A very interesting video
05/23
Paused Bench Press 2" Board
135x5
225x5
275x2
315x2
335x5
335x5
335x5
Seated Close Grip OHP
135x3
175x3
190x11
185x11.5
Plate Loaded Incline Press
225x8
315x8
365x8
405x8
Incline DB Bench
50x8
60x8
70x8
Rear Delt Flye Machine
180x15
190x12
200x10
Another late night session
PRs on all the accessories and none on bench. Next week I’ll be getting rid of the board. Tendon feels better at least but I’m still a bit sketched out. I’m going to roll with it and see how it goes. Went light for my DB Bench to feel it out
I met another gym buddy after a few weeks of not seeing one another in the gym, we’re gonna be hitting legs together tomorrow after work, awesome spotter and training partner
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Isn’t the strictest form, not sweating to much about it
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Thanks for getting a video of those close grip OHPs.
Your grip is only slightly narrower than what I currently use. Any wider and I can’t use the triceps at the sticking point.
But I also see your ROM on that. Something even narrower for me in just that top ROM seems like it could be helpful.
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Hey no problem. You can also play around with the way you press and the direction. This video is a bad example because I was hitting a PR back to back and let my form go
The reason I sometimes say Pseudo French press, is because I will intentionally roll my wrists back and pull my elbows into me, and as I press up I straighten everything out. I can feel it loading it into my triceps in the bottom portion when I do it this way. Don’t get me wrong I still feel the pump, not nearly as wicked.
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Conventional Deficit Deadlift 1.5"
135x3
225x2
315x1
405x1
475x1
525x11
Cailer Woolam Row
315x5
365x5
385x5
DB Row
115s
2 Sets of 20 Reps
Hit a 3 rep and 10lb PR, at the expense of breaking my phone right after. I stiff legged the second rep for some reason but corrected it
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Week 9 Training
So, my first mental note out of everything this week is actually about my log. I’ll be scaling back my posts alot, just getting really tired of always updating it and jotting things down, I’ll be keeping track still on Fitnotes. I still will do a training recap at the end of each week because it does genuinely help me organize and plan ahead. Sounding like burnout ha.
Secondly, training is going a different direction as I originally wanted it to. I’m going to be focusing on my weakpoints the next few weeks, primarily the Close Stance Squat, Deficits and Lockout Accessories. I think it’ll serve me some good in the long run to allow my adductors to catch up.
Honestly, there’s not much else for me to say or that I can think of at the moment. The deficit felt pretty good coming back into it, it’s been around 4 weeks since I last trained it, it’s a nice break from sumo.
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Well, I tried going without the board and my pec strained bad last night, fun stuff.
I was feeling great, reps were effortless, 340x4 paused was a paused PR and I had around 3 reps left. Pec decided to say fuck you and pulled on the 5th rep right off the chest, thought I tore it for a second since it was so fast
Nothing super major, from what I can feel and see today. Feels about the same when I injured my right lat/delt a year or so ago (I know a few who’ve followed me from the old log will probably remember that), so if that’s any indication, I should be good after 3 weeks.
It’s the name of the game, injuries will happen… it’s what I signed up for voluntarily lol. I come in everyday not expecting but also not ignoring the fact that something can go wrong and not to cry like a bitch haha. I’ll still be going in for legs today.
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Sorry to hear that. Hope this heals up quickly and isn’t too debilitating in the meanwhile.
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Hey, thanks for the concern, appreciated.
I feel pretty good today. Hitting my squat yesterday really seemed to help get some blood in there and stretch it out. I’ve been massaging, icing, using the heat pad and stretching it constantly and it seems to be bouncing back quick.
I really don’t like letting an injury sit for too long, when I used to do that it seemed to just take so long to heal. Don’t really know the science behind it, but I really do feel like it heals faster the sooner I can train, even if its with minor discomfort. Within moderation.
What I can take away from this though, is that it definitely was an overuse injury of some sort. I should’ve had more Bench Variation and Different Movements, and that I can learn from.
I’m going in tonight to see what I can do, if its still remotely painful, I’ll pack it up, stretch and go home.
