Woke at 200.6 lbs, looking decent. Another semi proper sleep helped.
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Today’s training
Plate raises with 44 lbs for a bunch
Smith machine seated press, bench on pin 18
10x’bar’
8x88 lbs
5x10x132 lbs, under 6, 6, 7, 7-8, 8-9 RPE in 10 minutes - 143 lbs nex week. Felt OK, but definitely won’t keep this beyond a three week wave. The bar path is unnatural for my shoulders and I know where that leads.
Low rows supersetted with chest supported raises
Rows 5x12x143 lbs - one more week at this weight I think
Raises 5x12x20 lbs - insane medial delt pump
Hammer Strength pulldowns supersetted with facepulls
Pulldowns 3x15x55 lbs - up to 66 lbs next
Facepulls 3x15x55 lbs
Hammer curls
Three sets to 9 RPE at 30 lbs
Including stretching done in just under an hour
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Machine work? SUMO WITH BRIEFS? You really have gone to the dark side. 
Also is it the Metal Catapult that she got you? I used to see those back in the day.
I am kind of disappointed I never got to really play with any slingshots back in my powerlifting days now that they’ve spread like herpes. The gym I go to when away from college has multiple varieties (strengths) of slingshots, and multiple of these different slingshots. I should convince them to buy a weightlifting bar if they’ve got money like this to piss in all honesty, I don’t think I’ve seen anyone use the slingshots. Not even in the powerlifting area that the faint sounds of metal and ammonia snorting can be heard from.
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Woke at 203.7 lbs, looking decent. Same scenario as Monday: two meals in and after three to four hours sleep. Last night tonight, thank fuck.
@Destrength I guess I’ve just come a way towards figuring what works 
the Lockout is pretty much a Slingshot ripoff made my Loaded Lifting, so it’s way cheaper than the original. Mrs KO bought the wrong size so I got to see it before she returned it, it seems pretty darn well made, the feel of the material was close the original red Slingshot, design almost identical although it seems a bit wider than I remember.
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Today’s training
Leg extensions a bunch at 55 lbs
Front squats
5xbar
5xplate/132 lbs
5x2 plates/220 lbs
5x275 lbs, under 6 RPE
5x297 lbs, 7 RPE
4x319 lbs, lost the bar forward on the fifth for no good reason, felt like 8-9 RPE
5x297 lbs, 9-10 RPE
4x275 lbs, lost bar forward again, felt like 8 RPE
Rest between work sets was limited to changing plates and getting the bar off the pins. They were pretty brutal. Upper arms are a tad tender from catching the bar. Next week I’ll take the same weights for fives, then most likely swap to a different set/rep scheme for the last couple of weeks.
RDL pushaways toes elevated on 11 lbs plates
10x132 lbs
8x220 lbs
3x10x308 lbs - finally got my hammies feeling every set
Arms and grip feeling kind of trashed so decided to swap out rope STBs for decline sit-ups. Old decline station is gone so used the shallower decline bench
Leg extensions supersetted with weighted decline sit-ups
Extensions 3x25x66 lbs, slow-ish eccentric - no need to add weight, still brutal
Sit-ups 20x44 lbs, then my buddy thought he’d be smart and suggested we use the 100 lbs plates for 15 (his excuse later was he thought they were 25 kilos), so 15x100 lbs which was doable but ended up as much a hip flexor exercise as an ab exercise, then 20x44 lbs because sanity
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Trained immediately after work. Last night shift and I’m tired AF after a week of garbage sleep so I decided to shorten the session somewhat. Right acromion or thereabouts is kind of sore for some reason, not sure if it’s just bruised from front squats or something else. Kind of strange that this crops up a day after I Smith seated press so I may well drop it depending how the pain goes.
Today’s training
Push-ups for a bunch - around 15, felt easy AF probably since I’m used to doing them with a 45 lbs five year old sitting on me
Bench press (ie comp setup, straight bar)
10xbar
8xplate
8x220 lbs, 8-9 RPE
2x6x220 lbs, 8-9 and 9-10 RPE
9x176 lbs, 9 RPE
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bc-lSgvBZNO/
Pretty happy with this. Groove is pretty much still there, albeit rusty. Definitely an improvement from when I was training comp setup weekly. Got a fairly insane pec pump too.
Seated DB press supersetted with pull-ups
Press 3x10x50 lbs
Pull-ups 7 wide overhand, 8 wide neutral, 9 close neutral
U-bar tricep pushdown dropset
20x66 lbs, 11x55 lbs, 9x44 lbs, 12x33 lbs, 17x22 lbs
Including stretching took around 55 minutes
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I’m probably going to go over my calories today. It’s 1400 and I’m pretty much at 2800 cal already so I’m not kidding myself. I have, however, been awake more or less for 22 hours and I won’t be going to bed for another six or seven hours.
I’ve touched on this before, but I really do get most of my calories in around training. Of the 2800 cal/day, because 1400 cal are carbs that’s all right before, during and after training; and then there’s the protein with those carbs, which usually comes to around 400 cal; with 300-400 cal in fat that I allow (20ish grams each side of training) that’s 2100-2200 cal in the training window, which is usually five hours at most.
