Lil Greggy- Gym Pact 2019

Welcome back man

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Thanks for the reception from everybody. Iā€™m still unsure how much Iā€™ll be using this log. Iā€™ve been hitting the gym pretty regularly, but still just trying to get back to a semblance of foundational strength.

3.4.18. Goal: Lower Body Volume

Warm-up: BW Hip Thrusts

SL DB Hip Thrusts
BW Bulgarian Squats
Seated Leg Curls
Leg Press

This was maybe my 8th day in a row at the gym, so I wanted to give my core a bit of a break and stick to mostly unilateral work + machines while I try to fit as much volume as possible into these next couple of months. Hypertrophy and increased mobility are the main goals at the moment, the strength will come back no matter what type of stress I do as long as I have a barbell in my hands and on my back. I try to have two squat days a week: one with 3-4 sets of 8-10 and then another where I try up the intensity and do 10x3. I havenā€™t done any barbell benching, but I do OHP two times a week and a bunch of dumbbell work + Dips, Pull Ups, and variety of row variations are essentially my go-tos for upper body push&pressing. Iā€™ve added in more weighted ab work than Iā€™ve ever done in my life. On my non-lifting days Iā€™ve gone in to still do some brief sprints and core work. Should probably cut back a bit and up the priority on recovery. Iā€™ve also done a bit of yoga and more structured stretching. The back pain I had at the end of summer still lingers, but itā€™s not as pronounced. I credit this to having a stronger core and definitely NOT anything that my PT did for me 6 months ago.

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I guess Iā€™ll post some pics as well to keep me honest. Donā€™t really have any of myself over the past 6 months, so will just take some today.

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Pretty obvious that my legs suffered the most. I donā€™t want to go overboard putting on mass right now, but have always struggled putting on mass on my legs, so itā€™s tough to swallow. Oh well. Not much more I can do than to keep squatting and drinking my milk. Hopefully adding in the sprints will help.Overall, Iā€™m OH-kay with where Iā€™m at after being back in the gym for a month. Long way to go.

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Okay, soā€¦

Monday- upper body pressing + sprints
Tuesday- upper body pulling + farmer walks
Wednesday- legs
Thursday- upper body pressing + sprints

Keeping the volume pretty high with relatively low intensity. Monday I did barbell bench for the first time. 10x3 225. Tuesday was BW pull-ups, Kroc rows, seated cable rows. Wednesday was weighted single leg hip thrusts, BW hip thrusts, goblet squats, seated leg curls, and leg press. Thursdady (today) was 10x3 135 OHP. Hoping to get back up to doing 3x3 OHP with 155 by the end of this month. Might even be able to do it right now, but trying to focus on building up a foundation with volume before ramping up the intensity.

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Did you get more ink? Do you get to pick your tattoo or does the artist pick after getting to know you? (I saw that on Miami Ink)

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Haha thatā€™s a great question actually! I did get more ink, and the style of tattoo that I got (and that most people in Hawaiā€™i get now) is a ā€œmodern polynesianā€ style, which deviates from the traditional practices in a variety of ways. The artist I go to does still freehand the design, no consultation or sketching or anything like that. The symbols have traditional meanings, but their designs are modernized and other features (e.g. the shading) are completely modern/the artistā€™s personal style. He was an apprentice of a Tahitian artist who primarily does Tahitian/Marquesan designs that have traditional meanings, so that has a strong influence on his own preferences. That being said, itā€™s mostly aesthetic and unique to the artist himself as opposed to the culture.

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Today I deadlifted for the first time since being back in the gym. As with all my other lifts, I kept it light and tried to keep the volume high, doing 6x3 before then switching to paused (midshin) RDLs.

DLs
RDLs (paused)
Back Squat
Paused Heavy Breathing Squats
BW Single Leg Hip Thrusts
Hanging leg raises
Ab machine
Leg Press
Seated Leg Curls

Felt okay. Since I deadlifted Iā€™m not going to do my upper body pulling tomorrow. Maybe Iā€™ll treat myself to an arms day tomorrow and full rest Sunday (maybe yoga?) before doing upper body pulling on Monday.

