Just posted up a video of one of the 40’s from last week’s deload sprints. I felt I was moving pretty well considering I haven’t done much running in the last few years. I ran six 20 yard dashes, six 40 yard dashes, and three 60 yard dashes in place of deadlifting. Yesterday was the resumption of normal training so I got back in the rack and hit some squats. I went up to 400lbs for a set of 5, which was pretty damn tough. It finally feels like I’m approaching the wall with these squats. I started way back in like July or something with 225 and worked my way up to this. Still not really close to my best ever set of 5, but I’ll take it for now. I could switch to 3’s and stay in sleeves but I think what I’m going to do instead is put the wraps back on now and keep slowly adding weight to the bar. I’ll do one or two sets of back squats and then I’ll switch to front squats which will be done in sleeves for more volume. My reasoning for doing it this way is that I’ve been eyeing a potential meet in June and so I might as well get practicing sooner rather than later now that I’ve reached this impasse.
2/4/18
Squat - (400lbs x 5)
Front squat (275) - 3,3,3,3,3
Front rack carry (455) - 5 rounds (a "round is walking the weight to the boxes, setting it down, turning around, and walking it back to the squat rack)
Knocked out some decent push presses the other day. I almost hit a small PR triple with 232.5lbs, but I couldn’t lock the third rep out. Wasn’t a bad day though because my quads, glute, hamstrings, and adductors were still sore beyond fucking belief from Sunday’s squat session because it was the first session back after the rinky ass deload week. Owie. All better now though and today is deadlift day. I think I’m coming down with a cold or something at the moment, but that doesn’t usually affect my strength, so I’ll keep my fingers crossed.
Anyway, I worked up to 225 in triples on the push press, went for 232.5 and missed the third, and then knocked out my back off doubles with 222.5lbs. I’ll take it for now. No new footage at the moment, but here’s the video of my most recent squat session with 400lbs, now available in glorious HD on my YouTube channel haha. Even though it’s fuck Youtube now because my channel is getting demonetized in 12 days because I don’t meet the new threshold for hours watched, even though I well exceed the required subscriber count. Assholes man. /rant
2/6/18
Push Press - (bar x 10)(95x5)(135x5)(165x5)(185x3)(205x3)(215x3)(225x3)(232.5 x 2)
(222.5) - 2,2,2,2,2
Did some pulls on Thursday, per usual, but it turns out I was coming down with the flu. I ended up working my way up to 525 sumo, which is meant to be a final warm up set, and then stopping there and switching to my back off work which is conventional deficit deads. The 525 moved well enough, it’s just I felt like I was dying lol. The deficit deads felt awfulllllll. They hurt and some were ugly, but I managed 4 sets of 5 with 420lbs off a 2 inch deficit. Did a smidge of benching on Friday and then pretty much slept all day Saturday and Sunday and I think I’m good to do Sunday’s scheduled squat workout now today. My immune system seems to have kicked it relatively quickly. Also, just posted up a video of my best ever 3 cone drill from a few years ago. For whatever reason, this was always my favorite shuttle to run and I got pretty good at it. Check it out and let me know what you think!
Death By Volume: Conventional Deadlift 430lbs x 4x5 @ 154
I’m back to it on deadlifts, unfortunately, however, my sumo pull is significantly weakened at the moment. This happens from time to time for me with the sumo pull for whatever reason. I’ve had two consecutive bad sumo sessions. Last week I was planning to go for 560x2, but I stopped after the final warm up set of 525 and moved on to conventional deads. I had the flu, so I blamed that. But same deal this week, so it’s time to ease off the gas. That lift has not really recovered from the triple I did with 550 a few weeks ago, and I guess my legs are chronically tired or something because I can’t keep my hips down as I’m initiating the pull in these last few sessions. All in all, it’s crummy. Usually if I cut the lift out for a month or two it rebounds back up even higher, so I’m going to try 4 weeks of no sumo pulling now and just blast volume on the conventional deadlift in the interim. I started off yesterday with 430lbs and knocked out 4 sets of 5. No more deficit (I might bring it back though because I kind of prefer it). Then I knocked out a few sets of heavy hypers to finish up. 3 more weeks of conventional pulls only and then I can throw the sumo back in on week 4 and see where I stand.
