So I've had a struggle to keep at it since the cold snap hit us and I ended up skipping 3/4 of my last workout days and the day I did make was solidly failing at everything. I technically missed yesterday too but I don't want that pattern to break the habit I've been building so I got out there today (shifting the week to thur/sat hopefully back to normal on Monday).
My warmup squat sets were killing me and I ended up doing my work sets -15lbs from my schedule, right above where I was really struggling in warmup - 115lbs. I think it ended up being worth it though? I was still struggling a bit with my knees wanting to come inward to push that weight and I put a lot of focus on bracing them outward and idk, it felt like that bracing effort helped push up?
OHP I failed at. Ended up 5/4/4/3/3 at 65lbs but it was my first time working at that weight and I've simply accepted that this is my nemesis lift and it's gonna take work to add weight to it. I kinda like the sl5x5 structure of "try it 3 times and if you still fail back off a step" for this because I've been very aware of making even incremental progress on this session to session.
Then deadlifting was easy. Well, "easy." There were two things that happened. I hit a point a few weeks back where I had to start reverse gripping for my heaviest sets. Today that weight was my second warmup set and I normal gripped it like it was no big deal and then I had to stop and think about it and it felt cool to realize. After that, god damn @ 160lb x5. I did it. It's hard to say how I did it. But I did it.
Because of my shitty keeping on schedule this month I'm still a couple sessions from getting that number past my own weight but it's damn close now.
Also I've noticed, and this only happens on my heavy set, but on the moment of lifting from the ground it feels like I have to pull against the weight wanting to roll forward. I don't know if that's a thing to worry about? I ve put a lot of work into making sure my form is safe and as correct as I can tell for my body. Almost feels shoulders/arms are just struggling to hold the weight and that's some kind of compensating? Idk. I miss gym partners
I've been really looking forward to my next session (deadlift and overhead press) for the last couple of days but I've had two mornings in a row trying to calm a feverish toddler so... nooope no gym for you.
Maybe tomorrow.
I also just got word that for a small surgery I have coming up, I'll need to avoid strenuous exercise for a few weeks after. So I've got limited time! Have to hit the weights while I can!
I don't know where he got the scorpions, or how he got them into my mattress.
The idea of doing a one-armed pull-up at this point seems so fucking impossible, like I honestly can't imagine having the power for the actual pull-up, the eccentric yes, but god
That said I am gonna keep working at it. Just will probably take me ages.
The dead hangs I'm alright on, I'm at 30+ seconds with both arms and I can engage properly i.e. scapular is active and holding rather than me just slumping into the hang
Its just if I try to pull? I can get a few degrees of elbow movement but nothing else, like not even "try real hard and you can get more" just "lol fuck off"
My deadlift has felt like ass for quite some time. Tonight it didn’t!
KB Warmup RDL/Squats/Upright Row/Halo’s 2x8ea 24kg and 32kg
Deadlift 5x155# 5x245 5x335 3x425 3x475 1x505 1x505 and realized I should probably add straps and managed a pretty smooth triple so 2x3x505 followed by 8 shrugs and 5x385 sumo as back off just to see how that felt (great).
And that was my lift. Also grilled two delicious steaks that came out perfectly medium rare and wife made a salad and Mac and cheese so I am certain it was highly anabolic today.
diablo III - beardsnbeer#1508 Mechwarrior Online - Rusty Bock
Positional clean work 3x60/80/100/120
Back squat 3x120 3x140 3x160 2x180 2x200 1x210 1x220 1x230 — 500 hasn’t moved like this in a long time so that was exciting, no belt either.
RDL 6x100 6x120 2x6x140 10x100
diablo III - beardsnbeer#1508 Mechwarrior Online - Rusty Bock
After failed OHP one session and failed squats the next along with veeery slow but not quite failed bench I got to the next day I was meant to lift and I was just tired. So I decided to take a couple easy days and bike ride at the weekend and then start fresh this week. I know the program specifies failing twice at a lift before a reset but I decided to just go ahead and do a pre-emptive reset.
I was going to start again today but the partner and I have a week off work so I'm going to do some bikes rides and we're going to go on a couple long country walks as the weather is meant to be nice. And watch movies and not set the alarm (apart from tomorrow as we have a new washing machine coming). So I'm going to have a rest week and start fresh next Monday. Do some yoga and stretching this week and hopefully recharge with some decent sleep.
Is this approach ideal? Possibly not but it's what I'm doing.
the good news is i came back in energized and like in lifting mindset which has been really hard the last few weeks.
