This is working well, but some things are not so well.

Squats themselves are great. I’m enjoying the work up, the top set, then the pyramid down with the triple and the AMRAP. It feels good. I’m going to stick with this work-up for now, and when this AMRAP maxes out I’ll probably bump everything up 5-10 lbs.

The deficits work well, and the lunges — tho I hate them — are good for me.

I’m still trying to find something with my lower back and hamstrings. Reverse hypers made things scream. So today I thought maybe I could try the glute-ham raise. Well, that didn’t last long. I’m not exactly sure what it was, but it was not fun. Either it was the same nerve pain, just flaring up in a different way, or it was just the load on my hams being something totally new and maybe too much for them. I really don’t know, but it was not a good pain.

At this point I’m actually getting a little concerned about what’s up with me. As for how to deal with it, don’t know yet. Still gathering data.

Anyways, if it means I just have to do things like leg curls and stiff-legs for my hams, then so be it. But still, I’d like to try to figure out what the deeper issue is and see if I can fix it.

• Squat
  • bar x 5
  • 135 x 5
  • 165 x 4
  • 195 x 3
  • 245 x 2
  • 275 x 1
  • 305 x 1
  • 320 x 1
  • 295 x 3
  • 245 x 12 (AMRAP)
• 1″ Deficit Stiff-Leg Deadlift
  • 245 x 8
  • 245 x 8
  • 245 x 8
• Walking Lunges
  • BW x 15e
  • BW x 15e
  • BW x 15e
  • BW x 5e

I thought I had things dialed in, but it looks like there’s still some room to adjust. Not a bad thing, as I’d rather start light and slow and have a longer road of progression.

Incline pressing adds a little to the work up. Taking a cue from the squatting, to work up to a heavier weight so I can keep that progressing. I’m getting more used to the equipment at the new gym, and it’s really forcing me to improve my technique, which is a good thing. Much more tightness throughout my body. One thing I realized today is I have not been keeping my midsection tight, so I focused hard on being tight from toes to top-of-head today. What was cool was that often caused the bar to just rise out of the j-hooks like magic. Tightness is so key, and there’s always room for improvement. It’s probably the #1 cue I tell myself.

I will stick with these weights on inclines until I hit 6 on the 50% set. Any “high rep sets” that I’m doing for upper body I’m setting a ceiling of 12 reps before I drop back down. Not everything will go to 12, but certainly that’s the ceiling for upper body work.

DB benches were really cool today. First, I still think I can up the top weight because I’m aiming for 6 reps; I got 8 and only stopped at 8 because I was not trying to rep-out here (I could have done more). So this will probably get a 5# bump. I’ll probably also bump the 2nd set to 65’s, but the last set is about where I want it. For sure these are really good. I go down, hold, stretch, sink in, and press up. Descent is a little slow, ascent is explosive. Push to true failure. I really like how these go. I am also finding they are giving me one hell of a grip workout, which is an unexpected but welcome side-effect.

Flies are whatever they are. I need to up that weight because I pushed the last set to failure and got a LOT of reps here. In fact, even tho I added the drop set, I didn’t quite go to failure on the sets. It was almost failure, so it just means I need to bump up a hair.

As a result of pushing a bit harder on the front end, the back-end shoulder work of course lost a little ground. This is to be expected. Main comment here is on the last set each of lat raises and bent raises I would do some partial burns. No idea how many, just until I couldn’t do any more.

Afterwards I did 20 minutes elliptical, then a good session of stretching and rolling. In fact, one thing I spent some time on was just “standing” on a tennis ball and rolling it under my foot to massage and loosen up the muscles in my sole. Wow, that hurt, but afterwards is feeling so good. Yes, overall things are feeling better, and I really do need to keep this work on the recovery and just maintaining my body. It’s making my gym sessions long, but so far my body is thankful.

