Hello Cup of Joe

A housekeeping note from my last post about a month ago: I think I'm dunzo with pre-workout for now. There are a couple of different kinds sitting in my kitchen, but I'm just tired of it...tired of buying it, tired of feeling dependent on it (if I don't drink my pre-workout, my workout will be s@#$...not true, more on that in a sec), and tired of it blowing out my a@#$%& (sorry if that's TMI).

I never even knew what pre-workout was until a few years ago. Once I started taking it, I loved the rush I would get as I started my workout. You felt like you could run through a wall. But if I'm being honest with myself, over time I felt the positive effects less and less. Different brands boast of giving you that energy boost without "crashing" as the pre-workout leaves your system. Well, from my experience, the only ones that make you feel anything all have that crash effect, and the little boost you get doesn't last that long...maybe for the 1st 5-10 minutes of your workout (which would probably equate to 3-4 sets of something, depending on what you're doing). The ones that advertise as having figured out the no post-pre-workout crash thing don't make me feel anything at all. I'm sure other people have different experiences, but that's my 2 cents, kid.

Now, for most workouts you're probably doing the toughest, most strenuous exercise right off the bat anyway because that's when you are least fatigued, so maybe that works out...but it sucks to feel like the hulk for 10 minutes of your training session and then want to take a nap.

I had this thought of quitting pre-workout a few months back when I had read an article about this trend happening where professional basketball players were drinking coffee prior to games. The reasoning: the caffeine from coffee was more effective than expensive sports drinks, pre-workouts, or other supplements at giving them a sustained energy boost throughout a 2-3 hour game without the drawbacks of crashing afterwards or being so amped that they couldn't fall back asleep when they went back to their hotels post-game. Interesting, very interesting...if it was good enough for Dame Lillard, why was it not good enough to help me through leg day?

A few weeks later my brother-in-law was staying with us for a few days when he was in town on business. He was waking up before work at the a@#-crack of dawn, drinking black coffee on an empty stomach, and hitting the gym. (I should also mention that he's built like an action figure and is one of the people that 1st put me on to pre-workout.) What gives? I'd seen this man consume double or triple scoops of pre-workout prior the gym before, and now he was skipping it completely for regular ol' black coffee?!? Apparently, he had some of the same thoughts as I had (not aware of the basketball player thing though), and was pre-workout-free for several months.

[Sidenote: This continues a trend dating back years where if I think of doing something from a training or diet perspective, I undoubtedly find out that Mike started doing it already...thus of course making me look like a copycat poser once I start doing it, even though I independently thought of it...just a step too late. But that's why I look the before picture and he looks like the after picture for a HGH ad or something!]

And guess what? I've been doing the coffee thing for a few weeks now, and I love it. 1st of all, I just like coffee. I like the taste of it. I like a nice, hot beverage...makes me feel warm and tingly inside. I don't feel like I'm going to bounce off the walls with it, but I don't feel like I need a nap when it wears off. And it works just fine (set a squat PR last week after drinking coffee). The stigma in my head about not drinking pre-workout is over. Unless anyone wants it, my pre-workout might be headed for the trash.

And this has got me wondering about some of the other expensive powders sitting on my shelf like protein and creatine. I'm still using them, but I've noticed myself reaching for them less and less over time. You can see it right in my Vitamin Shoppe order history, as I've slowly went from re-stocking it ever 3 months to every 6 months to every 8 months to whatever. How much is the protein really helping me? Can't I just eat more eggs, more steak, more chicken? (Nodding head furiously as I type this, yes, yes, yes...)

I think that puts a wrap on this post. My original thought was to just add a quick line or 2 about pre-workout vs. coffee, and talk more about how I think I'm going to put strength training (specifically heavy squats) on the shelf for now, but I let the keyboard get away from me on this one, as this turned into a full-blown pre-workout rant. Until next time, kids...

