HustlingHat93's Road to 123lb and Weak to Strong

congrats

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Mini review of 5x10 programming

Just going to start this mini review by saying I might have to change things up in the first week of Feb due to the new gym that I will be working at opening. I may not be able to train 5/6 times a week depending on the new work schedule and if the free time I have when not working (this job and the PTing at other studios) would conflict with MMA sessions.

Duration (this far): 10 Weeks (Including deload + end of year testing)
Initial weights used
Squats: 80kg/ 176lbs (60% of 1RM)
Deadlifts: 90kg/ 198lbs (58% of 1RM)
Bench: 47.5kg/ 105lbs (60% of 1RM)
Incline Bench: 37.5kg/87lbs (60% of 1RM)
SSB Squats: 75kg/ 165lbs (62.5% of 1RM)
Sumo Deads: 85kg/ 187lbs (60% of 1RM)

Current weights being used
Squats:105kg/231lbs (80% of 1RM) ( Based on today feel like I am close to stalling but before that I would have said I have a few weight increases)
Deadlifts: 115kg/253lbs (73% of 1RM) ( Feel like I have a few weight increases in me before stalling on one of the lifts)
Bench: 60kg/ 132lbs (75% of 1RM) ( Feel like I have 2.5-5kg/ 5-10lbs until I stall)
Incline Bench: 47.5kg/105lbs (73% of 1RM) (Close to stall/ will stall either now or next weight up)
SSB Squats: 95kg/209lbs(76% of 1RM) (Not sure when I feel I would stall)
Sumo Deads: 105kg/231lbs (70% of 1RM) (Have a decent amount of weight increases before I feel I would stall)

As you can see I am close to stalling on some lifts and somewhat far on others (which correlates to the %s set out above) so I am at a place where, if the work schedule change did not exist, I would be looking to either make changes or grind through and try and squeeze out the last few weight increases I could.

I also want to add that while strength gains was no the main goal, I am not counting the little increases in Squat and Deadlift as notable gains, I do feel that If I had to go for 1 top set of 10 reps I would be able to set a PR for a 10RM

All in all these last 10 weeks have been exactly what they were suppose to be with me accumulating a lot of volume with progressively heavier weight. If you look at the squat for example and compare the 1st week of 5x10 with last week then the difference in total weight lifted in those weeks is 2,250kg/4,960lbs which is decent to say the least.

Now for the rest of the week I will continue exactly as planned and then just look at what I will do in Feb once I know how many days I have to work with. I know already that the next program I run after this will either be 5/3/1 (2 books down and reading the 3rd) or Juggernaut again (which surprise surprise was inspired by 5/3/1).

Apologies for the long post. This was probably me getting my own thoughts down in writing and if you made it this far. Thanks!

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Mini Conditioning workout (moderate intensity)

Pwn’s New Year’s Challenge (Inspiration via @SvenG )

Squat: 80kg/176lbs x20 drop the bar after the 20th as if I was bailing on a failed rep and straight into
Deadlift: 80kg/176lbs x20

Squat (60kg/132lbs)/ Power Cleans (30kg/61lbs) ladder: 2-4-6-8-10 reps

5 rounds EMOM consisting of:
10 KB swings with 20kg/44lbs
10 Box jumps onto a 20" Box
Prowler sprint with 60kg/132lbs added weight for half the length of room

NOTES

  • The new year challenge was harder than expected when it came to the deadlifts. My lower back was not happy so made sure to do the reps cleanly and not go for speed. Squatting before deadlifting was a nice change
  • The ladder of cleans/ squats was brutal. I had both barbells loaded and ready so was literally Squats-Step back to rack- Step forward-Cleans-Fall Back-Squat-Repeat.
  • The EMOM was a decent finisher
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Nice work! I’m pretty sure dropping the bar is how it’s meant to go. Or two bars, that would make a difference too—I wasted so much time unracking from squats and reloading before getting started on the deadlifts.

Be sure to post that work in Pwn’s Challenge thread—get the credit you deserve, haha!

I will try and locate it!

Yeah my initial plan was to have 2 bars like I did for the squats and cleans (alas there was no free bar at this point) and do multiple rounds of this. Something like

5x20/20 for time

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Pwn’s Challenge thread is here: link.

Now that’s just silly right there. :slight_smile:

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It’s such a difficult to foresee variable! You think “now comes the easy part”, and then everything shuts down. You can see in my first video attempt how I pull the first rep and just suddenly become lost, haha.

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Thanks for the link. I’ll take a video and post it there next attempt

For today 100% My lower back would have veto’d that if it was an option. But I actually think I’m going to use that as a conditioning challenge over this bulk maybe once a month. Just put my bodyweight on the bar and go for time and try to beat it over the months :man_shrugging:t3:

Yeah that look is a perfect representation of how I felt. I feel like the fact that the squats were light enough for me to just do them fast with minimal breaths during the whole set that the big breaths of air I had between dropping the bar and grabbing probably screwed me over by sending too much blood in the lower body but it was fun!

