Love the Pain -- Make the Barbell Cry!

[ECGordyn]

Solid training m8. How's the fat loss phase going?

Losing weight very slowly. Being careful because it's my first cut, and I worked hard to build this muscle

[ECGordyn]

Squat
160 x 5
200 x 5
240 x 5
240 x 5

OHP
95 x 5
115 x 5
135 x 5
155 x 5

DL
215 x 5
255 x 5
300 x 5
340 x 5

DL felt good but in vids my back looks a bit rounded in reps 4 & 5. OHP was a grinder on the last 2 reps, I'm losing strength on this lift the fastest. With Kizen, OHP started going pretty well because I was pressing twice a week, so maybe I need to increase frequency in Madcow by doing an OHP accessory on Mon or Fri.

[ECGordyn]

Squat
160 x 5
200 x 5
240 x 5
280 x 5
325 x 3
240 x 8

Bench
135 x 5
145 x 5
175 x 5
205 x 5
245 x 3
175 x 8

Pendlay
135 x 5
145 x 5
175 x 5
205 x 5
245 x 3
175 x 8

RDL
300 x 10, 10, 10

Squat felt fine, I don't want to say it was easy but I probably could have pushed a few more reps. Bench was tough, 3rd rep was a grinder, probably rpe 10. I'll see on Monday how that weight moves for 5 and then adjust if need to. Loaded hex plates for Pendlay which were a pain in the a** but got 'em done. Why the f* do they make hex plates anyway, just to look cool?
Looking forward to 315+ RDLs again, coming soon.

Losing about .5 kg bodyweight each week, which is fine with me. This morning 87.1 kg. OHP is suffering the most from this cut, so I need to figure out that accessory for next week. I think my diet is ok for losing weight but I need to keep the protein intake high.

[ECGordyn]

Squat
165 x 5
205 x 5
245 x 5
285 x 5
325 x 5

Bench
115 x 5
135 x 5
155 x 5
185 x 5
215 x 5
245 x 4 = fail

Row
135 x 5
155 x 5
185 x 5
215 x 5
245 x 5

Failed bench, will test 255 on Friday and then reset. It's because of the cut. 4th rep of 245 was too hard to try to grind through the last rep so I just let it go. Not like I had any other choice anyway.

Also already planned to reset OHP 10 lbs, but probably I should just finish this week, see my real OHP numbers on Wednesday, and then do the reset for both lifts starting next Monday.

[ECGordyn]

Squat
165 x 5
205 x 5
245 x 5
245 x 5

OHP
95 x 5
115 x 5
130 x 5
150 x 5

DL
200 x 5
215 x 5
300 x 5
340 x 5

OHP felt heavy but the reps look pretty smooth. DL same weight as last week, looked like my back was rounding so I stayed at 340, easy. Solved a problem in the new squat rack: put down a thick plastic mat. Gym floor is too soft for my liking so that had been bugging me.

[ECGordyn]

Friday moved to Saturday

Squat
165 x 5
205 x 5
245 x 5
285 x 5
335 x 3
245 x 8

Bench
135 x 5
145 x 5
175 x 5
205 x 5
240 x 3
175 x 8

Pendlay
155 x 5
155 x 5
185 x 5
215 x 5
255 x 3
185 x 8

OHP
115 x 10, 10, 10

Cable crunches
60 x 10, 10, 10

Squat felt a bit tough but I'm not worried about 335x5 on Monday, except that I only have 48 hours to recover. I think it'll be fine because the volume on Madcow isn't bad. Shoulder feels f*cked up again from grinding 245x4 on bench on Monday, so idk wtf to do about that. Trying to increase OHP volume so did some light sets at the end. Cable crunches to try and build up more core strength. Sometimes think I'm developing APT, so I'll try doing ab work for several months and see what happens.

[ECGordyn]

Squat
170 x 5
210 x 5
250 x 5
295 x 5
335 x 5

Bench
115 x 5
150 x 5
180 x 5
215 x 5
225 x 5

Pendlay
155 x 5
155 x 5
195 x 5
225 x 5
255 x 5

RDL
310 x 8, 8, 8

OHP
128 x 8, 8, 8

Cable crunches
60 x 12, 12, 12

Lowered bench from 240x5 to 225x5 because my shoulder felt jacked up and I didn't feel very strong. Maybe not enough recovery since lifting last Saturday? Everything else went fine but Pendlay felt heavy. Wednesday I will OHP heavy so I can test how it goes doing that lift on 2 accessory days.

