More Weight: Izzy's Log

[IzzyT]

Info:
Name: Israel Thomas Narvaez (call me Tom or Izzy u *******s)
Height: 5'6", Weight: 240lbs, Age: 21

PRs:
Squat: 445x5
Bench: 240x5 / 245x4
Deadlift: 396x5 / 455x1
Press: 160x5x3 / 165x5

Goals:
1) Post a USAPL Total
2) Post a USAPL Total in the 165lbs weight class
3) Post a 1200+ USAPL Total in the 165lbs weight class

Next Meet:
Date: June 23rd
Event: Seattle Summer Classic
Federation: USAPL
Intended Weight Class: 220
Performance Goals: 455/275/455/1185

Programming:
All percentages based on a training max calculated via Wendler's 1RM formula.

Monday:
Low-Bar, Wide-Stance Squats: 40% x 5, 50% x 5, 60% x 5, 75% x 5, 85% x 3, 95% x 1
High-Bar, Narrow-Stance Squats: 75% x 8
Single-Leg, Deep, Paused Leg Press: 3x8 (sets across)
Full GHRs: 3x8 (sets across)
10 hill sprints with a 50lbs vest for time, 1m between sprints

Tuesday:
30m-60m Morning Walk @ ~120bpm

Wednesday:
Wide-grip, Paused Bench: 40% x 5, 50% x 5, 60% x 5, 75% x 5, 85% x 3, 95% x 1
Close-grip Bench: 75% x 8
Dumbbell Bench: 3x8 (sets across)
Dumbbell Row: 3x8 (sets across)

Thursday:
30-60m morning walk @ ~120bpm

Friday:
Conventional Deadlifts: 40% x 5, 50% x 5, 60% x 5, 75% x 5, 85% x 3, 95% x 1
Sumo Deadlifts: 75% x 8
SSB Good Mornings: 3x8 (sets across)
Ab Wheel: 3x8 (sets across)

Saturday:
Olympic Press: 40% x 5, 50% x 5, 60% x 5, 75% x 5, 85% x 3, 95% x 1
Strict Press: 75% x 8
Dips: 3x8 (sets across)
Chinups: 3x8 (sets across)

Sunday:
30-60m walk @ ~120bpm

Diet:
Paleo with nonfat milk in my protein shakes, white rice, and liquid carbs before/during workouts
Calories autoregulated based on hunger, 200-300g of protein per day intended

Comments:
I've been seriously strength training for about nine and a half months now. My intentions are to compete at the highest levels of powerlifting. I realize it is long road, but I plan to take things one step at a time.

I never actually stalled out on my novice progression, but I've gotten to the point where I am no longer willing to gain weight and I actively want to lose quite a bit of it.

I've significantly reduced the squatting frequency and volume compared to Starr's/Rip's usual programs because I feel that it has made deadlift progress impossible. I seem to do better on lower volume than others as I have added ~80lbs to my squat by reducing the volume from 3x5 to 1x5.

If you hadn't noticed, my programming is very similar to 531. My plan is to eventually switch over to 531 for powerlifting. However, knowing that I still have linear gains left, I'm going to run the 531+ week over and over and over until I stall out. From there, I'll transition to 531 for powerlifting.

For those who care, I am lifetime drug free. I intend to compete in the USAPL/IPF. Because of that, I plan to stay drug free.

Overall, I greatly prefer this set up because I feel it will allow me to focus more on each of my main lifts. I believe that the programming I have followed to this point has emphasized the squat to the detriment of my other lifts. I'm looking forward to the programming freedom that a template like this affords me.

I can't think of anything else right now. I think this has been pretty thorough. Feel free to call me out or ask any questions.

[xRequiem]

Good luck man, interested to see how an 80lb cut works. I'm cutting 15lbs and it seems like too much.

[IzzyT]

Good luck man, interested to see how an 80lb cut works. I'm cutting 15lbs and it seems like too much.

Thanks, man.

I'm fat as phuck brah. This is from yesterday:


Cutting down to around 15% pretty much takes zero effort for me. Well, in the past, anyway. Obviously, my main goal is not to obliterate my strength.

