Extra Workout
Lat Pulldown Machine
250 x10
250 x10
250 x10
Shrugs
315 x20
405 x10
405 x10
Rear Delt Flyes / Supermans superset
20lbs x10 / 20lbs x10
20lbs x10 / 20lbs x10
DB Preacher Curls
30 x35 (each arm)
Just doing some upper back work so I don’t get bent in half with my deadlift opener in March. Heavy ass squats tomorrow.
Friday 12/21 – End of the world squats
I should start out by saying that I’m pretty disappointed the world didn’t end today.
Today was the first day back in my gear in over 8 weeks, so I figured it would be a total disaster (and it was).
Raw Squats
bar x15
135 x10
185 x5
225 x5
275 x5
315 x3 (wow these were awkward)
add briefs
440 x3
add doubled reverse minis
530 x2
580 x2
620 x1
add suit – straps down
670 x1
710 x1
straps up
760 x1
The reverse minis weren’t doing a whole lot, I figure 760 with those (and without knee wraps) would be about the equivalent of my planned opener ~740. I did this without knee wraps (woops). So this was about as good as I could hope to do without more training in the gear.
I wanted to do front squats here but I couldn’t hold the bar in place.
Sumo Pulls w/ Briefs off 2 pads
475 x5
500 x5
525 x5
I should have done abs here but I decided to leave and go home to my warm home instead.
12/22 – Extra Workout
Just wanted to get some blood flowing because my body feels like I just went 10 rounds with Mike Tyson.
10 minutes on a treadmill @ 4 mph
Leg Extensions
5 sets of 20
Pulldown Abs
4 sets of 15 with 120lbs
One Leg - Leg Press
sets of 10 up to 150
Leg Adduction
About 8 sets of 20 up to the whole stack which is 305lbs. I really like these, they light my glutes up. Next time I’ll attach doubled minis around and work up again.
To anybody that reads my log still have a good holiday! And get your weight up.
DE Work Monday 12/24
Bench against Monster Minis
135 3x3
155 3x3
185 3x3
Close Grip Bench
185 x10
235 x10
Straight Bar Tricep Extensions
95 x12
105 x8 (this made my elbows feel like they had nails in them)
95 x12
95 x12
DB Tricep Extensions
30 x20
30 x20
Concentration Curls
30 x10
30 x10
30 x10
Rear Delt Flyes
20 x12
20 x12
20 x12
Incline DB Flyes
35 x10
35 x10
12/25 Christmas Day Deadlifts
I got back from visiting my family late tonight so I went in the gym by myself. I wanted to pull heavy to see where I was at and what I needed to work on over the next 10 weeks until the Arnold. Because I’ve been losing deadlifts at the top, I went against chains. I also find that when I pull against chains for a few weeks, regular deadlifts feel easy in comparison.
It’s been a busy couple of days, I’ve been eating like shit and I haven’t been sleeping enough. All in all, I was pretty excited to pull heavy. It broke down like yay:
Deadlifts off 1 Mat w/ 120lbs in Chains
135 x3
225 x3
315 x1
405 x1
495 x1
545 x1 (545 + 120 in chains is close to my projected opener of 660 at the top)
590 x1 (my projected 2nd is 710 so once again this is close to what my 2nd will feel like)
605 x0
After this I took the chains off, and tried to pull 605 straight weight and missed it. I’m pretty sure this just means I’m gassed. I think I could have hit 605 with the chains on a good day, and probably even a little more. Looking at the video, I just gave up on the lift. I think my PR on this is around 510? So a 75lb PR on a bad day – hard to be mad at that.
My speed off the floor was ridiculous which is a good sign. I should keep pulling sumo to build the hips. I just need to quit being such a sissy.
Romanian Deadlift
405 x8
I skipped accessories so I could go home and be warm. More tomorrow
Wednesday 12/26/2012
Today is the usual heavy bench day. Because I just did my speed work on Monday I am still kind of beat up from that. I roughed the Level 2 Snow Emergency to come in.
Today was a floor press, my goal was to do some reps then work up to something decently heavy and call it.
Floor Press
bar x10
135 x10
185 x6
225 x10 (all reps paused)
275 x8 (all reps paused)
315 x2 (paused)
345 x1 (paused) [90% of my PR]
add slingshot
365 x1
Close Grip with extra long pause
225 x12
Reverse Band Close Grip (reverse blues)
315 x18
365 x10
Chest Supported Row
90lbs x15
135lbs x15
135lbs x15
160lbs x10
Skipped the rest of the shit today. I felt beat up, probably because I didn’t sleep last night and pulled heavy as shit yesterday too. I will likely head to the commercial gym tomorrow and get a lot of lat & tricep work in.
