The squats are disappointing me. I'm going back to 3 sets across; this "1 intense set" is not working for me. My recovery is great but I think I'm undertraining right now and that's why I'm regressing.
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TEAM FRANCO BODYBUILDING
Ahh...recovery....Don't believe the hype; you are a machine.
Big disappoint Rows:bar, 135, 225 X10 all DL: 315, 405, work: 490X fail neck: 4 sets
W.T.F. Well, I have to think. Starting Wednesday I have been off. I did a 10 hr workday got home around 8. Didn't get to the gym till 9, then had to take a 3 hr nap after the gym, instead of my normal full night sleep. I had to be at work at 3 in the morning. I didn't eat during much of that time. I had two meals Thursday morning before coming home to sleep and I didn't wake up until 5 p.m. I ate two more times and then went back to bed and woke up this morning SORE. I had a normal eating day but that apparently didn't make up for the two days of wackiness before. I couldn't even budge 490 and decided to bag the workout. Only good thing about tonight was that I went up 5 lbs on neck work. I'm going to have to try to not do 3 am shifts on days I have to workout, or rearrange my training schedule if I know ahead of time that I may be assigned an off-hour shift.
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TEAM FRANCO BODYBUILDING
Ahh...recovery....Don't believe the hype; you are a machine.
Redemption (rested up and did a repeat + more workout) Rows: bar-135-185-225X6 all sets DL: work: 490X5* Make it rain...make it make it rain--no 3 a.m. shifts this week so 495 is sure to fall. BP: work: 300X5X2, 300X6 (not to failure and not close to it either; trying something else here) SQ: work: 275X5, 285X5, 295X5...not heavy but not fast either since my back was worked a bit during the DL's and BP's Neck: 20X25X4 (finally some mentionable weight here...I started off really really really light because I wanted to avoid super sore neck syndrome)
So it felt good to get that Deadlift after eating and resting this weekend. It also felt good to bench in the 300 again without shoulder issues and it felt good to pull the plug nice and early on that last set. To be able to squat after that max effort dead is also something I'm happy about considering how bad my squat training has been lately. Sometimes it helps to go back to what got you in the game in the first place at least for a little while.
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TEAM FRANCO BODYBUILDING
Ahh...recovery....Don't believe the hype; you are a machine.
Wed 3/23/2011 SQ....just kidding I totally skipped out. I was wiped out from working a ton of hours plus I knew I needed the sleep. So I took it. It was the right decision.
Friday 3/25/2011 Rows: bar/10, 135/10, 225/10 - felt twinge in tricep/lat "tie-in" on all of these but got better with extra work Deads: 315/3, 405/2, 495/5*PR - this one I am particularly proud off because it was 5 plates per side...something I've pulled before but never for more than 1 rep before. Presses: work: 190X5X3 - on first two sets I noticed I have an uneven lockout so on last set I concentrated on only doing reps that I can with even lockout and when the lockout started to get uneven, I stopped the set....even though I could get more reps. I no longer want to go for reps just for reps because I don't want to reinforce bad habits. Squats...just for some form work since I didn't train Wednesday: 135/5, 205/5, 225/5, 245/5 Neck: 25X25X3 Straight arm pulldowns with a band (to get blood in the tricep/lat "tie-in" region): 3 sets of 25
I have such a bad body for squatting. The more I do it and analyze it, the more I realize it. It is what it is I guess. I just have to work with what I've got.
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TEAM FRANCO BODYBUILDING
Ahh...recovery....Don't believe the hype; you are a machine.
...which would be appropriate if I was going to compete in that type of competition...but June 5th is 9 weeks away..which is the powerlifting comp I'm going into.
__________________
TEAM FRANCO BODYBUILDING
Ahh...recovery....Don't believe the hype; you are a machine.
Update on the fat loss front: This week was not that good. It's because I slacked a little (a lot) on the diet. But that's why Joe always says to start early and I'm glad I listened. I didn't lose any but I also didn't gain any so that's always a good thing. I'll be back on the horse Sunday. Tomorrow is Olivia's birthday (3 years old) and we are having a party and I'm going to eat some cake!!
