26/05/17
Squat (TM-95):
2x5x20, 5x40, 5x60, 5x70, 5x80
Overhead press (TM-42.5):
10x20, 3x30, 3x35, 10x37.5
I’ve not overhead pressed the last two weeks so I’ve not increased my training max for this cycle. PR is 11 which I could have got with a grind but 12 wasn’t there.
Deadlift:
5x60, 5x90, 4x95, 3x105
Last two sets felt a bit heavy and my SI joint feels a bit irritated but the set with 90kg felt great.
30/05/17
Squat (TM-95):
10x20, 5x60, 5x70, 5x80, 5x90
Dumbell bench press superset with rows:
3x10x20
Sled push then drag back:
20m(one way)x sled, 4x20m x20
I felt pretty weak today for some reason, could be because I trained first thing on an empty stomach or I had a long day yesterday. But anyway I didn’t want to push things so I capped my squat plus set and only did three sets with the dumbells- in hindsight I could have just used some lighter ones but never mind.
The exciting news is I’ve come home for a couple of weeks and joined a new gym which is really good. Lots of racks, bars, bumper and calibrated plates, tyres, a sled and all the usual stuff. There’s even a designated puking area. It’s basically half a bodybuilding/commercial gym and then half a cross fit box. I’ll definitely be joining there when I’m back for summer.
Well I’ve just noticed it’s been a year since I joined these forums. Wow that’s gone quick but I’ve learnt a lot. Thanks anyone who’s helped me along the way.
01/06/17
Squat superset with hanging leg raises then band pull aparts:
2x5x20, 5x40, 3x5x60/ 3x5/ 3x10
Last set paused
I mentioned last Friday that I had a bit of pain in my lower back and it’s not really stopped since so I think I’ve hurt it a bit. Nothing too bad but it’s an almost constant aching sort of pain, like a 3 or 4 out of 10. I don’t think it’s effecting my squats at all or being made worse by them but I wanted to take it easy and make sure my technique was spot on anyway so I went lighter.
Bench press (TM-67.5) superset with lat pull down:
10x20, 5x40, 5x50, 5x55, 12x62.5 (PR)/ 3x10x36, 2x10x41
Good top set, had at least two or three reps left in me.
Sled push and drag:
20mx 25, 20x35, 20x45 each way
I really like doing these. 45kg on the sled is about the point where it gets fairly hard. It’s on a carpet sort of thing. Finished off with some lower body stretches.
More about my back: looking at it I think I might have a bit of an anterior pelvic tilt. I’ve never really bothered with it before because I’ve not had problems and I don’t want to start over analysing things. My hips shift quite a bit forward and under me when I contract my glutes though and looking from the side it seems fairly obvious. I’ve also noticed I’ve been a bit relaxed when it comes to bracing recently so today with squats I braced as hard as I could on every rep and paused in between them all to make sure my glutes were contacted first.
I’m going to make an effort to try and keep my hips more underneath me throughout the day by contracting my glutes and I’ll do more stretching too. Next week is a deload so it’s a good time to sort it out. If I still have issues after that I’ll probably go see a chiropractor or something which makes me feel very silly at 19.
There is an article here about this
7 Ways to Fix Anterior Pelvic Tilt
Also when you are overhead pressing for instance try to not arch you back by pulling your abs together and tilting your hips in the other direction.
Be careful about your back, having a back injury is the worst thing. Stretch (watch yoga videos) and hang from a pull up bar, I find that it helps to release pressure.
Thanks you. I’ve read that article a few times and considered some of the things it says. I think a big thing I need to do is engage my glutes and bring my hips under me when I lift. Ribs down should help too though and if I’m at a point where I need to arch back a lot with OHP I stop the set.
I stretch out my hips and hamstrings a fair bit, around 10 minutes most days, which seems to help. I’ve tried hanging from a bar recently but I feel the stretch in my shoulders and upper back more than anything and it doesn’t seem to do much for my lower back.
03/06/17
Overhead press (TM-42.5) superset with band pull aparts:
2x10x20, 5x30, 3x35, 7x40/ 5x10
Seven ties my PR. I had one rep left in me but it’d be a grind.
Squat (TM-95) superset with one arm waiter walks:
2x5x20, 5x60, 5x70, 5x80/ 2x20sx8, 2x20mx8
Feeling good again, the set with 70kg was especially fast. I’m going to pause and brace in between every rep for heavier sets for the next few weeks. Waiter walks are something new which I think I’ll try again with a heavier kettlebell. At first the track bit I walk up and down was being used so I just paced back and forth for time.
Deadlift superset with push ups and kettlebell swings:
5x60, 2x90, 2x95, 2x100, 2x110/ 3x8/ 3x8x8
Did this as a giant set for the first three sets. I used a light kettlebell and focussed on exploding up. Had to switch to mixed grip for the very last deadlift rep.
Finished with some stretching again. Lower back has definitely felt better yesterday and today. I really like doing things in supersets- it’s a lot more fun and I get a lot more done. This was a pretty hard workout.
05/06/17
Deload Week
Squat superset with band pull aparts and kettlebell farmers walks:
2x5x20, 5x40, 20x60, 20x40/ 5x10/ 3x40mx20
Still wanted a high rep top set like a plus set so I decided to do a couple of 20 rep sets. The set with 40kg felt weird, it felt so light but hard at the same time. This was the first time I’ve done ‘farmers walks’. It was pretty easy but unfortunately the heaviest kettlebells are 24kg and there’s no farmers walk handles.
Dumbell bench press superset with dumbbell rows:
3x10x15s
I seemed to get a better back pump than usual with the lighter weight today. I don’t know if it was because of the previous work but it was unexpected.