Friday 12-28 – Heavy Squat day
Because the group pulled heavy the Tuesday before this, we decided just to do a lot of reps today. We did 5 sets of 2 with minimal rest periods, working up to ~ 90% of our best squat in briefs for a double. This is a good way to get a lot of work in without blowing your face out with heavy weight.
Squat with Buffalo Bar
raw warmups
bar x20
155 x12
245 x8
295 x5
335 x3
add briefs
425 x3
515 x2
535 x2
555 x2
565 x2
585 x2
My right knee (the one that tried to blow out on me at the last meet) was hurting so I stopped here.
pin 4 pulls
245 x10
335 x10
425 x5
515 x5
605 x3
I did these for upper back work. My PR on this is over 700 pounds and this was hard as shit. Looking back through my logs, I was doing a lot of high-rep lower back work (reverse hypers / hyperextensions with bands) so I’ll be adding some more of that good stuff.
Reverse Hypers
140 x15
210 x15
210 x15
I’ve been fighting sickness and probably Type 2 Diabetes the last week or so. I feel lethargic and can’t seem to get enough sleep.
Tuesday (new years) – RE Deadlifts (aka Deadlift assistance)
Some light box squats to warm up and stretch out my hips
bar x20
150 x10
190 x10
240 x2
240 x2
240 x2
240 x2
Deficit Sumo Deadlifts raw & beltless
315 x10
405 x10
455 x5
Leg Extensions
80 x20
80 x20
80 x20
Decline Situps
bw x20
bw x20
bw x20
Back Extensions
bw x20
bw + mini band x20
bw + doubled mini band x5 ← I decided to stop here because my lower back felt like it was on fire
Now that the holidays are over I hope I can get some good training sessions in leading up to the Arnold. I feel weak as shit and completely unprepared for the meet at this point.
Wednesday Jan 2 – ME Bench
As bad as the training has been the last few weeks today went great. Today was a shirt bench day. I figure we have 3-4 more sessions in a shirt so it’s time to get used to it.
Bench
Raw warmups
bar x20
135 x10
185 x6
225 x6
275 x5
315 x3
add 3 board
365 x2
add shirt / 3 board
405 x3
2 board
455 x2
1 board
475 x1 <— Projected opener
2 board
505 x1
3 board
520 x1
This is the best benching I’ve done in a long time. My shoulders and elbows paid the price though, they are sore as shit.
Raw Close Grip Foam Press
315 x8
My best here is 9 I believe, but this felt awful so I stopped
Raw Close Grip
135 x20
225 x10
275 x8
Lat Pulldowns
180 x12
180 x12
180 x12
180 x12
Elbows Out Extensions
30 x20
30 x20
30 x20
Tricep Extensions w/ Pulley Machine Because Someone Stole Our EZ Curl / Cambered Bar
70 x20
That Didn’t Work So I Did Band Tricep Extensions Instead
green band x20
Great little session. It was exactly what I needed to get my confidence back.
For anyone who still reads my training log, you should give this a read:
Friday Jan 4 – Geared Squats
Today was another day in the gear getting ready for the Arnold. 2 weeks ago everything felt pretty awkward which I guess is to be expected after not feeling the pressure of a geared squat in 2 months. The goal of the today was to hit around your opener and hit a set or two with reverse bands to really blow your eyes out with heavy ass weight. This is a method we’ve used for a long time with great success.
Box Squats (warmups)
bar x10
bar x10
155 x10
155 x10
245 x8
335 x3
add briefs and remove box
425 x3
515 x3
565 x1
add suit bottoms
605 x2
655 x2
695 x1
straps up, knee wraps on
735 x1 ← ugly as sin but deep enough and my projected opener
add reverse bands
805 x1 ← projected 3rd attempt
835 x1 ← hadn’t planned on doing this but “if the pan is hot you keep on cooking” This is 35lbs less than my best but I’m happy with the way this moved considering I’m 9 weeks out
The only bad rep all day was my opener. I think I fought against the knee wraps too much, the next 2 sets I loosened the wraps and were much better. This is a complete 180 from how I felt 2 weeks ago. I felt great today. I’ve been stretching nightly and it makes a huge difference.
Back Extensions
mini band x15
doubled mini bands x15
doubled mini bands x15
These make me want to cry. My lower back is so pumped after these I have to sit on the back extension for about 30 seconds just because walking is painful.
That was it for today. I’ll probably go do abs, calves and some lats tomorrow.
I couldn’t get motivated to get out of the house yesterday. So instead of doing any lifting I stretched, drank some Great Lakes Commodore Perry and watched about 20 episodes of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
Speed Benching against 120 in chains
bar x10
95 x8
95 x8
135 x5
135 x5
185 x3
185 x3
185 x3
205 x3
205 x3
205 x3
Sets moved well but my bicep tendoned was aching me. Probably from squatting with the straight bar on Friday. So I did all reps with a pause and an “air board” around 1" off my chest. This allowed me to do the speed work without a lot of pain.
Incline Barbell
225 x8
225 x8
225 x8
illegal wide
135 x15
Chest Supported Rows
100 x12
145 x12
160 x12
180 x12
180 x12
Straight Bar Skullcrushers
90 x12 ← hurt my elbow so I stopped
Bamboo Bar Skullcrushers
78 x15
78 x15
88 x15
88 x15
Elbows Out Presses
30 x20
30 x20
Band Tricep Extensions
2 x20 w/ Average Band
Concentration Hammer Curls
30 x12
30 x12
Then also:
SSB Pause Squats
4 sets of 6 with 150 and 1-3 second pause
I mainly did these to stretch out my hips but these were surprisingly a pain in the ass. I think I’m going to start working these in. They can only help.
Speed pulls on Tuesday, Heavy-ish bench on Wednesday
Figured this was worth a bump
Tuesday 1-8 – Speed Pulls
Speed Pulls 405 + EliteFTS Light Band
10 sets of 1 in 2:28s
This was awful. We had a little competition in the group. The younger crew did the same band setup with 365 in weight and the same bands. They pull sumo so they used briefs. Me and another guy did 405 raw and conventional. They pulled 10 sets in 2:30 so we beat them by 2 seconds. Victory.
Sumo Deadlift Low Pulley http://asp.elitefts.net/images/upload/qa/IMG_0033.jpg
90lbs x10
180lbs x10
180lbs x10
230lbs x10
230lbs x10
Beltless Paused Deadlifts @ Knee
Deadlift to top, lower deadlift to below knee for 2 count, then complete the rep
315 x10
365 x10
405 x10
455 x2 (screw this)
I’ve done these in the past before with success, but I read an article by Mike Tuscherer recently about pausing lifts which made me want to do these again. These are incredibly humbling and painful.
Pulldown Abs
110 x20
110 x20
110 x20
Lots of good work in the gym tonight. Everything is feeling strong. We’re going to do some reps for bench tomorrow and reps again for squat on Friday.
Wednsday Jan 8 – ME Bench
I did way too much today. The goal was to just get a lot of reps in, but I felt good so I just ended up doing a ton of stuff.
Reverse Band Bench (some cheap band in between EliteFTS Light & Average
Bands took less than 100 off at the bottom and maybe 40 at the top.
135 x10
225 x10
275 x6
315 x3
365 x3
405 x2
455 x0 ← I wanted to take ~430 but Danny was yelling at me
435 x1
455 x1 ← grinder, true 1rm
add slingshot
475 x1
500 x1
Reverse Band Pause Bench (pausing 1" above chest for 3 count then pressing)
315 x6
365 x5
Bamboo Bar Skullcrushers
80 x15
80 x15
90 x15
90 x15
Lat Pulldowns
180 x12
180 x12
180 x12
200 x10
200 x10
Bamboo Bar Bench
120lbs x20
120lbs x20
120lbs x20
This was a long session. I’m sure I forgot about plenty of stuff. This was totally unnecessary.
Friday 1-11-13
Today was a break from the full gear, so we used a “funny bar” as Dan likes to call them. The goal was to get in some reps and not go too heavy. I felt good so I went heavy anyways like a jackass.
Cambered Bar w/150 in Chains
bar x10
135 x10
225 x6 (wow slow)
add briefs
315 x3
365 x3
405 x3
455 x3
500 x2
add knee wraps
545 x1
My best with this bar is 585 straight weight. So I was happy with 545 and the chains.
Good Mornings w/ Cambered Bar and 150 in Chains
225 x6
And this was a mistake I immediately regretted. These were insanely heavy.
