BW - 206
PBN -
BarX20
65X5
85X4
95X3
115X2
95X14, 7
Upright Rows - 95X10, 10, 8, 8, 8
Treadmill - 25 minutes; incline walking
Been a long time since I've done upright rows. I liked this session. Short and to the point. I hit the shoulders hard, but was able to balance out elbow extension and flexion this way.
Showing posts with label shoulders. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shoulders. Show all posts
Friday, February 6, 2015
Thursday, January 29, 2015
Vacation Prep. Week 3. Bench
BW - 205
Incline -
BarX30
95X5
115X4
135X3
155X2
185X1
145X19, 7
Hammer Bench - 50X20 (burn-out set)
Plate Full Front-Raise - 25X20, 15, 15
super-set with
Incline DB Flyes - 30sX15, 15, 15
and
DB Rear Delts - 30sX20, 20, 20
Treadmill - Incline Walking; 30 minutes
Because I didn't get to the gym yesterday, I threw in assistance work today in addition to the main lift.
145X19 is a Rep PR for Incline, and would also be a Rep PR for Flat Bench. Together with 21+ total reps it meets my goal and I will move up to 155 next time.
I didn't really want to do the hammer bench because of time, but since I did it last week and my Incline was stronger this week, I thought I should at least get one set in.
But I really want the bench assistance focus to be on shoulders, and so I did this tri-set, and liked it.
Incline -
BarX30
95X5
115X4
135X3
155X2
185X1
145X19, 7
Hammer Bench - 50X20 (burn-out set)
Plate Full Front-Raise - 25X20, 15, 15
super-set with
Incline DB Flyes - 30sX15, 15, 15
and
DB Rear Delts - 30sX20, 20, 20
Treadmill - Incline Walking; 30 minutes
Because I didn't get to the gym yesterday, I threw in assistance work today in addition to the main lift.
145X19 is a Rep PR for Incline, and would also be a Rep PR for Flat Bench. Together with 21+ total reps it meets my goal and I will move up to 155 next time.
I didn't really want to do the hammer bench because of time, but since I did it last week and my Incline was stronger this week, I thought I should at least get one set in.
But I really want the bench assistance focus to be on shoulders, and so I did this tri-set, and liked it.
Friday, June 13, 2014
Conditioning. Week 1. Upper Body
BW - 205
Cuff Work - Lots (capsule stretching, band dislocations, pull aparts, 5lb. plate "cleans," front raises with various grips, band external rotations)
Bench -
BarX20, 20
95X6
115X6
135X6
155X8
BB Rows -
BarX15
95X10
135X15, 12, 15
Chins - BWX10, 5, 5
Decline Sit-Ups - BWX10, 10, 10
Being very careful with the shoulder since I seemed to re-aggravate it by sprinting (!). Just tried to run through a sequence of everything I've ever done for shoulder cuff and shoulder prehab.
That included an extra warm-up set with just the bar, and more reps and smaller jumps on the warm-up sets. Originally I programmed for 12 reps of 155, which would normally be slightly challenging but completely do-able. Everything was very tentative today, and I cut it at 8.
The lay-off and tentativeness about the shoulder seemed to cut into my rowing as well. This felt more like a neuromuscular issue than a strength issue. My mind just didn't want to let my body "get after it" today on these.
Chins were okay, though. Programmed for 20 total, and got it in 3 sets. Hoped to go over on the last set, but 5 was the limit.
The crunches I did in my BW circuits in the last block did not set me up well for decline sit-ups. Originally hoped to do 60 or so total reps, but had to bring that down, and will adjust my programming for this block accordingly.
Cuff Work - Lots (capsule stretching, band dislocations, pull aparts, 5lb. plate "cleans," front raises with various grips, band external rotations)
Bench -
BarX20, 20
95X6
115X6
135X6
155X8
BB Rows -
BarX15
95X10
135X15, 12, 15
Chins - BWX10, 5, 5
Decline Sit-Ups - BWX10, 10, 10
Being very careful with the shoulder since I seemed to re-aggravate it by sprinting (!). Just tried to run through a sequence of everything I've ever done for shoulder cuff and shoulder prehab.
That included an extra warm-up set with just the bar, and more reps and smaller jumps on the warm-up sets. Originally I programmed for 12 reps of 155, which would normally be slightly challenging but completely do-able. Everything was very tentative today, and I cut it at 8.
The lay-off and tentativeness about the shoulder seemed to cut into my rowing as well. This felt more like a neuromuscular issue than a strength issue. My mind just didn't want to let my body "get after it" today on these.
Chins were okay, though. Programmed for 20 total, and got it in 3 sets. Hoped to go over on the last set, but 5 was the limit.
The crunches I did in my BW circuits in the last block did not set me up well for decline sit-ups. Originally hoped to do 60 or so total reps, but had to bring that down, and will adjust my programming for this block accordingly.
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
LRB 365: LRB Split. In Review
This will be short, as I suspect the LRB Split and the Strong-15 Short cycle go hand-in-hand in a way that will result in a more complete picture emerging at the end of that 2nd cycle.
