Undeadlift's Training Log

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
1

Hi, T-Nation. I’d like to have a training log posted here so that the comments you may have about them will push me hard into improving with each workout.

I’ve been training for 2 years, 1 from para-military stuff, 6 months in the gym without being serious, and 6 months in the gym being serious. Strength is my main purpose for training, not size or aesthetics. I want to have good PRs on the Big 3 and the olympic lifts (their power variations at least).

I started training in the gym @ 120 lbs this strong:

Deadlift: 50x15
Squat: BWx5 (lol)
Bench: 45x15
Clean: I don’t know

After getting serious in my training about 6 months ago, I am currently 148 lbs and this strong:

Deadlift: 275x1, 260x3
Squat: IDK because the gym has NO squat rack (I can’t afford the cheapest gym that has one, and it’s also too far from where I live).
Bench: 180x1
Clean: 135x1
Leg Press: 400x1

When I get strong enough, I’ll include more olympic lifts in my routines. Right now, I’ll stick to easier exercises.

I’ll start my log from right after I stopped EDT (I’m not happy with what I was able to do in EDT). 2 days ago, I did a chest workout that looked like this:

A1. DB Bench Press w/ 10 degree incline
50x7
55x5
60x3
55x7
60x5
65x0 (failure)

Today, I did a back workout that looked like this:

A1. Bent-over BB Rows
135x7
145x5
155x3
145x7
155x5
165x3
155x7
165x3 (failure)

B1. Pullups (on a chin assist machine)
BW-30x7
BW-20x5
BWx3
BW-20x7
BWx5
BW+10x3
BWx7
BW+10x3 (failure)

C1. Drop and Catch Bicep Curls (5 sets)
40x10

D1. Seated Row Backward Shrugs (3 sets)
105x6 (10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 0 second/s pause on respective rep)

Next workout, I deal with legs…

2

You certainly can do squats with no squat rack. For me the two most useful variations are barbell hack squats and pistols. Though you may not want to do hack squats on the same day as deadlifts - that’s tough on your grip.

You can also power clean and front squat, power snatch and overhead squat, the Jefferson lift, deadlift the bar to your knees then do a Zercher squat (a good way to make people look at you like you’re crazy…), do jump squats with a light weight etc.

3

I guess I can, but I won’t be able to safely test my 1RM back squat. I’ll be needing patient and competent spotters, which my gym unfortunately lacks.

4

http://www.T-Nation.com/tmagnum/readTopic.do?id=1569299&pageNo=0#1570907

You can thank me later.

5

Oh, don’t get me wrong. I squat. It’s just that I can’t test my 1RM safely without at least 2 spotters spotter.

Thanks anyway. That thread inspired me to be creative in squatting safely without a rack.

I was thinking earlier to stack step-up platforms (the thingies you use for aerobics) and set up one side of a barbell on it so that I can do lumberjack squats. Then I had another epiphany. I could use twice the number of step-up platforms and do back squats with them without needing any spotter.

I’ll be trying lumberjack squats first then back squats.

6

One thing I learned back when I was doing EDT was that supersetting dips and pullups is a bad idea. As it turns out, dips are also dependent on the lats, which is why I sucked in doing that superset in EDT.

The dips were alright, but I definitely had a hard time doing the pullups even with just my bodyweight. The only reason I decided on doing that superset was because I only needed one station (the chin and dip assist machine) to do them.

7

Today’s workout:

A1. Deadlift
225x7
245x5 (PR!)
265x3 (PR!)
245x7 (PR broken!)
265x3 (PR matched but failure)

B1. Leg Press
275x20 (using 10RM weight)

C1. Lunges (3 sets)
50xFailure

I tried doing 20-rep lumberjack squats instead of leg presses, but the trainer in the gym told me that I would wreck the oly bar if I did that, which I think is absurd. To avoid any confrontation, I did leg presses…

Although the leg presses were less demanding than real squats, they were scary. Blood didn’t seem to go to my legs because of the horizontal position, and by the 11th rep, my lower legs went numb. However, I did read somewhere (I think it was from Thibs) that lack of oxygen in a muscle during exercise can be a good thing.

My deadlift grip sucked, which is why I failed premature into the waves. I think it has something to do with my lack of sleep. Still, I made 4 PRs today, which counts for something.

8

I’ve been thinking about my strength goals today, and I think it would be nice if I gave myself specific goals for better motivation.

Deadlift = 3xBW
Squat (ATG) = 2.5xBW
Squat (powerlift style) = 3.5xBW
Bench Press = 2xBW
Power Snatch = 2xBW
Power Clean and Jerk = 2.2xBW

Being only 5’7", I think these goals are realistic.

