10.7.2013

One of those days...
1st, slept really poorly, 5 hours is being generous.
2nd, had a headache going in and it kept getting worse and worse throughout the workout
3rd, right groin / adductor keeps getting really tight/domsy after squatting and today I couldn't find time to do my usual SMR-routine before gym
4th, had some people coming over shortly, so had to rush it a bit in the gym
Not good, not good.

Bench
57,5 kg
5,5,3

Headache started to really kick in here

Deadlift
1x2x92,5 kg
1x5x80 kg

No ****ing way with the headache, I was legit worried that my head's gonna explode.
Decided to drop down to 80kg to get at least some work in.

After DL'ing I really felt like **** but somehow managed to get the rest of the stuff done.

DB-Incline-Bench
3x10x15,5 kg

RDL
3x10x50 kg

I have a feeling that grip might become an issue soon.
Need to get some chalk, for DL too.

Shrugs
3x10x70 kg

Overall very crappy session but oh well, there's always the next time.

12.7.2013

OHP
39 kg
5,5,8

Was hoping for 10 in the AMRAP set but oh well.
Too weak, need my creatine, now.

Squat
3x5x75 kg

Tough.
I have a bad feeling that I'm starting to cheat with depth when weight gets heavy.
Need to pay more attention and video next time to make sure that I'm at least breaking parallel.

DB-OHP
3x10x12,75 kg's

BW-Chins
10,10,8

Hammer-Curls
3x10x10,25 kg's

Last week, daily averages:

Cals ~2930
Protein ~202
Carbs ~256
Fat ~122
Fibre ~43

Still going a bit overboard with dem calories.
That's largely due to the fact that once I get going with the cookies, there's no stopping me.
Oh well, not a biggie by any means.

Progress so far, in 7 weeks

BW:



Calories in/out:

15.7.2013

Overall pretty good session, mostly due to being well rested and full of WIM.
In general I'm a pretty darn poor sleeper, but last night I managed to get in 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep which is almost unheard of for me.
Also, even topped it off w/ an hour+ nap before gym.

Squat
3x5x77,5 kg

Heavy.
Dark clouds of resetting are gathering in the horizon.

Bench
3x5x57,5 kg

Same as w/ squat, resetting is getting close.
But that's fine really.
Ideally I'd like to get to at least 3x5xBW before I'm forced to do that, though.

DB-Rows
3x10x15 kg

DB-Incline-Bench
3x10x16 kg

BW-Pushups
3x14

Squat (1st set)



Depth is passable, me thinks.

Video says its private. Can you relink it?

Whoops.
Should be fixed now.

As per this article, maybe not: http://70sbig.com/?p=2971?p=2971

The “low bar” squat (as indicated in “Starting Strength”) necessitates proper depth. Growing up, proper depth was always considered to be at parallel (even though parallel isn’t clearly defined), but it should be thought of as the point where the hip joint is below the knee joint. Visually, that would be a point where the crease flexed hip is below the top of the knee (note: this gets harder to see when the lifter has more girth).

There is a good picture there showing this. On that metric and his ideas, I don't think your hip joint is lower than knee joint? You may not be getting low enough to get great bounce?

Hmmm, I still think I'm breaking parallel there? (just barely, but still)





Sure, my mobility would allow me to go lower and it's possible that I might benefit from bounce effect if I did, especially so if I descended more quickly.

BUT considering my low-back injury history, I don't want to risk any butt-wink or any low-back rounding at all, under any circumstances or with any of the lifts.
That's why I try to do my best to really control the descent and depth.

is there a reason for squatting with a dummy in your mouth?

loooool.
Dosing of preworkout stimulants gone wrong I suppose.

16.7.2013

Cardio, evil cardio.

1 hour of Badminton

Played against same buddy as last time.
Last time I won every 5 sets we played.
This time I won one and lost four -> clearly lifting makes you slower and less explosive and kills ur coordination...

