My Training Log

[moya]

nothing wimpy about doing squats and deads on the same day bro... keep killing it..

 

[amounirl]

Thanks man, although the squats were light so it wasn't too bad. After swimming today my back feels a lot better, but my triceps and hamstrings are very sore.

 

[amounirl]

Felt lazy and tired today, and my left shoulder was hurting so I didn't go heavy on the axle. Just did a max yoke:

Chain Yoke 500 lbs for 16 ft - YouTube

 

[amounirl]

7-9-12: Squat Deload

Squat
10x135
8x165
6x200

Front squat
10x115
8x135

Hamstring Curl
10x90
10x110
10x110

Weighted Sit Ups
2x10x15 lbs
1x10xBW

Easy deload, squat form felt solid, finally finding my groove, not bouncing off any tendons or joints now, just stopping it with muscle, and lifting it with muscle. Felt very physically strong today but mentally worn out, so the deload is good.

 

[amounirl]

6-10-12: Bench Deload

Bench
10x115
8x135
165x7/7
145x8 (paused, close grips)

Barbell Rows
3x12x125

Shoulder Press
35 dbs x 10/10/12

Upright Rows and Face pulls
4 sets of 8

Tricep ext
27.5 dbs x 12/15

Fat gripz DB hammer curl
2x12x27.5

(Chest Supported) Rear Delt Swing on Incline Bench
37.5 dbs x 30 reps

Today felt pretty good, first time lifting in running shoes in 1.5 years, because they're so comfy, surprisingly felt strong even with the cusioned sole. Then again it was a deload. Bench groove felt great, against all odds, I was wearing the "wrong" shoes and didn't have any chalk or thin rubber mat (the one you see in my bench videos) on the bench, so it was slick. Not sure if it's the shoes or the lack of rubber mat but either could be a possibility, we'll see how I feel next week, but today I felt nice and tight and was holding the bar in my lats/traps pretty well. Didn't even stretch my hips or back before hand and I felt fine getting a decent arch. Did some paused close grips and leg drive felt stellar, even with the running shoes. If the oly shoes feel like crap next week I'll try with the running shoes on my down pyramid sets to see if it actually makes a difference with heavy weight, or if today was just an anomaly.

Did the barbell rows Dorian Yates style, feel it a lot in the lats and forearms. I'd like to go heavy on these next time, maybe even with a mixed grip alternating from set to set, using 4x8 sets/reps scheme. Shoulder presses aggravated my compromised left shoulder a bit but I pushed through it. Upright rows and face pulls were mediocre, pretty insignificant. I'll start doing face pulls regularly again, there's no good ropes in my gym so I'll just use the straight bar. I actually like the DB tricep extensions without fat gripz better, feel it in the triceps more, from now on I'll only do the hammer curls with fat gripz, and I"ll use different weights so I can hit the same reps on each. I actually think the tricep extensions might be to blame for the pain in my left humerus, because of both the elbow and shoulder hurting. Will look up some elbow rehab and start doing that as well. Rear delt swings could have been better, I think the incline bench was on too flat a setting cause I felt it more in my lats than usual. I'll try with a less steep bench and lighter weights next week to get a better ROM and focus better on the rear delts.

Played basketball yesterday, been pussing out of going to kempo using shoulder and sickness as an excuse, I'm gonna have to drag my ass in on wednesday so I can get back with it again. I just hate cardio, and I hate how hard it is on the joints, always messes up my lifting. Going to play basketball in about an hour, might do dips and pull ups afterwards.

 

[amounirl]

7-12-12: Deadlift Deload, or DLDL

Deadlift
5x135
5x225
5x315

Hip Thrust
2x15x135

(Pronated) Pull Ups
BW x 5/8/8/6/5 (first set with fat gripz)

(bicep/shoulder stretch on pull up bar)

Hamstring Curl
Worked up with sets of 8 to 12x150 and 5x180

Short day today. I was going to squat but I was running late and had my 2 training partners do their squats while they were waiting for me. They finished a few mins after I got there and they already have to wait long enough for me to do all my deadlift sets, so I skipped squats. It's a deload, anyways. Technique was great on deadlift, I now have a 3 step checklist in my mind that I run through before every deadlift set, glutes tight, big air/core tight, bar close, then when I lift, chest up/heels through the ground. Simple and effective.

