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Evan Tipps
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High rep deadlifts are tragic.. in a good way. hahah youre a strong dude. How are the college gyms? Lots of douches?
My Training Log
- Thread starter amounirl
- Start date
NoFatChicks91
New member
He is a badass deadlifter dude 500 is sick.
Evan I can attest that yes, there are tons of dickheads at college gyms. I refuse to work out at them. At least, there are at my college. You get idiots that weigh like 110 and flex their invisible muscles in the mirror, check themselves out, fuckin like pretend to be boxers in front of the mirror, sit there and text on the equipment, etc.
That was my experience anyway. I only went to that gym to hit on this chick after that and even then it was hard to tolerate the idiots
Evan I can attest that yes, there are tons of dickheads at college gyms. I refuse to work out at them. At least, there are at my college. You get idiots that weigh like 110 and flex their invisible muscles in the mirror, check themselves out, fuckin like pretend to be boxers in front of the mirror, sit there and text on the equipment, etc.
That was my experience anyway. I only went to that gym to hit on this chick after that and even then it was hard to tolerate the idiots
Haha thanks guys, my college gym actually isn't any douchier than the 24 hour fitness I was at before. Just a little more crowded. Oddly enough I never see those little 110 lb kids walking around with ILS posing in the mirrors, most kids at my school are actually pretty decent sized. Not very many of them look strong, but UCSB is a pretty fitness oriented school, being right on the beach and everything. Believe it or not I saw more shadow boxers at 24 hour fitness xD
9-29-12: Alternative Stuff
High Bar Squat
3x10x185
Incline Bench
30-33 reps over 5 sets with 135
Trap Bar Drag Rows into Shrug
3 sets of 10 rows and 10 shrugs
Pretty disappointing day today. High bar squats went well, but incline bench and drag rows were very weak. It's fine though, Monday I"m going to start my new routine, since I need to work on my high bar squat and incline bench I'll be doing those:
Monday: Squat 3x5, Bench 3x5, Weighted pull ups 3x5, 3x10 front plate raise with trap bar shrug/row
Thursday Morning: Front squat 3x5, Overhead press 3x5, weighted chin ups 3x5
Thursday Evening: 3x5 Dynamic box squats, Ort/Mag DL
Saturday: High Bar Squat 3x5, Incline Bench 3x5, Barbell Rows 3x5, 3x10 Good Mornings, 3x10 dips/side raises/rear delts
External rotations on off day mornings, sparring 3-4x per week, Cable Biceps/triceps if I'm not lifting in the next 36 hours and I"m bored in my dorm.
High Bar Squat
3x10x185
Incline Bench
30-33 reps over 5 sets with 135
Trap Bar Drag Rows into Shrug
3 sets of 10 rows and 10 shrugs
Pretty disappointing day today. High bar squats went well, but incline bench and drag rows were very weak. It's fine though, Monday I"m going to start my new routine, since I need to work on my high bar squat and incline bench I'll be doing those:
Monday: Squat 3x5, Bench 3x5, Weighted pull ups 3x5, 3x10 front plate raise with trap bar shrug/row
Thursday Morning: Front squat 3x5, Overhead press 3x5, weighted chin ups 3x5
Thursday Evening: 3x5 Dynamic box squats, Ort/Mag DL
Saturday: High Bar Squat 3x5, Incline Bench 3x5, Barbell Rows 3x5, 3x10 Good Mornings, 3x10 dips/side raises/rear delts
External rotations on off day mornings, sparring 3-4x per week, Cable Biceps/triceps if I'm not lifting in the next 36 hours and I"m bored in my dorm.
10-1-12: Squat/Bench
Squat
5x225
5x255
3x5x275
Bench
5x165
5x185
3x5x215
Pull Ups
5xBW
3x5xBW+25
Decent day today but I didn't have energy to do my assistance lifts afterwards, this killed me. Squat technique is awesome, no buttwink whatsoever, although now I"m experimenting with my stance width. Bench I tried a different set up since the bars are thicker and the bench itself is narrower, than I'm used to, so I did the "set up with the bar over the belly button and toes on the ground way back, then pull through underhanded, then set heels on the ground" type set up, which helped get me way tighter, the only problem being that I can't get good leg drive without my ass coming off the bench, since the bench is also a bit lower than I'm used to. I'll figure it out though. Pull ups were good.
Squat
5x225
5x255
3x5x275
Bench
5x165
5x185
3x5x215
Pull Ups
5xBW
3x5xBW+25
Decent day today but I didn't have energy to do my assistance lifts afterwards, this killed me. Squat technique is awesome, no buttwink whatsoever, although now I"m experimenting with my stance width. Bench I tried a different set up since the bars are thicker and the bench itself is narrower, than I'm used to, so I did the "set up with the bar over the belly button and toes on the ground way back, then pull through underhanded, then set heels on the ground" type set up, which helped get me way tighter, the only problem being that I can't get good leg drive without my ass coming off the bench, since the bench is also a bit lower than I'm used to. I'll figure it out though. Pull ups were good.
10-4-12: Deads
Front Squats
Light warm up, worked with 135 I think
OHP
3x5x125
Deadlift
4x4x350
2x405
2x455
11x350
That's it. Ort/Mag is brutal. I woke up kind of late, so I didn't end up going to the gym to do a morning session. The gym is so damn far and I have to bike there, so it's a pain in the ass to go any more than 3x per week, only time I"d go 4x is when I run 5/3/1 in January. Plus my bike is broken so I have to borrow my friend's until it gets fixed by the guy I gave it to, so I don't have the most flexible gym schedule.
I'm just going to switch high bar squats and front squats, so at least I"m squatting and front squatting heavy 1x per week each, while building my high bar squat and not compromising my deadlift. Hammies are definitely still a weak point, so light GMs to warm up for squats are appropriate, hamstring curls to warm up for front squats. There's no way I can do any legitimate leg work before ort/mag, and anything period afterwards. Here's what I"m thinking now:
Mon: 2x15 light good mornings, 3x5 Low Bar Squat, 3x5 Bench, 3x5 pendlay Rows followed by 3x10 barbell rows bodybuilding style
Thurs: 3x10 Easy High Bar Squat (drop reps if it is fatiguing my legs significantly), 3x5 OHP with sets of 5 pull ups between all warmup and working sets, ort/mag deadlift
Sat: 2x15 hamstring curl, 3x5 Front Squat, 2x15 rear delt raise (rotator cuff warmup for incline), 3x5 Incline Bench, 3x5 weighted chin ups, 3x10 good mornings, 3x10 dips, 3x10 trap bar traps
I'd like to fit side raises in somewhere since side delts are the only muscle not worked on my schedule. I guess I"ll just do it if I ever have energy after a session, not my biggest priority but I've always thought wide shoulders are manly as f*ck. Been working tricep pressdowns also, I do them in the small gym in my dorm when I"m bored, and I've been doing shoulder rehab work and some other crap in there too, nothing to compromise training though.
Front Squats
Light warm up, worked with 135 I think
OHP
3x5x125
Deadlift
4x4x350
2x405
2x455
11x350
That's it. Ort/Mag is brutal. I woke up kind of late, so I didn't end up going to the gym to do a morning session. The gym is so damn far and I have to bike there, so it's a pain in the ass to go any more than 3x per week, only time I"d go 4x is when I run 5/3/1 in January. Plus my bike is broken so I have to borrow my friend's until it gets fixed by the guy I gave it to, so I don't have the most flexible gym schedule.
I'm just going to switch high bar squats and front squats, so at least I"m squatting and front squatting heavy 1x per week each, while building my high bar squat and not compromising my deadlift. Hammies are definitely still a weak point, so light GMs to warm up for squats are appropriate, hamstring curls to warm up for front squats. There's no way I can do any legitimate leg work before ort/mag, and anything period afterwards. Here's what I"m thinking now:
Mon: 2x15 light good mornings, 3x5 Low Bar Squat, 3x5 Bench, 3x5 pendlay Rows followed by 3x10 barbell rows bodybuilding style
Thurs: 3x10 Easy High Bar Squat (drop reps if it is fatiguing my legs significantly), 3x5 OHP with sets of 5 pull ups between all warmup and working sets, ort/mag deadlift
Sat: 2x15 hamstring curl, 3x5 Front Squat, 2x15 rear delt raise (rotator cuff warmup for incline), 3x5 Incline Bench, 3x5 weighted chin ups, 3x10 good mornings, 3x10 dips, 3x10 trap bar traps
I'd like to fit side raises in somewhere since side delts are the only muscle not worked on my schedule. I guess I"ll just do it if I ever have energy after a session, not my biggest priority but I've always thought wide shoulders are manly as f*ck. Been working tricep pressdowns also, I do them in the small gym in my dorm when I"m bored, and I've been doing shoulder rehab work and some other crap in there too, nothing to compromise training though.
NoFatChicks91
New member
Riding your bike to the gym I love the dedication bro. 5/3/1 sounds like a kickass program Im gonna do it too after I have my tonsils removed
10-6-12: High Bar/Incline/Chins day
High Bar Squat
10x195
2x5x225
(2x10 rear delt raise/ext rotation)
Incline Bench
3x5x145
Weighted Chins
3x5x35
Good Mornings
3x10x135 (5x10x20s side raises between sets)
Weighted Dips
3x10x15
Pretty good day today. My normal training partner, a guy who lives on my floor whose been consistent so far, is visiting home this weekend, so I brought my roommate who I suspect suffers from low testosterone (very shy/passive, does a lot of cardio, drinks soymilk, eats low fat) to spot me on incline and lift. Was kind of cool to see him get somewhat fired up for once when lifting, even though he's really weak and trying to teach him technique is difficult (he's not very flexible). He slows me down a bit, but I think getting my roommate's testosterone up to a level where he doesn't repel girls from our room with his depressive buzzkilling silence is worth it. He's a good guy though, just comes across as creepy because he doesn't talk and always looks down. Lifting makes us feel like men.
Anyways, as much as I love talking about how masculinely therapeutic lifting is, high bar squats were good. Just a note about high bar squats is the way I do them isn't a true olympic high bar, I'm still breaking at the hips and sitting back, with a leaning torso, I'm basically just doing a low bar squat with a high bar bar position, because I think it might work better for my natural leverages (long femurs relative to short torso), just to experiment with it. I could be dead wrong, but even if that's the case, getting used to having weight on my traps will benefit my yoke walk. Inclines were all right, still disappointed with my lack of strength on these, but I know once I get this up it will benefit both my OHP and my bench. I'll have to switch to dumbbells eventually though because I know if I went above 225ish it would really start messing up my shoulders, since I'm just not built for heavy pressing, plus I do want to get some upper chest development and it's not safe to target that area with the barbell. Still, I found warming up the rotator cuff and using a thumbless grip made inclines hurt a lot less on the shoulders. Chins were good, GMs were really light, might start doing those with bands because of the strength curve, side raises were good, dips also went well. I was going to do some upper back work but I was dying after all this and my traps were already pretty well worked so I decided to call it a day.
High Bar Squat
10x195
2x5x225
(2x10 rear delt raise/ext rotation)
Incline Bench
3x5x145
Weighted Chins
3x5x35
Good Mornings
3x10x135 (5x10x20s side raises between sets)
Weighted Dips
3x10x15
Pretty good day today. My normal training partner, a guy who lives on my floor whose been consistent so far, is visiting home this weekend, so I brought my roommate who I suspect suffers from low testosterone (very shy/passive, does a lot of cardio, drinks soymilk, eats low fat) to spot me on incline and lift. Was kind of cool to see him get somewhat fired up for once when lifting, even though he's really weak and trying to teach him technique is difficult (he's not very flexible). He slows me down a bit, but I think getting my roommate's testosterone up to a level where he doesn't repel girls from our room with his depressive buzzkilling silence is worth it. He's a good guy though, just comes across as creepy because he doesn't talk and always looks down. Lifting makes us feel like men.
Anyways, as much as I love talking about how masculinely therapeutic lifting is, high bar squats were good. Just a note about high bar squats is the way I do them isn't a true olympic high bar, I'm still breaking at the hips and sitting back, with a leaning torso, I'm basically just doing a low bar squat with a high bar bar position, because I think it might work better for my natural leverages (long femurs relative to short torso), just to experiment with it. I could be dead wrong, but even if that's the case, getting used to having weight on my traps will benefit my yoke walk. Inclines were all right, still disappointed with my lack of strength on these, but I know once I get this up it will benefit both my OHP and my bench. I'll have to switch to dumbbells eventually though because I know if I went above 225ish it would really start messing up my shoulders, since I'm just not built for heavy pressing, plus I do want to get some upper chest development and it's not safe to target that area with the barbell. Still, I found warming up the rotator cuff and using a thumbless grip made inclines hurt a lot less on the shoulders. Chins were good, GMs were really light, might start doing those with bands because of the strength curve, side raises were good, dips also went well. I was going to do some upper back work but I was dying after all this and my traps were already pretty well worked so I decided to call it a day.
NoFatChicks91
New member
Great workouts as always.
Hey I really respect you helping your buddy out like that man. That guy sounds exactly how I used to be lol so I always feel sorry for those people. He's probably just got some deep rooted confidence issues along with the suspected low testosterone. Way to be a bro you're a good guy
So since you're well aquainted with 5x5 and 5/3/1 how do they stack up to one another? You're saying 5x5 is better for quick strength gains as opposed to the 5/3/1?
Hey I really respect you helping your buddy out like that man. That guy sounds exactly how I used to be lol so I always feel sorry for those people. He's probably just got some deep rooted confidence issues along with the suspected low testosterone. Way to be a bro you're a good guy
So since you're well aquainted with 5x5 and 5/3/1 how do they stack up to one another? You're saying 5x5 is better for quick strength gains as opposed to the 5/3/1?
Buildingup24
New member
You could take your roommate under your wing man. It could honestly change his whole outlook on life. You'll also benefit wit a guy to gout with and go to gym with. Just my thoughts. Sick log btw
NoFatChicks91
New member
^ that's what I'm sayin man someone like him could really help that poor guy out!
Thanks guys! Yeah my roommate has class during the only time I'm free to go to the gym on Mon/Thurs, he can only come on Saturdays, so I usually go with this other guy from my floor, but I definitely want to help my roommate out and at least give him some advice for days when we can't lift together. I also gave him some girl advice, and he actually got some girls' numbers and met a new friend since we started lifting together so that's definitely progress!
About 5x5 vs 5/3/1, 5x5 you gain 5 lbs on every lift every time you perform it (in theory), but one can only progress for so long that way. Eventually linear gains will stop, so you have to switch to a slower program like 5/3/1, which has you gaining 5-10 lbs on each lift as opposed to 20-60 (60 for 3x/week squats), per month. I like 5/3/1 better because it accommodates for bad days in the gym, and it's more balanced in that you can throw in your own assistance work to target weak points, or to get some more hypertrophy/definition (sarcoplasmic growth) instead of just straight strength/mass (myofibrular growth). Just depends on where you're at in your training, right now I care mostly about strength and there's hopefully still linear gains to be made, so I'm going to milk linear progression as best I can, while maintaining my physique with a few low priority isolation lifts.
10-8-12: Low Bar/Bench/Rows
Low Bar Squat
5x225
5x255
3x5x285
Bench
220x5/4/3
135x10 thumbless/close grip
Barbell Rows
5x10x95
1x10x95 underhand
Power Clean
3x185 1 rep PR
1x205 20 lb PR
1x225 40 lb PR!!!
Today was a good day and a bad day. My buddy needed his bike and my bike is still broken (it's going to cost 50 bucks to fix which I need to save up for), so I had to walk to the gym. Wasn't as bad as I thought, it's only like 1-2 miles I'm estimating, when before I thought it was 3-4, but it still sucks carrying my gym bag that far. My shoulders are still sore as hell from inclines and dips on Saturday, which I"m sure is the reason why my bench sucked today. My hamstrings were also sore but my squat felt stronger than last week, even though it was 10 lbs heavier, only thing is my technique didn't feel as solid as usual, probably because I hadn't ridden a bike so my hips weren't as warmed up as I'm used to. Next time I walk to the gym I"ll just ride the exercise bike for a bit to warm up when I get there. Either way I"m glad my squat is going up again.
Bench sucked. Again it's probably because of dips/inclines, I'll just do dips and inclines on deadlift day instead and OHP on Saturday, since I'm used to OHP and don't get as sore from it, and it's on such a different plane from bench that even if it does effect it, it won't be as much. Plus doing dips after deads I'll be so tired that it will limit the weight I can use, and preserve my shoulders. I'll try 3x5x225 next week but if I can't get it I'll drop down to 4x4. I hate working with under 2 plates on bench, maybe it's stupid, maybe it's ego, or maybe I've milked all my linear potential out of the bench press, and have to switch to 5/3/1 for it. I've been benching for 2.5 years after all. I'll figure it out, as long as the weight goes up and I'm getting a good amount of volume I should be good (volume is another reason why it might serve me well to switch to 5/3/1 for bench.)
Rows also sucked, my traps have been really sore lately, so I just did them all bodybuilding style, focusing on the muscle instead of the movement. I might just keep doing bodybuilding style for pendlay rows and strength for weighted chins, the strength curve on chin ups is better for strength work anyways, you can have a grinder and still make the rep, instead of everything having to be dynamic.
I was really pissed off going to the gym today because of some outside stuff, and even more pissed off after having a sh*tty bench and row, so I decided to throw around some weight on power cleans so I could at least feel better leaving the gym than going in. I was surprised with how strong I felt. My last warm up set with 165 felt heavy, so I switched to hook grip, surprisingly pain free, and smashed my previous 2 rep PR with plenty left in the tank. I decided to max out and got 205. It felt so easy that I decided to see if I could clean 2 plates. I didn't bring my camera to the gym but I got it on my phone camera, I don't have my connector cable but I'll see if I can text it to my email or something so I can put it up. Technique was really good on these too (except the last one where I almost feel forward), caught it right on the collar bones in a front squat position, wasn't supporting it with the arms at all, and didn't reverse curl it. Only thing is I barely squat down to catch it, so I was racking it in basically a completely standing upright position. Still, it was all hips, which is good. I really hope I can get the video up, this is my first lift I"m proud of in a long time.
About 5x5 vs 5/3/1, 5x5 you gain 5 lbs on every lift every time you perform it (in theory), but one can only progress for so long that way. Eventually linear gains will stop, so you have to switch to a slower program like 5/3/1, which has you gaining 5-10 lbs on each lift as opposed to 20-60 (60 for 3x/week squats), per month. I like 5/3/1 better because it accommodates for bad days in the gym, and it's more balanced in that you can throw in your own assistance work to target weak points, or to get some more hypertrophy/definition (sarcoplasmic growth) instead of just straight strength/mass (myofibrular growth). Just depends on where you're at in your training, right now I care mostly about strength and there's hopefully still linear gains to be made, so I'm going to milk linear progression as best I can, while maintaining my physique with a few low priority isolation lifts.
10-8-12: Low Bar/Bench/Rows
Low Bar Squat
5x225
5x255
3x5x285
Bench
220x5/4/3
135x10 thumbless/close grip
Barbell Rows
5x10x95
1x10x95 underhand
Power Clean
3x185 1 rep PR
1x205 20 lb PR
1x225 40 lb PR!!!
Today was a good day and a bad day. My buddy needed his bike and my bike is still broken (it's going to cost 50 bucks to fix which I need to save up for), so I had to walk to the gym. Wasn't as bad as I thought, it's only like 1-2 miles I'm estimating, when before I thought it was 3-4, but it still sucks carrying my gym bag that far. My shoulders are still sore as hell from inclines and dips on Saturday, which I"m sure is the reason why my bench sucked today. My hamstrings were also sore but my squat felt stronger than last week, even though it was 10 lbs heavier, only thing is my technique didn't feel as solid as usual, probably because I hadn't ridden a bike so my hips weren't as warmed up as I'm used to. Next time I walk to the gym I"ll just ride the exercise bike for a bit to warm up when I get there. Either way I"m glad my squat is going up again.
Bench sucked. Again it's probably because of dips/inclines, I'll just do dips and inclines on deadlift day instead and OHP on Saturday, since I'm used to OHP and don't get as sore from it, and it's on such a different plane from bench that even if it does effect it, it won't be as much. Plus doing dips after deads I'll be so tired that it will limit the weight I can use, and preserve my shoulders. I'll try 3x5x225 next week but if I can't get it I'll drop down to 4x4. I hate working with under 2 plates on bench, maybe it's stupid, maybe it's ego, or maybe I've milked all my linear potential out of the bench press, and have to switch to 5/3/1 for it. I've been benching for 2.5 years after all. I'll figure it out, as long as the weight goes up and I'm getting a good amount of volume I should be good (volume is another reason why it might serve me well to switch to 5/3/1 for bench.)
Rows also sucked, my traps have been really sore lately, so I just did them all bodybuilding style, focusing on the muscle instead of the movement. I might just keep doing bodybuilding style for pendlay rows and strength for weighted chins, the strength curve on chin ups is better for strength work anyways, you can have a grinder and still make the rep, instead of everything having to be dynamic.
I was really pissed off going to the gym today because of some outside stuff, and even more pissed off after having a sh*tty bench and row, so I decided to throw around some weight on power cleans so I could at least feel better leaving the gym than going in. I was surprised with how strong I felt. My last warm up set with 165 felt heavy, so I switched to hook grip, surprisingly pain free, and smashed my previous 2 rep PR with plenty left in the tank. I decided to max out and got 205. It felt so easy that I decided to see if I could clean 2 plates. I didn't bring my camera to the gym but I got it on my phone camera, I don't have my connector cable but I'll see if I can text it to my email or something so I can put it up. Technique was really good on these too (except the last one where I almost feel forward), caught it right on the collar bones in a front squat position, wasn't supporting it with the arms at all, and didn't reverse curl it. Only thing is I barely squat down to catch it, so I was racking it in basically a completely standing upright position. Still, it was all hips, which is good. I really hope I can get the video up, this is my first lift I"m proud of in a long time.
NoFatChicks91
New member
225 powerclean fuckin BADASS haha awesome
10-11-12: 13-14-15
High Bar Squat
worked up to 5x235
Incline Bench
135x5
150x5/4
135x5/5/4
Deadlift
4x4x365
2x415
2x465
Decent day today. My hips were incredibly tight even after spending 10 minutes warming them up, and I didn't want to wear myself out before deads, so I only did 1 set on the high bar squats. I'm thinking since these are still pretty low priority, what I'll do is 3x5 on my non deadlift week, and on deadlift weeks, 1 set of 5 with a drop down set of 8 with ~90% of the 5 set afterwards. Inclines were all right, was experimenting with my grip on these, just using the same grip as I do on OHP right now. I do these really strict, slow, paused, etc. and I'm still finding my groove. They work my shoulders in a way they've never been worked before, and the top half of the movement is really hard to lock out. I think once I get my inclines up it will benefit everything, but for now it sucks. I'll figure it out though, just gotta take it slow, really drill the technique, and get really high volume. 5x5x140 on incline next week.
Deadlifts were rough. The 365 sets felt really heavy, 415 felt like a max double, and I don't even know how I got 465 up once, let alone twice. I had my training partner slap me 3 times right before I lifted 465, maybe that helped. After the first rep I felt something gushing in my nose, and after my 2nd rep I discovered I got a pretty decent nosebleed. Not this intense: Jouko Ahola Deadlift - YouTube , but I still felt pretty badass. As I walked back from the bathroom to wash the blood off, one of the employees told me I can't use the eco chalk I've been using. This pissed me off pretty badly because it doesn't even get everywhere like real chalk does. I'm already making a sacrifice by not using real chalk since I know this gym is pretty strict, so this is completely BS. Even 24 hour fitness let me use real chalk. I'll probably still use it under the radar, unless the same guy is working next time I go. So since my back's been a bit iffy, I got a nosebleed, and I had to put away my chalk, I decided not to do the 365xmax reps set. I think I just need to stretch and foam roll more, I've been neglecting that, then my back/hips should be good again.
High Bar Squat
worked up to 5x235
Incline Bench
135x5
150x5/4
135x5/5/4
Deadlift
4x4x365
2x415
2x465
Decent day today. My hips were incredibly tight even after spending 10 minutes warming them up, and I didn't want to wear myself out before deads, so I only did 1 set on the high bar squats. I'm thinking since these are still pretty low priority, what I'll do is 3x5 on my non deadlift week, and on deadlift weeks, 1 set of 5 with a drop down set of 8 with ~90% of the 5 set afterwards. Inclines were all right, was experimenting with my grip on these, just using the same grip as I do on OHP right now. I do these really strict, slow, paused, etc. and I'm still finding my groove. They work my shoulders in a way they've never been worked before, and the top half of the movement is really hard to lock out. I think once I get my inclines up it will benefit everything, but for now it sucks. I'll figure it out though, just gotta take it slow, really drill the technique, and get really high volume. 5x5x140 on incline next week.
Deadlifts were rough. The 365 sets felt really heavy, 415 felt like a max double, and I don't even know how I got 465 up once, let alone twice. I had my training partner slap me 3 times right before I lifted 465, maybe that helped. After the first rep I felt something gushing in my nose, and after my 2nd rep I discovered I got a pretty decent nosebleed. Not this intense: Jouko Ahola Deadlift - YouTube , but I still felt pretty badass. As I walked back from the bathroom to wash the blood off, one of the employees told me I can't use the eco chalk I've been using. This pissed me off pretty badly because it doesn't even get everywhere like real chalk does. I'm already making a sacrifice by not using real chalk since I know this gym is pretty strict, so this is completely BS. Even 24 hour fitness let me use real chalk. I'll probably still use it under the radar, unless the same guy is working next time I go. So since my back's been a bit iffy, I got a nosebleed, and I had to put away my chalk, I decided not to do the 365xmax reps set. I think I just need to stretch and foam roll more, I've been neglecting that, then my back/hips should be good again.
10-13-12: Front Squat/OHP/Chins
Front Squat
3x5x225
Strict Press
3x5x130
Weighted Chins
3x5x37.5
1x7xBW pull ups
1x5xBW chin ups
Decent day today, one of the quicker workouts I've had at this gym. Front squats felt strong, although my first set I supported it with my wrist a bit on the right side, and the last set it almost slipped off my shoulders. I'm not worried about it though, I was just a bit distracted today is all, some kid who tagged along with me to the gym today kept trying to talk to me when I was trying to focus. He wanted me to train him but he ended up just going and doing curls when I was squatting, and leaving after he got tired of OHP. Strict presses went great, glad that my OHP is finally moving up again. Chins I should have done 3x5x40, but I'm used to just adding a 2.5 and wasn't thinking about the fact that it wasn't on both sides of a barbell. Since I was using 37.5 I wasn't too worn out and was able to do pretty short rest periods, the first 2 sets were easy but the last 2 reps of the last set were grinders. Did some BW pull ups for more volume afterwards, but my arms were way too tired. Then I tried to get a set of 9 chins after that with just BW, but my forearms and biceps were way to worn out and pumped.
I decided not to do good mornings or dips today because my back/hips/shoulders are all really worn out and need a rest. This is mostly due to a lack of mobility/rehab work, but I think it might also be that I'm not taking omega 3s anymore, I have them I just haven't taken any supplements except 50mg zinc and 500mg magnesium on days I don't drink milk (about 1-2 days/week, whenever I start to feel sick from all the dairy). It's great though because I have an endless supply of whole foods ready to eat in a building 200 ft from my dorm, and despite their odd hours I can structure my schedule around it so I get 4-6 solid meals per day. They have organic hormone free milk so on most days I drink 4-10 glasses of milk, without getting gyno. Bulking heaven. Anyways I'll have to start taking fish oil/omega 3s daily again.
Front Squat
3x5x225
Strict Press
3x5x130
Weighted Chins
3x5x37.5
1x7xBW pull ups
1x5xBW chin ups
Decent day today, one of the quicker workouts I've had at this gym. Front squats felt strong, although my first set I supported it with my wrist a bit on the right side, and the last set it almost slipped off my shoulders. I'm not worried about it though, I was just a bit distracted today is all, some kid who tagged along with me to the gym today kept trying to talk to me when I was trying to focus. He wanted me to train him but he ended up just going and doing curls when I was squatting, and leaving after he got tired of OHP. Strict presses went great, glad that my OHP is finally moving up again. Chins I should have done 3x5x40, but I'm used to just adding a 2.5 and wasn't thinking about the fact that it wasn't on both sides of a barbell. Since I was using 37.5 I wasn't too worn out and was able to do pretty short rest periods, the first 2 sets were easy but the last 2 reps of the last set were grinders. Did some BW pull ups for more volume afterwards, but my arms were way too tired. Then I tried to get a set of 9 chins after that with just BW, but my forearms and biceps were way to worn out and pumped.
I decided not to do good mornings or dips today because my back/hips/shoulders are all really worn out and need a rest. This is mostly due to a lack of mobility/rehab work, but I think it might also be that I'm not taking omega 3s anymore, I have them I just haven't taken any supplements except 50mg zinc and 500mg magnesium on days I don't drink milk (about 1-2 days/week, whenever I start to feel sick from all the dairy). It's great though because I have an endless supply of whole foods ready to eat in a building 200 ft from my dorm, and despite their odd hours I can structure my schedule around it so I get 4-6 solid meals per day. They have organic hormone free milk so on most days I drink 4-10 glasses of milk, without getting gyno. Bulking heaven. Anyways I'll have to start taking fish oil/omega 3s daily again.
NoFatChicks91
New member
Yeah those are some sick ass front squats man. I'm still loving that 225 power clean too holy shit, if you aren't doing them that often I can't imagine what you will be throwing up in the air after you do. How are the high bar squats and deads a day apart from the front squats treating you?
Thanks man! Yeah I'm hoping to put up 275 by the end of this school year, at least 315 at some point in the future. I need to start doing clean/jerk though because putting it overhead is way more badass than just to the shoulders, plus I need to work on my overhead strength. The high bar squats/deads don't really seem to effect my front squat, deads I get sore more in the upper/lower back and hamstrings, and high bar squats I'm not moving enough weight yet to be challenging on anything but my traps, since they're not completely used to it yet.
Probably not going to train today, diet and sleep have been off these last 2 days and I'm still sore as hell from last session. Last night it was really hot so even though I got into bed at 11:00, I didn't fall asleep till 2:00, then my roommates alarm woke me up at 6:30. I"m just going to go tomorrow since the mag/ort program calls for no deadlifts this Thursday.
E
Evan Tipps
Guest
Same thing happened to me last night. Pissed me off but I still went, if you can go today you should go
Gotta hate insomnia man... I could still go, but I feel like it'd be better to go tomorrow, that way I can be fully recovered and have a more productive training session. I don't have to lift too heavy on Thursday so I don't think it will mess up my training.
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Evan Tipps
Guest
Yeah bro that shit sucks! And yeah listen to your body. Kill that shit extra hard next lift day
Thanks man!!!
10-16-12: Squat/Bench/Row
Squat
5x225
5x265
3x5x295
Bench
3x3x135
3x185
1x205 paused 80%
11x180 repped 70%
Pendlay Row
3x5x175
2x8x135
Decent day today. Squats went great, technique felt awesome on the warmups, on the work sets I couldn't really tell, but it seemed good. Bench is officially in the shitter. I didn't even try for 5x225 today, so I just started a 7 week bench cycle I got from lift-run-bang.com where you hit progressively heavier paused singles, then do back off sets for max reps. I think that doing any kind of volume on my squats before hand kills my bench technique, my hips get way too pumped and therefore unflexible and I can't get any leg drive whatsoever, and my arch gets screwed up too. Bar path was good though, and besides the shit leg drive and arch, and on rep 11: ass coming off the bench and shoulders going unpinched, everything else was fine. Warming up with a thumbless grip works wonders for the bar path. Still pissed that my bench sucks though, and that squatting anything besides singles and maybe doubles/triples before hand kills it, but at least OHP is going well. Pendlays felt good today as well, felt it all in the lats, traps, forearms, and biceps, just like it should be, while moving decent weight. Only slight kipping, but not enough to degrade the quality of the movement. I think I'll just suck it up for the next 7 weeks on bench, maybe if I ever run squats and bench on the same day again I'll do front squats on my bench day and/or do legs after bench so my leg drive doesn't get messed up. Or hit a heavy single on squats, then do bench, then do the squats for volume, to get used to squatting before benching for if I ever decide to do a meet. But the last option is overly complicated.
Recovery has been good and bad. Sleep has been the worst it's been since I was a depressed nerdy insomniac in 9th grade and played video games until 2 AM , feel asleep at 4 AM, then woke up for school at 7 AM every day (maybe I would have grown to be 6'3 like my dad instead of 5'11 if I'd actually ate/slept properly back then...) It's really hot at night so it takes me 2 hours to fall asleep, then my roommates always wake up at 6:30 and I can't go back to sleep because their alarms go on loud for a pretty long time for them to wake up, which wakes me up instantly and then continues to wake me up for the 5 minutes it plays until I"m wide awake, and they finally shut it off. Not their fault that they're heavier sleepers than me but it still sucks. Also this weekend I made a huge mistake. The dining halls closed at 8 pm on friday, and because all the lines at restaurants were insanely long, I just popped some fish oil and told myself I was doing intermittent fasting for some stupid reason. I ended up going out that night and getting to bed at 5 AM, then woke up at 10 AM, and got out of bed at 12 AM to eat. So I went 16 hours without food, on no sleep, while on a high carb diet. I weighed myself on thursday night at 198, then on sunday after eating 6 meals I was only 194, and looked smaller and fatter in the mirror. I really hope I didn't lose 4 lbs of muscle. I look better today, haven't weighed myself but based on my performance in the gym, my pressing muscles either shrunk or are overtrained due to heavy pressing 3x/week, and everything else is fine.
On the bright side though I started doing yoga 10-30 mins every day so my mobility is already improving and all my joints hurt less (probably also due to fish oil). Also I learned my lesson that I respond well to a steady intake of nutrients, and from the last 3 times I've fasted and the last 4 times I've cut, I've learned that if I go low calories on a high carb diet I just lose muscle, so I need to be already fat adapted in order to go low calories without losing muscle, or if I want to lose fat (cyclic ketosis diet).
Squat
5x225
5x265
3x5x295
Bench
3x3x135
3x185
1x205 paused 80%
11x180 repped 70%
Pendlay Row
3x5x175
2x8x135
Decent day today. Squats went great, technique felt awesome on the warmups, on the work sets I couldn't really tell, but it seemed good. Bench is officially in the shitter. I didn't even try for 5x225 today, so I just started a 7 week bench cycle I got from lift-run-bang.com where you hit progressively heavier paused singles, then do back off sets for max reps. I think that doing any kind of volume on my squats before hand kills my bench technique, my hips get way too pumped and therefore unflexible and I can't get any leg drive whatsoever, and my arch gets screwed up too. Bar path was good though, and besides the shit leg drive and arch, and on rep 11: ass coming off the bench and shoulders going unpinched, everything else was fine. Warming up with a thumbless grip works wonders for the bar path. Still pissed that my bench sucks though, and that squatting anything besides singles and maybe doubles/triples before hand kills it, but at least OHP is going well. Pendlays felt good today as well, felt it all in the lats, traps, forearms, and biceps, just like it should be, while moving decent weight. Only slight kipping, but not enough to degrade the quality of the movement. I think I'll just suck it up for the next 7 weeks on bench, maybe if I ever run squats and bench on the same day again I'll do front squats on my bench day and/or do legs after bench so my leg drive doesn't get messed up. Or hit a heavy single on squats, then do bench, then do the squats for volume, to get used to squatting before benching for if I ever decide to do a meet. But the last option is overly complicated.
Recovery has been good and bad. Sleep has been the worst it's been since I was a depressed nerdy insomniac in 9th grade and played video games until 2 AM , feel asleep at 4 AM, then woke up for school at 7 AM every day (maybe I would have grown to be 6'3 like my dad instead of 5'11 if I'd actually ate/slept properly back then...) It's really hot at night so it takes me 2 hours to fall asleep, then my roommates always wake up at 6:30 and I can't go back to sleep because their alarms go on loud for a pretty long time for them to wake up, which wakes me up instantly and then continues to wake me up for the 5 minutes it plays until I"m wide awake, and they finally shut it off. Not their fault that they're heavier sleepers than me but it still sucks. Also this weekend I made a huge mistake. The dining halls closed at 8 pm on friday, and because all the lines at restaurants were insanely long, I just popped some fish oil and told myself I was doing intermittent fasting for some stupid reason. I ended up going out that night and getting to bed at 5 AM, then woke up at 10 AM, and got out of bed at 12 AM to eat. So I went 16 hours without food, on no sleep, while on a high carb diet. I weighed myself on thursday night at 198, then on sunday after eating 6 meals I was only 194, and looked smaller and fatter in the mirror. I really hope I didn't lose 4 lbs of muscle. I look better today, haven't weighed myself but based on my performance in the gym, my pressing muscles either shrunk or are overtrained due to heavy pressing 3x/week, and everything else is fine.
On the bright side though I started doing yoga 10-30 mins every day so my mobility is already improving and all my joints hurt less (probably also due to fish oil). Also I learned my lesson that I respond well to a steady intake of nutrients, and from the last 3 times I've fasted and the last 4 times I've cut, I've learned that if I go low calories on a high carb diet I just lose muscle, so I need to be already fat adapted in order to go low calories without losing muscle, or if I want to lose fat (cyclic ketosis diet).
10-18-12: High Bar Squat/Incline Bench/Upper Back Work
High Bar Squat
5x185
5x225
5x245
5x245
10x245
Incline Bench
5x5x140
Rows
135x5 underhand pendlays
135x3x10 drag rows
Curls
40xbar
Good day today, I decided to rep the last set of high bar squats out since I'm not doing deads today and got up to 10 reps before it got questionable that I would make the next one (might have had 12 or 13 in me), paused the last one at the bottom, and owned the weight. Been doing these without a belt, might end up running these instead of low bar squats when I do smolov base cycle in December. Since they're not really true high bars and more of a high/low bar hybrid (still works my lower back and hamstrings well), I think I can get the benefits of both types of squats without overworking my lower back, and I'll be doing this split for smolov:
Tues: 4x9 squat, 5/3/1 Bench; Thurs: 5x7 squat, 5/3/1 barbell row (dips between sets); Sat: 7x5 squat, 5/3/1 overhead press (chins between sets); Sun: 10x3 squat, speed deads work up in singles, then heavy rack pulls to maintain grip. If I start to get knee, calf, or upper back problems from the high bar squats I can switch back to low bar, and if I get back problems from that I can ditch smolov. But for now I"m hoping to do it with high bar squats.
Inclines felt decent, the 2nd set I grooved it perfectly, but otherwise I'm still finding my bar path on these. Getting better though. Rows were good, got a crazy good trap pump. I've been reading a lot of lift-run-bang and Paul Carter always talks about high reps curls, and posts videos of himself doing 100+rep curls, so I wanted to try it out today. I got the first 30 reps clean, but then my biceps were so pumped and fatigued that the amount of strength left in my biceps didn't feel like enough to overcome the lack of flexibility brought on by the pump. So the last 10 were ugly, but it's no big deal, the whole point is to get a lot of blood flowing through the elbows while working the biceps, so in that regard it was successful. Had a good time in the gym today.
Sleep was bad as usual, it's been really hot and humid, so I was sweating a lot in bed trying to fall asleep. Every time I almost fell asleep, either somebody outside would yell, laugh, or make a loud noise, which would penetrate through my earplugs and wake me up, or this fly that's been tormenting me and my roommates would land on me and swiping it would wake me up. So it took me 3 hours to fall asleep again. Sleep was sporadic, but I was in bed from 11 pm to 10 am, and got maybe 5-7 hours of sleep. Felt like my muscles recovered well somehow, but mentally I've felt tired all day today. Could be the fact I'm eating a lot, which is one plus, my diet has been pretty good, 4-6 meals per day, each with lots of protein, and comprised of whole foods. Today after training I had 2 plates of rice/beans/tri tip steak with 2 glasses of milk.
High Bar Squat
5x185
5x225
5x245
5x245
10x245
Incline Bench
5x5x140
Rows
135x5 underhand pendlays
135x3x10 drag rows
Curls
40xbar
Good day today, I decided to rep the last set of high bar squats out since I'm not doing deads today and got up to 10 reps before it got questionable that I would make the next one (might have had 12 or 13 in me), paused the last one at the bottom, and owned the weight. Been doing these without a belt, might end up running these instead of low bar squats when I do smolov base cycle in December. Since they're not really true high bars and more of a high/low bar hybrid (still works my lower back and hamstrings well), I think I can get the benefits of both types of squats without overworking my lower back, and I'll be doing this split for smolov:
Tues: 4x9 squat, 5/3/1 Bench; Thurs: 5x7 squat, 5/3/1 barbell row (dips between sets); Sat: 7x5 squat, 5/3/1 overhead press (chins between sets); Sun: 10x3 squat, speed deads work up in singles, then heavy rack pulls to maintain grip. If I start to get knee, calf, or upper back problems from the high bar squats I can switch back to low bar, and if I get back problems from that I can ditch smolov. But for now I"m hoping to do it with high bar squats.
Inclines felt decent, the 2nd set I grooved it perfectly, but otherwise I'm still finding my bar path on these. Getting better though. Rows were good, got a crazy good trap pump. I've been reading a lot of lift-run-bang and Paul Carter always talks about high reps curls, and posts videos of himself doing 100+rep curls, so I wanted to try it out today. I got the first 30 reps clean, but then my biceps were so pumped and fatigued that the amount of strength left in my biceps didn't feel like enough to overcome the lack of flexibility brought on by the pump. So the last 10 were ugly, but it's no big deal, the whole point is to get a lot of blood flowing through the elbows while working the biceps, so in that regard it was successful. Had a good time in the gym today.
Sleep was bad as usual, it's been really hot and humid, so I was sweating a lot in bed trying to fall asleep. Every time I almost fell asleep, either somebody outside would yell, laugh, or make a loud noise, which would penetrate through my earplugs and wake me up, or this fly that's been tormenting me and my roommates would land on me and swiping it would wake me up. So it took me 3 hours to fall asleep again. Sleep was sporadic, but I was in bed from 11 pm to 10 am, and got maybe 5-7 hours of sleep. Felt like my muscles recovered well somehow, but mentally I've felt tired all day today. Could be the fact I'm eating a lot, which is one plus, my diet has been pretty good, 4-6 meals per day, each with lots of protein, and comprised of whole foods. Today after training I had 2 plates of rice/beans/tri tip steak with 2 glasses of milk.
E
Evan Tipps
Guest
Nice job on the bw! Im hoping to get around to 200..
Thanks man, feels good to be progressing again! You'll get there, how much do you weigh now?
Parents visited me today so I don't really have time to go to the gym. I'll train front squat, chins, and OHP tomorrow, do a squat deload (normal bench and rows) on tuesday, then hit the high bar squat, inclines, and deads hard on thursday.
Parents visited me today so I don't really have time to go to the gym. I'll train front squat, chins, and OHP tomorrow, do a squat deload (normal bench and rows) on tuesday, then hit the high bar squat, inclines, and deads hard on thursday.
E
Evan Tipps
Guest
Im sitting at 215 right now cutting down..
E
Evan Tipps
Guest
Dang man. 254 I hope to be that heavy one day! congrats
Good stuff, I was sitting in the 215-220 range before but I cut too fast and on low calories but low quality food, so I lost a lot of muscle. Just trying to build it back up right now. So make sure to cut right!
And thanks wootoom, 254 is a beastly weight, one day I'd like to get up there if my frame can carry it!
