I did not realise that. I am sorry. You have the best coach at national level at the moment. Imo you should give it a go with wrestling if you have the chance. Last youth World Cup USA dominated. That is a sweet career path you can make.
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All good in here, @creative_name?
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He probably getting swamped by college work and still training
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Checked in with him, he’s all good, will be back soon.
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@SvenG
@throwawayfitness
@tlgains
@freshyfresh
I’m doing good, guys. My phone broke a couple weeks back and I got lazy about logging. Still training obviously. Shoutout to @atlas13 for getting me back on here.
The short version of the past few weeks is
-Pressed 185 overhead strict, at ~181 bodyweight
-Committed to a long accumulation block where I’ll be using higher reps, a bunch more accessory work than I normally do, and making squat/weighted chin/press my main movements. Press is still getting trained heavy though because it’s fun and doesn’t affect recovery as much as the other ones. Tomorrow is W4D1
-School’s going about as well as you’d expect, had my first test of the semester last week and set the curve with a 96
-Started working my tutoring job, and applied out for more extracurricular stuff, so we’ll see what happens.
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Creative Programming: W4D1: Press
Press: Work to 170x4 (PR)
DB Bench: 70x10/9/8
Dips: 45x14/10/7
OA Pushdowns: 25x11/9/7
Cross-Chest Press: 70x16/13/11
To go a little more in depth on what I’m doing, it looks something like this:
Friday: GZCL Press Programming, Chest/Tri Accessories
Saturday: 5x5 Weighted Chins, Back/Bi Accessories
Sunday: 5x10 Squats, Leg/Glute/Low Back Accessories
Monday: Cardio/Conditioning, Abs, Pull-Aparts
Tuesday: 10x2 DE Press, 4xF BW Chins, Arm/Chest/Back Accessories
Wednesday: 1x20 Squat, Leg/Glute/Low Back Accessories
Thursday: Cardio/Conditioning, Abs, Pull-Aparts
So I guess that ends up looking like some sort of PPLUL split, but I don’t really think of it that way. Actually listing out the accessories is kind of excessive since you’ll end up seeing them over the next week anyways, but there’s some new stuff and some recurring stuff from a while back (cough cough power shrug drop sets).
Today itself was great. This is basically a testing week for my press, and I would’ve been happy with three. 4 is a huge PR and a confidence boost for next cycle. I’ve been playing around with my press technique lately and it seems to be paying off. First rep in particular moved stupidly easy, although I had to fight through a misgroove on the second.
12 chicken wings and 1.5 liters of milk down in the time it took to write that.
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Creative Programming W4D2: Chin
Chins: 5x5@45
Power Shrug Drop Set: 405x5/315x13/225x30/135x52
OA Cable Rows: 3x10@150
Hammer Curls: 25x20/20/13
Concentration Curls: 25x19/13/9
Solid day. I’m assuming that the cable row machine I’m using (which has a separate cable for each arm) splits the load across the two regardless of whether or not they’re both being used, so the actual weight moved is half of the listed amount, but for simplicity’s sake I’m just logging what it says on the machine.
I’m trying to focus on doing my isolation work much more intentionally - slow eccentrics, flexing target muscles, all that bullshit. Probably too early to actually see meaningful effects of anything I’ve been doing, but anecdotally I’ve been getting some fantastic pumps, am pretty much constantly sore, and am looking very solid.
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Creative Programming W4D3: Squat
Squat: 5x10@235
RDL: 3x10@275
Leg Extensions: 160x17/17/15
Prone Ham Curl: 90x16/13/11
Scheduling worked out such that this went from about 8-9 PM, which was nice because the whole gym was more or less empty, presumably because of the Super Bowl. First weekend in a while where I’ve had nothing planned, so I got to bed early last night and woke up like 15 hours later. I’m aware that the science says that “catching up” on sleep doesn’t really work on a week-to-week basis, but holy fuck does it feel good lol.
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Creative Programming W4D4 (Yesterday): Conditioning
Stair-Climber: Alternate 5/4/3/2/1 Minutes @ 100 Stairs/Minute & 2.5/2/1.5/1/0.5 Minutes @ 60 Stairs/Minute
Total: 114 Floors in 22:30. 353 estimated calories burnt, final heart rate ~201
Sit-Ups: 1x36
Pull-Aparts: 1xSome
I did this right when the hamstring soreness from all the RDL’s and curls kicked in, so that added another layer of suck to an already tough session. It did help get rid of it though. Non-eccentric movement and all that jazz.