Generally speaking, the goals for this cycle were to maintain top-end strength on the main lifts relative to where they've been during the conditioning cycle, while allowing some more carbs back into the diet in order to stimulate muscle growth by going hard with the assistance lifts.
My bodyweight started out hovering in the 192 range at the end of the conditioning cycles, and by the end of the LRB Split was hovering around 195-196.
I set the following PRs on assistance work in chronological order:
RDL:
205X8
225X9
245X10 (with straps)
DB OHP:
20sX25
25sX35
30sX28
Front Squats:
135X10
145X8
155X9
T-Bar Rows:
95X8
110X7
Barbell Rows:
145X9
Good Mornings were a new movement to me with this cycle and I progressed them as well:
135X8
145X7
145X8
145X10
Regarding Front Squats, I was doing them every week. They were the first assistance exercise following back squats on Heavy Squat days, and they were the main movement on Light Squat days. All the PRs were set on Light days, however it's worth noting that while I PR'd with 135X10 on a Light Squat day at the beginning of the cycle, by the end I was doing 135X8-10 for four sets across as assistance on my Heavy Squat days. In addition to all that, I kept my stance narrow on all the Leg Pressing, and went hard to push reps on leg extensions. Increasing quad size/strength was my primary goal for this cycle, and I feel good about the results.
I also got some good hamstring volume in with all the RDLs and GMs in addition to the maintenance Deads. Had sore hamstrings every week.
Lots of shoulder volume on the cycle as well. In addition to the DB OHP, my regular Press was getting within 5 lbs. or so of PR territory by the end. Lots of high-rep Inclines, Upright Rows, and Rear Delt Flyes to round it out, all pun intended. Although I honestly haven't noticed very much growth in my delts. Hopefully, we'll see some of this work translate into Bench strength on the upcoming cycle.
All in all, I had a really good time through most of this cycle. Hitting PRs on Fronts and RDLs was really fun, and seeing my wheels growing as a result was really great as well. Near the end, I had a little bit of a crisis of confidence because I didn't instinctively know if my Every Day Max had improved, and was grumpy about what to set as my goals for the Strong-15 Short Cycle. In the end, re-reading the manual, and reading an inspiring post by Carter along the lines of the Patience and Belief mantra that he and Brandon Lilly have been going over helped me get my head on straight. I've decided to program lower for the Strong-15 Short than I did for the Strong-15 at the beginning of the program. My final singles for the next cycle will be right around weights I've hit a million times before. With the work I did on this cycle, and the extra back-offs I'm planning for the first few weeks of the next, I'm confident that I will be crushing the weights all the way up to the end. And isn't that what we're supposed to do?
Generally speaking, the goals for this cycle were to maintain top-end strength on the main lifts relative to where they've been during the conditioning cycle, while allowing some more carbs back into the diet in order to stimulate muscle growth by going hard with the assistance lifts.
My bodyweight started out hovering in the 192 range at the end of the conditioning cycles, and by the end of the LRB Split was hovering around 195-196.
I set the following PRs on assistance work in chronological order:
RDL:
205X8
225X9
245X10 (with straps)
DB OHP:
20sX25
25sX35
30sX28
Front Squats:
135X10
145X8
155X9
T-Bar Rows:
95X8
110X7
Barbell Rows:
145X9
Good Mornings were a new movement to me with this cycle and I progressed them as well:
135X8
145X7
145X8
145X10
Regarding Front Squats, I was doing them every week. They were the first assistance exercise following back squats on Heavy Squat days, and they were the main movement on Light Squat days. All the PRs were set on Light days, however it's worth noting that while I PR'd with 135X10 on a Light Squat day at the beginning of the cycle, by the end I was doing 135X8-10 for four sets across as assistance on my Heavy Squat days. In addition to all that, I kept my stance narrow on all the Leg Pressing, and went hard to push reps on leg extensions. Increasing quad size/strength was my primary goal for this cycle, and I feel good about the results.
I also got some good hamstring volume in with all the RDLs and GMs in addition to the maintenance Deads. Had sore hamstrings every week.
Lots of shoulder volume on the cycle as well. In addition to the DB OHP, my regular Press was getting within 5 lbs. or so of PR territory by the end. Lots of high-rep Inclines, Upright Rows, and Rear Delt Flyes to round it out, all pun intended. Although I honestly haven't noticed very much growth in my delts. Hopefully, we'll see some of this work translate into Bench strength on the upcoming cycle.
All in all, I had a really good time through most of this cycle. Hitting PRs on Fronts and RDLs was really fun, and seeing my wheels growing as a result was really great as well. Near the end, I had a little bit of a crisis of confidence because I didn't instinctively know if my Every Day Max had improved, and was grumpy about what to set as my goals for the Strong-15 Short Cycle. In the end, re-reading the manual, and reading an inspiring post by Carter along the lines of the Patience and Belief mantra that he and Brandon Lilly have been going over helped me get my head on straight. I've decided to program lower for the Strong-15 Short than I did for the Strong-15 at the beginning of the program. My final singles for the next cycle will be right around weights I've hit a million times before. With the work I did on this cycle, and the extra back-offs I'm planning for the first few weeks of the next, I'm confident that I will be crushing the weights all the way up to the end. And isn't that what we're supposed to do?
