I’ve been lifting actively for about 7 years. My job makes keeping gains damn near impossible, but if I stop lifting altogether I’m gonna wind up flat out weak so fuck that.
Age: 23
Height: 6’3"
Weight: 225lbs
All-time bests:
Squat: 405
Bench: 275x5
Deadlift: 510
Goal: Get big and strong. Not to concerned about being lean (as long as I’m not obese).
I’m currently nowhere near as strong as I was. I’m a commercial diver by trade, I get called out to jobs randomly. Sometimes I’m gone for days, sometimes months. Sometimes I get lucky enough to go to a job where I work reasonable hours and have good food and access to a gym, and my progress won’t suffer. Other times (usually), I wind up working 14-18s with limited access to crappy prison-type food and I knock fifty pounds of all my lifts in two weeks. Usually right when I’m decently happy with my strength again I go to a job like that lol, go figure.
Only other issue I got is a can’t squat or deadlift (or do good mornings or anything like that). I tore my hamstring pretty severely about 5 years ago and the tendon didn’t quite reattach to my hip right. Most machines are fine, I can leg press if I pay real close attention to my form. I’ve tried to work through it on the squats and deads in the past and it doesn’t seem to do any good (I wind up using poor form to compensate) so I’m just gonna stick to what I can do for now. Doc says best thing I can do is to just try to strengthen it and hope it eventually straightens itself out.
My diet’s alright when I’m on the beach. Typically eat 3-4k cals a day, making sure to get plenty of protein (200g a day minimum, usually more). I try to dodge junk food and soda but I’m not super religious about it.
Just came back from an inspection job and lost about 15lbs, and I don’t think any of it was fat. Here is yesterday’s lifting, to start out:
DB Push Press 5,5,5,4,3x65s
Bench 8,8,6,6x165
Dips 3x10
Tris Pushdown 2x20x60
Hanging Leg Raises 2x15
Calf Raise 3x15
Was shooting for 5x5 on the push presses and 4x8 on the bench but came up short. I do a basic 3 day push/pull/legs split. I add abs and calves on mon and fri.
Pull Ups - 8,6,6,5,5
DB Rows - 5x10x70s
Face Pulls - 2x12x25
Curlz - 10,7(+3)x80, 5(+5)x70
The pluses are cheat reps.
Leg Press 5x5x570
Super Set
Leg Curls 2x20x80
Leg Extensions 2x20x90
BB Calf Raise 3x12x135
Hanging Leg Raise 2x12
One Arm DB Push Press 3x5x65, 2x5x50
Bench Press 4x8x165
BW Calf Raise 1x100
Took it easy and abbreviated my workout today. Helped my buddy move his welding shop this morning, which involved carrying 8 giant gas bottles down 6 stories of spiral staircase, so I was pretty fried to begin with. Also tweaked my right knee a little bit in the process to I took it easy on the push presses.
Wound up going on a job last Tuesday, got back Saturday. Did a bunch of pullups on Wednesday for my back day, and didn’t do shit on Friday as my knee is still all messed up and working on it was already a bit more activity than good for it. I strained something in there a bit, it’s healing up now I’m back though.
Went back to the gym today to find them redoing the floor in the free weights area, so no free weights today. Hopefully back to my number routine on Wednesday.
Machine Shoulder Press 5x5x90
Machine Bench 4x8x180
Dips 3x15
Hanging Leg Raises 5x8
Pull ups 7,6,6,6,5
DB Row 5x10x75s
Face pulls 2x12x25
Curls 3x10x75
Left two reps in the tank on my first set of pull ups, which helped me knock out my 30 in much fewer sets. Not doing shit for legs Friday cause my knee is still pretty jacked up. Seems to be healing well though, probably back on it next week.
Squats 3x5x95
Bench 3x5x175
Chins 9, 4, 5
I was looking through my old training logs and realized I was a lot stronger the first half of last year when I was doing full body splits, so I’m going back to that. My right knee is healing so I figured this would be a good time to start light with the squatting and work back up. Hopefully my hamstring can take it at this point if I work up to it slow enough.
