BW - 197
Deadlift -
135X5, 5
185X4
225X3
275X2
315X1
365X1
305X3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 2
RDL -
185X12, 12, 10
BB Rows -
175X6
155X7
135X8
Single-Leg Curls - X20, 15, 12 (ascending weight)
Tough session at a big-box gym. Stop-Sign shaped plates are the worst for Deadlifting. Nevertheless, I target triples with 305, and 17 total reps, and I got them.
I was planning on using this commercial chain as my "away" gym for the next couple of months while I rehearse and perform a new show, but the bastards tried to pull a bait and switch on me. I called them on Monday and told them I was looking for their monthly rate. They said they didn't have one, but they had 2 months for $70 total and no sign-up fee and that I could use the membership at any location outside of downtown. That would have worked great for me because they have locations near the rehearsal space and the performance space, and two months would have covered me through the run of my show. Like I said, that was on Monday. I went in on Saturday to sign up, and they said, "Oh, that deal ended in September." Ohhhh-kay, well what's available now? "The best we can do now is $49.95 to sign up, then $39.95 a month." So, that's $130 for 2 months as opposed to the $70 you told me on the phone (and didn't mention it would run out a day after you quoted it). "I guess if you want to think of it that way." Well. Here's my $15 for a single day rate, and I will find someplace else for the future.
Anyway, I may try to do without an "away" gym this time around. If I Squat and Deadlift on the same day, and alternate which one is heavy each week, I can probably get by doing that at my regular gym on the weekend, and just doing Upper-Body Body-Building stuff at the office gym during the week. It's not like I can Bench heavy with my shoulder anyway.
Showing posts with label commerical gyms. Show all posts
Showing posts with label commerical gyms. Show all posts
Monday, October 6, 2014
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
Higher Reps. Week 7. Squat
BW - 206
Squat -
95X5 (paused)
135X5 (paused)
135X5
185X4
225X3
275X2
Pause Squats - 245X5, 5
High Bars - 185X10, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5
Squat -
225X1
245X1
265X1
275X1
Single-leg extensions -
Pyramid-upX12, 12, 12, 12, 12
Back-offX20
Had business elsewhere in town last night, so I went to an "away" gym that I've use before in the area I was heading to. So crowded. So many people doing weird stuff.
Anyway, I thought the best way to stay sane amidst the chaos would be to just squat as much as possible. I may or may not have been slightly inconveniencing several people who seemed used to having that space free for other stuff. At one point, a guy doing really unstable lunges was reaching out and using the end of my barbell to keep himself steady. I waited until his set was over, and politely pointed out that I was using it. So weird.
Anyway, squats all went well. 245X5 is a PR on pause squats; my 5th in a row. With High Bars, I was just looking for volume.
Normally, I would have done single-leg work on the leg press at this point, but both the "regular" leg press and the horizontal leg press machine at this gym were occupied. Paul Carter has this "fatigue singles" concept that he uses sometimes where you work back up with singles after all your main work-sets to test speed. What I did here is very much NOT by his book about how it's supposed to go. It was kind of fun nonetheless. I worked over the winter to make 275 my heaviest "I can and will squat this any day" weight, and it was nice to test that in a fatigued state and find it very much there for me.
All the leg presses still had a queue, so I just did single-leg extensions instead. I actually kind of liked this, and may do these WITH single-leg presses next week and see what that's like.
Squat -
95X5 (paused)
135X5 (paused)
135X5
185X4
225X3
275X2
Pause Squats - 245X5, 5
High Bars - 185X10, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5
Squat -
225X1
245X1
265X1
275X1
Single-leg extensions -
Pyramid-upX12, 12, 12, 12, 12
Back-offX20
Had business elsewhere in town last night, so I went to an "away" gym that I've use before in the area I was heading to. So crowded. So many people doing weird stuff.
Anyway, I thought the best way to stay sane amidst the chaos would be to just squat as much as possible. I may or may not have been slightly inconveniencing several people who seemed used to having that space free for other stuff. At one point, a guy doing really unstable lunges was reaching out and using the end of my barbell to keep himself steady. I waited until his set was over, and politely pointed out that I was using it. So weird.
