Doug's Long Yet Distinguished Log

8/5: What was first planned as HIIT and then steady state cardio turned into walking to Denny’s while I got the oil changed in my car. Lesson: sometimes life gets in the way. (oh yeah, and get the Philly Melt when you go to Denny’s. It’s delish.)

8/6: Click Click Boom!

After a nice ART session on my neck and back, and my first ever can of Spike Shotgun, I was ready to go.

A1. Close Grip Incline Presses: 9 singles- 205,215,225,225,225,215,215,205,205
A2. Miniband Pullaparts: 5x20

The ol’ butt still came up a couple times, but overall the lifts were good.

B1. Close Grip Decline Presses: 195x8,8,7,185x7
B2. T-Bar Rows: 125x8x4sets

I was pretty much done after that last set of declines.

C1. Hammer Curls: 30x12,9,7
C2. Wall Slides: 3x12

I’m a little bummed I couldn’t eek out the same number of curls as last week, but with a deload coming up next week that number should go up.

10 minutes incline treadmill.

[quote]Doug Adams wrote:
A1. Close Grip Incline Presses: 9 singles- 205,215,225,225,225,215,215,205,205

B1. Close Grip Decline Presses: 195x8,8,7,185x7
[/quote]

Nice pressing strength :open_mouth:

How much longer left in the program?

[quote]Flow wrote:
Doug Adams wrote:
A1. Close Grip Incline Presses: 9 singles- 205,215,225,225,225,215,215,205,205

B1. Close Grip Decline Presses: 195x8,8,7,185x7

Nice pressing strength :open_mouth:

How much longer left in the program?[/quote]

Thanks!

Next week is a deload, with next Saturday as a test day for the Squat, Bench, Dead, Broad Jump, and 3 rep weighted chinup. I’m debating whether or not to bother with the test, possibly do a couple low volume days instead.

After that I think I may play around with my sandbag and prowler, doing full body stuff for a week or two. Then I’ll get back to the heavy lifting, using cluster sets and potentation sets (ex. 3x3, followed by 2x5) for the main lifts. I’m thinking do one month of clusters, then one month the other thing, and keep switching back and forth. Maybe a little reactive work too, since I’m so bad at it.

[quote]Doug Adams wrote:
Flow wrote:
Doug Adams wrote:
A1. Close Grip Incline Presses: 9 singles- 205,215,225,225,225,215,215,205,205

B1. Close Grip Decline Presses: 195x8,8,7,185x7

Nice pressing strength :open_mouth:

How much longer left in the program?

Thanks!

Next week is a deload, with next Saturday as a test day for the Squat, Bench, Dead, Broad Jump, and 3 rep weighted chinup. I’m debating whether or not to bother with the test, possibly do a couple low volume days instead.

After that I think I may play around with my sandbag and prowler, doing full body stuff for a week or two. Then I’ll get back to the heavy lifting, using cluster sets and potentation sets (ex. 3x3, followed by 2x5) for the main lifts. I’m thinking do one month of clusters, then one month the other thing, and keep switching back and forth. Maybe a little reactive work too, since I’m so bad at it.

[/quote]

You have a good mind for this stuff. Taking the short break and maintaining general conditioning will do your joints well.

I think I figured out what I’m going to do when this phase wraps up next week. I’ve talked about doing some full body work and then doing reactive work later on, but why not do them both for 3 weeks? This way, there’s still some CNS-stimulating work, but without the weight. Here’s what I got:

Day1

A1. Lateral 1 leg hops: 4x8
A2. Forward Hops: 4x6
B. Sandbag/BB Front Squat: 5x5,4x5,5x5
C1. Swiss Ball Leg Curls: 3x10
C2. Side Bridges w/ Leg Elevated: 3x30sec/side
D1. Close Grip Pushups/Blast Strap Pushups: 5x10
D2. Miniband Pullaparts: 5x20

Day2

A1. In Place Lateral Line Hops: 3x10/side
A2. Heidens: 4x6
B1. DB/Sandbag Clean and Press: 4x6,3x6,5x6
B2. DB/Sandbag Rows: 4x7,3x7,4x8
C. Hammer Curls: 3x10
D1. Trainer Captain of Crush: 3xwhatever
D2. Mountain Climers or Prowler: 6xwhatever, or 8-10 trips

Day3

A1. Crossover 15-yard starts: 8/side
A2. Vertical Jumps: 10x1
B. DB Walking Lunges: 3x7+1x10, 2x7+1x10, 4x7+1x10
C. DB/Sandbag Suitcase Deadlifts: 3x10
D1. Blast Strap/BB Fat Man Rows: 4x10
D2 Seated External Rotations: 3x8

The lifts labeled as “DB/Sandbag” are designated that way so I can do these sessions either at home or the gym. I figured spending a little time outside instead of being cooped up in the gym will do me some good.

