[center]July 11, 2011 P.M. Workout Upper Body [/center]
BB Flat Bench: 2753 2655 2654
BB Rows: 22510 2458 2556
Push Press: 1351 1851 2051 225X 225X
DB Flat Bench-50 reps: 8514 8510 858 856 857 85*6 (51)
Wide-Grip Rope Pullups: 4, 3
So before this one I decided I was going to try 225 again on push pressing, and also go for 50 reps in as few sets as possible on db benching. As such I kept a little in the tank on flat benching and the bb rows. Though I will say on the rows I’m getting back into the groove. Anyhoo, missed both attempts at 225 on push pressing. I think I need to get better technique wise on them and make the dip and pop at the bottom transition more fluidly into the actual press. I may work on this with light weights on Thursday. DB Benching went well too…thought it was going to be a walk in the park after that first set, but the lactic acid hit killed me.
[center]July 12, 2011 A.M. Conditioning[/center]
Plyo Bench Pushups: 6,6,6
Side-Plank Cable Rows: 45*10 60*10
Ab-Wheel: 9,9
7KG MB Slams: 50
P.U.P.P: 1:40
Decided doing high reps on plyo pushups makes no sense; if I’m using enough explosive force on them I shouldn’t be able to get much past 6 reps. For the metabolic work I did some ball slams, never done them in non-tabata form before, it was kind of fun. Side-Plank Cable Rows are a new one, got them from a Lee Boyce article here on page 2, see the picture below. I need to focus on keeping my body in a straight line, I have a tendency to stick my rear back a bit.
[center]June 12, 2011 P.M. Lower Body[/center]
BB Squats: 265*10 275*8 285*6
BB Good Mornings: 135*6 145*6
BB Front Squats: 225*3 245*1
Neutral Grip Pullups: 11, 9
Back in the groove with squats. Next week I start with 275, hopefully hit it for 10 and then get 285 for 8 and 295 for 6. I’m going to keep up with the front squats. On the pullups what makes me stop is that my arms actually get fatigued from gripping the bars for so long. I may use wrist wraps next time and see how many I can get. Or not.
[center]June 13, 2011[/center]
100m sprints: 2
200m sprints: 2
100m sprints: 2
wow…So we’ve got a ‘heatwave’ in Boston right now. Basically it’s above 90 for a few days, aka the only few days we’ll have real nice summer weather in New England and give everyone an opportunity to bitch about the heat. Personally I love it. I’m more comfortable when it’s 95 and humid as a jungle than when it’s 75 and dry. It was about 83 this morning when I went to sprint. I’ve found that since I started doing the 200s the last couple weeks the 100s have gotten MUCH easier. I take maybe 45 seconds between those first 2. The 200s still kill me, but then at the end today I’m standing by my shoes that I use to walk over in and my water bottle, and figured what the hell, and ran another 100m down the track, took a minute then decided to run the 100m back to where all my stuff was. The lactic acid hit on that final 100m to round out my first ever 800m day was unbelievable. May start sprinting Saturdays too. I’m loving it.
[center]July 14, 2011 A.M.: Rope Extravaganza[/center]
Battling Ropes: 50, 50, 30
Lateral Battling Ropes: 30, 35
Rope Slams: 20, 25
Plate Transfer Planks (2.5,5,10,10): 2
Rope Fest 2K11 was fun. Never really done any rope work fresh, I usually do it at the end of my workouts. On the 2nd set of battling ropes I looked like a wind-up toy running out of steam; I started out so fast and ended up moving in slow motion as the lactic acid built up. Did some more rope work after that too, had fun. Plate Transfer Planks (from Lee Boyce) are a LOT harder than I thought they would be, the side to side weighted movement of the arms really adds a degree of difficulty.
Quick Note:
I may need to give my core a rest at some point soon. On my Paloff Presses on Sunday 50 lbs. was actually twisting me and pulling me back towards the weight stack so hard that I had to take a much wider stance than normal.
Then on squatting on Tuesday a couple of the reps actually folded me over, it was like my abdominal wall just gave out almost. I still completed the reps since it happened earlier in the set, but my core is definitely exhausted at this point. I’m probably going to give it time to rest this PM workout, tomorrow, Saturday, and then possibly Sunday too.
[center]July 14, 2011[/center]
BB Incline Bench: 2208 2208 2109
Pullups: 256 255 205
DB Incline Bench: 907 906 857
Standing Military Presses: 1354 1403 1452
Good session, I accidentally left 220 on for my 2nd set of incline. It’s funny what your mind can do as far as lifting, or anything else for that matter. I thought I was pressing 210. As I did it I thought it felt slightly heavier than it should, but still finished the 8 reps I was “supposed” to. When I got up I glanced at the bar and realized I had left the 5 on each side. Added a rep on the pullups, enjoyed some incline benching, and then did some military presses. I’m still working on my strength there, I have literally never done them consistently and I look forward to my next bulk when I can hopefully start adding some serious weight onto them.
[center]July 15, 2011 Deadlifting![/center]
400*9 410*4 420*2
DB Jump Deads: 60*7
Rope Pullups: 5,5
Wow…so close. That last rep literally took everything I had on the 400. I’m hoping that by doing heavier sets afterward I can build a tad bit of strength going in to next week and get that final rep at 400. I did NOT feel like doing anything else after that, so just did a few sets of accessory stuff. Went home and actually passed out in bed for about 20 minutes.
Just a note, since I have an “HD” camcorder on my phone now, I may start posting some of the stuff I do. I’ll try a test run with box jumps this Sunday probably.
[center]July 17, 2011 Day Off![/center]
Jack Shit: 1*1
Took the day entirely off and went to the beach in Gloucester. Last week before we left for Gloucester I did my regular conditioning day. Honestly though this week I feel like I need a break for the day. As I noted a couple posts earlier my core is exhausted, and my knees & legs are sore and tired especially after that 400*9 on Friday. So I took the day off to recharge. Still kept my diet intact though. I actually do feel better. One bad thing though, it was about 95 and no clouds in the sky so the sand was super hot. At one point I went to get some plastic silverware from the snack shack so I could eat my chicken, and the sand was so hot I got a giant blister on the bottom of my right big toe. Hopefully this doesn’t interfere with my A.M. workout tomorrow, which will actually be my regular Sunday one. Also! I bought two mini bands from elitefts, can’t wait til they come. Hope everyone had a nice day, and here’s a video of the beach:
[center]July 18, 2011 Conditioning[/center]
28KG KB Swings (1 minute rest between): 35, 35, 35
34" Plyo Box Jumps: 30
34" Seated Plyo Box Jumps: 18
Paloffs: 50*3
Ab Wheel: 9
Still feel a little flat from roasting at the beach yesterday, but kept at it anyway! The problem with doing KB swing tabatas is that the 28kg one is the heaviest at my gym; so I’m only doing like 12 or so swings before I take 10 seconds off. I decided to try mixing it up a little. By the third set of swings I was tired, but I think I could’ve gone 50, 40, 35. Added a few reps to the plyo seated jumps. I thoroughly enjoy them, really trying to concentrate on making it all one fluid movement as opposed to standing up off the box and then jumping.
[center]How Did You Start?[/center]
I left high school after my sophomore year, and started attending a local college full-time. The credits I earned there counted towards high school as well, and I would have enough to graduate with my h.s. diploma after that year in college. However, our h.s. had a gym requirement.
I had thought about lifting before, even tinkered a few times with the plates my dad had in the cellar; my dad had been lifting or exercising in some form since his late teens. However since I was a teenager myself I didn’t want to be just like him and never actually tried lifting. It’s too bad because I missed out on that mid-teens T-Spike, but I digress.
I decided that the easiest way to fulfill my gym requirement would be to go a couple times per week at the college’s gym, and have a trainer sign off on it. I’ll never forget my first fitness test. The trainer put like 65 lbs. on the bar and had me try benching it. 0 reps. Thing was pinned to my chest.
I was embarrassed, but despite that, after my first workout ever I was hooked and immediately started going 5 times per week. I got credit for the gym time and graduated early. Fortunately I didn’t become a bench jockey I focused on my lower body for like the first two years of training, actually to the detriment of my upper body strength. It took several years before that imbalance actually evened out.
