My Road To BEASTNESS w/ Vids

Training Training Logs
21

[quote]boomerlu wrote:
I don’t usually follow logs. I have a few comments though…

Good DL numbers, bad squat numbers. You are shifting forward on the squat. Don’t know how good your hip mobility is, or if that’s the reason you are shifting forward. If it’s b/c of your limb lengths, consider front squats or Bulgarian squats.

Your DL lockout is a bit weird. It looks like you are hitching (bending your knees) on your 320 and rep 2 of 315x3. Don’t know what advice to give other than to not hitch? I recall this is caused by weak glutes. Also, it seems you changed from double overhand grip to mixed grip (btw, good grip strength!). My personal preference is to do deads double overhand and use straps if necessary. Not going to be competing in any powerlifting competitions, so better to be a bit safer (the asymmetrical mixed grip feels weird).

On partial movements (rack pulls, top half squats), whenever I do such movements, it’s always to go really heavy and activate the CNS. I will typically go OVER my corresponding 1rm (i.e. squat 1rm if doing THSquats) in these and do them for clusters (as in I, Bodybuilder) BEFORE the main movement. I don’t see much of a point in doing these with the lower weights you are doing.

On your standing overhead press, you extend very far backwards. Try using a split stance as it gives you more stability.

For whatever pain you’re feeling, try foam rolling. It may get worse for the next 2 days, but then it will get better.

Anyways, you’re making good progress. Keep it up.[/quote]

Thanks for the tips Boomer! I actually latley have been using those partial movements to activate the CNS like the I,BB. That’s why I did those box squats on my leg workout yesterday with more weight than regular squats. It helped a shit ton lol. There were no power racks at that gym so I had to improvise with high box squats.

Thanks for all the advise and kind words, it’s much appreciated.

-Adam

22

[b]4/2/2010

Morning Weight: 180.6 (+0.2 lbs in 1 week)[/b]

Shoulders/Triceps to come later. My legs are SORE from yesterday, it hurts so good

23

I like how you’re consistent.

Goodluck man, you’re well on your way to being a beast. My only suggestion really is that you work on your form. Perhaps getting a powerlifting coach just to show you what you’re doing wrong.

24

Hey Adam!

Nice training log you got here. Im off the AD (wasnt working well for me) and started to use some of Shelby Starnes carb cycling principles, and things are going better.

Your lifts look good, but your squat needs a lot of work as far as the form is concerned. First thing I notice is that your knees are the first thing to move in your movement. Really, your hips need to initiate the movement. Anyways, I’ll just let you read:

Article by Dave Tate, read it over and over, its priceless.

When I decided to get serious about my squat a while back, I was only doing 275 X 3. Literally, after reading Daves articles, thinking about my form, watching a few vids of Dave and Jim, I went in the following Sunday and put up my last set at 315 X 3. 40 lbs increase because my form was better.

Like Dave recommends, I would seriously consider only doing box squats, at least for a while. I remember when I first did them correctly I thought to myself “Yep, thats what a squat is supposed to feel like”. Since, my squat has made night and day progress. I dont pause on the box as much as maybe Dave likes, but having the box really helps me keep my form in check, and I am going to continue doing it until it becomes second nature, then I may do some free squats.

Anyways, keep up the good work, I’ll be following along.

25

Just watched some more of your vids. Deadlift looked pretty good, but maybe your grip is giving at the lockout, like you cant hold the bar much longer?

And your shoulder press, might be doing a tad bit too much weight (in the 125 X 4 vid), you look like you are really sacrificing form to do it. You can play around with different stances and see if you like anything better. For me, I quit doing them and just went back to seat DB presses, I get better concentration on my shoulders when I do them.

Doing a great job logging / being consistent/ and moving some weight! Keep it up.

26

David -

Thanks man! I’ve been trying to work on form a lot lately so I’m just waiting for my squat to shoot up 50 lbs when I finally get everything dialed in lol. It’s easy to stay consistent when setting PRs is fun, and you have a lot of reasons to keep you pissed of and want to get stronger :wink:

Smithers -

What’s up man!? lol, sucks the AD didn’t work out for you man, it’s been giving me some pretty good results. Thanks for that box squat article. It’s weird cause before reading that I’ve been doing box squats and focused on keeping everything tight and whatnot and it just feels great. I’ll be skimming that over from time to time.

I had actually been doing seated DBs for a while before this and got up to 65 X 7, but I just started having troubles with actually getting the bastards in the starting position lol, so I switched over to MP for a change. I dropped weight today and focused on form and feel like it was a lot better, and looks better. Let me know what you think please!

