Herbison's Training Log

[SeanHerbison]

For transcoding I like Handbrake if you haven't found it yet.

That's what I ended up using as well.

[SeanHerbison]

Tried 2.7K today. Anyone know why it took so much longer to upload to Youtube than 4K? I'm guessing I'm overlooking something important there.




Got my lights and tripod. Will test them out if I can ever figure out how to set up the softboxes that came with no instructions and have different equipment from the videos I can find. (I did, finally.)

Tuesday, 5 December

Comp Squat: 420x5x3
Press: 170x3x5
Comp Deadlift: warmups to 405x1
Chinup: BWx7x3

Squat: On the third rep of the first set I was completely on the toes of my right foot, but otherwise these were pretty solid. No huge knee cave, at least. That said, it was just too much overall. I didn't sleep well two nights ago, and going to bed early last night didn't help, since I then proceeded to "sleep" like complete garbage anyway.

Press: 187.5 wasn't going to go, at least not with any semblance of good form, so I knocked the weight down a bit and otherwise did these as planned. Pretty happy with the technique today. Much more consistent.

Deadlift: No-go here. I considered just dropping the weight a bit like I did for press, but I didn't think I had enough in me to do them right anyway. Considering how my mid-back felt the rest of the day even without those, I think I made the right call.

There's been a bit of talk over the past few months of "intensity-dependent" vs "volume-dependent" and all the stuff that goes along with it. You know what I haven't heard? "Recovery-dependent." So I'm going that term and applying it to myself. And obviously I failed to get the thing I'm dependent on, so fun stuff all around.

[cgeorg]

There's been a bit of talk over the past few months of "intensity-dependent" vs "volume-dependent" and all the stuff that goes along with it. You know what I haven't heard? "Recovery-dependent." So I'm going that term and applying it to myself. And obviously I failed to get the thing I'm dependent on, so fun stuff all around.

I've taken to calling my program HLM for the recovery compromised/challenged (HLM RC). It's pretty much built around low back recovery.

[Manveer]

There's been a bit of talk over the past few months of "intensity-dependent" vs "volume-dependent" and all the stuff that goes along with it. You know what I haven't heard? "Recovery-dependent." So I'm going that term and applying it to myself. And obviously I failed to get the thing I'm dependent on, so fun stuff all around.

Aren't all programs "recovery-dependent"? Matching the stress to your recovery ability. Trying to improve recovery ability over time.

Have you heard the good word about athlete monitoring?

[SeanHerbison]

I've taken to calling my program HLM for the recovery compromised/challenged (HLM RC). It's pretty much built around low back recovery.

That made me laugh.

Aren't all programs "recovery-dependent"? Matching the stress to your recovery ability. Trying to improve recovery ability over time.

Yeah, that was more tongue in cheek than anything else.

Have you heard the good word about athlete monitoring?

Do you mean the term in general, or the specific company? Either way, enlighten me. I need to start using more of the tools available to make my training more objective. Including getting better at RPE...

[SeanHerbison]

Video will have to wait for a bit. I won't have enough time to sit down and do editing until Sunday or Monday.

Friday, 8 December

Comp Squat: 357.5x5x2
T&G Bench: 280x5x3
Comp Deadlift: 515x1, 565x1
Chinup: BWx7x3

I had a couple paragraphs written up, but they were boring and kind of rambling. So, I'm done with the LP. I'll be maxing out soonish to get some actual 1RMs to work with, and then starting a new block of programming, probably The Bridge.

There, concise. Also leaving out a lot of info, but concise.

[Manveer]

Have you heard the good word about athlete monitoring?

Do you mean the term in general, or the specific company? Either way, enlighten me. I need to start using more of the tools available to make my training more objective. Including getting better at RPE...

TRAC is free and available from RTS. Sign up for an account on their site (reactivetrainingsystems.com) and click on Apps. It's a daily subjective survey (skip the HR test) which takes about 1 minute.

There are also HRV programs, I think. I used EliteHRV for a few months because it was free, but I didn't always agree with the recommendations (i.e. it told me to cut back on training when I was feeling great and had a good workout later that day). I am biased, but I think TRAC is better.

RPE helps too.

[SeanHerbison]

I didn't get back until around 2200 last night, so no time for video. I think I'll have time tonight, but no guarantees.

My upcoming schedule is not ideal due to some friends' wedding coming up, but I think I've got a halfway decent lifting plan lined up. I'm not going for a full-blown peaking block, but I would like to handle somewhat heavier weights before my little pseudo-meet.

These are all kind of fuzzy and subject to change, but it's more or less as follows:

Tuesday, 12 Dec
Squat: 4@8.5, 4@9, 4x2@7.5
Press: 4@8.5, 4@9, 4x2@7.5
Chinups: Sets of 3 spread through session

Thursday, 14 Dec
Bench: 4@8.5, 4@9, 4x2@7.5
Deadlift: 2x4@8, 8.5, 9, 9.5, hook grip, increasing weights each set
Chinups: Sets of 3 spread through session

Monday, 18 Dec
Squat: 2x4@9
Bench: 2x4@9
Deadlift: 1x5@8
Chinups: Sets of 3 spread through session

Wednesday, 20 Dec
Squat: Opener x1x2
Bench: Opener x1x2
Deadlift: Opener

Friday, 22 Dec
Squat: Last warm-up x1x2
Bench: Last warm-up x1x2

Monday, 25 December
"Meet" day

My bare minimum goals are a 520 squat, 365 bench, and 605 deadlift. Medium goals are 540/375/630. Anything above that and I'll be happy, but I'm not expecting actual PRs just yet.

[SeanHerbison]

TRAC is free and available from RTS. Sign up for an account on their site (reactivetrainingsystems.com) and click on Apps. It's a daily subjective survey (skip the HR test) which takes about 1 minute.

I've been meaning to check that out for a while, but you've convinced me to stop procrastinating, so I'll do it tonight.

[unruhschuh]

TRAC is free and available from RTS. Sign up for an account on their site (reactivetrainingsystems.com) and click on Apps. It's a daily subjective survey (skip the HR test) which takes about 1 minute.

I've been meaning to check that out for a while, but you've convinced me to stop procrastinating, so I'll do it tonight.

If you do, make sure to check out my RTS to Forum post converter. This way, you only have to type your workouts once and have the data in the App and properly formatted for this training log.

See also this thread for updates and support.

[SeanHerbison]

Alright, video time! Finally.



That's from Friday. The one for today is currently rendering.

[SeanHerbison]

Starting to figure out some of this color stuff.



I also figured out one reason it was taking so long to upload: the bit rate was about twelve times what it needed to be. If you can't see a visual difference between a 200MB video and a 2.2 GB video, there's no real reason to go with the higher file size.

Tuesday, 12 December

Comp Squat: 440x4@8.5, 450x4@9, 425x4x2@8.5
Press: 180x4@8, 185x4@9, 170x4x2@8
Chinup: BWx3x14

Squat: 425 shouldn't have been that hard, but I missed the groove on my last rep of set three and my third rep on set four, and that bumped up the required effort quite a bit. For whatever reason, the video of the third squat wouldn't play, so there are only three sets shown.

Press: I was messing around with my hand position again (I know, stop doing that), and it got to the point where I just decided to stop trying so hard to start from the chest. So, while I wouldn't recommend doing this, I changed my technique between the second and third sets and went back to using a floating rack. I haven't used this form in a while, but it still felt better immediately, so I'm just going to stick with it.

[asd]

You're an inspiration for someone like me

[SeanHerbison]

Alright, so I was gone for a wedding all weekend, and now I'm supposed to write down what I did Thursday before moving on to Monday. Problem is, I can't match my notes up with my video, and now I'm just confused. Ehhhh, oh well. I did some bench, deadlift, and chins. Moving on.

I put all my deadlift warm-up lifts in, rapid-fire style. Not something I'm planning on doing regularly, but it's an interesting way to visually compare bar speed.



I think I'm going to try going back to 4K next time, and then remove the fish-eye effect in editing.

Tuesday, 12 December

Comp Squat: 475x2x3
Bench: 305x2x3
Deadlift: 565x1x2
Chinup: BWx3x6

Squat: Hmmm. How exactly do you rate a set where the unrack feels like you're trying @11, the first rep looks/feels like @7, and then the second rep looks like @9 and feels like @10. I don't know, but I do know why it's so off.

Sleep: Yaaaaay. I mentioned to my doctor that I never sleep through the night and sometimes it takes me a long time to fall asleep, and wondered whether there was anything to do about that. It's unlikely that I have sleep apnea, since I don't snore or have other symptoms, but I just generally don't sleep well. He said I should try the sleep class they offer. Long story short, this seems to entail trying to fix a minor, chronic problem, by introducing a major, short term problem. Short story shorter, I'm very low on sleep right now.

Yeah, great lead up to maxing out. Wheeee...

[Hanley]

I think a drone (the Go Pro Karma?) would make for some epic lifting footage. I hereby give you permission to buy a drone.

[SeanHerbison]

I think a drone (the Go Pro Karma?) would make for some epic lifting footage. I hereby give you permission to buy a drone.

Thanks. I'll get right on that.

Wednesday, 20 December

Well, this didn't go as planned. I got sick Tuesday night, and that definitely didn't help. It's now Thursday and I'm getting over it, but my plan was to hit my openers, and I didn't even come close. I only made it to 405 on squat, and that's the first time since I don't know when that I wasn't entirely confident I'd come back up with it. Wheee.

[SeanHerbison]

Definitely adjusting my schedule here. I was planning on maxing out on Monday, but given how hard a few sets of 185 lb bench were today, I'm moving it to next Saturday. So hopefully next week goes more smoothly than this one.

[SeanHerbison]

Back to having something worth making a video for. Kind of. Close enough.



As I'm writing this, I'm trying to figure out fish-eye removal. I think the order I have to do this is: combine/edit video --> de-fisheye --> add text. Because taking away fisheye before text cuts it out of frame. I'm using Wondershare Filmora, but that only gives me 10 conversions before I have to buy it, I guess. Anyone have a good recommendation for this?

Meeeeh. Now that I see the end result, think I'll just stick to 2.7K. Too much work to bother with if it's not going to have noticeably better image quality. Either that or just accept fisheye, because I do like 4K.

Monday, 25 December

Comp Squat: 495x1x3
Comp Bench: 315x1x2
Comp Deadlift: 545x1x1
Press: 185x1x2

I'm feeling better to some extent, but still worse than the Monday before, which was already a bit off. But oh well. I'll at least do well enough to get some actual 1RMs to compare to e1RMs for the next cycle.

Oh! Also, something I've noticed/remembered a few times, but never when I'm writing this down. For whatever other ups and downs I've had recently, my knee pain has not been a limiting factor during any of the workouts over the past two months. It's not totally gone, but I rarely or never notice it during lifting, and it hasn't impacted my lifting. So that's cool.

[SeanHerbison]

Here are all the lifts I completed successfully. Because no one wants to watch failures that barely move.



Nothing special so far as video goes.

Monday, 30 December

Bodyweight: 246 lbs

Comp Squat: 495, 515, 525
Comp Bench: 315, 335, 350 (fail)
Comp Deadlift: 585, 615, 640 (fail)
Press: 185, 205, 225 (fail)

3-lift total: 1475 - 392 Wilks

Eh, I guess I'll take it. I'd mostly gotten over being sick, except for a little cough that's still hanging around. Overall, not what I was hoping for, but honestly about what I was expecting after the last couple weeks.

Squat: I was considering passing on my third squat, but then I watched the video of the second lift. I'm not sure whether that would've been passed at a meet, so I had to get a clearly good one. Well, "good". Legal, at least. I know my form went to crap (huge knee cave). I was aware of it and just let it happen to get the lift. Not a good training policy, but this was for a meet situation, however informal. And my knees feel fine, so it worked out.

Bench: I'm most disappointed here. I thought 350 would be a grind, but I didn't even come close. It didn't help that I screwed up the unrack and had to try it twice. If I had a handoff there's a chance I'd've gotten it, but who knows?

Deadlift: Well, I think that's a non-alternating hook grip PR at least. At least that's paying off. I wasn't distracted by my grip, and setup was easier.

Press: Oh. Alright then...

[Kregna]

615lb warm up/2nd attempt and 640 attempted! Jeez you're getting strong Sherby