Friday - Squat day!
High bar squats ramp up with very short rests to 255 for a fucking hard triple, then a single or double or two around there, (last one was definitely a single cause I had to leave it on the safeties on the second attempted rep), then back off to 225 for 5 or so (?), then 195 for 10 constant tension reps, the last two or so I had to rest at the top for a few seconds. I showed someone how to squat (more or less) today, which was awesome! I hadn’t squatted in almost two weeks and I felt rusty. Fuck injuries and ESPECIALLY mysterious pseudo-injuries that might be important and might not.
THEN…
Leg extensions, 8 reps each 50, 90, 100, 110, 120 and then a sixth one with 120 where I hit 24 reps in as few sets/short rests as possible.
Leg curls, 8 reps each. The weights IIRC were 60, 90, 100, 110, then a drop set starting at 120 and ending at 70. For this drop set I held each last rep for a few seconds. (I love the place your mind goes when you’re in pain like this.)
I kinda feel like a pussy for not doing more squats but there’s only one squat rack and I didn’t want to hog it, and my quads were tweaked up until recently so I wanted to take it a bit easy, and I was out of chocolate milk, and my vagina hurt.
My lower traps (I think) are mysteriously sore today. From the dips I think. One of the reasons I like them. Also, I’ve got some kind of weird bruising/blood blister on top of my hip flexors. Mostly the left. No idea where it’s from.
No training yesterday OR today. Whatever your reason is for closing the gym, I guarantee you it’s not good enough.
Monday
Military press, ramp up with short rests to 115 x 2 (misload, supposed to be my last ramp-up set with 105), quite short rest, then 115 x 4 (!) drop to 95 for ~5, drop to 65 for 10-15.
laterals to front raises - 1 set (forgot about the dumbbell presses)
Dumbbell presses - 30’s for mid range reps (plus a few one arm side press kind of things after failure), 4 or 5 sets. I tend to let my elbows collapse at the bottom of these, which hurts. If I can’t fix that, these’re out.
Laterals to front raises - 3 sets - mid range reps
Face pulls ramp up to 150 (stack) for mid range reps for 3 or 4 sets
Did a few static holds facing the wrong way on the pec deck. Not very successful.
The cable station was taken so,
PJR pullovers EZ-bar (without much intensity. Just trying them out on the fancy bars)
Swiss bar kind of thing (whatever it’s called) did two sets, with 40 lb on for the last set.
cables were free by then, so Reverse cable crossovers - 1 very high rep set.
Awesome PR! Look into dumbbell presses and PJR pullovers.
Dumbbell rows (quite strict) - ramp to 103 x 5(?) x 10 (8 on the last set)
Narrow grip pulldowns - ramp to 150 x 6-8ish for a few sets (3?) then a very small, low intensity drop set
Face pulls - warmup, then stack (150) x 3 x 10ish (last set I ended with just the scapular retraction and depression)
Shrugs - bar by 20ish with a hold at the top, then 3 sets of 135 with a wide grip and several seconds hold at the top. Can’t really feel my traps and my shoulders feel a bit tweaked on them. Look into shoulder posture/position for shrugs
I didn’t have as much energy as usual here. I also drank my chocolate milk (Super Awesome PWO) after instead of while I trained. (I forgot it) That could have something to do with it.
Deadlift (conventional) - ramp up to 275, miss 295 twice (got it an inch or two off the ground. Just a tad more and I’d have it.) Wearing straps, of course… 
Good mornings from pins - ramp up to 245 for one set of 3 then another set of 5 cluster reps. (about 10 seconds in between each so I can’t really call it a regular set…) Pretty short rests in between sets.
Hyperextensions - a bunch of sets up to 1 plate for 30 (failure) I didn’t think to use a dumbbell instead of a plate. I’m not exactly brilliant at the best of times haha! These actually worked my hamstrings pretty well. I wasn’t expecting that.
I was happy with the deadlift. I stayed tight and dragged the bar up my shins. In other news, my neck hurts in a not nice way. Fuck you, shrugs.
Didn’t want to lose this. Stuff: Per Aspera Ad Astra
“The days when you want to quit, when your hands feel like they’re going to fall off, when your knees and your shoulders ache, when the bar just feels too damn heavy from your first warm-up, when you’re out of ibuprofen and the ice isn’t cold anymore…those days, when you decide to listen to the stupid little voice in your stupid stubborn heart, and pick the bar up one more time, those days are opportunities to decide your fate. Anyone can do it on an easy day. Only those who do it when it hurts can become champions.”
Thursday
Bench press - ramp to 175 x 3ish (with a tiny bit of help on the last one. I think I could’ve gotten it.) One more set around there. I felt my pecs better than usual on these for some reason.
reverse grip bench - 135 x 5, 145 x 5 x 5 (last set, only 3)
1 set of ~10 pushdowns with 70 lb as a bit of an elbow warmup
PJR pullovers (dumbbell)- 50 x 10ish, 65 x 3-4 (lol), 55 x 4 or 5 x 8ish These were great.
Pushdowns 70 x 8ish, 80 x 5ish, 60 x 8ish, drop set (last rep of each stage of the drop set was slightly cheated then held for 10 seconds an inch or so shy of lockout. The last two stages I ended with 30 second holds. Felt so good.)
Dumbbell rows (straps) ramp up (more reps in warmup than last time) to 103 x 5 x 10 last set I rest paused a few more out
I need to watch lumbar rounding more on this.
Dumbbell rows (no straps) 83 x 10ish
Lat pulldowns (close grip handle) ramp to 160 for 6ish. a few sets up there then drop set with 10 second holds at failure of each stage
Parallel low grip chest supported rows ramp to 45 25 for a bunch of sets of 8ish. then a drop set with 20 second holds (was awesome) I could feel my lower lats well with these.
Cable reverse curls as in video: Picture 006.avi - YouTube
3 sets 10 reps-ish with 20, then a last one with 10 (haha). plus a few cheated reps (helping with other hand) FEEL THE BURN, BRAH.
My old right upper trap pain (not the mid trap pain) has slightly reappeared at end range. Fucker.
Why are the weekend gym hours so weird? It’s probably best, I need to give my trap some rest. It’s feeling better already, thankfully.
New kids on the block:
Squat day -
Hip flexors
Neck
Overhead day -
Long head of triceps (55 x 8)
Calves (75 x 8)
Upper pulling day -
Biceps
Forearms (rev- 30lb x 8)
Deadlift day -
Traps (135 x 10)
Grip
Neck 2
Bench day -
Upper pecs
Abs
Obliques
Calves 2
An idea for squat day secondary - Front squats from pins.
Farmer’s walks on deadlift day
Others:
Thoracic mobility (pinching between hips and stomachs to lock down lumbar as in Joe Bonyai video)
Hip flexor mobility
Psoas activation
Right shoulder internal rotation mobility
mate, that deadlift video on the first page is one of the most badass things i’ll see all month!
Thanks! The sad thing is that I’m only pulling about 5 - 10 lb more now… Fuck injuries.
Schedule was pretty nasty today so very short rests here.
Deep squat (few inches above atg)- ramp up to 245 x 3 (My forms gotten a little wacky lately. my knees want to come in and I dont stay upright enough) I also kept my stance a little narrower than ususal.
Front squat from pins 135 x 8ish, 185 x 5ish. Switched to back squat from pins 225 x 4/5 x 2. last set I waited ten seconds to get the last one up. I love these. I don’t have enough explosive starting strength. (The pins were set just a tad over parallel. If I dropped my hands down they’d be at deadlift height)
Roman chair leg raises - a few half assed reps until I realized I didn’t have any way to add weight.
Very little time so, leg extension ramp up with VERY short rests to 120 x 8ish then a drop set with 10 second holds at the end of each stage. Last stage 20 second hold/negative. I tweaked my neck a bit on these, haha. So I skipped the neck work.
I had to take the wheelchair ramp out of the building, lol.
A little later (once I could move my legs again) I did some psoas activation stuff.
Tuesday
Military press ramp up to 120 x 3 (my neck, which still hurt a little today, came back in force right here with some kind of headache thing too) I did a few more doubles and such at 120, but then decided to be safe and cut it short.
I need to figure out what’s wrong with my neck/traps and how to fix it.
At least I got my PR!
I’ll go back in later for my calves, since I gotta go to class.
Tuesday - session 2 (calves)
Seated calf raise machine - ramp up to 75 for mid range reps for 4 sets or so. usually ending with a pretty long hold
Smith calf raises with my toes on two 25’s - 1p 35 ps for 3 sets, I think
Coulda been way more intense. I’m easing into these, especially as my right ankle was feeling a little unstable.
Wednesday:
Chest supported row, wide handle - ramp to 2 plates (these got a little Branch Warren-y on the last few reps, haha)
Gym was closing in a few minutes (WTF) so,
Lat pulldowns, close grip handle - 90, 110, 130, 130, then a drop set down to 90 with 10 - 20 second holds, quite strict, squeezing at the bottom and ALL the way down, pretty high reps, really short rests. I got a legit pump from this, bro. Too bad I couldn’t keep going.
The headache thing got worse about half way through the rows. I’m gonna spend some quality time foam rolling the whole area.
Wednesday session 2
Power (?) curls/ reverse grip clean (I’ve seen a few clips of discuss throwers doing these so I watned to try them out. I felt like such a douchebag haha) It makes it worse that I did them on an EZ-bar. warmup then 1 p 5ps for ~8 triples
then EZ-bar curls - up to 80 (fixed bar) for 8ish, then a nice drop set down to 40 and a 20 second hold slightly past mid-way up.
Then cable reverse curls - a bunch of sets. Top set was 30 for 8ish.
I could feel my T dropping by the minute for doing a session of nothing but curls.
Thursday
My neck’s been fucking with me all day. I’m pushing deadlifting to tomorrow. I think a rest day’ll do me good.
Friday
I officially trained like a little bitch today.
Deadlift - ramp up to 275 x 0 (wtf?), 275 x 4, 275 x 5 (WTF?) 275 x 1. Each set to failure.
Farmer’s walk - 73’s for 50 seconds, then 4 more (untimed) Each set to failure.
The first deadlift rep always feels like I’m not putting all my strength into it. Something feels off. The reps after that feel right though. And no, I’m not bouncing them off the floor.
I think I’m just being a huge vagina. At least my form just gets tighter and tighter! And technically, this is a huge rep PR, so I should be happy. My bodyfat still seems to be holding steady at “ridiculously lean for the amount of utter shit I have to eat” I’m putting on weight fast. I mean I can almost see new muscle every NIGHT in the freakin mirror after I shower. Yay for teenager hormones, all the food you can eat, and a gym two minutes walk away from you!
My traps/neck feels better every day. Sleeping without a pillow seems to help.
So all in all, I guess I had a pretty good day!
9/24/11 Front (just for my own info. You don’t have to look at my pale skinny ass if you don’t want to.) All three photos are relaxed. Trying to keep normal posture, though I may be flaring a little in the back shot… 