Year-to-Date Progress Report & 8/10 - 8/15/15

I wanted to do a little recap for myself... and I am going subject you to it by including it in a blog post.

I came back to the iron back near the beginning of the year after injuries dating back to August of last year.  I had also been inconsistent for most of the rest of 2014.

Starting back in March, I was Squatting 200 pounds for a set of five.
I Squatted 320 pounds for five reps yesterday.
+120

I was Deadlifting 255 pounds for a set of five.
I Deadlifted 430 pounds for five reps yesterday.
+175

I was Benching 145 pounds for three sets of five reps.
I Benched 230 for three by five on Monday.
+85

I was doing three sets of five Chin-ups with no weight added to a 230 pound frame.
Yesterday I did three sets of five Chin-ups with 30 pounds added to a 245 pound body.
+45

I was Pressing five reps of 130 pounds.
I Pressed three sets of five at 165 pounds at the beginning of July.  I am taking it easy with Press right now, as you know, so I don't re-injure myself.
+35

Especially at the beginning, a healthy portion of this improvement should be attributed to  muscle memory and CNS adaptation - the body remembering how to do these things and figuring out just how strong it really is - not actual strength gains, per se; but I am nevertheless pleased and excited about the improvements since coming back to the iron last Spring.

This week was only a two workout week, but it was still a great week.  I did a 3x5 with three big wheels on Squat, performed a heavy single during OWU on Bench that was only 5 pounds less than my all-time 1RM PR, and set a +32oz 5RM PR on DL.

If all goes according to plan, I will tie my 5RM PR on Squat this coming Friday.  Since I jumped from 410 to 428.5 last week on DL, and today my low back was quite tired and sore from 5x430.5 yesterday, I am going to do a 15 pound deload to give my back a wee bit of a break.  430.5 went up much more quickly than 428.5, but I don't want to burn out or force a stall, so I'll just do a deload down to the weight I SHOULD have done last week, and then continue my 5# weekly increases.  Setting PRs every week is nice, but I don't want to push it.

I didn't end up doing any rows this week, but I don't mind too much.


8.10.15

Squat 3x5@315
Bench 270x1; 3x5@230
Chins BW+0 x 10,9,8


8.14.15

Squat 5x320
DL 5x430.5
Press 2x10@105
Shoulder Shocker 25/12
Chins BW+30 x 5,5,5
Shrugs 10x135, 185, 215, 220