Monday, December 10, 2012
5/3/1 BBB: Cycle 2. Week 3. Bench
BW - 200
Bench -
BarX15
95X5
115X5
140X5
155X3
175X1
185X1
135X10, 6
Chin-ups - BWX10, 7
Wide-Grip Pulldowns - 3 sets of 10
BB Curls -
BarX10
65X5
BarX30
80% session. I have a tight schedule early this week, and so had to do bench a day early. Because that had me going Press, Squat, Bench on consecutive days, I made some slight tweaks so that there wasn't as much overlap with what I did on Press day. That means taking the focus away from my shoulders a bit.
First, I chose not to go for a rep max on my top set, but rather to just get the required single, and then take my training max for the cycle for another single. Wendler has written a lot about this lately, and it made sense for this day. Both singles were heavy, but the rep was smooth on both. Very satisfied with that result.
Second, rather than do BBB sets on Incline, I did more flat bench with a 50% set. I kind of thought I would get more than 10 reps, but I'm fine with this.
Chins and Pulldowns and curls were all fine.
Bench -
BarX15
95X5
115X5
140X5
155X3
175X1
185X1
135X10, 6
Chin-ups - BWX10, 7
Wide-Grip Pulldowns - 3 sets of 10
BB Curls -
BarX10
65X5
BarX30
80% session. I have a tight schedule early this week, and so had to do bench a day early. Because that had me going Press, Squat, Bench on consecutive days, I made some slight tweaks so that there wasn't as much overlap with what I did on Press day. That means taking the focus away from my shoulders a bit.
First, I chose not to go for a rep max on my top set, but rather to just get the required single, and then take my training max for the cycle for another single. Wendler has written a lot about this lately, and it made sense for this day. Both singles were heavy, but the rep was smooth on both. Very satisfied with that result.
Second, rather than do BBB sets on Incline, I did more flat bench with a 50% set. I kind of thought I would get more than 10 reps, but I'm fine with this.
Chins and Pulldowns and curls were all fine.
Monday, September 10, 2012
5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 4. Week 1. Bench
LRB Diet - Week 8
BW - 199
Hypers - 5 sets of 15
Pause Squats -
Bar, 95, 135X5
160, 185, 210X3
Bench -
BarX10
95, 110, 125X5
145X8
Press -
65, 85X8
75X8, 6, 5
super-set with
Wide-grip Pull-Ups - BWX1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3
Chin-ups - BWX5, 5, 5, 5, 6
Another decent session. I guess this kind of thing can happen when you're only working one job, heh.
Pause Squat weight creeps up a little bit more for the next few weeks. Getting gradually closer to PR range.
Best bench session in a long while. This is an all-around PR with close-grip and pausing every rep on the chest. I really wanted this today, and I got it. I'm thinking about dropping some or all of the overhead work in my program after I get back from vacation at the end of the month to try and get some real, steady progress on this lift by incorporating Incline Presses instead. But I'm going to be patient, and finish out the shoulder volume programming I've implemented until vacation.
Speaking of Press, I had to remind myself to stop after a few sets here. I'm only really supposed to be doing 4 work-sets, and I got 4-5 here and was about to start another before I snapped to my senses. My Klokov's sucked ass last week, and I don't want that to happen again.
Pull-ups on a straight bar this time, whcih was a little harder than the bent bar. Still got all my rungs done. And then chins felt strong even though I ultimately could only get 6 on my all out set.
Not a lot of low-back work on this session, so I opened it with hypers for my core work.
BW - 199
Hypers - 5 sets of 15
Pause Squats -
Bar, 95, 135X5
160, 185, 210X3
Bench -
BarX10
95, 110, 125X5
145X8
Press -
65, 85X8
75X8, 6, 5
super-set with
Wide-grip Pull-Ups - BWX1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3
Chin-ups - BWX5, 5, 5, 5, 6
Another decent session. I guess this kind of thing can happen when you're only working one job, heh.
Pause Squat weight creeps up a little bit more for the next few weeks. Getting gradually closer to PR range.
Best bench session in a long while. This is an all-around PR with close-grip and pausing every rep on the chest. I really wanted this today, and I got it. I'm thinking about dropping some or all of the overhead work in my program after I get back from vacation at the end of the month to try and get some real, steady progress on this lift by incorporating Incline Presses instead. But I'm going to be patient, and finish out the shoulder volume programming I've implemented until vacation.
Speaking of Press, I had to remind myself to stop after a few sets here. I'm only really supposed to be doing 4 work-sets, and I got 4-5 here and was about to start another before I snapped to my senses. My Klokov's sucked ass last week, and I don't want that to happen again.
Pull-ups on a straight bar this time, whcih was a little harder than the bent bar. Still got all my rungs done. And then chins felt strong even though I ultimately could only get 6 on my all out set.
