Aigre - Interesting. I still am not sure if I do rack pulls right, rarely ever do them, so not sure I'll be trying that any time soon but never know. Nice session as usual with both the lifting and the run.

Super - No problem.

Aubrey - Congrats on finishing stage 1. That is awesome! And oo for 1rm testing, that's always fun.


For me, today was a bit of an off day. I did go to the gym today even though today was a super lazy one overall. Slept a fair amount as I went to bed a little early yesterday, yet was cold and tired so spent most of the morning on the couch. My period started yesterday, so that hasn't helped with the food factor for this first week in the cut. Lunch today was a container of Ben & Jerry's (not the best diet or dairy wise) though it has been in the freezer for about a month, so guess I do have okay self control for the most part. It was brownie batter core and my verdict is that the original brownie batter ice cream was better. I don't like cold chunks of brownies in my ice cream though they were okay. Anyways, I then napped as had headache and was using heating pad, which brings me to the other nuisance.

Not sure what I did but have pain in my left shoulder. It as a bit of a dull ache last night and I sleep on my stomach with one arm/hand under the pillow switching between left and right throughout the night. That didn't really help. I used my heating pad this morning but all day it has ached. There was pain while lifting, on elliptical, treadmill, while standing... And mobility is limited. Got an ice pack so going to try doing some cold/heat alternating and hope it improves soon though may have a rough night sleep on the couch tonight to limit myself to the right side.

Deadlift day

10 minutes on elliptical for warm up
deadlift 2x8 @ 135, 1x8 @ 165 and with belt 1x10 @ 185 - Was going to go below 135 but had a plate count fail then couldn't find 2.5's in order to get the 190. The program says 189 but yeah, not going to get that exact.
sldl off block 2x8 @ 135 - had to reset on the first set and did second with under/over grip
yates row off block 2x8 @ 65 - Tried 95 but was a struggle. In pain on this one but tried to keep elbows in for it.
wide grip lat pulldown - nope, too much pain
one arm db row - 2x10 @ 25 - painful but managed to make it through with the light weight
glute cable kickback 3x10 @ 20 - added this just cause
30 minutes walking on treadmill with slight incline

So yeah, now I'm hope and studying or trying to make myself study. Calories will be around 1700 with low protein and high fat thanks to the ice cream. Oh well. Really must study. Fingers crossed shoulder doesn't hurt as much tomorrow as I'll be in pharmacy and don't need pain distraction.

Happy Tuesday, everyone!

Dawn - sorry your shoulder is bothering you! But yum on the ice cream.

Stephie - nice session! Have never tried box jumps. 24" seems high!

You're going to wish you hadn't asked about programs!
Right now I am doing a program published by Brad Dieter at Eat to Perform...it's one day of each 'big' lift plus accessories. The main lift has an assigned %1RM. It is a lot of accessories. I feel like I have been making some recomp progress on it though, currently on week 10. It goes 30 weeks. It switches to a new phase after retesting 1RMs in week 11, so I was contemplating switching. This program takes a long time, and I am wondering if it would be more efficient to be on a more "powerlifting" style program doing the main lifts more than once per week each.

I'm still worried about recovery on the 5x5 style programs, given my running.

So I looked into Wendler and bought both the books and read them but still came out sort of confused. The whole "you can do A, or maybe B. C would be ok, I guess. D is fine. E, F, G, H, I, and J are also options!" Plus, I kind of hate AMRAP . But still considering this with the BBB template with an upper/lower split.

Also found a program put out by Bryce Lewis at The Strength Athlete. He's assigned %1RM and RPE values to everything. It has a lot of exercises I like. It's bench heavy which I thought would be good considering my bench is awful and recovery/running issues. Some feedback from the Eat, Train, Progress forum and from the Gaining forum made it seem like this was a pretty aggressive program though, and I may have issues with recovery especially if I keep up the running.

So I still don't really know what I'm going to do after next week!

