My Hst Log

Today's workout - Friday 21st October -

Halfway through the 10s phase :)

Workout A

Squats - 75kg - 5 sets of 10

Incline bench press - 80kg - 3 sets of 10

Lat pulldown - 3 sets of 10

Standing military press - 47.5kg - 4 sets of 10

T bar row - 42.5 kg - 4 sets of 10

Flat db press - 35kg Dbs - 3 sets of 10

Barbell curls - 35kg - 3 sets of 10


Brilliant workout today .... I really nailed some beautiful form on all the lifts today and left plenty in the tank for next week.

I noticed a new gym weirdo today .. A very short and skinny dude in his mid forties fully decked out in under armour gear - he looked a bit like Rick Moranis.

He literally spent his entire workout shadow boxing in front of the mirror making ridiculous "Tsss tsss tsssss" sounds and shouting and screaming at a 15kg barbell while doing something vaguely resembling curls.

I stayed well away from him because he was clearly a highly trained & extremely dangerous badass not to be messed with.

But aside from all that I was really pleased with my first week of the 10s phase.

Looking forward to next week
 
Monday 24th October 2016...

2nd week of the 10s phase...

Workout B...

Deadlift - 165kg - 1 set of 13
1 set of 10

Squat - 78.5kg - 1 set of 12
1 set of 10
1 set of 10
1 set of 10

Bench press - 80kg - 3 sets of 10

Neutral grip pulldown - 3 sets of 10

DB shoulder press - 25kg Dbs - 3 sets of 10

T bar row - 45kg - 2 sets of 10

Barbell curls - 37.5kg - 2 sets of 10

Incline DB chest press - 35kg DBs - 2 sets of 10


Another successful workout .... I took quite a lot of rest between my sets to get the volume in .... But I've never really worried about rest times between sets.

I'd rather rest longer and bust out good quality sets than restrict rest and throw weights around with bad form - only down side is it takes about an hour and a half to do the workout lol

The last 2 workouts are going to be tough but I think I've slightly undershot on my maxes so next cycle I can comfortably bump the weights up a notch.
 
Today's workout - Wednesday 26th October

I've managed to pick up a particularly nasty cold .... So last night I barely slept due to practically drowning in snot.

But it's been well over a year since I last had a cold so I guess I'm overdue...

But I still got through the workout despite feeling pretty darn awful...

Workout A - second week of 10s phase...

Squats - 81kg - 5 sets of 10

Incline bench press - 85kg - 2 sets of 10
+1 cluster set - 8 then 3

Lat pulldown - 3 sets of 10

Standing military press - 50kg - 3 sets of 10

T bar row - 47.5kg - 3 sets of 10

Flat DB press - 37.5kg Dbs - 1 set of 10

BB curls - 38.5kg - 2 sets of 10


It felt pretty tough today .... But thankfully i got thorough it ....

Only one workout left to go for the 10s phase so hopefully I'll be over this cold by Friday....

Sitting here right now I'm convinced I'm actually dying .... and it feels like it's spreading to my chest :(

Fingers crossed I'm on the mend by Friday
 
Today's workout

Friday 28th October 2016

Last workout of the 10s phase...

Workout B ...

Deadlift - 180kg - 1 set of 11 reps (beautiful form and made sure I stopped well short of failure)

Squats - 85kg - 3 sets of 10

Bench press - 85kg - 2 sets of 10

Neutral grip pulldown - 2 sets of 10

DB shoulder press - 27.5kg Dbs - 1 set of 10
1 set of 9

T bar row - 50kg - 2 sets of 10

Barbell curl - 40kg - 2 sets of 10


Okay so today I woke up still suffering badly with this cold / chest infection .... I felt like absolute death to be honest.

But luckily I had an old sachet of DY Nox pump hiding at the back of my cupboard

It was probably years past its sell by date but i chugged it down and it gave me just enough energy to drag my carcass to the gym...

I thought it would be a good idea to keep the volume low today and just focus on hitting those maxes with perfect form.

Everything felt very solid and strong today despite feeling under the weather.

Deadlifts seemed easier than I was expecting and I made sure I stopped well short of failure so I could conserve energy for the other lifts....

Squats and bench both felt great...

The only lift that i wasn't happy with was the t bar row - I still got a couple of sets of 10 but my form just felt a bit sloppy today.

Overall it was a good workout considering i was under the weather...

and that's officially the 10s phase over and done ...

Looking forward to hitting the 5s on Monday :)

Also I'll be replacing lat pulldowns with weighted chins from this point on which I'm eagerly looking forward to as I'm not really getting much out of the pulldowns....
 