Did some squats yesterday. Gonna be honest, they sucked. I tried the wraps last week and all it did was remind me how much I fucking hate wraps so I dumped that idea and went back to sleeves this week and took the scheduled jump from 400 to 405. Meh. A few weeks ago I did 390 for 3 relatively easy sets of 5. 395 was harder than it should have been, 400 was harder than it should have been, and 405 just flat out sucked. Deadlifts have also dropped off pretty massively the last few weeks as well, so it’s been coming for some time. Still, the jump in difficulty from 400 to 405 was very disproportionate to the amount of weight I added to the bar. I knew it was going to be iffy from the last two warm up sets, but I gave it a try anyway and I only managed 3 tough reps. First time I have failed to get 5 reps on a set since I started squatting again with 225lbs in July I think?
Anyway, I kind of restructured things a bit last night. I’m loving doing the farmer’s walks right now so I don’t want to stop doing them, so I shifted them into Tuesday’s workout so that I can focus on just splitting all of my energy on Sunday between the back squat and the front squat. I’m planning to do 3 sets of each. I’ll do a top set of 3-5 reps on back squats, followed by two back off sets of 3-5, and then I’ll just do 3 triples with the same weight on front squats and increase that by 5lbs per week for a little while. So next week I will kick the session off by attacking 405 again on the back squat. Hopefully I can break through this wall by only squatting once a week. A few years ago I had a 5 rep max of 400lbs and that yielded a 450lbs squat, but I had to squat upwards of 5x a week to achieve that back then. Now I’ve managed to do it with just one session and 3 total sets of squats per week. It’s a small victory in some ways, but still, when your numbers are as far down from all time bests as mine are, it doesn’t feel good.
2/18/18
Back Squat - 335, 385, (405x3)
Front Squat(285) - 3,3,3,3,3
Farmer’s Walk(180lbs per hand) - 10 carries of 20 yards in 15 minutes (highlight of the session)
Deadlifts last night. Numbers are still down. TImeline went: 6 weeks ago I managed 495x2 conventional from a 2" deficit. 5 weeks I managed 550x3 sumo. 4 weeks ago I went for 495 from a deficit again and only got one rep. 3 weeks ago I deloaded. 2 weeks ago I tried to double 560 sumo and had to stop after one rep. Last week I was going to triple 530 sumo but first rep sucked so I stopped. This week I tripled 510 but it sucked. In light of all that I guess it’s time to drop wayyyy down in weight now. The 550 triple was a nice peak, but I fell off of it hard. Still not ready to try 600. Kind of bummed out about training these last few weeks. Anyone wanna loan me some vitamins?
2/22/18
Sumo Deadlift - 435, 485, 510x3, 490x3 (they sucked. they all sucked)
Conventional 2" Deficit Deadlift(425) - 3,3,3 (fucking lol - just a couple weeks ago I was doing easy 5’s with 420. These were awful. I’m going to switch this exercise out with trap bar DL’s for a little while)
Reverse Lunge (150) - 5 reps each leg, 5 reps each leg, 10 reps left leg only
Uneventful birthday squats yesterday. Numbers are still down and technique has gotten kind of wonky, so I brought the intensity down a notch on squats and plan to do the same on deadlifts. I dropped down from 405 to 365 and did 5 sets of 3 (also did one triple with 385 but I’m going to do straight sets across the board from here on out), followed up with a 3x3 on front squats @ 290lbs and finished up with some hypers. I think I’m going to try swapping the secondary squat and deadlift exercises so that I’m squatting and deadlifting twice a week. I.e. Instead of Sunday being back squat/front squat and Thursday being Sumo DL/Conventional DL, from now on Sunday will be Back Squat/Conventional DL and Thursday will be Sumo DL/front squat. The total volume will likely remain the same but by splitting it up I’m hoping to alleviate some of the freaking DOMS from the squatting which has been pretty annoying. Also, it’s a manageable amount of work so it shouldn’t beat my hips up too much and historically I see better results with an increased frequency, even at matched volumes. So hopefully that will kick start things again.