I sqatted 5x5 120lbs which means i'm finally moving back up after i had to deplate to better address my knee weakness.
I went 5/3/5/5/2 on OHP for a second fail session at 65lbs. It's a nonsense lift. I will beat it.
I hit my first wall on deadlift at 170lbs today. i technically did 5 reps but in no way did i do a 1x5. I straight up could not lift it with a normal grip, and with a reverse grip I was losing my thumb on the normal hand's hold. After 1x3 i failed to get it off the ground. I technically could have called it there but i'd never not done at least 1x5 so i wanted to give it another go for at least 2 and I was able to do exactly 2 before the same fail.
I guess i could have expected that deadlifting somewhere in the range of "a whole person" would be where it starts to get tough.
I did some extra small shoulder things but I think I want to add a 4th intensive to this day of the cycle since it's shorter. I've been thinking dips for shoulders or deadhangs for grip and eventually maybe getting to pull up strength?
Comp squat: 365lbs x 3. Program said go for RPE 8. I played it safe and went with the prescribed weight, but it was an undershoot. I probably had another 10lbs in me for RPE 8. Then backoffs: 275lbs x 5 x 6.
Pause bench: 265lbs x 3 @ RPE 8. 200lbs x 5 x 7.
OHP: 155lbs x 6 @ RPE 9. 145lbs and 135lbs backoffs.
Total rep-a-palooza. Felt like it went on forever. Over thirty reps on squats and bench, each, not counting warmups. I also started a cut today, but I won’t really be feeling it for a few weeks.
AJRSome guy who wrestlesNorwichRegistered Userregular
With gyms still closed I really don't have exact numbers. I don't have much money and I have no idea how long I'll be in the UK for, so I've stuck with bands, body weight exercises and backpacks full of water bottles. But I'm basically sticking with an upper/lower split, with random days of neck strengthening exercises for when I get back into wrestling. I miss having a bar across my traps.
That’s about all you can do. Have a space for sprints ?
diablo III - beardsnbeer#1508 Mechwarrior Online - Rusty Bock
0
AJRSome guy who wrestlesNorwichRegistered Userregular
There's an oval near me I could do sprints on. Has a hill too, so maybe I could start doing hill sprints again. I tend to go on runs at night when everyone else is indoors.
Building off Tuesday’s success and wanting my heavy squat and deadlift days as far apart as possible this week, hit upper body again.
Warm-up 2x20x20# Hammer curl / military press/ bent over row / upright row (10) rear delt raises (10)
Bench 5x135# 5x185 5x225 5x275 3, 4, 5, 6 x315
Fat grip pull-ups 5,5,5,5,8
Giant set? 3 rounds
Wide grip shrugs 20x275#
Zottman Curls 8x30#
Doubled mini band tricep pressdown x20 each arm (did these with shoulder raised and hand 45 degree to midline at full extension after watching a JM Blakely vid)
Neck harness ext 15x44#
Also did 8x135 cheatin barbell curls
I have a mighty pump
diablo III - beardsnbeer#1508 Mechwarrior Online - Rusty Bock
Deadlift i hit my first real failure point. i got 1x2 @ 175lbs and just could not get the 3rd off the ground.
I'm also noticing with this lift specifically that my warmups feel more like pyramid sets than just "warming up." I assume its somewhat a mental game thing going on but since the weights are much heavier than my other lifts I'm sure there's also just more actual work going on as i'm building up to that working weight.
Either way... I knew I'd have to start working through it eventually.
Woof, I just got beat down doing pin squats. Warmed up with some singles at 335 and 350, which moved fine, so I thought 370 for three would be doable. I was not prepared for the whip from doing reps. Holy crap, that was bad. I got one before getting stuck on the pins at the bottom of rep two.
Looking back at my logs, I had never done pin squats with anything over 300lbs, so I think I just didn’t control the descent enough or at least wait until the impact whip settled. When I came out of the hole, the bar was still vibrating back and forth from the contact. It caught me off guard, too, so the first rep was just super taxing, even though it didn’t move that slowly. I backed it down, paid a little more attention to what the bar was doing before ascending and did okay with 355lbs the next set.
Box squats SSB 5xBar(30kg), 5x70, 3x110, 3x150, 3x170, 3x190, 2x3x150 as back off
Used 12” of box and a 3” airex pad that sank a decent amount. Felt good enough, do need to get better at these.
Knee height rack pulls just a triple up to 220, should have set these lower but was getting rushed.
