Sets of faahve

Mr. CooL ICE · 21-08-2017 2:09pm

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

So you win.

Precisely.

I even tried to promote the meet to some mutual friends of ours as a battle of the ages with this:

Mr. CooL ICE · 23-08-2017 8:40am

August 23. Bench day

Bench (paused):
20kg x 5
40kg x 5
60kg x 5
72.5kg x 3
72.5kg x 2
72.5kg x 2
72.5kg x 2
72.5kg x 2

Accidental triple to start. Weight felt wayyy heavier than it should have been and wasn't explosive, as it should have been. Got faster and easier as the sets went on. Probably not enough warming up

CG bench press:
77.5kg x 5
77.5kg x 5
77.5kg x 5

Met maximum prescribed reps/sets. Felt heavy though

Spoto press:
67.5kg x 6
67.5kg x 6

Grand. Little messier than usual

Chinup:
x 3
5kg x 5
5kg x 5
5kg x 5

Easier than expected. Had more in the tank

Front plate raise/lateral dumbbell raise s/s:
10kg/5kgs x 10
10kg/5kgs x 10
10kg/5kgs x 10
10kg/5kgs x 10

Oh dear god, the burn. Needed to take a few moments towards end of last set to compose myself

Facepull
29kg plate x 15
29kg plate x 15
29kg plate x 15

Good day. Bench main sets felt iffy but overall felt strong.

Mr. CooL ICE · 25-08-2017 9:40am

August 25. Squat day

Squat:
20kg x 5
40kg x 5
* sleeves *
60kg x 5
80kg x 3
* belt *
100kg x 2
120kg x 2
135kg x 2
140kg x 1
145kg x 1
122.5kg x 10 (AMRAP)

Plan today was a double and two singles approaching my planned opener (155kg). 145kg felt awfully heavy which caught me off guard but the more I think about it, I hadn't squatted anything heavy in 3 weeks so I just wasn't used to it. Was half thinking of dropping my opener back to 150/145 at this stage.

I'm crap at high rep squat sets so wasn't expecting my AMRAP set to go far beyond 5. 7 would have been good going. But 10? I really didn't expect that. This made me think 155 is still good for an opener.

Hamstring curl:
41kg plate x 12
41kg plate x 12
41kg plate x 12

All the blood in my body was in my legs after this

Bulgarian split squats:
10kgs x 8
10kgs x 8
10kgs x 8

Still learning how to do these and keep balance. Good proper burn in the quads today.

Ab wheel roll:
x 8
x 8
x 8

Hips to the floor after every rep. Ooowwwwww.

Great day. Can't feckin wait for the meet.

Alf Veedersane · 25-08-2017 10:34am

FFS....that didn't look remotely like a struggle. It moved fine.

I was expecting something a lot slower/grindier.

Either way, just start with whatever. My opener the last time was same as my first comp but my third was 7.5kg heavier. Dropping your opener doesn't have to mean that your 2nd/3rd will automatically drop. It's just a warm up essentially.

Mr. CooL ICE · 25-08-2017 10:41am

Even if I drop my squat opener, I'd still be opening with comp PBs

My only concern is that I *think* my depth these days is borderline. Trying to sink my hips lower kinda throws me out of position. The angle from that video doesn't show much.

Alf Veedersane · 25-08-2017 10:51am

The square isn't perfect along the top of the knee but the lines are thick and get in the way anyway. But it's a useful indicator as is. I used the bottom of the rack as a frame of reference.

Mr. CooL ICE · 25-08-2017 11:42am

Alf Veedersane · 25-08-2017 11:47am

Science and trigonometry.

Coach's Eye is a deadly app for checking depth and the like....you can control the speed with the dial on the bottom.

You have to pay to be able to draw straight lines so I just use the box...

Mr. CooL ICE · 25-08-2017 12:13pm

Yeah, I've seen the paid version used before. Pretty nifty.

One thing to take into account though is my knees would be sticking outward which would offset what's seen at that angle. So I reckon in that squat, I just about hit depth. Then again, those shorts are a little baggy so a singlet would make depth more apparent.

Also love how that screenshot shows my face and how I'm clearly enjoying myself.

Alf Veedersane · 25-08-2017 12:16pm

Yeah, accounting for the knee angle, I still think it's deep enough.

It looks like you're at a squat party that's tremendous fun.

