9/24/11 Back
9/24/11 Quads
Monday
Bench press ramp up to 175 for ~10 singles. Super short rests.
Reverse grip bench 145 for ~7 doubles. Again, very short rests.
Cable low to high crossovers ramp to 50 for mid range reps. Squeeze each rep for a few seconds.
Best I could do considering my schedule.
Totally forgot my abs and obliques.
I missed lunch, sat in a three hour lab without food and water, then immediately trained. This does not work. I learned something!!! Yay, college!
Oh, and fuck bench pressing. I’m seriously considering having two overhead days with dips or flies or something on one of them.
Excuse me while I go eat all the food in the caf.
Power clean triples at 55, 105, 135, 135. Just to get my drive going.
ATG Squat ramp to 245 for 3, then 245 for 1 (Guy insisted on spotting me, so I cut this set kinda short. I didn’t want him messing with the bar while I squatted)
Squat from pins (right around parallel) 3 or 4 doubles with 225 then a few more singles (and failed attempts) 5 seconds in between each rep. I love these.
Leg extension - ramp with sets of 8 (really short rests) to 150 (stack, FFS) then a drop set (increments of 10) down to 100 with 10 second holds at each stage and a 20 second hold at the end.
I could barely walk after that. It was awesome.
You know what sucked? This session. (Interestingly, I didn’t really want to lift today. Related maybe?)
Military press - ramp to 120 for ONE. 
Then, a whole bunch of sets around there, some push pressing, all sorts of things. Super short rests, some cluster reps actually. Cause the gym was closing in 15 minutes.
My neck was pissed off. I tweaked it doing leg extensions again last night. WTF, neck. Packing it keeps it pretty happy.
Thursday edit: Checked out a bunch of shoulder and neck MobilityWODs and I’m feeling better. I think I have a better understanding of whats going down too. I sit a lot (fuck college) and my head tends to go forwar into that turtle-ish position thereby shortening the scalenes and crunching the C-spine down. Interestingly, scalene issues can apparently refer pain to the back of the neck/traps/rhomboids.
Thursday: I didn’t feel, shall we say, excellent today. So I skipped training sadly.
I’m flirting with getting a bit more low rep. A bit more performance-based. For the last few months, I’ve been just trying to put on muscle and planning to work on speed/power/coordination later when I’m way stronger. But, I’ve been thinking a little lately… I’m a bit annoyed with how endurance-y I seem to be. After all, I have about 6 years of A LOT of bodyweight exercising to counterbalance here.
I’m also a little annoyed at how sore/weak I am after training. I feel like absolutely trashing a muscle (while fun) decreases performance outside the gym the next day a little more than I’d like.
And honestly, the less my training is like the way the idiots at the gym lift, the happier I’ll be. That’s probably my main reason haha.
The only problem when I train like this is that it gets “instinctive” and I gradually build up imbalances from forgetting groups. (sometimes intentionally…) Hopefully this log will keep me accountable.
Less Ronnie Coleman, more Ricky Bruch.
Also: Another deadlift cue, throw the neck back (packed neck). No rotating up. Neck and head are one unit.
Friday:
I just learned that one of the bars at the gym is 10 pounds light. I may have used it a few times. Not sure.
So today’s work:
Power clean up to 165 then a bunch of misses and then some at lower weights. (on a padded floor… lol)
Clean and Jerk - start all the way back down at 55 (training plates) and up to 135. I cheated 135 a bit and kinda split/push jerked it instead of full split jerking it.
I’ve never tried to split jerk before and that is awkward! Gave me a new respect for O-lifters.
Then the real work: One arm dumbbell snatches ramp to 73 then a whole shitload up there with pretty big rests. Then a drop to 63 and a bunch with super short rests. Mostly singles, a few doubles.
I’m way stronger than the last time I trained like this, so I’m definitely throwing way more weight around. But I’ve got that “I’m not able to put my whole force into this” feeling. Like I’m wasting a lot of movement. I’m gonna keep this stuff in. I need the POWAH.
Saturday:
Warmup - broomstick dislocations, LYTP
Dips - BW x ~8, 25 x ~3, 45 x ~3, 70 x 15 x 2, BW x 12.
PJR pullovers - 43 x ~8, 53 x ~5, 73 x 8 x 3
Gym closed down so that was all I got. Was awesome. A little collarbone pain when I let my shoulders/neck fuck up.
And my traps are sore as hell from yesterday.
Sunday edit: My triceps, chest, and rhomboids are nice and toasty.
Monday:
BTN push press - 15 singles with 165. Near the end I started to hit the groove again. Then a set of ~5 with 135 (not failure).
