The experiment is interesting.

I decided to try a different approach, working up on BB rows like any other “heavy/compound/main” movement. It’s too early to reach a verdict. It does feel good in one respect, but it also feels like I don’t get enough volume. So, I don’t know. I’m going to up the weight a bit for next week and continue with it for a bit. We’ll see how it goes.

Otherwise, things are working nicely. Cable Rows are really being helped by the different handle. Using the “nylon strap loops” allows my hands to move more freely, plus I get a little more range and squeeze at the end. Really trying to focus on using the back only, pulling from the elbows (if you will). The shrugs I kept light beacuse I’m still working on ensuring I find the groove there. Tilting my head forward, looking down, and I’m getting a better motion. I did up the weight slightly, and I think I’ll start to do that, but still keep the reps higher until the movement pattern feels solid and I don’t regress. Forgot to dropset the pulldowns (ugh). And the pullovers are finding their groove, tho I still think this will need to stay light until I feel better about it — it’s still a little uncomfortable on my shoulders, but it’s not so much the normal pains as it is just being stiff. I might also try using a barbell for this as I wonder if different hand positioning (e.g. wider) might be less of an issue.

So, experimentation continues

All in all, not a bad day. I’ll chalk it up in the 80% column.

• Barbell Rows
  • bar x 10
  • 95 x 5
  • 115 x 4
  • 135 x 3
  • 155 x 2
  • 175 x 1
  • 135 x 15
  • 135 x 7
• Cable Row
  • 95 x 12
  • 95 x 12
  • 95 x 12
  • 95 x 10
• Behind the back barbell shrugs (smith machine)
  • 135 x 20
  • 135 x 20
  • 135 x 20
  • 185 x 17
  • 135 x 30
• Close-grip Pulldowns
  • 110 x 10
  • 110 x 10
  • 110 x 10
  • 110 x 10
• DB Pullovers
  • 25 x 12
  • 30 x 12
  • 35 x 12
• Band pullaparts
  • a bunch

Wingin’ it.

Last week my knees were having none of it. I got on the leg press and simply putting pressure on the plate to begin unracking and my knees said “don’t do it”. So I didn’t and just did other things. I wasn’t sure then how this leg day was going to go. My thought going into it was to try to do the program, but if it didn’t happen to just change up as I saw fit. Well, on my walk to the gym I opted to just change it up and not worry about it.

The interesting thing is squats don’t bother my knees, so why not just MOAR SWKWAATS? And so I did. But a variation. Normally I squat low-bar with a moderately wide stance, so we’ll try high-bar, narow stance (feet almost together), knees and toes pointed straight ahead, heels up on a 5# plate. And try for reps. Well… back up.

So squats themselves went well. Last week everything felt horrible. No groove, heavy, miserable. Today? Felt good. The groove was there — I really got my shoulders and upper back locked in today, which helped. Things didn’t feel heavy. The AMRAP and 50% sets felt good and I got a bunch more than last week. That said, I just ran out of gas. That was the theme for today. I can have sets where I stop because truly the muscle is fatigued but I still have energy; but these are where the muscles don’t really feel fatigued but I just don’t have the gas to do another rep. It’s diet-related, of course. But I racked the AMRAP and 50% sets because I just ran out of gas.

Then I opted to do the high-bar squats. I actually wanted to go for a lot of reps, like 12-20, closer to 20 at least on the first set. Well… that didn’t happen. Again, ran out of gas was the most part, but as well it’s not a movement I do often so I found myself going slower, getting no rebound out of the hole (and the hole is MUCH deeper in this position — my butt winds up touching my heels, just to get my thighs parallel), and thinking more about form than trying to really power through some reps. I probably could have gotten more reps, but between it all… I stopped where I did.

Then the stiff-legs? Ha… that just peeded out. Certainly in part because of the additional squat work before it, but truly I ran out of gas. So I opted to just do some leg extensions and curls, and calf raises, and that was that.

All said tho, I certainly felt worked and beat when I left the gym. And that’s part of the goals, just to get in a lot of work to burn calories.

I dug it all tho. I’ll have to make some adjustments and adaptations, but I’m digging what I’m doing here. I may just stick with this for a while.

