Vlad's training log

[guru]

Bad luck catching that stomach flu Vlad. Sensible decision to keep the workout light in the circumstances.

Good luck with the recovery.

As for the BB rows, concentrate on the back muscles as you pull the weight up & try not to use the wrists - the elbows should go up(meaning the back muscles do the pulling) 7 the forearms do only gripping work (as in deadlift).

In your top position, the upper back should be fully contracted - you should be able to pinch a pencip between your shoulder blades.

[adamr]

Bad luck on the missed deads Vlad. In my experience, deads can do that to you. On the odd day the bar just will not come up. It's no big deal. There could have been many factors. Best not to over think it. The good news is, the odds are, that it won't happen again to often. Also, congrats on the squat PR's!

[Vlad]

Thank you, Nejl. Good point about immune system. Still, it feels strange that the body can behave like that.

Thank you, Guru. That's a good tip on the rows. I'll try to implement it and maybe I'll feel something in the muscles of the upper back.

Thank you, Adam. I once had a day like this in the past, but I just deloaded after that. That was probably not the best thing I did, but who knows.

[Vlad]

14 Nov 2009. Workout.

I was almost OK on Fri after the flu, but decided not to train as I felt somewhat weeker than normally. However, On Sat I felt really well and I decided to test where I was after the quick sickness.

Mobility for shoulders and hips

Front squat: 41 kg -5, 61 kg -5, 71 kg -5, 81 kg -5
- Very easy.

Bench press: 46 kg -5, 61 kg -5, 76 kg -2, 86 kg -1, 99.4 kg (219 lb) -4
- New 4 rep PR. Felt very strong: 3 fast reps, then a short pause to catch my breath, and the 4th rep went up really well. If I had a spotter, I would try the 5th rep.

Deadlift: 61 kg -5, 91 kg -5, 116 kg -2, 141 kg -2, 165.6 (365 lb) kg -5
- New 5 rep PR. No problem here, it was hard, but not as hard as can be sometimes.

Very good session. After the light workout on Fri and then two days of rest, I felt really well rested and strong.

[markg]

Sounds like the rest did you good vlad. Great PRs again mate. That is a serious deadlift.

[holvoetn]

Nice comeback, Vlad

[guru]

Good comeback after the flu indeed. Congrats.

[atypical1]

Nicely done. It sounds like a rest is just what you needed.

james

[Vlad]

Mark, H, Guru, James - thank you!

I agree: a little rest was all I needed at that point. This seems really obvious in retrospective.

But I wonder why it was so hard to understand this at the right moment?

Workout today.

Nejl mentioned that he has difficulties with sleep after a heavy workout. But I have quite an opposite problem. I sleep well after a heavy workout, but not before it. It seems that I am too excited in anticipation of a heavy workout. I probably think too much about it when I go to bed, and then I often wake during the night checking the time. I need to wake up early for the training, so I use an alarm. But for some odd reason I wake up often to check the time. This does not happen every time, but there is a tendency, and it happened again today.

Mobility for shoulders and hips

Squat (volume): 61 kg -5, 82 kg -5, 97 kg -5, 112.5 kg (248 lb) – 5/4/4/3, 97 kg -6
------Slow fiber’s work: 40.62 AU (+1.93%)
------Fast fiber’s work: 18.52 AU (+2.95%)

- Lats were really sore today and this interfered with squatting when I loaded 97 kg. That’s odd as last session I only benched and deadlifted and I had never had soreness in my lats after bench press and deadlift.
- I massaged my lats and everything was fine. So no problems with the squat. But I could feel my lats working very hard with every rep. This shows that lats actually get some training from squatting.


OHP: 36 kg -5, 41 kg -5, 51 kg -5, 57.3 kg (126 lb) -5
- No problem here, but harder than expected. This is good as it means that benching on Sat overloaded my muscles despite the low volume.

OHP lockouts in a Smith machine: 75 kg (165 lb) – 2x5
- This was hard, but OK. I used a rather narrow grip (3 fingers narrower on each side than for OHP) to hit my triceps more. But when I tried a very narrow grip (10 cm between the index fingers), I could not move the bar. This means that shoulders still contribute to locking out with the grip I used (a little less than shoulder width). But I decided to use it despite this “deficiency”, as I figured: the more weight the better, and if I want a real triceps isolation than I should “triceps extensions” rather than compound movements.

Barbell rows: 63.5 kg (140 lb) – 3x5
- Still rather easy, but I could feel my lats working (thanks to their soreness).

Good workout, despite a bad headache I had in the morning for some reason.

[dylanamus]

Good workout, mate, and welcome back.

It is interesting how our biological clock can be more or less sensitive depending on anticipation. For example, my alarm failed to work three days in a row, and despite triple testing it prior to the third day, I woke up several times within the last 2 hours. I'm sure this happens to everyone!

How's DOMS treating you today?

[Vlad]

Thank you, Dylan! I am not sure what you mean by "welcome back" as I've not missed a single workout during the last 4 months. You probably have mistaken me for somebody else. I guess, your question about DOMS is caused by this. Anyway, I still have some soreness in my lats after Sat’s workout and very slight soreness in my legs after the squat on Mon.

