Get Hench Or Die Trying

Training Logs
1

Hey guys
Realised that in order to make serious progress I’ve got to track my workouts. Starting a new pre-planned routine for once so thought I might as well post it on here and probably get help from others

Weekly Workout Plan

CHEST SHOULDERS
db bench - 3 sets of 4-8
db bench - 3 sets of 8-12
sm incline guillotine - 3 sets of 6-10
cable crossovers - 3 sets of 12-15
db laterals - 3 sets of 6-10
bhn cable laterals - 3 sets 12-15
machine calf raises - 5 sets of 8-12

BACK
deadlifts - 3 sets of 4-8
t-bar rows - 3 sets of 6-10
db rows - 3 sets of 8-12
pullovers - 3 sets of 12-15
pulldowns - 3 sets of 8-12
db rear raises - 3 sets of 12-15
trap bar shrugs - 3 sets of 8-12

DAY OFF

ARMS
weighted dips - 3 sets of 4-8
db extensions - 3 sets of 8-12
cg bench - 3 sets of 8-12
bb curls - 3 sets of 4-8
hammer curls - 3 sets of 6-10
db preachers - 3 sets of 12-15
seated calf raises - 5 sets of 8-12
Edited - I initially planned this to be after legs and shoulder day but moved them up to give my lower back some more recovery time

LEGS
squats - 1 set of 10+
leg press - 3 sets of 15-20
hack squats - 3 sets of 12-15
leg curls - 3 sets of 6-10
db rdl’s - 3 sets of 12-15
seated leg curls - 3 sets of 8-12
This has been edited before it included lying leg press leg extensions and machine calf raises but have decided to focus on getting stronger on fewer and basic movements

SHOULDERS
db press - 3 sets of 4-8
db laterals - 3 sets of 6-10
db rear raises - 3 sets of 12-15
cable laterals - 3 sets of 8-12
face pulls - 3 sets of 12-15
trap bar shrugs - 3 sets of 8-12
calf press - 5 sets of 8-12

GOALS

Get bigger duhh … Go from 160/165 to about 180 in the near future

Become consistent with leg training

Improve on pressing strength drastically - i hate having long arms

Significant size improvements in traps, shoulders, upper chest and legs (emphasis on sweep want legs like ebomb)

Become the strongest deadlifter in my gym :slight_smile: pretty close only seen someone go up to 6 plates and just missed 5 plates today … I’m a newb I’ve got time!

Will post some pics in a bit

2

LOG (from UK so work in kg but will try stating weight in lbs)

Day 1
db bench - 45x15 60x10 80x8 80x6 80x6
db bench - 60x8 60x7 60x7
sm incline guillotine - 35 a side x10 35x7 35x6 (smith machine at my gym feels so much harder than free weight but i like this movement)
cable crossovers - 45x12 45x12 45x12
db laterals - 30x10 30x10 30x10

Day 2
deadlifts - 135x10 225x8 315x5 405x6
495x0 (was close got it half way up should have rested more)
I shouldn’t have done so many reps on 4 plates but I didn’t expect it to be that easy
450x1 (felt so much easier than the first time I pulled that on my last max day 3 weeks ago)

I try for a 1RM like once every 3 weeks was pretty tapped out after the 5 plate miss and necessary gym equipment was in usage so changed up my routine a bit after deadlifts

db rows - 95x8 95x8 - easy
pull ups - BWx7 BWx4 BWx2 BWx1 BWx1
machine pullovers - couple feeler sets then 110x12 110x12
t-bar rows in the corner - 135x5 180x6 180x5 drop set 135x5 90x8
trap bar shrugs - 180x10 180x8 180x5

Only rotated the movements around because gym was busy

Looking forward to doing t-bar rows as a second movement next week 4 plates seemed really easy considering it was my last back movement

Only had access to HS machines once and trap bar shrugs are the closest thing to HS shrugs imo

I don’t count the weight of the bar for t-bar rows and for trap bar shrugs cause i don’t know how much it weighs and there is only one in the gym so idgaf lol

Leg session tonight should get some sleep!!
Always been half-assed on squats hopefully having to focus on only one all out set I can actually look forward to leg day

3

LEGS DAY
Didn’t take a day off after maxing out on DL’s yesterday and I suffered the consequences.

Lower back seemed to give out during squats although i hit a PR.

Close stance leg press seemed to put stress on lower back to in the bottom position.

Squats (all warm up sets were done really slowly)
45x12
95x12
135x10
185x6

Working set
225x6
PR because I’ve only started training squats seriously but I reckon I could and would have done more if i gave my longer rest.

Think I’m gonna switch my split around in order to give my lower back some recovery time. Especially for the weeks I try for 1RM on DL’s.

Leg Press
Warm Up Sets
then
5 plates x25
5 plates x20
5 plates x18

Lower back was dead at this point and just did a couple half-assed sets of lying leg curls.

Not the sort of workout I wanted but I can only blame myself tbh.

May cut down on exercises for legs and focus on improving on the basics first, think I have tried to over do the number of movements to compensate for never training legs seriously.

New Leg Routine
Squats - 1 set of 10+ reps
Leg Press - 3 sets of 15-20
Hack Squats - 3 sets of 12-15
Lying Leg Curls - 3 sets of 6-10
DB RDL’s - 3 sets of 12-15

Any advice on changes to routine as well as warming up for squats will be much appreciated.

Hopefully next week I can get 225 for 10+ reps.

4

Lower back is killing me! Felt fine this morning after heavy deads yesterday but after training legs today I’m not looking forward to waking up tomorrow.

May have to reconsider my squatting form.

5

Actually got some good size on ya. I know having long limbs may seem like a curse, but once you’ve put in the time, and everything fills in better, you’re gonna look like a beast. My brother is 6’0, and one of my old training partners is 6’3, so I’ve seen the progress they’ve made, and it is impressive despite taking a bit longer than someone who is closer to 5’.

Your back definitely shows the results of deadlifting, although I would make sure that your lat thickness doesn’t fall behind, that will add to the negative effect of having long limbs and make you look more drawn out.

S

6

[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
Actually got some good size on ya. I know having long limbs may seem like a curse, but once you’ve put in the time, and everything fills in better, you’re gonna look like a beast. My brother is 6’0, and one of my old training partners is 6’3, so I’ve seen the progress they’ve made, and it is impressive despite taking a bit longer than someone who is closer to 5’.

Your back definitely shows the results of deadlifting, although I would make sure that your lat thickness doesn’t fall behind, that will add to the negative effect of having long limbs and make you look more drawn out.

S[/quote]

Thanks a lot for posting in here and for the compliment. Hearing that gives me hope I guess as you’ve said with time they will get better with time. I’m only about 5’9 believe it or not but my arms literally go past my knees if they’re straight down.

Yeah out of the big 3 I’ve always preferred deads because of my long arms and progressed quicker on them. Ego has got in the way because of that and I’m seriously considering taking it easy and going higher reps for them.

Got any tips for improving lat thickness feel most back back exercises in the upper mid back. But I’ve started using machine pullovers before doing any vertical movements to help focus on that so hopefully that helps.

Thanks again

7

Lower back felt a lot better this afternoon and my mate wanted to go gym so just went along and did some arms and I’m glad I did. A couple PRs in dips, db extensions and hammer curls :slight_smile: the reps were really controlled too so I’m pretty pleased with that!

ARMS
dips - BWx10 BWx10 45x10 90x6 90x4 90x2(hit a PR with 2 plates, last time I tried this movement last year I did 75x4 for a single set so I’m extremely pleased)

cg bench - 135x12 135x10 135x8 (gone heavy with dips so tried to be strict on this pressing movement)

db extensions - 45x15 80x15 80x12 80x11

pushdowns - 110x15 110x12 110x10 (when rope pushdowns stop hurting my shoulders I may switch back to them but this felt really good)

Wrists felt weak after db extensions so just left out the bb curls and did more hammer curl sets

hammer curls - 25x15 (should have warmed up more I know I know was a bit too eager) 55x12 55x9 55x8 55x6

Could have gone heavier with for a lower rep range and less controlled but please I left my ego out the door today

db preachers - 35x8 35x8 35x8 (no rest in between alternate arms)

Said I wouldn’t post pics till I I’ve made progress but arms are more pumped than ever so why not :slight_smile:

Measured at 16 pumped today fairly lean hopefully I can get up to about 17.5 and thereabouts some time

Anybody with any tips or words of wisdom I’m all ears and would be much appreciated

8

I’ve worked out five days in a row now because gym always closes early on weekends. Tbh its not all that bad but maybe that’s cause I’ve not been doing much work at university recently.
Too many people in the db section so decided to give standing overhead presses a try instead of seated db presses. I also tried out 3 sec holds on db shrugs today ala meadows and it felt good. Pretty much drifted away from my set out routine but would be more strict on it from next week.

SHOULDER DAY
Standing OHP with a bit of leg drive
45x15
95x10
115x3
135x5
135x4
135x2

Seated db laterals
3 sets of 8 with 35

Rear delt raises on incline bench
3 sets of 15 with 35

Db shrugs with 3+ sec holds at the top
3 sets of 10, 10, 8 with 80

Face pulls at the cable crossover station
3 sets of 15, 12, 10 with 90

The weight on this varies depending on if i use the cable pulldowns machine or cable crossover station.

Couple sets of front raises (really want that separation between upper chest and front delts).

2 days off from gym now hopefully my shoulders recover in time for chest on Monday. 80’s on db bench felt easy this week so hopefully i can stay in my rep range with 85’s on Monday. Giving myself about 6-8 weeks to get up to 100s for 4-8 reps.

9

[quote]DanielDJ wrote:

[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
Actually got some good size on ya. I know having long limbs may seem like a curse, but once you’ve put in the time, and everything fills in better, you’re gonna look like a beast. My brother is 6’0, and one of my old training partners is 6’3, so I’ve seen the progress they’ve made, and it is impressive despite taking a bit longer than someone who is closer to 5’.

Your back definitely shows the results of deadlifting, although I would make sure that your lat thickness doesn’t fall behind, that will add to the negative effect of having long limbs and make you look more drawn out.

S[/quote]

Thanks a lot for posting in here and for the compliment. Hearing that gives me hope I guess as you’ve said with time they will get better with time. I’m only about 5’9 believe it or not but my arms literally go past my knees if they’re straight down.

Yeah out of the big 3 I’ve always preferred deads because of my long arms and progressed quicker on them. Ego has got in the way because of that and I’m seriously considering taking it easy and going higher reps for them.

Got any tips for improving lat thickness feel most back back exercises in the upper mid back. But I’ve started using machine pullovers before doing any vertical movements to help focus on that so hopefully that helps.

Thanks again[/quote]
Chest supported tbar rows are probably the only exercise I’ve tried where ALL the tension was in my lats throughout their entirety

10

[quote]spar4tee wrote:

Chest supported tbar rows are probably the only exercise I’ve tried where ALL the tension was in my lats throughout their entirety[/quote]

I wish I could give that a go but I don’t have the equipment for that, my gym and pretty much most gyms in the UK are pretty basic.

May give db rows on an incline bench a try though, doing rear db raises on an incline has helped isolate rear delts so hopefully the same would work for lats.

I think I’ve got high lat insertion points which may probably be why I feel movements in the ‘mid’ back.

11

CHEST SHOULDERS
didn’t have much time to spend in the gym so rushed through this workout and didn’t really warm up too much

db bench - 45x10 65x10 85x6 80x6 80x6 (hit a PR with 85 this week I know I know I’m weak on pressing movements lol so much better now that I’ve got a gym partner though just feels so much safer especially on pushing movements)

db bench - 65x8 50x15 50x12 (the adjustable chair at my gym is now fixed so will do incline db press as a second movement now onwards instead of going lighter on db bench)

sm incline bench - 35 on each side x12, 10, 8 (I feel the clavicular head of my chest loads when I position the chair so that the bar goes down to my neck)

cable crossovers - 55x20 55x15 55x15 (love it when you look in the mirror while doing this in a vest and you can just see chest and shoulder striations and separation)

db upright rows (unilateral) - 45x10, 10, 6 (rushed through this but it seems like a keeper for now, hits the side delts hard and allows for more progression than db side raises which I do on shoulder day)

forgot to do cable side raise and calf raises oooops

BACK - later on today
before I joined the gym at uni I had a one year lay off without going gym and before then due to lack of exercise options I stuck to deadlifts and old school t bar rows as main movements and always did strips sets on them.

going to start implementing them again, going be intense to be intense since I only did 3 plates back then and dropped to 1 plate aside where as now I’m repping 4 plates aside

12

BACK - good session

deadlifts - 135x12 225x6 315x5 405x6(easy) 480x1(fairly hard)
Was gonna stick with 405 but the urge to hit a 1rm PR was too much

bb rows - 135x10 180x8 225x6 225x6 225x6
Lower back was exhausted after deads

db rows - 100x8 100x8 (first to sets done deadstop style) 100x10

db shrugs - 80x10 80x10 (meadows style) … 80x20 80x20
For some odd reason I feel stronger without straps on db and trap bar shrugs :confused: hate having to strap to the side because i always get it wrong lol

Did a bit of pull ups and pulldowns and pullovers but really can’t remember what wait I used phone ran out of battery to log them
down

Hitting arms tomorrow :smiley: going to aim for 8+ on the 90lb weighted dips

13

First off, could you give some background? how long you’ve been training, basically a brief overview of what you’ve done up to present, etc?