[ECGordyn]

Madcow Week 4 Wednesday

Squat
170 x 5
210 x 5
250 x 5
250 x 5

OHP
95 x 5
115 x 5
135 x 5
155 x 5

DL
225 x 5
265 x 5
305 x 5
350 x 5

Cable crunches
60 x 15, 15, 15

Everything felt pretty smooth, no unusual grinds or snags. Probably because I'm eating more. I just don't have the discipline to cut consistently. Back up to 88.2 this morning, which is almost my weight when I started tracking last month. Maybe someday I'll learn to cut. Anyway, feels great to lift heavier each week.

OHP every workout seemed to help on this heavy day. Training the movement often is important. It might start to get rough training all the compounds every workout and going for linear progression at intermediate level, but actually I've always trained the compounds every workout, so maybe I've built up some solid work capacity. Here's the program as I've finally worked it out:

Mon
Squat 5x5
Bench 5x5
Pendlay 5x5
Accessories
RDL 3x8 (+5 lbs from Friday)
OHP 3x8 (+5 lbs from Friday)
Cable crunches 3x12

Wed
Squat 4x5
OHP 4x5
DL 4x5
Accessories
Cable crunches 3x15

Fri
Squat 4x5, 1x3, 1x8
Bench 4x5, 1x3, 1x8
Pendlay 4x5, 1x3, 1x8
Accessories
RDL 3x10
OHP 3x10
Cable crunches 3x10 (+5 lbs from Wed.)

If you know Madcow, you know how the progression is structured on the main lifts. Friday is obviously the hardest and longest day. If I have any problems I'll switch the 3x8 and 3x10 accessory days. I put RDL and OHP as 3x8 on Monday instead of Friday in order to go a bit light 2 days before having them as main lifts on Wed. But if it gets too hard or long (that sounded dirty) on Friday then I'll work out something else.

I'm only 4 weeks in, but this feels like a kick-as* program.

[Millz12323]

Glad you're enjoying the training. I'd probably love madcow since I've run stronglifts so many times.

That Friday workout looks like it would take almost 2 hours when nearing the end of your progression and things get grindy and you need to rest 5 minutes to get all reps.

RIP get lean plan. Commence beast mode plan for Gordyn

[ECGordyn]

Glad you're enjoying the training. I'd probably love madcow since I've run stronglifts so many times.

That Friday workout looks like it would take almost 2 hours when nearing the end of your progression and things get grindy and you need to rest 5 minutes to get all reps.

RIP get lean plan. Commence beast mode plan for Gordyn

The Fridays do take a while if I do all accessories, but the ramping sets are actually pretty easy, for now. The coming weeks will show the real beast of the program.

I still remember how f*ing g*ddam hard it used to be in week 2 of Candito 6 week. If I can do that, I can at least try anything with a drop of confidence.

[ECGordyn]

Madcow Week 4 Friday

Squat
170 x 5
210 x 5
250 x 5
295 x 5
340 x 3
250 x 8

Bench
115 x 5
140 x 5
170 x 5
195 x 5
230 x 3
170 x 8

Pendlay
155 x 5
160 x 5
195 x 5
225 x 5
255 x 3
195 x 8

OHP
127 x 10, 10

Cable crunches
65 x 10, 10, 10

Squat felt easy. Shoulder feels better so bench went better. Pendlay felt heavy so I just repeated last week's weight. Finished quick and met gf for dinner.

[ECGordyn]

Madcow Week 5 Monday

Squat
170 x 5
215 x 5
255 x 5
300 x 5
340 x 5

Bench
115 x 5
140 x 5
175 x 5
200 x 5
230 x 5

OHP
128 x 8, 8, 8

Squat and bench both were moderately hard. Skipped Pendlay and RDL, just wasn't feeling hardcore. Had a long weekend for the king's birthday and felt super chilled out for 3 days.

[ECGordyn]

Madcow Week 5 Wednesday

Squat
170 x 5
215 x 5
255 x 5
255 x 5

OHP
100 x 5
120 x 5
140 x 5
160 x 5

DL
225 x 5
270 x 5
310 x 5
360 x 5

Cable crunches
65 x 15, 15, 15

OHP 4th and 5th reps were grinders. Shifted my back to the right side in a weird way during the last rep, doesn't really show in the vid but I could feel it. I expect to fail 165 next week but I'll probably try that weight anyway. DL went fine.

