Lol's New HST Log

Fri 20/02/09

Week 5: 10s - Workout 12

What a hectic week. Not much time for anything much outside of work. Lost a lot of sleep this week too. I did do several 10 minute bike sessions since Monday; did a really hard one last night.

Decided to do some deads tonight as I have been neglecting them lately.

Deads: 10 x 60kg, 10 x 110kg (242lb), 10 x 160kg (352lb), 1 x 180kg, 1 x 190kg, 1 x 200kg (440lb) - that last lift wasn't particularly pretty but it went up. Still 60lb off my target though. Used hook grip for all reps. Don't think I've ever lifted 440 with a hook grip before. Thumbs are pretty sore now.

EZ-bar RDLs: 2 x 15 x 96kg (211lb) - not heavy but good for a ham stretch.

T-bar Rows: 3 x 10 x ~100kg (220lb) - used one end of loaded Oly bar. Felt a really good stretch in my lats.

EZ-bar Press: 2 x 10, 8, 6 x 61kg (134lb) - second set felt slightly better than the first.

EZ-bar Curls: 7 x 61kg (134lb) - too heavy. Misjudged this a bit, so switched to…

Standing Alternate DB Curls: 2 x 10, 2 x 5 x 23.5kg (52lb)

Overhead DB Tri Extensions: 2 x 30 x 23.5kg (52lb) - just used the one db, hence the high reps. Far too light but I got a good pump from them if nothing else.
 
Sat & Sun 22 & 23/02/09

Week 5: 10s - Workout 13

Sat. night: Skipped squats due to lower-back DOMs from yesterday's deads.

EZ-bar Curls: 15, 14, 12 x 41kg (90lb)

EZ-bar Lying Triceps Extensions: 15, 14, 12 x 41kg (90lb)

CoC No.1 Gripper: 10 x 10 click reps per hand

Haven’t done any specific grip work in a while, so those reps using my CoC No.1 gripper were pretty hard. The first two sets always seem particularly difficult. It’s as if the grippers warm up and become easier to close after the first few sets. Left hand is definitely weaker than my right.

Sun. night: I wanted to do some squats tonight but as my lower back was still feeling pretty hammered from Friday’s deads I wasn’t sure it was a good idea. Decided to give them a go and just take it steady.

10 mins warm-up on stationary bike.

Squats: 10 x 70kg, 5 x 110kg, 3 x 130kg, 3 x 5 x 140kg (308lb) - held my form pretty well for all reps but my lower back was having a hard time so just stuck with sets of 5.

That’s it for today!
 
Mon 23/02/09

Decided to take an extra day off, so just did a bit of cardio.

Nice and steady 40 mins on the stationary bike; heart rate kept at around 120 bpm.

I'll start the 5s tomorrow.
 
Wed 25/02/09

Week 6: 5s - Workout 14

Didn't get a chance to w/o yesterday; long hours at work and not enough sleep this week meant that going into this workout I felt generally tired and lacking in enthusiasm. It was very late and I just wanted to sit and watch a bit of telly. Never mind. Shut up and squat! Heh.

10 mins warmup on the trusty old steed.

Front Squats: 10 x 70kg, 5 x 90kg, 3 x 5 x 110kg (242lb)

EZ-bar Pendlay Rows: 10 x 51kg, 10 x 61kg,  20(MS) x 101kg (222lb) - getting hard.

EZ-bar BO Rows: 8 x 101kg (222lb)  - with a bit of body language, I thought I might get 10 reps but I dried up at 8.

EZ-bar Kelso Shrugs: 10 x 101kg (222lb)

SLDLs: 15 x 101kg (222lb) - thought I ought to do a few of these and the bar was ready and waiting!

DB Curls: 3 x 10 x 23.5kg (52lb) - emphasis on the eccentric stretch.

EZ-bar Lying Triceps Extensions: 12, 12, 10 x 51kg (112lb)

My lower back was shot after all the squats, rows and SLDLs.

Shoulder wasn't happy after rows and skullz so skipped chest and direct shoulder work.
 
Are you still taking glucosamine? I've noticed its helped my shoulder in day to day stuff, but when it comes to lifting, I think the old shoulder is doomed!
 
Yeah, Bax, I am. Glucosamine S along with Chondroitin S and MSM (Methylsulfowotnot). So far, I don't think it's helped my shoulder any but the rest of my joints have been really sound. Even last week's squats with 308lb for 30 total reps didn't bother my hips afterwards. That is a good sign that the tabs are doing something even if the effects are not as far reaching as I would like them to be. Taking a lengthy break from nearly all upper-body work might be the only way to get this properly sorted but I can't bring myself go to that extreme yet. I've dropped bench and will drop other exercises if need be. I'll keep the loads lighter too if I find that helps. This might be a foolhardy approach but I'll give it another 4 or 5 months and see how things are progressing (or not) by then.

All the best with yours too. Is your problem glenohumeral joint related or is it an AC issue like mine?
 
It's an AC problem. Funny how nothing overhead hurts. I tried some pushups yesterday and it didn't seem like an issue so I may try having someone put a plate on my back and see how it fares. If it's good I'll try rigging something up inside my rack where I can use my belt to hold the weights...the wife always gives me the look whenever I have to ask her for any lifting assistance.
 
Sat 28/02/09

Week 6: 5s - Workout 15 - part I

10 mins warmup on bike.

Squats: 10 x 70kg, 5 x 110kg, 2 x 130kg, 7, 5, 5, 3 x 145kg (320lb) - almost went for 10 reps on first work set but then thought better of it. I still had a lot of reps to do. 10 x 320 would have been a PR. Might try for it at the end of this cycle.

Next up: hard 10 mins on bike to try to get a 3000 score. This was a challenge that a few of were having a go at. I got the pacing wrong in the first five minutes and couldn't quite claw it back in the second five minutes. Just managed to clock up 2995 with a big push over the last two minutes. Not too shabby just after 20 total reps with 320lb! None of the others managed it either. I was pleased that I recovered pretty quickly.

After that little bit of fun, I decided to give my shoulder one more day off and so the rest of my workout will have to wait until tomorrow.
 
Mon 02/03/09

Week 7: 5s - Workout 16 - part I

10 mins bike warmup.

Front Squats: 10 x 70kg, 5 x 90kg, 3 x 5 x 115kg (253lb) PR - last set was bloomin' hard.

EZ-bar Press: 2 x 10 x 41kg, 5 x 51kg, 5,5,6,6 x 66kg (145lb)

Dips: 35, 30 x bw

Push-ups: 2 x 25 - I did these just as a gauge to see how much bother they were.

Shoulder was already bothering me today before I began; however, presses didn't seem to bother it much, if at all. I'm not sure if this is because I'm using the EZ-bar rather than the Oly bar. On the other hand, even un-weighted dips were initially uncomfortable. Second set wasn't so bad nor were the push-ups.

For front squats, that may be my best effort for sets across. I need to check...

Yup, that's a PR for sets across. No wonder that last set was such a pig.
 
Tue 03/03/09

Week 7: 5s - Workout 16 - part II

Didn't get a chance to do anything for back last night. Tried a few pull-ups but they felt uncomfortable so switched to rows.

EZ-bar BO Rows: 20 x 61kg (134lb), 10 x 81kg (178lb), 10 x 91kg (200lb), 4 x 5 x 101kg (222lb)

Kelso Shrugs: 2 x 10 x 101kg (222lb)
 
Wed 04/03/09

Decided to try a few dips. I haven't really done anything for chest in a while now and I haven't done any dips even approaching heavy since Jan 14th!

Dips: 20 x bw, 10 x bw+20kg, 4 x 5 x bw+40kg (88lb) - finished with a static hold in the stretched position for around 10 seconds.

