Amounirl's Training Log

[Coke]

Yesterday in Kempo I got punched in my right axillary nerve really hard, so my right shoulder was killing me today.

Good deal on the kempo, stuff like that will take place along the way as you well know.

Are you including or planning to include other aspects of the fight game at some point?

[amounirl]

Thanks man, probably not, I enjoy lifting a lot more than fighting, but I still do kempo to keep my cardio up and so I know I can defend myself if someone wants to try to start something

[amounirl]

3-30-12: Over Under Day (no, not the jump ropes!)

OHP
5x8x100

Beltless Deadlift
10x205
8x260
6x315

Quad Extension Machine more or less supersetted with Hamstring Curl Machine
Quad: 20x115
Hams: 12x125
Quad: 12x130
Hams: 12x130
Quad: 15x130
Hams: 10x130
Quad: 12x130
Hams: 10x130
Quad: 15x155
Hams: 11x130

Bradford Press
12x75
10x85
9x85

Done, a nice finisher for the week, hopefully I'll make some good gains from this. I forgot to do face pulls unfortunately, but either way my shoulders are fried, I'm sure bradford press got my rear delts and back decently. My chest is incredibly sore, the whole axillary area in fact, from kempo, benching yesterday, and OHP/bradfords today. I underestimated the quad and hamstring machines: I was limping out of there and I couldn't raise my foot more than 6 inches in the air because my hamstrings were too pumped and sore. I also barely got my workout shirt off because my shoulders were so pumped and sore. I think I got an extra good pump because not only was I working with high reps today, but I also started my carb load early yesterday after a pretty intense kempo session, I weighed about 192 before my carb load and now I"m hovering around 197. Carbs are delicious.

By the way this whole workout took about 1 hour and 10 mins, I was breathing hard for 20 minutes afterwards.

[amounirl]

4-1-12: Strongman Sunday

Axle Clean and Press (1 clean, multiple presses)
warmups
3x180
0x200 tweaked my back

25 YD Farmer's Walk Sprints
2x180s
2x230s
1x250s

Truck Push
1 Lap (about 100-150 ft)

Arm Over Arm Pull
Not sure how far but here's the crappyish video: Truck Pull - YouTube

Unfortunately I tweaked my back on the 200 axle attempt. It's a freaking dangerous lift, bad for your back and easy to tear a bicep (happened to Brian Shaw) At least I managed to get it to my shoulders, but I missed it at the press, oddly enough.

[amounirl]

Squat

Lunge Warm Ups with 40 lbs

Squat
3x5xbar
5x155
3x185
1x225
1x275
3x315
Added Belt
1x345
1x365 (20 lb PR, video coming soon)

Reverse Hypers

Today I wanted to take it easy on my hurt back, I wasn't even planning on squatting, I did lunges to warm up for leg press, but realized the 40 wasn't aggrivating my back, so I started putting on the weight for my squat. I felt like my form was rock solid, so I kept the reps low and worked up to 1x365, and got it on video (unfortunately my form wasn't as solid, though it wasn't bad). I left my camera at home so I have to wait for my friend to send it to me from his phone.

Did some reverse hypers (with my crappy ghetto setup) to rehab my back, but I couldn't get a good rig. Still did a few crappy ones anyways.

[amounirl]

4-4-12: Bench Day

Bench Paused at the Chest Each Rep
Warmups
185+40-50 lbs of bands at the top, 0 at the bottom
6x3x205+same bands, did a 4th rep on the last set with no pause

Back Work From in Between Sets
A few sets of wide grip pull ups, pendlay rows, face pulls

Had a decent workout today, my bench form felt rock solid, lockouts felt easy as pie, even though the bar weighed 245-255 at the top and I paused at the chest each rep. My bicep tendon was bothering me again, I think it's either still not fully healed or that I might have permanently damaged something. I couldn't do my weighted pull ups properly so after a few sets without weight I did some light pendlay rows and medium weight face pulls instead. What I've learned from this whole ordeal is, arm wrestling is really bad for you, and my upper body, particularly chest and shoulders, respond extremely well to volume. Even with this setback, I'm hoping I can smash 6x3x245 next week.

