[center]August 1, 2011 Conditioning[/center]
Incline Walking: 40 minutes / 10% incline /2.9mph
Added 10 minutes here, still feels great on my hips & knees, they’re much looser after. Also did not have a session yesterday since I went to the beach. Feels good man.
[center]August 1, 2011 Upper Body[/center]
BB Flat Bench: 235*11 240*10 245*8
Pullups: 10, 7, 7
DB Unilateral Flat Bench: 100*4 105*2
Banded Push Press: 135*8 155*4 165*2
P.U.P.P.: 1:30 1:00
[i] I’m really dialing it in on carb timing pre-workout. As long as I’m done about 25 minutes before leaving, by the time I get on to the gym floor it’ll be about 40 minutes since finishing and I’m starting to peak. Still adding weight onto my 10 rep max here for benching. Experimenting with pullups here, T-Nation had a great article on some techniques to try. Today before doing pullups I tried the no-hands pullup, need better straps for it though. I like the move of unilateral bench to here, going to dial back the weights though since the flat bench before taxes me pretty bad. The new thing of the day was mini-banded Push Press. I REALLY liked this, I had to fight all the way with it, should help my over-head press as well. Finished off with some PUPP. Here are some videos of the Push Pressing; the last video the safety bars came off.
[/i]
[center]August 2, 2011 Conditioning[/center]
10% Incline Walking:40 minutes/ 2 miles / 3.0mph
The usual A.M. fasted incline walking. Nothing special.
[center]August 2, 2011 Supplements[/center]
Here’s a quick look at what I’m currently taking for supplements, and why:
Optimum Nutrition 100% Whey Gold Standard: 1 scoop every morning. This is more of a fail-safe to make sure I get enough complete protein each day. It also contains glutamine and BCAAs. The ON brand is far and away the most superior brand of protein on the market right now.
1000mg Fish Oil Softgels: 6 per day; 3 in the morning, 3 in the evening. EVERYONE should be taking fishoil. Here's a good article on why; you could look up 100 others as well. Note: When people talk about taking fish-oil they often say 1000mg, or 500mg when referring to the pill size. This is NOT the actual EPA/DHA content. In the case of those 1000mg fish oil softgels each one contains 180mg EPA & 120mg of DHA. So my grand total for the day is 1800mg of EPA & DHA, which is the stuff that gives fish oil it's potent effects.
800mg Curcumin with Bioperine: 1 per day. Seriously, why are you NOT taking curcumin? You can read the research for yourself, but fat metabolizing, anti-catabolic, cancer fighting, cholesterol lowering, Parkinson's fighting, inflammation reducing (THAT'S the big one), tumor-shrinking supplements don't grow on trees. It's basically a natural, legal clenbuterol.
1000mg Vitamin D3: 2 per day. This one should be mandatory for anyone in the northern hemisphere. Here's a great article on Vitamin D. This and fish oil are probably the two most important supplements someone can take. Almost every human being is deficient in Vitamin-D which is too bad because Vitamin D is great for preventing things like cancer, heart disease, etc. The current USDA recommended dose for Vitamin D is woefully low, and it will be raised during the next round of updates to their recommendations. And since a lot of people won't follow the link I posted to the article, here's some info for you:
[i] "In one mind-blowing study (Melamed, et al.) using population data, researchers found that total mortality was 26% higher in those with the lowest 25(OH)D levels compared with the highest. And a meta-analysis of 18 randomized controlled trials found that supplemental vitamin D significantly reduced total mortality. That means quite simply this: vitamin D supplementation prolongs life.
According to the Vitamin D Council, current research has implicated vitamin D deficiency as a major factor in the pathology of at least 17 varieties of cancer.
Vitamin D may protect against both Type I and Type II diabetes.
Low D may contribute to chronic fatigue, depression, and Seasonal Affective Disorder.
Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s sufferers have been found to have lower levels of D.
Low levels of vitamin D may contribute to “Syndrome X” with associated hypertension, obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.
Administration of dietary vitamin D has been shown to lower blood pressure and restore insulin sensitivity.[/i]
That about wraps it up. Time to go to the gym! Leg day!
[center]August 2, 2011 Lower Body[/center]
BB Squats: 275*3 305*3 315*1 325*X..wtf?