Hey Benben, your cycle seems to be going well. Hope the cold clears up in time for your 5s.
Very nice deads in your last session! I'm guessing you have fab anthropometry and leverages for deads but less so for squats. Maybe you have a problem with squats from an old injury?
Are you doing high-bar or low-bar back squats? Ever tried front squats? They are a more quad-dominant movement than back squats and might help bring up your quads if you focus on them for a few cycles.
Apologies if you've explained all this previously in your log. All the best for the 5s.
 
Lol said:
Hey Benben, your cycle seems to be going well. Hope the cold clears up in time for your 5s.
Very nice deads in your last session! I'm guessing you have fab anthropometry and leverages for deads but less so for squats. Maybe you have a problem with squats from an old injury?
Are you doing high-bar or low-bar back squats? Ever tried front squats? They are a more quad-dominant movement than back squats and might help bring up your quads if you focus on them for a few cycles.
Apologies if you've explained all this previously in your log. All the best for the 5s.
Click to expand...


Thanks LOL ... I have all weekend to rest up now so I'm sure I'll be well on the mend by Monday's workout.

My leverages probably are pretty favourable for deadlifting .... I'm 6,2 with very long legs and arms so I guess that is a slight advantage.

I keep trying to upload pictures here but for some reason they won't appear when uploaded.

With regards to my squats ... I've never really had any injuries aside from the odd bout of knee pain a few years back which was more of an over use injury.

I do go extremely deep on squats which is rare for a tall squatter - arse nearly hitting heels lol

And I'm sure I could use more weight if I didn't go as deep ..... But if I did that I'd always be paranoid that I wasn't getting a decent range of motion.

As for bar position I usually go with a kind of mid position neither high nor low where it rests nicely and feels comfy.

It seems that whenever I start approaching the 120kg mark my form just breaks down and I end up leaning forward too much with my knees going all over the place...

I've tried front squats and they do feel generally better on the quads .... But I can never really hold enough weight on the front to get a decent leg stimulus.
 
Ah, ok. Thanks. One more Q: Do you squat in a heeled shoe? I'm thinking about Olympic weightlifting shoes. For me, they help a great deal in enabling a more upright torso for front squats but also great stability for all forms of squatting.
 
Lol said:
Ah, ok. Thanks. One more Q: Do you squat in a heeled shoe? I'm thinking about Olympic weightlifting shoes. For me, they help a great deal in enabling a more upright torso for front squats but also great stability for all forms of squatting.
Click to expand...

I do have some Nike romaleo V2 heeled squatting shoes which I use occasionally .... But somehow they make me even weaker and I always revert back to my flat sole airwalks lol

Feel pretty bad not using the romaleos because they were an expensive purchase ... But honestly they seem to hinder me more than anything.

I could definateky give front squats another try though in my next cycle ..... I've got no problem dropping my ego and working from scratch so even if I started off with just 50kg or something I'm sure my shoulders would adapt.

Would probably work wonders for posture ...

I did focus on overhead squats for about a year in 2013 and managed to build up to 60kg for 5 reps ....

Really was a fun lift and worked wonders for my shoulder flexibility ...
 
Monday 31st October 2016

First workout of the 5s phase :)

Workout A ....

Weighted Chin ups - 5kg plate - 5 sets of 5

Squats - 82.5kg - 5 sets of 5

Incline bench press - 85kg - 5 sets of 5

T bar rows - 43kg - 5 sets of 5

Standing military press - 52.5 kg - 5 sets of 5

Barbell curls - 40kg - 5 sets of 5

Flat Db press - 37.5kg Dbs - 5 sets of 5


Okay so that felt lovely and easy hence why I ended up doing 5x5 on every exercise lol

Volume will gradually decrease as the weights get heavier but thought I would take full advantage early on and cram some good volume in ...

Felt great getting switching to weighted Chin ups - I'll be alternating these performing them on every workout A for the 5s and beyond...

Overall it's a good strong start to the 5s and looking forward to the coming weeks...

My only concern is that when I start hitting my maxes the volume is going to be very low.

I know when I hit a true 5 rep max its very unlikely I'll be able to perform any further sets without sacrificing form or reps...

I'm thinking when I approach this stage I might just hit the one money set for each exercise and then perform a reverse pyramid to get some added volume.
 
Lol said:
Q: Do you squat in a heeled shoe? I'm thinking about Olympic weightlifting shoes. For me, they help a great deal in enabling a more upright torso for front squats but also great stability for all forms of squatting
Click to expand...

Found an interesting on squat styles, bar position and footwear depending on limb lengths. I think the moral of the story is find a style that works for you. Still an interesting read though...

http://www.schwarzenegger.com/fitness/post/picking-the-squat-thats-rght-for-you
 
@Benben: during 5s, it's a good idea to add a metabolic set for each main muscle group. So, if you were squatting in a session you would do your 5s and then add a final set of 10-15 at a load that's somewhere around 15RM. No need to go to failure. Main idea is to get a burn in the working muscles. This will add to total volume and also keep your muscles feeling fuller during 5s.
 
