Lil Greggy- Gym Pact 2019

Everything is going well overall. Training ~6 days a week with routine band and mobility work. Able to accumulate quite a bit of volume. Lower back gradually feeling a bit better, and all the main lifts are starting to come around.

Added weighted pull-ups in this week. Used to do them quite a bit when I was at my peak strength way back. Also began cluster sets; will see how those impact progress after a few weeks.

Bodyweight is sticking at around 170, which I’m fine with as long as strength doesn’t stall.

Decided I’m going to focus on my squat for now, hit it 3x a week. We’ll see how it goes

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Weight has stuck at 170. Busted out my old lifting shoes and knee sleeves to my Sunday Squats yesterday. Quite pleased with how my knees have been tolerating the frequency of squatting.

Might start adding in a bit more carbs to my diet, but overall recovery has been fine with 6-7 hours of sleep. Most days just because of how my work schedule is I chug some aminos and caffeine upon waking and do time-restricted eating from 4-10pm, but on a handful of occasions I wake up feeling a bit sluggish, so I’ll do a protein shake with some almonds in the AM. It’s incredibly tempting to just go all-in with my diet and add-on the pounds because I know the strength will come much more easily, but I’m holding back on that. I’m at the bodyweight I want to be long-term, so I’ll be patient with the strength gains.

In general my recovery has been fine and I’m progressing, so not gonna fix what ain’t broke. I’m gonna start some yoga classes with my girlfriend soon, but in the mean time have been doing the at-home YouTubes.

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A part of me is itching to get onto the lifting platform (and podium), but the soonest USAPL event in my area is sold out. Would have been fun to prep for that over the next 6 weeks, but looks like I’ll have to wait until later in the year, which is okay since I’m in a great groove training anyway.

Yesterday I hit an OHP all-time PR , which I am quite pleased with. I’ve been weighing in at 168-172 lbs each morning, so I was stoked when I hit 170. Still, it felt a bit disingenuous, so I walked over to the gym’s scale, weighed myself (w/ clothes on) at 174, put 175 on the bar, and lifted it up. Not strong by any means, but still a big thing. I feel like my OHP now matches my bench strength (~60%). Anyway, time to get back to squatting 4 plates. If I can get there beltless this year, I can die happy.

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I missed 170x1 after SGSS but turned around and hit 165x3 a few weeks later while playing with Built 4 Battle.

135 feels heavy now. It’s strange how pressing strength tanks during a cut.

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What about other feds?

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Seriously! I know my bench would plummet if I have to cut for any meet I do. Judging by that avi pic, the cut is going well tho

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I haven’t looked into any others just yet! I will sometime this week. My allegiance is with USAPL, originating from my collegiate team and friends who still compete. I’m certainly open to others though! I know you’re not U.S.A., but any you’d recommend?

Actually, I was just checking the IPF calendar, and turns out my old assistant coach is a co-director for the San Diego meet. Let’s see if he can pull some strings.

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I hear good things about RPS. By all accounts SPF is decent too.

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My old coach said he would be able to squeeze me onto the roster, but I decided against it. Didn’t want to stall my progress so far just for some white lights.

Knee tendinitis started to flare up again. I think the issue was one day when I added in (poor form) DB Walking Lunges. Squatting doesn’t aggravate the pain, so I’m at least happy about that, but I need to back off a bit.

For the first time in a while I took some videos of my squatting so that I can judge my form/depth better. It really helped, so I plan to keep doing it. After hitting 330 10x1 with shit depth went down to 275 for 8 deep reps, which felt great. I’m having my old belt sent to me, but still unsure if I’m going to use it just yet. I’d like to hit at least 365 for a deep single betless before even considering it. And at that point I might just say fuck it and hold off until I’m at 4 platos. We shall seeeee.

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Wasn’t planning on it, but yesterday I hit 300 lbs for two singles on the good ol’ bench press. At 175 lbs, that’s probably a BW PR for me. Next up is getting the OHP to 185. I’d been training bench strictly with a close grip (right at shoulder width) since getting back into the gym in January, so once I changed to a bit wider, medium width grip, the weights really started to fly. I’ll probably do a month at this width before going back to strictly close grip.

Main focus is still getting in that squat volume. I’ve been squatting 3-4x a week for a couple of months now, but I think for April I’m going to switch it up to 2x with higher intensity. I’m at least to the point where I can bang out ATG triples of 315 beltless, but clearly this still lags wayyyy behind the upper body pressing strength. Still, I’m more than happy where the squatting has progressed to so far. Ever since I started using my oly shoes again, the groove been feeling smooth.

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Have you hit three plates yet? I hit 305 last June but haven’t done barbell bench since then. I’m doing Incline now and I’m weak AF!

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Nope! No triple platos for me just yet. I’m thinking I can probably hit it by June, or possibly sooner if I put on a bit of weight, but not trying to rush it. My incline sucks as well, so I’m gonna try focus on that once I do hit 3 plates. Since I’ve been doing so much OHP, I didn’t want to overdo it on the shoulders, but I also haven’t seen much carryover to my incline. It’s a movement my body just never has had much practice with I guess. I also haven’t done any seated shoulder pressing (DB nor BB) either. Literally less than 10 times in my entire life.

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Hit 3x3 on 315 for the squat yesterday and followed it up with 20 reps of 225 ATG. Felt good to hit the 20 reps

I also did barbell hip thrusts, which I really should do more often. I do a lot of bodyweight/single leg thrusts, but rarely any loaded variations If I can start doing them 2x a week, I think I will see some nice carryover. Poor glute strength is one of my issues at the bottom of my squat/a significant contributor to my back pain, so I have no excuse for not addressing it directly. The bodyweight exercises have helped with activation, but I certainly can be doing more.

I have started to put on a bit more weight. I’d say I’m closer to 175 lbs in the morning now as opposed to at the end of the day. Still kinda lean, but nothing crazy. Have been constructing some new long-term and short-term goals. I try make weekly, monthly, and then long-term (either attainable in 1-3 years) goals. This has really helped me track progression more so than I have in the past while also fueling motivation. I’ve started doing this for not just strength goals, but general life pursuits as well. See strength goals below:

Current Bodyweight- 175 lbs
Training- Beltless, High Frequency

Weekly Goals
OHP 155 10x3
Squat 315 3x3
Deadlift 365 for five singles

April Goals
Squat 265 4x8
Squat 185 for 50 reps
Chin-up +50lbs for 12 reps
OHP 185 lbs
Bench 275 for 5 reps
Deadlift 315 10x3

2019 Goals
Squat 405 for reps (2+)
Deadlift 500
Bench 315
Keep bodyweight below 185 lbs

Long-term Goals
Deadlift 600
Squat 500
Squat 315 for 20 reps
Bench 315 for 10 reps

I like to throw in certain goals that I can just do as a mental test on one day of the month (e.g. 50 rep squat), and other goals are mostly rep progressions with some training max increases, but I’m really trying to stick to >1 rep on any given exercise. I’m starting to transition over to more hypertrophy-focused accessory work, but the main lifts will still be focused on strength.

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You’re a sick man.

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Also, a physique update, of sorts.

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Officially weighed in at 175.2 lbs this morning (pre-fecal dump).

Hit 385 lbs yesterday on conventional deadlift, which is definitely a beltless lifetime PR for me. I made the switch over from sumo as my main style in January. In the long run I think this will more effectively help me combat my pre-existing imbalances. 385 felt slow, and the form broke down past the shin. I’ll take it though since I did squats and hip thrusts the day before. I’m closer to hitting that four plates beltless than I thought.

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I’ll try to log more consistently here as any feedback is always helpful.

Today I achieved a number of my goals, although I was probably a bit too aggressive with the volume + intensity, but I was feeling it.

OHP: 155 lbs 10x3
BB Bench: 285 lbs 10x1
Pin Press (~3 in ROM): 385 lbs 1, 2, 1, 1
Bench from Pins: 315 lbs 3x1
DB Bench: 100 lbs 4x8
Standing Single Arm DB Dropset Starting w/ 65 lbs

I started off with OHP, and was looking to hit 10 triples of 155. I previously had hit 8x3 in mid-March before form broke down. Happy to say I hit the 10x3 today with solid form all the way through.

I decided to keep riding the high and did 10 singles of 285 on the bench press. Every rep felt smoother than the next. I continued onto lockout pin presses (~3 inches ROM). I worked my way up to 385 and hit it for 1, 2, 1, 1 before moving the pins down and doing a near full ROM pin press (or whatever they’re called) with 315. I hit it for 3 singles and decided to move on from the heavy stuff.

Continued with 4x8 100 lbs DB Bench Press and finished off with drop sets of standing, single arm DB Presses. Then the girlfriend texted asking for me to cook dinner so I had to cut it, which is probably for the best

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I was up ridiculously late last night for the first time in a while, so barely had any rest. Took a bit of a nap before heading to the gym to squeeze in a quick one.

Squats: 265 lbs 4x8
BB Hip Thrusts: 135 3x12, 20 seconds rest between sets
Lying Leg Curls: 1x20
Back Extensions: Bodyweight 1x20

Was in and out in 25 minutes. My last couple of reps on the final set of squats were shaky, so I might stick with the same weight the next time I do 4x8 on squat, but this was still good progress. Planning to do a low intensity, high volume upper back workout tomorrow. I ordered some Adidas Leistung 16 IIs, which should be arriving early in the week. I think I’ll break them in with the 50 reps of 185.

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Sunday, 4/7

Deadlift- 275 lbs unknown reps
Rack Pulls- 365 lbs 3x3
Pull Ups- BW x 8, 10, 16
OHP- 135 lbs x 8, 5, 6, 6
Incline Bench- 185 lbs 3x3

Monday, 4/8

Bench- 290 lbs 10x1
DB Bench- 100 lbs 3x10
Standing Single Arm Press- 65 lbs 3x5
Squat- 185 lbs 1x20

I weighed in at bodyweight 174.2 lbs on Sunday morning.

Sunday’s workout was just some light work to get the blood flowing and add some volume on my weak lifts.

I wasn’t planning on squatting yesterday (Monday), but my new shoes came in so I decided to at least bang out 20 reps to end the workout. I need to figure out how to better balance out my pressing/pulling days with the more taxing lower body lifts. Might be time to totally re-think my split. Overall in 2019 pull/push volume has been kept balanced for my upper body, but it’s getting tougher the more I integrate deadlifting, which I’m trying to hit a variation of at least twice a week. Perhaps I just dial it back to once.

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