TCam's Log - The Road to Elite

Training Training Logs
421

Iron: Thanks for stopping by, man. I don’t think the program is to blame so much as my inability to taper off into a meet correctly. I dropped my accessory work (especially rowing) too soon and I think it screwed me up. But I’m trying to be as confident as possible going into the meet regardless. I won’t be drastically changing my programming for my next meet, but I’ll definitely be changing it up for a couple months right after this meet. I realized I had been doing this programming for 9 months straight and the last month being really difficult mentally. I just need a short break to actually enjoy being in the gym again. It’ll be super high variation along with conditioning, hypertrophy work, and that general “jailhouse strong” type thing.

Glad the 2x per week is working for you. Maybe if you stall on that you can try adding a third exercise for one of the lifts and see how that treats you. Good luck at your meet!

PEAK WEEK 2 - Bench

Bench (All paused):
2x315
2x335
3x2x355 @ 8.5 (Easy, still lots of pain, getting more control back though)
1x365
1x385 (Pretty happy about getting this weight. It wasn’t that difficult, but I let the weight shift to the left prior to descending and it made it harder than it should have been)

Hammer Curls (Between bench sets):
4x15x20s

DB Bent Row (Straps):
10x90s
4x10x100s

Band Triceps Pushdown:
3x20 @ Light band

Alt. Hammer Curls:
3x10/10x40s

Cable Facepulls:
3x15x100

Edit:
Barbell Curl:
30x45

This roller coaster of workouts is killing me mentally. goodbadgoodbadgood. That being said, this one I am satisfied with. I was able to knock out several good reps around 90% and I am gaining some control. The elbows are still hurting a lot but I’m pushing through it, since I can’t imagine it’s a real injury at this point. This was supposed to be the lighter bench day for the peak, but I’m not really following the plan and I feel like getting weight in my hands matters more now.

It felt very good to do some rows and other accessories. Wishing I had kept them in longer at this point. Live and learn.

422

Friday - PEAK WEEK 2 - Deadlift

Deadlift (Single Prong):
2x455
2x495
2x530
3x565 @ 9.5 (10 lb. PR!)
3x575 @ 10 (20 lb. PR!)
2x3x520

Squat (Single Prong):
2x315
2x365
1x405
1x455
1x475

Some abs in between sets.

Another big deadlift day! Super happy about how this went obviously. The e1RM for the 565 and 575 sets come out to 630 and 627 respectively, so hopefully it all comes together on meet day so that I can get a huge PR. My hand did open on the last rep of 575 at the very top and I had to drop it without holding on for enough time, but we’ll be using a Texas deadlift bar at the meet apparently, so I imagine it would be close to impossible to let go of that one. Knock on wood.

Squatting was supposed to be a 3x3 at like 325, but I wanted to get some weight on my back to feel it. 455 and 475 both felt really heavy just like on Monday. Confidence is not doing to well on squats at the moment. But peaking and training is now over other than openers on Monday, so I just have to assume it’s fatigue that will go away with a deload.

423

PEAK WEEK 2 - Bench - Last Training Day

Bench:
2x315
2x345
2x365
2x385 @ 9.5 (Match PR! Surprise)
1x390 @ 10 (Missed 2nd rep. Misgrooved on the first and took too much out of me. Not too disappointed)
2x3x315

Hammer curls between sets w/ 20s.

Superset the rest

Cable Low Row:
20, 15, 12 @ 150

Cable Facepull:
20, 15, 12 @ 100

Band Triceps Pushdown:
20, 15, 12 @ Light band

DB Hammer Curl:
20, 15, 12 @ 35s

Wish my elbows never started hurting, because I have a feeling my bench was ready to skyrocket. They still hurt today, but I was able to control the weight a lot better than I have in the past 3 or 4 weeks. Grooved the 385 set really well and probably should have just repeated the set, but I really wanted to get a PR. I think I had the strength for the 390, but it shows how important hitting the right groove is. e1RM for the 385 set is still 415, which would be awesome.