Glute Ham Raise Against Mini Bands
x10
x8
x6ish
I don’t know why I ever quit doing these. Whatever reason I had, it was a bad one. My hamstrings now feel like piano chords. Pete Rubish said something about how these fixed a problem with his deadlift lockout. So I’m going to throw these in more as the meet comes up.
Hanging Abs
120 x20
120 x20
Done
All day yesterday my lower back / right glute was bothering me. My guess is that the good mornings I did on Friday tweaked something back there; most likely my SI joint is out of place. It took a good 40 minutes of stretching out my hamstrings before I was able to bend over without pain. Today it’s much better but still sore.
Sunday 1-13-2013 – DE’ish bench
Speed Bench
185 x3
185 x3
185 x3
185 x3
185 x3
185 x3
185 x3
185 x3
205 x3
205 x3
225 x3
225 x3
Dumbell Press / DB Fly Superset
100 x20 / 30x15
Elbows Out Extensions / Rope Skullcrushers
30 x20, 80 x12
Bicep Curl Machine
110 x10
110 x10
110 x10
Rear Delt Flyes
70 x20
70 x20
70 x20
I felt like I was falling apart today so I didn’t push it too hard. Going to use lots of Ibuprofen, ice and fish oil for the next few days and try to heal up
Tuesday 1-15-2013 Heavy Deadlift
I decided to pull sumo today for a few reasons. First off, I tweaked my lower back / SI joint on Friday. It’s much better but not completely fixed. The sumo stance doesn’t bother it nearly as much as the conventional. Secondly, this week is a heavy shirted bench week, as well as a heavy squat week. Sumo deadlifts are much less stressful to me for whatever reason, hopefully this means I can push it hard both on bench day and squat day. And lastly, because my sumo and conventional pulls are pretty similar, I will get an idea of which I should use at the meet.
Deadlift off 4 mats
135 x10
225 x5
315 x5
405 x3
add Leviathon suit bottom
495 x1
605 x1 ← it was a joke how fast this was
655 x1
700 x0 ← bad setup, came forward and got bent in half
The last one re-aggravated my back somewhat so I decided to stop here. While i think my back will be completely healed by this Friday, it is also re-assuring to know that I’ll be able to use a sumo stance with some degree of success if needed.
Belt Squats
90lbs x10
90lbs x10 ← I thought these felt heavy, I was told these were about 4" below parallel
180lbs x10 ← added 1 pad, still below parallel
230lbs x10
270lbs x8
270lbs x8
3 second Pause Squats with SSB
160 x5
160 x5
160 x5
These suck so much I don’t even know if I wanted to put them in this log. This was embarrassingly difficult considering how little weight it was.
Glute Ham Raise
bw x12
bw x12
Hanging Abs
130 x20
130 x20
That’s all she wrote today. Heavy bench tomorrow night.
Hey man,
Awesome log, I’ll keep reading and learn some of your workouts once I finish my SS 
Shirted Bench
rawwwwwwwwrrrrrrr (I believe this is the new way to represent any lift done without gear?)
135 x10
185 x6
225 x6
275 x3
315 x4
add 3 board
375 x1
add shirt
405 x3 (3 board)
455 x2 (2 board)
475 x1 (chest, opener) slow & grindy just like I thought it was going to be.
505 x2 (3 board)
Today sucked for many reasons. Usually benching is tough after pulling heavy earlier in the week but this was excessively difficult.
Shoulder Raise Thingies
15 x12
15 x12
15 x12
Chest Supported Rows
160 x12
160 x12
160 x12
DB Shrugs
110 x20
110 x20
110 x20
110 x20
Close Grip Bench
135 x20
225 x10
275 x10
295 x4
315 x3
Pullups
bw x8
bw x6
bw x5
Machine Flyes / Rear Delt Flyes
120 / 90 x15
120 / 105 x15
120 / 120 x15
DB Skullcrushers
35 x20
Hammer Curls
30 x15
35 x15
40 x15
I hate the intensity of an angry hateful midget today. I slept like shit, had bad day at work and everyone was bothering me. Basically you might say I had “sand in a place where one would not want sand to be at”. Everything felt heavy and I pretty much hated everybody.
Tomorrow I will be starting my collection of home gym equipment in my garage. I am buying a used Glute Ham Raise (got a killer deal on it) and a 45 degree back extension. Except I don’t have a garage, and the only place I have to store it is in the living room of my apartment (my wife loves this idea). So I figure I’ll do Glute Ham Raises every night until my hamstrings explode and maybe then I’ll pull something respectable at the Arnold.
