Them Texas Boys

Training Logs
1

I’ve been training for three and a half years, and I haven’t done a very good job of it. It took me a couple of years to get serious, and then work came up, and then I was in a foreign country, and now I’m in the gym consistently making good gains.

My current 1RMs and my goals
Bench: 245- 315
Back Squat: 375- 405
Deadlift: 405- 495
Clean&Jerk: 275- (no longer train)
Snatch: 215- (no longer train)

I’m a soft 240 lbs and 6’3" tall.

I opened this log for accountability and criticism. From the weight I’ve been progressing, I should hit my goals in about ten weeks, which should put me PRing the third week in June. Suggestions, support and sarcasm are welcome.

Monday 04/05/2010. Lower Body, High carb
*Note, unless otherwise mentioned, the big exercises are done for sets of three, in a ramping fashion.

So “100-160. 8 sets” implies I loaded up the bar with 100, did a set of 3 as explosively as I could, racked the weight, added a five on either side, rested, did the next set, and so on until it took me 8 sets to get to 160. My top set is an intuitive guess- I get as heavy as I can while still being explosive.

Front Squat: 185-265. 9 sets
Back Squat: 275-305. 5 sets
Deadlift: 315-375. 7 sets
Standing Calf Raise: 3x8x340 (straight sets)
Hanging Leg Raise: 2x5x15 (weight held between feet)

==========================
-Replace Hanging Leg Raise with ab rollout. Progress difficult to see/feel in between swing/cheating and hip flexors taking over.
-Legs were sore from yesterday’s sprints. Pushed through. Good work.

2

Forgot perhaps the most important part; Diet.

I follow a carb-cycling approach with two high days, two medium days, and the rest either low or none. I’ll outline the carbs below, but my basic diet stays pretty much the same:

Base Protein: 250g
Base Kcal: 3000kcal

Basic
Meal 1
6 eggs 48/480
5 bacon 5/200
Total: 50/700

Meal 2
1 cup dry-weight beans 32/320
1/2 mozzerella cheese 16/160
Total: 50/500 (and like, 40 grams of fiber!!!)

Meal 3
1 lb beef 100/1000
broccoli 0/awesome
Total: 100/1000

Meal 4
Chicken 50/250
Salad 0/000
4 tsb EVOO 0/ 480
Total: 50/750

Carbs
I’ve resigned myself to being a fattie for some time until I get big enough (not anytime soon), but I still feel the need to do some damage control.

All my carbs are taken in periworkout. Pretty much every time I get to the gym to pound weights, I’ll throw back a shake with two scoops of Surge Recovery and two scoops of Surge Workout Fuel, for a total of roughly 25 grams of pro and 600 kcal, mostly from sugar.

High and medium days, I come back to the haz and down a drank of Dextrose and BCAA. High days it’s 50/1200, Medium days it’s 25/600 (the full treatment is 150 cc’s of BCAA and a cup of dextrose. I swear to God, the only way I can get it down is by throwing in Biotest’s magic flavorer. That shit turns maggots to magic), and low days I only drink my own tears for post workout. So the rundown looks like this:

High Days: 75/1800
Medium Days: 50/1200
Low Days: 25/600 Tears
Off Days: Just Tears.

Carbs are in addition to the base.

3

Tuesday 04/06/10. Upper Body, High Carb

Landmine Row: 90-155. 9 sets
Bench Press: 175-230. 8 sets
Lat Pulldown: 160-250. 8 sets
Military Press: 115-145. 5 sets
Curlz: Worked up to final set of 7x90 (RepsxWeight)
Ropedown (neutral grip tricep pushdown with rope handle): worked up to 8x75
PhatBarDeadlift: 3x5x275 (overhand grip is used to improve grip strength)

-tried doing half-rep military presses to increase tricep strength and therefore pressing strength. My pressing strength sucks, and probably needs more work, but that’s not the way to go about getting it. Put shoulders in awkward position.
-closely related note, I did the math, and I’m going to have to add 5 lbs/week to my working weight for the big three to hit my goals (60, actually, with the DL). I think this is possible now that I’m not smoking. However, it’s going to be most difficult for my pressing- I may have to add in more pressing. Maybe a lot more. And nail nutrition on a painfully daily basis.
-Shoulders felt awful. Stiff and sore and painful in between sets. Did dowel shoulder-dislocates in between sets. Magic. Worked wonders. Picked up the tip from SmallToBig’s travails. Am thoroughly satisfied. Will probably actually make a point to do close to 100 each day I hit the gym. Them and wall slides are the two exercises that really make my shoulders feel better.

4

Wednesday 04/07/10 Lower Body, Low Carb

Front Squat: 185. 1 set
Back Squat: 245-305. 7 sets
Standing Calf Raise: 3x8x360
Ab rollout: 3x10x-
Rear delt flies: 3x6x20db’s.

-Walked in weak as a kitten. Shoulders hurt too much to do Fsquats. After Bsquats, hips hurt too much to do deadlift.

5

Thursday 04/08/10. Off Day.

