January 11, 2015 Upper Body

• Incline Bench Press: 205*6,6,6,6,6,6
• BB Underhand Rows: 225*5 245*4 255*4
• BB Unilateral T-Bar Rows: 160*3 170*3
• Hexbar Farmers Walks: 315*41 315*21

Not gonna lie, my anterior delts are exhausted.  We'll see how the rest of the week plays out.  Did some good farmers walks here, I really love these things

December 26, 2014 Upper

• Incline Bench Press: 225*1 250*1 265*1 270*1
• BB Underhand Rows: 225*3 245*3 255*2
• Push Press: 225*1 235*1
• Rope Pullups: 4, 4, 4
• Ring Pullups: 9

Good times, Got 265 pretty easy here.  Still I want to add more strength to my incline bench. May try a program of some sort, need to figure out what.  

December 12, 2014 Upper

• Incline Bench Press: 225*1 245*1 260*1
• BB Underhand Rows: 225*5 245*3 255*2
• Seated Press: 135*3 160*3 180*1 190*1
• 1.5 Sternum Pullups: 3, 2, 2
• Suitcase Carries: 65*40 65*40

Finishing up the semester in b-school, exhausted mentally. I think my numbers will be up a bit next week when I'll be more rested.  Threw in some underhand rows, and some 1.5 sternum pullups here, never tried that combo before. Tough stuff. 

July 29, 2013 Upper Body

• Bench Press: 225*10 225*9 225*8
• BB Underhand Rows: 225*10 225*10 245*10
• BB Push Press: 185*5 185*5
• Neutral Grip Pullups: 45*8 45*5
• Landmine Laterals: 50*10 45*10
• DB Incline: 90*9 90*6

44 minutes

I wasn't sure if I'd get strong on light weight workouts only doing them every other week, but compared to last time, my bench numbers here went WAY up, so that's good. Also on PP I don't know if doing sets higher than 5 or 6 is a good idea, form tends to break down. Same with pullups; I just hate doing high rep sets on them.  I don't feel comfortable doing them at all above 5 or 6 reps.  

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. 

May 6, 2013 Upper Body

• Bench Press (cluster): 280*1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1
• BB Underhand Rows: 225*5 245*3 - couldn't get wraps right
• BB Rows: 275*4
• Push Press: 225*1 - forearms tired
• Neutral Grip Pullups: 75*3 75*3 75*2
• Landmine Lateral Raises: 50*8 60*4

47 minutes

Blech. Just NOT in a good mood from something, and no energy, depressed.  Trash session.  Got the 280 on the cluster so that's good. Rows were meh, forearms were tired so I had trouble stabilizing on push press. Neutral grip pullups went well, lost a rep on 3rd set though, hung too long at the bottom. Landmines went well I suppose, want to keep the weight lower though and the reps up on them, that's what I prefer.  Session dragged, on account of malaise/depressed mood. 

November 26, 2012 Upper Body

• Bench Press: 225*5 250*5 265*5 285*3
• BB Underhand Rows: 225*6 235*5 245*5 255*2-grip failed
• Push Press: 185*3 205*3 215*1
• Neutral-Grip Pullups: 65*4 65*3 65*2
• DB Incline Bench: 80*10 85*6

46 Minutes

Great session; I feel like the strength bump from the bulk is finally taking over.  Did BB Underhand rows. Still can't decide what kind of row I want to be doing.  I do DB rows on Thursdays so I'd like this to be some sort of bb row or t-bar variant.  Push pressing went well, felt a lot better on the 205 set, still don't have the pop I did a few months ago on it, bu tit's coming along.  Added some volume in with an extra set of neutral grip pullups & the db incline bench. 

I'm considering upping the protein a tad; I know I said I wanted to leave it where it was, and then raise it when cutting, but I feel like the lowered protein levels may be inhibiting me somewhat.  Not going to increase them drastically, maybe just a couple extra ounces of chicken when I eat that twice per day. 