On off days I’ll do some light cardio and maybe some more shoulder prehab stuff. Of course, after a couple days I may blow this up and start over. We shall see.

08/08: Runnin’ On Empty

Not so much me runnin’ on empty, but my car. I had to take a massive detour to find a gas station, which cost even more time than normal to get to the gym. Doug was not happy, but this turned out to be a good thing.

A1. Box Squats: 12x2 @ 205
A2. Miniband Pullaparts: 5x20

I played around with my setup for lifting the bar out of the rack and it seemed to help a lot with my stability. That plus some good ol’ aggression made the squats easier than I expected. I was still winded a bit though.

B. Natty GHRs: 4x5
Still suck at these. In the coming months I may do these and regular leg curls (ZOMG! so unfunctional!!11!) to help add some beef, or pork I guess, to the hammies.

C. DB Forward Lunges: 35sx6/side, 40sx6,6,6
Of all things, my grip was giving out on the last couple sets of these. Yes, my grip is really that bad. :frowning:

D1. Pistoles: BWx6,5, BW Squatsx20
D2. Bar Rollouts: 8,6, Pallof Presses: 60x8

By the time these came around, I didn’t have anything left. So instead of trying to eek out another crappy set with the prescribed movements, I did some decent sets with movements I know I could still do. The Pallof Presses were a total b.

Screw cardio.

08/09: Feelin’ Swole Yo

A1. Speed Bench Presses: 10x3 @ 155
A2. Miniband Pullaparts: 5x20

Trying to play around with foot placement to get better leg drive. The gym I go to only has benches for midgets so that’s making this a pain in the a.

B1. Close Grip Floor Presses: 205x5,5,5,4 185x7,7
B2. Chins: BWx5,5,5,5

3 more reps at the same weights as week 1. Scrumdiddlyumptious!

C1. One Arm DB Row: 85x10,10,10
C2. Close Grip Pushups w/ Feet Elevated: 10,10,10

10 minutes incline cardio whilst watching “National Treasure”. I like the first one better than the sequel because the sequel was just the same old story.

Now I need to convince myself to lay off the Spike Shotguns during the deload week next week. This isn’t going to be easy, since this stuff is the real life “Red Balls”.

8/11: Speedy Gonzalez

A. BB Reverse Lunges: 80x8/side,8
B. Pallof Presses: 70x8/side,8
C. Miniband Pullaparts: 5x20

10 minutes incline treadmill

Yep, that’s it for today. I’m going to do the upperbody workout tomorrow and take off until Friday or Saturday and test some if not all my lifts (squat,bench,dead,etc).

Oh, and my abstinence from Spike Shotguns lasted a whole 1 day. I fail. :frowning:

Are they really that good? You’re making me curious man lol.

[quote]IronAbrams wrote:
Are they really that good? You’re making me curious man lol.[/quote]

They are crack. I’m not even kidding man. You get twice as much delicious drink as a Shooter, but the buzz is kind of smoother. It feels more like only my brain and CNS are switched on, instead of the Shooter where my temperature goes up too. I think it’s the fact there’s no yohimbine HCL in the Shotgun.

The 7-11 around the corner from me has Shooters in stock so if I ever need a super-duper charge I’ll get one from there. Otherwise, only the Shotguns will be locked and loaded in my fridge. lol…

Note to Biotest

Spike Shotguns in 'Quila Lime. STAT!

8/12: Eh

A. Close Grip Decline Presses: 205x8,6

I know I had the strength to do more, but for some reason my upper back wouldn’t cooperate and I kept getting loose. Stupid back.

B. Cable Rows: 120x10, 130x10
The T-Bar thingamajig was occupied so I just cranked out sets of these instead. It came with a nice view of an attractive lady doing cable hip extensions, so I didn’t mind.

C. Hammer Curls: 30x12,11,8

12 minutes incline treadmill

And yeah, that’s about it.

8/15: Why Have One When You Can Have Two At Twice The Price?

Extra long warmup and soft tissue work

30 minutes on the treadmill.

I finally decided that since I’m doing this whole deload week thing, I’ll go ahead and test my lifts tomorrow. Today was meant to keep the blood flowing a bit, nothing else.

Oh yeah, and I went and picked up this fancy new 11-T stuff from the store. It’s new and shiny, so I had to get it. Hahaha!

Are you following a set program for the deload, or just staying out of the gym aside from GPP, mobility work, and the maxes?

Think maxing will affect the deload much?

[quote]Flow wrote:
Are you following a set program for the deload, or just staying out of the gym aside from GPP, mobility work, and the maxes?

Think maxing will affect the deload much?[/quote]

This is per the Maximum Strength program, where the tests come at the end of the deload week. I’ll do the test tomorrow morning, and then do TBT for a couple weeks starting next week.

This is my third day in a row of no lifting and I’m getting a little antsy, so I think this low week has served its purpose.

Good luck on Moving Day, I’m due for the same in two weeks.

8/16: Wha Ha Happen Was…

I’m tired, I’m dragging, and while I’m not happy with how today went, I know where I need to improve. Here be the results for those with ADHD:

Broad Jump: 88 inches, a 6 inch PR
Box Squat: 305, no improvement
Bench: 255, a 10 pound PR from 2 months ago
Deadlift: 365, no improvement
3 Rep Chins: BW+40lbs which is around 260ish and a PR, but I’m not sure how much.

Here’s an explanation of what I did and excuses why the numbers suck.

The magic number on the scale this morning was 217 pounds, which is about 3-5 pounds less than when I started this 4 months ago. After a nice light breakfast of 6 eggs, homemade home fries, english muffin w/ natty pb and a banana, I warmed up and did the broad jump test at home.

I went out in the backyard and layed my tape measure in the grass, still damp with morning dew. I imagine you can see where this is going. I take a couple warmup jumps and then go for my first attempt.

80 inches. Eh, not that great, but no big deal. I try again.

78 inches. What the hell? I’m not supposed to be going backwards! Next try.

75 inches, and one leg goes sliding forward causing me to almost do a split. Fuck this, time to change the venue. I go out front and lay the tape out on the front sidewalk.

88 inches. A 6 inch PR. That’s better.

I head off to the gym and call on the power of a 'Quila Lime Spike Shooter to help get me through the testing. First up was the box squat, which I really hate doing. I’m not sure why I hate it, but it may be because even though I set the safety pins in the rack, I still worry that I’ll get stapled with the weight. Anyway, I warmed up with barx10, 135xsomething, 185xa couple, 225x2, 2somethingxwhatever, then up to 285x1, and 305x1, my old PR. The 305 just didn’t feel right and I barely made it down to the bench (which FYI IS parallel for me). I wound up chickening out and did another at 305. In a way this is ok considering I haven’t squatted “heavy” in the longest time.

One thing I was happy about was that I felt no forearm pain at all during the squats. Looks like my problem was I’d stand too upright and all the weight would be on my hands. Leaning forward a tad seems to have cured it. Now the only problem is my left knee started bugging me again. Yep, fix one thing and something else breaks. Gotta love this lifting weight stuff. On to benching.

I ramped up by using barx10, 135x5ish, 175xa few, 205x1, and 235x1. Then I ask the fella benching next to me for a spot with 255. I explicitly tell him “I’m going for 1. I will tell you if I need help.” I unrack the weight, lower the bar, and while it’s slowly but surely coming up, I see a hand grab the bar. I wasn’t happy, but didn’t want to make a big deal so I just said “thanks”. He did help a little, but I know I had it so I’m counting it as a PR. If anyone objects, I simply say “blow me”. On to deadlifting.

I like deadlifts way more than squatting. They don’t bother my knee and there’s no fear of getting stapled. If I know I can’t get the weight, I drop it. No biggie. I started with 225x2, 275x1, 315x1, and 365x1, my old PR. I was feelin’ froggy so I went for 385. It went up a couple inches and stopped dead, so I let it go. I figure this can’t be too bad since I haven’t pulled heavy that much in a year except for the past two weeks.

Then we go to the chins, which were pretty much an afterthought at this point. I did BW+30x3 which was pretty easy, so then I did BW+40x3 and called it a day.

Yes the numbers blow. You know it, I know it, the american people know it. But from last August until about April this year I was admittedly training like a wuss, justifying it by thinking I was correcting imbalances. So really this 4 months got me back to where I was, albeit with cleaner form and some improvement.

