Nemesis

Training Training Logs
1

Doing Juggernaut for the third time. Already went through the first wave (which I’ll post from my hard copy log)

Stats coming in: 92-94 kg(around 200lb), 22 yo, training for around 9 years, but only powerlifting since early 2011.

First and only meet to date December '11: 160, 110, 250kg (350, 240, 550lbs). Since then I’ve managed to put 10 kg on my squat and bench press.

Aiming to get a bit more jacked for my wedding in July, while still building strength to compete again later this year. I want to rep a 180kg squat and get 275kg+ on my pull by year end.

Diet is pretty clean (next to no sugar or junk), but usually lacking in quantity. But milk is cheap, so I might just fall back on vast amounts of dairy.

Update - Early 2013

  • Ran WS style from July up to a meet in November 2012, got 172.5/122.5/255/550
  • Did Smolov base
  • Now Sheiko for the time being

Weight is stable, around 89.0kg

2

First wave results:

Squat (working max of 160) - 16 reps @ 125kg
Bench (110) - 13 @ 85
Deadlift (235) - 18 @ 180
Press (85) - 11 @ 65

For assistance I’m following the Boring But Big template from 5/3/1, just to get some hypertrophy, and more volume for the core lifts. I’ve found that squatting at least twice a week makes it suck less too. Only difference is RDLs rather than conventional. Usually follow with some posterior chain, single leg work and/or abs for lower body, and arms/shoulders on upper days, but not more than about 10 minutes worth.

3

Wave 2; Week 1 Squat day 26/03

Squats - 5x8 @ 120kg
RDL - 5x10 @ 150kg

That was it, because I was running late for uni and felt pretty rooted. Came back later to close up the gym and did some calves

Bench day 27/03

BP - 5x8 @ 75kg
Military press - 5x10 @50kg supersetted with pullups with up to 30kg of plates
DB front raise / DB rear delts

Bench is feeling pretty good. I dislocated my shoulder a couple of years ago and have only benched with a narrow grip until this cycle of Juggernaut. Now I’m taking it a bit wider but tucking hard a la So You Think You Can Bench and it feels much stronger.

4

Spending some time with a foam roller and some jump-stretch bands today. Still pretty tight from Monday’s session. Focus mainly on:

  • anterior hip and quads
  • glutes and high hamstrings
    Looking forward to pulling tomorrow.
5

Wave 2; Week 1 Deadlifts 30/03

Deadlift: 5x8 @ 170kg(375lb) all hook grip
Squat: 5x12 @ 100(220)
Natural glute-ham raise (cheating): 2x8 supersetted with
Bulgarian split squat: 2x12

My hip flexors were giving me gyp this morning, despite (or because of?) the stretching and tissue work yesterday, but everything felt pretty good. Really noticed the extra 2 reps/set in the squat, but that was the same at the start of last wave, and will probably be the same next wave when it’s sets of 15.

Decided on GHR rather than back extensions because my lower back was already pumped. Hamstrings were pretty crispy by the end of the session. I’ll come in again later and do some calves while I tidy up the gym for closing.

6

Wave 2; Week 1 Press 31/03

Military press: 5@20kg, 5@40, 5x8@60(135)

To be honest, these were awful. Normally I feel wobbly, or light-headed if I’m having a crappy press session. Today my triceps just faded. Disappointing…

Bench press (plates suspended from mini bands): 5@20, 5@40, 5x10@70kg super-setted with
Bent-over row: 10@60, 8@80, 6@100, 6@120, 4@130, 6@120, 10@100

These felt hard but comfortable.

Bradford press: 8@20, 5@40, 2x8@30 super-setted with 12 reps of heavyish band rows and 10 narrow pushups

First time doing Bradfords; 40kg felt a bit impinge-y, 30 felt good on the old delts. I’ll give these a couple more weeks to get my head around them.

All in all, I think today showed I need more triceps strength, particularly with my stupidly long arms. I’ve been stalking STB’s log and I’m going to throw in some front squat holds to see how they affect my standing lifts.

7

Wave 2, Week 2 Squat 02/04

Squat: 5@110kg, 5@120, 3x8@130(285)

Felt decent, good groove. Could have done more sets or reps, but didn’t. Saving my self for repping out next week.

RDL: 5@60, 5@100, 5@140, 3x10@160(350), 4@160, 10@140

Lower back and hips were pretty well gone, hence the death in the 4th set. Decided to drop the weight down for the last set, then shut it done for the session. I was hoping to get some back extensions in afterwards, but I think my back and glutes did a fair amount of work already.

Will come back tonight for some front squat holds and calves.

8

Monday late session

Front squat holds (10 seconds each) : 100kg, 140, 160, 4x140

These were interesting, great for abs and upper back, but I thought I was having a stroke with 160. Will definitely work these in.

