Thanks. It’s been a year and a month since I stopped judo and started lifting at night with the intent to actually get stronger again.
Upper body strength is nothing to talk about (though I’ve definitely built some mass; clothing fits differently and I look better shirtless), but I added ~60-70lb to my squat 10rm. My weight has gone from 171lb to 176lb or so, and most of that came from the last two months since I started living with my folks again.
I basically added a good 50lb to my 10rm while staying the exact same bw. Can’t argue against that. Just goes to show how overweight and out of shape I must have been last year.
Given that I give no real consideration to diet and recovery and lift everyday, I’m pleased with this. I will be even more pleased if I can keep this up next year.
Anyways,
Today-
Squat-
135lbx3
185/225/265/295lbx1
265lb, 8/8/5/4
Given that my current 265lb rep max is ~11 reps, this makes sense.
Pull-up/lunges/hanging leg raise-
5/5/4
+10lb 5x5/5x5 (various lunges)/5x4
My right hip felt a good bit of pain while I did cossack squats, so switched over to doing front and back lunges.
I am super duper avid on mitigating any form of hip pain.
Just a tip, doing external movements like that require a good bit of stability from your adductors, as well as your tensors. Of course if it keeps hurting don’t force it, but try out those adductor/abductor machines. I once thought they were useless, but they serve a pretty good importance. And external rotation stretches help.
If it’s hurting on the side that has the knee bent, give your flexors some love because when they get tight they’re annoying to deal with. If it’s coming from the back portion of your hip, within your butt, stretch out your piriformis really well.
Thanks! I normally don’t get any pain from doing cossack squats, so I think I injured something. It felt oddly sore and generally had that feeling you get when you know something is hurt/off today. I’ll see how it feels tomorrow and go from there.
No hip pain, so whatever happened on Monday/Tues must have been fatigue? We’ll see. I’ll re-attempt cossack squats on Friday and see if I feel any pain.
DB bench-
20lb, 10/5/5
45lbx5
60/70/80lbx2
70lb, 3x8
DB row-
20lb, 10/5/5
75lbx5
95lb, 3x7
Lots of people on the bench press, so I did DB bench instead.
Haven’t ever really done the DB bench as the main movement of the day, so I wasn’t sure what weight to use. Anything over 60lb was a PR simply cause I’ve never DB benched over 65lb before. The 80lb actually felt pretty light when it came to the actual pressing. I had a hard time balancing during the movement though.
I’d figure my actual 5RM would be somewhere in the 95lb+, but I very much doubt that I can actually press it cause I’d fall off the bench mid-rep…
The first two sets of the 70lb felt easy. Things started to get difficult near the end of the third set. Didn’t bother with more sets cause I hit my desired reps.
DB row is inconsistent. Sometimes my grip gives out really easily, other times my grip feels great and so I blow through the set with little effort. Bleh.
Today proved to me that my bench press sucks cause of shitty form and body movement. My actual pressing strength is far beyond what my bench press suggests.
Push-press-
135/155lbx3
165lb, 3x3
Superset of BB row and DB OHP (30 sec rest)
135lb, 5x8 on BB row
35lb, 5x8 on OHP
405lb felt significantly lighter than the last time I attempted it. Neither easy nor difficult. Will re-attempt 425lb next month or so I think; I expect it to go up without much trouble.
Thumb died on me, so I stopped volume on 315lb.
Squat-
135/185/225/275lbx1
275lb felt heavy, so I stopped.
Pull-up/cossack squat/hanging leg raise-
5x5 on all
Decided not to use weights on the pull-ups because upper body felt a bit beat-up from the deadlifts.
Cossack squats didn’t hurt, but my right hip did feel a bit iffy. I’ll try the adductor/abductor machine as planetcybertron suggested.
I have no idea how I finished all sets of 8. This felt really hard.
Pull-up/cossack squat and lunges/hanging leg raise
x5, +10lb, 5x5 on pull-up
4x5 of cossack squat, 1x5 each of back and forward lunge for variety.
5x5, x on hanging leg raise
I have a tendency to look to the right as my back gets fatigued from doing any sort of pull-up variations. I think it’s due to some muscle imbalance/weakness The entire point of staying at this was was to get rid of that. It’s finally working!
Five sets of one clean/one clean from hang/two OHP/six BB row-
135lb for clean and OHP
175lb for BB row
Actually wanted to do three reps for the OHP, but failed on the second set. The first set felt pretty rough, so I shouldn’t have gone for it in hindsight.
Deadlift-
135/225/275lbx1
335lb, 7x1
Dip-
x5
+25lb, 5x6
Superseted the 335lb with the dips.
I feel beat up and exhausted now. I think the cleans on Sunday affected my upper body a lot more than I expected. The first rep of each OHP set felt very good, but every second rep felt more and more like a grind.
Controlled rep. Felt good besides that grip started to tire out near the end.
Chin-up/single-leg squat superset (90 second rest)
x5, +15bx5, +25lb, 5x5 on chin-up
x3 assisted, x1/2/2 with 10lb counter-balance, 3x3 assisted
Chin-ups felt easy. Single-leg squat is something I should do more frequently simply because they seem to have a tremendous impact on mobility and straightening out the body.
Right-side mobility sucks in comparison to the left side.
Progression is clearly slowing down, given that I’ve been on 265lb for over a month now and x10 is still difficult to get to.
So I’m going to switch up progression for a bit until I get to about 265lb again. Drop weight down to 245lb and take 90 sec rest instead of 120 sec. After all,there are lots of ways to improve beyond just lifting heavier weights.
I honestly didn’t expect this to feel difficult; but then the first set alone left me feeling a little winded. Everything felt like good solid reps though.
Plan on hitting 3x10 without too much trouble before I up the weight to 255lb.
Pull-up/assisted single leg squat/hanging leg raise
x5, x3, x5
+10lb 5/5/5/3/2, 5x3, 5/5/5/4/5
Upper back felt fried. Haven’t recovered enough from the upper body stuff I did on Sunday.
Can’t do RFESS in this superset anymore cause the gym moved the seats far away. I’ll do single leg squats instead and supplement RFESS elsewhere and at home for stretching purposes.
Superset of OHP and BB row-
135lb, 4/3/4/4/4 on OHP
175lb, 5x6 on row
I’m using a varying degree of leg drive on the OHP. I can confidently do 2-3 reps strict, but then I run into major problems if I continue doing so, hence the three reps on the second set. The very last rep was pretty much a push-press.
Either I reduce the reps, or keep at four and gradually reduce usage of leg drive.
Row is getting better.
Deadlift-
135lbx3
225/315lbx1
365lbx0
335lb, 7x1
My grip started slipping on the 365lb as I initiated the rep, so I stopped. Thought that I could hit 365lb whenever I wanted, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.
335lb felt fine.
DB bench/lying leg raise variant superset
45/55/65/75lbx5, 85lbx3 on DB bench
1x5 of lying leg raise, 3x5 dragon flag negative, 1x5 really shitty dragon flag
At least I can sort of raise my lower body while it’s straight.
Superset of bench and DB row-
135lb, 10/10/5 on bench
85lb, 3x8 on DB row
Some part of my left rib is bruised. Dunno why. Either i’m smashing the DB into the rib while I do these or the act of doing these with no support is putting an awful lot of strain on those muscles. Doesn’t really hurt though so who cares.
Superset of deadlift/DB OHP/leg raises off a dip bar
135lbx3, 245lb, 5x2 on deadlift
35lb, 6x10 on the DB OHP
6x5 on the leg raises.
Psyched myself out a bit on the 315lb. Much easier than the last time I did it.
Chin-up/single leg squat-
x5, +25lb, 5x5 on chin-up
5x5 on single leg squat
Squat again-
185lb,
5x3 paused
x10 while attempting to never lock the leg out at the top position. Locked out at the 5th and 8th rep. This felt a lot more difficult than I expected it to be.
Today felt like bad overall. I don’t do very well when I’m stressed and feeling angry going into the gym.