Training Update: GVT, Madcow 5x5, and Pre-Workout vs. Coffee

1. So, a few weeks back I officially wrapped up my 1st foray into German Volume Training. According to my handy-dandy GVT spreadsheet, I did 14 5-day cycles that spanned 10 weeks. My overall assessment: I enjoyed it (especially in the beginning), but I'm not sure I reaped the full benefits of it. This is not me blaming the program or saying the program doesn't work. It's possible that I didn't follow it as closely as I thought I was in the moment (tempo, form, etc.). The 1st few weeks are killer, and I loved it. It felt like my chest and arms were going to explode out of my shirt, and my legs would shake and cramp up. As it went along though, either my body adjusted to the routines, or I subconsciously just wasn't focusing up as hard on the tempo (or maybe I wasn't going heavy enough). I would love to give it another shot in a few months (maybe revising my personal routine though a little). The other problem is that it is a hypertrophy program, and I admittedly did a s@$% job of tracking my progress. Strength programs are easy to track. Weight go up = good! But I didn't take any before/after pictures, didn't take any body measurements (arms, chest, quads, etc.). It looks like I gained 2 lb. from start to finish, but weight alone is not usually a good statistical measurement for such things. So, either I gained 2 lb. of muscle, or my diet and cardio haven't been as great over the last 10 weeks.
2.  The end of GVT led into my next challenge: Madcow 5x5. Madcow is basically a progression of StrongLifts 5x5. It's a progressive strength program like StrongLifts with some differences: it's more bench/row focused than deadlift/press, the weights only go up weekly instead of per workout, and your weights jump up from set-to-set instead of doing the same weight every set for a particular workout (among a couple of other differences). 2 weeks in, I really like the program...although you are scheduled to hit your previous max weights pretty early on, which scares me. Just like Joel Embid would say though, trust the process.
3. Lastly, I'm contemplating dropping pre-workout for just straight-up coffee. I was thinking about it a few months ago, and then I read an article that many pro basketball players have adopted coffee is a pre-game beverage (over energy drinks and other supps). And then I was talking to my warrior-machine brother-in-law, who independently made the switch to coffee not that long ago (he somehow is always like telepathically 1 step ahead of me). I don't know. Just hate having to buy it, feel like I could get a lot of the same benefit from good ol' coffee, and I already drink it anyway. Plus, I wonder sometimes if the pre-workout is effing up my stomach on some days...more on that later.

German Volume Training: Two-Thirds Assessment

In my last post on here about a month and a half ago, I had signaled that I was ready for a change. StrongLifts 5x5 had served me very well for 2 separate multi-month programs, but it had gotten a little stale and monotonous, and I had started to plateau across all 5 lifts as well...but I didn't want to go back to just hodge-podging together random arm days, chest days, leg days, etc. I have come to love "programmatic" style training, where every exercise, set, and rep is laid out ahead of time. No I wonder what I'm lifting today as I walk into the gym, no making up routines as I go...programs take out the guesswork, they make you more accountable, and, not shockingly, they work.

After 6 months straight of basically lifting heavy (for me at least), I needed something different. Enter "German Volume Training." GVT is a well documented method (go ahead and do a quick Google search) for packing on muscle quickly. If I had to characterize it, it's based on (at least initially) 10 sets of 10 reps for each exercise, but you are using lighter weights and a very slow tempo (4020 for most exercises).

After the 1st week of doing this, I thought I was going to die. After the chest/back workout, I thought my chest was going to explode. I couldn't walk without limping for days after the leg/abs day. Initially, I could see why this method seemed so tried and true. But 8 cycles deep through a 12 cycle program (GVT is based on 12 5-day cycles of chest/back day, legs/abs day, rest, arms/shoulders day, rest), I'm finding myself ready to be done and try my hand at Madcow or some other strength program where I can throw around some heavier weights (and it's not because it's too hard).

My main problem with GVT is that things aren't laid out quite as strictly as StrongLifts or Madcow. I researched 3 different bodybuilding sites, and I got a slightly different workout routine from all 3. The basic principles were the same (10x10, 4020 tempo, 12 5-day cycles), but for example for chest/back day some routines had you doing lat pulldowns, some had you doing dumbbell rows, some had you doing bentover (barbell) rows, etc. This is a positive in that not everyone has access to all types of equipment (I don't have a lat pulldown at my house), and you can kind of build your own program, but it leaves you wondering if you are truly maximizing your workouts. Also, all these other programs I've done calculate how much weight you should be lifting for each exercise down to the pound. GVT is a little more loosey-goosey (start with a weight about 60% of your 1RM or a weight you can do about 20 reps with).

