Weds-3-5
Squat-225lb, 3x3
Squat felt bad today. 185lb was slow and I shouldn’t have pushed up again, but I also wanted to squat 225lb. So I just compromised and did 3x3.
I’ll do 3x5 on Friday.
OHP- 90lb, 3x5 with 4 second holds.
DB row- 75lb, 3x5
DB protraction/retraction-25lb
No more cable rows. I only did them to get some muscle mass on my back to begin with. Now that I have muscle mass on my back, I can save time and cut these out unless I need to do them again.
Thurs-3-6
Front Squats- just the bar, 5x8
DB cleans- 50lb 5x3
Paused Bench-130lb, 3x5
These were hard. I think my bench sucks largely because I just suck at keeping tension in my pecs. I’m going to redo these on Sat.
Chin-ups- 3x5
Last set was normal chin-ups.
Lat pulldowns- 120lb, 3x10
It’s clear at this point that my body is getting worn down. Lower body stuff are just tiring. Last I checked, my weight is 169lb. But I’ve definitely gained muscle mass while also going down a belt buckle size. And my jeans feel a lot looser.
I’ll start changing things up a bit from next week. Probably will add about 200-300 more calories to my diet and see what happens.
Fri-3-7
Fuck today. Actually getting shit on by a fucking bird (I honestly had no idea that this could actually happen) was the least rage-worthy thing that happened to me today.
No lifting today. Just too angry to even go drive; I’m scared that I’ll literally get into a case of road rage and do something really stupid.
Possibly no lifting tomorrow either because tomorrow will probably be a repeat of today (though I hope to God that I won’t get shit on by a bird again).
Sat-3-8
No lifting today as well. Poor sleep + the whole day spent doing labor basically sapped me of all strength. At least today wasn’t a horrible day as yesterday.
Mon-3-10
Squat- 225lb, 3x5, last set did 3 reps, other 2 reps after a 10 second short break.
OHP - 100lb, 3x5
Body felt remarkably stable.
DB row- 75lb, 3x5
DB protraction/retraction- 25lb, 3x12.
Couldn’t lift on Tuesday because I was too busy with moving and such.
Weds-3-12
Moved, and consequently means that I have to find a new gym. The gym I went to today had hexagonal plates and no power racks. Was the nearest 24hr too; I hope the next nearest place fits my needs a bit more.
Squat-225lb, 3x3
Had no safety pins, so I just decided to go conservative and do 3 reps. Mentally scared of squatting with no pins, especially since 225lb is the heaviest I’v gone without pins.
First two sets I paused for 1 second at the bottom, last set was done with the stretch reflex.
OHP-100lb, 5/3/3
Not sure what’s going on with these…Core stability is fine now, but just have a hard time actually getting them up.
DB row - 75lb, 3x5
Thurs-3-13
The gym I went to today also has hexagonal plates, but at least it has a power rack. Gonna have to travel a bit further and go to the old gym to do deadlfits, or cut out heavy deadlifts entirely for a while.
Touch and go deadlift- 195lb, 6x5
My grip keeps loosening with every touch of the floor.
Bench-
Wanted to work up to 135lb and do 3x5 with that, since I haven’t done 135lb and above in a while. Got to 135lb, and felt a good bit of pain in my left bicep when I did my first rep. Pain stayed with every rep afterwards. Not sure what’s up, but it feels as though my upper body is just self-destructing after yesterday…
DB cleans- 50lb, 6x3
Hamstring much more fluid and explosive than the last time I did them.
Chin-ups 4x3
Wanted to do more, but the biceps started to get in the way.
Supersets of bicep curls and tricep extensions with 20lb. 5x6
No real plan for this week cause of moving and other random life-events. I plan on getting onto a proper plan and diet again next week when things settle down.
Basic gist was to add conditioning while maintaining strength and making 225lb squats/100lb OHP/150lb+ bench/ and 315lb+ deadlift easy. Gonna have to see where that goes now, since my upper body is clearly not as strong as I thought it was.
Fri-3-14
Squat- 225lb, 5/5/3/3
No pauses.
OHP - 8-9 singles with 105lb, then 2-3 singles with 110lb (PR), then 3-4 more singles with 105lb.
Wanted to find out just what exactly is holding me back on the OHP. Appears to be my triceps. My left tricep, to be exact. I get stuck roughly halfway into full extension, and I think my triceps aren’t strong enough to lock-out.
Any recommendations on this fixing this would be helpful. Should I just do a bunch of heavy tricep extensions and such?
DB row- 75lb, 3x5
Superset of bicep curls (20lb) and DB ohp (30lb). The DB ohp were in a rom where I think I have the trouble at- 6x5
I think my bicep and triceps are just way too weak, and so I’m going to start doing a lot of curls and such to remedy that.
Mon-3-17
Squat- 225lb, 3x3
First two sets had 1 second pauses. Last set normal.
OHP- 105lb, 2/2/1
Wanted to do a bunch of doubles, but failed…
Superset of DB row (75lb)/ DB curl (20lb)/ DB OHP (35). 3x5 for the row, 5x6 for the curl and the OHP.
Tues-3-18
Touch and go deadlits- 205lb, 8x5
These are so fun to do.
DB power cleans- 50lb, 7x3
Bench- 135lb 5/2, 115lb-3x5
Felt a bit of pain in my biceps again when I did 135.
Bench is really frustrating me right now.
Maybe my bench is failing because I haven’t done the back exercises properly in the last couple of weeks?
Supersetted chin-ups and face-pulls together.
Face pulls- 50lb, 5x10
Chin-ups- AMRAP-1, 5/5/3/4/3
Weds-3-19
Squat- 225lb, 5/5/4/(30 seconds later) 1
So close to doing 3x5 with 225 =( The first set is easy now. It’s the second and third set that wreck my speed.
OHP -Something really trashy. I need to figure out a plan for this soon.
Superset of DB row (75lb)/ DB curl (20lb)/ DB OHP (35). 3x5 for the row, 5x6 for the curl and the OHP.
So, it turns out that my left shoulder/tricep is much weaker than my right shoulder/tricep. I can do the OHP with 35lb without trouble on my right arm, but the left arm tires out around the 4th and 5th set. Probably why my OHP and bench sucks and is so uneven.
Max incline treadmill runs- 15 seconds on, 45 seconds off. 12 times.
Started off with what should have been a nice and easy speed of 7. Harder than expected.
Now my inability to do full sets with the squat makes sense- my conditioning now is so crappy that I can’t recover in time.
Thurs-3-20
Touch and go deadlift-185lb, 10x5
DB bench press- 65lb, 3x5
Superset of BB bench and chin-ups-
BB bench- 2x5 with 85lb, 3x5 with 105lb
Chin-ups- 5/5/4/4/4
Incline DB Retraction-20lb
Prone “Y’s”-6lb
Prone internal rotation- 6lb
Walked/jogged for 20 minutes at a 10 minute/mile pace. 1 min jog/2 min walk. The last time I just jumped into jogging without regard to body being ready for it I got shin-splints and couldn’t jog or run for a month or so afterwards. Not going to let that happen again, and so I went low on jogging volume to let the body get used to it.
I really like supersets. They let me do everything in a much shorter time period.
I also think it’ll be better for me to go heavy with DB benches and just do BB benches for higher reps or something. I can force myself more on the DB bench (probably because I know I won’t get pinned if I fail a rep) than on the BB bench, and the DB bench doesn’t give me that weird bicep strain that I’ve been having recently.
Fri-3-21
Squat- 205lb, 8/6/5
So, I decided today that I wanted to do heavy deadlifts tomorrow by driving to a gym that has circle plates and went into the gym today looking to just do some nice sets of 3x8 with 205lb. I figured it wouldn’t be all that bad and the lighter weight would let me be more ready for tomorrow.
Nope. Easily the most painful session of squatting I’ve done in a very long time. Every part of my lower body is sore right now. Since I’m lifting 6x a week, being sore is something that I prefer to avoid if at all possible.
Not sure if today’s squats did such a number on me because I did a lot of deadlifts yesterday or what.
OHP- 65lb, 3x8
Tried going higher. My lower back and my legs were having none of it, and so I just stuck to a light weight and did some reps.
Superset of DB row (75lb)/ DB curl (20lb)/ DB OHP (30). 3x5 for the row, 5x6 for the curl and the OHP.
Sat-3-22
Touch and go deadlift- 225lb, 5x5
No heavy deadlifts today. 225lb is a lot easier than when I last did them a couple of weeks ago.
No idea how much stronger (if any) that my deadlift has gotten, but all in all each pull is remarkably easy. Even when I was pulling 340lbx3 months ago and such, every set after 135lb felt “hard”. Now everything between 135 and 225 (the highest I’ve pulled with touch and go thus far) just flies up with no effort at all. It feels amazing.
DB power clean- 55lb, 5x3
Need to continue to remind myself to literally launch the DB into the air. For some reason I keep doing this halfheartedly, which completely defeats the purpose of doing the power clean.
DB bench press- 65lb, 5/5/4
Failed on the last rep.
Superset of BB bench (105lb) and chin-ups.
5x5 on the BB bench, 5/5/5/4/4 on the chin-ups.
Chin-ups feel really easy. Which is surprising because the chin-up bar is thicker than the ones I’m used to.
Mon-3-24
Squat- 225lb, 3x5
Yay
OHP-105lb, 3x2
So, I decided that I’ll just stick with 105lb for a while and keep adding reps until I can do 3x5.
Superset of DB row (75lb)/ DB curl (20lb)/ DB OHP (30). 3x5 for the row, 5x6 for the curl and the OHP.
DB protraction/retraction- 20lb, 3x12
Max incline treadmill runs, 7.5. 12 times.
Tues-3-25
TnG Deadlift-185lb, 5x5
DB power clean- 55lb, 5x3
DB bench- 65lb, 3x5
Superset of BB bench (105lb) and chin-ups.
5x5 on the BB bench, 5/5/4/4/4 on the chin-ups.
Chin-ups felt harder today.
Face-pull- 50lb, 5x10
Weds-3-26
Paused squats (3 second pauses)- 205lb, 3x3
I forgot just how hard paused squats are on the core. These really affected my core stability on the OHP.
OHP- 105lb, 3x2
Superset of DB row (75lb)/ DB curl (20lb)/ DB OHP (30). 3x5 for the row, 5x6 for the curl and the OHP.
Thurs-3-27
Deadlifts- 225/245/265/285/305. All reps of 3, with under a minute break each set.
Apparently I can pull fine with hexagonal plates. That’s good to know, cause the last time I tried my form failed miserably at a weight that should have been easy.
Everything except the 305lb felt effortless. The 305lb felt easy. I would have gone up more if I had chalk.
TnG deadlift rocks. Really wish I started doing TnG earlier.
DB bench- 65lb, 3x5
Superset of BB bench (105lb) and chin-ups.
5x5 on the BB bench,6/6/5/5/5 on the chin-ups.
Chin-ups felt easy today.
Face-pull- 50lb, 5x10
Fri-3-28
Squats-135/155/175/195/215. Reps of 5 with under a minute rest each set.
235- 2, then a 1 30 seconds later. Wanted to do 3. Didn’t happen, largely because I couldn’t go deep enough (safety pins were stuck and I didn’t want to take all the weight off and move the pin that sets the bar to outside the rack just for one set) and so each rep basically became a mini-paused squat. Decelerating and coming to a stop at a point that looks and feels deep enough and then going back up is hard.
OHP- 105lb, 3x2
Superset of DB row (75lb)/ DB curl (20lb)/ DB OHP (30). 3x5 for the row, 5x6 for the curl and the OHP.
Sat-3-29
TnG Deadlifts- 235lb, 5x5.
Superset of BB bench (115lb) and chin-ups.
5x5 on the BB bench,7/6/4/4/5 on the chin-ups.
Max incline treadmill runs, 8. 12 times.
This was really hard. Given that I used to do 20 times without any trouble, this makes me sad.