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801

Back from Ireland bitches…good trip…drank a bunch of Guinness and Jameson…

No time wasted getting back to the gym

11/21/12

Warmup: Foam Rolling, Stretching

Bench (531): 280, 320, 355 (4)
DB Rows (3x10): 80, 90, 100
Dips (3x8): Body
Curls (3x8): 80, 90, 100

Cardio: 30 minutes steady state at 130+ BPM HR

Cooldown: Foam Rolling

Pretty decent session. Bench warmups felt crappy. Probably had another rep in the tank if I had wanted it real hard, but was content with 4 reps since this cycle is more conditioning focused.

Hit some rows and other accessory stuff, then did some SS cardio on the elliptical. Back started tightneing up the last 5 minutes or so, but not too bad. Went and set in the hottub afterwards.

I’ve decided to move my ab workouts to separate days than lifting days. Will still get it 3 times per week, but not on actual lifting days. This is to save time more than anything.

Also moved OHP to my deadlift day (Friday) since doing both upper body lifts on the same day drained me for OHP plus cut into the time I could be doing some accessory stuff.

Gonna go push the Prowler for a bit tomorrow, then hit up Golden Corral for dinner. Happy Thanksgiving er’body

802

11/22/12

Abs Circuit:
Decline Situp (2x10): Body
Hanging Abs (2x10): Body
Ab Wheel (2x15): Body
Side Bends (2x20): 65

Prowler (40x6): 180

Finally found the meaning of Prowler Flu. I had always just used 90 pounds and thought I was getting a good workout, but went for 180 today (because that’s what my girl was pulling/pushing) and holy fucking christ. I nearly died after 6 trips. Never felt like that after pushing it before. It kicked the shit out of me. And yes, I am about as good on the Prowler as my girlfriend. Sad.

Golden Corral Time! Hoooo-RAH!

803

11/23/12

Deadlifts (3x5): 190, 240, 290, 335x1, 365x1
OHP (531): 185, 205, 230 (5)
Leg Press (3x10): 4 pps, 4.5 pps, 5 pps
Pulldowns (3x10): 160
Face Pulls: 3x12
Pushdowns: 3x15

Back was feeling pretty decent in the first couple sets, and was only moderately strained on the last couple reps of the last set, so I decided to pull a couple of singles tonight to see how it felt. Both the 335 and 365 singles were quick and painless, which made me happy. Seems the extra blood flow through there from the increased cardio, and whatever the hell else it is that I’m doing, may be paying off a little bit. I am optimistic.

OHP felt like shit warming up but ended up getting 230 for 5, which was pretty damn close to a PR. I think 6 would have gotten it, but it would have been extremely tough and I decided to stop it at 5.

Hit some leg press and pulldowns for assistance, as well as some light shoulder/arm mobility shit to finish it off.

Was gonna do some steady state cardio on the elliptical, but my head was pounding throughout the workout so I cut it off with just lifting and will hit some cardio tomorrow.

804

Any words of wisdom on improving my close grip bench press? Looking through your workouts it seemed pretty straight forward. Close grip, decline close grip, and pushdowns. You think weighted dips would be similar to decline? Monday I’m embarking on smolov jr to hopefully make my bench suck less.

Glad you enjoyed Ireland. Did you go to the Guinness museum? Any other cool places?

805

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[quote]MightyMouse17 wrote:
Any words of wisdom on improving my close grip bench press? Looking through your workouts it seemed pretty straight forward. Close grip, decline close grip, and pushdowns. You think weighted dips would be similar to decline? Monday I’m embarking on smolov jr to hopefully make my bench suck less.

Glad you enjoyed Ireland. Did you go to the Guinness museum? Any other cool places?[/quote]

Yeah man we went to the Guinness factory and drank from the top of the sky bar (picture attached). Saw a bunch of cool churches and cathedrals and colleges and stuff. The architecture was pretty interesting. Also went to the Cliffs of Moher, which was fucking amazing. Some dog betting, Titanic Museum, Ring of Kerry, the Jameson distillery, and drank enough Guinness to kill an elephant. Pretty tight.

For your CGBP, are you talking about how to improve it if using it in competition? Or just improving it in general, as assistance for your regular grip bench press?

If you just want to get better at it as an assistance exercise, I wouldn’t program it. Just do your regular bench press, then do some CGBP as an assistance exercise in the 3-5x5-10 range.

