Here's my Korte

[Jim Ouini]

I think so. Slept about 10hrs last night and this morning feeling a little achey. No pain, just movig a little slow.

On my deads I really tried to keep an arch in my lower back since I was pretty tired by the time I got around to them and didn't want any surprises. Consequently it's feeling pretty tight today.

 

[Jim Ouini]

Week 4 Day 1

Felt pretty good after a weekend of rest. Bought a topical anti-inflammatory from a snake oil salesman, literally. This stuff has some venom in it - I tried it on my knee and it felt pretty good, not that it hurt to begin with, but still, I figure you can't go wrong with cobra venom

Squat
Bar x 2 x 5
135 x 2 x 3
185 x 1
205 x 4 x 5, 210 x 3 x 5

Stuck with the same weight as last friday for first 3 sets, kind of wanted to gauge where I was. Oh and I don't want to get too big 210 prety easy, actually. I probably will go up to 215 on Wed and 225 on Fri, I think.

Bench
Bar x5 3 x 5 (W-S-N)
135 x 3 x 3 (W-S-N)
195 x 3 x 6 (N-S-W)
200 x 4 x 6 (N-S-W-N)

Felt easier than last Fri. Maybe it's being back at my old gym and all the test in the air ...200 was OK, even on narrow grip.

Dead
Bar x 10 (RDL)
135 x 3
225 x 1
315 x 1
335 x 3 x 5
345 x 3 x 5

Really hit the wall around the 3rd set at 335. Being the trooper that I am, I figured the extra 10 to 345 wouldn't really be noticeable and I was right, it was more just getting through the sets again.

Overall, a decent start to the final week of loading.

 

[Jim Ouini]

Week 4 Day 2

A little on the sluggish side today, not feeling springtime fresh but that's to be expected I suppose.

Squat
Bar x 2 x 5
135 x 2 x 3
185 x 1
215 x 7 x 5 (+5)

First set felt kinda heavy to be honest. But I got warmed up and in the groove and did them without too much trouble. A guy I know came up during my last set and said 'dude if you didn't go down so low you'd get 400 for sure'

Bench
Bar x5 3 x 5 (W-S-N)
135 x 3 x 3 (W-S-N)
205 x 7 x 6 (N-S-W-N-S-W-N) (+5)

Surprisingly not too hard. I think the most I ever used to close grip was 205 and I used to struggle. Plus since I jumped right from 135 to work set I wasn't sure what to expect even though I was at 200 on Monday.


Dead
Bar x 10 (RDL)
135 x 3
225 x 1
315 x 1
345 x 3 x 5
355 x 3 x 5 (+10)

Knackered. I damn well better pupate next week Really not too bad until the 3rd set on, not because of the additional weight but I was just getting so tired. It always seems to happen right about here. Last 2 sets I really slowed down and went through some check points in my head between reps, didn't want to get sloppy and risk any injury.

One more workout I will probably go up on squats to 220-225, bench to 210 and dead I may stay at 355, maybe a set or two at 365.

 

[blut wump]

Looks excellent and, if I'm not mistaken, you're showing signs of having gained strength. Just one more to go and I seem to recall that the last one for me didn't really feel any worse than the penultimate one. How long are the workouts taking now?

What's that 'Wl' on the 6th bench set?

I had someone badger me in the gym yesterday. He's a massive guy but, due to an accident, can't work legs. He asked whether I ever did anything besides squats because everytime he comes in, he sees me in the squat rack. I told him of the other exercises I do and he said I'm wasting my time. Those exercises are ok if you want to get big but if you want to get strong you have to use machines. I should drop standing OHP and use the Smith machine. Pushpress is just another cheating move. Oly lifters are a waste of space since they spend so much time with their feet off the floor. Why would I want to row with a barbell when there's a perfectly good machine over there? You can't apply your strength without a good, firm position to work from and that typically means using machines.

 

[Jim Ouini]

Thanks for the encouragement B-dub, much appreciated. I will certainly let out a sigh of relief after Friday's festivities. I was just glancing at your Korte log and had to laugh at one of your Week 4 comments, something to the effect of 'I don't think of what's ahead; just focus on one set at a time'...that's exactly what's going through my head.

Anyway, the workouts are taking about 2hrs, quite a long time - I catch two waves of the gym crowd. I seem to move along at a pretty good clip on squats and bench and then slow down significantly during deads.

What's that 'Wl' on the 6th bench set?

Typo Fixed it.

I had someone badger me in the gym yesterday. He's a massive guy but, due to an accident, can't work legs. He asked whether I ever did anything besides squats because everytime he comes in, he sees me in the squat rack. I told him of the other exercises I do and he said I'm wasting my time. Those exercises are ok if you want to get big but if you want to get strong you have to use machines. I should drop standing OHP and use the Smith machine. Pushpress is just another cheating move. Oly lifters are a waste of space since they spend so much time with their feet off the floor. Why would I want to row with a barbell when there's a perfectly good machine over there? You can't apply your strength without a good, firm position to work from and that typically means using machines.

He can't be bigger than you. That would make him, well, one of the biggest guys in the world.