Weight is 252 in the mornings these days. Goals is to be in the 242 class in 9 weeks...which is MORE than doable!
Also another announcement that I keep forgetting to post up is that in July, Olivia is going to be having a little sister! (Maybe I posted that up already but I just don't remember anything anymore).
Gray hairs - Here I come!
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TEAM FRANCO BODYBUILDING
Ahh...recovery....Don't believe the hype; you are a machine.
Congrats on the little sister front! And enjoy the cake (have a piece for me - 6 weeks out so no cake here) My granddaughter's 3rd birthday in 2 weeks - I'll be eating egg whites and pretending it's angel food cake :)
Update on the fat loss front: This week was not that good. It's because I slacked a little (a lot) on the diet. But that's why Joe always says to start early and I'm glad I listened. I didn't lose any but I also didn't gain any so that's always a good thing. I'll be back on the horse Sunday. Tomorrow is Olivia's birthday (3 years old) and we are having a party and I'm going to eat some cake!!
Weight is 252 in the mornings these days. Goals is to be in the 242 class in 9 weeks...which is MORE than doable!
Also another announcement that I keep forgetting to post up is that in July, Olivia is going to be having a little sister! (Maybe I posted that up already but I just don't remember anything anymore).
Thanks you guys! Starmonkey - I had an extra piece of pizza with you in mind.
Today's work: Today I decided to get a barometer of where I am in terms of 1 rep max. Honestly I couldn't have picked a worse day to do it since I'm still feeling the after effects of the deadlift session Friday...but I was still pleased with the result.
Squat: warm ups with bar, 135, 185, 225, 275, 315, work attempts: 335/1, 355/1, 375/1, 400/1 but a spotter jumped in half way up so it really doesn't count but I am happy to still be able to do this for one rep even with my back and hamstrings being sore as hell. Bench: warms ups with bar, 135, 185, 275, work attempts: 315/1, 335/1, 350/1 - wow hard, 360/1 - hard enough to stop Skipped neck work and lat work
With these conservative maxes, I will be starting something new this week to carry me into my meet this summer. I'm pretty excited about the change.
__________________
TEAM FRANCO BODYBUILDING
Ahh...recovery....Don't believe the hype; you are a machine.
Going to start something new next Monday. I'm still feeling the after effects of Sunday's work...but I still took a light day today because I don't want to get into the habit of only doing twice a week training. Here's what I did:
Squat: 135-185-225-275-295-305 all for 5 Press: bar-95-135 all for 5, 185X2, 200X5 And that was enough.
Now that I'm 250, I'm going to put the brakes on the cut. I'm not going to go crazy bulking either though. I actually think this is a good place for me to be and aggressively getting leaner would mean that I would have to sacrifice recovery which is not going to work with the new plan I'm about to get on. I really need to maximize my recovery if I want this to work. Clean eating but lots of it will be the ticket. I can't be walking around in a fog anymore on my off days (which I know I've been taking the calories down low enough to compromise recovery). A hypocaloric state is necessary for cutting fat. However, stay that way for too long and your workouts start to be garbage, old aches resurface, stamina decreases, and de-motivation sets in. I'm down 30 lbs from the beginning of the year. That's good enough. Its now time to get some work done.
I'd rather be a stronger happier me than a more competitive 242 class lifter. I guess that's what it boils down to.
__________________
TEAM FRANCO BODYBUILDING
Ahh...recovery....Don't believe the hype; you are a machine.
Pressin' Did not pull tonight because I'm going to a strength seminar tomorrow and I know I'm going to be on my feet all day...and I'm not conditioned for that being a desk/computer lab person by day. I'm going to need my back and legs in an nonfatigued state.
