1/12/17
WS4SB- Lower
Dumbell curls superset with lateral raises:
Both 3x10x6
Front squat:
2x5x20, 5x40, 3x60, 3x72.5 (PR)
Dumbell RDLs superset with split squats:
3x8x20s/ 3x10xBW
Not much to this one, didn’t feel as strong as last week but luckily for me I’ve never front squatted over 70kg. Deload next week then time to see if I can break the last cycles PRs.
Awesome man! Is this beltless? Im like using 50kg atm for reps and soon will be hitting 60 but 70 for reps is just strong.
Thank you and yeah I’ve never used a belt. I don’t feel like I need one right now enough to justify buying one. I’ll probably get one next year for my birthday or something.
Im buying a belt soon, just to add a little to my dl mainly lol. My RDL is catching up to my deadlift which is weird…
May just be that once you start practicing deadlift more often it jumps up.
I havent done barbell rdl in awhile, and hit a rep and weight pr the day i did it. Im relatively new to deadlift so im sure itl keep going up slowly as it has been. Itd be nice if it jumped like 60kg in a week haha
Future Training Plans
For the last few weeks I have been considering taking part in the T-ransformation next year and as a result have planned out my training until next June. I’m still not sure if I will do it or not but my training is planned out as though I will. I decided it’d be a good idea to make a post detailing it all mostly for my own reference but also in case anyone is interested.
After deloading this coming week I am going to do two more weeks of WS4SB mainly to see if I can improve on last time. Week 1 I’ll use bench press and conventional deadlift as my ME movements and go for 5RMs, week 2 I’ll do the same with overhead press and back squat. This takes me into the Christmas holiday from university where I’ll want to spend less time in the gym.
25/12/17-21/01/18- Very modified full body full boring
I wanted to do something where I can focus on practicing the main four lifts with high frequency and liked the idea of this. I have modified it a lot though, mainly because it would be very boring otherwise. However, it is still push, squat and deadlift each day. I have included 5x5 FSL pause bench on day one and overhead press 5/3/1 on day two instead of the usual benching because there was no overhead pressing before and I think pause bench will help a bunch with technique. With no push assistance this amount of pushing will easily be manageable which is why I’m happy adding set of PR sets. The non 5/3/1 squats will also be paused as 3x5 FSL and 3x3 SSL to help with technique and staying tight. For deadlifts; day one I will hit singles at 80%, 90% and 100% of my TM, day two 3x3 paused FSL and day three is 5/3/1 sets. Training maxes are all conservative and are bench-70kg, squat-80kg, OHP-40kg, deadlift-110kg.
Assistance is going to back and abs and supersetted with the main work and I’m going to try an approach of sticking with one weight for the cycle and trying to add reps. Goals are: DB row 10x30, shrug 20x60, side bend 20x24, curl 15x20 and sets 10 for the ab wheel and hanging leg raises. If I feel like it and have time I’ll also do some easy sled work or extra rows at the end of a workout. One of the reasons my TMs are so low is so I can push the assistance pretty hard.
I want to keep rest periods strict at 90s for upper body and 120s for lower including changing any weight- another reason for the low TMs. Finally all deadlifts including the PR sets will be pull double overhand to limit myself. At the end of the cycle I will deload again. Also worth noting over the holidays I won’t be doing any athletics or climbing. I will also be eating in a slight surplus hopefully adding a bit of muscle and minimal fat.
22/01/18-01/04/18- Self made double linear progression program
I think I mentioned this a while back but I’m going to have a shot at running a program I made myself based on a Greg Nuckols article. The progression is basically the same as 5/3/1 and will consist of starting with 70% of 1RM and hitting a set to 1-2 reps from failure then taking off 5% and doing it again twice. The week after add 5kg for squat and 2.5kg for bench and overhead press then repeat. As the weeks go on I’ll be getting less reps until week 9 where instead I’m going to work up to new 3RMs. I’ll OHP on day one, squat on day two and bench and deadlift on day three, I’ll also be doing athletics once a week again now. For the deadlift I’ll do a different set and rep scheme every week because I don’t think I could recover from three hard sets a week. I’ll do 3x8, 4x5, 5x3 and 8x1 increasing the weight each week then repeating with 10kg more from week 5 onwards- week 9 I’ll work up to a 3RM the same as the other lifts. The deadlift weights will be quite low with emphasis on bar speed and assistance will be standard push, pull, legs/abs and all quite easy. Again I’ll deload as the last week.
The big other thing with this is I will be doing 10-15 minutes of conditioning at the beginning of each workout in the form of a barbell complex, carry medley or bodyweight circuit.
