A Fresh Start

Training Training Logs
41

[quote]kjmont wrote:
Yea and 275 is being generous, even after leg drive I was essential in a goodmorning position. Imagine a scared and pissed off cat trying its best to shit out its spine, and that’s what my squat and deadlifts looked like haha. I learned a lot about myself from smolov, the biggest being that I am great at reps, I suck at multiple sets, after a certain % everything felt horrible and pain got the best of me because I would focus on sets and reps done, not the quality of the reps. So now I am trying to work with my lazy mind as opposed to muscle through it.[/quote]

It’s common, at least from my experience as well, to be much better at high reps than low reps when not performing a lift using optimal leverages and muscle recruitment. Stabilization is most important when the primary movers are being pushed to its limit for max attempts but sometimes they don’t get the training they need to be strong. It makes sense now why people say to treat a light weight like it’s heavy.

42

It might be a good idea to remove the belt and not accept reps with core failure. Once I did that, I understood how my back should be positioned. When I put the belt back on, I found out a couple weeks ago that I placed my belt too low for all these years because my back would still have a tendency to round at the bottom of a squat and deadlift.

It didn’t make sense and it also didn’t feel right. Once I moved it up, the alignment felt like how it does for beltless. So after all these years, the belt only made my problem worse since it resisted me getting into a good position and I wouldn’t have known without significant time doing beltless without core failure.

43

[quote]lift206 wrote:
It might be a good idea to remove the belt and not accept reps with core failure. Once I did that, I understood how my back should be positioned. When I put the belt back on, I found out a couple weeks ago that I placed my belt too low for all these years because my back would still have a tendency to round at the bottom of a squat and deadlift.

It didn’t make sense and it also didn’t feel right. Once I moved it up, the alignment felt like how it does for beltless. So after all these years, the belt only made my problem worse since it resisted me getting into a good position and I wouldn’t have known without significant time doing beltless without core failure.[/quote]

Absolutely, it’s funny I actually can’t use a belt when deadlifting this point. It just hinders me more than it helps for one reason or another, even when I get in the proper position. I guess it just lets me be lazy, but squatting it does wonders for me. I guess it all comes down to how and why you use it. That’s why I add in the beltless 5 sec pause work, for the reason you choose not to use the belt. There’s really no way you are going to be pausing that long and having any kind of strength if you aren’t in position without everything firing right.

44

Update - there was nothing really worth posting last week. I played with some meadow’s style programming to see how I could fit it into my programming. I really like his style, my body always feels great and when I work his stuff into MY PROGRAMMING as opposed to running just his, my lifts and bodyweight shoot up.

Already seeing results

But as for last week I hit
Sumo Deads - 12 singles with 255 (60 sec rest)

Squats - worked up to 3 x 3 w. 265. Started doing pause work when some friends came in who I was supposed to lift with but were an hour late. Despite my better judgement I worked up with them and it actually paid off. Hit 2 x 3 w. 275 AFTER all the work I already did. Smoother and way more solid strength wise and form wise than when I hit the 275 for 2, 2 weeks ago.

45

Sunday - Squats
A. Cambered Bar Squats with 80 in chain and short black pro elitefts bands
So 65ish from chain and somewhere between 80 and 90 in bands at the top?
Who knows
70 (just bar and chains) x 3
70 (chains and bands) x 3
100 x 3
130 x 3
Added Belt
160 x 3
added knee sleeves
190 x 3
220 x 3

B. 5-sec Cambered Bar Pause Squats (no bands or chains)
2 x 5 w. 120
145 x 5

C. Meadows Rows - 4 x 8 w. 85 (plates counted only)

D. Pull Ups
Ultra-wide x 10
Wide x 10
Normal Grip x 10

E. T-bar Rows (2 sec flex, weight counted only) - 3 x 10 w. 50
F. Meadows Pull overs (3 sec neg) - 3 x 12 w. 40

46

Monday - Upper Body

A. Bench
45 x 10
115 x 10
135 x 10
155 x 10
3 x 15 w. 170

B. Chain Flyes - 3 x 10 w. 40 in chains per side

C. Wide-Grip Pause Bench - 3 x 10 w. 145
D. Narrow Grip Bench - 145 x 9, 10, 11

E. Hatfield Front Raises - 4 x 12 w. 25’s
F. Lateral Raises - 4 x 12 w. 25’s

G. Military Press
65 x 10
85 x 10
100 x 14, 12, 10

H. Close-Grip Floor Press
110 x 15 (Paused)
120 x 12 (Paused)
130 x 8 (Paused)
140 x 6 (Paused)

120 x 20 (Touch and Go)

