Army of Me

Training
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Nikki - Thanks!

PP - Bummer you are in So. California. A California Coven would be awesome.

nlmain - Thanks. What I have learned is to listen to my body and trust my intuition in all aspects of life, including lifting and eating. It has never steered me wrong.

Last Stand - Yes, I do listen to Within Temptation! As well as Flowing Tears, Nightwish and Theatre of Tragedy. Also, Sirenia and Tristania although I don’t think they are female fronted like the others. It’s awesome you listen to bands like this, too. Who else do you listen to that you would recommend?

Workout today:

Squat: 6x4x135
Seated leg Curls: 2x6x80, 2x6x90
OHP: 1x4x65, 1x3x65, 1x0x65, 1x6x60, 1x5x60, 1x4x60
Good Mornings: 1x65x10, 1x75x10, 1x85x10
Single-Leg leg press: 1x10x90, 1x10x140, 1x13x140
Lat Raises: 1x8x12.5, 3x5x15

Tough, tough workout. I woke up late, felt like I had been hit by a truck, didn’t want to squat. Went to the gym and did it anyway. They felt HARD. A few reps were less than stellar so I will stay at 135 until my form is perfect. I felt disappointed. On OHP, I could not get 65 up on the 3rd set, so dropped the weight do more reps. Overall, this entire workout felt hard and I think that hormonally, this is probably going to be my weaker week of the month. In any event, it was a tough workout but those will come and they will pass. They always do. So, the positive is that I managed to squat more reps at 135 - some day this weight will feel super light.

On the Playlist: Theatre of Tragedy, Kamelot, Avantasia

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[quote]Whysper wrote:

Thanks. What I have learned is to listen to my body and trust my intuition in all aspects of life, including lifting and eating. It has never steered me wrong.

[/quote]

Ha, nice to see that there IS another intuitive out there. isn’t being able to listen to your body and actually know what it is telling you awesome?!

You’re doing some fantastic work in here. Read about your love/hate relationship w/squats. Ever tried front squatting? We have an informal ‘1 <3 FS’ club going recently here at PW. Whenever I get disillusioned w/squatting, the FS help me get my groove back. Just a thought.

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I hate days like that, but good for you for getting to the gym and hammering it out - even getting extra reps squatting.

I listen to Nightwish too - Dark Chest of Wonders has got to be my favourite of theirs! I like to switch to that song when I’m going for a big PR.

I have Xandria, Krypteria, Epica and After Forever on my playlist. All female fronted - though Epica and After Forever have screaming angry guys contrasting very operatic singers. Don’t bother with Krypteria’s earlier CDs unless you like gospel sounding music. Their latest two CDs (Bloodangel’s Cry and Fatal Kiss) are pretty good though.

Lol, there are so many bands in this genre that end in -ia.

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Last Stand - lol at “-ia”. I never noticed before, buy you’re right. I have heard of Epica but not Krypteria and After Forever. I am going to check them out. Thanks for the suggestions!

Veggie - It’s funny you mention front squatting because I suck at that, too. Even worse than back squatting. The last time I front squatted I only got 85 lbs. and I was out of breath. Maybe I am just not a squatter. :\ Honestly, I would much rather deadlift than squat. I’m sure 90% of my squat issues are mental.

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Bench Press: 1x5x80, 1x4x85, 1x2x90, 1x1x90, 2x5x80
DB Incline Press: 1x10x25, 2x8x30, 1x7x35
Skull Crushers: 1x10x35, 2x10x40
Tri Pushdowns: 1x8x35, 2x6x40, 1x8x35
Weighted Decline Abs: 3x10
Pushups, feet elevated: 3x10

I knew when I was warming up on the bench with 75 lbs. and it felt extremely heavy, that I would be extra weak today. Meh. I believe it’s hormones. Might be a good week to deload although mentally I don’t want to. I will just do what I can this week and hope for the best. I think on my squats, my issue might be glute activation so I will add in an extra glute activation exercise as well as some Bulgarian split squats, maybe some reverse lunges which has always helped in the past.

Playlist - same as yesterday

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Cool that you like to DL, but squatting is the bomb! Seriously, keep working it and your squat will come up. Everybody has favorite lifts and not-so-favorite lifts. Nice work doing the bulgarians. Do you have a KB? If you do swings would probably help your hip drive.

Ahh, hormones. One thing that I do love about being loaded up on the extrogenous shit is that I don’t have those kinds of fluctuations. Maybe TMI, but this is my first week off of nuvaring in close to 6 months. I’ll be interested to see how it effects my strength by Thur when I squat again.

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Glute activation was a problem for me too, so I did everything from lunges to glute bridges to X-band walks.

I hope your hormones get back in line, I don’t like to deload either just for feminine issues :slight_smile:

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Veggie - yeah, those fluctuations suck so I have to just work around them and make the best of it. : ) There are KB’s at my gym which I forgot about. Some KB Swings certainly couldn’t hurt.