02/04/18-28/05/18- Tried and true bodybuilding template
This is where it gets interesting. I’m going to temporarily cast aside any performance goals and focus on my physique while easing into a small calorie deficit. Not too sure about exercise choice yet but I’ll probably try to leave it quite open to decide on the day. At the end of the eight weeks I’ll take a deload coinciding with the end of the T-ransformation.
After all this I’m not sure what I’ll be doing over the summer but I like the look of the beyond 5/3/1 program or Brian Alsruhe’s powerbuilding template- I’ll decide on this at a later date though. And that’s that for this very long post.
3/12/17
Deload lower
Hack squat machine:
10x110, 8x130, 8x150, drop set: 10x130, 110, 90
Back extensions: 3x10xBW
Leg curl: 2x10, 1x20
Lat pull down: 3x10x40
Dumbell rows: 10x20, 6x30, 10x20
Easy workout, was surprised with how easy 30kg dumbell rows were. Went a day earlier than planned to spot my friend benching. Back last September his max was in the 40s and today he got 80kg for a single.
6/12/17
Athletics
It was raining a lot today and because there was so few of us the coach suggested we do a bodyweight circuit inside instead so that’s what we did but first I wanted to run.
400m run:
Because I knew I wasn’t going to be running today I pushed this pretty hard. If 10 was being sick and/or collapsed on the ground panting this was probably an 8 which is about the right pace to train at I’d say. In future on the weeks I do throwing instead of sprints I’d like to do this anyway to get some running in.
Bodyweight circuit (3 rounds, 20s on, 40s off):
Press ups
Star jumps
Sit ups
Jump rope
Squat thrusts
Step ups
Inverted rows
I enjoyed this and it was probably about the right amount of time and exercises to keep going at a steady pace and keep it focused on conditioning without beating myself up too much. I found squat thrusts hard and the inverted rows were done under a table holding the lip of it so they really taxed the grip.
Med ball throws:
3 seated from the chest
3 laying on our backs and throwing overhead as we sat up
3 laying on our backs with our head facing where we were throwing and throwing it as though we were doing a front raise
400m run: Easy just to cool down
Had a lot of fun today and I nearly didn’t go because I was so tired.
7/12/17
Deload upper
Ab wheel rollouts superset with side bends:
3x5/ 3x15x10
Plate loaded chest press (total weight):
10x20, 10x30, 8x40, 6x50, 20x10
Tricep push downs superset with cable lat pull things:
4x25x5/ 4x15x5
Barbell rows: 3x5x40, 4x3x50, 3x10x30
All sets of the rows were done really strict trying to focus on my back. Sets 1-3 were paused done very slow and controlled. 4-7 faster tempo and 8-10 were all paused at the chest and done with a supinated grip.
I’ve enjoyed this deload week and feel refreshed, ready for next week.
Some notes for next two weeks of WS4SB:
Week 1 bench and deadlift for ME variations, week 2 back squat and overhead press.
Goals are 5x80 bench, 5x130 deadlift (pretty ambitious), 5x100 back squat and 5x50 overhead press.
Going to try dips for my main repetition upper movement followed by tricep extensions, hammer curls, front raises and abs.
ME upper assistance: dumbell overhead press, chest supported dumbell rows, ab wheel, face pulls.
ME lower assistance: week 1 smith machine lunges and back extensions, week 2 split squats and dumbell RDLs, plate pinches for grip.
Throwing at athletics next week and a climbing session, at home the week after so probably just push a sled for conditioning.
12/12/17
WS4SB- ME upper
Bench press:
2x10x20, 5x40, 5x60, 2x70, 1x80, 3x70
Standing dumbell OHP ss dumbell bentover rows:
Both 3x10x8s
Face pulls: 5x10x10
Ab wheel rollouts: 3x5xBW
So no goal of 5x80 today. I was incredibly weak and the only reason I can think of is having a week off from any heavy lifting and deloading differently to usual. The fifth rep of 60kg was fairly hard, I probably couldn’t have got more than eight, and I’ve done 17x60 before. Similar story with 70kg and 80kg- no way I was gonna get even a double with 80 and the last set with 70 was near max effort.
To make things worse the front of my right shoulder was pretty painful during the benching, I’m hoping just from sleeping funny. I’ll keep an eye on it and do some extra mobility work over the next few days.
On a more positive note I enjoyed the assistance, even with such light weight I felt the OHP in my delts. For the rows I couldn’t get a bench to do chest supported so I did them bentover extremely strict and held them at the top for a few seconds each rep squeezing my back hard. Got a nice pump from the first set but I’m not too sure about the effects of others, perhaps it needs to be slightly heavier.
