Deload

Goblet squats:
50 x 40, 30, 20

Couch pistols:
5

Light ab work

Deload

Overhead press:
105 x 5
130 x 5
160 x 5

125 x 4 x 10

Chin-ups:
5 x 10

Incline skullcrushers:
45s x 12

Spider curls:
40s x 15

Still feeling the effects of last week. My right bicep was still a little sore from Kroc rows on Thursday, amazingly.

Thursday:

Squats:
350 x 5
400 x 3
445 x 4

Deadlifts:
427 x 2
• Back was just too tired

SSB squats:
325 x 11

GHR:
25

I am beat. Time to deload.

Bench press:
265 x 5
300 x 3
335 x 3
• Pleased with how easy this was. Might have been good for a 4th but it would have been ugly. My previous bench record was 330x3 in 2009 so I'm glad to have surpassed that finally.

Kroc rows:
170 x 25
• Soul-sucking.

Incline bench press:
205 x 10, 10, 10, 10
• Had to rest pause to get this, but at least that meant I pause benched. I don't have much steam left for my assistance lifts on upper-body days. For my next exercise selections I'm going to bring the Swiss bar back.

Bilateral dumbbell rows:
100s x 15, 15, 15, 15

Chest, curls, rear-delts

Did five minute Tabata of various movements like shadowboxing, kicks, mountain-climbers, and kettlebell swings, then a one hour walk at a brisk pace.

SSB squats:
340 x 2 x 5

Deadlifts:
405 x 3
502 x 1
• No belt or straps. I haven't gone straight-edge, but last year my form deteriorated as I let my belted back do more over my legs and hips. Eventually 405 I found almost impossible when raw. My fault, but I need to do this as I learn to fly again.
• Wanted to go up to 535 and beat my PR but I decided instead to work with a training max that I can own every time.

SSB squats:
340 x 5

SSB holds:
600 x 3 x 12 secs
510 x 10 secs

Neck work

SSB squats:
150 x 33

GHR:
20

CoC:
#1 x 10

Push press:
225 x 5
255 x 4
280 x 1, 0, 0
• No lockout again.

Overhead press:
177 x 10, 9, 8, 7

Chin-ups:
6 x 12
15

Overhead holds:
225, 255, 275 x 3-5 seconds
• I think I came up with a kickass exercise here. Basically, I'm isolating the lockout that I wasn't able to achieve. Aside from just practicing stability I'm also hitting abs.

Skull crushers:
55s x 8
25s x 20

Spider curls:
55s x 10
25s x 15

Rear-delts

30 minute jog, then walked home for about 25 minutes.

Squats:
330 x 3
375 x 3
420 x 7

Deadlifts:
422 x 5

Hungry, so that's it. Breakfast was dialed in, but this time I simply didn't eat enough.

Edit:

Goblet squats at night:
50 x 57

Sick and sniffly. Also trained hungry. Gotta stop these 3-hour long breakfasts and just force-feed myself something in the morning quick(er).

Bench press:
240 x 3
280 x 3
317 x 5
• Was hoping for 6 or 7, but oh well, pretty good. Can't expect a PR every session anymore. A year of that was amazing enough.

Incline bench press:
205 x 3 x 10
205 x 8

Bilateral dumbbell rows:
100s x 5 x 15

Slow dumbbell press:
30s x 25
20s x 30
15s x 30
• Some pec-tendon pain with the 30s. Might go back to wide push-ups instead.

Swiss bar preacher curls:
107 x 10
35 x 20 (slow)

No rear-delt work, wanted to get home and spend new year's eve with my girlfriend. Will throw some in either later or tomorrow. Probably a good thing to let my pecs rest, too.

SSB box squats:
330 x 5

Deadlifts:
405 x 5

SSB squats:
340 x 5

Walkouts:
510 x 12 sec

SSB squats:
150 x 30

Neck work

GHR:
20

Goblet squats:
50 x 50

V-ups for abs

Fun day. No hard structure here, just wanted to hit some of the parts that'll make my deadlift and squat stronger. I was thinking about going heavy on deads but my core is trashed.

