Dam good time to have a home set up. Australia going into lockdown
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Monday, March 23 - Squat day
Squat with wraps
505x1
555x1 - not as fast as it should be
If I felt good I was thinking of taking 600 for a single but nothing was moving well today. Instead:
585x1 - Not as fast as last week, depth looks better but still questionable. Somewhere in the range of just barely or parallel.
Down set:
I wasn’t really feeling it today so I thought maybe just do a double
535x1 - came up kind of slow, didn’t feel like straining out another rep so I racked it. I dont know what my problem is today but everything is moving slow. The weight doesn’t feel bad on my back, it just doesn’t want to move.
Normally I would have done another down set and then some leg curls but I’m not feeling it plus I have to get out of here and go to work so that’s it. I will upload the video of 585x1 later.
Next week was supposed to be an easy squat session but I didn’t really do a whole lot here, plus I don’t think the meet is happening so we will see what ends up happening. Its weird that today felt so shitty since the last two session went well, maybe the stress of all the bullshit is getting to me.
Here is today’s top set:
Looks like it’s right at parallel, just need to get a bit deeper. And do it with another 40lbs.
I don’t know what my problem was today, I’m not fatigued at all and the last couple workouts were easy too. It was kind of warm (for this time of year in Canada) for the last couple weeks but today it was snowing, maybe that had something to do with it. I find the weather can mess with me sometimes, I have no other explanation.
Another thing, it looks like the end of the bar shifts forward but my back angle didn’t really change, I think maybe I was turning horizontally or something. That is new.
You bar path appears to be behind you heel, not over your ankle. It may be throwing you off. It looks like you have a long thigh and short back in relation. Have you tried turning your toes in a little (in relation to the current angle) or maybe a slightly higher bar position?
Something was off with the bar path here for sure, it usually goes straight up and down. I think the bar might have rotated horizontally or something, I’m not really sure. I try to do the “tripod foot” thing, with the weight distributed between the heel, big toe, and little toe.
Yeah, I do have slightly long femurs. I have tried various stances over the years and even squatted high bar in a meet a few years ago, this seems to be the strongest setup for me. With a higher bar position it’s easy to get pitched forward and upper back strength becomes a limiting factor.
Here’s a video from a month ago to compare:
Yeah. The bar path is slightly more forward in this video. It’s weird how much little crap like that can throw you.
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Wednesday, March 25 - Main bench day
Bench press
395x2 singles - smooth but not as fast as I would like. I think this coronavirus thing is messing with my head, nothing is going right lately. I need to fix that.
370x3 - good except my ass came up on the last rep, I moved my feet around after the 2nd rep again. I don’t know why I do that, it’s automatic. At least strength is still there, 375x3 is my best triple. I just need to sort out my singles and I’m OK.
Floor pause DB flys
75’s x15, 12
Front raise
65x15, 12
superset with:
Side raise
30’s x14, 12
W external rotation
super mini band x3 sets
Not terrible, but not the best session either. 5 and a half weeks to go until the meet, if it ends up happening.
I think I might change my bench technique a bit after this meet (whether it happens or not) so that I don’t arch as much and avoid the risk of my ass coming off the bench. This is something that I have had issues with on and off for a few years, never happened in a meet but it messes with my head in training. On floor press the bar touches my chest and if I train that regularly then it’s just a few pounds behind my bench, I figure with the added leg drive that I don’t have on floor press I could close the gap so to speak. I’m strong at the bottom anyway, it’s in the top third that I get stuck, so I don’t think that arching makes much of a difference for me.
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What does a floor DB fly look like? Does the DB pause on the floor or does your elbow pause on the floor? I’m guessing it’s just your elbow otherwise that is seriously impressive.
Elbow. You don’t do flys with straight arms, too much strain on the elbow and bicep. Trying something like that with 75lbs in each hand would probably lead to injury.
Josh Bryant has some videos on this exercise on his youtube channel. I like it better than regular flys because they don’t feel good on my shoulder at the bottom, this limits the range of motion.
Friday, March 27 - Deadlift day
Deadlift
590x1 - Not as pretty as it should have been, slowed around knee level, didn’t actually feel that bad though. It kind of felt like I relaxed as the bar passed the knees, I strained a bit and then it was like the lift was finished before I even locked it out. Not sure if that makes sense.
