Rowing Machine HIIT 60s/30s, 10 minutes
Deload Day 1
3x5 squats, 175lbs
3x5 Bench, 135lbs
1x5 Deads, 205lbs
2x8 dips, BW
Definately felt nice to deload, and I can tell that I need to take a full week, but I can’t wait to get back to making progress.
Deload Day 2 (yesterday)
3x5 squats, 205lbs
3x5 Mil Press, 85lbs
3x5 power cleans, 100lbs
Chins, 4 bw, 3 20lbs assist, 1 30lbs, 2 bw, 2 20lbs, 2 30lbs, 2 40lbs
The weekend got totally blown out of the water as far as training goes, which I half expected. I knew Friday would be a wash, but I had hoped to get down to the gym on Saturday. I spent my squats wondering why my deload weight felt so heavy, and didn’t realize I had added 30 lbs until I left the gym. oops. Anyway, Wednesday starts another 4 weeks of Starting Strength.
Day 13
3x5 squats, 235lbs
3x5,Bench, 180lbs
1x5 Deads, 275lbs
2x8 dips, 10 lbs
Day 14
3x5 squats, 240lbs
3x5 Mil Press, 110lbs
3x5 power cleans, 135lbs
Ran out of time for chins, work has been insane lately.
Day 15
3x5 squats, 245lbs
3x5,Bench, 185lbs
1x5 Deads, 290lbs
2x8 dips, 15 lbs
The last 2 reps of my last set of squats, I was starting to lean forward. While I think this has more to do with my lack of sleep the past few days (Spike is the only thing that kept me going today), I’m going to hold my weight here for the next workout so I can keep proper form. There was an upside to the slightly bad form however.
The PT who was working her client in the smith machine next to me (had him doing rows) noticed, and suggested that I use the plastic collar to “help keep the weight in place”. For those of you aren’t familiar with it, the collar rests on your traps and holds the bar about an inch above your shoulders. Those of you who don’t understand why this is a bad solution to leaning forward, please contact the staffing department of my gym, they’re apparently hiring people like you.
Cycle Sprints
60/30, 10 minutes.
I’ve switched to cycle sprints for the next 4 weeks for 2 reasons. 1, I was starting to get good at rowing machine sprints, so switching to cycle sprints will give my body something unfamiliar and keep me ineffecent at the movement. 2, I suspect that the rowing machine HIT is effecting my power clean progression, so I’m experimenting.
Day 16
1x3 squats, 245lbs
3x5 Mil Press, 110lbs
1x4 power cleans, 140lbs
So, total crap day at the gym. Had to literally sneak out of the office to get to the gym. Once there, my right hip (think it the adductor magnus) started acting up.
I felt it a little during my last warm up set for squats, and then on my working set I got to the 3rd rep and could feel that the muscle was just about to give. I racked the weight, and did some foam rolling, but it was still pretty much dead.
Went on to presses, though I had the bar loaded for 115, but forgot to put the last 5lb plate on the right side of the bar, so I spent 3 sets wondering why I was struggling to raise to bar evenly. I am kind of proud that I managed to keep good form for the whole thing though.
I tried to do power cleans, but I couldn’t get the explosion I needed on the first pull, and after 4 reps I pretty much was out of gas. Additonally, I was out of time, so I had to race back up to the office.
Hopefully some foam rolling, mobility work, and gentle prehab exercises tomorrow will fix things. I think for HIIT tomorrow I’ll be doing some light weight upper body ciruits, to give the leg a break.
Oh, and if anyone has any hints/ suggestions for prehab/rehab on the adductor, feel free to chime in. I think I have a pretty good handle on things, but there are plenty of people on here who know a lot more then I do.
Yesterday
Did some foam rolling, some adductor mobilization, and hit the connective tissue with a tennis ball. My leg is feeling better, but it still twinges if I move it the wrong way. I dropped cycle sprints for obvious reasons, so instead I decided to try the Delt triad from http://www.T-Nation.com/readArticle.do?id=2307353
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I reduced the rest times to 75 sec, and it ended up taking me about 8.5 minutes to get through 3 sets. In hindsight, I probably would have gotten a better HIIT workout by doing a more general upper body circuit instead of just hitting the delts, but I’ve been wanting to give the routine a try from a while now. I started with 10lbs on my first set of lateral raises, had to drop to 5 lbs part way through the first set of front raises. For the last time through the circuit, I ended up using 3lbs. (Talk about an ego check) Overall I really enjoyed it, and I’ll probably work it in when I start trying to bulk up.
