Apology Accepted Captain Needa

Training Training Logs
141

18-March Strength Circuits

Cycle 5 Day B2

Reps 5 4 3 2 1
Squat 245 255 260 265 270
Dip 35 45 55 65 70
SGHP 140 145 150 155 165
Press 95 100 105 110 115
Pull up35 45 55 65 70

I was stinkin’ sore from leg hypertrophy two days ago. Good cure for leg soreness? More squats.

Made all the weights today. Since I hit press 3 out of 4 times this week I will attempt to go up 2.5 lbs for cycle 6. I will leave dips as is - I hit the weight but I did not ‘own’ it. Same for Pull-ups. I am getting closer on pull-ups but they are still not where I want them. Squat and SGHP will both go up 5 lbs.

Last night I increased the weighted vest from 52 to 60lbs. I did not feel much conditioning difference (I walk 2.5 - 3 miles depending upon the route my wife and I take) but my shoulders did feel the extra. The body continues to adapt…

Update on Goals -
On 1-January I posted the following goals and where I was:

Press - 1 plate per side; 30 lbs away
Bench - 2 plates per side; 35 lbs away
Squat - 3 plates per side; 20 lbs away
DL - 4 plates per side; 40 lbs away

Since resetting weight after my back strain I am currently at:
Press - 115, 20 lbs away (+10)
Bench - 200, 25 lbs away (+10)
Squat - 270, 45 lbs away (-25)
DL - 340, 65 lbs away (-25)

I am not too worried about the regression on the Squat and DL. First, because I know that I could hit my previous highs and second because I am building a better base than before.

If I continue to add weight to the bar at my current pace, I should hit my goal approximately:
Press - End of May / June
Bench - End of April / May
Squat - Mid May
DL - Mid May

Given this, I will round these together and shoot for the 1plate/2plate/3plate/4plate goal by 1-June. Then I will assess where my weight and body fat is at and perhaps consider a quick cut. Anyway, I will decide when I know more. Plus, I will have a few business trips to work around.

142

19-March Chest/Tri Hypertrophy

Incline Press 100 x 12, 4 sets
Floor Press 135 x 10, 140 x 10, 140 x 10, 140 x 10
Incline DB Fly 27.5 x 15, 4 sets

Tri DB Overhead ext 15 x 15, 4 sets
super set with
Skull crushers 50 x 15, 4 sets

Push-ups BWx8

Took it easier today; tomorrow I am pushing for a new PR on bench with the next cycle of strength circuits.

143

Nice progress, you are right in not sweating over the regression too as you seem to have little problem gaining strength in lower body lifts.

144

[quote]RATTLEHEAD wrote:
Nice progress, you are right in not sweating over the regression too as you seem to have little problem gaining strength in lower body lifts.[/quote]

Thanks Rattle. I appreciate the encouragement. I know that I am making progress but it always feels so slow. I am trying to remember to enjoy the journey.

Now that I am actually eating some calories I am happier overall and in the past few weeks I feel like I am making good hypertrophy progress. I will have to post some progress pics soon.

Cheers,
Needa

145

20-March Strength Circuits

Cycle 6, Day A1

Reps 5 4 3 2 1
Deadlift 295 300 310 330 345
Bench 175 180 190 195 205
SGHP 150 155 160 165 175
Press 97.5 102.5 107.5 112.5 117.5
Pull up 35 45 55 65 70

So today was the beginning of a new cycle. Deads felt good. So did SGHP. Pull-ups felt the best they have in a while. I may actually be able to move the weight on pull-ups shortly. Press went up easy. New PR on that movement.

All that said, I missed the last rep (205) of bench. The 2-rep 195 on the penultimate set was a PR, but 205 dropped to my chest and did not budge from there. Thank you power rack! My rationalization is that I did chest/tri hypertrophy the day before. So I will leave the cycle as programmed and see how I do on day A2.

All in all a good day. PR in press. PR on 2RM bench. Everything else felt strong.

146

21-March Back / Shoulder Hypertrophy

Partial Pull-Ups BW x 12, 4 sets
super set with
Lateral DB Raises 11.2 x 15, 4 sets

Barbell Rows 95 x 12, 4 sets
super set with
Reverse DB Fly 11.2 x 15, 4 sets

T-Bar Row 70 x 15, 4 sets
super set with
Face Pulls Stiff band x 15, 4 sets

Note on the barbell rows: Until now I have been using a shoulder-width grip and have been pulling the bar to just above my navel. Today, after consulting a book, I moved to a wider grip and pulled to my chest. I had tried pulling to my chest in the past but without a wide grip my wrist was ‘breaking’ and caused issues. I went wide and used straps today to try and ensure I was using my back. Form felt correct; I will continue to fine tune.

147

22-March Conditioning: 60 lb vest for 2.5 mile walk.

Was sore and tired after a night camping.

148

23-March Strength Circuit

Cycle 6 Day B1

Reps 5 4 3 2 1
Squat 250 260 265 270 275
Dip 35 45 55 65 70
SGHP 145 150 155 160 170
Press 97.5 102.6 107.5 112.5 117.5
Pull up 35 45 55 65 70

149

24-March Legs

Hamstring Curls 40 x 15, 3 sets 45 x 15, 1 set
Front Squats 135 x 12, 4 sets

SLDL 185 x 12, 4 sets
super set with
trap-bar leaning squats 140 x 20, 4 sets

Upped weight on last set of hamstring curls. Added 2 reps to each set of front squats. Added 2 reps to each rep of SLDL. Went with a high-rep scheme on leaning trap-bar (dead-squat) squats.

Curious to see if my quads get sore.

150

Oh and by the way, Mrs. Needa authorized me to say: you know that it was a good ‘session’ when your lady needs to foam roll post-coitus…

… or we are just getting old.

