A few days...

Gonna condense a few days into this one.  Sunday did squats for the first time in about six weeks.  Four chains plus 245 on my last one.  That would have been right at 345 at the top.  Felt good, depth was good(had a friend judging me), my ankle wasn't too bad under it so going to keep at it, I'm thinking I'll go two weeks of squatting, one week of no squatting.  Monday had Maggy in to help train her.  The truck showing up to work two hours late helped to kick my ass since it was around 100 in that thing when we were unloading it.  Fortunately Monday is my optional accessory day, so mostly some biceps, nothing too exciting, was mostly a rep day.  Had a nice pump when I left and I did a little bit of shoulders, tried some Klokov presses with just the bar, wasn't too bad as far as my shoulder feeling wonky.  Today my back was pretty toasty so my day consisted of a lot of pullups and some lat pulldowns using the Magbar, holy hell that thing is awesome, ended with 8 sets of 3-6 reps of chinups, and 3 sets of 10 on the lat pull downs.  Worried with the way my lower back felt if I had done my speed pulls today it would have just been a fast way to pull my lower back.  So, didn't do those.  Anyway, tomorrow is heavy bench, so... that'll be a fun update hopefully.

As usual...

*started this last night, finishing it tonight.

I'm a day behind on these.  Monday I was kinda hurting, my back was tight and couldn't get loose.  Monday's truck wasn't bad, but for whatever reason I felt gimpy so Monday was some really simple/easy biceps work.  More importantly on Monday my friend Magdalena trained with me.  She decided she wants to give powerlifting a go so Monday was her first attempt.  Put her through the 3 main lifts to get some numbers to work some percentages with.  Honestly I thought I'd have to correct her a lot but I was really impressed.  Mostly just going to require a few form tweaks and I think she'll be amazing.  Squatted 170, benched 75, and deadlifted 205.  So those numbers are pretty awesome, after a bit of time working on form and explosiveness she'll be kicking even more ass.  Okay, that's more than I've ever praised anyone, so lets talk about me.  Tuesday was my speed bench day.  Shoulder felt okay, but I still kept it kinda easy.  Kept everything at sets of 2, 225, 245, 265, 285, 305, then 315 for 4 sets of 2. Felt good, ended with a burnout of reverse grip benchpress with 135, not sure how many reps it was in the 30 range before I knew I couldn't get another.  

Lets flash forward to tonight, tonight was ME deadlift day.  Damn tonight was good.  I'm about 16 weeks out from my next meet, so working at 90% of my 1rm, ended up doing block pulls for 5 singles with 510.  It felt pretty awesome.  Finished with chinups 4 sets of 5.  I'm working on keeping everything nice and simple right now.  Anyway, my sleep has kinda gone shitty after a week of really good deep sleep.  But eh, I'll live, it's what I do.  Other things are going pretty amazing so that's always a plus. 

Trying something different...

Today was pretty fantastic, lots of reasons.  But we'll just cover the gym reasons today.  Everyone was in a pretty good mood at the gym today, it was a fun day there.  So anyway, me and a friend were talking about reverse band chain benchpress yesterday and how Laura Phelps-Sweatt uses it, I had never tried it before just, so today I did.  Man, pretty sure I'm doing this as my primary heavy move leading up to when I begin my meet training.  So, anyway, don't care that much about the warm ups leading to my heaviest single tonight, but went to 365 + around 120-150 of chains, still need to get an exact weight on those.  So I'll need to take my scale into the gym to get an accurate weight on them.  Anyway, it moved really well, except when I went to break it I wasn't thinking that it was around upper 400s/low 500s, when I unracked it so I had to ask for a hand out.  Ended with weighted dips, 1 chain for 4 sets of 10.  I'm going to try to get one more day in this week just for triceps, maybe Friday after work or Saturday before.  We'll just have to see.  Not sure I need to hit my triceps as hard on heavy bench week, but we'll see.

Speed pulls...

Wrist/elbow pain wasn't bad, should be good to go now after some toradol.  Anyway, today was pretty simple.  Good day at the gym, once again I think the people around in that time are what's helping make a difference at keeping my head right in there.  Speed pulls from a 2" deficit, 8 sets of 2.  All moved very quick and smooth, was pretty happy with them.  Well, one wasn't smooth got a little off balance, but I survived.  Anyway... after I did chinups 5 sets of 5.  Like I said nice and simple today.  Tomorrow will be a bit more complex.  I'm really digging this no hair thing.  More on that later.

Fun biceps work...

