June 23, 2013 Conditioning

• Jump Rope: 60, 60, 60, 60 (5:55)
• Broad Jumps: 8' 4", 8' 7", 8' 6", 8' 9.5", 8' 5.5" 8' ", 8' 7.5", 8' 8"
• Sled Push: 90*7 90*5
• PUPP: 1:00, 1:00

33 minutes

Monster session on broad jumps, was really forcing my knees up while in the air to keep myself airborne for as long as possible.  Got 7 on the sled pushes (each 'rep' is about 15 yards).  

June 21, 2013 Lower Body

• Squats: 275*3 315*2 330*1 340*1 350*1 360*1 370*1/2
• Squats from Pins: 275*2 290*1
• Rack Hip-Thrusts: 315*3 365*3 405*2
• Good Mornings: 135*5 150*5
• Straight Leg cable kickbacks: 110*5
• WSARC: 60*10

Good session, wanted to see how high I could squat currently, without my back folding up.  Didn't quite hit depth on 370.  I need to figure out how to do good mornings better, because if everything in your lower back / abs / core are as strong as they should be, you should be good morning..ing pretty close to what you squat. Loving rack hip thrusts. 

June 20, 2013 Upper Body

• Bench Press: 275*1 290*1 300*1 (ugly) 225*7
• Pullups: 80*3 80*2 80*3
• Standing Press: 140*7 150*3 160*1
• BB Unilateral T-Bar Rows: 155*5 165*4
• Ring Pullups: 10, 6

43 minutes

Meh.  Wanted to see if the speed benching helped. It did not. I think the weight I was using was too heavy on the speed-benching Monday.  Rest of session was alright I guess. Still feel completely uninspired; this session was a drag.  I need to think of new chest exercises, maybe rotate in dumbbell work for a while or something. I don't know.  

June 19, 2013 Sprinting / Conditioning

• 100m: 7
• Total: 700m
• Broad Jumps: 8'6", 8' 10" , 9'5" NEW PR!!, 9'3", 9'4", 9'4", 9'8" NEW PR!!, 9' 4.5"

I still enjoy sprinting and jumping so I figured I should give it a shot today.  Was slow on the sprints, didn't have a lot of energy, so I stopped after 7, since that last one was barely a sprint anyway.  Went over and did some broad jumps.  That went REALLY well, set a new record twice, and my 6 longest jumps ever all came here in this session.  

A few factors contribute to longer jumps at the Harvard Track. First, I'm landing in sand, and not on a hard floor like at my gym. I have to sort of relax as I get close to the ground at the gym, otherwise I'd hit it with such force I'd snap my lower legs or send my tibia rocketing off into the fitness area.  There's no such problem since I'm landing in sand at Harvard and can go as hard as I want on the landing. Secondly, the floor at my gym has this rubber padding on it, to dim the racket from dropped weights.  The surface at Harvard is basically painted pavement with the slightest of coating over it.  So what I'm pushing off of at Harvard is a lot harder, and 'pushes back' better.  Third, sprinting, while exhausting, primes your whole posterior chain and nervous system.  I would probably squat, deadlift, heck even bench press more after sprinting.  When I do broad jumps at my gym it's either the lead-off exercise, or it's after jumping rope. While jumping rope gets the blood pumping, it doesn't have the same effect on one's nervous system or musculature that sprinting does.   

Since it really is completely different conditions, I'm going to keep separate track of my jumps done at Harvard. 

June 18, 2013 Lower Body

• Snatch-Grip High Pull: 185*2 210*2 225*2
• Hanging Power Snatch: 145*2 155*1 160*X 135*4
• Hanging Power Cleans: 135*3 155*3 185*2 205*X
• Deadlift: 405*1 425*1 435*1
• Paloffs: 100*10 110*7

