Flare your lats a bitwhen you take a picture of yourself from the front (shoulders down and out). You’re a lot wider and thicker than the photos make you look.
[quote]Canada_K wrote:
Flare your lats a bitwhen you take a picture of yourself from the front (shoulders down and out). You’re a lot wider and thicker than the photos make you look.[/quote]
Thanks, I’ll give that a try next time
First day of the new programming: Upper
Snatch High Pull 225x5
Activation:
A1. Power Snatch from Hang
3x95x6
A2. Military Press
3x95x6
Strength Work Part 1:
B. Bench Press
135x3
185x3
225x3
245x3
275x3
295x3
315x2 (prob had 3 in my but I cut it because I didn’t have a spotter)
Ring Work:
C. L-Sit Chins
3xBWx5
D. Skin The Cat
2xBWx5
Strength Work Part 2:
E. Snatch Upright Row —> Snatch High Pull
45x5
65x5
95x5
115x5 (high pulls from here on)
135x5
155x5
185x5
205x5 (straps from here on)
225x5 (PR, vid)
Recruitment Work:
Trap/Delt Giant Set F
F1. Front Squat Shrugs (2 sec hold at peak) 3x12
F2. Unilateral Bent Over Lateral Raise (right) 3x12
F3. Unilateral Leaning Away Lateral Raise (right) 3x12
F4. Unilateral Bent Over Lateral Raise (left) 3x12
F5. Unilateral Leaning Away Lateral Raise (left) 3x12
G. Squeeze Press 3x12
Volume Work:
H. High Incline Pin Press (~70 degree bench, pins at chin level)
135x12
115x12
115x15
Notes:
This workout went about as well as I could have asked for. Every upper body muscle felt like it got plenty of work. The progression from strength work → activation work → volume work was good. Strength levels were pretty solid to start, then I got to really beat the hell out of my muscles while maintaining a good feel. I liked high incline pin presses. Couldn’t move shit for weight by that point, but my delts, triceps, and chest were sufficiently fried by the end of it.
I weighed in at 200 dead on today, which is about 3-4lbs less than I was at last weigh-in. I looked leaner as well. This is a pretty good sign that the volume drop was the right decision. Past few days have been higher in fats and veggies, with a decrease in carbs. That will be my standard off day protocol. Nutrition is staying the same on work days so I’m well-fueled and ready to go.
Looking forward to legs tomorrow.
Dont be so hard on yourself Mac, gotta let loose every once in a while even an old fuck like me likes the company of John Jameson once in a while! High pulls looked killer…
[quote]MattyXL wrote:
Dont be so hard on yourself Mac, gotta let loose every once in a while even an old fuck like me likes the company of John Jameson once in a while! High pulls looked killer…[/quote]
Haha I’m all for cutting loose a little, I just feel like the bottle+ of bourbon that I put down over the weekend might have been a little much…
Today’s Workout: Lower
Back Squat 365x3
Still a little high on these, but I made some form tweaks and I was definitely getting lower and getting a better quad feel.
Activation
A1. Back Squat Warm-up
45x12
135x6
185x6
A2. DB Power Snatch from Hang
3x35sx6
A3. DB Military Press
3x35sx6
Strength Work:
B. Back Squat
225x3
275x3
315x3
335x3
365x3 (vid)
225x15
Quad Pre-exhaust Work:
C. Unilateral Leg Extensions (switching legs each set, 2 sec hold at peak)
6xweightx12
D. Heels-Elevated Front Squats
2x135x15
155x15
Posterior Chain Pre-exhaust:
E. Lying Leg Curls (2 sec hold at peak, constant tension, switching legs with each set)
6xweightx12
F. DB SLDL
75x20
Notes:
Not a bad workout. It was a little closer to waking up than I would have liked, but I don’t think that hurt me too much. Programming went more or less as planned, with one exception- I changed the posterior chain pre-exhaust work so that I’m only doing one set of SLDL’s to failure at the end. Just don’t think I need any more than that.
I messed around with my stance on squats a bit today. I noticed awhile back that if I don’t point my feet out enough, I really fuck my knees up. In the effort to point my feet out enough, I ended up widening my stance out a good bit. This had a couple of consequences: a)leaning more heavily on the posterior chain when squatting and b) limiting my depth. I tried to remedy this by bringing my stance in a little, but still keeping my feet pointed out just as much. Seemed to work pretty well. I got deeper and had a better quad feel, even though the form change made them a bit harder. I think this change will have me moving more weight on the long term though.
I really like the feet-elevated front squats. A lot. I took it way too light since this was my first time trying them out. Going to go heavier next time- I think I could get 15 reps at 185ish. We’ll see.
Quick diet note- in spite of cutting the HOT-ROX out (as of Sunday), I’m getting leaner each day. I’m working with what is more or less a CBL + skipping breakfast approach. So I won’t eat anything in the AM, but I’ll have some chicken, nuts, salad, and/or some cream in my coffee each afternoon and then eat a big meal at night. Carbs are at about half of what they have been, but fats are up so it’s ok. Probably going to drop all macros down tomorrow for the off day.
Off day today. Upper body was fairly sore yesterday, but I’m already feeling ready to go so tomorrow should be a good workout. I still seem to be leaning out with the diet tweaks I’ve made, though maybe I’m full of shit and it’s just dehydration from the excess of whiskey I drank last night lol.
I actually ended up going lower-carb yesterday. I’m trying out something a bit different and only eating a lot of carbs the night before I lift (so on upper body days to carb up for lower body days, then on off days to carb up for upper body days). I’m hoping that this will keep me well-fueled for workouts/make me retain a bit of water for workouts to help me move bigger weights while still allowing me to do work on fat loss. I might tweak this as I go though.
Here’s what the nutrition will look like each day from tomorrow on (more or less, there’s some variation):
-AM: 2 Neurostim, 2 Flameout, 24oz. coffee with cream
-Lunch: 1/2 chicken breast w/ 8 brazil nuts, 5 psyllium fiber, 8000 IU vit D
-Dinner-60 min: 4 Indigo
-Dinner-15 min: 3 ZMA
-Dinner: remainder of chicken w/ BBQ sauce, 1-2 cups rice if it’s a carb-up day
*salad/veggies thrown in as I see fit
Workout Nutrition:
-Workout-15min: 1 Spike Tab, 2.5g creatine monohydrate
-Intraworkout: 5g BCAA structured peptides
-Postworkout: 390mg DMAE, 1 Power Drive, 2 Flameout, 2.5g creatine monohydrate
Looking good bro
^postworkout meal… dropping weight too fast this week BUT I HAZ THE CURE: EMERGENCY CHEEZBURGER THERAPY :)))))))))) lol
Today’s Workout: Upper
Activation:
A1. Power Snatch from Hang
3x95x6
A2. Military Press
3x95x6
Strength Work Part 1:
B. Bench Press
135x6
185x6
225x3
245x3
275x3
295x3
315x2 (ugh second rep was shit)
225x15
Ring Work:
C. L-Sit Chins
3xBWx5
D. Skin The Cat (easier this week)
2xBWx5
Strength Work Part 2:
E. Snatch Upright Row —> Snatch High Pull
45x12
65x5
95x5
115x5
135x5 (high pulls from here on)
155x5
185x5(straps from here on)
205x5
225x5
245x5 (PR)
45x15 (back to upright rows on this)
Recruitment Work:
Trap/Delt Giant Set F
F1. Front Squat Shrugs (2 sec hold at peak) 3x12
F2. Unilateral Bent Over Lateral Raise (right) 3x12
F3. Unilateral Leaning Away Lateral Raise (right) 3x12
F4. Unilateral Bent Over Lateral Raise (left) 3x12
F5. Unilateral Leaning Away Lateral Raise (left) 3x12
G. Squeeze Press 3x12 (very slow reps on the last set)
Volume Work:
H. High Incline Bench Press
135x15
115x12
95x15
Notes:
Pretty decent workout. Bench was doodoo today. Barely got 2 reps at 315. I absolutely crushed 225 for 15 after it though, so I guess it was ok overall. Rings and snatch high pulls were great. Nailed a 20lb PR on the SHP’s and skin the cat was as good as it’s every been. Definitely going to up STC to 3 sets next week to see how close I can get to 3 sets of 5.