[IzzyT]

5/14/12

Squats:
135x5, 185x5, 245x5, 295x6
Yesterday, I went on a 6+ mile hike for Mother's Day. At 240lbs+, with nearly zero cardio under my belt in the last few months, I got my ass kicked a bit. I knew I wasn't good for anything near my best today. Next week, I'll go for 455x1. I'm going to take 10lbs jumps until I stall. From there, I'll rollback 5lbs. Once I stall on 5lbs jumps, I'll reset 10% and go back up by 5s. After I stall on that, I'll switch to 531 for powerlifting.

Today, I worked mostly on hitting USAPL depth. At the higher level USAPL competitions, they pretty much make you bury everything. My squats are very borderline. I need to get them 1-2 inches deeper. My numbers may take a hit at first, but the numbers don't mean **** if they don't pass in a meet anyway.

Single-Leg, Deep, Paused, Leg Press: 135x8x3
I actually have no idea how much my sled weighs so I'll just count on 45 for convenience. This wasn't really that hard. I might try 185 next week. I plan to progress my assistance linearly. These felt really good for whatever that is worth.

Full GHRs: BWx8x3 /w 2 orange bands as assistance
I'm doing these with the back extension included as I feel it is safer for my hamstrings. This was actually pretty easy, but I don't like pushing this movement and probably won't ever push it very hard. I'll stay with stuff that I can do fast and with perfect form.

Hills:
Didn't do them today because I hiked yesterday. I deloaded and doing hard conditioning would defeat the purpose.

Overall:
I was in and out in about an hour. One thing I really want to work on is decreasing my rest periods. I don't think I'll ever be Tad_T like, but I want to get closer to that. I feel that if I can speed up my workouts it will reduce the lulls in focus that I sometimes have when I'm waiting 5-10 minutes between heavy sets.

I think my brother Tony may be doing the meet with me. He has to ask for time off of work. I hope he gets it because he's got a real shot at some Teen State records which would be pretty cool for him. I find it hard to believe, but apparently there are no junior records at 220 in Washington State. Hopefully I'll make that weight class and set the bar a bit higher for other college-aged 220s.

I really needed a change in my training and my approach to the sport in general. When I competed in MMA, I often worked on something performance related 40-60 hours a week. I feel that with this template I'll be able to take myself and my training more seriously. I've always wanted to be a good athlete and good athletes attack their sports from all angles. I just simply wasn't doing that with my novice progression. Now, I'm going to do just that. I'm feeling good and looking forward to the meet.

[Mayweatherjr]

Brb new running partner? I hear you aren't so great at running either. We should be friends

[IzzyT]

Thinking of getting a prowler. 100% srs. Will not be running. At all. Although, I did walk 2mi in 30m today.

I might try to make that big ass hill by my house work. Even if I got a prowler, that's where I'd have to use it.

[Mayweatherjr]

Thinking of getting a prowler. 100% srs. Will not be running. At all. Although, I did walk 2mi in 30m today.

I might try to make that big ass hill by my house work. Even if I got a prowler, that's where I'd have to use it.

You would use the prowler up a hill? Or on that long stretch of grass at the top of it?

[IzzyT]

Prowler up a hill? Dear God. I was thinking of using the long, grassy stretch. I just figure it would be easier and more quantifiable to use the prowler. Transportation might be an issue.

[Mayweatherjr]

Depends on the size of the prowler. If you lay down your front passenger seat you could probably get it sideways in the car. That is a good field for the prowler. For my first couple months ill just be using the highschool's track/football field by my house

[IzzyT]

I think I'm just gonna use the hill for now. I'm sure I can herp derp and make it work.

5/16/12
Paused Bench: 45x5x2, 105x5, 135x5, 155x3, 195x5, 225x3, 250x1 (PR)
Paused DB Bench: 10x10, 30x10, 50x10x3
One Arm DB Row: 10x10, 30x10, 50x10, 70x10x2

225x3 paused was a little harder than I expected which had me worried. However, forcing myself to pause has made me more aware of the groove that I need to be in. With my wide ass grip, I need to have everything dialed. Even small stuff throws me way off. In the end, I ****ing smoked this. I'm fairly sure I am good for 3 or 4 at this weight. Maybe my pause could have been longer, but the barely clearly came to a stop. 255 should be a breeze. I'll put the vid up in a few as well.

