Bigmac73nh's Log

Training Training Logs
281

Today’s Workout: Explosive Work Day 2

Activation:

A1. Ring Dip Catches 4x3

A2. Weighted Jumps 4x1

A3. Overhead->L-H->OH BPA’s 4x1

A4. OH Bar Rotations (3 sec peak holds) 4x5

A5. One Arm DB Snatch From Floor 4x1 LR

Chest Work:

B1. Bench Press w/ Doubled Micros (2 sec pause)

3x185x2
3x225x2

B2. L-H BPA’s

6x1

B3. Bench Press (touch and go)

3x275x1
2x315x1
315x1-1-1

B4. BPA’s

6x1

B5. Box Jumps

6x1

Back/Posterior Chain Work:

C1. Pelvic Power Hold (6 sec)

7x1

C2. One Arm DB Snatch From Floor

7x1 LR

C3. Full Extension Hold (6 sec)

7x1

D1. Power Clean Transition

6x1

D2. Band Straight Arm Pulldowns

6x1

D3. Deadlift

6x235x1

D4. Iron Cross

2x3 Partials
3x10 sec hold (moderate depth)
1x10 sec hold (full depth)

D5. Box Jumps

4x1 (last 4 sets only)

Rehab:

E. Hyperextensions x25

F. Hammer Curls to Ears x20

G. DB Biceps Hold x 20 sec

Notes:

Fucking brutal morning. Had to plan my Spanish final’s thesis, put together a presentation on that final, then write an entirely different paper for the same class lol. Did work and it all turned out well, so life is good. Capitalized an unexcused absence that I could afford in my last class and got into the gym to destress.

Great session, and my first time benching with bands. I typically do my benching on the standard bench press setup, but I decided to work in the power rack so the band setup would be easier. The adjustable bench that I have to use with the power rack is a little narrower and higher, so this made it a bit more challenging. It’s also tougher to unrack, since the bench presses at my gym have a rack that pivots forward into position, whereas with the power rack I was just starting on pins. I got into a groove pretty quickly though, and benching felt STRONG. The second and fourth single with 315 were slow, but the setups were both off and I absolutely crushed the 3rd and 5th reps so I’m not too worried. Bands were kind of challenging but I liked them.

Threw in the oly lift-specific holds and made my changes to the back/posterior chain complex. It was sick- explosiveness was nice and the lat pump was insane. Wuz feelin winged lol.

Caught the Agile 8 when I got home, and successfully ate like a mofo. Got through all the food I needed to eat already, doing work.

282

1728×976 360 KB

Forgot to mention this yesterday, but my weight was at 199. Not surprised that it dropped a bit, since I cleaned up my food choices since last week. Still eating hard, just taking my time and eating as much as I can over 8 hours or so (was a lot yesterday). Without throwing in really dirty cals, it will definitely take me longer to push up to 210, but I expect less fat gain and a hell of a lot less water retention. Not going to get hung up on the numbers though- as long as muscularity and strength continue to improve, I’m happy.

Pic above is this morning, it’s a pretty good representation of my walking around leanness/fullness these days. Water retention might be a bit better or worse some days depending on what I eat the day before.

Gym time in a couple hours… going to try something ‘fun’ on quadz.

283

Today’s Workout: Day 1

Agile 8 at home before heading to campus

Activation:

A1. Ring Dip Catches 4x3

A2. OH->L-H->OH BPA’s 4x1

A2. Weighted Jumps 4x1

A4. OH Bar Rotations (3 sec holds) 4x5

A5. One Arm DB Snatch From Floor 4x1 LR

Quad Work:

B1. Banded Front Squats (+micros, 2 sec pause, super slow eccentric)/Front Squats (2 sec pause)

135x2
155x2
185x2

205x2
225x2
245x2

B2. L-H BPA’s

6x1

B3. Back Squats

225x1
275x1
295x1
315x1
335x1
365x1

B4. STC

2x Advanced Tuck x3
4x Advanced Tuck x1 (10 sec hold to back and front)

B5. Box Jumps

6x1

Shoulders:

C1. Banded Reactive Military Pin Press (+micros)

