Failblog - Learning From Mistakes

Training Training Logs
1

Hey guys, I am a 25 year old law graduate living in Slovenia. I currently work from home and have gotten back to my beloved iron after a small necessary break until December. I enjoy big compound lifts and being a good athlete for sports such as muay thai and basketball. I also played football at university, linebacker.

I have started this blog as a source of motivation and accountability… I have worked out for maybe 5 years now “off and on” but mostly on, I had great progress in the first few years but then quickly plateaued due to dietary habits and a bunch of other excuses… My goal is to simply become an excellent athlete for the sports I practice.

The approach I will be taking now is simply to improve one step at a time and cut out bad habits in order to progress. Some rules which are a vast improvement to my normal habits:
-only one “cheat” meal per day, around workout
-other meals will consist of healthy protein with vegetables and complex starches such as beans and oats
-maximum alcohol intake once per week, limited to 2 drinks, preferrably none. (this will seem like a cop out but historically I have had much, much more. I think this will be a realistic compromise)

I have no problems with consistency as I do actually enjoy training. It’s all the other factors that I need to keep in check. I do not plan to gain weight or lose weight per se as I think body composition will take care of itself. Eating everything in sight to become “huuuge” never worked out for me in the past, but if I feel the need to I will increase caloric intake.

STATS: 6’0.5, 96 kg, BF%: 18% (estimate) Waist: 36.25 inches Arms: 16.0 inches

GOALS:
CLEAN: Current PB, 82.5 kg GOAL: clean my bodyweight - I have come to really appreciate this movement recently. even tho I don’t have access to bumper plates I wanna improve at this lift.

BACK SQUAT, Ass to grass, no belt: All time PB: 170 kg, Current PB: 120 kg estimated (lol)
GOAL: I just want to get my squat back in decent shape but since I have no spotter I have no specific goal for 1 rep maxes.

DEADLIFT, no wraps, no belt, sumo: All time PB: 210 kg, Current PB, 150 kg estimated (lol)
GOAL:I want to get this back to 2 X my bodyweight

VERTICAL JUMP: I want to be able to dunk again. With my wingspan and height I need about a 34" vertical leap to achieve this, maybe a bit more to do so comfortably.

BENCH PRESS: All time PB: 125 kg, Current PB: Estimated 90 kg. I am a poor bench presser but I would like to do maybe 90kg X 15 repetitions.

PUSH PRESS: All time PB: 80 kg, Current PB: Unknown, GOAL: 90 kg X 2 would be nice to correspond with my ambitions to improve my clean.

2

Workout yesterday was pretty good, I will be posting my full routine when I’ve written it down. Altho I do appreciate the mantra “shut up and lift” I think as a weak/intermediate lifter I will need to get some sort of structure to my workouts. I will also post some videos/pictures of my lifting for motivation!

3

Just got back from a decent w/out, no sleep whatsoever but I took some caffein and grinded it out. I have learned over the years that I was actually often going too hard, training every day always balls to the wall at 100% 1RM and shit like that. My nervous system just doesn’t recover that well with that kind of training. I will be smarter about my workouts and today’s session was a good start.

W/U: 15 mins cycling to the gym
2 5 sprint intervals and dynamic mobility/stretching

REPETITION EFFORT DAY
BACK SQUAT: 60 kg X 7, 70kg X 7, 80 kg X9, ACTIVE REST: one leg calf raises not awesome but I have always been bad at high rep squats without pause so this is fine.

BBELL BENCH PRESS: 60 kg X 7, 70 kg X 7, 75kg X 8; ACTIVE REST: Tricep extension, standing cool, not much to say about this, I have the worst build in history for benching, long arms, wide shoulders and narrow chest, and am weak to boot. I felt like I had more in the tank

LEG EXTENSIONS: 3 sets of 10 reps

DBELL BENCH PRESS: 3 sets of 8 reps, 34 kg DB’s X 8 wasn’t that easy but it will become a lot easier as it’s the highest DB’s we have at the gym

TRICEP EXTENSIONS STANDING: since I felt good doing them as active rest for my primary movement I tried a harder set, 30 kg X 10 reps

Then went on a massive shopping spree of good ole BB food, tuna, kidney beans, feta cheese etc mwahah

4

Training yesterday was after a Muay Thai session so didn’t do deadlifts as planned because my hips were worked quite a bit…

