In Search of Strength

[CharlesSwann]

Took a quick break to mitigate fatigue a bit.

11/30
Front squat: 405x1, 425x1, 445x1 (0.38m/s)

[CharlesSwann]

12/01
Beltless ATG highbar: 435 for 6x2
Illegally wide paused Larsen bench: 305x5,5,4

[CharlesSwann]

12/02
3-Count Paused Seal Row: 225 for 3x3

[CharlesSwann]

12/04
Beltless ATG highbar: 435 for 6x3

Expected to be a bit tired today (was under the weather yesterday) but the first two sets were my fastest ever triples around this weight by far. Hopefully this keeps up for 6x4 in a couple days. Jury's out on 6x5 and 6x6.

Tomorrow is slingshot bench + pull ups. Taking a bit of a break from grip work and curls while adjusting to this routine shift and some life stuff.

[CharlesSwann]

12/05
Slingshot bench: 365x3, 385x3, 405x1,2
Pull ups: 135 for 3x2

385x3 is getting faster and faster but somehow I always choke 405. I should stop being stubborn and just pick away 390, 395, 400 etc.

The 405x2 wasn't bad though.

[CharlesSwann]

12/07
Beltless ATG highbar: 435 for 6x2

12/10
Beltless ATG highbar: 435 for 6x4
Illegally wide paused Larsen bench: 305 for 3x5
Seal Row: 275 for 3x3

Wow, the 6x4 was tough but that's good squatting for me. If I recover well I think I have a shot at 6x5 which is crazy. I'm running RSR +15lbs above my max and by all accounts I should not survive (even this far: the 'correct' working weight would be 415) but I actually have a glimmer of a chance. Even getting this far has for sure made me stronger.

[HomeGymChains]

Great work!
Very impressive!

[CharlesSwann]

12/14
Beltless ATG highbar: 435 for 6x2

Incredibly fatigued. My first rep of this left was slower than my last rep of 6x4. The final one was the slowest ever at 435. Getting ground to bits here. Extending rest a bit before 6x5.

12/15
Overhead press: 185 for 4x5, 1x7
Wide pull ups: 70 for 3x5

[CharlesSwann]

12/17
Bench: 365x1, 385x0 -- oh man, I barely missed this

This one hurts! If I was like 1lbs stronger today I would've locked it out. I've got this soon, and hopefully more. Based on my warm up speeds today wasn't even my strongest day. Going to keep working singles for a little while.

12/18
Beltless ATG highbar: 435 for 6x5
Seal row: 275 for 4x4

Wow! I can't believe I made the 6x5. This is crazy. I think I even have a shot at the 6x6, and then who knows. Can't believe I made this far even with the added rest days.

[CharlesSwann]

12/20
Bench: 385x1

Yeeeeea! Surprisingly smooth. Might have 390-395 in me soon, but I'm tempted to take my gains and switch back to some kind of patient building routine. I'm after 405 anyway.

[CharlesSwann]

12/22
Beltless ATG highbar: 435 for 6x2

Fatigue is again extremely high. I barely finished the 6x2. Hard to imagine I just did 6x5 and even harder to imagine I'll do 6x6 next, but somehow it's panned out so far.

12/23
Slingshot bench: 365x3, 380x3, 390x3
Chin ups: 45 for 3x10

[CharlesSwann]

12/26
Beltless highbar squat: 435 for 6x6

Holy ****! This is a huge session. I can't believe I hit it. This is tentative but this implies a 545-575 max for beltless high bar, and my belted low bar is always 100lbs+ higher, so I can really start aiming for a 300kg-7 plate-700lbs squat after I hit my front squat goal.

[HomeGymChains]

Congratulations!!!
Great job!

[CharlesSwann]

OK I hit a pretty big wall and I've been spinning my wheels since then. A bit under the weather since New Years too. Getting a bit more steam again recently though. Hopefully I'll turn things around now.