9

I’d scrap the xBW goals and pick actual weights. Hopefully your bodyweight will be increasing, and that will fuck up your goals. Pick a weight, work till you lift it, then pick a new one.

According to your current weight (rounded to 150) you get this.

Deadlift = 450 lbs
Squat (ATG) = 375 lbs
Squat (powerlift style) = 525 lbs
Bench Press = 300 lbs
Power Snatch = 300 lbs
Power Clean and Jerk = 330 lbs

If you do get your lifts up to those, you’ll be a pretty big dude, and probably more that 150 lbs.

10

Thanks, Brant. I appreciate your insights, and those are actually good numbers to aim. I hope I can accomplish those in 3 years before I become busy in med school…

Anyway, I did OVT today, a.k.a. OBLITERATION Volume Training (it’s actually Optimized Volume Training, but you get my drift). Here’s what it looks like:

A1. DB Bench Press w/ 10 degree incline
60x5
60x5
60x3
60x3
60x2

A2. DB flyes, 602 tempo, 5 sets of 15x5

B1. Weighted Dips, 5 sets of BW+20x5

B2. Cable Flyes, 602 tempo, 5 sets of 30x5

C1. Arnold Press
45x3
40x3
40x3
40x3
40x1

C2. Lateral Raises, 602 tempo, 5 sets of 10x5

D1. Muscle Clean, 5 sets of 80x5

D2. Gironda DB Swings, 5 sets of 10x5

*quickest possible tempo unless otherwise stated; all rest periods between supersets are 120 seconds

This workout turned out to be more like a 5x5 workout gone mad. Even if I used my 6RM for my DB bench, my reps went below 5. It got even worse for arnold presses because 40 pounds is my 10RM, and because of culmulative fatigue, especially in my triceps, it became my 3RM. I even cheated (increased) my rest periods by an extra 1 minute, but it was no good. All this may have been due to constant supersetting in all exercises.

Still, it was one helluva workout. I’ll eventually get used to it. I’ll try OVT for my back on Friday.

11

Today’s workout:

A1. Bent-over BB Rows, 5 sets of 155x5

A2. Bent-over DB Flyes, 5 sets of 15x5

B1. Seated Rows, 5 sets of 135x5

B2. Bent-over Straight-arm DB Rows, 5 sets of 30x5

C1. Wide-grip pullups, 5 sets of BWx5

C2. Straight-arm Pulldowns, 5 sets of 50x5

D1. Close-grip chins
BWx5
BWx5
BWx5
BWx3
BWx2

D2. DB Pullovers, 5 sets of 30x5

*quickest possible tempo for A1, B1, C1 and D1; slowest possible negatives for A2, B2, C2 and D2 (I felt that counting the seconds for the eccentric portion of the lift took some of my strength)

Despite the fact that I lack more sleep than ever, I find this to be one of the best workouts I’ve had in months. I got my loading parameters righ, and I almost got 200 reps.

12

Even if I was able to set new PRs, I don’t like how today turned out.

A1. Deadlifts
255x5 (PR!)
255x5 (PR broken!)
255x5
255x0

A2. Nautilus Back Extensions, 3 sets of 300x5

B1. Sumo Stiff-legged Deadlifts, 5 sets of 185x5

B2. Leg Curls, 5 sets of 105x5

C1. Dynamic Lunges on Box, 3 sets of 80x5

C2. Olympic Squats, 3 sets of 80x5

*quickest possible tempo for A1, B1, C1 and D1; slowest possible negatives for A2, B2, C2 and D2

Whenever I deadlift for reps, I never let the barbell touch the ground so that I could take advantage of the stretch-shortening cycle. Unfortunately, my grip sucked, and this is where I was forced to drop the barbell each rep of the second and third sets. This is why I consider my second set better than my first; I was able to lift the weight dead from the ground five times unlike in the first set.

Unfortunately again, I couldn’t lift the damn weight on the fourth set. I was forced to skip two sets and move on to sumo SLDLs. It was the first time ever that I did SLDLs, and I have to say that it was a fun new way of hitting my hamstrings and spinal erectors.

When I did my box lunges, I get an intense tingling sensation in my right vastus medialis. This was why I stopped working out on the third set.

13

It is nice to see progress.

Keep up the good work.

14

Today’s workout:

A1. DB Bench Press w/ 10 degree incline
50x7
55x5
60x3
55x7
60x5
65x3 (PR!)
60x5 (failure)

15

Today’s workout was great. I improved a lot since I started doing wave loading. New PRs!

