Magick's Training Log v2

Training Training Logs
281

Today-

Squat-
135/185/225/265/295lbx1
265lb, 5x5, 1x1

So I had the brilliant idea of taking minute rests for the volume stuff today. I honestly don’t know why I thought I could do this, but I did. First two sets were done with minute rests and my hamstring and back were pretty much out. I did the following three sets with 90 second rests instead. Weight came dangerously close to shifting to my toes on the last set, so I called it.

in hindsight(and hindsight is always 20/20…) this was a seriously stupid move on my part. I can’t even do 5x7 yet, why did I think that I can manage 7x5 with one minute rest?

I guess I’m not quite back to where I was before, which sucks. It’s been almost four weeks since I’ve stopped jogging. Blah.

That being said, wasn’t a waste. Doing 5x5 with rest periods 90 second and below seems cool.

Weighted chin-up/forward lunge/hanging leg raise (90 second rest)
+20lb, 8x5, 2x4 on the chin-up
10x5 on the lunges while holding 10lb dbs in each hand.
10x5 on the leg raise

Chin-up felt manageable and good for the most part. Last reps started to get sloppy, with core and legs loosening up and stuff. Decided to do fours cause I didn’t see the point in doing sloppy reps.

Lunges felt a lot more difficult than I expected- Probably muscular fatigue from the squats but I’ve never done lunges with a weight in both hand so that probably did stuff too.

The Devil invented the leg raise.

282

Today-

OHP-
95lbx3
115/135lbx1

BB row-
95/135/155lbx5
185lbx1

Superset of OHP and BB row (90 second rest)-
135lb, 9x3, 1x2 on the OHP
165lb, 10x5 on the BB row

Things generally felt worse on the OHP today. Missed last rep.

Row felt ok/goodish.

TnG deadlift/dip-
135/185/225lbx3
275lb, 5x3

8x6 on the dip

Used hook grip for the deadlift. Thumbs didn’t fall off. It turns out that I don’t have to squeeze the bar for dear life to hold the grip. 275lb felt slower than I expected to be, but none of the reps felt difficult.

Tuck lever with leg raise-
7x2

283

Today-

Squat-
135/185/225/265/295lbx1
245lb, 3x10, 1x6

Last two sets felt really difficult and the reps felt noticeably slower on the last set.

This honestly feels like a conditioning session and not a strength building session, ha ha. The weight felt light for the most part.

Not sure if I should repeat this next week or add more reps or move onto 255lb. I’ll make up my mind by next week.

5 min mini-break to recover

Pull-up(various grip)/back lunge/hanging leg raise (60 sec)
5x5 on everything. Did three sets of the lunges with 10lb DBs in each hand.

My core pretty much gave out on the last set of the leg raise, and I’ve apparently spent my daily mental endurance, cause I was about ready to quit by the fifth set.

The pull-ups felt very easy.

Lying leg curl (30 second rest)
5x5

Addressing the possibility that my hamstring isn’t working correctly on both sides.

The squats wiped me out today.

284

Today

Push-press-
95/115/135lbx3
155/185lbx1
195lbx0
155lb, 5x3 (90 second rest)

185lb felt a lot easier than previously, so I thought I’d be good for 205lb. 205lb felt super heavy when I unracked it, so I went down to 195lb. Right side can do 195lb but left side couldn’t. I think it’s because of lack of practice with the movement.

155lb felt easy to put up, but it got a bit hard on the body after a while.

Snatch-grip BTN press (90 second rest)-
45lbx10
65lb, 4x10

Easy. Went light because I didn’t know what impact the push-press and doing this with snatch-grip would have.

DB snatch-
60/70/80lbx1

80 would have been easy if I didn’t do all the push-press.

TRX row/DB snatch/tuck lever-
8x6 on the row
60lb, 8x4 (2 on each arm) on the DB snatch
8x3 on the tuck lever

This felt pretty easy. Stayed more horizontal on the row so that I can make it a bit easier. I really need to work on staying stiff and stable for this, cause I’m pretty sure I have a good bend on my upper back.