RDL
465x6
Barbell row
365x8
Chin ups -close neutral grip
bw+50x8
Barbell curl
125x15, 12
So far this week was not really up to my expectations, 575x2 moved better a couple weeks ago and my squat and bench were not as good as expected. I need to make up for it next week.
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Saturday, March 28 - 2nd Bench day
Slingshot bench
435x3x2 sets - good, only problem is on the 1st set I moved my feet after the 2nd rep and ended up lifting my ass off the bench on the 3rd rep, I don’t know why I keep doing that.
Bench feels good today, also went up to 365x1 before putting on the slingshot and it flew right up. Much better than last Wednesday.
JM press
295x6, 4 - This was hard, I think I should do a down set instead of 2 sets with the same weight. This was basically a 6rm.
Neutral DB pushups
+light band+super mini band x12
Feels kinda the same for me. They do say sumo is hard off the floor easier at lockout.
Yeah, something like that. I find it slows around the knees sometimes for me, like in this one, but I have yet to fail at the knees. This lift just felt weird in a way that’s hard to explain, it wasn’t like I strained and then it just flew up but rather all of a sudden no effort way required and I slowly locked it out.
Maybe it’s not worth giving much thought to it, whatever.
Monday, March 30 - Squat day
Squat with wraps
600x1
More in the tank, depth still questionable but closer at least. Getting better, another month before the meet is supposed to happen but doesn’t look like it will at this point.
Also did 515x1 and 565x1 before this, both looked a touch deeper, I have to squat my heaviest attempts like that too.
Down sets:
540x2x2 - Felt light, not going for a rep PR or anything
Quad fallbacks
band assisted - 12x3 sets - I think I had enough of leg curls and some extra quad work might pay off, these got my quads extra pumped. I got these from the Kabuki instagram page, figured it would be worth a try. Impossible without the band, but not that hard with it.
I’m going to keep pushing the heavy singles for a bit, but going forward I’m going to keep squatting in wraps and really sort out my technique, number one issue is hitting depth. I will probably just do a work set or two with the wraps and then some work without them as well, need to keep that bottom end strength. The heaviest I have gone without wraps in recent times is 455, feels pretty easy but I need to get stronger overall.
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Wednesday, April 1 - Main bench day
Bench press
400x2 singles - First one was a bit slow, 2nd was a serious grind. I don’t know if I got better at grinding or I just got slower, it’s hard to tell. Unfortunately, both on singles it looks like my ass either just barely maintained contact with the bench or just barely came off, I thought I had this under control but now its messing with me again. Maybe a bit of stretching for my hips before benching would help, but in the long term I think I will just change my bench setup to avoid this issue.
First single:
Down set:
375x2 - Ass stayed down this time for sure, I made sure to arch harder. It’s getting really annoying. A 3rd rep wasn’t going to happen, that 2nd single was a grinder and my triceps were a bit fatigued. Bench isn’t looking as good as it should right now, seems like the last couple weeks it just hasn’t been up to expectations but I should fix that soon.
Floor pause DB flys
80’s x13, 10 - I recorded the first set since someone was asking about this last week, youtube is fucking around now but I will try to upload it later. Seems like I can never upload more than one video at a time.
Front raise
75x10, 8 - not enough plates to superset with side raises
Side raise
35’s x12, 10
W external rotation
super mini x 3 sets
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Friday, April 3 - Deadlift day - medium session
Deadlift
515x3x3 - easy, moved better than last time I think
Barbell row
370x8
Chin ups- close neutral grip
bw+55x7.5 - got stuck 2/3 of the way up on the last one so it doesn’t really count, I should leave at least one rep in the tank next time
Barbell curl
135x13, 10
My hip flexors are kind of crampy today, they were feeling a little tight from sitting too much lately, I was off work the last two days. I did that Copenhagen adduction thing before lifting and when I got up off the floor I felt something cramp up, I wasn’t sure how training would go or if I would have to abort this session but the deadlifts and rows actually made it feel better. It still feels a bit tight, I’m wondering if that quad exercise I did on Monday has something to do with it because it definitely involves the hip flexors. I used to do ab wheel rollouts but I stopped because they make my hip flexors get tight, this could be a similar issue. I guess I have sensitive hip flexors or something.
