Cole's Strength Log

[cole]

I see that 500 lbs deadlift coming!

I really hope so this cycle. been toooo long now.

[cole]

2/21

Squat w/belt - 405x1@8, 365x5@9, 325x5, 325x5, 325x5
1ct Bench - 315x1@8, 285x4@9, 265x4, 265x4, 265x4





- I was a little rusty on the top singles, but the strength was there. I gotta get a little more mid foot on the squats and use more posterior, and I need to get a little more arch and steady pressing (one side was stronger than the other) on bench. All in all I did this at 8am and had to rush through it so i think it went well.

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2/22

DL (conv) - 430x1@8, 390x5@9, 350x5, 350x5, 350x5
Bench w/chains - 205x5, 225x5, 235x5@9, 225x5, 225x5



- single looked a little sloppy. i had some low back fatigue from yesterdays squats. i suspect it will take a few weeks to get used to pulling the day after heavy squats. i wanted a little more today, i was hoping 455 would be a baseline @8 but im not there yet. - also, i didnt eat near enough protein yesterday so that may have affected me negatively. my wife has been on a chef micheal symon trip lately buying his books/ watching his shows....so i ate vegetarian. it was really tasty i just never felt satifisfied, thinkning about adding in a pm protein shake as well from now on, but i already have substantial BW and im actually trying to lose about 20 lbs

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2/24

Squat w/chains - 295x4, 305x4, 315x4@9, 300x4
Press - 145x5, 152x5, 160x5@10, 145x5, 145x5
Wide Grip Bench - 175x10, 185x10, 195x10, 185x10



-damn good session this morning. squats feeling really strong. lots of pump on the benching and pressing, im not accustomed to higher rep work but i liked it. got advice from Jordan and i will MTFU and do slot 3 from now on. really trying to push hard this cycle for a press PR and prob went too heavy. i knew on the 2nd set at 152 that was closer to @9, but stubbornly went ahead and grinded out 160 for five barely got the last one. cant believe i actually did. i will press 225 this cycle!

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2/25

DL w/chains (+90lbs) - 325x4, 345x4, 365x4@10, 325x4
Close Grip Bench - 265x4, 275x4, 285x4@9, 265x4, 265x4
SLDL - 205x10, 225x10, 245x10, 225x10

- Hell of a week of training. feeling good. overshot top set on DL today, will scale back next week. DL normally about 30-40 lbs over squat movements. i guess its easy to forget the chains weigh an additional 90 lbs. bench getting strong again. would like a 365 bench by end of cycle. would like a 500 DL by end of cycle as well. now time to eat and sleep!

[cole]

2/28

Squat w/belt - 405x1@8, 365x5@9, 325x5, 325x5, 325x5, 325x5
1ct Bench - 315x1@8, 290x4@9, 270x4, 270x4, 270x4, 270x4
Press (no belt) - 95x10 x4 sets

- one of the hardest sessions i remember doing in a while, felt really good though. still carrying some fatigue from last week at least lower body, can tell bc i wasnt quite as explosive on squat as usual. bench is kicking ass, went up 5 lbs on back off work. will go up 5 pounds on top single next week for bench. now i get to paint my house for the rest of the day, sweet...

[Wilhelm]

Lifts looking good, Cole.

Bench looked easy.

[cole]

Lifts looking good, Cole.

Bench looked easy.

Thank wilhelm. im feeling really motivated and strong right now. the goal is to pump the brakes a bit and ride it out, rather than going balls to the wall just to burnout and "deload" or adjust my programming. ive always struggled with consistency, i need to take a page out of your book.

[cole]

3/1

DL (conv) - 435x1@8, 395x5@9, 355x5, 355x5, 355x5, 355x5
Bench w/chains - 205x5, 215x5, 225x5@9, 215x5, 215x5
High Bar Squat (no belt) - 185x10, 205x10, 225x10

-Absolutely smoked after this session, have some low back fatigue but still able to get 435 for a pretty easy top single. the rest of the pulls went really slow but steady. strength is there just a little sluggish as fatigue is hampering my explosiveness. same thing with bench, actually dropped top set weight by 10 pounds from last week but im ok with it, trying to keep with rpe rather than pushing linear progression when its not there. one thing im considering is lightening the loads on the beltless (slot 3) movements at the end of the session, minimizing rest time and making it more of a body building, mind-muscle connection than treating it like a strength movement like im currently doing. 225 for a high bar squat, even beltless, is really easy but not after 30 reps lol and im not tough enough to push hard on 3 movements 4x a week, sorry but im not baraki lol

[cole]

3/3

Squat w/chains (+90) - 275x4, 295x4, 315x4@9, 295x4, 295x4
Press - 145x5, 152x5, 160x5@9, 150x5, 150x5
WG Bench - 175x10 x4 sets

-Very nice session today, weather was awesome in the garage, wasnt in a rush, felt great on squats even though i had some reservations going in due to monday and tuesdays sessions being very strenous and leaving me with some residual fatigue. press felt mmuch better this week and i included video. still a very weak lift from a technical standpoint, i have the least amount of experience with it. i forgot to look at my E1RM on RTS app but i believe its somewhere in the 185-195 range which means i somehow have 40 lbs to go this cycle...might be unrealistic but ill chase it. in other news, trying frantically to get my 2 littles in daycare this summer so i can actually get some work done and continue to lift on my schedule.

