It was that hot at 8pm? Ouch.
Smart move to be patient. Unless you’re a pro athlete I figure it’s always best to heal up before pushing too hard.
james
It’s 71 and sunny here. There was some morning fog but that burned off around noon. I expect it to roll back in this evening though. Might hit the beach tonight with my son and dog if it doesn’t cool off too much.
Not to be a dick or anything…
james
Hey ddot, way to keep fighting through. Everyday brings new opportunities and everyday the sun comes up and you have a chance to begin a new day. Perseverance is the key and i believe life is a marathon not a sprint IMO. Hang in there.
No worries James. I’ve just been driving around looking for douchebags in jackets and toques/beanies to throw things at… LOL… not to be a dick or anything…
Thanks German. I figure one day my life will be as smooth as your lifts. 
Today was MP + Shoulder day.
Unfortunately it was also ‘Curl in a Cage’ day at the gym as well. I didn’t get THAT memo. (In all fairness there was some guy doing ATG squats in one of the three cages, but the other two were occupied at various times by 1/4 squatters, curlers, upright rowers and something that resembled a half shrug/half row combination).
Thus I went ape shit on other exercises.
A. Seated DB Press
6 x 6 x 60lbs --this was the perfect weight for this
B. Prone Rear Lateral Drop sets
4 x 20/10/10 with 20’s/10’s/5’s --5’s were top half of reps
**Please try this.
C. Inc. Bench DB Laterals
5 x 8 x 25lbs
**Used to do these ages ago and threw them back in. Nice change of pace if you’re sick of your normal standing laterals
D. SM Matty UR’s
**Worked up to 2 working sets of 12 @ 105
E. Cable Front Laterals (alt. arm)
2 x 12 x 20lbs/arm w/ 3 sec negative
Finished up with some weighted ab work (standing cable oblique crunches + machine crunches)
Drove home and sweated my arse off BBQ’ing (grilling) some ‘protein’ for the next 4 days.
That’s a wrap.
PS: Oh, looks like I’ll be playing ball for QC in a National Ball tournament next weekend. They’re short some players and the tournament is in town so I qualify in the 35+ division. Nice.
No worries James. I’ve just been driving around looking for douchebags in jackets and toques/beanies to throw things at… LOL… not to be a dick or anything…
Thanks German. I figure one day my life will be as smooth as your lifts.
Today was MP + Shoulder day.
Unfortunately it was also ‘Curl in a Cage’ day at the gym as well. I didn’t get THAT memo. (In all fairness there was some guy doing ATG squats in one of the three cages, but the other two were occupied at various times by 1/4 squatters, curlers, upright rowers and something that resembled a half shrug/half row combination).
Thus I went ape shit on other exercises.
A. Seated DB Press
6 x 6 x 60lbs --this was the perfect weight for this
B. Prone Rear Lateral Drop sets
4 x 20/10/10 with 20’s/10’s/5’s --5’s were top half of reps
**Please try this.
C. Inc. Bench DB Laterals
5 x 8 x 25lbs
**Used to do these ages ago and threw them back in. Nice change of pace if you’re sick of your normal standing laterals
D. SM Matty UR’s
**Worked up to 2 working sets of 12 @ 105
E. Cable Front Laterals (alt. arm)
2 x 12 x 20lbs/arm w/ 3 sec negative
Finished up with some weighted ab work (standing cable oblique crunches + machine crunches)
Drove home and sweated my arse off BBQ’ing (grilling) some ‘protein’ for the next 4 days.
That’s a wrap.
PS: Oh, looks like I’ll be playing ball for QC in a National Ball tournament next weekend. They’re short some players and the tournament is in town so I qualify in the 35+ division. Nice.
cool on the ball tourney!
hit 46 with humidex downtown mtl yesterday - I literally felt like I was baking walking down the street to my appointments.
[quote]ddot76 wrote:
[quote]giterdone wrote:
[quote]ddot76 wrote:
I am going to take a break from the Big 4 and hopefully attack them again in 6-8 weeks when my diet starts to move north.
[/quote]
Working the big 4 can be a struggle when dieting. It is tough mentally when the numbers don’t keep going up in the logbook.
