Thursday, October 28, 2010

Day 3 week 22

Gorgeous morning, starting off a little chilly for SD. Worked until 10:00 last night teaching a Masters class and just had to get in some training this morning. Felt fantastic.

Started with Results and the Shelby mix. Wore elbow sleeves and wrist wraps. Started before the hour I'm s'posed to let the Results sit -- oh well.

All sets 5-7 reps, 180s between, all to positive failure (or worse).

Kroc rows: 3 sets x 8 reps with the fat DBs loaded with 85 kilos. Grip suffered a little, as the fats don't have knurling. Chalk doesn't help much with these, but it's an obsession -- can't lift without it.

Posterior fly: 3 x 10 reps with 25 pound plates freehanded. Just did these to polish off my upper back and posterior deltoids. Felt easy, frankly. Will go up next time.

Fly fat DB: 3 sets with 85 kg this time and ran them doggcrapp style again. Got 21 (+1), 15(+2), and 10(+1) -- more than last time on all sets with more weight. Feel good about that. I still need to weld up some hooks for the fat DBs, as kicking these up is a bastard. Once up to my chest, the first heft is dead-bottom full ROM, which I don't like for these old shoulders. I need to start high. Maybe the boy and I can do some welding damage this weekend.

Fat rope drag curl: 3 x 8 with 85 kilos on the DB. Still loving these and still making progress, though they felt tough today.

Calf: Threw a bunch of weight on the SSB and did Doggcrapp style 12-reps sets to failure three times, just like last time.

Still making baby-step progress, so I'm happy. Too much layoff between training days, so these morning sessions will have to become the norm. Just need to block out my calendar until 9 or 9:30 every day. Yeah, sure. Then again, there's got to be some perk to being the boss (I'm #2, but my CEO is usually in at 9 herself).

Anyway, gorgeous day to ride the motorcycle in way too fast. Hope everyone has a liberating day -- be your best today regardless of what's holding you back. Don't accept your limitations for once, particularly outside the weight room.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Day 2 week 22

A little tired today. Thursday was the anniversary of my wedding and I've been drinking too much since, so dragging a little. Beautiful day, though, after a week of rain. A few clouds breaking up the monotony of perfection.

I used Results and the Shelby mix per usual. I added half a Spike to my peri-workout drink to stim up a little.

Wore elbow sleeves and wrist wraps for the upper work, went raw for lower. Warmed up with a lot of dynamic work and bar weight before each.

All exercises were 3 sets of 8-10 with 180s rest between, all to positive failure.

Shoulder work: 3 sets of 10 reps with 35# again. Held each rep at the top and worked to avoid swinging at the bottom. Right shoulder barked at the top of my superior acromioclavicular joint. Just a little twinge like tendinitis, though I think I just didn't warm it up well enough. Nothing now after lifting, so no biggie. I'll go back and get Magmo and Assess&Correct and figure out what I need to do better.

Narrow Grip Bench Press with the regular bar: 160 kilos x 3 x 10. Weight up ten kilos again. No shoulder trouble, though they were a little crunchy during warm-up. Fine under real tension. Last set was a bitch, so I'm happy.

SSB box squat to parallel: 3 x 10. Set up the box just below parallel and backed the weight off about 20 kilos. Just wasn't excited about squatting today, which is very, very unusual for me. So I went down to 220 kilos and did sets of 20. Didn't use my briefs or knee sleeves, and my quads were burning badly on the last reps. Very happy about this and was pumped up huge. I'll go back to the norm next time -- just didn't want to push when paranoid. My left quad vastus still aches at times, so I'm constantly massaging it during the day and worrying about squat days. I need to get past this. Might be time to go back to ATG or something, because the box is starting to feel like a security blanket. We'll see. I worry when I start to depend on something.

I still feel good about today even though I didn't get everything I wanted. Progress sometimes slows.

Hope everyone has a great day.

Monday, October 18, 2010

Day 1 week 22

Contemplating a return to 5/3/1, though it's been so long since I deadlifted, I'm not sure what would happen. Still, I feel the tug of occasional maxes. Been a long time.

Worked early this morning. The office can wait. Been too long anyway.

Started with Results and the Shelby protocol. Wore elbow sleeves and wrist wraps -- no other support.

Started with very little dynamic and band work, did a bunch of bar work to warm up, and got to it.

All sets were 8-10 reps under control to positive failure.

Pullups: 3x10 reps +85#
Used a narrow supinated grip today just to mix it up, and did them doggcrapp style. Got 20 reps in the first set, 15 second, 10 third. Interesting. I'll probably not continue DC style for pullups, but I will continue to mix up grips.

