March 20, 2015 Lower / Olympic Lifting

• Deadlift: 405*2 430*1 455*1 475*1 485*1
• Hanging Power Snatches: 95*3 135*3 135*3
• Hanging Power Cleans: 140*3 150*2 160*2 170*2
• Goblet Carries: 75*100 90*100 100*100
• Plate-Transfer Planks (5 lbs): 4*2 4*2

Ramping up on deadlifting again. Glad I added cleans back in here.  Also did some goblet carries, truly the king of carries for hitting your abdominals.  

July 14, 2014 Upper

• Bench Press: 250*1 270*1 285*1 300*1
• T-Bar Rows: 160*3 170*2 180*1 160*3
• Seated Press: 135*3 155*3 175*3
• DB Reverse Laterals: 25*7 30*3
• Plate-plank Transfers (10 lbs): 4*2

Good session, still hitting 300 on bench, yaaaay.  Did some plate plank transfers, haven't done em in a while. Feels good man. 

December 2, 2013 Lower / light

• Squats: 315*3 335*3 345*2
• Front Squats: 225*3 245*2 255*2
• Good Mornings: 185*5 195*3
• Lumberjack Squats: 160*5 180*3
• 10 lbs. plank transfers: 4*2 4*2

46 minutes

Loooooooooooooow energy.  Seriously felt like I was in a stupor the whole session.  Kept it light on squats, front squats too.  Did some lumberjack squats, seriously love those things, feel so badass

November 15, 2013 Upper / Light

• Standing Press: 115*6 135*4 125*6
• Pullups: 90*1 90*2 90*1
• Incline Bench Press: 225*1 235*1
• T-Bar Rows: 135*4 135*4 135*4
• Leaning DB Laterals: 15*10 25*8
• 10 lbs. plate-transfer planks: 4*2 4*1

41 minutes

Form was SUPER strict on the standing press, that's how I'm doing it from now on, no knee bend, no twerking the weight up.  I tried leading off with them here; I want to focus on shoulders, among other things on this bulk, so on the 'light' upper body thursdays.  I think I'm going to lead off with the standing presses.  This wasn't really supposed to be a light day, but I figured why not. Everything else went fine. Leaning DB laterals are the ones where you hang off the tower of a cable station or something and do laterals. Not sure if it worked or not...

October 15, 2013 Upper / Heavy

• Bench Press: 225*3 245*3 255*3 265*3 280*1 290*1
• T-Bar Rows: 160*3 170*2 160*2
• Push Press: 225*1 235*1
• Neutral Grip Pullups: 90*2 90*2 90*1
• Landmine Laterals: 70*2
• DB Incline Bench: 105*4
• Sled Push & Pull: 90*14 (3:00)
• Paloffs: 90*5 90*5
• 10 lbs. plate transfer planks: 4*2 4*3
• PUPP: 1:00

45 minutes

smorgasbord workout. Got everything in though.  Built up on benching which is more inline of what I want to do on the heavier days.  I really enjoy the heavy t-bar rowing.  Sled push & pull was for the competition at my gym, it's on a longer course this time around. 

September 27, 2013 Upper / Heavy

• Incline Bench Press: 245*2 250*2 255*1
• Pullups: 95*2 95*2 95*1
• Standing Press: 165*2 175*1 155*2
• Unilateral BB T-Bar Rows: 170*2 175*2
• 10 lbs. plate transfer planks: 4*3 
• Broad Jumps: 8' 5", 8' 6", 8' 7", 8' 7"
• 10 lbs. plate transfer planks: 4*2
• Broad Jump: 8' 7"

44 minutes

Good session, getting up there on pullups. Did some plate transfer planks too.  On the standing press my wrists were just exhausted.  Traps & rhomboids sitll sore from deadlifting & o-lifting on Tuesday.  Gym is doing the competition thing again, one of the events is the broad jump so I recorded some jumps in lieu of the usual last couple exercises in the session. I felt like switching things up a bit anyway. 

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. 

April 21, 2013 Conditioning

• Broad Jumps: 8' 4", 8'5", 8' 6.5", 8' 4.5", 8' 5", 8' 10", 8' 3", 8' 4.5", 8' 3.5", 8' 8", 8' 8"
• Plyo Bench Clap Pushups: 6, 6
• Jump Rope: 8 minutes, 37, 24, 46, 52, 60, 60
• 10 lbs. Plate Transfer Planks: 4*2

Well last week was not supposed to be an off-week for my legs completely, but since some assholes bombed my city, and then put the city on lockdown my gym was closed Friday. It's ok, my lower back & hips were getting tired anyway, I actually feel much fresher.  Plus I still sprinted.  I was curious how jumps would go.   Well, they went well. Very well.  I feel like I'm zeroing in on form on them, really exploding forward.  I could still stand to do it more forcefully, but it's definitely getting better. Plus most importantly to this session, I don't let my feet trail behind me.  I threw them forward as I landed which resulted in the longer jumps, previously my body would almost always be 'ahead' of my feet, costing me several inches off the jumps.   

Jump rope is coming along great, I found a rope I really like there.  Now that I'm doing longer sets I can start recording them, since there will be fewer overall.  On the 46, 52, 60, and 60 I actually did not stop because I messed up, I was just gassed.  I also get shin-splints on the last few sets, I need to land softer.   Finished with some plate transfer planks, which also went great.  They are REALLY taxing for some reason, I think because your arm is crossing the median line of your body.  Here's a video of Lee Boyce doing them.  Check out his site here and his articles on T-Nation here.  A great deal of my core work, as well stretching/diagnostic stuff that I don't record on this blog are from him.  

