The Flush (Montana 2 week template)

A place to track your progress, or lack thereof

Moderator: Chebass88

Post Reply
TheFlush
Registered User
Posts: 327
Joined: Wed Feb 21, 2018 7:18 am
Age: 56

The Flush (Montana 2 week template)

#1

Post by TheFlush » Mon May 21, 2018 10:45 am

I am starting a new log since I have recently started the Montana Method. Old log at the other site, but it had not been updated in a couple months.

Background.
50 year old fat guy. Gym bro stuff off (mostly) and on over the past 25+ years. Had L4/5 discectomy 19 years ago and probably have a herniated disk in my thoracic spine (stabbing pain every time I sneeze). Started SL5x5 11/29/16 with my son (now 14) to help him prepare for high school sports. While trying to figure out what the hell I am trying to do I found SS and switched to the SSNLP 1/1/17. I had a session with a SSC in January 2017. In a week or so my right knee began hurting significantly. I don't what caused it, but I first felt it during my first attempt at squatting 205 lbs. Tried to manage pain and work around it. Tried deloads and reprogressing, but the pain just wouldn't go away. It was making me miserable away from the gym. In addition to knee pain, I have a bad left shoulder from catching myself during a fall (idiot playing with kids on a giant soap covered slip'n'slide) about 8 years ago which has bothered me ever since. I started failing reps due to shoulder pain at around 210 pounds. Decided to take a break (quit) due to pain to see if things got better, plus it was baseball season and I was pretty busy with my son. Finally saw a ortho doc in April 2017, MRI shows complex lateral meniscus tear. Scheduled surgery for June 2017. One week before scheduled surgery, I decided my knee wasn't hurting bad and cancelled surgery. Went on vacation and my knee started killing me again and I swore I would get it fixed as soon as we got home. Got home and knee quit hurting, never rescheduled surgery. No training through summer and fall 2017 due to busy kid schedules, but no pain either. Toward the end of son's varsity soccer season, I found some good craigslist deals and put together a garage gym. Restarted SSLP 11/12/17, 2 days after my 50th birthday. I have been plugging along with almost no knee pain and the shoulder pain has been manageable. Son quit training due to baseball. I made it to 280x5x3 on squats, but was having thoracic flexion issues that caused the bar to roll up my back, plus some significant elbow pain. I took a big deload to work on it and switched to a thumbs under grip. Elbow pain is gone and the bar is more stable on my back. Started back up on Greyskull LP for a bit and then tried a Hepburn program for a while. Exclusively trained 12 oz curls for a week while on a business trip before jumping into the Montana Method on 5/12/18. I probably had more LP left in me, but decided to move on anyway.

Previous PRs
Bench press 325 1RM over 25 years ago., Most recently 215 @ 8ish last week.
Press 150 @ 9ish a couple weeks ago.
Squat 280x5x3, but have never tested a 1RM
Deadlift 315 @ 8ish, but never really tested a 1RM.
Last edited by TheFlush on Mon Jun 04, 2018 5:29 pm, edited 2 times in total.

User avatar
bobmen10000
Registered User
Posts: 1681
Joined: Tue Feb 06, 2018 8:34 pm
Age: 43
Contact:

Re: The Flush

#2

Post by bobmen10000 » Mon May 21, 2018 10:57 am

Welcome.

Montana Method is great, particularly as it relates to recovery and not feeling like shit between sessions or just in general - I have made really good progress with it thus far as well. Good luck with it and look forward to reading your log.

TheFlush
Registered User
Posts: 327
Joined: Wed Feb 21, 2018 7:18 am
Age: 56

Re: The Flush

#3

Post by TheFlush » Tue May 22, 2018 9:47 am

5/14/18 Montana Method: Cycle 1, Week 1, Day 1 Hypertrophy
Squats: e1RM = 300 lbs. 210x5x6 with 2 min rest periods.
Bench : e1RM = 235 lbs. 165x5x7 with 2 min rest periods.

The combination of low work capacity and coming off a week with no training made this a very difficult session. Too tired to even try the pulls density block. I felt like I was doing HIIT and ended up with a couple days of adductor DOMS.

5/15/18 C1W1D2
Press: 135x1@9. 110x20 7 minute density block.

Single was 15 lbs less than 10 days before. Felt weak, probably due to travel fatigue, plus I wore running shoes which felt unstable.

5/16/18 C1W1D3 Power
Squat: 180x3, 210x2, 235x1x2, 245x1, 270x1
Bench: 140x3, 165x2, 182.5x1x2, 200x1, 215x1 recent PR
Deadlift: 315x1 (PR), 265x4x5
CGBP: 162.5x8x2

DOMS from Monday about gone. Squats and bench felt good. DL single was good, but started getting tired towards the end. Too tired for 3rd set on CGBP which all felt like RPE 9. Took over 2 hours. Probably rested too much between singles.