2/25/18
Back Squat - (365x3),(385x3)(365 x 3,3,3)
Front Squat(290) - 3,3,3
Hyperextension(165) - 10, 8, 8/4
Done.
Also, just posted a new video on my YouTube channel for those who are interested. Title is slightly click baity, but I have an interesting theory about fat loss that I’ve noticed occurring on myself multiple times over the years. Give it a watch and let me know what you think.
Power Training - 36" vertical jump, power cleans, & farmer’s walks!
I’ve revamped things somewhat this past week or two. Squat and deadlift will now be split as main squat/secondary deadlift and main deadlift/secondary squat and sandwiched in between them will be a power day: lots of vertical jumps, followed by lots of power cleans, and finished with farmer’s walks for some conditioning work. Push pressing has grown stale so it will be subbed out for a little while and I have embarked on a new squat/deadlift cycle this week. The power day will serve as the basis of me attempting to recapture a 40+ inch running vertical jump. I explain it all in the video, but so far since I’ve started jumping again I’ve done 33" from a standstill, 36" with a power step, and 38" with s full approach, but my full approach is all out of sorts so I should be good for more in relatively short order on that variation. Shown in the video is 36" with a power step.
Anyway, I love sessions like this. I did 12 sets of 4 maximal jumps yesterday and I did the power cleans EMOM/cluster style where I set a timer for 20 minutes and just did as many singles as possible with 185 in that time frame. A good, easy start. Finished up with the farmer’s walk in the same sort of fashion. Moderate weight and a lot of work condensed into a small amount of time. Maybe I’ll take up Crossfit. Ha.
Also, I’m planning to start logging some of my upper body work starting…now. I never do because the numbers are pittance and are currently wayyyy down (bench press anyway) from my all time bests. But I think it’s time to start logging again for the sake of accountability if nothing else. If anyone actually reads this thing and you notice I bail on this, feel free to call me out on it.
2/27/18
1 step vertical jump - 12 sets of 4
Hang Power clean(185lbs) - 24 singles in 20 minutes
Farmer’s walk(185lbs per hand) - 8 carries of 20 yards in 9 minutes
Kicked off my new deadlift cycle yesterday with some easy sumo reps at 415lbs. I did 4x5 @ 415 sumo, paired with 4x4 box jumps to a 40" box, then I did 4x3 high bar squats @ 315lbs, and then finished up with some reverse lunges. Thursday’s session will be competition style squat, followed by trap bar deads, and then hyperextensions. So I’ve got main deadlift/secondary squat and main squat/secondary deadlift. I would say my two primary goals right now are to pull 600lbs and get my running vertical back up over 40 inches. The box jumps are funnnn and they’re a great way to get in some extra low stress jumping volume. I feel like I’m floating up there pretty effortlessly at the moment. The 40 inch box was super easy. I went up to 43 inches for a set of 3 the day prior to get a feel for where I was at with them and that was easy as well. Best ever from a standstill is 46 inches, I believe. Seems like I could beat that right now though. A 4 foot standing box jump would be a neat accomplishment for someone my height. I don’t think I’m going to do these on deadlift day anymore though. I love the pairing, but it was too much of a pain to set everything up at once and the session took too long. I’ll probably move these to a standalone mini session on Saturday, they shouldn’t take very long that way. If you’re interested in more of the details of why I’m doing what I’m doing, I explain it some in the video.
