Sets of faahve

June 14

No walk yesterday. Tight hips, but that's it. Grand.

Bench:
20kg x 10
50kg x 8
70kg x 3
80kg x 6
75kg x 6
75kg x 6
75kg x 6
75kg x 6
75kg x 6

Calibrated plates. Top set felt surprisingly heavy. Same as 1st backoff. Got easier after that, so put it down to not being warmed up. Also happy to be back pausing everything.

Front squat:
20kg x 6
50kg x 6
* belt *
70kg x 3
77.5kg x 6
77.5kg x 6
77.5kg x 6
77.5kg x 6

Calibrated plates. Form felt good. Can't complain.

Hamstring curl:
35kg x 10
41kg x 12
41kg x 12
41kg x 12

Grand.

Facepull:
35kg x 8
41kg x 15
41kg x 15
41kg x 15

Big pauses. Grand.

Skullcrusher:
20kg x 10
30kg x 12
30kg x 12
30kg x 12

Grand.

Grand morning. Took my time because IPF worlds was on the TV and I am easily distracted.

June 18

Too busy for a walk last night. Did lots of lower body mobility and hamstring prehab exercises; mainly various isometric holds. Hamstring appears to be fine. No idea what happened yesterday, but I'm going to keep an eye on it.

Today is all upper body. I wasn't due to do anything lower body until Thursday but will have to deadlift tomorrow. Would prefer to wait another day but with my schedule this week, it's all I can manage.

Spoto press:
20kg x 10 (full ROM)
50kg x 6
70kg x 3
80kg x 6
80kg x 6
80kg x 6
80kg x 6
80kg x 6

Calibrated plates. Felt surprisingly good. Last set was the easiest.

Tricep pressdown:
47kg x 12
59kg x 12
59kg x 12
59kg x 12

Easy.

Tuesdays are always easy days but I felt exceptionally positive after today. Maybe I'm not fit for the scrapheap yet.

June 21

4.5 hours of driving and sitting in meetings meant barely any movement. Less than 4k steps. Assumed I'd be as stiff as a plank this morning but I was grand actually.

Bench:
20kg x 6
50kg x 10
70kg x 6
80kg x 3
85kg x 6
80kg x 6
80kg x 6
80kg x 6
80kg x 6
80kg x 6

Calibrated plates. Top set and all backoff sets felt exactly like they should have. Grand.

Front squat:
20kg x 6
50kg x 4
* belt *
70kg x 3
80kg x 6
80kg x 6
80kg x 6
80kg x 6

Calibrated plates. Felt tentative due to hamstring but thought these should be ok considering front squat leverages. And yes, hamstring was fine all throughout. Happy.

Hamstring curls:
35kg x 12
47kg x 12
47kg x 12
47kg x 12

Tough, but fine. I now know enough about the hamstring that injuries from hip extension won't affect knee flexion, so nothing to worry about doing these.

Facepulls:
41kg x 8
47kg x 15
47kg x 15
47kg x 15

With pauses/holds. Surprisingly grand.

EZ skullcrusher:
10kg x 10
30kg x 12
30kg x 12
30kg x 12

Too easy. Unsershot RPE but it was getting late.

Bench is going well. Legs aren't completely shot to bits. Plenty of positives from today.

June 25

Short 2km walk last night. Minor quad and glute doms this morning. Grand.

Spoto press:
20kg x 10 (full ROM)
50kg x 8
70kg x 6
80kg x 6
80kg x 6
80kg x 6
80kg x 6
80kg x 6

Calibrated plates. Left elbow got a little achey as the sets went on (other eblow was the bad one before the meet). I was using a different bench than usual today so maybe I was doing something silly with my setup. I dunno.

Tricep pushdown:
41kg x 12
65kg x 10
65kg x 10
65kg x 10

Grand.

Body is falling apart but at least my tricep isolation game is good. Glass half full, etc.

June 28

Short 2km walk last night. Felt fine this morning.

