Saw your vid come up on IG and thought the squats looked a little faster especially the descent. Now it makes sense. Nice work Mark.
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Woke at 213.6 lbs, looking decent with some slight salt-induced wateriness and bloat.
@mortdk the idea is to get more speed out of the hole. They key is to stay tight desite the fast drop, which TBH isn’t overly hard. It definitely feels much faster coming up and all it seems to need is a little more active thought. Something about the speed made me more conscious of what I had to do, which is a good thing.
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Early morning training for the first time in a while. Quads are still fucked. I think maybe the jumps?
Today’s training
Hand release push-ups and pull-ups (10/5)
Bench press
5xbar
5x88 lbs
5x132 lbs
3x165 lbs
5x1x198 lbs - quads noticeably not driving as well
10x198 lbs - leg drive finally took off. At a guess had five or so more in the tank
Sets at 198 lbs took 12 minutes without rushing
Paused bench press, five seconds on chest
2x5x137 lbs - I fucking hate these. Legs so cooked by the end of each set I had some small difficulties standing up
Dips
4x10
RDFs
4x12x25 lbs
Inverted rows
3x10 - lats and grip tired, going to put that on the DB rows from yesterday
All done in an hour and five minutes
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Your back is impressive
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Keep it up mate, your lifting is impressive as always.
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Thanks guys. Need a shave asap.
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Yer I was thinking there was some serious hair growth there !!
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Surprised your hair hasn’t given up growing back by now lol
Backs looking good mate, keep it up
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Woke at 213.2 lbs, looking decent.
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Shithouse sleep. Early morning training. Awesome
Today’s training
45 degree back raises, GHR sit-ups and box jumps
DL, stiff bar
5xplate
3x2 plates
2x3 plates
4x2x357 lbs, first two hook, second two mixed grip
2x5x357 lbs, both mixed grip
Those six work sets took two minutes and 50 seconds. This cooked me. Did my best to execute well, and pretty much managed.
DL without touching the ground
2x6x357 lbs, both mixed grip
45 degree back raises
50 total reps with 44 lbs: 20, 15, 15
By now felt like my lower back was bursting
Lat pulldowns
3x10x143 lbs
All up an hour and five minutes. Haven’t felt that sick during training in a while.
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Ummm. Wow…
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My lower back would pack it’s bags and go off on its own if I attempted to put it through that, especially at the start of the day!
Does your body feel better with the lighter weight more volume approach of training you are doing?
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I’m not sorry saying this but I feel you could have dusted these weights off on a regular basis anyway. Intensity is not cramping volume. It’s waiting for the time to lift those weights. I learnt it during my 20 session week. Wait for the time to exercise (Yes I’m unemployed so I can afford to wait).
No offense to your program though. If it is a sprint, it’s a sprint. I’m enjoying your updates on sleep quality VS training. It’s what most people overlook. Do run (you’re fast) then enjoy the couple of hours of quality serotonin before a more productive sleep.
You’re getting fatter (likewise) but powerlifters smash the mirror if they don’t like what they see so ergo. I love the fact you smash your quads till they shake. When I was 17, I did invert sit-ups on parallel bars and the inherent stretch-reflex destroyed them. I would do 200 over reps in a workout. That was way before I started squatting so my 1RM was a measly 45KG (speaking of which I should start squatting soon).
Guys can we all agree Mark is a coaching-cue expert, fanatic and devout believer. I always go into my 1RM squats with an absolute blank state of mind of 50/50 death but he is the limbic angles and breathing technique guy. All the high performers think like him but to be fair, they are usually low-bar guys.
I’ve said my piece. My 40 pull-up video will be up soon and I will make my return into 62KG with a massive bulk and proper programming.
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Woke at 212.7 lbs, looking tighter than yesterday. I think a proper sleep is part of that, although I also ate a ton over budget yesterday, so that’s weird. Not that I’m complaining…
@Irishman92 I think I feel better. Or rather, I think I’m getting better with Greg’s programming. The bits of me that wouldn’t grow seem to be growing, my confidence is up because the bar feels like it’s moving faster (granted lighter weight, but even they feel fast compared to how they used to).
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Today’s training
Leg extensions, GHR sit-ups and broad jumps (worked from hops to just over two metres)
Front squat
10xbar
8xplate
3x10x220 lbs
Did these in my Chucks. Very different to oly shoes.
Walking lunges with DBs
3x10x50 lbs
Hamstring curls
4x12x55 lbs - chest off the bench makes them harder but better
Air squats
50 reps, working on quick descent
Pull-ups
8 wide overhand
6 wide neutral
5 close neutral
4 very close neutral
Lats fried from yesterday
DB rows
3x10x100 lbs
Plank
3x1 minute
Done in an hour and 20 minutes
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Woke at 214 lbs, looking a tad watery but not bloated. Odd.
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Just mulling, but I think come the end of October I’ll need to take a serious look at dropping some fat. Sounds like a random deadline, but my last meet of 2018 is on 28 October. After that I won’t compete again until March or April 2019, so that seems a good time to lean out a bit.
Now, @IronOne, I’m not bailing on my run to 242 lbs territory. Not at all. It’s just that looking at how I’m going, I’m walking a fine line between lean vs chubby gains. I’m not sure I can keep the balance towards lean(ish) for that much longer, and to be honest even eight months is a bit of a stretch.
I’m not willing to sacrifice performance yet, because in that respect I feel like I’m on a fucking roll; plus, to be honest, I don’t think I could really function on fewer calories at the moment given how Greg programs. The weights aren’t heavy but damn if they don’t still kick my backside. I’m also not particularly concerned about my conditioning levels, because again, with the way Greg programs that isn’t something that’s going to slide. If anything my conditioning is better now than before.
Once November comes around, I think that won’t be a bad time to tighten up a little. I’ll be 10 months into Greg’s programming so I’ll be used to it; plus I’ll have a four month period during which all I’ll be doing is accumulating fatigue. Even a three month run of slightly reduced calories should take my body fat levels down a tad.
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