New growth push

[EMW14]

That's awesome. History has become a little like our government the story gets changed to make who they want to look good or bad. Example Marconi getting all of Nikola Tesla ' props and credit.

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Yes, and the latest thing, at least here in the liberal northeast, is changing the names of buildings that have borne the names of prominent figures for 100 years or more because tjey owned slaves, or had family members who did, or some such. Next thing you know, these assholes will be wanting to take down the Washington monument.

It drives me crazy, pure insanity.

 

[thudgens96]

Yes, and the latest thing, at least here in the liberal northeast, is changing the names of buildings that have borne the names of prominent figures for 100 years or more because tjey owned slaves, or had family members who did, or some such. Next thing you know, these assholes will be wanting to take down the Washington monument.

It drives me crazy, pure insanity.

I get way more pissed at those liberals than I should. If they would just show the respect that has been earned. In no way am I defending slavery it's as wrong as to boys kissing (whoops did I say that lol) but Jefferson lived in a completely different time period does that make him a bad leader absolutely not should his name be shamed in any way hell no. It is frustrating

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[EMW14]

It got a little slow at work this afternoon, so I decided to get the deadlifts that I had to bail on the other day.

385
5x5

That's all I had time for today, hoping to get a workout in tomorrow if work os slow again.

 

[EMW14]

I ended up not training yesterday. Company Xmas party was Saturday night; I was up WAY too late for a day shift night amd could barely drag my ass around yesterday.

Today was leg day. I also have a hockey game tonight. Of I train legs the day of or even 2 days before a game, my skating suffers. I didn't want to blow off leg day, as it's already been 2 weeks almost since the last one, so I decided to just squat. That way, I get a good, heavy leg workout in, but didn't fatigue my legs to the point of barely being able to walk. Hopefully, I'll have some power and endurance tonight on the ice.

This was also the first time I've had a chance to barbell squat with 415 (as opposed to smith machine), so I was anxious to see how I'd do.

I got all 5x5 with good form, getting just to 90 degrees. So, in "log format":

415
5x5

I wore a weight lifting belt today for these.

I finished with a set of sumo squats, no belt,

385 x 5; >90 degrees but not quite parallel.

I really feel my hams and glutes engaging as I get to 90 degrees, and this is where I'm weakest in the movement. I'm going to stay right here at 415 for at least a few more workouts, until my hams and glutes feel stronger; maybe try to go a little deeper (not too much, though, don't want to risk a knee injury). I am all about getting stronger but have exactly zero interest in getting hurt.

As rapidly as my squat weight has gone up, I have wondered if I was able to do more than I had been doing all along. After thinking about it for a few minutes, I realized that when lifting the bar off the rack and stepping out to prepare for the movement, 315 used to feel like a whole lot of weight and was difficult to stabilize. And when I first began to squat with that weight, Ibwas unable to get to 90 degrees. So, clearly mybcore strength has dramatically increased, as I have no trouble stabilizing 415 - 100 lbs more than that - and 315 used to be the top of the pyramid scheme, only a few reps, then back down again. Now I'm doing 415 for 5 sets of 5. Yup, strength has vastly increased!

 

[thudgens96]

I ended up not training yesterday. Company Xmas party was Saturday night; I was up WAY too late for a day shift night amd could barely drag my ass around yesterday.

Today was leg day. I also have a hockey game tonight. Of I train legs the day of or even 2 days before a game, my skating suffers. I didn't want to blow off leg day, as it's already been 2 weeks almost since the last one, so I decided to just squat. That way, I get a good, heavy leg workout in, but didn't fatigue my legs to the point of barely being able to walk. Hopefully, I'll have some power and endurance tonight on the ice.

This was also the first time I've had a chance to barbell squat with 415 (as opposed to smith machine), so I was anxious to see how I'd do.

I got all 5x5 with good form, getting just to 90 degrees. So, in "log format":

415
5x5

I wore a weight lifting belt today for these.

I finished with a set of sumo squats, no belt,

385 x 5; >90 degrees but not quite parallel.