6x135x2

C2. OH BPA’s

6x1

C3. OH Power Hold

6x205x9 sec

C4. Biceps Hold

6x9 sec

C5. Box Jumps

4x1 (last 4 sets only)

D. OH Power Hold

155x20 sec

Rehab:

E. Biceps Hold x20 sec

F. Hammer Curls to Ears (slow) x20

G. Hyperextensions x25

Notes:

Everything was on today. Tried a new experiment with the super slow eccentric banded front squats, and I liked it. I mainly front squat to activate my quads prior to back squatting, so I figured it couldn’t hurt to work a bit more on quad recruitment for the light sets. Great feel on these, I’ll probably also perform 5 sets of 3 against the heavier bands for assistance after the quad complex on my last Day 1 workout of the week. Really trying to hammer quad recruitment on squats because they are my primary quad mass builder. I’m also performing the firs three sets with clean grip rather than straps grip to work wrist mobility in preparation for adding power cleans back in. Still a bit awkward, but I’ll get there.

365 felt pretty comfortable, but I’ll probably sit on that as my top weight for next week as well- I’d like to get up to 405-455 again on work sets of back squats (that’s where I was at my strongest a few years back) but I want them to be as close to ATG as possible, so I’ll take it slow.

Not too much else of note. Going to continue gradually adding weight to the OH Power Hold, since that would ideally be performed with a little more than my push press max (from what CT has said). I’ve locked out 255 overhead on PP, so I’ve still got some room there. I’d like to see at least 225 by the end of April.

284

Your training is way too complicated for my mind to understand, but it looks pretty “high performance”… looks like you got a lot leaner too from that pic, start of the abs peaking through, good work.

285

[quote]jake_j_m wrote:
Your training is way too complicated for my mind to understand, but it looks pretty “high performance”… looks like you got a lot leaner too from that pic, start of the abs peaking through, good work. [/quote]

Thanks man… training is definitely ‘performance bodybuilding’ type stuff, probably looks way more complicated than it actually is haha.

Still experimenting a bit with new principles from Thibs as well as some ideas of my own, so I’ll probably drop some quick bullets about bullets about the basic principles behind the training so it makes a bit more sense to those who don’t follow everything CT posts on here lol.

286

My schedule today sucks pretty hard. I definitely don’t have time for my whole Day 2 workout, so I’m just going to get in the chest work and cut it there. I’m not really worried about making up the back and posterior chain work, since those are two of my better muscle groups right now and they also get a ton of indirect work from pressing and squats, respectively. I’ll have two days of oly-lift specific holds/transitions in this week anyway, since I worked those on Sunday. If I’m feeling full of piss and vinegar at the end of the quadz/shoulda work tomorrow, I may ramp up to some heavy deads for fun, but if that isn’t in the cards I won’t cry too many tears.

I also don’t feel like fasting until I get off work at 11 tonight, so I’m just going to get my food in postworkout. Not a very long fast today, but the fast going into tomorrow will be at least 24 hours, so everything will balance out. Down to moderate cals today, and back to normal fasting/eating timing tomorrow.

287

Today’s Workout: Explosive Work Day 2

Activation:

A1. Ring Dip Catches 4x3

A2. Overhead->L-H->OH BPA’s 4x1

A3. Weighted Jumps 4x1

A4. OH Bar Rotations (3 sec peak holds) 4x5

A5. One Arm DB Snatch From Floor 4x1 LR

Chest Work:

B1. Bench Press w/ Doubled Micros (2 sec pause)

3x185x2
3x225x2

B2. L-H BPA’s

6x1

B3. Bench Press (touch and go)

3x275x1
2x315x1
315x1-1-1

B4. BPA’s

6x1

B5. Box Jumps

6x1

C1. Banded Low Incline Smith Neck Presses (+Minis, super slow reps… forgot to not lock out lol)

5x3

C2. Box Jumps

4x1 (first four sets only)

Notes:

Good workout overall, but a couple things were off. First, I ate shit on my first box jump because I started too close and ended up nailing the bottom of the box with my foot. I managed to break my fall pretty gracefully and at least didn’t fuck myself up. Got right back to it though: reset, and actually hit one of my highest jumps yet.

