Anna's Training Log

Honestly, the biggest thing is to eat more and gain a bit of weight.

What I was thinking for your squat is to do something like 5x5 with 75% for your main squat day and focus on technique rather than a heavy top set because you do have some technical issues. Then before you deadlift you can do 60%x2x6 sets, rest 30sec.-1min. between sets just for some extra technique work. Keep the front squats, but again I think a basic 5x5 setup would be good for you.

For bench I don’t really know what’s going on because you seem to have changed the order of all the exercises. Basically, focusing on hypertrophy, which means doing more volume and eating more, should make the biggest difference for your bench. We already tried working up to 10 sets of 5, I think the main issue is that you aren’t eating enough because if you were you would have gained a decent amount of muscle. If you want you can try just doing high reps for bench, just don’t let your technique totally fall apart and make sure to keep your ass on the bench.

So how about this for bench:

Day 1 - Paused bench, close grip incline, flys
Day 2 - Close grip bench, ohp, skull crushers
Day 3 - paused wide grip bench, dumbbell bench, dips
Just do 3 sets of 8-12 for each exercise, if that feels easy after a couple weeks you can add more sets. Insert upper back training as needed.

How is your deadlift going?

Deadlifts are going great. I’m feeling very strong. The bench stuff looks good for the most part but I’m not really sure about the wide grip bench. It’s felt pretty bad on my elbows in the past.

Week 5: Day 2

Paused Bench: 3x8- 95lbs
DB Incline Bench: 3x12,13, 14-16kg Dbs
The rack at the commercial gym I’m at (still on break) has fixed settings, none of which work for me so I did DB incline bench
DB Flyes: 3x20-10kg Dbs

Preworkout: Pretty tired and lower body pretty sore. Happy that I today would be an easy day
Workout: Bench felt pretty heavy warming up but got better. I haven’t done high reps in a long while so the 3x8 really burned, especially my triceps. DB incline bench killed shoulders and got a pretty good chest pump. DB incline flyes weren’t bad but mentally hard to complete.
Preworkout: Lower body felt a lot better and definitely more energized. upper body pretty dead, felt good

Internet was crap yesterday so couldn’t post

Week 5: Day 2

Deadlift: 5x5-215lbs
Lunges: 1x8, 2x10-135lbs
Rows: 3x6-145lbs

Preworkout: felt really good mentally, upper back a bit tight, lower body fine
Workout: Warmups felt really heavy and a triple at 260 wasn’t happening so I did 5x5 at 75% (215lbs)- it’s technically 212.5 but my gym doesn’t have fractional plates. Those felt pretty solid and really worked my core, glutes and hamstrings. Heavier than expected though. Actually got my HR up pretty good. Lunges were easier than expected- balance was a bit of a struggle since my core was tired. Rows were fine
Postworkout: Mentally great and not too tired physically either. Probably should have pushed a bit

Week 5: Day 4

Close Grip Bench: 2x8, 1x9-85lbs
Overhead Press: 3x8-65lbs
Skullcrushers: 3x8-65lbs
Technique: HS hold

Preworkout: Not too tired physically or mentally, legs a bit heavy but not too bad
Workout: Close grip bench felt better than expected and killed triceps. Overhead press really killed shoulders and upper back, a lot harder to complete than expected. Skullcrushers felt pretty good
Postworkout: Felt great and upper body pumped.

If it hurts then don’t do it, you can do touch and go bench instead. I bet if I saw a video I could figure out why it bothered your elbows.

Week 5: Day 5

Front Squat: 5x5-125lbs
Lunges: 1x8, 2x10-130lbs
RDL: 3x5-155lbs
Overhead Squat: 3x5-65lbs

Preworkout: Upper back quite tight and triceps pretty sore. Otherwise, felt good mentally and physically
Workout: Front squat feeling better and form got better. I decided to take the weight down. Not too bad on legs but had a bit of trouble out of hold and killed upper back. Lunges were really intense but were actually quite easy to complete mentally. I just got a bit lightheaded at the last reps. RDL’s killed my core and I broke form a bit.
Postworkout: Pretty tired but happy and mentally energized

Week 5: Day 6

Touch and go Bench: 3x10-95lbs
Jm Press: 3x8-85lbs
Dips: 3x10-18kg Db

Preworkout: Legs not too sore but glutes dead. Pretty tired- didn’t sleep well
Workout: Not too excited to workout but weights felt okay. Got a burn and pump. I’m actually really liking the high reps on the upper body stuff. It’s somehow mentally easier. Dips a lot harder than expected.
Postworkout: Upper body pumped and dead, actually felt a lot better

Week 6: Day 1

Back Squat: 5x5-60kg
Pause Squat: 3x5-57.5kg
Lat Pulldowns: 2x12,1x14-27.5kg

Preworkout: Felt great mentally and physically, excited to squat
Workout: Squats felt amazing and pretty much no hip shift. The 5x5 felt amazing and quick.Pause squats were a lot easier than expected but they really burned my quads and glutes. First workout in a long time where I hadn’t gotten lightheaded. Lat pulldowns felt pretty good
Postworkout: Legs pretty dead, felt good and accomplished, pretty buzzed

Do you train at 2 different gyms where one has pound plates and the other has kilos?

