Sunday 4/9
First Y League basketball game of the year.
Went pretty well, realized I hadn’t been putting up too many shots recently as I had no feel for the entire game. Only scored once and I can do better than that haha. But had a huge block during the game that was probably the best play of the game but I’m biased a bit there. We ended up losing by 10 but really only were down by 4 before we had to start fouling. All in all it just proved I’m gonna have to work more basketball into my weekly schedule.
Tuesday Heavy Upper
Date: 4/10
Practiced some basketball drills for about an hour and a half since all the guys I usually workout with were busy studying for some end of semester tests. Also got really close to putting down my first dunk of two feet. That is gonna go down in the next few months for sure.
Lat Pulldown 5 sets Pyramid
85x20
100x11
120x5
100x9
85x12
DB Bench 5 sets Pyramid
55x18
70x8
85x1 (PR)
70x6
55x12
DB Bench felt amazing and got very close to two reps on the 85s which felt damn good as that is the heaviest dumbbells I’ve ever attempted to press. I’m gonna have the hundreds by the end of the year.
Seated Cable Row 3x6-10
85x10 10 10
Just flew through a quick version of this day as I hadn’t left myself as much time as I meant to after basketballing. Still left with a PR so I’m happy with it.
Thursday Heavy Lower
Date: 4/12
Y W T Holds each position 10 sec
Hang Power Snatch 3x2-3
45x5 65x5
95x3 3 3
Kneeling Leg Curl 3x6-10
90x10 10 10
Back Squat ramp to a heavy 1-5RM
45x10 135x5
225x5 235x5 245x5 255x3
It was so upsetting I had the perfect set at 245 and then go up 10 pounds and somehow misgroove the very first rep and just killed my whole vibe. The good thing is the 245x5 ties my all time 5RM and it was relatively easy so at least I’m seeing some squat progress.
DB Rdl 3x6-10
70x10 10 10
Hanging Knee Raise 3x10-15
Bw x 10 10 10
Seated Calf Raise 3x10-15
45x15 55x15 15
Technique Day
Date: 4/13
In 3 weeks or so I’m gonna go ahead and test my max bench and squat hoping to finally hit two and three plates respectively. So I’m combining some hypertrophy work with some lift practice.
Giant Set Paused Bench 6x3 / DB Curls / Plate Overhead Extensions
Bench
45x10 135x5
155x3 3 3 3 3 3
DB Curls
20x10 10 10 10 10
Plate Overhead Extensions
45x10 10 10 10 10
Giant Set Paused Squat 6x3 / Calf Raises / Ab Wheel
Paused Squat
45x10 135x5
185x3 3 3 3 3 3
Calf Raises
185x10 10 10 10 10 10
Ab Wheel
From Knees x5 5 5 5 5 5
I bought a pair of squat stands on ebay and put them together yesterday and couldn’t help myself but get a little squat workout in.
Squat Day
Date: 4/16
Band Pullaparts 100 reps
40 30 30
Squat 50-100 reps 5-20 rep range Descending Sets / Calf Raises 10 reps / Ab Wheel Rollouts 5 reps
135x5 185x3
225x5 / 10 / 5
215x6 / 10 / 5
205x8 / 10 / 5
185x11 / 10 / 5
165x12 / 10 / 5
165x13 / 10 / 5
Front Squat Iso Hold
95 for 30 seconds
Stole this from a Ben Bruno article on here and I got my quads nice and lit up at the end of the workout. May have to try to fit these in more often.
Had no real goal but to get a lot of squats in and mission accomplished haha.
Heavy Upper
Date: 4/17
Cat Camel Stretch
Floor Slides
Ankle Stretching
Hang Power Snatch 3x2-3
45x5 65x5
95x3 3 3
Bench 3x1-3 Negatives
45x10 135x5 185x3
225x3 3 3
Held the weight at the beginning and end of each set to start getting used to holding heavier weights
Machine Pulldown 5 sets Pyramid
115x15
135x10
155x6
135x8
115x11
DB Bench 3x6-10
55x10 10 10
Machine Seated Row 3x6-10
110x10 10 10
DB Lateral Raises 2x10-15
15x15 15
Preacher Curls 2x10-15
40x15 15
Seated DB Overhead Extensions 2x10-15
40x15 10
Heavy Lower
Date:4/19
Cat Camel stretch
Floor Slides
Ankle Stretching
Hang Power Snatch 3x2-3
45x5 65x5
95x3 3 3
Kneeling Leg Curl 3x6-10
90x10 10 10
Back Squat ramp to 1-5RM
45x10 135x5
225x5
235x3
245x2
255x2
265x2
DB Rdl 3x6-10
75x10 10 10
Hanging Knee Raise 3x10-15
Bw x10 10 10
Seated Calf Raise 3x10-15
55x15 15 13
Heavy Upper
Date: 4/24
Cat Camel Stretch
Floor Slides
Ankle Stretching
Hang Power Snatch 3x2-3
95x5 5 5
Gonna go up on these next week like 10 pounds 95 is starting to feel really light.
