...and She Screamed Claudio!

Training Training Logs
41

[quote]fr0IVIan wrote:
where do you rack, overhead? I always felt it was easier to rack at the bottom position. but what do I know…[/quote]

Yeah, up above my head. It’s not a huge reach, but for some reason I can’t get in a groove when I start the rack from down low. Different strokes for different folks, I suppose.

Pretty stellar arm day today. Just a couple notes for myself, in case I should look back on this;

  • Switched my first two bicep exercises around in order. Felt good.
  • Carpal tunnel issues on Close-grips right off the bat. Had to bail early. Right wrist specifically.
  • Weird pain in right shoulder during L-extensions. Not limiting.
  • Left-arm limiting ALL of my bicep rep ranges. Right arm probably twice as strong today.
  • Frustrating that I’m putting less emphasis on arms than ever before and it’s like the only things I can get PRs on right now, haha.

That being said, here’s how it went down.

ARMS

Skull Crushers
135 x 12 (pr)
135 x 10
125 x 14

Close-Grips (see above description)
185 x 4
115 x 18

L-Extensions superset with Tricep Kickbacks
25 x 18 — 15 x 11
15 x 34 — 10 x 20

EZ Preacher Curls (STRICT)
105 x 4 (pr)
95 x 7.5
85 x 12

Preacher Hammer Curls (all left-arm limiting)
~37.5 lbs x 7
~35 lbs x 10

Reverse EZ Bar Curl
65 x 14 (lol)

And then a very solid 30 minute DDR session afterwards.

42

Mmmkay. Chest.

Decline BB
230 x 6 (totally botched my form after the first few reps, lost my “tuck,” think maybe would have been 8-10)
215 x 9
215 x 6

Incline BB
185 x 9
175 x 6 (something odd in shoulder with collarbone alignment issues, left-arm limiting)

Flat DB Flyes
70s x 9
65s x 6
55s x 9

Think I had an epiphany today, probably only going to do 2 sets decline/2 sets incline, or something like that and focus on flyes. Flyes feel much more natural with my structure and long arms, just overall more pec stimulation. IDK if I’ll ever be a big presser so I might as well focus on the muscles I’m hitting.

Things are absolutely crazy in my life right now. It looks like I may be making a move halfway across the country with financial limitations. That might mean I go without a gym membership for a few weeks until I find SOME kind of job, shitty or not, just so I’m not eating through my limited reserve funds.

Stress = not good.

43

Wow, crazy life is crazy. Like I alluded to in the post above, it looks like in the next 2-3-4 weeks I’ll be shipping out to live in Denver with some friends. I’ll be moving out there with pretty limited financial stability, so here’s the kind of plan I for the next few months;

1.) Hope for strength, but be okay if I’m basically maintaining strength, as I start losing weight again.
2.) Going to have to get on my knees and beg my parents to help me out a LITTLE bit for the first month or two, until I get on my feet and can pay for things myself. Mostly need help with food, which I’ll probably just keep really easy with mostly protein and oats so as to be fiscally responsible.
3.) A few houses we’re looking at are REALLY close to Armbrust gym. Phil Heath and other IFBBs train there. Look it up: http://www.armbrustprogym.com/ AWESOME
4.) I’m also going to have a training partner again. He’s not quite as serious as I’d like about everything, (scared to gain weight kind of guy,) but whatever, it beats having to get through things alone.

And yeah, so that’s been crazy as shit. In the next two months I’m going to have 3 different 16 hour car trips, lots of moving, a SHIT load of job searching, and who knows what else.

Training post will come later.

44

Today was a pretty damned good shoulder day. Felt “on,” despite being totally distracted about this whole moving thing, haha. No kind of weird injury or typical pains today! Also, like I mentioned, I am cutting back on my pressing volume a little bit moving forward.

SHOULDERS

BB OHP
185 x 7 (+1)
165 x 10

DB Tri-Set (Heavy Partial Laterals, Seated Strict Laterals, Front Raises)
75s x 9
25s x 12
75s x 5 (obvi body english)

55s x 14
15s x 15
55s x 7

(no heavy partials)
25s x 16
35s x 10

Good shit.

45

board ate my post about you moving. just stick with it, buddy. you got this far, no point in stopping now.

(maybe you can make it to that boot camp thingy…)

46

Pretty solid OH pressing!

