objekt training log [powerlifting]

objekt

New Member
Hello. This will be my training log where I will write down my workouts and some other stuff which would otherwise go into a diary. I will also include information about my diet.

All feedback is appreciated, I have a lot to learn and everything helps.

But where are my manners? Let me introduce myself.

I am a 23 year old man from Norway. I have been lifting on and off since 2012, but have dropped out because of laziness and injuries several times. Combined I have been training for about 8 months.

Growing up, I was severely obese. I went from about 350lb down to 205lb, back up again to 265 over the course of two years, and now fighting my way back down. I have actually never lifted during a surplus. Anyways, here is what I have been doing up until this point as far as training goes.

LIFTING HISTORY:

2012 - start training a 3 days/week training regimen doing SL 5x5, this lasts for about 4 months. Reach 405lb DL, 230lb Squat and 185lb bench.

2013 - Short bursts of training here and there for a couple of weeks at a time, but largely inactive.

2014 - two months of serious training, hit 440 lb DL, 315lb squat and 205lb bench. Doing "the bulgarian method" as layed out by powerliftingtowin.com, mostly because I enjoyed it.

2015 - This May I got back into the groove, currently at 500lb DL, 355lb squat, 205lb bench. Started doing my own spin on 5x5, switched over to Jonnie Canditos linear program with a 3x6 rep/set scheme, however some modifications were made.

Based on some great feedback by doc3205i30hj3oihjefowikf and insertnamehere, i have decided to switch things up a bit going forward. Note: Progress was slowing down, so it was time to switch things up.

So I will be doing a modified version of insertnamehere's very own program, as I think it looked like a fun program to do, and I believe it will yield good results for me. This kind of training is new to me, so hopefully the new stimuli will light a fire under my gains.

Week one:

Monday - Deadlift @ 95%, 5x2, Bench press @ 75%, 5x5, Pendlay rows

Wednesday - Squat @ 60%, 6x8, Bench press @ 95%, 3x8 lat pulldowns, 2x8 backextentions

Thursday - Pause squats 6x4, Spoto Press 6x4, Pause Deadlift 6x4

Friday - DB bench 6x6, incline bench 3x8, bicep curls 3x8, Tricep work 3x8 (suggestions for exercises?), rear delt work 3x8, DB rows

Saturday - Squat @ 95%, 5x2, Bench press @ 60%, 6x8

Week two:

Monday - Deadlift @ 75%, 5x5, Bench press @ 75%, 5x5

Wednesday - Squat @ 60%, 6x8, Bench press @ 95%, 5x2 Pendlay rows or pull ups

Thursday - Pause squats 6x4, Spoto Press 6x4, Pause Deadlift 6x4

Saturday - Squat @ 75%, 5x5, Bench press @ 60%, 6x8

Week three:

Monday - Deadlift @ 95%, 5x2, Bench press @ 75%, 5x5

Wednesday - Squat @ 60%, 6x8, Bench press @ 95%, 5x2, Pendlay rows or pull ups

Thursday - Pause squats 6x4, Spoto Press 6x4, Pause Deadlift 6x4

Saturday - Squat @ 95%, 5x2, Bench press @ 60%, 6x8


As you can see, the program is largely the same however I added a fluff day and a "technique" day, as I've been having great success doing pause squats and intend to try out the bench and deadlift equivalents. I don't really feel like I need to be 100% fresh for those lifts so I don't think it will hamper recovery too much.

Originally I was tempted to have two days @ 95% in especially squats because I feel I can progress on a week to week basis. Any input here would be great. Basically my thinking is that I believe I could progress once a week in squats @ 95%, so I would do say wednesday@ 95% then up the weight for saturday @ 95%, but then I wouldn't get the volume work in. Any thoughts on this?

Please give me feedback on what you guys think. I have basically copypasted a more advanced lifters program and while I believe the rep/set scheme and percentages makes sense for me, I am not sure if the progression model is the right fit for me seeing as I probably adapt way faster than insertname does at this point. Lighter weights and what not.

Anyways, here is my first entry!

TRAINING

Wedneday 01 07 2015 (european)

Squats 8x3 130KG / 286lb

Every set felt good and I could probably go on for 3-4 more sets before I would start to see form breakdown. But I guess its good programming to start a bit below what I could be doing so I can progress for a longer time. Either way this was actually a 3 rep PR for me.

However, an old friend reared his ugly head again, that being mr tendonitis. I had a bout with him back in september of 2014. Basically when the squats get heavy enough and I'm under the bar for long enough, I get elbow pain. This is a tecnhique issue and/or a mobility issue. I squat high bar and so it really shouldn't be a problem, but my poor shoulder mobility probably makes my hand take more weight than it should. This in turn hampered my bench, and I had to quit early.

Any suggestions for what I should do for my shoulders / elbow tendonitis? The pain goes away quickly but I wouldn't want to endure that pain every time I train, so I want to get that fixed asap.

Bench 4x2 165lb

Felt pretty easy, decided to do them paused as I have been touch and going since my return (did paused back in the day and I honestly prefer paused). But because of the elbow pain I stopped at 4 sets when I was originally planning to do 8 sets.

Deadlift 8x2 405lb

I was pretty tired after squatting so decided to keep it reasonably light for deadlifts. Felt fine however by set 8 I was getting tired. Didn't take too long breaks for this set as I had been in the gym for quite some time already when I started doing deadlifts.

Afterwards I did some lat pulldowns. Was originally planning to do weighted back extentions but dropped it because I kinda wanted to get out of the gym, and I was absolutely blasted from doing squats and deadlift anyways. My hamstrings probably got enough volume this day

Diet wise it was a decent day. Had cottage cheese with added peach for breakfast, then ate some homemade rice a roni + ground beef pre workout. Post workout I unfortunately stumbled upon a frozen pizza offer at the store and ended up buying 3 of them, eating one.

Thursday 02 07 2015

Off day today

Diet wise shit has been prettymuch laughable. I woke up late and had to get to work before getting breakfast. I work as a pizza delivery guy so ... I had two slices of pizza. No, make that 3, however the third one was taken much later in the day. The sad thing is I'm probably gonna eat a pizza now pretty soon, I need to get those 3 pizzas I bought out of the way so I can turn a new leaf. I went to the store and bought 2lb of chicken, and I already have rice and pasta lying around + veggies. I need to stock up on cottage cheese and peach and thats probably my diet going forward. The only thing now is I need to get my kitchen scale back.

Basically I am moving in a couple of days and everything is packed down, including my kitchen scale. Its in the garage at the house I'm moving into, so I don't have access to it. Oh well, two additional days of not 100% exact counting won't hurt. I'll do my best to wing the counting.

Well, that has been my first entry.
 
Arrite, entry #2

03 07 2015

TRAINING

Squats 5x2 300lb

Went fine, especially from set 3 to 5. Felt very explosive out of the bottom which was nice. After the 5x2 I did 220lb x6 and 245x4 beltless simply because I wanted to and had loads of energy.

Bench Press 6x8 122lb

Well, I previously stated that this stuff would be "too easy". And sure, it was pretty easy until set number 8 where I actually FAILED the last repetition! I did it with a pause and I got a lot of hypertroph in my pecs, which is very unusual (I am a very tricep dominant benchpresser). Really happy with this actually. Not proud or anything, but glad that I found something that will properly hit my chest good.

Deadlift 5x5 315lb beltless

I just did these because I felt like it, doubt they will hurt my restitution considering the weight.

Backextentions 3x8 90lb bar on neck

Lat pulldowns 3x8 140lb

And that was that!

DIET

been a fucking joke to be honest. Woke up, ate my rice a roni + ground beef combo, then had a muffin and a soda pre workout, followed by a small pizza post workout. Ended the day with a burger from the gas station. Obviously this won't cut it, so I am officially banning any food that I am not preparing my self from "ground up" from now on.

Oh and I had a protein shake post workout as well.
 
Your diet can include food you don't cook you simply need to fit it into you macros. I eat out a lot due to scheduling and my dislike for bringing multiple meals with me wherever I go.

Be careful adding in extra volume especially with primary movements. Insernamehere went through a lot of work to use Prilepin's table to get the right sets and reps for each percentage as well as calculating volume/tonnage.

Now using Prilepin's table does afford you some leeway in the percentage, sets, and reps but you really need to be in tune with yourself and programming to make use of the ability to personalize it. You must be aware of your recovery, work capacity, stressors outside the gym, etc to be able to make these changes on the fly. I'm not saying you can't do it just be careful and make SLOW/SMALL adjustments after every 4wks or more. Small changes will take some time to notice so allow enough time for it to begin taking affect. Be careful not to overtrain or cause too much fatigue that your weekly performance begins suffering.
 
Doc;

Yeah, that is true. However for my own adherence I think its best that I stick with home made stuff. I only eat 3 meals a day so I get plenty of time to prepare food right before I eat it. Only thing is I might need to bring food to my workplace from time to time depending on the shift.

Here goes todays entry

04 07 2015

TRAINING

Originally planned this to be a resting day, but my phone had blown up by two of my friends who wanted to hit the gym with me, so I buckled under peer pressure. I did 5x5 @ 65% squats and 5x2 @ 95% bench. My logic was that this was gonna be a pretty easy workout. Only two exercises and the most challenging one done with low intensity and medium volume.

I was wrong. I should've listened to you doc, but I guess I just had to learn by experience this time.. 5x5 @ 60% felt horrible. No explosiveness, every rep was so much slower than it would be if I was well rested. Bench felt fine but man those squats...

It was a shitty day at the gym but lesson learned. I'm gonna stick to the program from now on, no impulse workouts for me anymore.

DIET

Been pretty decent, had some oatmeal + protein shake for breakfast, went to the gym then got to work. Ate 3 slices of pizza and then had some eggrolls when I got off work. Still haven't finished up for the day but judging on my intake I've probably just about had it with carbs, so next meal will be straight proteins. Planning to eat some cottage cheese and a protein shake to round today up.
 
05 07 2015

Off day from training

DIET

Very clean diet today! Ate some rice a roni + ground beef for breakfast, then went the whole day without food and returned home to eat 500g of chicken and some rice a roni + a protein shake.

06 07 2015

TRAINING]

Squat 315lb 5x2

Felt very good, clean technique and no slow reps. I added 10lb from last time because they felt so good and it payed off.

Bench 140lb 5x5 (all bench is paused for me now)

Light stuff, decided to widen my grip and ditch the elbow tucking, feels very good. Finally getting some action for my pecs as well

Deadlift 420lb 3x2

Was originally aiming for 5x2 but was pretty tired at this point and didn't want to risk any technical fuckups. All reps where fast and smooth but after the third set I felt that they might start slowing down so I said fuck it.

Did some curls and facepulls afterwards then went home

DIET

Still early in the day but I had some oats + protein shake for breakfast then headed for training. Returned home and contemplating on what I should eat now before heading off to work. Gonna update later today
 
Couldn't find the edit button but basically here is my updated diet for 06 07 2015 AKA today:

Had two slices of pizza and an energy drink at work. Obviously not the best but.. IIFYM right? Gonna finish the day off with some chicken and rice a roni + maybe a couple of spoons of ben & jerrys (umm.. need my fat intake right? heheh)

So to summarize:

oats + protein shake for breakfast
2 slices of pizza and an energy drink at work
chicken + rice a roni + ben & jerrys to round it off
 
@objekt , sorry I'm late, been out of town.

Glad to see you made a log and you're already learning a thing or two ;)

If you're not feeling it on the heavy days but you did 3x2 already, you can do just singles from there on out and get the same amount of total volume for the workout at that percentage. Moreover, if you're not feeling it from the beginning, just do singles for the same total volume if you can.

After that you have a choice to make about then next go around with this lift - up the weight and recalculate, proceeding as planned or keep the weight the same and try to get it for 5x2 next time. OR increase the weight and recalculate, doing singles with that lift from here on out.

Which ever path you choose, you'll learn a little more about how your body responds to training that lift.

Keep up the good work!
 
@objekt , sorry I'm late, been out of town.

Glad to see you made a log and you're already learning a thing or two ;)

If you're not feeling it on the heavy days but you did 3x2 already, you can do just singles from there on out and get the same amount of total volume for the workout at that percentage. Moreover, if you're not feeling it from the beginning, just do singles for the same total volume if you can.

After that you have a choice to make about then next go around with this lift - up the weight and recalculate, proceeding as planned or keep the weight the same and try to get it for 5x2 next time. OR increase the weight and recalculate, doing singles with that lift from here on out.

Which ever path you choose, you'll learn a little more about how your body responds to training that lift.

Keep up the good work!

Thank you very much for everything - program, tips and posting in this thread! :)

Going to bed now, but first todays entry:

TRAINING

Squats 243lb 6x8

Felt good, however it was PACKED in the gym today which made it very hot. That + preworkout = sweating like an absolute pig and felt very drained a couple of sets in. Really enjoyed the squatting though, made some technique advancements as well - namely to have the bar a bit higher on my back. I squat high bar and have been having the bar on my lower traps. Because the high amount of reps made my arms fall asleep, I tried it out just to give my arms some rest and it felt way better than having the bar lower!

Bench 176lb 5x2

Felt very good, and I even "discovered" leg drive. I haven't been able to make it work previously but today it just happened naturally. Awesome! :D

Going into the gym tomorrow for my fluff day!

DIET

Almost (!) perfect diet today! Had rice a roni + ground beef. Went to training, came back and had rice a roni + ground beef again and some ice cream.
 
Small update:

Been three workout since last time. I've done the following

Workout 1

Squats 142,5KG 4x2
Bench press 3x8 67,5KG

Was feeling ill this day and had to run to the bathroom all throughout the session. I was basically shitting chocolate milk, it was terrible. So cut the amount of sets.

Workout 2

Squats 120kg 5x5
Bench Press 57,5kg 6x8


Workout 3

Pause squats 105kg 6x4
Spoto Press 70kg 6x4
Pause deadlift 140kg 6x4

All sets done beltless.

Been going well diet wise, sticking to my "clean" foods and I am feeling good!
 
13 07 2015

Training

Squats 5x5 125KG

Benchpress 5x5 70KG

Singles on deadlift up to 440 (was tired as fuck)

diet wise been pretty trash, had a full pizza + 2x sodas ayy
 
15 07 2015

TRAINING

Squat 6x8 112,5kg (5lb increase)

Oh man, had to work after work at 2230, a bit late and I didnt take any pre workout. After 3 sets I was ready to throw in the towel, but I pulled it together and made it to the end. Absolute insane grinder coming out of the last rep of the last set. Yelled my lungs out trying to get it up!

Bench 5x2 82,5kg (5lb increase)

Man, bench is feeling AWESOME these days. Every rep was super easy, I am feeling so strong in the bench these days. I could probably put on 10lb next time and have no issues. I won't though, I'll play it smart and just keep to the ordinary progression. I am seriously thinking I might hit two plates in a matter of weeks. That would be a huge milestone for me!
 
Just an update..

Since I don't have a car and one of my lazy ass friends have basically quit training, getting to training has been hard. And the one time I did get to training we were in a hurry so I decided to just do singles instead.

Squat

152,5kg x 1 (335lb)

Bench:

95kg x 1 ( 207lb) (2lb pr)

Deadlift

210kg x 1 ( 463lb)

All lifts felt smooth and fine. Didn't really push it today because I didn't want to fatigue for my workout on Monday. I decided to go for the PR on bench because my previous 1RM (205lb) felt easy so just made the PR stick which was nice.
 
20 07 2015

TRAINING

Squats 286lb 5x5

Felt GREAT today! Aaaawyeeeeah! All reps felt smooth, technique-wise its probably the most solid lifting I've ever done. Straight down into a deep squat, straight up with great technique hitting my balance point each and every time.

Bench 135lb 6x8

Felt stupidly easy lol, gonna jump up 5kg next time I believe.

And that was that for today. A bit of a divergence from my original plan but I got off to the gym in such a hurry I just had to guess what I was doing today. I will go tomorrow anyways and do the actual program excluding bench volume obviously.

I just want to say thank you @insertnamehere, because man oh man this program is just giving me ALL KINDS OF GAINS! Noob gains isn't even where its at. What happens AFTER noobgains is where its at! Strength just completely flying up every time I go in the gym, never felt more solid in all of the lifts!!!!!!
 
21 07 2015

TRAINING

Squats 145kg 5x2

Bench 85kg 5x2

Deadlift 195kg 5x2

Day went fine however I dropped the last set of Bench & Deadlift because of time issues. Feeling really strong still!
 
Just a small update.

Haven't been able to hit the gym in 3 days because of schedule issues. Really annoying but not a lot to do about it. At least I will be fully rested for my next workout session.
 
oh man im fukin BACK!

After 3 rest days I got back in the gym because I got off early from work AND a friend of mine who has been flaking hard for a couple of weeks finally agreed to go to the gym (I need to be driven there lol), so that was lucky.

I did Squats 6x8 today and I just went for 117,5kg going up from 112,5kg (10lb increase) and I absolutely DESTROYED IT. It was both the best and worse sets ever. Basically I felt Insanely powerful, perfect form and fast reps all the way through, however the pressure in my head from holding my breath made my head hurt after each set and I was sweating like an absolute pig. But all in all this squat session was just AWESOME. I felt fucking ALIVE after that shit!!

Bench I went for 87,5kg 5x2 and finally hit all the sets no problem. It was heavy, but since I went light in the squat I didn't have the elbow pain I usually do when hitting bench so it wasnt an issue, and I can also feel my work capacity going up in the bench.

So to summarize

Squat 6x8 117,5kg (260lb)
Bench 5x2 87,5kg (192lb)
 
finally I'm back in the gym again!

I've moved a bit closer to the gym so I am not 100% dependent on my friend giving me a lift anymore. Unfortunately, this is another gym of the same franchise, and it feels really weird training there. I'm not sure what it is but something just feels off.

Squats 5x2 147,5kg (325lb)

Went really well actually. Warmup felt really weird, I felt off balance because of the new gym and it was really annoying. I think that all the sets would've felt better at my "old" gym (which I will visit from time to time if conditions permits), but all in all I've gotta be happy with todays squatting.

Bench 4x8 65kg (145lb)

Had time constraints so ditched the last two sets unfortunately..

Deadlift 3x1 440lb

At this point I wasn't feeling too hot. My stomach was acting up and I was overheated. Just had no energy.

This might be a sign that I need to move my squats away and give the deadlift its own day. However I usually feel really good deadlifting after squats. I honestly blame it on my stomach + new gym. I had to look into a mirror and its so crammed with people moving less than 1m away from me etc. Super annoying stuff actually.

Whatever, I just have to get used to it for now.
 
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