Workout got cut a bit short because the weight room was supposed to be closed today but coach agreed he could open it up for about 1 hour. I usually always need a long time to rest in between heavy sets, so even though I was planning on doing dumbbell incline presses and clean and jerk to build my strength for the axle, I ran out of time. I'll have 2 hours to work out on friday though, and I'll have as long as I need next week because I'll be on spring break. I'm going to follow a more strict program and get in all my assistance exercises during this window of opportunity, so I can get a bit ahead. I have 2 months to reach a 300 bench, 405 squat, and 500 DL.

[amounirl]

4-6-12: Over Under Day

Overhead Press
warmups
3x8x115

Face Pulls
5x8x105
1x8x120

Deadlifts
5x135 From 2 inch deficit
5x185 From 2 inch deficit
3x225
3x275
3x315
2x375
Added Belt
2x425
1x445
1x450

450 Deadlift - YouTube

Incline Bench with Bands pulling arms together and Dumbbells
A couple sets with 30s and 50s

"Chest Pump Machine" and a few light Squats and Hanging Leg Raises

Today's workout was pretty great, I got 2 hours to lift because of finals schedule, and I got to train at 10:00 AM instead of 6:15 AM, which was nice because I was more awake and had more energy. I would have liked to have done more leg exercises, but I should be fine with strongman on Sunday.

Overhead press went nicely, next week I'll be doing 5/3/1 OHP to try to set a new PR. It was fun doing heavy face pulls again, I found a great set up that allows me to go pretty heavy on them while using the rope attachment, which I like for the ROM. I messed around with dumbbell incline bench with a band around my arms to work on pulling the bar apart on bench and develop my upper chest a bit more, and just overall increase stability on my bench. Felt it a lot in my lats and rear delts, which was good. I think I'll start doing those on 6x3 bench day and start doing Bradford presses consistently on "Over Under Day". I also kind of messed around with this one machine that gives a great chest pump just for fun, and at the end I did a few light weight squats and then hanging leg raises just to stretch everything back out.

I did all the upper body stuff in between sets of deadlifts to be more time efficient. For DLs I started off from a deficit just to set my speed off the ground to be nice and fast from the beginning, which worked out pretty well. I was supposed to do 3x425 and 445 for 3 singles, but I honestly don't like doing high volume DLs because of all the lower back strain, so I worked up to reasonably heavy without my belt, then slapped it on and hit 2x425, 445 for a single, then went for 450 because it's half of 900! I felt like my form was solid today, I started with a more straight upper back which helped me quite a bit at lockout to avoid hitching. Here's the 445, the form was good on both the 450 and 445, but the 445 was my cleanest deadlift ever:

445 DL - YouTube

My form has felt great all week, I think focusing on form on high rep sets during my deload week has been very beneficial.

[Coke]

Killer with those deads, looking more and more beastly too.

[amounirl]

Thanks Coke!

[amounirl]

Here's the squat from Tuesday:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSyhR...1&feature=plcp

[amounirl]

4-8-12: Strongman Sunday

2.5 Inch Axle Clean and Press
3xbar w/ tires (92 lbs)
3x112
3x142
3x152
5x132 (kept it light so I wouldn't further screw up my back)

Circus Dumbbell Press
3 Cleans and 5 Presses with 50
Same thing with 60
3x70
1x85

A Bunch of Tire Pulls of Different Weights and Distances
Here's the best one: ~400 lb Tire Arm Over Arm Pull/Pulling "Medley" - YouTube

Farmer's Picks
A couple warm up sets leading up to:
5x600: 5x600 Farmer's Pick - YouTube

[Coke]

Wow man, serious work in the vids - tire pulling and farmer's picks are ridiculous, lol.

