yeah, no disco ball, but lots of loud pop music and Christmas lights, black lights, etc. Very annoying when you are trying to practice and figure out what your ball/the lanes are doing. I can live with the bad music, but not being able to see the lane sucks.

But it's the perfect excuse for when I don't break 100!

12/29

smr & mobility

I'm going to do a bastardized version of Tate's six week bench press cure. I started by finding my 1RM for reverse band bench presses (I'm substituting those for floor presses for the first 3 weeks). The band I'm using is a 42" medium sized Iron Woody purple band. I think its similar to an average EFS band.

ME day zero - testing 1RM
reverse band bench
(no band) - 55x10x2, 95x10, 145x10,
(with bands) - 195x5, 235x3, 255x3, 275x3, 295x1, 317x1, 337x1, 357x1, 362x1, 367 fail/
285x8
That must be sort of like what it feels like to bench in a shirt.

DB row
60x8, 85x8, 95x8

OHP
55x10, 105x5, 135x5, 155x2 - I stopped after that because it didnt feel right. It was not painful, but my muscles in my pecs and shoulders were tight in a way that made it hard to extend my arms over my head - that was due to all the heavy benching. I wont be doing OHPs on ME bench day again.

1 arm tricep cable pushdowns
65x10x2

face pulls
105x15x2

1/31

smr & mobility

I basically did two workouts today because I didnt have time to workout yesterday and wont have time tomorrow because of two Wolves games and a Viking game.

deadlift off 1.5" blocks
145x5 5, 235x5, 285x5, 325x5, 375x3, 415x2 2
This was significantly different/harder than off 3" blocks

overhead barbell press
55x3, 105x5, 125x5, 145x2, 155x5 5
That might be a PR but I'm not sure. Shoulders felt good at that point.

chins
8 8

DE bench week 1
55x10, 105x10, 145x10, 165 + 2 chains wide grip x 3 3, close grip x 3 3 3, medium grip x 3 3 3

face pulls
105x15 15

floor press
235 + 2 chains x 5, 215 + 2 chains x 5
This was supposed to be something that went ~1 rep short of failure. I think if I hadnt done all that other stuff to this point I could have done 2 sets with 235+chains, but the way things happened, the second set of 235, I would not have got 5 reps, so I lowered the weight.

trap bar DL
270x5, 360x5, Sadiv set: 360 + 90 lbs of chains - 28 reps in 11:30 (I'm looking at you Yugo, Mr. 27 rep )

That was the hardest workout I've had since before I hurt my back. I feel spent, but good.

You can now look forward to two weeks of failing 265x5 .

But seriously, nice work! Seems you're beastmoding it lately.

December
weight - 229.9
BF% - 21.9%
LBM - 179.66
total fat - 50.25 lbs

Missed some workouts due to minor illness and stiff neck, and ate too much high calorie stuff the past couple weeks. I did add muscle again, so that's good. I want to get the total BF under 50 and try to keep adding muscle if possible.

This morning I was 233.2/21.6%/182.83/50.37 which is as much LBM as I've ever had (PR - for a day). I'd be very happy if I can maintain that (it fluctuates day to day, so I'm going to have to work hard to maintain that for a month).

Nice work on the OH press! It's great to see your shoulders responding positively to your efforts.

Thanks - I am starting to feel like it might actually be helping balance out some muscles in my shoulders. I plan to try to squeeze in at least one day a week with some OHPing until/unless stuff gets out of whack from it again.

Good luck with it! It's helped me a lot. I hope it helps you as well.

Thanks - part of what's making me try to make it work is stuff you've said.

1/2

bowling

226 184 224 = 634

meh. Bad 2nd game. Avg now 212.4, probably still 3rd in the league. Top guy didnt bowl, 2nd guy was 214 & I didnt see his score and the 4th guy bowled worse than I did.

The lanes were pretty dry from the beginning so I used my new ball the whole night. I'm pretty sure I wouldnt have bowled as well the 2nd & 3rd games with my other ball, so that's a positive.

Good stuff:

4 Reasons EVERYONE Should Squat with Chains - Mike Robertson




Accommodating Resistance
How to use bands and chains
to increase your max lifts
by Dave Tate

1/3

ME bench week 1

bench press
55x10x2, 105x10, 145x8,
added bands (reverse bands) 195x5, 235x5, 265x3, 295x3, 320x5 (might have been able to do 1 more rep, maybe not), 255x8 - ez

DB row
75x8, 95x10x2
I need heavier DBs or something. These are very easy right now. I used to have forearm/elbow issues when I did these, but not anymore.

OHP
55x5x2, 105x5, 135x3, 160x3 (I could have done 4 maybe, but I think I was somewhat drained from the heavy benching.) 145x5
This was significantly harder than when I did 155x5 on Saturday. I said last week I shouldnt do OHPs on ME bench day. I should have listened to my own advice. It didnt feel uncomfortable, just like I was sort of spent. I will try a different accessory movement next week.

pronated grip pullups 8
neutral grip chins 7

blast strap pushups
10, added 45 lbs of chains - 10, +90 lbs chains - 7 - that was pretty hard, but felt good.

face pulls
105x15x3

As long as your shoulders and pecs feel good, seems like you at least can take away the fact that you're really solid in those areas even when overworking 'em, .

