More chin-ups, always good. 🙂

So ok, it’s still just 6 chins in a row, but hey… it’s more than before.

This was actually a pretty good back session. I dropped the weight on the BB rows because well, I really want to crank on the chins, which takes enough out of me, so prior weight on rows was getting more about the movement than the muscle. Dropping the weight, I had a much higher quality run of sets. In fact, all the back work today was really good and at the end of it felt really worked in my back muscles. I need more back sessions like this. More and more I find that back work is best when it’s in that 8-12 range, but even then not so heavy as to be more about moving from point A to point B… really need to ensure the back muscles are engaged and I’m working the muscle, not the movement. It’s hard to always think that way, since so much of my other work is about the movement, so just more things to work on.

Based upon Paul Carter’s Basebuilding

Chins

• BW x 6
• BW x 4
• BW x 3
• BW x 2
• BW x 2

BB Rows

• 135 x 8
• 135 x 8
• 135 x 8
• 135 x 8
• 135 x 8

BB Shrugs

• 205 x 12
• 205 x 12
• 205 x 12
• 205 x 12
• 205 x 12

Wide, Neutral-grip Lat Pulldowns

• 130 x 10
• 130 x 10
• 130 x 10
• 130 x 10

Hammer Curls

• 30e x 10
• 30e x 10
• 30e x 10

BB Bar Curls (350-Method)

• 45 x 15
• 45 x 12
• 45 x 12

I keep thinking I should up the Press amounts, then I do it and realize I’m where I need to be.

The work-up weights are just nothing… I can do much more. But then I hit the rep sets and they are where I should be given percentages and whatever else in Carter’s Big-15 template. So, just keep it where it is.

All in all tho, things are feeling alright here. I look back and think that things are normalizing, that I’m feeling right and good… but when a few days later you feel better, you can look back and realize that a few days ago you weren’t as good as you thought you were. That said, I think I’m on the tapering end of a parabolic curve here, as the day-to-day changes aren’t as stark.

Speaking of that, my weight is been a little stable the past few weeks. It’s up and down, it fluxes during the week, but my semi-weekly checkin points are generally flat with just a slight downward. Given the past couple weeks, given how I’ve been eating, how I’ve been watching the weight go up/down, I think my body is still realigning itself and normalizing. It’s been 2 months on this cycle, and Nick @ RP and I have spoken about another 1-month maintenance. I’m not ready to do it yet, but it may be like a deload — that you don’t WANT to do it, but it’s good for you and you should. We’ll see.

Anyways, back to the weight-room… the one thing that has nagged at me and I realized today I should do something about is the triceps work. I’ve been hanging on to doing the close-grips 350-method because of templates, but it’s really not the way I should do it. I’ve been wanting to do a heavier exercise first, then rep out afterwards. Like with biceps I do some heaver hammer curls for 3×8-15 then finish with BB curls 350-method. I should do the same here, close-grips for 3×8-15 and pressdowns 350-method. So… didn’d do that today, but will next week.

Based upon Paul Carter’s Basebuilding

Press

• bar x 5
• bar x 5
• 60 x 5
• 75 x 4
• 90 x 3
• 110 x 2
• 125 x 1
• 110 x 13 (AMRAP)
• 110 x 6 (50%)

Upright Rows

• 80 x 10
• 80 x 10
• 80 x 10
• 80 x 10
• 80 x 10

Polquin-style Side Laterals

• 15e x 12
• 15e x 12
• 15e x 12

Face Pulls

• 75 x 12
• 75 x 12
• 75 x 12
• 75 x 12
• 75 x 12

Close-Grip Bench Press (350 Method)

• 115 x 25
• 115 x 15
• 115 x 10

Triceps Pressdowns

• 60 x 15
• 60 x 12
• 60 x 8

Ooof…. I’m drained.

This session was still very draining, not as bad at last week’s session, but I was still pretty tapped out by the end of the session. It’s not strength, it’s gas in the tank.

The 285 went up better than last week, but still feels heavy. The 5×5 started slow, but the 3rd and 4th sets actually went pretty well, stronger than the prior. But I was getting pretty drained by this point, with the 1-minute rest periods feeling way too short and certainly not caught up on my breath.

Then stiff-legs and well… unlike last week when I could only muster 6 reps, here I got 8 reps per set, but mostly because I pushed myself to do so. By set 3 I was tapped, my body doing everything it could to keep me from going again. When I started the 5th set, my mind was telling me to stop, that I had nothing to prove. My body was giving me feedback of being weak, tired, nauseous, everything it could to try to keep me from doing it. Still, I did it. And this just tells you how strong the body’s will to survive and self-preserve is, because that 5th set was my strongest set — just cranked through it and had strength in reserve. The body just wants to preserve itself, preserve its reserves, its stores, its strength, because it doesn’t know what’s ahead. But this is when you know you’ve got it, and you have to push through. No, this is nothing major in life, it’s just lifting weights, but it is what helps you train yourself, your mind, your body, your soul, to press on. It’s what helps you grow stronger, and I’m not just talking muscles here.

That said, after stiff-legs, I was gassed. I modified things a little bit on the leg pressing. Walking home was tough too… just wobbly, nauseous, but yeah… good. I expect next week will be better.

Based upon Paul Carter’s Basebuilding

• Squats (model 1)
  • bar x 5
  • bar x 5
  • 165 x 5
  • 190 x 4
  • 225 x 3
  • 250 x 2
  • 285 x 1
  • 200 x 5
  • 200 x 5
  • 200 x 5
  • 200 x 5
  • 200 x 5
• Stiff-Legged Deadlift
  • 205 x 8
  • 205 x 8
  • 205 x 8
  • 205 x 8
  • 205 x 8
• Leg Press
  • 135 x 10
  • 135 x 10
  • 135 x 10
  • 135 x 10
• Standing Calf Raises
  • 65 x 10
  • 65 x 10
  • 65 x 10
  • 65 x 10
  • 65 x 10

To groove or not to groove… that was the problem.

For whatever reason, benching felt “out of groove”. I didn’t feel like everything was working. The bar path felt constantly off, with sometimes the bar going up, sometimes going back towards the uprights. I don’t know. I was playing around with my feet and the leg drive, but even in that nothing really settled. I am not 100% sure what the deal is, but everything was just “out of groove” today.

That all said, things generally went fine. Not a huge progression over last week, but progress nonetheless. All in all, an alright day.

Based upon Paul Carter’s Basebuilding

• Bench Press (model 2)
  • bar x 5
  • bar x 5
  • 120 x 5
  • 145 x 4
  • 160 x 3
  • 180 x 2
  • 205 x 1
  • 225 x 1
  • 205 x 5
  • 205 x 5
  • 205 x 5
  • 180 x 5
  • 180 x 5
  • 180 x 5
  • 145 x 16 (AMRAP)
• Dips
  • BW x 7
  • BW x 6
  • BW x 6
  • BW x 6
• DB Incline Press (350 Method)
  • 40e x 20
  • 40e x 12
  • 40e x 12
• Polquin Flies
  • 15e x 12
  • 15e x 12
  • 15e x 12

Yeah, I lost something over the past couple weeks, but it’s not much and I know in time I’ll get it back.

A little size, a little strength but all things considered, it’s understandable and the way it goes given circumstances.

Apart from that tho, it was a generally good session. It actually did make me think more about back work and that while sometimes I need heavy, I think sometimes I need to go lighter with more tension, thinking more about muscle and less about movement. Sure, let the chins be as they are… let the rows be as they are. But when I do pulldowns? How can I really be “about the muscle”? Stuff like that.

Anyways, that’s that. Onwards.

Based upon Paul Carter’s Basebuilding

Chins

• BW x 5
• BW x 3
• BW x 3
• BW x 2
• BW x 2

BB Rows

• 145 x 8
• 145 x 8
• 145 x 8
• 145 x 7
• 145 x 6

BB Shrugs

• 205 x 12
• 205 x 12
• 205 x 12
• 205 x 12
• 205 x 12

Wide, Neutral-grip Lat Pulldowns

• 130 x 10
• 130 x 10
• 130 x 10
• 130 x 8

Hammer Curls

• 30e x 10
• 30e x 10
• 30e x 9

BB Bar Curls (350-method)

• 45 x 16
• 45 x 15
• 45 x 12

Trying something different for my pressing.