You seem to be on the right track. You have some good muscle bellies and shapes, and look very filled out for 5’9", 165 or whatever you are. Those long ass arms won’t be too tough to fill out for you I don’t think since the muscle bellies appear to be quite full already. I’m sure you can have natural 18s in a couple years if you stick to it. Plus, you’re genetically lean, small waist, and broad: a winning combination. Consider yourself lucky! Until I’ve seen more of your training over time, I’ll hold off on commenting on your routine in general, but some basic tips for arm training I’ll leave you with:

  • If you want big arms, don’t neglect your arm training or treat it as an afterthought. Give it the same focus and attention you would give legs or back. This holds especially true if your arms grow at a less than stellar pace, which for you, is yet to be determined. Genetics seem to be on your side though, and I expect with some smart training, they will blow up in no time.

  • If I had to focus on one aspect of arm training that would serve most people best, it would be focusing on mind-muscle connection, above all. That’s not to say that weight and other factors aren’t relevant, but if you’re doing a curl or a tricep movement, and other muscles are taking over, or using momentum, and the target muscles aren’t getting sore, you’re doing it wrong. There is a time and a place for sloppy, heavy, cheating sets for isolation-type work on smaller muscles, don’t get me wrong, but my focus would be on instilling a good mind-muscle connection.,

  • Experiment with different exercises and do the ones that you like that you FEEL. A lot of exercises are touted as the end-all, be-all for various muscle groups, but if you don’t feel them, or they hurt you, etc., drop them. A lot of people swear by dips, for example, for triceps. I used to do a lot of dips, didn’t get much tricep growth… they maybe helped my chest some, if anything. Now, I can’t even do a set of bodyweight dips without it feeling like my pec is gonna rip off my clavicle. Conversely, I LOVE straight bar curls. I think it’s the way my biceps attach, but I get a much better contraction at the top of a straight bar curl than an EZ bar curl. Also, it keeps my dominant forearms in a more disadvantageous position.

  • have fun with it. On the big movements, if you wanna go heavy one day for some cheat reps, great. If you want to do 10 sets of 20 with 30 seconds rest because you feel like it, do it. If you want to try 4x a week, do it. If you wanna try 1x a omnth, do it. I have found that I like relatively high frequency, relatively high volume, but everyone will have a unique sweet spot.

That was very ranty and not very pointed, but I hope maybe something in there is useful for you. If you have something more specific you’re curious about, feel free to ask. There are others more experienced and stronger than me watching over this log, anyways. :slight_smile:

14

^All solid advice

15

Thanks bug for dropping in

BACKGROUND

Started going to the gym around in mid 2009 when I was at boarding school at around 55kg.
Free gym membership since I was a student at the school. So I just went to the gym with my mate pretty much 3-4 times a day.
I had little or no knowledge about building muscle and all I did was copy what I saw other students in the gym doing.
Spent about 3-4 months just doing decline db bench press, ez bar curls, smith machine bench press, socialising, pec deck flyes, concentration curls, socialising and more curls.
After research and help from my mate who had ‘big arms’ I built a balanced upper body workout.
Started to do deadlifts, t-bar rows, incline bench, pull ups, cg bench, side raises etc etc but never really trained legs.
In a year I trained legs like 8 times with smith machine squats on half of those occasions. Deadlifts were pretty much the only time I ‘hit’ legs and tbh it was mostly all lower back to me with the technique I used then.
I did leg extensions with the ‘whole stack’ unilaterally and thought my legs were good cause of that. But in reality the machine at the school gym was faulty and made the exercise 10 times easier.
For like 6-8 months of the school year I had post workout whey shakes and pretty much ate as much food as the school cafeteria offered us at the 3 meal times. Thats the main reason behind any weight i gained during that time.

Left school in July 2010 at about 70kg and from then till October 2011 I didn’t step a single foot into a gym. Was on a gap year (basically a year off before I go to uni because I was to young to go uni although I had the necessary qualifications). I spent most of that time under eating or just eating pizza hut dominoes mcdonalds etc etc. The triceps black and white picture in this thread was during that period.

I spent most that year at home doing nothing at all and did floor db presses, db curls, cheat side raises with the 45lb db’s my brother had at home. I did that about twice a month at most tbh.

Lost a bit of weight/muscle but gained most of it back as well as strength when I joined the gym near uni in October 2011

Since then I’ve been consistent with training my upper body although up until recently I switched up my workouts weekly. Mainly because of too much research, one week i see this and wanna try it out next week I see that and wanna give that a go.