The other thing that wasn’t great was my right biceps. Felt way shittier than usual. I’m almost certain that it was feeling shitty due to my clean grip front squats yesterday, since that was the only thing that was out of the ordinary. I’m dropping those and sticking to straps. Working power cleans would be cool, but if the process of getting my wrist flexibility up is going to shit on my biceps and potentially do some damage there, they are not worth it. I’m going to keep rehabbing the shit out of my biceps all weekend (taking the lax ball to it and working light hammer curls/holds) and avoid any work on the clean rack position until them biceps is pain free for at least two weeks.

I don’t see much point in drilling transitions in the meantime, since it’s unnecessary fatigue accumulation. I’ll throw the pelvic power hold into the back/posterior chain complex and just ditch the full extension hold/transition until I’m closer to being able to clean.

Smith neck presses were sessi as hell. Awesome feel, hell yeah. Just need to remember not to lock out reps next time and they will be perfect.

288

Today ended up being a bit higher in cals. Scored some free food from catering at work… takes a better man than me to turn down filet mignon and shrimp haha. Had some other fancy little appetizer foods, but I was definitely still 85+% clean on the day.

Been doing some thinking about the biceps situation, and I’ve come up with a plan of action to take the strain off of it for the near future. I’m going to switch the STC in the quad circuit for band straight arm pulldowns and also cut any overhead lockouts outside of my activation circuit. Should still be a pretty brutal workout, as I plan to hit several of sets of super-slow banded front squats after my quad circuit. I’ll re-evaluate next week and judge whether or not I want to throw the more serious overhead moves back in at that point.

Just gotta keep progressing as well as I can while doing my best to plan defensively against a monumental backslide in the form of a serious biceps injury. I’ve got some ideas in mind if I’m still not feeling right next week.

289

In a lovely turn of events, I got sick overnight. I’m actually not shocked because several people in my house have been sick recently, just kinda sucks. I’m obviously not going to go out tonight, so there’s no reason why I can’t just rest up today and catch a workout tomorrow. I also have Greek Week football tomorrow, and I want to be rested up and ready for that since it’s my last one.

I’m going to head to CVS and get some shit to help get me better quickly, have zero stims today, and just hit a bit of mobility work/bands with the jumps.

290

Got way sicker than I was expecting over the weekend. Couldn’t really do any kind of physical activity because I was too congested to breathe right. Got plenty of sleep and over-ate in the effort to not catabolize myself completely while lying in bed lol.

Feeling much better today, and I’m planning to return to the gym. I took a golf ball to the right biceps/forearm several times over the weekend, and while it is feeling better, I really want it to be feeling GOOD before I push it on the ring work again. So rings are OUT, and I’ll be pressing heavy no more than once per week (probably more like once every two weeks).

My training has been focused on a combination of aesthetics and performance, but has been shaded toward the latter. I’m going to emphasize aesthetics and back off the performance stuff for awhile while I rehab the biceps. Not going to go full-on ‘traditional bodybuilding’ or anything, but I’m going to play around with combining some techniques like slow reps, 1.5 reps, and micro-oscillation from bands with HFSW. Should be fun.

Today I’m going to try something like this:

-Activation Circuit (as usual)
-Low Incline Neck Press Against Bands (alternating super-slow reps and explosive reps)/Either bands/Smith Rows Against Bands for AR
-Banded Front Squats (alternating super-slow reps and explosive reps)/Bands AR (for delts)
-Pulldowns (Double overhand grip, alternating slow 1.5’s and explosive reps)

Short and sweet, with an emphasis on lats/quads. I’ll update at some point later in the week once I’ve had a chance to play around and make changes. Not going to be posting much in the next few weeks, since I’ve got 25+ pages of papers due for finals and I want to get that done so I can enjoy the graduation festivities.

291

Good luck recovering and good luck with finals! Will be on the lookout for more workout updatezzzz

292

[quote]Jab1 wrote:
Good luck recovering and good luck with finals! Will be on the lookout for more workout updatezzzz[/quote]

Thanks man!