I really feel my hams and glutes engaging as I get to 90 degrees, and this is where I'm weakest in the movement. I'm going to stay right here at 415 for at least a few more workouts, until my hams and glutes feel stronger; maybe try to go a little deeper (not too much, though, don't want to risk a knee injury). I am all about getting stronger but have exactly zero interest in getting hurt.

As rapidly as my squat weight has gone up, I have wondered if I was able to do more than I had been doing all along. After thinking about it for a few minutes, I realized that when lifting the bar off the rack and stepping out to prepare for the movement, 315 used to feel like a whole lot of weight and was difficult to stabilize. And when I first began to squat with that weight, Ibwas unable to get to 90 degrees. So, clearly mybcore strength has dramatically increased, as I have no trouble stabilizing 415 - 100 lbs more than that - and 315 used to be the top of the pyramid scheme, only a few reps, then back down again. Now I'm doing 415 for 5 sets of 5. Yup, strength has vastly increased!

Doing great brother 5 sets of 5 with 415 is no joke.

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[EMW14]

Yesterday morning I got off night shift and have transition back to days, starting Monday. So I woke up at noon, 2 hours early, as I usually do on the 1st transition day. I don't usually train on this day because sleep is cut short (barely got 5 hours) and my body clock is generally screwed up. Plus, this is a wierd day for food. I normally eat 5 meals a day, sometimes 4 or 6, but normally 5. When you wake at noon and have to go to bed around 9 to try to switch back to sleeping at night, getting meals back on a day schedule is also a major disruption.

That said, since training has been pretty infrequent, I decided to get a workout in anyhow. I trained chest. Didn't have a real good chest session but got it done anyhow.

Being pretty foggy, I screwed up right out of the gate: I should be working on getting 285 for 5 sets of 5. Last workout I got 4 sets of 5, then a last set of 3. Yesterday, I accidentally loaded the bar with 295 amd didn't realize it until after the 1st set. Only got 3 reps. Dropped to 285, again, only 3 reps. Dropped to 275, 5 reps, then the last 2 sets only got 3. Pretty disappointed with this, but again, under the circumstances not gonna sweat it too much.

Moved on to db inclunes and declines with 80's:

Inclines 3 sets
8; 7; 5

Declines 3 sets:
7; 6; 5

Hopefully strengrhbwill be back up next workout.

Slept like the dead last night, about 10 hours. I could have kept right on sleeping, but forced myself to get up or I'd never be able to sleep tonight. Gonna try to do legs today but not really feeling it right now.

 

[thudgens96]

Yesterday morning I got off night shift and have transition back to days, starting Monday. So I woke up at noon, 2 hours early, as I usually do on the 1st transition day. I don't usually train on this day because sleep is cut short (barely got 5 hours) and my body clock is generally screwed up. Plus, this is a wierd day for food. I normally eat 5 meals a day, sometimes 4 or 6, but normally 5. When you wake at noon and have to go to bed around 9 to try to switch back to sleeping at night, getting meals back on a day schedule is also a major disruption.

That said, since training has been pretty infrequent, I decided to get a workout in anyhow. I trained chest. Didn't have a real good chest session but got it done anyhow.

Being pretty foggy, I screwed up right out of the gate: I should be working on getting 285 for 5 sets of 5. Last workout I got 4 sets of 5, then a last set of 3. Yesterday, I accidentally loaded the bar with 295 amd didn't realize it until after the 1st set. Only got 3 reps. Dropped to 285, again, only 3 reps. Dropped to 275, 5 reps, then the last 2 sets only got 3. Pretty disappointed with this, but again, under the circumstances not gonna sweat it too much.

Moved on to db inclunes and declines with 80's:

Inclines 3 sets
8; 7; 5

Declines 3 sets:
7; 6; 5

Hopefully strengrhbwill be back up next workout.

Slept like the dead last night, about 10 hours. I could have kept right on sleeping, but forced myself to get up or I'd never be able to sleep tonight. Gonna try to do legs today but not really feeling it right now.

