Also, in the apartment gym.
A few sets of 10 with standing cable Ys and Ts. My “pulleyaparts”.
3 sets of standing hex dumbbell holds. These are rubberized and different weights are different sizes, but, 25 lbs for a count of 25, 15, 16. Both hands at the same time.
Another year older. Spent the weekend down in wine country, stayed at some old hotel that used to operate as a speakeasy and brothel, then attempted to go hiking to see some waterfalls but it was too icy. While I was able to navigate the icy path in basically a spider crawl, my girlfriend was not, so we turned back. Falling to our deaths would not make for the best birthday.
Forgot my phone today. No Pandora, no timer, no logging while I lifted.
Warmed up my shoulders with straight arm circle swings with 5 lb weight, forward and back. It’s a bit chilly.
Z Press
45 x 10
65 x 5
75 x 3
110 x 5 – matched 5RM PR
100 x 5
Wrist bent back on a rep or two. Wraps + mechanix gloves doesn’t work if you put the wraps over the base of the gloves. I’ll have to experiment in the future. Right wrist is a bit sore, and thus, right elbow is a bit sore now.
7 Mat Pulls w/35 lb Chains
135 x 10
185 x 5
225 x 5
hook
275 x 3
straps
340 x 5
310 x 5
I’m going to redo this. I like the way 310 looks on the bar.
Actually, besides that, it just didn’t feel nice and solid like it should have. It felt a bit too heavy, and I didn’t feel like I had good control over it. Not sure why.
EZ Bar Curls
bar + 20 x 15
bar + 30 x 15
bar + 40 x 15
bar + 20 x 15
Did these hammer grip with an ez bar. For the first time, curls actually seemed to do what they were supposed to do… i.e., hit my biceps, and not hurt my wrists or elbows.
I made a fist, with mechanix gloves on, and the bar rested on top of the fist. It worked well.
No food in me before lifting today.
Foam rolled 10 passes on each leg’s hamstrings before I left for the gym.
Z Press
45 x 10
65 x 5
75 x 3
wraps
115 x 5 – 5RM PR (was 3RM)
105 x 5
I’m a day ahead of my earlier schedule for this.
Wraps first, then Mechanix gloves over the top works fine. Just not the other way around. 115 was surprisingly doable… although my quads started cramping up…
7 Mat Pulls w/35 lb Chains
135 x 10
185 x 5
225 x 5
hook
275 x 3
straps
345 x 0, 0, 0, wtf
325 x 5
325 x 5
I clearly didn’t find a good place to start with this “mat pull every day” cycle. I thought 335 was good, but apparently not.
I haven’t figured this lift out yet. My low back/SI joint feels better with the hamstring rolling and/or a renewed focus on contracting the lats. Could be either.
Many factors why I maybe had issues with this:
All fixable.
330/300 tomorrow. I think I just need to build momentum with training every day.
I also learned that Chris Duffin’s gym is about 25 minutes away from where I live.
Foam rolled hamstrings 10 passes per side before I left for the gym.
Z Press
45 x 10
65 x 5
75 x 3
105 x 5
95 x 5
No wraps today. 110/100 tomorrow.
7 Mat Pulls w/35 lb Chains
135 x 10
225 x 5
275 x 3
straps
330 x 5
300 x 5
Dropped the 185 x 5 warmup set. I’m trying to pare down the warmups. I did some glute contractions before each work set for activation. Seemed to help a bit.
335/305 tomorrow.
EZ Bar Curls, Hammer Style
bar + 25 x 15
bar + 35 x 15
bar + 45 x 6
bar + 25 x 15
In the style of yesterday’s comments why I had trouble, what I did differently:
My girlfriend and I ordered something like 6 or 7 1lb bags of protein, testing out some flavors. She’s not been a fan of any of the flavors so far; she mixes with water and all protein with water tastes nasty to me, but they seem to mix better with milk. As for the three I’ve tried, the Java Mocha is the best.
I think 2 60g shakes a day will be a staple for awhile. It’s a good safety net and worked in the past but I’d used it all up and didn’t replace it.
Elbows and shoulders are generally feeling better. They don’t feel good yet, but much better.
DID NOT foam roll hamstrings 10 passes per side before I left for the gym. Regretted it.
Z Press
45 x 10
65 x 5
75 x 3
wraps
110 x 5
100 x 5
115/105 tomorrow.
7 Mat Pulls w/35 lb Chains
135 x 10
225 x 5
275 x 3
straps
335 x 5
305 x 5
340/310 tomorrow.
Low back did not feel great on these. I’m speculating it’s related to rolling vs not-rolling my hamstrings prior.