Luckily, I've never had anyone try to sway me to the other side of the gym - some people do ask me why I'm always squatting and when I tell them my routine they say something like 'oh really' or 'that's interesting'. Translation: 'You're overtraining, you damn fool'

 

[anotherbutters]

He can't be bigger than you. That would make him, well, one of the biggest guys in the world.

And using machines. There's no justice in the world is there?

 

[Jim Ouini]

Week 4 Day 3

Really dragging today. Didn't eat my usual stuff this morning because the wife had us running around doing stuff. I wasn't all that hungry anyway. Yesterday I had some sharp pain in my knees for some reason, although today they felt much better. Anyway:

Squat
Bar x 2 x 5
135 x 2 x 3
185 x 1
220 x 4 x 5 (+5)
225 x 3 x 5 (+5)

Approached each set very gingerly, finally got warmed up and everything felt just fine, no pain in either knee. Very strange. Weights felt OK, challenging but I was thinking it felt about right for ~65-70% intensity.

Bench
Bar x5 3 x 5 (W-S-N)
135 x 3 x 3 (W-S-N)
205 x 3 x 6 (N-S-W)
210 x 4 x 6 (N-S-W-N) (+5)

Narrow grip had a hitch, otherwise no problem, just kinda tired and beat down

Dead
Bar x 10 (RDL)
135 x 3
225 x 1
315 x 1
355 x 6 x 5 (no change)

Well these were a challenge. After the first set, I had to talk myself through each of the subsequent sets, and how terrible I'd feel if I quit 3 sets short of completing the prep phase, lol. After the 4th set I think I saw Jessica Alba. Suffice it to say I was absolutely knackered, and on the 5th rep of sets 5 and 6 I paused with the bar on the floor for a couple seconds and went through each of my check points - get air in the belly. push off my heels. butt down. chest up. don't throw up.

Had a thought to go up to 365, glad I didn't

Overall: Whew! Not to be so dramatic but I'm glad this phase is done. I'd say it's harder than 5 x 5, all the sets and deadlifting last is killer. R&R this weekend, and will ponder 60% weights and such for next few weeks.

 

[blut wump]

Congratulations, Jim. I know how you feel.

I was just looking at your initial projections: 202, 189, 320 from targets of 315, 295, 500. Sticking with the same targets, you've gone to 71% (225) in squat, 71% (210) in bench, 71% (355) on deadlift. Now isn't that interesting? I'll have to go take another look at mine.

I ended up on 76%, 71%, 73% which doesn't really surprise me since I'd felt I'd gotten a lot stronger in squats than the other two. What are your thoughts on this? I'd never thought to look at the final percentages before. I'm quite amazed at your flat 71% figures. Given that I ended up on the same ballpark figures there must be some significance there.

It also probably indicates that the extra difficulty you've been feeling in deadlifts over the other two lifts has just been down to fatigue and running out of steam rather than their actually being any harder for you and that's just a matter of conditioning. I know you won't feel it now but you'll soon be realising that your conditioning will have gone up from this Herculean effort.

 

[blut wump]

Since I'm here, I'll chip in on my thought on the 60% weights. My thought is not to change them too much if at all. Your first priority now is to deload. I think mine were too high and I wasn't deloaded by the middle of the second week. I'd suggest you defer raising them until later.

I was also thinking about what I'd do differently if I were back at the start of week5 regarding the heavy lifts. I think it'd make more sense to stretch to exploring any new-found strength by adding a week9 rather than doing what I did. Then again there may be some middle ground of a milder adjustment and still going to a ninth week if your strength has grown by a lot more than the standard Korte expectations.

 

[Jim Ouini]

Thanks BW. It's quite a relief.

Yeah I hadn't thought to calculate the new %'s...from my observations on my squat I figured it was around 70%, but had no idea it'd be a flat 71% - I certainly didn't plan any of the increases, just what I felt were reasonable uppages.

I ended up on 76%, 71%, 73% which doesn't really surprise me since I'd felt I'd gotten a lot stronger in squats than the other two. What are your thoughts on this?

I didn't really feel like I got much stronger on any of the lifts - thinking of my initial targets I think they're still going to be tough to get, right now I don't plan on changing these.

Dead especially seems like it's a reach, to be honest 405 sounds really really heavy right now

Since I'm here, I'll chip in on my thought on the 60% weights. My thought is not to change them too much if at all. Your first priority now is to deload. I think mine were too high and I wasn't deloaded by the middle of the second week. I'd suggest you defer raising them until later.

Indeed. Good advice, just go back to Week 2 weights that I used.

I was also thinking about what I'd do differently if I were back at the start of week5 regarding the heavy lifts. I think it'd make more sense to stretch to exploring any new-found strength by adding a week9 rather than doing what I did. Then again there may be some middle ground of a milder adjustment and still going to a ninth week if your strength has grown by a lot more than the standard Korte expectations

Well right now I plan on using original 80-85-90-95% weights for my 1-2 x 1 sets instead of making any adjustments. And then if I'm feeling strong maybe extend a week like you said.