To go along with your “why I train” thinking, I feel like I’ve seen at least 100 new people at my gym over the past 4 months. Alot come for 2 weeks after New Years, quite a few come the week before spring thinking they’re going to get lean, and a fair amount come right before summer time.
Sometimes I wonder the REAL reason why I train, honestly I don’t really thinks anyone gives a shit if any of us has a 2.5 BW squat, 315 bench, or a shredded stomach. So why do I go? I want to compete at something, whether it be sports, school, or against myself. Aggressiveness is not encouraged at school and no one takes pick up games seriously (yea I’m that guy) so I’ll go to the gym and compete against myself. Only one person to blame if you don’t get what you want.
[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:
Good to see you’re going back to what you know works for you. It’s easy to “fall into the hype” and then blame yourself when you’re not getting where you think you should. The few times I ran WS4SB I’d get weaker and beat up and think “maybe I’m doing it wrong” and keep plugging away with minor tweaks. That’s insane. It’s not about doing it “wrong”. Hell, it’s not even about doin’ it “right”. It’s about doing what works and enjoying the process. To me, it’s really that simple.
Also, I’ve never ran 5/3/1 but agree with borrowing principles. Using 5x10 (for example) never occurred to me beforehand, but it has been huge in adding volume and muscle to the right areas. Not there’s necessarily anything magical about that specific set/rep scheme, but I felt like it would work, and it has. That’s now my go-to plan for bringing up specific areas.
Also, dug your training write up.[/quote]
Thanks again Flash. Yeah, I get caught up sometimes in what the “experts” say. I honestly take to heart what stronger people than I preach. Don’t get me wrong, a lot of it is what has gotten me to this point. I do listen and I listen hard. I would like to think that what worked for so many, will work for me. I guess, in some essence of being naïve, I would like to believe I could squat or bench once a week and get stronger. Not so much. I have to train harder than that, and always have in the past. That is part of the journey though!
Agreed on the 5x10 work. I love that set/rep scheme, a great mass builder and gut check for me to employ in my training.
[quote]chobbs wrote:
To go along with your “why I train” thinking, I feel like I’ve seen at least 100 new people at my gym over the past 4 months. Alot come for 2 weeks after New Years, quite a few come the week before spring thinking they’re going to get lean, and a fair amount come right before summer time.
Sometimes I wonder the REAL reason why I train, honestly I don’t really thinks anyone gives a shit if any of us has a 2.5 BW squat, 315 bench, or a shredded stomach. So why do I go? I want to compete at something, whether it be sports, school, or against myself. Aggressiveness is not encouraged at school and no one takes pick up games seriously (yea I’m that guy) so I’ll go to the gym and compete against myself. Only one person to blame if you don’t get what you want.[/quote]
You are absolutely right man. You know, my girlfriend and I met in a gym she worked at. I never thought she would go for me, because I was never the biggest guy in the gym. When I met her I was 160 pounds! She later told me what initially attracted her to me was how hard I worked in the gym and the ridiculous amount of sets of squats I did day after day. She found it interesting and wanted to talk to me. I never went up to her to talk because I would always see guys go up to her and start some bullshit conversation-- I didn’t want to be that guy. So I did my own thing, which was usually in a squat rack.
So, I guess just doing what is right for you has its benefits. I met my best friend and 5 years later we still train together
…and yes aggression is shunned in todays world. You and I would get along great I think in real time. We have pick up bball games at work sometimes and I play like its the NBA playoffs lol
SQUATS
285 x 5
285 x 5
285 x 5
285 x 5
285 x 5
285 x 5
285 x 5
285 x 5
GHR
5 x 10
15 x 5
10 x 5
5 x 5
x10
FACEPULL
160 x 12
160 x 12
170 x 12
1 set of 50 barbell curls, extremely painful.
I went in on about 2 hours of sleep today but the squats still felt great. All of the sets were super fast. A few reps were a little unbalanced but I think that was due to taking a week off from touching a single weight and sitting on my ass on the beach for a week.
This is a simple quick recipe I do every single morning to pound down a quick 715 calories of food. I like to sleep, and I don’t get a lot of it, so I don’t get up till the very last moment. Also, I usually don’t have a huge appetite first thing in the morning and have the metabolism of a cracked out hummingbird even still at 30 years old (not that I’m complaining, and it has slowed down somewhat since my mid-early 20’s).
Throw all of this into a blender:
1 cup of whole milk
2 tablespoons of natural peanut butter
1 scoop of protein of your choice
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 banana (medium size)
Nutritional Profile
715 calories
40g of fat
50g of carbs (27g of sugar)
40g of protein
Most of the sugar comes from the banana obviously, so if you try to keep your sugar low, just leave it out and it only accounts for about 105 calories. I personally never worry about it since it is first thing in the morning.
SQUATS
325 x 2
325 x 2
325 x 2
325 x 2
325 x 2
325 x 2
CLEAN PULLS
10 x 1 @ 195
FACEPULLS (dropsets)
120 x 25
100 x 25
80 x 25
AB MACHINE
185 x 4
170 x 5
160 x 8
I’ve been working with a buddy, who is a strong as hell Olympic lifter, on my clean form. It is atrocious, I do a lot of wrong stuff. Some stuff to note that I learned yesterday-- elbows out to aid in not pulling so much with my arms, don’t pop the bar off my thighs which is slowing down bar speed. I also need to learn to use the hook grip effectively, I’m very insecure with it.
PAUSE BENCH
185 x 5
185 x 5
185 x 5
185 x 5
185 x 5
DIPS (superset with rows.)
50 x 10
50 x 10
50 x 10
50 x 10
50 x 9
BB ROW
160 x 10
160 x 10
160 x 10
160 x 10
160 x 10
PIN PRESS
8 x 1 @ 170
AB WHEELZ
x30
x30
I haven’t benched over 205 I think in awhile now. I have just been working on strict paused bench pressing. I feel like it has helped me increase the bar speed quite a bit, we will see. On week 6, I plan on testing my max in the bench, squat, clean, and press.
260 is nothing to write home about but after doing nothing for 9 weeks but focusing on bar speed and not touching anything over 225 I hit it for a paused single on bench…it’s definitely something people to be more concerned about and something they should track.
Here are some more vids I’ve had sitting in my camera for a bit.
Buddy doing some heavy pulling.
This is from back when I was doing 5/3/1. I was surprised when I looked back at this how much faster the bar was moving, but it felt horrible! I was pissed off and gruff before I even started. A good attitude can go a long way.
KLOKOV PRESS (superset with pull-ups.)
95 x 8
95 x 8
95 x 8
95 x 8
PULL-UPS
35 x 8
35 x 8
35 x 8
35 x 8
AB CRUNCH
145 x 12
145 x 12
140 x 12
I forgot my lifting shoes, so I couldn’t do my power cleans and lifted in Adidas slides the whole time. Which shows a great thing about the gym I train at, I can lift in sandals!
SQUATS
305 x 5
305 x 5
305 x 5
305 x 5
305 x 5
305 x 5
305 x 5
305 x 5
GHR
10 x 8
10 x 5
x10
x10
x10
FACEPULL
170 x 12
170 x 12
160 x 12
This was pretty intense. I felt like I got hit by a truck when I was done. I took some video, but have had trouble with the media files and editing… If I ever get it worked out, I’ll post up.
