Phase 2/Cycle 2/Week 2/Day 3
FRIDAY 04.05.2012
Squat FBT
3 x 92.5
3 x 107.5
3 x 122.5 kg
(total of 18 Pull Ups between squat sets)
OH Press 3/3/x
3 x 47.5 (5 chins)
3 x 55 (5 chins)
5 x 60 kg (5 chins)
Deadlift (5/5/5 for Powerlifting)
5 x 115
5 x 132.5
5 x 150
Hanging Leg Raise
10, 5, 4
Triceps dips on rack bars
10, 10, 7
Notes:
-I was not entirely unhappy with my press. It isn’t going up, but it isn’t going down either. Hopefully the dips and pull ups will eventually help with this.
[video]2382[/video]
Phase 2/Cycle 2/Week 3/Day 1
MONDAY 08.05.2012 (on a TUESDAY)
Squat 5/3/x
5 x 107.5
3 x 122.5
4 x 137.5kg
(total of 18 pull ups between squat sets)
DB bench
15 x 25 / 5 chin ups
12 x 25 / 5 chin ups
10 x 25kg / 5 chin ups
DB row
8 x 30
8 x 30
8 x 30kg
Standing Ab Wheel Rollout:
5,5,5
Kneeling Ab Wheel Rollout:
15
Dips:
10,10,10
NOTES:
-I performed the workout on Tuesday instead of Monday, as Sunday night I got like 3 hours sleep and was losing my mind.
-My squats were pretty ugly; see video. I got 4, target was 5… not too unhappy but my form wasn’t good.
-This insomnia (I have only had 2 sleeps in the past month longer than 5 hours) is really killing me. The melatonin helps me fall asleep, but I wake after like 4 hours then can’t crash out again. I don’t want to take heavy sleeping pills as they are addictive for someone like me haha.
-Felt weak after my squats, so I reduced the target reps on my assistance.
-Might need to look at my eating habits, as this 2kg I’ve lost seems to be weakening me, along with the insomnia of course.
-From the land of sleepless gloom, over and out.
[video]2384[/video]
Although, despite my misery I should mention my max at the beginning of the year was 140kgs for a single. So 137.5 x 4 is a good improvement. I just feel that with sleep, and my normal bodyweight I have a lot more in me.
Ah that insomnia sounds like a bitch, hope it works out for you.
I have myself had alot problems with sleep and know how it can fuck up eating and training!
[quote]florelius wrote:
Ah that insomnia sounds like a bitch, hope it works out for you.
I have myself had alot problems with sleep and know how it can fuck up eating and training![/quote]
Thanks bro. Yeah lack of sleep is a total killer. It’s destroying my life hahaha. ANd making me very dramatic…
Do you find when you don’t sleep, you don’t feel as hungry? I do. I struggle to eat breakfast after a sleepless night.
[quote]panzerfaust wrote:
[quote]florelius wrote:
Ah that insomnia sounds like a bitch, hope it works out for you.
I have myself had alot problems with sleep and know how it can fuck up eating and training![/quote]
Thanks bro. Yeah lack of sleep is a total killer. It’s destroying my life hahaha. ANd making me very dramatic…
Do you find when you don’t sleep, you don’t feel as hungry? I do. I struggle to eat breakfast after a sleepless night.[/quote]
Yes I feel almost indifferent to food if I am awake above 16 hours. Its like its numbing down whatever is signaling hunger. Luckily for me my sleep have been better the last months, but I have days and even weeks where it goes back to being bad, but all in all this semester have probably been my best sleeping wise for 4-5 years.
ps. LOL at being dramatic, I totally saw what you did there 
The press is the biggest pain to increase. I normally have to repeat the military press max more frequently than the other lifts. Keep hammering it. It’ll give up eventually.
As bad as crappy sleep is I think the dietary issue it more important for strength levels. You’re losing weight but it seems at the expense of strength. The extra hours that you’re up is probably jacking up caloric expenditure but also you said it’s stifling hunger which sucks because it may be causing you to eat less than you need. There’s probably a much larger deficit going on than you realize.
Your squats looked fine to me. Certainly a struggle but four real, hairy man type squats. Most importantly is it’s progress. Not much better out there----being stronger today than yesterday.
Sleeplessness sucks.
Have you tried the very boring but sometimes effective method of forcing yourself out of bed quite a bit earlier than usual for several days but staying awake until evening? Eventually one would normally start to crave sleep at night. Like wake up at 5 am and stay up until midnight. I’ve also noticed melatonin giving me sleep for maybe three hours half of the time and the other half that I do sleep longer I can feel that it isn’t quality sleep. I’m pretty sure drinking excessively on a frequent basis has screwed up my ability to get decent rest but hope that abstaining for a while works everything out.
I don’t if it will work for you, but the ZMA supplement from this website, and a complex B vitamin before bed pretty much cured my insomnia.
Thanks for all the helpful words, guys. I will try the suggestions of ZMA and forcing myself to get up early (as hellish as that sounds haha) and will take a closer look at my diet too.
I’m also considering dialing back my workouts to the “bare bones” of Full Body 5/3/1 for a few cycles, to see if perhaps I am actually overtrained. With all the extra assistance I have added in, my workouts take well over an hour and lately are becoming harder and harder to complete.
