Flow's Log (New and Improved)

Training Training Logs
201

[quote]Rob-jitsu wrote:
Good fucking job man! Nice detailed, well-thought out log you have going here… it’s awesome to see the progression over time - especially taking into account your old log.
[/quote]

Thanks a lot for stopping by, Rob-jitsu.

I feel like my progress has been decent, but I know most of it is intangible progress you can’t see by looking at the numbers I record here.

I move a lot better than I did before. I feel stable at the bottom of a full squat and deep lunge positions and I can move around on the ground much better. That may sound weird but I wrestled a friend of mine recently and he felt really fucking light off the floor.

[quote]
It’s a good feeling taking a look back and seeing how far you’ve come, but it’s also worth saying that you should just keep looking forward and not think about being satisfied even in the least.[/quote]

I totally agree. I have taken a quarter of a step in the grand scheme of things. So much more to learn and so much bigger/stronger to get.

I shall.

Aside from reorganizing my living situation and getting ahead in a few of my classes, today I am going to plan out the specifics of this next training cycle.

I don’t like changing too much at once, but this is what I plan on doing:

  1. adding horizontal pressing back into the scene
  2. heavy push jerks before push presses
  3. possibly swapping box squats for full deadlifts

The biggest thing is that I can’t decide on sets of 3, 5, or 6-8.

Lately I’ve been doing sets of 5-7ish, so I feel like it’d be a good idea to move back down to 3s.

Also, I’ve wanted to do clusters for some time so maybe that will make its way into the program.

We’ll see

202

[quote]IronAbrams wrote:
Always nice to hit your goals!

What’s the plan of attack now?[/quote]

It really is :slight_smile:

I’ll post the new training plan before the day’s end.

I would appreciate any insight you all have to offer regarding what I should do next.

Thanks.

203

[b]Overall Plan. . .[/b]

Week 1: Moderate volume
Week 2: Moderate-high volume
Week 3: Lower volume, high intensity ‘money’ exercises; moderate volume assistance
Week 4: High volume everything
Week 5: Moderate-low volume deload
Week 6: Start of next cycle

S Off
M Lower 1
T Upper 1
W Off
R Lower 2
F Upper 2
S Conditioning

Same split because if it ain’t broke- don’t fix it.

I was debating sets of 6 or sets of 3. I decided on three. Why? I’ll be lifting heavier shit with sets of 3. That’s a pretty good reason, eh? :slight_smile:

All Training Days
Foam Rolling
Dynamic Flexibility
Bodyweight Pullups 6,7,8,10
-these are performed after the biggest money exercise of the session

Monday; Lower 1
Deadlift 6X3, 8X3, 3X3, 10X3
Reverse Lunge 3X6-8/side, 3X6-8/side, 3X6-8/side, 4X6-8/side
Anderson Squat 2X6/side, 2X6/side, 2X6/side, 3X6/side
Abduction/Adduction facilitation hip extension 1X20/side—>
How Strong Are Your Abs, Really? 3X6-15—>

Tuesday; Upper 1
Push Jerk 3X3—>
Push Press 6X3, 8X3, 3X3, 10X3
Kroc Row (1X20, 1X10), (1X20, 1X10), (1X20, 1X10), 2X20
Push up (possibly + bands) 2X12—>
Reverse Curls 3X6-10—>
DB French Press 3X6-10—>
CoC (#1.5) X 8 attempts—>
Light Cable Flies 2X15—>

Thursday; Lower 2
Front Squat 6X3, 8X3, 3X3, 10X3
Good Morning 3X6-8, 3X6-8, 3X6-8, 4X6-8
Single Leg RDL 3X8/side, 3X8/side, 3X8/side, 4X8/side
Abduction/Adduction facilitation hip extension 1X20/side—>
Back Extension S/S Core Rotations 2X12—>; 3X8/side—>