And thanks wootoom, 254 is a beastly weight, one day I'd like to get up there if my frame can carry it!
10-21-12: Front Squat/OHP/Chins
Front Squat
3x5x235
OverHead Press
2x5x135
2x4x135 after 2nd set of 4 immediately 5x65 BTN press
1x10x65 BTN
Chin Ups
3x5xBW+40
Side Raises
3 sets of varying reps around 10, with 25 lb DBs
All right day today. My hips were incredibly tight, haven't been stretching unfortunately, last few days have been a bit hectic. Also I've been walking around a lot, which is a lot of stress on the hips. Despite that front squats went well, paused a lot of the reps so I could really feel full control, that I'd owned the weight. Although it's starting to become a habit that on low bar and front squats I pause a lot of the reps, which could be detrimental in the long run. I just love that feeling of lifting the weight with such full and supreme control. If only I felt the same way about flat bench press.
OHP I probably could have gotten 3x5x135, but the whole time my technique felt a bit off, and on the 3rd set I forgot to push my abs out/brace my core, so the 4th rep was a huge grinder, and the 5th was obviously failure. Hitting failure on that set doomed me to not getting the 5th rep again on set 4, even though my technique was relatively good. I did BTN press as part of my warmup for OHP, and somehow I feel like that hurt my technique a bit, not sure how but it did feel a little different after doing BTN press. BTN press though, I've found a way to do it without hurting the shoulders, thanks to lift-run-bang, by actually using a wider grip and pushing out to the sides, so the pressure pushes the shoulder into the socket, not shearing it out of the socket and stretching so far back. Did it pain free but again, somehow it hurt my groove for regular OHP when I included it in the warmup, even if it did help loosen up my shoulders more. I'll just stick to band rotations. I'm going to start 5/3/1 for my OHP again because 3x5 is too much of a pain in the ass to deload and reprogress with, plus I like the freedom and accommodation for bad days in 5/3/1 a lot better. 5/3/1 is a great routine all around, I can't wait to start it up again in December.
Chin ups were good, nice and smooth 3x5x40, next week I'll try 3x5x45, which will be a 2 rep PR, for 3 sets. It seems everything but my pressing muscles are progressing... Though the side raises gave me a crazy good pump in the shoulders and traps, gotta keep doing those for the mirror muscle effect, and possibly OHP gains. Squat deload, bench cycle week 2, and pendlay rows coming up on Tuesday.
Front Squat
3x5x235
OverHead Press
2x5x135
2x4x135 after 2nd set of 4 immediately 5x65 BTN press
1x10x65 BTN
Chin Ups
3x5xBW+40
Side Raises
3 sets of varying reps around 10, with 25 lb DBs
All right day today. My hips were incredibly tight, haven't been stretching unfortunately, last few days have been a bit hectic. Also I've been walking around a lot, which is a lot of stress on the hips. Despite that front squats went well, paused a lot of the reps so I could really feel full control, that I'd owned the weight. Although it's starting to become a habit that on low bar and front squats I pause a lot of the reps, which could be detrimental in the long run. I just love that feeling of lifting the weight with such full and supreme control. If only I felt the same way about flat bench press.
OHP I probably could have gotten 3x5x135, but the whole time my technique felt a bit off, and on the 3rd set I forgot to push my abs out/brace my core, so the 4th rep was a huge grinder, and the 5th was obviously failure. Hitting failure on that set doomed me to not getting the 5th rep again on set 4, even though my technique was relatively good. I did BTN press as part of my warmup for OHP, and somehow I feel like that hurt my technique a bit, not sure how but it did feel a little different after doing BTN press. BTN press though, I've found a way to do it without hurting the shoulders, thanks to lift-run-bang, by actually using a wider grip and pushing out to the sides, so the pressure pushes the shoulder into the socket, not shearing it out of the socket and stretching so far back. Did it pain free but again, somehow it hurt my groove for regular OHP when I included it in the warmup, even if it did help loosen up my shoulders more. I'll just stick to band rotations. I'm going to start 5/3/1 for my OHP again because 3x5 is too much of a pain in the ass to deload and reprogress with, plus I like the freedom and accommodation for bad days in 5/3/1 a lot better. 5/3/1 is a great routine all around, I can't wait to start it up again in December.
Chin ups were good, nice and smooth 3x5x40, next week I'll try 3x5x45, which will be a 2 rep PR, for 3 sets. It seems everything but my pressing muscles are progressing... Though the side raises gave me a crazy good pump in the shoulders and traps, gotta keep doing those for the mirror muscle effect, and possibly OHP gains. Squat deload, bench cycle week 2, and pendlay rows coming up on Tuesday.
No training today, had a really hard, 3.5 hr chem lab and I'm drained as hell from it. Plus I've been incredibly sleep deprived, so I have no energy right now. Tuesdays are definitely not training days. Tomorrow I've allotted 3 hours in the afternoon where there's no doubt I can train, so I'm going to go do a squat deload, bench, and deadlifts that day, followed by probably some DB incline bench or other bodybuilding work. Looked flat in the mirror all day today, even after eating carbs. Then I'll lift again on Saturday, start taking melatonin, and do whatever I have to do to get my sleep back on track, maybe get some earplugs that don't suck. This last 1-1.5 weeks have been really off on everything. Just gotta get back into the rhythm again, this time with no compromise.
10-24-12: 3x3 Squats
Squat
5x225
3x245
10x275
3x315
16x225
Good Mornings
3x10x140
That's it, great session today. Decided to start 5/3/1 again because the 3x5 routine is not only boring, but it also just sucks having to do so many compound movements for so many different body parts for so many heavy sets across with the same weight, all in the same rep range. Had the best training session in weeks today, I've switched over to high bar squatting exclusively because it doesn't give me hip and back problems like low bar does (which is partially my fault, due to mediocre technique on low bar, partially not my fault, due to the awkward leverages of a short torso and long femurs-or maybe that is my fault
). High bar squats feel a million times better, and I felt really strong on them today, first time wearing a belt on these. I think I'll do what Ed Coan did and high bar squat for most of the year, and only low bar squat when I peak strength for meets. I can bear the hip/back problems for the short periods a peaking cycle entails. I'll still do dynamic low bar box squats to warm up for deadlifts so my technique shouldn't decay, and I'm doing GMs no matter what on high bar days to keep up my posterior chain strength, just not heavy enough to mess up my joints, but rather light weight, focus on the muscle, bodybuilding style.
Felt really strong today, 275 was supposed to be my 3 set, and I pushed it to 10 reps, might have even had 11, but 275x10 is a 30 lb PR. 315 was supposed to be 295 for singles, but I upped the weight and hit a solid triple. 225 was my drop down set, I was supposed to use 215 (70% of 305 training max), but I'm going to bump up the training max to 330 because 315 feels like a good 95% for my training max. My real max is probably around 345, but I'm going to use the low training max protocol, so I can hit higher reps. I just need to make sure 95% is heavy enough for the singles. Maybe I'll just pause them.
From what I understand, it seems like the majority of the year should be spent on higher reps, and the purpose of peaking cycles is to draw upon whatever latent limit strength lies underneath all the high reps, for the purpose of 1-2 weeks of being at max strength, where you would want to do a meet. I always thought you should train heavy all year and that peaking was stupid, but now I'm finally starting to understand, or at least I think I am. So again, that's what I'll do, train with high reps for most of the year, and just peak for meets.
Squat
5x225
3x245
10x275
3x315
16x225
Good Mornings
3x10x140
That's it, great session today. Decided to start 5/3/1 again because the 3x5 routine is not only boring, but it also just sucks having to do so many compound movements for so many different body parts for so many heavy sets across with the same weight, all in the same rep range. Had the best training session in weeks today, I've switched over to high bar squatting exclusively because it doesn't give me hip and back problems like low bar does (which is partially my fault, due to mediocre technique on low bar, partially not my fault, due to the awkward leverages of a short torso and long femurs-or maybe that is my fault
). High bar squats feel a million times better, and I felt really strong on them today, first time wearing a belt on these. I think I'll do what Ed Coan did and high bar squat for most of the year, and only low bar squat when I peak strength for meets. I can bear the hip/back problems for the short periods a peaking cycle entails. I'll still do dynamic low bar box squats to warm up for deadlifts so my technique shouldn't decay, and I'm doing GMs no matter what on high bar days to keep up my posterior chain strength, just not heavy enough to mess up my joints, but rather light weight, focus on the muscle, bodybuilding style.Felt really strong today, 275 was supposed to be my 3 set, and I pushed it to 10 reps, might have even had 11, but 275x10 is a 30 lb PR. 315 was supposed to be 295 for singles, but I upped the weight and hit a solid triple. 225 was my drop down set, I was supposed to use 215 (70% of 305 training max), but I'm going to bump up the training max to 330 because 315 feels like a good 95% for my training max. My real max is probably around 345, but I'm going to use the low training max protocol, so I can hit higher reps. I just need to make sure 95% is heavy enough for the singles. Maybe I'll just pause them.
From what I understand, it seems like the majority of the year should be spent on higher reps, and the purpose of peaking cycles is to draw upon whatever latent limit strength lies underneath all the high reps, for the purpose of 1-2 weeks of being at max strength, where you would want to do a meet. I always thought you should train heavy all year and that peaking was stupid, but now I'm finally starting to understand, or at least I think I am. So again, that's what I'll do, train with high reps for most of the year, and just peak for meets.
10-25-12: 3x3 Bench/Chins
Bench
5x165
3x190
5x210
225 for 3 singles
13x165
Chins
5xBW
5x10
3x35
6x45
Behind Neck Press
3x10x65
Trap Bar Drag Rows
3x10x135 (10 rows 10 shrugs)
Tricep Pressdowns
50x40 lbs
Cable Curls
50-60x40 lbs (might have double counted the 30s/40s and done 10 extra)
External Rotations
2x10x20 lbs
Bench went pretty well today. Still not as strong as I"d like to be but it looks like 235 is a solid training max for me. I'll just have to get my hip flexor mobility back up so I can leg drive well again. I think the benches here are lower, which is making me unable to leg drive without my ass coming off the bench, which is why my bench has been so terrible since I got here. I'll just have to adapt. Everything else felt great though, and ass only came off the bench on the 5th rep of 210, 225 singles and 165x13 were both clean. Also all my reps on all my sets except 165x13 were paused, so even the 210x5 was paused.
Chins went well, got a nice 3 rep PR with 45 added. BTN press went great, trying a new technique on these which doesn't hurt my shoulders that I got from lift-run-bang, a little bit of clicking in the left shoulder but no pain besides regular muscle soreness after the set. Drag Rows were all right, I think I'd rather do it with a straight bar than a shrug bar. Came back to my dorm and went to the small gym there to do arms, did some high rep stuff on the cable machine, then some ext rotations. Overall a good day, I'm really sore in my legs from yesterday and I'm sure I'll be really sore everywhere tomorrow.
Bench
5x165
3x190
5x210
225 for 3 singles
13x165
Chins
5xBW
5x10
3x35
6x45
Behind Neck Press
3x10x65
Trap Bar Drag Rows
3x10x135 (10 rows 10 shrugs)
Tricep Pressdowns
50x40 lbs
Cable Curls
50-60x40 lbs (might have double counted the 30s/40s and done 10 extra)
External Rotations
2x10x20 lbs
Bench went pretty well today. Still not as strong as I"d like to be but it looks like 235 is a solid training max for me. I'll just have to get my hip flexor mobility back up so I can leg drive well again. I think the benches here are lower, which is making me unable to leg drive without my ass coming off the bench, which is why my bench has been so terrible since I got here. I'll just have to adapt. Everything else felt great though, and ass only came off the bench on the 5th rep of 210, 225 singles and 165x13 were both clean. Also all my reps on all my sets except 165x13 were paused, so even the 210x5 was paused.
Chins went well, got a nice 3 rep PR with 45 added. BTN press went great, trying a new technique on these which doesn't hurt my shoulders that I got from lift-run-bang, a little bit of clicking in the left shoulder but no pain besides regular muscle soreness after the set. Drag Rows were all right, I think I'd rather do it with a straight bar than a shrug bar. Came back to my dorm and went to the small gym there to do arms, did some high rep stuff on the cable machine, then some ext rotations. Overall a good day, I'm really sore in my legs from yesterday and I'm sure I'll be really sore everywhere tomorrow.
I need help with a work out an what supplements are best for me. I naturaly have muscle big shoulders, arms and chest I have never realy worked out but in the past 4 years I have gained 5 stone in for (not good) I am now goin gym but need advice about what work out to do I want to keep the muscle I have an if possible gain muscle whilst loosing my fat at ye moment I am eating 1800 calories eating carbs 30 min b4 training an protein after training I have bein at gym 6 weeks doin 1 hours waigh training 4 times a week an so far can't see any diffrence what am I doin wrong an what supplements can I take thanks
Wrong place to post that. You want a supplement that will make you jacked without you having to work harder than you are now? Try testosterone. Otherwise it's all about good old fashioned hard work. Google search stronglifts and do your own research, good luck.
10-27-12: Deadlifts
Dynamic warmup Box Squat
5x135
Deadlifts
4x365
4x365
4x365
4x365
2x415
2x465
12x365 2 rep PR
Hanging Leg Raise
1x15
Great day today. Training partner is out of town so I blasted through this workout in about 1-1.5 hours, then spent another 30 mins-1 hr BSing with friends in the gym and teaching my friend how to clean. Deads felt pretty good, took me a while to refind my groove since it's been a while, the 415 felt impossibly hard because my technique sucked, but on the 465 my technique was solid and it actually felt lighter than 415. I think for the first time in a while I didn't dip under heavy weight. The 365x12 was a 2 rep PR, but I bounced it a little. Not very much at all, but it definitely wasn't just touch n go. Still was a ball buster though so I"m fine with that. All other reps were paused and reset at the bottom, every rep pulled like a single (except on the sets of 4 where I"ll do 2 reps with right hand underhand, just resetting the hips but keep gripping the bar between, then switch my grip for and do the same where I just reset hips but don't let go of the bar for the last 2 reps). Still felt like I had energy after all this but I'm lazy so I just did a set of hanging leg raises then called it a day. Oddly enough my hamstrings were really sore going in, but aren't as sore afterwards, probably because of getting blood through the area. I feel like high bar squats are helping my deadlift lockout because they work my glutes so much more than low bar squats. GMs also are helping the lockout too. I'm incredibly happy to be on 5/3/1 again, I was getting really sick of doing upper and lower on the same day.
10-27-12: Deadlifts
Dynamic warmup Box Squat
5x135
Deadlifts
4x365
4x365
4x365
4x365
2x415
2x465
12x365 2 rep PR
Hanging Leg Raise
1x15
Great day today. Training partner is out of town so I blasted through this workout in about 1-1.5 hours, then spent another 30 mins-1 hr BSing with friends in the gym and teaching my friend how to clean. Deads felt pretty good, took me a while to refind my groove since it's been a while, the 415 felt impossibly hard because my technique sucked, but on the 465 my technique was solid and it actually felt lighter than 415. I think for the first time in a while I didn't dip under heavy weight. The 365x12 was a 2 rep PR, but I bounced it a little. Not very much at all, but it definitely wasn't just touch n go. Still was a ball buster though so I"m fine with that. All other reps were paused and reset at the bottom, every rep pulled like a single (except on the sets of 4 where I"ll do 2 reps with right hand underhand, just resetting the hips but keep gripping the bar between, then switch my grip for and do the same where I just reset hips but don't let go of the bar for the last 2 reps). Still felt like I had energy after all this but I'm lazy so I just did a set of hanging leg raises then called it a day. Oddly enough my hamstrings were really sore going in, but aren't as sore afterwards, probably because of getting blood through the area. I feel like high bar squats are helping my deadlift lockout because they work my glutes so much more than low bar squats. GMs also are helping the lockout too. I'm incredibly happy to be on 5/3/1 again, I was getting really sick of doing upper and lower on the same day.
Last edited:
NoFatChicks91
New member
Just checkin in on ya bro. You're still killin it and those deadlifts are fuckin beastly as always!!!
Thanks man, been busy with school but still getting the gym time in one way or another haha
10-28-12: 3x3 OHP
OHP
5x105
3x120
6x135
3x120
10x105
Supinated Pendlay Row
3x10x115
Incline Bench
3x10x105
Cable Rows
2x8x130
2x8x120
Bench Press
5x5x170 (3 pull ups between sets, 7 pullups afterwards)
Stuffing my face with turkey
2xF
Tricep Pressdowns
75x20 lbs
Cable Curls
75x30 lbs
External Rotations
25x10 lbs
Great training session today. OHP seems to be going up, got some good reps in. Did some chin up triples in between sets. Pendlays I was focusing on the muscle instead of the movement, got some good lat work in although my lats and traps are really sore from deadlifts yesterday. Inclines went well, could have gone heavier but I'm starting light in my cycle (1st week, 3x10, 2nd week, 2x8/1x6, 3rd week 3x5, increase by 5 every 5/3/1 cycle). Focused on movement and tucking elbows, every rep paused at the bottom, but not paused on the top to keep tension/tightness. Cable Rows I haven't done in a while but they went well, tried to focus on the muscle but still ended up doing half movement half muscle. I really liked the 25 reps total protocol I was doing before where I increased by 5 every week, so I decided after my OHP workout when I"m tired I"ll do some technique focused bench with 75% and aim for 25 reps total to get some extra practice in, without being able to go heavy enough to mess up my normal training. Felt pretty decent, I put a 2.5 lb plate underneath the bench to make it a normal bench height, which helped with the leg drive a bit, although I was focusing more on the bar path/movement and not so much on leg drive. Just felt really heavy for 170. Every rep was paused except on the last set where I went for 7 reps. Tried to pause the 7th but ended up losing my grove and shooting it into the rack before even locking out. No big deal, even though I also did 6 reps on set 2 I"m just putting 5x5, simpler. Hopefully I can get my work capacity up and start doing the 5/8/9/5 rep scheme I was doing before I have the strength for it fresh but doing it after hitting a bunch of volume work is tough. Although it was fun benching when I had such a huge pump because I felt really tight, in a good way, and my lats were so pumped that I could feel them pushing my elbows off the bottom. Tried to rep out wide grip pullups afterwards but I'd done so many pull ups and so much lat work that I was way too tired, tried to grind rep 8 but I gave up from fatigue. Headed to the dining halls afterwards and ate a ton of turkey, potatoes, stuffing, asian beef with noodles, and 2.5 glasses of milk. Then I dragged my bloated ass over to the small gym a stones throw from my dorm room and did some high rep cable arm and rotator cuff work. I"m incredibly sore all over, so I'm glad I'm not training again until Wednesday.
10-28-12: 3x3 OHP
OHP
5x105
3x120
6x135
3x120
10x105
Supinated Pendlay Row
3x10x115
Incline Bench
3x10x105
Cable Rows
2x8x130
2x8x120
Bench Press
5x5x170 (3 pull ups between sets, 7 pullups afterwards)
Stuffing my face with turkey
2xF
Tricep Pressdowns
75x20 lbs
Cable Curls
75x30 lbs
External Rotations
25x10 lbs
Great training session today. OHP seems to be going up, got some good reps in. Did some chin up triples in between sets. Pendlays I was focusing on the muscle instead of the movement, got some good lat work in although my lats and traps are really sore from deadlifts yesterday. Inclines went well, could have gone heavier but I'm starting light in my cycle (1st week, 3x10, 2nd week, 2x8/1x6, 3rd week 3x5, increase by 5 every 5/3/1 cycle). Focused on movement and tucking elbows, every rep paused at the bottom, but not paused on the top to keep tension/tightness. Cable Rows I haven't done in a while but they went well, tried to focus on the muscle but still ended up doing half movement half muscle. I really liked the 25 reps total protocol I was doing before where I increased by 5 every week, so I decided after my OHP workout when I"m tired I"ll do some technique focused bench with 75% and aim for 25 reps total to get some extra practice in, without being able to go heavy enough to mess up my normal training. Felt pretty decent, I put a 2.5 lb plate underneath the bench to make it a normal bench height, which helped with the leg drive a bit, although I was focusing more on the bar path/movement and not so much on leg drive. Just felt really heavy for 170. Every rep was paused except on the last set where I went for 7 reps. Tried to pause the 7th but ended up losing my grove and shooting it into the rack before even locking out. No big deal, even though I also did 6 reps on set 2 I"m just putting 5x5, simpler. Hopefully I can get my work capacity up and start doing the 5/8/9/5 rep scheme I was doing before I have the strength for it fresh but doing it after hitting a bunch of volume work is tough. Although it was fun benching when I had such a huge pump because I felt really tight, in a good way, and my lats were so pumped that I could feel them pushing my elbows off the bottom. Tried to rep out wide grip pullups afterwards but I'd done so many pull ups and so much lat work that I was way too tired, tried to grind rep 8 but I gave up from fatigue. Headed to the dining halls afterwards and ate a ton of turkey, potatoes, stuffing, asian beef with noodles, and 2.5 glasses of milk. Then I dragged my bloated ass over to the small gym a stones throw from my dorm room and did some high rep cable arm and rotator cuff work. I"m incredibly sore all over, so I'm glad I'm not training again until Wednesday.
Also forgot to mention that I did 3x10x20s side raises in between sets of cable rows, although that went pretty poorly, couldn't really feel my side delts, going to start doing those seated again till I build that mind muscle connection. Diet has been all right this weekend, and sleep has been terrible. Crazy halloween stuff going on so I've been going to bed really late.
