Wanna be Elite...

Training Logs
1

I haven’t updated this first page in a while, so figure its time for some new info.

First off, don’t pay any attention to the pics on this page–that was back when I wanted to be a “powerbuilder” or whatever the hell that is…plus I was tiny haha…

I’m mostly doing 5-3-1 with some sporadic bodybuilding training thrown in once a year or so when I feel like I need the break from Wendlerism…

Done a couple meets, most recent one was in October 2011 with a 1488 Total in the 308 Weight Class (551-374-563)…planning to do another one in July of this year

Latest stuff starts on Page 14 of this log.

I’ve just got all my training history here for ease of access:

V-Diet #1: Forums - T Nation - The World's Trusted Community for Elite Fitness

Starting Strength: Forums - T Nation - The World's Trusted Community for Elite Fitness

V-Diet #2: http://velocity.tmuscle.com/free_online_forum/diet_performance_nutrition_bodybuilding_velocity_logs/blast_dust_powerlifter_attempts_to_fit_into_singlet

I, Bodybuilder: http://tnation.T-Nation.com/free_online_forum/blog_sports_body_training_performance_bodybuilding_ibb_log/vtballa34s_ibb_training_log

Alright lets set some PR’s!

2

Originally posted 31 August 2009

Coming off Starting Strength for the past 3 months or so and made some good gains there, but squatting three times a week was starting to take its toll on my recovery. Plus that much leg work made energy systems work on off days very difficult, so I gained a little more fat mass than I would have liked. I think 5-3-1 is a good program to transition to now that I have my basic strength built up and can actually do a little bit of conditioning again. So let’s see how it goes!

Starting 5-3-1 this Wednesday (2 September) so I thought I’d go ahead and capture all my thoughts in a log so I can make sure I’m ready to roll. Already got the e-book and read through it and am going to be using the Triumvirate template. Programming should look like:

PROGRAMMING
Sunday
Military Press - 5/3/1
Dips - 5x15
Chinups - 5x10

Monday
Deadlift - 5/3/1
Good Morning - 5x12
Leg Raises - 5x15

Wednesday
Bench - 5/3/1
DB Bench - 5x15
DB Row - 5x10

Friday
Squat - 5/3/1
Leg Press - 5x15
Leg Curl - 5x10

1 RM Maxes as of this week are:
Squat - 425 (tested)
Military - 170 (tested)
Deadlift - 405 (tested)
Bench - 310 (calculated)

ENERGY SYSTEMS
Energy systems work will be 2 days a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Tuesday I will do a V-Burn Challenge, which is 5 or so circuits of different bodyweight exercises used on the V-Diet. Thursday is a Tabatas workout using Front Squats. Not sure how much weight I’ll be using, but the first time I tried these was last week and I puked after 2.5 minutes with an empty bar, so this will be interesting.

Also going to do half hour NEPA walks after my workouts on lifting days.

I will reevaluate adding in more conditioning work if I start to adapt to this or my bodyfat starts to creep up, but for now I think it will be ok since I’m not currently doing ANY energy systems work.

DIET
Diet is going to be eating around 4,000 calories a day. Workout days will be higher carbs, with low carbs on my non workout days. I am taking advice from Jim Wendler in an e-mail he wrote about nutrition advocating a 40 g or so protein shake before meals, followed by a lean protein source, then fruits and veggies, and finally some starchy carbs if still not full. Seems to make sense in keeping the starches to a minimum.

I’ll be doing this before breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Will be having super shakes as snacks in between (1-2 a day) and cottage cheese/cocoa/peanut butter mix before bed.

I’ll be following Thibideau’s Peri-Workout protocol as follows:
WO - 60: Alpha-GPC (2 caps)
WO - 45: FINiBAR (1 bar)
WO - 30: Surge Workout Fuel (2 scoops) + Creatine (5g)
WO - 15: Surge Recovery (1 scoop)
WO (30 min in): Surge Recovery (1 scoop)
WO + 15: Grow! Whey (1 scoop) + Creatine (5g)
WO + 60: P+C Meal

Not exactly how he has it lined out, but its what fits my needs the best for now.

Going to be putting up starting stats, measurements, and pics Monday or Tuesday. Can’t wait to get started!

