It’s true, actually really screwed up my last training cycle. They got a little bored over the long winter and were willing to chew up anything. Also lost some lifting straps, several odd pieces of laundry (ever pulled a sock out of 140lb dogs ass???) and way to many financial papers…
Pictures of said dogs:
First one is Butch, American Bulldog, 6 yrs old. Here is his roommate, Beatrice, St. Bernard, almost 8 years old:
Stats: Male, 37, turning 38 in July, have been lifting nearly nonstop for, hell, 26 years. A two year break in my twenties. This last year I finally came to the realization that I never (or at least not in the near future) plan to diet down for a BB show, so have turned my focus back to PL. Currently in the 275 class. Did some meets in my teens and early twenties, but since then have been more of a gym rat. Did my ‘return’ meet in February, went unequipped, and for various reasons had a bad day.
Reasons I had a bad day:
Any way, in a full PL meet I couldn’t get a squat in (opener of 550 met depth, but I wasn’t listening to commands), from there I felt fucked. Managed a 370 bench and 620 DL. Now training for a push/pull in August, equipped. Seems there are some pretty knowledgable lifters here, and wanted to keep a ‘back-up’ of my log. The one thing I have learned over the years is the log is everything…
Pete, I can’t to have a bad day like that! At least as far as your numbers go. The rest I can do without.
If you don’t know already, I’m not one of the knowledgeable ones here, but welcome to the madhouse nonetheless.
Okay, while my grill is getting hot for my juicy Friday night tbone I am going to quickly summarize last weeks training:
5/16
Saturday is DL day. First time pulling form the floor in about 5 weeks. Worked up to 3 sets of three with 250kg (551lbs), all felt smooth.
Cambered bar shrugs: 405 x 20, 495 x 10, added straps 585 x 12, 635 x 6
GMs 225 x 10, 315 x 5, 365 x 5, 405 x 1, all sans belt. Abs hurt for 3 days, like I always had to poop.
BB step ups to 6 inch: 225 x 8, 275 x 8 (each leg)
Seated calve/back ext/hang leg raise circuit 3 x 15-20 each
Standing calves 1 x big drop set.
Haven’t been training calves, but now they are small and skinny, and it is time to wear shorts. Plus nearly turned an ankle walking out squats a couple of weeks ago, time to build them back up.
5/17
Tons of yard work
5/18
a.m. 30 minutes elliptical, while watching the new Mickey Mouse show with two year old
p.m.
ME Bench
135 x 10, 10, 225 x 10, 275 x 5, 315 x 3, Added shirt (kinda loose Fury) 365 x 3, 405 x 3 (easy, first time trying a triple in shirt)
Press to foam roller (no boards available) 475 x 1, 455 x 3
swithcing to a shirt obviously really need to work on lock outs
Incline (no shirt obviously) 185 x 12, 225 x 10, 275 x 5
DB Bench 100s x 15, 125s x 10
rope down/extension 4 x 15-20 each
Hammer strench military (pin select type) 5 x 10-12, just to keep shoulders healthy
5/19
Squat/DL
Felt like shit going in, hard to do after heavy bench night before. All crammed in over lunch break in super commercial gym:
Squat 135 x 5, 225 x 5, 315 x 5, 405 x 5, 495 x 5, 550 x 5 (with knee wraps and shitty Inzer briefs)
Speed DL 405 for 5 singles, 30 seconds rest.
Cybex 45 degree leg press 540 x 15, 810 x 12, 900 x 12, 990 x 10, 13 (all close stance)
Calve press 3 x 20
Leg ext 3 x 10-15
Back Ext 3 x 12 (45 lb plate)
Hang leg raise 3 x 12
5/20
a.m. 30 min cardio while watch ‘Cars’
p.m. (over lunch again)
Bent row (yates style) 135 x 12, 225 x 8, 315 x 8, 345 x 7, 315 x 15 (matched personal best)
Pulldowns wide 205 x 12, 255 x 12, 305 x 10
Reverse grip 265 x 8, 250 x 10
BB Curl (in the rack nonetheless) 45 x 15, 95 x 15 135 x 8, 145 x6 (I suck)
alt cable curl a milltion sets for a million reps
DB Shrugs ss/ band pull aparts 130s x 15/monster minis x 20, 3 sets each
rev curl 3 sets of 12
face pulls ss/w cable abs, 4 sets each.
5/21
No workout scheduled, missed a.m. cardio though
5/22
30 minutes elliptical, while watching the news!!!
p.m.
DE Bench after warm up did 9 x 3 @ 205 + minis, with PVC under back to work on arch. My arch sucks. The whole rest of today by rhomboids have been tighter then, well something really tight.
