I’ve been training under a coach for the last couple of months, and I was seeing some good progress. Unfortunately, some niggles developed into injuries, leading me to pull out of a competition this month, and now I have to ease back and rebuild. I’m in a pure hypertrophy phase, which I’ve meant to do for ages but I never ended up doing (until now). No benching for a while due to my AC joint shitting itself. Once I’ve improved my base a little, I’ll jump back in to more of a powerlifting routine.
Best total so far 187.5/135/260/582.5 kg in Novemeber 2013 (413/297/573/1284 lb), with a more recent bench PR of 145kg from June of 2014.
So far this week:
14/12/2014 Sunday
Hypertrophy block. Week 1 Day 1
In: 16:45 Out: 17:25 Bodyweight: 94.5kg
A. Seated leg curl
2 warm-up sets
FST7 - 7x12, 30 seconds rest
B. Leg press
2 warm-ups
FST7 - 15,12,12,12,6 (died)
Ran out of gas. Next time hopefully I’ll be able to keep going, but I’ll rip a plate off if need be.
C. Squat
10@40, 10@60, 10@80, 2x6@100
There was a serious chance of losing my lunch doing these. My legs felt like jelly.
Sickening. Should get some kk. results in 3 weeks of this?
15/12/2014 Monday
Hypertrophy block. Week 1 Day 2
In: 16:45 Out: 17:25 Bodyweight: 93.5kg
A1 Double handle cable pushdown: 7x15
A2 Rope curl: 7x15
B1 Barbell curl: 4x10
B2 Overhead rope extension: 4x10
C. Single arm machine preacher: 4x10
Nice pump. Might throw some shoulders in next time, too.
17/12/2014 Wednesday
Hypertrophy block. Week 1 Day 3
In: 18:35 Out: 17:55 Bodyweight: 94.5kg
A. Seated row
Worked up in 10s until I could only get 7@117. Then 2x10 back-down sets
B. Chinup: 3x6
Had a giant headache that got worse as I kept going so I pulled the plug.
19/12/2014 Friday
Hypertrophy block. Week 1 Day 4
In: 15:00 Out: 15:50 Bodyweight: 93.0kg
A. Lying leg curl
2 warm-up sets
FST7 - 7x8, 30 seconds rest. 3 second negative
B. Leg press
2 warm-ups
FST7 - 15,15,12,12,12,10,8
C. Squat
10@40
10@60
10@80
8@100
2x1@120 Bizarre. So much fatigue
10@80
Improved on last leg day.
20/12/2014 Saturday
Hypertrophy block. Week 1 Day 5
In: 14:20 Out: 15:20 Bodyweight: 93.0kg
A. Lateral raise
9x15
Worked from the 10s up by 2.5kg each set up to a sloppy set with the 25s, then a couple of back-off sets
B1 Rope curl: 7x12
B2 Rope overhead extension: 7x12
C1 DB curl: 4x10
C2 Double handle cable pushdown: x20,18,16,14
D. Face-pull: 4x20
Felt good. Got a nice pump but then it went away.
22/12/2014 Monday
Hypertrophy block. Week 2 Day 1
In: 21:15 Out: 22:10 Bodyweight: 94.0kg
A. Machine CSR
2 warm-ups
3x8, 1 down set of 16
B. Seated row
2 warm-ups
6x10
C1 RDL: 3x8
C2 Chinup: 3x8
D. DB shrug: 4x10, 3 second squeeze
Late one. Felt pretty weak but I wasn’t doing anything particularly critical.
23/12/2014 Tuesday
Hypertrophy block. Week 2 Day 2
In: 21:20 Out: 22:10 Bodyweight: 94.0kg
A1 Overhead DB extension: 5x20
A2 Machine preacher curl: 5x20
B1 Double handle pushdown: 4x12
B2 DB pinwheel curl: 4x12
C. DB lateral raise: 5x20 from the 10s up
Didn’t have time for legs so I did a quick arms session.
27/12/2014
Hypertrophy block. Week 2 Day 3
In: 13:05 Out: 13:50 Bodyweight: 94.0kg
A. Lying leg curl
2 warm-up sets
FST7 - 7x12
B. Leg press (pin-loaded)
2 warm-ups
FST7 - 20,18,16,15,14,13, fail
Nasty, nasty pump.