BB Front Squats: 205*3 225*3 245*2
Double Mini-Banded Hip Thrusters: 12, 13, 12
Pullup Iso-Hold: 6 seconds, 14 seconds
KB Plank Drag: 28kg*1
Ab Wheel: 8,9
Felt like a really good session. Plus I GOT A NEW JOB!!! I can’t wait, it’s such a relief. But I digress, getting back to low rep squats here, I did them in the cage instead of the squat rack. I do NOT like doing them in the cage, I can never tell if I’m low enough so I stop too high, then start dropping again, but I’ve killed all my momentum by then, as on the 325 attempt here. Back to the squat rack next week. Front squats went great, added reps on last 2 sets. Added in hip thrusters with the bands here, I think I need stronger bands though. I’ll post a video of me doing them. The pullup iso-holds are no joke…I’ll post a vid of them at the end here, that isn’t me doing them, it’s from a great T-Nation article on pullups that I read yesterday. I highly recommend it. On my first attempt of the iso-holds my middle back cramped & charlie horsed. Not like one of the muscles…all of them. Got back to doing plank drags, finished with some ab wheel. Also, either the front squats or iso holds gave me some weird bruising on my biceps.
[center]August 3, 2011 Conditioning: Sprinting[/center]
300m Sprint: 1
200m Sprint: 2
100m Sprint: 3
50 m Sprint: 4
Total: 1200m
WHOOOOOOOOOO! Hit my goal of 1200m in a session. On the 300 I rounded the curve and thought I was dead, but figured what the heck, the last 100m of it was a straightaway so I did it. The 2nd 200 that I ran was probably the most crushing experience I’ve had doing conditioning. My body literally felt like it was shutting down. Good thing I brought an extra bottle of water. I also like the 50m sprints I do at the end, I feel like I can just go all out on them and not worry about blacking out. GREAT session, AND I was done quicker than any of my previous ones. Left my apartment at 8:30, was back by 9:30, and that’s with a 10 minute walk each way.
Dude, you hardly let that chick pass you before you started the rope slams, asshole!..lol
[quote]jskrabac wrote:
Dude, you hardly let that chick pass you before you started the rope slams, asshole!..lol[/quote]
sometimes I do them as people are about to cross them. Alpha as fuck.
Congrats again on the new job! And I’m checking out your banded hip thrusters. I’m a fan of the weighted glute bridge myself so I’ll have to check that out as a variation.
I’ve seen the big ropes in my gym but didn’t know what to do with them. I bet those would really work my core, when I can really work it again. 
[quote]Powerpuff wrote:
Congrats again on the new job! And I’m checking out your banded hip thrusters. I’m a fan of the weighted glute bridge myself so I’ll have to check that out as a variation.
I’ve seen the big ropes in my gym but didn’t know what to do with them. I bet those would really work my core, when I can really work it again. [/quote]
I love glute bridges. My ass is extremely large though, so it’s hard to get the bar over my waist where it needs to go.
Have fun with the ropes, they’re a great workout!
dude if I ever saw anyone doing that rope shit in my gym I’d die laughing.
I want to do them though and will this week.
[center]August 7, 2011[/center]
moving: moved grandmother for like 5 hours.
it was hot, humid,and I was hungry the whole time. not fun
[center]August 8, 2011[/center]
BB Flat Bench: 24011 24510 2505
Pullups: 454 454 453
Pullup Iso Hold: 25 seconds
Unilateral DB Flat Bench: 1052 1004
Push Press: 1356 1853 2051 2051
Face Pulls: 4012 5012 70*8
Continuing to add on to my 10 rep max on benching. That 250 set I was just totally exhausted for. I’m going to keep adding weight on for pullups…I realize I keep trying to get stronger at them, but never consistently add weight. Iso Hold went well too, used chalk and really squeezed mid-back. Push Press went great, I need to focus more on dipping back instead of putting stress on my knees and pushing them forward when I dip down on Push Pressing. Added face-pulls, I want to make sure I don’t end up with a kyphosis going on my spine. Wasn’t sure if they were working my rhomboids properly then I tried flexing them between sets…yeah…the face pulls are working just fine.