Up until about 2 weeks ago I had only done about 3/4 leg workouts since joining the gym in October. I’m known for looking like an upside down triangle when I wear shorts lol

In terms of nutrition, since leaving boarding school and not having food prepared for me my diet has sucked. I haven’t really stuck to any meal plans other tan the one that I’ve recently started. Tbh I hate eating ‘bodybuilding foods’

Background wise that’s pretty much it

Thanks for the compliment, and its good to know that someone like you thinks I’ve got a good structure. Always thought my structure was awful when I started out because I was basically skin and bones. I do count myself lucky leanness wise cause I do have some shitty eating habits.

That was all very very useful bug, thanks alot again. Considering that my nutrition has sucked in the past and that I haven’t ate enough to recover. DOMs has been a good indicator of how well I’ve trained a muscle and have gotten the most DOMs from the workouts where i focused on the muscle and not too much on the weight. The urge for more strength had lead me into using bad form and its a good reminder that I should focus on MMC and feeling the muscle and instead of just moving the weight and cheating too much. Hopefully I can find a balance in future.

One question … Do you know any movement that is good at isolating the outer/lateral head of the triceps? All the movements I’ve ever done (dips , cg bench, db oh extensions, pushdowns) are always felt in the inner head

Thanks again for taking the time out to help. Much appreciated.

16

[quote]spar4tee wrote:
^All solid advice[/quote]

I agree. Especially helpful considering my next workout is arms. Good advice to have on my mind a the gym tomorrow.

17

Nothing special for the past 3 workouts but progress has been in some aspects of training

ARMS
dips - BWx10 BWx6 45x8 90x5 90x6 (felt better than first set :confused: ) 90x3

db extensions (PR) - 85x12 85x12 85x16 (need to learn to take this exercise to failure always feel like I’ve got way more left in me)

Left elbow started feeling funny but I don’t know if it was the dips or db extensions that did it

Planned on doing unilateral pushdowns with an externally rotated shoulder to hit the lateral head. Did a feeler set on my right arm moved on to my left and my elbows just kept aching. So annoying but its feeling better now :slight_smile:

hammer curls (PR) - 60x10 60x8 60x5 45x10 (just felt like doing a drop set today on the last set)

bb curls - 90x8 90x7 90x5 (these felt really heavy after doin hammer curls, really focused on the negatives and did a couple slow eccentrics at the end by cheating ( aka power cleaning lol) the weight up and slowly lowering it down)

db preachers - 35x15 35x12 35x10 (really slow cadence on this)

LEGS - mehh average session phone out of battery so couldn’t log everything other than squats which I remembered
leg extensions - 3 working sets

squats (PR)- 225x7 225x5 135x15 (after this set and playing around with form I think next weeks leg session would be much better)

going to start implementing Max OT style of warming up for my squats and other main movements

leg press - 3 working sets

lying leg curls - 3 working sets

machine calf raises - 4 sets with good stretch

SHOULDERS - had a urmmm pizza like 15 minutes before this session was so hungry and well yeah the workout sucked at the start

db press - 65x6 65x6 55x10 (content with that but could have done better if I didn’t eat right before lol)

db laterals - 40x9 40x8 40x8 20x12 (feel pretty strong on these especially when I keep forearms at 45 degrees to the elbows, much less stress on shoulder joint and easier to progress on)

face pulls - couple sets of 15-25 reps

shrugs - 225x12 315x10 225x10 (planned on doing more sets but new gym buddies wanted to leave so rushed through this with slow eccentrics)

Been a good week nutrition wise been getting 1.5g of protein on a regular basis for once and found ways of cooking chicken (cheapest meat in UK) without getting bored of it

Cooking 5 days worth of chicken at once has really helped

Need to find easy to prepare carb sources though, getting tired of tortilla wraps, bananas and oats

18

To make sure I’m reading correctly, I know you’re from England, so are you using pounds for everything or kilos for squats and shrugs. Just trying to make sure that I’m interpreting the information properly.

19

Your doing pretty good man. The first back shot is great.
One question, does ‘‘hench’’ means swole/jacked/yoked, etc? Iv never heard that one before.

20

[quote]spar4tee wrote:
To make sure I’m reading correctly, I know you’re from England, so are you using pounds for everything or kilos for squats and shrugs. Just trying to make sure that I’m interpreting the information properly.[/quote]

I think you saw the small squats and shrug numbers and got confused I assume lol.

all my numbers in this log are in pounds but I forgot to change my squat and shrug numbers to pounds because my personal phone log is in kg so must have forgot to convert them when typing that down.

will edit that now, sorry for the confusion but happy to know you are following.

edit: looking at other peoples logs I think I need to make mine more presentable