[amounirl]

Thanks man, yeah strongman is incredibly fun

[amounirl]

4-10-12: Squats

Squat
5xbar
5x135
5x185
5x245
5x295
Added Belt
5x325

Front Squat
3x135
3x185
5x225
5x225
5x245

Sumo SLDL
5x135
5x185
5x225
3x5x275

Man I'm toast from this workout. I'm adjusting my diet so instead of trying to cut on low carbs, I'm going to start just eating clean, some carbs included for the anabolic effect, but no more fast food or nasty crap, no more simple sugars except once in a while, and just no more low quality food in general. I'm still gonna eat a lot of calories so I can hit 405-300-500 by the time I turn 18 on June 8th, whether or not that means bulking a bit.

I've recently been feeling like I look smaller and fatter every day and I think I figured out why. I've been neglecting my protein intake, ever since I became less anal about diet my protein intake has been declining. I was always skeptical about the whole 1g per lb of bodyweight per day thing, and while I still am, I think I went too low. I'm bumping up my protein to about 150g-200g per day so I'm hopefully getting enough. I've started taking creatine so hopefully I can get big and strong enough to smash those numbers on my birthday!

[amounirl]

4-11-12: Bench/Upper Body

Bench
5xbar
5x135
5x185
1x225
2x245 (not even close to 3, completely stalled in the middle)
5x225 (at least I matched my old 5 rep PR)
3x225 (way too fatigued)
Liftoff only: 275x8 sec
Dynamic:
3x3x135+bands

Neutral Grip Pull ups
2x5xBW
2x5xBW+10

This workout in the gym sucked, very emasculating. I only had about 45 mins because I slept in and my buddies were leaving, since they had already been there for 1 hour before I got there (and I was there with them on a guest pass). I felt weak and tired and generally like crap. We went out to eat and when I got home about 2 hours after my gym workout I decided I'd do some bodyweight stuff, so I actually got a really good workout:

Neutral Grip Pull Ups
BWx8,8,6,5,4,4

Incline Push Ups (feet on a bench, hands on the ground)
A couple random sets, I think I did BWx8,8,15,15

Dips
BWx12,10
BWx5, rest 20 sec, BWx3, rest 20 sec, BWx3, rest 35 sec, BWx5

That was really refreshing, because I haven't done BW stuff in a long time, and since I was all by myself, I used short rest periods. I always feel like a fat slob sitting around and using 5-10 min rest periods in the gym, so even though I couldn't get as many reps, it was nice. It started raining in the middle of my pull ups, which kind of screwed me up on the grip and made them harder, which also forced me to dig deeper and do even shorter rest periods, but I got a rush of testosterone and pulled my shirt off, and the rain felt great, also very refreshing. My muscles were incredibly pumped afterwards, so I jumped on the scale and weighed in at 197.5 (maybe from the creatine). I feel like a man again, hopefully this will help me gain back the small amount of muscle I might have lost from my protein slip-up, and more.

One interesting thing is part of the guest pass/trial at the gym was that I got to take a free bodyfat test. They gave me this device I was supposed to hold at arms length that told me I was 21% bodyfat. I honestly think that's BS, some marketing gimmick that's supposed to make you want to buy a personal trainer. My buddy who was 18% with calipers did the same test and got 24%. I'm probably more around 15 or 16%, because I can still see my abs in good lighting, and still see them in okay lighting when I flex. Plus I can always see my quads' definition even in bad lighting.

Either way, I managed to salvage a crappy lifting day and turn it into a decently good one!

[Coke]

No joke, those gadgets don't have the final say on bodyfat...good deal on greater detail and attention to your diet, this will get things squared away more speedier.

[amounirl]

Thanks man, I hope so

[amounirl]

I'm moving my deadlift workout to tomorrow because I feel really sore and tired today, and since I can't train strongman this sunday anyways.

