Max Deadlift

So today is my "rest week," which really means "break from my programming week." My plan isn't really to take it easy, but rather to just do something besides what I normally program for these days. I figure it will help refresh me mentally while still letting work hard and make gains physically. Cool stuff.

Anyways, I decided to do a max deadlift today. Originally, I was planning on doing a max deficit dead, but I decided to just pull conventional for 2 reasons: 1: I wanted to try pulling with my hips a little lower than at my mock meet, and see if that helped with my weight/back rounding, and 2: Last time I pulled it was after max squat and max bench, so I wanted to test my heavy dead while I was fresh.

Yeahhhh

SO, warmed up, jumping 40 lbs a set. weights are a little weird because of the bumpers my gym has, but here's how it looked:

85 x 3
125 x 3
165 x 3
205 x 2 singles
245 x 1
285 x 1
325 x 1
365 x 1
375 x 1

It felt really good to pull with my hips slightly lower. My back did go a little bit on the heavy reps, but no worse than it did at 355, and this was 20 lbs heavier. Overall, I'm crazy psyched about a 20 lb pr today. When i came to school in september (so only about 8 months ago, give or take), my max dead was 275. So over the course of this year, I've put 100 lbs on this lift. Pretty awesome. Here's videos.

365, back doesn't round much and it's pretty fast

375, back gets pretty round but nothing too bad, and it still moved pretty nicely

So, obviously my deadlift training is on track. Things to work on: as soon as I get the bar over my knees, I push my knees forward and slide the bar up my thighs... It's not a hitch, but it still would be better to NOT do that. So I'm going to work on that with my speed work for the next few cycles.

Afterwards, I was pretty shaky and tired, but I had in my head that I wanted to squat for 3 sets of 5 - 10 reps. I worked up to 225, and did that for a set of 10 that was hard but not miserable. After that set, my friend Josh told me to make sure not to cut my squats off at exactly parallel, but instead to sink into it a little further and make use of my stretch reflex. Doing this felt GREAT, and I think it could really help me on max attempts to MAKE SURE I'm doing that exact same thing. Anyways, ended up getting another  2 pretty easy sets of 10 at 225. Very happy with this, that's some quality assistance work on any day, never mind after a max deadlift.

Anyways, pretty awesome day, had a lot of fun and kicked ass. Looking forward to the rest of the week.... although I'm feeling that dead, definitely looking forward to upper body more than lower body for the rest of the week!

Heavy day.

Today is heavy day. I didn't sleep well last night cause I had to get up early-ish this morning, so I slept from about 1-1:30 until 8. BUT, I felt alright anyways. Had a big breakfast (cheat has been AMAZING), and a little caffeine, then went to the gym. My body wasn't enjoying moving, I felt achey and creaky, but at the same time my squats felt pretty fluid - my movement was all good, my muscles just didn't like it.

SO I warmed up, hit 225 for 3, then 275 for an okay single, then 295 for a single. It was pretty tough, hard enough that I didn't want to push any heavier, but I decided to take it again for a few more singles. Second rep felt better than the first, and the third rep was hard, but very solid and again, fluid. Pretty happy with all that, that's 90% of 325, and I did it on an iffy day without a belt. Nice.

Even though I want to always squat up to a heavy single Saturdays now, so I'm squatting heavy 3 times a week, I still want to do at least 1 other heavy movement as well when I'm feeling up to it. Today I decided to jerk. I hit 165, 185, and 205 with relative ease. I got 215 as well (my old pr) without much problem, but at that weight I started to get a little sloppy, and my hurt my wrist a little bit, so I decided to just call it there. I tied my PR, and it wasn't worth risking injuring my wrist over a movement I really don't care about. Plus, that 215 was easy enough that I know I can get a PR next time I try, so that's cool. I think i'm gonna start working on doing it from behind the neck one saturday soon, so I can put up even more weight. Go heavy or go home.

So, solid day. Two more things: first, i'm liking the diet so far. Mentally, it's really nice to have a big cheat every week. Physically, I think I am still losing body fat, although it's definitely too early to tell. I'll give it a few more weeks, and then report. Second, realized today that next month, my heaviest overhead press is only 145 again, which is nice. That gives me a full 2 months to work on strength right off the chest from a dead stop, before I have to attempt 150. Should be good, man.

Get ready for some fun workouts starting monday.

Tom Platz says FUCK YEAH

The Volcano

Today I felt like a volcano of power. It was awesome.

Yeah. Like That. 

My breakfast was horrible, because I woke up late and there were no eggs left, so instead I had chicken breast for breakfast. That's fuckin GROSS. But, I also had coffee (because I spilled my coffee on tuesday, and I like to caffinate at least twice a week), and that made me hyped to get to the gym.

Got there, warmed up and worked up, then put 190 on the bar and started the clock. I did ten sets of one on the minute. At first, then were moving well, but I wasn't as tight as I should have been. As the sets went on, I tightened up, so even though the reps got harder I really had no problem hitting all ten singles, which is pretty awesome. The 9 x 1 week seems to be the easiest... 9 x 3 is definitely the hardest. They all feel really good though.

This picture is awesome.

Next up was overhead pressing. Worked up to 145, and got it for 3 reps. Problem is, rep 1 is really hard - after I get it for one, my stretch reflex made 2 easy and 3 was about as hard as 1. But I really need to work on my strength on that initial press, from a dead stop off my chest, otherwise next month 150 is going to be rough. I think that wheat I'm going to do it warm up as normal, do my heavy set as normal, and then when I go back down and do the last two sets to failure, I'm going to pause between reps, doing each one from a dead stop. This way, I will still be able to do the heavy set for max reps, but I'll also get some practice pressing heavy weights from a dead stop off my chest. Hopefully, this will make 150 x max do-able next cycle

Pendelay rows felt really good. Basically, I've learned that doing rows heavy with shittier form works way better for me than doing them really strict. Today, I used my straps and rowed 165 for three sets of 10+ reps. Really felt it in my lats, it's good.

