Yeah I think you’re right actually, I think I am afraid of losing so no disrespect taken at all.
Honestly I don’t see how I can be competitive, at least within the next year. I’ve had a look at the junior university championships which I think is open to university students nationwide and the best and worst totals were 640kg and 427.5kg respectively for the 93kg junior class. For the British championships best and worst was 722.5kg and 555kg respectively. Looking at it long term I’ve another 4 and a bit years as a junior so I could definitely do half decent in a few years.
Like you’ve said its the prep that’s important and just considering doing a competition has had me thinking what could I do to get stronger that I aren’t doing already.
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Tuesday 22/11/16 C2W4D1
I’ve got a really busy week this week and since it’s a deload week I figured I’d be okay going to the gym just twice and doing two lifts each time. Did deadlift and bench today and it was still quicker than a normal workout.
Front squat 20x5, 27.5x5, 35x5
Deadlift 40x5, 50x5, 60x5 did a set of 5 reps of rows with 40kg and 50kg too
Bench 25x5, 32.5x5, 40x5
Incline bench 20x5, 30x5, 30x5
Inverted rows BWx5x3
I’m pretty sure this is the lightest workout ever logged on T-Nation. It was incredibly boring and very tempting to hit a heavy single or something.
Like I mentioned before I’m wanting to make a bigger effort with my conditioning and mobility/stretching. Today I did a 2 minute warm up on the exercise bike then 3 rounds of 30s high intensity (rpm>100) followed by 60s low intensity. It felt pretty good and was easy to add on to the end of my day, I don’t know why I haven’t been doing it before. Afterwards I just held some stretches for my lower body for a while, mainly ones to help my kickboxing. I felt really good afterwards.
Me and my dad are doing a 5km fun run at the start of December so I might go for a few little runs before then just to get in the swing of things and hopefully after I can stick to one half decent run a week. I also need to be more consistent with my martial arts classes which include both conditioning and mobility work. I’m missing nearly as many as I go to due to work or other commitments so my goal is to go at least once a week. On top of that I’m gonna do similar to today on the exercise bike once a week followed by some deep stretching. Final thing is aiming to do agile 8 or similar three times a week. I feel like all that is easily attainable if I stop being lazy.
From my experience with high pulls, the weight is what brings the soreness. The potent eccentric “catching” of the weight (especially when its heavy) after the pull is where the growth comes from.
That would definitely explain it then. I’ve heard a similar thing before with high rack pulls just because you’re simply holding so much weight.
This. I was pissed that no one good showed up to try to beat me in my age group last Saturday.
Also I agree with everything you said about competing. If you don’t hit your goals in a competition then it lights even bigger of a fire to come back and kill it. I remember not even being able to break a deadlift off the floor (I normally have sticking points above the shins so that really got at me) in my July meet, then I came back to hit it again and deadlifted it like it was an empty bar.
3 Likes
Just stumbled upon your training log, can’t wait to follow you and see your progress. Nice to see someone of a similar age here on T-Nation.
Thanks a lot! I’ve been following your log for a while for the same reason. I’ve found it motivating to see someone the same age but a lot stronger, the way you train is different to most too so I find that interesting.
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That’s… Interesting haha! I’ve always considered myself rather weak among lifters to be honest, considering I know quite a few freaks out there but I’ll take that as a compliment.
Thursday 24/11/16 C2W4D2
Close grip bench 22.5x5, 30x5, 32.5x5
Squat 30x5, 40x5, 50x5
Press 20x5, 20x5, 25x5
SLDL 30x5, 40x5, 50x5
Another boring deload workout but I’ve had a fairly stressful week anyway so I don’t mind.
Starting my 3rd cycle next week I’m going to incorporate joker sets if I feel particularly good. I’d like to work up to an easy single for each lift at some point in the cycle just to see how I’m comparing to my goals.
Train maxes for cycle 3:
Deadlift 100kg, front squat 60kg
Bench 67.5kg, incline bench 55kg
Squat 90kg, SLDL 80kg
Press 42.5kg, close grip bench 60kg
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So for my 3rd cycle I’m going to swap SST with 5s pro on my assistance lifts. I like the look of the 13 week BBB challenge in beyond 5/3/1 so I think I’ll go for that afterwards although I may do a few cycles of something else before.
2 Likes
Monday 28/11/16 C3W1D1
Front squat 20x5, 30x5, 40x5, 45x5, 50x5
I liked going a bit heavier for my assistance, it was quite difficult for the first time. I’m correct using the normal 5/3/1 percentages aren’t I?
Curls and pull-downs, got a pump waiting for deadlift platform.
Deadlift 40x5, 65x5, 75x5, 85x10 (PR)
I pushed myself a lot here mentally. Deadlifts are so hard for reps but I’m learning I just have to keep going and I can do a lot more.
At what point does a normal deadlift set become a rest pause set too? I always feel like if I reset for longer than a couple of seconds between reps it’s too long.
Ab wheel 5x3
Just as hard and horrible as last time.
Also did a 40kg hang clean because someone left the bar on the floor of the squat rack which felt kind of cool. Question is, how do you catch it without destroying your shoulders? Do I just need to toughen up or am I doing it wrong? Surely people can’t be slamming 100+kg into their shoulders.
