Phase 3 Day 45

Conditioning

1.  Prowler (90 lbs)
80-100 yds x 7 runs

2.  Random kettlebell stuff

Notes
About 20 minutes before I left for the park, I noticed it was raining.  When I actually left, I checked my phone and didn't see any messages.  So I drove to the park as the rain picked up and saw both my training partners already parked.

I drove up, rolled the windows down, as they did the same, and announced, "This blows."

Everyone nodded in agreement and got out of their cars.

When the pavement is wet at the park, the sled feels twice as heavy as usual.  We already knew this though because its been a shit ass spring.  Just terrible weather.

The session ended up being moderate.  It was a long training week, and the entire semester has been pretty intense without deloads.  I need a down week soon - probably next week.

Phase 3 Day 44

50/20

1a. Bench
250x8; 250x6; 250x6; 250x5; 250x4; 250x3; 250x3; 250x4; 250x2; 250x1 (42 reps +1)

1b. Chins
4; 4; 3; 3; 4; 3; 3; 3; 2; 1

2. Bent Rows
135x8; 135x8; 135x8

3. Farmers Walks
3 sets w/ 125 per side
1 set w/ 85 single arm
1 set w/ 85 double arm

4.  Poundstone Curls
65(+5)

Notes
Solid Friday workout.  Busy, slightly stressful day, but started to feel better when I was lifting.

I'm waiting for my "breakthrough" bench day with the 50/20.  I've been progressing pretty rapidly with squats, but the bench has been somewhat of a grind.  Part of the problem is supersets with chins.  Obviously these chin reps are really low, but we have three guys for the 50/20 sessions.  We still manage to get 9-10 bench and 9-10 chin sets in. That means 3 guys are getting 50-60 sets total in the same 20 minutes.  Its constant movement with the spots, weight changes, benching, going to the chin racks, etc.  Literally constant. So, maybe I'll talk to them and see how they feel about just going straight bench next week.  Its starting to feel a little frantic.

Bent rows felt therapeautic.  Now that I understand body positioning, going light in a neutral position just feels amazing on my scapula.  For whatever reason, the mind muscle connection on bent barbell rows is even better than cable row.

Went too heavy on the farmers walks.  Farmers walks with heavy dumbbells is just shitty.  I'm constantly thinking how much better it would be with regular farmers bars.

Phase 3 Day 44

Squat
315x1; 315x2; 315x2; 315x2; 315x1....walked out

Notes
I contemplated whether to even log this workout, but its important to log both your highs and lows.  I had zero desire to lift yesterday.  My warm-ups sucked, I felt tight all over, and my hip was bothering me (because of poor warm-up). I told myself to just get under the bar    and do  couple sets.  Tried it. It didn't work.  Part of the problem was I had a big closing statement that night at 6 and I was trying to squeeze this session in.  So I was worried about that, and just thinking, why the fuck am I even lifting right now... No part of me wants to do this.

So, I just unracked the weights and went home.  Didn't feel bad about it one bit.  I do this because its enjoyable.  If I'm just in a basic training phase, why do something I don't want to do.  I'm past the point of needing to prove shit to myself. I'm going to be training a ton regardless.

Phase 3 Day 43

Conditioning

Sled (90lb of weight)

30 runs x 60 yards.
-51 minutes
-780 calories burned
-144 avg HR
-167 max HR

Kettlebell (20kg)

3 rounds: Windmills and Snatches
-12 minutes
-Much higher heartrate
-200 calories burned

Notes
Distance wise, that is easily the furthest I've ever pushed the sled.   I'm fairly confident in the distance because I push the sled in a parking lot with spaces.  Measure one space and its easy to add up the rest. 60 yards x 30 runs = 1800 yards, or 5400 feet.  Just over a mile. And at the end of it all, I felt fine. I just felt like I had a nice, long, sustained training session.  Conditioning.

Around the 20th run I started to feel some euphoria.  The sun was setting, the temperature dropping, I felt solid as fuck. I love sweating in the cold.  And as the darkness set in, the park lamps came on, flooding the lot with a yellow hue.

