Legs are sore from yesterday...they were still kind of sore from Thursday's squat session as well, going to take a bit to get used to higher reps on squats I think. Didn't run today on account of that, hoping to recharge.
Continuing with the sets of 5 on incline benching...may do it with front squats too, I can't decide. Also I have an abdominal strain, not sure when that happened, maybe during food poisoning 10 days ago..it's faint, but near my belly button and sort of diffuse. If I bend my spine backwards or do things like rollouts it is not comfortable at all. If I sit and end up slouching over some with poor posture I feel it too. It's not terrible, more of an annoyance. Going to lay off core work for a week and see if that helps
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I may have mentioned this before, but I hate squats in sets of more than singles or doubles. But I'm forcing myself to do it this bulking cycle. Probably good to step out of my comfort zone. I need to brace my core better though because it was sore after this like I vaguely pulled or strained it right around my belly button area. That's why I hate higher-rep squats, my core inevitably feels squished. I don't know how else to describe it. Hit 5 reps on all sets, so moving up 10 lbs on all sets next week.
I was somewhat pressed for time here. I've started the 5 rep scheme on sets; I hit 5 on all the bench press sets, so that gets moved up 5 lbs next week.
Not a bad session, weather was actually quite warm out. Jumps weren't terribly good, but I may have been holding a tiny bit back. So last week I had food poisoning early on, it cleared up pretty quick...but then we went to Maine for the weekend and I pigged out there and...I think re-aggravated things? My stomach definitely wasn't ready. It sucks to start off a bulk that way. So this week I'm re-starting, now that my appetite is back and stomach is feeling better. It's definitely not 100% yet, it feels almost bruised, but hopefully that clears up over the next 10 days or so.
For this bulk I'm going to focus on more whole-foods, and about 3500 calories. Usually I have a lag of 2-4 weeks before I notice my strength picking up during a bulking cycle. If it's closer to the 2 week number I may up that to 4000 and see if I can crush some PRs. For the cut after that though I'm going to put it around 2650-2750 calories. I go too low most years for the amount of exercise I do, so I think I end up losing muscle at the end. I don't do crash-cuts where I take in like 1500 calories or something, but 2400 over the course of 4 months means that at the end my body is pretty depleted. I want to avoid that this time around. More on that later.
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Drove back into town today, doing a quick workout to keep everything 'awake'.
I still can't believe how much easier it is on my knees and joints squatting with a closer stance...really enjoying it. Taking Friday & Saturday off for a trip out of town.
Torrential downpours yesterday meant no track...which is fine, I was going to be rotating in an off-day from my Tuesday track session soon anyhow. I like doing the overhead walks here...even though I can't use as much weight, it gives me something to build up, whereas before I was maxing out with the weight I have that I can put on the bar and not hit my ceiling rafters...
For this bulking cycle I think I'm going to focus on 5 rep sets, might as well take advantage of the extra calories and build some muscle. So for squatting, flat benching, incline benching, rows, and some other stuff, I'm going to do sets of 5. Seems like a good balance of strength and hypertrophy for a bulk. The idea is, once I do every set at 5 reps, I bump up the weights 5 (or 10) lbs. the next workout, and keep the weights static until I hit 5 reps on each set again.
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Good session, nothing out of the ordinary really
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I'm taking progress pics tomorrow, so I didn't want to kill myself here...I think I'm upping weight on hip thrusts and doing lower reps for this upcoming bulking cycle
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Decent session, did higher reps on first couple sets of benching, gassed out before I got to any decent numbers so I stuck at 225. My shoulders were too tired to get 130 on the snatch-grip OH carries.
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Good session, felt great, lots of pop on the broad jumps. Still only tied the PR, which I take as further evidence that 10' 9" is probably my max, at least for how my routine is made.
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PM:
Felt decent here, really need more 10s & 25s for the split jerk and snatches...
Legs sore after yesterday, kept the treadmill to 1 mile
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Continuing with narrower stance on squats, still enjoying it. Also dropped the weight on good mornings as well, I'd prefer higher reps on these; my lower back has definitely come up strength-wise this year, but I want to get it even stronger.
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