Vinny- Appreciate it brother! I was really trying to not psyche myself out lol… When I was lifting it felt like i just unracked and squatted, but now i can see in the video it took me much longer… weird
So I had been looking for something to sort of spice up my training/give me a kick in the ass, and I think I have finally found it.
I had read the Spinal Tap routine in the Beyond 531 book when it came out, but kind of dismissed it. Was rereading it a couple nights ago and figured now would be the time to give it a shot.
I will be going on vacation in early January, so this seems like the perfect thing to run up til then.
Basically you run through a full cycle of 531 in each workout, then add 5/10 pounds, depending on the lift, for next week. You do not, however, go for rep PRs. Joker sets can be added by feel.
Started it last night with Sumo Deadlift.
12/1- PM training after work.
Sumo DL- warmups,
240x3
275x3
310x3
260x5
295x3
330x1- this was ridiculously easy
225x5
260x5
295x5- Body did not want to get those last few reps… fuck you body!
-Hmm, Sumo deads are pretty good. Repping them over 3 is awful though. Could feel my legs working a lot more than conventional deads, which i guess is a good thing.
-I superset curls and elevated pushups alternating between sets.
-8 min cluster set of
5 pull ups/ 8 leg raises
think i got 9 rounds here, but really no fucking clue.
Yeah, that was a lot harder than I expected. I kept thinking prior to training about doing down sets/whatever, but did not need them today. Looking forward to keeping this thing running. Today will be OHPress.
12/2 AM Training
Press- warmups,
100x3
115x3
125x3
105x5
120x3
135x1
145x1
165x F,F,F- lol, i gotta stop trying this weight for a while
95x5
105x5
120x5
-This was not too difficult, was really focusing on form here more than usual.
-Superset with 5 L-pullups/5 ab wheel alternating
My core/ab strength/whatever really sucks, so I need to do some work on that every session.
One arm DB Snatch-
worked up to 70lbs each arm, then 80 lbs right arm only. Failed a couple times on 90.
-these are fun
Did a 8 min cluster set of:
5xDB Row at 90 lbs/ 5x35lb plate raise
total- 6 rounds 2 rows
Good session. Will be doing some sort of conditioning later.
12/4
Squat- warmups,
195x3
220x3
250x3
260x3
275x3- Fell forward hard on 1st rep, calling it a Good morning PR lol…
290x3
305x2- Rep PR
205x5
235x3
260x1
180x5
205x5
235x5
-Knee felt pretty shitty today, was kind of impatient with warming up and slightly aggravated throughout workout…mostly due to outside factors.
-Superset with DB side bends x5/ rear delt raise x10 alternating
Ab wheel- 3x5
BB Hip thrust- 2x10
-Fucking stupid exercise or i dont know what i am doing…
Conditioning-
Drag 150 lb Sandbag across trailer x8/ 10 Elevated Pushups/ Ab wheel x3
Sandbag drag x 6/ E-Pushup x 15/ Ab wheel x5
Sandbag drag x 4/ E-Pushup x 20/ Ab wheel x7
Sandbag drag x 2/ E-pushup x 25/ ab wheel x 9
That’s it for now.
[quote]burialatsea wrote:
12/4
Squat- warmups,
195x3
220x3
250x3
260x3
275x3- Fell forward hard on 1st rep, calling it a Good morning PR lol…
290x3
305x2- Rep PR
205x5
235x3
260x1
180x5
205x5
235x5
-Knee felt pretty shitty today, was kind of impatient with warming up and slightly aggravated throughout workout…mostly due to outside factors.
-Superset with DB side bends x5/ rear delt raise x10 alternating
Ab wheel- 3x5
BB Hip thrust- 2x10
-Fucking stupid exercise or i dont know what i am doing…
Conditioning-
Drag 150 lb Sandbag across trailer x8/ 10 Elevated Pushups/ Ab wheel x3
Sandbag drag x 6/ E-Pushup x 15/ Ab wheel x5
Sandbag drag x 4/ E-Pushup x 20/ Ab wheel x7
Sandbag drag x 2/ E-pushup x 25/ ab wheel x 9
That’s it for now.
[/quote]
AWWW YEA, LOVE ME SOME SIDE BENDS.
Also, hip thrusts are pretty legit! I don’t use them anymore, but at one point had success with them. I enjoy performing them flamboyantly in commercial gyms.
[quote]strongmanvinny wrote:
[quote]burialatsea wrote:
12/4
Squat- warmups,
195x3
220x3
250x3
260x3
275x3- Fell forward hard on 1st rep, calling it a Good morning PR lol…
290x3
305x2- Rep PR
205x5
235x3
260x1
180x5
205x5
235x5
-Knee felt pretty shitty today, was kind of impatient with warming up and slightly aggravated throughout workout…mostly due to outside factors.
