Gukl Training Journal

Chest day…can’t compare to my last workout as log post disappeare…but was much better.

Bench Press
-85kg x 3
-90kg x 1
-50kg 8 x 3 (speed work)
-75kg x 8

Incline Db bench press
-65lbs 3 x 8

Dips
-20kg 3 x 8
-bw 20, 5 seconds rest and 6 more for total of 50 reps

Machine Flyes
-no 11 2 x 10
-no 6 2 x 15

Cable work - each exercise was 2 arm first set, 1 arm second set
-Lying 2 x 15
-Low 2 x 15
-High 2 x 15

DB bench press (with twist/neutral grip)
-45lbs 2 x 15 (chest was spasming out after all the cable/fly work…twitching like crazy)

Db pullover
-65lbs 1 x 10…didnt feel good so did no more…too much lats after back day yesterday

Today, was legs day. Walk into the gym…and the squat rack…is covered in a sheet…because they’re installing new windows and the squat rack happens to be next to the window. so we decided not to train legs, but shoulders and arms. legs tomorrow. however, once i started with shoulders, i decided it was no good after training chest yesterday, and decided to train just arms instead. So now the programs looking like

CHEST-ARMS-LEGS-SHOULDERS-BACK and back to normal…slight modification. anyhow…today…

Skull crusher
-37.5kg 3 x 8
-30kg 1 x 12

BB Bi curl
-40kg 3 x 8

DB tri ext
-65lbs 10, 10, 12 (move upto 70lbs next time)

DB hammers
-35lbs 3 x 10

Straight bar tri pushdown
-60lbs 3 x 12

Incline Bi curl
-25lbs 3 x 12

Rope tri pushdown
-30lbs 2 x 15
-20lbs 1 x 20

Preacher curl db
-20lbs 2 x 15
-15lbs 1 x 20

Reverse tri pushdown
-30lbs 2 x 15
-15lbs (1arm) x 20

Reverse curl
15kg 2 x 12
10kg 1 x 20

Lots of volume, lots of different exercises, but not so intense at all…meh

Finished with

Cable wood choppers
-30lbs 1 x 12
-35kg 2 x 12

So legs…

Started warming up squats…hip played up again tho…gonna see physio

Also interfered with single leg stuff, lunges, bss etc…so went to leg press

leg press
-2 plates x 15
-3 plates x 15
-4 plates x 10
-5 plates x 10
-6 plates x 8
-7 plates x 5 hip started hurting…everything just felt wrong so gave up…not just the usual impinging anterior hip pain but the whole joint/pelvis area just felt terrible, and left lateral hip was also feeling seriously weird like it was gonna pop out at anytime without notice

SO Super pissed off that i came to legs day and couldn’t do anything intense i decided to play with some single leg deficit squats (small dips) for 100s of reps (like you’d do to target vmo) and these made everything feel a little more stable… then

Leg Ext/Leg curl superset
10x10
-first 5 sets 52.5kg leg ext, 30kg leg curl
-last 5 sets 45kg leg ext, 25kg leg curl

Then, ‘LIGHTBULB’ realised i could do barbell hack squats without pain so went and did
-60kg x 10
-80kg x 8
-100kg x 8
-120kg x 8

These felt really nice on quads, even thought technique was weird at first, got into the groove and enjoyed these…

Then finished off with

Calves 5 x 20

45 Deg hyper 5 x 20 (crazy low back pump)

Best moment of training session was a 22stone monster of a man with 23’ arms walking upto my training partner who was crouched over a bench after a hard set, and saying ‘dont bother praying, god cant help you’ LOL.

Shoulders…trained late today (8pm) so was fasted tilll about 5pm…partly because i was busy, then ate a protein/fat meal…now eating carbs + protein post training!

Training wise, everything felt kind of heavy…however work sets went up fine…set a push press pr…and a machine press pr but then flopped baaaaaaaaadly

BB OHP
-warmups
-55kg 3 x 3 (meh)

Push Press
-60kg x 3
-65kg x 1
-70kg x 1
-75kg x 1
-80kg x 1 (pr)
-70kg x 5 (When repping, i end up losing my balance, having to reset while holding the bar on my shoulders…sucks…and i bring the bar down way too fast and smash my clavicles sometime…help?!)

Arnold Press (decided to ramp…however didnt go to plan) supersetted w/ machine press

so arnolds
-35lbs x 10 (easy)
-40lbs x 6 (soooooo drained from machine…just died)
-40lbs x 9 (took more rest…still disappointed though)

and machines
-165lbs x 8 (pr)
-150lbs x 6/7 can’t remember
-150lbs, 120lbs, 75lbs, 45lbs…just dropped until i got to twenty reps…my shoulders just…died…felt like i couldnt even lift my arms above my head.

Then… onto lateral/front/rear delt raises…took under10 mins just went through them…

25lbs x 10
-20lbs x 12
-12lb x 15 (while sitting/lying so went more controlled)

finished w/ 6 ways 2.5kgs x 5 lol then gym shut.

Summary - decent push presses, went to hell on assistance shoulders burnt out, ohp felt heavy.

Booked in with a really awesome physio on friday so REALLY hoping he can fix my hips up and get me squatting nice

Back.

Speed Deadlifts
-140kg 8 x 3 (still feel slow as hell off the floor…my hip wasnt feeling great either)

Snatch Grip Deads
-120kg x 3
-130kg x 3
-140kg x 3

Deficit dead (4inch ish?)
-120kg x 3

Reeves Deadlift
-120kg x 3

All fairly light…

Pull ups
-bw 5 x 5 dead hangs

Chin ups
-bw 5 x 5 all dead hang

Db/kroc Row
-70lbs x 10
-85lbs x 8
-100lbs x 10 (sucky)

Lat Pull downs
-150lbs 2 x 8 (heavy)
-105 lbs 2 x 12 (focus on squeeze)
-1 arm -45lbs x 15, 30lbs x 15

Straight arm pulldowns
-60lbs 3 x 12

Seated Cable Row
-45kg 2 x 12
-30kg x 20 (slow and really squeezing at end of each rep)

cable crunch
-150lbs x 10 (ran out of time)

Chest

Bench
-warmups up to
-90kg x 3 (PR)
-95kg was a fail tho…sucky…
-80kg x 7
-60kg x 5 (3 second pause on chest)

Tecnique is feeling muuuch better after watching some dave tate videos on bench press technique…!

DB Inc
-70lbs x 6, 5
-55lbs x 15

Dips
-bw x 10
-20kg 3 x 8
-bw x 18

Cable fly work
-2 arm high xo 15kg 2 x 15
-1 arm high 10kg x 15
-2 arm low 10kg 2 x 15
-1 arm low 5kg x 15

Machine flyes
-no 5 x 15
-no7 x 15
-no9 x 15

Push up drop set
-decline x 20
-flat x 20
-incline x 20

Ok so today was legs. As i’ve mentioned before, had problems with my hip when squatting, anterior pain in the hip flexor region…i thought maybe anterior femoral glide syndrome, anyway saw my physio this week, and he did some soft tissue work, some hip distraction, and looked at my squat technique…and he agreed there was some kind of impingement going on, but nothing to affect anything other than squatting, so he thought maybe psoas bursitis or the more capsular stuff such as anterior femoral glide…

Turns out when i squat, i’ve been WAAAAy over emphasising a strong arch in my low back/sitting right back into the squat, which is basically putting me in anterior pelvic tilt before i even break at the knees, which is then leading to me leaning forward, having nowhere to go at the bottom of my squat other than to crush all the structures in my hip (the pain!), and i think this also ruins my hip drive from the bottom of the squat.

SO, to remedy this problem i’ve been doing
-defrancos limber 11 (the new agile 8 for those that haven’t seen, check it out!)
-glute activation (supine bridges 1/2 leg, bird dogs, lying prone leg raises w/ bent leg, clams w/ and w/out band, mini step walks w/ band ETC ETC)
-Squats with the band wrapped around my legs, forcing me to really concentrate on pushing the knees out and activating my glutes in the squat
-changed up my squat form, higher bar position, letting myself go down much more naturally, rather than overly forcing the sit back, etc.
-also used ibuprofen etc to try bring any inflammation down, still some so going to use for another day or two and get some ice in there to help any inflammation that still about

THEN came today, leg day…so i did lots of warm up, hip mobility, glute activation, body weight squats, some with the band around knees…and for the first time in forever, i put and empty bar on my back, went into a full squat, and had minimal to no pain, i think any pain tightness was due to existing inflammation/tight hip flexors so hopefully next time this should go. I haven’t been stretching the hip flexors much, as to not irritate the joint capsule further, but when the inflammation is down it’s something i’ll incoroporate. and obviously continue w/ the glute activation stuff.

So the session went

Squat
-tons of warm up stuff/bodyweight
-empty bar 3 x 5
-40kg 2 x 5
-60g 1 x 3

Stopped here, as i didn’t want any more inflammation in the hip, hopefully next session i’m going to get a coach to work on my form with me (Trained a world champion powerlifter, so hopefully can get a session in with him at my new gym when i go back to university)

Goblet Squats
-45lbs 3 x 10 (no pain!)

Step Up focusing on glute squeeze as much as possible50
-bw x 8
-45lb dumbells x 8
-70lb dumbells x 8

Reverse Lunge from small box (first time doing these, HARD!!! Maybe even more brutal than BSS ?!)
-bw x 8
-50lb dumbells 3 x 8

Leg Press
-6 plates, 10, 10, 15 (I planned to do a drop set on the last one however i got that horrible neck/back of head tight pain that kind of scares me so called it a day, did some next stretches/massage and it went away…i would like to make sure it is a MUSCULAR issue though, and not something to do with blood pressure…as its quite worrying)

Cable Pull throughs (Squeezing glutes HAAAAAAAAAARD as possible)
-50lbs x 15
-65lbs x 15
-80lbs x 15

Leg Ext/Curl superset
-60kg leg ext 3 x 10
-40kg leg curl 3 x 10

then supersetted
-Calf raise 180lbs 3 x 12
-45 deg hyper bw 3 x 20
-kneeling cable crunch 150lbs 3 x 10

DONE!

Was kind of an easy session, obviously not going heavy on squats, and volume fairy low too…hoping I’m not too sore as in 2 days on back day I want to go for a deadlift PR of either 180kg for reps or 200+kg 1rm…still undecided.

shoulders

OHP
-50kg x 5, 5, 9(.5)

Machine ohp
-150lbs 3 x 10 (Easy)

Arnold Press
-40lbs 3 x 10 (easy)

1 arm OHP
-30lbs 2 x 15

Lateral/Front/Rear raise
-25lbs x 10
-20lbs x 12
-15lbs x 30

This was morning session, willl be doing arms later

Did triceps yesterday evening,

Triangle Tri Pushdown
-couple of light sets then worked up the stack to around 180lbs i think

Oh db tri ext
-60 x 10
-65 x 10
-70 x 10

CGBP
-60kg 2 x 8 (too much chest)

Rope pushdown
-like 5 sets normal grip
-2 x reverse grip bar
-2 x single arm

forgot all the weights, doh!

Just got back from the gym…

220KG DEADLIFT PR. NO STRAPS.

20KG ON MY PREVIOUS, AT 20LBS LIGHTER BW. (2.65X BW).

That is all, I’m not even going to bother loggin the rest of that back session, other than

Deadlift - 180kg x 7 (rep PR) however my form went to shit and my low back is a bit spasmed up, but shall heal.
then just did a ton of horizontal/vertical pulling volume and left.

Confession - Deadlifts at this gym I do off a rubber mat under the plates, as the owner already tells me off for slamming my deadlifts, so not FULL ROM, but had converse on too not barefoot/slippers so not too much.

Today…NEW gym…tried out for first time…its preeeeeeeeeeeeeetty well equipped, 4 squat racks, 4 flat bench press, 4 oly lifting platforms, some nice bars…trx straps…battle ropes…sandbags…every machine you can think of…LOVE IT. bit of a lack of plates tho…hopefully they get more

Although, the atmosphere is weak as fuck. Spoke to one of the PT there, he likes to be called a coach, not a PT which is a good start, and also coached a world champion powerlifter, so looking to work with him for a few sessions!

Trained chest, bit of a deload day

BP
80kg 8 x 3

INC db bench
-28kg x 10
-30kg x 2 x 6

Dips
-15, 12, 10 (bw )

Machine fly
-3 x 12

then played about on some of the stuff at the gym

Squats MEH hip pain w/ empty bar

Reverse lunge from box
-bw x 10
-50lb dbs x 3 x 10

Leg Press
-2 plates x 20
-3 plates x 15
-4 plates x 10
-5 plates x 8
-6 plates x 6
-5 plates x 8
-4 plates x 10
-3 plates x 15
-2 plates x 50

Gotbored^^

Hack squat
-120kg 3 x 8

Leg ext/leg curl
-3 x 10 Each

Pull throughs
-80lbs 3 x 15

hanging leg raise
-5 x 10

Video just been uploaded from a few days ago

180kg x 7 for reps (off mats)

Can see form fall off towards the end

No training today, morning weight was 183.4lbs though.

Moving into new house at uni, no gym membership till I sign up to new gym when my loan comes in! gonna buy a bunch of supps, meat and oly lifting shoes when it does

Ok this week has been a deload, had only 1 upper and 1 lowerbody session. So the next 6-12months I’m going to run Jim Wendlers 5/3/1. At the moment I can’t squat due to a hip injury, going to work with a coach to try get around this and start squatting as soon as possible, until then, I’ll be substituting bulgarian split squats as I’ve used these with success in the past. I DONT plan to use deloads, at least not yet/every 4 weeks. Maybe every 8-12 weeks. Sunday will be OHP day, Monday will be deadlift day, Wednesday will be Bench press day, Thursday will be Squat day.

Conditioning will be Basketball 2 x per week, lots of walking around (to uni/the gym etc), a HIIT rower/bike session on bench day, and a jump rope session on a ohp day.

Also going to implement some plyometrics, mainly depth drops/jumps and simple movement efficiency stuff because I want to FLY again.

For assistance I’ll be using a template jim outlined in tnation article:

Day 1: Shoulders and Biceps
Standing Military Press ? 5/3/1

DB Military Press ? 4 x12

Side Laterals/Rear Laterals ? 4 x12

Barbell Curls ? 4 x12

Preacher Curls ? 4 x10

Day 2: Back
Deadlift ? 5/3/1

Bent Over Rows ? 4 x12 (Will prob use DB row or seated cable row)

Chin ups ? 4 x10 (or do Lat Pulldowns)

Good Mornings ? 4 x10

Hanging Leg Raises ? 4 x12

Day 3: Chest and Triceps
Bench Press ? 5/3/1

Weighted Dips ? 4 x10

DB Flyes ? 4 x12

Triceps Pushdowns ? 5 x 20

Push ups ? 4 sets to failure

Day 4: Legs and Abs
Squat ? 5/3/1

Leg Press ? 5 x 15

Leg Curls ? 5 x 15

Leg Extensions ? 4 x12

Ab Wheel ? 4 x12

Bench Press (Based off 90kg x 3 RM)

            Week 1 Week 2  Week 3  Week 4 (deload)

Set 1 56kg x 5 61kg x 3 65kg x 5 34kg x 5
Set 2 65kg x 5 69kg x 3 74kg x 3 43kg x 5
Set 3 74kg x 5+78kg x 3+82kg x 1+52kg x 5

Deadlift (Based off 220kg, minus 10kg to compensate for mats/no mats now)
Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 (deload)
Set 1 122kg x 5 132kg x 3 141kg x 5 75kg x 5
Set 2 141kg x 5 151kg x 3 160kg x 3 94kg x 5
Set 3 160kg x 5+ 170kg x 3+ 179kg x 1+ 113kg x 5

Overhead press (based off 55kg x 3 1rm)
Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 (deload)
Set 1 34kg x 5 37kg x 3 39kg x 5 21kg x 5
Set 2 39kg x 5 42kg x 3 45kg x 3 26kg x 5
Set 3 45kg x 5+ 47kg x 3+ 50kg x 1+ 31kg x 5

Squat - No idea, will be substituting Bulgarian Split Squats 3 x 6, 3 x 8, 3 x 10; until I sort out my injury problem/get some coaching in the squat.

OH Diet. will look something like

Fast till pre workout/3pm, depending on when i train. On days i train late, will eat meal 1 pre workout minus the carbs.

Pre Workout - 10g BCAA
Post Workout - 40g whey, 50g Dextrose, 5-10g creatine.

Meal 1 - 1 whole egg + ~200ml egg whites w/ rice/potoates/glutenfree bread/pasta
Meal 2 - 2 large chicken breasts + rice/potatoes ETC. Maybe some PB for some fat.
Meal 3 - 25g casein shake.

If turns out to not be enough calories (Weak in gym/lose muscle) I’ll up the calories probably add bacon to meal 1. I’m not really bothered about scale weight going up, I just want my lifts to go up, while maintaining my current leanness. Supps - whey, casein, fish oil (6g a day), multivitamin, vit d3 (2500iu a day), creatine (5-10g a day).

Shoulders/BIs

BB OHP
-35kg x 5
-40kg x 5
-45kg x 8 (WEAK. Prob to do with how much i drank last night.)

DB Seated OHP
-16kg x 10
-20kg 3 x 10
-16kg x 10 (1 ARM)

Lateral Raises
-8kg 4 x 12

BB Curl
-35kg x 10
-30kg 3 x 10

Incline DB Curl
-10kg x 12
-7kg 3 x 12

Was very week, and a bit hungover…not all with it…just had a whole week of drinking STUPID amounts as we’ve all just gone back to uni. Hopefully a good night’s sleep and some food has me performing better soon.

186.6lbs

Had like, 2-3 hours sleep…stayed up to watch breaking bad (started 2am uk time!)…then…THE MOTH…i have phobia of moths…and there was a fucking huge one in my room…and i lost it…so i had a mega adrenaline rush that kept me up all night…sucks…had to sleep with a sheet over my head because i was scared it was gonna fuck me up in my sleep…lol…yeah i have a vagina. Anyhoo

Deadlift

-120kg x 5
-140kg x 5
-160kg x 6 (FUCKN WEAK. I GOT 180 for 7 2 weeks ago!!)

Chin up/pull up
-6x5 dead hangs (i suddenly suck at pull ups atm too…fuuaark)

DB Row
-40kg 3 x 10

Good Morning
-40kg 2 x 10 (didn’t feel nice)

Seated cable row
-45kg 2 x 15

Face Pulls
-10kg 3 x 20

Hanging leg raise
-4x10
Modify message

Bench Press Day

Bench press

-65kg x 5
70kg x 5
-75kg x 5 (stopped as didn’t have spotter and wrists were sore, could have had more)

DB Inc bench
-24kg x 10
-26kg x 10
-28kg x 10
30kg x 12 (happy with this, strong than usual)

BW Dips
-20, 15, 15 (dunno why but these are harder at this gym, diff handles/wider grip? i dunno)

Machine fly
-45kg 3 x 12
-35kg x 12

Tri Pushdowns
-5x20 (forget weights but had to drop.

WAS SUPPOSED TO BE SEEING A COACH TO HELP ME WITH MY SQUAT TODAY BUT HE WAS ILL