Today was bench day:
Incline bench - 1x5@33 lbs, 3x5@55 lbs. Felt heavy at first probably because I skimped on warm up.
Decline bench - 5x6@46.5 lbs
DB narrow grip BP - 5x6@20 lbs DBs
DB fly - 4x8@10lbs DBs
Overhead tricep press - 4x8@10 lbs

Then onto the treadmill for 30 minutes of intervals, about 2.75 miles.

Wow, Stephie, that site is awesome! I need to spend some time reading through that, definitely. How do you like the Candito program? About how long does it take?

Today was Squats day
Back squats: 1x5@44 lbs, 1x5@53 lbs, 1x5@64 lbs, 1x5@69 lbs (not sure why I did so many warm ups), then 3x5@83 lbs. 83 lbs is my "little big girl" plate (33 lbs bar+25 bumpers), and I remember having that as a goal while I was doing Strong. Also remember trying a rep with that weight in during Phase 6 or 7 and failing miserably. So doing 83 today for 3x5 on a deload and feeling like form was pretty good is definite progress!
RDLs = 4x8@83 lbs
RFESS - 4x8@20 lbs
Reverse lunge - 4x8@44 lbs
Back extension - 4x30@BW

Was supposed to do some ab stuff, but I always wimp out on the ab stuff, plus my oblique has been tweaking at me lately, so I am not feeling too bad about it.

Happy hump day, everyone!

Stephie - thanks! I did spend some time this morning reading through the Powerliftingtowin website as well as the Candito programs. Maybe I will jump on board with one or the other. Candito seems to suggest one can kind of alternate at will depending on how training is going. I'm kind of tempted to start with the 6 week Strength program and then go to the linear one, which I know is backwards.

I have another week to figure it out!

Thanks. My shoulder is feeling better. The ice/heat seemed to help and didn't have too many issues today plus with very little pain today.

Went to the gym after work. It wasn't too bad though had some waiting for equipment and I decided not to do pause squats or good mornings so someone else could use the rack after me. Had the fixed safety one so had to step away from the safeties in order to squat but the weight isn't heavy yet though still on the tough side since it's 10 reps. Look forward to when it drops down to less than 6 reps per sets.

squat 2x10 @ 25, 1x10 @ 95, 2x10 @ 145
overload 230 for 20 count
single leg curl 2x20 @ 2 (guessing 20 or something)
leg extension 2x10 @ 4 (40 maybe)
single leg leg press 3x10 @ 20
seated calf raise 3x12 @ 6 (60 ish)

The machines were a little weird as the seat moves when doing the leg curl or extension. Got the lifting done and since shoulder is doing better, hope to try out bench press tomorrow.

Aigre - for lower body I have tried a few difference ones:
- RFESS
- RDL's
- single leg press
- back extensions

I haven't ever tried to hip thrust before!!! I think I should, I just can't figure out how to get it set up at the gym

Upper body I've done:
- Tricep pushdowns
- Bicep curls
- Lateral raises
- Push ups

I think I would benefit from more rowing and work on my back so I think I am going to add in some hangs or something

I am also in that weird place where I may compete at some point, but it's not definitely going to happen, and I have little interest in doing pure bodybuilding splits. There must be a program out there for us. One of us should just hire @Sidesteel to put it together for us

Dawn - I love your overloads, I'm going to try this one day when squats feel terrible. A co-worker of mine told me that if it's feeling super heavy just do a walkout with even heavier weight and then take it off and try your reps again

Jo - glad to see you! Slow progress is still progress! Did you get your trainer/coach situation sorted out?

Stephie - good info! Yeah, Strong/NROLFW came closest to aligning with my goals, which I THINK are, in order of importance, to 1) stay healthy, 2) get stronger for functional reasons, 3) keep myself interested, 3) make progress in order to help achieve #1, #2, and #3, and 4) look better than before. I didn't list "win a powerlifting meet" or "become a bodybuilder" or "make the fastest progress possible" or "get jacked", KWIM?

