Upper body warm-up
ME Seated Overhead Press:
1x8 empty bar
1x5 65lbs
1x5 95lbs
1x5 105lbs
3x5 110lbs
Dynamic Vertical Pull:
6x1, 3 muscle-up, dynamic pull-up
2x4 dynamic pull-up
Horizontal Push:
2x6 2x65lbs DB bench
1x4 2x65lbs DB bench
Horizontal Pull:
3x8 2x60lbs bent over DB row
Elbow flexion:
3x6 chin-ups
---
Not the best day today. For the dynamic pull, I decided to stay afresh of the new skill I've picked up, so instead of sets of four explosive pulls, I had the first pull be a full muscle-up before continuing the set. Unfortunately, by the 7th and 8th set, I ran out of gas to muscle-up, so had to revert back to just four explosive pulls. I'm still getting this amazing "flying" feeling from the muscle-up, so that's cool.
The DB bench went up to 65, but I could only manage six reps. Fine by me, that's good enough. EXCEPT I failed on the third set to get over four. Shame. But it felt good, like I was really working, so I'm not too concerned. The rows got a little sloppy at the end, but nothing to really comment on there.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Thursday, July 16, 2009
DE Squats/RE Rack Pulls
Lower body warm-up
Explosive squats:
1x8 empty bar
2x3 95lbs
1x3 115lbs
1x3 135lbs
8x3 155lbs
RE Posterior:
5x8 205lbs rack pulls
Unilateral:
3x8 2x40lbs lunges, each leg
Calves:
4x8 95lbs seated calf raise
Weighted abs
---
Explosive squats:
1x8 empty bar
2x3 95lbs
1x3 115lbs
1x3 135lbs
8x3 155lbs
RE Posterior:
5x8 205lbs rack pulls
Unilateral:
3x8 2x40lbs lunges, each leg
Calves:
4x8 95lbs seated calf raise
Weighted abs
---
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
DE Bench/RE Pull-ups
Upper body warm-up
DE Bench:
1x8 empty bar
2x3 95lbs
8x3 115lbs
RE Pull-ups:
2x10 BW
2x6 BW
Vertical Push:
2x8 95lbs overhead press
1x6 95lbs overhead press
Horizontal Pull:
3x8 115lbs bent-over BB row
Elbow flexion:
4x2 75lbs strict curl
---
Sooo... That press sucked. Badly. I can't believe my delts are that weak. Ah well. Progress comes slowly. For the pull-ups, I had originally wanted to do four sets of ten, but.. that wasn't going to happen. LoL. And for the strict curl, I decided to go a bit heavier and see how many I could go. Didn't end well, but I think that's partially because it followed a pulling action. Decent day. Ate a ton afterward. feel sick.
Happy birthday to Animus! Whee.
DE Bench:
1x8 empty bar
2x3 95lbs
8x3 115lbs
RE Pull-ups:
2x10 BW
2x6 BW
Vertical Push:
2x8 95lbs overhead press
1x6 95lbs overhead press
Horizontal Pull:
3x8 115lbs bent-over BB row
Elbow flexion:
4x2 75lbs strict curl
---
Sooo... That press sucked. Badly. I can't believe my delts are that weak. Ah well. Progress comes slowly. For the pull-ups, I had originally wanted to do four sets of ten, but.. that wasn't going to happen. LoL. And for the strict curl, I decided to go a bit heavier and see how many I could go. Didn't end well, but I think that's partially because it followed a pulling action. Decent day. Ate a ton afterward. feel sick.
Happy birthday to Animus! Whee.
Monday, July 13, 2009
ME Squats/DE GHR - Parkour/Tire
Lower body warm-up
Circa-ME Squats:
1x8 45lbs Overhead
1x5 95lbs
1x5 115lbs
1x5 135lbs
3x8 185lbs
DE Hang Cleans:
3x3 115lbs
DE GHR:
6x4 BW explosive concentric/slow eccentric
Unilateral:
3x8 2x35lbs BSS, each side
Weighted abs
---
I've started doing full ROM squats as a way to get myself so used to breaking parallel that it'll be natural come competition time, but my strength out of the hole is pretty atrocious. I probably could have done 205 for a 5RM, but I'm going to go about it slowly and increase by maybe 10lbs each week. At the end, I'll go back to check how just breaking parallel feels.
Hours later, there was a Parkour session. I went into it feeling pretty well, but I really didn't expect to get so pissed off with everyone today. I am NOT going to use this blog as a venting site, but to be quite fair, I felt very early on like I was babysitting a bunch of 15 year olds, and then I blew up at Trevor for something when I was really just frustrated at everyone (to be fair, Trevor did something that I told him was off-limits - the only thing they REALLY get pissed off about - when we first met). SJ shares the blame, as well, since he was going for it, but.. what really pissed me off was just how they all acted like children the whole time. It wasn't until after yelling that those two were back down to a tolerable level, and there was only one child left... one that stuck around for much longer. Suffice to say, I have a short fuse. Exactly why I'm not fit to be a leader of any community.