Anyway, squats all went well. 245X5 is a PR on pause squats; my 5th in a row. With High Bars, I was just looking for volume.
Normally, I would have done single-leg work on the leg press at this point, but both the "regular" leg press and the horizontal leg press machine at this gym were occupied. Paul Carter has this "fatigue singles" concept that he uses sometimes where you work back up with singles after all your main work-sets to test speed. What I did here is very much NOT by his book about how it's supposed to go. It was kind of fun nonetheless. I worked over the winter to make 275 my heaviest "I can and will squat this any day" weight, and it was nice to test that in a fatigued state and find it very much there for me.
All the leg presses still had a queue, so I just did single-leg extensions instead. I actually kind of liked this, and may do these WITH single-leg presses next week and see what that's like.
Thursday, May 23, 2013
LRB 365: Conditioning. Week 4b. Incline
BW - 190
Incline -
BarX20
95X5, 5
115X3, 3
135X1, 1, 1
115X5
BW Ladder Circuit -
Dips - 3 up to 15, back down to 3
Chins (neutral) - 2 up to 10, back down to 2
Push-ups - 3 up to 15, back down to 3
Hanging Leg-Raises - 3 up to 9
Sit-ups - 20 up to 25, back down to 5
Jesus. Strange gym hell. I'm doing some work at nights in another part of the city for a couple of months, and I'm trying out some gyms in that area so that I can get my sessions in during the week without having to cram everything into the weekend. Today's adventure involved a big, vibrant chain-gym called XSport. I don't want to go on a pointless flame out about big-box commercial gyms, so I'll just skip to the high-lights.
I was trying to use a free-pass I printed from their website, but that shit always comes with a mandatory sit-down with a sales person masquerading as a PT or something. I'm cordial with these folks, as I understand they're just doing their job, and frankly their job appears to suck-ass. I don't want to be the asshole that comes in and makes it even worse. I'm just going to sum up my man Tony's advice with a couple brief excerpts from our exchange:
TONY: I see you've written down what your focused on (I wrote down Squats, Deadlift). Why are you focused on that stuff?
ME: I want to be stronger in general and create a better athletic base for the rest of my life.
TONY: But why these things?
ME: Strong legs and back. Seems like a good idea.
TONY: Do you do any kind of balance work?
ME: Free Squatting and Deadlifts take care of a lot of that stability for me. Since I started Deadlifting 2 years ago, I never throw my back out anymore unless I fuck up on a Squat or Deadlift.
TONY: But Deadlifts are for the hamstrings.
ME: Uh...no, I'm not talking about RDLs, but full deadlifts from the floor.
TONY: That's what I'm talking about.
ME: Well that kind of works everything along your posterior chain from the bottom of your skull down to your knees.
[skeptical look from Tony]
ME: Um...well...all I can say is that the biggest improvement I ever got in my Deadlift was when I improved my T-Bar rows.
TONY: Well whatever works for you I guess.
A little bit later, Tony was asking what kind of things I was looking for in a gym, and that included this exchange:
ME: Round plates would be great. Those angle-sided plates can be annoying when deadlifting.
TONY: We have those. What's annoying about them.
ME: It's not a huge-deal, it's just that when the weights hit the floor, the bar has a tenendcy to shift out of position if it lands on the pointed part of the plate.
TONY: What, are you letting go of the bar?
ME: No, just in the dead stop between reps.
[skeptical look from Tony]
ME: You know, when it's on the ground, those plates can cause it to shift a little bit and you have to reset your feet.
TONY: The weight doesn't touch the ground when I do deadlifts.
ME: ...Again, I'm not talking about RDLs, but full deadlifts.
TONY [a little exasperated]: That's what I'm talking about.
ME: So you come all the way down...
TONY: And then go right back up.
ME: So you do touch-and-go.
TONY: No. I don't.
Anyway, he pretty quickly came to the conclusion that I just wasn't looking for what he was tasked with selling, and I got to go workout.
