I Like to Pick Heavy Things Up & Put Them Down Again

Training Training Logs
21

Yesterday’s gym session

There wasn’t space for me to deadlift with a barbel, and they had some of those dumbel handles that allow you to use Olympic style plates so decided to warm up with 1 handed deadlifts

Single arm deadlift with dumbel
40kg x 2 either side
80kg x 2 either side
100kg x 1 either side

These were a lot of fun. I used to train these a lot 10 ish years ago. ( thanks to t nation content like this One-Arm Suitcase Deadlift - YouTube)With a barbel, the balance is a lot harder, with the db lockout is a lot more awkward.

80kg felt like a weight that would be good to try and get larger numbers of reps with.

Still no space for a barbel deadlift, so i decided to do pull ups

Pull up
+20kg x5 x3 x1 with full depth

I wanted to try and focus on great form; tbh I think the fact that i ended up touching the ground a few times in this set, is a sign i should reduce my pull up weight.

Then there was some space to deadlift

Deadlift with belt
140 x 2, x1, x1, x1
140x 1.5, x1, x1
120 x1, x 2, x 1
those sets quickly became singles
by the fourth rep in the 3rd set, i lost count
I think i may have done another rep

Suspended dB bench
22.5 kg 3 wraps x 8
22.5kg 3 wraps x6 +2 unsuspended
20kg 3 wraps x 8

superset:
Suspended front raise/ side raise
10kg x 8/7.5kg x 8
10kg x 8/ 7.5kg x 8
10kg x 8/ 7.5kg x 8

In the lateral sets I was slightly bent forwards to eliminate Front delt contribution.

weighted Pull ups
+15kg x 4 x2 x2
+10kg x4 x2 x2

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22

This really makes a lot of sense. Unfortunately the way the row machines are set up it looks like it would be hard to add this in.

interestingly frank zane seems to have very similar ideas about adding bands to machines
Legendary Bodybuilder Frank Zane Reveals How He Achieved Physical Perfection - YouTube

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23

It’s cool to hear that your wife is really getting in to it! And that you have a nice vacation.

Thanks for the Zane link, I don’t really know much about him. I’ll check it out!

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24

Fridays work out

Weighted Pull-ups
25 kg x 5 x2 x1
22.5kg x 5 x1 0kg x2
20kg x 8

Seated ohp
Suspended 22.5kg x 2 22. 5x 0 suspended 20kg x 4 suspended 17.5 x 2
Suspended 17.5 x 8
Suspended 17.5 x 6 unsuspended 17.5 x 1

Db row
35 x 8 both sides
40 x 10 both sides, felt like I was rotating my trunk too much
37.5 x8

I started with my right arm, whereas I should have started with my left (weaker arm) so I could do fewer reps on the strong arm if the weak one had difficulty.

Db Flies
weights suspended by bands wrapped 3 times around the dbs so they don’t touch the floor
12 .5kg x 8
15kg x 8
15kg x 7 massive hold on last rep

This was with straight arms but at the same time I’m thinking about this post

the fact that people are using bent arms also means that the angle of the upper arm to the body is steeper at the point where it goes under max load. Interestingly Arnie also uses an
exaggerated version of this form to develop his chest.

That being said as I’ve had shoulder issues in the past, I think if I was to use such an extreme form I’d go very light so as to condition the joint in that range of motion before trying to get a ain’t chest.

Alternately there may be a case for me doing Cable flies

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25

Monday at the computer

I coded for close to 13 hours straight because we had an impossible-looking deliverable on day 2 of the contract.

Did none of the stuff I normally need to do to support my shoulders. My shoulders felt roughly fine. I’m definitely going to try and take stretching/exercise breaks whilst I work but for me, this is the ultimate validation for playing around with bands.

I’d love to be at a competitive level for bodybuilding, powerlifting or gymnastics, but honestly being pain-free is amazing.

Big thanks to everyone at t-nation who I spoke to about bamboo bars, and especially @FlatsFarmer who suggested wrapping kettlebells with bands Clockin' A Grip - #2761 by FlatsFarmer

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26

A month went by

Sorry for not updating - with so much work coming through I decided that this forum was something i could cut to save time/keyboard usage

highlights training for that month:

Hitting 100 kg for 8reps with squat with weight suspended by bands
Finally getting to 27.5kg dbpress for reps with weight suspended by bands

Right now I feel like the muscles in my shoulder girdle are working much better together.

I’ve started doing this Warm-Up Routine every time I’m at the keyboard with pain. It’s helping.

Unfortunately as the dream machine needs to hang from the attic onto an upstairs landing, as winter sets in, its gone away for now.

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27

Two months pass

We were both unwell over December but had a great Christmas

My training life is much the same in the above post.

I still really like using band-suspended dumbbells for bench, something about the set-up means you get continuous tension in the movement, so I am seeing growth.

I’m looking forward to when I can go back to straight bar, and seeing if this translated to a bigger bench. However, it feels like that cause issues if I did it right away.

I’ve done some physiotherapy, and I think this might be a turning point. My physio has said that my issues may come from an imbalance between my lats and rhomboids.

i.e. my lats are strong and tight,
my rhomboids are weak and overstretched.

(From using a computer 10+ hours a day)

This makes sense because I’ve always tried to keep my back strong with exercises like pull-ups and rows which certainly stimulate the lat more than the rhomboid. So I plan on switching to variations that target the rhomboid.

My old gymnastics coach thought my biggest barrier for HSPU was tight lats. But I tried to get around it by focusing on strength, so I now think that was a misstep.

Moving forwards

  • my plan is to do daily bar hangs to stretch out my lats

  • swap lat focused exercises for rhomboid-focused exercises

  • or use rhomboid-focused variations

until this is sorted

I haven’t done all the reading I mean to about rhomboids, but I am optimistic that this will be transformative.

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