• Squat
  • bar x 5
  • bar x 5
  • 115 x 5
  • 145 x 4
  • 170 x 3
  • 215 x 2
  • 245 x 1
  • 210 x 9 (AMRAP)
  • 210 x 5 (50%)
• High-bar, close-stance squat
  • 135 x 8
  • 115 x 8
  • 115 x 8
  • 115 x 8
• Deficit (1″) Stiff-Leg Deadlift
  • 245 x 6
  • 245 x 6
  • 245 x 3
• Leg Extensions
  • 40 x 15
  • 45 x 12
  • 50 x 12
  • 40 x 16
• Leg Curls (superset with the extensions)
  • 40 x 12
  • 45 x 8
  • 45 x 8
  • 35 x 8
• Standing Calf Raises
  • 100 x 10
  • 100 x 10
  • 100 x 10
  • 100 x 10

I continue to debate where to go from here, because after a day like today, I feel like it needs more time.

See, Nick just bumped down my diet. With carbs this low, things start to suck. I get dizzy spells on the off-days, and so a remedy for that is to have another on-day so you can eat more. That’s one reason I went to 4x/week from 3x/week. But does this mean I should go 5x/week? I think about it, strongly. But at this point I’m not sure.

Today worked really well, better than I expected given how depleted I was after the weekend (2 off-days in a row). And I’m really liking this increased volume and “work” being done. I only just got the diet adjustment, and this is really only the 3rd week on this program, so I really feel like I should give things a little more time. So, we’ll see.

Meantime tho… today was pretty good.

Inclines improved. Felt a little heavy, but as I kept going things felt better.

DB work, as much as I don’t always care for it, continues to demonstrate to me how good it is for me. The balance, the increased work it brings, really it’s good for me.

DB flies will continue to be a part of things for me. The main reason is that stretch. Today I didn’t up the weight or the reps, but rather when I got into the bottom position I just let things sink in for 2-3 seconds to really let it stretch and stretch further. I think that’s some good stuff.

The other change? What I finished with. I was thinking to do some alternations, like front raises one week, then side raises the next, then rear the next… but gee, what’s the point? 3 weeks between runs? So instead I did something I’ve been reading about a lot lately and using it in my warm-ups has been proving good to my shoulder: front plate raises. I can’t do a 25# plate for 100 reps, but I did shoot for 50 reps in the 100-rep protocol: as many reps as possible, then rest for as many seconds as you have reps remaining, then continue like this until you total 50 reps. That was pretty solid. Oh, and these front plate raises are all the way above my head, arms end perpendicular to the ground.

All in all, a good session, especially given how damn hungry and depleted I am. 🙂

Oh, and I’m 208 this morning. I’ll take that.

• Incline Press
  • bar x 5
  • bar x 5
  • 85 x 5
  • 105 x 4
  • 125 x 3
  • 155 x 2
  • 175 x 1
  • 155 x 11 (AMRAP)
  • 155 x 5 (50%)
• DB Bench Press (4-0-1-0 tempo)
  • 55e x 10
  • 55e x 10
  • 55e x 10
  • 55e x 10
  • 55e x 7
• Flat DB Flies
  • 20e x 12
  • 20e x 12
  • 20e x 12
• Press Behind Neck (seated, smith machine)
  • 95 x 10
  • 95 x 6
• Seated DB Press
  • 40e x 10
  • 40e x 10
  • 40e x 8
  • 40e x 7
  • 40e x 6
• Front Plate Raises (100-rep protocol)
  • 25 x 50

First off… to the dude that didn’t clean the benches after he was done and left his oily sweaty funk all over every bench in the gym (for the second week in a row)? Fuck you. 1. It’s gross. No one wants your funk. Wipe down the equipment when you’re done. 2. We’re entering cold & flu season, so even more so clean the equipment and wash your damn hands.

Anyways…

Opted to change things up today. Why? Because. I’m curious to put more “heavy” work in and see how that fares for me. The 100-rep stuff is cool, but it doesn’t feel substantive enough.

In general I’m finding a fair response to a “pyramid” approach, of starting with some compound movement, heavier, lower reps; then transitioning to more isolation, lighter, higher reps. It’s not 2 movements, one then the other, but transitions through other movements with the sets/reps/weights/goal shifting up and down appropriately. It may or may not be overall beneficial for me, but only way to know is to try it and see.

So the change-up is evident below.

