Despade: Journey to Strong(ish?)

3/19/19

Weight: 213.6

Squat
2 x 10 x 45
2 x 5 x 135
5 x 225
5 x 275
3 x 315
8 x 345 (ties all time reps)
5 x 5 x 275

SLDL
5 x 135
5 x 10 x 225

Leg Extensions
4 x 10 x 100

Banded GM
4 x 12 x Green

Seated Calves
2 x 10 x 100
2 x 15 x 75
1 x 20 x 50

Aaaaaand done. Between general exhaustion and the run last night (only a mile, I’m a giant puss when it comes to cardio :joy:) I was genuinely worried about today’s lift, but came in and tied my rep record for 345 from October, so, while not genuinely happy with the lift, I am content with it. The 5 x 5 felt the best it has compared to the last 2 weeks, which was nice.

Weight: I feel dehydrated, and definitely packing some inflammation/swelling from the run, criminy I can feel it all over. I did order some decent Brooks to run in for the rest of the spring and summer, plan on getting some hills in pushing the twins in their jogging stroller, ha.

Edit: Appetite has spiked like a son of a gun the last few days, luckily I have many, many pounds of elk burger and steaks, and it is now officially grilling season.

5 Likes

3/20/19

Weight: 213.2

Arms/GPP

5-8 sets of various biceps superset with triceps.

Treadmill:
20 minutes x 2.7mph x 10% Incline x BW

Slept pretty well, almost decided to do an actual lift since I’m feeling more like a human, ha, decided the wiser course would be to leave it be, recover, eat, get another (hopefully) good night’s sleep and have a solid shoulder workout tomorrow.

Disclaimer: What follows is probably brought on by sleep deprivation, a lack of water, and an overabundance of confidence, but I’m actually looking forward to doing more cardio gasp and being ‘in shape’ for summer. I’m making this a note, simply to see how quickly I go from, “I wanna be in shape.” to “To hell with this! Power belly or bust!” haha

Home Gym Win: PowerBlock 5-50s arrived yesterday, love the design, just had a 0-90 adjustable bench (mediocre quality) fall into my lap for free (some upholstery issues), and have a line on some used gym flooring that should cover my home gym space, also for free…Now to talk the wife into a set of squat stands, a barbell, and some plates :joy:

7 Likes

My daughter used to love sitting on my back while I did push-ups, did that up until she was in high school.

3 Likes

I did Trusters with my boys :slight_smile:
EDIT: would love a pair of powerblocks man, they are awesome, we have them at my work.
I’m trying to get a squat stand with safeties home, but the wife say’s they are ugly.

1 Like

3/21/19

Weight: 212.8

Shoulders

OHP
5 x 135
3 x 155
8 x 165

Superset:
OHP
5 x 5 x 135
Rear Delt Row/Raise Hybrid
5 x 15 x 25

Seated Plate Raise
4 x 10 x 45

Lateral Raise
4 x 12 x 25 + orange band

Front Raise
2 x 12 x 25

Standing DB OHP
4 x 10 x 50

Pretty average day, felt like I had a little too much bounce on a couple reps at 165, but…whatever, it was strict(ish), ha. Feel like water consumption has been pretty good all week, so hopefully no cramps leading into deadlifts tomorrow.

3 Likes

3/22/19

Weight: 213.6

Deads
5 x 275
5 x 315
15 x 345
5 x 5 x 275 + purple band

BB Row
4 x 5 x 225

Banded Row
4 x 20 x Purple Bands

Superset:
DB High Pull
1 x 10 x 55
DB Shrug
1 x 12 x 55

Pull Ups
1 x 6

Had a great pulling day, right up until I had like a 35 minute interruption, ha. The main work was solid and fantastic, pulling form is coming back nicely and weight doesn’t feel heavy, like, at all, probably had another 2-3 at 345 in me if I really wanted it, but I felt good at 15. The 275 with bands was rough…rougher than expected, ha, but I enjoyed it.

3 Likes

last couple sessions were strong keep it going!!!