This is just an observation. Today was not far off this: I had around 300 cal left after my training window meals (went over a bit on carbs), and that window was 0500-0900. I’m already set for protein, so I don’t need to eat but fuck me dead I’m hungry. Bar the large latte I had which was around 400 mL of milk I don’t fancy not eating until tomorrow morning. As if is I won’t eat until around 1600 at the absolute earliest, so I’m looking at what almost amounts to a mini fast of eight hours or so.
Training wise I’m in a good place. This mass phase has definitely paid off in pretty much every way possible, so that’s a major win. What I’m curious to find out is whether the payoff has come from nothing more complex than the extra volume, or whether the fact that I’ve been employing variations of the comp lifts for a lot of that volume has played an equally important role.
I’m almost sure for deadlifts it’s been the use of block pulls, RDLs and front squats that has delivered more than the volume. For bench press I’m also leaning towards that conclusion, although it’s hard to ignore the fact that I’m a good seven or eight pounds heavier, of which a fair bit is lean mass. I’m going with 50/50 volume/variations for bench. For squats, I’m pretty sure it’s mostly the volume, however I think it’s the volume per set that’s also had an impact as well as having strengthened my abs and upper back significantly because it lets me execute the lift better. So, I think front squats and barbell rows in particular are having a significant positive impact on my squat. I’m not including ab, quad and hamstring work because I’ve been doing that for a while now without seeing such a marked improvement in my squat. Logic dictates that the ‘new’ exercises get the credit, and of exercises working the abs, upper back and hamstrings that I’ve seen improvements in since introducing, barbell rows and front squats pretty much top the list.
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Woke at 202.6 lbs, looking decent. Had a proper sleep at last too.
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Woke at 203.7 lbs, but still looking decent. Late dinner last night might account for the extra weight.
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I was thinking about bench while I went to sleep last night. Getting my ducks in a row, it boils down to this: I would say that this mass phase has seen my best bench progress in about a year, give or take. Either it’s the added mass alone or a mix of that and the variations, I can’t ignore what is staring me in the face.
TL;DR I’m sort of wondering whether it wouldn’t be better to keep plugging away with variations going into meet prep, at least for my second bench day.
What I’m thinking is that comp benching once a week will be beneficial for technique, which is a massive component of any lift improving. So keep that. The second day, however, would be my variation day. For instance, in the six week block post deload, that’s going to be Lockout (aka Slingshot) bench. That’s already set out. For the prep, however, while comp lifts follow that old school western periodisation, why not just keep the second bench day (and press day too, for that matter) as a bodybuilding day with variations? Keep the 5x8-10 double progression going. On the list would be DB bench, American Bar feet up bench, decline bench as the main lift, followed by some other bench variation like on Monday, with a couple of rows. Wednesday would be exactly as now: press variation and raises with rows.
It’s quite odd, but just writing it out makes it click.
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Guess it’s bench gains for Christmas then.
If comp is coming up IMO do at least one set of comp bench on the second day and then variations. Can’t afford to lose any technique gains. This way technique stays fresh af while you hammer variations if that’s working for you.
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Yes, I was thinking along those lines - that would be something like six weeks out, which fits nicely.
Woke at 204.2 lbs, but looking decent. No bloating that I can see, everything much as I’m now used to. Win.
Happy Xmas everyone. Also happy Festivus.
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Today’s training (yes, I trained. So sue me)
Lower back has been tight AF since Saturday for no reason I can fathom
Push-ups, a bunch (at this stage I can get to 16 or so before it even feels like work, but still gets my pecs going)
DB bench
10x30 lbs
10x50 lbs
8x70 lbs
10x90 lbs, 7-8 RPE
4x8x90 lbs, 8-9, 8-9, 9-10, 10 RPE
Work sets took 14 minutes. Goal next week is 2+x10
Decline BB bench supersetted with strict barbell rows
Bench 3x12x176 lbs - absolutely fried my triceps from first set onwards. Keeping these.
Rows 3x12x209 lbs, first set grip was shit and overall off, second and third worked a lot better. One more week and I’ll go up to 220 lbs for 3x8-10
Cable crossovers supsersetted with T-bar rows
Crossovers 3x15x27 lbs - staying here another week
Rows 3x15x132 lbs - hard AF today, last few reps of sets two and three kind of cheaty
Was wondering why the rows were so hard, then I realised I’d been pushing the pace HARD: it took under an hour to get to this point
DB tricep rollovers
3x12x25 lbs - holy hell
Incline treadmill walk 15 minutes at 5 km/hr
All up done in an hour and a half. Back feeling much better, so that’s a win.
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So close to repping 100s. Have a good day mark.
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Priorities/10
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I made sure I played with munchkin first. Then we made a two headed zombie and attacked Mrs KO.
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How’d you have time for that? Did you guys wake up at 6am or something?
Close. I got up at seven, breakfast done by around eight fifteen, then munchkin got up and we played zombies with his Halo toys. After a while I figured I wasn’t getting out of there so I convinced him we should see what mummy was up to, and he said we should make a zombie monster, and thus ended Mrs KO’s sleep in. I was at the gym by twenty past nine.
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