TPWiaB W6D1: Press
Press: 1x3@160/2x2@165/3x1@170
DB Bench: 80x10/10/8
DB Incline: 60x10/10/10
Pushdowns: 77.5x15/12/9
Solid day. Pressing felt super casual, which is a great sign as the weight continues to inch up. I’m optimistic about 225 going up about a year from now, and then the question of how far I’m able/willing to push it really starts to open up.
TPWiaB W6D2: Chin
Chin: 57.5x5/5/4/4/3 (PR)
Power Shrug Drop Set: 455x6/365x11/275x16, Fat Gripz Holds
Cable Rows: 165x12/12/12
Hammer Curls: 25x20/17/16/14/12
The wheels finally started to come off on my chins. Even getting one set of five was still a PR though, so I can’t complain there. Game-plan here is just to try and add at least a rep per week, either by upping the last three sets or doing singles at the end, until I’m at 5x5.
Just for the hell of it, I might try strapping up for my chins and seeing how that feels (INB4 one of the straps gets stuck and I tear a bicep after that arm catches my full bodyweight + 100 Lbs dropping from the bar). Speaking of which (the straps, not the catastrophic injury), I did that for the cable rows, and they felt fantastic. Much easier to keep my elbows in and really concentrate on squeezing my back.
TPWiaB W6D3: Squat
Squat: 365x1 (PR), 280x12 (PR)
Leg Extensions: 200x12/11/10/9
Seated Ham Curls: 130x16/12/11/10
Weight: 193.5 (PR) Absolutely crazy to think that just over a year ago I was making weight relatively comfortably at 145 and 147. Even more so that I was 110 a couple years before that.
Exchanged the Zeno sets for a heavy single because it was just one of those days, PR’d it, then PR’d the actual top set a couple minutes later with at least a rep to spare.
Nice work
Just for an idea of what I look like in the mid-190’s bodycomp-wise. Might end up taking these down.
Both of these taken at night, unpumped. Definitely a few notches shy of lean, but not problematically so. At 205 or 210, maybe I’ll reconsider.
TPWiaB W6D4: Bike
Bike: 7.5 Miles in ? (Oops)
Ab Machine: 3x12@130
TPWiaB W6D5: DE Press
DE Press: 15x2@115
NG Pull-Ups: 14/11/11/10/9/8 (63)
Decline/Incline Push-Up Drop Set: 35/10
Solid session, crazy tricep and shoulder pump by the end. I suck at this chin variant, so I’ll see if I can get my numbers up a bit. Bringing up weaknesses and all that good stuff.
You had 2 more reps in ya, good shit dude!
TPWiaB W6D6: DE Squat & Deadlift
DE Squat: 10x2@205
Pull-Aparts: 10x11
Deadlifts: Work to 475x1 (PR)
Dear Spine,
Fuck you.
Love,
Joseph
Patting myself on the back for programming well enough and working hard enough to PR my deadlift without having deadlifted in months.
Having a back spotter looks dumb as fuck, but I passed out on my last ramp-up and ate shit so he was sort of needed lol.
nice
Hell yeah dude!! Awesome!!
@tlgains Thanks! Definitely surprised myself with how easy it went up lol.
Fast-forward a day, and my back feels completely fine. I think I’ve solidified by now that the main culprit for what bothers it in regards to deadlifts is reps - singles, even maxes, have never been an issue. That probably points to some sort of technical deficiency/breakdown when I pull for more than one rep, but I digress.
If I want to start regularly programming deadlifts again, then waving singles inverse my squat seems like a good idea to me. I’ll keep my Zeno squats, drop my DE squat sets to ten like I did yesterday, and pull after that.
e.g.
Week 1: Heavy Squat / DE Squats + Light Deadlift Singles ~5x1@405 (85%)
Week 2: Light Squat / DE Squats + Ramp to Heavy Deadlift Single
Week 3: Medium Squat / DE Squats + Medium Deadlift Singles ~3x1@440 (92.5%)
Week 4: DE Squat / DE Squat + DE Deadlifts
I’m gonna try this and see how it turns out. May need to go harder on food to make up for the effort.
Edit: And just for the hell of it, I’ll do the same with my bench after DE pressing. Mostly because I’m sick of having squat/DL numbers within ten or twenty pounds above or below gym friends and then getting out-benched by like 40+ lol
While the deadlift is solid, the hair gains seen throughout this log are nothing short of a extraordinary
The last time I cut it was the day before my senior season of wrestling - November 14th, 2021. My coaches wanted us to keep it short, and I’ve sworn off messing with it since then. I’ve had people at college not recognize pictures of me with in-season hair lol
Modern-day Samson basically
TPWiaB W6D7: Jog
~2 Miles @ Moderate
TPWiaB W7D1: Press
Press: 1x3@165/2x2@170/3x1@175
DB Bench: 80x10/10/11
DB Incline: 65x10/10/9
Pushdowns: 77.5x15/10/7
Triceps absolutely nuked by the time I got to pushdowns - I don’t care about progressing them, they’re just there to squeeze out whatever juice is left after all the pressing. Speaking of which - once I get a set of ten on the 85’s for my DB bench, that’ll match my 170x10 barbell bench PR, which is incredibly stupid and we’re running with it. It’s a weird lift, in that there’s been a few times where I’ve completely misgrooved the last rep of a set and then got it on a second try off of my chest.
W7D2: Chin
Chins: 57.5x5/5/5/4/3 (+1 From Last Week)
Power Shrugs & Holds: Some
Cable Rows: 180x12/12/12
Hammer Curls: 25x20/18/15/15/13
Couldn’t get much going for my power shrugs - I’ll probably try a different variant next cycle now that I’m planning on deadlifting. Beyond that, a solid day.
W7D3: Squat
Zeno Squats: 300x10 (PR)/5/3/2/1, 230x10
Leg Extensions: 200x13/11/10/10
Leg Curls: 130x17/13/11/10
I can’t remember the last time I worked that hard. This ate me alive and then spat me out to do my accessories. I recorded the whole series and sped up the rests for your viewing pleasure.
Looking back at it, my legs have blown the fuck up over the past couple months lol. 315x10 is getting closer.
@T3hPwnisher If you could take a couple minutes to watch this through, I’d be honored. Finally feel like I did your idea justice here.
Outstanding work dude! You can hear your soul escaping on every rep, haha
TPWiaB W7D4: Bike
Bike: 150 Cal in 9:55 (Moderate)
Ab Machine: 3x12@140
Bike: 150 Cal in 8:36 (Beat First Time)
Nice little evening session to get some soreness out of my legs after yesterday’s squats. I’m getting into parent-scaring amounts of weight gain, which means things are moving in the right direction.
School’s just a couple weeks from finishing. Pretty much all of my finals are non-cumulative, so I have no real concerns about my ability to finish with straight A/A+‘a again. My goal is to have a workable LSAT score by the end of the summer so that I can really get into the postgrad endgame next year.
I’ve been feeling fantastic about life in general lately. Call it the pride before the fall or whatever, but academically, extracurricularly, socially,
training-wise, and in terms of general happiness with life I’m in a great place right now.