Push press:
225 x 5
255 x 3
280 x 0, 0, 1, 0, 0
• As with last time I didn't lockout, which I would count as 0 on other lifts, but I find that as long as the weight gets up there my press goes up, so it's a rep as far as what I need to accomplish.
• My push press form is awful. I had a tendency today especially (possibly because my lower body is still destroyed from squat day) to sink down and pause before trying to explode up, which always resulted in failure. Standing too wide made my explosion weaker, as well, because it took a shorter range of motion for it to become too deep.

Chins:
5 x 12
11
• So much better on my pec-tendons than pull-ups, although I still stop before my speed slows down too much.

Overhead press:
177 x 9, 7, 7
• Rather than try to grind my way to a rep PR I increased the weight and decreased the rest times to make an attainable record go by faster.

Swiss bar OHP:
125 x 13
85 x 15

Skullcrushers:
40s x 10

Spider curls:
50s x 10

Band pull-aparts:
50

Can't wait for UFC 168 tonight.

Squats:
300 x 5
350 x 5
400 x 10
• Very excited about this.

Deadlifts:
417 x 5
• Doing linear progression back up. I need a long period of retraining my CNS to power the weight up.

SSB squats:
322 x 10, 10, 8
• Tweaked my back on the final rep, which was the amount I was going to do anyway, coincidentally. My back has been feeling much better lately, though. Just gotta keep it up and bring in yoga again.

Neck work

Glute-ham raises:
15

RIP my Xperia Play, as much of a crappy phone it turned out to be. One more week until I can get a new one. In the meantime, I've had to make do with my old broken Droid as a music player.

Hiked with the gf for Christmas, keeping in tradition with what I used to do with George back in CA.

Afterwards, went and saw 47 Ronin, which was goofy as hell but had good moments. Defragging Terminator scum in the arcade afterward made it all positively merry.

Christmas Eve training.

Bench press:
230 x 5
265 x 5
300 x 8
• Upper-body was sore so I anticipated doing only 5, but the bar felt light.

Bent-over rows:
225 x 15, 12, 15, 12
↓
Incline bench press:
205 x 10, 10, 10
• The outer edge of my left hand hurt when gripping to remove my wrist cloths. Do more hand extension exercises (e.g. with broccoli bands).

Dumbbell press:
35s x 30
25s x 25
• Very slow and wide to promote chest hypertrophy, something I took from Wade Johnson. Harder than I thought, amazingly. Forearms felt fried.

Swiss bar preacher curls:
85 x 13

Kettlebell rows:
50 x 50

Band pull-aparts:
40

A man was training his son in the gym today and he commented in a complimentary fashion to him how long my warm-up was, which prompted me chat him up. He said my legs look like tree trunks.

Goblet squats:
50 x 55, 50, 45

Partial pistols:
5

Overhead press:
172 x 5
197 x 5
227 x 4, 3
• Couldn't get a 5th, even when adding only 2 pounds per cycle instead of 5.

175 x 10, 10, 10
• A small victory.
↓
Pull-ups:
10, 10, 10, 10
Chin-ups:
12, 12

Overhead dumbbell press:
60s x 14
40s x 20
• Harder than I thought but I was wiped, and made my pec-tendon hurt, surprisingly.

Skullcrushers:
50s x 7

Spider curls:
50s x 13
12

Facepulls:
Stack x 15

Rear-delt flyes:
35s x 14

Deload

Squats:
185 x 5
230 x 5
275 x 5

Deadlifts:
365 x 5

SSB squats:
220 x 3 x 10

Deload

Bench press:
140 x 5
175 x 5
210 x 5

Bilateral dumbbell rows:
80s x 10, 10, 10, 10, 10
↓
Incline bench press:
155 x 10, 10, 10, 10

Decline push-ups:
20

My lovely boyfriend, Hormuz,  and I are enjoying imported beers and each other. <3 He trains hard, so I spoil him well. <3

Deload

Goblet squats:
50 x 40, 30, 20

Deload

Overhead press:
105 x 5
130 x 5
160 x 5
135 x 10, 10, 10

Pull-ups:
10, 10, 10

Lat pulldowns:
220 x 15
Arnold press
65s x 10

Literally copied-and-pasted this from last time.

40-minute jog this morning, then walked home. Finally got our fridge replaced so I can eat fresh foods again.

Squats:
345 x 5
390 x 3
435 x 5
• Holy shit, this was easy.

Deadlifts:
412 x 5
• Couldn't even do 405x1 a few days ago. So yeah, I definitely deadlift better at this point in time after squats. Again, it's entirely mental, and I'm considering a max pull on this day until I get my psyche in order. After squats I don't feel shy about my back, I just bend and rip it up.

SSB squats:
320 x 10 x 3 x 10
• Felt extremely light. I even checked the bar again to make sure I was squatting in the 300s.

Neck machine:
100 x 10, 10
↓
Neck crunches:
25 x 10, 10

Deadlifts:
315 x 15

SSB holds:
600 x 10 seconds
510 x 12
420 x 12

Bench press:
260 x 5
295 x 3
330 x 3
• Failed a 4th. For some reason I was lowering slow this session and almost doing a pause bench, so that's not too bad all things considered.

Kroc rows:
165 x 27
• Was way harder on my left side than my right, for some reason. Couldn't get into a natural-feeling position.

Incline bench press:
202 x 10, 10, 10, 10

Meadows rows:
100 x 10, 10

Inverted rows:
200 x 15, 15

Decline push-ups:
17, 15
•Wide to narrow.

Swiss bar preacher curls:
110 x 6
85 x 9

Band pull-aparts

30 minute jog yesterday, and 30 minute walk home.

So, my freezer caught on fire today.

 

Just a ridiculous situation. Still waiting for them to come over and wheel the smelly thing out (the manager office is not supposed to be closed on Sunday). I've had some chest pains from breathing in smoke. 

How much of a dumbass fire do you have to be to try and burn in a freezer?

Deadlifts:
405 x 0, 1

SSB walkout:
490 x 10 sec

SSB squats:
335 x 5, 1
• Back tweaked.

Neck machine:
100 x 10
↓
Neck crunches:
25 x 10
• New icon for super-sets.

SSB squats:
150 x 30, 20

It's clear that I need to get my back health in order before I can be good at the deadlift. Keep up the yoga, go on walks, etc.

Back from anniversary beach stay. Diet was very good, sleep was not.

Overhead press:
195 x 5
225 x 3
250 x 1

175 x 10, 10, 9, 8

Pull-ups:
10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10

Incline skullcrushers:
50s x 10

One-arm lat pulldowns:
200 x 13

Rear-delt flyes:
20s x 25, 20, 15

Spider curls:
45s x 15, 10, 10

10 minutes of foam rolling and stretching both Saturday and Sunday night.

Squats:
320 x 3
365 x 3
410 x 6
> Interesting. It seems that my squats suffer worse from infrequency than my upper-body. Felt weak, but if I can hit that on a bad day then things are going well.


Deadlifts:
405 x 2, 1
> The weight started sliding off to one side so I had to stop and fetch clips. Was only able to hit 1 after resuming because my back felt bad. Reps were fast enough to just treat these as speed deadlifts.

Goblet squats:
50 x 55, 46. 45

Reverse crunches:
15

Bench press:
245 x 3
280 x 3
315 x 6
> Getting good leg drive by consciously squeezing my glutes everytime I press up. Feels kind of like a glute raise without the raise part.

Bilateral dumbbell rows:
100s x 13, 13, 12, 12

Incline bench press:
200 X 10, 10, 10

Decline push-ups:
30, 23, 15
> Progressively going from super wide to narrow.

Inverted rows:
30, 25

Pull-ups:
10
> Couldn't even hold onto the bar so had to use straps, embarrassingly. My forearms are fried.

Kettlebell preacher curls:
50 x 13
Both arms: 50 x 25, 20

Band pull-aparts
41, 31
> Some pain in right pec tendon. Blame it on the wide push-up set.

Hadn't lifted in almost a week, but strength was as good as ever. Sleep has been bad. I am done staying up all night to fix my sleeping schedule. The only way for me is to make myself wake up at a certain time. I hadn't been doing this because I wanted to get enough sleep but that didn't work out anyway AND I'm waking up in the late afternoon still.

Also, after a full day of not eating any real food (still did what I needed to do by munching on walnuts, blocks of cheddar cheese, and whey), it felt awesome to have a Thanksgiving feast with my girlfriend.

I also finally got the fridge fixed and my diet should be easier now. The thing had been leaking constantly before up and dying, which put me in crisis mode as I fought to prevent all our food from spoiling.

Didn't get around to recording 390x9 squat and 55, 45, 40 kettlebell squats.

Overhead press:
185 x 3
210 x 3
235 x 3

Pull-ups:
10 10 10 10 10 10

Overhead press:
175 x 10, 9
135 x 5, 4, 2
45 x 10

Chin-ups:
10 10

Decline push-ups:
24

Bench press:
225 x 5
265 x 5
295 x 9
> Touch-and-go, but oh well. Wasn't expecting to get such a PR.

Bilateral dumbbell rows:
100s x 12, 12, 12, 12

Incline bench press:
197 x 10, 10, 10
> Short rest times, so this was good.

Decline push-ups:
25, 21, 20
> Increasingly widened my arms to go from triceps to chest.

Inverted rows:
30, 22, 25

Band pull-aparts:
30, 30

Kettlebell preacher curls:
50 x 12
Bilateral: 50 x 20

Despite a stressful week my upper-body strength is surging. I'm constantly up for very long periods at a time but also getting 10 hours of sleep after crashing, so I can't complain. Creatine might also be helping. I heard of a recent study focusing on just how anti-catabolic creatine is at preserving muscle tissue in...I think what was either starved mice or human burn victims. Definitely want to dig that up because I don't really notice an acute performance boost from creatine otherwise in terms of getting more reps and whatnot.

I'm also allowing my diet to go to hell when need be by drinking lots of milk when time is tight and I'm on the go. I am very okay with this. I'm in no rush for any deadline to lose weight and it's easier to re-lose a few gained pounds than it is to rebound after losing strength. Still, I would do well to come up with some homemade meal replacement recipe that I can go to in a pinch instead of sugary fixes like milk.

Falling off the dietary wagon for me used to mean not eating for long periods of time and getting weaker; now it's shoveling things down and getting protein in, body composition-be-damned. It's a good change.

Kettlebell goblet squats:
50 lbs x 50, 40, 40
> Fell asleep and took a short nap after the first set, then woke and finished the rest.

Overhead press:
170 x 5
195 x 5
225 x 4
225 x 5
> The push press plan worked. Would have gotten 5 on the first set but I tweaked my neck again - goddamn, this is getting ridiculous. Going to start being vigilant about isolating my neck from on. Very happy with this, especially about getting a successful 5 with neck pain.

175 x 10, 8, 8

One-arm lat pulldowns:
200 x 12, 12, 12

Pull-ups:
10, 10

Kettlebell skullcrushers (unilateral):
50 x 12

Kettlebell preacher curls (unilateral):
50 x 12, 12

Deload

Bench press:
140 x 5
170 x 5
205 x 5

Dumbbell rows:
80s x 10, 10, 10, 10, 10

Incline bench press:
155 x 10, 10, 10, 10

Decline push-ups:
20

Deload with kettlebell squats, of sorts.

40, 30, 20

I'm pleased with how 30+ has become easy and that I can now hit 50 no problem. I remember my second time doing these getting 35 as a max and thinking Jesus, did I really do 50 last time?

Deload

Overhead press:
105 x 5
130 x 5
160 x 5
135 x 10, 10, 10

Pull-ups:
10, 10, 10

Lat pulldowns:
220 x 15
Arnold press
65s x 10

Squats:
335 x 5
380 x 3
425 x 5
> High rep bodyweight and kettlebell squats are doing wonders for my numbers.

Deadlifts:
405 x 5
> Just a maintenance set. Hoping to make 405 the new 315. I think I'm going to spend next cycle just pulling for strong reps and then attempt a max after.

