Deload

Strict press
105 x 5
135 x 5
160 x 5

125 x 10, 10, 10, 10

Lying dumbbell rows
100s x 10, 10
125s x 10, 10, 10

Bench push-ups
35

Keg curls
160 x 15

Dumbbell curls
50s x 8

SSB squats
350 x 5
400 x 3
440 x 1
Tweaked my lower back on the 440. If I didn't have my belt on I'd have probably had to dump the weight mid-rep, but I managed to stand up and walk it back in pain.

I tried to 320 for one rep with the belt on tight, didn't feel good about it, and started taking plates off to do RE with 150 before deciding no, fuck this. I put everything back on, made sure to lean my weight back, and did my sets alright.

320 x 3 x 5

Dumbbell lunges, leg curls

Bench press
Up to 335 x 1

225 x 14, 10, 15
185 x 13

Pull-ups
10, 12, 12
90 x 8, 7

Push-ups, curls

Deadlift
Up to 570 x 1 (PR)

 

SSB squats
150 x 3 x 30

Dumbbell lunges, leg curls

Bench press
Up to 315 x 5
Only intended to do a cautious single and it felt stupid light. If my shoulder was healthy I could have easily done another. Probably a stupid move but it did wonders for morale. All that time of holding back hasn't hurt my bench at all.

225 x 17, 15, 12

Pull-ups
15, 15
90 x 8, 8, 10

Skullcrushers
50s x 8, 8

Band pressdowns, Behind-the-neck press, curls

My shoulder hurts a little more than it should now, but it's from grinding out some last reps on the 225 rather than the 315. Gotta remember to stop when the bar speed slows.

SSB squats
350 x 5
400 x 3
445 x 1

320 x 4 x 10

Walking lunges
50s x ?

Band leg curls

Legs felt shaky last week and this from RE squats.

Strict press
190 x 5
217.5 x 3
245 x 1

175 x 10, 10, 5

Lying dumbbell rows
125s x 10, 10, 10, 12, 12

Push-ups and curls

Deadlift
555 x 1 (PR)
I've only deadlifted 600 with tires so this was a big step forward for me. I have the back strength, it's just been keeping things tight when past a certain depth that I've always struggled with. I'm thinking I'm going to go for 570 next time, and in general just seeing what my current limit is before resetting my cycle with the mats.

After work:

SSB squats
150 x 30, 30, 30

Band leg curls

Planks and reverse crunches

Bench press
Up to 275 x 6

225 x 15
185 x 16, 12

Pull-ups
15, 15
90 x 8, 8, 8

Skullcrushers, curls, rear-delts

Had a massive birthday feast afterwards at a fine German restaurant courtesy of my coworker's treat, along with cake and ice cream for dessert. Had a Quest bar while out drinking later.

 Strict press
180 x 3
205 x 3
235 x 3
Damn, I should take a week off more often. I failed to record what happened here last week but I couldn't even get a single rep of this last time.

175 x 10, 8, 8

Behind-the-neck press
135 x 10

Lying dumbbell rows
125s x 10, 10, 10, 10, 10

Bench push-ups
35, 35, 25

Keg curls
160 x 15, 15

Dumbbell curls
50s x 12

Currently on the second to last day of a five-day visit with my girlfriend. On the first day before she arrived I did a full-body workout consisting of SSB squats to start with (320x3x10), then bench pressing up to 275x6, stopping before the bar speed slowed down. Accessory work went great. I was able to bench 225x15 with no pain for a set before stripping down to 185 and then 135, finishing up with behind-the-neck presses and curls.

We might hit up the dinky hotel gym for fun (they don't even have dumbbells), but if we don't get around to it I'll be fine until Wednesday when I can lift after work.

Squats
300 x 5
350 x 5
395 x 9

320 x 3 x 8

Dumbbell lunges
50s x 20

Neck crunches

Reverse crunches

Friend in San Francisco had to cancel lunch date today due to feeling sick so I have ample time to do some cardio and yoga.

Actually did some cardio yesterday after work. 3 hill sprints and a jog after.

Bench press
Up to 275 x 6
295 really hurt my shoulder last time so I'm sticking with 275 at gradual rep increases. I felt the 6th rep a little bit, so I think the key is stopping before the bar speed starts to slow too much and I'm straining.

185 x 21, 15, 11
135 x 20

Pull-ups
20
45 x 10
90 x 8, 8, 8

Behind-the-neck press
135 x 8, 10

Curls

Deadlifts
515 x 4
Good for a "bad day". No rest pause, got 4 and then tried to get a 5th after resting and couldn't come up.

SSB squats
150 x 3 x 30

Planks and reverse crunches

Have a bunch of posts on the back-log to post.

Strict press
167.5 x 5
195 x 5
217.5 x 3, 5
Was really frustrated about that 3 and channeled the anger into a not-too-difficult 5. Been a pattern with my press lately.

175 x 10, 10

Bradford press
135 x 6

Behind-the-neck press
135 x 8, 9

Less emphasis on going ball-busting heavy in favour of getting the rear delts to work more. Gonna try this out and see if that improves my left shoulder and being able to bench.

Lying dumbbell rows
125s x 10, 10, 10, 12 ,12, 12

Wide-grip push-ups, face-pulls, curls

The next day and my upper-back and posterior delts are sore. Good sign.

Deload

SSB squats
Up to 275 x 5

225 x 3 x 10

Deload

Mat pulls (5)
Up to 500 x 3

SSB squats
150 x 25, 20, 20

Deload

Bench press
Up to 225 x 5
Slight shoulder pain. 295 really wasn't good for me last cycle.

Close-grip bench press
155 x 5 x 10

Pull-ups
15, 13, 13, 13, 13

Keg curls
160 x 15

Deload

Strict press
105 x 5
135 x 5
155 x 5

125 x 10, 10, 10, 10

Lying dumbbell rows
125s x 8, 8, 8, 10, 10

Keg curls
160 x 15

Tweaked my back squatting last night so I cut it short after a rep of 390. Just did bodyweight squats after, a set of 70 and another of 60.

Bench press
Up to 295x5

Eccentric close-grip bench press
185 x 15, 10
135 x 12

Eccentric chin-ups
15, 13, 10, 10, 10

Isolation work

Glad to be benching more.

Mat pulls (2)
515 x 7 (PR)

SSB squats
30, 20, 20

Went a little easy on the squats. Early work day tomorrow and this was close to bedtime, which is why I didn't do more.

Strict press
190 x 5
215 x 2
217.5 x 3
242.5 x 0, 1

155 x 12, 12, 11, 11, 11

Lying dumbbell rows
125s x 10, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12

Isolation work

Did this until midnight after work, dead tired.

SSB squats
320 x 3
365 x 3
410 x 8 (PR)

315 x 10

Will finish up after work.

Bench pressed up to 285x5. Wasn't as easy as I would want that weight to be but it's possible the thumbless grip kept me from seriously exploding the weight up. Next time, grip the bar hard. I'll go up to 295x5 and from there increase in 5 pound increments weekly while monitoring my shoulder health.

Speaking of which, I think I set its recovery back a little attempting 135 lb barbell skullcrushers. I got up to 5 before changing the exercise to dumbbells. Was seriously hard on the front delt.

Mile time tonight while actually trying was 8:11. I did a good job pacing myself, so next time I'll try to push the last lap even harder and get into the 7- range. Legs cramped up when I was done due to squats the night before but didn't affect performance while I was on the track.

Edit: this time last year resulted in a mile time of 8:02, darn.

Deadlifts
515 x 1, 3
Will reset back up to 2 mats and, failing that, to 3. Pulling so low to the ground feels weird. On the last squat day of each training cycle I'm going to do RE deadlifts with 405.

SSB squats
150 x 30, 30, 20

Strict press
180 x 3
205 x 3
232.5 x 2, 3
This was my most heroic press effort ever. 205 felt heavy and shitty. I stumbled backward on the first rep and forced the reps out. Did some band pull-aparts and beat my arm muscles with a rock (I don't think I've ever recorded this, but this has been my ritual for YEARS before a max attempt; I got it from Pavel's calisthenics book) and went for 232.5. Whoa, felt completely different from 205. My arms felt like pistons and I was so stable it felt like a machine (granted, I was now wearing a belt, but beltless should not have felt as poor as it did). Still, I didn't get my attempted 3 so I tried a repeat set, felt good but failed the third again, took a big breath with the bar on my chest and pressed and then got the third.