12/28
Overhead press: 190 for 4x5 + 1x7
Seal row: 275 for 3x5

12/30
Beltless ATG highbar: 435 for 6x2 -- barely survived this, grinding even my first rep of the first set

01/01
Illegally wide paused Larsen bench: 310 for 4x4

01/02
Pull ups from ball grips hanging on ropes: 45x5,8,10

01/03
Slingshot bench: 365x3, 380x3, 395x2,1

01/04
Beltless ATG highbar: 465x2 -- completely burned out, stopped the set early

01/07
Beltless ATG highbar: 405x1 -- bailed on warm up, grinding

01/08
Illegally wide paused Larsen bench: 315 for 4x4
Seal row: 275 for 3x5

01/09
Beltless ATG highbar: 405x1 -- bailed on warm up, grinding

01/12
Overhead press: 195 for 5x5
Pull ups from ball grips hanging on ropes: 45x7
Pull ups: BWx20

01/17
Beltless ATG highbar: 465x4

Finally had a decent warm up so I added some weight. Wanted to hit 465x5 but kinda flagged near the end. Not sure how far along the recovery I am right now, still felt some low back fatigue but definitely not a bad day anyway.

Plan is something like:
18th: larsen bench
19th: seal row
20th: more squatting, not sure my plan yet

Congratulations!!!
Great job!

Thanks!

[CharlesSwann]

01/18
Illegal-wide paused Larsen bench: 320x4,4,4,3

Almost hit the last rep for the 4x4, I'll keep repeating 'til I hit then switch to 3x3.

[CharlesSwann]

01/20
Front squat: 315x1 -- quad started to hurt like post-charlie horse pain, so I called it here...
Seal row: 275 for 3x5

I also did a bunch of body weight squats for blood flow. Something around 5x20.

01/21
Beltless ATG highbar: 405x3, 435x3
Slingshot bench: 365x3, 380x3, 390x2

[CharlesSwann]

01/23
Paused front squat: 405x1, 415x1

Tough front squats today. Leg strength was on point but I was blacking out even on warm ups. 405 took three tries before I could keep it together. Very arguably stupid to keep going but, anyway, I did.

415 once I made it was actually fast. Loaded up 425 but I had to keep reracking it and after like 10-15 minutes I called the session.

[CharlesSwann]

01/24
Beltless ATG highbar: 405x1, 435x1

01/25
Beltless ATG highbar: 405x1, 435x1

01/26
Illegal-wide paused Larsen bench: 320x3 -- not today lol
Beltless ATG highbar: 405x1, 435x1

01/28
Beltless ATG highbar: 405x1, 435x1, 455x1, 475x1

01/30
Front squat: 315x1 -- already blacking out, switched to high bar
Beltless ATG highbar: 405x1, 445x1, 465x1, 485x2
Overhead press: 200 for 5x5

First rep of 485x2 should've been fast enough for a triple, but the second slowed down a bunch. Going to aim for 485x3 in the near future.

But either way, high bar starting to get back in the groove, but for some reason I can't front squat anymore. I always start fading out unracking 50%+ weights. Weird. First time its been this bad, did I slip on some basic form idea? Hard to believe but something's up.

[CharlesSwann]

02/02
Beltless ATG highbar: 405x1,1
Pull ups: 45x1, 90x1, 135x1, 160x0 -- few inches short on 160

02/04
Beltless ATG highbar: 405x1, 435x1

02/05
Illegal-wide paused Larsen bench: 320x3,3 -- somehow lost my ability here, no shot at 4x4 anymore
Beltless ATG highbar: 405x1, 435x1, 455x1

02/06
Beltless ATG highbar: 405x1, 445x1, 465x1

02/07
Beltless ATG highbar: 405x1, 445x1, 465x1

02/09
Beltless ATG highbar: 405x1, 445x1, 465x1, 485x3 -- long overdue 3RM PR!
Slingshot bench: 365x1, 380x1, 395x1,1 -- somehow lost my ability here too... did 390x3 before and can't even double 395

Squat is going great! For some reason my bench is not!

I'm enjoying training lately. Will have some life changes coming soon that I'll have to work around but we'll see.

[CharlesSwann]

02/11
Bench: 315 for 3x6
Seal rows: 275 for 3x5

Next session on Sunday. More squats.

[CharlesSwann]

02/14
Beltless ATG highbar: 405x1

02/15
Overhead press: 205 for 5x5
Beltless ATG highbar: 405x1, 435x1

[CharlesSwann]

02/16
Beltless ATG highbar: 405x1, 435x1, 455x1

Flying out on Monday... before then I'll squat a bunch, and I'd like to do... bench, pull ups, rows, maybe one more slingshot session.

I'll be off at least two weeks for mandatory quarantine etc. I might try to do pistols and push ups and stuff (lol) just to keep something going. Might take my grippers or something too.

[CharlesSwann]

02/17
Beltless ATG highbar: 405x1, 435x1, 455x1, 475x1, 500x1,1
Pull ups: BWx20


This session will tire me out a bunch, might be my last squats before I fly tbh.

I think the plan now is one more heavy bench session and one more row session, either Saturday or Sunday depending how busy I end up.

[EliKoehn]

Damn, just saw this thread and this is some seriously strong work... Subbed and will follow along.

[CharlesSwann]

03/04 - First workout abroad (weights switched to kg)
Beltless ATG highbar: 170x5, 180x5
Bench: 110x10,10, 115x4 (tried to super-set pull ups before the last set and it killed me)
Pull ups: BWx10,10,10

So I flew around 40 hours and quarantined two weeks and walked 2km to the gym, but all in all a good first session. Felt strong. The 180x5 was pretty low RPE even, just felt awkward. Not used to squatting in front of a mirror even. I'll probably aim to work around 2-3x squats/week and go from there.

Damn, just saw this thread and this is some seriously strong work... Subbed and will follow along.

Cheers! Good to have you.

[CharlesSwann]

Pushed back a bunch because I ended up incredibly sore.

03/10 - 2nd workout abroad (weights switched to kg)
Beltless ATG highbar: 180x5,5, 185x5
Bench: 100x10, 110x10, 115x6
Bent Over Rows: 100x8,8,10

Hopefully I'll come out of this one better and have a session soon.

[CharlesSwann]

03/13 - 3rd workout abroad (weights switched to kg)
Dumbbell bench: 40x12,12,8
Beltless ATG highbar: 190x3, 195x3, 200x2
Pull ups: BWx12,6,10

They only have 40kg dumbbells which I thought was too low but I actually started gassing pretty hard. I might do more DB bench just because I can't do them at home and it's kinda "fun" and my bench working sets are down like 40lbs from travelling anyway.

Squat is doing decently. I'm sure I'd hit 200x3 but I'm not recovering well and I don't want to risk failure in this pretty casual/quiet gym.

[CharlesSwann]

03/17 - 4th workout abroad (weights switched to kg)

Beltless ATG highbar: 190x1, 200x3, 210x1,1
Dumbbell bench: 40x12,12,12
Bent over row: 120x6,8,8

[CharlesSwann]

03/21 - 5th workout abroad (weights switched to kg)

Beltless ATG highbar: 190x1, 197.5x1, 205x3
OHP: 80x3, 90x3, 95x2
Pull ups: BWx12,12,10

I guess my goal over the next 2-3 months is 220x3 high bar and 100x3 OHP. No idea what my weight is lately but it's definitely down.

[CharlesSwann]

03/25 - 6th workout abroad (weights switched to kg)

Beltless ATG highbar: 190x1, 200x1, 210x3
Pull downs: 82x5, 96x5, 103x5,5
Bench: 120 for 3x8

I'm not going to be able to work out as often in April, and I might not be able to work out at all in May.