[ECGordyn]

Madcow Week 5 Friday

Squat
170 x 5
215 x 5
255 x 5
300 x 5
350 x 3
255 x 8

Bench
115 x 5
144 x 5
175 x 5
200 x 5
240 x 3
175 x 8

Pendlay
155 x 5
155 x 5
175 x 5
200 x 5
240 x 3
175 x 8

Cable crunches
65 x 18, 18, 18

Squat went good. Bench went pretty good too but I'm not pushing that one too hard. Shoulder is still not 100% but it's much better than last week.

Had to wait like 20 minutes to do Pendlay because this cardio class was taking up the whole room. Current gym is pretty small and exercise space is prime real estate. The manager does the best he can to satisfy everybody, but g*ddam it was annoying to sit for that long. /Rant

[ECGordyn]

Madcow Week 6 Monday

Squat
175 x 5
220 x 5
265 x 5
305 x 5
350 x 5

Bench
135 x 5
150 x 5
180 x 5
210 x 5
240 x 5

Pendlay
155 x 5
155 x 5
180 x 5
210 x 5
240 x 5

RDL
315 x 10, 8

OHP
133 x 6, 6

Cable crunches 65 x 20, 20

Squat felt great. Wasn't easy but the reps were smooth. Bench went well, felt harder than it looks. OHP was tough, I don't know what to expect with that one on Wednesday.

[ECGordyn]

Madcow Week 6 Wednesday

Squat
175 x 5
225 x 5
265 x 5
265 x 5

OHP
105 x 5
125 x 5
145 x 5
165 x 5

DL
230 x 5
280 x 5
325 x 5
370 x 5

Cable crunches
65 x 22, 22, 22

OHP last rep was a f*n grind but I got it. Don't know what to expect next week. DL went much better. Rewatched a lot of form vids and reread some articles to refresh the right cues, and it paid off. I wasn't packing my lats, and I wasn't keeping my chest up and out. This made me kind of hunch over the bar with a slightly rounded back. Never rush your setup.

[ECGordyn]

Madcow Week 6 Friday moved to Saturday

Squat
170 x 5
220 x 5
265 x 5
305 x 5
360 x 3
265 x 8

Bench
120 x 5
150 x 5
180 x 5
210 x 5
245 x 1
180 x 8

Squats were hard as hell but form looked pretty good. Bench was a disaster. Struggled hard for 245 x 1, thought I was going to fail it. Did the back off sets and went home, f* the rest today. I usually train late afternoon but had to go this morning instead of yesterday. Maybe that was part of the bad workout today?

[ECGordyn]

Madcow Off-Day

Yesterday's workout was so terrible I had to go in and do something productive today.

DL
290 x 3
330 x 1
370 x 1
395 x 1
335 x 5

Pause DL
295 x 8, 8

Cable crunches
65 x 22, 17, 15

Grip work:
Dead hangs
30 seconds x 2 sets

Farmers carries
55 plates x 45 seconds x 2 sets

Might have had 405+, that 395 rep wasn't terribly bad. Slow and hard off the floor, so now I know I need to work on that. Will go back to pause DLs sometimes. Forgot how hard those are when you give a proper pause.

[ECGordyn]

Madcow Off-Day 2

Bench
225 x 6, 6, 6, 6

Cable row wide grip
70 x 8, 8, 8, 8

Cable crunches
65 x 22, 22, 22

Just did some horizontal pushes and pulls. Will do a couple more of these off-days this week, and then return to the real program next Monday.

[ECGordyn]

Madcow Week 7 Wednesday

Squat
170 x 5
225 x 5
265 x 5
265 x 5

OHP
105 x 5
130 x 5
150 x 5
170 x 1, 1

DL
245 x 5
280 x 5
330 x 5
380 x 3

Cable crunches
65 x 22, 22

Grip work:
Dead hangs
35 seconds, 2 sets

Plate carries
55 lb plates, 45 seconds, 2 sets

Completely failed OHP, DL too. Will deload OHP 10%, and try DL again next week.
On Monday I skipped squat, bench, and Pendlay. Will repeat those numbers when I do Monday next week.

