9/10 - 9/17 training

Monday: upper body warmup
Bench: warm up to 315
3x335x3 3x355x1 different bar felt shitty af.
JMpress: 3x155x6
Db bench: 2x100x20,14
Chinups 3x8
50 hyper extensions.

Tuesday: lower body warmup
Sumo:warmup.  4x365x3
Deficit stiff leg dl: 3x235x6 doesn't feel bad today.
100 facepulls + 100 back extensions.

Thursday: upper body warmup
Close grip bench: warm-up to 295x8 5x295x5
Larsen: 5x295x3
DB circuit 3 rounds.
50 hyper extensions

Friday: lower body Warm-up
Front squat: 205x8 3x205x5
Deadlift: 3x315x4
Felt really tired today.

Pretty meh week in terms of lifting.  My season starts October 10th, so I plan to hit my maxes the week before that, and then let my strength coach take over until after the season.  I probably won't be posting on here in that period, because I have no clue what the workouts are going to be like, or how the progression is going to go. 

9/3 - 9/10 training

Monday: upper body warmup
Bench: warm-up to 355x1
2x315x5 4x335x3
Jm press: 3x145x8
Db bench: 2x100x19,12
Chins: 3x8

Tuesday: lower body warm-up
Deadlift: warm-up to 6x345x3
Rdl: 3x235x8. Low back still feels no bueno.  Called it after this.

Thursday: upper body warmup
Close grip bench: warm-up to 275x10 4x275x6
3x275x5 Larsen
DB circuit 3 sets
50 hyperextensions

Friday: lower body Warmup
Front squat: warm-up to 215x6 4x215x4
Deadlift: 3x315x3.  Back feels a little better..  don't wanna push the reps.
Offweight Bulgarian split squat: 2x25x17,15
50 back extensions

Pretty good week in terms of training.  My low back is still feeling bad which in weird because it doesn't bother me when I'm wrestling or pulling sumo.  Decided to throw in more back extensions because I watched a video where a big Russian motherfucker said to do them everyday.  Also can help condition my back for wrestling.  I've been running and wrestling more too which might be cutting into recovery, but I feel fine as of right now.  Really expecting to hit my goal of 405 for 2 or 3 with the way weights are moving.

8/27 - 9/3 training

Monday: upper body warmup,
Bench: warm-up to 355x1
4x315x5 2x335x3
Jm press: 4x135x8
Db press: 2x100x15,11
4x10 chins

Tuesday: lower body warm-up
Deadlift: warm-up to 8x325x3
Stiff leg deficit deadlift: 3x235x8
Barbell row: 3x185x10

Thursday: upper body warmup
Close grip bench: warm-up to 255x12(really easy) 3x255x10,8,7
4x255x5,4 larsen
2 rounds of curls and extensions and flyes with 30 lbs amap

Friday: front squat: 195x10 4x195x8,7,7,6
Deadlift: 2 sets of 315.  Felt easy but lower back was feeling off so I cut it.
Offloaded Bulgarian split squats: 2x25x15

Good week of lifting.  Definitely feeling strong despite not eating as much as I have been and school starting this week.  Monday I literally was starving going into the gym and still crushed it.  This Monday I'm hoping to hit 20 reps with the 100s on at least one of the sets.

Thursday was my first time lifting at my school fitness center and the bar and benches are different than what I'm used to at my other gym, but the 255x12 felt like an rpe 7 which I thought was amazing. 

Also front squatted on Friday for the first time in 2 or 3 weeks.  Didn't do as much work as I would have liked that day because my low back felt awkward at the top of the deadlift so kept it short.  The offloaded Bulgarian split squats will hopefully help with balance/my weak glute med.  Definitely noticed it's a lot harder to balance on my right side so hopefully this helps along with the bad girls I'm doing in my lower body warmup.

8/20 - 8/27 training

Monday: upper body warmup
Bench: warm-up to 315x1, 3x325x3 3x345x1
JM press: 3x145x6
Db press: 2x90x20
Chins: 3x8

Tuesday: lower body warm-up
Sumo: warm up to 325x3 4x345x3
Deficit romanian: 5x235x8
Barbell row: 3x185x10

Thursday: upper body warmup
Close grip: warm-up to 285x8 5x285x5
Larsen: 5x285x3
3 circuits 30 lbs DB curls and extensions and floor flyes with fat gripz

No leg day again because of school stuff and 0 time.  Other than that this was a pretty good week.  Acid reflux feeling a bit worse these last 2 weeks not being able to eat as much as I'd like since I got back from Georgia.  Hopefully this will change.  College starts Tuesday as well.

8/13-8/20 training

Wednesday:upper body Warm up
Bench: warm-up to 345x1 2x305x5 4x325x3
Jm press: 3x135x8
DB press: 2x80x20
Chinups: 3x10

Thursday: lower body Warmup
Sumo: warm-up to 6x320x3
Deficit RDL: 4X235X8
Barbell row: 4x185x10

Friday: upper body Warm up
Close grip: warm-up to 255x10  2x255x8 2x255x6
Larsen: 4x255x5

This week was hectic with the wedding and flying and stuff.  Everything was thrown off schedule and didn't feel.good.  I kinked my neck again on the other side now too, and I got a little.cold so decided.to cut leg day and focus on recovering so I can start fresh the next week.

