[center]March 29, 2011[/center]
Evil 7 Complex: 105
High Box Jumps: 21, 19, 20
Plyo Pushups: 4,4,4
Wheel Rollouts: 3
I can’t go to the gym on Friday, but I like doing plyometrics so I subbed my Friday conditioning workout in for my usual Tuesday one.
[center]March 30, 2011[/center]
BB DL: 3754 3953 4153 4352
Rack Pulls: 4553 4953 515*2
Good session! Form on 435 could’ve been better. I’m really liking limiting my time between sets. My weights don’t suffer, I work harder, sweat more, and get out quicker. This workout would’ve taken me an hour and fifteen minutes if I was waiting as long as I used to between sets. This one I entered the gym garage at 7:00, I was walking back into the garage at 7:55 today.
For anyone worried about doing them, you’ll be fine. Honestly with all the fatty/fibery food I ate I actually had to force the food down on my schedule. It filled me up so much I wasn’t even hungry by the time I was scheduled to eat again. I had to eat though because I had a workout coming out in an hour and didn’t want to end up hungry half way through.
whoops that didn’t work
[center]March 31, 2011[/center]
Incline Bench / Pullups Super Set: 2356/BW7 2355/BW5 2354/BW4 2352/BW4
Chins: BW5 BW5 BW3
DB Incline: 1055 105*4
I’m continuing my commitment to get more pullup variants into my workouts. My lats were quite flared after this. I’m down to 225 from 231 on March 1st, so that’s 6 lbs. in 4 weeks of cutting so far. Diet REALLY picks up this week though, I’m going low carb on conditioning days, and lowering calories on my workout days slightly as well.
[center]April 3, 2011[/center]
BB Olympic Squats / Hyper-Extensions Super Set: 3153/905 3152/905 3004/905 3003/904
I have an exam to study for so I couldn’t stay too long. Experimenting more with super sets, and enjoying them quite a bit!
I thought I’d post some of the factors that went into deciding my most recent bulk, and what goes into it when planning. Not so much the technical parts; those have been covered on this site repeatedly. I meant more practical/personal issues to consider, that I think get overlooked sometimes.
Time: How much time do you have, or do you want to invest? If you have a year to invest, then you can go much cleaner than I did. If you have a short period of time to add the mass, then you may have to go dirty. I also didn’t want to be 230 lbs. in the middle of July heatwaves in New England, so I had to start cutting by around March 1st, if I want to resvelten in time to be comfortable. This bulk for me skirted the line between dirty and clean. None of the food I ate was junk. As such I gained about 20 lbs. of LBM in 6 months, which is pretty freaking good for someone who has been training for over a decade. Now let’s say I had done it much cleaner, over the course of a year…Maybe I gain 10 lbs. of lbm, and only 10 lbs. of fat. But that brings me to my next point
Metabolism/Ease of Cutting: How easy is it for you to cut? I don’t have a sweet tooth, abhor soda and all junk food, and can completely change my diet over night without any pains. If you happen to have difficulty cutting, then a cleaner bulk may be for you. I gained around 25 lbs. of fat this bulk, but that doesn’t bother me. I find cutting easy, so if I gain fat…big deal. My ultimate goal is LBM, the fat’s easy enough to burn off for me. If you find it harder to shed fat, or get attached to junk food, again, go with a cleaner bulk. It’ll be less of a struggle.
Looks: I don’t particularly give a shit what I look like. I’ve never done a single rep of a single set of a single exercise in the 12 years I’ve been training on account of how I’d look to others afterward. Now the thought of walking around with slabs of fat on me in June wasn’t exactly appealing, but it was more about comfort, and that’s why I started my cut on March 1st. Don’t get me wrong; there is NOTHING wrong with going to the gym hoping to impress someone with the results. If you are thinking about looks though, a clean bulk will be more in order. Again, I live in New England, and in the depths of winter the only time I’m unclothed is when I’m making sweet bang to a lady. The lights stay off.
Mental Makeup: It is HARD cramming that much food in. Plus doing it in such a way that doesn’t shoot my endocrine system to shit as well. Some of those meals I listed would take me a half hour to eat (I didn’t pound a 1/2 pound of PB in like 2 minutes). The last month I was so sick of eating, but I kept doing it. I hit 231 by mid February and then plateaud there. I was fine with that. I hit or got very close to all my goals, absolutely destroying my benching goal which is something I’ve chased for years. So it was worth it to me. But you have to ask yourself how much can you eat, how much can you hold down, and how much would make you miserable? I will NEVER eat 5000 calories again, because I’d know from the start what I was in for.
[center]April 4, 2011[/center]
Bench Press: 2953 3003 3052 3151
BB Rows: 2853 2903 2953 3003
DB Bench Press: 1202 1155
Neutral Grip Pullups: BW7 BW5 BW4
Cable Rows: 1804 1903 2001
Good session! Did a few extra sets, I’m trying to really work on my back some more. I like that my barbell row and bench press are almost equal, but I still want more width, so I’m doing pullups every non-conditioning workout for a while. Not sure why I only got 2 at 120 on flat benching this session, I was pissed. Otherwise, good sesh.
