January 22, 2015 Upper Body

• Incline Bench Press: 225*1 245*1 265*1 275*1
• BB Rows: 225*3 250*2 275*3
• Seated Press: 175*1 185*1 195*1 205*X
• 1.5 Pullups: 6, 4

Not bad, rowing went well with good form still.  Missed 205 here by a bit. 

November 21, 2014 Upper Body

• Incline Bench Press: 225*1 235*1 245*1
• Unilateral BB T-Bar Rows: 145*3 155*3 165*3
• Landmine Laterals: 65*2 55*4
• 1.5 Pullups: 4, 4
• Wide-Stance Anti-Rotational Chops: 70*8 80*5

Good session, I really want to go for 300 on incline benching. Going to start ramping up. Also did some landmine laterals, got away from them when my shoulder was sore a couple months back, want to bring them back in. 

September 19, 2014 Upper Body

• Incline Bench Press: 225*1 235*1 245*1 255*1
• Sternum Pullups: 7, 6, 6
• Standing DB Press: 50*6 60*4
• 1.5 Pullups: 4, 3
• Ab-Wheel: 10, 10

Good incline bench pressing here, and threw ab-wheeling in, as well as standing DB presses. 

May 29, 2014 Upper

• Incline Bench: 225*3 225*3 225*3 225*3 225*3
• 1.5 Pullups: 5, 4, 4
• Seated Press: 135*3 160*3 180*1
• Cable Rows: 200*2 180*3 180*3
• Suitcase Carries: 40*75 steps 40*75 steps

Figured with the squatting success I'd try it with incline benching.  Right shoulder is aaaalmost back to 100%, but it does get sore after heavy work, so didn't go as far as I did with the squatting. 

May 19, 2014 Upper

• Bench Press: 235*3 255*3 270*3 285*1 300*1
• Cable Rows: 200*3
• T-Bar Rows: 135*3 160*2 160*2
• Push press: 225*1 235*1
• 1.5 Pullups: 5, 4
• Landmine Laterals: 65*2 55*4

Good times, tested shoulder at first on benching and it felt fine, got to 300 which is nice.  I'm down to about 211, so down 20 lbs. and haven't really lost anything for strength.  Push Pressing felt good too.  Should be good to go on the shoulder from here out; It's at about 90%, so as long as I'm not dumb it should be fine. 

December 31, 2013 Upper / Light

• Bench Press: 230*10 240*10 250*7
• Cable Rows: 170*10 170*10 170*7
• Seated Press: 135*8 135*6
• 1.5 Pullups: 4, 2 yeah pretty much exhausted.
• DB Incline: 90*6 - aaand I'm done

31 minutes

Got out of work early so it sort of threw my rhythm off; I'm used to having a certain amount of food/time since eating when I work out. Didn't have that here.  

And another year is in the books, it's been a good one, got into best shape of my life this summer, and I'm making some sick size gains here.  I'm about 210 lbs. right now, and gaining!  Strength is going through the roof, I'm a happy camper.  See you in 2014!

August 27, 2013 Upper Body Light

• Bench Press: 230*8 225*10 225*6
• Pendlay Rows: 135*10 155*10 165*8
• Push Press: 185*6 185*5
• 1.5 Pullups: 6, 4
• Landmine Laterals: 50*9 50*8
• DB Incline Bench: 100*5-gassed
• Wide-stance Anti-Rotational Chops: 60*10

42 minutes

Last time I did 230*9 on bench and 225*7, I mean when you get higher on reps there's more variation. I was actually pretty low on energy today, not sure why.  I did well on push pressing though, I need to up the weight next week. Everything else went fine. Starting to fall into a pattern with exercise selection; pendlay rows on the light upper body days, etc.  Not a bad session at all. 

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.  

March 18, 2013 Upper Body

• Bench Press: 265*3 275*3 285*2
• BB Rows: 225*5 245*5 265*5 275*5
• Standing Press: 150*4 160*1 145*5
• 1.5 Pullups: 6, 3
• Landmine Lateral Raises: 45*10 50*8 55*6
• DB Incline Bench: 105*6 110*4

38 minutes!!

