Push day today. Makes sense-Monday international Chest day. This lift felt amazing. Really really connected with every exercise here. Got creative on my pre-pump activation exercise today. Went with Banded Dumbbell Press with two bands around my back and wrapped around my thumbs, The bigger orange EFS band and the standard red. It definitely helped make the very light 46.25 lb dumbbells feel heavier.
Also crushed 275x8 on incline today!!! Holy hell! I could feel myself slipping down the bench and losing a bit of the incline, so it ended up as probably more of a slight incline Barbell Press rather than full 60 degrees or so that I had the bench set to. Still a big improvement from last time! The two straight days of rest Strike again!
The Dumbbell Press drop set was BRUTAL! I have a fairly big gap between dumbbells with my biggest being 100 and the next biggest being a meager 46.25 for a pair, so I took the two drops all the way to failure, which was miserable, but very fun! Kind of cool to be at a spot in your set when you can no longer Bench 35 pound dumbbells lol
Thank you! That is positively the best way to describe it! The pump that I had afterwards was just preposterous, but I had to endure so much pain and suffering just get to “afterwards” lol
Today I endured one of the most grueling drop sets of my life. Originally designed for Leg Press, I did it with squat today. 7 total weight drops. My quads and lower back were so extremely fried by the end, that I just had to lay down for several minutes catching my breath and trying to let the pain dissipate. I originally wanted to use a 100 pound dumbbell for all 5 sets of Goblet squats but I couldn’t even make it half way down with that weight. After 3 (shockingly hard) sets with 35 pounds, I felt up for using the 100. I was good to go but those sets were so much harder than I ever envisioned a Goblet squat being.
I might just be sick in the head for performing this session today, but I love training legs with this level of intensity and effort.
Really connected amazingly with my lats in this one. Loved opening the workout with Banded Pull ups. Really got to focus on each contraction and it felt amazing! Got an awesome pump in my biceps too. Just a true feel good lift before I go to Grappling tonight.
First push session in a while without any heavy pressing and it was pretty awesome regardless! The pec minor, wide grip dip Superset really lit my chest up!! I was a little tired going into this session but after smashing through the work, I really felt happy, excited and motivated! The gym really does amazing things for your mind!
Went to open mat in a semi-fasted state first thing in the morning (I had a ready-made Premier Protein shake a few hours before I got up for real after dropping my wife off at work). The Grappling went really well, my cardio is really coming back after the time off with staph. Got back home, had a rotisserie chicken breast and some blueberries, talked to my brothers on the phone for a bit and then got my lift in before mowing the lawn!
The lift felt great! Especially with nothing tracing the lower back in this season, I just absolutely hammered my lats and biceps! Got back and did my cereal gains nation thing before mowing the yard! Feeling awesome today!
You are absolutely killing it man. I’m super impressed.
You may mentioned above, but how are you handling your meals right now? You seem to be gaining well without doing the sloppy post-diet sprint to obesity I apparently personally prefer.
My strategy is one I learned from “Be Your Own Bodybuilding Coach” by Dr. Scott Stevenson. I am just adding calories in the peri workout window. Right now I’m doing a big bowl of cereal with two scoops of vanilla protein powder in cold water as milk. Once I get my hands on some cream of rice, I’ll start eating the concoction bowl pre-workout. Otherwise, I’m trying to actually be even smarter with my food choices the rest of the day. Meat, berries and veggies make up most of the rest of my meals with a protein shake thrown in here or there, some Greek yogurt and a bag of Quest protein chips every once in a while lol
So basically two big meals and maybe 3 smaller high protein meals
Another push day today, and I really really love push days. Nothing like pumping up the chest, shoulders and triceps! Mountain Dog Training has really taught me how to use bands to make the most out of dumbbells that would otherwise be too light. I’m learning so much as I go and really becoming smarter with exercise selection. I’m understanding the thought process behind all of the programming and loving it! I’ve definitely been using things I’ve learned especially in terms of activation and exercise selection to better help my personal training clients!
Didn’t sleep the best last night. Totally my fault. Stayed up on my phone too late. As such, did not really feel mentally “prepared” for my lift today. Doesn’t matter though, it was a pull-pump day. I knew I could handle it. And I did! My pre workout meal of 3 eggs and 2 Greek Yogurts was a little too close to my session. I really should’ve had it an hour earlier or so because I burped puke a few times and just had to swallow it back down. Disgusting, but that’s the price you pay I guess. Ready to recover like a champ tonight, be more disciplined with my sleep and hit a hard and heavy leg day tomorrow!! This one is going to be intense!
Hit this absolutely diabolical session with my brother-in-law today. First time doing front squats today since high school and doing them right after a brutal drop set on squats was no easy task. I simply does not have much left in the tank for them, but they were fun and offered a very unique stimulus to my quads! I’ll definitely be using these as a Leg Press alternative more often!! My quads are just finished right now. Going up stairs feels like I’m training to failure haha! BRUTAL! We cut the barbell hacks out today. As far as we pushed things on everything else, there was no point.
Well today marks the very last entry in my logbook that I’ve used since June 2020. 3 years of my life documented in one notebook. From Heavy Duty, to Ellington Darden HIT, to Fortitude, to DC, to Deep Water, to 5/3/1, to Surge Challenge, to Mountain Dog. A whole season of my life documented in one notebook.
Really got an awesome pump in today after consuming a half rack of ribs earlier then the famous concoction bowl pre-workout. I will be enjoying the other half of ribs for dinner tonight!
The rear delt swing-spider crawl superset is absolutely killer. Anyone who hasn’t tried it absolutely should! This will fry your delts!
