Today, squatting beltless felt a lot better than squatting has since the meet. I felt a little stronger, and I kept decent position coming out of the hole. Overall, I was positively encouraged by the work I got in. Obviously, three work sets isn't a lot, but I'm going to increase volume over time so as to not have my body break down on me again before another meet.
KevinAlvy Elite
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Subject: Re: The 1400 or Bust Log Sun May 05, 2013 9:26 pm
dat coincidence
Keosawa American-Record Holder
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Subject: Re: The 1400 or Bust Log Sun May 05, 2013 10:58 pm
Okay, fine: I've joined.
Keosawa American-Record Holder
Posts : 3174 Join date : 2011-10-30 Age : 37
Subject: Re: The 1400 or Bust Log Mon May 06, 2013 12:48 pm
Face Pulls 52kgx15 52kgx15 52kgx15 52kgx15 52kgx15
My bench is starting to feel a little better, but I really just need to get in more reps. The RPEs will increase over the weeks--right now, I'm just trying to get in a moderate amount of volume. 240x7, with the long pauses, was probably the most challenging set I've done on bench since my meet.
KevinAlvy Elite
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Subject: Re: The 1400 or Bust Log Sat May 11, 2013 3:24 pm
Is there a specific reason you are ramping volume the whole time? Increases in training volume usually means at least a slight decrease in intensity, which is going to be less sport specific
Keosawa American-Record Holder
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Subject: Re: The 1400 or Bust Log Sat May 11, 2013 8:10 pm
KevinAlvy wrote:
Is there a specific reason you are ramping volume the whole time? Increases in training volume usually means at least a slight decrease in intensity, which is going to be less sport specific
I've been going back and forth between these two options:
A.) Starting at ~60 NBL, almost all between 70-85%, in SQ/BP for the first two-week cycle, then increasing it to ~85 NBL for a three-week mesocycle, then increasing it to ~110 NBL for a three-week mesocycle, then increasing it to ~130 NBL for a two-week mesocycle.
B.) Starting at ~60 NBL, same as before, then increasing to ~90 NBL, ~120 NBL, and back down to ~90 NBL for the final two-week cycle, except with more high-intensity work. This would be a lot closer to the old Soviet weightlifting planning, in which the training volume would usually increase in concert with intensity at about a 20% clip per mesocycle, and would drop off by 20-30% for the last realization phase before a competition, with an accompanying increase in intensity.
I'm not sure which route I'll take yet, and I'll probably just see how I feel and let that determine it. The simple answer is that I feel like my strength "peaks" with escalating volume rather than a transition from high-volume training to high-intensity training.
Either way, I'm thinking the total volume at the end will not necessarily decrease intensity. Without going into a long aside, for my last two-week cycle, I'd probably do the vast majority of my work at 65-75% for longer sets at a RPE@7ish, with about 20% coming in the 85-95% range and a higher RPE. So, I'd try to do much more high-intensity work than I'm doing right now, but I'd off-set that increase with a lot of easy-ish volume.
Last edited by KKeough on Sat May 11, 2013 8:12 pm; edited 1 time in total
Keosawa American-Record Holder
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Subject: Re: The 1400 or Bust Log Sat May 11, 2013 8:11 pm
(But I'm open to suggestions on all of this.)
KevinAlvy Elite
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Subject: Re: The 1400 or Bust Log Sat May 11, 2013 9:42 pm
I think it comes down to your goal in July and how that plays out in your macrocycle. I obviously believe option B will be better for peaking, but I remember you mentioning this won't likely be a run at 1400. If your goal is to build a solid base, heal up a bit, hit modest prs, and make the run again in October, option A makes more sense to me.
I know that you've had a lot of success with volume over the past year or so, but I would imagine it will start paying diminishing returns. The switch from a west side to high volume program is going to give a ton of efficiency gains, but I would assume these taper off after a bit
Keosawa American-Record Holder
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Subject: Re: The 1400 or Bust Log Sun May 12, 2013 12:35 am
Face Pulls 57kgx12 57kgx12 57kgx12 57kgx12 57kgx12
External Rotations, five sets
Keosawa American-Record Holder
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Subject: Re: The 1400 or Bust Log Sun May 12, 2013 12:52 am
KevinAlvy wrote:
I think it comes down to your goal in July and how that plays out in your macrocycle. I obviously believe option B will be better for peaking, but I remember you mentioning this won't likely be a run at 1400. If your goal is to build a solid base, heal up a bit, hit modest prs, and make the run again in October, option A makes more sense to me.
