03/12/2014

  Last week was all wonky thanks to having to move around days and times. So nothing too great to report from last week.  Thanks to weather going from spring to winter my sinuses have gone to shit but that's not as irritating as it will be when it's full blown spring.  Attempted a new PR on stiff legged deadlifts last night, went for 550, it turned into a nice 550 pound negative.  Was one of those where it hit the knees and I was like "Well, at least I can set it down slowly."  Yeah, nothing else really to say at the moment.

03/04/2014

  Long time, nothing to bitch about.  Past two weeks have been pretty interesting.  Week before last, did the normal Westside template, however for our accessory work we did super slow high reps.  Wouldn't have been anywhere near as bad had it not been for the crippling agony the next day.  Was fun though, going to try incorporating that every 6-8 weeks.  Then last week was a high rep/deload weight week.  135 is easy to bench/squat/deadlift, but once you hit your 50-80th rep it gets to be a bit of a bitch.  Fun for a week, but no way I'd wanna do that more than once every 3-4 months.

  Tonight was ME squat/dl night.  Managed to do a 680lb rackpull.  That was a new PR.  Felt really fucking good.   Followed up with heavy leg curls, then some barshrugs 315 for a few sets of 6, ended with suitcase deadlift out of the Smith machine(not what I call myself), and finally standing situps with blue bands.  Wanted to do more but our lower backs were kinda crispy at that point.

  Only part of the Arnold I watched this year was the strongman events.  Those announcers were fucking terrible.  My favorite lines were the one guy saying that  Hafthor Bjornsson doesn't look like he weighs over 400 pounds and then later when refering to the dumbbell they were using for the single arm overhead dumbbell press "For those of you who don't know what 275 pounds looks like, imagine an olympic bar with two 45s and a 25 on each end."  My guess is that anyone who was watching and didn't know what 275 pounds looks like sure as hell doesn't know what it looks like now.  How about "For those of you who don't understand how much this weights, it's the weight of a pony."  Zydrunas Savickas kicked ass again.  Enjoy this video.  Later peeps.

02/11/2014

  I don't update enough, haven't had a lot to say lately other than being randomly pissed off.  The gym is thinning out in the evening so that's better.  Hit a 470lb Zercher squat last night which felt fucking amazing until I realized how much pain my forearm was in.  At least this time there wasn't weird knotting in the forearm, just general tenderization.  I've been doing a lot more front squats despite how much they hurt my shoulders.  I can't find a single way to get the bar comfortable while doing them with any weight that actually feels like I'm training instead of going through the motions. Basically the bar sits right where the collarbone connects to the shoulder for me to do it where it feels right and I can use weight.  If I try to hold it lower down on my upper chest it tends to slide down the arms so it's like I'm attempting to do a Zercher from my biceps.  I'm just gonna push through the pain and keep doing them.  Might look into getting a front squat/Zercher harness.

01/28/2014

  Squat lockouts were fantastic last night.  Went up to 725, next time I do them I'm going to drop the pins one lower and go from there.  That'll probably take a couple hundred off.  All my accessory work was solid, weights were good.  My soreness from the week and a half off is going away.  Shoulders and triceps are really all that's still affected a bit.  Should make the deadpresses and unracks go well on Wednesday.  Sadly, I'm thinking it might be time to find a new gym though.  Either that or switch up times I go.  Probably for the best either way I end up going.

01/26/2014

*****Disclaimer:  Salty language ahead****

  Had a minor injury the last day I was at the gym before my planned time off, which was good timing.  Ended up going to the doctor this time and I gotta say, I should do that anytime I get an injury.  A shot of Toradol which was fantastic.  Got it at around 9am on a Saturday morning, by about 6pm that day my back felt back to about 70% and even a nagging pain in my shoulder had cleared up.  Also got some Tramadol and Cyclobenzaprine which aren't that strong but they helped the spasms stop which was nice.

  My first night back was Thursday, the real stuff begins Monday, but this leads me to my ranting.  There's a handful of lifters at my gym who are serious about their training.  Who train for a purpose and will do anything it takes to be in there to train.  Those are the people I like to train around.  We feed off each other, we can talk about our training and get/give advice.