I was working Press as pure accessory, with a little warm-up then just 5×8 across. I felt like it was going nowhere, so I opted to change it up a bit. I looked in Paul Carter’s “Strength, Life, Legacy” eBook and took the simple Big-15 programming progression, which is his 5-4-3-2-1 over-warmup approach, followed by an AMRAP set (8-15 rep range) followed by a 50% set (4-8 rep range). I kinda miss programming for Press like I did with 5/3/1, and if this might help me overcome the plateau, great.

I had no idea what weights to use, so I just took what I had been doing, made some calculations up and down the various formulas and percentages, and wound up with the weights you see here. Frankly, I felt like I could do more, like working up to 135 would be a little better. But then I hit the rep sets and they were actually right where they should be. So, I think I’ll keep it here and see how it goes.

Because you can also see, there were other effects later on. I bumped up the Upright Rows weight and that went well. But then I opted to drop the laterals weight because I wanted to be stricter, and I was but it was still good for me. I also felt like the close-grips and pressdowns regressed, but that’s only on paper. Is it actual regression? Can’t say, and really it doesn’t matter. Given the recent events in life, I’m not surprised if I lost a little strength and muscle and I stepped back a hair. Or maybe it’s just because I changed up enough stuff at the front of the session that the back of the session of course lost a little (on paper). Meh… it’s just a small step back, if it really is one at all. I’ll keep going, no big.

Based upon Paul Carter’s Basebuilding

Press

• bar x 5
• bar x 5
• 60 x 5
• 75 x 4
• 90 x 3
• 110 x 2
• 125 x 1
• 110 x 12 (AMRAP)
• 110 x 6 (50%)

Upright Rows

• 80 x 10
• 80 x 10
• 80 x 10
• 80 x 10
• 80 x 8

Polquin-style Side Laterals

• 15e x 10
• 15e x 10
• 15e x 10

Face Pulls

• 70 x 12
• 70 x 12
• 70 x 12
• 70 x 12
• 70 x 12

Close-Grip Bench Press (350 Method)

• 115 x 22
• 115 x 15
• 115 x 8

Triceps Pressdowns

• 60 x 12
• 60 x 10
• 60 x 10

Today was… ok.

Being down on food, sleep, and other things, while I chugged through today, it was a tougher day. I didn’t hit my reps on the stiff-legs, the squats were moving but moving slow. I just felt gassed, mostly…. Well, it is what it is. Nothing else to say.

I’ll get it back.

In other news… I’ve started to think again about competition. In many ways, it depends upon the state of things (e.g. The Defattening Project) and then how things go from there. But what I came back to, and I’ve thought about this before, is Hyde Park Gym (one of the bigger gyms in town, and if they were convenient to me I’d probably train there — there or Big Tex Gym, but they are completely on the other side of town from me), and how HPG does a push-pull event every summer. I don’t think you have to be a gym member to participate, and the barrier of entry is low, e.g. you don’t have to buy and wear special equipment, etc.. Sure, it’s not affiliated with any sort of Federation or anything, but it’s still judged, it’s still a competition. So who cares about the details, and yeah it’s not a full-meet, but whatever. If it could be the way to cut my teeth, I’m game to give it a shot. TBD.

Based upon Paul Carter’s Basebuilding

• Squats (model 1)
  • bar x 5
  • bar x 5
  • 165 x 5
  • 190 x 4
  • 225 x 3
  • 250 x 2
  • 285 x 1
  • 200 x 5
  • 200 x 5
  • 200 x 5
  • 200 x 5
  • 200 x 5
• Stiff-Legged Deadlift
  • 205 x 8
  • 205 x 8
  • 205 x 6
  • 205 x 6
  • 205 x 6
• Leg Press
  • 135 x 20
  • 135 x 20
  • 135 x 20
• Standing Calf Raises
  • 65 x 10
  • 65 x 10
  • 65 x 10
  • 65 x 10
  • 65 x 10

Of all the things, I forgot my phone. But the session setup is pretty familiar to me. I got a few weights wrong, but on the whole I knew what to do and did it. Hooray programming!