Ran out of time for accessories.
diablo III - beardsnbeer#1508 Mechwarrior Online - Rusty Bock
Edit: shit you should have done the latest Rogue challenge. It was a timed hang from a pull-up bar. The top time was 16 minutes when I checked this morning.
Dead Legend on
diablo III - beardsnbeer#1508 Mechwarrior Online - Rusty Bock
It's probably the single most important training you can do for your fingers so yeah it is good to push a bit.
16 minutes is wild. Last time I did a bar hang with both hands it was for two minutes. People often underestimate how hard it is though. A lot of it is "just" pain endurance. I do 30 second hangs with one arm at the moment relatively often though.
I had to cut some time today so I only did 3x5 squats at 130lbs. Figure I do it 3x a week so it's the least bad way to save time and i'll repeat that weight tomorrow to actually clear it 5x5.
But I still cleared 90lb 5x5 on bench and did 90lb 5/4/5/5/4 on the pendlay rows. The rows were a 3rd fail I need to drop the weight a bit. i think i cheated my way up to it tbh and need to focus on pulling it all the way to my chest
Love my SBDs, but they’re not leather. I don’t think my wrists sweat very much? I also don’t wear them in-between sets, so my wrists are generally pretty dry.
Jugg you're going to have a tough time finding leather wrist wraps, gross sweat absorption is just sort of the name of the game.
EliteFTS makes a nice training wrap, I've been using a pair of those regularly for almost 5 years and they only really started showing wear and tear in the past year. Are you just using them to bench with or for other stuff too?
I probably over use them to be honest. It's one of those things where once I put them on I just leave them on until I'm done.
But they're mostly for bench stuff or OHP's. The only problem with my Stoics since the elastic stretched is it rolls up and can be a pain when pressed between a heavy bar and the inside of your thumb.
Just talking about inspiration with training and such, how do you guys stay motivated?
I ask not because I struggle with it, so much as I am curious. I train for a sport, and I love my sport and getting better at it (for me the sport is a joy, it's not "ugh I gotta go train at the wall" it's "yay I get to go train!") and that's awesome, but also there are always days where you feel slow and tired, and you need a bit of motivation to psyche you up. I have been watching the Mellow channel on youtube for a long while and I have to say seeing the really hard sends on there 100% inspires me, things like this;
Just over a minute long, but the power, control, technique... it's all mind-blowing and it makes me want to push myself and develop my skill and body. So do you guys watch youtube videos of like... guys lifting? Or something else?
Posts
So I've had a struggle to keep at it since the cold snap hit us and I ended up skipping 3/4 of my last workout days and the day I did make was solidly failing at everything. I technically missed yesterday too but I don't want that pattern to break the habit I've been building so I got out there today (shifting the week to thur/sat hopefully back to normal on Monday).
My warmup squat sets were killing me and I ended up doing my work sets -15lbs from my schedule, right above where I was really struggling in warmup - 115lbs. I think it ended up being worth it though? I was still struggling a bit with my knees wanting to come inward to push that weight and I put a lot of focus on bracing them outward and idk, it felt like that bracing effort helped push up?
OHP I failed at. Ended up 5/4/4/3/3 at 65lbs but it was my first time working at that weight and I've simply accepted that this is my nemesis lift and it's gonna take work to add weight to it. I kinda like the sl5x5 structure of "try it 3 times and if you still fail back off a step" for this because I've been very aware of making even incremental progress on this session to session.
Then deadlifting was easy. Well, "easy." There were two things that happened. I hit a point a few weeks back where I had to start reverse gripping for my heaviest sets. Today that weight was my second warmup set and I normal gripped it like it was no big deal and then I had to stop and think about it and it felt cool to realize. After that, god damn @ 160lb x5. I did it. It's hard to say how I did it. But I did it.
Because of my shitty keeping on schedule this month I'm still a couple sessions from getting that number past my own weight but it's damn close now.
Also I've noticed, and this only happens on my heavy set, but on the moment of lifting from the ground it feels like I have to pull against the weight wanting to roll forward. I don't know if that's a thing to worry about? I ve put a lot of work into making sure my form is safe and as correct as I can tell for my body. Almost feels shoulders/arms are just struggling to hold the weight and that's some kind of compensating? Idk. I miss gym partners
Maybe tomorrow.
I also just got word that for a small surgery I have coming up, I'll need to avoid strenuous exercise for a few weeks after. So I've got limited time! Have to hit the weights while I can!
http://newnations.bandcamp.com
That said I am gonna keep working at it. Just will probably take me ages.
Yeah moving past that to a 1-arm chin — I couldn't imagine.
http://newnations.bandcamp.com
Its just if I try to pull? I can get a few degrees of elbow movement but nothing else, like not even "try real hard and you can get more" just "lol fuck off"
I'm going to do em though. I swear to god.
SSB 8x70kg, 8x110, 8x130, 2x8x150, 1x6x120 (backoff, changed stance and tried to get through it in one breath.)
Rack pulls, 3x60,100,140,180,200,180,180,180
Neck harness hooked up to low pulley forward /backward walks w/ 70# on the stack. x3 fwd/bwd ea
s/s
Reverse hypers 3x15x90#
s/s
Dimmel Deads 3x10x100kg
s/s
Hanging knee raises 3x15
Bradford presses 5x5+3 strict presses at end at 60kg
Cable chest flys 3x10x80# s/s supinated lat pulldown 3x10x150#
DB Bench 12x60,70,80,90#
Variety DB curls 3x pumped s/s DB Tate presses 3x20x35# s/s DB pullovers 3x8x70#
KB Warmup RDL/Squats/Upright Row/Halo’s 2x8ea 24kg and 32kg
Deadlift 5x155# 5x245 5x335 3x425 3x475 1x505 1x505 and realized I should probably add straps and managed a pretty smooth triple so 2x3x505 followed by 8 shrugs and 5x385 sumo as back off just to see how that felt (great).
And that was my lift. Also grilled two delicious steaks that came out perfectly medium rare and wife made a salad and Mac and cheese so I am certain it was highly anabolic today.
Positional clean work 3x60/80/100/120
Back squat 3x120 3x140 3x160 2x180 2x200 1x210 1x220 1x230 — 500 hasn’t moved like this in a long time so that was exciting, no belt either.
RDL 6x100 6x120 2x6x140 10x100
After failed OHP one session and failed squats the next along with veeery slow but not quite failed bench I got to the next day I was meant to lift and I was just tired. So I decided to take a couple easy days and bike ride at the weekend and then start fresh this week. I know the program specifies failing twice at a lift before a reset but I decided to just go ahead and do a pre-emptive reset.
I was going to start again today but the partner and I have a week off work so I'm going to do some bikes rides and we're going to go on a couple long country walks as the weather is meant to be nice. And watch movies and not set the alarm (apart from tomorrow as we have a new washing machine coming). So I'm going to have a rest week and start fresh next Monday. Do some yoga and stretching this week and hopefully recharge with some decent sleep.
Is this approach ideal? Possibly not but it's what I'm doing.
the good news is i came back in energized and like in lifting mindset which has been really hard the last few weeks.
I sqatted 5x5 120lbs which means i'm finally moving back up after i had to deplate to better address my knee weakness.
I went 5/3/5/5/2 on OHP for a second fail session at 65lbs. It's a nonsense lift. I will beat it.
I hit my first wall on deadlift at 170lbs today. i technically did 5 reps but in no way did i do a 1x5. I straight up could not lift it with a normal grip, and with a reverse grip I was losing my thumb on the normal hand's hold. After 1x3 i failed to get it off the ground. I technically could have called it there but i'd never not done at least 1x5 so i wanted to give it another go for at least 2 and I was able to do exactly 2 before the same fail.
I guess i could have expected that deadlifting somewhere in the range of "a whole person" would be where it starts to get tough.
I did some extra small shoulder things but I think I want to add a 4th intensive to this day of the cycle since it's shorter. I've been thinking dips for shoulders or deadhangs for grip and eventually maybe getting to pull up strength?
Comp squat: 365lbs x 3. Program said go for RPE 8. I played it safe and went with the prescribed weight, but it was an undershoot. I probably had another 10lbs in me for RPE 8. Then backoffs: 275lbs x 5 x 6.
Pause bench: 265lbs x 3 @ RPE 8. 200lbs x 5 x 7.
OHP: 155lbs x 6 @ RPE 9. 145lbs and 135lbs backoffs.
Total rep-a-palooza. Felt like it went on forever. Over thirty reps on squats and bench, each, not counting warmups. I also started a cut today, but I won’t really be feeling it for a few weeks.
@initiatefailure all you did on your deadlift was a cluster set, so good job. You can lift more volume at a higher intensity with intra-set rest.
@Gork that’s a lot of reps but it looks like everything moved well based off your RPE
This morning I eased back into it, with a little discomfort while bench pressing. Felt great otherwise!
