Age: 23
Height: 5’8"
Weight: 174
Years training: 3 and change
PRs
Squat: 425
Bench: 225
Deadlift: 505
By Jan. 1:
Weight: 185-190
Squat: 455
Bench: 245
Deadlift: 525
Program:
Squat
RDL
Pullups
Push press
Row
Curl
Deadlift
Front squat to box
Reverse hyper
Bench
Face pull
Triceps
Reverse hyper
Nutrition:
Start by hitting 3500 calories and 300 g protein every day. Increase as needed.
Squat
45
135
225
315
365x4
3x5x315
RDL
3x10x135
Cals: 4100
Protein: 309 g
Morning weight: 177
It’s going to be a long week.
Yesterday:
grip/shoulder stuff for off days:
CoC gripper 5x5 each hand
Pull aparts and shoulder stretch with mini band 5x10 each
Cals: 3515
Protein: 310 g
Morning weight: 178
Today:
Deadlift
225
315
405
5x1x435
Nice and easy
Played around with reverse bands a bit to get the setup right. This takes off ~75 at the bottom and ~25 at the top.
315
415
465
510x1 - cool, will do this for 5 singles later in the cycle
Front squat to box
45
135
3x5x225
Reverse hyper
3x10x60
Cals: 4100
Protein: 310g
Morning weight: 177
Yesterday:
grip/shoulder stuff
Cals: 3580
Protein: 300g
Morning weight: 176.5
Today:
Bench:
45
95
135
175
7x3x195
195x2 - hit the hooks on the way down on 2nd rep, made it, hit them again on 3rd, missed
195x2 - fuck
195x1 - fuuuuuuu
Started off easy and ended up in big steaming bucket of shit. I can’t keep my shoulders from rolling in at the bottom no matter what. Seems to have gotten worse the last month or two. I do face pulls, band pull aparts on off days, and will get back to doing T-bar rows (w/ V-grip) regularly starting this week. Seems like upper back strength shouldn’t be a limiting factor, but obviously something is. Ideas?
Face pulls
135
3x10x195
Tricep pushdown
90
125x10,10,9 1 fffffff…
Reverse hypers
3x10x65
I guess I’ll just drop the weights a bit on bench and triceps next week and pretend this never happened… Really want to be done with <200lb working sets but it’s gonna have to wait a few more weeks.
Cals: 3930
Protein: 300g
Morning weight: 176.5
Yesterday:
Grip/shoulders
Cals: 4110
Protein: 325g
Morning weight: 177.5
Today:
Extra pec stretches in the morning - pecs are tight from benching.
Squat
365 x 1 - too much
355 x 2 - ditto
5x5x315
I’ve gotten really terrible at anything over 3 reps on squat. Volume days for me are something like 10x3. Dropped the weight way low and going to hit 5x5 every week until I get it to 355-365. Previous best is only 5x5x335 so I should be able to blow past that in a couple of weeks.
RDL
3x10x135
Cals: 3990*
Protein: 320*
Morning weight: 179.5
Pullups
5x5
Push press
45
95
5x5x135
T-bar row
90
135
5x5x180
DB curl
20s
30s
5x5x35s
5 rounds of 10 band pull aparts, 10 one-side band face pulls each way
Starting this day off with some kiddy weights, everything went fast and easy.
Cals: 4035
Protein: 335
Morning weight: 179
Yesterday:
absolutely nothing
Cals: 3750
Protein: 345
Morning weight: 179
Today:
Deadlift
10x1x435
Front squat to box
4x5x225
Reverse hyper
3x10x70
Moved quickly through all of it, nice to be doing some light weight on deadlifts and front squats for more volume. Looking forward to hitting some reverse band DLs next week.
Cals: 4235
Protein: 310g
Morning weight: 178.5
Yesterday:
grip/shoulders
Cals: >3510
Protein: >330g
Morning weight: 178.5
Today:
Bench
11x2x200
200x1
Normally I’d do only 10 sets but I’ve already done 10x2 at this weight so had to push a little further. All that grip and shoulder crap seems to be helping out. This felt a lot better than last week.
Face pulls
4x10x195
Cable pushdown
4x10x120
Solid
Reverse hyper
3x10x75
getting heavy, going to dial it back to increasing the weight once a week.
Cals: 4070
Protein: 365
Morning weight: 179
Yesterday:
grip/shoulders
Cals: 4060
Protein: 310
Morning weight: 179.5
Today:
Squat
405x1 easy
5x5x325 also easy
5s are boring as hell but I can already feel I’m getting better at them.
RDL
4x10x135
Cals: 3820
Protein: 335
Morning weight: 179.5
Pullups
3x5 10lb
Push press
3x5x140
Row
5x5x165
Curl
4x5x35s
5x10 band pull aparts
5x10 band face pulls
Underwhelming.
Cals: 3940
Protein: 310g
Morning weight: 178.5
Yesterday:
Off
Cals: 3680
Protein: 330g
Morning weight: 179.5
Today:
Reverse band deadlifts (light bands)
225
315
405
475
5x1x515
Easy, felt good to overload the top of the movement - working on forcing hips through while keeping up bar speed.
Front squat to box
5x5x225
Reverse hyper
3x10x75
Cals: 4200
Protein: 310g
Morning weight: 180
Going to hold 179-180 for a week or so then push onwards.
Yesterday
grip/shoulders
Cals: 3740
Protein: 320g
Morning weight: 180
Today:
Bench
12x1x210
I feel like I’ve finally found the ticket out of bench press hell. Tweaked my setup to set a big arch all in one go. Probably the first time I was able to squeeze my glutes and get any leg drive consistently. Previously eked out 10x1 at this weight, but today the 12 singles felt shockingly easy. Going to run 10x3/2/1 for a few cycles and see where that gets me.
Face pulls
5x10x195
Tricep pushdown
5x10x120
Reverse hyper
3x10x80
Cals: 4000
Protein: 310g
Morning weight: 179.5
Yesterday:
grip/shoulders
Cals: 3890
Protein: 325g
Morning weight: 179
Today:
Squat
405x1
5x5x335
Bringing hands in a little bit to keep things stable and tight.
RDL
5x10x135
Cals (so far): 2800
Protein (ditto): 200g
Morning weight: 179.5
Squat
405x1
Deadlift
5x1x445
Training after traveling can be really hit or miss for me. This was definitely a miss. I’m transitioning to squatting with a raised heel, which feels much more stable on lighter weight but pitches me forward as the weight gets heavy (as I focus on sitting back more out of habit). Going to need to work on staying more upright. Deadlifts were OK, fast but lockouts felt soft.
Cals: 4040
Protein: 325g
Morning weight: 180
Bench
10x3x195
No problem
Face pull
3x10x200
Tricep pushdown
3x10x125
Reverse hyper
3x10x80
Cals: 3540
Protein: 335g
Morning weight: 178.5
Squat
365x1
345x2
Elbow aggravated pretty much from the get go, called it quits here. Looks like I need at least 2 days between squatting.
Giant cambered bar squat to box
How can I squat without bending my elbow? Worked up to 335x1. These were fun.
Squat, maximally wide grip.
some x some x 135
Worked on technique with raised heel: particularly sitting back and keeping chest up in the hole.
Too bad about the elbow, 5x5x345 would have been easy. Will get it next time.
Cals: 3960
Protein: 305g
Morning weight: 179
Eating and training gone completely off the rails. Can’t squat much till I work out some extreme tightness in my calves. Elbows still iffy as of mid-week. To top it off I fell on my hand/wrist: the swelling and tenderness are subsiding but it feels weak if I bend it. Highlight of the week was squatting 10x10 with 2 pps on the giant cambered bar since deadlifting wasn’t going to happen. At least weight is still hovering at 180, plus or minus a half pound. Bench day tomorrow. Going to crank down the wrist wraps starting with the bar and just see how it goes. Get everything dialed back in in the new week.
Bench
10x2x205
Nice, felt a lot better at squeezing the bar and putting it where I want to. With the wraps on, wrist gave no troubles.
Superset:
4x10x200 face pulls
4x10x125 tricep pushdown
Reverse hyper
3x10x85
Tough
Things are getting back to normal.
Cals/protein: no idea, estimating cals are on point but protein might fall a little low. Tracking this again is next on the list.
Morning weight: 180 - will get this up a couple pounds by month’s end.
Are you foam rolling/stretching your pecs, lats, and pec minor? Are your face pulls and pullups hitting your lower traps well enough? Emphasize pulling the shoulder blades down. Regular pullups are good if your lower traps are strong enough to give you full downward ROM of your shoulder blades. Just some ideas that worked for me.
[quote]hastalles wrote:
Are you foam rolling/stretching your pecs, lats, and pec minor? Are your face pulls and pullups hitting your lower traps well enough? Emphasize pulling the shoulder blades down. Regular pullups are good if your lower traps are strong enough to give you full downward ROM of your shoulder blades. Just some ideas that worked for me.[/quote]
Thanks, I’ll try rolling those areas. Pullups just aggravate the hell out of my elbows these days but face pulls and rows seem to get the job done. Band pull-aparts while holding an arch, too.
Edit: last post didn’t go through.
Squat
385x1
335x1 with 2 chains per side
Also some singles with 295 and 2 chains per side
Still working on form with raised heel, bar staying over heels but had issues divebombing the last few inches and going too deep. Worked on staying tight into the hole and not going as low. Chains felt better than just doing light straight weight.
T-bar row
5x5x180
RDL
5x10x155
GHR situp
5x10 with light bands
Morning weight: 179.5