My Training Log

[amounirl]

6-18-12: 3x3 Squats

Squat
Warmups
5x225
3x245
3x275
3x295
3x275
3x245

Front Squat
5x135
3x185
3x225
5x185
8x135

Good Mornings
1x8x135
3x8x135+bands (about 20 lbs added at the top)

Pull Ups
BW (212-215)x8
BWx6
BWx5+3 hanging leg raises

Pretty productive 1 hr 15 min session today, even though I was a bit tired and lazy due to events this weekend, including getting a massage among other things. I stretched a lot before I got to the gym so I was able to jump into squats with just a dynamic warm up, and I felt my back was nice and tight, my hips were nice and loose, and like I didn't buttwink the whole time, hitting depth, without a belt. Weight felt easy, probably because it was, only thing that felt heavy was the 3x225 front squat because I haven't front squatted in a while. Felt heavier on my shoulders than it did on my legs, my main limiting factor is torso uprightness on those. Generally I'll do those with my deadlift stance. Bodyweight is a bit high due to consuming lots of junk food this weekend, so the pull ups were a little dismal. I think since I'll usually be doing bench the day after squats, I'll do cable rows for volume or row machine for cardio instead of actual strength work like pull ups.

Decided to keep the 5/3/1 weeks normal on Squat day and just do the 1) 70%x5, 2) 80%x3, 3) 90%x2, 4) Max, 5) 85%x3, 6) 80%x5, 7) 75%x8, 8) 70%x12 routine on deadlift day for my squats, until my training max is 365 again, which is 95% of my best squat training max.

 

[amounirl]

6-19-12: 3x3 Bench

Bench
warmups
3x205
3x230
3x240 (paused last 2 reps)
Close Grips
3x230
8x205

Supinated Barbell Rows
3x8x135
2x8x155

Behind Neck Press
3x10x85
1x15x95

Cable Upright Rows
A bunch of sets of 8-10 reps (at least 10 sets) trying out different hand and cable attachment bar set ups, with around 85-110 lbs. Finally found a larger ROM power shrug type set up with the lat pull down bar. ROM is from around the hips to the upper abs.

Blood Flow/Feeder Stuff

Incline Bench
bar x 55

Row Machine
Couldn't find what the distance was but I got at least 75 reps

Side Raises
25x10 lbs

Had a decent workout today. My bench got messed up by several factors, one is the bench at my new gym is a lot narrower than the one at my old gym, so my shoulders felt weird all day today. Also, I didn't realize this until I used a different bar but the bar I was using on the bench had really close rings, so my entire bench workout felt awkwardly close grip. I figured it was just the bench, but when I used a different bar I realized that the rings were weird. I'll just have to set my hands on it with whatever feels natural and find out where that is relative to this bar's rings. Close grips were thumb from the smooth, as usual, although that still felt a lot closer than what I was used to, due to the bar.

Other stuff went well, I trained with a friend from school and another friend I haven't hung out with in almost 3 years, which was pretty fun, even if we did end up talking and BSing a lot. It was funny because when we were signing up, the manager was telling us basically his life story, including all the Brazilian girls he's f*cked, and a bunch of other random information. It was kind of funny though, and other than his tendency to give too much information, he was pretty chill. Anyways, they finished their BTN Press before I did so I decided to do one all out set, and ended up getting 15 reps with 95 lbs, maybe with 1 or 2 left in the tank. I felt way stronger on BTN press than I did last week, which I attribute to 2 things. One is that I'm more used to the motor pattern, and 2 is that I was stopping at upper arm parallel to the ground, which is about 1-2 cm above where I was last week. Also I weigh about 5 lbs heavier but most of that is bloat. BW was 208-210 today.

 

[themondtster]

230 is a nice close grip!

 

[amounirl]

Thanks man!

 

[Evan Tipps]

I think I hit 230 3x on closegrip.. Made me pretty happy! I might try it for 5 today ;D Closegrip feels the same to me basically.. I usually only get 3 reps less id say on it

 

[amounirl]

Close grip definitely feels more awkward for me, but I don't lose too much strength on it

 

[amounirl]

6-21-12: 3x3 Deadlift

Deadlift (Oly Shoes)
warmups
3x385
3x435
3x455: Deadlift - YouTube
(All sets Oly shoes PRs)

Weighted Hammer Grip Pull Ups
2x5x25 lbs added (BW=210-215): Weighted Hammer Grip Pull Ups - YouTube

Squats
3x210
3x245
2x275
1x300 (only set with belt)
3x255
5x245
8x225
12x210

Weighted Decline Sit Ups
3x10x10 lbs

Pretty good day today, I kind of like the oly shoes deadlifts, even with the initial drop off in strength (450x3=est max of 486). As you can see they fly off the floor, but lockout really slowly. I might try widening my stance next week and trying that out to help lockout. Pull ups didn't go so well, probably because I gained a ton of weight since last week. It's weird because at some point I struggled to eat my way past 165 and now I'm cruising at 215 effortlessly, even doing cardio (started up kempo again) 3-4 times a week and lifting 3-4 times a week. Must be the junk food I tend to consume when I'm with friends.

Squat technique felt incredibly solid, my back was tight in a good way and for the first time I can remember, I was bouncing off my hips instead of off my spine. Also for the first time ever my lower back doesn't hurt after squats. I must be doing something right. I know I was hitting depth too. I've been doing Agile 8 sporadically throughout the day, repeating certain stretches like the v sits. Love those. The hip mobility program is working well.

 

[amounirl]

Saturday Strongman

Axle
Something light

1 arm DB C/P
worked up to 3x75 on my left (non dominant) side but then the implement broke so we couldn't go heavier and I couldn't do my right side.

