Daily Deadlifts and Incline Bench

Training Logs
21

Just realised some of my workout makes no sense.

No matter what I will still be doing Deadlifts and Incline Bench Press for the whole year, because program jumping never yields results. However, the additional exercises are just random. In line with the high frequency theory I shall prioritise my weaknesses first (my upper spinal erectors for example), then general muscle strength/ hypertrophy.

I will target my weaknesses 3 times per week per weakness. My current muscle weaknesses are (except everything) :

  • Upper spinal erectors
  • External rotator cuff
  • Rear delts
  • Calves

I will adjust this once I feel like a weakness is no longer a weakness.

For hypertrophy I will do 1 group of muscles each day of the week (basically a standard 1990’s bodybuilding workout, but slightly lower volume) with groups being as follows:

  1. Chest
  2. Quads/ adductors/ calves
  3. Lats/ traps
  4. Abs/ hip flexors/ upper spinal erectors
  5. Delts/ rotator cuff
  6. Hamstrings/ glutes/ lower back
  7. Biceps/ triceps

My adjusted workout
All exercises will be done with 2 to 3 warm ups sets plus 1 set to failure.

Daily

  1. Deadlifts
  2. Incline bench press

Monday, Wednesday, Friday

  1. Upper spinal erector exercise
  2. Calf exercise

Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday

  1. External rotator cuff exercise
  2. Rear delt exercise

Hypertrophy exercises
Monday:

  1. Upper chest exercise
  2. Lower/ middle chest exercise

Tuesday:

  1. Squat variant
  2. Single leg variant
  3. Calf variant

Wednesday:

  1. Pullup/ chinup
  2. Row variant

Thursday:

  1. Ab/ hip flexor exercise
  2. Upper spinal erector exercise

Friday:

  1. Rear delt
  2. Middle delt
  3. Front delt
  4. External rotator cuff

Saturday:

  1. Hamstring exercise
  2. Glute exercise
  3. Lower back exercise

Sunday:

  1. Bicep exercise
  2. Hammer curl exercise
  3. Overhead triceps exercise
  4. Triceps press exercise

For example, tomorrow’s (Tue) workout:
Deadlifts
Incline bench press

Db external rotations
Rear delt flyes

Front squats
Lunges, bw
Standing calf raises

So much for keeping this simple haha. Just need to get the diet sorted

22

How did you come to this conclusion?
Are you sure you don’t just have mobility issues?

24

I don’t believe so. I tend to stretch most muscles everyday and do trigger point work regularly too. I can easily touch the floor with my hands flat.

My upper spinal erectors I believe are weak because whenever I do front squats they are significantly weaker than my back squats, but I dont feel them in my quads. Also, when I hold a bar on my front delts as an isometric exercise for my upper spinal erectors I can’t do it with a lot of weight for very long.

I always get trigger points in my exernal rotator cuffs, so Im just making an assumption that they are weak.

My rear delts appear visually smaller than the rest of my delts, which I’m assuming means they are weaker aswell.

And my calves are tiny.

I know this is not the best approach to assessing weaknesses but I don’t have anything else at my disposal. How would you usually come to a conclusion that something is weak?

25

That could also be just upper back/rhomboid weakness, technique flaw or bad leverages - of course I’m just guessing here

If you’re referring to the front rack position (the front squat grip) that normal. Most people tire out after rep 6 or so when doing front squats. (That’s 20-30 seconds) This is due to the rhomboids’ poor endurance

That could also be accounted to tightness, how is your rotator cuff mobility?
To test it, lie on your side, extend your bottom arm forward (creating a 90° angle between your torso and upper arm) bend your elbow to 90 degrees - so your lower arm is vertical. Then carefully rotate your lower arm. Can your hand touch the ground in both directions rather easily?