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Upper body day

Incline bench: 2x9 and 3x8 with 47.5kg/105lbs

Would love to say today was a surprise but I knew going in that 5x10 was not happening (based on the MR set last week) so focused on getting more reps overall than last week.

Additional incline bench: 1x2 with 50kg/110lbs, 1x2 with 52.5kg/116lbs, 1x1 with 60kg/132lbs, 1x1 with 62.5kg/138lbs, 1x10 with 40kg/ 88lbs and 1x20 with 35kg/77lbs

Incline DB Press: 4x9 with 17.5kg/38lbs
Rows: 5x10 with 62.5kg/138lbs
DB Shoulder press: 5x10 with 12.5kg/27lbs
5x10-12 Lat pull down
4x10 Low Cable Row
3x3 scoop throws with 9kg/ 20lbs
3x6 Lying chest throw with 9kg/ 20lbs
And finally 4 sets of Biceps and 4 sets of Triceps work

NOTES
… So yeah incline benching has officially stalled, as expected, and I am not to bothered. The writing has been on the wall for the last few weeks with the not getting many extra reps on the MR sets and just the difficulty of the sets. I could easily “cheat” my way out of this and do the incline benching with an amendable bench at a better angle in a rack instead of using the preset incline station but that would be feeding my ego and not making me stronger.

Like I mentioned previously the next program I will be doing will either be 5/3/1 or Juggernaut again which I will replace OHP with Incline benching so having the station at a higher angle will be a benefit due to being more of a vertical press.

On a better note… I have been feeling “bigger” noticing my thigh area and arms/ shoulder girdle area being thicker but considering I have not gained a lot of weight (sitting around 135-137lbs) I played it as being in my head. Well my GF returned from a week abroad and apparently she’s noticed that I look more muscular and she actually does not understand how my ass got “that big” in a week. :sweat_smile: :sweat_smile: :sweat_smile:

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Lower body day #1 (Fueled by anger)
So today has been a stressful day (More on that in the notes) and the SSB bar was in use so today was basically a lower body #2 with the sumo switched in for conventional.

Sumo deadlifts: 5x10 with 110kg/243lbs + 1x1 with 140kg/309lbs and 1x1 with 150kg/331lbs (2.5kg/5lbs PB)
Squats: 3x10 with 105kg/231lbs. I made a deal with myself here I could either do 2 more sets or do 1 more set but set a 10RM PB. I chose the latter. 1x10 with 112.5kg/248lbs (10RM PB) + 1x20 with 90kg/198lbs

Good mornings: 4x6 with 50kg/110lbs

Hack Squat: 1x12 with 60kg/132lbs, 1x8 with 100kg/220lbs, 1x5 with 120kg/264lbs and 1x3 with 140kg/309lbs

NOTES

So today started off very weird. Someone has been targeting my business IG account and slandering me across the web, made a fake profile of, spammed my online consultation booking form and also used my PT Email to subscribe to a dozen Gay forums :triumph:

Now this is all bullshit but I am prone to overthink/ get anxiety and considering this was targeting my business profile I got super worried (less worried now because friends have talked me down) and when I get super stressed… My stomach is a mess which is not ideal for lower body. Anyhow I was either going to be a victim of this bullshit or be pissed about it… Now considering this is online and I can’t tear the idiot limb from limb I used the anger in the gym.

Anyhow Sumo deadlifts went well added more weight than planned and was not an issue also set a (small) 1rm PB which was good but then this followed by the squats. And god damn was I relieved at how easy the first 3x10 sets were. With having two sets left I decided either I just stick to the 5x10 or I can go for a small (2.5kg/5lb) PB in both a 10 rep set and a widowmaker. I chose the latter and so happy about it. I guess Monday was more of a mindset failure than a physical one

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Rough day, to be sure, but I’m not seeing any failure here at all, my dude—mental or physical. Just keep killing it!

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I’m sorry this is happening to you and the day started off weird.

The good news is you only have to live this day once. It’ll be better tomorrow.

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Thanks. I mean I’m expecting the night to be full of prank calls but not too bothered. The only thing that irks me is that I know who it is and this is not a kid. This is a grown man… How far our species has fallen that grown men hide behind technology to harass someone :man_facepalming:t3:

Thanks for the kind words!

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If you can, try to avoid reacting to this at all, especially since you know who it is. Your reaction feeds the trolls, which is exactly what they want . . .