So now for a week or two I’m going to do TBT with moderate weights, and then you know what, I’m starting all over again with this program with adjustments for me, such as:

  1. More knee flexion stuff and RDLs/Straight Leg Deads. My hamstrings are weak as hell and really holding me back.

  2. More Suitcase Deadlifts, as these blasted my abs and energy systems more than any other lift.

  3. Little less single leg work. This time could be better suited for extra reps for the above movements.

  4. More intensity. Yeah this should be first but I’m just now thinking of it, ok? More often than not I suffer from paralysis from analysis and question how my form is while I’m lifting. Whenever I buckle down and get aggressive, many of those form problems seem to go away. Maybe I should hire someone to follow me around with a cattle prod or something?

  5. More weight. This goes along with more intensity. If I want to set PRs with the big lifts, I have to train more with heavier weights in those movements.

Ok, I think that ran on a little longer than I wanted so I’ll wrap this up. So Iron, Flow, and whoever else is reading remember this:

Be aggressive. B E Aggressive!

[quote]Doug Adams wrote:
8/16: Wha Ha Happen Was…

I’m tired, I’m dragging, and while I’m not happy with how today went, I know where I need to improve. Here be the results for those with ADHD:

Broad Jump: 88 inches, a 6 inch PR
Box Squat: 305, no improvement
Bench: 255, a 10 pound PR from 2 months ago
Deadlift: 365, no improvement
3 Rep Chins: BW+40lbs which is around 260ish and a PR, but I’m not sure how much.

Here’s an explanation of what I did and excuses why the numbers suck.

The magic number on the scale this morning was 217 pounds, which is about 3-5 pounds less than when I started this 4 months ago. After a nice light breakfast of 6 eggs, homemade home fries, english muffin w/ natty pb and a banana, I warmed up and did the broad jump test at home.

I went out in the backyard and layed my tape measure in the grass, still damp with morning dew. I imagine you can see where this is going. I take a couple warmup jumps and then go for my first attempt.

80 inches. Eh, not that great, but no big deal. I try again.

78 inches. What the hell? I’m not supposed to be going backwards! Next try.

75 inches, and one leg goes sliding forward causing me to almost do a split. Fuck this, time to change the venue. I go out front and lay the tape out on the front sidewalk.

88 inches. A 6 inch PR. That’s better.

I head off to the gym and call on the power of a 'Quila Lime Spike Shooter to help get me through the testing. First up was the box squat, which I really hate doing. I’m not sure why I hate it, but it may be because even though I set the safety pins in the rack, I still worry that I’ll get stapled with the weight. Anyway, I warmed up with barx10, 135xsomething, 185xa couple, 225x2, 2somethingxwhatever, then up to 285x1, and 305x1, my old PR. The 305 just didn’t feel right and I barely made it down to the bench (which FYI IS parallel for me). I wound up chickening out and did another at 305. In a way this is ok considering I haven’t squatted “heavy” in the longest time.

One thing I was happy about was that I felt no forearm pain at all during the squats. Looks like my problem was I’d stand too upright and all the weight would be on my hands. Leaning forward a tad seems to have cured it. Now the only problem is my left knee started bugging me again. Yep, fix one thing and something else breaks. Gotta love this lifting weight stuff. On to benching.

I ramped up by using barx10, 135x5ish, 175xa few, 205x1, and 235x1. Then I ask the fella benching next to me for a spot with 255. I explicitly tell him “I’m going for 1. I will tell you if I need help.” I unrack the weight, lower the bar, and while it’s slowly but surely coming up, I see a hand grab the bar. I wasn’t happy, but didn’t want to make a big deal so I just said “thanks”. He did help a little, but I know I had it so I’m counting it as a PR. If anyone objects, I simply say “blow me”. On to deadlifting.

I like deadlifts way more than squatting. They don’t bother my knee and there’s no fear of getting stapled. If I know I can’t get the weight, I drop it. No biggie. I started with 225x2, 275x1, 315x1, and 365x1, my old PR. I was feelin’ froggy so I went for 385. It went up a couple inches and stopped dead, so I let it go. I figure this can’t be too bad since I haven’t pulled heavy that much in a year except for the past two weeks.

Then we go to the chins, which were pretty much an afterthought at this point. I did BW+30x3 which was pretty easy, so then I did BW+40x3 and called it a day.

Yes the numbers blow. You know it, I know it, the american people know it. But from last August until about April this year I was admittedly training like a wuss, justifying it by thinking I was correcting imbalances. So really this 4 months got me back to where I was, albeit with cleaner form and some improvement.

