July 14, 2013 Conditioning

• Jump Rope: 65, 50 (2:11)
• Broad Jumps: 8' 5", 8' 8.5", 8' 5", 8' 9", 8' 7", 8' 7", 8' 9", 8' 10", 8' 7", 8'9", 8' 9", 8' 9", 8' 11", 8' 6"
• Horizontal Battling Ropes: 50, 40
• Agility Jump Cross: 3, 6
• Unilateral jump ladder (11 boxes): 2, 1, 2

32 minutes

Fun session. I tried something with broad jumps: Jump forward (obviously) but let my legs hang behind me and only throw them forward as I come to landing, it lets me really throw myself harder into the jumps and the results played out well.  Tried some horizontal battling ropes; basically just fling my arms out to the side and then snap them inward.  Here is a link to the jump ladder thing I was talking about.  I put a video of the jump across thing, from Joe Defranco's youtube. I used shorter hurdles, and put them in a cross pattern, so that at one point I had to jump backward.  

July 12, 2013 Lower Body / Medium

• Knee-Down MB Push Sprints: 3 per knee
• Squats: 225*5 250*5 275*5 300*5 315*4
• Good Mornings: 165*5 185*5 205*5
• Rack Hip Thrusts: 315*5 365*4 365*5
• Straight-Leg Cable Kickbacks: 110*6 120*5
• Ab-Wheel: 10

45 minutes

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. 

July 11, 2013 Upper Body / Light

• Incline Bench Press: 185*10 205*3-weak link found 295*7
• Pullups: 40*8 40*7 40*7
• Standing Press: 135*8 135*6 135*6
• Unilateral T-Bar Rows: 155*6 165*5
• TRX Reverse flyes: 2 - faceplant
• TRX Feet Elevated Pushups: 8, 10
• Face-Pulls: 25*10 35*12

 43 minutes

So I decided to incorporate higher rep stuff into my routine.  Every other week I'm going to go light on an upper body day; this week was Thursday, this coming week Monday will be my light day.  On lower body days I'll go medium weights instead of light.   I think I found what's been missing in my training. After that 185*10 on incline bench I was so gassed I could barely get 3 at 205 a few minutes later.  It's like I have 0 lactic acid tolerance.  It was the same for every lift here really, I wasn't getting nearly enough reps on anything really.   So that's good to know...Tried some trx stuff...the reverse flyes are ridiculously hard, I face planted after two of them. Even the pushups, I felt as much in my rhomboids as my chest. 

July 10, 2013 Sprinting / Broad Jumps

• 100m: 10
• Total: 1000m
• Broad Jumps: 9' 3", 9' 6", 9' 6", 9' 5", 9' 5", 9' 4", 9' 7"

Was going to do 700, but then decided it's time to be doing 1000 meters in sessions again. Typing this out on Sunday July 14th...so hyped up right now wish I could go sprinting right now. I'm doing 200s this coming week.  On broad jumps I was just tired from the sprinting. We'll see how it goes this coming week. 

July 9, 2013 Progress Pics

I realized I haven't posted back pics recently....happy with results here.  Not the clearest shots but I think my mid-back looks good.  On my lower back I think I can see faint hints of striations as well.  Had to censor the pics, but I noticed I have a dimple on my hip as well, this pleased me. 

July 9, 2013 Lower Body / Posterior Chain / Olympic Lifting

• Rack Power Shrugs: 335*6 405*6 495*4
• Hanging Power-Cleans: 135*3 135*3 135*4 135*3 135*4 135*3 135*3 155*3
• Hanging Power-Snatches: 135*3
• Deadlifts: 315*3 365*2 385*1
• Pull-Throughs: 40*11 50*11

41 minutes

Power shrugs 495 was about my upper limit.  Then I drilled the heck out of hanging power-cleans.  It's getting better, I feel like my biceps are finally phasing out of the pull, my traps and upper back are the parts that feel it the most.  It's getting easier to pull the weight up, and I'm not star-fishing very much.  It's very important to me to visualize rotating my elbows out in front of me as I catch the bar.  I'm also dipping a tad when I catch the bar finally.  It seems to be coming together.  On the 155 attempt it was just as easy for me as the 135s which is very good; indicates it's hip explosion moving the weight, and not my arms. If it was arms the 20 lbs. increase would be quite noticeable.  Did some token hanging power snatches after.  Deadlifts still kept them light.  Did pull-throughs...need to work on these, they exhausted my lower back, not that it was moving the weight, just keeping stabilized after all the sets I had done earlier was exhausting for it.  

July 8, 2013 Upper Body

• Bench Press: 250*2 275*1 290*1
• BB Rows: 245*3 265*3 275*3 285*3
• Push Press: 225*1 235*1
• Neutral Grip Pullups; 85*3 85*3 85*2
• Landmine Laterals: 50*9 52.5*7
• DB Incline: 105*4 -gassed

45 minutes

Meh...Thinking of actually breaking my upper body workouts into a heavy/light split again, and just flip flopping every week. So this week do 'light' upper body on Thursday, next week do light on Monday, heavy on Thursday, then switch back again for the following week.  Might keep things fresher.  Nothing too exciting here, landmines continue well, neutral grip pullups went well too. 

July 7, 2013 Conditioning

• Jump Rope: 50, 50, 50,45 (6:48)
• Plyo Bench Clap Pushups; 5, 6
• 31" seated plyo box jumps: 10
• plank sled drags: 70*2

23 minutes

Wanted to take it easy here, nothing too intense, felt a bit fatigued.  

July 5, 2013 Lower Body

• Squats: 225*5 250*5 275*5 300*5 325*2
• Good Mornings: 135*3 160*3 185*3 205*3 225*2
• Walking Lunges: 170*6 170*5
• Straight Leg Cable Kickbacks: 110*6
• Paloffs: 110*6 110*6

44 minutes

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. 

Thoughts

Thinking of switching up my routine a bit, maybe rotating in some 'light' higher rep days, maybe on each exercise every other week, and then exercises too.  So something like this, with regards to what I lead off Mondays with:

Week 1: BB Bench, heavy
Week 2: DB Bench, light
Week 3: BB Bench: light
Week 4: DB Bench: heavy

I'm not sure if I'll actually do that, I don't want to be only benching heavy once per month.  Or doing pullups heavy once per month or whatever.  So I was thinking something like this:

Week 1: BB Bench, heavy
Week 2: BB Bench, heavy
Week 3: BB Bench: light
Week 4: DB Bench: heavy

I dunno, I'll figure it out.  I don't want it to be a thing where I just do a light workout once, and then don't do it again for 5 months. I'd like to work something out where maybe I stay heavy on Monday & Tuesday, then Thursday & Friday would be higher rep and lighter every other week, and medium loads normally?  And then maybe every 3 weeks flip it?