Nikki - I don’t have bands (I’m thinking about picking some up) but I will be adding in lunges and glute bridges. I hate lunges but it I just have to get over it. : )

Today’s workout:

Cable Pull-Throughs: 1x10x80, 1x10x90, 1x10x100
Lat Pull-down, pronated grip: 1x8x80, 1x6x90, 2x5x100
Rack Pulls: 1x5x155, 1x5x165, 1x4x170, 1x3x175, 2x6x155
Seated Cable Row: 1x6x90, 3x6x100
DB Incline Curls: 1x8x15, 2x6x17.5
Sumo Deads: 3x5x135, 2x4x145
Cable Bicep Curls: 1x10x50, 1x8x55, 1x6x60
Straight Leg Deadlift, Sumo stance: 1x10x95, 1x10x100, 1x9x105

I actually enjoyed today’s workout. I know I’m not going to hit any strength PR’s this week, so I just went in and had fun with it. I did sumo deadlifts a couple of weeks ago and decided to practice them again today. I think I will have to bring a camera and record myself to check my form. Finished up with some conventional dealift reps at 155 lbs. but realized I was TIRED and decided to stop. I remembered that I have a pull-up bar at home so I’ve been “greasing the groove” with pull-ups all day. I used to do them alot but I just got lazy. Time to get back on it.

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Ah yes, swings are great for glute activation too, they were also part of my lower body warm up drills.

Is it just a coinkindink that two logs are talking about greasing the groove with pull-ups?
Awesome workout, sumo deads are something I need to get in rotation as well.

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I haven’t had a chance to read other logs except for this afternoon. I will have to see who else is greasing the groove with their pull-ups.

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you got a good bunch of triple digit weights in there today. good job.

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Thanks, nlmain. I am feeling it today. Did some foam rolling with a rolling pin (don’t have a foam roller or pvc pipe at the moment) and then a nice long soak in an epsom salt bath with the soothing sounds of Godsmack in the background. Taking the day off today and then hit it again tomorrow.

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Hi Whysper…in an earlier post you mention that you don’t like squats and you wanted to lighten the weight and work on your form

I’d recommend this video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6529481301858251744#

Dan John teaches the goblet squat, overhead squat and what he calls the ‘potato sack’ squat. I’ve watched this video over and over again applying what he teaches about squatting and it’s been invaluable for me in terms of form. Check it out and hopefully it helps!

Keep up the good work!

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Nice workout! I love listening to “Whatever” while I’m killing it at the gym. :slight_smile:

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Thanks jjahls. Some good stuff in that video - I may do some of those exercises he was showing them how to do. I plan to drop the weight on squats tomorrow and work on form. I have to remember to think “back on heels” like he mentioned, because I do forget.

Hi Lanels, thanks for stopping by. I like to listen to whatever music helps me to focus and to think “I can do this!”

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[quote]Whysper wrote:
Thanks jjahls. Some good stuff in that video - I may do some of those exercises he was showing them how to do. I plan to drop the weight on squats tomorrow and work on form. I have to remember to think “back on heels” like he mentioned, because I do forget.

Hi Lanels, thanks for stopping by. I like to listen to whatever music helps me to focus and to think “I can do this!”[/quote]

^Hehe. We seem to be on the same page. First with the pull-up grove, and now I did a ton of squat practice today with just the bar. Yep, I tend to recruit quads for everything. I’m trying to pull back on the weight and just concentrate on getting my hams to fire. Good luck!

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Looking strong. I pretty much exclusively pull sumo. Feels right for me. I can/have pulled some decent weight conventional but whatever.

Good luck with the glutes activation/squats and pullups.

How nice that your gym has KBs.

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DB Bulgarian split squats: 2x8x25, 2x8x30
DB Bench: 1x8x30, 1x8x35, 2x6x40
DB Reverse lunges: 3x8x30
Squats: Did box squats today, sets of 8-10 reps at 75, 95, 105, 115. Then I got rid of the box and did reps at 115 and 95. Focused on keeping back on the heels and keeping knees out.
DB shoulder press: 2x10x25, 2x8x30
One-arm DB Row: 1x8x40, 1x8x45, 1x7x50, 1x6x50 - need to work on grip on left hand
RDL: 3 or 4 sets x 10 @ 95, 105, 110 - lost track of how many sets
Bradford Press: 3x8-9x30, 1x6x35 - lost track of how many reps
Straight-arm Lat Pull-down: 1x8x60, 2x8x70

Mostly DB’s and light barbell work today. Single leg work to see if it helps my squats. Had issues with arm strength today. Pretty carb depleted and pushed myself as best I could. I may do a two-day carb up (starting tomorrow) and see how that carries over into next week.

Playlist: Avantasia, Carfax Abbey, Kamelot

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we both did squats and Bulgarians today :slight_smile:

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No carb workouts sucks. But it’s all mind over matter, because to the reader, workout looks very awesome.