Mr. CooL ICE · 28-08-2017 7:57am

August 28. Deload

Squat:
20kg x 3
40kg x 3
60kg x 6
60kg x 6
60kg x 6

Bench:
20kg x 3
40kg x 6
40kg x 6
40kg x 6

Deadlift:
50kg x 3
70kg x 3
90kg x 1
90kg x 1
90kg x 1

Light day to keep things moving.

Squats was mostly about a new unracking cue I have which helps set my shoulders properly and places the bar in the right position all the time. Most of my bad squat sets in the last few months have been when my shoulder wasn't set downwards properly so this helps eliminate that possibility.

Bench was boring. Hard to remember leg drive when the weight is this light.

Went against prescribed weights/sets/reps for deadlift and just did some heavier singles to practise getting tight in my setup. Find it hard to get tight when the bar is too light.

Had a tight lower back from early last week which isn't 100% gone but foam rolling the crap out of my glutes and hamstrings always loosens it up.

Mr. CooL ICE · 29-08-2017 8:30am

August 29. Deload

Lots of mobility

Bench (paused):
20kg x 3
40kg x 3
60kg x 3
70kg x 1
75kg x 1
75kg x 1
75kg x 1

Facepulls:
23kg plate x 12
23kg plate x 12

A bit more mobility

Hardly worked up a sweat. Boring. Patience, yo

Alf Veedersane · 29-08-2017 8:35am

Comp is this weekend?

Mr. CooL ICE · 29-08-2017 9:06am

Yep. I'm in with a chance of finishing in the top 4.

Alf Veedersane · 29-08-2017 9:58am

Nicolas Cage wrote: »

Yep. I'm in with a chance of finishing in the top 4.

Mr. CooL ICE · 31-08-2017 8:36am

August 31. Deload day

Lots of mobility

Squat:
20kg x 3
60kg x 6
60kg x 6
60kg x 6

Bench:
20kg x 3
40kg x 6
40kg x 6
40kg x 6

Deadlift:
70kg x 1
90kg x 1
90kg x 1
110kg x 1
110kg x 1
110kg x 1
110kg x 1

BTW, above is not exact cube method deload reps/sets/weight. Brandon Lilly prescribes 3x8 @ 30% across all lifts but quite frankly, I'm not exactly Brandon Lilly levels of strength. I increased the weight but reduced the reps per set to roughly equal the overall volume for squat and bench. For deadlift, I just wanted to practise singles in competition style and I find it hard to get tight with the bar if it's too light.

For deadlifts, I tried a new cue. Last session before a meet is a retarded time to try something new, but something I read clicked with me. Basically, when getting tight at the bottom, pushing the knees out against my arms. It was something I was shown on day 1 of lifting but kinda forgot over time. Tried it, recorded it and it was my first time having a perfectly straight back throughout a deadlift in aaaages.

Feeling good about Saturday

Alf Veedersane · 01-09-2017 6:46pm

Best of luck tomorrow, chief

coffee_cake · 01-09-2017 10:30pm

Good luck!! You can do it! Pew pew

Mr. CooL ICE · 02-09-2017 6:14pm

September 2. Meet day

Well, today was a disaster. Aside from getting a total, it couldn't really have gone any worse.

Squat:
Warmups went well. Very little fighting for a rack in the warmup room. Last warmup was 145kg for a single. It felt solid, but a little slow. Got on the platform, unracked the 155kg and squatted. I think the bar probably slipped when I was at the bottom. Either way, I just completely lost position going forward but due to being screamed at by the spotters, I somehow got back up. 3x white. Grand. Asked for 162.5kg next.

Unracked the 162.5kg and squatted. Got up about 2" but body just said 'nope' and had to be rescued. My coach said my technique seemed solid but that I just seemed to give up. 3rd attempt, I just decided to do the same thing but push as hard as I could. I grinded it out for an extra few seconds but ended up releasing my breath and torso collapsed. Had to be rescued.

Bench:
Warmups went well. As opener was 95kg, I decided last warmups to go 70kg x 2, 80kg x 2 and 90kg x 1. The 90kg was solid. Felt heavy in my hands and was a little slow, but had no qualms about my opener. Got on the bench and it was a grind. Somehow managed to cramp up my lower back, but got 3x white lights anyway. But my bar path going down was apparently awful. And I felt my ass rise but that seemed to have gone unnoticed.

2nd attempt was 100kg, a PR attempt and milestone. Got the bar in my hands and it felt awful. I didn't know it at the time, but I had the bar on my chest for an extra second after getting the press command. No idea what happened. Needed rescuing.