Dumbbell bench was good, did the 55's for 16, then 45's for 10 and 35's for 9. I was pretty tired from the other pressing, so I just hit these hard and fast.

Finally, lat pulldowns at 170 were no problem really. I even tried to be stricter with them than I normally am, and they still weren't hard at all. Next week I'm gonna ramp them up to 180. Then it's bye bye to pulldowns and hello to pullups again.

SO, thus ends my last workout of the cycle, and my last scheduled workout for a little bit. Next week, I can pretty much go in and do whatever I feel like - I'm just gonna go heavy most days - then I'll probably take both saturday AND sunday off, and start my new cycle right after that, rested, back at home, and ready to FUCK SHIT UP. It's gonna be good.

Astaroth says: IT WILL RAIN BLOOD THAT DAY

Fuck Speed Squats

So I have a confession to make. Over the past few weeks, I have been doubting the effectiveness of speed squats in my programming. I used to think they helped a lot, but that's when my squat technique was different - wider stance, lower bar, etc. Ever since I switched up my form a little bit, I've basically been feeling like the speed squats are not really worth doing.... I basically just try to get through them and then hit that heavy single. However, I didn't want to get rid of them, because since my squat is getting stronger, why change anything?

then again... heavy is so much more fun....

BUT, today was the day that that needed to change. I decided to try something a little different, to do that for the next 6 weeks or so, and see if I like it better than the speed squats. Instead of speed squatting, then working to a heavy single, I decided to work up to the heavy single fresh, then drop the weight back down by about a third, and then work up in triples to a heavy set of 3.

SO, warmed up, and felt really great today. That smoothness of movement that I felt monday definitely carried over to today, and I'm really feeling comfortable moving the weight lately. Squatted up to 225 x 3 without the belt, then hit 275 x 2 with the belt. That moved really well, and even though I was nervous about making the jump straight to 315, I did it, and ripped the weight. Here's the vid:

Then, I decided to push to 325. I really didn't want to fail, but I figured it was worth the risk, and I was right, because I moved that really quick too. Here's the vid:

Pretty awesome. A ten pound pr is something to be very happy about without being fully rested. After that rep, I dropped the weight back down to 225. I hit that for three, then 245, then 265, then 285 for a hard triple (all without the belt). Again, this is pretty awesome - a new 3rm, AFTER hitting a new 1rm.

After this, I was planning on taking my good mornings slow, but a kid asked if he could work in with me, and HE was moving pretty fast, so I had to move quick to keep up... so i did 135 x 15, 185 x 10, and 225 x 6, all within a span of sub-ten minutes.

Overall, it was an AMAZING day. new 1rm, new 3rm, and a rep record at 225 for Good mornings. SO, so far cutting speed squats seems like a GREAT idea. We will see if progress keeps up, and if my body is going to be able to handle squatting heavy 3 times a week. But lets hope the Squat Strength keeps coming.

Arms

Just cause

Today was a fun arms day. I was planning on doing some overhead pressing for triceps, but when I got to the gym it was pretty empty, so I took advantage of the fact that I could grab a bench right away and hopped on. I warmed up, then started benching: bar x 15, 75 x 10, 95 x 5, 115 x 5. Then, I decided to just rep out 135 for as many as I could. I ended up getting 18, which is pretty awesome - that beats my all time record at that weight, 17, and when I did that 17 I had horrible form that fell apart completely once i worked up to heavier weights. So, a rep PR, after benching a shitload yesterday. Pretty cool.

Next, I decided to start O. Pressing to finish off my triceps. I loaded 4 ten lb plates on either side, and decided to just strip a plate off each side, repping each weight out for as many as I could. Looked like this:

125 x 6
105 x 7
85 x 8
65 x 12

HUGE man

Not bad considering the benching I just did, and my triceps were pretty done so I moved on to biceps. Didn't feel like preacher curling today so I did some seated isolation curls with the 25's, 3 sets to failure, then did a finisher set with the 17.5's. After that, I decided to play around a little bit with flexing/posing my biceps to help finish them off. I've read/heard that posing can help with muscle development as well... I don't know how much it will actually do, but I figure playing around with it after my arms are already too tired to lift anything else won't hurt. It feels HORRIBLE to do, I don;t know how bodybuilders get a pump and then do that with their whole body. But I think I'll keep working at it for a few weeks and see if I feel like it makes any difference in size/fullness.

ARMS

Anyways, fun day. Gotta rest up for tomorrow now!

Strange press, AMAZING pull day

Today was a very solid day. Benching felt a little off, but pulling especially went really well, and overall it was a great workout.

Warmed up on my benching, and felt pretty good. Work sets went like this:

150 x 5
170 x 3
190 x 3

That third rep at 190 was pretty tough - no chance of missing it, but hard enough that I definitely would not have tried for 4. I'm pretty happy with 3 - that's a new 3 rep max - but I was hoping that that third rep would be a little easier. Still, very good.

Bench pain. OW

Next was my 5 x 10 bench, and this is where I really felt like I was having a tough bench day. I used the same weight as last week, 125, but set up kind of weird on the first set which made that set tough. After than, I was able to make it through the final 4 sets (with 11 reps on the 5th), but they felt MUCH harder than last week. No big deal though, I still pushed through, and hopefully next workout I'll be able to bang it out without much problem and then take the weight up. We will see.

Kroc rows were up next, and these went awesome today. I was gonna use the 75's, but decided to go with the 80's instead... and ended up rowing them for 26 reps each arm. Pretty awesome, considering last week I only got 27 with 10 lbs lighter. I'm loving these so far, I think they are gonna really help my back grow. I'm gonna keep pushing them as heavy as I can, as often as I can.

I want that dumbbell

Overhead pressing was okay, although I was feeling pretty tired by this point and found it hard to make myself do them. However, I pressed the 45's for 14, then the 40's for 9 and the 35's for 9. I definitely prefer doing these as a drop set for higher reps, they felt like they worked a lot better this way.

Finally, Lat pulldowns at 170 were shockingly easy. I'm not sure why, but my pulling muscles were feeling great today. I'll do these again on friday, and if they're easy maybe hit 180 once or twice before returning home for the summer.

Overall, good day. Nothing too special, just a hard workout that I did well on. Looking foreward to a fun arms day manana.

Strong Squat

Today was a very good squat day, which is quite refreshing considering I've been feeling frustrated lately.

Got LEGS? 

Had my coffee today, and warmed up relatively quickly. Something felt really good today as far as form goes - I'm still sort of trying to figure out the best way to squat with this higher bar position, and I think today was a fig step towards figuring it out. I think one of the biggest things for me is torso angle. Before i switched to a higher bar, I was dropping my chest a lot. THEN, when I made the switch, I was keeping my chest almost TOO upright, which was causing me to shift my weight forward a little bit. Today, I did a really nice job of finding a comfortable angle for my torso, so that I didn't feel too rigid or like I was shifting my weight forward, but my hips and chest were still rising together on every rep.

ANYWAYS, work sets looked like this

215 x 5
245 x 3
270 x 8

I was really happy with that last rep - out. Considering that my previous 5 rm was 275, that's a really great number of reps for that weight. Here's the video below:

After this were speed deadlifts at 245, which moved very nicely actually. Hopefully next month I'll be RIPPING them, and then I'll take the weight up once more. 8 sets of 2, on the minute, from a deficit. ALSO, as i mentioned before, I'm thinking of playing with the deficit a little bit as well, doing something like this: cycle 1, no deficit, cycle 2, 2 - 3 inches, cycle 3, deeper than cycle 2 by a few inches. We will see.

My 5 x 10 squats at 165 went really well today too, and I ended up repping out the final set for 20. Considering that, at the start of this school year, I was doing 20 rep squats (with a belt) at this weight, It's pretty insane that I could rep it out for 20, no belt, AFTER everything I had already done today. My strength and my work capacity are so much greater than they have ever been before,

Finally, I did 2 quick sets of heavy cable crunches, one set of 30 and one set of 20.

Overall, it was really a great day. Most importantly, it helped show me once again that I need to get over the desire to see progress EVERY single workout, because that is simply not how strength works. Last week, that 5 x 10 was miserable, and today it was cake. On saturday (just two days ago), squatting 275 for 2 was hard, and today I hit 270 for 8. I need to not feel like I have to prove to myself every single workout that I'm getting stronger. Instead, I need to always go into the workout WITHOUT expectations, work as hard as I can based on how I'm feeling that day, and trust that I will progress.

Why? Cause Jim Wendler fucking says so. 

So, lessons? No expectations. Just work my ass off every day. And today is proof that I WILL get better.

Extra squats

Squats have been bugging me lately, so today for my heavy movement I just decided to squat up heavy. I worked up in 5's, so it looked like this

95 x 5
135 x 5
185 x 5
225 x 5
275 x 2

275 felt pretty heavy today, so I decided to stop there and, instead of going any heavier, just do a bunch of singles at that weight. They felt pretty good, they were hard but I did 7 or 8, without much rest and without missing a rep. I tried to really sink into them deep, and make the form feel really nice. After the singles, I worked back down in a sort of big drop set, hitting 225, 185, 135 and 95 for sets of 5 again, without really resting in between.

Overall it felt good, I would have liked to have gone heavier, but I think I need to get used to just squatting up to a HEAVY REP - worrying about how the weight feels on that day more than the actual weight. So I did good today by listening to my body - try and keep that up in the future.

P.S. My "workout" wasn't nearly this ballsy, but this is where the drop-set idea came from. Thinking i might do it again in the near future, maybe during my "deload"

Matt Kroc, 40 rep squats

Good Upper Body Day

Felt pretty good going in to the gym today. I figured it would be a hard workout, but not as bad as the 170lbs x 9 x 3, so I was mostly excited.

Warmed up, then worked up to 180 and did my 9 sets of 2, on the minute. It was tough, but (as per usual), got easier after the first set or two. The last rep was hard, but not as hard as the last rep was last week, which is cool. I really love this sort of workout, it's hard but It's so much fun.

Next was overhead press. did 105 x 3, 120 x 3, the 135 for reps (5). I'm pretty happy about that, it's what I got last time I repped out 135, and that was when I was still doing speed bench instead of heavy bench. Then, as I always do, I dropped back to 120 x max reps and 105 for max reps.

I decided to change the pendelay wows up a little today, and did 3 sets to failure at 165 rather than 5 x 5. I think I like them better that way. Got about 12 on the highest set.

Similarly, decided to change up my dumbbell bench as well, doing a drop set instead of 3 sets x max reps at the same weight. I did 60lb dumbbells for 11, then 50's for ten and 40's for ten.

RONNIE STRONG

Then, I finished the day out with the 5 x 10 of lat pulldowns at 160, which were much easier. I think I'll probably take it up to 170 next week.

Overall, it was a pretty awesome day. Squatting my be a little frustrating right now, but at least my bench and overhead press are moving a little, keeping at least some of my workouts really fun. Next week is the last one in this cycle! Lets keep it goin.

