Dips
1x47
Band Pull Aparts
1x94
Notes: Hit this on my lunch break. Might’ve had 50, but kept wobbling the stands. It’ll come soon enough though. Really excited with how well this has been working out so far.
Howdy. Are those extra pull-aparts working like you wanted?
[quote]TX iron wrote:
Howdy. Are those extra pull-aparts working like you wanted?[/quote]
Thanks for stopping by! Just from the 2 days of work on it, it seems to be moving in a positive direction. My right front delt is no longer radiating pain in a resting state, and it seems to sort’ve “straighten me out” after the dips.
I’ve got a master plan of bringing a miniband to my office and hitting pull aparts through out the day when I try to put on some weight. I feel like you can never get enough rear delt work, and I’m really digging this “volume via frequency” approach. And I think I may be sexually attracted to my Ironmind dip rack, haha.
[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:
[quote]TX iron wrote:
Howdy. Are those extra pull-aparts working like you wanted?[/quote]
Thanks for stopping by! Just from the 2 days of work on it, it seems to be moving in a positive direction. My right front delt is no longer radiating pain in a resting state, and it seems to sort’ve “straighten me out” after the dips.
I’ve got a master plan of bringing a miniband to my office and hitting pull aparts through out the day when I try to put on some weight. I feel like you can never get enough rear delt work, and I’m really digging this “volume via frequency” approach. And I think I may be sexually attracted to my Ironmind dip rack, haha.
[/quote]
Haha that’s awesome to hear man, and good idea. I brought in an old bike innertube to the office a while back and hit pull-aparts throughout the day, it’s been great! It’s also much less of a spectacle when I’m doing that vs. goblet squats when someone walks by.
[quote]TX iron wrote:
Haha that’s awesome to hear man, and good idea. I brought in an old bike innertube to the office a while back and hit pull-aparts throughout the day, it’s been great! It’s also much less of a spectacle when I’m doing that vs. goblet squats when someone walks by.[/quote]
As long as you act like everything is normal and THEY’RE the weird ones for not doing goblet squats, you’ll be fine, haha. Thankfully, my group is pretty fitness oriented. There’s a set of perfect push-ups in a corner right now that folks will hit during downtime, and when I inherited my office I found the box to an Irongym left behind. Tons of ways to avoid the dreaded “office worker posture” I keep hearing so much about.
[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:
[quote]TX iron wrote:
Haha that’s awesome to hear man, and good idea. I brought in an old bike innertube to the office a while back and hit pull-aparts throughout the day, it’s been great! It’s also much less of a spectacle when I’m doing that vs. goblet squats when someone walks by.[/quote]
As long as you act like everything is normal and THEY’RE the weird ones for not doing goblet squats, you’ll be fine, haha. Thankfully, my group is pretty fitness oriented. There’s a set of perfect push-ups in a corner right now that folks will hit during downtime, and when I inherited my office I found the box to an Irongym left behind. Tons of ways to avoid the dreaded “office worker posture” I keep hearing so much about.
[/quote]
Oh wow that’s awesome man. Actually a few of them stop by my office from time to time to use my dumbbells, usually for curls but that’s fine by me, and some folks are into yoga and running and that sort of thing. I like that approach, haha. Though one time my boss came 'round the corner as I was midway through a Turkish get-up…that was a tad awkward.
Hah, at least you weren’t getting up from a nap I suppose.
Wanted to get a couple of things down before my next training session.
1: Been reading through old T-Nation articles. Re-read Dave Tate’s 8 keys and got a great idea for changing up my reverse hyper work for the future: timed sets. Dave talked about doing this for 3-5 minutes, and I think it’ll be a great way to increase my longevity with the movement while still making it effective. I’ll have to throw this in at the end of a session, as I imagine the lower back pump will be vicious.
2: The strongman competition that my work was throwing on the 12th turned out to be a powerlifting meet. I don’t think I’ll attend. I don’t mind doing 2 strongman competitions within a few days of each other, but maxing tends to drain me pretty fierce and set my training back a touch, and I wouldn’t really want to attend and NOT give it a max effort. If I get pressured into it, I’ll most likely put up a few token attempts.
3-5 minutes…great. Now i’m going to have to try that. What kind of weight are you going to throw on it?
[quote]Alpha wrote:
3-5 minutes…great. Now i’m going to have to try that. What kind of weight are you going to throw on it?[/quote]
Haha, it sounds positively brutal. I’ll probably start with a plate and a quarter for 3 minutes. The reverse hyper just feels bad with just a plate on it for some reason. If I can survive that, I’ll most likely focus on increasing time versus weight until I can reach 5 minutes.
Dips
1x51
Notes: Pretty pleased with how quickly I hit this goal. Also happy to see that the depth on the dips isn’t too shallow. I’m not fully locking out at the top, I didn’t expect that I was, as it would be a silly thing to do.
Band pull aparts
1x102
Yoke 410lbs
4x75’
Notes: Pulled my left lat on the very first yoke run, and forgot to wear my knee sleeves on the last one. Still a good yoke day, very fast foot speed, and the muscle pull seems minor. I might have to skip deadlifts tomorrow, which will crush my ego, but I have zero concern about being healed by contest time.
Deadlifts 585+chains
1x7
Notes: REALLY wanted to get 8 this week, but with the pulled lat and a contest next week, I knew it wasn’t a smart move to fight for it. Just going to try to match reps on this one next cycle. Still, pretty huge, especially considering I’m still dropping bodyweight.
Squats 365
1x15
Notes: Buffalo bar still feels amazing. Makes me want to squat more often. That said, I could feel my left hamstring getting a little fast and loose around rep 15, so I shut it down. Too close to get injured at this point. Will get stupid and push it post contest.
General notes: Woke up at 195.4. Good week. From this point out, going to hit my normal bench workout on Monday, and then a pump workout on Wed and call it. Gotta be on top of nutrition to make sure I don’t overeat with the lack of activity.
EDIT: I completely forgot the most important thing: my cheat meal this week. Went to Taco Bell, my weakness, and got 2 grilled stuffed nachos (beef), a buffalo chicken loaded griller, and 1 Captain Crunch delight. I still have zero tolerance for sweets, as before that Captain Crunch thing I was ready for a whole nother round of Taco Bell, but after that I had zero appetite. Bought some off brand Fruit Loops and Pop Tarts for the contest, I’m ready to go.
[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:
[quote]HeavyTriple wrote:
Hey man…figured since I only get to my log once or twice a week I’d answer in here.
I actually was able to increase my bench from 420 to 450 during my long cut. That said, pretty much all of that was in the first few months and the deficit wasn’t very big. My guess would be that this occurred because it was already moving up after years of stagnation, and I attribute that to having healthy shoulders for the first time in a decade and being able to train it consistently and with frequency. During that time, I increased my frequency to 3x weekly and doubled my weekly volume. Keep in mind that my volume has always been low, so I think I was really sensitive to the volume jump.
Now, I did a mini cut after my last meet of 4 weeks and a huge deficit (700 cals or so), and I definitely didn’t increase my bench during that time much, but I did maintain it. So my long-winded response would be: increase your rep strength as long as you can when cutting. When that stalls, add volume however you can. For me it was adding heavier sets of 4 after I had finished 8s. And don’t do a high effort single during this time. Do a 9 RPE single if you want to stay accustomed to heavy weight, but if you try to handle near maxes it’s going to drain you to the point of detriment.
Following that philosophy, I came in and benched 440 with a narrow grip and no wrist wraps after my offseason block and while still in the cut, which was a PR of sorts.
You have to counteract the body’s desire to dump muscle with a training stimulus that forces it to retain and possibly build, and the only way that works for me is to increase tonnage lifted every week in the cut. Now, be careful. It’s really easy to burn out if the cut is too long or the deficit too big.[/quote]
Thanks a ton dude! This is a ton of great stuff and I really appreciate your perspective. I’ve been incredibly impressed with your progress in strength paired with physique. Means a lot, and I’ll see what I can do to factor this in.
I just hit the holy grail score on craigslist. For $1000 I picked up
Ironmind Buffalo Bar
Ironmind Squat/dip/chin rack
Ironmind bench
Ironmind belt squat
Ironmind neck harness
Rogue Axle
Roge Farmer’s Walks
2 barbells (non-name brand)
An EZ curl bar
A bunch of Rogue locking collars/spring collars/screw collars
4 45lb plates
4 35lb plates
4 25lb plates
4 10lb plates
2 5lb plates
2 2.5lb plates
There may actually be more. Part of me wanted to know the story behind this sale (bad divorce, drug habit, needed quick funds for his guerrilla army) but I was not going to look this gift horse in the mouth.
[/quote]
i dream of finding this on craigslist
Dreams do come true, haha. Hope you find something similar one day.
Starting to reach a level of leanness where carb manipulation effects can be witnessed. After yesterday’s Taco Bell binge I woke up with my muscles appearing much fuller while having greater vascularity. Some sort of reward at least.
Bench 320
5x3
superset w/
Band pull aparts
5x20
Notes: Lat is still a little buggy, and with the contest this Saturday I skipped out on lat work. Happy with the bench, this is unmodified from the start of my plan. No reps were paused, but weight was controlled. Just going to play it by ear at this point, and if it feels like a good day I’ll stick with the prescribed percentages. If it feels like a bad day, I’ll lighten things up a bit.
Shoulder circuit
3 rounds
General notes: Hit 20 pull aparts in between everything today, just to get in some more work. Another day at 195.4, but weight isn’t a concern at this point. I’m definitely going to be good to make weight for the contest, and I plan to binge the day of on simple carbs and Mexican food after the fact. Don’t even think I’m going to weigh myself for a week afterwards. Next workout will be Wed, and it’ll be the final workout before the contest. Plan to hit the press events just to keep the skill up, and then some squats and GHRs to keep the mobility going.
Down to 194.6 this morning.
Starting to “feel small”. Have to fight the temptation to go crazy and eat something stupid.
Left lat/oblique is still in a little pain. May need to get aggressive with the rehab prior to contest.
Already going stir crazy with this deload. At least it’s a sign I’m excited about training again, but it also means I’ll just keep flooding my training log with rambling.
Feeling confident about this contest. I will win the car deadlift, I’m saying that now. I am tired of having to share first on that event.
[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:
Down to 194.6 this morning.
Starting to “feel small”. Have to fight the temptation to go crazy and eat something stupid.
Left lat/oblique is still in a little pain. May need to get aggressive with the rehab prior to contest.
Already going stir crazy with this deload. At least it’s a sign I’m excited about training again, but it also means I’ll just keep flooding my training log with rambling.
Feeling confident about this contest. I will win the car deadlift, I’m saying that now. I am tired of having to share first on that event.[/quote]
You’re definitely going to be very hard to kill at this show.
[quote]strongmanvinny wrote:
[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:
Down to 194.6 this morning.
Starting to “feel small”. Have to fight the temptation to go crazy and eat something stupid.
Left lat/oblique is still in a little pain. May need to get aggressive with the rehab prior to contest.
Already going stir crazy with this deload. At least it’s a sign I’m excited about training again, but it also means I’ll just keep flooding my training log with rambling.
Feeling confident about this contest. I will win the car deadlift, I’m saying that now. I am tired of having to share first on that event.[/quote]
You’re definitely going to be very hard to kill at this show.
[/quote]
What I lack in talent, coordination, speed and good looks, I try to make up for with that, haha. Thanks man, that comment means a lot.
Told you all I’d go stir crazy, haha. Some training ideas.
-For rows on my bench day, along with my DB row idea, consider doing t-bar rows (old school, with a barbell, landmine and v-handle.)
–Progression would be: start with 1 plate and go for a set of 10 or so. In between each warm-up set of bench, keep adding a plate and cutting reps down. End at whatever I end at, and then at the end of the day, do a t-bar row strip set where I keep taking off a plate once I reach failure. Be a good way to get in some more volume and variety.
-Do the piston pushdowns sometime as mentioned here
-Steal the “band through belt” idea mentioned here
100lb Keg clean and press (one motion) to 112.5lb Circus DB (AMRAP)
3 rounds
Notes: Just wanted to practice some skill work. Really trying to cut down time on the keg so that I can have as much time as possible to pump out reps on the DB. On the final circuit, I was really moving the keg quick, secret was to still try to roll it up my torso on the way up and lean back at the top, so it’s more like throwing it on the air instead of pressing it. Didn’t go balls to the wall on the CDB, just enough to keep the motor pattern strong. Pinched a nerve in my neck on the final round so I called it. Nothing serious at all, it’s the same recurring issue, and at this moment it’s mostly painfree.
Not training the log at this point. It’s only a 180lb log, and since it’s a Rogue 10", it’s just going to be a weird log to press. Just going to muscle it up and roll with it.
Squats 232
2x10
Superset w/
D-ring lat pulldown 90
2x10
Notes: Just some light work to keep blood flowing before the contest.
Axle curl drop set
100 reps
Light band piston pushdowns
20+15
Notes: 20 on the knees, 10 standing. I liked these, but they’re different from normal band pushdowns. Instead of feeling a pump, I felt a real strong burn in my triceps while I was hammering them out, and then, a few minutes later, they were really blown up. This might be something I alternate w/ normal pressdowns for variety.
D-ring lat pulldown
2x10
superset w/
D-ring Kelso Shrugs on the lat pulldown
2x10
Notes: Oh wow, this was awesome. My lat pulldown is just the right height to really make the Kelso shrugs viable. I might start making it a permanent thing to chase pulldowns with Kelsos. I’ve always wanted to include this movement in my training.
Neck harness 45lbs
1x25
Notes: Just moved slowly to help with the pinched nerve.
General notes: For a light workout, I sure wrote a lot. Mind is all over the place. I’m just going nuts wanting to do more and grow. Very excited about the contest and competing at home as well. Woke up at 194.6 again, looking lean still. Gear bag is packed. Left lat still has pain in it, but it takes very specific movements to trigger it. The only place I could see it being in pain is on the yoke walk, and even then, it’s not enough pain to stop or slow me down, just an annoyance.
Down to 194.0 this morning.
Finally figured out what is bothering my lat/oblique: twisting. This makes sense, as I never do any sort of direct oblique work, as whenever I would do any sort of twisting training I would re-injure my back on heavy deads/squats in the same week. However, I think I’ve got a good enough handle on my training now that I may need to start throwing in some oblique work. After the contest, I’ll try to work it in.
What kind of oblique work are you planning on doing? I’m like you and never really hit consistent oblique work but never sure of a decent exercise. I’m familiar with Russian Twist, Side Planks and Side Bends but of course there is always some article saying don’t do these moves because either A) bad for your back or B) no direct oblique work is needed.
The Twists and Planks I have never gotten anything out of them and Side Bends most people give it a bad name. Curious on what your plan for oblique training will be. Good luck on your contest. Looking forward to reading about your results!