Inclines were fine.
Body circuit was kind of a cluster fuck because this was the MOST CROWDED GYM I'VE EVER BEEN IN! Moving between stations, I had to look both ways like I was crossing a busy street. Crazy. The chin-up station was no good for leg-raises for a variety of reasons, I tried a few sets, but it was so awkward that it was hard to even get the reps out. I had to switch to sit-ups instead.
I'm hoping one of the other two nearby gyms is better suited to me than this one.
Incline -
BarX20
95X5, 5
115X3, 3
135X1, 1, 1
115X5
BW Ladder Circuit -
Dips - 3 up to 15, back down to 3
Chins (neutral) - 2 up to 10, back down to 2
Push-ups - 3 up to 15, back down to 3
Hanging Leg-Raises - 3 up to 9
Sit-ups - 20 up to 25, back down to 5
Jesus. Strange gym hell. I'm doing some work at nights in another part of the city for a couple of months, and I'm trying out some gyms in that area so that I can get my sessions in during the week without having to cram everything into the weekend. Today's adventure involved a big, vibrant chain-gym called XSport. I don't want to go on a pointless flame out about big-box commercial gyms, so I'll just skip to the high-lights.
I was trying to use a free-pass I printed from their website, but that shit always comes with a mandatory sit-down with a sales person masquerading as a PT or something. I'm cordial with these folks, as I understand they're just doing their job, and frankly their job appears to suck-ass. I don't want to be the asshole that comes in and makes it even worse. I'm just going to sum up my man Tony's advice with a couple brief excerpts from our exchange:
TONY: I see you've written down what your focused on (I wrote down Squats, Deadlift). Why are you focused on that stuff?
ME: I want to be stronger in general and create a better athletic base for the rest of my life.
TONY: But why these things?
ME: Strong legs and back. Seems like a good idea.
TONY: Do you do any kind of balance work?
ME: Free Squatting and Deadlifts take care of a lot of that stability for me. Since I started Deadlifting 2 years ago, I never throw my back out anymore unless I fuck up on a Squat or Deadlift.
TONY: But Deadlifts are for the hamstrings.
ME: Uh...no, I'm not talking about RDLs, but full deadlifts from the floor.
TONY: That's what I'm talking about.
ME: Well that kind of works everything along your posterior chain from the bottom of your skull down to your knees.
[skeptical look from Tony]
ME: Um...well...all I can say is that the biggest improvement I ever got in my Deadlift was when I improved my T-Bar rows.
TONY: Well whatever works for you I guess.
A little bit later, Tony was asking what kind of things I was looking for in a gym, and that included this exchange:
ME: Round plates would be great. Those angle-sided plates can be annoying when deadlifting.
TONY: We have those. What's annoying about them.
ME: It's not a huge-deal, it's just that when the weights hit the floor, the bar has a tenendcy to shift out of position if it lands on the pointed part of the plate.
TONY: What, are you letting go of the bar?
ME: No, just in the dead stop between reps.
[skeptical look from Tony]
ME: You know, when it's on the ground, those plates can cause it to shift a little bit and you have to reset your feet.
TONY: The weight doesn't touch the ground when I do deadlifts.
ME: ...Again, I'm not talking about RDLs, but full deadlifts.
TONY [a little exasperated]: That's what I'm talking about.
ME: So you come all the way down...
TONY: And then go right back up.
ME: So you do touch-and-go.
TONY: No. I don't.
Anyway, he pretty quickly came to the conclusion that I just wasn't looking for what he was tasked with selling, and I got to go workout.
Inclines were fine.
Body circuit was kind of a cluster fuck because this was the MOST CROWDED GYM I'VE EVER BEEN IN! Moving between stations, I had to look both ways like I was crossing a busy street. Crazy. The chin-up station was no good for leg-raises for a variety of reasons, I tried a few sets, but it was so awkward that it was hard to even get the reps out. I had to switch to sit-ups instead.
I'm hoping one of the other two nearby gyms is better suited to me than this one.
