Spidey: Back in Black

Training Training Logs
681

[quote]Spidey22 wrote:

[quote]LoRez wrote:

[quote]Spidey22 wrote:
Have to be creative with no machines. [/quote]

Ok, that made me laugh.

I don’t even know what to do if I had access to a ton of machines. I spent a few days working in my girlfriend’s gym, which was very well equipped and used by several actually big and strong people. Like the guy doing sets of 15 with 315 on the incline bench without spotters.

But I mean, I really won’t know what to do. What are you “missing”?
[/quote]

I meant more so the leg press and leg curls when talking about legs. I have a leg curl attachment, but it’s kind of lame. Leg press is just really useful because it requires no stability or anything, just focusing purely on the Quads or Hams, unlike Front Squats or something.

I wasn’t talking about things like HS machines. While they are cool I just personally don’t use them really. [/quote]

Just throwing out some options… hip belt squats (dip belt + plates/bar/loading pin), “natural” glute ham raise (you can use a barbell on the underside of your rack’s safety pins), RDLs.

682

One, of many, ways to do this:

683

Those could work. I’ve been trying to try assistance work that doesn’t hit the lower back at all, just because I’ve been taking no off days and Squatting and DL’ing 3-4x a week. But I’ll be taking more light and rest days, so stuff like RDL’s could still work.

684

[quote]Spidey22 wrote:
Those could work. I’ve been trying to try assistance work that doesn’t hit the lower back at all, just because I’ve been taking no off days and Squatting and DL’ing 3-4x a week. But I’ll be taking more light and rest days, so stuff like RDL’s could still work. [/quote]

Just do this on your lower days:

Squat coan work
deadlift coan work
High Bar Squats 2 sets of 8-10
Front Squats 3 sets of 10-12
RDLs or SLDLs 1-2 sets of 15-20

thats more than enough and you can get strong doing that

685

also even if you dont do that just do regular front squats im with lorez no need to get complicated…

686

Yeah you’re right Pat. I’ve not been taking light or off days, so was trying not to tax my lower back. But now weights are heavy enough I need to, so that’ll work.

Light Upper

So I got my bands today, wanted to try them out.

Light Paused Bench ~SS~ Band Pull Aparts: Wow… I thought I had been setting up tight on my Benching, but I was fucking wrongggg lol
135+Orange Minisx5x3 – Red Minisx5x20

Pendlay Rows ~SS~ Incline Band Flies: Did rows from deficit
185x4x6 – Greensx4x25

Meadows Lateral Swings ~SS~ Band Pulldowns:
40’sx4x25 – Greensx4x25

BB Curls ~SS~ Band Pushdowns: Wow crazy pump
45x2x5 – Greenx2x50

Obviously did a ton of band stuff, but wanted to try them out. I like them for light Benching, just because they made me realize how sloppy I get on the eccentric. Also, I don’t explode all the way through the lift, so this could be something I use now and again to ingrain that.

On the flies it literally made my upper chest cramp, which has never happened. I think I’ll mostly use them for supersets, to get in a lot of rear delt, back, and chest work on the daily (well maybe 5-6x a week) and not burn myself out because the lack of eccentric loading.

The plan is to use them for leg extensions/curls here at home because I lack the attachment, and to help get higher reps in natural GHR’s and pull-ups that right now i just can’t do (talking 15+ rep sets). Might use them on Front Squats or something, too, just because right now i can hit a 275 Front Squat, but keeping upright and utilizing my Quads at the bottoms still seems to be a problem. So maybe these could be a learning tool.

687

[quote]Spidey22 wrote:
Light Paused Bench ~SS~ Band Pull Aparts: Wow… I thought I had been setting up tight on my Benching, but I was fucking wrongggg lol[/quote]

How did the bands “show” you this?

688

[quote]LoRez wrote:

[quote]Spidey22 wrote:
Light Paused Bench ~SS~ Band Pull Aparts: Wow… I thought I had been setting up tight on my Benching, but I was fucking wrongggg lol[/quote]

How did the bands “show” you this?[/quote]

Have you tried them? They force you to really control the eccentric, kind of make your body shake. Idk, you have to be in full control of the weight if you want it to move fast, so any instability becomes an issue

689

The only thing I don’t like about bands is how they eat up my elbows if I use them for too long.
Band pushdowns give the greatest tricep pump ever.

690

Like spidey said they change the game a lot. The eccentric is a bitch. The contraction is painful amazing

691

[quote]Spidey22 wrote:

[quote]LoRez wrote:

[quote]Spidey22 wrote:
Light Paused Bench ~SS~ Band Pull Aparts: Wow… I thought I had been setting up tight on my Benching, but I was fucking wrongggg lol[/quote]

How did the bands “show” you this?[/quote]

Have you tried them? They force you to really control the eccentric, kind of make your body shake. Idk, you have to be in full control of the weight if you want it to move fast, so any instability becomes an issue[/quote]

Nope… haven’t tried them… that’s why I asked :wink:

My experience is limited to bottoms-up bench presses (which are good for generating tension from the bottom, but not necessarily controlling the eccentric), chains on overhead presses (which taught me about explosiveness and forcing the bar through the whole movement), and now mat pulls with chains (which, with my leverages, I’ve decided are just awesome).

692

Interesting you said that about the elbows Budreiser. I need to watch for that because my right elbow acts up a lot.

I honestly don’t really know how to take full advantage of the bands. I think they can be helpful, but obviously don’t want to lose sight of just adding weight to the bar. Any articles or ideas on how to best incorporate them would be great, guys.

693

[quote]Spidey22 wrote:
Interesting you said that about the elbows Budreiser. I need to watch for that because my right elbow acts up a lot.

