A) Bench (I enjoy warming up with bench on back and bis day)
225 X 3
255 X 2
275 X 1
295 X 1
315 X 1 cheese cake felt like I could have done 3 if I pushed it.
B) Kayak Rows
100 X 6 X 4 per side
C) Wide-Grip Pulldowns (2 second holds)
150 X 6 X 4
D) Supinated Pulldowns (2 second holds)
165 X 6 X 4
E) Seated Row (2 second holds)
150 X 6 X 4
F) Rope Curls w/ Double Contraction
100 X 6 X 4
AR: rope tricep extensions
G) Reverse Grip Preacher Curls
60 X 6 X 4
AR: DB OH extensions
H) Cable Curl (3 seconds up, 3 seconds down)
70 X 6 X 4
AR: Close-grip pushups
NOTES: Keeping weights on exercises down is paying off and I’m getting a better pump each session.
Silently been checking into these log updates. Impressive stuff man. I imagine you get some looks throwing down 3 plate bench. In my gym everyone would be like “WTH!? that just happened” unless it was one of the few guys who everyone would predict can. That’s not to say you haven’t gained a TON of size because you clearly have, looking bigger all the time, I just it boggles the mind how strong you’ll be in another 20-30lbs!!
ps. jeleous of your bench setup. do you do the thibs style shrugged shoulders at all or is it “pure powerlifter” dave tate “how to bench” style?
That’s a solid bench bud. Does going that wide hurt your shoulders at all? My max distance is outside of my hands about an inch inside the rings. Any wider and it feels like my shoulders are gonna rip off.
@jake: Haha well obviously not too many kids in my gym are putting up 315, but I’m definitely not or even near the most impressive in there. There are quite a few pretty strong and big guys that lift in there, which is nice. Some of them are complete tools, though.
And honestly, I couldn’t tell you how I bench lol. I’ve seen both videos (CT’s and Tate’s) but I just do whatever feels best for me. I’m tight as hell and drive my heels into the floor (or try to if I’m on my toes like I have been lately) and keep my shoulders blades back, lats flared (or try to lol, I feel my lats working), and I may shrug a bit.
@WhiteFlash: Thanks! How tall are you? I’m pushing 6’1" and feel I have a pretty big wing span, so what’s wide for you or someone else may be a bit narrow for me. But no, I do not have any shoulder pain or discomfort at all.
A shade under 5’10". I have fairly long arms, but nothing crazy. I’ve benched 315 for a double, but I weighed about 15lbs more [about 190]and my pinkies were on the rings. My days of going even that wide are gone. You’re making pretty killer progress bud. Congrats.
Flash, I used to have the same line of thinking, and did ALL of my pressing quite narrow (pinkies on the rings being widest). When I went to train with the powerlifters at TPS, Det had me take my grip out quite a bit (pointers on rings). If the rest of your setup is on (at least in my case), benching like this now feels fucking AWESOME. So might be worth trying again.
Adam, killin it dude. Plz teach me how to bench press erryday.
Just checking in here. Consistent as usual. Good to see someone who is in a similar situation (if more advanced in terms of uni and strength)get the work done and keep improving. Videos are great, keep it up. Matt
@WhiteFlash: Thanks! Yeah I used to go pretty narrow and worked my way out over time without even thinking about it. I guess it’s just natural to me.
@Bug: If you teach me how to be sessi erryday, I will teach you the Lyon Prussing wheys.
@mr179: Thanks, Matt! Finals are over in two day, but I’m going to be studying all day today and tomorrow for them. Not sure if I’ll train until Thursday, but some things have to be done.
Strength Phase 2 Week 2 Front Squat
A) Squat
265 X 4 X 4
B) Bench
245 X 4 X 4
C) Deadlift
375 X 4 X 3
I got tired of the squared plates throwing me off so I cut the last set. I was falling forward on reps because the bar rocked in front of me right before I pulled lol. I hate deadlifting at our rec center with a passion.
D) Front Squat
235 X 3 X 4 (up 10 lbs from last week)
(235 X 3, 2, 1) X 2 cluster sets (up 10 lbs from last week)
E) DB Squats
100s X 5 X 4
F) Safety Squat Bar
220 X 5 X 4
G) DB Bulgarian Split Squats
60s X 5 X 4
NOTES: Finals are piling up and I doubt I’ll make it to the gym tomorrow or Wednesday because of it. I’ll be ready to tear it up Thursday once I finish my last final that morning, though.
Here is my shoulder session from Saturday. I was able to use 205 for all sets on the foundation exercise and it was probably to easy. I’m looking to hit 215 next week and then 225 for the last week.
[quote]Achilles of war wrote:
Ive always wanted to ask why you always train with the bumper plates, even on squat and bench.
