DCR - Can you believe how much I am in heaven?

[DCR]

4/29/23 (have been back in New York)

Shawn Phillips Bench Program
Week 2, Day 3

Squats 45,135,225x6 275x4 295,315,330x1
Bench Press 45,135x6 205 x2s x5r 230 x2s x3r 255x1
DB Bench 55s x3s x10r
DB Press 45s x8,8,10
Lateral Raises 22.5s x8,8,10
EZ Pushdowns 80,90x10 100x15

Session notes:

Woke up feeling like shit after only two drinks, but stupidly mixing whiskey and wine, along with eating a sodium filled ribeye and going to bed at 2am. Decided that I was gonna hit a squat single that I haven’t touched in two or so years, to set the tone that the day wouldn’t get the best of me.



Moved well but felt even more like shit after, anxious and weird. Dunno of it was the psyching up beforehand, or if the woman at the bagel shop gave me regular coffee despite my express order for decaf.

Bench was easy, looking forward to the next bench session’s failure test to see what’s what. The DB benching felt better than anything else today and gave me a sick pump, hard to understand why I went years without doing this stuff.

Metal rec of the day: Persefone / metanoia. I dislike nearly all prog, but when a band gets it right, matching monumental talent with great songwriting, you get moments to make one weep for their beauty. This has a number of those moments. For those who thought Dreamtheater was the best band in the world after Images and Words and Awake, and disliked everything that followed.

[DCR]

Additional session note:

After several years of constant fucking around with various efforts to squat through midfoot, in these past two sessions I returned to what was natural in the first place: squatting through my heels. I’m still actively pushing my big toes down to keep myself from pushing my hips back too far, but am not thinking midfoot at all. I’m leaning just a bit forward and letting the weight settle in my heels and trying to push through them ballistically on every rep. It’s keeping me more upright and feels so much better in every way. I don’t care that it’s “wrong.”

[augeleven]

4/29/23 (have been back in New York)

Shawn Phillips Bench
Squats 330x1

nice!

I dislike nearly all prog,

How dare you!?!

Actually I don’t like much (any?) “modern” prog. No love for Dream Theater or Rush, anyway. I do enjoy BtBaM Great Misdirect - that’s pretty proggish. How do you feel about earlier King Crimson, or Gentle Giant, or Henry Cow? Or post-Mothers Zappa?
Spinning the Persephone now, I almost bailed after the singer in the first track (not a fan of singing). Glad I didn’t. Good stuff.

[DCR]

4/29/23 (have been back in New York)

Shawn Phillips Bench
Squats 330x1

nice!

I dislike nearly all prog,

How dare you!?!

Actually I don’t like much (any?) “modern” prog. No love for Dream Theater or Rush, anyway. I do enjoy BtBaM Great Misdirect - that’s pretty proggish. How do you feel about earlier King Crimson, or Gentle Giant, or Henry Cow? Or post-Mothers Zappa?
Spinning the Persephone now, I almost bailed after the singer in the first track (not a fan of singing). Glad I didn’t. Good stuff.

Embarrassingly, I’m not familiar with any of their music. When I first got into music heavily it was the 90s, so mainly grunge except also with a belated love of hair bands (which persists to this day). When I got into metal, I became nearly an all metal, all the time guy, which I don’t really regret because there’s so always been so goddamn much to explore, but I never stopped to check out a lot of classic rock and rock / metal / prog adjacent stuff that that I’m sure that I should have.

I nearly always prefer growling to singing. When I was in college I hosted a metal show on the college station. At the time I was mainly into the classic 80s/early 90s stuff, which I wasn’t permitted to play as major label stuff. At first it was like a joke, playing all these death and black metal promos that I thought were “not music”… and slowly but surely it got me. The first “extreme” metal record that I actually went out and purchased was Death / The Sound of Perseverance, and it was downhill from there.

[alek]

That squat looked good!

[DCR]

That squat looked good!

Thanks!

I was looking ahead at the bench program and if you run down the far right hand column, it's very odd in that there's at least one apparent typo (you'll spot it right away), and there's an odd discrepancy in where one ends up depending on where one starts, in terms of percentage increase. For example, your starting 245 is to end at 270, just over a 10% increase, which would be awesome. My starting 275 only gets me to 290, just over a 5% increase, and I don't see how rounding off percentages explains the difference, although I haven't gone through each session to see where things start to diverge.

I also was looking at the next session's failure test and I already know the outcome for me, which is going to be that I continue working off the same 1RM, which is interesting in that I absolutely had 10 lbs more on my initial testing day.

The whole thing may just be a mess, but I'm definitely getting some things that I can use in the future, and already am thinking of rerunning this a few weeks after it ends, with some tweaks. If nothing else, getting me into a push / pull with real assistance work, versus the nonsense that I was doing previously, is a big deal.

