Went in feeling pretty beat up with my back, not sure why really but I pushed through it!
A. Deadlift: 265x5, 295x3, 355x8 B. BB Step-up: 3x6x95 C1. Seated Row: 130x8, 2x115x12 C2. GHR Situp (hands on chest): 3x20 DB Suitcase Carries
Conditioning:
Run 1/2 mile
400m x 5 (5 min rest)
Run 1/2 mile
I’m happy with this PR. From looking through my log book it looks like my best rep PR was 345x5 from this January so I blew that out of the water. Broke out the DL slippers and they felt great. No back pain in the gym or on the track either despite it feeling pretty terrible this morning and over the weekend.
A. Bench: top 175x8 lol B. Flat DB: top 75x8 C. Mountain Pushup: 3x12xBW
BB Curl 85x12 (pathetic PR)
Was feeling pretty sick halfway through the workout, didn’t get much in other than pressing work.
My best bench PR being 185x11, I did 175x8 and worked for it. Really don’t have any idea what it is. Going to just push close grip and assistance work until I head back to college and work out a plan of attack there.
I’ve been working up to a max set as opposed to straight sets on my assistance work lately so “Top” as in, work up to a top set. ex) Flat DB went like 60, 65, 70x8 then 75x8. Hmm, may need to think of a better way of putting it down (don’t want to clutter everything up with the lighter sets).
Squat from Thursday, 07-23-09
Back Pain: 2/10
Soreness: 4/10
A. Low Bar: 225x5, 245x3, 275x10 B. Front Squat: top 185x3 + chain C1. Suitcase DL: top 115x5 C2. BB Row: top 185x5 D. GHR Situp (hands behind head): 2x12xBW
Ended up being a pretty ugly set but max ones usually are. The extra 25 lbs was really crushing me into the ground, side effect of not training with anything over 250 lbs or so in the last 5 months. The Front Squats w/Chains right now are what I would consider the biggest bang for the buck “core” exercise that I’m doing and they hurt. Was weaker than last week definitely cuz of the 275 set, I need to figure out a good set/rep scheme for these. In the meantime I’ll be reviewing my copy of Combat Core (http://www.combatcorestrength.com/) for some other winners. So far I like keeping the assistance leg work to a minimum other than front squats and really hammering with the core movements.
Ok, no eating after dinner because I’m getting some bloodwork done first thing in the morning (no biggie, just cholesterol, other routine stuff and test). Hmm I’m not gonna like this.
A. Military: 105x5, 120x3, 135x8 B1. CG Incline: (4x1)x3x165 B2. WG Pullup: BWx18, 2x10xBW C1. PJR Pullover: top 65x10 C2. Long Rope Face Pull: top #10x10 Hammer Curl and Lateral Raise
Looking at the video I had a lot of unconscious knee bend going on during the Military, no real easy solution for me- I’ve got a good amount of knee hyperextension (genu recurvatum) so keeping my legs completely straight without hyperextending them is a bitch.
Pullup PR was unexpected but awesome. Rest of the session was uneventful. Deload next week!
In other news, I found out that there’s a full meet SSA competition in mid-September, unfortunately I’m going to be leading ROTC Orientation at that time so I won’t be able to make it. My friend Brian Oberther who does a lot of work with the Diesel Crew is doing an Iron Asylum meet in October, so I’m planning on that being my first.
Awesome PRs! Hell yeah! I’m looking forward to seeing your training leading up to that meet. I gotta say, thank you for giving your time to the USA. I appreciate it.
That is a great interview, thanks for the link. Kroc remains the man and a great inspiration to everybody.
Race is still on eh? Great :D. Don’t think I’ll be training it as a main lift again for a while, but I really like doing them with the chains that we have in the gym. Comes out to around 55 lbs of chain weight, walking the thing out is a nightmare.
So if you’ve been following the log, this is my deload week.
Might be hard to do but I’m going to try to stay out of the gym for a week without going insane, work on my conditioning and get back into a little bit of a PT mindset. Been doing alright so far. Had some good PRs last week so I can rein in the competitive spirit a little bit.
On a side note, Joe Hashey at Synergy Athletics always has some interesting stuff and this is no exception:
Have to remind myself to get some chains! Train hard everyone.
So today was the first day that I’ve ever run 3 miles on my own outside of PT. Small victory but it means a lot to me. Running has always been the hardest thing physically and mentally for me, I have vivid memories getting winded and dying during middle school soccer back in the day. After a summer of preparation before starting college, I ran a 17:47 2 mile on my first PT test- ha!
Since then I’ve had a number of injuries and Northeastern winters to deal with. If I can get a 14 minute 2 mile and stay there for the rest of my career I think I’ll be fine, and pretty happy with what I’ve accomplished.
Went in ready to do a killer workout today, was psyching myself up all morning and on the drive to the gym. Been feeling great all week, no pain at all.
Warm up set with 305, wasn’t as tight as I should have been for one rep and I felt my lower spine flex the tiniest fucking degree and then just BAM, seize up and same regular pain again. 4 months of therapy hasn’t done anything, ha.
Left the gym right there after putting away the plates and I was able to pick up DBs off the ground with reduced pain by the time I got home so I did some quick sandbag carries and one handed farmer’s walks.
A. Back Squat: work up to 275x3 then skip B. Front Squat: top 225 + 55 lbs of chain x 2 (nice PR) b Bunch of Lunges, Partial Turkish Get-up[/b]
Wanted 300 for reps today but I hit a nice wall at 275. I think this was my body’s way of telling me “Hey, you’re in pain put that back”. Had a little bit of uncomfort in the hole back wise so moved onto front squat with was completely pain free.
With chains it worked out to around 280 lbs at the top which is good, my lockout on 285 was close but no cigar a couple months ago when I maxed. This is the best “upright torso” core lift that I’ve found so far.
Ok, gonna try to get in a DECENT upper day tomorrow.
[quote]gabex wrote:
135x8 Military, but only 185x5 Bench? Am I reading that right?[/quote]
PR is 185x11 and 235x1, last semester.
Have had the hardest goddamn time benching this summer, I really don’t understand it. Maybe it’s psychological, maybe it’s the bench and equipment- idk probably some convoluted combination of everything. I’ve turned my Military 1RM into an 8RM in the same time period so it’s not as if my pressing strength is taking a hit.
[quote]IronAbrams wrote:
gabex wrote:
135x8 Military, but only 185x5 Bench? Am I reading that right?
PR is 185x11 and 235x1, last semester.
Have had the hardest goddamn time benching this summer, I really don’t understand it. Maybe it’s psychological, maybe it’s the bench and equipment- idk probably some convoluted combination of everything. I’ve turned my Military 1RM into an 8RM in the same time period so it’s not as if my pressing strength is taking a hit.[/quote]
Same here man, I really cant understand why its so hard to progress in bench.
I’ll be glad to get back to college with the benches that I’m used to and my training partners.
Military from Friday, 08/07/09
Back Pain: 3/10
Soreness: 5/10
A. Military: 115x5, 130x3, 145x3 B1. Close Grip Incline: work up 165x3, 185x1, 135x11 B2. Wide Grip Pullup: 2x12xBW, 8xBW C1. DB Floor Press: 2x10x50 C2. Face Pull: top #10x10 Hammer Curl and Lateral Raise
Felt much better overall today but my upper back was absolutely tanked- couldn’t go 100% on the Military or pullups. Between the front squats and the amount of shoulder dislocates that I’ve done over the past two days I’m not totally surprised.
I remembered today how much I liked DB Floor Presses as tricep assistance so I tried them out again today, probably going to be a staple.
A. Deadlift: work up to 405x1 B. Sumo RDL: 3x8x185 (easy, trying to get a feel for these. I think I’ll need to do them out of the rack) C1. Single Leg Romanian: 5x8xBW C2. GHR Sit-up (hands behind head): 3x12xBW
Back was feeling about 80% today, better than the rest of the week but I decided to pull heavy anyways. I worked up to 405x1, wanted more reps but I didn’t have the gas for it today. Didn’t seem to aggravate too much. I’ll consider that a minor victory, and I’d also never pulled 405 with those plates before which are a little smaller than reg.
I ran into a friend from high school before I even warmed up so I had a ton of rest between sets.
Thanks to Flow and some posts by BBB I think I have a better handle on what my main issue is which is mainly QL hyperactivity. I warmed up more extensively with attention paid to Glute Medius and abduction in particular which seemed to help.
I go back to school this Saturday, what have I done all summer.
My flat bench hasn’t been stellar but at least I was able to bring up my incline a lot this summer, even during school I think my best was 155x3 and that was last fall. The 205 stalled perfectly halfway up so now it’s a race to get my triceps diesel.
I’m also gradually reintroducing dips again, they were the best thing that I ever did for my pushup numbers (some carryover to bench but not much). I know a lot of you probably haven’t read my previous log so what happened was around Feb or April I was pushing them hard, +55 x 13 if I remember right when I dislocated one of my sternocostal joints (where the ribs meet the sternum). I got it popped back in place but I haven’t been able to do dips without a whole lot of discomfort in the sternum area since then.
Today was also my last chiropractic treatment at NYCC until next break, met some very cool people over the summer so it’s a little sad to see them go. The pec minor work I had done prior to the bench session was some of the worst I’ve ever felt, goddamn that was painful.
