[quote]inkaddict wrote:
Haha, I was going to say “CALL HIM DUDE!”
I’ll be following your log too man, while you might not think you’ve got the greatest numbers, they’re a far stretch from mine and I’ll be interested in seeing how more volume treats your 1rm’s.[/quote]
Lol, I just happened to see that post a couple minutes after he wrote it. I left my car in the states with him and he cleaned and waxed it up real nice and is selling it for me. Got me a better deal than I would have gotten.
Glad to have ya following. I realize my numbers are decent, but I just always feel like I should be doing more, ya know? I’m not sure that feeling ever goes away though, no matter how strong you get. It doesn’t help when you train with MM and he is OH pressing close to what you bench, lol. If I train smart and keep progressing then I SHOULD be able to take him in the deadlift given some time. Squats are no where near, and bench… pfft, my long term goal right now is to bench 400, and 500 is just a dream at this point, lol.
600s/700d/400b … that is my longer-term goal.
Started rambling… but as for the volume, yeah… I am interested to see as well. I think Smolov Jr. went pretty well, and after this Brad Gillingham 12 week bench program, I am going to run it again for bench. I have tweaked it a little bit so I can hit some heavier numbers.
Smolov Jr. Original:
Monday(70%):6 x 6
Wednesday(75%):7 x 5
Friday (80%):8 x 4
Saturday(85%):10 x 3
Smolov Jr. Modified:
Monday(75%):5 x 5
Wednesday(80%):6 x 4
Friday (85%):7 x 3
Saturday(90%):9 x 2
Gym closed really early today so I only had about 50 minutes to do this workout. Sure didn’t feel like a lot of time…
Got a few reps less on rack pulls which was expected. I’m using straps on the rack pulls but they started slipping off toward the end or I would have got a couple more. I need to get some better straps, mine are not very good. Upped the weight on box squats and only got 2 less reps than last week. I was huffin and puffin after the squats…
I eyeballed the deficits last week and guessed around 3" but they are really 4". Scott - we have the same platform / risers we had at Gold’s, and I was standing on the platform. It is a hell of a deficit but I’ll stick with it. I got 10 reps last week but managed two sets of 9 reps each this week. I only had a couple minutes rest between sets because the gym was about to kick me out. I felt like I was going to die after that second set, and was trying to hurry and put my weights away at the same time, lol. Upping the weight to 390 next week for one set, then two sets the following week. Then it will only be one set from there on out.
Had no time for the leg press and rows, etc. I felt sick after the deficits anyway… I’ll do lots of rows tomorrow after benching. Can’t wait til I get to heavier weight / lower reps, lol.
Edit: BTW, I realized Babyslayer(on bb.com) goes by Meganewb here I think, although I don’t think he posts here anymore. Just so everyone knows who helped me make the deadlift program. I’ve been following his journal a long time, and he is pretty ridiculous with his training.
Hit the 315 without a problem, with no liftoff. The 5 sets of 3 were a bit tough but doable. I can tell this program is going to get pretty hard in a few weeks, haha. I sure as hell am not going to be trying to drop weight while doing these programs. I’ve been going through milk like it was water. Gonna keep trying to get stronger on pullups, and I guess more reps on pushups. The rest of the workout was pretty low rest times. I think I am going to focus on DB rows and maybe shrugs next upper day.
Edit: Not sure if the ‘rear delt rows’ is very clear or makes sense, lol. I was standing instead of feet on the pads, and rowing with my elbows out and pulling the weight up high. It just feels like my rear delts are doing a lot of the work and I like it.
[quote]Adam-F wrote:
Did you move back in time too when you flew over?? you must be living in the sticks, I’ve never come across any of this!! LOL
Strong work in here mate. Whereabouts are you based?[/quote]
Lol. I’m in Adderbury, near Oxford.
They said it’s not that widely known of a game, but around here apparently tons of people play it. It’s pretty fun. I’m looking forward to the next game tomorrow night!