10-31-12: 3x5 Squats
Squat
5x225
5x250
11x280 1 rep and 5 lb PR
GMs
3x10x135
Decline Sit Ups
10x25
6x25
2x10x10
Hill Sprints
Ortega hill x 6 "reps"
Pretty good training session today. The 11x280 set of squats killed me, but it puts my projected max at 360 which would make it worth a 15 lb gain in strength. Keeping training max at 330 though. Been eating crazy amounts of food, I still have 1-2 meals that I'm going to eat later today, and I've already had probably 5000 calories today, to make up for all the walking I've been doing. Anyways, since that set killed me I didn't do the down pyramid. The main thing is to get at least 5x65%, 5x75%, 5x85%, at the bare minimum, on a day when I feel terrible and I"m throwing up. So repping the 85% was good, I'm not stressing about not doing the down pyramid. GMs I kept constant tension instead of resting at the top, which made it a lot more challenging, even if the weight felt light and went up fast, just trying to make the most out of 135 as per advice of Jim Wendler. Might start using bands on this because of the strength curve. Did some abs after, for the first time in forever, felt decent but I have no stamina. There's this dining hall called Ortega I go to for breakfast with this decent sprinting hill next to it where I went to do some sprints after I trained. A rep constitutes sprinting up the hill then walking back down, no rest after reaching the bottom, just sprint, walk down, sprint, walk down: reps. Technique was a bit off on the squats today though, mostly because I was in a slight rush and didn't take as much time to warm up as usual. The 11 set was great though because my friend I was training with was really pissed that he slept through his midterm this morning, and I was able to feed off his anger. No downtime sitting around psyching myself up, everything was instant. The only down time I had was waiting for my gas to pass, so to speak, from all the protein and carbs I've been eating.
On that note, my meals for today were
1: 2 eggs, 4 egg whites, small bowl of oatmeal
2: huge bowl of oatmeal, 2 glasses of milk (felt like throwing up for 3 hours after this one)
3: pizza, chicken gumbo, beef burrito, glass of milk
4: (post training) 3 glasses of milk
5: plate of beans and rice and 1 or 2 glasses of milk
6: bowl of broccoli and bowl of greek yogurt with granola
upcoming 7 and maybe 8: burgers, fries, and more milk (at least 2 glasses)
Maybe not 5000 calories, but a lot of calories and protein nonetheless. Bodyweight was 201 last night, don't feel like weighing myself right now but my BW is definitely going up. Arms (high rep curls are awesome), legs (high bar squats are great) and shoulders (BTN press is amazing!) look bigger, but so does my belly. No big deal, been doing enough conditioning that when I stop eating so many damn calories, fat should come off fairly easily. Sleep has been all right but not good, some nights are great, other nights suck balls. Feel a lot better than last week though, might have to start playing around with adding some melatonin to get my sleep schedule back on track after late nights. Like tonight, I know I won't get to bed before 2:00, so I'll have to take melatonin tomorrow night so I can fall asleep at 11.
Squat
5x225
5x250
11x280 1 rep and 5 lb PR
GMs
3x10x135
Decline Sit Ups
10x25
6x25
2x10x10
Hill Sprints
Ortega hill x 6 "reps"
Pretty good training session today. The 11x280 set of squats killed me, but it puts my projected max at 360 which would make it worth a 15 lb gain in strength. Keeping training max at 330 though. Been eating crazy amounts of food, I still have 1-2 meals that I'm going to eat later today, and I've already had probably 5000 calories today, to make up for all the walking I've been doing. Anyways, since that set killed me I didn't do the down pyramid. The main thing is to get at least 5x65%, 5x75%, 5x85%, at the bare minimum, on a day when I feel terrible and I"m throwing up. So repping the 85% was good, I'm not stressing about not doing the down pyramid. GMs I kept constant tension instead of resting at the top, which made it a lot more challenging, even if the weight felt light and went up fast, just trying to make the most out of 135 as per advice of Jim Wendler. Might start using bands on this because of the strength curve. Did some abs after, for the first time in forever, felt decent but I have no stamina. There's this dining hall called Ortega I go to for breakfast with this decent sprinting hill next to it where I went to do some sprints after I trained. A rep constitutes sprinting up the hill then walking back down, no rest after reaching the bottom, just sprint, walk down, sprint, walk down: reps. Technique was a bit off on the squats today though, mostly because I was in a slight rush and didn't take as much time to warm up as usual. The 11 set was great though because my friend I was training with was really pissed that he slept through his midterm this morning, and I was able to feed off his anger. No downtime sitting around psyching myself up, everything was instant. The only down time I had was waiting for my gas to pass, so to speak, from all the protein and carbs I've been eating.
On that note, my meals for today were
1: 2 eggs, 4 egg whites, small bowl of oatmeal
2: huge bowl of oatmeal, 2 glasses of milk (felt like throwing up for 3 hours after this one)
3: pizza, chicken gumbo, beef burrito, glass of milk
4: (post training) 3 glasses of milk
5: plate of beans and rice and 1 or 2 glasses of milk
6: bowl of broccoli and bowl of greek yogurt with granola
upcoming 7 and maybe 8: burgers, fries, and more milk (at least 2 glasses)
Maybe not 5000 calories, but a lot of calories and protein nonetheless. Bodyweight was 201 last night, don't feel like weighing myself right now but my BW is definitely going up. Arms (high rep curls are awesome), legs (high bar squats are great) and shoulders (BTN press is amazing!) look bigger, but so does my belly. No big deal, been doing enough conditioning that when I stop eating so many damn calories, fat should come off fairly easily. Sleep has been all right but not good, some nights are great, other nights suck balls. Feel a lot better than last week though, might have to start playing around with adding some melatonin to get my sleep schedule back on track after late nights. Like tonight, I know I won't get to bed before 2:00, so I'll have to take melatonin tomorrow night so I can fall asleep at 11.
11-1-12: Bench/Chins
Bench
5x155 paused thumbless
5x175 paused
7x200 paused
16x165 no pauses except the last rep
Chins
2x5xBW
9xBW+20
7xBW
Behind Neck Press
2x10x75
1x12x75
Drag Rows
2x10x135 10 shrugs
1x15x135 15 shrugs
Meal
Face Pulls
50x20 lbs
50x40 lbs
Tricep Pressdowns
75x30 lbs
Cable Curls
50 or 75x42.5 lbs
Training was ok today. I was kind of bummed I only got 7 with 200, but then I realized each rep was paused, and both times I've gotten 9x200 were not paused, or maybe only the last rep was paused the second time I got it. I was truly bummed on the 165 though because I know my 15rm was once 185. At least I'm getting the volume in, and considering the bench is narrow, low to the ground, and the bar is somewhat thicker than a normal one, it's not too bad. Technique was good and bad. Leg drive and back activation sucked, but bar path was rock solid. So I guess I got some back activation since the bar path was good, I just didn't feel it, and I wasn't really pulling apart, especially on the 16x165 because after a lot of reps I just feel numb and am not focused on anything but moving the weight. Arch also sucked, weight was hardly on my traps at all, I talked it over with my training partner and we agreed we'll do a 15 min warm up of stretching before we hit the weights, each time we go to the gym, instead of stretching between warm up sets. I'll probably do some handstand bridges and foam rolling to open up the hips and shoulders. I've gotten into the bad habit of not warming up properly, since a lot of the people I've been lifting with (working in with, since the gym is usually pretty crowded) are the type that throw their work weight on the bar before even doing a warm up set, so I'm rushed to get my set in with the bar and stretch while the other guy is doing his set.
Chins went all right, although on my back down BW set I was aiming for 12 reps, but on rep 7 my right forearm cramped up and I wasn't man enough to push through it. Been a bit dehydrated lately, which could have something to do with it. Also haven't been necessarily getting my potassium in. BTN press was good, a little clicking in the left shoulder on set 1 and 2 but on set 3 I pushed my elbows forward which stopped it. Got a nice 10 lbs PR across sets, then repped out the last one to 12, maybe had 13 but not looking to hit failure on these just yet. Gonna keep adding weight till I reach a decent weight for doing 4x8, then just stick with that and add weight slowly. Did some drag rows afterwards, I think next time I"ll just do 2x15, then the next week 3x15, just making the most out of 135 where I can get a good ROM, till I can get about 25 reps across sets, before moving up. Got a nice trap pump where I had difficulty turning my neck and looking to the side, which felt pretty beastly. Got a decent quick meal of 3 glasses of milk, but I"m skipping a solid meal so I can get my appetite back, I feel like I've been full for the last 3 days straight. Gonna go eat in about an hour, still within the 3 hrs post training window. Did some face pulls, the first set was easy, did the triceps and biceps before the 2nd set. Triceps were crazy, I had trouble moving my arms past 45 degrees because they were so pumped at the end. Cable curls I don't remember how many reps I got, pretty sure it was 75 but I wouldn't think that I had enough strength to get that many reps, so it may have been 50. I'm 75% sure it was 75 reps though. Last set of face pulls killed me, my shoulders were straight up hurting and cramping for about 30-45 minutes afterwards. Tried to do some external rotations but I could barely get a good ROM because my shoulders were so cramped and sore, so I did some "constant tension" ones with a 6 inch ROM, 25 reps with 10 lbs on each arm. Good day overall.
Bench
5x155 paused thumbless
5x175 paused
7x200 paused
16x165 no pauses except the last rep
Chins
2x5xBW
9xBW+20
7xBW
Behind Neck Press
2x10x75
1x12x75
Drag Rows
2x10x135 10 shrugs
1x15x135 15 shrugs
Meal
Face Pulls
50x20 lbs
50x40 lbs
Tricep Pressdowns
75x30 lbs
Cable Curls
50 or 75x42.5 lbs
Training was ok today. I was kind of bummed I only got 7 with 200, but then I realized each rep was paused, and both times I've gotten 9x200 were not paused, or maybe only the last rep was paused the second time I got it. I was truly bummed on the 165 though because I know my 15rm was once 185. At least I'm getting the volume in, and considering the bench is narrow, low to the ground, and the bar is somewhat thicker than a normal one, it's not too bad. Technique was good and bad. Leg drive and back activation sucked, but bar path was rock solid. So I guess I got some back activation since the bar path was good, I just didn't feel it, and I wasn't really pulling apart, especially on the 16x165 because after a lot of reps I just feel numb and am not focused on anything but moving the weight. Arch also sucked, weight was hardly on my traps at all, I talked it over with my training partner and we agreed we'll do a 15 min warm up of stretching before we hit the weights, each time we go to the gym, instead of stretching between warm up sets. I'll probably do some handstand bridges and foam rolling to open up the hips and shoulders. I've gotten into the bad habit of not warming up properly, since a lot of the people I've been lifting with (working in with, since the gym is usually pretty crowded) are the type that throw their work weight on the bar before even doing a warm up set, so I'm rushed to get my set in with the bar and stretch while the other guy is doing his set.
Chins went all right, although on my back down BW set I was aiming for 12 reps, but on rep 7 my right forearm cramped up and I wasn't man enough to push through it. Been a bit dehydrated lately, which could have something to do with it. Also haven't been necessarily getting my potassium in. BTN press was good, a little clicking in the left shoulder on set 1 and 2 but on set 3 I pushed my elbows forward which stopped it. Got a nice 10 lbs PR across sets, then repped out the last one to 12, maybe had 13 but not looking to hit failure on these just yet. Gonna keep adding weight till I reach a decent weight for doing 4x8, then just stick with that and add weight slowly. Did some drag rows afterwards, I think next time I"ll just do 2x15, then the next week 3x15, just making the most out of 135 where I can get a good ROM, till I can get about 25 reps across sets, before moving up. Got a nice trap pump where I had difficulty turning my neck and looking to the side, which felt pretty beastly. Got a decent quick meal of 3 glasses of milk, but I"m skipping a solid meal so I can get my appetite back, I feel like I've been full for the last 3 days straight. Gonna go eat in about an hour, still within the 3 hrs post training window. Did some face pulls, the first set was easy, did the triceps and biceps before the 2nd set. Triceps were crazy, I had trouble moving my arms past 45 degrees because they were so pumped at the end. Cable curls I don't remember how many reps I got, pretty sure it was 75 but I wouldn't think that I had enough strength to get that many reps, so it may have been 50. I'm 75% sure it was 75 reps though. Last set of face pulls killed me, my shoulders were straight up hurting and cramping for about 30-45 minutes afterwards. Tried to do some external rotations but I could barely get a good ROM because my shoulders were so cramped and sore, so I did some "constant tension" ones with a 6 inch ROM, 25 reps with 10 lbs on each arm. Good day overall.
11-3-12: Deadlifts
Deadlift
4x4x375
2x425
2x475: Deadlift 475x2 - YouTube
10x375 (easy)
Ortega Hill Sprints
7 sprint reps
Ortega hill: Ortega Hill - YouTube
Pretty good session today. 375 felt really easy, 425 felt really hard, 475 first rep felt easy but then my abs cramped, messing up my form on rep 2, which made it feel hard. I think it could have been an easy double if my abs didn't cramp, and probably even a triple if I wanted to push for it. Don't want to tap into recovery too much because sleep has sucked (got 3 hours last night) and potentially will suck for the next few days, so I didn't push the high rep set of 375 at the end, just winged it, 10 very easy reps, probably could have gotten 12-14. Just took a video of Ortega Hill, doesn't do it justice at all, I"m not saying it's a super brutal hill but the video makes it look like nothing. It's a medium-small size hill, about 100-150 ft in length and 50-75 ft in height, but it still gives me a good workout. Cardio is definitely improving, although I'm looking fatter and fatter in the mirror. I think a lot of it is bloat, and the fact I did weighted abs the other day, because my abs still feel really hard even when my belly is huge, not very much fat over it, just a huge belly and big abs, and a small ribcage which makes it look bigger. I"m definitely gaining fat though, and I"m upping conditioning to try to combat that, but I'll have to do a solid cut when I get the chance, probably Jamie Lewis's "Apex Predator Diet".
On a relevant note, since I only got 3 hours of sleep I had 1/3 of a black widow energy pill before lifting, which would be something like 13mg caffiene, and 3mg epehdra extract and 3mg yohimbine, along with some other stuff like naringen. Gave me a slight boost so I was functioning just a very slight bit better than I would be if I'd gotten a good sleep last night, but I think it may have contributed to the really fast speed of my first rep of 475. And if you didn't catch the video, enjoy it here, I'm very proud of this PR:
Deadlift 475x2 - YouTube
Looking forward to 485x2 next week!
Deadlift
4x4x375
2x425
2x475: Deadlift 475x2 - YouTube
10x375 (easy)
Ortega Hill Sprints
7 sprint reps
Ortega hill: Ortega Hill - YouTube
Pretty good session today. 375 felt really easy, 425 felt really hard, 475 first rep felt easy but then my abs cramped, messing up my form on rep 2, which made it feel hard. I think it could have been an easy double if my abs didn't cramp, and probably even a triple if I wanted to push for it. Don't want to tap into recovery too much because sleep has sucked (got 3 hours last night) and potentially will suck for the next few days, so I didn't push the high rep set of 375 at the end, just winged it, 10 very easy reps, probably could have gotten 12-14. Just took a video of Ortega Hill, doesn't do it justice at all, I"m not saying it's a super brutal hill but the video makes it look like nothing. It's a medium-small size hill, about 100-150 ft in length and 50-75 ft in height, but it still gives me a good workout. Cardio is definitely improving, although I'm looking fatter and fatter in the mirror. I think a lot of it is bloat, and the fact I did weighted abs the other day, because my abs still feel really hard even when my belly is huge, not very much fat over it, just a huge belly and big abs, and a small ribcage which makes it look bigger. I"m definitely gaining fat though, and I"m upping conditioning to try to combat that, but I'll have to do a solid cut when I get the chance, probably Jamie Lewis's "Apex Predator Diet".
On a relevant note, since I only got 3 hours of sleep I had 1/3 of a black widow energy pill before lifting, which would be something like 13mg caffiene, and 3mg epehdra extract and 3mg yohimbine, along with some other stuff like naringen. Gave me a slight boost so I was functioning just a very slight bit better than I would be if I'd gotten a good sleep last night, but I think it may have contributed to the really fast speed of my first rep of 475. And if you didn't catch the video, enjoy it here, I'm very proud of this PR:
Deadlift 475x2 - YouTube
Looking forward to 485x2 next week!
11-4-12: OHP
OHP
5x100
5x120
7x130
12x105 2 rep PR
Pendlay Rows
2x8x135
6x155
12x135 rep PR
Incline Bench
10x115
2x8x135
5x155 1 rep PR
5x145
6x145
Ok day today. On OHP I'm experimenting with a narrower grip because even though the ROM is larger it doesn't feel too much weaker, I feel a lot more muscular activation but not much of a drop off in strength, so I think it has potential to be stronger than the wider grip. Plus I got 2 more reps on my drop down 70% set, probably mostly due to working volume more often now, but possibly because of this technique being superior leverages, and me getting more used to it. Pendlays felt good, very strong, didn't go too heavy but I'm sure 12x135 is a PR, just don't know by how much. I know I was stronger at some point in the past because I've gotten 155 for 10 before. I"m confident 5/3/1 will get me back up there though, and beyond. Incline bench was good and bad. I was only expecting to be able to do my 8 rep sets with 115 but it was so easy, so I bumped it up to 135 and had 2 decent sets. First one I didn't do pauses, but the second I did. Just feeling it out. I got cocky and tried 155 for my 6 rep set, pretty sure I was pausing them, but on rep 6 my ass came 1-2 feet off the bench to get it up, so I'm just counting it as 5. Still a PR though over my previous best, 155x4, but I"m not too excited about it since my max bench at the time was like 225 or 235 unpaused, so my incline bench would obviously be stronger now than then. Maybe next week I can do 3x5x155 though.
Then I dropped it down to 145, and here's where today got sh*tty. I probably could have gotten 6 reps the first time but I got a spot from my friend who's a bodybuilder. I've become pretty good friends with him since I met him when I came here about 6 weeks ago, really funny guy, and I've worked out with him a few times before and gotten good spots, but I've never actually debriefed him in how I like to get spotted. Every time he's spotted me I've been using light weights, so I didn't even struggle at all and he didn't even think he needed to help. But today since I was actually incline benching weights I would have to grind up, and since I assumed he knew how I wanted my spot, bad things happened. On rep 5 with 145 it was going up really slowly so he put his hands on it, even though I could still get it up. I guess he was expecting me to do some forced reps and negatives and the type of Dorian Yates inspired stuff he usually does, and I usually spot him on. I held it at the top for like 15 seconds trying to explain to him how I don't want him to touch the bar at all, and if I need help I'll say "grab it!", but holding it tired me out, so on rep 6 I wasn't going to make it, and I said grab it, but he did the bodybuilder forced reps shit where he barely helps and makes me grind it up. Good for bodybuilding where you only hit a muscle group on one day per week, and want to hit the muscle to maximum failure, where you're just trying to stimulate and break it down, bad for powerlifting where you work with heavy weights, low reps, several sets across, and train the same muscle groups multiple times per week, and try to progress strength on movements. Not bashing bodybuilders, but training like that is not good for my goals because it just saps the recovery and sabotages progressive overload when you go to failure and all that kind of shit. So I got really pissed off and yelled at him for a bit. Rested about 10 minutes since I knew going to failure would screw me over on the next set, and then got really jacked up for the next set and blew up 145 for 6 reps paused. Not his fault but still kind of messed up my session. Hopefully I can make it up by getting 3x5x155, then doing my other stuff next week.
I was really tired at this point from going to failure twice so I scrapped the t bar rows and light 5x5 technique reinforcer bench I was supposed to do. I'm just going to do a small session tomorrow where I do some treadmill sprints, push ups, face pulls, tricep extensions, and curls, then I'll have until wednesday to rest my legs and until thursday to rest my upper body.
OHP
5x100
5x120
7x130
12x105 2 rep PR
Pendlay Rows
2x8x135
6x155
12x135 rep PR
Incline Bench
10x115
2x8x135
5x155 1 rep PR
5x145
6x145
Ok day today. On OHP I'm experimenting with a narrower grip because even though the ROM is larger it doesn't feel too much weaker, I feel a lot more muscular activation but not much of a drop off in strength, so I think it has potential to be stronger than the wider grip. Plus I got 2 more reps on my drop down 70% set, probably mostly due to working volume more often now, but possibly because of this technique being superior leverages, and me getting more used to it. Pendlays felt good, very strong, didn't go too heavy but I'm sure 12x135 is a PR, just don't know by how much. I know I was stronger at some point in the past because I've gotten 155 for 10 before. I"m confident 5/3/1 will get me back up there though, and beyond. Incline bench was good and bad. I was only expecting to be able to do my 8 rep sets with 115 but it was so easy, so I bumped it up to 135 and had 2 decent sets. First one I didn't do pauses, but the second I did. Just feeling it out. I got cocky and tried 155 for my 6 rep set, pretty sure I was pausing them, but on rep 6 my ass came 1-2 feet off the bench to get it up, so I'm just counting it as 5. Still a PR though over my previous best, 155x4, but I"m not too excited about it since my max bench at the time was like 225 or 235 unpaused, so my incline bench would obviously be stronger now than then. Maybe next week I can do 3x5x155 though.
Then I dropped it down to 145, and here's where today got sh*tty. I probably could have gotten 6 reps the first time but I got a spot from my friend who's a bodybuilder. I've become pretty good friends with him since I met him when I came here about 6 weeks ago, really funny guy, and I've worked out with him a few times before and gotten good spots, but I've never actually debriefed him in how I like to get spotted. Every time he's spotted me I've been using light weights, so I didn't even struggle at all and he didn't even think he needed to help. But today since I was actually incline benching weights I would have to grind up, and since I assumed he knew how I wanted my spot, bad things happened. On rep 5 with 145 it was going up really slowly so he put his hands on it, even though I could still get it up. I guess he was expecting me to do some forced reps and negatives and the type of Dorian Yates inspired stuff he usually does, and I usually spot him on. I held it at the top for like 15 seconds trying to explain to him how I don't want him to touch the bar at all, and if I need help I'll say "grab it!", but holding it tired me out, so on rep 6 I wasn't going to make it, and I said grab it, but he did the bodybuilder forced reps shit where he barely helps and makes me grind it up. Good for bodybuilding where you only hit a muscle group on one day per week, and want to hit the muscle to maximum failure, where you're just trying to stimulate and break it down, bad for powerlifting where you work with heavy weights, low reps, several sets across, and train the same muscle groups multiple times per week, and try to progress strength on movements. Not bashing bodybuilders, but training like that is not good for my goals because it just saps the recovery and sabotages progressive overload when you go to failure and all that kind of shit. So I got really pissed off and yelled at him for a bit. Rested about 10 minutes since I knew going to failure would screw me over on the next set, and then got really jacked up for the next set and blew up 145 for 6 reps paused. Not his fault but still kind of messed up my session. Hopefully I can make it up by getting 3x5x155, then doing my other stuff next week.