Tried a different approach on the high incline pressing and went full ROM rather than pin presses. Got a nice deep stretch, but I had to drop weight as I went because I was just toast by the end of it.
I’m an idiot and I went into a ZMA coma last night before I could eat my rice, so it was another very low carb day. Fuck. Scale weight was way down today even with excessive hydration this morning. 197 
which means I dropped about 5lbs this week without really trying hard. I guess the CBL + Indigo + some low carb days is a pretty powerful combo. I’m not really a fan of dropping weight that fast when I’m not REALLY working to do so. I think the depletion accounted for the weak benching today. I also noticed that I was getting a pump, but it was a fleeting one that came and went really quickly. And ugh teh flatness.
So I’m carbing up tough tonight. Just spent like $20 at Five Guys and housed 2 bacon cheeseburgers and large Cajun fries then housed it while watching Shameless lol. I already feel like I’m filling out, which is a good thing. Would like to kill it with my leg workout tomorrow. I’m also interested in seeing how I respond to dirtier carbs while CBLing with Indigo. Will report in the morning.
[quote]spar4tee wrote:
Looking good bro[/quote]
Thanks dude
I feel your benching problem is a technical one.
[quote]spar4tee wrote:
I feel your benching problem is a technical one.[/quote]
It’s possible. Don’t think my form is too bad though, I’ve sunk a lot of time into bench form work. Today was an off day for sure. I’ll keep paying attention to it and I’ll try to grab a video from a good angle on my next upper day.
The camera I was using for progress pics/vids before shit the bed completely. Luckily, my phone camera started working again, so I’ve at least got something lol. Took those pics this morning, so that’s where I’m at following the cheat last night.
By the time I went to bed, the death toll was the previously mentioned Five Guys feast, 2 Chobani Blueberry Greek yogurts, a chunk of bread, a serving of Brazil nuts, and about half a jar of almond butter lol. Water retention isn’t bad at all today and fullness is way up, so I think the cheat was pretty damned productive.
Letting myself wake up for a few hours now, then I’ll hit the gym around 3-4.
Today’s Workout: Lower
Activation:
A1. DB Snatch
3x30sx6
A2. Military Press
3x95x6
Strength Work:
B. Back Squat
45x12
135x12
185x6
225x3
275x3
315x3
335x3
365x3 (belt from here on)
275x15
225x20
Quads Pre-exhaust Work:
C. Unilateral Leg Extensions (alternating legs, 2 sec hold at peak)
6xweightx12
D. Heels-elevated Front Squats
185x15
Posterior Chain Pre-exhaust:
E. Unilateral Lying Leg Curls (alternating legs, constant tension, 2 sec hold at peak)
6xweightx12
F. DB SLDL (constant tension)
80sx25
Notes:
Great workout today. I locked down the squat rack in front of the mirror, so I got to really pay attention to form. Looks like my greatest flaw once I go heavier is making sure that my knees are tracking my toes. Will be focusing on that. Until the form is consistently awesome, I don’t see much reason to go above 365 for my top set. It’s heavy enough to be pretty challenging, but not so heavy that I can’t really pay close attention to form cues.
While I’m working on form, I’ll try to machine out high rep sets at the lower weights. That’s my strength anyway, and my legs seem to respond really well to high rep sets. Quad feel is improving significantly, and 275x15 was about as easy as 225x15 was a few weeks ago. I think my technique is far more of a limiting factor than my strength right now anyway- had my form down when I was a fatty, but shit just feels different now that I’m 30lbs lighter. I’ll get back to it.
I tried cutting down to one set of the front squats, using heavier weight and taking that set pretty damned close to failure. I liked this approach, and will be sticking with it. Depth was good but not ATG, so I’ll just work on getting even deeper over the next few workouts and I’ll throw more weight on when 185 gets too easy. The FS and SLDL work for high reps gave me a really stupid lat pump, BTW. Probs due to keeping some serious tension through my core during those sets. <3 lat pumpz.