5/18/18 C1W1D5 Stength
Squat : 245x3x5
Bench: 187.5x3 TnG, 45sec rest 187.5 1-count pause, 2 min rest, 4 sets.
SGDL : 195x5x4

Everything felt OK. First time ever doing SGDL.

TheFlush
Registered User
Posts: 327
Joined: Wed Feb 21, 2018 7:18 am
Age: 56

Re: The Flush

#4

Post by TheFlush » Tue May 22, 2018 9:57 am

5/20/18 Hypertrophy
Squat : 225x4x3, 225x3x4, 2 min rest
Bench: 177.5x4x3, 177.5x3x4, 2 min rest
Inverted Rows: 21 reps in 7 min block.

I trained a day early because I know I won't be able to train on Wed so I am moving everything up a day. Felt better than first H day. Too fat for chins. Not sure what I really want to do for density block pulls.

5/21/18
Press: 110x31 (or 32) reps in 10 min density block.

Mostly did 3 reps EMOM to pace myself. I thought I did 4 reps in first and last sets, but that is not what I wrote down. Might have been able to do more, but it was getting hard at the end.

TheFlush
Registered User
Posts: 327
Joined: Wed Feb 21, 2018 7:18 am
Age: 56

Re: The Flush

#5

Post by TheFlush » Wed May 23, 2018 4:36 am

5/22/18 - Power
Squats: 180x3, 210x2, 235x1, 235x1, 245x1, 270x1, 280x1
Bench: 140x3, 165x2, 182.5x1, 182.5x1, 200x1, 212.5x1, 225x1
Deadlift: 320x1 (PR), 280x4x5
CGBP: 152.5x8x2, 152.5x7@9

All the singles felt pretty good. The plan for bench was 222.5, but 225 seemed like a nicer looking number so I went with that. Deadlift single wasn't bad, but I was tired by end of the backoff sets. CGBP was hard due to fatigue. Power day has taken a bit over 2 hours each time and I don't think I am wasting any time. Now I get 2 days off for recovery before finishing the first 2 week cycle of Montana Method.

TheFlush
Registered User
Posts: 327
Joined: Wed Feb 21, 2018 7:18 am
Age: 56

Re: The Flush

#6

Post by TheFlush » Fri May 25, 2018 8:43 am

5/25/18 C1W2D5 Strength Day

Squats: 245x3x3, 245x2x3 RPE 6-7
Bench :192.5x3x4, 192.5x2x2 RPE 6.5
SGDL :195x5x4 RPE 6-7

End of first 2 week cycle of Montana Method. I liked it and will continue additional cycles until I see a need for a change (can't increase power day singles). Hypertrophy day was the hardest, but power day was the most time consuming. I am not good enough with RPE to use it to calculate a e1RM (but I am rating each set as best I can). I will arbitrarily add 5 pounds to lower body e1RM and 2.5 pounds to bench press.

TheFlush
Registered User
Posts: 327
Joined: Wed Feb 21, 2018 7:18 am
Age: 56

Re: The Flush

#7

Post by TheFlush » Mon May 28, 2018 5:07 pm

5/28/18 C2W1D1 Hypertrophy

Squats: 215x5x6 RPE 7,7,7,8,8,9
Bench : 167.5x5x7 RPE 7,7,7,7,8,8,9
Inverted rows: 24 in 7 minutes (should have been 10 min block).

Tried to nocebo myself. Planned on sleeping in and then having a fresh mid morning training session. But my son's travel baseball tournament had rain delays Sat and Sun that forced the final game to be played today. So I had to get up at 5AM and drive 2 hours, sit through a 2 hour game and then drive 2 hours home. Not strenuous at all, but it threw my day off and I had to force myself to train this afternoon. Maybe it affected my RPE some. I tried squatting in Chucks to see how it compared to lifters, but I am not sure if I could tell much difference. It might have made something easier in my hips, but harder to keep my upper back tight and therefore my elbows raised up more than usual. I tried a slightly wider grip on bench press (thumbs just touching the center knurl). I thought there was less pain in my left shoulder at the bottom of each rep, but maybe more when unracking (already using a monolift).

Already working on tomorrow's nocebo. Just found out my son's high school baseball banquet is tomorrow during my usual training time. Hopefully I will force myself to do it whenever I get home since it is just the press density block.

