1/10/12
lots of volume for back/bis - lower back gets trained with legs
neutral grip pullups
cable rows
chest supported db rows
hammer curls
seated incline curls
bb shrugs
I’m going to do 3 days on/1 day off so that my legs and lower back are ready for deadlifts/squats
So for shrugs, once I start pushing them I’ve always gotten a sharp stinging pain on my lower right scapula, feels like something is getting pinched. I know I’m pain free doing them with a “neutral” arm grip so I’ll keep doing DB shrugs until my bitchass traps finally get strong enough to do the 100s with ease. I don’t have access to a HS shrug machine or trap bar so I’m thinking of rigging something up with cables, bands, or maybe even two barbells in the squat rack. I guess it’s bursitis of some sort? Either way it doesn’t make sense to push BB shrugs, but I do need to load my traps heavy and will find a way to do so for now.
1/12/13
deads, 60 lbs band tension which unloaded pretty fast actually
135 3
135 + minis 3
185 + minis 3
235 + minis 3, 3
255 + minis 3, 3, 3, 3
first time using bands/a belt while doing deads, it felt awesome.
RDL
135 3x8, meh felt this more in my low back than hams/glutes for some reason. I’ll try good mornings next week
back extension
BW + 50 3x10
easy, these are going to be loaded up more next week
abs - some crunches on the ball and obliques on this ab rocker thing
I’ve been aggressive with the foam rolling and stretching, doing it 3x a day and trying to limit the amount of time I stay seated. A few months ago when I took time off squatting to let my knees rest, nothing really got fixed and the pain returned as soon as I started squatting again. This time I will make it go differently.
pic attached is of the impossibly small gym bag that I fit all my PL gear into, which includes the belt and oly shoes
Hey man, make sure that you do your rotator work before every upper body day.
Also, changing up your foot position a little for the knee. Sometimes you can place varus or valgus stress on the knee if your foot isnt tracking naturally over the toe. Try a few different positions the morning before you go in and see which one you feel is the most comfortable and the most strong, pause at the bottom of your first 2 warmup sets.
How bad are these? Can you give me more info?
[quote]browndisaster wrote:
had massive diarrhea all day
[/quote]
I hope you realize how well this fits
[quote]trivium wrote:
Hey man, make sure that you do your rotator work before every upper body day.
Also, changing up your foot position a little for the knee. Sometimes you can place varus or valgus stress on the knee if your foot isnt tracking naturally over the toe. Try a few different positions the morning before you go in and see which one you feel is the most comfortable and the most strong, pause at the bottom of your first 2 warmup sets.
How bad are these? Can you give me more info?[/quote]
I do a lazy version of that warmup before bench/military! I’ll do the non-lazy version today before mili prussin.
For the squats, I tried some different foot positions barefoot on some tile floor. The stance I normally use I realize is not that narrow. I felt stress on my lateral hip/glute area as well as my knees, I guess anterio medial ish of the knees but overall they felt shitty. With my stance moved in to my actual shoulder width stance, feet almost straight, it felt smooth going down, pausing, and going up, and my knees mainly felt more locked out to the sides, whereas on the wider stance squats I had to actually push them out even at BW. I did a rough measurement with my foam roller and my knees were only an inch ahead of my toes at depth and below depth. I’ll give this another try next week while wearing the oly shoes. I for sure need some retooling of my squat form and I’m not scared to lose my precious squat of …225 for 3-5 reps. Thanks for the help so far
[quote]spar4tee wrote:
[quote]browndisaster wrote:
had massive diarrhea all day
[/quote]
I hope you realize how well this fits[/quote]
This is like that stupid AOL instant messenger or email that everyone makes when they’re in elementary school and keep til past college. inb4 my intestines prolapse at the bottom of a squat
1/13/13
military press
45 5
95 5
105 5
120 10 bleh, wanted 12, didn’t bring my belt today and honestly felt stronger without one these still
dips
BW + 45 5, 7, 6, 10, 10
decline skullcrushers, close grip
broweight 3x10, had to rest pause the last one
rope extension
100 4x10
meadows partial laterals superset seated kb lateral raises
40/18 (pink kb) 3x25/12
no rest between the two, brutal delt pump brah
upright rows
45 15
65 15
95 12, 6, 6 only a few seconds between sets
front plate raises
45 3x8
if I felt like a powerlifter yesterday with a belt, chalk, and deadlifts, today I felt like a bodybuilder with a sleeveless shirt and straps lol
[quote]browndisaster wrote:
[quote]trivium wrote:
Hey man, make sure that you do your rotator work before every upper body day.
Also, changing up your foot position a little for the knee. Sometimes you can place varus or valgus stress on the knee if your foot isnt tracking naturally over the toe. Try a few different positions the morning before you go in and see which one you feel is the most comfortable and the most strong, pause at the bottom of your first 2 warmup sets.
How bad are these? Can you give me more info?[/quote]
I do a lazy version of that warmup before bench/military! I’ll do the non-lazy version today before mili prussin.
For the squats, I tried some different foot positions barefoot on some tile floor. The stance I normally use I realize is not that narrow. I felt stress on my lateral hip/glute area as well as my knees, I guess anterio medial ish of the knees but overall they felt shitty. With my stance moved in to my actual shoulder width stance, feet almost straight, it felt smooth going down, pausing, and going up, and my knees mainly felt more locked out to the sides, whereas on the wider stance squats I had to actually push them out even at BW. I did a rough measurement with my foam roller and my knees were only an inch ahead of my toes at depth and below depth. I’ll give this another try next week while wearing the oly shoes. I for sure need some retooling of my squat form and I’m not scared to lose my precious squat of …225 for 3-5 reps. Thanks for the help so far
[quote]spar4tee wrote:
[quote]browndisaster wrote:
had massive diarrhea all day
[/quote]
I hope you realize how well this fits[/quote]
This is like that stupid AOL instant messenger or email that everyone makes when they’re in elementary school and keep til past college. inb4 my intestines prolapse at the bottom of a squat
[/quote]
Np man. I’m learning too.
goals right now:
-405 DL
-get down to 200 lbs BW, I’m at 210 now down from 220 ~a month ago
-be able to squat heavy/pain free
-bench 265
these are the numbers I’ve been wanting to beat by maybe September, but hopefully December (depending when the meets are)
squat - 425, bench - 325, deadlift - 465
I think it might be too much pressure to add 300ish pounds to my total in less than a year lol, but even if I beat one of these I’ll get a state record in the < 23 year old category and be happy with myself
1/14/13
WG pullups
BW 4x6
CG neutral pulldowns
200+something 4x7ish
DB Rows - high arc to hip
75 4x10
I think I’d be better served with more weight and less of an arc movement. These are for lats only as opposed to being a “full back” developer
cg cable rows
165 12
180 12
shrugs
a million sets, I didn’t know I could shrug 315 lol, but I got 15ish reps on a couple sets with it
did a light set of bb rows and pullups as well
tomorrow I’m just going to do some light deads, then get some work in for my core and bis. Wednesday = epic bench day yipppeeeee
1/15/13 off
1/16/12
deadlifts
(warmup for lower body days = pvc rolling, stretching, and dynamic work)
135 3
185 3
200 3
230 3
260 15 PR almost stopped before 10 because I was going to puke, but decided I’d rather puke than stop lol. My grip is not a factor for now lol, the couple times I paused were at lockout. I’ve been obsessing about 260x15 constantly ever since hitting 245x15. My new obsession is 270x16. Last night I even dreamt of deadlifting; in the dream I got all worked up for a 500 lb attempt and woke up right as some asshole took 2 45s off one side of the bar for light shrugs lol. I know my deadlift is going to shoot up from 315 to 405 very soon. I always thought I was by far stronger with a sumo stance, but close stance conventional has been going well for now.
goodmornings
45 5 went home
I’m still shaking from the adrenaline and caffeine, I’ll probably go back in the evening and hit some leg accessories, low back, and abs.
updates:
-bodyweight is at 210 and I’ll be dieting until it gets to 200. 220 to 210 took about 2 weeks including the half week “break” I had. I didn’t have to do cardio as my diet was extremely restricted, but I will be doing some conditioning now, as 210 to 200 will be tougher most likely.
-knee feels ok, it won’t get better with just rest, so hopefully all this posterior chain work and mobility work allows me to get back to squatting
-part two interview for my dream job next week : ) I’m really hoping I get it
hey man, those are some good goals I see you getting that deadlift for sure and the squat isn’t out of reach either really, benching is the hardest to keep moving up on in my book but keep working hard, also good job on the deadlift PR.
thanks man, I’m really going to push up the deadlift to real man numbers. For the squat, I will be content just to be able to train it hard pain-free. I’ve been aggressive with the self-rehab so hopefully my knees are good to go soon.
1/17/13
bench
don’t remember warmup sets
225 1 lockout slowed down a bit
205 4 meh, was hoping for more. This calculates out to a 225 1 RM. I was stronger on this last month, I think the 5/3/1 high frequency approach worked very well for my bench. Regardless, I need to just focus on getting stronger on this lift as well as in general, and not worry about how strong I’m at when I feel “peaked” (unless it’s before a meet I guess). I’m thinking I should actually follow Wendler’s advice for bench. 3/5/1/deload, with singles after the 3’s and 5’s. I’ve never actually taken the deloads so this should be interesting.
incline bench - super wide grip, no lockout
135 10
155 8, 8
135 10, 10
happy with this today, especially because the rest periods were about 30 seconds between sets
decline ez cg skullcrushers
30lbs on each side, idk how much the bar weighs, 4x8
rope tri ext
50 4x8
seated laterals ss front plate raise
20/45 3x15/10
upright row
85 4x8 bumping this to 95 next session
bodyweight is edging closer to 200
1/18/13
kneeling cable pullovers
2 warmup sets
140 3x12
CG pulldown
210 4x6, last one was a dropset to 180 6
BB rows
185 4x8
seated wide grip rows
165 4x12
felt odd with the neutral handles, I’m going to use a straight bar next week
rear flyes on bench
25 3x15
bb shrugs w/ 2 second hold
225 3x15
hammer curls
30 12
35 12
40 12
preacher db
35 3x6
standing curls
broweight (ez bar with 25s) 6, 8, 8
dc reverse curls
20 3x15
had to rest pause some of these, these are great for the posterior part of the forearm
BW is down under 206 now. I had a bunch of cake and pizza an hour before lifting, which helped me get through the session
1/19/13 off
1/20/13
deadlifts
forgot warmups
245 + minibands 2x3
265 4x3
belt slipped a bit on the last couple of sets, I think I just need to take a big breath of air and hold it better. Deadlifting with chalk, a belt, and getting angry before the lifts has been helping.
hanging leg raises
4x10 felt strong
cable crunches
? 4x10
back extension
50 4x10
this thing kept coming off the ground when my reps were fast, I will try using the bands next time to get some more resistance without making it more lopsided.
lying leg curl
blah, called it a day after the first set felt as tough as crossing the sahara desert
watching WSM right now, they’re deadlifting 781 lbs for reps, no big deal
1/21/13
bench
45 15
95 5
135 5
175 3x8
dips
bw 3
30 5
55 3x6 had to rest pause the last set
skullcrushers
75 4x8
rope cable extension
50 4x10
meadows swings ss lateral raises
40/15 4x25/15
energy was low today, but I wasn’t programmed to go nuts so it’s ok. had a great cheat meal last night and today should go well
I feel like your strength levels are gonna increase really quickly.
[quote]browndisaster wrote:
1/12/13
RDL
135 3x8, meh felt this more in my low back than hams/glutes for some reason. I’ll try good mornings next week
[/quote]
Considered SLDL?
[quote]csulli wrote:
I feel like your strength levels are gonna increase really quickly.[/quote]
thanks man, I think so too. I keep getting new stretch marks on my delts, arms, and chest, and back, even though I’m losing fat. There’s a douche at my gym who can deadlift in low mid400s but struggles to hump row 135, so I’m thinking I should be able to beat him without too much fuss.
[quote]The3Commandments wrote:
[quote]browndisaster wrote:
1/12/13
RDL
135 3x8, meh felt this more in my low back than hams/glutes for some reason. I’ll try good mornings next week
[/quote]
Considered SLDL?[/quote]
I’ll give those a try. I used to do RDLs and SLDLs and felt both in my hams and glutes very well as long as I kept the reps around 12 or more. I think my back was too pumped or fatigued from the deadlifts I did just prior. Do you guys like good mornings? I tried some out with the bar last week and feel like they could help my nonexistant squat.