27

[b]4/2/10

Shoulders/Triceps[/b]
PRs: 4

Seated OH Press From Pins
worked up to 145 for 3 cluster reps

Military Press
95 X 3
120 X 3
120 X 1

“120 X 3”

Push Press
105 X 3
115 X 3
125 X 3
135 X 4 PR
115 X 11 PR

Lateral Raises
(to the front)
25 X 20 PR
25 X 20
(to the side)
15 X 11
15 X 10

CGBP
135 X 3
165 X 3
185 X 3
Cluster Set: 155 for 9 reps PR
Cluster Set: 155 for 9 reps
Cluster Set: 160 for 4 reps

Rotator Cuff Work

NOTES: still having some wrist/tricep pains. Started to do some floor DB extensions but it hurt like a bitch so I called it and hit the external rotators. Maybe need to layoff the direct tricep training for a couple of weeks?

28

Form looks better. If I were you, I dont think I would be doing military press and then push presses. I would do one or the other (in one session), and I would probably pick some heavy push presses over the military presses.

Do you do any trap work on your shoulder days? I would suggest learning to do hang cleans (you may already know how), I think they are a pretty good trap builder. So, I would probably have a shoulder day that looked like:

  1. Heavy Push Presses
  2. Heavy Hang Cleans
  3. Side Lat. Raises
  4. Pick something you like to do
  5. Heavy DB Shrugs.
29

Try the I,BB perfect rep style. When you do it right, it feels AMAZING. I’m hitting my old strength peak from a few years ago when I benched 205 (and am benching it again). Back then 155 felt kind of heavy. Now it feels like a “throwing weight”, something I’d use for a bench throw.

If you adopt this style, here’s a cool trick for heavy military press. Do a full cheat push press to get the weight overhead, that way you can get an eccentric and take advantage of the stretch turnaround.

For a seated dumbbell press, try doing dumbbell cleans to get them in position. If you DL 315, you easily have the potential to clean 140. You just have to learn to be explosive.

Interestingly enough, I have similar numbers to you on squats vs deads. Just did 325x3 on sumo deads today. My squat is around 255x3, but I seem to shift forward a ton as well. Back when I was stronger, I was working out with around 315 for 10x3 on conventional DLs and 275 for 10x3 on back squats. My 1rm was 385 on deads and 295 for squats.

Supposedly, this comes from having long limbs compared to torso. I never thought this was the case because I’m pretty short (5’6"), but some tests and observations confirm this.

Check out Thibs’ section here.

And the squat section on this article.

I fail both wall squat tests (though just barely for Thibs). Try these, they opened my eyes to switching over to front squatting and Bulgarian squats.

Once again, great progress. I looked at your numbers and thought “Damn, 7 months? It seemingly took me forever to put those numbers up.”

30

Ha that was exactly what I was going to tell ya. Try slowing down the eccentric on squat, not crazy slow but more controlled. Also squeeze the bar as hard as you can on the way up it seems to help me explode up even when dealing with low reps.

[quote]ashylarryku wrote:

[quote]RiVaL6 wrote:
nice progress dude

i like the vids.
if i may chime in, take your time on the way down on the squats. you’re missing out on half the lift and all the benefits of the eccentric. just my two cents.

[/quote]

Thanks Rival!

That’s actually something I’ve been trying to work on recently. I used to completely drop into the whole and catch myself at the bottom so it has gotten a lot better. I’ll be keeping up with the vids so feel free to chime in whenever you want.

3/25/2010

Taking the day off today. Going in tomorrow with a fitness major here at KU who knows his shit. He’s also on T-Nation and is a big follower of Pilquin. We’re going to run a structural balance test to see where I’m at and what I need to work on. The test can be found on T-Nation here:

-Adam[/quote]

31

smithers -

I’ve been thinking the same thing lately. I think I’m gonna stick with push presses and try to progress on just those. No reason why, they’re just fun lol. I need to work on my exercise selection though. I had been doing upright rows also but they’ve been giving me wrist pains so I just recently dropped them. Thanks for the advice!

boomer -

I’ve been doing the perfect rep style since I found out about it and it has helped a ton. It makes sense though. When you see big guys in the gym, they aren’t just going through the motions, they’re trying to lift the weight with everything they have!

lol, I like doing the preactivation exercises like rack pulls before deads, high pin squats before squats and it helps a ton on the main lift. I’m gonna try and keep working on form on back squats and see if I can keep progressing on it but I did enjoy the articles, thanks man!

irl -

Yeah I’ve been working on controlling the negative on squat lately and it’s helped a ton. Went from barely getting 225 to 225 X 5 after just a couple of weeks!

32

[b]4/5/2010

Back[/b]
PRs: 6

Rack Pulls
worked up to 370 X 3 PR

Deadlift
225 X 3
245 X 3
275 X 2
295 X 1
315 X 4 PR
225 X 5 X 2

Neutral Grip Pullups
BW X 3
20 X 3
35 X 3
50 X 3 PR
15 X 5
BW X 7

DB Rows
70 X 10
85 X 7
100 X 11 PR

Pulldown Machine
LV 16 X 9 PR
LV 17 X 7 PR

NOTES: grip was giving out on DB rows, think I might start doing some farmer walks. wrist felt great today, no pain. PRs everywhere, great session!

