Hastalles's Log

Back is much better. I’m at 75 percent or so. I did a very few one arm pushups, one leg squats, and pullups over the last few days.

I did a CT kind of continuous ramp (msostly sets of 3 with very little rest) with military press (that I stopped at 75 lb for my back), low incline press, and bench press. I also did some very light, very controlled lateral raises, Y’s, and rear delt raises.

Also a few sets of pullups which caused my old clavicle pain to come back. As always, stretching the corresponding pec minor kept it under control. I think this is a combination of a lack of stretching/rolling over the last weeks and pulling my shoulder blades back, for obvious reasons (I did pull them down though. That’s not a problem.)

I think the back can handle squats. We’ll see later today. EDIT: Nope. I did a few sled drags with the strap up at my shoulder area. Some forward, some backward. I stayed upright in the backward ones to try to hit my spinal erectors too.

It feels so good to be back.

Sunday: Carried, lifted, and flipped a bunch of kayaks and canoes both empty and waterlogged.

I should get back to this. I’ve been training, but no time to log. I’m at college now and I HAVE A REAL GYM!

Saturday

semi-sumo deadlift, chest supported row, curls

Sunday

One section of the gym was shut down for the day, so I had to make do.

Dumbbell military press - a bunch of triples with the 50’s, last few sets I had to push press the last rep or so.
Lateral raise then front raise - a few with the 30’s then a few with the 20’s.
EZ-bar french press - 60 lb preloaded bar for 3 or 4 sets
triceps pushdowns - a few sets with 80, then a drop set

my biceps hurt from yesterday.

Monday

High bar squat, below parallel - ramp up to 275 for 1, two constant tension backoff sets
4 or 5 sets of leg extensions 90 lb x 8 or so. ended with a hold and slow negative
leg curls - exactly the same

played an hour or two of ultimate

Tuesday

Bench press, ramp up to 160 for a double (I had one very ugly rep left in the tank for this; my triceps were still shot from monday), backoff set with 135
angled machine one arm press (from the first indigo videos) 4 or 5 sets of 8, ramped up to 130 or 140 (?) held midpoint for a few seconds on last set/rep
cable crossovers, 50 for a few sets, then a drop set

Wednesday

dumbbell rows triples ramping up to 103 (as high as the dumbbells go). These were pretty strict, all the way to my chest. Did 3 or 4 sets at 103.

chest supported row machine, triples ramping up to 95, drop set with slightly higher reps (and ~1 minute rests, so not really a drop SET) end with 5 second hold with 10

lat pulldowns (wide handle) - ramp up to 140 for pretty high reps (learning how to do these with my lats) 4 or 5 sets

Straight arm pulldowns - all over the place, focusing on feeling my lats

Close grip handle (whatever it’s called) lat pulldowns - ramp up to 130 for pretty high reps, started a drop set but my grip was failing badly

chest supported row machine with parallel handles (arms close to sides) 45 for 5 reps, then my grip failed completely, even with my borrowed straps. These really hit my lower lats.

Thursday

Military press ramp up to a pathetic 107.5 (misload) for three, then ramp back down to 95 or so, usually push pressing the last rep of the triples. Kept doing triples with 95 for a bunch of sets. Quite short rests. Some dude told me that I’m actually pushing these back behind perpendicular. I guess mobility isn’t a problem anymore!

Laterals straight into front raises - mid range reps, 4 sets. I love these. My delts pump up like crazy. (possibly related to actually using PWO nutrition.)

3 sets of mid range rep face pulls - 100 lb, not to super failure or anything. Still got a cool rear delt pump anyway. I could really feel my lower traps on these for some reason. I like face pulls on shoulder day.

Friday

Semi sumo deadlift - warmup to 295 which is sort of a new PR. I almost hit it last week but lost my grip. I wore straps this time. It went up pretty fast. 300 wouldn’t move. Then I did 255 for 2.

I cut it short because my quads or something started some weird cramping during my warmup which got worse and worse as I went on. They still hurt now (half an hour or so after).

Saturday

Activation: Power/hang dumbbell snatch for a triples up to 60 lb.

Bench Press - ramp up to 165 for a pretty easy triple, did a few triples with a little less, 135 for a rep or two shy of failure. quite short rests

One arm angled machine press 140 for two sets of 8, last set I had to rest a few seconds in between the last two or 3.

The gym decided to close in half an hour for some reason so I did my best with what I had.

My legs still hurt. Pressure on my hamstrings makes whatever it is around my quads hurt. I think I’m going to stick with regular deadlifts. Who cares if I’m not built for them, they hit my lower back and hamstrings better than the half sumo things.

Sunday

Only part of the gym was open so I screwed around with stuff that I usually don’t hit hard/prehab.

forearms
neck
grip
abs/obliques
external rotators
lower/mid traps and rhomboids

I’m face pulling the whole pathetic stack. Not sure what to do.

If you’re face pulling the whole stack you can:

  • wedge small dumbbells on top of the stack
  • put plates on the selector pin
  • use a strap or small chain to hang weight off the stack
  • add bands if possible
  • face pull one side at a time

Endless possibilities!

Thanks dude! Keeping from getting pulled over is hard enough already (Im a lightweight little fuck), so I think I’ll try one side at a time. Though for maximum coolness, maybe I should pile dumbbells on the stack and look like a badass, haha.

dude those vids of deadlifting are hardcore lol at the tires with db attach to them
do you live out in the country?

If you’re getting pulled forward by the weight ask someone to put their foot in front of yours so you can brace against it. Just don’t step on their foot.

Thanks again! Endless wisdom from you, man!

Military press ramp up to 110 for 3. a few triples up around there, then a drop set down to 75. pretty short rests.

Lateral to front raise to cheated front raise - 5 sets (last set, I added military press right before the cheated front raises)
Face pulls - ramp up to 150 (stack) for mid range reps, three sets
Rear delt flies on cables (not sure what to call these. They were in a Ronnie Coleman video and they burn like crazy) 20 lb for highish reps, three sets IIRC.

seated calf raise machine - warmup: 0 x a few reps. then 45 x mid range reps for two sets. Waiting two seconds at the bottom. I like these. I’ve never really trained my calves, so I’m taking it easy to start.

Holy shit. I missed lunch and made up for it with a great deal of milk. And then sat through a three hour lab. Time to socially unacceptably slay dinner. For its own good, the caf better be open.

Chest supported row - ramp to 1 plate +35 (this is what I did last time, not 95, typo) for 3 sets of 5
Close grip lat pulldown ramp to 160 for 2 or 3 sets of 8
Set of pullups focusing on shoulder blades (not to failure at all, the pulldowns were hurting my collarbone thing a little)
Shrugs 135 for mid range reps then 3 sets low/mid range reps with 225. Hold at top, though it ended up being more of a quick squeeze. My traps are WEAK. I also never train them. Time to change that.
A quick set of face pulls (with external rotation at the end) with 100, not to failure at all.

I didn’t feel much drive today. Whatever, I still beat PR’s.

My legs are still slightly tweaked. Gonna watch them very carefully. I don’t want them to get all fucked like the trap/rhomboid thing was.

Second session - Tuesday evening (pre dinner)

Ramp up dumbbell rows low reps
then Kroc rows (only a little cheating near the end) with straps - 103 (heaviest db I’ve got) ~15 reps each side
rest a few minutes
then another set (a little bit more heavily cheated) ~12 reps each side
rest two minutes or so
strapless strict high rep rows until my grip failed - 73 for 10 - 15 reps each arm
rest two minutes or so
Pullups to failure (focusing on pulling shoulder blades down) ~10
rest ~1 minute
another set 3 - 4 (failure) then I just did the shoulder blade movement for a few more reps

This session was good. I’ve never done Kroc rows before and I like them.

I got literally two hours of sleep last night. Hence I am taking the day off.

12-13 hours of sleep last night. Yeah!

Thursday

I gave my legs one more day. Squats tomorrow!

Bench press warm up (not ramp-up, though I used shorter rest periods and smaller weight jumps than a proper warmup. So kind of in between the two.) to a pretty hard triple at 170.
Dips - BW x ~8, 25 x 5, 45 x 5, 70 x 2 (failure), 50 x 3x5 These gave me ever so slight discomfort in my collarbones. (Same place as always) I’m not sure I’m going all the way to “upper arms parallel to ground.”
Reverse grip bench 95 x ~8, 135 x 3x5

Kinda pussied out today. I hate how you can’t absolutely trash a muscle with compound lifts. Maybe I just need some time to learn the groove. Or maybe just stop being a pussy.