Monday, January 7, 2013
LRB 365: Strong-15. Week 4. Bench
BW - 200
Bench -
BarX10
95X5
105X4
125X3
145X2
145X1
155X1
165X1
135X13
Incline -
105X10, 10
95X10
DB Flyes - 1 set of 20
Rope Pushdowns - 2 sets of 20+
I got 135X16 last time at a big commercial gym. I'm always suspect of the weights at that gym and suspected the X16 was maybe an illusion. Then I come in to my regular gym and only get X13. So was I right about the commercial gym, or did I psych myself out with a self-fulfilling prophesy?
Everything else was fine.
Bench -
BarX10
95X5
105X4
125X3
145X2
145X1
155X1
165X1
135X13
Incline -
105X10, 10
95X10
DB Flyes - 1 set of 20
Rope Pushdowns - 2 sets of 20+
I got 135X16 last time at a big commercial gym. I'm always suspect of the weights at that gym and suspected the X16 was maybe an illusion. Then I come in to my regular gym and only get X13. So was I right about the commercial gym, or did I psych myself out with a self-fulfilling prophesy?
Everything else was fine.
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
5/3/1 BBB: Cycle 1. Week 3. Dead
BW - 200
Deadlift -
135X5
185X5, 5
235X5
265X3
305X3
315X3
RDL-
135X10
155X10
165X10
175X10
185X10
BW Lunges - 5 sets of 12-15
Running Thanksgiving errands, so I went to a L@Fitness near my house. Because it was Monday, there was a queue for all the benches. So fuck waiting for a bench and/or switching up my bench workout to accommodate that crap. So instead of waiting for one of the 3-4 benches, I went over to the lone squat rack, dropped the bar on the ground and did Deads.
This gym has some of those crappy angle-sided weights that move around at the bottom of deadlift reps. I knew that would suck ass if I tried to go for a lot of reps on my top set, so instead I pulled my programmed 531 top-set for a triple, then pulled my training max for the cycle for a triple. 315X3 is also a Rep PR. Pretty fun.
RDLs and Lunges. All good.
Deadlift -
135X5
185X5, 5
235X5
265X3
305X3
315X3
RDL-
135X10
155X10
165X10
175X10
185X10
BW Lunges - 5 sets of 12-15
Running Thanksgiving errands, so I went to a L@Fitness near my house. Because it was Monday, there was a queue for all the benches. So fuck waiting for a bench and/or switching up my bench workout to accommodate that crap. So instead of waiting for one of the 3-4 benches, I went over to the lone squat rack, dropped the bar on the ground and did Deads.
This gym has some of those crappy angle-sided weights that move around at the bottom of deadlift reps. I knew that would suck ass if I tried to go for a lot of reps on my top set, so instead I pulled my programmed 531 top-set for a triple, then pulled my training max for the cycle for a triple. 315X3 is also a Rep PR. Pretty fun.
RDLs and Lunges. All good.
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 3. Week 2. "Bench"
LRB Diet - Day 38
BW - 195
Pause Squats -
BarX12
95X5
135, 155, 185, 205X3
Press -
BarX10
75, 85, 95X8
85, 85X6
super-set with
Chin-Ups (V-grip) - BWX7, 7, 7, 7, 6, 7
Clearly I did not bench today. I had to hit a commercial gym, and get in and out to make a social engagement, so I opted for the old "I can do this whole session in this one rack" workout.
Everything felt fine for the most part. After the last two pressing sessions, it seems like I may have had a touch of a drop-off since I was alternating it with Incline at the beginning of Summer. Not really sure what to make of it right now, and I think I need a few more sessions to see where it's really at. The fact is, I've been doing a press movement every session for 8 weeks now including Dips, Bench, and Klokov. That's a good variety of pressing planes, and to have my strict press drop off in that time is confuddling. I'm not gonna go back to the drawing board just yet, though. I got good volume here and hopefully that will help stimulate some bounce back in the next couple of sessions.
7's on chins felt pretty good, but the more neutral grip usually results in a few more reps in my experience.