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I wish I could do something aesthetic but I donā€™t have any cool cultural stuff in my background. And even if I dug something up I still wouldnā€™t do it because clearly Iā€™m oblivious to it and it has no meaning in my life.

I dig the Polynesian type stuff (see The Rock). Maybe Iā€™ll find something that suits me someday but for now Iā€™m just a mostly blank canvasā€¦

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Well, I didnā€™t keep track of everything, but I did go to the gym Monday-Friday and then today. I can at least accurately recall main liftsā€¦

Monday- Upper Body Pressing + Pulling: OHP/Pull-Ups. DB shoulders
Tuesday- Lower Body- BB Squat, Goblet Squat, Hip Thrusts, SL RDL
Wednesday- Upper Body Auxiliary Work: Pull-Ups. Arm Work
Thursday- Upper Body Pressing + Pulling: OHP, BB Bench, DB Rows, DB shoulders
Friday- Lower Body: Goblet squats, Hip Thrusts, etc.
Sunday- Lower Body: BB Squat, Hip Thrusts, Goblet Squats, etc.

I heard something pop in my knee while squatting today, hurts a bit to squat up with weight, but I have full movement without pain and could still do some weighted exercises after it happened. Hopefully itā€™s nothing serious. Lower body finally felt good this week.

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Okie dokie

Looks like the last time I was working out routinely was the summer of 2017. Time sure flies. I never really got into a routine when I came back briefly to the forum in March '18, but Iā€™m in a great situation now.

Living the dream with some outdoor space for a home gym (no worries, storing my barbell inside) and a lenient landlord. I did a cross country road trip this past summer (North Carolina-Tennesse-Louisiana-Texas-New Mexico-Colorado-Utah-Nevada-California) and met my current girlfriend while traveling (she now lives with me in San Diego). Sheā€™s been an incredible influence on my lifestyle choices (and is just amazing overall), so Iā€™m excited to see how much I can grow as an individual with her as a part of my support system.

Hip tightness and back pain are still there, but those are resolvable issues, I just need to commit to the process. Iā€™m trying to rebuild my foundation from the ground up. I dabbled in unilateral work right before going MIA, and Iā€™m going to try work that into my program with high volume. Main lifts will be: OHP, squat, and deadlift. I could buy a flat bench, and maybe I will in a month or so, but for now I will focus on OHP and parallette work for my upper body pressing.

Iā€™m not really trying to put on weight and am primarily focusing on eating ā€œclean,ā€ but I am sitting at 170 lbs, so I think my appetite will naturally increase as the activity ramps up. I have cut out alcohol aside from a handful of times each month, but nothing strict. Weā€™ll just see how it all goes!

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You have a lot of catching up to do!

(Iā€™m talking about reading)

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Hahaha honestly I considered it, but wouldnā€™t even know where to begin. Most importantly, how is your family doing?

I do see that @MarkKO got married since Iā€™ve been gone! Congratulations, my friend.

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My family is doing well. My daughter is in kindergarten and my wife is getting her masterā€™s degree. My son is also growing like a weed.

You havenā€™t lost the 3 plate bench challenge yet. I hit 305 last June but Iā€™ve been banged up since July and my training has sucked since then. I have to modify everything to avoid pain in my hip and shoulder.

Itā€™s good to see you met a girl that brings positive things to your life! Itā€™s tough to find a significant other who can make you a better person these days.

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Thanks man! Has it been that long?

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Great to hear about the fam!

Oh boy. Sorry to hear about the injuries. Iā€™m trying to focus on squat and deadlift at home and probably will only be benching once a week, but I think I could put up 295 right now. I honestly hate that my upper body pressing strength always persists no matter what. If only my squat was the same! I never use a spotter, so who knows what my true 1RPMs are, but maybe Iā€™ll test it out in the summer. My personal goal is to get 10x3 of 155 lbs for the OHP by then.

And amen brotha. Never thought Iā€™d appreciate someone who constantly calls me out on my bullshit!