Friday 04/09/10. Upper Body, Medium Carb

Landmine Row: 90-150. 9 sets
Bench Press: 185-230. 8 sets
Lat Pulldown: 180-250. 8 sets
Military Press: 115-150. 8 sets.
Curls: worked up to 6x95 Ropedowns: worked up to 8x80
PhatBarDeadlift: 3x5x285 Rear Delt Flies: 2x8x15.

-Shoulders felt really healthy. The break did wonders for them.
-Working up to a sinngle set for accessory work is new to me. We’ll see how well it works.
-It’s unnerving that my main lifts are staying at or around just below where they were before Fast. However, Bench felt a lot more comfortable and fast, even at the top weight, so I have hope I’ll be moving up soon.

6

Saturday 04/10/10. Lower Body, Medium Carb

Front Squats: 185-275. 9 sets
Back Squats: 285-315. 4 sets
Deadlifts: 325-385. 6 sets
Standing Calf Raises: 3x10x360 Ab Rollout: 3x10x- Glute Bridge: 3x10x165

  • Big dude at the Gym, Ken, advised doing heavy partials (‘overloads’ he called them), instead of glute bridges to bring up squat. It’s a good idea, but I don’t really have the time. These workouts already take me 1.5-2 hrs, and I honestly don’t think I’d have the energy to do heavy partials justice.
7

What are your goals now big guy?

8

Hey there Bug. Dude, I’m just tryin to catch up with you and the rest of the BOI. I wasted my time in China chain-smoking and site-seeing. When I got back, I was fat and weak. Took care of the first part first, now I’m in bulk-mode trying to get my big three up.

Hows the land of Rice and Snow?

Sunday 04/11/10. Accessory lifts, Low Carb

Curlsz: Worked up to 9x90. Ropedowns: Worked up to 9x80
Phat Bar Deadlift: 3x4x295. Glute Bridge: 3x10x175
Standing Calf Raise: 3x7x380. Ab Rollout: 3x11x-
Rear Delt Flies: 3x6x20

-Felt energetic, despite running on 4 hrs sleep. Massive coffee + Breakfast Buffet maybe?
-Left shoulder got tweaked during workout. Most likely sheer volume of shoulder dislocates. Doing close to 10 in between each set, shooting for 70-100 each workout.

9

Scale and tape said the following on Saturday:

248 lbs
38.25" waist.

Now, maybe sixteen weeks ago I was 220 with a 35.25" Waist. I think a lot of my gains have been sugar, and a lot have been fat, but a lot of it has been strength too (At the time I was front squatting 225 and Benching 185 as working weights). The point isn’t that I’m doing it wrong, but that there really are some costs to this bulk.

And honestly, like, two inches on that waist came from the Fast, where I couldn’t eat or drink during the day and wasn’t staying up rediculously late at night, and so kept eating big and just kinda stopped lifting. I should have taken up sprinting or something.

10

The fast?

Are you eating the same thing every day? Whoa

11

PCH 2: ‘The Fast’ refers to the Baha’i month of fasting. I’m a Baha’i, and similar to Muslims, we fast for a month out of the year. That month happens to occur between March 2nd and March 21st (It’s uh… not the Gregorian Calendar). Instead of managing my training, and getting in at least once or twice, I pretty much said ‘fuck it!’ and stopped training. I got sick the week after the Fast was over, so I was out for a total of 4 weeks.

And yeah, I eat pretty much the same thing every day. I may switch things up and trade pinto for black beans, or alter the cut of steak, or move ground turkey in the position of chicken to prevent from getting too bored or developing allergies, but my diet stays very similar. It works, I know how to cook it all so tastes good, and there’s enough protein and calories to keep me growing.

Monday 04/12/10. Conditioning, No Carb

Sprints: 4x50 sec. No timed rest.

-Needed to get some cardio in. For heart health, if not to keep fat gains in check. I figure I always have 20-30 minutes to jog down to the park and get in some sprints. I’m going to try to do these on my ‘off’ days, also known as ‘those-days-I-let-my-shoulders-and-hips-heal’. Which is to say, they didn’t factor into my training before, but they should in the future.

12

Tuesday 04/13/10. Upper Body, Medium Carb

Landmine Row: 90-155. 9 sets
Bench Press: 175-235. 7 sets
Lat Pulldown: 180-260. 9 sets
Military Press: 95-155. 9 sets
Curlsz: worked up to 9x90. Ropedown: worked up to 10x80.
PhatBarDeadlift: 3x5x295. Rear Delt Flies: 3x6x20’s.

  • Row, pulldown, and deadlift last sets were with deteriorating form. I got the set, but I wasn’t going to get any more and should focus on dominating that weight before moving up.
  • Shoulders felt great at the beginning of the workout. Felt beat up towards the end, but felt fully recovered by the time I finished my accessory work. Which is to say, the massive volume of shoulder dislocates I’ve been doing (~100/workout) are working. Yeah Buddy!
    -Running out of BCAA’s, otherwise today would have been a high-carb day. I need to start ordering supps before I’m out.
13

[quote]Otep wrote:
PCH 2: ‘The Fast’ refers to the Baha’i month of fasting. I’m a Baha’i, and similar to Muslims, we fast for a month out of the year. That month happens to occur between March 2nd and March 21st (It’s uh… not the Gregorian Calendar). Instead of managing my training, and getting in at least once or twice, I pretty much said ‘fuck it!’ and stopped training. I got sick the week after the Fast was over, so I was out for a total of 4 weeks.