285

Today

Deadlift-
LOTS of form work with the bar.
135/225lb- LOTS of work to get my hamstring and hip to move better.
275/315/345/375/405lbx1
315lb, 10x5

My grip felt a bit tired on the ramp sets, probably the snatches from the day before. The weight felt pretty effortless beyond that.

The 315lb volume sets felt great. Absolutely no hip/lower back pain and rep 1/2 of sets 1-8 felt very easy and very fast. Things slowed down dramatically by the last set, but even then was never something that I would call difficult.

Learned something important for my deadlifts- I need to push my knees out since my current dysfunction is that my hip doesn’t open up correctly/juts out to the right. Consciously pushing my knees out while hinging and loading the hip seems to get around this, hence the lack of hip/lower back pain.

Had minor tears on calluses. I need to manage them if I’m going to deadlift like this or risk a major tear.

Good Morning-
95lb, 4x10

Weighted chin-up/modified single-leg squat/hanging leg raise (90 second rest)
+25lb, 4x5, 1x4 on the chin-up
5x5 on the squat and leg raise

Hand felt wiped out + the last reps started getting grindy, so did four on set five.

Lat pull-down-
120lb, 3x10

Lying leg curl-
2x15, 1x10

Ow

286

Today

Power snatch-
65/85lb, 2x3
105lb, 2x1
95lb, 8x2

Had nothing in the hip on the 105lb, so went down to 95lb.

BB row-
95/135/155lbx5
185lbx1

BB row/weighted dip/leg raise off dip bar-
165lb, 10x5 on the row
+20lb, 10x5 on the dip
10x3 on the leg raise

Rows felt strong until the last two sets, when muscles started to get tired out.
Dip felt fine, also tired out at the end.
Awful lot of swing on the third rep on the leg raises. Need to be more stable and stiffer.

Complex(Back squat/BTN press/RDL/BB row)
10(or 8…)x5, rested with bar on back for 30 second between each set

Simplified this so that I only have one pressing and pulling motion with the goal of eventually moving to doing 95lb+ on this.

Much better than the last time I did, though I did remove the front squat and OHP.

Sweated a bunch and the upper body started to get fatigued at the end, but not much besides that. Adding weight will make this into a nightmare though.

Tuck lever with leg raise at top-
5x3

287

Today-

Squat-
135/185/225/265/295lbx1
275lb, 5x3(90 second rest)

Not difficult, though quads and knees started to feel a bit sore.

Wanted to do 7-8x3, but the fellow waiting for me was also nice enough to let me go first while he did something else, so I decided to stop when the knees started feeling a bit iffy.

Doing more sets has definitely been useful and I’d like to keep at it. The trouble is that the rest periods take up too much time. Doing 7-8 sets with two minute breaks is 14-16 minutes minimum spent standing around. Not only do I not that much that kind of time, but it also interferes with others waiting for the rack. Having actually stood for an hour waiting for someone who refused to share the rack to finish, I get that it’s annoying to wait.

So, i’m going to try to reduce rest period for squats and things that take up the rack to 90 seconds and initially adjust the weight/rep as needed. Since the 5x3 today didn’t feel difficult, I think I can keep with 90 seconds.

Power clean (60 second rest)-
145lb, 8x2

The first several sets felt powerful and I didn’t even need to dip. I know that’s wrong, but the pull just felt that easy. Tried spreading the knees the same way I did with deadlifts; I guess that got more of my hip engaged. Things slowed down to normal speed/power by the end, and I started dipping normally.

Weighted chin-up(+20lb)/weighted forward lunge(15lb DBs)/hanging leg raise(90 second rest)-
6x5

Did a bit of a dead-hang for the first couple of sets. That bit me in the ass near the end, but never actually difficult.
I should have done weighted lunges sooner.

Lat pull-down(60 second rest)-
120lb, 3x10

Decided to outright take the knee pads out cause I don’t want to use them for these and it’s just annoying to maneuver around them to sit down.

Starting to get much easier than before.

Hamstring curl(45 second rest)-
3x15

Writing out all rest period cause I’m starting to lose track.

288

Today-

OHP-
95lbx3
115/135lbx1

BB row-
95/135/155lbx5
185lbx1

Superset of OHP and BB row (two minute rest)
135lb, 4x4, 3x3 (failed a fourth rep on the first set of three) on OHP
165lb, 7x7 on the BB row

Finally moving along.

