Wednesday - Hill Sprints #31

Ran 10 sprints in 20 minutes this time instead of 8. Felt good. Was more motivated after today's weird lifting session.

Tomorrow is a day off, then Friday would normally be squats, but I'm taking the GRE this Friday. Hopefully it all goes well and I'll be back to lifting on Saturday.

Wednesday - Bench. Week 2 Cycle 5

You ever try and lift with jazz hands in your face? I have. It's awesome since it's all you can focus on. It kinda hinders your lifting, though. As a result, I don't even know how to count today's lift. The bar was touched on every rep from 8-10 and I lost the proper grove on at least a couple reps as a result of those magical hands distracting me. The only good I can see from this is that the last time I did 225 on 8.7.11 (also for 10 reps but spotter never touched the bar) is that this set was significantly faster and I didn't utilize any bounce off my chest like I did last month. Still, I'd like to forget this workout. Already looking forward to next week to redeem myself.

Asssitance work was good, but exhausting:  For the first time ever I finished all 75 reps of 65lb db's flat bench (5 sets of 15reps). This is a four rep improvement over last workout. I also did 5 sets of 10 reps of 100lb db rows.

Goals for today:

175x3
200x3
225x3

Lifted:


175x3
200x3
225x10*


Video of final set below:

Monday - Hill Sprints # 30

Felt fresh and fast. Did 8 sprints in ~20 minutes up the steep ass hill in front of my house.

Sunday - Deadlifts. Week 2 Cycle 5

Easy peasy.

Today's workout was spot on as I hit every planned number. I knew that since I had done 415x10 over a month back, I wanted at least 11 or 12 reps today with 410lbs, with 13 reps being the ultimate goal (to keep the same number of reps as last cycle's week 2). I got the 13 reps and I was also happy with how fast 410lbs moved off of the floor; it felt pretty light. In all, I'm pleased with the deadlift progress. Assistance work (5 sets of 5 weighted pullups with +45lbs and 5 sets of the ab wheel) has improved as well.

Week 2 deadlift-breakdown given below:

• Cycle 1 Week 2: 375x11 (512lb calculated 1RM)
• Cycle 2 Week 2: 385x11
• Cycle 3 Week 2: 395x12
• Cycle 4 Week 2: 400x13
• Cycle 5 Week 2: 410x13 (587lb calculated 1RM)

That's +35lbs + 2 reps in a little under 5 months. I don't put much stock in the 1RM formulas, but it's cool to see how much of a difference 375x11 and 410x13 really is.

Goals for today:

320x3
365x3
410x3

Lifted:

320x3
365x3
410x13


Video of final set below:

Clean and Jerk. Week 2 Cycle 5 | Hill Sprints #29

Well, today called for 205lbs on the clean and jerk. Last time I used 205lbs I did five reps, so I knew I wanted to get six today with seven being the ultimate goal since I did seven reps at 200lbs for week 2 cycle 4. Reps 1-5 were way easier than I thought they were going to be, but by rep six I got lazy and didn't follow through on the jerk (it was well high enough, I simply had to step forward). On the bright side, I've never failed a rep on the jerk portion and succeeded to knock another one out like I did today.   If not for that mental error, I would have had the seven reps easy. Either way, I'm still progressing.

Week 2 progress on c&j thus far:

Cycle 1 Week 2: 185x7
Cycle 2 Week 2: 190x7
Cycle 3 Week 2: 195x6
Cycle 4 Week 2: 200x7
Cycle 5: Week 2: 205x6 (virtually 205x7).

As you can see, the reps have stayed consistent with the increased weight every month. ~4 months and 20 lbs put on clean and jerk in the 6-7 rep range. Can't complain about that.

Goals for today:

160x3
180x3
205x3

Lifted:


160x3
180x3
205x6


Assistance work:

Weighted chin-ups (+25lbs), 41 reps in 5 sets: 10, 10, 10, 6, 5. Big improvement here over last time.
Weighted dips (+45lbs): 50 reps in 5 sets.

Video of final set below: