Amounirl's Training Log

[amounirl]

3-11-12: Strongman Sunday

Tire Flips, 365 Lb Anchor Chain Drags, and Carrying Plates to my Friend's Truck
-Nice dynamic warmup

Farmers Walk
180 in each hand for about 80 feet
250 in each hand for about 80 feet
270 in each hand for about 100 feet (my training partner is going to send me a video of the uphill part, which was about 64 feet)

Wheelbarrow Carry
All the plates down the hill for our farmer's deadlifts. There were 7 45 lb plates, 4 35s, 4 10s and 8 5s.

Farmer's Deadlift
1x270 in each hand
0x380 in each hand
1x360 in each hand (video coming soon!)

300 lb Tire Flips
Did a set of 10, rested a bit, then did a few more

Putting Everything Away
-A workout in and of itself

I had a blast today, strongman is incredibly fun and I can tell I'm going to make massive gains from this. I was super stoked to farmer's deadlift 720 lbs, I thought there was no way I could do it, but I did, and got it on video too! Just waiting on my training partner to send it to me. We went to a buffet afterwards and I weighed in at home around 201.3. Going to enjoy stuffing my face this next week before I start my cut next week xD.

I'll post both videos as soon as I can.

[amounirl]

3-13-12: Squat Day

Squat
5xbar
5x135
5x185
5x235
5x275
5x315

Front Squat
5x135
5x185
10x225

Sumo SLDL
8x135
8x225
ran out of time so I did:

Hamstring Curls
6 reps, added weight, 12 reps

Today I showed up late because thought I would have extra time to lift, since my school has a big test for sophomores where everybody else is supposed to show up and watch a movie for 3 hours, but most people ditch. I thought I'd have the full 3 hours, but unfortunately I only had 30 minutes extra, a total of about 1 hr 15 mins to lift. I was taking it easy at the beginning of my workout and didn't learn I didn't have 3 hours to lift until I only had 30 mins left, so I had to haul ass. At the end, I didn't have time for my final set of front squats, so I just hammered out 10 reps with 2 plates, then tried to do SLDLs, but was way too gassed to do it with such short rest. I just did some hamstring curls to near failure with my warm up set supersetted with my work set.

On the bright side, I went to a Denny's then an Aerospace museum during the 3 hour block. Got a nice 1000 calorie post workout meal!

My training partner is having trouble sending me the strongman videos because the files are too big, so I told him to send me a zip folder of them, still waiting on that. Today I got a video of 5x315 and 10x225, but I don't feel like retrieving my camera from the chalky depths of my gym bag right now, so I'll just post 1 giant post with all 4 videos hopefully sometime in the next 24 hours.

[GazzyG]

Strongman work looked really fun, good stuff! Well done on the Farmer's DL too!

[amounirl]

Thanks man, it definitely was. My training partner still hasn't sent me the video, I'll have to record it on my own camera next time haha

[amounirl]

3-15-12: Bench

Bench
15xbar
5x135
5x185
6x3x230

Pull Ups (from in between sets of bench)
5xBW
5xBW+10
5x5xBW+15

Pendlay Rows
8x155

[amounirl]

3-16-12: Overhead Underhead Day

Overhead... Press
warmups
5x125
3x140
4x155 7 lb PR!!!

Underhead... Speed Deficit Deads
A bunch of sets of 3 with 135 plus bands.

I felt really sore today, so I decided to modify my program a bit. I didn't feel like doing heavy deads today so I did speed deads instead, I spent way too long screwing around with the band setup and didn't get to do anything after DLs, but I did get an idea at the end that will make things easier and hopefully yield me better gains. More on that in 2 paragraphs.

I couldn't find a day to do overhead presses, I feel too tired right after bench on bench day, but the day after I just feel sore. Since my only other pressing day is axle and log jerks on Sundays, then I have a really long rest before bench pressing again on Thursday, I'm not worried about overtraining or not getting enough rest. I'm going to hit my presses hard and close together, then rest a long time in between clusters of pressing days. Even though I just benched the day before I got a nice little PR on OHP.

So the idea I got at the end of my deadlifts was to do deficit reverse band DLs instead of 3x5 deads so I can work on my speed off the ground while giving myself more rest and less stress between DL max effort weeks. I also get to incorporate decently heavy deficit deads without hurting myself and without overtraining. Not to mention reverse bands are fun.

