Muddy's Training Log

[guru]

Okay, I was just going to ask you how you decide the weight on hip thrusts, but you more or less answered it already.

The other question is, do they work the hammies too? and I would understand legs trembling but hips trembling is difficult to visualize. Tell us about the glute DOMS tomorrow.

[muddy]

Sat Nov 7 - Cycle 9 Day 4 - OHP quickie

OHP: 2x10x45, 5x115, 5x130, 6x150, 5x10x105

Short - no time today. I also considered skipping today to conserve energy for tomorrow - feeling a little tired. Maybe I'll see if I have time for a nap tomorrow.

@guru: I don't think the BBHTs really do a lot of work on the hammies. The dynamic squats and weighted GHRs really hit the hammies before I got to the BBHTs, and the fact they were tired didn't seem a limiting factor at all. If you setup your feet right for the BBHTs, the knee angle doesn't change much at all from bottom of the movement to top, so I suppose that seems to corroborate the idea it's mainly glutes. Pretty tired all over today - not just from the BBHTs, but I think the Coan volume is starting to catch up with me a bit. Fortunately it's going to back off a little now.

[muddy]

Sun Nov 8 - Cycle 10 Day 1 - ME LB + Coan week 7

SQ: 5x45, 5x135, 5x225, 1x315, 1x365, 5x415 (5RM PR)
Coan week 7:

• DL: 3x245, 2x335, 2x425, 3x485 (3RM PR)
• DE DL: 5x3x405
• BB Shrug: 3x5x340
• SLDL: 2x5x365
• Split squat: 2x5x85 (barbell)
• GHR: 2x5x(bw+10lb)
• SS bar arched GM: 3x5x180

It was an interesting day to me in many ways.

First, the squats are feeling really strong. Again, I am looking forward to post-Coan workouts where I can increase the volume and weights on squat workouts. It seems like ages since I've really directly worked the squat. (And yet it's clearly improving... hmmm.) I expected 5x415 to be a struggle, and it wasn't at all.

Second, the Coan program clearly calls for tapering off on volume from here on out. Prior to the workout today, I was starting to really have doubts about this program-- so many weeks of work at or below prior 1RM PRs, and then for the next three weeks, I'm supposed to come up with what seem like dramatic PRs over prior attempts. How is that possible? But then today's session started. I was supposed to only pull 485 twice. Wow, it just popped right up, so much so I had to do a third rep just as a confidence boost going into the final three weeks. I think I could have made even another rep, maybe even two. According to the calculator I use for my squats (and find accurate for that), 3x485 predicts a 548 1RM for the deadlift. That is definitely overly optimistic in my opinion, so perhaps this calculator won't be as on for deadlifts for me. The .03333 method predicts 533. That seems closer to reality. In fact, I'd be really pleased with 533. Of course calculators are one thing, reality is something else, so I'll see soon enough.

A third thing: this tapering required by Coan. I realize I'm not used to that, and I have absolutely no feel for it. I realize I don't have much trust in anything beyond what's written down as done in a given week's training log. So tapering off for several weeks for Coan will take an act of faith.

A fourth item: I can tell my consistency in DL technique has improved, but the second pull often still feels stronger than the first in a set. That really needs to be fixed, as obviously it will limit whatever I can do for a 1RM.

Last thing- setting goals, estimating 1RMs based on performance, intuition and calculators and then trying to hit those goals really gets me going. With that in mind, I'm going to indulge in a little end of the year predictions. When I finish testing before I take off on a few weeks of vacation and travel, I expect to add 20lbs (low) to 40lbs (high) on the squat, and 20lbs (low) to 40lbs (high) on the DL. Since that's a pretty broad range, I'll split the difference and say 30lb+30lbs. I'd be happy with that; more is a bonus, less would be slightly disappointing (depending on how much less). So I should bump my PLT up to around 1335. Once all that testing is done, I think I'll start writing up my 2010 goals and plans for my log.

[atypical1]

Damn that's some impressive lifting there. I can't believe how much weight you move every workout. I take it the Coan has been a success for you?

Pardon my ignorance on Coan but it sounds like that was the end of that particular program or was it? Is this something you would do again?

james

[holvoetn]

I agree, HUGE numbers here !

Pardon my ignorance on Coan but it sounds like that was the end of that particular program or was it?

It's the start of the Intensity phase for some weeks

[mpetry]

whoa a whole bunch of PRs. nice job. those deads are monstrous.

I know what you mean about feeling like a program jumps up to really high weights almost immediately, I had the same experience with the korte volume/intensity phase.

[muddy]

@James, H, mpetry: Thanks gents!

@James: I'm not sure if Coan was a success for me or not, yet. I think I need 3-4 more weeks, though next week should give me a good indication. The schedule for week 8 (next Sunday) includes a 2x510 attempt (and hence the need for the confidence boost today). As I see it, the Coan program breaks down at a high level like so:

Weeks 1-4 : Volume, work capacity
Weeks 5-6 : Transition out of volume towards intensity
Weeks 7-9 : Intensity, tapering begins
Week 10 : Minimal but high intensity
Week 11 : Contest week - peaking

[sgi4950]

Big #'s Muddy and nice write up on Sunday. I get the same feel from my deads with the 2nd pull feeling better than the 1st. Let me know if you find the answer.