I am absolutely ripping through workouts, barely took any rest between sets.  I had meant to do a cluster set at about 265 on benching, I'll have to remember for next week.  BB Rows went great, that was without straps until I got to 265.   Standing press still vexes me.  I think I'm going to low with the weight, I rest the bar on the top of my chest at the bottom of the movement.  I see a lot of places say not to go lower than the adam's apple. 1.5 pullups went great.  I think I have a new favorite delt exercise, those landmine things torched my delts all around the shoulder, not just one of the heads.  Went for 105 on incline then I was so pumped did 110 right after.  I looked at my stopwatch and I was only 38 minutes in. What a session, I can't describe how much energy I have on my low-carb days. I have NO idea what people are talking about when they say going low-carb for days on end results in fatigue/etc.  It's the exact opposite for me.

Here's a video of the landmine lateral raises. 

December 20, 2012 Upper Body

• Incline Bench Press: 225*3 240*3 250*2
• Pullups: 80*3 80*2 80*2
• 1.5 Pullups: 4, 3
• Standing Press: 140*5 150*2 140*4
• DB Rows: 120*9 120*9
• DB Flat Bench: 105*6 110*2 - gassed
• Band-suspended, iso-hold barbell shrugs w/ underhand grip: 85*6 135*6

39 minutes!

Getting a little antsy with all the 5 rep sets, may do a few weeks of 1-3 rep sets on things like incline, I enjoy them more.  Plus it gives me a little variety after 6 weeks of 5 rep type sets.  Still I'm frustrated with the progress I've made so far. Standing Press hasn't BUDGED, and while the db weights keep going up, I only just added them recently so that explains that part.  Incline bench hasn't gone up at all, I think I may be weaker on it.  I'm baffled. I do have a hard time getting in all the different foods every day, but I'm still at 3700 calories.  How I could go from 2500 to 3700 and actually lose strength is beyond me.  I weighed myself and I'm only 196. I started at 191, and was 194 2 weeks in.  Which means over the last month eating 3700 calories per day, I've gained 2 lbs. Not sure how that's humanly possible. I'm a bit 'softer' than when I started as well, so I know it's not like the added volume is helping burn fat and build muscle.   I'm definitely upping the protein the rest of this bulk, I think reducing it in favor of extra carbs & calories was a mistake. I'm going to keep everything else the same, just add in more chicken.  Also adding in creatine as well, not sure why I ever stopped taking it.    

The band-suspended shrugs were more of an experiment....They're...eh.  Not bad, kind of a novelty. Couldn't imagine doing them regularly.  

September 7, 2012 Lower Body

• Low Box Squats: 255*5 275*3 300*1
• Hanging Power Snatches: 95*3 135*3 145*2
• 1.5 Pullups: 7
• P.U.P.P.: 1:00, 0:50

About 90% back to normal; back & hips are still a bit sore when doing the box squats, otherwise I feel fine, will start regular squatting again next week, we'll see how that goes!

May 10, 2012 Upper

• BB Incline: 250*3 240*3
• DB Incline: 100*4 105*3
• Pullups: 12, 4 - blisters on left hand
• 1.5 Pullups: 3.  Yup. Blisters.
• Standing Press: 135*5 145*5 155*3
• 90 degree BB Rows: 135*7 135*7

Tinkering.  Wanted to work in DB incline, but didn't want to eliminate BB inclines either, so I went 2/2.  Also, from now on I think I'm going to put push pressing here.  It just makes more sense.  On the other days I'm doing heavy pullups and heavy benching before them.  I think I'm going to lead off with push pressing, follow with incline bench, and then just hammer my back with rows.  

April 24, 2012 Upper

• Bench Press: 250*3 270*3 290*3 300*3
• Pullups: 50*3 50*3 50*3
• 1.5 Pullups: 5
• Push Press: 185*3 205*3 215*3 225*3
• Paloffs: 40*10 50*10 

Solid workout here, decided to throw in the 1.5 pullups since I haven't done them in a while.  Got back into the swing on push pressing.  Same with paloffs.  Going great.  Starting to pick up again after taking that week off. 