Friday; Upper 2
Bench Press or BB Strict Press 3X6-8, 3X6-8, 3X6-8, 4X6-8
Pendlay Row 3X6-8, 3X6-8, 3X6-8, 4X6-8
DB Overhead Press S/S Seated Cable Row 2X12, 2X12, 2X12, 3X12
Barbell Curl 3X6-10—>
Tate Press 3X6-10—>
Barbell Hold 3Xtime—>
Light Cable Flies 2X15—>

Conditioning
10 total sets of KB swings, Sprints, Burpees, Barbell Complexes, or whatever-the-hell. Keep this interesting so I am motivated to get out there and keep myself in decent CV shape.

204

Strength based cycle eh? I like how you’re experimenting with the different volume/deload schemes.

Anderson Squats 2X6/side - doing them unilaterally?

205

[quote]IronAbrams wrote:
Strength based cycle eh? I like how you’re experimenting with the different volume/deload schemes.

Anderson Squats 2X6/side - doing them unilaterally?[/quote]

Yeah, I figured trying a bunch of different approaches and dedicating enough time to them to see a result will give me the best chance of being successful. Next cycle I will probably move into a lot of singles @>90% on the main movements and hypertrophy type exercises the rest of the program. Afterwards I’ll probably just go straight bodybuilder.

We’ll see :slight_smile:

Since I have never actually tried the movement with any considerable weight, I’m not entirely sure what to expect from doing them with one leg forward and one leg back for all the sets. I figured it would be best to alternate legs midway between sets to make sure both legs are getting the same kind of stimulus.

Unlike lunges, I feel like both legs would get worked fairly equally regardless of the stance they are performed with (right leg forward vs. left leg forward). I wanted to keep them under 25 total reps for moderate volume weeks, so, if I don’t feel much of a difference when I do them 6/side per set, I’ll just go to 2X12 alternating the forward leg each set.

One of those ‘looks good on paper’ things. :stuck_out_tongue:

206

[u][i]3-02-09[/u][/i]

AM Weight: ??

Back Pain: 0 out of 10

Right Pec Pain: 0 out of 10

[u][i]Lower Body 1[/u][/i]

Dynamic Flexibility

A. Deadlift
45X10
135X5
185X2
225X1
255X1
275X3
295X3X2
305X3
315X3X3

B. Pullups
BWX6

C. Barbell Reverse Lunges
135X8/side
145X8/sideX2
R60s BROOOTAL

D. Anderson Squats
145X6/side
+Pins
95X10/side
95X12/side

E. Curl-up with arms crossed and head in neutral
BWX15,10,10

Most of my deadlift sets were to find the groove. The 315s were somewhat heavy but not bad at all. I know I can do much more. Moreover, I used a double overhand grip today. My grip strength is SO MUCH stronger than the last time I deadlifted. What. The. Fuck.

AWESOME

During the reverse lunges I still felt the lateral structures of my right leg and the medial structures of my left leg take over the movement too much. I’ve been trying desperately to fix this but it is taking forever. . .

I am going to do anderson squats from pins because the lowest position is too difficult to maintain an upright position with. My hips sort of grind at that lowest position. It feels too awkward for me anthropometrically, but the higher pin position feels great and I certainly feel my gltues working very well throughout the entire movement. I can see why Kai Greene uses so little weight- it simply is not necessary to load this movement up for great stimulation.

207

[u][i]3-03-09[/u][/i]

AM Weight: 205.0

Back Pain: 0 out of 10

Right Pec Pain: 0 out of 10

[u][i]Upper Body 1[/u][/i]

Dynamic Flexibility

A. Push Jerk
175X1 Baseline PR
165X3X2

B. Push Press
160X4
165X3X5 PR 1-9-09 this was my 3RM

C. Pullup
BWX6

D. Kroc Row
90X25 PR

E. Band Pushups
BWX4X2 warm up
BW+Blue Bands+wrapped for added tensionX15,12

F. Reverse Curls
60X12
70X6
70X4F@5

G. DB French Press
30X4F@5
20X17 right side only

H. Cable Flies
35X15
65X15
80X15

I have to get used to the form for push jerks to be honest. I should be using much more weight, but today was more about finding the groove than anything else.

I’m pretty happy with the way push pressing went, but, to be honest, I feel like I should be making faster progress on my pressing in general. Hopefully the added pressing volume in this program will do the trick. Overhead work and triceps assistance work may not have been enough to push the numbers up.

My glutes are very sore from Anderson squats. Especially on the left side.

208

[center]Imbalances[/center]

I’m going to list some imbalances and how I’m going to address them.

  1. Left-to-right triceps strength
    -Unilateral triceps work
    -Pulling the bar apart and keeping equal bar speed side-to-side in presses
  2. Left-to-right pec size/strength
    -Pulling the bar apart and keeping equal bar speed side-to-side in presses
  3. Left-to right back strength
    -Unilateral rows with left side first, as many reps with right side
  4. Left-to-right grip strength
    -Just do a few extra sets with my left hand

All of the preceding imbalances are just kind of whatever, they’ll fix themselves as I continue to do exercises with proper form.

The following is my biggest imbalance: something of legitimate concern in keeping my lower back from getting fucked up again.

  1. Hip musculature balance; glute medius and, generally, the lateral hip extensors of my right hip take over hip extension; adductor magnus and the medial hamstrings take over hip extension in my left leg. On higher rep sets this causes my hips to shift to the right to allow my dominant right leg to do more work. This puts the left side of my body at risk because the hip extensors don’t have a great line of pull in that instance. Hence, adductor magnus doing so much hip extension when typically it only assists slightly with its posterior fibers.
    -Abduction/adduction (adduction for right/abduction for left) facilitation cable hip extension for a set of 20 every time I get in the gym
    -Dynamic flexibility to specifically address said imbalance before every session
    -Building my core up like nuts to compensate for the problem in the interim (until it is fixed)
    -focusing on pushing my knees out during just about every movement I do (this will activate my glutes which could lead to this stuff just sorting itself out as I go)

I’ll just go ahead and extend (pun intended) the disclaimer that I won’t let these sorts of things keep me from doing the most important things in the gym. In a nutshell, barring injury, I won’t neglect to do squats, deadlifts, chin ups/pull ups, rows, overhead presses, horizontal presses, etc. so I can do the foo-foo bullshit like cable hip extensions. I don’t enjoy the foo-foo exercises or feel anywhere near as fulfilled from doing them as compared to a heavy set of front squats, but, quite frankly, they are going to help me. . . I would be a hypocrite for not applying what I have learned. I refuse to be a book-dude. Scholar+Practitioner=WIN. No excuses.

209

I don’t like the new avatar as much as the old one…:frowning:

210

[quote]Bloobird wrote:
I don’t like the new avatar as much as the old one…:([/quote]

SPECIAL BEAM CANNON

211

[u][i]3-05-09[/u][/i]

AM Weight: 205.4

Back Pain: 0 out of 10

Right Pec Pain: 0 out of 10

[u][i]Lower Body 2[/u][/i]

AM Foam Rolling
Dynamic flexibility

A. Front Squat
210X3
215X3X5 PR (3RM from 1-8-09)

B. Good Morning
210X6,8,8 PRs

C. Single leg RDL
45X10/side
50X12/side
45X12/side

D1. Back Extension
45X20X2
D2. Core Rotations
10/sideX2

E. DODGEBALL!!!

Rocked the gym this night. It was fun. I buried those front squats. No joke, I can’t go any deeper than what I went to. Rock. Bottom.

This night I abandoned going to the midnight showing of Watchmen. I loved the graphic novel.

Why did I not go?

So I can sleep well enough to train well tomorrow after I work all day.

My introspective tendencies take over when I make a decision like this one. Why do I sacrifice social opportunities rather frequently so I can progress in the weight room?

