Friday, March 26, 2010

Wed Through Saturday

Wednesday - Back Solo Again

I recorded my numbers and what not but cant remember them off the top of my head so wont bother listing everything.

Started with a max effort test for chins. Deadlifts are going to be off the menu for a while so I'll use this for my 5-3-1 program. Ended up with 30kgs on the belt. Might have had more but was always going to be conservative anyway. Next week I'll work off that as my true max.

Dumbell Rows - I worked up to a couple of very heavy sets, but I want to change my form on these next week so I'll go a lot lighter.

Seated row - didnt expect to be able to do these but wnet alright. Stayed more up right after talking to Fry and felt it heaps more in my back. Dropped the weight as a result but that fits into the rest of my program right now anyway.

Still had a few hard reps/sets but for the most part felt good afterwards.

Thurs - Shoulders. Started with front seated press (5-3-1) but cocked up my numbers. Will fix them next month and keep progressing on what I did.

Behind the neck seated press. Pulled the bar apart more on these and felt it more in my shoulders. Haven't done these properly for a while so it felt good doing them again.

Lateral Dbell Raises - dropped the weights and focused on form again. Felt like I got a shitload more from them.

Bbell Shrugs with bands - These were good but I probably didnt compensate for the bands too well and went too heavy. I wanted to do a couple of high rep sets but only managed 1. Not too worried though.

Friday - Bi's and Speed bench. Started with face pulls for 6 sets then 11 sets of 60kgs on speed bench with bands. Decided to use a lighter weight and keep my elbows happy. Still went well and by then end I was real happy with my form.

1 arm cable curls, seated dumbell curls, ez bar curls. No one should log their bicep training online let alone talk about it so I'll leave it at that.

Saturday - bench Shirt and triceps. Worked up to 180 off the chest but missed it. I shouldn't have been so worried about my calf during the set up. It held up fine on the 1 board at 180 but I purposely kicked it out to the side when I went off the chest so I struggled to have any stability or purchase through the grind.

Dbell Extensions, Overhead Extentions, Push Downs. All new triceps session which felt real good. Managd to do some decent volume with good weight, and my elbows stayed happy.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Tuesday - Chest Solo

Started with the 5-3-1 program today. It's not too dissimilar to the aproach I've used since I start training with Mike and Craig last year. If I hadn't trained with those boys I'd probably still be in the habit of switching off after the first exercise (max effort) rather then being focused throughout the whole session.

One change from Wendler's examples is that all my assistance exercises are for the one body part. I find that I get more balance from training this way then by mixing up each session. I like to train 5-6 days each week, so that makes it easier although I found I had to be much smarter about things like exercise choices and recovery in order to make it work. Especially after I went back to training in the mornings.

Bench Press -

97.5 x 5, 105 x 5, 117.5 x 8 - I may have got the percentages a bit wrong but the principle of working with a sub-max weight still applies.

Crazy Bells - I kept this one in from the past few weeks because its still working very well for me (I originally only planned for 3 exercises total)
84 x 10, 94 x 10, 99 x 10, 9
the 2nd last set was easy so I was tempted to increase the final one but decided to stick with it for the sake of staying on the lighter side of things. The last few reps were hard, especially when I got a big bounce going through the bands.

Incline Flyes
25 x 10, 9 20 x 10, 10 - these are tough after crazy bells. I kept my arms wide to try and keep the tension on my chest the whole time. I might switch to cables

Mach Press - I like to finish with these for high reps
40 x 15, 50 x 15,15

Looking forward to coming up with something as a main lift for back day tomorrow (since I cant deadlift with my torn calf). Will probably use weighted chins so might end up doing a max effort test so I can tell where I'm at with them.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Back Into It

Couldn't be bothered keeping my log and updating this log for the past couple of months but decided today that I'll get back into keeping track of how I felt, ideas and stuff like that on here.

I'm at a very philosphical phase right now as I'm coping with a torn calf and a fucked back. The back injury was a real let down as it happened while I was stretching cold.

Up to that point my training had been going really well, but having said that I think I jumped too quick (like I always do) which meant I was carrying around more fatigue then usual.

The calf was a bit of accumulated fatigue and bad luck. Its a pretty nasty injury but healing quickly  so hopefully I'll be able to have a bit of a muck around in the 3 lift next month, although my squats and deadlifts will likely be rubbish.

So I'm even more of a bench specialist then I had first planned. Nevermind. Wont make any blold plans here for any of the other lifts (squats, deads or strongman) but will still be incorporating plenty of that training.

First session this week will be chest tomorrow. Still have to decide what I'm going to do and what comps to target. I'd like to lift something decent at an Eastside comp this year and have a crack at 200 at the National bench.