DB bench was way harder than I could have imagined. I've never done this exercise before. The range of motion is probably twice as long as my regular bench and the stability thing is super different. For this, I used no arch, no leg drive, and paused for a good 2-3 seconds on every rep. My goal with these is to build muscle mass and strength out of the bottom. I have feeling it is going to work really well. Gonna shoot for 55x10x3 next time.

I only did two sets of DB Rows because my workout was dragging longer than I wanted and the set at 50 was sorta challenging. I'll probably go 80x10x3 next time.

I think I'm going to put off competing for a while longer until I can get everything dialed in and do a full off-season on 531 for PL. I don't really want the stress of a meet when I'm already changing so many things right now. I'm basically going to do the book close to verbatim once I get passed this gym max LP stage.

If the write-up that follows is a bit too much to chew on it is pretty simple:
Stage 1) 8+ week off-season using the 531 for powerlifting template almost verbatim
Stage 2) 4 week pre-meet schedule (done 8 weeks out), Conditioning is cut in half, 1-2 assistance exercises are dropped
Stage 3) Meet month (done 4 weeks out), All hard conditioning is dropped and replaced by walking, 2 assistance exercise per workout max
Stage 4) Meet week, Completely off. No training.



For at least 8 full weeks between peaking for meets:
Monday:
Squat, Normal 531 with rep maxes
Squats 531, Rep Maxes
Leg Press: 3x10
GHRs: 3xX
Ab Wheel: 3xX
30m Hill Sprints, Sprint when HR returns to =< 120bpm

Tuesday: Morning Walk, 30m @ 115-125bpm

Wednesday:
Bench 531, Rep Maxes
DB Bench: 3x10, Paused
One Arm DB Row: 3x10
Pushups: 3xX
Chinups: 3xX
Rear Laterals: 3x20
30m Vest Hill Walks, HR = 135-145bpm

Thursday: Morning Walk, 30m @ 115-125bpm

Friday:
Deadlift 531, Rep Maxes
SSB Good Morning: 3x10
Pendlay Rows: 3x10
GHR: 3x10
Ab Wheel: 3x10
30m Hill Sprints, Sprint when HR =< 120bpm

Saturday:
Press 531, Rep Maxes
DB Press: 3x10
Dips: 3x10
Chinups: 3x10
Face Pulls: 3x20
Curls: 3x10

Sunday: Morning Walk, 30m @ 115-125bpm



8 Weeks Out:
Monday:
Squat, Normal 531 with rep maxes
Squats 531, Rep Maxes
Leg Press: 3x10
GHRs: 3x10
Ab Wheel: 3xX
30m Hill Sprints, Sprint when HR =< 120bpm

Tuesday: Off

Wednesday:
Bench 531, Rep Maxes
DB Bench: 3x10, Paused
One Arm DB Row: 3x10
Chinups: 3xX
Walking, 30m @ 115-125bpm

Thursday: Off

Friday:
Deadlift 531, Rep Maxes
SSB Good Morning: 3x10
GHR: 3xX
Ab Wheel: 3x10
30m Vest Hill Walks, HR = 135-145bpm

Saturday:
Press 531, Rep Maxes
Dips: 3x10
Chinups: 3x10
Curls: 3x10
Walking, 30m @ 115-125bpm

Sunday: Off




4 Weeks Out:
Monday:
Squat, Normal 531 with rep maxes
Squats 531, Rep Maxes
Leg Press: 3x10
GHRs: 3x10
Walking, 30m @ 115-125bpm

Tuesday: Off

Wednesday:
Bench 531, Rep Maxes
DB Bench: 3x10, Paused
One Arm DB Row: 3x10

Thursday: Off

Friday:
Deadlift 531, Rep Maxes
SSB Good Morning: 3x10
Ab Wheel: 3x10
Walking, 30m @ 115-125bpm