For me, I experience the most personal growth during these types of sessions.  They build a different type of strength.  Its not about the weight.  There is no one out there to impress.  One might say its about self-affirmation, but its not.  Its just about doing it because thats what you do.

Phase 3 Day 42

50/20

1a. Bench
250x7; 250x5; 250x3; 250x6; 250x4; 250x3; 250x5; 250x4; 250x2; 250x2 (41 reps, +1)

1b. Chins
4; 4; 4; 4; 4; 3; 3; 3; 2; 1

2.  Cable Row
120x10; 120x10; 120x10; 120x10

3. Poundstone Curls
60 reps (+10)

4.  Russian Barbell Twists
70x8; 80x5; 90x3

Notes
Just a so-so session.  We started lifting at 11am because one of the guys had stuff at the end of the day.  I never really got into a great groove.  Maybe its because my nervous system wasn't primed for strength this early in the day blah blah, but really I just was in the mood for a punch-in, punch-out type session.

My abs are really sore from the ab wheel yesterday.  Even though I can only do a couple reps, I'm happy about this.  I worked up to 3x15 on the deadbugs, and now I can finally brace my core enough not to feel it in my lower back on the wheel.  Overall though my anterior core is pathetically weak.  Part of the issue with anterior pelvic tilt is elongated rectus abdominus.  I think the elongated part is what makes isolated rectus movements realy difficult for me.

Phase 3 Day 41

50/20

Squat
315x2; 315x3; 315x5; 315x2; 315x3; 315x5; 315x2; 315x3; 315x5; 315x2; 315x3 (35 reps, 19 minutes)

Deadlift
275x6; 275x6; 275x6

Ab Wheel
3; 3; 2

Some random ab stuff

Notes
Squats felt solid.  Per Gabe, I tried to initiate with a little more hip break.  I've been kind of intentionally knee-breaking so I don't fall into bad habits of excessive lumbar extension.  Today felt good.  Left the gym pain free.  Its pretty crazy, but I don't feel squatting in my hip joints at all anymore.

I utilized the 2-3-5 ladder progression.  It worked very well.  Much easier to do it this way rather than just hitting max reps each set and descending all the way down.  I felt relatively relaxed using this method.  There was no pressure, and no need to blow my guts out.  I'm going to utilize ladders from here on out for 50/20.

Phase 3 Day 40

Conditioning

Part A: Sled Pushes (90 lbs)

50 yards runs for 20 minutes

Part B: Kettlebell Work (w/ 20kg)

Windmills
5/5; 5/5

Press
5/5; 5/5; 5/5

Cleans
10/10; 8/8; 6/6; 4/4; 2/2

Snatches
Left: 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8; 9; 10
Right: 10; 9; 8; 7; 6; 5; 4; 3; 2; 1

Part C: Hill runs
3 runs... and gassed

Total time: 1 hour 10 minutes
Avg HR: 127 bpm
Peak HR: 173
Calories: ~850

Phase 3 Day 39

Strength

1a. Bench (50/20)
250x5; 250x6; 250x5; 250x4; 250x4; 250x3; 250x3; 250x3; 250x2; 250x2 (37 reps, -2)

1b. DB Row (50/20)
80x5; 80x5; 80x5; 80x5; 80x5; 80x5; 80x5; 80x5; 80x5

2. Standing Press
135x2; 135x2; 135x2; 135x2

3a.  Facepulls
60x25; 60x25

4a.  Woodchops... whatever they are called
6/6; 6/6

Conditioning

1.  Hill Runs
20 minutes

2a.  Windmills
20kg x 3; 20kg x 3; 20kg x 3

2b. Swings
20kg x 25; 20kg x 25; 20kg x 25

33 minutes total

Notes
This was a long ass workout. I wore my heart monitor for it.  Of note:

• During the 20 minutes of 50/20, my average heart rate was 152. I burned 380 calories.
• During the 33 minutes of conditioning, my average heart rate was 147.  I burned ~500 calories.
• The grand total for both the strength and conditioning portions of the workout was around 1250 calories. (warm-ups and other portions of strength included)

50/20 was originally touted as a "do-it-all" lifting program.  Gets you in shape, adds size, increases strength.  I've definitely felt it getting me "in shape," and I've been on an energy systems kick lately, so thats why I wanted to wear the heart rate monitor. 