Press: bar-95-135-175, work: 192.5/5,5,5 (the last one on the last set was a little uneven on the lockout so I did...) *Also I realized last workout I pressed but used the wrong weight. I recently retired my 7 year old training log and started up a new notebook. Something went wrong in the transfer. Paused Presses with a close grip: 135/8, 7 (then I was feeling reckless so I went for a heavy single....) Press: 225/1, hadn't done that in a while...felt really heavy no way I could get that for 5 reps now but then again I just did a ton of work before this...I just had to know though if I could still do it. Lockout was terribly difficult though...off the chest was EZPZ. Chins: 3 sets Neck: 25X25X2, 15X25X2 (the combo of pressing and neck work made my traps super pumped)
Taking Sunday off and starting up this on Monday: http://drsquat.com/content/knowledge-base/conditioning-tips-powerlifters.
__________________
TEAM FRANCO BODYBUILDING
Ahh...recovery....Don't believe the hype; you are a machine.
After meeting Kirk Karwoski at yesterday's strength seminar, I was fired up. I had to start my new program early. Shout out to Coach Steel for sending it my way. So I started today:
Bench: work: 290X3 X 5 sets Squat: work: 305X2 X 5 sets Bench overload: work: 405X1 X 3 sets
I changed four things about my lifting today from what I learned yesterday: 1. Focusing on the "little things". I made every set up exactly the same. If anything needed to be tinkered with during the set up, I started all over again from step 1. 2. Get wrists straight on every rep of bench...(I think my forearms are going to grow from this...A LOT.) 3. Wrap my thumb around the bar on squats...(I was hesitant to do this. It felt weird at first but I could feel how this would benefit in the long run. It is worth getting used to.) 4. Keep a little space between the plates so that plate roll creates less bar roll.
__________________
TEAM FRANCO BODYBUILDING
Ahh...recovery....Don't believe the hype; you are a machine.
The last two sets felt terrible. It was great! I might have overestimated my max on the deads here (go figure for the one lift that I had to estimate on). So I'm going to take it down a little for the next one. I didn't miss any reps but I'm thinking the first deadlift workout is supposed to be hard but not THAT hard. Common sense tells me that I want to ease into the increased volume and deadlift frequency. So I'm going to take the training max down a bit. Overall, this felt like a really good workout and I'm motivated for more.
__________________
TEAM FRANCO BODYBUILDING
Ahh...recovery....Don't believe the hype; you are a machine.
Warmed up with RDL's: 135 and 225...didn't count the reps but somewhere between 8-10 each to get some blood in the lumbar region. DL: warms: 315X#?reps, 405X1, work: 420X5 X5sets Good mornings: barX10 X2 sets
Traveled this past weekend (my neice's birthday party) so I took Monday off to do some catch up from weekend stuff I missed on. This was another good workout on the books. Happy to be stringing together some decent workouts back to back. Currently, I am eating...LOL. Thank goodness for those 90 second microwave Uncle Ben's rice packets. Makes getting clean carbs a breeze.
__________________
TEAM FRANCO BODYBUILDING
Ahh...recovery....Don't believe the hype; you are a machine.
Bench: warms: 185/5, 225/3 work: 291.25X4 X 5 sets Squat: warms: 185/3, 225/2, 275/2, work: 310X2 X 5 sets Bench Overload: 410 X 1 X 3 sets
Benches were very strong considering it has been 10 days since I have gone this heavy. Squats were a little rough today since 2 days ago I did a 5X5 deadlift session. These were definitely quad squats since my hams were tight right from the outset. Overloads were fun again but it was a little difficult finding some strong enough to hand me a lift off...I could see this becoming a problem when there is no one strong enough or willing to lift me off on these.
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TEAM FRANCO BODYBUILDING
Ahh...recovery....Don't believe the hype; you are a machine.
Rows: warms: 135/12, 225/10 DL: warms: 315, 405 work: 445X4 X5 sets Neck: 50 reps (haven't done neck in a while but I'm going to incorporate it back into the training as I'm going for maximum yokage)
Didn't feel like training today with the weather the way it is now (spring showers, gray skies, etc.) but once I got started, it was on. I was still a little sore in the upper back from the bench work and quads weren't 100% but they were good enough. This was another good session. Now its time to rest and recover for two days. Back at it on Tuesday.
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I guess I'm going to shut down this log since the forum will be disappearing soon. Since I avoid Bookface like the plague, you can still view my log on the Physique Boards here (you'll need an account to view):