Tough day

Had a tough day squatting today. Took a while to get warmed up, but eventually I found my groove. My speed squats felt really solid at 185 - I've found that if I keep in mind the two cues "Arch Hard" and "Drive through your heels," my form becomes pretty much effortless. After the speed work was done, I started working up heavy, and by keeping those two cues in mind I had some really pretty re[ps at 185, 225, and a nice single at 275. Unfortunately, I just didn't have 315 in me today. I went for it, and was really close to getting it, but ended up having to dump. However, it was a pretty nice rep, I just didn't have the strength today. Which is a bummer, but not as bad as missing because it was sloppy.

After that, I thought I might work up to a heavy triple front squat, but I just wasn't feeling it today. I hit 185 and then kind of said fuck it, dropped the weight to 135 and did one big set of 15, then went upstairs and did come cable crunches to finish out the day.

It's starting to get a little frustrating to be stuck on my squat  a little bit, especially after the crazy progress I made recently, but I just have to keep working hard and know that strength isn't a line, it comes in bursts and waves. If I'm consistent and keep pushing, my squat will make gains again, it's just a matter of time.

Diet Change

Decided to start the new diet a little bit early. Basically, gonna go all keto and supplement with plenty of protein shakes, with a 24 hour cheat every weekend. We will see how it works. I just bought a wonderful blender bottle online, so as soon as that comes that should make this diet much easier hahaha.

Anyways, updates to come.

Triceps pushdown

Uneventful day today. I wanted to do some 21's and maybe some JM pressing, but the easy curl bars they have at this gym suck, and they were hurting the bones in my forearm (weird, I know). And besides that, I was just feeling all around lethargic today, so I just did some tricep pushdowns - started with a set of 20, and took the weight up and the reps down until I was banging out a few sets of 2, then did one big drop set back down. For biceps, I did something very similar with preacher curls, ending with a set of 2 with the 35 lb dumbbells. Not a very productive day, but that's okay, I just needed to get in and get moving. I'm feeling pretty sore from yesterday - I think those kroc rows are gonna do work on my back - and monday, which kind of sucks but hopefully I'll feel better and have some fun squatting tomorrow.

Goin HEAVY

On a HAPPY note, my little sister called me up today and told me she's ready to start powerlifting. Her training begins in 2 weeks mothafuckas. SHE"S GONNA BE SO STRONG.

Laura Phelps says FUCKING GO FOR IT

I love strong people <3

Much better day

Today was a much better day. Didn't stress too much about the workout beforehand, tried hard to just get in the gym with a clear head and do the best with what I had in me that day.

Took my time warming up on the bench, did a set of ten with the bar (instead of my normal 5), then ten at 75, then 5 at 95 and 115. Then work sets:

140 x 3
160 x 3
180 x max (5)

I hit the hooks twice during the set at 180 which really pissed me off, but other than that it was a really solid set. The 5th rep was pretty tough (probably cause of me hitting the fucking hooks), but that's still a new 5rm and better than the last time I benched that weight. AND, I set up better and didn't breathe like I did last week, so that's good too.

Next was 5 x 10 bench. I was planning on taking this from 115 to 120 today, but because I felt strong today (and a little irked about hitting the hooks and kinda messing up my last set), I decided to take the weight up to 125 instead. It was a good choice: even with only 90 seconds rest, I made it all the way through, even getting an extra 2 reps on the last set. I'll probably keep at this weigh for another week or two, try to get that last set up to 15 + and then maybe take the weight up again. But it felt great today.

High rep bench is also fun because the chest pump makes me look ridiculously huge. I'm really starting to look bigger and stronger than I ever have before. 

Next, I did kroc rows (my first time doing these instead of the lighter 5 x 10 bent over rows). I decided to do one big set to failure for each arm. I grabbed the 70 (with straps) and banged it out for 27, rested a minute or two, then did the same with the other arm. Overall, I like these WAY better than the bent over rows. I think I'll stick to the one set per arm for now, but I'll definitely take the weight up to at least 75 lbs next week. I'll keep playing with these, I think they're a great movement.

Fuck yeah

Because I took the weight up on the bench, I was iffy on upping the dumbbell overhead press weight, but I decided to go up to 45's anyways. I ended up getting 14 on the first set, then 8 and 4. I think I'm going to start doing these as a sort of drop set, because i want to keep pushing that first set heavy, but I also want to keep my overall volume higher (that last set being only 4 reps is sort of stupid). So a drop set is the way to go I think. Maybe I'll even start doing this with the dumbbell chest press as well?

Finally, Lat pulldowns at 160 were not bad. My lats were a little more tired than usual from the kroc rows, but even so these weren't much of a problem. I AM using a bit of body movement with this pull, but at the same time I feel it killing my lats, so I think i'm just going to keep doing them the way i'm doing them. I got 18 on the last set of these, so I'm thinking maybe one more workout at this weight before I push to 170. Then pretty soon i'll be switching back to pull-ups, and I can see what kind of carryover this lat work will have.

Anyways, it was an awesome day today. Didn't stress, had fun, felt strong. Basically the opposite of yesterday haha. Lets keep them like this.

Misery

Today was an absolutely horrendous day.

Let me start with my biggest problem: I still don't trust my programming, and after just a short while of trying to back off the craziness in workouts and take them one workout at a time, only going as hard as my body is able that day, I started itching for a rep PR. The last few days I've been doubting myself, and whether I'm even getting stronger. In the back of my mind, I decided that i was REALLY going to go hard today, just to show myself what I was really capable of.

Problem is, I felt like shit today. I felt slow, the weight felt heavy, and my body mechanics felt off. I worked up to 205 x 3, then 230 x 3, then 255 for 10. But I went for the 11th rep and failed. That got in my head, but worse it exhausted me. Speed deads at 230 were pretty bad, but it was really the 5 x 10 at 165 of squats that was pure misery. I knew from last week that i could physically do it no problem, so I MADE myself, but it was one of the hardest things I have ever done. I almost cried after every set, and did cry a little bit after the last set. Horrible.