Saturday:
Press 531, Rep Maxes
Dips: 3x10
Chinups: 3x10



1 Week Out:
Completely off. No training of any sort.

[IzzyT]

[IzzyT]

5/18/12

Deadlifts: 135x3, 185x5, 225x5, 255x3, 315x5, 365x3, 405x1
SSB Good Mornings: 75x10, 95x6, 105x3, 125x10x3
Ab Wheel*: BWx6,5,4
*from knees to full extension

Overall:
My plan for the day was to get a rep max at 405 and decide where I wanted to start my 1-rep LP for deadlifts. That's not how things worked out. I woke up after getting two hours of sleep last night with a throbbing pain in my trap/shoulder area. At first I thought I had managed to tear my RTC in my sleep or something. I took four advils and about an hour later the pain was gone. It turned out to be a charlie horse in my trap. I've never had anything like that before (in my traps). It felt like there was a tumor in there. Anyways, when you run around paranoid for two hours after waking up from two hours of sleep, you don't exactly go back to bed and get a great night's sleep. And I didn't. Oh well. I still ended up getting ~6 total hours of sleep.

This was more volume than I'm used to and it showed. Still, everything felt heavier than I expected. I was pretty disappointed. I can't even blame squats for this. I guess this level of detraining/poor performance is to be expected after not deadlifting anything heavy in two weeks and not squatting anything heavy in about 10 days.

Still, it is very frustrating. It's a knee jerk reaction, but I kind of wish I never did SS in the first place. I feel like I should have listened to the powerlifters who told me to get on a powerlifting-centric program from the beginning and take things slow. I got "stronger" a lot faster than most people, but now I have a year of dieting ahead of me and the only thing I have to show for it is a big squat. I really feel that I shouldn't have prioritized that lift over everything else. My other lifts are incredibly embarrassing and pathetic for someone who is 240+. Last time I dieted, I lost more than 20% from my squat. I really can't expect anything different this time, either. Low bar leverages benefit from being fat. With the reduced frequency, the lowered calories, and the conditioning, my squat is going to plummet.

Oh well, lesson learned. The strength game is mostly a matter of time, anyway. As long as I keep working hard, everything will pan out in the end. My training partners and I have already adjusted. I probably won't allow myself to get over 20% ever again and I will strongly discourage anyone else from doing so as well.

Time to get back to grit and grind. In two years, I'll probably laugh at this post.

edit: I'll put up the 405 in a second.

[IzzyT]

[Black_Spit]

I feel you on the thoughts about hating feeling/being fat, but also fearing dieting away all of your progress. I have no advice lol... Just commiserating.

[leche1dura]

I feel you bro! I'm not at 20%, around 15% or so but I was thinking of bulking since I just started madcow. After thinking about it, I think I'll just eat clean and maintain. That was exactly what I was thinking a while back all I have to show for my lifting is a strong deadlift of 525 but nothing else. My squat is weak and my bench is pathetic. We got this bro, you know what you want! Stop admiring people, it's your turn to be admired.

[IzzyT]

Good to see that others knowthatfeelbro.jpeg.

I don't want to be too much of a whiny bitch because I know how this happened and what I have to do to fix it. I know that my numbers are going to take a hit as I drop back down below 200, but it will be worth it in the end. Just gotta put in the time.

[IzzyT]

5/19/12

Press: 45x5x2, 70x5, 95x5, 105x3, 135x5, 152.5x3, 170x1


Dips: 245x10, 245x7, 245x6 /w 1 orange band, 245x5 /w 1 grey band, 245x6 /w 1 orange band
Chinups: 245x5 /w 1 grey band, 245x6 /w 2 orange bands, 245x7 /w two orange bands, 245x6 /w two orange bands, 245x1, 245x1

The main press workout was not really worth writing about. It was super easy as expected. I'll find out more in the coming weeks. 170 is something I could have done for 3, and probably 4, before I started cutting.

I had to feel my way through dips and chins. I always do better warmed up on those types of movements. I went straight to body weight dips after press and promptly got zero. I didn't struggle or anything I just fell almost straight down during the concentric, lol. Then I warmed up a bit with bands and was able to get a set of 10 at body weight at just over 245. I burned out really quickly on these. I think next time I may just start off with bands for the work sets, but I don't know. For dips, I may do all body weight and try to get around 30 reps until I can do 3x10.

Chins sucked really bad. I probably am going to switch my squat and deadlift days when I get the chance. I might squat 2x next week or just wait till I stall on a lift or something. Pressing right after squats won't be perfect, but it is better than doing it after deadlifts when my lower back, lats, and abs are pretty much destroyed from ab wheel, good morning, and pulling heavy from the floor.

Not much to say here. I'm kind of scared of squats on Monday. If 455 is easy as pie, I'm going to feel really good about how I'm going about things on this cut. I really don't expect that to be the case though. I haven't squatted heavy since 5/9. My next workout will be after about two solid weeks of detraining and on a calorie deficit. I think I'd be happy just to get 455x1 at this point. Kind of sad considering I think I could have done that for 4 rather easily only three weeks ago. My one secret weapon is a fat cheat meal on Sundays. I'll probably do that every week just knowing that my squat is so sensitive to a calorie deficit.

I guess I'll find out my fate on Monday.

[IzzyT]

I bought a Prowler.

[Black_Spit]

Nice, I kinda wish I had a Prowler, but I have a sled. I needed something I could keep in the trunk of my car. My wife won't let me push a prowler up and down my street lol.

What type of diet are you doing? Just macro/calorie counting?

[scarboro]

I think your bench has the most potential. Setup and ROM looks good, IMO just a matter of getting more reps in over time and you should hit 315 easy.
There's alot of guys running SS at my gym and they have identical concerns to yours lol. Bench and deadlift are far behind their squat.

[leche1dura]

nice pressing bro! Just realized you live in Washington, I'll be going there this Tuesday till Thursday or so. I'll be at Kennewick, where do you live?

[IzzyT]

I'm basically using Wendler's diet advice as well. I have a protein mixed with two scoops of nonfat milk before every meal. This works out to ~70g of protein. From there, I'm eating mostly paleo and three meals a day. A typical day so far has been: 1) eggs, bacon, x1 banana, x1 apple, 2) steak, a ****load of carrots, salad, potato 3) chicken, almonds, (rice). I'm autoregulating intake based on hunger. When I'm especially hungry, I'm adding potatoes or rice to those second and third meals. I try to do it anyway on my workout days just to increase the carb count.

Counting calories has worked really well for me in the past, but I'm hoping that using autoregulation based on hunger will be more muscle sparring. I've used a bodybugg before and sometimes I'd burn 400-500 more calories in a day doing exactly the same thing I did the day before. The body is incredibly complex and I just have a personal (re: broscience) opinion that it is better at this **** than I could ever be with a FitDay food log.

Yeah, it's funny scarboro because I want to say that everyone who runs SS eventually has the same problems as me, but I've had around ten training partners, all ranging from 1-9 months of consistency/dedication, and the results haven't been perfect. There are at least four of us that have disproportionately good squats. Then again, I had friend, he was a bodybuilding convert, who got up to a 285x5x3 bench by 5's before he switched back to bodybuilding. I had another friend, D2 football player, who got to 450x5 deadlift by 10s. He got hurt, but, as far as I know, he's planning to continue training when he's healthy.

