Clockin' A Grip

Training Training Logs
2022

9-2 Shoulders/Triceps 3B

Internal/external rotatings and arm circles against wall

DB Upright Row
25 x 10
20 x 17
15 x 25

Rear Delts with DBs
15 x 11
12.5 x 17
10 x 24

Landmine Press
55 x 7
45 x 14
35 x 24

Band Pushdowns
3 minis x 15
2 minis x 23
1 mini x 50

Close Decline
155 x 10
125 x 18
105 x 19 + 7

Rolling KB Tricep
35 x 8
30 x 15
25 x 18

My woman asked if I was going to the gym today, when I said yes she said maybe I should take a break. “We don’t like it when you get grumpy.” I’m getting a little run down. Using different weights for my 3 work sets per exercise has been good. The different weights are “easier” and less “fatiguing”(?) than doing all of them heavy. This has just allowed me to work harder each session and string more tough sessions together. Science! Anyway, some kind of deload is coming after this next back workout, at the end of week 6 of Breakdowns.

I watched this Charles Glass video the other day. He shows some lifter dude how to get a little internal shoulder rotation during his delt raises. Like the formerly famous pouring water out of the pitcher cue. Anyway, I used that technique for upright rows today and it blasted my side delts.

Some little skinny douche was playing on his phone on the pec deck I wanted to rear delt on so I did DBs in the Glass style too. They were OK.

I was going to press in the smith machine instead of using the dumb machine I’ve used the last 2 weeks. The same skinny douche started doing calesthenics under the smith machine about the time I was finishing rear delts. I was kindly pissed and did landmine presses instead. It worked out because my shoulders were Blown Up.

Next up, Rope Pushdowns! Unbelievably the same skinny douche was using both cables, alternating sets of pushdowns and curls. I grabbed some mini bands and did pushdowns with 3 bands the dropped to 2 and then 1 band. That turned out to be pretty cool as well. A monster mini and 2 minibands would probably be perfect.

On close grip declines I moved my hands out like 2 inches each, just outside my shoulders. This adjustment made the whole thing feel more natural and crushed my short tricep, right behind elbow.

It turned out to be a solid workout and a good day in the gym. A little variety can be fun.

2 Likes
2023

You need to ragdoll this skinny douche next time you’re in the gym

2 Likes
2024

Dude you could have just asked to work in with me…

2 Likes
2025

But then all the other dudes at the gym would be like “Oh, sharing equipment? Are you two dating now?”

2026

9-4 Back and Grips

Scap moves, stretch traps

Wide Grip Straight Arm Pulldowns
80 x 11
80 x 18 misload, shoulda been 60
40 x 32

Close, Supinated Pulldowns
180 x 11
140 x 22
120 x 27

Seated Lever Row, Standing
95 x 12
75 x 20
55 x 31

Rope Chins
x4
x5
x6
Behind Back Barbell Wrist Curl
95 x 25
95 x 20
85 x 20
Fat Gripz DB Hold
55 x 35 sec
55 x 40 sec
50 x 40 sec
3 rounds

Rope chins were the coolest part. A few weeks ago I was barely holding on enough to get 3. Today I was barely holding on enough to get 6.

The next coolest part was when I did 80 x 11, bustin ass on straight arm pulldowns. I was supposed to drop the weight on the 2nd set, only I forgot to. Then to beat the log book I got 80 (not 60) x 18. Just a minute earlier, 80 x 11 was like failure, but when I thought it was lighter I got a bunch more reps in.

I guess I’m just not good at going to failure. Arthur Jones would be pissed. I’ve been checking out some stuff from Dorian Yates, and that dude was good at going to failure and getting awesome recruitment. He said he developed 19 inch forearms just from squeezing the bar on pulldowns. According to some Calf Connoisseurs he had great calves, and he only did like 1-2 sets of 2 calf lifts per week.

I saw a couple videos of Yates putting some more regular type dudes through workouts and they did like a rest/pause thing, a tough 8-10 then 1 minute break and another set with same weight.

2 Likes
2027

9-6 Chest and Biceps A, deload

Incline Machine
102.5 x 5

Dip Machine
Choked mini band + 100 x 4

Pec Deck
130 x 6

Cable Curl
130 x 5

Incline DB Curl
40 x 4

Barbell Curl
105 x 4

I worked up to a reasonable weight to use for the next round of trainings. No failures and no medium or light sets.

1 Like
2028

Here’s some shit that came together like Voltron.

Matt Wenning talks about doing dynamic effort squats with a slow eccentric, a pause at the bottom then a fast concentric. He says this is useful for building mass and for building explosiveness. He says you can progress workout to workout by using the same weight and lowering slower (up to a five count lowering) and pausing longer (up to a five count pause).

This one is John Meadows talking about cluster sets for building mass. He described it almost like a rest/pause thing. Basically take your 8 reps max, lift to 6 powerful reps, not going to failure. Rest briefly and before you’re fully recovered bust out a few more reps. Then do that again. You’re kind of extending the set, trying to do like 12 reps with your 8 rep max. Or maybe like 15 reps with your ten rep max if you go slightly lighter.

I’ve been on a Free Hatfield kick this year and I remembered him talking about using Compensatory Acceleration, pushing the bar really fast but controlling the descent and especially the reversal of turn around at the bottom. He said something about training this way causing you to build up satellite cells in your muscles.

Then other times you get wild, benching ballistically, with a fast negative and a violent reversal, really trying to go from down to up quickly. Like trying to get a plyometric action and blasting and damaging your type 2 explosive fibers. This means you’ve got to do less reps/more sets, or use a cluster approach, to keep the speed up. Then the satellite cells you built up repair the damage and turn into type 2 explosive bad ass fibers.

To allow this healing to happen during the third week you do lighter, more controlled generic body building stuff. Maximum blood flow and metabolic stress (like the pump) with minimum damage to the muscles. This sets the stage to beging the process again.

Writing it out like that it seems really simple and straight forward. For some reason I just couldn’t Get It when I first heard about it. A three week rotation is like 1 step more than my brain can understand.

3 Likes
2029

Matt Wenning is a pretty smart dude.

1 Like
2030

He’s definitely one of my favorite bros.

2031

9-9 Legs A, Deload

Get loose. Piriformis and hip flexors were tight tight. I blame dumbbell squats.

Curtsey Lunge
34 x 5

Laying Leg Curls
90 x 5

PreCor Hack Squat
220 x 5

Romanian on Shrug Machine
140 x 5

Seated Calf
100 x 15
75 x 17
50 x 23

Standing Calf + 2 mini bands
3 plates x 13
2 plates x 17

Reaching that part of a deload where you feel worse than you did during regular workouts.

1 Like
2032

9-10 Shoulders/Triceps A Deload

Scarecrow, cuban rotation actions. Stretch traps and pecs.

Lean Away DB Raise
20 x 5

Rear Delt DB Raise
25 x 5

Half Half Full DB Press
55 x 2

Fat V Grip Cable Pushdown
160 x 7

Dick’s Press
140 x 4

Half-Full PJR Pullover
80 x 4

Some abs stuff

Solid workout. I had great MMC/activation and I hit the weights I wanted without getting excited. Makes me wonder if I was tired yesterday or if the moves I did for legs are just played out.

More stuff from Charles Glass. In this video he’s doing arms with a guy. Glass really stresses keeping the hand, wrist, forearm lined up during extensions and curls. Don’t cock that shit at some weird angle because your elbow hurts. Use the equipment or handle or light enough weight so you can get the tension on your bis and tris and get good reps in to heal/rehab the joints.

I’ve been trying to push out in front instead of straight down on the cable pushdowns and in just a couple weeks it’s really changed the way my elbows move. I’ve moved my hands out like 2 inches on close grip barbell stuff and I can feel my tris way more. Today I got my thumbs around the bar for Dick’s Press instead of going false grip. It felt so smooth I almost wanted to do some benches.

2033

September Eleventh, Back and Grips A, Deload

I arm band pulldown action with internal rotation on the way up and external rotation on the way down. Then some internal/external rotations (like cuban rotations) seated on incline bench, leaning back for a new angle.

Straight Arm Pulldown, Close Grip
90 x 5

Double D Pulldowns
200 x 5

DB Row
95 x 5

Plate Loaded Gripper
155 x 20
140 x 25
120 x 31
Kettlebell Hold
20 x 6 count
20 x 6 count
15 x 18 count
KB Wrist Extension
35 x 12
30 x 16
25 x 22
3 rounds of grip

Another good one. Weights went up with no problems.

2034

9-13 Chest/Biceps, B. Unending deload

Move scaps four ways, do internal and external shoulder rotation. Pump up short head of tricep.

Low Smith Incline, notch 1
55 x 5

Decline Machine Press
75 x 5

Low to High Cable Fly
60 x 5

Arnold Curl with Kettlebell
40 x 5

Barbell Drag Curl
100 x 5

Alternating DB Curl
55 x 4

Great Pre-football Sunday at the gym. Pantera, Tool and Alice in Chains on the stereo. I’m starting to get slightly big and strong so it’s more fun to go to the gym now.

