Barry's training log...500/350/600

[Barry]

Saturday 9/19/20 HLM week 9 Medium day

Squat 325 4x5. These felt pretty good. Recovery isn't quite 100% but felt MUCH better than Heavy day.
Bench 220 x 6,6,8,8@8. These felt really good. Rx was 4x5 and the extra reps were butter.
RDL 340 x 5,5,8. Same as always. First set feels kinda heavy. 2nd set feels 50 lbs lighter. 8 reps still easy.
Dips BW x 12
+35 3x12. These are still pretty easy but I'm not worried about setting PR's and don't want to aggravate shoulders or elbows. So I'll add 5-10 lbs a week here. I'm also keeping in mind that I'm already adding extra bench volume every workout. I'm pretty much planning on doing maximum recoverable volume on upper body going forward, mainly in the form of flat BB bench, press, and dips. I might get the lat/row attachment for my new power rack someday...howevery the only two exercises I see myself doing will be tricep cable pushdowns and seated rows. Since I didn't order it with my rack, which would have gotten me free shipping, the price will be a bit over $500 instead of $350. That's a lot of money to add two lifts with questionable carry over/benefit.

However, I did just splurge a bit on a totally unnecessary, superfluous lifting item...a pair of red Cerakote Rogue aluminum collars. $75 with tax and shipping I think. I know, wtf right? Anyways, they are super nice and actually clamp down amazingly tight. Check out Coop's review of them on Garage Gym Reviews....he puts 135 lbs of plates on, stands the barbell upright, then jumps up and down on the plates and the collar doesn't budge. Does that really matter? Probably not much.

Dips:

[Barry]

Updated my first post with a bunch of my lifetime PR's. It's been so long since I've set a PR that I really couldn't remember for sure what they were other than 1RM. This will give me some more goals to work towards over the upcoming year of training.

[oldguy]

Barry - impressive lifts. Also impressive ( if you are married) convincing spouse that $ 75 collars are a good deal

Nice set up. I have short PR 4000 too - a tank.

[Barry]

Barry - impressive lifts. Also impressive ( if you are married) convincing spouse that $ 75 collars are a good deal

Nice set up. I have short PR 4000 too - a tank.

Thanks. Is your rack bolted down? I haven't bolted mine...little leary of drilling into the basement floor....house is 90 years old and I don't know how deep the cement was poured. Waiting on the Rear Stabilizer Brace to come in which is supposed to improve stability a lot when the rack isn't bolted down. And yes, married. As far as the collars, I don't indulge all that often, which allows me to indulge when I want to

[oldguy]

Barry - impressive lifts. Also impressive ( if you are married) convincing spouse that $ 75 collars are a good deal

Nice set up. I have short PR 4000 too - a tank.

Thanks. Is your rack bolted down? I haven't bolted mine...little leary of drilling into the basement floor....house is 90 years old and I don't know how deep the cement was poured. Waiting on the Rear Stabilizer Brace to come in which is supposed to improve stability a lot when the rack isn't bolted down. And yes, married. As far as the collars, I don't indulge all that often, which allows me to indulge when I want to

Mine not bolted and have no reason to. Have rear stabilizer and 48 inch depth.
Not as strong as you do weights aren’t as heavy but I do slam the squats pretty hard when re- racking. No problem

[Barry]

Tuesday 9/22/2020 HLM week 10 Heavy Day BW 190.3

Squat 377 5x2
Bench 255 5x2
Pendlay Row 230 5x5
Dips +45 3x10

[Barry]

Thursday 9/24/2020 HLM Week 10 Light day

Squat 295 3x5
Press 145 5x5
Deadlift 460 3x3
Chins 3x12

Ok, so maybe just listing weight, sets, reps is kinda boring, so. Squats felt pretty good although I'm battling some right glute and right outer thigh pain. This weight felt good. Went a little deeper to get some stretch reflex and it actually felt a little better.

Press is getting hard. If 150 goes next week, it will be very very hard. I might add reps and trying ramping up 5 lbs every 3-4 weeks once I start getting stuck. If I can add 5 lbs/month on my press work sets for the next year, I'll be pretty thrilled.

Deadlift felt good. I got a little loose on the 2nd set and it didn't feel great on my low back. Got tight for third set and it felt good. Tough to estimate RPE but maybe 6-7? Next week is doubles and I'm debating if I should pull on the deadlift bar to get a little practice in on it, or just stick with the power bar until I test. Any thoughts?

Chins; wasn't going for max reps, but rather slow and controlled with full arm and shoulder extension.

[Barry]

Saturday 9/26/2020 HLM Week 10 Medium Day

Today was a really good training day. I feel as though I have accumulated a lot of fatigue and am not feeling fully recovered at this point going into my workout, especially for squats. Since the AMRAP set of deadlifts I did, I feel like I've been in a bit of a recovery deficit. Eating plenty, sleep is pretty good. I'm sure I am *supposed* to have accumulated some fatigue at this point in the program, I just feel like I made things worse with that idiocy. But its not a disaster. My body felt a little rough today but after finishing squats, it was downhill and the workout felt good. Next week, although heavy, should really start allowing me to recover since I am dropping to singles and doubles. Elbows and shoulders are tolerating the extra upper body work, although I've started wearing sleeves to keep my elbows happy.

Squat 332 4x5
Bench 227 x 6,7,7,8 E1RM 290ish? I'd be happy with this considering training max is 265, and 275 was most recent max after Smolov Jr.
RDL 350 3x5
Dips 45 2x10

Only four workouts left before I test.

[Barry]

Tuesday 9/29/2020 HLM Week 11 Heavy day

Squat 390 5x1. (standard notation here of sets x reps, so 5 singles). These felt HAF. Not holding out a lot of hope that I will put up a big number here.
Bench 262 5x1. Went up ten lbs from programmed weight....smooth reps. Training max 265.
Pendlay Row 225 5x5

Training max for squat is 410, I had my sites set on 430-440....I don't think thats happening. 410-420 the way things feel now. Bench I predict 275-285 based on todays singles. Deadlift no idea yet. Thursdays singles are 475 so we'll see how those feel.

[Barry]

Thursday 10/01/2020 HLM Week 11 Light Day

Squat 308 2x5. Body feeling rough
Press 150x5 PR for the year.
145 4x6 Happy with this.
Deadlift 475 2x2. I was hoping these would feel easy; they didn't. Pulled with my new deadlift bar for the first time

The way this weeks heavy squat and deadlifts felt, I'm not feeling optimistic about test day. Maybe I'm just unrecovered and will be much stronger on test day after a week of mostly rest? We'll see. Form felt a little off with deadlift bar, not sure if *because* of bar.

Deadlifts:

[AdamSkillin]

May not have felt easy, but they definitely looked easy. I predict testing will go very well assuming nothing crazy happens between now and then!

[JohnHelton]

I will start following here, Barry. Welcome to the forum. Good lifting.

[Hanley]

May not have felt easy, but they definitely looked easy

+1

Those were silly-fast for 95ish%

[Barry]

May not have felt easy, but they definitely looked easy. I predict testing will go very well assuming nothing crazy happens between now and then!

Thanks Adam, I hope your right.

I will start following here, Barry. Welcome to the forum. Good lifting.

Helton, thanks!

May not have felt easy, but they definitely looked easy

+1

Those were silly-fast for 95ish%

Well, when I watch it back, they did move a little better than how they *felt*.

[Barry]

Saturday 10/03/2020 HLM week 11 medium day BW 192 lbs

Squat 350 4x4.
Bench 235 4x6. I was tempted to do a heavy single at 275 but elbows are cranky so decided not to. 265 is training max. 275 is most recent 1rm.
RDL 355 3x5. Again, first set felt very heavy. Second set felt way lighter, and by the third set, I could have done 8-10 reps.

OK, last set of squats was 350x6@8. These started out feeling a little rough, a little heavy, and again I really think/hope its just all the accumulated fatigue Ive built up. So I decided to grab a couple extra reps on the last set. I think the last set may have actually felt the best, so this gives me hope that once recovered I might actually put up a number I'll be content with. 350x6@8 gives an e1rm of 445, which Im POSITIVE I cannot do. Ill be ok with 425-430ish.

One workout next week on Wednesday, squat and bench 3x3, then test all lifts next Sunday October 11. Ill probably test press as well just to get a ballpark on 1rm. Maybe 170ish?

Im thinking openers:

Squat 410(training max)
Bench 275(old 1RM)
Deadlit 500(training max)

Or maybe just say screw it, 425/285/525 or bust?

[Barry]

Wednesday 10/7/2020 HLM week 12

Squat 310 3x3
Bench 210 3x3

That's it til Sunday. Test day.

[Barry]

Sunday 10/11/2020

HLM Test Day
Training maxes 410/265/500

Squat:
405x1
430x1
440x1. +30
Bench:
250x1 kind of last warmup
285x1 +10-20
295 x fail
Deadlift:
475x1
525x1
540x1 +40
Press:
165x1
175x1 not very hard
180 x fail. ??

440/285/540 for a 1265 total, 374/416(age) wilks. So plus 90 lbs on training maxes.

I hit my stretch goal on squat and deadlift, so I'm very very pleased with that. I wanted 290-295 on bench so a *little* disappointed but not terrible. 295 wasn't even close, probably should have tried 290.

From here, I'd like to add about 60 lbs per cycle, 20/15/25 for squat/bench/deadlift. I can run three more HLM cycles before I turn 50 and this should get me very close to my 500/350/600 goal, although bench will very likely fall quite a bit short. 325 might be more realistic but I'll stick with the aggressive goal.

60 lbs to go on squat to hit goal
65 lbs to go on bench
60 lbs to go on deadlift

This week will be active recovery with a light day Wednesday, medium day Friday, than restart the program the following week. Strongly considering attempting 2 Smolov Jr bench cycles for this round of HLM. So HLM for squat and deadlift but Smolov Jr for bench. We'll see, it may not work well. I dunno. May just do HLM as written this time and see if I get the 15-20 lbs I want on bench so I can progress my press as well. I'll try to post videos of the lifts....buried the 440 squat, and deadlift went pretty smooth.

[JohnHelton]

Congrats on a great test day!

[Wilhelm]

Very nice. \o/

[Barry]

Congrats on a great test day!

Thank you. Next cycle will be interesting due to the large increase in training maxes.