Chest supported row (low parallel handles) - 8 x 3 with 80.
Face pulls - 5 x mid range reps with the stack
Reverse cable crossovers - 40 for 10 or so, then 20 for very high reps.
I had a little trouble getting into the BTN position. I can usually do that easily. Stretching my pecs and lats fixed it pretty well.
This session was about an hour after I woke up. I try not to load my spine that close to sleep but I had to. Also, I’d had no breakfast. My only food was my mega elite PWO - chocolate milk.
My upper low back is slightly pissed off. I may take the day off. I need more sleep. (note to self, fuck spam. Indigestible disgusting shit.)
Also I need to quantify my goals.
Overall (some of these goals are translated to lifts that serve as benchmarks to ensure that I can make the goal):
Military press 315
Dip plus 405 (Come at me bro!)
585 deadlift
Pullup plus 225 (or bodyweight)
One arm row 200
Muscleup
log clean 300
ATG squat 405
Box jump five feet
Awesome boxing speed, shit like that, rotational speed, I don’t know too much about it or how to quantify it.
Super awesome reactive strength/speed (think shuttle/cone drills)
Even more super awesome dead start - spring/broad jump kind of thing. Don’t forget backwards and lateral.
Unbelievably super awesome grip, neck, and forearm strength.
12 second 100m
5 second 40m
5 minute mile
pushups/pullups/swimming/etc in pft high range
ruck march - I don’t even know. Something good.
There’s my crazy goals. I’m going to hit them all in 4 years, by the end of college. 
Here’s my slightly nearer goals:
Start (October 5) — current ---- by December 5.
Dips - doubles at 70 — singles at 90 — 1RM: 110
BTN push press - singles at 165 — singles at 185 (slight dip) — 1RM: 200
Military press - triples at 120 — x — 1RM: 160
ATG squat - 3RM: 245 — long rest doubles at 255 — 1RM: 315
Deadlift - estimated 1RM - 308 (straps) — x — 1RM: 350 (without straps would be kick ass)
One arm row - 103 x a whole freakin bunch (straps) — triples at 115 — 3RM: 160 (without straps would also be kick ass)
weighted pullups - unknown — doubles at 45 — 1RM: 105
Dumbbell power snatch - 73 — 85 — 103
Power clean - 165 — x — 205
Pretty hard. But I’ve got everything in my favor here. So time to sack up and fuck excuses.
I’ve been fucking around with food recently like a pussy douchebag.
AND NO MORE EXCUSES ABOUT SLEEP. 8 hours every night at least or you just don’t want this enough.
If anybody actually reads this hahaha, I apologize for my rambling. It seems to help me stay focused.
Thursday:
ATG squat (though maybe a little higher on a few of them) - 245 for ~8 doubles plus another single. Very short rests at first but more like 1-2 minutes on the later ones.
Top-half quarter/eighth squat from pins - ramp up to 405. I got kicked out of the gym for this, hahah! Apparently it’s not allowed. It was fun though and lit my quads up pretty well too.
Thursday session 2:
Taught my friend how to squat and deadlift. Yay! He insisted on “doing abs” so I did some easy ab wheel rollouts and some pallof presses. I hopefully managed to get my disdain for abs across pretty well hahah. We also did some pullups.
Friday: Due to the gym being semi-closed I couldn’t do much.
Dumbbell power snatch up to a bunch of attempts at 85. I got it every few tries. Usually when I missed it I’d push press it instead. Just my right arm after it got fairly heavy, cause my left shoulder is a little bitchy right now. My right isn’t fantastic either. I think they’ve gotten a bit too tight recently and the pullups yesterday (with no warmup) aggravated them. I think I’ll probably run the diesel crew shoulder rehab protocol this week.
After this, I walked around in the woods for a while, climbed a tree or two. Traversed (yes, traversed!) some steep slopes. It was awesome. I really think nature has physical benefits to hormones and probably a lot of other stuff too. I need to get out there more. My shoulders are feeling better too.
Saturday:
The gym was technically closed so I only had time for:
Strapless rack pull holds (High enough that the bar was only an inch or so off the pins) 135 x 10 seconds DOH, 225 x 5 seconds DOH, 275 x 5 seconds mixed grip. Repeat 275 a bunch of times each til almost failure (~3-5 seconds) then 225 x “almost failure” (again ~3-5 seconds) DOH a few times.