Truck Push
An estimated 400 yards but I think that seems a bit much so let's just say 1000 feet. It was freaking far. Glutes are still feeling it almost 2 hours later.

Not too much stuff today, hopefully next week we can have a legit hardcore strongman training session with farmer's handles and everything. Hit 220 bodyweight after a buffet last night, my cut is going horribly, though oddly enough I can still see my abs in good lighting. I'm going to be more strict and cut down even more on carbs and stop trying to instigate hanging out with those friends who in a previous post I said I tend to eat junk food with... unless they call me. Not surprisingly those are the friends I went to the buffet with.

 

[amounirl]

6-25-12: Squats

Squat
5x205
3x245
2x275
3x300 (only set with belt)
5x255
10x225
15x205

Quad Extension
2x8x195
2x8x210

Hamstring Curl
4x8x125

Kroc Rows
20x45s fat gripz
20x75s hook grip

Shrugs
40x135 hook grip
isometric hold 315 hook grip for 30 sec

Decline Sit Ups
2x15x10 lbs (last 5 reps of 2nd set were sporadic, last 2 I had to ditch the weight)

Today I failed to do very much productive strength work, but succeeded in destroying every muscle used for squatting. I was training with my buddy who I always call "the ultimate broscientist", but he was very open minded and did a nice job on his 5x5 squats with great form for someone who has never really trained legs. We were egging eachother on so I ended up killing myself on my last set of squats, with my form going to sh*t on the last 3 reps of my last squat set (though the rest of my sets my back kept a perfect arch, feel it a lot more in the hip muscles that way). Anyways, I was way to worn out to do any more compound lower body movements so I decided to just hit the isolation machines so I didn't feel completely useless.

My grip was feeling pretty weak last thursday so I decided to do some grip work for my back work today, surprisingly I wasn't really feeling it too much in my thumbs on the kroc rows (though I felt it plenty in my forearms, biceps, and lats), so I decided to try doing some shrugs. Even 40 reps with 135 wasn't enough to fatigue my grip so I just decided to grab 315 without chalk and hold it for as long as I could with hook grip just so my grip could be ready for my deadlifts on thursday.

If I learned anything from today, it's to leave some in the tank on squats so I can do front squats and good mornings afterwards. Since the 70%x5...70%x12 routine doesn't change from week to week I'm going to raise my training max by 5 lbs every 2 weeks instead of 10 lbs every 4 weeks, and I'm doing the 70%x5...70%x12 routine on squat day instead of deadlift day, and I'm going to do my 5/3/1 squats on deadlift day, all up until my training max is 365 again.

 

[amounirl]

6-26-12: 3x5 Bench

Bench
5x165
5x185
8x215
12x185 (close grip)

Fat Gripz Dumbbell 1 arm Clean/Press (1 clean per set)
5x50 both arms
5x60 both arms
5x70 both arms

Snatch Grip High Pull
3x3x155

Hang Clean
3x3x135

Dumbbell "Behind the Neck" Press
40s x 10/10/8

Cable Rows
2x8x130

Hammer Curls alternating with Dbell tricep extensions
3x10x25s (both movements)

Pec Fly/Rear Delt Fly Machine
3x10x130 Pecs alternating with 3x10x75 rear delts (both paused at the peak contraction, slow negatives)

Side Raises
10s x 15 reps

Today was kind of just a messing around day after I finished my bench and fat dumbbell C/P, just experimenting with the lifts I'm planning on doing for my bulking routine this fall. Bench was ok, I couldn't find a good position for my feet and couldn't get my abs tight so all of my sets were done with poor leg drive, but upper back and shoulder technique felt perfect and my arms felt pretty decent. Fat Dumbbell C/P is my worst lift in strongman so I decided I'm going to use the 5/3/1 template with 5-10% off my training max (to get more reps) to work on it in the gym, and it went pretty well.

I found I really don't like snatch grip high pulls, so I tried doing hang cleans instead, which were a good substitute. However, I think I'll just stick with doing full cleans on my deadlift day. For my bench day I'm going to try doing power shrugs next week instead, to help cement that motor pattern for my cleans instead of trying to curl it up. I'm going to need to do those after Dumbbell "BTN" presses though because my traps were too tight and sore from the upper back work to successfully do dumbbell "BTN" presses without leaning back and turning it into an incline bench with no back support. Cable Rows were all right but my lats were really sore from Kroc rows yesterday, so I cut it off at 2 sets. Arm work went well, I'm starting light so I can increase every week, I'll probably alternate every 5/3/1 cycle between dumbbells and barbells so I can continue to add weight/reps indefinitely in waves.

Now that my bench technique is getting better I"m not really using my chest at all, I feel it mostly in my shoulders, triceps and back, so my chest is starting to lag behind. I decided to throw in some pec flyes along with my rear delt work. I tried to do side raises but I was really gassed at that point and decided to head home. It's tough lifting on low carbs, very little energy (not to mention no pump in the gym, despite the volume). This is my first week really cutting out the carbs, I'm not going keto or anything but I am trying to keep carbs below 100g per day and eating 90% of my carbs within 3 hours after exercising. Bodyweight is 207 on gym scale, 208 on home scale, but I think a lot of it is just carb depletion. Despite looking deflated in general, I do look a little bit leaner as well.

So here's my revised feedback for my bench day:

5/3/1 Bench
5/3/1 Fat dumbbell C/P
3x5x(85%+10) supinated pendlay rows if pendlays on OHP day, 3x5x85% pendlay rows if t bar row on OHP day
5x10 dumbbell "btn" press
4x8 or 3x10 Power shrug or cable upright row
4x8 or 3x10 bis/tris
4x8 or 3x10 rear delts/chest
3x10 or 2x15 side delts

And no kroc rows on squat day, if grip is lacking then kroc rows on deadlift day. Sorry for the long post.