Week 12 #2

Back Squat:
325 x 5/5/5

Standing Overhead Press:
215 x 5/5/5

Chin-ups:
BW x 9/7/5

Week 12 #1

Back Squat (Belt):
395 x 5/5/3

Medium-Grip Bench Press:
300 x 5/5/4
285 x 5/4

Conventional Deadlift (Belt):
451 x 1

Was more tired than I expected. By the time I hit deadlifts I just ran out of steam. BLEH

Week 11 #2

Back Squat:
325 x 5

Bench Press:
320 x 3

Chin-ups:
BW x 10

Still pretty shot, so this was perfect. Get in and get out.

Week 11 #1

Squat (Belt):
390 x 5/5/3 //ARGH

Standing Press:
210 x 4/4 //terrible

Stiff-Leg DL:
407 x 2

So this pretty much confirms that I'm over-trained. This also confirms my belief that I had it right in the beginning with my Min-Volume week every three weeks. I am seriously beat right now. WIll just do a min-volume day on Thursday and hopefully the next two weeks will be productive.

CrossFit news

Looks like CrossFit is in trouble. I'm not a CrossFit fan per se (too much running around for my taste), but training hard should always be respected. Reminds me of how every trainer now uses bands, chains and boards to train people who have never even heard of a bench shirt. MEH

Training Plan

Random thoughts and observations on training so far:

- Try to pull "for real" 3x a week is tough to recover from at my stage. Experimented with Haltings, Power Cleans and Rack Pulls all in the same week, and this was just too much for significant progress. Will instead dial it back to the Texas Method template of:
#1 Haltings
#2 Chin-ups/High-Rep Hypers and what not
#3 Rack Pulls/Power Cleans (alternate by week)

This still gives plenty of pulling practice while giving the back more rest.

- Pressing ala the TExas Method is great. Alternating Standing Press w/ Bench Press and further changing the loads as 5x5, 3x5 and 1x3 or 1x1 is critical to progressing at my stage. It's pretty damn easy to just spin your wheels all year on the bench and gain maybe 5 lbs.

- NEED to just train 2x a week every three weeks. After two weeks I'm pretty shot and need to recover for super-compensation to occur. Otherwise, I start stalling. Signs include irratibility, muscle weakness, trouble sleeping and lack of motivation. Funny how these are almost the same signs as depression...

- Absolutely must stuff my face on training days, then eat less on non-training days. Mainly has to do with carbs. This evens out to maintain my weight, which fortunately has not changed much over the last year.

- Wish I had someone of similar strength level to train with. Right now everyone is either weak, likes non-effective training programs or likes to stay at the gym for 3 hours at a time (haha Brent). GARY WHERE ART THOU?

Week 10 #3

Shoulder-Stance Back Squat(Belt):
405 x 1

Back felt WAY tired, shut it down here.

Medium-Grip Bench Press:
340 x 2

Chin-ups:
BW x 9/8/5