Join date: Jul 2007
Location: Alabama, USA
Posts: 1109
Military Press - Cycle 1, Deload
Military Press:
Bar
10 @ 95
5x5 @ 135
T-Bar Row (Wide Pronated):
8 @ 2p
5 @ 3p
3x5 @ 4p
Pull-Ups:
2x10 Neutral
2x5 Pronated
6 Neutral
Average Band High Row (Attached to Smith Machine at chest height, bend over, row in a pull-up motion):
4x12 (1 band per hand)
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I had a bunch of energy in the tank today. I went to Dreamland BBQ last night and ate wings and a full rack of ribs. I was reading Jamie Lewis's blog last night and decided it was necessary. lol I'll probably be slipping into something similar to his Predator Diet, which is essentially stop eating like a bitch and eat in-bone meat and less carbs. At least my off days should look like that. My workout days are feeling too good to change those.
As for the workout, I felt great. My pull-ups are kinda just staying in the same spot. I should probably add weight to it to get a different stimulus going.
I want to continue to use conventional deadlift for each week other than the "1+" week, so that I can see if conventional helps my sumo pull. I'm trying to work on my form, but my back was really tight today. When I switched to sumo, it was completely different. I could stay upright and my back felt fine.
Everything else felt fine. My hips were iffy on the first set of front squats, but loosened up quickly.
Also, spring break is coming up the week after next. I'm going to the beach with the girlfriend and friends. I won't be training, but I'll probably just jump back into the program as if I had been, for simplicity's sake. This may end up making me do a bench workout on Friday before spring break, and not being able to lift until the following Friday, which would be bench again. Shouldn't be a problem though.
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Motivation: 4/4
Nutrition: 4/4 (F: 68g, C: 324g, P: 295g, kcal: 3,088. Macronutrient-wise, this was basically a perfect day)
Explosiveness: 4/4
Good day. I hit a hard sticking point on the 7th rep, but I went through it smoothly and held my form pretty well. I think my strength endurance is going up. Kind of disappointed I didn't get 8 like last cycle, but it's fine.
Everything else went well too.
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Motivation: 4/4
Nutrition: 3/4 (F: 90g, C: 348g, P: 262g, kcal: 3,250. Too much fat as the result of steak. I'm okay with this)
Explosiveness: 4/4
Join date: Jul 2007
Location: Alabama, USA
Posts: 1109
Squat - Cycle 2, Week 1
Squat:
Bar
5 @ 135
5 @ 225
5 @ 275 (Add belt)
5 @ 315
5 @ 345
5 @ 385
4 @ 225 (I was going to do some lighter work. Wasn't feeling it. I actually lost the bar, for the first time ever, before I went down for a fifth. As in it slid off my back, I had to let it go and land on the rack after about a 3 foot drop. lol)
Anderson Squat:
3x5 @ 225 (These felt better)
Natural GHR:
3x5 w/ Mini Band 3x5 No band (PR!)
Average Band Abs:
2x20 (Pulldown)
2x8 L/R (Rotation. Like a slow baseball bat swing)
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My force production ability has definitely gone down since I began 5/3/1 because of the lack of speed work. Hopefully I'll adjust soon. The 5 @ 385 was definitely tough. I took my time with it, because I couldn't stay tight otherwise. The last rep was the only one that I leaned forward on, so I'm happy. I probably could have squeezed another 1 or 2, but it would have been stupid.
Very happy about the GHR progression. I had to push off slightly on a couple of the reps, but not much.
Good day. Last week I got 160 for 8. So this is pretty much the same thing. I didn't realize I did so much volume on the t-bar row. 63 reps is a lot for me. They just felt good today, I guess.
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Motivation: 4/4
Nutrition: 4/4 (F: 71g, C: 266g, P: 257g, kcal: 2,531) Don't need as many carbs on MP day.