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Iā€™ll give you the Cliff Notes version of my 2018.

I had hip surgery for a torn labrum in Dec of '17. I was released to lift in March. I ran CTā€™s Simple Guaranteed Strength and Size program to build myself back up. I benched 305, squatted 370, and deadlifted 545 when I finished the program in June.

In July I did some CrossFit stuff for conditioning and my hip started hurting again. Iā€™m still dealing with it but Iā€™ve learned that I have a piece of bone that formed in some soft tissue in my hip as a side effect of the surgery. Iā€™m getting a steroid injection tomorrow for that.

In October I subluxed my biceps tendon. It pops out of the groove any time I use my bicep. I tried to curl an empty barbell Friday and it popped on the first rep. Itā€™s popping less so Iā€™m hoping it might be okay without having surgery. To fix it they cut the tendon and anchor it to the humerus so it canā€™t pop the groove. Itā€™s a 3-4 month recovery. Iā€™d rather not do that.

So now Iā€™m running Best Damn while cutting some flab and trying to get back into basketball. My body isnā€™t handling strength pursuits very well so Iā€™m going to settle for being lean and having fun with sports.

Oh, yeah. I also pushed my weight up to 250 last year. I started cutting after Halloween.

There you go. Youā€™re all caught up!

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I appreciate the synopsis!

Iā€™m curious what your thoughts were on the CrossFit shenanigans. Iā€™ve always considered doing it for a couple months just to change things up, but the thought always leaves a bad taste in my mouth. What I really want to find is an Oly lifting gym because Iā€™ve never had any coaching with it, and Iā€™d love to be able to implement it into my own programming.

I like that you tend to use programs from the T Nation coaches. I havenā€™t done any of them stringently since doing a Poliquin (does he even count as T Nation?) back in 2014.

This year Iā€™m doing a ā€œGym Pactā€ with a few of my guy and girl friends in NYC/Hawaii. We just snapchat the group each time we go to the gym/exercise for at least 20 mins, keeping a tally of how many times we go in 2019. No winners nor losers, just accountability and motivation. Today was Day #32 for me, which Iā€™m quite pleased with considering I didnā€™t start until mid-January.

Iā€™ve decided to not post progress pics this time around until I have a better idea of what Iā€™m aiming for body comp wise. Iā€™m currently leaning towards maintaining this weight (170), or at least not going above 180. Iā€™ll let my strength goals guide my body growth for now.

As I said, not really gonna be attempting any true 1RPM, but Iā€™m aiming for clean, training singles (so ~95% of true 1RPM) for the following:

Squat- 365
Deadlift- 455
OHP- 185

Just like my lifting in 2017, Iā€™m going beltless. Iā€™ve previously hit 405 on squat and 455 on deadlift with a belt, but these numbers would all be PRs for me.

Currently, Iā€™m probably closest to hitting the squat, and if I ran a mesocycle of Smolov for a month, Iā€™d probably get it, but Iā€™d rather not train that way for now. Iā€™m focusing on high volume and frequency and lower intensity, especially since the bumpers I have at home top me off at 295lbs; I do have access to a gym where I can train the movements heavier when I need to.

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CrossFit is good and bad. I just did WODs from a couple websites. My hip just doesnā€™t tolerate deep squats. CrossFit uses a ton of front squats in their WODs. Actually front squats, thrusters, wall balls, and the full Olympic movements are all bad for me. I felt great after my hip surgery and the FIRST TIME I did front squats I started having pain again. Stupid.

On the plus side my resting HR dropped in a hurry over the three weeks I did WODs.

The double progression of CTā€™s SGSS program was phenomenal. There are four phases of the program. The first three are sets of 8, 5, and then 3 reps. Day one of each week is 3 sets of 8 (or 5 or 3). Day two of the week is 5 sets at the same weight. You just alternate back and forth between adding sets and then adding weight. I started light and my progress was phenomenal. I never missed a rep and never even grinded a rep.

I donā€™t know if Iā€™ll run the whole program ever again but I might follow that progression for one or two lifts.