I changed my Warm ups too to 1 set of 50 of each exercise, because I can't hold 4 machines/stations by myself in a commercial gym.

8/7 - 8/13 training

Monday: upper body Warm  up
Bench: warm-up to 345 4x305x5 2x325x3
JM press: 135x8 3x115x8
DB press: 80x20,13,11
Chinups 4x10

Tuesday: lower body Warm up
Sumo deadlift: 8x300x3
Deficit Romanian: 3x235x8
Barbell row: 4x205x8

Wednesday: upper body Warm up
Close grip bench: warm up to 225x12..probably had another 20 lbs in me 225x10 2x225x8
4x225x5 larsen press
Dumbbell curls + rolling triceps extension + floor flyes circuit 30 lbs each:
Curls: 23, 12
Extensions: 22, 14
Flyes: 25, 16

Thursday: lower body warm-up
Squat: 300x8 300x5 275x6 just gonna switch this to front squats and reprogram.  Squats still fuck my elbow.
Deadlift: 3x315x6
Hack machine: 2x2platesx12
Glute work

7/23-7/30 training

Tms: 225fs 330bench 210ohp 365dl

Monday: front squat:155x5 180x5 5x200x5
Ohp: 145x5 165x5 190x5 145x12
100 chins different grips in 10 sets
Facepulls: 5x35x20
Dips: 10 sets 143 total reps

Deadlift: 255x5 290x5 3x325x5
Bench: 235x5 265x5 4x295x5 275x5
Db rows: 5x55x20
Incline 1.5 curls: 25x10 2x25x8

Ohp: 10x145x5
Front squat: 155x5 180x5 200x5 155x20backsquat
Weighted chins: 5x55x5 different grips
5x35x20 facepulls
100 shrugs 170 in 2 sets.

Not the best lifting week for me.  Monday was the best day.  I kinked my neck Tuesday from wrestling and it made deadlift and bench feel like hell the next day.  Friday my neck felt okay but I felt really sick in the morning and almost didn't train.  Glad I stuck it out tho and trained because it was an okay workout.

7/16 - 7/23 training

Monday: Front squat: 135x5 165x5 5x18 5x5
Ohp: 135x5 145x5 165x5 135x11
100 chins different grips in 10 sets
5x20 facepulls 35 lbs
Dip machine: bodyweight for 100 reps in 5 sets

Wednesday: Deadlift: 225x5 275x5 3x315x5
Bench: 225x5 255x5 5x275x5
Db rows: 5x50x20 both sides.
Db spider curl: 50 both sides in 5 sets 25 lbs

Friday: Ohp: 10x145x5
Squat: front: 135x5 165x5 185x5 165x20 back
5x45x5 chins different grips
100 facepulls 5x20 at 35 lbs
100 shrugs on calf machine 150x2sets

Training felt good this week..  expecting good things if my eating keeps up.  This was more of a primer week..  the intensity for the main lifts was down 5-10% on all lifts, so this can be considered "week 0" in a sense.

7/9 -7/16 training

Monday: paused bench: 240x3 275x3 315x6 240x9
felt really weak.
+ barbell row: 4x225x7

Incline bench: 5x185x10,10,8,8,8
+ facepulls: 5x50x12
Floor flyes:7 3x40x15
+ straight arm pulldowns 3x50x15

75 poundstone curls and extensions

Tuesday: deadlift: 3x325x5 5x195x10 snatch grip, 2x135x6 super deficit
No leg press today
75 leg curls and extensions

Thursday: Ohp: 150x3 170x3 195x 150x
+ Kirk shrugs: 4x225x10

Db ohp: 4x80x10,9,8,8
+ meadows shrugs: 4x80x10,9,8,8

Lateral raises + rear delt raises: 3x15x15

Poundstone curls and overhead extension 75 reps each

No Friday got called in early to work.
Think I'm overtraining a bit.  Wrestling 3 times a week on top of Hitting 30 sets on 2 upper body days and doing 10 or more sets of deads and squats on my 2 lower body days seems to be really taking a toll on my sleep.

I might just switch back to BtM since I didn't really give it a fair shot, And the volume seems a little more managable then what I've been running.