Bottom line is, in my first 6 weeks of this program I went crazy hard and put 40 lbs on my squat. But i can't expect that sort of crazy progress all the time. Like it or not, right now I'm SO far ahead of the game on my 5/3/1 squat work that even if I make NO gains for the next 5 cycles, I will still be able to do the prescribed reps. What that means is that NOW is not a time to push myself every workour, whether i feel good or not, and make myself suffer for no good reason. Instead, I need to TAKE EACH WORKOUT AS IT COMES. I have a great program that I KNOW is working, and I need to get past the need to PROVE to myself that I'm making progress. Instead, I need to focus on things like diet, small tweaks to my programming to make it even better, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, just getting in the gym every day, doing some quality work, and getting out healthy and happy. Todays workout was one of the worst hours I can remember in my life - were the extra two reps at 255 really worth it? Don't think so.

STOP being inpatient, STOP focusing on the wrong things. You have a great program, you ARE woking hard (even if you're not dying at the end of every workout), so trust yourself. Stay consistant and you WILL get stronger. Lets not have another day like this.

Squat Lockouts

Didn't have time to write a blog yesterday, but i DID have time to go to the gym. I was feeling pretty shitty, and I didn't really want to do anything that was gonna be TOO hard, so instead in decided to go fun and heavy with squat lockouts. I did them from VERY high haha, maybe a quarter squat. At first, I took my stance too narrow, and was using my quads too much, but when my friend Josh pointed this out to me, I figured out how to mimic my squat stance better, and to put the tension in my butt and hamstrings, so by the time I got to the heavier weights i was using all the right muscles. Here's how my sets went.

bar x 3
95 x 3
135 x 3
185 x 3
225 x 3
275 x 3
315 x 3
365 x 1
405 x 3 sets of 1
455 x 3 sets of 1
495 x 5 sets of 1

Overall, these were really fun, and pretty ridiculous - it just makes me laugh to imagine that some people quarter squat, and actually think they can squat whatever stupid weights they put on that bar. By reducing my range of motion, I could move an extra 200 pounds without much problem. The lesson? it's not a squat unless it's to depth fuckers. Still really glad I did these though, helped me feel out what muscles i should be using, and gave me the chance to feel the really heavy weight on my shoulders (felt like my head was gonna pop off).

FUCK YOU ASSHOLE

Now I'm just trying to rest up to day, and getting ready to go at it hard tomorrow.

Getting Stronger

Had a great day today. I was nervous to do the 9 x 3 bench again,. as last time it was really difficult and i failed on my final rep, but I also knew I was stronger this time around and that there was no point worrying, so I did my best to stay out of my head and just go at it hard this morning.

Fuckin CHEST

SO, I warmed up, and got started on 170 x 9 x 3, on the minute, and it went really smoothly. It felt significantly easier than last month at 165, AND I only hit the hooks on one rep. The final rep (number 27, which I missed last month) was INCREDIBLY hard, one of the hardest bench reps I've ever done, but I got it. Overall, I was really happy about the chaos and pain part of my workout. I think this style of lifting is really helping me get stronger.

Next was 5/3/1 strict press, which is really fucking hard on the first week because of all the volume in the C&P benching, BUT, I worked my way up to 135 for a set of 6 without too much trouble, and I'm perfectly fine with that. Then was Pendelay rows, 5 x 5 @ 165, which i did a little faster than every 90 seconds. These weren't particularly hard, but I liked them better than the bent over rows I did last week. I think I'll keep playing with the weight and maybe the rep scheme over the next few weeks till I find what I like.

Next was dumbell bench - I stuck with the 55's this week considering the pressing I had already done, and did a set of I think 14 or so? then 2 more sets to failure. And finally, lat pulldowns were moved to 160 this week. Significantly harder than 150, but I did a really good job of keeping them stricter in the beginning and using more body language as the sets went on, so that I made it through the 5 x 10 and my lats were done by the end. I'll stick with 160 for a few more workouts until I can do it better, then hopefully push to 170 for a few workouts before I go home and have to switch to pullups.

Over all, it was an awesome day. I think the 9 x 3 / 5 week is the hardest, so hopefully the next two weeks will go even smoother than this workout. I'm having fun, getting stronger, and have no elbow pain, so lets hope this goodness keeps up.

Energy Legs

Today started out very slow. I got into the gym, and took forever to get warmed up - I swear, I must have spent close to 10 minutes putting my shoes on. HOWEVER, once I finally started, the weight moved really fast. I warmed up a little bit differently - normally for speed work I'll warm up the same as i do for heavy work, but instead I warmed up only with doubles today ( 2 doubles with the bar, 2 with 95, 2 with 135) and it felt good. I worked the weight up to 175, and hit it for my ten sets of 2, and it moved really nicely. I'm starting to get more comfortable with the slight tweaks to my form, and today I felt as though I could really sit back onto the box while still keeping my torso very vertical. It felt a lot better than last week.

Next it was time to squat heavy. I did 185 x 2, 225 x 2. and 275 x 1 without the belt. 275 felt a little slow, and I didn't want to risk missing the next rep, so I went to 295 and hit it for a tough single with the belt. Even though that wasn't an easy rep, I decided to go for 315 - I got my head focused, psyched up a bit, and hit it without much trouble. It was definitely a max for the day, but it wasn't significantly harder than the 295, which is very good. It's good that I'm able to hit that weight after speed work; I think my goal over the next two weeks is going to be to try and start smoothing the jump to 315 from 275. I think (for today) it was good to do that 295 in the middle, but in general now that I am hitting 315 with some constancy I want to get used to going 225 - 275 -315. It will be a lot harder when my speedwork is at 185 and especially 195, but I'll work at it.