If you are using it as your competition grip, then just program it how you would program your actual bench press. It would really just depend on what training philosophy you follow. I trained it 5-3-1 style and it went up, I also trained it according to that Tim Henriques article (that you mentioned for the different variations) and it went up. So really just pick a program, and do CGBP instead of regular bench, IMO.

If you are talking about assistance work that really helps the CGBP, then really anything that improves your triceps and shoulder strength. OHP and Dips would be the two things that come off the top of my head, but don’t lose sight of the fact that this is ASSISTANCE. You are going to get your main gains from just doing the fucking movement, everything else is icing on the cake. As far as the triceps pushdowns, the only reason I do them is for arm and shoulder health. I don’t think they make your triceps all that strong.

806

Cliffs of Moher was probably my favorite sight visually. Ring of Kerry was great too.

I’m going to use close grip as my main lift. Everything you said makes sense to me. My plan after the smolovs has OHP and dips in it, so thinking on the same page there. Other than that I may add a little variety like close grip floor presses, and I have a slingshot that I haven’t incorporated yet. Thanks for the tips.

807

I really like floor presses, but I don’t see a huge need to do them close grip since they are heavily tricep involved anyway. Might be a good change of pace to just keep a regular grip on them, although in the grand scheme of things it probably doesnt make a damn bit of difference.

808

as much as I admire your bench only approach its good to see you back doing full power stuff

809

Good point about the floor presses. Guess I should do something with a more normal grip.

810

[quote]MightyMouse17 wrote:
Cliffs of Moher was probably my favorite sight visually. Ring of Kerry was great too.

I’m going to use close grip as my main lift. Everything you said makes sense to me. My plan after the smolovs has OHP and dips in it, so thinking on the same page there. Other than that I may add a little variety like close grip floor presses, and I have a slingshot that I haven’t incorporated yet. Thanks for the tips. [/quote]
Just CG more

811

Update:

I did cardio one day this weekend, can’t remember which day. It was 30 minutes steady state on the elliptical. Preceeded it with DeFranco’s Agile 8. My back was tighter the next day than it was the day I did it, which was weird. Blah.

11/26/12

Squat (3x5): 185, 225, 275, 315x1, 365x1
Back Extensions: 5x10 (or maybe 5x12…I’m real forgetful lately)

Was gonna do some cardio after this but my back was pumped all to hell from the back extensions. Gonna do more of these to try and get some blood into the lower back.

Squats felt tough, but solid. Not real shaky. Hit a couple heavier singles to see how it went and no problems at all. No belt. Gonna start pushing these a bit.

11/27/12

Bench (3x5): 150, 190, 225
Pushups: 3x12
TRX Inverted Rows: 3x10

Cardio: 30 minutes SS on elliptical (HR ~132 BPM)

Deload week on the bench. Good thing because I just never got into the groove tonight. Not a very good workout.

Hit the bench then some bodyweight assistance, a half hour of cardio, and called it a day. No mobility work today.

May go push the Prowler and hit my ab circuit tomorrow. My abs were still sore on Monday after working them on Thursday, which was just ridiculous.

812

Went and deadlifted sometime last week but forgot to log it. Worked up to a couple singles. hit 335 and 365, both were fast and easy and didn’t hurt my back, but that was probably just because the weight was light and I was able to rocket launch it off the floor. Hinging is still fucking me up

12/3/12

Squat (3x5): 295, 340, 385

Workout started out great. Warmups felt strong and sturdy and no torque on the back, but once I got to my first working set I started to feel it. Put the belt on for the second set and it was not so bad, and third set was strong and fast but really tweaked it. Had massive pump afterwards and it’s still bothering me. Was going to push the Prowler but decided to just go home and ice the back instead.

One day that fucker will heal up sigh

813

sigh

814

12/4/12

Benchin (3x5): 245, 285, 325 (7)
Pullups: 7, 6, 6, 6, 6
DB Rows: 120x16

Cardio: 30 minutes elliptical @ 135 BPM

Back may still be fucked up but benching is still alright. Not a PR but still pretty decent.

Finally threw some pullups back into the mix today–was getting soft without them. Lost a couple reps there, should come back soon.

Finished off with some Krocs. Warmed up for a few reps leading up to it and hit 16 on each arm. Gotta get better at these.

As if kroc rows aren’t enough cardio, I finished it off with even more!

Abs and Prowler tomorrow.