Not sure if I wanna do a deload tho since I deloaded 2 weeks ago.  Will probably just do a lighter week of btm then do 3 weeks till my cousins wedding in august

7/2 - 7/9 training

Monday:
Paused bench: 225x5 260x5 295x8 225x10
+ bent barbell row: 4x225x6

Incline: 5x185x10-6
+ facepulls: 5x50x12

Floor flyes: 3x35x15
+ straight arm pulldown: 3x50x15
Poundstone curls + overhead extensions: 50 reps each

Tuesday:
Deadlift: 3x315x5 5x185x10 snatch grip 2x185x6 romanians 2x135x5 super deficit.
Leg press: 3x4platesx20,15
50 leg curls and extensions

Thursday:
Ohp: 135x5 160x5 225 miss 180x8
+ Kirk shrugs: 4x225x10

Db ohp: 3x80x10-8
+ meadows shrugs: 3x80x10-8

Incline lateral raises + rear delt flyes: 2x15x15

50 poundstone curls and extensions

Friday:
Hang cleans 3x5 185
Front squat: 145x5 165x5 190x9
20 rep back squat 190
Hack squat: 3x2platesx20
50 leg curls and extensions

Everything feels pretty weak.  Sort of expecting this for another few weeks.  Deadlift felt surprisingly good this week, especially the super romanians.. such a good stretch.  Front squats didn't feel horrible either.  Hopefully my poundage will go up soon.

Upcoming mass training breakdown

Since this week is a deload week and there is no log, I figured I would share my plans for the future.

I plan to start a 6 week mass block next week, And if I don't have the time to start it, Then I'll use next week as a primer and start it next week.  The routine is going to be as such.

Monday: bench 531 fsl. + barbell row
Bbb inclines + chest supported row
Floor flyes + straight arm pulldowns 3x15
Poundstone curls & overhead extension 100 reps.

Tuesday: deadlift 3x5
Snatch grip deadlift Bbb
Hack squat 3x20
Leg curls and extensions 100 reps

Thursday:  OHP531 + Kirk rows: 5x10
Seated DB OHP + meadows shrugs: 4x8-12
Incline lateral raises + rear delt flyes 3x15
Poundstone curls + overhead triceps.

Friday: hang clean 3x5
Front squat 531
20 rep back squat
100 leg curls and extensions

Saturday arms

100 lateral raises every training day in the morning.
50 feet to bar everytime I'm at wrestling club.

Goals:  The plan is to get bigger and grow muscle in all my weaker areas while still holding onto my strength that I developed.  As such I'll be doing some form of heavy main lift work, but with less volume than before to save energy for the assistance muscle building movements.  In addition, all work after the main movement is going to use at least a 3 second negative to increase eccentric tension and (hopefully) growth.  I'm looking to add about 5 lbs in this phase.

MAIN FOCUSES: quads and shoulders are the big ones here.  I really need more quad strength if I ever want to squat and pull big numbers, and I'm hoping to combat this with front squats as my main movement and almost entirely taking back squats out.  This will be the main movement of this phase where I really try to push the strength on.  Along with hack squats on Tuesday and widowmakers on friday, I hope my quads really grow in this mass phase.

For the shoulders (and upper chest.. I'm lumping these 2 together) I'm focusing a lot on inclines on my bench press day, and throwing dumbbell pressing in the mix on my ohp day, along with some side and rear delt raises, which I haven't done in a long time.  In addition to this, I'll be doing 100 lateral raises every morning that I train, to try to really add some size to my deltoids which leads me to my next point.

Ultra high reps:  I got these from Paul Carter and Derek Poundstone.  Basically they do 100 curls straight with a barbell and the results can speak for themselves.  I've slowly been working up to 100 the past 2 or 3 weeks now for the poundstone curls as well as triceps extensions, and I already feel my elbows are a lot happier, and that my arms are growing well too.  I plan to give this a try for shoulders this training phase and see if they can really increase.how wide my shoulders are.

EATING: probably the least to write about, I'm going to try to eat what I've normally been eating, but waking up a little bit earlier to get more food in the Morning, as well as adding two PBJs to my diet a day.  My diet is going to change daily because of work and family, but I should still be able to gain weight and keep it fairly rigid.

6/11 - 6/18 training

Monday: PausedBench: 255x5 290x3 320x7.  290x7 255x10 3x255x5 wide grip
+ facepulls 8x15

Dips: 3x15 + 3x6 pullups.

Poundstone curls got 75
+ overhead extension 75 reps.

Tuesday: deadlift: 325 5x5 3x8 235 deficit.
75 leg curls and extensions.

Thursday: OHP: 155x5 175x3 2x210x1 200x4
+ 5x225x8 barbell row.

4x185x10 slow incline press + neutral pull up 4x45x5

75 poundstone and overhead

Friday: squat: 250x5 285x3 315x8 285x6
75 leg curls and extensions.  No time because of work today.

Not a bad week for my upper body training.  My lower body exercises still feel like crap though.  Gonna deload in a week or 2 and then go hard with some mass building to hopefully get those exercises moving in the right direction again.

Training 6/4 - 6/11

Monday: Paused Bench: 235x3 275x3 305x8 275x7 235x 4x235x5 larsen.
+ facepulls 9x55x15

Dips: 2 x15 1x10 3 second descent + pullups 3x6 3 second descent.

50 poundstone curls
50 overhead triceps

Tuesday: Deadlift: 5x315x5 3x275x8 deficit.
50 leg curls
50 leg extensions

Thursday: Ohp: 145x3 165x3 2x210x1 190x7
+ I row 5x225xa8
9
Incline bench: 4x185x10,10,9,8 slows eccentrics
+ close grip pull up 4x45x5

50 curls 50 extensions

Friday: Squat: 235x3 265x3 300x9 225x15
Hack squat: 3x2platesx20
50 leg curls and extensions.