Bench 3x1-3 Negatives
45x10 135x5 185x3
225x3 3 3
Machine Pulldown 5 sets Pyramid
120x14
140x9
160x5
140x8
120x9
DB Bench 3x6-10
55x10 10 10
Machine Seated Row 3x6-10
110x10 10 10
DB Lateral Raises 2x10-15
15x15 15
Preacher Curls 2x10-15
50x13 10
Seated DB Overhead Extensions 2x10-15
40x15 15
Deadlift Day
Date: 4/25
Cat Camel Stretch
Floor Slides
Ankle Stretching
Snatch Grip Deadlift 5x1-3
135x10
185x3 3 3 3 3
Rdl 4x3-5
135x5 5 5 5
Single Leg Deadlift 3x6-8 each leg
95x8 8 8
Paused Thick Bar Deadlift 15 second pause then max reps
95x10
Thought I would have done way more here but my grip was just not having it.
Heavy Lower
Date: 4/26
Cat Camel stretch
Floor Slides
Ankle Stretching
Hang Power Snatch 3x2-3
45x5 65x5
95x5 5 5
Kneeling Leg Curl 3x6-10
90x10 10 10
Back Squat ramp to 1-5RM
45x10 135x5
225x5
235x5
245x5
255x5 (PR)
265x3
Was surprised to hit a pr here as I wasn’t actually feeling all that strong today.
DB Rdl 3x6-10
75x10 10 10
Hanging Knee Raise 3x10-15
Bw x10 10 10
Seated Calf Raise 2x10-15
55x15 13
Heavy Upper
Date: 5/1
Cat Camel Stretch
Floor Slides
Ankle Stretching
Hang Power Snatch 3x2-3
45x5
105x3 3 3
Bench 3x1-3 Negatives
45x10 135x5 185x3
225x4 4 4
Machine Pulldown 5 sets Pyramid
120x15
140x10
160x7
140x10
120x10
DB Bench 3x6-10
60x10 10 10
DB Lateral Raises 2x10-15
15x15 15
Preacher Curls 2x10-15
50x14 11
Seated DB Overhead Extensions 2x10-15
45x15 15
Decided to squeeze some more deadlift work in today
Deadlift Day
Date: 5/1
Snatch Grip Deadlift 5x1-3
190x3 3 3 3 3
Rdl 4x3-5
140x5 5 5 5
Single Leg Deadlift 3x6-8 each leg
100x8 8 8
Spontaneous Pre Work Workout
Date: 5/2
Foam Rolling
Wall Slides
Trap Bar Deadlift
225x8
315x8
365x5 (PR)
DB Bench
50x10
55x10
60x10
Front Squat
135x9
155x8
185x8
Farmers Carry
70 lb x 40 yards 40 yards 40 yards
Chinups
Bodyweight x 8 8 8
Sled Push
630x20 yards 20 yards
Wasn’t feeling all the way up to snuff for a strength day but wanted to get some squat work in. Then one of the guys brought in an armband that lets you measure your velocity and power when doing lifts. Needless to say my snatches and squats while not super heavy were incredibly draining as seeing a screen go red and tell you that you are slow is incredibly motivating. I don’t think I have ever been as tired after a set with 175 in my life.
Power Lower
Date: 5/3
Cat Camel stretch
Floor Slides
Ankle Stretching
Hang Power Snatch 3x2-3
45x5
95x5 5 5
Kneeling Leg Curl 3x6-10
90x10 10 10
Back Squat focused on power
45x10 95x5 115x5 135x5 155x5 165x5 175x5
DB Rdl 2x6-10
80x10 10
Hanging Knee Raise 2x10-15
Bw x10 10
Seated Calf Raise 2x10-15
55x15 15
Max Testing Day
Date: 5/8
Hang Power Snatch 1RM
95x3 115x3 135x1 (PR) 145x0 0
Can’t believe I missed the 145. Felt like I was really misgrooved on it. Because both times the height was fine but I couldn’t get under it right. Dropped it forward twice
Bench 1RM
135x5 185x2 205x1 (PR) 215x1 (PR) 225x0
This was great and if I really wanted to grind I think I could have made an ugly 2 plates but it wasn’t gonna be as clean as I would have wanted so I was cool with the miss.