Explosiveness: 4/4
This was a rough workout. The T-Bar rows from the other day made my thoracic extensors sore as hell and immobile. I don't think I had the best form during deadlift for that reason. I'm very happy about the 5 lb. PR though. I hadn't done that in a long time. Sometime last year I got 405 for 10, but I hadn't tried to beat it since. Squats felt good and fast, but the top of my right scapula is hurting. I think the bar bounced on it or something the other day. Eh, I have a week off after Friday anyway.
My diet was quite excellent today with regards to macros. All the way up until dinner I had only 19g of fat for the day. Then I had steak and that went away, but the point still stands. Also carbs and protein were ridiculous for me.
I'm back from the beach. I didn't stay on my diet at all and I mainly did nothing. But, I felt great today and was very happy to get back to the gym and back on the diet. At the end of the workout, I felt like I could do another one without a problem. Bench was fast and stable.
The Pendlay rows got a lot easier since last week. I don't know if it had to do with the belt or not, but it was easy and my grip feels very strong.
HS Unilateral Leg Press:
8 @ 2pps
8 @ 2pps+Bands (Add 1 average band per side)
8 @ 4pps+Bands
5x5 @ 6pps+Bands
8 @ 3pps+Bands
8 @ 2pps+Bands
Car Pushes (Increased incline, temperature, and distance. Oh god):
1 x ~180ft.
2 x ~220ft.
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And then I puked. First exercise-induced vomiting after almost 5 years of lifting. I had only had cereal and a protein shake for breakfast, then protein+waxy maize pre-workout. So I didn't really have any sustenance. Also, caffeine. I got home and my lower back, lats, serratus anteriors, and middle traps all started cramping. This was easily the worst I've ever felt after a workout. Went to a chinese take-out place and destroyed a lot of food to get a shitload of salt in me. Feeling better now, albeit sleepy.
But before the car pushes, I felt fine. Squats were stronger than they've been for the past couple months. GHR progression is going well, and I learned how to setup the average bands on the unilateral leg press to work on some speed. It all felt pretty good.
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Motivation: 4/4
Nutrition: 1/4 (Apparently. I don't have the macros.)
Explosiveness: 4/4
Join date: Jul 2007
Location: Alabama, USA
Posts: 1109
Military Press - Cycle 2, Week 3
Military Press:
Bar
2x5 @ 95
5 @ 145
3 @ 165
3.5 @ 185 (So fucking close. I was holding it right above my head for about 5 seconds, trying to break through)
Neutral Grip Pull-Up:
2x8
2x5
4 Inch Deficit Plyo Push-Up:
4x10
Inverted Row:
3x10
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I'm very sore from yesterday and was still exhausted. I'm happy that I nearly beat my PR on MP, considering how terrible I felt going in.
Both of the back exercises felt really weak. I attribute it to yesterday though.
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Motivation: 3/4
Nutrition: 2/4 (Quantity is fine. Nearly an entire bag of chips and a tub of Helluva Good Dip, not so high quality. Don't care.)
Explosiveness: 2/4
Another great deadlift day! I had to use the shitty bar from early last cycle that my hands weren't working with. I had to get chalk between the 4th and 5th reps at 460 because it slipped. Only took about 5 seconds though. The 5th rep was actually almost easy. My grip is clearly stronger now though.
My lower back was pumped to hell after the hypers. I could barely walk. Nothing some ab work couldn't fix though.
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Motivation: 4/4
Nutrition: 4/4 (F: 95g, C: 318g, P: 280g, kcal: 3,247) I'm really only counting calories on my workout days so that I know I'm eating enough. Still basically carb cycling, though not strictly.
Explosiveness: 4/4
Simple workout. It felt very good to box squat, much better than free squat. Thinking about a 531/Westside hybrid where I could get box squats back in there. Depends on if my lifts are going up or not on just 531. I'll be testing maxes after this next cycle.
GHR was rough. Nearly fell off at the top of the last rep. But I'm very happy about it. Hopefully it's helping my deadlift. No idea about squat.
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Motivation: 4/4
Nutrition: 3/4 (I'm not counting calories/macros anymore. It's annoying and I know how to eat to get in enough food now)
Explosiveness: 4/4
Join date: Jul 2007
Location: Alabama, USA
Posts: 1109
Military Press - Cycle 2, Deload
Military Press:
Bar
8 @ 95
4x5 @ 135
Pull-Ups:
2x8 Pronated
6 Pronated
6 Neutral
2-Plate Pinch Curl:
3x8 @ 70
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Incredibly low motivation today. My elbows were killing me for the first time in a while. I'm done doing banded bench for the foreseeable future. Not remotely worth the pain/inability to lift.
Join date: Jul 2007
Location: Alabama, USA
Posts: 1109
Deadlift - Cycle 2, Deload - Yesterday
Deadlift (Conventional):
Bar
10 @ 135
5 @ 225
5x5 @ 275 (Add belt. Packed my neck and looked down. It felt great and moved fast)
Power Clean:
5 @ 135
3 @ 185
2 @ 225
1 @ 255 (10 lbs. under my PR. Wasn't too difficult)
Dragon Flag Abs:
I don't know how to quantify these. 3 sets of several holds.
Banded Sit-Ups (On bench, band wrapped around DB behind bench):
10 @ 2 Mini
2x10 @ 1 Avg.
Hill Sprints:
10 (90 second rest)
5 (No rest)
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This was the opposite of Monday. I felt great in every way. I want to keep trying to keep a neutral spine for deadlift since it went so well here. I'm not sure what will happen when I lift heavier though. All I know is that I can sit back a hell of a lot better.
I stopped cleans at 255 because I started to black out at the top of the rep. haha
Banded sit-ups are hard as shit. They are heavy too, I had to get my girlfriend to hold down the 120 lb. DB so that it wouldn't slide.
Everything went well today. All fast and stable. I could tell I would have failed the 8th rep at 310, so I stopped after a moderately difficult 7th. Previous PR was 7 @ 315 that was much harder if I remember correctly, so I'm happy with what I got today.
There was no real goal with the sprints other than to loosen up my hips. It worked pretty well.
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Motivation: 4/4
Nutrition: 4/4 until dinner, and then wings, cheese fries, and alcohol.
Explosiveness: 4/4
Join date: Jul 2007
Location: Alabama, USA
Posts: 1109
Squat - Cycle 3, Week 1
Squat:
Bar
5 @ 135
5 @ 225
5 @ 275 (Add belt)
5 @ 315
5 @ 345
5 @ 395 (I didn't realize it last cycle, but 5x385 was a PR. So +10 lb. PR!)
Natural GHR:
5x5 (+1 set PR)
Front Squat:
5 @ 135
3x3 @ 225
Zercher Squat:
5 @ 135
3x3 @ 225
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Well hot damn. Going back through my log, I realized that squats aren't going so shitfully after all. I tied my PR when I did the 2x435 (Edit: wrong, 20 lbs. under my PR. But still) last cycle and, as I said above, PR'd twice in the fives. I just hope that this is helping my 1RM go up too.
Still very happy with the GHR. All I'm doing now is stopping my momentum and stabilizing with my hands before I go back up. I'll start trying to use no hands whatsoever soon.
I did the front squats for some speed work. They moved very well.
I haven't done zerchers in a while because of getting hurt the past two times I loaded 275 on them. So I just did 225 and it worked out well.
I gotta stop forgetting to write this on the same day as the workout. I may have forgotten a set or two. Nothing important though. Military press went pretty well. I've been getting sevens, but lower reps are bound to happen as weight goes up. I felt strong during the set and then had to power through a sticking point on the sixth.
Pull-ups went well for the first time in a while. My elbows started aching though.
Squats are killing me. I'm still very sore from Sunday.
Join date: Jul 2007
Location: Alabama, USA
Posts: 1109
Deadlift - Cycle 3, Week 1
Deadlift (Conventional, Neutral Spine):
Bar
5 @ 135
5 @ 225
5 @ 275 (Add belt)
5 @ 315
5 @ 365 10 @ 420 (+10 lb. PR! Horrible form past the 5th rep. Fuck it.)
1 @ 420 (Sumo. I wanted to attempt neutral spine with it. Felt weird)
One-Arm DB Row (Straps):
3x15 @ 120 L/R
Banded Sit-Up On Bench (Average Band):
10, 9, 8
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God damn. This shit is getting rough. My ribs were about 2 inches away from my pelvis when I saw my reflection on the 10th rep. Epitome of sound form. lol
I could have mustered up a few more reps with equally horrible form. I'm very happy with this though, because it means that all I need to do is work on form. I'm clearly stronger when it comes to brute strength than ever before.
I'm definitely going to continue using the look-down/neutral spine technique so that I get better at it, because it's a stronger position for me. Unsure if I'll switch to sumo to test my max though...
Edit: This went really well. Bench was smooth and easy. The fifth rep was pretty tough, but I didn't really hit a hard sticking point.
Also, some trainer (uppity lesbian) complained to staff while I was doing Pendlay rows and had them come ask me to not drop the weights, which I wasn't doing. He told me she's "really anal" (Lol) about some stuff, so he's just coming by to appease her. This woman has now bitched at my friend and my girlfriend but was too scared to bitch at me. She told on me. What a bitch.
Hey, look, I actually took some video today. I learned that my squat looks a lot better than it feels when I think my form is breaking down. So that's good. Watching the video, 345 looked like speed work, so I'm happy with that. I could have squeezed another rep out of 420, but it wouldn't have been pretty. I just stuck with three for the near-tie PR.
GHR didn't feel great today. I needed some push off because of it. Still much better than before.
I don't know if I've ever done BSS in the gym with any added weight. They murdered my glutes. I can already feel the soreness coming. I'll definitely continue doing those. I want to get up to the 100 lb. dumbbells in a month or two. I think balance is the main issue anyway.
First the bad: Almost all my accessories felt like shit. Weak pull-ups and rows, and curls killed my wrists.
The good: Don't care, military press went up. I'm very happy with the top set. The 4th rep was tough, but not enough to stop. That's a stronger PR than the 3x185, so it's progress.
Glute Hip Thrust (Bret Contreras sent this out in his newsletter and I was inspired for some reason: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=MGr5P0qww0o], this is what I did):
8 @ 135
8 @ 225
5 @ 315
5 @ 405
3 @ 495
I felt pretty good today. Apparently my deadlift form is just going to be with a rounded back. Conventional didn't feel right. Watching the video, I didn't sit back and take the slack out of the bar. I just gripped and ripped. The top set felt good though. I probably had the strength to go for one more, but I'm testing my max next week anyway.
I'm going to continue doing the glute hip thrusts. I used to do it on the floor, but I don't think I got much out of them. Now that I tried them on the bench, I feel like I could get some use out of the added ROM.
I played basketball for a few minutes before lifting and I didn't warm up at all. My left knee, right below the patella, hurt a bit after one time I jumped. This affected the leg press.
Join date: Jun 2008
Location: Florida, USA
Posts: 1124
Good stuff Tyler. What time do you lift at the rec? Ive been going there more lately vs the aquatic, thought the rec seems to be quite strict lately about no chalk.
Join date: Jul 2007
Location: Alabama, USA
Posts: 1109
Thanks, Achilles. I go Sunday (time depends on work), Monday (2:30), Wednesday (2:30), and Friday (1:30). I have a rock climbing chalk bag, it doesn't leave a mess and I haven't been caught. You can just squeeze it real quick in both hands. http://www.amazon.com/...7148&sr=1-1