Lets see, I'll try to be short and to the point.  Work just seemed to piss me off today so I was glad to get into the gym.  Sadly, my left arm is pretty banged up right now, wrist and elbow, so been wearing a brace on both parts the past few days.  Of course being the person I am, take them off go lift.  The elbow was only mildly discomforted which was nice.  The wrist, holy fuck, lets just say I should have wrapped it for more than the barbell curls.  Most important numbers were barbell curls 225 for a set of 4 which was felt better than I thought it would, although realizing I might have used a bit more shoulder than I thought.  Anyway, followed up with some machine curls, 50 for 3 sets of 12, then I did this crazy thing a friend at the gym had told me about for just a nice simple set of 7 each arm.  Dunno what the exact name of it is, but... you put a 45 pound bar on the preacher bench.  Grab it single arm in the middle.  Buddy lifts you through the concentric phase, then you do about a 4 second eccentric phase.  Really could have used a bit more weight on the bar or to have done more reps/sets, but first time and feeling how bad my biceps are cramping right now I'm glad I didn't because damn, they're tore up.  After that, the stupidity I'm known for I did static bar holds, 3 sets, first for 1:15, second for :50, third for 1:05.  That might explain some of the cramping.

What a difference a day makes...

So, we'll start this one off different, I'm going to talk about some stuff that's completely not gym related.  Well, that being in a good place mentally just got completely blown out of the water.  I went from being in the most amazing place I think I'd ever been mentally to well...(oh and I know you read this, if you are reading this one, please stop you have enough to worry about).  So, I don't talk about it a lot, generally nothing more than saying "I'm crazy" but that statement has a lot more truth to it than most realize.  Sometimes when I'm down and those downs can get pretty low my behaviour gets a bit more self destructive because well... crazy.  It's took a long assed time for me to even admit it to myself, let alone a few select others.  So just firing it seems insane not to mention extremely difficult to me.  Sometimes, I'll do something crazy like if I have an impressively long soul patch I'll just completely shave, or if I have a goatee, I'll shave it, dunno just something for a change, well... lets put it like this... still have the goatee, lets see if you can figure that one out. Anyway when I say self destructive I mean things along the lines of alcohol, from time to time pills, and this is the hardest one to admit but self harm.  Yeah, told ya crazy. So anyway... I thought about just ignoring Facebook and Twitter completely for a few days, was even going to not use this.  And yes, I know it post to Facebook/Twitter automatically, but I think I need to keep updating this, sometimes with shit like this.  Anyway, back to that other part... I think it's easier to understand/deal with physical pain than it is with mental pain, that's why sometimes and I do stress rarely, it leads to that.  Sometimes I use the gym as therapy sometimes it works... sometimes it doesn't... today I went in and murdered my triceps in an effort to not do what I was wanting to do.  It'll just be easier of that part of me is known and not seen should things work out...

So, the gym... lets pop some numbers shall we?

Started out warming up with Tate presses 30lbs for a set of 15, 40 for a set of 12, 60 for a set of 10, 70 for a set of 8, then 80s for 3 sets of 8.  Followed that up with weighted dips, 1 chain for a set of 8, 2 chains for a set of 8, 3 chains for a set of 8, at the end I went back and tried 4 chains, that would have been about an extra 100 pounds, couldn't get it but was okay with it.  Straight bar press downs 120 for 3 sets of 12, floor skull crushers for 3 sets of 8.  So, that was a pretty good session, won't say it completely did what it needed, but it helped.

Yeah, that worked...

Okay, lets see... yesterday was dynamic effort bench press, and damn... my thoughts going into it were pretty spot on.  Used my mini bands, warmed up with the bar, went to 135x10, 155x3, 175x3, 195x3, 215x3, 225 for 10 sets of 3, did all of them with close/narrow grip.  Felt pretty great and speed was good.  After that close grip bench still with minis, 135 3 sets of 15, dips 3 sets of 8, then finished with incline dumbbell flies, 3 sets of 8, palms facing out that way I hit a bit more front delt.  It was spot on with what I had thought going in.  Last night my tris and shoulders were so burnt that trying to shower was a pain. Today I was nicely sore, didn't wanna be too sore, had some amazing plans today since it was my day off.  At any rate, good times, this one is going to be short because I'm tired.

A little different...

