Fuck.
Friday:
Front squat up to a single at 225. It’s technically a PR, but hardly progression. missed 240 cause I couldn’t keep my elbows up. I couldn’t get my shoulders right and the bar pressing against my throat was starting to make me retch FFS. So in the interests of not puking all over the gym, I moved on.
OHP - ramp up to 135 for two. I push pressed the first one a bit. Felt like shit. I couldn’t get tight and bounce off my lats.
Apparently, the gym closes at 7 on fridays. Fuck them.
So I pressed some rocks out in the woods for a while. Everything still felt like shit.
I have a cold or something. I’ve been unfocused and tired all day. Fuck this. It’s time for the weekend. Gonna get to sleep early tonight AND sleep in. Gotta get to the gym before they CLOSE AT 3:00…
My forearms/lower biceps (along with my lats of course) are oddly sore. I have to eat way more.
Saturday
missed a 275 pin squat. fuck
easy 93 db snatch (pressed it out a little actually)
no time for anything else.
Weak.
EDIT: this cold’s in my chest now… Gym’s closed tomorrow anyway so I’ll take it off and sleep in more tonight.
Calling yourself weak doesn’t make you any stronger. Keep putting in the work.
I know it, thanks. I just hate it when my body screws with me and I don’t progress.
Short term goal/plan: Deadlift - bunch of short rest singles starting with 315 tomorrow. Next week doubles with 315. Next week singles at 335. Next 335 for doubles. On February 27, I’ll take 350 for a ride…
Semi-long term goal: 225 OHP (not bounced off my lats) by the 4th of July. (I’ll be a real American hero!) Requires about 5 lb a week. If I work my ass off (and eat enough!!) I can do it. Cycle singles, doubles, and triples similar to my deadlift plan.
things to work on:
Just found that my right shoulder blade is winging slightly at the top only. This is my weaker arm on rows and such and also the one that usually gets pain in the SC joint. (recent mwod video deals with this I believe)
Right hip grinds at end range of the bad girl motion. (No idea what the anatomical term is haha)
Right (broken) ankle wants to collapse and hurt a bit.
High lumbar/low thoracic hinging a bit much.
More psoas strength.
Couch stretch.
I need to make time to roll.
Get back to some glute activation.
Eat more…
(try some one arm deadlifts. I’d love to be able to pull my 1RM DOH. That’d be awesome.)
My right high hamstring decided to start hurting towards the outside. Not particularly cool. I spent about an hour rolling my hamstrings, glutes, and IT bands and it all feels nicer.
Monday:
Deadlift (straps)- This did not go according to plan in the slightest. I did a few singles at 275, one at 295, a miss at 295, then two more singles at 275. The last one was much faster than all the previous ones. Still ironing out technique and getting over this cold I think. Remember to set your air hard.
Full dips - 1 plate plus 35 for ~7 triples. Then a long rest and a set of 5. Then another long rest and a set of 17 with BW. 10 second rest and 2 more. Another 10 second rest 1 more rep.
Ab wheel rollouts - a set or two on my knees, a few sets on my feet going almost all the way out. (I used to be able to do these all the way out…)
Box jumps up to a few on the loading dock. (boxes in the gym are nowhere near high enough) This height is easy now. I’m at college, and some girl caught me doing these and wanted me to do “one more” haha. Interesting way to meet the womenfolk… 
Good session except for the deadlift. At least my right hamstring/glute didn’t mess with me. Also, for the first time in about two months, I used my mega-fancy peri-workout nutrition protocol, chocolate milk. I’ll be trying to remember it from now on cause I think it does make a difference.
Tuesday:
Low bar squat (I’ve basically never done these. Time to start.) - 305 easy. Just barely missed 315. Probably cause I’d been increasing the weight up from 275 ten lb at a time and not really resting all that long. Guarantee I have it in me. I fucked up my neck doing these. The old levator scapulae thing. But this time I know what it is and how to fix it…
So I went back to my dorm to recharge my dying ipod and to work on my levator scapulae a bit. About half an hour later:
Incline pin press (these are two or three inches off my chest. The deepest my shoulders are comfortable with)
ramp to 170 for ~6 fairly short rest singles.
Bulgarian split squats - ramp to 3 triples with the 78’s. I don’t like the ankle situation on the raised leg. My balance is much better than last time I did these.
Forgot about rear delts, etc.
I needed more OHP’ing so here’s a new scheme (I’m sure I’ll end up doing nothing at all like this) I’ll start Monday:
OHP more intensity (singles) -------- DL, grip/traps, seated good mornings/hyper (7x5 or so)
Incline (pins and db) and dips (hard) ------- oly (more volume), back
OHP slightly easier day (triples, less sets) --------- PL (more volume), grip/traps (rack pulls)
Incline (pins) marathon --------- split sq, back
OHP more volume-heavy (doubles) -------------- oly (dead, singles), grip/traps
incline (pins and db) and dips (hard) ----------- PL (singles), back
rest or whatever I can do without access to the main room. Reactive plyos, maybe.
Every Monday log how much your OHP estimated 1RM increased since last Monday. Should be helpful.
I’m gonna stop bouncing my OHP’s. It tempts me to cheat with leg drive among other things. I don’t think it’ll take that much off.
OHP - utter and complete disaster. Couldn’t even get 135. Fucking 95 was slow. Obviously not my day so I just did a few push presses with 135. Which I struggled with for fucks sakes.
Wanted to give my levator scapuale a break so I skipped the db rows.
A set of face pulls with the stack (plus warmup of course) while I waited for the pulldown machine.
Narrow grip pulldowns - ramp (with lots of volume) to two sets at 190. I held as best I could the last rep of each for 20 seconds. Way fewer sets than I would prefer. My right collarbone started hurting a bit on these but stretching my chest in the usual way kept it in check. I’ve been slacking on prehab.
Low one arm cable rows squeezing my lower lats - ramp with lots of volume to a few sets at 190.
Tried to do some LYTP’s but could only do a few Y’s and T’s. For some reason the L’s were pushing my very full stomach against the bench in a rather unhelpful way.
Reverse cable crossovers stress my shoulders so I did rear delt raises with the 18’s with some liberal swinging to finish the set. Holy SHIT these hurt. I love them.
I think my shoulders must not have been recovered. I guess the combination of this cold, cramming for a test last night, and not eating a whole lot yesterday actually cut into my recovery enough to cause trouble. Also my hamstrings and glutes are way sorer than they should be for such little volume yesterday. Very unusual. I’ll pile the food in tonight.
At least I got a nice lat pump haha.
Thursday:
Some lower weight power snatches. Some from the hang, some from the floor. I can’t drop these and if I control it on the way down it hurt my left shoulder in a not so nice way. Felt like the pain was in my mid delt. It was weird. I really need to mob my shoulders. They feel like an injury waiting to happen. (I spent about an hour working on the whole area later. In case I forget, rolling my pec minor was very effective. Also, the snatch shoulder pain is probably a slight pull in my mid delt. I don’t think it’s the capsule, fortunately.) I felt pretty explosive on the snatches anyway.
Deep high bar squat (I’m not sure I should say I’m going ATG. How about Hamstrings To Calves. HTC…) ~7 triples at either 260 or 270. I think it was 270. These were good though I felt a little rusty. My sacrum area actually was hurting a bit on these. Strange.
Single arm dumbbell push press - ramp up to a pretty easy single at 88 for each arm. These felt nice on my serratus and rhomboids etc.
Then 3 x 3 strict dumbbell press with the 53’s. My shoulders are weak as shit. I held the last rep of each set for 10-20 seconds.
I wanted to give my shoulders a break. I’ve got my gagging problem under control so I’m eating enough now. That should handle a lot of these issues that seem to be cropping up.
My left biceps/brachialis hurts too.
I feel like taking some time with dumbbell presses.
Here’s a plan.
thursday was 53’s 3x3, So:
sat - 53’s short rest triples
mon - if I hit 10 triples on Sat, then 53’s for short rest 5’s. If not, then more triples
wed - if I hit enough 5’s then triples at 58’s
Fri - short rest triples at 58’s
Mon - If I hit 10 triples on Fri, then 58’s for short rest 5’s. If not, then more triples.
Etc.
Always as many sets as I can without significantly lengthening the rest periods.
Friday:
Some one arm deadlifts with 135. Didn’t really work out as well as I thought they would.
Leg curls - a few sets of 3 with 140
Some glute bridges. some with one leg
rack pulls from my knee - two triples at 335. My glutes were well up to hitting 365 but my low back started to round both times I tried it.
RDL’s - 225 for several reps more than 10. 12 or 13 maybe? 245 for 10, 245 for 8.
I tried to do some PJR pullovers but my calf cramped up very nastily. (I’m tiny enough that I have to basically static leg curl the bench to keep myself from getting pulled over.) I tried to keep going but it made my calf spasm again. I fixed it both times by forcing my foot up with my hand and holding it for awhile. I don’t think this has ever happened to me before.
Not a particularly good session. My work capacity seems down recently. I didn’t get a whole lot of sleep last night. My high lower back was unhappy as was my right collarbone. Hopefully taking Sunday off’ll fix me up so I can get back to it.
Saturday:
Dumbbell OHP: 55’s for triples, slightly longer rests than I’d like. I think I got about 10. I think I can go to 5’s on Monday.
Rear delt flies - sets at 15, 20 and drop to 12, 15.
All this was on no food at all… I got the cafeteria hours wrong again. I’ll make up for it tonight.
My left calf hurts when I stretch it. Not in a bad way though.
Neural charge session today. Haven’t done one in a while. EDIT: this was a mistake haha. I would kill to be training right now. Gotta give my joints a break though. Put the effort into eating instead.
I think I should stop fighting against my structure and just switch to sumo. Gotta get my right hip happy first though.
http://www.mobilitywod.com/2011/05/episode-241365-sumo-and-medial-chain-business.html
http://www.mobilitywod.com/2011/03/episode-208365-wide-stance-prep-or-fixing-sumodecompression.html
couch stretch too
I feel freakin awesome thanks to my two day deload haha.