I think I’ve figured out why- it’s because my personality requires it. The ‘four pillars’ of my life are the health and well being of my family, the health and well being of my friends, my education, and my training. Due to my tendency toward introspection, I am frequently stressed by why I do things the way I do in much the same way someone that visits a mental health professional would in resolving some massive intrinsic psychological issue. Why do I mention all of this? To build up to the fact that I lift weights because it is my time of relative sanity. Lifting objects is about as primal as physical activity can get. The fact that hoisting up heavy objects, a fundamentally simple task, interacts with our bodies, a fundamentally complex system, is both beautiful and relaxing to me.

I life weights to stay sane.

212

[quote]Flow wrote:
This night I abandoned going to the midnight showing of Watchmen. I loved the graphic novel.

Why did I not go?

So I can sleep well enough to train well tomorrow after I work all day.

My introspective tendencies take over when I make a decision like this one. Why do I sacrifice social opportunities rather frequently so I can progress in the weight room?

I think I’ve figured out why- it’s because my personality requires it. The ‘four pillars’ of my life are the health and well being of my family, the health and well being of my friends, my education, and my training. Due to my tendency toward introspection, I am frequently stressed by why I do things the way I do in much the same way someone that visits a mental health professional would in resolving some massive intrinsic psychological issue. Why do I mention all of this? To build up to the fact that I lift weights because it is my time of relative sanity. Lifting objects is about as primal as physical activity can get. The fact that hoisting up heavy objects, a fundamentally simple task, interacts with our bodies, a fundamentally complex system, is both beautiful and relaxing to me.

I life weights to stay sane.[/quote]

You and me both, buddy.

I finished Watchmen last night around 11:00. I’m still digesting, but I might be ready to read it again.

I’m probably going to have to wait for Watchmen to come out on DVD. I don’t have any nerds out here who would go with me. Woe.

213

:smiley: Great to have like minded folks around.

3-05-09 I did my 6 pullups after front squats but forgot to log about it. This increased frequency seems to be working :slight_smile: Hopefully I’ll be doing sets of 8-10 after this cycle. Woot

[u][i]3-06-09[/u][/i]

AM Weight: 204.2

Back Pain: 0 out of 10

Right Pec Pain: 0 out of 10

[u][i]Upper Body 2[/u][/i]

PM Foam Rolling
Dynamic flexibility

A. Wider Grip Bench Press
45Xreps
65X5
85X5
115X5
135X5X2
155X5X3
135X5

B. Pendlay Row
185X8 PR
195X8X2 PR

C. Pull-up
BWX6

D1. DB overhead press
45X10
40X8
D2. Face Pull
160X12
100X15 w/ scap depression

E. Barbell curl
95X7,6,6

F. Unilateral skull crusher
25X12,10
Right side only because my left side felt so much stronger after 6 reps that were just too easy

G. Pec flies
65X15X2

H. Plate pinches
5 5 pounders X lots and lots for 14-25 seconds

Well the poor performance on overhead press is expected after all of the pressing I’m doing in this cycle. No big deal, my body just has to adapt to those extra 40-50 reps of loaded work.

Bench press felt different with the wider grip. Those sets weren’t hard, which is why I did 6X5 instead of 3X8. I felt like I needed the extra volume to get the groove down. Next week I’ll start to progress it with something like sets with 160-170 to start. Funny, I’m push pressing more than I bench right now. It’ll come back quickly, I anticipate.

Also, my right shoulder is somewhat sore from dodgeball yesterday. I haven’t thrown anything in a year (literally), so this is to be expected. lol. It’s nothing serious, just slight pain and I test positive on an external impingement test. Probably just a very very minor sprain.

I’m doing the light pec flies to help with recovery. The load is nothing at all serious on that particular machine, just enough for me to feel my pecs working to a degree. I’m not risking another strain that may turn into a tear. I don’t fucking want that to happen.