13/12/17
Athletics
8x400m:
Didn’t time myself but went at the same time as another guy a few times and judging my his speed I was most likely doing them in 80-90s. Kept them all at a similar pace and didn’t push myself too much as I just wanted to get a good amount of work in. Only really pushed on the last one where I sped up to a decent run over the final 100m. Difficultly wise probably ranged from 6/10 to 8/10 for the first seven and 9/10 for the last.
I’ve been planning to do this week of WS4SB and then one more week next week but looking at it I don’t know if I’ll be able to fit all three workouts in. Monday I’m busy in the morning then working until after the gym is closed then Tuesday to Friday I’m on holiday and working Sunday all day. This only really leaves Saturday so I think what I might do is a ME OHP and squat this Sunday and then I’ll do a repetition upper style day next Saturday.
Some more notes while they’re in my head- seems like I’ve been thinking about training a lot recently. Feeling a bit scatter-brained so it’ll be useful to have it written down.
Things that seem to have worked best for each lift for me from my limited experience
Bench- 5/3/1 PR sets, possibly with a FSL+ set but BBB didn’t seem to help
Squat- 5/3/1 PR sets, only thing to watch with this is technique because it did seem to lead to some SI pain, found very little increase when I went to 3x weekly squatting
OHP- Lots of volume, moved up a fair bit from BBB
Deadlift- Lots of practice with submax weight like 5x5 FSL, variations like paused and snatch grip may have helped too.
To try in future: more time spent with PR sets for bench and FSL + sets; squat PR sets but maybe extra practice on another day to keep technique good, potentially BBS or 5x5 FSL might be useful; OHP back to BBB but also want to try BBS; deadlift stick with submax sets of no more than 5, could experiment with SSL and more sets
More general stuff
Incline press could potentially be the reason my shoulders are hurting, try it once more in future but be careful
Barbell row needs to increase, preferably to within around 5kg of my bench, I think this would help build up both my back and hamstrings/lower back
Also want to get better at pull ups, losing weight would probably be the easiest way but I don’t want to do that right now, need to figure out a way to do them little and often, ‘grease the groove’ style
I find it hard to stay interested in one program/template for more than 10-12 weeks
Conditioning still needs improving and I want to always be doing some form at least once a week, preferably two
Need to reread my log and make a note of all my current PRs to beat later on, also need to consider my goals and the progress I’m making towards them. Will probably have more useful info about what’s worked for me too
14/12/17
WS4SB- Lower
Deadlift:
2x5x60, 5x80, 2x100, 1x120, 1x130
Back extensions: 3x10xBW
Hack squat machine: 4x8x80
Wanted to hit 130kg for five reps but again I felt pretty weak today and everything after 60kg felt heavier than usual. The hack squats as assistance was good- I did them with my feet set up the same as in my deadlift and from a dead stop to mimic the start.
16/12/17
WS4SB- Repetition upper
Inverted rows (60s rest): 12, 9, 6xBW
Tricep extensions: 3x15x15
Hammer curls superset with front raises: 3x10x8s/ 3x15x5
Crunch machine: 10x20, 15x15, 20x10
Lat pull down: 3x10x40
Quick workout but felt good, lat pull downs especially. Didn’t want to do dips for my repetition work in case my shoulders hurt again so did rows instead.
17/12/17
ME upper+lower
Gym shut at 4pm instead of 6pm like I thought so I wasn’t able to go after work and ended up working out in my garage at 11pm instead. I didn’t want to stay long so I didn’t do much. I did different variations than I’d planned and made them hard ones to minimise the weight I had to use and the bar is around 3kg so the weights are odd.
Pause overhead press superset with 3 second pause front squat:
Both: 5xbar, 5x23, 5x33, 5x43
Dumbell RDLs: 1x50x10s
That was it, I was in and out in about 20 minutes and half of that was spent rearranging the garage to make room for myself and then putting it back how I found it. Probably one of my less productive workouts but it’s something.
Sometimes you need to improvise so don’t worry ! Keep it up !
23/12/17
Giant set
Dumbell overhead press: 2x10x8s, 3x10x10s
Dumbell bentover rows: 5x10x10s
Goblet squat: 5x10x15
Superset
Dumbell overhead press: 5x10x10s
Dumbell RDLs: 5x10x15s
Dumbell curls:
One set of full reps to failure, partial reps to failure then a 30 second isometric hold with my arms at 90 degrees
Another home garage workout, this one was pretty fun and surprisingly hard.
I hope everyone has a good holiday. I won’t be in the gym again now till probably Wednesday.