Dean's lifting log

[deant]

Monday 1/13

Bench: 1-315, 1-335, 1-355 and 4x4-295
Hex Bar DL: 3x5-420
DB Press: 3x8-55
Internal and external banded rotations: 3x15

[JohnHelton]

Bench is getting up there!

[deant]

Bench is getting up there!

Thanks John. Yeah, bench is starting to move and it looks like these banded rotations have fixed my shoulder problems. Hanley is a lifting guru.

[deant]

Wednesday 1/15

Bench: 2x7-265 and 15-225 (tweaked shoulder Monday...still tweaked today)
Squat: 3x7-340

Pro tip: never report an injury as fixed. Report it as ongoing/improving because as soon as I think it is fixed, it breaks. ha ha

[deant]

Friday 1/17

Bench: warmup to 5-225 and 1 set of DB bench. Shoulder seems minor...I'm going to give it a few easy days and see.
DL: 1-455 and 4x4-405 (3min)
Shoulder circuit: 3x10-5 different exercises with no rest.

Question: Anyone else getting everyone in their life telling them to back off and just be happy with your current strength level? I've been ignoring these people for 3 years now, but they have increased the badgering over the last few months. Apparently, my limit is 3 years to push against the tide...I need a powerup.

[JohnHelton]

Friday 1/17

Bench: warmup to 5-225 and 1 set of DB bench. Shoulder seems minor...I'm going to give it a few easy days and see.
DL: 1-455 and 4x4-405 (3min)
Shoulder circuit: 3x10-5 different exercises with no rest.

Question: Anyone else getting everyone in their life telling them to back off and just be happy with your current strength level? I've been ignoring these people for 3 years now, but they have increased the badgering over the last few months. Apparently, my limit is 3 years to push against the tide...I need a powerup.

My parents think I am totally nuts. They can't even watch me lift without being terrified. I don't listen to them. I feel like my lifting is such a good outlet for my drive and internal competitiveness. I fashion myself as an unemotional, logical person. However, I've come to realize that I follow my passions (like motorcycling). At this point in my life, I've decided not to fight that. If I want to do something, then I'm going to do it. On the flip side, if I don't want to do something (like running), then I won't do it.

[hector]

Question: Anyone else getting everyone in their life telling them to back off and just be happy with your current strength level? I've been ignoring these people for 3 years now, but they have increased the badgering over the last few months. Apparently, my limit is 3 years to push against the tide...I need a powerup.

I dont know anyone who lifts.
Or anyone who cares one way or the other about my lifting.
So I cant relate.

But what I will say, you don't need that kind of negativity in your life!

Also, you can't stop, you have that 400 bench coming!

[deant]

Yeah, thanks for chiming in @hector and @JohnHelton. It is always helpful to know that other people are fighting the same battles.

FWIW - my wife is the biggest naysayer. In fairness to her, she has earned the right to say it because I have proven time and again that my filter to keep me from injury is completely broken. Hanley has really helped me here...everything inside me said to push harder on Wednesday and just either get the reps or break my stupid shoulder. Then, I recall Hanley giving me a "meh, it happens" after lamenting a terrible workout.

End of the day, I'm forming a new plan. I finish Hanley's coaching on Jan 25th so I'm needing to figure something out. Here is my long term plan:

Squat: box squats twice a week until my knee pain is gone. After that, I'll squat Mon & Fri where normal heavy squat Monday on a Hepburn accelerated progression of 2s to 3s increasing a rep each week on 2 sets so I add weight every 3 weeks. (hard lifting for 3 weeks then a deload week)

DL: I'm going to steal Stenson's singles progression but only doing DL once per week (Wednesday). I'll add in Hex Bar on Friday when I have an accessory squat day. (same here with 3 hard weeks and then deload week)

Bench: I'm going to combine Hepburn, Hanley and overload. Monday will be Hanley day where I do 7 sets of 5 or something like that. Wednesday I will work to a heavy single in the .2m/s range and finish with weekly alternating overload slingshot and chains in various rep ranges. Friday will be back to a 3-4 Hepburn progression where I'll add weight every 3 weeks. (so 3 hard weeks and then a deload week). Around 75ish reps per week.

I'm convinced that I just need a deload every 3-4 weeks. I like the idea of a monthly plan so 3 on and 1 off seems to work. My deload weeks will be stolen from Leah Lutz programming where she always had 3 ramping sets of 5 at RPE 6, 7 and 8 for the major lifts.

I've been lifting for 3 1/2 years and I finally feel confident that I know the best path forward. I'm beyond thankful to Hanley for this...dude has been awesome. He puts all his thoughts out on the site so it is easy to see the why to his programming.