A lot of volume and I really liked this set up. Bodyweight is 191 this morning. I don’t know why I am gaining weight so fast, I’m not getting all my calories down and it doesn’t seem like its more fat then muscle,but I am up from 178 in 6-8 weeks. I’m sure its some bloat, some stomach content, but my bodyweight is still climbing. I’m not going to worry about it for now, I was a twig and I guess it could be I was severely underfed for how hard I was training/muscle memory/super compensation… I don’t know. Oh well going to keep riding the wave until it seems like a bad idea.

47

Had a mini vacation but here was last weeks training:

Monday - Bench
A. Bench
125 x 10
155 x 10
180 x 12, 12, 12, 13, 12, 12 (Alternating regular bench and spoto presses)

200 x 13 (last 3 reps paused)

B. Close-Grip Bench
165 x 10, 10
175 x 25

C. Hatfield Raises - 4 x 15 w. 25’s
D. Fry Presses - 45s x 10, 7, 5
E. Incline DB Press - 55’s x 19, 12, 15

F. Tate Presses - 25’s x 10, 12, 15, 20

Tuesday - Squats
A. Cambered Bar Squats to a 14" Box
Worked up to:
No Belt or sleeves:
210 x 3
added sleeves
3 x 2 w. 250

B. Paused Front Squats - 3 x 8 w. 130

Thursday - Bench Assistance
A. Incline Bench - 4 x 10 w. 145

B. Spoto Press (Last rep paused an inch or two of chest)
3 x 6 w. 210
180 x 8 (all paused)
155 x 6 (all paused and close-grip)
135 x 8 Close-grip paused

C. Dips - bw x 25, 25 x 12
D. Standing DB Press - 40’s x 15, 15, 20
E. Face Pulls - 3 x 15 w. 42.5

F. Rope Pushdowns - 3-4 sets of 20 upping weight

Saturday - Whisky and Deads lol (Thank you very much Chris Duffin)
A. Sumo Deads
No straps or belt
135 x 3
185 x 3
225 x 2
275 x 1
295 x 1
2 shots of whisky and boom
330 x 4 (30 lb all time rep PR. Started this sumo cycle 4 weeks ago with a 315 max using straps and a belt. The following week hit 300 x 4 with straps and no belt. The week after I did Sumo’s off a 2" deficit and 250 and 40 lbs of chain for 3 x 2 until speed dropped too much using straps only deadstop as well. Might be a good mini cycle to use for my deads. Well’ have to see)

4 x 4 w. 225 for speed (60 sec rest)

was too bombed to do much else lol. Was tired this day anyway and I psyched up, got a little to whoosy

Sunday - Deads Assistance (No belt or straps)
A. Duffin Deads off 3" Blocks (bands pulling forward on torso, and back on glutes)
145 x 5
175 x 5
205 x 5
265 x 6

B. RDLs with 40 in chain off 3" Blocks
160 x 6
190 x 6
220 x 6, 7

C. Neutral Close-Grip Pull Ups - 3 x 6
D. Wide-Grip Pull Ups - 3 x 6
E. 3 Position Band Pullaparts (Chest level, neck level, eye level) - 3 x 6, 5, 4 with red band

Solid training week I’d say.

