About the most exciting thing from today was the gym lost power. The new gym is located in a business “park” that’s mostly under construction. One of the buildings I guess was going to get power hooked up to the city grid, so Austin Energy opted to cut power to the whole plaza. So we lost power for about 20 minutes. We knew about it, but they did it 30 minutes earlier than expected. 🙂 But hey, the iron still works and we just kept lifting – tho it was weird to not hear music.

But that’s the thing – today’s workout was just solid.

I changed BB curls to more straight sets, trying to be strict and focusing on biceps contraction to get me there. I had some odd sensations because of my pain issues, but whenever I have these THESE feel like a good pain. Where something needs to get activiated, get worked, etc. to help strengthen the weak link that’s causing the pain.

Close-grips went solid — upped the weight and am happy where this is going.

Skull crushers may need to go, not sure. My elbows have been a wee annoyed, but I may just drop the weight and go up to 15 reps.

And the cable work is just to help with the pump. But note, I have dropped the drop sets. Not about that right now.

Anyways, today, like the rest of this past week, has been generally good. I have things mostly where they need to be, and minor adjustments will be made for next week.

So far, so good.

• EZ-Bar BB Curls (elbows in, wider grip)
  • 25 x 10
  • 45 x 10
  • 65 x 10
  • 65 x 10
  • 65 x 10
  • 65 x 9
  • 65 x 8
• Close-Grip Bench
  • bar x 10
  • 145 x 8
  • 165 x 7
  • 185 x 6
  • 205 x 5
  • 235 x 4 (4RM PR)
  • 255 x 3 (3RM PR)
  • 225 x 8 (AMRAP) (8RM PR)
  • 225 x 4 (50%)
• Cross-Body Hammer Curls
  • 35e x 12
  • 35e x 11
  • 35e x 9
• Skull Crushers
  • 95 x 12
  • 95 x 10
  • 95 x 7
• Cable Curl (hold/sqeeze at top)
  • 50 x 40
  • 50 x 27
  • 50 x 16
• Rope Pressdowns (First 20, twist out hands at bottom; remainder straight hands pushed to failure)
  • 65 x 40
  • 65 x 31
  • 65 x 24

Adjusted my back programming. I’m liking it.

This remains basically the same as before, but now rows work up to sets across instead of a top triple, AMRAP+50%. It’s in the spirit of basebuilding. I’m still finding the right weight to use (as you can see), but overall happy with how things went.

Shrugs — more time under tension. So it’s a basic BB shrug, but the eccentric gets a 3 second count.

The cable rows are using a Rogue Grip Triangle, so it’s got fatter grips. I’m trying to put more emphasis on grip, because I’ve been having some issues with it. Not lack of strength, it’s just weirdnesss, hard to describe. A lot of my back work lets my hands act as simple hooks to avoid their involvement. But I’m at a pretty good place at ensuring I’m recruiting back muscles and “isolating” them in the pulling movements, so I think I can get back to crush-gripping everything. In the short time I’ve been focusing on grip, it’s helped my grip and hands/forearms feel better.

I did my second round of Farmer’s Walks too. I opted to progress slow. Again, the handles are 21#, put 1 45# plate on each side – so the walk is 110# each hand, 220# total. I paced off the turf strip to get a rough length estimate – I’d say it’s around 40 yards in total, but since I can’t go end-to-end I’m probably doing about 30 yards of walking. Crush grip, pick up the bars, stand up straight, short steps hoofing it to the other side, set the bars down (try to not “skid” much because the bar diameter is slightly small so the collars don’t hold the plates on well – I asked about this today and there’s supposed to be a set of collars specifically for that somewhere, but people don’t take care of the gym and shit gets lost sigh), fix the plates to ensure everything’s good. Then rest maybe 30 seconds or so. I didn’t heavily time my rests, but it’d be just enough to get a few breaths in, but not enough to fully recover. Then go again.

I wanted to go for 10 trips today, but stopped after 8. I could feel my posterior chain peeding out, I was slowing down. I figured hey, this is good enough. Ramp up slowly. I worked at a quicker pace today, I had a good back workout before, I was huffing-and-puffing more. So hey, it’s a step up.

My plan is to work up to 10 trips with 1 wheel, and when I can slay that — when 10 trips feels like nothing — then I’ll probably go 1.5 wheels and repeat.

It sucks. 🙂 But hey, this is cardio I can dig. Upping my work capacity is good. And I figure for occasional variation, instead of the farmer’s handles, I’ll grab one of the sandbags, hug it to my chest, and walk that.

• Face Pulls
  • 65 x 25
  • 65 x 25
• Barbell Rows
  • 95 x 8
  • 135 x 8
  • 155 x 8
  • 175 x 8
  • 165 x 8
  • 155 x 8
  • 155 x 8
  • 155 x 8
• BB Shrugs (3 second eccentric)
  • 185 x 20
  • 185 x 20
  • 185 x 15
  • 185 x 14
• Cable Row (close, fat grips)
  • 145 x 12
  • 145 x 12
  • 145 x 12
• Wide, Pronated-grip Pulldowns
  • 125 x 12
  • 125 x 12
  • 120 x 10
  • 120 x 10

Should have done more cardio, to offset all the candy from tonight. That’s how it works, right? 😉

So continuing on the quasi-basebuilding front, today is now both squat AND deadlift day. I’m keeping squats on the same format I’ve been doing, as that seems to be working well and progress continues. It was a little slow today and technique felt a little off, but I’ll chalk that up to 2 weeks away. Still a generally solid day.

Deadlifting. I haven’t done conventional in a while, so I had no idea where to start, especially after a grueling squat session. So I just picked some numbers and did it basebuilding model-1 style. It was mostly ok, tho my hamstrings felt tight on the descent so I wasn’t in a great position on the subsequent reps. I’ve been working on my hamstring and “posterior chain” flexibility. That seems to be helping well with my lower back in general, and hopefully it’ll help out here too.

But I think things are generally in good shape here. I’ll stick with the deadlift numbers and start putting C.A.T. into things.

• Squat
  • bar x 5
  • 135 x 5
  • 185 x 4
  • 225 x 3
  • 255 x 2
  • 285 x 1
  • 315 x 1
  • 335 x 1
  • 305 x 3
  • 265 x 12 (AMRAP)
• Deadlift (conventional)
  • 135 x 3
  • 225 x 3
  • 315 x 3
  • 365 x 3
  • 365 x 3
  • 365 x 3
  • 365 x 3
  • 365 x 3
• Bodyweight Squats
  • BW x 12
  • BW x 12
  • BW x 12
  • BW x 12

Back from travel. And back in the gym.

I spent 10 weeks on a mass-building cycle, and prior to that 6 weeks doing a 5/3/1 Prep program. Not much break, and my body was pretty tired and beat up. I took all last week off, aside from doing a lot of walking. My body feels good, and I was itching to get back at things today.

I am changing my programming slightly, keeping the basic mass-building structure, removing the perceived intensity techniques (e.g. drop sets), and adopting some basebuilding. The other big change is going back to flat bench pressing.

I haven’t flat bench pressed in 6 months – the arm pain issues. The pain issues seem better, so it’s worth seeing what I can do. I’ve been flat DB pressing and close-grip benching for a little while, and it’s been going well. So, let’s see.

I am starting light, with a focus on technique. I usually put my ring finger on the bar rings, but I’m coming in slightly with my pinkies now on the ring. I’m working to crush-grip the bar and NOT lose that grip. Then the first rep is paused, the rest touch-and-go (I believe that’s a tip from Boris Sheiko). It’s also a time to get used to the new equipment, especially that I slide around more on these benches.

That all said, the session went pretty well! I may modify the work-up slightly to be a bit more over-work. The thing about the over-work-up is things are just turned on more so when you come back down to the work weight, the system is primed better and the weights feel much lighter and move better. But this wasn’t that much over-work vs. the working weight. Again, I was starting light, with a light working-max and then using the percentages from the Basebuilding manual. I may adjust slightly, but overall I feel I’m in a fair spot and it’s worth staying here for a bit. Today was mostly about trying to get through and see how it went, so I’ll probably keep these weights and focus more on things like C.A.T. next week.

The other big change I did? I’m adding farmers walks!

I used the handles, which are about 20# each. I put a 45# plate on each side (so 110# in each hand), then did fast-walks up the turf strip — about 35-40 yards I’d say given I couldn’t go all the way to the ends (other people). I did 8 trips, resting only enough to lightly catch my breath, or maybe a little longer if I had to wait for someone else to finish with the turf. it was pretty easy and a good start to it all. I’ll work up to 10 trips (and try to pace off the distance so I have a known). Then I’ll start upping the weight. I reckon I could add a 25# plate to each without problem.

The one problem? The diameter of the handles where the plates go? It’s just a hair smaller than a proper olympic bar. So the collars are not staying totally secure and the plates wander. In fact, on one of my trips, a plate fell off. Grr… I’ll have to see what I can do about that, because that will get mighty old.

But I dig it, and it’s much more fun than the elliptical. Plus it should be great for my grip strength.

• Bench Press
  • bar x 5
  • 105 x 5
  • 135 x 4
  • 155 x 3
  • 195 x 2
  • 225 x 1
  • 195 x 8
  • 195 x 8
  • 195 x 8
  • 195 x 8
  • 195 x 8
• DB Incline Bench Press (350 Method)
  • 50e x 23
  • 50e x 13
  • 50e x 11
• Press
  • 125 x 8
  • 115 x 8
  • 115 x 7
• DB Lateral Raise
  • 15e x 12
  • 15e x 12
  • 15e x 12
  • 15e x 12

A nice way to end this cycle.

Things were good, strong. Moved well. The close-grip benching actually has me very much looking forward to flat benching again and seeing how that goes. I’m hopeful.

Anyways, nothing much to say. Just a solid day and a nice way to cap things off. I’ll be taking next week fully off, tho I may do stretching, rolling, and go for some walks. The break should do my body good.

• BB Curls (elbows in, wider grip)
  • 55 x 8
  • 65 x 7
  • 75 x 6
  • 85 x 5
  • 95 x 4
  • 105 x 3
  • 90 x 12 (AMRAP)
  • 90 x 6 (50%)
• Close-Grip Bench
  • bar x 10
  • 135 x 8
  • 155 x 7
  • 175 x 6
  • 195 x 5
  • 225 x 4
  • 245 x 3
  • 215 x 12 (AMRAP)
  • 215 x 6 (50%)
• Incline Hammer Curls (3 second eccentric, go to failure)
  • 30e x 12
  • 30e x 11
  • 30e x 8
• Standing French Press
  • 95 x 12
  • 95 x 12
  • 95 x 19
• Cable Curl (hold/sqeeze at top)
  • 50 x 40
  • 50 x 27
  • 50 x 20
  • 40 x 3 (drop)
  • 30 x 5 (drop)
• Rope Pressdowns (First 20, twist out hands at bottom; remainder straight hands pushed to failure)
  • 65 x 40
  • 65 x 34
  • 65 x 28
  • 55 x 6 (drop)
  • 45 x 7 (drop)

It was a day. Solid work.

For sure, next cycle shrugs will drop the heavy sets. More sets, higher reps (like 12-20 reps).

I also saw a different narrow grip V-bar, that has fat handles. I think I’m going to use this for my cable rows next cycle.

Also, after I was done, I took a look at the farmer’s walk implements in the outside gym area. Yeah, I’m thinking those will be my cardio this next cycle. It’ll be different, I can because new gym, and I’m having some issues with my hands/arms/wrists/grip and when I do things to really crush and work my grip (instead of just letting my hands be “hooks”), it seems to be helping. So, let’s go with that emotion.

Very much looking forward to the week off, and then starting my updated cycle.

• Face Pulls
  • 65 x 25
  • 65 x 25
• Barbell Rows
  • 135 x 8
  • 155 x 7
  • 175 x 6
  • 195 x 5
  • 215 x 4
  • 225 x 3
  • 195 x 8 (AMRAP)
  • 195 x 5 (50%)
• BB Shrugs
  • 315 x 8
  • 315 x 8
  • 245 x 20
  • 245 x 20
• Cable Row (low, wide neutral grip)
  • 145 x 12
  • 145 x 12
  • 145 x 14
• Curl-Grip Pulldowns
  • 125 x 12
  • 125 x 12
  • 125 x 12
  • 125 x 10
  • 110 x 3 (drop)
  • 95 x 3 (drop)