Friday, December 24, 2016

Chin-ups 3': (5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5)

Sunday, December 25, 2016

Bench Press:

20x10
35x5
50x2
59x5
59x5
59x6 [rep PR]
54x11 [PR]

LBBS:

20x5
40x5
60x2
72.5x1
86x5 [PR*]
86x5
86x5

SS1: DB Bent-over Row (# each arm):

60x13
60x13
60x12

SS1: Machine Chest Fly (#):

130x14
130x14
130x14
130x12

SS2: Romanian Deadlift (kg)

77.5x10
77.5x10
77.5x10

SS2: Seated DB OHP (#): (*)

30x12
30x11
30x10

***

Absolutely exhausted. The Sunday supersets always remind me how out of shape I am. The top set for bench was disappointing as I lost two reps for an only 1.25kg increase, but at least that gave me the motivation to put up a good effort for the back off set.

* There is substantial form breakdown in the last couple reps of these squat sets, so I'm thinking that resetting is a good idea. I don't want to ingrain a bad movement pattern for the sake of short-term progress. The plan is to reset to 77.5 and begin doing GSLP amraps.

Week 37 Diet, Week 20 Cut



GREAT week. I managed to dodge all incoming calorie bombs over xmas. This week shouldn't be too bad either except some pre-planned scotches and cannabis pizza for NYE.

I think the form looks good. Never seen someone so worried by success in the gym. Keep progressing man you're doing great.

Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Press: (5/3/1 C1W2 TM37)

10x10
20x3
26x3
30x3
34x8 [PR]

Deadlift:

60x4x2
80x2
95x1x2
110x5 [PR]
95x6

DB Incline Press 2' (#):

35x12
35x11
35x10

Chin-ups 3': (8 [PR], 7, 6, 6) [+2 reps]

***

I still felt pretty sore from Sunday going into today, especially upper body. For press, 7 would have still been a rep PR, but I think 8 is actually a proper PR (i.e. an increase in my calculated 1RM over my previous strongest set). A really good sign that 5/3/1 may be a good fit for my press.

Deadlift is a triumph, considering I prob wasn't totally recovered from Sunday and also considering that 95 felt way too slow off the floor. Things basically couldn't be going better for me right now.

Nice grind

ty


Thursday, December 29, 2016 Training

Bench Press:

20x10
35x5
50x2
60x5
60x5
60x5 (f)
55x8

LBBS:

20x5
40x5
60x2
72.5x1
87.5x5 (side) [PR]
87.5x4
87.5x5 (front)

SS1 Pull-ups: (7 [PR], 6, 6, 5) [+2 reps]

SS1 Rope Triceps Pushdown (# each arm):

35x16
35x16
35x16
35x16

SS2 Leg Press (kg + sled):

140x12
140x10
140x8 (*)

SS2 Facepull (#):

100x12 (**)
100x12
100x12

***

Kind of an off-day for benching and an on-day for squatting. I'm noticing a possible pattern of being stronger on bench on Sundays and stronger on squat on Thursdays.

I took Spenda's advice (browbeating) and added weight to the bar for squat, and these sets felt and looked pretty good. In the second set, my stance was a little too wide and the reps felt inefficient, so instead of grinding out a questionable 5th, I saved some gas for the third set.

(*) Leg presses were inordinately hard today because I had the seat inclination set incorrectly. I adjusted it between each set and the third set felt the best but I think I just wasted too much gas on the first two sets. Gonna stick with 140 again for next week.

(**) I was getting three sets of 16 for facepulls at 85 so I felt like bumping the weight up, but at 100 it seems like physics is causing a problem. I have to lean back significantly (using my bodyweight) to get in the right starting position so they feel a bit more awkward. That said, they felt harder too so I guess I'm gonna stick with 100. Alternatively, there's always staying at 85 forever and building up to sets of 25 or something.

Hard to tell for sure on the third set, but it seems like your knees are tracking a bit inside your toes?

Yeah, I noticed that too. Thing is, this is where my feet go that feels comfortable. Like, they'd involuntarily adjust to this angle during the first rep if I pointed my toes at a different angle. Shrug.

Saturday, December 31, 2016

Chin-ups 2': (5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5 @8.5)

Didn't do these yesterday as planned due to being out drinking with friends (first time drinking in months). I'm planning to donk it up a little today with calories, but should still not be much more than 2000.

With training tomorrow, I'm planning to play it by ear. If I'm hungover I'll just do a de-load day of some kind. I've never done one of these before and things are getting heavy these days so probably it wouldn't hurt. That said, I shouldn't be very hungover as I'm planning on being under more cannabis influence than alcohol. So probably I'll have a 13 hours happy pizza coma and wake up feeling 100%.

Sunday, January 1, 2017

Bench Press:

20x10
35x5
50x2
61x5 [PR]
61x3
61x3

LBBS:

20x5
40x5
60x5
75x5
90x5 [PR]

SS1: DB Bent-over Row (# each arm):

60x12
60x12
60x12

SS1: Machine Chest Fly (#):

130x15
130x15
130x15
130x15

SS2: Romanian Deadlift (kg)

80x10
80x10
80x10

SS2: Seated DB OHP (#):

30x12
30x12
30x12

***

For NYE I drank like 10 beers (I almost never drink) and stayed up until dawn. I woke up at 2:30p feeling not that hungover. Just a mild headache and dehydrated. I drank a bunch of water and a can of monster, ate two granola bars, popped an ibuprofen and a caffeine pill and headed to the gym with one goal in mind: 61x5 bench.