  The thing I've noticed and I notice this time every year that pisses me off.  The "January joiners."  These are the people who come in after the first of the year because they made some resolution to get in better shape.  These are also the people who do it for stupid fucking reasons.  If you're hungry to train, you get in there, you do it, you go up, you attempt to progress.  Breaking a fucking sweat isn't going to kill you.  If you can lift 135 pounds today, try to lift 140 tomorrow.  It's not going to fucking break you and it's the only goddamn way you're going to improve.  Seeing people lift the same fucking bar over and over again and not making any gains, there's a reason.  If you're in there because you want to look good for some one or you want to meet someone, you're in there for the wrong fucking reasons.  Do the people who are in there to actually train and leave.  Leave your fucking baggage at the door, get in, get serious, get gains.  It's that fucking simple.

  Every year around this time still makes me wish I could afford to start my own barbell club.  It'd be just about 8-10 people who are serious.  Everytime I buy a lottery ticket, that's my actual thought.  Not some sports car, not some big house, but a nice private invite-only gym.

  If any portion of this has offended you, then you're clearly part of the problem.  Suck it up princess.

12/19/2013

  So, tonight was arm night.  I gotta tell ya, started with drag curls at 135 and thought it was going to be horrible.  The curls were, after that everything just went nice and smooth which was nice.  Unfortunately last night's shoulder workout got to my partner and the curls were killing his traps just from holding the bar.  He seemed to loosen up a bit half way though.  I'm now pretty sure my use of the cardio room is so epic that it must be documented.  Okay, it's that I'm in there so rarely except to use the bathroom down stairs since the other one is upstairs, and walking upstairs is a real ball breaker.

12/18/2013

  In fantastic news, we got the new bar at the gym.  Had a chance to use it on shrugs tonight, only went to 225 for 5 sets of 10 so it wasn't a real weight test for it.  That'll come week after next unless a few other people beat me to it, which they will.  The knurling on it is amazing, seems like it'll be nice and easy to hold without a lot of chalk.

  Tonight we did shoulders, so far it was by far the easiest of the days.  You'd think 210 reps would wear you out a lot but actually left the gym feeling not horribly put upon.  Did two things I haven't done in a long time tonight, front raises and Arnold presses.  I think I might start putting some front raises into my regular routine for some accessory work.  Really not a whole lot more to talk about tonight, probably be how the rest of these go over the next few days.  Maybe something more interesting will happen.

12/17/2013

  I had thought back night would be easier. Just another simple 190 reps for back. I was wrong. After deadlifting our backs were nice and toasty. Then the fun of lat pulldowns, lawnmowers, seated cable rows, and bent over rows. Maybe it'll be different on shoulders and arms but after the first two sets we have a huge pump, by the time we finish it's fine and had been replaced with cramping and pain. Just another week and a half till I return to the joys of Westside training.

12/16/2013

  Last night began two weeks of my own personal hell.  Me and my partner are doing a deload/bodybuilding routine for 2 weeks.  Last night ended up doing a total of 190 reps just for chest.  Deload might have been a wrong way to refer to this as considering reps of 315 and 365 on bench.  At least the incline dumbbells weren't too bad.  Also, first time in maybe 9 years I've done decline bench.  I was totally unprepared for how horrible that felt.  Around midnight the number of reps got me and my chest started cramping horribly.  That was amazingly fun when I tried to reach across my body or my shoulder would itch.

12/13/2013

  So, we're gonna do this backwards.  Tonight was DE squat/dl night.  Since we're doing a two week change up, we didn't really do typical 8x2 of squats tonight.  Did 4x5 it was fun, especially the reps we'd pause on the bottom.  Pretty sure my ass will be sore tomorrow.  Giggity.

  Wednesday was ME bench night, and for a change we actually did normal benchpress.  I told my partner that 5 weeks ago he would bench 315 that night.  He didn't believe me.  He got it.  I was like, BOO YEAH!  Oh yeah, I knocked out 410 raw.  I don't wanna say it was easy, but I killed it.  Afterwards I had such a massive pump I could hardly move my arms.  That and I'm 99% sure my shoulders detached and I was still having an endorphin high from it.

  Two great things, well, one great, one damn that's funny.  Texas power bar was ordered.  So now we'll have two.  So we'll have two non-bent bars.  Yay!  Now the damn funny thing, was bored tonight and thought "Haven't done a chinup this year, lets see if I can do it."  Well, apparently working your biceps actually adds strength to them.  Not to mention how hard I've been working my lats in general.  Well, damn near hit my chin on the cable machine bar that the chinup bar is attached to.  That was entertaining.