And yeah, I eat pretty much the same thing every day. I may switch things up and trade pinto for black beans, or alter the cut of steak, or move ground turkey in the position of chicken to prevent from getting too bored or developing allergies, but my diet stays very similar. It works, I know how to cook it all so tastes good, and there’s enough protein and calories to keep me growing.
[/quote]

Ah, I assumed it was something like that.

I think I’m stealing your food idea, a base with slight adjustments for each day. I’ve been letting myself think about what I’m going to eat, and that’s just asking for trouble.

14

I highly recommend it, Pch2. It helps simplify my life so I can accomplish more.

Wednesday 04/14/2010. Conditioning, No carb

Sprints: 4x50sec.

15

Thursday 04/15/2010. Upper Body, High carb

Landmine Row: 90-150. 9 sets
Bench Press: 175-235. 8 sets
Lat Pulldown: 160-260. 9 sets
Military Press: 115-150. 8 sets
Curlsz: worked up to 10x90 (w/ a 'lil bit of swing)
Ropedowns: worked up to 7x85
Phat Bar Deadlift: 2x5x295
RearDeltFlies: 3x6x20’s

  • BCAA’s came in. No longer skerd to go high-carb.
  • Day wasn’t as impressive as Tuesday. I chalk it up to poor sleep (been hitting 6-7 all week, started a new job).
16

Friday 04/16/2010. Lower body, High carb

Front Squat: 185-275. 9 sets
Back Squat: 275-315. 5 sets
Deadlift: 325-395*. 8 sets
Standing Calf Raise: 3x7x380
Ab Rollout: 3x12x-
Glute Bridge: 3x10x175

    • denotes a working-weight PR
  • Tried back squatting only to parallel today, instead of all the way down. I didn’t get any more weight out of it. I want feedback on this point- I’ve been squatting A2G consistently for years, thats the motor-pattern thats been engrained in my body. I’m thinking of changing it, but only if it’ll get me to 405 faster. Now, on the one hand, it seems like there’s no way it could fail to get me to 405 faster, because it’s obviously a shorter ROM. OTOH, it didn’t help today, and might not help too much in the future, because my sticking point is slightly above parallel (crazy, I know. Apparently, I get a lot of bounce out of the hole and my glutes fire like crazy, my squat doesn’t lag until it’s actually the quads doing the work).

So, should I stick to A2G? or switch to parallel? Feedback is requested.

  • My lower back rounds on my deadlift at high weight. This seems to be the limiting reagent, not my glute-strength. Should I switch glute bridges with something for my lower back to bring up that weak point? Or do lifters ALWAYS need more glute work? Again, feedback is requested. Go buck wild.
17

Saturday 04/17/2010. Accessory work, No carb

Curlsz: worked up to 7x95
Ropedowns: worked up to 8x85
PhatBarDeadlift: worked up to 5x305
StandingCalfRaise: 3x8x380
Ab Rollout: 3x13x-
Glute Bridge: 3x10x185

  • I’m experimenting with doing several sets of warm-ups, and then one max attempt. I’ve been doing the ‘three sets of X’ since forever, but there comes a point when you can no longer consistently add reps or weight for all three sets. I’m at this point, and I think switching over to a ‘final set to failure’ is a good idea. For one thing, it’s fuckin awesome to get back into making progress almost every workout. For another, the progress is linear, and easy to measure. I’ll stick with it for a while and see how it works.
  • Ab Rollouts suck. I don’t know how to progress aside from just doing them longer. Advice is requested, if any of you strange people who read click on this blog have some to offer.
18

Sunday 04/18/2010. Conditioning, No carb

Sprints: 5x50sec. Unlimited rest.

  • For some reason, lower back hurt, required me to lay down twice in between the five sprints. Like pain on squat day. Not fun. Maybe had to do with posture during previous part of the day? (lots of sitting/slouching). I dunno. I’ve tried figuring that out, but it doesn’t really seem to correlate with anything in particular.
19

Sunday 04/18/2010 Weigh-in

Weight: 250 lbs
Waist: 38"

It seems I gained weight and lost some on my waist, but my numbers didn’t go up significantly, so I’ll take that with a grain of salt. I guess the main thing I’m looking for is if 2x/week conditioning is enough to not be a fatty. I’m going to go with ‘yes’, but keep gathering data to verify.

20

[quote]Otep wrote:

  • Ab Rollouts suck. I don’t know how to progress aside from just doing them longer. Advice is requested, if any of you strange people who read click on this blog have some to offer.[/quote]

Some things I have been doing are:

Holds in the bottom position; roll out and try to hold it for 15 seconds or so then roll back up.

Add some band resistance. Its easier to use a barbell to rig the bands and I’ve been doing these a lot.

Doing a roll out standing is what I’m trying to get up to. You can also try putting your knees on a block or aerobics step to see if that adds some resistance and range of motion. I’ve been doing that too.