So with all that being said, I'm skeptical that GVT is working for me. The workouts have gotten easier even with the weight slightly increasing over time, and while I never took any before pictures or measurements, my overall body weight has stayed the same, and I don't notice any huge differences looking in the mirror. Maybe my body has just adjusted to the routines after the initial shock. Maybe my form and tempo have not been as strict (even though I think they have been pretty ok). Maybe I just miss lifting heavy. Maybe I just feel blah simply because I'm right in the middle of the 3 cycle de-loading period before it's supposed to get pretty tough again for the final 3 cycles, and the de-loading feels too easy. Nevertheless, it's been a good change of pace and a different style of lifting than what I've been doing, so I with all my gripes I'd recommend GVT on that basis alone. Another update to come when I wrap the whole thing up.

Time for a Change

As I've detailed in my last few (although infrequent posts), there are a lot of great benefits to following a training program vs. just winging it in the gym. However, all training programs have their limits. When you've reached that limit for a particular program and the gains (whether in strength, size, speed, whatever) stop coming even though you're putting in the work, it may be time to put that program to bed. Doesn't mean that program isn't any good. It just means your body has adapted, and it's time to graduate to something a little more advanced (or totally different altogether).

After wrapping my 1st 12 week Stronglifts 5x5 sesh back in August, I decided to revisit the program after a few months off. As I detailed back then, I had started to reach my proverbial "limit." I had made some decent progress, especially in increasing my squat numbers, but I was just about tapped out across the board in terms of increasing the weight of all 5 lifts. I thought I could have kept going another 5-10 lb. with my squat, but what I think was a very slight groin strain was barking at me the last couple weeks of that program, and I didn't want to push it to where I was really hurt.

I let the groin calm down for a couple months, and restarted Stronglifts from scratch. Fast-forward 15 weeks into this 2nd Stronglifts go-round, and I'm 3 workouts away from besting my previous successful 5x5 max squat. My legs feel good (knocking on wood), but the reality is that regardless of the outcome this will be my last week of Stronglifts for the foreseeable future. 3 more successful workouts, and I'll at least be able to hang my hat on setting a new PR for squats.

However, it's time to do something a little different...possibly more of a hypertrophy program instead of another strength program. One of the great things I've found about strength programs like Stronglifts is that you never really experience intense soreness after a workout (like not being able to walk without a limp for a week after an intense leg day), but you just feel a general body-tiredness most of the time. And by the time you near the end of a program when it starts to get heavy, 3 compound movements a day will leave you drained. When the time comes to go back to more of a strength-oriented program, I think I've graduated from Stronglifts (more of a beginner to program) to something more intermediate (Madcow 5x5 has drawn my attention). So, happy trails to Stronglifts. For 27 weeks (off and on), you served me well!

B-Bench All-Star?

Because it seems as though my last 3 posts have been about benching, I was trying to think of what I would rename my exclusively all bench press all the time blog. I'm just a sort of in-shape, sort of better than average strong dude...not the massively swole ex-football players over on the tier 1 bench who have 3 or 4 plates per side of the bar. No, I wouldn't be able to move the bar an inch off my chest if I was lifting with them. But I'm not at the bench with the skinny wannabes with the cut-off Affliciton tees and dopey lifting gloves struggling to use good form and a full range of motion with anything other than a plate on each side either. I'm at the bench in between: the B-Bench. I'm a B-Bench All-Star.

Ok, let's just stick with B-Court All-Star. Flows better, and seems to be applicable to all areas of my life anyway.

I've hit on why I've obsessed with my bench numbers and working out chest all these years, but to reiterate, I've always been no-chest guy. I was always on the skinnier side anyway, but at the same time I thought I had decent shoulder, arm, and upper back strength/definition for a guy my size. Chest? Big Bench? No go. Plus, while it's widely known that true strong guys probably worry more about squatting than benching (never skip leg day, bro), nothing looks more badass in the gym than a guy loading multiple plates per side of the bar on the bench press, and pumping out 8-12 reps.

To bring this back around to me, I never really had a goal for a 1 rep max bench number in mind...I just want to keep getting stronger and improve the number little by little. But a pie in the sky goal I've always had is to actually do a working set of 225 lb. Why 225 lb.? I mean, that just always seems to be the standard by which people are judged. 2 plates per side just seems like such a neat and tidy amount. At what weight are prospects compared on the bench at the NFL combine? 225 lb.