January 24, 2012 Upper / Heavy

• Bench Press: 245*3 265*3 275*3 285*3 295*3 310*2
• Rope Pullups: 6 (weight belt was gone)
• Push Press: 195*3 210*3 225*2 NEW PR!!
• 1.5 Pullups: 4, 4

Back over 300 lbs. on bench press; strength is coming along well. I was more comfortable going high here on weight as there was a powerlifter spotting me.  Went to do weighted pullups after, had been looking forward to them, I was going to drop the weight down to like 50 lbs and just bang out reps...then spent 15 minutes looking for the damn weight belt. Turns out the thing broke a couple days ago and they haven't gotten the new one in yet. Did some half-hearted rope pullups, then decided to go on to push presses, set a new PR there.  Gonna keep hacking away at them. Finished with some 1.5 pullups.  Still surprised at how challenging they are. 

January 13, 2012 Upper / Light

• BB Incline: 250*5 230*5 230*5
• 1.5 Pullups: 7, 5, 3
• Standing Press: 135*5 155*5 165*5
• BB Rows: 225*6 225*6
  

Incline bench weights keep going up, it's actually catching up to my flat bench.  My record is 275*3, I get the feeling I could do that now.  Threw in 1.5 pullups since I haven't for a while.  Standing press numbers have kind of topped off, got an extra at 165 here, but my incline is sapping it a bit.  Oh well, it's fine.  Threw rows in just for the heck of it. 

October 3, 2011 Upper

• BB Flat: 275*3 280*2
• BB Flat G.S: 275*3/185*15/135*12
• Pullups: 70*3
• Pullup G.S: 70*2/ BW*7
• Push Press: 185*3 205*2
• Kettlebell circuit (10 swings/ 10 rows/ 10 squats 15kg): 3
• Ab Wheel: 12

Alright here's the deal, my core and especially my lower back is absolutely demolished with soreness.  Didn't do the conditioning workout yesterday, and I'm not back squatting or deadlifting this week, I'll do a substitute for them.  As for this session I had a great spotter, so I did giant sets at the end of the benching workout.  I also tried it with pullups, felt good man.  Did a little alternative with my conditioning work since a staff member was doing a free kettlebell demo with some people I hopped in.  Good times.

September 29, 2011 Upper

• BB Decline: 275*5 290*4 300*3
• 1.5 Pullups: 8, 6
• Standing Press: 135*10 155*5 165*3
• Dead Hangs: 135*10sec 135*10sec 135*10sec

Felt like switching it up a bit here, my previous record was 300*1 here.  I never really decline consistently, but I do like it as a movement.  Getting better with exploding at the bottom of the standing press.   Dead hangs are just hanging from the chinup bar with weight strapped to my waist.  The point here is to make it easier to explode from the bottom when I do weighted pullups, since I'd only be about 50-60% of the weight used in the hang.

September 19, 2011 Upper

• BB Flat: 255*8 250*8 245*7
• Pullups: 70*2 70*1 55*5 55*4
• Push Press: 160*4 185*4 200*3
• 1.5 Pullups: 7, 5

Felt flat here, nothing special really.  Dropped weight on last 2 sets of pullups so I could put some more reps in.  1.5 Pullups were fun.

Sep 1, 2011 Upper

• BB Incline: 245*3 245*4 235*4
• Rope Pullups: 8, 7, 6
• Overhead Press: 135*5 155*4 165*2
• Scapular Depressions: 15
• 1.5 Pullups: 5

Good session, got an extra on the 2nd set of 245.  Added on the press as well.  Good stuff.

August 11, 2011 Upper Body

• BB Incline Bench: 245*3 245*3 235*2
• 1.5 Pullups: 7, 4, 3
• BB Press: 135*7 155*3 160*2
• DB Rows: 120*5
• Rope Pullups: 8, 7, 6
• Rope Slams; 20, 25

Cutting is odd. I'm used to setting records for myself all the time when I'm gaining weight, so to be puttering along at a steady level of strength always seems odd to me.  That's why I switch up and try to find 10 rep maxes on things like deadlifting or bench, because I hate the idea that I'm going to be moving the same weight for several months until I decide to do my next mass building phase.  It seems like progress because my 10 rep max will move up week to week as my nervous system adapts to doing higher reps on something I've usually done lower reps on.  This is also a great time to be experimenting with exercises I'll use on my next mass phase.  So for lat width I've been experimenting with new pullup variations, and for shoulder girdle strength I finally started doing standing presses consistently.  Really killed the 135 BB press today, could've gotten 8 but wanted to save my energy for higher weights...unfortunately I had already tired myself out. 


Also!  I'm in the planning stages of a completely new routine that takes me completely away from the heavy/light upper/lower split. More details to come.