HUBL 3.0 Strength Goals (based on top set, not 3RM)
Current Top Sets:
OHP 120 x 3
Bench 175 x 3
Squat 195 x 3
Deadlift 215 x 3
Mid Year Goal:
OHP 145 x 3
Bench 200 x 3
Squat 245 x 3
Deadlift 265 x 3
Year End Goal:
OHP 170 x 3
Bench 225 x 3
Squat 295 x 3
Deadlift 315 x 3
BW: 151.4 (whee!)
waist: 33 1/4"
Strength Circuits
[1 minute rests btw sets]
Six rounds of
Deadlifts 3 reps @ 225
Chins 6 reps @ BW+25
Compared to last week’s version, I significantly scaled back the volume on the deadlifts (6 sets instead of 10). I cut the number of sets in the weighted chins, as well, but doubled the number of reps, so the overall volume there is up a bit. Felt much better and I may do the same thing with the weighted dips on Friday.
A 45-minute, mid-week workout was really nice, BTW!
Cardio and BJJ tomorrow afternoon and evening, respectively. Squat/Dips Strength Circuit + Gironda Back Supersets on Friday.
Weight dropping as I suspected it might as I dialed in my diet a bit - and overcame a few short-term challenges outside the gym. Wouldn’t be surprised to be below 150 by Saturday morning …
BW: 150.4 (downward ho!)
waist: 32 3/4"
BJJ Day
Busy day/week at work so no opportunity for day time cardio. And since my #newrules for 2020, no cardio after BJJ. That means no cardio today. Given my morning weight though, and the fact that I’ll probably clock in at 1,000 calories today, I think I’m good.
BJJ Training
Tutored first class. Trained 21 minutes Live Training in second
Good work on the mat tonight, especially from the top, where I was able to work on that Giles inside position on the leg while monkey gripping the opposing leg at the shin. Will definitely work on that more from the top.
Squats/dips circuit + Gironda back supersets tomorrow. So happy for the weekend I can barely stand it!
Nice pull-up strength!
BW: 149.6 (comin’ down the mountain!)
waist: 32 1/2"
Squat/Dip + Pull Day
Six rounds of
Back squat 3 reps @ 195
Dips 6 reps @ BW+35
Wanted one more round at 195 before moving on. Will add sets for two weeks up to eight, then deload, add weight, and start again at six sets. Doubled dip rep count as planned.
Snatch grip high pull / Muscle snatch superset
65 x 8 / 55 x 8
65 x 8 / 55 x 8
65 x 8 / 55 x 8
65 x 8 / 55 x 8
Considering swapping out the high pulls for upright rows. I’m re-reading CT’s article on high pulls and I’m wondering if I might be better off keeping the weight low, the reps high, and the form more familiar with upright rows.
They’d also give me more desperately needed side delt work. I was reading somewhere that some bodybuilders didn’t like working traps because it made their shoulders look narrow. I may have a bit of that trap/shoulder ratio issue working against me.
Chest supported row / DB row superset
150 x 8 / 50 x 8
150 x 8 / 50 x 8
150 x 7 / 50 x 8
150 x 6 / 50 x 8
Straight arm pulldown / Pronated grip lat pulldown superset
60 x 8 / 80 x 8
60 x 8 / 80 x 8
60 x 8 / 80 x 8
60 x 8 / 80 x 8
TGIF!
Thanks! I want to keep both chins and dips in my programs as much as possible!
BW 151.2 / 154.4
waist: 32 1/2" / 33"
Some maintenance cardio Saturday and Sunday. Starting to think that this bouncing back and forth between 155 lbs and 150 lbs may be not such a big deal.
Like I said, I love the way my upper body tends to feel when I’m at the higher end of that range. So while I’m focusing on upper body strength and hypertrophy, I’m just going to have to be cool with being a little heavier - especially at the beginning of the week when I do upper body pressing.
And as long as the waist doesn’t get over 33", then I’m probably ok on the “overfeeding”/too-much-too-soon front. I think it’s important not to give the team more material than they can work with at any given time.