Starting Stats
Wanted to get my starting stats and pics up last week, but that didn’t turn out so hot. I got my measurements in, but tried to do bodyfat and do pictures; failed at both. My roommate wasn’t doing the calipers correctly, or I have lost 10 lbs of LBM in a month while my bodyfat has skyrocketed from 13.7% to around 23%.

I don’t think that’s likely and I will get someone that actually knows what they’re doing to retest me soon. As for the pictures, the chick roommate I live with of course couldn’t figure out how to work her digital camera after taking them (that’s kind of a lie, she just couldn’t find the cord) so they are lost in limbo somewhere. Hope to get those up soon.

Starting Measurements are:
Biceps: 16.25
Chest: 47.25
Stomach (Navel): 41.25
Stomach (Widest): 41.25
Above Hips: 39
Quads: 23

3

Cycle 1 - Wave A

Workout 1 - Wednesday 2 September 09
Bench (3x5): 180, 210, 235 (10)
DB Bench (5x15): 55x2, 55x2, 45x2 (11), 45x2, n/a
1 Arm DB Row (5x10): 45x2, 45x2, n/a, n/a, n/a

I was trying out my peri-workout protocol for the first time here and got really sick about midway through the DB Bench sets. Not sure if it was the 2nd serving of Surge I slammed right before DB Bench, or just that my conditioning sucks from not being used to doing high rep sets (was doing SS for 3 months prior, with no set over 5 reps and every exercise only 3 sets). The volume is killer here and is definitely going to take some getting used to. I just gotta not be a pussy and push through it. But at any rate, I was about to puke after DB Bench, switched over to DB row and it got worse, so I went home this day.

My main lift was good though. Good form and felt strong.

Workout 2 - Friday 4 September 09
Squat (3x5): 250, 285, 325 (10)
Leg Press (5x15): 315, 315, 315, n/a, n/a
Leg Curl (5x10): 130, 150, 130

Same thing today with the nausea towards the end of the workout. I think I could have pushed through it today though, but I was short on time because I had a flight to catch. Squat form was good and felt strong.

Workout 3/4 - Tuesday 8 September 09
Deadlift (3x5): 235, 275, 310 (8)
Military (3x5): 100, 115, 130 (11)
Dips (2x15): Body, Body

So I didn’t work out Sunday because I twisted my ankle in a drunken football tailgating accident on Saturday (and Hokies lost, bad day). I wanted to give my ankle a days rest so I took sunday off with the intention of going in Monday and blasting out a good workout with deadlifts and military, plus 1 accessory exercise from each, in one workout. Turns out Gold’s closed early on Labor Day (thanks for not putting up a sign, assholes…) so I essentially missed two workouts in a row. What made it worse is that I took in my peri-workout nutrition before realizing gym was closed, so i was all amped up on a sugar buzz with nowhere to go. I stretched and foam rolled, and tried some jumping rope to see if my ankle felt better (it did, but I really suck at jumping rope).

So I took Tuesday to get in my two major lifts that I had missed Sunday/Monday, and did a bit of accessory work with dips. Military felt good and I was able to pound out 11 reps. My deadlift grip started to slip around rep 8 so I didn’t push that. Dips were really tough.

So there is Week 1. Got all my main lifts in, but sucked it up on the accessory work big time. It was a good learning week and I think I’m really going to enjoy this program, if I can get used to the high reps soon. I figure it is just a matter of my body getting used to it. Plus, since I hate them so much, it makes me think I should be trying harder to do them more since they’re probably good for me.

Stay tuned for Week 2 bitches…peace

4

Cycle 1 - Wave B

Workout 1 - Wednesday 9 September 09
Bench (3x3): 195, 225, 250 (9)
DB Bench (5x15): 55x2, 55x2, 55x2, 45x2, 45x2
DB Row (5x10): 45x2, 45x2, 45x2, 45x2, 45x2

Good workout. My bench went from an estimated 313 after Week 1 to 325 after week 2. Probably had something to do with the lower reps prior to the last set, but still good progress. Accessory work was decent. I just don’t have a lot of juice left to get those high reps in with respectable weights. I think people in the weight room were laughing at me cause I was struggling to bench 110 lbs worth of dumbbells! I don’t think they realized I had just set a new PR on flat bench just prior to that…haha

Workout 2 - Friday 11 September 09
Squat (3x3): 270, 305, 345 (8)
Leg Press (5x15): 270, 270, 320, 320, 320
Leg Curl (5x10): 110, 130, 130, 120, 110

Squat estimated max went from 433 in Week 1 to 437 in Week 2. Nothing outrageous, but progress nonetheless.

