Mustache Method - Log

[TimK]

Mustache Method - Wk 5 (10/27/19 - 11/02/19)

Saturday

Incline Bench:
225x6
230x6 (PR)
230x6
230x6 @10

SSB Squat:
355x6 @9
335x6x3

SSB Good Morning:
210x12x4

DB Curl:
42.5x14,13,11,12

Upright Cable Row:
80x15,14,13,13

Realized that I did 7's on the incline bench last week (like the primary lifts) instead of starting another 8-6-4 cycle (because it's a secondary lift). Oh well. Got a 5lb PR so that's nice.

First set of Good Mornings was like @9.5, simply because I was going really slow in a misguided, overly cautious effort to maintain back extension. Went at normal rep speed on the following sets and I was able to get 12 reps all the way across.

[TimK]

Mustache Method - Wk 6 (11/03/19 - 11/09/19)

Monday

Bench:
310x3 (PR)
315x3 @ 9.5 (PR)
300x3
300x3 @10

Squat:
460x3 @9.5 (PR)
430x3x3

Pullup:
36 reps in 10 sets, E2MOM

LTE:
115x11x4

Couple of nice PR's. Definitely getting a lot more practice keeping my chest up on squats with these high RPE sets. When I was doing HVLF the weight was too light for it to even be an issue. On the top set, I started to good morning it on rep 2 but rep 3 was actually better.

[TimK]

Mustache Method - Wk 6 (11/03/19 - 11/09/19)

Tuesday

Press:
220x3 (PR)
225x3 @10 (PR)
205x3 @10
195x3

RDL:
435x4x4 (PR)

Belt Squat:
365x12x4

EZ Curl:
105x12,12,12,10

Lateral Raise:
30x12,12,11,12


Nice press PR. E1RM = 245. That would be nice...

[TimK]

Mustache Method - Wk 7 (11/10/19 - 11/16/19)

Sunday

DB Bench:
110x9 @10
110x8x3

Pendlay Row:
265x4x4

Dips:
BWx15,15,14,13


So last week was supposed to be the last normal training week, doing 3's on the main lifts, and this week was supposed to be a deload week before starting the second half of the program (6-4-2-5-3-1). Well, I had a bunch of deadlines that I had to meet last week which resulted in working non stop for four days straight and skipping my last 3 training sessions for the week. So what I decided to do is just move those workouts to week 7, but space them out (Sunday - Tuesday - Thursday) and then have 3 rest days before going in to week 8. I think that should accomplish the basic goal of the deload week (dissipating fatigue so I can start fresh for the next six weeks) while still allowing me to complete my planned sessions from week 6.

[TimK]

Also... I don't think these Pendlay rows are doing anything for me other than slightly pre-fatiguing my posterior chain prior to deadlifts the next day. I'm going to switch to cable rows for the next six weeks, and probably keep the reps higher as well.

[TimK]

Mustache Method - Wk 7 (11/10/19 - 11/16/19)

Tuesday

Seated DB Press:
75x12x4

Deadlift:
495x2 (hook grip)
545xF (hook grip)
640x3 @8.5 (PR)
585x3x3

I need to start making some hook grip progress since I plan on competing in March. In the past I have tried static holds with 405 and it didn't seem to do much for me. I'm going to try going heavier. 495 seems to be a weight that I can hit consistently so I'm going to try to add reps at that intensity. When I can do a set of 5, I'll add weight. I don't know, worth a shot.

This was a 45lb PR for triples. Two years in the making.

[TimK]

Oh yeah, forgot to mention... I stopped after deadlifts because it was time to go watch a movie with the kids. Planned on doing the pulldowns and pressdowns after they went to bed, but about 20 minutes or so after my last set of deadlifts I started seeing what are best described as floaty squiggly electric zigzag triangle maze thingys in my peripheral vision and developed a headache that seemed to be located behind my eyeballs. The eyes cleared up after 30-45 minutes or so but the headache continued through the rest of the night so I never finished the workout. I might do them today.

I've had this happen once before from deadlifting, a couple of years ago.

[Allentown]

This was a 45lb PR for triples. Two years in the making.

Awesome!

[broseph]

Scintillating Scotoma ?

[TimK]

[/quote]

This was a 45lb PR for triples. Two years in the making.

Awesome!

Thanks!

Scintillating Scotoma ?

Yup, that all checks out.

[TimK]

Holy shit I can't believe it's been two and a half months since I've logged.

I didn't quit training, although it's been pretty inconsistent. I had a weird pain kinda right were my glute meets my hamstrings on the left side that showed up while doing RDL's. I pretty much ignored it and still deadlifted on Friday. Then on Monday I had a bad back tweak while warming up for squats which seemed to just get worse over the course of the week (this was the first week of December). I pretty much took three weeks off and started lifting again on Dec. 23.

