Ness' Bodybuilding Journal: Rebirth

[Ness]

Chest day:

Flat Barbell Bench

150 1 x 8
150 1 x 8
150 1 x 8

Low Incline Bench:

50/50 1 x 10
50/50 1 x 10

Pull Ups:

1 x 5
1 x 5
1 x 5

Deadlifts:

110 1 x 8
110 1 x 8
110 1 x 8

Bench Dips:

1 x 10
1 x 10
1 x 10

Barbell Rows:

100 1 x 8
100 1 x 9
100 1 x 8

Shrugs:

50/50 1 x 10
50/50 1 x 10
50/50 1 x 10

Crunches:

1 x 100

[Ness]

Legs. Really not liking hack squats. Hard exercise to do. Maybe my arms are too short. I'm going to stick with it for a while though. Results:

Squats:

140 1 x 10
140 1 x 10
140 1 x 10

Straight Leg Deadlifts:

115 1 x 10
115 1 x 10
115 1 x 10

Leg Curls:

95 1 x 10
95 1 x 10
95 1 x 10

Standing Calf Raises:

1 x 16
1 x 15
1 x 15

Hack Squats:

95 1 x 8
95 1 x 8
95 1 x 8

Crunches:

1 x 100

[Ness]

Shoulders, Biceps, and Triceps.

Seated Dumbbell Press:

30/30 1 x 10
30/30 1 x 10
30/30 1 x 10

Close Grip Bench Press:

125 1 x 8
125 1 x 8
125 1 x 8

Standing Lateral Raises:

15/15 1 x 10
15/15 1 x 10

French Press:

35 1 x 10
35 1 x 10
35 1 x 10

Barbell Curls:

60 1 x 7
60 1 x 7
60 1 x 7

Machine Incline Press:

130 1 x 8
130 1 x 8

Hammer Curls:

27.5/27.5 1 x 10
27.5/27.5 1 x 10

Crunches:

1 x 100

[Ness]

Chest. I'll add some more weight in the next session. Just wanted to see if I could sustain last week's results before moving on. Might do this for a lot of my sessions sometimes. By the way I come in at 200 pounds now. I think a lot of that weight might be in my ass though. Not sure. And it's mostly fat. I have been eating a good amount more, and taking GNC Pro Performance AMP Amplified Wheybolic Extreme 60, but it almost feels like I got to 200 too easily. Whatever. It's there now so I could I should make use out of it.

Flat Barbell Bench:

150 1 x 8
150 1 x 8
150 1 x 8

Low Incline Bench:

50/50 1 x 10
50/50 1 x 10

Pull Ups:

1 x 4
1 x 4
1 x 4

Deadlifts:

110 1 x 8
110 1 x 8
110 1 x 8

Bench Dips:

1 x 10
1 x 10
1 x 10

Barbell Rows:

100 1 x 8
100 1 x 8
100 1 x 8

Shrugs:

50/50 1 x 10
50/50 1 x 10
50/50 1 x 10

Crunches:

1 x 100

[Ness]

Got behind a little. So cramming last week and this week together to compensate. Here is leg day:

Squats:

145 1 x 10
145 1 x 10
145 1 x 10

Straight Leg Deadlifts:

120 1 x 10
120 1 x 10
120 1 x 10

Leg Curls:

100 1 x 10
100 1 x 10
100 1 x 10

Standing Calf Raises:

1 x 16
1 x 15
1 x 15

Hack Squats:

95 1 x 8
95 1 x 8
95 1 x 8

Crunches:

1 x 100

[Ness]

Triceps, shoulders, and biceps. Speaking of which I think I tweaked my left arm. Feels kind of painful around the deltoid. Perhaps it's the rotator cuff? It's happened before and I've recovered. Anyways, here are the results:

Seated Dumbbell Press:

32.5/32.5 1 x 10
32.5/32.5 1 x 10
32.5/32.5 1 x 10

Close Grip Bench Press:

125 1 x 8
125 1 x 8
125 1 x 8

Standing Lateral Raises:

17.5/17.5 1 x 10
17.5/17.5 1 x 10

French Press:

35 1 x 10
35 1 x 10
35 1 x 10

Barbell Curls:

60 1 x 8
60 1 x 8
60 1 x 8

Machine Incline Press:

130 1 x 8
130 1 x 8

Hammer Curls:

27.5/27.5 1 x 10
27.5/27.5 1 x 10

Crunches:

1 x 100

[Ness]

Chest day. I made a mistake on my deadlifts and Barbell Rows. I had one side with two more pounds. Got a 35 pounder and 25 mixed up. No wonder why I was really struggling early on with my grip. Anyways, here are the results, although they are kind of skewed with a couple of the exercises:

Flat Barbell Bench:

150 1 x 8
150 1 x 8
150 1 x 8

Low Incline Bench:

50/50 1 x 10
50/50 1 x 10

Pull Ups:

1 x 4
1 x 4
1 x 3

Deadlifts:

120 1 x 8
120 1 x 8
120 1 x 8

Bench Dips:

1 x 10
1 x 10
1 x 10

Barbell Rows:

110 1 x 10
100 1 x 10
100 1 x 10

Shrugs:

50/50 1 x 10
50/50 1 x 10
50/50 1 x 10

Crunches:

1 x 100.

Still struggling with chin ups. They're really chin ups, so I should start calling them that. In any case, I'm not sure if it's because I've been gaining weight that I haven't seen an increase of production. I weigh about 200 pounds, but I'm not even sure if I bench press one rep of that yet. I'm guessing the answer is no. I'll try to get some film next week. Maybe some of the folks here can assess my technique and see what I'm doing wrong.

[Ness]

Legs.

Squats:

150 1 x 10
150 1 x 10
150 1 x 10

Straight Leg Deadlifts:

125 1 x 10
125 1 x 10
125 1 x 10

Leg Curls:

110 1 x 10
110 1 x 10
110 1 x 10

Standing Calf Raises:

1 x 15
1 x 15
1 x 15

Hack Squats:

95 1 x 8
95 1 x 8
95 1 x 8

Crunches:

1 x 100

[Ness]

Triceps, Biceps, and Shoulders:

Seated Dumbbell Bench Press:

32.5/32.5 1 x 10
32.5/32.5 1 x 10
32.5/32.5 1 x 10

Close Grip Bench Press:

125 1 x 10
125 1 x 10
125 1 x 8

Standing Lateral Raises:

17.5/17.5 1 x 10
17.5/17.5 1 x 10

French Press:

35 1 x 10
35 1 x 10
35 1 x 10

Barbell Curls:

60 1 x 8
60 1 x 8
60 1 x 8

Machine Incline Press:

130 1 x 8
130 1 x 8

Hammer Curls:

27.5/27.5 1 x 10
27.5/27.5 1 x 10

Crunches: 1 x 100

[Ness]

Chest day. Still struggling with my pull ups. I have a video which I'm going to show you guys in my next post. It shows me at the gym struggling to do my pull ups. Hopefully I can get some feedback. Anyways, last night's results:

Flat Barbell Bench:

155 1 x 8
155 1 x 8
155 1 x 8

Low Incline Bench:

50/50 1 x 10
50/50 1 x 10

Pull Ups:

1 x 4
1 x 3
1 x 3

Deadlifts:

120 1 x 8
120 1 x 8
120 1 x 8

Bench Dips:

1 x 10
1 x 10
1 x 10

Barbell Rows:

110 1 x 10
110 1 x 10
110 1 x 10

Shrugs:

50/50 1 x 10
50/50 1 x 10
50/50 1 x 10

[Ness]

So here is a video of what I did last night in terms of pull ups. As you can see I've been struggling like this for months. I was 170 around January and now I'm 200. I'm not sure if the increased weight has to do with anything. Everything else I've improved a little bit. At this point I can bench about 10 reps of 155 with three sets. I'm not sure what the problem is with pull ups. I just can't get the hang of them and can't seem to do more than four of them. I don't understand why I haven't improved. Perhaps you can help me? Here is the video:

Video

[Ness]

Legs. Tonight's results...or today's I should say:

Squats:

155 1 x 10
155 1 x 10
155 1 x 10

Straight Leg Deadlifts:

130 1 x 10
130 1 x 10
130 1 x 10

Standing Calf Raises:

1 x 15
1 x 15
1 x 15

Leg Curls:

110 1 x 10
110 1 x 10
110 1 x 10

Hack Sqauts:

95 1 x 10
95 1 x 10
95 1 x 10

Crunches:

1 x 100

[Ness]

Triceps, shoulders, and biceps. Tonight was my third day in a row at the gym and I definitely noticed a drop off in an exercise or two. Then again, I was lifting a little bit more on a couple of exercises. I was going to think about going for a fourth straight day, but I think I'll let my body rest a little. One thing I need to do is start to add more diversity to my workout. I've noticed a little improvement, but I'm starting to feel that I may be doing too many of the same exercises and that is probably not good. I should explore more. Anyways, results:

Seated Dumbbell Bench Press:

35/35 1 x 10
35/35 1 x 10
35/35 1 x 10

Close Grip Bench Press:

125 1 x 10
125 1 x 10
125 1 x 10

Standing Lateral Raises:

17.5/17.5 1 x 10
17.5/17.5 1 x 10

French Press:

35 1 x 10
35 1 x 10
35 1 x 10

Barbell Curls:

60 1 x 10
60 1 x 8
60 1 x 5

Machine Incline Press:

130 1 x 8
130 1 x 8

Hammer Curls:

27.5/27.5 1 x 10
27.5/27.5 1 x 10

Crunches:

1 x 100

[chevelle2291]

Good numbers man. Everything's on the increase, which is all you can ask for.

I will say that I don't think you should really be lifting more than 2 days in a row unless you were on a very specialized split, but even then it's easy to get burned out.

With the pullups, you really need a larger range of motion to get anything out of them. I'd continue to work on them, but I'd also do lat pulldowns if I were you. Contrary to WBB dogma, you CAN build a solid back with lat pulldowns instead of chinups. So, I'd probably do 1-2 set attempts of chins, and then 2-3 sets of lat pulldowns afterwards, just to make sure you're actually giving your lats some work.

[Polish Viking]

Also with the chins do a dead hang and try to get all the way up and then long negative down= take 5 seconds to descend jump up two more times to the top for more work with those negatives 2 sets or so then two sets of lat pulldowns. Be sure to switch your grips up from time to time as the different groups target different muscles. With pull ups to get better at them for about two-three weeks you could do some sets every day to build quick strength, trust me your body will recover plenty quick enough if you keep the sets per day between 3-5

[Ness]

Thanks for the advice people. I'll definitely keep it in mind.

Chest day. Everything was practically the same except for my pull ups. Tried doing it from a complete hang down and it was absolutely terrible. I wouldn't even say that I could do one full one. I'd get my arms about 90 degrees and then I couldn't finish by putting my head over. And really, I could only do one rep at a time. So that is something that I definitely need to work on, or rather, find an easier way of improving it.

Flat Barbell Bench:

155 1 x 8
155 1 x 8
155 1 x 8

Low Incline Bench:

50/50 1 x 10
50/50 1 x 10

Pull Ups:

1 x 1
1 x 1
1 x 1
1 x 1

Deadlifts:

120 1 x 8
120 1 x 8
120 1 x 8

Bench Dips:

1 x 10
1 x 10
1 x 10

Barbell Rows:

110 1 x 10
110 1 x 10
110 1 x 10

Shrugs:

50/50 1 x 10
50/50 1 x 10
50/50 1 x 10

Crunches:

1 x 100

[Ness]

More chest day. Same results. Still getting back in a groove.

Flat Barbell Bench:

155 1 x 8
155 1 x 8
155 1 x 8

Low Incline Bench:

50/50 1 x 10
50/50 1 x 10

Pull Ups:

1 x 1
1 x 1
1 x 1
1 x 1

Deadlifts:

120 1 x 8
120 1 x 8
120 1 x 8

Bench Dips:

1 x 10
1 x 10
1 x 10

Barbell Rows:

110 1 x 10
110 1 x 10
110 1 x 10

Shrugs:

50/50 1 x 10
50/50 1 x 10
50/50 1 x 10

Crunches:

1 x 100

[Ness]

Same routine for the last few weeks. Been so busy I haven't had time to dedicate myself properly. It's been a hell of a month, hopefully I can get back on track this week. I'm feeling good about it.

Flat Barbell Bench:

155 1 x 8
155 1 x 8
155 1 x 8

Low Incline Bench:

50/50 1 x 10
50/50 1 x 10

Pull Ups:

1 x 1
1 x 1
1 x 1
1 x 1

Deadlifts:

120 1 x 8
120 1 x 8
120 1 x 8

Bench Dips:

1 x 10
1 x 10
1 x 10

Barbell Rows:

110 1 x 10
110 1 x 10
110 1 x 10

Shrugs:

50/50 1 x 10
50/50 1 x 10
50/50 1 x 10

Crunches:

1 x 100

[Ness]

Flat Barbell Bench Press:

155 1 x 6
155 1 x 6
155 1 x 6

Low Incline Bench Press:

50/50 1 x 10
50/50 1 x 10
50/50 1 x 10

Pull Ups:

1 x 1
1 x 1
1 x 1

Deadlifts:

120 1 x 6
120 1 x 6
120 1 x 6

Bench Dips:

1 x 10
1 x 10
1 x 10

Barbell Rows:

110 1 x 8
105 1 x 7
105 1 x 7

Shrugs:

50/50 1 x 10
50/50 1 x 10
50/50 1 x 10

Crunches:

1 x 100

[Ness]

Leg day.

Squats:

95 1 x 10
115 1 x 10
135 1 x 10
135 1 x 10

Straight Leg Deadlifts:

115 1 x 10
115 1 x 10
115 1 x 10

Standing Calf Raises:

1 x 15
1 x 15
1 x 15

Leg Curls:

110 1 x 10
110 1 x 10
110 1 x 10

Hack Squats:

85 1 x 10
85 1 x 10
85 1 x 10

Crunches:

1 x 100

[Ness]

Shoulders, biceps, and triceps.

Seated Dumbbell Press:

35/35 1 x 10
35/35 1 x 10
35/35 1 x 8

Close Grip Bench Press:

125 1 x 10
125 1 x 10
125 1 x 6

Standing Lateral Raises:

17.5/17.5 1 x 10
17.5/17.5 1 x 8

French Press:

35 1 x 10
35 1 x 10
35 1 x 10

Barbell Curls:

50 1 x 10
50 1 x 10
50 1 x 7

Machine Incline Press:

130 1 x 8
130 1 x 4

Hammer Curls:

27.5/27.5 1 x 10
27.5/27.5 1 x 7

Crunches:

1 x 100

[Ness]

Chest Day.

Flat Barbell Bench Press:

155 1 x 6
155 1 x 6
155 1 x 6

Low Incline Bench Press:

50/50 1 x 10
50/50 1 x 10
50/50 1 x 10

Pull Ups:

1 x 1
1 x 1
1 x 1

Deadlifts:

120 1 x 6
120 1 x 6
120 1 x 6

Bench Dips:

1 x 10
1 x 10
1 x 10

Barbell Rows:

105 1 x 10
105 1 x 10
105 1 x 10

Shrugs:

50/50 1 x 10
50/50 1 x 10
50/50 1 x 10

Crunches:

1 x 100

[Ness]

Legs.

Squats:

135 1 x 10
135 1 x 10
135 1 x 10

Straight Leg Deadlifts:

115 1 x 10
115 1 x 10
115 1 x 10

Standing Calf Raises:

1 x 15
1 x 15
1 x 15

Leg Curls:

110 1 x 10
110 1 x 10
110 1 x 10

Hack Squats:

85 1 x 10
85 1 x 10
85 1 x 10

Crunches:

1 x 100

[Ness]

Shoulders, biceps, and triceps.

Seated Dumbbell Press:

35/35 1 x 10
35/35 1 x 8
35/35 1 x 8

Close Grip Bench Press:

125 1 x 10
125 1 x 10
125 1 x 7

Standing Lateral Raises:

17.5/17.5 1 x 10
17.5/17.5 1 x 10

French Press:

35 1 x 10
35 1 x 10
35 1 x 10

Barbell Curls:

50 1 x 10
50 1 x 10
50 1 x 10
Machine Incline Press:

130 1 x 10
130 1 x 5

Hammer Curls:

27.5/27.5 1 x 10
27.5/27.5 1 x 8

Crunches:

1 x 100

[Ness]

Chest.

Flat Barbell Bench Press:

155 1 x 6
155 1 x 6
155 1 x 6

Low Incline Bench Press:

50/50 1 x 10
50/50 1 x 10
50/50 1 x 10

Pull Ups:

1 x 1
1 x 1
1 x 1

Deadlifts:

120 1 x 7
120 1 x 7
120 1 x 7

Bench Dips:

1 x 10
1 x 10
1 x 10

Barbell Rows:

105 1 x 10
105 1 x 10
105 1 x 10

Shrugs:

50/50 1 x 10
50/50 1 x 10
50/50 1 x 10

Crunches:

1 x 100