Anyway, I’ll jump to 425 next week for the sumo and I expect it to be no more difficult than yesterday’s session. Just regaining some momentum right now, acclimating to the new split, and trying not to kill myself. Wish me luck!
3/1/18
Sumo Deadlift(415lbs) - 5,5,5,5
Box Jump(40") - 4,4,4,4
High Bar Squat(315lbs) - 3,3,3,3
Reverse Lunge(155lbs) - 5 reps both legs, 5 reps both legs, 8 reps left leg only
Last night was the first main squat day of my new training cycle. I did 5 solid sets with 370lbs, first 4 sets were triples and then I decided to knock out a set of 5 on the 5th set to finish things up. Easy work. Legs aren’t even sore today because of the increased frequency that I just implemented so that’s purdy awesome. After squatties I moved on to trap bar deads. My trap bar is actually a one inch trap bar but I just modded it out yesterday using layers of PVC to create 2 inch sleeves so that I could use my 45’s on it. Best thing I’ve ever done. Pulling on it with the 45’s was sooooo much better. The 50’s just didn’t have enough diameter and pulling from too low of a position on that bar just feels awkward. The funny thing is, I love deficit conventional deadlifts, but I hated deficit trap bar deads lol. Anyway I cranked out a few really easy sets with 400lbs. It will be interesting to see what kinds of weights I can start moving on that exercise overt the next few months now that it’s a standard trap bar. My best “deficit” set was 450lbs for 5 reps. But the 400lbs felt like air yesterday. Finished up the session with some hypers. 3 sets with 165lbs. A little too easy. Need to move up to 170 on that exercise next week.
A million power cleans and some solid farmer’s carries
Did my weekly power workout a couple days ago. The jumps were meh, but I added 5lbs to the hang power clean cluster that I’ve just started doing and it was still pretty easy. I managed 25 singles with 190lbs in just shy of 20 minutes. I have a lot of potential on the power clean, sometimes I just can’t keep a solid bar path to save my life though. Anyway, after that I finished up the session with some heavy-ish carries. I jumped from 185 per hand from the previous week up to 190lbs per hand this week and I did 10 carries of 20 yards a piece in I think it was just under 13 min. Which is pretty solid. My ability to breathe is no longer a limiting factor on these at all. The only limiting factors right now are my grip and upper back not having enough time to recover between bouts. Still, onward and upward I suppose. I knocked out some decent deadlifts yesterday which I’ll update on either Sunday or Monday.
1 step vertical jumps - 10 sets of 4 (40 total jumps)(multiple jumps around 36 inches)
Hang Power Clean Cluster(190lbs) - 25 singles in 20 minutes
Famrer’s Walk(190lbs per hand) - 10 carries of 20yds in 13 minutes
53" Box Jump, Easy 425lbs Sumo Deads, and High Bar Squats
I’m a little behind at the moment, but my most recent deadlift session went well. I started off with some box jumps and worked up in setf of 3-5 jumps to a 44" box from a standstill. After that I added a single power step in and kept working my way up in height until I tapped out at 53 inches, which was a one step PR (previously 52"). The day I hit the 52 incher a couple years ago was the same day I did 60 inches with a 2 step approach, so it’s possible I could beat that now if I worked at it a bit. I just want to increase my vertical jump right now and these are fun. Adding a 2 step approach to these box jumps is probably not necessary, however. After the jumps I moved on to sumo deads. This was the 2nd session of the new cycle and I jumped up to 425 for this session, +10lbs from last week. I did easy sets of 5, 5, 5, and 10. Pretty straightforward. No strength issues present, just technical ones. Rounded out the day with high bar squats. Jumped from 315 last week to 320 here and did sets of 3, 3, 3, and 5. Again, pretty easy. These are smooth and feel good. I’m liking them right now.