I'm going to do a 50/20 write up in a couple of weeks, but at this point I think it is a near perfect lifting methodology.  In all regards.  I'm keeping this short, but essentially it keeps you in a moderate aerobic zone for 20 minutes.  Take that 4x a week, and you get 80 minutes of aerobics.  Not a huge amount by any means, but that is plenty for someone trying to get into "lifting shape."

Phase 3 Day 38

Strength

1. Hang Snatch/Squat
30 minutes of work, lots of bar work and probably 25ish reps with 88 lbs.  Did some overhead squats too.

2. Backsquat
225x5; 275x3; 225x5. Video of last set.

3a. DB Snatch
75x5/5; 75x5/5; 75x5/5

3b.  Deadbugs
15; 15; 15

4. Poundstone curls
50 reps

Notes
I was insanely sore going into this workout.  This was 48 hours post the 50/20 of squats and 50/20 bench-chins on Tuesday.  Then lots of hill running and conditioning on Wednesday.  I can't remember the last time that literally every inch of my body was deeply sore like that lol. It took a while to warm-up.  Lots of tissue work on glutes and scapula.  Then it just took a bunch of movements with the bar to get my body into positions.

Once I got warmed up, everything felt good.  I firmly believe that the olympic movements are doing wonders for my mobility.  It took me a long time and a lot of work to be able to do these movements, but now that I can, I really feel like they are rapidly improving joint mobility/stability.  I'll also note that its important I understand neutral body positions.  That took months in and of itself.

I forced myself (and my friends) to do some back squatting because I'm tired of being so fucking sore from 1x a week squatting.

Phase 3 Day 37

Conditioning

Long Duration Intervals

1a.
Sled x 5 minutes
Sled x 5 minutes
sled x 5 minutes

1b.
Kettlebell x 5 minutes
Kettlebell x 5 minutes
Kettlebell x 5 minutes

Moderate-Sustained Intensity Hill Runs
20 minutes

Notes
I've been deep-diving into energy systems lately. I'm of the opinion that 95% of the general strength and conditioning crowd gives absolutely zero thought as to the structure of their conditioning.  I used to be one of those people, but I'm trying to rectify that.

My conditioning has basically consisted of going out and blasted my guts out with high threshold work. I've done that for years.  What has that accomplished?  Well, thats given me the VO2Max of a legit long distance runner... minus all of the actual aerobic capacity that goes along with it.   Essentially, my conditioning has been mimicking high-rep threshold sets in the gym.  Anaerobic work baby.  The lactic system.

By training this genre of energy systems, 10-60 seconds, I've developed the ability to perform very high rep (relatively speaking) high intensity sets.  Balls to the wall.  I guess thats cool and all, except that its mostly worthless when it comes to structured training program.  That kind of shit is hard to do consistently, and in my opinion, the actual stimulus achieved is negligible as compared to the demand placed on recovery.  Its like stuffing a canon with a cork and then lighting the fuse.  You get an awesome explosion, but then you are left with a fucked up canon you need to fix.

I'm writing for myself right now, and maybe I'll do an actual energy systems post later on (I still need to write about my V02Max testing), but what I'm saying is that the aerobic system is much easier to train.  And it is low hanging fruit. Relatively speaking, it is easy as fuck to develop the aerobic system to an intermediate level.  It just takes time and discipline.  The discipline being that you have to keep things moderate to actually train your heart in the right manner.

High intensity work (and weightlifting) thickens the walls of the left ventricle.  Thicker = stronger.  Weightlifting enables the heart to pump blood more forcefully.  That is great. But what if you widen the spicket and pump it faster?  Aerobic training widens the spicket.  It increases the space within the left ventricle.  More space = More blood = better chance of oxygen getting to muscle.