44 minutes

Fucking miserable workout.  I think I may be reaching the end of my time working out.  I dread going to the gym now, I don't enjoy it at all, it's a chore. High-pulls....the 225 I barely got it above my belly-button, those shouldn't count. A person with my strength should be able to get at least 275 on this. I can barely get 210 for some reason. I thought snatches would be easier since I would have done the bottom half (a high pull) with much heavier weight. didn't really make a difference though. I've actually lost weight on them over the past year, a significant amount too. Cleans went....awful. You should be able to hang clean as much as you bench. I max out around 310 on benching right now. I can't even clean my body-weight. For reference most 14 year-olds can do their body weight after about 3 weeks of training. I've been doing this fucking shit for 18 months, and my max has dropped from 225 to about 190. I've tried dropping the weight and just doing the bar, or like 115 lbs. or whatever, for a month or however long, and it makes no difference. As soon as I start building up any weight on the bar the same thing happens, it feels too heavy, and I can barely even start the rep even if I did 5 or 6 reps at 5 lbs. lighter. When it gets that heavy (so like trying to clean 195) I have to use some arm to pull the weight up and try to hit the rep, and throw my legs out to either side as far as I can so that my body is lower and I can catch it without bending my knees at all. But obviously that's a bullshit rep and I don't want to be doing that. I can't see anything wrong with my form in the video, other than maybe I'm leaning a little too far forward maybe? (although in the video here the guy is leaning forward just as much as me) But other than that my form looks flawless to me, I just can't see what I'm doing wrong and why my weight doesn't go up on these movements. I've gone through two full bulks, added weight on everything else, and actually lost strength on the o-lifts. Fucking horse-shit. Deadlifting went fine afterward at least.


I'm starting to think about how much longer I want to keep working out for.  I never did it to look more attractive, and believe me if anyone reading this is, you're barking up the wrong tree.  Women overwhelmingly like skinny guys that jog 4 or 5 miles per day.  But like I said I never did it for that, and I don't care if being as large & ripped as I am is attractive or not. I did it because I enjoyed the challenge, I enjoyed feeling great, and I enjoyed having the strength should the need for it ever arise outside of the gym.

Now?  The challenge is more of a grind, and I'm not progressing any.  The last 3 bulks/cuts I've done have all ended with me looking exactly the same.  I up the calories I'm taking in on the cut hoping I don't drop down too low on weight, but I always do anyway for some reason.  So basically every bulk I've done I just piss away the muscle on my cut. I have no idea how to preserve muscle at all on a cut, I lose 95% of what I gained on each bulk, so it's been largely pointless.  I certainly don't feel great working out anymore, if anything it just tires me out and takes up so much time during my day doing it and then recovering after, it's a pain in the ass.  As for needing the strength? I'm never going to need to lift a few hundred pounds off the ground, that is perfectly balanced on something I can easily grip.  There's no point to it.  I don't know, there is just so little in working out and fitness that I find enjoyable anymore, I'm starting to wish I had the 1000s of hours back from the last 14 years that I've basically wasted.  And looking back, it has been largely wasted. The first 8 years I had no clue what I was doing, putzed around with machines, didn't know how to do most lifts.  The next 2 I started to figure out more but my diet still sucked.  It's really just been the last 4 that I've known how to eat decent and had a decent routine. But again, my diet never really works out well, and the routines I do feel stagnant.  I guess what I'm saying is, if you want to live longer, do some sprinting a few times a week, and don't waste your time in the gym like I have, there's almost no point to it. 

June 17, 2013

• Speed Bench Press: 185*2,  185*2, 185*2, 185*2, 185*2, 185*2, 185*2, 185*2, 185*2, 185*2
• Unilateral T-Bar Rows: 145*6 155*6
• Push Press: 225*1 235*1
• 1.5 Pullups: 6, 5, 3
• Landmine Laterals: 47.5*10 50*8
• DB Incline Bench: 105*5 110*3

40 minutes

I'm just so sick of bench pressing. I don't know why, but over the last few weeks I've gotten tired of so many things I do. Which is odd because I was so excited about putting together these really comprehensive upper body workouts.  I decided to try something different this week, doing speed benching to focus on explosiveness, then Thursday I'll do regular flat benching.  I think this was too heavy for speed benching though, probably should have done 165.   Did some t-bar rowing, wasn't really enthusiastic about it though. I enjoyed the push pressing at least.  Did 1.5 pullups because I'm bored of neutral grip pullups or something.  Did landmine laterals, one of the few exercises I actually still enjoy doing.  

June 16, 2013 Conditioning

• Jump Rope: 6 mins: 36, 50, 50, 45, 50 
• Broad Jumps: 8' 2", 8' 4", 8' 4", 8' 5.5", 8' 3", 8' 5.5", 8' 4", 8' 1.5", 8' 2", 8' 6"
• 31" Plyo Box Jumps: 15
• Speed Sled Push: 90*6 90*5

32 minutes

I get tired doing the jump-rope; not my legs or lungs, but my wrists & arms for some reason.  May try to start doing them faster to get through the sets more rapidly, maybe that'll work.  Broad jumping was fine, didnt have much pop after leg workout Friday, but that's how it usually is. I prefer doing the jumping at Harvard now, it's just nicer to land on sand than the hard gym floor. Did some box jumps because I haven't in a while.  Finished with sled pushing, and did quite well at it. Alright session, just kind of floated through this one. 

June 14, 2013 Lower Body

• Split Squats: 165*3 195*3 225*1
• Squats: 315*2 335*1 345*X - back folded
• Walking Lunges: 170*7 170*5
• Rack Hip-Thrusts: 275*3 315*4 365*3
• Good-Mornings: 135*10 
• Plank Sled-Drags: 70*1

42 minutes

Meh.  I think split squats are getting heavy enough to be effecting me by the time I get to squats, I'll see how it goes next week or something.  On the rack hip-thrusts I need to check my ego and make sure I'm actually using my glutes/hams and not just using my back to move the weight. I don't think I was here, but want to be sure.   Did the good mornings at the end because I was pissed about my back folding up. May be time to start doing rack-squats again from the bottom position. Ended with sled drags from a plank position, always welcome.  Session was ok I guess, kind of tired of not progressing on squats no matter what I do, and nothing helping strengthen my lower back so I don't get folded over on them.  Just kind of all feels pointless. 

June 13, 2013 Upper Body

• Incline Bench Press: 225*3 235*2 245*1 250*1
• Pullups: 80*3 80*2 80*3
• Standing Press: 135*5 145*4 155*1 super strict form
• Unilateral BB T-Bar Rows: 155*5 165*4
• DB Flat Bench: 120*2 110*5
• Ring-Pullups: *8

39 minutes!

Wow...blew through this one. I think I'm used to cluster sets so that incline bench I did at the beginning went much faster than usual.  Everything went well here I suppose.  Standing press I used really strict form, came all the way, rested on my chest for a second, then did next rep, glutes/posterior chain clamped down, etc.  Unilateral bb rows went well, still enjoy them.  Was pissed I didn't get 3 or 4 at 120 on db bench, so I did 100 right after. Finished with ring pullups, tried sternum-plank chinups, but was too gassed.  Also, go read everything by Ben Bruno, he's relatively new but guy knows his stuff and I've incorporated a ton of his ideas into my training lately that have worked out great.  Here's his site (previous link was to t-nation articles by him)

Record Pages Update

Quick note: I updated the record pages, and split strenth/power records apart from speed/conditioning/endurance type records, since the page was getting lengthy with those two categories combined. I'll also be adding a page of helpful links for people getting started pretty soon as well.  

June 12, 2013 Sprinting

• 100m: 1, 1, 1 (13.47) NEW PR!!, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1
• Total: 1000m

Nice weather, good for some sprints. Hopefully I can knock some time off them now that the weather is nicer and I can do them more consistently.  

edit:  I thought 13.25 was my PR.  Apparently this was. If I had known that I would've gone in on my next couple to see if I could've shaved more time off.  Good times!  

Really wish I had bought a stop-watch sooner, last summer I feel like I was fast, not sure if I was ever this fast though.  It's nice to see my list of PRs on sprinting steadily getting faster over the last 12 months. Feels good man

June 11, 2013 Lower / Posterior Chain

• Deadlift: 405*1 425*1 455*1 475*1
• Hanging Power Snatch: 135*3 145*1 150*2 155*1
• Hanging Power Cleans: 165*3 185*1 205*X -tired
• Hanging Snatch-Grip High Pulls: 185*3 205*2 215*1
• Bird-Dogs: 5, 5

45 minutes

Good session, felt like going a tad heavier on deadlifts.  Snatches went well,  hadn't done cleans in 3 weeks, was pretty tired by the time I got to them. Read an article on snatch-grip high pulls, liked the idea so I added them in.  Threw bird-dogs in sort of as an afterthought. I was thinking as well that I may move deadlifts further back into the rotation on these days.  If I'm not going to be maxing on them, or near my max on a day, why bother doing them first, if they're going to fatigue the o-lifts that I do after.  By the time I got to cleans I was just wiped out today.  What I think I'm going to do from now on (when not maxing deadlifts) is start with the high pulls since that'll get my nervous system primed.  Then move to snatches, since the weight on them will seem lighter after doing a heavier similar movement in high pulls, then do the cleans. So cleans will still be third, but won't have deadlifting ahead of them, and then finish off with deadlifting.  

June 10, 2013 Upper Body

• Bench Press (Cluster Set): 270*1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1
• BB Underhand Rows: 225*8 235*3 245*8
• Push Press: 225*1 225*1
• Neutral-Grip Pullups: 80*3 80*2 80*2
• Landmine Laterals: 45*10 50*6
• DB Incline Bench Press: 105*3

43 minutes

Back to business, went well.  I'm always tired by the time I get to push pressing, I wonder how much I would put up if I led off with them for a couple weeks.  I'm getting tired of benching lately, at least barbell benching, both incline and flat.  I don't know why, it's funny, for years I avoided benching when I was first starting out, then I had to work harder at it to catch up to everything else I was working on.  Now...meh.  I don't really look forward to it.  May start moving it back in the rotation on these days, maybe put rows or push pressing first for a few weeks.  Rest of workout went well, db incline bench I was fried so I did 105 instead of 110. 

June 9, 2013 Conditioning

• Jump Rope: 51, 51, 60, 70, 35, 50 (7:30)
• Broad Jump: 8' 3", 8' 4", 8' 3", 8' 5", 8' 0", 8' 7", 8' 4.5", 8' 4", 8' 2.5" 8' 2.5"
• Battling Ropes: 70, 60
• Speed Sled Pushes: 90*5 90*4

32 minutes

Glutes/hams still sore from Friday's workout. Couldn't find jump rope that I like, didn't seem to make a difference though.  Almost back to feeling normal after trip. 

June 7, 2013 Lower Body

• Split Squats: 155*3 175*3 215*3
• Squats: 315*2 335*1 315*1
• Walking Lunges: 170*7 170*5
• Rack Hip-Thrusts: 225*4 245*4 275*3 315*3
• P.U.P.P.: 1:00

41 minutes

Still feeling a bit weak from the food poisoning. Really enjoyed the hip thrusts. Here is a link to an article about them. Going to start at 275 next week. The hold at the top really focuses on the glutes.  Here's a video from the article: 

June 6, 2013 Upper Body

• Incline Bench: 225*2 245*1 255*1
• Pullups: 80*3 80*3
• Standing Press: 135*3 155*2
• BB Unilateral T-Bar Rows: 145*6 15586
• Ring Pullups: 12, 8

33 minutes

Sore from benching two days ago still, abbreviated session. 

June 5, 2013 Sprinting

• 100m: 5
• 40m: 5

body was not feeling it. 

June 4, 2013

• Bench Press: 245*3 265*2 275*1 285*1 295*1
• Deadlift: 405*1 425*1 445*1
• Pendlay Rows: 175*6 195*5 205*4
• Hanging Power Snatch: 135*3 145*1 135*3
• Landmine Laterals: 45*10 50*8
• Ab-Wheel: 10, 11

Vacation was fine I guess.  Got food poisoning on plane ride home yesterday. Don't feel too weak now though. Hard to keep food down though. whatever.  Threw upper body here too since I didn't want to miss it two straight weeks.