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I don’t know. I definitely have a second or two between reps just to get air and brace, and I don’t consider that rest pause.
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Tuesday 29/11/16 C1W1D2
Bench press 20x15, 30x5, 42.5x5, 50x5, 47.5x20 (PR), 70x3 (PR), 80x0
I went to the gym with two of my friends today and we were all benching. It was a great atmosphere and I felt really good too, we all set big PRs. After my main work I went for a triple with 70kg, the last rep was a bit slow but I wouldn’t call it a grind. After that I was done but both my friends went for 1RMs so I let my ego take over and tried 80kg. I knew it was a massive jump and usually would have gone to 72.5kg or 75kg but we were all pushing each other so I just went all or nothing. It came off my chest but it was just like hitting a wall about half way up.
Incline bench press 40x5, 45x5, 50x5
One of my friends is a really good boxer and the gym has a big room with a few bags and stuff in so we all went in there after. I did a bit of skipping and worked on my martial arts which was really fun. Normally I’d do back work after benching but it was too good of an opportunity to miss and I can make it up with band pull aparts at home.
Overall it was probably the most fun I’ve had at the gym yet.
Edit: I realised this morning after thinking about it that I had actually misloaded the bar despite me checking which is why I got 20 reps. A bit annoying because I’ve never done a PR set with 57.5kg before but I still technically set a PR so it’s not the end of the world.
2 Likes
Thursday 1/12/16 C1W1D3
Squat 20x10, 20x10, 40x5, 57.5x5, 67.5x5, 77.5x8 (PR), 85x5 (PR)
Ab wheel 5x3
SLDL 50x5, 60x5, 70x5
I feel a little sluggish and tired today and have done quite a bit recently despite sleeping at least 8 hours most nights. Looking at possible reasons the only one I can think of is nutrition and thinking about it it’s fairly obvious.
It seems like I’ve been eating a decent amount because my meals are fairly large but I only have 2 most days and then lots of rubbish in between. Usually I have a breakfast bar on my way out, a subway or something similar for lunch, a shake if I go to the gym and then meat, veg and pasta/rice in the evening; not exactly eating to get strong. Realistically I’m probably only eating about 2000 calories a day, maybe 2500 if you include the junk food. It’s been a bit of an eye opener and it’s frustrating to think I could easily be doing better than I am.
For the next couple of weeks at least I’m going to track most of my calories and at least add them to the log on workout days until I get a decent routine down. If anything I’m just going to eat as much good food as possible and see how it effects me. I’m aiming for at least 3 big meals. I’ve also ordered some ZMA because I’ve seen a few people mention it helping with sleep and for £10 I thought it’d be worth it if it’s helps recovery.
If any of you more knowledgeable guys have any comments or advice please chime in, I’m in a bit of a slump about this.
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Congrats on the prs man
Also,maybe you should look at your water intake if you feel tired
Luckily one thing I’ve always been good at is drinking water, I get 4-6 litres most days.
Thanks for the suggestion though mate.
Friday 2/12/16 C3W1D4
Press with 2 chins between sets 20x10x2, 27.5x5, 32.5x5, 35x7
Didn’t feel too bad today but I struggled a lot with my top set, I wanted 11 for a PR. I made the mistake of pausing at the bottom after my 6th rep and the 7th just killed me off. Could be all the benching on Monday.
Snatch grip high pulls 30x5, 40x5x3
These still feel weird and I’m not sure about them. I might give them some practice over Christmas and just save them until after.
Close grip bench 20x10, 40x5, 45x5, 50x5
Cable rows 30x10x5
Lat pull down 40x10x5
Tracked all my calories yesterday and without the extra stuff I started eating I only got about 1700 from half decent sources which is even worse than I thought. I suspect the only reason I haven’t lost weight is because of the extra junk I’ve been eating.
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Here’s a cautionary tale for you haha. In a few more sessions or weeks, assuming you keep this up of course, the chins will start to feel damn near effortless. Don’t. I repeat don’t, jump straight to 3 chins between every set. Take your time with it and maybe do some 3s and some 2s, moderating yourself.
Earlier on in my training, I did that and I got a rather mild case of inflamed elbows (I don’t want to call it tendonitis cause it wasn’t that serious). That was over the course of 4/5 weeks. To be fair, I started with 2 pull ups between every single set of my exercises and by the end of the 4th week. I was at 7 pull ups after every set(including warm ups) totalling roughly 150-ish pull ups every session and maybe slightly over 700 total in that week.
Take it slow and build up your tolerance and work capacity over time. Being strong is cool, being destruction proof is cooler.
Thanks for the tip. I’m currently only doing them between my press sets so only around 10 per week, 700 sounds pretty crazy. I can usually do at least 3 (first two are easy, 3rd is slightly difficult) so I figured I’d stick with two for now.
Next week I might do them between my squat sets and stick with 2 then maybe throw a few 3s in when I press and work up like you suggest.
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If you think thats crazy, have a look at this. To be fair, I’ve a slightly skewed perception of what is normal. That being said, I ain’t ashamed of that, it’s a good thing. You know you’re heading in the right direction when your defintion of doing badly is someone else’s definition of good.
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