33

[b]4/5/2010

Back[/b]
PRs: 6

Rack Pulls (2" below knee)
135 X 3
185 X 3
225 X 3
275 X 3
315 X 3
370 X 3 PR

“370 X 3”

Deadlift
225 X 3
275 X 3
295 X 1
315 X 4 PR
225 X 5 X 2

“315 X 4”

Neutral Grip Chins
BW X 3
+20 X 3
+35 X 3
+50 X 3 PR
+15 X 5
BW X 7

DB Rows
70 X 10
85 X 7
100 X 11 PR

Lat Pulldowns
(weight is indacted by set numbers)
LV 16 X 9 PR
LV 17 X 7 PR

NOTES: PRs everywhere! no wrist pains either, great session!

34

[b]4/6/2010

Chest/Biceps[/b]
PRs: 3

Warmup w/ Light Rotator Cuff work

Bench Press
Bar X 12
115 X 5
135 X 3
155 X 3
175 X 3
190 X 1
205 X 3 PR
185 X 4
175 X 5
175 X 5
Dropset: 175 X 4, 155 X 3

Incline DB Press
35 X 3
60 X 3
60 X 13 PR
60 X 8
60 X 5

Flat DB Press
65 X 7
65 X 5
65 X 5

Incline Hammer Curls
45 X 5 PR
40 X 6
40 X 4
35 X 6

Preacher Curls
55 X 10
55 X 10
65 X 7
65 X 3

NOTES: finally hit 205 X 3! almost got 4 but spotter helped a bit. i asked the biggest dude in the gym so that’s probably how i got it haha. he motivated me a bit, HUGE guy. any type of BB curls give me wrist pains so I’m probably gonna stick with DBs for a while

35

[b]4/7/2010

Legs[/b]
PRs: 2

High Pin Squats Cluster Sets
275 X 3
315 X 3 PR

Back Squats
135 X 3
165 X 3
195 X 3 X 5
205 X 3 X 2

RDL
135 X 5
185 X 5
205 X 13 PR
205 X 10
205 X 10

NOTES: spent a lot of time working on squat form. I think I’m gonna ditch the back squat for a while and start working on box squats. I think I’ll throw in some reverse hypers and glute ham raises to try and strengthen my hams/glutes/lower back. any thoughts?

36

[b]4/8/2010

Shoulders/Triceps[/b]
PRs: 1

Push Press
135 X 3
spent a lot of time working on form

Seated DB Press
55 X 5
55 X 7
55 X 6
55 X 6

Seated Laterals
(to the front)
25 X 20 PR
25 X 10
25 X 12
(to the side)
15 X 12
15 X 10

Power Cleans
worked on form

CGBP
115 X 3
135 X 3
165 X 3
185 X 3

DB Floor Extensions
30 X 10

External Rotator Cuff Work
4 sets

NOTES: feeling fucking run down, shoulders are in some pain. gonna deload next week and work a lot on form with light weight and try to do a lot of stretching. got a few exams coming up I’m gonna need to focus on. seems like the only time I ever feel like deloading is when school is stressing me

37

I think choosing box squats for now is a wise choice. You should be excited, because once you get your form right, your weight is going to shoot up. Seriously, within a week, I added 40 lbs to my squat because of my form.

If you think you are ready to deload, do it now. Do not wait until next week. I say this because, in the past, I have done that, and I seemed to always end up sick the following week (and I am talking about multiple times). Now, this may be a coincidence, but I firmly believe that once I realize I need a deload (feeling tired, weights feel heavy, dont sleep well), I start it at that moment.

It always seems around my “peaks” in my training when I need to deload, I dont know why, maybe because I am putting my body through new strains with the added weight or volume. But in the past, I have refused to deload because training seemed to be going well, and I always ended up sick somehow.

38

Yeah I was planning on not lifting anything crazy until the end of next week. Just the thought of it makes me sick but I know I need to lol.

This was taken yesterday. I lose my lower back arch at the bottom and I don’t sit back far enough, just some things I notice but I could be wrong

I’ve got some work to do

39

[b]4/9/2010

Morning Weight: 181.3 (+0.7 lbs in 1 week)[/b]

NOTES: Taking today off. I think instead of deloading, I’m going to cut back on frequency. The past few weeks I have been lifting 4 days on, 1 day off. This isn’t crazy, but coming from 4 days a week on 5/3/1 it is too much. I’m going to go back to my original plan of 2 days on 1 day off and see if I do ok with that. I’m going to take the weekend completely off just in case though. That’s what I usually do if I feel the need for a deload, I take around 4 days of just going in and going through the motions, then I’m good to go.

40

Yeah, you need some work haha! Thats good though, tons of room for improvement, weights will be going up every week!

Before every squat day, read articles from Dave and the other contributors from EliteFTS, watch some videos, and go squat! Start with light weight, get the form, and slowly ramp up while keeping your form. Dont add weight until you have the form down, so start at like 135. I promise, once you hit it right, you will know, and your strength will really go up.