I managed that PR, barely, in a laughably yolo set that I probably had no business going for that fifth rep. My technique was pretty bad though and I kind of checked out mentally after completing the first set.

For squat, I felt that I probably didn't have sets across at 89 in me so I just decided to work up to a set of 90 and see how it went. It wasn't my prettiest (nor deepest) set, but I'm counting it.

(in probable order that I'll accomplish them)

[x] bench BW x 5
[ ] squat 1.5 BW x 5 (next week?)
[ ] deadlift 2 BW x 5
[ ] press 2/3 BW x 5



Week 38 Diet, Week 21 Cut



Given the holiday, it was a pretty good week. December was awesome in general, with me making big strength gains despite losing 5.6 pounds.

Tuesday, January 3, 2017

Press: (5/3/1 C1W3 TM37)

10x10
20x3
27.5x5
31x3
35x8 [PR]

Deadlift:

60x4x2
80x2
100x1x2
112.5x3
95x8

DB Incline Press 2' (#):

35x12
35x12
35x11

Chin-ups 3': (8, 7, 6, 7) [+1 rep]

***

Still recovering from new years. When you don't ever drink, hangovers last 2-3 days. I'm really happy with where my press is going. Seven reps at 35 would have been a PR, eight is just insane. Maybe 2/3 bodyweight for 5 is coming sooner than I thought.

Deads were obviously disappointing, but a reset has been imminent for a while, I feel. Form wasn't that great either. I've decided that starting next week I'm going to reincorporate the belt. Hopefully, the belt-based gains will allow me to push through to 120x5 over the next 8 weeks, setting rep records along the way. And by then, I'll be <60kg bodyweight.

Since I'm resetting the deadlift this week, and probably will have to reset the bench press and squat shortly, I figured it was a good time to change up the assistance work a bit.

I felt like the RDLs, while probably making me stronger, weren't really addressing any of the weak points of my squat and deadlift, which are already (likely) more hip-dominant than they should be. Deficit deadlifts may have more carryover to my squat and help me improve my deadlift set up (getting my hips lower and increasing leg drive).

I saw a Leeman vid where he recommended deadlift-stance box squats or leg presses to improve strength off the floor, so I took that advice as well. I may try the box squats at some point but tbh my gym is ill-equipped and it's kind of a set-up pain in the ass. I'm just going to adjust the settings on the leg press machine to mimic my deadlift setup as closely as possible and hope that leads to quads gains + a stronger deadlift.

I also added the bare beginnings of ab work and curls. I felt like the short chin-up workout I've been doing on Fridays was kind of an inefficient use of time, so I'm turning it into more of a mini full body workout.

Thursday, January 5, 2016 Training

Bench Press:

20x10
40x5
52.5x2x2
62.5x3 (f)
56x5
56x7
50x7 paused (*)

LBBS:

20x5
40x5
60x2
75x1x2
91x2
80x5
80x7

SS1 Pull-ups: (8 [PR], 7, 6, 5) [+2 reps]

SS1 Rope Triceps Pushdown (# each arm): (**)

45x12
45x12
35x16
35x16

SS2 Box Squat (DL stance, kg): (***)

40x10
50x10
50x10

SS2 BB Strict Curl (kg):

20x10
20x9
20x9

***

Weak! GSLP for bench press is ****ing annoying because I should fail by getting only 4 reps. My workouts always go like 56x9, 57.5x8, 59x6, 60x5, 61x5, 62.5x3. Basically, a steep performance drop-off as the weight gets heavier. It seems like I'm just so weak off the chest and that sticking point becomes focused during the heavier sets.

Squat was basically a total lack of WIM with a dash of fear of the weight thrown in for flavor. This would have been 1.5 body-weight for 5. Realistically, there was no way in hell I would have gotten 5 given the bar speed of #2, but I could have hit a comfortable 3 or maybe a grindy 4. For the 80 sets, I made sure to hit depth and I'm pretty happy with the AMRAP set, all things considered.

(*) This paused set felt/looked really good and is making me strongly consider doing heavier paused bench sets. Or even spending 6-8 weeks benching exclusively paused. Thoughts on this (paging Aidan)?

(**) These were supposed to be dips but I discovered to my chagrin that I'm still too fat/weak to do dips in a reasonably high rep range. Maybe in a few months.

(***) The leg press was busted again today, so I tried these out (per the Leeman DL accessory vid). I expected to work up to like 60x10 for my beginning weight but 50 was quite challenging. I may end up sticking with these and doing the leg press on deadlift day.

Friday, January 6, 2016

Chin-ups / Push-ups / Plank / 2' rest:

6, 10, 50"
6, 10, 50"
6, 10, 50"
6, 10, 35" <---- my cat was licking my face during the entire plank
5, 10, 50"


Planks are hard. For chins I had one rep left in the tank on the last two sets. For push-ups, a lot more reps but I started light.

