Back to Basics

I spent all day at one of our locations that we are just opening doing IT work all damn day. Eleven hours of bullcrap and half that was spent waiting on techs to call me back. So I was a bit pissed off tonight and got a little carried away.

Deadlift 225x8, 295x8, 315x3, 355x3, 410x3x10 - yes, ten sets of 3 on deads
Squat 225x5, 295x5, 315x5, 365x3x10 - wearing my TK knee sleeves all sets

Yes, I did squats and deads in the same workout. Yes, I did ten sets of three reps on both after plenty of build up sets. I predict I will feel like crap tomorrow but for now, it was a good release of the aggression I stored inside me all day long. Deads I was kind of dumb, won't really be able to progress the load over the course of my two weeks of triples, but I guess I probably won't do them again for a while anyway.
 
That's for knocking Earth of its axis w/all that work bro ...

Are you eyeing off a PR at the end of this cycle?
 
Now that is kicking the tires and lighting the fires man. Good stuff!

Some good news on my front. It looks like my arms are finally growing again (15-1/2"). My chest is now at 47" though, so I think I need to slow it down there. At the moment, my priority are deltoids and biceps. I am doing three sets for these and just two sets for everything else. I will see how this goes...
 
Physique is out of balance and my chest grows very fast... "Ahnuld" rocks.

I just need to bring my arms up a bit to balance.
 
Deadlift 225x8, 295x8, 315x3, 355x3, 410x3x10 - yes, ten sets of 3 on deads
Squat 225x5, 295x5, 315x5, 365x3x10 - wearing my TK knee sleeves all sets
Click to expand...

Hahahaha! You nut! ;)

Out of interest, what's 410 as a %age of your estimated current 1RM? And same for 365?

Based on your awesome-crazy numbers from your footer, 410 is around 65% of 1RM and 365 is around 75%. Having done deads first, the squats must have felt like hell!

Can you walk today?
 
Last edited:
No, my legs and lower back are pretty much useless today. It's a good thing I don't have to work, I'm just going to sit and play fallout all day I think. Oh and stuff my face. I know I'm on a cut, but I will consider this a refeed. I know that if I don't consume massive calories the day after a workout like that, I will definitely get sick. I already feel stuffy today but if I rest enough and eat enough, I should be fine.

The squats were hellish after the deads, I wasn't going to do that many sets but once I worked up to 365, I had my music going and I just couldn't stop. I had to deal with a lot of dumb crap yesterday though and since I never let my annoyance or aggravation get the better of me, I have to work it all out later.

So far the numbers in my sig are the highest singles I've done. I haven't tested 1 RMs in a while, but I don't think I could do much more than that on squats at least. 65% of my 1 RM on deads is pretty light and the bar went up real easy for almost all ten sets on the deads. In fact, I didn't even have to get out my versagrips until the last few sets, I just did plain old double overhand through all of it. I know if I had done a heavier load, the squats definitely wouldn't have happened. But 410 is the max I can do on deads for now, so luckily I wasn't able to push it any more than that. The squats at 365 definitely felt heavy and by the time I was done, my traps felt like ground beef. I definitely need to toughen them up more. They are really tender today. I have a manta ray that I've tried using a few times but I can't get the bar balanced right when I use it, I always feel like the bar is going to slip. I might have to start doing walk outs with a fully loaded bar or something. Strange because my traps used to hold loads in the 300 lb range no problem.
 
Measured my legs because I thought they looked visibly smaller in the mirror. They shrunk an inch since yesterday. Hah. Carb depleted, I guess. That's ok because I'm feasting on carbs and protein all day today. I took a quick picture of them since I've never posted my wheels and figured maybe people thought it was all a lie and I don't actually have legs at all, just end at the waist.

Just to prove my legs do exist:
attachment.php


I've noticed a lot of vascularity coming out, most especially on my calves for some reason, you can almost see it in the picture although my camera kind of sucks so it's blurry. And I didn't feel like fussing with the lighting to get a better picture. But there you go.

Here is a picture of my rack. You can see the problem. I have all the plates loaded up on the bar:
attachment.php

attachment.php


Yes, that is two larger plates on the end. I found them in my garage and was too lazy to unload the bar to slide them on there. Not nearly enough weight.
 

Attachments

  • 101_0258.jpg
    101_0258.jpg
    95.9 KB · Views: 167
  • 101_0259.JPG
    101_0259.JPG
    60.1 KB · Views: 154
  • 101_0260.JPG
    101_0260.JPG
    22.2 KB · Views: 153
Wheels of steel, mate! No wonder you're heaving around some big weights. Do you do front squats much?

Tidy setup you have there too.

What's your bw at the moment?
 
I need to work on my flexibility before I can start front squatting again. For some reason, I've lost a lot of flexibility in my shoulder and arm area. So right now they are just too hard because I can't keep the bar in place.

As for BW, I'm still sitting right at 235 after "refeeding" yesterday. It seems my body has gotten happy staying in the 230 range and doesn't want to drop out of it.
 
OK, my chest is now at 47-1/2" and I am starting to find it hard to fit in certain shirts (please know that I am not in anyway bragging here), so I have decided that I do not want my chest to grow anymore.

My shoulders and arms need to grow a bit more, so what do I do about chest? Do I only train once or twice a week with just one set?

Thanks
 
Last edited:
At the risk of high-jacking Totez' log, I would suggest working the chest out at a lower weight rather than decreasing frequency. I also suggest doing heavy deadlifts and underhand grip BB rows for biceps, personally I find curls are not a lot of use at lower reps/higher weights. It's near impossible to do them without cheating, no matter standing, sitting, preacher, concentration or whichever.

For triceps I think skullcrushers and isolated dips are best.
 
Thanks for the reply and sorry Totentanz, this post should have gone in another topic. My apologies and I put the above question in the right thread...
 
Last edited:
No worries, it's fine if you guys hijack my thread for a little bit. I don't really care.

Did another workout yesterday...

Flat Bench 135x10 185x10 225x3x10
CGBP 205x3x10
Upright Row 165x10x3
Rack Chins BW+45x10x3

Shoulders felt kinda rough after the flat benching. Might have to start doing some prehabbing or something. Rack Chins felt weird. I'll have to practice that some more. Can't do proper chins in my basement, ceiling is too low and there is nowhere adequate to set anything up in the entire house.
Inexplicably, body weight was back to 240 today, so I'm thinking I just ate too much sodium or something?? I don't know.
 
@Totez - daily bowl movements (or even just what's in your gut) can account for 2lbs no troubles.

Also, what's a 'rack chin'?
 
well, I don't have that problem. The ceiling in my training room is like 4 m high... but the room is rather small ;-)

Totentanz, regarding cutting: if you have time, could you post some advice on how to best do a cutting cycle.
I don't have any problems losing weight, in fact if I ate the same amount of calories my friends did, I would be dropping 20 lbs in a month...

I did a bulking cycle for about 4 months or so, gained a bit of fat, especially around the waist, now @ 220 lbs.
I don't want to aggressively cut, maybe to around 205 lbs or so.

How would you do it without sacrificing progress and hypertrophy:
- Total calories intake below maintenance, by how much?
- Protein as high as during bulking cycle?
- Amount of fat also similar to bulking?
- How long should cutting cycle be?

Thanks
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top