While right now my normal work-up is to 215, I worked up to 225. I’m not totally sure why, but I just wanted to do it. Maybe it was the emotional/ego need of “2 wheels”, of “doing that”, or whatever. But I also know that in Paul’s approach of “over-warmup”, it just feels like there should be more gap between where I work up to and then where I come back down to for the work sets. I mean, going up to 215 then coming down to 205 to work — just feels like there should be a little more gap there. So 225 felt right (my “working max” right now is 240). It actually went up pretty well.

As I mentioned before, I finally had a critical breakthrough with my benching and “leg drive” — lifting my toes”. Doing that is truly helping me actually get drive, because I think in the past with the toes on the ground it would cause me to kinda press/lift/drive from the toes… the angle that drive creates. But with the toes up, now it’s truly the flats of my feet driving, and I am certainly feeling myself pushing “back”, like if you will, sliding myself (head first) off the bench. I’m still refining things now because that is changing my bench placement and technique. I did try different widths, different degrees of forward and back. I think I need to have about a 90º placement of my knee joint and then my shins relative to the ground and thighs. If anything, maybe a hair forward, but certainly not tucking back towards my head. But then I need to reposition myself on the bench because I was certainly pushing my head off the bench today and even one time banged the bar into the uprights on the ascent (then just modified my groove to keep from doing that the rest of the reps).

So, that’s just going to take time to get right, but it’s coming. I’m pretty happy about that!

I may well stick with the work up to 225, but we’ll see…. it’s not too critical right now either way.

On dips. I had planned to do as I did with chins, to strive for a reach goal (in this case, 10 dips in a row) and just keep cranking the reps until I got there, to worry about “reps across (sets)” later… get to 10 on the first set, and keep repping out on every set thereafter, until I get to 10 across. That’s what I’m doing on chins. But as I started doing the dips, I changed and just went to 6 (I did 5 across last week). As soon as I started dipping, the dipping felt more comfortable, more groove, but still not there. But it was better. Like last week, the first few reps of each set felt clumsy with me trying to find the movement groove. Today, after the first 1-2 reps I found the groove and moved well. So, I think I just need to stay slow and take my time, get the groove greased, get my body really happy with the movement pattern, and while I’m doing it sure… like next week I’ll aim for 7 reps. But the goal isn’t to try rep up then across, it’s right now getting the movement, then I’ll worry about the goal.

So, really, a pretty good day.

Based upon Paul Carter’s Basebuilding

• Bench Press (model 2)
  • bar x 5
  • bar x 5
  • 120 x 5
  • 145 x 4
  • 160 x 3
  • 180 x 2
  • 205 x 1
  • 225 x 1
  • 205 x 5
  • 205 x 5
  • 205 x 5
  • 180 x 5
  • 180 x 5
  • 180 x 5
  • 145 x 15 (AMRAP)
• Dips
  • BW (230) x 6
  • BW (230) x 6
  • BW (230) x 6
  • BW (230) x 6
• DB Incline Press (350 Method)
  • 40e x 19
  • 40e x 14
  • 40e x 11
• Polquin Flies
  • 15e x 10
  • 15e x 10
  • 15e x 10

Training continues along.

I opted to make some changes because I think they’re better for me.

First, dips. I started doing “chest dip (between benches)“, which compare pretty similiarly to regular old chest dips. I did this because while I wanted to do regular dips, my body wasn’t quite happy with it. But the chest dips got better, I think my body adapted to the movement pattern, and for whatever it was worth I opted to just try regular old dips today. I mean, if I started and the body complained, it was no problem to stop.

So I dipped, and capped it arbitrarily at 5 reps. That was still fair work, I doubt I could have done 10 reps across, but it was good. I guess I may have been on a bit of happy high having hit the 5 chin-ups just the gym session prior, so why not see if I can stop sucking at dips too. 🙂 So, I’m going to continue. Same sort of approach here as with chins, aiming for 10 reps first, then 10 reps across.

Second, I changed my inclines from a barbell to dumbbells. This is a shoulder issue. With the DB’s I can rotate a lot easier and alleviate stresses on my shoulder. Incline BB’s aren’t horrible on my shoulder, but unless I get the groove and grip and everything exactly right well… let’s just say if I can get the benefits I need from DB’s and it removes some problems, all good. I don’t always care for DB-based work, but sometimes you have to do what you need to do instead of what you want to do.

