3/12/15
KB Swings 6 x 15 @ 44, 53, 71, 80, 80, 80 lbs
DB Bench Press 2 x 10 @ 35s, 45s, 2 x 7, 6 @ 55s, 1 x 10 @ 45s
Cable Rows 5 x 10 @ 130, 140, 170, 180, 150 lbs
High Step ups (24") (KB in goblet position) 3 x 10 @ BW, 22, 35 lbs
Rope Climb 6-8 feet
Light Hops
Box Jumps 10-12 up to 30" box
3/13/15 BW: 163.6
RDLs w/ 1 min rest 5 x 15, 15, 15, 10, 15 @ 162 lbs
Incline Press 4 x 10 (PR!) 8, 8, 8 @ 115 lbs, 1 x 10 (paused & CAT) @ 95 lbs
Ring Chin-ups 7, 5, 5, 4, 4
Single Leg Decline Sit-ups 3 x 5, 10, 10 @ BW, down set w/ both legs 10
I broke mentally and physically with the RDLs today. The 1 minute rest is just terrible. You’re butt and legs are on fire, you can’t breathe, your hands hurt and your arms feel like they want to fall off. I would avoid this exercise if it weren’t so damn effective. I use RDLs as hamstring and glute work to strengthen and stretch those muscles and it’s meant to be executed perfectly with an arched back with the weight almost touching the ground and done fast. Today’s session tells me that I need to restart my RDL cycle. I want quality work here. I can go heavy on other lifts, but this is supposed to be very smooth.
My incline press was good today. I got a PR! I’m happy with that. I’ve been chasing 10 reps at 115 for a little while now. Finally got it! 
I’m also pretty sure that’s a volume PR as well. My pressing strength is definitely going up even if I can’t always express it on the flat bench. My ring chin-ups were super weak today. I think my biceps are still sore from the German hangs the other day. I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s session: back squats and dips. I love me some back squats.
3/14/15 BW: 163.8
Back Squats 2 x 5 @ 135, 2 x 3 @ 155, 185, 1 @ 205, 3 x 5 @ 225 (PR), 1 x 10 @ 185 lbs
Dips 3 x 10 @ BW
Hammer Strength Low Row Machine 3 x 10 @ 90 lbs
Had an awesome squat session today! I was pretty nervous going into it knowing that today was sets of 5 at 225. I have never even attempted a single set of 5 at that weight. After finishing my sets, my down set at 185 was ugly as shit. I have never squatted so slowly in my entire life. Apparently, those sets of 5 really took everything out of me. I didn’t have a whole lot of energy left to do much else. I got a little bit of pressing and pulling volume in and called it a day. Then I refueled with a big omelet, hash browns, and turkey bacon.
3/16/15
Single Leg Deadlifts 3 x 5 @ 80, 100, 120
Calisthenics - 5 rounds of push, pull, abs in the park.
3/17/15 BW: 164.2
Back Squats 5 x 10 @ 95, 135, 185, 185, 185 lbs
Bench Press 4 x 8 (PR), 8, 7, 6 @ 135 lbs (volume PR)
Hammer Strength Iso Rows 5 x 10 @ 90, 90, 110, 130, 90
DB Bicep Curls 3 x 10 @ 30s
Roman Chair Leg Lifts 3 x 15
Cardio - a few hours of bike riding
Good session today. I got a lot of reps in on squats because I didn’t feel like going heavy today so I just decided to get in some volume. I was going to go for a set of 10 at 135 today on bench, but it didn’t happen. Instead, I got 8 and then was able to do it again. I’m the weirdest lifter. I can hit an all out rep set and not be able to get a single rep more and then I can do it again for the same number of reps on the next set. That probably shouldn’t be a thing, but that’s the way I work. Attached is the video of my 1st set of bench press.
3/18/15
Bike ride and…
Calisthenics in the park:
Legs - 10 high step ups, 5 shrimp squats, 3 x 5 pistol squats
Push - 4 x 10 push-ups - arms elevated, ground, diamond, feet elevated
Pull - 3 x 10 body rows, 6 chin-ups
Abs - 1 x 10 sit-ups, 1 x 30 leg lifts, 1 x 10 body curls, 1 x 6 toes to bar
3/19/15 BW: 165.0
Chin-ups 11, 10, 9, 8, 8 @ BW
Pistols 3 x 5 @ BW, 10, 20, 1 x 3 (rt leg) & 2 (left leg) @ 40 lbs (PR)
Deficit push-ups 15, 15, 15, 15
Bodyweight squats for time: 50 in 46.7 seconds
More bodyweight exercises today. My brother-in-law’s car wouldn’t start this morning because of the cold weather so we stayed inside and worked out from home. I’d like to eventually get my chin-up rep numbers up. My best is 13 strict chin-ups, but I set that a year and half ago when I weighed 20 lbs less. Granted, a lot of the the weight that I gained was muscle. My quads and glutes have definitely filled out. And my weighted chin-up has gone up from 195 lbs to about 230 lbs in total weight including my bodyweight. So I can’t complain too much, but I should work on getting 14 or 15 chin-ups.