But, if it was me, and it isn’t obviously, I wouldn’t drop them. They preserve muscle when dieting and you can keep your groove and work on form.
[/quote]
You’ve definitely given me food for thought. I just hate moving backwards in #'s (which is what I am doing). I’ve actually gotten stronger in other movements (Inc DB Press vs Bench for example) which is why the change in focus.
I’m really dialed into getting my physique super lean in the next 6-8 weeks thus a shifting of focus really.
[/quote]
I will raise the warning flag. When dieting, you should NOT get weaker. You may not get stronger, but you should NOT be getting weaker. Notice I say “weak”, and not “tired”. You may be so tired and gassed that you can’t move as many reps, but on raw strength you SHOULD NOT LOSE STRENGTH! If you are getting legitimately weaker it means you are losing muscle. I would consult with Shelby and ask for a course correction.
Bear in mind, that the body starts to down-regulate metabolism and go catabolic after about 10-14 days of carb restriction, which is why these diets always have refeeds in there to restart the clock. Even with refeeds, the body eventually down-regulates anyways after several months. It may be that your body needs to take a break from the diet!
Regardless, talk to Shelby about this. It shouldn’t be.
I take serious exception to the assertion that “diets make you weak”. They don’t. Or at least they shouldn’t. They may make you feel like s##t, and your performance may suck balls, but they do not make you weak. It’s a lie that needs to be corrected, because millions of lifters use it as an excuse to be fat.
Just picking up on the comments about strength and dieting as i have been thinking seriously about stripping some fat and yes being worried about getting weaker.
So basically it sounds like workload will suffer but not necasarily strength–oh and to expect to feel like crap !!
nl, yeah, the heat has been pretty crazy. We hit 48C with the humidex. And yeah, I’m playing for QC so I may need to bust out my french skills. Thank heavens my grandfather didn’t speak a lick of english (He was French Canadian) when he was around.
K, yeah, I totally agree with you. I would even go as far as to use me as an example of how that’s untrue. I’ve made some definite strength gains over the last 16 weeks while dieting. Here is what I reported this week; “Strength has plateaued or slightly fallen on the big 4 (BP,MP,SQ+DL) but I still “feel” relatively strong outside of those lifts.”
As well, I actually gained 1.8lbs last week and was visibly leaner so loss of muscle isn’t a great concern right now. It’s likely a mental issue for me right now not making the same progress and trying to grind through the big 4 but I’ll wager how I am next week when I toss those movements back in to start the sessions.
Nurse, I wouldn’t worry about the weaker part and I think the feeling like crap part only creeps in when the changes are drastic. That’s always been my assertion. This speaks to the final weeks before comp as well. Those changes are usually drastic.
I agree, it’s all mental.
Friday was Arm’s. I won’t bore you with the details but I’ve found the following have really been helping:
- Fry your brachio first.
- Warm your elbows up for pressing with pushdowns w/ little rest
- Use 2 “pressing” movements for Tri’s (JM’s, CGBP, Dips, etc)
- Squeeze contraction on biceps
I’ve found I can have quite a bit of variety in my sessions using just those principles and have made some significant gains in arm size.
Yesterday was an off day which included an early morning round of golf and an afternoon massage and an evening cheat meal. Not a bad day.
James inspired me to start sprinting so this AM’s cardio session was done at one of the local football fields. Have to look artifical turf for running.
Warm up was 400m run and then a bunch of sprinting techniques (A steps, B steps, Bounds and Knee Ups) for 20yrds.
Sprints were
2 x 20yrds
2 x 40yrds
2 x 60yrds
2 x 80yrds
2 x 100yrds
followed by 10 x 30yrds (or 10 stolen bases)
Finished with a 200m sprint @ approx. 26 secs
Total time for session was about 28mins. Had some nice cramps/stitches I haven’t had in years but definitely good to get out and balls to the walls sprint.
Leg day done. FML.
A. Started with the usual Curl + Calf superset (8 sets).
Had to wait a little while the high school kids played around on ALL 3 Leg Presses.
