IronOne's Strength Journey

Regarding Alpha Male - I gave it a run a few times, but I don’t recall much about the experience, it was a while ago.

I love that they include carbolin in there now. If you like the results you get from Alpha Male, but decide to cycle off, consider Carbolin-19 as a standalone. If it’s recomp magic you seek, I think C-19 is a great choice. One of the better values for your money from Biotest, in my opinion.

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Yeah, I ran a bottle of Carbolin 19 about a year ago during a recomp and thought it was a good value. Got some ‘pop’ from it. Thanks for the info.

7-30-2017 - C4A8

Warmup
Open shoulders, rolling, quick couch, work on rear left delt pain (roll and active release), ankles, hip circle rack squats and Goblet squats

Back Squat
45x2x5, 95x5, 135x5, 165x5, 185x3 205x3, 225x3, 245x8 RPE8, 195x20
-with-
Hand Release Push-ups
5x15

Paused DB Bench
50x5, 75x4x10, 75x9 (redo next cycle)
-with-
Chest Supported Rear Delt Raises, T-Bar Rows, standing Single Arm Cable Rows

Paused Back Ext (+10lbs)
60 reps
-with-
Stir The Pot

Band Pressdowns and Band Curls

Good workout. Have to watch this left shoulder/rear delt thing. It might be the low bar squats causing the pain. Not sure. Will go see my physio guy this week, don’t want it to get out of control. Pain was not terrible by any means, but was annoying enough. Progressed on the squats by 10lbs, and was close to getting the 5x10 on paused DB Bench. However, I was toasted by the 4th set, and took longer rest than I should have, so the performance was probably worse than it looks on paper. The 20 rep squats really gassed me though.

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7/31/2017 - Track Run

Warmup
Leg kicks, quads, 1 lap walk

800M run: 3:02
800M walk
800M Run: 2:55 PR
800M walk

4x100M sprint repeats

Will start tracking my 800M as well, as I progress toward my 1M and 2M goals. Had PT appointment on my shoulder today. Have a few new exercises, but my thoracic ext/rotation continues to be the main culprit. Also going to be working on strengthening my RCs.

Have leaned up some more. Getting closer to the end goal. Probably another month or so.

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8/3/2017 - C4B8 - 190lbs

Warm up
Open shoulder, bear to cobra, tri RC’s

Bench Press
45x2x10, 95x10, 135x5, 165x5, 195x5, 215x3, 230x8 RPE9, 200x13, 175x13
-with-
Chest supported DBs Rows, Chest supported db rear delt flys, pull ups

Warm up
Quick couch stretch, quick quad rollout, wake up posterior, hip circle rack squats and goblet squats

Front Squat
45x2x5, 95x5, 115x5, 135x5, 165x3, 195x2, 215x8 RPE10, 185x11 RPE10
-with-
Dips
BWx8, +25x5x8

RDL
145x5x10
-with-
Abs

Up and down workout. Energy fizzled fast, which I realized why after doing some thinking postworkout: I had zero real carbs all day. Not real bright. Also, been fighting a mild cold. Enough excuses, bench was great. Thought 230 was going to be tough for 8, but to my surprise rep 8 moved very good. Def had 1 more, maybe 2. Then 200 smoked me pretty good, then 175 was a good finisher set. Have made a lot of progress on chest supported db rows, strict 60s are easy for 10s across. Will bump to 65-70. Doing strict rear delt work with flat bench feels fantastic on my shoulders. Front squats is where I fell apart energy wise. Just told myself to get through it. 135 felt like 185+. Anyways, got it done which is what counts.

Have a 4 man 400M race tomorrow. Should be real close too. Will have it recorded! Hoping for 1:05.

Alpha Male update: Not noticing anything major yet. Maybe a tad bit of leaning out effect and libido enhancement. 8 days in.

2 Likes

8/4/2017 - RACE DAY & Misc

Here’s the 400M race. Set a PR of 1:02.50. Very happy with first 3/4, then lost my legs for the last 1/4. My game plan was to get out in front and stay in front, so I executed the game plan I reckon. BUT, lost some ground on the last 1/4. 1:02.5 is a 5 sec PR.

VIDEO BELOW


Misc Work

Warm up
Open shoulders, Tri RCs, couch stretch, will quads, bear to cobra

Giant sets of:
Upside down kneeling single arm kb press
Weighted chinups
Laterals
Single arm shrugs alternating with single arm kb suitcase carry

Arms

Enjoyed this one. Fast pace, lots of reps.

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Nice result! Video didn’t play though.

Yeah, it’s a .mov file. T Nation does not support .MOV. Any idea how to change it to something else? I have it on text msg, but it’s terrible quality.

Trying to figure it out.

File converter program or app?

Here we go:

3 Likes

That is a nice track.

Yeah, it’s a prominent high school in my area. We wanted it to feel official LOL.

Everyone’s going to train and we will schedule another 400M in 3 months.

All the times were within 6 seconds.

The 13 year old boy is very good at long distance, has a sub 6 min 1 mile. He’s only going to get better as he gets stronger. Everyone else is just trying to hang onto what we have lol.

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8/6/2017 - C4A5

Warm up
Bear to cobra, open shoulders, short couch, roll quads, hip circle rack squats and goblet squats

Back Squats
45x2x5, 95x5, 135x5, 165x5, 185x3, 205x2, 225x2, 245x2, 275x5 RPE8, 225x12 RPE8
-with-
Hand Release Pushups
5x16

Paused Flat DB Bench
60x8, 80x5x8 (last set RPE10)
-with-
Chest Supported DB Rear Delt Flys, standing single arm cable rows, one big t-bar strip set

Single Arm KB Swings
10KGx20/20, 14KGx20/20, 50lbs x 3 x 25/25
-with-
Stir the pot & Ab Wheel

Band Pressdowns and Curls

More progress. Narrowed squat stance some bc I was having some right hip discomfort. Problem is, when I narrow my stance I squat too deep. Just have to control it better. 275 did not feel heavy per say, so I’m ready to move to the 300s. Next week’s 3’s will probably be just that, 300x3. All of next week’s main lift back off work will be paused or spoto. The paused db bench was just as difficult as last time around. May need to stay this weight another cycle. 80 hand release pushups are likely negatively affecting the db bench, but I’m keeping them in and am going to force my body to progress with them. The KB swings SMOKE my hams and glutes. Probably better than anything else i do. Huge pump in the booty after. Body feels great, so big win there.

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I found squatting to a box helped a ton with that. I did it for around three months, then removed the box. Felt odd at first, but stopped having over-depth issues.

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Thanks Mark, certainly something to consider.

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8/8/2017 - Track Run

Warm Up
Leg swings, quads, lap walk

2 Mile: 14:50 PR (-.21)
-Mile 1: 7:50
-Mile 2: 7:00

Cooled down with a 3 lap walk and bear to cobra.

Had it today. That was not that difficult either. Really sand bagged that first mile. Trying not to run the day before a weight training but sometimes that just doesn’t work out.

2 Likes

Nice job on the PR!

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8/9/2017 - C4B5 - 189.2lbs

Warm up
Open shoulders, bear to cobra, 3 way RCs

Bench Press
45x2x10, 95x5, 135x5, 175x5, 195x5, 215x3, 235x2, 250x5 RPE9.5, 200x5x5 (spoto)
-with-
Standing single arm cable rows, pull ups and chest support db rear delt flies

Warm up
Leg kicks, Quick couch stretch, quick quad rollout, calf stretch, hip circle rack squats and goblet squats

Front Squat
45x2x5, 95x5, 135x5, 165x5, 195x3, 215x2, 235x5 RPE9, 185x3x5 (tempo, paused)
-with-
Weighted Dip
8, +30x5x8

RDL
135x8, 190x5x8
-with-
Ab wheel and stir the pot

Added 5lbs to bench from last cycle. I view this as a nice gain because I PR’d my two mile run yesterday too. 2 reps from tying 250x7 PR. Front squats went well, (also +5lbs) much faster and controlled vs last months 230x5. Ready for a deload though. After next week’s 3’s, time to deload.

235x5

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Are you wearing the power lifts 3? I was thinking about getting those, but read they have a somewhat soft heel and wasn’t sure.

Yes, they are. I’ve only owned one pair of lifters before these and they were the powerlift 2s, so I don’t have much to compare to. They’ve been good lifters though. I feel locked in with them and have no complaints. Sorry, that probably doesn’t help much.