July 22, 2013 Upper Body

• Bench Press: 250*1 270*1 280*1 295*1-dirty
• Pendlay Rows: 205*4 225*2 230*1
• Push Press: 225*1 235*1
• Thick Rope Pullups: 5, 4
• DB Incline: 110*3 110*2
• Landmine Laterals: 60*3 65*1

39 minutes!

The reps on bench press besides 295 were really smooth.  Guess fears of losing strength from heavy benching every other week were exaggerated.  The 295 was dirty, but whatever.  I was going a bit lower on my chest too than I usually go, I've wanted to get into that habit for years, I think I'm going to use my next session with the light weights as an opportunity to pattern that.  Pendlay rows aren't a really good choice here I don't think, probably regular BB rows are more suited to the heavy workouts.  The new ropes at the gym are really thick, could barely grip them.  Pause.    Good session, quick too! I'm noticing the heavy workouts go by faster since the light workouts are so taxing on my recovery this stuff feels like a breeze. 

July 21, 2013 Conditioning

• Broad Jumps: 8' 6.5", 8' 7.5", 8' 10", 8' 5", 8' 7.5", 8' 7", 8' 8", 8' 5", 8' 8", 8' 5"
• Plyo Bench Clap Pushups: 5, 5, 5
• 90 lbs. sled speed pushes: 5, 4

23 minutes

Light session. Absolutely killed the broad jumps. Felt great.  I need to go back and figure out what my averages were for sessions, it must be moving up.  Good session.  Felt good. 

July 19, 2013 Lower Body

• Squats: 315*3 340*1 355*1 365*1 (High for year!) 340*1
• BB Split Squats: 185*3 205*2
• Good mornings: 215*2 225*2 235*1 NEW PR!!
• BB Walking Lunges: 170*5 170*5
• Paloffs: 100*10 110*4
• Swiss-Ball Bridges: 5, 4
• Swiss-Ball Lateral Bridges: 3, 2

41 minutes

FINALLY got past 350 without my lower back folding on me. I think the good mornings are having a good effect, plus switching up reps every other week maybe?  Finally.  Threw in split squats after since I like doing them heavy as opposed to with more moderate weight.  The good mornings went well, I prefer them with the medium weight but I want to make sure I'm staying consistent with the theme of the workout.  I'm about 95% certain I've never good morninged that much before, so that's good.   Did some lunges to finish things off, then moved to paloffs.  Finished with some swiss-ball neck work. You can see a video of them here, for some reason the video finder on here couldn't find it.    

July 18, 2013 Upper Body

• Incline Bench Press: 225*2 235*1 245*1
• Pullups: 85*3 85*2 85*2
• Standing Press: 145*3 155*3 165*1
• Unilateral T-Bar Rows: 180*3 190*2
• DB Flat Bench: 120*3
• Landmine Laterals: 55*4 60*3
• TRX Pushups; 4, 4 -straps cut into arms. 

38 minutes!

Heavy week after a light week.  Felt good, didn't feel like I really lost any strength. Bumped up weight on the t-bar rows since I usually do them for medium weights.  Same with landmine laterals.  Tried TRX pushups but those things slice into my arms while I'm pushing myself up. Not good times.  Looking forward to next Thursday to see if my high rep session goes any better than the one last week. Also, did landmines here since I forgot Tuesday. 

July 17, 2013 Sprinting

• 200m: 5
• Total: 1000m

I thought on the 4th & 5th 200s that I might actually die.  Couldn't do broad jumps because there were about a dozen wasps buzzing around the sand; I didn't feel like jumping face-first into a wasp.  Great session though, pushed myself extremely hard the whole way, didn't let up for a single meter on any of these 5. 

July 16, 2013 Posterior Chain / O-lifts

• Rack Power Shrugs: 365*6 425*6 500*5
• Hanging Power Cleans: 135*3 135*3 145*3 145*3 155*3 155*3 155*3 165*3-wrists & forearms done
• Hanging Power Snatches: 135*3
• Deadlifts: 315*1 365*1 405*1 425*1
• Pull-Throughs: 45*10 60*10
• Push-Up Position Plank: 1:30

45 minutes

moving up on power shrugs.  Hanging power cleans are progressing, going to keep moving up slowly through the weights. Need to make sure I'm doing the small dip allowed for it to still be a power clean.  Last rep on 165 started to starfish but I was just beat.  Did token snatches again.  Deadlifting went well.  I'm getting better on pull-throughs.   Finished with some brief ab work. May take next week off from deadlifting.  

July 15, 2013 Upper Body

• Bench Press: 225*9 215*9 210*8 205*8
• BB Rows: 225*10 235*10 240*10 245*8
• Push Press: 185*4 185*2-forearms done
• Neutral Grip Pullups: 45*8 45*5 -back is done
• DB Incline: 80*10 85*5 - chest done
• KB Preacher Curls: 10kg*10

44 minutes

Yup, light weight training was definitely missing from my training recently. For perspective, several months ago I hit 250 for 10 on bench pressing.  I just haven't done any high rep stuff at all recently, it's shocking my system quite well; hopefully my max bench numbers don't suffer though.  As I went along my body parts starting checking out one by one from exhaustion.  Happy I found a weak-link, it's kind of revitalized my training. I'm not sure how long I'll stick with the every-other week light workouts for specific days; I may end up doing 3 heavy and 1 light every 4 weeks as a happy medium.

Also, hadn't done curls in a few years, so I grabbed a kb, and palmed the round part and curled it over a preacher bench.  

July 15, 2013 Supplements

I'm taking two new supplements; zinc picolinate, as well as melatonin, at least on a trial basis.  I did some research on Examine.com (seriously check them out), and decided to give these two a shot.  Examine is basically an aggregator for scientific research into supplements, and then breaks that research down into basic English so it's easier to understand.  If you're taking supplements give it a read.  Anyhoo, I'm taking the melatonin because I haven't been sleeping great lately; I fall asleep easy, but then I seem to wake up around 3 or 4, and I doze, but the sleep quality probably isn't there.  I have a lot of things going on right now so that could be why.  I'm trying the melatonin, even though it seems to be mainly indicated for problems falling asleep. We'll see.  

As for the zinc, it's lost in sweat and is frequently deficient in athletes.  I already don't get that much; mean typically need 14-15mg per day, and I was around 8 or 9 mg.  Couple with the athletic activity that I'm doing 6 days per week and I was probably a bit low.  I chose zinc picolinate as it appears to increase serum levels better than Citrate or Gluconate forms of it. 

Zinc Picolinate (bound to picolinic acid, a metabolite of tryptophan), at 50mg elemental Zinc (144mg) in healthy persons appears to increase urinary and serum levels greater than placebo and the other two forms tested (Citrate, Gluconate).[1]

It can increase testosterone in those that were defficient in zinc beforehand, and can also aid the immune system.  I'm not sure if I'll feel any different taking it, but it's worth a shot, at least during the summer when I'm sweating so much when sprinting and doing my conditioning work.   

July 14, 2013 Conditioning

• Jump Rope: 65, 50 (2:11)
• Broad Jumps: 8' 5", 8' 8.5", 8' 5", 8' 9", 8' 7", 8' 7", 8' 9", 8' 10", 8' 7", 8'9", 8' 9", 8' 9", 8' 11", 8' 6"
• Horizontal Battling Ropes: 50, 40
• Agility Jump Cross: 3, 6
• Unilateral jump ladder (11 boxes): 2, 1, 2

32 minutes

Fun session. I tried something with broad jumps: Jump forward (obviously) but let my legs hang behind me and only throw them forward as I come to landing, it lets me really throw myself harder into the jumps and the results played out well.  Tried some horizontal battling ropes; basically just fling my arms out to the side and then snap them inward.  Here is a link to the jump ladder thing I was talking about.  I put a video of the jump across thing, from Joe Defranco's youtube. I used shorter hurdles, and put them in a cross pattern, so that at one point I had to jump backward.  

July 12, 2013 Lower Body / Medium

• Knee-Down MB Push Sprints: 3 per knee
• Squats: 225*5 250*5 275*5 300*5 315*4
• Good Mornings: 165*5 185*5 205*5
• Rack Hip Thrusts: 315*5 365*4 365*5
• Straight-Leg Cable Kickbacks: 110*6 120*5
• Ab-Wheel: 10

45 minutes

Tried doing the short sprints at the start of the workout to see if that helped me warm up any.  I think it may have, but I'd probably benefit from doing some stretching of my hips at the start more than anything.  Medium weights here.  Next week will be heavy, then medium again the week after. This workout sets my baseline, hopefully in two weeks I go 250 / 270 /  290 / 310 / 320 for 5s or something like that on squats.  Good mornings were good, got a little loose with form on a couple reps, but otherwise tight.  Everything else went well too. Those kickbacks really slay me. 

July 11, 2013 Upper Body / Light

• Incline Bench Press: 185*10 205*3-weak link found 295*7
• Pullups: 40*8 40*7 40*7
• Standing Press: 135*8 135*6 135*6
• Unilateral T-Bar Rows: 155*6 165*5
• TRX Reverse flyes: 2 - faceplant
• TRX Feet Elevated Pushups: 8, 10
• Face-Pulls: 25*10 35*12

 43 minutes

So I decided to incorporate higher rep stuff into my routine.  Every other week I'm going to go light on an upper body day; this week was Thursday, this coming week Monday will be my light day.  On lower body days I'll go medium weights instead of light.   I think I found what's been missing in my training. After that 185*10 on incline bench I was so gassed I could barely get 3 at 205 a few minutes later.  It's like I have 0 lactic acid tolerance.  It was the same for every lift here really, I wasn't getting nearly enough reps on anything really.   So that's good to know...Tried some trx stuff...the reverse flyes are ridiculously hard, I face planted after two of them. Even the pushups, I felt as much in my rhomboids as my chest. 

July 10, 2013 Sprinting / Broad Jumps

• 100m: 10
• Total: 1000m
• Broad Jumps: 9' 3", 9' 6", 9' 6", 9' 5", 9' 5", 9' 4", 9' 7"

Was going to do 700, but then decided it's time to be doing 1000 meters in sessions again. Typing this out on Sunday July 14th...so hyped up right now wish I could go sprinting right now. I'm doing 200s this coming week.  On broad jumps I was just tired from the sprinting. We'll see how it goes this coming week. 

July 9, 2013 Progress Pics

I realized I haven't posted back pics recently....happy with results here.  Not the clearest shots but I think my mid-back looks good.  On my lower back I think I can see faint hints of striations as well.  Had to censor the pics, but I noticed I have a dimple on my hip as well, this pleased me. 

July 9, 2013 Lower Body / Posterior Chain / Olympic Lifting

• Rack Power Shrugs: 335*6 405*6 495*4
• Hanging Power-Cleans: 135*3 135*3 135*4 135*3 135*4 135*3 135*3 155*3
• Hanging Power-Snatches: 135*3
• Deadlifts: 315*3 365*2 385*1
• Pull-Throughs: 40*11 50*11

41 minutes

Power shrugs 495 was about my upper limit.  Then I drilled the heck out of hanging power-cleans.  It's getting better, I feel like my biceps are finally phasing out of the pull, my traps and upper back are the parts that feel it the most.  It's getting easier to pull the weight up, and I'm not star-fishing very much.  It's very important to me to visualize rotating my elbows out in front of me as I catch the bar.  I'm also dipping a tad when I catch the bar finally.  It seems to be coming together.  On the 155 attempt it was just as easy for me as the 135s which is very good; indicates it's hip explosion moving the weight, and not my arms. If it was arms the 20 lbs. increase would be quite noticeable.  Did some token hanging power snatches after.  Deadlifts still kept them light.  Did pull-throughs...need to work on these, they exhausted my lower back, not that it was moving the weight, just keeping stabilized after all the sets I had done earlier was exhausting for it.  

July 8, 2013 Upper Body

• Bench Press: 250*2 275*1 290*1
• BB Rows: 245*3 265*3 275*3 285*3
• Push Press: 225*1 235*1
• Neutral Grip Pullups; 85*3 85*3 85*2
• Landmine Laterals: 50*9 52.5*7
• DB Incline: 105*4 -gassed

45 minutes

Meh...Thinking of actually breaking my upper body workouts into a heavy/light split again, and just flip flopping every week. So this week do 'light' upper body on Thursday, next week do light on Monday, heavy on Thursday, then switch back again for the following week.  Might keep things fresher.  Nothing too exciting here, landmines continue well, neutral grip pullups went well too. 

July 7, 2013 Conditioning

• Jump Rope: 50, 50, 50,45 (6:48)
• Plyo Bench Clap Pushups; 5, 6
• 31" seated plyo box jumps: 10
• plank sled drags: 70*2

23 minutes

Wanted to take it easy here, nothing too intense, felt a bit fatigued.  

July 5, 2013 Lower Body

• Squats: 225*5 250*5 275*5 300*5 325*2
• Good Mornings: 135*3 160*3 185*3 205*3 225*2
• Walking Lunges: 170*6 170*5
• Straight Leg Cable Kickbacks: 110*6
• Paloffs: 110*6 110*6

44 minutes

Doing some more reps on the squats, while I bring my lower back strength up. Did good mornings 2nd, focused on making sure I hinged at the hips.  Tried to make sure I didn't hump my back out at the bottom too much, tried to make sure my back was flat, or arched in a bit still.  I'll take videos next time to see.  The forced hinging instead of just bending at waist allowed me to move more weight.  Got 225.  Was beat after that.  Still did walking lunges.  Kickbacks were brutal, I was gassed at that point from the squats & good mornings.  Finished with paloffs. 

Thoughts

Thinking of switching up my routine a bit, maybe rotating in some 'light' higher rep days, maybe on each exercise every other week, and then exercises too.  So something like this, with regards to what I lead off Mondays with:

Week 1: BB Bench, heavy
Week 2: DB Bench, light
Week 3: BB Bench: light
Week 4: DB Bench: heavy

I'm not sure if I'll actually do that, I don't want to be only benching heavy once per month.  Or doing pullups heavy once per month or whatever.  So I was thinking something like this:

Week 1: BB Bench, heavy
Week 2: BB Bench, heavy
Week 3: BB Bench: light
Week 4: DB Bench: heavy

I dunno, I'll figure it out.  I don't want it to be a thing where I just do a light workout once, and then don't do it again for 5 months. I'd like to work something out where maybe I stay heavy on Monday & Tuesday, then Thursday & Friday would be higher rep and lighter every other week, and medium loads normally?  And then maybe every 3 weeks flip it? 

July 4, 2013 Upper Body / Patriotism

• Incline Bench: 225*2 245*1 260*1
• Pullups: 85*3 85*2.5 85*2
• Standing Press: 135*6 140*5 145*4
• Unilateral T-Bar Rows: 165*5 175*3
• DB Flat bench: 120*3
• DB Unilateral Flat Bench: 105*3

41 minutes

Incline bench went well.  Added a rep at 85 on pullups, and almost another rep on the 2nd set too.  Standing press I kept the reps up.  Unilateral t-bars I threw some extra weight on the bar. I'm learning how to clamp down my midsection when doing them.  Threw in unilateral flat benching....forgot how much these force you to balance and it is almost as hard on my abs as my chest.  Crazy!

July 3, 2013 Sprinting, Broad Jumps

• 100m: 1
• 40m: 5
• 100m: 3
• Total: 600m
• Broad Jumps: 9' 1", 9' 4", 9' 4", 9' 2", 9'7", 9'7", 9' 5", 9'5", 9'8", 9'8.5" NEW PR!!, 9'9" NEW PR!!

Wasn't sure how my body would react to all the HPCs yesterday, well it told me on my first sprint.  Felt like my hips & hamstrings were made of lead. They weren't stiff, just....dead.  Might as well have been dragging wood behind me. Had no endurance.  Conditions were smotheringly hot, with a really high dewpoint.  Usually I love sprinting in those conditions, but after all that work yesterday on the hanging cleans it was ridiculous, even 100m felt long. So I focused on what I could do well this session; the first burst, and just did 40m sprints.  

Then it was time to jump!  I love the sandpit as I've said before.  Even though I was tired I gutted out a few decent jumps, then started trying to go all out.  I almost stopped after the 2nd 9' 5" jump, but figured I'd try to gut out a few more.  Tied my PR, then threw myself as hard as I could at a new PR, and got it by a half inch.  Waited a few minutes to recover, then threw myself out as hard as I could again with a mighty "hnnnnng" and got 9' 9". 

July 2, 2013 Lower Body / Olympic Lifting

• Power Shrugs: 315*5 365*5 405*6 455*5
• Hanging Power Cleans: 135*3 135*5 145*5 145*3 135*6
• Hanging Power Snatch: 135*3
• Deadlift: 315*1 365*1 365*1

43 minutes

Did power shrugs, which are a great patterning movement for hanging power cleans.  Then I drilled the heck out of the hanging power cleans next. I did a ton with just the bar, then did these sets.  They weren't all pretty, but it was better than the last few weeks.  Got a lot of good clean reps in.  I think the hardest part for me is dipping under the bar, it's like any time I go to do that my feet automatically want to starfish out.  On a lot of these today I didn't really dip at all, which is fine for these lower weights, but if I want a bigger HPC I'm going to have to get used to dipping down and not throwing my legs out to the side.  Did Hanging Power Snatches after, but that's a whole other can of worms. I'll get to them at some point, for now I'm doing them with acknowledged bad star-fish form.  Kept it light on deadlifts here, going to next week as well; assuming my max is around 500 right now, no reason to go over 70% or so of that at this time. I'm doing them last in order, focusing on the other lifts here, and have no plans to test my max anytime soon on deadlifts. So no sense butchering my CNS or stabilizers in my lower back. 

July 1, 2013 Upper Body

• Medium (standard) Grip Bench Press: 225*5 245*1 265*1 225*1
• Pendlay Rows: 185*6 205*4 215*3
• Push Press: 225*1 235*1 245*X
• Neutral Grip Pullups: 85*3 85*3 85*2
• Mini-banded landmine laterals: 45*3
• Landmine Laterals: 45*10
• DB Incline Bench: 105*6 105*3

45 minutes

When I bench press usually I take a super-wide grip; my chest was underdeveloped for a long time and I had to compensate, just sort of got used to it.  Wanted to try standard grip, keeping elbows tucked, etc.  WOW was not ready for that kind of stress on my triceps.  Not a bad thing, just kind of got ambushed. Rotated in Pendlay rows.  I'm thinking I'm going to start doing something a tad different with my benching that I lead off with; similar to what I do with my rows.  Every other week I'll do regular flat benching, but then I'll rotate in other forms; close-grip, db, etc.  I was scared rotating rows so much, which I do even more frequently would result in a back that was lagging if I wasn't doing BB rows each week, but that has not been the case.  Narrowly missed 245 on PP, think I was gassed from the benching

Tried band resisted landmine laterals; here's Ben Bruno demonstration.  WOW are these tough.  I don't usually do them for strength, so the added resistance from the band overwhelmed me.  

June 30, 2013 Conditioning

• Broad Jumps; 8' 5.5", 8' 4.5", 8' 5.5", 8' 0", 8' 1", 8' 6"
• speed sled push: 90*6-glutes too sore
• Plyo Bench Clap Pushups: 6, 5
• Ab-Wheel: 10

19 minutes

Posterior chain was beat to heck still from all the hanging power cleans last week, and the squatting Friday.  Did a ton of stretching after this for like 20 minutes, and lacrosse ball work. 

June 29, 2013 latest pictures

Well, the one good thing about food poisoning is the acceleration of cutting. I'm bouncing back the last 10 days or so from it, weight is back into low 190s, was down to about 188-189 there briefly.  Hopefully by early July I'll be back to 193 and I can just maintain in that vicinity for the rest of the summer.  In the meantime I finally took some pictures with a relaxed pose, instead of that odd one with my arm up....I am really happy with how these look.  I cut out about 1/3 of the sodium I was taking in (in the form of adobo seasoning on my chicken) not sure if that's why I look more vascular/cut here or what.   Whatever it is...yay.  Plus my shoulders look great from the lateral raises. Good times.

June 28, 2013 Lower Body

• Squats: 315*3 325*3 335*2 345*2
• Split Squats: 165*3 185*3
• Rack Hip-Thrusts: 315*4 405*2 425*1
• Power Shrugs: 315*6 405*5
• Hanging Power Cleans: 155*3 185*X-stafished 135*10? 135*13? 135*3 135*3

45 minutes

I need to bring my lower back strength up.  I need better form on my good mornings; and then after I get that down I should move the weight up rapidly.  Right now I only can do about 155 comfortably for a few. Your weight on them should be fairly close to what you squat, so obviously my lower back is the weak link there.  Love the hip-thrusts, but forgot good mornings this session. I did the power shrugs since they're a great patterning movement for hanging power cleans. Then I tried some hanging power cleans and it didn't go well. Was cursing at the top of my lungs and throwing shit, which had the nice effect of making other people clear out from around me and let me workout in peace. Dropped down to 135 and none of the reps really felt right until the last one.  Felt like the bar was floating upwards as I came up onto my toes, and then I just sort of floated below the bar, and my biceps were completely unflexed the whole time.  I think this is so hard for me because I'm used to rowing & deadlifting heavy, and with both of those you're really pulling with all the muscles you use.  Try deadlifting with limp forearms/biceps sometime and tell me how it goes.  I'm just going to pound 135 or so on these until I get it down. 

June 27, 2013 Upper Body

• Incline Bench Press: 225*3 240*1 255*1 225*3
• Pullups: 85*2 85*2 85*2
• Behind-The-Neck Presses: 135*5 150*3 140*4
• Unilateral BB T-Bar Rows: 160*5 170*3
• DB Flat Bench: 120*3 110*5
• Power Cleans: 135*8 145*5 145*5 185*X-starfished

45 minutes

Hadn't done regular incline benching in a while.  Upped weight slightly on pullups.  Rotated in BTN presses as well.  Did more power-cleans still finding them infuriating.  About ready to quit this crap. 

June 26, 2013 Sprinting & Broad Jumps

• 100m: 8
• Broad Jumps: 8' 10", 9' 3", 9' 5", 9' 5.5", 9' 4"

Battered after the double session yesterday, wasn't expecting much here.  Posterior chain is wrecked. Going to go light on deadlifts for a couple weeks since I've gone heavy last few sessions, plus my lower back gets tired.  

June 25, 2013 Lower & Upper

• Hanging Snatch-Grip High-Pulls: 135*1 155*1 175*2 155*4
• Hanging Power Snatch: 95*5 115*5 135*2 115*1
• Hanging Power Cleans: 135*4 155*X-2, but all arm 175*1
• Deadlift: 405*1 415*1
• Bench Press: 245*2 265*1-exhausted 275*1 285*1
• Staright-Bar Pullups: 60*4 BW*4 -grip shot
• Landmine Laterals: 50*9
• 10 lbs. plate transfer planks: 4*2 4*1

68 minutes

Well that was a marthon.  Still don't have my o-lift form down at all. It's really pissing me off.  I move less weight when using form that is closer to 'proper' with the snatches & cleans, and my feet keep going out naturally 'starfishing' as they call it.  I'm not counting those reps, or ones where it's all arm to get the weight up.  Was furious after that part of the session, almost threw a plate at one of the mirrors on the wall.  Was out of town yesterday so I crammed in an upper body session in here too, wasn't expecting much out of it since I did all the other lower body stuff first.