Scale weight was 200, so only a 3lb gain from all the feasting last night. Wow. I think I actually look leaner today, but that’s probably due to maintaining leanness while replenishing muscle glycogen and getting some shape back. Either way, I’ll take it. It’s pretty stupid that I can get away with eating on mad burgerz/friez these days. Not going to make it a habit, but it’s good to know. My fat intake has been through the roof all week, and I noticed no real negatives for it. Also good to know- will be keeping the fatz/proteinz up when I’m not carbing up tough. Getting down on that carb depletion again today.
Workout 2/6: Upper
Activation:
A1. Power Snatch from Hang
3x95x6
A2. Military Press
3x95x6
Strength Work:
B. Bench Press
135x6
185x6
225x3
245x3
275x3
295x3
315x1.5 (second rep was ugly and I took a spot on it… fuck)
225x15
C. Snatch Upright Row —> Snatch High Pull
45x12
65x5
95x5
115x5
135x5 (high pulls from here on)
155x5
185x5(straps from here on)
205x5
225x5
245x5 (PR)
45x15 (back to upright rows on this)
Recruitment Work:
Trap/Delt Giant Set D
D1. Front Squat Shrugs (2 sec hold at peak) 3x12
D2. Unilateral Bent Over Lateral Raise (right) 3x12
D3. Unilateral Leaning Away Lateral Raise (right) 3x12
D4. Unilateral Bent Over Lateral Raise (left) 3x12
D5. Unilateral Leaning Away Lateral Raise (left) 3x12
E. Squeeze Press 3x12 (very slow reps on the last set)
Volume Work:
F. High Incline Bench Press->High Incline Pin Press Partials (drop set)
135xreps (95xreps)
Notes:
Had to keep this workout short because my services were needed to help for frat silliness (bid night 4 the lulz). I cut the ring work and will be hitting that today with my lower body work. Not a bad workout though.
I need to make some changes on bench press. Had to take a spot for the first time in months, which I’m not too pleased about. My body seems to be really happy with mid to high reps, but not so much with the lower rep/high weight stuff. I’m getting a way better feel from bench press- had a huge pump pretty much throughout my upper body after two or three warm-up sets. It seems like the MMC/pump are getting too good and killing my performance though.
So I’m going to start ramping in 6’s for awhile on all of my strength exercises. That way I can focus on form/explosiveness and get some strength type work in without throwing up any shit reps. I have a feeling that once I drop out isolation work and switch back to a more HFSW-type approach, the weights will shoot back up. I’m going to keep rolling on the hypertrophy work for now though, because it seems to be working.
Tried something new on the high incline bench today. I condensed it into one drop set, but I also set the pins pretty low (just about at my chest) and banged out some dead start partials after I was burnt out on full reps. So it pretty much worked out that I pressed from an inch or two below my chin until I hit failure doing that, then I set the bar down on the pins and hit a few more explosive reps from the pins to about forehead height. I liked this and will be trying it again.
Nutrition Shitz:
Sunday was a bit silly with nutrition, as is kind of expected with the big game (I’m still crying on the inside about the loss :[). I CBL’d, but my carbs came from pizza and wings lol. I don’t mind getting a little dirty once or twice a week before upper body work though, since the pumps tend to be awesome the day after cheating a little.
I kept it clean yesterday with a solid day of CBLing. I managed to pound down a full 2 cups of rice with my chicken, but I was so goddamn full afterward that I wanted to die. I don’t think I needed that much rice, but I wanted to get it down for recovery. I’m pretty waterlogged this morning, so I’m going to try backing off to only one cup of rice per day on workout days (rather than a full 2 cups the evening before each workout day). I’ll update in a week or so on how that works out.
Today’s Workout: Lower
Activation:
A1. DB Snatch
3x30sx6
A2. Military Press
3x95x6
Rings:
B. L-sit Chins
3xBWx5
C. Skin The Cat
2xBWx5 (threw down a 1-legged back lever on the last one… OMFG head rush lol)
Strength Work:
D. Back Squat
45x12
135x12
185x6
225x6
275x6
315x6 (belt from here on)
335x6
275x15
225x20
Quads Pre-exhaust Work:
E. Unilateral Leg Extensions (alternating legs, 2 sec hold at peak)
6xweightx12
F. Heels-elevated Front Squats (ATG on all reps)
185x12
Posterior Chain Pre-exhaust:
G. Unilateral Lying Leg Curls (alternating legs, constant tension, 2 sec hold at peak)
6xweightx12
H. DB SLDL (constant tension)
85sx20
Notes:
I can’t fucking walk right now and I was having mild seizures before I got the postworkout neural recovery stack down. Even so, pretty fucking awesome workout. Squats were the deepest they have been, like, ever. Feel was there too. I really liked ramping in 6’s, even if it completely destroyed me. The high rep work was really not fun but it was good, hard work. Am pleased.
