If you can’t tell, I’m one day behind. I missed last Thursday’s workout because I was cramming for finals, and I missed yesterday’s make-up workout because I just didn’t have the energy to work out (drove back down to Austin and had to get ready for my first day at work today).
Fortunately, with this 3x week plan, I’ll be back on track next week.
Today’s workout was significantly better than last Friday’s poor excuse for a workout, but there are still some areas I need to improve in:
3x5f squat - 245* (up 10 from last B workout)
3x5f press - 115** (same)
5x3 clean - 155*** (same)
*Reps: 5/3/3/3/2. I think I failed here because I gave up mentally and just reracked because I felt tired. I think I should have been able to at least knock down set #2. I will keep the weight on Wednesday.
**Reps: 5/5/4/1/2. I barely failed my last set, got pretty mad, and tried finishing my missed reps without resting enough.
***Did my first set with 165 lbs, but my last few reps were pretty slow and messy. Bumped it down to 155 and my next 2 sets felt really good.
I really, really, really need to get my NEPA back in. I have no excuse to not do it. It starts tomorrow!
LR, I had two final exams. One was difficult but doable (I ended up getting an A in that class). The other was difficult and undoable (I should get my final grade sometime this week). Let’s hope for the best!
I was so close to canceling my workout. I’ve been living on 2-6 hours of sleep per night since last Wednesday (around 4 on average), so I was extremely tired. Also, yesterday night I went to a graduation party and had a sizable amount of beer. Given that I’ve had little to no alcohol since mid March (V-Diet), my body certainly noticed.
I ended up taking a 3 hour nap, made dinner, and just forced myself out of the house. Turned out being one of the best decisions of my life because I had a damn good workout!
3x5 Squat - 245
3x5 Bench - 165
1x5 Deadlift - 275
Dips - 15/9/5 (reps)
The final rep was a bitch. I was midway through the rep when my legs just wouldn’t push any further. In the past, I probably would have just dropped the weight on the safety bars (or even worse, reracked it a rep beforehand), but I pushed through! Will try 250 on Friday.
Easy breezy. Shooting for 170 on Sunday.
Used straps for my work set. Also, unlike two workouts ago when I thought I was bending my back too much with the 285, I felt like I had good form today. Will probably go up to 280 on Sunday.
Basically what I’ve done after every Workout A is finish up with 40 reps of body weight dips. Ideally, I’d like to be able to get all 40 reps in 3 sets, but in the mean time, I’m taking a rest-pause approach where I take 12-15 deep breaths and then pump out more reps until I hit my 40. To get a sense of my progress, I’ll be recording the reps in my first 3 sets.
I finished with some direct forearm/ab work. Not worth going into detail.
On a different note, I really, really, really need to incorporate some NEPA/cardio work in. My diet really hasn’t been spot on as of late (had some drinks last night, had bread for lunch). Not terrible by any means (no McDonald’s, no fried foods, no other starchy carbs besides the ones I’ve listed), but I could do better. If anything, I should combat this by burning the extra calories. Hopefully I’ll get used my new summer schedule (40-50 hour work weeks).
I’m guessing you’ve got your summer intern position sorted out, 40-50 hours a week will be easy to get used to after a few weeks. My first job/career after I finished Uni, I was working close to 80 hours a week, but I was getting paid a tremendous amount. In short, the money makes it a little easier.
Where are you currently training? I’m in London right now as well and I am training at UCL’s gym. It only costs 26 quid/month for students, and it has a squat rack and a bench press along with free fitness classes (they’re tough, trust me). That being said, there aren’t many people willing to put in the extra effort needed to grow. Have you found a good place that encourages intensity? Let me know.
In the meantime, how are your goals coming along?
-Justin
ps- I didn’t mean to hijack Jo3’s thread, so if you want to PM me or direct me to a log that’s fine.
[quote]London Runner wrote:
Did you have a workout today? How’s it all going?
I’m guessing you’ve got your summer intern position sorted out, 40-50 hours a week will be easy to get used to after a few weeks. My first job/career after I finished Uni, I was working close to 80 hours a week, but I was getting paid a tremendous amount. In short, the money makes it a little easier.
LR[/quote]
I was supposed to work out today, but I’m feeling a bit under the weather. Head hurts really bad, and ibuprofen isn’t helping. I’m gonna get a good night’s sleep, wake up early tomorrow, have a quick meal, and then hit the gym. That way, I’ll have at least 36 hours of rest between workouts.
Woke up feeling much better. Must have been the lack of sleep from the past week.
First “morning” workout in quite a long time (I put “morning” in quotations because the workout was from 11-12:30pm, which is hardly a morning workout). Regardless, I was pretty pumped and had a really good workout.
