Getting better with breathing on squats, and rep pace. I was descending way too slow before. I'm really happy with the weight I've been putting on here lately. I've been very good with bracing my abs, making sure my lower back was engaged, and also sticking with the good mornings to strengthen my lower back. Good times. Front squats went well, would have had 275 if I wasn't fatigued. Not bad, as 300 is my PR there.
Well that was interesting. My lower back was just really tired. I think I jumped in too fast on deadlifting on Tuesday because it's been tired since then. I think deadlifting may be interfering with the weights I'm squatting. May use this as an opportunity to tweak my deadlifting. I think I've been too high at the start of the pulls recently, may drop the weight and focus on pulling with my hips lower and pattern that for a couple weeks, and see if that helps my lower back as well. Need to lower weight on good mornings, if this is really going to be a light day...maybe 145-155-170 or something. Murdered some sled push & pulls.
Tried doing the short sprints at the start of the workout to see if that helped me warm up any. I think it may have, but I'd probably benefit from doing some stretching of my hips at the start more than anything. Medium weights here. Next week will be heavy, then medium again the week after. This workout sets my baseline, hopefully in two weeks I go 250 / 270 / 290 / 310 / 320 for 5s or something like that on squats. Good mornings were good, got a little loose with form on a couple reps, but otherwise tight. Everything else went well too. Those kickbacks really slay me.
Doing some more reps on the squats, while I bring my lower back strength up. Did good mornings 2nd, focused on making sure I hinged at the hips. Tried to make sure I didn't hump my back out at the bottom too much, tried to make sure my back was flat, or arched in a bit still. I'll take videos next time to see. The forced hinging instead of just bending at waist allowed me to move more weight. Got 225. Was beat after that. Still did walking lunges. Kickbacks were brutal, I was gassed at that point from the squats & good mornings. Finished with paloffs.
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.
Good session, tweaked weights on splits squats, want to keep hammering on them. Walking lunges I continue to put weight on. Everything else went well, quick session, I really just blow through the sets. I'm soaked after these workouts, and I don't even really sweat that much in general. And now I'm off til early June! Hope you all have a nice week!
Squats: 315*2 345*1 365*X How the f*ck did I not get that?
Walking Lunges: 150*8 160*7
Good Mornings: 165*4 180*4 190*3
Straight Leg Cable Kickbacks: 100*10 120*6
Ab-Wheel: 12, 10
40 minutes!
Lower back spasmed a bit on 225 for split squats. Somehow I was hungry for this workout. No clue how I missed 365 on squats. Will lower weight on good-mornings a tad on the last two sets.
Front Squats: 185*3 205*3 225*3 245*3 265*1 285*Noooope
Bulgarian Split Squats: 135*5 165*5 185*3
Walking Lunges: 130*8 140*7
Straight Leg Cable Kickbacks: 100*6 120*4
Good Mornings: 135*6 155*3
44 minutes
Decided to give my lower back a bit of rest from the loading it's been subjected to. Did front squats. Made sure I was keeping my core locked and my elbows high. 285 I started to come forward and just couldn't stand up straight coming out of the hole. Bulgarian split squats I'm trying to rest more of my foot on the bench for the back leg, usually I just rest my toes which adds to the difficulty. I really want to start putting more weight on with these, may even lead off with them soon. Walking lunges are by far my favorite part of the week now, just knowing I'm going to be drenched with sweat after them hypes me up. Did some cable kickbacks, then finished with some good mornings, since I'm trying to build up my lower back strength (didn't want to do back squats since that seems to be stressing them out last couple weeks)
I don't think I could have even done 347 for a cluster of 10. That is without a doubt my peak on 10 rep clusters. Feels good man. Did some bulgarians after, then walking lunges. On the walking lunges I'm actually using a preacher bar, a regular bar would be too long and unwieldy. I have to have friends/staff put the thing on my shoulders for the heavier sets though. If you haven't tried walking lunges I highly recommend them. It's hard to describe what it's like being fatigued, but not beat to piss, and then doing a set of walking lunges. I don't sweat, ever, really. I do these things and I am literally leaving a dripping trail of it behind me. Those big heavy single-leg multi-joint exercises get you huffing & puffing. I had forgotten about the straight leg cable kickbacks, those are another KILLER exercise, you have to clamp down your entire core while you do them to make sure you're not just swinging your hips to move the wait. Did some farmers walks after, then seated rope pulls. Basically tie the end of a rope to some kettlebells, walk away carrying the rope until it's fully extended. Sit down and while remaining upright pull the rope towards you hand over hand. Surprisingly taxing on the midsection.
Also, here's a video of straight-leg cable kickbacks. The guy in the video doesn't go as far back as I do, and I don't let my foot hit the ground at any point during the set.
