers in the 3-5RM range. With some more consistency I'm pretty sure I could have equaled my best ever bench press and deadlift poundage and done a five plate squat.

Still doing a lot of constant-tension bicep work (mostly machines and cables) and tricep exercises with bands (e.g. band+cable pushdowns). It's a little easier on the joints (elbows are giving me trouble again) and produces a really great pump.

In Brief

Some highlights from the past week or so:

Deadlift 465x3

Bench press 330x4, with SlingShot 370x3 (not in same workout)

Squat 440x5, 370x3 paused

My December travel got canceled, so I will now have enough time to run a full 6-week power training cycle before the next trip. I don't feel like I lost too much strength this year, and I was pretty happy with the results I got from the cycle I ran this summer, so I'm pretty excited about this.

Bodyweight is consistently around 220, in spite of very sporadic training. I would prefer to stabilize it at 215, but all my pants still fit fine and I'm not overly concerned about it.

Pointless Logging

27 November 2017

SlingShot bench press 335x5, 345x5, 355x2, 370x3, 335x3

T-bar rows 4s x 8

Barbell curl 4s x 8

Barbell extension 2s x 10, reverse grip 1s x 10

I don't get reverse grip benching, or how people move huge weights that way. I used very light weights for the extensions and still almost died unracking the bar.

Standing BTN press 135x5, 145x5, 155x5, 165x5, 175x5

This is the second OHP workout in a row that I've worked up to 175 on my heaviest set, which makes me happy.

Preacher DB curl 4s x 6

Overhead cable extensions 4s x 10-12


29 November 2017

Paused squat 320x5, 350x3, 370x3, 380x2

Squat 405x5, 425x5, 445x3, 465x3

Stiff-legged DL 3s x 5

Hack squat 3s x 12


1 December 2017

Bench press 300x5, 310x5, 320x5, 340x3, 355x2, 275x5

Pulldowns 10-8-7-7

Hammer curl 4s x 8

Preacher curl machine 3s x 12

Overhead tricep extensions 4s x 12