[alek]

That squat looked good!

Thanks!

I was looking ahead at the bench program and if you run down the far right hand column, it's very odd in that there's at least one apparent typo (you'll spot it right away), and there's an odd discrepancy in where one ends up depending on where one starts, in terms of percentage increase. For example, your starting 245 is to end at 270, just over a 10% increase, which would be awesome. My starting 275 only gets me to 290, just over a 5% increase, and I don't see how rounding off percentages explains the difference, although I haven't gone through each session to see where things start to diverge.

I also was looking at the next session's failure test and I already know the outcome for me, which is going to be that I continue working off the same 1RM, which is interesting in that I absolutely had 10 lbs more on my initial testing day.

The whole thing may just be a mess, but I'm definitely getting some things that I can use in the future, and already am thinking of rerunning this a few weeks after it ends, with some tweaks. If nothing else, getting me into a push / pull with real assistance work, versus the nonsense that I was doing previously, is a big deal.

Regardless of what happens, I don't think I'll regress over the length of the program, and like you say, there are things in it that I'll carry through into future programming. I am liking it so far, but it may end up being too aggressive for me. We'll see.

[DCR]

Regardless of what happens, I don't think I'll regress over the length of the program, and like you say, there are things in it that I'll carry through into future programming. I am liking it so far, but it may end up being too aggressive for me. We'll see.

Right - you may hit a wall but sure af won’t regress. Besides which you might keep hitting weekly squat PRs!


5/1/23

Shawn Phillips Bench Program
Week 2, Day 4

Squats 45,95x20
RDLs w/ straps 195 x3s x8r
One Arm DB Rows 70s x8,8,10
Close Grip Pulldowns 125 x3s x10r
Incline DB Curls 30s x3s x7r

Session notes:

Two weeks down. That unimpressive squat single last time in destroyed me, both lower back in particular and systemically, and waking up early to lift today (by necessity and not my preference) didn’t help. I knew I had no shot at anything heavy so just moved some blood around and worked on reacclimating to “through the heels,” and did the day’s prescribed assistance work. Uneventful.

Metal rec of the day: Enforced / War Remains. If you thought the final Slayer record was an embarrassment, (1) you were right, and (2) get a load of this.

[DCR]

5/3/23 (LA Fitness, West Orange, NJ)

Shawn Phillips Bench Program
Week 3, Day 1

Squats 45,135,200x10 230x8 250x6 265x4 230x8
Bench Press 45,135x10 205x6 235 x3s x8r
Press 115 x3s x6r
DB Flyes 35s x3s x8r
EZ French Press 58 x3s x8r

Session notes:

On bench, passed this session's failure test and so keeping at the current training max moving forward.

These are very light presses for me and yet my fucking back still hurts every time. Been wondering if going behind the neck would change anything...

Metal rec of the day: Dodheimsgard / Black Medium Current. I've only been through this once and was stunned. Going to try to focus on it to the exclusion of other stuff over the next week or so.

[broseph]

These are very light presses for me and yet my fucking back still hurts every time. Been wondering if going behind the neck would change anything...

My back always hurts more after overhead press day than deadlift day, and it's the reason I frequently omit the movement from my training plan.

I know I have a really hard time keeping my low back rigid/neutral with OHP- whether this is a physical weakness or mental deficit, I do not know.

Seated DB Press is a great alternative IMO.

[DCR]

These are very light presses for me and yet my fucking back still hurts every time. Been wondering if going behind the neck would change anything...

My back always hurts more after overhead press day than deadlift day, and it's the reason I frequently omit the movement from my training plan.

I know I have a really hard time keeping my low back rigid/neutral with OHP- whether this is a physical weakness or mental deficit, I do not know.

Seated DB Press is a great alternative IMO.

Agree. Did some of those, and also some standing DBs, during the months when I had banned barbell pressing, which I only brought back to comply with this program. Even the standing DBs weren't as bad, not sure if because of overall lighter weight or not pressing so much from out front of my torso... which segues into me also wondering if part of the recent issue is that these light presses are boring af and so I'm just pounding them out without necessarily getting my head under properly. In other words, I think that the bar may be out in front of me the entire motion. I just don't recall this shit being as bad when I was doing heavy presses and fully pausing each one on my chest and taking the time to each one right.

[DCR]

5/5/23 (NY)

Shawn Phillips Bench
Week 3, Day 2

High Bar Paused Squats 45,100x20
Lying Leg Curls 70x5,6,6
Rows 170 x3s x6r
Pulldowns 145x6,8,8
Barbell Curls 70 x3s x6r

Session notes:

Switched from EZ Curls to straight barbell curls, due to getting annoyed at not knowing the exact weight of the EZ bar at the various gyms to which I travel. Also barbell curls are manly as fuck. Some concerns about my elbows but I’m recalling now that I did them for nearly all of the 2020 lockdowns with no issue, so hopefully I’ll be good. All else uneventful, back still sore from those presses and I’m not supposed to be heavy squatting every day anymore per the program that I snaked from Zak’s log, so these light 20s did the trick again.

