New Blog

Created a new blog to document my training for my next meet, using 5/3/1.

Link to my new blog = chrisbaker531.blogspot.co.uk

6 weeks out

Unequipped Meet in 6 weeks time,

Body weight = 110kg (6 kgs lost in 5 weeks or so)

Will be using the method of training as written by jack reape.

Saturday - 26/5/12 - first training session since fucking my back up on the deficit pull on the 18th
Squat - with belt
singles up to 160x1
press -
85x2 (+1 pp)
DL
240x1 - with belt
- conclusion, back is still fucked

Monday - 28/05/12

Squat
145x5
150x5
155x5
160x3 - lower back popped on 4th rep (assume its injury from deficit deads a few weeks back), fell forwards on 3rd, nacked my lower back

Bench
105x5
107.5x5
110x5
112.5x5
115x5

All easy, trying out some volume work.


Wednesday - 30/05/12
Back and hips very sore from squatting, did some mobility work yesterday, where I held the bottom of the squat for a total time of 10 mins ( very tough had to stand multiple times during)

Started using Jack Reape's method today:
1) Squat - very light, no belt
worked up to 120x3 each with very long pause

2) ME - Comp style bench - medium grip
145kg x1 strong but slow, lockout needs work.
I think this is a pb for my bodyweight?
Was able to get into a very strong position to bench, to wit supporting all weight on upper back/traps

3) Upper back work-
Press-Behind-Neck
60x6x4

Kelso shrug - (done at 45% angle)
60x12x2 - done light as havent done this exercise before

4) Deadlift - raw no belt
160x3 - overgrip no hook

Fritag - 09/05/12

Low back is a little off today, but knee seems better.  Feeling of the head cold seems to going.

1) Front Squat

Weight       Reps     Sets

60kg             3          1

80kg             1          2

100kg           1          1

120kg           1          1  - belt added

130kg           1          1

140kg           1          1- pb, but a little high, was going to fall forwards

140kg           1          1 - sank it below parallel, assured pb

2) Dips

Weight       Reps     Sets

BW              6          1

5kg               3          1

10kg             3          1

15kg             3          1

20kg             3          1

25kg             3          1

30kg             3          1

35kg             3          1 - not pb but matched previous best, (although then I was ~5-6kg heavier)

3) Rack DL (just below parrallel)

Weight       Reps     Sets

60kg             3          1

100kg           3          1

140kg           3          1

180kg           3          1

220kg           1          1 - alt grip, with belt

260kg           1          1

280kg           1          1 - could have gone 10kg or so heavier but wanted to save it for next week, also lower back felt a little sore

4) Chins - went for some higher reps sets, prob should have gone for 3 rep max but, was very hungry

Weight       Reps     Sets

BW              5          1

12.5kg          6          1

10kg             7          1

7.5kg            7          1 - went for 8 reps but could only get half-way

so the high frequency seems to work well, but might need to add some rest days for lower back and knee health, that or find a way to help recover quicker.

I will prob use bill starrs method to help organise my training a little better.

but four days a week. I will outline this in another post.

Thursday - 10/05/12

Felt a little run down, like beginnings of a cold, also left knee is acting up slight tendon pain.

Cause of knee pain decided to do box squats

1) Parallel Box squat

Weight       Reps     Sets

140kg           2          1

160kg           2          1

180kg           2          1 - add belt

200kg           2          1 - new personal best, 10kg improvement (at a lighter bodyweight)

2) BP 32" grip

Weight       Reps     Sets

60kg             3          1

80kg             3          1

100kg           3          1

120kg           1          1 - left pec felt very odd, like it could tear?

100kg           2          1 - flew up very fast, but pec still felt off

120kg           1          1 - gonna stop here pec very odd

3) JM Press (triceps are too weak, so going to include these twice a week)

Weight       Reps     Sets

60kg             8          1 - very easy, right elbow tendon flaring up slightly

80kg             6          3 - heavier weight seemed to mitigate the pain, not hard though

4) pullups and db flies (light to stretch pecs), supersetted

5/4/5

flyes - 10kg x10x3

High Frequency training experiment week 1

Judging how two squat workouts felt yesterday, I have decided to see how many days this week I can train.

Bit sore but felt okay,

1) Squat - Beltless, low bar comp width

Weight       Reps     Sets

180kg           1          1 - over 10kg better than yesterday's morning training, felt about the same.

very comfortable style to do, using the technique as described by Ben Rice in his squat tutorial. 

Found here = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SGTXg6Onco&feature=player_embedded

2) Press 

Weight       Reps     Sets

80kg             1           1   - felt a little slow

92.5kg          3           1   - done push press style, didnt have much from yesterday's high volume bench stuff

80kg             1           3   - strict miltary style, very slow lockout after push press

3) SLDL (no belt)

Weight       Reps     Sets

60kg             5           1

100kg           5           1

140kg           5           1

180kg           5           1  - easy enough, prob could have done 10 reps if needed

 

  

Restarting Posting

As previous posts have indicated my recent training has been ....difficult, to say the least.

But I am certain my training for a powerlifting competition in 7th of July, will bring my strength back up and beyond.  Even with loosing body-fat as I go.

My recent lifts have been a fairly easy 260kg dead, and bench is around 145-150kg, squat...not sure.

As it was bank holiday yesterday I was unable to train as usual, this was because I travelled back to Teesside on this day, and after checking over 7 gyms all where shut. Was driving around till 2100 looking.

For this reason I trained twice today. As shown below:

Warmups not included

Tuesday 08/05/12 - 

Workout 1:     1330-1500

1) Bench (medium grip)

Weight     Reps      Sets

140kg         1           1     - worked up to a very easy, but not smooth (paused as well)

132.5kg      3           1     - not great as four weeks ago I did this for 4 reps, but 2-3 kg heavier bw

120kg         5           1

110kg         6           1  - done with a very close grip

2) Beltless Squat (I think the bar used was 2 kg lighter than normal)

Weight     Reps      Sets

168kg         1           1 (though it was 170kg)

3) PBN   4x6

Weight     Reps      Sets

58kg           6           4  - though it was 60kg, very easy though, will have to keep weigh same and use good bar

4) BB Curl 3x6 ( same stupid bar)

Weight     Reps      Sets

48kg           6           3 ( again though it was 50kg)

Workout Two:  1930-2000 ish

1) Squat With belt

Weight     Reps      Sets

165kg         5           3   - Gotta say this felt hard, prob cause I squatted earlier.

Was gonna do some extra bench work or tricep (jm press) etc as well as Pullups, but time was pressing.

Now as I type this at 10 mins to midnight I am f***in' knackered.

I will be trying the Finnish training method as written by Janne Heittokangas, found on this site=https://sites.google.com/a/illinipowerlifting.org/illini-powerliting/training-methods-1

I will be using this for squat, possibly bench (not sure though, might just use Bill Seno's method), prob will use it for press, and for deadlift I will prob just stick to pulling heavy singles?

Fuck if I know....

Guess what I've got......shhhh its a secret....

DIABETES,  yes you read that right today I was diagnosed with adult onset diabetes (type II)....

Ha and I thought the gods fucked me already, born with only one ear to start with, then recently had two wisdom teeth ripped out of my jaw, then following that delight I've been dealling with a very fucked up right foot (infection ->gout, and back to infected) for nearly 4 weeks.

Well fuck it all................

BLAM......metal shell hits the floor, followed by my lifeless corpse.....

HA only fuckin' with ya,

Now I'm going on a keto-diet, see where that takes me.

On the plus side, hit a personal best in the bench today with 132.5kg for 4 reps. @ bw of 117kg

March 27th UPDATE......

Just typing this at 14:28, waiting for my breakfast to cook, a kilo of chicken wings and couple of pints of whole milk....

Been fucked by the gods again, for the last week or so my right foot has been causing a great deal of pain, but yesterday I was in complete f'kin' agony where I had around 2hrs sleep due to the pain.
Went to the minor injury ward, and spent 2 hours for a x-ray, and finding out there is no break/fracture or dislocation, meaning the problem is either gout or an infection. Took me 10mins to walk/limp a distance that would of normally taken me under a minute to walk.

Following this I went the local GP and was put on antibiotics, taken 6 doses so far.  I am far better than yesterday, but still fucked.

So because of this I have decide to deload/do nothing this week, and for the 4 weeks left leading up to the meet I will do the following:

Using the basic template of 531

Week 4: (3x3) do minimum reps and work up to easy single around a RPE of 8-9, then drop down and do the rep max

Week 3: (3x5) do the normal 531 thing, possibly with rep maxes

Week 2: (531) do prerequisite reps only, basically doing my opener's

Week 1: Deload and Competitions at end of week


Next comp after this will be in 8-10 weeks, might experiment will the conjugate system, just to see the difference in results.

Change to the MLP plan

Btw MLP stands for Modified Linear Perodisation, I just wanted to save time and energy by typing instead of Modified Linear Perodisation I would write MLP, you see Modified Linear Perodisation is longer than MLP, so in future I will type MLP instead of Modified Linear Perodisation, or I wont.......


Ha bet you feel like a fuckwit for reading that,.....I certainly did typing it........anyway......

On with the spiel......

I have decided to alter the linear method I wrote about, even though I'm sure it would work.
And using what information I have found written by Ben Seath about peaking, excerpt below:
"

8--90% 3's Week Then after max rep set Hit 3 singles at actual 90%

7--85% 5's Week no Singles

6--95% 1's Week after Max rep set hit 3 singles at 95%

5--De-Load

4-- Now Hit Max Single But make sure you don't miss it know your body

3-- Now I take 92% of what my max was and hit it for 2 sets of 3 Reps Example I hit 725 now I am going to go for 660 2 X 3

2--Now go in and try and Double your old max

1-- Hit an Opener a weight that u can hit for an easy 3-4 Rep

0--MEET DAY!

"
Therefore I will do:
Week 1:  Done 531 style, 90% of training max
Week 2 : Done last week, mod heavy week.

Week 3: 531 Week, Max out on all lifts, do 531 as programmed but no rep max, work up to heavy single, then drop down and go for a rep max.
Aim:
Sq = 220, bp = 150, Press = 95, dead = 270

Week 4: Deload - Unsure whether to do a strict 60% deload or to go a bit heavier and but keeping reps low, possibly speed work? Or as Ben Seath says, go for ~92% of old max for two triples.
So this would be:
Squat = 190kg x 2x3  || Bench = 130 2x3  || Press = 82.5 2x3 || Dead = 240-245 2x3

Week 5: Take max done on week 4 and try to double it, no rep max, but use the programmed weights as warm ups

Week 6: Take openers, prob Sq (200), Bp (130-135), DL (250), Press do rep max?

Week 7: Meet, Keyahhhhhhhh

Goals for meet, will update after week 4:
Squat : 220-230kg
Bench: 150-155kg
Dead:  280kg
and if I have energy left, I will go and maxout on the press after the comp aiming for 100kg

Week 2: Cycle 2: 19/03/12

Monday:
Bench Press (wrist wraps only)
130kg x 4
117.5kg x 8
Improved technique after watching the awesome video on said subject by Shane Sweatt and Laura Phelps, found here = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3Mvyt4pBQQ.
Basically, try to break bar on way down and pull/tear bar on way up, gotta say it really helps.
________________________________________________________________________________
Tuesday:
Squat (belt only)
180kg x 6 (pretty sure I had one rep left in me, but it would have been a very slow grinder)
160kg x 8 (could have gone for more but left it)

Finally remembered my ideal squat technique, been trying to sit back too far previously, thus not engaging my quads properly.

For record it is what Jim Wendler wrote in his book, sit back and knees out... That's all.
________________________________________________________________________________
Thursday:
Press (belt and wrist wraps on work sets)
80kg x 5 (lost grove on last rep, prob could have got 6)
72.5kg x 10 (easy)

________________________________________________________________________________
Friday:
230kg x 4 (dead-stopped each rep, really screwed up my form)
210kg x 10 ( touch and go, had one rep left in me)
Will revert to doing touch and go for my work sets from now on.
And in case you're wondering some of the strongest deadlifts touch and go reps, people such as Benny Magnusson, Travis Ortymayer, Jim Wendler, Vince Urbank (when he does reps) and I'm sure there are plenty others.

Modified Linear Periodisation

So for a week or so, I have been struggling to decide on how to actualise the gains I have acquired over the last couple of months, for a competition at the end of April (28th).

Using something like what Bill Starr used to write about.  Or even Ed Coan's or Barry Merriman  periodisation plan

But anyway..........

Each Methodology : -

Barry Merrimans periodised system (http://www.weightsnet.com/Docs/barry.power.html):

Take a theoretical weight you would want to do for 5 reps in 8 weeks then work backwards reducing the weight  each week doing the top set for a max set of no more than 5 reps, then reducing the weight by 90% and going for 5 with that weight.

Modified :-
I took this 2 sets idea, and but I did not want to just go for 5 reps then stop, so taking from 531, I decided to go for a rep max on both of these sets, as the weeks go by the increased weight will reduce the reps naturally, but by going for a rep max I can at least see roughly how I am improving and where my strength level will be, come the meet.

Ed Coan's method (http://www.powerpage.net/coansquat.html & http://www.angelfire.com/pa4/Poseidon/edcoanbench.html) :

Also took some ideas from the excellent video's.

Basically start at the meet and work backward, like Merrimans, but planning the reduction in reps
ie

Week 8-7: 1-2 sets of 5
Week 6-4: 1-2 sets of 3
Week 3-2: 1-2 sets of 2
Week 1:     1 set of 1              

Also for squat and deadlift add 10kg each week, and bench add 5kg each week.

Modified:
Rather than go for just 1-2 sets of say 5 reps in week 5 I would go for a minimum of 5 and go for a rep max.

Also I would not use the 531 plan for warmups to the top sets, but do this:
1x8, 1x5, 1x3, 1x1, work set, work set
or something similar

Finished Periodised Plan:


So taking the above information I formulated the following plan, starting 7-8 weeks out add weight each week, doing one top set and a drop set that is 90% of top, going for rep maxes when want to. Otherwise just going for the minimum rep amount:

Therefore:
Week 6, 5, 4 = 1 set of 3+, 1xAMAP with 90% of top set
Week 3, 2 = 1 set of 2+, 1xAMAP with 90% of top set
Week 1 = 1x1+ , 1xAMAP with 90% of top set (although not sure if I should just drop the rep max on this week)

Weight progression: (all in kg)
                   Squat        || Bench          || Dead          ||   Press
12/03/12 -  175 x 3     || 125 x 5        ||  222.5 x 8   ||   77.5x6   - this week was done before I planned this
19/03/12 -  180, 160   || 130, 117.5   ||  230, 215   ||   80, 72.5
26/03/12 -  190, 170   || 135, 120      ||  240, 225   ||   82.5, 75
02/04/12 -  200, 180   || 140, 125      ||  250, 235   ||   85, 77.7
09/04/12 -  210, 190   || 145, 130      ||  260, 240   ||   87.5, 77.5
16/04/12 -  220, 200   || 150, 120      ||  270, 230   ||   90, 80
23/04/12 - Meet (at end of week)

On last training week for deadlifts I will just work to the opener of 250-260 for a single then do some speed pulls with 230-240. Or just hit the opener and stop.




I will probably keep record of the following weeks on this blog, with a meet write up after.

Till then ~

The Story So Far.............

About 7 months ago I was at strongest I have ever been: 190kg x5 squat, 152.kg bench (touch and go) and my dead was around 265kg. Then I became very ill for a month, lost over 10kg in a week and was coughing up blood for months after I got better.

Due to this I lost a tremendous amount of strength, and thus tried many ways to try to regain it, in hindsight I think I tried to recover too fast, but I tried to use WSB, Chaos and pains methodology, and old school type training such as that of Ted Arcidi, which would entail:
Week 1-3; 4x6
Week 4-6: 5x5
Week etc; 3x3 and so on

I found that benching more than once a week and my pecs (minor and major) would get very sore, very tight around the shoulder.

And throughout this, my lifts (aside from dead) kept falling.  Although I did notice a direct correlation between JM press strength and all other pressing movements, my elbows couldn't take the stress of the movement.


So.................

For the last month or two I have been using the 531 program as written by Jim Wendler.
And I know this is trite, but I have experienced PRs every week on every lift aside from squat (although that has recently taken off again).

Some Improvements:
Bench press : 13/02/12 = 115kg x5 @10                est. 1 rep max = 134kg
                     12/03/12 = 125kg x5 @10 //one month later ~10kg increase
                     19/03/12 = 130kg x4 @9.5               est. 1 rep max = 147kg
                 followed by = 117.5kg x8 @10             est. 1 rep max = 148kg

Squat:            21/02/12 = 170kg x5 @10               est. 1 rep max = 200kg   
                     20/03/12 = 180kg x6 @9-9.5           est. 1 rep max = 215kg
missed the first week of the cycle
but one month later = 15kg increase

Deadlift:
Before starting 531, I pulled 265kg a few weeks before, with a few kilos left to spare.

                     17/02/12 = 205kg x8 @10           est. 1 rep max = 260kg
                     20/03/12 = 222.5kg x8 @10        est. 1 rep max = 280kg    (this was followed by 240kg 3x1)
so thats 20kg in a month of training

Press:

                     16/02/12 = 70kg x9 @10             est. 1 rep max = 91kg
                     22/03/12 = 80kg x5 @10             est. 1 rep max = 93kg
                  followed by    72.kg x10 @10         est. 1 rep max = 97kg
so not an amazing increase but its around 6-7kg increase.

So my total in over a month has improved by 45kg (not including press), which is very good in my opinion.

In the next post I will outline how I have melded 531 and Ed Coan's methodology, to create a periodised peaking program leading up to a meet on 28th April.