I was really tired at this point from going to failure twice so I scrapped the t bar rows and light 5x5 technique reinforcer bench I was supposed to do. I'm just going to do a small session tomorrow where I do some treadmill sprints, push ups, face pulls, tricep extensions, and curls, then I'll have until wednesday to rest my legs and until thursday to rest my upper body.
Small session was pretty good yesterday. Did 20 push ups supersetted by 20 incline push ups, tricep pressdowns with 30 lbs for 100 reps supersetted by 10 wide grip push ups. Curled 30 for 100 reps, but the last 25 were sloppy, so after reaching 100 in 1 go, I kept holding the bar and rested with it in the bottom position, until I could muscle out 25 clean reps. The whole curl set went 75 clean, 25 sloppy, 10 sec rest, 15 clean, 10 sec rest, 10 clean. Then I tried to do some face pulls with a band from a high cable position but it was bothering my shoulder, I put it lower, around belly level, and did 75 reps with 30 lbs. Afterwards my shoulders and back were incredibly pumped, I actually looked like I had wide shoulders in the mirror. Definitely need to start hitting low face pulls heavy in the gym, and keep hitting them light in small sessions, for that shoulder development and bench press improvement. Didn't get a chance to do any sprints.
11-7-12: 5/3/1 Squat
Squat
5x250
3x280
7x315 (15 lb all time PR! 2 rep PR)
16x250 (3 reps off my best ever, might have had 1 more, and definitely 3-4 more if I'd been fresh)
Leg Curls
2x15xhalf assed
Food
Chicken, mushroom, bread, 2 slices buffalo wing pizza, 2 glasses milk
Hill Sprints
5 repsx Ortega hill (ran down each rep instead of walking down)
Food
3.5 glasses milk
Great day today, decided to beef up the otherwise short session on paper by adding both meals consumed "mid" and post workout. Squats tired me wayy out so I had no energy to do anything afterwards besides some half assed leg curls. Squats went really well though, and I'm really happy with them, bumping my training max up 15 lbs from 330 to 345 for next cycle, not too crazy of a jump but a big enough jump so I don't end up hitting 320 for 10 reps next month or something like that, because I don't like being able to hit "95%" for more than 5 reps. Sure it's good to start low but this is less than 90% of my true max I"m using for my training max right now. I love high bar squatting.
Interesting (or not so interesting, interesting to me at least) story from today: There's only 2 people I've seen and 1 person I've heard of who can outsquat me at my gym, though there are a lot of people there who bench more than me, look bigger/better, and squat big weights. 1 is this big ex football player who just toys around with 315 for sets of 10 with really reckless form, hitting depth regardless. The other is this huge guy I met the other day at the dining hall who played high school rugby but has only been powerlifting for only 1 year but has the biggest traps and forearms I've ever seen in real life, excluding the giant 6'3 255 lbs 6% bodyfat roided up guy who I used to see at 24 hour fitness. So the biggest natural forearms and traps I've ever seen. Anyways he squats 425 allegedly to depth for a max, along with a 300 bench and 500 deadlift. These guys are big. But today I saw this small, average looking guy squatting 315 for 8 easy reps, then 365 for 2 easy reps, wearing running shoes and a cheap half plastic half leather belt. If I saw him on the street I wouldn't even think he lifted. But he was squatting big weights with a close stance to depth in running shoes. He had big legs but they didn't look muscular, and his upper body wasn't big at all. I went up and talked to him afterwards and asked him about his training, he's only been lifting for 1 year and is just running Madcow 5x5, but he's already incredibly strong. Completely average looking. I was baffled. He told me he ran a few of the Sheiko programs and usually squats in chucks, but since he only brought running shoes today he was just messing around. Turns out he's 395/260/465. Anyways completely irrelevant and unimportant but I was just really impressed that someone who doesn't look like he lifts is stronger than me. Just gives me more to work for.
Squat
5x250
3x280
7x315 (15 lb all time PR! 2 rep PR)
16x250 (3 reps off my best ever, might have had 1 more, and definitely 3-4 more if I'd been fresh)
Leg Curls
2x15xhalf assed
Food
Chicken, mushroom, bread, 2 slices buffalo wing pizza, 2 glasses milk
Hill Sprints
5 repsx Ortega hill (ran down each rep instead of walking down)
Food
3.5 glasses milk
Great day today, decided to beef up the otherwise short session on paper by adding both meals consumed "mid" and post workout. Squats tired me wayy out so I had no energy to do anything afterwards besides some half assed leg curls. Squats went really well though, and I'm really happy with them, bumping my training max up 15 lbs from 330 to 345 for next cycle, not too crazy of a jump but a big enough jump so I don't end up hitting 320 for 10 reps next month or something like that, because I don't like being able to hit "95%" for more than 5 reps. Sure it's good to start low but this is less than 90% of my true max I"m using for my training max right now. I love high bar squatting.
Interesting (or not so interesting, interesting to me at least) story from today: There's only 2 people I've seen and 1 person I've heard of who can outsquat me at my gym, though there are a lot of people there who bench more than me, look bigger/better, and squat big weights. 1 is this big ex football player who just toys around with 315 for sets of 10 with really reckless form, hitting depth regardless. The other is this huge guy I met the other day at the dining hall who played high school rugby but has only been powerlifting for only 1 year but has the biggest traps and forearms I've ever seen in real life, excluding the giant 6'3 255 lbs 6% bodyfat roided up guy who I used to see at 24 hour fitness. So the biggest natural forearms and traps I've ever seen. Anyways he squats 425 allegedly to depth for a max, along with a 300 bench and 500 deadlift. These guys are big. But today I saw this small, average looking guy squatting 315 for 8 easy reps, then 365 for 2 easy reps, wearing running shoes and a cheap half plastic half leather belt. If I saw him on the street I wouldn't even think he lifted. But he was squatting big weights with a close stance to depth in running shoes. He had big legs but they didn't look muscular, and his upper body wasn't big at all. I went up and talked to him afterwards and asked him about his training, he's only been lifting for 1 year and is just running Madcow 5x5, but he's already incredibly strong. Completely average looking. I was baffled. He told me he ran a few of the Sheiko programs and usually squats in chucks, but since he only brought running shoes today he was just messing around. Turns out he's 395/260/465. Anyways completely irrelevant and unimportant but I was just really impressed that someone who doesn't look like he lifts is stronger than me. Just gives me more to work for.
11-8-12: 5/3/1 Bench and Chin Ups
(Paused) Bench
5x175
3x200
5x225
1x235
Chins
5xBW
3x20
7x45
3x60
BTN Press
8x95
Drag Rows
2x15x135, 15 shrugs on set 1, 20 shrugs on set 2.
Postworkout shake and walk back to dorm
3 glasses of milk
Low Pulley Face Pulls
100 reps x 30 lbs
Tricep Pushdowns
100 reps x 30 lbs
Reverse Curl
100 reps x 30 lbs
Incline Push ups
1x50
Great day today, bench went really well, I don't think I've ever hit 225 for 5 reps paused, I've only hit or surpassed it 5 times, 3 times I hit 5x225, along with passing it (245x5 and 230x8), but none of these were paused. So this is essentially a paused PR. Technique felt good and bad, I was using a lot of chest somehow, even though my shoulders stayed pinched, and my upper back was activated. Normally I feel bench way more in the shoulders, triceps and traps than chest, maybe my shoulders, triceps and traps are just getting stronger. Or maybe it's because I hit my chest directly for the first time in a while a few days ago when I did all those push ups, and it's still recovering. Either way despite odd muscle activation patterns, groove was good, leg drive was all right, though my ass came like 1 cm off the bench, mostly because of hip tightness, my lower body is incredibly sore from yesterday. Easily fixed by just doing mobility work, which I need to start doing more of, been slacking on my yoga stuff. I should just do that every morning, it'll get my appetite up too. Only thing is I have class at 9 AM on MWF and I usually get out of bed at 8:55 since my 9 AM class is a 2 min walk from my room.
Chins were great, pretty sure I hit 45 for 7 but my memory is a bit hazy. I just remember being happy I got a PR, and knowing I wanted to beat my previous PR of 6 reps, so I"m assuming based on those 2 facts I hit 7, though I don't explicitly remember that set or hitting 7. I do remember hitting 60 for 3 though, the purpose of doing that and the 235 bench was to see how my training maxes felt. The 235 bench felt heavy but I know I could go heavier, and the 60 for 3, well it felt tripleable, so not too incredibly heavy. My band I use for holding the weight felt like it was going to snap though, so I'll probably just use a dip belt from now on, they have one there for public use.
BTN press irritated my left shoulder a lot no matter what I did to try to fix my technique, I figure my shoulder girdle just isn't built to support more than 75 lbs on that, so I"m going to scrap it for weighted dips and incline DB bench, which are both also stressful on my shoulders, but not nearly as much. I'll do it based on feel, but eventually I'll find where I like putting it. Probably weighted dips since that's more strength work than incline DB bench, which is more bodybuilding work, and I like strength work better. 3x10, 2x8/1x6, 3x5 rep scheme on that. Drag rows were good.
Small session after postworkout shake (3 glasses of milk) went well also, felt really tired but I still managed to hit some good numbers, got a 25 rep PR on both face pulls and tricep pressdowns, and tried reverse curls for the first time for high reps, absolutely terribly painful in the forearms and biceps, way worse than normal curls. Did some push ups just to get that chest pump, was happy to be able to hit 50, the last 10 reps were grinders. Great day overall.
(Paused) Bench
5x175
3x200
5x225
1x235
Chins
5xBW
3x20
7x45
3x60
BTN Press
8x95
Drag Rows
2x15x135, 15 shrugs on set 1, 20 shrugs on set 2.
Postworkout shake and walk back to dorm
3 glasses of milk
Low Pulley Face Pulls
100 reps x 30 lbs
Tricep Pushdowns
100 reps x 30 lbs
Reverse Curl
100 reps x 30 lbs
Incline Push ups
1x50
Great day today, bench went really well, I don't think I've ever hit 225 for 5 reps paused, I've only hit or surpassed it 5 times, 3 times I hit 5x225, along with passing it (245x5 and 230x8), but none of these were paused. So this is essentially a paused PR. Technique felt good and bad, I was using a lot of chest somehow, even though my shoulders stayed pinched, and my upper back was activated. Normally I feel bench way more in the shoulders, triceps and traps than chest, maybe my shoulders, triceps and traps are just getting stronger. Or maybe it's because I hit my chest directly for the first time in a while a few days ago when I did all those push ups, and it's still recovering. Either way despite odd muscle activation patterns, groove was good, leg drive was all right, though my ass came like 1 cm off the bench, mostly because of hip tightness, my lower body is incredibly sore from yesterday. Easily fixed by just doing mobility work, which I need to start doing more of, been slacking on my yoga stuff. I should just do that every morning, it'll get my appetite up too. Only thing is I have class at 9 AM on MWF and I usually get out of bed at 8:55 since my 9 AM class is a 2 min walk from my room.
Chins were great, pretty sure I hit 45 for 7 but my memory is a bit hazy. I just remember being happy I got a PR, and knowing I wanted to beat my previous PR of 6 reps, so I"m assuming based on those 2 facts I hit 7, though I don't explicitly remember that set or hitting 7. I do remember hitting 60 for 3 though, the purpose of doing that and the 235 bench was to see how my training maxes felt. The 235 bench felt heavy but I know I could go heavier, and the 60 for 3, well it felt tripleable, so not too incredibly heavy. My band I use for holding the weight felt like it was going to snap though, so I'll probably just use a dip belt from now on, they have one there for public use.
BTN press irritated my left shoulder a lot no matter what I did to try to fix my technique, I figure my shoulder girdle just isn't built to support more than 75 lbs on that, so I"m going to scrap it for weighted dips and incline DB bench, which are both also stressful on my shoulders, but not nearly as much. I'll do it based on feel, but eventually I'll find where I like putting it. Probably weighted dips since that's more strength work than incline DB bench, which is more bodybuilding work, and I like strength work better. 3x10, 2x8/1x6, 3x5 rep scheme on that. Drag rows were good.
Small session after postworkout shake (3 glasses of milk) went well also, felt really tired but I still managed to hit some good numbers, got a 25 rep PR on both face pulls and tricep pressdowns, and tried reverse curls for the first time for high reps, absolutely terribly painful in the forearms and biceps, way worse than normal curls. Did some push ups just to get that chest pump, was happy to be able to hit 50, the last 10 reps were grinders. Great day overall.
11-10-12: Deads
Deadlift
4x4x385
2x435
2x485 PR
Ortega Hill Sprints
6 running reps (running instead of walking down)
Decent day today. A little "hungover", so to speak (I don't drink though), from last night, so everything felt a bit heavier and less in control than usual, technique wasn't bad, but I felt like I couldn't get as tight as usual, couldn't find my footstance, and wasn't getting my center of gravity going back as well as I normally do. Didn't dip though, basic groove was still good. Really happy I got the PR even though I wasn't feeling 100% (as opposed to feeling 110% last week), even though after my 2nd set of 385 the staff came and told me I have to lower it slowly so it doesn't make a loud sound when it hits the floor (I never drop or bounce it though), which I did for the other 2 385 sets, and even though right when I grabbed the bar for 485 after psyching up, the staff came and told me I couldn't use my eco chalk, I still got it. Lockouts were both huge grinders though. It was pretty funny though because I put on my belt, chalked up, then spent about 2 minutes staring at the weight and mentally queing everything, getting my energy up, psyching for it, then I walk up to the bar, grab it aggressively, try to get my stance, start shaking it a bit, then this woman in the staff uniform just comes and says something while pointing at my eco chalk ball. All that was in my mind was keeping tight, straightening my legs while pulling my chest up, and thrusting my hips forward once the bar gets above my knees, so I cut her off and said "Ok I won't use it, I won't use it." She walks away and I rip that thing off the floor, grinding to lockout. I knew the 2nd rep would suck but I smashed through it, probably took about 5-10 seconds to get up, but I wasn't really focused on time.
At this point I knew I wasn't really welcome there anymore because the staff had already talked to me twice, and chalking up bigtime for a touch n go reps set where it would be completely unrealistic to set it down slowly without a sound on the ground each rep, would be completely out of the question. I just racked the weight and got out of there. That's my justification for my laziness. Still grinded out my hill sprints though. Good day today! Tonight hopefully I'll try not to do anything that will make me feel too much below 100% tomorrow.
Deadlift
4x4x385
2x435
2x485 PR
Ortega Hill Sprints
6 running reps (running instead of walking down)
Decent day today. A little "hungover", so to speak (I don't drink though), from last night, so everything felt a bit heavier and less in control than usual, technique wasn't bad, but I felt like I couldn't get as tight as usual, couldn't find my footstance, and wasn't getting my center of gravity going back as well as I normally do. Didn't dip though, basic groove was still good. Really happy I got the PR even though I wasn't feeling 100% (as opposed to feeling 110% last week), even though after my 2nd set of 385 the staff came and told me I have to lower it slowly so it doesn't make a loud sound when it hits the floor (I never drop or bounce it though), which I did for the other 2 385 sets, and even though right when I grabbed the bar for 485 after psyching up, the staff came and told me I couldn't use my eco chalk, I still got it. Lockouts were both huge grinders though. It was pretty funny though because I put on my belt, chalked up, then spent about 2 minutes staring at the weight and mentally queing everything, getting my energy up, psyching for it, then I walk up to the bar, grab it aggressively, try to get my stance, start shaking it a bit, then this woman in the staff uniform just comes and says something while pointing at my eco chalk ball. All that was in my mind was keeping tight, straightening my legs while pulling my chest up, and thrusting my hips forward once the bar gets above my knees, so I cut her off and said "Ok I won't use it, I won't use it." She walks away and I rip that thing off the floor, grinding to lockout. I knew the 2nd rep would suck but I smashed through it, probably took about 5-10 seconds to get up, but I wasn't really focused on time.
At this point I knew I wasn't really welcome there anymore because the staff had already talked to me twice, and chalking up bigtime for a touch n go reps set where it would be completely unrealistic to set it down slowly without a sound on the ground each rep, would be completely out of the question. I just racked the weight and got out of there. That's my justification for my laziness. Still grinded out my hill sprints though. Good day today! Tonight hopefully I'll try not to do anything that will make me feel too much below 100% tomorrow.
11-11-12: Overhead Press
OHP
5x115
3x130
7x145 10 lb PR
3x130
12x115
Pendlay Rows
8x135
5x155
5x175
3x5x165
10x135
Inclines
2x5x155
1x6x155
Good, short day today. Been feeling a bit out of it this weekend, definitely glad I don't have to train for the next 2 days. OHP felt incredibly strong today, then again I was using the narrow bar because none of the thick bars were available, which probably helped. Got a huge PR, shoulder strength is definitely going up. Could be the narrower grip too though, feel really strong at lockout with this technique, though it's slow off the shoulders. Either way I'm stoked. Pendlays were weak, the opposite of last week, where pressing sucked and pulling was good. Inclines also went well, on the 2nd set I feel like I could have gotten 8 reps, my groove was so perfect. So I pushed for 6 on set 2, didn't want to hit failure. Deload week next week.
OHP
5x115
3x130
7x145 10 lb PR
3x130
12x115
Pendlay Rows
8x135
5x155
5x175
3x5x165
10x135
Inclines
2x5x155
1x6x155
Good, short day today. Been feeling a bit out of it this weekend, definitely glad I don't have to train for the next 2 days. OHP felt incredibly strong today, then again I was using the narrow bar because none of the thick bars were available, which probably helped. Got a huge PR, shoulder strength is definitely going up. Could be the narrower grip too though, feel really strong at lockout with this technique, though it's slow off the shoulders. Either way I'm stoked. Pendlays were weak, the opposite of last week, where pressing sucked and pulling was good. Inclines also went well, on the 2nd set I feel like I could have gotten 8 reps, my groove was so perfect. So I pushed for 6 on set 2, didn't want to hit failure. Deload week next week.
11-15-12: Energy Pill Day
Squat
225 lbs x 25-27 reps beltless (5-7 rep PR, just counting 25 reps though)
Chins
2x10
1x5
Dips
BWx20
BWx10
BWx15
Been feeling really low energy these last few days, so I took an energy pill today. The most I've ever had is a little under half a pill, and today I had 2/3 of a pill. Within 15 minutes I felt super hyper, and was jumping around in my dorm room. I fast walked over to the gym, and started throwing on plates rushing my squat warmup. Got up to 225 and just said I'll do 20 reps. Got to 20 and I was dying, but I was like, it's too easy!!! So I did 5 more grinders. Might have double counted 2 of the reps though. Literally lay down for 10-20 minutes after that set on the floor in agony. Beltless by the way. Then I jumped over to do some chins and got 1 easy set of 10, 1 hard set of 10, and on my 3rd set my forearms were so pumped that the top part of the ROM I had to fight the tightness of my forearms in addition to my bodyweight, so I could only do 5. Then I did some dips, my hands were so jittery I had trouble gripping the bars, but once I was on them I was just pounding them out. Got 19 easy reps, and a 20th grinder. Next set I barely got 10. The following set I did 15. So a good 45 reps total, I'm happy with that, more happy than if I did 3x15 because I think 20 is a PR. I think next time I do the energy pill thing I"ll just do a top set of everything, sets across just don't work, plus my heart rate gets super high so it takes forever to catch my breath. This has yohimbine so that combined with the heart speeding action this is probably really stressful on my heart. If I took a full pill I'd probably have a heart attack. But I'm not gonna ever have more than 1/2 a pill, I have no idea how some people take 3. Took the energy pill about 1 hr 40 mins ago and I"m still hyper, and I'm sure that's conveyed somehow in my writing cause it's all over the place I bet. Anyways, workout was less than an hour today, just powered through that shit, then sat around feeling like shit for a long time afterwards. But yeah, good workout today, mgiht head to my small dorm gym to get some more volume (lats and traps) in before I take a shower.
Squat
225 lbs x 25-27 reps beltless (5-7 rep PR, just counting 25 reps though)
Chins
2x10
1x5
Dips
BWx20
BWx10
BWx15
Been feeling really low energy these last few days, so I took an energy pill today. The most I've ever had is a little under half a pill, and today I had 2/3 of a pill. Within 15 minutes I felt super hyper, and was jumping around in my dorm room. I fast walked over to the gym, and started throwing on plates rushing my squat warmup. Got up to 225 and just said I'll do 20 reps. Got to 20 and I was dying, but I was like, it's too easy!!! So I did 5 more grinders. Might have double counted 2 of the reps though. Literally lay down for 10-20 minutes after that set on the floor in agony. Beltless by the way. Then I jumped over to do some chins and got 1 easy set of 10, 1 hard set of 10, and on my 3rd set my forearms were so pumped that the top part of the ROM I had to fight the tightness of my forearms in addition to my bodyweight, so I could only do 5. Then I did some dips, my hands were so jittery I had trouble gripping the bars, but once I was on them I was just pounding them out. Got 19 easy reps, and a 20th grinder. Next set I barely got 10. The following set I did 15. So a good 45 reps total, I'm happy with that, more happy than if I did 3x15 because I think 20 is a PR. I think next time I do the energy pill thing I"ll just do a top set of everything, sets across just don't work, plus my heart rate gets super high so it takes forever to catch my breath. This has yohimbine so that combined with the heart speeding action this is probably really stressful on my heart. If I took a full pill I'd probably have a heart attack. But I'm not gonna ever have more than 1/2 a pill, I have no idea how some people take 3. Took the energy pill about 1 hr 40 mins ago and I"m still hyper, and I'm sure that's conveyed somehow in my writing cause it's all over the place I bet. Anyways, workout was less than an hour today, just powered through that shit, then sat around feeling like shit for a long time afterwards. But yeah, good workout today, mgiht head to my small dorm gym to get some more volume (lats and traps) in before I take a shower.