I own my own business too (in a different field), and I don’t think there’s a single business owner out there who doesn’t get spoofed at some point. In your case, it’s more vindictive than the usual phishing scams, but it’s still important not to react to the person initiating it, if you can possibly avoid it.

Just my experience . . .

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Oh yeah I am keeping my cool (just because any public negative response by me can make me look bad) just blocking and reporting the accounts. Interesting enough regarding the bold, he has blocked me from seeing the fake profile of me and I only know about it due to a friend seeing it. So he does not seem to want a reaction :man_facepalming:t3:

But things have appeared to have calmed down and from what I can find he has removed his posts on his profile which slander me, the spam emails have stopped and the fake profile of me is being monitored and not posting anything. So I am going to hope it’s over.

BUT I MUST SAY after finding out this person’s full name, street where he lives and details on his parents I was very tempted to drive to his part of the country and show this 28 year old man that the real world has consequences.

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First of all, I’m glad that things have calmed down. Let’s hope you’re right and it’s over.

In terms of the above, I understand that it’s your frustration talking.

The beautiful thing is that you wouldn’t need to do anything anyway. This guy has to wake up as himself every morning. Think about that for a moment . . .

Life will catch up with him sooner or later. For the sake of his future, let’s hope it’s in constructive ways that he can learn from and turn things around in positive, productive ways.

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Upper body day #2

Bench: 5x8 (last set was a MR) with 60kg/132lbs

Additional benching: 1x5 with 65kg/143lbs. 1x2 with 70kg/154lbs, 1x1 with 75kg/165lbs,1x20 with 40kg/88lbs + 1x18 (+5 after a rest pause) with 45kg/99lbs

Rows: 2x10 with 60kg/132lbs + 2x10 with 62.5kg/138lbs and 1x10 with 65kg/143lbs
DB press : 4x8 with 25kg/55lbs
DB Shoulder press: 5x10 with 12.5kg/27lbs
Weighted pull ups with 10kg/22lbs:4,4,4,4 + 1x3 with 15kg/33lbs
Incline Seal rows: 1x12 with 12.5kg/27lbs and 3x8 with 15kg/33lbs
3x3 Standing medicine ball chest throws with 9kg/20lbs
4 Sets of biceps and 4 sets of triceps

NOTES
So benching today went MEH. Maybe a bad day but not managing an extra rep on the MR set hardly instils confidence on getting 5x10 in a few days.
Except that everything felt good. The mind-muscle connection on the incline seal rows is insane so I am keeping that as a go to for back work from now on.

A drama update on the issues yesterday. It continued and got worse all day that I finally had enough after racial comments were posted below images of my young family member (KIDS).

I walked into my local police station gave them all the details including his details (Explained how I got everything) and upright told them that they needed to get this to stop before it escalates because this guy thinks he is hiding behind a screen but he is not really hidden. A somewhat funny part of being at the police station is when I gave my address ( which is a somewhat rough part of London) and the officer responded “Oh yeah I see what you mean. People have been shot for less in your neighbourhood”.

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Lower body day 2 (and oh god was it a good one)

Deadlifts: 3x10 with 115kg/253lbs, 1x10 with 132.5kg/292lbs (Rep PR + 10RM PB), 1x10 with 100kg/220lbs (Just a back off set) and 1x1 with 160kg/353lbs (PB)

SSB Squats: 4x10 with 97.5kg/215lbs + 1x10 with 105kg/231lbs (Instead of MR Set and also a 5kg/11lb rep PR) + 1x1 with 120kg/264lbs and 1x1 with 130kg/287lbs (PB but questionable depth)

SSB Alternating Lunges: 4x5 each leg with 55kg/121lbs
RDL: 3x5 with 85kg/187lbs
Hip thrusts: 4x5 with 100kg/220lbs
3x3 Box jumps

NOTES
So today was a good day. Went off plan with the main 2 lifts but just because I felt I had more in me and wanted to push myself. Got a clean PB for deadlift with the single at 160kg/ 353lbs to make up for going for the easy PB last week. Could I go maybe 2.5kg/5lbs higher? Likely considering the bar speed + the fact it was done after setting a 10 rep PB :man_shrugging:t3:

Speaking of the 132.5kg/292lbs set, the most I got with that weight previously was 9 reps and that was going to failure max reps so today is only a 1 rep PB. But damn it that last rep did not come easy… The rep was clean, no hitching, no drop in the bar, I did not feel excess rounding but my left leg was trembling at lock out.

Also happy with SSB squatting even if the single might have been questionable depth. Even if that lift did not count… I added 5kg/11lbs to my top 10 rep record so :man_shrugging:t3:

Now to celebrate the only way worthy of such a day… with a plate full of delicious meat

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hold my (insert beverage)

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Congratulations! I think you needed this, in light of recent events! Enjoy it shamelessly! :grin:

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