A lot of my annoyances may be in the presentation rather than the actual programming, but it always makes me bristle a bit when it's clear the author thinks the only people interested in the program are young and male. Even Mark Ripptoe's stuff is called "the art of manliness". Why can't a lifting website be about womanliness without being only about glutes??

Anyway.

The program I'm doing now has lots of row variations, and I do feel like my back needs the extra work. My favorites are the DB row and the inverted row. If I had a real landmine some of the others may be cool though (T bar row, meadow row).

I had forgotten back extensions but I do like those a lot. Hip thrusts aren't difficult to set up but I would be super self conscious doing that in a public gym

If I have a chance today I may print out the Candito templates and figure out somewhat of a plan for the optional accessories.

Did my OHP deload this morning:
OHP - 3x5@18 kg. I'm changing to kg for my upper body barbell lifts I didn't warm up. This was still pretty easy.
Lateral raises - 4x10@8lbs dbs
Scrape the rack press - 4x8@15 kg (see, kg!)
Reverse curls - 5x10@somewhere around 22-24 lbs, I think
Rear lateral raise - 4x12@8 lbs dbs
Incline hammer curls - 4x10@10 lbs dbs
Front raise - 4x10@8 lbs dbs

Went to the gym to attempt some deadlifts. Took a long time as I had to wait for a rack to open up, which ended up with me using the space before it and someone else used the rack since I wasn't doing squats. Beyond that, had someone also in that area used the tbar thing and at one point someone right behind me using the battle ropes. Got a bit crowded but still made it through. Tried the lat pull down at a lightish weight and had a tiny bit of pain but managed.


deadlift 2x8 @ 135, 1x10 @ 165 and 1x10 @ 185
stiff leg deadlift on step 2x8 @ 135
yates row 2x8 @ 75
wide grip lat pulldown 2x10 @ 60
one arm db row 2x10 @ 27.5
treadmill for 30 minutes at 3.0 incline


Now for some writing and studying. Want to film a protein bar taste test but roommate is home so not sure I'll get the privacy or anything to do that, so we'll see.

Jo - would love to know more about the different approaches between the clubs/trainers. I'm actually impressed there are so many choices! I live in a fairly big metro area and don't think there is even one powerlifting club to join. A few Olympic weightlifting gyms turn up on a google search and one powerlifting gym about an hour away. Hmpf.

Dawn - 10 deadlifts at 185, wow!

Yesterday was deadlift day:
Deadlift - 1x5@103 lbs, 3x5@115 lbs
Inverted rows - 5x8
Chin ups - 10x1@1" band. My smallest assistance, these were tough. But when I bought the band I wasn't able to do any. So progress!
Meadow rows - 5x12
Cable rows - resistance band, 4x12
DB rows - 4x12@17.5 lbs

That ends the deload and I'm up for 1RM tests next week.

Today I got up and ran 5 miles. It was only 8 degrees. Super chilly. We're supposed to get hit with a giant snow storm this week. So not looking forward to that. I'm done with winter.

Someone walked into my bar as I was squatting today.

There are not enough expletives in the world.

I did the rest of my squats, but when I went to do my deadlifts I felt something in my back that obviously got messed up with smacking into him on my descent

I hate other people

Squats: 3 x 6 @ 60kg - i hit the guy on the second rep of the last set
Deadlifts 2 x 4 @ 80kg, planned to be 6 but couldn't get it

No accessories, just came back to work to be annoyed at that guy and hope that my back is alright

Aigre - great! Bench is so slow to progress so you've done great. Why incline though? Out of curiosity. Flat will give you bigger numbers :-)

Stephie - wtf? Not cool. Good effort on finishing the set.... hope your back is ok.

