Rebirth of the Juggernaut: Brute Force and Ignorance (Part 1)

DEEP WATER WORKOUT 14 (WEEK 4, WORKOUT 2)

AM WORKOUT

Chins (various grips)
1x20 overhand
1x14 NG
1x10 chins
1x11 NG

Bent over rows 225
4x10

Clean pulls 225
3x10

Reverse hyper 380
3x10

Notes: Set the time to 2:20 between sets. For the first set of chins, I focused more on lat contraction vs full ROM and they were honestly much harder. Chin was tapping the bar, but lats were burning. For the NG chins, I went with a more ROM based approach. I might just keep playing around set to set. The BORs are getting stronger. Iā€™m considering them less a lat/back builder and more a clean builder. Goal is to maintain posture and focus on back contraction. ROM is pretty low on them because of torso angle, but effect is maintained. Clean pulls are getting better. Still going with my ā€œthink lessā€ approach, now Iā€™m just trying to jump with the barbell in my hands. I may treat myself to a new bar soon, as the Texas Power Bar is tearing me up, and when I move onto 10x10 I know itā€™s going to be a bad scene. Workout as fast with the shorter rest times, and the clean pulls were pretty fatiguing.

Woke up at 197.2. Going to keep pushing forward with the food.

EDIT: On the food note, meant to include that Iā€™ve removed the breakfast cereal from my post training meal and have replaced it with 2 tablespoons of raw honey. I pretty much shot straight to the moon this morning with the first tablespoon, what with it being basically pure sugar, but I figure the more unprocessed stuff I eat, the better. I may even phase this out and go for more protein as time goes on.

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Does this bar have heavy duty knurling? Or is it a stiffness thing?

The knurling. Itā€™s pretty aggressive on the TPB, especially since it has knurling in the center. An excellent power bar, and if I were doing Olympic lifts for singles or triples it wouldnā€™t be bad, but sets of 10 start to chew me up pretty good.

Yeah I feel that. I have a bar thatā€™s fairly smooth and another that has some decent knurling. I like the smooth one for my hand health, but the agressive one helps my grip and in turn my elbow health. Always a balancing act.

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Definitely so. I feel silly having so many barbells at this point too, but Iā€™m always buying new toys, haha.

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Good to have barbell variety in home gym; i.e. ā€œyou are what you ownā€.

@biker Appreciate the support, as I ended up pulling the trigger on a boneyard Rogue echo bar last night. Supposed to get here on the 22nd, so Iā€™ll go through 1 more back workout without it. Iā€™m excited to have it.

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What do you mean by ā€œboneyardā€? Was it in the clearance/defect section?

Yeah, if you hit up their site, they have a Boneyard section that is made up of reduced priced bars with some sort of defect. Blemishes, issues with finish or knurling tend to be the common ones.

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Iā€™m interested in seeing how you like this, the boneyard bars seem like a great deal to me, which makes me worry that they are in worse shape than they let on.

Why this bar - apart from the deal obviously?

@atlas13 I imagine itā€™s more just that Rogue holds themselves to high enough standards that they wonā€™t release a sub perfect bar without a decent discount. Iā€™ll give it a once over, but since I tend to put equipment through itā€™s paces as it is, I donā€™t mind it being a little beat up.

@Koestrizer Iā€™m using a texas power bar right now, which is a great all around power bar, but for the clean pulls Iā€™ve been doing Iā€™ve noted that the knurling is chewing up my hands and legs, and thatā€™s just for 3x10. Soon in this program Iā€™ll be doing 10x10 power cleans, and I wanted something with some less aggressive knurling and nothing in the center to save my hands. This bar should have some more spin and whip on it than the power bar as well, which will be a blessing.

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I actually wrote a post about the echo bar but deleted it when I realized you werenā€™t doing cleans. I use the American Barbell Power Elite bar at the Y and it scuffs my neck on occasion. I have the echo 2.0 at home but I still go to the gym because they watch my kid for two hours while I get some me time.

The echo is used by one of the CrossFit gyms here so it must be durable.

Thatā€™s creepy. I just got an email from American Barbell about their Blemished Bar Blowout.

I havenā€™t received anything from them in over a year.

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@Frank_C Hah, go keylogging. Still be curious to hear your thoughts on the Echo. Wonā€™t be doing full cleans, but power cleans.


DEEP WATER WORKOUT 15 (WEEK 4, WORKOUT 3)

AM WORKOUT

Axle strict press 135
10x10

Superset w/

Band pull aparts
10x10

Axle curls 88lbs
5x10

DB lateral raises 25lbs
2x10
1x20

Notes: 2:50 between sets. Last rep of last set on the presses was the only real struggle. Iā€™ll see how next time goes, and if itā€™s the same, I may adjust the training max on this one to be a little higher. Curls are really feeling effective. First time in a while Iā€™ve really felt like Iā€™ve trained my biceps decent. Trying to find the balance on weight in the lateral raises. Too heavy is ineffective, too light the same.

Woke up at 198.6.

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I like my Echo bar. It has good bearings which is all I care about. Iā€™ve never used a bar with a a lot of whip so I donā€™t know what thatā€™s like. The Echo seems pretty stiff which is what Iā€™m used to using so I donā€™t mind it. Iā€™d compare the whip (flexibility) of it to a standard bar.

The knurling is not aggressive and the center is nice and smooth.

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@Frank_C Excellent news. Iā€™m hoping to have a similar experience. If nothing else, I always like new toys, haha


DEEP WATER WORKOUT 16 (WEEK 4, WORKOUT 4)

AM WORKOUT

Axle bench press 251
3x10

Close grip axle bench press 221
3x10

Swiss bar incline bench 185
3x10

Dips
1x23
1x18
1x19

Push ups
2x20
1x21

Notes: 2:20 between sets. This workout keeps getting tougher and tougher, which is good. Weights really seem to be dialed in, and Iā€™m getting a pretty decent pump when itā€™s over, especially as the rest periods get shorter.

Played another game of flag football yesterday. Only stood on o-line and blocked. Still happy I didnā€™t blow anything out.

Woke up at 197.6. Iā€™m struggling eating enough for the demands of the training. Going to have to start getting creative.

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How many players bounced off you !! :wink:

@simo74 There are many rules in flag football, itā€™s hard to be effective, haha. I got like 1 or 2 good blocks. What is funny though is that I got warned a few times for elbows sticking out. Apparently, weā€™re supposed to have our elbows to our side so that we didnā€™t clip any of them. After a few warnings, our team captain went to the ref and said ā€œLook, he canā€™t put his elbows to his side: his lats get in the way.ā€ After that, I was granted an exemption to the rule. Iā€™d call that a true victory, haha. Between that, and my traps setting off every body scanner at every airport I go to, I think Iā€™m really getting somewhere.


Had to skip the AM workout. Got called into work for a quick moment. Gonna hit the PM and go for broke.

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Iā€™ve been curious about this since I first saw you mention it. Why do your traps set off the scanners?

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