Thanks everyone.

The back can't keep me down for too long. After two days of bed rest and muscle relaxers, I got back in the saddle tonight. Hit the three major lifts on a light intensity, low loading, only went up to about 70% on each for 1 or 2 sets of five and did a couple light accessories to get the blood flowing in the back:

Squats: 4 warms (had to slowly test out the water here), 160/3, 190/3, 225/5 5
Bench: 3 warms, 185/3, 225/3, 260/5 5
Deadlift: 135/5, 185/5, 225/3, 270/3, 315/5
Strict pullups deadhang: 3 sets of 8
1 set Kipping Pullup (kind of lost the technique over the past few days of not training it)
1 set OHP for 30 reps to loosen up the shoulders
1 set of KB Swings for 30 reps with 1 pood (about 35 lbs) KB to help to groove the PC and rehabilitate the low back.

Overall a great workout back. Left with absolutely no stiffness or tightness. Look forward to another "rehabilitative" session on Monday...and hopefully back full force on Wednesday back to the high volume of work.

BTW, Joe, on my couple of days off, I researched the Smolov cycle, and I know you had mentioned it before on this log. I may reconsider my previous response where I said I'm not advanced enough for it. I think it would be a good change up once I completed this Sheiko cycle. It looks brutal but I think once I adapted, it would make a huge difference. So, I'm thinking about it.

Glad your feeling better. I did something similar with my shoulder - I was reaching for a binder at work and threw it out. No not the heavy lifting - reaching for a binder took me down!!

Best to you

Dave

Looks good Dwayne!

Day off Friday.

Saturday - (Not a great session)

Squat: warms, 160/4 190/3 225/3 3 270/2 2
BP: warms, 185/3 225/3 260/3 3 300/3 3 3 3
Flies: 5 sets fast pace
OHP: (fast pace rest) 85/8 90/8 95/8 100/8 105/8
Squat again: 160/4 190/3 225/3 255/2 2 2 2
GM's: 135/5 by 5

Long day today. Out all day. Traveled up to Queens, NY to visit Olivia's godparents. Spent the day there. Subpar eating (pumpkin bread, bagels and cream cheese, and yogurt). Traveled back..major car lag..four hours in the car on the day. Came home entertained baby while wife ran out to do errands. Finally got to gym at 9 running on subpar food and jacked. It took all I had to get through this workout. On top of that, the fatigue that I incurred through all the driving made it really hard to catch a good groove on my movements today..so everything felt heavy...everything even the beginning sets. Sitting in one spot for 4 hours will do that to you I guess.

Looking back, it would have been better to not do conditioning on Thursday and then hit the gym on Friday and taken Saturday off. With the DE show next week, I will take that approach.

The good news is that regardless of the fatigue, I was able to handle some pretty heavy weight for me with a good level of control and confidence, that I know on a regular day, this would be a much better workout.

Everyone has their bad days : (

"NO WORKOUT FOR YOU TONIGHT DWAYNE!!"

I had to be smart tonight. I went into this workout with full intention to finish off phase one. The work was not supposed to be too strenuous but by set 5 into the workout, I knew it wasn't going to happen tonight.

So last Tuesday I hurt my back and this Wednesday I did a pretty heavy DL workout. That combo makes for one really sore back. I feel like I was back on the five day plan where I was doing SLDL's one day, and DL's the next..with back soreness for days. The funny thing is my back was not sore all day...not until it was time to squat.

I decided to stick with the old adage, "Squat heavy or go home". This time I chose the latter because heavy squattin cannot happen with a super sore back.

Here's how it went down:

General warmup, dynamic mobility (warmed up a little extra because I started to feel tight at the beginning)
Squat: couple warms (insert back soreness begins), 160/3, 190/3, 225/3 3, 255/0.25

-- Edited by winflex on Wednesday 10th of June 2009 10:37:39 PM

Trying my best. See you Sat!

Back from the toughest squat workout in the last couple weeks.