The left shoulder isnt perfect yet, but in my life, I cant ever remember it feeling this good and this strong at the same time.

Hey Cha,

About the bands/chainz articles, obviously one is title Why Everyone..., but the Dave Tate article suggests some degree of experience with the lifts (~3 years) before implementing lifts with bands or chains. Which would you tend towards? If you think you have a reasonable grasp on form, is this enough to consider adding some accommodating resistance exercises? Im tempted by the bands deal on EliteFTS

Thanks in advance

edit: Here is an article that gives a current lift weight range before adding chains. Im still just outside the ranges listed, so i'll keep going the way I am. For now

I dont have a strong opinion about that Aidan. I think if you have interest in that sort of thing, find as many good articles from people who you know are good and form your own opinion. Dave Tate and Mike Robertson are both very good imo. Look for stuff by Louie Simmons on the subject too - he's basically the guy who made their use popular.

Personally - I was an advanced intermediate before I ever used chains. I love them.

I havent done a lot of barbell work with bands. A trainer I worked with had me use them a little bit, but not much when I was fairly weak still. There are lots of useful things you can use bands for before you hook them up to a barbell, but they are harder to use than chains for that imo.

No one who works out with me regularly uses chains or bands. I think Yugo would be ready if he wanted to be (he's done stuff with chains once or twice), and the guy I work out with regularly now is getting close (he's DLing ~295x5 & squatting ~215x5 now), but he's a relative noob still. I'll wait til he plateaus before suggesting he start using them.

And after thinking that through - maybe that's the answer you're after Aidan. When you have been lifting for a while, have decent/good form, and are starting to plateau, then you could try incorporating them into what you're doing.

1/5

smr & mobility

safety bar squats
80x8, 140x5, 180x3, 180 + 4 chains x 2 - 10 sets with ~45 seconds between sets

sumo DL off 1.5" blocks
145x5 5, 235x5, 285x3, 325x3, 375x2, 415x2 2

blast strap rows
12 12

reverse hypers
90x10 10

trap bar farmers walks
270x25'x4 (one set), 360x25'x4x2/ spent

Good, hard workout. I think I'm going to do three days a week now:
1) ME bench + pulling stuff;
2) a day like today with DLs and squats;
3) DE bench & pulling with some OHPing as well.

This should allow me to increase my bench while getting back into some heavier DLs & squats hopefully. I dont want to do a high volume on those yet, so I'll do high volume benching and become a bench monkey for now while my body allows it - my shoulders feel better than ever right now

Thanks for taking the time to answer so thoroughly. Much appreciated!

1/7

smr & mobility

DE bench week 2
55x10, 10, 105x8, 8, 145x5, 5, 165x3
165 + 2 chains x 3 - 8 sets - 2 wide grip, 3 close grip and 3 medium grip

1 arm barbell rows (I dont have heavy enough DBs)
55x5, 105x8, 8

OHP
44x5, 55x5, 105x5, 125x5, 145x3, 165x3 3 3 (probably a PR)

chins
8 7

floor press
195x3, 235x3, 250 + 2 chains x 3 3

face pullls
105x15 15

MB slams
15 lb ball x 15 slams then 45 sec on treadmill x 5 sets

reverse hypers (single leg)
90x10 10

Sweet pressing

Thanks - the shoulders feel good

aidan,

re: bandz & chainz. I think they kind of suck for inexperienced, raw lifters. Not bad for mixing things up when used sparingly in some assistance stuff, but generally not all that useful.

I generally like chains more than bands. Bands are just a real mother****er. Very stressful on the CNS with even moderate bands. Less adjustablity. They generally work in a fixed vector because of how you have to hook them up, versus chains which have a little bit of give to 'em.

I do like bands for rehab stuff, triceps pushdowns, pull-aparts, mobility work, etc. They're awesome for that. So buying some bands is worth your time just for that.

You would definitely never need anything approaching the real heavy bands imo.

Chains are easier to hook up to the bar if you dont have a rack with pegs too.

1/9

bowling

209 217 238 = 664

I used the old Nano for the 1st game - I got strikes every frame on one lane and 9s almost every frame on the other until I switched to the pearl Nano for the last ball on that lane, then I struck. I used the pearl primarily for every frame after that and did better. I didnt miss a spare all night. Too bad I couldnt have started to string strikes earlier, oh well - I cant complain.

I'm still 3rd in the league - 212.94

The guy who was 1st bowled 564 I think, so I'm less than a pin behind him now (45 pins total in 54 games) - hes at 213.77 if I saw his score correctly.

The guy who's leading now at 215.21 didnt bowl. I dont know if he is going to have enough games to qualify or not. He hasnt bowled in a while and only has 39 total games right now. I'm not sure, but I think you need 66 games to qualify. I have a real shot at getting high avg in this league.

Our team was in 3rd place and we took 19.5/30 from the 1st place team - I think we're 1 point behind them now. We have a good shot at winning this third.