Yo. I just got to England and will be living here for the next couple years. I haven’t kept a log for the last couple months but thought I would start one up again since I will have much more free time now. I just finished running Smolov Jr. for bench right before I left the states. It was pretty difficult but I barely managed to get every rep. I deloaded last week and decided I am not even going to do a real max test on my bench yet, and wait til after the next program I run.
Tomorrow I am going to start Brad Gillingham’s 12 week bench program, and a 12 week deadlift peaking program inspired by Babyslayer. I made up an excel spreadsheet of the deadlift program, and Babyslayer said he is cool with sharing it if anyone would like. It’s pretty different from my usual training, so I’m excited to start and see how it works for me. I will also have a lighter squat day with a bit of accessory shoulders thrown in.
Here are a couple screenshots of both programs and the numbers I am using for each program.
Got through the first session. Rack pulls didn’t feel as heavy as I thought they would, and box squats felt good also. By time I got to deficits I was getting tired. Only 10 reps but I think for the next few weeks I’ll be able to keep it up around the same reps as I get acclimated to this. I was huffing and puffing really hard. Going to start doing conditioning work also. My bodyweight starting this log is at 255 right now. I’ve put on some weight in the last month as I lived out of a hotel, etc. I wanna drop that back down to the 242 area. All the accessory stuff got hard really fast. Going to keep adding sets and upping the weight week to week.
I think I am going to be walking funny tomorrow.
Should have a new cell phone(Galaxy S II) over here by the end of the week. It takes really nice video so I am going to start videoing my main lifts.
[quote]maraudermeat wrote:
did i read that right?? 655 x 15 on rack pulls. that doesn’t sound fun.
have you met any new kids to play with over there yet??
we finally had a cool day here so we got out and pushed/pulled the prowler. [/quote]
Haha, yeah… it was very short ROM, but the plan is to lower it a little bit over the next 4 weeks, as I try to just get as many reps as I can.
No new kids yet! I’m wearing my best tank top I have so hopefully I catch a few eyes, lol.
Nice… we’ve had a couple cold days, but we’ve also already had a few warm blue sky days too. Oh, and I found a decent sized tire out back behind the gym! Maybe 500 lbs or so… might try flipping that too for conditioning. I might try to invest in my own prowler also.
Did a few sets each of real high reps of Rope Face Pulls, Rope and Band Pushdowns, Cable Flys, Dumbell Curls.
Gonna start recording this accessory stuff as I find my groove with the new gym and all the exercises I like. The plan is also just to keep upping the volume on all my back accessory stuff. I want to eventually be doing a ton of work for my upper back.
I just finished smolov jr and deloaded… so this was kind of a test, although I didn’t really max. I had someone watch me when I did the 305 because I wasn’t sure how hard it would be… but it actually went up really easy. The 265 sets were hard though.
Rest day tomorrow then Thursday I will do light squats, shoulders and barbell rows. On deadlift day and bench day the day after I’m going to keep the upper back stuff easier on my low back, then later in the week hit my upper back with heavier free weight stuff… then have a few days to rest up for deads again.
Oh, and I am playing my first flag football game tonight, haha. I wouldn’t even play tackle anymore since I always end up getting too rough, and really don’t feel like hurting myself, heh. Legs are sore as hell from yesterday though… gonna go do a bunch of stretching.
Edit: I’m going to start doing light cardio on all my rest days too. I have lots of free time so I really have no excuse not to. Only going to do one strenuous conditioning day a week. My hope is that all this extra activity/light cardio will bring me back down to 242 without really having to diet.
Incline Seated DB Press *Almost 90 degrees…
10x40
15x60
3-4 sets each of high reps of Lat Pulldowns, DB Side Raises, and Machine Reverse Flys
I think that was it.
Wasn’t even planning on lifting today, but I’m not working… so what the hell. Gonna do the light squats tomorrow. Legs are sore as hell from football yesterday.
The deadlifts were fairly easy, they were speed pulls basically… just doing them for a bit of extra pulling and for the fun of it. I can’t see it hurting and it might help… I’m just going to slowly add weight to the bar and drop sets as the weeks go on.
Pretty good session. I was going to do a couple sets of high reps but wanted to have some fun with the bands, and decided I would just do singles. I think I am going to add 10 lbs a week, and after 5 weeks I’ll be hitting 365 for singles, then I’m going to reset back down to 315 and work up by 10 lbs again, but doing doubles instead of singles. It’s not that strenuous of squatting, but I think it will benefit me doing it along side this deadlift program. I decided it was around 80 lbs of band tension because I tried holding them out at arms length where they would be at the top of the squat, and it was kind of hard to hold it there. It felt about the same as trying to hold a 45 lb plate out like that, maybe a tiny bit easier. I set it up so it was close to no band tension at the bottom.
Got a nice pump going with everything else. I didnt write it but I was supersetting the preacher curls with squats so I wasn’t just sittin there. I did the rows standing instead of with my feet up, so I was kind of rowing it up high… felt it a lot in the upper back / rear delts. I liked that exercise a lot so I am going to just keep adding weight to that.
