6/19/13 - Wednesday
Skwat
somexbar
3x135
3x185
3x225
2x265:F - I felt like I had the third rep so I went for it. It got halfway up and then my chest fell.
2x2x245
Pull-ups
2x+55
Frontflips
Sucked compared to yesterday, but looking at the video from yesterday I think I know what to do to do better so I’ll just get on with that.
damn squats are getting tough esp. when its near the 300 mark… reaching the 200 mark is a far cry from a 300…
^Yeah, lately I’ve been confident about progressing in upper body lifts no problem in some way, but squats have been, well, tough.
6/20/13 - Thursday
I woke up with “Heart Attack” ringing in my head all morning so I knew today would be solid business.
Overhead press
somexbar
3x95
3x135
3x155 - PR over 4x150 and 2x155
2x150
3x145
DB OHP
1x70s - easier than last week
Dips
2x+80 - as opposed to 3x+75 last week
Squats
3x3x135 - Focused on tension all throughout, perfect technique, explosive. Figure if all I’m doing for lower body is squatting, I may as well put a little extra time into it.
Breakdancing
1990s
My spinning arm is stable like the highland bedrock. Consistent full turns and more as long as I was fresh, with a couple 9/8-spins in there too.
Frontflips
I need to find a softer place to practice for the occasional back to ground collision. But otherwise I can land sitting down with minimal pain. Tomorrow I’ll work on them some more.
6/21/13 - Friday
Breakdancing
1990s
Worse than yesterday -.-
Frontflips
Better than yesterday; nasty collisions are much less frequent
6/22/13 - Saturday
Squat
somexbar
3x135
3x185
3x225
2x265 - Nobody was there to spot me today so I didn’t want to risk it. But these two reps were relatively easy I must say.
3x245
2x245
Pull-ups
2x+55
Breakdancing
1990s
Focus. I need to focus on making every single spin as good as I can make it.
Frontflips
Had a decent one, best I’ve ever done so far, but I got tired fast for some reason. I’m working with jumping off single leg and jumping off both legs. On both legs I’m going to experiment with different foot width to see if I can jump higher.
i feel the same way man… thats the reason why i love squats… its a thrilling and dangerous exercise when ure repping new loads… ur nervous and at the same time excited whether u could still go up or doomed at the bottom… although i feel much stronger with a spotter… our rack doesnt have safety pins tsk… but to cut the story short… Squats are awesome
btw whats the purpose of a down set… cuz after my 5/3/1 squats i follow it up with f.squats immedietely
@strengthgeek: Anything I say in response would just be parroting this article: http://www.T-Nation.com/readArticle.do?id=5451364
6/23/13 - Sunday (late update)
Measurements:
Weight: 163.5
Waist: 31 5/8
Chest: *
Hips: 36 3/4
R bicep: 13 3/8
L bicep: 13 1/2
R thigh: 24 1/4
L thigh: 23 1/2
*Not going to measure chest anymore. Its simply too difficult/awkward and what I really care about anyways is whether my pull-ups/dips/bench press are going up.
Bench press
somexbar
3x95
3x135
3x155
2x185:F
2x175
2x170
Pull-ups
2x+50
DB BP
3x80s:F
Breakdancing
Frontflips
Going to take a break from these; my progress has stalled and bruises/small injuries are mounting.
1990s
Keep at it, getting better
Flares
Focus on pulling the hips up by contracting the abs.
So today was mediocre in terms of lifting, likely a result of having lost two pounds since last week, which in turn is a result of some dumbass experiment I did where I cut out sodium all week long to see if I would get shredded as a result. So now I know. -.-
6/24/13 - Monday
1990s and flares, keep at it.
6/25/13 - Tuesday
Breakdancing
1990s
Might have found something new with leading into them, I’ll see about it tomorrow. Otherwise, just the usual of mostly full spins, few just under 5/4 spins, and the usual allowance of duds that are just poopy.
Flares
Looking up helps get my hips up.
6/26/13 - wednesday
WOD:
400 push-ups
8 400 m sprints
100 muscle-ups (last 97 were spotter assisted)
50 max effort squats (last 48 were spotter assisted)
50 max effort OHPs (last 47 were spotter assisted)
100 max effort snatches (last 99 were paramedic-assisted)
k no…
Squat
somexbar
3x135
3x185
3x225
2x265:F
2x2x245
Pull-ups
2x+55
Breakdancing
1990s
waka waka
Flares
Remember to think about left leg coming up to the face quickly
So I didn’t have that triple in me for squats; I thought I did but it wasn’t there. My back collapsed again. My back is probably weak because I haven’t been doing any deadlifts since I hurt myself with them some time ago. In general my lower body training is way too limited; I thought I could progress with squats if I did them often (speed at the end of upper body days and heavy twice a week) but it’s not that simple. I’m going on vacation from Friday through next Tuesday so I’ll miss the other squat workout and the bench workout of this week. But coming off of vacation, here’s what I’ll do for Wednesday and Saturday, squat/deadlift days, now that my low back feels good enough to get back into deadlifts.