BW - 195
Pause Squats -
BarX12
95X5
135, 155, 185, 205X3
Press -
BarX10
75, 85, 95X8
85, 85X6
super-set with
Chin-Ups (V-grip) - BWX7, 7, 7, 7, 6, 7
Clearly I did not bench today. I had to hit a commercial gym, and get in and out to make a social engagement, so I opted for the old "I can do this whole session in this one rack" workout.
Everything felt fine for the most part. After the last two pressing sessions, it seems like I may have had a touch of a drop-off since I was alternating it with Incline at the beginning of Summer. Not really sure what to make of it right now, and I think I need a few more sessions to see where it's really at. The fact is, I've been doing a press movement every session for 8 weeks now including Dips, Bench, and Klokov. That's a good variety of pressing planes, and to have my strict press drop off in that time is confuddling. I'm not gonna go back to the drawing board just yet, though. I got good volume here and hopefully that will help stimulate some bounce back in the next couple of sessions.
7's on chins felt pretty good, but the more neutral grip usually results in a few more reps in my experience.
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.
Thursday, July 12, 2012
5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 1. Week 2. Bench
BW - 197
Pause Squats -
BarX10
95X5
115X5
135X5
Bench -
BarX10
95X5
115X3
145X3
160X4
Chins - BWX5, 10, 5, 4, 3
Couldn't get to my regular gym today, so I ponied up $10 to hit a World's Gym I was nearby.
I did a few of my reps on the top set on bench touch'n'go just to see. It really is amazing what a difference the pause makes.
Got 10 chins which was nice. Still have a little ways to climb back up to where I've been with them, though.
No low back or ab work. Looked around the gym for a back extension bench or something but didn't see one. Just decided to pack it up.
Pause Squats -
BarX10
95X5
115X5
135X5
Bench -
BarX10
95X5
115X3
145X3
160X4
Chins - BWX5, 10, 5, 4, 3
Couldn't get to my regular gym today, so I ponied up $10 to hit a World's Gym I was nearby.
I did a few of my reps on the top set on bench touch'n'go just to see. It really is amazing what a difference the pause makes.
Got 10 chins which was nice. Still have a little ways to climb back up to where I've been with them, though.
No low back or ab work. Looked around the gym for a back extension bench or something but didn't see one. Just decided to pack it up.
Monday, October 3, 2011
BLAB Log: HYBRID Week 11.Day3 / Week12.Day 1
Simple-6
Chins - BWX7, BWX6
Bench Press - BarX5, 95X5, 135X3, 165X2, 185X1
BB Overhead Shrug - 185X15ish, 145X15, 145X15
One-Arm Pulldowns, slow eccentric - 50X12, 40X12 each arm
BB Curls, cheat-up, slow eccentric - 75X5X2
45lb. plate Core circuit X2
BB Push-ups - Ladder down from BWX17-1
My rehearsal schedule prevented me from getting to the gym on Saturday, and will prevent me from getting there for the next week, so I decided to combine the next 2 days into one session. Truthfully, I just couldn't wait a week+ for my bench test.
For the main movements, the chins were fine I guess. 6 might actually be a record for my 2nd set now that I look at it. For the bench, my target was 185X2 which would have raised my projected max. I got the first rep, but failed on the 2nd. I'm totally okay with this because that makes this my first ever true 1RM attempt! Kind of exciting until I realize that I won't see that weight again for months. It almost makes me want to run BLAB again. Defranco's program would have me attempting more reps on that weight in weeks 4 and 9, and trying to lift heavier in week 11. But I miss pulls and presses, so I'm still going to go over to 531...where it will be 5 months before I see 185 on the bench again. Fuuuuuck. Whatever. Novice results, law of diminishing returns, marathon not a sprint, training to get stronger rather than powerlifting, etc.
For accessory work, I chose one movement for each area from the two days. For back, I chose to do the one-arm pulldowns since it is specifically in there to help my feeble chin strength. For shoulders, I went with the OH shrugs. Tried to go even heavier this time, but it got dicey. After I dropped the weight, I discovered that using a split-stance, and starting with my elbows locked, my knees bent, and "squatting" the weight up to the starting position helped my balance a great deal. For biceps, I went with the cheater curls, and they were fine.
Core circuit was the most successful I've had in a while. Again, I plant to keep the core portion of this program in my 531 programming. It's got a lot of variety that I suck at, so might as well get better at it since I need to do core something anyway.
I chose to only pick one of the finishers, for what I hope are fairly obvious reasons. I went with the push-ups, because I'd rather be good at push-ups than complexes. Very satisfying results. That's two good push-up sessions in a row, so I fully expect to crap the bed on next week's rep test, so that I can get good and depressed about my push-up ability once again.
Only two days left in the program. Can't believe it. Since those are no-squat lower body and chin-up days, I might try to see if I can find a gym near the theatre to sneak in and finish this up. I tried doing that on Saturday, because my gym closed before I got out of rehearsal. There's another gym on the way home, and I stopped in, looked around, and saw that they probably had everything I needed. I walked up to the desk and I asked the guy "What's your daily rate?" "Fifteen Dollars." "Fifteen Dollars?! For one workout?" "Yes." "Bye." No way am I paying $15 to go use the lat-pulldown machine in a treadmill factory.
Chins - BWX7, BWX6
Bench Press - BarX5, 95X5, 135X3, 165X2, 185X1
BB Overhead Shrug - 185X15ish, 145X15, 145X15
One-Arm Pulldowns, slow eccentric - 50X12, 40X12 each arm
BB Curls, cheat-up, slow eccentric - 75X5X2
45lb. plate Core circuit X2
BB Push-ups - Ladder down from BWX17-1
My rehearsal schedule prevented me from getting to the gym on Saturday, and will prevent me from getting there for the next week, so I decided to combine the next 2 days into one session. Truthfully, I just couldn't wait a week+ for my bench test.
For the main movements, the chins were fine I guess. 6 might actually be a record for my 2nd set now that I look at it. For the bench, my target was 185X2 which would have raised my projected max. I got the first rep, but failed on the 2nd. I'm totally okay with this because that makes this my first ever true 1RM attempt! Kind of exciting until I realize that I won't see that weight again for months. It almost makes me want to run BLAB again. Defranco's program would have me attempting more reps on that weight in weeks 4 and 9, and trying to lift heavier in week 11. But I miss pulls and presses, so I'm still going to go over to 531...where it will be 5 months before I see 185 on the bench again. Fuuuuuck. Whatever. Novice results, law of diminishing returns, marathon not a sprint, training to get stronger rather than powerlifting, etc.
For accessory work, I chose one movement for each area from the two days. For back, I chose to do the one-arm pulldowns since it is specifically in there to help my feeble chin strength. For shoulders, I went with the OH shrugs. Tried to go even heavier this time, but it got dicey. After I dropped the weight, I discovered that using a split-stance, and starting with my elbows locked, my knees bent, and "squatting" the weight up to the starting position helped my balance a great deal. For biceps, I went with the cheater curls, and they were fine.
Core circuit was the most successful I've had in a while. Again, I plant to keep the core portion of this program in my 531 programming. It's got a lot of variety that I suck at, so might as well get better at it since I need to do core something anyway.
I chose to only pick one of the finishers, for what I hope are fairly obvious reasons. I went with the push-ups, because I'd rather be good at push-ups than complexes. Very satisfying results. That's two good push-up sessions in a row, so I fully expect to crap the bed on next week's rep test, so that I can get good and depressed about my push-up ability once again.
Only two days left in the program. Can't believe it. Since those are no-squat lower body and chin-up days, I might try to see if I can find a gym near the theatre to sneak in and finish this up. I tried doing that on Saturday, because my gym closed before I got out of rehearsal. There's another gym on the way home, and I stopped in, looked around, and saw that they probably had everything I needed. I walked up to the desk and I asked the guy "What's your daily rate?" "Fifteen Dollars." "Fifteen Dollars?! For one workout?" "Yes." "Bye." No way am I paying $15 to go use the lat-pulldown machine in a treadmill factory.
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