-Superset with DB side bends x5/ rear delt raise x10 alternating
Ab wheel- 3x5
BB Hip thrust- 2x10
-Fucking stupid exercise or i dont know what i am doing…
Conditioning-
Drag 150 lb Sandbag across trailer x8/ 10 Elevated Pushups/ Ab wheel x3
Sandbag drag x 6/ E-Pushup x 15/ Ab wheel x5
Sandbag drag x 4/ E-Pushup x 20/ Ab wheel x7
Sandbag drag x 2/ E-pushup x 25/ ab wheel x 9
That’s it for now.
[/quote]
AWWW YEA, LOVE ME SOME SIDE BENDS.
Also, hip thrusts are pretty legit! I don’t use them anymore, but at one point had success with them. I enjoy performing them flamboyantly in commercial gyms.
[/quote]
lol, i cant imagine doing them in a gym… felt like enough of a moron doing them alone hehh
12/7…
Weight at 164 (fuck, im huge)
Bench- Warmups,
160x3
180x3
205x3- shoulder is hurting
170x5
190x3
215x1- felt like i couldve done this a million times (realistically about 5 lol)
150x5
170x5
190x5
Superset of band pull aparts/ db rows alternating
DB Fly- 20x10, 30x10, 35x2x10
Chin ups x 10 between each
DB Bench- 35x10, 45x10, 60x2x10
2 sets of elevated pushups x some amount
-Pump was good, benching sucked. Think I am getting sick, fucking hope not though.
In the PM i decided to bench again cause i was pissed.
Bench- 5x10 @ 135
-Tried all sorts of grips, extremely wide, narrow, etc. Wide grips seemed to feel better oddly, and benching higher on my chest seemed not to aggravate as much.
bleh.
In the last few days it has come to my attention that the biggest factor holding back my training is indeed my beaten up body.
First of all, my knee. Yesterday at work I felt like it was going to give out on me at any point in time when I went into knee flexion on that leg.
I have no clue what happened to my knee in the first place, all I know is I was doing sprints one day, and by the 9th set my knee felt extremely weird and unstable. This progressed for a few days into pain. I did some mobility work, and did not squat for a month trying to resolve this.
It got better, for sure, but to this day can feel either okay to really shitty, but never great.
Then there is my piece of shit shoulder, which I also have no idea how I injured, but during benching today, I think I may have discovered that my right shoulder blade is winging out, especially at the top of the bench.
I have always been able to sort of stick that shoulder blade outward, and never knew that was a bad or odd thing, until i read it somewhere on this site. lol…
Oddly, the pain is in my other shoulder that does not wing out or whatever. So I think this created some kind of shoulder imbalance.
This all would be well and good if I could somehow resolve these problems. I have tried mobility work, stretching etc… nothing seems to have helped. Wish I could afford a doctor or chiro… but not an option at this point.
Sorry about the rant there, had to get it out somewhere.
Please look into reading “Becoming a Supple Leopard”, by Kelly Starrett. It’s an awesome read. I can’t stress how important longevity is. I’m in a situation where my left leg is 0.7 inches shorter than my right, causing a plethora of fucking issues. I have sculiosis or w/e too. As badass as I can look, I’m doing ALOT of preventative maintenance just to keep this truck a-rollin. I recommend you learn how to do the same, or do it better if you are already doing it/tried it. Hang in there, and remember there MUST be prescribed periods of rest, or you will burn out.
Definitely hit the nail on the head… I’ve always shrugged off mobility/stretching as it can bore the living shit out of me, but it does appear that it is becoming a necessity at this point. Honestly I think it has to do more with my job than lifting however, which pisses me off to no end… and i like my job for fuck’s sake lol.
Oh, and I am in fact taking some days off not really by choice as I feel like absolute shit at the moment. Guess I will chalk this off as a deload, probably in need of one at this point anyways.
Been slacking on the updates… didnt end up doing a deload, took one day off instead and was losing my mind… cause of life and its prevalent shittiness. So options were: 1-GO INSANE, 2-LIFT, I chose…
12/11
Press- warmups,
105x3
120x3,
135x4- PR
95x12ish
-Couldve got maybe one more with awful form, felt good
-Superset DB ROW/CHIN UPx5
Landmine Press- weight on bar:
25x10, 30x10, 35x10, 40x10, 45x10
-seemed to feel this in my tricep…
BB Curl-
45x10, 55x10, 60x10, 65x10, 65x10
-fycking weak curls lol
DB Lateral/ Rear delt super set-
light weights 3x10
Pretty good, i spose.
12/14
Sumo DL- warmups,
250x3
285x3
320x4
-Fuck, had more in me, back was sore and tight from work…
BB Row-
135x10, 155x10, 185x10, 185x10
-actually pretty good, first time i ever felt my lats working in this movement
Front Squat-
4x10 at 135
-eek, repping front squats
Good Morning-
135x10, 145x10, 145x10, 145x10
-fuckin hamstrings are tight as shit from this w/o today.