Ab roller/stir the pot superset: 3x8
Standing calf: 8x6 @ 100kg, 20s rest between sets

9

Wave 2; Week 2 Bench

Bench press: 5@20kg, 5@40, 5@60, 5@70, 5@80, 3x8@85

Military press: 5@20kg, 5x10@50kg supersetted with
Pullup: 6@BW, 6@20, 6@30, 3@40, 6@20, 6@BW paused at top for last set

Decline JM Press: 8@20, 6@30, 4x6@40

I liked these, although the decline bench wasn’t the best call. Kept hitting the uprights. Also felt pretty damn weak; I can french press about 60-70kg, but I didn’t feel strong at all with these at 40.

Hopefully they’ll help build my bench in spite of my stupidly long arms. Seriously, if I stand up straight I can pretty much reach my knees without bending down.

Bradford press: 3x8@40 supersetted with
Fatgripz hammer curls: 3x8@25 each side

Bradfords felt much more comfortable today.

10

Wave 2, Week 2 Deadlifts 05/04

Deadlift: 5@60, 5@100, 5@140, 5@155, 5@175, 3x8@185kg

Squat: 5@60, 5@80, 4x12@100

Didn’t bother with the last set. My lower back was feeling a bit special. The good thing is the form was pretty tight.

45 degree Back Extension: 10@BW, 2x10@20 supersetted with
Bulgarian Split Squat: 3x15@BW

Legs felt pretty worn afterwards. Wish I’d brought my shake to have at the gym; getting straight in the car was not pleasant. Had a good recovery session at home though.

Possibly back in later tonight for some calves, depending on how rushed I am.

*The reasons I do calves are 1. my calves are embarrassing, it’s just not right; and 2. I like to get a loaded stretch, it seems to really help with ankle dorsiflexion and therefore my squat positioning.

Really looking forward to next week.

Edit - Just did 5x20 Bulgarians at home.

11

Wave 2, Week 2 Press 07/04

Feeling the beginnings of a flu. Didn’t sleep much last night; couldn’t breathe through my blocked nose or through my mouth with how sore my throat was. Managed to get through the work OK, though.

Military Press: 5@20, 5@40, 5@55, 5@60, 3x8@65 struggled a little bit.

Bench press (plates suspended from mini bands): 5@20, 5@40, 5x10@70kg super-setted with
Bent-over row: 12@60, 10@80, 8@100, 6@120, 4@130, 6@120, 2x8@100

Bradford press: 8@20, 3x8@40 super-setted with 10 reps of heavy band triceps

Finished with a couple of sets of 10 chins, 10 band pushups.

Feeling pretty stoked about the week to come, so long as I can stay ahead of whatever this throat infection is part of. Good vibes from squat and deadlift; bench should be passable. Press will be interesting, but I think one max set shouldn’t be too rough.

I’m weighing up whether or not to re-introduce some speed work in the form of deficit pulls with heavy bands, and maybe some banded squats too. I really enjoy these, and they seem to have helped in the past for strength. If not this cycle, then next cycle, when I’ll be more focused on competition rather than slow gains.

12

Wave 2, Week 3 Squat - Realisation 09/04

Squat: 6@20, 6@40, 5@60, 5@90, 3@110, 2@125, 1@135, 10@145(320 lb) - Rep PR

RDL: 5@60, 5@100, 5x10@160

45 degree Back Extension: 8@10, 8@20, 8@40 supersetted with
Bulgarian Split Squat: 3x15@BW

Still feeling pretty drained from illness, but stoked about getting some new, big numbers in today. Form felt a bit off on squats; would have been interesting to see how I’d have repped if everything stayed together.

Had a big breakfast, then clients, so pre-training lunch consisted of a couple of carrots, a Red Bull and Amon Amarth. Plenty of re-fueling to come this afternoon.

13

Wave 2, Week 3 Bench - Realisation 11/04

Bench Press: 8@20, 5@40, 5@60, 3@70, 2@85, 1@90, 9@95(210 lb) - Rep PR (not too impressed though)

Military press: 5@20, 5@40, 5x10@50 supersetted with
Chinup: 8@BW, 6@20, 6@28, 4@38, 4@42, 6@28, 8@BW

Parallel bar dip: 3x12@BW supersetted with
Heavy band row: 3x10

Everything felt good form-wise, but I had a constant sensation of nausea through the whole session. I’m happy that everything’s progressing, though. Better slow and steady than running into a wall. Going to do some band extensions this afternoon to get a bit of extra triceps in.

