Decided to try a full grip on press today. I think it went well. Puts a little more pressure on my wrists, so might not use it for volume work, but felt much stronger being able to squeeze the bar so much harder. First 4 sets were dead-stop off the upper chest, but had to do touch-n-go for the remaining 6.
So, tried out the pneumatic machine for lat pulldown today. Spent about 30s on it then said nah. There was no lap bar, but it didn’t seem like adding resistance was actually making the movement any harder anyway. Went over to the regular stack machine.
Also, should note that each day I’ve worked out at the college gym I’ve walked about a mile back to my hotel.
Edit: Also it’s C’s opening night and I’m real happy about that.
Used a press width grip and pauses on all the bench reps. Usually I go a little wider but wanted to try something new.
Speaking of new, first time using one of those t-bar handles that slips over the collar, they come out like a pair of handle bars. Definitely prefer the v-handle, but didn’t necessarily hate using this.
Part of me is starting to enjoy splitting sessions into main movements one day, assistance work the next. Part of me is real excited to get back home and train more like I’m accustomed to.
That said, the next time I’m time constrained this could be a viable option to get some good training in. I can get two main lifts done in like 30-40 minutes, two assistance days for 30 minutes, and two conditioning days at 20-30 minutes. Not how I’d prefer to do things, and I should have a more natural work schedule once I’m home, but for travel or crazy periods I may look back to this.
I think I’m going to make high bar squats my go-to variation over low bar. This is kind of getting into the minutia of training, which I want to avoid, but I think low bar is probably better served as a variation for me.
Used two independent handles for the pull downs today, makes for a really great movement and fatigued my back a lot faster, probably due to being able to contract harder. Hit some myo-reps for shits at the end.
Last workout of the leader. Will start the anchor phase next week. Flying home tomorrow and moving this weekend. Should be able to follow the program as prescribed though.
Fairly disappointed with my squats tonight, wanted 7 going into this but just had no juice. To be fair to myself I have been moving all weekend, sleeping, hydrating, and eating fairly poorly. In that light it’s whatever. I did all my sets high bar until the last one, might’ve thrown me off a little too with the random change.
Super sets of knee raises with squats, and bench with row. Did my dips with 60s or so rest, and one set of back raises to finish up.
Felt like a crappy workout, but writing it down, seems fair. Wanted at least 5 on the press but didn’t have it. Think I have a cold coming down on me on top of the last handful of days, probably another contributing factor.
Super set of press and pullups, then just straight sets with short rest for everything else. Couldn’t be bothered to try and coordinate all this at the university gym.
Reverse crunches on the ball were much harder than anticipated.
Finally a good workout this week. The others weren’t necessarily bad per se, but I felt like I accomplished something on this one. Went in with the idea of pulling 7 at that top set and got 9. Could’ve had an ugly 10, and maybe even a horrifying 11th, but decided to save that for the final week.
Thanks man, first semblance of solid progress I’ve seen in a while on that set.
I have considered filming, but the one time I tried to self-film a set it looked pretty bad and haven’t bothered to try and set it up again. The house I just moved to might be a little more conducive to setting up a phone for filming. I also have to sacrifice my music to film, and it covers up the sounds of my joints popping and cracking so I like to keep it loud haha.
Knocked this out yesterday, just the two super sets and not a ton of assistance work. Went to a ‘friendsgiving’ and my buddy has a power rack, so I got this in before the party started since I couldn’t before we left.
His bench is super high and very unstable so I was working just to keep the unrack stable, and leg drive left a bit to be desired. I think at my place, I’d have gotten a 7th rep
Hard to say, I feel like my squat has been regressing lately tbh, but in 2 weeks I’ll see how many reps I can do at 235. I should be able to knock out 5-6 reps at that weight at this point, but I suspect 4 or 5 will be a grind.
Once upon a time I got up to 5x5 at 240 when I thought SL5x5 was the gospel. In reality I had awful mechanics and was really beating my body up.
Stuck with high bar for todays top set instead of switching to low bar. Seemed to work better for me. Stood for about 10s with the weight on my back trying to get enough breath to go for an 8th and just decided to rack it.