Curlin' in the squat rack: Logan's log

2/26 (S+54)

Squats

240x5x5
240x12 (trimmed video down, edits are pending on youtube.)



225x5x2 (beltless)

Seated Hamstring Curl

150x10x3

Back extensions bodyweight 10x5 (articulated my whole spine on these)

Streching, foam rolling


2/27 (S+55)

Bench

165x5x5
165x11

OHP

110x5x5
110x11

Seated Lat Row, wide grip

60x20x2
80x12x3

Dips

x20, x12, x10

Face Pulls

70x20x3

Incline DB bench 45x10x3

3/2 (S+57)

Skipped lifting yesterday because I've been feeling like hell, so I had to get in my deadlifts and squats today. Thankfully it was a really light day since I still feel terrible. I kept it as short as possible.

Deadlift

300x5x5

Squat

240x5x5

Are you still doing CBL? If so how is it going?

Hey man, yeah, still doing CBL, it's going good. I have not been religiously weighing myself or doing body fat measurements at all (just got calipers). But I have stayed right around my target weight (which was actually to gain a few pounds back after surgery) and just from looking and from the way my belt fits I can tell I'm leaner, although not radically so. I've been steadily gaining back my strength, and now I'd say I'm pretty close to where I was pre-surgery, so there hasn't really been a downside to the diet that I can tell yet. I am sure that if I were super careful with calibrating my exact carb intake and macros throughout the day I could squeeze more muscle mass and less body fat out of it, but I don't care to do all of that tedious tinkering with what I eat. Right now I have a rough idea that I follow. I also don't take nearly as much caffeine as he recommends, because I don't tolerate it well, but I imagine if I were taking 2.5g of that shit per day that I'd be leaner, like anyone would from introducing more stimulants to their diet. But I'm not willing to feel geeked all day.


Anyway, log for today:

3/4 (S+59)

Bench: 185x5x3, 185x8@ 8.5, 185x5x4

Bent over row: 135x10x3

Seated Lat Pulldown (moderate grip): 100x10x3

Dips: x18, x10, x8, x7

Face Pulls: 100x10x5

DB Bench: 50x10x3


I did all of this in about 1 hour and 20 minutes, so I think it was a pretty efficient workout. Really tried to keep the rest intervals short so that I could get a lot of different stuff in while also getting plenty of volume on the main lift.

Awesome man that's great to hear! Are you planning on going 181 in April? I don't blame you on the caffeine I'm the same way. I would have a heart attack with as much caffeine as he suggests haha. I have a cup of coffee or two a day and call it good.

That sounds pretty awesome man. I'm loving the short time of your workouts. What did you have surgery for btw? I'm not totally filled in on that one. I meant to ask you the other day about how those stretches are working out for you? I hope they are working for you as well as they are working for me.

Hey, the stretches are good, thanks for going to the trouble of linking them for me . The surgery was a hemorrhoidectomy. Lulz. Notoriously painful recovery that definitely lived up to its reputation. I had a history if minor ones, so it wasn't brought on by lifting originally, although this particular episode may have been influenced by that. I hope you're sufficiently grossed out now.

Also I once did a NASA meet during a (much much less severe) hemorrhoid flare-up, which, as Kyle knows, I often compare to Jordan's flu game.

3/5 (S+60) Officially two full months out from surgery. MILESTONE.

Squat

265x5x3
265x11
235x5x4 (beltless)




I'm pretty happy with how this went. The sets of 5 were kind of awkward in terms of bar placement and mechanics in general, but I managed to find my groove for the 5+ rep set. Pushing the knees forward and sort of folding up on myself seems to work better than forcing them outward and dropping into the hole. Seems that the bar stays directly over my hips this way, makes the weight feel dramatically lighter.

Barbell Glute Bridges 135x15x5

Seated Hamstring Curl 90x20x3

Stretching, foamin'

3/6 (S+61)

Bench Press: 185x5x4

Overhead Press: 125x5x4, 125x8

Paused Bench Press: 175x5x4

Iso row: 1 plate + 25 per side x10x5

Dips: x16, x10, x10

Face Pulls 110x10x3

Stretching

Kept the rest intervals quite short. Starting to feel more stable on my bench setup.

Logan Joseph wrote:

Also I once did a NASA meet during a (much much less severe) hemorrhoid flare-up, which, as Kyle knows, I often compare to Jordan's flu game.

Jordan's flu game doesn't have shit on you. Seriously. You officially became a bad motherfucker with that one. Watching you grind horribly on every single rep of Smolov only furthered the legend.

So, you're pretty set on competing with us in April? I'm thinking we could have at least a dozen from Iowa City there.

Also, Ghost Dawg, Anderson is in Basic and we'd like to send him another letter soon. If you want to write something to him and forward it to me, I'll put it in the mail with all our stuff.

Also, your fucking video is set to private.

Oops my bad it's public now. Yeah, that meet was the Jordan flu game, this next one will be like Adrian Peterson's return from surgery. Yeah I'll definitely be there in April. Tell Chris that I'm going to put his skinny fat ass in the ground the next time we compete.

3/8 (S+63)

Deadlifts

331 (lol 2.5kg collars) x 5 x 3
331x9

These felt heavy, and I felt like crap today. I'm not doing much to help out my deadlift in terms of extra work.




Seated Gms 95x20x5

Neutral Grip Lat Pulldowns: 100x15, 130x10, 110x12

I noticed when you start, your head is tilted upward. Maybe try keeping you head a more neutral position with your chin tucked in might help that weight come up a little easier.

Yeah, you could be right about that Grant. I fear that tucking my chin might cue me to further round my back and let my scapula relax, but it might have the opposite effect. I'll give it a try.

Today I got to the gym late so I just did my main work and got the f out.

3/9 (S+64)

Squat: 265x5x4, 245x5x4 (beltless)

I incorporated Agile 8 into my warm-up today, which took some extra time, but felt pretty good. These sets were really easy and I blew through them with pretty short rest intervals. It was one of those days where I wanted to get in and out so bad I didn't even bother listening to music. Tuesday I'll test a rep max at 290.

3/11 (S+66)

Felt really ill today. Almost didn't go in. Went in anyway. Did some work, got the fuck out. Today was supposed to be 200xAMAP, but I had no spotter so I didn't go to failure. I'll try it again for real on Wednesday. Was feeling like I could do about 10 reps.

Bench: 200x8, 200x5x3; 180x5x4 (paused)

Wide Grip Seated Cable Row 80x15x3

Dips x15, x12, x11

3/12 (S+67)

Squat "realization" day. I kinda think the programming on Juggernaut is stupid. the last time I squatted I did 265 for sets of 5 plus an AMAP, now suddenly I'm meant to do an AMAP of 290. Kind of an arbitrary and large jump.

anyway..


Squat: 290x8, 290x5x2, 255x5x3 (beltless)



Didn't feel particularly good or strong today. I think that under better circumstances I'd be good for 10 or more reps of this with decent form, more if I actually went to "failure" as the program (stupidly) suggests.

Barbell Glute Bridges 165x15x3
Hamstring Curls: 90x20x5
Stretching, Foamin'

3/13 (S+68)

Bench: 200x5x5

Overhead Press: 135x4 (hand cramped, failed set.) 135x6 (AMAP), 135x5, 125x5x2

Paused Bench: 185x4x3

Seated Lat Row (U-shaped gripper, palms in) 90x15x3

Dips: x15, x10, x10

Face Pulls: 80x20x3

Stretching

Solid form on those squats, Ghost Dawg.

Thanks, I was a little disappointed with how those reps felt. Definitely not as solid as my form at 265. That's the stupid thing about Juggernaut, though. All of a sudden you're doing +25lbs and you've only got one shot at the weight because it's supposed to be an AMAP. It's sort of impossible to prepare for that warming up.. it's not like incrementally working up to a heavy single. I was thinking when I do this weight again on Saturday I will do something like take 290 for a triple just to get a better feel for the weight, take some time, and go for a better AMAP. Either that or just do it 5x5 and forget testing a rep max.

I mean, the problem with the programming isn't just that I haven't done a set (of 3, of 5, whatever) at 290 before at any point in the days or weeks preceding the AMRAP attempt, it's that I haven't done anything as heavy as 290 AT ALL, not even for a single, coming up to the AMRAP.

Hmm, I've been looking at this program, and that....that is not confidence-inspiring. I suppose it's worked for various individuals, but damn, I'd like to have that weight on my back before repping it out. You can probably just mentally wrestle yourself into being okay with it, but it doesn't sound fantastic.

Also, I feel like Agile 8 is both mental and physical prep for me. That mental part is probably even more important than the physical. Also, I can't do the more plyo-ish stuff in Agile 8 worth crap. Ask Kyle, he's seen it.

3/15 (S+69)

I felt absolutely horrible in every way on Friday [nutrition/sleep/mood/attitude/medication/etc]. Probably shouldn't have gone in. Went in anyway. Did the bare minimum. These were some of the most unnecessarily difficult sets of anything I've ever done. 365x5 should not be hard for me, but this felt ridiculous. I can probably put this down 30 percent to the fact that my deadlift sucks right now, and 70 percent to the shitty way I felt yesterday. A long time ago I passed out pulling 375 for a single, which was a PR at the time. That's about how heavy these felt. But more generally, I need to be doing some serious accessory work along with my deadlifting. It's about time I recommit to that part of my program. Open to any and all suggestions. Probably need posterior chain and core work. Seated GMs are already in the program.



I'm going to try to go in and knock 290 out of the park today to make up for this shitty fucking session yesterday. Oh, and I'm never wearing All Stars to deadlift again because the fucking toe box curls up.

290 squatting, that is.