Ok, as my back is slowly feeling a little better I am going increase my depth a little on squats while taking a couple of steps back in weight. This should allow me to gradually ramp the weight back up while focussing on keeping my lower back super tight. I am also taking two steps back on my bench weight too as I seem to be stalling on it. So today…
Bench
Worked up to 70kg x 10 x 2
Squats
Worked up to 105kg x 10 x 2
Chins BW x 8/7/6 SS with
Back extn BW x 15 x 3
Incline db press 30kg x 10 x 3 SS with
Hammer curls 16kg x 10 x 3
Right. I’ll keep the whining short and sweet. After hobbling round like a decrepid old man last weekend I realised that this was how it has been most weekends of late (on top of the back thing I have been nursing some chronic elbow and shoulder pain for the last couple of months which doesn’t seem to going away). So I decided to give the Dan John 40 day gig a whirl on the basis that short light workouts most days will keep me moving without smashing myself too hard and I can push it bit harder once every week if I feel good. And who knows I meet even gain some strength too.
So this week…
Mon. Tue and Thu I did:
Bench 60kg x 5 x 2
Deads 100kg x 5 x 2
Chins bw x 5 x 2
EZ curls 35kg x 5 x 2
HLR bw x 5
Lots of rollin and stretching
Today:
Bench 50/70/90kg x 5/3/2
Deads 100/120/140kg x 5/3/2
Chins bw/+5/+10kg x 5/3/2
EZ curls 35kg x 5 x 2
HLR bw x 5
Rollin, stretchin, done.
Today:
Bench 60kg x 5 x 2
Deadlifts 110kg x 5 x 2 -warm up weight flew up like it wasn’t there so I nudged the ‘work’ sets up a little.
Chins bw x 5 x 2
EZ curls 35kg x 5 x 2
HLR bw x 5 -feet fully overhead, done really smooth and controlled.
Rolled, stretched and done in a little over 30mins.
Back starting to feel much better. Shoulder feeling better too.
Today was the same as yesterday except I added 10kg to the bench sets.
Felt a little tired when I walked into the gym but once I started everything felt strong, smooth and easy. This routine is like groundhog day but I like it.
Got to the gym feeling pretty tired today. Had it in the back of my mind to maybe wave the weights down a little depending on how everything felt but… used the same weights, sets, reps as Tuesday and everything flew up really quick. Except for curls which I didn’t do because I was really pushed for time and something had to go.
Am due to do a day of 6 progressively heavier singles sometime in the next couple of sessions. Will make a game time decision on whether this is tomorrow or the following session. Will be interesting to see how that goes.
Deadlifts
Same as Thu. Felt good but tweaked my back a little going down to grab the bar for the 2nd set FFS!
Chins
Same as Thu but easier again.
BB curls
Same but easier again.
HLR
Bw x 6
Not so easy today.
Did extra rolling n stretching to try to ease off the back tweak. Experience tells me that it probably be a bit bitchy for a few days regardless though.
Will make either Mon or Tue session a 5/3/2 day (back permitting) depending on time and energy levels available at the time.
No 5/3/2 day or indeed any lifting so far this week as my back is FUBAR and I have been hobbling round like some kind of 100 year old man since I last trained.
Note to self (and anyone smart enough to learn from my stupidity) if you pull, tweak or otherwise aggravate an injury prone back when you still have a set of deadlifts left to do, shut it the fuck down and move on even if it is a relatively easy weight. Do not tell yourself to MTFU… aka be a boneheaded idiot who turns the next few days into a complete write off.
Ok, back is now back to normal. Saw osteopath at the end of last week and if did a ton of work on my back and shoulder. So picking up where I left off:
Bench
70kg x 5 x 2
Shoulder still sore from treatment. This actually felt heavy today.
Been sneezing, snuffling and generally feeling like ass today. Planned to maybe drop weights a little, focus on form and just get the movements done but was pleasantly surprised when the warm up weights flew up like they weren’t there. So:
Bench
70kg x 5 x 2 Easy
Deadlifts
110kg x 5 x 2 Also easy
Chins
Bw x 5 x 2 Oh so easy
HLR
Bw x 8 And again, easy
BB curls
30kg x 8 x 3 Not easy, but then I accidentally did the first set with 35kg so…yeh.
For the last couple of weeks I have not been able keep to a routine due to my back flaring up, a shit ‘Summer’ cold and various other annoying BS. So today I got in the gym and just did stuff I felt like doing and had fun:
Cleans
Worked up to 70kg x 5
Military press
Worked up to 45kg x 7 ss with
Chins 5 x 4
Bench press
60kg x 8 x 3 ss with
BB curl
25kg x 8 x 3
Front squats
5 sets- worked up 70kg x 5
Am experimenting to see if these are kinder to my back than regular squats. Haven’t done them forever so I’m starting conservatively.
Klokov press
30kg x 10 x 5
Yeah I’m on that bandwagon. Quite liked these actually, they are hard to get moving from the bottom with the wide grip.
Lat pulldowns
10 x 5 ss with
Cable pushdowns 10 x 5
Front squat
Worked up to 75kg x 3
Last rep paused for about 5 sec’s
Klokov press
35kg x 8 x 3
Then did 3 sets of 8 high pulls from hang with the same weight just for the crack. Should probably of used more weight for this though…
Did not lift for a week due to some crappy virus. Am still tweaking things a little and trying make progress without aggravating my back. Also trying to manage what is becoming a chronically sore shoulder and elbow as best l can. Yep, getting older sucks giant donkey balls alright. I’m not complaining though, just got train smarter.
Anyway, training this last week…
Last Fri:
OHP
Worked up to 47.5kg x 8 ss with
Chins 30 total
Seated rows
10 x 5
CGBP 10 x 5 ss with
BB curls 10 x 5
Monday:
Cleans 3 x 3
Deadlifts
worked up to 110kg x 10
Front squats 10 x 5 ss with
Back extns 10 x 5
HLR 10 x 5
Today:
Bench
Worked up to 70kg x 12 ss with
Lat pulldowns 10 x 5
Then 50 more lat pulldowns
Standing press behind neck 10 x 5
ss with bb curls 10 x 5