What do I mean by a working set? A working set means different things, but in this case I just mean a set of more than 2 reps...so, even 3 would be a working set. Anything less than 3 kind of seems like you're pretty close to working with your 1 rep max. Really, my lifetime goal would be to do a set of 8 reps of 225 lb. Again, a set of 8 just seems like a normal working set you would do for any ol' exercise.

Whenever I have tried to do an as many reps as possible set of 225 lb. over the past year, I've always got stuck on 2 reps. It's not just that I've gotten stuck on 2, it's that those 2 reps have actually felt pretty easy. I get the 2nd rep up no problem! And then on the 3rd rep attempt, it always felt like someone came and sat down on my bar mid-lift. I have even been able to do a 2nd or 3rd set of 2 reps of 225 with relatively no rest in between (1:00-1:30 rest) pretty easily, but 3 reps was always out of the question.

Well, yesterday I finally got it...and again...and again. 3 sets of 3 reps of 225 lb. (with 4:00 rests in between sets). On the 1st 2 sets, I even positioned the bench shittily so that I was banging the bar against the hooks on bottom of the rack on the way up on the 3rd rep...no matter. I powered through it and locked out those reps anyway (no big deal). There have only been a couple times I've been more hyped with myself after a lift (the 1st time I ever benched 225 lb. maybe, as I thought I'd never even get there).

Anyway, if anyone ever reads this, this isn't bragging. Obviously, there are guys with lifting numbers that would make me look silly. Just using this blog as my own personal therapist and collecting the ramblings of a guy in his mid-30's doing things he never thought he could.

Update: 1 Success and 1 Failure

It's been about a month and a half since my last post, at which time my lower body was feeling pretty beat up, but my upper body was feeling strong. So much so that I could feel a new 1 rep max on the bench on the horizon (and normally there's nothing I feel less confident in than my bench). And about 4 days after I wrote that, taadaa! I joined the 245 lb. club. Kiddy weights for serious lifters, but for a skinny jabroni like me who seemed to be stuck on a decade long plateau of 225 lb., no small feat.

So, how did I add 20 lb. to my bench in almost exactly a year? StrongLifts 5x5 was a big reason for my most recent gains, but it started with a more bench press focused program I found last year called the Six Week Bench Press Solution. This was the lifting program that 1st got me hooked on parametric strength building programs like StrongLifts. Based on your previous 1 rep max, calculate your working sets throughout the program, complete the program, test/set your new 1 rep max. It sounds so simple, right? So simple that I ran through it a 2nd time last year just a few weeks after completing it the 1st time...and it worked again. Wash, rinse, repeat. So amazed was I that I wondered how many times I could complete this program and improve my max before tapping out.

Well, it turns out the 3rd time wasn't a charm. My attempt at 250 lb. a couple of weeks ago failed spectacularly! In hindsight, there were a couple of things working against me. 1st, I had just beat my 1 rep max prior to starting this program over again. It's not like I had been stuck on a plateau and needed help getting over some hump. Any strength building program is going to have its limits. Otherwise, everyone could just do StrongLifts or Smolov or any of a number of different things, and our strength and personal bests would just keep rising and rising to infinity, right? (That would be an odd universe where everyone could bench 700 lb. and squat 1,000 lb.) Also, one of the main reasons I went back to this program was because I was taking a break from StronLifts, and admittedly I didn't really want to go back to just having an arm day, back day, chest day, etc. and sort of mindlessly going about some made up routine. I now love having a piece of paper or app or chart tell me what I have to accomplish on a specific day with all the guess-work taken out. I guess in that sense it's good to take a break from these programs to make your brain build your own routines again.

