Strength in Interesting Places

[dinpappa]

Congratulations on the Squat pr

Good to come back from a holiday feeling a little "soft" and just nailing a PR! Hope you had a great time, and burger with fois gras, i must try this heavenly piece of burger art!

 

[CRZA]

T3 squats is going really well. After making zero, in fact negative, progress between late December and June, it finally has me progressing again. My 3RM from December was 105kg, and last time it was 3s day I did 113kg without any real trouble. At the rate I am adding weight, it's fairly slow and steady, but the main thing is that every time I add weight I am able to do my reps and I feel very confident that I will be able to add weight again next time, and for some time after. I also really enjoy the format of cycling through 10s, 5s and 3s day, of 'ramping down' and just adding weight to sets rather than to all your lifts.

T3 for the other lifts hasn't been going as well- as far as I can tell I haven't added anything to my maxes although my work capacity has increased. This may very well be because I was doing it for bench and press, and I am told by KW that if you do it for both lifts at the same time you won't improve with either. So I've moved OHP to doing fairly high volume doubles and singles, as suggested by KW, using an approach developed by Tosa. Now I'm off to Afghanistan for 7-8 weeks, where I can lift very consistently, so this should be enough time to see if this refined approach bears fruit.

Im glad your lifts are improving! Could you give me some info on the Tosa developed approach? I need to figure out what to do with my press--

 

[DrBdan]

Congrats on the squat PR!

 

[JauntyAngle]

Im glad your lifts are improving! Could you give me some info on the Tosa developed approach? I need to figure out what to do with my press--

Sure.

It's designed to go 3 times in 2 weeks, although I guess you could change that. You do exclusively singles and doubles, doing whatever combination of singles and doubles you feel like to get the total no. of reps. The rep/intensity scheme is:

Day 1- 20 reps @75% of working max
Day 2- 15 reps @80% of working max
Day 3- 10 reps @85% of working max

If day three feels good, you increase your working max. Every now and then you can also work up to a PR attempt after a few singles and doubles (I will do it once every month).

KW also said that you could do assistance- he specifically mentioned high-incline bench as good assistance for press, and also something involving the rack, although I couldn't tell if he liked regular pin presses, or pushing the bar into the pins from below.

Edit- obviously this programme needs a cool name. I am thinking "Tossung Singles".

 

[Jester]

i thought we were promised a video

 

[JauntyAngle]

i thought we were promised a video

I put up a video of the 113kgx3 I did a while back. No plans to put up the 120kgx as it was more a benchmarking exercise than a real PR attempt. (Also, it was not a very nice squat, and I don't need you guys to tell me that...) When I re-test my 1RM, I will definitely post a video- with music and special effects and everything.

 

[Jester]

I put up a video of the 113kgx3 I did a while back. No plans to put up the 120kgx as it was more a benchmarking exercise than a real PR attempt. (Also, it was not a very nice squat, and I don't need you guys to tell me that...) When I re-test my 1RM, I will definitely post a video- with music and special effects and everything.

its a real shame you cant award yourself Jpoints, because you are going to start earning some soon

 

[CRZA]

Sure.

It's designed to go 3 times in 2 weeks, although I guess you could change that. You do exclusively singles and doubles, doing whatever combination of singles and doubles you feel like to get the total no. of reps. The rep/intensity scheme is:

Day 1- 20 reps @75% of working max
Day 2- 15 reps @80% of working max
Day 3- 10 reps @85% of working max

If day three feels good, you increase your working max. Every now and then you can also work up to a PR attempt after a few singles and doubles (I will do it once every month).

KW also said that you could do assistance- he specifically mentioned high-incline bench as good assistance for press, and also something involving the rack, although I couldn't tell if he liked regular pin presses, or pushing the bar into the pins from below.

Edit- obviously this programme needs a cool name. I am thinking "Tossung Singles".

Thanks man! Looks like a good approach. Ill try it after i finish the bench program.
But where and when will you bench press?

 

[Tosa]

Jaunty is doing T3 for bench, and alternating bench with press. The idea is that since bench is being trained with T3, then the press work has to be something that won't interfere with that, but still has to be training the press as a main lift and not an accessory. The idea being that adjusting rest times, and wether you're doing singles or doubles based on how you feel should make the press work less likely to interfere with benching.

It's singles and doubles since KW believe that singles and doubles work better for training the press. Which makes sense to me since the first rep has no stretch reflex to help you, so it follows that doing more reps without the stretch reflex would be beneficial to improving the 1rm. Another option could be to reset each rep; if you have a power rack you can reset each rep on the pins, and don't have to worry about walking out each "reset" rep.

 

[JauntyAngle]

Thanks man! Looks like a good approach. Ill try it after i finish the bench program.
But where and when will you bench press?

Tosa explains it with characteristic clarity.

FYI, this is the whole programme:

Monday
Pelvic Chain: Squats (T3)
Push and Pull: Bench (T3) & Rows (random) or Press (Tossung Singles) & Chins (random) (alternating)
Assistance: 2 lifts (rotate every 3-6 weeks, linear progression)

Wednesday
Pelvic Chain: Deadlifts (5/3/1)
Push and Pull: Bench (T3) & Rows (random) or Press (Tossung Singles) & Chins (random)
Assistance: 2 assistance lifts (rotate every 3-6 weeks, linear progression)

Friday
Pelvic Chain: Squats (T3)
Push and Pull: Bench (T3) & Rows (random) or Press (Tossung Singles) & Chins (random) (alternating)
Assistance: 2 lifts (rotate every 3-6 weeks, linear progression)

So, like SS there is a pelvic chain exercise every day, and then a push and a pull. The push and pull are alternated- one day bench and row, the next day press and chins. Unlike SS, deadlift is not treated as an upper body pull- it is treated as a pelvic chain exercise, done in the mid-week slot so that I only squat twice a week and never deadlift and squat on the same day.

As you can see, T3 for bench and squats, Tossung singles for press, 5/3/1 for deadlift. Rows and chins are random- with rows I do whatever I feel like (inverted, dumbbell, barbell, T-row) however I feel like it (3 sets of 10, 3 sets of 5 heavy, work up to a heavy double), and with chins I likewise vary the weight, set and rep. I am loosely going for progression over time, but I don't worry about it or over-think it. The assistance exercises will be two exercises reflecting weakspots, I will do them 2 or 3 times in the week for 3-6 weeks, using linear progression if possible, then move to another one (although I've been doing GHRs for ages without changing).

The description might make it sound a little more complex than it is. Really it is just a minor tweak of the SS template, but using more intermediate-friendly set, rep and progression for the different lifts.

 

[CRZA]

Alright, thanks for the info Tosa and Jaunty!

 

[JauntyAngle]

Kabul- Week One, Workout One

Warmup
2 mins on T3 rower and some dynamic stretching

T3 squats
20kg x5, x5
50kg x3, x3
70kg x2, x2
90kg x1, x1
108kg x5
106kg x5
104kg x5
102kg x5
100kg x5
Timed Total Tonnage = 2.6 tonnes in 17 minutes

T3 bench
20kg x5, x5
40kg x4, x4
60kg x3, x3
80kg x5
80kg x5
80kg x5
80kg x5
80kg x5
Timed Total Tonnage = 2.0 tonnes in 18 minutes

Random Rows
T-Bar Rows:
25kg x5
30kg x3
35 kg x1
55kg x5
55kg x5
55kg x5

Extra work
GHRs x5, x5, x5
Lying tricep extensions 40kg x5, x5, x5 (superset with GHRs)
Barbell bicep curls 40kg x8, x8, x8 =< +2kg PR
Raised leg sit-ups x20, x20, x20 (superset with curls)

* * * * *
Notes
- I videos my 70kg and 90kg squats today, which were definitely full ROM, and observed that they are really only a smidgeon below parallel (I guess because my stance is a little wide these days). It helped me to understand that the difference between my only parallel squats and full ROM is really not that much, I just need to push it a tiny bit further for a full squat. I taped the first 4 sets of my work sets and this helped me to improve my depth on those.
- I reset the weight on the bench a little and just did 80kg for sets across. I will now apply the T3 progression, slowly increasing 1-2 sets in weight each time. The benching itself was fine.
- Did lying tricep extensions for the first time properly. They are awesome.
- Curl PR was obviously the highlight of my lifting career to date.

 

[JauntyAngle]

I've been a bit poor with the eye candy lately. So here's a small installment- random images of women with large breasts. Hurrah!

 

[LegioTitan]

You're in Kabul now? How is it?? I spent all of my time in Afghan at Camp Bastion in the middle of NOWHERE.

 

[JauntyAngle]

You're in Kabul now? How is it?? I spent all of my time in Afghan at Camp Bastion in the middle of NOWHERE.

Kabul is not too bad right now. The weather is pretty nice at the moment, bright and sunny but not to hot. Seems that the Taliban are focusing on assassinating top guys rather than having these big complex attacks against Ministries or random bombings of police stations. The top guys are obviously more worried, but I think the rest of us are a little more relaxed. Still so different from when I first came here in 2007, when there were hundreds of people living in proper houses, parties every weekend, dozens of restaurants people could go to, easily available alcohol. That side of things seems to have totally cooled off, although if it hadn't I doubt I would participate.

 

[LegioTitan]

Kabul is not too bad right now. The weather is pretty nice at the moment, bright and sunny but not to hot. Seems that the Taliban are focusing on assassinating top guys rather than having these big complex attacks against Ministries or random bombings of police stations. The top guys are obviously more worried, but I think the rest of us are a little more relaxed. Still so different from when I first came here in 2007, when there were hundreds of people living in proper houses, parties every weekend, dozens of restaurants people could go to, easily available alcohol. That side of things seems to have totally cooled off, although if it hadn't I doubt I would participate.

Wow your description from 07' is entirely different from what I got to experience. The place was a wasteland. The English were nice though. Well I mean, nice to me. They didn't get on with most of my friends because they were too busy trying to pick up their women. Hah. On a side note, the first time I tried blood sausage I thought I was going to spontaneously com-bust. How do you eat that?!

 

[JauntyAngle]

Wow your description from 07' is entirely different from what I got to experience. The place was a wasteland. The English were nice though. Well I mean, nice to me. They didn't get on with most of my friends because they were too busy trying to pick up their women. Hah. On a side note, the first time I tried blood sausage I thought I was going to spontaneously com-bust. How do you eat that?!

Never tried the blood sausage, and got to admit, it's not high up on my list.

I guess Kabul is not too different now from how it was in 2007, except now some of the main roads are paved. Back then, all the houses that people used to go to were hidden away behind pretty nondescript walls, on some pretty crappy streets.

 

[Tosa]

I've had blood sausage when I've gone to see my uncle in Dundee. He makes it for breakfast all the time, although he always calls it "black pudding". So at first I didn't know quite what I was eating, although now that I do know, I can't say I care. It's good stuff, but I don't recall ever seeing it for sale in Canada. I'd probably have to go to a speciality butcher if I wanted any.

 

[MIDMOBOX]

How can no one up to this point mention and reward an EPIC curls PR

This place has fallen completely apart

 

[JauntyAngle]

How can no one up to this point mention and reward an EPIC curls PR

This place has fallen completely apart

Thanks, MIDMO. You are so right. I mean, this was 40kg for WORK SETS. That's some real athleticism right there. And at 88lbs, that's not far off the milestone of 100lbs (which is of course possible with regular barbell curls, just not drag curls).

Squats and deadlifts are alright if you like that sort of thing- I myself definitely enjoy them from time to time. But we shouldn't allow them to make us forget what is important in physical training, sports, and indeed life: curls.