So my back was recovered just enough to make it through this one. I will enjoy my next two days off. My mechanics were, well, not as "tight" as usual but they were good enough to put this session on the books as completed. At this moment, I'm sitting in my shiatsu chair and eating a delicious post workout meal. I should be sleeping (show tomorrow) but I needed to get this off my mind or else I'd be thinking about this too much. Here's the workout:

General warmup, moblity drills, foam roll, etc.
Squats: couple light warms, 160/4 190/3 225/3 3 (feeling good but still sore) 255/3 3 3 3 3 (just brutal)

Thanks Gina...and I'm going to do it again tonight!!
I've pretty much adapted to the fully body routines squats and bench or deads and bench. Its tough but that's what I've got to be ready for once I get my 1200 and start to look for PL comps.

5 by 5's tonight...it will be a form day!

Sure thing Joe! I'll be at posing class. Drop me a line whenever!

BACK IN BUSINESS!!!
Literally, my back felt 100% better after the two days of rest. My right knee was kind of stiff so I had to do a few more light warms on squats. I attribute the stiffness to lots of driving and sitting this weekend. My knees do not like inactivity. Went for a 20 minute walk today at work to loosen things up.

Also, Video is a great technology. During my warmups, I made sure to video each one to see where my form was breaking down on my squats. I pinpointed it and I needed to give myself the "chest up" cue. I was able to do this while keeping my neck in a neutral position today and what a difference. The form was tighter and I felt like my old self again. I got some video of my squat sets with 160, 190, and the second set with 225 and the last set with 225.

I made a remark about progress in one of my recent posts on another thread (post competition blues). And I took a look back on my last go round with this workout (on week 5 of the program) and progress has been made. My top set weight with 5 sets of 5 back then was 210. This time around it was 225. Consistency pays off. I feel great.

Without further ado, here's how it went:

Bench: 3 warms, 185/5 225/4 260/3 3 280/3 3 3 3
Squat: 4 warms, 160/5 190/5 5 225/5 5 5 5 5
160 vid: https://s137.photobucket.com/albums/q220/winflex/?action=view&current=160lbs.flv
190 vid: https://s137.photobucket.com/albums/q220/winflex/?action=view&current=190lbs.flv
225 2nd set: https://s137.photobucket.com/albums/q220/winflex/?action=view&current=225lbs2.flv
225 last set: https://s137.photobucket.com/albums/q220/winflex/?action=view&current=225lbs1.flv

Bench again: 1 warm, 205/5 245/4 4 260/4 4 4 4 4
Flies: 5 sets of 10
GMs: 135/5 sets of 5 supersetted last two sets with KPU: BW/ 10 10

Dwayne...your cycles make me want to throw up, just fyi...but is VERY inspirational as usual.

I think I'm trying a Russian/Westside cycle during my growth phase in Sept therefore will be needing your advice like a mofo.

LIGHTWEIGHT!

Thanks Dave.

POWERCLEAN PR!!!!

Dwayne....If I can just make a comment on one of your videos that may help. I used to compete in olympic weightlifting so I happen to have some training on the lifts. When you do the clean - your hips and shoulders should rise at the same time. Your start was set up great.....however you lifted the hips before the shoulders. Looks like you are working hard, keep it up:)

Week 5 is done

BP marathon: 3 warms, 185/6 225/5 260/4 4 280/3 3 300/2 2 315/1 1 300/2 2 280/3 3 245/5 205/7
Flies: 5 sets of 10
Squat: mobility for my tight hams, 160/5, 190/4 4 225/3 3 240/3 3 3 3 3
OHP's: 2 warms, 85/8 105/8 125/8 115/8 105/8 (realized that these help much more than the dips in how my shoulders feel and overall effort)
Good mornings: 135/ 5 sets of 5

I got to the gym really late and thus finished really late. Jen is sick so I had to pick up a lot of the slack tonight; also, I have to go to work tomorrow .  Just happy I got it done and have two full days of rest ahead of me.  All the grooves are back in place and I have only weeks 6-8 to get ready for the skills evaluation on week 9.  So I have to fine tune the grooves that I just got back.  Looking at the following attempts for week nine: 

Dwayne have a happy father's day