Bench 185 x 20

It's been a good week of training. Very cold out in the garage, but I'm surviving. Yesterday, I hit front squats. I tackled 275 beltless again yesterday, did a pyramid up from one to 4 reps, tried to hit a final set of 5 but I could only manage 4. Which was a little annoying, but at the same time it was significantly more volume at 275 than last week, when I only hit one set of 4. I think it's time to start belting up again. I need my legs to be growing, and the belt just allows me to use so much more weight. I'm still going to be careful to keep the load reasonable though, to work on athleticism and building, not just testing strength. Also, I hit some deadlift assistance at 225 - just trying to work the middle of the movement a lot, with half-and-half deadlifts, still leg deads, and 2 deadlifts with a 10-second pause off the ground.

Today was bench day, and I tentatively decided to do another rep-out at 185. My short term goal these last few weeks has been to hit 185 for 20-25 reps, then work my way up to 225 and try and start throwing that around for reps. I was tentative about repping out 185 because I have been doing a good job of keeping my focus on building the lift, through rep work, bench variations, pushups, bodybuilding work for biceps and back, etc. So, I worry about testing my bench cause I don't want to get into the habit of getting all worked up and focused on testing strength, when it is clearly increasing. However, on the other hand I don't want testing my strength to become this big bad taboo and scary thing, so I just went for it. Ended up hitting a set of 20. Here's the weird thing: I failed rep 17 because I was trying to maintain touch n go, and I think that my triceps are just too weak for that. They tire out too quickly for me to sustain touch n go. However, after failing 17 I switched to paused reps, taking a few seconds to rest at the bottom, and managed another 4 reps. So I hit the big Two-Oh, which is a 3 rep PR. However, I feel kind of annoyed by the failure. It makes me feel like I'm sneaking out those last few reps, like I haven;t actually gotten stronger, I just figured out a gimmick that allows me to sneak out more reps. Obviously that's pretty stupid, but we are always hyper critical of ourselves.

Next, I hit 5 x 10 floor press at 185, to target my triceps more specifically. I decided to do this after noticing that floor press was a real weakness of mine - a few weeks ago I hit floor press at 185 and a set of 6 was challenging. Since then, I've hit it a few times, and today I was able to do my 5 x 10, even after that set of 20. So that is some clear improvement. I still think I need to be really focusing a little more on my triceps, they seem to be the weak link. I'm going to try and do more close-grip variations when I bench and do pushups, and maybe even add in a little specific tricep work. Hopefully in another few weeks I can hit that 185 for 22-23 reps, and then I think it would be time to work my way up to 225 and make that my new working weight.

Speaking of 225, I did something stupid today. After the 70 reps at 185, I put 225 on the bar and took a swing at it. I benched it for a regular single, a feet-up touch n go single, and a feet up paused single. The first rep moved nice, but the others were a little slow and tough, and that really ground my gears. That, combined with the failure on rep 17, makes me feel like what I'm doing isn't working. Which is completely stupid. Of course 225 didn't move great. First of all, I haven't handed that weight in a long time. I need to be prepared that, even though I'm getting much stronger with what I'm doing, I'll still need to adjust when I switch to heavier weights. The movement will feel a little different for sure, the weight will feel heavy. However, after a few workouts with the new weight it will start to feel comfortable again and I can start to treat it with the same confidence and control with which I have come to treat 185. Secondly, I hit 225 AFTER 70 reps at 185, 50 of which were specifically targeting my triceps. Of course 225 didn't move like a dream. But it is going to feel significantly different once I am fresh and taking a crack at it.

So, I think I'm gonna try and take a little bit of distance from benching. Put some focus on pushups, triceps and biceps for a couple workouts, try and get those arms growing and get my speed and athleticism up. I'll hit another couple bench workouts at 185, try and take it up from sets of 10 to sets of 12 to increase the difficulty and practice dat stamina, and I'm gonna focus on close grip or tricep-dominant variations. Then, I'll bang out another PR set of 23 or so before February is over, and start working my way up to 225. Lets keep at it folks.

Honor Never Dies

"If I live, I will kill you. If I die, you are forgiven. Such is the rule of Honor" 

-Lamb of God. 

So, it's been over 6 months since my last post. This blog used to be one of my favorite things to do, and keeping it was one of my proudest accomplishments. I wanted to chronicle my journey, in the hopes that one day I would achieve great enough things that it would be a joy to look back at this. And, perhaps I would achieve great enough things that others would look back at it too and see my whole journey. 

However, this last year provides an important lesson: life gets in the way. Life will knock you down. And my absence from this space is, in a way, an accurate summary of my journey the last year. I haven't been all here, mentally or physically. I've been dealing with injuries to my back, my knee.... And I've been dealing with issue much more difficult and limiting than physical injuries. 

I was fortunate enough for the first few years of my journey to never hit a real stumbling block. I was privileged. I didn't understand how people could accept plateaus and stagnation. These experiences I've had over the past year have helped me to see the other side of the coin. But they have also taught me that doing what I do, every single day, is still a choice. A difficult one. There will be times when just hanging on for dear life is all you can ask. But I've shown myself that I can do that. I might not be through the woods yet, but for the first time in a long time I am seeing things more clearly. Great things are forged in the crucible of suffering. More suffering may be to come, but all that means is more greatness in the end. 

I'm not going to return to writing here every workout, I don't think that's possible right now. But I'm going to try and begin to document my training again, even if that means just a post every week or two. I'll try to keep this blog current with big PR's, videos, news, etc. 

Right now, I am in the middle of a slow build. All my lifts are feeling very strong, but I am doing a lot of work in the middle rep ranges with moderate weights. I'm trying to move everything with speed and athleticism, and just feel as comfortable and confident as possible. I have some big goals in mind for about 4 months from now - perhaps the most ambitious and important of which is to finally bench 315. Bench has been a weakness of mine for years, and I think it might be time for me to finally vanquish that weakness. Here's a video from todays high-rep session. Thanks for checking it out - I'll be around folks. 

Pullups

Nice easy back day today - hit some pullups. I've been slowly but steadily improving my ability to do strict pullups, and today I hit a set of 4 strict pullups and then a bunch of sets of 4 chinups and sets of 3 pullups. Nothing crazy, just trying to keep my back growing and my shoulders healthy. Lets keep at it.

Bench sets of 20

Good bench workout today. Keepin the grip tight, using the triceps and the lats. Starting to feel good. Everything paused.

Hit a couple warmup sets, then 130 x 20, 20, 135 x 20, 20. Felt strong although hard at the end. Afterwards, hit spoto press, 135 x 5, 145 x 5, 155 x 5. Did doubles of pullups and chinups between all sets.

Finished up with 3 sets of skullcrushers, some straight bar curls and isolation curls, and some front raises with a light barbell. Feeling good, strong, technique is nice, and I think I'm gonna start getting big fast if I keep up the lifting and start eating like a bawss. Lets keep at it.

The Viking Braid

It has been a rough 6 months, full of road blocks, derailments, and a number of other problems. But I am finally, finally back on a real program, eating right and trying to get as big and strong as possible again. And again, I'm back to the blog. Hopefully I will be able to be writing more consistently again. I never stopped training for these past 6 months, but now I'm back for real so hopefully I can be posting for real again.

Anyways, program I started is written by some friends of mine, nicknamed "The Viking Braid." The emphasis is on working up in waves for squat and bench press, trying to hit a hard, heavy set and then maintain the same number of reps while increasing the weight. I'm starting crazy light and with really high reps, to try and lock in form and make sure my back stays healthy and my body starts growing. For squat, I am squatting wide and low bar, trying to keep the load off my back best I can/ For bench, I have taken my grip in and I'm really trying to use my lats and triceps as much as possible - I think improving my triceps strength by a lot might be a big step in the right direction for getting my bench up.

Most recent workout was Squats yesterday - 4 sets of 20, 160, 165, 170, 175. Felt strong but difficult. Finished up with some lower back and ab work.

Gonna go hit bench now, and I'll be back to report. Need to get back in the habit of posting. Lets keep at it.

Legs

Realy good workout today, especially considering I feel like absolute shit. I hope I'm not getting crazy sick. Anyways, I give this workout

Rating: 9

A god among men

Honestly, it should probably be higher considering how bad I felt. Anyways, started with hamstring curls today to try and keep the quad work more squished together. Did 5 x 20 hammy curls, quite hard with the weight at 95 for the later sets. Then, did 5 x 20 leg ext with 130 which was the perfect setup, my legs were DYING by the end. Then downstairs for some sets of leg press, ended up working up to 3 "max" sets at 5 plates with like 30 seconds rest between sets, legs were burning. Then 3 x 15 back ext to finish up. Worked hard as fuck on everything, probably would have been good to do a little more overall work but I felt like shit, so I'm really happy with the workout overall. Lets keep at it.

SHRED (upper body)

Great day today. First and formost, I weighed in at 225 today, and I look like 225 lbs of straight SHRED. Not really haha. But I do look the leanest and best I have looked in a long time, which is saying something because I have looked so much better recently than I did at 245. I think what I'm doing is clearly starting to work well. Also, killed it in the gym today, give the workout at

Rating: 9

Really great session. Focused and fun. Hit sets of 12 for bench, then triceps, lat raises for shoulders, cable rows and curls for back + biceps, and some situps to boot. Everything in the 10-20 range, and on EVERY singe movement I was burning like crazy and ended up with a really hard set + a huge pump. My one concern is simply that I am doing SO much that maybe I'm not hitting each body part hard enough, and it might be time to start focusing more on 2-3 muscle groups instead of chest, tris, back, biceps, shoulders, every single workout. But I'm not sure yet. ALSO, I did all of that in a little under an hour, which I think is great - I think keeping the pace of the workout up is what is gonna allow me to 1) keep losing fat without adding much cardio or having to "diet" and 2) Build some serious muscle without crazy heavy weights. Keeping rest time down is allow me to really fatigue my muscles, get a huge pump, and have to really squeeze/grind out reps, even though the weights aren't crazy heavy. Anyways, great day. Lets keep at it.