So what kind of dog do you have? He sounds like he’s getting in great shape!
Ohp /Coan light bench
Taking a break from barbell pressing this week both as a deload, and in order to not bother my back.
1 arm kb strict press
24kg x 5 x 5 - easy
Ss/ High bar high box squat
60kg x 5 x 2
Sorta dynamic sets, more just wanting to make sure I can still take a bar on my back comfortably.
Kb floor press
24kg x 5 x 3
Ss/plyo pushups
5 x 3
That stuff WAS dynamic.
Lateral raises
16.5kg each hand x 2 x 10
Ss/hammer curls into parallel press
16.5kg each hand x 2 x 10
Ss/pullaparts
red band x 2 x 33
More heavily assisted chins later.
Back felt fine throughout the workout, and is throbbing now that I’m laid down. In general, it’s feeling a lot better, only really hurts when my head is tilted forwards/back is rounded, which suggests to me that it was a minor strain in my lower traps. Seems localised to the left side now. Relaxation, bit of smr, painkillers, and hot baths should hopefully get it recovered for Monday.
[quote]Spock81 wrote:
So what kind of dog do you have? He sounds like he’s getting in great shape! [/quote]
SHE is a 10 month old black lab. I refuse to let her fulfil the fat lab stereotype, so yeah, she gets intense sprint training daily.
I’m officially taking a deload week. Girlfriend’s leaving for uni on Friday, got loads of shifts at work at the moment - basically shit be cray.
Will be good for the sake of my back and this annoying little niggle I woke up with in my left hip flexor earlier.
Also fits in well with my programs - Coan’s about to start the triples and I could do with a rest, and the next 6 weeks of squatting will be hard as well.
When I have the chance this week, I’ll do my standard deload stuff - do stuff I wouldn’t normally do, and keep it easy. Zercher squats, high rep assisted pullups, sprints, sled drags, etc. Just a bit of fun variety.
Also gonna dial in my diet, instead of going for “eat a lot of everything, including junk”, actually count out 3000-3500 calories a day to get the general idea of how much I should actually be eating, and get junk in where it works (ie, less often).
Deload shizz
Squat
Bar x some
40kg x 5
60kg x 5
80kg x 5
60kg x 10 - twinge where I hurt my back - cut most of the rest of the session out.
Middle 3 sets Superset with assisted pullups (black and blue bands)
3 x 5
Plate incline bench - no lockout
15kg dumbbells x 3 x 20
Because I’m young and stupid, I’m getting way more pissed off over my back than I should. It’s gonna get several days rest anyway - probably hit another light session on Friday before hopefully starting everything over again on Monday.
Ps, ordered a roman chair/45 degree hyper - should give me a few more options
Genius plan - switch to low bar on squats. I figure shifting the weight so that its pushing less directly down on my traps will be more comfortable.
Cons: never gone heavy low bar
When I’ve gone low bar before, I’ve had some issues keeping the bar in place
Depth might be affected - and I like squatting deep.
Other stuff: I’ll keep the stance the same - not gonna go super wide just cos the bar’s a few inches further down my back.
I’ll do a couple of light sets of five after the main sets as form work.
High bar might return, but if I’m going low bar for a bit, it’ll stay for the entire 6 week cycle.
Gonna work on mind muscle connection in my lower traps - scapula slides, etc and try to incorporate more prehab work.
More deload stuff
Squats - low bar
Bar x a lot
60kg x 3 x 5
80kg x 2 x 3
Some small twinges, but nothing which worried me. Felt it a bit in my lower back, but the hyper should help strengthen that up.
Assisted chins - black and blue bands
2 x 5 - held at top on last reps of each set
Ss/ Band dislocates - blue band x 2 x 20
Finished the deload, and to be honest, I feel lazy and sluggish. Ah well, backs feeling better pretty much.
Roman chair/hyper arrived, I’m not sure which it is exactly, but it’s at a 45 degree angle, and I can use it for hypers, so I’m calling it a 45 degree hyper.
Anyway,
Henriques squat cycle 2 week 1 - EDIT: For anyone who’s interested, I’m using a 130kg max - 10kg up from my old max, and 10 to 15kg below what calculators reckon I can hit.
Squat - low bar eurgh
Bar x some
40kg x 5
70kg x 3
95kg x 1
Henriques sets
105kg x 2
112.5kg x 2
120kg x 2 - second rep felt high but looks good on camera. Scarily easy.
Form sets
80kg x 2 x 5 - veeeeeery slow and controlled.
On problem I noticed is that the bar feels like it’s tilted to the left. I filmed my second form set, and the bar was off centre. Ill need to watch that when I set up.
Backwards sled drag - on gravel
8kg tyre loaded with 32.5kg = 40kg total x 2 x 20m
60kg total x 2 x 20m
80kg total x 2 x 20m
100kg total x 2 x 20m
Swept gravel back into place before the neighbours killed me.
45 degree hyper
3 x 20
Ss/ lying leg raises
3 x 20
Ss/hand digs in chicken feed
3 x some - not sure how much these actually did for my forearms - just made a ton of dust.
Overall it was a good session, glad my back didn’t end up hurting. Low bar isn’t all that bad really.
Gonna hit chins and biceps on a Tuesday now - instead of throwing chins in after squats. Got the extremely manly goal of 15 1/2 inch arms by Christmas, so I’ll get the extra bicep volume in on a day as far from Friday’s back day as possible.
OHP day is now a conundrum, I’m a bit bored of high rep barbell pressing, but don’t want to go heavy either at the moment, BTN push presses and Klokovs are out while I let my traps recover from whatever went wrong with them, and I don’t like KB presses much. Maybe pull out some of John Meadows’ stuff again and do that after light benching.
Chins/biceps
Chins
BW x 4 x 3 reps
BW with a kick off the ground x 5
I suck at the lockout - I don’t know whether it’s a weakness in my back, lats, or arms. I might start doing negatives, starting with a hold at the top, trying to keep my scapulae retracted. Warm down sets after weighted chins on back day already have a hold at lockout on the final rep. Hopefully that’ll iron out the kinks.
DB curls
15kg handle x 3 x 8
Hammer curls
15kg handle x 20
x 15
x 15
Curls were all easy - I’ll add reps/sets next week.
Coan bench week 8
Bench
Bar x some
40kg x 5
60kg x 4
70kg x 2
Coan sets
80kg x 2 x 3 - old PR, got it easily on both sets, but the bar was SLOW
Cgbp
70kg x 2 x 3 - these are so much easier than standard bench
Incline bench
67.5kg x 2 x 3
Floor flies
15kg plus handles x 3 x 10
Ss/ Rolling db extensions
15kg plus handles x 3 x 7 - these were easier than I expected
Couple of hours later
Foam rolled back and hams/hips
Cardio
Six 40-50m sprints - walking back to the start as rest.
Sprinting mainly for energy systems stuff, and trying to limit some fat gain. As far as performance goes, I covered the distance in about 8 seconds on my second sprint. If I knew accurately what the distance was, then I’d know exactly how crap I am, but it’s definitely not good.
Gonna add a sprint a week and see how that goes.
Had the dog as a race partner. I swear I used to be faster than her.
Warmed down with the rest of the dog walk.
Starting over - repeated front squat week 1 again with different assistance stuff and an extra 10kg on the block pulls since they were so easy last time, and, you know, progression and stuff.
Henriques Front squat week 1/back
Foam roll everything sore from sprints upper back.
Parallel grip chins
BW x 2 x 1
10kg x 1 x half
Supine grip
10kg x 2 x half
I’m gaining bodyweight.
I suck at chins already.
I have no right to add weight, so I won’t.
No biggy.
Front squat
Bar x some
45kg x 5
65kg x 3
Henriques sets
80kg x 2
85kg x 2
92.5kg x 2
Back off set
85kg x 2 - 2 count pause both reps
Block pull
85kg x 5
125kg x 5
155kg x 2 x 5 - d.o. strapless - default PR. Still pretty easy. 160kg in two weeks, easy 2 x 5 sumo deads next week.
Old school t bar row
40kg x 8
60kg x 5
80kg x 5 - aim next week is this again but more pretty
Dropset
60kg x 5
40kg x 10
20kg x 20
Used a length of rope as the handle. It was weird because I had to pull the rope apart as I lifted. Thats all.
Assisted pull ups
Blue and black bands x 5 x 5 - got them all. Embarrasing amount of band tension though.