Phase 2/Cycle 2/Week 3/Day 2
WEDNESDAY (on a THURSDAY) 10.05.2012
Squat (full body training)
3 x 92.5
3 x 107.5
3 x 122.5kg
(Total of 18 wide grip pull ups between squat sets)
Close Grip Bench (5/3/X)
5 x 67.5
3 x 77.5
6 x 85kg
(Total of 50 21.5kg dumbbell rows between bench sets)
Hammer Grip Chin ups (plus 10kg)
10, 10, 6, 2, 2
DB Side Bends (26.5kg)
15, 15, 15
Dips
10, 7
NOTES:
-My bench reps are feeling more “stable” possibly because of the dips I’ve been doing every day, but once again I fell short by 1 rep of where I wanted to be.
-The assistance felt difficult, as it has done for the past month or so; definitely time to adjust things a bit.
Looked like a great session written down, but if you feel the sessions are getting to much, its probably a
good idea to scale back as you where talking about 
[quote]panzerfaust wrote:
Thanks for all the helpful words, guys. I will try the suggestions of ZMA and forcing myself to get up early (as hellish as that sounds haha) and will take a closer look at my diet too.
I’m also considering dialing back my workouts to the “bare bones” of Full Body 5/3/1 for a few cycles, to see if perhaps I am actually overtrained. With all the extra assistance I have added in, my workouts take well over an hour and lately are becoming harder and harder to complete.[/quote]
Until you get your sleep sorted out, thats probably a good idea. With insomnia its easy to start spinning your wheels.
Phase 2/Cycle 2/Week 3/Day 3
FRIDAY 11.05.2012 (on SATURDAY 12.05 due to rescheduling the week)
Squat FBT
3 x 92.5
3 x 107.5
3 x 122.5 kg
(total of 18 Pull Ups between squat sets)
OH Press 5/3/x
5 x 50 (5 chins)
3 x 57.5 (5 chins)
2 x 65 kg (5 chins)
Notes:
-This week has just been a write off in general haha.
-I was a wreck due to insomnia so I didn’t do the deadlifing. Irritating as I’d planned to try and hit that 210kg. Anyway, I just did the squats and overhead press and got outta there.
-Anyway, this cycle is over. Bring on the MUCH NEEDED deload, then Cycle 3 of Phase 2!!
good lifting bro, your pullups looked good.
Enjoy that deload and hopefully your sleeping pattern gets better
Thanks man, yeah I hope so too! It can’t get much worse hahaha…
Phase 2/Cycle 2/Week 4/Day 1
MONDAY 14.05.2012
Squat DELOAD
5 x 57.5
5 x 72.5
5 x 87.5
(total of 15 pull ups between squat sets)
Hang Clean triples
50kg, 55kg, 57.5kg, 60kg, 62.5kg, 65kg
Power Clean singles
70kg, 75kg, 80kg
Aborted Power Clean / High Pull
85kg x 3
Dips:
12,8,7
(total of 30 chin ups between dips)
Standing Ab Wheel Rollout:
9
NOTES:
-I’m not really sure what I was up to today, but tried to do a bit of work on my cleans. Pretty ugly stuff with minimal dip, but I haven’t done them in a long time and never had great form to start with haha. Any suggestions are welcome. I know I need to do lots of light work to develop speed and form, and such…
[video]2387[/video]
Phase 2/Cycle 2/Week 4/Day 2
WEDNESDAY (17.05.2012
Squat (full body training DELOAD)
5 x 57.5
5 x 72.5
5 x 87.5kg
(Total of 15 wide grip pull ups between squat sets)
Close Grip Bench (DELOAD)
5 x 35
5 x 45
5 x 55kg
(Total of 15 Hammer Grip Chins between bench sets)
Dumbbell Row
5 x 30kg
5 x 35kg
5 x 40kg
DB Side Bends
15 x 31.5kg
NOTES:
-Today’s deload felt like pure bliss. Also I managed to sleep 9.5 hours last night!!! I feel almost inhumanly happy today haha…
Good deload sessions Panzer
And great that you have been able to sleep properly.
When it comes to the cleans, I thought they looked good, but then again I dont know shit about cleans, snatch etc.
One tip regarding chin ups are thouching the bar with your chest and holding the contraction, you might
not get as many reps pr set, but you work the back more this way. Just a tip, not trying come off as an ass.
Again I am happy to see that your sleep is getting better
[quote]florelius wrote:
Good deload sessions Panzer
And great that you have been able to sleep properly.
When it comes to the cleans, I thought they looked good, but then again I dont know shit about cleans, snatch etc.
One tip regarding chin ups are thouching the bar with your chest and holding the contraction, you might
not get as many reps pr set, but you work the back more this way. Just a tip, not trying come off as an ass.
Again I am happy to see that your sleep is getting better :)[/quote]
Thanks!
Yeah my power clean form isn’t the Worst, but I didn’t “dip” at all in the catch. This means I will fail a lot earlier than I used to. Strengthwise, I should be good for a 100kg+ power clean, but after 8 months of no technique or speed work I feel like a sluggish ox haha. And there is no way I would be confident with even a 90kg clean right now.
I’m adding them back into my training from the next cycle onwards anyway. Not on my 531 days though; I’m going to do them on my rest days. Just a few triples and singles to re-learn the motor patterns and develop some explosiveness.
Actually you raise a good point regarding my chin ups! The ones in the video were unweighted (I can do 3 x 10 with 10kgs) so I may as well try a bit of an iso hold at the top like you suggest. Could always do with more back strength! Will chuck a video up next time =).
I’m looking forward to starting the next cycle, with my reduced volume and adjust accessory plan.
Cheers