So, this is going to be more of a checklist, it's 17 weeks until my next meet, my more serious training will begin at about 10 weeks out.  As beat up physically and mentally going into that last one I don't want that to happen in this one, I want more than 10/40 pound gains on my meet records.  Going into this one I have to make sure of certain things, the big thing is keeping myself healthy physically, still not sure if I'm going to compete at 308 or SHW, but right now I'm at 310, so my plan is to keep training right around that weight so I can hit either without having to do drastic measures to cut weight or gain weight.  The last meet I was force feeding myself to the point I would throw up then have to eat more just to keep my weight at 335 so my shirt/suit would fit right.  Not exactly the greatest thing, but you do what you have to do.  Right now, eating in the 4000 calorie a day mark are keeping me right at 310, so I'm comfortable eating that amount.  I need to make sure I'm doing my therapy for my joints/muscles.  TENS unit, foam rolling, lacrosse ball, basically everything I can do to recover faster.  Mentally, I'm in a great place right now which is odd to me, scary to me, but pretty wonderful, there's a specific reason for that and she's an awesome reason for it.  My training over the next few weeks before I hit the 10 week out mark will be interesting.  I'm going to try changing some things up, on bench I'm going to do everything narrow gripped for more tricep/shoulder work since overhead presses are still kind of painful for me, I'm going to do all my pulls from a minimum of a 2" deficit.  Rack pulls will be done at the 2nd pin and a 2" deficit for the next 7 weeks until I hit the 600 pound mark.  Speed will be from a minimum of 2" deficit at 335-385.  I also need to make sure I do some heavy bar holds on bench.  Going to add an extra day of triceps work in every other week.  That one will be heavy and on my speed bench weeks.  Hopefully all this will pull some stuff together and I'll get some numbers that I'm happy with, and not numbers I'm happy with because I was hurt I didn't think I'd get those.

Dead bench dies...

Today sucked on ice.  Like, big and hard.  Apparently the fourth was not with me.  On the way to work tire blew out.  Had to get towed to work, fortunately there's an autocenter connected right to the building so that's handy.  Anyway, was 45 minutes late, the tow was 50 bucks.  Oh, and where I got my car stopped at jacking it up wasn't an option, hence the two.  So, anyway, late for work a day before our regional level visitors, the compactor is broke so the cleaning up the warehouse is harder than it should be, HOWEVER, I think it's pretty good.  I'm sure I'll hear all that bad before all the good, but eh.  Okay, so... ended up not getting a break which sucked, so was looking forward to the gym again.  Got there, the people were good, the training was not.  Did dead bench press, 405 went up easily, decided to jump to 495, it wouldn't budge.  Reset, tried again, I gave that bar hell, but yeah didn't budge.  So I dropped back to 405 and did it a few singles.  Did some weighted dips with 25 pounds of chain, 3 sets of 10-12, that felt good, ended with Gerry-extensions, just what I call them, don't know if they have an actual name.  50 pounds for 3 sets of 15 for blood flow, also did a set of 7 chinups for funsies.  I might actually make it in 5 times this week, so that'll be interesting.  Tomorrow will probably just be core work and Friday squats.

Speed pulls...

A good gym is a lot like what I'd imagine a bar like the one represented on Cheers to be.  Except with a lot more perverted humor.  At least the one I go to is.  Today was one of those days, I was fed up with work.  Felt like crap.  Get to the gym, see my friends, and have a great training session.  Made me feel 100% better.  So yeah, it was a good day.  Lets pop some numbers.  335 for speed pulls 9 sets of 2, didn't do them off a deficit because my lower back was feeling a little tight, in retrospect it was just the first couple of sets I felt tight, so week after next when I speed pull again, I'll definitely do them off 3/4" or 1.5".  After that did some chinups/pullups.  I learned something today, do your pullup before chinups, because damn I was hurting, chins 5x5 pullups went 1x5, 1x3, 1x4, 1x2 long rest 1x4.  Followed that up with some yes and nos, thanks to Leah I found out someone called them bad girls and good girls, which pisses me off for two reasons.  #1  It's pretty sexist.  #2 I hate the fact that people think the hip adductor/abductor are just for women.  Damnit people, strong hips are a corner stone of a strong deadlift/squat.  Do them, if you're stronger than the weight that's on there, stick some dumbbells on the weight stack.  Just do them.  Yeah, the first few times you'll walk funny and sure if you're a guy until you can get yourself situated right you'll pop your cods a few times on the adductor machine, but it's worth it.

Severe lack of a title...

Today at work sucked.  All I could think about was getting out of there and getting into the gym.  Once I got to the gym and finished my 10th set for my shoulders all I could think was the number of lawn mowers and pressure washers I moved around today.  Anyway, number time then I'm gonna try to veg and crash(doubtful).  Lateral raises, 10 sets each, 15s, 20s, 25s, 30s, 35s.  Seated dumbbell cleans, 5 sets of 10 with 25s, at this point my shoulders were throbbing and I was like okay, lets skip front raises and move on to biceps.  Biceps stayed simple today.  Machine curls, 50 pounds 5 sets of 8, Phillips curls using 15s and 20s, then static barbell hold, 3 holds of a minute each.  My intention was to go heavy on them today but that didn't work out since I was zapped from the truck at work today.  Anyway, good news is, today at the gym was with the exception of about 4 people it was everyone you could want at the gym when I got there.  So, my mood improved drastically which was nice.  Speed pulls tomorrow, gonna add some weight to those.  Also, need to call Inzer and see if they can tailor suits/shirts down or if I'd need to buy new ones.  Have the date for my next meet which should be fun, not sure if I'll do it at 308 or SHW, but we'll see.