Had some decent workouts over Labor Day weekend. Did not have a chance to go to the track on Saturday but managed to do a ton of work in the yard. Sunday night we were up pretty late playing basketball and hanging out with some of our friends from the new church we’ve been attending. Not getting a lot of sleep and working out earlier than normal made yesterday’s workout a little tougher than expected.
Supposed to squat today but all racks were taken the whole time so I did OH Press. All sets felt great and so did the bench reps. Once I finished up bench press the rack was free and figured I would scoot over there and do my 5 sets of 3 for squats. Did my first set of 3 and it felt like crap so I just stopped and figured I would hit it tomorrow!
Squat Day (Advanced 5/3/1 Template)
Squat: 285 - 5x3
Leg Press: 4 plates per side - 5x10
Ab Wheel: 4x10
Finally got squats done this week!! All sets felt pretty good. Since I will have to deadlift tomorrow I decided to do leg press instead of 3x5 on deads. I did not lockout the reps which made my quads feel really good. Doesn’t look like much on paper but I was pretty beat after this one. Good day overall!!!
Deadlift Day (Advanced 5/3/1 Template)
Deadlift: 395 - 5x3
Box Squat: 245 - 3x5
Leg Curl: 3x15
Standing Cable Crunch: 5x10
Side Bends: 5x10
9/12/15
30 minute walk around the neighborhood
Deadlifts felt really good on Friday. Decided on Box Squats since my legs were toast from Thursday’s squat workout. Because of doing deadlifts and squats in back to back sessions I ended up just walking around my neighborhood for 30 minutes. My legs were really sore on Saturday and the thought of doing sprints just didn’t seem fun at all.
All sets of 290 on bench press felt really good. I did not try for anything special since I did not have a spotter but was happy how the reps were moving. Every time I start doing barbell rows again I begin to wonder why I ever quit doing them. 195 for 10 felt good and the 20 reps with 135 really had my back pumped. Very good workout and pleased with how all movements felt today.
[quote]furo wrote:
Fantastic benching man! And everything else :)[/quote]
Thanks furo! Bench Press and OH Press has made some really good progress this year as well as my Deadlift. Squats still aren’t where I want them to be but at least I can do them without pain. Hopefully I can get them up to par with my other lifts. Keep killing it on your end!!!
Squat Day (Advanced 5/3/1 Template)
Squat: 315 - 4x1, 345x1
Walking DB Lunges: 35 - 2x8 (steps per leg), 2x10
Leg Raises: 4x15
Hit a nice squat PR of 345 for a single since making the switch to high bar. The rep felt pretty good and am feeling encouraged about going forward. I am about 10 pounds away from matching my low bar max at this point. Leg Press was taken so I decided on walking lunges. The first 2 sets were done at a spot in the gym where I could only get 8 steps before running into the wall. Moved to another spot that I could get 10 reps per leg and wasn’t in anybody’s way. These got tough on the last set. Legs and butt were completely toast. Another one of those workouts where typing it out doesn’t look like much but this one had pretty beat!! Great day overall!!!
OH Press Day (Advanced 5/3/1 Template)
OH Press: 195 - 4x1, 215x1 (PR)
Bench Press: 230 - 3x5
Close Grip Lat Pulldown: 140 - 5x10
Shoulder Circuit: 3x12
Set a nice PR with a 215 pound press today. The rep felt pretty smooth the whole way. I felt confident I would get it but in the back of my mind I was thinking 225. Decided to save it for another day and not chance missing the rep. Did several paused reps during bench press just to say I did a little bit of paused work. Overall this was a good day and at least I’m heading in the right direction of a 225 pound press!
Deadlift Day (Advanced 5/3/1 Template)
Squat: 245 - 3x5 (Paused all reps on last set)
Deadlift: 435 - 4x1, 475x1
Stiff Leg Deadlift: 135x10, 185x10, 205x10, 225x10, 245x10
9/19/15
2 hours of walking and playing at the park with my son
Had a pretty good deadlift day on Friday. 475 felt pretty good after all of the squat and deadlift sets. Decided to do some stiff leg deads and they felt pretty good as well. My hamstrings were sore as all get out Saturday morning. On Saturday, I pushed my son (3 yrs old) in the stroller to the playground that is about a mile from our house. Had lots of fun running around and chasing him. Essentially a 2 mile walk round trip and chasing a 3 year old on the playground was my conditioning for the weekend.
Nothing special about deload days for me. I like to go a little heavier on the deload weeks using the 65,75,85 percentages instead of 40,50,60. Workout schedule will be a little all over the place for the next few weeks so I will continue to use the Advanced Template that way if I can only get in the gym a couple of times a week then this template will work for that.
5/3/1
Squat Day (Deload)
Squat: 225x3, 245x3, 285x3
DB Walking Lunges: 35 - 2x10 steps each leg
Leg Raises: 3x10 BW
Was out on a job site yesterday that luckily was only about 10 minutes from the gym. When the crew took their lunch break I hurried to the gym as quick as I could to change clothes and knocked this out in about 25 minutes and made it back right when they were starting up again. Felt like I was running around the gym like a chicken with his head cut off to get this one done. Hopefully as the job moves along I won’t have to rush as much so I can get the main lift done and maybe 1 assistance move. Just glad to have made it to the gym yesterday!
Overhead Press Day (Deload)
Bench Press: 225 - 3x5 (all reps paused)
OH Press: 135x3, 155x3, 175x3
Messed around on several different machines for back today
Another workout coming from a job site. Wasn’t much going on so I was able to take my time today as opposed to yesterday. Ended up working out with the pastor from our new church and he was wanted to bench press so I just jumped in and ended up doing that first. I was showing him some technical cues for oh presses while I did my sets. That 175 for 3 was a little difficult but realized I benched first which didn’t help my cause. Spent the next 20 minutes or so messing around on the different machines he uses for back and then I had to get back to work!
Went with a random workout on Friday since I didn’t really feel like doing deload weights with deadlifts. My goal was to work up in 3’s on power cleans just to see what I could come up with. Got to 225 and the first rep felt really good as did the second. Went to go for a third and just kind of ran out of steam. I basically deadlifted it and just put it back down. Energy was getting low and didn’t feel as if the 3rd was going to happen. Still a PR for me since I’ve never attempted a 225 Power Clean before. I liked this workout on Friday and debating on putting this workout in place of deadlifts for a while.
Rained all weekend so I went with pull-ups and KB Swings at the house. I wanted to get 25 pull-ups before I started my KB Swings and pull-up supersets so I could finish up with 50 pull-ups for the day. Towards the end of the workout I started to realize I have neglected pull-ups for a long time and need to get back to doing them regularly again.
Everything felt really good including the BB Rows. Going to keep adding 5 pounds every workout on the last set of Rows for 20 reps to see how that affects my lifts and back for a while. Definitely feel as if I get more out of barbell rowing than I do DB Rows or Cable Rows. Good workout today.
Squat Day (Advanced 5/3/1 Template)
Squat: 255 - 5x5
Walking DB Lunges: 45 - 4x10 (steps per leg)
Ab Wheel: 3x10
Some sets of squats felt great and some sets I was getting pitched forward a bit. The last set felt solid technique wise and was happy to end those on a good note. I can tell I slowly lose tightness after each rep with squats. Something I will have to work on. Wanted to use the 40# DBs for my lunges but those were taken so just went with the 45’s. The last 2 sets were pretty tough but was able to get through them. Decent day overall.
Had to workout at around 9 AM this morning since I had to head out to a job site. I enjoyed going during this time since there was no one there I knew at that time and the gym was pretty empty minus several people on treadmills. Was able to get in and get out pretty quick. All Presses felt pretty good and definitely need to get back in the habit of doing pull-ups again. The last set was getting pretty rough. Finished off with a single set of Lat Pulldowns just to get 50 reps of a vertical pull movement for the day. Good day overall!
Giving Power Cleans a run for a while to see how I can progress on those for the next few months. Everything felt pretty good on Friday and was pleased how the workout went. Saturday I decided on a quick kettlebell workout since I only had about 25 minutes before we had to head out to a birthday party and the weather was terrible with all of the rain here in the south. Goals were to get 100 total snatches and 50 swings as quick as possible. Can’t go wrong with kettlebell snatches when you want to get some decent conditioning in a very short amount of time.
Didn’t get a chance to post yesterday’s workout… stupid work!!! 265 on Bench Press felt very good and hit a few paused reps during a few sets. Back was feeling very pumped after the set of 20 rep barbell rows with 145. Since adding the bb rows I feel like I can keep my back a lot tighter during bench and also feel my lats helping the lift as well. Threw in a few sets of curls since I had a few extra minutes to spare. Good day overall!!!
Squat Day (Advanced 5/3/1 Template)
Squat: 285 - 5x3
Walking DB Lunges: 45 - 4x10 (steps per leg)
Ab Wheel: 3x10
Had to get in the gym pretty early this morning to get this workout done. First 3 sets of squats felt pretty good but started to struggle on the last 2 sets. I’m debating on moving my squat day to Friday just while I’m having to go to job sites during the week and will not have to be as rushed on Fridays. Glad I’m still getting the lifting done but can tell my squat performance has suffered a bit. Lunges actually felt a lot better today. Not a great day but happy to be able to get though it!
