I’m not going to lie, I’m disappointed with this. I was hoping to get at least six reps, as I did last month, but I’m just going to have to deal with it. I dunno, maybe I should try leaning back a bit on the final reps.
DB press
30x8
30x8
30x8
30x8
Assisted chin
80x8
80x7
80x5
80x5
80x5
Assisted dip
80x8
80x8
80x7
80x7
80x6
My chinning and dipping strength are both going up, so that’s good. It looks like my dips are progressing faster than chins, but that’s probably to be expected. I’m probably going to stick with sets of 5 for the assistance I’m using until I can get 50 total reps.
I guess it was just a matter of getting used to the increased ROM, but I didn’t have much trouble finishing this. I also tried a touch and go approach to this for my last two sets and it was a lot easier than doing every rep from a dead stop.
Shrug
145x12
145x12
145x12
Slight change in protocol with this. I’m just going for 3 sets of 12 (as you probably noticed). Once I can do all 3 sets without setting the bar down mid-set I’ll up the weight. I was able to finish my first and last sets without putting the bar down, but on the second I had to.
Fatbar holds
135z15 sec
135x15 sec
135x15/6/6 sec
While I was doing trapbar deadlifts, another guy was doing deadlifts next to me. After he finished up, he did shrugs and fatbar holds with me. On his last set after doing double overhand, he did it again with an alternate grip, and then after that he switched hands. I didn’t think to try until then, and on my third set I tried it out and found it was a fairly good idea. The thumb of the hand that’s facing forward gets stressed a lot more than overhand one and it gives your other fingers a bit of a chance to rest. I can see this helping me out, so I’m going to keep doing this for a while.
Nothing much to say here. Aside from that my bench continues to go up without any signs of slowing down so far.
DB bench
35x8
35x8
35x8
35x8
Time to up the weight.
DB row
35x10
35x10
35x10
35x22
Face pull
60x12
60x12
60x12
60x12
I think I can probably afford to move on to 40 lb. dumbbells for doing rows, too. I’m not sure about the face pulls, though; it’s been 10 days so I can’t really remember how the last reps for each set felt.
Curl
60x6
60x6
60x6
60x8
I’m probably going to move back to an ez-curl bar for this. I’m happy I managed to get the extra two reps on the last set.
I can only assume the last entry I posted is taking its sweet time to load, so I’m just going to go on in posting my updates.
9/15
Yikes. I need to make sure that I keep going to the gym and don’t fall into a rut like I did last semester. I’m making good progress on the bar, and I’m sure that if I watch my eating habits more closely I’ll make some progress on the scale as well.
Squat
135x3
155x3
175x5
Had more in the tank, but just didn’t really feel like pushing myself. This seems to be a recurring trend with my squat, and if I had to guess it might be due to the fact that I’m doing BBB. I could change my assistance template, but this seems to be working for me so I’ll just keep at it until I feel like I need to shake it up.
Squat
100x10
100x10
100x10
100x10
100x10
I still need to drill proper squat form into my head; the last few reps in two or three of my sets were getting kinda sloppy and were approaching power genuflects (without actually being them). Eyes forward, chest up, false grip, spread the ground, back tight, pull the bar down into traps, controlled descent, break at the hips, focus on driving hips up while keeping torso erect.
Leg curl
75x8
75x8
75x4,3
75x5
I literally just realized that I used five more pounds per leg than I was supposed to. That would probably explain the difficulty I had while doing this.
God, this laptop is a pain in the ass sometimes. Having a key to go back a page right below shift and flanking the up arrow can be a real pain, especially on sites like this where anything you’ve put into a field (like this) goes bye bye if you hit back. Even more so when you’ve already wrote out a fairly length post complete with some griping and stream of consciousness material.
9/17
Press
95x3
110x3
120x4
I broke my previous rep record at 120, so I’m fairly satisfied with today’s performance. What I’m not satisfied with, however, is the fact that my gym has decided to ban overhead pressing with a straight bar in the last few days (along with Vibram Five-Fingers, for some reason). They’ve banned Oly lifts before (which didn’t last long) and using chalk (which lasted even less time and was even ignored by some of the members of the staff when they were deadlifting). I give this new ban a month, two months at most. I’ll just keep doing my overhead presses with in the racks as I have been because I’m a g like that.
DB press
30x8
30x8
30x8
30x8
Well, I’ve managed to find out which arm is holding me back in my military press. I’m going to keep using 30s until doing it with my right arm feels closer to doing it with my left arm.
Looks like I’m still making progress here too. I’m going to stick with my plan of shooting for 50 total reps before decreasing the amount of assistance, but now I’m going to actively focus on increasing the amount of reps I can get each time I’m in the gym instead of just waiting for the day I hit 50. I’ve gotta say, doing dips and chins still feels a little foreign to me, but I’m sure that’ll pass as I keep doing them and build the neural pathways.
Evil 8
65 lb.
I’m just now adding in complexes to my routine to help kickstart that fat loss I’ve been talking about doing for a while. I’m doing them after my main bench and military press workouts are over since they’re a lot less taxing than deadlifting or squatting, especially if you’re doing BBB.
The first two sets were pretty difficult, the third still difficult but not as much, and the last three were quite a bit easier. I’ll stay at the same weight for another week or two and then probably bump up the weight.
Ugh. That’s pretty much all I can say about this. No matter how hard I pulled, the damn bar wouldn’t budge after that first rep. Am I not getting enough sleep? Am I just not strong enough? I managed to pull 285 four times last cycle, so it stands to reason that I should be able to get at least 2 reps at 295. I guess I’ll just have to see how next week’s deadlifting session goes where I’ll be pulling an additional 15 lb.
I didn’t have too much trouble doing touch and go reps for this. I think it might be time to switch to conventional deadlifting for BBB, though, since it’ll probably help my deadlift more.
Shrug
145x12
145x12
145x12
I don’t think I had to set the bar down while doing these, so that’s good.
Fat bar holds
135x20/6/6 sec
135x17/6/4 sec
135x16/6/6 sec
I put down 3.5 reps for the last one only because the guy spotting me helped me up part of the way on the fourth rep. I didn’t need too much help getting it up, but I did need some, so I can’t put up 4 reps there.
DB bench
40x8
40x8
40x8
40x8
Benching with the 40s felt… right. I got all the reps done with some measure of effort, but it wasn’t a maximal exertion.
DB row
35x10
35x10
35x10
35x25
Time to increase the weight.
Face pull
65x12
65x12
65x12
65x12
I didn’t feel much of a difference when adding the 5 lb. to the stack, not even when holding for a count of 2 (which I had been forgetting to do). I’ll probably end up bringing the weight up to 70 lb. after another week or so.
Curl
65x6
65x6
65x6
65x5
I don’t really know how much the EZ curl bars at my gym weigh (though I could probably weigh one next time I’m there), so I’m just going to assume that it weights 15 lb.