Creative Programming W4D5: DE Press
DE Press: 10x2 @ 105
Chins: 19/10/10/10 (Last 3 Sets Neutral Grip)
DB Bench: 70x10/10/12
OA Cable Row: 165x10/8/7
Concentration Curls: 25x19/14/10
OA Pushdowns: 25x16/10/9
Had to resist the urge to try and work up to another press PR, because I felt great throughout this. 19 chins matches a non-twink PR (lifetime best is 20) and that should get beat pretty quickly since this is only like my third rep max in a very long time. Boyfriend and I were both too busy to do anything celebratory today (him with an exam this evening, me with one tomorrow,) so I have to wait until tomorrow to explore the anabolic powers of Olive Garden.
Got selected as a contributor to the Legal Research Club’s online publication, which is pretty neat. May end up sharing some of my writing on here if it pans out (I promise it’s less rambly and mobile keyboard-y than I tend to be on here lol).
I still think that my route to law school is just going to be a stupidly high GPA that lets me fast-track myself into UA’s program (again, >3.9 at the start of my senior year allows me to apply without a personal statement or rec letters and get results in 10 days - and at the risk of jinxing it I’d have to fuck up really badly to go below that) and keep milking my scholarship, but this position is still probably helpful somehow or other.
Tutoring job is going great, in that I’ve boosted my resume pretty solidly and made a couple hundred bucks so far sitting in an empty room and doing homework - not a single person has actually come despite the professor practically begging them to. First test had a D average lol. Very reminicist of last summer’s “lifeguard a pool that nobody actually uses and stuff yourself with eggs” job, sans the eggs.
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Creative Programming W4D6: Squat
Squat: 20x220 (PR)
Smith Hip Thrust: 4x10@335
Leg Extensions: 160x20/19/16/13
SL Back Extensions: BWx16/13/11/8
I started doing 20’s just shy of where I stopped them the last time they were in my programming (215; BtM,) and now I’m back to the point of setting PR’s in them. Obviously a lot of room to improve there, but knocking out two plates next week should be a cool milestone. No idea what the weight actually is on the hip thrusts because of the smith machine bar, but having it rest on me fucking hurts. Shamelessly using a pad on the bar for that one lol.
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Singlets finally showed up. No pump here.
… looking at the size of my delts compared to my pecs, the whole “185 press and 215 bench” situation starts to make a little more sense lol
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That neck… 
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The neck has been a point of pride for a while now lol
I do zero direct neck work, so my guesses as to contributing factors are that:
-Power shrugs are magic and/or proof of a benevolent god
-Years of wrestling bridges have accumulated to create something beautiful
If I ever do include direct neck work, breaking 20” cold would be pretty awesome.
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Creative Programming W5D1: Press
Press: 3x150, 2x2@155, 2x1@160, 1x1@165 (8-Second Pause on collarbone)
DB Bench: 75x9/8/8
Dip: 45x15/10/8
Cross-Chest Press: 70x17/14/11
One-Arm Pushdown: 25x15/11/9
Yesterday was mostly spent inside because of a hurricane warning. I’m going to get in a late-night jog to make up for the missed cardio. Paused all my presses on my collarbone today, and the last rep for a whole eight seconds. An eight-second pause rep with 90% of my max on my first time trying the movement sounds good to me.
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Creative Programming W4D7 (AM): Conditioning
Stair Climber: alternate 5/4/3/2/1 Minutes @ 100 SPM w/ 2.5/2/1.5/1/0.5 Minutes @ 60 SPM
Total: ~352 Calories, 114 Floors in 22:30
Creative Programming W5D2 (PM): Chins
Chins: 5x5@42.5
Power Shrug Drop Set: 405x5/315x15/225x32/135x60
OA Cable Rows: 165x10/9/7
Concentration Curls: 25x20/16/12
Hammer Curls: 25x20/16/13
Nothing in particular to note
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Forgot the video of the pause press form a couple days back. Enjoy.
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W5D3: Off-Program Catharsis Via Squat
Squat: Work to 355x1 (PR) Straight into
Squat Strip Set: 315x3/275x6/225x8/185x12/135xMany
Leg Extension: 3x20@160
Prone Ham Curl: 100x20/16/12
Powerlifting Pro Tip: Get dumped 20 minutes before lifting
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W5D4: Jog
Indeterminate Distance, Indeterminate Pace
W5D5: DE Press
DE Press: 10x2@105
Chins: BWx20 (Match Lifetime PR @ 45 Pounds Heavier,) 10/10/10 (Last 3 Sets Neutral Grip)
DB Bench: 75x10/10/11
OA Cable Row: 165x10/10/9
Concentration Curls: 25x20/17/12
OA Pushdowns: 25x17/11/7
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W5D6: Squat
Squat: 20x225 (PR)
SL Back Extension: BWx17/14/12/9/8
Leg Extension: 170x20/18/18/16/14
Machine Calf Raises: 135x13/12/12
Solid work all around. The first ten sets of assistance got me a fantastic quad/low-back pump.
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