Adarq.org

Slept like a baby last night, woke up so refreshed this morning I could barely stop smiling. Falling asleep when you're tired and waking when you're done sleeping is one of the greatest things ever. Read the paper this morning, made a little breakfast, did an errand, then went to the gym for a nice easy workout.

Circuit x15mins (HR ~150, changed exercise each time through)
JR x30-60s
lower body mobility exercise
upper body mobility exercise

Jog @9:13 mile pace x20 mins (HR ~160, felt easy but a bit slow for my HR to be that high...need to get back to work on easy cardio)

Cool down
stretch (niiiice and long)
foam roll

Mood today:  

Thanks vag. Hit 285 today!  And CRUSHED the 5x320 DL. Absolutely flew off the floor. Anyway, new job is doing proposal development and program oversight for health and disaster relief programs at an NGO called the Aga Khan Foundation. akdn.org/akf if anyone's curious about that stuff. First week was nuts; I didn't leave work until 8:15 last night and tonight just barely squeaked out of there at 6:35. Workout yesterday got delayed to today because I was just wiped out and a bit overwhelmed. It's been totally great so far, though, other than the long hours (11 on Thursday!).

Warm up
usual, took it seriously for once

Work
Squat 3x5x285 (very hard)
Bench 4x190, 2x5x190, 1x190 (first set wasn't a weight problem: I got distracted and the bar got out of track; these felt lighter than 185)
DL 5x320 KILLED it

Cool down
stretch

I'm going to switch to 5 pound jumps in the DL to see if I can keep getting linear progress that way. Squats I'm getting towards the end of straight linear progress, I think. 285 was hard as balls and I definitely didn't get below parallel on a rep or two. At least hit it for all, though. I'm going to try longer rests (only doing 3-3:30 at the moment) to see if that helps. Also the bball court was set up for volleyball tonight so I couldn't shoot or try rim grabs.

There's a dude at the gym who's starting out powerlifting who keeps harping on me to gain some weight because I'm reasonably strong for my bw at this point (168# measured at the gym today with shoes off). His point is that if I bulk up to like 190 over a few months and can DL 400+ for reps, then cut whatever fat I've gained, I'll be way more athletic than I am right now. Still not sure I want that much lean muscle as a base, though. Right now my LBM is about 151-153# at about 10% body fat. If I bulk to 190 and 15% body fat, I'd end up with ~161# of LBM and then I could cut back to 10% bf for a total weight of ~178#. I don't know, I'll think about it. My lifts would go through the roof if I started bulking, I think.

Sorry if that was boring, just kind of thinking out loud (well, the typing was out loud). It's mostly a vanity thing that I haven't started to consciously bulk already; I like the way I look now and would take a lot of crap from my friends (NONE of whom gives shit about working out and look upon me as a weirdo already for it). I gain muscle easily and have done so unconsciously over the past few months, maybe about 5# or so, pretty lean. The people on Lyle McDonald's boards would absolutely eat me alive if I posted a question like this there and I know it's stupid but whatever. I quit those boards because I was spending like 4 hours a day in them and caring what people on them thought about what I posted and oh my god fuck that. Addictive, they are. Still, his articles rule.

Now it's time for dinner.

Well I worked out on Saturday and then the rest of the weekend was jammed, so I'm just posting this workout now. I need to drop back to 320 on the DL this weekend, then switch to five lb increases. Ten is just too much. Frustrating, but oh well.

Warm up
shoot hoops
usual

Work
Squat 3x5x275 (might have cheated for depth on a few of these but mostly they were good and solid)
Bench 3x5x185 (again, because of the fail last time)
DL 2x330

Cool down
stretch

Nice job on the pullups. Question: when you do them, what do you do at the bottom? Arms fully extended but shoulders engaged? Shoulders fully relaxed? Both are legit, obviously, but it makes a huge difference for me whether I relax my shoulders or not at the bottom.

Also, you're gonna work out after midnight??!?! I love working out, but there's not a snowball's chance in hell of me being sober enough to exercise after about 9 p.m.

yea, i seriously dunno whats inside that anaconda and surge fuel stuff, but they sayin like its magic...

its not strength per se, but i've always naturally heel strike for jumping for as long as i remember...
dun reckon i'd change however much stronger i might get... 

About Anaconda: http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/supplement-marketing-on-steroids-by-alan-aragon.html

About Surge: http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/an-objective-comparison-of-chocolate-milk-and-surge-recovery.html

i sware my ability to jump has been 'deleted'.. its as if someone stole the program responsible for jumping.. so hard to explain..

I'm kind of afraid of this; like I'll bust my ass, reach my goal, then as soon as I shift focus onto something else I will completely lose the ability. Have you been jumping at all beyond the ankle hops? Or really taking a break?

for what it's worth, t-nation sucks because, while there might be a few grains of wisdom here and there, you have to sift through a gigantic amount of sneaky marketing, lies and outright bullshit to get to it. categorical advice like "landing on your mid-foot is better" is crap without context. land on the part of your foot that makes you go the highest. if that changes over time, cool. i doubt it's your heel because people tend to decelerate by landing on their heels, but having never seen you jump, i have no idea.

Last workout before Xmas blitz. Went swimmingly. Shot around first, then did mobility, then went back out and tried a few running jumps at the rim. Almost seriously grabbed the rim, got top two knuckled on my middle finger over top and one on index and ring...nice! Probably ~32", which would be a PR.

UPDATE: measured my middle finger and looks like I would have had to get more like 32.5" on that jump. Even better! On the other hand, that just means that I really have to hit 38" in order to dunk. Still, progress is progress. Also meant to add that I only did about 6 jumps total, with 20-30s between each. My form during the runup is definitely ugly, so I think I'm gonna add 5 or 6 near-max efforts before each workout, after the warm up, with loads of rest.

Warm up
shoot around
mobility

Work
depth jump 2x5x24"
squat 3x5x260
OHP 3x5x125

Cool down
stretch
shoot around a bit more