Not a lot of low-back work on this session, so I opened it with hypers for my core work.
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 3. Week 1. Bench
LRB Diet - Day 30
BW - 201 (I fucking knew that scale was wrong the other day)
Hypers - 5 sets of 15-20
Pause Squats -
BarX10
95, 135X5
155, 180, 205X3
Bench -
BarX10
105, 125X5
140X7
super-set with
Chins - BW; 5 sets of 5
Press -
BarX10
95X8
85X5, 5, 8
super-set with
Chins - BW; 5 sets of 5
Chiro Crunches - 3 really crappy sets
I really don't think I put on 12 pounds since Thursday afternoon. Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that commercial gyms don't have light plates and scales.
Pause Squats are jumping to the Phase 2 %'s from the 531 Full-Body program. From 60% up to 85% on the top set. Also worth noting, I've been increasing the training max by only 5 lbs. per cycle on this movement. 205 was a little slow here, but I'm gonna hope that's at least partially due to the big weight increase. We'll see how it feels again next session.
Bench felt a tad better. I was hoping to just get 6, but I was able to press out 7 with one in the tank. This is at least in line with my numbers from last cycle, and right now consistency feels awesome on bench as opposed to steady decline.
I'm adding in pressing on this day for the additional shoulder work mentioned in my last lifting post. I was hoping to do 4 sets of 8 with 105, but the 95X8 warm-up was a grinder after the benching, so I dropped down to 85, and 5's felt about right under that weight. On my last set, I got myself all amped up and ground out 8 reps with that. Next week, I'll start with the 85 and see what that's like.
I superset all my pressing with sets of 5's on chins. Chins continue to feel weak despite weight loss. I tried to go for more than 5 on the final set, but no luck. Hopefully reducing the reps per set like this, and going for more overall volume will see an uptick here. I'll keep going for it on the final set, and when I can knock out 7 or 8, I'll up it to straight sets of 6 and repeat.
Got my core work back in at the top and bottom, but the crunches were miserable and I aborted them after 3 sets. I think all the chins had taxed my abs a bit. Don't know how I feel about that.
BW - 201 (I fucking knew that scale was wrong the other day)
Hypers - 5 sets of 15-20
Pause Squats -
BarX10
95, 135X5
155, 180, 205X3
Bench -
BarX10
105, 125X5
140X7
super-set with
Chins - BW; 5 sets of 5
Press -
BarX10
95X8
85X5, 5, 8
super-set with
Chins - BW; 5 sets of 5
Chiro Crunches - 3 really crappy sets
I really don't think I put on 12 pounds since Thursday afternoon. Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that commercial gyms don't have light plates and scales.
Pause Squats are jumping to the Phase 2 %'s from the 531 Full-Body program. From 60% up to 85% on the top set. Also worth noting, I've been increasing the training max by only 5 lbs. per cycle on this movement. 205 was a little slow here, but I'm gonna hope that's at least partially due to the big weight increase. We'll see how it feels again next session.
Bench felt a tad better. I was hoping to just get 6, but I was able to press out 7 with one in the tank. This is at least in line with my numbers from last cycle, and right now consistency feels awesome on bench as opposed to steady decline.
I'm adding in pressing on this day for the additional shoulder work mentioned in my last lifting post. I was hoping to do 4 sets of 8 with 105, but the 95X8 warm-up was a grinder after the benching, so I dropped down to 85, and 5's felt about right under that weight. On my last set, I got myself all amped up and ground out 8 reps with that. Next week, I'll start with the 85 and see what that's like.
I superset all my pressing with sets of 5's on chins. Chins continue to feel weak despite weight loss. I tried to go for more than 5 on the final set, but no luck. Hopefully reducing the reps per set like this, and going for more overall volume will see an uptick here. I'll keep going for it on the final set, and when I can knock out 7 or 8, I'll up it to straight sets of 6 and repeat.
Got my core work back in at the top and bottom, but the crunches were miserable and I aborted them after 3 sets. I think all the chins had taxed my abs a bit. Don't know how I feel about that.
Monday, August 20, 2012
5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 3. Week 1. Squat
LRB Diet - Day 26
BW - ?189?
Squats -
BarX10
95X7
135, 150X5
170X3
195X8
BB Rows -
BarX15
95X8
135X8
115X15
High-Pulls -
115, 135, 145, 155, 155, 155X5
Dips - BWX8, 12, 16, 4, 6
I was pressed for time getting ready to go out of town for the weekend, and had to settle for going to the L@Fitness (formerly B@llys) near my home. 189 seemed like such a drastic drop-off from my last weigh-in that I'm suspicious of the scale. However, when I set it down to Zero pounds, it counter-balanced correctly so who knows.
I need to be better about putting my head down and doing work when I'm in a strange gym; I always feel wound tight and get a little off my game wanting to get in and get out as fast as possible. For this session that was manifested by skipping mobility warm-ups and all my core work. I'll have to make up for all of that in spades next time I'm in the gym.
