[center]May 22, 2011[/center]
24 KG KB Swing Tabata: 12,12,13,12,12,12,12,12
Med+Low Box Plyo Jumps+10 lbs (27.75"): 20,18,15
High+low Box Jumps (34"): 1, 15
Palloff Presses: 60*3
Rope Slams: 20, 16
notes: Keep getting 13 on 3rd set of tabata last couple weeks. No clue why. Decided to make box jumping more challenging today, so I held a medicine ball while I did the 27.75" jumps. Made it MUCH harder. It’s not just the weight I added, it’s that I can’t use my arms and swing them for momentum really. It becomes a total lower body explosive exercise. I tried working up to the high+low box jumps before I did the first set of med+low jumps, but kept getting scared when I jumped. I went back to it again, and did that first one and saw it wasn’t that bad, measured it, and saw it was only 34" high. Considering several years ago when I was 168 I hit 41.5", 34" doesn’t seem that bad for plyo work. So I went to town. Finished with some palloffs and rope slams and called it a day.
[quote]AccipiterQ wrote:
[center]May 17, 2011[/center]
BB Squats: 26011 28010 3006 3004 270*4-f that. Exhausted
Elevated foot narrow grip rope pullups: 10
" " med grip " " : 8
" " wide grip " " : 6
notes: Squatting…going well. I’ve added about 30 lbs. onto my 10 rep max in the last few weeks. So that’s always good. Taking a run at 300 for 10 now. Going to hopefully build up reps, going to go for 7 next week. The rope pullups are part of my ‘do something for back/lats every day’ rule I’m implementing. I don’t know how else to describe what they are, I got them from this vid: (go to the 2:16 mark)
DeFrancosGym.com: NFL Lockout's over...Time to PLAY THE GAME! - YouTube [/quote]
I do something similar on the Smith machine, utilizing the locked bar, but I like the concept of using ropes like that. I’m going give it a try, it looks like you can get a better range of motion as you aren’t limited by your chest hitting the bar, also any work with ropes like that is a good grip exercise. Thanks for posting the video! I was a bit skeptical when it started out with a guy checking out his own hawt abz, but it got better real quick.
[quote]hockeydawg wrote:
[quote]AccipiterQ wrote:
[center]May 17, 2011[/center]
BB Squats: 26011 28010 3006 3004 270*4-f that. Exhausted
Elevated foot narrow grip rope pullups: 10
" " med grip " " : 8
" " wide grip " " : 6
notes: Squatting…going well. I’ve added about 30 lbs. onto my 10 rep max in the last few weeks. So that’s always good. Taking a run at 300 for 10 now. Going to hopefully build up reps, going to go for 7 next week. The rope pullups are part of my ‘do something for back/lats every day’ rule I’m implementing. I don’t know how else to describe what they are, I got them from this vid: (go to the 2:16 mark)
DeFrancosGym.com: NFL Lockout's over...Time to PLAY THE GAME! - YouTube [/quote]
I do something similar on the Smith machine, utilizing the locked bar, but I like the concept of using ropes like that. I’m going give it a try, it looks like you can get a better range of motion as you aren’t limited by your chest hitting the bar, also any work with ropes like that is a good grip exercise. Thanks for posting the video! I was a bit skeptical when it started out with a guy checking out his own hawt abz, but it got better real quick. [/quote]
HAHA yeah, I almost stopped after the guy showing off his hawt abbz, but glad I persevered. The rope really does give your grip a workout. I’ve never had my hands be sore after a workout quite like this before. Feels great
[quote]AccipiterQ wrote:
[/quote]
Thanks for posting that. You gave me some good ideas for my home gym. The dude checking out his abs was suspect, but once I saw “Defranco” in the description I knew it was going to be some good shit lol
[quote]sam_sneed wrote:
[quote]AccipiterQ wrote:
[/quote]
Thanks for posting that. You gave me some good ideas for my home gym. The dude checking out his abs was suspect, but once I saw “Defranco” in the description I knew it was going to be some good shit lol[/quote]
Ya know, I hear some mixed reviews of him…but for conditioning probably 90% of what I’ve done have come from the vids he posts. GREAT variety and great ideas.
[center]May 24, 2011[/center]
BB Squats: 27011 2859 3007 3003
Pistol Squats: BW2
Slow Standing Calf Press: 10010 12010
Feet Elevated Rope Pullups: BW10 BW*9
Didn’t work out yesterday on account of getting my Master’s :). Getting closer on 300 for 10 on squatting. I feel like I’m still accumulating strength here. Next week 275, 285, and 300 I suppose. Pistol Squats…yeah can’t do them for shit. Not sure if I’m going to keep doing them, kinda hurt my joints. The calf pressing was done suuuper slow. Did more pullups. I think I’m going to start doing sets of 5 reps of pullups between sets.
[center]May 25, 2011[/center]
Sprints: 115m, 115m, 100m, 100m, 100m, 100m
[i]So I woke up, drank some protein & water, then went to Harvard’s track. It’s pretty nice. I warmed up and then began sprinting. I had a bit of trouble interpreting the markings on the track apparently though. After the 2nd sprint I did I asked a coach who had his people running a bit on the other side of the track where 100m was, and apparently I was doing 15 extra meters. Whoops. Man I am slow. My 100s were around 15-16 seconds. That’s ok though, I’ll get better. After the first 115m I thought “hmm I’ll have to go to the gym later for some more conditioning work”. By my 3rd sprint that went out the window. Wow. Brutal.
On my 2nd to last sprint I was standing around after I finished it, feeling a cool breeze blowing across the track. A bunch of those helicopters that come off of maple trees fluttered towards me, like 500 of them. They were over my head and around me. I thought to myself that it was odd…then I noticed the buzzing. Yeah I was surrounded by a swarm of bees. I calmly walked a little ways away and then ran back to the start line. The bees left shortly thereafter. I did one more sprint, and was absolutely exhausted. I was still tired 45 minutes later after showering and having a shake. I sat in the air conditioning in my room and just relaxed. My legs, still a tad sore previous to running, were absolutely annihilated, especially at the insertion point of the quad at the knee. I immediately scheduled a massage for later in the day. The girl was this skinny chick and going in I thought "ah man…this ain’t gonna work. As usual, I was completely wrong. This girl gave me the best deep tissue/ sports massage work that I’ve EVER had. I was almost in tears when she was working out the tense areas on my quads. I’m still sore now, but it’s much more manageable. [/i]
[center]May 26, 2011[/center]
[center]Weight: 214 lbs [/center]
BB Incline: 21011 2108 2156 2204
Pullups: bw9 BW7 BW5
DB Incline: 1005
DB Rows: 1106 1106
Good workout! Really killed the incline work; I think it’s because I didn’t get to flat bench earlier this week…still felt great!
[quote]AccipiterQ wrote:
Ya know, I hear some mixed reviews of him…but for conditioning probably 90% of what I’ve done have come from the vids he posts. GREAT variety and great ideas. [/quote]
I live in NJ less than 20 miles from his gym. I met a couple local powerlifters at my last meet that train there. They had nothing but good things to say about his gym. The one kid totaled 1565 raw in the Juniors division (590 squat, 375 bench, 600 deadlift) so I’ll take his word over most.
[quote]sam_sneed wrote:
[quote]AccipiterQ wrote:
Ya know, I hear some mixed reviews of him…but for conditioning probably 90% of what I’ve done have come from the vids he posts. GREAT variety and great ideas. [/quote]
I live in NJ less than 20 miles from his gym. I met a couple local powerlifters at my last meet that train there. They had nothing but good things to say about his gym. The one kid totaled 1565 raw in the Juniors division (590 squat, 375 bench, 600 deadlift) so I’ll take his word over most.[/quote]
Wow…impressive, yeah I’d take his word.
what’s your end goal weightwise?
[quote]trav123456 wrote:
what’s your end goal weightwise?[/quote]
At first it was 208, now I’m thinking closer to 203. Over the last week I feel like things are really coming in. Funny how that works with cutting isn’t it? You can look like shit for so long, and then one day it all starts coming together.
[center]May 27, 2011[/center]
BB DL: 33510 34510 35510
DB Jump Deads: 406 407
Bat Wings: 306 305
Chins: BW7 BW*5
Rope Slams: 25, 25
Well that was fun. I really enjoy jump deads, I feel explosive when I do them. The bat wings feel like they’re helping as well. I think I’m noticeably standing up straighter when I sit at my desk and type. Probably should’ve done the chins first though, I was pretty taxed by the time I got to them here. I’m adding a metabolic component to each workout now as well, and since I love the rope I did rope slams here. I think even when this cut is done I’ll still keep the metabolic stuff going, it’s fun, I honestly think I like it as much as the weighted portion of my workouts.
[center]May 29, 2011[/center]
28 KG KB Swing Tabata: 12,12,12,12,12,12,12,11
High+Low Box Jumps (34"): 30, 25, 20 Caught shin under box on 16th jump of last set.
Palloff Presses: 50*3
Rope Slams: 30, 25
notes: Good tabata. Box jumps went well. It’s still intimidating getting up the nerve to jump on them. I did a little research on what a decent vertical jump is, and according to this: http://www.exrx.net/Calculators/VerticalJump.html The population average for vertical jumps is 19.5, and I’m doing 14.5" more than that for repeated plyos. All of them are done from a dead stop as well, so there’s no double bouncing/jumping going on here either. It’s very taxing, but I do like it. When I was about 170 several years ago I had my vert. tested and I hit 41.5". Still though, it’s a bit scary because I have this box I gotta jump onto, and if I screw it up I could face-plant. I almost experienced this on my 16th jump of my last set here. as I came up I somehow caught my right shin flush against the underside of the platform, and ended up putting my hands on top of it to brace myself, which only meant the box didn’t move as my shin smashed into it. I thought I snapped my leg for a few seconds there. My entire shin was black & blue within 20 seconds after, and couldn’t really support my weight too well. I did a few more jumps but had to stop, truthfully I probably should’ve stopped after the injury. I moved on to other exercises, but kept it short. Oddly enough the bruising was completely gone within 8 hours, and all that remained was the damage to my skin from where the box tore it open.
[center]May 31, 2011[/center]
[center] weight: 213 [/center]
BB Squats: 3005 3003
Leg Press: 45010 5407
Slow Standing Calf Press: 120*10
Elevated-foot Rope Pullups: 10, 10
Rope Pullups: 4,3
Battling Ropes: 20, 26
Rope Slams: 20
a bit burnt from Memorial Day. Nothing serious, but I’m still a bit dehydrated, and my legs almost cramped on the squatting. Decided to do some other stuff instead, I’ll get back to business next week on squatting. The rope pullups were fun, I’m thoroughly enjoying them. Battling ropes and rope slams numbers are the number of times the rope hit the floor, in the case of battling ropes that’s how many times each end side the floor.
OK, so I’m at Step 10 now, and on conditioning days I do low4. I went much lower on fat than I had been. I left those levels ridiculously high for some reason, I was so focused on carbs that I never thought about lowering my fat. I think that’s why my cut progress slowed down. Step 9 was where I was at, and Low3 was where I was on conditioning days. You can see the huge difference in fat. I’ve been doing it for a week and I already can see a difference.
But that’s what’s great about experience. Just like next time I cut I know I can drop calories much faster (if I ever go to 4000 again, which I doubt), and I know I should raise carbs more, not fat more next bulk, now I also know that when cutting I need to walk fat down as well.
