Had a 5km run today and did it in 33 minutes. This was the first time I’ve ran any distance over a few hundred metres since doing 1500m at school, when I was 14, so I’m pretty happy with it. Not the best time by all means but it’ll serve as a marker to improve upon and I know I gave it a lot of effort.
2 Likes
Tuesday 6/12/16 C3W2D1
Deadlift 30x8, 60x3, 70x3, 80x3, 90x3, 100x1, 120x1 (PR), 140x0
I strayed away from the program a bit today. My work sets were feeling good and I knew I was gonna test my deadlift either this week or next so I just hit the required reps on the PR set and went for a 1RM.
120kg was my goal at the beginning of the log so I’m happy about that but I still feel incredibly weak. I saw some guy that used to annoy me from my old gym hit a 140kg deadlift on instagram and it made me think if he can do it why can’t I? I gave it a go but it wouldn’t come off the floor. There seems to be so many people that hardly even train yet they lift more than me and it’s frustrating. I decided my head wasn’t in it properly today and ended the workout there.
3 Likes
First of congrats on your PR!
Secondly you should really try to focus on your own and take one step at a time. You will hit 140 kg in the future, no doubt about that. To think however “this guy can do it, so I should be able to do it” is not the way to get there.
We all think like that at times. One of my best friends, whom I trained with in the past, was able to bench press more than me even though he was a lot smaller than me. His bench exceeded his body weight. He was a lot less muscular than me, his technique seemed to be worse, he didn’t take lifting as serious as I did… I simply wouldn’t get it.
He even reached a 100 kg bench press later when I was at nearly the same strength as him. While working less and weighing about 30 kg less than me.
Now he isn’t able to do 100 kg anymore and I recently did a close grip PR of 100 kg x 8. I am still very weak considering how big I am but I wont stop working on it.
I guess what I am trying to say is: Patience. discipline and hard work will beat talent in the long run and get you where you want to be.
2 Likes
Thanks a lot! I’ll keep on trying and look back to this when I get frustrated.
1 Like
@caesium32 front squats will take care of any discomfort you feel with cleans. For me anyway, my clean form sucks. I can front squat almost double my clean. Being choked out by a heavy front squat makes anything else in that similar position feel comfortable by comparison.
1 Like
You probably shouldn’t take a 20kgs jump after you hit a PR haha.
Well, that’s life ain’t it? Some people, they’re just stronger naturally due to their genetic make up. Other people, they’re born into a easy life with a silver spoon up their ass. The only thing we can do, and I’m sure you know this already, is do things to the best of our abilities with whatever resource we may have.
and I’m the idiot who cleaned 100kgs(paused in the hole too) while barely making a 107.5kgs front squat the previous day.
1 Like
It’s more a case of slamming the bar into my shoulders when I catch it rather than the actual weight. I’ve held 60kg in the rack position and it wasn’t too bad but cleaning the bar is more painful because it slams into me.
I normally wouldn’t take a 20kg jump but I was just fed up and thinking if this other guy can hit 140kg I can too.
I know what you mean. I know I’m gonna have to work hard to get as strong as others were when they first stepped in the gym. I’ve been on the opposite side of it in other parts of life too. Today I just felt extra frustrated by it for some reason, I think it’s just one of those days.
2 Likes
So front rack 120kg, then decide how 60 feels on a clean 
In all seriousness though, to me its a good sign that it hurts a bit. Means you’re not using too much arm and reverse-curling the weight. I’m sure it’ll pass with time.
3 Likes
Wednesday 7/12/16 C3W2D2
Bench press 20x10, 30x8, 40x5, 47.5x3, 55x3, 60x10 (PR)
Cable rows 20x10x3
Hammer strength lat pull-down 70x10x3
Curls and tricep pulldowns
Palof press 10x3
Incline bench press 40x5, 45x5, 50x5
Bench went pretty well but one guy was on the incline press for at least 45 minutes so I ended up doing lots of random assistance stuff in between. Elbows are feeling a little sore, especially with direct arm work it seems.
1 Like
My friend convinced me to go to boxing with him tonight so I thought why not. Turns out it was the advanced class and the coach wanted to shock everyone with shuttle runs.
It was 10 tuck jumps, 10 jumping lunges and 10 pike jumps at the first point, 20 mountain climbers and 10 squat thrusts at the second then 10 squats and press ups at the third. I got through it twice then my legs kept buckling so I missed the next one. I’ve never had my legs ache so much.
After we just did 10 of one different exercise at each point (can’t remember what they were). Did this once then thought I was gonna be sick. Two minutes later we just did normal sprinting shuttle runs, did this once too then I actually was sick. I felt really dizzy afterwards so I came back home.
Fun night.
2 Likes
For a boxing class, it doesn’t sound like there was much boxing.
There wasn’t much. The coach had been progressively building everyone up fitness wise for the last few weeks then it was like a shock fitness session. They did some boxing later on but I left by that point.
Friday 9/12/16 C3W2D3
Squat 20x10, 40x5, 60x3, 70x3, 80x5 with two chins between each set.
Didn’t feel brilliant today. It was one of those days when the bar alone felt heavy so no PR. I was tempted to grind one out halfway through the last set but changed my mind. On the plus side chins feel really easy now, I’m doing them from a complete dead hang.
Lots of curls before and after squatting; machine, dumbbell and cable. I had my first decent bicep pump in a while which is always nice.
Hack squat 50x15x3
I was short on type and the gym was packed so I didn’t get chance to do deadlifts or any direct ab work, I’ll do them at the end of tomorrow’s workout.
1 Like
Saturday 10/12/16 C3W2D4
Press 20x10, 20x10, 30x3, 35x3, 40x6 (PR), 45x0, 42.5x2 with two chins between sets
Kinda disappointed with this, I was hoping to hit 45kg for a triple but it just wouldn’t go past halfway up. I went down to 42.5kg to try and triple that but failed the third rep at the same point. My bar at home must only weigh like 5kg because I pressed it with 35kg of weight on for 5 fairy easily but it’s heavier than my other and that’s supposed to weigh 7kg.
Cable rows 20x10, 30x10x4
SLDL 50x5, 60x5, 70x5
Close grip bench 40x5, 50x5, 55x5
Ab wheel superset with lateral raises BWx5x2/ 6x10x2
1 Like
You should probably weigh the bar.
1 Like
Yeah I will next time I’m home out of curiosity. I very rarely use it so I’ve never bothered before.
Looking at training in the near future again. I think from the end of this cycle until I start uni again in mid January I’m going to run either a 2x2x2 type cycle or just work up to some heavy top sets then do back offs. I’ll probably do more work in 10-20 rep ranges.
I have no idea what my schedule will be like and I would imagine it’ll be very inconsistent how much I use the gym. Part of me wants to use it as a time to experiment and play around with new stuff. I’m thinking of putting more emphasis on conditioning and body weight movements. I also think it’d be nice to just hammer my core for a month and make up for not doing it in the past.
After that I’m now swaying towards 5/3/1 for hard gainers instead of a BBB variation like before. I think it’d be better to get a bit stronger before doing BBB. Looking at things realistically I think it’s gonna be at least a year before I consider competitons. I just won’t be competitive at all otherwise.
1 Like
The opposite is usually true. When you’re stronger the volume is a killer.
That’s the thing, I feel like I’d be cheating almost by doing it at the minute.
What would you do in my position programming wise?