3-22-12: Bench
Bench
3x3x235
Bradford Press
2x8x95
Reverse Flyes
2x12x25s
I'm an idiot. Not really, but I did something stupid yesterday, I ran into a guy who kicked my ass in arm wrestling 8 months ago, and I wanted to rechallenge him to test my strength. I didn't know when the next opportunity would come so I armwrestled him even knowing it could and most likely would hurt my bench the next day. I beat him just barely on both arms, but I had a good 15-30 seconds of max effort strain on each arm. Needless to say, my bicep tendons and shoulders were killing me today, the bench weight felt easy muscularly speaking, especially because I was getting really good leg drive today, but my shoulders and arms, especially my bicep tendon on my right arm, were killing me. I couldn't pull the bar apart at all, so I wasn't getting very good lat or tricep activation, all that was saving me was my leg drive.
Anyways I just cut it off at 3 sets. I couldn't do pull ups at all, I'm going to switch to wide grip pull ups starting next week and just focus on not kipping, and using as wide a grip as possible with my gym's set up, to get my lats nice and strong, since that is undoubtedly my most lagging muscle group for bench (though I've noticed some good gains on my lats in the last week). I might start doing hammer curls as well to boost my bicep tendon strength, but I think kroc rows should be fine for now. Speaking of which tomorrow is OHP deload, and max effort deadlifts. I don't think I'll get a chance to do kroc rows, but I plan on smashing 430 for 5 reps (high goal so I at least achieve 430x3) DL. I'm going to sleep really early tonight and wake up really early so I have adequate time to stretch and warm up, that way I can grind out my DLs without worrying at all about rounding my back.
At the risk of making this post too long, update on diet and bodyweight:
I peaked out around 202 lbs, and I got a picture, which I might post later on. I started my cut on Monday 3-19-12, and I'm already down to 196, just from not being bloated from bulking anymore, and dropping water weight from not eating carbs. I've bulked for so long this time that cutting is actually painful, although it is nice not having to eat so often. Either way, cut is going decently, will update on that in future posts. My cutting diet is a combination of the anabolic diet and carb backloading, as shown here:
Mon-Thurs: Less than 50g carbs per day, only trace carbs from dark chocolate, nuts, whey, and vegetables.
Friday: Low calories and carbs all day, but at night, after a quick conditioning workout, begin carbload with a 1000-3000 calorie carby ass meal (ice cream, french fries, biscuits, soda, all that good stuff).
Saturday: Low carbs before workout, high carbs after workout.
I've had success with the anabolic diet before, and carb backloading makes good scientific sense to me, so hopefully thsi will be a great diet for me to cut fat and possibly gain muscle/strength until I turn 18 in June. After that I'll switch to "cheatmode", a combination of paleo, intermittent fasting, and carb backloading, and I'll stay lean and try to make lean gains that way up until September or October. So in the 3 months I'm cutting, I plan on losing about 20 lbs, so I'll be in the 181 lb class, and I hope to set some PRs on my birthday and total 1200. I want to bench 300, squat 405, and deadlift 500. So far squat is the only one looking achievable, possibly bench if I can linearly load 6x3 all the way to 270, but if I get 430 for at least 4 reps tomorrow, then my DL will already be at 490. Once my predicted DL max is 520 I think I'll be able to get 500.
Yup, this post became way too long