Week 15, day 2
Squats: Bar x12; 40x5; 60x5; 80x3; 100x2
115x3
120x3
125x3
115x3
Bench: Bar x12; 40x5; 60x3
75x3
80x3
85x3
75x3
Supersetted with seated cable rows, 4x10.
No further assistance work as it’s going to be a long evening at the desk as it is.
Week 15, Day 3
Squats Bar x12; 40x5; 60x5; 80x3; 100x2; 120x1
132,5x2
137,5x2
142,5x2
132,5x2
This was the top set:
Bench: Bar x12; 40x5; 60x5
85x3
90x3
95x3
85x3
This was the top set:
Assistance was seated cable rows (3x8) and a supertset of face pulls and back raises (2x20 each).
Now there’s just one training session to go, wednesday next week. Work’s done. I try not to get too hung up on exact numbers to hit (except the 200kg deadlift, which really should work out), I’m pretty confident about hitting PRs on all three lifts, as long as that’s the case I’ll be very happy.
Last training session before the meet is in the books.
Squat: Bar x12; 40x5; 60x5; 80x3; 100x1
107,5x3
117,5x2
127,5x1
Bench: Bar x12; 40x5; 60x3; 75x3
85x3
95x2
105x1
Looking forward to saturday.
Good luck man. Lift heavy stuff and have fun!
Good luck!
Thanks! The competition is hosted by my former PL club (moved to another city earlier in the year) so it’ll be nice to meet some old lifting buddies again.
Okay, I’m back home. Was a very nice day with all my old training partners and a well-run meet, but for me personally, the competition was dissappointing. Opened with 152,5kg on squats, which felt easy. Went for a 10kg jump to hit a 2,5kg PR and failed twice. Lost tightness at the bottom and couldn’t get up.
Opened with 117,5kg on bench, went up fine. Hit a 2,5kg PR at 125kg on my second attempt, which was a grinder. Butt almost came off the bench. Missed my third attempt at 127,5kg.
Deadlift: First attempt (180kg) felt easy. Second attempt (190kg, which tied my old PR) felt easy as well, much easier than it did the last time I pulled it. Third attempt: 200kg moved about 5cm off the floor, but no further.
So, pretty dissappointing all in all. I’m actually certain that I got stronger since my last meet, hit several rep-Prs, but I couldn’t show it on the platform. As far as the program I used is concerned, overall I liked it, volume and frequency was a good fit for me, but the peak and taper didn’t really work as they were supposed to. I feel like I would have done better if I’d had more opportunites to get used to near-maximal weight. Also, while it’s a good general template, it didn’t include any variations of the competition lifts and didn’t take individual differences and weak points into account.
Propably won’t compete again until autumn 2018, things to do/look out for until then:
I’ve got a video of the 190kg pull and will post it later.
Good job man. Through failure you learn to come back better and stronger next time. Also good job on the bench pr and you have gotten stronger also which is great!.
Thanks for the kind words duke.
I’ve come down with a real bitch of a cold, so a return to the weights is postponed for a few days.
Okay, it’s sunday afternoon and I’m feeling a lot better. Cold’s almost done so I’ll be able to train again tomorrow and I guess I’m just going to ramble a bit about what the plan is moving forward.
I’ll visit my parents on friday right after work. Good news: I’ll have three weeks off work from then on. Bad news: This means I’ll only be able to train two times this week so I’ll make them full body sessions and reintroduce some higher rep ranges. I’ll be back from visiting parents an in-laws late on the 25th or early on the 26th, and then I’ll begin with the plan for the T-Transformation challenge.
Training:
As I’ve said before, I’ve wanted to take more of a typical bodybuilding approach for a while but can only reliably make it to the gym three times a week. I’ve ordered an adjustable bench and a set of dumbells going up to 40kg/88lbs each so that I’ll be able to hit a fourth session each week that’ll be focused on just getting a good pump.
My main sessions will be split up as follows: Monday: Back & Chest; Wednesday: Legs & Abs; Friday: Shoulders & Arms.
Exercise sequencing, based on Meadows’ stuff:
For monday’s workout this might look something like this:
A1 Straight arm pulldown (either bi- or unilatteral), ramp to 2-3x8
A2 DB Twist Press, slight incline or decline DB Press, ramp to 2-3x8
B1 1-arm BB Row, Meadows Row, Bent-over BB Row or seated Cable Row, 2-4x8-10
B2 BB Bench Press or Floor Press, ramp to a heavy set of 5, 2-4 work sets.
C Deadlift: conventional, semi-sumo or rack pull, ramp up to a heavy set of 3-5, 2-4 work sets.
D1 Lat Pulldown with varying grips, 2-3 x 10-12
D2 (Incline) DB Press, 2-3 x ~10
E1 Some flie variation (I prefer cable to dumbells) 2-3x10-12
E2 Face Pulls 2-3x12-20
E3 Back Raises 2-3x12-20
Volume:
The plan is to start with around 8 working sets per muscle group/session and gradually work up to whatever I can recover from in the next 2-3 months. 2 months is the minimum amount of time I’ll be testing this style of training and see if it works for me, from then on we’ll see what needs to change.