[quote]Ct. Rockula wrote:
dude if I ever saw anyone doing that rope shit in my gym I’d die laughing.
I want to do them though and will this week.
[/quote]
SO much fun.
Where do you actually live? I swear your location changes week to week
[center]August 9, 2011 Lower[/center]
BB Squats: 275*5 305*3 315*2
BB Squats From Pins: 225*4 245*3 265*2
Lumberjack Squats: 180*6 205*4
BB Front Squats: 205*3 225*2 250*1
P.U.P.P.: 2:25!!
OK, so was stuck in the cage again for squatting, felt good this time. Working on sitting down, not back so much when squatting. Then I tried some squatting from the pins…wow. I like it a lot, may lead off with it next week. Lumberjacks…ok, so on the set of 205, as you’ll see in the video below, I go to throw the weight up, as always, and go to catch it. Unfortunately I miss with my right hand and end up with it on top of the barbell, which normally would be ok, if I caught it with my left hand. Unfortunately I caught it with only my left pinky, before I could snatch it with my right hand. I’m fairly certain I popped the pinky out of joint before it went back into place during the set. Front squats went well, as did the PUPP, with a new record! Now for some vids! The first is squatting from the pins.
Next up is my first set of lumberjack squats, I really like these for hitting my quads.
And finally the set where I almost tear my damn pinky off.
[center]August 10, 2011 Sprinting[/center]
300m Sprint: 1
200m Sprint: 2
100m Sprint: 3
50m Sprint: 6
This is my first session ever done after work. Wasn’t sure if the extra food throughout the day would fuel me or weigh me down. Still can’t tell. What I do know is that the wind is different in the afternoon, I was running into a stiff headwind for almost all of the 300, the entire first 200, as well as 2 of the 100s and 3 of the 50s. I never realized what a difference that makes. Running the other 200 back to where I started was still a traumatic experience, but it was visibly easier without the headwind. Same on the 100s, I could feel a palpable difference. At the end I was gassed but I did a couple more 50s to get to 1300 meters. I can’t picture wanting to do more than that ever.
[center] August 11, 2011[/center]
BB Incline Bench: 2453 2453 2352
1.5 Pullups: 7, 4, 3
BB Press: 1357 1553 1602
DB Rows: 120*5
Rope Pullups: 8, 7, 6
Rope Slams; 20, 25
[i]
Cutting is odd. I’m used to setting records for myself all the time when I’m gaining weight, so to be puttering along at a steady level of strength always seems odd to me. That’s why I switch up and try to find 10 rep maxes on things like deadlifting or bench, because I hate the idea that I’m going to be moving the same weight for several months until I decide to do my next mass building phase. It seems like progress because my 10 rep max will move up week to week as my nervous system adapts to doing higher reps on something I’ve usually done lower reps on. This is also a great time to be experimenting with exercises I’ll use on my next mass phase. So for lat width I’ve been experimenting with new pullup variations, and for shoulder girdle strength I finally started doing standing presses consistently. Really killed the 135 BB press today, could’ve gotten 8 but wanted to save my energy for higher weights…unfortunately I had already tired myself out.
Also! I’m in the planning stages of a completely new routine that takes me completely away from the heavy/light upper/lower split. More details to come. [/i]
what did you attach the bands to for your hip thrusts? and… do you know what the difference is between hip thrusts and weighted bridges (in terms of what gets activated or whatever)? i’ve been doing barbell bridges for glute activation and have some bands… but not doubles of bands… would like to use bands rather than barbells though, if possible, because it takes up a bit less space and things get crowded sometimes.
[quote]alexus wrote:
what did you attach the bands to for your hip thrusts? and… do you know what the difference is between hip thrusts and weighted bridges (in terms of what gets activated or whatever)? i’ve been doing barbell bridges for glute activation and have some bands… but not doubles of bands… would like to use bands rather than barbells though, if possible, because it takes up a bit less space and things get crowded sometimes.[/quote]
There’s a dumbbell on either side of the rack that you can’t see. Next time I do them I’ll take a video for you. From my experience, I feel glute bridges (using the barbell, starting on the ground) more in the glutes, and the hip thrusters more in my hamstrings and hips.
beat ya