Cheat curls are all about that negative. DB curls, I wonder if Zottmans may be useful (I’m looking at you forearms supinators and extensors). I kept the 100-reps in there, but what got me was I dropped to 20# figuring after all that prior work it’d be more appropriate. I probably should have stuck with 30#, because I cranked through the 20 without stopping — which is mentally good to do, but didn’t do much for my arms. Still…

I upped the close-grip weight. Interesting that it doesn’t feel as good on my shoulder. A lot of guys talk about close-grips being nicer on their shoulder but not for me. Wasn’t horrible, but was there. Skullcrushers go all the way behind my head, not just bending down to touch my chin or thereabouts. Worked to really keep my elbows in on everything and just let extension happen — the moment I start to flare, that’s time to rack it.

And I kept the pressdowns and preachers in because it’s fun and a nice way to end.

A lot of arm work, but the bro in me is enjoying that. 😉

In other news… we’ve made some more cut adjustments to the Defattening Diet. The goal is to get me to 200 before Thanksgiving — turkey and cranberry sauce will be my next cheat meal — yeah, no cheats until then. It’s do-able…. but man, I am tired of chicken. 🙂 That said, I am contemplating 5x/week lifting now. I probably won’t this coming week, but as hunger and lack of carbs on my off-days get to me, adding in a 5th lifting day so I can have a little more carbs may be needed. We’ll see.

• Cheat Curls
  • 40 x 20
  • 50 x 15
  • 60 x 8
  • 60 x 8
  • 60 x 8
• DB Curls
  • 25e x 10
  • 25e x 10
  • 25e x 10
  • 25e x 8
• Close-grip EZ-bar curls
  • 20 x 100 (straight)
• Close-Grip Bench
  • bar x 5
  • bar x 5
  • 115 x 5
  • 135 x 4
  • 155 x 3
  • 175 x 2
  • 195 x 1
  • 155 x 12 (AMRAP)
  • 155 x 6 (50%)
• Skullcrushers (behind the head)
  • 40 x 20
  • 50 x 12
  • 55 x 6
  • 55 x 5
• Pushdowns (superset with preachers)
  • 40 x 17
  • 40 x 15
  • 40 x 15
  • 40 x 12
  • 40 x 12
• Preacher Curls (superset with Pushdowns)
  • 40 x 10
  • 40 x 10
  • 40 x 10
  • 40 x 8
  • 40 x 7

I still feel like I have a lot to learn in terms of working my back. But I’m getting there. Today was kinda a cool experiment.

First, while the Defattening Project remains my primary task, some exercise selection is guided by my shoulder problems: either things to avoid or things that could help. To that end, a couple things changed for today.

I decided to do pullovers. I used to do these a lot as a teenager and got a lot of benefit out of them. I tried doing them a little while ago and my body said “no”. I opted to do them again, and this time I’ll stick with it. Why? First, they’ll be good for hitting what they hit — they have a lot of benefit. Second, I think opening the ribcage up will be good for me. I sit all day, a lot of “hunched over”. Often during the day I’ll stretch in ways that open me up, like reaching to the sky, or just pulling my arms back/outwards to expand the chest. So, I think the pullovers will be useful in that way, so long as my shoulders are OK with it.

Thus today was just about trying to put my body into position and seeing if it would complain. A light enough weight that wouldn’t stress anything but would at least be enough to put me into position and stretch things a bit. It went alright. I do have to keep my elbows in, because any drop/flare and my shoulders do not like. I do also need to ease into the bottom position a little bit, but it was OK. I noticed when I was leaving the gym my shoulder actually felt REALLY good, so I’ll go with that emotion. I’ll stick with these for a bit and see how it goes, keeping it very light and just working on getting my body used to the movement, the range of motion, etc. before I bother upping the weight.

Then, I called an audible during the session. Sitting at the cable row station, staring across at the smith machine… and I thought, no Meadows DB Shrugs — let’s do behind-the-back barbell shrugs. Why? First, been curious to try them. Second, any time I shrug things roll forward. It’s part of why I moved to DB’s, so I could keep my arms at my side and keep my body and everything more neutral and upright. But with the bar behind, that’s certainly a different groove and does require things to be pulled back, again a more open chest sort of thing. Also with the Smith Machine I don’t have to worry about the plane of motion and can actually lean a bit against the bar (the machine holding me up) so I can have a bar path that works a little more for my needs and not just what gravity forces me into. So this was an experiment. I did find standing “inside” the machine worked better and gave me a better plane of motion than standing on the outside (because of the angle the machine forces the bar path). I also find I need to look down, bend the head to touch chin to chest, else I scrunch my head and bend it back which then totally messes up trying to keep a straight back. Weight was kept light with more reps, but the 135 wasn’t too bad. Again, this is something I’ll stick with for some sessions, work to find the groove on the movement, then see how it goes. But so far I liked how it went.