3/8/15
Box Jump(standing) - (31" x 5)(34" x 5)(37" x 5)(40" x 4)(42" x 3)(44" x 3)
Box Jump(1 step) - (47"/49"/51")(49"/51"/53")
Sumo Deadlift(425lbs) - 5,5,5,10
High Bar Squat(320lbs) - 3,3,3,5
Started off my power workout yesterday with some box jumps which went well. I worked up to 44" from a standstill for an easy set of 3 and then added a power step and worked my way up to a 55" box, which was another PR on that jump. I hit 53" last week and my PR from before that was 52" from a couple years ago. After that I moved on to snatch grip high pulls. I was supposed to do power cleans but i literally had a dream about this exercise that I had COMPLETELY forgotten even existed. I used to love these, but I hadn’t done them since 2014 before I even had my hip surgery. They’re great though. My traps and upper back are traaaaashed today. My legs are feeling it a little bit and even my fucking biceps are a sore. I just need to make a few improvements for next time. It felt really awkward at first. I was having trouble finding my balance and I wasn’t achieving full extension until the end of the workout basically. I’m pretty sure I never used this much weight on these before though. Next time should be better and I should be able to make some “newbie” gains on this lift for a few weeks. Also, probably need to move out of the rack because I can’t grip the bar wide enough because of the pins so when I’m trying to extend the bar is hitting my pelvis, when it should be sitting over my hips. When I used to do snatches I would grip a good bit wider than I am here.
Did so many sets I ran out of time and didn’t get a chance to do any farmer’s carries, unfortunately. Hopefully I’ll be able to add those in after deadlifts on Thursday.
3/13/18
Box Jump(standing) - (31" x 5)(34" x 5)(37" x 5)(40" x 4)(42" x 4)(44" x 3)
1 Step - (46/48/50"), (48/50/52"), (51/53/55")(PR+2")
Snatch Grip High Pull - 135 x3, 185x3, 235x3, 255x5, 265x5, 275x5
Drop Set - (275x5)(255x5)(235x)(185x5)(135x5)
Last night was sumo deads. They went well. 3rd session of the new cycle and I’m up to 435lbs. I did 3 easy sets of 5 with no straps athen threw the straps on and finished up with a set of 10. The mixed grip felt better this time around. I needed to widen my grip a smidge, but that makes the transition over the knees much smoother. After deads I did some easy high bar squats with 325lbs for a few triples and then a set of 5 to finish. These are feeling good and I no longer get DOMS from squatting since I have added this secondary movement in separate from my main squat day. I wanted to do carries to finish things up but I ran out of time again so I just cranked out a burnout set of hyperextensions using the 170lbs dumbbell. Hammies are sore from that today.
Also, here’s the video of my 55" box jump PR from a couple days ago. This is a 2 inch PR for jumping onto a box with a single power step. Shazam.
3/15/18
Sumo Deads(435) - 5,5,5,10
High Bar Squatties(325) - 3,3,3,5
Hypers(170) - 12+7+6 (25 total reps - rested about 15 secs between bouts)
How To Make Me Look Like A Shitty Lifter: Ask me to Bench Press
Well, I promised upper body so here’s upper body. This my most recent bench session. I’m still coming back from a shoulder injury I suffered last year which nagged on for longer than it should have. During that time I developed some really bad habits like sinking the bar, collapsing my arch, letting my butt pop off the bench, and a really funky asymmetrical bar path, bad habits that I’m still working to rectify. Anyway, I took some time off from benching and upon re-implementing it decided to try to rebuild my technique. A few months later and my numbers are still down, but they’ve gotten better. Right now I’m working 2 bench sessions/week where I do a bunch of cluster singles. One day is lighter for more reps and one day is heavier for less reps. I basically just start the stopwatch and hit as many singles as I can in the allotted time period on each day and then hit an assistance lift or two afterward. On this day I superset dips and chins to finish up the session and these were actually pretty good. I managed to get back up to 135 for a triple on dips which is the most weight I’ve attempted since re-implementing them (not a PR, however) and I hit a triple @ 110 on the chinup which is a small PR, maybe 10-15lbs tops, but I can’t quite remember what my previous best for 3 was. I’d like to hit a 300lbs chinup soon (155lbs bw + 145lbs external).