My workout today.

Mobility for shoulders and hips

Front Squat (recovery): 41 kg -5, 61 kg -5, 71 kg -5, 81 kg -5
- Easy

Bench press (volume): 36 kg -5, 51 kg -5, 66 kg -3, 82 kg -5/4/4/4/3, 79 kg -4, 74 kg -6
-------slow fibers’ work: 49.75 AU (+2.14%)
-------fast fibers’ work: 22.72 AU (+2.41%)
- Much easier than expected. Concentrated on a forceful lockout to load triceps more. All reps were fast. Used a slightly wider than close grip, and the last set was close grip.

Deadlift from a 10 cm platform (volume): 61 kg -5, 91 kg -5, 111 kg -3, 132.5 kg – 3x5
- Decided to introduce a volume day for deadlift.
- Not hard, but felt like moved a decent amount. Did not know at what weight to start, so decided to be cautious and settled with 132.5 kg.

Good workout.

After some experimenting, it seems that I am gravitating towards the following scheme:

Week 1:

Mon: Squat (high volume), OHP (high volume), BBR (high volume)
Wed: Squat (light), BP (high volume), DL (high volume)
Fri: Squat (light), OHP/BP assistance (high volume), BBR (high volume)


Week 2:
Mon: Squat (intensity, new PR with low reps), OHP (light), BBR (high volume)
Wed: Squat (light), BP (light)
Fri: Squat (light), BP (intensity, new PR with low reps), DL (intensity, new PR with low reps)

It’s pretty obvious what this is all about. Week 1 provides a muscle overload in all of the lifts with high volume, but moderate intensity. In week 2, the volume is dropped, but the intensity goes up. There is also a lot of recovery built in for every lift. The only exception is BBR: here my working weights are pretty low, so for the moment there is no need for complexities.

My scheme is like a stretched out version of Texas. What I did not like about Texas is that all of the muscle overload happens in a single workout on Mon, and this is really tough, both mentally and physically. After this overload, you are supposed to be totally recovered by Fri, and I find that this does not always happen like the program calls for. Even if you are recovered, then you are supposed to set PRs with low reps in three lifts: squat, BP and deadlift in the same workout. This is also very tough.

I do not want to sound like I mean that Texas is bad. Not at all. However Texas requires a lot of commitment to training. I consider myself to be very committed, but work and family issues constantly interfere, so I need a less regimented and more flexible schedule with more recovery built in.

The above scheme allowed me to progress in the bench press again, and to continue progressing in squat in deadlift. This scheme addresses all of my personal issues with Texas, and I am going to use this scheme for as long as linear progression works. The scheme may evolve with time as it allows a lot of flexibility.

[atypical1]

It makes sense to do that if recovery is an issue. It's essentially just an extended day if you will. I'll be interested in seeing how this goes for you.

james

[Vlad]

James - Yes, recovery is an issue. Anothe issue is that weights all of a sudden became quite high, and it is mentally very hard to set PRs every workout even if you are capable of it (let's imagine that this is possible). Now I have one week when I do not set (or try to set) any PRs, and next week is for PRs.

My workout today:

Front squat: 41 kg -5, 61 kg -5, 81 kg - 2x5
- This turned out to be rather hard today. It seems that the high volume of squat followed by the high volume of deadlift in the next workout overloaded me very nicely.

OHP/BP assistance: close grip push-ups - 5x10
- 1-2 min rest between sets. Almost failed in the last set. Triceps totally blasted.
- For the first 2 sets I used a very close grip - finger tips touching. These turned out to be very hard for me, and I had to switch to a wider grip in order to get more sets done. So in sets 3-5 I used a shoulder width grip with elbows parallel to the body.
- My triceps strength/endurance turned out to be very poor, which is GOOD, as I think this can be easily remedied and this will improve my bench.

BB rows: 66 kg - 3x5
- Getting harder, but OK

DB curls: 10 kg -10, 8 kg -10, 6 kg -7
- Wanted to do 5x10, but did not know where to start. After 10 reps with 10 kg, I knew that another set would be impossible. So I grabbed 8 kg and almost failed on rep 10. Then I took 6 kg for the third set, but my left arm failed after rep 7. I decided to stop here.

OK workout.

[atypical1]

I agree about the mental part. When I was doing Madcow it was a mental and physical challenge every time I went into the gym. Have you done a deload week? Maybe that's what you need instead of a change of program.

Getting your tris stronger will most definitely help your bench and your ohp. I think you'll improve on the push ups quite quickly too.

james

[Vlad]

I agree about the mental part. When I was doing Madcow it was a mental and physical challenge every time I went into the gym. Have you done a deload week? Maybe that's what you need instead of a change of program.

I agree: a deload week could have helped. But, it's too late now as I have not been following Madcow for the last 2 months.

My workout today:

Mobility for shoulders and hips

Squat (intensity): 61 kg -5, 81 kg -5, 102 kg -3, 117.5 kg -2, 135 kg (298 lb) -5
- New 5 rep PR. Hard.

Bench press (recovery): 36 kg -5, 51 kg -5, 61 kg -5, 71 kg -5
- OK

BB rows: 68.5 kg – 3x5
- OK, but getting harder.