Grunt11's Training Log

Today’s workout:

Full Squat 225 lbs x 1, 250 lbs x 1, 225 x 3 M-Time

Rack Pulls 350 lbs x 1, 370 x 1, 400 x fail

DB Pullover 40 lbs x 15 +5 +5

Shoulder Presses 105 lbs x 10 M-Time

Leaning DB Lateral Raises 20 x 15 +5 +5

I got the Hat Trick TR. Part of me was confident since it was only going to be 5 lbs more than my next increment but another part of me was worried. Turned out to be just about as tough as I’d expected. I’m really pumped that I made my goals on all three of the powerlifts especially considering I’m not really training for them specifically.

Tried some Rack Pulls. I’m pretty sure if I’d have waited and done them at the end instead of right after the Squats I would have made 400. I’m also sure that my grip will hold up to that high as long as I’m not doing multiple reps back-to-back.

Swapped back in Shoulder Presses to get a feel for them again in case I put them back in at the beginning of my next cycle.

I also experimented with some Cable Pullovers to get the feel for them instead of using DB Pullovers.

I may end this cycle today since my work schedule is getting messed up for the next week and a half with some daytime training classes and days off. Originally I was only going to de-load and not do a full SD but my left arm and shoulder are saying otherwise. If I don’t start my SD tomorrow I’ll use the next couple of days to experiment around with some other exercises and try to finalize what my next cycle will look like. I figure I can make one more bulking cycle before I need to cut. I might even try something like “Lean Gains” to see if that can help me extend my bulking for another cycle.

I’ll take some more measurements after I get off work tomorrow to see if I’ve gained anything since I measured a couple weeks ago. However, based on what I’m lifting and what I’m seeing I’m very happy with the results after my first two HST cycles.
 
Thanks Oz, TR,

Bench has always been the weakest of my powerlifts in part because of my long arms and small chest, but it’s also obvious to me now that I just wasn’t even close to training right for it.

I will have to do my next max Dead Lift at work so I can have someone take a picture. Wouldn’t hurt to show of a little either. ;)
 
I think I’ve figured out what my next cycle’s exercises will look like. It’s going to be a 3 day split done twice a week with 3 variations of the split all using the same exercises but divided up differently depending on how heavy the weights are getting.

(A) Dead Lift (Squat, alternated)/Dips/Incline Curl/Preacher Curl/Incline Shoulder Press/Leaning Lateral Raises

(B) Chin Ups/Calf Raises/Flyes/Overhead Triceps Extensions/Leg Extensions/Leg Curls

(C) Bench/Row/Shrug/Overhead Shrug/Hammer Curls/Pullovers

When things get moderately heavy:

(A) Dead Lift(Squat alternated)/Dips/Flye/Overhead Triceps Extension/Incline Shoulder Press/Leaning Lateral Raises

(B) Chin Ups/Calf Raises/Shrug/Overhead Shrug/Leg Extension/Leg Curl

(C) Bench/Row/Incline Curl/Preacher Curl/Hammer Curls/Pullover

And when things get heavy:

(A) Dead Lift(Squat alternated)/Calf Raises/Leg Extensions/Leg Curls/Shrugs/Overhead Shrugs

(B) Chin Ups/Row/Incline Curls/Preacher Curls/Hammer Curls/Pullover

(C) Bench/Dip/Flye/Overhead Triceps Extension/Incline Shoulder Press/Leaning Lateral Raise.

What I like about this is that the exercises will stay the same throughout the cycle. When things are light I’ll be hitting most body parts each workout with sort of a (Heavy/Light/Light) spilt. As things start to get heavy it switches to a (Heavy/Light/Off) split for most body parts. Then when things get real heavy it becomes a standard (Legs/Pull/Push) split.

Based on what I’ve learned in my first two cycles I feel this will give me the best chance for hypertrophy through the whole cycle while maximizing strength gains toward the end.

To manage fatigue and shorten the workouts I plan to use M-Time for the heavy compound exercises and Myo-Reps for the isolation exercises.

I will use straight linier progression because it’s just simpler. I will probably start light at around 65% of my 1RM and progress quickly to 75-85% on the compound lifts and then slow things down. For the isolation Myo-reps I will not automatically add weight but gauge it based on how my reps are progressing.
 
I couldn’t resist it and went jogging yesterday at work. Wow, does my cardio suck after 4 months of almost no running. Only went 3 miles and could really feel it in my chest and legs when I got done, however my legs feel fine today. I may run today but I want to do this SD right so I will have to stop myself from doing it any further.

When I finished my boss spotted me walking to the locker room and comment on how big my legs were. Must have freaked him out because he mentioned it a couple more time later.