[center]April 5, 2011[/center]
Evil 7 Complex: 105
Heavy Bag Shoulder Carries: 1
Heavy Bag Bear Hug Carries: 1, 1.5, .5
Trap Bar Farmers Walks: 2001.5 2001.5
I am destroyed after this. For the shoulder carries, took a heavy bag over one shoulder and walked with it. Bear hugs is just what it sounds like. the number indicates how many full laps down and back I did in my gym’s hall. Probably like 100’. The complex killed me today. My shirt was see-through by the end of it :sneaky: The carries just devastated me, and the walks at the end polished off a great session.
[center]April 6, 2011[/center]
Deadlift: 3804 4003 4103 4202 4352-awful form
Snatch Grip Deadlift: 3154 3253
Lumberjack Squats: 1356 1806 2253
I will neeeever use form that bad again while deadlifting. I looked like Quasimodo on the 435. I was shortening rest between sets again, plus I just wasn’t feeling that energetic to be honest. Instead of going with what I had and just doing some lower weights, say 350/360/380/400/410/420 I went for 435 and should’ve put it down after one awful rep, but did it again. I’m lucky I didn’t blow out a hernia. Snatch grip deads went well…but again my back was so taxed after deadlifting, and then those awful sets. Lumberjacks went good too
[center]April 7, 2011[/center]
Incline Bench / Pullups Superset: 2258/BW7 2255/BW5 2254/BW4 2253/BW4
Rope Pullups:BW2 BW2 BW2
DB Incline: 1055 1054
Neutral Grip Pullups: BW5 BW*4
Wow…loving the supersets. By the end my chest was hard as a rock. Not like flexing, just engorged with blood. And rope pullups…ouch. Love em I figured I’d get like 5 or 6 on a 1.75" rope. I got 2. and the 2nd might not have been a dead hang. I was like “wow this is easy…” and then started descending on the first one and felt my grip start to crap the bed. I’m committing to adding more pullups to my workouts, so I did more here too. 3 variations of them today.
I’m thinking of switching up my training just a bit. So I’ve been doing a upper/lower heavy/heavier split. But if you only do singles & triples…well you hit your high single of the week…it’s not like next week it’s going up 15 lbs. But say on deadlifting I hit say 365 for 10 reps…maybe next week I get 12. And how does that translate out? I’m sure the 1RM would actually increase if I did it that way for a few weeks. so instead of doing a heavy/light upper/lower I’m thinking of doing like a upper/lower heavy/intense
where I do like 10-12 rep sets of squats, and deadlifts, and a widowmaker on the end of those two intense days.
[center]April 8, 2011[/center]
[center]223.5 lbs[/center]
Battling Ropes: 25 seconds, 20, 15,15,20
High Box Jumps: 20,16,21
Plyo Pushups: 4,6,4
Ball Rollouts: 1,1,1
Palloff Presses: 303 403
wow…soaked through my shirt on this one. The box jumps kill me but I love them. I suddenly have a lot more pop on the plyo pushups, which is good. Maybe because I’m lighter? Or just getting more explosive?
Accipiter, update yo’ RMP thread, fool!
Also, are you really 29? You look young for 29.
[center]April 10, 2011[/center]
BB Squats: 22510 23510 24510 25510 26510
Good Mornings: 1356 1554
Reverse Hyperextensions: 905 90*5
Wow. Haven’t done higher rep squats in ages. Very taxed right now. Followed with some good mornings and hypers but I was pretty beat to be honest. Was going to do a widowmaker with 225 at the end of the squatting, but unracked it and it felt like a load of cement. Needless to say my body is not yet used to higher reps on squatting yet.
[quote]The3Commandments wrote:
Accipiter, update yo’ RMP thread, fool!
Also, are you really 29? You look young for 29.[/quote]
Whoops! I keep saying I will and then forgetting. I’m noticeably smaller around the waist I feel like, my pants are falling off at this point. Abs are starting to become uncovered (i mean it still looks like crap, but it’s getting better). I’m going to take pics this week.
Yeah I’m 29, I think it’s genetics. My dad is 54 and could pass for 35 probably.
[center]April 11, 2011[/center]
BB Flat: 22512 23010 23510 2407
BB Rows: 22510 23510 24510 25510
DB Flat: 9012 1007.5
Wide-Grip Pullups: BW3
Neutral Grip Pullups: BW5
Good session! This week I’m trying to do everything in the 10 rep range. Good session! Wide-Grip Pullups felt weird, so nix those.
[center]April 12, 2011[/center]
BB Snatches: 1155 1155 1155
Trap-Bar Farmers: 2002 200*2
tried something different for this conditioning session; olympic lifts & farmers. Not sure I like it.
[center]April 13, 2011[/center]
BB DL: 30010 31010 32010 33010
I am fighting something off, I was exhausted going in to this, and had a long day beforehand. Just wanted to get my deadlifting in and get out, which I did!
[center]April 15, 2011[/center]
24 KG KB Swing Tabata: 12,12,12,12,12,11,11,11
High Box Jumps: 23, 22
High Box Lateral Jumps: 16
Plyo Pushups: 7,5,6
Wheel Rollouts: 1,1,1
Paloff Presses: 303 403
Felt like I had a whole can of powerthirst before this workout. HOoollyyyyy shiiiiiiiiit. Explosive workout. The lateral box jumps felt like they were too great a risk to keep doing them, felt like it would be WAY too easy to blow out an mcl.