This shit is actually relative when it comes to weightlifting, but its time to go to bed.  Hint: GPP.  What I'm finally realizing is that GPP has absolutely nothing to do with 15 second sled sprints.

Phase 3 Day 36

50/20

1a. Bench
250x6; 250x6; 250x5; 250x5; 250x4; 250x4; 250x3; 250x3; 250x2; 250x1 (39 reps, +5)

1b. Chins
4; 4; 4; 4; 3; 3; 3; 3; 3 (31 reps)

2.  Squat
295x6; 295x6; 295x5; 295x5; 295x4 295x4; 295x3; 295x3; 295x3; 295x11 (50 reps)

Notes
This was a pretty exhausting session, but my work capacity is off the hook right now.  This was in a lot of lifting in essentially 40 minutes.  I was surprised with bench. I felt weak as hell warming up, but my stamina ended up pretty decent.

Squat felt very smooth, though I didnt feel as loose as last week.  We had a scheduling issue with one of the guys that trains with us, so we needed to do bench first.  My glute/left hip started cramping during bench.  I had to "re-warmup" a bit to get ready for squat.

I'm not sure what came over me on the last set, but I just said fuck it and kept repping.  On the one hand, I'm happy that I'll be moving up to 315.  On the other hand, I'm already really sore.  This is going to suck.

Recovery
Back in October, 2011, I outlined "JB's Ultimate Recovery Routine" after an intense night of flag football. Basically, I just threw a bunch of shit at the wall and hoped it would leave me less crippled the next day.   I noted the next day that my routine worked.  I wasn't sore, though I didn't have much in the tank for my next workout.

My legs were cramping on the ride home, so I decided to pull up the routine and do everything I could to help myself reduce soreness. The primary difference between the flag football and tonight's session is that flag football was basically just high impact sprinting, whereas tonight's session was intense back squatting.

This is what I did tonight:

• Intraworkout BCAA and all that fancy stuff I have
• Chocolate milk immediately post workout
• Very light foam rolling and stretching
• 10 grams fish oil
• 8 Ibuprofin tablets
• 5 minutes very hot bath (Epsom salts)
• 3 minutes ice bath
• 5 minutes very hot bath (Epsom salts)
• 3 minutes ice bath
• 1 lb roast, 1 lb potatoes
• Hot shower

Before I go to bed, I'll do some more light stretching and maybe soak in the warm tub again.  What I'm trying to do is reduce immediate swelling and inflammation (Ibrpofin, fish oil, epsom salts), fend off DOMS as best I can (contrast baths), and adequately feed myself for recovery.

I felt loose immediatey after the baths, but an hour later my legs are sore again.  Pretty sure I'm fucked.

Spring Break

Over spring break I went with my GF to her crossfit gym.  Even though I'm not into the crossfit culture, we still had a great time together.  I think it was a lot of fun for her to show me where she worked out every week.

The session was an actual Crossfit session that went like this:

Strength:
Hang Squat/Cleans
135x3x7

For time:
21/15/9 Ring Dips
21/15/9 Power cleans at 135.

This took me about 10 minutes.   The cleans were no problem, but the ring dips sucked.  21 ring dips requires major kipping.  I don't know how to kip, nor do I have any desire to learn.  Rings dips with normal straight form are hard as fuck.  I was basically doing triples.

The next day we went to a "Kettlebell Basics" class that was essentially an introduction to KB training. Even though we knew all the movements it was still good to work on stuff and get some pointers here and there. I also learned how to do the KB arm-bar, and picked up some great thoracic stretches.  All in, I probably did 150ish swings with the 70lb, which is a lot more than I would normally do.  We ended with a 6 minute tabata style metcon of swings and goblet squats.  Nothing crazy, but it was a nice little workout.

Opinion on Crossfit
The sessions really didn't change my opinion on crossfit one way or the other.  Generally, I think crossfit does more good than bad.  It gets people doing movements they would never do on their own.  It builds strength and conditioning to a level that is completely adequate for the normal population.  Most importantly though, people like it.  Everyone there was happy and in a great mood.