Incline treadmill walking
Sat
2.5 miles 43:02 minutes 315 calories
Sun
3.0 miles 52:30 minutes 352 calories
Had to force myself onto the treadmill this weekend. Just did not feel like bothering with LSD cardio. That’s the biggest downside about being north of 150; my interest in cardio plummets.
Fortunately, the IBJJF European championships were on FloGrappling, so I managed to pass the time enjoyably and productively.
Upper body pressing tomorrow.
BW: 153.8 (69.7 kg)
waist: 33"
Roughly the same as last week. If I’m <150 by week’s end, then all is good.
Upper Body Press Day
OHP
bar x 10 x 2
65 x 6
85 x 6
95 x 3
100 x 3
105 x 3
110 x 3
115 x 3 (52 kg)
Five pounds off last week’s top set. Wasn’t thrilled since OHP is THE focus. We’ll see what happens next week.
High incline seated press
bar x 10
115 x 3
120 x 3
125 x 3
130 x 3
135 x 3 (61 kg)
Low incline bench press
bar x 10
135 x 3
140 x 3
145 x 3
150 x 3
155 x 3 (70 kg)
Flat bench press
bar x 10
155 x 3
160 x 3
165 x 3
170 x 3
175 x 3
180 x 3 (81.5 kg)
New top set at 180. These were good sets. Especially the last few, I could feel myself reflecting back to the weighted dips I did on Friday. The lower I went with the bar, the stronger I felt as my pecs began to really engage. Felt very vindicated for keeping dips in my program for upper body strength and hypertrophy.
At the same time, the muscle snatch didn’t give me anything extra in the OHP. So who knows? It’s only 5 lbs.
A solid 60 minute workout start to finish. Perfect. I think I’m also starting to understand why Monday is International Bench Day. It’s a great way to start the weightlifting week!
Cardio and jiu-jitsu tomorrow on a Longevity Day (per CT’s Primer 52). I wonder if any of my teammates saw that crazy triangle choke that Fellipe Andrew caught Keenan Cornelius with in the Open/Absolute division of the European championships this weekend!
[Explainer: Andrew was silver medalist at Superheavy and is an up ‘n’ comer. Cornelius was gold medalist at Heavy and had never been submitted before in competition as a black belt. With this win, Andrew won the Absolute division and Cornelius took second.]
BW: 154.2
waist: 33"
BJJ Day
No cardio. Morning meeting and afternoon meeting crunched the day into half its normal size. Wasn’t able to sneak away for 45 minutes of treading.
BJJ Training
Tutored first class. 14 minutes Live Training in second class.
Not a bad session. I didn’t really feel it for the third round, so I only went two today. Really feeling a little sluggish these days. I get a little disoriented sometimes ahead of a business trip - especially an overseas one. So I’m trying to stay dialed in, get more rest (yeah, right), etc.
In any event, w/re2 tonight’s training, I’ll just leave this here …
Ahem. Anyway, I know I’m really looking forward to enjoying the Super Bowl this Sunday just for the pomp and circumstance of it. I still haven’t watched either AFC/NFC championship game; I’ve got them both DVR’d and am thinking about watching one Friday night and the other Saturday night for fun.
Deadlift/Chins strength circuits tomorrow.
BW: 151.2
waist: 32 3/4"
Deadlift/Chins Strength Circuit
[1 minute rests btw sets]
Seven rounds of
Deadlift 3 reps @ 225 (102 kg)
Chins 6 reps @ BW+25 (68.5 kg + 11.5 kg)
45 minutes start to finish. Felt a little lower back/groin strain last week on the deadlifts, so I was a little anxious about today’s work. Lifts went well today, felt very explosive on the first few sets and speed was still good on the final sets. A little back ache, but nothing significant.
Will add a set next week. Deload for a week. Then add 10 pounds to the deadlift and 5 pounds to the chins.
BJJ tomorrow evening. May do additional cardio if I get a chance during the day - no promises!
Hard honest workout those circuits.
Well done BTT, impressive chin strength btw.
BW: 151.0
waist: 32 3/4"
BJJ Day
No cardio today. Believe it or not, another morning/afternoon double meeting day. Not typical, at all (thankfully!).
