Back on track this workout and the squats continue to progress. Today's final set called for 355lbs while last month in Week 1 I did 350 x 10. Not much to think about today, I wanted 10 again. Not only did I get the 10 reps, but I kept one or two in the tank while my depth was way better. Holler.
Week 1 squat progress thus far over 7 cycles:
310x6 - cycle 1
315x7- cycle 2
325x10 - cycle 3
335x8 - cycle 4
340x10 - cycle 5
350x10 - cycle 6
355x10 - cycle 7
Goals for today:
270x5
315x5 355x5
Lifted:
270x5
315x5 355x10
Assistance work:
5 sets of triples for front squats: 225, 225, 245, 245, 245.
My bench hasn't been making great progress lately, and this week called for the exact same weight as last month's week 1: 220lbs. Last month I did 11 reps. Today I got 11 reps. Sad face. Comparing both videos, today's performance was actually better: no assistance with lift off and I managed 1/2 a rep more. Still, I'd like to be making some more concrete progress, so I'm going to only hit the prescribed reps (not going for the +) for the next few weeks. I'll be cutting back on the assistance work as well, I'm feeling really exhausted at the end of these workouts, which I'm sure is hurting my ability to recover.
Assistance work:
140lbs barbell bench press for 5 sets of 15 reps.
110lbs dumbbell db rows for 3 sets of 10. grip was failing pretty badly so dropped to 100lbs for last two sets of 10 reps.
I've finished my round of antibiotics and I'm feeling much better. Anyway, today was deadlifts and the last time for the year that I'll be doing under 4 plates for any final sets. I wanted to make it special! The weight for today, 400lbs, is the weight I had for week 3 way back when I started in cycle 1. On that day I had pulled seven reps...I wanted to annihilate that number.
Goals:
305x5
355x5 400x5
Lifted:
305x5
355x5 400x17
Mission accomplished.
Assistance work wasn't great, and has been on sort of a backwards slide for most of my workouts. I felt pretty much done after my final set, so I don't know if I just blew my wad completely or if I'm still a little affected from being sick. We'll see how it goes. I know Wendler says not to worry if your main lifts are going up and your assistance work isn't.
Weighted pullups with +45 lbs for 5 sets: 6, 6, 6, 5, 5 reps.
Ab Wheel: 5 sets of 10 reps.
-------- Week 1 Deadlifts for 7 cycles have thus far been:
So today begins cycle number seven. Woo. I feel good enough that I can't blame being sick on today's shitty performance. Last cycle I got 195lbs for 10, so today at 200lbs for my final set I wanted 10 again. I got 9 and 3/4. Blah. I just had no energy left after that ninth rep and my core/legs were shaky as hell. Hopefully things will improve as the cycle progresses. I'm gonna take two days off after today and hit up deadlifts next time!
Assistance work today was low-key. My shoulder still hurts from last time I did dips (I didn't warm up properly and pulled something), so I stuck with weighted chins and some strict overhead pressing: 5 sets of 5 at 135lbs.
Also, no official deload week this time due to all the time off from sickness.
So it turns out that squatting while sick is not really a great idea, but I wanted to end this cycle already. Anyway, I'm sick and today sucked. The only good thing I can say about today is that one year ago in my first and only lifting competition, 390lbs was my final lift on squats. Today I did that six times while sick. So there. Did I mention I am sick?
Assistance work: Felt turrible, did some front squats but wanted to vomit. Went home.
Still under the weather today; I felt good enough to get my sniffly self into the gym, though. Today called for 245lbs for my final set. This time last month I did 240 x 6, so I wanted those six reps again today. I got them, but my form was sloppy and my endurance just wasn't there. I'll blame the sickness, for now.
Assistance work stayed the same:
70lb dumbells for flat bench: 5 sets of 15 reps.
100lb dumbells for rows: 5 sets of 10 reps.
Week 3 bench progress for 6 cycles thus far has been:
I'm in New York City this weekend, woo! Anyway, I was still a little sick yesterday and only had five hours of sleep followed by a six hour bus ride. As such, I was not expecting to be able to lift very much (and was ready to scrap my workout if my warm-ups were causing too much trouble). When I got to the gym I ended up having to adjust my form a little on the deadlits, since they only had those octagon shaped plates; I couldn't roll the bar around to get into a comfy position. Still, things went better than expected. I think about half way through the set of 440lbs I knew I could get 10 reps and leave a couple in the tank, too. I didn't get it on video, argh!
Goals for today:
350x5
395x3 440x1
Lifted:
350x5
395x3 440x10
Assistance work stayed the same as last time (although I'm pretty sure I did the sets more quickly):
Today marks the end of clean and jerks for cycle 6; I finished better than I expected with 220lbs for 6 reps (I wanted 5 reps today since last cycle I did 215x5). In fact in cycle 6, I've hit all the numbers I wanted to for clean and jerks.
I'm frustrated about today's camera work, I really wanted to see if I improved my depth over my last workout! Anyway, despite the silhouette, I think I can see I got good depth. Today called for 370lbs, a weight which I saw back in week 3 cycle 4, for which I got 6 (difficult) reps. Today, then, I knew I needed 7 (but wanted 8 to keep the progress from the last few cycles consistent). I got the 8 without any drama. Woo.
Assistance work: 6 sets of 3 reps at 225lb front squats.
Week 2 squat progress for 6 cycles thus far has been:
I think cycle 6 is starting to see my bench improve again, especially in comparison with Cycle 4 and 5 which had both good and 'less-than-good' bench performances. Today called for 230lbs for my final working set. I saw 230lbs in week 3 cycle 3 during which I got 7 reps. I also got 235x7 in week 3 cycle 4, so today I knew I wanted at least 8 reps to improve over those last sessions. Things went better than expected, and my first few reps felt really strong I ended with 9 reps: no lift off, no bad spots, and I didn't go to failure this time.
Assistance work was awesome.
100lb db rows for 5 sets of 10 reps. No grip problems, all super fast.
70lb db bench for 5 sets of 15 reps. Still difficult, but easier than last time.
Week 2 bench for 6 cycles has thus far been:
Cycle 1: 210 x 8
Cycle 2: 215 x 7
Cycle 3: 220 x 8
Cycle 4: 225 x 10
Cycle 5: 225 x 10* assisted on last rep
Cycle 6: 230 x 9
As you can see, it's not been totally linear progress (same can be said for my clean and jerks as well), but overall things have been improving. I feel like my power on the first few reps has improved tremendously, although this doesn't really show up in the numbers, but I hope it shows up when I go to do my one rep max in the future (it definitely shows up in the videos when I compared this set to week 3cycle 3's 230x7 -- tonight's set was completed in the same time and the first 5 reps were way faster) .
Another good workout today. This time last month I lifted 410lbs x 13.Today called for 415 and again I hit 13 reps with maybe one or two left in the tank. I tried doing that little bar roll that I see so many people do before their deadlift, but I didn't really like it; I wasn't as tight to start the rep as I normally would've been. Anyway, assistance work improved as well and I hit 4 more reps than last week on weighted wide-grip pullups for five sets of: 7, 7, 7, 7, 6 (with sets of the abwheel in between as usual). Ultimate goal is to do five sets of 10, but this will take a few more cycles to reach.
Great workout today. I don't know if there's any science behind this, but it seems like every time I'm a little bit tired going into my workout, I usually end up being pretty strong. Anyway, today's numbers called for 205lbs on the clean and jerk. Now that I've got a bunch of cycles under my belt, I'm starting to see the same weights appear from previous cycles. I first saw 205lbs way back in week 3 cycle 3, then again in week 2 cycle 5. In cycle 3 I managed five reps and in cycle 5 I got six reps. That meant that today I wanted seven reps to continue the progress. Despite feeling a little out of it, I got 8 reps and even left some in the tank. I can tell I'm getting better at these by looking at the first few reps on today's video: I don't even need to fully extend my back leg to knock out most of the reps.
Assistance work also improved a ton. Last week, even though I completed all 50 reps of chinups with +25lbs for the first time, it was a huge struggle. Today it was actually easy and I did all 5 sets of 10 without pausing any of the reps. I even added one more rep to show off, thus : 5 sets for 51 reps of chinupps with +25lbs. Dips also improved as this time I did all 5 sets (instead of only 4 sets last week) with +70lbs for 5 sets of 10. These were also drama free. To put some of this into perspective, in 5 sets, I could only do 42 unweighted chinups when I started 6 months ago.
Week 2 clean and jerks for six cycles thus far have been:
