Back to the Beginning--A New Journal

[Firehawk]

Originally Posted by rangers97

I don't think my problem is with the volume of what I am doing, I think it lies in actual muscle recovery of my lower back. My 2 sets of squats still managed to go up a rep each set and I went up 5 pounds on the lunges and ham curls went up as well, so it isn't a case of CNS overtraining, simply a case of muscle overtraining in a highly sensitive area. I felt like if I did another set of squats my back would just give in. I don't know if an extra day of resting my low back will make much of a difference, but I could be wrong.

I can try to space them out more, but in the end, I still think that one or the other is going to suffer. Mav, do you honestly think you can do 2 or 3 sets of heavy 4-6 rep to failure deadlifts on monday and then do 2-3 sets of 4-6 rep to failure squats on thursday or friday and expect them both to improve? Throw in SLDLs, bent rows, and anything else where you use your low back to stabilize. If you can do this, then you are truly genetically blessed and good for you then :

that was a great post though Firehawk, how the hell have you been? I;ve been meaning to get in touch with you via email, but things have been crazy for me with work and I found out my wife is pregnant, so that's a whole other issue right there .

I know that you used to do max-ot as well firehawk, what did you do as far as squats and deads with it?

I have been good. I have done 2 powerlifting meets now. I totalled 1055 in one and 1060 in the other. I was going for 1100 in the second one and woulda gotten it had i gotten my 3rd squat attempt at 375 but i missed it because i lost my balance at the top, ugh. I had it though, what a bummer. I do have videos of both if you guys haven't seen them.

Anyway, when i did max OT back in the day, I would make progress for 3 or 4 weeks and then i'd start to feel tired. At that time i was very new to training heavy and i really thought it was normal to feel a little drained so i'd keep plowing at it. But it really did beat me up. And, because i was cutting at the time, i got beat up even faster. All that I've done up to now has been done while cutting, and you can get overtrained faster while cutting because you restrict your body's capability to recover faster when you restrict caloreis.

Over time, from trying Max OT, trying a 5 x 4 on every exercise (including exercises after the core one), trying sets of 20 on accessory exercises, etc etc etc, i've found that the thing that most fries the CNS the fastest is pulling a max rep but missing the rep, i.e. failing at it. That should not be confused with avoiding attmepting new weight because you dont' want to overtrain, but rather, things like negatives, maximal weight, those things overload your CNS a great deal, and if you don't allow enough time to recover, or don't change the exercise, then within 3 weeks you're going to be fried and will either stop or worse yet, go backwards in your progress.

You say that it's the overtraining of your lower back muscles that is the problem. Then my solution to you is to take at least 3 days between squatting and deadlifting, do one or the other each week, or do both but one do lighter for high reps, or jsut do lower reps with a lighter weight, and work on form, then on the other day go heavy. It could also be that you need more core strength. Benching what you can deadlift raw is not reallly in line. Your lower body should always be much further ahead of you than your bench press. But that's neither here nor there. You cannot stop deadlifting or squatting. You can do variations though. Maybe do a different kind of squat for 2 weeks, then change thes quat again. There's lots of variations. Also lots of variations with the deadlift. You can pull from 100lb plates for 2 weeks, do rack pulls the next 2, then go back to off the floor for 2. You like to change your routine every 5 minutes so this should be right up your alley lol.

When i was doing max OT i never squatted and deadlifted within 2 days of each other. There's just not enough time between those lifts.

Now hwen we do a powerlifting meet, where we max out on all 3 lifts, we generally only work up to our opening squat 2 weeks out, deadlift opener is done 3 weeks out, bench opener can be done 1 week out (less taxing on the CNS than squatting/deadlifting). So for this last meet, i actually didn't deadlift heavy at all because i did 2 meets within 3 weeks of each other so i had no time, but i squatted my opener 2 weeks out, benched my opener 1 1/2 weeks out, and then the next squat day i didnt max, i went up to 285 for 2 which was easy, but i focused on my form (was opening with 320) and then i hit the accessory exercises hard.

Even now, my max day workouts are structured to max out on whatever core lift i'm doing (remember we change the core lift every 1-3 weeks, i do every 2 weeks right now) and then go into accessory exercises for 6-10 reps as heavy as possible. And then I dont train the week of the meet, and then take a week off after the meet. After that meet, you are just so drained you don't want to be training right after lol. I made the mistake after my first meett of not taking a week off and it hurt me in the second meet.

So that's a little more detail there.

[rangers97]

OK I will probably forget some of the things you addressed in your message, but I will try to remember. First off, definitely send the videos, post em, email em to me, I don't care, I want to see them.

And since when did you get up to a 375 squat! Dude that rocks :

I am not trying to make excuses for not doing one or the other, trust me, I WANT to do them both, I honestly don't know if I can. If I do the heavy/light thing, it kind of breaks the flow of my max-ot stuff. I am oddly enough enjoying my leg days right now, squatting is getting somewhat fun, and I am on a roll. The barbell lunges are out of this world, a wonderful combination of strength and balance needed on those. But anyway, I feel if I skip the heavy stuff every other week, that I will lose something on them.

I can tell that my lower back muscles are telling me to let them rest...they feel tight and weird right now, but I am definitely not CNS overtraining. I feel the freshest I have felt in a while...I sleep better at night, for the most part, and my lifts are going up, up, up. It's one thing to bench 335, quite another to do 3 sets of 6 at 275, which I am doing now. Squatting always sucked for me for obvious reasons (starting pretty much 2 years ago), but now I am nailing 275 squats slightly below parallel with uncanny form.

I definitely agree that 1 day in between is silly, but like I said, I was trying to minimize muscle overlap. What do you think about rack pulls? For some reason I see them as being less stressful to the lower back than pulling from the floor because since you are already almost 1/2 way "up" your form might not break down as much, and I assume you get the back benefits of a deadlift from a rack pull right? All you are missing is the leg drive?

Maybe I can try rack pulls on a monday for 2 max-ot type sets, then find a way to switch legs to thursday? You would fricken think with 5 days to work with it would be easy to come up with a fricken split that works! Maybe I am being stubborn since I want the weekends off.

Or I can just continue to beat the $hit out of my back and hope that my body just compensates and adapts to the beatings!

[rangers97]

And thanks for the congrats guys! She is about a little over 9 weeks now, we just went for a sono the other day and it was the first one I got to see....holy crap man, talk about awesome! I got to see its little heart beating for the first time, all I can say is, WOW.

And for the religious guys out there, just say a prayer for mom and baby that both get through this healthy, and that we have a wonderful, healthy baby! That would mean a lot to me : (Oh and add an extra prayer for a baby boy!!! teehee j/k) healthy is fine with me

[Firehawk]

Congrats on your baby, i didn't know about that.


First PL meet:

Second PL meet:

I just went up to a 545 rack pull Tuesday from 2 inches below my knee (haven't done these in 7 months so i was happy to be about where i left off) and my back is more sore now than when i deadlift full range. I think that's because i can do more from the rack pull height than I can from the floor.

I'll do this again next week and try to beat 545, then go back to squatting heavy, then maybe go to doing a max suspended chain good morning for a couple weeks...see all the exercises i pick for my core lift will carry over to my dead or my squat.

That 375 squat in the second meet, you can see I had it, and stumbled at the top as i was going to lock it out. You can see me shaking my head. I was very pissed that i missed it because i know i squatted that weight. I came into the second meet sick and overtrained, but still managed a 5 lb PR in a meet squat and a 10lb bench meet PR, but had nothin left for the deads as you'll see lol.

[rangers97]

Originally Posted by Firehawk

Congrats on your baby, i didn't know about that.

thanks man, we only found out about 4 weeks ago, and you know how it goes, you shouldn't say anything until 10-12 weeks just to make sure, yadda, yadda, but it's too exciting not to say anything. I just pray that everything goes well :

then when the baby comes in october, we can talk about how I am overtraining all over the place due to a lack of sleep!

[Firehawk]

If it's a boy, name it Dave...

[rangers97]

I'm gonna check out those videos when I get home tonight.

I am looking forward to my back workout today, I picked up an inexpensive pull up/dip/ab station at lunch today. Now I don't plan on dipping on it, since it will probably break with my BW+100 dips, but I am psyched to do pullups once again...It's been a while, and I am probably very weak at them, being relegated to a cheesy home bench lat pulldown machine. Should be interesting...I will probably do what welch does, go for like 50 total BW pullups in however many sets it takes.

I was thinking about something else too, are sumo deads a better option for me perhaps? It is my understanding that they involve less of the lower back and more of the hips/glutes? Is that correct? It could be something for me to look into....

[Firehawk]

That is true about sumo. They are also require more technique than conventional too.

