Oh! I didn’t even mean to post that stuff specifically for you, I just thought it was cool. I love how the modern routines are the same as the old routines.
I haven’t tried the netting. Cabbages, broccoli, Brussel sprouts, I’ve always had trouble growing them. One year, too much direct sun and heat. One year a ground hog. This year caterpillars. I just keep getting 1 step closer. Next year, I’ll just grow that stuff inside or something.
Oh certainly, but I’m glad that you posted it nonetheless!
Yeah I’m not the best gardener either. But one thing my grandad taught me about it is to get as unconventional as you need. He used grow strawberries in a cage so cats wouldn’t eat it.
I’m just glad I can go to the grocery store if things get too tough.
7-11
warm up, some jumps
Press
a few
105x5
120x5
135x5
150x1
160x1
170x1
Cable Face Pulls with long Rope x15
Seated Dumbbell Press x15
Dumbbell Curl x15
2 times through
Euro Pinch
90x1
110x1
130x1
150xno
Last Week! Hit a couple singles after my top set of presses. Hips and shoulders stayed square, bar went up even.
Grip training has “worked,” but its been super whack and boring. I’m going to have to come up with something better.
7-12
Get Loose
Power Squat Machine
a few working up band thru belt for warm ups
225x5
250x5
275x5
225x5x5
some easy stuff between back off sets, including abs on the stability ball.
Reverse Hyper
140x25, 4 sets
I got the reverse hypers up to half what I was squatting, for 4x25. It was hard a couple weeks ago, but my back get less sore as I went forward. The band tension from the band thru belt on the power squat machine really helped me remember what my hips were supposed to do, and made me “drive through” and finish the squat with the quads really locked out. It actually feels like I’m working my legs, when I try to work my legs!
My girlfriend benched yesterday. 6 weeks ago, she had benched 115.
3 weeks ago, she got 120x5.
Yesterday, she did 125x5, then 135 for a single. She’s really pleased.
Nice! Has she been lifting very long?
She’s been coming to the gym for around 3 years now. First she went through the Zumba phase. Then the crunches and thigh machine stage. Then we switched to a more serious gym, and she’s been on the weights pretty hard for the last 2 years.
7-14
Get Ready
Bench Press
a few up
200x5
215x5
230x4, 2
200x5, 4 sets
I used a regular bar today. It felt like a toy after the big squat bar. My shoulders and tri’s were pretty tired, and I missed a rep at 230 and a whole set at 200. The presses Monday must have taken a little out of me. The good part is the bar moved well, mostly even extension, both arms doing the same thing, no elbow pain or anything.
All I need is more shoulders, more upper back, more triceps, more biceps. More lats. More practice. Luckily, I love working all those things. Some dumbbell presses and dumbbell rows are going to go a long way.
7-15
Band thru belt, get ready.
Seated GM with SSB
5’s up to 245x5
back-off with 205x5x5
some easy assistance junk between sets
Reverse Hyper
90x25, 4 sets.
7-16
Band Pullaparts with a bunch of grips
Dumbbell Curls
Band Tricep Pushdown
Repeat
7-17
Walk around with ankle weights, barefoot, hugging medicine ball to hips. 10 minutes
15 weeks of training down!
No missed workouts, very few missed reps. Pretty much no injuries. I’m going to take it easy for a week, then jump back in. I have a pretty solid idea of what I’m going to do, and I know exactly what weights to start with, and how long to do it. That’s really great. Usually, at the “end” of a training cycle, I’m falling apart and have no real clue of how to start again.
As I get bored sitting around, I’ll start long winded, boring posts about what I learned, what worked, and what I’m going to get into next.
-It was useful to break things down and pretty much start from scratch. My hips and shoulders were still a little “out of square.” Taking time away from the heavy barbells to work on the little stuff made me feel pretty good. I’m standing up way straighter, and I can actually execute an overhead press without my hips and shoulders twisting in opposite directions.
-I found some lower body lifts I was able to progress on. A squat machine and seated GMs are not my favorites, but I was able to almost double my working weights, without hurting myself or missing any workouts. I can actually do a unloaded, zero weight “free squat” now without falling over backwards. I almost have some leg muscles. I feel totally confident that I can continue forward with these lifts, and keep building my hips and legs.
-Focusing the whole workout around 1 set was a cool change. Instead of killing myself and being pissed that I just continued to suck, I learned what/how much I could do and still make progress on my 1 set. Then I just pushed gradually added a little more. With a simple lay-out for each session, it was really easy to keep track.
-Even the “bad” thing was a “good” thing. At the beginning, the paper said to do 50 chinups. A dude on the internet said do “French presses” with the sled. As an experienced lifter, I know these are bad lifts for me. But for some reason I did them anyway. And when my elbow hurt, I just kept doing them. So I was Super Hardcore, but my elbow was fucked for weeks afterward. I had to mess with all kinds of strange moves to train around it. How much productive training did I miss out on for the sake of “following the program?” But now I know many ways to hit lats and triceps! I have so many work-arounds, I should be good for life.
I have to give my grip training 2 thumbs down. It was super unispired and boring. I wasn’t even doing the grip stuff that I knew was most effective. The hub lifting especially sucked. Going from a 25 to a 35 plate is too big a jump. Instead of “building” the strength of my thumb and fingers, I feel like I was just “testing” it. Also, I really messed up with the wrist -roller! How stupid is that? I was doing twice as much for the “top” of my forearms than the “bottom.” This messed up my whole arm. I could feel my brachialis? trying to do the work of my bicep. This caused me to “pull with my elbow” instead of pulling with my lats. No wonder my elbow hurt. My forearm was always trying to twist in a shifty way.
-"What upsets me is that the method of training used by an overwhelming number of weightlifters, in spite of the amazing growth in records, is still at the same point it was in the fifties. For example, you want to improve your technique on the snatch — you practice the snatch; the jerk — you practice the jerk. I tell them to correct their mistakes differently, to strengthen separate groups of muscles. A simple example: an athlete is having trouble with the snatch. They advise him to start differently, to change his grip on
the barbell — wider or narrower. But it turns out that it’s enough to build up a group of muscles which ‘do the trick’ with the maximum effort and he gets better results.
“We often see the effect but not the cause of what’s lacking. If an athlete doesn’t know how to jerk, he’s not going to learn this only by jerking. But if he were to do some necessary exercises in order to strengthen a group of muscles (those necessary for the jerk) then he will get results. No one seems to understand that, even though an exercise does not ‘lie’ [functionally] right alongside the jerk, it influences, it gives you the jerk.”
-“The object of today’s trainers is not to teach an athlete the correct way to lift a barbell. Most important, he must teach him to reason and make important decisions independently. Without thought there’s no creation. And without creation, progress in our difficult work is impossible.”
The Science of Winning According to Vasili Alexeyev
If you want grip/ forearm strength get you a dolly.
Stack anywhere from 6-25 cases of beer on that bitch and push it up/ down hills, stairs, boat docks, over curbs, thru doors, etc. Do that five days a week for 4 years and I guarantee your forearms will double in size. Not to mention grip strength. 
Work is a fantastic way to build grip strength. The most basic grip exercise is the farmer’s walk.
My heroes are farmers, like Cleave Dean and Magnus Samuelsson who come out of the barn, REAL strong. My friend, Heath, the first dude I met who closed the C.O.C. #3, said he got a strong grip from greasing up trucks. His friend, “The Human Vice” says he got a grip from using chainsaws during his job cutting trees.
I loved it! It was the strongest I had ever been. Company buy out in 2009. I got fired and that started my downward spiral. Not sure if I can get it back now.
Back to the gym.
7-24-16 (Press)
Warm up junk
Chinese Shrugs
FacePulls on Cable
Dumbbell Curls
3 times thru
Abs on Ball, and jumps, with warmups for press
Press
95x 8,8,9
with chinups
Seated Dumbbell Press (with twist, almost like Arnold Press)
30x10, 3 sets
with Iso Pulldowns
Dumbbell Rear Delts (10)
Dumbbell Tate Press (15)
Dumbbell Upright Row (20)
3 circuits, 20 reps each
Grip
Partial Deadlift, Double Overhand, with Fat Gripz, up to 315x1
3 times with wrist roller
Jumps were like slow motion, legs felt like wood. Weights felt so heavy! Still a great workout.
7-26-16 (Squat)
Band thru Belt walking around
Inverse Curl
Step Ups
3 times each
Jumps and abs with squat warmups
Power Squat Machine
band thru belt for warm ups
180x 8,8,10
Deadlift Simulator, Simulator (Plate Loaded Shrug Machine)
1 Plate Per Side, Plus Red Band
3x10
1 Leg Curl
Leg Extension
Pull Thru
3 circuits
Reverse Hypers
130x20, 4 sets. Abs in between.
7-28-16 (Bench)
Behind Back Shrugs in Smith Machine
Band Face Pull
Barbell Curls with skinny bar
3 times each
Jumps with warm ups
Swiss Bar Bench Press
185x 8, 8, 9
with straight arm pulldowns (old-school pullover action) between sets. Wide grip, narrow grip, underhanded,some with bent arms leaning way forward.
Dumbbell Bench Press with Twist
40x10, 3 sets
with Chinese Rows with Swiss bar between sets
Dumbbell Rear Delts
Barbell Curls
Band Pushdowns
3 times thru
Grip
Pinch, 25’s 3 “sets” of 5 lifts
2 Finger Deadlifts, 95 x 3 “sets” of 5 lifts
Wrist Roller (knuckles forward, knuckles back, knuckles forward) 3 times with 50.
-I’m going to use a “conjugate” approach for grip training for awhile. One day, I’ll take heavy single attempts on “grip testers” and get some volume in, with a structured plan for the most effective “grip builders.” This way, maybe I can get some C.O.C. gripper work in once a month, instead of once every 10 years.
7-29-16 (Deadlift)
Morning, before gym
walk around barefoot, with ankle weights, holding med ball to hips, 15 minutes.
Band Thru Belt moving around
Inverse Curl
Quads
Repeat 3 times
Jumps and abd during GM warm ups
Seated GMs with SSB
warm up sets with band thru belt
175x8, 8, 10
Box Squat with SSB
band thru belt, +105x10, 3 sets
with shrugs between sets
Pull Thru
Ball Abs
More Shrugs
3 times thru
Reverse Hypers
100x25, 4 sets. Hanging leg raises and cable upright rows between sets.
Box squats were not exactly right.
Great week of training. Almost everything felt “right.” Dumbbell presses felt so, so heavy. Pathetic weights on plate loaded deadlift really worked me. But the more you suck, the easier it is to improve.
I feel 100% better about grip.
7-30 extra upper
Roll and stretch out.
-Band Pull Aparts with mixed grips, band dislocates, band hurricane
-Dumbbell Curls
-Band Tricep Pushdowns
Repeat twice
7-31. Extra Lower
Walk around barefoot with ankle weights, hold medicine ball to hips. 15 minutes.
8-1. Press
Facepull
Dumbbell Curl
Pulldowns
Repeat 3 times
Jumps and abs
Press
Warm ups and jumps. Chins in there too.
95x8,8, 12
Seated Dumbbell Press with Twist
35x10, 3 sets. Paired with more chins
Dumbbell Rear Delts (15’s)
Dumbbell Tate Press (20’s)
Dumbbell Upright Row (25’s)
20 reps, repeat 3 times
Grip
Sorinex Plate Loaded Gripper, up to 85x2, each hand. I stood at the end of the machine, instead of in front of it.
3 goes on wrist roller, 60 pounds.
8-2 Squat
Shuffle around with Band thru Belt
Inverse Curl
Quad Stuff
3 times
Abs/Jumps
Power Squat Machine
Warm ups with more jumps
180x8,8, 16
Plate Loaded Deadlift, Plus Red Band
45x10
50x10, 3 sets
1 leg curl
Leg extension
Pull Thru with band
3 times
Reverse Hyper
140x25, 4 sets
8-4-16. Bench
Skinny Barbell Curls
Straight Arm Pulldowns
Abs on ball with band around knees and Jumps
Repeat 3 times.
Swiss Bar Bench
Warm ups with inside handles. Pullovers on lat pull down between sets. A couple jumps.
185x8, 8, 11
Dumbbell Bench with Twist
30x10
45x10, 3 sets. More pull-overs between sets.
Kind of JM Press
Skinny Barbell Curls
Hanging Leg Raises
Repeat 3 times
Grip
Plate Pinch : 25’s, 5 reps, 4 sets
2 Finger DL lockout: 95x5, 4 sets
Wrist Roller: 45, 3 goes
Great session. The pull overs on the cable are fantastic. I’m doing some narrow, some wide, some in the middle, underhand, overhand, some with bent arms. They are really feeling like the opposite of the bench press. It’s great! Thanks, Big Paul! Warm ups with the narrow grips on the Swiss Bar were good too. Tris were crushed, and it was tough to make my reps with the outside grips. So I did more narrow Swiss presses as assistance. Even crunches on the ab ball were great. I had the band around my knees, so I had to dig my heels in and really use my hips. After that, my bench arch was chronic and automatic. Everything came together like Voltron today! Conjugate Style! I’m really pleased.