B. Leg Press w/ Monster Mini’s
8 reps @
3pps
4pps
5pps
6pps
twice w/ 7pps – f’n awesome!
stripped down to 3pps and changed foot position for 33 reps, then 2pps x 33 and finally 1 pps x 34
C. DB RDL’s
8 x 110’s
6 x 115’s
D. Skwats w/ bands
135 x 10 w/ Mini’s (Red)
135 x 10 w/ Mini’s + Monster Mini’s (Red/Black)
135 x 10 w/ Mini’s + Monst. Mini’s + Light (Red/Black/Thick Orange)
**tough to re-rack this
185 x 8 w/ Monster Mini’s **almost fell face first on first rep
Band squats were great for two reasons. One, let me work on form in the hole (where I usually fold over) and then really hit the quads on upper part of the motion (I would say similar to a high box squat).
E. Hack squats
2 x 15 x 1pps+25
Finished up with some Extensions and GG/BG’s. Groin was slightly “noisy” at the end.
All in all I felt great walking out of the gym today after a killer leg session.
x2 to on the re-racking with the bands, also with benching, I did 185 with the orange bands on my 5th rep didnt think I would be able to rerack’em even panicked a little inside.
awesome stuff going on in here bro. HOLY SHIT ON ALL those reps…
I gotta try the bands on the leg press…hmmmm.
In your opinion, what exercises would be good to target the outside of my quads?
[quote]MattyXL wrote:
In your opinion, what exercises would be good to target the outside of my quads?[/quote]
Bands on the leg press.
Meadows swears by them to create that nice leg sweep. If you really want to go ape shit, thow in sets of 20 close stance hack squats.
Band-a-poolaza! Great work.
How often are you going to sprint? I’m still trying to figure out my recovery on these things. I enjoy the hard work so it’s hard to not do them every day but I know that can’t be the right answer.
james
[quote]atypical1 wrote:
Band-a-poolaza! Great work.
How often are you going to sprint? I’m still trying to figure out my recovery on these things. I enjoy the hard work so it’s hard to not do them every day but I know that can’t be the right answer.
james[/quote]
I’m looking at Wednesday’s (Off day) and Sunday’s (Leg day). Anymore will be over-doing it I think.
Sprints are awesome. The last tiem I was doing sprint intervals I pulled my groin.
I am old. I suck.
And I wish I could train with you on arm day. I could learn a bunch, I think.
Monday, Fun-Day.
One of those dark spot days I’m bound to have but I got my sessions in.
Decent AM cardio and then hit up the gym after work for Chest/Shoulders/Tri’s. My training partner was/is MIA so I went solo on this one and skipped ME Bench in favour of some DE bench. (Still doing the movement).
A. Low Inc. DB press
2 x 6 x 75
3 x 5 x 80
1 x 6 x 75
**These felt a little heavy but all in all pretty decent.
B. BP w/ MicroMini’s (doubled up)
4 x 10 x 135
**fantastic movement to “pump” the chest
C. Machine Flyes ss/ Push Ups
3 x 12 x 115 w/ 3 sec neg + 15/11/8 PU’s
D. Shoulder Triad
3 x 8 x 20’s
1 x 7 x 20’s
E. 6 Ways
2 x 10 x 10’s
**I tried 15’s but fuggedaboud it after the Triad
F. V Bar Pressdowns
5 x AMAP w/ 30 sec rest
G. Pronated DB kickbacks (Thank you Mr.Meadows)
3 x 10 x 20’s
Finished up with some abs. It was a longer session then I thought it would be. Looking forward to taking pic’s Thursday AM. Noticable 4 pack now. Won’t be long now before 6 pack appears.
[quote]Canada_K wrote:
Sprints are awesome. The last tiem I was doing sprint intervals I pulled my groin.
[/quote]
Proper warm up will prevent this IMO. Knee Ups and Bounds are required as part of a proper sprinting warm up. I have/had the fortune of having an Olympic caliber sprinter/CFL Punt returner as an Uncle. He gave me some sprinting pointers in my teenage years that I still use.
I like to do carioca’s and build up and outward stride. This will loosen/warm up the groin as well.
I know if I don’t do the warm up then I’m tweaking my groin for sure. I’m not sure it’s an OLD thing, just a sprinting thing.