Did this workout after a really fuckin busy day at work, and it showed.
And today’s lifting,
12/15
Bench- warmups,
165x3
185x3
210x6 PR
165x15
-Shouldve had more honestly, shoulder felt okay
-Superset with DB ROWS
One Arm DB Bench- wtf heh
60x10, 60x10, 65x10, 65x8, 40x20
-Yeah, one arm bench…
One Arm BB Row- weight on bar:
25x12, 35x12, 45x12, 50x12, 55x12
-I like this exercise a lot
Band Pushdown x100
Band Pullapart x100
YEP
[quote]burialatsea wrote:
And today’s lifting,
12/15
Bench- warmups,
165x3
185x3
210x6 PR
165x15
-Shouldve had more honestly, shoulder felt okay
-Superset with DB ROWS
One Arm DB Bench- wtf heh
60x10, 60x10, 65x10, 65x8, 40x20
-Yeah, one arm bench…
One Arm BB Row- weight on bar:
25x12, 35x12, 45x12, 50x12, 55x12
-I like this exercise a lot
Band Pushdown x100
Band Pullapart x100
YEP
[/quote]
Hey, you’re hitting PRs though.
Take the good with the bad and lets play.
Have upped my caloric intake tremendously in the past few weeks, including an enormous amount of carbohydrates (RIP Abs)… hoping strength and recovery will improve vastly, and of course swoleness
In all seriousness, I have trouble with bulking or gaining weight cause i was so fat when I was younger and I seem to store it terribly. But hey, nothing great ever came without sacrifice, right?
Was gonna do this last night, but work was extremely busy… almost felt asleep while eating last night lol. Woke up tired as per usual, slept a lot though. Abused caffeine and did the following:
12/18
Weight- 164
Squat- warmup,
205x3
230x3
260x11 PR
-Nice… was a ballbusting set lol. I wanted 10, but apparently I did 11 by mistake.
BB Hack Squat w/ heels elevated-
135x10, 155x10, 175x10, 185x10
-Wow, I really enjoyed these, great pump and felt good on knee.
Attempted to do a GHR setup- FAIL, with several different setups
-This pissed me off, couldnt set this up, so instead i did this:
Lying Leg Curls w/ DB between feet-
4 sets of reps and weights i cant remember.
-Also annoying to setup, but the pump was nice.
Hanging Knee Raises-
4x12
-Probably gonna switch this to a different exercise next week.
Conditioning- Shovel Snow
-this will be an ongoing session for a few months, along with usual work.
Good session.
Was going to have some days off, but was I am called in to work tomorrow to help load approximately 20,000 pounds of grain for delivery, and then unload 45,000 pounds into our warehouse.
One must imagine Sisyphus happy.
Hit a weight PR this morning, 167.8 lbs.
Ate approx. 4000 cals yesterday, including at least 500g of carbs…lol, im gonna be huge
Weight at 168.4, increased food is definitely helping with strength (no shit, right?). Carb bloat is not helping with aesthetics, lol///
12/20
Press-
warmups,
95x5
110x5
125x10 PR - excellent
110x5
95x16 PR on downset, lol why not
Superset w/ 5 close grip Pull-ups
-Pressing felt ridiculously strong today, probably had a new 1RM in me, but will hold off til singles next week. Restraint? wtf, I cant believe that shit…
Landmine Press- weight on bar,
30x10, 35x10, 40x10, 45x10, 65x10
-Strong.
BB Curl-
55x10, 60x10, 65x10, 75x10, 85x10
-meh
Plate Raises- rear/lateral raise 3x?? superset, no rest
-just did lots of these, did not count… felt good
Good session! Excited how my strength is climbing. Also have 6 days off in a row from work, fuck yes!
Seem to be picking up some momentum with training and life, feels good.
12/21
Sumo DL- warmups,
235x5
275x5
305x5- lol at these, i cannot rep them to save my life, after 3 reps, my body is like fuck you
275x5
235x8- hah, conventional i could probably do this 20x
Bent Over Rows-
155x10, 175x10, 185x10, 195x10
-good
SLDL-
185x10, 195x10, 205x10, 185x10
-Switched to these instead of GMs. I like em, but grip was getting difficult with sweat.
Front Squat-
145- 5x10
-getting better at repping these.
Ab Wheel- 4x12
-ABBZ
Yep, good session. Probably be headed down to see some family for a few days here soon.
[quote]burialatsea wrote:
Hit a weight PR this morning, 167.8 lbs.
Ate approx. 4000 cals yesterday, including at least 500g of carbs…lol, im gonna be huge [/quote]
Smells like gains!