Fri-2-14
Squat-185, 3x5
Did these slowly, both down and up, so that I can get a feel for what muscles are working. Glutes got worked a bit more than usual as a result. I’m pretty sure I felt my left glute getting more strained than the right one, but I need to go to heavier weights to know for sure.
I’ll do 190 next week and see what happens.
OHP, 75, 3x5 with 5 second holds.
Good mornings, 65, 3x8
Did these today to see how my hamstrings are doing. They’ve definitely tightened up, and my hip is moving a little weird. Clearly have more flexibility/mobility problems than I had previously. Going to start stretching strenuously again. Hopefully that helps things.
I treat each rep of my deadlift as singles with really short breaks (generally under 5 seconds though I’ve never actually counted), and so determine whether I’m fresh to do another rep more or less on how long it takes me to recover. By the 3rd one of the 3rd set, it took far longer and so I stopped.
There’s nothing wrong with my muscles. It’s just that mentally I’m giving up a lot quicker than I used to. It sucks. This is why I hate taking any sort of forced hiatus; I always come back with something wrong and it takes a god-damn long time to get back right.
Of course, it could be that I’m lifting every day and so my hamstrings are taking a beating and I just don’t know it. That and lack of carbs.
Bench- 140, 3x5
No pauses.
Chin-up- 3x5
Lat pulldowns- 120, 3x10
Face pulls- 40, 5x10
Also weighed myself after I lifted today. Was back at 171. Not sure what’s going on, since my diet hasn’t changed.
So it turns out that I ate significantly more than I thought on a regular basis. As such, the initial weight loss came from me just cutting carbs out and the loss of water. The weight gain came from me regaining muscle mass.
I’ve greatly reduced calories (actually counting calories now) to what should be either below or just at my daily requirements. We’ll see how this goes.
Mon-2-17
Squat- 195lb, 3x5
Went back to doing wider stance. Made it a lot more stable, and the whole imbalance thing just poofs. Still narrower than my old wide stance though, but just by a little.
Squatted in a squat rack whose safety bar thing is higher than my max depth. I’m fairly sure i’m still hitting depth but then I lose the ability to use the stretch relfex, since I have to consciously stop myself before I hit the point where I normally go down to. As such, each rep felt effectively became a paused squat.
OHP- 80lb, 3x5 with 3 second pause at top.
DB row- 100lb, 3x5
These were not strict rows.
DB protraction/retraction-25lb
Cable rows- 105lb, 3x10
That makes sense. I always found overhead holds useful for basically the same reason. Just wondering whether you were doing it for that reason or to increase TUT or something else.
Weds-2-19
Squat-200lb, 3x5
Squats are significantly easier when you’re not going ATG all the damned time. Mentally the same amount of pain though. Need to get stronger.
OHP, 80lb, 3x5 with 4 second holds.
These were remarkably easy today. I automatically squeezed my glutes and tightened everything, and the bar just glided up. Felt like I put in no effort at all.
Barbell Overhead Shrugs- 45lb, 3x12
DB row- 105lb, 5/4/3
Doing these to build grip strength more than anything.
Push-up Plus- 3x12
Cable rows-105lb, 3x10
Tricep pulldowns- Did a couple sets of pull-downs with both arms, then a bunch of single arm stuff. Finished with 40lb 3x8 for single arm pulldowns after all that stuff.
Thurs-2-20
Good mornings- Worked up to 85lb, 3x8.
Meant more to just do some form of leg work more than anything.
Front squats- Worked up to 65lb, 3x5
Did these for the first time and so went real conservative. These feel a lot different from back squats. Quads are obviously more involved, but I never figured how much it would be on the upper body as a whole. Also wrists are less involved than I thought.
Bench- 145lb, 4/4/3
Had a spotter today, and that gave me the courage to give more than I normally would have. Otherwise, that probably would have been a 3/3/2.
Chin ups-6/6/5
Lat pulldown- 135lb, 3x8
Incline DB Retraction-20lb
Prone “Y’s”-6lb
Prone internal rotation- 6lb
Tried touch and go for the first time, since T3hPwnisher and others mention how it made their back much stronger. While my back isn’t my weak-spot for my squats and deads, I figure it would be worth giving them a try. It would be good to get over what is probably a silly fear of getting my back injured with deadlifts, and I think it would help with building strength during the descent, where I pretty much just plop down onto the floor by the time I start pulling heavy.
