Defeating My Brother In Glorious Lifting 2.0

[brettj]

This is a continuation of my old log from the Starting Strength forums. I decided to move it here, as I'll explain below.

First though, I am a 29yo male from Canada. 6'1 and ~218 pounds. I have been training for about 2 years now and recently competed in my first powerlifting meet in November. I started with SSLP, then TM, and have now been following programming from BBM for a while. Current best lifts: 455 squat, 463 deadlift, 264 bench. I think I've pressed 175 or something, but haven't really trained it seriously since this summer when I bought a house, and built a gym in my basement. My ceiling is too low to press properly...

The schtick for my old log was that I was competing with my brother to see who could squat 405x5 first. Victory video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4z-kHjl0YI. Then we had a bet to for best Wilks at our powerlifting meet. I won. We currently have no bet.

Right now I am running a cardio/endurance block from BBM. Basically 3 days of abbreviated lifting and 3 days of cardio a week (sprints,LISS and then tempo). Maybe I'll type out what I'm doing in another post later. Been running it for about 6 weeks now. Strength has been mostly static, although bench has gone down a bit. I've lost 10lbs bodyweight. I don't have a metric to measure my cardio, but definitely significantly improved. I'm applying for the police and training for their fitness test. Kind of looking forward to getting it over with so I can get back to strength training. I really want to hit a 5 plate squat and deadlift this year.

As noted above, I used to post my log on the Starting Strength forums but after stumbling onto this one I decided to switch. I'm fairly disgusted with Rip's behavior over there at this point, and consequently I don't really want to contribute over there anymore. Not that I really contributed much - I mostly just write my log and follow some of the training/programming discussions, but I'd rather do it somewhere where an egotistical old crank isn't throwing childish tantrums. Really sad because reading SSBBT was almost a life changer for me, and I used to get a lot of value out of reading old posts in Rip's Q/A, but he hasn't aged well. I don't know if doesn't realize how much damage he's doing to his brand, or just doesn't care at this point. I remember seeing one of their Ask Rip videos recently where Rip somewhat candidly admitted that what keeps him going nowadays is mostly anger. It shows. Everyone who seemed to know anything about training/programming seems to have left for here so this seems to be a better place to lurk on discussions and write my little log.

Anyways, maybe I'll copy and paste my old log into here at some point. I like having it, and I'm worried about Rip deleting the whole forum in a fit, honestly.

[Wilhelm]

Welcome, @brettj!

[mgil]

Glad to see you here, @brettj!

[cole]

Kind of have to agree with you on the overall attitudes of those in charge at SS and it also disappointed me quite a bit bc like you I really learned a lot from his model. Anyway, good to have you here at exodus

[brettj]

Thanks for the welcome posts everyone!

Here's my training schedule right now:

Mon: Squat x1@8, x5 for 2-4 sets @8, Press with same rep scheme as squats, 7min chin up block
Tues: 30s sprints x10 1:3 work/rest ratio
Weds: Deadlift x1@8 and x5 for 2-4 sets @8, CGBP x8 @8 for 3 sets, 7min row block
Thurs: 35-40m LISS, I try to keep my heart rate between 120-130
Fri: Bench x1@8 x5 for 2-4 sets, Beltless Squat 8x3 @8, 7min pull up block
Sat: Tempo run 4min x3 with 2min rest between

This is mostly based off of the BBM endurance block, but rather than follow their 7 week progression I've just been running it like this weekly. I have no idea when I'll have to do the police fitness test so I'm just trying to maintain strength with this scheme while improving my cardio. I wish I had tried to measure this in some way, because it's insane how quickly this improved. Closest metric I have is my tempo runs maybe - I'm able to do 4 min straight at 8mph on the treadmill where I started at around 6.5.

The most noticeable thing is how little rest I require between sets now on my main lifts. I used be totally gassed and push the full prescribed 5min every time, but I can bang squat sets out with as little as 3min rest now sometimes. When I do the strength block again I am definitely going to actually do the cardio this time, since I can see how it would make the workouts a lot easier to get through...

[Allentown]

Welcome, and cool to see someone doing cardio 3x Week here.

[brettj]

last week:

Mon: Squat 415x1 then 365x5x2, Press 155x1 then 135x5x2, 7min chinups
Tues: Played hockey for 40min at work and counted this as LISS
Wed: Deadlift 425x1 then 365x5x3, Press 155x1 then 135x5x3, Dumbbell press 60x8x3 65x8
Thurs: was supposed to do sprints but was sick
Fri: Squat: 275x8, 285x8x2, Bench 245x1 then 215x5x3, Pullups for 7min
Sat: Airdyne sprints 30sx10

Today: Squat 425x1 then 355x5x3, CGBP 155x8 then 165x8x3, 23 chinups in 7min

[brettj]

Monday:

squat: 425x1 then 355x5x3
CGBP: 155x8, 165x8x3
23 chinups in 7min

Tuesday:

30min LISS on bike, heart rate over 120, forgot how far I went

Wednesday:

Deadlift 425x1 then 355x5x3
Press: 155x1, 165x1 then 135x5x3

Today: planning to do a tempo run at work, 4minx3 with 2min rest

[brettj]

Thursday: tempo run as noted above

Friday:

Bench 245x1, 215x5x3
Squat: 275x8, 295x8x2
16 pull ups in 7 min

Today: 30s sprintx10

[brettj]

Right so this log is pretty boring for the moment. Basically this week I did exactly the same thing as last week almost. Might not even post any of this until I'm back doing a strength block. I'm not getting any stronger or weaker it seems, so I just lift the same thing every week (x1@8 and 3x5@8 on the main lifts) and do my cardio.

[brettj]

Switched to 4 days a week of cardio, adding a second day of LISS in and sort of combining the last two days. I'm actually pretty bagged after a couple of weeks of this, so I might use something I saw posted in the training forum for my weight training while I do this.

[brettj]

Squat: 350x5rx3s
Bench: 205x5rx3s
Chins: 5sx3r

Basically doing 2 days a week based on a program sketch Hanley posted in the PT forum as an in season sports program. This is the Hypertrophy/Strength combo day. The other day is a Power day later in the week.

Besides that I'm doing one day of HIIT on the air bike, 2 days LISS, and one tempo run a week.

[brettj]

Also I'm really following this discussion about "moderated intra-set fatigue" in the PT forum with interest. When I'm finally done with this fitness test and get back to strength training, I'd like to take this approach. Finally submitting my application tomorrow, so hopefully the end is in sight.

[brettj]

Also my current weight is 215lbs. And this is my tenth post so maybe I can read all the current shit-talking about what's going on over at StSt.

[brettj]

Tuesday: Airbike sprints x10 - 20s with 100s rest. I hit 1600 watts which was pretty cool.

Today:

Squat: 325x2, 350x2, 375x2, 395x1rx2s

Bench: 185x2, 200x2, 215x2, 225x1x2

Deadlift: 375x1, 380x1, 385x1, 390x1, 395x1

Was supposed to do LISS yesterday but got stuck on a med run at work.

[brettj]

Sat on a bike for 40min on Friday - no metric to measure, but kept my heart rate above 120 for the whole thing.

Saturday: tempo run. I actually have a metric to measure my improvement on this one. I do 3 rounds of 4mins with 2mins rest in between. I started out doing these at 6mph and can now do 8.2mph for all three rounds. Basically been LPing these.

Maybe I should have actually measured my performance in some way to see my cardio improvement, but I hate cardio so much that I didn't really care to bother with it. I think maybe the end is in sight? I'm doing the written test for the cops next Saturday, and if I pass that the next step is the fitness test. Once that's done I can go back to strength training, although apparently I'll need to attend a bi-weekly boot camp they run as part of the recruiting process. I think I can probably just sand-bag that and go back to strength training - hopefully anyways.

Really want to try out this DUP moderated intraset shit that's going on in the programming forum...

[brettj]

Today: exact same thing as last monday...

[brettj]

Tuesday: sprints 20secsx10 with 80s rest. I hit 1900 watts on my first sprint which is cool. Afterwards I was lying on the ground trying not to puke and one of the powerlifter girls at the gym gave me a high five and said "you're putting us all to shame". So cardio program is objectively working.

Today:

squat: 325x2, 350x2, 375x2, 395x1rx2s
bench: 185x2, 200x2, 215x2, 225x1rx2s
power cleans: 135x2, 145x2rx4s

I'm liking the new weight programming more, can't really tell if it's the programming style or the reduced volume in general but I'm far less fatigued. I can definitely objectively say I like doing 75% at 5sx3r a lot more than 3sx5r. I feel better the next day, and also all the reps are good ones.

I want to get back to strength training so bad. Maybe I can just start a new program and maintain my conditioning with 2x a week cardio???

[brettj]

Yesterday: sat on a bike for 40 min

Today: supposed to do a tempo run. This guy on my cycle though was telling me about some performance standard for tactical members where you have to be able to do this stair thing we have 40x in under 14min. I'm on tac and I have no idea what he's talking about but he challenged me to do it and I like winning so I might do that...

[brettj]

Saturday I ended up doing the tempo run. I think my cardio LP has ended because I've having trouble bumping up the speed on this now, whereas I've consistently been able to add at least 0.1mph to the speed every week for the last few months.

I'm so fucking sick of cardio and not lifting that I decided to make myself a compromise. I'm going to keep doing cardio 3x a week, and keep doing bare minimum on squat/deadlift to not get weak, but I'm going to try to actually do a bench program. Maybe if I can make some progress on this I can catch my poverty bench up to my other lifts a bit. I decided to try one of Greg Nuckols intermediate bench programs for a month and see how that goes.

Today:

squat: 350x3rx5s

Bench: 195x5x5
CGBP: 155x8rx2s 155xAMRAP and I got 6 reps
curls: 65x10rx2s 65x8