Patrick's Novice Log

[mgil]

Adding to what @Hanley says, try to pinch the shoulder blades together as well.

[PatrickDB]

Adding to what @Hanley says, try to pinch the shoulder blades together as well.

What is the purpose of this? I have trouble doing this in the rack position without my elbows flaring out to the sides like crazy.

[mgil]

Adding to what @Hanley says, try to pinch the shoulder blades together as well.

What is the purpose of this? I have trouble doing this in the rack position without my elbows flaring out to the sides like crazy.

Okay. Put your arms into the rack position, and then shrug as hard as possible without letting the elbows flare out. This should help raise the chest a little better.

[PatrickDB]

Adding to what @Hanley says, try to pinch the shoulder blades together as well.

What is the purpose of this? I have trouble doing this in the rack position without my elbows flaring out to the sides like crazy.

Okay. Put your arms into the rack position, and then shrug as hard as possible without letting the elbows flare out. This should help raise the chest a little better.

Ah, ok, this makes more sense.

[PatrickDB]

Friday, January 26.

Bodyweight: 154.

Squat, beltless: 185x4, 205x4, 215x4, 220x2, 205x2.
CGBP: 135x4, 145x4, 155x3x4
Deadlift: 185x5, 215x5, 235x5
Chins: 30

Again, a good news/bad news kind of workout.

Good news: CGBP was good. The J.P. Cauchi tip about point the feet forward while benching was actually really useful. I'm refining my setup and felt a little tighter today. Chins felt great, almost like I was using a resistance band.

Bad news: my legs were dead today. My squat form felt funky, I was losing tightness and going too deep, and overall it felt like I was getting crushed by the weight. Couldn't get my brace game in gear. Had to abort a planned set of 220x4 because the first two reps were grinds. Made it up with two reps at 205, which were more grindy than I would have liked. Didn't have any juice by the time I hit the deadlift platform and couldn't get form dialed in on the warmups, so I just stopped and went home.

It's tempting to finger sleep for this, but upper body stuff was fine. I'm more inclined to say I went a little too hard Monday and Wednesday with the squats and may be carrying fatigue. Wednesday did represent a 30 pound increase from last week's front squats, after all. But in absolute terms it was still not a lot of weight. Who knows.

Anyway, onward and upward.

[PatrickDB]

Monday, January 29.

Bodyweight: 163

Squat, with belt: 185x5, 205x5, 215x2x5, 205x5
Bench: 135x5, 145x5, 155x5
Chins: 30

I've been fairly stressed recently. This is negatively impacting my ability to eat, sleep, and train appropriately. I went to the gym today, figured out I had zero gas in the tank, and cut things short and went home.

[mgil]

Still productive. It’s a long race.

[laikabear]

Squat, bench, and chins is isn't nothing!

Hope you feel better / whatever's stressing you out goes away.

[PatrickDB]

Thanks, both of you!

[PatrickDB]

Wednesday, January 31.

Bodyweight: 165.

Press: 105x5, 110x5, 115x4, 117x4x4
Front squat: 160x4x4
Curls: 25x3x10
DB row mgil style: 45x8, 55x3x8

Didn’t feel exceptionally good or bad today. Very routine session.

I split up my intended volume into 4s instead of 5s on the press to keep RPE down. Still jacked up my traps and made front squatting hard. Squat RPE was probably in the 9 range at the end. Hanley’s tips helped though. I also realized mgil’s tip was basically the same as Hanley’s countermovement tip.

I’m doing my rows like Gilchrest from now on. They feel better this way.

Going to finish out this “block” Friday (which was essentially me getting back to pre-Christmas levels of bodyweight and strength) and cook up some new programming this weekend.

[PatrickDB]

Friday, February 2.

Bodyweight: 164.

Squat: 185x3, 205x3, 215x4x3
Bench: 135x3, 145x3, 155x3, 160x4x3.
Deadlift: 225x3, 250x2x3

All of my toys from Pioneer came today, so I decided to ditch the last day of my “block” and just do a bunch of triples at 80% to have fun and try them out. On the bus back now and will post pics in the Pioneer gear thread soon.

The only technique note I have is that the "Japanese" bench setup (glute bridging on the bench and walking the legs down) feels great and I'm never going to back to the "scoot" method.

Also, while writing this I realized I forgot to do chins .

[platypus]

Also, while writing this I realized I forgot to do chins .

You don't have a doorway chinup thingy?

I thought every male between 14 and 37 had one by now. Worst case scenario, though, there's almost always something you can do chins on. Trees, monkey bars, rafters; you can even hang from your actual door and slide yourself up and down.

[Hanley]

I'm never going to back to the "scoot" method.

[eyeroll]

a bunch of triples at 80% to have fun and try them out.

How'd they feel?

[PatrickDB]

How'd they feel?

Really refreshing. Like Wednesday's "light day" feels. Just zip zip zip and you're done.

[PatrickDB]

I thought every male between 14 and 37 had one by now. Worst case scenario, though, there's almost always something you can do chins on. Trees, monkey bars, rafters; you can even hang from your actual door and slide yourself up and down.

It's 14 degrees outside and I don't trust this door.

I used to have a doorway chin bar, but it always felt a little unstable. Nothing serious ever happened, but there were a few close calls...

[PatrickDB]

How'd they feel?

Some footage is here. (The press is from Wednesday.) The ~115 pound woman giving me a handoff squats and pulls more than I do.

Deadlifts got a little messed up because Baraki wants me to do the "pull the slack out of the bar" thing, and I suck at it.

Low back position on the squat side angle also looks suspicious, but I'll see what the good doctor says.

I figured out how to breathe while squatting finally, so that's cool.

[mgil]

Form is looking pretty dialed-in. Taking your time to get form solid and making gains where you can is going to result in you being a very strong dude.

[PatrickDB]

Form is looking pretty dialed-in. Taking your time to get form solid and making gains where you can is going to result in you being a very strong dude.

Thanks. Baraki mentioned I need to ditch pulling the slack out of the bar by using it as a counterweight, since that's resulting in my weight being too far behind the bar (you see me rock forward on every rep). Just pull straight up (or if I'm going to do the counterweight thing, at least find my balance before pulling). He also said to stay tighter at the bottom of the squats and gave me a cue for that, and to get some more shrug at the top of my press. His doesn't think what's happening to my low back in the squats is at all concerning.

But yeah. We're making progress. His emails with comments were a lot ... longer ... a few weeks ago.

Time to hop on that Hanley programming and get swole.

[Hanley]

Squat: 185x3, 205x3, 215x4x3
Bench: 135x3, 145x3, 155x3, 160x4x3.
Deadlift: 225x3, 250x2x3

About how long did this take?

[PatrickDB]

Squat: 185x3, 205x3, 215x4x3
Bench: 135x3, 145x3, 155x3, 160x4x3.
Deadlift: 225x3, 250x2x3

About how long did this take?

Too long, but I'm not a good person for judging time. I end up taking rest periods that are way too long, weighing myself, fiddling with my camera setup, talking to people, flagging down spotters, fighting for the deadlift platform, etc. I'm consistently at the gym for a little over two hours regardless of programming.

You should really ask your other test subjects about this.

But, if I were motivated to be time efficient, I think I could probably do it in 1:30, assuming 4-5 minute rests.