• Incline Press
  • bar x 10
  • 115 x 5
  • 135 x 4
  • 155 x 3
  • 175 x 2
  • 195 x 1
  • 215 x 1
  • 225 x 1
  • 185 x 12 (AMRAP)
  • 185 x 4 (50%)
• DB Bench Press (pause at bottom, get the stretch)
  • 40e x 10 (light warmup)
  • 55e x 8 (light warmup)
  • 85e x 8
  • 60e x 15
  • 40e x 21
• DB Flat Flies
  • 20e x 12
  • 20e x 12
  • 20e x 20, 15e x 11, 12e x 10 (drop set)
• Press
  • 115 x 10
  • 115 x 10
  • 115 x 6
• Front Plate Raise (tri set)
  • 45 x 12
  • 45 x 9
  • 45 x 7
• DB Lateral Raise (tri set)
  • 15e x 10
  • 15e x 9
  • 15e x 7 (followed by partial burns)
• Rear Lateral Raise (tri set)
  • 12e x 10
  • 12e x 10
  • 12e x 10 (followed by partial burns)

I really do believe a proper arm day is helping with my arm pain.

My arms just feel better, probably better than any day of the week, both during and after my arm-session. I can’t point to why this is the case, but whatever helps me work to alleviate this pain I’m all for.

That said, while I’ve generally been happy with my new programming, I still don’t feel like I quite have arm day dialed in. For example, supersetting the AMRAP/50% gets… weird. Do I superset the AMRAP, then superset the 50%? But then that puts a lot more rest in between. So I dunno. Part of me is thinking to ditch supersetting. Hit triceps first (because close-grips), do all the triceps work, then hit biceps.

I even tried swapping out the incline bang curls. I first thought about doing concentration curls off the back of the incline bench, but 1 set showed me that wasn’t going to work well — I’m wanting a very-high-rep set, and even with 15# I couldn’t crank out a lot (pure muscular contraction to bring the weight up, upper arm remains straight, hard supination, hold/squeeze-hard for 3 seconds, then slow eccentric — you don’t need a lot of weight). Dropping down the weight wouldn’t get me anywhere, so after 1 set of that I opted to grab the EZ bar and do narrow-grip spider curls off the back of the incline (no dedicated preacher bench at the new gym). That worked out ok — higher reps were hit, painful squeezing. Still, I dunno.

I kinda wonder about doing something like a cable curl. Straight bar, cable curl.

I really don’t know. I will think about it. The goal is to have 1 movement that’s heavy weight low rep, one mid weight mid rep, one light weight high rep. That seems to be making my arms feel good, and gives a nice pump (go Arnold).

Anyways, I’m generally good with how things are, just needs a little fine-tuning still.

BTW, I don’t note this in my logs but I’m working to have 2 things to end my sessions.

First, spending at least 20 minutes doing light cardio. These days it’s just on the elliptical, working to keep my heart rate in that “target zone”. But I may work to vary it up with some bike work — there’s an Air Dyne but it’s out of order. While I don’t like cardio, I cannot deny it’s helpful at keeping my work capacity up and my calories/bodyweight in check.

Second, time stretching and rolling. This is primarily to help my lower back towards that goal of using the reverse hyper. But it’s overall helping me feel a lot better. Stretch, and proper stretching like finding a stretch and holding for at least 30 seconds and continuing to sink into it. Foam rolling my back, especially my lower back, erectors, glutes, hamstrings, and even my calves. I will expand this in time to stretch and roll more of my body, but right now I’m focusing on where I’m really hurting, tight, sore, whatever.

• BB Curls (elbows in, wider grip), (superset)
  • 55 x 8
  • 65 x 7
  • 75 x 6
  • 85 x 5
  • 95 x 4
  • 105 x 3
  • 80 x 12 (AMRAP)
  • 80 x 6 (50%)
• Close-Grip Bench
  • 95 x 8
  • 115 x 7
  • 135 x 6
  • 175 x 5
  • 195 x 4
  • 215 x 3
  • 185 x 12 (AMRAP)
  • 185 x 6 (50%)
• Incline Hammer Curls into standing DB curls (with supination), (superset)
  • 25e x 12
  • 25e x 12
  • 25e x 9
• Standing French Press
  • 75 x 15
  • 75 x 15
  • 75 x 13
• Incline Concentration Curls
  • 15e x 15
• Incline Spider Curls (EZ bar, narrow grip)
  • 25 x 23
  • 25 x 22
• Rope Pressdowns (twist out hands at bottom, then after failure just straight to eek out some more)
  • 60 x 40
  • 60 x 40
  • 60 x 33

I still feel like back day needs more. I just don’t know what yet. I mean, it’s a back. There’s a LOT of things to hit, and it’s a group that can take a lot of work. It may be that my work-up on the rows needs a little more work. That is, a few sets to warm-up sure, but the later work-up sets may need a boost in weight or reps to get a little more out of them. I dunno.