I also realized driving back that I stopped using the “arch hard” cue. This may need to be reimplemented.
Rainy and 45 degrees today.
I’m at around 8 or 9 weeks doing z presses and chain mat pulls almost exclusively. You’d think I’d be bored of it. I’m not.
My shoulder pain and my posture is slowly but surely improving. When I did 95 lbs in the Z Press a couple months ago, I pulled a couple rib out of alignment, I had trouble getting the bar back behind my head well, and there were imbalances left to right in terms of mobility. Those have all kind of sorted themselves out.
120 is on the horizon. Given that 115x5 surprised me in its doability, I expect to see something similar with 120. 120x3 at least, if not 4 or 5. I’ve already seen a 25% improvement in this lift in just a couple months.
My right elbow issues from before… the ones I had with bench especially, but also overhead press… they seem to pretty much be a thing of the past. Wrist wraps and curls seem to keep this at bay.
However.
In the last week or two, it’s starting to bug me that my chest development is lagging. Everything seems to be growing but my chest. I’m pretty sure my upper traps have more muscle mass than my pecs at this point.
I don’t see me changing up my training to get a bench variant in, but for some reason I’m starting to get tempted to do something. This might pass; it might not.
The biggest risks are reinjuring my shoulders, pulling the shoulders forward again (and counteracting all the work I’ve put into keeping them back), and reinjuring my right elbow since it doesn’t seem to like the bench much. But I’m still tempted.
I do know chest work, both flat and incline, are known to help with overhead strength, at least if the top strongman contender’s logs are to be believed. (Obviously I believe them.) I’m just not sure now is the right time to go down that path. It’s not like I can’t figure out a way to use my rack or build something to do bench and/or just do floor press with my existing setup.
Food for thought at least.
The z press seems to completely ignore the chest. There seems to be some development (at least in muscle tone) from the mat pulls. It just feels a bit weird to be the exact opposite of the bench/curl bros, where most of my upper body mass is on my upper back. :-/
If you are concerned about bench variations, why not do something like pushups or dips instead?
I like spar4tee’s push-up idea. If you want to stay true to the minimalist nature of your routine you could even just add in some push-ups and inverted rows as a warm-up, rather than actual work sets. It would keep things ticking over without eating into your actual training. Just an idea. I’m enjoying your log as always.
I agree the the previous posts. If you can rig up some rings or blast strap type of apparatus then you could add ring push-ups/dips. I feel like both of those helped with chest development
Thanks to all of you.
I woke up in the middle of the night, and while falling back asleep I was trying to solve two problems; this chest thing one of them.
What I decided on was to ask for a set of rings for Christmas, and figured that I can hook them over the apartment stairs to do weighted pullups and dips. They’re open stairs, so I can thread rope or webbing through them just fine. Might have to do something to reduce abrasion, but it’s doable.
So it’s funny to hear you guys say the same thing.
The other problem is that my deadlift weakness is off the ground. Front squats or hack squats (just the lower half) are what I’m thinking. I can rig up a Charles Smith’s “basic power bar” and do front squats without a rack… pretty much the same thing as a chain yoke, if you want to google it.
Or, just look at the pictures here: The Tight Tan Slacks of Dezso Ban: Stability, Pull, Lockout Power – Charles A. Smith
But neither of these are pressing issues, really. Linear(ish) progression on these two lifts seems to work fine right now.
Last night, and before lifting: rolled hamstrings 10 passes per side.
Z Press
45 x 10
65 x 5
75 x 3
wraps
115 x 5 – matched PR from earlier this week
105 x 5
The first rep was smooth, but the last 4 were slow and grindy. Good reps, just slow. Which is fine, since I couldn’t even do 115 for more than 3 reps until this week.
120/110 Monday.
7 Mat Pulls w/35 lb Chains
135 x 10
225 x 5
275 x 3
straps
340 x 5
310 x 5
Low back did not feel great during the warmups and the first rep of the work set.
And then the second rep, I remembered how to do these. They were much easier and my back stopped hurting.
Ugh.
I’d been focusing too much on my glutes and back, and forgot about my legs.
All I have to do is remember to keep my torso as upright as possible and push through the ground. I don’t know why I forgot that. It’s like a night and day difference.
Maybe 345/315 on Monday, or maybe 330/300. I like the 4 forward, 3 back model, at least when lifting daily. But since I just relearned how to do these, well, I might keep pushing forward another day or two.
Z Press
45 x 10
65 x 5
75 x 3
wraps
120 x 3 – PR
110 x 5
First time having 120 in my hand for a Z press. Got the PR, but my mind wasn’t really in the game. Still, it is what is it.
110/100 tomorrow.
