Week 7 - Modified Madcow

Monday

• Squat: 370 lbs x 5
• Close-Grip Bench Press: 245 lbs x 5
• Barbell Rows: 210 lbs x 5
• Depth jumps off 22 inch bench: 5 x 5

Wednesday

• Squat: 280 lbs x 5 x 2 sets
• Overhead Press: 160 lbs x 5
• Deadlift: 300 lbs x 5
• Box Jumps (onto 22 inch bench): 30 pounds x 5

Friday

• Full Squat: 185 lbs x 5 x 5
• Close-Grip Bench Press: 250 lbs x 3
• Power Clean: 200 lbs x 1

Well, my foot is feeling better but I don't feel like I have much strength through my ankles. I'll add some calf raises this next week to address this imbalance.

My squat deload may seem extreme, but I found that I wasn't going as low as I should on my squats. I wasn't always bringing the fold in my hip below the top of my knee on every set. So, I decided to drop the weight and start going really low on every set. The reps were easy on Friday but my legs are really feeling the effects of them the next day. I'm going to add 5 pounds each session until I have to deload a couple of times. At that point, I'll plug my squats back into the Madcow program. Until then, I'll keep using Madcow for my other lifts.

C

Week 6 - Modified Madcow

Monday

• Squat: 360 lbs x 5
• Close-Grip Bench Press: 240 lbs x 5
• Barbell Rows: 205 lbs x 5
• Drop Jumps (off 22 inch box): 5 x 5

My foot felt pretty good so I restarted plyometric exercises. No pain before, during, or after the jumps. My foot injury ended up being plantar fasciitis. Usually, plantar fasciitis has a more gradual onset, but all of the other signs were there. I should be able to push forward with more aggressive jump training in the next 1-2 weeks.

Wednesday

• Squat: 270 lbs x 5 x 2 sets
• Overhead Press: 160 lbs x 5
• Deadlift: 335 lbs x 5

My back has been bothering me a little bit starting the end of last week. I'll try to really focus on keeping my back in rigid extension while squatting. I tried stair jumps but my left foot started hurting on the 4th jump. I quit jumping at that point.

Friday

•  Squat: 370 lbs x 3 reps
• Close-grip Bench Press: 245 lbs x 5
• Power Clean: 195 lbs x 5

 My back is now really starting to bother me: It's tight but not really painful. I am going to deload starting this next week. Part of me wants to push through this thinking that I can avoid injury by just concentrating more on proper form. The other, more rational part of me knows that I will just injury myself if I stay on this course. The good news is that I'm back to my 5-rep PR on the squat (I know that I can get 370 pounds with 5 reps right now). I'll stick with the weights I'm using on the other exercises with deloads in the near future.

With my squat deload, I'm going to drop the weight by quite a bit so that I can really work on explosiveness and form.

C

Week 5

Monday

• Squat: 355 lbs x 5 
• Close-Grip Bench Press: 230 lbs x 5
• Barbell Row: 200 lbs x 5 

      No plyometrics today because of my left foot strain.

Wednesday

• Squat: 265 lbs x 5 x 2 sets
• Overhead Press: 155 pounds x 5
• Deadlift: 325 lbs x 5

Friday

• Squat: 360 lbs x3
• Close-Grip Bench Press: 240 lbs x 3
• Power Clean: 190 lbs x 3

I'm feeling pretty good right now, except my foot is still bothering me. Hopefully I can start jumping again next week. I found that, in order to stay tight while squatting, I need to descend more slowly than I have been. Last week, I dropped really fast and had a hard time coming back up. This week,I counted to 2 during my descent and was still able to bounce out of the bottom while staying tight.

C

Deloading

I was hoping to be able to push through this 12-week Madcow program without problems, but I think I'll deload starting next week. This past Monday, 355 pounds felt really heavy on my shoulders and I really struggled to put up 5 reps in the squat. My form was not great on the last rep. What I'll do is see how 360 pounds feels at the end of the week and go from there. I was really tired on Monday after working a long four-day stretch with family gatherings after some of those days (Thanksgiving for a very long day). I'm hoping Monday was just a bad day and that I can keep pushing forward. If 360 feels really heavy, I'm going to deload by going back to week 3 of the program and progressing from there.

My left foot strain is better but I still can't perform any plyometrics right now. 

I'll let you know how it goes.

C