[rangers97]

March 16 - back

Another less than awe-inspiring workout, I wound up having to do some things at the time I usually workout, so I didn't begin until 6 when I usually workout around 4:30, and that means I went since around 2:00 without eating anything, but I pressed on--something is better than nothing right?

barbell rows
225 x 5
225 x 4
225 x 4
"loose" form on these...I had 225 on one of my bars already, so I didn't feel like changing anything, so I tried it. Will work on these next week with some better form.:

Pullups
BW x 8, 7, 6, 5, 5, 5, 5 = 41
ok, got a pullup station at lunch for $100. Not too shabby, and it also has the pads and bars to do ab work like leg raises and stuff, so I was excited to finally do a REAL pullup again. However, the excitement slowly faded as I realized that I suck at them now! I lost all my pullup strength...Boofriggetyhoo....was going for 50, but due to the time of the workout, I cut it short. Massive pump in my biceps...something is not right there...hmmm:confused:

Low cable rows
120 x 6
120 x 6
once again, my wonderful home machine makes 120 feel like 500 pounds, I dare anyone to try my machine and see the numbers they put up on it! It shames you big time, especially when you can use 250+ on the cable ones at gyms....

Notes:
Well, I've decided to drop deadlifts for a few weeks to work on squats...the way I would like it to go is to go another 6 weeks and then take a one week break. That would be, including last week and this week, an 8 week max-ot cycle. After the break, I will re-evaluate things and maybe re-introduce deadlifts. Beginning next week, I am altering the split a little bit to this:
M-Arms
Close Grip Bench 2 sets
EZ-Bar Curls 2 sets
Dips 2 sets
Close Grip Chins 2 sets
Hammer Curls 2 sets

T-Legs
Squats 3 sets
Barbell Lunges 2 sets
SLDL 2 sets
Leg Curls 2 sets

W-Shoulders/Abs
seated overhead press 3 sets
upright rows 3 sets
bent over laterals 3 sets
decline crunches 3 sets
leg raises 3 sets

Th-Back
barbell rows 3 sets
pullups stop when no longer can do 4 reps in a set
Cable Rows 3 sets
Shrugs 3 sets

F-Chest
decline bench press 3 sets
incline bench press 3 sets

[.V.]

Definitely wishing ya'll a healthy pregnancy and baby. Boy, girl, no matter. When we went for one of the ultrasounds...I saw the umbilical cord and thought we had one heck of a boy. ...she wasn't. She's still great fun to raise.

[rangers97]

Originally Posted by a_welch503

Definitely wishing ya'll a healthy pregnancy and baby. Boy, girl, no matter. When we went for one of the ultrasounds...I saw the umbilical cord and thought we had one heck of a boy. ...she wasn't. She's still great fun to raise.

That's great

[rangers97]

March 17 -- Chest

15 degree Decline Bench Press
275 x 6
275 x 6
275 x 6
this might have been the best 3 sets of exercise I have ever had in my life! The reps were slow, controlled, smooth, I had complete control of the weight and actually could feel my pecs pressing as opposed to my triceps. First time I have had that with this much weight. I OWN 275 now! :

Incline Bench Press
230 x 6
230 x 6
These weren't too shabby either! No shoulder pain and once again, smooth reps....actually these were a lot tougher than the declines, but I owned these as well

Dips
BW+95 x 6
BW+95 x 6

Awesome overall workout....increases in everything. I am happy

[.V.]

Originally Posted by rangers97

I OWN 275 now!

Time to work on 280 - or at least 277.5 then.:

Looking at this workout - you should be very happy.

[rangers97]

Originally Posted by a_welch503

Time to work on 280 - or at least 277.5 then.:

Looking at this workout - you should be very happy.

Definitely going for 280 next week and BW+100 dips :

[rangers97]

march 20 -- arms

close grip bench press
265 x 6
265 x 6
265 x 6
Big increase from last week on these. Figured what the hell and upped the weight by 15 pounds from last week. Seems to me it was a good idea... I wanted to add that when I do these now, I bring my arms down to that 90 degree angle so my upper arms are parallel to the ground, by flaring out my elbows to the sides. I find that stopping at that point places maximum tension on the triceps and limits the involvement of the chest and shoulder muscles. Kind of like a floor press without touching the floor.

EZ Bar Curls
135 x 4
135 x 4
These were tough...almost popped a blood vessel in my head on these

Close Grip Chins
BW+25 x 6
BW+25 x 6
wanted to get a "compound" bicep movement in here to correspond with the compound tricep movement.

Hammer Curls
60 x 6
:

No isolation tricep movement because of my elbows...going to be smart so I can push the most weight on my more important compound movements :