Today brought everyone out — gym was crazy busy. This is why I like being an early person — get the optimal racks and equipment. 😉

That said, sometimes I do wish for fixed benches. Having to set the hooks, bars, bench, etc. every time gets things slightly off. And today was no fun, because I hit the hooks a couple times and really threw myself off. My own fault, as I need to make sure to keep positioning and checking the position of things, like if the bench may have slid back a bit. It’s just more learning the new gym, the new equipment.

Incline work went quite well. I think I will up the weight 5-10# next session on the work-up, because that 225 goes up so fast, so easy. I also had the thought today about dropping the incline angle. I’m setting it at about a 45º angle, but I’ve wondered about going 30º or so. Mostly to start to see if I can get back to flat benching. I’m thinking that after this hypertrophy block I might do something like basebuilding for 6 weeks or so, and if I do that I want to flat bench. Anyways, if I do increase the weight, the AMRAP will stay where it is. I might have felt different, but I hit the hooks on this and it threw me off. I want to get a clean 12 and 6 before I up the weight there.

DB benching continues to be awesome. I love this scheme.

Flies were fine. I’m going to keep the weight here but move to a max of 15 reps before I up the weight again.

Pressing. Man, part of me wants to get back to a 5/3/1 style where I press heavy on the regular. I do miss that.

Then the raises. I really don’t care much about reps here, just making pain. And when I do those final burns, to make sure the movement is purely from muscular contraction. It hurts, it hurts. But I am seeing some nice results.

20 on the elliptical. Then all that rolling and stretching. It’s helping me so much. Heck, there was something in my lower lumbar vetebrae that popped the other day, because I could finally stretch/twist through enough. It was… amazing. The past some weeks (months?) I’ve been feeling all this low back pain/discomfort, that was starting to really worry me. But that’s all it was — a “stuck” vertebrae. One that popped, oh it was glorious. Now everything feels awesome. And this is how it often goes. Muscles are all tight, things get “locked” in weird ways, stretch and let things relax and release, and boy does everything release eventually. And then things are SO much better.

• 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 5 (50%)
• DB Bench Press (pause at bottom, get the stretch)
  • 40e x 10 (warm up)
  • 55e x 8 (warm up)
  • 90e x 8
  • 65e x 14
  • 40e x 22
• DB Flat Flies
  • 25e x 12
  • 25e x 12
  • 25e x 15
  • 20e x 6 (drop)
  • 15e x 5 (drop)
• Press
  • 115 x 10
  • 115 x 10
  • 115 x 8
• Front Plate Raise (tri set)
  • 45 x 12
  • 45 x 9
  • 45 x 7
• DB Lateral Raise (tri set)
  • 15e x 10
  • 15e x 7
  • 15e x 5 (then burns)
• Rear Lateral Raise (tri set)
  • 12e x 10
  • 12e x 10
  • 12e x 8 (then burns)

The highlight of today wasn’t the workout, but all the after-work. I believe all the foam rolling, stretching, massage, and other bodywork I’m doing to myself is making a big and positive impact on my entire body, but especially my back and shoulder area. I’m still working on finding better ways to impact my shoulder/upper-back area, but it’s getting there. And overall, things are feeling MUCH looser, MUCH better. I’d like to hope this is going to improve my arm pain issues too, as I believe that is actually rooted in my shoulders.

Heck, just rolling a tennis ball under my foot (on the sole) for a few minutes is having a noticable impact and improvement. I used to use a lacrosse ball, but that didn’t work as well. The tennis ball works better because it squishes, so I get more contact and a spread-out force, instead of a pin-point force. Just push/stand “hard” and roll it everywhere on my sole. So much improvement.

I may skip cardio here and there, but I don’t want to skip this rehab work.

Anyways, arm day.

I made one big change: no more supersets. Instead, I alternate: all curl sets, then all close-grip, then all hammers, then all french press, etc.. I also changed to only have 1.5 minutes of intraset rest, trying to keep moving. I found that when I started a new exercise it went better because the muscle group was more rested. But as the sets went on, because of the drop in intraset rest, the sets actually got harder. I think this works better, if nothing else, it’s less of a logistical problem at the gym.

I did change my final biceps exercise to cable curls. Had to adjust the weight a bit to find the right spot (may drop it even a little bit more to hit even higher reps). But I dug it. What was especially cool was really feeling the isolation here – the curling felt like pure biceps contraction and nothing else, especially on the drop sets at the end.

So, I’ll probably go with this emotion for a bit.

• BB Curls (elbows in, wider grip)
  • 55 x 8
  • 65 x 7
  • 75 x 6
  • 85 x 5
  • 95 x 4
  • 105 x 3
  • 85 x 10 (AMRAP)
  • 85 x 5 (50%)
• Close-Grip Bench
  • bar x 5
  • 105 x 8
  • 125 x 7
  • 145 x 6
  • 185 x 5
  • 205 x 4
  • 225 x 3
  • 195 x 12 (AMRAP)
  • 195 x 5 (50%)
• Incline Hammer Curls (3 second eccentric, go to failure, then stand and do AMRAP alternating supinated curls)
  • 25e x 12 (8 more)
  • 25e x 12 (3 more)
  • 25e x 10 (3 more)
• Standing French Press
  • 75 x 15
  • 75 x 15
  • 75 x 10
• Cable Curl (hold/sqeeze at top)
  • 60 x 23
  • 50 x 27
  • 50 x 18
  • 40 x 5 (drop)
  • 30 x 5 (drop)
• Rope Pressdowns (First 20, twist out hands at bottom; remainder straight hands pushed to failure)
  • 60 x 40
  • 60 x 33
  • 60 x 25
  • 50 x 8 (drop)
  • 40 x 8 (drop)

Today didn’t start out so great. My arm pain flared up yesterday pretty bad. I was hauling some 50 lb bags of corn and somehow that caused my biceps and forearms to hate life. My grip strength dropped as well. Not good. Felt a little residual this morning, and things didn’t start off so great. Pull-ups not only dropped in reps, but they were hurting – enough that I told myself if this gets worse I was going to pack it in and go home.

However, things actually got better as I went along. Yes I still felt weaker overall today due to the problems, but after rows things just felt better, and I’m still feeling better here a couple hours later at home. I’ll see how I feel tomorrow.

Anyways, not too much to say. Adding in some intensity techniques. I need to up the weight on shrugs. That’s about the only other comment I have right now.

• Face Pulls
  • 75 x 25
  • 75 x 25
  • 75 x 20
• Pull-Ups
  • BW x 4
  • BW x 3
  • BW x 2
• Barbell Rows
  • 115 x 8
  • 135 x 7
  • 155 x 6
  • 175 x 5
  • 195 x 4
  • 205 x 3
  • 165 x 11 (AMRAP)
  • 165 x 6 (50%)
• BB Shrugs
  • 275 x 8
  • 275 x 8
  • 185 x 20
  • 185 x 30
• Close-grip Pulldowns
  • 125 x 12
  • 125 x 12
  • 125 x 12
  • 125 x 12
  • 110 x 4 (drop set)
  • 95 x 3 (drop set)

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