This is more for my own personal reference, just putting it on my public training log so I can access it, so it's going to be long and unless you're interested then I don't recommend reading it, but if you are interested then you're definitely welcome to read it:

Program Modifications


OLD
Thurs: 6x3 bench, block periodization OHP, weighted pull ups and pendlay rows
Fri: 3/5/1 Deadlifts and kroc rows

NEW
Thurs: 6x3 bench, weighted pull ups and pendlay rows
Fri: 3/reversebands/1 Deadlifts, block periodization 2 weeks shifted OHP, face pulls b/n sets, kroc rows

Here's my really confusing explanation of this particular block periodization, 4 month cycle of 4 week waves:

Week 1 I do 5 sets, Week 2 I do 3 sets, Week 3 I do 5/3/1+ with 75%/85%/95%, Week 4 I do 10/8/6 with 45%/55%/65%

As pertaining to weeks 1 and 2 for my 5 sets and 3 sets respectively: Month 1 I do 10 reps around 65%-75%, Month 2 I do 8 reps around 75%-80%, Month 3 I do 5 reps around 85%, Month 4 I do 3 reps around 90%.

Best way to visualize it is to make a 5x5 table and look at it that way.

I'm shifting the block periodization 2 weeks so that on my high volume OHP day, I'm deloading my deadlift, on my heavy OHP day, I'm doing reverse band DLs. So the 5 sets OHP day is on deload10/8/6 deadlift and the 5/3/1+ OHP day is on reverse band day.

What I'm probably going to do is on the 3 sets OHP day and the deload 10/8/6 OHP day, is do it in between sets of deadlifts, so I can be time efficient with my long ass rest periods on DLs. On the other days I should be fine on time. So on light OHP days it will go in 3 mixed exercise "supersets":

Heavy deads->OHP->Light face pulls, repeat for next sets

On heavy or high volume OHP days I won't mix DLs and OHP:
-All my sets of hard OHP with face pulls
-All my sets of reverse band or deloaded deads

Hope that makes sense, I proofread a little bit but it makes sense in my head and that's what matters most to me.

I apologize that this was such a loooooong ass post...

TLDR: Everything is going swell!

[amounirl]

Here's those videos I promised you guys, hopefully the strongman ones will be up soon, he's just going to upload them on his channel:

[GazzyG]

Good work on the overhead press PR!

Also, nice squatting. Nice and low. Can easily see on the video that transition point halfway up where the weight starts to feel heavy on the back, so you think 'get the hips forwards' and you shoot up lol.

[Coke]

Not a bad plan where you are placing the overheads, would be better off right now with doing 'em after your regular bench but go for lighter poundage.

Props on your overall approach, looking ace in the squat vids!

[amounirl]

Thanks guys! About the overhead press I'll try it this way and if I start stalling on all my pressing movements then I'll try what you said and just do them for volume with light weight on bench day.

[amounirl]

Just found an email my training partner sent me about the block periodization:

Month 1: 5x10, 3x10, 5/3/1, 10/8/6
Month 2: 5x8, 3x8, 5/3/1, 10/8/6
Month 3: 5x5, 3x5, 5/3/1, 10/8/6
Month 4: 5x3, 3x3, 5/3/1, 10/8/6

and obviously that goes "Month [X]: [Week 1], [Week 2], [Week 3], [Week 4]"

That's so much simpler lol. But yeah the percents are up in my previous post. Going to go do strongman in 2 hours, sadly the guy with all the equipment is being kind of inconsistent and can't come... again, but my training partner who has an axle and a truck can still train, so we'll probably just do that, axle presses and truck push/pull.

[amounirl]

Sunday Strongman

Not sure how much the axle bar weighs but I'm gonna assume it weighs 20 lbs for simplicity's sake:


Axle Clean and Press
With a clean on each rep.
5x70
3x110
3x3x160

Chin Ups
2x8

Circus Dumbbell Clean and Press
2x60 on each side
0x90
0x80
2x70 on each side

Axle Deadlifts
3x110
2x200
2x270
2x340
1x390

Truck Push
About 100 ft

Axle Clean and press is the most awkward thing I've ever seen or tried. Reminds me of that funny crossfit video of all the crossfitians trying to continental clean an axle, except I was the one screwing around with it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8up6A4QesU

At first I was kind of doing the clean like the guy at 1:02 in the video does. In the end I just did double overhand, but for the first 2 triples at 160 I cleaned it up to my shoulders with mixed grip, then turned my underhand hand at the top. The press was honestly by far the easiest part, I've jerked 200 lbs for reps before, and can push press this type of weight with ease. The hardest part was cleaning it and getting it set up for the press, I ended up pressing with a wider grip than usual.

I honestly hated circus dumbbell clean and press, but I managed to hit 2x70. Axle deadlifts felt incredibly heavy even with light weight, but I managed to pull 370 plus the bar, which I'm gonna assume is 390, with mixed grip. I probably could have gotten 2 or 3 reps if I wasn't switching my mixed grip, but that's why I was doing doubles, one with one hand supinated, one with the other hand supinated. I felt it in my upperback a lot more, probably because I had to use a wider grip with the axle. Kind of wish I got it on video, but I'll film it with 400 next time.