3x5f Squat - 255 (up 10)
3x5 Press - 115 (same)
5x3f Clean - 155 (same)
Even though I looked at my SS spreadsheet right before going to the gym, I forgot how much weight I had planned on using. For some reason, I thought I was supposed to do 265, but 3 reps into it, I knew it was too heavy for me. I dropped 5 lbs and finished the set, but I failed again during the 2nd set. Dropped another 5 and knocked down set #2, but I couldn’t finish the 3rd set. If that’s confusing, here’s my rep scheme:
3x265, re-rack
2x260, re-rack (end set 1)
3x260, re-rack
2x255, re-rack (end set 2)
4x255, fail (strip weight, re-rack, put weight back on)
3x255, re-rack (end set 3)
Looks like a complete mess. Turns out I had planned on only doing 250 today. I’m gonna do 255 tomorrow night and see how things go.
Last rep was slow but the form was there. Will bump it up to 120 next week.
Started out with 165 and got my first 2 sets in. However, by then I felt like my form was being compromised, particularly the last part of the lift where you catch the bar. I wasn’t pulling the bar up high enough, resulting in my elbows pointing down. This put some uncomfortable pressure on my wrists, so I decided to take off 10 lbs and finish the sets with as much speed and power as possible. 155 felt really good. I’m gonna move up to 160 next time.
Finished with BW pull-ups, 2 ab exercises, and 20 min low-intensity cardio.
My past two workouts have felt really good, and I think it’s due to having lots of energy. Both were about 3 hours after waking up (Wednesday’s was after a 3-hour nap; today’s was after waking up). Unfortunately, this is impossible to do during the week days unless I wake up at 4am. How can I mimic this? Is napping the only way?
(I hate when my previous post doesn’t show up immediately since I can’t edit it and instead have to re-post.)
I just bought CT’s Get Jacked Fast program, which is a 12-week fat-burning program. Since it gets quite time-consuming towards the end of the program with 2-a-days and lots of cardio, I won’t be able to do it once school starts up again (last week of August). With that in mind, I think I’ll continue with SS for 2 more weeks and then move on to the other program. Once I’m done with that, I’ll get back on SS to see if I can make any more gains and then move on to the Texas Method or Wendler’s 5/3/1 protocol. The specific program doesn’t matter… I just wanna get stronger.
My diet for the past 2 days has been absolutely shitty. I’ve eaten more fatty/greasy/fried/unhealthy foods in the past 32 hours than I have in the past 2 months. I’m going in for a late workout to salvage my weekend. I also plan on cutting out all sources of non-veggie carbs (except for Surge). My diet for the past two weeks has pretty much been that, so I won’t be doing anything drastic. I did begin to incorporate some fruit last week, but I’ll be stopping that for the time being until I feel like my body’s back on the right path.
Let me start off by saying that I still feel like shit for how I ate this weekend. I can pull out every excuse in the book: it was graduation weekend, it was Memorial Day weekend, I’m not counting calories during my 2-4 week break, my friend came in town, etc. In the end, there’s no excuse for eating some of the shit I ate. It probably put me back a week in my training/nutrition plans and I probably lost two weeks worth of progress (physique-wise), so time to step it up this week!
3x5f Squat - 260 (up 5)
3x5f Bench - 170 (up 5)
1x5 Deadlift - 285 (up 10)
BW Dips - 12/9/8 (reps)
Got a little cocky and started with 265. Got 2 reps in, realized it was too heavy, and I re-racked it. I think my first set generally sets the tone for the rest of the workout, and as a result, I mentally gave up on the later sets. It could have easily also been my poor diet as of late, but I guess we’ll see for sure on Tuesday. My reps were:
2x265, re-rack
4x260, re-rack (end set #1)
4x260, re-rack (end set #2)
2x260, re-rack (this is where I think I just shut down)
1x260, re-rack (was mad from quitting on the previous set and didn’t get enough rest between sets)
3x260, fail (strip weight, re-rack, put weight back on)
1x260, re-rack (end set #3)
Looks like a huge mess. I’m sticking with 260 on Tuesday.
My reps were all very slow. Should I lower the weight and work on speed/power before increasing the weights? My reps: 4/4/4/3. Sticking with 170 on Thursday unless someone advises me otherwise.
Used a mixed grip on my last warm-up set (2x265) and used straps on my work set (5x285). Form was good. Moving up to 295 on Thursday.
Left tricep was feeling really fatigued for some reason. Ignored it and got my 40 reps in.
95% compliance on my diet. Noncompliance will come in the form of alcohol on Wednesday and the weekend, but I am setting my limit to 5 drinks for the entire week (light beer or a drink with a diet mixer).
What a frustrating workout! I can’t seem to progress on my cleans whatsoever. I figure it’s due to imperfect form, but I don’t know what the point of doing these cleans are if I’m not gonna make any progress. Should I just go super light next time (135 lbs) and work on explosiveness? I did fine on my warm-up sets (bar, 75, 105, 140), but as soon as I tried my work set, my left wrist started to hurt like a bitch. I really don’t know what to do here.