180 x 8, 8, 8, 8

Lying dumbbell rows
125s x 8, 10, 10, 10, 15

Squats
300 x 5
315 x 5
390 x 9

315 x 3 x 10

Dumbbell lunges
50s x 16

Farmers' walk
200s

Leg curls

Benched heavy for the first time in quite a while. Got up to 275x5 and forced myself to stop. Felt very little pain. This is good news. I'll incrementally go further and further every week and carefully gauge how my shoulder feels.

Have really been hammering my chest lately, but disappointingly my arm size has remained the same over the past few years, around 17.2 inches.

A little behind on training because of Christmas but that's okay. Between work lunch, eating at my sister's, and then my aunt's, I had a feast. Didn't get any presents except for a pair of shoes and an AMC gift card from a coworker.

Managed only 515x1 for mat pulls at a 2-mat height yesterday before work. Came back at night with the intention of doing RE squats but the bar was still set-up for mat pulls so I decided to give it another try and got 5 reps. Afterwards, did 150 x 30, 30, 25 on SSB squats, along with neck harness crunches and band leg curls.

Strict press
167.5 x 5
192.5 x 5
217.5 x 4

180 x 8, 8, 8, 8

Lying dumbbell rows
125s x 10, 10, 10, 10, 10

Did my normal bodybuilding day for deload upper-body, but went a little easier on the volume and forced reps due to it being deload week.

Deload

SSB squats
180 x 5
225 x 5
270 x 5

220 x 10, 10, 10

Deload

Mat pulls (5)
500 x 3

SSB squats
150 x 25, 20, 15

Really didn't feel like training but there's a Christmas party at work tomorrow and I'm going in earlier than is typical for the afternoon and I wanted to make sure I got this done in case I sleep in.

Deload

Strict press
105 x 5
135 x 5
155 x 5

125 x 10, 10, 10 ,10

Lying dumbbell rows
100s x 12, 10
115s x 8, 8, 12

Incline bench
55 x 30

Keg curls
160 x 12

SSB squats
335 x 5
380 x 3
425 x 4
Good number to be at, especially with the SSB. Woke up to my lower back hurting so bad the previous morning that I delayed this to today. Still hurts but is getting better. It's either from push pressing (not likely) or sitting in a really uncomfortable chair at my sister's engagement party on Sunday for a long period of time. Ended up tweaking my left upper back near or at the rhomboid, an injury unique to the SSB, so I muscled through this in some pain.

315 x 10, 10, 10

Leg curls, neck crunches, reverse crunches

Push press
225 x 5
250 x 0, 0, 0
250 x 0, 1

Problem was a matter of catching it in the right spot. Rest of the session was typical upper-body bodybuilding.

My mile time tonight:

Jogged to the high school, spontaneously thought I'd give the mile a try on the track, and did a leisurely two laps before I checked my time: 6:47. My pace was wayyyy slower than I thought, so I upped the speed for the last two. If I try from the start I should have an 8 minute mile. Improving this will be a fun goal for cardio.

By the way, why did I egregiously post my phone's screenshot instead of simply writing the number? I dunno, pretty colors.

Mat pulls (3)
515 x 7
Two rest paused reps. Left hand was too far in and weight was disproportionately heavy on that side, especially on the 6th. Only adjusted on the final rep.

SSB squats
150 x 25, 20, 25

Neck crunches

Farmers' walk
200 lbs
About 4 pick-ups over a pretty short distance, nothing I killed myself over. Toughest part was the momentum from turning around getting me in completely the wrong direction.

Strict press
190 x 5
215 x 3
240 x 1
Good, redeemed these failed numbers from last cycle. I'll be repeating the prior days from this cycle but progressing the 1RM, like I've done with my bench press, because my strength there is disproportionate and I don't see a point in holding that week back after being on this program and staying conservative for many years.

