Captain's Log: 3.24.13

I'm letting myself slip in the blog game.  Time to remedy that.

WEDNESDAY

Front Squat:
325 x 1
275 x 5
245 x 5
225 x 3 sets of 5

THURSDAY

Overhead Press:
180 x 1, 1

155 x 6 sets of 3

FRIDAY

Low Bar Squat:
225 x 5 sets of 10

Dead Lift:
up to 525 x 1

Deficit Dead Lift:
425 x 3 sets of 3

SATURDAY

Bench Press:
225 x 7 sets of 2 (all reps paused)


So as you can see I've got a pretty high frequency going on right now.  All of my heavy sessions are in the afternoons.  I usually do some type of low intensity/high rep work in the mornings.  It's never anything more than body weight stuff like push ups, pull ups, squats, lunges, abs and some arms thrown in.

I've tried high frequency stuff in the past and I always burned out on it.  Not this time.  In my previous attempts at it I'd be doing weights that were 90% and above in every most of my work sets in every session. This time I'm keeping the intensity lower and my volume (reps and sets) higher.  In each session I'll work up to a heavy single, but it's never a weight that I really need to psyche myself up for.  It's heavy for me but nothing that is ever in doubt.  In fact, I can't remember the last time I missed a rep.

This keeps me fresh-ish so that I'm never dreading walking into the gym.  I'll drag my feet sometimes but once I get started and moving I'm locked in.

Another great aspect of high frequency is that my training only takes me about 45 minutes to complete.  I don't have to grind out long sessions with a bunch of extra exercises.  I can break things up and really give each major lift the attention it deserves.  I don't have to overhead press after I bench press.  I don't have to squat and dead lift heavy on the same day.  I can curl in the squat rack every single day if I want to.  Because it's my gym and I can do whatever the hell I want.

I can also do lifts multiple times per week.  I've been squatting (front and back) three times per week and benching twice.  I think this is a big part of why I'm feeling a lot stronger on those lifts.  You get good at what you repeatedly do.  I keep coming back to an example from John Broz (paraphrased),

"If you had one month to put 50 pounds on your squat or your family would be killed you wouldn't squat once per week.  You'd squat every damn day!"

Something that is also in the back of my head is my longevity.  I watched Trouble With The Curve the other day and Clint Eastwood plays a very old baseball scout.  He was losing his eyesight, his physical state was declining, and he just looked old and withered.  Definitely not something I want to be.

I don't ever want my physical state to be a limitation.  I want to be healthy and vital well into an advanced age.  In a perfect world, however many years from now, when it's my time to go I hope that I'll have been able to get a lift in first.