Afte rthe Parkour session was a quick conditioning session involving the tire. It wasn't very long-lived, but it was entertainng enough and my legs are pretty much feeling it after all I did today. Good day, overall.
Circa-ME Squats:
1x8 45lbs Overhead
1x5 95lbs
1x5 115lbs
1x5 135lbs
3x8 185lbs
DE Hang Cleans:
3x3 115lbs
DE GHR:
6x4 BW explosive concentric/slow eccentric
Unilateral:
3x8 2x35lbs BSS, each side
Weighted abs
---
I've started doing full ROM squats as a way to get myself so used to breaking parallel that it'll be natural come competition time, but my strength out of the hole is pretty atrocious. I probably could have done 205 for a 5RM, but I'm going to go about it slowly and increase by maybe 10lbs each week. At the end, I'll go back to check how just breaking parallel feels.
Hours later, there was a Parkour session. I went into it feeling pretty well, but I really didn't expect to get so pissed off with everyone today. I am NOT going to use this blog as a venting site, but to be quite fair, I felt very early on like I was babysitting a bunch of 15 year olds, and then I blew up at Trevor for something when I was really just frustrated at everyone (to be fair, Trevor did something that I told him was off-limits - the only thing they REALLY get pissed off about - when we first met). SJ shares the blame, as well, since he was going for it, but.. what really pissed me off was just how they all acted like children the whole time. It wasn't until after yelling that those two were back down to a tolerable level, and there was only one child left... one that stuck around for much longer. Suffice to say, I have a short fuse. Exactly why I'm not fit to be a leader of any community.
Afte rthe Parkour session was a quick conditioning session involving the tire. It wasn't very long-lived, but it was entertainng enough and my legs are pretty much feeling it after all I did today. Good day, overall.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
RE Deadlifts/DE Squats
Lower body warm-up
RE Deadlifts:
1x8 135lbs
1x8 155lbs
1x8 185lbs
3x8 205lbs
DE Squats:
8x3 155lbs
Unilateral:
3x6 2x35lbs Lunges, each leg
Calves:
3x8 220lbs calf raise machine (full ROM)
Weighted abs
---
I'm adding in some calf isolation stuff just because I'm starting to realize just how lagging my calves are compared to the rest of my body (sorta like how my delts are crap compared to the rest of my upper body). The seated calf raise that doesn't use a cable pulley was occupied, so I had to use the machine, and I sorta regret that just because I'm not entirely sure how much weight I'm actually doing on the machine. But, whatever.
The squats, I'm trying to regain my full mobility by going A2G, but I'm feeling this great stretch at the bottom and it's REALLY difficult to explode out of it. This is well below parallel and I know for a competition, I'm going to want to just break parallel. I know what that feels like, though (it's the moment I begin to feel any sort of stretch in my hip adductors). I know I'm much weaker out of the bottom than I used to be, so it'll have to be a slow progression.
RE Deadlifts:
1x8 135lbs
1x8 155lbs
1x8 185lbs
3x8 205lbs
DE Squats:
8x3 155lbs
Unilateral:
3x6 2x35lbs Lunges, each leg
Calves:
3x8 220lbs calf raise machine (full ROM)
Weighted abs
---
I'm adding in some calf isolation stuff just because I'm starting to realize just how lagging my calves are compared to the rest of my body (sorta like how my delts are crap compared to the rest of my upper body). The seated calf raise that doesn't use a cable pulley was occupied, so I had to use the machine, and I sorta regret that just because I'm not entirely sure how much weight I'm actually doing on the machine. But, whatever.
The squats, I'm trying to regain my full mobility by going A2G, but I'm feeling this great stretch at the bottom and it's REALLY difficult to explode out of it. This is well below parallel and I know for a competition, I'm going to want to just break parallel. I know what that feels like, though (it's the moment I begin to feel any sort of stretch in my hip adductors). I know I'm much weaker out of the bottom than I used to be, so it'll have to be a slow progression.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
ME SOHP/DE Pull-ups
Upper body warm-up
ME Seated Overhead Press:
1x8 45lbs (empty bar)
1x5 65lbs
1x5 95lbs
1x3 115lbs
3x5 105lbs
DE Pull-ups:
6x4 BW to chest
Horizontal Press:
3x8 2x60lbs DB bench
Horizontal Pull:
3x6 2x60lbs DB bent-over row
---
You may take notice that this format is quite different from the standard WS4SB format that I've been following. I came to realize that DeFranco's reason for supersetting the shoulder movements is because of his own anatomical shortcoming (he explains in a 2006 "Ask Joe" entry). I'd known this for awhile, but went with it anyway, partially in fear of my own shoulder calamity. But I came to realize that the press is just too valuable to NOT do.