November 12, 2012 Upper

• Bench Press: 225*5 245*4 265*3 280*2
• BB Underhand Rows: 225*5 245*5 265*4
• BB Push Press: 185*1 205*1 225*1
• Neutral Grip Pullups: 65*5 65*3

38 minutes

Benching felt good, as I noted previously I'm doing more work under 90% of my maxes, and only ramping up every 6 weeks or so.   Underhand rows went good, want to do more DB rowing, and the 1-arm bb t-bar rowing.  Push pressing has been off for a couple weeks now. I get no pop on it.  Not sure what's going on.  Finished off with weighted neutral grip pullups. May try 100 lbs. next time just for fun, since they're easier. 

November 5, 2012 Upper

• Bench Press: 225*4 245*1 265*1 275*3 290*2 300*1
• BB Underhand Rows: 225*5 245*5 265*2 - grip failed
• Push Press: 185*1 205*1 215*1 225*X

Back at it! Didn't seem to really have a dip in strength.  I did a ton of warmup sets on bench pressing to assess where my strength was, felt like my bar speed was actually slightly better.   Grip strength was a tad off, probably from not deadlifting in almost two weeks at this point.  Lacked a bit of explosiveness on push pressing, I'll work on that.  Overall a good session; never been this strong at the start of a bulk before. Can't wait to see where it goes.   Starting weight: 190.5

I'm going to make a post after this talking about this bulk and my goals for it. 

September 3, 2012 Upper

• Bench Press: 285*1 300*1 265*3
• BB Underhand Rows: 225*10 235*8 245*6-grip
• Push Press: 225*1 235*1 225*1

I took Thursday & Friday off, Thursday because I was doing some canoeing on the Charles, and Friday because I had to finish moving stuff out of my old place.  Back into it now, I expect no more delays, etc.  Need to get back to eating normal too; been short on calories probably 5 out of the last 7 days. That's done.  This session went ok, still a bit sore in the lower back from the deadlifting injury so arching my back is still not a 100% proposition here.  Feels better than last week though; I expect in a few weeks I'll be back to normal.  Need to get more chalk for rows & power lifting.  A bit shaky on the push pressing..not sure why.  

August 13, 2012 Upper

• Bench Press: 275*3 285*3 300*2
• BB Underhand Rows: 225*10 235*9 245*6
• Push Press: 205*1 225*1 225*1

Good session, still trying to take it a tad easy because of my back.  I have my lower body day tomorrow, will probably do really light deadlifting, nothing above 225 lbs, if that even.  We'll see how it goes!  I'm moving later this week so may not workout after Wednesday for a few days.

August 6, 2012 Upper

• Bench Press: 285*1 305*2 295*3
• BB Underhand Rows: 225*11 235*10 245*8
• Push Press: 225*1 235*1 245*X 245*1

FINALLY got 245 again on push pressing. Felt great, there's really no in between for me, I either get the rep easily or miss by a mile.  Rows went good, benching went well.  Back feels pretty much 90% at this point, should be fine for some deadlifting tomorrow; probably will just do 410 or so in order to not re aggravate whatever I did.  

July 30, 2012 Upper/Lower

• Bench Press: 285*1 305*3 295*2
• Trap-Bar Deadlifts: 315*4-back 315*10 
• BB Underhand Rows: 235*10 245*8
• Push Press: 225*1 235*X
• Double mini-banded reverse hypers: 10, 10
• Sauna: 190 degrees / 20 minutes

So I can't workout tomorrow so wanted to get some lower body work in too. Benching was ok, my lower back just feels bruised at this point, not sure what the issue is.  When I sit down and then turn to one side I get this pain in my lower left back.  Then if I go back to center and turn again, it doesn't hurt.  It's not on my spine so I'm not incredibly worried. It's more annoying at this point. On the trap-bar deadlifts I felt it the second I tilted forward a little and my back took over some of the movement.    Legs were actually fatigued from conditioning yesterday, definitely cost me some trap bar deadlift reps, and the push press as well, had no pop.  Did some reverse hypers to try to work out the back issue. Then laid around in the sauna.  Leaving the gym when I turned around in my car seat to back out of my parking space my back still hurt, but not quite as bad.  