Nutrition:
When I’ve tracked calories in the past (never for very long) I’ve found that I need around 2800 calories to maintain, so the goal is to start around there and adjust so I’ll very slowly gain weight for the first ~8 to ten weeks. After that: assess and start leaning down.
I usually have four weeks a day. Breakfast on weekdays is five scrambled eggs with a bit of lean ham. Going to add some veggies to this. Lunch and dinner are complete meals, training is set between these two. Before bed, I have 500g of Quark, which is high in slow-digesting protein. This won’t change that much, I’ll begin by simply tracking all my calories and eliminating some bad food choices.
Intraworkout nutrition:
From right before training and throughout the first half of the session, I sip on a shake of
Post-workout, I have some more whey.
Just wanted to write some of this down, if anyone has any input, don’t hold back. This’ll be the first time I’m really tracking my food over a longer period of time, allthough my nutrition has been pretty consistend in the past just because my daily habits don’t change much. But, there are days where I propably undereat a bit because of stress at work, and I’ll have to make sure I don’t fall off the waggon on these days.
Finally trained again. Didn’t go crazy with anything because of the layoff, just a full-body session to get back into it.
A 1-arm straight arm Pulldown: ramped up to a hard set of 8, about three sets I’d consider working sets. Great mind-muscle connection on these.
B1 1-arm BB Row: ramp up to 3x8 30kg
B2 Incline DB Press: ramp up to 3x10 27,5kg.
C Conventional Deadlift: Three sets of five up to 90kg, Didn’t even reach a working set. This was the first time in about two years I deadlifted conventionally, just wanted to see if it still felt and looked as awful as earlier, and it does. Going to stick to semi-sumo (my comp stance), rack pulls and romanian deadlifts.
D Leg Press: 3x10
Started tracking calories again, came up at 3000 today, more than I’d have guessed. Good to know.
Got to train at a commercial gym for the first time in a long time today. I’m leaving for my parents’ place tomorrow after work, so I won’t be getting to train for a few days. Just did what I felt like today and tried out one or two things I don’t usually have.
Front Squat Bar x12; 40x5; 60x5; 80x5
90x5
90x5
90x5
Deadlift
60x6
80x5
100x5
120x5
140x5
Machine Row 3x10
Incline BB Bench Bar x12; 40x5
60x8
65x8
60x8
Machine Chest Press (Supersetted with 3x10 Pullups) 3x12
Face Pulls 3x20
Leg Press 3x12 140kg
Just some fun stuff without much rhyme or reason.
Merry xmas man
Merry christmas to you too! Hope you’re having a good one.
Also, I’m back from visiting my parents and in-laws, so today was the first day of mission “train like a bodybuilder”, chest and back today.
A1: 1-arm straight-arm Pulldowns, ramping sets of 8, 2 sets I’d consider working sets. These are great for creating a mind-muscle connection with the lats.
A2: Machine Chest Press: same loading parameters. Not as great when it comes to mmc, but decent.
B1: 1-arm Barbell Row: ramp up to 2x10
B2: Floor Press: ramp up to 2x5. Logically, these should put more emphasis on the triceps compared to a competition bench press, but I really feel them in my chest. Also, I was getting a little out of breath at this point already, which is utterly ridiculous. Was keeping up a quick pace though.
C: Rack pulls from a hand’s breath below the knees: 60kgx5; 80x5; 100x5; 120x5; 140x5; 150x5. Grip was the limiting factor. The gym has Eleiko bars, but the knurling isn’t as good as I was used to from their barbells.
D1: (slight) incline Dumbbell Press: worked up to 2x10 at 30kg.
D2: Lat Pulldown: worked up to 2x12 at 75kg.
E1: low-to-high Cable Flie: 2x12
E2: Face Pulls: 2x15
F: 2x15 Back Raises
I’m confident it won’t take too long to work up to and get used to higher volumes. Day after tomorrow is legs and abs. I basically haven’t done anything for my legs but squats and deadlifts for the last 6 months, so I’m expecting quite some soreness from a number of exercises I’m no longer used to. I also hope that in the long run, adding some mass to my legs will help me when I get back to powerlifting in the second half of the year.
Trained legs today. As I said, the plan is to start with a very conservative volume but still, I feel like I should’ve done more work today. Going to stick to the plan though and increase the workload week by week.
A: Seated Leg Curls: ramp to heavy set of 8. Took a page out of Meadow’s book once more here.
B: Front Squats: Bar x12; 40x5; 60x5; 80x5
95x5
95x5
C: Leg Press: 100x10; 140x10
3x10 with 160kg
D: Romanian Deadlifts: 2x12 with 70kg. Focused on a slow eccentric and a good stretch instead of heavy weight.