Any how, shit looks good keep it up bro.[/quote]
I use the bumper plates because I know I’ll be deadlifting as my 3rd exercise. I have to use bumper plates on deadlift so I can drop the bar, rather than lower it to the ground like I do with normal plates. It’s easier to just start with the bumpers when I know I’m gonna use them anyway lol.
Well, finals week wore me out. But I was victorious! Felt pretyt good about my 4 finls, but I was DEAD tired by the time I was done today. Needless to say, the session wasn’t as great as I would have liked it to be.
Indigo Strength Phase 2 Week 3 CGBP
A) Squat
275 X 3 X 5
These actually felt great. My form was a bit off after not doing anything the past two days, I was a bit tight, but it felt pretty light.
B) Bench
255 X 3 X 5
First couple of sets felt slow but I found my groove.
C) Deadlift
385 X 3 X 5
Felt pretty good all around.
D) CGBP
270 X 3 X 2
265 X 3 Decided to drop a little.
(265 X 3, 2, 1) X 3
E) Incline DB
95s X 6
95s X 5 X 2
F) Lying DB Extensions
40s X 6 X 3
NOTES: I was out of groove on cgbp and kept hitting the catches. I started at 270 and the reps were semi grinded by the 3rd rep so I dropped 5 lbs and it helped for some reason (that’s hardly any weight). It was weird because my ramping sets felt LIGHT so I thought I was going to smoke the working sets but as soon as I got to them the bar felt like a ton. Incline DBs were terrible so I stopped and wasn’t feeling it during the extensions so I just left. I got my HFS and foundation work in plus a little extra so I’m not gonna sweat it.
I had a nice moment on deadlifts when I was able to take my lifting belt one notch tighter (to the 7th notch). When I was at this bodyweight last time, I had trouble getting into the 6th notch and usually just ended up going to the 5th. So, I’m getting stronger, and losing waist measurements. What could be better??
Indigo Strength Phase 2 Week 3
A) Squat
275 x 3 x 5
B) Bench
255 x 3 x 5
C) Deadlift
385 x 3 x 5
These were much faster today.
D) Rack Pull
495 x 3 x 2
500 x 3 x 2
(500 x 3, 2, 1) x 3
E) RDLs
315 x 6 x 6
I’ve never done more than 5 reps with 315 so this is pretty cool.
F) Prowler
About 30 minutes of taking turns with a few buddies. Tough and fun.
@Mutsanah: Thanks! I’m going to have to check those out. I know a buddy of mine has some, so hopefully he has the same size shoes and will let me try them out.
Incoming wall of text so skip if you don’t want a possible funny story
Yesterday I found out that my campus’ gym is closed on the weekends for the entire winter break. I searched for the nearest Gold’s Gym and found one in Olathe, KS so I filled out a free 7-Day Pass and thought I was set. I tried to go to their actual website look up gym hours but couldn’t find anything. I just assumed they would close at 8 since it’s a respectable gym. I popped my Indio and left at 4:20 for a 45 minute drive there. I showed up a few minutes after 5 to find a closed gym. Wow. So I pulled out my phone and searched for the nearest YMCA. I found one, 10 minute drive, I got their and it was an ELEMENTARY SCHOOL! Wow lol so I got my phone out again and looked for the next YMCA. Another 10 minute drive. I get to my phones end destination and all it brought me to was a roundabout in the middle of a neighborhood. WHAT IS THIS?! At this point I’m furious because it’s dark and I have no idea where I am. I remembered a small “family YMCA” with really crappy equipment but it was all I had left. I got their to do my back and biceps session, pulled up at 5:35 and saw they close at 6:00. I could have just left because I knew there was no way I could get in a “shock week” back and biceps session in 20 minutes. So I decided to bench. The bars rotated mid-rep, and for some reason the catches were closer together than a normal rack. I noticed because I went pointer finger on rings and did some reps and it felt normal but when I went to rack it I had about half an inch of clearance between my hands and the catches. Oh, well lol.
/rant
Bench
135 X 5
165 X 3
195 X 3
225 X 3
255 X 2
275 X 2
295 X 2 PR
305 X 2 PR
315 X 2 PR and wasn’t that bad.
I haven’t done heavy doubles since starting the Indigo programs when my best was 275 x 2 so I’m really happy with this. I even hit the catches on my left side (the right side in the video) but still was a good lift.
I was able to meet up with stithx yesterday for some shoulder work. We were there for quite a while lol. It was a real good time, though and hopefully we’ll be getting more in in the future.
Shoulders 12-20-11
We changed the HFS up since neither of us were in the same week of the program. Our plan was to do 3 singles for everything but that changed.
A) Seated OH
185 X 1 X 3
I haven’t done these in a while but this wasn’t too bad.