[quote]SSC wrote:

[quote]ashylarryku wrote:
Coheed reference in title . . . . I’m in![/quote]

Fuck yes, man! I was starting to lose faith in humanity for a while there. Glad to hear someone’s got their head screwed on right (and you listen to metal too, good for you.) :slight_smile:

[/quote]

Sorry I’m a bit late lol. Yes I’ve seen them a few times over the years and they ALWAYS put on a sick show. I miss their original drummer, though. Haven’t listened to them much lately, though.

47

^^in reference to your moving situation lol

Solid shoulder day. 185x7 is legit.

Dont worry about the upcoming situation my man. You’ll get through it and come out better on the other side.

48

[quote]fr0IVIan wrote:
board ate my post about you moving. just stick with it, buddy. you got this far, no point in stopping now.

(maybe you can make it to that boot camp thingy…)
[/quote]

That’s definitely a really good idea man! I’m not sure what kind of costs/travel are associated with the boot camp thing, or even how to go about sniffing around there, but that would be really cool indeed, nice idea. And thanks man, I’m just going to try to keep my nose down on to the grind!

[quote]ashylarryku wrote:
Pretty solid OH pressing!

Sorry I’m a bit late lol. Yes I’ve seen them a few times over the years and they ALWAYS put on a sick show. I miss their original drummer, though. Haven’t listened to them much lately, though.[/quote]

Haha thanks man, I’m trying to work on the OHP numbers a LOT recently, but my delts are still massively lagging, lame! lol

Coheed has definitely dropped off a fair amount in the last few years, as I believe Claudio is now the only original member left. After “In Keeping Secrets…” things really started going downhill. They’ve still had a couple gems since then, though. :slight_smile:

[quote]gregron wrote:
^^in reference to your moving situation lol

Solid shoulder day. 185x7 is legit.

Dont worry about the upcoming situation my man. You’ll get through it and come out better on the other side.[/quote]

Lol thanks man - that’s definitely what I’m hoping for. There’s a lot more good things that will come out of this than bad, but it’s the “in-between-those-periods” that are killing my soul, lolz. Looks like I will be able to train at Armbrust almost immediately though! Can’t wait to see Phil or Skip training sometime.

49

iirc your room, board and travel costs are totally covered by Biotest… but I think it’s only for the cream of the Indigo-3G crop.

50

[quote]fr0IVIan wrote:
iirc your room, board and travel costs are totally covered by Biotest… but I think it’s only for the cream of the Indigo-3G crop. [/quote]

Very interesting. I’ll definitely inquire more into that once I get on my feet out there. I doubt cost would be too much of an issue once I get a big-boy job. :smiley:

Thanks dude.

51

Holy fak. Two big things tonight, training stuff first of course. :slight_smile:

Just did sprints tonight for the first time in a while… at least 2-3 weeks. It was evident, lol!

I NEED to hammer cardio hard and every day from here on in so I can get myself as prepared as possible for the high altitude change. I didn’t notice much when I was out there as far as lifting was concerned, but I only did an arm day. Cardio was brutal though. Going for ~800 ft above sea level to 1 mile up, holy hell. Haha.

For whatever it’s worth, I’m giving my lower back ample recovery time so I think I may only squat 1-2 times until I move, with probably only one heavy lifting session. Once I’m at Armbrust I FULLY plan on going back to rack pulls. Those are such a money move for me. Anyway, I decided to do my sprints tonight in place of a leg day this week. (I know, but my LB is not getting any better right now.)

That being said…

VIBRAM SPRINTS!!!
Slow little jog to get warmed up after stretches
1 fast “run” to get even more loosened up
70 yds
70 yds
70 yds
70 yds
70 yds
70 yds
70 yds (slower sprint, losing steam)
70 yds (see above)
70 yds (see above)
65…60…blah yards (fat man run, lol!)
~60 yard skipping to get warm-ed up, little jog, walk home and stretch.

Next, on the next topic, I got the house we were trying to get out in CO, it’s official!!!

52

Since I’m giving my lower back a break, that means I’ll also be doing very little back thickness work. DB Rows, BB rows, DLs all fuck with my back, and that’s about all I have to work with in my little home dungeon, before I leave.

So I did some dynamic shit. Focused mostly on the upper back as a whole, with only a LITTLE emphasis on lats due to aforementioned reasons. It was fun.

[u]Upper Back / Back[/u]

Hang Cleans (Do NOT judge weights. Never been coached on 'em, don’t Oly lift seriously or ever. This was JUST for upper back stimulation, really.)
165 x 6
165 x 6
145 x 8

Rack Chins
+100 lbs x 5 (Heavy)
+65 lbs x 6 (Set doesn’t count, fucking goddamn EZ bar was falling off my lap entire time)
+25 lbs x 13
None x 10?

Strict DB Shrug with 5 second squeeze
85s x 10
85s x 8
75s x 8

Rear DB Flyes on Low-Incline bench
45s x 10
35s x 13
25s x 11

Afterwards I did 20 or so solid minutes of DDR, but my stomach started hurting really badly during because I think I had to take a shit.

Good day all around.

53

congrats on getting the house. Thats baller. Had you dont sprints before in your vibrams? I bet that was killer on your lower legs huh?

54

[quote]gregron wrote:
congrats on getting the house. Thats baller. Had you dont sprints before in your vibrams? I bet that was killer on your lower legs huh?[/quote]

Thanks!

Yeah, I’ve done a few different sets of sprints in stuff in my Vibrams, but I think last night was definitely probably the most intense so far.

And yeah, my ankles and lower shins are giant puddles of pudding today. :slight_smile:

55

lol I’m thinking DDR in vibrams for hardcoreness

56

[quote]fr0IVIan wrote:
lol I’m thinking DDR in vibrams for hardcoreness[/quote]

God that would be the worst. Playing on Arcade pads are already more difficult, add all the grippiness of Vibrams and you have a disaster just waiting to happen, lol! Tell ya what though, when I get to Denver I will try to find an arcade and snag a video for you, haha. My PC program with all my videos is not really working at the moment, hence why I haven’t gotten a vid up. Boo.

Well, today was another CRAZY day outside of lifting! All sorts of shit regarding the move, jobs, future schooling grad programs and all sorts of what-have-yous. Still got it and had a fucking awesome day.

By the way, I’m just accepting that my arms are awesome and I’m going to pursue freak status with them. They’re already growing/getting stronger faster than any other body part… I’m half contemplating training them twice/week out in CO so I can be like a fat, white Phil Heath, lol!

[u]ARMS BABY[/u]

EZ-Bar Skull Crushers
145 x 12
145 x 10
140 x 10

Close-Grip BP (Slow, big squeeze obvi)
185 x 8
165 x 10

L-Extensions
30s x 11
25s x 14 SUPERSET WITH
Kickbacks - 10s x 16

Strict Preacher Hammer Curls
50s x 7 (fuckin heavy man)
45s x 9
40s x 11

Strict EZ Preacher Curls
95 x 7
85 x 9
75 x 12

K-Pipe Curls
30s x 14
25s x 13 (lol, biceps were too pumped to keep going)

And then a very kickass 25-30 minutes of DDR!

Very close to being back in “real” shape again, so that’s great. Abs/obliques/even some intercostals are starting to peek through. That’s good news.

57

as much as I hate putting my own horn down…

you’re doing aweome man

picks horn back up to play myself an amaazing tune

58

yeaaaaa gotta do em hamma curls if you want that crazy step in your brachioradialis!

and arcade pads pshhh… I bought the official made in Taiwan PVC plastic platform! the buttons worked for two whole weeks!

59

[quote]Ct. Rockula wrote:
as much as I hate putting my own horn down…

you’re doing aweome man

picks horn back up to play myself an amaazing tune[/quote]

Lol, thanks Rock! Don’t worry, we all bask your glorious awesomeness every day, so once in a while a peon has to got to get some recognition, haha. :stuck_out_tongue: Juuuust playing (about the needing recognition, not basking in your glorious awesomeness.)

[quote]fr0IVIan wrote:
yeaaaaa gotta do em hamma curls if you want that crazy step in your brachioradialis!

and arcade pads pshhh… I bought the official made in Taiwan PVC plastic platform! the buttons worked for two whole weeks![/quote]

Fuckin A man, my forearms are really pathetic. They don’t even look like I lift a lot of times, haha… so thin. Disappointing to say the least.

Hahaha, awesome dude. I definitely had one of the $300 Cobalt Flux pads back in the day. That fucker actually lasted like 2-3 years supporting my fat 300-lb ass, I was pretty impressed. RIP awesome pad. :frowning:

60

do you use straps at all?