Legs Up Bench: 3×3@265lbs
Decline Bench: 3×8@255lbs
Floor Press: 3×5@245lbs
Shoulder Press: 1×5@135lbs, 2×5@155lbs
Alternating DB Bicep Curls: 3×10@43lbs
Good weight on all the exercises today. The triceps are still sore from fridays overhead extensions so that added some difficulty to everything as well.
I paused the last two sets of legs up just to try it out. It still felt strong and fast so I’m pretty happy with these. I’m still not a big fan of decline but the sets went well if a little slow. Floor press went well and I really focused on exploding off the bottom after a good pause.
Shoulder press was supposed to be 3×10 but since I want to focus on strength rather than endurance we changed it to 3×5. I was pretty happy with the weight, 155 felt pretty well dead on for these with the last rep being difficult.
Instead of abs I did bicep curls again, 43lbs was good here with the last couple reps a REAL challenge on all sets.
Box Squat: 3×5@325lbs(video: Box Squat(4mb, divx))
Lunges: 1×10@115lbs, 1×10@135lbs, 1×10@145lbs
GHR: 3×8@bw
Pull Throughs: 3×10@150lbs
Reverse Hyper: 2×10@bw
I was pretty worried coming into this workout. 300lbs was pretty damn hard as I recall the last time I did box squats. Today 325 felt fine and all the sets had pretty good speed. I did wear my belt which maybe why they were easier but I didn’t even think about not wearing it until I was finished.
This combo of lunges, pull throughs and glute-ham raises should definately have a good effect on my squat and dead. By the time I’m finished those three my posterior chain is hurting from top to bottom and walking the stairs out of the building is a challenge.
I added in reverse hyper to make my back happy, it was a little tingly after I finished the pull throughs. A couple sets later and it felt like a million bucks.
I’ve been avoiding ab work for the past week. My old friend paraumbilical hernia seems to have reared its ugly head again.
Close Grip Bench: 3×8@230lbs
Lockouts: 3×3@320lbs
Overhead Extensions: 1×8@71lbs, 2×8@83lbs
Dips: 1×5@BW+chains(10-15lbs), 1×5@BW+25lbs, 1×3@BW+45lbs
Alternating DB Curls: 1×10@33lbs, 1×10@38lbs, 1×10@43lbs
DB Concentration Curls: 3×5@43lbs
Side Bends: 1×5@76lbs, 1×5@87lbs, 1×5@98lbs
External Rotations: 2×8@25lbs, 1×7/6@30lbs
30 minutes elliptical
How’s that for some volume? I’m not really sure where this energy came from but I really liked it. I just kept going and going, I probably could have done another 30 minutes on the elliptical except I was pretty damn hungry at that point.
The CGB was really easy except for the last set. I guess most of my strength is back, at least for bench. I’ll find out how the strength is for legs tomorrow with squats. Lockouts were just as easy, the weight is just so low on these. I was even doing about 5-6″ instead of the usual 4″.
This is the first time I’ve ever been able to do overhead extensions, they used to really bother my shoulders, perhaps an old RC issue that has been helped with all the work done on that area. I really like these and think they will show up again in future routines. The dips were darn good, the chest pain was kept to a minimum. I started off with the chains thinking that it would be a cool change from bands that I’ve been using. Unfortunately the chains are too long and the ROM is too small to make much of a difference. So I decided to change to straight weight. The last time I tried 25lbs I couldn’t even get one off so I was pretty happy when I got all five and then got another 3 with 45lbs.
The bicep work was done. I kept the reps low here because I’m really looking just to gain some strength in the area. Hopefully I will gain it quickly and maybe my bum elbows will go away!
External rotations got tossed in here because I think it’s valuable to do them more than one day a week, it seems my strength here is going up pretty quick, we’ll see if it helps the bench. 7/6 means 7 with my right arm and 6 with my left.
10 minutes warm up on elliptical
21 minutes HIIT on elliptical, 1 minute on 2 minutes off
4 minutes cool down
35 minutes total
Damn I was dripping at the end. Weight is down to 290.5 which is 4lbs since tuesday I think…I wonder if this is the creatine weight finally falling off.
Speed Bench with Chains: 9×3@205lbs+chains(250ish ontop?)
3 Board Press: 3×3@340lbs
Front Raises: 3×15@45lbs
Rotator Cuff: 6×8-15
Suitcase Pickups: 1×5@45, 1×5@135, 1×5@155
It doesn’t seem to be getting any easier. I think it might have been a mistake to take a week off at this stage of the program but hindsight is 20/20. The speed bench is 10lbs lower than it should be and there still wasn’t much speed involved. Next week we will change back to bands and maybe find some more speed.
Although I finished all three sets of board press, they were not pretty after the first rep. The first rep always went well but the second and third I just couldn’t seem to find the path. Hopefully this gets better because the weight just gets heavier from here on out.
One thing I noticed when doing external rotations today was that my left arm is alot weaker than my right…I need to get it up to par.
For now I’m back to the golf course.