With that said, I saw plenty of stuff on display that the internet strength guruz would have a field day with: lots of small dudes, funny clothes, some poor form.  I called Matt and told him some shit that we laughed about. But the fact is, I don't really care if it makes people happy.  Who cares if the average person likes crossfit and feels like they get a lot out of it?

I do take extreme issue with Crossfit (R) corporate culture.  In general I think the HQ execs are childish imbeciles who peddle negligent ideas.  And I mean negligent in the traditional legal sense.  If I ever tore an achilles, along with 100s of other crossfitters doing box jumps, I would be considering a class action law suit.  LOL at the waiver I had to sign at the beginning of my first session.  Waivers don't stop lawsuits.

I will be completely honest here and say that I think one of the huge reasons so many of the "strong" guys hate crossfit is because they couldn't do 85% of the workouts with good time.    Some of the WOD's and movements are silly, but there is a large emphasis on aerobic capacity and true mobility.

My takeaway from my little crossfit adventure is that I would probably benefit from doing more shit I'm not comfortable with.  After the ring dips I felt like my shoulders were on fire and was worried I fucked something up.  Over the next few hours though, I realized they were just completely unimpinged.  Open.  It felt good.

I'm not going to get into a big discussion on aerobics, but I feel that some aerobic base is really healthy and low hanging fruit for most strength trainers.  I've been reading up on energy systems lately, and the fact is, a well developed aerobic system enhances the quality of strength training sessions.  Why that happens is another post entirely, but as I've talked about before, nothing is truly anerobic.

So, before I get too far off topic, I'll wrap things up.  I'm not turning into a crossfitter, but I think anyone could benefit from trying a couple sessions and seeing where their weaknesses truly lie.

Phase 3 Day 35

1a. Facepulls
30x25; 30x25; 30x25

1b. Standing 1 arm DB Press
50x5; 50x5; 50x5

2a. Pushup
10; 10; 10

2b. Batwings
35x5; 35x5; 35x5

2c. Side Planks
3 sets

2d.  Split Squats
70x3; 70x3; 70x3

2e. Curls
35x6; 35x6; 35x6

Notes
This was a quick workout on Tuesday night in basement of the GF's apartment building.  I really just wanted to do some core work and open up my shoulders/scapula.  I did all this pretty quickly, in about 17-18 minutes.

The other reason I wanted to do something was it was all you can eat Ribs at a local chain BBQ place in KC.  I managed to get down 17 ribs.  These were thick and juicy ribs too. I haven't eaten that much in a looong time.

Phase 3 Day 34

Squat (50/20)
275x10; 275x8; 275x8; 275x6; 275x6; 275x6; 275x4; 275x5 (53 reps in 20 minutes)

Deadbug
BWx12; BWx12; BWx12

Notes
I got to the gym at 6:00 to find out it was closing at 6:45.  This sucked because I had a mega full body workout planned for tonight. I couldn't do my upper lift body over the weekend, because again, the gym was closed (weird spring break hours). I wanted to squat tonight because tomorrow I'm going to KC where I will be off my normal schedule.  So, I decided to just get my squat work in - this is the most important thing to me anyways.

This was easily one of the best squat sessions I've had in my life.  Everything felt natural.  I can't believe I'm saying this, but I literally squatted 53 reps with zero pain in my left hip. Hours later and it still feels fine.  My legs felt like pistons - they were actually doing the work.  I wasn't bouncing off my joints like I did for years.

Regardless of weight, the workload was high tonight - 14,575 pounds.  I'm pretty sure that even my Sheiko sessions did not approach this level of workload.  Granted, I was working at heavier weights, but I certainly wasn't completing workouts in 20 minutes.

One benefit of just worrying about reps and not weight is that I'm ingraining positive movement patterns.  This is much easier to do with manageable weight.

All in all, I'm feeling good.  Next squat session, which might not be for a week, I'm moving  up to 295 until I hit 50 reps again.  I kind of have 315x50 as a natural stopping point for the 50/20 type stuff.  I figure that will take me 4-6 more weeks.  After that, I'll start loading more seriously.. unless I fall in love with 50/20 and just keep doing it haha.  I can certainly see the appeal.