SSB squats:
317 x 10, 10, 5
> Felt a small tweak in my back so I stopped. Completely better now, but I think I should start doing yoga again.

Neck machine:
100 x 10

Bench press:
255 x 5
290 x 3
325 x 4
> Good leg drive. Warm-ups felt heavy and max set light.

Incline bench press:
195 x 10, 10, 10, 8

Kroc rows:
165 x 26

Inverted rows:
30, 20

Decline push-ups:
30

Band pull-aparts:
50

Kettlebell goblet squats:
50 lbs x 50, 35, 40

Was mostly trying to get a lot of reps in just a few sets and I don't care about hypertrophy so I took my sweet time with these. Basically I did sets in-between relaxing around the house. I do acknowledge a lot of value in short rest times but cramps set in for me with legs.

Lots to record.

Unsuccessful deadlift session last week, again. I've come to realize that I need to practice not failing at the deadlift. For a little bit I'm going to stick to 405 and shoot for rep PRs.

Decent squat day, 405x6. Back was fatigued, mostly.

Push pressed 255x3 again but failed 275. I actually got 275 up multiple times but couldn't lockout.

I'm loading on creatine as an aid for cutting weight. Second day today, gotta remember to take it every meal for loading.

And with that, I'm off for some Halloweening.

Bench press:
240 x 5
275 x 3
310 x 6

Bilateral dumbbell rows:
100s x 11, 10, 10, 10, 12

Incline bench press:
192 x 10, 10, 10, 10

Decline push-ups:
25

Spider curls:
45s x 12

Facepulls:
20

Push press:
225 x 5
255 x 3
275 x 0, 0
255 x 3

Pull-ups:
10, 10, 10

Overhead press:
172 x 10, 10, 10

Overhead skullcrushers:
87 x 14

One-arm lat pulldowns:
12, 12

Forgot to record my deadlift day. Failed 535 again but had a small victory from being able to hold on to 365x8 overhand. Wasn't hard but I've never really tried it over 315 before. I have a goal for doing that with 405x5.

I've been wrecking my back and enjoying the assistance work in the meantime so I'm not frustrated.

Squats:
290 x 5
335 x 5
380 x 6
> Had to stop because my back was so fatigued. I wore it out doing deadlifts and then barbell rows yesterday kept that going.

SSB squats:
240 x 15, 9, 6

Bench press:
225 x 5
255 x 5
290 x 8

Bent-over rows:
207 x 10

Incline bench press:
190 x 10, 10, 10, 10

Bilateral dumbbell rows:
100s x 10, 10, 10, 10

Decline push-ups:
21

Spider curls:
40s x 12

Overhead press:
170 x 5
195 x 5
225 x 3, 4
> Couldn't get 5. I've gone over a year without failing a training day (not counting deadlifts). It's been a fantastic run. I will be training push presses for the next three weeks and retry next cycle.

One-arm lat pulldowns:
200 x 12, 11, 11, 11
Two: 220 x 20

Arnold press:
75s x 10, 10, 10, 10

Rear-delt flyes:
25s x 20, 20

Swiss bar preacher curls:
95 x 10

I'm cutting weight. I like the way I feel better in the 205 lb area. Also importantly, I find that my strength capacity is the same there as it is 240+. Only difference up there is that I'm fatter. Sure, the journey on that weight gain yields great results, but I can be just as strong light as I can heavier at the end of the day; it just might not happen as rapidly.

I think my era of dramatic bulks is over, aside from competition aspirations (as it stands, though, the 198 lb weight class sounds dandy).

This will be done slowly. My only changes this week are to halve my milk intake, lessen my sugar intake post-workout, and to avoid ice cream for dessert.

Deload

Squats:
175 x 5
220 x 5
265 x 5

SSB squats:
205 x 10, 10, 10

Reverse crunches

Deload

Bench press:
135 x 5
170 x 5
205 x 5

Dumbbell rows:
80s x 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10

Incline bench press:
155 x 10, 10, 10, 10, 10

Deload

Deadlifts:
Up to 365 x 5
275 x 10

SSB squats:
275 x 3 x 5