My workouts all look pretty much the same lol but I’ll make sure to at least post what I’m doing for the week.

293

Ok, here’s what I’m working with for this week. It’s pretty much just HFSW sexed up with teh bandz and jumps:

Activation:

A1. OH-Low-OH BPA 4x1

A2. Weighted Jump 4x1

A3. OH Bar Rotations (3 sec peak hold) 4x5

A4. One Arm DB Snatch From Floor 4x1 LR

HFSW:

B1. Front Squat Against Minis (Slow reps)/Front Squat Against Minis (Explosive Rep)

4x3/3 (alternating slow and explosive reps)

B2. One Arm DB Snatch From Floor 4x1 LR

C1. Smith Low Incline Neck Press Against Minis (Slow reps, no lockout, trying to ‘crush the bar’)/Smith Low Incline Neck Press Against Minis (explosive reps)

3x3/3 (alternating slow and explosive reps)

C2. Box Jumps

3x3

D1. L-H BPA 3x1

D2. BPA 3x1

D3. Lat Pulldowns (DOH/Wide Grip, Slow 1.5 reps)/Lat Pulldowns (DOH/Wide Grip, Explosive rep w/ 2 sec squeeze at peak)

3x3/3 (alternating slow and explosive reps)

D4. Box Jumps

3x3

Rehab/Rest of Jumps:

E1. DB Hammer Curls To Ears (slow reps) 4x5

E2. DB Biceps Hold 4x9 sec

E3. Box Jumps 4x1

F. Hyperextensions x25

Notes:

I did a little more back work yesterday, but I don’t think it was necessary so I’ll probably just be sticking with this for the near future (may add in some abs as AR on front squats). If everything feels good on Friday, I’ll probably ramp heavy on the big 3 for low reps just to maintain neural efficiency/form on those. I’m not sure what the fatigue accumulation is like working with the slow reps at a high frequency, so I’ll have to wait and see.

Feeling pretty healthy today, so I’m going to get back to a more reasonable diet. I missed my cooking day for the week (Sunday) because I was too sick to exit my bed lol, so I’ll probably just go ahead and pick up some chickens for the week. I’ve been maintaining the fasts because I figure that my body would be less happy if I suddenly made drastic changes to my eating schedule, but I have been compressing the fasts slightly to more like 13-15 hours on some days. Back to full length fasting today. I think I’ll be back to 100% by Thursday, but we’ll see.

One interesting thing that happened over the weekend was that my BW shot up. I weighed in at 207 yesterday (down a little to 206 today), but I haven’t had painful water retention and don’t look like total shit or anything. I’m chalking this up to taking 3 full off days over the weekend (literally did nothing Friday through Sunday) while keeping my food intake unrestricted (due to being sick and to my roommates and I acquiring a shitload of free burgers for grilling). I’m waiting to see where I stabilize at over the next couple of days, but even if I end up at 203-204 with similar leanness to what I had in the shot last week, I’ll be very happy. This has me thinking a bit about modifying my training and nutrition plan for the summer so that I’m intentionally lowering the metabolic demand of my training every other week by omitting some techniques/equipment.

294

I was feeling good today, so I switched back to more of a performance-based workout and focused on bench press. Best pressing workout I’ve had in awhile:

Activation:

A1. OH-Low-OH BPA 4x1

A2. Weighted Jump 4x1

A3. OH Bar Rotations (3 sec peak hold) 4x3

A4. One Arm DB Snatch From Floor 4x1 LR

Bench Work:

B1. Bench Press

135x3
185x3
225x3
245x3
275x3
295x3
315x3 (Matching a PR from the fall… crushed the first two reps, stopped at 3 because there was a little slowdown)
225x5 clusters of 3 (10 sec rest, then reset for next cluster)

B2. BPA

8x1

B3. Box Jump

8x1

Back HFS

C1. L-H BPA 3x1

C2. BPA 3x1

C3. Lat Pulldown (DOH/Wide Grip, slow 1.5)/Lat Pulldown (Explosive concentric, 2 sec peak hold)

3x3/3 alternating

C4. Box Jump

2x1 (first two sets only)

Rehab:

D. Hyperextensions x25

E. DB Hammer Curls x20

F. Biceps Hold x20 sec

Notes:

I tried something new on the lat pulldowns yesterday and liked it, so I went with it again today. I did them kneeling, trying to get my midsection into something similar to the hollow body position on rings. I feel that kneeling gives me better control over my upper body position (I can stay more upright in the upper portion of each rep) and I’m working light on these, so I’m not getting pulled off the floor or anything. Mimicking the hollow body position gave me a better feel in the lower lats at the bottom of each rep.