[cole]

3/4

DL w/chains (+90) - 305x4, 325x4, 345x4@9, 305x4, 305x4
CG Bench - 265x4, 275x4, 285x4@9, 265x4, 265x4
SLDL (no belt) - 225x10 x4 sets

- not the greatest session, i got the work done but i lacked focus, wasnt rating rpe well, misjudged load on pulls, felt a little lower back tweak...all in all not great but at least i did it. now i can rest for 2 days

[cole]

3/7

Squat w/belt - 415x1@8.5, 375x5@9, 335x5x5
1ct Bench - 320x1@8, 295x4@9, 275x4x5
Press (no belt) - 95x10 x4 sets

- this was about 2 hours, and the most amount of work im willing to do in one session. squat single was goofy looking but not "hard". bench single better than expected, smooth.
- broke the 10k tonnage for squat volume which was almost a volume PR. total squat stress for the day was 4.5 RTS units, a PR so far. not sure if thats a good or bad thing yet.

[JohnHelton]

total squat stress for the day was 4.5 RTS units, a PR so far. not sure if thats a good or bad thing yet.

Yep. That is a lot!

[MattimusMaximus]

Looking good up in here!

[cole]

Looking good up in here!

Thank you sir

[cole]

3/8

DL (conv) - 445x1@8, 405x5@9, 365x5x5
Bench w/chains - 205x5, 215x5, 230x5@8, 215x5x2

-Went to do my 4 sets of beltless high bar squats for my 3rd slot and it felt horrible so I ditched them. This still took 90 minutes, which is pretty long for me. I am lucky right now becasue I have more free time but next week when my kids are home from spring break I wont be able to leave them alone for that long. And this summer I have them in camp on Tuesdays and Thursdays so I may be moving days around to something like training Sat,Sun,Tues,Thurs. which is totally fine. I sound like a broken record but I just hate doing the 3rd slot high rep movement, high reps have always felt like shit to me and seem to wear me down more ie: I get aches and pains and feel sluggish. I am feeling really strong right now though even with some aches like my left delt, SI joint and hips....Pretty typical with the higher volulme and frequency that Im getting right now.

[cole]

Im on week 4 of BBM Strength III and things are going great especially for bench, unfortunately i seem to have developed some left delt pain and loss of ROM. It doesnt feel muscular, it feels joint/tendon/rotator cuff related almost like an impingement. Hurts to raise and lower, but mostly hurts to rotate back and forth like throwing a baseball or to raise the delt like when you do a side raise with a DB. I knew I should have omitted benching yesterday but like a dumbass i went ahead and did it any way. sucks bc my bench has been doing really well, i think i could have got to PR territory and also I wanted a 225 pound press this cycle. I am going to take thurs and fri off upper body and just do lower lifts. maybe next monday i will be good to go for a low stress bench day and ill have time to get back on track. boo hoo

[JohnHelton]

I'm sorry to hear that. Sucks when you were having so much momentum.

@MattimusMaximus, how does Cole's description of pain compare to what you had recently?

[MattimusMaximus]

@JohnHelton @cole Sounds a lot like my pec strain/tear. I tried pushing through it and it got much worse until the point just benching the bar was painful and could barely raise my arm to open the fridge. I’d definitely back off.

[JohnHelton]

@JohnHelton @cole Sounds a lot like my pec strain/tear. I tried pushing through it and it got much worse until the point just benching the bar was painful and could barely raise my arm to open the fridge. I’d definitely back off.

Yes. A little Starr rehab protocol and you are a good as before in 4-6 weeks. For me it took about 4 weeks, and I really hadn't lost strength.

[cole]

3/10

Squat w/ Chains - up tp 225 with R and L hip pain
Press - bar x 15 for 2 sets (shoulder rehab)

- Well I can say definitively this is the most dinged up ive ever been. Seems like it hit me all at once; hip pointers both sides, left shoulder bursitis...somehow through all this my low back is fine lol. This is part of the game, Im not injured, I just over reached the last couple of weeks. im going to throw in the towel for sessions 3 and 4 this week and im sure by monday ill be feeling better. the bright side of today was that the pressing went well and i didnt have too much discomfort doing them.

[JohnHelton]

You might think about knocking a couple sets off your squat and deadlift workouts. Those 4+ total stress workouts are killer. I had one last week for squat, and it wrecked me. I've been fighting sciatica since then. No longer 25 years old.

[cole]

You might think about knocking a couple sets off your squat and deadlift workouts. Those 4+ total stress workouts are killer. I had one last week for squat, and it wrecked me. I've been fighting sciatica since then. No longer 25 years old.

Haha yeah, its funny bc for the last couple weeks doing this BBM program Ive known deep down that i was doing way too much and that there was gonna be consequences. I guess i must think im 25 still. most likely ill be re-vamping my programming, again....its just ive done RTS 2x and BBM 2x and never have had any good results. i cant seem to implement the right the combination of volume, intensity, and frequency. My RPE meter must be broken.