…Was something I had to tell myself often today as I heard from two people that if I couldn’t drop the weight quietly on my deadlifts and cleans (shhh) then I was using too much weight and disturbing the other worker-outers (who were fine with the pop music and cardio theater, but god forbid that weights make a sound when they hit a rubber floor).
I generally hate when someone talks about form or technique because it generally involves using very light weight, sets of 15+ reps each, and a tempo of 10 seconds up, 5 seconds pause, 20 seconds down, 5 seconds pause.
I use full range of motion; that’s good enough for me. So sue me if I don’t have a 10 second lowering phase on a heavy clean.
On to the workout.
Deadlift
5x145
5x170
19x190 - Holy crap that was awesome.
Power clean
2x6 - 110
3x6 - 115
Good morning
2x10 - 90
2x10 - 95
1x10 - 100 - Bad form but I fought through it.
1x10 - 95
Long jumps
10x1 - Wasn’t able to go very far because of the workout. Farthest I got was 6.5 paces. (heel to toe)
Weaknesses: How I addressed them
Not enough starting momentum to get through lockout: More cleans
Lower back rounding: More good mornings
Bench press
5x85
5x100
14x110 - I had the 15th one in the bag, just about to lock it out, when my dumbass spotter racked the damn thing despite me telling him earlier not to touch the bar unless I absolutely needed it. So I can only count it as 14, not 15.
Bent-over row
2x6 - 120
1x6 - 125
1x6 - 130
When doing bent-over row I don’t exactly get a burn/pump in my lats, and I do use some body English with legs. But with ~125 lbs on the bar I’m pretty sure the lats must be working because I can’t really imagine that solely my biceps and legs are doing the work.
After all this the soccer team and coaches left, thus forcing me to leave before I could do farmer’s carry. So I went to the YMCA, which by the way does not want me running around a gym with me carrying my bodyweight in iron, and did:
DB static hold
50 seconds:F - 75s
Weaknesses last week: How I changed assistance work
Form collapsing: Rowing exercises added
Weak left arm: DBs to make it move its own load
Good morning - Miswrote it earlier
5x10 - 95
1x10 - 100
Front squat
1x0:F - 130 - Didn’t count it as a set.
1x6 - 115
1x6 - 120
1x6 - 125
1x6 - 130
1x4:F - 135
Kip pull-ups (so sue me, I ‘kipped’.)
1x4:F
1x2:F
1x3:F
Farmer’s walk - Didn’t want to run around a crowded gym while carrying almost my bodyweight in iron after a squat day so I decided to walk. My grip thus gave out at less distance.
~25 yds, 70s. (Someone was using the 75s to do DB OHP. One day I’ll be that strong.)
Weaknesses last week: How I changed assistance work
Chest collapsed: More good mornings
Simply not strong enough: Front squats
Considered breakdancing practice, but I decided to leave the two-a-days to the professionals. I decided to cut breakdancing to only Wednesday and Saturday.
Overhead press
3x70
3x85
9x95 - Beat 8x95 of last cycle.
DB OHP
1x6 - 30s
2x6 - 35s
1x5:F - 40s
2x6 - 35s
DB skull
1x10 - 35
2x10 - 40
1x7:F - 45
1x10 - 40
DB hold - After getting in trouble for ‘banging’ the deadlift on the way down, I decided to do actual farmer’s carries on Wednesday at my high school gym which allows that kind of thing.
75s, 52 secs
Felt really great throughout the workout, even at the end I wasn’t pumped and sore in my shoulders and triceps like I was last week.
Decided to do CrossFit instead of this lunk program so I can build lean, quick, athletic muscle instead of puffy, bloated, bodybuilder muscle.
10 rounds for time of:
50 muscle-ups
15 clapping one-handed spartan pushups (hands at hips)
70 clean+jerk, 95 lbs (both 25s on one side of the bar)
100 snatch+overhead squat, 115 lbs
After that I had my primal banana soy shake and called it a day.
No? Not funny? Okay, here’s what my actual workout was.
Clean*
1x6 - 110
2x6 - 115
1x5:F - 115
1x6 - 110
Fell back on these.
Good morning
2x10 - 95
2x10 - 100
2x10 - 105
Tore these apart.
Pull-ups (palms out)
1x3:F
1x2:F
Chin-ups (palms in)
1x3:F
Just wanted to see what the difference was. Palms in is easier. Will be doing them palms out, I feel those in my upper back better. I can’t touch my chest to the bar yet and I kip on them, but I think I would end up cheating more on a lat pull-down than on an actual pull-up.
*I fail to understand what a power clean is vs. a full clean. I thus decided to take the bar off the ground, rack it on my shoulders by any means necessary (that won’t injure me), and call it a clean.
Good morning
1x10 - 95
1x10 - 100
1x10 - 105
1x10 - 110
1x10 - 115
1x10 - 120
Form was excellent. Progress really started kicking into high gear on this exercise ever since I started doing it twice a week.
Breakdancing. Did good work but also overworked myself today, ending up with a bruise here and there. Decided from now on to go in with a predetermined set/rep scheme for attempts on each breakdancing move so this doesn’t happen again.
Handstands - Lost some balance skill after I stopped doing them for a while but I’m starting to get it back, so that’s good.
Flares - Landed facing down without right leg touching ground (just once, but this made me happy).
Windmills - Good, but I overworked myself on them and ended up hurting myself so I had to call it a day.
Measurements:
Weight: 146.5 lb (no change)
Waist: 29 3/4" (down by 1/4")
Chest: 37 1/4" (down by 1/4")
I think I’m overworking my anterior fluccoid, causing atrophy in the type I muscle fibers of the left cranial index. It only makes sense that this would reduce sympathetic neural output and thus result in these measurements.
Today didn’t feel right. It felt like the core lift was just a warm-up and the assistance work was when the actual workout started. I will spend more time warming up in the future.
Overhead press
5x80
3x90
6x100 - Finally got to press triple digits. I’ve been waiting for this day for a long time.
RDL - No rack at the gym that I will be using for deadlift day and my good mornings are getting too heavy to pull out of a BB bench. Will be using these on deadlift day from now on for that reason.
1x10 - 105
1x10 - 110
1x10 - 115
1x10 - 125
1x10 - 135
1x10 - 150
Bench press
5x100
3x110
7x125 - This was my 1RM at the beginning of cycle 1.
Bent-over row
4x6 - 130 - Form was dying. Next cycle I will do these for sets of 10 and use a lighter weight.
DB BP
6x6 - 45s
DB ‘kroc’ row
1x25 - 70
DB hold
30 seconds, 2 drops, 80s.
Wanted to do a minute but I figured it was redundant considering how hard my forearms and grip were hit by everything else I did.
It seems my upper back has grown. If I put my arms in a front double bi pose while sitting in a chair and bring them down as if doing a neutral grip pull-up, I can feel my upper back thicken and push me away from my chair.
Before I started doing kroc rows this was not the case. So I think I should do bent-over rows for sets of 10 instead of 6 and focus on figuratively hitting my upper back instead of literally hitting my chest with the bar.
bodooobababadadaboooo
Weight: 147 (up by .5)
Waist: 29 5/8" (down by 1/8")
Chest: 37 1/2" (up by 1/4")
Good week.
Had a short bike ride today to the store to get a chicken breast. It was more intense than I thought it would be because of how windy it was outside. Still wasn’t too bad. Legs got a little pumped but they feel fine now.
Just cutting assistance work weight in half. If it’s an odd number I’ll round down afterwards. No finishers like pull-ups, jumps, or DB holds/carries. Will practice breakdancing on Wednesday and Saturday.
