Work for today:
Bench: worked up to 77.5kg x 8
Then: 60kg x lots
Incline Smith machine press: many
Cable rows: 5 x 10
Partial lat raises: 3 x 20
Decline bench Y-raises: 3 x 12
Cable raise: 3 x 12
Squat: 8 x 3 @ 95kg
Notes:
Went into this session feeling tired and demotivated as anything. First early morning back to work after 2 weeks off kicked my ass. All felt fine once I was lifting though. No fireworks, but solid lifts.
Bench PR, and a fairly comfortable one.
Squats all moved pretty smoothly, no real dramas.
I like the Meadows shoulder stuff, especially the Y raises. Will need a bit of tweaking with weights etc, but definitely promising. I fully expect to struggle to fit through doors by Christmas.
Also supersetted some/most of the movements with push ups/pull ups/sit ups. Iām just adding these to my weekly tally.
Yeah, this set up definitely has some gold in it, everythingās ticking over nicely at the minute, although 2 weeks of full sleep and plenty of eating are definitely helping.
If Iām honest, I think the only way Iāll struggle with doors is if I start eating like I want again. I think i have some low hanging fruit in terms of delt training though, I donāt think I ever directly trained them before. In fact bodybuilder training in general is almost a completely new thing for me, so Iām quite excited to see how it affects my results.
Work for today:
Jumps: 2 x 5
Squats: worked up to 90kg x 5
Paused squats: 5 x 5 @ 70kg
RDL: 3 X 15 @ 70kg
Bench: 8 x 3 @ 85kg
Pull downs: 5 x 10
Seated press: 8 x 3 @ 55kg
Notes:
Felt really sore, stiff and tired going into this. Probably doesnāt help itās my least favourite session and the gym was hotter than the surface of the sun today. Lots of repetitive sets, no PRs to chase makes Jonny a dull boy.
Squat top set was actually meant to be 87.5, but I was fucked if I was hunting down the small plates for one set.
Press and Bench both felt pretty steady throughout. A couple of grindy reps, a few out of groove, mostly pretty solid
Superset hanging knee raises between squat sets. I like the idea more than the practice, mostly because the bar for squats gets in the way of doing a full raise.
All around, this is by far my least favourite day, and definitely one that Iāll look to change come the new year for motivation, if nothing else.
Why? looks like a pretty good day, one heavy set of squat, backoff working on technique.
Then hamstrings, chest, back delts and throwing in some core work, whatās not to like.
Itās true punch the clock work, no PRs or drop sets or anything. Itās the 8 work sets of squats and 16 sets of heavy pressing that really seem to drag.
This was easier than anticipated, ended up turning it into a single every 30secs. Finished the 20mins and wasnāt breathing as hard as Iād like so decided to make it an even 50. Was actually well under 2 mins for this, even with full resets every rep.
PS: my form on squat cleans is piss poor.
PPS: for some reason it didnāt occur to me while doing this that 50 reps of cleans was a really poor choice the day before my powerclean and deadlift session.
To be honest, I massively misjudged the weight for the conditioning. It was too light to have any real impact today except some light DOMs in my traps. So, I guess I actually judged it perfectly then.
Work for today:
Powerclean and press: 2-2-3-2-2, all at 60kg
Deadlift: 5 x 1 @ 120kg
Slow decline sit ups: 5 x 10
Seated press: worked up to 50kg x 12
Then: 2 x drop set
Side lateral partial 3 x 20
Wendler Rows: 3 x 20
Y-raises: 3 x 12
Cable lateral: 3 x 12
Cable chest fly: 7 x 12
Push ups: 7 sets to failure
Walking lunges: 5 x 10 @ 15kg
Notes:
Really wanted to get in, get out and get to bed today so charged through this a bit. No mobility, pretty sure I didnāt do a single warm up (yes, the first C and P set was messy), supersetted most exercises with others, kept rest short, etc. Managed to get in and out in under an hour and 15.
Massive press PR. Added 6 reps in slightly over a month. Iāll definitely take that. I donāt want to jinx anything butā¦
Really happy with this session, all in all. Slightly concerned the deadlifts are so damn easy, but just got to trust the process. Iām sure Matt Kroc knows more about this than me.
I usually have a pretty minimal warm up: about 2 mins of āprovenā mobility work before bench, plus a few sets of band pull aparts, then Work up pretty quickly from about 40kg. Squat I start at about 60kg, plus a few stretches, and work up pretty quickly. I donāt warm up for anything else. My āwork upā is usually singles or doubles, adding 10kg a time with rest to change the plates.
@ChickenLittle thanks, never thought Iād set a 6 rep PR on press.
Bench: worked up to 85kg x 5, see notes below
Then: 60kg x lots
Incline Smith machine press: lots
Cable rows: 5 x 12
Partial lateral raises: 3 x 20
Y raises: 3 x 12
Cable raises: 3 x 12
Squats: 8 x 3 @ 95kg
Notes:
So barely scraped equalling a previous PR on bench, and very shaky and mushroomed. Reason being I took an overwarmup single at 95kg beforehand, and it felt pretty easy. A 2 plate bench was right there so I went for it. A bit grindy, but fairly solid. Higher sticking point than Iād previously thought so thatās something to bear in mind. But yeah, no rep PR because I went for an actual PR instead. Patience has never been my strong point.
Otherwise fairly unremarkable session. Squats felt easier than normal, despite being in the rack I dislike, on the bar I dislike so ended up doing the last 2 sets as one.
