Paused Bench Press:
-45 x 20
-95 x 10
-135 x 10
-185 x 5
-225 x 5
-275 x 3
-325 x 3
-325 x 3
Paused Close Grip:
-135 x 5
-185 x 5
-225 x 5
-285 x 3
-285 x 3
Incline Bench Press:
-135 x 10
-185 x 10
-225 x 9
-225 x 4 cant even feel chest activate, fucks me off
Dumbbell Flyes:
-25 x 3 x 10
Rolling DB Extension
-25 x 10
-50 x 6
-30 x 20 at least
-30 x 30
Used a junk bar that spins, has bearings in it. Not to mention my neck and everything around my scapula is fuckin tight, shoulders unstable, nerves in my chest shut off, fucked up. My numbers today were shit regardless of what excuse I make. Something needs to change soon if I wanna win this meet, that’s for sure.
I have been getting massage recently, but haven’t had it for about 3 weeks now. My friend’s wife does it for me and she is nice enough to do it for free which I really appreciate. I’ll likely be having it done more soon, and there are of course other things I can do on my own to improve it, like not doing shrug workouts like friday’s for instance… lol
Standing Military Press:
-45 x 10
-95 x 5
-135 x 5
-165 x 5
-195 x 4 shit
-155 for 3 sets of around 8
-The strength is there, I’m just not used to this movement. I know this because my warmups were flyin up including the 165. Oh well, will do it every week.
Flat Bench Press:
-45 x 20
-95 x 20
-135 x 20
-185 x 10
-225 x 20
-225 x 15 (last 5 paused)
Close Grip Bench:
-135 x 10
-185 x 15
-185 x 15
Dips:
-just with bodyweight, few sets trying to get as deep of a stretch as possible
Incline Dumbbell Flyes/Seated Lateral Raises/Underhand Tricep Extension
-went back and forth between these with 30lbs/30lbs/100lbs respectively. Went for like 4 rounds of 10-15 on each
Front Squat:
-45 x 5
-95 x 5
-135 x 5
-185 x 5
-225 x 5
-275 x 0 almost died. Unracked the bar, next thing you know I was outside of the rack stumbling around and the bar was on the safeties. For 3-4 months now, I’ve been feeling like I’m going to pass out every time I unrack 3 or more plates on front squats. I finally did pass out, but on a warmup…
-there goes that I guess
Dead Lift:
-135 x 5
-225 x 5
-315 x 3
-405 x 3
-465 x 3
-525 x 5
Shit mate, that does not sound like fun. Is it from the internal pressure trying to keep your core rigid or what? How do you rack your front squat… Olympic style, crossed arm…?
Yeah man it’s not fun, makes me mad because if I’m not hitting my front squats, my high bar squats won’t be at their best either. I suspect this feeling has been from my tight chest and neck. Breathing muscles like the STM and pec minor are and have been very tight recently, and I’ve noticed that this problem I’ve been having on front squats only started when I had been experiencing this tightness. I do what I can to stretch my chest and my fuckin neck but It’s only gonna get better so fast. Taking today and sunday off and planning on doing a good amount of stretching and rolling at work. Hopefully I’ll come back next week and be able to do some effective pressing work and SOME work on front squats at least.
And for what it’s worth I do cross arm on my front squats
Paused Bench Press:
-45 x 20
-45 x 20
-95 x 10
-135 x 10
-185 x 5
-225 x 5
-275 x 5 felt easy but it’s felt easier
-325 x 5 Most I’ve done in a while sadly, 5th rep felt kind of hard
-315 x 5 Dropped 10lbs cause I knew I wouldn’t get 5 with 325 again. Sure enough last rep felt just as hard as the 325 set. Fuck sake
Paused Close Grip Bench:
-135 x 10
-185 x 5
-225 x 5
-275 x 5
-should have done another set but some guy was askin me questions and I talked a lot to him about his squat form. Felt like I wasn’t warmed up anymore so I removed the weight
Weighted Dips:
-BW x 10
-45 x 10
-90 x 10
-90 x 10
Incline Dumbbell Flyes:
-25 for a few sets, still couldn’t feel it much
Standing Military Press:
-45 x 10
-95 x 10
-135 x 5
-165 x 5
-195 x 5 crap, pissed
-155 x 10
-155 x 7 if im lucky
-Something doesn’t feel right with this exercise. Might switch to seated till my meet
Flat Bench Press (Bands 70lbs at the top?):
-65+bands x 10
-65+bands x 10
-155+bands x 5
-205+bands x 5 sets of 3, lowered it down extremely slow then blasted it up explosively
Incline Dumbbell Press
-50 x 10
-100 x 20
-100 x 16
-100 x 12
-100 x 10
Dead Lift:
-135 x 5
-225 x 5
-315 x 5
-405 x 3
-475 x 3
-545 x 3
All 3 reps felt easy, I had more in the tank for sure but I wasn’t in the right frame of mind. A trainer at my gym had 2 clients on 2 squat racks on opposite ends of the space i was deadlifting in front of them. They were also using the leg press which is on one side of the area and the calf raise which is on the other side. They were people zipping by me constantly and they actually asked me to move the bar once lol. I was really annoyed and just not focused on my deadlifting.