Anyway, I suck at benching once again. Feel free to point and laugh.
Easy Squats 380lbs x 5x3 & Trap Bar Deads 420lbs x 3x6
Did some goooood work on squatty squats the other day. Four triples @ 380 and then finished up with a set of 5 on the 5th set. Technique was stable, bar path was tight, and they all moved pretty well. Not only that, but they actually felt kind of “explosive,” which is not the norm for me when it comes to squatting. I’ve always felt that it was a bit of a paradox because I could always jump high and run fast, but even my submax squats were never powerful looking. I’ve been doing these box jumps consistently for a few weeks now though and even though it’s subjective, the difference in these squats felt quite pronounced to me, unlike anything I’ve felt before. Only time will tell if this new development will have an impact on my 1rm.
Moved on to trap bar deads afterwards and they’re still going fine. I took another 10lbs jump from the previous session and knocked out sets of 6, 6, and 8 @ 420lbs. Not too difficult yet. Still adjusting to the movement and the different strength curve. I’ll go up another 10lbs next time.
Finished up the day with heavy hypers. This was the frist time I’ve tried ramping the weight on these as opposed to just doing straight sets. It felt good to finally fail because my muscles couldn’t produce enough force rather than because they were fatigued. I got up to 220lbs for a set of 6. I’m planning to stick with this ramping technique for at least a few more sessions before I switch back to straight sets. Good stuff!
My intermediary workout between squats and deads was funnnnn this week. I’ve switched power cleans for snatch grip high pulls and I’m going to run that until it gets stale, and I got rained out of doing regular farmer’s walks this week so I had to get creative and do zercher carries in my garage instead. This was the 2nd time I’ve ever tried these and I worked my way up to 405 here. They hurt my arms like crazy, but they’re actually really fucking fun and they force me to not use my belt which is probably a good thing lol. Anyway, jumping is going well, squats and deads are improving, traps are gonna be yoked as fuck soon, and zercher carries are awesome. Have a nice day all.
3/20/18
Snatch Grip High Pull - (135x3)(185x3)(205x3)(225x3)(245x3)(265x3)(285x3)(300x3)(250 x 3,3,3,3)
Zercher Carry - (235lbs)(285lbs)(335lbs)(385lbs)(405lbs)(355lbs)(355lbs)
Deadlift cycle is progressing pretty well. I started with 4x5 @ 415 about 4 weeks ago and most recently completed the same session with 445lbs including a burn out set of 10 reps on the final set. I’ve been going strapless for all but the burn out set. Grip isn’t a problem, but windmilling sure as fuck is. I need to switch to hook grip really, I just hate it. Anyway, the weight is moving pretty well still but the volume is starting to get to me a bit. I brought my stance a little on my sumos to spare my hips a bit, but this causes the sumo pulls to become more back dominant for me. Not really a problem, just need to knuckle down the form when the weight starts to get heavy.
Moved on to high bar squats after this. I’m up to 330lbs and I’m still hitting pretty easy triples on this exercise. Leg strength is coming back up so that’s good. And then I’ve been finishing up my squat and deadlift days with some heavy hyperextensions. I’ve started experimenting with much heavier weights on this exercise recently and I’d like to see how high I can push it over the next few months and what kind of impact that has on my deadlifting strength. I actually just made a pretty in depth video about heavy hypers and how they’re the most underrated posterior chain exercise in existence, imo. Posted it to my channel this morning. Check it out and let me know what you think!
Sumo Deadlift(445lbs) - 5,5,5,10
High Bar Back Squat(330lbs) - 3,3,3,3
Hyperextension(rest/pause style) - (200lbs x 8/6/5)
