Wanna be Elite...

Training Training Logs
261

Went in last week and tested my 3RM in the basic exercises for the program…below is actual 3RM and Max Training Weight (MTW) I will be using (87.5% for upper body lifts and 80% for lower body)

OHP: 205/180
Incline: 255/225
Bench: 325/285
Squat: 430/345
DL: 475/380

I didn’t test DL or Squat in the past week, but I set the squat ridiculously low since I have been struggling with it so bad for the past few months…475 is about right for the DL since I got 465x4 in my last 5-3-1 cycle…I figure its close enough for the program’s purposes

Tonight was my first workout, and it looked like this:

7/11/11
OHP: 80, 140, 150, 160, 170, 180, 170, 175, 180, 170
Incline: 180, 200, 220, 225, 215, 220, 225, 215
Bench: 215, 245, 265, 285, 275, 280, 285, 275
Squat: 155, 265, 285, 305, 325, 345, 305, 325, 345, 305

Edit: All weights are 3 reps a piece…so x3

Holy fuck that was a lot of volume!!! Actually only about 105 reps, but over that many sets was just fucking exhausting…took forever to do too, just over an hour and a half…a lot of that time was spent talking and spotting for some of my buddies that I ran into at the gym out here in Seattle, so we fucked off for a little while but still a lot longer than I’m used to…

Also forgot to do the activation work and to stagger in the upper body assistance work in between sets (rear delts, traps, rhomboids, etc.)…will throw that in some tomorrow…

The workout was intense and all the weights, save for the last couple sets of bench, felt very light and explosive…by the end of the bench though, my chest/delts/triceps were fried and the weight wasn’t nearly as explosive as starting out…I think I will get used to that though…

Overall this was the best workout I’ve had in months…hungry as hell now though–gonna slam some Outback…

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Tuesday - 7/12/11

OHP: 80, 140, 150, 160, 170, 180, 170, 175, 180, 170
Incline: 180, 200, 220, 225, 215, 220, 225, 215

I went in for half an hour to get the first part of my workout done since I was supposed to meet some coworkers at 6 for dinner. Got done at about 5:15 and knew I would be too rushed if I tried to do the bench and then get back and change and shower, so I was planning to just do bench and deadlift after dinner before the gym closed at 9.

Turns out the fuckers weren’t ready to go at 6 and didn’t make it down from the hotel until nearly 6:30, so not only could I have finished my workout earlier, but by the time we got to the restaurant (at 7) ate and left (at 8), I didn’t have enough time to get back to the gym since it was about half an hour away…I was pretty pissed…

This session was good though. It was basically the exact same as Monday’s. The weights felt a bit heavier and weren’t quite as explosive since I was still a bit fatigued, but I was nowhere close to failure at any point…

Next workout Thursday will be lower body…need to find a sled somewhere

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7/14/11

Went in for the first leg day today…didn’t have a sled/prowler so I couldn’t do the full workout but got plenty of good reps in with the powerlifts…squatting, deadlifting, and benching all in the same day took me back to my Starting Strength days…I wasn’t at all beat up after the session and felt great…

Box Jumps: 3x5…dunno the height…3 feet or so probably

Squat: 155, 265, 285, 305, 325, 345, 305, 325, 345, 305

Deadlift: 170, 300, 320, 340, 360, 380, 340, 360, 380, 340

Bench: 135, 205, 225, 245, 265, 285, 275, 280, 285, 275

Ton of volume…just this took me about an hour and 15 minutes, so adding in the sled work will probably be another 20 or so…second week is an increase in sets too, so will probably take up to about 2 hours by the end…But the light weights and quick explosive reps help out with the fatigue to the point that I’m not feeling beat down at all by the end…pretty cool…

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Sunday 7/17/11

I was flying Friday and had intended to do Friday’s lower body workout on Saturday, but woke up late since I was adjusting back to East Coast time and went and played paintball and got drunk instead…got some nice welts to show for it…

So today’s workout was Back and Biceptzzzzz:

A. Thib Lat Pulldown: 55x10, 70x10, 85x10, 100x10, 140x8, 120x8

B1. Front Pulldown: 140x8, 140x8, 120x10

B2. Straight Arm Pulldown: 57.5x8, 57.5x8, 52.5x8

C. Preacher Curl: 95x8-3-2, 95x8-3-0, 95x6-2-2, 95x8-3-2

D. Hammer DB Curlzzzzz: 25x8, 25x10, 25x10, 25x10

E1. Prowler Straight Arm Pullbacks: 150x3

E2. Prowler Bicep Curlz: 150x3

E3. Prowler Rows: 150x3

Not nearly as long as the other workouts–I was easily out in about 65 minutes, but right now I literally can’t grip anything…

Explanation of some of these bizarre exercises…

Thib Lat Pulldown is basically a pulldown with your arms through the ab straps…it takes the biceptz out of the motion…I felt a huge squeeze in the lats doing these

Front Pulldown is the exercise you normally see people doing on the pulldown station (only without terrible form)

Straight Arm Pulldowns are down standing and also eliminate the bicep

For the preacher curlz, the first number indicates the full ROM reps, the second number is the top half reps done after I can’t do any more full ROM, and the last number is the bottom half reps down when neither full ROM or top 1/2 can be done…

Hammer Curlz had a 1 second pause at the 90 degree mark on the way down for some reps and not for others…that makes it real tough…

The Prowler circuit was done with Blast Straps on an unweighted Prowler. 50 yards each motion, with the next motion on the way back…so 50 yards x 3 for each motion…

Good workout…probably wont be able to pull myself out of bed tomorrow…

On another note, it is kinda sad how weak my gunz and lats are…

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So after the first week of HP Mass, I’m really digging the program…I like the concept of pretty high frequency stuff for a short duration, so in this case 6 weeks of it sounds pretty perfect…

The workouts are intense but don’t leave me feeling beat up afterwards…I think I used too low of weights for my lower body exercises because that workout was actually pretty easy…the upper body workouts at least got progressively harder throughout the workout so that by the time I was benching, I was close to fried–that didn’t happen at all on the deadlift…maybe Im speaking too soon since the volume increases in Week 2, and again in Week 3 so I will withhold judgement for now…

Intend to get all the workouts in this week since I have no real reason not to…travel is local this week and recovery should be good…plus I get to train at Brute Strength Gym down in Norfolk, which is always fun…

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HP Mass - Week 2 - Upper Body

Monday - 7/18/11

OHP: 80, 140, 150, 160, 170, 180, 170, 170, 175, 175, 180, 180, 170

Incline: 170, 190, 210, 225, 215, 215, 220, 220, 225, 225, 215

Bench: 215, 245, 265, 285, 275, 275, 280, 280, 285, 285, 275

Squat: 155, 265, 285, 305, 325, 345, 305, 325, 345, 305

All for sets of 3.

By the end of the bench work, I was absolutely exhausted…took nearly 2 hours to complete

Tuesday - 7/19/11

OHP: 80, 140, 150, 160, 170, 180, 170, 170, 175, 175, 180, 180, 170

Incline: 170, 190, 210, 225, 215, 215, 220, 220, 225, 225, 215

Bench: 215, 245, 265, 285, 275, 275, 280, 280, 285, 285, 275

Deadlift: 160, 280, 300, 320, 340, 360, 320, 340, 360, 320

Pretty much same workout as Monday, but with deadlift instead of squat. 2 hours again.

Decided to change up the workout going forward. I don’t think the entire complex is meant to be wave loaded each day. From here on out, I’m going to pick an exercise each day to emphasize with the wave loading and do straight sets for the other ones…the fatigue accumulation is just too much during the workout at my current work capacity to wave load all of them…

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HP Mass - Week 2 - Lower Body

Thursday - 7/21/11

Squat (x3): 155, 265, 285, 305, 325, 345, 305, 305, 325, 325, 345, 345, 305

Deadlift (x3): 155, 300, 320, 340, 360, 380, 340, 360, 380

Bench (x3): 135, 185, 225, 245, 265, 285

Prowler Circuit: 100# - Pushx40x5, Pullx40x3

I was beat going into this workout, so once I wave loaded the squats, I just did straight sets for the DL and Bench, with plan to emphasize Deadlift on Saturday.

Prowler circuit was pretty easy. Length was about 40 yards, maybe less.

Saturday - 7/23/11

Squat (x3): 155, 265, 285, 305, 325, 345, 305, 305, 325, 325, 345, 345, 305

Deadlift (x3): 155, 280, 300, 320, 340, 360, 320, 320, 340, 340, 360, 360, 320

OHP (x3): 80, 140, 150, 160, 170, 180, 170, 175, 180, 170

Prowler Circuit: Pushx3, Pullx3, Pullthrusx3 @ 40 yards

I met up with scj191 from T-Nation for this workout, and it lasted forever, but having somebody to help loading and unloading the plates helped out a ton…was in and out in about 2.5 hours. The dude was pretty cool though and took training seriously, plus we hit up some ridiculous burgers at Ray’s Hell afterwards.

I had decided to take it easy on the non-emphasized lift each day, but we managed to get through this with the full wave loading. Exhausted afterwards, but felt good throughout the workout.

Deadlift weights were screwed up in my spreadsheet so I stopped at 360 instead of 380 this week. Will probably jack it back up next week for the extreme loading.

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HP Mass - Week 2 - Lats/Biceps

Sunday 7/24/11 - Back/Biceps

A. Thibs Lat Pulldown: 50/50x10, 60/60x10, 8, 9, 7

B1. Front Pulldown: 120x10, 9, 9

B2. Straight Arm Pulldown: 50x10, 8, 8

C. Preacher Curl: 75x10-5-2, 8-3-0, 8-0-0, 8-0-0

D. DB Hammer Curl: 30x10, 35x8, 40x7, 8, 6

No Prowler work (got in there too late and ran out of time).

Insane pump from the curls–couldn’t manage any reps at the top end or bottom end of the ROM on the last few sets…

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HP Mass - Week 3 - Upper Body

Monday - 7/25/11

OHP: 80, 140, 150, 160, 170, 180, 170, 175, 180, 170, 175, 180, 170, 175, 180, 170

Incline: 180, 200, 225, 215, 220, 225, 215, 220, 225, 215, 220, 225, 215

Bench: 225, 245, 265, 285, 275, 280, 285, 270, 280, 285, 275, 280, 285, 275

Squat: 155, 265, 285, 305, 325, 345, 305

(All sets were x3)

I was absolutely murdered after this session. Took just at 2:15 hours. The rest time in between the bench sets was long but I managed to get them all up. Form was pretty shitty by the end.

Just ramped up through the squat to the MTW and unloaded one more set at the end for good measure and called it a night.

Tuesday - 7/26/11

OHP: 80, 140, 150, 160, 170, 180, 170, 175, 180, 170, 175, 180, 170, 175, 180, 170

Incline: 180, 200, 225, 215, 220, 225, 215, 220, 225, 215, 220, 225, 215

Bench: 225, 245, 265, 285, 275, 280, 285, 270, 280, 285, 275, 280, 285

Accessory: Some face pulls, upright rows, and rear delt fly’s in between some sets

(All sets were x3)

I was absolutely beat going into this workout from the previous night’s and started off slow, but the OHP and Incline ended up pretty good. I was dead going into the bench, so I decide to take a break and get some food before going back into the gym. This reallly didn’t help all that much like I thought.

Went to Chipotle and housed a double meat chicken bowl filled with shit. Went back into the gym about an hour later expecting to be stronger but bench was still struggling. Much better than Monday, but still pretty loose form by the end.

I forgot to do the last backoff set on Bench because I was trying to remember to breathe, and decided to say fuck-it to the lower body accessory work for the night.

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HP Mass - Week 3 - Lower Body

Thursday - 7/28/11 - Lower Body 1

Squats: 155, 265, 285, 305, 325, 345

(All sets were x3)

This was all I could manage for the night. Had been getting shitty sleep all week and it finally caught up to me on Thursday. Took a couple hour nap before heading to the gym but it wasn’t enough and the weight felt too heavy to fuck with for the night. Decided to call it and get after it again hard on Friday.

Friday - 7/29/11 - Lower Body 2

Squats: 155, 265, 285, 305, 325, 345, 305, 325, 345, 305, 325, 345, 305, 325, 345, 305

Deadlift: 185, 300, 320, 340, 360, 380, 340, 360, 380, 340, 360, 380, 340, 360, 380, 340

Bench: 135, 225, 245, 265, 275, 285, 275, 280, 285, 275

(All sets were x3)

Good workout here tonight. Took me just under 2 hours, but I didn’t do the Prowler work since the gym was closing. Planned to go in on Saturday to get it done but just dicked around on Saturday instead and recovered. This workout took a lot out of me.

271

Aaaaah volume! How’s this HP Mass business treating you? And how is TRT going?

272

Man HP Mass has been brutal…I’m halfway through Week 5 now, so next week is the last week and I can safely say I will NOT be doing this again for a long while…squatting, benching, deadlifting, and OHP 3 times a week plus other big compound movements, all performed at between 80-90% of my 3RM has brutalized me…

Truthfully, I think the program was laid out incorrectly when they put it on the site…the numbers don’t make a ton of sense and the workouts take 2+ hours, and don’t really match up with what Thibs had said in his original article. So I dunno.

I think for a 6 week run it is pretty good to get your body adjusted to ridiculously high volume, frequency, and moderately high intensity…

TRT is going pretty well, feeling a ton better…still have some fine tuning to do, but other than that pretty good…

273

Haven’t updated in a while, so here is a quick recap.

HP Mass

Made it most of the way through HP Mass. Decide halfway through the 6th week that it just wasn’t worth finishing up the last two lower body days, so I took a deload the rest of the week and called it there…I was getting too beat up from the long workouts, so I think it was the right call…

Powerlifting

I’ve decided to do the 100% Raw World’s PL Meet down in Orlando at the end of October. I’m having to apply for a Therapeutic Use Exemption due to the TRT, and I’m not sure they are going to grant it to me. I’m hopeful, but apparently these things are hit or miss, so I really don’t know what to expect. I think it would be incredibly lame to deny me the chance to compete since I’m not exactly sitting at superman T levels because of it.

Team Force (Tim Henriques’s PL Team here in NOVA) are planning to compete in it, so I really want to get down there and compete with everyone.

If I don’t get my TUE approved, I will probably do the SPF Meet at Brute STrength Gym down in Norfolk the week before.

Goal for the meet is 550-400-600.

Back to 5-3-1

I am going to be running 531 for Powerlifting leading up to my meet. Basically switching around the 3 and 5 weeks and never hitting max reps, but throwing in heavy singles in the new 3’s week and the 5-3-1’s week.

I’ve been retesting my maxes this week so I know where to start.

Hit 355x3 in Bench Monday night fairly easily. But when I went for 365, I couldn’t get it for 1. I don’t know what it is about 365, whether its a mental block or technique issue that manifests itself at that weight, or what, but I always get stapled when attempting it. Really damned frustrating considering 355x3 was not that hard.

355x3 is a +30 pound increase on the 3RM since the beginning of HP Mass, which was pretty cool with me.

Went into the gym tonight to work squats. Worked up to 475x3 for my last set. Now this isn’t a lifetime PR for me, but is a huge PR since my cancer surgery earlier this year and the ensuing hormone crisis. I was very happy to get it.

They were nice and deep and real strong coming out of the hole…managed to get the set on video:

Compared to my 475x3 set in September 2010, it looks like these were deeper. Also a noticeable improvement in my Anterior Pelvic Tilt I believe:

Gonna go in and retest incline bench tomorrow, but since I will rarely be incline pressing against, much less based on a percentage of a 3RM, this is purely for ego…I have come to terms with that!

Will probably hit deadlifts on Saturday, and OHP retest on Sunday.

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Forgot to mention that Im going to resume working with Shelby leading up to the meet. I still have 6-7 weeks left with him, and I figure this is the best time to use it. I don’t think I have a shot at coming in at the 242 weight class, but SPF has a 259 that I should easily be able to squeeze into if I end up having to do that meet instead of World’s in Orlando.

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Good looking squats man. Are you gonna use knee wraps at this upcoming meet?

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[quote]jakerz96 wrote:
Good looking squats man. Are you gonna use knee wraps at this upcoming meet?[/quote]

Hell no man…100% RAW baby…haha

They don’t allow knee wraps, or even knee sleeves for that matter, but for some bizarre reason have started allowing wrist wraps…go figure!

Thanks for the props though man…felt good to get up to some respectable weights again…

277

Thursday 25 August 2011

Incline: 45x3, 135x3, 185x3, 225x3, 255x3, 275x3, 295x3, 315x3
DB Rows: 70x10x3, 110x15-3-2

Retested my incline 3RM tonight…at the start of HP Mass, it was 255x3, so that is a +60# PR…it is a pretty cheap PR though because first of all I never inclined press in my life before testing my max at the start of HP Mass, so I’m sure it was not a “true” 3RM. And tonight’s 3RM was done on a 30 degree incline bench instead of a 45 degree one, because the gym I was at have these cool adjustable benches (can even slide back and forth to get better position under the bar) but for wahtever reason they only go up to 30 degrees, so that’s what I had to go with…but still some good progress IMO, just not sure how much

Ended up with some kroc rows for the back and grip…both have gotten weaker…got through 15 reps on each arm, then did the following 3 and 2 rep sets in a “rest-pause” manner…probably rested about 10 seconds before picking it up again…I cried afterwards

Good session…

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Sunday 28 August 2011

Went in to retest my Deadlift 3RM, but in my warmups got a wild hair up my ass to try and beat my previous 1RM instead. Things were going well until about 495x2, which felt a bit heavy and I could tell my form was off. Move up to 545 regardless and missed it three times, and decided to pack it in for the day. This was disappointing since I hit it back in April, and DL’s had been going pretty well since then. May have just been an off day, no clue.

I have also gained a little bit of weight back, which seems to impact my Deadlift…I was pulling conventional for the past few months, and this is not a strong position for me when my waist increases, so I will probably start working semi or full sumo leading up to the meet…then again, I will be working with Shelby for my contest diet, so may have to play that one by ear if I can get into a conventional stance easier…

Tuesday 30 August 2011

OHP Day. Decided to work up to a max, and really wanted to finally hit my long term goal of a BW OHP (275 pounds). I warmed up and worked my way up to 205, then 225, then 245x1, which went up pretty well and was a lifetime PR (beating my previous of 235 late last year).

I decided to skip 255 or 265 and just go straight up to 275. This was probably a mistake as I could barely get it halfway up my face before failing. I think I could have gotten 255, but am just not strong enough yet for 275. Hopefully by the end of the year, the BW OHP will fall!!

Moved back down after the failed attempt and hit 225x3, which was a +20# increase from HP Mass and also a lifetime PR.

279

So after 5.5 weeks of HP Mass, with a week or so off to rest and retest my maxes, I have logged the following increases (all for x3):

OHP: 205 → 225 [+20]
Incline: 255 → 315 [+60](probably not accurate since retest bench was slightly less incline and starting 3RM was on the low side since I never do inclines)
Bench: 325 → 355 [+30]
Squat: 435 → 475 [+40]
Deadlift: 475 → ??? (did not retest)

Overall, I am very happy with these results, especially considering HP Mass is not specifically for strength. One thing is for sure, I got a lot better at doing 3 RMs.

It remains to be seen how this will carry over to my actual 1RM’s, but I’m sure I got some carryover there.

I didn’t gain a whole lot of weight, and actually stayed pretty constant. I was doing mostly Pulse Feasts to start, and didn’t follow that too closely for the past couple weeks. But I did lean up a bit over the 6 weeks and improved my conditioning slightly

I probably won’t be doing the program again because, as written, I just don’t think it is manageable. I’m pretty convinced that the program wasn’t transcribed correctly when it was put on this site, or maybe my actual work capacity is just bollocks, but it was not for me as written. Maybe lessening the overall volume a bit or emphasizing certain lifts on each day, as I ended up doing by the end, would be more manageable.

So that means I am now back on 5-3-1 leading up to my October meet. The 8 week meet prep cycle starts next week, and I’ll be following the guidelines in 5-3-1 for Powerlifting where the 3’s and 5’s weeks are reversed, and heavy singles corresponding to 85%, 92.5%, and 95% of my meet goals will be attempted, depending on the week.

Looking forward to it as this is the first time I have actually attempted to “peak” for a meet.

280

Alright back to some real training!