But in general it goes well. I’ve been happy with the new program. The next 3 weeks will be more telling, as I’ve basically worked out the kinks, found my groove, and my body is acclimated to the new approach. I will start adding some intensity techniques in, like here I will probably add in drop sets at the end of the pulldowns — and that’s all. I don’t need to go crazy adding in a ton of stuff at once. Add in something, the body will be stressed, will adapt, and then when it does that’s when I’ll add in something else.

On the drive home from the gym I was thinking that I spend a good 3 weeks acclimating. Now I want to spend at least 3 and probably 6 weeks cranking hard on this. After that, I’d probably take a deload week, then do something like a Strong-15 Short Cycle. After that, I don’t know. I’ll just say that with all the toys at the new gym — tires, farmer’s walk handles, Prowler, etc. I might see about doing something to add those in (especially as the weather grows cooler). But that’s a long ways off. Right now this program is fun, my body feels good, and I do feel like it’s progressing me forward. We’ll see how the next 3-6 weeks go.

• Face Pulls
  • 70 x 25
  • 70 x 25
  • 70 x 25
• Pull-Ups
  • BW x 4
  • BW x 4
  • BW x 3
• Barbell Rows
  • 95 x 8
  • 115 x 7
  • 135 x 6
  • 165 x 5
  • 195 x 4
  • 205 x 3
  • 155 x 13 (AMRAP)
  • 155 x 7 (50%)
• BB Shrugs
  • 275 x 8
  • 275 x 8
  • 185 x 20
  • 185 x 20
• Close-grip Pulldowns
  • 125 x 12
  • 125 x 12
  • 125 x 12
  • 125 x 8

One thing I really like about the new gym is how I find myself improving in my squat form.

To have a good platform to stand on. To have a rack where I can set the bar height exactly where it’s right for me, and then to be able to have spotter/catch pins/bars where it’s proper. And yes, even the full-length mirror in front of me is good to ensure I am hitting depth. That said, I have to stop looking at the mirror and worrying about depth because I find myself focusing too much on it and not squatting itself.

Still, I’m finding the equipment setup good. I continue to enjoy working up with some heavier singles as it is helping my technique. I am getting whole-body tight on the descent, and it makes for a slower descent, but that’s better for me. It enables me to ensure I’m staying in control, in the groove, and well… given all my little age and “beat-up-body” issues, I can manage those on the way down, especially through whole-body tightness. Getting the weights back will come.

That said, cranking 15 reps on the AMRAP was a bitch. 😉 But an interesting thing. I had put 235 in RepCount, and I THOUGHT it was a mistake. That is, I wanted the squat AMRAP to work up to 15 before I added weight. So I did 225 today. Looking back in my records, I’m not really sure. Two weeks ago I did 225 for 12, then last week apparently 235 for 13. So I don’t know. 🙂 But 225 for 15 today was fine. I will probably go 245 now, especially if in fact last week was 235 for 132. That should drop the AMRAP back down to probably the 8-10 range, which is where I’d want it to be. I don’t think I’ll bump anything on the workup — let that 320 be faster. It’s solid, but I can make it faster. I will probably bump the 3-rep down-set to 290/295. I even thought about adding a 50% set but remembered that I really am not interested in failure on squats right now. That I’m trying to use this time to help me with technique and continuing to build confidence with heavier weights. So going to failure isn’t the right thing to do (other than just the 1 AMRAP set, which I strive to make every rep solid).

I remembered to use a deficit on the stiff-legs today. 😉

Then I thought about trying the reverse hyper again. I found some more YouTube videos — done by Louie Simmons — on using it, so I feel better about approach and technique. Still, I don’t think my lower back is quite ready. I’m adding additional stretches before, after (and even a little during) all my workouts. I’m also spending a bunch of time in the “stretching area” before I leave the gym. I’m stretching and spending a bunch of time with the foam roller and a tennis ball, working on back stuff. I think I need a little more of that before I try the reverse hyper again.

• Squat
  • bar x 10
  • 135 x 5
  • 165 x 4
  • 195 x 3
  • 245 x 2
  • 275 x 1
  • 305 x 1
  • 320 x 1
  • 285 x 3
  • 225 x 15 (AMRAP)
• 1″ Deficit Stiff-Leg Deadlift
  • 235 x 8
  • 235 x 8
  • 235 x 8
• Split Squats
  • BW x 15e
  • BW x 15e
  • BW x 15e
  • BW x 5e

Hurricane Harvey cannot stop International Chest Day. 😉

Austin actually fared pretty well through Harvey. Driving to the gym this morning I saw more damage, but all in all Austin seems to have weathered the storm pretty well. We are lucky. South/East Texas is not so lucky. Please consider doing what you can to help with relief efforts. It’s going to be months before things return to normal.

Today’s session certainly had my brain in other places. I mis-loaded the bar a couple times. At my old gym, all the plates were the same — same brand, same sizes. At the new gym, there’s a mishmash of plates, so you HAVE to look and check. Well, I got complacent and misloaded a couple times. Some 10’s were on the rack where 5’s normally are, and just the differences, well… that’s what I get. Oddly, I didn’t notice much difference while lifting — a slight tilt, but it didn’t feel too off. Part of that I think comes from getting used to these bars still. They spin MUCH more freely than the old gym’s bars, and I’ve even noticed as I’ve loaded these bars that I’ll see how things spin and settle. So I’m still getting used to unracking the bar and things having to settle. To having to find a better hand position so I don’t risk dropping it on myself. For sure, crush-gripping the bar is helping — and if “not dropping the bar on my face” has to be my cue to remember to crush-grip the bar, so be it.

Given that, I opted to do a bit more single work, so I can continue to get used to heavier but not too heavy weights. Things to help with the equipment issues. All in all, things went fine.

I think I’m finding the weights to use on the DB presses, striving for 6-8 first set, 8-15 second set, 12-25 third set.

Then all the pressing/delt work I’m so digging. It’s tough, it’s pushing to failure as much as possible.

I’m looking forward to next week, when I start throwing in intensity techniques on things.

• Incline Press
  • bar x 5
  • 95 x 5
  • 120 x 4
  • 140 x 3
  • 175 x 2
  • 200 x 1 (mis-load, should have been 195)
  • 215 x 1
  • 182.5 x 12 (AMRAP) (mis-load, should have been 180)
  • 182.5 x 4 (50%)
• DB Bench Press
  • 40e x 10
  • 55e x 8
  • 80e x 8
  • 60e x 13
  • 40e x 20
• DB Flat Flies
  • 20e x 12
  • 20e x 12
  • 20e x 12
• Press
  • 115 x 10
  • 115 x 10
  • 115 x 9
• Front Plate Raise (tri set)
  • 45 x 12
  • 45 x 8
  • 45 x 8
• DB Lateral Raise (tri set)
  • 15e X 10
  • 15e X 8
  • 15e X 8
• Rear Lateral Raise (tri set)
  • 12e X 10
  • 12e X 8
  • 12e X 8

Hurricane Harvey may be on its way, but I still gotta get in an arm day! 🙂

This week has been a good refinement of the new program. I will do it all again next week “as-is” before I start doing more (e.g. adding in intensity techniques), just to ensure it’s where I want it.

A couple interesting notes about today.

First, my arms felt really good through and after. I mean, the pain issues? It’s almost like this was therapy. That to spend some time directly targeting my biceps, instead of it just being a few assistance sets, may actually be precisely what I need to help with my issues. I can’t say for sure, but after that first set of heavy curls? Wow, things just felt better! I’m going to keep an eye on this.

Second, while I feel like my triceps get knocked out, I don’t quite feel it with my biceps. Now, at the end of the session I’ve got a wicked pump — the pipes look great! But I feel like I really knocked the hell out of the triceps, and the biceps could have a little more done to them. I realized that I do a heavy-set for both, then a medium set, then end with a high-rep burn set for the tris but not the bis. I do find the Bang Curls to be pretty cool, but they may be dumped. My thinking is maybe to keep the basic motion, but do it Concentration-like — instead of 2 DBs pressed together, just 1 arm at a time, draped over the back of the incline bench, squeeze at the top for a few seconds, and go for high reps with maybe the first 15 being with the squeeze then the last 15 just repping.

Anyways, a pretty good day.

• BB Curls (elbows in, wider grip), (superset)
  • 50 x 8
  • 60 x 7
  • 70 x 6
  • 80 x 5
  • 90 x 4
  • 100 x 3
  • 75 x 13 (AMRAP)
  • 75 x 6 (50%)
• Close-Grip Bench
  • 95 x 8
  • 115 x 7
  • 135 x 6
  • 175 x 5
  • 195 x 4
  • 215 x 3
  • 185 x 10 (AMRAP)
  • 185 x 5 (50%)
• Incline Hammer Curls into standing DB curls (with supination), (superset)
  • 25e x 12
  • 25e x 10
  • 25e x 8
• Standing French Press
  • 75 x 15
  • 75 x 15
  • 75 x 12
• Incline Bang Curls (superset)
  • 15e x 9
  • 15e x 12
  • 15e x 12
• Rope Pressdowns (twist out hands at bottom, then after failure just straight to eek out some more)
  • 60 x 40
  • 60 x 37
  • 60 x 31

One must learn from pain.

That reverse hyper? Yeah…

First, squats were great. Worked up to a nice single at 320 lb. I am liking this work-up to a few ascending singles because it’s helping me with technique under heavier weights, confidence, and making 300’s just a normal thing. I’ll stay here for a bit as I work up the AMRAP set, either to 15 or maybe even 20 if I really am feeling it. Then up the weights 5-10 lb. And that’s one appeal because next I’ll do 330 as a normal thing. Then 340. With 345 as my all-time best 1RM, I’m not too far off from it, and this is just work – not trying to max out. So, like all things, just keep at it and it will come.

Stiff-legs were fine. I forgot to stand on a plate today, but I’ll do that next time. No big loss.

Couldn’t do walking lunges — too many people on the turf. So I just did split squats in place. No biggie.

Last thing tho. That reverse hyper. It didn’t work out. Now, part of the reason I want to try it is because I hear about all the awesomeness of it for the lower back, because there’s traction and so on. So I got on it today, with a little coaching. No weight; just to try to get the motion down first. When I went into extension (i.e. feet under my torso, swinging “forward” due to the momenum), my back screamed at me. I’ve got some nerve thing down there. Like flutter kicks? I can’t do them — some nerve in my lower back screams at me; been that way for a LONG time. It felt like that, but I only did the hyper twice and that was enough to say “not going to happen”.

But it intrigues me.

Why that pain?

I’ve been feeling some stuff in my back lately, some stiffness, some aches. Could that be what’s in play? Could it just be I need more flexibility in my glutes and hams? I don’t know. I didn’t spend a lot of time analyzing the pain. 😉 However, I’m going to do some work this week in the area, then try the reverse hyper again. Now that I know what pain I’m in for, I will think about it and analyze it. Basically, I want to figure out why I can’t do this and work to overcome it. I can’t see this being anything but good for me.

So, time will tell.

• Squat
  • bar x 5
  • 135 x 5
  • 165 x 4
  • 195 x 3
  • 245 x 2
  • 275 x 1
  • 305 x 1
  • 320 x 1
  • 285 x 3
  • 225 x 13 (AMRAP)
• Stiff-Leg Deadlift
  • 235 x 8
  • 235 x 8
  • 235 x 8
• Split Squats
  • BW x 50e (aiming for non-stop but breaking it up if I have to)

Small adjustments made. Overall good.

Incline pressing continues to be the main movement. No arm pain during the session. I am pretty sure the pain isn’t actually arm or elbow, but shoulder. I’ve been focusing more on pulling my shoulders back throughout the day. I mean, I sit at a computer all day. Various chairs and couches encourage a shoulders-forward/rounded posture. So I am trying to be more aware of this and seeing what impact it will have. I’m suspecting something positive.

Pressing itself was fine. I’m still getting used to these bars and weights. There’s a lot of swivel, so when I unrack the bar it’s a bit awkward because just trying to balance things and keep things from falling on me. 🙂 I am probably going to keep the weights a little lighter until I feel more comfortable with these bars/weights at the new gym.

DB pressing I’m changing to something I’ve read a few times from Paul. A couple warm-up sets, then the first work set is heavy, aiming for 6 reps. Second set is lighter, aiming for 10-15 reps. Third set is lighter, aiming for 20-25 reps. Also, have a 1-2 second pause at the bottom to take momentum out of it; make sure the pecs are squeezing and doing the work. I didn’t quite get the weights right, but I like this approach.

Flies felt a little funny on my shoulder. I may continue to play around with angles, or I may have to drop them. We’ll see.

Pressing was fine. Then the triset… oye. That’s a bitch. 🙂 But I like it.

All in all, I think this session is coming together. Just a bit more fine-tuning.

• Incline Press
  • bar x 10
  • 95 x 5
  • 120 x 4
  • 140 x 3
  • 195 x 2
  • 195 x 1
  • 180 x 10 (AMRAP)
  • 180 x 5 (50%)
• DB Bench Press
  • 40e x 10
  • 55e x 5
  • 70e x 6
  • 60e x 15
  • 50e x 15
• DB Flat Flies
  • 20e x 12
  • 20e x 12
  • 20e x 12
• Press
  • 115 x 10
  • 115 x 10
  • 115 x 8
• Front Plate Raise (tri set)
  • 45 x 12
  • 45 x 10
  • 45 x 10
• DB Lateral Raise (tri set)
  • 20e X 10
  • 15e x 10
  • 15e x 10
• Rear Lateral Raise (tri set)
  • 15e x 10
  • 15e x 8
  • 12e x 10

As much as I love strength building, I love a good arm day as well. Chasing that pump; Arnold was right. 🙂

The general program is around some heavier stuff to start, then working to isolation and pump. Trying to not focus on weight, but on quality of contractions, holds, etc.

Curls are curls. Work up, then AMRAP and 50%. Superset with close-grip bench. Went fine.

The incline hammer curls were cool. Curl up simultaneously, then a 3-5 second lowering. Go to failure. Then stand up and try to get a few alternating supinating curls. I could only get 2-3 each time and not even full lifts. But it’s just there to push a little bit more.

I tried doing the French Press seated, but again new gym, learning which pieces of equipment work, and this bench’s back was too high. So I just did them standing.

Those incline bang curls — geez! Sure the weight is really light, but so what. Keeping the DB’s pressed together the whole time, a 3 second squeeze at the top? You don’t need much weight. Then the rope extensions were a little awkward. The new gym’s setup only let me use one of the cable crossover stations for the pulldown, so I had to up the weight (2 pulleys, different mechanical advantage0. But due to lengths and heights of the cables and setup, I couldn’t be upright — had to step back a bit and bend over. Still, it overall was fine. First 20 see the wrist twisting outward to really squeeze the triceps, then after those 20 just straight-wrist and a little bent over torso to just keep eeking out more reps until you can’t any more.

Wow. HUGE pump. It was awesome. 😉

I do have to make a few adjustments, but not much.

So how was the first week on this new program? Pretty good. I generally like the setup and think it’ll hold me for a while. Next week will be trying out the adjustments, and I’m sure by week 3 things will be dialed in. Then come week 4 I expect my body will be adapting, so it’ll be time to add intensity techniques like drop sets or cheat reps or other things to push beyond failure.

That all said, there is one point of concern. I have been starting to feel the arm pain. It’s slight, but it’s there. I have some thinking to do.

• BB Curls (elbows in, wider grip), (superset)
  • 45 x 8
  • 55 x 7
  • 65 x 6
  • 75 x 5
  • 85 x 4
  • 95 x 3
  • 65 x 15 (AMRAP)
  • 65 x 10 (50%)
• Close-Grip Bench
  • 95 x 8
  • 115 x 7
  • 135 x 6
  • 170 x 5
  • 190 x 4
  • 210 x 3
  • 175 x 12 (AMRAP)
  • 175 x 7 (50%)
• Incline Hammer Curls into standing DB curls (with supination), (superset)
  • 25e x 12
  • 25e x 10
  • 25e x 8
• Standing French Press
  • 65 x 15
  • 65 x 15
  • 65 x 15
• Incline Bang Curls (superset)
  • 15e x 10
  • 15e x 12
  • 15e x 10
• Rope Pressdowns (twist out hands at bottom, then after failure just straight to eek out some more)
  • 60 x 40
  • 60 x 35
  • 60 x 30