Then I got this crappy video of me pushing the truck: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ca6JQ...ature=youtu.be

I stalled out off screen, when I was trying to push it around a tight corner, which made the push a lot harder, not to mention I was pretty tired by then. I'll just put it up but it's honestly not very entertaining, I just wanted something to show for the day :P. Hopefully my training partner will post that 720 farmers dead soon, I'll post it asap.

[amounirl]

Max Effort Squats

Squat
Warmups
5x275
3x315
(1+3)=4x345

Hamstring Curls

Squats took a long time today so I didn't get to do front squats, I might move those around, here's the video:

[GazzyG]

Good work, mate! Getting real deep.

Notice from this angle that your knees are coming in a bit at the bottom; soon as that happens you then get a bit wobbly at the top too. Used to happen to me too till someone (think it was BrianC) told me to keep thinking about pushing knees out on way up and down. I'm sure you knew that anyway, just difficult to always put it in practice when you've got heavy weight on your back lol.

[amounirl]

Thanks man, yeah I noticed the same thing. I think it's a mobility issue, but pushing the knees out definitely helps the squat, gets your glutes/hamstrings more involved. I'm going to stretch more

[amounirl]

3-22-12: Bench

Bench
3x3x235

Bradford Press
2x8x95

Reverse Flyes
2x12x25s

I'm an idiot. Not really, but I did something stupid yesterday, I ran into a guy who kicked my ass in arm wrestling 8 months ago, and I wanted to rechallenge him to test my strength. I didn't know when the next opportunity would come so I armwrestled him even knowing it could and most likely would hurt my bench the next day. I beat him just barely on both arms, but I had a good 15-30 seconds of max effort strain on each arm. Needless to say, my bicep tendons and shoulders were killing me today, the bench weight felt easy muscularly speaking, especially because I was getting really good leg drive today, but my shoulders and arms, especially my bicep tendon on my right arm, were killing me. I couldn't pull the bar apart at all, so I wasn't getting very good lat or tricep activation, all that was saving me was my leg drive.

Anyways I just cut it off at 3 sets. I couldn't do pull ups at all, I'm going to switch to wide grip pull ups starting next week and just focus on not kipping, and using as wide a grip as possible with my gym's set up, to get my lats nice and strong, since that is undoubtedly my most lagging muscle group for bench (though I've noticed some good gains on my lats in the last week). I might start doing hammer curls as well to boost my bicep tendon strength, but I think kroc rows should be fine for now. Speaking of which tomorrow is OHP deload, and max effort deadlifts. I don't think I'll get a chance to do kroc rows, but I plan on smashing 430 for 5 reps (high goal so I at least achieve 430x3) DL. I'm going to sleep really early tonight and wake up really early so I have adequate time to stretch and warm up, that way I can grind out my DLs without worrying at all about rounding my back.

At the risk of making this post too long, update on diet and bodyweight:

I peaked out around 202 lbs, and I got a picture, which I might post later on. I started my cut on Monday 3-19-12, and I'm already down to 196, just from not being bloated from bulking anymore, and dropping water weight from not eating carbs. I've bulked for so long this time that cutting is actually painful, although it is nice not having to eat so often. Either way, cut is going decently, will update on that in future posts. My cutting diet is a combination of the anabolic diet and carb backloading, as shown here:

Mon-Thurs: Less than 50g carbs per day, only trace carbs from dark chocolate, nuts, whey, and vegetables.

Friday: Low calories and carbs all day, but at night, after a quick conditioning workout, begin carbload with a 1000-3000 calorie carby ass meal (ice cream, french fries, biscuits, soda, all that good stuff).

Saturday: Low carbs before workout, high carbs after workout.

I've had success with the anabolic diet before, and carb backloading makes good scientific sense to me, so hopefully thsi will be a great diet for me to cut fat and possibly gain muscle/strength until I turn 18 in June. After that I'll switch to "cheatmode", a combination of paleo, intermittent fasting, and carb backloading, and I'll stay lean and try to make lean gains that way up until September or October. So in the 3 months I'm cutting, I plan on losing about 20 lbs, so I'll be in the 181 lb class, and I hope to set some PRs on my birthday and total 1200. I want to bench 300, squat 405, and deadlift 500. So far squat is the only one looking achievable, possibly bench if I can linearly load 6x3 all the way to 270, but if I get 430 for at least 4 reps tomorrow, then my DL will already be at 490. Once my predicted DL max is 520 I think I'll be able to get 500.

Yup, this post became way too long :P

[amounirl]

3-23-12: Max Effort Deads

OHP Deload
10x75
8x95
6x110

Deadlifts
5x135
5x185
3x205
3x250
5x295
3x340
1x385 20 lb Beltless PR!
Added belt (I always use a belt for my last 2-3 work sets but I'll start mentioning it from now on)
4x430 25 lb PR!!!

Video:

Chin ups
1x8

Pretty great day today, got a pretty massive PR on deads, I'm pretty stoked. I would never yell like that in a real gym, but since it's my school gym I had some fun with it and douched out a little bit =P. Maybe I'll make my goal for next time to divert all that yelling energy into getting a 5th rep, but for now I'm pretty stoked with this lift. All my rest periods took forever but I managed to fit deadlifts in 1.5 hours, with just enough time to squeeze out some neutral grip chins to elongate my spine. Cut is going well, although surprisingly I only weigh about 193.8 right now, even though I ate carbs last night. Hopefully by the end of the weekend I should be back up around 198 carb loaded.

[amounirl]

Here are those strongman videos I promised 2 weeks ago:

[amounirl]

Sunday Strongman

Axle Clean and Press (clean each rep)
3x115
3x135
3x165
2x165
3x165

Farmer's Walk
360x100 ft 16 sec (slight uphill)
460x100 ft 18 sec (slight downhill)
540x50 ft grip failed

Unfortunately it started raining which cut our workout short, but I did some axle work and practiced the continental clean. Axles make everything feel heavier, that 165 should have been nothing but I was having quite a bit of trouble, especially on the last set when it started raining and getting slippery. I screwed up the technique too many times on the 2nd set, which fatigued me and I only got 2 reps.

Farmer's walks were going decently, there was a very slight slope which maybe took 2 sec off our time downhill and added 2 sec to our time uphill. Unfortunately it was raining harder, I think the water might have added maybe 10 lbs to the farmer's walk timbers, but the main thing was that it was making the grip really slippery. My grip slipped on the 460, but I still managed to get it in 18 sec, but I just couldn't complete the course with 540. I should have tried using chalk. At that point it was raining way too hard and we decided to put everything away. No videos unfortunately, at least I finally got the 720 farmer's dead video in the last post :P

[Coke]

Killer in those vids...like dude stated, very few teenagers be doing the strongman shit.

[amounirl]

Thanks Coke!

[GazzyG]

Epic work all around, mate. Famer's looks fun!

[amounirl]

Thanks man, they definitely are!

[amounirl]

3-27-12: Squat Deload

Beltless Squats
10x175
8x210
6x250

I was lazy as crap today, I just went in and did some beltless squats and focused on form. Unfortunately I never take deload days seriously, thankfully my bench and deadlift/ohp day are going to be a little more serious, 6x3x240 on bench and 5x8x115 on OHP.

Also just a side note, I was thinking about adding a back/biceps day on Mondays where we didn't hit much lats and biceps in strongman the day before. It would have been perfect for this monday since our strongman training got cut off by the rain, next monday probably not because we're planning on doing arm over arm pulls. For the back/biceps day I was thinking about doing pendlay rows, chin ups, face pulls and hammer curls (get my arms stockier for a bigger bench.) Either way I definitely want to start incorporating hammer curls because they can greatly benefit a person's bench press.

[amounirl]

3-29-12: Bench Day

Bench
warmups
3x240
3x240
2x240
Added 2 board (yoga mat)
5x245
3x245
2x245

Wide Grip Pull ups from in between sets
36 reps total

Some Hammer Curls and JM presses

Today didn't go so well... Yesterday in Kempo I got punched in my right axillary nerve really hard, so my right shoulder was killing me today. I knew I wouldn't get a 3rd rep on my 3rd set of 240, so I cut that set at 2 reps to avoid failure and started board pressing instead to save my shoulders. I managed to do 245 for 5 on my first set of board presses, but on my second set, my set up was really shitty, I was flat backing it by the 2nd rep, which ultimately led to me failing 245 on the 3rd rep of the 3rd set of board presses, the 6th set of pressing work total today.

I'm really pissed because this is the second week in a row where my bicep or shoulder has been screwing me over on bench due to "injuries" from outside, so next week I'm going to "underload", aka do a bench variant that forces me to use lighter weights, which in this case is using sissy pads as improvised fat gripz, and pausing at the bottom, and I plan on doing 6x3x200 with those 2 variables. That should give me a nice deload to give my stressed out shoulders a break, while still yielding me some gains, and hopefully making the weight feel easier next time since I won't have to pause or grip a fatter, more awkward bar. I'm going to make sure that anybody I work with in kempo knows I have an "injured" right bicep and shoulder so that nobody nails me there ever again (and I'll also stop arm wrestling :P).

I was planning on doing OHP tomorrow but I'll have to see how my shoulder feels.