Nevertheless everything went pretty well. Squats felt solid, and the results are in-line with steady progress after I reset my form.
I couldnt' really do Pendlays here because I didn't have access to bumper plates at this gym. So BB Rows trying go keep my low-back parallel to the ground and using a brief dead hang at the bottom of each rep to try and simulate a dead-stop row as much as possible. The results were predictably slightly off from previous sessions.
For the 2nd month of LRB Dieting, I'm adding in some additional shoulder/trap work inspired by a CNP article. One of the reasons for choosing now to take my first ever stab at strict dieting, is because I'm going to a sort of weekend camping reunion of college friends at the end of September. While I'm trying to trim up, I thought I'd also take a stab at building some "movie star" shoulders. Kind of silly, but also fun. So for this day, I'm adding in High-Pulls, a movement I've never done, but always wanted to try. These are done incredibly NOT as a textbook version of the Olympic accessory, but more as an explosive, cheating upright row. One cool bit of synergy here, is that it seemed to work out very well to use the weight from the back-off set of bent rows as the warm-up weight for the high-pulls. I worked up to 155, where I was having to really use explosiveness and much face-scrunching to get the 5th rep, and knocked out 3 of those sets. I used straps on this movement as well. I really liked this movement, and my delts felt really sore the next day.
Dips were a bit wonky because this gym has a weird, trapezoidal dip apparatus. Again, getting past this sort of thing is something I need to be able to do. It's dumb to only be able to have good workouts in my regular gym. Regardless, my target was to ladder up to, and back down from 16 reps. I got that top set, but the back off sets were completely crap.
BW - ?189?
Squats -
BarX10
95X7
135, 150X5
170X3
195X8
BB Rows -
BarX15
95X8
135X8
115X15
High-Pulls -
115, 135, 145, 155, 155, 155X5
Dips - BWX8, 12, 16, 4, 6
I was pressed for time getting ready to go out of town for the weekend, and had to settle for going to the L@Fitness (formerly B@llys) near my home. 189 seemed like such a drastic drop-off from my last weigh-in that I'm suspicious of the scale. However, when I set it down to Zero pounds, it counter-balanced correctly so who knows.
I need to be better about putting my head down and doing work when I'm in a strange gym; I always feel wound tight and get a little off my game wanting to get in and get out as fast as possible. For this session that was manifested by skipping mobility warm-ups and all my core work. I'll have to make up for all of that in spades next time I'm in the gym.
Nevertheless everything went pretty well. Squats felt solid, and the results are in-line with steady progress after I reset my form.
I couldnt' really do Pendlays here because I didn't have access to bumper plates at this gym. So BB Rows trying go keep my low-back parallel to the ground and using a brief dead hang at the bottom of each rep to try and simulate a dead-stop row as much as possible. The results were predictably slightly off from previous sessions.
For the 2nd month of LRB Dieting, I'm adding in some additional shoulder/trap work inspired by a CNP article. One of the reasons for choosing now to take my first ever stab at strict dieting, is because I'm going to a sort of weekend camping reunion of college friends at the end of September. While I'm trying to trim up, I thought I'd also take a stab at building some "movie star" shoulders. Kind of silly, but also fun. So for this day, I'm adding in High-Pulls, a movement I've never done, but always wanted to try. These are done incredibly NOT as a textbook version of the Olympic accessory, but more as an explosive, cheating upright row. One cool bit of synergy here, is that it seemed to work out very well to use the weight from the back-off set of bent rows as the warm-up weight for the high-pulls. I worked up to 155, where I was having to really use explosiveness and much face-scrunching to get the 5th rep, and knocked out 3 of those sets. I used straps on this movement as well. I really liked this movement, and my delts felt really sore the next day.
Dips were a bit wonky because this gym has a weird, trapezoidal dip apparatus. Again, getting past this sort of thing is something I need to be able to do. It's dumb to only be able to have good workouts in my regular gym. Regardless, my target was to ladder up to, and back down from 16 reps. I got that top set, but the back off sets were completely crap.
Monday, July 16, 2012
5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 1. Week 2. Press/Dead
BW - 201
Hyper-extensions - 3 sets of 15-20
Pause Squat -
95X5
115X5
135X5
Klokov Press -
50X3
60X3
65X10
Deadlift -
135X5
215X3
250X3
280X3 (Fail on 4)
280X1X3
Chiro Crunches - 5 sets of 30
I like doing the body weight extensions instead of the reverse hyper right now. I feel the muscle working a lot more, and I suspect it will be better to build the mind/muscle connection this way so that I can get more benefit out of the reverse hyper down the road.
Pause Squats still feeling fine. Because I'm squatting all the time now and yet it's still the first cycle, it feels like I should be upping the weights already. At least one more cycle at these lower weights, before I jump to the next % tier. Although, I guess if I feel good I could jump next cycle...
My shoulders seem to be acclimating to the Klokov presses pretty quickly. I could have gotten a couple more reps here, but just wanted to bump my 1RM a tad. Next week I will probably go for AMRAP.