MAX EFFORT DAY B

LAT PULL DOWN, PALMS FACING AWAY: 2 SETS OF 5, 90 KG X5 ACTIVE REST: TRICEP PUSH DOWN

REAR DELT MACHINE: 3 SETS OF 10 (wow this was a really excellent workout for my lats and delts… I think I have an activation leak with my lats so def. will include an exercise like this after deadlifts or other back movements)

PUSH PRESS FROM CLEAN POSITION: 40 KG X 5, 50 KG X 2, 60 KG X 2, 65 KG X 2 (CURRENT PB) - I’ve military pressed a lot more previously but this is a movement I have not practiced in probably a year so I am happy to hit a new PB… def plan to get to 80 within February

PULL UPS, NEUTRAL GRIP: 3 sets of 3 ACTIVE REST: PREACHER BAR CURLS, STANDING

HERCULES CURLS: 2 SETS X 15 45 KG X 23 (PB) - yeah yeah a PB for curling, but gotta satisfy my vanity a little.

5

Soooo, some random thoughts about my comeback:

when I squat, no matter what technique or form over the years I have always had my lower back and spinal erectors activating more than I would like during the exercise: especially during higher repetition sets between 6-20 reps.

One thing that worked a treat last year when I hit my PB’s for squatting was really heavy ab work and some lower back work. I think the fact I have a relatively small waist (not fat wise but joint wise) and small trunk to my legs and ass means that they get tired before my legs and ass do. Not very scientific but something like that I think.

So I think heavy ab work will be required from now on and some lower back work. After every workout prolly I will be focusing on that in the coming weeks…

6

Also I dreamt I cleaned 100 kilos last night. A modest goal but I wonder if I can get it done this year…

P.S Sober since new year’s eve

7

This morning, weight: 94.3 kg

Had a fairly intense session last night. First a 1 hour muay thai workout with conditioning and bag work. Then:

MAX EFFORT DAY A
RACK PULL DEADLIFTS: 100 kg X 4, 140 kg X 4, 160 kg X 3, 170 kg X 1 ACTIVE REST: PLATE CURLS, 10 KG
BARBELL BENCH PRESS: 70 kg X 3, X 3, 75 KG X 3, 80 KG X 1 - Well I guess this session being after a conditioning workout is my excuse for this shitty press. Also no spotter, could have had another rep possibly. ACTIVE REST: CHEST FLYES
ABDOMINAL PUSHDOWN MACHINE: 8 ST X 6, 11 ST X 6, 12 ST X 7

8

MAX EFFORT DAY B
HANG CLEANS: 5 KG X 5, 10 KG X 5, 50 KG X 5

CLEANS: 60 KG X 3, 70 KG X 2, 80 KG X 1, 85 KG X 1 (NEW PB!!)

FRONT SQUATS: 60 KG X 4, 70 KG X 4, 80 KG X 3, 90 KG X 1 (NEW CURRENT PB)

HERCULES CURLS: 45 KG X 12

9

REPETITION EFFORT DAY A
WARM UP: 10 mins cycling and bag work after
20 M SPRINTS WITH 10 seconds active rest: X 5, X 5, X 6
BB BENCH PRESS: 60 KG X 8, 70 KG X 8, 75 KG X 6, ACTIVE REST: LAT RAISES - I had more in the tank for sure, but no spotters. I foresee PB’s in my next session.
BB SHRUGS: 60 KG X 10, 100 KG X 10, 120 KG X 10 (CURRENT PB), 140 KG X 4
CHEST FLYES: 50 X8, 60 X 8, 65 X 8 (CURRENT PB)
STANDING TRICEP EXTENSIONS: X 10, X 10, 36 KG X 13 SUPERSET WITH BARBELL CURLS 30KG X 6, 35 KG X 6

10

MORNING WEIGHT: 94.8, definitely looking better and feeling better since starting this blog… performance has improved for sure, just gotta keep diet dialled in and stay off the booze as I have so far, lol…

WEEKLY RECAP: PB FOR CLEAN ALL TIME, 85 KG, NO OTHER ALL TIME PBS, WEIGHT: -1.4 KG

11

man I hope this is a cramp … I had a 1hr thai box session of kneeing and then thought it’d be smart to max out on deadlifts after w 3 hours sleep now my ass feels like it was gored by a rhinocerus can barely sit down and get up…

MAX EFFORT DAY A: Deadlifts, 100 X 5, X 4, 120 X 2, 140 X 1
PREACHER CURLS W SLOW ECCENTRIC: 50 X 6-7