Workout 3 - Sunday 13 September 09
Military (3x3): 105, 120, 140 (12)
Dip (5x10): Body, Body, Body (8), 10 (10), 18.5 (10)
Pullup (5x10): 78 (8), 95 (8), 110 (10), 110 (8), 110 (10)

Shattered my PR on Military this session. I could only get 11 reps at 130 the week before, but got 12 reps at 140 this week. I felt really strong on this exercise. Estimated max jumped from 178 to 196!!! This was awesome. On a more humbling note: I really suck at dips and pullups. I can get a few reps in before my form goes to shit and my arms start to give out. I’ve never really done pullups before, so they will probably start coming along as long as I work hard at them, but fuck they are really embarrassing. Hopefully they come up to speed quickly so I stop looking like a bitch trying to do them with 100 lbs of assistance!

Workout 4 - Monday 14 September 09
Deadlift (3x3): 255, 290, 330 (10)
Hanging Leg Raise: 5, 5 (?), 5, 5, 5
Back Extension Station (5x10): 10, 10, 10, 10, 10 (all bodyweight)

So I finally got my FiniBars and Alpha GPC in today so I could finally do the entire peri-workout protocol I outlined in my introduction, and HOLY SHIT!!! I’m not entirely sure this had everything to do with it, but I went to the gym with more energy than I had ever had and was ready to train my ass off. I warmed up with foam rolling, stretching, and jumping rope and moved right into my workout. Shattered my Deadlift PR. I was only able to pull 310 for 8 reps last week and hit 330 for 10 reps this week. Estimated max went from 393 to 440!!! Insane jump. Knees raises were a bitch and a half. I’m too tall for the station I did them at, but that is the tallest point in the gym to hang on to so I have to do. Might try straps next time to support myself, but these bitches are tough. Abs are sore as shit today. Fucking awesome workout.

Alright, so Week 2 is in the books. Got all my main lifts in with the assistance exercises this week. Next week I might even start some energy systems work! Get crunk…

5

Cycle 1 - Wave C

Workout 1 - Wednesday 16 September 09
Bench (5-3-1): 210, 235, 265 (8)
DB Bench: 60x2, 50x2, 50x2, 50x2, -
1 Arm DB Row: 50, 50, 50, -, -

Had to cut this training session a bit short since I had a flight to catch. New Bench PR corresponds to 336# max (+11# from Wave B!).

Workout 2 - Sunday 20 September 09
Squat (5-3-1): 285, 325, 365 (6)

I got home late from my business trip on Friday and immediately left for Blacksburg to watch VT pull off an awesome go ahead TD in the final 30 seconds. So training for the weekend was pretty much shot. Got home late Sunday and only had time to get squat in before gym closed. New PR corresponds to 438# max (+1# from Wave B)

Workout 3 - Monday 21 September 09
Deadlift (5-3-1): 275, 310, 345 (9)
Military (5-3-1): 115, 130, 145 (10)
Pullup: 5, 4, 4.5, 4, 3.5
Dip: 8, 8, 8

Combined Deadlift and Military into one workout, new PR on deadlift corrsponds to 448 max (+8 from Wave B). Military press correponded to 193# max (-3# from Wave B). Probably less due to performing deadlift prior. Not sure, but still happy with my overall progress.

6

Cycle 1 - Wave D

Deload week

Workout 1 - Friday 25 September 09
Squat (3x5): 155, 190, 230
Leg Press (4x10) : 150, 180, 180, 180
Leg Curl (4x7) : 80, 80, 80, 80
Bench (3x5): 110, 140, 165

Combined Bench and Squat into Workout 1.

Workout 2 - Monday 28 September 09
Deadlift (3x5): 145, 185, 225
Military (3x5): 60, 75, 90
Pullup (3x5): 5, 5, 5
Dip (3x7): 7, 7, 7

I get the idea behind them, but man, deload weeks really suck. There were a couple of douchebags deadlifting on Monday and they seemed pretty excited about it. When I got over to the area, one of the guys had the bar loaded up with 425 on the ground. I was impressed that he was about to lift it because he wasn’t that big.