Well, as my weight had been inching downwards, so has my strength. Bench was the first to go, and it fell of a cliff about a month back. Pretty quickly into the diet, actually. Then I suspected that my squats weakened a bit as well, but it was hard to say for sure, because I also switched to Paused for a few weeks, and then came back doing ATG instead of parallel, so it was hard to say for sure. However, not being able to pull this 4th rep with 280 was a real surprise. I pulled 285 for 5 in February, and 290 for 3 last month, I intended to get a solid 5 reps on the top set today. 4 stopped just off the ground. I was pissed, and so I pulled a few singles with it to try and make up the volume. I held the last single at the top for a couple of seconds, and thought I was going to pass out when I sat it down.
I can't help but think I've lost more muscle than is optimal for a diet over the last month. I'm not going to panic, though. In fact, after this week, I'm hoping to implement a very regimented diet for August and September, but I've got to sit down and plan it out. I'm hoping that if I plan well, and execute, that I can lean up a lot more, and maintain strength levels wherever they are.
Hyper-extensions - 3 sets of 15-20
Pause Squat -
95X5
115X5
135X5
Klokov Press -
50X3
60X3
65X10
Deadlift -
135X5
215X3
250X3
280X3 (Fail on 4)
280X1X3
Chiro Crunches - 5 sets of 30
I like doing the body weight extensions instead of the reverse hyper right now. I feel the muscle working a lot more, and I suspect it will be better to build the mind/muscle connection this way so that I can get more benefit out of the reverse hyper down the road.
Pause Squats still feeling fine. Because I'm squatting all the time now and yet it's still the first cycle, it feels like I should be upping the weights already. At least one more cycle at these lower weights, before I jump to the next % tier. Although, I guess if I feel good I could jump next cycle...
My shoulders seem to be acclimating to the Klokov presses pretty quickly. I could have gotten a couple more reps here, but just wanted to bump my 1RM a tad. Next week I will probably go for AMRAP.
Well, as my weight had been inching downwards, so has my strength. Bench was the first to go, and it fell of a cliff about a month back. Pretty quickly into the diet, actually. Then I suspected that my squats weakened a bit as well, but it was hard to say for sure, because I also switched to Paused for a few weeks, and then came back doing ATG instead of parallel, so it was hard to say for sure. However, not being able to pull this 4th rep with 280 was a real surprise. I pulled 285 for 5 in February, and 290 for 3 last month, I intended to get a solid 5 reps on the top set today. 4 stopped just off the ground. I was pissed, and so I pulled a few singles with it to try and make up the volume. I held the last single at the top for a couple of seconds, and thought I was going to pass out when I sat it down.
I can't help but think I've lost more muscle than is optimal for a diet over the last month. I'm not going to panic, though. In fact, after this week, I'm hoping to implement a very regimented diet for August and September, but I've got to sit down and plan it out. I'm hoping that if I plan well, and execute, that I can lean up a lot more, and maintain strength levels wherever they are.
Monday, June 11, 2012
Weekend Training
Friday:
Jump Squats - bodyweight; 10 sets of 3
Lunges - bodyweight; 10 sets of 3 each leg
Band RDLs - doubled band under feet; 3 sets of 20
Incline Sprints - 30 yards; 20 minutes
Saturday:
Push-up Progression -
BWX10
Doubled-BandX5
"Reverse Grip"X15
Doubled-BandX6
BWX20
super-set with
Band Pull-Aparts - 5 sets; 165 total reps
Band Medley -
Front Raises; Cross-overs, Upright Rows, Reverse Curls AMRAP
Working around my low-back strain (almost healed), and my heavy rehearsal and performance schedule. I think I'm good to get back in the gym for at least an upper-body dominant session, but I'm not rushing because I need to be 100% when my new show opens in 2 weeks. So I'm adhering very closely to the shake diet and getting in a lot of light band work and some conditioning to help make sure I don't erase my gains while I'm out of the gym.
Jump Squats - bodyweight; 10 sets of 3
Lunges - bodyweight; 10 sets of 3 each leg
Band RDLs - doubled band under feet; 3 sets of 20
Incline Sprints - 30 yards; 20 minutes
Saturday:
Push-up Progression -
BWX10
Doubled-BandX5
"Reverse Grip"X15
Doubled-BandX6
BWX20
super-set with
Band Pull-Aparts - 5 sets; 165 total reps
Band Medley -
Front Raises; Cross-overs, Upright Rows, Reverse Curls AMRAP
Working around my low-back strain (almost healed), and my heavy rehearsal and performance schedule. I think I'm good to get back in the gym for at least an upper-body dominant session, but I'm not rushing because I need to be 100% when my new show opens in 2 weeks. So I'm adhering very closely to the shake diet and getting in a lot of light band work and some conditioning to help make sure I don't erase my gains while I'm out of the gym.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
BLAB Log: Week 9.Day 3
Simple-6
Chins - BWX8, BWX5
Lat Pull-downs Drop-set - (90X8, 70X6, 60X6)X2
Seated DB Arnold Press - 35X8X3
super-set with
Incline DB "cleans" - 35sX5, 20sX10X2
BB Curls - Bar, 45, 55, 65, 75X6
Core Circuit - 10lb. plateX1, XFail
Incline BB Push-ups - Ladder down from 15 to 1, +6 reps
Chin-ups still showing slow but steady progression. I had thrown in a few between sets on bench day, but avoided them on squat day to make sure I was rested for today. Might keep doing that.