My grip is hilariously weak. It didn’t used to be this bad a few months ago. I guess my enforced absence from farm work and deadlifting/rows is to blame. (and relying on straps afterwards to save my ego…) At least that whole trap injury thing is totally cleared up. I’m gonna try an experiment and hit my traps and grip one way or another every day. We’ll see how that works out.
I had/havea little cold. I skipped Monday.
Tuesday:
Deadlift - ramp up (kinda higher reps than usual) to 275 for a double and then two REALLY hard singles. then 225 DOH for 5 strapless.
Something funny happened here. I’m usually weak off the floor and very fast past my knees. On the last two reps with 275, it just ground the whole way up. I’ve never had to put much effort into lockout so that was an interesting experience.
(so I’m weak as hell, but I can feel my technique and my starting strength (i think that’s the right term) getting better. Pulling instead of picking up is a great cue. thanks to maraudermeat for that one)
Hyperextensions ramp up to 83 x 4 x 10 (this actually hits my hamstrings pretty hard. My legs really wanted to turn out here. Trying to put the stress on the side of my knees instead of my hamstrings, probably.)
I was getting kinda close to throwing up here so I called it and went home. Hopefully I’ll be totally better tomorrow.
From STB’s log: “I would suggest mastering these jumps in this order: jumping from your knees to your feet, knees to feet to a vertical jump, knees to feet to a broad jump, kneeling broad jump, then eventually cycle back through each and start adding weight and boxes to the jumps. Spend at least two weeks on each jump, do 6-10 sets of 3 reps and make sure all reps are as FAST as you can possibly move.”
Wednesday
Dips ramp to 5 sets of 80 lb doubles. With pretty big rests. BW x 10ish at the end. Gym closed so that’s all i could do. I thought I was increasing by 5 not 10. I’ll take it!
My left shoulder didn’t like it. It’s lost the necessary mobility, so I need to work on that. I trained through it anyway like an asshole.
no time for shoulder prehab, grip, speed stuff, or traps. tomorrow is another day…
Thursday session 1:
Shoulder protocol day 1. Felt great.
Thursday session 2:
This session was fantastic.
Warmup of pec, lat, and pec minor stretches
BTN Push Press - ramp to a LOT of singles at 175. (towards the end I started dipping under a bit on a few of these) Short rests.
One arm rows (straps) - ramp to ~5 triples at 115. Rather short rests. My new dumbbell handle is awesome!
Shoulders feel great. Though my right (correction: left) kinda wanted to go unstable at the top of the presses.
My grip is definitely stronger. My last warmup set with 103 was strapless and it was great.
Friday:
Played a bit of intramural football. My hamstrings and quads were still sore from deadlifting but playing loosened them up a bit. And I managed to flex my lumbar under a fair amount of load due to slipping in the mud. Which hurt a bit then and kinda hurts now, several hours later. Hopefully my teenager HGH will sort that out overnight!
So pretty much every major part of my body has a good reason not to train it right now. I guess I have to take a rest day. I did the shoulder protocol day 2 and got a wicked awesome sick delt burn, brah. Which I wasn’t expecting, but I’ll take it! Also my wrist extensors got a little work in.
I’m not getting to sleep very fast at all these days. I gotta figure that out.
Saturday: My back feels much better and I went right to sleep. I guess I started complaining too soon. 
And in other news, why are this gym’s hours so fucked? Just another reason to hate that place.
I walked around barefoot and sat in a tree in the woods for about an hour shirtless (see if coldness has any effects. Besides I like the cold). Also did a bit of light pec and hip flexor stretching and some overhead position work.
Then I did ~6 sets of 3 reps of knees to feet jumps.
dman dude, my sense of competitiveness is taking over - race to a 100kg BTNPP?
I did some pullup retractions, serratus pushups, and posterior capsule stretch last night. Which was pretty much shoulder protocol day 3. Today is supposed to be a rest day.
A good shoulder mwod mostly dealing with the first rib: http://www.mobilitywod.com/2011/07/episode-283365-resetting-after-a-shoulder-tweakbrutally-sore-shoulders.html
This seems to have dealt with my problem pretty well.
I also worked on my dip postion a bit. Sitting in my chair and keeping proper mechanics I slowly worked my hands back along the arms. Worked great. Gonna keep that one.
Monday:
Squat (high bar) from pins about two inches below parallel - ramp to ~4 singles at 243ish (I had some heavy collars on. Gotta keep the staff happy.) Pretty long rests. Gym was about to close for a while so I stopped there and did shoulder protocol day 5 (4).
I didn’t have my chocolate milk so this was fueled by water alone.
I almost felt stronger on the last squat than the first. Getting better at my starting strength already.
I don’t want to lose this -