Small Session
55 reps x incline push ups followed by 7 reg push ups
125 reps x 30 lbs face pulls
50 reps x 30 lbs standing lat pullovers
50 reps x 2.5 lbs side raises (very strict, behind body, no front delt)
100 reps x 30 lbs cable reverse fly
I might have done more but that's all I remember. After I come down from the energy pill I tend to feel a little high and my memory becomes a little hazy.
Also here's a great album if you like progressive metal: Opeth - Ghost Reveries (Full album HQ) - YouTube
55 reps x incline push ups followed by 7 reg push ups
125 reps x 30 lbs face pulls
50 reps x 30 lbs standing lat pullovers
50 reps x 2.5 lbs side raises (very strict, behind body, no front delt)
100 reps x 30 lbs cable reverse fly
I might have done more but that's all I remember. After I come down from the energy pill I tend to feel a little high and my memory becomes a little hazy.
Also here's a great album if you like progressive metal: Opeth - Ghost Reveries (Full album HQ) - YouTube
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themondtster
New member
Looking good. 225 for 25+ is sweet. As for as the loud alarm clocks get you some ear plugs and try that. Once you get used to them, nothing outside the room will wake you up.
Last edited:
Thanks for the kind words Mondster. The thing is I have been using earplugs since I got here, but they don't help very much. I"m getting used to the noise though, I haven't been woken up by my roommates's alarm clocks for about a week even though they go off everyday so there's definitely progress.
11-18-12: Pull ups competition
Pull Ups
50 reps total (8/6/6/6/6/6/6/6)
DB Inclines
2x12x55s
2x10x55s
1x15x55s
TBar Rows
2x15x2 plates+1 dime
Klokov Press
3x10x65
Lat Pulldowns
A couple light sets mostly behind the neck.
Ortega Hill Sprints
5 running reps
Feeling a bit sick, sleep and diet have been a bit off, so I'm down to 201ish last time I checked. Weekends always tend to be poor diet-wise because the dining halls have terrible hours, they're only open for about 4 of my mealtimes instead of the usual 6-7, so I end up eating crappy snacks or just fruits, since I have no blender for my unmixable protein. Sometimes I smuggle food out of the dining halls but I feel bad doing that, even though everybody does. Pull ups went well, had a competition with my bodybuilder friend who's always talking sh*t, he weighs 160something (tore his ACL so he can't train legs), and he's on creatine, and he was talking about how he can do 18 pull ups in a row and how I'm a fat powerlifter who could never beat him (all in good humor). He ended up only being able to do sets of 5 compared to my sets of 6 because he never trains the top 2 inches of the ROM where chin goes over the bar because he loses the tension in his lats, so he was having a lot of trouble at the top. I won and put him in his place. Crazy lat and arm/forearm pump after this. Next time I might do a chin up competition because he can actually crank out 9 of those even after doing his 50 so it might be more fair game. Plus the chest pump.
Inclines went well, first 2 sets I was moving weight, second 2 sets I was focusing on the contraction, 3rd set I just was trying to go to failure, and took a long rest beforehand. Got a good pump, although my chest is still really sore from dips on Thursday. I'm going to start trying to fit dips in, they're just a great supplemental exercise for bench and OHP. T bar rows sucked, couldn't get a good set up and only felt it in the arms even though I went light and tried to focus on contraction. Klokov presses were hard as hell: painful. Then I just did some lat stuff because I was waiting for my bodybuilder friend to finish his workout. Did some hill sprints, it started raining so I did running reps instead. Cardio sucks when you're sick. Maxing out my deadlift on Wednesday.
Pull Ups
50 reps total (8/6/6/6/6/6/6/6)
DB Inclines
2x12x55s
2x10x55s
1x15x55s
TBar Rows
2x15x2 plates+1 dime
Klokov Press
3x10x65
Lat Pulldowns
A couple light sets mostly behind the neck.
Ortega Hill Sprints
5 running reps
Feeling a bit sick, sleep and diet have been a bit off, so I'm down to 201ish last time I checked. Weekends always tend to be poor diet-wise because the dining halls have terrible hours, they're only open for about 4 of my mealtimes instead of the usual 6-7, so I end up eating crappy snacks or just fruits, since I have no blender for my unmixable protein. Sometimes I smuggle food out of the dining halls but I feel bad doing that, even though everybody does. Pull ups went well, had a competition with my bodybuilder friend who's always talking sh*t, he weighs 160something (tore his ACL so he can't train legs), and he's on creatine, and he was talking about how he can do 18 pull ups in a row and how I'm a fat powerlifter who could never beat him (all in good humor). He ended up only being able to do sets of 5 compared to my sets of 6 because he never trains the top 2 inches of the ROM where chin goes over the bar because he loses the tension in his lats, so he was having a lot of trouble at the top. I won and put him in his place
. Crazy lat and arm/forearm pump after this. Next time I might do a chin up competition because he can actually crank out 9 of those even after doing his 50 so it might be more fair game. Plus the chest pump.Inclines went well, first 2 sets I was moving weight, second 2 sets I was focusing on the contraction, 3rd set I just was trying to go to failure, and took a long rest beforehand. Got a good pump, although my chest is still really sore from dips on Thursday. I'm going to start trying to fit dips in, they're just a great supplemental exercise for bench and OHP. T bar rows sucked, couldn't get a good set up and only felt it in the arms even though I went light and tried to focus on contraction. Klokov presses were hard as hell: painful. Then I just did some lat stuff because I was waiting for my bodybuilder friend to finish his workout. Did some hill sprints, it started raining so I did running reps instead. Cardio sucks when you're sick. Maxing out my deadlift on Wednesday.
NoFatChicks91
New member
Congrats on the PR's man you are making lots of progress! Those deadlifts are fuckin badass
Thanks man, if you like those deadlifts check out todays!:
11-21-12: Max Deadlift Test
Deadlift
135x3
225x3
315x2
365x2
405x2
455x1
480x1
505x1: 505 Deadlift - YouTube
525x0: 525 deadlift attempt - YouTube
505x1: 505 Deadlift - YouTube
That's all folks........
Just kidding everybody knows I love rambling about lifting. Good day today, as you can see the first 505 flew up, but the camera angle was bad. I said screw it, let's try 525 with a better angle, got a bit cocky, I think 515 was definitely doable, or maybe even 525 fresh (if I'd hit 495 after 455, then 525), but as you can see, it didn't go up. So I dropped back down to 505 to get it from a good angle, and actually had a pretty visually pleasing deadlift, it went up so smooth and uniformly. Not nearly as fast as the first 505 though, and set up was a little off compared to 505 #1(commentary in video description). Either way I now know I own this weight, and I won't be testing my max again until June, so I can get 2 cycles of mag/ort and maybe a smolov base cycle in there, which could boost my deadlift to 585 by the time I"m 19, and definitely by the end of 2013: probably even 600, unless I do a bad cut again.
Diet's been off, weight is 199. I'm pretty sick so I have no appetite, and my sleep is also a bit off. I just can't ever sleep well. Hopefully when I come back after thanksgiving break I can fix that, one thing I'm going to try is staying perfectly still when I try to fall asleep, instead of moving around to more comfortable positions, and a few other tricks, that will hopefully help. Even taking melatonin isn't working anymore, and I even lowered my bed so that it doesn't shake when people walk by in the hall as much, but it only helps slightly. Either way I should be able to get some good sleep at home and come back to school fresh.
11-21-12: Max Deadlift Test
Deadlift
135x3
225x3
315x2
365x2
405x2
455x1
480x1
505x1: 505 Deadlift - YouTube
525x0: 525 deadlift attempt - YouTube
505x1: 505 Deadlift - YouTube
That's all folks........
Just kidding everybody knows I love rambling about lifting. Good day today, as you can see the first 505 flew up, but the camera angle was bad. I said screw it, let's try 525 with a better angle, got a bit cocky, I think 515 was definitely doable, or maybe even 525 fresh (if I'd hit 495 after 455, then 525), but as you can see, it didn't go up. So I dropped back down to 505 to get it from a good angle, and actually had a pretty visually pleasing deadlift, it went up so smooth and uniformly. Not nearly as fast as the first 505 though, and set up was a little off compared to 505 #1(commentary in video description). Either way I now know I own this weight, and I won't be testing my max again until June, so I can get 2 cycles of mag/ort and maybe a smolov base cycle in there, which could boost my deadlift to 585 by the time I"m 19, and definitely by the end of 2013: probably even 600, unless I do a bad cut again.
Diet's been off, weight is 199. I'm pretty sick so I have no appetite, and my sleep is also a bit off. I just can't ever sleep well. Hopefully when I come back after thanksgiving break I can fix that, one thing I'm going to try is staying perfectly still when I try to fall asleep, instead of moving around to more comfortable positions, and a few other tricks, that will hopefully help. Even taking melatonin isn't working anymore, and I even lowered my bed so that it doesn't shake when people walk by in the hall as much, but it only helps slightly. Either way I should be able to get some good sleep at home and come back to school fresh.
themondtster
New member
Almost had 525. I can see 515 easy.
11-24-12: Garage Gym Squat and Bench
Squat
Worked up to 10x300 (1 rep PR, plus no belt-300x9 was done with a belt): Squat 300x10 - YouTube
Bench
2x10x185 paused
1x12x185 paused: Paused bench 185x12 - YouTube
That's it. Been doing pull ups throughout the last few days since my dad got my brother a pull up bar that pops right in and out of the door frame, so I've just been doing pull ups whenever. Probably gotten about 50-100 reps total so far. Had a really great day today, this morning I met up with my training partner from the summer, who's gained about 20 lbs since I last saw him, and also gained a lot of strength. Gave him a technique retutorial on overhead press and did some reps with about 60 lbs. Picked up an iphone today, which I recorded the videos on, it's really nice, I love having a good camera, good ipod, and good phone all in 1 device. So the videos were easy to upload mobile right after I recorded them. Trained in my friend's garage today, all he had was 300 lbs of plates so I took that for a ride on squats, got 10 reps which is a 1 rep PR, and with no belt! That makes it really significant. Probably could have had 12-14 with a belt. The weight felt really heavy without it, but I still had a lot of strength. Technique didn't feel as good as usual because I've gotten into the bad habit of using the mirror as a crutch, so I need to start feeling my form more than looking for it in my reflection. Still, I like the video, it's got loud metal, a dirty mancave/garage gym complete with a punching bag, tools, car parts, and a bruce lee poster (not shown), and of course close long time friends I haven't seen since I left San Diego. My friend who's 6'8 makes my 5'11 self look super short in the squat video. About technique though, even though it felt off, I'm happy to see that high bar works pretty well for me, I'm confident that with a mirror and belt my technique is really really good, if it looked this good without those things, and with it feeling really sh*tty. Just gotta stop using those as a crutch. Bench I was really happy with, this bench was awkwardly high instead of awkwardly low like the ones at my college gym, but I was able to get some half decent leg drive, and looking at my bar path it looks great. I'm happy my strength is going back up, considering my unpaused PR with this weight is 15 reps, so 12 paused is pretty good. Can't wait to peak my strength in June and see where I"m at. Unfortunately everything still feels really heavy without wrist wraps. Either way I had a good day overall. After this I ate about a pound of steak along with a bunch of bread and a can of DR. Pepper. Good post workout meal, by dirty bulking standards. Oddly enough my weight seems to have been dropping since I came here, only about 202 right now and I was 205 on the same scale the night I arrived, after not eating for 7 hours on the train. I guess I should just disregard what my weight and appearance is and just focus on performance, since that's all that really matters, and when performance in place, everything else falls into place. I don't think my cardio is very good right now but my strength is definitely there. Might start incorporating steady state cardio after a conversation I had with a bodybuilder, and after measuring myself at a pretty high blood pressure on a possibly faulty, but possibly accurate, blood pressure machine. Lots of ideas storming in my head right now.
Squat
Worked up to 10x300 (1 rep PR, plus no belt-300x9 was done with a belt): Squat 300x10 - YouTube
Bench
2x10x185 paused
1x12x185 paused: Paused bench 185x12 - YouTube
That's it. Been doing pull ups throughout the last few days since my dad got my brother a pull up bar that pops right in and out of the door frame, so I've just been doing pull ups whenever. Probably gotten about 50-100 reps total so far. Had a really great day today, this morning I met up with my training partner from the summer, who's gained about 20 lbs since I last saw him, and also gained a lot of strength. Gave him a technique retutorial on overhead press and did some reps with about 60 lbs. Picked up an iphone today, which I recorded the videos on, it's really nice, I love having a good camera, good ipod, and good phone all in 1 device. So the videos were easy to upload mobile right after I recorded them. Trained in my friend's garage today, all he had was 300 lbs of plates so I took that for a ride on squats, got 10 reps which is a 1 rep PR, and with no belt! That makes it really significant. Probably could have had 12-14 with a belt. The weight felt really heavy without it, but I still had a lot of strength. Technique didn't feel as good as usual because I've gotten into the bad habit of using the mirror as a crutch, so I need to start feeling my form more than looking for it in my reflection. Still, I like the video, it's got loud metal, a dirty mancave/garage gym complete with a punching bag, tools, car parts, and a bruce lee poster (not shown), and of course close long time friends I haven't seen since I left San Diego. My friend who's 6'8 makes my 5'11 self look super short in the squat video. About technique though, even though it felt off, I'm happy to see that high bar works pretty well for me, I'm confident that with a mirror and belt my technique is really really good, if it looked this good without those things, and with it feeling really sh*tty. Just gotta stop using those as a crutch. Bench I was really happy with, this bench was awkwardly high instead of awkwardly low like the ones at my college gym, but I was able to get some half decent leg drive, and looking at my bar path it looks great. I'm happy my strength is going back up, considering my unpaused PR with this weight is 15 reps, so 12 paused is pretty good. Can't wait to peak my strength in June and see where I"m at. Unfortunately everything still feels really heavy without wrist wraps. Either way I had a good day overall. After this I ate about a pound of steak along with a bunch of bread and a can of DR. Pepper. Good post workout meal, by dirty bulking standards. Oddly enough my weight seems to have been dropping since I came here, only about 202 right now and I was 205 on the same scale the night I arrived, after not eating for 7 hours on the train. I guess I should just disregard what my weight and appearance is and just focus on performance, since that's all that really matters, and when performance in place, everything else falls into place. I don't think my cardio is very good right now but my strength is definitely there. Might start incorporating steady state cardio after a conversation I had with a bodybuilder, and after measuring myself at a pretty high blood pressure on a possibly faulty, but possibly accurate, blood pressure machine. Lots of ideas storming in my head right now.
11-26-12: Small Session
1 leg Squats
50 on each leg
Incline Push ups
60 reps
Face Pulls
50x40 lbs
Flat Push Ups
Only 35 or 45
Behind the back drag rows
50x80 lbs
Sit Ups
50 sloppy ass reps
External rotations
A bunch (around 70-100 reps)
Good stuff, just trying to prevent atrophy as I wait until my next training day on Wednesday (squats). 1 legged squats are killer, but so far the only thing from the Jim Wendler 6 week rep challenge I've been able to do. Me and my friend's quads and glutes were practically cramping afterwards, he was only able to do about 35 reps on each leg and he was only doing about half the ROM I was. And he's usually equal endurance (but not strength =P) as me on upper body stuff. So I was happy with that. Incline push ups were good, I believe this is a 5 rep PR. Face pulls were good, not sure if I got 50 or 60 reps but I got a good trap and shoulder pump. My friend took a picture of me mid contraction and it looked really sick on the small iphone screen, but only decent on the big facebook screen. I'll keep it up there but it's not worth posting here. I was disappointed that I could only get 35 or 45 push ups (lost count a bit), either way it's a lot less than the inclines. Probably fatigue related, because my shoulders were already worked from inclines, and my upper back, where I tend to feel flat push ups the most, was already fried from face pulls. Either way I got a good chest pump to match my traps pump. BTB drag rows were good, not really sure what to call them but that's basically what it looks like, a drag row behind the back, starting around the glutes and ending at the top of the lower back. Did some sit ups and sucked at them, will need to start incorporating these into the small sessions, because my rectus abdominis is really weak. Did a bunch of external rotator stuff, might have mildly tweaked my shoulder benching on Friday, it was popping during my sets and I didn't think much of it, but the last 24-48 hours it's been really stiff and sore, my right shoulder only. Ext rotations only helped a little. Either way I'm glad that my rear delts are finally gaining significant size. I guess I'll just have to do some band rotations (could be another reason my shoulder popped on Fri, didn't have my bands, only warm up I did before bench was my squats and benching light).
1 leg Squats
50 on each leg
Incline Push ups
60 reps
Face Pulls
50x40 lbs
Flat Push Ups
Only 35 or 45
Behind the back drag rows
50x80 lbs
Sit Ups
50 sloppy ass reps
External rotations
A bunch (around 70-100 reps)
Good stuff, just trying to prevent atrophy as I wait until my next training day on Wednesday (squats). 1 legged squats are killer, but so far the only thing from the Jim Wendler 6 week rep challenge I've been able to do. Me and my friend's quads and glutes were practically cramping afterwards, he was only able to do about 35 reps on each leg and he was only doing about half the ROM I was. And he's usually equal endurance (but not strength =P) as me on upper body stuff. So I was happy with that. Incline push ups were good, I believe this is a 5 rep PR. Face pulls were good, not sure if I got 50 or 60 reps but I got a good trap and shoulder pump. My friend took a picture of me mid contraction and it looked really sick on the small iphone screen, but only decent on the big facebook screen. I'll keep it up there but it's not worth posting here. I was disappointed that I could only get 35 or 45 push ups (lost count a bit), either way it's a lot less than the inclines. Probably fatigue related, because my shoulders were already worked from inclines, and my upper back, where I tend to feel flat push ups the most, was already fried from face pulls. Either way I got a good chest pump to match my traps pump. BTB drag rows were good, not really sure what to call them but that's basically what it looks like, a drag row behind the back, starting around the glutes and ending at the top of the lower back. Did some sit ups and sucked at them, will need to start incorporating these into the small sessions, because my rectus abdominis is really weak. Did a bunch of external rotator stuff, might have mildly tweaked my shoulder benching on Friday, it was popping during my sets and I didn't think much of it, but the last 24-48 hours it's been really stiff and sore, my right shoulder only. Ext rotations only helped a little. Either way I'm glad that my rear delts are finally gaining significant size. I guess I'll just have to do some band rotations (could be another reason my shoulder popped on Fri, didn't have my bands, only warm up I did before bench was my squats and benching light).
Buildingup24
New member
happy belated Thanksgiving man hope it was a good one. Still following...just takes a while to read everything
Thanks Buildingup, you know how I love rambling about lifting !
11-28-12: 3x3 Squats
Squat
3x225
3x275 loose belt
3x315 loose belt
335 for 3 paused, beltless singles
3x315 medium belt
Good Mornings
2x12x135
1x15x135
Front Squat
5x135
3x185
3x225
3x255
3x275 (1 rep/15 lb PR!!!) tight belt
Pretty good day today. It's rainy, I slept really poorly last night (roommates kept waking me up) and I generally didn't feel too good going to the gym, so I just did requisite reps on squats. Decided I might as well get in some volume if I'm not going high intensity, and make the singles harder instead of trying to do a heavy triple with them, so I did them paused and beltless, then did 315 for 3 again afterwards. Very short rest periods in between, probably 2-3 mins, which is short compared to my usual 5-10 mins between work sets (warm up sets tend to be back to back though). Then I hit the GMs hard, did the constant tension thing again but it was surprisingly easy. I also tried to do short rest periods, but I ran into a friend who has grown a great beard for no shave November, so we talked about beards for a bit and I ended up resting about 5-6 mins instead of 2 mins before my last set of GMs. Decided to push for 15 reps instead, but 15 was surprisingly easy. I didn't feel too tired after racking that last set of GMs so I decided to see where I'm at on front squats by working up to a heavy triple. 275x3 felt really easy on my legs, my upper back was the weak link (maybe fatigued from GMs), my legs felt like I could get 6-8 reps. Good to see that high bar squatting has had a good carryover to both my hamstrings and my quads. And definitely a lot of glutes. 275x3 is a PR over my previous 275x2, and 260x3. No cardio today because a) I"m lazy, and b) it's raining.