So now for a week or two I’m going to do TBT with moderate weights, and then you know what, I’m starting all over again with this program with adjustments for me, such as:

  1. More knee flexion stuff and RDLs/Straight Leg Deads. My hamstrings are weak as hell and really holding me back.

  2. More Suitcase Deadlifts, as these blasted my abs and energy systems more than any other lift.

  3. Little less single leg work. This time could be better suited for extra reps for the above movements.

  4. More intensity. Yeah this should be first but I’m just now thinking of it, ok? More often than not I suffer from paralysis from analysis and question how my form is while I’m lifting. Whenever I buckle down and get aggressive, many of those form problems seem to go away. Maybe I should hire someone to follow me around with a cattle prod or something?

  5. More weight. This goes along with more intensity. If I want to set PRs with the big lifts, I have to train more with heavier weights in those movements.

Ok, I think that ran on a little longer than I wanted so I’ll wrap this up. So Iron, Flow, and whoever else is reading remember this:

Be aggressive. B E Aggressive!

[/quote]

Man, I think fixing imbalances is just about the hardest thing to do in training. . . I feel like a bitch when I bench press with less weight just to do it correctly, and I feel like even more of a bitch since I haven’t squatted in a good 6-7 weeks. . .

The thing is, fixing imbalances just takes time, and I think that time pays back dividends down the road when injuries are avoided. You should take the intangible benefits of ironed out imbalances and improved technique at face value. 6 inches on standing long jump isn’t something to scoff at, either.

Does Maximum Strength provide good training guidelines that can be applied to general programming, or is it mostly a set program that you adjust individual exercises to?

[quote]Flow wrote:
Man, I think fixing imbalances is just about the hardest thing to do in training. . . I feel like a bitch when I bench press with less weight just to do it correctly, and I feel like even more of a bitch since I haven’t squatted in a good 6-7 weeks. . .

The thing is, fixing imbalances just takes time, and I think that time pays back dividends down the road when injuries are avoided. You should take the intangible benefits of ironed out imbalances and improved technique at face value. 6 inches on standing long jump isn’t something to scoff at, either.

Does Maximum Strength provide good training guidelines that can be applied to general programming, or is it mostly a set program that you adjust individual exercises to?[/quote]

Thanks for the kind words.

The Maximum Strength book/program does provide guidelines on what you should focus on once you complete it. What I’m going to do is go through the program again, but this time make adjustments based on weaknesses that I have and how I’ve progressed.

For example, in the 1st phase I’m scrapping a couple of the static bodyweight ab movements in favor for a weighted version, since I’ve progressed past the point where the bodyweight version will provide much more benefit. I may also adjust the set/rep schemes to work in heavier weight ranges.

08/18: Zigged Instead of Zagged

What was first planned as a cardio day turned into a TBT day, then turned into starting the Max Strength program all over again, with substitutions. The whole reason for my initial venture into TBT was because I never did it before and thought it may be interesting to try something different. Then this afternoon I thought to myself “hey, you know what’s going to work and it isn’t this silly program you’re trying to do for a grand total of two weeks. Stop dicking around and get to it!” So I did.

A. Box Squats on Below Parallel Box: 185x4,205x5,5,5,4
Not as heavy as I wanted to go, but my form was decent and I felt them right in the hips like I wanted to.

B. Straight-ish Leg Deadlifts: 135x7x4 sets
Yeah I need to work on these some more. I may go up in weight next week, but not by a whole lot.

C. DB Walking Lunges: 45sx5/sidex3 sets
I originally planned to do about 8 reps/side with 30s or 35s. When I happened by the DB rack, those two choices of DBs were nowhere to be found because it’s National Bench and Curl Day and the frat boys gotta get their pump on! The closest I could find was either 20s (GAY!) or 45s. Boy, these were a crusher.

D1. Leg Curls w/ Slow Eccentric: 45x8,7,5
D2. Side Planks w/ Leg Elevated: 20sec/side x 3 sets

ZOMG, an unfunctional movement. I can see Cressey’s ears burning now, hahaha! There are no rules in my bastardized version of this program. It’s Thunderdome!

10 minutes hobbling (in a good way) on the incline treadmill.

This was the lovely parting gift I got for doing Self Instrument Massage on my biceps. The right one is bruised up too, but not this bad. That junction between the bicep and delt felt like going over gravel when I worked on it. It definitely wasn’t pleasant, but I’m glad I did it because the fronts of my shoulders have been feeling tight.

In other news-

This is the first time I’ve felt DOMS in awhile, so methinks I’m onto something.