It was funny because toward the end of the run when I picked up the pace, I realized I was running like a body builder and not a runner with my gait sort of swaying out side to side instead of straight back and forth. I had to concentrate to stop from doing that.
 
I couldn’t stand it anymore. One week of SD was all I could take again.

Full Squat 190 lbs x 20 M-Time

Dips BW (159 lbs) x 20 M-Time

Incline DB Curl 15 x 25 +5 +5 +5

Incline DB Shoulder Press 20 x 25 +5 +5 +5

DB Preacher Curl 15 x 25 +5 +5 +5

DB Leaning Lateral Raise 10 x 25 +5 +5 +5

To make up for the short SD I started the weights a little lower than I had intended, especially the isolation exercises. I will also keep the rep count a little higher on the isolations for awhile to let my arms adjust.

My hamstrings started feeling like they would cramp up near the end of the squats and for the rest of the workout until I got done and did some good stretching. I could really feel it jumping back up to 20 reps on the Squats from the 5 reps I was doing at the end of the last cycle.

My left arm started to hurt a little bit at the beginning of the Incline Curls but after about the 5th rep it went away. I plan to increment the Curls very slowly and back off if it starts to hurt throughout a set. I get no pain doing compound pulling exercises so if I have to I will try to make up for the intensity with those.
 
Today’s workout:

Wide Grip Pull Ups BW (159 lbs) x 10 M-Time
Parallel Grip Pull Ups BW (159 lbs) x 10 M-Time
Close Grip Chin Ups BW (159 lbs) x 10 M-Time

Leg Curl 50 lbs x 20 +5 +5 +5

Incline Flyes 15 lbs x 25 +5 +5 +5

Leg Extensions 50 lbs x 25 +5 +5 +5

Overhead DB Triceps Extensions 15 lbs x 25 +5 +4

BB Calf Raises 135 lbs x 20, 235 lbs x 20 straight sets

I’m still working out the weight to use on some of the isolation exercises so I tried to start out real light so I could do 25 +5 +5 +5(4). I will then slowly increment the weight so I progress to through 20 and 15 reps until I’m working in the 8-12 rep range.

I felt really weak and light headed like my blood sugar level was down all through the workout. I think it’s because I changed my eating schedule from one every 3 hours to once every 5 hours and in trying to keep with that I didn’t have a pre-workout protein shake an hour before working out but instead just had my usual protein/creatine just before and just after my workout. I didn’t start to feel right until eating my post workout meal about half an hour after finishing. Might have to go back to early pre workout shake.
 
The third workout of this cycle and the final one of my 3 day split:

Flat Bench Press 150 lbs x 30 M-Time

Supported DB Row 40 lbs x 25 +5 +5 +5

Overhead BB Shrugs 65 lbs x 20, 95 lbs x 20

Cable Pullovers 35 lbs x 11 +3 +3 +3

Hammer Curls 25 lbs x 1 (stopped because L/arm hurt from the start)

Switched to

Reverse EZ Bar Curls 40 lbs x 16 +4 +4 +4

BB Shrugs 235 lbs x 20


I decided to push for 30 reps on the Bench to match the 30 reps I did for Pull/Chin Ups yesterday. Not sure if I’ll go to 30 on the Squat or Dead Lift too. Or if I’ll try to do it every workout or just on the Tue-Thu part of the split because of the extra day off on Friday. Which I will enforce this time around. Have to see how my body responds.

Weight was light on the Overhead BB Shrugs because I’ve never done them before. I will increment the weight quickly until they catch up with the other Myo-rep exercises.

Cable Pullovers totally kicked my ass. I’ve always done Pullovers with a DB before but figured using the cable was better because of maintaining constant tension. So I did drop the weight but I forgot to account for the weight of the carriage and friction of the rail (mine is not a frictionless setup). So the 35 lbs was just the weight I added to the carriage. What surprised me was how much of an abs workout this was.

As I suspected the Hammer Curls hurt my L/arm so I switched to Reverse Curls with the EZ Bar. While they hurt some it wasn’t a show stopper.

I had a protein shake about an hour before working out and felt real good at first but about half way through my blood sugar again felt like it crashed. I felt weak, uncoordinated, light headed had cold sweats and felt like I was going to puke. The next think I’m considering is that it’s the BCAA I decided to try on this cycle. I’ve read that they can have the side effect of making you feel weak and uncoordinated so I will skip them on the next workout and see what happens. As soon as I ate food after my workout I felt fine again.

Edit: I also hit a weekly average body weight of 160 lbs today. 5 lbs more and I’ll be as heavy as I’ve ever been.
 
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You can get glucose tablets made for diabetics. I use those when I'm on my zero carb diet. One tab is enough to get me through most workouts.