BJJ Training
Tutored first class. 14 minutes Live Training in second class.
So-so training. These days my partners tend to be either butterflies or gorillas - which is a problem when you only train twice a week. And in the same way that I found twice a week weight training to be insufficient for improvement, I’m increasingly realizing that training jiu-jitsu twice a week suffers from the same lack of volume problem.
The solution? Sunday morning open mat at a nearby GB school. I can’t add more training during the week, and I don’t want to sacrifice a weightlifting day if I can avoid it. Saturday is family day, so the only option is Sunday morning. Fortunately, one of our schools in the area has a Sunday open mat 9am-10am (my academy used to have one but it was discontinued).
So that’s the plan when I get back from Berlin (i.e., second half of February). Weights 3x/week. Jiu-jitsu 3x/week. Balance. And, hopefully, progress.
Thanks. I feel pretty good on the weighted chins these days. I’m hoping to be doing BW+45 (+20kg) by year’s end. Same (or slightly more) with dips, too, I hope!
Good work on those deadlifts, by the way. Great job driving for those additional reps!
BW: 150.2
waist: 32 3/4"
Squat/Dip + Pull Day
Seven rounds of
Back squat 3 reps @ 195 (88.5 kg)
Dips 6 reps @ BW+35 (68 kg + 15.5 kg)
These felt nice and strong. One minute rest between sets. First 3-4 sets explosive, the rest still fairly solid.
Upright row / Muscle snatch superset
65 (30 kg) x 8 / 55 (25 kg) x 8
55 x 8 / 55 x 8
60 x 8 / 55 x 8
60 x 8 / 55 x 8
Shorter rests on the supersets (30 seconds). Still feeling around for the front end of this superset. May try EZ curl bar to give my wrists more room or, better yet, a rope/cable setup. Muscle snatches are fun to do and make me feel like a real weightlifter!
Seated row / DB row superset
150 (68 kg) x 8 / 55 x 8
150 x 8 / 55 x 8
150 x 8 / 55 x 8
150 x 8 / 55 x 8
Used seated row machine instead of chest-supported row (Urine Man was totally bivouacked on it). May make the switch permanent, I do the seated rows the way CT recommends in one of his videos: pull, lean back with lats tight, lean forward, then release.
Some folks have said that they feel too much biceps when they do these and, truth told, I’ve felt a lot of bicep with them in the past. Not today. I think it may have to do with just doing a lot more back work in general and doing a better job of recruiting my lats now than I was before.
Straight arm pulldown / Pronated grip lat pulldown superset
70 (31.5 kg) x 8 / 90 (40.5 kg) x 8
70 x 8 / 90 x 8
70 x 7 / 90 x 8
70 x 6 / 90 x 8
Would have liked to go up by five pounds instead of ten. But this will give me something to work up to - particularly on the straight arm pulldowns, where I was falling off on the later sets.
A good session today. 90 minutes start to finish. Off tomorrow - maybe some cardio, which I haven’t done very much lately. We’re starting another Fitness Challenge this month at work, so there’s some extra incentive to do some LSD work on the treadmill.
Thinking about dropping by the pre-Super Bowl open mat at the academy on Sunday. I could use the mat time.
BW: 150.0 (68 kg)
waist: 32 1/2" (82.5 cm)
Cardio/Recovery Day
Incline Treadmill Walking
2.01 miles / 33:46 minutes / 310 calories / 9.26 cpm
BW: 153.2 (69.5 kg)
waist: 32 3/4" (83 cm)
Didn’t make it to the Super Bowl open mat. Picked up a boatload of sushi for Super Bowl dinner with Mrs. Burien Top Team and popped it in the fridge for later. Putting a new emphasis on jiu-jitsu film study while slogging through cardio.
Cardio/Recovery Day
Incline Treadmill Walking
2.0 miles / 33:34 minutes / 311 calories / 9.28 cpm
Super Bowl Champagne and Sushi (Soft-shell crab, shishito peppers, and Asian slaw not shown)
Thinking about giving that 4x/week split a test run this week since I won’t be training jiu-jitsu Thursday evening …
Monday: Push
Tuesday: Deadlift/Chins strength circuit
Thursday: Pull
Friday: Squat/Dips strength circuit
I would add a superset to my Pull routine if I gave Pull its own day for a total of four supersets. Thinking something like low2high cable flyes/rear delt flyes given my upper body focus this year.