815

Bench/Chest/Tris - 12/11/12

Benchin (3x3): 265, 305, 340 (6)
Dips (4x10): 10, 7, 7, x
Pec Deck (4x12): 130
Triceps Pushdowns (5x20): 42.5, 50 (15), 42.5 (12), x, x
Pushups (4x): 10, 8, x, x

Cardio: 23 minutes steady state elliptical (135 BPM)

Been lazy lately for the past week and finally got back into the gym tonight. Switching to more of a bodybuilder style routine for the assistance exercises after the big lift for a little while. After blowing my load on bench, the rest of the workout was pretty tough–gotta increase my work capacity a ton.

This is the first time I have ever gone to failure on these types of assistance work. I seriously could not do the first rep of the dips and puhups my arms were so fried. Got a cramp in my triceps toweling off after showering tonight. Strange feeling.

Getting a pretty gnarly pain in my right shoulder during pushups.

Off tomorrow and deadlifts/back Thursday. Not gonna be able to go heavy on the deadlifts, but hoping to get some work in on the assistance.

816

Any particular reason you are switching to BB type assistance? Hoping to heal up better or just need a change?

817

[quote]scj119 wrote:
Any particular reason you are switching to BB type assistance? Hoping to heal up better or just need a change?[/quote]

Basically I realized that since I can’t be strong right now, I was not really putting any effort into my workouts since that was my goal. With this, I can at least get some tangible benefit from it and it is stuff that I can actually do right now while my back continues to maybe sorta kinda heal up. I figure the extra size will be beneficial once I am actually healed and ready to lift heavy again.

818

12/13/12

Warmups: Foam rolling the quads

Deadlifts (3x8): 225, 265, 295
DB Rows (4x12): 85, 95, 85, 85
Lat Pulldowns (4x10): 120, 100, 100, 100
Good Mornings (4x10): Bar, 135, 135, Bar
Hanging Abs (4x): 10, 8, 8, 8

Saw a new chiropractor earlier in the day before this workout, and it seems promising (though I’ve said that before). He thinks my biggest problem is that my quads are tight as shit, which is also inhibiting my hip flexors and causing them to tighten up as well.

Physiologically, I am pretty sure the majority of my problem is the hip flexors due to the nature of the pain and the given that I have anterior pelvic tilt. Most likely my hip flexors are pulling my pelvis forward, increasing the strain on my lower back. This makes more sense to me than tight hammies and is more in line with what I had always suspected of my problems.

They say that the best remedy is having faith in the prescriber, so I take it as a good sign that we started out on the same page.

He spent about 45 minutes working on my lower back and hips to get them opened up and I felt pretty good after the session. Told him to ignore the upper neck pain for now (as long as its not related) and I would just consider that a minor nuisance as long as my lower back worked again.

Deadlifts felt heavy, regardless, which is obviously not a good sign. But can’t expect much after the first visit. Got a few more before the end of the year so hopefully some progress before 2013?

This workout was pretty decent overall. Not very strong in my back region (even considering the lower back injury) as my lat pulldowns are pretty awful. I can probably do about 7-8 strictish pullups right now, and will keep doing the lat pulldowns for a while to get the volume up.

LOL @ 135 and bar weight (85) for the GM’s. I don’t even wanna look back in my log earlier this year to see what weight I was using while healthy, I might cry. The good news though is they didnt bust my spine open so I will go up in weight a bit on these next week and see how they feel.

Hanging abs are brutal!

819

12/15/12

OHP (3x3): 170, 195, 220 (7)
Seated DB Press (4x12): 50, 50, 50, 50
EZ Curl (4x12): 50, 60, 70, 70
Reverse Pec Dec (4x12): 50, 70, 90, 90
Curl Machine (4x10): 70, 70, 80, 80

Great workout here tonight. One rep shy of a huge PR in OHP, but settled with 7. Pretty sure I couldn’t have gotten 8 on this day, but should set me up to make a smaller PR in my 531 week next week I think.

Put the whip to myself and got in and out of the gym in right about an hour, which is record time for me considering I still try to rest like a powerlifter in between sets. First three exercises were done as straight sets, and the last two were supersetted. That seemed to save time and keep me busy, and they are light enough that recovery wasn’t really a concern so I’m going to start using supersets in future workouts where it makes sense.

820

[quote]VTBalla34 wrote:

[quote]scj119 wrote:
Any particular reason you are switching to BB type assistance? Hoping to heal up better or just need a change?[/quote]

Basically I realized that since I can’t be strong right now, I was not really putting any effort into my workouts since that was my goal. With this, I can at least get some tangible benefit from it and it is stuff that I can actually do right now while my back continues to maybe sorta kinda heal up. I figure the extra size will be beneficial once I am actually healed and ready to lift heavy again.[/quote]
good call