Squats cluster set: 335*1,1,1,1,1,1,1 - ab cramp??
BB Pin Squats: 225*4
Split Squats: 135*5 185*3
Cable straight-leg kickbacks: 100*7 120*4
WSARC: 70*10
40 minutes
Didn't know individual heads of your abdominus rectus could cramp, but sure enough, the upper right head seized up on the 8th rep of the cluster set and I had to abort it. Really odd. Was kind of ginger with the rest of the workout; it had cramped so hard I was actually pulled down and to my right a little bit when it seized up. I think the snatch-grip rack pulls were effecting my back musculature's ability to support the load here, I smoked 315 last week for a cluster, but from rep 1 here it was tough, it felt like I was going to fold over, and I could tell my back wasn't entirely up to the task. Hence the load getting dumped on my abs and the cramp. Will try another cluster at 335 next week.
Great workout, wanted to try something around 85% of my max, which I assume is around 365 right now. Decided to do singles. My posterior chain is definitely tired after all this....but not extremely sore. Could've probably gone 335 and still gotten all 10 singles. Tried front squats again, should've worked up a bit more, I started with 225 without warmups, didn't go great. Love straight-leg kickbacks. Had so much extra time I did some extra ab work.
Was absolutely drenched after this one. Not used to squatting heavy after the last few months. The odd thing is I don't feel like the higher rep stuff effected my subsequent higher weight efforts on other exercises, but I definitely felt them on squats. Did some Romanian deadlifts after, I can never tell if I'm engaging my hamstrings enough on them...and then about 3 hours later they're still trying to cramp up on me. Split squats went well, I never know what I'm going to get with them, some days they're easy, other times it's tough sledding. Finished with some cable kickbacks, really enjoy these, the return portion where the leg goes back to the starting position seems to be the key, doing it in a controlled manner.
GOT IT! Did a couple warmup sets then just went straight for the 300. I don't believe I could've even gotten 301 for 10 here, I have no doubt this was my absolute max. I almost stopped at 7 because I thought I was going to die, just absolutely grinded/gutted out the last 3 reps. Then fell down and laid on the floor for several minutes. Put 250 on the bar did that, and was done with squatting for the day. Could barely do split squats my legs/glutes were so exhausted. Feels great, and hit my first goal of this bulk, Monday I go for 250*10 on bench, then Tuesday is the big one; 405*10 on deadlifts.
Terrible storm is bearing down on New England, it was already starting to snow when I went, much earlier than usual, around 11:30AM. Wasn't sure if it would throw me off. I liked to have more calories in me before working out, but this turned out ok. I truncated the 3 sets of squats to 2. So the 280 was hard, but the 290 almost killed me I think. Was laying on the floor afterward for about 4 minutes. I go for 300 this coming week. I'm thinking I may lead off with 300, or go 280-300. On split squats I did better this week; I brought my body closer to the bench behind me instead of reaching back 2.5' with my leg. Works much better.
280 & 290 on squats absolutely decimated me. I think I'm going to start having my 2nd set of squatting as the heaviest set. By the time I get to the third set I'm already pretty beat. Next week I'll try 280-290-270 I think. I was exhausted after these 3 sets, I think I took about 6 minutes after the 2nd set. On split squats I really didn't have much left in the tank at that point, just did a rep with 185 and called it a day on those. I'm liking kickbacks a lot more as I get used to them. Finished with paloffs; would have done two sets but I was beat!
The squats at 280 lbs. beat the heck out of me. Went heavy on pin squats, and split squats as well. Could barely get up from bottom on the 185 split squats. Going to up the kick back & paloff weights next week; getting the hang of the kickbacks is nice, definitely a nice glute/ham builder.
Good session, the weights keep climbing on the 10 rep maxes. The straight-leg kickbacks take a while to get used to, I need to make sure I'm staying balanced on them and not leaning to one side or the other. Finished with paloffs, the 110 is about as high as I can go for 10 reps rigth now, was about to fall over after them.
Well, I'm posting this on Tuesday the 8th...my ass/hamstrings/quads are finally recovered mostly. I'm thinking maybe 3 sets of 8-10 on the squats may be more appropriate for the next couple weeks, until I'm used to the volume. Because honestly I can barely walk the rest of the day here, and then for the next two days I'm stiff, sore, and slow no matter how much I try and stretch out. Maybe 245-255-265 next week. Split squats I need to start doing outside the squat rack because I keep banging the weight on the side of it when dipping down. Other than that they went well. Straight-leg kickbacks I posted a video of below. I do them standing up leaning against the column of the cable station though. Added weight on to the paloffs, felt good. Also of note, I feel like the pin squats are definitely helping me at the bottom of the regular squats, that start from the bottom with no momentum really has been a boon to regular squats.