That’s it. Training is done. Time to do openers on Monday, cut my 8 lbs. of water weight, and then it’s go time.

424

Good luck on the meet dude!

425

Thanks, Farmer!

Monday - Openers for Squat/Bench

Squat:
1x405
1x455
1x495 (Harder than it should have been, but easier than the 475 from Friday)

Bench:
1x315
1x345
1x365
1x380 (Misgrooved it forward and it was still easy)

Decided not to do the deadlift opener at 565-575 after I did a few warm up sets up to 315. I could feel that my back wasn’t going to feel good and I’d rather go into the meet with my last pulls being awesome (Friday’s). It was a pretty easy call to make.

Squat is the biggest question mark for this meet. My form just seems all over the place and so does my upper back strength in staying tight. Hopefully I can pull it all together on the platform.

426

Wednesday - Groovin’

Squat:
3x3x275

Bench:
3x3x225

Deadlift:
3x3x315

Just attempting some groove work. The squats felt like shit relative to the weight, bench/deadlift felt great. I’ll be very happy to be done with my 3 squat attempts on Saturday honestly. I can feel that I need to heal up pretty substantially.

It’s Thursday now and I woke up around 222 lbs, so I ate a small breakfast and lunch and I’m sipping on water. Shouldn’t be hard to make weight. I really need to gain some quality weight after this meet. It takes minimal effort on my part to get down from 228, so I think 235 would be good to shoot for.

Regardless, 2 days out. See y’all after the meet.

427

2015 USPA Lifting for a Miracle

Well, I made it through the meet. If you’ve been following my log, you know how much I have disliked training over the past month or so. I went into the meet thinking that squats would not go well, bench was a toss-up, and deadlift being a sure thing. Here’s how it went:

Weigh-Ins
I made an easy cut from 228 to 220 by water loading mostly. Some food manipulation at the end and a little magnesium citrate. I woke up on weigh-in day at 218.8-219.4 (two scales used). My girlfriend was further from her weight, so we drove the 45 minutes to Tuscaloosa with the heat on. I didn’t think I needed it, so I was in a t-shirt and shorts, but still sweated a bit. I got on the kilo scale and it read 100 kg. I was lucky to have not decided to take a few sips of water, because everyone I talked to said it was weighing at least a kilo heavy. I started the refeed while my girlfriend kept trying to drop an extra 1.3 lbs.

Refeed
I can’t remember everything I had, but it went something like this:
Half and half 1 gallon of Gatorade/Water, plus restaurant tea and water later
A couples servings of Pringles
A few servings of white fudge Flipz
Five Guy’s cheeseburger and regular fries
Panda express: One serving orange chicken, two servings kung pao chicken, and a bunch of rice and soy sauce
Mugshot’s burger and fries
From what I can log, it came out to at least 5,828 calories, 227g protein, 264g fat, 655g carbs.
I weighed 231 when I went to sleep and woke up on meet day at 228.

MEET DAY
I woke up around 6:15 AM and had some coffee to help move along the refeed foods. I hadn’t had any caffeine for over a week, but I had about 700mg in 6 hours today between the coffee, C&P Cannibal Ferox, and C&P Aggro. I didn’t eat much during the meet since it went by pretty fast (9am to 2pm).

This was a much smaller venue than my previous meets, which made warm-ups and everything much more intimate/difficult.

Squat
I warmed up to 455 and didn’t feel bad or great, but just okay. Of course it was just the gym’s plates back there, so it wasn’t going to be laser measured Eleikos.

Attempt 1: 225 kg / 496 lbs - Good Lift - Absolutely crushed this. Probably could have gotten it for about 4.

Attempt 2: 242.5 kg / 534.6 lbs - Good Lift - 5.5 lb. PR! A bit of a grind, but not awful. I had been planning this large jump for awhile to get the PR. Decided to go conservative for the third.