It’s nice that my dad had always been active, so I had someone to talk to about my workouts pretty much whenever I wanted, and still do to this day 12 years later.
as always, posted here too: http://hurrrrrrrrr.blogspot.com/
[center]July 18, 2011[/center]
BB Flat Bench: 22512 23010 23510
BB Rows: 23510 2455 2555
Push Press: 1853 2051 135*8
Narrow-Grip Pullups: 9,8,5
Shoulder-Touch Planks: 0:23 0:20
Since I’ve never consistently done flat benching for higher reps consistently in the past I’ve decided to try it for the next few weeks and see how high I can get my 10 rep max. Rows sucked today, I was doing them over a bench, since the racks were all occupied. Future generations of scientists and historians will recount my 205 rep on push press as the worst rep ever in push press history. I dipped too much and was awkward as hell locking out. I managed to tweak both knees, my lower back, both shoulders, and even scraped my nose on the way down. Tried narrow-grip pullups today; not sure I ever have done them before. I enjoyed them. Good planks today too.
[center]July 19, 2011 AM Conditioning[/center]
Plyo Bench Pushups: 6,5,5
Battling Ropes: 40, 35,30
7KG MB Slams: 100(!!)
I’m taking it easy on the core this session; last week as I noted, I ended up basically doing a 300 lbs. good morning on a couple squatting reps in the PM on account of my core being exhausted. Not good times. This workout here however was definitely good times. Felt a good pop on the plyo bench pushpus. Finished with ball slams, got to 50, decided on 75, and then just kept going. Was toasted after that!
300 lbs good mornings dont sound fun is the least bit.
I enjoy your log dude, you make steady progress and have a great attitude. Keep up the good work but for the love of god, rest you core 
Thanks! It was only like one rep that I had to do it on one rep.
[center]July 19, 2011 PM Legs[/center]
BB Squats: 270*10 280*7 290*5
BB Front Squats: 225*2 245*1 265*1 280*1 NEW PR!!
DB Bulgarian Split Squats: 80*1...seriously.
One-Arm KB Plank Drag: 28*1
P.U.P.P.: 1:25
It may be time to go back to low-rep higher weights on squats. Honestly I’m just beat with the two-adays conditioning-wise. On the squats it’s not so much the weight that gets to me; it’s the fact that my heart is about to explode by the last reps on the sets. Also: NEW FRONT SQUAT PR. Very happy with that, considering the previous record of 275 was when I was 231 lbs. the last week in February. I’m 205 now so that was a major accomplishment. I tried split-squatting which I want to get back into, but honestly I was just beat at that point so I did some kb plank drags, with less weight to make sure my form was solid, and then a push up plank press at the end. Great stuff.
[center]July 20, 2011: Sprinting[/center]
200m sprints: 1
100m sprints: 6
50m sprints: 2
Great session, feel much better leading off with the 200s,although I just did one today. Upped my total to 900 meters. The 50s at the end felt great. It was pretty warm out, almost 85 by the time I finished. Going to be a hot one today!
So these are mini bands; I’m super excited about them. I’m already planning what to use them for. They got here just in time; tomorrow morning I’m doing these:
then tomorrow PM workout after my incline bench work and lat work I’m going to try some explosive dynamic benching with these. Can’t wait! Mainly because I don’t know what dynamic benching is, or how I’m supposed to do it.
The bands came with a laminated copy of the resistance levels plus an autographed copy of Dave Tate’s book. Good stuff! Thanks elitefts.com
[center]July 21, 2011[/center]
Double mini-banded KB Swings: 28kg20 28kg20 28kg*20
Mini-Banded Broad Jumps: 5
Double-Mini Banded Broad Jumps: 5
Lateral High Box Jumps: 15
Did the kb swings I video-linked to in yesterdays post. Wow…the resistance at the top 1/4 is intense, and then the acceleration down from there is explosive. DEFINITELY felt some crazy hamstring stuff afterward, kind of like I had been jumping as high as I could for 5 straight minutes. Tried attached bands to my feet for vertical jumping…did not end well. Trainer suggested broad jumping anchored to the TRX. Ended much better. Great session!