B) Deadlift
455 X 1
455 X 2 I felt good and went for another.
455 X 5 PR but easy. stithx repped 495 X 6 so I had to do more.
C) Top-Half Seated OH from Pins
205 X 3
215 X 3 X 3
(215 X 3, 2, 1) X 3 For some reason the last cluster set was the easiest.
D) Neutral Grip Seated DB Press
80 X 5 X 2
80 X 6
80 X 5 X 2
80 X 4
E) Standing Alternating DB Press
45 X 6 X 6
F) Lateral Raises
30 X 6 X 6
G1) Cable Curls
some x some
G2) Tricep Rope Extensions
some x some
All around real good day. I’m hoping once I’m done traveling over break that stithx and I will be able to train with Aragorn more often.
Ashy, I know you’ve competed in PL before, but I notice you pull with straps, double overhand grip most of the time. Do you do anything specific to train your grip? Or do you find what you can pull with straps overhand is doable with a mixed grip when needed, like when competing?
[quote]Spidey22 wrote:
Ashy, I know you’ve competed in PL before, but I notice you pull with straps, double overhand grip most of the time. Do you do anything specific to train your grip? Or do you find what you can pull with straps overhand is doable with a mixed grip when needed, like when competing? [/quote]
I was actually talking to stithx about this yesterday. I have good enough grip strength to pull the weights I work with. But if I don’t use straps, pulling 4 times a week really beats you up. Even if I ditch the straps for a day or two, my hands start to go to hell lol. Even with straps, I have some pretty bad callouses.
I trained with straps for a while, and pulled 530 mixed grip at my competition no problem. I stick with double overhand until I feel grip is giving, and then I add straps. I try not to use a mixed grip, since I’ve heard of so many bicep tears (and seen them on YouTube) and hear that one tsoas gets tighter than the other after using mixed for so long.
EDIT: I was always against strap for a long time. I still am against them if you have a weak grip and need to fix it, especially if someone is more into powerlifting. But I have no problems with my grip strength so I’m fine with using straps. Now, if I were missing reps due to grip giving out, then I would probably change things around and add in farmer’s walks to help correct it.
[quote]Spidey22 wrote:
Ashy, I know you’ve competed in PL before, but I notice you pull with straps, double overhand grip most of the time. Do you do anything specific to train your grip? Or do you find what you can pull with straps overhand is doable with a mixed grip when needed, like when competing? [/quote]
I was actually talking to stithx about this yesterday. I have good enough grip strength to pull the weights I work with. But if I don’t use straps, pulling 4 times a week really beats you up. Even if I ditch the straps for a day or two, my hands start to go to hell lol. Even with straps, I have some pretty bad callouses.
I trained with straps for a while, and pulled 530 mixed grip at my competition no problem. I stick with double overhand until I feel grip is giving, and then I add straps. I try not to use a mixed grip, since I’ve heard of so many bicep tears (and seen them on YouTube) and hear that one tsoas gets tighter than the other after using mixed for so long.
EDIT: I was always against strap for a long time. I still am against them if you have a weak grip and need to fix it, especially if someone is more into powerlifting. But I have no problems with my grip strength so I’m fine with using straps. Now, if I were missing reps due to grip giving out, then I would probably change things around and add in farmer’s walks to help correct it.[/quote]
[quote]ashylarryku wrote:
I trained with straps for a while, and pulled 530 mixed grip at my competition no problem. I stick with double overhand until I feel grip is giving, and then I add straps. I try not to use a mixed grip, since I’ve heard of so many bicep tears (and seen them on YouTube) and hear that one tsoas gets tighter than the other after using mixed for so long.
EDIT: I was always against strap for a long time. I still am against them if you have a weak grip and need to fix it, especially if someone is more into powerlifting. But I have no problems with my grip strength so I’m fine with using straps. Now, if I were missing reps due to grip giving out, then I would probably change things around and add in farmer’s walks to help correct it.[/quote]
I never believed much in this whole tearing the biceps w/ mixed grip providing the trainee uses form taking the slack out of the bar rather then yanking from the deadstop. I probably couldn’t grip much more then 330lb strapless and double overhand, partly due to very small hands (lol, serious), where with mixed grip my pr is 440x3. I’m delibrately focusing on improving my grip through getting some hand grippers/experimenting with fat gripz so that eventually I can perhaps use double overhand on some work sets, for now I just switch up grips each set and keep form tight.
Definitely agree regarding deadlifting multiple times a week though! Straps are only option there.
I never believed much in this whole tearing the biceps w/ mixed grip providing the trainee uses form taking the slack out of the bar rather then yanking from the deadstop.[/quote]
Careful, man. No yank here:
or here:
Those guys were both pretty good with pulling the slack out of the bar, yet it still happened.