Giant set- sled push, sandbag carry and press ups:
4x20mx30, 4x20mx30, 4x8
Found a sandbag and a keg hidden away in the corner. Not sure how heavy the keg is but the sandbag is 30kg which wasn’t too heavy. I’ve said the length of the track is 20m but looking again it could be less. I’ll stick with 20m but it could be anywhere between 10 and 20m.
To say it’s a deload workout I did quite a lot but it was all fairly low intensity. I definitely prefer working in giant or supersets when possible. The plan for this week is to focus more on back work and conditioning and to lower the intensity in the main lifts.
20 rep squats is not what I think about when I think about deload ahah
I feel the same for the rows, I feel them more with lighter weights and higher reps per set.
For me that just kills my lungs, something like 30 or 40 rep sets with 50-60kg is just horrible
Of course if high reps is like 15 or so, that’s doable
I like heavy weight and moderate reps, that way I can get some good stress on my back while not dying (heavy breathing is still there after the set)
07/06/17
Squat superset with kettlebell swings:
2x5x20, 5x40, 3x5x60/ 10x8, 4x10x10
All the squats were done with the best technique possible and felt great. Swings were very explosive but were starting to slow a bit in the fifth set so I stopped there.
Bench press superset with lat pulldown:
10x20, 4x5x50, 10x50/ 5x10x41
Again made sure my technique was perfect and it felt very easy like it should.
Giant set- band pull aparts, single arm waiter walk, press ups:
4x10/ 4x20mx12 ea/ 4x8
Fun and easy workout.
09/06/17
Front squat superset with band pull aparts:
2x5x20, 5x40, 5x60/ 4x10
Overhead press superset with band rows:
2x5x20, 5x5x30/ 7x10
All pretty easy- I’m curious what my 5RM front squat is. Looped a band around one side of the rack for the rows and moved to a different height each time to vary the angle I pulled at.
Deadlift:
5x60, 2x90, 1x95, 5ish x110
Went to pull the 5th rep and it was a bit slow so rather than grind through I put it down about half way up. I immediately regretted this so I set back up and got a 5th. I did the whole set mixed grip. Part of me is disappointed it was this difficult considering I pulled 5x110 several months ago, although it was probably harder than this set. Then another part of me thinks I’m probably just a slow lifter and need to grind a bit more. I want to get a video of some heavyish pulls so I can see how my technique is first.
Giant set- sled push, trap bar carry, dumbbell overhead press:
3x20mx40, 3x20mx60, 3x8x8
I’m really enjoying doing some sort of carry or sled push/pull each workout in a giant set and it’s a shame I can’t at the university gym. The trap bar carries were easier than I expected. I’d like to have a go with 100kg and see how that feels, even if I have to use straps. I finished off with lots of stretching, my lower back is still a little bit sore at times.
Unfortunately this is my last workout at this gym for a few weeks and also the end of the Tim Henriques program for deadlift. I’ll go back to 5/3/1 with PR sets for the next cycle. It’ll be interesting to see how much I weigh too given that my diet hasn’t been as good as usual the past couple of weeks.
Sometimes I wish I was as smart as this, but on the other hand I just leveled up on the intensity scale today after passing out on the OHP (gotta say it’s kinda scary when you just locked it out and everything goes to black, but I didn’t get hurt so everything is fine)
But yeah, I wouldn’t suggest taking it that far, and that is by no means a normal thing for me
That’s a good mindset
Yesterday I failed a 1 rep max block pull, 2 mins later I screamed “stop being a pussy” and got it. Attitude is more important than anything.
@danteism when it comes to deadlift I’m a bit conservative because I know I can mess myself up a bit with it if my technique isn’t perfect and it often isn’t when I push myself. It’s something I want to work on.
I’ve had a couple occasions where I go lightheaded and have to take a minute after some squat sets before but I’ve not been close to passing out.
@hugh_gilly definitely. Twenty rep squats prove it the most for me.
Have you ever tried snatch-grip deadlifts? They pretty much force you to stay tight and it could carry over to conventional deadlift as well
Another option could be pause deadlifts (paused just off the ground), if you don’t want to use them as a separate exercise, you could do, say, the first two warm up sets with the pause and then carry on doing your normal deads
You must be really sure about your form and safety of you’re going to push yourself to the edge of passing out, so don’t rush it if you don’t feel 100% ready
Have you conisdered the trap bar? It’s a great lift, one you can just grind with without much worry in regards to your lower back
Definitely a fan of snatch grip DL.
@danteism I was thinking about paused deadlifts. The thought has crossed my mind of doing 5s PRO and then 3-5 sets of paused deadlifts next cycle instead of PR sets. I’ve never tried snatch grip so I definitely should.
@TX_iron I tried it once when I was trying to help my friend deadlift and it felt odd, probably just because I’d never done it before, but it’s something I’m thinking of trying again. I plan to run WS4SB later in the year so I was going to use it as a max effort variation.
@MarkKO I’ll definitely try them next deadlift day. What do you think about the plan I mentioned to @danteism above? Or with snatch grip instead of paused?
[quote=“caesium32, post:461, topic:221425, full:true”]
@danteism I was thinking about paused deadlifts. The thought has crossed my mind of doing 5s PRO and then 3-5 sets of paused deadlifts next cycle instead of PR sets. I’ve never tried snatch grip so I definitely should.[/quote]
I think the PR sets would be more beneficial.
I think grinding is good as long as they’re rare and done intentionally, like grinding a rep or two out at the end of a long set/end of that particular session. You’re grinding simply because your muscles are tired, not because the load is too heavy for you.