re: Daily Strength Check-In

01/29/24: Strength Testing - Bench Press - "Big Boy Time"

1. Bench Press

Warm-Up Sets:
45 x 5 x 2
135 x 5
185 x 5
225 x 2
315 x 1
365 x 1

Max Attempts:

1st Attempt - 390lbs x 1 Got it! (tied my 25 year old 1RM PR from being 20 years old and 194lbs bw, 60lbs lighter than now)

2nd Attempt - 405lbs x 1 Got it! Big milestone for any lifter. To get to add another plate is a treat. Benching 405lbs is a dream come true (somewhat less than what I probably imagined though, because to be honest, weighing 255lbs and benching 405 doesn't impress me as much as a younger me would have thought, but younger me also didn't know I'd get this overweight either), this was something that younger Dr. Denim just couldn't imagine was possible. After all, 405lbs is a good weight to SQUAT!, so if you can bench press 405lbs that's huge?!? ...right? Long story short, it's not that big of a deal when you're really really overly fattened. Still, happy it got done.

3rd Attempt - 420lbs x 1 Got it! Whew, cannot believe this, last 1-RM was 375lbs, so I've added 45lbs!!! Is that right? frick! How much have I been holding back? That's it for today. Very pleased, that definitely got the adrenaline pumping, but I got a rule about "No more than 3 attempts", so I'm wrapping it up after this one.

YouTube - Bench Press Strength Test: New PR - 420lbs

Notes:
Did something to my right lat when I was pushing 365lb, so instead of testing deadlift max tonight I'm pushing it until later in the week. Overall I'm very happy with what I accomplished with this session. I set a new PR in the bench press, my old PR was 25 years old, if it was a child it wouldn't even be on my health insurance any longer. So to stick with the lifting, (to be healthy enough to even be able to stick with heavy lifting) for this long is something for which I'm incredibly grateful.

All that said, I'm ultimately not that impressed. Happy? Sure. Glad to be able to check that box off that's next to the question, "Did you ever bench 4 plates?" Yes. But mostly, this just really reinforces the motivation I have to train hard and most importantly, work harder at building healthier eating habits so I can shed excess body fat. It's unhealthy, impedes athletic performance (other than just raw, brutish strength, but that isn't my goal either), and it's unsightly. I'm tired of averting my eyes any time I come near a mirror. As stupid as it seems to let vanity be an influence on me, there is a correlation to my health, which is my biggest goal. I want to be healthy.

I know I can be very strong, while being much leaner, so I'm glad to be re-energized to keep pushing myself to get better at adhering to a better diet more consistently. Nothing excites me more than moving more weight, so I'm gonna use the positive "feels" from this event to fuel the hard work that needs to get done. For me, that hard work is more in the kitchen than the gym.

Can do 100 pushups
I’m down to 219
I’m old a crooked from the glory days of ego lifting.

It’s about survival now.

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Did something to my right lat when I was pushing 365lb, so instead of testing deadlift max tonight I'm pushing it until later in the week. Overall I'm very happy with what I accomplished with this session. I set a new PR in the bench press, my old PR was 25 years old, if it was a child it wouldn't even be on my health insurance any longer. So to stick with the lifting, (to be healthy enough to even be able to stick with heavy lifting) for this long is something for which I'm incredibly grateful. All that said, I'm ultimately not that impressed. Happy? Sure. Glad to be able to check that box off that's next to the question, "Did you ever bench 4 plates?" Yes. But mostly, this just really reinforces the motivation I have to train hard and most importantly, work harder at building healthier eating habits so I can shed excess body fat. It's unhealthy, impedes athletic performance (other than just raw, brutish strength, but that isn't my goal either), and it's unsightly. I'm tired of averting my eyes any time I come near a mirror. As stupid as it seems to let vanity be an influence on me, there is a correlation to my health, which is my biggest goal. I want to be healthy. I know I can be very strong, while being much leaner, so I'm glad to be re-energized to keep pushing myself to get better at adhering to a better diet more consistently. Nothing excites me more than moving more weight, so I'm gonna use the positive "feels" from this event to fuel the hard work that needs to get done. For me, that hard work is more in the kitchen than the gym.

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Brother I’m not gonna sit here and try and tell you..hey you are stage ready but you are not crazy sloppy either and you are strong as frick. You have tree trunks for legs too

And 420, is fricking 420 and strong AF.

I will say thank you though for posting that, I was feeling sorry for my self as I had a wild and crazy day that ended with my youngest getting stitches from a fly ball and didn’t really feel like doing the last two sets of squats. Your video motivated me to suck that shite up.