The triples didn’t feel hard until the last set, but clearly getting a fourth rep was not going to happen.

Imma try doing sets of three with minute rests next week before I try more sets of four.

The rows feel fine and I feel my left shoulder and area doing a lot more work than previously.

TnG deadlift/dip (60 second rest)-
135/185/225lbx5
275lb, 5x4

8x6 on dip

Hook grip on 275lb felt ok but I’m having a hard time holding onto the bar as the sets go on. I need to secure the grip better + actually learn how to properly hold the hook grip.

Tuck lever/DB OHP (60 second rest)
5x3 on the tuck lever
40lb, 5x5 on the DB OHP

Tuck levers felt easy and I seem to be getting better at going up while keeping my lower body straighter. The OHP got a bit difficult by the end.

289

Today

Squat-
135/195/235/265/295lbx1
255lb, 7x5 (one minute rest)

295lb felt pretty easy.
255lb felt solid. Started to get really fatigued around set five, but never felt truly difficult.

That being said… body felt shot afterwards.

4-5 min mini-break

Pull-up(various grip)/weighted reverse lunge(15lb DBs)/hanging leg raise (90 second rest)
5x6 on the pull-up and lunges, 4x6, 1x5 on the leg raise.

Pull-ups felt strong and easy for the first four set; did what felt like solid pauses at the bottom. Upper back and grip got tired by the end.
Grip and core died on the leg raise.

I am not recovering fast enough from those squats.

clean-grip reverse lunge (60 second rest)
45lb, 3x8

Ugh. I need to do a shit-ton more single leg work.

290

Today

Warmed up with OHP up to 135lb

Push-press-
155lbx1
185lbx0
165lb, 6x3 (90 second rest)

Not entirely sure what happened with the 185lb. I did some sort of half-way rep where I got the bar up to about the top of my head and and then didn’t follow through. It didn’t even feel like a conscious decision- I just started the rep and never finished it. I’m tempted to think that the bar drifted away from me and so I unconsciously knew that it would never happen without risking a big failure, so I just didn’t follow through.

Anyways, the 165lb is a solid PR. Happy with that for today. Will try to build up to 8x3 and then decide where to go from there- I don’t want to do anymore than three reps on this if I can help it.

Snatch-grip BTN press-
45lbx10
75lb, 3x10 (90 second rest)

Last set got tiring.

TRX row/TRX push-up/Tuck lever (60 second rest)
10x5 on the row
1x3, 9x5 on the TRX push-up
8x3, 1x2, 1x3 on the tuck lever

Trying to adhere to better form on the row. I tend to sag my mid-body and not tense up my body, so this never worked the way it’s supposed to. I need lots more practicing with tensing my body up on movements like this.

In hindsight, doing that many push-ups after months of not doing them seems to be a mistake- my shoulders feel a bit iffy right now.

The tuck levers are all over the place- Some reps I manage to go up into position with my body as sorta straight, whereas some reps I pretty much jump into it with my legs tucked.

DB bicep curl (30-50 second rest)
20/25/30lbx5
20lb, 3x10

291

Today

Deadlift-
135/225lb-warm-up
275/315/375lbx1
405lbx3
335lb, 3x5 (two minute rest)

Decided to try to rep 405lb since the singles during the ramp sets feel so easy. Planned on doing 3 and so stopped at 3. I think I could have gotten 5-6 if I really wanted to max out.

The reps were shitty reps though. First rep felt good. The other two reps went up but the plates were sliding all over the place and so form became bad. The weight shifted too much.

Should have used clamps- probably would have made this a lot easier.

Wasn’t interested in pushing anything afterwards, so just did 3x5. Imma try for 5+x5 next week. These weren’t as difficult as I was fearing them to be.

Squat-
135/225/275lbx1

Just because. Felt easy but no pop.

Good morning (one minute rest)
95lbx5
135lb, 5x6

Weighted chin-up(+25lb)/cossack squat/hanging leg raise (90 second rest)
4x5, 1x4 on the chin-up
5x5 on the cossack squat
5x5 on the leg raise

Chin-up a bit better than last week- failed the last rep. Got about halfway up and realized that I didn’t have enough strength left to finish.

