What is Steel, Compared to the Flesh That Wields It?

[Nick]

Took a vacation, which was awesome, and restarted week 5 of operator I/A.

18 April
Op I/A
Week 5/Day 1

Pull-ups
4 sets x 5 reps x (BW +5 lbs)
1 set x 5 reps x (BW + 5lbs)

OHP
1 set x 5 reps x 140lbs
4 sets x 3 reps x140lbs

Squats
3 sets x3 reps x 240lbs

18April, PM
Ran 5.78 miles, 51 minutes

19 April
Op I/A
Week 5/ Day 2

Pull-ups
4 sets x 5 reps x (BW + 5lbs)
1 set x 2 reps x (BW + 5 lbs)

Bench
4 sets x 3 reps x 210 lbs
1 set x 1 rep x 210lbs

Deads
3 sets x 3 reps x 310lbs

Ab Wheel from knees
4 sets x 12 reps

21 April
Op I/A
Week 5 / Day 3

Pull-ups
2 sets x 5 reps x (BW + 5 lbs)

OHP
2 sets x 5 reps x 140lbs

Squat
2 sets x 3 reps x 240lbs

Ab Wheel from knees
4 sets x 12 reps

[Nick]

Op I/A
Week 6/ Day 1

Pull-ups
4 sets x 3 reps x (BW + 20lbs)

OHP
1 set x 3 reps x 155lbs
3 sets x 2 reps x 155lbs

Squat
3 sets x 2 reps x 270lbs
1 set x 1 rep x 270lbs

I put the bar lower on my back, which forced my chest out more; what a difference!! When the weight goes up, I usually end up getting kind of folded in half. Not this time! Awesome!

Ab Wheel from knees
4 sets x 12 reps

[Nick]

So, because of work scheduling issues, I've been getting frustrated with getting my conditioning in, so I went back to TBII for some guidance. KB mentions a guy who does;
3x strength sessions (operator),
1x long run of 60 min
2x Apex sessions
Per week.

So, I'm not wild about leaving my Kettlebell on the side of the street, but I figure I'll try;
3 x operator sessions
1 x long run
2 x hill sprint workouts
Per week.

My biggest hurdle, training-wise, is scheduling everything, and this all seems to fit my logistics.

So, today, I ran 6x hill sprints
64, 60, 59, 60, 64, 65 seconds for each repeat. I was pumped about this since I think my best time when running this hill during Base Building was about 64 seconds.

[Nick]

Op I/A
Week 6/Day 2

Pull-ups
4 sets x 3 reps x (BW + 20lbs)

Bench
3 sets x 2 reps x 230lbs

Dead
4 sets x 2 reps x 345lbs

Ab Wheel from knees
4 sets x 12 reps

[Nick]

Last day of this Operator I/A cycle!!!

Pull-ups
1 set x 2 reps x (BW + 20lbs)
3 sets x 2 reps x (BW + 30 lbs)

OHP
4 sets x 2 reps x 155lbs

Squat
4 sets x 2 reps x 270lbs

Ab Wheel from knees
4 sets x 12 reps

Supersetted with...
Neck harness
4 sets x 20 reps x 35lbs

This cycle has been really cool. I haven't tested my lifts yet but I feel much stronger in my squat and weighted pull ups. We'll see about bench, dead and OHP.

I haven't been as serious about my conditioning as I should have been during this cycle. This comes from being able to slip out of work a few times for LSS runs during the day at work, it being awesome, and then foolishly thinking I could make that a regular thing.

As everyone knows, you have to do PT in the morning, or there's no guarantee it will get done. Lesson learned.

Looking forward to testing and seeing where I am, strength-wise.

[Nick]

Ran 6 miles this morning. 56:47 min.

[Nick]

Today was supposed to be test day. I started with pull-ups and could immediately tell this wasn't going to go the way I wanted it to. I didn't want waste a few days getting ready for another test day, so I decided to do a forced progression;

WPU--> (215lbs BW + 45lbs) to (215 BW +50lbs)
OHP--> 165 to 170
Bench--> struggled with bench last cycle, so kept it at 245lbs
Squat ---> 285 lbs to 295 lbs
Dead --> struggled with these as well, so I kept them the same, 365 lbs

I've been doing an ABA setup, with pull-ups all days, OHP and squat on A days and bench/ dead on B days. I'm flipping that, with Bench /dead on A day and OHP/Squat on B days.

Pull-ups
4 sets x 5 reps x BW

Bench
4 sets x 5 reps x 170lbs

Dead
4 sets x 5 reps x 255lbs

[grouchyjarhead]

Have you tried a training max (using 90% of your 1RM to calculate your lifts off of)? If the working weights are tough, sometimes just dropping off that extra 10% can mean bigger gains on test day.

[Nick]

Grouchy, thank the for the reply! That's just it though, the weights during this last cycle felt good, it was test day that didn't work out so well.

I based my pull-ups during this last cycle off of my body weight (215lbs) plus 45 lbs for 1 rep. Everything felt good during the cycle, and I could "feel" myself getting stronger. Last Sunday I was doing multiple sets of 2 with 30lbs, and it felt pretty easy. So, test day comes, I put 50lbs in my bag, and I'm struggling to get one rep.

Similar thing happened with overhead press; my 1RM for this cycle was 165, all the workouts went well, but I couldn't get 175 lbs up.

After trying pull-ups and OHP, I decided to just force progress for WPU, OHP, and SQ, while keeping Bench and Dead the same, because I knew I had gotten stronger, I just wasn't able to "show" it that day.

By the way, I saw your article on bodybuilding.com in the workout program stickies! Cool template and a neat article.

Did hills today, 10 reps. 2nd and 3rd reps were the fastest at 60 sec flat, reps 7-10 were the slowest at 67 sec.

[grouchyjarhead]

I wonder if you still had a bit of fatigue on test day, or even maybe test day jitters. It sounds like you should have, so a forced progression is probably the most intelligent thing to do at this point.

And thanks, just another way of skinning the cat I suppose.