C. Squat
12@40
12@60
12@80
2x6@100
Died. Unracked 120 and didn’t bother squatting it. Legs were too jelly.
28/12/2014
Hypertrophy block. Week 2 Day 4
In: 14:45 Out: 15:45 Bodyweight: 93.0kg
A. Pulldown
2 warm-ups
3x8 paused at the bottom for 3 seconds
5x6 working up to a heavy weight
B. Bent over row: 15,12,10,8,6 up to 120kg then 2 back-off sets of 15@60
C1 DB shrug: 4x10, 3 second squeeze
C2 Chinup: 4x6
So much DOMS, all the time.
29/12/2014
Hypertrophy block. Week 3 Day 1
In: 16:25 Out: 16:55 Bodyweight: 94.0kg
A. Lateral raise: 7x20 up by 2kg each set up to 24s with some English towards the end. One drop set.
B1 Face-pull: 4x20
B2 Plate front raise: 4x10
Nice shoulder session.
31/12/2014
Hypertrophy block. Week 3 Day 2
In: 16:10 Out: 17:00 Bodyweight: 93.5kg
A. Lying leg curl vs light band
2 warm-up sets
FST7 - 7x15
B. Leg press, wide stance
Worked up a plate at a time to a difficult set of 10
C. Squat
First time using new Do-Wins
12@40
12@60
12@80
12@100
3x3@120 paused
03/01/2015
Hypertrophy block. Week 3 Day 3
In: 17:25 Out: 17:15 Bodyweight: 93.0kg
A. Wide, neutral-grip pulldown
2 warm-ups
7x10
B. Bent over row
6x15
C1 DB shrug: 4x10
C2 Chinup: 4x8
Quite decent.
04/01/2015
Hypertrophy block. Week 3 Day 4
In: 15:50 Out: Bodyweight: I don’t trust the scales at this gym
A. DB lateral raise: 5x20 working up, then down sets 3x20
B1 Seated face-pull: 3x25
B2 Plate front raise: 3x12
Seated face-pulls felt different, so I guess that’s good. I’m finding that straight arm front raises hurt my shoulder but a slight bend lets me flare my elbows and I just feel delts.
C. Machine preacher curl: 6x10
D1 Double handle cable pushdown: 5x15
D2 Barbell curl: 5x12
E. Rear delt fly: 5x20
I was waiting for my wife to finish work, so I trained nearby. Ended up being a bit a a marathon compared with other sessions from the past few weeks.
Now I’m onto a three week block of higher volume, intensity and frequency in the competition lifts
05/01/2015
Intensity block. Week 1 Day 1
In: 15:40 Out: 16:55 Bodyweight: 93.0kg
A. Squat
30 minutes
20@20
10@60
10@80
5@100
4x9@115
Tough, but I was being strict and moving fast between sets.
B. Bench press
20 minutes
2x20@20
10@60
5@80
2x3@100
3x10@60
Took my grip out, but I think the rings were not in the right spot on the bar I was using, making the grip too wide. I’ll have to experiment.
C. Leg press: 3x20
D. Back extension: 5x12
Bench was disappointing. Not sure how much was injury and how much was lack of practise, but it wasn’t great.
06/01/2015
Extras
Hangs: 2min,40,40,30,40,40,50,40,30 seconds.
Great grip challenge on slippery monkey bars.
Pullapart: 5x30, 3x50
One-arm band pec fly: 4x20
07/01/2015
Intensity block. Week 1 Day 2
In: 15:20 Out: 17:10 Bodyweight: 93.0kg
A. Squat
40 minutes
20@20
10@60
10@80
10@100
5x7@122.5
10 minute intermission - had to grab some headphones.
B. Deadlift
20 minutes
5@60, 5@100, 5@140
Sadiv set: 12 minutes with 160
46 reps
…these are going to be a bitch when they’re heavier.
C. CSR: 5x15
D. Hangs: 7x 1 minute
Good times.
08/01/2015
Extras
Band no-moneys: 6x20
Hangs: 60,30,30,30,30,30,45,30,30,30,30,45,60 - 8 minutes total