3/20/15 BW: 164.4
Superset:
Military Press 3 x 5 @ 45, 65, 85, 1 x 6 @ 105 (PR) 3 x 6 @ 95 lbs
BB Rows 6 x 10 @ 45, 65, 85, 105, 95, 95, 95 lbs
RDLs (w/ 1 min rest) 5 x 15 @ 135 lbs
Quick session today. I kinda like combining military press with BB rows. It’s an easy way to get a push and a pull in all at once and they seem to be roughly the same weight so there’s really no need to unload the barbell. RDLs were much easier today after dropping them back down in weight. I’ll build back up again and will hopefully be stronger the next time I run through them.
[quote]Babypowerlifter wrote:
3/19/15
More bodyweight exercises today. My brother-in-law’s car wouldn’t start this morning because of the cold weather so we stayed inside and worked out from home. I’d like to eventually get my chin-up rep numbers up. My best is 13 strict chin-ups, but I set that a year and half ago when I weighed 20 lbs less. Granted, a lot of the the weight that I gained was muscle. My quads and glutes have definitely filled out. And my weighted chin-up has gone up from 195 lbs to about 230 lbs in total weight including my bodyweight. So I can’t complain too much, but I should work on getting 14 or 15 chin-ups. [/quote]
Oh man, you missed a perfect opportunity to push/pull a car!
[quote]Seachel_25 wrote:
[quote]Babypowerlifter wrote:
3/19/15
More bodyweight exercises today. My brother-in-law’s car wouldn’t start this morning because of the cold weather so we stayed inside and worked out from home. I’d like to eventually get my chin-up rep numbers up. My best is 13 strict chin-ups, but I set that a year and half ago when I weighed 20 lbs less. Granted, a lot of the the weight that I gained was muscle. My quads and glutes have definitely filled out. And my weighted chin-up has gone up from 195 lbs to about 230 lbs in total weight including my bodyweight. So I can’t complain too much, but I should work on getting 14 or 15 chin-ups. [/quote]
Oh man, you missed a perfect opportunity to push/pull a car![/quote]
Haha, we totally would have, but he lives a city away and couldn’t drive in to work out with us. We’ve done car pushes before. They’re awesome! We should do more of those soon. On ice, it’s a bit tricky and probably dangerous. Anchorage is almost completely thawed now though so we should be able to. Yay for global warming! This has been the weirdest Alaskan winter ever.
Been taking it easy for the past couple of days. I’ve been getting outside a lot and have kind of been taking a short break from training.
3/21/15
Back Squats warm-up sets up to 3 x 3 @ 225, 1 x 10 @ 185 lbs
Bench Press (paused) worked up to 1 @ 145 lbs, 2 x 10 @ 115, 95 lbs
Cable Rows
3/22/15
Hike Beluga Point and McHugh Creek. It was a gorgeous day and we wanted to get outside.
3/23/15
Bike Ride approximately 2 hours
3/24/15
AM workout
Isometric holds: Squat 45 seconds, Push-up w/ handles 45 seconds, Lunge hold 45 seconds, Kneel sit back hold 45 seconds, Single Leg Good Morning hold 45 seconds, Dip hold 20 seconds
Bike Ride approx. 2 hours
Afternoon workout
DB OH Press 2 x 10 @ 35, 40s, 1 x 6 @ 45s
Walking Lunges 2 x about 27 steps @ 40 lbs
Evening Workout
Back Squats 3 x 4 @ 225, 1 x 10 @ 185 lbs
Pull-up to toes to bar (1 pull-up followed by 1 toes to bar without rest = 1 rep) 6, 4
Feet elevated push-ups (12" box) 2 x 10
Bench Press 3 x 5 @ 95, 115, 135, 2 x 10 @ 115, 95 lbs
Farmers Walks 100 ft w/ turn around 2 @ 110 lbs per hand
I did a bunch of random things yesterday. We first did some iso holds. My husband injured his knee last fall and has been rehabbing it. I followed the routine that he created for himself. I really liked it. It was more difficult than you would think. It was also an awesome stretch. Later, we went on a bike ride. Then, trained clients at one gym where I did some overhead pressing and walking lunges. Later that evening, I went to a different gym and did more work. My husband had his client try farmers walks for the first time and I decided to work in with her. I need to go a lot heavier with these. They were fairly easy for me and I could go pretty fast. It was my first time actually using legit farmer’s handles so I’ll know to go heavier next time. This is a pretty fun exercise and I’ll have to do more of it now that the sun is shinning and I have a gym that has strong man equipment.
