~Current Update 4/10/19~
Kinda crazy to think I started this only two years ago. It definitely seems like a few eras ago (5 jobs, 2.5 girlfriends, and living in Hawaii, NYC, and California within 730 days has that effect). Disappointed that I was only consistent April-July 2017, but I’m back at it, been consistent since January 2019, 20 lbs lighter than I was when I first started this log (195 lbs, apparently) but just as strong and much more technically sound.
Bodyweight
174 lbs
Diet
My girlfriend has a hypothyroid autoimmune disease, so we follow a pretty strict iteration of a paleo diet. It’s been pretty good for her and great for me.
Supplements
Whey
BCAAs
Amino Energy (when on sale at Costco)
Fish Oil
Curcumin
Multi
Lifts
Squat (beltless) 345 lbs
Conventional Deadlift (beltless) 385 lbs
Sumo (beltless) 405 lbs
Pull Ups 110 lbs
Bench 300 lbs
OHP 175 lbs
~End of Current Update~
The history: I have been doing weight training off and on for about a dozen years ever since high school football. Competed in the USAPL (geared) for a year in college at 74kg. That was 4+ years ago, and I haven’t been nearly as strong since (even though I’m 30 pounds heavier now). Won’t even bother to say what my best total was back then because it’s irrelevant to where I’m at (weaker than before) and where I want to be (stronger than before, duh). I have done programs such as Sheiko, Smolov, Smolov Jr, Poliquin’s Inferno (i.e. Super Accumulation program). Since that brief stint of PL, for various reasons (a.k.a. excuses), I usually lift hard for 1-3 months and then take a 6-8 month hiatus. And if we know anything about the iron game, consistency trumps intensity (I don’t want to hear it with this once a week, balls to the wall, full-body workout bullshit).
The current situation: I have been back at lifting again for the past month or so. Now at a weight of 195 lbs (5’10, 25 years old), I haven’t maxed out on anything as I like to typically train with 2-3RPM, but have at least put up smooth singles of
Squat- 315lbs
Bench- 265lbs
Deadlift- 405lbs
OHP- 160lbs
Squats were my favorite lift early in my “career”, but excuses aside, it’s weak as fuck now. In fact, let’s be real, everything is weak at the moment, especially at my current bodyweight.
I don’t want to cut weight until my strength is back to something semi-respectable (3/4/5), but I’m well versed enough in dieting/nutrition where I think I can recomp effectively staying at 195-200 while increasing strength. Eventually I would like to cut down to 180, but let’s keep that for 2018.
Anyway, my schedule for the upcoming months allows for high frequency training, and with the luxury of keeping my nutrition on point, I figured I might as well see just how much I can maximize each week going forward.
I’m using auto-regulation to structure each workout, but generally for the past four weeks, I train two-a-days, 6 days a week, with my main focus on increasing my squat (everything is beltless).
I squat six days a week (once a day 3x, twice a day 3x= squat 9 times a week), with one full day of rest (active recovery) each week. Because of the frequency, I have kept the intensity tempered. Have stuck to 10x3, 6x3, 10x1, and sometimes 4x8 the day before my rest day. I never train to failure, and I do NOT conventional deadlift, as I think that would totally kill my capacity to recover and train frequently. On days where I feel gassed, I stick to the same set x rep schemes and just drop the weight and do pause squats.
I do train OHP/BP and chinups/row variations as main lifts in my morning workouts on the days I’m not squatting twice. I always squat in my evening workouts along with assistance work. Aside from squats, the only lower body work I do are glute ham raises and leg curls. Sometimes I do dynamic snatch grip deadlifts if I feel up for it (fell in love with them when I had to do them at a deficit with Poliquin’s Super Accumulation). Since these are a dynamic lift with a relatively light weight, I don’t feel they tax my CNS significantly and are more of an upper back exercise. For upper body assistance I typically do single arm db presses, dips, and just more chinups. I also do farmer walks/suitcase carries in the evenings of my upper body pulling days.
I can log out an example of my typical week if anyone cares; I know it sounds a bit convoluted, and it definitely is unsustainable for the long term. I have already seen some solid gains in the past four weeks as my body has been completely shocked going from eating whatever I want, drinking ~20 drinks a week, zero lifting, and shitty sleep habits to 12 workouts a week, eating clean, paying attention to macros, optimizing pre, peri, post workout nutrition and recovery. I figure after a slight deload this week, I can do another 3-4 weeks of this and then go into a more traditional routine. I have been fortunate to have never had any major injuries in my lifting/sports career, so I probably shouldn’t push my luck.
I have never logged workouts, but I figured I might as well do it for these next few weeks to at least keep me honest. I don’t plan on testing my deadlift anytime soon. I always saw the best gains in my deadlift from just getting strong in the squat anyway, so I will probably test my deadlift once my squat is back up to ~405 and then go from there.
Cheers