Now if you really want to drop the weight, could always go a little higher calorie psmf. Or straight to Gironda steak and eggs or high definition diet. Email me if you need the pamphlets from Vince


Now note to self…don’t ever enter a powerlifting show or bodybuilding show dr denim is in, he will destroy you

Oh and be nice to dr denim no matter what

Gracias, amigos.

Well, as it turned out, bench press was a wise decision to start the strength testing week(week? What.....thought it was supposed to be 2 days??? What the frick happened?) with because it was all down hill from there.

01/31/24: Deadlift - ended up making 2 solid attempts, so that was an improvement over my usual 1 attempt and then not having anything left to go for #2 or #3. I pulled 455lbs first, then 480lbs for my second attempt. The second attempt was tough and it felt like it rounded my back significantly and I was pretty tender afterwards, so that was it for the night. Previous 1RM on deadlift was 425lb(I was kinda sandbaggin' it), so I picked up 55lbs on deadlift. This currently puts me at a 1.88XBW deadlift, that's good progress towards my next goal of pulling 2XBW.

02/02/24: Press - made 3 attempts, got the first 2, failed on the 3rd attempt. I got 265lb and 275lb. Failed at 280lb. Previous 1RM was 260lb, so I upped my max by 15lbs. Sitting at 1.08XBW @255lbs body weight. Nearly to my 2024 goal of a 1.15XBW press.

02/04/24: SQUAT! - I only made 2 attempts, got 1, failed 1. I haven't failed a squat rep since 1999, and it's not for lack of trying. I'm not going to delve too deeply into details, but I have a not so great barbell that becomes very "whippy" with anything over 500lbs on it for squat. It finally bit me in the arse. I felt fast and strong with warm-up reps of 405lb and 495lb, and my 1st attempt at 540lb was okay, but I could feel the damn bar starting to wobble and oscillate on me. It felt like I was squatting while standing on a bosu ball or some kind of gimmicky bullshite wobble board. I tried 550lb even though I was doubtful I'd get it, and sure enough as I drove up out of the hole I was fighting the wobbles so hard I just got stuck and had to dump it. Scared the shite out of my dogs. In the end I added 20lbs to my previous 1RM of 520lb on SQUAT! That straight up sucks for me. All time PR is 610lb or 620lb, I can't remember. Anyway, I immediately placed an order for a 29mm Texas Power Bar. That thing shouldn't bend for nothing. Still, I'm up to a 2.11XBW SQUAT! for now, big goal is for a 2.25XBW.

My bench press from earlier was 420lb and that calculates out to 1.64XBW, which is well over my big 2024 goal of a 1.5XBW bench press. Suffice to say, my lifting goals for 2024 were too conservative, so I'm updating them.

All videos available on my top secret YouTube Channel

Ok man, the bench video was cool and all but frick your for that press!! That’s retarded!

Have you tried spacing out your 45s a small amount, so they aren’t touching? That should help keep a whippy bar from bouncing as much.

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29mm

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That definitely will cut down the whip. When I say space them out, i mean very little, just enough to clank when they move around. I think I got that from an Alan thrall video long ago

We recently moved schools and the football team has an athletics period. So far it looks like this for the week:
Squat - 12RM, back off 12RM 2x8
Deads - 4x8
Bench - 12RM, back off 12RM 2x8

Accessory work seems to be more crossfit and BW centered. My only concern is there isn't a structure and it leaves new lifters to decide what weight to use. That's fine if they are chasing a note book, but I don't think they do.

My son is more advanced than the others, is this enough volume? Normally, we would do something similar for volume, but have a higher intensity day handling heavier weights.

BANNED? What'd you do? Glad you're back. The Daily Strength Check-In thread has been pretty quiet, I don't post in this thread unless I'm doing max strength testing or something like it.

I've been tossing around the idea of starting my own individual training log as a thread in here, obviously others could reply/contribute to it, but it would be a thread for my day to day training log of what I'm doing at the time.

The single most strange thing that sets the tigerdroppings health & fitness board apart from other lifting/bodybuilding/fitness forums is the lack of individual training logs. We have a PPSA thread for everyone, a Crossfit thread for everyone, a running/marathon thread for everyone, a cycling thread for everyone, etc, etc. You've seen it. Nothing wrong with all of that, but nothing is wrong with individual training logs for any/all of those pursuits either. I'm interested to hear what you've been up to.