[amounirl]

I kind of got bungled yesterday, my family went on a road trip so I was really busy all day, then I had no gym to train in. When I got home it was really late and I was way too tired to go get a guest pass to 24 hour fitness or something so I just went to the park and did this workout to keep my muscles from atrophying:

3 sets of 5 rep, rest 20 sec, 5 rep hammer pull ups (30 reps total)
2 ~100 yard/meter hill sprints
1 ~100 yard/meter flat ground sprint
3 handstand push ups
2x15 incline push ups (feet on a bench)

Thankfully school is starting next week so I'm just going to carry on normally, with an upper back day on Monday since I won't be training strongman today. Tuesday I'm going to attempt 4x365 squat and then do front squats 5x225, 5,5x245, then hook grip rack pulls up to around 5 plates to make sure my grip is solid for deadlifts on friday. On deadlift/OHP day I'm just going to do 3x8 OHP and carry on the cycle from there, with 5/3/1 OHP on my deadlift deload day. This unplanned "deload" could be a blessing in disguise, my back/spine has been screwed up from kempo and strongman for the last few weeks so this might be just what I needed.

[amounirl]

4-16-12: Supplementary Back & Arms

Strict Pendlay Rows
5x135
3x5x175

Cheat Pendlay/Yates rows
2x5x225

Several High Pull Variants
5x3x185

BW Reverse Hyper/25 lb dumbbells hammer curl/25 lb dumbbells jm press circuit
2x15 (15 reps on each of the 3 exercises, 2 rounds)

Since my training has been kind of crappy these last 5 days, I decided to throw in a supplementary back/arms workout, might as well because I have to go to weight training anyways. It felt pretty great to be back in the gym.

Strict Pendlays were 100% strict, my torso didn't move at all and it looked exactly like a reverse gravity bench press. I threw in some cheat pendlays/yates rows just to try them out, but I felt it mostly in my grip, lower back, and maybe a little bit of lower lats. Probably won't be doing them again. I did a couple types of high pulls, which I actually really liked. I also power cleaned 185 just for fun at the end of these, and unfortunately my spine bent back right where it was injured 2 weeks ago. I stretched a bit to keep it from seizing up, and did some light high rep reverse hypers to get blood into the area. I really hope I can still squat tomorrow. At least I've got my belt to keep my lower back/core from having to work too hard. The whole circuit at the end, again, was just to get blood flowing to the muscles and get some light bicep/tricep work in, to keep from atrophying.

So anyways, hopefully I can get a PR on squats tomorrow. I"m going to start repping out the last set of the day more often, even on 5s week, if/when I ever feel strong, just so that I don't become so reliant on 5/3/1 week PRs. Even Jim Wendler himself stated that a good program should accommodate for crappy training days, so I'm going to go against the recommendation on 5/3/1 for PLs to not rep out 5s week.

On a side note, last night on my home scale, the one I always use for consistency even though it's probably not accurate, I weighed in at 203.5, after eating a big dinner. In the morning at school on the weight training scale I weighed in at 205. This is the heaviest I've ever been, and it feels good to be bulking again, even though it takes a lot of painful stuffing myself to get adequate calories from whole foods. I think the creatine also has something to do with it. When I got home today, I weighed 200.2, and I've never come home weighing over 200 lbs. Bodyweight PRs all around!

[amounirl]

4-17-12: Squats

Light Warmup Lunges

Dynamic Power Clean
115x3x3

Squat
warmups
Added Belt
285x5
330x3
365x1,0
Removed Belt
275x5, rest 60 sec, 275x4, rest 60 sec, 275x3