Ss/ab wheel from knees
5 x 5
Coan light bench/shoulders
Bench
Bar x some
40kg x 8
55kg x 3 x 10
50kg x 3 x 3
I did some easy reps to work on keeping tight
Partial laterals
20kg plates x 3 x 35
Ss/rear delt flies
10kg plus handle each hand x 3 x 10
Plate front raises
20kg x 3 x 10
Ss/full rom laterals
10kg plus handles x 3 x 10
Klokov press - lowering to eye level to save my traps from any impact on them. Could get a ton more reps this way as well - first sets were easy.
Bar x 4 x 10
Bar x 20
Ss/ Skull crushers
Bar x 5 x 15
If I had delts, they woulda been pumped.
Foam roll entire back
Thoracic mobility stuff
Henriques squat cycle 2 week 2
Squat
Bar x some
40kg x some
70kg x 4
90kg x 3
Henriques sets
105kg x 4
112.5kg x 3
125kg x 2 - 5kg PR - so easy
Back off sets
100kg x 3 x 3 - felt so light. Paused last set.
Too wet for sled
45 degree hyper - holding the red band apart for the duration of the set - kept the thoracic spine from rounding
BW x 3 x 15
Ss/bench leg raises
3 x 20
I’m adapting to low bar pretty well. An issue I see with my form is that my hips initially rise a lot faster than the bar does. I don’t good morning it, but it gets close. Started thinking about leading with the chest on the back off sets, and that seemed to help.
- YouTube ipod turned it sideways for some reason
AM: Chins BW x 2 x 3
Black band assisted x 5 x 3
Then throughout the day multiple 5-10 second flexed arm hangs
PM: Db curls
17.5kg plus handles x 4 x 8
Hammer curls
Same dumbbells x 4 x 15
Cheated the last few reps of each set.
Reverse curls
Bar x 3 x 21s (top, bottom, full rom).
Last set straight into regular curls x 20
Been ages since I’ve done that much work on a small muscle. Goal by christmas - 16 inch arms (I wanna be hoooooge) - at 15 and a half after that session. Triceps are lagging. After Coan bench sets, I’m gonna continue to do my tricep strength exercises, but also do some medium rep constant tension stuff to try to bring them up. Also, just get bigger period.
Coan bench week 9
Bench
Bar x some
40kg x 5
60kg x 4
72.5kg x 2
Coan sets
82.5kg x 2 x 3 - 2.5kg PR and an easy two sets. Also most weight I’ve ever pressed with a full rom
Cgbp
72.5kg x 2 x 3
Incline bench
70kg x 2 x 3
Db bench - moving down the incline each set til I hit flat
26s (including handle) x 3 x 12
No time for triceps stuff.
No sprints this week cos I’m moving back/hams forwards a day to tomorrow so that I can fit squats and bench in next Sunday and Monday before going away for a few days. Might do some swings tomorrow instead.
Light upper body might also get sacrificed, but that’s no massive deal. If I still do it, I’ll hit triceps then.
Henriques Front squat week 2/back
Foam rolling
Neutral grip chins
BW x 6 x 1 - exploding out of the bottom, holding for a 3 count at the top, lowering for a 3 count
Front squat
Bar x some
40kg x 5
60kg x 3
Henriques sets
80kg x 4
87.5kg x 3
95kg x 2
Back off set
85kg x 2 - 2 count pause both reps
Sumo deads
60kg x 5
100kg x 5
120kg x 3
140kg x 2 x 3 - easy
Old school t bar row
40kg x 8
60kg x 5
80kg x 5 - form was slightly better, still some bar humping
60kg x 8
Later…
Assisted pull ups
Blue and black bands x 5
Black band x 2 x 5
Black and blue bands x 2 x 5
Some sort of progress there. Will try for 3 sets with just the black band next week.
Chest supported db row
26s x 4 x 10
Ss/kb swings
24kg x 4 x 20
Zero rest on the superset stopped me feeling guilty about missing sprints - finished in 4:07
Will periodically try to improve on that
KDAWGKDAWGKDAWGKDAWGKDAWGKDAWGKDAWGKDAWGKDAWG
Henriques squat cycle 2 week 3
Squat
Bar x some
40kg x some
70kg x 4
90kg x 3
Henriques sets
105kg x 2
112.5kg x 2 - nearly failed on rep 2 - what?
120kg x 2 - back to normal - felt a bit heavy though
127.5kg x 2 - 2.5 kg PR - nailed it
Had lots of shifts recently - left me with tight hamstrings and a sore lower back. Still, I coped.
No assistance - short on time, and I don’t want a tight and sore lower back for benching tomorrow.