Squat 1RM
135x5 225x3 275x1 305x1 (PR)
This was a beautiful squat day, just the right groove all my reps felt super smooth and the 305 went up with very little grinding. I’m gonna be happy to push that a little more on a future day but my back wasn’t feeling perfect so I decided that was a fine place to call it.
This was a great last day lifting with a bunch of my school buddies. Hopefully I can stay in touch with a couple going forward. But more importantly I feel I’m really poised for some real success over the next couple months if as I feel stronger and bigger than ever so it was more than worth it lifting with them the last few months. I learned a lot about what I need to do to keep gaining for the future and that’s what I’ll really take away from the last few months of training with them.
So I got an internship at a gym which turned into getting hired on, which turned into being on track to become their head of athletic training in the future and it just swamped me. So since I had also been reading Easy Strength by Dan John & Pavel I decided to try one of the routines out to target one of my main weaknesses which is grip strength. So I did the Steve Justa Singles plan with a fat grip deadlift. Here is my full 4 weeks of training
Started Week 1 on 5/5
Fat Grip Deadlift & Floor Press for the singles
135 pounds
3 singles
5 singles
7 singles
9 singles + Ab Wheel 2x5
11 singles
13 singles
15 singles
After the first week I got smarter and dropped doing the floor presses everyday as well as the deadlifts.
Just Fat Grip Deadlift
Week 2 5/12
145 pounds
3 singles + DB RFESS 85x5 (PR)
5 singles + Curls 1234 reps 65 lbs
7 singles + Front Squat 1234 reps 135 lbs
9 singles + Floor Press 1234 reps 135 lbs
11 singles + Curls 532 reps 55, 65, 75
13 singles + Front Squat 532 reps 135, 155, 175 lbs
15 singles + Floor Press 532 reps 135, 145, 155 lbs
Week 3 5/19
155 pounds
3 singles + Front Squat 2x1234 reps 135 lbs
5 singles + Curls 2x1234 reps 65 lbs
7 singles + Floor Press 2x1234 reps 135 lbs
9 singles + Front Squat 532 reps 145, 165, 185 lbs
11 singles
13 singles
15 singles
Week 4 5/28
Had to move back the first two days here as I was out of town
165 pounds
3 singles
5 singles
7 singles
9 singles
11 singles
13 singles
15 singles
Did a bunch of random extra work during the last week just didn’t keep track of it.
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Did my max testing two days after it finished on some lifts just to see where I was at
Date 6/5
Fat Grip Curl
45x5
65x5
75x3
85x1
These are all maxes as I’d never done the curls with the fat grips before
Floor Press
135x10
155x6
185x3 (PR)
205x1 (PR)
These floor press PRs were awesome considering I barely did any real volume of pressing. I was just hoping to maintain my strength here over the 4 weeks.
Fat Grip Deadlift
135x10
185x3 (PR) + 2 reps on previous 1RM
205x1 (PR) new 1 RM
I could barely even hold on to 185 lbs before so that was pretty awesome increase in grip strength there.
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Swole Day
Date: 6/7
Band Pullaparts 30-100 reps
Anti Rotation Holds 20 sec each side
Paused Underhand Rows 3x5
65x5 5 5
Glute Bridge 3 Countdown sets start at 5 reps
135x5-1 5-1 5-1
Lateral Raises 3 sets of Reverse 21s
15 lbs
Curls Ascending Ladder 1-15Max
45x1-10
DB Floor Flyes 1 set Double Rest Pause
20x24 8 7
Back Squat Iso hold 20-60 sec
45x60 sec
L-Sit Hold 3x10 sec
That escalated quickly. That’s pretty neat man!
Nice work man!
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Thanks! It’s been a bit overwhelming to say the least as I fell into a weird situation where as I was interning the amount of athletes coming to the facility literally doubled and they needed to hire me on. And then it doubles again for the summer and I had to be responsible for teaching some of the new trainers we ended up having to bring on just to keep up. It’s been an awesome time though and wouldn’t change anything about it so far.
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