Here is a “quick” chronicle of the current block I am on, as well as a brief background to catch up to my current training:
I graduated from Purdue University this past December (2015), and my final semester went… less-than-stellar as far as training goes (best semester I had, academically!). 18 hour days spent in the lab, constant projects, and general school stress wreaked havoc on my schedule, daily routine, and training. Outside of a few weeks, I was limited to mostly getting in the gym as stress relief, rather than consistent training. As a result my numbers suffered.
However, since graduating, tight adherence to my routines, and nothing but free time, has pushed me past almost all of my previous PR’s. Coming into this new training block I was fresh off of a different routine (favoring decline, floor press, high bar squat, and conventional deadlift vs. bands) to ease me back into high load and it went extremely smoothly. This gave me confidence enough to pick my training back up where I left off before my school-induced hiatus, and I am very glad I did.
This new training block features squat, bench and deads which I think I needed, both to test my progress, as well as getting me back into it. Going into this training block I estimated (never a good calculation, but sometimes you need to) my 1 rep max (1RM) for squat to be around 470 lbs, bench to be around 370, and deadlift to be just over 500.
Week One
Hit a heavy triple on squat at 440 (200 kilos!) and bench at 340 making my 1RM estimates pretty close. Overall this first week went really well, however I was sore. I don’t know if my lower body has ever been as sore as it was after the first max effort lower body day of this block. Dynamic effort work didn’t go any better.
When you’re in the prime of training, DOMS rarely slows you down, but this knocked me on my ass. I think a mix of high volume and high weight work, as well as a significant amount of single leg work, which I am not used to, killed me. After the first few days though, DOMS was a non-factor, and this first week had me pumped.
Week Two
Right off the bat, I started this week feeling sore, but nailed a deadlift heavy triple at 485 relatively easy, despite not feeling the best. Great feeling. My heavy triple of close grip bench went poorly, as I over estimated myself and missed 335 for 3. Noted for next time. Overall though, I left this week feeling great.
Week Three
Moving back into a heavy triple of squat and bench this week, I hit 450×3 on squat and 350×3 on bench. Considering the most I’ve ever had on my back is 465 and the most in my hands is 365, this was an awesome week for me.
My three rep squat:
Nagging issues:
My triceps continue to be my sticking point on bench, something I will keep working on. My dead-lift off the floor, previous sticking point, has gone up considerably. I credit speed work and deficits for that. Squat felt almost too perfect this week, even though I felt like garbage warming up. Knees, hips, and lower back have all been healthy and pain free which is new to me. My left wrist/forearm has been nagging, but not hampering, me. I need to invest in some wrist wraps ASAP to prevent this from becoming an issue. My left shoulder, which usually really bothers me, has been feeling great this entire block. Hopefully my body continues to stay as healthy as it is, I have lots of prehab and mobility work to do to stay in the clear.
This is all for now. Going forward I will have much more detailed logs, I just wanted to do a quick catch up to my current position so you guys know where I’m at and what I’m talking about if I reference something in the future.