March 17, 2013 Conditioning / Core

• 31" Plyo Box Jumps: 15
• PUPP-Plate Transfer Plank Superset: 1:00-10*4 1:00 10*4
• Side-Plank: 1:00
• Paloff Iso-Hold: 70*0:20 80*0:20
• Decline Situps: 20

25 minutes

Was pretty sore from the leg workout Friday, which is odd because I didn't do a ton of volume. Did some jumping then decided I wanted to beat on my core for a while.  Never did supersets for core before, did some push up position plank presses into plate transfer planks which was just downright evil.  Hit some side-planks next, then went with an iso hold on paloffs.  Finished off with some decline situps just for fun since I haven't done a situp in about 5 years. 

I weighted in at 203.5 after this one on a pretty much empty stomach.  I look really lean already, almost as lean as I did here, only I was 195 in those.  Obviously some is from the pump from working my abs today, but still....I've never seen my serratus as easily as I did today above 200 lbs.  This cut may work out REALLY well, and I'm super excited.  Was thinking about running some albuterol at the end of this cut to polish it off, but if I keep going at this rate it may not be needed! 

December 16, 2012 Conditioning

• Unilateral Tall Box Jumps: 10, 10
• Plyo Bench Clap Pushups: 5, 6
• 10 lbs. Plate Transfer Planks: 4*1 4*1
• Viking Quest: 200*0:38 400*1:36 800*3:03 NEW PR!!

28 minutes

Getting used to the jumps, I like the tall box better, I land softer.  The plate transfers were a stack of four 10 lbs. plates, hence the 4*1.  I did one transfer per side per set.   Set new record in the 800 on the rowing.  Next up is sub 3:00

October 14, 2012 Conditioning

• 34.5" Plyo Box Jumps: 5
• 31.5" plyo Box Jumps: 15
• 31.5" seated plyo box jumps: 15
• Battling Rope - Rope Slam S.S.: 40-15 40-20
• 10 lbs. plate transfer planks: 4*1 4*1

Got 5 jumps at 34.5 before psyching myself out.  Finished with the 31.5 jumps.  I may try to just add one jump onto the 34.5" each week, or at least try to get myself to before chickening out, until I'm at 15-20 again.   Did some rope work, then plate transfer planks; forgot how hard these are, since your forearm crosses over the midpoint of your body while planking. 

July 03, 2012

• Deadlift: 410*2 430*2 450*1
• Hanging Power Cleans: 135*5 165*5 185*3 210*1
• Unilateral Deadlifts: 225*3 245*1
• Plate-Transfer Planks: 10*8
• Bird-Dogs: 10

Deadlifting went well, staying around 85-90% of my 1RM for the rest of the summer, and honestly probably permanently, other then when I go to break my record. Constantly pulling around 95-97% of my 1RM was wearing me out, and really doesn't accomplish much.  Hanging power cleans went very well here.  Unilteral deadlifts are much better suited to this day than squat day; I already have the patterning down by the time I do them. Also lower reps makes much more sense, as I tired on the 5th rep of sets previously my form went to shit anyway. Bird-Dogs were surprisingly taxing, probably all the deadlifting prior.  Also of note, I had some shoulder soreness, knee soreness, lower back soreness, and hip soreness last couple weeks.  That all seems to be passing now. Shoulder feels almost 100%, knee is all better, hips are fine.  Lower back on the left side is a little tight, going to schedule a massage soon.  

August 30, 2011 Lower Body

• BB Squats: 380*3 305*3 320*3 335*1 335*1
• Low Box Squats: 275*3 300*X On wrong rack..
• Front Squats: 225*2 235*2 255*1
• Double Mini-Banded Hypers: 13, 13
• 8 KG KB Plank Transfers:3
• Lateral Battling Ropes: 33, 25

I need to put everything together on squats, this time I feel like my breathing wasn't good and it cost me more reps, need to focus on that.   On the box squats I was not in the proper rack, I was in one of those racks that has pins that come out further the lower you get, really messed up form.  Rest of workout went good.  The hypers were innnnnntense.  Going to post a video next time I do them.  I actually feel good today after doing them.  

August 12, 2011 Lower & Pullups

• BB Deadlift: 405*1 415*1 425*1 450*1
• Sumo Deadlifts: 405*2 405*2 405*1
• Snatch-Grip Deadlifts: 315*3 315*1
• Glute Bridges: 315*6 335*6
• Pullups: 50*3 55*3
• Banded Pullups: 2....not so much.
• 2 8KG KB Plank Transfers: 4,5

So I'm heading to the beach now so the videos won't be up til later but I got a ton from this workout. 

Deadlifting went well.  Probably should've waited until next week til I tried 450, I just started doing heavier deadlifting again.  Still I got it, and at 200 lbs, so I'm happy.  A friend was talking about sumo deadlifts with me between sets, so it inspired me to do some.  Then did some snatch-grip deadlifts after.  Finished the lower body work with some glute bridges.  I think I may bump this up to 365 and 400 next week, since Fridays are supposed to be heavy days.  I'm going to keep adding weight on to pullups.  Tried banded pullups....yeah I need a better way to anchor the weight.  You'll see in the video.  Finished with kb plank transfers.   

First the banded pullups:

Sumo Deadlifts, 405

Snatch Grip Deadlifts, 315:

Glute Bridges, 335: