It’s time for me to start an online log. I figure it’s a good place for record keeping and will give me a sense of accountability if I decide to slack off.
I’m 20 and am a third year mechanical engineering at Cal Poly. I started working out exactly two years ago, and found T-Nation about three months after that and really began my training. I mostly designed my own programs, which, looking back was a very dumb decision, and did some Waterbury’s TBT. I’ve been pretty consistent. I don’t think I’ve ever taken more than a month or two off at a time, but am disappointed with my results when I consider how long I’ve been training.
I completed Cressey’s maximum strength program just before thanksgiving and got to see what hard work and a good program can accomplish. My previous maxes were 245/175/255. When I tested at the end of the program I achieved
Squat - 295
Bench - 205
Deadlift - 285
at a bodyweight of 176 (taken just before lifting after breakfast)
After that I messed around in the gym doing some olympic lifts and other misc. lifts that I hadn’t done in a while because I didn’t have enough time to start a full program before leaving for Winter Break. Over break I tried to lean out a little. Dropped my carbs down pretty low and just did some conditioning work and bodyweight exercises. Now I’m back at school and ready to get to work.
I dropped some weight over the holidays and currently weigh 163. Tomorrow I will head to the gym to mess around and get a feel for my 10RM squat because tuesday I start Peary Rader’s 20 rep squat program. After four weeks of that I will get back on Max Strength and complete that just before finals.
Supplements I will be using: Flameout, Power Drive, ZMA, Grow! Whey, Surge, creatine, and L-Leucine.
I will post my after photos from max stength as well as my workout from tomorrow.
First day back in the gym in about a month.
I was mostly trying to get back in the groove and trying to figure out what loads I should use in the 20-rep squat program.
Started with squat after a brief warm-up I did a decent set of 10 with 175 lbs. I think I’ll start my first set of 20 with 185. I could still use a little bit of work on hip mobility. It’s a little weird doing free squats after doing so many box squats in the max strength program. I was using a slightly narrower stance and need to really focus on using my glutes.
bench 10 with 135
chins 10 solid reps
chest supported neutral grip rows. 60x10
military press 15x10
pallof press 25x10
here’s the workout I’m gonna start. Taken from the Peary Rader’s old school training article.
Back Squats 1x20
Two-arm dumbbell pullover, 1 x 20
Standing barbell military press, 1 x 10-12
chin up, 1 x 10-12
Barbell bench press, 1 x 10-12
chest supported rows (neutral grip), 1 x 10-12
Pallof press, 1 x 10-12,side
I substituted chins for barbell curls, chest supported rows for barbell rows, and pallof press for the sit-ups.
I’ll start on tuesday and also have a good carb-up on tuesday. I’ll do the program in the mornings on tues, thurs, and sat or sun. May switch to twice a week with some light weight work on thursday if the volume is too much.
My goal is to be squating 225x20 by the end of the program but if I add five pounds a workout and workout three times a week I’ll be up to 245.
Today was my First real day back training. It went pretty well all things considered. After so many low carb days, I was really looking forward to a big bowl of oatmeal, grow, and berries this morning and it tasted delicious.
And to think some people would think it’s sad when you consider a meal like this a ‘sweet’. I’m also looking forward to some rice beans and chicken in a little bit.
here’s how the morning went.
breakfast
max strength warm-up A
bike to the gym
SQUAT
warm-up
20x185
The set was a little too easy for my liking. I was super nervous after the warm-up, waiting to begin the one work set. I knew the bar was either gonna be racked after 20 or dropped on the pins after and excruciating effort. It was a little disappointing when the set wasn’t that hard. Maybe it was adrenaline or maybe it was the carbs, but I swear 175 was hard for 10 and 185 was really hard for a set of 15 a month ago. oh well.
I had a lot of difficulty holding the bar on my back and thus rushed through the last ten reps. I’ll have to adjust bat positioning. depth seemed good and hips felt good as well.
I’ll see how I feel on Thursday and decide if I should up the weight by 5 or 10 pounds.
then it was onto:
Pullovers w/ 20 lbs
1x20
Chest-stupported neutral grip rows w/ 70 lbs
2x10
Bench press w/ 135
1x10, 1x9
Chins
1x10, 1x3
Military press w/ 75 lbs
2x10
Pallof press w/ 25 lbs
2x10,side
random gym thoughts: A lot more people at the gym this morning than usual, wonder why?
some douche stepped on my log book and tore a page out.
people probably thing I’m crazy when I take the bar out of the squat rack and trade it with one from the incline press, but the gym bought new bars that are a quarter of an inch thicker and with shitty knurling so I gotta switch it for an old one.
off to the showers then food class food class food:)
Woke up at 630 had a breakfast of carrots, half a can of chicken, two Flameouts, and some green tea. Did max strength warm-up B took 1000mg vitamin c, mixed half a serving of Surge and biked to the gym to get there about 900.
Squat
Warm-up
20x195
I thought I could switch from a thumbless grip to a normal grip but it put too much stress on my wrist. I still had a lot of trouble keeping the bar in the back.
I’ve been taking a breath between each of the first ten reps, and I think if I take a breath every third rep or so in the beginning the set will be shorter and I’ll have less trouble holding the bar. This set was definitely tougher. If I can keep the bar on my back I think doing 200x20 will feel really good for my legs.
Pullovers 20 lbs
1x20
Chest supported neutral grip Rows 70 lbs
3x10
Bench press 135 lbs
1x10, 1x9
Back ext.
1x20
chins
1x10
Military Press 75 lbs
2x10
Pallof Press 25 lbs
1x10
I’ll need to up the weight on these next week to 30 lbs. I’ll be back in the gym on either saturday or sunday and will probably carb up again, I’m thinking once every five days will be a good way to carb up.
PWO shake: 1/2 scoop Surge, 1 scoop grow, 1 scoop creatine, 1 scoop Power Drive, 1000mg Vitamin c
I decided to carb-up again so i had another glorious bowl of oatmeal. I think I’ll cut the carb-ups down to half a day a week and keep using surge and that should be enough to maintain energy levels
Max Strength Warm-up B
Did max strength warm-up B took 1000mg vitamin c, mixed half a serving of Surge and biked to the gym.
I was feeling a little tired the night before so I ended up sleeping in and getting to the gym around 11am.
Squat
Warm-up
20x200
Best set yet. Don’t get me wrong it was tough but it was the squats that were tough not holding the bar in place.
Pullovers 20 lbs
1x20
Chest supported neutral grip Rows 70 lbs
2x10
Back ext.
1x20 ( I’m gonna hold a 10lb plate next time)
Military Press 85 lbs
1x10, 1x7
chins
1x10, 1x7
Bench press 135 lbs
1x10, 1x5
Pallof Press 30 lbs
2x10, side
It seems like most of my numbers went down this week. probably as a result of squats getting tougher and accumulated fatigue throughout the week. It’s nice to get two days off in a row now and I’ll be ready to get back into it on Tuesday. Also I’ll make sure not to sleep in again. The gym was packed and I could use the equipment I wanted so my exercise order was all screwy. It’s nice that the squat rack is always open.
PWO shake: 1 scoop Surge, 1 scoop Grow!, 1 scoop creatine, 1 scoop Power Drive, 1000mg Vitamin c
Fuck. It’s getting hard to update this log but I’m sticking to it. After the gym on Tuesday I had to finish a lab report before noon. Didn’t quite finish it. Oh well I had a great workout.
Day 4 1/13/09
Max Strength Warm-up
Bike to gym
Squats
Warm-up
20x 205
Pullovers 20 lbs
1x20
CSNG Rows
3x10
Bench 135 lbs
2x10
Back Extensions 10 lbs
1x20
Chins
1x10
Military Press 85 lbs
1x12,1x10
Pallof Press 30 lbs
1x10,side
Bike home
PWO shake
I was stumbling around all workout. The squats are starting to get tough I looked like an idiot.
max strength warm-up b
bike to gym
Squat
Warm-up
20x210
Pullovers 20 lbs
1x20
CSNG Rows 70 lbs
3x10
Bench
3x10
Back Extensions 10 lbs
1x20
Chins
1x10,1x6
Military Press 85 lbs
1x10,1x4
Pallof Press 30 lbs
1x10, side
Squats were fucking tough today. I’m really starting to feel the burn in my legs. I wish I could train every third day but I’m pretty much stuck with the way my class schedule is setup. Oh well only seven more sets of squats, and I’m gonna carb up on Saturday so hopefully that will bring energy levels and intensity up.
Saturday I’ll increase my bench and back extensions by 10lbs. On Monday or Tuesday I will up my Row weight by five pounds.
I’ve had a shitty past two days. Yesterday I got ticketed on my bike for failing to stop at a stop sign, and today I found out that I won’t be reffing Intramural volleyball this quarter.
Gotta look on the bright side more time to train. Looking forward to a three day weekend this weekend. Perfect time to get caught up on school work and house work.
I’m just trying to keep my carbs low. I started eating low-carb over the summer and really started leaning out, then I started adding carbs back in because I was afraid the low-carb was effecting my strength levels. I went right back to where I was before going low-carb. So I’ve pretty much decided that my body responds well to a low-carb approach.
My diet probably isn’t truly low carb, I never really track my carbs, but I don’t eat any grains, fruit, or starchy vegetables. I take in about a full serving of Surge on workout days and do eat some non green vegetables(peppers and onions), nuts, and cheese that contain carbs. I’ve been staying fairly lean and my workouts have been progressing so I think it’s working out.
No the 20-reps is my work-set. the warm-up just means that I do a general warm-up starting with the bar and working up to a single of about 10% above what I’ll be using for 20 reps. I don’t do any sort of warm-up for the other lifts, just throw on the weight and do a set of 10.
It’s less than a ten minute bike ride to the gym. it’s nice to get the blood moving, even though the mobility work usually takes care of that.
Good day at the gym today. Hit PRs on pretty much everything. Squats felt good. I was afraid some of them might not have been to parallel, I’ll make sure to keep them deep next time. I could still use more hip mobility work. I’ll be adding five pounds to the chest supported rows on Monday. Bench was occupied so I did my back extensions first. Felt really good on my whole PC and I got a really good stretch in my hamstrings at the bottom. Bench felt good. Should be able to get two sets of ten really soon. I don’t know why but I’ve never been able to recover from a tough set of chins or pull-ups. With any other exercise I can do one set to near failure and come back and do another set of the same amount of reps within a few minutes. But with the chins, if reps start getting tough I won’t be able to do even close to the same amount of reps on the next set, no matter how long I wait. Military press and Pallof Press were solid as well.
I seemed to have a lot more energy at the end of my workout. Usually I’m feeling pretty drained but today I could have done more. Probably due to the big bowl of oatmeal this morning:) mmm carbs. Lots of rice, beans and more oatmeal later in the day.
I saw someone at the gym working through Cressey’s max strength. He was doing the third workout from week 14. I’ve seen one other guy at the school gym sporting a T-Nation shirt and doing the max strength warm-up, and every once in a while I’ll see traces of chalk. It’s good to know there are some knowledgeable people mixed in with the guys doing bench press with their ass in the air and the bar bouncing off their chest.
Max strength warm-up
Bike to gym
Squat
warm-up
20x225
Pullovers 20 lbs
1x20
CSNG 75
2x10
Back extension 20 lbs
1x20
Bench press 145
1x6, 1x10, 1x5
Chins
1x10
Military press 85 lbs
1x10
Pallof Press
2x10, side
Not the best workout today. I made a 10 lb jump on the squats today. I really wanted to get those two plates. It was a tough set. I had trouble holding the bar on my back again. My wrists started hurting because they were supporting most of the weight. Probably a setup problem, didn’t keep my upper back tight enough. Got all twenty in but at the end of the set I racked the bar one set of pins lower than where I started
Rows went well. Even though the gym was fairly empty the bench was occupied when I wanted it so I had to do back extensions first. Hit the bench and decided to change up my form a bit. I’ve attempted to have a powerlifting style bench but never knew my feet had to be flat on the floor. I had a real difficult time keeping my arch without letting my heels left. I felt pretty spent by the time I got to chins. Military press was okay, and pallof press felt good.
I could probably use two days rest. I’ll be back in the gym ready to go on wednesday.
Finally getting a chance to update this log. This last week I was super busy, three mid terms and projects due so I skipped two training days, but it was a much needed deload before starting the max strength program. My diet also went to shit last weekend and I’ve decided to increase my carbs. I’ll try to keep them fairly low but may have some fruit and/or oatmeal pre and post training.
This day was a major failure. The linear progression exceeded my ability to cover and I just couldn’t hack it. I probably could have made it if I cut workouts down to twice a week but I had already exceeded my goal and had a busy week ahead of me (three mid terms, job fair, lab reports, etc.) and I was ready to start the max strength program
max strength warm up
bike to gym
Squat
warm-up
235x10
255x2
Started getting a really bad headache right where the traps meet the base of the skull. also was having a weird pain in my right knee. It just wasn’t my day. I quit at 10. I decided to mix up my exercise selection for the day.
deadlift
215x2
235x1
275x1
Back extension
35x15
35x15
Pull ups
3x5
Becnh
135x3
155x2
185x1
db push press
60x5, side
bb curls
55x8
55x8
Broad jump 91.5
one inch improvement from my max strength results. I noticed biking that my leg power seemed to have improved from 20 rep squats and I also did a bit of sprinting over winter break which could have also helped my broad jump
weigh in at school after breakfast and water
180 lbs
big increase since I last weighed myself. Granted it was on a different scale and after breakfast, but that wouldn’t explain 17 lbs. I don’t think I have gained much fat as I haven’t lost much vascularity. O well nothing wrong with jumping a weight class. I guess 20 rep squats and plenty of chorizo and eggs put on some mass. I’ll keep eating big for some big strength gains and worry about cutting after the program. I think I didn’t gain as much as I could have my first time through the program because I wasn’t eating enough. That’ll change this time.
squat
305
I maybe could’ve done more but didn’t want to risk it with a spotter I didn’t trust.
Bench
205
went up super easy but got pinned by 225. I could probably use some form work.
dealift
285
I can just not get the damn bar off the floor. Once it’s up, lockout is easy. Hopefully the speed work will fix this.
chins
+45 lbs