On rowing….

I had a thought about BB rows: I always do them straight-sets. What if I tried working up in the 5,4,3,2,1 progression, then drop down to an AMRAP+50% like I do bench and squat? It may not work, but I’m thinking about maybe giving it a try next week.

Cable rows work nicely… really trying to be strict, really feel and work the back muscles through the whole range of motion, hold and squeeze at the top, etc.. It’s things like this — don’t focus on pulling and moving the weight, focus on contracting the involved muscles — and I really get something out of back work. Other body parts I can move the weight and get something, but back really needs me to focus on the back muscles.

Anyways, pretty cool. Happy with the day.

• Barbell Rows
• bar x 10
• 95 x 8
• 135 x 8
• 135 x 8
• 135 x 8
• 135 x 7
• 135 x 6
• Cable Row
• 90 x 12
• 90 x 12
• 90 x 12
• 90 x 12
• Behind-the-back Smith Machine Shrugs
• 135 x 20
• 135 x 20
• 135 x 20
• 135 x 20
• 135 x 20
• Close-grip Pulldowns
• 110 x 8
• 110 x 10
• 110 x 10
• 110 x 9, then drop set.
• DB Pullovers
• 25 x 10
• 25 x 10
• 25 x 10

This was not the plan.

Squats were heavy. The 245 is NOT heavy for me, yet it felt like a ton. Then the AMRAP wasn’t many. Why? I don’t know… just one of those days? Descents were slow, ascents kept feeling like they were falling forward and I was always up on my toes instead of over the middle of my foot. The groove just felt off in every way.

Then I hit the leg press. I started to put pressure on to unrack the weight, and my left knee said “OH HELL NO”, in the bad way, like no good would come of this. I tried a couple more times of relaxing, adding pressure, and each time the knee made it clear this would only end badly. Yeah, that concerns me… it could just be the mode of the day, and still recouping from the CSAT weekend.

I’m not going to sweat things too much at this point, but it is starting to concern me.

So I just did what I could. Leg extensions and curls didn’t put any pressure or pain on my knee, so off I went. No idea what weight to use, so I pyramided up, stayed for a bit, then drop set on the last set.

Not 100% sure what to make of today just yet, but I’m happy to find ways to work around things instead of just throwing in the towel.

• Squat
  • bar x 5
  • bar x 5
  • 115 x 5
  • 145 x 4
  • 170 x 3
  • 215 x 2
  • 245 x 1
  • 210 x 6 (AMRAP)
  • 210 x 4 (50%)
• Deficit (1″) Stiff-Leg Deadlift
  • 245 x 8
  • 245 x 7
  • 245 x 6
• Leg Extensions
  • 40 x 15
  • 45 x 15
  • 50 x 12
  • 55 x 12
  • 55 x 11 (then drop set)
• Leg Curls
  • 40 x 15
  • 45 x 12
  • 50 x 9
  • 50 x 8
  • 50 x 7 (then drop set)
• Standing Calf Raises
  • 100 x 12
  • 100 x 12
  • 100 x 9
  • 100 x 8

Bit of a change-up today, adding.

I want to add a little more work, so today marks a good day for doing so. I felt really good and it manifested in a really good session.

First, added DB flies. I didn’t want the pec deck, nor the funky way Polquin suggests to do flies (always was weird on my shoulders). I wanted straight-up traditional flies. This proved more than I expected, because the bottom part gave me this awesomely painful stretch — I really need that. I do some stretching of the shoulder/pec area to help out with stuff, but this hit a stretch that I can’t otherwise hit and I was surprised to discover how tight I was. I found myself resting in the bottom position for a second or two with every rep to really let the stretch settle in. That alone makes the movement worth it.

Second, I’m starting to feel like the final delt work will be some sort of raise: front, lateral, or rear. Nothing crazy, just a bit of work. So today it was lateral raises, but there was some weird twinge in the top of my traps. I had to be mindful of how I moved to avoid triggering it.

But all in all, good. day.