Gorgeous photo.
I see lots of PR’s on this page. Always good.
Keep up the great work!
[quote]ActivitiesGuy wrote:
Gorgeous photo.
I see lots of PR’s on this page. Always good.
Keep up the great work![/quote]
Thanks!
3/26/15 BW: 164.0
High Step Ups (24" box) 3 x 10 @ BW, 26, 44 lbs
Single Leg KB Deadlifts 3 x 10 @ 44, 88, 106 lbs
KB Rack Squats 2 x 10 @ 88, 106 lbs
Toes to bar 12 (PR)
Pull-ups to toes to bar 5
DB Bench Press 3 x 20, 20, 15 @ 30s, 35s, 45s
Good workout today. We did some rack squats with kettle bells. Those were fun. I had to get a good swing going to even clean the 53 lb kettle bells and get them into place. I clean 50 lb dumbbells all the time for overhead press, but this is much more challenging. I wasn’t expecting that.
I got a new PR for toes to bar. I was very close to getting 13 reps. One toe touched the bar, but the other didn’t. Either way, that’s still a 3 rep PR. These are getting much easier. In the past, I couldn’t do a single one until I got to the point where I could do almost 10 pull-ups. Now, they seem to be passing my pull-ups in short order. I’m not exactly sure why. Either way, I like them because they hit my back, abs, and arms all at the same time.
We were running short on time so I quickly tried to knock out some sets of DB bench. I usually don’t do high reps like that. So much soreness!
We’re going out of town this weekend, so we’ll see what kind of training I can get in. I don’t think I’m going to do the April powerlifting competition. I’m enjoying summer and I’m teaching a strength class around that same time. We’re also going on vacation soon. I think I’d prefer to do a meet in the fall.
3/27-28
Long road trip to Fairbanks! It was a ton of fun. We saw some wonderful ice sculptures from artists from around the world, went to the hot springs, and saw Santa Claus’s house. We also completed a quest to find our friend her mint green dinning room chairs from Pier One that we could not get in town. So 350+ miles later, we got the chairs and had an awesome trip. No real training to speak of except a very interesting game that we played at the hotel. You take a box (in this case it was a tissue box) and rip one side of it so that the box is open. You can only have 1 foot on the ground and you must pick up the box using your only your mouth and stand up with it. After each person has completed the challenge, you remove a strip of cardboard, making the box lower to the ground until you eliminate everyone. I feel like if you did a lot of yoga, you could totally dominate this game. Also, we did this game sober, but being drunk would add a whole new level of difficulty.
3/29/15
Rock Climbing
Chin-ups 10
Toes to bar 8
Pistol Squats
Rack Squats 1 x 10 @ 80 lbs, 1 x 5 @ 110 lbs
3/30/15
Back Squats 3 x 10 @ 105, 165, 185, 1 x 3 @ 225, 1 x 20 @ 135 lbs
DB Bench Press 3 x 10 @ 40s, 45s, 45s
Cable Rows
Bicycle Crunches 100
Bike ride - 1 hour
Just light stuff so far this week. My training facilities have been very varied so I’ve pretty much just been doing whatever with whatever equipment is available. I’ll probably get into a more normal schedule in the next few days. It’s been an enjoyable past week or so. I think mentally it’s been a good break from serious lifting.
3/31/15 BW: 163.6
RDLs (w/ 1 min rest) 5 x 15 @ 145 lbs
Single Arm DB OH Press 6 x 5 @ 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 45, 40 lbs
Single Arm DB Rows 2 x 10 @ 60, 65 lbs
Chin-ups 10, 10
Decline Abs 20 @ BW
Various other ab work
Bike riding
4/1/15
Back Squats (all beltless) 3 x 5 @ 95, 135, 155, 1 x 3 @ 185, 3 x 1 @ 205, 245, 265 (PR!)
Goblet Squat Isos 2 x 45 seconds @ 35, 53 lbs
Bench Press 4 x 8, 4, 4, 4 @ 135, 1 x 25 @ 95 lbs
Cable Rows burnout set (no rest) 6 x 10 @ 140, 120, 100, 80, 60, 40 lbs
Roman Chair Leg lifts 15
Toes to bar 8
Good back squat session today. I decided to try for a heavy single because I haven’t tried to max out in a while on squats. It’s a 15 lb PR for me. I think I had more in me, but I’m happy with it for now. My short term goal is to get to 300 lbs beltless.
Wow lady congratz on the pr you crushed that!
Awesome PR!
You handle that squat weight like it’s nothing. Great job. There’s no question that a 300-lb. squat is in your future.
Thanks, guys!!