Overhead shrugs look like fun. I don't have the coordination necessary to do them.
 
You can get glucose tablets made for diabetics. I use those when I'm on my zero carb diet. One tab is enough to get me through most workouts.
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I’ll look into that if it turns out the BCAA aren’t the issue. The only two things I’m doing different than the first two cycles during which I had more than enough energy is changing my meals to every 5 instead of 3 hours and taking the BCAA.

Overhead shrugs look like fun. I don't have the coordination necessary to do them.
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Yeah, I made sure to start off light to get use to controlling the bar above my head like that. My goal is to keep them lighter than my regular shrugs and use Myo-reps to give my Traps a another type of work.
 
Friday: Off

Saturday:

Dead Lift 235 lbs x 20 M-Time

Dips BW (160) +5 lbs x 20 M-Time

Incline Curls 17.5 x 20 +5 +5 +5

Incline DB Shoulder Press 25 x 25 +5 +5 +5

DB Preacher Curls 17.5 x 25 +3 +2

Leaning Lateral Raises 15 lbs x 15 +5 +4


I really made myself take Friday off. That equals the total number of days off I took last cycle.

No residual back pain from last cycle because of whatever I did to my back at work. It was going away by the end of the cycle but the SD seems to have completely taken care of it. Hard for me to believe that half way through 1st cycle I couldn’t even pull 225 lbs off the floor and now I’m beginning my 3rd cycle with more than that. I checked my log from last cycle and found that I had only done 10 reps with 235 lbs last time.

My left arm hurt a little bit at the start of the Incline Curls but it went away as I did more reps. No problem at all on the Preacher Curls. Still going to keep an eye on this.

I’m liking the Incline DB Shoulder Press. Much less stress on my Shoulder than using a BB and I think I’m getting a little better range of motion at the same time. Never used DB much because I didn’t have them in my previous home gym but I’m getting to like them more and more because of their more flexible uses.

I didn’t take the BCAA before or during this workout but otherwise kept my pre-workout nutrition the same and I had no feelings of having low blood sugar like being weak or uncoordinated. I’ll add them back in tomorrow and see what happens to try and confirm if they are what is causing the problem.
 
Today’s workout”

Wide Grips Pull Ups BW(160) +5 x 7 all M-Time
Parallel Grip Pull Ups BW(160) +5 x 7
Close Grip Chin Ups BW(160) +5 x 7

Leg Curls 55 lbs x 20 +5 +5 +5

Incline DB Flyes 17.5 lbs x 20 +5 +5+5

Leg Extensions 60 lbs x 25 +5 +5 +5

DB Overhead Triceps Extensions 17.5 lbs x 20 +3 +2

BB Calf Raises 255 lbs x 20 straight set

Strangest thing today. I didn’t even feel like I did any Dead Lifts yesterday let alone 20 reps at 235 lbs. I know that M-Time is great for managing fatigue but I should feel something doing 20 reps at 70% of my 1RM.

I added the BCAA before and during my workout today and felt sort of funny again. So I’ll skip them again tomorrow and see if it still happens. I’m starting to believe that they are the cause.

I’m liking doing the additional exercise this cycle. I don’t think my body was ready for it in the first or beginning of the second cycle but I can already feel the difference just one week in. still getting everything done in under 40 minutes w/o rushing anything. I think Max-Stim for the heavy compound exercises and Myo-reps for the lighter isolation stuff is a perfect combination.
 
What BCAA product are you using? Does it have any carbs or sugar in it? I've been doing the same as you - protein drink about an 90 minutes before training, and BCAA's immediately before and during, and not had those symptoms. I'm using USP Labs "Modern BCAA" which has 8 Leucine for each 1 of the other aminos, including glutamine, and nothing else. I do get a little "rush" from it, but that is probably as much a placebo effect as anything else. Never had trouble finishing a workout, and my last one lasted over an hour (which I'll trim down next time for sure). Also, I make it very diluted, using 32oz water to mix one serving. That may help you as well. Make it too concentrated and it takes too long to digest during which time your body will divert blood from working muscles to the stomach which is not good during a workout.
 
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It’s the USP Labs “Modern BCAA.” It says it’s 8:1:1 and doesn’t show anything else as an ingredient.

I’ve been just mixing it according to the directions, about 20oz of water per 10mg serving.

My routine is to have a protein shake right when I get up in the morning about 90 minutes before my workout. Then just as I start my workout I have half a serving of Whey protein and half a serving of Creatine. Right after I finish my workout I have the other half servings of Whey and Creatine. And about half an hour later eat a meal.

I’ve also been drinking the BCAA throughout my workout. Maybe I’ll try diluting it more since I do need to something else with me to also drink or I end up guzzling down the BCAA’s to quickly to last.
 