I think the problem is that I really just don't know how to program bench and deadlift effectively within the context of Starr/Ripp's style of programming. My working theory is that the bench benefits from more volume and more hypertrophy than is accrued within the standard 3x5 context. Like I said, my bodybuilder friend had just tremendous results and most people get nowhere near that level of bench from something like SS. I have a friend on here, Mayweatherjr, that got up to 270x5 bench by 5s from LP. Granted, he's somewhat built for benching, he also did a lot of dumbbell work in the past which created a much better hypertrophy base than anyone else who might just start out. I never did the whole bench bro/curl bro phase, personally and I feel like that actually may be why my bench didn't do as well as everything else. There's also a guy on SS.com that got to 335x5x3 using a combination of 5#, 3#, and, eventually 2# jumps. He had a been a gymnast and literally did a Jay Cutler magazine-routine before SS. The guy is an all-around athlete/hard-worker though as he eventually got to 425x5x3 squat and 450x5 deadlift just from LP. He did add quite a bit of upperbody assistance: curls, LTE, dips etc. all for "looking" better, but I have a feeling it helped his bench quite a bit. In any case, my point is that I feel my bench, and probably most "normal" people as well, would have benefited from higher rep ranges (occasionally), more assistance, and a bit more of a focus on hypertrophy. Even now, with a ~275 bench, my upperbody isn't too much bigger than bench monkeys who half-bench 225 with a bro spot. This is complete broscience, but I have a feeling that if you have more muscle mass, you have more potential for absolute strength. After all, speed+size+strength=weight moved. I think this is particularly important for the upperbody where hypertrophy is a little harder to come by than below the belt.

As for pulls, I really have no explanation. My deadlift was all over the place. It would take ten paragraphs to explain it. Maybe if I had taken power cleans more seriously my deadlift would be better, but I'm not sure that is the case. For what it is worth, my best power clean was 90kgx3(100kgx1) at the same time I did my best deadlift rep max (180kgx5). I think that I may have just pushed my squats too far at the expense of my pulls. Towards the end of my LP, I couldn't even pull ~375 for ONE on Wednesdays after squatting 440+ that Monday. One time I maxed deadlifts with a friend for fun, on a Friday, and got 455x1. The next week is when I missed that 375, lol. So, yeah, perhaps the answer to my pulling problems is that I just pushed the squats too far when I should have switched to the Texas Method or something like that earlier. I simply wasn't recovered for pulling after squats. In any case, I think for most "normal" people, after you get that initial newbie explosion on your squat, frequency should be reduced to 2x a week with one day being a volume/speed day and the other being a low volume, high intensity day (5s seem to be perfect for squats).

TL;DR:
1) Diet is mostly paleo autoregulated by hunger; 3 meals a day, 300g+ protein
2) My broscience: hypertrophy, high reps = key to big bench
3) My broscience: once you can't increase either squat or deadlift squatting 3x/wk, switch to squatting 2x/wk with 1 day volume/speed and the other day low volume/high intensity. Pull for intensity or speed 1x/wk

[IzzyT]

nice pressing bro! Just realized you live in Washington, I'll be going there this Tuesday till Thursday or so. I'll be at Kennewick, where do you live?

Thanks, man. I live in Bothell. It is fairly close to Everett. Unfortunately, I'm like 200+ miles from Kennewick. What are you doing in Kennewick?

[IzzyT]

5/21/12

Squat: 45x5x2, 135x5, 185x5, 245x5, 285x3, 365x5, 405x3, 455x1
Single-Leg, Bottomed Out, Paused, Leg Press: 45x10, 135x10, 155x10, 175x10
GHR: BWx7,9,8 /w 2 orange light bands as assistance

455x1:


I played with wayyyy many variables today. First of all, you can see that my brother was cleaning while I was squatting. I'm not mean enough to make him use the TPB to clean, so he had dibs on the B&R bar. My TPB is thick as **** and it resulted in me having to carry the bar a fair bit higher than I have to carry the B&R. This forced me to be more upright and use more highbarish mechanics. Well, that's bad for me, personally. I'm much stronger using a pure low-bar style. I've been saying that I was going add a few inches of depth to my squats once I reset. Well, 455x1 is a reset of sorts. I went back to a narrow stance with Rip shoes until my last warmup (285x3). Then I went back to .75" heels, but still used a fairly narrow stance for 365x5 and 405x3. I got worried because 405x3 felt heavier than I thought it should. Turns out my mind was lying to me. The video showed them as speed reps, lol. So, in the end, I went back to my usual stance at 455. However, I was so focused on depth that I lost ALL tightness in the hole. I felt my knees cave hardcore, my back round, and my knees shoot forward. Essentially, I hit the trifecta of evil. It didn't end up mattering because I'm probably still strong enough to do 455 even if I do everything wrong.