Wednesday
Deadlift, one heavy set with two back off sets like has been working for upper body
Squats, one heavy set
Pull-ups, one heavy set
Saturday
Squat, heavy set with two back off sets like deadlift
Deadlift, one heavy set
Pull-ups, one heavy set
6/27/13 - Thursday
Overhead press
somexbar
3x95
3x135
0x160:F - Had 3x155 last week. Should’ve had this. I’m blaming hitting failure yesterday on squats and Sunday, twice, on bench.
2x135
2x145
1x140
DB OHP
4x65s
Dips
2x+75
Deadlifts, just to try them out
Worked up to a particularly painful 1x315. My back was so tight it hurt to take the plates off, sit in a squat, and practicing flares was out of the question.
So what I learned today about lifting:
At any cost, don’t hit failure; it really does fuck up the rest of the week.
Stop doing deadlifts. Just put Wednesday and Saturday back to squats and pull-ups. If I’m literally still at 2x265 at this time next year, maybe I’ll think about changing things.
Breakdancing
1990s
Nothing new, solid amount of full spins but nothing great.
Right so vacation will kill Saturday through Wednesday, so I will be recovered by the end of it; I’ll just pick back up with OHP next Thursday.
6/28/13 - Friday
1990s
Did well for as long as I was fresh; felt myself solid on top of my arm getting spins between 1 and 1-1/4. In light of yesterday’s fucking up I decided to give it a break once my performance started tanking.
Cricket hops
mm dat wrist tension. Wanted to see how high I could jump.
Flares
Powering it as hard as I can helps. Here I was getting bogged down in details when all I had to do to get close to solid flares was sweep my legs harder.
Vacation starts tomorrow so I’ll see what I can do during, not counting on lifting but if I can have some time on the side to figure out something small like a side freeze then that’ll be alright.
6/29/13 - Saturday
Swam.
6/30/13 - Sunday
Squat
somexbar
3x135
3x185
3x225
5x245
2x2x245
Pull-up
2x+50 - no weight belt, had to do some awkward shit with a dumbbell, w.e
Breakdancing
The YMCA I was at had a full gymnastics area. Mats, balance beam, uneven parallel bars… I shit myself. But they didn’t allow me in w.o an official instructor in there, so I had a meh sesh of 1990s while thinking how sweet it would be if I could practice frontflips without fucking myself up.
7/1/13 - Monday
Bench press
bar
3x95
3x135
3x155
2x180 - well shit.
2x2x170
2x165
Pull-up, palms out
10xBW
Decided to stop doing DB bench since progress on it is stalled and it’s just more time to set up. I’ll just do an extra back off set with BB bench instead.
Frontflips
Instructor was there to let me practice on mats. Got better.
7/2/13 - Tuesday
1990s
Seemed to help when I swept my arms around leading into them.
Rollback stalls
From footwork and from standing, relearned this move well
Flares
Very few, couldn’t go outside and I didn’t want to bang myself up on the hard floor. The few I did were good though.
Frontflips
Couldn’t use the mats so I practiced jumping and tucking, thought maybe I could train the move without having to actually do the flip.
As for lifting, looks like I’ve stalled. So I’ll just back off to weights and reps I know I can do, and go from there.
7/3/13 - Wednesday
Squat
bar
3x135
3x185
3x225
3x250 - easy, just starting low again to work back up
2x245
3x245
Pull-ups
3x+50 - kipped to finish the last one.
No time for bboying. Ironically it’s during school that I have the most time available to consistently train as much as I need.
Looking back my best squatting (2x275) was achieved by having no back-off sets and doing a set of front squats after the back squats. So I’m going back to that.
*edit: But there’s nothing to say I can’t push 2x275 now, just that I can’t do 3x265. There’s only one way to find out, and that’s going in and giving it a shot. So I’m keeping the backoff sets where they are here.
Also, best progress in bench and OHP came when I took it easy on backoff sets and did the dumbbell work. So I’ll do those workouts that way, too.
7/4/13 - Thursday
Gyms closed, practiced at the park.
Flares - Keep at it.
Human flags - better than last time I practiced them, nothing great about them though.
Running, jumping, and tucking for front flips, without actually doing the flip, practicing it without risking being unable to get out of bed tomorrow
7/5/13 - Friday
This series of articles is exacly what happened to me. Got stronger quickly by maxing out every day after my left rhomboid spasm, then hurt myself, get weaker, get stronger again with heavy weights, but burn out and stall. Up until now I’ve been taking sets if not to failure, too close to it. What I should be doing is picking working up to weights and reps that are difficult, but easy enough for me to know I can handle, and pushing them as hard and fast as possible. So that’s what I’ll do.
Overhead press
somexbar
3x95
3x135
3x145
2x1x140
DB OHP
4x65s
Dips
4x+65
So all throughout lifting I was leaving at least 2 reps in the tank every set.
Breakdancing
1990s, flares, video of 1990s. Flares still have problem with left foot hitting the ground while coming around.
Here are what full spins look like on 1990s - disappointing. I need to keep my legs pointed straight up.
Frontflips - we’re doing these on mats or not at all.
7/6/13 - Saturday
Squat
bar
3x135
3x185
3x225
4x250
2x1x235
Pull-up
2x+45
Breakdancing
1990s - keep glutes tight
Flares - improved by working on one specific tip at a time (left leg kicks up, legs wide, abs tight, etc)