151

[quote]Captain Needa wrote:
Oh and by the way, Mrs. Needa authorized me to say: you know that it was a good ‘session’ when your lady needs to foam roll post-coitus…

… or we are just getting old.

[/quote]

lol, what was she foam rolling?!

152

[quote]RATTLEHEAD wrote:

[quote]Captain Needa wrote:
Oh and by the way, Mrs. Needa authorized me to say: you know that it was a good ‘session’ when your lady needs to foam roll post-coitus…

… or we are just getting old.

[/quote]

lol, what was she foam rolling?!
[/quote]

I am not exactly sure… she kept referring to something called a ‘french tickler’?

153

[quote]Captain Needa wrote:

[quote]RATTLEHEAD wrote:

[quote]Captain Needa wrote:
Oh and by the way, Mrs. Needa authorized me to say: you know that it was a good ‘session’ when your lady needs to foam roll post-coitus…

… or we are just getting old.

[/quote]

lol, what was she foam rolling?!
[/quote]

I am not exactly sure… she kept referring to something called a ‘french tickler’?
[/quote]

lol!

154

25-March

Cycle 6 Day A2

Reps 5 4 3 2 1
Deadlift 295 300 310 330 345
Bench 175 180 190 195 205
SGHP 150 155 160 165 175
Press 97.5 102.5 107.5 112.5 117.5
Pull up 35 45 55 65 70

Bench has stalled for me: I missed the 2nd rep on 195. I tried for 200 on the 1 rep and missed that too. I will reset to Cycle 5 weights for bench next week. Everything else felt strong today, including press. Bench is definitely my weakest movement.

I have not been sleeping as much as I need. Work and family obligations are simply not allowing it. I sleep fairly well - just not enough. I am debating internally about lowering my training volume. My food intake seems on point. I knew when designing this current regime that it is not optimized for fast strength gains. The problem is that I love training - it is my one personal outlet and helps me maintain balance in my life.

One possible scheme that I am considering is:
Day 1 - Strength Circuit A1
Day 2 - Strength Circuit B1
Day 3 - MetCon
Day 4 - Strength Circuit A2
Day 5 - Strength Circuit B2
Day 6 - MetCon
<rest and/or repeat>

This would remove all the hypertrophy from my schedule but would keep me busy on those days. And I like to do weighted carries, barbell circuits, etc for MetCon.

I still need to think this trough a bit. The good part of this plan is that I would be retaining and focusing on the strength circuits. It has only been 90 days on my current regime and I AM progressing. It would be nice to add a few more hours to my day for sleep.

155

26-March Chest Hypertrophy

Incline Bench 100 x 15, 4 sets
Floor Press 135 x 12, 4 sets
Incline DB Fly 27.5 x 15, 4 sets
Push-ups BW x 10, 4 sets

No super sets today and no Tri’s. Partially for time and partially for higher quality, lower volume. Floor press reps went to 12 from 10. That was a struggle.

Still thinking through the idea of dropping the hypertrophy and doing conditioning on the non-strength days. Started a spreadsheet of various AMRAP combinations, conditioning exercises, barbell circuits, etc to do. I am thinking about perhaps shifting to the schedule above for a couple weeks as a ‘break’ and then at that point re-consider going back on the current regime or staying with the adjustments.

Weight is 197.4 as of this morning. After just about two months of eating more that gives me about 4 lbs of weight gain. This is on track with how I would like to bulk (slowly). I suspect that much of this was water so I will continue to closely monitor the rate of gain as I may need to eat yet more next month to continue to grow.

156

27-March - Day off from weights. I did not want to but my body needed the extra hour of sleep.

Conditioning (at night): 60lb weighted vest walk. 50 minutes. About 2.6 miles.

157

28-March Strength Circuits

Cycle 6, Day B2

Reps 5 4 3 2 1
Squat 250 260 265 270 275
Dip 35 45 55 65 70
SGHP 145 150 155 160 170
Press 97.5 102.6 107.5 112.5 117.5
Pull up 35 45 55 65 70

158

Posting a video of my strength circuit setup. This was my first set; so five reps per exercise. The angle is not best in that you can’t see everything (e.g. press). However, it gives a sense of the setup that I arrived at to allow me to move between movements with the minimum amount of time wasted.

Cheers,
Needa

159

29-March Conditioning

Start Cycle 7 and the new schema tomorrow (which is A1,B1, Conditioning, A2,B2, Conditioning,possible off).

Today did some new conditioning rather than Hypertrophy:

  1. 5 Min AMRAP
    5 Partial Pull-ups BW
    5 Press (65lb)

managed 7 of these sets.

  1. 5 Min AMRAP
    5 Thruster (Barbell 65lb)
    5 Plyo Push-ups

did 4.5 of these sets. Ran out of gas on the plyo push-ups.

  1. 35 Box Jumps - 20". Took about 5 minutes

Later the same day:

10 Farmer walks. Trap bar with 300 lbs. Each walk was 112 feet. The first few I did hook grip and then I switched to straps. Even with straps I had to stop multiple times. Inflamed forearms.

160

30-March Strength Circuits

Cycle 7 Day A1

Reps 5 4 3 2 1
Deadlift 300 305 315 335 350
Bench 170 175 185 190 200
SGHP 155 160 166 170 180
Press 100 105 110 115 120
Pull up 35 35 45 55 65

I went down on Bench back to cycle 5 weights. I hit all these no problem. I also lowered Pull-ups on the second set (which reduced the 1rm by 5). I am just not as strong on pull-ups as when I set my 1RM. Probably due to all the other lifts that are part of the circuits.

Press is up another 2.5 lbs and feels good. Now I am +15 since starting the circuits. Deads continue to feel good and I am only 15 lbs from my original 1RM. Slow and steady wins the race.