Rack lock outs, last 4 incheds. 275 x 5, 315 x 5, 365 x3, x 5
DB Inlicine 3 x 10-12 w/100s
Tates 3 x 8 w/50s (just learning these)
Front raise 3 x 8-10 w/50s
Laterals 3 x 12 w/50s
Pressdowns, worked up to stack plus mini band wrapped around back for 12
Did abs, all of this crammed into 1 hr in commerical gym
Going to go grill my steak now
[quote]sfp wrote:
Pete, I can’t to have a bad day like that! At least as far as your numbers go. The rest I can do without.
If you don’t know already, I’m not one of the knowledgeable ones here, but welcome to the madhouse nonetheless.[/quote]
Thanks for the support. While I am big on using this here new fangled interweb for information, the whole forum thing has me a little bit, well, nervous. That was a bad day for me because I just couldn’t meet the numbers I wanted/expected of myself. Training for me has always been my primary hobby, and I take it fairly seriously. But also I realize it is just that: a hobby. Even if I set state/national/world records, it isnt’ going to do too much to pay the mortgage.
BTW, how long does it take for pictures to post here? Wondering if I did something wrong, or if it is wating on the moderators.
Now, to add a funny story. I train at 3 different gyms, two part of the same chain that ends in ‘Fitness’ and then I have a punch card membership to a more traditional hardcore gym. I have been training in hardcore gyms since I was a skinny 13 year old geek and the owners actually took me under their wing and showed me what to do to get bigger and better. But I actually do appreciate the influx of the commerical gyms. Sure, the bars bend easy, but if you are sincere and respectful most places will let you be, and the conveniece is huge when you have kids (most hardcore gyms don’t offer child care). Also, to have two of the same chain, one within 5 minutes of work, and one within 5 minutes of home, is huge. I have even gotten them to make special accomadations for me, like storing bands, boards, etc. But I realize I am not the norm there. One day, a couple weeks back, after an ME Bench day, I stripped down to go to the shower. Realizing the gallon of water I had chugged so far that day was building up, and not wanting to do the Kastanza, I went to pee.
At the urinal next to me was the more typical memmber of this gym. Professional, about 160 lbs untrained, probably plays a bit of raquetball and uses the machines. Anyway, I am pissing, he looks over and says ‘Oh my god you are huge’. Immediately I smile, and he gets embarassed and stammers ‘I mean…’ but I interupt and state ‘that’s what I have been trying to tell my wife for years, thanks’.
One thing about losing the logbook: Everything is a PR now.
Welcome.
The nice thing about posting your numbers and workouts an such is that you will feel a profound sense of accountability, even if only to total strangers. It’ll keep you working toward goals with more focus.
good pulling. Oh and by the way - You’re huge!!
Welcome aboard .
Random thought: why is it were are now abnormal because we use chalk/straps/briefs/bands/heavy weights/etc…
and were proud of knee scrapes ??
Fischer
Thanks Skidmark, that is a positive way to look at things. I should have started with my warm ups: Bench bar x 20 pr, 135 x 10 pr, etc. lol. BTW your logs were part of what inspired me to post here. Keep up the good, hard work.
[quote]FISCHER613 wrote:
good pulling. Oh and by the way - You’re huge!!
Welcome aboard .
Random thought: why is it were are now abnormal because we use chalk/straps/briefs/bands/heavy weights/etc…
and were proud of knee scrapes ??
Fischer[/quote]
At my size I feel I really need to get my pull up to justify myself. I sincerely want, and think, that 700 is in the next year if I keep it smart. 5 years ago I ended up with the whole bulged disk/pinched nerve injury, didn’t squat or dl for nearly a year. Now I am feeling 110% above how I did pre-injury, and ready to make some great progress. I am not built for DL, but when I am in the zone for it I love it now more than anything else. I know it is all me.
Now, why are we freaks? Shit, I have always been a freak. Back as a kid that got into the BB thing, back in the 80s, christ, my parents took me to doctors and shrinks to make sure there wasn’t something wrong with me (is he eating too much protein? will all this heavy lifting stunt his growth?) On top of that I got into the whole hardcore music thing, going to see HC matinees (and sneaking into ID shows) of bands like Black Flag, Bad Brains, etc. So I was the double freak. Still graduated top 20 of my class, and was Deans list every quarter of college in one of the biggest Midwest campuses.
Back in the 80s being into BB/PL meant everyone had a criticism for you: you aren’t going to be able to move when your 30; it will make you slow; my chuck norris Tae Kwon Doe will be able to master your BB muscle (I already had a red belt at 14, but still heard this shit); It will all turn to fat before you are 30 (High School reunions are so fun). 1988, try to get a boneless, skinless chicken breast? Fuck, where I live you had to get the whole fucking chicken and break it down from there. I actually learned to be a good cook by 15 because of this.
