Awesome log and your arms are looking huge in that new pic
@Blackaggar Thanks man
Got a new protocol for Thursdays: IFing, yo
10-11:15AM: Class
11:30AM-12:30PM: Workout
1-3:45PM: Moar Class (take Indigo mid-way through final class)
4:00-10PM (or later): Work- sneak into the dining hall as early as possible and feast
Thursday is my hardest day to schedule, so this just makes the most sense. I’ll stay fasted until the early evening, fitting a quick workout in on the early side, then just pound food until I can’t anymore. That way I can get away with eating some dirtier dining hall food. My goal is pretty much to have one huge salad, one full plate of clean food, then pound out as much of whatever else as I can. Been posted up for about an hour now and I got the requisite healthy foods in (salad plus potato/carrots/steak) then some pizza and meatballs. Yay free food.
225x20 fucking puke-0-rama!
no thanks!
nice pr on the 245x5 high pull
[quote]MattyXL wrote:
225x20 fucking puke-0-rama!
no thanks!
nice pr on the 245x5 high pull[/quote]
Haha more tears than puking and thanks man
Postworkout pic in shitty lighting. Can’t see much detail due to my sexy paleness, but it’s at least an idea of how size is coming along. 200lbs here.
Today’s Workout: Lower Power Work, Arms
Activation:
A. DB Snatch from Hang
3x30sx6
Ring Work:
B. L-sit Chins
3xBWx5
C. STC
2xBWx5 (felt much better today… last rep was a lever with one leg out, much better this time)
D. Iron Cross (partials)
2xBWx2 (first time on these… got WAAY deeper than I expected. full rep is not far off)
Legs Power Work:
E. Heels-elevated Front Squat
Barx6
95x6
115x6
135x6
155x6 (resting only long enough to change weights until after this set)
185x6
205x6
225x6
F. Back Squat
245x3
275x3
295x3
315x3 (belt on)
335x3
G. Deadlift
135x6
225x6
315x3
335x3 (straps from here on)
365x3
385x3
H. Power Snatch from Hang
Barx3
65x3
95x3
115x3
135x3
155x3 (straps)
Arm Work:
I. Cordova Extension (1 set=both arms)
20x6
30x6
40x6
50x6
60x6
J. Overhead Cable Extension
70x6
80x6
90x6
100x6
110x6
K. BB Curl
Barx6
65x6
85x6
95x6
115x6
135x6 (body English toward the end of the set)
155x6 (cheaty as fuck)
Notes:
Had to catch up on the ring work I owed from yesterday, and I just decided to throw some arm work in for shits and giggles because they didn’t get much love yesterday due to time constraints.
Didn’t push the weights hard or anything. I tried to just hit a lot of relatively light sets with good explosiveness. Being able to walk after a leg workout is a nice change lolz.
(see pic in next post because I suck)
Marginally better attempt at a progress pic lol. No pumpz but somewhat deece lighting. I need a fucking tan.
Some serious assholery went down last night. Had a date party with the fraternity, so I ended up getting pretty drunk. After some serious hydration this morning, I performed crime scene investigation in my room and it appears that I just pillaged Wawa at some point and ate like half a bag of chips and some chicken nuggets/mashed potatoes. I actually look leaner today though, so I guess it’s kewl- I sort of planned on being a clown last night, so I didn’t really have any carbs until then.
Off day today, so I’m just IFing hard. Going to drop the protein down today. Probs just going to eat a diesel salad with LOTS of fats around 5 or so. And of course the standard Brazil nuts.
No stims/coffee today or tomorrow. I’m actually going to try alternating HOT-ROX and Spike tabs for the next few weeks. So I’ll just pop two HOT-ROX instead of two Spike tabs pre-WO next week.
Hoping that power work + rings + IF + stimz will help me lean out a little while still getting hyooge. Time will tell.
P.S. Actually got some good DOMS in my legs this morning. Nothing egregious, but I definitely wasn’t getting anything like this from the higher volume training before I switched.