Metal rec of the day: Runemagick / The Supreme Force of Eternity. Very old, very good.

[augeleven]

High Bar Paused Squats 45,100x20

Nope.

[DCR]

High Bar Paused Squats 45,100x20

Nope.

Yeah, practically felt like bodyweight squats standing there with a weight that light, but became decidedly unpleasant. Thinking of progressing these super slowly with change plates and seeing what they may do for my actual squats. (Not to mention being the closest I come to “cardio.”)

[Renascent]

These are very light presses for me and yet my fucking back still hurts every time. Been wondering if going behind the neck would change anything...

I've read/heard it said in various places that the lower back will compensate for a lack of extension in the thoracic spine.

I just don't see myself rolling about on a foam roller as a warmup, so I deal with it. Ab/hip flexor stuff on the day before sometimes helps.

High Bar Paused Squats 45,100x20

Nope.

Yeah, practically felt like bodyweight squats standing there with a weight that light, but became decidedly unpleasant. Thinking of progressing these super slowly with change plates and seeing what they may do for my actual squats. (Not to mention being the closest I come to “cardio.”)

This sounds like an interesting idea, especially as a burner set.

[DCR]

These are very light presses for me and yet my fucking back still hurts every time. Been wondering if going behind the neck would change anything...

I've read/heard it said in various places that the lower back will compensate for a lack of extension in the thoracic spine.

I just don't see myself rolling about on a foam roller as a warmup, so I deal with it. Ab/hip flexor stuff on the day before sometimes helps.

That may track, because remembering to stand up as tall as I can is one of the (several) cues getting lost when I pump out these easy sets with no pause. No question I’m gonna switch back to pausing on the chest and treating each rep individually.

Fuck a foam roller.

High Bar Paused Squats 45,100x20

Nope.

Yeah, practically felt like bodyweight squats standing there with a weight that light, but became decidedly unpleasant. Thinking of progressing these super slowly with change plates and seeing what they may do for my actual squats. (Not to mention being the closest I come to “cardio.”)

This sounds like an interesting idea, especially as a burner set.

There’s one of those older dudes in my NY gym who’s like 65 and has that barrel chest that says he can still fuck your shit up, like in a game of pick up basketball would use his old man strength to box you out halfway across the court. Told me standard training at his spot back in the day was low rep stuff followed by 20s as burners.

My thing is that I’ve always believed that 20s are special, and I think that’s a good part of the game.

[DCR]

I don’t know where else to post this: I need to see some posts from new member @THICKFIZZLEBODY.

[DCR]

5/8/23 (Anytime Fitness, LA)

Shawn Phillips Bench Program
Week 3, Day 3

Squats 45,135,200x10 230x8 250x6 265x4 280x2 250x6
Bench Press 45,135x10 205x6 230 x2s x3r 255 x2s x2r 295x neg
DB Bench 60s x10,8,8
DB Press 50s x3s x4r
Lateral Raises 25s x8,8,10
ES Pushdowns 110 x3s x10r

Session notes:

Moved into the house in Louisiana yesterday and joined a new gym today. Regret that I had to leave the one that I had been utilizing in Baton Rouge over the past year and a half, which was a great spot with good folks with whom I’ll legit miss bullshitting. Just too far away. The new spot is fantastic for equipment, crowd a bit suspect. Expressly not saying which Anytime Fitness so that I can make this observation: I have never seen that many dudes on gear, in any gym, commercial or otherwise.

@Zak, I love this squat progression. I did it today with no safety arms, because none of it is in doubt, but it feels like real work.

Did my pushdowns as recommended by Rippetoe, letting the weight come nearly all the way back up (i.e. not pinning my elbows to my sides) and fuck I’m sore. He’s not wrong about everything.

That top bench rep was disappointing. I knew that I couldn’t actually hit it, and wasn’t supposed to per the programmed negative, but I had some small thought that mayyyyybe I could or that it wouldn’t crush me that hard, I guess in part because I’ve hit it before (although not in the past two and a half years). Giant lol to that, totally stapled, wouldn’t have been able to budge it a fraction of an inch.

Metal rec of the day: Still Dodheimsgard. Not permitting myself to think about anything else until I’ve fully absorbed this.

[hector]

Sometimes you just gotta go hard! You may not hit it. It is what it is.
You’re making me think that not doing triceps work is one of my many failings. Push downs are the shit. Even rippetoe style.

[augeleven]

I don’t know where else to post this: I need to see some posts from new member THICKFIZZLEBODY.

For real. Every time I see that name at the bottom of the screen, I think of this-