Kyle's 2016 Log

thanks

No, thank you.

Larsen Press
340x1

OHP
160x6
175x6
190x6
205x5

Lots of tris and bis.

Notes: going to start very selectively doing heavy press singles. Basically, my tendonitis will freak out if I spend much time in the mid intensity range. My options are either 135 for a million reps or one max single, so that will basically be my protocol moving forward. A little max flat benching, lots of ohp, and lots of really light horizontal pressing. Since doing a lot of stretching and a lot of really light pressing, I feel better than when I had just been resting and avoiding it. Hmm.

340 was pretty good for Larsen press. I think I could do 350-360. I will go up to 350 next week and keep inching it up as I go.

OHP went fine and 205x5 is technically a PR but I was just wiped after Larsens. Lots of bodybuilding after that. Weighed 189 last night, so that's an all-time PR. I figure if I keep gaining weight and getting stronger, I might actually bench 400 in four weeks. I can dream, at least.

181?

165, but just working on improving body comp. I will bring it back down to 180 over the summer, hopefully a fair bit leaner than before.

Catching up on loggy:

Low Bar:
360x6
390x6
420x6

OHP
210x5
190x6x2

DB Press
100x15x2

Larsen Press 135x99999

Notes: low bar felt tired after high bar earlier in the week, so I just called it early and decided to take the extra rest. OHP felt pretty solid, so there's that. And I was 191.5 last night, so a fair bit higher than I had previously ever been in my life. Three more weeks to bulk, then another six at maintenance, then I can finally start the cut back down to 180. I am sick of food.

Great job logging.

Training cycle is done. I test in one week. Time for a recap of everything I have done since my meet in Feb.:

Body comp: It has been close to four months since I competed, and my first goal was to improve my body comp. I am currently weighing 185-190 at 10-11% body-fat. BF was higher but I recomped while gaining a bit of weight after a lot of bodybuilding shit and a six week 20mg date with Diana Boll. I am pretty much done with the body-recomp stuff now, since I want to stay 165. I go on maintenance for six weeks after this, then work back down below 185.

Legs got a bit bigger. Back made big strides. Overall just added some good muscle from last year.

Squat: technique is much better now and strength is now on par with the meet. Did my final session and squatted 515 to good depth, then 550 about an inch high. Broke technique and collapsed a bit before hitting the hole. Not strong enough to hit it smoothly yet, but I should peak for a small PR next week. The good thing is I squatted 550 as deep or deeper than both my RUM squats. Big improvements in four months.

My training on this lift derailed a month ago. My body got real achy, the sets went poorly, and I had to cut a TON of volume. I am making some changes for the future.

Bench: wtf. A month ago I hit an ugly 350 in my first return to comp benching since the meet. Tendonitis still bugged me. Out of desperation, I started doing my own graston and ART on it. I took some advice and learned suicide grip. And I started benching suicide grip. Holy crap did that work. I am not "healed," but I finally feel like I can train it. Hit 390 for my last training single and feel capable of 400-410 next week. Really excited about this one.

Deadlift: very mediocre. Training on this was very smart and very good prior to Boll. Hit a 650 PR almost on a whim. Then I cut dl volume a ton to focus on squat and that gamble did not pay off on both ends. Pulled 640x2 but missed 660. The good news is that I have a really good idea as to how I can train these together next cycle.

So, next week, the goals are:

Squat somewhere between 560 and 575, and hit depth.

Bench over 400.

Deadlift a PR, at least hitting the 660 I missed before.

From there, I will be on vitamin T at a higher amount for another five weeks. Then, it is three months just cruising along. After I'm done all that--think end of September--I will be twelve weeks at the earliest from another meet. That could mean a meet at the absolute end of this year, but it will more likely mean competing as planned in early 2017. I am pretty close to that 1650-1700 range but just need a couple successful training cycles to see it realized.

Keosawa wrote:

That could mean a meet at the absolute end of this year, but it will more likely mean competing as planned in early 2017.

Those are both great times to visit the southwest.

Quick loggy of today's test day, aka the first gym meet I have done in seven years.

Squats: squatted 525, then 560, then shut it down. Maybe had another 10 or 15 pounds but I really hate squatting. PR with my new stance and to actual depth, so that is a huge step forward for me. My training cycle was miserable, but I have plans moving forward.

Bench: 370, 400, 410 miss. Felt easy today. No bicep pain whatsoever; suicide grip and butter knife graston are lifesavers. Considering I was planning on not testing a month ago when I benched a hard and painful 350, this is a goddamn miracle. 410 should have gone but I ran out of gas at the top. I can build this sucker a lot in the future.

Deadlift: 584, 640, 661. Took a borderline warm-up just to get a "total," then got 1600 with 640. That moved great. 661 was shit and so was the lockout.

So, 1621 for shitty gym lifts. My three goals for this period were to get bigger, fix my squat form, and get my bicep healthier. Training was far from perfect, but I went three for three there. I am definitely stronger at this point than I suspected. Now I have a good 8 to 10 months to prep everything for one of these big spring meets.

I think getting healthy was the biggest step you made, and man was it a big step forward. That is a big jump for your bench press and it looks like you can keep going in the near future. Squat depth looked a bit better but there are definite strides in overall technique. I think the soft knees issue for your deadlift might be the biggest issue going forward, but you have a pretty good track record of fixing your deadlift when things go awry.

Yeah, lockout felt like a shitshow. Oh well. I have never gotten off-balance like that at the top and I don't know what to make of it. I am hoping it was a fluke. Grip at least was fine.

High Bar Squats
350x10x3

Bench
280x10x4

DL
540x5x3

Back accessories

Felt ready to puke after three sets on squat, so I am very deconditioned. Felt similarly trashed after deadlifting. Work capacity has to improve. But benching went great and felt really easy. After stopping the force feeding I am between 186 and 190 most of the time. At least I have an appetite again.

Great job, me. Okay, starting again, with this week:

Yesterday

Paused Bench, 365x3 top set day, then 225x29
Bunch of hammer curls, pulldowns, and face pulls

Today
Paused beltless squats, 365x5x6

Notes: Bench was a good PR. A month off oral supp now and down 5-8 pounds in bodyweight and still pressing better numbers, which is very surprising. Usually my bench drops way off.

Squats were rough. Using the power bar helps a ton with keeping my biceps from flaring up. These really weren't bad, but my conditioning is still pretty low, albeit getting better. I don't enjoy squatting right now, so I am just focusing on getting some reps in. Volume volume volume.

Bench
225x30, 225x20x3, bunch of accessories

Paused Squat, Beltless
450x3
315x10x3

First time doing a top set squatting since the meet, and that went pretty well. Yay.

Paused DL
495x1
550x1
600x1

55 lb. PR off a lift I have never maxed on. Felt very easy but stopped there. I'm going back to alternating between max-effort and straight set weeks on deadlift again. It went really well before, and I'm thinking I should just go back to that well until it stops working.

Wow, horrible job updating this lately. I think I will try making this a Sunday thing and just do weekly recaps. Let's see:

Week one report

Squat: Some easy high-bar volume sets, 280 for 6 sets of 10, followed by paused beltless low-bar at 300 for eight sets of five. I am doing something new now in loading volume at a VERY low exertion. It is boring, I guess, but it will be much more recoverable for me. Both of these sessions felt sub-par, but with the sets being so light, I cruised through them.

My third session is a top set day, and I did 440x5 paused belted. That is a pretty good set for me. Depth this week was probably better as a whole than it has been in years. That is something I am focusing on.

Bench: 265 for five sets of ten, then 300 for three sets of five. These all moved sub-par. Tendonitis was rough for 300, so I shut it down. I just got lazy with my treatment and it got tight. My top set day was 345x4 and that felt awesome. No pain, and they moved great. It's amazing how much better I feel when I am proactive about shit. I have done 340x5 and 350x4 before, but I was 179 for this session, down from 194 at my heaviest (I was low 190s when I did 340x5). My strength has held really well since losing weight and switching supplementation.

Deadlift: 650x4 reverse bands top set. This was a clusterfuck of a day. I just made bad strategic choices. Ultimately the pulls went well and felt pretty strong. I will do better next time.

Week two report:

Squat: My high-bar session was probably the worst of the three. I think I did four sets at 315x8 and called it there. It didn't move terribly bad, but I feel out of practice with high bar right now. I did 330 for eight se ts of four, paused and beltless, and that went better. My top set for this week was 460x4, paused. That moved fairly well and I'm happy with the progress there.

Bench: A better week than last week, overall. I hit all my reps and 280 for six sets of eight and 315x4x4 both went pretty well. I didn't do great on the top set day, so I just did 330 for two sets of five instead of attempting 355x4.

Deadlift: 490x4x4, all paused. These moved fine. Yay.

Overall, a good week. I am just trying to hang around that 1600 total mark for the next six weeks, before everything ramps up again.

I recently made the decision to do the USPA meet JP's gym puts on, on Dec. 10th. There are a few reasons for this:

My plan was to wait until Gracie's big cash meet in April, but seeing as I am now #5 at 165 and only the top 5 in each class get invited, there is no guarantee I will qualify. I can't do LA and RUM isn't on my radar. So, I'm shit out of luck on the big spring meets.

Also, I expect the big three at 165 to compete in the spring. One or more will push the WR total up. But from now until then, the only chance that happens is if Petkov does a winter meet in sleeves. He could do IPL Worlds, but that could be in wraps, too. The short of it is that there is a small window to chase 1665 before it gets pushed higher.

Finally, my squat depth is consistently looking better, I now feel more comfortable squatting wider. My tendonitis is under control and my bench is much stronger. December is a good time for me and my rate of progression leads me to believe that mid-1600s is attainable. I am going to run a more aggressive supplement protocol for this meet in an attempt to make it happen. It just seems like the right time, and I want to do a meet again.

awww yisss

Week three report:

Squat: 345x6x6 high-bar, then 365x3x8 paused and beltless. Depth and form was great on everything but I am officially trashed after 21 training sessions in 3 weeks. I opted out of 480x3 paused for this week; I missed my third rep on bench and my legs just feel sore and tired, so I opted to take my deload week a day early. I will go back to barbell lifts next weekend and go 480x3 then.

Bench: This was the most aggressive week by far. 295x6x6 and 330x3x5, with longer pauses mixed in there. By the time I got to my top set, I was too under-recovered. I missed the third rep with 355. On the one hand, I have hit 365x3, so this is a definite step down. On the other, I am now in the high 170s, I had some crazy volume leading up to this, and 355 is still around my last meet opener.

Overall I am happy where I am at. I have been off my higher test cycle for long enough that the effects are long gone. If my off-season fatigued "floor" is 355x2, then my floor now matches my ceiling from one year ago. Considering I am running a much more aggressive supp protocol for this meet--still maybe one-tenth of the Duffin protocol, but enough that I will run the risk of some side effects--I stand to gain a lot. In the summer, my bench went from 350 to 400 in 6 weeks just from benching and running my first "real" oral supp at a low dose.

Put simply, the goal right now is to keep my bench as close to 400 as I can until I ramp everything up. Tendonitis is doing great BUT I have been dealing with a nagging pec strain the last two weeks, so I am taking this deload also just to give it a breather. I am not taking any lingering pains into this training cycle, because I know that aggressive strength gains are just going to make strains more likely to become tears.

Deadlift: lol. I chose block pulls for my max effort variation and discovered I am worse at them than I was when my deadlift was 100 pounds lighter. It's insane. I might mix them in for some assistance on heavy days.

Time to update:

After a deload, I was back at it with:

Squat: High-bar sets of 300x12, followed by 360x5x6 paws beltless. Everything felt okay I guess. My squat is just kind of holding pat right now. 465x3 paws belted felt pretty good. Not much else to say here.

Bench: Best benchy week so far. 280 for 5x8 and a set of 16, done like a day and a half after 315x5x5. Top set was 325x7. Felt great this week.

Deli: 606 paws PR, then 507x3x4 paused with a stiffy. Pretty good. Onto next week.