The rest were easy (took one set to stretch the muscles out of the cossack squats) and I think this is the first time that this superset didn’t leave me feeling tired afterwards.

Need to do cossack squats more frequently. I’ve heard it’s good to work in various planes of motion.

Lat pull-down-
120lb, 4x10

First two sets super slow while going back into the “hang”. Next two sets done normally.
Getting a lot easier + the muscles feel like they’re moving better. Again, yet another exercise I should have done sooner.

Hamstring curl-
20/15/10

Ow.

292

Today

Edit-

I forgot to mention that I did this as a warm-up-

Complex(back squat/BTN press/BB row/RDL)
5x5 with 30 second rest with bar resting on back.

Was easy and got my body warm. Grip got a bit tired.

OHP-
95lbx3
115lbx1
135lbx3

Did the 135lb with sorta dead-stops inadvertently. Was ok.

BB row-
95/135/155lbx5

BB row/weighted dip(+25lb) (90 second rest)
175lb, 7x5
7x5 on dip

Muscles started to get tired and form became harder to maintain on set five. Dip got slow and the rows started feeling jerky on the seventh set, so I stopped.

DB OHP/Kettle bell swing/uh… no idea wtf this is called. I started in the hang position and just pulled myself upside down (90 second rest)

45lb, 10x5
24kg, 10x10
2/3/2/2/2/2/1/1/1

Tried to move myself into a front lever at the last set and I failed about two thirds of a way up.

Left shoulder moves differently and feels weaker.

293

Today

Clean and push-press-
95lb, 2x1
115lbx1
135lb, 1x1
155lb, 1 clean/1 push-press, 3x2 clean/1 push-press, 4x2 clean (90 second rest)

Been a while since I’ve done actual full cleans. Felt easy, but it doesn’t feel like I’m pulling the bar to myself enough on the 155lb. As such, I’m not catching the bar well. I need to be conscious about pulling the bar more aggressively I think.

I really dislike catching the bar when I bring it down after a clean. I wish my gym had bumper plates.

Stopped doing the push-presses when it became very apparent that my triceps and shoulders didn’t recover enough from yesterday. Decided to not do anything that involved the upper body today.

Front squat-
135/165/195/225lbx1
165lb, 5x5 (60 second rest)

The volume stuff felt easy. 225lb felt pretty easy.

And that was it.

294

Today

Squat-
135/195/235/265/295lbx1
275lb, 1x5, 5x4, 2x3 (90 second rest)

First set felt fine- felt like I could match my old PR of 9 if I wanted to push it. I didn’t recover enough by the second set to do another five though, so I did fours instead. Did threes on the last two sets for the same reason.

Squat strength almost back to September level.

Five min mini-break

Weighted chin-up(+25lb)/weighted forward lunge(15lb DBs)/hanging leg raise(90 second rest)-
5x5 on everything.

Mini-pauses on the first three sets of chin-ups. No pauses on the next two.

Better than before. I got all five sets of chin-ups! Now I really need a dip belt or some sort of weighted vest.

Stomach started to hurt after the third set.

Lat pull-down(60 second rest)-
135lb, 4x8

Not as easy to keep myself down with this weight.

Hamstring curl-
6/6/3

Wow. I upped the weight today and this felt significantly more difficult. Started to feel some sort of spasm and pain in some part of my hamstring on the third set, so stopped.

Either my hamstrings were really tired from the squats, or squatting and deadlifting ain’t doing shit for my hamstring. I don’t get that- how can I deadlift 425lb without some degree of hamstring development and strength?

295

Today

OHP-
95lbx3
115/135lbx1

BB row-
95/135lbx5
155lbx3
185lbx1

Superset of OHP/BB row (60 second rest)
135lb, 5x3, 1x2 on the OHP
155lb, 6x7 on the BB row

Ran out of steam on the sixth set of the OHP. Set one-four felt great. Going to keep with this until I can do at least 8x3.