What's up bro, when I'm feeling like that I will go to the local cafe about 2-3 hours before legs and I will have me a big juicy bacon cheeseburger with 3 eggs on top. 2 hrs later I am generally ready to kick the gym door in.

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[EMW14]

Well, I had pancakes (gluten free, since I am gluten intolerant), bacon and eggs. That, 3 cups of coffee and my wife getting downstairs to the gym before me, got me down there. I ended up having a great leg workout.

I stayed with 415 on the squats, and did all 5x5.

Squats

415
5 x 5

Followed squats with barbell hack squats.

325
3 x 5

If you haven't tried this exercise, do it! It's a difficult movement. A little awkward with the barbell behind the legs. It FEELS so much more effective than machine hacks!

I followed hacks with leg press (I normally follow squats with leg press).

720
3 x 5

Stiff leg deadlift
195
3 x 10

Turned out to be an awesome workout. I did the hacks before leg press specifically to "pre exhaust" my legs because I otherwise end up with all 20 of my 45 lb plates, plus a 25 on the leg press horns. There's no more room - or not much - and I have no more 45's. So less weight and still able to get to - or almost to - failure is a major benefit.

Weight is down a couple of pounds, which is OK with me, as I was starting to get too fat for my liking. Scale has shown 203 waking weight for the last week or so.

I'm now in need of a new barbell, as the cheapo one I have is now slightly bent now that I'm using >400 lbs with it. Yesterday's bemch press workout was difficult partly because every time I lifted the bar off the pegs it would rotate until it found where it wanted to be. This isn't such an issue with squats or deadlifts. But it made for a difficult moment right at liftoff. So now I'm barbell shopping. I have a few sources of used commercial equipment (one of these also is getting into new equipment also); I'll probably pick something up the week after Xmas.

 

[thudgens96]

Awesome to hear brother

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[first blood]

Great Log! I always liked the 5x5 routine. Ya know you can vary the 5x5 in a few ways over time. Like for example you can start with a 5 x5 for your first exercise and then the rest of your work that day do a typical 4x 8-12 . Or switch it up to a 10 x2 where you can go heavier to try to bust through a plateau.
One thing great about 5 x 5 is you just have to focus on about 5 good reps with solid perfect form. Sometimes when we go higher rep we can start showing bad form.

 

[EMW14]

Great Log! I always liked the 5x5 routine. Ya know you can vary the 5x5 in a few ways over time. Like for example you can start with a 5 x5 for your first exercise and then the rest of your work that day do a typical 4x 8-12 . Or switch it up to a 10 x2 where you can go heavier to try to bust through a plateau.
One thing great about 5 x 5 is you just have to focus on about 5 good reps with solid perfect form. Sometimes when we go higher rep we can start showing bad form.

I may try something like you describe with my bench press, since I seem to be stuck where I am. This past workout, I even regressed a little bit. Baybe the 10 x 2 might help kick things in gear again.

Today was back day. Since I just did legs yesterday, which included heavy squats and hack squats, I skipped deadlifts for today. I believe this artificially boosts my strength on the rest of my exercises - maybe not artificially, but it removes the pre exhaustion factor that deadlifts give. It's good for my ego, however, so I'm not complaining! LOL!

Weighted pull ups with 25 lb plate. Weighed myself with the plate and weighed in at 238 like this, just to see how muchbweight I'm actually "pulling up".
5x5 - got all 5x5, but will repeat with this weight to improve form, and when deadlifts precede pull ups, may not be able to do it with a 25 lb plate. We'll see.

Barbell rows:
225
5x5
Again, I'll repeat this to improve form. Not too bad, but this is an exercise that is so easy to cheat. Maybe easier to say it's difficult to maintain strict form with the heavier weight.

I decided to throw in lat pulldowns. I was so impressed with myself last time with these, I couldn't resist. Lol!
240 6; 8; 8
1st set I did without straps. The knurl on my pulldown bar is so sharp, and the bar so small (Ibthink it's less than an inch), that my hands were the limiting factor here. Put my straps on to protect my hands for the 2nd and 3rd sets. I'm sure I memtioned this last time I logged back day, but 240 lb lat pulldowns really show how much stronger I've gotten. I hadn't done lat pulldowns since I started this routine; last time I did them prior to starting 5x5's, the heaviest weight I used was 180. So my weight on lat pulldowns, after pull ups and barbell rows, is up 60 pounds over what I was doing before!

That's not to mention that I'm up on all my other lifts as well.

My cheapo barbell os now a little bit bent, I think I mentioned this yesterday. So I'm now barbell shopping. I will probablyy end up picking up a used Texas Strength Systems powerlifting bar, which a used equipment source tells me he has. Texas Power Bar is the name of it. Been looking at a bunchbof different options and that seems to be one of the quality pieces out there.

 

[EMW14]

Oh, one last thing to add: I'm really getting into a funk with food: I've been pretty much force feeding to get the calories in, and I'm sick of it. I'm also sicknof eating the same old shit. Very little seems appetizing to me recently, and this has never been an issue for me. I'm hoping this will pass. I am going to try to come up with some alternatives, but I really don't even want to think about it!

 

[thudgens96]

Oh, one last thing to add: I'm really getting into a funk with food: I've been pretty much force feeding to get the calories in, and I'm sick of it. I'm also sicknof eating the same old shit. Very little seems appetizing to me recently, and this has never been an issue for me. I'm hoping this will pass. I am going to try to come up with some alternatives, but I really don't even want to think about it!

Appetite is a huge problem for me too brother.

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[EMW14]

Appetite is a huge problem for me too brother.

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Nobody who knows me would believe it if tjey heard me say I have an apetite problem; but I sure as hell am sick of eating the same shit! And apparently I have no problem eating 3,000 calories a day, but that extra 500 to 1,000 is just that much tougher to get down the hatch!

 

[EMW14]

Chest day today on Christmam Eve.

Had a better bench press session than I did last time, but still down from a few workouts ago:

285:
5; 4; 4; 3; 3

Incline db's:
80
9; 6; 4

Decline db's
80
8; 6; 6

I decided to throw in a little tricep action today, too. Gonna try to make that a regular event on chest day, but that sure adds a lot of time to tje workout.

Did overhead extwnsions with the curl bar and 25's on each side, so 72 lbs total.
3
10; 8; 8
(Exhaustion each set)

Overhead db extensions supersetyed with reverse grip tricep pushdowns (so, pulldowns?) on the lat machine:
25's held tight together, elbows "in":
3
10; 8; 8

Pushdowns (pulldowns)
60
10; 8; 8

Every set to failure on all tricep exercises. Not hard to do after all the pressing exercises for chest.

 

[thudgens96]

Chest day today on Christmam Eve.

Had a better bench press session than I did last time, but still down from a few workouts ago:

285:
5; 4; 4; 3; 3

Incline db's:
80
9; 6; 4

Decline db's
80
8; 6; 6

I decided to throw in a little tricep action today, too. Gonna try to make that a regular event on chest day, but that sure adds a lot of time to tje workout.

Did overhead extwnsions with the curl bar and 25's on each side, so 72 lbs total.
3
10; 8; 8
(Exhaustion each set)

Overhead db extensions supersetyed with reverse grip tricep pushdowns (so, pulldowns?) on the lat machine:
25's held tight together, elbows "in":
3
10; 8; 8

Pushdowns (pulldowns)
60
10; 8; 8

Every set to failure on all tricep exercises. Not hard to do after all the pressing exercises for chest.

Nice work brother Really enjoying the thread hope you have a Merry Christmas! !!

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[EMW14]

Thanks, and same to you! Mine will be good, we're having dinner at our house, so 11 or so people, family from both sides plus a friend.

 

[EMW14]

Christmas Day workout! My wife and I exchanged gifts this morning, so I got my workout in between before the afternoon craziness begins prepping for dinner!