Hammer Curl: 3x10 reps 65#
Too easy today. Thought I'd hurt here after the supinated pullups, but it wasn't so. Time to move up the weight. Skinny grip DBs, btw.

Bench
: 3x10 reps 240kg
Same weight as last time, banged out 8 reps per set. These felt good, though not easy. I might stay at this weight for a while until I get 10 for all three sets.

Calves: 3x50 lots of chains
Did them all off a 6" platform and worked on full ROM. Again threw four of the big chains over my shoulders and pushed them out.

Rainy day here at the start of what's forecast to be a rainy week. I kind of like it, actually. It'll make the interstate ugly going in, but that's the price.

Hope everyone has a great day.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Day 4 week 21

Gorgeous day here; warm but not hot, bluebird skies. Great day to sweat.

Started with AtLarge Results and the Shelby mix, elbow sleeves, wrist wraps. No Spike or Surge Workout Fuel today. Loose briefs and knee sleeves for the squats.

I did some dynamic work and a lot of bar work to warm up before getting to it. Everything felt ok going in.

All exercises were 3 sets of 5-7 with about 180s between.

Military press, seated, regular bar, wide: 3 x 7 reps with the same weight as last week. Felt pretty good though a little tougher than I anticipated. No telling why. Gutted all three full sets out, felt them in my shoulders, moved on.

Elbows-out triceps extensions: 3x7 reps Used the 35 kilo skinnies doggcrapp style. Bridged on a decline bench so that I'd be pushing down, but kept the DBs in contact with each other constantly. Really felt these. Got 21/18/13 reps, ten deep breaths between sets.

Squat
: 3 x 7 reps 170 kg on the SSB. Same weight as last time. My right hip is a little sore and I wanted to see if squats would loosen it up a little; as a result, I didn't push the weight up. These were fairly easy on the quads, so I'll take the weight up next time.

A good day, if a little cautious. Coaching baseball this afternoon, so I'll be in the sun for a few hours. Works for me.

Now to go eat as much as I can cram in. Btw, Snickers dipped in natty PB is freakin' awesome.

Have a great day.

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Day 3 week 21

Beautiful, warm day here. Gonna be a great weekend.

Tunes were dominated by Chevelle, Nickelback, Godsmack, and House of Broken Promises.

Started with Results and the Shelby mix. Wore elbow sleeves and wrist wraps.

All sets 5-7 reps, 180s between, all to positive failure (or worse).

Kroc rows: 3 sets x 8 reps with the fat DBs loaded with 80 kilos, same as last time. Didn't notice my note to go up -- I will next time.

Snatch: 3 x 8 reps with 30 kilo DBs, skinny handles. Decided to use these rather than the chains for control reasons. These were tough, frankly.

Fly fat DB: 3 sets with 80 kg this time and ran them doggcrapp style again. Kept the weight the same just because I forgot to go up. Got 20 (+2), 13 (+0), 9 (-2). These were tough today, but I'll still go up.

Fat rope drag curl: 3 x 8 with 80 kilos on the DB. Still loving these and still making progress.

Calf: Threw a bunch of weight on the SSB and did Doggcrapp style 12-reps sets to failure three times, just like last time. And they were still tough.

Got a lot I want to do this weekend, though don't know how much I'll get to. Hope you all have a great, productive weekend. I'll squat tomorrow, so until then...

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Day 2 week 21

Posting late because I had to go coach a baseball game.

I used Results, Surge WF, and the Shelby mix per usual.

Wore elbow sleeves and wrist wraps for the upper work, loose briefs and knee sleeves for lower. Warmed up with a lot of dynamic work and bar weight before each.

All exercises were 3 sets of 8-10 with 180s rest between, all to positive failure.

Shoulder work: 3 sets of 10 reps with 35# again. Held each rep at the top and worked to avoid swinging at the bottom. Shoulders felt fine. Fairly tough today, which is interesting since last time they were easy. I'm a little surprised the weight isn't going up here, but I'm too careful of my shoulders to push it. Once again I followed them up with...

Posterior fly: 3 sets of 10 reps with 30# each hand, seat at about 30 degrees from flat. These just clobber whatever is left in my shoulders, which makes the NGB interesting.

Narrow Grip Bench Press with the fat bar: 150 kilos x 3 x 10. Weight up ten kilos -- these felt good today, with the exception of my shoulders wanting to cramp. Kept lats tight, worked on grooving them square over my chest, and felt good about it.

SSB box squat to parallel: 3 x 10. Set up the box just below parallel and added another 10 kilos per side. The first set was easy enough that I wondered if I'd made a mistake. I shouldn't have wondered. The third was hard and I'm still wobbly eight hours later.

Great day, good progress in a couple of areas, and still developing confidence in the left quad.

Keep at it, everyone.