"Why use the little change when you could have the big dollars?" 

Thirdly, I decided to tweak the way I do my good morning/front squat assistance work on these days. Up till now, I've been doing a 5 x 8 good morning or 5 x 5 front squat (alternating weeks), and adding 5 lbs a month. It's a stupid linear progression and it makes me hate doing both of those movements. SO, instead I've decided to still alternate good mornings and front squats every week, but to basically do whatever the fuck I want as far as sets and reps. Maybe one week I feel like shit, and i'll just do a 5 x 10 of GM's at 95 lbs. And maybe the next week I feel great, so I decide to go a heavy triple of front squats. Whatever. So today being a pretty good day, what with the speed work and the 315, I felt like pushing my GM's a little bit. I started with the bar to get my nerves working, then started to work up: 95 for 15, 135 for 10, 185 for 5, 225 for 5, then back down to 185 for 8.

Searched "heavy good mornings" and this came up. Not sure why, but it's AWESOME. 

This was pretty awesome and not really expected. My old 5rm good morning was 205, so hitting 225 for 5 is great. And overall, doing the assistance work like this is not only more fun, but it's gonna make me stronger too - hitting 225 for 5 is a lot better than doing a bunch of miserable sets of 8 at 160. I think thursdays are going to be a lot better and more useful with this change.

And finally, for core work today I wanted to try and hit my lower back (I'm a little bit nervous still about it rounding too much on heavy deads, so I want to try and start nailing it at least one day a week). However, I had a really hard time hitting it well. I started with round-back back extensions with a 25 lb plate, but my hamstrings gave out well before my low back felt anything. Then, I switched to a 45, but still it hurt my legs way more than my back. Next, I tried a very limited range of motion, only moving enough to round/tighten my lower back, and finally I started to feel it, but still not very much. So then, I tried the same ROM, but with a 45 lb dumbell, hoping the worse leverage would make it harder - but it just felt like I was gonna snap my hamstrings up, so I stopped. I still want to find a way to work those muscles better, but it's going to take some experimentation I think.

ANYWAYS, powerful day. Had a lot of fun, kicked a lot of ass. Lets do the same tomorrow.

Very successful arms day

Today was an awesome arms workout. I decided to push myself a little bit today - rather than doing my normal drop sets, or doing reps to near failure, I decided to do a super-setted 5 x 10 of close grip bench and preacher curls.

I wanted to choose weights that I could do, but that also would be pretty challenging - I figured I would rather push myself and fail (as these workout don't really matter too much), than to go too light. So, I decided to go with 135 on the close-grip bench, and to use the 25 lb Dumbbells for the curls.

 That's about where I close grip. Maybe a little bit wider

I managed to make it through the curls, although it was pretty hard. This is a pretty awesome improvement however, considering where I started: on the first post I wrote about curls on this blog, I did 10, 9, and 7 reps with the 25's. So, doing 5 sets of 10, super-setted with another movement, is pretty cool. The close grip was the real pleasant surprise, however: this was the heaviest 5 x 10 I have ever done for bench (with any grip, never mind close grip), And I even managed to squeeze out 12 reps on the final set. I think this shows a huge improvement in my tricep strength, and in my bench press strength in general, and I'm pretty excited I was able to make it through this workout pretty easily, when I wasn't even sure i would be able to do it at all at first.

Even though arm days are a little bit stupid, and I still count them as being relatively unimportant in comparison to my real workouts, I think that they are really helping me to get stronger in my upper body, and I plan to keep doing them whenever I can on Wednesdays. It was a very worthwhile experiment.

Hodge twins are right when they say you got to find what works for YOU. I may think "arm day" is pretty stupid, but it's certainly helping get me stronger. 

On a slightly different note, after my 24 hour cheat last weekend, I have already noticed a drop in body fat %. Before the meet, I would have estimated my body fat at about 14.5%. However, looking at myself yesterday morning and today, I would honestly say I've dropped down to between 13 and 14%. I'm right on the edge of my abs being visible WITHOUT me having to flex them like a motherfucker, and when I do flex, you can see my upper abs pretty clearly - but relaxed, my manbelly still hides them for the most part. If I can drop down another 2%, and get between 11 and 12, I should be able to start to see them without flexing, although I'll still have to get down to around 8 in order to be at the level I want as far as leanness goes. SO, it seems pretty clear that the cheat meals work really well for me in terms of kickstarting my metabolism for fat loss. I'm going to stick with my current diet for the rest of this three week cycle, and pay attention to see if I notice a fat-loss plateau again in the second half of these weeks. If not: great, but if I do plateau like I did last cycle, then I think I'll have to change my diet to include more cheats: I'll have to be stricter overall in my diet throughout the week, but then have a 24  hour cheat every weekend to ramp up my metabolism. I'm thinking that, if I decide to change, I'll probably eat 3 big keto meals a day, with 3 protein shakes in between the meals to make sure I'm getting enough protein, then cheat friday night through saturday evening. BUT, thats just one idea, none of this is decided yet. I'll have to see how the rest of this cycle goes before I change anything.

Low ass body fat, I'm coming for you

Coming up tomorrow, lots of cool shit! Speed work, heavy single squat, and some slight changes to my thursday assistance work. Get strong bitches.

First Bench Day After Meet

Today was a pretty good day. Warmed up, then got straight to work. Here's what bench work sets looked like:

130 x 5
150 x 5
170 x max (7)

Wow, this fucker is so huge. 

The first two work sets were nothing: I think I hit all 5 reps at 150 in about 5 seconds. HOWEVER, my setup for my set at 170 was a little loose. I think this is how it happened: I get a little nervous when i get to the heavy set, so I try to set up EXTRA tight. However, by trying too hard, I fuck up my normal set-up feel, which distracts me, and then (and this is the big no-no), I end up letting out my air for no real reason, which takes some of my tightness away. The breathing thing is a stupid bad habit - I NEVER do it on my lighter sets, but for some reason once I get heavy my nerves get the better of me and I do it by accident. SO, my set-up was a little loose, and I tried for an 8th rep, which I JUST barely missed. I was a little ticked off, but it wasn't a bad miss: I didn't get stapled, I just couldn't quite lock it out. And, considering the last time I benched 170 for reps (about 6 weeks ago), I only got 4, I would say 7 is pretty fucking satisfactory. BUT, for next  time, I really need to make sure I don't over-think my setup for that heavy set, and most of all to HOLD MY AIR. That will be the difference between Just barely getting and just barely missing that final rep.

HAHAHAHA this fucker too. 

Next, I ripped apart the 5 x 10 bench at 115, even though I had just struggled with that 8th rep. I got 16 on the last set, and probably had a rep or two left in me if I really pushed. Think I might move these to 120 next week, I don't think they will be challenging at this weight.

5 x 10 bent over rows at 115 weren't HARD, but there is something about them that just doesn't feel good. Just like how friday, they felt easy but bad (and I decided to switch them to Pendelay rows), the rows today weren't hard, they just felt shitty to do, especially in my core/low back. I might keep them for another couple weeks, but I'm thinking about changing the high-rep rowing to 1-arm Dumbell stuff. That way I'll have 1 arm rows for high reps on Tues and heavy Pendelay rows on Fri, which I think is a pretty awesome contrast. BUT I haven't decided yet, just a thought.

Dumbell strict press was cake with the 40's, hit 18 reps without a struggle on the first set. Might move these up next week as well.

And finally, Lat pulldowns at 150 were pretty solid. They were pretty solid last week, but I decided to start at this weight again today, just in case I was still feeling a little wiped from the meet. However, they weren't any problem, so I'll probably push to 160 starting friday.

More Mustafa Mohammad: because his lats are fucking huge too. 

OVERALL, it was a solid day. I was a little pissed about that 8th rep, but honestly that was not a big deal, and other than that I killed this workout. UP NEXT, epic arm day. Feels good, man.

Squat day after test meet

First of all, I had a 24 hour cheat after my mock meet, and let me just say it was awesome. Carbs never tasted so good. My thinking was that it would help speed my recovery, and besides it was about time for a cheat meal or two anyways. I'm hoping that it will help spur my metabolism, and help me drop some extra body fat in these last three weeks before I leave school. If it doesn't, I'm going to need to tweak my diet some more once summer comes, but I'm hoping it doesn't come to that.

It wouldn't be a cheat without a McDouble

ANYWAYS, I was still pretty sore and beat up this morning, and stressing a little bit about a leg workout so soon after the meet, but I didn't feel too bad. I went through my warmup pretty quick, doing 5 with the bar, 5 with 95, 5 with 135, and then jumping straight to 185 for my first work set. Then, I hit 215 for 5, and finally, 240 for 11. The first ten reps were pretty much perfect. The 11th was sloppy (I dropped my chest), and because of that it was a hard rep, so I decided to just stop there. I definitely had a few more in me though, which is good.

Next, speed deads felt very fast. I wasn't too wiped from the squats, so I didn't find these to be overly taxing or exhausting. 215 moved pretty fast for 12 sets of 2 from a deficit, and my form felt very nice too. It's good the weight is moving so well on only the second wave of this speed work. Hopefully 245 will move pretty fast as well a few weeks from now, which means I'll have no problem taking my speed work weight up again in another few cycles.

All my speed deads are from a deficit. I'm thinking about maybe starting to wave the height of the deficit in the next 3 cycle wave, just to add more changing stimuli. We'll see what I decide

Finally, I was sort of dreading doing 5 x 10 squats at 165 today, thinking it would be especially brutal and miserable when i'm tired, but it was actually pretty easy. The first four sets of ten moved nicely - I focused  on breaking each set into two waves of five, which let me move through them fast, while keeping form very nice. Then, because I didn't push 240 to the limit, I decided to go pretty hard on the fifth set at 165. I got 15, then did a paused 16th rep just to really fuck my legs up. Just as a point of reference - in the beginning of the year, I did some 20 rep squats, and the final weight I used was 165, with a belt. And today, I got 16 without much trouble, AFTER 4 sets of 10 with 90 seconds rest. Pretty awesome progress.

So many squats. At so much less weight than this guy hahaha

To top it off, I did some standing cable crunches today, which I actually liked very much. I worked up to 3 sets of 20 with a hundred pounds. It wasn't incredibly difficult, but I definitely felt it in my abs by the end. It was a nice alternative to the weighted sit-ups I've been doing.

SO, this was a pretty great day, especially considering that I'm still sore and a little burnt out from the maxes saturday. Even though I was a little nervous for today, I tried to keep my head even and go at it one set, one rep at a time, and it ended up being an awesome workout because of that. So, I'm gonna eat and rest a lot the rest of today, and try to kick some more ass tomorrow.

Powerlifting Meet

Okay, so it wasn't a real meet. BUT, I have never done a meet, and I really wanted to have a day where I did all 3 lifts to a max as if I were in a meet, to not only see where my lifts are at but also to feel what being in a meet would feel like. And it was fucking fun and awesome. Here's what it went like:

Slept kind of shitty last night, but I got up, had a light breakfast and a coffee, and waiting for my lifty friends to get here to start the strong. After we warmed up, squatting started. Because of my iffy squat at 305 on thursday, I decided to open light - 295 - which was fucking stupid but okay, because today wasn't all about Pr's. SO, I ripped 295, then hit 315, then just BARELY missed 320. I would have loved that PR, but tying my PR is pretty damn good too.