Attempt 3: 245 kg / 540.1 lbs - Good Lift - 11 lb. PR! Lost my upper back at the bottom, but was able to stay over my center of gravity and I ground the weight out. I think this weight was the right choice. Very big milestone to over come the 520s finally.

Bench
I warmed up to 355 and it felt fast and easy. Coming into the meet, I was having elbow/shoulder pain, but not today. I was nervous though, because there were some super long pauses happening. I was wondering if my opener would be too much.

Attempt 1: 172.5 kg / 380.3 lbs - Good Lift - Shouldn’t have worried, this was a joke.

Attempt 2: 185 kg / 407.9 lbs - Good Lift - 5.5 lb. PR! This was the fastest I’ve ever moved anything over 400. Very happy with it and surprised myself considering the previous weeks of training.

Attempt 3: 190 kg/ 418.9 lbs - No Lift - This attempt kills me. I had it and I couldn’t break through lock out. I didn’t know it then, but 411 is an elite bench in the 220s, so I should have gone for 413.4.

Deadlift
The surprises kept coming with this lift, but not in a good way. This was the lift I was most excited about, because I knew I’d kill it. I warmed up to 545 and it wasn’t the fastest, but the bar wasn’t great for pulling anyway.

Attempt 1: 262.5 kg / 578.7 lbs - Good Lift - Went up pretty easy, but I felt my left hand about to give out. Went conservative for the second.

Attempt 2: 272.5 kg / 600.8 lbs - No Lift - Deja Vu is happening. Exactly what happened in October, I crushed the lift and my hand opened up after I locked it out. This was the low point of the meet for me.

Attempt 3: 272.5 kg / 600.8 lbs - Good Lift/Gift - 11 lb. meet PR (615 is gym PR). Pretty much the same thing happened on this one, it was like speed work and then my hand started opening, but the down command must have been immediate, because I got three white lights. I think it was a gift, although I did keep some control of the bar. Watch the video to judge for yourself, but this one won’t sit right with me until I demolish it in the next meet.

Total: 702.5 kg / 1,549 lbs / 428 Wilks

I wanted to get between 1,580 and 1,605 depending on attempt selection, so I don’t consider this much of a success. Still, I ended up with a 28 lb. meet PR and came away with a lot of lessons. Squat weakness is upper back, bench weakness is lockout, and deadlift weakness is grip. Those are some pretty simple training fixes as long as I’m focused.

I’m moving on to GPP with a focus on those weaknesses, plus conditioning and hypertrophy. I need a bit of an off season and it starts now. I want the 2.5 / 2 / 3 BW markers at 220, which is 550 / 440 / 660 and 1,650 total, which is elite. Let’s go.

428

Transition - Still Deloading

Beltless High Bar Squat - Last rep paused:
5x5x315 - Short rest periods (About 1 minute)

Leg Press:
10 @ 2.5 pps
15 @ 3.5 pps
15 @ 4.5 pps
15 @ 5.5 pps

One-Arm DB Row - Strict:
3x10/10 @ 100

GHR:
3x10 @ BW

Very easy first day back, which is how I will always do it. I treat this as a feeler week to see if I’m injured or anything like that. My left hamstring was tight after the GHR, so I need to do some work on that. Everything else felt decent.

Definitely need to get stronger at high bar. It was hitting my upper back similar to front squats, just to a lesser degree. Since I’ve never really trained it, it may be something that can help my competition squat.

I’m still putting together my thoughts on how I want my next training block to go. It’ll be a powerbuilding style set up, likely 5 days per week with a lot of volume.

Edit: Also, we’re currently looking for a new gym potentially. The one we go to is incredibly small and when there are more than 2 “athletes” being trained it’s impossible to do anything. The equipment is good and hard to find in other gyms (chains, GHR, etc), but it’s coming to a point where a change in scenery is needed. Last night, the two Texas power bars were being used and I went to grab an Oly bar for squats. Gym owner told me I couldn’t use the bar because it’s only for Oly lifts, I told him that we were just doing light work, but he still said no and that squatting with it “ruins the knurling on a $900 bar”. 1) No it fucking doesn’t 2) If it’s $900, nothing should ruin it, especially a shirt 3) Oly lifting training includes squatting like 6 days a week using those bars.

429

Congrats on the successful meet, posting some huge numbers! At this rate you’ll be hitting elite by the end of the year. I’ll be anxious to see what your training looks like going forward!

430

Iron: Thanks, dude! I sure hope I can get there by the October meet or this time next year at the latest. It’ll take a lot of work in the gym and discipline outside of the gym, but I’m ready for it.

Transition - Upper

Note: Made the move to Gold’s tonight. Signed up for the year and got the lifting in. Pretty sure these plates are lighter than the other gym’s, but I’ll be working with RPE, not percentages, so it shouldn’t matter.

Bench - Comp Pause:
5x275
3x5x315
10x275 - Last 5 TnG

HS Iso-Row:
3x10 @ 270

Standing T-Bar Row - Pronated Grip Attachment:
10x95
3x10x140

JM Press:
4x10x135

Another simple easy session done. It’ll be interesting getting acclimated to the new gym. Lots of bros doing weird shit in there. Saw a dude using like seven 10s per side on bench for some reason. No matter how far out the plates stretch, that shit’s still 185, bruh.

Bench felt pretty good for me. 315 sets stuck around RPE 7-8.

The HammerStrength Iso-Row has always been one of my favorites and, now that I have access to one, I’ll be using the shit out of it going forward.

431

Congratz on the meet pr’s dude!

432

Thanks, FarmerOwen!

Friday - Transition - Lower

Paused Deadlift - Beltless/Straps:
3x405
3x3x455 @ RPE 7.5

RDL - Beltless/Straps:
3x8x315

Squat - Beltless:
4x5x315

A1 | Leg Extension:
20 @ “130”
2x15 @ “115”

A2 | Lying Leg Curl:
20 @ “95”
2x15 @ “80”

Hanging Leg Raise:
3x10

Pretty good workout here. The deadlifts did a number on my lower back, but I’m not surprised since I hadn’t done beltless work in several weeks. The 3x3 was probably technically a PR since I haven’t done one at 455, but I did a 5x2x495 sometime before the meet. It’s cool to be pausing that kind of weight, hopefully I’ll be doing 5’s at 495 soon.

Squats were pretty much a bust today. My core was really fatigued at this point, so I just stuck with 315 and moved on. It’ll take some time to get readjusted to beltless work.

Saturday - Transition - Upper

Incline Bench - Wraps:
8x225
5x5x245 (I’m awful at this)

SlingShot Bench:
3x5x365

Cable Triceps Pushdown:
3x15 @ “50”

Band Overhead Triceps Extension - Single Arm:
3x10/10 @ Mini

A1 | Reverse Fly - Pec Deck:
3x15 @ “100”

A2 | Fly - Pec Deck:
3x15 @ “100”

Cardio - Rowing:
3x30s/30s on/off
3x45s/15s on/off
1x400m - Cool down

Well I’m glad I can do incline bench at this gym, because I’m pretty terrible at them. I think I’ll get better pretty quickly since a large part of the issue is hitting the groove right. I tend to almost lose it forward because I don’t drive back enough and it slows the rep considerably.

SlingShot bench felt pretty heavy today. Had to grind out the last rep each time. Could be from being fatigued from incline, I guess. Will be increasing the amount of volume on this to work on lock out.

So glad there’s a pec deck in this gym. I’ve missed it for years. I’ll be including both flies and reverse flies a lot.

Rowing killed my hip flexors. Hopefully I get used to that soon, because that’s pretty much the only cardio I like.

433

Transition - Upper Accessory

Military Press:
3x12x135

HS High-Row (3xAMRAP @ RPE 8):
17x270
15x270
13x270

Unilateral Cable Low Row:
2x12x100
2x12x80

Preacher EZ Bar Curl:
10x75
7x75 (Fuck I’m awful at this, stood up for the rest)

Standing EZ Bar Curl:
7x75 (Right after previous set)
13x75

DB Hammer Curl:
3x12x35s

Cardio - Incline Walking:
12:30 @ 3-3.5 mph @ 3.5 Incline

Fifth workout of the week for the first time in years. 11 hours later I’m already very sore, but I’ll adapt soon enough. I’m doing this in order to get more volume on my back work, since I feel like it’s a weak point for me. I’m sure I’ll eventually drop the day again once I’m lowering volume for peaking for testing/competition. But I’m on a hypertrophy phase, volume is the key.

I don’t really have much to say about this workout otherwise. We’ve decided our lifting days will be Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I’ll outline the general plan on Tuesday.

434

Tuesday - Back on the Grind - Volume - Week 1 - Day 1

Beltless Squat w/ Flat Shoes:
5x315
5x365
4x5x405 @ 7,7,8,8 - Don’t let the RPE fool you, this felt like shit.

Beltless Paused Squat w/ Flat Shoes:
3x8x315

Beltless Sumo Deadlift:
3x5x405 - Hips not allowing good position on these.

Step-Up w/ Kettlebell in Goblet Position:
3x10/10 @ BW+44

This completely killed me. I’m not conditioned at all for volume obviously and the gym was hot as hell. I had to walk outside at one point to get some cooler air because I felt like throwing up. It’s pretty sad. I’ll get back into shape for this type of lifting within a couple weeks and I’ll be fine, but I just have to push through for now.

The flat shoe’d squats didn’t go as badly as I thought they would. My ankle mobility isn’t great, but that’s what I’m doing this for, to get it back. I had a hard time staying upright on the latter reps with 405 due to the position I was put in, but that’s to be expected the first time squatting in flat shoes in about a year.

Paused squats felt pretty good actually, I was just exhausted by then.

Sumo felt very awful, I couldn’t find my position, so I just kept it short and moved on.

Here’s my general setup for this hypertrophy phase:
Tuesday - Squat, squat, deadlift, quads/abs
Wednesday - Bench, bench, vertical row heavy, horizontal row light, pecs/rear delts
Friday - Deadlift, squat, horizontal row heavy, vertical row light, hamstrings/abs
Saturday - Bench, bench, deadlift, triceps/rear delts
Sunday - Overhead or bench, horizonal row heavy, shrugs, biceps heavy, biceps light

Mix in conditioning on 2-3 days per week. As you’ll notice, there’s a ton of rowing/back work. That’s my main weakness in my opinion so I’m going to destroy that area for a while and see where it takes me. Tuesday-Saturday the first exercise is still the competition movement (beltless for a while, sometimes flat shoes like today) and Sunday is basically my back and biceps day. The “bench” in “overhead or bench” could be something like Spoto press. It will depend on if my pecs are up for it that day.

435

The Volume Grind - Week 1 - Day 2

Bench - Paused (Last set TnG):
6x275
4x6x315 @ 6.5/7/7.5/8 - This may be a PR, especially with the RPE.

Spoto Press:
2x10x225
13x225 - Slight AMRAP at RPE 8. Kept this light because my pecs were a little tight.

Lat Pulldown - Wide Neutral Grip:
2x8x220
8x240
8x240+8x140 - Drop Set

Cable Low Row - Narrow Neutral Grip:
3x15x160

A1 | Pec Deck:
12x100
12x110
12x120

A3 | Rear Delt Fly - Pec Deck:
12x100
2x12x90

I’m pretty happy with how benching felt today despite my right shoulder feeling pretty tight along with my pecs. Hell, the first set at 315 put my e1RM at 420, so that’s pretty great coming off the meet. Unfortunately I won’t be able to realize that weight for a while, since I’ll be hitting up mostly volume oriented work for at least 8 weeks, I’d say. I need to add some size. I’ll be pushing the numbers up as I see fit, but it’s not the main goal.

The only reason I did touch-n-go on the last set was because I was thinking about doing an AMRAP set, but decided against it because of my shoulder and not feeling super explosive.

Spoto press was easy as expected, I just wanted to play on the safe side. As you’ll notice, I’ve already changed the plan from what I wrote on the previous day. I wrote incline for today, but I think I’ll switch that to Saturday with “overhead/incline” and alternate those two instead.

Back work was pretty tough. The pulldowns didn’t feel great on my shoulder unfortunately and neither did the rear delt work. Hopefully it’s not too much of an issue.

436

Friday - The Volume Grind - Week 1 - Day 3

Beltless Deadlift - Okie Deadlift Bar (Very whippy):
6x405
4x6x455 - Straps

Beltless High Bar Squat:
5x5x315 - Last rep paused

HS Iso-Row:
8x270
3x8x360
8x360+8x270 - Drop Set

Reverse Grip Lat Pulldown:
3x15x160

Seated Hamstring Curl:
20x100
20x90

Cable Ab Pulldown:
3x15x80

Cardio - Rowing:
3x500m/1:00 rest

Today I learned that I’m better at pulling on a stiffer bar than a whippy bar. I’ve pulled on whippy bars before, but not usually for volume. I’m explosive off the floor, so I basically yanked the slack out and then my hips shot up before the weight actually came off the floor. Lots of mid back rounding happened.

Squats were alright I guess. They aren’t feeling that strong at the moment, but I’ll get back into it soon enough.

Saturday - Week 1 - Day 4

Bench - Comp. Pause:
4x315
4x335
3x4x345
4x335

SlingShot Bench:
4x365
3x4x385

Beltless Paused Deadlift:
8x3x365

Band Triceps Pushdown:
3x20 @ Avg.

Band Ab Pulldown:
4x15 @ Avg.

My back was really sore from deadlifts coming into this, since it was only 14 hours later, so I wasn’t sure how benching with my arch would go. I was surprised that I didn’t cramp up or anything. I think it may have been close to a PR for volume at 345 and same goes for SlingShot work.

I wasn’t happy that I had to do deadlifts again, but they didn’t feel that bad. I got a decent amount of volume in. It wan’t very heavy, but I need to leave some room to progress next week.

437

Sunday - The Volume Grind - Week 1 - Day 5

Seated Military Press:
8x155
8x185 @ 9
7x185 @ 9
7x185 @ 9
5x185 @ 9 + 6x135 - Drop Set

One Arm DB Row - Straps:
8/8x100
8/8x130
4x8/8x150

DB Shrugs:
3x15x100s - No straps, this was mostly grip work.

DB Hammer Curls:
3x12x50s

Barbell Curls:
3x20x45

Planks - Partner Resisted (Explained below):
3x0:45

Cardio - Airdyne:
5 x 0:15 sprint / 0:30 slow - Planned on 8 rounds, but my quads were way too pumped.

I didn’t realize it until right now, but the 185x8 was a match PR in reps, without regard to RPE. I’m very happy with that because my left shoulder was feeling a little weird/unstable during all the MP sets. My performance obviously dropped sharply at the end there, but I got some decent work in.

This was the first time I’ve really done one arm rows in a long time. I’ll definitely be doing them more often, even if just for grip training. At Gold’s, all the DBs above 100 have a pretty fat grip, maybe 35mm or something. So I had to use straps or I just wouldn’t be able to row it. Those will be great for farmer’s walks though.

Shrugs were pretty light because I wanted to train my grip. I could barely hold on by the last set. Add two curl variations and I could barely reach up to take my headphones off.

Planks explanation: Get in plank position, partner straddled over hips, partner uses hands to push hips laterally in random order, and you resist the movement. This was very difficult for me and I really had to brace my abs to counter the movement. Felt it much deeper than I do with regular and weighted planks.

438

The Volume Grind - Week 2 - Day 1

Squat - Beltless:
5x365
4x5x425 - This felt pretty awful. Each set looked the same though, no drop in performance.
3x425 - Had 5 in me, but my hip was doing something weird, so I cut it short.

Front Squat - Beltless:
4x8x225

Deadlift w/ Chains - Beltless:
5x5x365+75

Leg Extension:
3x20x80

Band Pallof Press:
3x12/12 @ Light Band

This workout absolutely destroyed me. I don’t know why everything is feeling so heavy on squats right now. Could be fatigue from all the back work or just issues re-acclimating to beltless squats. But anyway, my most recent big workout with 425 was about 6 weeks out from the meet and I got 525 for a single then moved to 3x6x425 and an AMRAP of 10x425. That was belted and with SBDs, not that the latter does much. I guess I’m not horribly far off that for just getting back into the swing of things, it’s just frustrating when the weight feels heavy.

Also, the racks at Gold’s aren’t the best for my height, which is ridiculous that 6’0" isn’t catered to, being pretty common. 2 of them have a peg that is too short and I run into the one above it, which is too high, while unracking. The third rack is perfect height, but I found out tonight that I can hit the unmovable safety pins when I drop too low.

On a positive note, I bought some chains that I’m leaving locked up at Gold’s. I got 4 pieces of 5/8 chain at 5 feet each, which comes out to about 18.2 lbs. each. The leader chains are about 1.2 lbs each, so all that together is 75.2 lbs. These were $250 on Amazon with “free” shipping (factored in, I’m sure). They are expensive, but I’ll have them forever. Pulling with them tonight felt great.

439

The Volume Grind - Week 2 - Day 2

Close Grip Bench - Touch and Go:
12x275 @ 7.5 - +2 rep PR
12x275 @ 10
6x275 - Failed 7th. Dat work capacity.

Spoto Press - Close Grip:
2x10x225
13x225 - Exact same rep scheme as last week, but close grip.

Lat Pulldown - Straps:
2x8x200
8x220
8x220+8x160 - Drop Set

Unilateral Cable Low Row:
3x12x160 (“80” on stack, feels like it’s gotta be per handle)
12x160+12x120 - Drop Set

Deficit Push-Ups:
25xBW
2x20xBW

KB Reverse Flies:
3x15x25s

This was a pretty quick workout due to the small number of sets I did on bench. Last week I did a 4x6x315, but I think that was probably too heavy and low rep to start out with, so I moved back down and up respectively. I enjoyed doing the 12s, since it’s something I rarely do. It turns out 12 reps is the most I’ve moved at 275 on like 3 bench variations. I think I could have been at 14-15 on the first set, so that’s cool.

Spoto press was very light again this week. I really need to be careful with it because I can feel my pecs pulling on it if I’m not focusing enough.

440

Friday - The Volume Grind - Week 2 - Day 3

Beltless Deadlift - Straps for Volume Sets:
1x405
1x455
1x495
1x525 @ 9 (Just a daily single type of rep. Didn’t feel very strong)
4x8x405 (Super difficult on my low back, ended up around snap city at the end)

Beltless High Bar Squat:
2x5x315
2x10x315

Lying Leg Curl:
3x15x80

Cable Ab Pulldown:
10x85
10x100
3x10x85

I was supposed to do my heavy horizontal and light vertical rows, but forgot about it until it was too late, so I’m making up for it in the next two workouts. I didn’t feel too bad about it though, because I was pretty wrecked after the deadlifts. Last week I hit 4x6x455 on the whippy bar, so this wasn’t really a great improvement, despite it being a stiff bar.

Squats continue to feel heavy unfortunately. I only did the sets of 10 as punishment to myself for being a bitch, otherwise I would have just kept doing shitty fives. Lower body needs to wake back up and catch up to bench in this gym.