Rest day. Was supposed to do laundry but they closed our only laundry room to work on the drainage tanks, lame. Also new ship policy is that they will be checking IDs for "Khaki Hour’ in the gym, so from 1030-1130 E6 and below (AKA the majority of the people that actually go to the gym) can’t use our only lifting gym or the only treadmills. Since I go to the gym from 9-11 that really puts a damper on my post lift cardio, only other option is row or bike and I don’t really think those are a good replacement for the S+ Tier incline walk.
No gym tomorrow most likely, due to needing laundry badly. New weigh in tomorrow and then new measurements on the 10th. Looking forward to seeing if any of my measurements have changed since my clothes are fitting differently, even though I don’t feel like I look much different. Wish there was a place I could take progress pictures without being incredibly cringey.
Reverse Grip Single Arm Tricep – 20x10 20x10 20x10
30 min incline walk
PM
30 min incline walk
Gotta figure out band placement so that I reap the full benefits of the band. There was a little too much slack in the band at the bottom of my press. Overall felt like a had a solid workout today. Pull tomorrow.
Man I feel great. Starting to see your results more and more feels amazing.
Pull up – Fastest to 40 – 11, 10, 10, 8, 2 so annoying to leave two reps for the end
Single Arm Row - 95x10 100x10 100x10 100x10
Banded Back Extensions - 4 sets of 10 w/ 50lb and 20lb band
Single Arm Lat Pull Down - 90x12 105x8 105x7
Face Pull - 70x10 75x10 80x10
Shrugs – 80x10 90x10 80x10 felt a tighter contraction with 80 so I dropped back down
Alternating Curls - 25x10 30x8 35x8
Cross Body Hammer Curl - 25x10 30x8 35x6
30 min incline walk
PM Physical Therapy and Core
@TrainForPain Hey man once I can get 40 in my 4 sets, do you think I should go for 50 reps or add weight and start over trying to get to 40 in as few sets as possible?
Honestly I’m just trying to get some thickness in my back. I have a body goal and I need some density and thickness.
Elbows feel ok currently. I had a little pain in my bicep right above my left inner elbow, nothing the theragun couldn’t fix. Pain there started with reverse grip curls and zotman curls last week though.
Personally, I’d put more of my heavy eggs into rows and leave pull-ups as a volume thing. You could even try moving them later in the day, and they’ll be a lot more challenging
Like the bent over rows I’m doing? I’ll have to add bands because our dumbbells max out at 100lbs. I could try barbell rows to see if my lower back can take it.
Nice work on your pull-ups here, my man—you’re crushing it.
Not TfP, but when I was working on Poundstone curls, I hit the 100 straight and considered adding weight and working back up, but @T3hPwnisher suggested that I add a 1 rep per week for a year. I took it on, and while it was absolutely grueling, by year’s end, I hit 157 straight reps—it was pretty crazy!
I’m not sure that exact progression applies here, but if it were me, I’d probably look to add reps over weight for these.
Appreciate it man. 157 reps is insane! I’ll probably just add reps then. Then try to add more weigh in the rest of my lifts to achieve my desired goals (hopefully).
I probably wouldn’t try to band the rows, I think that would be annoying. Pendlay rows are lower back forgiving, or chest-supported, but you could also do one-hand barbell rows (shove one end of the BB in the corner) to keep going up.
I think once you can get to like 15 reps in a pull-up set, I’d just do 3 x max reps. They bother my elbows if I’m too aggressive.
Though this isn’t an absolute truth, it tends to generally be the result: For back exercises: “Top-to-bottom for width. Front-to-back for thickness.”
After a few years, I felt that my back was just too “shallow” in appearance. Most of my back work was pullups and lat pulldowns. I was talking with a friend who lived in Tampa, FL. He said the above quote. I kept that in mind. When I turned 40, a fellow competitor explained how much his back improved doing barbell bent over rows. I then decided, What am I waiting for? That day and going forward, “Front-to-back” became my priority.
Once I discovered accommodating resistance, I found that though many exercises could be made more difficult as I approached contraction, which worked nicely because my strength curve increased as my muscle contracted, rows were almost the exact opposite. With rows the closer I got to contraction the weaker I got.
I found a way to do barbells bent over rows where my lower back was not the limiting factor. I placed my feet as wide as I could, like a sumo deadlift. I was able to do what I can best describe as “lock my hips.” That gave me a solid brace to pull against. I kept my erectors firmly flexed during all reps. Another benefit is that my knees were no longer in the bar path. I worked up to 405lbs for 2 sets of 8 reps. I did have some rock. But I added a row on a chest supported row where I concentrated on the contraction.
Appreciate the tag! And to tie it all back to chins: I’m not employing a “same but different” approach. I do daily chins now, similar to my daily work I did in the past, as a means to NOT have to do them during my actual workouts. It started out with 2 sets of 15, just to get back into the groove and then settled into 3 sets. The big thing has been to spare my elbows through the process, because I’ve always pushed the volume too fast and had to then take breaks due to developing tendonitis.
So I’ve been adding one chin per week total. This week, I’m at 2x19 and 1x18 each day, to give perspective on how the process has been going. And I honestly think it’s been responsible for a VERY successful recomp phase. I’m stumbling across the idea that frequency across the week isn’t as significant as frequency across the DAY. My body is learning that it will need to move itself through space frequently and, in turn, it can’t get too fat or it will compromise it’s ability to do so. I’m getting stronger, my weight is ever so slightly trending upward, my food intake grows, and I’m visually getting leaner. I’m appreciating it.
Squat - 135x10 185x10 225x10 245x10 255x8
RDL – 135x10 205x10 225x8
Bulgarian Split Squats – 80x10 90x8 100x8 Going up next leg day
Hamstring Curls - 40x10 45x10 50x6
Leg Extensions - 70x10 75x10 90x8 drop to 45x10
30 min incline walk
PM Physical Therapy and Core
Supine Transvers Abdomen Bracing - 3 sets of 10
Supine Transvers Abdomen Bracing with Leg Extensions - 3 sets of 10
Quadruped Transvers Abdomen Bracing - 3 sets of 10
Quadruped Hip Extensions - 3 sets of 10
Side Plank with Hip Abduction - 3 sets of 10
Bird Dogs - 3 sets of 10
Pilof Press - 3 sets of 10 with 25lb band
Russian twist - 3 sets of 10
Flutter Kicks - 3 sets of 10
Followed by 15 minutes of hard stretching.
@TrainForPain Ok sounds like I’m just gonna add reps till I die.
I’ll add barbell rows my next back day. I 100% feel like my my back is a little to shallow. I have a goal physique in mind and I’m try to work toward it as much as I can. So if I need heavier or different movements, I’m 100% in. I’ll try your wide stance.
Focusing on rehydrating today and getting calories in in prep for my next 3 days. Gonna try to up intensity in the coming workouts. Thickness with a quickness is the goal. Going to be hard to put any real mass on out here due to food portions, but I’m going to try. Push tomorrow.
Barbell bent over rows are so good, one of the best mass builders for thickness. I’ve tried a slightly wider stance, not quite all the way to sumo but just wide enough that it really takes a lot of the stress off the lower back. A bit of personal anecdote but to anyone reading this who doesn’t do bent over rows because of the lower back stress, widening the stance until it feels more comfortable has definitely worked well for me.