!11-28-12: 3x3 Squats
Squat
3x225
3x275 loose belt
3x315 loose belt
335 for 3 paused, beltless singles
3x315 medium belt
Good Mornings
2x12x135
1x15x135
Front Squat
5x135
3x185
3x225
3x255
3x275 (1 rep/15 lb PR!!!) tight belt
Pretty good day today. It's rainy, I slept really poorly last night (roommates kept waking me up) and I generally didn't feel too good going to the gym, so I just did requisite reps on squats. Decided I might as well get in some volume if I'm not going high intensity, and make the singles harder instead of trying to do a heavy triple with them, so I did them paused and beltless, then did 315 for 3 again afterwards. Very short rest periods in between, probably 2-3 mins, which is short compared to my usual 5-10 mins between work sets (warm up sets tend to be back to back though). Then I hit the GMs hard, did the constant tension thing again but it was surprisingly easy. I also tried to do short rest periods, but I ran into a friend who has grown a great beard for no shave November, so we talked about beards for a bit and I ended up resting about 5-6 mins instead of 2 mins before my last set of GMs. Decided to push for 15 reps instead, but 15 was surprisingly easy. I didn't feel too tired after racking that last set of GMs so I decided to see where I'm at on front squats by working up to a heavy triple. 275x3 felt really easy on my legs, my upper back was the weak link (maybe fatigued from GMs), my legs felt like I could get 6-8 reps. Good to see that high bar squatting has had a good carryover to both my hamstrings and my quads. And definitely a lot of glutes. 275x3 is a PR over my previous 275x2, and 260x3. No cardio today because a) I"m lazy, and b) it's raining.
rustilldown
New member
275x3 is a real good front squat
keep up the good work man!
keep up the good work man!11-29-12: Bench/Chins
Bench
3x175
6x225 paused (paused PR)
235 x 3 paused singles
17x175 unpaused (rep PR)
Chins
3xBW
3x25
3x45
5x55 (10 lb PR)
Dips
BWx10/10/10/12/10
Drag Rows
2x15x135 (10 shrugs first set, 15 shrugs second set)
Cable Curls
75 reps x 40 lbs
Cable Tricep Pushdowns
75 reps x 40 lbs
Rear Delt rotator raise
50 reps x 2.5 lbs
Pretty good day today. Felt pretty strong on bench, technique felt off a bit on the 6x225 set (lost some of my shoulder tuck getting it out of the rack), but all sets of 235 were good, and 175 was good except the last rep, where I sacrificed technique for weight by unpinching my shoulders. Should have stopped at 16, technique was good until then. Chins went well, even BW felt heavy for 3, probably due to fatigue from bench, but I managed to hit 55 for 5, which is just in line with my other PRs, 45x7 and 65x3. I"m pretty happy with this since I essentially repped 95% of my training max for 5. (in my spreadsheet calculations for chins I count bodyweight as 200, so I plug in my training max of 70 lbs added as 270, so while 55 isn't 95% of 70, 255 is 95% of 270). Dips went well, very high volume and a good chest pump. Next week I'll do 5x12. Drag rows were all right, my upper back felt pretty weak today, probably because I did front squats yesterday, and because my upper back was tired from bench. All the high rep stuff went well. Hopefully I'll see some gains from this session, it felt pretty solid.
Bench
3x175
6x225 paused (paused PR)
235 x 3 paused singles
17x175 unpaused (rep PR)
Chins
3xBW
3x25
3x45
5x55 (10 lb PR)
Dips
BWx10/10/10/12/10
Drag Rows
2x15x135 (10 shrugs first set, 15 shrugs second set)
Cable Curls
75 reps x 40 lbs
Cable Tricep Pushdowns
75 reps x 40 lbs
Rear Delt rotator raise
50 reps x 2.5 lbs
Pretty good day today. Felt pretty strong on bench, technique felt off a bit on the 6x225 set (lost some of my shoulder tuck getting it out of the rack), but all sets of 235 were good, and 175 was good except the last rep, where I sacrificed technique for weight by unpinching my shoulders. Should have stopped at 16, technique was good until then. Chins went well, even BW felt heavy for 3, probably due to fatigue from bench, but I managed to hit 55 for 5, which is just in line with my other PRs, 45x7 and 65x3. I"m pretty happy with this since I essentially repped 95% of my training max for 5. (in my spreadsheet calculations for chins I count bodyweight as 200, so I plug in my training max of 70 lbs added as 270, so while 55 isn't 95% of 70, 255 is 95% of 270). Dips went well, very high volume and a good chest pump. Next week I'll do 5x12. Drag rows were all right, my upper back felt pretty weak today, probably because I did front squats yesterday, and because my upper back was tired from bench. All the high rep stuff went well. Hopefully I'll see some gains from this session, it felt pretty solid.
Just weighed myself at 208. And I don't look much fatter at all. On one hand I'm stoked that I gained 4 lbs of mostly muscle in the last 2 weeks, but on the other I'm a little bummed because I know most of it is in my legs, so my bench hasn't gone up by very much but my bodyweight has. Still my shoulders do look a little bigger so I guess there's that.
12-2-12: OHP and Deadlifts
OHP
10x105
3x125
6x140
2x3x145
11x115
Deadlift
4x4x385
2x435
2x485
10x385
Incline Bench
10x135
9x135
7x135
Face Pulls
100x50 lbs
Tricep Pressdowns
50x50 lbs
Cable Curls
50x50 lbs
Cable Lat Pullovers
50x30 lbs
Decent lifting day today. A bit hungover from yesterday so I took some caffiene/ephedrine (Black Widow pills) before lifting, but didn't feel it too much. I think I"m finally building up a tolerance so I can actually start taking full pills instead of the 1/3 pills. I'll try 2/3 next time, but hopefully the next time I need it won't be too soon. OHP was ok, still pretty strong but not nearly as strong as last time. Bar thickness really makes a difference. But I"m still stronger than I was a month ago so there's that. Deadlifts were all right, 485 went up really slowly both times, then afterwards the guy came and told me I have to let the bar down slow (I don't drop it but once it clears my knees I let it down pretty fast), and that I can't use chalk. So I waited till he was out of my line of sight, chalked up, and did my next set with 385, but I was controlling the negatives pretty slowly so I wouldn't get kicked out, which definitely made a difference. I was dying on the last 2 reps. But I felt good afterwards. Good to get a lot of blood flowing through the posterior chain. Since it's been 3 weeks since I've done deadlifts for reps, the sets of 4 I was fatiguing by the last rep or two, but hopefully this will shoot my work capacity back up to where it needs to be for next time, as I've seen happen before. Also this is my first time deadlifting in wrestling shoes instead of chucks so that was definitely interesting, felt like I could get tighter, but the lockout still was slow, if anything more slow. But that could be many other factors. Inclines went terribly, felt very weak, and my left shoulder got f*cked on the last set. Not too bad but definitely not good. It isn't hurting now because I did all the face pulls, but it's definitely not a good things. Gotta make sure I keep good technique and don't sacrifice for weight on inclines. Small session afterwards (all the high rep stuff) went really well.
Diet's been a bit off because it's the weekend. Only ate 2 meals today because I woke up really late with no appetite. Forced down 6.5 eggs and 1.5 egg whites this morning (the yolks of the eggs I only ate the whites of were really nasty so I threw them out). Then had a protein shake when I came back from the gym since the line to the dining commons was incredibly long and I couldn't just wait 10 mins in like so I could take 1 minute to drink milk there. Then I just had a big dinner, and smuggled back some rice and beans I"ll probably eat around 11 tonight before I go to sleep. Either way I don't even want to weigh myself right now because it's probably really light. At least most of my strength is still there. That's what matters. Gotta start doing cardio again though, even if it's just jump roping in the little gym. It's been raining all week so I can't do hill sprints.
Either way, had a lot of rage going into today's session, so it was good to be able to let go of that temporarily, step back, and just care about lifting the weights up. That's one thing that's great about lifting, when you're in the weight room, the matter of lifting the weights up is so pressing and so urgent that all your other problems go away, and all you care about is getting the weight up, not letting it break you. It's a great stress reliever. Good, stress relieving day today.
OHP
10x105
3x125
6x140
2x3x145
11x115
Deadlift
4x4x385
2x435
2x485
10x385
Incline Bench
10x135
9x135
7x135
Face Pulls
100x50 lbs
Tricep Pressdowns
50x50 lbs
Cable Curls
50x50 lbs
Cable Lat Pullovers
50x30 lbs
Decent lifting day today. A bit hungover from yesterday so I took some caffiene/ephedrine (Black Widow pills) before lifting, but didn't feel it too much. I think I"m finally building up a tolerance so I can actually start taking full pills instead of the 1/3 pills. I'll try 2/3 next time, but hopefully the next time I need it won't be too soon. OHP was ok, still pretty strong but not nearly as strong as last time. Bar thickness really makes a difference. But I"m still stronger than I was a month ago so there's that. Deadlifts were all right, 485 went up really slowly both times, then afterwards the guy came and told me I have to let the bar down slow (I don't drop it but once it clears my knees I let it down pretty fast), and that I can't use chalk. So I waited till he was out of my line of sight, chalked up, and did my next set with 385, but I was controlling the negatives pretty slowly so I wouldn't get kicked out, which definitely made a difference. I was dying on the last 2 reps. But I felt good afterwards. Good to get a lot of blood flowing through the posterior chain. Since it's been 3 weeks since I've done deadlifts for reps, the sets of 4 I was fatiguing by the last rep or two, but hopefully this will shoot my work capacity back up to where it needs to be for next time, as I've seen happen before. Also this is my first time deadlifting in wrestling shoes instead of chucks so that was definitely interesting, felt like I could get tighter, but the lockout still was slow, if anything more slow. But that could be many other factors. Inclines went terribly, felt very weak, and my left shoulder got f*cked on the last set. Not too bad but definitely not good. It isn't hurting now because I did all the face pulls, but it's definitely not a good things. Gotta make sure I keep good technique and don't sacrifice for weight on inclines. Small session afterwards (all the high rep stuff) went really well.
Diet's been a bit off because it's the weekend. Only ate 2 meals today because I woke up really late with no appetite. Forced down 6.5 eggs and 1.5 egg whites this morning (the yolks of the eggs I only ate the whites of were really nasty so I threw them out). Then had a protein shake when I came back from the gym since the line to the dining commons was incredibly long and I couldn't just wait 10 mins in like so I could take 1 minute to drink milk there. Then I just had a big dinner, and smuggled back some rice and beans I"ll probably eat around 11 tonight before I go to sleep. Either way I don't even want to weigh myself right now because it's probably really light. At least most of my strength is still there. That's what matters. Gotta start doing cardio again though, even if it's just jump roping in the little gym. It's been raining all week so I can't do hill sprints.
Either way, had a lot of rage going into today's session, so it was good to be able to let go of that temporarily, step back, and just care about lifting the weights up. That's one thing that's great about lifting, when you're in the weight room, the matter of lifting the weights up is so pressing and so urgent that all your other problems go away, and all you care about is getting the weight up, not letting it break you. It's a great stress reliever. Good, stress relieving day today.
12-5-12: Squats
Squat
5x225 loose belt
5x260 loose belt
12x295 tight belt
1x345 beltless
Good Mornings
3x10x155
Pulldown abs
BS numbers (10x100 lbs I think)
Good workout today. Paused the last rep of 295 and the 345. My squat technique felt fine today, but I felt it a lot in my calves for some reason, if it persists next time even if I really focus hard on putting the weight all on my heels I"ll start doing calf work to increase my squat. Plus I've never worked my calves so that should be fun. But yeah I felt it a lot in my glutes, calves, and back. I still felt it in the quads and hams, not to mention every part of my body, but my back generally felt not so good today. GMs felt all wrong, even though my technique was perfectly fine, no back rounding or anything, also because my back isn't feeling good today. Hopefully it's nothing serious. Pulldown abs I just wanted to rework up a sweat at the gym in my dorm before taking a shower, so I hit a few light sets then 1 set that felt pretty heavy on my grip (I used a really sharp chain attachment) with 100 lbs for about 10 reps. Nothing serious but it's done. Sparred my roommate a bit then took a shower, then posted this, and now I"m going to eat.
Squat
5x225 loose belt
5x260 loose belt
12x295 tight belt
1x345 beltless
Good Mornings
3x10x155
Pulldown abs
BS numbers (10x100 lbs I think)
Good workout today. Paused the last rep of 295 and the 345. My squat technique felt fine today, but I felt it a lot in my calves for some reason, if it persists next time even if I really focus hard on putting the weight all on my heels I"ll start doing calf work to increase my squat. Plus I've never worked my calves so that should be fun. But yeah I felt it a lot in my glutes, calves, and back. I still felt it in the quads and hams, not to mention every part of my body, but my back generally felt not so good today. GMs felt all wrong, even though my technique was perfectly fine, no back rounding or anything, also because my back isn't feeling good today. Hopefully it's nothing serious. Pulldown abs I just wanted to rework up a sweat at the gym in my dorm before taking a shower, so I hit a few light sets then 1 set that felt pretty heavy on my grip (I used a really sharp chain attachment) with 100 lbs for about 10 reps. Nothing serious but it's done. Sparred my roommate a bit then took a shower, then posted this, and now I"m going to eat.
12-6-12: Bench/Chins
Pause Bench
5x165
5x185
5x210
1x245
6x210
23x135 not paused close grip
4x3x135 dynamic (45 sec rest periods)obviously no pause
1x7x135 (45 sec after my last dynamic set, attempted JM blakely dynamic style-but blew it)
1x7x135 (a long time after the previous set, JM blakely dynamic style-2 ultra slow paused reps, 2 normal reps, 3 dynamic)
Chins
5xBW
8x30 10 lb PR
9xBW
DB Bench
15x55s
3x8x75s
Upright Rows
10x95
2x15x95
2x10xbar (very strict)
All right day today. Bench technique felt very off on all my heavy sets except 245 for some reason. 245 went up incredibly easily for a paused single, because my technique was spot on, but 210 felt really awkward both times. Wanted 8 reps on the first one but my shoulder was clicking, then wanted 8 reps again but my back cramped, not to mention technique felt really awkward. Maybe I gotta spend more time warming up, my spotter who does his own bodybuilding workout at the gym (so like a step below being a training partner) had his leg day today, so he took like an hour psyching himself up before we could leave. Should have just left without him. But yeah I was kinda rushed which could have something to do with it. In the future I"ll just take my time warming up. So I dropped it down to 135 and took a really close grip (my normal grip is pretty close but I went as narrow as possible for this one) and squeezed out what I believe is either a PR or matching my PR. The last 3 reps had pauses too, I was aiming for 20 but wanted to milk out some more. Technique felt great, which could be a contributing factor to how strong I felt. Might have had 25 reps in me but I don't like training to failure. I rested 45 sec then did some dynamic stuff with a normal grip to work on reinforcing my technique. Did a bunch of sets but they didn't feel 100% as fast as they could, more like 90%. So I tried a JM blakely style set, but was too fatigued. Rested a long time then tried again, with success. I guess my 90% speed is as fast as I can do 135. Either way the DE training served it's purpose of technique reinforcement, my technique felt great on those. I think my main problem is my liftoff, the benches/racks at this gym suck so the liftoff is always the hardest part for me, and I always do my own liftoffs. Maybe I'll find a way to incorporate heavy liftoffs in my training. Probably on OHP day. Chins were decent, forearms were too pumped to get more than 9 reps on my drop down set, had to fight the tightness from the pump on the way up and it was like having extra resistance. DB bench was all right, the only bench open was a piece of shit so I had to deal with that. But other than that it was all right. Upright rows were ok but I was really tired at this point so it was w/e. Gotta build my shoulders and traps. Gonna get a small session in in about 2.5 hrs. Got some chem work to do. Will be doing cardio then, may or may not log it tonight.
Pause Bench
5x165
5x185
5x210
1x245
6x210
23x135 not paused close grip
4x3x135 dynamic (45 sec rest periods)obviously no pause
1x7x135 (45 sec after my last dynamic set, attempted JM blakely dynamic style-but blew it)
1x7x135 (a long time after the previous set, JM blakely dynamic style-2 ultra slow paused reps, 2 normal reps, 3 dynamic)
Chins
5xBW
8x30 10 lb PR
9xBW
DB Bench
15x55s
3x8x75s
Upright Rows
10x95
2x15x95
2x10xbar (very strict)
All right day today. Bench technique felt very off on all my heavy sets except 245 for some reason. 245 went up incredibly easily for a paused single, because my technique was spot on, but 210 felt really awkward both times. Wanted 8 reps on the first one but my shoulder was clicking, then wanted 8 reps again but my back cramped, not to mention technique felt really awkward. Maybe I gotta spend more time warming up, my spotter who does his own bodybuilding workout at the gym (so like a step below being a training partner) had his leg day today, so he took like an hour psyching himself up before we could leave. Should have just left without him. But yeah I was kinda rushed which could have something to do with it. In the future I"ll just take my time warming up. So I dropped it down to 135 and took a really close grip (my normal grip is pretty close but I went as narrow as possible for this one) and squeezed out what I believe is either a PR or matching my PR. The last 3 reps had pauses too, I was aiming for 20 but wanted to milk out some more. Technique felt great, which could be a contributing factor to how strong I felt. Might have had 25 reps in me but I don't like training to failure. I rested 45 sec then did some dynamic stuff with a normal grip to work on reinforcing my technique. Did a bunch of sets but they didn't feel 100% as fast as they could, more like 90%. So I tried a JM blakely style set, but was too fatigued. Rested a long time then tried again, with success. I guess my 90% speed is as fast as I can do 135. Either way the DE training served it's purpose of technique reinforcement, my technique felt great on those. I think my main problem is my liftoff, the benches/racks at this gym suck so the liftoff is always the hardest part for me, and I always do my own liftoffs. Maybe I'll find a way to incorporate heavy liftoffs in my training. Probably on OHP day. Chins were decent, forearms were too pumped to get more than 9 reps on my drop down set, had to fight the tightness from the pump on the way up and it was like having extra resistance. DB bench was all right, the only bench open was a piece of shit so I had to deal with that. But other than that it was all right. Upright rows were ok but I was really tired at this point so it was w/e. Gotta build my shoulders and traps. Gonna get a small session in in about 2.5 hrs. Got some chem work to do. Will be doing cardio then, may or may not log it tonight.
Buildingup24
New member
Backs looking good in Avi bro
Thanks man! I wish I could find a way to upload all my progress pics, had some good ones.
12-9-12: OHP and Deads
OHP
5x95
5x115
7x130
Deads
4x4x395
2x445
2x495
8x405
Pretty disappointing day today. OHP was incredibly weak, shoulders were still really sore from earlier this week. Deads, though I got a lot of PRs, were disappointing because my technique was pure shit, even on the light sets. Even if my top set has shit technique, like the first week I did 2x465, my 4x4s are always good. Today's 4x4 was also shitty. I wasn't feeling right today at all, everything felt off. I'm going to run 5/3/1 for deads for a while and just get my technique back, work on my mobility, all that kind of crap. But here are the videos from today. Kinda lame stuff. My friend who was slapping my back on the first set, while it did distract me a bit, isn't the reason why my technique sucked today. I have no idea what it is. Thankfully I somehow didn't injure myself, but I need to fix this, more than I need to keep adding weight. I"ll continue to squat heavier and heavier but deadlifts, strenght is going on the backburner now, technique is the premium. Videos:
495: Deadlift 495x2 - YouTube You can hear me getting mad at my friend a bit, lol.
405: Deadlift 405x8 - YouTube Terrible technique. Incredibly disappointed. Grip failed here too, almost slipped on rep 8, and rep 9 was undoable.
I feel like even if I don't go as heavy on deads, fixing my technique and doing some hip thrusts after will in the long run add more strength. I got plenty of power off the ground but my lockout is what's lacking, so hip thrusts may be just what I need.
12-9-12: OHP and Deads
OHP
5x95
5x115
7x130
Deads
4x4x395
2x445
2x495
8x405
Pretty disappointing day today. OHP was incredibly weak, shoulders were still really sore from earlier this week. Deads, though I got a lot of PRs, were disappointing because my technique was pure shit, even on the light sets. Even if my top set has shit technique, like the first week I did 2x465, my 4x4s are always good. Today's 4x4 was also shitty. I wasn't feeling right today at all, everything felt off. I'm going to run 5/3/1 for deads for a while and just get my technique back, work on my mobility, all that kind of crap. But here are the videos from today. Kinda lame stuff. My friend who was slapping my back on the first set, while it did distract me a bit, isn't the reason why my technique sucked today. I have no idea what it is. Thankfully I somehow didn't injure myself, but I need to fix this, more than I need to keep adding weight. I"ll continue to squat heavier and heavier but deadlifts, strenght is going on the backburner now, technique is the premium. Videos:
495: Deadlift 495x2 - YouTube You can hear me getting mad at my friend a bit, lol.
405: Deadlift 405x8 - YouTube Terrible technique. Incredibly disappointed. Grip failed here too, almost slipped on rep 8, and rep 9 was undoable.
I feel like even if I don't go as heavy on deads, fixing my technique and doing some hip thrusts after will in the long run add more strength. I got plenty of power off the ground but my lockout is what's lacking, so hip thrusts may be just what I need.
Ran a 10 minute mile today on the treadmill in my dorm. Pretty bad but it's baby steps. I'm gonna start doing 10 minute miles fairly often till it's literally no challenge to me. It might be the reason why my strength sucked today, that I did cardio a few days ago, but it makes me feel so much better physically and mentally about life when I run and lift instead of just lifting. Also had a decent small session where I did 2x25x2.5 rear delt and side delt raises. Rear delt raises I did with a supinated grip to make things harder, and side raises I did with my lats flared which made it much much harder. I did 3 sets of 30 incline push ups with a narrower grip, which actually helped me feel it better in my upper chest. Also did some upright rows and some other insignificant stuff. My calves are really sore from running, my shoulders and back are really sore from lifting, but I feel really good and relaxed.
12-12-12: Squat And Bench
Squat
5x260
3x295
5x330
3x345
1x365
Pause Bench
5x185
3x205
1x235
1x245
Strict Supinated Lat Pulldowns (for isolating upper lats)
3x10x100
Strict Side Raises
3x10x15s
Wide Grip T Bar Rows
3x10x45
Good and bad workout today. Squats were great, strong sets across the board. Matched my old low bar PR pretty easily today, maybe had a double, or 375/385. But didn't want to go too hard. Bench was absolutely terrible. Technique felt shitty in every way (except thankfully, at least my shoulders weren't clicking), I even used wrist wraps because my right wrist has been hurting since my Environmental Science final (lots of writing), but it was terrible. Failed the 2nd rep of 235, and barely got 245 for a paused single. Did some upper lat stuff because that's lagging, then side raises because side delts are lagging, then wide grip t bar rows for traps/rear delts. Got a good pump from all that, though most of the blood was still being hogged up by my legs. Which could be a contributing reason for why my bench sucked. The huge guy from my squat video said maybe I ran out of carbs from all the squatting, but I don't know. Either way bench was bad and I'm disappointed in myself for it. Oh yeah and here's the squat video:
Squat 365x1 - YouTube
The big dude spotting me is a monster. He's only been lifting for a year and he squats 425 with wraps (Idk his raw squat though-he tore his acl a while ago so he only goes heavy with wraps), 300 or 315 touch n go bench, and 525 deadlift. And from knowing him long enough I know he's natural. Crazy strong. Anyways I'm most likely going to do cardio in about an hour after I digest this meal, then go eat again.