In any case, I'm VERY confident that I will do much better on 465 and, in fact, 415 next time I deadlift. I was playing around with some mobility stuff and I realized that I simply cannot get my glutes fully flexed with a narrow stance. It doesn't even matter how much I point my toes out. My inner thighs run into each other and block the rotation. My recent deadlift stance has been both narrow and with feet pointed at around 10 degrees. It makes absolutely sense that I have been having trouble locking out weights that never gave me trouble in the past (after getting it off the ground which is always my weak point). My glutes aren't contributing **** to the lockout and it becomes a standing leg press. I really feel like the next time I deadlift I'm going to smash 415. It's just a matter of a slightly wider stance and toes out more than I want them to be.

Leg presses are too easy. I'm just going to add like 20lbs every set until I fail to figure out where I should actually be. Even 175 wasn't really a challenge. I tried pausing 3 seconds or so and bottoming out the machine to make it harder. Still was a joke. I guess that's to be expected considering my quad strength in the context of squatting.

My GHR bench is still a pain in the ass. I can easily do 10 with the double oranges, but my right leg slowly slides off the thing and it causes uneven stress on my hamstrings. I either have to adjust every 5 reps or so, making the set more rest pauseish, or focus really really hard on jamming my knee into the pad so I don't slide. When stuff started falling out of place, I just terminated the set which explains the weird rep distribution: 7,9,8. Even so, these things hit your hammies soooo good. Even with submaximal sets, my hamstrings basically pulsate.

Even though 455 wasn't as easy as it would have been two weeks ago, I'd have to rate today as an overall encouraging day.

[Black_Spit]

Nice depth man.

[scarboro]

Yeah nice depth, 3 whites in any fed without a doubt. I noticed some of your other vids the squats were borderline but this was easily below.

My gym experience/broscience is the exact opposite lol. I think bench benefits well from low rep high intensity. Most of the big benchers I know go up to 95% or a 'daily max' on every single chest day. They also bench 2x a week.
It's the weightlifters method of working out. Move up in weight until it gets very heavy then back down for one or two sets.

I tried convincing my Rippfanatic friends to try a max once in a while but most refused. One got up to 215x3x5 then was confident enough to max. Barely got 225x1 failed 230. He could hit volume with anything 185-215 but since he hadn't touched heavy singles his form broke down fast and it felt too heavy.

IMO the only problem with SS fanatics is their unwillingness to try heavier weight than what is prescribed. One heavy single once a week/a few weeks will not ruin your progression lol.

[supmannn]

Still, it is very frustrating. It's a knee jerk reaction, but I kind of wish I never did SS in the first place. I feel like I should have listened to the powerlifters who told me to get on a powerlifting-centric program from the beginning and take things slow. I got "stronger" a lot faster than most people, but now I have a year of dieting ahead of me and the only thing I have to show for it is a big squat. I really feel that I shouldn't have prioritized that lift over everything else. My other lifts are incredibly embarrassing and pathetic for someone who is 240+. Last time I dieted, I lost more than 20% from my squat. I really can't expect anything different this time, either. Low bar leverages benefit from being fat. With the reduced frequency, the lowered calories, and the conditioning, my squat is going to plummet.

You posted this a few days ago but it really stood out to me... this is exactly what I've noticed about people who do SS exactly as the program says. Squatting heavy three times a week, very low upper body volume, multiple resets, GOMAD, and overall lack of muscle focused (rather than movement focused) accessory work just don't seem to work that well beyond the very early novice stages. People tend to end up with very good squats, poor other lifts, and a body composition that most are personally unhappy with... to make matters worse, as soon as you stop squatting the frequent heavy squatting and tone down the diet to a sustainable level, you lose a lot of your strength in a fashion almost identical to what happens to people at the end of an advanced peaking program.

The more I learn, through reading and my own experiences, the more I tend to believe that Rip is just plain wrong about a lot of stuff.