Isolation work is definitely out after this week. Recruitment/MMC are getting stupid good and I’m starting to pump up and get into gorilla mode after stuff as mundane as the activation work. I’m going to have to revise the upper back/delt spec a little bit to shift it more in the direction of performance. I think I’ll still throw in some DB laterals and go heavy on those as a finisher, but all other lifts will be performance-focused. The isolation work is just redundant at this point, so I don’t want to waste time/effort keeping it in.
Scale weight was 204 today. I was a bit watery around the midsection, but the upper body and legs were looking moderately diesel, so I’ll take it. Pecs are starting to look way fuller and show some striations, which is kool. Going to pound out a more or less unlimited number of fats and roughly 200g of carbs now :).
Off day today.
One cup of rice was golden for my current workout frequency. Even though I could barely walk last night, I feel like I’ve recovered well after getting my nutrition and sleep in. Water retention isn’t too crazy today either, which is nice.
Today will be almost entirely fatz and protein. No “legit” carb sources, only incidentals here and there.
following
@HolyMac Good to have you following along dude
EDIT: Change of plans
Today’s Workout: Upper
A. Bench Press
Barx12
135x12
185x6
225x6
245x6
275x6
B. DB Upright Row
30sx6
40sx6
50sx6
60sx6
C. WG Military Press
45x3
65x3
95x3
115x3
135x3
155x3
D. Chin (no rest between sets)
WG/Overhandx6
NGx6
CG/underhandx6
E. High Incline Pin Press (pins set at forehead height)
135x3
155x3
185x3
205x3
225x3
F. DB Lateral
30sx6
40sx6
50sx6 (lulz body English… cutting off at 45’s next time)
G. Snatch Grip Upright Row
45x6
65x6
85x6
95x6
Upper Arm/Trap Circuit H
H1. Rope Upright Row (easy… will go way heavier next time)
40x6
50x6
60x6
70x6
80x6
H2. Cordova Extension (1 set=both arms)
30x6
40x6
40x6
50x6
60x6
H3. BB Curl
40x6
50x6
60x6
70x6
80x6
Notes:
I read something earlier from the Mighty Stu about poor sleep quality and declining numbers being signs of overtraining. I’ve had such great drive to train that I’ve kind of been shrugging these things off, but his comment made me think a little bit. I get the feeling that my noop stack has been so good for cutting neural fatigue that I’ve been ignoring muscular fatigue due to my desire to train. I think that the isolation/higher-rep work WAS a good way to switch things up and get my MMC online in a serious way, but at the same time my body is telling me to GTFO and get back to performance (power) work.
So I’m changing things up NOW. No more high rep/MMC focus stuff. I’m going for power. Today’s workout was somewhat improvised, but I liked it for the most part. I don’t plan to go over 6 reps on anything but warm-up/activation stuff for awhile. In spite of sticking to mid-low reps today and shooting for explosiveness above all else, I got a serious pump and had a balls-awesome MMC.
I’m going to roll with some more feel-based training, focusing on heavy compound moves performed for max explosiveness. I will allow heavy DB laterals and Cordova Extensions in, but will be shooting for a quick, hard contraction and using lower reps. Today’s the first time I’ve ever really tried going heavy on the laterals, and I liked the feel a lot. I tried Cordova extensions for the first time today as well- I realized that my right elbow has some kinda weird tightness going on and that the extensions seem to loosen it up a bit. Hopefully this will help me on my pressing moves.
Also, I think next week I’ll let myself creep up to 5 training days again. All depends on how I feel. I’m thinking a split of upper/lower/upper/lower/arms might be kewl. Within that split, I can throw down at least one rest day at the end of the week, and one thrown in as I see fit. Hopefully this will help me to continue gaining size while improving muscle density AND get my numbers back up at the same time.