Based on how explosive and strong I felt today, I think I’m going to try a split that works over a two week period and just repeat that:

-Week 1-
Days 1-3: BBer HFSW (what I’ve been doing this week, though I may vary the exercise selection slightly)
Day 4: Bench Performance Work, Back HFSW, Activation only on legs
Day 5: Back Squat Performance Work, Back HFSW, Activation only on pressing muscles

-Week 2-
Days 1-3: Performance HFSW (Main HFS moves will be bench and back squat, one basic ring move and power snatch position holds/transitions will be thrown in between sets)
Day 4: Deadlift Performance Work, basic ring move, Activation only on pressing muscles
Day 5: OH Work/Holds (OH power hold and holds on the basic ring moves), Activation only on legs

My thought is that running a split like this will help to keep my tendons healthier. I think the shoulder and biceps issues in recent history have occurred due to overloading the tendons by performing heavy pressing and ring work too frequently. My muscle recovery has been good because I’ve been eating like an animal, but it seems like the tendons weren’t quite keeping up prior to this week. I’m hoping that only going heavy on each movement every 14 days will help with this. I’m limiting ring work/holds for the same reason, and also to cut down on metabolic demand every other week to hopefully keep the upward trend in BW.

295

VERY solid pressing. Me likey.

296

[quote]Jab1 wrote:
VERY solid pressing. Me likey. [/quote]

Thank you sir

297

Today’s Workout: Squat Performance

Activation:

A1. OH-Low-OH BPA 4x1

A2. Weighted Jumps 4x1

A3. OH Bar Rotations (3 sec peak hold) 4x5

A4. One Arm DB Snatch From Floor 4x1 LR

Squat Work:

B1. Front Squats (straps grip)

135x3
185x3
205x3
225x3

B2. L-H BPA

4x1

B3. OH Med Ball Throw

4x1

C1. Back Squat (raw, ATG)

245x3
275x3
295x3
315x3

C2. L-H BPA

4x1

C3. OH Med Ball Throw

4x1

D1. Front Squats

185x 5 clusters of 3 (10 sec rest, reset between all clusters except 1 and 2… tried to just pause at the top between the first couple clusters but the bar was shifting forward so I wasn’t a fan)

D2. L-H BPA

1x1

D3. OH Med Ball Throw

1x1

Back HFSW:

E1. L-H BPA

3x1

E2. BPA

3x1

E3. Lat Pulldown (DOH/Wide Grip, slow 1.5s)/Lat Pulldown (DOH/Wide Grip, explosive concentric/2 sec peak hold)

3x3/3 alternating

F. Chins x12 (4 shitsngiggles… nice and explosive)

Rehab:

G. Hyperextensions x25

H. DB Hammer Curls x20

I. Biceps Hold x20sec

Notes:

Hit the Agile 8 at home before heading to campus.

Nice workout. Kept the squats relatively light and the sets dense. Focus was on form/feel/explosiveness. Began and ended with teh front skwatz to prioritize them quadz.

Back work felt great. VERY mentally involved on the lat pulldowns. It’s crazy how many muscles in the back these can hit with only subtle variations in position.

BW ended up between 202-203 for the week. Not bad. Cleaned up the midsection a good bit and I expect that to keep happening if I can avoid getting slutty on nutrition and going back to the gluten lol. Off for the weekend, but I’ll be getting mobility work in and maybe some jumps too.

298

Just picked up 12lbs of steak for the week. OM NOM NOM. Hoping the shit weather clears be the time I’m done with class tonight so I can grill a little.