E1: Calf Raíses in the Smith Machine 2x12
E2: Seated Calf Raises: 2x15
Both of these were done with very little rest between sets and holding both the stretch as well as the contraction for about 2 seconds. This was the first time I’ve ever really trained my calves directly. They were almost cramping by the second set.
F: Hanging Leg Raises, 3x12
G: Pulldown Abs 1x30
Forgot to log saturdays’s workout so this will be two-in-one. Average weight in the morning for last week was 87,3kg, average daily calories were 3000. Going to keep calories like this and see how the weight develops.
Saturday: Shoulders & Arms
A1 Arnold Press: ramp up to 22kg x8
A2 Hammer Curl: ramp up to 16kg x8
B1 Overhead Press: Bar x10; 40x5; 50x5; 55x5; 55x5
B2 Close-grip Pullups: 3x10
C1 Latteral Raises: 2x15 with 12kg.
C2 Rear Delt Flies: 18kg x15; 16kg x15
D1 Rope Pushdowns: 70x15; 90x12; 100x12
D2 Cable Curls: 80x12; 90x12; 90x12
Then I saw a latteral raise machine and did a set of 20.
Monday: Back & Chest. Gym was pretty empty, apparently, people were still too hung over to act on their new year resolutions.
A1: 1-arm straight-arm Pulldowns: 20x8; 25x8; 27,5x8; 30x8
A2: Machine Chest Press: 30x8; 40x8; 45x8; 50x8
B1: Floor Press: Bar x12; 60x5; 80x5; 90x5; 90x5
B2: 1-arm Barbell Rows: 10kgx10; 20x10; 25x10; 27,5x10; 27,5x10
→ Still adjusting the technique on the rows a bit to make sure I hit the lats more than the upper back.
C: Pin Pulls from a hand’s breath below the knees: 60x5; 80x5; 100x5; 125x5; 145x5; 152,5x5
→ Grip is still an issue.
D1: slight incline Dumbell Press: 20x10; 26x10; 32x10; 32x10
D2: neutral-grip Lat Pulldown: 50x12; 65x12; 75x12; 75x12
E1: low-to-high Cable Flies: 15x12; 20x12; 15x12
E2: Face Pulls: 60x15; 60x15
Back Raises: 2x16
Wednesday: Legs
A: Seated Leg Curls: ramp up to a hard set of 8. Maybe 3 I’d consider work sets.
B: Pause Squats (3 second pause): Bar x12; 60x5; 80x5; 100x5
110x5
110x5
110x5
C: Leg Press: 100x10; 140x10
160x10
160x10
160x10; x8; x6 (10 sec rest/pause)
→ If nothing else, this was a good reminder to work harder on my regular sets.
D: Romanian Deadlifts: 50x12, then 3 sets of 12 at 70kg, focus on a good stretch.
E1: Standing Calf Raises in the Smith Machine: 2x 30kgx12
E2: Seated Calf Raises: 20kg x15; 20x18
Good session overall. I’ve done very little assistance work for my legs in the past months which could have something to do with my poor Squat-progress.
Thursday: Shoulders, Arms and Abs.
A1: Arnold Press: 16x8; 20x8; 22x8; 24x8
A2: Hammer Curls: 10x8; 14x8; 16x8; 18x8
B1: Barbell OHP: 40x5; 50x5; 55x5; 55x5
B2: Close Grip Pull Ups: 3x10
C1: DB Side Latterals: 12x15; 12x15; 12x14 → Last set was mainly partials.
C2: DB Bent-over Latterals: 3 sets of 15 at 16kg
D1: Preacher Curls: 10x8; 15x8; 15x8; 12,5x8
D2: JM-Press: 3 sets of 8 at 40kg
→ I did both of these for the first time and liked them fine.
Hanging Leg Raises: 15x; 12x; 12x
Pulldown Abs: 50kg x around 50, pretty sure I miscounted at some point.
This felt like a very productive session. Last week was a bit low on volume as I was feeling my way into this kind of program, today was much more on point.
Today’s session was back & chest.
A1 1-arm straight-arm Pulldown: 4x8, ramping up in weight.
A2 Machine Chest Press: 4x8, ramping up in weight.
B1 1-arm Barbell Row: 10kg x10; 20x10, three sets of 10 with 27,5kg.
B2 Floor Press: 60x5; 80x5; 100x5; 95x5; 95x5
C Deadlifts: 60x5; 80x5; 100x5; 120x5
→ Lower back felt aggravated when I started warming up for deadlifts, so I did regular DLs instead of paused ones and kept it lighter and lower on volume.
D1 Machine Lat Pulldown 30x12; 70x12; 80x12; 90x12; 100x12
→ Focus on a good stretch at the top.
D2 Slight Incline DB Press: 20x10; 26x10; 32x10 & a dropset of 32x10, 26x4 and 20x5.
E1 low-to-high Cable Flies: 3x15 at 15kg.
E2 Face Pulls: 3x15 at 60kg.
F Back Raises 2x17.
Slowly beginning to add intensification techniques into the workouts, about one per session on the third exercise for a muscle group.