Definitely do JM press after dips. It’s not quite an isolation movement but its close enough and doing dips with severely fatigued triceps won’t get you far.

Yep. My school gym where I train Monday- Friday has Kilo plates and the commercial gym I train at on weekends and holidays has pound plates.

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Week 6: Day 2

Paused Bench: 1x10,2x8-42.5kg
JM Press: 3x12-35kg
Flys: 3x15-10kg Dbs

Preworkout: mentally fine but physically really tired. Didn’t sleep well last night. Lower body a bit sore
Workout: Everything felt heavy and 45kg for 8-12 on paused bench just wasn’t going to happen. Jm Press felt better and got a pretty good tricep pump. Flys weren’t too bad but mentally hard to complete
Post workout: Still tired but felt better, arms and chest pretty pumped

Week 6: Day 3

Deadlift: 5x5-100kg
Lunges: 3x10-60kg
Rows: 3x8-65kg

Preworkout: a bit tired and tight but overall feeling okay mentally and physically
Workout: Deadlifts felt really heavy and hard. The 5th set was a killer mentally but physically wasn’t too bad because I too WAY too long to rest. I’m not sure what’s happening but it feels like I’ve hit a block with my deadlift too. I’m getting pretty frustrated. Lunges really worked my glutes and got off balance a few times. The third set actually felt easier. Rows felt fine. Grip was going so I used straps.
Postworkout: Mentally felt good but pretty tired physically. Felt a bit shaky and lightheaded

Deadlifts were going great until last week and now they’re feeling unusually hard. I’d like to get to 300lbs by my birthday at the end of May. Do you think that’s possible?

I don’t know what to tell you, sometimes one lift is doing great for a while and then for no apparent reason you can start having issues. Did you do something different?

It’s possible, but there are no guarantees. Also, I don’t remember advising you to do 5x5 for deadlifts. You could have just kept going with the same setup as before (heavy top set, lighter triples) since that was working for you. You were having problems with your squat so I figured a different approach would make more sense and heavy triples and doubles are no use if you can’t do them with good technique, but that’s not the situation with your deadlift

I’m not doing anything different.
I started doing 5x5 because failing on my triples when I got to 255lbs. Last week, I was supposed to do 260 but 235 was feeling like a max triple.

Well, if you want you can do 5x5 for deadlifts but just because you have one day doesn’t mean you need to change everything.

Week 6: Day 4

Close grip bench: 2x8, 1x7-40kg
Overhead Press: 1x10,2x8-30kg
Skullcrushers: 3x10-25kg

Preworkout: Lower body pretty tight and sore. Not too tired
Workout: Close grip bench felt pretty strong and really killed triceps. Overhead press didn’t feel heavy but really hard to complete. My upper back was pretty tired. Skullcrushers went fine. I brought the weight down a bit for better form. I guess my ROM wasn’t good enough last week with the 65lbs
Postworkout: upper body pumped and pretty dead. Felt good and more energized

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Week 6: Day 5

Front Squats: 5x5-57.5kg
RDL: 3x6-70kg
Overhead Squat: 2x6-30kg

Preworkout: felt okay, a bit tired but not too bad
Workout: Front squats felt a bit heavy but not too hard to complete. This is the first week where I didn’t have a significant hip shift, so big win. RDL felt really solid and killed core and hamstrings. I did take WAY too much rest between sets though. Overhead squats are just fun
Postworkout: lower body completely dead and quite tired/ sleepy but felt accomplished

Week 6: Day 6

Touch and go Bench: 2x10, 1x11-95lbs
DB Incline Bench: 2x8,1x6-18kg Dbs
Dips: 2x10,1x11-18kg Dbs

Preworkout: felt pretty good, hamstrings and core a bit sore and tight but nothing too bad
Workout: weights felt surprisingly heavy and 100 for 8 wasn’t going to happen so I did 95lbs for more reps. I think this has to do with the fixed hooks at the commercial gym, which gets me out of position. DB incline bench was a lot harder than expected and I ended up failing the last set. Dips actually felt great, really killed chest and triceps. It’s weird how
Postworkout: Upper body dead but felt good and energized and accomplished

Week 7: Day 1

Back Squat: 2x5,3x4-65kg
Paused Squat: 3x4-60kg
Lat Pulldown: 3x13-27.5kg

Preworkout: Felt pretty good mentally and physically, nothing tired or sore.
Workout: Squats were harder and heavier than expected. I did the first two set of 5 but by the third set, my form had was majorly breaking down so I stopped at 4 reps for the last three sets. Legs actually felt pretty pumped. Paused squats were really hard physically but mentally wasn’t too hard to complete. I kind of just went on autopilot. Lat pulldowns felt fine
Postworkout: Legs dead but felt really good and accomplished