July 23, 2012 Upper Body

• Bench Press: 285*1 305*3 315*1
• BB Underhand Rows: 225*11 235*10 245*7
• Push Press: 225*1 230*1 245*X

Well I finally found something I like the thinner bars at my gym for....rows.  So much easier to get a good death grip on the bar with the thinner bar, going to use that for the rows from now on.  Got greedy on push press, should've gone 225 235 245 and maybe I would've had it.  As it was the 15 lbs. jump was too much.  Also I completely forgot to sprint on Saturday, I'm so used to my routine on those days that I just went about my business and didn't think of it til later. 

July 16, 2012

• Bench Press: 285*1 305*4 315*1 295*3
• BB Underhand Rows: 225*9 235*8 245*7
• Push Press: 220*2 230*1 240*1

Never been this strong at this weight before, I am VERY happy with how my training is going right now.  Doing good unracking weight on the bench lately, pulling it off the pins with my spot, instead of pushing it up and off and releasing my shoulder blades.  Underhand rows felt great.  Push Pressing went well.  Weights felt so light today. Love it.  Absolutely ripping it up right now.  

July 10, 20132

• Deadlift: 410*3 430*2 450*1
• Bench Press: 300*3 310*2 295*4
• BB Underhand Rows: 225*9 255*5
• Paloffs: 60*12 70*12

Hmmm, interesting workout. I didn't go yesterday as I have an ear infection in my right ear that was causing me to not be able to balance, plus I had a coworkers going away party.  I combined deadlifting & benching this workout on account of that.  I wasn't sure how it would work out but it went pretty well. If I ever switch in the future from an upper/lower heavy/light split I may do something like a two day split of deadlifting/benching and squatting/pullups with a couple conditioning days thrown in. I haven't ruled out doing that in the future, and this only bolsters that idea.  

This workout went well; I'm not going above 90% of my max on deadlifting for a while, it really just wears me out as I've said in past posts.  The weights actually moved easier here after sticking to the 'lighter' weights for the last couple weeks. Everything felt smoother.   Benching went well, weight felt very light.   Paloffs went well too.  Good workout

July 02, 2012

• Bench Press: 285*1 300*2 285*3 275*3
• BB Underhand Rows: 215*10 235*8 255*5
• Push Press: 215*2 225*1 240*X

Sorry for lack of updates, I'm publishing this 8 days after it happened, just been busy.  Session went well, I think underhand rows might be better suited to higher reps, since on the highest set my grip starts to fail, may use chalk on those high sets from now on.  ALMOST had 240 on the push press. Very close.  

June 25, 2012 Upper

• Cable Flyes: 60*8 70*6 80*4 60*8
• BB Underhand Rows: 215*10 235*8 250*5
• Rope Pullups: 6, 5

Switching up for the week on exercises; went well, giving shoulders a rest, they're feeling a bit better as I type this on Thursday, hopefully this coming week they'll feel fully refreshed.  Everything else went fine.  

June 18, 2012 Upper Body

• Flat Bench: 285*1 300*2 275*4
• BB Underhand Rows: 205*10 230*7 250*5
• Push Press: 215*2 225*1 235*1
• Rope Pullups: 6, 5
• Ab Wheel: 12, 10

Felt a bit flat here, got the reps but I'm feeling a bit drained more than usual here. May switch it up a bit with exercise selection next week.  Also should probably give my shoulders a break; they're sore. 

June 11, 2012 Upper Body

• Flat Bench: 285*1 300*3 305*2 275*3 (hit post)
• BB Underhand Rows: 200*10 225*6 245*6
• Push Press: 215*2 225*1 235*X
• Forward Rolls: 10

Thoroughly enjoying tumbling.  Session went good, underhand rows feel great. Not sure why I missed 235 on the push pressing, was having trouble balancing when I tried to clear it.   Finished with some  forward rolls.  And now for some progress pictures.  Click for larger versions.  I'm 197.5 lbs. in these, I'm guesstimating bf at 9.5%; in the picture on the left you can see a vein in my left shoulder that only really comes out at or below 10% under normal conditions.