Glad to hear you had an awesome birthday.
In regards to pendlay rows… I feel no stress on my lower back. I get completely parallel to the floor and my abs are touching my quads. It’s like I have a bit of torso support. And I don’t use a ton of weight. I’m in week 9 and just now getting to 215 lbs for sets of 3. I started with 155 for 8, I think.
Happy birthday
20 September 2018 - Squat & OHP Bodyweight: 212.8lbs
Warmup: Soft tissue glute&hip, band walks x30 laterally and forward/back, pallof twists
Back Squat 3x3 315lbs, 7x3 275lbs
OHP 135x14
Push Press 135x5, 185x3, 225x1
Cable Pull Throughs 3x5
Single Leg Squat 2x8 85lbs
Notes
Weird day. I took a 4 hour nap (3 hours longer than planned) after school to catch up on all the sleep I missed earlier this week because of staying up late to study. I felt amazing driving to the gym, but something didn’t feel right when I got there, mentally. Physically, I felt the best that I’ve felt in a long time. 315 felt really heavy which it hasn’t for a long time, so that was disheartening. At the same time, I was able to squat it pain-free. I narrowed up my stance, broke backwards at the hips to initiate the squat, and kept my weight on my midfoot. It seemed to work out.
Right now my lower back is a little tender. Not sure what exactly it’s from, but it’s whatever. I squatted pain-free and that’s the whole point of me doing what I’m doing.
Down to 212.8lbs fully clothed which I shouldn’t be. Just one of those weird fluctuations that happens sometimes. @Voxel probably has a theory or two on why that is.
Other than that, not much to say. If my back and legs feel good tomorrow then I’ll deadlift. If not, then I’m taking 3 days of rest in a row. I’m sort of burnt out on training right now so I don’t care either way; I’m not doing what I enjoy, which is setting small lower body PRs and getting stronger. It feels like my strength just evaporated. Like I time traveled backwards 10 months, except now I have pain everywhere. This kinda blows.
On that note, I talked to my parents a week or two ago and they were surprisingly receptive to the idea of me getting a PT to help with my nerve pain and hip flexor pain. Apparently PT is free under my dad’s insurance. The only thing I need to do is find a new general care physician. I’ve had the same one for my entire life basically, as far back as I can remember, and he is not the kind of guy who would support me getting a PT to work through these issues so I can squat 500lbs one day.
Last time I had an appointment was last December, at the peak of my bulk. I weighed in at 221, and he asked me how I gained so much weight; I told him from eating chicken and chocolate milk and lifting weights. He told me I needed to stop eating so much and start doing cardio, even after I explained my goal of squatting 405 (at that point I was about 2 weeks away from hitting it). So, yeah. There are plenty of younger doctors out there who would be happy to refer me to a good PT with the qualifications that I’m looking for. It’ll also be nice to see a physician who doesn’t view me as an 8 year old in a 21 year olds body, which I think has a lot to do with the way he talked to me last time I had a visit.
@duketheslaya thanks bro
@Frank_C I wish I was so lucky. I’ll attempt some Pendlay rows next back day and see how they go. I think I could get some good reps with 135 maybe 155, but is that enough to make my lats grow? We’ll see I suppose
Hey Lava
A bit late, but happy birthday my friend, really happy that you had a good day with the family.
Family is what matters, they support you. Glad that you got to talk to them about the PT.
And congrats with the exams, you’re getting better that’s what matters, you’re hanging in there and getting better at studying.
Ditch the deadlift today, go celebrate and party with your friends this weekend. Come back to a week of deload’ish workout, doing what’s fun, if you feel good work hard, if you feel meh, then work on some technique with light weight. Find some buddies and have some fun games to get the blood flowing. Enjoy life, you’ll get what you want in lifting at some point. But for now, relax a bit.
Sounds like you had an awesome birthday. Friends and family are the try treasures in life.
One of my old doctors told me to eat more carbs and do more ‘core’ work, whatever that meant exactly. It’s crazy how many people are doctors that really don’t know shit
Muscle growth is all about time under tension and fatiguing the muscle. Do controlled eccentrics and you’ll get results. I still can’t say if it’s the best exercise for back growth, but it’s the one I’m using at the moment.
@mortdk thanks brother. I got a renewed sense of the importance of family last week, and it’s beautiful. The studying is going pretty well, too. I’ve finally coaxed my mind into the “grind” mode for school and lifting. It’s not about PRs or getting an A+ every time, it’s about putting in the work even if you think the results from that work are going to minimal (because it usually feels that way, but the results are rarely minimal).
@witchfindergeneral some docs are really clueless. There are so many specialties and different areas of study that most doctors are effectively useless depending on what your problem is. My physician has never done much other than check my breathing and my balls; don’t get me wrong, I’m glad he’s checking for abnormalities and making sure I’m healthy, but if I ask him a question about this mark on my skin, or this pain I’ve been having here, or what the all-around healthiest vegetables are, he can’t give me much to work with. I need to see a dermatologist or a RD for that stuff. And I feel so picky and high-maintenance saying this, but it just has always bothered me how limited his answers to my questions are. I know he is either legally (or perhaps morally) obligated to refer me to a specialist, but I don’t know. It would be nice if I only had to do one doctor visit to figure out what exercises would help issue Z, and what foods would help issue Y. That sort of thing. As for your doctor who told you to eat more carbs and do more core work, that’s just funny. It’s possible he spent 4 years undergrad, 2-4 years graduate, and then 4-8 years in clinicals and that’s all he had to say.
@Frank_C I forgot to do pendlay rows, but I agree. Especially for back muscles, it’s important to squeeze, hold, and feel the target muscles doing the work. It’s a lot easier to stare at your bicep during a concentration curl or quads during a leg extension and force that muscle to work.
21 September 2018 - Quick Randomness Bodyweight: 211.8lbs
Soft tissue, band walks, band clams
Good Mornings 95x5, 135x5, 155x12, 170x10, 185x8
Prone Rear Delt Snow Angels 3x15 5lb plate each hand +
Chin Ups BW 3x12,10,7
Hammer Curls 1x10 40lbs
Notes
I had about 40 minutes to get this workout in before I had to head to the rehearsal dinner. My hamstring strength isn’t quite back yet but I’m going to continue working on it.
23 September 2018 - Hungover Gym Time Bodyweight: 213.6lbs
Warmup: Soft tissue hips, band walks lateral + forward/back, sumo pallof twists
Hip Adductor Machine 5x8 55lbs (WEAK)
Behind the Neck Military Press 3x8 95lbs
Seal Rows 45s x10, 15, 20
Rear Delt Cable Flys 17.5x12, 9 … 12.5 x 9 … 7.5 x 15, 15
1 mile 8:49
Notes
My run was the best I’ve had. walked the first 0.10 mile, and that took about 2 minutes. I cranked the treadmill up to 7mph, then 8, then 8.5, then 9mph for the last 0.15 miles. My peak heart rate was somewhere around 190.
I’m praying that the hip adductor machine can help me round out my leg strength. I’m starting to think that my glutes and hamstrings are strong enough to compete with my quads, and doing this medial glute work for the last 1-2 months has brought that strength up (as evidenced by no more nerve issues). The only missing piece is my adductors, which are apparently extremely weak. I actually had to move the weight on the machine down from before, which was a little embarrassing because I probably got out-lifted by a chick who strictly does glute and general thigh work. Oh well. Not for long.
I could feel the seal rows stretching my anterior delts. I actually got a mini pump from it. That’s what I get for living that bench every day life.
The wedding was awesome. My buddy was super happy, the food was awesome (although I barely ate because I was nervous), and my friends and I looked good. It was so cool to be able to all come together and celebrate the biggest day of our friend’s life. The bride was beautiful as well, and my speech went way better than anticipated. I got a few laughs and said everything I wanted to say. I told the story about how he and I met, which my mother and his mother both didn’t know. I told him how much I loved him, and how proud and impressed I am with how far he and his wife have come as individuals and as a couple in the last 2 years. They’ve grown together and it’s just beautiful. I told them both that I love them and that anytime they need anything at all, I’m just one call away. Then I gave a toast to them, their future, and their new life together. Then he went home because he had to catch a 4:30am flight to Miami for the honeymoon, so my friends and I went and got shit housed in his honor. It was sweet.
So today I’m back on the grind. I’m dogsitting right now, so I’m living in a house by myself. I need to go get groceries, grab some clothes from home for the week, and then get to work studying. I’ve got two exams this week, one in anatomy and one in nutrition. The diet is also resuming this week with the same goals for calories and macros that I was at before. Just over 2,500 calories with a minimum of 200g protein/day. Preferably 230g. Training this week will be squats today, maybe bench tomorrow. In the first two weeks of the diet I never had a bad experience in the gym, and the cardio is growing on me. Nowhere close to how much I enjoy lifting, but I don’t dread running a mile anymore. It’s less than 10 minutes and it gets me that nice endorphin high.
25 September 2018 - Squat & OHP Bodyweight: 213.6lbs
Warmup: Soft tissue hip & glutes, band clams, 30 steps front/back/lateral band walks
Knee Band Back Squat 10x3 315lbs (60sec)
OHP 5x3 135lbs (30sec)
Good Mornings 45x10, 95x10, 135x15, 165x12, 185x10 (90sec, easy)
Hip Adductor 5x10 70lbs (30sec, hard)
Band Walks Forward & Backward 5 rounds of 12 steps each way (10 sets, 120 steps)
Notes
Feeling good today. Minimal hip flexor discomfort and zero back/nerve/leg pain or discomfort. I did band walks religiously for about a month when I hurt my other hip flexor back in February and it solved the issue. I’ll do the same thing here, but with increased band walk volume to hopefully speed up the process. The soft tissue stuff definitely helps. I have a ball that came from a batting cage, so it’s slightly larger than a tennis ball and slightly softer than a lacrosse ball. It’s smooth so it doesn’t get caught on my shorts and I’m able to shift my weight until I find a good spot.
Squats felt slow but since I was looking at myself in a mirror during them, I know they weren’t actually slow. Hard? Yeah, but not slow. My hip flexor pain disappeared entirely after the warmups once I put on my belt and the band around my knees. I didn’t take longer than 60 seconds for any rest interval during squats, so I’m ready to attempt 45-55sec rests next time I squat.
OHP was solid. No problems there. I cut the already low volume in half because I plan on benching on Thursday night to celebrate finishing another week packed with exams (3 this week). Tomorrow I’ll probably take the dog on a long walk around the lake here. That should be sufficient rest day cardio, and I know the dog will love it.
The hip adductor machine is the most humbling thing I’ve done in the gym, maybe ever. I’m usually proficient at whatever I try to do athletically, but apparently my adductors have been grossly neglected throughout my athletic career; I’m pretty f*cking bad at them. I don’t plan on stopping these hip adductor exercises until I can rep 2/3 of the weight stack. If I increase by 15lbs each time, it should take a minimum of 6 weeks. I don’t think I can add 15lbs each week though, so it’ll probably take at least the rest of the semester, which is fine. As long as I’m getting stronger I don’t care what exercises I’m doing.
I decided to skip the arms/traps/upper back and focus on my hips today so I went with some higher volume band walks.
Things I focused on today that made a difference:
Bar placement on back squats. I placed it a little higher than normal and didn’t let myself lean forward. I felt a much better connection with the ground doing this. The higher bar placement allowed me to stay more upright which seems (in hindsight) to have always been my strongest point.
Initiating the band walk movement with my hips. Instead of letting muscle memory take over and dictate how I walked, I focused on producing force with my hips to propel my legs forward. It’s hard to explain in text, but I had softer knees and drove my knees slightly higher than I would if I was walking normally.
Slight knee bend during good mornings. I often catch myself doing straight leg good mornings, which I’m sure are a valid exercise, but I do better with slightly bent knees. Pushing my hips way back and alternating between pressing with my toes and then sitting back on my heels. Pressing into the ground and putting weight on your toes during a good morning, for me, focuses the stress lower on my hammies.
Paying attention to the individual muscles during hip adduction. Similar to band walks, instead of letting my body take the path of least resistance, I forced myself to isolate and squeeze my adductors. This led to a lot of strain, and on rep 6+ on my FIRST SET I was already shaking. Adductors were spazzing out the same way your core does if you don’t do a certain core exercise for too long.
Overall, I’m 10/10 happy with today. I don’t think I’ve ever squatted 315x30 in one day before, so that’s a huge volume PR. I think my most ever was 12 during a 531 + set. My entire lower body is tired right now, but thankfully I’ve got 6lbs of chicken waiting for me in the fridge right now. Time to get smack on a protein shake and then throw down some chicken and salad later.
TL;DR: my adductors are weak as hell and I set a volume PR for squats. Band walk volume will be increased dramatically from here on out.
Nice work buddy
26 September 2018 - Recovery Bodyweight: 211.6lbs
Jump Rope 3x100 (30sec)
Lateral Band Walks 5x10 steps each way
Band Walks 5x10 forward, 5x10 backward
Notes
This is the first day I weighed myself in the morning. Before bed I was 214.4, woke up at 211.6 with the same clothes on. @Voxel is that all just water weight??
My anatomy professor gave us double exams today for the second week in a row, although the ones today were very short. Last week was a 100 question lecture exam and a 70 question lab exam. The first one today was 55 questions (which she made 25 total points) and the second one was 30 questions which she made out of 15 points. She did a weird thing where she made each 2 questions wrong only count as -1, so I went 46/55 and got a 21/25, and 26/30 for a 13/15. I was failing this class 2 weeks ago and now I have an 81%. Have a quiz on the respiratory system tomorrow which I plan to ace. I also have a nutrition exam tomorrow which I’m hoping I can ace. I don’t have anything to do today except study and eat, which is what I love. Life is good.
Tomorrow will be a bench day. I’ll probably deadlift on Friday because I don’t have class on Fridays and I’m not working on Friday either. Gotta do SOMETHING.
Back on the diet after a week of various celebrations. I don’t have a food scale with me so I’m just estimating how much chicken I’m eating, and drinking diet tea and regular water and milk. 2 servings of veggies each day, too. So thankfully I’ll be able to gauge myself with this scale every day for the next week and make sure I’m still making progress.
I’m really looking forward to a slow bulk. Partly for the eating and partly so I can change up my training style. The 10x3 is still super fun to me, and doing 60 second rests is also a lot of fun–I haven’t been as sweaty as I was yesterday from squatting in a LONG time. Doing the 10x3 for strength will be a blast, though. Heavier weight and longer rest periods is my favorite.
Nice work on the academics! Keep it up.
Before I got my food scale I estimated my food by using the entire package. If I bought five pounds of chicken then I just considered each piece to be the same size. If it was seven pieces then each one counted as 11.4 ounces (5 x 16 ÷7).
Thanks man.
That’s a good way to do it. I’ve considered tracking my food on a weekly basis instead of a daily basis. So if I eat all 6.55lbs of chicken in 7 days, and 3 cartons of greek yogurt, 2 gallons of milk, etc, that’s way easier to calculate than trying to do individual meals without a scale. At the end of the week, it’s the same amount of calories whether I eat 17,500 in one day or 2,500 every day.
Mainly, yeah. Probably.
I do this for suitable packages such that I either go through multiples per week or one per week. It breaks down for me if you have a product that’ll last for more than a week. But its a good overall approach.
I enjoy thinking of it like that instead of in daily increments. To me, it’s like working with whole numbers instead of fractions–which in a way is exactly what that is. I know I can put down 2 gallons of milk in a week. I can eat 4lbs of chicken in a week with no problem. I can drink X amount of protein shakes in a week and eat Y amount of greek yogurt. I think this weekend I may sit down and start to organize it like that instead, just to see how it plays out.
At the end of it, if I’m left with 100-200ish calories at the end of the day, I’ll just put that towards something arbitrary if I’m hungry. Maybe peanut butter and/or milk, maybe candy, maybe fruit. Just because I have the caloric budget to do so.
Great work on the studies my friend.
27 September 2018 - Bench Bodyweight: 211.0lbs
Warmup: soft tissue rolling, band walks 3x12 forward, backward, laterally (no rest)
Bench 8x3 235lbs (45sec), 2x3 225lbs (45sec)
DB Bench 55x10, 65x8, 75x18 (pr? idk), 55x8
Random tricep work for a pump
Rear Delt Flys 15x10, 12, 10
Sumo Pallof Twists 1 1/2 reps 3x10 each side 27.5lbs
Notes
Didn’t each much yesterday during the day which came back to bite me during bench. Overall though, it was a good workout.
My diet fell off completely yesterday. I call it “having fun.” One of my buddies came over last night to watch the Vikings/Rams game, which was a fun, high-scoring game. I had 6 beers and half of a large pizza. Woke up today at 213.2lbs, went to bed last night at 215.8lbs. All I’m doing today is eating healthy, though. Water, chicken, eggs, salad, and green beans.
Deadlifts today. The girl that I was going to hang out with tonight canceled on me this morning, so I have absolutely nothing to do today, which is fine. I’m gonna charge my phone up, drink a ton of water, and have some chicken before I head out.
28 September 2018 - Deadlift 213.2lbs
Warmup: Soft tissue glutes, hams, hips. 4 way band walks 3x12 steps. Pallof twists 2x10 each side.
Deadlift 435x1, 10x3 335lbs (60sec)
RDL 275x10 (8-10 RIR)
Pull-ups 1x15 bodyweight (PR)
Chin-ups 1x12 bodyweight
Hanging Leg Raises 1x8 (no pain!)
Hanging Knee Raises 1x12
Decline Sit Up Twists 2x10 each side
Forward/Back Band Walks 5x12
Notes
Woke at 213.2lbs yesterday and today. My diet has been up and down.
Deadlifts felt absolutely incredible yesterday during warmups, so I started increasing the weight. Got to 435 and it felt rather slow, so I dropped in 100lbs and did my 10x3, which felt easy. I want to get back to a gym where I can use chalk and a real bar. I’m getting tired of the weird bars that my school gym has. They’re a larger diameter than a normal bar and the knurlings are so worn down that they might as well not even be there. It’s also still difficult for me to get into a solid starting position in conventional when I have my belt on.
I got a lot of hip and core volume in yesterday which is cool. Also set a PR for pull-ups which is also cool. I think the lat pulldowns helped with that.
I’m working from 1-9:30 today but the place is an hour away. So it’s basically a 10 hour day for me. I’ll get home, maybe do some band walks, crash on the couch and see if I can catch some college football highlights on ESPN. Tomorrow will be a recovery type day with some cardio, plus OHP.