Hitting the Agile 8 and heading off to the gym in a bit. Today will be an HFS day, and I’ve decided on bench, back squats, iron cross, and full extension holds as my HFS moves for the week. Bench and back squat were obvious choices. I went with iron cross because I still want to take it easy on the biceps and I feel the iron cross relies more on the triceps as stabilizers (whereas the lever variations seem to make greater use of the biceps). I’m working the full extension snatch hold because it’s the weakest link for me as far as snatch positions go. Accessories/active rest stuff will be the standard band and jump work.

299

Today’s Workout: HFSW

Activation:

A1. OH-LOW-OH BPA 4x1

A2. Weighted Jump 4x1

A3. OH Bar Rotation (3 sec peak hold) 4x5

A4. One Arm DB Snatch From Floor 4x1 LR

HFSW:

B1. Back Squat

5x225x3

B2. Iron Cross Partials

5x2

C1. Bench Press

5x185x3

C2. BPA

5x1

C3. Box Jump

3x1 (last 3 sets)

D1. Full Extension Hold

7x6 sec

D2. L-H BPA

7x1

D3. Box Jump

7x1

Rehab:

E. OH Power Hold (light)x20 sec

F. Hammer Curls x20

G. Biceps Hold x20sec

H. Hyperextensions x25

Notes:

This is what my workouts will look like tomorrow and Wednesday as well. Weights are light this week and explosiveness is the primary focus.

I did a few power snatch position 1 to position 2 transitions prior to the OH power hold and then power snatched the bar into the OH position for the hold. First snatch I’ve tried in awhile, and it felt GOOD. Very explosive- even the limited work I’ve done with transitions seems to have helped a lot. For now I’m going to keep drilling the weakest position as HFSW, but I could definitely see myself being ready to throw power snatches in as HFSW again relatively soon.

BW was between 202-203 again today. Not bad considering the fact that I went out a couple times over the weekend. I also carbed up like a mofo yesterday with a ton of rice from Chipotle and a Chinese place near my house lol. Going into the week well-fed and ready to go- I’ll be aiming high on the nutrition earlier in the week and reducing things as needed once I see how I’m looking/feeling after a couple days.

300

Today’s Workout: Power Snatch/Deadlift Work

Activation:

A1. OH-Low-OH BPA 4x1

A2. Weighted Jumps 4x1

A3. OH Bar Rotations (3 sec peak hold) 4x3

A4. One Arm DB Snatch From Floor 4x1 LR

Power Snatch Work:

B1. Position 1-2 Transition/Power Snatch

From Blocks
45x3/1
95x3/1
115x3/1
135x3/1
Fuck that, only blocks I have access to are benches and I’m short so the bar was starting too high. Went with power snatches from hang from here on
135x3/1
145x3/1
155x3/1

B2. OH Med Ball Throws

7x1

Deadlift Work:

C1. Conventional

DOH Raw
225x3
275x3
315x3
365x3 First two DOH/last one staggered lol snatches beat my grip up
405x3 Straps like a bitch

C2. OH Med Ball Throws

5x1

D1. Lever Deads (tried these out following CT’s description in the spill yesterday… not sure if I did them exactly as he intended, but whatever they ended up looking like was good 4 mad hyooge lat pumpz)

5x225x3

D2. Band Straight Arm Pulldown

5x1

E. Speed Pulls (back to conventional)

225x5 clusters of 3 (10 sec rest between clusters)

Rehab:

F. DB Hammer Curl To Ears x20

G. Biceps Hold x20 sec

H. Hyperextensions x25

Notes:

Tomorrow’s schedule is pretty mis and I have to be on campus forever/fast for ten years, so I decided to move my deadlift day up and leave the more activation-oriented HFS session for tomorrow. Even with the Humapro, I don’t like to fast too extensively following a session that is even remotely heavy if I can avoid it.

Not too much to note other than that. Haven’t deadlifted or power snatched in awhile and both felt pretty good considering that fact. I could probably be in PR territory within a couple of weeks if I threw in deads as HFSW and didn’t lead with the PS before going heavy, but I’m fine with sitting back on the deads for now because I have more pressing shits to deal with.

Power Snatches will probably be replacing the full extension holds as an HFS move in a couple weeks.