48

Monday - Bench
A. Bench (Touch and Go)
Hit
200 x 10, 10, 9
220 x 4 (spoto)

B. Close-Grip Board Press
200 x 5 (3 board)
190 x 5 (2 board)
180 x 5 (1 board)

C. Dips
bw x 6
45 x 6, 4 (hurt my pec bad on this set had to shut down all chest work)

D. Kaz Smith Press - 135 x 8, 8, 8, 12
E. Rope Pushdowns (no rest between sets) - 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 25, 20, 15, 10 x 20 reps

F. 1-arm DB Preacher Curls
10 x 20
15 x 20
20 x 15
25 x 10
30 x 7

15’s x 30

G. Hammer Curls - 20’s x 8, 8, 8, 12
H. Chest-Supported Rows - 4 x 15 w. 45 lb plate

Done.

49

Wednesday - Squats
A. Cambered Bar Squats to a 14" Box
Worked up to:
230 x 3
2 x 2 w. 270

B. Cambered Bar Speed Squats - 4 x 4 w. 185 (belt/ no sleeves)

C. Cambered Bar 5-count Pause Squats - 2 x 5 w. 170 (lifetime PR)

50

I’ve made huge strides in both technique and lifting in the past few months but my squat was beginning to stall out and it is time to refocus and start building a base for some huge PR’s. I am switching from solely focusing on my squat to bringing up all my lifts. Sumo was fun but I am switching back to conventional now because it needs a ton of work in all honesty.

Sunday - Deads and First day of new cycle

A. Rack Pulls (3 inch ROM)
Warm up sets weren’t important.
455 x 11

B. Deadlift Stance 14" Box Squats - 200 x 15 (Jesus I forgot how hard close stance work is…)

C. Deficit Deadlifts (standing on 2 stacked 45 lb plates)
No belt, double overhand, deadstop
200 x 15

D. Pendlay Rows from boxes - 135 x 20
E. Barbell Shrugs - 200 x 20
F. Plate Rows - 25’s x 20, 35’s x 12, 45’s x 10
G. Bent-Over Flies - 3 x 16 w. 8’s

Didn’t even hit all the exercises I needed to, work capacity really needs to be brought back up.

51

Stopped training for a little…life, school, and stress just wore me down and my desire to train. Got underweight and started justifying putting it off…

Fighting back.

Earlier this week:
Tuesday - Deads
A. 5" ROM Block Pulls - 455 x 10 (had way more in me but I missed the blocks on the 10th rep lol)
B. DL stance Box Squats - 210 x 9, 7 (Everything felt heavy today and this moved faster than I thought so I went back for a 2nd set)
C. Deficit Deads standing on 2 stacked 45’s - 210 x 8, 8 (couldn’t breath by this point, needed 30 seconds to not die…)

Friday - Back Volume
A. Barbell Rows - 175 x 7, 9, 11, 11 (Last 2 sets started cheating quite a bit…I was fried…great 1st exercise too lol)

B. Barbell Shrugs
2 x 21’s w. 225
235 x 27 (cheat shrugs)

C. DL Stance T-bar Rows (number of 25’s on bar)
1 x 10
2 x 10
3 x 10
4 x 10
5 x 10

D. Straight Arm Band Pulldowns - 5 x 15 w. black band

E1. Neutral-Grip Chins - Bw x 8, 6, 4, 4
E2. High Incline DB Curls - 25’s x 8, 8, 6, 4

-No rest between sets-
F1. Reverse Grip DB Curls - 12, 10, 6
F2. DB Curls - 8s x 12, 8, 4

Done.

52

On a side note, this is an update on how my current training is laid out.

I’m focusing on driving up two main lifts the most strength and size wise, and pushing but not as hard or programming wise the others.

I’m focusing on the Deadlift and Overhead Press.

It plays out like this:
Tuesday - Deads
Wednesday - Deads assistance
Thursday - Bench/chest and Biceps
Friday - OFF
Saturday - Squats
Sunday - OHP (Shoulders and traps)
Monday - Triceps

53

Good to have you back.

54

Sorry That was ironically the day I stopped training for various reasons, but I am truly back now. I started a new log and I explain what actually happened to me and why I dissapeared.

Here’s the link Lived to Fight Another Day - Training Logs - Forums - T Nation