Now the criticisms might be a little different, but at the same time you can make it work for yourself. At the highend, upscale, overpriced ‘fitness’ center that I go to I have gone out of my way to make friends of the personal trainers, mostly a bunch of nice kids in their twenties looking to get yoked themselve, make some money, and do something other than sit behind a fucking desk for the rest of their lives. If you look the part, and can easily out class them in training knowledge, they will go out of their way to help you. I have had them leave their paying customers for a minute to spot me on a 600lb+ squat because a lame training partner missed his appointment.
So I guess with this rant (my first internet rant) I am stating shit hasn’t changed much, just the availability of choices. And now everyone goes to a gym, or at least has access to one, which wasn’t the case in the 80s. And with the internet, everyone has information, to digest as they will. We can all get boneless, skinless chicken breasts at walmart/supertarget/meyers/alberstons/takeyourpick, but by judging at the waistlines of the cartpushers I saw today, are that many really eating them, and are they using their gym memberships productively? No, most fill their carts up with pop, chips, low grade fatty meat, and everything else that is easy to swallow in vast quantaties.
No, shit doesn’t change. But we all have less excuses.
Your dogs can’t eat this one. Welcome.
Another old, big, strong dude. Awesome.
Welcome aboard!
I like your online log, it has lot’s of juicy steak in it! Welcome!
Today didn’t go as planned. Rhomboids still felt really tight, and hamstrings as well from doing a ton of landscaping. This is what got done:
rack pulls from 3 pin, 135 x 10, 225 x 5, 315 x 5, 405 x 5, 495 x 3, 585 x 3, 675 x 1, 725 x 0 nothing there, no gas
sumo dls 110k x 5, 150 x 5, 180 x5, x 5 I suck at sumo, feels akward, but think doing them will benefit my conventional pull
Close stance GMs 5 x 10 @ 225, about 30 seconds rest between sets
lying leg curl 3 x 15
Shrugs 315 x 20, 3 sets of 14 w/405
Seated calves 4 sets of 20
Now time to relax, wife and kid out of town, so I have my extensive honey do list to work through. On a plus note 12 packs of Stella Artois were on sale today, made me so happy I had to buy a powerball as well. And I have another Tbone to grill later.
Welcome Pete! Since you eat plenty of steaks, do you cut your own meat?
I’ve found the store will sell whole strip loins or tenderloins for 2.99lb.
I’ll take 'em home whole, trim, and slice them myself. Steaks for week in the freezer.
I agree sumos feel kind of awkward, I’ve recently started doing them to make improvements in my deadlift.
No, I haven’t gotten to the point of cutting my own meat, however considering it an option, also looking at the old purchasing a quarter of a cow at a time. Right now I try to be ‘bargain hunter.’ I am in a pretty urban area, and between the 4 or 5 grocery stores in the neighborhood there is usually a good deal at any given time.
Of course, I also like, when I have the dosh, to spend the money at that old school butcher down the street. They will even dry age for me upon request, for no additional cost.
[quote]PeteS wrote:
Now the criticisms might be a little different, but at the same time you can make it work for yourself. At the highend, upscale, overpriced ‘fitness’ center that I go to I have gone out of my way to make friends of the personal trainers, mostly a bunch of nice kids in their twenties looking to get yoked themselve, make some money, and do something other than sit behind a fucking desk for the rest of their lives. If you look the part, and can easily out class them in training knowledge, they will go out of their way to help you. I have had them leave their paying customers for a minute to spot me on a 600lb+ squat because a lame training partner missed his appointment.
[/quote]
Now that’s a good attitude. Need more of that.
Thanks SFP. I think it has gotten too trendy to bash the PTs. Usually it comes from some dude who doesn’t know how to a) relate to other people trying to do their job b) probably have shitty form themselves when squatting/dling/benching etc.
That being said, I have experienced the opposite end. Once, after doing good mornings, I had a trainer say to me ‘you should stay more upright when you are doing squats’. Another time, I was squating, working up to 605 for a triple, meanwhile the next power rack over a PT had a guy doing some wierd one legged squats off a balance platform.
The trainee finally said ‘can’t I just do squats like this guy?’ and the trainer said ‘well, anyone can squat’. Rare moment I lost my cool. I pulled out my headphones, and asked the PT to come over and squat with me. Gee, he got a little pissy.
But overall I see the tide turning. I see more PTs trying to get their clients to do the real stuff, not the bosu ball crap that started a decade ago.
They need to make a living, and I appreciate having a place with a power rack, and a shit load of weight, within 5 minutes of wherever I may be. So what if I bend the crappy bars. I have actually motivated a couple of the gym managers to get some better bars. God bless the hardcore gyms, but frankly in the past I found it sucked to find another place to train every two years because your hc gym went out of buiness.