[JohnHelton]

Sounds like a plan.

[hector]

I think it's a solid plan. But I'm biased, because squatting on M and F and deadlifting on W is exactly what I do too.

I look forward to seeing how it goes!

[deant]

Monday 1/20

Bench: 3x10-225 (these felt decent...shoulder is very sore and tight. Maybe only a little bit injured! yay!)
Hex Bar DL: 4x6-395 (3min)
HC: 2x12-30 and 10-35
Shoulder circuit: 3x10- (3 exercises) no rest

[deant]

Wednesday 1/22

DB bench: 10-65, 12-65 and 15-65 all <5 RPE Shoulder feels solid.
Box squat: 3x5-315 I need a lower box...I made it 14" and that is too high. I'm going to try 12" No knee pain though so might be the right direction
DB rows: 3x10-65

My boys turned 18 yesterday. Good young men...I feel blessed.

[deant]

Friday 1/24

Bench: 3x6-265 (2min)
DL: 1-405, 1-455, 1-500 and 4x2-420 (2min on doubles)
Shoulder circuit: 3x10 (no rest) ext and internal rotation, DB row w/ 65lb and DB side raises w/ 10lb

Today is my last day with @Hanley. Dude is an awesome coach. He has been programming for me for the past 1 year and 9 months. In that time, I've set lifetime PRs on bench, deadlift and hex bar DL (FWIW - I'm 50 and before Hanley all my lifetime PRs were from when I was 24-25). He got my bench unstuck after being there for over a year. He helped me though multiple bouts of "icky" shoulder, a partial quad tear, pulled hamstrings and funky back. Most of all, he helped me to adjust my mindset so that I don't sweat the bad days and am not always pushing beyond what is reasonable. I finally get that this journey is longer than a marathon...it takes a lifetime to complete and rushing it is not helpful. Thank you John!

If anyone is looking for a coach, Hanley is first class...I cannot recommend him highly enough.

[deant]

Monday 1/27

Box Squat: 8x2-335 (1min)
Bench: 7x5-245 (2min)
Shoulder circuit: 3x12 (no rest) external band, internal band and DB side raise with 10lb

[deant]

Wednesday 1/29

Deadlift: 8x1-425 (1min)
Bench: 1-295, 1-315 (add slingshot) 4x4-315 (2min)
Pullup super set with Pendlay row: 3x5 and 3x5-185 (2min)

The pullup supersets with Pendlay rows was way harder than I anticipated. It was a good workout so I'm keeping it in but I thought 5s would be a bit easy...no so much.

[deant]

Monday 2/3

Box Squat: 8x2-340 (1min) (box is at 12.5" and I think I'm going to lower it to 12" for Friday)
Bench: 8x5-245 (2min) bar speed is getting better
Shoulder circuit: 3x12 external and internal bands, DB side raise with 10 and DB back raise with 10 (30 seconds)

Box squats are definitely making my knees feel better. Skipped last Friday and I'm glad I did. Everything felt pretty normal today.

[deant]

Wednesday 2/5

Deadlift: 9x1-425 (1min or all sets done during single playing of "Master of Puppets")
Bench: 1-315, 1-335 (add slingshot) 4x4-320 (2min)
Pullup superset with Pendlay row: 3x5 (185lb for Pendlay) with 2min rest

[deant]

Friday 2/7

Hex Bar DL: 5x5-410 (3min)
Bench: 4x4-275 and 2x3-275 (2min)
Box squat: 3x5-315 (3min)

I finally found the box height that I plan to use. My home made box is 12" tall and that makes the top of my quad slope downhill from knee to hip when on the box. I think I'll use this as my primary height and rotate in some 13" boxes for a week here and there. I think I'm still at or below competition depth at 13" so I'm really hoping this helps me develop explosive power out of the bottom. Bonus: My knees feel pretty good.

[deant]

Monday 2/10

Box Squat: pushed to tomorrow...weird hip thing.
Bench: 9x5-245 (2min)
Shoulder circuit: 4x10 (3 exercises) no rest

[deant]

Wednesday 2/12

Deadlift: 10x1-425 (1min) got faster as I went. My setup is improving.
Bench: 1-315, 1-335, 1-355 (add slingshot) 4x4-325 (2min)
Box Squat: 8x2-345 (1min)

So my heavy bench single is getting faster...on the fast side of @9 for me.

FWIW - I'm a lazy lifter. Because the work set rest times were short, I was totally farting around wasting time on the warm ups. ha ha