Based upon Paul Carter’s Basebuilding

• Bench Press (model 2)
  • bar x 5
  • bar x 5
  • 120 x 5
  • 140 x 4
  • 165 x 3
  • 180 x 2
  • 205 x 1
  • 215 x 1
  • 205 x 5
  • 205 x 5
  • 205 x 5
  • 180 x 5
  • 180 x 5
  • 180 x 5
  • 145 x 17 (AMRAP)
• Dips
  • BW x 5
  • BW x 5
  • BW x 5
  • BW x 5
• DB Incline Press (350 Method)
  • 35e x 24
  • 35e x 18
  • 35e x 15
• Polquin Flies
  • 15e x 10
  • 15e x 10
  • 15e x 10

5! Woo!

I did not want to go to the gym this morning. Ever since going hunting a few weeks ago and waking up around 2:30 AM for that, my body now thinks 2:30 is the time to wake up. /sighs So I laid in bed for a little while, got my motivation up, and off I went.

Started out on a high note – got 5 chin-ups in a row. Yes, that’s an accomplishment. Frankly after hitting that, I felt so good, like it was the best PR I ever hit, and in some ways it is. I mean, I look back on being a kid and doing the Presidential Physical Fitness test and always meeting the standard in all areas, except pull-ups — couldn’t do one. I also remember realizing (and I didn’t know much about bodybuilding and getting stronger) that the P.E. teacher having us do push-ups wasn’t going to help us do pull-ups, as well as the lack of any exercises or work to ever help us get better at doing pull-ups. Hrm. But whatever… the big thing is going through life just sucking at chin-/pull-ups.

I’m not the only one. Just Google on the topic and there’s tons of articles dedicated to the topic of being able to just do 1 chin-/pull-up. It’s a tough thing. So really, that I banged out a nice 5 in a row today, plus 4 more sets of more, yeah, felt really damn good.

Thing is, a few weeks ago I realized that 5 was not that big a deal — that I wanted 10. It’s like all things: you get close to a goal, you’ll keep working to reach that goal, but you can’t help but (re)set your goals to something higher and better. To help me get there, I’m going to do a few things.

First, I do think chinning as often as I can helps. So I go to the gym, it’s not a back day, but at some point while I’m at the gym just grab the bar and bang out a few chins. Nothing much, nothing intensive, but just try to do some often enough. This is a reoccurring theme in “how to get better at chin-/pull-ups”, is frequency and just doing them often.

Second, just keep working up to 10. Normally I like working up to a number in sets across. So if I’m going to do 5 sets, now that I hit 5 reps on the 1st set, I’d keep working until I was hitting 5 reps across all 5 sets, then I would go up to 6 reps. But here, I’m not going to do that. I’m going to just keep chinning to (almost) failure, and do that on every set. I don’t want to go to true failure, where I’m struggling and can’t finish a rep — if I truly don’t think the next rep will be solid and clean, don’t do it, save it for the next set. But otherwise, just keep going. When I do hit 10 reps, I’ll probably work to deal with sets across, but for now it’s all about forging ahead on every set to 10 reps.

I know losing weight is going to help here too… I mean, it’s always easier to lift less weight.

As for the rest of the session, it was fine. No complaints. I am discovering new things about how my biceps really like being pushed. That when I think I can’t move any more, well, just keep moving because they really will keep going. Yah the reps get slower, but they keep working. Time will tell how well this pays off.

Based upon Paul Carter’s Basebuilding

Chins

• BW x 5
• BW x 4
• BW x 2
• BW x 2
• BW x 2

BB Rows

• 145 x 8
• 145 x 8
• 145 x 8
• 145 x 8
• 145 x 8

BB Shrugs

• 205 x 12
• 205 x 12
• 205 x 12
• 205 x 12
• 205 x 12

Wide, Neutral-grip Lat Pulldowns

• 130 x 10
• 130 x 10
• 130 x 10
• 130 x 10

Hammer Curls

• 30e x 12
• 30e x 12
• 30e x 9

BB Bar Curls (350-Method)

• 45 x 20
• 45 x 15
• 45 x 15