TheFlush
Registered User
Posts: 327
Joined: Wed Feb 21, 2018 7:18 am
Age: 56

Re: The Flush

#8

Post by TheFlush » Tue May 29, 2018 5:52 pm

5/29/18 Press Hypertrophy

1 x 145 @9
115 x 21 7 min density block.

Slight improvement over first cycle. 145 vs 135 for the single, which is still 5 less than PR. 115 vs 110 for density. I thought I did 115 first cycle, so I told myself I had to get more reps. Ended up with more weight and more reps. Shoulders felt shot immediately afterwards.

TheFlush
Registered User
Posts: 327
Joined: Wed Feb 21, 2018 7:18 am
Age: 56

Re: The Flush

#9

Post by TheFlush » Wed May 30, 2018 6:39 pm

5/30/18 C2W1D3 Power Day

Squat: 185x3, 225x2, 235x1, 235x1, 250x1, 275x1@7?
Bench: 145x3, 167.5x2, 185x1, 185x1, 205x1, 220x1@7.5-8?
Deadlift: 265x4, 295x1, 317.5x1@7.5-8, 265x4, 265x4, 265x4, 265x4 @8ish.
CGBP: Skipped

Squat felt OK. Bench was OK, but had a bit more left shoulder pain than Monday. Deadlift top set was miss loaded at 317.5 instead of 320. I could tell as soon as it left the floor, but I just finished it and didn't try again because I had to leave for a meeting. I was lucky to get any deadlifts in today and was trying to decide if I should just try to wait until tomorrow. Glad I got them done today. Worked on a quicker tempo on the worksets. Had to skip CGBP due to the meeting I had to attend. Probably best for my shoulder anyway.

TheFlush
Registered User
Posts: 327
Joined: Wed Feb 21, 2018 7:18 am
Age: 56

Re: The Flush

#10

Post by TheFlush » Fri Jun 01, 2018 5:05 pm

6/1/2018 C2W1D5 Strength

Squat: 245x3x5 RPE 7ish
Bench: 192.5x3 TnG, 30 sec rest, 192.5x1 1 ct pause. 4 sets. RPE 6.5-7.5
SGDL: 195x4x4 RPE 6.5ish

2 min rest between all sets. Everything felt decent.

TheFlush
Registered User
Posts: 327
Joined: Wed Feb 21, 2018 7:18 am
Age: 56

Re: The Flush (Montana 2 Week Template)

#11

Post by TheFlush » Mon Jun 04, 2018 5:28 pm

6/4/2018 C2W2D1 Hypertrophy

Squat: 230x4x3, 230x3x4, RPE 7.5 at the beginning and 8.5 at the end.
Bench: 180x4x3, 180x3x4, RPE 7 to 8
Inverted rows 25 in 7 minutes

Felt tired at work today and then made the mistake of eating dinner before training. Fatigue didn't affect training, but I felt full during squats, which I hate. Overall not too bad. Work capacity is to the point where 2 min rest periods are adequate.

TheFlush
Registered User
Posts: 327
Joined: Wed Feb 21, 2018 7:18 am
Age: 56

Re: The Flush (Montana 2 week template)

#12

Post by TheFlush » Tue Jun 05, 2018 4:14 pm

6/5/2018 C2W2D2 Press Hypertrophy

115x28 10 min density block

Shoulders are feeling it right now. Didn't feel good heading into this after working on the car for half a day. Had to take longer breaks than planned. last few sets were RPE 9.5.

TheFlush
Registered User
Posts: 327
Joined: Wed Feb 21, 2018 7:18 am
Age: 56

Re: The Flush (Montana 2 week template)

#13

Post by TheFlush » Wed Jun 06, 2018 6:08 pm

6/6/2018 C2W2D3 Power

Squat: 3x185, 2x215, 1x235, 1x235, 1x250, 1x275, 1x285 @8
Bench: 3x145, 2x167.5, 1x185, 1x185, 1x205, 1x215, 1x227.5 @8
Deadlift: 1x325 @8-8.5, 285x4x5
CGBP: 150x8x3

Squat and bench felt decent. Deads felt harder than expected. However, all of my C2W2D3 DL are PRs right now since I have never really tested my 1RM. I did 1 of my 4 reps set as a warmup to my single (as a time saving measure), which might have affected the single. Not sure if I should be doing that. I have my doubts as to whether I can really lift my e1RM. I really have no idea how well I am rating RPE. Sometimes I record what the chart expects me to have because I really don't know how many more reps I could have done. I lowered my CGBP from 65% to 62% since I have struggled to get those in, which might have helped a little. I hope Hanley is ok with me NDTP. It took about 1:50 to complete today's training.