Hook Gripped Grip Rack Pulls
worked up to 475 for 10 sec

1 set of Speed Deads
225x3

Today didn't go so well... I felt pretty crappy, weak, and sore, and my form was really off. I think it might just be that I missed my deadlift session last time, so my legs were really sluggish and whatnot. Or it's because I did a lot of running on saturday and sunday, which could have put a lot of wear and tear on my knees. Either way, I resolve to never miss a workout ever again because of soreness, I'll go do a deload if I have to just to keep my blood moving around. I decided to try to rep out 365 again after barely getting it for 1, since my form felt so off when I failed it, but I just ended up not being able to complete 1 rep. Within about 2 or 3 minutes, I went and did 275 for 5/4/3 with short rest periods, just so I could get some hypertrophy work and end the day on a more or less positive note. My form felt decent on these, a lot better than it did on the other heavy sets. Then I did some hook grip rack pulls and a set of speed pulls just to make sure my deadlift won't be too shitty on friday.

If there's one thing I've learned from the many shitty workouts I've had these last 2 months, it's that my body responds very well to volume, I'm never cutting out rep work again.

[Coke]

Sounds like a plan, do what works best for you...props on covering all the bases.

Obviously you are adding more mass these days, glad to hear it.

[amounirl]

I appreciate it Coke

4-18-12: Bench

Bench
warmups
225x3
245xalmost3,2,1
225x0

Other random shit

Another shitty workout. Here's the story on the 245x2.5, I was on my 3rd rep and I got past the sticking point, at this point I knew I was going to lock it out, but my spotter saw it was moving really slow so he put his hands under it just to be ready to catch it. I got paranoid that he was going to rob me of this PR I've been chasing for months so I said "I GOT IT!" He thought I said grab it, so he grabbed it... I was really fucking pissed but I understood that it was an honest mistake, so I'm not mad at him, I'm just mad at the whole situation. I thought I might be able to get it on my next set, but I only got 2. On my 3rd set I only got 1 rep, and didn't want to try and fail another one so I racked it. I decided to do 3x5x225, but at this point my previously injured bicep tendon started bothering me again, so I couldn't even get it off my chest. In fact, my bicep was bothering me the whole time, especially after I strained on 245x2.5 (which should have been 3...) This caused me to have to be very slow at the bottom on both the eccentric and concentric, so I lost my momentum. I usually don't bounce it (as you can see in my videos), but I was almost pausing, which definitely also affected my strength. Either way, it ended up shitty. My bicep was too fucked to do much else in the way of pressing movements, and certainly not pulling movements, so I did some shrug variants just so I wouldn't feel like a total pussy. After my workout I realized I could have probably done floor press... Oh well, I fucked up...

The one bright side was that I'm 95% sure I could have gotten 245x3, so I will adjust my training max. Now about my current training program, I'm pretty sure 6x3 is a solid program, but I haven't been getting very good results from it (for reasons which are mostly my own fault). I should have stayed at 240 until I could no shit get it for 6 sets of 3, but I egotistically moved on to 245. One option is to jump back down to 235, but there's one major problem with this program for me, which is that I have to be at 100% performance every bench day. It doesn't accommodate for off days. I have way too many bad days for it to work, because my homework is very inconsistent, which affects my sleep, making it inconsistent as well. My outside physical activity is also inconsistent, one day I could have a great rehab workout in kempo and the next day I could have a ball busting workout/sparring/grappling match that fucks up my spine and bicep tendon (aka last thursday). So needless to say I have very frequent crappy days in the gym, which are 100% unpredictable. I'm gonna go back to 5/3/1 for bench, but I'm going to do it this way:

Week 1: 70%x3, 80%x3, 90%x3, 95%x1 paused, 2 board press 95%x3+

Week 2: 65%x5, 75%x5, 85%x5+, 75%x3, 70%x5+

Week 3: 75%x5, 85%x3, 95%x3+, 85%x3, 75%x5+

Week 4: Deload (insignificant)

I'll only rep out the + numbers on days when I feel good. I'll use the new PR to calculate my new training max for the next cycle. I'll definitely have to adjust my goals, unless I magically bulk 20 lbs of muscle in the next 2 months and hit 8 reps each cycle on my 95%x3+ (maybe if I hit a second puberty or started using dbol or something-not happening). Realistically I think I can bench 275 paused by the time I turn 18. Who knows, maybe this creatine or training program will give me amazing results and I'll somehow eat 5000 perfect calories a day and I"ll gain 10 lbs of muscle and 10 lbs of fat in the next 2 months, then bench 305, but I don't think so. I think the squat and deadlift are still achievable, but again, it's never reliable.