Saturday, April 4 - 2nd bench day
Bench up to 365x1 - Hip flexors are still tight, I can’t arch like usual but this still went up fast and easy. Technique feels off due to different angles, but the arch really makes little difference for me.
Slingshot bench
440x2x2 - I can’t lift my ass off the bench if I tried. This is pretty good, first set I could have done another rep and possibly on the 2nd set too, last week 435x3 had nothing left in the tank. Maybe this is the beginning of the end of arching for me.
JM press
300x6, 4
I skipped the pushups, that seems like something that could irritate my hip flexors more. I did my usual goblet squat stretches and squats and I feel fine, let’s hope it stays that way. I’m not doing that stupid quad exercise again, it’s always some little bullshit exercises that fuck me up. I have bad luck with stuff I get from Kabuki. Last time it was RDLs with a band around the waist, that wasted several months of training, and a couple years before I tried their hanging upisde down thing with band to activate the glutes and stretch hip flexors and it made my back cramp up. Why do I do these things?
This was not a good session, aside from my left hip flexor still being tight (the right side was initially worse but relaxed yesterday evening) I also barely got any sleep. I don’t really know what the problem was, it was one of those nights where you keep tossing and turning and can barely sleep, but to make it worse it was a full moon and very bright and shining through my curtains. I didn’t go into this with the highest expectations, to say the least.
Monday, April 6 - Squat day
Squat with wraps
The plan was to squat 610x1, if things were going good, But the weren’t.
525x1 - The descent was weird and I kind of shifted forward, the hip flexor thing was throwing me off. It also felt like it took some effort, but this isn’t normally a challenging weight, for a single at least.
575x1 - Came up slow, 600 moved better last week. Also tipped forward a bit and wasn’t to depth, right about parallel. Not worth going for 610 because it would either be a grind or I would fail, just not my day.
525x2 - This was better, still didn’t feel easy but depth was good at least and form wasn’t shit. Also my left hip flexors felt better after this set, although they still aren’t totally back to normal. It’s all due to that stupid quad exercise I tried last week, I really don’t think there will still be a meet on May 2nd but for future reference never do a new exercise in a peaking phase.
I cut it after that, I wasn’t feeling it and it’s better to just rest sometimes. Also had to save some energy for work, at least I got to take a nap on my break and I felt much better.
So right now I’m still training like there is going to be a meet, I guess I’m too mentally invested in this but I don’t think that spending a few weeks doing heavy singles is necessarily a bad thing. I have two more heavy squat sessions before the supposed meet. If I can squat 620-625 in training I would be happy, but at least I got 600 last week.
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Terrible bench workout yesterday, I had to shut it down because it just wasn’t happening. I’m starting to wonder if I have the coronavirus, I don’t technically have symptoms but all week I just feel kind of burnt out and strength is down. I work in a nursing home that currently has a coronavirus outbreak so it’s highly likely that I have it, and up to 80% of people don’t even have symptoms. I guess I’m under more stress than usual due to all the bullshit, but not that much more.
It doesn’t look like there is a meet coming up anytime soon, so I suppose it doesn’t really matter if I have a couple of shitty workouts. I’m going to drop the singles in a couple weeks.
Take it ez brother. All you can do and best thing is to chillax eat and sleep and see what happens coronavirus-wise or gains wise… CoronaGains.
I’ve been going crazy last two weeks putting together a home gym set up. Not as pretty as other users’ on here but at this point it just about does the job. It’s $$$ already and I’m renting half of it instead of buying full price (or inflated the price given all the price gouging disaster profiteering cunts on Facebook Marketplace and the like).
It’s good fun and as I understand there’s quite a few pros to a home gym. How has your experience been? What kinda of pieces do you have in your home gym, any favourites and what would u like to add still if any?
If I’m gonna go with a home gym long term I’d like some adjustable DBs up to like 130.
Because everything is sold out in Australia or a back order for 2 months even the shitty equipment at this point I’ve been dealing with Mike Armstrong from StrongArm Sport Canada. Their stuff is pretty good not gonna lie. UPS ships in half a week as well.
Have u heard of or had any dealings with StrongArm Sport?
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