A1. Bent-over BB Rows
135x7
145x5
155x3
145x7
155x5
165x3
155x7
165x5 (PR!)
175x3 (PR!)
165x7 (PR broken!)
175x3 (PR matched but failure)

B1. Wide-grip Pullups (chin assist machine)
BW-30x7
BW-20x5
BWx3
BW-20x7
BWx5
BW+10x3
BWx7
BW+10x5 (PR!)
BW+20x3 (PR!)
BW+10x4 (failure)

C1. Drop and Catch Bicep Curls, 5 sets of 45x8

16

Today’s workout sucked one way and was kinda cool in another. Because of my untimely lack of sleep, my deadlift actually deteriorated. However, my leg press and lunge numbers went up. Oh well, here it is:

A1. Deadlift
225x7
245x5
265x3
245x2 (failure)

B1. Leg Press
315x20 (using 10RM weight)

C1. Walking lunges, 5 sets of 80x5 (1 left and 1 right step is one rep)

17

Tomorrow, I will do something I’ve never done before - lift weights twice. I’m gonna do a CNS-intensive upper body push workout in the morning and a beyond muscular failure upper body pull workout in the afternoon. I wanna see how much I could stand.

18

As promised, I did the first half of today’s training in the morning. Here it is:

A1. Power Clean and Press, 5 sets of 115x5, classic cluster set style

B1. Decline Smith-Machine Bench Press, 5-4-3-2-1 cluster style
140x5-4-3-2-1
160x5-4-3-2-1

Clean and presses have always been my favorite exercise along with deadlifts, and doing them cluster style never fails to put an espresso in my sytem. I feel so invigorated whenever I do them, and today was no different.

I usually clean from a hang since I felt I was weak from the floor, but because I felt really good, I “unconsciously” cleaned from the floor in the third set and told myself, “Hey, that felt really great.” I continued to clean from the floor since then, and even more espresso rushed through my veins.

I did Smith benches because that’s the only way I can do declines in my gym. Besides, I always use dumbells, and it was time I gave my stabilizers a break and get my prime movers to go all out. I actually noticed an increase in strength since the last time I did them 2 months ago, and I felt I could do a triple with 180 pounds, maybe even more. 180 BTW was my 1RM for this exercise back then. All those DB benches I did wave-loading and OVT style must have paid off, not to mention heavy machine bench negatives I did back in my EDT days last month.

I’ll be going back to the gym in a few hours to obliterate my back muscles. I hope the espresso is still flowing when I get there.

19

If my first workout was espresso, my second workout was tequila.

A1. Iso-dynamic straight-arm pulldowns, 10/8/6/4/2/0 seconds pause at the bottom each respective rep
50x6
60x6

A2. Straight-arm pulldowns, normal repetitions
35x20
45x5

A3. Negative only wide-grip pullups, 2 sets of BWx8

A4. BB plate pullovers, 2 sets of 35x8

B1. Lat Pulldown complex consisting of:
-Behind the neck lat pulldowns
-Front lat pulldowns
-Leaning lat pulldowns
-Lower back lat pulldowns (a.k.a. lat pulldowns with excessive cheating)
-3 sets
-All sets using 120 pounds of weight to failure on each stage

C1. Seated Rows, 2 sets
-Drop set
-Starting weight = 135 pounds
-30 pound deduction per drop
-Ending weight = 45 pounds
-Each weight done to failure

My first exercise was an insane pre-post-exhaust superset. It had isometrics and negatives in it as well. I was burned out after only 2 sets, and I got very weak by the time I did my lat pulldown complexes. Then, I had to deal with 2 sets of extreme drop setting in my seated rows.

Needless to say that I feel exhausted. I just tried this workout, and even before I did it, I promised myself never to do this workout for a long time. I knew from the start that this was a workout from hell. Oh well.

20

Today’s workout sucked, big time.

A1. Deadlift
225x10

B1. Deadlift, 5x5 cluster set
275x3 cluster style (PR!)
(I planned to do it 5x5, but I felt so lethargic that I was only able to get 3 reps out of 25 and 1 set out of 5. This was a PR, though since 275 used to be my 1RM)

C1. Sumo stiff-legged deadlift, 5 sets of 185x10

D1. Squat cleans, 5 sets of 95x5

I think my CNS has taken too much a beating for the past few workouts, and it must have been confounded by my continuing lack of sleep. I guess I’ll have to drop my ego for a while and work on my strength endurance instead for my next workouts to spare my CNS from burning out. Say hello to 3 sets of 12…