Today’s Workout: Upper Body Power Work
A. Bench Press
Barx10
135x10
185x6
205x6
225x6
245x6
275x6
B. DB Lateral Raise
15x6
30x6
40x6
45x6
50x6 (body English on this one)
C. L-Sit Chins
3xBWx5
D. Iron Cross Partials (about 3/4 depth on these)
2xBWx3
E. Rope Upright Rows
60x6
70x6
80x6
90x6
100x6
110x6
120x6
F. Military Press
Barx3
65x3
85x3
95x3
115x3
135x3
155x3
G. Snatch Grip Upright Row
Barx6
65x6
85x6
95x6
115x6
135x6 (Body English)
H. High Incline Pin Press (pins at forehead)
Barx3
95x3
135x3
155x3
185x3
205x3
225x3
I. DB Upright Row
20x3
30x3
40x3
50x3
60x3
70x3 (straps)
J. Cordova Extensions
20x6 LR
30x6 LR
40x6 LR
50x6 LR
60x6 LR
K. Overhead Rope Extensions
70x6
80x6
90x6
100x6
110x6
120x6
L. BB Curls
Barx6
65x6
85x6
95x6
115x6
135x6 (some Body English)
155x6 (cheated)
Notes:
I’m pretty happy with this workout. Programming was just about there- ideally the the ring work would have come before the DB lateral raises, but all the racks were occupied and I didn’t feel like just standing there and jerking off or whatever while I waited for one to free up.
I decided to keep arms in on upper body days rather than giving them their own day. This just works better, because I really am trying to keep the frequency at which I’m hitting each body part down for now so I have room to play in the coming months. It’s nice psychologically, because I can really scratch my volume itch on upper days. I also have very little faith in myself to go into the gym and just do a reasonable number of sets of arm work then leave lol.
Ring work was focused on Iron Cross today. That’s another change I’m making on upper body work- upper days will prioritize the Iron Cross, and STC will be moved to lower body days. That will help even out the work volume between upper and lower body days.
Feeling awesome right now. Borderline cracked out. My preworkout stim was 2 caps of HOT-ROX, and that had me tweaking balls and ready to go since I cut all stims (including coffee) for both Saturday and Sunday. Factor in the activation-oriented power work and the post-WO DMAE/PD and yeah… it’s going to be a productive afternoon of school work.
I’ll update on yesterday/today’s nutrition a bit later ( stillneed to pull things together today due to some unforeseen difficulties in procuring mass quantities of chickens lol). BW was 203 today.
I had to kind of pull the nutrition out of my ass today because I was stuck on campus during all peak wholesale rotisserie chicken purchase hours. I cut out of the fast around 3PM. Managed to sneak into the dining hall and had the following:
-Huge plate of turkey and mashed potatoes
-Spinach salad w/ peppers, onions, bacon, cheese, and ranch
-1 cup coffee
And then I made a stop at Wawa around 7:30PM to round out the nutrition for the day (supplementing with what was in the fridge):
-celery w/ salsa/guacamole/sour cream/cheese
-3 Chobani Blueberry Greek yogurts
-1 protein bar
-8 Brazil nuts
Not ideal today, but BJ’s really fucked me out of my chief protein source yesterday so I did what I could. I’m hoping to clean things up and lock things down so I can roll with just rice and chicken for most of this week.
Today’s Workout: Lower Body Power Work
For the lulz, back lever attempt 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wecOPBe3gCQ&feature=youtu.be
I need to maintain full extension in the back position, obviously. I’ll get there. No broken blood vessels around the eyes this time, so my body is more accepting anyway lol. Any tips welcome.
A. Power Snatch from Hang (activation)
3x95x6
B. Fat Man L-sit Chins (ring warm-up)
2xBWx5
C. STC- Knees tucked
2xBWx5
D. STC- One leg extended
2xBWx3
E. Back Lever attempt
2xBWx1 (second set in vid)
F. Heels-elevated Front Squat
95x6
115x6
135x6
155x6
185x6
205x6
225x6
G. Trap Bar Deadlift
275x3
295x3
315x3
335x3
365x3
385x3
405x3 (straps)
425x3 (straps/belt… not awful since I haven’t worked these in awhile)
H. Snatch Grip Speed Pulls
135x3
155x3
185x3
205x3
225x3
245x3
275x3
I. Power Snatch from Hang
Barx3
65x3
85x3
95x3
115x3
135x3
155x3 (straps)
Notes:
Slept like shit last night,. Woke up early and couldn’t get back to sleep, so I got into the gym at 8AM before class. Stayed fasted until about an hour ago. Eating a ton of rice, veggies, chicken, and Brazil nuts at the moment.
