404 Squats Not Found

[OverheadDeadlifts]

Wednesday

Bench 112.5kg 3x1 (85%)
Squat 100kg 3x5
Press 67.5kg 5x3
Zercher GM 5x5
DB Bench 3x8
Hammer Curl 3x8
Side Raises 3x8
Elliptical 17.5 mins

Elbows were hurting pretty bad during squats. Going to give DLS's dumbbell eccentrics a try. My knee actually feels fine now, so maybe high bar or front squats are on the cards. MAYBE.

Bench also felt trash but I mean what can I expect 2 days after 8x3 with 80%.

[OverheadDeadlifts]

Friday

Deadlift 182.5kg x1@7???? 142.5kg 3x5 (70%)
Bench 120kg x1@7, 95kg 4x5 (70%)
Leg Press 4x8
Triceps Pushdowns 5x6
Rows 3x5
Hammer Curls 3x8
Side Raises 3x8
Elliptical 17.5 mins

I fucking smoked that deadlift single. I'm calling it a 7 RPE, but I probably could have done a set of 5 with it. Tempted to throw on a belt for a single sometime soon to see how much it adds (or substracts).

There's some dangerously retarded comments about RPE and RPE based programming being thrown around over on the Starting Strength forums. How a simple numerical rating system for "I could have done 0, 1, 2 or 3 more reps" is causing such a shitstorm is beyond me.

[MF1000]

saw your username and had to stop in

i agree with your sentiment on why the hell rpe is causing so much of a shitstorm. i guess it will take a few months for the dust to settle. cant wait for that to happen and more productive discussion to be had.

[OverheadDeadlifts]

saw your username and had to stop in

i agree with your sentiment on why the hell rpe is causing so much of a shitstorm. i guess it will take a few months for the dust to settle. cant wait for that to happen and more productive discussion to be had.

Welcome! When I figure out what an overhead deadlift actually entails, I'll let you know. Yeah, it was getting interesting when there was some back and forth between Jordan and Rip etc. but then they put their hands over their ears and started shouting "LALALALA, RPE IS SHIT, I CAN'T HEAR YOU". It sucks.

Monday

Deadlift 142.5kg 7x5 (70%)
Bench 95kg 8x5 (70%)
Leg Press 5x5
Plate triceps extensions 3x8
Hammer curls 5x6
Side Raises 3x8
Elliptical 20 mins

My pec tendon has been real pissed off lately. Hurts when I do a doorway stretch (higher is more painful) or bring my arm across my chest and contract my pec. Today I thought I'd try a hand width closer bench grip which actually hurt MORE. Then I realised well of course ya dum dum, a closer grip is going to increase the range of motion and probably stretch the pec more. It's more likely the DEEP pec work I've been doing as of late that's causing the problem. Pec deck at the furthest setting, dumbbell flys as far down as I can go and dumbbell bench below chest level. I'll eliminate all of it and see what happens.

[OverheadDeadlifts]

Wednesday

Bench 107.5kg 3x2 (80%), 115kg 1x1 (85%)
Squat 90kg 3x5
Press 70kg 5x3
Zercher GM 5x5
Hammer Curl 4x8
Side Raises 3x8
Elliptical 20 mins

Pretty sure that's a PR for press. The last time I was doing these numbers was at a much higher bodyweight, with a belt, out of a rack, with 8 minutes between sets and at a time when I actually emphasised press training. These were beltless, from the floor, 2 minutes between sets and doing them once a week after benching. Bench is king.

Ducked under the empty bar for my first warm up set for squats, immediately noticed my elbows were unhappy and did high bar instead. Well, I call it high bar but I guess some would call it mid bar. I slide it about an inch higher than my low bar, just enough to kind of sit on top of the spine of the scapula. It's still light but all I care about is that my knee and elbows aren't complaining.

[OverheadDeadlifts]

Friday

Deadlift 155kg 6x4 (75%)
Bench 102.5kg 7x4 (75%)
Rows 3x5
Triceps Pushdowns 4x8
Leg Press 5x5
Hammer Curls 4x6
Side Raises 3x8
Elliptical 21 mins

I'm liking sets of 4 with 75% for deadlifts. Happy medium between the sucking air cardio wall with sets of 5 @70% and the "okay these are starting to feel pretty heavy" with the last sets of 3 @80%.

Pec Tendon still angry. It's the tendon right at the front of the armpit. Going to try some aggressive stretching. One thing I've noticed with higher volume, lower intensity training is that I've run into a lot more "itis' type problems. I had a few shoulder and hip problems with high intensity training (TM, HLM etc) but it wasn't tendons or muscles, more just deep bony aches inside the joint capsule. No tendon problems whatsoever. Those all went away when I switched to lower intensity programs, but since then I've had patellar tendonitis, quad tendonitis, medial epicondylitis, triceps tendonitis and now pec tendonitis. I'll take the latter over the former though, since it's a lot easier to pinpoint and attempt to fix tendon problems rather than just "my joint hurts and I don't know why" problems.

[OverheadDeadlifts]

Monday

Deadlift 165kg 6x3 (80%)
Bench 107.5kg 7x3 (80%)
Leg Press 5x5
Triceps Pushdowns 4x10
Cable Curls 7x5
Side Raises 3x8
Elliptical 22 mins

I'm thinking I might just need a lower touch point on bench. I touch pretty high with a decent amount of elbow flare since it's a lot stronger for me than tucking the elbows more and touching lower. I'll gladly sacrifice a few kilos on the bar if it eliminates the pain though.

I also feel like I'm not getting the best bang for my buck with hammer curls since the size of the big rubber dumbbells really limits the range of motion. Did them on a cable machine instead with these attachment handles called "Grypit" that my gym has. Very ergonomic.

[OverheadDeadlifts]

Wednesday

Bench 115kg 3x1 (85%)
Squat 95kg 3x5
Press 60kg 6x4 (75%)
Zercher GM 5x5
Cable Curls 7x5
Side Raises 3x8
Elliptical 23 mins

Reminded myself to stay waaay back on my heels because I forgot to on sets 1 & 2 and my knee wasn't happy. Bench felt a lot snappier than I thought it would with the extra elbow tucking. Also switched to some lower intensity pressing since my Wednesday 5x3 LP felt like it was interfering with Friday's bench. I was mostly hitting @9's last week anyway so probably not much more actual progress to be squeezed out of simply adding weight.

Finally got some bathroom scales, morning weight is around 96.8kg.

[OverheadDeadlifts]

Friday

Bench 120kgx1@8, 90kg 4x5 (70%)
Deadlift 185kgx1@7, 145kg 3x5 (70%)
Triceps Pushdowns 5x6
Leg Press 4x8
Rows 3x5
Cable Curls 7x5
Side Raises 3x8
Elliptical 24 mins

Had a feeling bench wasn't going to go very well today based on performance from the last 2 weeks. Finally starting to lose some weight so maybe that's the main cause, or it could be the reduced volume from cutting out chest based assistance. I'll do 2 more training cycles and then re-evaluate. Toying with the idea of turning power day on week 1 into another place to sneak in more volume. Maybe some 6's with 65%.

[OverheadDeadlifts]

Monday

Bench 90kg 8x5 (70%)
Deadlift 145kg 7x5 (70%)
BB Curls 7x5
Side Raises 4x10
Elliptical 25 mins

Back in the home gym for 2 weeks. Really makes you appreciate air conditioning and cable machines. Finally had a chance to get a birds eye video of my bench and the problem was immediately apparent: my shoulder position proprioception is complete shit. When I pull my shoulder blades "together" my left side is significantly higher than my right, and playing around with it seems to influence mid set pain.

To be honest I'm tempted to just swap press and bench priority at this point. I like pressing and it doesn't hurt and I'm getting a bit sick of benching. Maybe I'll feel differently if I get this pec tendon issue sorted.

[OverheadDeadlifts]

Wednesday

Bench 105kg 3x2 (80%)
Squat 120kg x1@7
Press 70% up to 85% down to 70% pyramid
BB Curls 7x5
Side Raises 3x10

If press doesn't hurt and bench does, I wonder how incline feels. Something to try I suppose.

Decided to throw some weight on and work up to a squat single to see where I'm at. Considering it was beltless, it doesn't seem like I've lost a huge amount of squat strength despite barely squatting for months. Wonder if I could make squat gains with just deadlift, leg press and infrequent squat singles.