Monday’s workout:

Flat Bench Press 160 lbs x 20 M-Time

Supported DB Rows 45 lbs x 25 +5 +5 +5

Overhead Shrugs 135 lbs x 20 straight set

Cable Pullover 35 lbs x 15 +5 +5 +5

Reverse EZ-bar Curls 45 lbs x 12 +4 + 2

BB Shrugs 255 lbs x 20 straight set

Today’s workout:

Full Squats 205 lbs x 15 M-Time

Dips BW(160 lbs) +10 x 20 M-Time

Incline DB Curls 20 lbs x 25 +5 +5 +5

Incline DB Shoulder Press 30 lbs x 20 +5 +5 +5

DB Preacher Curls 20 lbs x 18 + 3 +2

Leaning Lateral Raises 17.5 lbs x 12 +4 +4 +4


I can feel that I’m doing pushing movements every workout when I do my bench press. Doesn’t seem to be effecting the dips though.

The weight for the Overhead Shrugs still feels very light but I’m going to take it slow since I’m not use to stabilizing that much weight over my head.

The Reverse Curls hurt my left arm a little yesterday but today the Incline and Preacher Curls felt fine.

I was hoping to do 20 Squats which my legs would have been happy with, despite still being sore from the Leg Extensions, but my lower back started feeling weak and I’ve learned to listen to it when it complains. I checked my log of last cycle and had only done 10 reps with 205 lbs so at least it was an improvement.

I didn’t use the BCAA yesterday and felt fine. Tried them again today but diluted with 32oz of water instead of the 20oz called for and planed to sip it throughout the workout. I started to feel weak and light headed pretty quickly so I stopped drinking them and switched to straight ice tea and was fine for the rest of the workout. I drank the BCAAs down after the workout and had no problems.
 
grunt11 said:
The weight for the Overhead Shrugs still feels very light but I’m going to take it slow since I’m not use to stabilizing that much weight over my head.
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Yeah, it may be a light shrug, but you wouldn't want to lose contain. Even in a power rack I'd still be careful and go slow with it.
 
TunnelRat said:
Yeah, it may be a light shrug, but you wouldn't want to lose contain. Even in a power rack I'd still be careful and go slow with it.
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Thanks for mentioning the power rack TR. I’ve done these twice now and neither time did I even think to put the safety bars up on the top hole in case I lost control of the bar. Might be a good idea huh?
 
Yesterday’s workout:

Wide Grip Pull Ups BW(160 lbs) +10 x 10 (all M-Time)
Parallel Grip Pull Ups BW(160 lbs) +10 x 10
Close Grip Chin Ups BW(160 lbs) +10 x 10

Leg Curls 60 lbs x 17 +5 +5 +3

Incline Flyes 20 lbs x 22 +5 +5 +5

Leg Extensions 70 lbs x 25 +5 +5 +5

Overhead DB Triceps Extensions 20 lbs x 15 +3 +2

BB Calf Raises 265 lbs x 20 straight set

Cardio 2 mile “boots and utes” run

Today’s workout:

Flat Bench Press 165 lbs x 20 M-Time

Supported DB Row 50 lbs x 20 +5 +5 +5

Overhead Shrug 155 lbs x 20

Cable Pullovers 40 lbs x 20 +5 +5 +5

Reverse EZ-bar Curls 45 lbs x 10 +3 +3 +3

BB Shrugs 265 lbs x 20 straight set

I was able to bump the Pull/Chin Ups back up to 10 of each from the 7 I did last time. Not sure what made the difference but I’m happy with it.

Got a bug up my butt because of all the down time we’ve been having at work lately and decided to go jogging. I didn’t have my shorts or shoes so I decided to do a “Boots and Utes” run in the riverbed. I haven’t run in combat boots in about 20 years. Except for right at the start when I tripped jumping a curb and fell all went well. Luckily the base’s desert landscaping uses fine gravel so I just tucked my arms in an plowed shoulder first into it. Only damage was a few scratches on my arm.

As a side note to running I got a nice unbiased validation that HST is working when I put on my running pack. I could barely get it over my shoulders because the straps were so tight and I couldn’t buckle the chest strap w/o loosening it. Guess I have gotten bigger. :)

Tried 185 lbs on the Overhead Shrugs but lost control of the bar after 3 reps, thank heavens for safety bars. I dropped down to 155 lbs and was able to do the set.

I started the Reverse Curls with 50 lbs but my left arm hurt from the start and got worse with more reps so I dropped down to 45 lbs and restarted. It hurt a little at first but felt better as the set progressed. I guess 45 lbs is the sweet spot right now so I will stick with it until I get the reps for the activation set up higher before I try bumping up the weight again.
 
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