[center]June 1, 2011[/center]
Sprints: 100m*6
WHY WHY WHY do I keep having shit happen when I try to sprint. The last time I tried it last season I got halfway through my 2nd sprint of the day when it felt like my quad was trying to yank my ball down to my left knee. Last week in the first sprinting session of the season I ran into a swarm of bees. This week I do my warmups, stretching, etc. First sprint I immediately feel a knot in my right quad. Now this quad had been a little tight all week. But this was ridiculous, it felt like there was a knot the size of a grapefruit in my leg. No amount of stretching or jogging fixed it. So these sprints were more like gimp-sprints. I probably should’ve not even done them, but I was pissed. At least I got the full 6 in.
[center]June 2, 2011[/center]
BB Incline Bench/Rope Pullups Superset: 21510/BW3 2206/BW4 2108/BW3
Push Press: 1855 1853 205*1 NEW PR!!
DB Unilateral Flat Bench: 6010 7010 80*9
PUPP: 1 minute
notes: Brought back the superset! Felt good. I’m starting to enjoy rope pullups even more. Good grip training and I feel like they’re a great exercise especially for my pecs for some reason. I read the Dan John article on T-Nation today (Get Your "Push" Back) and it influenced this workout quite a bit. I’ve decided to give push pressing another try, but this time really squatting down 1/4 of the way for them. Previously I would just do a superficial dip and try to pop it up. Felt pretty good today doing them with an actual mini squat before exploding up. The unilateral flat benching was also from the Dan John article, though I had done them previously a couple years ago. I forgot how much I loved this movement. Of course the last time I did them it was before I really zeroed in my training and diet, so I was doing weights like 45 lbs. for 5 reps. Also from the John article was Push-Up Position Planks. Here’s a quote from the article: As always, I start with patterning. In the world of pushes, I think the plank is the base. Oh, and I also know this: nobody I know thinks they need planks. But I have a little test that I stole from Stuart McGill, the great back expert from Canada: If you can’t hold a plank for two minutes either you’re obese or your abdominal training is wrong." Looks like I need to practice these!
[quote]AccipiterQ wrote:
[center]May 9, 2011[/center]
BB Flat: 2655 2705 2755 2803
Pullups/Dips S.S: BW9/BW7 BW6/BW6 BW5/BW6 BW4/BW4
Voyer Shrugs: 507 606
notes: I had never benched above 300 until recently, so I kept doing it pretty far into this cut, doing 1-3 rep sets. I need to keep my rep base up though and work in the 5 rep range. Followed up the flat benching with a pullup/dip super set. The dips hurt my clavicles sort of, not sure why. Trying Voyer Shrugs, and on other upper day I’m going to do bat wings to bring my rhomboids up, and hopefully cut back on the shoulder roll I have. [/quote]
I actually had the same problem with my dips. After reading CT’s spill on bench press, I actually tried incorporating the shrugged shoulder approach with my dip as well as elbows slightly more out than usual. No pain after that.
Or you could always sub in decline close-grip bench…
[quote]jskrabac wrote:
[quote]AccipiterQ wrote:
[center]May 9, 2011[/center]
BB Flat: 2655 2705 2755 2803
Pullups/Dips S.S: BW9/BW7 BW6/BW6 BW5/BW6 BW4/BW4
Voyer Shrugs: 507 606
notes: I had never benched above 300 until recently, so I kept doing it pretty far into this cut, doing 1-3 rep sets. I need to keep my rep base up though and work in the 5 rep range. Followed up the flat benching with a pullup/dip super set. The dips hurt my clavicles sort of, not sure why. Trying Voyer Shrugs, and on other upper day I’m going to do bat wings to bring my rhomboids up, and hopefully cut back on the shoulder roll I have. [/quote]
I actually had the same problem with my dips. After reading CT’s spill on bench press, I actually tried incorporating the shrugged shoulder approach with my dip as well as elbows slightly more out than usual. No pain after that.
Or you could always sub in decline close-grip bench…[/quote]
hmmm…So you keep your shoulders shrugged through the whole movement?