Really starting to slow my eccentrics down to add some muscle.  Gonna start a mass building phase after the 4th.  Dropping the extra 5/3/1 stuff and really focusing on my assistance exercises for 6 weekz.

Training 5-30 - 6/4

Monday: pause bench: 225x5 255x5 295x10 255x10 225x10
5x225x5 Larsen
+ 10x15 facepulls

Dips: 3x2platesx10
+ pullups: 3x6

Tuesday: deadlift: a lot of triples with 275 and 315.

Thursday: ohp: 135x5 157.5x5 2x210x1 180x9
+ barbell row: 5x225x8

Incline: 4x205x10,8,8,8
+ weighted neutral pullups: 4x45x5

Farmers walk: 5 total there and back. with 100 each hand.
Kettlebell skullcrusher: 40s for 32

Friday: squat: 225x5 250x5 285x10 250x10 225x10
Speed deadlift: 6x225x3
Hack squat: 3x2platesx20

5/21/17-5/28 training

Monday: Paused bench: 255x5 285x3 315x7 285x7 255x8
3x255x5 Larsen.
+ facepulls: 8x55x12

Dips: 3x2platesx8
+ pullups: 3x6

Hammer curls And overhead rope extension

Tuesday: Deadlift: 275x10triples
Rubish raises: 3x135x12 + hanging leg raises 3x10

Wednesday: Ohp: 155x5 175x3 2x205x1 195x6
+ barbell.row: 5x225x7

Incline bench: 3x185x10
+ close grip pulldown: 3x180x8

Db fg alternating curls rest pause 35s for 26 total
Dead stop KB extension rest pause 35s for 37 total

Thursday: Squat: 245x5 275x3 310x8 275x8 245x8 3x245x3paused.
Rubish back extensions: 3x135x12
Leg extensions: 3x145x20

Condensed week since I went away for the weekend.  Strength is coming back on upper body.  Need to work on deadlift form.  Squats felt bad because I deadlifted on Tuesday and two days later I squatted.

5/14/17 - 5/21/17 training.

Monday:
Paused Bench: 235x3 270x3 300x8 270x8 235x10
+ bent over barbell row: 5x225x6

Dips: 4x2platesx8
+ pullups: 4x8,6,6,5

Hammer curls(FG): rest pause to failure 3 times 40 lbs 28 total reps
overhead rope extension: rest pause to failure 3 times65 lbs 30 total reps.

Tuesday: Deadlift: 255x3 290x3 325x11 255x11 touch n  go
Rubish back extensions: 4x135x12
Deadlift stance leg press: 2x3platesx50

Thursday: Ohp(touch chest): 145x3 165x3 185x7 165x7 145x7
+ barbell row: 5x225x6

Incline bench: 3x185x10
+ close grip pulldown:
3x160x10

Supinating curls and decline db extensions to failure.

Friday: Squat: 225x3 260x3 295x8 260x8 225x8
Pause squat: 4x225x3
Rubish raises: 3x135x12 + hanging leg raises for 10 reps.

Notes: not a bad week.  Finally getting back into the swing of things.  I'm still doing my arm day on Saturdays but for Monday and Thursday I'm changing it up to 1 giant rest pause set each to reduce total volume a bit.  The reason being is that I plan on incorporating some more sumax sets on the push days, whether that be the incline bench on overhead days or a flat variation on bench days.  I want to set this up similar to my squat day where I'll do 5 sets on my 5s day, 4 sets on my 3s day and 3 sets on my 1s day.  I also switched out the decline press for the incline press because I feel like the incline press can help with my shoulder strength, which I feel is a big weak point that I'm going to have to deal with if I want my max to stay consistently above 400.

5/7/17 - 5/14/17 training

Monday: Bench: 225x5 250x5 285x9 250x10 225x12
+ bb row: 5x225x6

Dips: 4x2platesx8,8,6,6
+close grip pullup: 4x8,7,6,6

Swiss bar hammer curls(FG): 3x95x6
+ overhead rope pusgdown: 3x60x12

Tuesday: Deadlift: 235x5 275x5 315x12 235x15(touchngo until grip failed)
Pete rubish back extensions: 135x12 185x6 2x135x10
Deadlift stance leg press: 2x2platesx50

Thursday: Ohp: 135x5 155x5 175x10 155x10 135x10
+ facepulls: 5x60x12
Close grip decline bench: 4x225x10
+ close grip pulldown: 4x140x10 slow.
Barbell curl(FG): 3x80x8
+db skullcrusher: 3x40x8

Friday: Squat: 215x5 245x5 275x10 245x10 215x10
Paused squats: 5x215x3
Rubish back extensions: 4x135x12

First week I'm really getting back into it.  Didn't really go to failure on any of my amraps.. left about 2 reps in the tank.  I've still definitely got weaker but my strength will come back fast.