3/23/19

Home Workout
Arms, Shoulders, Chest, Hamstrings, Long Walk

3/25/19

Weight: 214.6 (oof)

Bench
5 x 135
5 x 185
5 x 205
5 x 235
3 x 5 x 255
1 x 8 x 225

Low Incline DB Bench
5 x 10 x 75

Dips
2 x 8 x +50
2 x 12 x BW

Triceps
6-8 sets x 12-20 reps x Bands and DBs

Christ Almighty, everything felt great up until that 3rd set, spotter had to wave the bar up for me on the 5th rep, so I dropped it to 225 and got some quality reps in. Pretty disappointed. Accessory work was ok, shortened a bit, but whatever, that’s not the meat of it anyway.

Weight is just awful haha fkn hell I’m just absolutely sabotaging myself and I can’t seem to stop just bein’ an asshole, ha.

1 Like

3/25/19

Mental Notes:

Weights feel heavy, body feels soft, mind feels weak.

3/26/19

Weight: 211.4

Squats
2 x 5 x 135 (blech)
5 x 225 (oof)
5 x 245 (ouch)
5 x 280 (sonofa…)
8 x 320 (…)
5 x 5 x 245

DB RDL
3 x 10 x 100s

Belt Squat Experiment
2 x 8 x 100

Leg Extension
4 x 12-15 x 100

Band GM
3 x 15 x Purple

Standing Calves
5 sets x 12-20 x 45-135

:face_with_raised_eyebrow:
One of those days, just came in and punched the clock, whatever. Squats feel out of the groove at the moment, may finish this out through the 7th week and then find either my SSB or FS max and do that for 2 full cycles, simply to change it up and hit the squat in a slightly different variation, I can feel my wrists and elbows starting to flare up a bit again, and either of those would probably cure what ails me after 2-3 months of not back squatting.

Conscious effort to not eat like a gremlin yesterday, feel better.

3 Likes

Hella squat volume there D.

Tell me more. :face_with_monocle:

Volume doesn’t count unless you’re actually strong :joy:

I took the weighted dip/chin belt, hung a 100 pounder from it, stepped up onto two aerobic steps to give myself some clearance and went at 'er. I need a slightly longer chain, as it was a bit uncomfortable, but not gonna lie, it lit my quads up, having a different center of gravity for the weight would be my best guess.

2 Likes

Well, I sure wouldn’t look forward to 8 reps at 320lbs or 5x5 at 245lbs…

Nice, I’ve been seeing belt squats gaining in popularity (or at least I’ve started noticing them more) so I’ve been thinking of giving them a go at some point.

Yeah, I think they’ve been around for a bit, but I’ve just started noticing them as well, mostly because I’ve started following a lot of Westside guys on social media in the past 6 months or so (Wenning, Harvey, etc.). I figure I’m going to try and replace all my leg press sets with belt squats…just a better movement all around :man_shrugging:

1 Like

3/27/19

Weight: 211.6

Cardio

Treadmill
35 minutes x 10% incline x 2.7mph x +25lbs

Stretching

Didn’t feel like touching weights today, so I didn’t. Will be traveling and lifting in a different gym tomorrow and Friday, I either show out on those days or absolutely shit the bed.
:joy:

Read @T3hPwnisher review of the Deep Water Program by Jon Anderson, proceeded to read a good chunk of the ebook, and I gotta say, that shit looks brutal, and it has piqued my interest. A good portion of me wants to see if I have the crackers to handle it (apparently I’m still a bit competitive, ha) thinking it’s about time to get out of my comfort zone (which is 5/3/1 through and through, at this point.)

Hell yeah man; do it! That program changes you in a LOT of ways.

3 Likes

I think there is a strong possibility I may be jumping onto that ship…or into the water (ha, haaaa, I’ll show myself out) here soon, reading it is getting me all fired up, and I’m not really a ‘hype’ guy haha

2 Likes

3/28/19

Weight: 210.2

Shoulders
OHP
5 x 135
5 x 150
9 x 165

Super Set
OHP
4 x 5 x 135
1 x 22 x 135
DB high pull
5 x 12 x 50

Rear delt raise
3 x 20 x 20

Lateral raise
4 x 15 x 20

Seated DB OHP high incline
3 x 25, 20, 15 x 45

Triceps 5 sets

A pretty good day. Wanted to push it so I did it on the last set, turned into a push press, but I went til I felt like my shoulders were no longer really ‘working’ and I was simply catching it overhead. I liked it.

Weight is good. Felt tight and full today.

3 Likes