Anyways, touch and go felt… interesting. Not at all hard, since 225lb is baby-weight, but I simply weren’t used to deadlifting like that. I’ve noticed that my descent goes weird at times, and one side hits the floor before the other side and causes problems. It feels like one part of my body is working harder. My grip isn’t used to holding onto that much weight for that long, etc.
It was good. I think I’ll do one session of touch and go for light weight/one session of heavy pulls from now on.
Bench- 150lb, 3x3
These were not hard on the body, but I was worried about doing them. Pretty clear that I’m holding myself back on these. The mind simply isn’t there to tell me to push hard.
Also need to learn how to use leg drive.
Chin-up- 7/7/4(+1)
The +1 came after 5 or so seconds of resting on the ground.
Lat pull-down- 120lb, 10/9/10
These are a lot more difficult when you go wide. Are you supposed to go wide?
Though something funny happened in my second set. Went into the hole and somehow just “sat” down. I lost all my tightness and was just squatting with the bar resting on my back. Probably could have muscled up, but it would have been painful, so I just dumped the bar onto the pins. First time it ever happened to me, and I found it rather funny.
OHP-85lb, 3x5 with 3 second holds.
These are easy until the last set. Then each second feels like it’s 10x longer.
DB row- 70lb, 3x5
Back to super strict form
Cable row-120lb, 3x8
DB protraction/retraction-25lb
Thinking of doing a light jog for 20 minutes or so 1-2x a week after lifting for aerobic conditioning purposes. Haven’t done these in a very long time, and I dread to even think about how shitty my aerobic capacity has gotten.
The bar speed really dropped on the last rep of that 2nd set, so I went into the third set without certainty that I could finish it. Bar speed slowed down again at the third rep, and so I stopped. I used to grind out squats, and I felt that they never really help all that much. Just made me feel bad afterwards.
That being said, since 215 is really light, I now regret not grinding those reps out. Would have been good for the mental weakness.
OHP-85lb, 3x5 with 4 second holds.
Barbell Overhead Shrugs- 45lb, 3x12
DB row- 70lb, 3x5
Push-up Plus- 3x12
Cable rows-120lb, 3x8
Supersetted tricep pulldowns and bicep curls for a number of reps.
Thurs-2-27
Front squats- Bunch of random weights, up to 95.
Played around with the form for a while and decided to start pushing up to 135lb. But when I got to 95, my left wrist hurt when I went down into the hole. Is it because I’m not actually holding the weight properly onto my upper body?
Bench- 115lb, 3x5
Proper paused benches again. I hope to get to about 145 before I have to stop doing paused ones, and get up to 165 before I deload again.
Chin ups-4/4/4
Dead-hang chins again.
Lat pulldown- 120lb, 3x10
These are a lot harder when you go real wide.
Incline DB Retraction-20lb
Prone “Y’s”-6lb
Prone internal rotation- 6lb
Squat-215lb, 3x5
Redid last time’s work because I felt bad for being a pussy.
OHP-85lb, 3x5 with 5 second holds.
The difference between a 3 second hold and a 5 second hold is rather amazing. I doubt I’ll be able to do proper TUT work that BBers do.
Did touch and go deadlifts today with the intent to tire the crap out of my back. It didn’t work. My forearms got tired before my back and legs did. Heck, I was pulling faster and stronger by the end of it.
Bench- 120lb, 5x5
Need to learn leg drive.
Chin-up- 3x4, with pauses.
Lat pull-down- 135lb, 3x8
Face pulls- 50lb, 5x10
Tues-3-4
Deadlift- 295lb, 3x5
Each rep more or less became a single. I took far longer time than normal between each rep, but I’m fine with that. I’ll just do proper reps with touch and go deadlifts.
Anyways, deadlifts felt easy today. I think the touch and go really do help with getting me tight.
Paused bench, 125lb, 3x5
Chin-ups- 3x5
2 sets were true deadhangs, the last set I just did normally.