3rd attempt was even worse. Descent was awful. Seemed like I just let it drop on my chest and it was too far forward, so couldn't recover. Not a hope of getting this off my chest.

Deadlift:

By now, the deadlift was my only hope of getting a PR today. Was opening at 180kg. Warmups felt solid up until around 140kg and then it suddenly felt like falling apart. 160kg was slow, so decided to drop my opener to 170kg. Best decision I ever made.

Got on the platform and lifted 170kg, locked it out. Was slower than I had hoped, but at least I totaled.

Chose 180kg for the next. For some reason, I lost position mid way and went forward on my toes. Locked out, but got 2x reds for soft knees. Coach said it was extremely harsh, but I felt like I didn't deserve the lift.

Was initially gonna repeat 180kg but I decided that today was a disaster and that I was gonna got for a PR, so decided on 195. Coach told me I was nuts and yeah, I was. Didn't care at this stage. Got on the platform and it didn't even leave the floor. Boooo.

...

So, went 3/9. Two meet PRs but no actual PR. I only calculated my total as I was typing this because I didn't care enough after the meet had ended. I put on my pants, grabbed my girlfriend (who was obligingly placed for taking videos) and left. I just wanted to get out of there asap. Going out tonight to get pissed. And I couldn't be arsed uploading the videos because this was a day I'd rather forget.

Alf Veedersane · 02-09-2017 6:30pm

Pretty much sounds like the meet I had in Cork.

The train back was horrible...made even worse by having to get the bus to Mallow.

There's nothing I'll say that will make you less p*ssed off right now.

But the training cycle moved the numbers you were confident with up to where you felt confident you'd PR everything and while it went wrong on the day, another day it could have been very different.

coffee_cake · 02-09-2017 7:26pm

Sorry nic

Have a great time and forget it and rock the next one

Mr. CooL ICE · 04-09-2017 6:15pm

Video editors confuse the hell outta me so I didn't bother inserting text. But generally they go as follows:

155
162.5 (F)
162.5 (F)
95
100 (F)
100 (F)
170
180 (F - soft knees)
195 (F - #YOLO)

<removed>

(Also, spot the spotter named Blacktie

)

Said I wouldn't upload the video, but if I want to move forward, I need accountability. There are some things I could have done better. Some things I knew were a bad idea when I was doing them, but did them anyway. But also on the day, I just felt weak so chances are, it doesn't matter about the prep, I could possibly just have been unlucky to have had a bad day.

Another thing is my weight. I weighed in at 86.1kg despite being 87.6kg for my last meet. Although I've definitely gotten stronger and built some muscle since then, I'm definitely not in any way more ripped. There is a good chance that with the wind down in training, I probably wasn't as hungry and didn't eat as much as I could have. I never really track my food and just try to eat a lot but in the last week, I may have underdone it.

Going forward, I need to eat more. I'm going on holidays at the end of October so think I will concentrate on hypertrophy. I'm well below the 93kg limit so plenty of room to build meat on my bones. A few months doing Rippetoe stuff has probably left me with a neglected back so Imma concentrate on lots of back/rear delt/trap stuff. Have a program laid out for myself that could be rubbish in practise, but makes some sort of sense on paper.

Alf Veedersane · 04-09-2017 9:22pm

I do think that you should plan right to next comp or plan a block of training, then look to pick a comp and plan towards that.

I don't think the ad hoc nature of training helped. While the numbers looked to be there for the day, a bit more structure in terms of the last micro cycle or two might have helped.

Maybe it wouldn't have made a difference but every little might count towards righting it the next time

Mr. CooL ICE · 06-09-2017 10:48am

September 6

Bench:
20kg x 5
40kg x 5
60kg x 5
70kg x 3
75kg x 5
75kg x 5
75kg x 5

Felt so, so, so heavy.

Incline DB press:
15kgs x 15
15kgs x 15
15kgs x 15

Chinup:
x5
x5
x5

Managed to miss the bar with my right hand when jumping up, which meant I swung left and whacked my leg off the side of the squat rack. Managed to grab the bar again without dropping and finished my set to pretend that nothing happened. While drinking water, got a sneaky look in the mirror to see if I cut myself. I didn't.

But but but my mom says I'm cool :cool:

Shoulder shocker (front plate raise/lateral raise/cuban press):
10kg/2.5kg x 10
10kg/2.5kg x 10
10kg/5kg x 10

Got about 3 cuban presses into the second circuit and was completely fcuked, so had to stop. 3rd set I left the cuban presses out completely. These are bloody humbling!