[OverheadDeadlifts]

I love your log name a lot and then some more. It’s almost as good as your username!

Thanks! Took me a couple weeks to think of a good username before I made my account. Totally worth it.

Friday

Deadlift 155kg 6x4 (75%)
Press 70kg x1@7, 55kg 7x5 (70%)
Rows 4x5
Barbell Strap Hammer Curl Things 7x5
Plate LTE's 3x10

Tried incline, awkward and sore. Tried close grip, sore. It's also painful at a lower weight now with regular grip bench, and when things start to hurt at lighter weights and not just working sets, that's a telltale sign for me that I need to stop. Pushing my way through quad tendonitis and golfers elbow in the same manner really ended up costing me. So for the time being I am now upping my press game. I'll probably do some tempo bench once a week and get some NSAID gel to put on the tendon the rest of the time.

Deadlifts were good though. Form felt slightly off on Monday, little less spinal extension than I prefer, but today my back was perfectly straight. First thing I remembered to do was stretch my hamstrings more before and between sets. I find that tired hamstrings tend to not want to give up control of the pelvis so easily, so keeping them stretched out makes it easier to both set the back before the pull and keep it straighter on the way to the floor. I also remembered to stay further back on my heels during the eccentric since it puts me in a better position to pull subsequent reps.

Oh and I forgot that BB curls hurt my forearms so today I improvised some hammer curls (don't have dumbbells anymore) by holding the bar suspended from straps. It worked REALLY well.

[OverheadDeadlifts]

Monday

Press 7x5 55kg (70%)
Deadlift 6x3 165kg (80%)
BB Strap Hammer Curls 7x5
Sides Raises 4x10
I think I did something else but I've forgotten

Wednesday

Press 3x1 67.5kg (85%)
Squat 120kg x1@7
520 Tempo Bench 3x5
Deficit Stiff Leg Deadlifts 5x5
BB Strap Hammer Curls 7x5
Side Raises 4x10

Totally forgot to log these. Pec tendon felt okay after a few days off from bench and some Diclofenac gel. Did some tempo bench to assess and started to feel pain around 80kg, with slight residual pain/tightness today. Might have to stick with 70kg for now which is like 55% of 1rm.

[OverheadDeadlifts]

Friday

Press 72.5kg x1@7, 60kg 7x4 (75%)
Deadlift 187.5kg x1@8, 142.5kg 3x5 (70%)
Cheat Rows 2x5
Strict Rows 3x5
BB Strap Hammer Curls 7x5
Side Raises 3x12

So yeah, bit of a hike in RPE on the deadlifts. I've been cutting fairly aggressively the past couple weeks so I'm not too surprised. It's going to be very interesting to see what the results are after cutting on a high volume program. My thinking in the past was always: Caloric deficit means poor recovery so I should drop volume and maintain intensity. That reasoning doesn't make sense to me anymore. If I was to drop volume and maintain intensity whilst sitting at maintenance, I'd probably lose gains. Throw in a caloric deficit and you've just made that fact even worse. On the other hand, the program that made you the gains is probably going to do a very good job of telling your body to hold on to your gains.

Cutting also doesn't seem to affect my energy levels very much. In fact I had an unusual increase in energy last time I did a PSMF, to the point where I started adding training days and going for walks all the time. I prefer 3 training days over 4, but on this occasion I was like fuck it, why not 5?

[OverheadDeadlifts]

Monday

Press 57.5kg 7x5 (70%)
Deadlift 142.5kg 7x5 (70%)
Bench 80kg 3x3
BB Strap Hammer Curls 7x5
Side Raises 4x10

Decided to play around with bench form so I did shoulders protracted bench up to 80kg. No pain. Decided to test my usual form which was causing pain last week at 80kg. No pain. Considering I vaulted a wall a week ago and felt like my pec tendon was about to rip off, that's suspiciously fast improvement. It could be the bench lay off, even though it's only been a couple weeks, but it could also be the fact that I've been slapping diclofenac gel on the tendon 2-3x daily. I'm hesitant to suggest it's the gel but it would be really cool if it was.