Hip thrusts are getting better, just pushing through it. Pull ups were painful as hell, especially with the fat gripz, and especially with my calluses torn up from deads, as I used no long socks, no belt, and no chalk. Makes even lighter deads more painful than heavy ones, all the skin tearing. Great pump though from the pull ups, decided to stretch my biceps and shoulders while they were pumped, on the pull up bar, by grabbing the bar behind me with both hands like I was going to do a supinated bench dip on it, then letting my arms come up and putting my shoulders under the bar, hanging as best I could from it with my hands in the awkward position. Hard to describe, but a phenomenal stretch, great for preventing bicep tears I've heard. I can link a video if anyone wants. Hamstring curls were hamstring curls.

Thinking about doing Magnusson/Orton for deadlift this fall (5/3/1 for everything else), as I don't like the high rep heavy deads that seem to come with 5/3/1. I'll just run 5/3/1 deads during the summer while I'm doing kempo, since 5/3/1 allows for bad/off days where you can take it easy, in case I have injuries or joint pain/soreness from kempo, which I get a lot of unfortunately.

 

[amounirl]

7-13-12: "OHP Deload" and bench

Bench
Worked up to a very clean, 100% raw (no wrist wraps or belt or anything) paused triple with 3x245!

Poor man's slingshot bench
225x5
265x3 paused
300x2 paused 1st rep, touch n go second
315x1 paused: 315 Paused "Slingshot" Bench - YouTube

Clean and Overhead Press
1 clean, 12 presses with 95

Kroc Rows
10x50
15x100

That's it. Had a great bench day raw, (leg drive felt 100% perfect in running shoes, which I'm liking a lot more than oly shoes) and an even greater bench day with the improvised slingshot. Wore me out like crazy though, as I've never handled those kinds of weights. Feel it a million times more in the upper back and lats, though I got a sick chest and shoulder pump as well, I think this would be a great tool to work up to a heavy set but not all out, then go back to raw, to help teach the technique. Might do that for that pyramiding program I'm thinking about doing for bench, I'll just have to move around my bench and OHP days so I can still get work done. I'm thinking Pyramid bench and 5/3/1 OHP on tuesday, then 5/3/1 bench and 5/3/1 push press or jerk on fridays, since I'll be running the Mag/Ort the day before and would rather fully exert myself when I'm more fresh on tuesday. Can't wait to bulk this fall.

Oh yeah and the OHP and kroc rows were fun too. I'm worn out as hell.

 

[amounirl]

7-16-12: 3x5x85% OHP and "Week 2" Mag/Ort RB Deadlift

1 Clean and OHP (sets of 5 chins between all sets, work and warmups, 6 sets total: 30 reps)
warmups
3x5x135

Reverse Band Deadlift (135 off the bottom deload at knees)
warmups
4x4x365
1x2x410
1x2x470
1x12x365 no pauses/resets

Looks short on paper, but Ort/Mag is no joke, I was in there for about 2 hours, 1.5 hrs of it just doing set after set of deadlifts. I just wanted to try it out, so I did Week 2 with reverse bands with 525 "projected" max (used my predicted max instead of projected, which would have been around 550) since I've reverse band deadlifted 500 for 2 reps before (526). Ort/Mag was brutal. Each individual set was easy and submaximal, except maybe the last set where 13 reps would have been questionable, but the sheer added up volume wore me out a lot, especially mentally. I'm sure I could have had one more on the 470, but I didn't push for it. I'm definitely going to have to break up my ort/mag days into a morning deadlift session and an evening assistance work session, because with real deads instead of reverse bands this would wear me out way more. The fact the gym was hot didn't help either, I was sweating after my first set of OHP.