Tomorrow I'll be in KC for 5 days.  I'll probably end  up working out pretty much everyday.  I'm going to my GF's crossfit gym at least 1-2 times.  Should be a good time.

Phase 3 Day 33

Saturday 3/09/13

Conditioning

Prowler - 7 Runs
60 yards x 90lbs

KB Swings
20kg x 10
20kg x 10
20kg x 10

Windmills
20kg x 3
20kg x 3
20kg x 3

Notes
This was on Saturday. Had near crippling soreness, so I just took it easy.  Overall conditioning right now is high.  This session left me more refreshed than anything else.

Phase 3 Day 32

Squats (50/20)
275x8; 275x8; 275x6; 275x6; 275x5; 275x5; 275x3; 275x3; 275x2 (46, +8)

RDL
225x5; 225x5; 225x5

Notes
Busy Friday. Easily my best feeling squat session in 6 months.  Every session I notice my glutes/hip flexors need less and less SMR work.

Its been a long week and I'm beat.  I dropped most assistance because...well its assistance. If I'm pressed for time or feel like poop, I'm not going to kill myself over the small stuff.  The 20 minutes of squatting is a fine workout by itself.  I'm confident I'll hit 50 reps on Monday.

Phase 3 Day 31

1a. Bench (50/20)
250x6; 250x5; 250x4; 250x4; 250x3; 250x3; 250x3; 250x3; 250x3 (34)

1b. Chins (50/20)
4; 4; 4; 4; 4; 3; 3; 3; 3 (32)

2a. Facepulls
60x20; 60x15; 60x15

2b. Cable lift
45x5; 30x8; 30x8

Notes
50/20 on bench and chins is money.  You get a ton of work in at moderate intensities.  I'm starting to see the beauty of this approach.  Its not really the weight that matters.  I felt like I could endlessly bang out triples towards the end.  They were hard and challenging, yes.  But they weren't 90% triples.  Anyways, I can really see this doing great things for certain lifts.

Chins are pathetic.  I don't know what it is, my strength just plummets on these.  I dead hang everything and work on a nice chest to bar/retraction, so I guess maybe that type of chin is more difficult.  Overall though, the superset of bench and chins works nicely.  I did this with two other guys. Even though the two movements only took 20 minutes combined, when it was over, we all just  kind of sat there and were like "now what?"  We were all in agreement that the 20 minutes alone was very effective.

An interesting note on warmups:  I woke up with an ultra stiff/impinged right shoulder. All day I was worried I did something bad to it on overheads last night.  So I did some basic warmups, then cycled through about 5 different facepull variations, and BOOM.  I literally felt a big slab of something just shift in my shoulder.  Impingement gone.  I finished the warm-up with some SMR work around the scapula, and everything was fine.  It was cool to know how to address the issue and then fix it so I could immediately start training.

Phase 3 Day 30

1. Squat (50/20)
275x7; 275x7; 275x6; 275x5; 275x5; 275x5; 275x3 (38 reps).

2a. RDL
185x8; 185x8; 185x8; 185x8

3a. Overhead Squat
88x3; 88x3; 138x1; 138x2 (vid).

4a. Deadbugs
10; 10; 10

4b. Calf Raises
115x8; 115x8; 115x8 (deep w/ stretch)

4c. Tibialis Anterior Raise
30x8; 30x8; 30x8

Notes
First day squatting with the 50/20 scheme.  I left 1-2 in the tank on all sets.  Even so, squats wrecked me.  This workout was about 10,000 lbs in tonnage.  Thats a lot of work, any way you slice it.

I've significantly narrowed my stance, and also brought my toes in.  This is something I've experimented with pretty much every week.  I'm much better off with a true shoulder width stance.  This takes alot of stress off my hips and allows my knees to travel outside and beyond my feet.  I'm hitting some rock bottom squats like this.