[OverheadDeadlifts]

Monday

Press 55kg 7x5 (70%)
Deadlift 137.5kg 7x5 (70%)
Bench 100kgx1@7
Triceps 4x8
Leg Press 5x5
BB Strap Hammer Curls 7x5
Side Raises 3x8
20 min stationary cycle

Been a bit lazy with the log. Last few weeks have essentially been losing weight, losing strength and bench making a slow return. Now I need to decide whether to make a slow switch back to bench focus or continue hammering the press. Probably the former.

[OverheadDeadlifts]

Monday

Press 55kg 7x5 (70%)
Deadlift 140kg 7x5 (70%)
Bench 80kg 5x5 (70%)
SSB Squat 55kg 5x5
BB Strap Hammer Curls 7x5
Side Raises 3x10
Floor Press 1x15

"Hip hinge" is actually a really good deadlift cue off the floor, better than "chest first" or "quads" for me personally.

It also appears that my bar bath was actually moving backwards on bench. Probably why it's been feeling weird as fuck recently. Birds eye view bench videos are underrated.

[OverheadDeadlifts]

Wednesday

Press 67.5kg 3x1 (85%), 52.5kg 3x6 (65%)
HB Squat 120kgx1@8, 70%x5, 75%x4, 80%x3
Deficit SLDL 5x5
CG Floor Press 3x10
BB Strap Hammer Curls 7x5
Side Raises 3x10

Side raises are starting to annoy my shoulders a bit but the side delt pump is cool as fuck. Maybe I'll try behind the neck press instead.

[OverheadDeadlifts]

So apparently I'm too lazy to keep this log updated 3x a week. Probably because my program is the same every week at the moment so it would be pretty boring writing out all the same stuff. I'll just write out the program in this post and then make one post a week with new e1rms/interesting observations.

Monday

Press 7x5 (70%)
Deadlift 7x5 (70%)
Bench x1@7, 5x5 (70%)
Cheat Rows 2x5, Strict Rows 3x5
BB Strap Hammer Curls 7x5
BTN Press 5x8
Elliptical 20 mins

Wednesday


Press 3x2 (85%)
Front Squat x1@7, 5x5 (70%)
Floor Press 5x8
Deficit RDL 5x5
BB Strap Hammer Curls 7x5
BTN Press 4x8
Elliptical 20 mins

Friday

Press x1@7, 6x4 (75%)
Deadlift x1@7, 6x4 (75%)
Bench x1@7, 5x4 (75%)
Front Squat 5x3 (80%)
BB Strap Hammer Curls 7x5
BTN Press 5x8
Elliptical 20 mins

I've been doing a PSMF for the past 2-3 weeks, e1rms are down across the board but I've also dropped from 91-92kg down to 85-86kg. In the past I usually drop a lot of volume when doing extreme cuts but I'm keeping it as high as ever. Working just fine so far.

[OverheadDeadlifts]

Just got back from a holiday and managed to squeeze a couple training sessions in whilst I was away. Safe to say that supersetting deadlifts and presses (from the floor) when it's 29 degrees outside and the gym doesn't have air conditioning is fairly awful. I've never had sweat soak through my shoes before.

Switching to a 4 day per week program to cut down on training time and increase frequency a bit. I'm playing around with where everything goes at the moment (I'm more happy with the upper than lower), but so far I've arrived at:

Monday
Bench e1rm, 7x5 (70%)
BB Hammer Curls 7x5
Deadlift 7x5 (70%)
Press 6x4 (75%)

Tuesday
Bench 5x2 (80%)
Light Pull + Shrug combo
Squat 5x3 (80%)
BTN Press 5x8

Thursday
Bench 6x4 (75%)
BB Hammer Curls 7x5
Deadlift e1rm, 5x3 (80%)
Press 3x3 (80%), 3x5 (70%)

Friday
Bench 5x3 (80%)
Light Pull + Shrug combo
Squat e1rm, 7x5 (70%)
BTN Press 5x8 or 7x5

Everything is supersetted. So in this instance the first pair and last pair of exercises every day are done together. I've been doing it this way for months but with 6 lifts and I really like it. I mean I've got 3 minutes in between sets, why not do a lift that won't interfere with the other whilst I wait. Really cuts down on session time if you like to add some fluff in.