214

“The democracy will cease to exist when the government takes away from those who are willing to work and gives to those who would not.” -Thomas Jefferson.

[u][i]3-07-09[/u][/i]

AM Weight: 206.2
Nachos, reese’s pieces, a 32 oz. Dr. Pepper, and Watchmen (which I’m sure had some influence on insulin levels).

Back Pain: 0 out of 10

Right Pec Pain: 0 out of 10

[u][i]Active Recovery[/u][/i]

Foam Rolling
Dynamic Flexibility

A1. Burpee
X15X4
A2. Spider Man
X6/sideX4
A3. Chair Squats
X15X4
A4. Plank
X30sX4
R45s

215

[u][i]3-09-09[/u][/i]

AM Weight: 206.0

Back Pain: 2.0 out of 10
2 minor instances of pain. I was lazy with picking stuff up properly. My body’s way of reminding me. In the gym I had 0.0/10 pain. That’s what I’m shooting for maintaining.

Right Pec Pain: 0 out of 10

[u][i]Lower Body 1[/u][/i]

AM Foam Rolling
Dynamic Flexibility

A. Deadlift
315X3X6 PR
305X3X2

B. Reverse Lunge
135X8/side
135X10/sideX2

C. Anderson Squat from pin #2
95X8/side
115X10/side
165X10/side

D. Pull-ups
BWX7 (lost grip due to sweat and had to get off for a split sec, but I had it either way)

E. Curl Ups
X12X2
X15

I took the weight down on the deadlifts because I wanted to try keeping my shoulders clearly behind the bar. I video taped myself lifting today and found that I tended to start the deads with my shoulders very slightly in front of the bar. Come to find out I was just nitpicking and that is just an ideal starting position for me.

I’ll link a video in a few so you can see what I mean. I’d also appreciate any critiques.

216
217

[quote]Flow wrote:
- YouTube [/quote]

  1. Low top Chucks? Seriously?

  2. Love the shrug guy in the background.

  3. Your back and butt look great - my coach would love if I could get my ass to traps so well.

218

[quote]pushmepullme wrote:
Flow wrote:

  1. Low top Chucks? Seriously?
    [/quote]Yeah, I need to work on that :D[quote]

  2. Love the shrug guy in the background.
    [/quote]Uhhh. . . haha- to each their own. :P[quote]

  3. Your back and butt look great - my coach would love if I could get my ass to traps so well.[/quote]
    Thanks a lot. I feel like all of the work I’ve been doing specific to glute strengthening has had carry over to every lift I do. Particularly good mornings.

219

[quote]Flow wrote:
Bloobird wrote:
I don’t like the new avatar as much as the old one…:frowning:

SPECIAL BEAM CANNON

220

[u][i]3-11-09[/u][/i]

AM Weight: 205.0

Back Pain: 0 out of 10

Right Pec Pain: 0 out of 10

[u][i]Upper Body 1[/u][/i]

AM Foam Rolling
Dynamic Flexibility

A. Push Jerk
170X3 PR
165X3
155X3
shoulders hurting

B. Push Press
165X2
145X1

C. Pull Up
BWX7

D. Kroc Rows
100X17/side PR

E. Reverse Curls
70X6,5,5

F. DB Skull Crusher
25X12X2 Right only, next week both

Short session today. My shoulders were bothering me, and I know why. I think I was well recovered when it comes to the actual muscle, but I had mild tendonitis and felt weak as a result. This came of me adding 30-40 loaded pressing reps without working up to it. Big mistake. So next upper body day I’ll do some light bench form work, then next week I’m doing the push jerks, push presses, and 4-5 sets of bench. Knocking out the push ups will drop the volume down a lot and should be good enough for me to adjust and start making progress.

LoL @ me. Program design fail! Won’t make that mistake again!

I guess you could say I’m learning by doing, but at least I got an O.K. push jerk PR and my rowing went very well.