In breaking news.... I MAY have fixed my squat. Holy crap. 6 mths of tweaking and finally the tip which has made a huge difference.... LOOK UP. Why did no one say this before? When I look up, my chest stays up and depth is not an issue. Even managed reps at 50kg in the low bar position so my shoulder is getting heaps better at holding it there. And the actual squat is easy. Now I just need to get stronger in the back for the low bar and I'm going to start crushing some heavy squats.... wooohoooooo

Dawn - nice squats!

Jo - so happy for you that you found the cause of the issues! Incline just cause the program I was working through was more of a body building emphasis I think. Probably to get a little more shoulder involvement. But yeah, I'm going to switch back to flat at this point and see what progress I can make there. I haven't done heavy flat BP since the middle of Strong, so maybe 8-9 months ago. I did some in Strong Curves, but IIRC sets of 10-12. So it will be interesting to see what I can do!

Squat 1RM test today:
Probably not the best situation to test. I spent some time shoveling some wet and heavy snow yesterday and did something to my left lat. Everytime I tightened the belt it would spasm. Ugh. But went for it anyway.
Back squat - 1x5@33 lbs, 1x5@53 lbs, 1x3@64 lbs, 1x2@75 lbs, 1x1@83 lbs, 1x1@94 lbs, 1x1@103 lbs, 1x1@109 lbs, 1x1@114 lbs, 1x1@123 lbs
Not proud of the form and the bar path, but depth was decent. On a better day, I think I could have gotten 130. Next time.
Then cause my back was spasming I skipped the rest of the workout, except for the back extensions. Which oddly were the only thing that felt decent.

Anyway, resting for the rest of today and tomorrow. Hoping back will feel better for OHP and deadlifts on Friday.

Thanks ladies - my back is actually alright. Am resting up and stretching but there doesn't seem to be any damage done.

I was in the middle rack of three, to the left of me was a guy doing rack pulls with 5 - 6 plates each side and a range of motion of about an inch which he roared through. Most annoying. During one of the sets (I didn't know this at the time, because I would have waited to start my set) he had one of hit mates pull off 3 20kg plates in the middle of his reps super quickly and then he did more reps. This was all completely unnecessary and meant I smashed into the guys back when he was pulling plates off.

They also took nearly every 20kg plate there was, and left them all on the floor.

Jo - I am so pleased for your squat!! I really hope you have it nailed down

Aigre - great work, saw the squat on IG, depth was good and you fought for it!! Definitely more in the tank if you stop the pitching forward (which is what I do when things get tough too, very frustrating)

Dawn - Way to get it done.

I think I've found the new program to run - it's a book called "Thinner, leaner, stronger". Sort of a mix of a bodybuilding and powerlifting routine. Will look into it in more depth and maybe start it next monday. There is a 3 day, 4 day or 5 day routine to pick from

I have a serious case of programitis - I just want to find something that is still mainly the big 4, but with some other stuff to keep my interest!

TLS 5 day routine takes about 45 minutes apparently. Doesn't look too bad. I'm sure the other routines would end up being quite long though.

Front squats definitely stop the pitching forward. Can't pitch forward or you'll fall over

I can't get in the front rack position though, so I have to use wraps round the bar to hold on to - it works much better for me than the cross arm style. They are in TLS so I may be doing some of those soon, haha

Stephie I can't get into front rack either, which I find weird because I am otherwise pretty flexible. When I've done front squats I've done either crossed arms or with straps as you mentioned.

Dawn - 30 minutes on the treadmill without even music sounds dreadful!

Well, I am feeling old today. Was leaving my office yesterday, turned a corner, and hit a patch of ice and had a spectacular wipe out. Feet flew out from under me, possessions went flying. Landed on my right glute, elbow and whacked the back of my head pretty well too. This morning my neck is sore as well and I have a giant butt bruise. All along my DH is cautioning me not to hurt myself exercising, and I hurt myself walking on the sidewalk! How stupid.

Anyway, I'm probably going to take a few days off completely and then start fresh on Monday.

Have a great weekend everyone!