Lol said:
@Benben: during 5s, it's a good idea to add a metabolic set for each main muscle group. So, if you were squatting in a session you would do your 5s and then add a final set of 10-15 at a load that's somewhere around 15RM. No need to go to failure. Main idea is to get a burn in the working muscles. This will add to total volume and also keep your muscles feeling fuller during 5s.
Click to expand...

I knew I was forgetting something lol .... The metabolic work.

In that case I think I'll keep it at 3 sets of 5 with a set of 15 on the end :)

When I start approaching my true 5 rep maxes would it be acceptable to just do one set of my 5 rep max and then implement reverse pyramid training for a couple of back off sets ?

Or should I push for more heavy sets and implement cluster sets ?
 
benben2356 said:
When I start approaching my true 5 rep maxes would it be acceptable to just do one set of my 5 rep max and then implement reverse pyramid training for a couple of back off sets ?

Or should I push for more heavy sets and implement cluster sets ?
Click to expand...
Do clusters up to your desired total, say 15 reps. There's no need to keep pushing to failure across sets. In fact, if you intend to extend the 5s and go to triples then it will be better to stay away from failure. Keep a rep in the tank for the majority of your sets at your working load. At this point in the cycle, the load will be plenty heavy enough to illicit a PS response but you will need enough volume too. (That's always the tricky part.) Clusters are an ideal way to get the necessary volume without destroying your CNS along the way.
 
Lol said:
Do clusters up to your desired total, say 15 reps. There's no need to keep pushing to failure across sets. In fact, if you intend to extend the 5s and go to triples then it will be better to stay away from failure. Keep a rep in the tank for the majority of your sets at your working load. At this point in the cycle, the load will be plenty heavy enough to illicit a PS response but you will need enough volume too. (That's always the tricky part.) Clusters are an ideal way to get the necessary volume without destroying your CNS along the way.
Click to expand...

Awesome advice ... Thank you LOL.

I'll stick to clusters for when the true 5 rep maxes approach and aim for a total of 15 then

After the scheduled 2 week mini cycle of 5s I'll probably extend them and push to beat my 5 rep maxes by continuing to up the weights each workout if I can

When I can no longer hit 5 reps I think I'll switch to 3s for another 2 week block and still aim for a 15 rep total ... Then that should be my first cycle pretty much done.
 
Wednesday 02 November 2016


WORKOUT B - second workout of the 5s phase


Deadlift - 160kg - 1 set of 15
1 set of 10

Squat - 86kg - 6 sets of 5
1 set of 15 with 70kg

Bench press - 85kg - 5 sets of 5
1 set of 12 with 70kg

Lat pulldown - 5 sets of 5
1 set of 15

DB shoulder press - 25kg Dbs - 6 sets of 5
1 set of 12 with the 20s

T bar row - 46kg - 5 sets of 5
1 set of 12 with 40kg

Barbell curls - 42.5kg - 3 sets of 5
- 1 set of 15 with 30kg

Incline DB press - 37.5kg Dbs - 5 sets of 5


Okay so as you can tell I got very Carried away today with the sets.

I had planned to do just 3 sets of each with a light burn set at the end but somehow I felt absolutely amazing today and seemed to have endless energy.

With deadlifts I got to 5 reps and it felt so easy I couldn't help myself and ended up knocking out 15 reps followed by another set of 10 ....

Friday I will be dialling it waaay back and sticking to my planned 3 sets and 1 metabolic burn set ...

Just thought I would take advantage as It was one of those rare days where you feel incredible for no reason ....

They don't happen but once every blue moon - so I like to take full advantage when those days strike.

Having said that I'll probably be paying for it tomorrow so I'm planning to throw in a couple of cheat meals along with my typical daily diet between now and Friday ....

Stay tuned for tomorrow's whining and complaining post about how wrecked I feel with only myself to blame ...
 
Nothing wrong with incorporating auto regulation. Its good to make the most of those days when you feel great, and the weights feel light. Good work.
 
Thanks browner ... It's reassuring to know I did the right thing in taking advantage :)

Wish those days would happen more often ... They seem to crop up like once or twice a month at random ....
 
Strangely I'm not too bad today .... My legs and lats have a slight dull bit of soreness and I do have a bit of a headache ...

But aside from that I'm not half as bad as I was expecting ....

Just doing an hour of light jogging today for cardio then tomorrow it's workout A.

also I'm cramming in the calories today just to make sure I recover ok
 
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