Bench:
20kg x 10
50kg x 8
70kg x 6
80kg x 3
90kg x 6
82.5kg x 6
82.5kg x 6
82.5kg x 6
82.5kg x 6

Calibrated plates. Felt heavier than expected and there wasn't much left after the top set.

Front squat:
20kg x 5
50kg x 5
70kg x 6
70kg x 6
70kg x 6

Calibrated plates. These felt way heavier than expected. Figured I'm probably just weak today.

Hamstring curl:
29kg x 10
41kg x 12
41kg x 12
41kg x 12

Grand.

Facepull:
35kg x 10
41kg x 15
41kg x 15
41kg x 15

Grand.

EZ skullcrusher:
20kg x 10
32.5kg x 12
32.5kg x 12
32.5kg x 12

Grand.

Just not feeling it today. Motivation was down.

This was week 3 of a 5 week strength block, but the end of my current monthly subscription. I'm not going to renew it for now because real life will soon dictate I'm unlikely to have time to train regularly. Therefore, I don't see the point in renewing. I'm going to get in random training sessions when I can. Hopefully my hamstring and other minor issues will recover while I'm less active.

Deano7788 wrote: »

How did you find the AI programming overall? Would you recommend it to people as an alternative to an actual coach depending on money/circumstances?

It's not really coaching though so it's hard to compare. Coaches bring much more to the table than just programming.

As a customised programming tool, it seems brilliant. I enjoyed it but I probably haven't spent enough time on it to fully know if and how much I've improved. Going by the Facebook group, there are a few 300+kg squatters who abide by it so it does cater for all levels.

July 9

Leg doms. Mainly quads and glutes with a little hammies. It feels good.

Bench:
20kg x 10
50kg x 8
70kg x 3
85kg x 1
90kg x 3
90kg x 3
90kg x 3
90kg x 3
90kg x 3

Calibrated plates. 90kg felt better than expected. Maybe the light WG bench yesterday helped. Dunno.

Lat pulldown:
41kg x 10
53kg x 12
53kg x 12
53kg x 12
53kg x 12
53kg x 12

Facepull:
35kg x 8
41kg x 12
41kg x 12
41kg x 12
41kg x 12
41kg x 12

Tricep pressdown:
41kg x 8
53kg x 12
53kg x 12
53kg x 12
53kg x 12
53kg x 12

Just picked random weights I felt would be semi challenging for sets of 12. Everything felt fine for two sets but got far harder afterwards. Maaad tricep pump after pressdowns.

Grand day. Could have done more today but decided not to push it too hard.

July 20

First chance I had to gym all week. Decided some full body workout of sorts is best under the circumstances.

This week, I've been doing squats with a sweeping brush out of boredom and got me thinking about my squats feeling crap for a while. I think they started feeling bad when I got my new shoes and perhaps the higher heel is going against me. Decided to use flats and widen my stance a bit.

LB squat:
20kg x 5
50kg x 5
70kg x 5
* belt *
90kg x 5
110kg x 3
120kg x 5
120kg x 4
120kg x 3

Calibrated plates. Felt good. Lost tightness as sets went on so need to work on that.

WG bench:
20kg x 10
50kg x 5
70kg x 5
80kg x 5
80kg x 5
80kg x 5
80kg x 5

Calibrated plates. Grand.

RDL:
70kg x 5
90kg x 5
110kg x 5
110kg x 5
110kg x 5

Calibrated plates. Grand. No hamstring pain is nice too.

Goblet squat:
15kg x 10
22.5kg x 10
30kg x 10
30kg x 10
30kg x 10

Heels elevated. Grand.

Tricep pressdown:
41kg x 12
53kg x 12
53kg x 12
53kg x 12

Felt weak.

Facepull:
29kg x 12
41kg x 15
41kg x 15
41kg x 15

Set cable at shoulder height for a change. Grand.

Missed the gym all week so was like a kid at christmas driving there today. For now, lack of regulartraining means I can't train for anything specific except not losing strength.

August 17

Pause squat:
3x3 @ 100kg

Bench:
1x5 @ 70kg (wide grip)
3x5 @ 70kg (normal grip)

Deadlift:
3x3 @ 130kg

Plan was the same as it is these days: do some SBD for some arbitrary reps and some accessories afterwards. But I was so weak and deconditioned today that the above took me over 1.5 hours so ran out of time. Boo.

Squat felt alright. WG bench gave me achey wrists so I went back to normal grip but in retrospect, I was probably touching my chest too low. Deadlift warmup with belt @120kg was crap so went beltless for 130kg and positioning was far better.

Another day that was better than nothing.

August 31

Squat:
20kg x 5
50kg x 5
70kg x 3
* belt *
100kg x 3
110kg x 5
110kg x 5
110kg x 1
110kg x 2

Calibrated plates. Form felt like crap. Thought it was upper back but looking at video afterwards, my knees weren't going out enough.

Bench:
20kg x 10
50kg x 5
70kg x 3
80kg x 5
80kg x 5
80kg x 5

Calibrated plates. Form was off too. Strength felt ok.

Snatch grip RDL:
20kg x 5
60kg x 8
100kg x 8
100kg x 8
100kg x 8

Grand.

Tricep pushdown:
41kg x 10
47kg x 15
47kg x 15
47kg x 15

Grand.

DB lunge/NG lat pulldown:
10kgs x 12/47kg x 12
10kgs x 12/47kg x 12
10kgs x 12/47kg x 12

Jaysus, I'm massively unfit.

Facepulls:
35kg x 12
35kg x 12
35kg x 12

Felt wayyy heavier than they should have.

Another 'better than nothing' day.

September 16

Was busy Saturday and missed my weekly session. But the stars aligned and I managed to make it in this morning. But was restricted to an hour in total.

Squat:
20kg x something
50kg x 5
70kg x 5
90kg x 8
90kg x 8
90kg x 8

Decided that my usual thing of doing something @ 3x3 followed by other leg stuff is feck all use. With the sparsity of my training sessions, the actual number of reps performed would be far more beneficial. After all, the point of training is to practise a movement pattern. Therefore, to hell with any kind of challenging weight.

WG bench:
20kg x 10
40kg x 8
60kg x 4
65kg x 8
65kg x 8
65kg x 8

Tried this weird bracing and wide grip thing again. Not happy with it. I'm probably doing it wrong, but it feels like it goes against everything I'm supposed to do to protect my rotator cuff. I'll go back to my regular technique next time.

Negative pullup/lateral raise:
x 3/5kgs x 8
x 3/5kgs x 8
x 3/5kgs x 8

Decided that with my current level of strength weakness, trying to rep pullups is a bad idea right now and that negatives are better bang for my buck. Another 1-2 sessions of this kind of thing and I'd be ok doing regular pullups again.

Signed up for the upcoming Joe Sullivan seminar this morning too. Was apprehensive due to how little I'm training at the moment but should be interesting to see how much I can learn from a 400+kg squatter. Good motivation to stop being such a weakling by a few weeks time.

September 20

3 times in the gym in a week. Sweet. Looks like Mon/Wed/Fri might be a regular thing for the foreseeable future. 3 short sessions a week isn't optimal but I'll take it.

Squat:
20kg x 5
50kg x 5
70kg x 5
90kg x 1
95kg x 8
95kg x 8
95kg x 8

Calibrated plates. First set was a heap of crap. Wasn't breathing into my balls and bar was heavy in my hands. Fixed all that for 2nd and 3rd sets and they were a piece of piss. Might actually load up the weight properly for next week.

Bench:
20kg x 10
40kg x 8
60kg x 5
75kg x 5
75kg x 5
75kg x 5

Calibrated plates. Easy.

45 back raise/CG lat pulldown:
x 10/41kg x 10
x 20/47kg x 15
x 20/NG pullup x 6
x 20/NG pullup x 6

Hamstring pump, fcuk yeah. Switch from pulldowns because the only other person in the gym decided to steal the lat pulldown when I wasn't looking. At least it gave me an excuse to compose myself as I walked over to do pullups.

Gym got a deadlift bar. Was tempted to YOLO max out but did my best not to be an idiot.

September 25

Deadlift:
20kg x 5 (RDL)
70kg x 5
100kg x 3
125kg x 3
135kg x 5
135kg x 5
135kg x 5

Calibrated plates. Had 125-135kg in mind going into the gym and everything felt good from the start. First set was spot on. Got a bit tired towards the end of the last set when setup became sloppy. Overall, pretty happy considering I haven't pulled from the floor in a few weeks.

OHP:
20kg x 10
30kg x 8
32.5kg x 8
32.5kg x 8
32.5kg x 8

Misread plates and thought it was 35kg. Oops. Felt really weak. Haven't been overhead pressing much recently.

DB lunge walks/tricep pressdown:
10kgs x 6/41kg x 12
15kgs x 6/47kg x 12
15kgs x 6/47kg x 12
15kgs x 6/47kg x 12

Grand.

In and out in ~50 minutes. Can't complain.

September 30

Did a good bit of calf stretching this morning. I don't understand why, but stretching my calf muscles has a history of fixing weird issues I've been having elsewhere in my body. Hoping my depth will somehow improve.

Squat:
20kg x something
50kg x 5 (paused)
75kg x 5
* belt *
95kg x 3
115kg x 2
125kg x 1
137.5kg x 1
115kg x 5
115kg x 5
115kg x 5

Calibrated plates. 125kg felt like crap. When I unracked the 137.5kg, it felt awful. It's 30kg below my PB so I was stubborn and wanted to squat it, but it sort of scared me. I instantly had visions of it crushing me along with my ego. The responsible thing would have been to rack it and ask for a spot, but I did it anyway. And whaddya know, it flew up. And hit depth. Feck sake.

WG bench:
20kg x 8
50kg x 8
60kg x 5
72.5kg x 8
72.5kg x 8
72.5kg x 8

Calibrated plates. Last set got sloppy as I lost shoulder tension mid-set. Corrected it for last few reps. Grand.

Supersetted everything with 20 band pullaparts as I was short on time and knew I'd have to skip my usual round of accessories.

NG pullup:
x 1
x 10

Had an AMRAP in mind. Didn't expect to get to 10, so quit then. Could have made it 11 or 12. Cool.

Grand day.

October 4

Squat:
20kg x something
50kg x 5
75kg x 5
95kg x 3
105kg x 8
105kg x 8
105kg x 8

Calibrated plates. Form was off and depth wasn't always there, just like last Friday. Kinda frustrating. Only thing I can think of is a belt gives me more confidence/ability to squat a little deeper. I dunno. But anyway, strength-wise, things were fine.

Bench:
20kg x 10
50kg x 5
70kg x 3
80kg x 2
90kg x 1
82.5kg x 5
82.5kg x 5
82.5kg x 5

Calibrated plates. 90kg moved the same as the 85kg last week. It felt just as heavy in my hands but I had more confidence. But the backoffs were really tough; felt like I was hitting the limit of what I can rep while ad hoccing my training.

Paused facepulls/wide NG pullups:
29kg x 12/x 3
29kg x 12/x 3
29kg x 12/x 3

Continuous; no breaks because I had no time and wanted to do some direct work for the back.

Grand day.

October 7

Squat:
20kg x something
50kg x 5
75kg x 5
* belt *
95kg x 3
95kg x 1
115kg x 3
125kg x 2
135kg x 1
145kg x 1
115kg x 5
115kg x 5
115kg x 5

Calibrated plates. Asked for a spot for the 145kg as I wanted to move the bar using my legs; not fear of dying. Everything stayed tight but it moved pretty slowly. After today, I'm considering 150kg to be my estimated 1RM. Good bit down from my PB but it's a starting point.

Re depth woes: I recorded the 75kg and 95kg warmup, i.e. before and after belt to see if my theory of belt helping with depth and nope. 95kg was also high despite feeling like I sunk it. Had one more try with 95kg except I braced the absolute bejaysus out of my upper back and yeah, hit depth. Looks like it's not the belt affecting depth; it's the inconsistent bracing. After that, I ensured I braced the upper back the exact same way every single rep and right now, my upper back is killing me. Some ood was done today IMO.

WG tng bench:
20kg x 10
40kg x 8
60kg x 5
70kg x 8
70kg x 8
70kg x 8
70kg x 8
70kg x 8

Calibrated plates. Supersetted with 20 band pullaparts. Lowered the weight slightly, went tng and added two more sets as I believe more bench volume is what I need right now.

NG pullup:
x 3
x 10

Yeah, no more left after the 10 today.

Grand day. Was kinda productive, if anything.

October 11

Squat:
20kg x something
50kg x 3
75kg x 5
* belt *
95kg x 3
105kg x 1
110kg x 8
110kg x 8
110kg x 6

Calibrated plates. Felt something in my hamstring and ended last set early. Probably an overreaction. Other than that, form was shakey for first two sets but solid AF for last one, which makes my premature exit frustrating.

Bench:
20kg x 10
50kg x 5
70kg x 5
85kg x 1
95kg x 1
85kg x 5
85kg x 5
85kg x 5

Calibrated plates. 95kg was slow but it went up, as did my ass. In retrospect, I probably didn't cue sticking my knees out. Backoff sets were difficult, as expected.

Wide NG pullup/ facepulls:
x 3/29kg x 10
x 5/29kg x 15
x 5/29kg x 15
x 5/29kg x 15

Grand.

Mixed bag of a day.

October 16

Paused deadlift:
20kg x 5 (RDL)
70kg x 5
100kg x 3
* belt *
125kg x 3
145kg x a few doubles and triples
* belt off *
145kg x 1

Calibrated plates. Just arsing around here. I've been beltless for a few weeks and my form has been better than ever as a result, but still feel like a belt should help. But nope, for some reason, the belt messes up my start position. Lower back is rounded slightly and I tip forward slightly coming off the ground, which the pause emphasises. Took off the belt, did one rep and it was the best rep of all.

Sumo deadlift:
* belt *
125kg x 3
145kg x 3
145kg x 3
145kg x 3

Calibrated plates and more arsing around. Haven't done sumo since I damaged my hamstring @ 140kg last year. Figured the belt wouldn't impede me the same way it does for conventional. While my sumo form wasn't picture perfect, it wasn't far off.

OHP:
20kg x 10
30kg x 5
40kg x 5
45kg x 5
45kg x 5
45kg x 5
45kg x 5
45kg x 5

Grand.

Dips/belt squat:
x 3/50kg x 10
x 8/100kg x 10
x 8/100kg x 10
x 8/100kg x 10
x 8/100kg x 10
x 8/100kg x 10

This will put even more hairs on my chest. Plenty left in the tank after belt squats but I just know my legs will be wrecked tomorrow.

Fun day. And best news of all; I have callouses again and they're starting to tear! My hands had gone soft after having the baby and not deadlifting much and when I did, used straps doing RDLs. Feel like less of a fraud now.

I have in the past, but not this morning. That's another thing to try.

I swear it's all in my head. My belt isn't particularly tight or anything.

October 20

Seminar with Joe Sullivan. First two hours were mainly him talking about breathing and bracing. He is very anti-dogma, i.e. he is aware there is no one-size-fits-all technique for performing any movement so doesn't impose his way of doing things on anybody, but merely puts forward a case for it and suggests people to try it. There were two things that were kinda mind blowing:

1) Big breath before bracing isn't necessarily the best way of bracing. I've always breathed down into my core and/or breathed into my belt. He demonstrated that forcibly exhaling engages the core more solidly than breathing in and pushing out. He suggests forcibly exhaling (not softly - try to empty lungs with intent) until the obliques are rock solid, then taking in a quick gasp of air through the nose so you have something in your lungs to prevent passing out.

2) He cued trying to force the ankle bones at each other. He emphasised the three points of contact between foot and floor as a way of preventing knee valgus, which everybody kinda knew anyway. But keeping the three points of contact, try to bring the ankles together. This seemed counter intuitive to keeping knees and toes aligned, but when we tried doing it with bodyweight squats, most of us cramped up our adductors. He referenced some recent Greg Nuckols articles where the adductor is a primary mover in the squat. Well, cueing ankles in doesn't cause valgus, but activates the adductors and helps move the weight in the squat.

We went over some warmup techniques. He combined breathing in the 90-90 position, squeezing a foam roller between the legs and holding a kettle bell at an angle to engage the lats as a really fast, full body warmup. But again, the above is only useful if done with intent, i.e. if you can chat with your friend, you're not doing it properly. There was also an banded overhead squat that was horrific.

Squats: I only worked up to a few singles @ 120kg but have a few things to work on. He saw a lot of us as having minor butt wink so fixed it by breaking our hips slightly at the top - just enough so our hamstrings are engaged - before beginning the descent. Somehow, my depth was spot on. Dunno if the butt wink fix or the warmup was responsible. I was happy that there was only one thing I needed to fix with my upper back bracing - my head tends to move all over the shop when going down and up. I need to tuck my chin and keep my spine neutral. Can look wherever I want, but only whole keeping neutral spine.

Bench: I only worked up to a single @ 92.5kg. It was a misloaded 90kg which resulted in my left shoulder slipping and barbell almost crashing down on my face. Didn't go any higher as I was a little freaked. Form wise, I need to control the bar better as apparently, I let the bar drop for the last 1-2 inches. I then tried fixing it and leah, my lats were on fire and it felt like the bar was taking forever to reach chest height. Other than that, my form seems solid.

Deadlift: I asked about my belt woes and gave the forced exhaling a try and low and behold, back was spot on. But I need to put my knees out and move my hips forward a bit to fix positioning overall. I had been cueing hips back to flatten my lower back but it had adverse effects. Not much needed changing but at least I figured out the belt thing.

Some people went for PRs today and most got them. I resisted the temptation because even with form fixes, my strength isn't anywhere near the level of PRs. I have quite a few new things to drill so I'll work on them for a few weeks and worry about PRs another time.

Also, Joe is incredibly, incredibly sound.

October 25

Deadlift:
70kg x 5
* belt *
120kg x 3
155kg x 5
155kg x 5
155kg x 5

Calibrated plates. Using new breathing technique. Strength felt good but form looked a bit dodgy. First rep usually fine but deteriorated in later reps. Still need practise.

Sumo deadlift:
125kg x 4
125kg x 8
125kg x 8

Calibrated plates. Just picked a weight that was light but I could still take the slack out of the bar without pulling it off the ground and did some high reps. Was thinking of 10 reps but by jaysus I was out of breath by 5 so cut them short.

I'm thinking about switching back to sumo at some point so will aim to do lots of light-ish reps to get myself used to the uncomfortable starting position.

Bench:
20kg x 8
50kg x 5
70kg x 3
80kg x 3
80kg x 3
80kg x 3
80kg x 3
80kg x 3

Calibrated plates. Again, getting used to using my lats properly. Got easier as the sets went on and upper back was on fire. Found I was able to use leg drive fairly liberally without my ass rising. Nice.

Tricep pushdown/belt squat:
35kg x 10/100kg x 10
47kg x 15/120kg x 10
47kg x 15/120kg x 10
47kg x 15/120kg x 10

Wanted to do more sets but ran out of time as I needed to scavenge the town for bottles of water :mad:

Grand day. Feeling stronger less weak than usual