[IzzyT]

Thanks, guys. I was happy with the depth as well. Like I said in my original post, I'm confident I can fix the other form issues rather easily.

As fun as it is to make blanket statement about training, it almost never works. There are people who gotten great results and **** results doing almost exactly the same thing. Any time you want to say something doesn't usually work, there is always going to be a counter example. I had a friend that got up to 405x5 squat from SS and then maxed at 475. This was the first time he had tried to max, ever. No previous exposure to singles.

At the same time, if you're ever interested in programming for others, which I do frequently, you have to find the things that do work with the most reliability. Recently, I switched a bunch of people over to GreySkull LP with dips on Friday to see if that would provide more balanced results. We'll have to see how it goes but I have a good feeling about it so far. The program forces you to take smaller jumps, but you never waste a "good" day because of the AMRAP sets.

While I do think Rip unfairly gets the failures of people who read his book pinned upon him, I will say that the general environment on SS.com encourages rapid weight gain in novices. Recently, there have been a lot of people giving more sound advice on body composition. Frankly, how fat I got had nothing to do with Rip. It was my decision to push my weight up to nearly 250lbs. At the time, I actually thought it was a good idea. I didn't get a very good return on my investment, though. I got about 120lbs on my total for ~50-60lbs of body weight. I would say I just about doubled my body fat percentage as well.

In any case, I think sometimes people get confused on what Rip actually advises because there truly are so many fanatics spreading the (incorrect) gospel. He recommends 4000-5000 calories for novices underweight, young novices. Anyone over or near 20%, he recommends 3500 calories and paleo. Rip rarely will have a novice reset more than once or twice before moving to something like TM. My own progression system is far more aggressive than his. I usually went to failure with 5# or 10# jumps before I switched to smaller increments. He adjusts increments based one experience, bar speed, etc.

If I had to do it over again, I would probably go to that ~3500kcal, clean, low-carbish approach from the very beginning. I'd also likely have done GreySkull LP and had at least one conditioning day if not two. I also would have moved to intermediate program on the account of my deadlift rather than focusing so much on my squat.

Right now, I'm fairly happy with the overall 531 structure, but I do believe that if one is actively gaining weight, it the volume/intensity structure is what works best in terms of rapid results. I've seen plenty of people over on SS.com get to 500+ squats for reps using basic TM programming. I'm really excited to see how all of this assistance stuff works out for me, but I have a feeling I'll eventually end up doing most of the lifts twice a week with one day being volume or dynamic work and the other being high intensity work.

[IzzyT]

5/23/12

Bench: 45x5x2, 105x5, 135x5, 165x3, 200x5, 227.5x3, 255x1
DB Bench: 10x10, 30x7, 45x4, 60x10x3
Kroc Row: 20x10, 40x10, 60x10, 90x10x3

255x1, paused:


Felt awesome today. The bench was easy and I think this pause was a little more legit than my last pause at 250. I might have sunk and heaved it a bit, but I can't really tell. I haven't done a lot of pause work. I need to keep my leg drive solid during the eccentric. I usually wait to push hard until I start going back up. Gotta fix that. It makes my touch point lower than it would be.

DBs were easier than 50x10x3. Novice effect and whatnot. These were paused. Last reps in all sets were fairly challenging. Not full out grinders, but definitely slowish. I might just go 70 next week, though. Novice effect and whatnot.

Rows were tough, but I tried really hard on them so it wasn't noticeable. I don't know if I want to be going as hard on as assistance as I did today. I'll have to decide. Anyways, if I try as hard as I did today next time, I'll just do 100s. These feel really damn good when you do them Kroc style. Well, they're fun as hell anyway. I was feeling this in my lower back a bit which is no good. I might be forced to switch Squat/Dead days if these end up fatiguing my lower back.

Pretty fun day in the gym. REALLY, REALLY, REALLY looking forward to trying out my new stance for deadlifts. I'm going to smoke 415 (maybe 425 if warmups are breezy).

[Black_Spit]

Form looks good. Solid arch for a big guy.