Turns out he was just doing a really heavy good morning since he used zero leg motion at all for his DL. Oh well…It was a really hard pill to swallow to check my ego at the door and just do the 225 set and quit there (same for the 90 lb military!). Oh well, I managed to do it.

One good thing about deload weeks though is it really makes you itch to get back into the gym and start setting new PRs again! Can’t wait until Cycle 2!

7

Cycle 1 Stats

Starting (8/31/09)
Bodyweight: 246
Squat: 425
Bench: 310
Military: 170
Deadlift: 405

Cycle 1 End (9/29/09)
Bodyweight: 257.4
Squat: 438 (+13)
Bench: 336 (+26)
Military: 193 (+23)
Deadlift: 448 (+43)

So I know these numbers might not be the most accurate since they’re based on a formula (and they are ridiculous for a one month gain), but I’ve found in the past that the formula is pretty close so we’ll see when I actually test the true maxes here in a month or so.

Overall I’m very happy with my gains in the first month. 5-3-1 is definitely something that I can see myself sticking with for a long time if I’m going to keep going into the gym and breaking PRs every workout. Awesome feeling.

Gained a little too much weight probably, but I hadn’t been doing a really good job keeping track of the scale since I’m travelling so much for work. Definitely need to start the energy systems work up to keep fat gain to a minimum. Starting pics and Month 1 pics to follow.

8


Starting Pic - Front

9


Starting Pic - Side

10


Cycle 1 Pic - Front

11


Cycle 1 Pic - Side

12

Cycle 1 Pic - Back

13

So I have been real shitty updating this log. I’ve been real busy with traveling for work that I just haven’t had the time. But I have been hittin the gym hard and keeping track of my log on paper. So without further ado, lets get back to brass tacks:

Cycle 2 - Wave A

Workout 1 - Wednesday 30 September 09
Bench (3x5): 185, 215, 240 (12)
DB Bench (5x15): 60, 60 (12), 50, 50, 50
1 Arm DB Row (5x10): 50, 50, 60, 60 (?), 50

I was itching to get back into the gym after my deload week and started out the cycle with a new bench PR…nice!

Workout 2 - Friday 2 October 09
Squat (3x5): 255, 295, 335 (11)
Leg Press (5x15): 45, 145, 245, 300, 345
Single Leg Curl (5x10): 45, 55, 5, 45, 40

Good new PR on squat. The leg press and leg curl machines were pretty strange. Tested out the equipment with low weight before getting into the set. Still didn’t like the leg press so I didn’t push it; I always felt like I was about to fuck up my knees locking it out. Completely piece of shit equipment.

Workout 3 - Sunday 4 October 09
Military (3x5): 100, 120, 135 (14)
Pullup (30 total): 5, 5 (?), 5 (?), 3, 3, 3, 3, 3
Dips: -

New PR on Military. Pullups still giving me a lot of trouble. Used a mixed grip (chins, pullups, and neutral grips) for balance and struggled with all of them.

Workout 4 - Monday 5 October 09
Deadlift (3x5): 245, 280, 315 (13)
Hanging Leg Raises 6, 5, 5, 4, 4
Back Extension (5x10): 10, 10, 10, 10, 10

Overall a good week. 3 new PRs and feeling good.

14

Cycle 2 - Wave B

Workout 1 - Wednesday 7 October 09
Bench (3x3): 200, 225, 255 (10)
DB Bench (5x15): 70, 70, 70 (12), 55, 55
Kroc Row (1x20): 55
DB Row (3x10): 55, 55, 55

Workout 2 - Friday 9 October 09
Squat (3x3): 275, 315, 350 (9)
Leg Press (3x15): 100, 300, 400(12)
Single Leg Curl (5x10): 50, 55, 50, 50, 45

Retarded leg press machine again so i didn’t push it hard. Squats felt good.