Been here a week already… time flew by since we’ve been settling in and all. I was going to do my light bench on saturday, but I may end up doing it tomorrow. We didn’t even realize it but it’s a bank holiday here monday, so we are going to try to take a trip to Wales for a couple days.
I am doing the Gillingham bench program [with ridiculously tiny numbers] but tweaked it to bench geared on my heavy day and raw on my “light” day, which isn’t light anymore.
I am doing the Gillingham bench program [with ridiculously tiny numbers] but tweaked it to bench geared on my heavy day and raw on my “light” day, which isn’t light anymore.
How’s married life?[/quote]
Hey, I actually didn’t note it, but I tweaked the program a tiny bit too. I made all of the singles 2.5% higher than they actually were, so I end up hitting 105% at the end, instead of 102.5%. My bench isn’t that high yet, so I think I can pull off a 5% increase instead of 2.5%… that is my hope anyway.
Married life is good. Life over here is a bit different now though, haha. Everyone is so nice, and we are getting out meeting the locals. Every Thursday they have their league games of Aunt Sally, a really old game that involves throwing sticks at some doll on a pole. It’s pretty hard actually. Every pub has it’s own team, and there are a lot of pubs, lol. Anyway, they were short a player this week so I played on the team and did better than anyone else actually. It involved drinking a bunch of pints of guinness too.
Anyway, yeah last night was fun and they said Loren can play next week too. Life just seems much different here. Men ranging from 18 - 70 were playing last night, and everyone is all about drinking and everyone knows each other from the nearby villages, etc.
I just have to make sure those nights don’t become too frequent, lol.
[quote]maraudermeat wrote:
not that you are a kept man you’ll be training everyday. you should just switch over to bodybuilding and train twice a day:)[/quote]
Lol. I’ve actually already thought about training twice a day on some days. I can just come back the 2nd time and do bodybuilding stuff!!
If you decide to go down that dark road of bodybuilding, I might have to give you some company. I would look like a wet noodle next to you though, lol.
Speaking of which, it seems like you keep upping the volume in your training right now. I assume you are going to drop back the volume and up the intensity as you get closer to the meet, or something like that. Not that I really know what I am doing that much yet, but it just seems like you have been training different, and seemingly smarter. I wish I could be at the next meet because I think it is going to pay off big time, I hope anyway. Well, I’m sure that is your hope too, lol. Or maybe you are just setting yourself up for the switch over to bodybuilding!!
Anyway, I’m just kind of rambling. Waiting for our Sky(TV/Internet) guy to show up for installation, then headin to the gym!
[quote]maraudermeat wrote:
not that you are a kept man you’ll be training everyday. you should just switch over to bodybuilding and train twice a day:)[/quote]
Lol. I’ve actually already thought about training twice a day on some days. I can just come back the 2nd time and do bodybuilding stuff!!
If you decide to go down that dark road of bodybuilding, I might have to give you some company. I would look like a wet noodle next to you though, lol.
Speaking of which, it seems like you keep upping the volume in your training right now. I assume you are going to drop back the volume and up the intensity as you get closer to the meet, or something like that. Not that I really know what I am doing that much yet, but it just seems like you have been training different, and seemingly smarter. I wish I could be at the next meet because I think it is going to pay off big time, I hope anyway. Well, I’m sure that is your hope too, lol. Or maybe you are just setting yourself up for the switch over to bodybuilding!!
Anyway, I’m just kind of rambling. Waiting for our Sky(TV/Internet) guy to show up for installation, then headin to the gym! :D[/quote]
you hit the nail on the head. my biggest issue in the past was not doing nearly enough volume and too many singles. i’ve been slowly increasing the volume and will continue to do so snd working up to triples instead of singles. also doing the conditioning work everytime now.
i hope it does pay off. deads felt great tonight and after all those damn sets i still felt pretty good and felt even better after the tire flipping.
the new kid ryan worked up to 405lbs plus chains. he missed at 405 + 200lbs of chain but that’s pretty freak’n amazing considering he only weighs 175lbs.
[quote]maraudermeat wrote:
give me a call, i have some news on your car. [/quote]
ok
ok
ok[/quote]
Haha, I was going to say “CALL HIM DUDE!”
I’ll be following your log too man, while you might not think you’ve got the greatest numbers, they’re a far stretch from mine and I’ll be interested in seeing how more volume treats your 1rm’s.
I guess I stopped writing stuff down at this point, lol. I did a lot more though… chest flys, lat pull downs, dumbell rows, etc.
Nothing super heavy. I did lots of exercises though. I’ve done a bunch of different ones and am going to cut some out starting next week. I will not do as many but do more sets for each exercise I choose. Then I will be recording everything since my exercises won’t be all over the place so much. The dumbell rows I did felt good and I am going to start hitting them pretty hard next week.
It’s a Bank holiday here Monday, so I’m not even sure if the base gym will be open or not. Hope it is…