I honestly don’t really know how to take full advantage of the bands. I think they can be helpful, but obviously don’t want to lose sight of just adding weight to the bar. Any articles or ideas on how to best incorporate them would be great, guys. [/quote]

Good point there. Sometimes I think people get caught up with experimenting wayyy too much with bands, chains, etc when really just putting weight on the bar would probably be more beneficial.

694

[quote]Spidey22 wrote:
Interesting you said that about the elbows Budreiser. I need to watch for that because my right elbow acts up a lot.

I honestly don’t really know how to take full advantage of the bands. I think they can be helpful, but obviously don’t want to lose sight of just adding weight to the bar. Any articles or ideas on how to best incorporate them would be great, guys. [/quote]

Reverse band as an accessory. Still works on exploding through but saves elbows and shoulders. And helps add volume and not beat you up

695

Oh and any back machine you can add it to is amazing

696

There’s this article if you hadn’t seen it: Bands and Chains for Bodybuilding

697

Thanks for the suggestions Ryan and LoRez

Light Lower

Front Squats: Tried the bands, really forced me to keep perfectly upright, or else the bands would pull the bar right out of my rack position. Also made me really push my hips through
185+Orangex4x3

Paused ATG Squats: Light, just trying to get some form and speed work in
185x3x8

Deficit SLDL’s: No lockout
135x2x20

Band Abs Pulldowns ~SS~ Band Goodmornings
3 sets of 15-20

Good quick workout, wasn’t trying to kill myself here.

So I have a plan, but I want to run it by ya’ll real quick. I think I have like a weeks worth of workouts with this bastardized Coan Program, which I think will be putting my Bench in the 260-275 range, and Squat in the 370-390 range. Maybe even my DL in the 455 range but I really screwed the pooch on that I think.

I figured I’d try out Dan John’s 40-Day program. It’s basically picking 5 lifts, doing them light EVERY workout, never going over 10 total reps per lift. Really something that goes by feel. Seems like people get a decent amount of strength progress out of the program, so I could maybe get one or more of my goals with the B.U.L.K.I.N.G. Challenge. Also I’ll probably do something with the bands, like eccentricless pushdowns/curls/laterals/pull aparts, like 100 a day or something, just for joint health and maybe some growth if I’m lucky.

After those 40 ish days, I’d go ahead and move to a more volume based, BB’ing style split. Thinking a Push/Pull/Legs or Chest/Back, Delts/Arms, Legs thing. Maybe at that point my strength will be near something respectable enough to do a real split, though I’ll likely still follow a progression plan like Coan or something on Big lifts.

Any critiques, suggestions are welcome.

698

So today was supposed to be an off-day, but I was stubborn and tried to lift

Went in, hit 245 for 2 less than stellar singles on Flat Bench, and just called it a day.

I shouldn’t have even tried. I took sleeping medicine last night to get to sleep earlier, because i woke up really early this morning to go hiking with my littlest brother on a field trip. Didn’t get to eat until roughly 2pm, and had only had diet soda up until then.

On top of that, my obliques and abs were reallyyyy sore. I’m assuming from the banded Front Squats.

Tomorrow afternoon I may re-try this workout. Once I get 225 in my hands, I’ll make a judgement call on whether to try 245x2x2 (which would sadly be a big PR for me), or just do a lighter Meadows style Delts + Arms workout.

I’m stupid because my initial plan was to just speed up the Coan routine by skipping off days, but then going a 2 on, 1 off thing once weights got heavier. However, now I’ve gotten in the habit of talking myself out of off days. That could also be a reason I’m not adding much or any BW, just doing too much shit lol

699

Hey guis, I was out all yesterday doing white people farm and hiking shit. But did lift yesterday

Was going to Bench, got to 225, felt heavier than it should, so I decided to do a Delts + Arm workout

Band Pull-Aparts ~SS~ Rear Delt Flies: solid pump to start it off
Red minisx4x40 ~ 25’sx4x15

Laterals ~SS~ Band OHP Presses:
15’sx4x20 ~ Green Minisx4x20

OHP: Actually PR’ed on top sets, even though i was pre-fatigued and haven’t OHP in months lol
95x8
115x5
135x2x3 (one set was push pressed)

Hammer Curls ~SS~ Band Pulldowns: Took some tips from Zraw on execution
25’sx4x12 ~ Red minisx4x30

CGBP ~SS~ Band Curls
185x3x6-8 ~ Green minisx3x15-20

BB Curls ~SS~ OH Extensions: Used ‘broken wrist’ on the curls
45/20x4x15

Overall a good workout, and I’m not that sore. I not emphasizing the eccentric on the band work, just the pause at contraction. Because it’s almost eccentricless, I basically just double the reps. So if with DB’s I’d want sets of 10 with OHP presses, I just do sets of 20 with bands. Seeing if this allows more volume without more recovery.

700

Needed a lighter day today. Loaded 225 on the bar and just decided not to go over that, and make it difficult.

Back Squats: Did the last set without bands
225+Orange Bandsx6x3 (Paused)
225x8

Deficit Snatch Grip DL’s:
225x6x3

Kneeling Pulldowns ~SS~ Band pullaparts
3 sets each of 10 and 25 reps, respectively

Shrugs ~Band Straight Arm Pulldowns:
225x3x15 ~ 3x30

So that was it. Good workout, did mobility work of Squats and Deads. Also, I tried to never take longer than 1:30 between sets of them.

I think I’m bad at Shrugs lol. I never do them because I see people using like 405+ lbs on them for higher reps, and literally 225 for 3 sets of 15 raped my traps. And it’s not even like I use 5 second negatives and like long static holds or something. Even when I shrugged consistently I never think I got over like 315 lololol. I can’t fathom using like 500x20 or shit like that.