Either way I'm really excited for the program, I can see this really helping out my technique A LOT. I alternated sets between right hand under and left hand under (first and last set were both right hand under, heaviest set was left hand under). I'm liking mix grip a million times more than hook grip, even if hook grip lets me get in a better position to start, mix grip lets me focus on keeping my core and glutes tight, getting my shins vertical, and pulling the bar into me, instead of pain signals from my thumbs frying my brain. It also lets me relax my shoulders and arms better, oddly enough, which helps at lockout. On all of my reps (except one rep on the 365 and the first rep of 410) the lockout was very smooth because I was able to get my shins vertical and back completely straight at the bottom, and therefore keep momentum over my knees all the way to lockout. I figured the 365 was going to be really high reps anyways, so I didn't pause them at the bottom. No bouncing, but no resetting either, just grinding them out. Quads and hands (not hams, hands, as in my bunched up calluses) were burning. Abs and spinal erectors are sore now too, but I'm sure I'll be sore all over tomorrow.

 

[amounirl]

7-18-12: 85% Squat and Bench

Squat
warmups
8x275 with belt

Bench
warmups
5x225 with wrist wraps
23x135 close grip (3 rep PR)

Medial Delt Work
About 15-25 mins worth

Rear Delt destroyer
25x35 lbs drop setted to 12x25

Decent training session, I messed up my neck grappling in kempo on Monday so that was irritating me the whole day, and my entire back and both legs were sore, especially the lower back and traps, from deadlifts on Monday. My buddy had an appointment at 11:30, so we had to go to the gym at 10:00 AM, and I got up at 9:00 AM, so I was also very tired, just in general did not feel very good going to the gym today. Despite that though I managed to get in a decent workout.

Squat form felt slightly off but my buddy said I kept my arch, so I'll take his word for it. I need to start bringing my camera to the gym more often though so I can see for myself. Bench form also felt a little off, I don't think it's because of the oly shoes or anything, but just because my neck was bothering me, back were sore, and legs were pumped from squats, so I couldn't get locked in as well as normal. I'll have to get used to it though because that's the condition in PL meets, leg stiffness from squats. I was planning on doing 3x5x85% on both lifts today but we didn't have time, so I just pushed the top set on squats to 8 reps, then did a close grip burn out set at the end of bench. Didn't go to failure on anything, but 9 reps on 275 squat, 6 reps on 225 bench, and 24 reps on 135 CG bench would have all been questionable, so I stopped 1-2 short of potential failure. Was really winded at this point, mostly because I'd just woken up and didn't have much food in me, so I didn't do rows like I"d planned, didn't have any energy left for compound movements, so I just experimented with some lateral delt work I saw in a thread by Diamonddelts on BB.com, then did a rear delt destroyer drop set.

Not the most productive day but still decent, and my shoulders got a good pump, might make some all right gains from today, or at least maintain what I have, until my next training session this Sunday, since I'm going to be out of town from tonight until late on friday night.

 

[amounirl]

Just got back from out of town, slept poorly but ate well, and my body feels really good after the rest, ready to start hitting the gym again come Sunday. Here's the routine I"m going to be running:

Fri: Squat/OHP

5/3/1 OHP from rack, sets of 5 chin ups between sets
5/3/1 Squat (wrist curls between sets)
1 arm DB C/P 90% 5/3/1
GVT (10x10) Sumo Deadlift
4x8 or 3x10 hammer grip cable rows with side raises
2x15 abs
2x15 hip thrust

Sun: Bench/Front Squat

5/3/1 Bench, sets of face pulls, close grips on down pyramid
5/3/1 Front Squat
GVT (10x10) Dumbbell “BTN” press
GVT (10x10) Barbell Rows
shoulder raises


Mon: Kempo

Tues: CJ/Deadlift

5/3/1 Clean and push press (1 clean per set, chins)
5/3/1 Deadlift (shoulder raises between sets)
GVT (10x[half of rep max]) Dips. Add 1 rep per week, or if at 10 reps add weight
2x15 hip thrust
arms
50 rep Upper chest and rear delts dumbells


Wed: Kempo

Thurs: Kempo