Stiff Leg Deads:
-135 x 5
-225 x 5
-315 x 5
-315 x 5
I just haven’t been clicking with this movement lately, I’m thinking about throwing in ham glute raises and good mornings on both lower body days instead.
Leg Press (never do this lol):
-180 x 10
-360 x 10
-540 x 10 felt like this was a good working weight for now
-540 x 10 felt too light
-630 x 10
Hanging Leg Raises
-Couple sets of 20 and also a couple sets of those wheel ones. Surprised I can do the wheel ones at my body weight
Didn’t log my Friday session but it wasn’t much anyhow. Some back/biceps with pretty much weighted pullups, machine rows, barbell shrugs up to 500lbs, and a bit of biceps and rear delts at the end. I’ll be doing chest/shoulders/triceps tomorrow and do some heavy benching
Yeah I always do them dead stop standing on a 100lb plate for a deficit. I George Leeman’s version of RDL’s would only be effective for someone at his strength level lol. The thing about them is the ROM is so short and the bar is constantly moving so you kinda have to go higher in the reps to keep the form good. Doing a set of 5 would be a little precarious I think lol. It works for someone like him who is able to do like 545x20 on them tho. I don’t think what I’d be doing for 20 reps on an RDL would have much of an effect.
Speaking of deadlifting, yesterday I pulled 565x3 which is a 15lb pr for a triple. I also did 4 sets of seated good mornings with 185, 4 sets of glute ham raises, and 4 sets of ab rolls. The rest of my training this week has been junk so I ain’t posting it.
It wouldn’t take Alex long to build up to higher rep ones though. My max is in the mid 5’s right now I would assume based off other lifts. I started out doing 275 for 20 when I ran a modified PROM cycle and now I can get between 365 and 405 for 20 based on the day in the style he does them. They do wonders for your back strength and right around the knee. Obviously you know what you’re doing pulling 565 for 3 (congrats on that by the way), just opening up discussion for arguments sake really.
Damn that’s a pretty quick increase. Maybe it’s one of those things where you can simply just slap weight on every week and get the same amount of reps. Similar to how rows and shrugs are like that, I think George discusses that with regards to those exercises too. Any you’ve noticed a big carryover to your deadlift from them as well? I’ll experiment with them in about a month, after my meet, I just don’t want to introduce something that foreign too close I guess. After the meet I’m gonna switch my deadlift training up with different variations too (block pulls from different heights, trap bar, etc). I’ll start with a different variation every week and maybe follow it up with those rdls for sets of 20. How often per week do you do them?
^I guess I’ll address this since I kind of mentioned it above. I wanted to start training for strongman after this meet and do a competition in that too. Instead of starting my workouts with a specific main lift and then building around it like how I do now, I’m gonna start each workout with a variation I think. Like what I mentioned with deadlift above, or for shoulder press I’ll do axle press one week, log press one week, barbell press, etc. I’ll still train like a bodybuilder as I do now because I want my whole body strong, but I also want to build overall strength with these different variations to be ready for any strongman event. I’ll also be signing up at a new gym that has strongman equipment. I know that they have a yoke walk, a log press, and maybe farmers handles as well. I’m not sure about stones, but I’ll figure it out.
I wouldn’t say a big carryover to my dead, but it did help sticking around the knee for me. It also helps make my low back feel more “bulletproof” the stronger I get. If I can do those for 20 with a weight I know 5 full reps with the same weight won’t fuck me up basically. I don’t do them always either. I cycle accessories quite often, but when I do them I work up to a few top singles to triples of conventional deads and finish with a high rep set of RDLs. Usually about 50-75 pounds less than I pulled conventionally.