Workout 3 - Monday 12 October 09
Military (3x3): 110, 125, 140 (9)
Deadlift: 250, 300, 335 (7)
Pullups (20): 5, 5, 5, 5
Dip (3x8): 8, 8, 3

15

Cycle 2 - Wave C

Workout 1 - Wednesday 14 October 09
Bench (5-3-1): 215, 240, 275 (~8)
DB Bench (5x15): 70, 70, 70 (12), -, -
DB Rows: n/a

My notes for bench say “retarded spotter” and I had forgotten about this until now. I was training at the Gold’s in San Diego because I was on travel for work and needed a spotter for my PR attempt. I looked around and for only being a couple hundred miles away from where the original Gold’s started, there sure as shit weren’t many impressive looking physiques in the gym. There was one guy that seemed to know what he was doing so I asked him for a spot. Bad mistake. This guy was the biggest brotard ever. He had hand on the bar, or at least close to it, for the entire set, despite my initial instructions for a hand off only and then to pull it if I got stuck. Even on the second or third rep when I told him I had it, he didn’t take the hint to remove his hands and must have thought I was looking for encouragement because he started shouting “Hell yeah you have it! That’s all you bro! Push that weight! its eay bro!”. I was so fucking pissed at the end of my set because I really felt like I could have gotten 8 good reps that day without giving my spotter a traps workout. Oh well, lesson learned.

So there was a chiropractor next door to the Gold’s offering a free consultation for Gold’s members. I had been having a bit of muscle pain in my lower back from a strained muscle from my last squat workout, so i went to talk to the doc for a few and ended up getting an adjustment. Looking back now, I really wish I hadn’t (more on that in a bit).

Workout 2 - Friday 16 October 09
Squat (5-3-1): 295, 335, 370 (5)

I got another adjustment because my back had tightened up again from the other and this is when things totally went to shit. When I got back to DC that night, my back immediately started to lock up and I had a lot of pain Saturday. By Sunday, I could barely get out of bed and had zero mobility in my back from the swelling. By Sunday evening, the pain was unbearable. Sunday night I went to Jerry’s Subs and couldn’t even sit down so I had to eat standing up. Midway through the meal my entire body locked up from pain and it dropped me to my knees. My roommate drove me to the ER and I got a shot to loosen me up and some pain killers and muscle relaxers to take for the next few days. I was in bed for the next 3 days straight until it finally loosened up enough for me to move around the house a bit.

So basically I went to the chiro because I had a bit of a muscle strain and wanted to talk about some possible imbalances, and ended up bedridden for nearly a week because of adjustments. I am pretty sure that it herniated one of my discs (or brought an already herniated disc to light). Either way, my back was pretty fine before with just some occasional tightness after squats/DLs, but it turns out that I am now battling a back injury for the past month and a half. Very annoying stuff that definitely gets in the way of lifting.

So obviously I did not do my Military or Deadlift workouts this Wave.

16

Cycle 2 - Wave D (Deload)

As previously mentioned, I was layed up all this week with a back injury so I obviously didn’t lift. I guess the back injury occurred at a good time from a lifting prospective since I didn’t miss a lot of time from the main program with it. I ended up taking another week of doing nothing to let my back heal and finally decided to hit it again at the start of November.

17

Cycle 3 - Wave A

Workout 1 - Friday 6 November 09
Bench (3x5): 185, 215, 245 (11)
DB Incline (5x10): 50, 60, 60?, 50, 50
Inverse Row (5x10): 10x, 5, 8, 8, -

So I took a bit of extra time off due to my back injury and decided to hit it again 3 weeks later. It took a lot of willpower to even get me to the gym. My g/f (who is an avid weightlifter and recently hit a 225 squat twice!) convinced me to go since I was visiting her for the weekend and I’m really glad I did. I was very close to letting my back injury get me down and just decided to suck it up and get back at it. It helps that it was a bench workout with very little back strain. Figure that was the best way to ease back in to it.

The 245 for 11 was pretty easy. I felt like I had 12, and possibly even 13, but I didn’t have a spotter and didn’t want to push it on my first day back. I decided to do inverse rows instead of DB rows and they were really tough, but I like them! I will probably incorporate them as my main rowing exercise instead of the DB rows going forward.