Trying out the back extensions that Pete rubish does with a barbell to really strengthen my posterior chain.  I felt it a lot in my lower back this week.. gonna play around with the technique to try and hit my hamstrings more.  Also put in the deadlift stance leg press to build up the quads.

Squats felt really good this week also.  I tweaked my form a little bit, and put the bar a little bit lower on my back because I've been doing highbar.  The 275 for 10 set was really easy.  I think I was good for 315 for 10 if I wanted to.  I put in pause squats to really work on the form and exploding out of the bottom.  I really think it'll transfer over well.

  All in all it was a good week.  Once I dial in my technique more I can see weights flying.

What happened last week.

So as you can see there's no training log for last week.  It was mostly a fuck around week.  I didn't feel great most of the days and only lifted Friday and Saturday.  Thursday I had an upper endoscopy done to see what was wrong with my stomach and they said I have a little bit of acid reflux since the bottom of my esophagus and my stomach were really inflamed and irritated.  I got some medicine and am feeling a lot better.
This week I'm getting off of the monolith program since i tried it for a week and didn't like It, and going back to what I've been doing, which is a 531 program focused on back work.  Gonna stay on this for the foreseeable future to really gain some muscle and get stronger while working on wresting.

4/23/17 - 4/30/17

Monday: Press: 150x5 170x5 195x5 150x12
High bar squat: 225x5 255x5 5x290x5
50 close grip pull ups + 100 dips
100 facepulls with 50 lbs

Wednesday: Deadlift: 255x5 290x5 3x325x5
Bench: 225x5 255x5 5x295x5 paused.
1 arm barbell rows: 50x15,12, 12,12,10
100 fat grip curls in 3 sets.

Friday: Press: 10x150x5
Squat: 225x5 255x5 290x5 145x20
Weighted close grip chins: 5x50lbsx5
100 facepulls@50
100 shrugs on calf raise machine @ 170

First week of monolith.  Still not 100%.  I can't eat as much as I was, But I don't think it's a big deal since I lost weight from being sick so I don't need to eat as much to grow atm.  Going back to the doctors on monday to get checked out again bc it's been like 3 weeks.  Have a good weekend everyone.

Quick update.

I messed around a little bit with monolith this week for Wednesday and Friday and think I'm going to start with this for the next cycle.  My TMs are going to be extremely low because everything feels heavy from losing weight and being sick the past 2 weems.  Probably gonna keep my TMs around this

S: 320
B: 325
D: 365
Ohp: 215

If I get to the end of my first 3 weeks and feel strength coming back, I could always increase my TMs by a little more than normal for the last 3 weeks no big deal.  It's a fun program that makes you work hard.  Just gonna keep grinding until my strength and size comes back.

Life and lifting: Road map to wrestling season.

I've been sick since Thursday night and I have nothing better to do, so I am writing out my training road map up until my wrestling season starts in mid october.  So this is a good 6 month or so training diagram for how intermediates and advanced lifters should be thinking about their training going forward. 

Also keep in mind that my road map looked a lot different before I got sick this week, which is important to notice and be aware of; things happen that are out of our power, and we need to adjust things.  Because of my sickness, I'm taking this week off/messing around in the gym because I'm only going to be able to train a few days this week if I'm lucky.

After this week, I'm going to start spinal tap 531.  I've really fallen in love with the 531 layout the past 10 weeks I've run it, and am looking to run this to get a lot of practice on my main lifts, while also building up size.  For those of you that do not know what spinal tap is, it's basically doing your entire 3 week mini cycle of 531 in one day, and upping your TM every week.  The only difference is there are no AMRAPs with this program, because nobody would be able to recover from that.  So that's 9 decently heavy work sets (not including warm-ups, which puts you around 12-15 total sets) for the big 4 movements.

In addition, there are 2 different spinal taps that Wendler lays out.  One is the normal rep scheme, and one is triples for every set.  For my bench and squat I plan to run the original rep scheme, because I feel like the squat and bench enjoy more reps.  I plan on doing triples only for the deadlift and press for this 6 week cycle.

So my split from next week to the beginning of June is going to look like this:
Monday:
bench: 333531555 superset with backwork.
Curls + triceps.

Tuesday: deadlift: 333333333
Low back or swings: 100 reps

Thursday:
OHP: 333333333 superset with backwork.
Curls + triceps

Friday:
Squat: 333531555
Hack squat machine: 100 reps

Light arms saturday.

After this I'm gonna take 3 or 4 weeks to work up to some heavy singles on everything to gauge where I'm at, since the only lift I have an idea of where I'm at is my bench press.  And then that will lead to July 4th weekend, which will be another  deload/fuck around week.

Then when I get back I plan on building the monolith because I need to be bigger for wrestling.  My TM for this will be 5-10 lbs lower than what they are now, as it's a brutal program.  This will get me used to lifting 3 days a week like the wrestling team does, and will hopefully add some weight to my frame so I weigh in towards the middle of the heavyweight class.