Squat
5x260
3x295
5x330
3x345
1x365
Pause Bench
5x185
3x205
1x235
1x245
Strict Supinated Lat Pulldowns (for isolating upper lats)
3x10x100
Strict Side Raises
3x10x15s
Wide Grip T Bar Rows
3x10x45
Good and bad workout today. Squats were great, strong sets across the board. Matched my old low bar PR pretty easily today, maybe had a double, or 375/385. But didn't want to go too hard. Bench was absolutely terrible. Technique felt shitty in every way (except thankfully, at least my shoulders weren't clicking), I even used wrist wraps because my right wrist has been hurting since my Environmental Science final (lots of writing), but it was terrible. Failed the 2nd rep of 235, and barely got 245 for a paused single. Did some upper lat stuff because that's lagging, then side raises because side delts are lagging, then wide grip t bar rows for traps/rear delts. Got a good pump from all that, though most of the blood was still being hogged up by my legs. Which could be a contributing reason for why my bench sucked. The huge guy from my squat video said maybe I ran out of carbs from all the squatting, but I don't know. Either way bench was bad and I'm disappointed in myself for it. Oh yeah and here's the squat video:
Squat 365x1 - YouTube
The big dude spotting me is a monster. He's only been lifting for a year and he squats 425 with wraps (Idk his raw squat though-he tore his acl a while ago so he only goes heavy with wraps), 300 or 315 touch n go bench, and 525 deadlift. And from knowing him long enough I know he's natural. Crazy strong. Anyways I'm most likely going to do cardio in about an hour after I digest this meal, then go eat again.
E
Evan Tipps
Guest
Nice job on the squat buddy. And I am about to do some cardio as well
jamesrogers
New member
Hello friend iam here to share the knowledge of yoga training
jamesrogers
New member
Hello friend i am here to share the knowledge of yoga training
Just weighed in at barely 200. Not sure if I"m happy or not about that, but it seems the cardio is making it a lot harder to maintain my weight. Plus the food in the dining commons is getting really old, it's always the same shit. So that definitely contributes as well. Could be a reason why my bench is sucking. But I do look a lot leaner.
12-15-12: Short Session
Pull ups
32 reps over 5 sets hammer grip
12 reps over 2 sets wide grip
6 chin ups
Dips
3x15
Strict/Slow Rear Delt Flyes
2x10x4 lb DBs
Incline Push ups
12 reps then my shoulders started to feel funny
Ok workout today. Not feeling particularly strong but my diet always goes to shit when I'm home because my parents barely cook, and I'm no longer in the habit of cooking. So I weighed 203 today. Interestingly I don't feel like I"m leaning out too much but my gyno is going down A LOT. I haven't taken any particular measures to lower estrogen. I drink a lot of chamomile tea and eat a lot of broccoli but I've been doing that for 2 weeks, and actually haven't consumed either in 2 days. Maybe the lowered estrogen from those 2 weeks has finally taken effect though. Or it could be the cardio. I've had gyno for the last 2 years, ever since I first started drinking a lot of milk to bulk up when I first got into powerlifting, so it's nice that it's finally going away. On the flip side though, my chest muscles look a lot smaller because there's less fat over them bulking them up, but their shape is more aesthetic. Either way, good stuff, might do 1 legged squats today, probably not though because I'm gonna try to squat on Monday if I can find a gym. If not I"ll do 1 legged squats and flat ground sprints on monday. Probably going to do a mile run tonight. I"m just worried about doing too much cardio because I'm not going to be able to get a lot of calories these next 3 weeks that I'm home.
Pull ups
32 reps over 5 sets hammer grip
12 reps over 2 sets wide grip
6 chin ups
Dips
3x15
Strict/Slow Rear Delt Flyes
2x10x4 lb DBs
Incline Push ups
12 reps then my shoulders started to feel funny
Ok workout today. Not feeling particularly strong but my diet always goes to shit when I'm home because my parents barely cook, and I'm no longer in the habit of cooking. So I weighed 203 today. Interestingly I don't feel like I"m leaning out too much but my gyno is going down A LOT. I haven't taken any particular measures to lower estrogen. I drink a lot of chamomile tea and eat a lot of broccoli but I've been doing that for 2 weeks, and actually haven't consumed either in 2 days. Maybe the lowered estrogen from those 2 weeks has finally taken effect though. Or it could be the cardio. I've had gyno for the last 2 years, ever since I first started drinking a lot of milk to bulk up when I first got into powerlifting, so it's nice that it's finally going away. On the flip side though, my chest muscles look a lot smaller because there's less fat over them bulking them up, but their shape is more aesthetic. Either way, good stuff, might do 1 legged squats today, probably not though because I'm gonna try to squat on Monday if I can find a gym. If not I"ll do 1 legged squats and flat ground sprints on monday. Probably going to do a mile run tonight. I"m just worried about doing too much cardio because I'm not going to be able to get a lot of calories these next 3 weeks that I'm home.
Ran a mile today. Don't know how long it took because I was out in nature but I passed up another jogger so I probably wasn't going too slow. Hopefully I'll get a chance to lift tomorrow. I have a friend I'm hanging out with today who's been kind of flakey recently, hopefully unintentionally, but if I can catch him I'll probably be able to train with him in his garage tomorrow, hit some OHP, light squats (deload week but maybe a few singles at 300 just so I don't atrophy), maybe some 1 legged squats/shrugs/upright rows, and pull ups. I"ll probably be training strongman on Wednesday so I shouldn't need to do deadlifts.
Buildingup24
New member
How tall r u btw? 200 is a solid weight spending on height
themondtster
New member
Here are the stats from his first page. He's put on about 20#s. Pretty damn good.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using EliteFitness
Thanks guys! Yeah I was 5'11. I used to be 6' back when I was 14 or 15 and weighed 150 lbs, never having lifted, but all the squats and bodyweight gain plus scoliosis has me at 5'10.5 now. Maybe I'll go see a chiropractor one day and get back to 6'.
Small session today, 4x10 then 1x15 alternating on each leg 1 legged squats. Short rest periods but not so short that it was like a giant superset. 3x15 strict incline push ups supersetted with slow rear delt flyes with 4 lbs. Then 2x8 and 1x10 chin ups. Strongman training on wednesday, then gym lifts on friday.
Small session today, 4x10 then 1x15 alternating on each leg 1 legged squats. Short rest periods but not so short that it was like a giant superset. 3x15 strict incline push ups supersetted with slow rear delt flyes with 4 lbs. Then 2x8 and 1x10 chin ups. Strongman training on wednesday, then gym lifts on friday.
12-19-12: Strongman
Overhead Keg
A bunch of triples with 80 lb keg
3x105
4x130
0x155
Yoke Walk
Worked up to 455x50 ft
Loading onto ~55-60inch platform
150 lb sandbag followed by 200 lb sandbag, followed by failed attempt at 250 lb sandbag (couldn't even clear it off the ground)
150 lb sandbag for 3 reps
130 lb keg followed by 155 lb keg, 180 lb keg, 205 lb keg
Really fun day today. Lifting the keg overhead was really fun, although the 155 keg sucks because the handles are terrible, but otherwise it's good. Yoke walk was good, no chain yoke this time so it was a lot better, but it's still a somewhat ghetto set up so it wasn't perfect, not to mention everything felt numb because it was incredibly cold. Then loading stuff was really fun, although sandbags will always suck, especially with cold fingers and medium length nails. Then loading kegs was awesome, although I need to strengthen my hammer curl muscles to support my bones, my wrists and forearm bones were hurting after all the keg related stuff, especially the heavy ones we used for loading. Definitely good to be back training strongman. Next time I'll bring a jacket!
Overhead Keg
A bunch of triples with 80 lb keg
3x105
4x130
0x155
Yoke Walk
Worked up to 455x50 ft
Loading onto ~55-60inch platform
150 lb sandbag followed by 200 lb sandbag, followed by failed attempt at 250 lb sandbag (couldn't even clear it off the ground)
150 lb sandbag for 3 reps
130 lb keg followed by 155 lb keg, 180 lb keg, 205 lb keg
Really fun day today. Lifting the keg overhead was really fun, although the 155 keg sucks because the handles are terrible, but otherwise it's good. Yoke walk was good, no chain yoke this time so it was a lot better, but it's still a somewhat ghetto set up so it wasn't perfect, not to mention everything felt numb because it was incredibly cold. Then loading stuff was really fun, although sandbags will always suck, especially with cold fingers and medium length nails. Then loading kegs was awesome, although I need to strengthen my hammer curl muscles to support my bones, my wrists and forearm bones were hurting after all the keg related stuff, especially the heavy ones we used for loading. Definitely good to be back training strongman. Next time I'll bring a jacket!
Buildingup24
New member
^^^that looks fun^^^
Nice yoke walk. That's a badass grip
Nice yoke walk. That's a badass grip
12-21-12: Big 4 Apocalypse
Squat
Warm ups
315x3
345 for 3 singles
OHP
5x115
4x135 (should have been 3x130 but I wasn't thinking)
7x145 rest 30 sec 2x145
something like 3-4x5 pull/chin ups from between sets, again, wasn't thinking.
Deadlift
worked up to 405x7 (paused and resetted PR), VIDEO: Deadlift 405x7 - YouTube
Bench
worked up to 5x225 (3 paused 2 not paused)
135x26 not paused (3 rep PR)
Grip Holds
Worked up to 405x10 sec (no chalk, suuucked) mixed, and 315x10 sec double overhand
Shrugs
4x12x225
19x225 followed by 10x135
GREAT day today! Funny story, I was originally going to meet up at the 24 hour fitness I trained at this summer, but the guy at the front desk recognized me and so I couldn't do the 3 day trial, they were going to make me pay 10 bucks. It ended up being a positive though because I ended up training in my old gym (another 24 hour fitness, where thankfully they didn't recognize me), where I was mentored in powerlifting 1 year ago, with my training partner that I mentored over the summer. Squats felt a little strange but my technique was good, everything felt heavier than it should have so I assumed I was going to have a bad day. Then OHP felt very strong, matched my PR, might have had 8 but didn't want to hit failure, so I did some rest pause.
Deadlifts were also very strong. I think there are a lot of factors playing into this, namely the fact that the bar is smaller in diameter which allows me to accelerate it faster and keep it closer to my body. That makes a surprisingly big difference, even against the 4 negative factors, 1 I was wearing chucks so larger ROM than wrestling shoes, 2 I had no chalk, 3 I was wearing sweatpants (more friction less shin protection), and 4 I squat before hand (this may be a positive though because my hips were well warmed up-I'll start warming up my hips better before deads from now on). About the first negative factor though maybe I pull better in chucks because I get more leg drive. I'll have to experiment and figure it out. I'll probably do that this summer. But my technique problems started to happen when I switched to wrestling shoes. Then again around the same time the stress of school was starting to get to me and distract me from my workouts. Again I'll have to experiment with it and figure it out... this summer. Another factor that may have made today really good is that I feel a lot mentally sharper because there's so little going on right now so I can focus better on what I"m doing, compared to when I'm at school in the dorms. But anyways, it doesn't matter why, but I had a great deadlift session today.
Since I was training in my old gym which has the best benches I've ever used, and I've been using terrible benches the last 6 months, I decided to do some benching. I was obviously fatigued at this point but I still managed an OK set with 225, then got a PR with 135. Amazing what difference a good bench can make. Then I wanted to help my training partner out with his grip so we did some grip holds. My hands were killing me at this point so the numbers are by no means impressive. Then we had a shrugging contest to see whose traps were most mountainous and most beefy. Great day overall, definitely the funnest I've had training in a long, long time.
And in case you missed it, video!: Deadlift 405x7 - YouTube
Squat
Warm ups
315x3
345 for 3 singles
OHP
5x115
4x135 (should have been 3x130 but I wasn't thinking)
7x145 rest 30 sec 2x145
something like 3-4x5 pull/chin ups from between sets, again, wasn't thinking.
Deadlift
worked up to 405x7 (paused and resetted PR), VIDEO: Deadlift 405x7 - YouTube
Bench
worked up to 5x225 (3 paused 2 not paused)
135x26 not paused (3 rep PR)
Grip Holds
Worked up to 405x10 sec (no chalk, suuucked) mixed, and 315x10 sec double overhand
Shrugs
4x12x225
19x225 followed by 10x135
GREAT day today! Funny story, I was originally going to meet up at the 24 hour fitness I trained at this summer, but the guy at the front desk recognized me and so I couldn't do the 3 day trial, they were going to make me pay 10 bucks. It ended up being a positive though because I ended up training in my old gym (another 24 hour fitness, where thankfully they didn't recognize me), where I was mentored in powerlifting 1 year ago, with my training partner that I mentored over the summer. Squats felt a little strange but my technique was good, everything felt heavier than it should have so I assumed I was going to have a bad day. Then OHP felt very strong, matched my PR, might have had 8 but didn't want to hit failure, so I did some rest pause.
Deadlifts were also very strong. I think there are a lot of factors playing into this, namely the fact that the bar is smaller in diameter which allows me to accelerate it faster and keep it closer to my body. That makes a surprisingly big difference, even against the 4 negative factors, 1 I was wearing chucks so larger ROM than wrestling shoes, 2 I had no chalk, 3 I was wearing sweatpants (more friction less shin protection), and 4 I squat before hand (this may be a positive though because my hips were well warmed up-I'll start warming up my hips better before deads from now on). About the first negative factor though maybe I pull better in chucks because I get more leg drive. I'll have to experiment and figure it out. I'll probably do that this summer. But my technique problems started to happen when I switched to wrestling shoes. Then again around the same time the stress of school was starting to get to me and distract me from my workouts. Again I'll have to experiment with it and figure it out... this summer. Another factor that may have made today really good is that I feel a lot mentally sharper because there's so little going on right now so I can focus better on what I"m doing, compared to when I'm at school in the dorms. But anyways, it doesn't matter why, but I had a great deadlift session today.
Since I was training in my old gym which has the best benches I've ever used, and I've been using terrible benches the last 6 months, I decided to do some benching. I was obviously fatigued at this point but I still managed an OK set with 225, then got a PR with 135. Amazing what difference a good bench can make. Then I wanted to help my training partner out with his grip so we did some grip holds. My hands were killing me at this point so the numbers are by no means impressive. Then we had a shrugging contest to see whose traps were most mountainous and most beefy. Great day overall, definitely the funnest I've had training in a long, long time.
And in case you missed it, video!: Deadlift 405x7 - YouTube
Buildingup24
New member
Sick session man. And yeah, quality training equipment is almost a necessity. I dislike hex plates and I wish I had a gym with a prowler, bumper plates, and a proper oly bar.
That would be awesome to train at a gym with all that. This is my ideal gym:
Iron Sport Gym's Planet Fitness response - YouTube
Iron Sport Gym's Planet Fitness response - YouTube
12-24-12: Upper Body Stuff
Bench (no reps paused except the last)
warmups
185x10
205x12
225x10: Bench 225x10 - YouTube only set with a belt, just wanted to wear it for the psychological advantage, though it wasn't really tight enough to make much of a difference
Pendlay Rows
135x10/10/10/10/15
Incline Bench
135x12/10/15
Pretty good session today. Got 2 pretty big bench PRs, although I'm a bit skeptical about them. Who knows though. I'm skeptical because the plates are from the 80s and really rusted, so they may be lighter than they actually are. I mean they feel just about right when you carry them but I"m always able to lift a lot more in the garage with this equipment than I can in normal gyms, so it may have something to do with it. Or maybe it's the fact that every time I've trained here I've been completely rested. Or it's the fact that the bench pins are literally the best I've ever used, I just pull it straight out of the rack and lose no tightness whatsoever. Plus last time I used this bench I only got 185x12, and though those reps were paused, I did 20 lbs more today, with the last rep paused, which means even relative to this bench I probably gained strength. I mean there's a million factors, but either way I'm happy with these PRs. I won't be dissappointed though if I go back to UCSB and the thick bars, low benches, and terrible hooks there (liftoff is incredibly hard) make it so I can't even hit half this many reps with these weights. Pendlays were pretty good. Again the weight felt pretty light, maybe because the plates are lighter, or maybe because I'm rested, or maybe because the bar is thinner, who knows? Then incline bench I was slightly stronger as well, but I was using a slightly lower incline than usual. Overall a great session. We ate a ton of turkey and rice afterwards. Did I mention I got my PR on video!?: Bench 225x10 - YouTube
Oddly enough I felt fairly sore in the lower body after bench today, maybe the belt made a difference. I also might mention that I was planning on squatting today but my lower body is incredibly tight from sitting all day so I really wasn't feeling it. Gonna do a 1 mile run tomorrow.
Bench (no reps paused except the last)
warmups
185x10
205x12
225x10: Bench 225x10 - YouTube only set with a belt, just wanted to wear it for the psychological advantage, though it wasn't really tight enough to make much of a difference
Pendlay Rows
135x10/10/10/10/15
Incline Bench
135x12/10/15
Pretty good session today. Got 2 pretty big bench PRs, although I'm a bit skeptical about them. Who knows though. I'm skeptical because the plates are from the 80s and really rusted, so they may be lighter than they actually are. I mean they feel just about right when you carry them but I"m always able to lift a lot more in the garage with this equipment than I can in normal gyms, so it may have something to do with it. Or maybe it's the fact that every time I've trained here I've been completely rested. Or it's the fact that the bench pins are literally the best I've ever used, I just pull it straight out of the rack and lose no tightness whatsoever. Plus last time I used this bench I only got 185x12, and though those reps were paused, I did 20 lbs more today, with the last rep paused, which means even relative to this bench I probably gained strength. I mean there's a million factors, but either way I'm happy with these PRs. I won't be dissappointed though if I go back to UCSB and the thick bars, low benches, and terrible hooks there (liftoff is incredibly hard) make it so I can't even hit half this many reps with these weights. Pendlays were pretty good. Again the weight felt pretty light, maybe because the plates are lighter, or maybe because I'm rested, or maybe because the bar is thinner, who knows? Then incline bench I was slightly stronger as well, but I was using a slightly lower incline than usual. Overall a great session. We ate a ton of turkey and rice afterwards. Did I mention I got my PR on video!?: Bench 225x10 - YouTube
Oddly enough I felt fairly sore in the lower body after bench today, maybe the belt made a difference. I also might mention that I was planning on squatting today but my lower body is incredibly tight from sitting all day so I really wasn't feeling it. Gonna do a 1 mile run tomorrow.
12-26-12: Home Session
No strongman today, so I made a really annoyingly rickety set up using chairs and my portable pull up bar, along with 5 lb DBs, in my room for a workout. I cycled like this: Pull ups->dips->side raises (little 5 lb DBs slow style)->1 legged squats with the 5 lb DBs. I did about 4 or 5 rounds, might have skipped a few by accident but basically just working all my muscles. I did 2-3 extra sets of pull ups. So I basically did 5-7 sets of 6 pull ups (1 set of chins the rest were hammer grip), 4 or 5 sets of 10 dips, 3 to 5 sets of side raises (10-15 reps), 3 to 5 sets of 10 1 leg squats plus 1 unweighted set I believe. Again, not really too exact just looking for a good pump and getting the muscles a little sore. Then after all of the above I did a set of 12 slow incline push ups, then 15 rear delt raises, 15 side raises, then 6 rear delt raises but then my traps were dead and I couldn't get a 7th. With 5 lb DBs. Overall just making sure I don't atrophy my muscles. Legit gym training coming up on Friday. Been sitting around a lot so I look like shit, until I lift, then the blood gets flowing and I look the same as normal. Excited to start my cut in January. Feeling all right after typing this, gonna go do a set of about 6 wide grip pull ups.
No strongman today, so I made a really annoyingly rickety set up using chairs and my portable pull up bar, along with 5 lb DBs, in my room for a workout. I cycled like this: Pull ups->dips->side raises (little 5 lb DBs slow style)->1 legged squats with the 5 lb DBs. I did about 4 or 5 rounds, might have skipped a few by accident but basically just working all my muscles. I did 2-3 extra sets of pull ups. So I basically did 5-7 sets of 6 pull ups (1 set of chins the rest were hammer grip), 4 or 5 sets of 10 dips, 3 to 5 sets of side raises (10-15 reps), 3 to 5 sets of 10 1 leg squats plus 1 unweighted set I believe. Again, not really too exact just looking for a good pump and getting the muscles a little sore. Then after all of the above I did a set of 12 slow incline push ups, then 15 rear delt raises, 15 side raises, then 6 rear delt raises but then my traps were dead and I couldn't get a 7th. With 5 lb DBs. Overall just making sure I don't atrophy my muscles. Legit gym training coming up on Friday. Been sitting around a lot so I look like shit, until I lift, then the blood gets flowing and I look the same as normal. Excited to start my cut in January. Feeling all right after typing this, gonna go do a set of about 6 wide grip pull ups.
NoFatChicks91
New member
Your squats are disgusting. In a good way lol. Dude you are gettin strong as fuck. Your back looks monsterous in your avi. No homo of course. And dude weighing in at 200 is very commendable if you ask me. Im between six foot 3 and six foot 4 and I was fighting for 200. Im 183 now haha
Sent from my SPH-L710 using EliteFitness
Sent from my SPH-L710 using EliteFitness
I first read that my squats were disgusting and was like what??? Haha thanks man, much appreciated. Being 200 is fun but I'm definitely cutting next month, tired of not looking as good as I can if I was leaner, plus if I was at 8% my testosterone would be a lot higher, which would make everything in life better, including strength/muscle gains. At 6'3/4 you have potential to look monsterous, 240 lbs lean natty if you put the time in.
