Optimalisation

[Optimalisation]

Started following a 5x5 type of programme in late Dec 2010. Plan is to try to get my basic lift strength up fairly quickly and then make slow and steady gains throughout 2011 while also focusing on fitness for sport.

Initial Goals (set 12 Jan):

Squat 120kg x 5 - acheived 28 Jan

Bench 90kg x 5

Deadlift 140kg x5 - acheived 21 Jan

Strongest I have been prior to this 5x5 phase: Squat 3x100kg, Bench 1x90kg(barely), and Dead 1x140kg. Current weight 88kg, 190cm tall.

Tonight (12 Jan):

Squat: 3x5x100kg

Press (standing/overhead): 3x5x40kg

Deadlift: 1x5x100kg, 1x5x110kg, 1x5x120kg

Oh, and a shout out to Warren at the PowerHouse - Those pointers during a casual workout before Christmas have helped my squat like you wouldn't believe best $15 I ever spent.

[Optimalisation]

13 Jan:

Bench: 5x70kg, 5x75kg, 5x75kg, 4x75kg

Then some incline DB work for sets of approx 8-10 reps and experimenting with some calf exercises.

14 Jan:

Squat: 5x60kg, 5x80kg, 5x105kg, 5x105kg, 5x105kg

Stoked with personal best! Depth is around parallel (maybe a few degrees off) - as low as my long inflexible legs will let me at the moment.

Plus some lat pulldowns, little bit of core work, and finished with some seated (shoulder) dumbell presses. Have decided to work on these rather than the standing barbell press as shoulder flexibility isn't great and head gets in the way etc, altogether quite awkward.

[Old Bull]

Oh, and a shout out to Warren at the PowerHouse - Those pointers during a casual workout before Christmas have helped my squat like you wouldn't believe best $15 I ever spent. Thanks man. Will look at a membership depending on where I'm living later this year.

Well at least you absorbed it not like some others

Squat: 5x105kg, 5x105kg, 5x105kg

Stoked with personal best! Depth is around parallel (maybe a few degrees off) - as low as my long inflexible legs will let me at the moment.

Must of worked good stuff :clap:

[Optimalisation]

Must of worked good stuff :clap:

Cheers, my wrist still doesn't like the lower bar position but it's getting better.

15 Jan:

Deadlift: 8x60kg, 5x80kg, 5x100kg, 5x115kg, 5x125kg

Bench: 8x60kg, 5x70kg, 5x77.5kg, 5x77.5kg, 5x77.5kg

Fingers were barely holding on to the last DL but feeling good about the weight.

[Optimalisation]

16 Jan:

Was going to be a day off but couldn't resist.

Squat: 5x60kg, 5x80kg, 5x80kg, 5x110kg, 5x110kg, 5x110kg

Last set wasn't pretty but I got there!

Won't be keeping this every day business up for long but while I have the time this week to eat and rest around it without work or sport it seems to be working well.

[samuelNZ]

Must of worked good stuff :clap:

Cheers, my wrist still doesn't like the lower bar position but it's getting better.

15 Jan:

Deadlift: 8x60kg, 5x80kg, 5x100kg, 5x115kg, 5x125kg

Bench: 8x60kg, 5x70kg, 5x77.5kg, 5x77.5kg, 5x77.5kg

Fingers were barely holding on to the last DL but feeling good about the weight.

Mitre 10 Mega sells kids chalk for about $2 - crush it up and chuck it in a container and rip some deadlifts with that badboy on ya hands (if your gym allows it). Helped out with my deadlifts a lot!

Keep up the good lifting mate.

[Grover]

or you could just use straps!

[Optimalisation]

Thanks guys. Pretty sure chalk is frowned upon unfortunately but could possibly get away with it if it becomes really necessary and I can keep it low key and tidy. Straps might be an idea though, we'll see. Where's a good place to get em?

Did some more this morning but lowering the bar faster (but still controlled) which helped. I think I was using up a lot grip strength taking my time on the way down.

18 Jan:

Deadlift: 5x90kg, 5x110kg, 5x120kg, 6x125kg

Bench: 5x60kg, 5x70kg, 5x75kg, 5x80kg, 3x80kg (had to leave the 4th rep on the middle hook)

[samuelNZ]

Thanks guys. Pretty sure chalk is frowned upon unfortunately but could possibly get away with it if it becomes really necessary and I can keep it low key and tidy. Straps might be an idea though, we'll see. Where's a good place to get em?

Did some more this morning but lowering the bar faster (but still controlled) which helped. I think I was using up a lot grip strength taking my time on the way down.

18 Jan:

Deadlift: 5x90kg, 5x110kg, 5x120kg, 6x125kg

Bench: 5x60kg, 5x70kg, 5x75kg, 5x80kg, 3x80kg (had to leave the 4th rep on the middle hook)

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Good luck - If you do get some, only use them on very heavy/high rep sets otherwise your grip strength will start to deteriorate.

[Optimalisation]

19 Jan:

Squat: 5x60kg, 5x60kg, 5x80kg, 5x100kg, 5x105kg,*, 5x110kg, 5x110kg

* = feeling rubbish as it had been a long day, was pretty sure I'd do one more set of 5x105kg and that would be it. Found the right song on the ipod and then ripped out the last two sets instead so left happy! Good lesson in mental toughness.

[Optimalisation]

21 Jan:

Deadlift: 2x5x60kg, 5x80kg, 5x100kg, 5x120kg, 5x130kg, 5x140kg, 3x140kg

Bench: 5x60kg, 5x70kg, 5x80kg, 5x80kg, 5x80kg

Can't believe I made that deadlift target tonight! I had loaded the bar using different sized plates than I normally do so had to keep adding it up again and again in my head to make sure I wasn't missing something haha. Just seemed to have power and energy out of nowhere it was awesome, great workout!

[bar-belle]

21 Jan:

Deadlift: 2x5x60kg, 5x80kg, 5x100kg, 5x120kg, 5x130kg, 5x140kg, 3x140kg

Bench: 5x60kg, 5x70kg, 5x80kg, 5x80kg, 5x80kg

Can't believe I made that deadlift target tonight! I had loaded the bar using different sized plates than I normally do so had to keep adding it up again and again in my head to make sure I wasn't missing something haha. Just seemed to have power and energy out of nowhere it was awesome, great workout!

Good stuff there Opti :clap: . It's those training sessions that keep the motivation alive.

[Optimalisation]

Cheers bar-belle. Was definitely a good boost.

Last few workouts...

24 Jan:

Squat 5x40kg, 5x60kg, 5x80kg, 5x100kg, 5x115kg, 5x115kg, 5x115kg

I'm happy with how this is going, just need to watch that depth and technique isn't degrading for the sake of upping the weight each time.

26 Jan:

Bench 8x60kg, 5x70kg, 5x80kg, 5x80kg, 5x60kg

Not enough sleep or food, really want to break the 80kg barrier so will aim for 82.5 next bench day.

27 Jan:

Deadlift 5x60kg, 5x80kg, 5x100kg, 5x120kg, 5x140kg, 5x100kg

Didn't go up as easy as last time but glad I hit 140 again.

[Optimalisation]

28 Jan:

Squat warmupx60kg, 5x100kg, 5x110kg, 5x120kg, 3x120kg*, 8x100kg

*= about as deep as an episode of Moon TV so gave up on that set. 120kg was my goal at the start of the month though and I made it

I'm amazed at how well my squat and deadlift strength has improved by staying in the 5 rep range and making them the focus for each workout. Bench is lagging by comparison but I'll keep chipping away at it.

My weight hasn't budged (yet) but I've been reading this forum long enough to know what the answer to any complaints about that will be.

[Optimalisation]

31 Jan:

Bench 10x60kg, 5x70kg, 5x80kg, 4x82.5kg, 3x80kg

1 Feb:

Deadlift 2x5x60kg, 5x100kg, 5x120kg, 5x130kg, 6x140kg

[Optimalisation]

3 Feb:

Bench warmup at 60kg, 5x70kg, 5x80kg, 3x80kg, Then got frustrated and did a whole lot of high rep incline dumbell press and flyes.

At the time I was pissed off I couldn't make that second set at 80kg but thinking about it now, I'm warming up with what used to be more or less my max not that long ago so I can't be too impatient I guess.

4 Feb:

Squat 2x5x60kg, 5x100kg, 5x110kg, 3x120kg*, 5x100kg

My legs aren't getting exhausted but I don't feel like I could go any heavier. Think I might be in need of some more core strengthening work?

*=actually did 5 but last 2 were half reps at best

[Optimalisation]

7 Feb:

Bench warm up, 5x60kg, 5x70kg, 5x80kg, 5x85kg, 3x85kg, 8x60kg

New PB. Tried a slightly wider grip than I have been using and focused on getting a really tight set up at the start. Watched a couple of technique vids afterwards and realised I have my wrists pretty bent so looking forward to seeing if a straight arm makes a difference next time.

Deadlift 5x60kg, 5x100kg, 5x120kg, 5x130kg, 5x140kg

Top 2 reps very hard but made them. How big a deal is rounding the upper back on heavy/max deads? My form goes to shit a bit on the heavy reps but still feel a good tight lower back arch at the bottom of the lift

[Optimalisation]

8 Feb:

Too tired for a squat day on the back of yesterday so just high rep arms n shoulders. Wanted to get in and do something as rest of the week looked busy and might not make it in.

11 Feb:

Bench 5x60kg, 5x70kg, 5x80kg, 2x85kg, 3x80kg, 5x70kg, 5x60kg

Tried to keep straight wrists, a bit awkward but helped I think. Good to see what 85 felt like even though just 2 reps.

Squat 10x60kg, 10x80kg - deep and fast

Anyone care to scroll up through my bench numbers and offer some plateau busting tips? 80kg-ish is a real sticking point. Should I up frequencey or reps? Just do heavy doubes or triples? Try some singles at 90kg?

(I realise my squat and dead haven't gone up for a couple of weeks either but I'm quite happy just mantaining them there for a tad longer and look at adding 10kg or so maybe in the next few weeks)

[steak]

still following the 5x5 template?

[Optimalisation]

Yeah in theory it's still 5x5, some sets end at 3 though haha

[Mrbig]

8 Feb:

Too tired for a squat day on the back of yesterday so just high rep arms n shoulders. Wanted to get in and do something as rest of the week looked busy and might not make it in.

11 Feb:

Bench 5x60kg, 5x70kg, 5x80kg, 2x85kg, 3x80kg, 5x70kg, 5x60kg

Tried to keep straight wrists, a bit awkward but helped I think. Good to see what 85 felt like even though just 2 reps.

Squat 10x60kg, 10x80kg - deep and fast

Anyone care to scroll up through my bench numbers and offer some plateau busting tips? 80kg-ish is a real sticking point. Should I up frequencey or reps? Just do heavy doubes or triples? Try some singles at 90kg?

(I realise my squat and dead haven't gone up for a couple of weeks either but I'm quite happy just mantaining them there for a tad longer and look at adding 10kg or so maybe in the next few weeks)

Hay bro I think your doing to many warmup sets next time just do a warmup set with the bar and then with around half of what you want to be using az a workset ie if you wanna do 80kg sets warmup with around 40-50kg for a few reps like 4-6 then go straight to your max and bang out 1 set to failure record the reps then next time make sure you get more reps or add on more weight

this way helped me improve my bench heaps I was stuck at certain weight for ages due to spending too much time on warmups which was burning me out before I got to my heavy set

[steak]

Are you benching once a week and what are you doing for triceps?

[Optimalisation]

Hay bro I think your doing to many warmup sets next time just do a warmup set with the bar and then with around half of what you want to be using az a workset ie if you wanna do 80kg sets warmup with around 40-50kg for a few reps like 4-6 then go straight to your max

Cheers mate that sounds like it could work

Are you benching once a week and what are you doing for triceps?

It's more like every third workout which is roughly once a week, probably a tad more frequently. Tris = o'head extensions with DBs and rope pulldowns, no regular plan though just on a whim approx once a week. Once I settle into a new job I should get a more regular routine going.

[Phedder]

What part of the lift do you find the most difficult? Getting it off the chest, mid point, or locking it out? Finding the weakness and then strengthening it could be a decent plan of attack too.

[Optimalisation]

Cheers for all the suggestions above.

Been a choppy couple of weeks starting a new job. Had a muck around in a hotel gym and some rushed workouts. Amongst it all I had one decent squat workout where I got up to 125kg and another day hit my 5x140kg deadlift again. Bench peaked at 4x85kg. Today I did squats 3x5x100kg. Will need to try and plan a bit better to make sure I keep working out regularly and don't fall backwards. I don't think I have lost any/much actual strength just been a bit tired on it.

Good to check back in to the journal

Goals to keep me going (26 Feb)...

- Going to nail a 5x90kg bench by the end of March. Splitting the range of motion and focusing on the push from half way up should help as it's definitely the weak point, seem to get it off my chest just fine and lockout is a breeze.

- Make my lunch. Haven't been eating right for the results I want.

- Heavy squats and deads at least once a week.