Butnaah, it's true that my game suffered a bit from yesterday's squats but he was just 1000x better than last time.
He had played like 5-10 times between these last two games of ours, though.
Vs zero times of mine.

Apparently practising something makes u better at it and not practising something keeps ur ability level at it the same at best.
Who woulda guessed that?

Anyway, made some expert meal choices today as an attempt to minimize the detrimental effect that cardio might have on my bulkaments.

Pre-Badminton:



Post-Badminton:



God bless America for inventing drive-thru fast-food.

Ah you right... pre-badminton meal looks particularly delicious.

^As far as burgers go, twas' one of the better ones I've eaten lately, for sure.
At least 10x tastier than the DblElMaco in the 2nd pic.

17.7.2013

OHP
40 kg
5, 5, 9

DL
1x4x92,5 kg

More like 3 reps + 1rep + 1 failed rep.
Obviously I have form leaks but weight is also simply just getting too heavy.
Time to reset, work on form, rebuild, bang out reps, all that jazz.
82,5 kg or 80 kg next time.

DB-OHP
3x10x13 kg's

RDL
55 kg
10, 10, 6

Got me some chalk but lol-weak-grippaments happened.
First set was fine, 2nd set was a bit of a struggle and 3rd set I was
90% sure I'll drop the bar if I keep going so racked it.
Going forwards, I need to either:

a) Do fewer reps per set
b) Rest longer between sets (~75 secs now)
c) Learn to use my straps

I'm leaning towards option c)

Shrugs
3x10x80 kg

Form-checkaments.

OHP (3rd set)



Apart from over-extended wrists, form seems fine.

Deadlift



Lol 5 different sized/colored plates.

Been reading Kelly Starrett's Becoming a Supple Leopard lately.
Tried to perform the Deadlift Range-of-Motion tests and miserably failed both.

So, decided to try his Top-Down Deadlift Setup.
Not quite sure that I'm doing that correctly, tho.
Need to re-read the deadlift section before next time.
Also, need to find time to read the entire book, too.
But holy Jesus, 900+ pages...

Neck craning is one of the things I need to fix ASAP.

RDL (2nd set)



Fine, probably.

Shrugs (2nd set)



Basically no idea if I'm doing these correctly but at least my traps tend to get sore afterwards so there's that.

Probably need to see your shrugs from more of a front angle (like 60 degrees front).

For the record, I like doing them like this.

http://startingstrength.com/index.ph..._barbell_shrug

Yeah, I actually did watch that vid a while back.

One thing I'm definetely doing differently is that my starting point is higher ie pins/safeties aren't set as low as Ripper has 'em.

I'm not doing cleans tho and therefore not doing them to improve the top of the pull like Rip puts it.

I just wanna get yoked.

That said, starting lower and having some more hamstring/abs/lumbar/whatever involvement wouldn't prolly hurt.
After all, maybe I'll start doing cleans or at least power cleans at some point.

19.7.2013

Had to make two in-session resetting decisions, w/ squat and bench.
I don't think I had any sort of a real form breakdown or anything w/ either of the lifts.
Simply just too heavy.

Squat
1x3x80 kg
2x5x70 kg

Decided to not do more than 5 reps in the AMRAP set.
Reason being:
a.) Keeping form solid and low-back healthy is more important to me than going balls out squeezing extra reps (w/ possibly worse form)
b.) I don't really give a **** about leg hypertrophy

Better take resetting lower body lifts as a sort of a deload IMO.
After all, my legs have been perma-sore ever since I started to squat/DL again.
While upper body not really getting sore, ever.

Bench
1x4x60 kg
1x5x52,5 kg
1x10x52,5 kg

Prolly left one or two reps in the tank in the AMRAP-set.

BW-Chins
10,10,8

DB-Incline-Bench
3x10x16,5 kg's

Hammer-Curls
3x10x10,5 kg's

Also, got my first ever creatine on Wednesday so this was my 3rd loading it, 20 grams per day.
No any immediate, noticeable effects so far. Not that I expected anything, really.

Last week, daily averages:

Cals ~2900
Protein ~196
Carbs ~264
Fat ~118
Fibre ~36

Progress so far, in 8 weeks

BW:

Running above EV, wheee.
That's a phenomenon I'd rather save for my poker garphs tho but it's not like that's ever gonna happen.



Calories in/out:

In other news, I think, just for ****s and giggles, I'll go for some MUSCLE CONFUZION this week.
Instead of perpetual LBBS'ing and conventiol DL'ing, the plan is to try out HBBS on Monday, Sumo-DL on Wednesday and Front Squat on Friday.

22.7.2013

HBBS
3x5x62,5 kg

Started w/ bar only and kept adding 10kg, doing 5's until semi-heavy.
Coulda stayed at 60 kg but had to add 1,25 kg plates to make it BW.
Huuuge difference in quad involvement compared to LBBS.
Quads gonna be badly DOMS'ed tomorrow, that's a given.

OHP
41 kg
5,5,9

Last rep in the AMRAP-set was a huge grind, prolly took more time than reps 7 and 8 combined.

DB-Row
3x10x16,25 kg

DB-OHP
3x10x13,25 kg's

supersetted with...

Pizza
2x4 Slices of Quattro Stagioni (w/ blue cheese as an extra-topping)

Damn pizza delivery guy arrived way earlier than usually and I couldn't wait until done and let it get cold.
Maybe they were having a quiet hour or something.
Or maybe, by now they've tagged my number as a VIP regular and put me ahead of the queue.
If so, I need to adjust my usual time for making the phone call.
Sweet spot might not be during warmups of 2nd big lift anymore.

BB-Curls
20 kg
15,12,12

Had to put the pizza-induced extra energy into use and bang out some currlllz.

Hellz yeah.

Instant gains, brah.

^Dem best gainz.

Actually I did somehow gain almost a kilo of BW yesterday and weighed in at 63,6 kg this morning.
Sunday was the last day of loading creatine tho so sudden weight gain's most likely just due to muscle cells getting fully saturated w/ that ****.

HBBS from yesterday (1st set)

24.7.2013

Bench
54 kg
5,5,10

Sumo-DL
1x3x40 kg
.
.
.
.
1x3x90 kg
2x1x100 kg

Achievement unlocked: 2 socialist plates

Started off w/ 40 kg and kept adding 10 kilos each set, doing triples.
90 kg was somewhat challenging so stopped there.

After the triples I decided to try a single at 100 kg.
That wasn't toooo hard so did another one right away.

DB-Incline-Bench
3x10x17 kg's

RDL
3x10x55 kg

Shrugs
3x10x85 kg

26.7.2013

Slept really poorly last night and spent way too many hours outside in direct sunshine prior to the gym.
Sorta draggin' ass the entire session.

Front-Squat
1x5x20 kg
.
.
.
3x5x40 kg

Plan was to do sets of 5, adding 5kg per set, until too heavy.
40 kg wasn't that challenging yet but had to stop there because didn't want to risk it.
My right knee has been sore since sumo'ing on Wed and squatting seemed to aggrevate it a bit.
Fingers crossed that it's nothing too srs.

3rd set: (apparently I did accidentally 6 reps)



Knees traveling too much forward?

OHP
42 kg
5,5,8

Prolly had 9th in me but oh well.

BW-Chins
10,10,9

DB-OHP
3x10x13,5 kg's

My right arm started to act up a bit during these, like a nerve twitching or something.
I don't know wtf that was but it sucked, not really painful or in any way preventing me from keeping going but felt really awkward.

BB-Curls
3x10x22,5 kg

Phew, sucky session.
Sort of feels like my fragile old body is starting to fall apart or sumpin.

But all was well in the world once again after I ate this right afterwards:




All said and done, overall this week was a nice change of pace, trying out the different variations of squats/DL.
Time to move on tho, back to LBBS'ing and conventional DL'ing next week.