14

Wave 2, Week 3 Deadlift - Realisation 13/04

Deadlift: 5@60, 5@100, 5@130, 3@155, 2@180, 1@195, 12@205kg (450 lb) Not sure if this is a PR, but it felt good.

Squat: 5@20, 5@60, 5x12@100. Took my stance out a little bit to help with staying more upright. Form was tight

Natural glute-ham raise (cheating): 3x8@BW supersetted with
Side plank: 2x30sec@BW, 30sec@10kg (plate on top of hips)

15

Wave 2, Week 3 Overhead Press - Realisation 14/04

Felt really crap this morning. No energy, migraine, no appetite.

Military Press: 8@20, 5@40, 3@50, 2@60, 1@62.5, 9@70, then 2 singles at 80

Pretty crappy. Form felt right, triceps felt ok, but my head started swimming.

Bench press (plates suspended from mini bands): 5@20, 5@40, 5@60, 5x10@70 supersetted with
Bent-over row: 15@60, 12@80, 10@100, 8@120, 5@140, 8@120, 10@100, 20@60

Bradford press: 10@20, 9@40, 2x7@50 supersetted with
Heavy band row: 4x15

Happy with the assistance I got in considering how I felt. Going to get some high volume band extensions in this afternoon for triceps, then take it really easy next week. Getting some creatine in to hopefully help with strength gains for the next 2 waves, and maybe some size if I’m lucky (it’s helped strength in the past, but hasn’t added any noticeable mass. Maybe if I can nail my eating down…)

16

Wave 2 Deload Session 1 18/04

Decided to combine the squat and bench days

Squat: 8@20, 5@60, 5@100, 2@120

Bench: 5@20, 5@40, 5@60, 5@70

45 degree Back Extension: 3x8@BW

Quads feeling pretty dodgy; did a bunch of rolling on foam and then a barbell

17

Wave 2 Deload Session 2 20/04

Deadlift: 5@60, 5@100, 5@140, 3@180, 1@220, 1@240, 1@255kg (560 lb) 5kg PR

Needed to do something heavy, otherwise I’d be really mentally flat coming into the next wave. Pretty happy with the all-time PR, particularly since I did my deload warm-up consisting of zero warm-up at all.

Military Press: 8@20, 5@40, 5@60

Shut it down before I got too keen

Squat: 5@60, 2x5@90

Quads are still feeling crappy, still persisting with rolling, massaging and stretching. Hopefully they’ll feel better by Monday (or at least I’ll be able to push through it)

First time filming a lift with my phone (or at all), it fell down just before the PR set so the angle’s terrible.

18

Wave 2 Back Session 21/04

[i]Decided to do some back and biceps, just because. Although having done it, I’m thinking of devoting an extra day every week or two to upper back work
-because I enjoy it
-because I like to think I have a strong upper back, and lately it hasn’t been getting much attention
-hopefully it will help drag my bench and overhead press numbers up
Taking the back out of the Juggernaut upper body days should also make the sessions shorter, leaving me less rooted afterwards and allowing me to focus on fewer movements per day.

I should add that when I started 5/3/1 a couple of years ago (which led me to Juggernaut), I didn’t have a bench day, and I did back on deadlift day, so that might just fit me better[/i]

Chinup: 5@20, 4@30, 4@36, 3@40 supersetted with
Fat Gripz chinup: 5, 4, 4, 3 @BW and
Band straight arm pull-down: 4x10

Fat Gripz pinwheel curl: 10@25kg DBs each side, 6@30, 2x5@30 supersetted with
Incline DB curl: 6@15s,8@15, 6@15, 5@15

Seated cable row (strict): 8@25, 8@50, 8@75, 6@85

These rows were pretty rough after all the biceps work. Probably a good thing.

Hoping to get plenty of stretching and rolling done over the weekend to give my quads a good run at squats.

19

Wave 3 Week 1 Squat 23/04

Squat : 8@20kg, 5@40, 5@60, 3@80, 3@100, 2@120, 6x5@130

RDL : 5@60, 5@100, 5@140, 3x10@160, 2x10@140

45 degree Back Extension: 2x8@20kg supersetted with
Bulgarian Split Squat : 2x15@BW

20

Wave 3 Week 1 Bench 24/04

Bench: 5@20kg, 5@40, 5@60, 3@70, 6x5@85

These were fast and easy, as they should have been.

Military press: 5@20kg, 5@40, 5x10@50kg

Started to feel triceps a bit, but the reps were faster than normal.

Farmer’s walk: 50kg/side, 70, 80 for a round trip of about 30 metres; supersetted with
Rolling triceps: 3x12@17.5 each side

My gym doesn’t have farmer’s walk handles, so I just used barbells. Felt good, challenging.

Bradford press: 10@40, 6@50, 7@50, 6@40 then finished with a set of plate raises