I know that you've had a lot of success with volume over the past year or so, but I would imagine it will start paying diminishing returns. The switch from a west side to high volume program is going to give a ton of efficiency gains, but I would assume these taper off after a bit
Yeah. I think I'll just go by how I feel leading up to the meet. I was ready for this last one...in February. It just ended up being too much for too long, and I was pretty beat up by the end of it. It was probably a matter of time before something gave now. Now I feel like I'm undoing a lot of the crap I put myself through, but the good news is that I feel better.
Honestly, I think I could go in and hit 1400 in July. I feel like a 309 bench and a 573 deadlift will be there. The question mark is the squat, but if I work into it correctly, I could squat 518 in competition. But my plan is to secure a total PR, so I'll probably do something like 446-490-518 for my squats.
You're right about the volume. I think I've already reached that point with my bench--Smolov Jr. gave me five pounds, total, after two go-throughs. Most of my gains had come from when I originally switched to it. But I do think I have more to gain from adding volume to my squat and deadlift. I have some pretty bad weaknesses that have never really been addressed before, so the ceiling is higher. The bench is just going to be a long and slow process, but I'll take even slow progress.
So, we'll see. I'd be happy with 1370+ in July, even if I'm capable of more. It's just so hard to put everything together in one meet; I have to be honest with myself about where I stand heading into this one.
Keosawa American-Record Holder
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Subject: Re: The 1400 or Bust Log Thu May 16, 2013 3:56 pm
2.) I had no plan today, and it showed. Time to write this next cycle.
2.) This makes me depressed, but I was at least able to salvage the session with some quality reps on the box squat. 395x3 was about 360 at bottom, 390ish at top, which is a good unwrapped triple for me.
Keosawa American-Record Holder
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Subject: Re: The 1400 or Bust Log Sun May 19, 2013 7:48 am
External Rotations, in kg 7.5x12, 12 7.5x12, 12 7.5x12, 12 7.5x12, 12 7.5x12, 12
Face Pulls, in kg 62.5x12 62.5x12 62.5x12 62.5x12 62.5x12
Notes: Benchy felt much better today. I'm starting to rediscover my groove after just feeling really inexplosive off my chest these past few weeks. 250x5x5 is a good amount of volume to attain at a reasonable RPE; I think my current five-rep max is 265, but I could likely hit 270-275, which means that this is about 92-93% of my current 5RM, which is about what I'm looking for right now for a RPE (I think that number will creep up to 95% in the coming weeks).
Overall, this was a good session done at a shit time (right before I had to fly and less than two days from my last bench session), so I can't complain. My body felt cranky, but it could just be the condensed training before I traveled that did it.
Keosawa American-Record Holder
Posts : 3174 Join date : 2011-10-30 Age : 37
Subject: Re: The 1400 or Bust Log Sun May 19, 2013 12:56 pm
Notes: I trained at a gym in RI called Ocean State Gym today, and it was great. I didn't even know they were open when I got there, so I drove past it twice--it's a big, spacious garage gym with everything you could imagine. If you like old, rusted gyms, then this one is perfect: everything's worn down and bent to shit; there are cobwebs everywhere, and I shared my platform with a spider; the place is actually cluttered in corners with cool old equipment. When I got there, there was one guy at the counter and not a single member, so I was literally training by myself for the first half-hour.
As far as the pulling went, it took me a while to even get set up, and I felt like a dope asking this guy if I could pull with this bar and pull on that platform. I used a squat bar to pull because I didn't know if they had a deadlift bar, but the lack of give was offset by the fact that it was already pretty badly bent. I'm guessing the mats were 2.5", though it could have been a little less than that.
521x4 was a great pull. I used straps, because the bar was really rolling in my hands, but I pulled it without chalk and didn't take any long breaks between reps. My best pull off the floor is 520x3, and I bet I could have hit 520x4 off the floor today. So, maybe the extra pulling volume is paying off...?