Workout went well today. Had a lot of fun playing with the lever progression. I also made some tweaks to the leg work.
My left knee has been feeling gimpy due to the back squats, so I’m just dumping those. I keep trying to add them back in and tighten up form, and they still manage to make a mess of my knees as soon as I tighten up the stance and try to get deep. I had some knee injuries in high school from playing offensive lineman on the football team, so I’m guessing that’s a part of it. Front squats don’t seem to bother me for some reason, so I’ll keep them in. I’m switching trap bar DL’s back in as my heavy quad movement. Hopefully preceding them with front squats will help the trap bar deads to really do work on my quads. I’ll probably know by the morning if this was better on the knees lolz.
I’m working heavy on trap bar deads, so I don’t really need the heavy conventional deads as well. Tried some snatch grip pulling, fairly light and very explosive. My baby hands struggle to hold the bar with a grip that wide when I’m not strapped, so I figure these will be good for a combination of strengthening my wrists for power snatches and just working on general explosiveness.
BW was 201 today. I’m going to try to ride this out without any exotic and sloppy refeeding to see how lean I can get. I’ll set the new floor at 195, and I won’t do anything crazy until I dip below there.
I’ve been attempting planches … you’re not alone
[quote]spar4tee wrote:
I’ve been attempting planches … you’re not alone[/quote]
Haven’t tried those yet… might have to attempt one at some point for shits and giggles. Race to world’s hyoogest gymnast lol?
Today’s Workout: Upper Body Power Work
A. Bench Press
Barx10
135x10
185x6
205x6
225x6
245x6
275x6
245x6
B. Rope High Pulls
80x6
90x6
100x6
110x6
120x6
C. DB Laterals (keeping pinky higher than rest of hand)
20sx6
30sx6
35sx6
40sx6
45sx6
D. Iron Cross Work:
1/3 Depth Partials- 2xBWx5
2/3 Depth Partials- 2xBWx3
Full Iron Cross Attempt- 1xBWx1 (hell yeah), 1xBWx0 (hit depth but couldn’t turn it around)
E. L-sit Chins
3xBWx5
E. Military Press
Barx3
65x3
85x3
95x3 OMFG LIGHTHEADED after this- had an out-of-body experience and music sounded weird. WTF.
115x3
135x3
155x3
135x3
F. Snatch Grip Upright Row
Barx6
65x6
85x6
95x6
115x6
135x6
G. High Incline Pin Press
Barx3
95x3
135x3
155x3
185x3
205x3
225x0- started to drive into the bar and just wasn’t feeling it, so I cut the set
185x3
H. DB Upright Rows
20sx6
30sx6
40sx6
50sx6
60sx6
60sx6
I. Cordova Extensions
20x6 LR
30x6 LR
40x6 LR
50x6
50x6 (lulz forgot to change weight)
J. Overhead Rope Extensions
80x6
90x6
100x6
110x6
120x6
K. BB Curls
Barx6
65x6
85x6
95x6
115x6
135x6 (little body English)
155x6 (Cheat)
Notes:
I worked out today rather than taking a rest day because I’ll probably be drinking tonight. Tomorrow is off for sure. I don’t think shorting myself on rest had a SERIOUSLY negative effect on my performance, but it was pretty obvious that I’ll have to reduce the volume of upper body work to account for the more intense work on levers and iron cross.
With that said, iron cross was fucking awesome today. Getting a full rep felt great, and the partials were good for some serious pumps. I grabbed a vid of the second full rep attempt on the cross, but I lost it at the bottom and half the vid is just the profanity that ensued following the failure, so I’ll spare you guys that one lol. These were pretty involved on the outer pecs as well.
After reading CT’s comments in the Indigo spills yesterday, I decided to add one more set with lighter weight on pressing moves. Top weights were definitely a bit soft today due to hitting three days of ring work in a row, but explosiveness was pretty deece.
I’m going to shift the ring work to the beginning of my next upper body workout. My goal is pretty much to do the same thing with rings and keep getting good at those, but eliminate all movements that are even semi-redundant to just work on being super-explosive. Going to circuit moar shitz as well.
Here’s what it’s going to look like (ideally):
-Iron Cross series
-L-sit Chins
-Bench Press/Rope Upright Row/DB Laterals (6’s, 3ish sets at a top weight of ~70% of 6RM)
-High Incline Pin Press/DB Upright Row (3’s, 3ish sets at a top weight of ~70% of 3RM)
-Cordova Extensions/Overhead Rope Extensions/BB Curls (6’s, prob not going to worry about adding extra sets at the top weight)
BW was still 201 today, but I drank a ton more preworkout and looked leaner today, so w/e. Probably going to just eat on campus today because I don’t feel like fasting til 730PM lolz- I can tell I picked up some serious fatigue from the ring work and I don’t want to let my body go nutrient-free for too long. BTW- legs/knees feel just lovely today. Leg programming was ON and will not be changed.
/novel. Jesus, lots of thoughts today and too much coffee.
Slim pickings at the dining hall, so it got lulzy. Went with:
-Big spinach salad w/ onions, peppers, cheese, bacon, ranch
-Piece of salmon (I’d estimate 6oz)
-3 Slices of pizza (2 with pepperoni, 1 with sausage)
-cup of coffee
I was hoping for some rice and meat, but dining services did not deliver lol. Obviously I need moar proteinz, so I’ll eat on some chicken breast along with the mandatory Brazil nuts when I get home. Not going to push it too hard today because
a) I have tomorrow to recover as well before the next lift and
b) I bloat up like fuck when I eat 3-5lbs of food and go heavy on the carbz. Going to be wimenz involved in the evening’s fratty business and I don’t want to be a huge bloated piece of shit because I’m vain like dat.
Going to fast like a mofo and eat nothing til 7PM tomorrow (will probably work out to a 20-22 hour fast), so that should clean up after the pizza lol.
Ok, change of plans. The evening’s festivities have been postponed, so I’m going to eat like a mofo. Trying to put down a cup of rice, a chicken, Brazil nuts, and some veggies in the next couple hours til I hit the sack. Going to get a good night’s sleep, and unless I wake up all kinds of destroyed by DOMS, I’ll hit legs tomorrow. After that, I’ll take at least two rest days (Fri-Sat) to just hit neural charge work in the AM, but let the muscles heal up. If I’m tweaking out and ready to go on Sunday, I’ll start the next week’s work early. Otherwise I’m down to just take three days of rest so the joints and muscles are really fresh. Today was obviously a bit too much, but I think with the tweaks I mentioned in my workout notes, the programming should be good.
Kay, feast time :).
Today’s Workout: Lower Body Power Work
A1. STC Series:
Knees Tucked- 2xBWx5
One Leg Extended- 2xBWx3
Full Lever Attempt- 2xBWxsomething like success lol
A2. Posterior Chain Work:
Snatch Grip Speed Pulls- Warm-up Ramping, 3x225x3
Power Snatch From Hang- Warm-up Ramping, 3x135x3 (straps)
B. Heels-elevated Front Squats
Warm-up Ramping
3x185x6
C. Trap Bar DL
Warm-up Ramping
3x365x3 (straps)
Notes:
This was a great workout. I only had 45 minutes, so rests were extremely short and I just tried to keep moving and explosively lifting shit. I didn’t push the weight much at all today, and instead just focused on explosiveness (this will be a common trend- I’m probably only going to go heavy once every 2-3 weeks). Rather than ramping up to a single top set, I tried to sit on a weight that was about two 20-30lb ramping sets away from a true 3-6RM. I also tried to get back to circuiting some things, and that was nice as well.
Although nothing impressive happened with weights today, I got a better pump and was looking lean as fuck afterwards in spite of eating like a bastard last night. Scale weight was sitting at 202, which is a bit heavier than yesterday. I’m glad I ate a lot- it’s clearly what my body wanted and my joints/muscles feel thoroughly recovered from yesterday’s beatdown. Planning to pop out of my fast today around 7PM. Going to a fraternity awards banquet thing, so foodz will not be the cleanest. Going to feast moderately to severely hard tonight though- I plan to just keep eating once I get home after that lol.
Tomorrow was suppposed to be an off day, but I already feel like lifting again so I’ll probably just do an in-gym extensive NC workout and play on the rings a little bit- no barbells allowed though. I’m going to start incorporating ice cream makers and working toward L-sit muscle ups because L-sit chins are like kid’s table shit at this point. Also, had a productive day of classes and did a ton of scheming related to teh training. I’m going to start playing with throws/jumps/explosive band work a bit more, and tomorrow will give me a good opportunity to do so. My thought is that I can work these in for AR on ring work and money lifts to get a circuit effect/help keep the CNS primed without accumulating fatigue.
Today’s Workout: Activation/HFSW
Activation:
A1. Ice Cream Makers (lulzy form, first try at these)
3xBWx5
A2. Power Snatch From Hang
3x95x3
A3. Box Jumps
3x5 (highest box available… waist height, maybe a bit more)
B1. Bulgarian Dips
3xBWx3
B2. Heels-elevated Front Squat (switched from 5lb plates to 25lb plates)
3x155x6
B3. DB High Pulls
3x50sx3
C1. High Incline Pin Press
Warm-ups
3x185x3
C2. Band Laterals
3xbandx5
HFSW:
D1. Bench Press Warm-up
135x3
185x3
225x3
D2. Snatch High Pull
3x135x3
D3. Trap Bar DL
3x275x3
E1. Bench Press
245x3
275x3
3x225x3 (paused)
E2. Band Face Pulls
5xBandx5
E3. Box Jumps
5x3 (highest box)
Notes:
I woke up feeling pretty damned good this morning, so I decided to play with some light HFSW. I was initially planning to do upper/lower/upper/lower/HFSW next week to increased frequency from hitting all muscles 3x per week (rather than 2x per week as I’ve done recently), but I decided to make the jump this week instead because I felt ready. Next week I’ll move to upper/lower/HFSW/HFSW/HFSW and hit everything 5x.
Explosiveness and vascularity were very good today. I didn’t go very heavy on anything today and just worked on really crushing every rep explosively.
I realized pretty early on that my right shoulder was off, so I tried to give it some extra love with bands and feel it out a bit to see what was up. Took the pressing work nice and light to try and loosen it up a little without aggravating it. I was initially hoping to work between 245-275 on bench press because I really stressed ‘tearing the bar in half’ to engage the triceps and this seemed to take the stress off the shoulder to some extent. 275 wasn’t difficult (no grind or anything) but it didn’t feel STRONG, so I dropped back to 225 and paused my reps a little to try and just drive off the chest hard with minimal shoulder involvement.
The shoulder does feel OK now, but I want it to be feeling really good before I attempt to really work hard on bench press. I’m hoping that it’s just a bit of medial delt strain from a combination of the extra work I’ve been doing on the medial/posterior delts and a slight change in pressing mechanics from the Cordova extensions loosening up whatever was fucky in my right elbow. It could be rotator cuff though, so I’m going to be careful with it. For some reason, ring work doesn’t seem to irritate it (cool). No pressing or vertical pulling for the next two days- just lower body neural charge. I’ll hit some light feeler sets of bench on Monday- if it doesn’t feel STRONG on them, I’ll switch to reverse grip and use pins for all pressing work to (hopefully) minimize stress on it.
BW was back down to 200 today. Not sure why, last night I went to a fraternity/sorority awards banquet with a buffet at least 20 hours fasted and just crushed an unreasonable amount of food (steak/chicken/flounder/pasta/salad/soup/bread/desserts- all of that for multiple servings lol) and literally ate until I could not eat anymore. I’ll make sure I eat a good amount today and I’ll cut out of the fast around early-mid afternoon to hopefully help with this. AS I mentioned above, vascularity is very good today. Water distribution is a bit weird- a bit more subcutaneous water than I had yesterday. I had a few drinks last night, so that might be a part of it. Not particularly worried, I’m guessing it will iron itself out if I just drink water all day and eat well. I’m not cool enough to look like an underwear model ery day and I’ve accepted that haha.
Didn’t log much over the weekend, mainly because I was taking a couple of rest days and just being a real muthafucka on the nutrition front. Had a lot of fun and don’t look much worse for it, so here’s a quick breakdown of what I did:
-Friday ended up being a pretty unpleasant day of work (ended up finalizing/sending off the five law school applications that I care the most about and writing a 6 page paper). My roommates were having a party at my house that evening, so I burst out of my room at around at 11:15 after sending the paper off and got pretty silly. Actually, Friday wasn’t too ugly on the nutrition, but it involved a good amount of stim abuse because I had to invest 8-10 hours in getting all the work done.
