Conventional Deadlift (Beltless) PR 535 @ 190

Conventional Deadlift [no belt]
315 x 5
405 x 3
455 x 2
485 x 1
505 x 1
520 x 1 PR
535 x 1 PR

Straight Grip Conventional Deadlift [no belt] 475 x 1

Tonight was the Halloween Deadlift Bash. I dressed as a sexy cop and pulled a couple of big PRs. Also discovered that I can pull nearly 500 lbs with a straight grip!

Huge Drop In Squat Strength

Olympic Back Squat [no belt, no wraps]
45 x 8 x 2
135 x 8
225 x 6
315 x 3
365 x 2
395 x miss

Went too hard on what were supposed to be ramp up sets and then bombed on the actual heavy squats. Everything was just feeling so light on the lower weights, though. This was supposed to give me a sense of how much I can deadlift right now as I'll be heading back tonight for the Halloween deadlift contest. Not feeling too confident right now.

Weak Return to Bench

Close Grip Bench Press, one inch inside rings

45 x 15 x 2

85 x 10 x 2

135 x 5, paused 

185 x 4, paused

225 x 1, 2, 3, 1

Various types of cable flyes superset with...

Dip @195 x 10 x 2

Notes

Right shoulder is mostly better, but there is some discomfort from  transverse movements. I couldn't do any dumbbell work because if that so I used the cable machine. 

Surprised at how heavy 225 felt, even though this close grip. So my squat is up 40 lbs from my best ever,  but my bench is down about 80 lbs.

Still looking pretty aesthetically pleasing though.

Paused Squat 15-lb PR

Paused Olympic Back Squat [no belt or wraps]
45 x 5 x 2
135 x 4
225 x 3
275 x 2
315 x 1
355 x 1
380 x 1
395 x 1 [PR RPE9]

Front Squat [no wraps or belt] 315 x 1
45-Degree Leg Press, squat stance/depth/shoes 545 x 5

-Notes-

I really wanted to hit 405 paused tonight, but this 395 is still a PR. I was too tired too do much else so I really kept this session low volume. Got in some heavy leg presses, just one set.

My left arm did hurt in the usual area due to supporting the bar in the squat. Also left glute/ham is still complaining a bit. Right hamstring seems to be almost fully healed.

Standing Press, Weighted Chin Up

Standing Press
45 x 10 x 2
105 x 5
125 x 2
135 x 2
140 x 2
145 x 5 x 2

Weighted Chin Up @ 192
+00 x 3
+60 x 6
+70 x 5

Left brachialis area still hurting after chin ups. Right shoulder pain seems to have cleared up.

Weight Down Three Pounds to 192

After coffee and bath I weighed just a hair over 192. I've been no lower than 194 for a while.

Plan After Layoff

I am going to go back to Thu-Sun split for squats, using the paused squats on the light day (Thu) and regular squats on the heavy day (Sun). I am hoping for a return to getting up 15 lbs per session.

Thu 10/19 Paused Back Squat 405

Sun 10/22 Back Squat 465

Thu 10/26 Paused Back Squat 435

Sun 10/29 Back Squat 495

Thu 11/02 Paused Back Squat 465

Sun 11/05 Back Squat 525

Thu 11/09 Paused Back Squat 495

Sun 11/12 Back Squat 555

Thu 11/16 Rest

Sun 11/29 Meet - 250 kg / 550 lbs, 270 kg / 594 lbs, 280 kg / 616 lbs

I may just throw in some upper body work on Wed and Sat.

Time to Deload Again

Olympic Back Squat
45 x 6 x 3
135 x 6
225 x 4
315 x 2
365 x 1

I felt a twinge in my left glute/ham tie in area on that 365 and the weights had been moving slowly anyway so I gave up. Also my left upper arm still has this weird numbing pain. Going to take a few days off to let things heal and to recover. I couldn't expect to put on 15 lbs on my squat every second day forever.

Weighed 194 this morning.

Update: My left hip really is hurting. I just realized that I am needing a break every four weeks on schedule. I need to pay more attention to backing off at the appropriate times.

Olympic Squat PRs

Olympic Squat [no belt, no wraps] @ 195
45 x 6 x 4
135 x 6
225 x 4
315 x 2
365 x 1
405 x 1
430 x 1 PR
440 x 1 PR

430 no no no back squat

440 no no no back squat

Kept it to heavy singles on just squats today. No volume leg press or squat variations. Left distal medial humeral tendons really hurting after last attempts. But two big PRs. At this rate, I will hit 495 next week!