BW: 153.8 (69.7 kg)
waist: 33" (83.8 cm)
Same as last Monday - to the tenth.
Upper Body Press Day
[30 sec rest btw warmup sets / 90 sec rest btw triples]
OHP
bar x 10 x 2
65 x 6
85 x 6
95 x 3
100 x 3
105 x 3
110 x 3
115 x 3
120 x 3 (54.5 kg)
Matched top set for this stretch. 120 is 85.7% of my all time 1RM and 96% of my peak TM.
High incline seated press
120 x 3
125 x 3
130 x 3
135 x 3
140 x 3 (63.5 kg)
Low incline bench press
140 x 3
145 x 3
150 x 3
155 x 3 (70 kg)
Flat bench press
155 x 3
160 x 3
165 x 3
170 x 3
175 x 3
180 x 3 (81.5 kg)
Matched top set for this stretch. 180 is about 82% of my all time 1RM, and 92% of my peak TM.
The idea of this part of the program is (a) increase OHP, (b) increase bench, (c) upper body hypertrophy. I like the progress across the board, and the improvement ratio between the OHP and the flat bench is on target. No grinding reps. Top sets don’t have to be explosive. But a controlled, “we have liftoff” ascent is a minimum.
My goal is to add 25 lbs to my top set in the OHP and 20 lbs to my top set in the flat bench by 6/5/2020. That will keep me on track for top sets of 170 in the OHP and 225 in the flat bench by year’s end.
TUESDAY
BW: 153.0
waist: 33"
Incline treadmill walking
3.0 miles / 51:31 minutes / 367 calories
WEDNESDAY
BW: 153.4 (69.5 kg)
waist: 32 3/4" (83 cm)
Deadllift/Chins Strength Circuit
[1 minute rest btw sets]
Eight rounds of
Deadlift 3 reps @ 225 (102 kg)
Chins 6 reps @ BW+25 (69.5 kg + 11.5 kg)
That extra kilo and extra set might have been a bit too much on the chins, insofar as I wasn’t able to get the final rep of the final set as cleanly as I’d like. I’ll go ahead and bump the weight up by five pounds and return to six sets after next week’s deload.
The deadlifts were good: as usual the first 5-6 sets were pretty explosive while the remaining 2-3 were still strong. Will add ten pounds, return to six sets, after the deload.
50 minute workout start to finish.
Won’t go to jiu-jitsu tomorrow night since I’m heading out of town this weekend. Will probably break my Friday workout into two parts and do one of them (the back work I suspect) Thursday and the other (squat/dips strength circuit) on Friday. Ideally, I’ll get a little post-training cardio on one or both of those days.
THURSDAY
BW: 151.3
waist: 32 3/4"
Pull / Back Day
Decided to see how my regular Friday workout would feel if I separated out the squat/dip circuits from the pull/back work. Not sure if I’ll be able to stick with it; I’d rather not do weights and do BJJ on the same day if possible.
Upright row / Muscle snatch superset
65 (30 kg) x 8 / 55 (25 kg) x 8
70 x 8 / 55 x 8
80 x 8 / 55 x 8
90 x 8 / 55 x 8
First set of upright rows was with EZ curl bar. Didn’t feel right. Switch to a rope to give my wrists some room. Will stick with the rope version for now.
Seated row / DB row superset
150 (68 kg) x 8 / 55 x 8
150 x 8 / 55 x 8
160 (72.5 kg) x 8 / 60 (27 kg) x 8
160 x 8 / 60 x 8
Straight arm pulldown / Pronated grip lat pulldown superset
70 (32 kg) x 8 / 90 (41 kg) x 8
70 x 8 / 90 x 8
70 x 8 / 90 x 8
70 x 8 / 90 x 8
Squat/dip strength circuit tomorrow. I need to take a T-ransformation Progress pic tomorrow, as well. Will probably do that after training (tricep pump FTW!).
