Clockin' A Grip

Training Logs
201

"I was always told, “your pecs are just weak.” Well, I managed to strengthen my pecs with loads of dumbbell work, but near max weight with a barbell, it was always a gamble if they hold up to the strain. I got tired of benching 500, getting hurt, falling back to 460, then building back up only to reinjure my pec. This cycle repeated itself until I looked back. I took notice of benchers in the 70’s and 80’s(Specifically Doug Young), and I noticed many had huge triceps and fairly narrow grips, with the forearms being at a 90 degree angle at the chest.

I learned how to stop benching with just pec muscles, and I actually began to lower the bar with my lats, and fire out of the bottom with my triceps, and finish at the top with pecs, shoulders and some triceps.
-Brandon Lilly

10-8

Get loose. Iso-Pulldown machine, triceps. Fat Man chins. Zombie Front Squats with bar.

Press, Paired with 3 Chins
Many small jumps from bar x5 to 140x5
110x5
100x5
90x5

Seated Dumbbell Press
More Iso Pulldowns
JM Press with 95
Repeat 3 times.

Presses felt good today. Chins felt good, no elbow pain and they helped get tight for pressing. I did some Iso Pulldowns, to warm up for fat man chins to warm up for chin ups. I felt like I was really standing and pressing the barbell straight. Maybe it was the chins. Maybe it was actual squatting(with 95 pounds) yesterday.

2 Likes
202

What is this, the house of relevant bench press quotes?

203

I read fast, so that’s like “1 thought rep.”
I type slow on this tablet, so that’s like 5 “thought reps.”

This “block” of training is over in 2 weeks, so I’m thinking about what comes next. There is so little info out there for/from 6 foot, super jacked guys, I need to focus on it.

Stuff Like;

Feet close together, but toes turned out to get close to the bar!

2 Likes
204

10-10

Early Extra
Pull Aparts with mini band x30
Mini Band Pushdowns x100
Mini Band Curls x40
X2

Gym

Get ready. Zombie Front Squats

Plate Loaded Deadlift, plus Red Band
A few up, with some shrugs
80x5
100x5
115x5
90x5x5

Shrug in Machine Set Up
Hyper Dead
Lunge in Place
3 times, worked in with back offs

Grip
Pinch, 55 x5 x5 sets
2 finger DL 135 x5 x5 sets

Worked some reverse Hypers and more Zombie Front squats in there.

205

-A better body, plus the same technique means bigger lifts. Pick exercises that build a better body.

-You must learn to recruit lagging muscles better.

-If you have bad structure for a lift, your body will learn to compensate. Using performance lifts to correct structure is too neurologically demanding.

-Too much volume depletes glycogen, releasing cortisol and consuming the building blocks of test.
-Loosely based on what CT said.

  • How can you raise volume if you are limited by the amount of barbell lifts you can do? SPECIAL EXERCISES.

-If you know where your sticking point is in the bench, you’re benching too much!
Louie

“We didn’t have a process to develop anything.” -Max Aita on the draw back off Bulgarian style training.

2560×1600 902 KB

Russian graph showing its more important to be super big strong fast and explosive than it is to be skilled.

206

Feeling smug now because I think deep down that’s what I’ve always felt.

Loving your log right now.

207

I’m glad to hear that, and I hope you find some of this stuff useful. I get a lot out of watching your lifts.

1 Like
208

-If the athlete repeitively performs the same sport exercise, with the aim of executing it at the highest power output, his motor control system always uses the same engram. The kinesthetic sensations of the needed magnitude of force efforts and speed of movements are fixed in the brain and become an archetype. Because of this archetype, the athlete encounters great difficulty in changing the biodynamic structure of the exercise when he repetitively strives to increase his power output. In addition, the same training stimuli, repeated consecutively, provokes a sensorial adaptation and a desensibilizaion(decrease in the sensibility) of the nervous system to these stimuli, ceasing to produce the same training effect.

If the athlete executes the exercise with the same goal(maximal power output) but in different external conditions, the kinesthetic feedback adapts the motor structure to these conditions and the new motor engram remains in the brain…

…This may allow performing the exercise in the normal conditions with a higher force effort or with a higher speed. In addition, the execution of the same exercise in different conditions causes a decrease in the level of sensorial adaptation to the same consecutively acting external stimuli.
-Yuri Verkoshanky

If lifting a barbell is war, the central nervous system is the general that directs that attack: accelerating the bar as quickly as possible with maximum force.
-Josh Bryant

By continuing to do the same thing over and over, you give the General bad intelligence?!

209

Wednesday

Get Loose

Incline Dumbbell Bench Press, paired with Iso Rows
Some For a Few, Working Up

Close Grip Bench Press paired with Fat Man Chins
Pause at chest and press fast. Stop pulling with arms, and “raise chest” last 2 inches into bar. Whatever felt “fast” and however many I could stay “tight” for.

Kettlebell Tricep Extensions/Rope Pushdowns
Dumbbell Rear Delts/Dumbbell Curls

-Just liftin’ weights. Fun “workout.”

Friday

Get Ready

Zombie Front Squats paired with Carolina Zercher Shrug.
Again and again.

Rack Pull, with Fat Gripz.
Up to 330x1, which is a grip PR, unless my records are off.

Inverse Curls/Step Ups
Reverse Hypers/Sit Ups on ball with band around knees.

Anxiety free lifting! Went up to 95 pounds on those front squats Rack Pull was from below knees, and at 1 point I inadvertently deadlifted 185 from the floor. So that’s good.

My woman is hitting a wall with her squat, so that’s bad.

Awhile back, her bench was going no-where. So we built her up with assistance work, and now her bench is rolling.

I couldn’t squat down or bend over, so I did a bunch of assistance. Now I feel like I can start training my squat and deadlift again.

We’ll just teach eachother what we learned. So that’s good.

2 Likes
210

10-17. Shoulders!

Hip circles, arm circles, blah

Abs on Ball, with band
Back Raises or hyperextension
“Shrugs, down” on the pull down cable
Dumbbell Rear Delts
4 times each

Iso Pull down Machine
Half kneeling kettlebell bottom up press
3 times each

Seated Dumbbell Press
3 sets with pause at top and bottom
3 sets with “movement intention”

Paired with 3 chinups between sets. I’m only going like half way down on chins now. That’s what feels like the opposite of a press. Bad-Ass Rebel!

JM Press with Swiss Bar
Face Pulls on Highest Cable
3 sets each

Clean and Press
Some smooth singles with 115. Zombie squats with empty bar in between.

1 Like
211

Old bear pic from July. You can see how awful my brocoli looks.

2 Likes
212

A flock of Turkey hens, and my dog chasing them.

2 Likes
213

2322×4128 4.83 MB

Where I usually think about lifting.

1 Like
214

Looks like lots of organic protein to me !

215

When I lived in MN we used to have one that would rip the clothes off the line. Guess he didn’t like our brand if fabric softener…lol

216

Free range protein! Even more hipster than organic.

10-19

Ankles, hip hikes, Peterson Step Ups, Hip circles. More junk like that, but I’ve been starting at the ankles and finishing with neck circles, instead of going top down. Felt good.

Step Ups
45 Degree Back Raises(short band around knees)
Shrugs on Plate loaded Lever machine(short band around knees)
3 times each

Plate Loaded Lever Deadlift (no bands today)
1.5 plates x 8. 3 sets, Working the machine to the lowest handle position.
Then sets of 8 working up.
4 plates per side x22

Leg Extension/Hyper-Deadlift
4 paired sets

Leg Raise off Bench/Dumbbell Shrugs
4 paired sets

Grip
2 finger partial DL :145x5x5
Plate Pinches, from 10" Box: 55x5x5

Great workout

2 Likes
217

Oh my! What ever was I thinking?

218

10-21

Get loose

Fat man Chins/Dumbbell Flies
3 sets
Fat man Chins/Delt Raises
3 sets
Fat man Chins/Dumbbell Tate Press
3 sets

Decline Bench Press/Chest Supported Iso Rows, done standing
A bunch of mediocre sets

Dumbbell Incline Bench/Seated Dumbbell Shrugs
3 each

Barbell Curl with Fat Gripz/Tricep Extension
3 sets each

Feeling those muscles!

G.f. benched 135x5 then 105x5x5. She says her butt came up a little at the end of the 135 set, but I’m still gonna count it. On the back off sets, we moved her feet out in front of her knees, and turned her toes out a little. Then we worked on getting set a little “lower” on the bench, so there was space to drive “up” the bench, instead of up in the air. By the end she was pressing through the heels nicely and getting big leg drive.

Practice is making her bench perfect.

1 Like
219

10-24

I raked leaves and cut some wood yesterday, right side is tight.

Hip Stretch, like “rocking” into it
Half Kneeling Palloff
Band Bad Girls on Box
Step Ups
Hamstring Curl
45 Degree Back Raise
3 times

Zombie Front Squat with Empty Barbell paired with Carolina Zercher Shrugs.

Plate Loaded Squat Machine
8’s working up to 270x8

Zombie Front Squat and band thru belt junk between sets.

Quads!

2 Likes
220

10-26

Shoulders

Abs on Ball, long band around knees, then anchored in front.
Downward “scap shrugs” on Iso Pulldown
Half Kneeling Bottom Up Kettlebell Press

Dumbbell Scarecrow
Side Delt Dumbbell Raise

Seated Dumbbell Press
40x9, 3 set
Paired with Iso Rows

Standing Press
85x2, 12 sets
Paired with chins, then a half kneeling pull down/ row motion with band.

Grip:
Plate Loaded Crush Machine, with Red Band 100x2.

Lots of bullshit in there today. But a couple great things to keep.

Sit Ups on the stability ball, with a band around the knees, anchored in front. This is kind of like holding the top position of a Glute bridge or Glute thrust, while you also hold the top position of a hip abduction or “bad girl.” While doing some Sit Ups. Then you just sit up, lean a little forward, and do some bad girls anyway. Activate glutes, stretch hip flexors and psoas, level out pelvis and work Abs.

Half kneeling 45 degree pull down/row. I looped a band over the chin up bar on the power rack. Then got in the half kneel like 4 feet in front of the rack and did a row/pull down motion, 1 armed, against the band. Switched arms, then legs. Again, use glutes, stretch hip flexors, hit obliques, level pelvis.

I think a couple moves like this will allow me to combine a lot of junk together and still get better results. Just gotta be a little creative.

Grip Conjugate.

I’m making progress, even though I keep messing up the plan. Sometimes I get lazy, forget to check my Max records, and attempt weights that are too heavy. Sometimes I get rushed and skip grip all together. I’ve been doing very little “general grip volume” for like 6 weeks.

1 Like