The work sets were a lot harder than I had hoped. Strength is definitely down a bit. Left shoulder complained a little but not so much that I thought I should stop. Everything just feels weaker that side. Finished with a good feeling in my pecs though; they are now all twitchy, which is a sign that I really gave them something to think about (and grow from).
 
Thu 05/03/09

Week 7: 5s - Workout 17

BW: 202lb

Only time for a short w/o again tonight.

My chest was annoyingly sore after yesterday's dips so decided to flush the area with a few high-rep sets of push-ups.

Push-ups: 50, 40

Deads: 10 x 70kg, 10 x 120kg (265lb), 5 x 160kg (353lb), 2 x 5 x 170kg (375lb) - hook grip for all reps as per usual.

I was wearing Oly shoes for all these sets which definitely seemed to make them harder compared to flat shoes or barefoot. I also experimented with grip for a few singles afterwards. Using a hook grip with one hand only seemed to work almost as well as with both. I may try this approach for some sets next time, alternating which hand I use for hook grip each rep.
 
07/03/09

Week 7: 5s - Workout 18 - part I

EZ-bar Press: 2 x 10 x 41kg, 5 x 51kg, 4 x 5 x 61kg (134lb)

Squats: 10 x 60kg, 15 x 110kg (242lb)

Chins: 10 x bw, 5 x bw+10kg, 20(MS) x bw+20kg (44lb)

Kipping Pull-ups: 25, 20 x bw

Decided against heavy squats as my lower-back was still feeling pretty fatigued. I'll do some tomorrow.

08/03/09

Week 7: 5s - Workout 18 - part II

Squats: 10 x 60kg, 5 x 110kg (242lb), 1 x 140kg (308lb), 3 x 5 x 150kg (330lb) - that equals my PR for sets across.

I'm hoping I can get 5 x 155kg (341lb) before the end of this cycle; that will be a new PR.

I discovered tonight that what I thought was a new bag of creatine mono was in fact vitamin C (I get the stuff in bulk so the bags all look the same)! That means I'm going to run out of creatine before I can order a new batch.
 
<div>
(Lol @ Mar. 08 2009,6:42)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Decided against heavy squats as my lower-back was still feeling pretty fatigued.</div>
I wonder if that is an after-effect of deadlifts in oly shoes?

<div>
(Lol @ Mar. 08 2009,6:42)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">That means I'm going to run out of creatine before I can order a new batch.</div>
Yuck. That may mean having to reload.

Of course, it may also mean that you lose several pounds of water weight...
 
<div>
(TunnelRat @ Mar. 09 2009,3:09)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE"><div>
(Lol @ Mar. 08 2009,6:42)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Decided against heavy squats as my lower-back was still feeling pretty fatigued.</div>
I wonder if that is an after-effect of deadlifts in oly shoes?</div>
Yup, maybe. But I always seem to suffer from lower back fatigue after deads, squats, cleans, bo rows, whether I wear flat or Oly shoes.

<div>
(TunnelRat @ Mar. 09 2009,3:09)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE"><div>
(Lol @ Mar. 08 2009,6:42)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">That means I'm going to run out of creatine before I can order a new batch.</div>
Yuck. That may mean having to reload.

Of course, it may also mean that you lose several pounds of water weight...</div>
I hate to run out of supps but I invariably manage to. This is not a particularly great time to run out of the stuff (just when I'm about to enter PR territory) so it'll be interesting to see how much of an impact it has.
 
<div>
(Lol @ Mar. 09 2009,1:01)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE"><div>
(TunnelRat @ Mar. 09 2009,3:09)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE"><div>
(Lol @ Mar. 08 2009,6:42)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">That means I'm going to run out of creatine before I can order a new batch.</div>
Yuck. That may mean having to reload.

Of course, it may also mean that you lose several pounds of water weight...</div>
I hate to run out of supps but I invariably manage to. This is not a particularly great time to run out of the stuff (just when I'm about to enter PR territory) so it'll be interesting to see how much of an impact it has.</div>
Lol, an article in The Creatine Graveyard thread by Fausto (the thread not the article) mentions that after you are loaded on creatine, even if you stop taking it the effects can last up to a month since the maintenance dose for creatine is around 2-3g/day and that is pretty attainable with a nutrition high on meat.
 
09/03/09

Just for a bit of fun until the end of this cycle, I thought I'd start a little 'neural conditioning' experiment:

Loaded the bar with 160kg (352lb),
Got under the bar as if readying for a set of low-bar squats,
Checked the clock,
Un-racked the bar and proceeded to do a minute's worth of partials,
Racked the bar.

I did three sets of this, averaging around 35 partials each minute. By the end of the third set I was pretty tired and definitely felt like I'd been lifting something heavy.

The partials are really just to give me something to do for the duration but they also ensure that I am loading muscle and not just transferring the load to the floor through skeleton. Moving around a lot with the load also made this a pretty good core exercise. I didn't wear a belt.

No noticeable knee stress from the partials (which I guess are only half-squats or less) but I'll see how they feel tomorrow.

A total time of three minutes seemed like a good place to start. I will be increasing the loads I use over the next several weeks up to the end of this cycle. I hope I will eventually be able to work up to 400+lb for this but I may have to reduce the time for each set along the way if it gets very fatiguing.
 
<div>
(electric @ Mar. 09 2009,5:31)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Lol, an article in The Creatine Graveyard thread by Fausto (the thread not the article) mentions that after you are loaded on creatine, even if you stop taking it the effects can last up to a month since the maintenance dose for creatine is around 2-3g/day and that is pretty attainable with a nutrition high on meat.</div>
Yeah, that's a good article. I got about half-way through reading that at the weekend. If it's correct I shouldn't notice much of a difference esp. if I try to get a decent amount of red meat until my new creatine supply arrives.
 
11/03/09

Brief workout. Nothing heavy.

EZ-bar Curls: 15 x 46kg, 10 x 51kg, 6, 10 x 56kg (123lb) - had a bit more rest before second work-set and surprised myself!

EZ-bar Lying Triceps Extension: 15 x 31kg, 10 x 41kg, 2 x 10 x 46kg (101lb) - It's possible the two work-sets were 51kg but I forgot to make a note and now I can't remember!

Quads got sore from those partial squats I did the other day, particularly the vastus medialis (inner quad) part which makes sense as this part of the quads works harder through the final part of knee extension. Knees didn't seem to be bothered by the lack of full ROM with the extra load.

Lower back seems quite fatigued still, so I think the partial squats took more of a toll on my spinal erectors than I realised at the time. I had to clean out a car yesterday and some of the positions I ended up in when doing the work required extended lower back iso contractions. Pretty unpleasant. Skipped anything heavy today to give it more of a chance to recover.

20 mins on bike instead of squats - first 10 mins nice and steady; second 10 mins went pretty hard at it.

Ripp's SS vid has arrived. Had a quick blatt through it late last night but will need to sit through it properly over the weekend (except the Six Nations rugby is on and that will take precedent). One thing I spotted in the squat section was that at least one trainee started bending at the knees and sending them forward rather than sitting back and thinking more about getting the hips involved. Maybe that got corrected as there seem to be several clips showing the same trainees using progressively heavier loads. As I said, I'll check it out properly in a few days time. Looks good though.
 
<div>
(Lol @ Mar. 12 2009,9:24)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Ripp's SS vid has arrived. Had a quick blatt through it late last night but will need to sit through it properly over the weekend (except the Six Nations rugby is on and that will take precedent). One thing I spotted in the squat section was that at least one trainee started bending at the knees and sending them forward rather than sitting back and thinking more about getting the hips involved. Maybe that got corrected as there seem to be several clips showing the same trainees using progressively heavier loads. As I said, I'll check it out properly in a few days time. Looks good though.</div>
Thank you for finding Ripp's DVD for us! Mine came a coupla days ago. I sat through the squat section and learned more in an hour than I had in the past year...
 
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