After this 7 week block will be the last cycle before wrestling season, and arguably the most important performance wise.  It's going to be a conditioning cycle.  I haven't necessarily worked out the kinks for this yet or what I want to run, except that I'm going to be training 3 days a week to keep my strength and size while wrestling as much as I can and doing heavy and hard conditioning work.  My goal is to be able to do something hard, heavy, and full body for 7 minutes straight, so that wrestling feels easy.  Lifting will be on the back burner just to maintain during this time.

As for during season, I don't have any information other than we lift 3 days a week.  I don't know if I have to follow their routine or do my own as long as I workout with the team.  I will put in another post what I plan to do with this if I do in fact get to make my own routine.

4/3/17 - 4/9 training

Monday: Bench: 245x3 285x3 320x8 285x10 245x13
+ Kirk shrug: 225x10 245x10 265x10 + holds with fat gripz.

Dips: 4x2platesx10,
+ barbell row: 4x185x10

(FG) hammer curls: 3x40x10,
+ overhead rope: 3x65x12

Tuesday: Deadlift: 270x3 307.5x3 345x17 some singles with 405.
Front squat: 3x205x7

Wednesday: 3x300mrow 2 minute break.

Thursday: Larsen press: 5x265x6
+ facepulls: 5x65x12

Decline close grip: 4x245x10,10,8,8
+ vgrip pulldowns: 3x160x8 4th set v grip pullups.

Smith machine JM press: 3x185x8
+ fat grip barbell curls: 3x95x8

Sick Friday and saturday.  I don't know what I have.  Probably some stomach bug because whenever I drink a cup of water fast or try to eat something that's hard to digest I feel nauseous and often have to spend a long time in the bathroom.  I feel fine performance wise, but I'm not training yesterday or today because I can't give my body the energy it needs to recover in calories so I'm taking it easy this weekend.  It's annoying and I'm hoping that I'm better by Monday.  If not I'll just take it as a deload week and go into spinal tap the following week.  I'll update the future of my training in a life and lifting post sometime soon, as I pretty much have it all mapped out until my wrestling season starts up.

Life and lifting: my future mobility

This one's gonna be short but I just wanted to post that I'll be doing defranco's agile 8 everytime I'm in the gym, and doing some mobility and stretching in the mornings so I don't become super immobile.  Even if it does make me a little weaker and a little less explosive, if it can help me prevent injury and become more flexible for wrestling it's a step in the right direction for me.  I think mobility and flexibility is often overlooked in lifting except at the highest echelons of the sport, while other sports really place a high emphasis on it since day 1.  I think I've been blessed with mobility but even I notice some mobility issues I have.  And hey let's be honest, who doesn't want to be more flexible?  I'd love to eventually be able to do a full split, and it's a goal that I will work towards, perhaps by the end of 2017 I will attain it.  But I think it's important to take a step back and realize why we began lifting in the first place; to be healthier.  I think it's incredible if someone can bench press 500 lbs for reps or squat 7 plates, but if they can barely get out of a chair or collapse after 3 flights of stairs than that is simply not healthy.

Failure2018

Im writing this as I wait for my glasses to be restored, which has taken way longer than it should have.  Anyway, I wanted to talk about failure a little bit today, but not necessarily in the negative way that it is often perceived as.  No matter how perfect you think you may be, you are not.  You have made mistakes or failed in the past.  And there's nothing wrong with that.  It's normal to make mistakes and it's definitely normal to fail.  We're all humans.  We all start at the same place, birth, and end at the same place, death.  We just take wildly different paths to get there.  However, I think there are some commonalities in all of life's journeys, and failure is one of them.

What I find funny about failure is that failing isn't actually failure unless you don't take anything away from that experience.  You need to embrace failure.  It's an essential part of life in order to grow, and can also serve as reminders that you need to grow and learn from your mistakes, or else your failures will pull you further and further down the rabbit hole of shit, which is obviously not the way you want to live life, in a rabbit hole full of shit.

So how can you turn your failures into a good thing?  Simple.  Learn from your failures.  Einstein's definition of insanity is to continue to do the same thing over and over again expecting a different result.  The results will continue to be failures unless you learn from your failures and adapt to what life throws at you.  Next time I get wasted I won't sit on my glasses, and next time you approach a beautiful girl you will notice the man walking with her and not take a fist to the face (unless that is your end goal, then I can't think of a better way to succeed)

A more personal and serious example was from back in the day when I was wrestling in highschool.  I made it to the finals of a tournament and I remember my dad telling me not to tie up with this guy or I would lose.  Well being the stupid indestructible 17 year old I was I decided to screw that and wrestle how I wanted to.  48 seconds later I got launched in the air in front of a good 2000 people and lost the match.  Did I quit wrestling after one of the most embarrassing days I remember?  Fuck no.  I was upset for a while, but in the end I embraced it, learned from it, and used it as fuel to become an even better wrestler and man by learning from my mistakes.  Needless to say, the next time I wrestled him at that tournament I didn't make the same mistake and won because I'm a badass.

Life is full of battles.  Just because you lose a battle doesn't mean you lose the war.  Keep learning and living and pushing forward no matter what life throws at you.

3/27/17 - 4/2 training

Monday:
Bench: 230x5 265x5 300x11(PR) 265x10 paused 230x10 paused
+ Kirk shrugs: 225x10 245x10 265x10 245x10 225x10 with FG holds after.

Dips: 4x2platesx9,8
+ bb underhand rows: 4x185x10

FG hammer curls: 3x40x8
+ overhead rope: 3x65x10

Tuesday:
Deadlift: 250x5 285x5 325x20(PR) 285x10 250x10
Front squat: 4x205x6
100 swings with 25 kb.

Wednesday:
5x300meter row 2 minute rest

Thursday:
50x50 Inc db press + 15x50 rear delt flyes

Larsen press: 5x255x6paused
+ facepulls: 5x65x10

Decline close grip bench: 4x235x10 245 next time
+ close grip pull downs: 4x140x10

JM press: 3x185x8
+ barbell curls (FG): 3x95x8,8,6

Friday:
Power cleans: 145x5 165x5 190x12 165x10 145x10
High bar squats atg: 225x5 262.5x5 297.5x10(PR) 262.5x10 225x10

Saturday:
1.5 reps Incline curl(fg): 4x25x10,10,8,7
+ wide grip push downs: 4x70x12

24s with curl bar and wide grip pushdowns

Decided to keep deadlift and power clean back off sets to 10 reps or else I'd be there forever.  I hit a lot of PRs this week, including the 300 for 11 on the bench that I mentioned in an earlier post, 325 for 20 on the deadlift, and 297.5x10 on the high bar squats.  Everything is going up just the way it should be, and im.not super beat up from it either.  My arms measured 18 inches cold this week too.  Up a little bit less than half an inch since I purchased fat gripz 3 weeks ago.  I really enjoyed doing the 1.5 reps with incline curls this week too.  They were brutal in a good way.  Really looking forward to the rest of this training cycle.

Thinking about writing out a spinal tap training block where I focus on accessory movements (incline, front squat, OHP) and really work on them.  Specifically my incline bench and front squat since they both suck while adding some mass.  Still need to think about a movement for deadlifts though if this does pan out.  Maybe snatch grip deads.  But that won't be for another 6-12 weeks depending on everything.

Life and lifting: cardio plan and looking forward

I guess I'm going to call this and other posts like it "Life and lifting" because this shits short and pretty self explanatory.

This weekend was a very important milestone for me and is something that I really worked hard for the last 2 years.  I got accepted into a 4 year college to complete my degree.  I've been working day in and day out at community college for almost 2 years and it all became worth it this weekend.  Besides the bigger tuition that comes along with 4 year schools, I got into my preferred school and will hopefully become a teacher, showing people how awesome physical education is, as well as a wrestling coach.  Speaking of wrestling, I'll also be able to wrestle at the college level, and hopefully make some waves there.  And what better way to celebrate all of this than by beating a personal best on everyone's favorite lift, the bench press.  I pressed 300 for 11 reps, which beats my last pr by 15 lbs, which was a good accomplishment for me because I felt like my bench has been pretty stagnated since I pressed 4 plates in mid october.  This allows me to Segway into some of the stuff I have been trying in my training.

Since I just hit a bench PR I figured I should lay out what I've been doing differently.  Basically I doubled my weekly volume by adding another pressing day, where I hit a few accessory lifts, some arms, and call it a day.  I've been doing this a few weeks and although it's probably too early to tell if this caused the PR, I think it's definitely a good sign.  It's a lot of light submax work that is targeting power off the chest with Larsen presses, and my triceps with decline close grips.

This leads into my arm work.  I've replaced some light circuit type arm work with heavier arm work spread over 3 days.. my 2 pressing days, and then a few sets on Saturday.  I'm really hoping for some arm growth from this.  I really want to get 18 inch arms and I feel like this frequency approach will help.  I have 3 different movements for my pipes, and will probably swap them out every cycle or so.  I'm not sure if the fat grips are doing anything for size, but they definitely are helping on my grip strength.

Lastly I wanted to explain what I'm doing for cardiovascular training.  I wanted to just include some really low intensity cardio like walking on the weekend, so I'm starting with walks that are about 2 miles long for the weekends.  Eventually I'll progress to light jogs and then go from there, but I mainly want to do that for recocery.  Wednesdays I've decided.to do a shorter, more intense cardio session with the row ergometer, which is actually really fun.  I think im.gonna do something like 5 sets of 300m as fast as I can and.then rest 2 minutes and just decrease the rest time from there.  I'll post the results in a later post.

3/20/17 - 3/26 training

Monday: Incline DB: 50s for 60 reps
Bench: 262.5x5 297.5x3 332.5x1
+ Kirk shrugs(FGs):135x10 155x10 225x6

Dips: 2x3platesx6
+ bb underhand rows: 2x185x10

(FG)Hammer curls: 2x40x8
+ (fg)overhead rope: 2x65x8.