Pulldown drop-sets were fine. However, I watched a Thibodeau training video where he was talking about making sure you're using lats more than arms, and I'm not sure I'm dialed in like that. I will try to keep it in my in the future. I'm trying to get stronger in pull-ups not pull-downs, so I want to make sure I'm taking full advantage of the exercise.
DB Cleans weren't there for me with the 35's. Had a similar experience the last two weeks with the Defranco "shoulder shockers". These aren't explosive cleans, but rather a shrug into a 180 degree bent-arm raise. The difficulty is on the rotation, but I don't know what this means exactly. Will this weakness be addressed when I start heavy OHP's again? Do I keep testing these against that, and what if there's no improvement, then what do I do? Argh.
I know you're not usually supposed to work up to top sets on shit like curls, but I really wanted to go for a rep PR on these, and so I did a work-up instead of all sets at the same weight. And, yeah, I used the chrome bar. So what?
Oh, core, why do you hate me? Lately the extra reps I'm getting on chins have been straining my abs a bit, preventing me from doing the full core routines. It's a vicious circle because the core work would be strengthening my abs for the chin-ups. Whatever. I've already settled that I will restart the core circuit progression from this program on the next one.
I was supposed to start the BB push-ups last week, but life commitments prevented me from getting to the gym. I had done a ladder-down of netural-grip push-ups out at the beach instead. I know I'm too weak in the push-up to finish a ladder starting with the prescribed 18 reps. Instead, I kept track of how many total reps I did last week, 66, and was determined to almost double that this week. Mission fucking accomplished. The ladder down from 15 got me to 120 total reps, and then I took a breath and did another set to failure. So 126 is my new target to beat. I think my next ladder should start with 17. That would get me 153 reps. Not as big of a jump as this last one, but I can always add in another failure set to find my new limit.
Chins - BWX8, BWX5
Lat Pull-downs Drop-set - (90X8, 70X6, 60X6)X2
Seated DB Arnold Press - 35X8X3
super-set with
Incline DB "cleans" - 35sX5, 20sX10X2
BB Curls - Bar, 45, 55, 65, 75X6
Core Circuit - 10lb. plateX1, XFail
Incline BB Push-ups - Ladder down from 15 to 1, +6 reps
Chin-ups still showing slow but steady progression. I had thrown in a few between sets on bench day, but avoided them on squat day to make sure I was rested for today. Might keep doing that.
Pulldown drop-sets were fine. However, I watched a Thibodeau training video where he was talking about making sure you're using lats more than arms, and I'm not sure I'm dialed in like that. I will try to keep it in my in the future. I'm trying to get stronger in pull-ups not pull-downs, so I want to make sure I'm taking full advantage of the exercise.
DB Cleans weren't there for me with the 35's. Had a similar experience the last two weeks with the Defranco "shoulder shockers". These aren't explosive cleans, but rather a shrug into a 180 degree bent-arm raise. The difficulty is on the rotation, but I don't know what this means exactly. Will this weakness be addressed when I start heavy OHP's again? Do I keep testing these against that, and what if there's no improvement, then what do I do? Argh.
I know you're not usually supposed to work up to top sets on shit like curls, but I really wanted to go for a rep PR on these, and so I did a work-up instead of all sets at the same weight. And, yeah, I used the chrome bar. So what?
Oh, core, why do you hate me? Lately the extra reps I'm getting on chins have been straining my abs a bit, preventing me from doing the full core routines. It's a vicious circle because the core work would be strengthening my abs for the chin-ups. Whatever. I've already settled that I will restart the core circuit progression from this program on the next one.
I was supposed to start the BB push-ups last week, but life commitments prevented me from getting to the gym. I had done a ladder-down of netural-grip push-ups out at the beach instead. I know I'm too weak in the push-up to finish a ladder starting with the prescribed 18 reps. Instead, I kept track of how many total reps I did last week, 66, and was determined to almost double that this week. Mission fucking accomplished. The ladder down from 15 got me to 120 total reps, and then I took a breath and did another set to failure. So 126 is my new target to beat. I think my next ladder should start with 17. That would get me 153 reps. Not as big of a jump as this last one, but I can always add in another failure set to find my new limit.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
BLAB Log: Week 9.Day 1
Simple-6
BB Bench Warm-up - 45X5, 65X5, 95X5
BB Bench - 125X5, 135X3, 145X10
DB Alternating Bench - 50sX12, 10
"J" Rope Push-downs - 45X12, 55X10, 10, 9
Defranco's "Shoulder Shocker" - 25/20s/20sX10/10/10, 10/7/4
30 sec. DB Shrugs - 160X24, 150X24, 140X24
super-set with
Alternating Hammer curls - 35sX8X3
"BeZercher" Complex - 65X10, 45X9,8
145 is a 10 rep PR. I would be in danger of taking this for granted, but there will always be push-ups around the corner to humble me. Also the REALLY STRONG guys working out across the room. 635 lb. elevated deads below the knee anyone?