2035

9-14 Legs, No longer Breakdowns, Kind of deload week

Get loose

Pin 3, Frog Stance Isometric Deadlifts
x 2-3 second pulls x 8 individual goes

First 6 individual reps felt like a monkey humping a football. 7th popped off the pins as soon as I got tight in my stance. Added weight from the last one and it still popped up.

Back Raise on Glute/Ham Bench
x 6 or 8 reps x 3 sets

Belt Squat
x 12 x 3 sets

Chain wrapped around hips, run through holes in 25/35 pound plates and held with carabiner. No fuss no muss!

Seated Hamstring Curl
Monster Mini Band x 25 x 2 sets

Terminal One Extension
+mini band x 25 x 2 sets

Darden Standing Calf
2 plates x 20 strict reps, 10 loose reps with knees flexed.
1 plate x 20 strict reps, 16 loose reps.
0 plate x 20 strict, 20 loose.

Holy shit, it was supposed to be 20 strict, 20 loose, only that shit was killing me.

Donkey Calf
x 30 x 2 sets

Instead of using low, medium and high reps for all lifts, even when it was inappropriate I did heavy moves, medium moves and light moves like a normal person. Solid workout.

2036

Long one, not super exciting. At 12:00 or so Reverse Band Incline Bench. The bands are rigged off of straps and d-rings instead of directly over the top of the rack. Totally adjustable and you can get consistent tension at different angles. You shorten or lengthen the “Daisy Chains” to keep band length the same. That’s pretty cool. Bennet mentions that accommodating resistance is awesome for hypertrophy. That’s something I’d like to get into more.

At 23:00 dude uses isometrics (pressing into the bar of the smith machine kind of karate chop style) to train and rehab his tricep tendonitis. To heal it, you gotta load it!

2037

a lot of fun done in this session!!

1 Like
2038

It was fun, I like to be the boss!

2039

9-16 Shoulders/Triceps. Not Breakdowns, not a deload

Move scaps, get internal/external shoulder rotation

Lateral Raise/Upright Row Action
17.5 x 12
20 x 12
15 x 17

Rear Delts on Reverse Pec Deck
? x 12
moved pin down a couple holes x 12
move pin up a few holes x 20

Landmine Press + Mini Band
25 x 8
45 x 6
50 x 7
30 x 12

Tomahawk Pushdowns
miniband x 25
monster x 20, 15

Close Grip Decline + Chains
145 x 8
160 x 6
125 x 12

Miniband lateral tricep Pushdown x 30/30/25
Overhead band extension for long tricep x 30/25/20
1 after the other, then a brief rest x 3

Another fun one. Off the script, normal person workout. Band tension + landmine press was Legit. It was like muscling out a tough overhead press in safety without any old man elbow/shoulder/back pain.

Part of me wants to abandon the Breakdowns system. It was cool and it taught me about matching lifts and proper loads, so it’s time to move on.

The manic side of me is desperate to continue so I can beat the numbers I’ve been writing down on the little index cards I’m using to log workouts. I like it when the numbers go up.

1 Like
2040

9-18 Lats, Medium Intensity. +Grip and bonus trap pump

Get scaps moving, fire up lats

Cable Pulldowns, Medium Semi Supinated Grip
180 x 9
200 x 8
160 x 12

Glass DB Row
65 x 12
70 x 12
55 x 15

Cable Straight Arm Pulldown x 25
Cable Row, lean forward, close, Semi Supinated Grip x 25
2 pairs

No weight Neck Extension x 15
Chest supported DB Row x 15
Chest supported DB Shrug x 15
Standing DB Row x 15
DB Shrug x 15
DB RDL, “bend bar around waist” motion with mid traps at top x 15
2 rounds

Fat Rope Chins x 4/4/4
Behind Back Wrist Curl 100 x 20 ish
Pinch two 10s and pass them around body, 10-15 times in each direction
3 rounds

Another great workout. I feel bad for my bros who believe that 50-75% of their sessions are supposed to suck. Every day in the gym should be a great day!

My traps have become a little de-conditioned.

2 Likes
2041

9-20 Hamstrings, High Reps

A few stretches. (McGill Curl Ups x 6 Psoas Eccentric x 6 Dead Bug x 3) x 2 rounds

Standing Hamstring Curl
4 x 12

Single Leg Ass Blaster
3 x 15

Reverse Hyper, Trying to Pause at Top
4 x 5

Dimmel Deadlift, + one band over the middle of the bar and I stand in the loops
3 x 15

Seated Calf x 15 x 4 sets
Leg Raise off Bench x 15 x 3 sets

Standing Calf x 15 x 3
Standing Abs with Band x 15? x 3

I’m trying to work end-range hip extension and develop my ultra magnus with the banded Dimmels. Hopefully it doesn’t explode my groin.

1 Like