Monday:
dynamic warmup (No idea why I stopped doing this. Time to start again), quick neural charge
Dumbbell OHP - 53’s for four 5’s. (plus another set where I had to push press the fifth) Pretty short rests. (normal - 2 sets per song). I was aiming for 7 sets. I’ll hit it on Wednesday for sure.
Sumo deadlift up to 315, missed 335, then 6 rather short rest doubles at 275. (all straps) Actually I think it would be better to call these semi-sumo deadlifts. About the same stance width as Ed Coan.
Holy fuck yes I’m sticking with these. They feel right (though surprisingly slow?), I can actually drive/strain. So much more stable, like a squat. I expect this motherfucker to FLY up. I’m not sure whether I should still deadlift weekly or let RDL’s take care of my lower back and larger hamstring ROM. I want to keep the motor pattern of conventional deadlifting fresh. (though it’s hardly fresh right now…) Maybe I could use DOH deadlifts as an assistance movement and get my grip working too.
I didn’t really PR in anything but it was still awesome.
Tuesday:
Dips (form was a bit off, wasn’t leaning forward enough as I realized several minutes after my last set… that should explain the slight collarbone pain and not being able to get quite deep enough) - 90 x ~6 long rest triples.
Bulgarian split squats - the 88’s for one hard triple for each leg. I tend to cheat these by bending forward at the hips to use my glutes. (I got off balance on my first attempt and almost fucked up my right knee. I’m starting to question the value of these. Especially as I’ve started feeling squats a bit more in my VMO again.)
Hey I did barely anything this session! Whatever, I’m ready to kick ass on Tuesday.
i wasn’t able to do incline and back yesterday.
Today was nothing according to plan. My knee that I nearly fucked over last night hurt (as does the other one strangely) and I don’t want to mess with it for a bit. I also want to rest my back more. I only got about 1500 cals yesterday, and only one small meal before I trained today. (obviously i’ll have way more later) Also my neck’s been feeling suspect all day. And I’ve had a headache all day. I’m having my period apparently. I only got two reps with the 58’s on the first set.
So I aborted the mission and fucked around trying out some upper body plyo movements. Med ball throws, incline pushups, regular plyo pushups, pushups onto boxes, plyo pushups starting at the floor.
The boxes didn’t work at all. I have no way to set it up that gives me enough height. The pushups starting at the floor were a great idea. (remember to get tight/tension before you push.)
for the throws remember to push it straight out like a bench press, not slightly up.
“Hate. There must be an overall feeling of great displeasure with where the trainees are in their training. Satisfaction breeds apathy and apathy breeds failure.” - Matt Kroc on training environment.
Next time you OHP get the bar closer in. (possibly why I feel like I can grind out db’s and rocks better) Like so:
Thursday:
PL squat up to some easy singles at 275 except for my little problem that I can’t get the rack right. I’m good if I bend my upper back way over but the moment I bring my chest up I lose the bar, which is not really a good thing. I think I still need bigger rear delts.
Incline from pins - ~20 short rest singles at 170. These were awesome.
RDL - 1 set at 225, 3 more sets at 245. 8-10 reps. I didn’t count. Keep your back straight. helps with the stretch too.
I tried a few Dizenzo-style OHP’s with the empty bar and I like it. It feels stronger.
I didn’t do any DB incline presses so that I’ll be ready to kick the shit out of the 58’s on DB OHP tomorrow. (If I’m not fresh I’ll put this on Saturday. I doubt it though, cause I’m gonna go eat the caf out of business now)
how were you ohp’ing before? pressing away from yourself?
Kinda behind myself actually. My starting point was way out in front of my face with my triceps jammed into my lat shelf. And I had a pretty marrow grip so the bar ends up a good 2 inches away from my face (around mouth level). So when I’d start to press, the bar would be way out in front of me and I’d have to push it back over my head.
Compared to mine, Dizenzo’s style puts the bar much closer to being right over the shoulders and shortens the ROM a whole lot cause you’re pressing straight up.
friday:
db OHP - a few longish rest triples with the 58’s. Sweet. Then ~6 fairly short rest sets of 4 with the 53’s.
Rear delt flies -up to the 23’s and a nasty drop set
Rollouts - a set on my knees, a set on my feet. I like doing these walking my hands out instead of with the wheel. It’s less likely to make me overextend. Also it helps me feel better about doing a gimmicky ab exercise…
So, hand walkouts - ~5 sets on my feet holding it for a few seconds each rep. Last set was 10 reps, 10 seconds each rep. Held the last rep for 15.
I was gonna squat today but my legs are all fucked up. I haven’t rolled them for a while. Also my high lumbar (where I tend to hinge) is a little pissed. I’m gonna reset the weight down a bit on the RDL’s sadly.
Do some kind of jumps saturday and sunday. Give my poor spine a rest.
God, I can see veins in my delts. Give me more food!