Tuesday: Deadlift: 280x5 315x3 355x1
Front squat: 2x205x6

Thursday: Incline DB bench: 50x50 + 10x50 rear delt flyes

Larsen press: 5x255x6 paused
+ facepulls: 5x65x10

Decline close grip bench: 4x225x10 235 next time.
+lat pulldowns: 120x10 3x140x10

Smith machine jm press: 4x185x8
+ barbell curl (FGs): 4x95x8,6,6,6

Friday: Power cleans: 145x5 175x3 205x1
Row cardio machine

Saturday: Ezbar preacher curl(FG): 4x85x12,10,10,8
+wide push downs: 4x70x12

8s finisher for standing curls and pushdowns with 10 lbs less.

All in all this was a nice deload week, which gave me an ample opportunity to try out the fat gripz with different exercises.  I actually really like them for curls, as well as grip training such as with the Kirk shrugs.  I did not like them for pressing though.  I think for my Kirk shrugs next week I'm going to do my reps, put the fat gripz on the bar and then hold it for time so I'm not sacrificing weight on the shrugs.  I'm also gonna add those rear delt flyes in on Monday too as part of the incline DB press warmup, and switching the normal lat pull downs to pull downs with the v bar.

In other news, I really enjoyed the rowing machine at my gym.  I'm not necessarily big on cardio machines (or cardio in general) but I really enjoyed doing these.  I'm gonna write about what I plan on doing for cardio training soon.  Have a happy weekend everyone!

Last training week of my first 531 cycle

Monday:
Bench: 262.5x5 297.5x3 332.5x6 297.5x9 262.5x9
+Kirk shrugs: 225x10 245x10 265x10 245x10 225x10

Dips: 4x3platesx6
+ underhand bb rows: 4x185x10

Hammer curls: 3x40x8 slow.
+ overhead rope: 3x65x8 slow

Tuesday:
Deadlift: 280x5 315x3 355x15 315x12 280x12
No front squats because I felt dead and didn't have time before work
100 kb swings 25.

Thursday:
Incline db bench: 50 lbs 50 reps warmup.
Larsen press: 5x255x6
+ facepulls: 5x65x10

Decline close grip bench: 4x225x10,9,9,8
+ rear delt db: 4x15x12

Jm press: 3x135x8
+ barbell curl: 3x95x8 slow eccentric

Friday:
Power clean: 160x5 185x3 205x15 185x10 160x10
High bar atg squat: 255x5 290x3 325x7 290x8 255x10

Next week is a deload week, and then the first 6 week cycle of 531 is in the books.  I'm really feeling some PRs for my bench next cycle.  Highbar squat has been increasing as well, and my deadlift is loving all of these amrap sets, which really surprises me.  My upper back is feeling huge as well, specifically my traps, which is always a plus.

A couple things to note:
When i.have movement 1+movement 2, that's a superset.  And in the previous 5 weeks I was running overhead press on Thursdays but am.going to try this volume day for bench out to see if.it can help my bench jump to above 200kg before wrestling season starts.  Odds are I'll switch back and forth between ohp and this volume day every cycle, but we'll see the results first.

Change and why it's a good thing

The last 2 months for me have been an emotional roller coaster to say the least.  Training has been good but is taking a back seat to how I'm feeling at the moment which is why I'm writing.  Writing is my way to let it all out.  I don't mind feeling down; it just means that by the end of it I will be a stronger version of myself, and I'm grateful to have this opportunity.

  I think it's important to reflect during times like this and to take a step back to look at the bigger picture.  Sure there have been a bunch of negatives recently, but I am still surrounded by family and friends that love me, and I am blessed with the opportunities I have for the future.

  I also think it's good to break out of the norms.  There are definitely positives coming out of this.  For one I am discovering a more confident side to me, and am only becoming a better person.  I find myself enjoying life's little moments because I am taking more opportunities instead of passing over them due to fear. 

I'm also learning to be more independent.  I was stuck in a "relationship" that was going to end badly either way due to reasons out of either of our control.  To put it shortly it was sort of like a Romeo and Juliet relationship.  Things happen and i don't think it was meant to be, and while part of me wishes that things turned out differently, I think the entire experience was a big eye opener for me, and had a positive outcome on my future. 

I learned how capable I was because someone believed in me, and now have that same belief for myself that she had in me.  I learned how to truly love and be loved, and I think that's why it's haunted me this long, because the feeling is hard to find, whether I'm looking for it in another person, lifting, or the bottom of a bottle.  However I'm not going to let myself turn into a cynic, and will keep pushing forward with my goals and aspirations, because that's what I learned from all of this.

On top of this, I lost the person who gave me my first job, who was also a good friend to me, because of an OD.  This makes me cherish my loved ones even more.  He had a family and I cannot imagine if I was in their position, so I have been more and more greatful and thankful each day that I still have my own family.  I'm sure it's been tough for all of them and my prayers go out to all of them.  It's taught me to really cherish life because life is unpredictable; you never know what could happen in a matter of seconds.  And this is okay.  Life would be boring if it was all mapped out.

As for the future of this blog, I'm going to start writing about my training weekly and the different protocols I am using with my own twist on them, as well as some other writings like this.