These squat increases should be driving my unpracticed conventional deadlift up by two pounds for every three on the squat. Will pull at three weeks out from the meet to test.

Olympic Squat no no no, Leg Press

Olympic Squat [no belt, no wraps]
45 x 6 x 2
135 x 6
225 x 3
315 x 2
355 x 1
385 x 1
405 x 1
415 x 1 PR
425 x 1 PR, miss

45-Degree Leg Press [squat stance/shoes/depth] 495 x 10 x 2

Fast 405 no no no @ 193

425 no no no @ 193 PR

I immediately switched things up from the plan this morning. Because I was bursting with energy and feeling good. I decided I will just try to go in every other day and squat, then add some other movement dependent on what is feeling injured or not.

That's about 34 days till the meet, so 17 possible sessions if I go every other day. This leaves me room to take a day off here and there. So I can still count on getting at least 12 sessions. The goal is to improve 10 lbs per session, but that is ambitious. Still, a large part of me is thinking that a 225 kg opener is possible!

So today I went in and absolutely crushed my lifetime best no no no Olympic squat with a 20-lb PR. At this point, there is little doubt that I can't get to at least 475 no no no by the meet and hit at least 500 with belt and wraps in comp. But I think I can do even better than that and open with 495 like I said above.

I was not planning to mess around with paused squats for the remainder of this cycle, but I am really tempted to see if I could hit a 405 paused squat in a couple of days. It i something for which I've been longing. It would be smarter to wait a couple sessions and throw it in as part of warm up on the way to a work set (single) with something north of 450.

Home Stretch: 10 Sessions Left, 10 Lbs Per Session

It's the last few weeks till the meet. I need to add 100 lbs to my back squat and to my deadlift. I have enough time to do ten sessions every third day with one planned day devoted to rest before the meet.

E3D
10/17 - 1
10/20 - 2
10/23 - 3
10/26 - 4
10/29 - 5
11/01 - 6
11/04 - 7
11/07 - 8
11/10 - 9
11/13 - 10
11/16 - Rest
11/19 - Meet

I have to squat each session and try to add 10 lbs to the squat each time. No more time to devote days to paused squatting. The focus has to be on strengthening the back squat at a rate of 20 lbs per week.

With that in mind, I also have to press and get in both upper and lower back work. As far as back work, I can only deadlift once every two or three weeks so I have to rotate through other upper back and pulling movements, like so:

A
Back Squat
Standing Press
Leg Press

B
Back Squat
Paused Bench Press, Close Grip
Deadlift or Weighted Chin or Woolam Row or Lingenfelder Row

In a couple of weeks I'm going to drop the leg press so that I can let the fatigue from volume dissipate. But I want to keep adding some quad and glute size for as long as possible so not dropping the leg press quite yet.

If this works as planned, I will hit my last session with 505. I don't see any point to adding belt and wraps at all. I can just put them on at the meet and get an immediate 35-lb boost.

Paused Squat, Standing Press, Front Squat

Paused Olympic Back Squat [no belt or wraps]
45 x 6 x 3
135 x 5
205 x 4
265 x 2
315 x 2
355 x 1
375 x 1
[325 x 1 too tired for volume]

Standing Press
45 x 10
105 x 4
125 x 2
135 x 6

Front Squat [no belt, no wraps]
135 x 1
225 x 1
275 x 1
295 x 1
315 x 1

Notes: Right hamstring and shoulder are still hurting, but I managed descent showings in heavy squats and presses. My best paused squat was 380, but that was slow and ugly. The 375 today was much crisper. The hamstring is limiting me a bit and I have to avoid the last five or ten pounds I have in me for a heavy single. The shoulder is much better, but I have to warm up a lot before any pressing and I am still afraid to try supine presses. The 135 x 6 may be a personal record.

Paused Olympic Squat 375 @ 192

Standing Press 135 x 5 @ 192

Front Squat 315 @ 192

Back Squat [belt at 420 , wraps at 435]
45 x 6 x 3
135 x 6
225 x 4
315 x 2
355 x 1
385 x 1
405 x 1
420 x 1
435 x 1

Quarter Squat off Pins [belt] 545 x 0
 (Hamstring pain)

45-Degree Leg Press [squat stance/depth/shoes] 475 x 10 x 3

Notes: First 405 totally unequipped high bar in months and only second ever. Weighed 191 at the time.