Big on the increased accessory work.

Nice grind on that squat set. Reps are to parallel when you video from the other angle I assume?

Paused and/or Spoto bench would probably be a good idea for you since it seems like you're kind of weak off the chest? Pause lengths looked a bit inconsistent from what I saw, but that's easy enough to fix. I'd say give it a shot; you just benched bodyweight+ for a triple so I don't think it's fps at this point.

Lot of progress on the bodyweight stuff

Do as many dips as you can and then end with negatives (slow on the eccentric portion). Reduce the number of those as able. Then start adding weight.

Thanks Monte.

Here's the other 80 set. I didn't bury them by any means but it's good depth "for me."

Would you suggest I begin pausing for my 3x5 or just add paused sets for assistance?

Yeah, I'm sure I could get much better at them quickly but it's a matter of what value it would provide to me for the cost of doing them. The fluff work like tricep pushdowns and pec deck are lower intensity and prob a lot easier to recover from than ass grinding dip triples + eccentrics. The two half-assed rom dips I tried also didn't feel that nice for my decrepit shoulders. Anyway, things to consider.

Renton,

Squat looks good

Re: paused bench, I've run blocks of non-trivial length of just paused bench or just spoto bench before, and the world didn't end, so I'd suggest trying it for your main. It really forces you to work on pulling the bar apart/keeping your upper back tight/SYTYCB etc blah blah blah, and it also aligns with what looks like a weak point. And if you try it for six or eight weeks and it doesn't help, you haven't really lost anything anyway.

Re: dips, the number one thing to realize is that there are a bunch of people that just don't have the shoulders to do them, so if they hurt, I wouldn't push it. That said, if you can do them, I think they have value long term even if they may hurt a bit from a recovery standpoint now.

TY Montecore.

Sunday, January 8, 2017 Training

Bench Press (paused):

20x10
35x5
45x2
51x4
51x4
51x8 @8.5

LBBS:

20x10
40x5x2
60x2
70x1x2
81x5
81x5
81x8 (rep PR)

SS1 Chin-ups (@61kg):

9 (PR)
7
6
7 (volume PR+1)

SS1 Machine Chest Fly (#):

140x12
140x12
140x10
130x11

SS2 Deficit Deadlift (kg): (*)

60x5 (4 tiles)
60x3 (4 tiles)
60x3 (4 tiles)
60x3 (3 tiles)
60x3 (3 tiles)

SS2 Seated DB OHP (#):

30x12
30x14
30x14

***

A solid day. I decided to go with sets of 4 on paused bench since its more time under tension than tng and I'd like to go a little heavier before needing to reset. These sets felt pretty solid to me. I didn't go with a balls-out set for the amrap because I wanted to make sure these 8 reps were grooved nicely. Aside from banging up against the hooks on #6 and #7, I'm pretty happy with the set.

(edit: Looking back at the vid, these are pretty thrifty pauses. How long is it recommended that I pause? A two count?)

For some reason, it was especially difficult for me to hit depth on the squat during warmups today. The first two work sets were disappointingly hard, but I somehow managed a decent set for the amrap. It was my intent to start incorporating the belt again today, but I discovered that I'm way too slim to wear it. I'm going to have to have someone drill a few more sets of holes before I can use this belt again.

(*) Form was all over the place on these, and the linked sets were as good as it got. I'll stick with 3 tiles (each tile is like 15mm) going forward, as that felt better/safer and a smaller deficit will be more specific to the deadlift.


Week 39 Diet, Week 22 Cut



The diet was a little off point this week. I got blindsided with beef wellington on Thursday which I didn't even bother attempting to count (I called it 1000 calories). There's probably some carb bloat from NYE influencing the average weight negatively as well.

Edited diet for this week.



Sometimes for convenience I post my planned calories for Sunday so I can make the Sunday workout and week's diet all in one post. Today my live downswing got 1500 deeper and I felt like **** and decided to go out to Mexican with a friend. Posting this here for accountability's sake.

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Press: (5/3/1 C2W1 TM39)

10x10
20x3
25x5
29x5
34x9 [rep PR]

Deadlift (w/belt):

60x3x2
80x2x2
100x9 [PR]
90x8

SS1 DB Bent-over Row (# each arm):

60x12
55x12
55x12

SS1 Hanging Leg Raise:

12
12
12

SS2 DB Incline Press (#):

35x12
35x12
35x12
35x12

SS2 Cable Face-pull (#):

75x20
75x20
75x20
75x20

***

DB bent over 60kg each arm? What the hell. How do you do it? Standing with a slight bent or on a bench?

Dumbbell lifts are in pounds, hence the (#).

Nice Do you feel like you get a lot out of using a belt with DL?

I forgot to add that I do them one arm at a time with the opposite arm and leg supported on a bench.

Not sure yet. My first time using the belt in a long time. I did gain 4 reps from the last time I pulled 100 six weeks ago, though. Didn't push the set too hard, either. Maybe RPE 8.