solid graft.
had to think what podium pulls were for a second haha
Nice quick, productive session tonight.
DE bench - 95kgs with green bands + monster minis, 14 x 3 alternating grips. A good blast, I had it in my head to slam out the triples with real explosiveness and did a good job on the majority of reps. I lost the best line on a few just because the increased band tension was new to me. I’ll make sure I nail that aspect next time. Overall though my reps were snappy and explosive.
Assistance was pin press - I wasn’t sure what to expect, as it seemed like quite a similar movement to floor press, but it was significantly harder, and required real grit to blast off the pins and keep driving through to completion. I got 4 sets of 5 on 145kgs, and every 5th rep was a real fight, mainly through the key sticking points about 2 inches off the pins.
Tri sets were the standard triceps/hip raises/neck harness work. Upped the weight on the neck harness to 22.5 kgs…not a nice feeling having to grind like a motherfucker just to lift your head, but I do feel like it’s improving my posture, strengthening my upper back/trap area and generally improving the muscle balance of my upper body.
[quote]Adam-F wrote:
solid graft.
had to think what podium pulls were for a second haha[/quote]
I should have said deficit pulls! A side effect of reading too much of Charles Poliquin!
DE squats tonight - it was a difficult session. Took perseverance to get through effectively, but ultimately with good results.
After a quick warm up, I got under the last of my DE squat loads (105 kgs w/ green bands & blue bands), and I was initially a little bit tight. I didn’t count my first set because it was just above parallel…not really good enough. I started banging out triples, nice and fast. The weight was initially quite jarring, and I adjusted to it slowly. Hopefully something that will improve next week. I eventually banged out a dozen triples, plus one that didn’t count because I lost my balance on one of the reps.
Assistance was GMs off pins. Did a few sets building up to 145kgs, then got 3 working sets of 8 reps on 165kgs.
Standard tri sets…but the good news is I’m already adapting to the increased loads. I’m already pushing for more reps, although the last reps are incredibly strained, but in the right places. Scaffolding bar pullups w/ 5kgs are very hard on my grip and lats, GHRs with the blue band are forcing me to be fast right through and contract hard at the top, and side bends with the 52 DB are hammering the shit out of my obliques.
A good hard sesh, lots of fast, explosive work.
Just a short entry today!
DE pulls with 4x monster minis, a dozen doubles…shredded my shins to pieces. Absolute bloodbath.
- assistance etc. Hammered it on my own with full array of the campest tunes ever blasting in the gym haha!
Excellent session tonight, a few mixed bits here and there, but overall productive and intense.
Foam pressed up to 206.5 kgs (PB) - very very slow after the initial burst off the foam pad. A real grinder. 180 during my warmup singles went up like a rocket!
Overhead for assistance. This time last week I got a PB of 117.5, and this week 110 was my absolute limit - I had a serious fight with it from the height of my eyes upwards. Rep must have been upwards of 8 seconds. Hard. Backed off from this with 4 triples on 100.
Tri sets were lazies, neck harness work (awesome) and ab stuff.
No entry for yesterday, but I did have an awesome chain squat session, finishing on 255kg + chains (Estimates range from 15kgs a chain to 30kgs a chain, obviously with a couple of links on the floor). The chains hit me about half way up and turned it into a real fight, but I got it.
An update:
Haven’t been on for a while, many things have happened!
Shortly after my last post here I benched 195kgs at the NW bench press championships.
Got ill, lost 5kgs and 4 weeks of training.
Trained intermittently, lost A LOT of bench strength, and a general idea of where my strength levels were.
Did a week of peaking for the IPF Commonwealth Championships which I’d been nominated for some months back.
Had a disappointing bench (175kgs), but managed a passable squat (257.5kgs) and managed to pull a 302.5kg deadlift to take a Commonwealth record at 120. My total (735kgs) was down by 17.5 from when I won the British Unequipped back in August. Plenty to learn from, an encouraging performance, and plenty to build on too. Definitely had more in the tank than I thought, and the last pull probably had 5 - 10 kgs extra in it. I feel sure I would have picked up on this, and maybe even improved on it had I had a calculated training plan during my illness/buildup.
The Welsh Championship is on February 12th and will be the first time I’ve competed in my home country. Should be a good one with lots of friends and family there. I want to total 770 or beyond. I’ll open fairly high at this, get out of my comfort zone a bit and really push for some numbers.
The IPF Classic Worlds will be in June, and I want to be as close to 800 raw as possible by then. Must smash.
Nice to see you back pal - are you still training at W.Mids?
I saw your squats online, looked good!