Uh, DB Bench and J pulldowns were fine. Didn't get the last reps, but that's because I tried to push the weight so I'm okay with missing a rep or two.
These damn shoulder super-sets are tough, Joe. I kind of wish I'd used the 15 lb. DB's so that I could have finished out the 2nd super-sets.
I tried to go up to 80s for the timed DB shrugs, but I couldn't finish out the 30 seconds. I tried dropping the weight, but my grip was fried. I could only make about 15-20 seconds on these sets.
Tried to start off with weight on the bar for the complexes, but the lunges became a sticking point, and I had to pull the weight off. Single-leg work! This is why I'm going to keep it for my 531 program.
BB Bench Warm-up - 45X5, 65X5, 95X5
BB Bench - 125X5, 135X3, 145X10
DB Alternating Bench - 50sX12, 10
"J" Rope Push-downs - 45X12, 55X10, 10, 9
Defranco's "Shoulder Shocker" - 25/20s/20sX10/10/10, 10/7/4
30 sec. DB Shrugs - 160X24, 150X24, 140X24
super-set with
Alternating Hammer curls - 35sX8X3
"BeZercher" Complex - 65X10, 45X9,8
145 is a 10 rep PR. I would be in danger of taking this for granted, but there will always be push-ups around the corner to humble me. Also the REALLY STRONG guys working out across the room. 635 lb. elevated deads below the knee anyone?
Uh, DB Bench and J pulldowns were fine. Didn't get the last reps, but that's because I tried to push the weight so I'm okay with missing a rep or two.
These damn shoulder super-sets are tough, Joe. I kind of wish I'd used the 15 lb. DB's so that I could have finished out the 2nd super-sets.
I tried to go up to 80s for the timed DB shrugs, but I couldn't finish out the 30 seconds. I tried dropping the weight, but my grip was fried. I could only make about 15-20 seconds on these sets.
Tried to start off with weight on the bar for the complexes, but the lunges became a sticking point, and I had to pull the weight off. Single-leg work! This is why I'm going to keep it for my 531 program.
Monday, September 12, 2011
BLAB Log: Week 8.Day1
Simple-6
BB Bench Warm-up - 45X5, 65X5, 95X5
BB Bench - 115X6, 130X4, 140X10
DB Alternating Bench - 55sX10, 55sX7
"J" push-downs - 30X12, 40X12X3
Defranco's "Shoulder Shocker" - 45/50X10 (fail on the Clean&Press), 25/30X10 (fail on the C&P)
DB Timed Shrugs - 120X30sec. (34 Reps), 140X30sec. (40 Reps)
super-set with
Alt. Hammer Curls - 30sX10, 35sX10
DB Complex - 25X6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Jefit says 140X10 is a PR. Nice to have those continue.
Made a stupid mistake on the shoulder super-set. Tried to go at it with roughly the same weight Defranco used in the instructional video, namely a full plate for the front raises and something in the 25lb. range with the DBs. Fail. Got to the Clean & 1/2 Press and just stalled out. It was better after I switched to the 25lb. plate and the 15s, but my shoulders were already toast. I'll start off with that weight next time, and hopefully get the prescribed reps.
I think I did the right thing on the shrugs, namely reps for time. I thought there might be a chance it was supposed to be a 30 second hold, but all the vids I found for timed shrugs involved reps. And my traps were sore as shit for two days, so that's what I'll do next week as well.
Last week of the DB complexes. They will be missed.
BB Bench Warm-up - 45X5, 65X5, 95X5
BB Bench - 115X6, 130X4, 140X10
DB Alternating Bench - 55sX10, 55sX7
"J" push-downs - 30X12, 40X12X3
Defranco's "Shoulder Shocker" - 45/50X10 (fail on the Clean&Press), 25/30X10 (fail on the C&P)
DB Timed Shrugs - 120X30sec. (34 Reps), 140X30sec. (40 Reps)
super-set with
Alt. Hammer Curls - 30sX10, 35sX10
DB Complex - 25X6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Jefit says 140X10 is a PR. Nice to have those continue.
Made a stupid mistake on the shoulder super-set. Tried to go at it with roughly the same weight Defranco used in the instructional video, namely a full plate for the front raises and something in the 25lb. range with the DBs. Fail. Got to the Clean & 1/2 Press and just stalled out. It was better after I switched to the 25lb. plate and the 15s, but my shoulders were already toast. I'll start off with that weight next time, and hopefully get the prescribed reps.
I think I did the right thing on the shrugs, namely reps for time. I thought there might be a chance it was supposed to be a 30 second hold, but all the vids I found for timed shrugs involved reps. And my traps were sore as shit for two days, so that's what I'll do next week as well.
Last week of the DB complexes. They will be missed.
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