Squats 5x5x72.5kg
Bench press 5x5x57.5kg
Cable row 5x5x no. 13.
http://newnations.bandcamp.com
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Good bench day today:
Warmup: 20# DB’s Hammer Curls x20 / shoulder press x20 / DB Rows x20 / rear delt raises x20 for two rounds
Bench 8x70kg 8x90 5x110 5x130 3x140 3x150 3x160 very excited about this because it was smooooth
Did some DB rows superset x8, 8, 6, 5, 5
DB curls 3xpump at 30/35/40
s/s
DB overhead tri ext 3x10 80/90/100
Pushups x30 and x20
2 count pause bench: 260lbs x 4 @ RPE 9. Two backoffs.
SSB squat: 270lbs x 4 x 3.
Slightly less rep crazy this workout. Overall pretty fun. I missed using the SSB.
Warm-up 2x20x20# Hammer curl / military press/ bent over row / upright row (10) rear delt raises (10)
Bench 5x135# 5x185 5x225 5x275 3, 4, 5, 6 x315
Fat grip pull-ups 5,5,5,5,8
Giant set? 3 rounds
Wide grip shrugs 20x275#
Zottman Curls 8x30#
Doubled mini band tricep pressdown x20 each arm (did these with shoulder raised and hand 45 degree to midline at full extension after watching a JM Blakely vid)
Neck harness ext 15x44#
Also did 8x135 cheatin barbell curls
I have a mighty pump
Back squat 5x135, 225, 275, 315 3x365 2x3x405
Deadlift 5x155, 243, 333, 423 3x473 2x513 last set double overhand) 1x563 mixed 1x603 mixed, tying a PR from early 2018. 4x473 as back off.
Glute ham raise 3x10
Banded side bends 2x15ea
Hanging knee raises 2x15
Nice thing is my wife filmed the top dead with daughter in arms.
OHP cleared 5x5 65
Deadlift i hit my first real failure point. i got 1x2 @ 175lbs and just could not get the 3rd off the ground.
I'm also noticing with this lift specifically that my warmups feel more like pyramid sets than just "warming up." I assume its somewhat a mental game thing going on but since the weights are much heavier than my other lifts I'm sure there's also just more actual work going on as i'm building up to that working weight.
Either way... I knew I'd have to start working through it eventually.
Box squats SSB 5xBar(30kg), 5x70, 3x110, 3x150, 3x170, 3x190, 2x3x150 as back off
Used 12” of box and a 3” airex pad that sank a decent amount. Felt good enough, do need to get better at these.
Knee height rack pulls just a triple up to 220, should have set these lower but was getting rushed.
Ran out of time for accessories.
First time I've hit the full 10 seconds every time, feels fucking good. 18kgs it is.
Edit: shit you should have done the latest Rogue challenge. It was a timed hang from a pull-up bar. The top time was 16 minutes when I checked this morning.
16 minutes is wild. Last time I did a bar hang with both hands it was for two minutes. People often underestimate how hard it is though. A lot of it is "just" pain endurance. I do 30 second hangs with one arm at the moment relatively often though.
But I still cleared 90lb 5x5 on bench and did 90lb 5/4/5/5/4 on the pendlay rows. The rows were a 3rd fail I need to drop the weight a bit. i think i cheated my way up to it tbh and need to focus on pulling it all the way to my chest
I got a pair of Stoics off Amazon and they've been decent but the elastic thumb band on the right wrap has stretched out and wrinkled for some reason?
EliteFTS makes a nice training wrap, I've been using a pair of those regularly for almost 5 years and they only really started showing wear and tear in the past year. Are you just using them to bench with or for other stuff too?
But they're mostly for bench stuff or OHP's. The only problem with my Stoics since the elastic stretched is it rolls up and can be a pain when pressed between a heavy bar and the inside of your thumb.
a. If they're loose enough that you can leave them on for your entire workout, they may not be helping you as much as they could be.
b. are you leaving the loop around your thumb?
Like, this is how I learned (sorry for more elitefts content but it's the first reputable thing that came up in my youtube search)
I ask not because I struggle with it, so much as I am curious. I train for a sport, and I love my sport and getting better at it (for me the sport is a joy, it's not "ugh I gotta go train at the wall" it's "yay I get to go train!") and that's awesome, but also there are always days where you feel slow and tired, and you need a bit of motivation to psyche you up. I have been watching the Mellow channel on youtube for a long while and I have to say seeing the really hard sends on there 100% inspires me, things like this;
Just over a minute long, but the power, control, technique... it's all mind-blowing and it makes me want to push myself and develop my skill and body. So do you guys watch youtube videos of like... guys lifting? Or something else?