Back day today. Last time, maybe last couple times I didn't deadlift for various reasons. Today, I started with dl's as I had been doing all along. This definitely affected my strength on my other lifts/exercises! I also fell down the fucking stairs this morning. It rained most of tje day yesterday and got cold overnight. So my deck was a sheet of ice. I was VERY cautiously going down the stairs (11 of them) to take the recycling outside to the can, holding tight to the handrail and placing my feet carefully. In spite of that, my left foot slid right out from under me on the 2nd step. Thankfully, because I had a good grip on the handrail, I sort of slid down more or less upright and didn't really get hurt. I did strain my right arm somewhat, though. This also affected my strength somewhat. I wasn't sure I was going to be able to train at all besides deadlift, but it was pretty mush ok.

Deadlift:
385
5x5

Chinups: I wasn't sure how these would go because the last time I did them, I hadn't deadlifted right before. Thatbtime, I did them with a 25 lb weight added. Plus, withbmy fall this morning, not too sure how my arm would hold up. As it turned out, I couldn't get even one with a 25 lb weight initially. I did 3 sets with no weight added. By the 3rd, I guess enough time had passed since the deadlifts, I'd caught my breath and lats were rested: I did 6 that set, no sweat. So the 4th I added the 25 and only got 4 full chinups. Almost got the 5th but didn't clear the bar. I did tje last set with 15 lbs added and this allowed me to get the 5 reps just barely. Not sure how to get the most out of chinups when deadlifts precede them. Maybe I should do the 1st set unweigjted and progressively increase weight. This is counter to this 5x5 program I'm following, but I can't sit around resting any longer than I do. As it is, I'm waiting 5 minutes between sets. Looking to trim this down, not add time to the workout.

Barbell rows:
225
5x5

Similar issue with the 1st set. After exhausting my lats with chinups the 1st set was tough. Not the greatest form, but I got all 5x5. This exercise was the one that my semi injured arm caused the most difficulty. I'll be sticking with 225 on this exercise until the form is solid.

Weight isn't moving, but I look thicker. Arms haven't grown, they're still at 17 inches. But I haven't trained arms except for the workout they get pushing and pulling on chest and back days. My legs and chest are noticably bigger, along with traps. I can't see my back, really, except from a front lat spread, obviously. But my lats "feel" bigger.

 

[thudgens96]

Sure glad the fall wasn't worse brother just pushed right through. I'm going through the same thing right now the weight hasn't moved in a week or so but can see changes visibly harder every day. Good job brother

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[EMW14]

Leg day. In spite of my attempts to close the gaps between workouts, it's still been 10 days since my last leg workout. Doesn't seem like I'm going to be able to do better than that.

Squat:
415
5x5
I'm staying with 415 until I can get as low as I want to. I'm definitely going to 90° and a little past, but also definitely not yet parallel. I'm very conscious of knee health, so I may not go all the way to parallel, but I want to get a little deeper than I'm comfortable with right now. I can REALLY feel my hams and glutes engaging the lower I get.

Sumo squat:
385
1 set of 5
Making sure to get past 90° on tjis, sort of a "finisher" for the squats. Give the inner thighs a little boost...

Barbell hack squat:
315
4; 4; 3
With these, I realized that I was really lifting with poor form. I was cheating in the lowest portion of the lift. This put my lower back to work instead of hams and glutes. So I dropped down a little bit in weight from 325 to 315 and really concentrated on keeping my butt low. This REALLY changes this lift. I may drop back another 10 lbs next time and continue to really focus on getting my butt low.

Leg press
720
7; 6; 6
Doing these with feet high and wide. This engages glutes and hams also. Seems like I need to bring these up in strength; looking in the mirror, it wouldn't hurt aesthetically for them to grow - hams, anyway. I also followed barbell hacks with these rather than immediately after squats. This helps me get more out of this exercise with less weight. I only have so many 45's, and there's only so much room on the horns, so doing things in this order helps make sure Ibstill have room to grow on this machine!

That's it, I got nothing left! Nobstiff leg deadlifts today, my lower back couldn't take it and my glutes and hams got a hell of a workout as it is!

I was up a couple lbs this morning, had dropped down to 203 waking weight but today was just uner 205. Not sure if that's "real" or just holding a little more water than usial.