Today starts a year long commitment to finally sticking to a strength protocol long enough to actually start approaching my performance goals. At a minimum, I want to be doing Tactical Barbell strength programming until the beginning of August 2019, at which point I hope to be significantly stronger, sturdier, and harder to kill. I will document every single training session here including notes, commentary, as well as the occasional form video if I'm able to.
My current maxes are listed here:
High Bar Squat: 265lbs
Press: 140lbs
Deadlift: 365lbs
My MINIMUM goals are listed below. I know these numbers will be impossible to hit over the next 12 months, but this is what I'm going to be aiming for in the long-term:
High Bar Squat: 495lbs
Press: 275lbs
Deadlift: 585lbs
I hope to go from ~180lbs to ~215/220lbs over the next 12 months.
Here's to a year of getting strong:
*Cheers*
Classico's Training Log
Re: Classico's Training Log
Cheers mate! Right commitment is 50% of the success.
Good luck!
Good luck!
"Man is what he reads." - Joseph Brodsky
Re: Classico's Training Log
August 6, 2018
Monday
1330
TB Operator - Week 1
Press @ 70%
2x5 45lbs
1x5 75lbs
3x5 100lbs
HB Squat @ 70%
2x5 45lbs
1x5 135lbs
3x5 185lbs
Deadlift @ 70%
1x5 135lbs
1x5 205lbs
3x5 255lbs
*Form Notes*
Need to make sure I'm not loading my arms too much on the squat. I've had issues with bicep and shoulder pain in the past when I haven't loaded the bar on my back correctly, so I need to make sure I'm doing that correctly before proceeding to heavier weights. My deadlift felt alright, though I felt I was still rounding a bit. I need to record my lifts on Wednesday to confirm or deny this.
*Notes*
Rest interval for all exercises was 3min.
Today was my first real day working with the high bar squat. Over the past 4 years of my sporadic strength training efforts I have exclusively squatted low bar, in large part due to Mark Rippetoe's recommendation as outlined in Starting Strength. I got relatively comfortable with the movement, though I still felt my technique and the awkward mechanics of the exercise itself was limiting my progression. I often would find myself having issues with "good mornings," particularly in the higher weight ranges.
High bar, to me, feels significantly more natural. When we squat (with heels remaining on the ground), our physiology naturally causes us to maintain a very vertical back angle, a position that looks quite a bit more like a high bar squat than a low bar squat. Transfer the strength gained in the gym into real life, I am more likely to place a weight on my traps and shoulders opposed to lower on my back, so to me training that vertical back angle makes more sense from a "functionality" standpoint. I just feel much more explosive and sturdy while squatting high bar. Overall, it feels like a much more natural posture to me, so I'm going to work on high bar exclusively from this point forward.
And from a slightly less important direction, high bar engages the quads more than low bar which appeals to me as I've always had atrociously underdeveloped quads. When I was low bar and deadlifting multiple times a week I had some decently developed hamstrings and a strong butt, however my quads fell short. From now on, I'm going to experiment with leaving the posterior chain development to my deadlifting volume, while trying to build up my chicken leg quads with some below parallel high bar action.
I have a very long way to go to reach my strength goals. Every journey has to start somewhere!
Monday
1330
TB Operator - Week 1
Press @ 70%
2x5 45lbs
1x5 75lbs
3x5 100lbs
HB Squat @ 70%
2x5 45lbs
1x5 135lbs
3x5 185lbs
Deadlift @ 70%
1x5 135lbs
1x5 205lbs
3x5 255lbs
*Form Notes*
Need to make sure I'm not loading my arms too much on the squat. I've had issues with bicep and shoulder pain in the past when I haven't loaded the bar on my back correctly, so I need to make sure I'm doing that correctly before proceeding to heavier weights. My deadlift felt alright, though I felt I was still rounding a bit. I need to record my lifts on Wednesday to confirm or deny this.
*Notes*
Rest interval for all exercises was 3min.
Today was my first real day working with the high bar squat. Over the past 4 years of my sporadic strength training efforts I have exclusively squatted low bar, in large part due to Mark Rippetoe's recommendation as outlined in Starting Strength. I got relatively comfortable with the movement, though I still felt my technique and the awkward mechanics of the exercise itself was limiting my progression. I often would find myself having issues with "good mornings," particularly in the higher weight ranges.
High bar, to me, feels significantly more natural. When we squat (with heels remaining on the ground), our physiology naturally causes us to maintain a very vertical back angle, a position that looks quite a bit more like a high bar squat than a low bar squat. Transfer the strength gained in the gym into real life, I am more likely to place a weight on my traps and shoulders opposed to lower on my back, so to me training that vertical back angle makes more sense from a "functionality" standpoint. I just feel much more explosive and sturdy while squatting high bar. Overall, it feels like a much more natural posture to me, so I'm going to work on high bar exclusively from this point forward.
And from a slightly less important direction, high bar engages the quads more than low bar which appeals to me as I've always had atrociously underdeveloped quads. When I was low bar and deadlifting multiple times a week I had some decently developed hamstrings and a strong butt, however my quads fell short. From now on, I'm going to experiment with leaving the posterior chain development to my deadlifting volume, while trying to build up my chicken leg quads with some below parallel high bar action.
I have a very long way to go to reach my strength goals. Every journey has to start somewhere!