It was also around this time that I figured out that there are four main upper body movements to be trained: vertical press, vertical pull, horizontal press, and horizontal pull. Another thing I found distasteful about the Westside program is that while it works really well for the general athlete, I would lose the "groove" of certain lifts during the cycles where I wouldn't be doing them in any variation. So I took a page from Eric Cressey.. Train ALL the movements, but don't go heavy on all of them.
I have it set up now that there are still two ME days a week, but also two RE days. At the same time, following the ME/RE of any lift will be the dynamic lift of the antagonist movement. Like Westside, it is still conjugated and variations are switched regularly, but this also means that my pull-ups will not falter and I won't lose the technical mastery over the lifts.
When it comes right down to it, I've really just made my program much simpler than it was before. I'm starting to realize that complication isn't going to get me anywhere. All those supersets did very little for my shoulders, but a heavy press could very well remedy that.
ME Seated Overhead Press:
1x8 45lbs (empty bar)
1x5 65lbs
1x5 95lbs
1x3 115lbs
3x5 105lbs
DE Pull-ups:
6x4 BW to chest
Horizontal Press:
3x8 2x60lbs DB bench
Horizontal Pull:
3x6 2x60lbs DB bent-over row
---
You may take notice that this format is quite different from the standard WS4SB format that I've been following. I came to realize that DeFranco's reason for supersetting the shoulder movements is because of his own anatomical shortcoming (he explains in a 2006 "Ask Joe" entry). I'd known this for awhile, but went with it anyway, partially in fear of my own shoulder calamity. But I came to realize that the press is just too valuable to NOT do.
It was also around this time that I figured out that there are four main upper body movements to be trained: vertical press, vertical pull, horizontal press, and horizontal pull. Another thing I found distasteful about the Westside program is that while it works really well for the general athlete, I would lose the "groove" of certain lifts during the cycles where I wouldn't be doing them in any variation. So I took a page from Eric Cressey.. Train ALL the movements, but don't go heavy on all of them.
I have it set up now that there are still two ME days a week, but also two RE days. At the same time, following the ME/RE of any lift will be the dynamic lift of the antagonist movement. Like Westside, it is still conjugated and variations are switched regularly, but this also means that my pull-ups will not falter and I won't lose the technical mastery over the lifts.
When it comes right down to it, I've really just made my program much simpler than it was before. I'm starting to realize that complication isn't going to get me anywhere. All those supersets did very little for my shoulders, but a heavy press could very well remedy that.
Monday, July 6, 2009
ME Lower Body
Lower body warm-up
ME Squats:
1x8 135lbs
1x5 185lbs
1x5 205lbs
1x5 225lbs
1x3 245lbs
1x1 275lbs
1x1 295lbs
3x1 315lbs
Posterior:
3x5 35lbs GHR
---
Aahh.. Finally, back to squatting! I suppose I never logged it, and truth be told, I haven't had much interest in logging these things lately, but two weeks ago, I injured myself through some drunken antics which caused my heel to not be able to touch the ground upon penalty of ridiculous pain. I still have a limp, actually, but I can squat again. The past two weeks have been nothing but upper body, and I probably should have just done machines while I was injured, but.. live and learn.
My legs get super sore, now, as i nticed on my first squat day since being injured on Thursday. I felt much more comfortable training 1RM today because I need to gradually get my legs back to doing high volume, but it seems okay with high intensity. Another thing I've noticed is that my ROM has decreased, so even though I got back to my former max, I was an inch above parallel. I need to spend more time on soft tissue work and stretching to see if that will help my squat get lower. All the same, it's just really nice to be able to squat again.
I avoided unilateral because after the squats, my legs were already feeling it and I expected there to be Parkour today (no one showed and I was sore, so I headed home). Gradually going back to the lower body will have to be the name of the game. I might do an RE on Thursday rather than a DE. We'll see.
ME Squats:
1x8 135lbs
1x5 185lbs
1x5 205lbs
1x5 225lbs
1x3 245lbs
1x1 275lbs
1x1 295lbs
3x1 315lbs
Posterior:
3x5 35lbs GHR
---
Aahh.. Finally, back to squatting! I suppose I never logged it, and truth be told, I haven't had much interest in logging these things lately, but two weeks ago, I injured myself through some drunken antics which caused my heel to not be able to touch the ground upon penalty of ridiculous pain. I still have a limp, actually, but I can squat again. The past two weeks have been nothing but upper body, and I probably should have just done machines while I was injured, but.. live and learn.
My legs get super sore, now, as i nticed on my first squat day since being injured on Thursday. I felt much more comfortable training 1RM today because I need to gradually get my legs back to doing high volume, but it seems okay with high intensity. Another thing I've noticed is that my ROM has decreased, so even though I got back to my former max, I was an inch above parallel. I need to spend more time on soft tissue work and stretching to see if that will help my squat get lower. All the same, it's just really nice to be able to squat again.
I avoided unilateral because after the squats, my legs were already feeling it and I expected there to be Parkour today (no one showed and I was sore, so I headed home). Gradually going back to the lower body will have to be the name of the game. I might do an RE on Thursday rather than a DE. We'll see.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)