Workout 2 - Monday 9 November 09
Deadlift (3x5): 250, 285, 325 (8)
Standing Military: 105, 120, 140(12)
Dips (3x8): 8, 8, 8
Pullups (3x5): 5, 5, 5

I was concerned going into this workout about my back, but it ended up being fine. Its weird how DL’s don’t really seem to affect my lower back at all. Maybe that means I have good form? haha. I only got 8, but I felt like I had an easy 10-12 but started gagging from the exertion and the pre workout Surge (there are a LOT of calories/liquids in the peri-workout protocol I’m using and I find myself gagging quite often when putting forth a lot of effort). At any rate, I was satisfied with my DL strength.

New PR on Military this week.

Dips and pullups were hard, as always. I don’t know why but my dips have actually gotten weaker. Pullups were a mix of underhand, overhand, and neutral.

Workout 3 - Thursday 12 November 09
Squat (3x5): 260, 300, 340 (5)
Leg Press (3x12): 360, 360, 270
Leg Curl (3x10): 130, 150, 140

Dum Dum Dum!!! The infamous squat returns. Very nervous going into this workout. I nailed my warmup sets and my first two working sets and was feeling good going into the money set. Unfortunately, I struggled mightily. Don’t get me wrong, I was happy to be able to put that much weight on my back, and was definitely happy I didn’t fuck my back up any more, but I could feel the pain shooting through and just didn’t feel as strong as I had previously on it. But its progress, and I’ll take it.

18

Cycle 3 - Wave B

Workout 1 - Sunday 15 November 09
Bench (3x3): 200, 230, 260 (9)
DL (3x3): 270, 305, 345 (10)
Row (5x10): 8, 10, 10, 60 (8), 50 (10) [First 3 sets were inverted rows]
Abs wheel (5 sets): 6, 6, 6, 6, -

Good workout. I decided to throw the abs wheel in at the end in an attempt to help my back heal, and it helped tremendously! I could almost feel the herniation (or whatever it is) being pressed back into place. I’m definitely going to make these a staple in my workouts going forward.

Workout 2 - Monday 16 November 09
Military (3x3): 115, 130, 145 (10)
Pullups (3 sets): 6, 5, 4
Dip: 10, 8, 10
Lat Pulldown (2x10): 10, 11 [This is the pin position at the Gold’s in Ballston, not sure what the weight was]

I had a lot of arch in my back in the overhead press so it wasn’t a clean 10 reps. I think a lot of that had to do with the little rest between my workout the day before (in which I did both bench and DL’s) and the abs workout. Was on a tight schedule to make a flight so I didn’t get to do any ab wheel rollouts.

Workout 3 - Wednesday 18 November 09
Squat (3x3): 280, 320, 360 (6)
Leg Press (5x10): 400 (12), 450, 490, 490 (8), 400
Leg Curl (5x10): 8, 10, 10 (8), 8, 9 [This was the pin setting at the gym at Bangor Submarine Base]

This was one of the best workouts I have ever had in my life. I came into the gym pumped and ready to squat and make up for last week’s lackluster numbers. I had told myself going in that I would stop at 5 good reps, but the 5th one was so easy with good form that I went ahead and hit another rep. I was pretty sure that I had another couple reps in the tank, but didn’t want to push it this week with the lingering back injury.

Leg press and Leg curl both felt awesome. Great workout!

19

Cycle 3 - Wave C

Workout 1 - Saturday 21 November 09
Bench (5-3-1): 215, 245, 275(8)
DB Incline (5x10): 80, 80 (8), 70 (7.5), 60, -
Inverted Row (5x10): 10, 10, 10, 8, 6.5
Abs Wheel: 8, 6, 5

New PR in Bench. Good on Inverted Rows; I think I got more reps in there than I ever have. Threw up doing my last set on the ab roller. That thing is no joke.

Workout 2 - Sunday 22 November 09
Deadlift (5-3-1): 285, 325, 365 (8)
Hanging Ab Raise (5): 8, 8, 7, 7, 7
Glute Ham Raise (5x10): 10, 6, 10, 10, 10

Good Workout. New PR in Deadlift. I wanted to go back at the end to do a true 1 RM test, but didn’t have enough left in the tank by the time the workout was over. Hamstring tightened up on my second set of glute ham raises (they didn’t have a hyperextension station) but was good after that.