[ECGordyn]

Madcow Week 6 Friday

Squat
170 x 5
220 x 5
265 x 5
305 x 5
355 x 3
265 x 3
265 x 8

Bench
120 x 5
150 x 5
180 x 5
210 x 5
245 x 3
180 x 8, 8, 8

Cable rows wide grip
75 x 8, 8, 8

Cable crunches
65 x 25, 25

Dead hangs
45 seconds
20 seconds

Weird session. Felt like giving up at 265 squat, then almost didn't do the top set of 355. Banged my head on the bar after the 355, then banged the plates on the safety bars for the second time during third rep of back off set. Adjusted stance and did 4th rep but only counted 3. Did a complete back off set. Felt like an idiot so did some extra back offs after top set of bench. Nuff said.

[ECGordyn]

Madcow Week 8 Monday

Squat
180 x 5
220 x 5
265 x 5
310 x 5
355 x 5

Bench
120 x 5
155 x 5
185 x 5
215 x 5
245 x 4 + fail

Pendlay
155 x 5
155 x 5
185 x 5
215 x 5
245 x 5

Cable crunches 65 x 25, 20, 20

Farmers carries
70 lb DBs x 36 sec, 36 sec, 32 sec

Squat felt good. Bench felt ok until the 5th rep, misgrooved it off the chest, pushed to my face too soon and failed. Glad I had a small team come over and save my life, lol. Try again next week.

And I just now saw that I typoed my last post. It was week 7 Friday, not week 6.

[ECGordyn]

Madcow Week 8 Wednesday

Squat
180 x 5
220 x 5
265 x 5
265 x 5

OHP
Skipped

DL
245 x 5
280 x 5
330 x 5
380 x 5

Did DL strapless for a change. Might go to compete at a local meet in 5 1/2 weeks so I need to get my grip up. Sweaty hands made me almost tear a callous, but not this time. Grip almost slipped at 5th rep, not sure if judges would penalize it but I've got some time to build it up.

[ECGordyn]

Forced deload for a week or two. Had an infected hair follicle in my groin for a while that was flaring up. Doctor cut out the infection and I've got an open wound about 1 cm x 2 cm until it heals up. Bored.

[ECGordyn]

Madcow Week 8 Friday moved to Sunday

Squat
180 x 5
220 x 5
265 x 5
310 x 5
365 x 3
265 x 8

Comp. bench
120 x 5
150 x 5
180 x 5
210 x 5
245 x 3
185 x 8

Pendlay
155 x 5
155 x 5
185 x 5
215 x 5
250 x 1, 2
185 x 5

Cable crunches
65 x 15, 15, 15

So forget the deload. Doc didn't say to avoid training when I asked him about it. Squat went ok, 3rd rep was hard as expected. Bench was good. Will start pausing the reps to get used to the commands, and I could push my normal weight. Pendlay was heavy, lifted without straps and just couldn't control it. Will reduce the weight OR go back to straps on Pendlay but not on DL. 4 1/2 weeks out.

[ECGordyn]

Madcow Off-Day Thursday

Squat
185 x 5
230 x 5
275 x 5
320 x 5
365 x 2

Comp. bench
135 x 5
150 x 5
185 x 5
215 x 5
225 x 5 tng

Cable crunches
70 x 15, 10, 10

Big fail on squat. Lack of focus or something. The reps actually look alright, but I wasn't feeling it at all. Same with bench, just did lower weight and moved on.

[Millz12323]

Solid stuff in here brother... competition bench looks solid. That bench fail from the other week was brutal... Good thing you didn't get hurt.

Looking forward to you sharing your competition experience. I always thought it would be a fun thing to do.

[ECGordyn]

Solid stuff in here brother... competition bench looks solid. That bench fail from the other week was brutal... Good thing you didn't get hurt.

Looking forward to you sharing your competition experience. I always thought it would be a fun thing to do.

Thanks man, good to see you posting again. Do you still log here?

Maybe or maybe I won't do the comp., but will be sure to log it if I do.

[ECGordyn]

Madcow Off-Day 1 Friday

Squat
185 x 5
225 x 5
265 x 5

DL
245 x 5
295 x 5
345 x 5
390 x fail, fail
335 x 5, 5, 5

Pendlay
245 x 5
225 x 5, 5, 5

Nothing special here.

[ECGordyn]

Madcow Off-Day 2 Saturday

Bench tng
135 x 5
155 x 5
180 x 5
220 x 5, 5, 5, 5, 5

OHP
95 x 5
115 x 5
130 x 5, 5, 5, 5

Pullups wide
BW x 5, 5

Chinups
BW x 7, 7, 6, 5

Facepulls
25 x 20, 20

Cable crunches
70 x 12, 12, 12

Just had some fun, felt good to do some different stuff.