Raising Mike's 1 rep max

[MikeM]

Yep Kit, I think you are right! It will be a good combo once I get used to it. I do think I'm going to like doing the Cleans and Deadlift together, but that first session wasn't the greatest though. I need to be smarter about the cleans because I don't want to screw with my deadlifts at all. Hip feels good now though.

My lower back is just fine, BtB! No worries there. Cleans take it out of me physically, but not any specific body part. Well, unless I miss one, then something specific hurts!

Here's a test to see if I youtubed properly.

MVI_4391.AVI - YouTube

That should be a 220 rep from last week. Fingers crossed.

This is another one hopefully.

http://youtu.be/uK3ZKh7Mzag

[MikeM]

OK, well that was fun. I have some video of benching 225 and a set of 5 with 185 from today, but I'll wait until later to post those. I've go to get going on setting up for tonite! Happy Halloween!

Monday, week 2

Bench:
2x 10x bar, 10x 95
8x 135
5x 165
3x 185
1x 205

5x 1x 225
5x 5x 185

BB Rows:
warmups with bar, 95, 115

5x 5x 125

Felt good! I also sprinkled in some triples of pullups in between the bench sets. I'm going to start adding them in here and there to see if it will help me become better at them as I go along.

Gotta run, back later assuming I'm not cleaning up toilet paper out of my trees!

[Fazc]

That's good form Mike, yeah very good.

Nice progression onto 225 as well, good job!

[BendtheBar]

MVI_4391.AVI - YouTube

MVI_4391.AVI - YouTube

Solid form Mike.

Hope you don't get too hammered with TP. You have a teen in the house?

[MikeM]

Originally Posted by Fazc

That's good form Mike, yeah very good.

Nice progression onto 225 as well, good job!

Thanks! It's kind of weird watching yourself! I noticed I don't unrack the bar very well, so I tried to fix that today. I moved my head further up so that the bar is more in line with my chin than my nose. I think it went well.

I also am adding a 5 rep set to look at to see if that shows anything else I should be working on before I go off into the unknown of weights heavier than I've ever lifted before.

MVI 4412 - YouTube

MVI 4413 - YouTube

MVI 4413 - YouTube

Hey, just realized how to make those video boxes in the post! Cool!

Also, should I make them private? So that only people with a link can see them? Is there a danger from them being "public"?

Squats tomorrow.

[MikeM]

Originally Posted by BendtheBar

MVI_4391.AVI - YouTube

Solid form Mike.

Hope you don't get too hammered with TP. You have a teen in the house?

Thanks!
No, but plenty of teenagers in the neighborhood. However, they're all too lazy to leave their gameboys and phones long enought to TP a tree!

[Pull14]

Smooth lifting Mike, that 225 looked easy.

[MikeM]

Thanks, Pull! Yeah, it's easy right now as I started this routine at about 90%. I've done 225 for 3 before, so I should be able to nail it for 5 singles easy.

However, I've never actually benched 230 or higher before. I'm pretty sure I can do it, of course, but I've never actually done it.

That's one of the things I really like about this routine is that it is sort de-mystifying heavy weights for me. I've been conditioned for 5 reps, but when I hit maximal I was always a little too beat up before I got there, so hitting those last couple reps were killing me and progression was stalling out some.

Now, just knowing all I have to do is hit a max once, it sort of takes the pressure off, if that makes sense.

I figure, I'll run these singles up for as long as I can, then switch back to a 5x5 and see how far I have come.

However, today was a washout. Bitter. Couldn't make it to the gym at all, not even an evening session as the wife had a meeting so I have the kids. and tomorrow looks grim too as I wasn't planning on going.

I'll just skip squats this week and pick up with Push Press on Thursday. No way I'm missing Cleans and Deads on Friday either!

Still, on the bright side, I think I've got a handle on how to permanently switch my schedule to this new four day routine. Fingers crossed.

Anyway, was fun catching up with people tonite. Lots of good stuff going on around these boards.

[MikeM]

Thursday, week 2

Push Press:
2x 10x bar
8x 65
6x 95
2x 120

5x 1x 150
5x 5x 115

Went well, got some video if youtube ever stops processing.

Chinups/Lat Pull w/130 combo 5x 12:
7/5
5/7
3/9
2/10
1/11

Didn't have it today with chinups, but I did do all the Lat work with 130, and I got a chinup rep in the last set, so that's an improvement. I really fought to get 8 on that first set, but I could only manage pulling up to my eyeballs. Bitter. I think that effort hosed me on the subsequent sets. Oh well.

[Carl1174]

great new log buddy and a nice change from full body I bet. Your bench form looks solid mate, real good. cant wait to se you hitting 3pps in the near future

subbed for sure (sorry I missed this one start, but my heads been up my arse a bit lately and I have missed a lot of stuff)

Carl.