Lying dumbbell rows
115s x 12
125s x 8

Strict press
175 x 10, 10, 10, 8

Kroc rows
160 x 30
Thought I'd have to ease back into these and ended up setting a PR. Since training at home, my back work has just been at a heavier standard than before.

Lying dumbbell rows
125s x 10, 10

Wide barbell incline press
65 x 25, 20

Neutral-grip chins
25

Rear delts, chest flyes, curls
My phone just tried to autocorrect "curls" to "girls". Asshole.

Big dinner tonight. Family came over and I had a homemade burrito while waiting for an uncle to arrive. Then immediately after that with everyone at the table I had two kabobs, Persian yogurt, rice, and before bed a casein shake.

SSB squats
315 x 3
360 x 3
405 x 5
Had done squats the day before yesterday combined with my upper-body day so legs were sore and I intended to only do 3, but it felt so light I did a feel-good 5. No knee pain, glad it didn't last.

Strip-set
315 - 240 - 150 - 60 x 10

Uh oh, falling behind on this. Let's recap: last Friday I just couldn't pull anything. Got up to 405x5 but couldn't break 515 once off of 3 mats. In some positive news, though, I can rep 405x5 double overhand without chalk no problem.

Saturday I just did some bodybuilding stuff, which I'm really enjoying. I have no idea how weak my bench press might be now but my arms and chest are growing. I went out to lunch with a coworker before my shift and some guy skateboarding past us goes "Quit working out, you make the rest of us look bad" as he rides by and punches my arm.

Strict press
185 x 3
205 x 3
232.5 x 0, 0
Was able to do 3 really easy partial reps but couldn't lock anything out. Maybe something to do with my healing shoulder.

175 x 9, 8, 8, 8
It dawned on me that instead of holding the last reps up over my head for several seconds to increase muscular stability, maybe I should do the opposite and NOT lock anything out, like...I can't believe I'm not joking about this reference for once, but like Ronnie Coleman used to advocate.

Lying dumbbell rows
115s x 10, 12
125s x 10, 10, 10

Curls and light RE pressing

Knee hurt doing squats today. Got up to the minimum I needed, 385x5, and shut it down after the last rep, which was the worst. No serious injury, just some pain I think from being really relaxed and implementing lazy form.

Push press
225 x 2 (failed third)
225 x 5
245 x 1
Tested the waters on bench pressing first. Shoulder is much better but I stopped at 135 because of slight pain. As for the overhead pressing, balance was a significant issue, either from being out of practice or training in thick wool socks and running shoes due to the cold.

Incline dumbbell press
50s x 22, 17, 17, 16

Chin-ups
20, 20
45 x 12, 12
90 x 8

Dumbbell skullcrushers
50s x 8, 8, 7, 6

Alternating dumbbell curls
50s x 18
Bilateral
50s x 10, 8, 8

Band pull-aparts

Mat pulls (4)
515 x 7
Took two rest pauses to grind out reps 6 and 7. Back hasn't been feeling great lately so this was a win.

SSB squats
150 x 30, 25, 25

Didn't do anything for Thanksgiving this year again except work and training but my coworker brought me a plate of food, which was awesome of her.

Strict press
165 x 5
190 x 5
217.5 x 4

175 x 9, 8, 8, 8

Lying dumbbell rows
115s x 10, 12
125s x 10, 10, 10

Dumbbell press and curls

Deload

SSB squats
175 x 5
220 x 5
265 x 5

220 x 3 x 10

Deload

Incline bench press
185 x 8, 10, 8
135 x 17, 17, 17
Some shoulder pain, but I think I can keep this up and get better. Looks like I'm going to have to be patient and not rush into benching heavy.

Pull-ups
20, 20
45 x 10, 10
90 x 8

Curls
50s x 12

Deload

Mat pulls (7)
500 x 3
During the work-up sets I completely forgot to use chalk and double overhanded 405x5 pretty easily.

SSB squats
150 x 24, 17, 13

Shoulder is feeling better. Hoping I can bench heavy after this week but if not it's cool.