That being said, I'm probably going to take a 2 months break from kempo just so I can heal up all these injuries. I feel like a pussy for it, but thankfully I have a plan with a buddy of mine who's done martial arts for about 10 years and is a black belt at another dojo, who's also into lifting. He's doing stronglifts and works out mon-wed-fri, and I'm working out tues-wed-fri-sun, so we were thinking about doing some light (60%) sparring for cardio/skill, and also doing some conditioning work like hill sprints and pushing cars, on wednesdays and fridays. That should keep my cardio/fighting skill up, and possibly even help it. We're starting next week.

Since this post is already incredibly long I might as well write another paragraph about what I think caused my bicep to be fucked up today, and possibly even why my legs were shitty yesterday. First off, my bicep was compromised from all my kempo injuries (not really injuries but just built up wear and tear), but second, I went and played football with a couple family members on Sunday, not really any tackling, but mostly running and passing, and all of that throwing and sprinting must have put a lot of wear and tear on my joints, esp shoulder, elbow, and knees, especially because I weigh 200 lbs but my body is used to weighing 180. I usually could have recovered by wednesday, but I did the monday upper back workout, then did power cleans (even though they were light) on tuesday, giving it no time to heal. Either way, another shitty workout today, hopefully deadlifts will go well tomorow.

Sorry for the long post, as you can see going through my log, when I start talking about something I like to run my mouth (or in this case my fingers...) and describe it very thoroughly.

[amounirl]

Spoke to my Sensei today, the man is a genius, he somehow convinced me to stay. From now on though I'm not going to go to the thursday fighting classes, well at least while lifting is my focus. After I hit 300 on the bench I can start doing the intense thursday class again, but for now I'm probably just going to come on Wednesdays and Saturdays, maybe Mondays. Also one thing I forgot to mention was that I'm going to start up with 5s week tomorrow, that way I'm doing light bench and deads on weeks when I'm doing heavy or high volume OHP, and heavy bench and deads on weeks when I'm doing light OHP.

[amounirl]

4-20-12: DL and OHP

OHP
3x8x120

DL
Warmups
365x3x3 with 30 sec rest in between sets

Face pulls, lateral and rear delt flyes, and chin ups from in between sets and at the end

Had a decent workout, didn't attempt to go heavy and just focused on form, which actually felt pretty good today because of an article I recently read on the deadlift. Didn't want to go heavy because I felt pretty shitty and missed my DLs last week, but I made a new plan. Since this week was a piece of shit, I'm treating this week as if it was 3s week, so here's the plan for the rest of the time until my meet on my birthday:

DL is the same as Sq and bench, except instead of 3s, 5s, 5/3/1, 10/8/6, the cycle goes 3s, 3s with reverse band deficit DLs (hopefully 75%x3, 85%x3, 95%x3), 5/3/1, 10/8/6.


Week of: Sq and Bench; OHP
4-22: 5s; 5/3/1
4-29: 5/3/1; 10/8/6
5-6: 10/8/6; 5x5
5-13: 3s; 3x5
5-20: 5s; 5/3/1
5-27: 5/3/1; 10/8/6
6-3: Deload everything, meet on 6-8.

My attempts are going to be

Sq: 365, 385, 405
Bench: 245, 275, 300
DL: 450, 475, 500

Might throw in OHP: 165, 185, 200
or C and J: 200, 225
if I have time

If I can get the second attempts I'll be satisfied, I'll be stoked if I hit the 3rd numbers because that's my long term goal. Bodyweight will probably be around 210-220.