That’s it. Last week I did 495 with the green bands, which take off about 135 at the bottom. I wanted to try out the toughest bands(black ones) which take off about 185, when setup so they take nothing off at lockout. It’s not a ton of weight since it takes off a lot at the bottom, but since I did a lot of deadlifts/squats on monday, and played football last night… I was feeling pretty beat up today. Not sure if I’m going to continue playing or not… I just don’t find flag football nearly as fun… its way too panzy. Two handed touch would at least allow some contact, and be a lot more fun… but they don’t play that. Our team had 6 people last night and one was the wife of someone. You play with 7, so we were down a man. All the other teams are military guys who are in way better cardio shape than us, plus they have about 20 people on each team, lol. They were constantly switching people out so they were fresh, while we were all huffing and puffing. We lost but managed 14-21… I think that’s pretty good considering everything. I wish so bad that I could just plow over everyone though, lol. Being big has no advantages in flag football… it’s all about speed since you can’t hit anyone.
Anyway, I’m amazed at how sore and beat up I feel from the football. Today was just about gettin some work in, and those vagina machines felt great for stretching. Tomorrow will be squats and dumbell rows. I think I will feel a lot more recovered since I got in there and did some stuff today.
Back Squats against Bands *Red Bands, ~ +80 lbs @ top
5x135 *Superset with
3x225 EZ Bar Preacher Curls
1x275 / 10x75
1x335 / 10x75
1x335 / 10x75
*Superset Seated Leg Extension / Seated Leg Curl
5x15x100 / 5x15x100
HS Horizontal Calf Raise
15x2 plates
20x4 p
20x6 p
20x4 p
+some other misc crap…
Well, squatting did not go so well. Last week I did 6 singles with 315. My hips and legs still feel so trashed from earlier this week, and then playing football has killed them. They just felt like they were going to give out, and my form was going to shit, so I just stopped.
I did one set of leg press with just 2 plates but it was fcking killing my hips so I just did a bunch of leg ext and leg curls… didn’t do any rows, figured I would just save them for tomorrow when I feel more rested.
I’m gonna give up the football. I am enjoying and want to train more often now with my situation, and football killing my training isn’t worth it to me. I’ll wait til softball season comes around. Plus, I rolled my ankle the other day playing… luckily it wasn’t that bad. I would regret it pretty bad if I injured myself playing flag football and couldn’t lift.
*Superset Rope Face Pulls / DB Side Raises
10x20 / 12x25
15x35 / 12x25
15x50 / 15x25
15x50
Felt like a good session today… took a while to get the bands setup how I like them, but I will know for next time. The purple bands are my lightest ones, and they were good for the ‘speed’ work. They were decently fast but hopefully I get faster every week. Obviously modified the bench program light day a little bit… a bit lighter than the program calls for, but with the bands it was heavier. Not much to say about everything else… just getting work in. This week was a lot more structured then the first week I was here. I am going to stick to the exact same exercises the next few weeks but just keep upping the volume on everything, especially the back exercises.
Played softball today at a big picnic for the airmen. We lost but it was still fun, and I did pretty well. One guy that I’ve seen around a lot asked if I wanted to come practice with their softball team that apparently travels around Europe some and plays in a few tournaments. Sounds like a lot of fun… although after playing two games today my shins were hurting sooooo fcking bad its ridiculous. I iced them up and they feel ok now… but man, I need to start doing some toe raises and a bit of actual jogging, lol.
*Superset Lying Leg Curls / Seated Leg Curl
20x65 / 20x70
20x80 / 20x85
20x95 / 20x100
Great session except for the rack pulls. I’ve been using straps on just the rack pulls so I can get as many reps as possible. I would have gotten closer to 10 reps if my straps hadn’t slipped off. I was going to wrap them back up and keep going back said screw it. Going to order some better straps that are also longer. Lost 2 reps on squats but upped the weight by 25 lbs, and got 9 reps on deadlifts which is the same as I got the first week, but with 30 lbs more… so everything is going as planned right now. Next week will be 2 sets of 390 on deadlifts which I am not looking forward to. Going to aim for 2 sets of 8 with 390. Back was so fried after the hyperextensions that I said screw doing the rows… legs were fried after everything though. Going to do rows/rear delts on my upper body days this week, and probably more rear delts on my other lower day too, haha. If anything, my upper back is getting bigger.
I might just take scott’s advice and start training twice a day and bodybuilding, lol.
Edit: The first session I wrote roughly 4" ROM for rack pulls but it was definitely more like 6, then the 2nd session was about 8 and this one about 10. So it’s getting lower quickly, and I got two more ROM increases before I drop rack pulls from the program. The bars I have to use do not have great knurling, so it is way harder to hold onto than our texas DL bar that I got used to. Grip is never a problem when doing 1RM’s though, so I hope it stays that way.
*Superset Pullups / Neutral Grip DB Floor Press
10xBW / 8x60
7xBW / 8x80
6xBW / 1x100 *way to fckin hard to get them into place by myself, probably almost hurt my shoulder trying… maybe close-grip BB in the rack next time.
*Superset Lat Pulldowns / Machine Flys
6 sets getting heavier high reps / 6 sets getting heavier high reps
*Superset Rope Face Pulls / Rope Pushdowns
6 sets getting heavier high reps / 4 sets getting heavier high reps
Not a bad day, but I forgot my training book at home so I couldn’t remember what I did last week and didn’t write anything down yet. Was going to do the same thing I did last week but heavier / more of it… oh well, I will next week. 320 was pretty hard. I got a spotter for it and I’m not sure if he put his hands on or not… but I’m going for 330 next week so we’ll see how hard that is. The 5 sets of 3 with 280 was hard as hell. The last couple sets I barely got the 3rd rep. Next week is going to be hard as hell. I might be going a bit too fast on the progression with this program, since I am trying to slowly lose weight also. I had upped the %'s a little bit in the program, so I may tone it back a little bit next week so I don’t hit a wall.
Everything else I tried to do with pretty low rest times. Definitely getting a bit more conditioned for this kind of training, and my rear delts are still pumped up as I type this, lol. Going to do some actual barbell rows on my light bench day in a couple days. Should be interesting to test my strength on them.
On a side note, I finally got my bank card in the mail… so I’m about to head to the store to hopefully get a new phone, and will start taking some videos of my lifts.
1-Arm Side DB Raise *Swinging weight
6x40
6x50
6x60
20x25 *both arms at once…
Front Plate Raise *Swinging…
25x45
25x45
1-Arm Cable Rear Fly
20x10
20x15
DB Curl *Swinging weight…
6x35
6x50
6x60
6x70
6x80
DB Concentration Curl *Dropset
12x25 → 12x20 → 12x15
Good session. First time I’ve got into training biceps in a while. Probably because those swinging curls were hard, but man you can feel it hitting the biceps hard. Shoulders were definitely pumped up today.
Maybe I’ll just start doing bodybuilding for upper body and just keep a more powerlifting style for lower body and just work on getting my deadlift up, lol.
*Superset EZ Bar Skullcrushers / EZ Bar Curls
10x85 / 10x85
That’s it. Having a lazy day and I didn’t realize the gym closed at 4:00pm on Saturday… why it closes that early I don’t know. I got there and when I realized that I had 30 minutes to lift. I think I did a pretty decent amount in 30 minutes including the warmups and everything. Went heavier than normal on those rows / flys so 10 reps was a struggle. I was expecting to be stronger on BB rows but oh well… I’ve been working my back quite frequently and it might be a bit fatigued. I used to like BB rows a lot, but maybe that is just because I read it all the time on BB.com. I’ve been liking pullups/pulldowns, DB rows, HS type row machines way more than BB rows. I don’t know think I am going to continue with them anymore… I know I like pendlay rows more though, and I am going to give them a shot again next week and see how heavy I can go with cheating on them some.
I wish so bad that I could just plow over everyone though, lol. Being big has no advantages in flag football… it’s all about speed since you can’t hit anyone.