TheFlush
Registered User
Posts: 327
Joined: Wed Feb 21, 2018 7:18 am
Age: 56

Re: The Flush (Montana 2 week template)

#14

Post by TheFlush » Fri Jun 08, 2018 3:29 pm

2018-06-08 C2W2D5 Strength

Squat 250x3x3, 250x2x3
Bench 197.5x3x4, 197.5x2x2
SGDL 195x5x4

Felt OK. Ready for cycle 3 next week.

TheFlush
Registered User
Posts: 327
Joined: Wed Feb 21, 2018 7:18 am
Age: 56

Re: The Flush (Montana 2 week template)

#15

Post by TheFlush » Mon Jun 11, 2018 5:13 pm

2018-06-11 C3W1D1 Hypertrophy

Squat: 220x5x6 RPE 7 first set 8 on the last
Bench: 172.5x5x7 RPE 7.5-8.5
iRows: 36reps 10 min block.

TheFlush
Registered User
Posts: 327
Joined: Wed Feb 21, 2018 7:18 am
Age: 56

Re: The Flush (Montana 2 week template)

#16

Post by TheFlush » Tue Jun 12, 2018 2:54 pm

2018-06-12 C3W1D2 Press Hypertrophy

Press 150x1 @9, 120 x 5,4,3,3,3,4 in 7 minute block

The single went up easy enough, but I was pretty dizzy after racking and needed to hold the bar for a few seconds to regain my composure. This is the worse it has ever been for me, and really it has only happened on press. Checked blood pressure afterwards and it was normal. The 7 minute block went OK. I got 5 more pounds than last cycle and 1 more rep. As always, I can feel it in my shoulders.

TheFlush
Registered User
Posts: 327
Joined: Wed Feb 21, 2018 7:18 am
Age: 56

Re: The Flush (Montana 2 week template)

#17

Post by TheFlush » Wed Jun 13, 2018 5:35 pm

2018-06-13 C3W1D3 Power

Squat: 185x3, 215x2, 240x1x2, 255x1, 280x1@8 ish
Bench: 150x3, 175x2, 195x1x2, 210x1, 227.5x1@8ish
Deadlift: 325x1@8, 270x4x5
CGBP: 150x8x2

Squat single wasn't really heavy, but my form was sloppy and got on my toes a bit. Bench was OK. Deadlift was heavy. I felt like I was opening my hips instead of pushing the floor away. I was spent by CGBP, so I only did 2 sets.

TheFlush
Registered User
Posts: 327
Joined: Wed Feb 21, 2018 7:18 am
Age: 56

Re: The Flush (Montana 2 week template)

#18

Post by TheFlush » Fri Jun 15, 2018 6:29 pm

2018-06-15 C3W1D5 Strength

Squat: 250x3x5 @7ish
Bench: 197.5x3 TnG+ 1Ct Pause 4 sets
SGDL :200x5x4

Squats weren't particularly heavy, but I wasn't happy with form. Bench and SGDL were OK.

TheFlush
Registered User
Posts: 327
Joined: Wed Feb 21, 2018 7:18 am
Age: 56

Re: The Flush (Montana 2 week template)

#19

Post by TheFlush » Mon Jun 18, 2018 5:24 am

2018-06-18 C3W2D1 Hypertrophy

Squat 235x4x3, 245x3x4
Bench 185x4x3, 185x3x4
Inv Row 27 reps 7 min block

Squats felt harder than the RPE table says they should have (if I even have a clue about RPE). I rated them all a 7 except the 3rd set of 4 which was a 7.5. I really concentrated on upper back tightness and felt like most reps were better form than of late. This extra concentration probably contributed to the higher RPE. I noticed more of a sticking point coming up, although it was slight.

Bench was good other than the first set for some reason.

4 nights in a hotel coming up. Doubt I will seek out a barbell gym. Hope I force myself to do something in the hotel gym even if just bro work and cardio.

TheFlush
Registered User
Posts: 327
Joined: Wed Feb 21, 2018 7:18 am
Age: 56

Re: The Flush (Montana 2 week template)

#20

Post by TheFlush » Fri Jun 22, 2018 6:44 pm

2018-06-22 C3W2D5 Strength

Squat 255x3x3, 255x2x3
Bench 205x3x4, 205x2x2
Deadlift 330x1x1 (PR) , 290x4x5

All lifts were OKish. I blew off the midweek sessions while I was out of town. But I made up for it by sitting a lot, eating out every meal, and then drinking a lot. Flew home early today, took a nap and then got in today's session. I replaced the planned SGDL with Wednesday's DL. I might repeat this week before starting a new cycle since I did not get my squat and bench power day in. Or not.

Post Reply