Size and strength don’t always go hand in hand but there’s nothing wrong with focusing on those areas because of that. (And you’re most likely right, it’s rare to see people with strong rear delts)

If I suspected someone had, say, weak quads I’d look for reoccurring things I’m their training; are their front squats falling forward all the time and weak compared to their back squats? Is their Deadlift slow off the floor? Do they fold over when they lunge?
Now you have to notice that all of these could also point to glute weakness so we’ll have to see how the individual is doing with movements that are more specific to one or other muscle.

If they guy in this example can hip thrust 600lbs but gets crushed under the hack squat machine without weights, it’s definitely a quad weakness.

As you become more experienced it’ll become easier to detect weaknesses, you don’t really even have to think about it too much

I’m not disregarding your findings here, for all I know they could be correct or they could be false.

26

Thanks for your in depth reply mate

That could also be just upper back/rhomboid weakness, technique flaw or bad leverages - of course I’m just guessing here

Didn’t think that rhomboids would be very active in this position as the scapula in the front rack position is slightly upwardly rotated. Maybe it gets activated because it is in a slight stretch position, like activating the gastrocnemius in the straight legged calf raises?

Either way there is a weakness in the exercise that I might need to target, so may may keep to the front rack position holds exercise

That could also be accounted to tightness, how is your rotator cuff mobility?
To test it, lie on your side, extend your bottom arm forward (creating a 90° angle between your torso and upper arm) bend your elbow to 90 degrees - so your lower arm is vertical. Then carefully rotate your lower arm. Can your hand touch the ground in both directions rather easily?

Is it meant to touch the ground in the internally rotated position aswell? Cause its like 60 degrees off!!

Size and strength don’t always go hand in hand but there’s nothing wrong with focusing on those areas because of that. (And you’re most likely right, it’s rare to see people with strong rear delts)

Thanks, will do.

If I suspected someone had, say, weak quads I’d look for reoccurring things I’m their training; are their front squats falling forward all the time and weak compared to their back squats? Is their Deadlift slow off the floor? Do they fold over when they lunge?
Now you have to notice that all of these could also point to glute weakness so we’ll have to see how the individual is doing with movements that are more specific to one or other muscle.
If they guy in this example can hip thrust 600lbs but gets crushed under the hack squat machine without weights, it’s definitely a quad weakness.
As you become more experienced it’ll become easier to detect weaknesses, you don’t really even have to think about it too much
I’m not disregarding your findings here, for all I know they could be correct or they could be false.

I may test my hip thrust of the floor today to see if there is a glute weakness, so we can eliminate this as an option

1 Like
27

BTW, how do I specifically quote your paragraphs like you do with mine?

1 Like
28

Pretty much so, yeah.

Good call - sometimes you don’t need to know where exactly the weakness is to correct it

Yes, that’s something you should work on. You can use the test position as a stretch by gently pressing your hand down with the other arm for 20-30 seconds, taking a break and then repeating. Also strengthtening the rear delts usually helps in a case like yours. (That could be where your problem stems from)

Test away, if it seems to be unreasonably low I’d suggest adding in flute work with a couple of variations.

I don’t know how to put this in English but if you’re writing on computer just click and drag your cursor over the part of the text that you want to quote (it gets “painted”) and then click the quote icon that appears. The painted portion of the text is now quoted. If this doesn’t work, click reply (on the message you want to reply to) first to open the text box.

If you’re writing on your phone, just click and hold on a word and two blue dots appear. By dragging the dots you can choose the text you want to quote. Again, hitting the quote icon will bring the text into your text box

Hopefully that helped

29

Quick update,

Had a last minute invite to catch up with a mate so I’m pretty drunk right now but I know I can’t skip workouts

Just did some pushups instead of incline bp and deadlifts with just the bb.

Disappointed in myself, but at least I did something today

Will reply to posts tomorrow

30

Workout 13
Didn’t feel like upping my reps anymore for deadlifts and incline BP so instead increased the weight a little. Wasn’t too energetic after drinks last night and a hot day at work today.

Deadlifts= 60kg X 5, 80kg X 5, 105kg X 7
Incline BP= 20kg X 15, 40kg X 8, 62.5kg X 6

Front rack holds= 60kg X 45seconds, 80kg X 30 seconds, 100kg X 25 seconds
Standing Barbell calf raises= 20kg X 10, 40kg X 7, 50kg X 6 (really weak on these- they felt awkward as I hadn’t done any calf raises for about 6 months)

Chinups= 4, 3, 2 (full ROM)
Slight incline seal rows= 16kg X 8, 16kg X 8, 16kg X3 (they felt weird, probably will make quick progress on these)

31

Thanks. I will be doing these regularly

After about 30 seconds it definitely increases the range of motion already so I’ll do this stretch daily!

Would you mind explaining how this works? Just curious

Did some hip thrusts today. Its not that weak but could use a bit of work. Its sitting at about 110kg for its 1RM. I guess its meant to be at around the same weight as the deadlift? I will include these in my 3 times a week rotation once another exercise is no longer a weakness. I might also do some seal rows as I noticed these were weak aswell (weird, because my one arm dumbell rows are around the 45kg mark).

1 Like
32

As you do a lot of incline presses your chest and anterior delts are most likely pretty strong, but as a side effect they are most likely tight as hell too.

Strengthening your rear delta in addition to stretching your delts and chest will improve your posture and help you keep a better shoulder position

Also, just in general it seems like if your “pushing” muscles are disproportionately stronger than your “pulling” muscles they joint they move may get problems. (For example weak hamstrings can cause knee pain)

Yes, maybe even a bit over your deadlift. When you are finished with hip thrusting I’d suggest you start increasing another exercise that strengthtens the glutes, such as the box squat with a full sit or a reverse lunge

Really you can never have too strong glutes

Increasing your seal row could help with your front rack as well, from what it seems they are hitting your weakness quite well

BTW. Seems like you got the quoting thing, nice!

33

Mate, you are the most helpful person on Tnation!!

This is one of the reasons I perform my deadlift with a wide grip (I just realised it is a Snatch grip deadlift). However, it probably doesn’t balance out the pushing adequately like you said.

I tend to stretch the chest area daily because I have very fragile shoulders.

Do you recon I should shop dumbbell external rotations intended for my rotator cuff and do regular hip thrusts instead? I can unfortunately only prioritise so many weaknesses at once

Yeah, I got what you mean when you said it was hard to explain, but I understood it somehow

Btw, I read some of ur post “Natty on Pennies” and saw that you had a somewhat similar approach to training- not too much variety, instead focusing on a few lifts. Will read ur whole Log once I get some more time up my sleeve

1 Like
34

Thanks man, I’m trying to do my best

Yeah, I’d suggest doing some direct work to balance out the pushing

That’s good, keep it up

You can do your external rotations during your warm-ups (of course they’ll need to be light if done that way) one good way to include them would be face pulls as they give you a bit of pulling in addition to the rotation.

Nice!
If you find anything interesting in my log and want to ask about it, go right ahead - even if the post is months old. I’ll be happy to help you

1 Like
35

How’s it going?

36

Thanks mate, I’ll be taking you up on that offer :smiley:

1 Like
37

Good at the moment. Have been busy so haven’t uploaded the workouts online.

Workout 14
Reached the 2 week mark yesterday. And its been a grueling 2 weeks!! Definitely teaches you a lot about yourself. Especially in the first week and a half I felt like the world was a shade darker but I feel a lot better now. I just hope I can continue to feel normal throughout the rest of the year! Making slow and steady progress.

I never phych myself up for any workout anymore otherwise you cop it the next day. I just do it in a relaxed fashion. I guess a daily adrenaline rush isn’t too healthy! But this does mean there is a lot left in the tank after a workout.

Now to the workout:
Snatch grip deadlifts= 60kg X 5, 80kg X 5, 110kg X 7 (up 5kg from last workout)
Incline bench press= 20kg X 15, 40kg X 8, 65kg X 6 (up 2.5kg)

Rear delt flyes= 6kg X10, X8, X7
DB external rotations= 1.25kg X 20, 2.5kg X 15, 5kg X 12 (completed in a stretched position [i.e. like flyes] to increase the length of my external rotators)

Hanging bent leg raises= 6, 6, 2
Safety bar seated goodmornings = 25kg X 5, 35kg X 8, 40kg X 5 (weak upper erectors)

Workout 15
Todays workout felt great:
Snatch grip deadlifts = 60kg X 5, 80kg X 5, 115kg X 7 (up 5kg from yesterday)
Incline bench press = 20kg X 15, 40kg X 8, 75kg X 4 ← (up 10kg from yesterday. Made the mistake of grabbing a 5kg and 2.5kg plate on each side instead of 2.5kg and 1.25kg haha. I thought I was just having a bad day at first when I got to rep 4)

Front rack holds= 60kg X 50 seconds, 80kg X 35 seconds, 120kg X 17 seconds
Standing barbell calf raises= 20kg X 12, 30kg X 10, 40kg X 9 (slow and steady will win the race with these weights I hope!)

Superset: Rear delt flyes = 6kg X 11, 6kg X 5, 6kg X 3
Dumbbell lateral raises= 6kg X 6, 6kg X 4, 6kg X 3
Dumbbell front raises = 6kg X 5, 6kg X 4, 6kg X 3

Making gradual daily PRs. After next workout I’ll stick to 120kg on the deadlift for a while and 75kg on the incline press and aim to increase the reps on both till they reach 10 to 15 reps-ish.

I’ll keep doing this throughout the year. First, linearly increase in weight till I reach around 5 reps per workout. Then I shall increase the reps till I do around 10 to 15 reps on the last set.

Till next time

1 Like
38

Looked back at older posts and finally decided that I would take a day off a week. This will be every Saturday. I’ll still work out for 6 consecutive days a week. The reason for this:

  • Give my shoulders a break. Muscles will always heal but tendons take more time.
  • Get my body’s hormones back on track. I’m feeling down constantly. I recon a day off will make me feel more upbeat.

I believe this may slow my progress down slightly. But 6 days a week is enough.

I’ll dedicate this off day to mobility work, stretching every muscle I can.

1 Like
39

This is your routine, so it’s under your control, but I’d recommend deadliftig three days a week and doing assistance for it those days, and incline benching the other three days with its assistance work, alternating days.

As you said, tendons take longer to heal and you’re feeling down all the time. I think deadlifting three days a week and incline benching three days a week seems more sustainable.

3 Likes
40

You are probably right. I just took 3 days off, 2 because I was tired and 1 because of working late (I can’t workout late in my garage gym). However, I will still try to stick to this for quite a while, just to experiment and because I did commit, so I can’t give up so soon

I noticed that after 3 days of not working out a snatch grip deadlift and incline bench both felt “foreign”. Also, on the 2nd rest day, I felt like my body kinda wanted me to lift heavy stuff.

Just to back up your claims of sustainability, after 2 days off the not quite right feeling in my shoulder went away. So I have decided to take 2 rest days a week, although this will slow down progress. I just cant afford to hurt my shoulders.

1 Like
41

Workout 16
Took off 3 days from my workout. Two cause of fatique and 1 because of work.

My workout:
Snatch grip deadlifts= 60kg X 5, 80kg X 5, 100kg X 1, 120kg X 5 (up 5kg from last workout)
Incline bench press= 20kg X 15, 40kg X 8, 60kg X 1, 80kg X 2 (up 5kg from last time)

It’s kinda funny, last workout I said I felt great, but the next day I felt the exact opposite!! There is no knowing how you will feel with high frequency training.

1 Like