Marrot's log - Electric Boogaloo

7/16/14 - Wednesday

zzzzzz

7/17/14 - Thursday

OHP
warmup
3x95
3x135
3, 3, 1 x 155
2x3x135

Bboying
Headflips - Not bad for how long it’s been (10 days). Shoot the legs up instead of out. It’s just like a kip up.
Kip ups - Speaking of which. Focused on fast hip thrust.
Handhops - Nothing new, best was two.
Reverse 90s - Some pretty good spins here relatively speaking.
Single-forearm stalls, handstands on fists, pretty much whatever to practice some balance

DB side raises
3 x ~15 x 10s-15s

Today was a solid day considering how long it’s been since I’ve bboyed and given the still dismal OHP performance. The magic of an off day really. With that in mind it looks like I am considering having a day completely off after every 2-3 consecutive days. Nothing is concrete but literally four days this week were wasted on ugly little half sessions where I burnt out halfway through. Blagh. In any case if I learned anything this week it’s that you can’t always eat your way to recovery.

7/18/14 - Friday

I’ll go for another 1RM on deadlift next Friday. Will take it easier this week. Whether I will deadlift between now and next Friday for practice depends on my left hand, which has two 1/4" diameter calluses ripped out of it.

Deadlift
warmup
3x135
3x225
3x315
1x355
3, 1 x 375
1x365
2, 1 x 355
2x3x315

Squat
3x135
3x6x225
4x225 - yuck

GMs
10x95
10x135
10x145
10x155
5x135 - blah

Felt myself burning out again. Tried to do a pull-up - stuck. Stretched and left.

7/19/14 - Saturday

Dips (weight is amount added)
warmup
6 x 25
6 x 50
2 x 3 x 75
2, 1 x 85
2, 1 x 70
5, 2 x 50
7, 3 x 25
8 x BW

OHP
warmup
3 x 95
5, 3, 1 x 135
8, 1 x 115
8, 2 x 95
3 x ~15 x 45

Pull-ups
10 6 5

Ugly DB rows
3x6x140 L
2x6x140 2x140 R

Practice - Headflips, kips, handhops, reverse 90s. Nothing new.

Did the dips and just did not want to stop.

7/20/14 - Sunday

Didn’t recover from yesterday and I paid for it today; was expecting it. Skipping the gym tomorrow; if I go back and try to train I’ll be capable of even less than I did today. Thinking hit it hard on Tuesday and Wednesday, then Thursday off so I can take Friday to max on deads.

My training has become haphazard. It looks like my deadlift has seen progress (3x355 to 3x375 over the past few weeks) but my bboying has suffered under my newfound compulsive heavy upper body training tendencies. I can’t say anything for sure about my next course of action until I see how my plan for this week goes.

Dips
warmup
6 x 25
6 x 50
2 x 60
2, 1 x 50
some with 25, then just BW

OHP
4-5 sets, starting with 95 then just repping out the bar

Pull-ups
4x5-10xBW

Nothing left in me to do hard bboying. Just slow footwork then out. Did some easy arm assistance at home.

Note: Appetite is definitely up, I can feel myself eating faster.

7/21/14 - Monday

zzzz

7/22/14 - Tuesday

I took my dips from 2x+85 to 2x+95 (followed by a 1x+100) in four days, one of which was spent eating and sleeping. I really want to point this out because I made a better gain in less than five days of my own training than I did in the past five months of 5/3/1. All I did was drive myself into a hole and let myself recover from it. No percentages, no ratios, no spreadsheets.

Dips
6 x BW
6 x 25
6 x 50
3 x 75
2 x 85
2 x 95 (PR)
1 x 100 (PR)
2, 1 x 80
3, 2, 1 x 70
1 x 60
3, 3, 1 x 50
5, 1 x 25
9 x BW

OHP
“Heavy” sets at 95-135. (1-5 range)
3 x ~15 x bar

Deficit tugs - just to prevent losing the groove
10x1x275

Pull-ups
12 6 5

Bboying - kip ups to practice hip thrust. Upper body was shot.

Then out.

7/23/14 - Wednesday

Practice first:
Reverse 90s - hit one that was better than last log’s. I have a video but this post is from my phone so maybe later.
Handhops - nothing new.

Dips
6xBW
6x25
6x50
4x60
3x70
1x80
2, 1 x 60
2, 1 x 50
6, 4, 1 x 25
2-3 x ~8 x BW

Was dead after this.

I’m going on vacation for a week starting Monday. I cannot promise anything definite for training/eating, ie I’m really not about to buy a dozen chicken breasts so I can eat two of them a day out of a cooler.

But when I get back I am thinking of really letting myself go and turning into a big couch potato fatass.

What? No, when I get back I really want to put a special focus on overhead pressing and moves that are most relevant to it (90s, handhops, swipes etc).

7/24/14 - Thursday

zzzz

7/25/14 - Friday

Today was absolute shit.

Food’s been on point every single day (600/300/90), and took an off day before.

AND I took my 3 rep deadlift PR from 3x355 to 3x375 since I maxed out at 415.

But I come in and miss 405. It’s stuck to the floor.

Then I try squats - 135 is a slow ugly grind.

Then I go for a pull-up. Could not do a single one.

Then I see if I can hit a plain old pushup. It feels like I’m pushing the entire Earth. Literally stuck to the floor grinding singles.

I’m considering taking 7-10 days off. This coincides conveniently with summer vacation. It used to be on days like this I could still go for a good pump with some high rep assistance. But now I can’t even do that.

But then, what if today is just a bad day? :confused:

7/26/13 - Saturday

Deadlift
warmup
3x135
3x225
3x315 - Hmm, a little tough.
1x335 - Was a bad grind. Even slight low back rounding.

Then I realized - my legs felt fresh, so did my upper back - but my low back was sore. The recent beatdown of good mornings and deadlifting for the past few weeks must be it. Too much focus on the trunk instead of the legs. So:

Squat
warmup
3x135
3x185
3x225
3x245
3x265
2, 1 x 275
16, 13, 11 x 185

So squat performance is down from what it used to be. BUT it is not down as much as deadlift is, and the difference may just be from lack of practice.

Front squat
warmup
3x135
3x155
3x185
3x205
3x225
2x235

DB bulg (one leg bench split squat thing)
warmup
10x35s
10x50s
10x60s
7x70s

Toprocking, out.

7/27/14 - Sunday

Another shit awful day.

OHP
warmup
3x95
3x135
1x155
3, 3, 1 x 135

Was dead after this. Again. Couldn’t even do a pull-up.

I’m taking the next 7 days off. Over the past ~5 weeks I have hit some considerable PRs:
Dips: 2x+85 to 2x+95
DL: 3x355 to 3x375
Squat: 3x295, lifetime best
OHP: 6x155, lifetime best

But now everything’s tanking for no apparent reason. If an off week turns out to be wrong then all I lost is 7 days. If I lose a month grinding through sporadic half assed sessions, then that’s going to be a real issue.

Bye. (srs)

8/1/14 - Friday

During vacation I found it was food that was holding me back. Basically after a couple off days I started repping out pushups in the hotel room and I found that the more I ate, the more I could do, simple as that.

Squat
warmup
3x135
3x185
3x225
3, 2, 2, 1 x 275
6, 5 x 225

OHP
warmup
3x135
0x155
5, 4, 3, 1 x 135
15x95

8/4/14 - Monday

Will not be able to practice bboying until I move back to college. The only practice spot in my hometown is just a general dance studio so session times are spotty. I’d rather not get hassled by logistics if I can go get strong in the meantime and practice later at college.

Instead of WS4SB I followed the guidelines of “How to Design a Damn Good Program” by CT.

One Goal: Strength - This was the primary motivation to switch. I don’t care about size or conditioning now. I want to boost up some bodyweight coefficients here and I don’t want anything that might slow that down.
Whole body sessions, 3x/week (M-W-F deal)
4-6 exercises/session, 4-6 sets per exercise, 1-3 reps per set
Squat, bench, BB row, and OHP for 5 x 1-3.

Looking at it I’m like, “That’s it?” But it adds up to 60 heavy sets per week.

The one rule I kinda broke was putting BB bench before BB row. So my low back gets a break between squatting and rowing, and my pressing muscles get a break between benching and OHP.

How long I stick with this will depend on the results I get. I never really had a chance to give the heavy whole body 3x/week thing a good long try. When I started lifting all I had was 100 lb weights in the basement, so 5x5 quickly became, like, 7x12.

Right so what did I do today. AKA what happens when half of your food intake for the past week is Tim Horton’s.

8/4/14 - Training

Squat
warmup
3x135
3x185
3x225
3x275
2, 1 x 285
3, 2 x 265

Bench
warmup
3x95
3x135
3x155
3x185 - counted this as a warmup, was relatively easy
3x195
2x205
4x185
3x195
2x195

BB row
warmup
3x135
3x155
3x185 - also, counted as a warmup. pretty easy
3x205
2x3x215
2x2x225

OHP
warmup
2x3x95
3x135
1x145
3, 3, 2 x 135

Going to gauge progress by total volume of work sets.

8/6/14 - Wednesday

Squat
bar
3x135
3x185
3x225
1x275 - much easy, is warmup
3x285
3x295
2, 1 x 305
1, 2 x 285*

*Had 1 rep left in both these sets I’d say. Cut short because I could feel my low back losing tension and caving. Of course theoretically I could have kept going until I hinged all the weight around my low back, and then I’d be doing deadlifts with the bar on my neck.

2x285 to 2x305 in 48 hours.

Bench
bar
3x135
3x185
4x195:S*
3x2, 1 x 205
3x195

*Rep 4 would have been a grind, but I know I would’ve had it if my spotter didn’t take it. It’s cool, just do another work set.

BB row
bar
3x135
3x185
3x225
2x235
3x205
2x3x185

Reduced weight to 185 when I recorded myself and saw serious back rounding on the heavier sets to jerk the bar up to my body. The last two triples were by no means any type of easy deload technique practice. Now while the heavier sets were not textbook Pendlay row YouTube form police qualified, it was still some tough rowing.

OHP
bar
3x95
6, 3 x 135
4, 1 x 145
3 x 3 x 135

The 6x135 happened because when I got to rep 3 I thought I’d only have 1 rep left. Once I got the easy 4, I figured well I’m out of my rep range anyways, might as well make it a tough set. Stupid mistake, will not happen again.

The next 3x135 was me being smart, leaving reps in the tank on a warmup, and judging the difficulty level of 3 reps to determine what the next set should be.

8/8/14 - Friday

Low back was especially sore today. I’ve had no problem in the past with heavy squatting and tugging 72-96 hours apart within a week, but cutting that down time to 48 hours was something new.

If it was my legs that were dead I could have just sucked it up. But I was doing some unprecedented camel back rounding coming up from the bottom of 3x295. The set was really easy otherwise, I had no problem with anything else in my low body. My legs felt really strong and fresh. But the way my low back was collapsing was unacceptable by any standard.

Squat
warmup
3x135
3x185
3x225
1x275
3x295

Front Squat
3x135
3x185
4x195
3x205
3x215
2x3x225 - By the time I got here my low back couldn’t even stay tight on the way down.

Bench
warmup
3x135
3x185
3, 4x2 x 205

Pull-ups
3 x BW
3 x +25
3 x +35
3 x +45
1 x +55
3 x 2 x +45

BB rows also would have beat up an already dead low back.

OHP
3 x 135
6 x 145
1 x 155
3 x 2 x 145

Well I didn’t see this coming. Not something you can fix with an “it’s all mental bro” pep talk. Smart option would be to swap pull-ups for BB rows, but I would have to buy my own belt for when I go to college (uni gym doesn’t have one).

OHP is significantly up from Wednesday btw. Looking at bench not sure if that counts, it’s more work if you pick five sets but less work total… w.e

8/9/14 - Saturday - Thoughts

It looks like I’ll be able to lift every other day instead of just 3x/week. Small difference. The night of a day that I lift, I wake up feeling scraggly after 8 hours of sleep. But the day after that, I’m out of bed after a meager 5-6 hours, without an alarm, feeling sharp and ready to train.

Barely any low back soreness today either. Feels loose and fresh, especially since soreness is usually the worst right after I wake up.

8/10/14 - Sunday

This is what happens when I try to get smart with carb intake. Stupid mistake.

Squat
warmup
3x135
3x185
3x225
1x275
1x295 - ugly
0x275:F

8/11/14 - Monday

Take two. Ate 1000g carbs from various sources between Sunday’s sesh and today’s. Oats, spaghetti, chocolate milk, breakfast cereal.

Squat
warmup
3x135 3x185 3x225 1x275
3x295
1x305
1x295
3x275
1x285
2x3x275

Bench
warmup
3x135 3x185
2x3x205
1x215
3x2x205

BB row
warmup
3x135 3x185 3x195
3x205
3, 2, 2, 1 x 215

OHP
warmup (don’t know why I keep typing “warmup” for each exercise heading)
3x95
3x135
1x155
3, 2, 2, 1 x 145

I think low food intake, specifically carbs, is also what made me miss 405 that fateful day with deadlifts, right before I left for vacation. Can’t lift if you’re out of fuel. That’s it.

I think more mass is also important for me if I’m going to bboy. Since I’m 6’0, which is tall especially for a bboy, I need more mass to handle all the extra bone. One thing I noticed at the battle I went to ~6 months ago is that there were no tall, slim breakers. Shorter guys seemed to do well whether or not they were thick, but the one guy there that was taller than me and had the kind of power and body control I want was a seriously thick dude.

But I’m not going to change how I lift now. This current program might be more in the “relative strength” rep range instead of size, but I’m going to hazard a bet that eating a lot and lifting heavy every other day will do the job good enough.

8/13/14 - Wednesday

Squat
1x275
3x305 (PR)
1x315 - such pr. amaze such lift. very heavy. wow
3, 1 x295
3, 4, 3 x285

Bench
3x135
3x185
3x205
2x215 (PR)
1x215
3x2x205

Pull-ups
3, 1 x +45
4x3 x +35

OHP
bar
3x95
4, 3 x135
1x145
2x3x135

Going to switch pull-ups for BB rows. With BB rows I don’t know how much my legs are doing and I feel my traps and rear delt taking more of the load. But with pull-ups I know my entire upper back is firing the whole time. No momentum, no funny business.

Performance seemed to drop off after benching. I will limit my work sets per exercise to five, tops - I kinda let myself be like, oh, 4-6 means 6-7.

Left wrist felt funny but it wasn’t even an issue with performance.

Weighed at 185 post workout, so it looks like eating as much carbs as I possibly can is not an issue - it all comes out in the lifting. More carbs > heavier lifting > no problem.