4/18/12

4/18/12

Squats:
Tom: 420x5
This felt like the hardest set in recent memory. However, on video, the reps were faster than 415 and the technique was magnitudes better. I'll take it, I guess. At least I'm progressing on [i]something[/i].

Zach: 170x5x3
These reps all moved very fast. Technique was a bit inconsistent, but he was sore from playing softball yesterday. This weight is still "easy" for him. He just doesn't know it.

Bench:
Tom: 240x3
For whatever reason, my left side was much stronger than my right side today. I had the fourth rep locked out on the left but it had barely moved up at all on the right. I think it had to do with some kind of technique error as I recently went back to a more powerlifting style bench after using Rip's technique for quite some time. I'll go back to 232.5, start doing 3x5 again, and begin microloading.

Zach: 170x5, 170x4
Time to microload. No real technique problems. This was just too damn heavy.

Power Cleans:
Zach: 125x3x5
These were actually very good. I discovered he was doing the hook grip incorrectly. We'll fix that and it will only add efficiency. Like everyone else, a lot of these started with the hips too low. We'll continue to work on it.

Back Extensions:
Tom: 240x10x5
Bodyweight for five sets of ten. Rested about 60s between sets. Obviously this was very easy, but it produced a massive lower back pump. That's kind of the point, I guess.

Chinups:
Tom: 240x5x3 /w orange light band
Dead-hang, upper chest to bar. I'll keep this form. I'm going to do these twice a week from now on. DV convinced me that my lats were a big weakness and I know this is true because I've had a lot of trouble recently dragging my deadlifts up my shins. I'm using Rip's programming instead of Madcow's because I don't want to make a bunch of big changes.

Zach: 182.5x5,5,6
Chest to bar, using the stretch reflex. Zach has gained a lot of weight since we started.

Overall:
That leads me into this little bit. My progress has been sporadic lately and it is because I'm starting to fuck with everything too much again. I need to get back to objectivity and robotic programming for now. I'm doing everything I can recovery wise, outside of drugs, and I just have to let things fall into place. Worrying about every detail the way I have the last two weeks or so is making me so fucking incredibly pissed off that it is starting to carry over into other areas of my life. If you've read my posts lately, you can probably tell. For now, I'm going to go back to trying to post on forums as little as possible and I'm going to try to stop thinking about lifting and programming so much. If I can. I'm probably one of the few people that can want something so bad that my obsession literally prevents me from being successful in a given task. It took me a long time to learn that, but it has finally sunk in over the last few years. Anyways, I'm rambling. I'm looking forward to two days off and getting some much needed recovery.

To give an idea of how I'm planning to program:
4/21, Saturday's Workout:
Squats: 425x5
Press: 160x5x3
Power Cleans: 170x3x5 (my last successful 3x5 before I moved to ramped 8x3 was 165)
Chinups: 245x5x3 /w orange band, dead-hang+upper-chest-to-bar

4/23, Monday's Workout:
Squats: 325x5x2
Bench: 232.5x5x3, powerlifting technique
Back Extensions: 245x10x5

4/25, Wednesday's Workout:
Squats: 430x5
Press: 162.5x5x3
Deadlift: 356x5
Chinups: 250x5x3 /w orange band, dead-hang+upper-chest-to-bar

I'll move to 2.5# jumps on chins and 1# jumps on press as necessary.