7 Mat Pulls w/35 lb Chains
135 x 10
225 x 5
285 x 3
straps
345 x 5
315 x 5
Well, that went better than expected. Much better than last time where 345 wouldn’t even budge.
335/305 tomorrow and work back up.
EZ Bar Curls, Hammer Style
bar + 25 x 15
bar + 35 x 15
bar + 45 x 9
bar + 25 x 15
Z presses just keep climbing bud, I’m excited to see what it does for your standing overhead
[quote]Alpha wrote:
Z presses just keep climbing bud, I’m excited to see what it does for your standing overhead[/quote]
So am I. I’ll probably try it out in the next week or two.
Z Press
45 x 10
65 x 5
75 x 3
wraps
110 x 5
100 x 5
115/105 next.
7 Mat Pulls w/35 lb Chains
135 x 10
225 x 5
285 x 3
straps
335 x 5
305 x 5
340/310 next.
So, it turns out I actually did do 120x2 on the z presses a couple weeks back, and yesterday wasn’t the first time doing 120. I’ll be doing 120 again in a couple training sessions: Thursday, maybe Friday.
I also took a look at some stuff around my current PTP program last night. I’ve been using 5lb jumps for both the presses and pulls, but someone else suggested increasing the step size for the pulling. That way there’s better fluctuation of intensities in the 4 forward, 3 back approach, and a better “deload” when starting a new cycle.
So something like 15lb jumps with the mat pulls instead of 5lb jumps.
Instead of (starting yesterday): 345; 335, 340, 345, 350; 340, 345, …
It would be: 345; 315, 330, 345, 360; 330, 345, 360, 375; 345, 360, …
I may give that a shot when I top out.
This may or may not be the last week of doing the daily-training PTP approach. Back to 2x weekly (per lift) with backoff sets after.
Revisiting an earlier topic… I actually get impingement from lateral and front raises. I don’t from the presses.
Z Presses
45 x 10
65 x 5
75 x 3
wraps
115 x 5
115 x 3
115 x 2
5-3-2 with the same weight is another option than the 100%/90% approach. It’s about the only suggested revision to this program. I tried it, but I think I prefer the drop 10% approach. I’ll give this a shot a few more times though.
120/110 next, then 125/115.
7 Mat Pulls w/35 lb Chains
135 x 10
225 x 5
285 x 3
straps
340 x 5
310 x 5
345/315 next.
–
My girlfriend’s family came to visit for Thanksgiving. There’s now 3 women living in my house in addition to my girlfriend. So… me, 4 women, 2 cats. One of whom doesn’t speak English. Fun times. Especially since I’ve had to entertain the 3 of them while my girlfriend’s been at work.
Escaping to the gym was a nice break.
–
Just like I was looking forward to the drop in volume before, I’m now looking forward to the drop in frequency and increase in volume.
I was reading around the DragonDoor forums again, trying to find more information on these two routines. It just seems like 99% of the people who used this program (at least the ones that talk about it) have never pulled much over 300 lbs.
Mostly I was just trying to find some info on which kind of cycling people used, and how they changed things over time, especially when it came to the Bear training. Since you can progress that in both intensity and/or volume, I was trying to figure out which strategy worked best for people when it came to mass gains.
But I guess I’m just flying solo. Not a big deal.
[quote]LoRez wrote:
My girlfriend’s family came to visit for Thanksgiving. There’s now 3 women living in my house in addition to my girlfriend. So… me, 4 women, 2 cats. One of whom doesn’t speak English. Fun times.[/quote]
Must be when you have a cat that can speak English. What do you and your cat talk about?
[quote]magick wrote:
[quote]LoRez wrote:
My girlfriend’s family came to visit for Thanksgiving. There’s now 3 women living in my house in addition to my girlfriend. So… me, 4 women, 2 cats. One of whom doesn’t speak English. Fun times.[/quote]
Must be when you have a cat that can speak English. What do you and your cat talk about?[/quote]
Ha. That would be nice.
4 women in my house… I needed a break.
Z Presses
45 x 10
65 x 5
75 x 3
wraps
120 x 4 – PR
110 x 5
The 4th rep almost didn’t go up, but I wanted the PR. It pretty much stopped a bit above my head and very very slowly climbed up.
125/115 next. Probably Monday; going to Seattle for the weekend.
7 Mat Pulls w/35 lb Chains
135 x 10
225 x 5
285 x 3
straps
345 x 5
315 x 5
360/330 next.
I’m just going to jump into the 15 lb step approach. I feel like I’m spending too much time at intensities that are just wearing me down. Mostly feeling it in tendons and ligaments in my back. I think getting a wider intensity range with these waves will help recovery.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone.