BENCH
Didn’t do anything of note other than 200x15 on flat bench and nearly got up 200 on seated overheads. Next time.
I’m so fucking sore from squatting on Monday. Still.
I’ve spent the last little while sick. I have some weird acid reflux/asthma thing going. I have issues breathing during squats and unless I’m standing or sitting up during a meal I feel like I’m going to puke after. My last workout I was warming up and I felt like I was going to fucking die.
As a result I’ve switched things up a bit for the next little while so I can work around it. I don’t think it’s anything serious, thankfully. I’ll have a chance to try a little variety of things, I think.
Just read the entire thread from start to finish, man. Keep up the good work.
One thing that’s been bothering me lately:
Progress on squats has come to a screeching halt. Box squats, regular squats, front squats, Zercher squats, narrow, wide, ass to grass or parallel; doesn’t matter. 4-5 sets with a moderate weight and I’m done. I can barely put up 315 these days.
Meanwhile, my upper body lifts (particularly pulls of all kinds, but also the bench and shoulder press) have been doing really well lately, especially when I’m training arms on a day of their own. I also feel much stronger and stable in the deadlift.
What gives? Is it a mental thing?
I’ve retooled things to where I’m working the entire body twice weekly and have decided to push my weights up in just a few key exercises, those being-
*Seated militaries (I know I’ve been doing these forever but I continue to make progress, so they stay)
*Reverse grip bench
*Narrow stance squat (315x15-20 reps by spring would be nice)
*Snatch grip deadlift
*Wide grip pullups
*Barbell rows
*Curls
*Shrugs
Some of these exercises will be quick weak point workouts twice a week in addition to the full body training, which brings it up to a total of 4 times a week. I tried to include more pulls than pushes in light of a slight shoulder issue still and I’ll only be benching to the chest once a week for moderate reps.
I’ve also set some modest (I hope) rep/weight goals in these exercises for myself, with the deadline being July 4th, 2009.
*315x15 narrow stance squat
*405x10 (w/ straps) conventional deadlift
*275x8/225x15-20 bench press
I believe these are possible, given that I’ve already hit 300x10 in the squat, 365x5 and plenty left in the tank for deads. If I were gaining weight my bench would surely improve more quickly, but I got 225 for 9 recently.
I find it difficult to focus on more than one or two things at a time, so I’ve decided to make life very simple for myself with two commandments.
- THOU SHALT MAKE GOOD PROGRESS ON FEW EXERCISES RATHER THAN DOING SILLY SHIT
- THOU SHALT EAT HI-PROTEIN LOW-CARB
In other news, I got into a car accident today. Not fun. Parked it, came back later to tow it home, ripped off the bumper with my brother in law to install bolted mounts for towing, only to discover the fucking things don’t fit.
Had to pay to have the damn thing towed anyway, and missed going to see The Day the Earth Stood Still with a couple of lovelies to instead spend my evening in a freezing cold parking lot making the acquaintance of a crow bar.
Olympic squat
135x10
225x8
270x6
300x3
300x3
Pullups
BWx6
BWx5
BWx5
Rack dips
BWx8
BWx10
BWx6
Seated military press
135x10
170x7
185x5
Just a very quick session. I don’t know what the fuck is the matter with my squatting. Just have to keep at it, I guess. First time I’ve done dips in a looong time. I love doing them but I need to get some actual handles for my rack, since I have to climb up to the top of it and my head hits the ceiling at the top of every rep.
Hey Lue, been following this thread a long time and good job btw.
There are either gaps in your logs or you are squatting more infrequently now than you were before. I am going to assume you skip logging some days.
It might be time for you to fit in some work for the accessory muscles and do some direct quad work as well. Your lifts are getting up there which is great but eventually you have to grow bigger muscles to continue adding weight to the bar if you follow me.
I started out as a power lifter when I was young and worked really hard on the big three lifts along with military press and rows. I only used these lifts for a long time and made good progress. Eventually this no longer produced results for me as I got close to my maximum potential for my size. I simply got as strong as I could be with the size of muscles that I had at the time. A basic workout of compound movements was no longer going to produce results. I needed to hypertrophy each muscle used in the lifts to see further gains.
Anyway I finally hit a plateau on squats and deadlifts and was stuck for several weeks. Once that happened the guy who was teaching me had me start adding in isolation work for my quads, hamstrings, glutes, low back and abductors. The direct work helped me grow larger muscles in each of the individual parts for those lifts. This ultimately allowed me to squat more weight. The same was eventually true for my bench press and military press. Again I needed to develop each of the individual muscles used in the lift to further my progress.
As I increased my volume to add in more isolation work and my working weights increased, I noticed that I could no longer recover fast enough to lift fullbody three times per week. This is when I moved to a upper lower split routine. I eventually had to further split my body up to keep up with the need to increase volume to stimulate the muscles.
I see the same good advise on this board all the time over and over. Do what is working for you until it stalls out and then change it up. I think this just might apply to you in this case.
Realize that you will evolve your training many times as you progress in weight. You will eventually need more volume to stimulate the muscles more. The increased volume and weight used will eventually force you to decrease your frequency so that you can recover. It may just be time for you to make an evolution in your training.
I would keep on squatting but consider fitting in some isolation work for each of the muscles used in the squat and see if that doesnt kick start it for you again.
UPPER BODY (2 days ago)
Flat bench
135x10
200x10
225x6
245x2 WTF…
245x3
Wide pullups
BWx6
BWx6
BWx4
BWx4
One arm DB press
35x12
50x8
70x6
I think I may have identified part of my problem; my left shoulder is MUCH weaker than my right. That and I’ve been benching too much. Looks like it’s dips and overhead presses for the next little while. More rows too.
Everything felt incredibly heavy that day on the bench, for some reason.
LOWER BODY (yesterday)
Snatch grip deadlift off box (3-4’ off ground? I dunno)
135x10
225x8
270x6
300x6 (straps at this point)
Oly squats
135x4
225x4
290x2
(Widened my stance considerably at this point)
290x4
Think I just have to find what works for me and stick with it.
Did some curls yesterday. Worked up to the 50 lb dumbbell for 6 reps. Nothing to write home about.
They should make Spike fucking illegal, swear to God. I had some for the first time at work today and I spent 2 hours running around like a madman, sweating like a hog and jabbering about movies while getting an entire day’s worth of work done. The floor girl thought I’d gone insane.
When I worked the register none of the customers wanted to come over to mine because I was red, drenched in sweat and said stuff like “NEXTCUSTOMERINLINEOVERHEREPLEASEHOWMAYIHELPYOUTODAY?”. One woman shook her head in disgust after I rang her up and muttered something about tweakers under her breath as she walked away.
I broke my toe kicking shit out of the way in the stockroom and didn’t even notice until later. Felt like I could run a marathon, bench a Cadillac and go ten rounds with Tyson.
Then I decided to drink a second can as I came down.
Bad. Idea.
I spent the rest of the shift nauseous, puked up my shake and have only just now recovered. My fault obviously (I chugged the first can: another bad idea) but god damn. They sure weren’t kidding about this being powerful stuff.
On the plus side, one of the girls at work had half a can and loved it, and her friend called me pissed off that I hadn’t offered HER one. So, you know. If Biotest wants to give me any free shit for sending customers their way…
UPPER BODY (two days ago)
Dips
BWx12
BWx10
BWx8
BWx8
BWx6
BWx6
Chins
BWx8
BWx6
BWx6
BWx6
BWx6
BWx5
Seated military press
135x10
170x8
185x5
185x4
Rows
135x12
185x10
200x8
225x6
I did the first three sets of dips ‘n’ chins at home, went to work and did the rest after I came back.
I’ll do some deadlifting and squatting today, and again on Friday.
LOWER BODY
Snatch grip deadlifts
135x6
225x6
270x6
300x6
315x4
Front squats
135x6
200x3
200x3
200x3
200x3
Doesn’t seem like much but I was cooked. Started out VERY light on the front squats but even this was somewhat challenging. Looking forward to moving some big boy weight with this exercise.
Also, it looks like I can use a clean grip now without discomfort. Kewl.
UPPER BODY
Dips
BWx14
BWx12
BWx10
BWx8
Chinups
BWx7
BWx6
BWx5
BWx5
Went to work, came back-
Dips
BWx13
BWx11
BWx10
Wide grip pullups
BWx5
BWx4
BWx4
Seated military press
135x10
165x7
175x6
175x4
I felt pretty pumped and such after the pullups and dips, but I’m going to need to start attaching weights to myself pretty soon…
LOWER BODY (today)
Snatch grip deadlift off a platform
135x6
225x6
270x6
300x6
315x4
335x4
Front squats
135x6
200x3
200x3
200x3
200x3
200x3
Believe I may need to lower the pins when doing snatch DLs so I use my hams more. The exercise is hitting them pretty well though.
Front squats are an enjoyable exercise, I’ve found. I feel like I can strain until my head explodes with a measure of safety. I need to work on my technique still but I think I’ll be able to move up in weight in this fairly quickly.
I’m going to have to put back in more isolation work for the triceps. Chest seems to take over a lot of the work on dips no matter what I do.
CURLS
Alternate DB curls
35x15
50x8
50x7
50x7
Straight bar curls
95x10
95x10
95x10
Yeah, I think the cure for these pipe cleaners is lots and lots of isolation work. Waiting for gains to “irradiate” from my main lifts is slow and probably won’t happen unless I’m bulking anyway.
SHOULDERS (yesterday)
BTN seated military press
95x25
125x10-15
125x10-15
125x10-12 ad infinitum…
Felt like doing shoulders for some reason. Tried out some half reps and got a good pump of it, but I probably should have gone much heavier.
DIPS & PULLUPS (today)
Six sets of dips and chins, supersetted, with just bodyweight. I’m due to get a pullup bar/dip station back from a friend so I’ll be able to start adding weight to these soon.
Barbell rows
135x12
185x10
200x8
225x6
235x4
Front squats and snatch deads either tomorrow or Thursday, depending. This upcoming check I’ll be taking out a significant portion strictly for clean foods, supps (whey, multivitamin, B12, aminos and possibly some sort of appetite stimulant…aside from weed) and extra plates and/or equipment.
LEGS
Snatch grip deadlift off platform
135x6
225x6
270x6
300x6
315x4
335x4
350x4
Front squats
135x6
200x3
210x3
210x3
210x3
May have done an extra set. I forget, as I was too busy trying not to faint. Shoulders and bi’s for the hell of it tomorrow.
Some light shoulder training and worked up to 50x8 on DB curls two days ago. Today:
Flat bench (couldn’t resist)
135x15
185x5
200x5
225x9
Wide grip pullups
6xBW
6xBW
6xBW
5xBW
6xBW
6xBW
5xBW
Seated military press
135x12
170x6
190x4
190x3
170x4 1/2
Side laterals
35x10
35x10
Barbell rows
135x10
185x10
200x8
225x6
225x6
Market trip is tomorrow. I’ll take pictures of all the lovely meat I’ll be buying.
Hey man it’s been a while since you started the thread, why don’t you post some after pics?
I’m also curious where your weight is at now.
[quote]gerardmarceau wrote:
I’m also curious where your weight is at now.[/quote]
Went from 233 to 198, now at a better 210-215. Still have some work to do, hence no pics until it’s actually something impressive (to me).
Getting there. I forgot to take photos but I bought around 4 lbs of steak, about that much of chicken, some cheese, wheat noodles, oats, rice & beans etc. I’ll have my sister whip up some marinades for the beef and chicken, try to have a variety of foods so I don’t get bored, etc.
LEGS & TRAPS
Snatch grip deadlifts off platform
135x8
225x6
270x6
300x6
335x6
Some shrugs after each set.
Front squats
135x6
200x3
210x3
Protip: don’t attempt front squats when high.
DB curls
35x15
50x8
50x8
Straight bar curls
95 'til burnout (didn’t take me long…)
I’m encouraged. Getting stronger each workout and that’s DEFINITELY the situation I want to be in.