• Incline Press
  • bar x 5
  • bar x 5
  • 85 x 5
  • 105 x 4
  • 125 x 3
  • 155 x 2
  • 175 x 1
  • 155 x 10 (AMRAP)
  • 155 x 5 (50%)
• DB Bench Press
  • 50e x 10
  • 50e x 10
  • 50e x 10
  • 50e x 10
  • 50e x 10
• Press Behind Neck (seated, smith machine)
  • 95 x 10
  • 95 x 7
• Seated DB Press
  • 35e x 10
  • 35e x 10
  • 35e x 10
  • 35e x 10
  • 35e x 10
• Lateral Raises
  • 20x x 10
  • 20x x 10
  • 20x x 10

Indulge me for a moment.

I know I’m no where near a level to care about “imbalances”. And I know a lot of things continue to look better as fat sheds — like your shoulders just look better the leaner you are, and I see that in others and in myself. Still, there are a couple places where I’d like to pick up.

First, my calves. In the grand scheme, they’re fine. But because there’s this slight curvature to my shin bones, it makes my calves look thin. It’s all visuals, but it’s the sort of thing where my calves need to be larger than normal (proportionally speaking) to then look normal. But no big.

Second, my biceps. Yeah, I feel so gym-bro for saying it. But I’ve spent the past few years doing all this pressing work so relatively speaking I’ve got a lot of triceps. When I look at things, the biceps just aren’t there; in fact, when my biceps are pumped (and nothing else is), then things look proportioned. So yeah, I feel so bro for this, but it’s there. Thus, I am trying to play around to see what I can do.

I do dig the 100’s, esp. when it’s a challenging weight to start with (e.g. 40-70 reps; not a weight you can do 100 with).

I also spent today really trying to just work the muscle. Minimizing swinging (save it for later on, like last reps of last sets), move from just contracting the relevant muscles. Sure I went down a little bit in reps and such, but meh — I felt it more and worked things more.

I also remembered to do a little more extra stuff, like drop-sets after DB curls. I also, for grins, opted to make the pushdowns be a superset with preacher curls. I picked too light a weight on the preachers, but that’s ok. I think I’ll give this a go for a while and see where it gets me. That said, I do think I should have pushed the pushdowns a little more on each set. I was being a little conservative so I could see where this was going to go… should have pushed more to failure. But no problems.

• Barbell Curls
  • 30 x 100 (protocol: AMRAP, rest as many seconds as remaining reps; continue; repeat until 100 total)
• DB Curls
  • 25e x 10
  • 25e x 10
  • 25e x 10
  • 25e x 7, then drop set
• Close-Grip Bench
  • bar x 5
  • bar x 5
  • 95 x 5
  • 125 x 4
  • 145 x 3
  • 165 x 2
  • 185 x 1
  • 145 x 16 (AMRAP)
  • 145 x 7 (50%)
• Pushdowns
  • 40 x 15
  • 40 x 15
  • 40 x 15
  • 40 x 15
  • 40 x 15, drop set
• Preacher Curls (superset with pushdowns)
  • 35 x 12
  • 35 x 12
  • 35 x 12
  • 35 x 12
  • 35 x 20

Not too bad.

I feel like I need to do more tho… like it’s just not enough. Even finishing in 45 minutes.

I don’t want to overdo it for the sake of it, but I do feel like my back could use more, somehow. My back seems to always be able to use more work. It may be something like just adding a 5th set.

That said, I did try to vary it up some to give it more work. Like the cable rows were “light” with a lot of focus on back contraction, squeeze, and so on. Things like the Meadows shrugs because that squeeze and hold really pumps the traps.

Ah well, it’ll get figured. 🙂

• Barbell Rows
  • bar x 10
  • 95 x 8
  • 135 x 8
  • 135 x 8
  • 135 x 8
  • 135 x 8
• Cable Row
  • 100 x 10
  • 100 x 10
  • 100 x 10
  • 100 x 8
• Meadows Shrugs
  • 80e x 10
  • 80e x 10
  • 80e x 10
  • 80e x 10
• Close-grip Pulldowns
  • 110 x 8
  • 110 x 8
  • 110 x 8, then drop set (20# increments)

Day off.

While I don’t want to take the day off, my knees and body are still pretty beat and banged up from my weekend activities (more on that tomorrow). A leg day is not what I need right now. What I need right now is more rest. I’ll be napping later today as well.