Paused Back Squat, Deadlift, Stiff-Leg Pull; Hamstring Still Healing

Paused Back Squat [no belt or wraps]
45 x 4 x 3
135 x 4
225 x 3
275 x 2
315 x 1
345 x 1
365 x 1

Conventional Deadlift [belt at 475]
315 x 5
365 x 3
405 x 2
445 x 2
475 x 1 [RPE 10]

Continuous Straight-Legged Pull [no belt] 355 x 6, 6, 7

Notes: Testing out hamstring. Able to get as high as 365  on the paused squat today, which is better than 315 last week. Really, really pissed that I got shut down by 475 deadlift today, which wasn't a matter of my hamstring and which just felt heavy.

345 paused back squat at 190 

365 paused back squat at 190

355 continuous stiff-legged pull

Healing...

My right shoulder is finally feeling good this morning. Still not 100%, but the acute pain is gone right now. I should still hold off another few days before I train upper body again, but I think I may be able to start again on maybe Thursday.

I'd only programmed one upper body day --Saturday-- in my last post, but I think I should allow for up to three: Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. I don't have to train on every one of those days, but I should leave myself room to train upper body with more frequency. 

I still want to keep lower body to Heavy Push on Wednesday and Light Push/Heavy Pull on Sunday. 

My knees feel normal this morning and my hamstring strain is almost healed. I don't want to take any chances with loading the squat right now; I felt sharp pain on 315 a few days ago. I need to be able to get to over 405 again on Wednesday. I know I should focus more on volume than seeking new personal weight records for the first couple of weeks back. 

It's impossible for me to tell if my hamstring is ready to be loaded again without actually loading it. So maybe I'll go in tomorrow to see how deadlifts and straight-legged pulls feel. Maybe not. 

I finally decided on a schedule. Wednesday for heavy and high volume squat and leg press; Saturday for upper body; Sunday for light/low volume squat and heavy pulls.

I was so excited about hitting 450 on the back squat today. So excited. 135 and 225 felt fine. But on 315, my injured hamstring warned me that it is not fully healed. I did a paused rep that hurt quite a bit and then a regular rep that hurt less. But I knew I had to stop.

I'm taking a week off because I can't squat heavy and I surely can't pull. So pissed because this injury could have been avoided.

Couldn't sleep again and motored my way through a couple bagel sandwiches at 3 am. After morning coffee and evacuation I am halfway between 192 and 193 lbs. Hamstring injury is surprisingly better with just a dull ache in the spot where I pulled it; I was afraid that I'd be stiff and barely able to walk.

A little later on I was down to closer to 190 lbs and I haven't eaten yet. So I'm considering that my "true weight".

At 190 lbs this morning

My left leg looks a lot bigger than my right here. But it's not really that much bigger, like about 1/2" bigger. Working on that by following up leg presses and leg curls with unilateral work for more volume for the right side. And also focusing on my right leg during bilateral back squats and leg presses. 

My arms look reeeeeeally long here. And they are long. Combined with my short torso this is why I can deadlift so much more then I can squat. 

Upper Body Around The World: Bench, Standing Press, Chin Up, DB Row. Popped a Hamstring

Bench Press [touch and go]
45 x 12 x 3
135 x 6
185 x 3
225 x 4 x 6

Standing Barbell Press
45 x 10, 4
105 x 5
125 x 3
135 x 4 x 5

Chin Up [@188] + 50 x 5 x 4
Lingenfelder DB Row 120 x 8R/8L x 3

Notes: Messed around with the settings on the GHR because I didn't realize I had the foot pad set so far back yesterday. I immediately felt a pop in my right hammy. But it doesn't seem to be that bad. I kept flexing it and walking around all session to keep it from seizing up. I think it may be fine in a few days. It doesn't hurt that much when I squat, but it does when I try any hip hinges.

Right shoulder felt a lot better (which is why I went at all today). I was able to bench mostly comfortably. I decided to stay kinda smart and go for volume instead of intensity. Second work set of each movement felt better than the first. I'm amazed I had the energy to do decent amount of total tonnage on all four upper body movements. I didn't set any personal records today, but I avoided going to heavy and I got very good volume.

This can be my constant upper body routine with occasional uses of dumbbells instead of barbell for presses and machine pulls and rows for back. The main or "heavy" squat day will still be full back squat working from unequipped paused squats to belt and wraps, quarter squats, and high volume leg presses. The "other" lower body day would be a light squat (paused or front) and some kind of pulls and hamstring focus (deadlift, Romanian pull or Stiff-Legged Pull, hamstring raise, and leg curl).

I'm not planning to do well on bench this time around. I'd be happy with anything over 315 paused at this point. But I'm still hoping to total 1100+ raw with wraps with just the squat and deadlift.

1
Back Squat [belt and wraps on top sets]
Quarter Squat
Leg Press

2A
Front Squat
Hamstring Raise
Lying Leg Curl

2B
Paused Back Squat
Conventional Deadlift
Romanian or Straight-Legged Pull

The pattern would be: 1, upper, 2A, upper, 1, upper, 2B, upper, repeat

I overdid it. Knees were swollen a bit last night; left, as usual, was more effused. Need to give them time to pull themselves together. So I may skip heavy day this week and start back up with a light day. I have learned the hard way to take the extra rest when needed lest an acute problem become chronic.

I must note, however, that it's possible that that playing around with leg curls and leg extensions might have contributed a lot to this. Those movements just don't seem to be very friendly to my knees. I was fine the day before after the light squat day. The Hamstring Raise doesn't seem to cause this.

Also was ravenous last night, way more than usual. I hope that means that I actually stimulated a bout of growth. I went to bed way over 190 and woke up at 190.7. Coffee did its thing and my true weight this morning was 189.8. Seven weeks to the meet. I should come in right around 195-198 lbs. 

I can also afford to take off from a session and start again with a better plan. I think I already said that I need to confine lower body movements to two sessions a week to allow recovery; spreading it out over three was asking for trouble by interfering with recovery. So Heavy Lower Push Day with Light Squats and Heavy Lower Pulls a few days later.

And it occurred to me last night that the reason I'm not as good with sumo as I was years ago when I was so much weaker on high bar squat and conventional deadlift is that I was specializing on low bar wide stance squats back then. As I said before (and with which Glenn Pendlay agreed), there is probably no better assistance movement for sumo than the wide stance, low bar back squat. Maybe I should take it as a good thing that after years of not doing low bar or sumo I can still pull 95% of my best ever. 

Sumo Deadlift, Ham Raise on GHR, Stiff-Legs, Leg Curl

Sumo Deadlift [belt @ 475]
315 x 2, 3
405 x 2
455 x 1
475 x 1

Hamstring Raise (easier knee position) @190 x 5 x 2

Stiff-Legged Pull 315 x 15

Levered Lying Leg Curl w 45-lb plate x 12 right, 24 bilateral

Notes: Today was weird. I decided against doing any upper back work because my right shoulder STILL FUCKING HURTS. I tried out sumo and was really disappointed that I could only get 475. Sure I haven't done this movement in years, but I really thought I'd get more carryover from my back squat and conventional deadlift strength, both of which are way higher than when I pulled 500 sumo a few times back around 2010. It took me several minutes of wheezing to catch my breath after that marathon set of stiff-legged pulls. I never set the bar down on the floor when I do these, so it winds up being a great builder of lower back and grip toughness and endurance. I'm thrilled with my ability to do so many GHRs now, which I am now calling hamstring curls since they don't really target the glutes. I like to keep a slight bend in the hips because this stretches the hamstrings at their origin and allows for a stronger contraction. My gastrocs got a pretty good workout, too, which is another reason I love this movement. I was only able to do a few singles and doubles before. Now I can do sets of five.

Five Hamstring Raises on the GHR with just bodyweight

I have to rearrange my training a bit. I don't like squatting one day and then deadlifting the next. So I am going to shift things yet again, this time combining light squats (paused or front) with the pulling movements. And I'm dropping the deadlift start imitation leg press training because I realize it's probably redundant when I have quarter squats programmed already. I may alternate them, too. It's nice to have options.

So I'm going to have the traditional upper/lower split twice a week. But while my shoulder is dinged, I won't be doing any upper body work at all.