Keosawa American-Record Holder
Posts : 3174 Join date : 2011-10-30 Age : 37
Subject: Re: The 1400 or Bust Log Thu May 23, 2013 10:56 am
External Rotations, in kg 7.5x12, 12 7.5x12, 12 7.5x12, 12 7.5x12, 12
Notes on training: It's eight weeks from my next meet and I'm finally starting to really let it go on the heavy training days. 405x3 was a 10-lb. PR from when I was messing with this setup last week, and it was a pretty good one; I feel much better at grinding out heavy box squats than when I used to do them. Afterwards, I got in fifteen reps at a reasonably high intensity with my beltless squat; those sets were space six minutes apart, and I was pretty gassed after the last one. Starting this week, I squat on both Thursday and Friday, so I'll be getting in plenty of back squatting soon.
On the bench, I took last week's template and just added five pounds to it, considering I handled it so well. I was a little concerned about doing 285 for three sets of two, as that's my current max triple and only ten pounds away from my best double, but I cruised through it on the first two sets, which prompted me to go for 290x3. This is the first heavy max-rep set I've done this training cycle, and I handled it very well. I nearly ran out of gas on the third rep, but I was able to finish it without any asymmetry in my arms. Furthermore, the pauses felt good--I didn't cut any of them short, which I'm sometimes inclined to do on near-max sets. 290x3 is probably the best single work-set of mine this training cycle, and it comes just after pulling 521x4 off of 2.5" blocks; at this moment, I feel good about my deadlift and bench press development, and I feel like I'll be set up for meet PRs in July.
One final thing: I'm considering competing at UPA Battle at the Mississippi in July instead of NASA Grand Nationals. There are a few reasons for this: first, it's a bigger meet with better competition. Second, I want to see what the facilities are like; the NASA meets in Des Moines are very well-run with great spotters and loaders, but the actual lifting equipment is not top-notch, and warming up was...frustrating...at the last one; it would be cool to pull on a different deadlift bar and squat out of a monolift, or even to use longer knee wraps, and see if that stuff makes my total go up at all; they use 24-hour weigh-ins, which would mean that I'd come into the meet weighing a good 3-4 lbs. heavier than usual, which would be to my advantage; the presentation values there are better, and it more of a "meet" feel to it.
So, it's something I'm considering. Rich Peters is a great guy and NASA has been very good to me, but sooner or later, I'll end up competing elsewhere, and I don't want to be beholden to any one federation. I want to experience different feds, meet different lifters, and be able to travel to seek out new challenges if I choose to do so.
Keosawa American-Record Holder
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Subject: Re: The 1400 or Bust Log Thu May 23, 2013 11:06 am
If KevinAlvy's bench press stays in freefall, how long until I catch him?
KevinAlvy Elite
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Subject: Re: The 1400 or Bust Log Thu May 23, 2013 6:39 pm
KKeough wrote:
If KevinAlvy's bench press stays in freefall, how long until I catch him?
fuaaaaaaaaaaaark
fazekas doe
Keosawa American-Record Holder
Posts : 3174 Join date : 2011-10-30 Age : 37
Subject: Re: The 1400 or Bust Log Thu May 23, 2013 10:46 pm
True story: Eric Spoto was subscribed to my old youtube channel. This was back before he was an internet legend.
Must've been looking for bench tips.
Nathan Poage Master
Posts : 1912 Join date : 2011-10-31 Age : 32
Subject: Re: The 1400 or Bust Log Thu May 23, 2013 10:54 pm
KKeough wrote:
One final thing: I'm considering competing at UPA Battle at the Mississippi in July instead of NASA Grand Nationals.
Just skip both and prep for USAPL in October.
Keosawa American-Record Holder
Posts : 3174 Join date : 2011-10-30 Age : 37
Subject: Re: The 1400 or Bust Log Thu May 23, 2013 11:30 pm
Nathan Poage wrote:
KKeough wrote:
One final thing: I'm considering competing at UPA Battle at the Mississippi in July instead of NASA Grand Nationals.
Just skip both and prep for USAPL in October.
I need to avenge April, and I can't wait that long. I'll be depressed until I can erase that performance.
Subject: Re: The 1400 or Bust Log 
Thu May 02, 2013 5:11 pm