Facepull:
29kg plate x 12
29kg plate x 12
29kg plate x 12

I felt incredibly weak today. The post meet fatigue is real. Was horribly DOMSed all over Sunday and Monday but had recovered a bit from that. Feeling a little stiff all over so gonna stick with more emphasis on mobility for a while.

Blacktie. · 06-09-2017 1:28pm

Good to put a face to a name. My bad about my confusion at the start! Body was fairly tanked from squats earlier and then loading/spotting :pac:

Have any comp in mind for your next one?

Gotta agree with Alf. Ad hoc will get you so far but then you gotta start planning peak blocks. I'm just glad I don't have to think about any of that

Mr. CooL ICE · 08-09-2017 9:17am

September 8

Squat:
20kg x 5
40kg x 5
60kg x 5
80kg x 5
* belt *
100kg x 3
110kg x 3
110kg x 3

High bar squat:
60kg x 5
80kg x 5
80kg x 5

Sumo deadlift:
40kg x 1
70kg x 3
90kg x 3
90kg x 3
100kg x 3
100kg x 3
110kg x 3

Snatch grip SLDL:
70kg x 3
70kg x 3
70kg x 3

Nothing day really. Still fatigued so seeing where my strength is at with the squats. Also trying some exercise variations that are either new, or haven't done in a while.

Been recommended to check out RTS. I knew of it, but thought of it as something that is far too advanced for my needs. Have ordered the training manual so will give it a read and decide if this a path I want to go down.

RPE is something I'm wary of because I usually just don't know how much is left in the tank. I'm used to just following sets/reps and being told how much to lift, but I'll have to figure out RPE eventually.

Mr. CooL ICE · 08-09-2017 9:22am

Blacktie. wrote: »

Good to put a face to a name. My bad about my confusion at the start! Body was fairly tanked from squats earlier and then loading/spotting :pac:

Have any comp in mind for your next one?

Gotta agree with Alf. Ad hoc will get you so far but then you gotta start planning peak blocks. I'm just glad I don't have to think about any of that

"Are you Blacktie?" -> "No, I'm not a blackbelt" :pac:

No urge to rush into a comp any time soon. I just need to spend some time getting stronger before deciding to compete again.

Agree regarding the ad hoc-ness. My ad hoc training was never intended to be ad hoc. It all boils down to me being impatient and trying to do too much before realising my mistakes and trying to correct them myself. I should be comparing myself to my older self and not other people but I have a tendency to not do that. Gotta stay humble, and the recent comp was pretty humbling!

Mr. CooL ICE · 11-09-2017 8:46am

September 11

Bench (touch and go):
20kg x 5
40kg x 5
60kg x 5
70kg x 5
80kg x 5
80kg x 5
80kg x 5

Push press:
20kg x 10
30kg x 5
40kg x 5
50kg x 5
50kg x 5
50kg x 5

Chinup:
x5
5kg x 5
5kg x 5
5kg x 5

Shoulder shocker (front plate raise/lateral raise/cuban press):
10kg plate/2.5kg dumbbell x 8
10kg plate/2.5kg dumbbell x 8
10kg plate/2.5kg dumbbell x 8

Chest dip/pullup superset:
x5
x5
x5

Today was more or less seeing where my strength and fatigue levels were at. Bench @ 80kg felt almost as heavy as it should, which is good news. Managed to barely finish 3 circuits of slightly shorter shoulder shockers, which is good news for my upper back. Some dips added in for the craic.

Mr. CooL ICE · 13-09-2017 8:47am

September 13

Squat:
20kg x 10
60kg x 5
80kg x 5
* belt *
100kg x 5
110kg x 3
120kg x 4

Front squat:
80kg x 1
80kg x 6

Tempo squat 3030:
90kg x 6
90kg x 6

Sumo deadlift:
70kg x 3
80kg x 3
90kg x 3
100kg x 3
110kg x 2 (bar almost slipped from hand)
115kg x 3
120kg x 3

Another day of seeing where my strength is at. If I actually decide to go down the RTS route, I'll need some exercise variations so today I added in front squats and tempo squats. Found the tempo squats interesting as they quickly highlight technique faults. Will have fun with these in future.

Same with last sumo session: trying to nail the technique by keeping the weight low. I really, really feel it in my glutes so perhaps they are highlighting a glaring weakness. Will do them solely instead of conventional for another while.

Blacktie. · 13-09-2017 10:01am

Nicolas Cage wrote:

If I actually decide to go down the RTS route

What's RTS?

Sets of faahve

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