I’m Mike - an Occupational Therapist in North Texas.
27, Male, 6 ft, 253.7 (as of this morning)
Started lifting in Nov of last year and ran through the linear progression but my deadlift never really got anywhere (started at 225, felt like I didn’t need chalk or wrist straps I’d just eventually get stronger). Got my squat up to 435 for 3 then gave in bought chalk and some wrist wraps and really focused on pulling too much the last 3 months but got my deadlift up to 415.
Last week was a deload for me to recover and this week I’m working on a H-L-M split to give that a try for the next 8 weeks. I also decided I’d post on here to try and keep track of progress.
I’m working on being more competitive in Judo - would do much better in the 100kg category someday - so I’m slowly working my way down (from 265) to that by eating an occasional vegetable that’s not baked into a slice of pizza and tracking calories and just getting as strong as I can without hurting myself in the process.
Best lifts are:
Squat - 435x3
Deadlift - 405x5
Press - 200x1
Bench press - 235x5 (Stopped doing these in favor of increased Press frequency after SS, so it’ll be the first time I’m doing these again since March).
Power Clean - 195x2
Overhead Press
135, 145, 1x5
155 - 3x3 - Planned to go up higher, but couldn’t get 5 in warm up so I stayed here. Working on keeping elbows in front of the bar at the bottom and reducing the moment arm at the wrist
Clean and Jerk -
135 - 4x1 - Not what I planned for these, probably still frustrated with trying to fix my press and gave up on these. Could have used some more volume and intensity.
Yesterday -
Walked (fasted) 35 min first thing in the morning.
Couldn’t make it to Judo yesterday.
Just in the interest of data (and because I have access to a hand dynamometer) I measured grip strength today - L - 120#, R - 145#.
Will be interested to track this as my Deadlift gets higher and I work on pulling more without straps.
10/16
Fasted 30 min walk with coffee- down to 251.9 this morning.
TIL @work - if you just move an ultrasound head faster it’s the same as using pulsed ultrasound. (It’s not, but that’s what an educated therapist said)
Squat
225, 315- 1x5 405 1x3
430 3x5
Bench Press
45, 135, 185 - 1x5
225 x2 - I’ll advised large jump, went back to a more reasonable jump
210 2x5
Deadlift
225, 315 1x5 405x1
430x3, +1 (Form broke down on the last one, decided to reset got one more and form was still terrible so I didn’t try for a fifth.)
Bench Press
45, 135, 185- 1x5
215 - 1x4, 1x3
135 - 1x5 - focus on hip drive
Deadlift
225, 315 - 1x5
435 - 2x1
Planning to move my heavy deadlift to wednesday and potentially drop the weight slightly to try to get more than 2 or 3 without feeling like I’m going to puke.
10/25 -
Still tired, just wanted to do something, needed to make sure I didn’t miss my pressing (i’m borderline too low on my press volume)
Overhead press - 45, 85, 105 - 1x5, 135,3x5
11/1
Deadlift - 225, 315 - 1x5, 425 - 1, failed to break the bar off the ground the next four times. Not sure if this was a mental block or what but I felt like it was giving my all.