Also-also, this was intended to be a 6 week program (hence the title...duh) with 2 chest days per week. Because I was bored and taking a break from StrongLifts, squats in general, and deadlifts in general, that left a lot of time to fill. Let's just say I finished a 6 week program in 4 and a half weeks...probably not the rest and recovery time that was intended for success. And finally, the program was updated since the 1st couple of times I went through it. It was edited to include some incline bench work as well. At 1st, I loved this idea just for the pure sake of changing things up from what I had previously done (and I always felt I was neglecting my incline work in this program before). But whereas the original program was spelled-out in a way that was crystal clear, the inclusion of the incline work left some ambiguity in the program, and things weren't clarified as well as they could have been. (Ok, so 5 sets of 3 reps of incline bench press at 85% of my 1 rep max...my 1 rep max on flat bench? Incline?) Throughout the program, I assumed it meant the % of my 1 rep max for flat bench, but do it on the incline. This made for some not-so-productive (albeit very difficult) sets. I should probably follow up with the author for clarification if I'm being honest. In the end, for the 1st time I didn't see any gains at the conclusion of the program.

Still, I'd recommend the Six Week Bench Press Solution to anyone who is looking to get a bigger bench. The original program increased my bench 10 lb. in 6 months...when doing my own thing increased my bench 5 lb. in 3 years. I think I will tuck it away for a bit and try some other stuff for a while, but I could see myself going back to it when I get stuck in a rut. Hopefully, I'll be able to be more disciplined with my recovery time, and not rush things. In the mean time, I'm going to go back to StrongLifts for a 2nd round. I'm starting basically back at ground zero in terns of weight, so it will be at least 8 weeks or so before I start to approach the heavier weights I ended up at last time. Adios.

End of the Road (Part Deux)

So, my last post on here I basically detailed that I was putting a wrap on my StrongLifts 5x5 routine (for now). I actually continued doing 5x5's for just deadlifting and benching for another week and a half or so, but I decided to pull the plug on the deadlift portion for now too because...well, I'm really tired of my groin and hip hurting, and it only makes sense that squats and deadlifts aggravate it. So, what started as the full 5 exercise program is down to 1: bench press. This is ok because I'm still progressing there without injuring myself. I accept the little groin/hip tweak as part of the deal when you get into a strength-building routine. You're trying to push yourself to get stronger. You're approaching your physical limits and boundaries. When the weights get heavy, your form breaks down and gets sloppier. Obviously, you want to practice as good of form as possible all the time, but that's just kind of what happens. I once heard or read the phrase it wouldn't be your max if it wasn't ugly.

But all that sort of segways into what I really wanted to get into, which is to go off onto a little tangent about my bench press progression. As I mentioned before, part of why I started this blog back up is to get stuff off my mind that I can't really bounce off of anyone else. When I tried telling my wife that I was excited that I was able to complete 5 sets of 5 at 210 lb. with only 2-3 minutes rest between sets, her response was is that good? She wanted to listen. She tried. She gets an A for effort. But she doesn't have much of frame of reference for what is heavy for me.

Additionally, she's not a numbers nerd/stat geek like me. I get more excited tracking her running or lifting stats than she does. She goes more off feel. (She felt good running, or feels stronger lifting heavier, etc.) I'm data driven. I want to see the numbers. I started keeping a notebook of what I lifted 6-8 years ago, which eventually progressed into an app on my phone that tracks everything. I didn't know what I was doing and wasn't progressing how I wanted, but, hey, I was tracking it!

So, when I can lift 5 more pounds, do 1 more rep, or 1 more set, it's a big deal to me. Especially on the bench. I suffer from this condition...I think it's called nochestitis. It's a common problem in men that can't bench worth a damn. I recognize that everyone's bodies and genetics are slightly different. That's not to make excuses for myself, but some people can do cardio and planks until the cows come home and will never have abs...while others can eat a full pizza a day and have an 8 pack. I barely do shoulders anymore, but I think I will always have decent shoulder definition for a guy my size. But I will always have to fight and claw for every pound more I can bench or millimeter added of chest size. That's nochestitis for ya.

That's how my 1 rep max has progressed over the last 4 years or so. Not much to see for 3 years, but this past year has been productive. And I feel like another data point at 245 lb. should be near on the horizon. Now, that probably seems pathetic to a lot of people, but that's huge for me. There's a 3 year stretch in there where my bench stayed completely stagnant. My next 5x5 bench routine is scheduled to progress to 215 lb. I've never done a set of 5 reps of 215 in my life, but based on yesterday I may not have 5 sets of 5, but I know I can bang out 1-2 sets at that weight. That's huge for nochestitis Patient Zero over here.