No off-the-wall stuff lately. No sled, no chains...just a pad for thrusts. sigh. What's up?

[muddy]

Aiyah, you're very right - not much odd stuff lately. To be fair, it has been raining every day I wanted to take the tire sled for a drag around the neighborhood. And no, I don't know why I'm letting a little rain stop me.

That does remind me, I was playing around with this a bit a few sessions back, but I just didn't log it:




It's much more bizarre feeling than one would think from watching it. Worse yet, the idea of a slosh pipe has gone from "are you mad" status with my wife to "hmm looks interesting". So a trip to Home Depot may be in order soon:

[muddy]

Wed Nov 11 - Cycle 10 Day 2 BP

BP: LN warmup, 5x4, 5x95, 5x135, 3x185, 3x200, 3x228, 5x257, 5x10x170
Inv. ring rows: 3x8xBW
Fr press: 3x5x110
Pullups: 4x10xBW
DB OHP: 3x8x50
Tucked elbow pushups: 3x12xBW
Front DB raises: 3x10x25
Side DB raises: 2x8x25
Rowing: 5x500m, 1 min rest between. 1:46 avg 500m time, 292W avg

I didn't leave the office until well after 9pm yesterday, so I opted to push yesterday's session to today so I could go at it with a little more energy. Thurs and Sat will likely be really light days unless my lower back starts feeling less tired. The deadlift fatigue is lingering, and I want to nail Sunday's lifts.

[HOBEL]

i just made my slosh pipe a weekend ago. this weekend vinyl exercise ball filled with water. i got the tire sled too- i put a flat board inside and added a floor flange and 6 inch pipe nipple. i add my weights to the tire


if you rivet 3 tires on top of ea other and hang you have yourself a punching apparatus. the other thing i like to do in the driveway is put my car in neutral and push it up and down the drive.

i'm not much on stones. what else do you do?

[muddy]

Thur Nov 12 - Cycle 10 Day 3 - DE LB

DE BSQ: 5x45, 5x95, 5x135, 3x185, 2x225, 1x275, 8x2x305
GHR: 3x10x(bw+10lb)
BB split squat: 3x5x95
BB hip thrust: 8x185, 8x275, 3x5x345

That was one of the best days for dynamic box squats-- bar speed was very good. Things are clicking for the squat right now.

@HOBEL:

Right now I'm pretty zoned in on hitting some goals for year end, so I've not done very much outside a pretty fixed list of exercises. The only thing I wish I was doing but am not due mainly to bad luck with weather are sled drags. Aside from farmer's walks, I've never done anything else strongman-esque (stones, yolk walks, etc). But in the first half of the year, I was doing a lot of crossfit stuff, and it seemed like then I was always doing something new. Just offhand, aside from the various metcon combos, I did: tabatas of just about anything, olympic lifts (full cleans, snatches, clean and jerks), kettlebell swings and snatches, L-sides and various simple (emphasis simple) gymnastic progressions, hip extensions, glute ham raises, rows of various distances (500m intervals up to 6k), lots of bands and chains in the cage, v-ups and various hanging ab tortures, overhead squats, wall balls, slam balls, jumprope stuff, more glute ham situps than I do now, band pull throughs... that's just offhand. I'm sure I'm forgetting tons.

It was a lot of fun, and good, and I think I learned a lot. However, I don't think I made progress on strength nearly as quickly as I would have if I just buckled down on a program. I don't think I regret it though.

[guru]

Nice squatting muddy.

With the split squats, which one do you think is better - barbell or dumbbells? and with the hip thrusts, did you find the appropriate working weight?

[muddy]

@guru: Hmm, good question. My take so far is the dumbbell version requires a little more balance and control to stay rock solid during the movement. Perhaps it is just me, but the dumbbell version makes it easier to forget to keep the torso upright and not lean forward into the front leg. (Maybe that says more about me than the DB version.) I don't mean to say I think the db version requires that forward lean, only that it seems a little easier to forget oneself while getting used to it and lean too far forward. I was a little alarmed how shaky my knees were on the db version, plus I really wanted to keep my back from doing any extra work like picking the dbs off the floor (how lazy is that?) since it stays tired from Sunday until about the following Friday right now. Plus the DBs will not be as easy to control weight jumps, since after 45s, I only have DBs in 10 lb increments. But it's on my list to go back and try the DB version after the new year. What's your take?

On the hip thrusts, I think something between around 365 or a little above will end up being the starting work weight. 345 was heavy, but it seemed there was still more room to push it and still hit 5+ reps for 3 sets. It's turning into quite an ab exercise too, staying tight with that amount of weight across the belly.

[WhiteGorilla]

GHR: 3x10x(bw+10lb)

Are those natural GHR, because if they are, then that's really impressive