What’s a football bar ?
I guess it’s usually called a “Swiss bar,” or a “multi grip bar.” It’s like a specialty bar for triceps with 3 sets of neutral grip handles. This one is full size, and fits in the rack like a regular barbell. Some of these bars have angled handles. The one at my gym is all parallel. I thought It was called a football bar, but Thats just jargon.
Anyway, I’m using it to really emphasize my triceps when bench pressing. With the neutral grip handles its really natural to tuck the elbows, and touch really low on the chest. Like a close grip bench press, without jamming up the wrists. I’ve never spent much time on it in the past, so it’s pretty much a new lift. Every week is an exciting new P.R., even though the weights are low.
yeah I don’t know the proper name for those either. There’s an exercise called grappler press where that bar is used.
I find it somewhat challenging to control if my memory serves me right. I’m actually going to implement it from now on!
It does kind of “rock” front to back, I do almost feel like I’m balancing it in my hands.
Some of the guys here(on Tnation) are using it for overhead pressing. I have not tried, feel like I would knock my teeth out.
Edit: I just checked out the grappler press. That looks like it would be really hard to control, and great for what you are trying to do.
5-13
Walking around with Short, Light band around my knees. Leg Extensions, leg curls. Jumps.
Kelso Shrugs with Trap bar
4x25
Seated SSB Goodmorning
3 sets ramping up
155x6, 6, 12
Elbow thru band “rows”
Bulgarian Splits
I was thinking about pussing out on sled drags. Then my g.f. pussed out too. So we didn’t drag. This is the opposite of what’s supposed to happen.
We did jump some rope.
5-16
Arm circles, step ups, wall-ankle drill, suitcase walks.
Broad jumps, rear delts and tricep extensions on high cable, worked into warm up sets of incline bench
Incline Bench
3 warm ups
150x6,6,12
Inverted Rows on Barbell (60)
Seated Dumbell Press (60) BB style, elbows out, hands wide
More triceps and rear delts on cable
Dumbbell Shrugs
Hanging Leg Raises, Palloff Presses half kneeling
Fat Gripz D-Ring lifts, 120x2, 8 doubles each hand during the workout. No hold
5-17
Get loose. Jump around. Laying leg curls.
Power Squat Machine, +light band
3 up
140x6, 6, 22
Kelso Shrug, Short band around knees
5 sets of 20, worked in with squats
Sled
12 drags. Some backwards for quads. Some rowing. Last few power walk style.
Standing single leg curl/leg extensions/pull thru
5-19
Get loose. Rear Delts and tri’s on high cable. Some jumps.
Swiss Bar Bench?
3 up
175x 6, 6, 14
Dumbbell Curls
Slight incline Dumbbell Press
Straight Arm Pulldowns
Hanging Leg Raises
5, 7, 9, 11
Paloff action, with band, half kneeling.
Hub Lifts with 35 plate.
5-20
Get loose
Sled Drag Around Building
Jumps
Kelso Shrug
5x20
Seated SSB GM
3 up
165x6, 6, 14
Bulgarian Splits
Elbow thru Band Rows
Leg Curls
5-23
Arm and hip circle stuff.
Some rear delts and triceps on high cable, jumps
Incline Bench
3 Warm ups
150x6,6,14. Last set was not pretty. I was a little worried about beating 12 from last week. Slayer came on the radio, and I got excited and sloppy.
Inverted Rows, B.W. 100 total reps
Seated Dumbbell Press, 30, 100 total reps
More rear delts and tri’s until I got 100 reps
Some Dumbbell curls
Dumbbell Shrug, 55, 120 total reps with hold
Hanging Leg Raises x8,9,10,11
A bunch of Fat Grips D-Ring lifts with 120.
5-20
Arm and hip circles with Short, Average Band around knees. Some jumps. A few leg extensions/curls(laying).
Kelso Shrugs with band around knees
5x20
Power Squat Machine with Band
3 sets working up
140x6, 6, 30
More Leg Curls(standing) and Leg Extensions
Pull Thru on Cable
Sled Drag. 16 trips, 8 rowing, 8 dragging backwards for quads.
5-26
Warm ups. High cable rear delts and true.
Swiss Bar Bench
3 up
175x6,6,17
More Delts and Triceps
Straight Arm Pulldowns
Slight Incline Dumbbell Press
Dumbbell Shruggs
Hub Lifts
5-27
Warm ups. Some jumps.
Sled Drag, power walk twice around the building. No breaks.
Kelso Shrugs
Seated GMs with SSB
3 sets working up
165x6,6, 20
Elbow thru Band Rows
Lunges in place, Rear Foot Elevated
Reverse Hypers
Good to see you caved and made a log while I was gone, I’ll be following for sure
Welcome back. For the last few months, whenever I’ve had a Newcastle Brown Ale, I’ve had one more for you.
I’ve done the same thing. Every time I’ve had a beer or a maccy dees, I’ve had an extra one for myself. In all seriousness though, it’s good to be back. Looking forward to the community on here.
Looking back, this is a mess. I had an idea of what I was trying to do, but it took awhile to find lifts I could use. Things came together on the fly, but by the end it was going smooth.
For 3 weeks I was just doing some uninspired stuff. Sets of 5 on a main lift, then sets of 10 on assistance exercises. It was pretty whack.
3 weeks in, I switched things up so my girlfriend and I could get on the same page. I was going nowhere. She was on a very linear scheme, that she ran too long. Her squat sessions were so draining she would leave the gym in tears. We were ready for a big change.
3 weeks, no barbells. Daily sled drags, lots of calisthenics and light single arm/leg assistance stuff. We didn’t exactly do a Full body routine, but we did pushups on lower body day and sled drags on upper days. We used light weights, and a total reps approach. Reps got higher, rests go shorter, more work took less time. It was cool. We didn’t need exotic stuff like complexes and aerial trapeze routines, we just needed a new structure.
Next 3 weeks, we added a barbell lift, but a “secondary” one. Close grip instead of bench press, GMs instead of deadlifts. Weights stayed light, and we used a “Plus Set” approach. Kinda like Greyskull. I talked shit about Greyskull before, but the way you challenged yourself to get more reps, without going to failure was a fun change. For assistance exercises, we used a “periodization bible” set up, with light weights and the same total reps approach.
After 3 weeks we reset weights, swapped out assistance exercises, and continued on.
It was a really fun and effective training cycle. I started light, and paced myself, but I was able to move forward for 9 weeks with no injuries. We more than doubled our workload. We figured out how to structure sessions around increasing the one Plus Set, and breaking records every week. We figured out what secondary exercises are, and how you load them different than assistance or main lifts.
The total reps approach was great. We could do some jumps, some chins, some presses, In any order. Whatever kept the pace up and felt good. We sort of used super sets, and giant sets and rest pause, in a natural, fun way.
My girlfriend hit some good numbers. 95x15 in the Close grip bench press. 4x25 on the Glute/ham raise. GM’s, 115x20. I’m excited to see how she does when we rotate deadlifts and stuff back in.
I found the power squat machine and seated GMs for lifts I can progress without getting hurt.
1 Like
I’ve been taking it easy this week. I went swimming in the river a couple times. I wasn’t as good a swimmer as I remembered myself being.
Nice! I was secretly hoping you picked a nature-made body of water lol.