Day 17
3x5 squats, 225lbs
3x5,Bench, 195lbs
1x5 Deads, 305lbs
1x8, 1x6 dips, 20 lbs
So, I missed my workout Friday. Work has sucked hard the past few weeks, and I’m one of the lucky ones who hasn’t had to work weekends yet, so I guess I don’t have much room to complain, but still, it ruined my day.
On the plus side, my leg is feeling somewhat better, although I did take it light today with the squats. I’ll probably stick with 225 for the next workout or two and then build back up, depending on how I feel. One the plus side, the deadlifts went great, so I should be able to pull 320 on Friday.
Circuit work
In order to give my leg a break, I’ve ditched the cycle sprints for the time being, and replaced them with the following circuit.
Push ups 15 reps
Mil Press 20lbs, 15 reps
1 arm DB rows 10lbs, 15reps/arm
Waiter’s Bow 20lbs, 15 reps
Serratus Crunch 20lbs, 15 reps
repeat 3 times, with 2 minutes rest between sets.
It’s based of the destroying fat template by CT, with slight modification to eliminate leg work. I tried the first time though the circuit with split squats and step ups instead of mil presses and waiter’s bows, but my right leg is still having some issues and didn’t really agree with single leg work. I hate sore tendons, but there’s nothing for it up rest at this point. Hopefully it will be back to normal by next week if I keep my squats light.
Day 18
3x5 squats, 225lbs
3x5 Mil Press, 115lbs
2x5,1x3 power cleans, 140lbs
Circuit work
Push ups 15 reps
Mil Press 20lbs, 15 reps (12 reps last set)
1 arm DB rows 10lbs, 15reps/arm
Waiter’s Bow 20lbs, 15 reps
Serratus Crunch 20lbs, 15 reps
repeat 3 times, with 1 minute rest between sets.
Day 19
3x5 squats, 225lbs
1x5, 2x4 Bench, 200lbs
1x3 Deads, 320lbs
2x8,dips, 20 lbs
My right leg feels almost up to speed, so assuming I don’t jack it up this weekend, I’ll start working my squats back up. On the bench I stalled about half way up on the last rep of my last two sets, but I should be able to hit them all next workout.
Deadlifts I got 2 clean pulls and one slightly hitched pull. While I’m happy to have pulled 320, I’m going to drop the weight to 310 next session and begin progressing in 10lb increments instead of 15lb ones.
Day 20 (Yesterday)
3x5 squats, 230lbs
2x5 Mil Press, 120lbs, 1x5 Push Press 115lbs
1x3 power cleans, 140lbs
Yesterday was a mixed bag. I was sick Monday, and I guess yesterday I was still a little under the weather, since I hit a wall during the military presses. First two sets, perfect form, 3rd set, couldn’t move the weight, couldn’t move 115, and ended up doing Push presses with a slow eccentric portion. Power cleans stalled out as well, and then I was out of time. Stupid work. However, my leg felt fine, and the squats went up easy, so that’s good.
1x5, 2x3 Chins
Punching bag, 2 60 sec rounds w/30s rest between
Speed bag, 2 30 sec rounds w/20s rest
I decided to try and do 3x5 for chins today, since I didn’t get to them yesterday. I might stick with the 3x5 scheme instead of the 2x8 if I can hit all 15 next time. I’m also going to move my workouts from around 1:30 to first thing in the morning so I’m not rushed. Luckily, I have a 2 hour commute into work, so I’ll be awake by the time I get to the gym.
Day 21
3x5 squats, 235lbs
2x5, 1x2 Bench, 200lbs
Completely ran out of time this morning, so I ended up rushing my rest time on the last set of bench presses. Didn’t even get to deads. So much for not being rushed in the morning. On a side note, I definately felt the squats in my hip adductors today, not in a pulled sense, but they’re certainly getting a workout. I’ve been using a slightly narrower stance, which has been helping, but I’m going to hold the squats at 235 for the next workout to avoid re-injury.
Day 22
3x5 squats, 235lbs
3x5 Mil press, 120lbs
3x5 Power cleans from a hang, 120lbs
1x5, 1x1 chin-ups
Everything went pretty well today, except for running out of time on the chins. The presses felt good, although I did a bit of a push-press on the last rep. My power cleans have been a bit of a sticking point for me, especially the second pull of the lift, so I’m doing them from a hang with lighter weight until I get my form down a little better.
Day 23
3x5 Squats, 240lbs
3x5 Bench, 200 lbs
1x2 Deadlifts, 310lbs, 1x3 225lbs
Squats and bench felt great today, but deads, not so much. After the second pull with 310, I nearly blacked out and had to sit down for a minute before going back. I stripped down the weights and pulled 225 to finish the set, and staggered out of the gym. I’m going to drop back to 295 and work my way up from there.