TnG deadlift/dip(60 second rest)
135/185/225lbx5, 245lb, 4x5 on deadlift
7x7 on dip

This got really tiring. Dips became grindy and the last rep probably doesn’t count.

Tuck lever(60 second rest)-
3x3

DB snatch(60 second rest)-
75lb, 5x4 (2 on each side)

296

Today

Squat-
135/195/235/265/295lbx1
255lb, 6x6 (60 second rest)

Felt about as difficult as last week, but I think I recovered much faster cause the following bodyweight stuff weren’t that bad.

Pull-up(various grip)/cossack squat/hanging leg raise-
6x6 on everything (90 second rest)

Not that bad.

And that was it.

297

Today-

OHP-
95lbx3
115lbx1
135lbx5

Push-press-
135/155/185lbx1
165lb, 4/4/3(2+ min rest)

Worked in with some folks on the push-press volume stuff. Their rest periods were getting increasingly longer so I decided to stop. Was a good point to stop anyways- the three felt wobbly and hard to hold at the top.

Finally got 135lbx5 on the OHP. Yay.

Snatch grip BTN press/Overhead squat (60 second rest)-
45lb, 5x10 on the press, 5x5 on the squat

Shoulder/tricep felt a bit off so decided to not use any additional weights.

TRX row/push-up/tuck lever with legs raised(60 second rest)-
10x5 on the row and push-up, 9x2 on the tuck lever

Started out with pulling myself into the tuck lever then eventually got to swinging into it.

3x1, 1x0 inverted hang practice(I figured out what it’s called!)-

Lower back couldn’t do much anymore.

Focusing on maintaining a very straight body and tension throughout. Really hard after a while. I’m just awful at purposefully maintaining tension- makes me wonder how much better all my barbell lifts would be if I knew how to build and maintain tension correctly.

Bench press-
95/135/155/175lbx1

Just out of curiosity. All of them felt easy. Wonder how much I can do when fresh.

298

Today-

Deadlift-
135/225- I spend way too much time on these.
275/315/345/375/405lbx1
335lb, 7x5 (2 minute rest)

Gripped the bar wrong on the 315lb and got some sort of minor bruise in the palm area under the left pinky. Annoyingly painful when I do a full grip on the bar, so I did some sort of weird half-grip for everything. Grip felt more tired than usual as a result, I think.

405lb did not feel good today. Likely because of grip.

The 335lb started to feel a bit hard after the fifth set. Form got worse and reps got slower. Got 7 sets regardless and probably could have done a set or two more with reps of five.

Weighted chin-up(+25lb)/weighted reverse lunge(15 lb DBs)/hanging leg raise (90 second rest)-
5/5/4/4/4 on chin-up
5x5 on the rest

Not that hard. Added mini-pauses on all the chin-ups with the goal of doing actual solid pauses eventually.

clean grip reverse lunge (60 second rest)-
45lb, 3x8

Better than last time. Probably because I didn’t squat

Lat pull-down(60 second rest)-
135lb, 10/10/8

299

Today-

Bench press-
95/135lbx5
155lbx9

First time benching for real in months. Wanted to do an AMRAP with what I thought would be light weight. Chest started to get tired out + reps slowed down so I stopped. Triceps felt nothing though.

Not bad, but I was expecting to be able to do somewhere around 12-15 reps. We’ll see what happens next week.

BB row-
95/135/155lbx5

Superset of BB row and weighted dip (+25lb)- (90 second rest)

175lb, 8x5
8x5 on dip

Muscles didn’t fatigue in the manner that I did last week.

Inverted hang practice/DB OHP/TRX row/KB swing (60 second rest)-
10x1 on the hang
40lb, 8x6 on the DB OHP. 2x5 as DB cleans afterwards
10x5 on the TRX row
24kg, 10x10 on the swing

Good.

300

Today-
Power clean and push-press (90 second rest)-
155lb, 8x2 clean and 1 push-press

Wanted to do ten sets. Upper back died and I was starting to slam the bar on my arms.

Front squat-
135/165/195/225lbx1
185lb, 6x5 (90 second rest)

Superseted the above with pull-ups off the power rack. 4x5, then 5x3

Fingers lost whatever conditioning they built up to doing the above previously, so I had to start doing 3s.