Next up was bench. Warmups were good, but I'm not used to benching after squatting, so it was hard to get ramped up for the heavy reps. I hit 195 for a solid opener, then hit 210. FINALLY, a fucking pr, after a year of being stuck at 205. Sure it's not a GREAT PR, but progress is progress. I've only been feeling good on bench for the last three weeks, and already I hit a new pr. Hopefully the goodness will keep up, and the PR's will keep coming in the next few months. I skipped the last attempt, as that 210 was definitely all out.

FINALLY, it was time to deadlift. Deadlifts have oft been my nemesis, but I was lifting against two of my friends who are both awesome deadlifters, and I was amped up. Warmups moved pretty fast. I hit a 315 opener, which was solid. Then I went for 345, ( a 10 lb PR) which moved slow as fuck but I locked out. I was a little worried about rounding my back, but after watching the vid it looks like normal upper back rounding, and my lower back felt fine. So, even though the 345 was ROUGH, I loaded up 355... and got it. It was a grinder, but I was pretty psyched. That's a 20 lb pr, after already maxing out my other 2 lifts.

SO overall, it was an awesome day: tied my squat PR, got a 5 lb bench PR and a 20 lb dead PR - all without ANY rest before the "meet." My total: 880. Im tired, but VERY happy. It's time to eat a lot and rest now. But I'm pumped to get back to training on monday! This was an awesome day, but I've still got to work my ass off to reach my goals a year from now:

90 lbs on my squat: 405
100 on my dead: 455
45 on my bench: 255

I know I can do it. I've got a little over 12 months. It'll be a rocky fucking road but today is one of those days that shows me how much it's worth it.

 Do it fuckers.

Press Press Press!

Had a very nice day in the gym today. Slept okay, had a light breakfast and a little coffee and hit the gym right away this morning. Took a while to warm up (considering today is Chaos and Pain bench day). Here's what that looked like:

bar x 5

75 x 5

95 x 5

115 x 5

135 x 3

165 x 2 (felt crazy dizzy on this last set)

Then, I loaded up 185 and started my sets - 1 rep on the minute for 9 minutes. It went really smoothly - so well, in fact, that after my nine minutes were up I rested a little extra and hit it for a 10th single. This was BY FAR the easiest of the three weeks (for anyone who is slow, week 1 I hit 165 x 9 x 3, week 2 I hit 175 x 9 x 2). Perhaps that simply has to do with the fact that I'm getting stronger - or maybe the other two weeks are just really fucking hard, and the week of singles is more of a "Fuck yeah, look what I can do" week. Either way, it felt really good and was fun. 

Gotta say Jaime, I'm loving Chaos and Pain

THEN, if having a good bench day wasn't enough, I did my 5/3/1 press work - 110 for 5, 125 x 3, and 140 for 4. Honestly, after so much benching I was worried I wouldn't be able to get it off my chest for 1, never mind hit 4. And considering 150 is my current pr, I'm pretty happy with those numbers. GRANTED, strict press is fucking slow and a pain in the ass to make get better, so I'm not going to be too happy-go-lucky about hitting that 140 for 4, but still it's a good sign. If, in a couple months, I'm able to hit that 150 for a rep or two AFTER Chaos and Pain benching, then I can be pretty sure I have a new PR. we will see. 

ANYWAYS, I did 2 more max overhead press sets, one at 125 and 1 at 110, then did my bent over rows at 145 - these felt pretty easy, so I ended up doing them with a minute rest instead of the normal 90 seconds. I think I'm going to change these from bent-over rows to Pendelay rows in the next few weeks. My back needs to be challenged by heavier weights, so I'm just going to jack up the weight on my 5 x 10 tuesdays, then go nice and heavy on this day for a 5 x 5 of Pendelay rows. 

After rows was 3 sets of dumbbell benching with the 55's (got 15 on the first set), and then 5 x 10 lat pulldowns with 150 - I had to get out of the gym, so I was kind of rushing these, and even so they were easier than on tuesday. OVERALL it was a pretty kick ass day. 

TOMORROW I'm doing my mock meet. I think it will be a lot of fun, and I have the potential to kick some serious ass. HOWEVER, I need to go into tomorrow not expecting to shatter all my PR's. Instead, I just need to take tomorrow as a way to get a GENERAL idea of where my lifts are at, and get a feel for what a meet would feel like. But I'm going to try really hard to to have certain "numbers" in mind, and to just do my best with how I feel for the day - and not be disappointed, no matter what. SO I'm excited. LET'S GET READY TO MOVE SOME WEIGHT!

Heavy Speedwork

Today was an alright day. Heavy speed squats at 195 off a box were hard, but do-able. It's gonna take some getting used to in order to do them properly with the weight in the new, higher position with the bar.
At the end of reps, I felt myself shifting my weight forward on my toes, so I need to watch that. But overall it wasn't too bad.

HOWEVER, then I squatted up heavy, hit 275 for a great rep, then jumped to 305 (instead of 315) because I REALLY didn't want to miss a rep.... and I missed the rep. I got it through the normal sticking point, but then towards the top I shifted my weight forward veryyy slightly and just couldn't lock it out. It wasn't a bad miss, I almost had it - and considering I had just done the heaviest speed work I've EVER done, it shouldn't bother me too much, but I still really hate missing lifts.

If I was Andy, I would have fucking killed everyone in the gym when I missed that lift

So anyways, I was tired and a little angry, so I did my 5 x 5 front squats at 155 quickly and unhappily, then did 3 sets of 20 sit ups with a 10lb plate, and got the fuck out of there. Overall, it wasn't a bad day, I was just pissed about missing that 305. BUT, I'm goign to be squatting up to a heavy single every week now, so I need to get used to both feeling my body and not pushing too hard, and not being too angry when I miss a rep - especially when it doesn't staple me.