That aside, here’s what I did today:
3x5 Squat - 260
3x5f Press - 120
5x3f Clean - 155
Moving up to 265 on Thursday.
Failed on my last set. Reps were: 5/5/4/2. I’ll stick with 120 on Friday and really focus on form and getting the bar up as fast as possible.
I got one set in, but on the last rep, I hurt my left wrist big time. Lowering the weight really didn’t help (since the pain came in at the top of the lift), so instead I followed the clean motion except for the catching part (in other words, I started on the ground, did a Romanian deadlift up to a bit above my knees, and then exploded up and did an upright row). I don’t know what I’m gonna do here.
One more thing about the cleans: I don’t think I’m being too safe when I’m bringing the bar back to the starting position. Had I been using bumper plates, I’d just drop the weight, but at 24-Hour Fitness, I basically have to catch the weight as it’s falling down. Just so I don’t strain my shoulder/trap muscles, I actually arch down and catch the bar while my body is also moving down. However, I think this could very well lead to me screwing up my back. Any way to get around this?
Finished off with a few sets using the ab roller and some DB front and lateral raises.
because I think strong hands, forearms etc play a fundamental part in the overall strengths of the big exercises like the cleans, but also the small ball exercises like bicep curls.
Other then the cleans, it looks like everything’s going good right?
because I think strong hands, forearms etc play a fundamental part in the overall strengths of the big exercises like the cleans, but also the small ball exercises like bicep curls.
Other then the cleans, it looks like everything’s going good right?
LR[/quote]
I don’t think it’s the grip strength that’s the issue (although I definitely could use bigger forearms), but I think it has to do with my wrist flexibility. I may have stretched my wrists out too much when doing my power cleans. More on that below.
Well, folks, it looks like my body is telling me to take a break. But before I get to that, my workout stats:
3x5f Squat - 245
3x5f Bench - 175
1x5 Deadlift - 295
For the past two or so weeks, I’ve had some discomfort in my right leg around the hip bone. After looking at a few anatomy diagrams, I’ve come to believe that this is my tensor fasciae latae, but I’m really not sure. The soreness really doesn’t bother me unless I’m squatting down (with or without weight). The past several workouts, I’ve muscled through the pain, but today my legs gave out (I think I also quit mentally). Unlike my past failed reps where I slowly fall back into the hole and rest the weight onto the safety bars, I basically just crashed onto the floor. I decided to strip off 20 lbs (I started at 265) and redid my 3 sets.
Wrists started bothering me (from messing them up during my power cleans on Tuesday), even on the warm up sets, and I suffered as a result. Benching was very uncomfortable during all the reps. Reps were: 4/3/3/2/3
Used straps on my work set. 5x295 is a new PR for me! At least I finished strong.
Back to my original comment. As you can tell, I’m hurting a bit. I hate making excuses, but I think it might be in my best interest to take it easy for the next 10 days or so. I will be moving to CT’s Get Jacked Fast program starting June 8th. Due to the rigorous nature of the program (3-6 workouts per week, cardio/intervals/metabolic pairings several times a week, 12 weeks total), I need to be as injury-free as possible. I’m thinking about lowering the poundage but increasing the volume. I’ll probably finish Saturday’s workout for the sake of finishing it, but I’ll keep my eye out for injuries. Next week, I’m thinking about just hitting the gym and lifting stuff. No programs, no rep schemes… just lift.
Also, to make up for the reduction in intensity, I plan on increasing the energy systems work. None of that 60-min low/med-intensity stuff, but maybe a few metabolic pairings, more NEPA, and more basketball/volleyball.
If you disagree with my plan of action for the next week and a half, feel free to chime in.
Like the week before I started the V-Diet back in March, I’m starting to have second thoughts about doing Get Jacked Fast. Why? Look at the website name! It’s Testosterone MUSCLE! One can’t help but to want to put on huge slabs of muscle after visiting the Bodybuilding subforum and reading threads on the Levrone comeback and Dante and the DC crew.
I do, however, feel that getting as lean as I can possibly get would benefit me. Psychologically, I’d realize that I’m more than capable of dropping fat if I needed/wanted to, and physiologically, starting a bulking cycle at a lower BF% would allow me to minimize fat gain (relative to if I started bulking up at where I am now - 21% BF according to a DEXA scan from 4 weeks ago). Not only that, I don’t want to look like a slob come full-time recruiting (late August-early October).
Hopefully, I can just man up and go stick it out for the next 12 weeks. I do plan on re-evaluating things after the program and changing my diet/cardio as I see fit. However, once full-time recruiting is over with, I plan on going on a balls to the wall bulking phase (6-8 months), and then I’ll re-evaluate things once again.