Workout 3 - Wednesday 15 November 09
Military (5-3-1): 120, 140, 155 (9)
Pullups: 6, 5, 4, 4
Dips: 7, -, -, -, -

New PR on Military, plus the reps calculation indicates 201# for my RM. Finally broke the 200 barrier! Fuckin ay. Didn’t have enough time/energy to really bang out the dips. Plus the dip station wasn’t very conducive at the high school gym I was lifting at.

Workout 4 - Friday 27 November 09
Squat (5-3-1): 300, 340, 380 (3)

So after last week’s success at squats, I was real excited to go in this week and try for a new PR. My back felt good going into it (aside from a little strain from doing military’s two days before). My warmup sets felt good, but my working sets felt heavy, and by the time I was at the money set, it just felt like the world was on my back. I struggled for 3 reps and twitched a little for the third one so I decided to shut it down there. Probably had 4 reps if I wanted to push it, but obviously not a good idea.

Rep wise, the calculated max is lower than it had been the previous week, which really sucks since I was really going to go for a PR. I think a couple things could have contributed to this: 1) It was fairly early in the morning (I usually lift at night) 2) I hadn’t had any solid food yet that day. Only nutrition was my peri-workout protocol. 3) I drank on Thanksgiving night. 4) Didn’t feel as safe because I didn’t have any horizontal safety bars to dump the weight on if I got stuck.

Not making excuses, but I think the cumulative effect of these probably held me back. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing what I can do on Cycle 4. My back is feeling a lot better (though not 100%) and I set 3 new personal records this week! Not too bad.

20

Cylce 3 - Wave D

So this was my deload week. I have been traveling a lot for work lately and not really eating as well as I should, and have begun to notice some unwanted fat gain creeping in. My g/f and I did some measurements and pics the other day, and even though I’ve made some good gains in LBM and strength, my BF has risen as well (details in next post). Therefore I decided to take this week off from heavy eating and try to drop some weight during deload. I decided to do a 6 day V-Diet Lite that I started on Monday and will finish up Saturday (Sunday will be a refeed day to prepare for next Cycle).

Basically the V-Diet Lite is the V-Diet but with one Healthy Solid Meal (HSM) every day. Its actually exactly like the first week of the V-Diet transition phase nutritionally (I’m still using the 5-3-1 deload template instead of the V-Training program). I successfully completed the V-Diet in April so I thought the Lite version would be no problem; boy was I wrong! The first few days I wanted to kill people in between my feedings. My body was fighting the low carb approach and was rebelling. But I stuck it out and did ok.

I’ve noticed a good change in body comp in these 6 days and am pretty satisfied with the way it turned out. I won’t be able to take BF measurements this weekend because my g/f isn’t in town, but I’ve lost like 6 lbs and looking better in the mirror.

Workout 1 - Monday 30 November 09
A1 - Squat (5 reps)
A2 - Leg Press (10 reps)
A3 - Leg Curl (10 reps)
B1 - Leg Press (10 reps)
B2 - Leg Curl (10 reps)
B3 - Abs machine (8 reps)

I decided to do the deload workouts this week as circuits to try to burn some calories and shed some fat. I used relatively light weights for all the exercises (normal warmup weights for squats) and didn’t rest in between exercises, and only minimal rest between sets. I did 3 sets of A and 2 sets of B. It was a lot of fun and I was sweating my ass off by the end!

Workout 2 - Tuesday 1 December 09
A1 - Bench (5 reps)
A2 - 1 Arm DB Row (10 reps)
A3 - Pec Deck (LOL) (10 reps)
B1 - 1 Arm DB Row (10 reps)
B2 - Pec Deck (10 reps)
B3 - Abs machine (8 reps)

Same for this workout. Good workout again!

Workout 3 - Thursday 3 December 09
A1 - Deadlift (5 reps)
A2 - Abs machine (8 reps)
A3 - Hyper Extension (10 reps)
B1 - Abs Machine (8 reps)
B2 - Hyper Extension (10 reps)

Ditto

Workout 4 - Saturday 5 December 09
A1 - Military (5 reps)
A2 - Pullups (as many as possible)
A3 - Dips (8-10 reps)
B1 - Pullups (as many as possible)
B2 - Dips (8-10 reps)
B3 - Abs machine (8 reps)

Ditto.

Good week, and like I said, positive changes in body comp from what I can tell. Really excited to hit Cycle 4 hard!