Squat was pretty good. My flexibility went to shit though lol, I barely hit parallel (if I even did). I’m gonna run practical programming for a while so I’ll get plenty of practice.
Squat 3x5x105
OHP 3x5x95
Deadlift 5x135
Still not quite hitting depth with the squats. Feels like I hit a wall 3 or 4 inches above parellel. Feels like my hip flexors are the problem. Hamstring bugged me a bit on deadlifts but not on the squats. Gonna build the weight up to 135 on squats and 185 on deads and stick at that till my form straightens out.
Squat 3x5x115
Bench 3x5x185
Chins 8, 4, 4
Squat 3x5x125
OHP 3x5x105
Deadlift 1x5x165
No real hammy pain on the squats or deads, yay. Hard to be patient with the light weights but I know it’ll pay off in the long run.
Squat 3x5x135
Bench 3x5x195
Pull Ups 6, 6, 6
Squat 3x5x155
Bench 3x5x195
Chins 7, 7, 5
Squats - Hammy hurt on the first two sets, not the last. On a side note, my right adducted always gets sore and my left one doesn’t. Maybe it’s less flexible or something, or just more dominant somehow.
Bench - Hard and fast. Solid. 205 next time.
Squat 3x5x155
OHP 3x5x115
Deadlift 1x185
Going offshore tomorrow night. Job will probably last about 3 weeks. I’m gonna be on a boat 200 miles out, but I don’t think the hours will be too bad on this one. If I have internet access I will post whatever makeshift workouts I can. If not I will just continue posting when I get back.
I’m back. Job ran longer than we thought it would, but it was a cool job. Decent hours, decent food. Was diving every day though so I didn’t get a chance to work out. Lost about 10 lbs.
Squat 3x5x135
Bench 3x5x175
Chin Ups 6, 6, 6
Calf Raise 3x20
Donkey Calf Raise 2x20
Squat 3x5x135
OHP 3x5x105
Dead 1x5x185
Calf Machine 3x15
Donkey Calf 2x10
Gonna stay at this weight on squats and deads for a few weeks. My hamstring feels like its getting a good sore now, as opposed to the stinging pain it used to be. Hopefully these last two months off got it to a point where it’ll heal if I rehab it gently.
Squat 3x5x135
Bench 3x5x175
Pull Ups 7, 5, 5
Calf Machine 3x10
Donkey Calf 2x8
Hey ho.
My hamstring hurt like always in the gym Friday. Got an MRI done yesterday and confirmed I got a retard amount of probably permanent scar tissue (kinda already knew this, been bugging me 5 years). I never felt any pain using machines, it’s only when the muscle is stretched and under load at the same time that it screws me up (read: squats and deads). The doc I had was actually an old bodybuilder and oly lifter so I was able to bounce some opinions off of him. I’m gonna not squat or dead for a year or so and just do a 3-day push/pull/leg split. Adding calves everyday cause they’re small/weak and working my calves frequently helps me not get cramps diving (easy to get calf cramps at depth for some reason).
Guess I just gotta bite the bullet and accept that I gotta ditch the squats and deads.
I’M SICK OF PROGRAM HOPPING. So I’m gonna stick with the routine for at least a year, barring any time offshore.
Monday
Bench Variation 5x5
Standing OHP 3x10
Dips 3 sets
Hanging Leg Raise 3 sets
Calf Press 3x15
Wednesday
Chin Ups 3 sets
Barbell or Cable Row 5x10
Face Pulls 3x10
BB Curls 3x8-12
Decline Situps 3 sets
Donkey Calf 3x10
Friday
Leg Curl 3x10
Leg Extension 3x10
Adductor Machine 3x10
Abductor Machine 3x10
Calf Raise 3x8
Bench 5x5x165
OHP 10x75, 8x75, 5x75
Dips 6, 5, 5
Hanging Leg Raise 3x10
Calf Raise 3x15x150
Chins 10, 7, 3
Cable Rows 5x10x140
Face Pulls 3x10x20
EZ Curlz 3x10x70
Superset
-Decline Situps 3x20
-Donkey Calf Raise 3x10