Since then it's been spotty and I've been kinda half assing it. Very preoccupied with business stuff and honestly haven't felt like lifting. That's a problem since I signed up for a meet on March 21 and now I only have seven weeks to get serious about prepping for it. The good news is that I'll easily set a meet PR for bench since I've gained so much on that lift since my last meet, and at the very least a modest squat PR should be doable.

I got a Speed4Lifts on black friday and finally started playing with it in January. To calibrate it, I tested my my 1RM's for squat and bench on 1/22 and I hit 495 and 345 (tng). Then I failed a 360 PR attempt so my bench 1RM seems to be close to PR levels at least. The squat was not even close to being my slowest judging by video so that's also encouraging. For deadlift I'm just going to try to strengthen my hook grip as much as possible over the next 7 weeks and pull whatever I can. I was hoping for 600 but that might be a stretch at this point. Either way I'm going to go lighter overall on the DL in hopes that I can make some more last minute squat gains.

Bad news is that I've given up on hitting the 105 class for this meet. I actually started out really well and made it through the holidays at a 2+ lbs/week pace but then I fell off the wagon and at this point I'd rather just hit some PR's in the 120 class than kill myself trying to get down to 231 and have a shitty meet. Plus, I got tickets to the winter beer fest, soooo...

Anyway here's what I did today:

Meet Prep - Wk 1 (2/2/20 - 2/8/20)

Squat:
405x3x8

Paused Bench:
275x3x8

Pulldowns:
160x12,11,11

Bench should have been 280, calculated the percentage off the wrong max. Since this was 5lbs less than intended, there was obviously no stimulus achieved. What a waste.

Anyway the program I'm going to be running is basically my attempt at modifying the basic Montana Method template into something more suitable for peaking into a meet. Mostly just upped the intensities and lowered the rep ranges. Will it work, or will I lose all my gains? Stay tuned to find out.

[JohnHelton]

How are you going to incorporate the S4L device into your training?

[TimK]

How are you going to incorporate the S4L device into your training?

For now I'm just using it to record velocities to see if my strength is going up and then increasing e1RM (for intensity calculations) accordingly. I also monitor the velocities as the workout progresses to see if I'm getting too fatigued as the sets go on. This program is going to be quite submaximal though so I don't think that will be an issue.

Last week I tried doing the 20% velocity stop thing and it worked fine but I didn't really like the uncertainty of not knowing when the set would end, and I ended up going closer to failure than I wanted to. I'm going to experiment with it more down the road but right now I really needed to come up with a concrete plan for what I'm going to do in the next 7 weeks.

My recent workouts have been kind of random because I've just been playing around with the S4L without any real organization or overarching program and I figured I should just stick with something similar to what has worked for me in the past rather than trying to do complete paradigm shift with a meet just around the corner.

[JohnHelton]

When I was doing 20/15 stops, I found that it started to match up well with how @Hanley had constructed MM. Oh, wait. He was also the one that recommended 20/15 stops. Makes sense. I like the idea of doing MMish, using the device to set the e1RMs.

[Allentown]

meet on March 21

In town?

[TimK]

meet on March 21

In town?

Yeah, same place as the last one. Lack of AC shouldn’t be an issue this time, lol.

[TimK]

Meet Prep - Wk 1 (2/2/20 - 2/8/20)

Wednesday

Squat:
315x3
365x2
405x1x2
430x1
455x1

Paused Bench:
225x3
245x3
275x1x2
300x1

Was supposed to go up to 325x1 and also do backoff sets at 275, TnG. But I had some bad elbow aids creeping up on me. Weird tendon aching and my arms just felt week somehow. Lowering the bar to my chest, it felt like I was just dropping it the last few inches. e1RM according to S4L was around 325 so I didn't want to do an RPE 10 single.

I was also supposed to deadlift... but I didn't.


Friday

Squat:
430x2x8

Paused Bench:
275x2
300x2x2
275x2

More elbow problems, despite keeping a deliberately wide grip when squatting. Not as bad as Wednesday but still an issue. I was supposed to do 300x2 for 8 sets.

Skipped deadlifts again. Never thought I'd be skipping deadlifts and squatting 3 days a week, but here we are.

[TimK]

Meet Prep - Wk 2 (2/9/20 - 2/15/20)

Monday

Paused Bench:
295x3x5

Squat:
430x3x5

Pulldowns:
160x12,11,10,10

Decided to start benching first, except on Wednesday when I do my top singles. I'm also keeping a wide grip on the bar while squatting, except for 90%+ weights. Hopefully that will keep the elbow problems at bay. So far so good, 295 was moving faster today, e1RM around 345 on the first set.

I hate that the S4L doesn't show the e1RM numbers on each rep when viewing saved sessions. It just gives the raw velocity data. WTF?