-Saturday was where things got a little silly. Thing were ok during the day, but my friends and I went to tailgate a basketball game that night and that’s where shit got messy. I went with a chicken/salad/some Brazil nuts during the day and just let the carbs come during the tailgate (beers/burgers/hotdogs/did I mention beers?). I also caught a quick neural charge circuit before heading off to the game (just jumps, to give my shoulder some rest):
A1. Loaded Jumps (30lb DB in each hand) 4x5
A2. Vertical Jumps 4x5
A3. Squat Jumps 4x5
-Sunday was just a lazy ass day of nothing. I did the same neural charge workout to keep teh CNS primed, but that was probably the most productive thing I did all day. Took a low protein/stim free day just to resensitize myself to good things for the week. Food choices were just lolworthy because I was just looking for calories to fill the void created by low protein. I think I ended up having Brazil nuts, a bag of chips, pint of ice cream, a chocolate/banana smoothie, and one of those Wawa bowls with mashed potatoes and mac n cheese.
All three days were IF’d. I’m a big fan, not seeing any negatives for workout performance/appearance and with that and a few caps of Indigo before I cut out of the fast, I can really get away with murder as far as nutrition is concerned. Going to clean things up over the next few days because I have no good reason not to.
Aaand my right shoulder is definitely still boned. Overhead pressing work is out for sure, other than that I’m going to take an inventory of which movements bother it/which don’t. I think I’ll be able to get away with some light RGBP/high pulls, but we’ll see. I’m going to switch to an HFSW split a week earlier than intended and work primarily on front squats/maybe speed pulls too because an upper body day will probably not be too useful at this point. I’m hoping that one or more ring moves will be ok. Planning to work out in about an hour or two. Will update after.
Here’s how I was looking postworkout in Fatty McFatFat mode holding tons of water and showing no detail lol. Good pumpz though- and the pumps “stuck” this time and took awhile to go away, which is a good sign. I was 202 here and I’ve started to dump a ton of water since then, so I’ll prob try to grab a full set of progress pics sometime in the next few days once I’ve gotten back to normal. Not going to push it too hard today on the carbs since I carbed up like a mofo last night- probably going to keep it casual and stick to ~200g.
Today’s Workout: Power Work
A1. CG Pin Press (low pins- just above chest)
Warm-up
5x185x3
A2. Band Rear Delts/Traps Raise
5xBandx5
B1. Ring Dips
5xBWx5
B2. Box Jumps (high box)
5xBWx5
C1. STC (knees tucked- careful about depth when going to back)
5xBWx3
C2. DB High Pulls
5x40sx3
D1. Heels-Elevated Front Squat
Warm-up
5x185x3
D2. Snatch Grip Speed Pulls
Warm-up
5x235x3
E1. Cordova Extensions
5x40x6 LR
E2. BB Curls
5x60x6
E3. Band Straight-Arm Pulldowns
5xBandx5
Notes:
Not too bad at all. Managed to work around the shoulder pretty well.
I took the pressing very light today and just worked on contraction speed. RGBP still felt like dick, but the CG pin work feels fine as long as I’m attentive to form- the eccentric is what really breaks my balls, but the pin work seems to de-emphasize it pretty effectively. Ring dips also feel pretty good as long as I’m careful about getting on/off the rings and keep my arms tight to my sides.
As far as back work goes, light vertical pulling feels ok as long as I’m careful and don’t rotate my shoulders back during the movement. Other than that I’ll just keep it to limited ROM ring work and band movements that don’t tweak dat shoulda.
Playing around with HFSW-style direct arm work (just trying to get a good, hard muscle contraction as quickly as possible). I don’t think this will do much for size, but I am hoping it will help to give my arms a harder, thicker look. That’s pretty much what I’m shooting for overall right now- just trying to lean out and improve the thickness of my muscles while working on explosiveness. Workouts should look very similar to this, though the movements may be circuited differently due to equipment availability/shits n giggles.
[quote]bigmac73nh wrote:
sending off the five law school applications that I care the most about [/quote]
Lol, it seems like there are a f-ton of T-Nationers jumping onto the sinking ship that is the legal job market! We law students on this board need to start smacking some sense into you guys!
Besides that, though–solid progress on this log. I’ve been reading it, so I just thought I’d stop by and say keep up the good work.