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05/29
Close Stance Beltless Squat (Toes Out)
135x5
225x2
315x1
365x1
405x1
450x6 RIR 2
Andrew Hause Style Barbell Row
225x5
275x5
315x24
315x19
Standing Single Leg Curl
60x15
60x15
60x15
60x15
Seated Leg Curl
120x8
130x8
150x8
170x8
450x6 was a PR in this stance, I did 420x7 a few days ago and 405x6 a week before that, pretty aggressive jumps so next week I’m thinking I’ll cut back on the pacing.
315x24 was a rep PR, there was really no rhyme or reason to it, I wanted to see how much I could get. The set left me with a wicked pump. I don’t want to be too smoked for my next deadlift session so kept it moderate on everything else.
I feel like I’m seriously lagging behind in any hamstring exercise involving the machines, still trying to figure that out, doesn’t really make sense, but eh.
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That’s pretty impressive man. Absolute unit.
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Thank you for the compliment, appreciated.
It is a very hard stance to do, and it is a humbling experience for me.
Doing it the first time after seeing Yury’s explanation seriously exposed some weak points for me, and in conjunction with the Conventional Stance on my Leg Press (another very weak movement I barely did), it’s bringing up my weak links quickly. Still too early to tell though in the long term what benefits it’ll have, but I trust the russian guy squatting like a million pounds lol
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Hamstrings extend your hips, like in the deadlift. Your hams are awesome at that move.
When you’re doing leg curls on the machines you’re working knee flexion, or pulling your heels towards your butt. It sounds like you’re not as strong at this motion as you are in the hip-extension type hamstring motions.
It looks like you thrive on big, compound moves. Have you ever tried something like a Nordic Hamstring Curl, where you’re moving your whole body around, using that hamstring curl motion?
Maybe you can build leg curl strength with a compound, big-tension hamstring curl move.
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Have you ever tried something like a Nordic Hamstring Curl, where you’re moving your whole body around, using that hamstring curl motion?
Thats funny you mention that, I was thinking about that last night after seeing a few guys doing it on Insta. Your suggestion motivated me to start adding it in. We’ll see how it feels.
When you’re doing leg curls on the machines you’re working knee flexion, or pulling your heels towards your butt. It sounds like you’re not as strong at this motion as you are in the hip-extension type hamstring motions.
That makes a fuck ton more sense, thanks for laying it out. I wonder if that’d be an issue in the future if I don’t work on it right now. Either way, I’m weak at it, just need to get stronger lol.
Note: When I was doing Muay Thai and BJJ for a bit in Highschool, I also always trained the extension in a way, especially with the repetitive teeps and kicks, I wonder if that also built it up over the years and the flexion never caught up.
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No problem man! I’m glad it “clicked.”
Louie Simmons was always big on working knee-flexion, I totally got it from him. He and all the Westside guys always talked about Glute/Ham raises being great for developing that.
And I feel like you’re thinking about it the right way. Nothing to worry about, it’s something else to make strong.
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This is how I came to learn about Nordics…looking for a movement to insert in place of GHR which I didn’t have access to.
Nordics are great…very difficult and tiring ….right up there with RDL/SLDL in my opinion for working hamstrings.
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05/30
Seated Close Grip OHP
135x5
155x5
175x5
200x11
DB French Press
40x8
50x8
65x8
50x12
50x12
Shoulder Press Machine
60x15
100x13
120x10
Full Stack x 6
Reverse Grip Tricep Pushdown / Overhead Tricep Superset
2x20
I was still able to PR on my Seated OHP despite the injury, it actually felt quite good up until the last two reps, which aggravated my pec a little as I started grinding. I was able to unrack without pain so that’s good.
What I noticed is that pushing anything to almost absolute failure starts aggravating it but not before that point, so I had to be very controlled with my accessories. I was able to hit 65x8 for a French press PR with minimal discomfort.
A few gym buddies will be training with me tomorrow night, gonna hit my deadlift. We usually bring in a big ass Bluetooth speaker since it’s empty after 11PM and crank some Viking Metal
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You might enjoy the rows I do (always need to credit the man Andrew Hause, and also for most my training in general)
It’s a bit different than how Pete and Cailer Woolam do their cheat rows. He did them alot in his older training videos, i noticed he never touched the ground but used a super deep stretch when bringing it down and driving into his stomach.
It looks and also feels a lot like a RDL into a Row, it really teaches me to hinge at the hips and it will obliterate my hamstrings and low back as a bonus, it’s built up monster PC strength. Haven’t seen anyone else use this variation except him (and Cailer , sometimes)
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