Overhead.  Well that video above was literally the last set of the day.  So I was obviously fatigued.  First:  I know I'm getting low back extension and I'm not as upright as I could be.  Also, lol at that "snatch." With that said, I'm extremely  pleased with the shoulder and thoracic mobility, and also the shoulder stability.  Look at my start position.  That is neutral with ribs down, and great shoulder extension.  5 months ago my shoulders were literally 6-8 inches from that position.  Thoracic extension still needs to improve. But it seems like simply overhead squatting 2x a week is one of the best ways to do this.

Final note: my warmups are extremely focused and targetted for these type of workouts.  Its really paying off.  Still much to improve.

Phase 3 - Day 29

1. Seated Press
135x5; 135x5; 135x5; 115x10; 115x15

2a. Incline BB (50/20)
155x10; 155x10; 155x8; 155x8; 155x7; 155x7

2b. DB Row (50/20)
65x10; 65x10; 65x8; 65x8; 65x7; 65x7

3. 1 Arm Farmers Walks
75 x 60 yds; 75 x 60 yds; 75 x 60 yds

4. 2 Arm Farmers Walks
150 x 60 yds; 150 x 60 yds; 150 x 60 yds; 150 x 60 yds; 150 x 60 yds.

Notes
This was a hard, crisp training session.  We did seated presses because my training partner had never tried them before, and also has never gotten sore in his shoulders.  So naturally I suggested seated press because it allows overload of the delts.  I was a little worried about it because of mobility/movement considerations, but I actually think this is a better variation for me right now as opposed to standing press.  It is a better variation because I can use my legs to drive my lower back into the seat.  Basically, I can ensure a neutral overhead press.

I realize this might be a somewhat backwards approach. I just haven't seen that I have the thoracic mobility to actually stand with a barbell on my front delts and then push it overhead without significant rib flair and lumbar extension.  At the same time, I'm not going to ask my training partner to do 1 arm split stance DB presses with me. With the seated variation, I can at least tell that my spine is not contorting.  The way I look at is  that I can build some overhead pressing strength without going backwards with the mobility stuff.  It is a compromise yes, but I am being patient with the other big lifts which should continue to improve my overall structure.

We finished 50/20 way too early. I think I did it in 13 minutes.  Not enough weight.

 I continue to work on and refine my row technique. I watched some Cressey videos that gave me a couple good new pointers.  In the future, I'm going to be more cognizant of my neck/chin posture during rows.  Not sure why I didn't really think of this in the past, but its easy as fuck to make a double/neutral chin when rowing.  For someone like me, this is low hanging fruit.

Farmers walks were ridiculous.  We were only planning on 3 sets with one arm but I got fired up.  I got obssessed with the idea of "pulling myself into alignment" lol. I absolutely hammer an upright, scaps back, chin neutral position during farmers walks. It feels great.  I swear I look "straighter" after doing them.

Phase 3 Day 28

Strength

Sumo Deadlift
415x5; 365x5

Conventional
365x5

Overhead Squat
88x3; 88x3; 88x3; 118x3; 88x5; 138x0; 138x1

Notes
This was Thursday's session. I tried conventional just for the hell of it.  It felt fine, but I didn't really feel aligned like I do in sumo.

I asked Connor to give me the PVC test while I was down in position for sumo.  I'm  happy to report that I had perfect spine alignment.  Lower back, mid, upper thoracic and head were all touching.  Sumo feels fine like 75% of the time.  The other 25% it irritates my hip.  That could be due to a number of reasons, but we'll see.  I'm going to give it a couple more weeks.

Overheads are really starting to feel great.  The tendency for me of course is to fall back into extended lumbar, APT, etc to get down into position.  I'm really not doing that too much.  I took a bunch of videos and had two people watching me.  I definitely could be more upright.  The OLY kid watching me noted that even now he can see I want to break with my hips and sit back a little instead of straight down.  Its a work in progress.

Interestingly, the heavier I went on Overheads the better I felt.  I struggled with shoulder stability on the first couple sets.  When I went up to 118 everything locked hard into place. I lost it on the first 138 attempt, but felt solid as hell on the second attempt.  Overheads are tremendously helping with my shoulder and thoracic mobility.  By the time I'm done, my external rotation ROM has improved by a good 2-3 inches.